Queen Elizabeth National Park

On Tuesday, we broke camp early for our long drive west. In the afternoon, we crossed the equator again and returned to the southern hemisphere.



We stopped briefly to debunk the myth about water draining clockwise south of the equator and to take some pictures before pressing on into the mountains of western Uganda and finally arriving in Queen Elizabeth National Park. We settled in for what turned out to be a sleepless night.

I awoke at1:30am to some unusually heavy breathing only to find it wasn’t Katie but rather an elephant literally standing at the door of our tent. The bush next to the tent was apparently good eating and the ellie proceeded to munch and drop debris on our tent for an hour before the herd moved through the campsite. Next came the hippos grunting and snorting followed by the cackling hyenas around 4am.

The animals must have been more tired than we were because we saw relatively nothing during our morning game drive. Our mid-day siesta was followed by an afternoon boat ride up the Kazinga Channel which was teaming with birds, buffaloes, elephants, crocs and hippos (Our boat actually bumped into a submerged hippo at one point!)



We returned safely to shore and enjoyed some local brews as we watched our last Ugandan sunset.

98% the same . . . ?!?

We arrived in Entebbe, Uganda as a monsoon rain abated and climbed into our boat for the bumpy 1.5 hour ride into Lake Victoria. (Thank goodness for Dramamine!!!)



Ngamba Island Chimpanzee Sanctuary was established 10 years ago to house all the orphan chimps confiscated from traders or rescued from poachers’ traps in Uganda. Did you know that chimpanzees are actually part of the ape family and 98% of their DNA is identical to that of humans?




We hung around for the afternoon feeding and hurled carrots and avocadoes over the electric fence (they are apparently escape artists) to the greedy chimps before returning to the mainland and on to our campsite.

Jinja is Ninja with a “J”

We said goodbye to Kenya last week and headed into Uganda. Though there were many things we loved about Kenya, leaving behind their insane drivers was actually a relief. Thus far, Ugandans have proven to be safer drivers…either that, or fewer of them have cars.

Our first stop in Uganda was Jinja, an up-and-coming town on the banks of the Nile River. The campsite was literally on the edge of a cliff overlooking the river and the bar hung over the edge of the precipice. Unsurprisingly, the bar was popular, and it was crowded until around 2 AM the first night. We weren’t impressed with the 44 meter bungee option after having done 111 meters at Vic Falls, but the campsite also acts as a base and launch point for Adrift’s Whitewater Rafting operation. SOOOO, Pete and I signed up for a full day of heart stopping, Class 4 and 5 whitewater mayhem!

Rafting the Nile was definitely the best whitewater Pete and I have ever paddled – by far. Our Ugandan raft guide, Jeffery, had been guiding on the Nile for 10 years and looked like he belonged in the world’s strongest man competition or a black body-double for the incredible hulk. He clearly knew the river and we got the most thorough safety briefing and training either of us has ever received.

One of the first rapids had a 3 meter drop that we managed to go through backwards without bouncing anyone out. Then onto the big Class 5s - Nothing gets your adrenaline pumping like padding full force into a 15 foot standing wave that swamps your raft. We later portaged around a Class 6 (someone died there last year so the company isn’t keen on taking clients through; but our skillful kayak rescue boats blasted through the big water.) By the afternoon Jeffrey was feeling pretty comfortable with our boat and elected to flip us in one of the gentler Class 4 rapids. All and all, our day was nothing short of Epic.

We enjoyed free beers during our drive back to camp and marveled at the video footage on the highlight reel that night. The next morning we packed up and drove west towards Kampala and Entebbe.

Lake Nakuru and The East Africa Mission Orphanage

On Wednesday afternoon, we arrived at The East Africa Mission Orphanage in Nakuru which would serve as our campsite for the next two nights. We ate dinner with the orphans in the thatch roof dinning hall and they talked our ears off about everything from Obama to their favorite soccer team. Katie and I did our best to remember nursery rhymes as we tucked them into bed.

The next day we made the 20 minute drive to Lake Nakuru National Park on the outskirts of metropolitan Nakuru. The park is best known for its millions of flamingos that turn the landscape pink.

We also saw white and black rhinos which were a real treat. In the afternoon, haggled with the locals in the craft market and continued to work on our good cop/bad cop routine. We returned to the orphanage to play with the kids in the evening. We got mobbed showed Serengeti videos on our computer of lions and cheetahs. I’ve never had so many kids in my lap and hanging on my shoulders. An improvised fireworks display using burning steel wool in a swinging wire cage finished the evening.

On Friday, we joined the kids during their morning activities and sat in on class before saying goodbye and heading out of Nakuru toward the Kenyan highlands and tea plantations.

Masai Mara Game Reserve

On Sunday morning, we departed from the Panafric Hotel in Nairobi and traveled down the Great Rift Valley to the Masai Mara Game Reserve. Masai Mara lies in Kenya on the northern border of the Serengeti. Its 702 square miles support more than 2 million wildebeest, 250,000 Thompson’s gazelles, 200,000 zebras, 70,000 impala and a gaggle of cheetahs, lions and leopards as well as 450 bird species and, 57 species of raptors. This reserve is unique in that it is not a national park and thus not managed by a wildlife agency but rather the Masai people who also inhabit the land.

After the long day of travel, we were excited to find our accommodations were permanent tented camps. Before dinner, we challenged the local Masai warriors to a game of soccer. A combination of the altitude, lack of fitness and absence of skill really stacked the cards against our team, not to mention they run like real Kenyans
. . .

The next day we set out just after day break for an all-day game drive. We saw the usual giraffe, zebras, impala and gazelles as well as the three major cats – cheetah, leopard and lion. The two cheetahs were munching on the remains of an impala with a jackal waiting patiently for the scraps (see pictures). Several hawks and vultures also circled overhead awaiting their turn at the carcass. We saw the lions in several different groups but were most excited about watching two females and a host of juveniles walking down the road in front of our truck. In the afternoon we got a tip about a leopard in a tree with its recent kill. We arrived to find the leopard slung over the bottom branch along with its kill that it had hauled into the tree for safe keeping. Unfortunately though, the leopard did a lousy job of securing the kill and we saw the carcass fall out of the tree. The leopard quickly retrieved it and dragged the body to a new perch.

On Tuesday we trekked a few hours north to our campsite near Lake Naivasha. Here we “chill-axed” in the afternoon and enjoyed a leisurely morning. We wandered the local town in search of internet but the connection was down the first time and the electricity was out the next time we stopped in, so back to our overland truck for the trip up to Nakuru and the East Africa Mission Orphanage.

Katie kissed a giraffe and she liked it . . .

On Saturday, I spent the morning in the hotel recovering from the chipata and beans I had eaten the previous day. It will be some time before I venture into a local “restaurant” again. Katie however was completely unaffected and therefore setout to visit the elephant orphanage and giraffe park, so she's taking it from here.

Ok, so while Pete was curled in the fetal position (okay, he wasn't really, he actually did our laundry) I went and played with baby elephants and giraffes! We started the day at the elephant orphanage where we watched baby elephants from 1 month old up to 3 years old get fed from bottles...and get stuck in puddles of mud. Young elephants are not very coordinated, which partially explains how these young 'uns end up at the orphanage -- they get stuck in holes and have to be left by the herd. Luckily, they are taken to the orphanage and raised there until they are old enough to head back out into the wild.



After the elephants were fed the orphange brought out a big surprise, a baby rhinoceros. At about 6 months old, that rhino was the biggest super star of any rhino in the world...or at least he thought he was. He ran around the edge of the crowd and at one point he rammed right into Jen, a fellow overlander standing next to me. Luckily he was small.

Our trip leader from our last leg of the trip took us to lunch with his aunt and uncle -- we all shared a goat...AWESOME.

Then we headed over to the Giraffe center where Rothschild Giraffes are sheltered. You can feed them food pellets similar to horse food. As you can see (hopefully, if the uploading works), they eat from your hands OR they'll take a pellet from your mouth. In hindsight, that sounds kind of gross, but since twiga (giraffes) are my favorite, it was just plain awesome.

Ngorongoro Crater and Serengeti

*****
NOTE: There are great pics and videos to go with this post, but unfortunatly we couldn't embedd them, here are the links --
PICS: http://picasaweb.google.com/knolan06/Africa2009#
VIDS: http://www.youtube.com/user/katienolan2006

UPDATE: We've been able to add them in!! :)
*****

Ok, we’ll start this post with a visualization exercise: picture the most idyllic version of an African game park. Your image may include roaming herds of zebra and wildebeest and perhaps lions stalking their prey nearby. You may conjure up an image of hippos lolling in a pond while on the shore elephants munch on grass. Some of you (who have watched too much Discovery Channel) may picture a group of cheetahs moving in seamless coordination on a hunt. The Crater and Serengeti are all of these images combined. The last few days have been awe inspiring in terms of wildlife viewing as well as natural beauty.

We left our overland truck in the small town of Mto Wa Mbu and took our 9-seater custom built Toyota Land Cruisers on the rugged trip up and over the Ngoronoro Crater rim. The crater is actually a volcano that is believed to have collapsed about 2 million years ago. The rim, at 7217 feet, is a lush “mist forest” which gives way to steep cliffs careening down to the crater floor 1600 feet below. The 11 mile wide basin has alkaline lakes and flat, open plains that are packed with wildlife. We saw thousands of zebras, wildebeests and flamingos as well as hyenas, elephant, cape buffalo and other animals. There were several lions wandering the plains and it was impressive to watch the other animals scatter when the lions came their way (see video).

We took a break from our game drive to enjoy lunch next to a picturesque lake full of hippos before continuing our search for wildlife. There’s really no better way to watch lions than hanging out of the roof of a truck bumping along an African road!



Late in the afternoon, we made the treacherous drive out of the crater, past the Masai tribes with their cattle and on to Serengeti National Park. We traveled up B144 and grabbed a quick picture from the top of Naabi Hill before pressing on. We pulled into our bush camp (i.e. no fences from the animals and pit toilets) in the Seronera area just after dark.

The next day we woke up early to do a game drive at dawn and see the animals when they are most active. We saw vultures, dozens of bird species, giraffes and more zebras, impalas, and gazelles than you could count. We encountered a grumpy elephant and watched young hippos spar in a shallow pool. We got really lucky in the late morning, when we spotted the rare and illusive leopard in the tall, golden grass.



For a while it seemed like the cat would keep hiding from us, but thanks to our patience (and Pete’s rally cap) the leopard eventually went on the move. Amazingly, it turns out that Pete is a cat whisperer -- and with a little of his encouragement (see video with audio), the leopard emerged from the grass and posed for us on a rock before slinking off for a nap (they’re nocturnal).

After going back to camp for lunch and resting during the heat of the day, we headed out for an afternoon game drive. Our incredible luck continued when we found a pack of six cheetahs, a mother and five 6-month old cubs. We sat and watched the mother stalk a herd of wildebeest, and then return to collect her brood for a family hunt. The pack of cats fell into formation, and the mother zeroed in on a young zebra that wasn’t paying attention. The cheetahs were lethally efficient; seeing them run together was a real treat. We stuck around while the family munched on the carcass. The herd of zebras watched from a distance whinnying before eventually moving off. We drove for another hour or two before stopping to quietly watch the sun set over the horizon while a herd of giraffes nibbled on the surrounding trees.

The next morning was our final game drive in the Serengeti. It was hard to top the events of the previous day. We did however find a mother lion and two cubs perched high on a rock but they were shy and not interested in us. At lunch time, we took down our tents, packed the trucks and retraced our steps out of the Serengeti and through the Crater Conservation Area. We were delayed however when our truck developed a troubling rattling noise on a dusty, desolate section of dirt road just past the crater. Peter crawled under the truck with our guide, Mwangi, for a lesson in “bush mechanics”. Apparently 3 of the 4 nuts and bolts that hold two sections of the drive shaft together had rattled loose and disappeared. They used “non-essential” nuts & bolts from elsewhere on the truck, and we were soon on our way back to the Snake Park just outside Arusha.



On Friday we made the ~7 hour journey north from Arusha towards Nairobi. The clear skies afforded us an excellent view of Mt. Kilimanjaro as we neared Tanzania’s northern border. We completed the formalities at the border crossing and were pleasantly surprised to find the Kenyan visa price has been halved since we started our trip. The roads in Kenya were “under construction” which explained why our eyeballs were rattling in their sockets on the extraordinarily bumpy roads. Also the traffic pattern apparently allows passing on both sides simultaneously, even though there is only one travel lane. We were relieved to arrive in Nairobi in one piece and entertained by Azam’s (our driver) liberal use of the air horn to navigate rush hour traffic. We settled into our room at the Sarova Panafric Hotel and showered for the first time in four days.

We elected to have dinner at Carnivore, which is considered one of the top 50 restaurants in the world. As the name implies, there is only one thing on the menu: meat – all you can eat – Brazilian BBQ style. Ostrich meatballs and crocodile ribs were among the highlights. As we finished dinner, the local cuisine Peter had for lunch caught up to him in a big way. We scampered back to the hotel for the beloved bottle of Imodium and settled into the most comfortable beds we’ve had in 45 days.

Katie Visits the Hospital

Mom, breathe, if anything happened to me you wouldn’t be reading about it here :).

Last night one of our fellow travelers and friends fainted after feeling ill for three days. I went with her first to a clinic, then to the Arusha Hospital. The hospital (built by Americans) was actually nicer than some I’ve been to in the USA. Though watching the technician deal with the overly intricate data entry fields on a GE ECG originally designed for data hungry US hospitals did make me smile. Our friend is slowly getting better, and will hopefully join us tomorrow on our way to the Ngorongoro Crater.

The last three days have been “transit” days for us; getting from Dar Es Salaam to the Serengeti is quite a trek. On our way we got a glimpse of Kilimanjaro through the clouds in Moshi, and an even better view of Mt. Meru, Africa’s second tallest peak. Yesterday our campsite was about 25kms west of Arusha and was adjacent to a snake park. We got to scope out all of the species of reptiles that we hope NOT to see. They had everything from Puff Aders to Egyptian King Cobras to Black Mambas to African Constrictors. They also had crocodiles – the Aussie’s still weren’t impressed.

Peter was particularly fascinated by the pictures of an African python found in Sudan that had eaten a UN peacekeeper. He had fallen asleep during night watch when the snake slithered into camp. The snake would have escaped, except on its way out the bulge in its stomach bumped the electric fence. Then when the snake turned to strike, it got its fangs caught on the wires and died. The pictures really were worth 1000 words!

Tomorrow we pack up a small bag, leave our big overland truck behind, and pile into Land Cruisers on our way into the Crater and Serengeti for two nights. After that, back to Arusha and on to Nairobi, where we’re most likely to get our next chance to update everyone. Both of us are excited to head back into the wilderness for a while!

P.S. Check out the African Proverb we added to the right hand column.

P.P.S. We love your comments! Keep 'em coming :).

Sheer Bliss

On Friday we made the trek from Nungwi back through Stone town, over the water and back to Dar Es Salaam. But first an update from the last few days.

We left the Karibu Inn in Stone Town and traveled at Mach 2 by minivan taxi to the small beachside village of Nungwi on the northern most point of Zanzibar. We settled into our bungalows and enjoyed some pizza at an open air restaurant overlooking the Indian Ocean. The afternoon consisted of the laborious task of lying on the beach, chasing sand crabs and swimming in the incredibly clear water.

Unfortunately, the evening was not as relaxing. Katie awoke at 4:30am the next morning convinced she was being bitten by bugs. Unable to find the culprits, we went back to sleep. The next morning, the bites on her arms and legs combined with bed bug sightings by our fellow travelers meant that we were all moving to new bungalows. We settled into the aptly named Paradise Beach Bungalows, applied the SPF 85 and hit the beach. I dug a hole and made myself comfortable.

In the afternoon we walked a few kilometers down the beach past the dhow builders and local fisherman to the turtle sanctuary. We got to feed the turtles and hold some baby turtles that had hatched the previous day. Very cool.



The sky was largely cloudless and we were treated to an awesome sunset that turned the sky red. We watched the sun fall into the ocean and snapped a few pics. Make sure to check out the photo gallery to see me holding the sun.

The next day was a 7:30 am wake-up to meet our dive boat. Despite the light drizzle, we traveled the one hour down to Mnemba Island. We moored just outside the marine sanctuary on the south side of the island. The drizzle turned into a complete downpour while we pulled on our wetsuits, and strapped our tanks to our BCDs. Katie snorkeled on the surface while the divers rolled off the edge of the boat and went down to 20 meters. Despite the rain, the visibility was still quite good. We completed two dives, the first at Kichuani and the second at Wattabomi. My ears were really sore from equalizing and the rough seas on the way home didn’t help.

We're now in Arusha on our way to the Serengeti.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DA-DDY

I called yesterday to wish my Dad a happy birthday -- but, alas, he was in Texas for work. So...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR KEVIN
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU

Hope Austin is treating you well!

PS- Internet in Zanzibar is great, so we've been able to upload a bunch of new photos and videos. Check out that right hand sidebar!

A vacation from our vacation - Zanzibar

We exited Malawi’s northern border and spent two days and about 22 hours of driving (we slept outside Iringa) before arriving in Dar Es Salaam, the capital of Tanzania. “Dar” is situated on the Indian ocean and the name means “Haven of Peace” in Arabic. The city is the largest in the country and is home to 3.5 million people. Dar is enormous, sprawling, and markedly more developed than other capital cities we have visited, excluding Cape Town. There is a huge Muslim population here and many of the women wear traditional head scarves.



Aside from the usual folks who try to scam you or sell you junk, the locals have been really friendly always saying “Hello” (jambo/mambo) and “Welcome to Tanzania” (karibu Tanzania). We are easily identified as tourists because of our skin color and bewildered look...mostly our skin color. After saying we’re from the USA, the response is usually “Barack Obama!!!!”. We transferred our Malawian Kwacha to Tanzanian schillings and settled into our beachside campsite for the evening.

Yesterday morning we awoke before dawn to head over to Zanzibar. In two hours our modes of transport included: overland truck to foot to ferry across the harbor to foot to minivan taxi (i.e. death trap) to foot to high-speed passenger ferry eventually arriving at Stone Town, Zanzibar around 9:30am.

Zanzibar has a long and storied history as a slave port and trading center over the centuries. The island paradise is perhaps best known for its spices. Consequently, Katie went on a “spice tour” which explored old Stone Town, the former slave market, the ruins of a sultan's palace, and a spice plantation.



Meanwhile I opted to wander around the narrow streets alone, check out little shops, research scuba diving options and generally get lost. We ate dinner in the open air markets on the ocean. I avoided the fish kebobs but loved the chocolate and banana pizza. Today (6/2/09) we head out of Stone Town and up to Nungwi for several days in a beachside hotel. Also of note: this morning was the first morning we've woken up in a real bed in about three weeks - very refeshing. More later!

“Iwalam” is Malawi spelled backwards . . .

Two excellent days in South Luangwa National Park included a sunrise and sunset game drive in an open air 4X4, unexpectedly finding a mini-van size hippo (not exaggerating!) eating grass outside our tent after dinner, watching a teenage male elephant have a temper tantrum (see video below) and seeing vultures devour a carcass, as well as seeing hundreds of birds and other animals. (The hippos woke us up later that night because the chewing was so loud!! See video below)





We headed south back through Chipata, Zambia then turned east and crossed the border into one of the poorest countries in Africa: Malawi. We went on to the capital, Lilongwe to restock our food supplies and grab lunch. Another few hundred kilometers and we arrived at Senga Bay on the shores of Lake Malawi. Lake Malawi is the third largest lake in Africa, and one of the largest freshwater lakes in the world. The next morning we watched the sunrise over the lake (and Mozambique on the far shore.) After breakfast, Katie played beach soccer with our Kenyan guides before we loaded the truck and went north to Kande beach near the town of Chitembe.

I headed into the village to explore and ended up playing a few games of pickle with the local kids. They were fascinated by the LCD display on our digital camera and seemed very entertained to be playing with two “mizungu”(swahili for white person). There were five other overland trucks at the campsite that night and the partying and noise went quite late. Read: we didn’t get any sleep and were slightly grumpy the next day. But with nothing on the schedule, we didn’t mind. We spent the day lying on the sandy beach, laughing at our trip mates' hangovers, reading our books and playing in the surf (the waves were huge considering it was a lake). The afternoon brought a multi-hour game of beach volleyball where I revealed my punishing block and utter inability to serve. We celebrated one of our Irish friend’s birthdays and were off to bed.

We spent our last two nights on Lake Malawi at Chinteche, where we spent hours bargaining and bartering with the locals for crafts. Katie and I developed a great good cop/bad cop routine and usually paid ~30 to 40% of the asking price(Read: still over market value). We were bummed to leave our freshwater paradise but we still have four countries to cover in the next 25 days.

Next stop Tanzania . . . .