"But the dust on my boots and the rhythm of my feet and my heartbeat say Africa..."

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i wrote this when i arrived in moshi at the beginning of august...but never got around to posting it!

Quick update on travels so far...

5 weeks of holidays has flown by but not without lots of amazing sunrises and sunsets, some adventures, lots of new places, and a few too many long dusty bus rides!
This will be a quick update as the group climbing Kili is meeting up for a last minute planning supper in a few minutes so here is the fast run down of the past couple of weeks
At the beginning of July I flew down to Cape Town and Rory and I hung out for a few days with Meg there (thanks!!) did some wine tasting (only to escape the rain of course!), caught up with a few friends, and then met up with Frikkie and, after a too short stay with Ann-Mari, headed out to Betty's Bay for the weekend. Cape winter was in full force with lots of rain and wind but we got a few beautiful sunny days in between, and then headed up to Maputo, Mozambique.
From there we bused north to Tofo, and spent the next 3 weeks

around Tofo, Tofinho, and north along the coast. A couple of great adventures...saw Bart and Mieke for one night to catch up on some stories! Rory managed to negotiate a house on the beach for us so we lived in luxury for a few days, then camped on a beach in the middle of nowhere for another week and enjoyed life in paradise....warm water, waves, empty beaches, starry nights, and lots of coconuts and pawpaws (and condensed milk!).
July disappeared much too fast and Frix headed back to Cape Town while Rory and I flew up to Nairobi and from there took a 7hr turned 12hr bus ride to Moshi.
In Moshi we met up with the group...mum, dad, Louis, Nathan, Kiff, Kathleen, Marissa, David and, as of yesterday, Alexa and Taylor.
The 10 of us (minus Alexa and Taylor) spent 4 days visiting the national parks-Ngorongoro Crater, Lake Manyara, and Tarangire- and saw some amazing animals, views, birds. Luckily we were well prepared and when both landcruisers broke down the same evening we had a 5L box of wine along to make a sunset breakdown into a great story!
But lots of stories to come soon...for now we head off to the mountain! This morning the snow-capped peak of Kilimanjaro made it's first appearance from behind the clouds so we'll dream of mountains tonight...

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Photos

Wine Tasting
Peg and I introducing Rory to the finer things in life! I think this was at Rust en Vrede