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Blogs from Africa - page 2706
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April 7th 2006
Hello from Zimbabwe! It's been awhile since our last blog because finding good internet has been difficult and besides, we have been busy walking with lions and rhinos! We left Malawi and headed across the top of Mozambique to Zimbabwe. We only spent one night in Mozambique, bush camping, but it was a nice stamp in our passport! Mozambique Driving through Mozambique we starting noticing a change in the scenery. It was becoming a lot less tripical and arid and we were now seeing more grasslands and woodlands with large granite boulders. We bush camped for the night and you still have to be very careful not to stray too far off the road because Mozambique still has a land mine problem. Border Crossing We hadn't really followed the situation in Zimbabwe in the newspapers before ... read more
April 7th 2006
The coach trip was uneventful until Tanga right in the North East of Tanzania. After a break for food and other things we set of. I had been warned that the road was bumpy. What people forgot to mention that it’s not actually a road like we know it. It wasn’t tarmaced. I was asleep until this point. The road was so bumpy it was like receiving a spine shattering massage, for two hours straight. Then at the Kenyan border I started to feel the effects of dehydration sickness kick in. As I was looking for water the bus decided t leave without me and I think I found myself running the fastest I had ever run shouting the loudest I have ever shouted. Fortunately I wasn’t the only one and the bus stopped 100 meters ... read more
April 7th 2006
We landed and amazingly have cellular service:)) Woke up at 430 this morning...at airport by 6...stuffed around at airport for 3 hours..flight delayed by 2 hours..now a 5 hour jeep ride out to the middle of nowhere. Oarzazate is beauuutiful!! Covered in adobe/sand kasbahs and rolling hills. the best news is that it doesn't feel THAT hot...at least not as hot as we were fearing. Fingers crossed that it holds. Have an enormous grin on my face to finally be here. Everything is grand..nice people from all around the world is the best bit for sure. Probably wont hear from us for a day or two. xxchloe... read more
April 7th 2006
I have just made use of the last sit down loo i will see for nine days. From now on we are going freestyle....... read more
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April 7th 2006
Just received our road book for the race. We will be running 227 kilometers...at first sounded like fantastic news until we had a close look at the terrain...dunes dunes and more dunes...every day. Usually courses only have a day or two of them but we'll be doing about 10k of dunes per day. We are a bit nervous about this news but ah well...take it as it comes. Baby steps. Met so many people now and everyone is basically in the same boat...just want to finish...not too many fitness lunatics around. So hopefully we can laugh/smile our way thru it with the rest of the competitors. Loving the bright sunshine (compared to HKG smog) and loving the spirit of the event. ..its remarkable.... read more
April 6th 2006
We didn't really mean to stop in East London as we kind of mixed up our bus route, but with the time that we have it didn't really matter. Just another place to explore, and it would only take a day. We found a cosy little BP in a house owned by a single lady who in the real world was an estate agent. She started a BP as a hobby and it took off so now she has to base her self at home. It was lovely to have a personal, female touch and everything was clean and beautifully decorated. Whats more we were sharing the whole place with just a couple from Ireland who had done our intended route in reverse. We cooked up a great braai with them and shared travel stories over ... read more
April 6th 2006
Arrived into Casablanca pretty tired after a nine hour flight. One of the other crew Anis (thats pronounced aneice) was from Morocco so was going back to his parents house and invited me to have lunch with them. I didn’t really want to intrude but he was insistent I come. I discovered that moroccans are very hospitable and are more than happy to welcome someone in their home. We got in a taxi and made our way to his family's house. They lived in an apartment block within walking distance to the sea. The apartment was pretty small for a family of five but was beautifully furnished in typical Moroccan style. His parents were really lovely, his mum couldn’t speak any English but his dad could so I chatted with him. His mum bought us out ... read more
April 6th 2006
Once again united, the girls and I took the ferry to Zanzibar. They of course sat inside to enjoy the air conditioning while I stood on the back deck of the boat taking in the scene of the blue water of the Indian Ocean. It was a great two hour ride that landed us in Stone Town, the legendary trading center of Zanzibar. It did not take us long to find a suitable guest house (Annex Abdullah). The girls decided to rest a bit so I headed out to explore the narrow alleys and ancient buildings that makes up this exotic location. I decended upon the large outdoor market and found myself immersed in spice vendors and old ladies hawking fresh fruits. After a few hours of strolling, I found myself on the west side of ... read more
April 6th 2006
I got off the train. And was approached by some one offering a taxi ride. I had a rough idea of the price, but wasn’t exactly sure how much. 15000 Shillings was the first price I was given. I said that I had been told it was 5000. They said okay then 12. This was going to be a hard bargaining process. Next I said that I had heard that the price was 5 and that I was not prepared to pay more than 5. They reduced the price to 10 I walked off, at which point they started to follow, confirming the fact they were trying to over charge me. I offered 6 The guy said that the place I was trying to get to was over 5 km away. My reply to this was ... read more
