Def NOT a content to far

After clearing the cruiser quickly from the never ending shipping nightmare, we headed off west to Tanzania, bush camping near the border on the edge of the Tsavo national park, grinning all the way!! We were in Tanzania to transit west to Lake Victoria and then to Rwanda, the plan being to head north through there and Uganda then back into Kenya for the run up to Ethiopia, were we are now. Tanzania was good fun, first taking the roughish road through the Serengeti (at vast cost) seeing tons of game, including large herds of wildebeest, groups of hippos, lions, elehpants, crocodiles, zebras, and all the other usual animals, the most impresive of all being the huge number of giraffes, looking like a brontosaurus on the grassy plains. Our trip through over 24 hours (after a few more in the Nogoronogo area) we had all the fun of the self drive Safari, nearly but never quite getting stuck on the muddy tracks, getting lost and seeing some great wildlife and scenery. Camped in the park on the way through to the very beautiful western corridor, Cadie putting the cruiser breifly into a ditch after a patch of rough corrugations...the Serengeti plains the best sweeping views we have had since the Pamirs, though swarms of Tsete fly did mean some photo oppotrunties had to be spurned. Atmos once we got out of the park on its western edge on the shores of Lake Vitoria v different from the very touristy Swahili culture further east, after a night camping at a community centre for the local tribe we crossed the Mwanza gulf by ferry and encountered our first really bad African road, doubly bad given the large amounts of recent rain: soft earth with lots of pot holes and occasional big mudhole, the cruiser making distressing noises - the sound of metal cracking - when going into and out of each hole. After 40km's (and 4 hours) the road imporved, still corrugated but less holes, so we speed on west through a beautiful and relatively remote area, overnighting in a diamond mining town en route. We asked to camp but the owner thought we were mad to want to sleep in our tent when they had a perfectly good room with a shower..after a bit of negotiation the price was reduced and we slipped into our room with DSTV to watch the first game of the Cricket World Cup. A fantastic days drive on mud roads to Rwanda the next day, which could just as easily be called land of a 100,000 fields (every patch of land) than the land of a thousand hills. After a couple of days in Kigali getting gorilla permits and getting one of the car noises sorted (the bracket of a steering arm hitting the sterring damper) we headed south on the good but very crowded (with people) roads, stopping for a grim and very moving look at the genocide memorial in Gikongoro, a site were 20,000 people were massacered, the bodies now exumed from a mass grave and kept in the class rooms were the people were killed, the horrific wounds made by the machetes still clearly visible on the lime treated bodies. We had headed south to check out a patch of montane forest supposedly good for walking, a national park, though after a night camping at the park (at VAST cost) were told unescorted walks were not allowed, perhaps due to the heavy military presence there at the time, but at $30 a pop just for a walk sacked that off and headed off next day to the shores of pretty Lake Kivu, taking perhaps Rwanda's worst major road up the lakeside through some long mud holes, the cruiser, unlike some of the other local traffic, pulling through ok in the low box. 2 days to get up the length of the lake, stopped in Gisenyi for a day by the lake before heading up to Ruhengeri to see the much touted Gorillas. We trekked to see the Susa group as they are (of the open groups) the furtherst to trek to and, at $375 each, we wanted it to last longer than the one hour you are allowed with the gora's themselves. After a good 2 hour trek up through the pretty bambo forest we had a great one hour view of them, with the sun out, 2 silverbacks eating and lots of youths playing in front of us - definintely the best wildlife experience of the trip, but only marginally better than the tigers in India, and over 10 times more expensive! A great morning, but not an experience of a lifetime as some would have you believe (i.e. those that need to get a life), after the long trek down made it through to Uganda and our first enocuter with an overland truck...Rwanda itself an interesting place with freindly locals, but from our point of view too crowded for any real adventure (nowhere to bushcamp and lovely tarmac roads) , like much of the African lakes region, though at least not apparantly full of overland trucks that Uganda sadly is and which, from an independent tourists point of view, are the scourge of much of the country. . Filled as they are with the more obnoxious members of the antiopodean races, huddled together in a big loud group - to protect them from the savage Africans - we had the displeasure of encountering a few examples on our first few nights in Uganda, where we decided to stop for a rest after 2 weeks solid travel at the picturesque but touristy Lake Bunyoni in Southern Uganda... our stay there as uneventual as it was uninteresing, moved up to Kampala to get our Ethiopian visas. We had hooked up with a few other muzungus (white people, this is constantly shouted at you and is rather amusing when you shout back at them RWANDAN) at this stage and had a night in Kampala at a music festival...very entertaining. On the whole, East Africa was we felt a tad too touristique for our tastes, full as it is with often muzungu run campsites that lure you with good facililties but ultimately leave you feeling unfulifilled, too many overland trucks and not enough wild scenery, so we were pleased to head back into Kenya and then, after another Kenlowe fan pack up at the border (fuse gone), up to the north and wilder sounding Ethiopia. As it had been very wet our last few weeks in east africa decided to take the quicker though still very bad road to Ethiopia via Marsabit and Moyale, through the stunningly beautiful Northern Kenyan scenery. From Isiolo to Marsabit through Samburu country the road proabably the worst long strech of corrugations encountered on the trip, back slipping out a little but cruiser otherwise doing ok, camped in the yard of a dirty hotel in Masabit before heading north to Moyale across the edge of the Chabli desert next morning. That road characterised by lots of large rocks which made driving tiring but the going still relativly good at 40-50kph an hour, took the locals advice and declined the offer of an armed guard, the need to do so now being questionable in view of improved security on the road - the only ones who seem to take a guard now (supposedly to ward off bandits) being those gullible tourists who believe the police and pay the money for the guards - a nice little earner for the ploice, but not necessary in our view, arrived in Moyale and Ethiopia in good spirits in time for April fools day....

A continent too far???

We are still alive, and finally, FINALLY, with car.

On the 10th December we flew to NZ, after a quick stop in Bangkok to pick up some cheap t-shirts and fake converse, to celebrate Christmas with my family. After driving for the past eight months through too many countries to count on both hands it was an absolute joy to fly and eat that tasty plane food. My brother and his girlfriend Julie also flew in same day which was great for my Dad and Ngaire, although i think also a shock to the system re: noise levels. In Auckland for a week we slept and ate as many of the foods on our desert island wish lists we could find. Then we flew down to Christchurch and drove up to Kaikoura to see my Mum. She decided that as we had been without a diet of red meat for a while we should eat tonnes of it - much to the SHOCK of our poor systems but to the delight of our taste buds. Kaikoura was very relaxing, catching up with various family members and walks in the hills. Back up to Auckland to celebrate Christmas, Tom & Ngaire cooked an excellent Christmas lunch with all the trimmings, and Tom cooked the Turkey to perfection with two delicious stuffings! Boxing day we drove up to the Bay of Islands / Cape Reinga for a bit more R & R.

Back down to Auckland we were planning on spending New Years Eve at my Dads bach in Port Waikato (which he and Ngaire have just brought)...however he had the Sky installed, the internet connected.....but didn't have the power switched on...so back up to Auckland to celebrate New Years playing scrabble and drinking a few too many glasses of bubbles, and enjoying some brotherly / sisterly love...

It was a really special time in New Zealand, my dad and Ngaire having the whole family together for the first time in 7 years, but phew i bet they were pleased to have the house back to themselves after we left, as i think the constant "Dad where is" and 'Dad do you have' was driving them both crazy.

We flew back via Bangkok again (small accident with my passport, i had a rasberry drink in my bag which exploded all over my passport, its now a nice pink colour), but this time spent two nights there, the first being in a bed bug infested dive near the Koh San road, Tom didn't sleep at all and lay awake until 7am when he promptly moved us on to a cheaper and cleaner option over the canal.

Back in Bombay the shipping nightmare began. We were told it would take three days to organise, so went ahead and booked tickets to Dubai for that weekend......as originally we were going to drive through Oman...only it turns out they are the only country IN THE WORLD that hasn't signed a convention that allows you to drive a RHD drive vehcile in a RHD drive country (or so the British Embassy and Omani police say, though the only way to be sure is to rock up at the border and try) ...pain. So we decided to ship to Kenya, after being told again and again that it (not Tanzania) was the first country to get it in Africa, and it would only take three weeks to get there..

Meanwhile three days to sort the shipping turned into 5. Sitting at the port, which is surrounded by a slum from 11am waiting to load our car into the container, we were still there at 6pm and no container in sight. I completely lost it at dear Mr Parab (the thieving A...), our lying shipping agent, so he kindly requested that Tom did not bring his wife along on Monday. Luckily we were flying Emarites to Dubai and onto Kenya and we were able to change our flights at the last minute...but as this was the only flight available until the end of the month we had a few more days to spare in India after that car finally made it into the container.

So we bobbed down to Goa for a few days on the beach..thinking this would be the last time for a long time....It was lovely and relaxing.

Slept a night in Dubai airport, then on to Nairobi - yippee. On arriving we saw three giraffes, spirits were high, our car was due on the 15th Feb. We decided to spend this time on the beach in Lamu, small island off Northern Kenya. Lamu was paradise, a large mangrove island with a large Muslim community & old town, but with a v relaxed - not like Kunduz - atmos, and all the locals very friendly. We did a few boat trips, snorkling, fishing and swimming, the highlight being a three day trip to the island of Kiwayu up near the Somali border, with a Canadian girl, Mich, and a crew of three chilled out dudes. We slept in a tree house, the whole island with no electricity or running water so a real desert island experience, and well worth the journey for the amazing snorkling & sailing - the highlight of our cruiserless travels /travails.

The 15th turned to the 18th for the arrival of the cruiser and we headed back to Mombasa in anticipation of being reunited with the old girl..., but then the 18th became the 23rd, due to delays at Dar Es Salaam, as it turns out the first port of call for all India / East Africa bound ships... so we headed down to Tiwi, a really quiet & beautiful beach with ace wildlife, tooo much as it turned out: huge cockroaches crawling out of the shower plug hole all over my feet (yep i screamed) not much of an added bonus. I complained, only to be told 'you Europeans come here and expect too much', i replied 'don't charge European prices and i won't expect European standards'..so we moved to a nicer place down the road minus the house guests.

Then the 23rd became the 1st and as TIA ('this is Africa') it finally rocked up on the 3rd, a Saturday...

And now our ship has finally come in..... After 6 weeks care of the shipping liner Global Container Lines (it would probably not pay to repeat what we have nicknamed them..) on the good ship Global (lack of) Progress. Now that we have it, were off for some major cruisering. The plan, drive clockwise round Lake Victoria via the Serengeti, up to Burundi (maybe) and Rwanda (and the gorillas), then Uganda, back thru Northern Kenya to Ethiopia, quick spin round the Siemien mountains, not through the Danakil Depression / Afar desert, but desert yes on up to Djibouti, where we will ship home early May, having sorted out a v cheap shipping deal thanks to the very kind efforts of Mark Allen - thanks Mark! It is probably fair to say that the last two weeks have been a major pain in the backside, and had we known it would have taken as long as it has to get here we would not have gone for it, but chanced our arm at the Omani border or stayed in India (though our time there was limited to mid March as 6 months is the max for a vehicle there). The question as to whether Africa is 'a continent too far', we will be able to answer in two months....