Blogs from Tanzania, Africa - page 16

Tanzania day 2 Chimpanzee trekking in the jungle in Gombe, Tanzania, Africa. Sometimes I may have a little moan and often it’s about people but today, despite confusion later....was one of the best days of my life. Usually when we set off to do things we set off with low expectations so when we set off seaching for chimpanzees I expected to maybe see one...probably covered in scaffolding....about a mile away....with trees in the way and it be raining so hard we can’t get our cameras out. Amazingly though, this was not the case. After a breakfast of savoury pancakes, fruit, bread and jam and omelette it was time to head out with our guide. We had paid extra (2x£9) for two trekkers to head out before us, at 4am supposedly, to find out where the ... read more

A huge thunderstorm awoke me at around 5am, the room was intermittently lit by bright lightening and the curtains were blowing in like a horror movie. The window was open but we were protected by a veranda, mosquito net and wrought iron bars. I got up to watch it over the lake. I've never seen so much lightening in one storm, it was sheet lightening that lit up the entire sky turning the palm trees into black silhouettes. It flickered like a faulty light at varying intensities as the wind attacked the trees and the lake was totally mad. The thunder too was intense and frequent, being particularly loud at times. This went on for around 40 minutes and what baffled me further was that Glyn didn't wake up. Afterwards, the sky was a dingy grey ... read more

Today has been one of the best of my life, I've been lucky and privileged to have seen around 25 wild chimps in the wild and was with them for 2.5 hours. I walked out of the jungle a hot, sweaty mess with twigs in my hair and covered in dirt, but totally exhilarated. Just amazing. Breakfast was at 7.30 and was a bit odd: some savoury pancakes, bread and fried egg that came after we'd eaten the rest as Duma had forgotten them. Ahadi, our chimp guide met us just after 8am and off we went. He had just the clothes he wore and a small bottle of water in his hand - no backpack, no first aid kit, no namby-pamby tourist health and safety shit, this was the real deal. He had warned us ... read more

If a place is only accessible by boat and the people at the town of the port are staring, you know you've managed to get away from most other tourists, which is awesome, but who will my hubby moan about in his blogs? We are at the edge of Lake Tanganyika, in the Gombe Nature Park in East Tanzania and we practically have the place to ourselves, except for a few staff and many potentially thieving baboons. It took some getting to and we started at 4.30am, in Dar Es Salaam. My first thought of the day was no one can helped but be wowed by an all-in-one shower and squat loo, how eco is that?!! AND not only does the loo act as the drain for shower water, you can also take a dump whilst ... read more

I honestly don't remember when I bathed last. I run my fingers through my hair and determine it's less than 7 days. Definitely more than 4. My bed's not really made.. I felt a little guilty when I crawled under the covers last night and poor Theodore was face down, all crumpled up. The hamsters are off the wheel. Here's the thing.. other than Theodore's comfort.. I don't care. I don't care that the kids walked all over my floor mat in their shoes when we were baking cookies together. I don't care that there might be a new species of tree growing under my armpits. I don't care that I didn't count my macros today or that my run was 4.9 miles instead of 5. I don't care that my walls aren't perfectly primed and ... read more