Blogs from Africa - page 3351

We bummed around Kisoro for a day and then took a 2 hour taxi to the National Forest where we had booked to stay a night before our tracking. We were the only people staying at the Park entrance and things were very quiet. The next morning we got up and met our fellow trackers - a couple of professional photographers from Germany, and a Canadian tourist. There were 3 army guys with guns for our safety (we were quite close to the Rwanda border) and 3 trackers. The instructed us on the days activity: We would go to where the Gorillas had been seen yesterday and track them to where they were today (hopefully). We would then track them as they moved through the bamboo forest eating for one hour and then we would head ... read more

Red sea 1 June 2003 100 camels, not for me, but a friend of ours was offered this for his wife who has the most beautiful blue eyes. Diving, diving, diving! The previous year (2002) we met friends at Malongane, Mozambique. They wanted to get a group of people together for a trip to the Red Sea for a live aboard diving holiday. They even travelled from Durban to Johannesburg to show us videos and photos to tempt and persuade us, but of course we didn't need much encouragement. How could we resist? It is known as one of the top places to dive in the world - a place that any diver should dive at least once in their lives. With all the unrest in Egypt at the moment I am glad we went when ... read more

We arrived in Mwanza having been told by the Safari company that there was a Hydrofoil across Lake Victoria. I didn't believe this for a minute, but the lonely planet did say that there were boats across to Uganda. When we got there we walked to the Lake and luckily met a very nice guy from Rwanda. He spoke very good English which wasn't very common in Tanzania and also turned out to be finding out about boats to Port Bell, Uganda. He explained that there weren't any ferries since the ferry (MV Victoria) sank a few years ago (after my 2001 guide book) - I then remembered the news story. Since Lake Victoria was land locked there was no way to get another boat there easily and a new one would have to be built ... read more

Next stop was Windhoek, Namibia, our second to last country on the trans. We spent a short few hours in the city as we were all eager to be on our way to Etosha. Windhoek was a great city, clean, friendly, well laid out and ful of the things we are used to in our other lives. It also suddenly seemed expensive! Etosha National Park was great! We didnt get to see a lot of predators, but we did see hundreds of zebra, giraffe, gemsbok (Oryx), springbok and impala. At the waterholes there would be hundreds of animals mixing and drinking. We did see an African Wild Cat and a lioness with two small cubs. At the campsites (very nice) there was a waterhole where we sat for hours in the evenings. Here we saw a ... read more

The next day we entered the Serengeti National Park at about 10 am. As soon as we got into the park we saw massive herds of Wildebeest covering the whole of the ground you could see. It was the annual migration. (http://www.lonelyplanet.com/destinations/africa/tanzania/attractions.htm#serengeti). We drove to a picnic site and on the way saw a couple of lions inside a bush very close. Lots of Zebras also. After our picnic lunch we saw Elephants, a couple of bull Giraffes fighting - banging their heads against each others necks! Wildebeest are a very strange shaped animal with short back legs and long front legs. We also saw some Hyenas with some old pieces of bone running around quite close to us. The lodge was amazing in the middle of the park. It had a lovely terrace where we ... read more