Pictures are now on Picasa - if you click on the slideshow and go to my user profile you can see all of them.
The Masai Mara trip was really cool, saw some more lions and cheetahs, not a leopard though, which was what i was hoping most. But it's a nice place, and the accomodation was a mile better than ordinary tents! it was tents with solid beds in them! Pretty lush, for me.
We also saw traditional dances performed by the masai and went into a village - it was really interesting!
But all in all, i'm ready for a break, because being clean is the best thing ever at the moment.
On tuesday i'm off to London for graduation, and will be heading off to Oz on the 29th.
Till then!
Friday 17 October 2008
Saturday 11 October 2008
Tanzania
We have now reached Nairobi and said goodbye to the driver and cook of the trip, as they will most likely not be joining for the last few days.
Tanzania was pretty cool; a very big change from Malawi in that quite a few parts are high up so despite the heat there's a very cool breeze. And it's so weird to see evergreen trees next to palm trees!
But the peolpe are so friendlY! They would come up and talk to you saying 'jambo' (hello) and when they say mambo (hows things) and you're able to say 'poa' (cool) back they love you!
The first place we stayed at was slightly chilly but had steamy hot showers and was famous for its amarula hot chocolates. Personally, i wasn't the biggest fan but others liked it! Then we moved on to dar, which possibly has the worst traffic in the world! It took us 3 hours to get out of it one day. It's pretty smelly and very busy, but i didn't have any time to really explore it, which is a shame.
The next day we went to Zanzibar! Which was AWESOME! i'd highly recommend it to anyone. It's a small island but so fun! Stone Town is the capital, and its really safe just walking around the streets. I went to the food market, which was pretty insane, and there's this alley that at night becomes this food alley where they sell all sorts of meats, this nice cane juice and 'zanzibar pancakes' which are basically fried dough with mince in them of banana and chocolate. And so cheap! The panckes are good, and i had soem shark too which was intersting but not my favorite...
We then went up north to this place called nungwi for some beach action and i finally went diving!! It wasn't cheap, but it was so cool! We went on this dhow, which is a traditional fishing boat, and saw lots of pretty fish. You also get some sharks there and turtles and octopi and even humpback whales but we didn't see any of them. We did see dolphins though... one of the highlights of the trip!
After that we had the longest drive to Arusha in the north, where we departed for the Ngorongoro/Serengeti. It was a 3-day trip and so cooL! I really want to watch the lion king now. We saw lots of buffaloes and hyenas and wildebeest and quitre a few lions including the CUTEST little lion (simba in swahili) cubs that were like 2 weeks old, as well as some cheetah cubs and 2 male cheetahs (called duma in swahili) hunting. No jaguars (chewi in swahili) which was shame. But the lions cubs were SO cute!!
And that was basically the end of teh trip. Tomorrow we depart on a 3-ady masai mara trip and that will be africa for me! Exciting!
Nairobi is really built up, quite nice, but there's not a whole lot to do here...
At least i filled up time writing this!
Tanzania was pretty cool; a very big change from Malawi in that quite a few parts are high up so despite the heat there's a very cool breeze. And it's so weird to see evergreen trees next to palm trees!
But the peolpe are so friendlY! They would come up and talk to you saying 'jambo' (hello) and when they say mambo (hows things) and you're able to say 'poa' (cool) back they love you!
The first place we stayed at was slightly chilly but had steamy hot showers and was famous for its amarula hot chocolates. Personally, i wasn't the biggest fan but others liked it! Then we moved on to dar, which possibly has the worst traffic in the world! It took us 3 hours to get out of it one day. It's pretty smelly and very busy, but i didn't have any time to really explore it, which is a shame.
The next day we went to Zanzibar! Which was AWESOME! i'd highly recommend it to anyone. It's a small island but so fun! Stone Town is the capital, and its really safe just walking around the streets. I went to the food market, which was pretty insane, and there's this alley that at night becomes this food alley where they sell all sorts of meats, this nice cane juice and 'zanzibar pancakes' which are basically fried dough with mince in them of banana and chocolate. And so cheap! The panckes are good, and i had soem shark too which was intersting but not my favorite...
We then went up north to this place called nungwi for some beach action and i finally went diving!! It wasn't cheap, but it was so cool! We went on this dhow, which is a traditional fishing boat, and saw lots of pretty fish. You also get some sharks there and turtles and octopi and even humpback whales but we didn't see any of them. We did see dolphins though... one of the highlights of the trip!
After that we had the longest drive to Arusha in the north, where we departed for the Ngorongoro/Serengeti. It was a 3-day trip and so cooL! I really want to watch the lion king now. We saw lots of buffaloes and hyenas and wildebeest and quitre a few lions including the CUTEST little lion (simba in swahili) cubs that were like 2 weeks old, as well as some cheetah cubs and 2 male cheetahs (called duma in swahili) hunting. No jaguars (chewi in swahili) which was shame. But the lions cubs were SO cute!!
And that was basically the end of teh trip. Tomorrow we depart on a 3-ady masai mara trip and that will be africa for me! Exciting!
Nairobi is really built up, quite nice, but there's not a whole lot to do here...
At least i filled up time writing this!
Thursday 2 October 2008
Zambia and Malawi
Sorry for being MIA the past 2 weeks.
Basically the white water rafting was one ofthe best days ofthe trip so far. We had a boat with 6 people, and went down some awesome level5 rapids.We onlyfell oiff once. Our guide was the best, and he let us swim where it was safe and even down a level 2 one we drifted down.It's hard to describe but basically - awesome! If anyone isin zimbabwe and wants toraftdownthe zambezi - let me know!
The bungee jump was pretty amazing too. It was onlya 110m drop but a friend video-ed it for me and it will be put up when i get back.
So then we got the new people who are all really nice, and we went into Zambia.I can't say i'vegotten to know zambia well at all, because all we really did was drive through it, which is a bit of a shame.
Then Malawi. The transition from Southern Africa into Eastern Africa wasreally noticeable i found, because the roads were very well done compared to before,and mainlythat everyone had brick houses!They make their own bricks from the soil so even the poorer people have sturdy houses. And it was also very green!
I was possibly going to dive in lake malawi but we didn't haven enough time. I saw in it anyway (and bought thepraziquantel) and it's gorgeous!! We stayed at 3 different camp sites along the lake and every place was beautiful (Senga bay, chintechete and chitimba). The last day at the last place was torture though because we decidedto do the optional excursion to do a hike up a mountain. We were told it would be 4 hours, and we wanted to get outofthe heat (you sweat there by 8.30am) sowe left at 4 inthe morning.
We got back to camp at noon!!! This waslike 4 days ago and my shins still hurt. Probably the 2nd worst 8 hours of my life and there'sno sense of achievement. The interesting thing was that at the top though there'sthis viollage called livingstonia and it has some clear remnants of colonialism in the houses as well as strangel;y enough having a university and a technical college!
Oh well,we're in tanzania now, the air is so much colder here than malawi and strangely enough there's pine trees nexttopalm trees!! Zanzibar (where i am now)is so humid, it's unbelievable.
Basically the white water rafting was one ofthe best days ofthe trip so far. We had a boat with 6 people, and went down some awesome level5 rapids.We onlyfell oiff once. Our guide was the best, and he let us swim where it was safe and even down a level 2 one we drifted down.It's hard to describe but basically - awesome! If anyone isin zimbabwe and wants toraftdownthe zambezi - let me know!
The bungee jump was pretty amazing too. It was onlya 110m drop but a friend video-ed it for me and it will be put up when i get back.
So then we got the new people who are all really nice, and we went into Zambia.I can't say i'vegotten to know zambia well at all, because all we really did was drive through it, which is a bit of a shame.
Then Malawi. The transition from Southern Africa into Eastern Africa wasreally noticeable i found, because the roads were very well done compared to before,and mainlythat everyone had brick houses!They make their own bricks from the soil so even the poorer people have sturdy houses. And it was also very green!
I was possibly going to dive in lake malawi but we didn't haven enough time. I saw in it anyway (and bought thepraziquantel) and it's gorgeous!! We stayed at 3 different camp sites along the lake and every place was beautiful (Senga bay, chintechete and chitimba). The last day at the last place was torture though because we decidedto do the optional excursion to do a hike up a mountain. We were told it would be 4 hours, and we wanted to get outofthe heat (you sweat there by 8.30am) sowe left at 4 inthe morning.
We got back to camp at noon!!! This waslike 4 days ago and my shins still hurt. Probably the 2nd worst 8 hours of my life and there'sno sense of achievement. The interesting thing was that at the top though there'sthis viollage called livingstonia and it has some clear remnants of colonialism in the houses as well as strangel;y enough having a university and a technical college!
Oh well,we're in tanzania now, the air is so much colder here than malawi and strangely enough there's pine trees nexttopalm trees!! Zanzibar (where i am now)is so humid, it's unbelievable.
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