We have spent a relaxing week in beautiful Malawi. Malawi is a very poor country (GNP is less than US$250 and life expectancy only 43 years) but the landscape is magnificent and the people friendly and excitable, they are some of the friendliest people in Africa. Our first stop was Chitimba Beach in the Livingstonia region, a lovely camp site on the shores of the freshwater Lake Malawi, Africa's third largest lake with a pristine beach on our doorstep. From Chitimba we headed on a long 22km walk up the mountains to Manchewe Falls which thunders 125m into the valley below. Walking through villages and cassava plantations, small subsistence farms and into the mountains, we caught a glimpse of traditional Malawian life with cassava drying outside the homes, children of all ages carrying their pots of ... read more

We spent a few days in Lake Navaisha and cycled through Hell's Gate National Park watching the zebras, giraffes and warthogs. It was nice to cycle around on our own and get some exercise for once. We went for a long walk down in the gorge passed hot springs until we could no longer work out where to go and had to retrace our steps. At night we watched as hippos came up to our camp site to feed. Our next stop and the highlight so far was our visit to the Masai Mara. There were literally hundreds of thousands of wildebeest, here for the migration from the Serengeti. Unfortunately we did not see them jumping across the Mara River but we watched as they organised themselves into long lines and grazed. The wildlife experience was ... read more

Rwanda is a beautiful country, the roads are fantastic and the people are really friendly, the children wave and call out “how are you?”. The best day we have had on the whole trip was in the rainforest of the Parc National Des Volcans where we went gorilla trekking. With thick rainforest blocking our way, the tracker used a machete to cut down the forest to make a path, while we walked up to our knees in undergrowth and stinging nettle. We were lucky to be visiting the Susa group, the largest and most famous of the seven habituated groups. What made our visit even more special is that this group is usually the hardest to reach, normally you need to trek for 3-4 hours up the slopes of Karisimbi at an altitude of more than ... read more

Jambo from Kenya. The first couple of days travelling in Kenya were nothing short of the hardest two days we have had on our trip. It all started in Moyale, a town split by the border. After only finding disgusting accommodation riddled with cockroaches and our favourite, unclean communal toilets (an Ethiopian specialty) on the Ethiopian side we decided to risk it and cross the border hoping for something better, the problem being there was only one daily bus out of the place and it had long gone by the time we got there from Yabelo. We had no problems crossing the border, this is one that we were nervous about as they have had sporadic banditry right up to Moyale in the past, so getting across this with no hassle was a relief, although there ... read more

We headed south into faranji (white person/foreigner) frenzy zone with inflated prices for foreigners, self-appointed guides and children that scream “YOU,YOU,YOU” and “HIGHLAND! HIGHLAND!” (water bottles) and ask for money. It was enough to send us completely mad. Our first stop was the lakeside town of Awasa. It was an interesting bus journey. Because the bus was not full when we arrived, rather than just waiting at the station, we drove around the block over and over again for about 45 minutes until it filled up. It was a long hot journey and for the first time we really experienced Ethiopians fear of fresh air in the bus. First we were asked to close the window because a child had been sick (Matt did try to reason that fresh air would be good for her), then ... read more