Friday 20th March We arrived at Banana Village where we had planned to meet the CRU dental team at around 4pm after our 32 hours bus journey across what seemed like the whole of Africa but in actual fact was only three countries! We looked a little dishevelled and slightly dirty to say the least and had hoped that we could have a shower before meeting everyone. Sadly Barbara caught us sneaking to our room and so they would have to put up with our dust covered faces and the slight stench of “African travel”! There were seven of us on [View Full Entry]

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We circled above the gorgeous island of Mauritius before landing occasionally spotting beautiful stretches of white sand belonging to innumerable 5 star resorts. Most people associate the island with honeymoons and expensive family holidays but we were there for much more important and special occasions. Lucie’s brother Jonathan lives on the island with his wife and newly born baby girl, Jordan. Luc hadn’t seen him or Nat for 2 years, I had obviously never met either of them, and Luc was about to meet her first niece for the first time! I have to admit that I was quite nervous meet [View Full Entry]

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Leaving Banana Village We had no appointments to make on Wednesday morning and so after checking out of Banana Village and a very leisurely breakfast we set off down the Entebbe road towards Kampala. The Ugandan people were all very busy going about their daily lives, which provided some great scenery on our journey. The people are sop enterprising, it seems all of them are trying to make a living in any way possible, each with his or her own businesses, boda-boda or day to day job! Infant Oral Mutilation We met with a dentist in Kampala who had supplied three [View Full Entry]

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Monday morning, Luc and I caught a bus from Moshi to Dar Es Salaam. It left around six o'clock in the morning and didn't arrive in Dar until around 2pm. Eight hours on the bus across one of Africa's bigger countries was not too comfortable but not one of the worst journeys I have been on during my time in Africa. Luc found it very hard despite the fact she was asleep for the majority of it. Upon arriving in Dar we were greeted by lots and lots of taxi drivers all offering the "many cheapest price" to the ferry for [View Full Entry]

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Kilimanjaro - Machame Route - Day 4 - Friday 6th March I woke up on the morning of day 4 after a very good night’s sleep, much to my relief after the freezing cold night I had at Shira Caves. We were up early and the sky was very clear. We had a beautiful sight of the summit once again and so we took the opportunity to take our team photo, all seven of us! I had with me my guide, Felex, four porters (one of whom was my waiter) and Alex my cook. They were all very friendly although I [View Full Entry]

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Kilimanjaro - Machame Route - Day 1 - Tuesday 3rd March Breakfast was served from 6am so I was up and about around half five. The power had still not come on from the night before and so the head torch was out to do the final packing of my daypack. The majority of the morning was spent running around like a headless chicken trying to organise the rental gear and settle my bill form the plate of chips and a bottle of water for the night before. We all stood waiting to meet our guides; I was the only one [View Full Entry]

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So after leaving the Kwitonda group in Rwanda I took a bus from Kigali to Kampala across the border. The bus left the Nyabugogo bus station at 5.45am and I was told that I needed to be there for about 3.30am, as it gets full very quickly! I was the first at the booking office, which did not open until 5.00am. It was lucky I was the first through the door as I got the last ticket on the bus. Lucky that was until the journey got underway. I slept until we reached the border, which only took an hour or [View Full Entry]

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24th February On Tuesday morning I started my journey in anticipation of going gorilla trekking the next day. Colin dropped me off in Kabale in the morning so that I could walk to the petrol station where the taxis departed to the border. I say taxis but in reality they are actually men who own cars and charge a couple of pounds to take people to the border of Rwanda! So I load my bags into the boot of this man’s car and jump inside. There are two women sitting in the car. “Aghandi,” I said, which means: Hello, how are [View Full Entry]

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Lucie and Lobb!! It was very sad leaving South Africa. We had had such an amazing time and both felt that given the chance we would have definitely doubled the length of our stay, but we had other places to go and very, very different cultures to experience. Paul, who is in charge of all the schools Luc is working at, Aleisha who is an American volunteer and a driver greeted us off the plane. The sign held up for us read: LUCIE and LOBB! Lobb, now that is a first for me, I get Tom and maybe even sometimes George [View Full Entry]

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Friday 8th February Sorry this post if at least 5 days late. Internet in the Transkei was appalling and nowhere has Microsoft word or USB ports so have had to wait till now! We arrived in Jeffery’s bay, at Island Vibe around 8pm. The bar was already full and we had missed supper so it was a bowl of cereal for that night! The Brazilian guys and Kirsten from Norway were staying at Island Vibe as well and it was nice to be back with them laughing about their experiences at the Bloukrans bungy. On Friday morning we all decided that [View Full Entry]

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