I wish I knew Amazing in Swahili
Three days in Serengeti National Park and Ngorogoro Crater is in my memories and will stay there forever.
Funnily enough our driver was named Simba after his great grand father who once bumped into a lion in the bush with a thorn in his paw. He took the thorn out and after that the lion shared some buffalo meat with him. ;)
It turned out that he deserved his name as at the first hour of our game drive in Serengeti we had 20 lions in the middle of the road! Ten adults and ten small cubs probably around two or three months old. Needless to say we stayed forever there just watching the activity as another female with her four cubs came around the corner only to be pushed away by the bigger pride. Incredible start of our morning.
The game drive also offered big herds of giraffe, elephants, Grants and Thompsons gazelle, impalas, zebras and wildebeests. Everything in Serengeti is so much bigger than I've seen anywhere else. I did not recognize the impala because it was so big, even though it is known as the McDonalds of the savannah thanks to the M on their behind and the fact that they are in every corner. The elephants are well grown and the buffalos were monsters!
In the end of the drive we saw our longed for leopard up in a tree, it was amazing to see it again but I had to try and take my focus away from the other cars around it in order to fully take in the cat. It always takes away from my experience when there is many people around but I should have been ashamed if it ruined the whole thing as it is the leopard we are talking about! :)
By the end of the trip we drove through the famous Migration that is thousands and thousands of wildebeests and zebras migrating to the Masai Mara plains after having their babies in the Serengeti. It is hard to take in the amount of animals you see in just a blink of an eye and we were all surprised that we had the timing right in the months of the year for it. They were a bit late (on Africa time you might say) this year which we are very grateful for.
That night we spent at the rim of the Ngorogoro crater with buffalos gracing outside our tents at night. It was quite exciting sitting by the fire and hearing them chewing just meters away down in the valley. We headed off in the mist of early morning down to the crater and when the clouds cleared as we got further down we saw why it is called The Garden of Eden. The sun came through in small spots and gave a magical view of the forest on the edge of the crater and the lake. The first thing we spotted was a hyena and as we drove along the shore of the lake filled with thousands of flamingos we saw another one. Simba did not want to stop for that though.. He had his eyes further ahead on a dark spot in the grass. "Big Cat" he said and we decided to go with his advise and skip the hyena. In front of us was the most beautiful male lion I have ever seen with the thickest brown mane and dark fur showing his age and pride. He was laying in the grass surrounded by purple flowers like someone had told him that this is where the people want to take a photo of you. Gorgeous!
We saw black rhino which was exciting since it was some people's first rhino and therefor we checked off the Big Five for all of us in the truck that trip. Elephants, hippos, buffalos in hundreds, zebras and wildebeests again, and many different birds to watch. Three different prides of lions were hiding in the grass in the distance and hyenas walked amongst the gazelles by the lake trying not to look hungry.
Both the way there and back was filled with cows and their Masai handlers. Boys in all ages walking on the plains with their goats, cows, donkeys, camels and sometimes joined by a zebra or two. They are dressed in red tartans and with that together with their spear they scare away the lions and leopards that would think about taking some cattle for dinner. The women are dressed amazing colors and big earrings and bracelets. We were not allowed to take too many photos of them but I managed to catch some in action on the side of the road.
I was afraid that I would have too high expectations of this park but needless to say it was some of the most incredible days spent in my life.
The land of The Lion King
We arrived in Tanzania where the children on the side of the road screamed Good Morning instead of Give Me. It was a good start to the country that I have been looking forward to the most. We drove up towards Dar Es Salam with beautiful nature around us, mountains higher than the other countries (home to Africa's highest mountain Kilimanjaro) and incredibly big Baobab trees everywhere. The people are very friendly and we quickly learned the normal phrases in Swahili; Jambo (Hi) Mambo (How are you), Asante Sana (Thank you) and Karibu (Welcome) and you hear Rafiki (friend) and Hakuna Matata (no worries) more than anything. Every time I say "thank you" I think about Lion King when Rafiki sings "Asante Sana Squash Banana" in his tree. :)
Influences from the Arabic conquest shines through with the minarets and prayers waking us up at 4.30 am every morning. The ladies are wearing all colors imaginable on their clothes and veils and the men sits in big groups to socialize with each other at any given time.
After one nights rest and finally seeing the indian ocean again we went in tuktuks to the ferry over to Zanzibar. Three night was spent on the island and it was a nice change not to be having early mornings and long drives for a while. To have a bed instead of tent mattress and to be able to fill the days with as little or much as you like was a nice change.
We explored the town of Zanzibar and Stone Town with its markets and narrow streets that you too often get lost in. It was a feeling of Arabian culture all over with spices in every corner and scent and colors that were stunning. And then some fish in between that just made it feel all the more genuine.
We explored the northern part Nungwi with its stunning beach where we were almost alone due to low season. The small but soaking rain showers that came every now and then allowed us to have one of the best tuna pastas I've ever had for lunch and later a couple of beers and coffee before heading back to town.
The drive up north is an experience itself with the dala dalas (open taxi buses) filled with the colorful women heading home or away to work, the men riding their bikes whether it is with their work suitcase or with a bunch of sticks at the back or sitting under the trees in groups playing games or discussing things (probably after work, I don't want to sound as if men don't work here), the beautiful girls in their veils walking home from school and the boys pushing their cows to pull the wagon faster home from the fields of rice, coconut palms or corn. It is very different to the rest of the countries so far. If I ever come back I will rent a bike and explore it that way.
The last day I decided to explore the Zanzibar that not everyone can see, I went for a dive on the reef outside stone town. It was lovely, one dive and snorkeling over the wreck that lays on the bottom gave me nice fishes, I got attacked by clown fishes multiple times although only mock attacks when I swam near their nests. Scorpion fishes, Lion fish, nudibranches in colors that I have not seen since the Philippines and stingray. We swam around a big school of thousand of baby barracudas and they swam around us, creating a magical feeling when swimming in the middle of the silver colons they form themselves as.
We found our favorite spot for sundowners at Africa House where we spoiled ourselves with cocktails and G&Ts with the local gin Konyagi. At night time we tried to taste the local food at the markets and found skewers with anything you could think of, seafood galore, falafel, chapati bread and our favorite; Zanzibar pizza. Not like an Italian but with a thin dough filled with ingredients and topped with egg before frying. Yummy!
After three days Henry picked us up again and we were back on the bumpy roads heading towards Arusha, the town that acts as a portal to Serengeti and Kilimanjaro. The landscape is absolutely gorgeous and for the whole first day we felt as we were in the middle of nowhere.
Tomorrow we will head to the place of one of my many dreams; Serengeti National Park and Ngorogoro Crater.
Rafiki, Simba, Timon and Pumba, here we come!
18 April
The days in Malawi is up and we are heading towards Tanzania. I am trying to write the blog posts on the truck on my phone but most often I don't have wifi to transfer my notes to my email so please bare with me.. It will be random updates these weeks and pictures will come later most likely. But those who waits.. :)
Malawi has been very different in atmosphere and nature. It is the poorest countries in Africa except for Chad and we were told to keep a look out for our bags at all times. Our camp sites have felt very safe and taking away the boys on the beach trying to invite you to their shop all the time I have enjoyed my days here. We went snorkeling in the lake and saw many pretty and colorful fishes and climbed up on an island where I saw monitor lizard.
Some of the others went on a village tour and found it very disturbing as a lot of the tour consisted of asking for donations both to the clinic and school. I am glad that I didn't go as some of us were really upset about the way it was handled. The children are being taught by the teachers to beg for money and pens as soon as they see white people. It is disturbing but of course no one can blame the ones having nothing seeing us who has so much. It is in my opinion the white people's fault from the beginning coming in with aid in the way the westerners have done in so many African countries. The population will never learn how to take care of themselves when they know aid will be on standby all the time, that's what has gone wrong already from the start. Teach the man how to fish instead of giving them fishes, I wish more organizations and individuals understood that. You are only helping them short term and after the resources are gone, then what?
Two of them were so upset about the situation that they declined the second half of the village tour so I went in their place for a dinner in the village that night. We got to sit outside on a mat with only the moon, stars and one candle to give us light and it was a beautiful meal with sweet potato soup, rice, beans, eggs and spinach cooked by the guide and his family. A wonderful experience even for me who is used to the village life by now.
Malawi was a bit disturbing with the children always asking for things instead of waving and screaming hello like we have had in both Botswana and mostly Zambia. But the nature is magnificent! Green lush hills everywhere and like in Zambia sunflowers and sugar cane everywhere. I love sitting on the truck and watching the banana plants and landscapes swirl by while taking in all the different smells of the countries we pass. Not all of them are good but that's part of the deal. :)
14 April
Another week has gone and we have crossed the border in between Zambia and Malawi.
The days after leaving Livingstone we drove 12 hours to Lusaka where with our new driver Henry from Kenya and his truck. I miss our first driver Eddie who made a great first impression by telling everyone to sit down and shut the f-k up on my first day.. Haha ;) His truck was a bit more comfortable but this will work fine as well I think. Still a Scania daddy, still going strong in Swedish style :)
After a night in Lusaka on eureka camp site where giraffes and zebras roams free we headed off towards South Luangwa National Park for two nights and some game drives. Situated by the river the camp site offered a nice atmosphere amongst hippos and monkeys. We were warned about the hippos and elephants gracing the site and told that the day before lions had been visiting in the early dusk.
I was debating whether or not to go on the drives, I've been very fortunate to do those drives where I live and the money is rolling on these trips if you're not careful. After a nice email from home telling me I got some money back on tax I decided to treat myself! and good thing i did that! The first game drive gave us a pride of lions amongst the other wild life of buffalo, giraffe, elephant and antelopes. After a relaxing day by the river we went on another drive and the first animal we saw was A LEOPARD! For those who do not know, it is the rarest of the big five animals out there to spot. I have for a year and a half lived in an area that has the highest density of the cat in South Africa and only seen it once. My old colleague has after two years never seen it. So to finally be able to see it up close, laying in a tree with its marvelous rosettes of black in its fur was incredible! I could have stayed observing it a long time. Absolutely gorgeous! Unfortunately we had to move off after a while but the afternoon got into night and we got to drive under the night sky full of stars with the Southern Cross guiding us and a bright Way that you can only see from the dark African savannah. We found a herd of elephants with small babies and sat for long to watch them eat and play. We finished off with seeing a big herd of buffalo just as we crossed the river.
I woke up early the next day by hippos (I'm trying to think of the word for the sound they make.. ) calling each other for territorial claims. I thought I heard something familiar and the second time I heard it I got out of the tent.. It was lions roaring on the other side of the river. They stopped after a while but to see the sun rise over the river is forever with me. The hippos and vervet monkeys were very active, the morning before we were fighting the monkeys off our breakfast and just as I had chased one out of our truck with a stolen apple I turned around and saw that the battle of my breakfast was lost as a monkey sat on the table drinking my tea. Oh well he did not get my pancake at least ;)
Today we drove from Chipata where we had a quick stop over and across the border from Zambia to Malawi. We got to sit at the border of Malawi for thirty minutes to wait for the person we wanted to pay road toll to. They tried to let us pay later but our well experienced driver Henry knew better. He knew that if you would do that, the police further up would give you a fine and then call his friends along the road to the city, meaning we have to pay 1000 USD or so in total.
Another couple of hours before we land on the shores of Lake Malawi for a couple of days.
First week of overlanding
My first week of overlanding has gone and what a week it has been!
Starting in the coldness of Joburg I met up with my fellow travellers at a backpackers and found a interesting group of people, most of them whom had been travelling for 5 months through western Africa, all the way from Marocco and down south. The stories I hear every day is incredible!
We sat off for Botswana and had two days of full travelling. The truck is as comfortable as expected and I find myself in my sleeping bag not only in my tent but also on the truck during the early mornings when we have all the windows rolled up and the wind is refreshingly cold ;) The rewards for having to go through the wind blowing everywhere are astonishing though and I would not change it for the world! To be able to follow the landscape change in this way shows that is the best way to travel with no doubt. Even if it means getting the cucumber and yogurt up your nose thanks to the airflow there is!
We crossed the border successfully the first day from South Africa to Botswana (I was a bit scared since I still have not gotten my visa which I applied for 1,5 years ago, but were able to get out of the country no problem) and drove a bit further Botswana’s roads are full of cows and goat but more so the donkeys. They are everywhere! I heard that there is 3 donkeys to every citizen and used for everything. We stayed over and continued our journey early next day, another full day of driving in order to arrive to the Okavango Delta, so much heard of. The first view of the delta we got from the air as the whole group went on a plane ride over it. Amazing! To see how big and flat it is and see the animals, elephants, hippos, giraffes and crocodiles. Absolutely magical! Little did I know that there was more of that to come. We got ourselves ready and headed out to the Delta early morning next day for two nights bush camping. With a small pack and our tents and equipment we got acquainted to the nkorokoro, a small boat that goes between the reeds and water lilies thanks to a polar who poles the boat forward. We unpacked and set up our tents and then we had some down time due to the heat so the group bonded over some nice card games. We had three bush walks and one sunset nkorokoro ride in the days we were there and in between we went fishing, got to learn how to do the poling and swam in the delta which also was the substitute for our showers. Cooking on an open fire and not having any shower or toilet facilities just has a special feel to it. Especially when you know you can have leopards, elephants and buffalo outside your tent at night. Our bushwalks gave us amongst other things my first wild dogs! Just as we set up for our first morning walk they were at the bank of the delta just observing us. Our driver said that he had not had anyone seeing them there in 3 years! How lucky were we?
The beauty of the delta and its water lilies will stay in my heart forever.
Our next stop was Chobe River but before that we stopped in Elephant Land. The first time I saw an elephant on the side of the road the others did not see it and the doubt was high in the truck that I told the truth. Haha lillte did they know how many more we would see! The camping was called Elephant Sands and the reason for it being that due to them being the only fresh water source in the area they have hundreds of ellies coming to drink just 15 meters from the bar. It was a night filled of elephant watching by the campfire and after a toilet break we found an elephant 10 meters from our tents. Luckily I had put my tent in between two piles of elephant dung, I figured that they had already marked their territory that night so no more needed. ;)
Chobe river was very nice with a beautiful sunset cruise watching the animals, elephants, giraffes, hippos and the most spectacular being a 4 meter long croc! The next day we went on an early game drive seeing buffalo, giraffe, sable and puku which are new kinds of antelope for me and of course elephant before heading off to Zambia. Again we had a successful border crossing over the Zambizi River which connects Zambia, Zimbabwe Namibia and Botswana.
I have been quite sick this week and it is a very stubborn flu so hard to get rid of when only sleeping in tents in the cold nights but finally now I am starting to feel better. I also tore a muscle in my back so you can imagine sleeping on a mattress and on the truck being an amazing experience. =) But it has all been in the shadow of so many wonderful experiences that it does not damper my mood too much.
We have spent 3 days in Livingstone, Zambia now and seen the Victoria Falls which is such an incredible sight! I went up in a micro light airplane over the falls and what a feeling! After chasing the baboons off the field we took off and it was such a thrill to go through the rainbows and mist it creates when the water comes thundering down in the gorge and splashes up again by its own power. You know how small and powerless you are as a human being when you see the magnificent falls in its glory. We dropped of one of us for a day on the Zimbabwe side and realized as we were taken in to Zim to the border post that some of us was without passports. If we would be stopped right there it would have been a bit of a pickle. ;) Oh well living on the edge in Africa, nothing more exciting than that.
Tomorrow we are leaving north again, Lusaka and Malawi is far away, so we are setting us up for some days on the truck again! Sleeping bag and book packed so it’s all good!
2013 Update
2013 has been treating me very well. I spent a lot of time with friends in St Lucia after finishing work in Dec 2012, went to Cape Town for some more socializing and then my parents came down for two weeks of holiday around Garden Route. It was amazing and lovely to have them down here again with me. In mid January I went back to KZN for a couple of months skipping and jumping in Monzi and St Lucia as a consultant one might say with social media and marketing for smaller businesses. In the end I had earned a bit of money while being able to find the time for my friends in St Lucia that I wished for so long before. Life was good! But as with everything it was time for new things in Sofies life and I booked the long trip that I always wanted to do. After some research I decided to go overlanding across South East Africa! Even though it was hard to leave the home away from home I have created for myself in St Lucia I found that there is no better time to do it than now. So before I knew it, I was on a plane on my way to Joburg after a hell of a lot of goodbyes in different ways and times.
It was not too sad since I will be back for a while after the trip
but it showed me how hard it is going to be next time..
Again a new adventure begins for me.
I hope you want to follow the ride ;)
