Round The World Adventures "The rewards of the journey far outweigh the risk of leaving the harbour"

Mambo Everyone (I've been learning some Swahili)

I know it's been a while since I updated you on my travels; internet
access and my travel itinerary have been a problem.  Therefore I'll
condense my activities in this email.

After leaving Malawi we headed into Tanzania and Dar Es Salaam.
This is the take-off point for trips to Zanzibar where I spent 3
nights.  We enjoyed a feast of seafood at the night market in Stone
Town, a really interesting and informative spice tour and sampling
of local fruits, and chilling out at the beach in Nungwi at the
northern tip of Zanzibar.  I still think Turquoise Bay on the
Ningaloo reef in W.A. is more beautiful though!

The next highlight and something I was really looking forward to was
our safari to Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater.  There were only 4 of
us in our landrover and we had an excellent guide for the 2 1/2
days.  I saw countless lions and some were right beside our
vehicle.  We managed to see cheetahs tho' they weren't that close to
us for a decent photo.  We saw so much wildlife apart from the
elusive leopard which I only saw for a few seconds.  You can't have
everything!

I finished my 5 week Kumuka trip and flew to Kampala in Uganda to
start my 2 week trip with Dragoman.  We had two nights in Uganda
then drove into Rwanda for 3 days to complete our gorilla trek,
visit an orphanage and the Genocide Memorial in Kigali which
portrayed a tragic story of the human massacre in 1994.  The gorilla
trek was absolutely awesome!  We were 7 plus our guide, and 3 army
personnel as escorts, then we met up with 3 trackers.  The trackers
are constantly following the gorillas to protect them.  Our group
contained a silverback male, a few females and babies including one
that was only 3 weeks old.  I felt extremely lucky to have the
opportunity to observe such a threatened species up close.

Rwanda and Uganda are stunningly beautiful countries.  Much of the
scenery reminded me of NZ.... the grass, the steep hills, ferns
etc.  We did a chimp trek in Uganda and were lucky enough to come
across one male who was impressively large.  I also got to see
colobus monkeys (large black & white) in a campground in Kenya.  I'd
tried photographing some on a previous day but they were too shy.

Our time in Kenya included another safari to the Masai Mara, and a
visit to a masai village where the chief's son offered to make me
his first wife after I told him I wouldn't accept being the 3rd
wife!  (the first wife rules the rest of the wives which could be up
to 10!)  The Masai Mara didn't disappoint with a vast amount of
varied wildlife except no leopards and cheetahs.  We were fortunate
enough to see a black rhino asleep under a tree.  They are very hard
to find generally.  We also saw 3 serval cats and they aren't that
easy to see either.  How lucky!

Well it's the end of my time in Africa and after extending it by 5
days, I'm about to depart for Europe on 1 Oct.  I must admit I'm
going to feel very sad about leaving Africa. The continent with it's
beautiful scenery, amazing wildlife and warm, friendly people have
had a huge impact on me.

Next time I email it'll be from a different climate and no longer
will I hear "Hello Mzungu" (mzungu is white person).
Till next time....
Kwaheri

Jules