Kenya to Mozambique


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Oceania » Australia » New South Wales » Sydney » North Ryde
September 23rd 2011
Published: December 20th 2011
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Next morning we were up at 7.30am and we all had to leave at 8.30. We arrived in Nairobi at 9.30 and said our goodbyes to those who weren’t going to Carnivores for lunch that day, Amy had booked us in. We got off the truck at the Boulevarde hotel and walked with a bunch of other to the parkside, only 10 mins away and had to wait in reception for an hour before we could check in. Finally we got our room. We chilled for a little while before meeting the others to take taxis that Amanda had managed to organize for us to Carnivore. It’s a restaurant where most tourists who visit Nairobi will go, theres a flat rate and its all you can eat meat basically, they come around with huge swords of meat. They used to be famously only game meat, but its illegal here now, so the exotic stuff is ostrich meat balls, camel and crocodile as well as cooked ox balls sliced up, I didn’t try that last one. Plus they have all the normal stuff, beef, lamb, chicken, turkey and pork. We were pretty full when we left! We had to say goodbye then to half the group (the other half were staying at our hotel) and we took the cabs back. The gals, Raewyn, Nicola, Amanda, Mary, Robyn and I decided to go shopping at the local market, while the boys either slept or watched the English Premier league, you can guess what Dario did. The central market is a large warehouse building with 2 floors of just touristy shops.So we all bought a few things, I managed to tick off my whole list, and my bargaining skills which are getting better, got it all for less than I thought Id have to pay.



We then went to the bar at the comfort inn which near the parkside and had a few drinks before saying final byes to Nicola, Raewyn, Mary and Robyn as they either had early flights or were staying elsewhere. We didn’t need dinner that night.



Next morning we were up at 9 and went out for brekky near the other hostel we had stayed at. We slipped a note under Amanda and Matt´s door saying we´d meet them at 12 to go and see a movie. We had a great brekky at Java coffeehouse and picked up our stuff at the hostel that we had left in storage before heading back to the hotel. We dumped our stuff and met the others and took half an hour to try and find a cinema nearby, no one seemed to know where it was until we stopped in a fancy hotel and asked. We had just missed the start so agreed to meet back at 2.30 to see Bad Teacher. We went back to the hotel and chilled, the others went to internet. The movie was not the best, but it was cheap and filled up out afternoon.



We all had dinner together at the comfort inn and a few drinks before going to nakumatt and buying a few things for brekky next day and saying goodbye and goodnight to the other 2. They had a late flight that night.



Next day was sinfully glutinous! We had milo cereal for brekky, then Dario went and got takeaway pizzas for lunch, then he went out again and got snacky foods for dinner… I did nothing all day except eat and watch tv! Next morning we checked out at 10, then went to meet Max, who sent a taxi to pick us up. Max is the guy we met in Diani who helps run an NGO in Kabira, a giant slum in Nairobi and he wanted to show us around. We picked him up on the way and we got dropped at the outskirts and walked in. We went to the community centre which has a computer classroom, meeting room and small library. Then to the school which is getting a new water tank installed to service the whole area with treated water and new buildings to expand the school. It was amazing, it’s a girls primary school and only the poorest of the poor get to go there. There are some who have nowhere to live so they live with a carer nearby the school, there are 8 girls there right now, most of which have nowhere to live due to violence at home. A quarter of the girls there are HIV positive but get free treatment. There is a clinic there also which services that area of Kabira, the day we went there were lots of women and babies doing their weekly checkup. Apparently the school is totally free, but for 5 weeks of the year a family member of those gals who have them is expected to volunteer some time to help at the school. Its all run on donations from charities and individuals and a sponsorship program for each girl, apparently there is a waiting list of donors! Amazing! They told us that they have ante and post natal care at the clinic, but for births they will pay for the woman to go to the womens hospital and it only costs 500 shillings, $5 for a healthy birth in hospital, if there are complications the clinic will pay for that too, these women cant afford anything. Its great to see an NGO doing some great work!!



We walked out a different way through the slum, had a drink at Max´s favourite place and called the cab to pick us up again. We had brought a lot of our stuff to donate to Max so when we dropped him off he took a big bag with him of our stuff including our tent, mozzie nets and clothes. The cab dropped us at nakumatt and we used some internet, went shopping and just chilled at the comfort inn for the rest of the day. We had organized for a taxi to pick us up at 9pm to go to the airport, he came and off we went. Our flight wasn’t until 3.30am but there was nothing else to do in Nairobi. We just played around on the computer and listened to ipods before we were able to check in at midnight and go through to the gate. We found a java coffeehouse and stayed there until boarding the plane. We were on an Ethiopian Airlines flight to Maputo via Addis Ababa. We slept on the flight but were interrupted by breakfast, then we slept in the airport for an hour, then on the second flight we were on a decent sized plane, but there must have only been 80 people! So we had a whole 6 seats to ourselves, could have had loads more too! We slept, ate lunch then finally arrived in Maputo. Got our $66 visas and got a cab to the Base Backpackers in downtown. We had got a private room, we collapsed for a while, had showers then went out for a nice pizza dinner on the main road. We had made the decision to stay in Maputo the whole time since to go anywhere seemed expensive and a hassle. We slept in and then had to move out of our room into a dorm.



We went to a place called Surf for breakfast since they had wifi too and left a bag of washing at the hostel. We spent some time that day looking for another hotel with private cheap rooms, and walked to the immigration department to get a certified copy of our passports, you either have one of these or the original on you at all times. Turned out you need to get a photocopy and bring it there, but it was 1pm and all the photocopy places were shut until 2.30 for lunch, so we decided to not bother and walked back to our hostel. We had found another hotel but had to stay in the dorms that night since we had gone past the point of a cancellation fee of 50%. We bought bus tickets to joburg for Sunday and booked fri and sat nights at the santa cruz hotel. We had a late lunch at surf and retired to our dorm that we were sharing with a missionary from south Africa, we just chilled and read till bed time. We got our laundry back too which was awesome!



Next morning we checked out and left the bags there for later. We walked to the fort and saw a bit more of downtown Maputo and took some photos. We bought some cheap sunnies too. We got back to the hostel and took the bags to the new hotel, checked in and got a room change since the aircon we were paying money for wasn’t working in the original room. It was a cheap hotel by many standards. We have to share a bathroom with 2 other rooms, the tv is crap with bunny ears, and the lift only stops at ground floor, 4th floor and 8th floor, originally we were on the 6th, so had to go to 8 and walk down, the second room was on the 4th floor. But its comfy and secure and not a dorm, we were so over dorms!



We chilled out a bit then walked up the road for a late lunch. We watched some Spanish league in a restaurant called Mimmos, and had a great pizza and macaroni cheese and amazing milkshakes! We rolled out the door and to the supermarket to buy brekky for the next day only to find that everything is so expensive!! Almost $10 for a small packet of cheerios. We got the cheapest stuff we could find. We watched tv in the hotel room and ate snacks for dinner.



Next morning was Saturday and we walked to the craft market near the fort. We couldn’t believe how cheap everything was! So we bought a few souvenirs. And Dario had managed to stand on my new sunnies that morning so I got a new new pair. We walked back and dumped things in the hotel room before having another late lunch in Mimmos and watched Blackburn beat Arsenal 4-3. We bought me some new thongs for about $2 with little Mozambique flags on them and went back to the hotel to chill before bed.We had also stopped by a travel agency to buy bus tickets to Johannesburg for the following morning.

Next morning we were up early, ate brekky then checked out. We walked up the road to the bus stop to get our bus to joburg. It took all day but we made it and arrived at about 6pm in Joburg. Our mate Riette (she was on our truck trip through kenya and uganda) picked us up and took us back to her place where we stayed for the next 2 nights. Then we all went out for dinner with her sister Nina-Lize and Raewyn from the truck at an awesome asian restaurant. It was a great night!






Next day Riette was off at work, and we walked to the nearby shopping centre to buy some supplies for dinner (I was going to cook) and a few other little things, we had a great lunch and wandered back again to watch some tv and cook. The three of us had a great dinner together, Riette told us that our tales of south america had made her decide to quit her job and go there at the end of the year! cool! Next day we said goodbye, and waited at her place for Nina-Lize´s husband to come and pick us up and take us to the airport, very very kindly! We felt very spoilt over the couple of days we spent in joburg. We got on our flight that afternoon to Singapore.






When we got to singapore airport we had to go through security again and found out that the alcohol we bought duty free in Joburg airport was not allowed on the plane!! grrrr, so we had to throw it in the bin!!






We finally got off the plane in Sydney and met everyone at the airport! Was great! We then went back to my parents place for dinner. The trip was over, it felt very very weird. But we learnt a lot and were so glad that we did what we did, and we still havent lost the travel bug 😊

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