Neglect, Foot in Mouth Disease, and the "Theroux Trip"

I realized shortly after writing my last blog entry that I neglected to mention both the flies and the ants - both of which had quite an impact on our safari experience. I meant no disrespect to the insecta class of species. On our second safari day, after observing elephants, zebras, giraffes etc. we somehow ended up far more fascinated by the activities of a large colony of ants just outside our banda. We carefully observed their movements while theorizing as to their purpose. There could have been a giraffe standing over our shoulder watching and we wouldn't have noticed. And the flies. How could I have forgotten the Tse Tse flies. They were relentless. They attacked us continuously drawing large amounts of blood and causing us to twitch uncontrollably. Often we had to make a tough choice between closing the windows sweating buckets and enduring sauna like temperatures, or sacrificing our skin and blood.

I have a severe case of Foot in Mouth Disease. If you remember my rant about the exaggerations of Paul Theroux in Dark Star Safari - well my foot is now firmly in my mouth. We left Kigoma at about 9:30 am on Tuesday and arrived in Mabanda, Berrundi at about 6:00pm having traveled an astounding 70 km. The minibus ride from a bus depot near Kigoma was a nightmare. Since it was only 50 km we expected a short ride. Not so. The engine kicked out the first time before we had even left the bus depot! We all piled back in (19 people, 8 children and tons of luggage) skeptical of this less than road worthy vehicle. I was "lucky" and got to sit in the front - in the middle next to the driver. I was sitting directly on top of the engine. My entire body was vibrating and I had to keep my teeth a safe distance apart to prevent them from chattering together and accidentally biting my tongue and cheeks. When we finally got on the road it was under construction. We knew that there would be some construction. There is an election coming up next year and fixing this road was a campaign promise so now it is a big priority (of course they just started). What we didn't know was that the entire road was under construction. How the entire length of a road can be torn up in mid construction with not a single portion of it finished or not yet torn up is beyond me. Not only that, but the road winds through an impressive mountain range - and our dala dala was incapable of making it up steep inclines without everyone piling out and walking up to meet it at the top. As you can imagine - driving through the mountains this happened many times. We actually didn't mind the stopping as much as the locals did, it gave us a chance to stretch our legs and snap a few photos of the beautiful landscape. At once point the engine would not start up for quite some time and I surveyed the area looking for a shelter to potentially spend the night under. The dust was incredible - we were covered in a layer of red clay dust that felt like and inch thick, in every crevice, and it feels like we are still breathing it. We finally arrived at our destination - the Berundi border - at about 4:30 pm. At the border we had the familiar problem of a long distance between leaving Tanzania and entering Berundi. We again ended up paying way too much for a taxi across the border and to the nearest town - Mabanda. We found a guest house in the town but there was no place to change money. Since we had no local currency, and a dubious grasp of the language, we didn't end up finding food. We sat in our room and ate cold beans from a can and protein bars. This after not having eaten since breakfast before this adventure began.

I have dubbed this (and any other travel experience worthy of aPaul Theroux description) a "Theroux Trip".

Luckily the Theroux Trip ended there. The following morning we took a bus the Bujumbura where we changed to a bus to Butare, Rwanda. The roads in Berundi and Rwanda are excellent and bus travel is very pleasant. An interesting thing at the border: plastic shopping bags are prohibited in Rwanda - they actually search all luggage and confiscate any plastic bags. Local merchants sell paper and reusable bags as an alternative. Good on ya Rwanda!

Will have more to write about Rwanda soon!

Tanzania has something against us:(

At approximately 7 weeks in, there are two things that I can say without hesitation:

1) We have successfully made it 'off the beaten path'

and

2) African food sucks.

We knew we were 'off the beaten path' when we made it to a small town called Sumbawanga. We actually congratulated each other on this achievement. It was quite the breathe of fresh air. How did we know we were off the beaten path you say? The difference between this place and all others that we have been was immediately noticeable. We were the only white people in town. We walked around free of harassment from local merchants and men who saw us as a 'walking visa'. We walked the entire length of a market and nobody yelled anything at us! We had grown accustomed to hearing "mzungu! mzungu! mzungu!" pretty much everywhere we went. Mzungu means "white person" or "foreigner". Being a mzungu is like walking around wearing a big dollar sign costume. Another clue was that is was immediately more difficult to find people who could speak Engligh. As a result, our 'survival swahili' has improved quickly - but still pretty sad. We know how to count - and the most basic greetings and niceties. Most of the time we can successfully order food and purchase items in rudimentary swahili. Our favourite two phrases are "Nataka biya baridi sana tafadhali" and "Nataka kahawa na maziwa tafadhali".

Sumbawanga was just a transit stop for us. We stayed in a catholic guest house right beside the bus station so we could catch another bus the following morning to Mpanda. Mpanda was farther still from the beaten path. When we arrived at our guest house we were tired, filthy, hungry and thirsty. There was only one man there who was not interested in even attempting to converse with us. He was shy and possibly a little intimidated by us. We soon found out that there was no electricity and no running water. We had a precious 250mL of water left and some protein bars we had brought for emergencies. The following morning, a man speaking English came to the door and said "would you like a warm shower?". We nodded enthusiastically with a hint of desperation in our eyes. Our enthusiasm faded substantially when we found out that a 'warm shower' was a bucket of luke warm water in a cement room with a drain. This method of bathing is what we are now used to (nobody ever said travel in rural Africa is glamorous!). Of course it is not bad at all once you are used to it, it was really just our delusional expectations that caused the disappointment:)

Once we were bathed, fed, and washed our very dirty clothes, we started to get very excited about our safari. We met our guide (Hussein) and driver (Hamisi) in Mpanda (yes I am aware that a guide and a driver for just the two of us is a little excessive). We headed for Katavi National Park. Katavi is in western Tanzania - near lake Tanganyika. It is a very remote park that is seldom visited due to a lack of infrastructure for tourism. It spans 5000 square km with a combination of vast plains, lakes, rivers and lush rain forest. It is famous for it buffalo population, and it also so home to all those animals that people go on safaris to see (lion, giraffe, hippo, rhino, antelope, elephant, crocodile, and many others). We stayed in the park bandas near the central ranger post. We were not permitted to walk alone after dark as there are lions hunting in the area (doesn't sound scary but it actually was - for me anyway). We returned from breakfast one morning to 6 giraffes on our front lawn! We were the only tourists staying in the park. It was quite something to have this whole park to ourselves! The landscape was so quintessentially African that it felt like walking around in a post card. Acacia Trees, Baobab trees, endless plains in one direction and mountains studded with banana trees in another. That being said - I've decided I'm not so much of a safari person. Riding around in a land rover all day chasing animals can get boring really quickly(personally). I would much rather be at least walking or hiking (or diving!) and observing the animals in a less passive way. We searched high and low for simba - but never caught a glimpse - the guide said it was very rare not to see a lion:(. Three days was enough. Once we were finished our safari we made the long hard drive to Kigoma. Kigoma is notoriously difficult to get to by road. This road was easily the worst one we have seen yet, it's a miracle we made it with four tires in tact. Africans have funny perpsectives - "We Aficans - we are very good at keeping our roads natural". Luckily we were in a comfortable land rover rather than an overcrowded minibus! Although we did hit our heads on the roof a few times and concluded that rural African roads require a sports bra. There is no form of public transit that travels this road.

As an aside - If anyone reading has read Paul Theroux's "Dark Star Safari" and has not traveled Africa - be warned that he exaggerates everything in the book. The smells are not as rancid, the time delays are not as excessive, the dangers not as dire, the people not as lazy (particularly the women), and the roads are not as bad as he describes. This one particular road is the only one that is worthy of the description that he uses for virtually all the roads in Africa. The only thing that I can agree with him on is that the food sucks (I'll get back to that).

After reaching Kigoma we had about two days to do some errands and prepare for our venture to Gombe national park. By this time we are incredibly frustrated with our guide who has been increasingly dishonest and misleading. We are not happy customers. Anyhow - no sense in fretting about what's already done so we were happily anticipating seeing the chimps in Gombe. The day we were to leave for Gombe - I fell ill. Ended up barely leaving our room for two days:( This was bad for me (obviously) and also bad for McKinley who was stuck in a place where there is absolutely nothing to do.

We finally got off to Gombe a couple days later. The park is only accessible by boat - and takes about three hours to get there on a large passenger boat (lake taxi). Of course the lake taxi came with all the chaos we have come to expect on African public transport. We arrived in late afternoon just in time to have a glorious twilight swim in the mighty Lake Tanganyika. This lake is very similar to Lake Malawi with the amazing clean water and extraordinary fish population. It is also the 2nd deepest lake in the world (we asked our guide what the 1st deepest lake is - he didn't know). We watched a nice sunset over the mountains of the DR Congo.

We set out early the following morning. We went by the famous Gombe waterfall (profile pic) and hiked through thick rain forest in the mountains of the park. We had trouble finding chimps. They called in more rangers to look for the chimps so they could radio to us when they were found. We were there during a season where food was scarce so they weren't together in large communities - but rather split up to search for food. Eventually, after 5 straight hours of tough hiking, up, down and around the mountains - we gave up and headed back to camp:( As you can imagine - we were quite disappointed. On the way back we went by Jane Goodall's home (still there and occupied by a doctor studying baboons at the moment) and remarkably - there were chimps there! Just three of them - and they only stayed around for two or three minutes - but at least we didn't have to leave not having seen them at all.

Who would have guessed that after spending all the time, effort, and money on getting to these remote parks expecting a rugged and natural experience - we would leave disappointed. We had anticipated having issues with getting there (which we didn't) rather than being there.

And now on the to the food (did you think I'd never get there??). Another aspect of being off the beaten path is that there is no more western food around. We are cursing ourselves for complaining at the beginning of the trip about only being able to get western food. We have now realized that there is a very good reason that many Africans prefer western food. It's because African food sucks. (There is of course exceptions to this - there has been a few very tasty local dishes we have tried). The main problem is over reliance on starches, and a lack of options. One day on our safari we were served white bread and instant coffee for breakfast, white rice and boiled cabbage for lunch, and boiled potatoes for dinner. Oh - and a few slices of pineapple. This did not make for happy campers. The African staple - Chima/Nsima/Ugali (maize or cassava flour spongy stuff), is ok when it's served with some sort of sauce and preferably a meat and vegetable. But it gets old quickly. We have been eating dry, overcooked chicken or beef with rice, ugali or chips for EVERY meal. Very few vegetables or fruits:( We are soo sick of it. Some restaurants have a menu - but you must first ask "what do you have?" because generally they are out of everything but what's listed above.

So we have had a run of bad luck:( To be expected I guess. We have chalked it up to Tanzania having something against us and it should all be over once we leave the country - we leave tomorrow morning:)

Next on the agenda is Rwanda! Our spirits are high and looking forward to experiencing the remarkable turnaround that Rwanda has achieved since the brutal genocide in 1994. Till then - Kwa Heri!

Hiking in the Rainforest

Yesterday we hiked to the Ngozi Crater Lake near Mbeya. Was a very nice hike through a tropical rainforest. It had rained the night before so the trail was very muddy. The way up was no problem - but the way down I slipped on the mud three times - and was covered in mud by the time I got back down. Unfortunately - we only saw the actual lake for a precious few minutes before a heavy fog came in over the lake. Within the forest it was a very nice effect though - misty and mysterious rainforest. We walked by Banana Trees with leaves twice the size of us!

Next on the agenda is a Safari in Katavi National Park. We leave tomorrow morning to make the trek into a very remote part of western Tanzania to meet our guide. If all goes well we should be there in about two days.

Habari gani!

We have made it Tanzania! We are in Mbeya - a relatively large city in western Tanzania. We had a wonderful time in Nkhata Bay. We had intended on staying there a few days and moving on to a nearby national park, but we loved Nkata Bay that we stayed there for 11 days. I continued my scuba diving course in Lake Malawi - the most beautiful Lake I ever seen me thinks. The cichlids are amazing fish and we even got to see a mouthbreeding fish with her babies. Lake Malawi is one of the only places in the world that you can see this. The lake flies are incredible as well. They clouds of flies look like smoke coming off the lake - and when they come into town they take over everything - and can even suffocate people. I also did a night dive - this was a very cool experience. There was almost a full moon that night and the light was bright enough to see eachother about 7 metres under water with our dive torches shut off. The dolphin fish are nocturnal predators and they have learned to hunt using the torch light. There was about 10 or 12 dolphin fish following us around for the entire dive - amazng. We learned how to make the local staple food - nsima. It doesn't taste like much - just spongy flour. We also made pots from clay (with the help of a local woman of course:). We made friends with many of the locals - it seemed like everyone in town knew us by the end. The place we stayed, Mayoka Village, was the best backpackers I have ever been to. We were originally in a small dorm but ended up getting upgraded to a private chalet a few days in (I think because they like us so much). The staff were a riot. Many of them had funny names - my favourite was Bentley Steak Egg Delicious (or Delicious for short).

Stay tuned for more on our Tanzanian Adventures!