WE ARE THE PRIDE OF SERENGETI TOWN

WEATHER: Hot and 28C

HIGHTLIGHT OF THE DAY: Seeing 17 lions in total within 3 hours

BUMMER OF THE DAY: Our 4x4 breaking down = longer drive home

BUYS OF THE DAY: Hakuna Matata sticker for 1AUD

WORD OF THE DAY: This is the best day so far

ANIMALS SEEN TODAY: 17 lions, cheetah, leopard, giraffes, elephants, gazelles, wilderbeest, donkeys and goats

CAMP SITE RANKING: Back to Mwa To Mbo - 5 out of 5 stars

Well after 2 nights and 2 days in the Serengeti it was time to leave.  As George is switched on, he has decided to switch around our itinerary and we are now able to do a game drive this morning and the village walk will now be done tomorrow.  And with the way things panned out today, it was a wide move in the end for 2 reasons which will be explained later.

We were able to have a sleep in this morning till 6.30am, which was super cool.  The other group left at 7am, so we were able to say a 4^th goodbye to them on the chance that we may see them in Dar Es Salaam, probably in passing, but it all counts in my book.  So good-bye again guys and it was awesome to see you all again.  Lisa and I decided to leave little notes in their tents, but after unzipping all 11 tents, I only recognized Jo’s pillow, so I had to leave all 3 notes in their tent, but it is the tough that counts and I guess that makes the 5^th good-bye and it was good to get the last word in.

So after packing up camp, we hit the road for our last drive around the park before hitting the dust bowl road and back to some paved roads.  We were asking what could possibly top off the day we had yesterday?  We had pretty much seen everything we had wanted to see, short of a rhino to say we saw the Big Five all in the one park.  But high on the list was more cats.  We really hadn’t see a proper male close up, so this was a high on the list, more cheetahs and a leopard would also be awesome.  Well we had only driven 15 minutes when we saw around 20 trucks all looking at something.  We only had to drive a little further on and we saw what they were looking at.  It was a pride of 11 female lions, walking across the road, and then down the plain.  It really did look like they were on the hunt for some breakfast, so we stopped and turned off the engine and just watched them advance.  They stopped at a big rock that all 11 lions sat on, which we waited for another 15 minutes and they didn’t move from there, so we decided to move on and see what else we could find, but I think that will be very hard to beat to 11 lions prancing down the plains.  I got some great photos, so it was an awesome way to start the morning.  We had headed off when Freddie got a call to come back past the lions as there was a leopard spotted.  So we turned arund, screamed past the lions (old news now) and we headed for the leopard sighting.  I tell you we were in luck, as there was a leopard clear as day sitting in the tree.  It was amazing to finally see this elusive animal, you could see his spots quite clearly and he sat for us for about 15 minutes, then he jumped to the other side of the tree for a few more minutes and then he jumped off the tree.  AWESOME!!!  We kept an eye out for him for a while, in case he was heading to the road, the grass was quite long, so he was hard to spot, but we did eventually see him through the binoculars and it looked like he was moving away from us.  What a great find.  We are now starting to make out way out of the park, slowly as the gates are still an hour away, but Sean saw some trucks in the distance,so we went to check it out and we found ourselves, finally, a male lion, with the big mane and a female lion.  They were probably 150m away, but with nockies and a good zoom you could see them okay.  As there was just the 2 of them Freddie called them the honeymooners and they were to shortly live up to that as we saw the male mount the female and have his way with her, if only for 10 seconds.  Well what ever tickles your fancy I suppose.  A further 20 minutes got us to the find of the day, after the 11 lions and the leopard, was another male lion and female, but this time they were only 10m away from the truck in a rocky outcrop.  The male had a bit of attitude and Sean upset him by lifting his arms, accidently on purpose, and he started forward slightly and gave off a bit of a growl!  It was absolutely terrifying for a few seconds, and all Freddie was doing was still sitting there with the car switched off!  I also need to mention that we had been push started by 3 trucks in the last 2 days as out engine wasn’t kicking over, so the scenario of the lion pouncing and us not being able to start the truck crossed our minds briefly, just as we thought he would also have no problems jumping high enough to get in the top of the truck and eating us all alive.   Well we didn’t need to worry about any of those senarios, but the male lion was certainly keeping a beady eye on the truck and Sean.  We got some absolutely wonderful photos of him and his beautiful female companion.  There was one more wow moment and that was when the female crossed right in front of our truck, she was like 2m from the truck and then walked behind some rocks on the other side.  We were waiting from grumpy guts to follow, but he had moved behind the rock, so it was time to move on.  But what a way to end a fabulous morning. 

Well little did we know, we saw another convoy of trucks and we happened to stumble across a cheetah and her 2 cubs.  We think it was probably the same ones from yesterday, but she was sitting right next to a small tree and the silohette photo of her is just amazing!  This day just keeps getting better!  We have now hit the plains, the trees are all gone now and it was flat as the eye coiuld see, so we just enjoyed Freddie driving like a wild man on the dusty Seregeti roads, missing pot holes and fish tailing at 90km an hour!  What a rush.  We did one last surprise and it was a herd of 9 elephants crossing th road in front of us, it was amazing to see the whole family that had 3 babies in tow, and with the beautiful blue sky, the yellow plains and the grey elephants, the photos were AWESOME!!!  Besides the Gorilla’s on Rwanda this would have to be the second best highlight of the trip so far.  All of this was seen within 3 hours of game driving before we drove for another 50 minutes to get us to the gates of the national park.  The last 10 minutes Freddie was driving like Miss Daisy, so we asked what the problem was and he said he had no power – Hmmmmm he said he’d fix it when we arrived at the gates to check out.

We got a 45 minute stop at the park gates at 11.30am, while we got permits to go back the other way and let them know that we were leaving.  We are travelling in a convoy of 4, so the other 3 drivers were also looking under the hood of the car for the 45 minutes we were there.  We got the nod we were ready to leave at 12.15pm and the car had apparently been all fixed.  Well we travelled for 50 minutes and then we lost power again, so we got roadside assistance again.  It seems there was some air in the something and the dooby wasn’t working, okay so I don’t know exactly what was wrong, but they were temperoli fixing it in the hope it would hold out.  So we set off again and 10 minutes later, we were off the road again for another 40 minutes, when they decided we would just have to limp home and drive the 30km we could manage.  I guess the most frustrating thing for the other 3 vehicles was there was nothing wrong with their cars and they also had to travel at 30km!  We travelled like this for another 1.5 hours, before George decided to split the 5 of us into the other 3 trucks, Freddie was going to limp home on his own, and there was a new truck waiting for us as we left Ngorororo Crater National Park.  So we got delayed in the end by probably 2 hours, but we still made it back to camp in daylight and the nice surprise that was waiting for is were our tents were set up again for us!!  WOO HOO!!!!!

We were all so dusty and our clothes and bags were covered in the stuff.  My hair felt so good after having it washed, the birds nest was quite surprisingly easy to get out with the shampoo. 

With a few drinks after dinner it was off to bed after a massive day.  Good-bye Serengeti – you ROCKED

MY BALLOON IRDE OVER THE SERENGETI

WEATHER: Beautiful 29C

HIGHTLIGHT OF THE DAY: Seeing the old crew at camp

BUMMER OF THE DAY: Only getting 40 minutes in the balloon

BUYS OF THE DAY: My ballooning pin for 3AUD

WORD OF THE DAY: ‘Not a fan’

ANIMALS SEEN TODAY: Lions, gazelles, giraffes, elephants, hippos, a cheetah and her 2 babies, hyena’s, pumbas, wildebeest, zebras, secretary bird, serval cat, a mongoose, parrots, black back jackal, leopard, crocodiles, dic dic’s x 3, impala, Guiney fowl, baret monkeys, saddle billed stork and baboons.

CAMP SITE RANKING:  Same one as last night – no change

IRISH WORD OF THE DAY:  Slanchar - cheers

Well last night we heard an animal eating out the back of the tent, as to what it actually was, we don’t know and we weren’t to keen to stick our head out and see.  The hyena’s made a visit to the food prep area trying to scavenge what they could, so it could have been one of those at our back window, either way there was a wild beast at the back of our tent! 

My alarm went off at 4.55am, as our pickup for the balloon ride was at 5.15am.  It was still dark and a little cold, but the balloon people wanted us to wear long pants, closed in shoes and clothes to keep us warm up in the sky anyways so we were wrapped up and ready to go.  We got picked up in a 4x4 that already had 4 other people in it and we drove 40 minutes to the launch site and where our balloon awaited us.  When we arrived there were 3 balloons and they were partially inflated already.  This is for the pilot to do his checks on the actual balloon and then it is deflated back to flat.

We then sat in the car for 40 minutes as we waited for the pilot to do his checks and then we got called over for the briefing.  If you have ballooned before once it is inflated you can then get in and up up and away.  But the basket on this is massive, as it holds 16 people, 8 on each side, which is broken up into 4 compartments each side that takes 2 people per compartment.  So our pilot Mohammad explained to us that they preload you with the basket still on its side, as the balloon moves as it fills and it could possibly move and they don’t want us to get knocked over by this massive basket.  Mohammad ran through the rules, the obvious – no smoking and no jumping – yeah I think we have that covered, and went through the loading of the basket and allocating what compartments we were to go into.  Before we set off we were able to witness a beautiful sunrise, so we got some great photos before we had even left the ground!

Then the inflation began.  They had 2 massive fans that blow cold air into the balloon and it seriously didn’t take too long, it was around 40 minutes and then we got the thumbs up to pre-load as the last of the balloon was filled.  So we had to walk around the fans, and make sure that our scarfs didn’t get caught and jump into our positions.  Manu and I got the inside compartment next to the pilot, which in hindsight was a good thing as we were directly under the burner, so we were kept warm for the whole time we were in the air.  So we were lying on our backs in the baskets. With a couple from Coffs Harbour lying in the compartment on top of us.  We were in this position for about 10 minutes as Mohammad warmed the air in the balloon for it to fly, so Manu and I got a bit of dust in the face with the fans blowing but then the basket started to move and we took around 8 minutes to get is in the upright position and we were finally off the ground at 6.50am.

OMG we are ballooning over the Serengeti, Manu and I just looked at each other after we had lifted off and high fived each other!  This is something you will not experience anywhere else.  Straight away we saw hundreds of gazelles.  They are a flighty animal and were running all over the place as we floated over them.  I guess if I saw a big arse balloon coming my way making a whooshing noise I would also be a little scared myself.  We saw herds of Zebras and wildebeest, which was awesome to see them from the air, as we had seen similar herds the previous day from ground level.  The height of the balloon varied, if there was only floating to be done, Mohammad would lift us up high, if there were animals to see then he would drop us in to tree top height for us to get photos.  He was also really good in turning the balloon around every 8 minutes or so, so we all got a rotation facing the front.  We headed down to the river and got an awesome view of the hippos in the water.  There must have been like 40 of them all together, unfortunately I didn’t get a photo of one with its mouth open though.  It was quite windy as the balloon flies on the natural flow of currents, so with it being so windy we were travelling at 23km per hour, so we had to be quick with the picture taking as we were hooting along.  We also saw giraffes, elephants a male lion and the highlight was a cheetah with her 2 cubs, a cheetah!!!  So after 40 minutes we came into land.  We had to get back in the crouch position on the chance that the basket my tip when we land.  Well we didn’t have to worry about that as we landed upright next to the other 2 balloons and climbed out back onto terra firma!  There was sparkling wine waiting for us when we landed, where we all had a toast and then we were bundled back into the 4x4’s to take us to our breakfast location. 

The drive was only 15 minutes away and there were 3 tables all set up under a massive Acacia tree.  There was a gentleman when we arrived holding a large copper jug, where we were able to wash our hands followed by a fluffy green towel to dry our hands on and then we moved to the tables.  It looked amazing, so we pulled up some chairs and sat at the table and drank more sparkling wine, mango juice and a tea.  We got fresh fruit from the tree served for a starter and then we got a hot English breakfast followed, with potatoes, a sausage, baked beans and bacon.  All served on fine china, silver cutlery with a material napkin, the sun high in the sky and having just come off the balloon ride – does life get any better than this?  They also had toilets at breakfast that was wrapped 3 sides, with the 4^th side facing out to the plains.  They called it a toilet with a view, and it was really funny when the men went as their heads would be poking over the top as they did their business, it looked so funny. But what a way to start a day right!  It was an amazing experience.  Was it worth the 500USD? I think it was a little over priced for what we got, but it was an opportunity of a life time, and at the end of the day, I think sometimes it is a little hard to put a cost on that.  I ballooned the Serengeti and I will never forget it.

We were dropped back to the Visitors Center at 10am where we met back up with our 4x4’s to then head back out for some game viewing for a few hours before heading back to camp for lunch.  After talking to the guys, they pretty much saw everything we did from the balloon, but just from ground level.  They even saw the cheetah, which was good for Sean, as this is what he really wanted to see on this trip.  We headed back to camp at 1pm for lunch and a little rest.  I really needed this after consuming half a bottle of sparkling wine, add that with some sun and an early start, if I didn’t get a sleep I was going to be a little cranskter.  Well that was easier said than done, the tents were hot as an oven, so I tried to lay down, but flip it was hot, so we just sat under a canvas tent and chatted till 3pm where we were all back into the 4x4’s to go out and see us some more animals.  We drove around for another 3 hours, seeing more giraffes, elephants, zebras, jackals, hyenas, a walking hippo and a troop of cute baret monkeys that we stopped to take them in for a few minutes.  We also saw a group of 4x4’s congregated in the distance, so when this happens you pretty much know something is there, so Freddie gunned it and we got over there and there was a leopard in the tree.  I tell you, even with Freddie pointing it out, with binoculars in hand; I still couldn’t see the damn thing.  I have been looking for a leopard since our first game drive in Lake Nakuru, and after seeing the way this one was hidden, I rekon we probably drove right past them and not have even known!  They really do blend in so well.  Fred was talking to another 4x4 and they said there was another leopard down the way, so he floored it again and this time we could see him clearly, even though the sun was behind him, the photos were a little dodgy, but we got to see a leopard and it has now completed the Big Five list.  Leopard, lion, elephant, and rhino and …………….  AWESOME!!!!!  This is where we also saw the ‘old’ gang.  Jo, Lil, Emma s, Jools and Louise were in one truck and Mikey and Julia were in another.  They were at the leopard, and it was so cool to see them, especially in that environment!!!  DOUBLE AWESOME!!!  They didn’t know, but they are staying at our camp tonight, so they will get a nice surprise when they arrive in tonight!

We headed back to camp at 6.15pm and we are now covered in 2 day’s worth of Serengeti dust, or tan as we are now calling it.  The hair is crusty as and the feet are filthy, but by geeze we had a great day.  There was a queue 8 deep for the use of the shower, so bugger that, nothing that a baby wipe can’t temporarily fix, so straight to the esky and a vodka and blackcurrant juice (Dave’s Irish drink) in hand we caught up with the ‘old’ crew till dinner time.  It seems like a lifetime ago since we left them, not 3 days, and based on the above, with the birds nest hair and Serengeti tan, the first thing Mike said to me was Bern your looking great!  This is why I love these guys!  What a blind sweetie!

The nights rolled and as you can imagine both camps are dog tired, so we said our farewells again for the 3^rd time, in case we didn’t see them in the morning as they were leaving 30 minutes before us and we made some local calls and brushed our teeth and were in bed by 10.30pm. 

Man it is hard to fathom we are in Tanzania, in the Serengeti, camping in the wild with animals.

AMAZING!!!

TIME FOR SOME MORE WILDLIFE VIEWING

WEATHER: Cool this morning but heated up by 10am

HIGHTLIGHT OF THE DAY: Watching a herd of Wildebeast running - twice

BUMMER OF THE DAY: Not seeing a leopard yet

BUYS OF THE DAY: A ‘I Love Tanzania’ sticker for my diary for 1AUD

WORD OF THE DAY: How dusty is it?

ANIMALS SEEN TODAY: Ostrich, baboons, corey bastard (bird), buffaloes, wilerbeast by the hundreds, hyenas, lions, giselles, crown cranes, secretary birds, warthogs aka pumba’s, hippos, pelicans, zebras, donkeys, impala, giraffes, elephants, camels and goats.

CAMP SITE RANKING:  Wild camp site, one flushing toilet for the ladies and 2 showers a 3 out of 5 stars.

So with last night the first time for setting up tents, meant that this morning was the first time for taking them down.  I haven’t had an issue getting my tent back into it’s bag now.  I am a pro roller abd it fits in just fine.  We helped Si and Dave with theirs and then headed to the kitchen to get our lunches packed for the day.  There is plenty of salad items, bread, cold cut meats, banana’s, and poppers for us to choose from, as there will be no setting up of a kitchen today as we don’t have the truck.  So once this was done, breakfast was eaten and we picked and packed a 4x4 that would stay ours for the next 3 days.  Freddie was our driver and my road crew for the next 3 days was Sean, Lisa, Jimbob, Dave and myself.  George has out 5 to a truck, so that we could all have a window, which is super thoughtful and important when it comes to game viewing and driving to have your own window. 

With quick photo stop at a point that had Lake Minyana in the valley we continued for another hour to get us to the entrance of Ngororor National Park and the crater.  I was able to cash my USD travellers cheques here for no fee so I was able to pay my next component of local payment of 1175USD to Vic Falls to George.  We had to wait there for the paper work and permits to be done which took a little over 45 minutes and then we climbed back into our jeeps to head down into the crater.  We started our desent at 10am and the game viewing/spotting begun.  Freddie had taken the top off the roof, so we had 3 separate sections where we could stand and have our heads poking out the top.  We were allowed to stand on the seats if we had a blanket under them, which is fair enough, as our feet are pretty dirty.  It is hard to believe that I am in Tanzania in the Ngorororo crater!  This is a wow / pinch me moment with our hair blowing in the wind, standing from the roof of a 4x4 and looking for elephants, giraffes and zebra’s!  This is amazing and what Africa is all about.  I am a lucky lady.

I expected the crater to have more trees, but it is quite barren.  You would expect that seeing animals then would be easy, but the grass can grow quite long, so some effort is still required to look for the animals.  We were going to have 4 hours in total in the crater, which mean by the time we finish we would have seen ¾ of the park, which is pretty awesome.  We drove around for the first 2 hours looking and spotting a whole bunch of animals including a lion, but she was in the distance, like 150m away, but with a zoom on the camera was able to get some good photos to the highlight of this first portion being a herd of wildebeest running and crossing the road just in frount of us.  There would have had to have been 300 of them and they all ran single file to the road, saw us and then they would all freak out with us in our jeeps and would then cross in pairs and 3’s.  They certainly are an U-G-L-Y creature, but to see them in mass numbers was amazing and a highlight of the morning.  We then stopped for lunch at 12.15 by a large watering hole that had resident hippos.  They were down the other end, so there was no issue of them disturbing us.  It seemed to be the major stop point for a lot of the tour companies, at one point I rekon there would have had to have been 50 jeeps all parked in there.  It was a great spot with grass to be able to sit on and stretch the legs.  You had to eat your lunch in the truck though, as the Kite birds have picked up that people are eating food, and they have no issues in swooping and trying to get your sandwich out of your hands.  So after eating in the truck it was safe to get out, enjoy some sun by the watering hole and just appreciate just where we were.  As we left the watering hole there were zebras drinking from the otherside where we had to drive out and they had to move out of our way for us to get through – they are such a cool looking animal!  I am sure Zoe would love them, even if they do have stripes!  

It is interesting to see all the jeeps driving around looking for the bsame things as us.  Even though there is so many trucks in the crater it never felt like it was crowded, even when there was a gathering to see the lions at one point, there would have been maximum 6 trucks.  It seems there is some unwritten rule asnd as trucks pull in others pull out and no-one ever pushes in front or hogs, so it is really nbice to know that everyone gets an equal chance.  The only bad thing is that it is so dusty when they drive past, you literally get coated in a puff of dust.  One of the guys was wearing sun glasses and at lunch had glass marks, not from the sun but from the dust.  We were using baby wipesd to get the dust at least off our faces and the wipe would nearly be black.  So George wasn’t lying when he said it would be dusty.  We would have to duck into the truck cab sometimes when a truck passed it kicked up so much dust.  We were and our clothes were covered from head to toe.  Welcome to Ngorororo Crater peeps.

We gor another 1.5 hours looking and finding hippos, elephants, more wilderbeast, baboons and zebras in the hundreds before heading out the other side of the crater and to our destination of the Seregheti at 2.40pm. I kid you not, we thought the roads were dusty in the crater, well we hadn’t seen anything yet till we hot the road to the gates to exit Ngorororo.  These roads, loosely called, were terrible.  They are not paved, it is loose gravel, stones and dust.  Dust dust dust everywhere.  It is so hard to explain just how flippin dusty and bumpy it was, butr to give you an idea, when a truck travelled in the opposite direstion you couldn’t see in front of you for a few seconds till the dust had settled down.  Freddie was doing an amazing job, by this point he hd been driving for nearly 7 hours and we still had another 3 hours ahead of us!!!  On ythe bumpy dusty road.  My ear plugs for my IPod wouldn’t even stay in my ears for long as they kept coming out it was that bumpy and the volume was maximum due to the noise.  All that aside it didn’t stop Freddie rom driving at 89km an hour, so we got some air time from our seats once in a while and there was a lot of fish tailing, which I wasn;t a big fan of, as I am sure that he has no control of the vehicle when the back wheels are slipping all over the shop.  But he does this for a living and he is used to it, so I have to leave my life in his hands.  We did establish that he currently has one wife and was looking for an Australian wife once he found out where I was from.  I am telling you Africa is definetly a good country for my ego!

We are now well and truly in Masai territory.  As we were driving through the country side, you know passing giraffes and impalasa, there were also Masai walking the plains.  It was a little surreal, as it was dry as a bone, not a building in sight and then you would spot a red Masai blanket just walking.  Where was he walking to?  Where did he come from?  We also saw some young Masai, the diffenece is they have their faces painted white, which looked a little scary.  When they are 13-15 years old they are circumcised and thgen they have their faces painted for 2 years before they are then allowed to waer the red Masai blankets.  They just look at you when you drive past, no smiles or waves from these guys.

So we had to check out of Ngorororo National Park and then we had to get permits and check into Serengheti National Park.  This process took about 45 minutes as there were so many trucks and jeeps all doing the same thing.  We are now in animal territory so keep your eyes peeled for animals.  Well we didn’t have to wait long, we saw lots of giraffes, which now is officially my favorite animal and also happens to be Freddies, so he was more than happy 5to stop at everything single giraffe for me!  It was so cute.  So we travelled for further hour and a half to check in for our balloon ride that we have booked fro tomorrow.  I am not sure if I have mentioned this before but Manu and I were keen to do the Seregeti Balloon flight.  It is normally fully booked and quite hard to get on, Jools couldn’t get us on it, so Manu got her boyfriend on to it and he booked it for us from Swisserland, which only came back confirmed 3 days ago.  It is not a cheap exercise, at 500USD, but I could justify it by knowing not many people get to do this amazing experience, whne will I come back to the Seregheti and I haven’t spent much money to date, so why not.  ThereThere are 4 of nus ballooning from our groupn tomorrow morning, so we all checked in, got some pre-flight nformation and then drove for another 30 minutes to where base camp was going to be for the next 2 nights – our wild base camp at that.

So we arrived into camp at 7pm making it a 12 hour day with the thought of setting up tents a little exhausting, so you can imagine our surprise when we got out and George surprised us, Simon and some of the staff had already set up our tents for us!  Oh thankj-you tent/camping god’s what a wonderful thing for them to have set up 10 tenst!  We were on the boundry of the camp sit, so if an animal wanted to take us, we would be at the top of ythe menu, but I guess that will just add to the excitement of our sleep tonight. 

The water truck had been, so there was water in the showers, but Lisa and I thought if tomorrow is ginbg to be as dusty as today then we aren’t  going to bothger having a shower.  By this time our hair is like straw, it has that much dust in it, it really feels disgusting, but no point washing it and our feet and chests and arms and kegs were all dusty as hell.  We are now calling it the Serehgeti tan.  This stuff should be bottled I rekon.  It was  alittle strange that there were only 2 showers and a toilet for the men and a toilet for the gals for the whole camp site, with about 70 people n camp tonight will make it a little busy down that end of the camp.  I guess it is better than  nothing considering it is supossed to be a bush camp after all.   

 

AFRICA ENCOMPASSED BEGINS – 44 MORE DAYS OF CAMPING

WEATHER: Cooler 23C

HIGHTLIGHT OF THE DAY: Finally saying good-bye to Paps (that one is for you buddy)

BUMMER OF THE DAY: Saying good-bye to Preswick – it’s a sad sad day

BUYS OF THE DAY: A bottle of vodka for 5AUD – rocket fuel maybe?

WORD OF THE DAY: Welcome to Tanzania

ANIMALS SEEN TODAY: Goats and donkeys – travel day

CAMP SITE RANKING:  40 minutes from Arusha – cold showers, flushing toilets - 4 out of 5 stars

Welcome to the next 44 days of my African journey.  New crew, new family and a new truck.  I also have a new roomie / tentie which is Lisa from the last tour, so it couldn’t have fallen into place any better. We know each other and we have a ball together, so it is a match made in heaven.  Lucky as we will be travelling the next 44 days together as she is also going all the way through to Cape Town!

Last night I was able to condense my bags down to 5 (instead of 7), got some internet time and finally fell into bed at 1am.  Our truck left at 7am, and as we are now ‘experienced’ overland travellers, we knew which lockers we wanted, which seat we wanted and to get onto the truck before everyone else, so we could be all packed away to let them fend for themselves for the first time of ‘truck’.  Poor bastards, but we were there 2 weeks ago, so we try and help where we can, as we are old hands now!

The departing ‘gorilla’ people were leaving the same time as us, so their truck (our old one) was parked right next to us and we pulled out of Nairobi at the same time.  This will be marked as our second good-bye, as we did say good-bye to them last night in case we missed them this morning.  There maybe a chance that we catch up in the Serengeti, but we’re not sure, so we will have to see how that pans out.

I’d like to introduce our new crew and our new home for the next 44 days.  George is our new guide, Ben is our new driver and Simon is our new cook.  These guys have been working together for the last 2 years, doing the same trip up and back from Cape Town to Nairobi.  George actually trained Jools, so I think he’s going to be okay.  Our new home is still the same size in regards to the truck itself, but the seats are closer together, back to the Contiki squishiness, BUT less room on the seats has been made up at the back, where there is a small table on one side, where an esky can also fit and on the other side is space (an additional esky and fridge are located here) and also plenty of room to stand and room to take photos from this vantage point as well.  There are also curtains, which will come in handy the days that the sun is on your side.  The guys on the last truck got really hot as the sun really pounds through during the middle of the day – I was lucky I was on the other side, and when we returned it was overcast, so I really didn’t get too much sun time which was good.  There are also 15 power outlets, so that’s 10 more than the last truck, so I don’t think I am going to have too many problems getting all my gadgets charged on this trip, which is awesome.  The lockers on the truck are a little smaller, they aren’t as long, but they are a smidge wider.  So we had a panic moment when we put all our gear in for the first time, thinking that they were going to be the same size, but after a slight shuffle and some more stuff put in the overheads (which is also smaller) I was able to get everything in.  I do have some things to post home, so I will get a chance to do this in Vic Falls in 3 weeks’ time, which will give me some additional room.  There is also a safe on board, that only George has access to.  We have a secret code for it though, so if there are ‘people’ around they don’t know what we are really talking about.  So if you need something from the safe, you want something from the ‘pub’.  So we have a counter word if we really want something from the real pub which will be pub pub.  Confused?  Well we know what we are talking about anyway, so I have locked my ‘vodka and coke’ away for safe keeping till needed again.

So as we wave goodbye to Jo, Lil, Louise, Emma S, Mikey and Julia, we leave Nairobi, Kenya and head for the boarder and into Tanzania this afternoon.  We hit the boarder at 10.15am and the process to getting checked out of Kenya for the last time and obtaining a visa into Tanzania for 50USD only took about an hour, so we have been pretty lucky with boarders so far.  As we were waiting to leave, there was a guy jumping up and down at my window in my peripheral and I turned on the second tap and it was Chris from the other truck!!!!  It was so weird to see a face I knew standing outside when we were all packed up and ready to go!  So after waving madly and a few air kisses we left without seeing the others and entered Tanzania where we will be for the next 13 days.

So welcome to Tanzania. The first thing I notice was the roads.  It is actually, well a road!  It is smooth and lined and not bumpy and awesome!!!  We stopped for lunch in a flat stretch of land which looked quite nice, till we got off the truck and it was really windy, which normally this would be welcomed, but it was really dry, which in turn meant it was really dusty and I swear there was dust flying around like snow in a snow storm.  You couldn’t open your eyes or mouth without getting some form of dust in it.  This was a massive problem for Simon, trying to keep all the food covered but we managed to serve up and I swear, eating my sandwich, I could see dust on my bread as I ate it!  Just imagine what my plate looked like after finishing my whole lunch!  I could write my name on the plate and you could see it through the dust that had landed on it in 15 minutes!  So can you imagine the fiasco, when it came to flapping dry the dishes and pots!!!  It was fruitless as they worked out getting dirtier than when they started, so they were washed and put in the box wet, as this was the only solution.  Not a great introduction for the newbies, but as Intrepid would say it was a ‘real life experience’.  We did attract a few locals that watched the whole proceedings and some of the newbies learnt the hard way that you just cannot take photos without asking.  Someone took a photo and was asked for money, which was paid begrudgingly and then a truck was driving along a dusty road that ran parallel to where we were ‘dining’ and was kicking up a bucket load of dust (it was impressive) and some people were taking photos and I could see the driver and passengers shaking their hands in a ‘no’ fashion and stopped at us to have a go, which George had to give them some food to say sorry.  I guess they will learn.

So all packed up and back on the road we drive for another hour getting into Arusha at 2.10pm.  We were given 1.5 hours here, as Simon had to stock up the food, so it was time to get some Tanzania shillings, which works out to be 1500 for 1AUD, so will need to now brush up on my 15 times tables!  I also went to the supermarket to stock up on some snacks and ran into Dave, who is from Ireland.  So we also decided to get some alcohol, of the vodka variety, and share in 4L of blackcurrant juice.  So all up it was only 6 for the vodka and the mix.  I am loving Africa!!!  We still had some time to kill, so we found a little bar right near the truck and we had a cold Killi beer till it was time to head to the truck.  I have found my first new friend on tour and it feels good.

Heading out of Arusha at 3.30pm, it is becoming obvious that it is a very dry country.  Besides having lunch in a dust bowl, just as we are driving through the countryside, it is all dry, dry, dry.  George has also warned us that heading out to the Serengeti tomorrow for 2 nights, that this is nothing to what you will get out there, so to pack light coloured clothes, because they will get covered in dust and we will as well from head to toe.  Hard to imagine, but forewarned is forearmed right!

With the roads being in better condition, it makes for a different environment on the truck.  George doesn’t mind if you walk around, and as there is the additional room at the back of the truck, there is room for people to stand around and chat.  The windows are all down, people are sticking their heads out, enjoying the wind in the hair (myself included – it was awesome) and cameras are also out and snapping, mostly scenery shots, so it is okay.  Where we couldn’t do any of that on the last trip as the roads were so bad, you could have fallen over and broken something.  It makes a nice change.   

We arrived into camp around 4pm and it looks great.  It reminds me of what you would expect of a caravan park back home, but without the caravans of course!  Lots of leafy trees, paths, sections of grass (or carpet as George now calls camp sites with grass), a pool and gender share showers and male and female toilets.  This is the first time that the tents are set up for the newbies.  The ‘veterans’ get theirs up in record time, and then we went and helped our neighbors.  George gave them a demonstration but it does get confusing the first time.  The tents we have on this trip look brand new, so the s clips that hook onto the poles are a little stiff, and no tent pegs are required, which is what I used to get the bloody things off in the morning, so I will have to get something else, as it really hurts your fingers trying to get them off.  But I do have to say, it is nice to have a clean tent, due to the weather on the last couple of days, the other ones were starting to get a little muddy and dirty.

So with everything set up we headed for some of the shops on the side of the road from the camp.  George recommended we get a Masai blanket for the Serengeti which we got for 10,000 shillings (6.66AUD) and without even planning to I bought an oil painting of Masai men and women for 13AUD, and it is a pretty cool picture with a lot of vivid colours, not that I have a home to put it yet, but I liked it and I am sure I will find somewhere.  So leaving the newbies to re-sort their bags, and getting it all to fit and getting their own systems in place, we went to help Simon with dinner, as the roster has yet to be put into action, with tonight and the next 2 nights out in the Serengeti it would be hard to implement it, so the next 3 nights will solely be relied upon by volunteers, and as we know what we are doing it was only fitting that we went and helped.  Dinner was great, and there was hardly any difference between Liz and Simon, it was a great fare of soup and spaghetti which was delicious.  All the lunch dishes had to be rewashed and then we welcomed everyone to the world of flapping. 

With dinner done, we launched into our PFT (plan for tomorrow) with George.  We are heading to Ngorororo Crater for the morning and then into the Serengeti for 2 nights and 2 days of game driving.  We are leaving the Intrepid truck here and heading out in four 4x4’s.  So we had to pack day bags for the next 2 nights.  He warned there may or may not be showers, as the water has to be trucked in so if the truck hasn’t been then there will be now showers and there was going to be a flushing toilet.  It is bush camping, so we are out in the wilds of the national park.  So there is a good chance that lions and hyenas mostly will make an appearance at camp once we have gone to bed.  He went through some animal calls of what we could hear at night, but to me all I need to hear is any kind of animal noise and I won’t be leaving the tent.  Toilet stops at night always had to have your tentie with you, and to minimize disruption if you had to do a no.1, otherwise known as a domestic call you did that behind your own tent, and if you needed to do a no.2, otherwise known as an international call, this required a tentie and a bathroom.  Only after you had unzipped and checked that there were no eyes shining back at you from your torch.  This is camping after all isn’t it!!!  The tents, mattresses and Simons cooking gear were to come in the pack truck and we just had to bring what we needed for the next 3 days.  With a warning of make sure all your camera’s were charged, no light coloured clothes the meeting was concluded and we headed to a local pub across the road for one beer (2500 shilling 1.80AUD) and then back to camp for bed.  It had been a long day.

So the next section of Africa begins.  There are now 7 of us travelling all the way through to Cape Town.  Lisa, Sean, Pam, Meyoukey, Manu, Dave and myself.  The other 10 kids hop off at Victoria Falls in 23 day’s time and then we pick up 5 new people and have a final number of 12 for the last section.  Each group is different and I am now looking forward to meeting them and hopefully they we will all gel okay to have a great trip.  So far the signs are all positive, but no-one will ever take the place of our last group.  That was a freak of travel nature, as those groups don’t come along often.  By the end of the day I had received 4 text messages from the last group and yes we miss you guys as well.

GOODBYE TO MY FELLOW GORILLA LOVERS

HIGHTLIGHT OF THE DAY: Eating copious amounts of meat

BUMMER OF THE DAY: Saying good bye to new friends

BUYS OF THE DAY: Goods bought at the Masai markets

WORD OF THE DAY: I’m going to miss you

CAMP SITE RANKING: Back at the Kivi Hotel in Nairobi – better than any camp site has to get full marks 5 out of 5 stars

Well the last 2 days have just been travel days to haul our arses back to Nairobi.  Today is Monday; we left Jinga on Saturday and drove through to Eldoret for the night.  Nothing to eventful, the usual 300km drive, lunch by the road, 8 hour drive on dodgy roads arriving into Eldoret around 4pm.  We were back at the same camp we stayed in our first night and the weather has really changed and is overcast and a little cold.  This was the freezer we stayed in last time, but this time I am prepared and have an arm full of clothes to put on when I go to bed, and I think the most crucial part is to close the god damn windows this time to try and trap some of that warmth.  Paps and Em upgraded here and paid an extra 100USD to sleep in the same suite that Bill Gates slept in when he was here in 2009.  They also were good enough to run some tours through their pad for the night, to show off they had a king size bed, hot water bottles, fresh towels and an ensuite.  It looked magic the lucky buggers.  It was their honeymoon, so it was also justified in their defence. To stay in the suite next door, with no claim to fame was 40USD cheaper which Mary and Pete were happy to pay, as it was their last night after being on the 60 day Cape Town to Nairobi trip.  It was here I also got my first decent shower in like 10 days.  The water was tepid (not freezing is a bonus) and I was able to finally shave my legs!  Sounds so trivial but with the showers I have had have either been too cold or tap access only and I have had this massive scratch / scab thing on my leg the size of an eggplant on my shin since I fell over at Lake Bunyonyi.  I feel half human again.

Back on the road at 6.30am the next morning, which in turn means a 5 something am wakeup.  This is the last time I will roll this particular tent up and also the last time I will be sleeping on my own, I will pick up a new tentie when we start the next section of the tour tomorrow which will be welcomed with open arms.  Even though you have all that extra room, it is nice to have a tentie.  Another drive day.  We wanted to leave a little earlier so we got back to Nairobi earlier to give us some time to get to the giraffe center and then to finish at the Masai markets.  After a couple of ‘toilet’ stops we arrived back into the big smoke of Nairobi at 12.30pm.  Not too many good-byes said at this stage, as we were heading to Carnivore’s for dinner.  So we pretty much had to unpack all our gear off the truck and get checked in for our night in a hotel!  It is amazing when you have lockers, overhead bins and massive seat pockets how much shit one can accumulate in 16 days.  I looked well and truly like a bag lady, seriously, I had like 7 bags I had to get off the truck and up to the room.  I think I may have to do some re-arranging later on tonight.  In my defence I wasn’t the only one.  Goodbye sweet truck – you were an awesome beast!

Goodbye Jools you were an awesome guide – goodbye Chris for your awesome driving – and finally goodbye Liz you’re cooking from what facilities you had was awesome and tasty!!!!

But no time for that now, as we had our pre-departure meeting at 6pm and we wanted to get out to the giraffe sanctuary to see if we could feed one.  We had 6 of us, so we needed to taxis and we agreed on a price of 4000 (40USD) shillings for each taxi, to take us the 30 minutes out, they wait for us and then the return journey to get dropped back into town, but at the markets.  We arrived and paid the 700 shillings (7USD) to get in and it was quite busy.  There was one giraffe about 15m away from the feeding platform and the rest were at the end of the paddock.  Sean and Lisa went to get some pellets to feed them and came back and said that they are all so far away because it was a week-end; they were quite full from people feeding them already and they really couldn’t give a toss about the food.  Crap.  There were a few keepers in the paddock trying to move the giraffes up to the feeding platform and I am not sure if I was happy with their methods.  They started with a branch of fresh leaves, which got the first ones attention, but every time he reached for them he would pull them away, trying to coax him closer.  He moved maybe 2m in the 20 minutes with the this method.  Next was to get a bucket of pellets and was shaking them and calling his name, which was fine, until he started to throw the pellets at his head to get him to move.  Yeah not sure if this was acceptable.  In the meantime there was a keeper in the back paddock trying to get the others to move up also throwing pellets at them.  He was successful with one, Laura, but she also stopped around 10m from the feeding platform as well.  We waited maybe another 20 minutes and there was no movement from either giraffe, so we got some great photos and resigned ourselves to the fact that they weren’t going to be feed.  So we walked out the front entrance, and I am not sure who looked back, but one of the giraffe’s had come up to the platform.  So we went back in and Em, Paps and Sean were up there quick as a flash, pellets in hand, to shove their way through and they got to feed him!  It looked awesome, so when they came back Lisa and I went up, we stood behind a young family that handicapped girl in front of us, so we couldn’t really push through, so by the time we went to reposition ourselves the giraffe had had its fill and was goneski!!!!  Oh well, I got some good photos of Em and Sean and the giraffes, so it was pretty cool in the end.

So we drove the 30 minutes back to town and got dropped off at the Masai Markets.  Now I have done a lot of markets in my time, and I enjoy them.  I like to barter and bargain with the shop keepers, making sure that we are both happy.  I just want a fair price at the end of the day, as he has to still has to make a bob right.  Well the second we got out of the taxi we were swarmed with men, pushing us and asking us where we were from etc.  We got to the front gate, and I tell you this now and it sounds dodgy, but for whatever reason, we believed them, they told us we needed a guide to walk around the markets with.  If you see something you like, it goes into a ‘maybe’ bag and at the end is when you do all your haggling (I know sounds dodgy now right).  It was a terrible experience right from the start, as your ‘guide’ was there showing you all the stuff, asking if you liked wood, did you want drums etc. If you looked at something longer than 1 minute, he would bounce over and get it for you.  Everywhere you turned they were there.  Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh Back off buster.  Anyway we probably did about half of the market when we all looked at each other and said enough is enough let’s get out of here.  So this is where the fun begins, as the ‘maybe’ bag had items in there we had no idea on cost. 

I was a little cranky by this time, and it was time to get down to business – not a good combination.  So I told my dude to not fluff around, give me your best price and let’s go from there.  I made sure that I had a price in mind that I would think fair so I had a ball park figure, cause at this stage I still had no idea on what things actually cost except my bangles that I had bought previously.  So first item up was a beautiful limestone plate – get this he wanted 250USD, okay so this i the way you want to play, I’m out.  He didn’t like my upfront attitude of are you kidding, forget the plate – lets go onto the masks – what’s your best price – he wanted 30USD per mask, I had 3 – forget the masks, he is starting to give me a little lip and talk in his native tongue to a mate, which I told him was rude.  Not an auspicious start to the whole bargaining process.  Next up was the bangles, now I know how much I paid for these so he started at 6USD each ( I paid 2USD) so I told him to forget it and the last item on the overpriced market visit was a pretty cool limestone hippo (the size of a fist) and that was 35USD!  That is ridiculous banter.  I was walking away; he was so ripping me off that I was done and ready to leave.  The others were also going through the same process.  I was literally done, and he kept coming after me asking what my price was, well I told him what I was prepared to pay, which I though was fair and he huffed and puffed and told me I didn’t know how to bargain.  Don’t tell me I don’t know how to bargain pal.  Anyway after all the theatrics I got all my purchases for a tenth of the price and even then I think I got done, as he walked away with a massive smile on his face.  I was happy with what got, but the whole process was annoying, a pain, restrictive and if I have advice to you, it is still go to the markets, but DO NOT take one of the guides, as it is CRAP that you need to have one and just deal with the sellers direct.  I did see people walking around without guides but then it didn’t really click at that point.  What a dickhead we were.  I spoke to Katie later in the night, and she got some awesome bargains going around on her own.  I am normally more switched on than that, but lesson learned.  We were all pretty grumpy when we finally left the markets, cranky and agitated.  We all thought the same and feel we had still been ripped off somehow!

Back to the hotel, to get ready for dinner and for our pre-departure meeting for our next leg of the trip.  We lose 8 amazing people to a new tour, old truck and we gain 14 new family members for our trip and new truck.  So we change trucks tomorrow, but 8 of our group get ‘our’ truck back for the next 14 days to Dar as Salam.  The new group looks good.  It is so hard coming off an amazing trip with amazing people to try and keep an open mind, but we need to give the new kids a chance and I look forward to meeting the new peeps. 

We left a little before 7.30pm for dinner, half an hour behind the group, as out meeting ran longer, but when we got to Carnivores they hadn’t started eating yet, so we hadn’t missed much.  Paps had on a traditional Cameroon outfit and he looked awesome.  The food then started to come out.  It was very much a similar experience if you have been to a Brazilian restaurant before.  They just walk around with these massive skewers of meat, slice of pieces directly onto your plate and away you go on your road to meat fest!  They don’t serve game meat, but what they did have was beef, chicken, lamb, camel, ostrich, ox balls, chicken gizzards, chicken wings, turkey, brains of some animal and ribs to name most of them.  I did try the ox ball due to peer pressure and I think he gave me the fattiest most awful piece of all and I chewed and chewed and had to spit it out it was disgusting!  The rest of the meal I stuck to what I knew and I really think it is hard to go wrong with BBQ meat right?  For 30USD (plus tax – buggers) it was okay value with dessert and coffee included.  The rip was the exchange if you wanted to pay in USD and the beers were 590 shillings (5.90AUD) when we were paying 150 shillings (1.50AUD) last night in Eldoret.  Even for a restaurant markup that is massive!  So when we came out, our taxi guy was waiting to take us home 2000 shillings in total ( 20AUD for a return trip) and then we had one more drink at the hotel bar before heading to bed at 11pm. 

I still had to re-pack my 7 bags, internet a little, write up some postcards and then get up for 5.15am.  Yeah we’ll see how we go with that.

So it is the end of another tour, being my ninth, I say goodbye to my Intrepid Gorilla’s, Chimps and Game Park friends.  You guys are up there with my top tour buddies, top friends and I know I will be seeing most of you again sometime in the future on my travels.  This is the worst part of any trip, but knowing that they are still travelling in another truck on a similar itinerary is the real sucker of this process.  The itinerary varies on the first night, which makes us miss each other the whole way which is a little sucky.  We may have a chance to catch up in the Serengeti, but we will have to keep our fingers crossed and hope for the best.

So a MASSIVE thanks to you guys and in no particular order:

Joey – Ireland J

Mike and Julia – Canada

Astrid – Australia

Lil – Australia

Jools – Kenya

Afke – Holland

Sean – Australia

Jimbob – Australia

Manu – Switzerland

Emma T – New Zealand

Laura – Australia

Brie – Australia

Katie – USA

Louise and Emma S – Australia

Preswick and Paps – Scotland and England

Pete and Mary – New Zealand

Lisa – New Zealand

Bring on the rest of Africa and I wish everyone safe travels to where ever their next adventure takes them, should it be somewhere else in this beautiful world we live in or travelling home.  I’m going to really, really miss you guys xxx

WE JETBOATED ON THE NILE RIVER

WEATHER: Wet and rainy in the morning then overcast for the rest of the day

HIGHTLIGHT OF THE DAY: Jet boating on the Nile

BUMMER OF THE DAY: Washing not dried

BUYS OF THE DAY: Has to be the Nile Special at 1.20AUD for 500ml

WORD OF THE DAY: Oh shit

ANIMALS SEEN TODAY: Monkeys and 2 dogs at camp

CAMP SITE RANKING:  Same as last night no change

Well that lightning and thunder eventuated into pretty much rain all night.  I was hoping that my tent was locked up tight enough for no water to get in it, as it was quite a constant fall all night.  It was nice to hear the rain on the tent.  The 60 day people hadn’t had a good rain on their tent all trip, so 3 days from finishing their epic journey it was quite fitting they got some rain.  There were a few claps of thunder that just literally rolled across; you could hear when it started and when it finished.  It is pretty amazing to see and hear a storm when you are camping as I think it gives you a different perspective of the storm.  The rafters later found out it hadn’t rained in 61 days!

So we got a sleep in with breakfast at 8am!  It was still raining on and off, so we had to eat in the truck to keep ourselves dry.  So needless to say the truck had mud from one end to the other with us all walking in and out and thank goodness I wasn’t on truck duties today – what a bitch.  We later found out that the bus was going to get a professional wash in the afternoon anyway, windows included.  As I was doing dinner that night, there were 3 gents cleaning and the security guard got in on the act, with his rifle strung over 1 shoulder as he scrubbed and mopped. 

I wanted to get some washing done, but as the weather was crap I wasn’t going to, as from previous washes, the items are hand washed and then hung over trees and shrubs to dry, they don’t have driers.  Anyway Jools introduced me to the man in charge of the washing and he guaranteed that my washing would be dry by the afternoon.  So with a guarantee how could I resist, so in it goes, for 10,000 shillings (4AUD) it was too good to pass up!  Let’s see how it comes back and I hope the day clears up.

Due to the weather, Sean wasn’t allowed to do his bungy jump, which was a bummer, but then after breakfast, the weather cleared enough and he was given the green light.  So he was the only one that jumped from our group and I have to say I think it may have been the most documented jump of all time.  Paps videoed, I took the burst mode, Lisa had Sean’s camera for the pictures and Jo went up the tower with Sean and got photos from the top!  Lucky guy.  All went well and he can now add Uganda to the other 4 countries where he has also jumped.  From there 8 of the group headed off to do white water rafting for the whole day, there were 5 of us doing the jet boating and the others were going into town and to have a day of rest and relaxation.  Our pick-up was supposed to be at 10am, and at 10.25am, Astrid went and enquired about the pick-up and he said he told us the wrong time and was supposed to be 10.30am.  Oh, okay – so then when he came over 10 minutes later and said there is a problem with the normal transfer, another one is on the way and will be here in 20 minutes, oh, okay.  One hour later at 11.40am the transfer finally arrives.  We aren’t too happy, as we could have been doing other things, but it was here now, so in we jumped for the 45 minute drive to the jet boat.  It was a good drive, as we were in an 8 seater minivan, it was nice to drive through village’s incognito so to speak, rather than in our massive, beast of a truck and not get as many stares.  I think sometimes we take what we have for granted.  You look at some of these small communities and what they have (and don’t have) and it makes you think is there a way that I can help somehow?  I am really seriously thinking what would be the best way to help and I’m going to have a word to Jools and also to Paps and Emma as they have a charity that they have set up themselves which is quite inspiring in itself.  Africa truly is still a third world country and they need all the help they can get, but in saying that you still see big smiley faces as we pass and lots of waves from then children, so there is still hope for the future.

We arrived at the jet boat to have Gavin waiting for us.  He used to drive the Shotover jet in New Zealand and now has this gig here in Uganda.  So we saddled up in our lifejackets and then boarded the boat.  As it worked out I got a middle seat on the end, and I think I had one of the best seats in the house.  So Gav took us through the 3 minute safety spiel and the 2 most important hand actions, one to give us a heads up for the 360 and the other one telling us a rough patch was coming up.  So after a test 360 to make sure we all could handle the pace and didn’t want to get off, we set off up the Nile.  Only after a few minutes we saw some rafters, I thought it had to be our group and yelled to Gav if we could go over there and say hi, he said hell yeah.  So at 90km/hr we literally jetted over to the first raft and it happened to be our group which was awesome.  I have to say it was so hilarious, at first you could see that they were all happy to see us, nice little waves and smiles on their faces, and as we got closer and weren’t slowing down they knew something was going to happen.  I think Paps was the most excited as he stood up and was giving us a big wave with his oar in his hand and then as we got within 10m, we swerved and made this massive wave that soaked the whole raft, and all I could do was laugh my head off as we moved then down the flotilla of rafts and continued to do the same thing to all of them!!!  It was so flippin funny, but my Intrepid raft has to be the best splash of all and it still brings a smile to my face.  WIPEOUT!!! HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA………….  I think I may cop it when they get back to camp this afternoon but it was so worth it……HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA…….

We got 40 minutes on the jet boat, which is typical.  We went over one set of rapids on the boat and got some airtime and we did about 50 x 360’s and we got absolutely soaking wet, but I have to say it was worth all the debacle this morning and to say that we jet boated on the Nile is a pretty good call to fame and was worth the 75USD we paid for the privilege.  It was very different from the New Zealand one, as that is done in a canyon, so not much room for the 360’s and it is more the adrenalin rush of hugging the canyon walls, where this experience was more going the fastest we could go at 90km and without even slowing down going straight into a 360.  Every time I saw the 360 hand action, I would say ‘oh shit’.  Gav would then swerve one way, then the other so we didn’t know which way he was going to turn and then boom, 360, and water everywhere, Nile water at that, but we figured as we were pretty close to the source, that it was going to the cleanest here than say doing a jet boat in the Egyptian part of the Nile which I just wouldn’t do.  Good theory.  A few more raft sprays, 2 more rapid runs and some more 360’s it was time to head back.  What a great experience and even better when we got off the boat, there was a cold Nile Special waiting for us, how appropriate to drink a Nile beer at the Nile.  Awesome.

The rest of the afternoon was spent at the bar, overlooking the Nile, and getting my blog updated.  They have Wi-Fi here, but it cuts in and out, so if I’m not responding to messages and comments it is purely for this reason, and I will when I get a better connection, somewhere.  My main aim is to get my blog entries uploaded when I can, which thankfully I was able to do.  Ye haa!

We were on cooking duties yesterday, so I went up at 5pm to see if Liz needed any help, stupid question, as I was the only one from my team in camp, so we were chop chop chopping till the rafter bus pulled up and the second they all got off they came straight over to rib me about the classic water splash!  It was cool to hear their side and I still couldn’t stop laughing!  It was HILAROUS!!!!

I got the nod that the washing was ready to be picked up.  So I walked to the wash room, and I swear there were at least 50 bags of washing in there, luckily mine was at the front and then the lady apologized, saying sorry that it wasn’t 100% dry due to the weather.  No shit, I could have told you that this morning.  So they were just a little damp, but there’s no way they are going to dry properly with the weather still overcast and now they will smell worse than when they went in, but they are clean. 

It was a Friday night, so after dinner we went back to the bar for a few brewski’s and to try and hook back onto the internet, which every man and his dog was also trying to get on, so I wasn’t too successful, but my blog is up to date, so I can’t complain.  It was a really good day and once again it is nice to be off the truck.