Tanzania (03.-11.06.2009)

Already 20 km after leaving rainy Kilimanjaro, the rain stops and we enjoy a nice drive towards the Usambara Mountains.  Road and traffic are okay.  The only surprise is a 3 meters long snake that seems to be killed just recently and we think about having snake-steak for dinner… this wild snake gives wild camping also a different and new meaning!

Since we missed Kilimanjaro, we still are looking for nice mountains and the Usambara Mountains seem to be a good location. They rise 1500 meters above the big plains. From our campground in Lushoto,  the Irente Cliff Lodge, we have a stunning view over the surrounding country, and we are enjoying our “Room with a View”. However, the next morning, our hiking plans are destroyed once more due to rain which follows us all the way down to Dar es Salaam. And we thought the rainy season is over! But no day without surprise: we are used to be stopped frequently by the police, however, this time it’s not just to say “jambo” (hello), but for speeding. We really have to pay a fine! 10 Euro with receipt, or 5 Euro without…

Food we can get from the various shops along the road. We enjoy the fresh pineapples, papayas and bananas.

 

 

For lazy people they even have the African version of a drive-trough shop.

 

 

 

A lot of  transportation in Tanzania is still done by foot.

 

 

 

Dar es Salaam is very similar to Mombasa. Heavy traffic and again a ferry to reach the South Beach. But once more we are rewarded by a Caribbean-like beach in a nice bay. We put our tent next to the white, sandy beach. Everything is perfect, and we enjoy extensive walks on the beach and swimming in the warm water of the Indian Ocean. However, nothing is perfect, and we suffer a lot from the noise of a  close-by discotheque which provides sound to the whole bay.  This makes it easier to leave this beautiful place, to continue our trip to Malawi.

 

Wildlife is everywhere, even on the beach.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When we hear that our friend Juan made it safe to South Africa and is flying back to Spain we try again the “Jump”. This one is for you, Juan!!!

During our drive towards Malawi, we are again amazed by the diversity of the Tanzanian landscape. Often it reminds us of certain areas in Germany, hard to imagine that we are in the middle of Africa. But then, when you see a traffic sign, warning of wild animals, and a few minutes later an elephant next to the street, you are quickly back to reality…

 

Finally we get a chance for a hike in Iringa. We spend 2 days at a remote campsite next to a river. We enjoy a nice hike to the waterfalls and get a first idea of winter in Africa which will start soon. Since we are at 1800 m, even with temperatures in the 20s during the day, temperatures drop quickly with sunset and reach only 7 degrees at night. So we have to go to bed early…

Our last day in Tanzania is another beautiful road through lush vegetation and over high mountains up to 2500 m before it goes down to Lake Malawi.

 

 

We enjoyed Tanzania a lot. We always found nice campgrounds - even if it was on the playground for the kids, travel was easy, the people very friendly and we didn’t even miss going to the National Parks.

There is even a camping version for beginners in Tanzania. It offers luxury items as running water and electric light but we are not quite sure about the internet connection.

 

 

Our trip in Tanzania went from Taveta at the Kenyan boarder to Marangu, Moshi , Lushoto, Dar es Salaam, Morogoro, Mikumi, Iringa, Mbeya to Mwandenga at the Malawi boarder and covered 1800km.

This blog is done on Lake Malawi in the Sangilo Sanctuary Lodge on 13.06.

Kenya – Nairobi-Mombasa-Kilimanjaro (27.05. – 02.06.2009)

We still don’t know what happened. So let’s blame our GPS. We wanted to go from Nairobi to Mombasa which is very simple since you only have to follow the Mombasa Highway. But somehow we take an alternative route which  takes us along the south side of Mt. Kenya and along the East Tsavo National Park. A nice drive if there wouldn’t have been the last 140 km which turn out to be a very bad off road track. We even cannot enjoy the beautiful landscape with  the lots of baobabs, 1000 years old trees. Just when the sun sets, we finally arrive at the Mombasa Highway and settle down in Kibwesi in a “guesthouse park”. We are the only guests and we are discussing who looks more scary: the many monkeys or the lady who owns the place… but at least we are happy – after a long day of driving – that we hit the right road, and tomorrow, driving will be much easier…

We leave early next morning towards Mombasa – this time on the right way, the Mombasa Highway – and enjoy the baobabs, and even a herd of elephants passing along the highway. The highway is much better than its reputation (“highway to hell”). However, the closer we come to Mombasa, the more the traffic increases until it stops completely due to the high number of container trucks from and to the harbor. Later, the road into Mombasa is even blocked by a flipped over truck – by the way the same happens, when we leave Mombasa after three days.

Setting over to south beach with the ferry is very easy and very cheap. Just 60 cent – the cheapest “entertainment” we had so far in Kenya. After 20 km we arrive in Tiwi Beach in the Twiga Lodge where we put our tent right on the beautiful  white beach. We enjoy 2 lazy days and explore the southern beaches. We are astonished to see a lot of German signs, a German bakery, beer gardens, and even German newspapers (however, very old). Obviously, a lot  of German people settled down here in Diani Beach. It’s amazing that – as usual – we are the only tourists. Is it really only off season or the financial crisis?

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Since we absolutely want to have a look at Kilimanjaro, we decide to cross the border to Tanzania close to Kilimanjaro at Taveta. So we take the Mombasa Highway back to Voi and spend a night at the “Red Elephant Lodge” in the garden. The name keeps its promise and we even see elephants coming to the waterhole in the evening. Our last night in Kenya is quiet, but rather hot, and we have to leave early in the morning due to the very high temperatures.

The road to the border is – once more – very rough. Tarmac with big potholes. It’s surprising, because it’s the road leading to Kenya’s biggest and most visited National Park, the Tsavo National Park. After 30 kilometers, tarmac turns into off road, until the border.

The paperwork at the border is done within a little more than one hour, and here we are in Tanzania!

 

The first nice surprise in Tanzania are wonderful roads, no potholes, no off road, even on secondary roads. The “coffee tree campsite” we chose from our travel guide is located in Marangu, on the slope of Mt. Kilimanjaro. It’s a  very lovely place. We are astonished how green it is here. A lot of banana trees, palm trees, etc. The next day, we know why it is so green! Fog, rain, fog, rain, fog, rain, etc. Thanks God we had a short view of the summit the first evening.

Unfortunately it was around sunset, too dark to take photos. Nevertheless, we found some other views of Mt. Kilimanjaro.

 

 

 

We leave this beautiful place in heavy rain, completely soaked, not without having a last look at least at the gate of the National Park, where one of the most used trials to the summit starts.

We noticed in Kenya that marketing/branding is an important issue. The companies probably sponsor the color for the houses!? It makes the villages nice and colorful.

 

 

This blog was done in Lushoto in the Usambara Mountains on June 3rd with a marvelous view 1000 meters down over the plains.

 

 

 

 

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Kenya – Rift Valley (20. – 26.05.2009)

We are leaving the Timau River Lodge for the Rift Valley with mixed feelings since we loved the place a lot. Mr. Wason, the owner, gives us a hint for a shortcut to the Rift Valley. This track will pass by a private ranch where we can see some animals from the road. And so it happens, while driving by the fence of the ranch, we see  some rhinoceros.

We climb the mountains to the Rift Valley. On top of the mountain in 2500 meters height, we pay a visit to the Thomson’s Falls, with 80 meters Kenya’s highest waterfall. We take a hike to the base of the fall and notice that the 3 weeks in the car with little exercise have deteriorated our  physical condition quite a bit. 

On the way down to the Rift Valley the big rain comes. So far we have been lucky since we got little rain even traveling in the rainy season.

 

 

 

 

In Nakuru we look for a campground and drive to the Nakuru Lake National Park, which is famous for the enormous number of flamingos coming to this place. We have experienced that the parks in Kenya are expensive but here we are told that the fee to enter the park is USD 60 per day & person and for camping they charge another USD 25 per person. In Kenya every outdoor activity seems to cost a lot. The cheapest we have done so far was a 3 hours hike along the base of Mount Kenya which was USD 3 for a guide. So we camp in the garden of the Hyrax Hill Museum for USD 5. Our neighbors are big and lazy turtles collected from this area.

On our way to Naivasha, we stop at Lake  Elementaita since we see a  lot of flamingos while passing by. We take a walk from the Lodge down to the lake to watch the millions of flamingos. An unforgettable experience. Camping in the garden of this Lodge is wonderful. We can use the swimming pool and enjoy the view over Lake Elementaita. We feel a little like the settlers in the old days who rest after a day of work on their porch and let their view go over their huge estate.

A short drive takes us to Lake Naivasha, where we spend 3 beautiful days. Fisherman’s camp is a nice place on the shore of the lake with big trees and only a few people. As usual we are approached by tour guides who offer overpriced boat trips to see the hippos and the local parks.

  At sunset, we are astonished to see  a hippo at the boat dock at very close distance. It is strange to read that most people in Africa are killed not by lions but by hippos. When we are ready to go to bed we see a group of 10 hippos just 20 meters from our tent. We can hear them eating and fighting and making strange noises the whole night, until, at sunrise, they disappear back to the lake. What an experience …  it’s good that they have installed a little electrical fence to protect the people! Unfortunately the next nights we don’t see them but can hear them in the distance late at night.

We do daytrips to the Green Crater Lake, a private park around a little lake in an old volcano. Again we are amazed how close we can get to these wild animals.

Strange feeling not to be the tallest!

 

 

 

 

To have a look over the Rift Valley we drive to Mt. Eburu which offers one of the best views over the Rift Valley.

It is hard to leave this beautiful area, which has very nice temperatures, since it is located between 1800 and 2600 meters (and therefore no mosquitoes), offers a great landscape and a lot of small and big animals.

We have decided to go south east from here towards Mombasa at the Indian Ocean.

Our first stop is Nairobi, the capital of Kenya. Originally we didn’t want to stay here in “Nairobbery” (safety seems to be an issue in certain parts of the city). However, when we see the big Toyota shop downtown, we decide on short notice to make our anyhow overdue service. Beside some minor repairs, the car is in a very good shape. We spend the night at “J.J’s”, “Jungle Junction”, a nice campground in one of the better areas of Nairobi.  The next day, we enjoy the first big shopping malls and supermarkets since a long time. This gives us the opportunity to complete our supplies. Now it’s Tuesday evening and we are sitting in the living room of J.J’s, waiting the big rain to stop. The first real rain challenge for our tent!!

Our trip through the Rift valley took us from Timau over Nyahururu, Nakuru to Naivasha and on to Nairobi. Roads have been normally good but we have also seen parts with big potholes that often come unexpected.

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This blog was completed on the 26.05. and uploaded at J.J’s during the big rain.

 

 

 

 

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