Safari – Olgelvy & Maasi Village – Sunday 29 April
It was a bloody early start today. We had to be in the truck by 7am – I think we were all sorted by maybe 7:10am – that includes packing the tents up and eating breakfast. No wonder we’re all so early to bed!
Today we drove along the ‘Best Road in Africa’. It was built by the Japanese. I’m not sure why they built it but we were thankful. Its smooth, wide, no pop holes. Lovely. It was a bit of a winding road… wasn’t sure how I’d go on the bus but it wasn’t too bad.
We stopped for lunch at Olgelvy Gorge. This was where they found some special fossils. Can’t for the life of me remember why the fossils were important. I’m sure we were told, but just can’t remember.
Next stop was at a proper Maasi Village.
On the way there Alex gave us a little run down, explained about the money we’d pay (USD20 each) and how the village would use it to pay for malaria treatment and other things they couldn’t grow or make themselves. Everyone had been teasing me about being the mother hen so I wanted to let someone else take the lead this time. So I started collecting the money from the back of the bus then gave it to Hugo. Fiona was teasing us saying it was too much responsibility for Hugo and we all laughed but when he went to give the money over he buggered it up! It was a bit confusing because some of the money was in US dollars and some in Tanzania shillings so the adding together wasn’t completely straight forward.
Once we got all that sorted it was time for the Maasi Welcome dance – this was mostly the guys jumping along the path in some sort of undulating dance. It was weird, not specifically good or bad, just not based on gracefulness, more about rhythm and beat.
After the dance we went inside the village. The walls of the village are only chest high as were all the buildings. Part of it is they aren’t permanent structures, the entire village moves but I’m not sure how often. I think it relates to having suitable grazing around for the animals etc.
One of the village elders (he’s probably only 35!) a guy called Loco took us on a tour of the village. The men and women danced for us – in separate groups. The men did a kind of jumping dance that Matt and Alex had a go at it and the women did a kind of undulating dance thing. All of us girls, with the exception of Fiona of course, had a go at the women’s dance. It was funny.
After this Loco took us to show us inside a Maasi hut. They are SOOOOOO small, and they bring the animals in at night in the winter time. They live in each others pockets.
After the tour we wandered around and bought jewellery. It was a bit of a hard sell at times which was a bit annoying and it was much more expensive than some of the other places we’d been at, but at least this way the money goes direct to the village. Although we were a bit sceptical that Loco might take it all and leave the makers with nothing… but because they all live so dependent on each other I guess it might be all for the good of the tribe.
The best bit of the Maasi village visit was when Aidan reminded me about the pencils and paper that we’d brought with us. I ran back to the truck and grabbed it and we gave it to the kids. We’d been wondering where all the kids were and it turns out they were in school! There’s a little hut out the back of the village and all the kids were in the hut learning the alphabet. I gave the pencils and paper to the teacher and she shared them out amongst the children. Only Aidan, Colin and I had brought stuff and the boys had each brought 5 packs of coloured pencils each and I’d brought half a dozen notepads so they had pencils and paper to write on. We didn’t get very good pics of it, but it was quite cute.
From here we drove to our campsite in the Serengeti. On the way to the campsite we saw buffalo, zebra and wildebeest. At one point when we were driving down the road Hungry Man stopped the truck because there was a cheetah beside the road. We got loads of photos and the cheetah even posed on a rock for us.
We were even lucky enough to see a lion and two lionesses on a rock. They’d just had a feed and were relaxing in the sun. We got some awesome photos – even one with a big bit of drool hanging off from the lion’s jaws. It looked like Pride Rock – very majestic :)
It’s weird when we see an animal we all take loads of photos and everyone wants to make sure they get a good shot, but I think everyone takes an extra dozen shots just in case they’re missing something while everyone else is still taking pictures.
Not too long after we’d seen the lions we were driving through the rolling savannah of the Serengeti on the way to the camp site. In the distance we could see clouds and rain falling in sheets but it was still clear for us. All of a sudden the truck stopped. We were all looking out the windows to see which animal we were stopping for when Alex looked out the window and saw Hungry Man get out of the truck. Turns out we had a flat tyre!
Hungry Man, Alex and Solo got out of the truck to change the tyre. Alex said it happens all the time because the roads are so bad. We all stayed in the truck – we’d only left the lions about 15 minutes before, we weren’t that far from the carnivorous locals! While they changed the tyre it started to rain. We were sitting in the truck eating biscuits (we had a 3kg box of marie biscuits that we were steadily making out way through). We were laughing, taking photos of the rain coming in and generally entertaining ourselves while they got us back on the road.
We got to the campsite about 5pm. The sun was just setting and we quickly set up our tents and got organized. Alex had already warned us that we shouldn’t leave our tents of a night. He said if it was a ‘short call’ we should just go behind the tent, otherwise just be real quick. As a consequence I don’t think any of us even had a drink of water after about 4pm!
This was the only time we were staying more than one night in the same place so we set up our tents and sat around the fire enjoying the evening air. It was a little cool, but not really cold. We’d been so lucky with the weather. We think it might have drizzled during the night at Mtowambu (mossie river) or at least really heavy dew, but it wasn’t enough to make the tents yucky.
Again we had a fabulous dinner – I can’t believe how good the foods been. Solo’s fantastic. We keep talking about taking him with us. He’s got this massive box of herbs and spices – everything he makes is so tasty. He’s made vegetable soups every night – each night a different a different vegetable, but it’s always a smooth soup (and he’s go no blender to puree it!)
Tomorrow morning Heidi’s going on a balloon ride over the Serengeti. Aidan was tempted but at USD$400 and that seemed an awful lot to spend… She’s so excited. We’ll go on a game drive and meet her at lunch time at the Lodge. She has to be up about 4:30am and we’ve all got to be up about 6am for our early morning game drive.
We were sitting around the fire in the little camp chairs and generally just chatting and someone said – oh wish we had marshmallows. Just as they said that Alex walks over with a bag of marshmallows and two sticks that he’s making points on the end of so we can roast them. It was great.
We were chatting generally and someone asked Alex a question. I forget what started it but then he started telling us about his life a little bit. He grew up in a Maasi village until he was 15 then his mum sent him and a couple of his older sisters to Nairobi to continue their schooling. He’s now studying wildlife management at a school like a TAFE. When he first went to Nairobi he only spoke Maasi and the school was in English and Swahili so before he could learn stuff he had to learn to communicate with the other student and the teacher. That must have been so daunting.
I think we started talking about playing ‘spotlight’ when we were kids, coz we were nearly all Aussies we were talking about using a torch to go looking for possums. Then Alex told us about two of the games he used to play when he was a boy. First there was a spear throwing game. One boy would stand with their legs apart and the other boys would throw spears at them making the spear stick into the ground between their feet! He said he’s got a scar on his leg from where someone’s aim was off!
His other game was elephant tag. This game required the boys to sneak upon an elephant in the dark and put your hand on its tail or bum and then wave back to your friends. It was to show how brave you were. But then boys being boys they would throw a pebble at the feet of the elephant so the next boy to go up to touch it would be walking up behind a wary elephant rather than an unprepared elephant. We were in hysterics. Our little games of spotlight and hi-akki seemed to pale in comparison!
Again we were tucked up in bed by about 9pm, tonight was the first time we’d needed our sleeping bags. The last few nights just the sleeping sheet has been enough. I love my new sleeping bag :)
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Safari – Meserani & Mtowambu – Saturday 28 April
We arrived a bit later than expected so instead of going through the snake park yesterday we did it today. It was a bit creepy – massive snakes, lots of them highly venomous or ready to crush you to death. Bit icky really. Fortunately they were behind really really thick glass. Still looked icky though.
One of the snake park employees, a snake park ranger maybe?, well he gave us a tour, explained to us about the different snakes, and then took us to look at the other animals. There were crocodiles (nile crocodiles I think) plus leopard tortoises and many other creatures – some much cuter than others.
Then he kindly offered to let us hold one of the snakes. I wasn’t too excited by this prospect! Anyways, the guy went to get the snake and I was standing there talking to someone waiting for him to come back. Aidan and Colin were about 3m further up the path than me and they saw the snake man coming up behind me. The thought it quite funny when I jumped 3 feet in the air when I realised the snake was all of 3cm from my arm! I quickly scurried down the path so I was behind Aidan etc.
Matt held the snake straight away – not a care in the world. Then Heidi held it and Hugo. I decided if they could hold the snake and not freak out then I could too. So I walked to the front and Hugo handed the snake to me. I was a bit concerned to start with – gross idea holding a snake, but it wasn’t slimy at all. Felt like rubber, not hot, not cold, not slimy. Not at all as you’d expect them to be. So I’ve held a live snake – even if it was just a tree snake. I think nearly everyone had a go in the end... it was only a little snake, maybe a metre long and about as fat as a 20c piece.
The tour all done we piled back into the truck and drove to Lake Manyara at Mtowambu. Here we stayed at a proper camp site with showers etc. We could have upgraded to a cabin for USD$30, but we thought everyone was going to stay camping so we stayed camping. In the end Aubrey and Dee upgraded and so did Fiona & Hugo. Showering and going to the loo on crutches is challenging enough but camp sight showers really don’t lend themselves to people with physical issues :)
It wasn’t until after we’d set up the tents that Alex advised us that Mtowambu basically means mosquito river!! So we all dosed up heavily with Rid and made sure we had long clothes on so we didn’t get too eaten alive.
Once we’d got the tents set up we decided to brave the stalls outside the camp site. It was a trade off really – were we interested enough in the prospect of souvenirs to put up with the harassment? We decided to give it a go. We were only about 500m from the campsite gate so we could always turn back. We wandered round looking at all the stuff. There was lots of nice stuff but as we were only at the beginning of the trip we were all a bit concerned about stuff not surviving the journey so no one really bought anything.
There wasn’t much to do between our shopping excursion and the game drive we were going on so we went to the bar in the camp site. It was really funny – we were sitting there having a drink and chatting and then two employees came and sat on the couch near the TV and turned it on. Then they turned the volume right up. We got a bit louder so we could hear each other and they cranked the volume some more to drown us out. It was extra funny because they were watching some sort of soapie – it was so incredibly pathetic – the storyline (and that’s being generous) was worse than anything Days of Our Lives could dream up, but add to that it was really badly dubbed. We think it might have been Spanish or something originally but dubbed in English it was very hillarious.
Anyways, next we went on a game drive through the Mtowambu game park.
It was so cool. This was our first real look at the wild animals. We drove into the game park and had to go quite a ways before we saw any animals but then we got to a little lake and there were Hippos. We were a little way from the edge of the water but I think that’s because the road is set so when it’s been raining you’re not driving through the water! We got some awesome photos though. My camera is tops. I went to full 10x zoom and managed to get a picture with the Hippo out of the water and its mouth wide open. Looks so cool.
Then Hungry Man drove us to a viewing area. It was kinda on top of a big hill so you could see all across the game range. We took some nice pictures from there and then we got Alex to take one of us all together. We wanted one with Alex in it too but both Solo and Hungry Man had wandered off so we just got one of the rest of us.
On the drive out of the game range we saw an elephant. It was only about a meter away from the truck, but he kept hiding behind the bushes and pointing his bum at us. We got a couple of good pics, but not too many.
When we got back to the campsite we had another fantastic meal. I can’t believe how good the food it. We were all saying that we were expecting a sausage in a bun and instead we’re getting two course masterpieces! I guess the further we get from civilization the less fancy the meals will get.
After dinner we all re-dosed ourselves with Rid and went to the bar to play cards. Last night at the snake park we’d gone to bed pretty early but Colin had stayed up and introduced himself to another tour group and they taught him to play a card game called asshole. So tonight we got my cards and Hugo’s and Colin taught us how to play. It was really funny. The whole 11 of us played and we played until they kicked us out of the pub at 10:30pm. The basic premise is that you try to get rid of all your cards as soon as possible. The last player left with cards is called the asshole. The cards get dealt out so everyone has the same number of card. Then the person to the left of the dealer for the first round puts down a card or a pair of cards and the person to the left of them either puts down a higher card, or passes. This goes round and round until someone is out of cards. The first person out of cards is the President, the second is Vice President then the second last is the vice bum and the person left holding the last cards is the bum. The next round the bum has to give the president their two best cards and the president gives the bum the two worst cards they have. The vice’s exchange one card. After the first round the bum always leads – which is lucky coz it’s the only chance you’ve got to not always end up as the bum!
It was so funny – Dee would always say Bum not Asshole and everyone kept saying there was sibling collusion coz Aidan and I were sitting next to each other. But then Aidan was the first Asshole. It was very funny. A great game coz everyone got into it. But I think it was better because there were so many of us no one got stuck as the asshole round after round so no one got sick of the game. We must have played for over 2 hours. It was great fun.
We arrived a bit later than expected so instead of going through the snake park yesterday we did it today. It was a bit creepy – massive snakes, lots of them highly venomous or ready to crush you to death. Bit icky really. Fortunately they were behind really really thick glass. Still looked icky though.
One of the snake park employees, a snake park ranger maybe?, well he gave us a tour, explained to us about the different snakes, and then took us to look at the other animals. There were crocodiles (nile crocodiles I think) plus leopard tortoises and many other creatures – some much cuter than others.
Then he kindly offered to let us hold one of the snakes. I wasn’t too excited by this prospect! Anyways, the guy went to get the snake and I was standing there talking to someone waiting for him to come back. Aidan and Colin were about 3m further up the path than me and they saw the snake man coming up behind me. The thought it quite funny when I jumped 3 feet in the air when I realised the snake was all of 3cm from my arm! I quickly scurried down the path so I was behind Aidan etc.
Matt held the snake straight away – not a care in the world. Then Heidi held it and Hugo. I decided if they could hold the snake and not freak out then I could too. So I walked to the front and Hugo handed the snake to me. I was a bit concerned to start with – gross idea holding a snake, but it wasn’t slimy at all. Felt like rubber, not hot, not cold, not slimy. Not at all as you’d expect them to be. So I’ve held a live snake – even if it was just a tree snake. I think nearly everyone had a go in the end... it was only a little snake, maybe a metre long and about as fat as a 20c piece.
The tour all done we piled back into the truck and drove to Lake Manyara at Mtowambu. Here we stayed at a proper camp site with showers etc. We could have upgraded to a cabin for USD$30, but we thought everyone was going to stay camping so we stayed camping. In the end Aubrey and Dee upgraded and so did Fiona & Hugo. Showering and going to the loo on crutches is challenging enough but camp sight showers really don’t lend themselves to people with physical issues :)
It wasn’t until after we’d set up the tents that Alex advised us that Mtowambu basically means mosquito river!! So we all dosed up heavily with Rid and made sure we had long clothes on so we didn’t get too eaten alive.
Once we’d got the tents set up we decided to brave the stalls outside the camp site. It was a trade off really – were we interested enough in the prospect of souvenirs to put up with the harassment? We decided to give it a go. We were only about 500m from the campsite gate so we could always turn back. We wandered round looking at all the stuff. There was lots of nice stuff but as we were only at the beginning of the trip we were all a bit concerned about stuff not surviving the journey so no one really bought anything.
There wasn’t much to do between our shopping excursion and the game drive we were going on so we went to the bar in the camp site. It was really funny – we were sitting there having a drink and chatting and then two employees came and sat on the couch near the TV and turned it on. Then they turned the volume right up. We got a bit louder so we could hear each other and they cranked the volume some more to drown us out. It was extra funny because they were watching some sort of soapie – it was so incredibly pathetic – the storyline (and that’s being generous) was worse than anything Days of Our Lives could dream up, but add to that it was really badly dubbed. We think it might have been Spanish or something originally but dubbed in English it was very hillarious.
Anyways, next we went on a game drive through the Mtowambu game park.
It was so cool. This was our first real look at the wild animals. We drove into the game park and had to go quite a ways before we saw any animals but then we got to a little lake and there were Hippos. We were a little way from the edge of the water but I think that’s because the road is set so when it’s been raining you’re not driving through the water! We got some awesome photos though. My camera is tops. I went to full 10x zoom and managed to get a picture with the Hippo out of the water and its mouth wide open. Looks so cool.
Then Hungry Man drove us to a viewing area. It was kinda on top of a big hill so you could see all across the game range. We took some nice pictures from there and then we got Alex to take one of us all together. We wanted one with Alex in it too but both Solo and Hungry Man had wandered off so we just got one of the rest of us.
On the drive out of the game range we saw an elephant. It was only about a meter away from the truck, but he kept hiding behind the bushes and pointing his bum at us. We got a couple of good pics, but not too many.
When we got back to the campsite we had another fantastic meal. I can’t believe how good the food it. We were all saying that we were expecting a sausage in a bun and instead we’re getting two course masterpieces! I guess the further we get from civilization the less fancy the meals will get.
After dinner we all re-dosed ourselves with Rid and went to the bar to play cards. Last night at the snake park we’d gone to bed pretty early but Colin had stayed up and introduced himself to another tour group and they taught him to play a card game called asshole. So tonight we got my cards and Hugo’s and Colin taught us how to play. It was really funny. The whole 11 of us played and we played until they kicked us out of the pub at 10:30pm. The basic premise is that you try to get rid of all your cards as soon as possible. The last player left with cards is called the asshole. The cards get dealt out so everyone has the same number of card. Then the person to the left of the dealer for the first round puts down a card or a pair of cards and the person to the left of them either puts down a higher card, or passes. This goes round and round until someone is out of cards. The first person out of cards is the President, the second is Vice President then the second last is the vice bum and the person left holding the last cards is the bum. The next round the bum has to give the president their two best cards and the president gives the bum the two worst cards they have. The vice’s exchange one card. After the first round the bum always leads – which is lucky coz it’s the only chance you’ve got to not always end up as the bum!
It was so funny – Dee would always say Bum not Asshole and everyone kept saying there was sibling collusion coz Aidan and I were sitting next to each other. But then Aidan was the first Asshole. It was very funny. A great game coz everyone got into it. But I think it was better because there were so many of us no one got stuck as the asshole round after round so no one got sick of the game. We must have played for over 2 hours. It was great fun.
Safari – Drive to Arusha – Friday 27 April
This is the beginning of the trip I’ve been talking about for near on 10 years. At the tour briefing last night Alex told us what the trip was going to include, plus a few warning etc. One of the things he said was that girls should put their sports bras on because the road to Arusha is VERY bumpy.
Apparently it said in the trip notes that girls should bring sports bras. It wasn’t on the suggested packing list, but apparently it was mentioned in the trip notes. I hadn’t noticed it in what I read, but even still, the one sports bra I brought with me in Egypt was completely useless by now anyway.
After all of 8 minutes in the bus I understood why Alex had recommended the sports bra – I’ve never been bounced around so much in my life.
The ride was actually quite uneventful actually. We didn’t really know each other so there was just a bit of general getting to know you chatting. Heidi is an English tourist embarking on a six month world tour. Dee and Aubrey are Canadians and they’ve just spent a few weeks in Rwanda building a church with a missionary group. Matt's at the beginning of a world trip that’s basically a few weeks in Africa and then onto a job in Ireland. Felicity and Sarah are a couple of weeks into a 6 week tour around Africa. Fiona and Huge are nearly at the end of an 8 week trip. Unfortunately only a few weeks in, Fiona rolled her ankle getting out of the bus at Victoria Falls. They spent most of the time at Victoria Falls in the emergency room spending copious amounts of US dollars on dodgy x-rays that didn’t really tell them what happened. We’re pretty sure she’s broken a bone because it was over two weeks ago that she did it and she still can’t put any weight on it at all. She straps it every day and its straight so she figures even if its broken it’ll heal ok.
I don’t know – we’ve got one guy with no bags at all and a girl on crutches. I’m not sure I’d cope if either of those things happened to me. At least Fiona had Hugo to help her out, Matt’s on his own with nothing! Colin’s starting of on a 12 month tour and he’s going to South America so luckily he’s got loads of doxy anti-malaria pills so has enough to share with Matt.
It is only about 400km between Nairobi and Arusha, but because the road is ridiculously bumpy it takes about 7 hours to get there. About halfway there, just before the Tanzania boarder, we stopped for lunch. We pulled into a bit like a rest area but there was also a shop – a tourist trap.
Our tour included a cook called Solo (I think his full name was Solomon) and a driver called ‘Hungry Man’. Felicity thought Alex said Angry Man and Matt thought he said Handy Man it took us several days for us all to realise Alex was saying ‘Hungry Man’. His real name is Alfred, but he’s been called Hungry Man since forever. He’s been driving for tour companies for about 10 years and I think someone named him Hungry Man on one of his first tours and it stuck. He’s a huge guy over six-foot tall I think.
Lunch was quite nice. It was our first on tour meal so we weren’t really sure what to expect. Firstly Alex laid out three buckets of water and told us how to wash up for meals. I know it sounds basic, but I think it was this basic hygiene that stopped any of us getting sick. The first bucket had some dettol in the water and a dettol soap bar for us to wash our hands in. The second bucket was for rinsing the soap off and the third bucket was the clean rinse. Dishes were washed using the same system. Very good.
Solo set up a table and began cutting up tomato, lettuce etc ad we had sandwiches. We also had the nicest pineapple I’ve eaten in ages. The fruit here is great. I think it’s because they only eat what’s in season, so everything is ripe. They make the meals based on what’s available, so nothing is pale and tasteless like some of the hothouse grown stuff at home.
The boarder into Tanzania was crazy. First we had to line up in the scorching sun to get into the Kenya exit boarder control building. Basically we had to fill in a form and get an exit visa stamped into our passports. While we were filling through the building we noticed a swarm of traditional women standing around outside. As we walked out we noticed a yellow line painted on the road. As soon as we crossed the line they were all over us. Pushing their bracelets in our faces, trying to get us to buy stuff. We had to walk from that building to the Tanzania side of the boarder. About a km apart I guess. 500m of it was through some sort of no-mans land. While we were walking to the edge of no mans land one of the women actually put a bracelet on Colin’s arm. Just slapped it on like handcuffs. I turned around to check on the groups progress and saw the women put it on his arm and him pulling it off. He was trying to give it back to her and she wouldn’t take it. I just said – put it on the ground. He did and she picked it up. and by then we were onto them. We were careful to stay together as a pack, keep saying no and keep walking. We were conscious of Fiona so walked a bit more slowly so she could keep up.
Once we crossed into no-mans land we spread out more. I kept suggesting to Fiona that we give her a fireman’s lift – it was a long hot walk and on crutches it was even worse but she made it just fine.
It took a while to get the Tanzania visa’s sorted but Alex made sure we were all sorted and then we were back on the road. It took a few more hours and then we were safely in Arusha.
We stopped in Arusha for about 20 minutes so we could exchange money and buy some water etc from the supermarket. Aidan and I went to the ATM and got out hundreds of thousands of shillings out. Tanzania uses shillings like Kenya but in Tanzania its about 1000 to 1 so we got about 360,000 shillings out each. When we got off the bus we were set upon again by people trying to sell us crappy souvenirs.
Next stop was the Meserani Snake park. We arrived not too far before it got dark so we set up our tents and went to the bar for a beer. Our original plan was that Aidan and Colin would share and I’d either share with a stranger or be on my own. But last night when we were triple sharing Colin snored… apparently he snored and snored and snored. I was dead to the world. Asleep before my head hit the pillow, but Aidan was still awake when Colin started snoring and as a consequence didn’t sleep all night. To say he was a little tired was an understatement… that’s two night with bugger all sleep and lots of travel – none of this a happy brother makes.
Anyways, so we got the snake park and set up our tent, went to the bar and then had dinner. Everyone was fairly tired so we all turned in early. I think we were in bed by 9pm!
A busy day, lots of bumps but all in all quite a nice start to the trip.
This is the beginning of the trip I’ve been talking about for near on 10 years. At the tour briefing last night Alex told us what the trip was going to include, plus a few warning etc. One of the things he said was that girls should put their sports bras on because the road to Arusha is VERY bumpy.
Apparently it said in the trip notes that girls should bring sports bras. It wasn’t on the suggested packing list, but apparently it was mentioned in the trip notes. I hadn’t noticed it in what I read, but even still, the one sports bra I brought with me in Egypt was completely useless by now anyway.
After all of 8 minutes in the bus I understood why Alex had recommended the sports bra – I’ve never been bounced around so much in my life.
The ride was actually quite uneventful actually. We didn’t really know each other so there was just a bit of general getting to know you chatting. Heidi is an English tourist embarking on a six month world tour. Dee and Aubrey are Canadians and they’ve just spent a few weeks in Rwanda building a church with a missionary group. Matt's at the beginning of a world trip that’s basically a few weeks in Africa and then onto a job in Ireland. Felicity and Sarah are a couple of weeks into a 6 week tour around Africa. Fiona and Huge are nearly at the end of an 8 week trip. Unfortunately only a few weeks in, Fiona rolled her ankle getting out of the bus at Victoria Falls. They spent most of the time at Victoria Falls in the emergency room spending copious amounts of US dollars on dodgy x-rays that didn’t really tell them what happened. We’re pretty sure she’s broken a bone because it was over two weeks ago that she did it and she still can’t put any weight on it at all. She straps it every day and its straight so she figures even if its broken it’ll heal ok.
I don’t know – we’ve got one guy with no bags at all and a girl on crutches. I’m not sure I’d cope if either of those things happened to me. At least Fiona had Hugo to help her out, Matt’s on his own with nothing! Colin’s starting of on a 12 month tour and he’s going to South America so luckily he’s got loads of doxy anti-malaria pills so has enough to share with Matt.
It is only about 400km between Nairobi and Arusha, but because the road is ridiculously bumpy it takes about 7 hours to get there. About halfway there, just before the Tanzania boarder, we stopped for lunch. We pulled into a bit like a rest area but there was also a shop – a tourist trap.
Our tour included a cook called Solo (I think his full name was Solomon) and a driver called ‘Hungry Man’. Felicity thought Alex said Angry Man and Matt thought he said Handy Man it took us several days for us all to realise Alex was saying ‘Hungry Man’. His real name is Alfred, but he’s been called Hungry Man since forever. He’s been driving for tour companies for about 10 years and I think someone named him Hungry Man on one of his first tours and it stuck. He’s a huge guy over six-foot tall I think.
Lunch was quite nice. It was our first on tour meal so we weren’t really sure what to expect. Firstly Alex laid out three buckets of water and told us how to wash up for meals. I know it sounds basic, but I think it was this basic hygiene that stopped any of us getting sick. The first bucket had some dettol in the water and a dettol soap bar for us to wash our hands in. The second bucket was for rinsing the soap off and the third bucket was the clean rinse. Dishes were washed using the same system. Very good.
Solo set up a table and began cutting up tomato, lettuce etc ad we had sandwiches. We also had the nicest pineapple I’ve eaten in ages. The fruit here is great. I think it’s because they only eat what’s in season, so everything is ripe. They make the meals based on what’s available, so nothing is pale and tasteless like some of the hothouse grown stuff at home.
The boarder into Tanzania was crazy. First we had to line up in the scorching sun to get into the Kenya exit boarder control building. Basically we had to fill in a form and get an exit visa stamped into our passports. While we were filling through the building we noticed a swarm of traditional women standing around outside. As we walked out we noticed a yellow line painted on the road. As soon as we crossed the line they were all over us. Pushing their bracelets in our faces, trying to get us to buy stuff. We had to walk from that building to the Tanzania side of the boarder. About a km apart I guess. 500m of it was through some sort of no-mans land. While we were walking to the edge of no mans land one of the women actually put a bracelet on Colin’s arm. Just slapped it on like handcuffs. I turned around to check on the groups progress and saw the women put it on his arm and him pulling it off. He was trying to give it back to her and she wouldn’t take it. I just said – put it on the ground. He did and she picked it up. and by then we were onto them. We were careful to stay together as a pack, keep saying no and keep walking. We were conscious of Fiona so walked a bit more slowly so she could keep up.
Once we crossed into no-mans land we spread out more. I kept suggesting to Fiona that we give her a fireman’s lift – it was a long hot walk and on crutches it was even worse but she made it just fine.
It took a while to get the Tanzania visa’s sorted but Alex made sure we were all sorted and then we were back on the road. It took a few more hours and then we were safely in Arusha.
We stopped in Arusha for about 20 minutes so we could exchange money and buy some water etc from the supermarket. Aidan and I went to the ATM and got out hundreds of thousands of shillings out. Tanzania uses shillings like Kenya but in Tanzania its about 1000 to 1 so we got about 360,000 shillings out each. When we got off the bus we were set upon again by people trying to sell us crappy souvenirs.
Next stop was the Meserani Snake park. We arrived not too far before it got dark so we set up our tents and went to the bar for a beer. Our original plan was that Aidan and Colin would share and I’d either share with a stranger or be on my own. But last night when we were triple sharing Colin snored… apparently he snored and snored and snored. I was dead to the world. Asleep before my head hit the pillow, but Aidan was still awake when Colin started snoring and as a consequence didn’t sleep all night. To say he was a little tired was an understatement… that’s two night with bugger all sleep and lots of travel – none of this a happy brother makes.
Anyways, so we got the snake park and set up our tent, went to the bar and then had dinner. Everyone was fairly tired so we all turned in early. I think we were in bed by 9pm!
A busy day, lots of bumps but all in all quite a nice start to the trip.
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