Serengeti Safari

Finally I get to upload a few pictures, its costing $5 US a hour, which is about five times the normal amount, but its all good.....




Stone Town, Zanzibar


Paje, Eastern side of Zanzibar.
This place was out of my budget, but as you can see the view was well worth the $25 a night

Steps of a Mosque, there are many in Stone Town, one was directly across from where I stayed. Every moring the call to prayers was at 5:00, it was like the loud speaker was in my room.

One of the many alleys

Seregenti Safari

I couldn't resist this picture. Notice the background.....

What an exciting few days. After much negotiation with many safari companies in Moshi, I settled on one. I just got back to Arusha yesterday. I spent four days, three nights on safari at Lake Manyara, Ngorogoro Crater and the Serengeti. It was an amazing four days. I think the highlight was all the big cats, lots of lions, a few leopards and cheetahs.

The first day in the Seregenti we drove all day through just a portion of the park. The park itself is over 14,000 sq. km. It's huge. We stopped for the day at around 7:00. The camp ground where we put our tent was in the middle of the park. NO FENCES. During the night I could hear animals all around. The situation was so unreal, it didn't bother me that much and I actually slept. The next morning when we left camp, we were less than a km when we came upon two huge lions on the side of the road. The next night we spent on the 'rim' of the Ngorogoro crater, again lots of animals in the area. We could see buffalo and elephants from our site. The view out over the crater was amazing. The elevation of the rim is about 2400 metres. During breakfast the next morning the cook told us that an elephant has wrecked a tent the night before, fortunately there was no one in it. It was probably a good thing that I didn't know that the night before.

I will try to upload a few more picture in another post.

I am Canadian

Today I went to search for a new book. I just finished reading 'What is the What', it's about the Lost Boys of Sudan. Amazing read. I went to the library, asking where I can find a book store, the lady misunderstood and looked at me rather surprisingly and said in her broken English, 'we don't sell our books'. She pointed me up the street to a nearby store. It was more like a news stand, but the seller said he had many 'good' books inside. I thought I would take a look. He had one John Grisham book and one by another author and about ten German books. He was rather dismayed and a bit surprised to learn that I didn't read German.

I have been asked many times if I am American. For many Tanzanians anything in the west is American, that is partly true for many areas in Africa actually. Once they find out that I am Canadian, without fail the next question is..... Toronto?

I never did find a new book.

In the shadow of Kilimanjaro

Internet here can drive you absolutely crazy. I booked one hour to write on this blog, I now have 12 minutes left. I am just now getting on.

My two days on the eastern side of the island were amazing. I stayed in a small town called Paje. Cheap accommodation was impossible to find, so I had to cave in and pay $25 a night for a place on the beach. I know you're thinking, that's still pretty cheap but for the past month I had been paying $10 a night. It was worth it to stay on this beautiful beach. I met a great group of people there. We all ate and chatted late into the night. American politics and the presidential election was on every ones mind it seems. Even though there was only one American in the group.

I left Paje, Zanzibar two days ago. It was 48 hours of travel. Wednesday morning I got a ride to Stone Town from a great German couple I met at the hotel. I caught a late ferry, The Flying Horse to Dar es Salaam, it left at ten at night, getting me into Dar at 6:00 on Thursday morning. The trip itself didn't take that long, they anchor somewhere just off Zanzibar and spend the night. Ferry operators think it is too dangerous for people to show up in Dar in the middle of the night, so they delay the arrival until 6:00 am. Once in Dar I got a taxi to the Scandinavian Bus depot to catch a ride to Moshi. The bus was a 'luxury' bus, I use the term luxury loosely. The ride took ten hours and for a large portion of the trip there was a 'mixed cd' on the stereo, playing Micheal Bolton, Air Supply, Kenny Rogers and Celine Dion. It was on repeat for many hours. At some point in time it became a part of the noise.

Walking around Moshi was interesting. It was as if I had a t-shirt on saying, "I want to go on Safari". I was approached at least 15 times in the first hour on the street. The funny thing is I am looking for a safari. I guess they could tell by the look in my eyes. I have a few prospects for trips leaving in the next few days to the Serengeti. I have to decide today.

Moshi is the place that people come to if they want to climb Mount Kilimanjaro. I had an interesting chat a few days ago with a Tanzanian about climbing Kilimanjaro, he said no Tanzanian would ever think about climbing it unless you were a guide. They think the foreigners are crazy to want to do it. I have to admit, crazy or not, if it wasn't so expensive and if I was prepared, I would definitely think about it.

Its pouring raining today here in Moshi.

I have had great intentions with posting pictures on here. I've tried about 5-6 times in different internet cafes, none of them have a connection fast enough to upload them. It will have to wait.

It's not the heat, it's the the humidity......

I arrived in Tanzania on Wednesday from Johannesburg. I could feel the humidity immediately after stepping off the plane. I landed in Dar es Salaam at about 9:00 on Wednesday, I was delayed leaving Johannesburg for over two hours.

It seems that you have to bargain for everything in Tanzania, I went outside the airport to get a taxi. The driver said that it was 25,000 schillings, about $20US, I said that was too much and immediately he cut it to 20,000. I was too tired to try to get him down any further. I stayed in "Dar" for just Thursday and left for Zanzibar on Friday. I was warned about 'touts' in everything I read about Tanzania. Touts are street people that are constantly trying to sell you something or to make a deal of some kind, most of which are suspect and sometimes illegal. All day Thursday I was constantly being bothered by touts. One wanted to be my 'guide', another wanted to take me to the ferry in his car even though it was only a km. So, I was happy to get to Zanzibar. There are still lots of touts but the charm of the place pays up for it. I use the term ' charm' loosely here. I'm staying in a hostel called the House of Abdulla, it is in the very historical Stone Town. Stone Town is a maze of alleys, streets that are about 7-8 feet wide. Only for people walking and mopeds. People hang out sitting in the alleys, chatting and socializing. Tomorrow I will get lost in the maze and try to find my way out. For people that know me and my sense of direction, ( or lack there of) I might be lost for a while.


Today I went on a tour of a spice farm, it was great. Seeing where all the spices that we use come from and smelling them. We also got to sample many different fruit. In the afternoon we spent about an hour at the beach, swimming in the Indian Ocean. It was beautiful.

I'm staying in Zanzibar for at least five more days. I'm heading to the eastern side of the island on Monday, then back to Dar on Wednesday before heading west to Moshi.

Kingdom of Swaziland

I feel like I should apologize for these tiny pictures. I tried uploading the 'medium' image and it was taking forever. These will have to do for now.

It has been a restful week after spending two weeks on the road, going from one hostel to another. I've been in Nelspruit for the last few days. Nelspruit is a city in northern South Africa, in Mpumalanga province. I spent two days this past week in Mbabane, the capital city of Swaziland. Swaziland is a kingdom with a king that rules that country. He has final say about everything that goes on. He appoints people to government positions. He has 13 wives. Every year there is a big cultural celebration called the 'Reed Dance'. All the eligible women from around the kingdom come and dance for the king. Then he chooses a wife. He doesn't pick one ever year and obviously someone caught his eye at least 13 of the past 22 years since his coronation. Swaziland is a beautiful country. When driving along you notice that the trees are very 'organized'. Apparently, Swaziland had one of the world's largest 'man-made' forest, covering over 7% of its total land area. That is a lot of trees and they are all in perfect lines.

Like most African cities, Mbabane (Swaziland) has a central area, where a lot of commerce happens. This picture is taken just outside of a mall. It is one busy place, it is also the taxi stand where literally hundreds of vans line up for different routes around the city. It is most often the only public transit in many cities.

This is the train car hostel that I stayed in a few weeks ago, you see the very colourful bunk-house just below.

These are beach huts in Cape Town. I thought the colours were cool.

Next week, I'm off to Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, I'll likely be spending a few weeks in Tanzania before making my way to Rwanda and Uganda.

I expect to have regular internet access for most of the time now, so feel free to send emails.

Wild Coast

Another day... another city. I have been on the road for about 12 days now. Staying in most places for a day or two and sleeping in a different backpackers hostel every night with different roommates. So far I've shared rooms with people from Malayisa, Thailand, Reunion Island, France, England, Italy, Spain, Germany, and South Africa.... many very cool people.

The southern area of South Africa is amazing. The first part is called the Garden Route, it is very well developed. Much of the Garden Route is built up around tourism. Once you leave Port Elizabeth, you enter what is called 'The Wild Coast'. There are huge stretches of rolling hills and some very dramatic landscapes. I stayed for a few days at Coffee Bay, it is on the coast. Another surfer's paradise. My hostel was called the Coffee Shack. On the first day, it was full of young college students, it was just one big crazy party. The second day was much more chilled. The place is full of hippies. Young local people on the street and beach approach you offereing to sell you magic mushrooms and pot.

If anyone is thinking about going on a backpackers trip, South Africa is such an easy country to do it in. I've been travelling on the Baz Bus, its a 20 passenger bus that travels from one hostel to another. There is a very convenient book in all the hostels that list every backpackers in South Africa. I've been bumping into the same travellers now for over a week. It's kind of nice. I have yet to run into any Canadian travellers. Well, I did meet one couple of Canadians but they were teaching in Cape Town. Funny thing is she was a teacher from my school district in BC. What are the chances....

Today I go from Durban to a city in Swaziland, its about an 11 hour ride. I'm not looking forward to it, but I've been reading an amazing book called Tandia, set in South Africa during the Apartheid years. So, I'm sure the day will pass by quickly. On Saturday I will be meeting up with some Canadian friends in Neslpruit. That is in northern SA, near Kruger National Park.

South AFrica

It has been two weeks today since I left Zimbabwe. I spent the first week in Johannesburg and this week in Cape Town. It was so nice to be near the ocean again. I love Zimbabwe but I do miss the water. I'm a 'coastal boy'.

It has been an interesting time in South Africa. I've noticed more this time than my previous visits the preoccupation regarding race relations. Apartheid ended here in 1992, but some of the issues are still prevalent. There are still very few mixed race couples. Although I've stayed with two of them here in Cape Town, both Canadian wives with 'coloured' husbands. That word 'coloured' sounds somewhat inappropriate, but that is what they are called. Its a race of people that is not black or white. They are NOT a mixture, they are their own distinct race. I have wonderful friends here in Cape Town, although I didn't reallly know them too well before this visit. Now I feel like they are famliy.

Its seems like race enters into a lot of conversations and you hear about racial slurs that are made from one group towards another group. Its all very unsettling. BUT, South Africa has come a long way from when white and non-whites had different bathrooms, taxis, buses, the list goes on. I visited the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg. It was quite a moving day. There is so much to learn.

Tonight I'm staying at a hostel in downtown Cape Town, I'm heading east tomorrow.