Where will we be

Our plans for the next few weeks : Ethiopia!

After a few days in Nairobi - which we spent resting, doing laundry, fixing odds and ends on the car : changing the tyres, checking the bearing, disconnecting the immobiliser... - we will be leaving Nairobi tomorrow to carry on north to Ethiopia where we expect to spend between 4 and 6 weeks before returning to Nairobi. We got a three-month visa, here in Nairobi, for USD20 each.

Disconnecting the immobiliser

The country is huge, the roads (we have heard) are slow going. We are keen to experience as much as we can of all its wonders.

Although Ethiopia was one of this journey’s main goals, it is also the place for which we knew the least about what to expect. Over the past few days we have been chatting to other travellers, and browsing through a few books, so now we have a slightly better idea of what is to come.
The country’s history is fascinating and its landscapes seem at times quite dramatic. What travellers tell us is that they have either loved or hated are the people. We are looking forward to live it for ourselves.

We have been told that internet connections are extremely slow and not really worth trying there, so don’t expect much news in the next month or two. We will try and update the blog again on our next visit to Nairobi.

Photos of Tanzania - Jan/Feb 2009

We will put a gallery of full-size photos on Flickr as soon as we have a good enough internet connection.

Photos of Mozambique - Dec 2008 / Jan 2009

We will put a gallery of full-size photos on Flickr as soon as we have a good enough internet connection.

Photos of South Africa's East coast - Dec 2008

You can see a gallery of full-size photos on :

http://www.flickr.com/photos/goodboons/sets/72157614063608846/

The man-eaters of Tsavo National Park

Tsavo Park reconciles us with East African National Parks. Although the staff at the Malindi’s Kenya Wildlife Office were neither pleasant our helpful, the rangers at Sala Gate were cheerful and welcoming. The park itself is well maintained and the game plentiful.

We arrived at noon and drove along the Galana River for a few hours, and even though it was midday we saw waterbuck by the dozen, elephant, impala, dik-diks, hippos, zebra, crocodiles, a Goliath Heron and an Egyptian Vulture. We stopped for a picnic of bread, cheese and tomatoes next to the river, being careful that there were no crocs, hippos or lions near us. We had been out of the car a few minutes when we heard a rumbling sound and saw dust rising about one hundred metres away… buffalo! Fortunately they were actually running away from us, and not towards us.

Lunch spot by the Galana river

40km of uneventful tracks took us south of the river to the Aruba dam where we soon spotted a lioness under a tree. As far as we know it could have been a lion. We are not sure because the male Tsavo lions do not have manes. It is said that their higher than average testosterone level causes them to be less hairy. It also makes them more aggressive than average, and the story “the man-eaters of Tsavo” known from the movie “Ghosts in the Darkness” illustrates the point. It tells of 2 lions that ate their way through 147 workers of the Ugandan railway at the beginning of the 20th century!

The Ugandan railway line on the edge of the Tsavo National Park : 147 of the workers who built it where eaten by 2 lions ("the man-eaters of Tsavo") at the beginning of the 20th century!

Of course, we stopped the engine to look at our lion at leisure. When she stood up for a stroll, we tried to start the car again to follow her…but the car wouldn’t start! Oh oh… it has happened before: the immobiliser. Simple enough to fix, but in order to do so Steve has to get out to open the bonnet and disconnect the battery. With the lion less than 20 meters away it is out of question….
The lioness finally taking a stroll... thus allowing Steve to get out of the car to fix the immobiliser

After sometime the lion walked a bit further away. Then two safari vehicles arrived from a nearby lodge. They were too busy watching the lion to imagine our situation and the lion busy watching them. Steve decided to get out of the car (with Caro keeping a worried watch over the landscape of tall yellow grasses) and fixed the car!

Quite an adrenaline rush!

The rest of the day was more peaceful, with the highlight being the sight of hundreds of red elephants and buffalo on the Kwanderi swamps and a giraffe scratching its ear.

Red elephants

Rush hour in Tsavo National Park

VIDEO of the giraffe scratching its ear

PHOTO of Steve removing the immobiliser in Nairobi.

Lamu

Lamu’s remoteness is a huge part of its charm. The archipelago is close to the Somalian border and no cars are allowed on the islands. As a result the town is quiet, the streets very narrow, and there are donkeys everywhere; carrying materials and people in the same way it must have been for centuries.

We left Scarlet at the small but busy harbour of Mokowe. After spending the night we boarded the first small ferryboat departing in the morning, which took us across the Lamu Town in 30 minutes for Ksh50 each.

The small but busy harbour at Mokowe

We walked the streets slowly for hours, watching people going about their businesses, visiting beautifully refurbished old Swahili houses (now mostly hotels) and the interesting ethnological museum. We ate coconut rice, chipatis, pilau and fish curry in local canteens (where Caro was the only woman) and wondered about the quality of the tap water while relishing the conversations and atmosphere. What we enjoyed the most was siting for hours on the fort’s steps and watching town life on the main square.

VIDEO of people passing by on the main square.

Lamu's main square

View of the main square from the fort

The fort's entrance

Lamu's streets

Shella beach

One evening we went to the local cinema to watch a Bollywood movie. The pirate DVD was scratched and kept skipping during the first song. People started complaining loudly and eventually the disc was changed and the movie carried on. The seats weren’t very comfortable and people laughed out loud or commented on scenes while smoking their cigarettes. There were a few other women in the audience, although it is the afternoon screenings which are reserved for women.

We also met a local, really an expat from Yemen, who invited us for a drink followed by a visit to his shop. He was selling perfumes and bui-bui, the black robes and veils most Lamu women wear in public. He got Caro to try one on. The shop assistant was very helpful helping me put it on, but I wondered what she thought of the whole scene.

Caro's new clothes - the bui-bui

Our new friend then invited us to his house for a modest dinner of bread, honey and sweet tea. His home he shared with his aging mother and the two shop assistants. He spoke a lot, and although his English was far better than our Swahili or Arabic, we struggled to really understand each other. We gathered that he was busy refurbishing his house and transforming it into a hotel, which we believe will be very nice when finished. We suspect he may have been practicing his English with us, as well as advertising his future guest house. He had also quite obviously been chewing miraa, a legal narcotic, and was becoming very animated and obviously in for a long sleepless night. So when he invited Steve to share a miraa mastication session we had to use treasures of imagination and diplomacy to refuse politely. We felt bad refusing, as he had been so generous with us, but this miraa seems a bit hectic . It is a root chewed by many people in East Africa (mostly men it seems) and it seems to be quite a potent drug judging by our new friend’s glazed eyes and his strange stories of being transported to the White House and chatting with Barak Obama and a golden eagle…

We are amazed at how popular Barak Obama is in Tanzania and Kenya. There are stickers of him on every matatu (bus), prints of his portraits on women’s kangas (sarongs), etc. It seems that people’s expectations are huge, although we haven’t found out yet what these expectations are…

The Kenyan coast : Tiwi, Watamu, Malindi

We enjoyed two days in the shady Twiga campsite at Tiwi beach. This gave us the chance to buy a new battery for our fridge (and computer), and to get used to Kenyan’s ways, currency, costs, and people.

Although the Kenyan coast is really stunning, but by now we are keen to move inland to some cooler weather. The tropical climate, hot and humid for our taste. First, we want to visit Lamu, an archipelago, just south of the Somalian border. It is another bastion of Swahili culture. It is smaller than Zanzibar and more isolated and cars are forbidden on the island. People use donkeys for transport….

En route from Diani/Tiwi beach to Lamu, we chose to bypass Mombasa, and drove instead through the Shimba Hills coastal forest.

We stopped over in Watamu for the night. There we visited a community project managed by A Rocha Kenya, which aims at preserving the Mida Creek estuary. This stunning mangrove is a stop-over to a large number of migratory birds. A Rocha (an NGO) educates the community about the potential for tourism and the economical benefit they can derive from maintaining its biodiversity. We enjoyed our visit very much and found the local guides to be very knowledgeable.

The second biggest town on the coast, after Mombasa, is Malindi. Maybe we were beached-out, but we didn’t find it anything special, apart from the fact that it has an Italian resort town. As you would expect, pizzerias and gelataria are common and we treated ourselves to a delicious Valentine’s dinner.

Potjie kos... Vis fang... Alles is lekker...

3P Curry (Pangani Prawn Potjie Curry) - Tiwi Style

Tiwi beach

Ingredients (for a No. 2 potjie, 6 to 8 people):

3 Tsp of cooking oil
2 Tsp of Mrs Ball’s chutney (which you will have brought all the way from South Africa)
1 cup of chicken stock (if you’ve got a cube lying around in your food box)
Sugar, to taste

Bring back a few Spices from Zanzibar:

- 5 cardamoms
- 1 fresh ginger root
- 1 handful of fresh garlic
- Pili-pili (pepper) and salt
- 2 Tsp of curry powder
- 1 pinch of cinnamon powder
- 1 pinch of turmeric powder
- 1 fresh chili (which you could also have brought from Fred and Caro’s garden in Moshi)

Take Wahid’s dhow from Kendwa Rocks (on Zanzibar Northern coast) to Pangani, on the main land.

On Wahid's dhow, with Mike and Sarah

In Pangani, go to the local market. It is also the bus station. While you wait for the “dala-dala” (public taxi bus) that will take you back to Peponi campsite (where you have left your vehicle), buy the following:

- 8 medium onions
- 8 medium potatoes
- 8 tomatoes
- 1 large mango
- 1 small pineapple
- 1 coconut (drink the juice and keep the flesh)
- 4 big carrots
- 1 green pepper

Fresh fruits and vegetables from the market

Cut the veggies and coconut

Don’t worry if you do not find everything at Pangani’s market: “Hakuna matata!” (No problem!). You will find the rest along the road from Peponi (Tanzania) to Tiwi Beach (Kenya).

Once on board the “dala-dala”, notice the guy with the big yellow buckets: he is carrying fresh prawns to Tanga’s market. Pull out your Tupperware and buy 1kg of big fresh prawns.

Keep the prawns in your car’s fridge overnight (that is if your battery – unlike ours – is working). For your last dinner with new friends (Mike and Sarah), grill the Kingfish steaks which Wahid gave you. (The one he caught on the trip back from Zanzibar while you were struggling with sea-sickness, and gave to you to make you feel better. May he be blessed by Allah).

Have a good night’s rest at Peponi, then head for Tiwi Beach, Kenya the following morning. Consider the state of your fridge battery and prawns while dealing with border formalities in the hot sun.

On your first evening in Kenya, go for a swim, light a fire, and pour a whiskey.

Twiga campsite

Now get started with your potjiekos:

Fry the onions, garlic and ginger in the cooking oil.

Add the tomatoes, 1 cup of chicken stock, the mango and spices.
Bring to the boil and simmer for 30 minutes.
Stir in the carrots, green pepper and potatoes.

Immediately after; layer the prawns, coconut and pineapple. Do not stir, but leave as a layer on top.

Close the pot.
Simmer for 1h30.
Add sugar to taste.

Have some more whiskey. Check out the bush-babies eating baobab flowers.

Take pictures of the resident hedge-hog.

Watch the full moon rise over the palm trees.

It's ready !

Bon appetit!

PS: It will keep for a day or two if you buy a new battery for your fridge in Ukunda.

First impressions of Kenya

To be honest, our first impression of Kenya is that it doesn’t differ much from Tanzania, except for that more people seem to speak better English. Although Swahili is also the lingua franca, English seems much more widely used than in Tanzania.

The services are polite and efficient, the roads relatively good, and we are finding everything we need everywhere. There are a few cell phone networks available, but the same Zain which we used in Tanzania is also present in Kenya (as well as in Uganda).

On 13 February 2009, the exchange rate was:
- Ksh 1 (one Kenyan shilling) to Tsh 16.6 (16.6 Tanzanian shilling)
- USD 1 to Ksh 78
- ZAR 1 to Ksh 8
- About Euro 1 to Ksh 100

Shopping for food in the streets is much more affordable than at supermarkets (and your money goes to individuals rather than big businesses). Below are a few ideas of prices (in the streets of Nairobi)…
- Ksh 50 for 1 Kg of tomatoes or onions
- Ksh 70 for 1Kg of potatoes
- Ksh 10 for a mango
- Ksh 5 for a banana
- Ksh 75.8 for 1l of petrol (It was around Tsh 1340 in Tanzania, and between Mt 36 and 40 in Mozambique)

The temperatures vary greatly depending on where you are. Nairobi is 1770msl and much cooler that at the coast. Yesterday was the first day I wore socks since we left Cape Town!

Crossing the border from Tanzania to Kenya on the coast

From Tanga it took us about two hours to drive to the border along a good gravel road.

The formalities went smoothly on both sides.

As a South African citizen Steve got a one month Kenyan visa for free, while Caro’s (French) 3-month visa cost USD50. These visas, like the Tanzanian’s and the Ugandan’s, are multiple-entry as long as one is only travelling between the above mentioned three countries.

Our only uncertainty was whether or not to buy the Third-party insurance offered us at the border post, as it seemed too expensive (USD50 for a month for Kenya only). We decided to investigate further in Mombasa, where we found a 4-month COMESA insurance for all the remaining countries we were to visit for KSh4000.

From the border it was another 2 hours scenic drive along a tarred road lined with palm trees to our campsite at Twiga Lodge.

Arbres a clous et autres merveilles... les epices de Zanzibar

Savez-vous a quoi ressemble l’arbre a clous… de girofle? ou d’ou viennent la cannelle et le gingembre?

Moi j’aurais ete bien incapable de vous le dire. Quand j’ai besoin d’epices je vais chez le marchand et je les achete en petits sachets…

Mais a Zanzibar nous avons trouve une ferme qui fait pousser toutes sortes d’epices, et un guide pour nous expliquer quelle plante correspond a quelle saveur connue.

J’ai pris quelques photos:

Les clous de girofle (cloves) poussent dans les arbres

La racine de cette plante c’est le gingembre (ginger)

L’ecorce de cette arbre, si on la laisse secher au soleil, nous donne les batons de cannelle (cinnamon)

Voila une noix de muscade (nutmeg)

Et voila comment poussent les ananas (pineapple)

La vanille (vanilla), que vous connaissez surement, doit etre polinisee a la main car il n’y a pas de colibris (hummingbirds) sur Zanzibar

Le poivre (pepper) est aussi une plante grimpante

La cardamone (cardamom) pousse au sol

Le cacao (cocoa) est un fruit…

Le henne un arbre…

Et la citronnelle (lemon grass) une herbe…