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This evening I leave Africa behind and fly out to Australia. After nearly four months in Africa, I find myself looking forward to leaving, largely due to my desire to get out of Johannesburg quickly!
Since leaving Village Africa behind just over three weeks ago I've been through 5 countries, had 9 long coach journey's, 5 African style combi journey's, 2 lifts on the back of a pick up and 1 hitching journey. As we've travelled south the changes have been clear in increase in wealth, increase in cost and increase in American style shopping malls.
Leaving Tanga on November 27th, I should have been full of excitment about the next part of my trip, however my second case of worms seemed to have struck. I was also very reluctant to leave Milingano behind. The worms caused me a few problems on our journey towards Zanzibar, they cam to a head on the ferry across from Dar. Having never had the best sea legs, it wasn't long before I had to rush to the deck and promptly remove last nights dinner from my system. Unfortunately I didn't consider wind direction in my haste, and the poor soldier who was down wind from me experienced the brunt of it. He has also joined the long list of people I have vomitted over in my life time, and I think must take number one spot, over taking the boy scout at Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach.
Due to the illness I was unable to fully appreciate Zanzibar and it may well have tarnished my view of the place, but I wasn't overly impressed. Yes the narrow streets were great to wander round to see all the arabic architecture, and it's always fun to barter for a few souvenirs. Having a grasp of kiswahili always knocks a few thousand shillings off the price. The sunsets were amazing aswell, but the constant dodging of moped's and the unjustifiable high prices took a shine off the place. We also ventured to a beach for one day, I fear we chose the wrong beach however, as the sea was miles out, rocks were preventing us from getting in the sea with any ease, and the water was roasting hot!! I think there's better beaches in Cornwall!!!
After three days we made our way to the border with Malawi, we had a 13hour coach drive from Dar, spent a night in Mbeya, and then headed into Malawi the next morning, Dec 3rd. The south of Tanzania was a contrast to the north, farming seemed to be a lot more developed, there were tractors! The landscape was much greener and the scenery was equally as spectacular as the Usambara's. Unfortunately my visa didn't allow me time to stay. To get the border we needed to get on our first local mini bus (combi), something which concerned us a little, based on bus crashes being the major cause of deaths in Tanzania. As we travelled through the rolling hills in the rattling bus I was interested to read a sign declaring we had left the danger zone, and felt relieved I hadn't seen a sign saying we were entering it! Part way through the journey we were told to get out and make our way to another combi. This next one was a little more modern, but also had more people. I was told to sit in a gap between two people the width my foot. I wedged myself in and became closely acquainted with the poor lady next to me. I felt that I was definitely in Africa when the typically African music came on and a number of passengers broke out in song!
Our first border crossing proved to be very simple, as did all crossings on the trip. On getting into Malawi we managed to find a taxi to take us to the nearest town. Not the best introduction to Malawi as the driver was a little worrying, after some time we agreed a price. His driving on route to Karonga was a little erratic, he spent a lot of the time leering over Zoe and calling her his girlfriend and then pulled over to pick up another passenger on the way. When we questioned this he decided to turn off the engine, at which point we thought we were about to be thrown out in the middle of no where! All was sorted and we continued on, to find a bus about to leave to Mzuzu when we reached the bus station. After doing a slightly poor exchange of US dollars with the bus company we got hold of some Malwaian Kwatcha and were on route to Mzuzu. My opinion of Malawians changed rapidly when I was chatting to the lady I was sat next to on the bus. She was a delightful lady, who when I told her what we had been doing in Tanzania, couldn't thank me enough for helping the childrenin Africa. She pointed out all the places on route as we travelled south alongside Lake Malawi then up into mountains, the views were incredible.
Mzuzu was a quiet town where we spent one night before heading to the lake. Another combi the next day took us to Nkhata bay, the whole trip we were having to hold onto our bags as they were perched in the small boot, where the door was not shut properly but held closed by a bit of string. From Nkhata bay we went a little further south to the next bay, Chikale Beach and stayed in a very plush resort for about 7 pounds. We spent a few days enjoying the lake, some snorkelling, swimming and canoeing. At the resort there was a guy working there named Dixon, the man was off his rocker! Full of joy though, and on the first night he told us of his love of Arsenal. One day he had written to Arsenal saying how much of a fan he was and they had sent him a certificate saying Malwai's no. 1 Arsenal Fan! He's also been sent shirts, scarves, jewellry and a number of other Arsenal memorabili. He informed us that the locals referred to him as Mr Gunner!! He also insisted that he next day whe Arsenal were playing we were to take photo's of him in all his Arsenal gear! We duly obliged. While in Chikale Bay we also had an interesting incident with a dog! Tia who lived at the resort, must have been caught in a trap, but she emerged in the evning with a wooden stick piercing her side, it was shallow, but she was in some discomfort. Due to my love of dogs I took a back seat in the emergency treatment of the animal, although I think my role could be considered more as a superviser! The stick was removed, which took a number of people to hold her down, and some horrible noses. Jen and Zoe then proceeded to bandage the dog and Zoe helped ensure she got plenty of water. I think Rolf Harris would have been proud. We have since heard that the dog is very well!
From here we got on a bus further south to Salima, this next bus arrived in Nkhata Bay already jammed full, so we managed to wedge our bags in and spent half the journey holding them up as we went round every bend. The bus continued to stop and collect more people who would scramble past us at the front and disappear further back into the abyss of the rest of the bus. Fortunately at some point in the 8hour journey we did manage to sit down. From Salima the only way to get to our destination, Senga Bay, was on the back of a pick up truck, another exciting journey which we were wary about at first and then we discovered it to be the norm. In Senga Bay we stayed at a hostel called Cool Runnings, right on the lake where enjoyed some more swimming.
Malawi's capital was our next destination, a really nice small city, which was walkable in parts. The hostel was excellent with owners who knew the area well. As we were in a rush to move on we could only stay one night before we headed for the Zambian border. We got another combi to the border, which we sat in for about 30mins untill it left from the station, they don't leave untill they're full, and they're not full untill every inch of the bus has something or someone in! On reaching the final town before the border, there was a mad rush taxi drivers towards our bus, before I knew it our bags had been taken off the bus, were in a taxi, as were we, as well as 2 other passengers. Rather than trying to squash 4 people in the back this driver shared his seat with one of the passengers!! Luckily it was an automatic.
Our arrival into Zambia was most pleasant as the man at the border post insisted on giving us a 30day visa despite usa saying we were only going to be there for about 7. He said Zambia needed us to stay longer and wished us a good trip. Chipata was the closest town to the border where we spent a night as the only guests at a very picturesque hostel. In the morning we had a taxi to the bus station where we were bombarded with luggage boys trying to get us on their bus. They were physically dragging us in different directions before one man yelled at them and our path was cleared to the bus we wanted. Lusaka, Zambia's capital was quite modern, there were the American style shopping malls in the suburbs, big flash office blocks, but the bus station was no different to the rest in Africa and we were soon being offered taxi rides and other bus journeys. Once we'd shaken them we walked to our hostel, before exploring a little of the city. Only one night again here before we made our way to Livingstone, the main tourist destination in Zambia, due to its proximity to Victoria Falls.
The falls were spectacular, due to the time of year the water level was low so it was not at its strongest. This did mean that you could walk across the lip of the falls, however due to my woosness I declined this offer. We did splash out on a sunset cruise along the river with complimentary drinks and snacks, which we did enjoy very much! Along the river we saw a number of hippos and a crocodile!
Our next country was to be Botswana, a slightly different border crossing here as we had to go across the Zambezi river on a ferry to get into Botswana. When we arrived into the country we discovered that the bus we wanted to get from Kasane to Francistown had already left and there were no more. Oour taxi driver recommended we hitch and said it was perfectly safe. So we decided to give it a go, unfortunately the heaven's opened and we were about to give up when we found a British expat who was heading part of the way to Nata, so we got a lift with him. The road to Nata was amazing, along ost of the way there were elephants grazing at the side of the road. We stopped off at a overlanding resort at one point and along the drive way was a herd of elephants that crossed right infront of our car. In Nata we were lucky to find a bus about to leave for Francistown. Botswana doesn't quite have the backpacker hostel type accomodation and in Francistown we had to splash out a little on a small hotel room with a TV!! Very luxurious, although we were most disappointed to find that breakfast was not included!
Gaborone was our penultimate destination, where my search for Mma Ramotswe would begin! The home of the No. 1 Lady Detective was a very modern city, again with the shopping malls scattered around the cities. We had a phone number for a backpacker hostel about 10km outside of the city, they said they would pick us up. When they arrived in a small car slightly bigger than a smart car already with 4 people in we were ready for a squeeze. That it was. We were also having a slight monetary problem at this point, in that the three cash machines I'd used that day were not giving me any money. When we arrived at the hostel it was a series of small shed like huts with bunks in the Mokolodi Nature Reserve, a really nice setting. However we hadn't realised they were self catering. I thik the owner realised this and offred us ome of his left overs for dinner!! We managed to get hold of Nationwide who informed me that my card was so advanced being a chip and pin card, that it wouldn't work in non chip and pin cash machines, not so great then!! The next day I managed to find one that was able to give me cash and the panic was over. Unfortunatley I was disheartened to find that Mma Ramotswe was difficult, to find, there did seem to be tours but where these were from I couldn't work out.
An early bus on Thursday morning brought us to Johannesburg, a city which seems to have a reputation for crime and violence day and night. The locals seem to do little to quash this, and taxi drivers and tour companies make the most of this by putting prices through the roof. I've done very little while being here, although I think there is very little to do anyway. However we did go to the Apartheid Museum and I would recommend coming to this city for that alone. It was amazing, moving, inspiring and horrifying.
I'm now ready to leave Africa, at the half way point of my trip it's time to head to Australia for Christmas!
Merry Christmas!
- comments
Jen Williams Great to read what you got up to after I left! Sounds fab. Missing you immensely!xx