Hello My Travel Story Pals!

I am sincerely sorry for my gross negligence at keeping you all informed of our African Trail Progress! Things have certainly sped up since we arrived down in South Africa, and we are trying to make the most of every opportunity!Currently we are in Khartoum, Sudan! This is one of the cities I most wanted to visit! It’s a Fantastic city, full of much construction not to mention the incredibly friendly and helpful Sudanese! But before I ramble too much, here is a quick precis of our trip from South Africa!

After visiting Jo’Burg, we caught up with our truck and travelled the Garden Route, including such places as Jeffreys Bay (Billabong Factory Shop), Tsitsikamma (World’s Highest Commercial Bungy - 216m), Oudtshoorn (Ostrich Farm & Kango Caves) Cape Agulhas (Southern Most Point of Africa), before arriving in Capetown!

While in this stunning city we had the distinct pleasure of staying with a very good friend of ours - Wessel - and his parents. We were treated to home cooked meals & had our own tour guide around the city. We visited Robben Island, Table Mountain, not to mention some of  the Fantastic Vineyards in the surrounding area! We were treated to a Brilliant Day out with Pieter and Annatjie (Wessel’s parents) around Stellenbosch & Franschhoek!

We then rejoined our group in Citrusdal, where we travelled to Orange river on the border with Namibia, before enjoying the sights of Fish River Canyon & Sossusvlei. These views were quickly followed by a few days in Swakopmund, where we engaged in some Quad Biking, a Dolphin Cruise and a Township tour where we were fortunate to meet the Damara chief - a 91 year old woman! We then visited Spitzkoppe (famous rock formations), and the Cape Coast Seal Colony - and gosh do they stink!!!

Cheetah Park presented us with the start of  the wildlife trail, as we then went onto Etosha National Park and the Okovango Delta! And what a great experience they all were! We got up close & personal with the Cheetahs, before assisting in feeding them, saw our first wild lioness on a hunt, and got within 15 metres of 4 Male Elephants in the delta! And the thrills didn’t stop there! Victoria Falls was next, where

we not only were drenched by them, but also flew over them in a Microlite!

After a quick visit to Livingstone, Zambia - we spent some time in Zimbabwe. It has recently only again opened up to tourists after it’s political rollercoaster of the last few years. We made a brief stop in Bulawayo, where we had an educational day excursion into Matopos National Park. Andy was our guide & tracker, who spent time teaching us about the bush & wildlife. We also finished the day having tracked 2 White Rhino and were able to spend some time with them literally 10m away! Great Zimbabwe, the old city of trade & commerce was a worthy visit, before we entered Antelope Park, Gweru! This has proved to be an amazing highlight, as we enjoyed Lion walks, Cub walks, Elephant rides, not to forget the night we joined 2 male lions from the breeding programme on a hunt! Antelope Park will also remain in our fond memories also for the people we met - especially Darren (one of the volunteers) and our guide Fanuel! A journey through Zimbabwe wouldn’t be complete without a jaunt into Harare. We only spent a day in the city, but it was an intersting experience. We both sincerely hope this wonderful country can one day retain it’s former glory!

Mozambique’s Tete Corridor was the briefest of country stops before we entered Lilongwe, capital of Malawi. We had a re-freshing experience in the large food market, having missed traditional African markets! Kande Beach provided us with a lovely lake view & relaxing 3 day respite, where we enjoyed a local Village Meal, roasted 2 pigs and rode the famous Kande horses!

Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania was our springboard to Zanzibar - Spice Island & Gorgeous Beaches. Stone Town also entertained us with it’s – bustling markets, narrow streets, and the ever delicious Foridani Gardens - local food Zanzibar style! Arusha was next on the menu with Serengeti & Ngorongoro Crater as the main course. I won’t bore you with the details - just look at the photos!!!

Nairobi was our first taste of Kenya, before we enjoyed the sights of Nukuru National Park on our way to the Mountain Gorillas! We stopped briefly in Kampala & Kabale in Uganda (to return later), as we raced to get to Kigali, Rwanda. We had an afternoon visiting the city, especially the Genocide Museum, then it was onto Ruhengari and the famous Mountain Gorillas. We had a half day trek to the Hirwa ‘Lucky’ Family, where we got some great photos and an interesting piece of video footage, which we may upload. However it will have to be X-rated!!!

We backtracked through Uganda, indulging in some White-water rafting at Jinga (source of the mighty Nile River), as well as assisting the Soft Power Education Project paint a building of a school! Lake Navaisha, Kenya brought us very close with the most dangerous animal in Africa – the Hippo. It sounds unusual, but more tourist deaths are attributed to Hippo attacks rather than  Lion attacks. Perhaps that childhood game ‘Hungry Hungry Hippo’ was accurate after all!

Back in Nairobi we prepared for the final leg of the trip! After saying our goodbyes to some travel companions, we hit the road for Northern Kenya. An experience it was, but in some ways the least said about it, the better! We were all pretty excited to reach Ethiopia - despite their issues with water & power supply!

Addis Ababa was a revelation! We both thoroughly enjoyed the people, food, & culture. Within a very short space of time Ethiopia won our hearts, and is definitely a country we hope to return too! Bahir Dar was our launch pad to Lalibela, which amazed us with it’s ‘rock hewn churches’. While Gondar presented us with interesting stories of political conspiracy & intrigue!

Now we find ourselves in the Sudan with our African Adventure almost at an end! However the FUN has not stopped, and neither have the stories!

I know this has been a very quick overview of our travels. I hope it provided some entertainment for you. I will endeavour to elaborate on our adventures when I get the chance, but please check the photos!!!

Thank you again my Avid Listeners! Until next time!

PS. I hope you like the update Sam - we wish you and Colin the best of travels!

Sorry, this entry is only available in Polski.

We’ve had an amazing time on our 2.5 days safari in the Ngorongoro and Serengeti. We managed to see the BIG FIVE in 24 hours! The scenery added to the experience - the crater views are simply breathtaking. For animal viewing one didn’t even need to have binoculars or a big zoom lense. We saw lions when they crossed our path! I never thought we were going to have our wild animals encounter this close. AMAZING! We absolutely loved it.

If you have a spare moment visit this site: http://www.serengeti.org/

We hope to add some of our photos soon.

Today we’re in Nakuru NP and have already seen 20 rhinos, a lioness, water buffalo, zebras, giraffes and millions (I think!) of pink flamingos! Tomorrow we’re off to Uganda and then Rwanda. Then the long-awaited Gorilla trekking!

Malawi and its beautiful lake will definitely be well remembered! Yesterday we went horse riding and the adventure was nicely finished off with a swim in the lake. The swim was a little extraordinary since we went swimming with the horses! All this while we’re on the horses’ backs (no saddle). A fantastic experience!

We’re trying to catch up with some overdue updates to this blog.  With current internet access it’s not very easy. However we will if we can.

On Friday we’ll be catching a ferry to Zanzibar and we’re planning on staying on the island for 3 nights. Until next entry. Xoxoxoxo

Sorry, this entry is only available in Polski.

Sorry, this entry is only available in Polski.

Sorry, this entry is only available in Polski.

Last we left you, we were in Windhoek. While we were there we acquired information regarding Ania’s Visa application for Malawi. Instead of obtaining it in CapeTown like we’d hoped, we had to leave the Truck & journey to Johannesburg. We caught an overnight bus lasting 26 hours from Windhoek to Jo’Burg. Once there we stayed at the ‘Backpackers Ritz’ which is in a lovely part of the city. We had been told to keep our eyes & ears peeled while in Jo’Burg, as the city can often present challenging issues for the unwary traveller. Our first impressions of this city were very positive. We spent most of our time trying to source a way to obtain Ania’s Visa quickly, however the Malawian Embassy was proving hard to track down. First the address we had was incorrect, then they had a country holiday meaning the Embassy wasn’t open. This was going to set us back a few days considering the application process was reported to be at least 10 working days & we had arrived on the start of a weekend! Since there wasn’t much we could do, we decided to enjoy some of the things Jo’Burg had to offer. A SOWETO township tour was the first experience we embarked upon, and what an adventure that was too! Our guide was a very enthusiastic guy called Max. He had been born & breed within the township, and the stories he had to tell! SOWETO is larger than we thought, and has greatly improved since the days of apartheid. Most people now own their homes, the streets are all paved, and the area now has modern shopping malls not to mention 2 of the stadiums to be used in the 2010 Football World Cup! We were taken to Mandela’s old house which is on Vilakazi Street, just up the road from Desmond Tutu’s place. This is the only street in the world in which 2 Nobel Peace Prize winners have lived! We also visited the Hector Pietersen museum, which is an exhibition reviewing the years of apartheid, but also that tragic day in July 1977, when what was meant to be a peaceful protest turned into a violent street riot. We finished the tour with a beer or two in a local bar - which is actually someone’s private garage turned into a pool table room serving beers! Our next foray was something of the nature kind, we were off to Lion Park! This was a nifty little morning trip, where we were able to encounter for the first time these Big Cats, not to mention Zebras, Giraffes, Ostriches, Impala, Cheetahs & Hyenas! We we

re also allowed into a small enclosure where we could play with 3-4 month old lion cubs! Needless to say many photos were taken!!! We spent the remainder of our weekend in between shopping malls, & watching movies. This wasn’t due to the fact that we lacked desire to discover more, but because, for the first time on the trip, both of us were suffering a major stomach bug! We would only eventually recover from this just before we entered CapeTown. The start of the week brought renewed hope re: Ania’s Visa. Upon spending an hour or so at the Malawian Embassy, we were informed that Ania’s application would be processed in 24 hours, which was Fantastic. This enabled us to leave Jo’Burg the following evening via another coach, and catch up with our truck in Jeffreys Bay, just before the Garden Route!

We’re currently in Windhoek, Namibia relaxing after a few long days on the road! We arrived a coupla days ago to sighs of contentment as many of us felt we had returned to home comforts. Infact Namibia is often referred to, by West African travellers, as ‘The Promised Land‘! And in some ways it is. There’s all the trappings of home we recognise - Shopping Malls, Paved Sidewalks, KFC, not to mention other comforts. We must admit, it’s not that we have long desired all these reminders of home, however it is a nice surprise sometimes to indulge in that which you know!

Well, where do we start with the continuing saga…

We last left you in Brazzaville, Congo where we were preparing for 1 week of continuous travel - or so we thought at the time. Brazzaville was a treat, as we never expected to visit this city! You marvel at this city, which has experienced much trauma over the last few years, evident in the bullet holes in buildings. It is trying very hard to re-invent itself, and is doing a good job, however it will take time. The people of the city were astounded to see us in many ways, as Brazza is no longer a favoured destination???!!! We were welcomed mostly with generous smiles & energetic greetings whenever we engaged in conversation. The street markets were an eclectic array of various stalls selling anything you want, providing you negotiate! As with many African markets a assault of the senses with noise, sights & the invariable smells!!! I don’t believe I can do Brazzaville justice with description, other than to say we would love to return here again someday!

We left Brazza via spending about half a day at the port which links it to Kinshasa. Now hears a wee fact for you, Brazza & Kinshasa are the closest capital cities in the World, they are literally about 3kms from each other. For us Kinshasa was a FANTASTIC surprise. We had only hoped to visit this Amazing City, and at last we had the opportunity! However, as you may appreciate this city is reknowned for the unexpected, and we were treated with exactly that. We were required as part of our entry into the DRC to say where we were staying, and as there are no recognised ’safe’ places to camp in Kinshasa, we had contacted a local gentleman to help us. He was unable to offer us a similar arrangement that we had in Abuja, Nigeria (re: our Sheraton experience), but him and his wife allowed us to park up inside there home compound. And what a compound it was to! They allowed us the use of a one bedroom flat they had at the back of their compound, which had a small kitchen, power shower, and cable TV!!! We all indulged ourselves with a small treat of comfort before the roads of Angola! We cooked a meal in a kitchen, watched a movie on TV, & had a soothing shower with warm/hot water, not to mention cold milk for breakfast!!! In the morning we departed early for Matadi, & the border of Angola! And as described earlier, this city left us with an unexpected memory, it looked absolutely stunning spread over its many hills, with the mighty Congo river gliding past in the early morning sun!

Matadi was our jumping point into Angola, and it was a day that started for most of us with a few nerves. We had spent the night at a convent in the city, having also marvelled at its markets & again admired the powerful but unassuming Congo. We spent a few hours on the DRC side of the border, only to cross with limited hassle to Angola. There we were subjected to awaiting for the relevant officials to arrive and sign the appropriate documents. By early afternoon we were on our way with 5 days to cross the 1900kms of Angola! And how interesting a task that proved to be. By the end of the 3rd day we had only covered about a third of the distance due to road conditions. Time was not on our side! The roads started to improve, & we thought our luck had turned only to be consistently snatched away, as conditions kept changing. We were unlucky with our time, as we arrived at the border 2 days late. But the country is remarkably beautiful! The vistas around the central plateau were some of the best views we’ve seen all trip! The people were genuinely glad to see us travelling through their country, and as for the excitement of the children - their smiles & laughter is something we’ll never forget. Despite our late arrival at the border, we were eventually excused from the fine we expected to pay - another example of African generosity!

We have only been in Namibia for a short time, but this country is already proving to be something special. We are only visiting briefly before heading off to South Africa. We are due to come back on our return leg back up the continent, so we well indulge in explaning more about this expansive and awe inspiring country in a few weeks!

Until then our Avid Adventure Listeners, we bid you farewell, as we are off discover many more African Experiences!!!