Our other major activity in Zambia included a three day, two night canoe trip down the Lower Zambezi River. Hot weather, great river, Canadian canoes, crocodiles, hippos and elephants - how can you go wrong with that?! The highlight of the trip was the second night after dinner, just after the sun went down, we had a herd of elephants walk through our campsite (on an island in the middle of the river). We were only about 10 meters from a huge bull elephant that was feeding on a tree next to our dinner table. We stayed quiet and crouched as [View Full Entry]

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Our first major stop in Zambia was the South Luangwa National Park. Our campsite was right on the bank of the Luangwa River and the Hippos came up into the campsite regularly at night to graze. It's only when one is about 20 meters away from the dinner table completely out of the water that you really begin to appreciate how huge these creatures are. We couldn't stop smiling every time we heard their noises; it's like living in a zoo (only way better). We went on a couple of game drives including a walking safari and a night drive which [View Full Entry]

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After Zanzibar, just when we thought we couldn't get enough beach time, we headed off to Lake Malawi - specifically Kande Beach. Again, we didn't do much here other than relax in the hammocks and rack up a rather shocking bar tab. Guess who won? We also reigned supreme at the foosball table, less so at pool. The most surprising thing about Malawi so far has been the beautiful crafts and artwork that is for sale. It's so different than anything we've seen elsewhere in Africa, and it's very cheap to buy. They're famous for their carved chairs, although we like [View Full Entry]

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Before making the ferry crossing to Zanzibar, we had one important bit of business to attend to. On the Friday morning we got up bright and early and made our way to the Canadian High Commission so that we could complete our passport saga by picking up our brand new 48-page passports! What a relief! Our first night in Zanzibar, we stayed in Stone Town and went for a tour of the city the next day including the usual spice tour. We then drove to the north end of the Island and spent the next 3 nights at Nungwi chilling on [View Full Entry]

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After the disapointing experience in the Serengeti, we were pleasantly surprised to get exactly the opposite experience in the Ngorongoro Crater. The crater is a fairly small area in comparison to the Serengeti and has it's own extremely diverse ecosystem. We saw an incredible variety of wildlife in close proximity to the jeeps. The highlight of this experience was the pride of lions that approached the road and used the jeeps as cover while some of them hunted zebras. This of course attracted every jeep that was in the park to the same spot at one time. One of our jeeps [View Full Entry]

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On the way into Serengeti National Park, we had to drive through the Ngorongoro Conservation Area along the rim of the Crater that we would come back to in 2 days time. It was an interesting drive because the conservation area aims to achieve a balance between the local Masai people and the wild animals. It was so strange seeing a herd of sheep in the foreground and then giraffes feeding on the trees behind them. It poured rain the night before and the morning that we drove into the Serengeti, but by the afternoon things seemed to be clearing up. [View Full Entry]

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After our incredible experience with Lake Nakuru we didn't think we could really do anything at Naivasha that would top it. So we took a relaxing day at the campsite and then went to Elsamere Centre for high tea and snacks. The previous day we spent the afternoon painting a classroom at a school project sponsored by Dragoman. It was nice to help out and we weren't swarmed with children like was the norm in Ethiopia. After Naivasha we drove back through Nairobi and then south to Arusha, Tanzania where we would begin our Serengeti and Ngorongoro experience. [View Full Entry]

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More photos, with people pictures for Elizabeth. [View Full Entry]

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Lake Nakuru definately turned out to be the best game experience for us so far on this trip. We saw every big animal that the National Park has to offer including the elusive leopard and black rhino (these two within the first 20 minutes of entering the park). Nakuru is a soda lake and hosts thousands of flamingos, storks and pelicans. The colour contrasts provided a beautiful setting. We took 891 pictures between the two of us, so imagine how hard it is to pick a few select ones to put on the website. Especially when we witnessed a leopard hunting [View Full Entry]

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Yay, we made it to Nairobi! As a sendoff for the group leaving the trip, on our last night we went to Carnivore for meat, meat and more meat! Not as much game meat as we would have hoped but we did have ostrich and crocodile along with the usual beef, chicken, pork, turkey, and lamb. They just keep bringing it until you can't eat any more! Definately the best meal we've had in Africa; and we also paid for it (drinks and dinner cost a total of $80 for the two of us). We might just have to go back [View Full Entry]

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