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Hello Everyone and welcome to our blog. Firstly big apologies for the delays in updating you but internet in Africa is not fun! We are currently in Swakopmund and the internet here is very quick so we are taking some time out of our "hectic" schedules to get all up to date!
Saying Goodbye and Arriving in Africa
The airport was slightly painful, having to say goodbye and there were a few tears- only from John of course, oh and Erin's Dad after parting with the best part of a tenner for 4 cups of coffee. I hope your over that now Dad! The flight to Heathrow was good (free drinks... it''s not like that on Easyjet) and we got talking to a lovely family who were on their way to Canada and were pretty well travelled so they were telling us lots about some of our soon to be visited destinations! We didn't realise that any drinks were free and therefore didn't make appropriate use of the free beer situation… probably for the best really! We were in Heathrow for 5 hours but it flew over and then we jumped on a massive Virgin plane to Nairobi. The flight was long but it went pretty quick and we watched Disturbia, Superbad, Evan Almighty and ate some lovely food. We stole the blanket they give you and its been a great addition to the backpack. To begin with it was used daily in the truck as it can be quite chilly first thing on the safari drives but since then we went souvenir crazy its now being used to protect all the wood carvings whilst they live under the truck seats.
When we arrived in Nairobi we were pretty scared, there really aren't a lot of white people and people tend to stare. It turns out this staring thing is common in all of Africa and we are quite used to it now. If your sitting doing the most mundane task you can end up with lots of peole crowded around you watching- it's bizarre! Anyway, all was going well we hadn't lost or broken anything yet. Our driver Amos was there ready to take us to our B n B, with a sign with our name on (woooh!). It's a good job we liked our driver as he became our 24/7 baby sitter because of the problems in Kenya with the elections! Our room was nice, the place had beautiful gardens and the bar was cheap so we had no complaints.
Camp Karen
On our first day we went to the elephant orphanage which was excellent. The elephants are adorable and they all have tragic stories so you love them more. Oh and is this not the cutest thing ever, they catch pneumonia really easy so they have to have there blankets on all the time (see the pics of the 10 week old with his on- I was going to kidnap him until we heard his wind!). The keepers stay in the stables with them on a night time till they fall asleep and sing them lullabies! They were playing with footballs, drinking milk and chasing the warthogs- it was great! We also went to the giraffe centre but it was shut due to the troubles in Nairobi, we couldn't quite work out how political tensions affected a giraffe centre but there you go... this is Africa (TIA)! That night we had a few drinks and spoke to this man who was banging on about how Kenya was going to go crazy with the elections panning out as they did, we just thought he was a nutter… oh how we were wrong. Later that night we went inside and watched sky news which was talking about all the crazy goings on and riots in Kenya, it sounded so silly because Nairobi was only down the road and we didn't know any of it was going on.
On our second day we got picked up early from our driver Henry to take us to meet our Tour Group at Fishermans camp site in Lake Naivasha. It was a bumpy ride to say the least as the roads are full of holes and the little bread van we were in had no suspension. At one point there was a big clatter and the four of us (Jenny and Jo, 2 girls we met in Karen that came to Navaisha to start the trip- absolute dolls- we love them) looked very alarmed and shouted that he might want to stop as it sounded like the something had fallen off, but he just laughed and carried on! Later on in the journey we got stopped at a road block and some armed police (we think???) got on- up until that moment that was probably the most frightened I have been- you learn it's a common feeling in Africa though! Surprisingly enough they wanted money but Henry spoke to them for a couple of minutes and we carried on unharmed and with our wallets full. On the way we stopped off at the Great Rift Valley view point to take some pics. We finally got to the camp site after a couple of hours drive.
Lake Navaisha
The campsite is fantastic, set on the banks of Lake Navaisha. On a night the Hippos come out of the lake and eat the grass. You can get quite close but there is an electric fence to protect you as apparently they like biting people in half, hmm - strange behaviour for herbivores and a little worrying considering how far we are sleeping away from them. The campsite was beautiful, very green and has lots of Colobus and Vervet monkeys running around- there funny to watch especially when they are on the pinch! The bar was amazing it was made from bamboo and thatch roofs.
We met our tour driver, an Aussie called Dale who is thirty something, he wont disclose his exact age he's a bit of a man of mystery. I am updating this a few weeks later and I can say we now know Dale is 34 and is not the man of mystery when you get him merry! He's a pretty savvy traveler and is the most laid back person ever, it turns out this is what Africa does to you and even John is pretty patient now (honestly). We met the rest of the group as well who were all really nice and came up to us and introduced themselves and made us feel at ease, we were given lots of hugs and kisses. The group had been together for over 2 weeks before we joined them so we felt a bit like outsiders but not for long. The group is a good mix of people of all ages and different backgrounds. To begin with there were only about 8 people from England, most of them are from Australia and New Zealand but this changed as the trip went on and eventually there were more Brits than Ozzies. I was the baby of the group and the oldest is Roy, he's an absolute legend. Our first day with the group was New Year's Eve so we had a good drink round a camp fire and we ate a delicious chicken curry prepared by the Ozzy boys. Then we retired for the evening in our new home for the next 8 weeks... our tent, her names cheetah. Its pretty spacious, sturdy, easy to get up and down and at least at this point it didn't smell! - so we cant complain. Well we can as theres no en suite or full length mirrors!
Hells Gate (literally)
On our 3rd day we hired mountain bikes (it's fair to say the bikes weren't the best, the brakes didn't really work and the seats were very painful) from the campsite and went to Hells Gate National Park. It was about a 20min ride to the park all we heard the entire ride were children shouting "Muzungu" (white person) and "how are you" it's really nice you kind of feel like a celebrity because they get so excited to see you. We were in the park for about 3 hours biking round. We ended going the wrong way and doing the 4x4 only trail, whoops!! We saw loads of Zebra and Grant Gazelles. We got really close and got some fantastic photo's. There are also cats like Lions and Cheetahs in the park but they only come out in the early morning and at night, just as well given that we were only on bikes. Some of Tomb Raider was filmed in the gorge in the park but by the time we had done the 4x4 trail we were too shattered to go see it. By the time we got back to the campsite our backsides were knacking! We were that tired we went to the wrong camp site by mistake but we decided to stay for a drink as they had comfy seats and we had no energy to go up the hill. That night we braved our first camp site shower- there strange, open aired and made of tin but it wasn't too bad and most iimportantly there wasn't a spider in sight. We were treated to some more good food, there are some cracking cooks on our trip, which is good but a bit of a worry as I don't know how our crisp sandwiches and beans on toast are going to go down!
Crescent Island
The next day we got up early and went on a boat trip to Crescent Island where the film Out of Africa was filmed. It was about a 30min ride over to the island. The boat ride was a little worrying as the boat didn't look particularly hippo proof and there are a lot of angry looking hippos in the lake. We had about an hour and a half on the island where a guide, Mumo, took us around. We saw lots of Zebra, Giraffe, Wilderbeast and Thomson Gazelle. There was a little office which looked like the best office ever it didn't have a table or anything it was just a little shack. On the way back on the boat ride we saw loads of hippos really close, one got quite close and looked like it was going to go for us and I jumped on Donna's lap! This was quite forgiveable given the reliability of our boat, it had already broken down 4 times, it was pretty funny and it gave us an excuse to cheer when we got it to restart!
Our First Truck Ride
We then headed to Masai Mara, there had been a lot of murders in Kenya by this point and there was talk of road blocks and hijackings so every one was a little worried about the journey up to the Masai. Dale got Henry (our driver from Karen) to come and join the trip for the next few days as he was local and could ring ahead to friends to find out the situation. There is a safe on the truck hidden in the floor, (we call him Bob so that you can just ask "where's Bob" when you need the key in public- clever eh?) so everyone emptied there wallets and hid their passports here and off we headed to the Masai.
We love the truck, shes well old and has no suspension so you get tossed around lots- we just giggle all of the time when we get thrown about. It's cool as the sides roll up so you just hang outside watching Africa go by. Everybody waves at you so it's lots of fun. The front bit of the truck opens up and theres a mattress up there to kneel on, so you can catch the sun there. When its cold we keep this shut and take it turns to go for a nap up there. The truck is like a little community we have communal everything- even loo roll! We have lots of books and wet wipes, moisturiser, sun cream etc. We always have somebodys mp3 player on and the speakers are good- its funny the different types of music you hear- its like dodgy 80s one minute then some whining Ozzy birds the next! In fairness overall everyones got similar tastes though so we generally have good tunes on. I was playing dj one day with Shannon's Ipod and he is quite the adrenalin junkie with a tough side- well this was so until I found Wham -wake me up before you go go on his ipod and played it to everyone! We like to cruise through little African villages with crazy music playing. One day we had the YMCA playing and have the boys hanging out of the top doing the moves- I have never seen so many people look so startled! We always play cards on the truck and its very rare were not killing ourselves laughing about someones dodgy comments!
All in all we love our truck!
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