South Luangwa National Park

Our stay at Croc Village Camp in the South Luangwa National Park turned out to be quite eventful for a number of reasons.

The location of the campsite, on the bank of the Luangwa River right on the boarder of the national park, was fantastic. In order to keep you on your toes the campsite was unfenced. This meant that all the animals from the park were free to roam into and around the campsite. It provided us with some great wildlife viewing opportunities.

Every night a herd of hippos came into camp to munch on the grass around the tents. We also heard, but thankfully, didn't see lions. I'm not sure how resistant our canvas tents are to an attack from a hungry lion. As if that wasn't dangerous enough the river bank at the side of the camp was lined with crocodiles. Apparently 4 locals from the village have been munched in the last 5 years!

We were also visited on a number of occasions by a herd of wild elephants. We were even able to spend a morning following them on foot after they wandered into camp.


On our last morning there we were woken by a troupe of monkeys who were using our tent as a slide in order to get out of a tree.

The monkeys had been causing havoc around the campsite earlier in the week. When we went on a game drive on Saturday morning they broke into our kitchen supplies and made off with a box of cornflakes, a packet of biscuits and the sugar bowl. Dan tried to get some revenge by setting a monkey trap but they must have been full after eating our breakfast . . . or maybe too clever for our dumb contraption!

Unfortunately the monkeys weren't the only creatures who where interested in a bit of stealing. As the campsite was unfenced it also meant that the local thieving scumbags, as well as the wildlife, were free to roam through the camp.

In the early hours of Sunday morning Adam and Annie's tent got robbed whilst they where asleep in it. The thieves unzipped the tent and managed to get away with 3 cameras (with all their photos on), an Ipod, toiletries bag, Annie's handbag and Adam's passport. They then tried the same trick on Matt and Nike's tent but luckily Matt woke up and disturbed them before they got in.

Whilst we were staying at Croc Camp we also did a couple of game drives into the South Luangwa National Park. The wildlife wasn't quite as plentiful as in Kenya and Tanzania but we still saw a fair few animals.


And the scenery was quite spectacular too.

One of the things that made the experience a little different was the use of open sided vehicles.

Great for taking pictures but very nerve wracking when there's a wild lion about 6ft away from your leg.

One of the big draws at South Luangwa is that it's one of the few parks to offer night time drives. They start at dusk and carry on into the evening searching out the animals with a giant spotlight. This gives you a chance at seeing some of the harder to see nocturnal animals. Although photographing them is somewhat more challenging.

Nando's

After 3 days at Kande Beach we set out on Thursday morning for the 4 hour drive to the capital of Malawi, Lilongwe.

When the Lonely Planet describes somewhere as "hardly awash with excitement . . . isn't particularly interesting . . . soulless" then you know your in for a rip roaring time.

Thankfully we weren't stopping in Lilongwe for its tourist sights. It was simply a good place to re-stock the truck and a the best place to camp for the evening between Lake Malawi and the boarder with Zambia.

The best thing we could find to say about Lilongwe is that it has a Nando's . . . and we don't even like Nando's!

Ordinarily you would have to pay us to go into a Nando's. We both despise the greasy chicken based restaurant chain and are constantly amazed at their popularity. Whenever you see one in the UK there always seems to be a queue 50 people deep out of the door. We just don't get it. And what's that rubbish about having to fetch your own drinks?

Since we left Asia a month and a half ago the food, on average, has been so dull that even Nando's looked exciting. So we put our prejudices aside and went in for some lunch at the only fast food joint that we have so far seen in Africa. The verdict - ok it was tasty but you still won't see me in that 50 deep queue out of the door.

After de-greasing after Nando's we left the excitement of Lilongwe behind us and headed to Mbuya Camp on the outskirts of town for another evening of high altitude, low temperature camping.

Friday was going to be another fairly long one on the road with a 9 hour journey to our next stop at South Luangwa National Park. We were lucky to spot some wildlife before we finished loading the truck. This massive 4 inch long praying mantis was sat warning himself in the early morning sun as we prepared to leave Mbuya Camp.

Pig day and cooking complexity

Everyone had been looking forward to the Tuesday at Kande Beach, a day that had been officially designated as pig day. We bought a pig from the local village and had it slaughtered so that we could have a hog roast. After wiring the gutted but still warm porker to a spit we dug a fire pit and spent the next 10 hours cooking/drinking until it was ready.

Even if we say so ourselves, the results were quite spectacular. Little Percy went down very well indeed! Even Simon Harrison would have been proud of our results.

The following day was our nominated cook day. In pairs, everyone has to take it in turns to cook dinner for the other people on the truck. Cooking for 22 can be quite challenging at the best of times but when you have to cook over a charcoal powered jico stove it adds another dimension of difficulty.

Just to make things even more tricky you also have to provide a veggie option too. We decided to do a beef and a vegetable chili.

Shopping proved to be quite a challenge as we weren't sure of the quantities that are needed to feed 22. We ended up buying far too much stuff and probably cooked enough for 40. At least there was some left for seconds . . . and breakfast! Best of all it looks like we haven't managed to poison anyone.

Apart from cooking and eating we had hoped to be able to do some freshwater snorkelling whilst we were at Kande Beach. Lake Malawi is supposed to be one of the best freshwater dive sites in the world with over 500 species of fish, more than any other inland body of water. However, most of the time we were there it was quite windy which caused large waves to be whipped up on the shoreline making it too rough to get a boat out. If you swim out from the shore there is the risk of bilharzia, a minute worn that can penetrate your skin and migrate to to your bladder. From there it can cause anything from a rash to kidney failure. We decided to give it a miss.

The one thing that nobody was able to avoid at Kande Beach was the dodgy electrics. Something had gone seriously astray with the wiring on site which resulted in the destruction of 1 phone charger a couple of camera battery chargers and nearly everyone getting electrocuted in the shower.

Truck on

We were sat relaxing at Mikadi Beach last Thursday afternoon when an overland truck jammed full of loud and obnoxious kids pulled in. The group also contained possibly the loudest Irish woman on the face of the Earth who's best mate had one of those Cybil Fawlty "machine gunning a seal" laughs. To say that our hearts sank was a bit of an understatement. We were thinking that we wouldn't be able to stand the evening in the bar in their company, let alone a fortnight squashed into a truck.

We breathed a huge sigh of relief when we found out that they weren't with our truck but a different one. Thankfully when our truck pulled in we were greeted by a really nice bunch of people.

So who's on the truck? In total there's 22 of us including the driver, Gavin, and his assistant/fixer, Summer. There's also 3 Americans (Alan, Mandy and Dan), 2 South Africans (Grant and Sue), 3 Kiwis (Jarred, Amy and Glen), 6 Aussies (Mat, Adam, Annie, V, Sam, and Adriana), 1 Italian/Australian (Mike), 1 Maltese/Australian (Nike) and 2 other Brits (Hamsa and Gaj - although Gaj does claim to be a Sri Lankan prince!)

After briefly meeting our travelling companions we retired to bed for an early night in preparation for a 5am start the following morning. The first 2 days on the truck were set to be the most difficult. 2 consecutive days of 12 hours on the road in order to cover the 850km to get across Tanzania and into Malawi. When we set off at 5am on Friday morning it felt a little bit like we were a bunch of Albanian refugees trying to escape from Sangate in the back of a lorry.

Part of the drive on that first day was through the Mikumi National Park. With the sides of the truck rolled up we had an excellent view of the wildlife and managed to spot elephants, giraffe, zebra, antelope and monkeys. We then made our way into the mountains to camp for the evening at a place called The Old Farmhouse near Iringa. The camp site was really good and was built around a fantastic Bedouin style tented bar. The only problem was that because of the altitude it was bloomin' freezing. We think it's quite possibly the coldest conditions we've ever camped in. Yes, it was even colder than North Devon.

After a freezing night in the tent we then had the pleasure of another 5am start (Liz is absolutely loving these early mornings) as we headed for Malawi.

Just before the boarder we had an interesting encounter at a filling station with a guy called Mr Cool (we're not sure if it's his real name) who became the unofficial black market money changer for the the truck. By using Mr Cool we managed to change our money over at a rate that was significantly better than the banks and currency exchanges. The only danger now is that we're all sat on a pile of counterfeit Malawi Kwacha.

Once over the boarder we made our way to the village of Chitimba on the shore of Lake Malawi. The lake is absolutely massive, 500km long and nearly 100km wide. Standing on the shore with it's golden yellow sand it feels more like a sea than a lake.

The following day those who were feeling fit (or stupid) enough took a 9 hour hike into the surrounding mountains to visit the Manchewe falls, a 50m high waterfall with a cave behind it. Apparently the local villagers used to use the cave to hide in when the slave traders passed through.

The next morning we hit the road again for the half day drive South down the lake to Kande Beach where we would be staying for 3 nights.

Mikadi Beach

We thought that we were somewhere fairly isolated when we were in Jambiani but we perhaps didn't realise quite how isolated it was until we had been back in Dar es Salaam for a day. It wasn't until the morning of the 30th June, a full 5 days after it had been reported, that we found out Michael Jackson had died! We are probably the last two people in the world to hear the news.

After recovering from the previous days horrors induced by the Zanzibar ferry we had a fairly hectic day at the shops trying to sort out the things we would need for when we joined the overland truck. We'll be camping and although the tents are provided we have to bring our own sleeping gear. We jumped in a taxi and headed off out to find the Tanzanian equivalent of Asda. We ended up having to make a jaunt to Mlimani City Mall which is Dar es Salaams biggest out of town shopping centre. It was just like a trip to Merry Hill, a load of disappointing shops in the back end of nowhere. Thankfully we were able to find our camping essentials and got kitted out with an overpriced air bed, pump and duvet.

We then made our way over to Mikadi Beach, which is a few miles South of Dar, where we had a couple of days before meeting up with our overland truck.

When we checked in at Mikadi Beach we were told that because they were full we had been upgraded from our beach front banda to the honeymoon suite . . . or honeymoon straw hut.

We had plenty of wildlife to keep us company. We had a flock of bats roosting in the porch and a swarm of mosquitos feast on our limbs. The mossies were so bad that we had to "double bag" the bed with 2 mosquito nets.

Despite the mossies the accommodation at Mikdi Beach is the first accommodation that we've had in the whole of Africa that has felt like good value for money. For once we are somewhere that is clean and with good facilities that doesn't cost a fortune.

It is also the first beach we've been to since Torquay where no one has tried to sell us anything. We'd forgotten how relaxing it could be sat on a beach without continually being asked if you would like a massage, drink, ice cream, mango, wood carving, coconut, sarong, t-shirt, pineapple, some henna, some jewelry, some shells or a snorkelling or dolphin watching trip. However; Liz would love a copy of Heat magazine for all the Jacko gossip . . . Where are those bloody beach vendors when you need them!

We're guessing that the only reason why there's no vendors here is because it's too dangerous and even they fear a good mugging. There are warning signs all around the camp.

And just in case you forget when you are on the loo, the back of every toilet door is emblazoned with "WARNING! INSIDE CAMP = SAFE. OUTSIDE CAMP = NOT SAFE". The closest internet cafe is about a two minute walk back out of the camp onto the main road. Even for a walk this short they recommend that you take one of the camp's security guards with you.

Because the Masai are renown as fearsome warriors many of them work as security guards, more often than not dressed in their traditional clothes. Since we arrived in Kenya over a month ago virtually everywhere we've stayed has had Masai security guards. It's now got to the point where it doesn't feel safe unless there's a club wielding Masai within 50 yards!

Furniture removal - Tanzanian style

We saw these guy's when we getting off the ferry at Dar.

It almost makes Pickfords look professional!

Vomit comet

Our return to mainland Tanzania yesterday was a bit of a testing journey.

We left Jambiani at 10am and made the 2 hour trip across Zanzibar in a fairly sensible minibus. That part of the journey went to plan apart from being stopped a total of 5 times by different police patrols for backhanders . . . Er, I mean driver and vehicle documentation checks!

We got back into Stone Town at midday with plenty of time to get the 1pm ferry back to Dar es Salaam. Well it would have been if the bloke in the ticket office could have been bothered to sell us a ticket. However he decided that he couldn't be arsed so we had to buy a ticket from another ferry operator whose boat didn't leave until 4pm. Just the 4 hours to sit and wait with our bags then. Thank god that Mercury's bar is next door to the ferry terminal.

After waiting for three and a half hours we made our way to board the ferry to be met by the World's biggest scrum. Three passenger ferries had docked at virtually the same time and were simultaneously trying to unload and load their passengers and cargo from a single pier. It was absolute pandemonium.

After another hour of waiting, queuing, being pushed, pulled, squashed, squeezed, elbowed, jostled and hit with various pieces of luggage we eventually made it onto the pier just as they pulled the gangplank away from the boat that we were trying to board.

Thankfully we only had to wait another 20 minutes for another boat to dock. This was again followed by more pushing, shoving and using luggage as weaponry in order to try and get on board.

The ferry that we caught was advertised as a fast ferry, and for once they weren't joking. This was a REALLY fast ferry . . . regardless of the fact that the sea was rough. We were going so fast the catamaran felt like it spent more time out of the water than in it. This of course led to the vast majority of the passengers being sick. However; because we were going really fast over a really rough sea they were really sick. Not just a bit sick, but a whole lot sick. The sounds and smells were just horrific.

Liz has sworn never to go on another boat again . . . She was just like Steve Redgrave when he gave that infamous interview as he got out of the boat at the 2000 Olympics after he won his 4th gold medal!

Just as we thought the day couldn't have got any worse . . . It did! There were no rooms left at Jambo Inn which meant that we had to check back into the dirt at Safari Inn down the road. Thankfully our room this time was cleaner than the last one we had (well lets face it, it couldn't have been any dirtier)

After a traumatic days travel we headed off out for dinner to be met by some rather unusual menu items. Monday's special of the day was "Bheja Masala (minced brains of cow cooked in gravy with capsicums, onions, tomato - medium spice)". There were also his n her's deserts on offer; "macho nuts" and "big cups". Stop ye tittering at the back . . . They're ice creams!

Jambo Jambiani jellyfish

On Wednesday we left our lovely accommodation at St Monica's in Stone Town and headed all the way across Zanzibar to the beach resort of Jambiani on the East coast of the island.

Before we left Stone Town we made a reservation at Kimte Beach Inn. Although it was at the top end of our budget, it was the cheapest place we could find, the review in the Lonely Planet Tanzania was favorable and from their web site the place looked ok. The reality was something altogether different.

The Lonely Planet review used the words "spotless rooms". Who did they send to do the review? Stevie Wonder? Our small, dark and dingy room had murky blue walls with peeling paint and a grubby floor. The mosquito net was too small for the bed which resulted in me being feasted upon in the night. The bathroom shower had cold water only and outside the window ran, what sounded like, a noisy pump. For this luxury we were charged $40 dollars a night.

Wish you were here . . . Bet you're glad you're not!

Hey, it wasn't all bad though! The place was run by a bunch of really friendly Rastas, breakfast was good and they had quite a nice bar on the beach. Not quite nice enough to make us want to stay though.

We ran away after our first night and managed to find somewhere else with better, cleaner rooms for less money. We're now at a place called Shehe Bungalows where we have a little white washed coral-rag bungalow right on the beach front.

The beach here is probably the strangest beach we've ever been to. At low tide the sea, which is a beautiful turquoise colour, is about half a mile away out on the horizon. Walking out across the sand is like being on the moon.

When the tide changes direction the sea surges the half mile back up the beach in about 30 minutes.

It feels quite desolate, especially when the tide is out, incredibly remote and undeveloped.

There's only about a dozen or so choices of accommodation spread out along the beach, half of which look closed, and there's probably no more than 15 tourists in the whole resort.

Walking around the village of Jambiani, which is just behind the beach, you could easily forget that the 20th century ever happened. All of the houses are built of coral and rock with very few being connected to the electricity.

Most of the villagers eak out a living fishing (spear fishing octopus is a local specialty), harvesting seaweed or flogging fruit, shells and snorkeling trips to the few tourists who find their way here.

Despite how desolate it feels here it's still an interesting place to spend a couple of days. The walk down to the shoreline at low tide is really bizarre. There's loads of strange critters scurrying about in the rock pools and wading birds feeding on them. Then when you get down to the sea it is unbelievably blue and warm.

We had a lovely time in the sea . . . Until Liz got stung by a Jellyfish, giving her a nasty 4 inch long sting on the arm. I don't think there's any serious damage . . . Well she was still breathing last time I looked.

Stone Town

Even though it's barely more than 20 miles from the coast of mainland Tanzania, since the mid 16th century up until the mid 1960's, Zanzibar was predominantly under the rule of Omani Arabs. Due to the huge influence of the slave, ivory and spice trades the Sultan of Oman even moved his court here in the mid 1800's where it remained until the 1964 revolution. Apparently the last Sultan of Zanzibar, Khalifa bin Barghash, is alive and well having fled to Portsmouth of all places!

Walking around Stone Town, which is the heart of old Zanzibar Town, feels more like being in the Middle East than Africa. Most of the buildings are 2 to 4 story Arabic houses built around the tightly twisting streets, most of which are too narrow for cars.

The buildings of Stone Town are most famous for their elaborately carved wooden front doors. The doors used to be a status symbol, the more fancy the carving the more wealthy the owner.

A lot of the doors also feature rows of large metal spikes which are to keep elephants from damaging them. The spikes must be very effective at scaring the elephants as none ever been seen on Zanzibar.

We've spent most of our time here just wandering around the streets soaking up the atmosphere.

During one of our wanderings we paid a visit to the Palace Museum, which used to be the sultan's former palace.

It's possibly the only palace we've been to that's in a worse state of repair than the average African budget hotel room. In many of the rooms the electricity didn't work making it quite challenging to see. Those that you could see in seemed to be kitted out with really bad 1960's furniture. Lets just say that it could do with a little T.L.C. in order to restore it to its former glory.

Unfortunately a lot of the buildings in Stone Town, i.e. those that aren't owned by banks or luxury hotels, are in a similar state of disrepair. It's a real shame as there are some really interesting old buildings that are just crumbling away.

For once our accommodation is actually really nice. We're staying at a place called St Monica's which is housed in a beautiful old Arabic style building built on the site of an old slave market.

The slave market here was the world's last open slave market and was finally closed in 1873. Some of the old slave holding cells are still accessible in the basement under our hotel.

Zanzibar's other, less notorious, claim to fame is that it is the birthplace of Freddie Mercury. No one's really sure where his former house is but we can thoroughly recommend a visit to Mercury's Bar for a nice cooling bottle of Kilimanjaro beer.

Here's a thought that will make any Queen fans instantly feel old. This November it will be 18 years since Freddie died.

Dirty digs in Dar

We'd hoped that by catching the bus from Arusha at 9.15 in the morning we would arrive in Dar es Salaam before it was dark. The journey should take about 9 hours, however; thanks to a few delays, what looked like another police shake down and some bad traffic we didn't arrive until well after sunset.

We hopped in a taxi from the bus depot to make the final 8km of the journey into central Dar. The taxi ride was certainly an experience. The traffic was really heavy so the driver spent the entire journey undertaking, cutting up, pushing in and swerving dangerously across all the lanes available (and quite a few that weren't). At one point he left the road completely and, with his arm on the horn, drove down the footpath sending pedestrians flying in every direction. It was like that scene in the film 'Planes, Trains and Automobiles' where John Candy grows horns and morphs into the devil whilst behind the wheel. God knows how, but we eventually made it into the town centre without being mangled in a traffic accident or punched in the face by an irate road user or pedestrian.

Despite our lunatic driver's best/worst efforts we arrived at our hotel of choice, Jambo Inn, just in time to see the last room go to someone else. It was actually quite a shock to the system to see so many other backpackers/tourists in one place as we had seen so few since we left Bangkok nearly 3 weeks ago.

No problem, or so we thought, as we knew there was another hotel, Safari Inn, just around the corner. Safari Inn turned out to be a bit of a low point in the accommodation stakes. I think we have probably just about got used to it when a room is what would be best described as "a bit basic". However when it's a bit basic, a lot run down and completely filthy, then that's an entirely different matter.

Unfortunately Dar es Salaam is yet another place that is listed as unsafe to be on the streets after dark. In the end we decided it was safer to stay in the dirt of the Safari Inn than to risk being mugged whilst out on the street looking for cleaner accommodation.

The following morning we made a sprightly checkout first thing and managed to get a room back round the corner at Jambo Inn. Although Jambo Inn is still well and truly in the "a bit basic" category, at least it's clean.

Breakfast at Jambo Inn is also a hugely entertaining experience thanks to possibly the worst waiter we've ever encountered anywhere in the world. He could even show that useless lot at Sepilok Jungle Resort a new trick or two. We don't think we've ever seen anyone before who has such a brilliant skill of ignoring customers, he really is something special!

I think that my impression of what Dar es Salaam would be like is largely due to the Roald Dahl autobiography 'Going Solo' which we covered in English literature at school. My recollections from that book are not remotely like Dar es Salaam is today. Either it has changed a lot or Mr Dahl was already on one of his many flights of fantasy! I was imagining white sandy beaches and a view of the Indian Ocean. What you actually get is a port and view of the container ships.

The area where we are staying, Kisutu, is very atmospheric and feels more like somewhere in Arabia or India rather than Africa. The streets are full of Muslim and Indian traders who appear to be selling everything apart from the one item we need for our overland truck journey - a sleeping bag.

Other than shopping and soaking up the atmosphere, there isn't a huge amount to do in Dar. So whilst we wait for our ferry to Zanzibar we've spent a fair bit of our time making the most of the luxury hotels with nice facilities that are open to the public. Last night we had dinner at the Movenpick Royal Palm hotel to see a dance and acrobatics performance from a local troupe. Tonight we're off to the rooftop bar at the Kempinski Kilimanjaro hotel.

Even though the Safari Inn was a bit of a dive they still had standards . . .