The fall

It was the fifth day of skiing, we were just getting into it and excited about improving.  We only had a short day of skiing as Kristina and Vicky needed to get into town in time to buy their greyhound tickets to Lake Louise.  There was a jump just to the right of one of the easiest runs that we'd seen both skiers and boarders getting some nice air.  We'd already attempted this jump a few times, but approaching from the green run and thinking about it too late so not so much as 1cm of air had been achieved.  We had time for one more run and decided to give this jump a proper go... so we prepared ourselves at the top of the blue run that approaches the jump.  Jason went first and appeared to have a fair bit of speed so I was really surprised when his skis still didn't leave the ground.  I was determined to get at least 10cm of air so I went from a little higher and a little faster than Jason had gone... over the jump and what the hell!!  I had 2 meters of air!!!!  (I later found out Jason had chickened and slowed down at the last moment)  I nearly landed the jump getting both skis under me, but was leaning too far forward and did a spectacular roll.  In the middle I felt my ski dig into the snow and my knee twist and force it out, the bindings didn't give.  OW!  A visit to the doctor later revealed torn ligaments (to both the MCL and ACL)... so no skiing for awhile, or walking, or twisting, or sleeping.   All I'm really hoping is that this is not going to be a lifetime injury.... only time will tell.

4 countries in 18 hours

Admittedly it was a long 18 hours, but we took off from Sydney just before 7pm Sunday and landed in Vancouver just after 11am Monday.  We had booked the cheapest ticket we could find that didn’t involves going through America (due to their annoying visa requirements), so we flew to Singapore (8 hours) where we spent the night (10 hours), then flew to South Korea (7 hours) where after queuing in line to get a transit card, get our bags scanned and get back on the plane (40 minutes) we flew to Vancouver (10 hours).  As I said it was a long 18 hours.  Strangely enough it wasn’t that bad.  We discovered the oasis lounge in Singapore (free!) where they have $8000 massage chairs for you to use (free!).   After three massages and a few hours of sleep we felt quite refreshed, we also explored the butterfly garden which was lots of fun.  The second good part of the flight was that the Korea-Canada leg was basically empty and nearly everyone had an entire row to themselves!! So we were able to lie down and sleep nearly the whole flight, blissful.

Quick update

It’s been quite awhile since we’ve written anything for the blog, so this is just a quick post to catch up on what’s happened in the meantime.  After the Mekong Delta we spent a relaxed week in Kuala Lumpur catching up on sleep and exploring the city and the surroundings.  Then we flew home for my parents 60^th birthday party, and what an even it was!! There were 80 guests, a band, presents for everyone and fun had by all.  Conveniently the trip home also meant we were able to go to Jason’s family reunion and my ten year school reunion (now I feel old).  It was great to have a chance to catch up with everyone and remind ourselves why Sydney is really where we want to live.

Crocodile fishing 5000dong

With just a couple of days left we decided to head out into the Mekong Delta. Primarily to visit the floating markets. Meandering through the waterways was enjoyable, but stopping for lunch on an island led to unexpected events. Walking around we saw a sign "crocodile fishing 5000Dong" beside an enclosure of crocodiles. So, naturally we said let's go! Grabbing a bamboo pole with a bit of meat tied to the end with string we started teasing crocodiles. This was a good lesson in why not to swim with crocodiles. Some of the others who were there held their meat low over the water and when it was grabbed they often managed to keep some of it back. I was trying to make the crocodiles jump, and boy can they jump high! The one that finally got the meat had it's entire body out of the water to it's back legs (and Jason snapped the photo to prove it!).

So, there was a bit more than clothes

I just thought that I should write something about Hoi An other than the shopping. It's a lovely old historic town that miracuously managed to avoid being bombed into oblivion. To enable you to explore properly you buy one ticket that takes you to old houses, temples, chinese assembly halls and traditional music concerts. It was really quite beautiful. Also, the traditional dish of cau lao was incredibly good and made a cheap tasty lunch nearly everyday we were there.

From Hoi An we took our first ever night bus to Nha Trang. This was certainly an experience. The seats were cleverly designed, at least if you are Vietnamese. Unfortunately for those over 5'3" you're left wondering where your lower legs are supposed to go. They nearly go flat, with you feet underneath the persons back in front of you. For those with size 11 feet the hole for them was not big enough at all. Despite this we actually slept pretty well and were ready to enjoy the beach in Nha Trang. We spent a couple of days there planning to go and see some of the sights in the area, but the beach was so beautiful, with clear water, islands abounding, mountains behind we just never found the motivation to move from it!

From there it was off to Saigon with a quick stop in Mui Ne on the way. Oh, how glad I will be to go back home where crossing the road does not feel like a life threatening activity.

Clothes, clothes and more clothes

Now, for anyone who knows me you know I hate clothes shopping. So heading to a town which is known for being home to over 500 tailors I wasn't expecting to go crazy with excitement. However, with so many tailors you have to try it out and Mum and Dad's upcoming party for which we are heading all the way home seemed the perfect excuse. Not managing to find a style I liked in any of the hundreds of catalogues that were presented I ended up describing what I wanted and picking out a couple of fabrics. The next day I had a brand new one of a kind dress that fits perfectly for less than $30. Jason on the other hand had a nice dress shirt in his own choice of fabric, despite repeatedly being redirected to the shirt fabrics (all business shirt type fabrics) he stuck to his guns choosing from the dress fabrics. After a week here not only have we succumbed to buying 2 pairs of jeans, a dress, a skirt, and a shirt.... but we are also compiling the long list of clothes we will get made before coming home at the end of this trip. That's right, we will be back and we will be shopping!! We're up to 31 items so far, but that could get longer as we've still got at least a year before we'll be back.

Zipping through villages and going underground

Well, we finally felt we had mastered the crossing the street problem. It involves walking very very slowly and constantly. We generally try to pick a time with no cars, trucks, buses but trying to wait for a time with no motorbikes would mean never actually crossing the road. So when you're ready you step out and start walking and miraculously all the motorbikes predict where you will be and swerve to pass either in front or behind. Always a heart pounding experience, but as I said we felt we had it mastered. So, we decided to hire a motorbike for the day! Luckily Jason is actually capable of driving such things as my attempts (once we were in the countryside) were, to be honest, embarrassing. We negotiated the traffic of Hue, thankfully not as busy as Hanoi, and set off to explore the royal tombs which are dotted around the countryside.

The tombs were interesting certainly, although the architecture was very similar to other historic places we have been, the area was beautifully landscaped and serene. The real fun was riding a motorbike, particularly when we got lost! The guidebook mentioned that there was a dirt track between two of the tombs, what they didn't mention is that there are two dirt tracks one goes somewhere completely different. So, we rode through a couple of little villages, beside rice paddies and chose directions at random. Much more fun than the tour option!

The next day we headed up to the former DMZ (de-militarised zone) primarily to explore the Vinh Moc tunnels. These tunnels were dug by civilians who decided to stay in the area. The tunnel system has three levels 12m, 15m and 23m. There are a number of bomb shelters in the tunnel at 23m (to avoid drilling bombs that reach 15m underground). Although not lived in permanently (people would come and go depending on how much bombing was going on - 5 days and nights was the maximum) these tunnels were occupied for a 6 year period. The family rooms that housed 2 adults and 2 children were about three quarters of the size of a normal single bed, the maternity ward about the size of a single bed.

Another highlight of the DMZ was the museum with a very different slant on the war than we normally receive. The photos of American troops invariably had captions along the lines of "American troops turning tail and running from the might of the liberation army". Whilst the photos of the north Vietnamese army showed smiling happy people carrying supplies.

How to get through a police barrier.

Arriving in Hanoi was a pleasant experience, the touts for transport weren't pushy and we were directed to where we wished to go (a nice change!) without attempts to change our minds, the only mishap was my misplacing of the passport holders with the yellow fever certificates but as we still had the passports it wasn't urgent and we hoped that they were just deep in the day pack.

Traveling the 40km to the city it self, allowed you to start to appreciate some of the differences of Vietnam, the high quality highway which we traveled along had signs indicating cars and motorcycles were to share the main part while horse drawn carts and bicycles used the side lane. The closer we got to Hanoi the more frenetic the traffic became until it reached a point exceeding the worse in Cambodia, still we were assured that it was much better than in Ho Chi Minh (Saigon), oh what we have to look forward to. The traffic had 8-12 bikes running level when no cars were sharing, and would manage to cross at cross roads with none of the lanes appearing to even slow. Looking out at the movement from a restaurant window you became hypnotised watching every more crazy happenings none of which seemed to cause an accident (occasionally all traffic at the junction would pause for one or two seconds as they worked out who needed to move first) My personal favorite was a person wheeling a large sign (about 4 car lengths long) across the diagonal of the road with balloon vendors with their carts and the rest of the normal traffic not missing a beat.

The First Full day we organised to see the water puppets in the evening, only one screening that day. But not much else was done as I made a trip out to the airport to collect those yellow fever certificates from lost and found, an experience just seeing how much stuff sits and waits for collection/identification. The Water Puppets were worth seeing, unfortunately from our position taking photos was pointless and my knees were as squished as on an Ethiopian bus, but the show was very interesting with 14 or so very short little skits performed to traditional music. While basic, controlling the movements of the puppets definitely required a lot of skill. Features of the puppets included fire breathing and water spitting dragons, Acrobatic children that stood on each others shoulders and many more.

We had booked a two day trip into Ha Long Bay where we soon discovered that the voting for the "7 Natural Wonders of the World" was currently taking place, Ha Long bay was in the 21 finalists for a position and every one of the people involved in the trip found a moment to encourage us to vote. The bay was very Stunning with small islands all over (approximately 1969 islands in total we were informed) many of which had been given names by the locals such as cocks fighting, turtle sleeping, the whole bay according to legend formed by dragons who assisted the Vietnamese in a war and decided to hang around rather than return to heaven. We had a wonderful time on the boat with very nice food, the best traditional food to that point.

But it wasn't just sailing, the boat went to "The Cave of Marvels" which is a very spacious series of chambers which are stunning lit up (rather tacky really but still pretty), many of the formations had been named some appropriately, it was a bit hard to argue with "penis rock" or some of the lovers, though most in the group thought that the "dog" was rather more like a pig and a conclusion that some people have very active imaginations. Returning to the boat we headed off to our mooring for the night, once there we started our afternoon activity of leaping from the second story of the boat into the water. This really was a great way of spending the afternoon on board, unfortunately the jellyfish put a slight damper to that activity.


It really was a very nice way of spending a couple of days everything ran smoothly, we will just ignore the sleepless night due to the rats :(, and would like to see what the bay looks like with clear days so you can see many more of the islands at once. Our final activity on the bay was a kayaking trip through a nearby arch into a isolated lake inside an island, quite nice but more arm work than I think either of us wanted.

After a day of recovering we decided to at least look at one of the temples in Hanoi, looking in the guide we decided upon the temple of literature. This temple was built by early rulers partially as a university and a place to study Confucianism, it had a number of ponds (representing elements) together with the traditional buildings containing Steele (stone tablets) which contained details of all the students who graduated from the temple. The item that caught our eye first though was the ceremonial drum which can be seen from outside, this drum would be at least 3m in diameter and 5m in length. The temple was a very nice place to escape the rush of Hanoi, and even to take some wedding photos as we observed.

Having booked our tickets to Hue after visiting the temple, our last day was to consist of relaxing in the hotel and visiting one or more of the museums. The morning however started with me deciding to do a kind deed and collecting some chocolate croissants for breakfast in bed. Departing the hotel it looked like a parade was being orgainsed with so many people in uniform around, my return was rather more interesting as in the intervening 10 minutes barricades were erected either end of the street where our hotel was located and people were not being allowed back in to the area with out ID or proof of need. Having just left to get breakfast I had no guidebook, couldn't remember the name of the hotel, had no mobile to call with and was being obstructed by police telling me to go round (both sides told me this repeatedly.) Eventually I narrowed the requirements to getting through this barrier to having a business card of the hotel, calling them and getting them to accompany me through the barrier, or convince them of which hotel I was staying in. As the last seemed the only option, I grabbed the first tourist I saw with a lonely planet and got the address and phone number for the hotel and decided to make another attempt before finding a phone to call from. This did in fact work with only a little extra persuasion. It was a slightly eerie experience being inside a police blockade where the normal hustle and bustle of Vietnamese streets had dropped to a whisper (well if you ignore the few hundred protestors 3 doors down anyway). We found out that the blockade was due to protests by the catholic priests regarding land in the street, it even made the world news a few days later. ( http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7632095.stm )

Just a little Island time

Before we had even spent a night in Chau Doc, we ran into some people we had met in the visa office back in Phnom Penh, they had managed to take a slightly different slow boat to Chau Doc and told us about their plans to get to Phu Quoc. Using someone elses motivation to find the cheapest price seemed advantagous to us, so we followed him on a tour of the ticket sellers of the town settling on a combination minibus/ferry ticket (with transport between at own cost) for the next day.

Getting up bright an early, to get on our little minibus, we decided that the few dollars saved were due to the fact our minibus was definately not express and even backtracked at one point to ensure that it was always full to 120% capacity. Fortunately Ellen and I had ended up it the danger seat- the seat beside the driver which meant we didn't have to endure the tidal flow of extra passengers squeezing on and off, as the driver refused to let go of the horn it was noisy but relatively safe.

Arrival at the bus terminal we endured the rush of motos trying to obtain our patrinage putting them off till after we had eaten. Facing them once again we negotiated as best we could before climbing onto a bike each, at least Vietnam is one of the countries with compulsory helmets. Traveling to the Dock via the ticket office, we recieved our boarding pass for the ferry- always a releif when things happen the way you are told we made it through the hours of waiting for departure, and the crazy martial art gambling movies that played during the trip. With only the final stint to long beach and the resorts we agreed to take a minibus that promised if we didn't like their resort they would take us to the other resorts we wanted free of charge... we should have known better. We ended up staying one night there due to exaustion, the rain now falling and the fact it was the cheapest resort in the strip, but the following morning we moved on principle as we don't like being mislead!

Moving to the some what more extravigant Tropicana Resort ($20 rather than $10) we gained A/C a much nicer bungalo looking onto the gardens and best of all a swiming pool. As the beach wasn't the most beautiful beach we had ever seen and the weather was churning up the water so much we ended up spending a lot of time in the pool and enjoying the beach for the sound and view. Three days here was great for just managing to relax and get ready to explore Vietnam which was expected to be a bit more challenging than Cambodia.

Deciding that the last time we debated between saving not all that much money and taking a 2 day journey turned out not so well, after quite some debate we elected to be sensible an splurge on an air ticket to Hanoi (Really not that much more that the ferry/train coast anyway). So with a free transfer that actually was free we left early in the morning for the airport to see the sights of the capital.

Boating through the Mekong Delta

After eating our fill of Khmer curries it was time to head to Vietnam. This involved a bus to Phnom Penh (we took the boat up to Siem Reap, so thought we'd try the road) a day there getting our visa, again as we hadn't spent anytime dealing with bureaucracy we went for the personal approach, and went in person (every hotel and every second shop advertises they will do it for you for little extra cost) and discovered that when they said come back and collect the passports at 5pm we thought that they would be ready by two and turning up at 4:15 would be fine (the office hours were listed as closing at 4:30 so we wanted to make sure we got in) but no when they say 5 it means they will start putting the visa stickers in the passports at 5.

Visa in hand the first visas that we had before turning up at a border we chose to go on the "Slow" boat thinking more opportunity for taking photos! as well as being a quarter of the price but after a two hour minibus trip to the ferry we realised there was more to it than the speed of the boat. After a cruise in the rustic boat (all the luggage and 7 of the 9 people on board where on the port side to keep the boat more level.) We arrived at the boarder post where we all had to get out of the boat to sign out of Cambodia, then back to the boat for a 500m trip to the Vietnam post. We then discovered our boat didn't continue with us and we were introduced to our guide for the remainder of our trip, she explained what each of the stages we had to go through to complete the formalities including the 4000 dong health check which only seemed to involve paying money? but there where very clear official signs indicating that this was a requirement (with differencing amounts if you hadn't been vaccinated against various illnesses- though this wasn't checked).

Boarding a slightly less battered boat we continued our journey to Chau Doc receiving a bit of information from our guide as to what we were seeing. We were slightly shocked to see that the stereotypical images of the farmers with their buffalo in rice paddies with conical hats really appeared to be true. Settling into our hotel we prepared to work out how to find our way to the Island of Phu Quoc but more of that next time.

Cooking up a storm

One of the biggest surprises for us in Cambodia was the food, just delicious! To be honest, before I arrived I had no idea what Cambodian food was being more familiar with neighbouring Thailand and Vietnam. For 10 days I virtually lived on Khmer curry, so good! In fact it was so good that we decided to do a cooking class. Unfortunately the herbs used were generally unknown and unrecognisable... so I don't know how we'll go replicating it back home, but we'll try!

Our cooking class started with a trip to the market to buy some last minute ingrediants before we whipped up a Khmer curry, fresh spring rolls, mango salad, and Amok. I would like to say that we were the stars of the class, but we got admonished for not chopping fine enough, making our carrots pretty enough and not rolling our spring rolls tight enough. The food still tasted good though!

Marvelling at ancient temples

It is all too easy to wax lyrical about the temples of Angkor, where we spent three days exploring temples devoured by jungle, examining carvings of dancers and gods and admiring statues of Buddha.

The most famous temple, for it's sheer size, is Angkor Wat. This wasn't however the first temple we visited, or by any means our favourite. We started off in Bayon which is within a larger complex Angkor Thom. This was amazing there were two levels that were accessible and within these you could wander around, over and through. Every surface seemed to be carved and we felt much more like we were exploring the site than we had expected. Some temples were under restoration and lots have scaffolding holding them up, but others like Bayon are in amazing condition. One, Ta Prohm (made famous by Lara Croft), has not been restored allowing you to see the state they were found in. Enormous trees have caught root in the temples forcing the stones apart. There are many areas of Ta Prohm that were in serious danger of falling down and wooden walkways take you around these, but once you are inside you are able to climb over crumbling pillars, squeeze through doorways and appear in a surprisingly intact room with carvings hundreds of years old (and usually no other tourists).

From bicycles to motorcycles

From the land of whole families being driven around on bicycles to one where they've added a motor. We started off with a few days in Kuala Lumpur revelling in being somewhere that felt like home (albeit a little bit more modern in parts). It helped that we were staying in Chinatown which probably feels the same everywhere... plus large numbers of tourists and a public transport system that works. Ok, that's not like Sydney but maybe one day. We spent one day to go up the twin towers and take in the view from the skybridge. We had expected this to be a 2 hour affair at most... but after queueing foran hour and a half we secured tickets for the 12:45pm visit. The skybridge is free as they bombard you with advertising for Petronas. We spent the time we had to wait exploring a shopping mall... with shops we recognised!!! Oh, the things we find exciting now, it's quite sad. The view from the bridge was spectacular and I spent a long time watching the fountain display from on high. We also indulged in our first cinema viewing experience in months!!

From there a quick flight to Cambodia brought us to the hottest place we have ever been!! Walking for 2 minutes leaves you dripping with sweat from places you didn't know sweated, and few places have air con so there's not much relief. We did decide to splurge on a room with a/c for that reason (a whole $13 for a double). Although we are now somewhere where they drive on the right again, it's not so noticeable here as you have to look every whichway when crossing the street including on the pavement.

Africa - conclusions

I hope to do this for every continent, but we'll see. Africa has been a fascinating place to travel. We have met travellers who have come here 10 times, without wanting to go to Asia or South America or Australia, we have met people who have been here 10 months when they planned on 2... we on the other hand did not fall in love with this continent in that way. In fact it took us quite awhile to get into Africa. After being here 2 weeks, we thought the planned 4 months would be way too long. By the time we had been here a month we thought it would be about right but that we wouldn't return. By the end, we were sad to leave and have planned at least the next 2 trips to Africa.... but I doubt they'll happen for five years or so.

Now, for some facts:

Surprises: Mobile phones are more common than electricity or running water (hence a roaring trade in mobile phone charging shops).
Things seen on a bicycle: A family of six, a man holding trays with over one hundred eggs in one hand whilst steering with the other. 100s of kg of rice/coal etc. Trees stacked vertically about 4m tall.
Items lost: 4
Items returned: 3 ( money belt fell off on a bus in Botswana was returned by locals; daypack with all valuables was left in a restaurant in Dar Es Salaam and returned intact when we went back 2 hours later; contact lenses left in Stonetown were returned one week later - luckily one of the few times we backtracked). One t-shirt never got returned.
Sunglasses broken: 3 (generally from getting sat on during safaris)
Illnesses: 2 (food poisoning twice in Ethiopia - both Ellen)
Number of breakdowns/flat tyres: 6
Marriage proposals: 4 (all to Ellen)
Declarations of love: 32 (all to Ellen)

So now we're off to South East Asia for 6 weeks.... should be fun!

The underbelly of an elephant

After farewelling Andrew we flew back to J'berg (with a slight detour via Uganda). We only had one week before our flight to Malaysia, so decided to do one last safari in Kruger. The thing we really wanted to do was attempt a self drive safari. So we hired a little Honda Jazz (brand new.... great for going around a national park) and headed off for 5 last days in the African bush. Natually without a guide and not really knowing where to drive we weren't expecting too much in the way of wildlife sightings, so we were pretty impressed when after the first 33minutes we had seen 4 of the big 5. (It took until the next day to see a leopard).

We loved it!! If we come back to Africa we would definitely choose to do a self-drive safari over a tour. There is something extraordinary about viewing the underbelly of an elephant. One day as we were driving along one of the narrower roads in Kruger with dense bush on either side we saw a huge bull elephant walking along the road towards us. The last turn off was 10km behind us, so we decided to pull as far to the side as possible and wait with the car in reverse ready to run at the first sign of trouble. As he got closer our heart rates increased and we really wished we knew exactly how you tell if an elephant is about to charge. About 2m from us he flapped his ears and gave us a look and as he came in line with the car he gave his head a little shake and gave just a little trumpet. Our hearts were in our throats, but he just continued past the car as we looked out our window directly in line with the underside of his belly.... just amazing!!! Another highlight was the leopard that we and only we saw.

This is the only safari that we have kept a list of the animals we saw so in 5 days we saw: lions, leopards, cheetahs, rhino, nile crocodiles, zebra, giraffe, spotted hyena, chacma baboons, vervet monkeys, buffalo, warthog, elephant, hippos, common duiker, sable, bushbuck, klipspringer, mountain reedbuck, common reedbuck, impala, grey rhebok, Sharpe's grysbok, waterbuck, blue wilderbeest, steenbok, nyala, kudu, tree squirrel, orbi, dwarf mongoose, slender mongoose, honey badger, white-headed vulture, secretary bird, martial eagle, wahlberg's eagle, african fish-eagle,barn owl and a 38 further species of birds.

We hadn't however realised quite how lucky we had been until we returned to the hostel and spoke to other people who had also done 5 day safaris (the same days of us). One group saw no big cats at all, and the other person who was on an organised tour saw leopard eyes a long way away at night and two lions about 200m away in the day and that was it. So, I'm not sure whether our love of Kruger is biased by how much we saw.

Genocide

As our trip to Rwanda started with a visit to the genocide memorial of Kigali, so our last day in Rwanda included visits to two of the outlying genocide memorials. Both memorials were catholic churches prior to the genocide. As is generally the case churches were viewed as places of safety and thousands of people sought sanctuary at the various churches around Rwanda. For the perpetrators of the genocide this was seen only as a convenient way of getting people together so they could be killed. Each of the churches we went to had seen the massacre of over 5,000people and the mass graves out the back were the resting place for over 41,000. The exact number was not known as bodies are still being found as the trials continue. It is impossible to describe the emotion of being there and all three of us found our cheeks damp with tears. The saddest part is that the murderers and the victims were often neighbours and friends. The scale of the massare is difficult to fathom and the numbers are truly disturbing, but it is the individual stories that really tell the story. What follows is the story of our guide, Paul, I hope that I have done it justice.

Paul was 14 years old during the genocide. He had been brought up in a very religious household and was taught that he was a child of God and not a Hutu or a Tutsi. Indeed when he was taking his end of primary school exam and had to fill in on the form whether he was Hutu or Tutsi he didn't know so copied off his friend. Of course his friend was Hutu, whilst he was Tutsi so his page was ripped up and he had to fill it in again. Children that pass this exam were sent to government high schools, considered very good schools and paid for by the government. Despite being near the top of his class in primary school he was not accepted into the government run schools. One way of limiting the educational opportunities for Tutsi children. Luckily for him his uncle was headmaster at a Catholic school so he was able to continue to high school. In the years prior to the genocide there were killings going on and he recalled going out to the funerals of relatives but not really understanding what was happening.

Paul recalled on April 6th 1994 listening to the radio with his family when the announcement came that the presidents plane had been shot down and he was dead. He had a typical teenagers reaction of thinking it was good news as the school holidays were nearly ended and it would undoubtedly mean an extra week off school. His parents however did not share his excitement, knowing that this would not be good news, but obviously not aware of exactly what would happen. The next day a group came to their house on the pretext of looking for guns and lined the family up outside. A very close friend and neighbour (a Hutu) heard what was happening and came round to talk to the leader of the group. After the talks Pauls father was instructed to give them money, which luckily they had... so on day 1 money saved their lives. There was a meeting that night in which the list of people to be killed was read through. The neighbour came back and told them they had to leave. 5 of the children went with their mother to seek sanctuary in the church, his mother and 2 of the children were killed there. Paul went with his father and 2 other siblings into the forest to try and get out of Kigali that way. They hadn't understood that the genocide was country wide thinking it was confined to the cities. All the roads were blocked and identity cards (which identified ethnicity) were checked before you were allowed to pass. They were lucky though and managed to survive in the forest for 5 days, before being found by the RPF. It was four years later in 1998 that they were finally able to bury his mother and the two children who were killed. He is considered one of the lucky ones, he still has a father and brothers and sisters, many people don't.

News from home

We've been having a lovely time relaxing at Lake Kivu in Rwanda, seeing the hot springs, swimming (avoiding the patches of lake which can asphixiate you) and peering over the border into the DRC. However, last night our sleep was interrupted by a phone call at 12:30am from my brother to announce the arrival of his daughter Elizabeth Honour Northcott (Beth). We are now auntie Ellen and uncle Jason!! Full of excitement I didn't get back to sleep until 4am... I can't wait to get home for a cuddle.... of course that has to wait a few more months. So, many congratulations to Geoff and Rachel and we want lots of photos!!

Trekking through mud

We had one more day in Kigali exploring the different areas of town and visiting a natural history museum which is housed in Richard Kant's house, before heading to the Volcanoes National Park. One thing that was very striking is how clean Rwanda is. The other pleasant surprise is that the police do not carry around guns (of any size) compared with the machine guns seen in many other countries we've been to. We spent three days at the Volcanoes National Park with treks planned each day, so we expected to get very tired.

The first day was a trek to see the Golden Monkeys, supposed to be quite an easy walk. After our guide (Patience) informed us that the monkeys had moved and it would be a four hour hike there, we reached the monkeys before even entering the park proper observing them from the fields just outside. (Supposedly Patience was testing us to mae sure we really wanted to go). The monkeys were quite entertaining to watch jumping around in the bamboo... and at one point jumping on each other (although the female didn't seem to notice as she just kept eating before, during and after).

Day two was the much anticipated gorilla trek for Jason and I. There are only 750 mountain gorillas left in the world and we were very excited to have the opportunity of seeing them in the wild. In the morning of the trek you are assigned to groups based upon the difficulty of the trek the guides think you can manage. Jason and I were assigned to one of the intermediate groups (Umubano) that is supposed to be about a 1 and a half to 2 hour hike in the park. After walking through the fields towards the boundary of the park for about 20 minutes we met the trackers for the group. All the rain had encouraged the group down the mountain meaning we had a 10 minute hike through the forest before being able to spend 1 hour with the gorillas. Before you go you are informed that you should stay at least 7m from the gorillas at all times (although the gorillas are not aware of this rule)... in reality it was nearly impossible to get that far away from the gorillas. Generally we were about 2-3m away and at times closer. One of the babies seemed to think making the tourists move was great fun. The 8 of us were all standing in a group when the baby starting walking directly towards us, so the guides quickly moved us out of the way... and the baby changed direction heading towards the group, we moved, he followed. He didn't seem to want to touch us, just make us scramble out of the way. Once he tired of this game he started climbing on a tree, hanging upside down and fighting with his brother. We were also able to get incredibly close to the silverback. He hadn't moved from his nest that he slept in and went back to sleep whilst we were there after greeting the guides with some grunts. It was an incredible experience and we could happily have spent many more hours with the family getting to know them, but alas that's not allowed and so we headed back down the mountain.

On day three we were excited to finally get into the park!! We were pretty sure that Dian Fossey's grave would not have moved down the mountain. Initially we expected a 15minute walk to the park, then 2 hours in the park to the grave... however, because it had rained so much the guide decided to take us a different route walking for nearly an hour before making it to the park. We then scrambled over the wall and started up the volcano. Luckily for us it was only the three of us in the group, so we could go at our own pace without upsetting anyone. There was another group heading to the crater lakes, but 3 of those turned back before making it to the park and another 2 turned back shortly after overtaking us. There is really only one work to adequately describe this hike - mudddy!!! The 2 hour hike took us about 4 hours as even on flat sections we were incredibly slow trying to avoid sinking into the mud - we failed. By the end we were all caked in mud up to our knees and the inside of our shoes had filled with it. The walk was great fun and the gorilla graveyard although sad was interesting to see. By the end though we were all tired and hungry (having forgotten to take any snacks with us) and were looking forward to a few days of r and r on Lake Kivu.

Meeting with Andrew

After settling into the luxury of the hotel, we then attempted to meet up with Andrew. We couldn't remember exactly what time his flight got in so we called down to reception a few times to see if he had arrived. At 8:30pm we finally found out he was there and tried to call his room from reception. Whilst we were waiting for him to pick up he arrived at reception in person. It turned out he hadn't looked for us as the tour company he had booked the trip with thought we were arriving at the airport and had driven there to pick us up. They even had an arrival time for us of 9:30pm which is quite impressive as we were coming overland.

After a sumptuous dinner, we headed off for bed (which had been turned down for us!).The next day we visited the genocide memorial, which was incredibly moving and deeply disturbing. There were very moving stories, skulls, bones, pictures and videos. They also had a very good exhibit detailing a few of the other genocides that have occured to drive home the point that this is not a one of occurance in one country but something human beings repeatedly do to each other and we need to learn how to prevent. The genocide has definitely not been forgotten here with motorcycle taxi drivers jackets bearing messages regarding it, and frequent messages seen along roadsides and in country towns. There is a definite feeling of Rwanda defined before the genocide and post the genocide.

The journey towards luxury

Unfortunately the journey wasn't particularly luxurious at all. In anticipation of meeting up with my uncle Andrew and travelling with him in Rwanda for two weeks staying in his choice of hotel rather than our normal what's the cheapest we can find approach, we had camped basically every night in Uganda. Unlike in southern Africa where camping was usually accompanied by excellent toilets and showers in Uganda they were generally smelly pit toilets and cold showers. To put it bluntly we smelt... and were covered with dust as well. It probably didn't help that the minibus from the border to Kigali was an over crowded minibus with a whole bunch of other smelly people, requiring open windows ensuring a final layer of dust over everything. Our bags were strapped to the top of the bus and so had both achieved a brown coating by the time we disembarked. Not wanting to be total slobs we did opt for a taxi from the bus station to the hotel, rather than the cheaper boda-boda (motorbike taxi). Still, when we got out at the Kigali Serena where we were staying with Andrew noone rushed to help us with our bags, instead we got some rather strange looks.

The reception was however able to be convinced that we were actually staying there and replacing our backpacks we headed up to see our room..... and WOW!!!! Amazing. We weren't even willing to touch anything in our state of disrepair. After showers... with a shower door!! and a bathmat!! we dressed in the fluffy bathrobes whilst we set about doing a load of washing in the bath.... just to give us something clean to change into. After that we had another shower. In fact from being in a state of 'No, can't face a cold shower today'.... we are having 3 showers and a bath a day. Never has it felt so good to be clean.

Lake Bunyoni

From Kampala we decided to head for Lake Bunyoni, which is quite near the border of Rwanda. Perhaps stupidly we went to the bus station the day before to find out what time we needed to arrive the next day. For about 1km around the bus station the streets were packed and chaotic to say the least and the bus station appeared to be something made out of nightmares. We did find someone who was wearing a jacket proclaiming him to be a guide for the bus station who told us we needed to be there at 6am the next day. Little did we realise that in Uganda buses don't have a departure time, they just leave when full... so the 6am was just a suggestion not a compulsory time to come. So we organised at large expense a taxi to pick us up at 5:30am and set our alarm for 4:15am to give us time to pack up the tent and all our belongings in the dark. (We have discovered that by using all our clothing we can make quite a nice pillow - but packing up does take a bit longer).

We arrived at the bus station tired and mildly disorientated to find the entire area empty and really quite peaceful at that time of day. Our taxi driver handed us over to another person wearing one of those guide jackets and we were led to a bus (accompanied by a couple of other people)paid our money and were given tickets that read Kampala to Kabale. There was only one other person on the bus which wasn't promising, so we settled in for a long wait. After about 20 minutes I decided to go stand outside the bus and stretch my legs. As per normal I was immediately approached by about 5 guys who started talking to me and asking where I was going. When I told them Kabale I was promptly informed that we were on the wrong bus. After much talking to everyone I could find and just a hint of tears as I explained we had paid all our money for the bus fair and now wouldn't be able to afford the bus ticket for the right bus I was taken to the bus station bouncer. This was a big African dressed all in black who was slouched by the entrance to the bus station. The situation was explained by my 10 supporters to him, I handed over my tickets and the group of us went to find the ticket seller for the bus we were on. Whilst the 10 guys who were helping me yelled, abused and shouted at this guy the bouncer just held out our tickets and kept getting into his personal space. Within another couple of minutes we had our money and were seated on what everyone in the bus stop assured us was the bus to Kabale. (During all this palava Jason had remained hidden on the bus, figuring as a lone girl I would get more help than if he was with me... undoubtedly an accurate assessment).

The bus journey was long, but otherwise uneventful. At the other end we joined up with the other two tourists on the bus to get a taxi to the Lake. There we met up with 5 more and the 9 of us headed off in a motorboat to the island. This led to a very enjoyable few days camping by the lake, eating too much food and reading. There was also the memorable vodka and amarula night when we played 'This is how I bang my stick'.... but I guess the details of that aren't really necessary.

A minor rerouting

We arrived in Kampala with an urgent need... to sort out air tickets. We had just recieved an email informing us that our flight from Kigali would now be leaving from Entebbe instead. With such scant information we urgently wished to get to South African Airways to find out how they could just decide that we would leave from a different country to what we had originally booked.
Arriving in Kampala at Red Chilli Backpackers, on the free rafting bus, we set up our tent for the first time in darkness, this turned out to be easier than finding a clear space between the tents already set up at the backpackers. The guard dogs kindly guarded our tent for the small fee of a chew of our thongs.
The next morning we made a bee line straight for the SAA office, where we were informed that SAA no longer flew from Rwanda, hence the change, however a flight and accomadation with food, would be provided but it would have to be issued by the SAA office in Kigali, Rwanda. Feeling a bit more releaved (a warning not to leave the Rwandan office till it is all sorted out preventing a total relaxation), we wondered why our travel agent couldn't have provided a few more details.
With that out of the way we had the opertunity to explore Kampala some more, we found the Garden City a wonderful mall obviously aimed at the Expats and tourists, the food including meat looked and smelt safe and wonderful, there was even a variety of cheese in the deli.
We had our first steak in 3 months at a butchery that also functioned as a restraunt, steak was never more appreachiated.

Dirt, rain and white water

Arriving in Bujagali Falls we signed up for an evening of quad biking along the banks of the river nile, ending with dinner in a local village. This was a heap of very muddy fun... although it was a little disconcerting stopping at each of the rapids on the way to be shown where the white water rafting is done. The dinner consisted of 6 different types of carbohydrate, beans and cabbage... but was surprisingly nice. It was also fun sitting in a locals house with her five kids eating by lantern light due to the lack of electricity, with a TV for decoration. The kids were sweet and as with all Africa kids treated us to some songs.

The next day we went back out into a different village to watch a movie. There's a charity organisation here called 'Soft Power' which sets up schools and medical centres and one of their fund raising activities is to have a weekly movie. They have a generator to power the laptop and projector, as again there's no electricity in the villages. This week it was Blood Diamond and it was a really moving experience watching it in Africa and we're both sure that our response to the movie was very different than it would have been back home. There were only four mzungus there the rest of the audience being local(primarily young children) and we were really disturbed by the laughter that was their reaction to all the violence and women and children getting shot.

The highlight though and the main reason that people generally come to Bujagali falls is for the white water rafting on the Nile. This was terrifying at least in the lead up. We had watched the DVD from the trip that ran the day before, and even Jason started to wonder if this was a sane thing to do. The day started with breakfast whilst we listened to the guides be briefed on all the important things (like, please put on your shorts before you leave so that we don't have to wait around for you?!) It was a bit like listening to a school teacher berate naughty children and did little for our confidence. We then piled into two buses and a couple of trucks and headed for the Nile.

After a few practice paddles, turning left and right we started to approach the first rapid and were promptly told to jump out to swim through it. The 7 of us in the boat looked at each other wondering if he was joking (Our guide was called Alex, but quickly got nicknamed Jaffar as his evil laugh distinctly reminded us of the evil villain in Aladdin). It turns out he wasn't joking and so we all swam through the first rapid. After clambering (or being yanked into the boat for those of us with no arm muscles... all but 2) back into the boat he promptly flipped it, so we'd know what that felt like too. At this point he was not our favourite person!!! Eventually we reached the first 'real' rapid of the day, meaning a grade 5 - the hardest grade that is allowed to be commercially rafted. The rapids here are totally different to those that we rafted in New Zealand. There it was about the height of the fall, here it is the volume of water and the waves!! You head down the rapid to be met at the bottom by a wall of water which the boat then attempts to go over or through... consequently it is quite common to get flipped out. In the course of the day we were only flipped once which felt like quite an achievement! The best rapid was Silverback which consists of four seperate waves. The first is actually two diagonal waves which meet in a point, we hit this dead on and the boat went completely verticle, we all thought that we were going over and to avert this Jason who was sitting in the front lent forward over the top of the boat to try and bring the bow back down (it worked). There is this amazing shot on the DVD of the bottom of the boat and Jason (from about the waist up) coming out over the top. Of course today he is complaining about the massive bruise on his chest from when we came back down and he slammed into the boat.

The Migration

Well, after much debate we decided to head into the Masai Mara for two nights, primarily in the hope of seeing the migration. THere were huge differences in how the safari was organised compared to in Tanzania. The company (Best Camping Safaris) has it's own camp site just outside the park and it felt a bit like being on school camp, particularly at meal times. We didn't have our own driver for the whole trip either, swapping between groups (probably as we had booked such a short safari). IT was however a lot of fun, and we did manage to see the migration. Imagine plain after plain after plain of zebra and wilderbeest, with a few other animals thrown in. Amazing! We also realised that in all the game drives we've done in Zambia, Tanzania and Kenya we've only had one where we didn't see lions!! We've seen male lions and prides of lions with cubs of all ages. We've even seen a male and female happily snuggled up by a lake following more strenuous activities.

This is our last tour type safari although we are looking forward to doing a self-drive safari in Kruger before heading home.

I suppose I should also quickly mention Nairobbery... I mean, Nairobi. This is definitely the most modern city we've been in in Africa (apart form Pretoria/J'berg) but it is also the first place since Pretoria/J'berg that we have felt unsafe and been warned about carrying anything even in daylight. Due to this we rushed through with only one night before the safari and one after. Because we were rushing we were unable to get on the royal coach (think business class seats, movies, drinks) and had to settle for executive class (think overcrowded, broken windows, rattling unidentified bits), but it was worth it to get to Uganda and a slower pace of life in Jinja (think country NSW).

The big five and more...

Although we had done a few game drives previously, this really felt like our first 'real' safari. We had booked a 5 day/4 night trip to Lake Manyara, Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater. There were 5 of us on the trip, an Italian (Paulo) who was traveling for one week whilst his wife and child stayed at home and an engaged couple from the Netherlands who were here on a three week holiday (spending as much in 3 weeks, as we have in 3 months).

The food on the trip was amazing! We had our own cook, Isaac, who kept even Jason full (although it only took the group one day to start teasing Jason about how much he eats!!) We ate better on this trip, than we have at any other point in Africa.

The parks were all very different. The scenery in Lake Manyara was beautiful and we saw large numbers of animals all together. Beautiful and green, lush forests with lots of little creeks running through it. Serengeti was amazingly empty, which surprised us. The sheer expanse of grassy plains as far as the eye can see, broken by the occasional acacia tree. The highlight of the serengeti was definitely the leopard that walked so close to the car that we could touch it (don't worry, we didn't). It was amazingly graceful and beautiful... the photos just don't do it justice. We also saw a three cheetahs, the first we saw was a mother with 4 cubs, who were playing, jumping and leaping. At one point they decided to have a little run, and boy do they turn into blurs!! Lastly we went to Ngorongoro crater, where we completed the big 5 by seeing a rhino. We also came across a pride of lions (2 females and 5 cubs) sitting in the middle of the road. Unfortunately the driver was not happy to sit and wait with them (which we wanted to do), as when we came back 30 minutes later they had killed a warthog and were happily munching away. Well, the cubs were eating anyway, with much snarling and growling as they fought over the best bits.

We enjoyed the safari so much, we are now debating whether to go to the Masai Mara as well in the hope of seeing the migration. Ah, decisions, decisions.

To the land of touts

We had had many warnings about Arusha and the persistent touts trying to sell you safaris. We were thus prepared with our response of "Already booked and paid with Shidolya Tours". As we disembarked the bus we were immediately approached with offers of tours and accommodation, so we quickly adjusted our response to include already booked and paid for accommodation too. Walking quickly we found our hotel and decided to give it a go for the night. It was however rather overpriced at 20,000tsh for a dodgy foam mattress, shared squat toilet that was rather smelly by the next morning and a shared shower, so we decided to check out a few others and moved two doors down to a room with proper mattress, private western bathroom and tv for 25,000tsh.... the main difference being the first place was in the guidebook, the second place isn't, so prices are more reasonable.

Surprisingly on our day looking for safaris in Arusha we were not approached by a single tout. Very strange!! Maybe word had got around that we were taken. Booking was very easy, as we had been recommended a tour company by a couple of other travellers and knew the right price and what that included. So we were all organised by 10am and proceeded to head to the Rwanda tribunal.

We were both very interested to go to the tribunal as we will be heading to Rwanda in a few weeks. This is the United Nations tribunal for the 1994 Rwandan genocide which was established in 1995 and you are able to go and watch proceedings. Witnesses are naturally protected, so you can't see them but it was still interesting to see how the hearing works. Very slowly is one way to put it (not surprising as it's been going for 13 years!! There was 15 minutes discussion on when to take a 15 minute break at one point. It took awhile for us to figure out what was going on - we were listening to the defense interrogate a witness. We hope to go back once we've done our safari and hear some more.

Getting back on the horse again.

Or in reality, the bus. After our hellish experience in Ethiopia we were both dreading the bus trip from Dar Es Salaam to Arusha... so much so we did actually vaguely consider flying. But, at some point we would have to return to buses so we thought sooner was better than later. So, we both drugged up on travel sickness tablets and prepared for another 9 hours of hell....

Fortunately, Tanzanian buses are a world away from Ethiopian buses. There were only four seats across.. .and they were actual seats rather than a bench. Plus, there was enough leg room that our knees were still attached at the end of the journey. Then the road, ah the marvelous tarmac road!!! So, we enjoyed the view, actually ate something at the lunch stop (we never managed to eat on Ethiopian buses), and used the toilets at all the stops without gagging. In Ethiopia there was one stop a day and the toilets were vastly inferior to squatting in the bush as people tended to use the floor whilst they were waiting and none of them flushed. In contrast we had 3 stops on the 9 hour journey and all toilets worked, had toilet paper and soap to wash your hands!!!! We were also incredibly lucky to have a perfectly clear view of Mt Kilimanjaro on the way past (usually being so high it is obscured by clouds), which was quite stunning and reinforced the fact that we have no desire to climb it.

Paradise in Africa

We had an absolutely amazing relaxing time on Zanzibar, and ended up spending nearly twice as long as planned. We spent a week at the beach where the most strenuous thing we did was an all day snorkeling trip. The snorkeling was fabulous, with some very interesting fish. Then we sailed back on the dhow to our beach resort, ah...heaven.

After a week we decided to head back to Stonetown to explore a little bit. The main thing here was a spice tour. The spice farms were not at all what we expected, seeming more like how you would grow plants in your backyard. The vanilla (which is a vine)was grown using acacia trees, or whatever else was around. Cardamon grew in the shade of clove trees. We tried all sorts of fresh herbs: ginger, clove, pepper, cinnamon, cardamon etc. Also fruits, where my favourite was undeniably the cocoa!!! The flesh is white and surrounds the beans, you don't chew only suck (this was said very firmly) and the taste was very like mangosteens. We now have lots of photos of us eating cocoa fruit.

On a more serious note we were taken to the slave cave where hundreds and thousands of slaves were held after slavery became illegal. They were dumped down into the cave to await a boat, when it arrived they were taken through a tunnel to the beach for boarding to be shipped around the world.

The great escape

Now, let me say first off that I loved Ethiopia. It is the most fascinating country I have been to, with an incredibly distinct culture and history. But it was a tiring country. After surviving the 2 day bus journey I came down with a second lot of travellers diarrhea and this one continued for days. So rather than going to the south of the country as planned, we decided we had to get out. Jason spent a couple of days doing the walk to the Hilton (for the airline office) whilst I lay around feeling sorry for myself. Meanwhile we also visited the hospital in an attempt to find out what was wrong, and get some antibiotics.... this proved a useless exercise with the high point being when the doctor asked in stilted English "Do you have a fever?" - I don't know! Maybe you could check???! With only two more days to wait until the flight, we decided I would live and hopefully Tanzanian medical care would be more helpful. So on Monday 23rd we set off from 18 degree weather in Addis in the middle of summer, landing in 30degree weather in winter in Tanzania. Ah, how good it was!

Feeling bouyed by escaping Ethiopia we quickly purchased a ticket to Zanzibar and were soon on a tropical island paradise! We heard lots of warnings about the touts in Zanzibar from other travellers, but after Ethiopia where spending 60seconds without being hassled was cause for celebration we hardly noticed there were any here. Also, antibiotics are available over the counter. Luckily my ill stomach seems to have remained in Ethiopia and we are now firmly ensconced on a beautiful white sandy beach beside azure waters, with nothing more to do than complain about the hideous prices. (Bit of a shock from eating for $2 a meal, going to $10 each!!) I think we'll be here awhile...

Two days of self imposed torture

Now, if you are ever considering should you spend $10 for 2 days on the bus from Lalibela to Addis Ababa or should you spend the $120 for the flight, I'll make it simple for you - fly!!! Why are you even considering two days on the bus. Unfortunately for us, no one shared this wisdom and after much debate we decided to do the bus trip. Why???? Why????? Why????? It was two days of pure hell. The road was as windy as a pile of cooked spaghetti and a bumpy dirt track to boot. What made this worse was that Ethiopians have weak stomachs and every other person on the bus was throwing up. The plastic bags were going up and down the aisle at lightening speed. This is before you consider that being Ethiopia there is about 5cm of leg room so your knees are decapitated and they fit 5 people across each row (with people in the aisle as well, despite the fact this is illegal).

Day one of this was hellish, but it's even worse when after a nights sleep in a flea infested hotel (for $4) you have to force yourself to get up at 4am, queue with two hundred people for the gates to the bus station to open, push past women and children to avoid being trampled in the rush to your bus only to do it all again. I never thought I would be so grateful to see an African city in my life, but Addis looked beautiful!!

Gondar gut... and those castles as well.

It's been awhile since we've updated the blog, partly because ehtiopian internet doesn't like blogspot.  We've now remembered that we can email blogs in... but we can't edit the times and dates, so these will be appearing out of order, my apologies.  Hopefully we can fix it up in Tanzania.   We have now been in Africa for 2 months and I suppose it's only fair that one of us got food poisoning in that length of time, but it doesn't feel fair at all.  We have been eating a lot more local food in Ethiopia and due to not being able to either speak or read Amharic a lot of time we convey 'no fish' and leave the rest up to chance.  In this way we ate a quite nice local dinner our first night in Gondar, it was injera (big sour pancake thing that all food is served on and eaten with) with some meat thing (don't ask what type of meat I don't know).  It was very tasty and enjoyable but I spent the next two days with liquid gushing out of both ends, which we've named the Gondor gut (this beat out Ethiopian evacuation as the name).    So despite this being our fourth day in Gondor it is the first day that we have really explored.  This is a really lovely town, built around the old crumpling walls of 17th century  palaces and churches which are still in use from the same era.  In the 250 years that Gondar was the capital of Ethiopia there were 7 castles built within an area the size of a couple of city blocks.  It was a very different experience to see these castles in the middle of Africa, as goats graze within the compound walls, people mow the lawns with sickles, and the streets around the outside teem with people, taxis, minibuses, donkeys and horse drawn carts.  Not to mention the touts (everyone one of whom has two people wanting to go to the simien mountains tomorrow!).   The other very noteworthy thing about Ethiopia is that it is the birthplace of coffee, and so the cafe culture is king.  There are hundreds of little cafes serving excellent coffee and cakes and nothing else (this has led to some slight embarrassment as tables have been vacated for us in what we assumed was a packed restaurant at dinner time, to discover they don't serve food).  It has however been fun eating cake again!!

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Oh my gosh it's a mattress!!!

Ok, so maybe this wasn't the most interesting thing about Bahir Dar, but when you've been sleeping on foam for two months (3cm when camping, and about 10cm in hotels) a real mattress is an absolute treat, and led to some excellent nights sleep.

The real draw card of Bahir Dar though is the various monastries which are found on islands on Lake Tana. Everyone in Bahir Dar either seems to have a boat or a minibus and depending which either wants to take you onto the lake or to Gondar. We decided to just go through our hotel and organised a half day on the lake with three girls we had met from Israel. This however doesn't include the entry fee for each monastry and aftre the first couple we began to feel they were a bit similar. You would never guess from the outside that these round mud brick buildings are churches built in the 14th century (although the roof had to be replaced with tin as water was leaking through destroying the paintings). Inside our beautiful paintings depicting various biblical scenes, some of which are definitely unique to Ethiopia. The one where some saint is using a snake to climb a building was certainly interesting.

As after a couple o fthese churches all five of us felt they were remarkably similar we decided to us e the boat to trip to see the start of the nile (the blue nile, the white nile starts in Uganda), which was a very pretty area.

The other nice thing about Bahir Dar was being adventurous with the food, and trying some interesting dishes. Possibly I'm biased because of what came later, but I'm just not that much of a fan of Ethiopian food.

Is that a goat?... no, it's a whole herd of goats

We arrived in Addis Ababa on May 31st.  We were a little worried about getting the visa as everything we'd read said you can only get a 30 day visa and stupidly our flight out was 32 days away. But we decided to give it a go and ask at the visa office... we're not sure she understood exactly what we wanted, but we were given 3 month visas for the same cost as the 1 month without any fuss whatsoever.

Addis Ababa can be summed up quite well by the sight of a herd of goats crossing a ten lane highway in the middle of a city of 3 million people.Where they were going I'm not sure. Despite the size of the road there were not that many cars, and a lot of transport was done using packmules, ox/cow/donkey/horse drawn carts.

Addis is probably one of the safer African cities, and despite needing to be aware of petty theft violent crime is pretty much unheard of. Instead the city is full to bursting with beggars, which was a little overwhelming. However, these do not necessarily target foreigners, rather everyone gives what they can. It is an amazingly religious country and priests (or something similar) abound blessing people as they are touched on the forehead by an ornate wooden cross which they then kiss).

We are beginning to feel a little homesick, or at least missing the peace and quiet of a park or just anywhere you can be alone and not hassled, approached, talked to etc. We hadn't realised how much until we went to the Sheraton to use the ATM and ended up spending an hour sitting in the peaceful garden without being approached once!!

From there we attempted the journey to Bahir Dar. We were assured this would be an 11 hour bus journey (the worry being Ethiopian buses are not allowed to travel after dark so if it took too long we could get stranded somewere for the night). Up at 4:30am we were on the bus soon after 5am and on our way shortly after sunrise or 6am, or 12 o'clock local time... but lets not go there.(Ok, just briefly time here is such that sunrise is 12 o'clock, and sunset or 6pm is also 12 o'clock. This I could possibly cope with but locals know what farangi time is so you never know which time is being quoted at you). We were stopped just outside Addis for a check point. We think they were checking for bombs or something (due to the fact they spent quite awhile under the bus and went through everyone's bags). Jason was on the top of the bus opening his bag for the police, when searching a different bag they found 'something' and Jason was nearly thrown from the roof. It was not promising when the bus reversed up a side street and a few policeman with rather large guns (rifles I assume) boarded and made sure everyone stayed sitting and quiet. (This was a painful prospect due to the fact the gap between the seats was 5cm too short for my legs, and about 15cm too short for Jason... kneecaps being slowly amputated by the seat in front is not particularly fun). There were however moments of hilarity as one of the policeman fancied himself as a comedien and frequently had the bus in stitches, before becoming serious and scaring them into submission. No one felt a need to translate any of this for us though. The only English translation we got was "No problem", to which we asked then why have we been sitting here for 3 hours!!! The police did occassionally target individuals and take them off for questionning, they also checked everyone's ID (Except ours). Evetually they picked on one person to stand up and then started beating him off the bus, onto the ground where they kicked him about a bit more. Obviously convinced he was the owner of the mystery bag.It turned out that there was a gun in his bag.We were then on our way to Bahir Dar.

We saw many interesting sights, amazing views, armoured tanks and local villages. Surprisingly we made it to Bahir Dar that day although about 1 hour after sunset and as the lights of the town became visible a spontaneous standing ovation was given by the bus passengers, making us think we weren't the only ones worried about a night in the middle of nowhere

Why Camping is fun in Africa (Or why a tent is very reassuring)

Having done quite a bit of camping now in africa, I feel that we are starting to really see the benifits of that extra volume and mass in the bags. Not only is camping usually cheaper it has some very special benifits (Photos will follow at a later stage)

1. Turning up to accomadation without booking. Having done this at Myoka Village in Malwi, having the tent when you are told there are no rooms left and dark is falling is very reassuring
2. Great Views. Some of the places we have camped can only be experienced, already we have been on the shores of lake Malwim with lapping water a gorgeous sunset and just a nice place to sleep, up a tree by South Lawanga National Park waiting for animals to pass underneith, or on the ground with hippos munching beside the tent. And it still could get better as the trip goes on.
3. Facilities. This may seem odd, but places that you camp often have much nicer showers, more likely to be hot and toilets more likely to be clean, than in some of the cheap hotels or hostels we've seen or heard of, sometimes you even get a view from your shower.
4. Emergency Bedding. While we haven't yet resorted to setting up our tent in a room we have booked, we have considered it upon seeing the rooms, the sleep mats and insect proof fly look mighty reasuring and may well be used yet!

So taking our tent has been most comforting.

The top of the world... or at least Malawi

Following a very relaxing week in Nhkata Bay we decided to head to Livingstonia. This is an area with a rich colonial history and being on the top of a mountain, fabulous views. It is however a little off the tourist circuit so can be difficult to get to. However, we were incredibly lucky and getting off the minibus at the turn off there was a truck waiting (to try and get some paying passengers) to go up the hill. It's about 15km which would be a very long walk up hill with packs on. The view from the top was jaw dropping, with mountains heading down to the lake. After winding our way up 20 hairpin bends we reached Mushroom Farm. Our room was a simple A-frame which was totally open on the side facing the view, absolutely stunning!!

The next day we walked the 8km into town where exploring all the sites and doing some shopping took about 1 hour (although it was interesting all the same) and it was quite strange seeing all these colonial buildings in Africa. We also walked to the waterfall, and found the cave where locals hid from slave traders (this is behind the falls, so a bit wet and muddy). It was a beatiful area and very different from anywhere else we've travelled in Africa.

Getting down again was a bit trickier and we ended up walking the whole way. In 3 and a half hours on the road we saw one car going downhill and it was full. By the end we were exhausted and collapsed at the bottom, without even enough energy to find ourselves a drink. Also, the passing minibuses were full so we ended up hitching - which was the best trip yet. We went with a local man in a very plush rental car, which even had seatbelts!!! We each had are own seat and only one bag around our feet, what luxury. He was incredibly nice and drove us all the way to our hotel (despite the fact this was one town further on than he was going) and refused to accept any money. Blissful.

Sun, swimming... but no salt

This is just a quick update to let you know about the last week we've spent in Malawi. We are in a beautiful place called Nhkata Bay on Lake Malawi. We weren't sure when we left home if we would swim in the lake due to bilharizia but supposedly none as ever been found in this area so we are making full use of the lake. We are staying in our own chalet which is right on the water so we are lulled to sleep by the sound of waves lapping against the rocks each night. In the morning we sit on our balcony eating breakfast and enjoying the view. There is good snorkelling just by the room and we really feel like we're on holiday here... and are dreading the next bus trip so we keep extending our stay. It's also the first country that feels cheap!! So in a week we have only spent $150 for the two of us and we are in the nicest room yet, and have been partaking of the massive buffet dinners each night. About 100m in front of Mayoka (where we are staying) there is a raft, so everyone just swims our there lies in the sun to dry off and swims back to shore. What a life!

The best laid plans

We had planned this morning to catch the minibus to Chipata spend a night and head to Malawi tomorrow using two taxis and a minibus... but that's not quite what happened. To catch the minibus you have to leave at 4:45am, which meant waking up at 4am to pack up the tent. This went well, and we avoided the hippos who were still munching. But, before we made it into town where the minibus leaves from we ran into a ute (lorry - sized) going to Chipata leaving immediately - so the 6 of us who were heading that way jumped into the back and were on our way. The ute makes money by giving lifts to people so we soon had around 15 people in the back and were partially deafened from the horn which he used to announce his presence. We were however in Chipata before 9am much earlier than expected, so decided to press on for Malawi (It would have been even earlier but we got stopped by the police, so it took some time to come to a suitable bribe to get the car keys back).

We took a share taxi to the border with 4 people on the back seat, 2 on the passengers seat and 2 in the drivers! After an easy border crossing we decided to ask the tourists who were ahead of us in the queue for a lift. So rather than another taxi and minibus we were driven in what felt like absolute luxury!! I also began to learn Afrikaans from the 4 year old boy I was sitting beside who couldn't understand why I couldn't talk properly.

Next stop Nhakata Bay... we think! (Gosh, up to date... been awhile since that's been the case)

Hippos, hippos everywhere

Flatdogs camp where we spent much of the past week is right outside the national park gates of South Luangwa National Park. As such any animals seen in the park can be seen at the campsite. Hippos are particularly prominent with around 200 visible at any point from the campsite. My new theory is that the reason hippos kill more people in Africa than any other animal is not due to their ferocity but just sheer numbers of them and the fact that the campsites are set up in the middle of their feeding ground. After dark you are supposed to have a night watchman with you to help you avoid the hippos, elephant or whatever else is around... but frequently it was just you and your little headtorch hoping not to get trodden on. The last two nights we camped on the ground very close to the river and the sound of a hippo eating next to your head is a little disturbing - and then I turned on the torch to have a look at it seeing as how I wasn't sleeping anyway only to startle it and see a stampeding hippo. Elephants were also fairly common in the campsite and surprisingly quiet (unlike those hippos who never shut up and can be heard 3km away). So quiet in fact that the first time we saw them in camp they were about 3m behind Jason and he didn't hear them. As I was walking towards him and called out elephants he started coming towards me to find them not realising all he had to do was turn around. The other highlight was the tower of 17 giraffes (tower is the name for a group of giraffes) that came into camp one day. We missed the day the four lions came into camp and as we were leaving this morning we found out that leopards come in most mornings to chase the baboons outside the chalets!!!! And the watchman didn't think to mention this until this morning! ARGH! Oh well, we are yet to see a leopard, but here's hoping.

We went on three game drives at South Luangwa and all were amazing in their own way. Just being in Africa and watching impala, puku, zebra, giraffe etc from metres away is incredibly special. But some of the main highlights were:
- watching two 3 month old lion cubs playing whilst the rest of the pride slept on unawares.
- hearing the angry trumpet call of an elephant. The guide stopping turning off the engine and the angry elephant appearing through the trees 5m from the car (it was a mother protecting her baby). She didn't look very happy and took a few menacing steps towards us, whilst the 6 of us encouraged our guide to turn the engine back on and be ready to go - he ignored us. Then another trumpet call and she charged... stopping a little bit short. The guide remained relaxed whilst the rest of us were convinced we were about to die. She charged one more time before withdrawing and only once she was out of sight did the guide start the engine again.
- hearing a male lion roaring into the night and then finding him,
- all the baby animals - hippos, elephants, zebra, giraffe etc.
- coming across a buffalo on foot (the only animal the ranger had ever had to shoot) and having him stand up and watch us whilst the guide and ranger tried to stop us taking photographs to get to safety.
- seeing a dazzle of zebra, tower of giraffes, raft of hippos, parade of elephants, obstinance of buffalo (ok, we didn't actually see the last, but I want to remember the terms).

We saw nearly everything South Luangwa has to offer, except the leopard so here's hoping we'll manage later.

Kasawa Village

Flatdogs is a beautiful campsite and we pitched our tent up in the trees (they have wooden platforms) and spent our days doing laundry, sitting by the pool watching hippos in the river and doing game drives. But I'll write more about that later as we have another game drive tomorrow.

After much deliberation we decided to spend a night in a traditional village. We were a bit worried that this would be incredibly touristy, but wanted to see more of Africa than just animals. It was about a 40 minute drive away mostly over a dirt track that passed by numerous villages and crossed a couple of rivers (we saw a tractor get stuck at one of these crossings). Eventually we reached the village of Kasawa where we were greeted by the head teacher at the school.

The school has 804 students who come from approximately 250 villages in the area. The children attend school in batches as there are not enough teachers for all the children at once, so the children will attend school in the morning and then in the afternoon do sport or clean up the town or learn how to work in the fields. This is despite the fact that the school is better off than most due to the tourism project they run. The government only pays for 14 teachers, and the income from tourism pays for another 9. They also use the money to buy books, equipment and generally improve facilities. For this reason we were told everyone in the area is always very happy to see 'mzungus' as by visiting we are helping all 250 villages.

As soon as we were taken on a walk through some of the villages we realised how true this was. People were calling out to say hello and asking our guide 'Raphael' if they could meet us. We also had a line of children walking behind us who loved having their photos taken. The villages have no electricity or running water or much in the way of possessions but we were both struck by how genuinely happy everyone was. The children spent hours playing with old bike wheels, balls made out of plastic bags or just dancing away.

One of the highlights was meeting a traditional healer. She was very sick when she was a child and was told that this was because she was possessed and wanted to be a healer. After this she got better. She goes into a trance whilst reading the bible and is possessed by a spirit out of Eden, who is able to tell the person standing before her what is wrong. After this she is able to prescribe medication based on information given to her by the spirit in her dreams. It was fascinating to hear her talk, although as she had a toothache we were not able to stand before her. She did give Jason something that from the description is African viagra, whilst I was given the female version. She then proceeded to tell us that we must stay together till we die before sending us on our way.

In the evening we were treated to traditional dancing and singing. This was beautiful to watch and we were thoroughly entertained as within minutes of the drums starting a crowd had started to form. People from all the surrounding villages came running and children wore strips of chitembe fabric tied in the same manner of the dances and as the evening wore on they would emulate the dancers and join in the middle of the stage. Both Jason and I were invited to dance during the dance to celebrate a girl becoming a women (Jason wishing he could have done a different dance), but I think the children outshone us all. It was loud, bright and colourful and impossible to put into words but we couldn't keep the smiles off our faces.

Whilst we were there we attempted a few words in the local language, although every attempt was met with laughter. I attempted to cook Nshima (the local staple) although it was like trying to stir concrete after it's set. We also spoke to Orbi's mother who is blind but still cultivates her field and looks after her house. (Orbi was one of the guys who set up the project originally).

All in all this was an absolute highlight of the trip so far.

3 days of buses

Well, we've come a long way in four days, from one side of Zambia to the other. On the 4th May we did the 8 hour bus journey to Lusaka. After spending a day looking around and buying a mobile phone (we were assured by other travellers it was a good idea... and it has since proved useful) we were on another bus (this time for 9 hours) to Chipata. We spent a night in a very dodgy hotel with no water (we hadn't realised this when we agreed on the room)... a drop toilet I can handle, a normal flushing toilet which isn't flushing due to the aforementioned no water issue is absolutely repulsive and disgusting. Luckily there were public toilets across the road so we paid to use those instead. On the plus side it was the cheapest night so far, being cheaper than any of the campsites we've used. The next day we were on the minibus bright and early (7am) but didn't leave until 11am, making it to Flatdogs camp at 3:30pm. There was seating for about 15 people on the minibus, but 30 people plus accompanying luggage (50kg bags of meal, clothes etc) all crammed together. The lady I was squished against spent the entire trip eating, although she did share some of the fruit with me (I'm not sure what it was, but it was very nice).

It's alright, we survived

Now, before we get into what we did today let me just assure Mum and Dad (both lots) that we did check out the situation first. We talked to people who had been there and done that, we looked it over from the microlight and we stuck our heads over the border when we were at Vic Falls the other day... and just to make sure we had asked Penny (who is staying at the same place as us) to call the embassy if we didn't come back... but on to what we did.

Waking up at 5:30am (it was still dark!) we got in a taxi heading to the Zambian/Zimbabwean border post. When we got there, it hadn't opened yet so we spent 15 minutes watching the baboons attempt to break into the various trucks that were waiting to cross the border. At 6:30am we were stamped out of Zambia and crossed the border to a waiting minibus that took us the couple of kms to the Zimbabwean customs. We paid the $30 for the Zimbabwean visa and proceeded to drive through Victoria Falls town. The town is beautiful, and much better laid out than Livingstone. Despite the troubles it still seems cleaner with more structured manicured gardens. The shops were however decidedly empty and there was a horde of people waiting outside the bank even at that time of the morning.

But, we weren't actually here just so we could say we'd been to Zimbabwe, the real reason was so we could take some Lions for a walk. There were two lions Echo and Etosha and they were 12 month old brothers. We were each given a stick and informed that if they look like the want to play with you (by chewing on your leg or arm or some such) then you should try and get them interested in the stick instead. Other than that just stay out of their way and avoid being near the head area. At first they seemed a bit reluctant to go for a walk choosing to rub up against us and collapse on our legs whenever possible. Until one of the guides (George) decided to tease and get them to chase him. This was the best game ever and by the time we made it to the river the two lions were having a fabulous time running around, chasing buffalo dung balls and pouncing on each other (and George). It was definitely a unique experience, getting to touch and feel the muscles moving in a lion as it walks along. Lots of fun and we made it safely out of Zimbabwe without difficulty.

Labor Day

Today was a quiet day for us, but big for the locals. We walked out our front door and within two minutes spotted this huge procession marching towards us. Uh oh, what was that our parents warned us not to do... that's right get caught up in marches or demonstrations. Turns out it was labor day and the march was for improved working conditions and social justice. Every business seemed to be represented and it went on for as far as the eye could see in both directions. We spent the rest of the morning at the Livingstone museum which was quite interesting, going through the history of man, Zambia, slavery and more. It also gave a rather strong view on the movement of people from the villages to the urban centres, with a couple of rooms dedicated to "our village" and "their town".

And then Vic Falls from the ground

After the microlight we headed to the falls on foot. From Zambia you can only see a small portion of the falls and at the moment most of what you see is spray!! Although we were pre-warned it still is astounding to stand in what amounts to a torrential downpour on a beautiful cloudless day. The spray falls like rain, not coming horizontally as you might think, and it is heavier by far than most thunderstorms you encounter. You can see the edge of the rain and move in a couple of steps from nearly dry to absolutely soaking wet. To fully explore you are forced to go over a small bridge which is positioned such that you will be absolutely soaked!! (see photo) We did catch beautiful glimpses of the falls occasionally and there are rainbows in every direction due to the amount of water in the air.

Victoria Falls from the air

Victoria Falls from the air
Originally uploaded by 80weeks

We spent the first day or so relaxing in Livingstone, doing the washing (ah, the joy of clean clothes!!) and doing some shopping (food is much more expensive here than Botswana so we decided to self-cater as much as possible). Our first dinner was 70,000K just ridiculous! Of course we did get 2 million out of the ATM, so it's probably not that bad, but still double what we were paying in Botswana... but the accommodation is cheaper, so we don't need to camp as much.

Our first splurge for Africa was on a microlight flight over the falls. We were up at 6:30am and after a couple of minutes were at the runway. It was absolutely amazing! We got dressed up in flight suits, which were a one size fits all (or none depending on how you look at it). Then after being strapped in we were up and away. As soon as we were in the air we could see the spray from the falls, which goes at least 250m up into the air. It is currently absolutely peak flow for Victoria Falls which means that the view isn't as good (the spray stops you being able to see the falls), but you really get the feel for the sheer quantity of water going over the falls.

The current falls are actually the 8th, and you can see the beginning of the 9th. As well as the beautiful gorges which are the remains of where the falls used to be. The slight gash which is the start of the 9th falls has taken 5,000 years and depending on which pilot you believe(mine or Jason's) in another 40,000 to 20,000 years the falls will be completely in the new location. The view was completely stunning from the microlight and I highly recommend it to anyone coming to the falls.

Another day, another African border crossing

We had an early start this morning, primarily due to the three overland trucks that left by 6am with much calling out to each other, loud farewells etc. Unfortunately the kitchen didn't open until 7:30am and as we are supposed to eat something before taking the anti-malarials we hung around until then. But, it didn't open. So rather than waiting around for who knows how long until the kitchen opened and then the further 30 minutes it takes for them to make toast we decided to just start heading for the border and hope. A few minutes after we started walking a nice South African stopped and gave us a lift all the way to the ferry, driving past the 1km of waiting trucks right to the front. Bananas made for a quick breakfast and then we jumped on the ferry with about 10 other passengers (plus 1 truck and 1 ute - which explains why it takes a week to make the crossing).

The difference once we hit Zambia was obvious. We were instantly designated as money trees and approached from all sides by people wanting to show us their wares, sell us money or find us a taxi (even coming into the customs booth to ask what we needed). We forked out a ridiculous amount for the visa ($80 each!) and tried to find the official exchange bureau... but, it was Sunday and it was closed. So we ended up changing with one of the guys who was hanging around and quickly jumped in a taxi for Livingstone.

Arriving at Fawlty Towers was blissful, and the staff are the most competent yet.. nothing like the TV show. There is a beautiful garden with a nice pool, hot showers with good pressure and best of all, free pancakes everyday!! (The free internet helps too) So we decided to stay... and keep extending how long we are going to stay here.

Is that a scorpion?

After a very bumpy truck ride we were happy to relax for a day in Kasane. We spent a couple of nights camping in what was obviously a popular overlander route - with at least 8 different trucks in the two nights we were there. Including one of absolutely insane people who were travelling for 9 months!!! They were generally older and had been doing a lot of bush camping as they went. The other trucks were younger and only the few older people on them were willing to talk to us. It was nice to talk to some other travellers about where we were going and what we should do there. We are getting used to camping, although the scorpion crawling over the tent (inside the fly, but outside the mesh) was a little disconcerting.

The highlight of our time in Kasane was a wildlife cruise into Choebe national park. We saw hundreds of elephants and a few other animals. The sunset was beautiful and it was a very relaxing way to spend an afternoon.

Kasane was also noteworthy for it's relatively cheap food... albeit slow. For breakfast one the first morning we asked for some toast (for about $1) and wondered how an earth it took 30 minutes to cook a piece of bread, especially as we were the only people eating! The next day we decided to forgo the breakfast as we were eager to get to Zambia... but that's another entry.

Why we should have got up an hour earlier.

After our trip into the Okavango Delta we spent another night camping in Maun and enjoying a proper meal (the tinned peas and corn we had taken for dinner on the mokoro trip were less than inspiring) before attempting to get an early start for the long trip to Kasane. Unfortunately we didn't make it to the bus station until 8am (we were aiming for 7:30am) so we were on the 8:30 bus to Nata. We arrived in Nata at around midday and were pointed to the petrol station where the buses to Kasane leave from. Asking around we were quickly told that we had missed the Kasane bus, but we could ask around for a lift. Although hitch hiking in Botswana is supposed to be safe we stood around debating whether to just find somewhere to pitch the tent for the night and take the bus the next day. As Jason was trying to find someone to ask what time the bus to Kasane comes so we knew when to get there the next day he was approached by one of the locals who had heard that we needed to get to Kasane, and offered us a lift on the back of his truck for the same price as the bus tickets.

The back of the truck was filled with furniture and spare tyres and we were told to sit on a metal cupboard for the trip. We had been warned previously by a group of overlanders in Maun that the road between Kasane and Nata was pot hole filled and probably the back of a truck was not the most comfortable way to go! We did see a large herd of elephants beside the road and at one point had to wait while a big bull elephant got off the road. Altogether the trip was long (4 hours!), bumpy and very windy... but fun all the same. We were dropped at Thebe camp site where we decided to spend a couple of nights to recover from the journey. Never has a sleeping mat felt so good on our very sore backs.

Will it float?

Our trip into the Okavango Delta was of the budget variety. This meant going into the Eastern Delta close to the buffalo fence (which separates wild animals from cattle to prevent the spread of foot and mouth disease), so we were warned by everyone involved that we were not likely to see many animals, but that it would be a chance to see the delta and the bird life. The other aspect of a budget trip is that it is self-catering. This means taking not only all your food, but also your tent, sleeping bag and anything else you want... they provide the transport and a guide.

So, the morning of the tour we got into the open safari vehicle to be transferred to the mokoro station. There were 8 of us going in, but only Jason and I were staying overnight. It took about 2 hours to get to the buffalo fence and soon after passing through we spotted the first wildlife. Zebra!! Then some giraffe. These were quite a way off but still exciting. We were also eagerly following elephant tracks down the sandy road, but by the time we reached the village to pick up a guide we still hadn't caught up to the elephants. At the village there was much discussion and talk between the locals to decide who would be poling (there are 2 people to a mokoro so we needed 4 guides/polers). Once they were sorted we continued down to the mokoro station... although maybe that's an overstatement. There was a bit of shore with what looked like a few logs in it... our mokoros. A mokoro is a dug out log, which is filled with straw to help keep you dry (help, not succeed). Each mokoro was a different shape and about half were already filled with water. Undeterred our guide loaded all our camping gear, food, his camping gear and three of us into this mokoro.

We were sitting below the water level, with only about 5cm of mokoro above the water level. The guide (Olly) stood at the back and pushed off with the pole. We wove our way down narrow channels, choosing one over the other apparently at random. Although on one particularly narrow channel where he had to get out and push the mokoro when we got stuck we were informed that there were hippos in the main channel, and being that low in the water we were just as eager as him to avoid any hippos. Never has there been a more menacing sound than that of a hippo's laugh. By about 20 minutes in the mokoro was soaked with water and a puddle began to form in the bottom. It took about 2 hours of slowly making our way through the channels surrounded by grass the height of a man, water lilies and lots of different birds to make it to the campsite.

Here we set up camp and rested before heading off for a bush walk (not a game walk we were assured) with Olly and his trusty stick. Olly was a great guide giving us lots of information about different plants and there uses, including the sausage tree which can be used to, um, increase a mans size - but you must be careful not to go too big we were warned! Olly also showed us some red berries which he named lucky berries. A few minutes later we stumbled onto a blue wildebeest and cautiously approached hiding behind a termite mound. We were stared at as we stared back and it was wonderful to be so close. Later in the walk we also saw giraffe - approaching to within 20meters, and a big bull elephant - which we were about 10meters away from. Olly did seem rather worried about the elephant and kept checking the wind direction to make sure we were down wind. It was absolutely amazing!!

The night passed uneventfully although the hippos sure were noisy! The next day we did a further bush walk with more elephant, hippos, giraffe, zebra, warthog, impala and baboons galore. For a trip where we weren't expecting to see animals it was amazing, and so much more fun on foot. We relaxed in the mokoro on the way back enjoying the peace and quiet (and now sitting on plastic bags enjoyed being dry!).

All in all a fabulous safari to start off with.