Hong Kong sightseeing

Nothing like a good nights sleep and the a delicious breakfast to get us started.
A nice relaxed pace in the morning before we left for some walking and sightseeing. First stop: Gold fish market:

It seems that a well placed aquarium can do some serious feng-shui for you which is why there is a whole street full of places like that on the picture. We didn't find Nemo however.
The rest of the day was more walking, more sights ending with light and music show at the harbour

Went on a bit of a walk on the other side of the harbour to try the worlds longest escalator going up the hills. Had a long walk back and when we finally got back to the harbour police had sealed of most of that part of city due to Halloween - which is a BIG thing in Hong Kong. So we had to follow instructions of where to walk and when to walk - but in the meantime we enjoyed the crowds who where all dressed up for the evening.

Didn't get back to the hotel until late so we had a nice dinner in the room looking over the city before crashing to bed. This is travelling.

Good morning Hong Kong

Arrived in Hong Kong after 12 hours. Felt a little like minced meat eventhough we had nice seats - row 91 A and K. Top deck. Lesson learned - do not have a great sleep the night before you have to do a long haul flight. Not too easy to sleep on plan even with a full size bed.
Pleasant suprise - no queue at immigrationsdesk, luggage arrived on the belt before we were there, picked up some cash and a Octopus card for the ride to the central station and we were on our way. 1 hour later we were at the 36'th floor of the Langham Place hotel, sitting in the Club L lounge with a small but delicious breakfast in front of us taking care of the practical details of checking in, luggage left on the ground floor.
After a short while we got the key for our room on floor 35. Vincent was so effective.
Luggage arrived 5 minutes later, Malene dived into a 3 meter wide bed and we slept until the early afternoon. Had a great view over the harbour from our room. Decided to make use of internet before going to bed and catching a few hours of sleep.

Got up and decided to go for a walk in town in the evening for a bit of food.

Hong Kong here we come

Flew out of Jo'burg in the morning. Not much to add to a long flight of around 12 hours plus lot's of timezones. Cathay service and good inflight entertaiment and lot's of: "Mr. Korsgaard/Ms. Jacobsen would you like this or this" or " what main dish would you like to serve from the menu?"

We like service - hope we get some more in Hong kong.
Didn't sleep that well - maybe due to the fact that we had the best sleep for weeks last night in Jo'burg.

Leaving Madagascar

Last day in Madagascar.Today we fly out to Johannesburg and then to Hong Kong. One of the longer legs of the trip.
Left for the airport a bit early and found ourselves waiting outside the check in area for the counter to open. Other than that not real experience. The airport in Tana is the size of a one family house so everything is more or less in the same room.
One oddity - we could only pay in US dollars in the airport so we sat there for an hour with nothing since the prices were crazy.
Got on the plane for Jo'burg - small one - and arrived with no problems. Only little detail. Shared our row of seat with french speaking ultra-nervous extremely smelling nun. Who refused to sit in her seat but wanted my seat. So after I while I let her sit close to the aisle. She definitely needed the space to pray - it was visible. Have never seen anyone so nervous on a plane before.
Arrived in Jo'burg with no problems, got luggage, hotel in airport, nice dinner at the hotel - and the best bed for weeks. Went to bed early. How wonderful to be heading for Hong Kong

Stylish Tana

Woke up early to the sound of church bells. 5:30 is perhaps a little bit early to start with the kind of noise but not in Tana. Seemed to me that when one church was done with the ringing the next one started only just to add a little more volume to the bells. So why not get up early and do some blog-writing. Oops, Internet not working. Maybe tomorrow then.
Our last day in Tana and before 2 full days of traveling - first to South Africa for a short stop and a night at the airport hotel in OR Tambo airport in Jo'burg and then a looong flight to Hong Kong. So today is dedicated to "chill out" in Tana.
We had breakfast with the group and booked a table for the dinner at the "La Varangue" restaurant. The rest of the group will go to another place to have a farewell dinner - we have mixed feelings about that. It would be nice to be with them for a final evening - on the other hand they have different expectations to what's included in the dinnner (Fish-finger-salad), and we would really like to try the best place in Madagascar - at an extremely good price that is.
So we went on our morning walk to the centre of Tana. Super morning with lots of sunshine and busy city. Went to the big station and realised that there was only one platform and no trains. Walked back on the main street to find a nice cafe where we had some quiche, ice cream and drinks. Had a short stop at the Varangue on our way back to the hotel just to check out the place. It looked really nice.
Spent some time on the hotel before walking to the Hilton for an afternoon swim in the pool. By now it was called the "Carlton" since it had not been able to upgrade the standard of the hotel and therefore could not keep its Hilton brand. Pool area was nice but looked a little 1980's although not too bad. Hotel was a big concrete block, not making Tana any more pretty but certainly big compared to the rest of town.
The afternoon turned out to be cloudy but warm and soon some of the others from the group arrived to hang out with us after their morning/afternoon trip to various bird/lemur/wildlife parks.
Went back to our hotel to get ready for the evening, and went to La Varangue for dinner around 18:00. It is a nice small hotel with restaurant, they have a big terrasse where we had a Kir Royal before dinner. And then a delicious and rather big 3 course meal - not a the Michelin level but certainly close to. Add a bottle of nice french red wine and it was a perfect evening for us. How about "Brasse de Jambon a 16 heures dans temperature basse avec pommes des terres a'la ancinenne" for main course. Only the French can do that and with success.

One small dissappointment - the main chef was in France so there was no "Special menu gourmande" - but the alternative was certainly good.

Back to Tana

Woke up to the sound of the waves hitting the beach. Just outside the beach bungalow. Had a quiet morning. Malene took a swim before we had to pack our stuff and leave for the transit back to Toliare for our flight in the evening.
So just as yesterday it was back in the boat and when we came to the the beach in Toliare we were greeted by the ox-cart guys only this time some 500 meters from the shore due to low tide. So we had a long ride back to the beach negotiating the mud-flats and the shallow water here and there. Not the most pleasant mode of transportation - no suspension at all, very bumpy.
Spent the afternoon in the garden of a hotel before we went to the airport.... ok, tiny airport of Toliare. Had the excellent experience of flying domestic with Air Madagascar - the way flying is supposed to be. Security check - no, passport check - no, ticket - handwritten, limitations on what items you can carry on-board - NO. It will probably be a chock to most people in the aviation industry but we made it to Tana in time. The airport in Toliare is not the most congested in the world - there was a single scheduled flight out of Toliare today - ours.
Got back to the hotel we originally started from some 14 days ago - Radama. It looked much the same, we even got the same room. On closer inspection we realised that we had no power in our room - it was the same case for the rest of the hotel. But after some weeks on the road we didn't really take notice of it. We just took our headlights out of daypacks and switched on our own "mood-light". A bit later we even got a candle from the guy in the reception.  Problem solved.

To Anakao

Left the hotel in the morning for the transit to Anakao. Quite an experience. Went to the beach and were taken by ox-cart to a small boat moored a bit from the coast. The transit to Anakao took a full hour in the boat. Arrived at some very nice bungalows that were right on the beach.

Did a bit of snorkling in the morning but it was very disapointing. There was extensive damage to the reef and very few fish. Spent the afternoon and evening relaxing.

Final drive south

First late morning for a while. Didn't get up until 8, had excellent breakfast before we went to the pool. Morning swim and relaxing in the sunshine thinking about those at home where the temperature is probably a bit lower.
Slow morning on a Sunday is sooo good.

Left around noon for the final day of driving in the bus. It feels really good. Making our way south it was clear that living conditions got worse as well as poverty. The landscape got drier, only very few rice paddies but casava planted here and there. The landscapes continued to be stunning as always

Exploring Isola National Park

Up early for a very nice breakfast. Bread, fruit, the, juice. Everything.
Headed for the Isola national park. Not a place with so many animals but beautiful scenery.
First stop - Canyon - Had a fantastisc hike in the canyon.

Next stop in the afternoon, some hills with a natural swimming pool. Too many tourists at the pool so we decided to head back for the bus instead. Good decision because on our way back the dark clouds came and we could here thunder in the distance. The rest of the group just made it back to the bus before the tropical afternoon shower pounded us with rain and lightning and thunder for a full hour. Very intense but also very refreshing.
Had a nice evering that the hotel including yet another nice three course meal. So difficult when you have to choose between three really delicious starters, main courses and desserts. Traveling is so tough on you.

To Isola National Park

Left Ranomafama early. The drive out our the park took a full hour on some really bendy roads but as we drove south the roads got better and less twisted.
Visit to small paper factory to see how paper was made some centuries ago. Appearently a very big secret back then. We had lunch at same place before we headed south towards Isola.
Had a short stop outside town to see ring tailed lemurs in a small park. Very good experience. Lots of lemurs and they got really close to us.
Headed south for a few more hours into the darkness as the sun set, and as the clouds got darker and darker. The landscape changed to completely flat plains so we had a great view of the thunderstorm we were heading straight into.
Arrived late at very fancy hotel and got a fantastisc room. Le Jardin du Roy. A slightly different experience than our last place where we didn't have a flushing toilet. Here we have a big bathroom on the groundfloor and a smaller one on the first floor. And an enormous bed, and people who knock on your door in the evening to come in and prepare the room for the night. Oh, yes, this is much more like traveling.

Ranomafama National Park

This morning was a bit early. OK, the twitchers had left the hotel at 4:30 to hunt for birds, so leaving at 7 cannot be stated as early. Anyway - I was up for a morning walk - 5 hours in the rainforest. Malene wasn't really feeling ok, so she stayed at the hotel.

The walk in the forest was really good, saw a few lemurs, cameleons, some birds and of course spiders. Our guide was really good at explaining the different trees and plants and how they interacted with the eco-system.
Had a relaxing afternoon. Malene back online again. We decided to hang out at the hotel and enjoy the afternoon together.
Had the "Fawlty towers" dinner. It was obvious that the owner really wanted us the have a good experience but maybe he had his hands a bit too full - even though the 14 of us were the only guests. So when a couple of the other people from the group left the table because there weren't really feeling well he got very confused, I was served a pizza, not the one I'd ordered but it looked really good until it was removed from the table a few minutes later and replaced by another pizza. Anyway we got our food and some free entertainment.

Heading further south

Didn't really slep well last night. A combination of the short bed, sharing a room with 7 other men and a very wierd smell was perhaps all contributing to it. Only cold water for the morning shower. At least it gets you up and awake. Left "Frilandsmuseet" at 8, did a short drive to town to see some guys doing wood-carvings. Had a very nice drive south even though the roads were really bendy and Malene got quite motion-sick.
Arrived at the hotel with "bloken" girlfriend only to realise that they were still working on the plumbing in our room. So we waited for 1½ hours - still with bloken girlfriend only to get a room that was not really finished - un-finished as in they were still in the process of building the room.
Power was out in the entire town so there was no water - so what do you do? Get a beer. Malene passed out on a sofa and when we finally got the room she went to bed. When the water and power came back on it was obvious that somebody hadn't done their job right since there was water coming out of the wall in the bathroom so we had a visit from the local plumber at around 7 in the evening. Some things are the same all over the world - appearantly.

Tritriva volcano crater

Had really nice breakfast this morning. The forest lodge in Andasibe had taken "petit dejuner" to the extreme so for the past three days breakfast had been half a baguette (dry) and some tasteless jam, garlic tasting butter and a single cup of tea. This morning we had crossaints, jam, tea, papaya juice - the way it is supposed to be. We had a short drive - that took forever because of partly missing road - to a volcanic lake - Tritriva. 146 meters deep and clear blue colored water. Same shape as the island of Madagascar, almost.

Local guide told the story of the myth around the lake - two lovers not being allowed to marry so they jumped into the lake. Had a nice walk to the hilltop near the lake where we could see the fantastic scenery below of all the different fields, houses, streams as far as you could see. Walked down the road and enjoyed the people, houses, scents, smells - just about everything before being picked up by the bus.
Drove back to town. Bought stamps at the local post office, had a short pousse-pousse drive back to the hotel, lunch in the garden and headed towards Ambositra.
Stopping a few times on the way there to enjoy the scenery, rice paddies, a bridge that had been blown up during the unrest in 2002, a craft shop before we finally made it to the guest house at around 17:30.


Rolling thunder when we arrived at the lodge. Real rolling thunder. Seemed to go on forever. And some lightning every now and then.  Had local food for dinner - veggie soup, rice and meat and some fruit for desert.
Local group came after dinner to entertain with some music and dance. It was great. Especially the last part when we all danced with them in a big circle on the floor. Very intense.
Slept in a big dorm - men and women separate dorms. Bed was too short for me - but that wasn't really a surprise in this country where the average height seems to be around 1,55 m.

Antsirabe - the coolest place in Madagascar

Left the camp at 8 in the morning. Headed back towards Tana. Had a few stops on the way there. The scenery just as beautiful as on the way out the other day.
Headed south towards our destination Antsirabe a few hundred kilometers south of Tana. One of the larger towns in Madagscar but still with only a few hundred thousand inhabitants. Had a few stops on the way there to look at the local farming communities and the local villages.
Arrived in the afternoon. Heavy clouds covering the sky and some thunder in the horizon. Had time to do a short walk to see the French hot springs hotel, the local railway station and the memorial for the local tribes.
The town is in the highlands of Madagascar so it is quite cool here. In the winter it can get really cold but this afternoon it was just a pleasant 22 degrees and not to humid. The cost is probably going to be such a big difference- but that will not be until a few days.
Got the penthouse room at the hotel - really nice and big. What a nice change for once to have a real room.

Lemurs, lemurs and more lemurs

Had to get up early - on a Sunday. Not ok. But since we headed for another walk it was ok. This time some 15 kilometers up a road/dirt track in a primary forest. Too forever to get there since the road was so bad. Spent the entire morning getting to the forrest and doing a 2 hour walk before heading back.
Jungle walk supposed to be on a path - ended up being more like trrekking including crossing small stream on a tree trunk. Guide managed to get us very close to a group of lemurs but also got lost in the moat on the way back. But we managed to get back to the buzz.
Stop at other lodge for light lunch and opted in for the lemur island. What an experince. Canoed to a small island where the was about 25 lemurs living. And they were happy to crawl all over us. Malene wanted to take some of them home. I said no !

Got back to the camp before dinner and chose to eat out at a local place. So Malene, Rachel and I walked 500 meters to the main road and had food at the local restaurant. The meal consisted of rice (lots) and some Zebu meat and some sausages. Could have used some gravy with the rice but the food tasted really nice - and the price - 3000 Ariary pr person. Around DKK 8.

Indri, indri

Went out on an early morning walk until 12. Opted-out for the even earlier morning walk to see birds. Apperantly this was a good idea, since it was a bit misty in the morning which meant they did not see so many birds - those who got up at around 5 in the morning.
Woke up and could hear the Indri indri cry in the morning. Really loud. The loudest cry in the animal kingdom. And the way they keep the family together and mark their territory.
Did a short drive to the entrance of the forest reserve and spent 3 hours walking with our guide. Saw a lot of animals - birds, indri, boa snake, spiders - including a pair of leeches a bit to close.
Back for lunch at the camp site. It seems that the coordination of food is not their biggest priority so we waited for our lunch for around 1 hour and 15 minutes. Just enough time for a short afternoon nap before we headed for the local village for a short walk. Did a short stop on the way at the local orchid park but since that rain season has not started yet there weren't that many flowers to look at.
Arriving at the village was kind of surreal. The total population of the village and the surrounding smaller villages is estimated at 12.000 persons. Yet they had a railway station the since of that of a larger danish town. It turns out that they did a lot of mining and lumber trade some decades ago and that was the reason for the beautiful French station building. The railway is not really operational but might be reopened in the coming years.
Another feature - a Michelin railway car. It was in good condition. There are only 5 or so left in the world and this one still ran every now and then.
Had a really good walk in the village. Small, rural, very charming and many friendly local people. Bought some fruit at the local market and enjoyed the afternoon. Got back to the lodge and had the best mango in a long time. Such a diffence in taste and texture when it is not shipped and reefed all the way to europe.
Dinner - for the last time - at the restaurant. We wanted to sit outside and not inside with the rest of the group. That was appearently an offensive act so the waiters tried to ignore us the rest of the evening. We got our food and it was ok but what a strange attitude.

Andasibe - here we come

Back on the road although it is only a single day of driving. Took a while to get out of Tana. They don't really have roads here - it's single lane all over the place. But it seems that the traffic is much less hectic than in Africa
Old castle outside of Tana. King used to live there. Reminded us of something from the Viking age. Originally only a small wooden house for the king and one of his 12 wifes. The other wives had their own castles on 12 seperate hills in the area around the castle.
Walls for the castle quite impressive - 16 million eggs used for constructing the walls. Hard as concrete. Another trivia fact - North east is the most sacred corner of the house also in present days. It is the one direction towards ancestors. So thats where the king had his bed.
King himself- small man - 1,45 meter. Did one shower a year with his wifes. Water for the royal shower was collected in another sacred place in the valley by 70 virgin girls and carried in buckets on their heads to the pool at the palace.
Beautiful view from the top of the hill overlooking the countryside - just able to see parts of Tana in the horizon.
Lunch stop a bit late after having driven through some beautiful hills. Right next to a small river. So different from last trip where lunch and every other meal was always "hurry hurry". This was much more relaxed and our guide told us we could walk a bit along the road. Then the bus would come and pick us up. Yet another nice surprise just to be walking there and enjoying the scenery. Could be a bit a like the alps - mountains, trees, small river, lots of green grass and plants.

Arrived at the camp site and got the key for our bungalow at 16:30. Not a long day but so many nice new impressions.
First impressions of Madagascar - it seems more organised, definitely less touristed (very small international airport indeed), people are very friendly and most importantly you are not constantly pestered with people who wants to sell you souvenirs or simply want money. A bit laid back. On the downside. Tana was really smog-covered in the afternoon. It turns out the the majority of people still use charcoal or wood to cook food so it was very easy to spot when it was dinnertime.
Went on evening walk to find some nocturnal lemurs - partly successful but we also spotted a lot of other animals and it is always an experience to walk in the forest at night with all the different sounds and smells.  Came back for dinner. End of day.

Hanging out in Tana

Got up early in the morning and had breakfast in the restaurant. Bumped into an Explore-group that had just come back from "our" tour. Said hello to our guide who was on the way to the airport with the group going back to Europe. No plans for the day so we stayed in the room and had a quiet morning. We finally managed to get up and out into town around 12. Walked to the centre of town to see what Tana was like. Such a nice place it seems. A bit organised, very laid back. Lot's of people and trafic but not chaotic in any way. Had a nice lunch in a restaurant and headed back to the hotel to meet with the group. Went on a short afternoon tour to the Tana zoo where we saw lots of lemur, birds and other local animals. Not the best place to see them but it was fun to see a lemur family play around in the afternoon sun. Headed back for the hotel only to realise that we are still in Africa. Malene managed to get a shower. The water stopped when I had just gotten shampoo in the hair. Then there was no more. That must be tomorrow morning then.


Information meeting with the group and a nice dinner before heading to bed.

Heading to Tana

Left Nairobi. We had a flight to Antananarivo this afternoon so we had plenty of time to pack the backpacks, enjoy breakfast in the garden and go to the mail office to send a letter. Left for the airport way too early - at 12:00 - but it is Africa, and everything can go wrong. So instead of getting to late for the flight we spent some hours in Nairobi airport which is about as exiting as boring wednesday at the office.
On the plus side - a very good cafe at the end of the terminal where we could hang out and watch TV and get a good lunch. And another plus - Africa's relaxed attitude towards airport security. Canned coke through security - no problem. Metal detector beeps when you walk through. No problem - just do it 3 times in a row and you are let on the airplane anyway.
Left the runway 10 minutes before scheduled. Somethings clearly not how it's supposed to be....
Had a short "tecnical" but scheduled landing in the comores islands before we finally arrived on time in Tana. At 21:00. No problems at the immigrations office, luggage arrived a few minutes later and a nice guy, Ejnar (spelled Aina) was waiting for us outside the terminal. Not difficult to spot us. We were among 4 mzungu's on the flight.
25 minutes drive from the airport through dark parts of the town until we arrived at the hotel. A very nice place on a hilltop. It seems so much different from Africa. So organised. Maybe Madagascar is the Sri Lanka of Africa. Everything seems to work in a very organised way. Let's hope it continues that way. No beer tonight in the bar. Everything is closed it seems.

Elephants and giraffes

Had agreed with the taxi driver the other night that he would come and pick us up for Elephant park and Giraffe farm this morning - at 10. Not that it was going to happen. This is after all Africa - and Africa has Africa-time. But to our surprise we met with Felix at 10:00 outside the gate. His was the black Mzungu.

Of to the elephant park where we enjoyed an hour of elephant orphans being fed, playing with each other and finally taking a nice swim in their pool. Then we headed on to the Giraffe farm where we could hand-feed the giraffe. Malene got a big snug from one of the giraffe.

Our plan was to have Felix drive us to the Yaya center so we could have lunch there but it seemed that our taxi was a bit tired. When we looked into it we could see most of the dashboard missing and wires everywhere. It turned out there was a small problem but Felix was sure he could solve it there in the parking lot. So when we came back from the souvenir shop 30 minutes later he had hot-wired the taxi. He just needed a screwdriver to start it. None of the electric circuits where functioning so speedometer, lights or anything else didn't work. Not a big problem in Nairobi. We made it to the destination. Hakuna Matata.

Did I remember to mention that 1990's hits are played all the time in the radio. Just heard the hit this morning. Mariah Carey - 1995 single. It feels so good to hear the music from back then :-) All the memories.
Had lunch, did internet a couple of hours before we walked to Veroniques office to pick her up for dinner. Walking in the rush-hour traffic was quite an experience. The smog was crazy. We made it to the office, met Veronique and walked to the fancy ex-pat restaurant nearby to sit in the garden cafe and have dinner. Yet another contrast to the out side world to sit in a quiet garden and enjoying pasta, sushi and later cake for desert. So easy to forget the real world.
Drove back to the camp, said goodbye and relaxed the rest of the evening. Packing and travelling day to Madagascar tomorrow. Fingers crossed. Had a mail this afternoon with second change to intiniary of our trip over there.

Lazy Monday

A nice day. Slept a bit late. Had breakfast in the garden. Read most of my Uranium book.

http://www.amazon.com/Uranium-Energy-Rock-Shaped-World/dp/0670020648

And just relaxed. Didn't leave the camp at all. Had a good dinner and went to bed not too late. That's how vacation is supposed to be - sometimes.

BBQ with Fred

Got up early enough to say good morning to "Fred the friendly goat" before the local guys put a knife to his throat and started to prepare him for the BBQ in the evening.  We had to pause the breakfast and walk to the other side of the lawn to see how they took the skin of him.

He was hung in the shed to dry the rest of the morning. Ronel, Malene and I discussed how to prepare him and wrote a short list of things to pick up at the local market to marinate him. We had laundry done the other day so there was a lot of clean clothes to pack in the back packs.
Drove of to the Wildebeest camp - our place the next couple of nights. Picked up some groceries on the way to Yaya mall where we met with Veronique before we headed back to prepare Fred.
Had a nice BBQ evening with a couple of guides incl Ronel. It was so nice to do real food. We had asked the kitchen to prepare some Ugali for us and a nice salad. Then could focus on the BBQ. It was just so nice to hang out and the result was fantastic. Fred was truly a good goat.

Saying goodbye to the truck

What a difference to wake up in our own room, in a bed, not having to pack up tent and eat breakfast at 6:30. We were up early however to say goodbye to the truck and the guys who stayed with us at the campsite but continued the trip north towards Uganda and the gorillas.

We waved goodbye to them and the truck at 7:00 and decided to do laundry instead of going back to bed. 74 pieces of dirty cloth in total incl. two smelly sleepingbags. Handed it in and did some internet before having breakfast.
Sat there in the garden in front of the house and just enjoyed the quiet morning - a bit cloudy and chilly - but what a nice feeling to finally be on our own. Not having to rush somewhere as early as possible. Enjoyed to coffee before we decided it would be best to head back to bed. Woke up at 11. Shower and off to the Karen Blixen farm to meet up with Malenes friend Veronique who has just arrived in Nairobi where she'll work for an NGO for the next half year.
Had lunch in the garden with her before we headed of to the museum to see Karens house. Realised that one of Kenya's famous TV-hosts had his wedding reception at the Karen Blixen house so we had a nice guided tour of her house with wedding music and speeches in the background. Spent some time enjoying the wedding unfolding before we left for town.
Yaya Centre was the first type of civilisation we'd been to for a few days. Had coffee while we tried to tell Vero all about our trip. Checked out mall, got some shaving foam - much needed - and had a nice conversation with a really cool guy in the bookstore. He was kind enough to recommend a super restaurant just across the road where they served good African food.
Best dinner in a long time before we headed back to camp. Was a bit tricky to find a taxi and agree the price and where to go but we got back to the gate. Meet our ex-guide in the bar. We now have the goat - it was tied to the fence and didn't look very happy ! So tomorrow there will be big BBQ in the camp. Can't wait to have a laid back sunday with nothing to do but relaxing and cooking a bit.

Last day on the road

Last camping morning. The road to Nairobi is not the best neither in Tanzania or in Kenya plus last border crossing this time. Did I forget to mention that traffic in Arusha breaks down from 7 in the morning.
Traffic in Arusha was totally broken down this morning but in some way we managed to get out of town - only to realise that the road north didn't really exist. It was a dirt track, 4 meters narrow with patches of tarmac here and there but mostly biiiiig holes that we negotiated our way through.
In short - bumpy roads like nowhere else we've tried on this trip. There was of course work in progress in order to fix this if not only, then at least very important transit route between Tanzania and Kenya, but it was African style. So just when he had done some 4 km's on a real road there was a diversion to a make shift dirt track because the real road was being resurfaced. And so it continued for 200 kms. Got to the border only to realise that we had to fill in more forms, wait in line for exit stamps, entry stamps, visa, more forms. And after an hour or so we narrowly got the truck through the long lines of other trucks that were parked everywhere.
Do I need to mention that the roads/missing roads continued on the other side of the border. The dirt roads just with the added feature of speed bumps. Arrived in Nairobi out skirts around 15:00 only to find out that it was rush hour - and traffic was totally broken down. So it took around an hour before we made it to the Hotel where half the guys got of. A lot of good byes and a few hugs before we headed with the truck into the rush hour traffic again.
Reached the camp site at around 17:00. Been on the road for another 10 hours but the final 10 hours this time. Got our room and couldn't help to feel a bit wierd - 10.500 driven through 7 African countries in a little more than a month with so many sights and sounds and smells to digest. It's going to last a while.
Got our stuff off the truck and had dinner a little later. 450 Shilling per pax - for a nice soup and some good meat with veggies and mashed potatoes. Soo nice. Had a few beers with the guys that continue North tomorrow before going to bed.

Happy Birthday

Woke up at 5:20. Realised that a dog had slept just outside our tent so that was the explanation for the warm night in the sleeping bag. It was 13 degrees in the tent when we went to bed last night so pretty cold.
Had breakfast and just when I was about to leave the guys from the kitchen came with a big birthday cake singing "Happy Birhtday".

6:30 in the morning on a Thursday. Can you imagine a better birthday? I can't.
Got into the cars at 7:00 and headed down into the crater. Had the most amazing game drive where we saw a lot of Zebra's, Wildebeest, Buffalo's, Flamingo's - it all. And a lot of lions too.

Headed back to the camp site for the evening BBQ and last party in the bar. Got fairly drunk with some of the other guys incl guide. Decided that we must have BBQ when we get to Nairobi and buy a goat.

No balloon trip this time... :-(

Woke up at 4:45. Had to be ready for 5:15 pick up to go to balloon site. A long story short - it was too windy to fly. Our pilot waited until 7:00 to cancel the flight so we had all the time to admire the most beautiful sunrise in Serengeti before we headed back to the others and our Landcruisers to continue the morning game drive.

Saw hippos enjoying the morning before we headed back to camp for brunch. Mikkel was completely broken down. The Serengeti flu had caught up with him so instead of having food I just sat on a chair in the shade and tried to go to my happy-place.
Continued with the game drive at 11 and saw - among other things - Lion sex. Dont blink - it takes around 45 seconds - done - male lion back to sleep.
Decided it was smart to head to camp instead of going on 1 hour Massai village tour. Good decision. The drive out of Serengeti took around 1½ hours on bumpy road.

Camp in Arusha

Left camp early.
Driving for hours
Stopped for shopping and souvenirs in Arusha.
Tomorrow we'll leave for Serengeti !

On the road towards Arusha

Got up at 5, breakfast, left hotel at 6, boarded boat at 7. Lot's of waves so plenty of puke on the boat.
At the truck in Dar at 10:30 - headed to supermarket to shop for lunch and drinks. On the road all day and made it to less than nice camp just before sun set.
Tents up, dinner, into sleepingbag. Another day on the road.

Back to Stonetown

Stayed back in Nungwe while rest of group left for Stone Town in the morning.
Cloudy morning but clear afternoon. Did a lot of reading and whenever a break was needed from the book it was so easy to just sit and enjoy the blue sea. So nice.

Spent ½ hour on the beach in the afternoon before taking taxi back to Stone Town.
The others were already at the hotel so we joined them at the "Africa house" hotel for sunset drinks and walked to the evening food market. Great with a light meal and some local food and local people around us.
Had a super cup of coffee before heading to bed. It is going to be an early morning tomorrow.

Relaxing at the beach

Now - this is real vacation - didn't have to get up to pack camp, no driving today. Just a beautiful morning. Breakfast with a view of the sea.
Sailed to a small island up the coast where we could do snorkling. A nice daytrip - in beautiful weather. Blue sea.
Had some good food on the beach for dinner before playing pool in the bar.