25thAfrica

hi everyone sorry it has been so long since we last logged on. we have been in zanzibar for the last four days. it is wonderful here with a beautiful beach and a great pool. it is so relaxing. wednesday we went to stonetown in the morning to see the sights, which included the slave market, the house of wonders, and the old fort. it was a hot day with lots of walking. we then went for lunch and then some of us went on to the spice tour and the rest of us went to prison island. it was actually never a prison, but a hospital to quarantine patients that had lupus, yellowfever, tb, etc. there are giant turtles on the island weighting up to 250kgs. yesterday we had a relaxing day on the beach. ... read more

Hi Everyone Went on the hot air balloon ride early tuesday morning. had two balloons because of so many people. seen different types of animals. highest we went was 1000 ft. it was amazing. had a beautiful champagne breakfast in the open bush. landed on the border of kenya and tanzania. went for an afternoon game drive, saw elephants, buffalo, lions, and tons of others. we have now seen 3 out of the big five. still missing leopards and rhinos. Had a long day yesterday. it took us 11 hours to drive from kenya to tanzania to the serengeti national park. the bridge was out so our time was doubled from the original time. went through the border. no problems. arrived at the tents. so amazing. we were escorted to the rooms. everyone was wondering why ... read more

Well we have only 1 week to go and everyone seems to be getting excited... The packing and last minute shopping is well underway, knowing full well that we will forget something. Some issues that we have encountered for anyone who is looking to go to Africa, our passports (visas) took 4 weeks to the day to return. You have to send your passports to the embassies in Ottawa to get your visas - it was very worry some to wait for them to come back. The other issue was currency. We were successful in getting Kenya Shillings, but no real luck in getting the Tanzania Shillings, yet some of our group did get it.. So we are bringing some extra US just in case. One of our restrictions is that we can only bring 15kg ... read more