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| Nairobi to Livingston |
zaterdag 12 april 2008
Nairobi to Livingstone - 15 March to 10 April
The first 10 days of our Africa trip turned out to be exciting, tiring, amazing, uncomfortable, touching, frustrating, hot, dirty and wet. On Saturday 15 March, at the colonial Hotel Boulevard, we met the other people that we would be spending the next 4 (and in some cases even 8) weeks with in Nairobi: our tour leader/driver Blair, a chilled New Zealander who always walks around on bare feet and has hair that sticks up in all directions; Emma and Nick, a lovely English couple in their early thirties who have been traveling for a while, just like us; Maarten en Kim, a really nice Dutch couple who traveled to Africa especially for the first 4 weeks of the trip; English graduate Louka, who had just finished a couple of months volunteering in Uganda; Sarah, a small Icelandic girl with a great sense of humor; and Matthias, a tall and strange German guy. The latter, we would soon find out, would cause a fair bit of problems with his strange ways. Later on that day, when we had moved to a campsite out of town, we also met Annie, a New Zealander who has decided to go traveling for 1 year after her husband of 10 years announced that he was gay, and Dawn, Blair’s bubbly English girlfriend. The two of them met when she did the same tour 6 months ago, he asked her to stay and she had been traveling with him and staying in Uganda since.
The first day of the tour was purely spent on getting to know each other and the routines associated with traveling on an overland truck, such as setting up for breakfast, dinner and lunch, maintaining hygiene (as Blair says: “Dettol is our friend”), and setting up the tents. The next day, we set off early towards the Tanzanian border and got our first taste of what it is really like to travel on an overland truck. The set up of the trucks (no windows, just canvas that is rolled up when it’s hot and rolled down when it’s raining) means that we are fully exposed to the elements: wind, sun, rain and dust, lots of dust. It also allows us lots of interaction with fellow roadusers and the locals, most of them have a good look and then return our wave with a big smile.
On Sunday we drove to Arusha, just across the border of Tanzania, where we arrived dirty and dusty with very windswept hair. We stayed at Snakepark, a popular stop for overland trucks. When you stay on the campsite, you get free access to the park, which features most of Africa’s venomous and non-venemous snakes, including the Black Mamba and the Spitting Cobra, as well as a number of crocodiles, a few large turtles and some birds. René rose to the occasion when he was offered to put a (not so venomous) snake around his neck, and scared the shit out of me when he suddenly turned around with this thing hanging off him. In the evening at the bar, we met a couple of Masai warriors, who were practicing for the London marathon. Their aim was to raise enough money to build a water pump in their village. The girls of our group challenged them to a game of darts, and despite the Masai’s previous practice in throwing spears, the end result was pretty close.
The next day, we visited the local Masai village and museum, our first real contact with local adults and children. The latter were especially happy to see us and within minutes of arriving we all had a couple of children hanging off our arms, wanting to be picked up and spun around. One of the most aspiring moment for me was meeting a teacher at the local school, which is open to anyone who wants to learn, young and old alike. She told me stories of students who had come back to her to tell her how they had managed to find a job after attending and passing her computer classes. We discussed how it wasn’t just the new skills that her students learned but also the self belief that came with it, that gave them the confidence to go out and find work, in order to improve their lives. The way she spoke about her work and her students, and how gratifying it was to her, reminded me a lot of what I like so much about training – helping people grow, in knowledge, but also in confidence and self-belief.
After the morning Masai visit we headed to the Ngorongoro Crater, where we were going on a wildlife safari the next day. When we got into the pop top bus the next morning, we were all pretty excited and had some high expectations. We were not disappointed. The Ngrongoro Crater was formed after a huge volcanic explosion and is surrounded by pretty steep walls. Because of these steep walls, and the continuous supply of water, most animals do not migrate out of the crater, which means the wildlife concentration is unbelievable and the highest in Africa. Within the first 20 minutes we were less than 15 meters away from two elephant bulls that crossed the road in front of us and that was only the beginning. Ostriches, buffalos, hippos, zebras, wildebeest, warthogs, hyenas, gazelles, cheetahs, rhinoceros, flamingos and baboons – we spotted them all, some from far away but most of them at only a couple of meters distance. The absolute highlight was being able to park only a few meters away from a mating lion couple. At some point they walked past our bus and got so close that we could have stroked them. The whole mating spectacle, although short (about 15 seconds) was so impressive that we stayed to watch it happening four times (with 15-20 minutes interval).
The next day we drove back to Arusha and camped at a lodge just outside of the Arusha National Park. Unfortunately that night it started to rain and didn’t stop. When we woke up the campsite had turned into one big mud pool and we had a nice puddle of water inside our tent. Fortunately the rain stopped midmorning, although by that time our tent, airbed, sleeping bags, pillow and the clothes we had kept in the tent were already pretty wet. That day, we continued to the Usambara Mountains, a beautiful spot with an amazing view over the plains of Tanzania. We stayed there for 2 nights, which gave us time the next day to do a walk. A local guide took us around the village and showed us how local sugarcane spirit was made, how local herbs were used as medicine and also got a couple of local children to sing and dance for us.
That night, just before we were about to go to bed, it started raining again with such force that within minutes the campsite was covered in a layer of water and the path up to the toilets had turned into a waterfall. We were forced to stay in the truck until midnight until it rained slightly less heavy, and got a huge scare when lighting struck only meters away. So much for dry, famished Africa. The place is greener than the grass in Holland!
The next day we packed up our wet tent (again - this seems to have become quite a theme since we left Sydney in the beginning of January!) to head to Dar Es Salam. Because of all the rain from the night before, the unsealed road down the mountain had turned into a muddy, soggy path. On more than once occasion, we had to get out of the truck and put down a couple of steel plates under the wheels to create some traction before we could continue our journey. The entire village turned out to witness this spectacle and it all turned into quite a festive occasion. In the end, it took us 2½ hours to get down the mountain, which meant a very long day of driving before we got to Dar.
At Dar Es Salam, we had the option to go on a 4 day trip to the famous spice island of Zanzibar. Despite the extra costs involved in this, we decided to go along, particularly because it would be a good break from sitting in the truck and sleeping in (wet) tents. The Zanzibar experience turned out to be full of contrast: beautiful beaches with fine sand and warm water, but also lots of seaweed and the occasional turd left by the locals (both in the water and on the beach – ugh, and the Lying Planet had promised the most beautiful beach in Zanzibar!). A chilled atmosphere and a pretty nice exotic room, but also appalling food and cold showers. An amazing snorkeling trip followed by my laundry being returned damp and smelly, with 2 pairs of knickers and a t-shirt missing.
The whole trip was relaxing and fun at times, but also frustrating and stressful due to group dynamics (we had opted to stay together to save money on taxi fees and accommodation). What didn’t improve things was that after being assured on the phone that there would be enough rooms, it turned out the owner of the (pretty remote) resort we had decided to stay at hadn’t been completely honest with us. This meant that Annie, Louka and Sarah ended up sleeping in an open room above the bar which had no shower or toilet facilities, and Nick and Emma (who drew the short straw) ended up in a room next door which wasn’t half as nice. Not feeling a 100% safe their only other option was to pay a lot more money for a more up market hotel. At times like those, we realize how much easier it is to be traveling by ourselves. Even though we really like the group, it can be difficult to spend so much time with virtual strangers and have to continuously comprise, discuss and take each other into account.
After 2 nights on the beach, 6 of us went back to Stonetown where we found a pretty nice hotel and a great place to eat (very important after nearly starving ourselves for 2 days because the food at the beach was so disgusting). Although worn down and dirty, Stonetown is a beautiful place, a labyrinth of little alleys with lots of souvenir shops. We walked around the town, bought a couple of knickknacks and just generally enjoyed the freedom of being able to be just the two of us. On day 13 of the trip, we caught the ferry back to the mainland, and met Blair, Dawn and Matthias (who had thankfully stayed in Dar – more about that later) back on the campsite. The following day we got back in the truck and drove to a lovely place called the Farmhouse, where we had a traditional meal and spend our last night in Tanzania.
Travelling in Africa on an overland trucks has completely redefined our concept of dirt, and René and I are possibly covered in even more grime than during our outback tour of Australia, despite the fact that we have a (cold) shower nearly every day. It has also taken away a lot of shame and the entire group has very openly been discussing their bowel movements from day 1. Comments like ‘I have had 4 shits today already’ or ‘I haven’t had a poo for 6 days now’ make up daily conversation. During a roadside pee stop, all the girls go out to find a spot together, preferably peeing simultaneously and in a row, often watched by a couple of locals who run out to see our truck wherever we stop.
I have already mentioned a few times that we had some problems with Matthias, the tall German guy that was in our group. Already on the first day his strangeness and weird behavior became apparent when he mentioned to Rene that he ‘wanted to see something dangerous in Africa, such as a murder’, threw his dirty socks on the table, put sugar in Sara’s bottle of Fanta to show how it effected carbon dioxide, and turned out to be traveling without a bag, toiletries, spare clothes or a wallet, carrying around his money in a mathematics book and sleeping with nothing but the blanket he had taken from his plane to Africa. Although this behavior is rather quirky but nevertheless pretty harmless, the situation quickly became worse over the next couple of days. He was chewing glass, walking around in the middle of the night touching the other tents, gave the finger to a couple of locals whilst we were driving past and even threw a glass bottle out of the truck which exploded close to a couple of people that we walking on the road. In addition, he did not participate in any of the group activities or responsibilities, such as cooking, clearing up or doing the washing up. Moreover, when confronted with his behavior, he became very defensive and very abstract asking questions like ‘Who are you?’, ‘Who is the group?’, ‘Why are you telling me what to do?’, ‘What do you want?’ etc etc. When there was little improvement and he ended up assaulting Nick by grabbing his shirt collar and shouting in his face we all had enough. Matthias made us feel incredibly uncomfortable and created a lot of stress of anxiety, had spend several days harassing other group members by touching them, following them around, asking them the same question many times or making inappropriate sexual comments. So when we left the first campsite in Malawi, Blair told him that he wanted him to leave the tour. Again, Matthias responded very strangely and everyone was seriously worried that he would do something to harm us, especially as he kept on talking about car accidents as we were driving to Mzuzu, the town where we would drop him off. The last trick he pulled was one that could potentially have had horrible consequences. During a quick stop for shopping at the Mzuzu market, he flagged down a policeman and told him we were smuggling drugs on the truck. We had to go to the police station where the entire truck was searched. In hindsight, this caused some funny moments with us trying to explain and mime the use of the various pills we all had with us such as laxatives, anti-diarrhea, sleeping pills and so on. Fortunately the police were very nice and reasonable and quickly understood that Matthias was in fact rather deranged. We were let off without any problems and left him there. The relief was enormous and the effect on the atmosphere was very noticeable. For the first time in nearly 2½ weeks, we could really start to relax.
The first day of the tour was purely spent on getting to know each other and the routines associated with traveling on an overland truck, such as setting up for breakfast, dinner and lunch, maintaining hygiene (as Blair says: “Dettol is our friend”), and setting up the tents. The next day, we set off early towards the Tanzanian border and got our first taste of what it is really like to travel on an overland truck. The set up of the trucks (no windows, just canvas that is rolled up when it’s hot and rolled down when it’s raining) means that we are fully exposed to the elements: wind, sun, rain and dust, lots of dust. It also allows us lots of interaction with fellow roadusers and the locals, most of them have a good look and then return our wave with a big smile.
On Sunday we drove to Arusha, just across the border of Tanzania, where we arrived dirty and dusty with very windswept hair. We stayed at Snakepark, a popular stop for overland trucks. When you stay on the campsite, you get free access to the park, which features most of Africa’s venomous and non-venemous snakes, including the Black Mamba and the Spitting Cobra, as well as a number of crocodiles, a few large turtles and some birds. René rose to the occasion when he was offered to put a (not so venomous) snake around his neck, and scared the shit out of me when he suddenly turned around with this thing hanging off him. In the evening at the bar, we met a couple of Masai warriors, who were practicing for the London marathon. Their aim was to raise enough money to build a water pump in their village. The girls of our group challenged them to a game of darts, and despite the Masai’s previous practice in throwing spears, the end result was pretty close.
The next day, we visited the local Masai village and museum, our first real contact with local adults and children. The latter were especially happy to see us and within minutes of arriving we all had a couple of children hanging off our arms, wanting to be picked up and spun around. One of the most aspiring moment for me was meeting a teacher at the local school, which is open to anyone who wants to learn, young and old alike. She told me stories of students who had come back to her to tell her how they had managed to find a job after attending and passing her computer classes. We discussed how it wasn’t just the new skills that her students learned but also the self belief that came with it, that gave them the confidence to go out and find work, in order to improve their lives. The way she spoke about her work and her students, and how gratifying it was to her, reminded me a lot of what I like so much about training – helping people grow, in knowledge, but also in confidence and self-belief.
After the morning Masai visit we headed to the Ngorongoro Crater, where we were going on a wildlife safari the next day. When we got into the pop top bus the next morning, we were all pretty excited and had some high expectations. We were not disappointed. The Ngrongoro Crater was formed after a huge volcanic explosion and is surrounded by pretty steep walls. Because of these steep walls, and the continuous supply of water, most animals do not migrate out of the crater, which means the wildlife concentration is unbelievable and the highest in Africa. Within the first 20 minutes we were less than 15 meters away from two elephant bulls that crossed the road in front of us and that was only the beginning. Ostriches, buffalos, hippos, zebras, wildebeest, warthogs, hyenas, gazelles, cheetahs, rhinoceros, flamingos and baboons – we spotted them all, some from far away but most of them at only a couple of meters distance. The absolute highlight was being able to park only a few meters away from a mating lion couple. At some point they walked past our bus and got so close that we could have stroked them. The whole mating spectacle, although short (about 15 seconds) was so impressive that we stayed to watch it happening four times (with 15-20 minutes interval).
The next day we drove back to Arusha and camped at a lodge just outside of the Arusha National Park. Unfortunately that night it started to rain and didn’t stop. When we woke up the campsite had turned into one big mud pool and we had a nice puddle of water inside our tent. Fortunately the rain stopped midmorning, although by that time our tent, airbed, sleeping bags, pillow and the clothes we had kept in the tent were already pretty wet. That day, we continued to the Usambara Mountains, a beautiful spot with an amazing view over the plains of Tanzania. We stayed there for 2 nights, which gave us time the next day to do a walk. A local guide took us around the village and showed us how local sugarcane spirit was made, how local herbs were used as medicine and also got a couple of local children to sing and dance for us.
That night, just before we were about to go to bed, it started raining again with such force that within minutes the campsite was covered in a layer of water and the path up to the toilets had turned into a waterfall. We were forced to stay in the truck until midnight until it rained slightly less heavy, and got a huge scare when lighting struck only meters away. So much for dry, famished Africa. The place is greener than the grass in Holland!
The next day we packed up our wet tent (again - this seems to have become quite a theme since we left Sydney in the beginning of January!) to head to Dar Es Salam. Because of all the rain from the night before, the unsealed road down the mountain had turned into a muddy, soggy path. On more than once occasion, we had to get out of the truck and put down a couple of steel plates under the wheels to create some traction before we could continue our journey. The entire village turned out to witness this spectacle and it all turned into quite a festive occasion. In the end, it took us 2½ hours to get down the mountain, which meant a very long day of driving before we got to Dar.
At Dar Es Salam, we had the option to go on a 4 day trip to the famous spice island of Zanzibar. Despite the extra costs involved in this, we decided to go along, particularly because it would be a good break from sitting in the truck and sleeping in (wet) tents. The Zanzibar experience turned out to be full of contrast: beautiful beaches with fine sand and warm water, but also lots of seaweed and the occasional turd left by the locals (both in the water and on the beach – ugh, and the Lying Planet had promised the most beautiful beach in Zanzibar!). A chilled atmosphere and a pretty nice exotic room, but also appalling food and cold showers. An amazing snorkeling trip followed by my laundry being returned damp and smelly, with 2 pairs of knickers and a t-shirt missing.
The whole trip was relaxing and fun at times, but also frustrating and stressful due to group dynamics (we had opted to stay together to save money on taxi fees and accommodation). What didn’t improve things was that after being assured on the phone that there would be enough rooms, it turned out the owner of the (pretty remote) resort we had decided to stay at hadn’t been completely honest with us. This meant that Annie, Louka and Sarah ended up sleeping in an open room above the bar which had no shower or toilet facilities, and Nick and Emma (who drew the short straw) ended up in a room next door which wasn’t half as nice. Not feeling a 100% safe their only other option was to pay a lot more money for a more up market hotel. At times like those, we realize how much easier it is to be traveling by ourselves. Even though we really like the group, it can be difficult to spend so much time with virtual strangers and have to continuously comprise, discuss and take each other into account.
After 2 nights on the beach, 6 of us went back to Stonetown where we found a pretty nice hotel and a great place to eat (very important after nearly starving ourselves for 2 days because the food at the beach was so disgusting). Although worn down and dirty, Stonetown is a beautiful place, a labyrinth of little alleys with lots of souvenir shops. We walked around the town, bought a couple of knickknacks and just generally enjoyed the freedom of being able to be just the two of us. On day 13 of the trip, we caught the ferry back to the mainland, and met Blair, Dawn and Matthias (who had thankfully stayed in Dar – more about that later) back on the campsite. The following day we got back in the truck and drove to a lovely place called the Farmhouse, where we had a traditional meal and spend our last night in Tanzania.
Travelling in Africa on an overland trucks has completely redefined our concept of dirt, and René and I are possibly covered in even more grime than during our outback tour of Australia, despite the fact that we have a (cold) shower nearly every day. It has also taken away a lot of shame and the entire group has very openly been discussing their bowel movements from day 1. Comments like ‘I have had 4 shits today already’ or ‘I haven’t had a poo for 6 days now’ make up daily conversation. During a roadside pee stop, all the girls go out to find a spot together, preferably peeing simultaneously and in a row, often watched by a couple of locals who run out to see our truck wherever we stop.
I have already mentioned a few times that we had some problems with Matthias, the tall German guy that was in our group. Already on the first day his strangeness and weird behavior became apparent when he mentioned to Rene that he ‘wanted to see something dangerous in Africa, such as a murder’, threw his dirty socks on the table, put sugar in Sara’s bottle of Fanta to show how it effected carbon dioxide, and turned out to be traveling without a bag, toiletries, spare clothes or a wallet, carrying around his money in a mathematics book and sleeping with nothing but the blanket he had taken from his plane to Africa. Although this behavior is rather quirky but nevertheless pretty harmless, the situation quickly became worse over the next couple of days. He was chewing glass, walking around in the middle of the night touching the other tents, gave the finger to a couple of locals whilst we were driving past and even threw a glass bottle out of the truck which exploded close to a couple of people that we walking on the road. In addition, he did not participate in any of the group activities or responsibilities, such as cooking, clearing up or doing the washing up. Moreover, when confronted with his behavior, he became very defensive and very abstract asking questions like ‘Who are you?’, ‘Who is the group?’, ‘Why are you telling me what to do?’, ‘What do you want?’ etc etc. When there was little improvement and he ended up assaulting Nick by grabbing his shirt collar and shouting in his face we all had enough. Matthias made us feel incredibly uncomfortable and created a lot of stress of anxiety, had spend several days harassing other group members by touching them, following them around, asking them the same question many times or making inappropriate sexual comments. So when we left the first campsite in Malawi, Blair told him that he wanted him to leave the tour. Again, Matthias responded very strangely and everyone was seriously worried that he would do something to harm us, especially as he kept on talking about car accidents as we were driving to Mzuzu, the town where we would drop him off. The last trick he pulled was one that could potentially have had horrible consequences. During a quick stop for shopping at the Mzuzu market, he flagged down a policeman and told him we were smuggling drugs on the truck. We had to go to the police station where the entire truck was searched. In hindsight, this caused some funny moments with us trying to explain and mime the use of the various pills we all had with us such as laxatives, anti-diarrhea, sleeping pills and so on. Fortunately the police were very nice and reasonable and quickly understood that Matthias was in fact rather deranged. We were let off without any problems and left him there. The relief was enormous and the effect on the atmosphere was very noticeable. For the first time in nearly 2½ weeks, we could really start to relax.
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