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Published: August 19th 2010
Been on the road nine months now and been moving faster then ever, attempting to see as much of east Africa as possible. Malawi flew by with highlights, truly enjoyed it, their experiencing many great people so friendly and generous. With a wonderful lake, fertile land and the stunning Mt. Mulanje. Justin and I were fortunate enough to be accompanied by some students from the USA that have been living their for a few months showing us an insider perspective. Introducing us to many of the local people and taking us through the village they our working in. A nice change of pace from the current touristy trail. From Malawi we took a 35 hour bus ride to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania where we met Justin's friend Stephanie that will be traveling with us for a month. We headed first for the island of Zanzibar off the coast of Tanzania. The old stone town city in Zanzibar is very special. A maze of small alley's and roads in no particular pattern. Zanzibar has a lengthy history of different settlers, Portuguese, Swahili and currently a strong Muslim community that was not to be missed by the morning prayer broadcasting on speakers throughout
garden in village
chewing sugar canethe compact city at sunrise. From stone town we went to the east coast of Zanzibar and the village of Jambiani. A nice relaxing alternative to the very developed communities in the north of the island. This time was full of walks on the beach, swimming, seafood, and admiring the turquoise Indian ocean. Back on the ferry to Dar, then off to the quickly growing tourist hub of Arusha, Tanzania. In Arusha you can book several different pricey tours to the Serengeti or many other surrounding wild life parks, climb Mt. Meru, or Mt. Kilimanjaro the tallest in Africa with its 1200 dollar price tag for the 6 day trek, or see the numerous Mara Masai villages. We opted for a quick two day safari to the Taragearie national park where a highlight was seeing a pair of cheetah, the second day in the Norangroro crater where we saw many animals including the rare black rhino, several prides of lions including a single lioness eating a fresh kill wildebeest, then defending it against salivating hyenas. A site a will never forget. The strength and beauty of the mother lioness was unmatched by anything I seen, The queen of the jungle.
With massive hind legs, long sharp white teeth, and at the time a red bloody face from cutting through the wildebeest that she caught alone. Nothing could compare to this, making it worth sharing with the hordes of tourist I was unaccustomed to during earlier safari's in Kruger park and Namibia. After the 2 day safari we headed for Nairobi the capital of Kenya. A fairly modern city with sky rises and a cafe scene. Only in Nairobi for two days we took an overnight bus to the city of Kampala the capital of Uganda. We were heading for the mountain gorillas of Rwanda. Its been an action packed month constantly on the move. I look forward to a slower pace coming up in the future. Rwanda and Uganda update are soon to come as I already have experienced them both. Hope all is well to everyone in other parts of Mother Earth! Enjoy the pictures.
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Amanda
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Rastafari Safari...haha
I can't believe you're still going...you're like the energizer bunny! That's so awesome! Keep going to the beat kid...you rock! *muah*