Cape Bound

Gallery: New Safari Pics (easier to find)

cape_bound — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 23:15:00 GMT

From the Safari at the start of the trip

Gallery: Tripping around South Africa

cape_bound — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 22:51:00 GMT

Starting to settle in to life here

cape_bound — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 20:26:00 GMT

(Dear loyal Readers: I would first of, like to apologize to everyone who has been wondering when the next update would come, as life here has been quite busy with settling in, and that little horrible thing called homework.. But have no fear!! I am back with both an update about life in South Africa, and a soon to come continuation of our Safari!)

Since arriving here in South Africa (every time I walk by a sign that says “Africa” on it I still do a double take... holy cow, I’m in Africa!) life has been full of new adventures. The day after we arrived we were taken by Corlia, Dave and Sean to their beach house, which was on a bay that connected to the ocean. All I can say is WOW. It was a beautiful house with an even more amazing view of the ocean. The beach was covered in really cool wildlife, and the beach was even home to a herd of wild horses (how cool is that!). We were treated to a typical South African “Braii” (translation: a national past time in South Africa when people stand around an open fire and cook meat.. kinda like a BBQ with an open fire and no gas) and a much needed beginner lesson in Afrikaans. I do say, that this was a good start to our stay here.

As many of you know, approximately a month before we left for our voyage, we packed 4 large boxes full of clothes and whatnot which was supposed to arrive in Cape Town at approximately the same time as we would arrive. Since we had just gone on a safari, we each only had approximately 15 kg (the airline limit) of safari appropriate clothing with us. Now the Safari look Is what you are going for, then this would have been ideal… I wasn’t going for that look, and was in dire need of “normal clothes”. My mother said that or temporary lack of clothing was “an enriching experience” as it showed how people can get by with soon much less them normal (I wasn’t quite so sure of this). We quickly found out that not only had our boxes not arrived, but they were sitting in Belgium, enjoying the snow. Corlia heard my desperate calls for clothing and kinda volunteered to bring me to a giant warehouse store where there was a great sale going on. Little did she know that this experience would be like releasing a kid into a candy store. I, who am normally not excited about shopping, was in heaven, and the savings were GREAT!! I left with a giant heap of clothes, and only spent the equivalent of 35$$. This (I know, it’s sad to say) was definitely a highlight of my weekend. (update : our boxes finally arrived 2.5 weeks after we arrived (so much for beating us here), and the experience of opening my box was like opening presents on Christmas!)

My mom pretty much covered the whole “rag week” (which is the equivalent of frosh week in Ottawa) so I won’t steal her glory, but I would like to say I was impressed how well organized the events were, and how bonded the dorms were (without similar traditions to the Ottawa U tradition of covering each other in various condiment and making them run around the city… what a loss!)

My mother has since become quite the busy person (and she thought she was going to need to take up knitting with all the free time she would have!). She has gotten herself involved to 2 major groups, the Spice group and the kyamundi project, as well as attending a history of South Africa course at the University. She assures me that a detailed description of these 2 groups will be posted within a few days.

I have been quite busy since the my arrival here. I would first like to say that I have fallen in love with life here. The people are outstandingly nice, and the laidback lifestyle is suiting me well. I am taking 2 ecology classes here and am loving them. I have gotten myself involved with the Stellenbosch University Riding club, as well as Habitat for humanity. I have been making lots of new friends (who all seem to have a love from the Braii!) and am settling in well.

In an attempt to meet new people, Philippe and I went, with a bus load of other international students from the University of Stellenbosch, on a day trip to Cape Point and Simon’s town. It was great to finally talk to people under the age of ...well...old (there is only so long you can go only talking to your parents) and we met people from all over the world. Cape Point is absolutely beautiful (though not for the individuals who don’t like climbing mountains). We, going our separate ways, both got a change to see both the cape point, and the cape of good hope. We then went off to Simon’s Town to see the famous cape penguins (yes, there are penguins in Africa! They are very cute but very smelly!).

More updates to come!

Danielle

Gallery: Stellenbosch

cape_bound — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 01:08:00 GMT

Pics around Stellenbosch

Gallery: Safari

cape_bound — Mon, 5 Feb 2007 18:35:00 GMT

Safari photos

Rag time in Stellenbosch

cape_bound — Fri, 2 Feb 2007 01:05:00 GMT

The family arrived in Stellenbosch just in time to observe some of the “Rag” activities at the University of Stellenbosch better know to Canadians as Frosh Week. As most of the students at the university live in university residences most activities are organized and structured around the student residences. Last Thursday, students from each of the residences performed plays set up at different venues around the university. Each play lasted about 10 minutes and was repeated throughout the evening. It was remarkable how many students and individuals from the community attended (estimated at 25,000 people). Both very young and older folks appeared to have a great time in the absence of excessive drink. Not always a given at Canadian Universities!

On Saturday, we, like most other individuals in Stellenbosch, stood on the sidewalks and watched a parade including floats, bands and lots of students. Apparently the float parade is a local tradition organized by the students and sponsored by local businesses. It was remarkable to see how many people showed up to cheer the students on and support the student’s community project by contributing loose change along the parade route. The parade finished with a true prophet of doom. Excellent weather this past week greatly contributed to the success of Rag. Hopefully the great weather will continue as we start our courses next week.

Madelaine

And so the Real Adventure Begins...

cape_bound — Sat, 27 Jan 2007 21:11:00 GMT

(A note to my faithful readers: First of all, thank you for looking at our blog! It takes quite a while to write, but I’m glad I can keep everyone back home updated with our travels. Since I bet you all want to know about life here in Stellenbosch, what I’m going to do is start to get you up-to-date with life here along with finish my entries on the Safari… so don’t forget to keep checking below for new updates.)

As our plane circled the Cape Town airport, I got a sinking feeling in my chest. “So this is home sweet home” I told myself. “I guess it’s too late to turn back now”. This whole living in South Africa thing always seemed like something that would never actually happen, just another one of my dad’s crazy ideas. Even throughout our safari it still never seemed real, more like a short vacation then a new way of life. “Why again did I decide to turn my life upside down on purpose?”

The sun was shining and the weather was nice and hot as we exited the plane (a good change from the bitter cold facing those back at home). Our plane had been slightly delayed in Jo-berg, so we hustled through the airport. Waiting for us at the arrivals gate was a guy, decked out in surfer shorts, holding a sign with our names on it. As we fallowed him to the jeep I tried to soak in the surroundings, though I was still having a little trouble believing the whole situation. It wad quite nice that the university sent someone to pick us up, as we all were a little shell-shocked.

As we drove from the Cape Town Airport to Stellenbosch, the student told us a little bit about life in Stellenbosch. It was on this trip, just outside the Airport, that I saw my first Informal Settlement. These Informal Settlements, which were the townships during the times of apartheid, where covered in thousands of tin shacks. Though I knew they existed many years ago, I honestly didn’t quite expect them to be so large and so populated (with so much poverty) soo many years after apartheid was abolished. I guess change really does take time. The student driver also kindly gave us a quick tour of our end of the city of Stellenbosch, showing us where to go to the bank and where to get groceries. Thank God he did that for us, as It saved us a lot of aimless wandering. He then dropped us off at our house, and bid us farewell.

All we had been told by the international office (the people from the university who arranged for us to have a place to stay) was that it was a garden cottage (what the heck is that??) and that it had 3 bedrooms and was close to campus. With such a vague description none of us knew what to expect, though I can say our imaginations were going wild (I think my mom sorta had the idea of a small villa on a wine estate). What our “garden cottage” turned out to be was a 3 bedroom apartment over a house. Consisting of 3 medium sized bedrooms, one bathroom, a VERY small balcony and a kitchen and living room combination, the entire flat was about 2/3 the size of the bottom floor of our house back home. The cherry on the top of the sundae was that the ENTIRE flat is covered, floor to ceiling, in knotty pine (the thing my mother has spend years, and muchos denaros, eradicating from our house). Let’s just say this wasn’t quite what we had been expecting.

As we started to settle in, my dad noticed a familiar face standing outside the house. Here to save us from the shell-shocked state we were in, was Corlia, Dave’s wife (Dave is my Dad’s friend and colleague, and the person who suggested we come to Stellenbosch). She and my parents chatted for a while, and she answered our enormous amount of questions (everything from safety issues to whether or not one can drink the tap water). She then took us on a more in depth tour of the city, which was quite nice and helpful. I’m so glad she was here to greet us, because we were all feeling pretty overwhelmed. She came to calm the storm. She showed us a good place to eat dinner, and left us with a promise to take us to her beach home the fallowing morning.

I went to bed that night with mixed feelings, glad to have finally arrived, excited to see what was still to come, but at the same time really nervous and apprehensive… “Why again did I decided to turn my life upside down on purpose?”.

~Danielle

Game drive through the Serengeti.. a day I'll never forget!

cape_bound — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 20:12:00 GMT

We awoke early the morning of our Serengeti game drive. Our travel partners, Nick and Janie, had a rather exciting morning, as they couldn’t leave their room due to an elephant standing on their front porch. I don’t think it gets wilder then that! We made our way through the Serengeti, passing by herds of gazelle and impala (which my dad had a great deal of difficulty telling apart). We then came upon a large flowing river, complete with a (what ever you call a group... maybe a heap) of hippos. My father then did a very typical thing; while the rest of us were marveling in the wonder of the hippos and crocodiles, he wandered off into the tall grass to look at a very thrilling plant. This, of course, made our driver very nervous. No matter how many times our driver told him that things that can eat him hide in the tall grass, he still wandered off every once in a while.

Our driver then got a call on his radio that “something cool” (that’s all he would tell us in case the animal left before we could get there) was up ahead, so we rushed up the road to see what was there. Not too long after, we saw what we had been looking for. Way up in a tree, not far from the road, was a beautiful leopard. We were not the only ones who “got the call” and we were soon joined by about 5 other jeeps. Once the crowds started to gather we decided it was best to continue on our way.

Since most of the animals had yet to migrate to the long grass plains that we were in, we then drove about an hour (past the ranger station with the horrible washrooms) to the short grass plains that we had passed through the day before. Renatus then drove off the normal road where the other jeeps were going, onto a mud path (which could barely be considered a road) in a direction that seemed to be going away from all the herds of animals. Though no one voiced any concern, I know we all were skeptical about his decision to take us out into the middle of nowhere, thinking that it wouldn’t lead us to see any animals (let alone the cool ones). For the next half hour we drove through the plains, seeing only a few distant herds of zebra, and some flocks of storks (which, of course, my dad found absolutely fascinating and made us stop multiple times for him to take thousands of pictures). The lack of animals around us just added to the concern that we had driven hours, only to see nothing. The running joke through the jeep was that we got to see all the cool herbivores, but where were the lions to eat them (I know I sound gross/morbid, but how cool would it be to see a lion jump out of nowhere and pulverize a gazelle, just like in National Geographic!!).In true Renatus style, he delivered us what we had been anxiously searching for, and out of what seemed like endless empty plains, came a pride of lions. The pride of lions, complete with cubs, was about 20 meters from the road (unfortunately, in the Serengeti there are strict rules as to where one can and cannot drive off road, and the lions were on the side of the path where all off-roading was prohibited). As we watched the lions in awe, Renatus explained that he had seen a very distant jeep which he recognized as that of a lion and hyena researcher and he knew where there were researchers, there were lions (which is even more testament to his keen eyes, as I, for the longest time, thought that the specific jeep he spotted in the distance was not even a jeep at all, but an elephant!).

We then continued down the road about 5 minute when Renatus stopped abruptly and popped out his binoculars, peering off into the distance. We then took off toward the direction he was looking, leaving the rest of us confused as to what he saw. Moments later, we finally understood why he had zoomed off so abruptly. Lying in the grass, only a few meters away from the jeep, was a medium sized cheetah with a freshly caught gazelle (she had caught it only moments before). It was, quite possibly, the best thing we saw the entire trip. As we watched the cheetah lay the grass, Renatus explained that when cheetahs chase down prey, they get so tired and hot from running that they require an up to 30 minute rest period before they can start eating. We decided that there was no better place to stop and have lunch. So, as the cheetah, only meters away, was munching on her gazelle, we opened out lunch boxes and dug into our sausage rolls, roast beef sandwiches and lemon muffins (now seriously, how cool is it that we can say we had lunch with a WILD cheetah!!!). As we drove away from the cheetah about half an hour later, I couldn’t help but look back, and marvel one last time at the beauty of one of the most amazing animals doing what comes so naturally.

One of the really cool things about the safari jeep we were in was that its roof lifted, allowing you to stand as we drove. Though seeing all the really cool animals was awesome, there was something unexplainable about just standing and letting the wind blow through you hair as we drove through the Serengeti, admiring the beauty that was around us.

As we drove deeper into the short grass plains, we passed by many cool sights, including vultures picking at the last remains of a carcass, a family of warthogs, and many more enormous herds of zebra and gazelle. We then came upon a fuzzy lump that was lying in a rut in the center of the road. Though it was not obvious what the brown fuzzy thing was, one thing that was obvious was that it wasn’t moving. As we got closer, we realized that it was a hyena, and feared that it was dead. Once we were directly beside the hyena, it emerged from its slumber (we were convinced it was dead) and gave us the most disgusted look for waking it up. We were sure it would then wander off (it was sleeping in the MIDDLE of the road we were driving on!) but it just lay there waiting instead for us to move. We politely obliged, and continued driving.

Only minutes after we had passed the hyena, Renatus spun the car around and headed back in the direction we had just come from (the hyena definitely wasn’t impressed to have us bother him again as we came by). Though we were kind of curious why the abrupt change in direction, by now we had learned to trust Renatus, as these side journeys almost always lead to a cool animal sighting. As usual, we were not disappointed, and he brought us only feet from a large pride of lions. The pride consisted of a male with 5 females and 4 cubs. What a sight it was to watch the cubs pounce all over each other and pester their mother. It was also pretty cool to see how the lions positioned themselves around the cubs as to offer maximum protection. We watched the lions for a while, and then started off on our 2 hour drive back to the lodge. The drive back to the lodge was uneventful (well by uneventful I mean we saw the normal zebra, wildebeest, giraffe etc.. By this point, I’m sad to say, we had all gotten pretty blasé about these animals as we saw so many in passing) and the ride home was quite as the bumping around all day had tuckered everyone out. That night we all slept well, knowing we had seen some of the coolest things Africa has to offer.

Journey to the Serengeti… much like a Bond Martini

cape_bound — Sun, 21 Jan 2007 20:40:00 GMT

The day we arrived in Arusha, we were informed by the tour representative that the roads after Lake Manyara were not great, and driving on them gave the occupants of the jeep an “African massage”. At the time I did not fully understand what he meant by “not great”. Boy, was I in for a surprise. When he said “not great”, he meant unmaintained dirt roads, which were basically one giant pot hole after another, WHILE scaling a very steep mountain with shear cliffs on either side. It was, quite possibly, the scariest driving conditions I’ve ever seen, as the road was really only wide enough for one vehicle, yet there were trucks coming from both directions. As we got closer to the top of Ngorongoro (the mountain we were driving up) the road turned into mud which just added to the excitement as the jeep slide around. Thank God our driver, Renatus, was a very experienced driver and seemed to pass through these conditions effortlessly. An even bigger Thank God that my dad didn’t have to drive this, because I don’t know if we would have survived. Though the roads of Ngorongoro were very scary, the view was beautiful. It was like driving through a rain forest, full of cool plants and animals.

The way down the other side of the mountain was a completely different sight. Where there was rainforest on one side, there was acacia forest and grasslands on the other side. The grasslands were littered with Masai Villages complete with their herds of hundreds of goats, cows and donkeys. It also was home to many herds of zebras, which was really cool to see.

About half way through our 5 hour journey, with Ngorongoro behind us, we entered the short grass plains. It was in these plains where I saw one of the most spectacular things I have ever seen. As far as the eye could see were thousands of wildebeest and zebras. The herds were so big that the horizon was covered in a line of black dot, which turned out to be more animals. As we drove through, I couldn’t help but marvel in the beauty of one of the few places where the animals were truly free. Another highlight of the day was when we had the pleasure of watching a cheetah, who had a fresh kill, devour it’s meal. Throughout the trip I came to really appreciate Renatus’s VERY keen eyes, he was able to spot and identify even the tiniest bird (which to me looked like a little brown bird) while driving 80 km/h along a hellish road.

After what seemed like hours of driving, we stopped at a ranger station in the middle of the Serengeti. As I disembarked from our jeep, I couldn’t help but feel thoroughly shaken (like a good Bond martini… actually, I probably could have used a good martini right about then) and all the bouncing around was really taking a toll on the group. It was at this ranger station (and many more to fallow), that I developed a true appreciation for the standard toilet (aka one with a seat). The washrooms were equipped with a hole in the ground (with a small stream of water below) with two little bricks (which I imagine you are supposed to stand on) on either side of the hole (kinda similar to a Turkish toilet). Now all the ladies out there can hopefully sympathize we me when I say that this is no where near ideal conditions (I would have gladly taken an outhouse… or even a bush).

The remainder of the journey was uneventful (with the exception of our jeep fishtailing and threatening to flip numerous times) and we arrived at our lodge around 6 pm. Our lodge, which appeared to be about as far into the middle of nowhere as humanly possible, was a picturesque series of huts.

We were greeted at the door of our jeep by staff offering hot face towels and pineapple juice (this was the norm at all the lodges we stayed at). We were immediately informed by the man behind the front desk that it was unsafe to walk to and from you room after dark, and to simply call the front desk when you wanted to leave your room, and someone would escort you around. We were so far out into the middle of nowhere that I couldn’t help but wonder what would be out there that would be a safety risk. He then explained that since the lodge’s compound was not surrounded by any fences, wild animals walked around freely, and the water buffalo tended to be quite aggressive. It was at this point, that it fully sunk in that this really was an African adventure. As we ate dinner that night, we noticed flashlights darting around and soon saw the backside of an elephant (or it could have been a water buffalo… in the dark their backsides look remarkably similar) passing by one of the hut. Apparently being flashed by a flashlight was all that was required to scare animals off (thought they were joined by men carrying semi automatic machine guns in case they needed “backup”.) That night we slept well, as the animals gingerly grazed around our huts.

Danielle

Lake Manyara

cape_bound — Sat, 20 Jan 2007 12:29:00 GMT

We arrived at our mountain top hotel overlooking Lake Manyara National Park the night before our first game drive. Our hotel, which was a series of huts with thatched roofs, was spectacular. Each room was beautifully decorated and came with a giant bug net to keep all unwanted critters out. The pool, which sat on the edge of a cliff overlooking the lake, has the most striking view I have ever seen. One of the cool things about our hut was that it seemed to house a colony of geckos which would pop out from behind paintings and headboards every once in a while.

The next morning we awoke early, filled with excitement and anticipation, for our first game drive. Covered in layers of sunscreen and deet, we boarded our jeep (whose roof has been lifted so you could stand and see out the top of the car) and drove down the mountain to the entrance of Lake Manyara National Park. Just minutes into the park we were greeted by two very large elephants scaling the side of a very steep hill. Immediately out popped all the camera for what my brother calls the puffin effect (in Scotland, the entire group took hundreds of pictures of the first lone puffin they saw, only to realize that just around the corner were hundreds more).

Winding through the park we got to see many different animals such as elephants, giraffes, impalas, hippos, thousands of flamingos, warthogs and zebras. The coolest thing we saw was a loin in a tree (Lake Manyara is famous for having lions who live I trees), though he was sitting in a position which made him pretty hard to see unless you looked really hard. There were also some pretty spectacular birds, and lots of plants (which my dad needed to stop and take a picture of what seemed like every one). Unfortunately, since the drivable part of Lake Manyara National Park (aka the part that isn’t the lake) is pretty small, there were many Safari vehicles (we probably passed about 30) similar to what we were in, zooming around the place. This made it seem slightly less “wild” and more like a zoo, but never-the-less it was a pretty cool experience. It was here that it sunk in, for the first time, that I was really in Africa (it was one of those things that was so surreal it didn’t sink in until now). After returning to the lodge for a quick lunch (in which we were repeatedly harassed by some local birds who wanted our food), we set out to drive for 5 hours through Ngorongoro Park to Serengeti National Park.

Danielle

Arusha

cape_bound — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 20:11:00 GMT

After some much needed sleep, we ventured behind the hotel to their very large garden. It was quite unusual to find a garden of such magnitude in the center of the city as Arusha, the tourist capital of Tanzania, is a very densely populated city. I was quite struck by the city of Arusha, maybe because it was my first time in a developing nation, as it looked nothing like what I viewed “the tourist capital” of a country should look like. In the garden, we were quite lucky to stumble upon the head caretaker of the garden who was more then willing to give us a VERY detailed tour of the garden (which was way to plenty for me, but my dad the biologist seemed to really enjoy the science talk). We then met with a representative from Ranger Safaris (not to be confused with the representatives from the tour organizer and the tour company). We got the low down on what was going to be happening, a brief geography/history lesson of Tanzania, and the do’s and don’ts of traveling in Tanzania (which included be prepared to tip EVERYONE you interact with).

My father (who will now be called Safari Bob) decided that getting some Tanzanian shillings would be a good idea (though what people in Tanzania really want is American dollars), so he asked the representative to point him to the nearest bank. He was told there was one only 10 minutes away and the representative offered to either arrange a taxi or to walk us there himself. Safari Bob was puzzled by this and asked if it was safe to go, and the representative said that while it was quite safe, one probably shouldn’t walk unaccompanied. In his traditional style, he assured the representative that he would be ok, and thanked him for the offer. He and Philippe (who didn’t want him wandering around alone) then left to go to the bank. Within about 2 seconds of leaving the hotel, they were surrounded by a pack of grown men, all of whom wanted them to go and look in their curio shops. As they continued to walk the pack of men, who were becoming more and more persistent, continued to grow and they soon felt over their head. They decided that withdrawing money with such a large entourage fallowing them was a bad idea, and so they decided to return to the hotel to regroup. Once back at the hotel my dad conceded defeat, saying that maybe walking around alone isn’t such a good idea, but that he had never had a problem walking around San José (Philippe was quick to point out that they weren’t in San José). They asked the doorman to come along with them for try # 2. The entire journey to and from the bank was very successful, and they weren’t bothered by a single person (maybe he should listen to us every once in a while).

The next morning we met our Safari driver, a very nice man named Renatus, and he drove us to the outskirts of Arusha to a hotel where we would go on a nature walk, and then meet our travel companions. The nature walk was led by a very knowledgeable man who walked us around an isolate lake. This was another opportunity for my dad to shine his biologist badge, and he got to talk with our guide about the many different plants in the area. For the non-plant people in the group (aka me) there were lots of cool birds to see, and we even got to see a couple monitor lizards which was pretty cool. After a quick lunch we met our travel companions Nick and Janie, a young couple from Australia, and then headed off to Lake Manyara, our first “safari destination”.

The Flight

cape_bound — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 20:09:00 GMT

Who ever thought getting there would be half the adventure

So the day we left was filled with much running around and last minute forgot-to-dos (it wouldn’t be a true family trip without a high level of last minute chaos). As we bid our house a final farewell I couldn’t help but ask myself, one last time, why again had I decided to pack up my life and move across the world (which was followed by me telling myself over and over that this will be an enriching and wonderful experience… though I was having a little trouble convincing myself this is true). We then made our way to the train station to get on a coach bus, and to officially start “our African Adventure”. The first part of our travel was uneventful, and both the bus ride to Montréal and the flight to Amsterdam were quite standard (we even caught some ideal flying weather on the flight to Amsterdam and arrived over an hour early. We optimistically thought that the journey was getting off to a wonderful start!).

As we walked off our plane in Amsterdam (“walked off” is a generous way of saying it… by this time the left half of my body had fallen asleep and I was dragging my leg behind me) we were happy to know they had just given us just enough time to enjoy a horribly overpriced cup of coffee. Now, for all the people who haven’t been to the Amsterdam airport, it is IMMENSE, and includes a museum, a massage center (which has the coolest water massage unit which looks remarkably like a human car wash), hundreds of moving sidewalks (the best invention ever when you can’t walk properly), and a casino. Our connecting flight from Amsterdam to Nairobi was supposed to leave at 10:00 am local time, and God only knows real time, and we arrived at our gate at the recommended time before departure to board our plane. The way security is set up at the Amsterdam airport is that, just before boarding your plane, you pass through a security check at the gate (surrendering all you liquids) and they dump you in a room with a few very uncomfortable chairs (to encourage people not to sleep) and no bathrooms. So we passed security and entered “the holding pen” with the expectation that we would soon board our plane. 10:00 rolled around, and we weren’t on the plane. Around 10:15 (weren’t we supposed to be blissfully flying right now) they informed us that our plane was broken and it would be fixed shortly. Half an hour later we were informed that our plane was really broken and they needed to get us a new plane, but no worries, it would only be about an hour wait (remember nothing to drink and NO BATHROOM). At this point the overwhelming fatigue overcame me and I drifted off to sleep in a horribly uncomfortable position. I awoke an hour later to hear that, not only would we not be leaving now, but that our flight had been delayed until 2:30 pm because the weather was bad. The ironic part was that the “wonderful flying weather” which helped us get to Amsterdam in record time, was now the same weather that was blowing on the plane so hard that was it too dangerous for the ground staff to load the food and luggage on the plane (now had the first plane not broken we wouldn’t be having this problem). So now that we had all this time to kill, we went off to find somewhere to eat (I bet you can guess where I suggested! The Amsterdam has a wonderful McDonalds if you are ever on that side of the world). 2:30 came and went, and it was obvious that we weren’t going to be getting off the ground anytime soon as the plane was violently rocking back and fourth and the tarmac was completely void of people. The one issue with the Amsterdam airport is the lack of comfortable locations for people to sleep (and by this time all flights were delayed or canceled, so the airport was covered in people sleeping EVERYWHERE including the ground in the middle of the hallways). As our flight was continuously delayed “just another half hour” the feeling of hopelessness started to sink in. Finally, around 5pm, they told us we were a go, and we once again passed through security, and were put back in the holding pen. After sitting there for about 45 minutes (this was starting to seem like a common trend) we were informed that “the flight staff has now surpassed their working hours and are no longer required to fly. They will get back to you shortly with their decision”. As expected, the entire room immediately turned into a state of uproar and chaos. Thankfully, we were informed about 40 minutes later that they had graciously decided to continue with the flight. We boarded our flight and fortunately it was uneventful.

We arrived in Nairobi at about 3:30 in the morning and were met by a representative from the tour company who informed us that he would drive us to our hotel. He then slipped in the fact that since our plane was soo late in arriving; he would pick us up from the hotel a mere hour after having dropped us off (so much for spending the night in Nairobi). We drove through Nairobi, which was covered in a thick layer of fog, to our hotel where we had a quick shower and some breakfast. By the time the representative had picked us up the fog had lifted and we got our first glimpse of Nairobi. I realized that the fog might have been a good thing as to stop me from being able to see the driving conditions. Stop lights were merely decoration, and there were no lines on the road (so what should have been 2 lanes turned into 4 lanes of chaos). The scariest part was that the driver was going VERY fast down this highway and the road was covered in tons of jaywalkers (picture 50 jaywalkers crossing a busy section of the Queensway). We made it to the airport with only a few near misses, and boarded our flight to Mount Kilimanjaro Airport in Tanzania. By this time our internal clocks were going haywire and our bodies ached, but we staggered onward to our next destination.

Mont Kilimanjaro airport greeted us with beaming sunshine, balmy temperature and tropical plants galore. We were again met by another representative who drove use approximately 50 km (in only slightly milder driving conditions then that of the Nairobi) to our hotel in the center of Arusha (where our safari was set to begin the next day). We arrived in Arusha at approximately 10 am local time, and for the first time in over 30 hours, got some good sleep.

~ Danielle

Before the storm

cape_bound — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 12:42:00 GMT

As I sit here and write this, a cloud of inevitability hangs over our household. In less then 24 hours we will all be on a plane headed for a completely different continent. In less then 24 hours our family will be free of the confines of Canadian life, venturing into the unknown. The luggage is packed, the fish shipped off, the orchids now rest in warm university greenhouses or lay forgotten in a frozen compost heap. This is it, for there is no turning back, no more delays, or arguements or loosing the 2 in 1 shampoo and conditioner(Im looking at you Danielle). We are going, stepping bravely (or maybe nauseously depending if we forget to pack the gravol) into the unknown. Not a single one of us is fully prepared for the experiences we will... well experience. But know this mortals, we shall return... with lots and lots of pictures.

-Safari Phil