Tanzania part 1...

Did i mention that yesterday evening we caught a magnificent sight of kilimanjaro. As the evening clouds lifted? That was very nice - its good to have seen it!

Add a big day of driving to that and we're more than halfway through tanzania! Tonight we're sleeping at TanSwiss resort, just on the close side of the mkumi game reserve. We had a nice dinner (boneless chicken mexicana for me, and calamari rings for my dad - both with too many chips) and spent a bit of time chatting with our neighbours Tony & Marga who are heading up to serengeti...and now bed.

Today we were waved through most of the police blocks, except for three. 1. "ok, give me 10 shillings" ... So we gave him a tiny bit of malawi money & moved on, then 2. A speed cop trapping with a lazer through a small town in a 50 zone, he said i was doing 65 which was too fast ...but the gun said 56 so he said it was close enough i could go (whew), and then 3. At a broken weigh bridge the coppers were checking out the trucks and i was fined 2000 shillings for a cracked mirror (from a close call with a truck from the other direction in December). Now i genuinely didnt have any shillings so i asked how much in dollars ... He was 'very nice' and he agreed on a very very favourable exchange rate that it was equivalent to around $5. That was the only fault he found with us... So i guess you win some & you lose some. Overall its been fine driving, the roads are getting better & better as we get more south so we're making more and more ground.

Tomorrow we'll get to mbeye (nearly 600km) do some shopping for food, and then into zambia for the final stretch.

Its going to be nice having the family with, and specially nice to have a lady's touch in the truck. Its also going to be great to be off he deadline of getting somewhere far in little time!

Into Tanzania...

We woke up dry & warm in max - what a relief! After paying our bills and looking at the batteries which were still dead, we headed into town for some grocery shopping. Actually just before this Chris (jungle junction) said we should definately head into tanzania via arusha rather than mombassa.

After a delicious breakfast at Junction Java Coffee House we started south toward the border. 6 months ago the road was being built by chinese contractors and it took us a painful 7 hours or more to do the 275kms between nairobi & arusha... This time we got to drive on a lot of the newly built road with much fewer and shorter detours, so we managed to get past Arusha and to Moshi (Honey Badger Campsite) just after dark ... A measly 350km in around 7 hours, but a lot of that was bad road and included a border crossing.

This evening we fiddled with the electrics a bit (after charging the house batteries on the truck alternator for the whole day) and on one combination of the charger & inverter on we suddenly got full power! So we have lights - which is great, and so we have mossies too (not that great!).

Our poor new / old coffee machine exploded again in the shower (not literally, but all in pieces). Actually there were a few more pieces than normal this time .. I managed to put everything together (except two interesting looking pieces) and when i made a cup of coffee it spat the dry gound coffee into the waste section, and poured hot water into the overflow tray...

So i took off the side cover again and fitted one small piece back again - which really had nothing to do with the water, just a clear plastic cover over some wires, and tried again! This time it worked! Weak, luke warm coffee ... But it did work!!

So when we take it back to the dealer with its cracks, smashes and bashes, i can say: "it doesnt sound like its working properly - could you please check it out and give it a bit of a service?"

Tomorrow we're going to try drive 700km past dar es salaam and to a campsite there at a place called something like iyaki (?). Thats going to be a loooooong day!

My biggest worry is not really being insured for this section ... We cldnt find someone to by a comesa from (3rd party) for which we'll probably be fined, and i think my normal insurance only kicks back in in zambia ... Or maybe only namibia! So we'll be driving carefully.

back on the road...

Today my dad and I arrived in Nairobi in the pouring rain, and caught a cab to Jungle Junction. Max was already parked neatly for us where we could get in easily enough. Apart from being really dusty inside, and with absolutely no power remaining in the battery pack, everything looks ready!

My worst fear was that the rainy season would have come inside the truck and that we'd be met with mould and damp, but thankfully its just quite dirty! We've plugged him in to the mains, and filled up the water tank - but there's still no lights or power in the back after 3 hours of charging ... so hopefully hopefully the huge mega reliable batteries are just going to take a while to get some charge in them! Worst case is we'll be using torches for the rest of our holiday!

We were planning on leaving early tomorrow morning to head to Mombassa, but we will need to settle our bills here before we leave, so we're probably only going to get going mid morning - I also have to tie the kids bikes and the surfboard onto the roof still - I didn't feel like doing that in the pouring rain.

So the temporary fixes we need to do are: (1) get the lights working! (2) get the geyser fixed (3) get the cupboard doors strapped down.

Its going to be great when the power starts working again, and fantastic to get driving tomorrow.

Our plans are for a hard week of driving ( 3 200 kms) through Mombassa, Tanzania, and into Zambia to pick up my mom and my family at Vic Falls next Sunday, then we have 3 days of rest there with my parents, and then we'll mozy on down through Namibia and Botswana, and possibly Swaziland.

Max the Truck - munromobile

A great 3min video of some of our most memorable driving through Southern Africa!

Home is where the heart is

Off we headed towards Arusha, leaving with some great memories of Serengeti & Ngorongoro in our minds.  One memory that will definately not leave us anytime soon was when we were packing up our camp the morning we left Ngorongoro.  All of a sudden Xan said quite casually to Alex - "Elephant", and pointed just past the Truck.  Sure enough, about 20 meters from us and gracefully trundling through the campsite was a huge elephant!!!

Wow!  I rushed for the camera and took the best photo's & video I could with the time I had before it walked off.  Quite stunning, and a huge wakeup call to us camping on "their" land.  We also had to empty the second fuel tank because it had jolted loose from all the bumpy roads.  Luckily Reg (Alex's dad) was there to help out with that - quite a messy job - thanks Reg!  It took most of the morning to empty it and pour as much of it into the main tank as possible, and to secure the spare tank enough to make it to Nairobi.  I'm quite impressed with Alex's newly aquired bush mechanic skills.  Reluctantly we left, but to be honest we were really looking forward to hitting some smoother roads ahead of us to Arusha.

We spent the night in Arusha and collected our Carnet de Passage that had been delivered by DHL - very impressed with their service & price!  Thanks Bjorn for collecting it and delivering it to our campsite.  We then headed off to Kenya the next morning.

The road from Arusha to Nairobi (270km) took us the whole day.  Another terrible road in Africa, but because this was our last stretch of road heading to our final destination we were in pretty good spirits.  The traffic in Nairobi was hectic.  It seems there are no rules at all.  Traffic circles were the worst.  Luckily being in a big truck seemed to be OK, I wouldn't like to be traveling on a motorbike though.  At times I had to close my eyes and just trust that Alex was taking the right gaps - traffic lights seem to be just for decoration.  After a few scenic tours through the not so nice areas of town, we finally found our way to Jungle Junction.  Aaaaaah, paradise in Nairobi.... Anyone traveling through the area really must pop in there. We felt totally at home. What a great place. There are travelers there on motorbikes, LandRovers, Trucks etc. Most doing a whole "Long Way Down/Up" experience, or some just doing a bit like us. We were so impressed with the place. The service was great, great food, great atmosphere & great stories to share amongst the other travelers. We stayed there 2 nights, while making arrangements for Max to be stored there safely until we collect and carry on with the "Part 2" of our trip in the middle of the year.

  

On our last day we thought we should end off on a good note and head off to the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust in the Nairobi National Park.  They look after orphan baby elephants.  They only open for 1 hour in the morning for visiting which was all the time we had because we still had to pack and clean the truck before leaving.  This was a great experience.  Kaylin especially liked it and got quite muddy when one of the baby elephants came up close to her at the fence.
We headed back to Jungle Junction to clean Max and pack.  We then got a Taxi (a real authentic one too! a minibus because that was the biggest and cheapest for all 5 of us and our luggage), and they took us to a guest house close to the airport so we could catch our flight very early the next morning.
We arrived back home today, and as I type this I am sitting back here at my kitchen table, in my lovely home with all my luxuries around me.  I have electricity at the flick of a switch, a deep hot bath at the turn of a tap, and exhausted kiddies tucked up in their own separate bedrooms.  I am quite sad to be back home, because right now this doesn't feel like home at all.  I feel like I am dreaming because 24 hours ago we were in our "home on wheels" and after 6 weeks of traveling, it seems strange that it took just 6 hours in the air to get back here.  I am sure it will hit me in a few days time, when the kids are back in the school routine and Alex gets into the swing of things at the office, but for now our hearts are still with Max in Africa.  Our plan is to fly back up to Nairobi around June to continue with our trip.  We haven't decided exactly which route we'll be heading home, possibly passing through Uganda, Rwanda, Zambia, Botswana, Namibia.
So that's it from us for now. Hope you enjoyed reading & looking at the pics as much as we enjoyed being there.
To be continued.....

Serengeti & Ngorongoro...

Did you know that Ngorongoro was called after the sound of cattle bells? Apparently some famous guy used to make cattle bells in this area, and the Masai used to come from miles around asking where they can get the "ngorongoro".

We haven't heard any bell noises, but we have seen some animals! My dad arrived on Monday morning by small plane after 4 plane flights, much to our and the kids excitement! We picked him up from the airstrip and headed on our first game drive. The hugest benefit to the truck is being able to head off early from the campsite on a game drive, find a decent hippo pool or migration herd, and stop for breakfast!

We've had meals next to hippos (2 or 3 times), watching a leopard in a tree, in the midst of a zebra & wildebeest herd, and a few other slightly less active stops - it has been great, and both Kaylin & Xan have worked out how binoculars work.

On Wednesday morning we took some non-main road drives, and suspect that we went where no cars have been for a while - we were seriously bushwacking with the 8 tonne truck. Fortunately we did get stuck once in some mud, which was quite exciting without a winch and without a hope of being discovered by the normal safari guides! There are also absolutely no private cars in the reserve, so the guides will always take the better known & better condition roads for their clients - so we probably would have had some remote camping experience if we couldn't get out the mud before sunset! But luckily we managed to get out.

Remote camping is one thing, but organised camping is pretty wild here as well! The sign at the entrance to our little clearing in the bush spells out quite clearly the risks, and on Wednesday morning we left, and not 1 minute at 30kms/hour after we left we joined two other game drive vehicles watching some lions! Nice. We still have a truck and 2 kids and a father, so we're doing OK.

We have lost some truck functionality ... our fuel pump (pumping between the spare and the main tank) has burnt out twice; our geyser was bounced & bumped around so much that the pipes became disconnected, and we nearly had a bath in the back of the truck; and our spare fuel tank supports have sheared off and we'll have to drain that and carry it to Nairobi on the roofracks! Did I ever mention that a truck is a rough ride, and the roads here in the Serengeti are extremely bad? Extremely bad as in you're bouncing along at 20km/hour and then all of a sudden everything goes ballistic and you work out you were going waaaaay to fast!! Other times you bounce along the road and then you just have to stop and laugh and take a break! It is hectic!

Today I let down the tyres a lot ... happy to figure out that 5.5bar is too hard, but I'll kick myself if it makes a world of a difference - we should have then done it 7000 kms ago! Hopefully we can get the leaf springs modified in Nairobi before our next holiday back south.
The animals and timing in the Serengeti was amazing! On our drive up to our campsite in Serengeti we saw quite a few animals in the South of the park, and on our game drives we went back to hunting for the wild life (not being disappointed mind you); on our drive back south the migration herd was right next to the main road! We drove for at least 2 hours with uncountable numbers of wildebeest, zebra and buck on either side of the road. It really was indescribable, and even the photos and the video only show a hint of the frugality of nature (NOT!), the lavishness of nature.

This morning we woke up early to go on a game drive into Ngorongoro crater, and again it is beautiful. Wildebeest, zebra, rhino, hippo, lions, hyena, warthogs, buffalo, ostrich ... all in an area that's 18km across! Very cool. We organised with a local guy to come and fetch us from the campsite in his safari vehicle (all Land Cruisers, modified with pop-up tops). The decend and ascend of the crater was rather steep with a lot of sharp bends, so it was quite a relief that we were forced to hire a guide to show us around while Max rested in the campsite. It was a nice change for us all, and the kids especially loved being able to look out the roof.

Our campsite here on the rim of the crater is very nice - very organised compared to our Serengeti clearing, and a bit more space for the kids to run around and ride without us worrying about wild animals (there was an elephant yesterday evening within 100m of our truck!). We've had a great time in the park, and tomorrow we're heading to Arusha to pick up our Carnet de Passage (car's passport) for Kenya. DHL is amazing... an official document (our carnet) from Cape Town to Arusha in Tanzania for 24 hours delivery for R 350? That's nearly unbelieveable! Must also mention that the AA also was brilliant at organising our carnet all remote within a few days.

So tomorrow back to Arusha, and then we have 2 full days to get to Nairobi, find Jungle Junction (a place for MAX to sleep / hibernate with a nice waterproof tarpaulin to keep him dry), organise some luggage to bring back our useful stuff, and then flying home on Tuesday.

this is Africa baby...

We're feeling a little sore about the price of what it costs to drive into and stay here at Serengeti & Ngorangora (yip, we're here, made it this far, and gonna soak it all up), and after a long day on really shocking roads, I (Laura) said I would do the blog update for you all.
We headed north from Morogoro and decided to stop for the night at a little town called Sane. We parked and slept in the parking lot of the Elephant Motel which also served us a delicious supper. We're still not sure why it's call the 'Elephant' Motel, because we woke up surrounded by cute little monkeys! On our roof, trying to get into our windows even. They kids loved it of course.
We then headed towards Moshi which was only about an hour away, hoping to get a good view of Mt Kilimanjaro. We found a campsite there, but unfortunately there were too many low lying clouds, so we didn't get a glimpse of the famous huge mountain that day or even the next before we headed off. We did find a great coffee shop in town that served a great CafeLatte, milkshakes & waffles!
Last night we slept at Karatu near the gate of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. We entered the park this morning (after paying a ridiculous amount to just drive through as this is the only way to get to the Serengeti). Once we got to the rim of the Crater we stopped at a viewsite and got out to enjoy the view. After getting back into the truck and driving about 20 meters down the road, we spotted 3 leopards right next to the road (excuse the pun). This was only the beginning of the sightings we would see today. Shortly afterwards we saw a female lion about 20 meters up on a hill. Other game vehicles were just driving past not noticing it, but I think because we were higher in a truck, we could see it better. I really enjoyed the brightness of the Masai people just wondering through the area with their herds of cows & goats, with just a spear for protection from wild animals. Their bright red blanket clothing, and their beaded jewellery - really brings to mind my Std.3 school project, little did I know back then that I'd be sharing a bit of their country with them.
We got to the Serengeti gate, and luckily they took Visa - boy this place is expensive. Ok, it's a bit more for us because we're in a 8 ton truck which is triple the price for some reason. They can't be putting the park fees into building nice roads, because we soon discovered that one of the ways that they control the crowds coming here is to make sure that the roads are almost unbearable! We shook and shuddered our way to the campsite, passing lots of wildlife - wildebeest, zebra's, various buck, giraffe, warthog, dungbeetle, tortouise, hippo. Now we're at our campsite, which I'm a bit nervous about...... there's no fence around us!!!! What's with that? And there's a big sign saying that no one must wander out of the campsite because wild animals might attack human beings (those words exactly!), whats to stop the wild animals from wondering through here? I did eventually pluck up the courage to get out of the truck, because the kids were already running around without a worry, so how could I be so nervous? Then we saw the impressive footprint (see photo). Mmmmm, I'll be opening the blinds and peeking out in the morning before I open the front door.
We have an exciting day tomorrow - Reg (Alex's dad) is flying in to meet us and spend the rest of our trip with us. The kids are really excited to see Grandpa. We're planning on spending another 2 nights here in Serengeti, then 2 more at the Ngorongoro Crater, and then heading towards Nairobi where we can hopefully leave Max and all fly back home.

(this is already a few days old but we've been struggling with signal - currently we're in Ngorogoro)