We're now on the tropical island of Zanzibar. It's hot and humid. We've covered a lot of miles in the last few weeks. 2 long drive days puntuated with 2 days chilling out has been the norm. There are no photos to accompany this blog as we left the necessary cables back on the mainland - sorry.
From Livingstone we travelled East through Zambia visiting South Luangwa National Park. We stayed at the Flat Dogs camp - we were the first visitors after the long rains. It had only re-opened the day before we got there. The whole of the region was green; lush with vegetation and the roads were pot holed and muddy. The camp was situated on the side of the Luangwa river. The front of the river bank was a no go area (especially at night) due to crocs and hippos - the other side of the river was the NP. There were some platforms in the trees so we pitched a tent up there. Hippos came through the campsite at night and you could hear them munching the grass below - unfortunately it was too dark to see them. Vervet monkeys came through the camp at any time of the day - we were careful with our food but they bit through our toothpaste; pinched Phil's toothbrush (we found it about 3m away from the truck) and tasted our washing powder. Once they knew we were there we had to be ever vigilant when preparing/eating food.
The National Park is huge and our game drives only touched a tiny section of the park. We did an evening/night drive. We were only 100m out of camp; before we were in the park itself I saw a lone buffalo. Within 500m of the gate of the park we'd seen 2 elephant and 4 lion. One of the lions was just lazing in the road. A keen observer saw the other lion and her 2 cubs in the adjacent bush. Despite the 4 safari vehicles nearby the lion didn't move. Previous game drives we'd completed in the truck but for these game drives were in a converted landrover: the top taken off and rows of open benches added to the back. We were a lot lower and a lot closer to the animals and it was a lot more open too - very exciting.
The jeep driver was a little too keen to go off the road to get close to the animal - we got very close to lone buffalo and lone elephant (the 2 animals most likely to charge!) The area near the river was a flooded wetland (for now) and there were lots of birds and lots of crocs and hippos. The driver went so close to a couple of lone bull elephants I was actually scared. It was far too close one of the elephants we could hear the elephant fart. We watched the sunset and the drove for a couple more hours around the park in the dark armed with a massive spot light. We saw the hippos out of the water - they aren't very graceful creatures. A gennet - a carnivorous mongoose like creature about the size of a cat. We also saw the lions again - this time walking along the roads. They stayed around for photos but it was far too dark by this point.
The next morning we did another game drive. This wasn't as good as the night before. We saw some more elephants (with a baby); a hyanea; a hippo out of the water in the daylight (very exciting but our driver in hiss eagerness to take us close scared the hippo back into the water). Most of the time we spent bouncing around the muddy tracks - you needed the 4x4. The seats were just benches and we just slid left to right with the different pot holes. We saw a warthog - but he knew where he was better off the warthog followed teh jeep from the posh lodge - they must have had a better breakfast than us. We did one last loop across one of the plains when a passing vehicle said he'd seen some African wild dogs heading into the bushes and he was expecting them to appear this side; we u-turned to see the dogs crossing the open plain. Our driver cut the corner to get us there in time - very bumpy through a marshy section but we got close and hopefully got some good photos. Wild dogs are the most threatened carnivore in Africa they need huge areas to roam. They were the one thing Eve (Jason's girlfriend; also works as a tour guide in Africa) had never seen in almost a year of safaris- very good spot.
From here we drove into Malawi; a couple of days driving for a couple of days chilling out at Kande Beach. We'd been assured that Kande beach had the fastest internet in Malawi; also it had VOIP and would take incoming international calls. We had plenty of time to make the most of this facility - unfortunately the phone lines were down so we spent the time in the hammock reading books; jumping waves in the lake; teaching the Dutch couple on the tour how to play pool and sun baking. We also did a horse ride which was very amusing. Neither Phil nor Michel had even been on a horse before. Me and Sandra had but not for a long long time. Phil's horse clearly knew that Phil had no authority and Phil stopped at every lush piece of grass; he also had a bit of a run under a low branched tree. We cut though the village where the children were singing in harmony. The ride ended at our campsite where you get into your bikini and ride bare back into the lake. If riding on a saddle is hard and uncomfortable then riding bare back is just a balancing act. Phil is not eager to try horse riding again. NB the stables were run by a Brummie.
From Kande Beach we'd done 2 days of hellish driving up to Dar es Salaam in Tanzania. Dar es Salaam is situated for its bay. It took us 1hour 40mins to drive from the centre of Dar to the camp site but its only 600m on the passenger ferry from the other side of the bay.
Zanzibar isn't as beautiful as I'd expected. It had really been hyped up but its a bit run down. It's a maze of twisting winding streets and it doesn't seem very African at all - however all of the inhabitants are African but in a more Arabian dress style. It's all a bit confused. There are some very nice hotels (where we're staying cheap and cheerful) and we went to one of them to watch the sunset yesterday evening. It's in the old British consulate and it was nice to see how the other half holiday. In the evening we went to the evening street markets and filled ourselves with Zanzibar pizza (more like a savoury crepe) and fish kebabas and chipatas. Today we did a spice tour which was interesting. I'm not sure what we'll be doing for the next few days.
The trip we're on is as cheap as chips. Consequently its very hands on: we set up camp; we shop and we cook. In Namibia there were supermarkets but through Zambia, Malawi and Tanzania shopping has been a little more rural. We've been going to "OK Supermarket" or "People's choice" supermarket but it really is only just OK and the other doesn't really have much choice (we couldn't even buy pasta). Instead we've been going to the markets which is a little more time consuming but a lot more fun. The stalls are just wood lashed together with a make shift roof; they form into a maze of small stalls. Each of the stalls only sells what the owner grows - rarely more than 2 vegetables at 1 stall. Rather bizarrely all of the tomato stalls are together; all of the banana stall are together; all of the potato stalls are together. It makes it easy to compare prices. Choice is limited: we've been eating a lot of bananas and a lot of tomato and a lot of generic mince meat! It also makes every meal like Ready steady cook - you have a random selection of ingredients and you have to make a meal. This trip has been a little bit more 'gourmet' than the last - mainly because we've had to be more creative. It's a smaller group now and we've had dinner around the trestle table and invested in wine glasses and a box of wine.
We're nearing the end of our trip. We're got a few more days on Zanzibar; we're then heading to Lushoto into some mountains for bit of walking and then to Ngororo Crater.
