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Published: July 25th 2008
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16 June - 6 July
Hi Everyone. We have had limited email so are a little behind but hopefully I can cover everything pretty quickly. The trip so far has been fantastic and has surpassed all expectations. We are all finished with the tour and everyone on it was really nice. The tour was really great but we are loving the luxury of a bed, toilets that flush and hot showers. We counted up that 32 of the last 38 days have been in a tent! Currently we are in Cape Town but I'm going to just summarize our tour with Absolute Africa in East Africa.
Our first day in Uganda (Etebbe) was pretty good. We basically met the people we would be traveling with and went out to lunch. We were introduced to "African Time" as it took about 2 hours for lunch. We were not in any hurry so did not matter at all, but was still kinda funny. While waiting we did try out fried grasshoppers from a guy selling them our of a bucket. They were very salty so I would not recommended them! It was really good getting to know people though. There ended
up being 28 people so quite a large group.
We went to a Chimpazaie sanctuary on the official first day which was great. We took a very choppy boat ride out to an island and a few people were feeling sick, rob and I were lucky and felt fine. Once on the island we had lunch and then got to watch the chimps being get lunch. It was really great. We were behind a fence but were really close to them. They were just like people. A few were just raising their arms telling the feeder to trow food to them. Others were using sticks like a tool to get food from other side of fence--really human like. One little baby had a little blanket that he carried around with him. It was all really interesting.
We made our way down to Rwanda after that and I assumed it would be a long boring drive but we loved it. The scenery was really good, rolling green hills and not what I would expect of Africa. The best part though was all of the people watching. All of the kids were facinated by us. When they saw us approaching
they would start waving and then get really excited when we would wave back. Doesn't sound very exciting but after waving to kids (and some adults) for a few hours I was beginning to feel like the queen must feel. This one kid got so excited when we waved that he started doing flips for us. It was hilarious.
The main purpose of Rwanda was to see the gorillas which was amazing. We basically hiked uphill for four hours with a guide, and two armed guards (they said it was to protect us from elephants but I suspect it was to protect us from rebels--but we felt really safe with them there) and then got to spend an hour with the gorillas. Really amazing. We got to see the only known gorilla twins in the world, a few silverbacks and quite a few babies. The babies were really cute and one was sitting on his parents shoulders just like people do. Overall there were about 20 gorillas in the family and the closest we got was a couple of meters away. Fantastic!
After the gorillas we made our way back to Uganda and spent 3 days in a
town called Ginger which is somewhat of an adventure town. We did Whitewater Rafting in the Nile on the first day and it was great fun. We tipped over a few times with no dramas until we got to a place called "The Bad Place". There we had a huge wipe-out! All of us got sucked under water and had to basically wait until our lifejackets pulled us up--a little scary. Then once we got up we had enough time to take a breath before going under a few more times. It was probably only a few minutes before being saved by kayakers but I was getting a little nervous.
Also, while in Jinja, about 6 of us went for a bike ride though a small village which was one of my favourite days so far. It was amazing to be so close to the local houses and the children were great. They would get really excited about the Muzungu (white people) and start running after us. We would take pictures of them and then show them the camera and they thought it was hilarious. When we had to get going a few of them ran after us for
another 10 minutes or so. The next day we went to an Orphanage/pre-school and got to spend more time with kids. Again, they loved us. The one that attached himself to rob just gave him a huge hug (hugging his knees). They were all fighting over who got to be thrown up in the air next by him. I was showing them how my camera worked and they were all taking pics and giggling.
After Uganda we went into Kenya and did some game drives. The parks were all fantastic but my fav in Kenya was Masai Mara. We saw loads of elephants, giraffe, zebra, buffalo and lions (we were about 5 meters away from some at one point). We also went into a Masai village which I am sure was a Tourist Masai Village but it was still good. We got to speak with one local and go into his house (made of cow dung!) and he told us about his life. Afterwards he promptly tried to sell us some things and asked if we had anything from our country to trade. They were very interested in our watches but I told him I needed it but did
buy one thing from them for a few dollars.
Another highlight of Kenya was the Giraffe Sanctuary. We got to feed the giraffes and pet them. Then if we really wanted to we could put a little bit of food in our mouth and they would "kiss" (really lick) to get the food. I let them kiss me but rob opted not to let them kiss him. We also went to the Elephant orphanage but this was not as cool as the Giraffe Sanctuary.
Next country was Tanzania where we did more game driving. We went into Serengeti which was good but we had just missed the migration. We saw Heina (sp?) and babies, lions and babies, and a cheetah (from a distance) but there were not as many animals as in Masai Mara. The next day we went to NGoraGora (sp?) crater which was amazing! There was a huge herd of Wilderbeasts--literally thousands and just loads and loads of animals. Not only were the animals amazing but the scenery was also fantastic. Def our favourite safari in Africa to date!
That pretty much wraps up the first 3 weeks of our trip. The Absolute Africa tour
was really good and we would def recommend this company to other people.
By the way, sorry for typos, I was typing really quick. Also, I'll try and add pics in Thailand when I should have more time.
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Libby
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Africa
Your trip sounds amazing. Alot of it we did but the bits we didn't do sounded great. i am glad you enjoyed the crater as it is by far our favourite place in Africa. Hope you are enjoying Asia now and relaxing a little after all your trekking. lol lib x