Walking on Sacred Ground

We've spent a wonderful few days relaxing by the Red Sea in Sharm-el-Sheik, Egypt. As the perfect closer to our trip, we hiked to the peak of Mt. Sinai this morning to watch the sunrise. As usual, our trip envolved a crazy Egyptian driver and a departure time in the middle of the night, but it was absolutely worth it to stand where Moses did thousands of years ago. The sunrise was beautiful and we enjoyed the serenity of our surroundings and reflected on what an amazing trip this has been!

Tucker Turns One

Happy birthday Tucker! Although we don't know his "official" birthday, we decided that Tucker should be a St. Patty's Day puppy. Unfortunately, no photo since we don't know how big he is since we haven't seen him in almost three months. Thankfully, he's in the loving home of Scott's parents and we can't wait to see how big he's gotten when we return home in a week! Scott says I have to stop calling him a "puppy" now:(

Pharaonic Fatigue in Luxor

We departed from our cruise ship on Wednesday morning overwhelmed by the task of visiting the many tourist sights in Luxor. In fact, of all cities in Egypt, Luxor has the greatest number of historical sites (e.g. Valley of the Kings, Hatshepsut's Temple, Colossi of Memnon, Valley of the Queens, Karnak Temple, Luxor Museum, etc.) On Wednesday we self-toured the East Bank and on Thursday we opted to see the West Bank's highlights via guided tour. By the end we truly had "Pharaonic fatigue". The sites are very impressive, larger than life, and so interesting to visit after studying Egyptian history as children and for myself, in a few art history classes while at Tufts. It's amazing to walk through the pyramids and tombs with such well preserved drawings and realize that you are looking at something that was made in some cases almost 5,000 years ago! But, like our many safaris in southern and eastern Africa, we have to admit that once you've seen one gazelle, you've seen them all...and over time the pylons and columns of one temple begin to look similar to the next. So, this evening we depart for Sharm-el-Sheik and a visit to the Red Sea. No more temples or pyramids. We'll spend the next few days by the beach and then visiting the religious landmarks of St. Katherine's Monastery and Mt. Sinai, and then we'll return to Cairo for our flight home! [Note: We have yet to find a computer in Egypt to upload our own photos...so for now you'll have to enjoy someone else's photos of the Valley of the Kings and Hatshepsut's Temple.]

The Convoy to Abu Simbel

We are truly convinced that the Egyptian military has chosen to play a cruel joke on the tourists that arrive in Aswan with the intention of visiting Abu Simbel. The small town 240 km south of Aswan and 40 km north of the Sudanese border is home to two magnificent temples built by Ramses II along the banks of the Nile (now Lake Nasser). The only way to reach the town is by tour bus in a armed convoy that leaves at 4:30 a.m. from Aswan. We were up at 3:30 a.m. to be picked up by our driver and luckily slept through most of the drive, which entails 3 hours of driving through the barren desert as drivers of minibuses and large charter buses jockey back and forth for prime position....again, the rules of driving seem to be non-existent in most of Egypt. Ramses II built the temple as a gateway for foreigners traveling from the south with four larger than life statues of himself (of course), which were meant to signify his power throughout Egypt. He also built the smaller Temple of Hathor for his wife, Nefertari (not to be confused with Nefertiti). After returning from Abu Simbel, we picked up our tickets for our Nile cruise that departs tomorrow. Since arriving in Egypt, and with our trip quickly coming to a close (we moved our return flights up to Friday, March 21st), we have decided to finally treat ourselves! We've stayed in so many cheap hotels (in fact our current residence, the Hathor Hotel, costs $18US/night and has a bathroom smaller than my old studio in the East Village), we opted for the 5-star Semiramis II for our 2-day cruise down the Nile to Luxor. The other option would have been to hire a felucca, the traditional Egyptian sailboat for a 4-day trip down the Nile, but we decided that we weren't as open to that adventure which could have entailed a lot of negotiating and baksheesh (tipping) to find a reliable captain. Bon voyage!

The Adventure to Aswan

After a few days in Cairo, we opted to head to Upper Egypt. The name is counter intuitive since we actually headed south to Aswan, but since the Nile flows north, the northern part of Egypt from Cairo down to Memphis is deemed Lower Egypt (represented by papyrus), while Lower Egypt include Luxor, the Valley of the Kings and Aswan are considered Upper Egypt (represented by the lotus flower). Here's where the adventure begins... We purchased tickets for the sleeper train from Cairo to arrive Saturday morning in Aswan. Unfortunately, we didn't look at the tickets, but based on the recommendation of the ticket agent, we planned to arrive at the train station by 8:45 p.m. (or at least, that's what we recalled being said). We spent the day at the pyramids and then returned to our hotel around 7 p.m. With some time to kill, we sat around and had a nice cold soft drink and recapped our stay in Cairo. Scott pulled out the tickets around 8 p.m. to double check the time (for the first time) and noticed the tickets said the train departed at 8:10 p.m.! Needless to say, we left in a whirlwind to catch a taxi in the hopes that maybe the tickets were misprinted! Thankfully, we had one of the crazy Cairenne taxi drivers who got us to the Giza station in record time. Naturally, we argued over a reasonable price as we were trying to rush to the station. Luckily, the train was still in the station when we arrived at 8:40 p.m....but all the doors were already closed and the train started to pull away as we watched from the platform! Following Scott's instruction, we both ran ahead to a car with an open door and jumped in! We found ourselves surrounded by Egyptian soldiers yelling "no, no, no" to us, (note: as a tourist in Egypt you can't travel anywhere without being in an armed convoy) but there was no way we were getting off the train. Of course, we ended up being the obnoxious Americans who ended up stopping the train in the station so we could board the regular sleeper train car and then had to proceed to walk through 9 cars until we reached our own cabin...did I mention we had huge hiking packs and were trying to squeeze by the attendents who were already serving dinner to the other passengers on the train?!? This is how the adventure to Aswan began...

Walk Like an Egyptian

Having spent a few days in Cairo, we now find new meaning to the phrase "walk like an Egyptian," or more appropriately, walk like a Cairenne. Living in New York City for several years did not prepare us for the mayhem and chaos of traffic in Cairo! In order to cross the street, you must play "chicken" with the oncoming traffic -- literally dodging cars across several lanes of traffic -- and as far as we could tell during our three days in the capital, there was no method to the madness of how traffic flowed. We both agreed that a Cairenne taxi driver could quite easily out-maneuver any NYC cabbie! Our arrival in Cairo was a welcome sight with the return to Western culture, which we were quite ready for, and the traffic on the right side of the road again. We "splurged" and stayed downtown at the Talisman Hotel, a small boutique hotel hidden off Talaat Haarb. Unfortunately, our taxi driver had difficulty finding it at 2 a.m. when we arrived on our flight from Dar Es Salaam. We've certainly shifted gears since leaving Eastern Africa and now are growing accustomed to being typical tourists and seeing all the sight. We visited the Egyptian Museum and walked around Khan el Khalili (the market that puts NYC's Chinatown to shame!) We also took in a Sufi dance at a local mosque. Sufi dancing originated as a form of prayer. It involves a lot of music and men dancing, actually, the men spin a lot. One man was spining in a circle for 30 minutes straight! They were colorful skirts which twirl around and apparently after all this spinning they aquire a trans-like state of prayer. Of course, one of the main highlights of our stay in Cairo was the day we spent visiting the Pyramids of Giza, as well as the more southern pyramids at Dashur, Memphis an Saqqara. The pyramids at Giza are the most well known for their size and grandeur, but it was also interesting to see the pyramids at Dashur, which were the "prototype" for the Giza pyramids, as well as the first pyramid built at Saqqara, the Step Pyramid. Another highlight of our stay in Cairo was our date night at the Semiramus Intercontinental where we had cocktails and then had a traditional Lebanese dinner and watched a show, the main act being the world-renowned belly dancer, Dinah. She was quite amazing, unfortunately, she doesn't go on stage until almost 2 a.m. so it was quite a late night for us! Our own photos and videos to come "in shallah" (God willing), if we find a computer that works properly!

Standing on the Roof of Africa

After seven arduous days on the Machame Route, we successfully scaled Mt. Kilimanjaro, and on a memorable date no less! We both agreed that it was one of the most difficult challenges we have successfully completed and it took every ounce of strength we had to do it. Our trek, which departed on Sunday, was originally planned to take 6 days, but after experiencing symptoms of acute mountain sickness by Day 3, we opted to extend our trip to 7 days. Here’s a quick recap… Day 1: We departed Machame Gate at an elevation of 1800m with our guide (Adam), assistant guide (Dao), and fellow climbers from the Netherlands (Tom and Marielle). A team of porters, 13 in total, preceded us to our first camp, Machame Hut, at an elevation of 3,000m. Day 2: After a very healthy breakfast of porridge, toast and eggs, we started off for our next camp, Shira Hut at 3800m. This day was a little steeper, but we were all feeling well when we arrived and narrowly missed a hail storm which began just as we arrived at camp and were safely in our tents. Day 3: This was a big acclimatization day. We would be climbing up to the junction at 4400m and then planned to continue on to the Lava Tower, an addition 200m in elevation at 4600m before heading down to Barranco Camp at 3800m to sleep. Unfortunately, the increase in elevation did not agree with most of us. We arrived at the junction for lunch with headaches and Christine experienced some nausea and sickness at 4400m. We made the decision to skip the Lava Tower and head down to camp for the night. Scott was feeling a bit nauseous at dinner and Christine continued to get sick that night. At the end of the day, we decided to break up the following day’s hike into two segments, essentially adding one more day to our overall trip. Day 4: Still nauseous and unable to hold down breakfast, we continued on. Our first obstacle of the day was the Barranco Wall which led us up to an elevation of 4200m. We had a short day of hiking and arrived at Karanga Valley in the early afternoon. Most groups continue on to Barufu in the afternoon and begin their ascent to the summit on this evening, but we instead camped at Karanga for the night, regaining our energy for the days ahead. Day 5: Another short day of hiking up to Barufu Hut, where we arrived in the early afternoon. We had a nap and an early dinner before preparing to start our ascent at 11:30 p.m. Day 6: It was an arduous climb, but 8 hours later, we had successfully scaled the final 1200m to Stella Point (5700m) and onto Uhuru Peak (5895m), the highest peak in Africa and the top of the highest free-standing mountain in the world! We returned to Barufu Hut after a 4 hour descent to singing porters and a warm lunch…it had been almost 20 hours since our last meal! Unfortunately, we were all too exhausted to eat and crashed in our tents for a few hours before we packed up and continued our descent to High Camp at 3900m. Day 7: Only a 5 hour walk down to Mweka Gate this day seemed longer than we wished, but we were so happy to arrive back in Moshi in the evening to have a hot shower and a real bed!

More photos...

Preparing for Our Kilimanjaro Trek

We arrived in Moshi yesterday and did a little research on the different tour operators that do treks up Kilimanjaro. We talked to a few people at our hotel who had just returned and we've successfully booked our trip for a 6 or 7-day trek on the Machame Route departing on Sunday, Feb. 22. We met a Dutch couple on our shuttle bus from Arusha, so we worked together to get a discounted rate for 4 people. Can you believe that for 4 hikers we will have a total of 20 people in our group? Each hiker has 3 porters, which accounts for 12, plus we will have a chef, 2 guides and an assistant guide who will split up among the group so that everyone will be able to hike at their own pace. Based on our conversations with so many people who have summited, it is truly a mental challenge. We can't believe it's finally here! We know it's been almost 2 weeks since we've posted on our blog, so we'll be taking time tomorrow to upload photos as well as prepare all our gear for the big trek. Wish us luck!

Celebrating in Serengeti!

After a short delay on our flight from Stone Town to Arusha, due to the arrival of President Bush in Dar Es Salaam, we arrived just in time Saturday evening to pick up our Land Rover from Fortis Safaris. The truck was equipped with a pop-up tent on the roof, as well as a cooler, gas cooker, utensils, table and chairs. The shops were already closed for the evening, so we camped our first night in the truck at a nearby backpackers just outside of town…little did we know it was the local party spot on a Saturday night! After a restless night of sleep, we woke up early the next morning excited for our self-safari adventure and set off to the supermarket to stock up on food and water for the next 4 days.

By early Sunday afternoon, we were in the Ngorongoro Crater which was once the highest peak in Africa (yes, higher than Kilimanjaro), until it collapsed and formed a mini-ecosystem of swamps, forest, and grasslands 600m below which over 25,000 animals call home. We drove through Ngorongoro that first day, where the highest concentration of wildebeests and zebras are due to the on-going migration, and also saw many Maasai. When Tanzania gained its independence in 1961, the Maasai were living in the Serengeti. In fact, “siringit” is the name the Maasai used for the great plains as it means “land of endless space”. Due to the development of Serengeti into a national park, the Maasai were no longer allowed to live and herd their cattle in the park. The Ngorongoro Crater Conservancy was developed to allow peaceful co-existence of the Maasai and their cattle with the wildlife. The Maasai also do not hunt the wildlife because they believe that if they do, then all of their cattle (which is their symbol of wealth) would die. Hence, all co-exist and use the land in harmony to create balance between nature and mankind. Monday was Scott’s birthday so we had a proper celebration while on our safari. We had a nice breakfast watching the sunrise and celebrated turning 29 with a banana bread “cake” with candles and singing of course! We spent the day venturing through the back roads of the Serengeti and saw many giraffes, hippos, lions, elephants, and monkeys! On our last day we picked up a local Maasai guide to descend down into the Ngorongoro Crater and learn more about the amazing ecosystem that exists and we also saw our first cheetah! Our guide, Jacob, also shared some interesting wildlife facts with us, such as: 1. lions sleep up to 20 hours a day…which explains why we never saw them very active, 2. wildebeests and zebras migrate together because the wildebeests can sense rain up to 50 km away and therefore lead the migration, while the zebras have a heightened sense of their surroundings and detect the predators so they keep the group safe from harm, 3. zebras stand side by side in opposite directions to watch for predators (and we just thought they were cuddling!). The list goes on, but we’ll let the pictures of this part of our trip speak for themselves…see more photos. In the end, though we were one of the few people we saw self-driving the park, we both agreed that we loved the flexibility and freedom to roam as we pleased and certainly enjoyed camping with elephants and zebras joining us for dinner!

Valentine's and Relaxing in Zanzibar

After a night in Dar, we decided to take the ferry to Zanzibar, an island off the coast, to spend a few days relaxing on the beach. Zanzibar was previously a major slave trading port and today is still famous for the many spices and exotic fruits grown here. We stayed in Stone Town for an evening, had a traditional Zanzibaran meal prepared by a local family in their own home, and then went on a spice tour to the plantations up north on Wednesday...see more photos. We then took a bus out to Jambiani, one of the beaches on the eastern side of the island and enjoyed several days on the beach. Anticipating our Kilimanjaro trek, we both agreed that it would be wise to spend a few mornings running on the beach. Unfortunately, in an ironic twist of fate, Scott twisted his ankle running on a very rocky section of the beach. But, as fate would have it, we were also very luck! Just a few hundred meters down the beach, a Canadian had opened a chiropractic clinic for the locals and he confirmed it was just a very bad sprain and he applied some ointment and wrapped Scott's ankle well for a quick recovery. Recognizing the need for flexibility and time for Scott's ankle to recover, we decided to plan our safari to Serengeti National Park and the Ngorongoro Crater first and postpone Kilimanjaro for a week. Also, as luck would have it, we met a great couple from Germany who had just done a self-safari through the parks. We had dinners with them while in Jambiani, and they shared the details of their safari and the company they used to rent their Land Rover and camping gear. So, we were well prepared by our departure on Saturday for our next adventure in Serengeti!

Train Travel to Tanzania

After having read Paul Thoreaux's "Dark Star Safari," we thoroughly agree that travel in Africa should include some adventure, which inadvertantly means some discomfort. Although not as extreme of a traveler as Thoreaux, we agreed that the Tazara Railway from Lusaka, Zambia to Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, would be a much more interesting and beautiful way to see the countryside rather than flying. This certainly proved to be true! We took a bus from Lusaka to Kapiri Mposhi, the town where the train departed from. Of course, buses don’t have actual schedules, so we arrived at 7 a.m. and were told that the bus would leave between 8:30 – 9 a.m…so we sat on the bus (which is what everyone does or it may leave without you) until the bus was full and we departed at 9:45 a.m. We arrived in Kapiri with a little time to pick up food (at the local gas station as there was no supermarket as we had hoped in the small town) and then we headed to the train station which was outside of town.

The anticipated 45 hour trip didn't start off on the right foot, as our departure from Kapiri Mposhi was delayed for 3 hours on Friday afternoon. We spent the majority of the time playing cards with street kids that were hanging out at the station. We taught them how to shuffle the cards and play War. We finally boarded the train around 6 p.m. and were on our way! We opted for 1^st class, which meant we were in sleeper cabins, segregated male and female compartments, which accommodated up to 4 people. Scott shared his cabin with a Congolese man, Isaac, and I shared with his wife, Esther and another Tanzanian woman, Ruth. We had an unexpected delay after the first night due to a goods train that had derailed (the majority of the trip relies on only one track), so we spent 24 hours (from 8 a.m. Saturday to 8 a.m. Sunday) in Kasame. Fortunately, it allowed us to venture into the small town to pick up food at the local Shoprite. We lived on peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and bananas and a few hot meals from the dining car for a few days! Plus, there were all kinds of interesting fruits and snacks sold by vendors along the tracks as we pulled into each station. We got used to being the local spectacle, having been one of the few white people, or "mzungu" in Swahili, on the train. At each station, the children would yell out mzungu and wave!

Thankfully, the track was repaired after a day and we safely arrived in Dar Es Salaam early Monday evening, just a mere 72 hours after our train trip had begun! Unfortunately, it meant we missed the Africa Cup finals on Sunday night and it also allowed Scott enough time to beat Christine in Gin Rummy in Zambia! As can be imagined, we were desperately in need of a hot shower after our train travels...See more photos.

Recharging Our Batteries in Lusaka, Zambia

We’ve spent a relaxed week in Zambia with few things on our agenda other than regrouping for next travels. Archie and Blessing helped us to navigate across the border from Zimbabwe to Zambia last Saturday, Feb. 2nd, and since then we’v just been hanging out. We spent an evening in Livingstone before boarding the 7 hour bus to Lusaka, Zambia’s capitol, on Sunday morning. For the past several days we’ve been staying at the ChaChaCha Backpackers in town. We’ve run a few errands, such as having more pages put into our passport at the US Embassy, obtaining visas at the Tanzanian Embassy, as well as sorting out laundry and cash before heading on to Tanzania. We’ve finally decided that we’ll head up to Kapiri Mposhi tomorrow morning to catch the Tazara train, or Kilimanjaro Express, to Dar Es Salaam. It should be an interesting 48 hours (or more) on the train as we travel through northern Zambia and Tanzania, but we both agreed that flying would lessen the adventure ! There is so much of Africa to see and we’d hate to miss any opportunity to truly experience it. Since this week has been fairly uneventful, I thought I’d share some photos of our accommodations in Zambia since we’ve had a few questions about what it’s really like. I think we’ll continue to shield you from the true reality of dirty showers, bathrooms without toilet paper and sometimes the general lack of cleanliness...but this is Africa and we have no expectations. We’re just happy to be experiencing it ! See more photos. On a side note, Scott is absolutely killing me in Gin Rummy in Zambia...he may finally win a country;)

Golfing at Leopard Rock and a Glimpse of Mozambique

Today we had planned to go to the Bvumba and then head back to Vic Falls, but since it was one of the most beautiful days we have had in Zimbabwe, we were easily convinced to stay another day ! The Bvumba used to be very well known for the many banana and coffee plantations before the land reformation forced many farmers out of Zim. As we drove through the area, Blessing and Archie pointed out many parcels of land that look neglected that used to be vast farms. It was unfortunate to see.We headed up into the mountains from Mutare early in the morning, stopping to look out over Mozambique and for a short hike overlooking Leopard Rock. Leopard Rock is quite a posh hotel, ｗｈｅｒｅ Queen Elizabeth stays when she visits the country. It is also home to a phenomenal golf course, rated the best in Africa/Middle East in 2000 by the PGA. It was just too tempting on such　a beautiful day, so we had to play 9 holes, and we convinced Blessing to give golf a try as well ! After golf, we headed back into Mutare for a late lunch and a stroll around town with Blessing where he ran into many of his old classmates and his uncle. We planned to get an early start the next morning for the 12+ hour trip back to Vic Falls. See more photos.

Our Day in a Shona Village

Today we visited a traditional Shona village outside Mutare, where Emma's family lives. Emma is a friend of Archie & Blessing and the caretaker at Ann's guesthouse where we are staying in Mutare. Emma's youngest daughter, Debbie (2) , lives with her in town, while her other children live with their grandmother in the village. We took a minibus out of town in the morning and met Emma's other children: Amanda (16), Takunda (14), Pride (12), and her nephew Dashinga (2). We spent the day walking around to the other villager's homes and visiting with them. Everyone was so kind and welcoming (and I'm apologizing in advance as it's now hard to recall everyone's names!). They showed us their gardens, as many practice subsistence farming and have little need to go into town but for minor supplies such as soap and cooking oil. A few had electricity thanks to small solar panels, so we were introduced to a favorite Zim artist, Macheso (we bought the cd to listen to at home we loved it so much!) It was a great afternoon! Afterwards we had lunch with Emma, her mother and children and were stuffed the rest of the day. The ride back into Mutare was interesting as we had to wait by the side of the road for a minibus to pick us up. We declined the first few rides as they were too expensive, but finally caught a ride in a small van filled with 23 people! I laughed internally as I read the sign that said "15 passengers maximum" inscribed on the wall and looked around to see all the adults squeezed in together and the children sitting on each other's laps! The entire day was such a unique experience this blog update won't properly do it justice but when we get home we'll share the video of Takunda and Christine dancing to Macheso! See more photos.

The Trip to Mutare in the Eastern Highlands

Today we continued to head east to Mutare, the third largest city in Zimbabwe and the gateway to the Eastern Highlands. For lunch we stopped near the Birchenough Bridge and then strolled across. During our stroll we made friends with several school children walking home from school so we introduced a game of follow-the-leader. In Zimbabwe, every road you travel has a well-worn dirt path along the side. Some of these children walked up to 5 km each way to school. The most memorable thing about our game of follow-the-leader (aside from the fact that cartwheels are universal) was that the young boy I was playing with was only wearing one left shoe. Many of the children were barefoot...tough little soles/souls. See more photos.

The Great Zimbabwe

Before departing from Bulawayo, we visited the Natural History Museum which was open again and got a very thorough history of Zimbabwe as well as the native wildlife. Although very informative, it was sad to see the state of the museum which was generally run down. As with most things in Zim, you could tell that there had been better days. We then drove on to Masvingo and the Great Zimbabwe. The Great Zimbabwe ruins are the remains of an ancient Southern African city whose name means “the great or big house built of stone boulders”. Zimbabwe derived it’s name as a country after independence as well as adopted it’s national bird, the fish eagle, from the Great Zimbabwe. Today was also a day where we began to see more clearly the impacts of the economic crisis in Zimbabwe. As we passed through different towns, we went into grocery stores where entire shelves were empty and saw long queues to get into banks. It was not uncommon to see women walking along the side of the road with large bags of mealie meal balanced on their heads with “US Aid” written across the bags, a sign of foreign aid which is common but not consistently distributed to the people in rural areas. But alas, a blog entry is too short to really fully explain the challenges in Zimbabwe. We stayed outside the Great Zimbabwe for an evening in a traditional rondoval at what used to be a very nice resort. Unfortunately, a lack of tourists had resulted in a lack of upkeep, although we learned early to have little to no expectations while traveling. In the middle of watching an Africa Cup game, the power went out, so we enjoyed the rest of the evening playing cards by candle light. We learned a new game from Archie and Blessing called crazy fours, which may be good for Scott as he is losing terribly at our on-going game of gin rummy! We play in each country and have a winner...so far Scott has only tied with Christine in Botswana and she has swept every other country on the continent! See more photos.

Supporting the Highlanders in Bulawayo

This morning we had planned to visit the Natural History Museum, but unfortunately it was closed due to a protest by the workers who hadn’t been paid. Instead, we spent the morning at Khami Ruins, a World Heritage Site. Khami Ruins was inhabited by the Torwa people between the 15^th-17^th centuries after the Great Zimbabwe, which we will be visiting later this week, was abandoned. While there, we also visited a Ndebele village where a grandmother ("go-go") lived with her three grandchildren. [Note: Most Zimbabweans are either Shona or Ndebele]. After returning to town, we had lunch at a local restaurant in the market. We ate pumpkin leaves and beef with sadza. Sadza is eaten with most meals and is the Shona name for a porridge made from mealie meal or ground maize/corn. In South Africa it is referred to as pap and in Zambia it is nshima. It is quite filling! Today we also had a rare treat. Archie and Blessing went into a local hotel bar to find out when the Africa Cup games were on that evening and we were pleasantly surprised (especially Scott) to find out that the local soccer team, the Highlanders, were playing a game in the afternoon against the Black Leopards from South Africa. It was quite fun, especially as Scott’s college coach, Bobbie Clark was once the coach in Zimbabwe for this very team in the early 1980’s! It was a great afternoon and also an interesting lesson in being the minority as we were the only white spectators in the stadium filled with 5,000 to 6,000 people. See more photos.

A Rare Look at Zimbabwe

We've decided that our next adventure will be a 5 day trip through Zimbabwe with our new-found friends Archie and Blessing. We are staying at the Savanna Lodge, where they both used to work prior to starting their own tourism business so they both came highly recommended. Due to the economic hardship in Zimbabwe and lack of tourists, it has been almost 6 months since they last booked a trip. We're excited for this adventure which will take us south to Bulawayo, the second largest city in Zim, then on to Masvingo near the Great Zimbabwe, and then finally to Mutare and the Eastern Highlands. Both Archie and Blessing grew up in the Eastern Highlands so we are particularly interested to view this part of Zim with the "locals".

One of the Seven Natural Wonders

Our final destination on our Nomad tour is Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe. The falls can also be seen from the Zambian border, but it is said to be more beautiful from the Zimbabwean side. Due to the economic hardship in Zim, many tourists are staying in Livingstone, Zambia, but we had a rare opportunity to visit a beautiful country even in a time of crisis. Though Victoria Falls is still a tourist destination, we were often told that tourism had significantly declined over the past five years. A lack of basic needs, such as petrol and food, forced people to cross into Botswana for supplies (if they had the means) or otherwise pay exhorbitant amounts for things in Zim…but more about Zimbabwe’s situation later. Our arrival in Victoria Falls also meant saying goodbye to our travel mates for the past two weeks. With a group of 23 people, we had a range of nationalities and personalities which made for a memorable trip ! On our last night, we enjoyed a great cultural meal at the Boma resort, which has traditional drumming and dancing and many tasty game meats. A great end to our tour. See more photos. Before departing with the group, we sat down with our tour guides, Todd and Charlotte, and received tons of great advice for our travels to Eastern and Northern Africa. With that we set off to make our next plans...

Chobe National Park River Cruise

After a relaxing few days in the delta, we headed further east to Chobe National Park. When we went game viewing in Etosha it was via overland truck. In the delta we traveled via foot, so in Chobe our mode of transportation was a pontoon boat. We spent the afternoon relaxing and watching the elephants, hippos, birds, monkeys and crocs along the water’s edge. Interestingly, we could view four countries during our cruise as many countries meet along the Chobe...Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, and Zambia. Unfortunately, instead of ending with a beautiful sunset, our cruise ended in a downpour. It made for an interesting night of camping as well !

A Bush Camp in the Okavango Delta, Botswana

Our introduction to Botswana was the Okavanga Delta, certainly a highlight of our tour with Nomad. First, we did a scenic flight tour over the delta to get a good perspective of it’s size. Then, the next day, we departed for the inner delta via a two hour drive by overland truck followed by an hour and a half trip through the water channels via makoro. A traditional makoro is made from the bark of the sausage tree, but our poler, Alms, had gone upgraded to a fiberglass makoro…so no leaks ! We spent two days in a bush camp on an island in the delta and relaxed. We went on bush walks in the morning and evenings to view the natural wildlife. One morning we were so close to a herd of zebras and wildebeests it was amazing. We also went on a long trip chasing giraffes until we finally had to give up…realizing their legs were much longer than ours ! It was great to get to talk to the polers who grew up on the delta. They also entertained us one evening with songs and dancing, and we introduced the American tradition of s’mores to everyone ! See more photos.

Nomads in Namibia

We are in Windhoek, the capital of Namibia today and this concludes our travels through Namibia. We head to the border today to cross into Botswana and head to the Okavango Delta. We have done so much in the last 6 days we hardly know where to begin! After leaving Swakoptmund, we headed inland through the hot Namibian desert. We first stopped in Spitzkoppe, which is a natural rock formation created from magma that pushed the rocks upward to form mountains. It was once an active volcano, but the lava never broke through the surface. There, we were lead on a nature walk by our local guide Richie and we saw rock paintings done by the San people. This was our first night camping with the overland tour and we opted to sleep outdoors, falling asleep under the stars, and waking up to the sunrise on the rocks. In this part of Namibia, the local people collect the precious gems that are found in the area and sell them alongside the road. This is where we picked up our first Christmas ornament (we always collect them from the places we travel to), which is a palm seed carved with the "Big Five" game animals. The next morning we were off to Etosha National Park, further north in Namibia. We stopped to visit with a Herero woman who was selling hand-made dolls along the roadside. The Herero women wear very colorful dresses, which they fashioned after the Portuguese colonists who arrived in the 1800's. They added the interesting head dress, which is representative of the cattle, which are the main symbol of wealth in their culture. Cows are used for their milk, but a man must also have several cows as a dowery to marry a woman. We also visited a traditional Himba village. These people still wear loinclothes and live in very basic huts with no running water or electricity. They broke away from the Hereros because they wanted to maintain their way of living and tribal traditions. As necessity, the men will put on western clothes to go to work on the nearby farms herding cattle. The women and children earn money by selling the bracelets and necklaces they make to tourists who visit. Finally, the last two days have been spent camping in Etosha National Park. This was our first game drive and we have now seen 3 of the "Big Five" game animals. We encountered many lions, elephants and rhinos, as well as other animals and we hope to see the other 2 (leopards and buffalo) at Chobe in Botswana. We'll let the photos speak for themselves...see more photos.

Sand in Namibia

We flew from Cape Town, South Africa to Walvis Bay, Namibia yesterday morning so now we have our second country stamp in our passports! (Unfortunately, they didn't give us a stamp for Lesotho.) What a change of scenery! We didn't realize just how lush and green South Africa was until we landed in sandy Walvis Bay. From the airport, we picked up a car and did a few quick errands in this small port town (bank and groceries) and then embarked on the 5 hour drive down to Sesriem Camp in the Namib Desert. The roads are pretty rough since they are unpaved, but well worth the trip to see the famous red sand dunes in Namibia! It was a whirlwind trip since we start an overland tour today, but we fit in a sunset and sunrise at the dunes. The park gates open at 5:15 a.m., so we were up early to climb Dune 45 (appropriately named as it is 45 km from the park gate entrance. More photos of our adventures in the sand dunes! This may be our last post for a couple of days since we start our overland tour from Swakopmund, Namibia to Victoria Falls, Zambia tomorrow morning...we'll take lots of photos and share more stories soon! You can see our itinerary with Nomad for the next two weeks here.

Cape Town

We flew down to Cape Town on Monday and have enjoyed the last few days here. We spent Tuesday planning our adventures north and have now spent the last few days enjoying the area around Cape Town. Yesterday we traveled down to the Cape of Good Hope, the southern most point on the continent. We stopped along the way for breakfast in Simon's Town and visited the African penguins that live on Boulders Beach. We then traveled on to Stellenbosch and Franschhoek for a little wine tasting in the wine region. We spent the night in Franschhoek, which is much smaller and quainter than the larger town of Stellenbosch, and stayed at La Fontaine. We had an amazing dinner at Dieu Donne Vineyards overlooking the entire valley at sunset. The restaurant only opened a few weeks ago, but the food was divine! The French influence was a plus and we both agree it was one of the best meals we've had so far on the trip. The ostrich was yummy:) This morning we had a lovely wine tasting at Cabriere Estate, where the owner's wife took us on a tour of the wine cellar and we tasted their wonderful bubbly and wine - it was a 2 hour affair! Now we are back in Cape Town and headed for a hike up Table Mountain to catch the sunset. More photos from our travels in and around Cape Town. Tomorrow morning we are off to Swakopmund, Namibia to begin a two week overland tour through Namibia, Bostwana, and eventually ending at Victoria Falls in Zambia. We'll share photos and more stories when we get a chance...

South African History in Jo'burg

Sunday was spent learning about the rich South African history in Jo'burg with a visit to the Apartheid Museum and a tour of Soweto (Sew-way-too), which is short for Southwest Township. We visited the former home of Nelson Mandela, which is a traditional "matchbox" home in the township, which has been turned into a museum. After living there for only 11 days after he was released from prison, he had to leave because there were too many journalists visiting. Down the street from Mandela's old home is another Nobel Prize Winner, Desmond Tutu. In fact, we just read in the paper that he had just returned to Jo'burg from negotation talks in Kenya - yes, we are keeping abreast of the latest news in that country. We'll try to upload photos when we get a chance...for now the links will have to do.

Happy New Year from South Africa!

We arrived in Tuesday evening, January 1st after a long journey from Washington DC (via Paris) that included over 17 hours of flying time. After getting a good night's rest in Jo'burg, we drove down to the Northern Drakensberg Mountains, which are about 4 hours south. We stayed at the Amphitheater Backpackers hostel and had a few great day trips. One was a 7 hour hike up to Tugela Falls, which is the highest waterfall in Africa and the second highest in the world, after Angel Falls in Venezuela. On our second day, we took a guided tour of a small village in Lesotho, which is it's own country within South Africa. The people in Lesotho (Leh-soo-too) are referred to as Basuto (Bah-soo-too). We had a rare opportunity to meet the people of the village, see rock paintings by the native San people, visit with a Sangoma (a witch doctor), and sampled the local beer and food. We were amazed by how simply the people lived in such a remote mountainous area with no running water or electricity, and yet they all seemed so happy and the children had radiant smiles! See more photos.