Zanzibar Island 5-9 July 08

From Dar es Salam we headed by ferry to Zanzibar Island which is about a two hour trip off the coast. Zanzibar is a relatively small island and it took us about an hour from the Old Town of Zanzibar to get to the north eastern tip of the Island – a place called Nungwe. We thought it would be more build up but it was still very basic and primitive with dirt roads, mud brick huts and the most wonderful white sand beaches.




There weren’t many cars and bulls were used to transport most things around. We nearly got run down by a wee boy with a bull and cart flying round a corner at a bull gallop.





We had heard that Nungwe was a real party place and really expecting some awfully out of place bars but there was really only one and its probably the best bar we’d ever been in



and definitely had the best view out of any of the bars I’ve been in (even beats Tower 42 in London)



We were in Nungwe for three nights and days were spent swimming, exploring the village, watching the locals fishing at low tide. The colours they wore just looked stunning against the blue blue water and sparkling white sand and it was lovely to be able to sit and watch.



The fishing seemed to be done mainly by women and children, all fully dressed. The girls all wore headdress and long dresses or sarongs that flapped around them when they ran and they seemed to be having a lot of fun!





They used all sorts of things to catch and collect fish, octopus, sea slugs, shrimps etc. Pots, pans, sarongs, nets, spears were all used successfully – very clever fishing tactics and some of them came back laden.



There were Maasai that stalked the beach and you just couldn’t miss them with their long long legs, striking coloured clothing and the beads that adorned their ankles, wrists and necks.



The fishermen used the low tide to do maintenance on many of the boats and this chap was waterproofing his. We were walking to a turtle sanctuary in a natural lagoon and a local had walked with us for a while trying to sell us stuff then asked if he could stay with us for the rest of the way “for conversation”.



The turtle sanctuary was in a natural lagoon and there were 15 adult greenback turtles there. If nests are found in the area, they were staked out and as soon as the eggs hatched the young turtles were brought to the sanctuary where they stay until 11 months old. Some are kept in the sanctuary and others are released back into the sea. It’s a good scheme and you can get into the water with the adult turtles and swim with them. They’re so so soft around the neck and under their legs. If you hold onto their shells they don’t go far at all – very easily caught.

It was so warm on Zanzibar and the water was so beautiful and clear that we spend a lot of time in and around the it.



On our last night we headed down to the Zanzibar Old Stone Town which definitely has flavours of Middle East but completely lacks character and we were constantly harangued by seemingly well-meaning druggies. The markets were brilliant and far more in your face than any others I’ve encountered (even the hard-core Otara market in Auckland, NZ, where I worked for years in the weekends while I was at school) but the produce was well worth buying. The spices were out of this world and were so cheap (we’ve since tasted them in cooking and the difference is incredible – so much flavour).

The fish market was winding down for the day but locals were still chopping up fish





The cows had already had their turn



and I’ve never seen such huge bananas in my life!



That night we ate in a local seafood market which was another experience like no other. Basically it was just trestles and trestles of seafood in all shapes and forms. You name it, they had kebabs of it. All of it was cooked on mini coal grills that were on the corner of each table.



Some of the chefs were dressed up but most were just regular guys that did this every night.





Earlier on in Nungwe, we’d seen a local lady bashing the s**t out of something in the sand with a bit of 4x4. I went to investigate and it turned out she was bashing the hell out of about 5-6 octopus and was really giving it some. I presume that this is to tenderise them and all the octopus that we’d eaten had been super fresh and tender as. This octopus was fresh but was as chewy as a tyre.



The deal was, you just rocked up, browsed the tables, chose bits and pieces from whatever tables you fancied then it all got piled onto a paper plate and you stood round eating the fish or whatever with a toothpick. YUM. I’d eat there every night if I could and while I didn’t enjoy the Stone Town that much, the seafood market rocked and you could eat enough to fill you up for about £1.



The ferry back was rough and there were quite a few people throwing up - I had to get up top as I was also feeling queasy but once I was perched on the bow hanging my legs over the edge with spray hitting me I was in my element. Getting up there was a different story though as it was really windy and my skirt when wooshka up over my top and I couldn’t get it down, then the boat went over a big wave and down I went. All in front of a decent sized audience. I was so embarrassed. Worse still was a poor girl in our group who was throwing up into a plastic bag not realising the bag had a hole in it and that it was coming straight out the bottom.... down her top and into her lap. She was green by the end of it poor thing.

The night was spent at the mozzie infested campsite we’d been at four nights before. Honestly, even in the shower they were trying to get at you!

Arusha to Dar es Salam, Tanzania 2-5 July 08

The pace on the truck has, thus far, been quite relaxed although there will be times when we have to do a full day (about 13 hours) of driving. It’s a long long way down the Skeleton Coast of Namibia!

We left the Maasai behind as we travelled to ??, a journey that was short in distance but took most of the day due to the roads. Every now and then the truck is almost forced off the road by other trucks and its quite scary as the tarp that covers one side of the open truck is sucked out by the vehicle coming in the other direction, then once its passed, slams back into the truck with an incredible bang. The road-side tarp is always left down while we’re on the road but the tarp facing the scenery is always up. As you can imagine, the wind whistles through.

There were periods of nothing but green, then we’d come across villages and many roadside stalls selling bananas, tomatoes, vegetables and also makeshift bike workshops. These were set up under trees and the branches were used to hang tyres, as bike stands and inner tubes.







There is a big open area at the front of the truck, almost above the cab and its great to spend a journey up there as you can see so much and its great for photos. You do have to be ultra careful about low branches though as a few of us have nearly been taken out.

We made the most of being in one place for two nights and went for a short hike up into the hills around the camp. We got very lost and ended up in peoples backyards, we didn’t think they got many visitors…! The huts were in small fields of maize and were made of wood and mud (mixed with cow dung). Goats lay in the sun and chickens scratched around in the dirt – it seemed incredibly peaceful and it didn’t seem right to pull out a camera, so there are no pics aside from the one below unfortunately.



A bunch of locals were laughing at me and pointing. Those of you who know how red my face goes if I’ve been running (or even walking up hill!) and I suspect they were laughing at my red face. Some of the kids ran after us and gave me a huge stick of sugar cane that came in useful as a walking stick.

You can imagine what the locals thought when we appeared. We stuck out like sore thumbs!



Euan had had enough of me giving him stick so had me by the nose.



A couple of the guys did a six hour hike up to the top of the mountain (only 1800m) and by all accounts it was a tough walk and very steep. It would have taken them 1 ½ hours to walk down but they persuaded the guide to let them jump on these wee trays that carry logs down from the top of the mountain. Sort of like a primitive ski lift but with no safety bars and definitely not meant for carrying people. They were truly scared. They sat on a pile of logs, hung onto a bar and set off into the mist. They couldn’t see how high it was and when the car dropped down into the valley, they thought it wasn’t so bad. Then they went over the next ridge and the cliff face dropped a sheer 600m. They were terrified and one of them said he’d never been so scared in his entire life.

It was another long drive before we hit Dar es Salam on the Tanzanian coast and we camped there for one night. It was mozzie city and we had a mozzie war in our tent before we slept. The malaria is really bad in this area and the mozzies settle on bare skin very quickly. It was wonderful being back by the sea and the sound of waves made me feel right at home. It’s the sound that put me to sleep at night for the first 12 years of my life and when we moved away, I had trouble sleeping without the sound of the waves. Being back by the sea (any sea, I'm not fussy) is like truly going home.

Arusha, Tanzania 1-2 June 08

The night passed without incident and we’ve no idea if anything came through the camp or not and the hyena may have sounded close but I now know that sounds travel a long way in the dark still of night.

Below is a plain old starling and the photo doesn’t really do it justice at all. They’re incredibly pretty birds with a brilliant midnight-blue sheen to their feathers, are pretty fearless and seem quite intelligent. I said to Euan that I reckon if you had one, you could teach it to talk. He didn’t agree but there was one in a tree and I stood about 1m from it and whistled the same notes. It seemed to be listening and after each time, he warbled back at me and sure enough, after about five minutes he was copying exactly what I was whistling.



We were in for another absolutely incredible day and I don’t think I’ve ever been so wow’d out in my life. With the sun still low, the animals were on the move and we came across two lioness’ and their cubs but they were a distance away and not close enough to get a decent view without binoculars and we busied ourselves by looking at tracks in the dust. A huge python had passed by overnight, leaving a track that was well over a foot wide. Another waterhole had three (that we could see) young lions lazing in the sun so we stopped to take a look. We’d been there for a few minutes when a herd of zebra we’d passed a while back came into view and we wondered if they were heading for a drink. Teh next five minutes were, I can quite honestly say, the most amazing and memorable five minutes of my life.

We just held our breath as the zebra wandered towards the water. The lions had seen the zebra and were already on the job


There was a lead zebra who seemed to be checking things out and stopped to suss things out before galloping down to the water



We thought the zebra would stop at the waters edge but they went right in up to their bellies and while they were there, one of the lions moved into position carefully but really quickly – you can see him in the top right of the picture heading towards a small cluimp of grass (I'd never believe that a lion could be so well disguised by a small clump of grass. I'll never ever look at grass here in Africa the same now)



See what I mean??? Once he was there, it was difficult to see him from a distance



All the front zebra have their ears pricked right forward and were clearly on alert and we’re not sure if they sensed the lions or not (but that lion is still damn hard to see behind that grass! By this stage, my heart rate had shot up as if I were running and the adrenaline had already started)


The lead zebra headed out of the water (you can see the foal behind her) and one of the lions was still hiding behind the wee clump of grass. The others hadn’t moved much from their original positions



The lion waited for ages before making a move but when he did, my God, it was fast and there was dust everywhere and we just didn’t know where to look



There was just one massive tangle of zebra, a lot of dust and one lion. The foal was going hell for leather with all legs off the ground and neck stuck right out (see middle right).



The lions were young and clearly didn’t fully know what to do. A zebra went down in the melee (to the left of the d*mn tree) but the lion went right past it chasing after another zebra

The fallen zebra got up, galloped the other direction and got nailed by the one of the other lions who was still back by the water hole. The young lion got on the zebras back but wasn’t heavy enough to bring it down. Meanwhile, his mate was still chasing but wasn’t smart enough to go after the foal (who still had all four legs off the ground going for gold).



The dust that was kicked up, the speed with which all this happened and the noise of zebras braying throughout is indescribable but it seriously got the adrenaline flowing watching it all and the buzz was felt for hours and hours afterwards.

It was all over in seconds but the adrenaline rush was incredible and I cant remember when I last felt that. Absolutely undescribable. I still cannot believe that we were there to witness that - seconds worth of pure excitement out of would normally be hours of driving through the Serengeti. So incredibly lucky.

We caught up with the lions a few minutes later and they were clearly SO pleased with themselves. They almost seemed to be congratulating themselves – rubbing heads together


having a group hug


They were all young males so you can see how much growing up they’ve yet to do and are probably only ½ the weight they will be once fully grown.

By contrast, we came across this guy a while later. He was battle-worn with ripped ears, scars on his face, blunted teeth, mangy mane and one very very full belly (he also had a tick below his left eye but I wasn’t about to tell him). He and a lioness had killed an eland which is a damn big animal and they had gorged themselves to the max. They’ll feed off this for a few days by which time you’ll be able to smell it miles away.



This was on our way out of the Serengeti and back to our camp at Arusha which was a good 5 hours drive away. I don’t think there is anything to compare to what we’ve seen and experienced in the last two days. All I can say is, if you love animals and open spaces and have a chance to go to either Ngorogoro or the Serengeti, don’t pass it up whatever you do. These have been two most memorable days of my entire life. I spent seven days game driving twice a day in Kruger and didn’t see nearly what I’ve seen here. A M A Z I N G - the only word for it.

Ngorogoro Crater & Serengeti, Tanzania 30 June - 1 July 08

(Finally!!! I wrote this weeks and weeks ago and have, in Maun, Botswana, found a connection that is super quick! Hope you all enjoy... there is so much more to come!)

Today was just one big day of WOW. There are no other words for it. We were up at 0500 to get to Ngorogoro before sunrise and the view from the crater rim was just unbelievable and its difficult to describe but it was like looking down onto another world and I was left speechless.



The Ngorogoro Crater is part of the Great Rift Valley and used to be 4,500m high before it collapsed millions of years ago. The viewing point where we stopped was at 2,300m and the crater floor is approximately 700m below that.

There are dirt roads around the rim with only a few roads leading down through the dense scrub into the crater and we spent ½ a day driving round in there. We have so many great photos and saw lion, black rhino, flamingo, ostrich, buffalo, elephant, hippos, zebra and wildebeest to name a few and so many birds all within a very short space of time. The crater is absolutely teeming with wildlife and I’ve never seen anything like it, nor the numbers of animals in one place.







The water holes are the best viewing spots (obviously) and this one was no exception with loads of zebra milling around and jeez they’re a finicky bunch! Kicking, squealing, he-hawing, racing round and generally being picky with each other. The thwack as their hooves hit each other made me cringe.



The hippos were so entertaining. Mostly submerged, they would flick their ears or tails, blow bubbles from their noses and make funny farting noises. Exactly where this noise came from we couldn’t tell but it sure sounded funny, had us in stitches and we finally decided that farting couldn’t be ruled out. Some hippos were lying on their sides and one rolled right over completely, with his fat hippo legs stuck in the air.



The lake in the crater is a soda lake and the elephants make the long trek into the crater to drink the water. Giraffe aren’t found in the crater as their legs can’t handle the hills but elephants seem to have no qualms about using the roads. Apparently there are about 25,000 animals in the crater (which is about 20km across) and while they’re free to come and go, most stay as there is everything they need. There seemed to be 1000’s of flamingo in the lake but I think it was a bit of an optical illusion as when you looked closely it was the reflections that made it look like there were 1000s.



The sides of the crater are quite steep in places. The bush is also very dense and while there were tracks, you could forgive the animals for wanting to stay and not venture outside the crater walls.

After half a day in the crater we were all in awe but there was more to come as we headed to the Serengeti, just over the other side of the Rift Valley range. Two huge extremes. The Great Rift Valley is mountainous, fertile, green, cool and misty and the Serengeti, right on its doorstep, is flat, vast and incredibly dry and dusty. It seems to go on forever (apparently Serengeti means “endless plain”).

We were headed right into the middle of the Serengeti and had hours of bumping on rough dirt roads, dirt flying everywhere with not a hill in sight. Quite awesome really. It wasn’t windy but there were twisters appearing all over the place.

At first, there were no animals anywhere to be seen so we were settling in for a long haul along this dusty, bumpy flat flat track until we dived off the road to a waterhole. There were six young lions lazing round in the mud, waiting for mum to return with food presumably. Brilliant!



They were very cute, dirty and very lazy



They weren't doing much and we were about to head onwards but then along came a bird (you can see that all but one is looking at something in the first picture) and two of them got more interested so we hung around to watch thinking they’d make a run for the bird, but as it turned out they didn't even need to do that (the bird is in the bottom centre of the below photo but blends in nicely with the mud).



We couldn’t believe the bird could be so stupid and was even swiped at by the cub on the right but still carried on hopping merrily around the edge before he reached the green plants on the edge then got interested in something in there.

This cub was so interested and the bird completely lost track of what was going on


and before the bird knew it, something was moving in on him



and it was all over red rover, one paw was all it took



and the bird didn’t stand a chance



The cub tried to play with it but the bird just went to pieces – literally



and the feathers kept getting stuck in his mouth, I don’t think he liked it that much



We couldn’t quite believe what we’d seen and still couldn’t believe the bird thought he’d get away with it. Then we came across more hippos but these guys were slightly more active than the last.



and they were bumping around each other in the water and I think one of them had just had enough



These guys were just enormous and the fat on them (you can see the big neck roll on the one on the left). For big animals, they can move scarily fast.

It was a good time of year for young animals for sure – zebra foals, lion cubs, buffalo calves, hippo calves (I think they’re calves?), chicks and gazelle babies – not sure what you’d call them!

Our camp site for the night is right out in the open and when we arrived, there was a giraffe eating nearby.



With no fences to stop anything getting in, everyone crowded the tents close together and it was just too squished so we moved our tent to the outskirts which seemed fine in the daylight. After dark it was a different story and we wondered if moving was such a bright idea. This is the view from our tent and it was so hot that Euan wanted to sleep with the tent flaps up and just the mozzie mesh but I wasn’t having a bar of it. No way. I felt too exposed with three sides of the tent open. Once I pointed out that the noise we could hear were hyena laughing, he changed his mind and the flaps came down quick smart although Euan still didn’t understand my logic of feeling safe as long as I couldn’t see anything.