News from East Africa
Greetings from Zanzibar!
Well, what's been happening.... As I just said I'm in/ on Zanzibar having traveled up from Vic Falls in Zimbabwe through Zambia, Malawi and then on to Tanzania.
The last week or so has been a bit of a blur having got a new truck (soft sided and make the old one look like a luxury coach) and new crew and crowd of travellers. The new crew are rather different the last set (and are called Adel and Aaron) but equally as good fun and the change in people on the trip has dramatically changed the dynamics of the group as we lost two sets of couple and gained 7 single people (5 girls ages 21, 22, 27, 29 and 59 and two blokes, 29 and 38). Everyone's getting on so far but we still have 12 days for that to change!
Bit of amusing news from the truck is that the father of the father daughter pair lost both their passports in Vic Falls and the pair of them bad to fly of to get replacements so we were without them for a couple of days during which time The father got the pair of them arrested by the Zimbabwe police for entering a restricted zone around Mugabi's offices! Needless to say he was popular for a few days!
So what else has happened, I think when I last typed I was about to go gorge swinging and tiger moth flying. I highly recommend both but if you have to go for one of the other there aren't many rushes like diving off a perfectly good cliff! I did a couple of solo jumps and a couple of dual ones all of which were sensational, however the best was the final single jump as I decided to change the launch plan.
Normally you can either step off forwards (and drop feet first and see the valley), step off backwards ( feet first but see the rocks) or a death drop whereby you fall backwards for go head first looking into the valley, however..... having done the death drop I asked if I could dive off head first - I can assure you the ground rush was amazing. Apparently the guys running the swing looked a little worried as I plunged into the gorge but as I came out with minimal bruising and the biggest smile of the day it didn't appear to be a problem.
No new game to report either being seen or eaten but having a great time and Sim (bloke on truck that's half of only remaining couple) and I have put together a great theory that means we have to try to eat a lion! The theory states that the harder food is to kill, the better it tastes, hence tomatoes - very very easy to kill, they grow at a convenient height for picking and are a soft mess, taste crap, potatoes - grow underground, take some digging up but then die, taste ok. Beef, cows don't just fall over and die, you have to catch them and kill them but they don't fight a great deal, taste good. Gemsbok, big horns, fast running, hard to catch , tricky to kill, tastes great. Eland - big beast, big horns, fantastic. So, clearly I have to find me an elephant and a lion, not quite figured out how yet but ...
Anyway, back to real news. We spent three days at Vic Falls and got soaked to the skin walking in front of them, also found a terrible nightclub called Explorers where I spent 3 very drunken nights. Before coming up to Zanzibar we had a couple of days on Lake Malawi at Kande Beach which was very chilled, made all the more so by the son of the local tribes chief making us a cake that turned Jas, Beth and I into a gibbering mess for far longer than we thought possible!
My only other big news is that it looks like I'm going to delay my flight to Australia by a month and carry on up to Uganda to look for some gorillas, haven't confirmed it yet but fingers crossed!
I'm heading up to the north of the island tomorrow to have a few days on the beach snorkeling, sailing and relaxing then on to the crater where I'm told we have a great chance of seeing leopards so fingers crossed.
Glad to hear all is going well back in sunny England (hope the warm spell is continuing) and I'm sure I'll be in touch again soon.
Laters
Jonathan
Internet Cafe
Zanzibar
East Africa
Well, what's been happening.... As I just said I'm in/ on Zanzibar having traveled up from Vic Falls in Zimbabwe through Zambia, Malawi and then on to Tanzania.
The last week or so has been a bit of a blur having got a new truck (soft sided and make the old one look like a luxury coach) and new crew and crowd of travellers. The new crew are rather different the last set (and are called Adel and Aaron) but equally as good fun and the change in people on the trip has dramatically changed the dynamics of the group as we lost two sets of couple and gained 7 single people (5 girls ages 21, 22, 27, 29 and 59 and two blokes, 29 and 38). Everyone's getting on so far but we still have 12 days for that to change!
Bit of amusing news from the truck is that the father of the father daughter pair lost both their passports in Vic Falls and the pair of them bad to fly of to get replacements so we were without them for a couple of days during which time The father got the pair of them arrested by the Zimbabwe police for entering a restricted zone around Mugabi's offices! Needless to say he was popular for a few days!
So what else has happened, I think when I last typed I was about to go gorge swinging and tiger moth flying. I highly recommend both but if you have to go for one of the other there aren't many rushes like diving off a perfectly good cliff! I did a couple of solo jumps and a couple of dual ones all of which were sensational, however the best was the final single jump as I decided to change the launch plan.
Normally you can either step off forwards (and drop feet first and see the valley), step off backwards ( feet first but see the rocks) or a death drop whereby you fall backwards for go head first looking into the valley, however..... having done the death drop I asked if I could dive off head first - I can assure you the ground rush was amazing. Apparently the guys running the swing looked a little worried as I plunged into the gorge but as I came out with minimal bruising and the biggest smile of the day it didn't appear to be a problem.
No new game to report either being seen or eaten but having a great time and Sim (bloke on truck that's half of only remaining couple) and I have put together a great theory that means we have to try to eat a lion! The theory states that the harder food is to kill, the better it tastes, hence tomatoes - very very easy to kill, they grow at a convenient height for picking and are a soft mess, taste crap, potatoes - grow underground, take some digging up but then die, taste ok. Beef, cows don't just fall over and die, you have to catch them and kill them but they don't fight a great deal, taste good. Gemsbok, big horns, fast running, hard to catch , tricky to kill, tastes great. Eland - big beast, big horns, fantastic. So, clearly I have to find me an elephant and a lion, not quite figured out how yet but ...
Anyway, back to real news. We spent three days at Vic Falls and got soaked to the skin walking in front of them, also found a terrible nightclub called Explorers where I spent 3 very drunken nights. Before coming up to Zanzibar we had a couple of days on Lake Malawi at Kande Beach which was very chilled, made all the more so by the son of the local tribes chief making us a cake that turned Jas, Beth and I into a gibbering mess for far longer than we thought possible!
My only other big news is that it looks like I'm going to delay my flight to Australia by a month and carry on up to Uganda to look for some gorillas, haven't confirmed it yet but fingers crossed!
I'm heading up to the north of the island tomorrow to have a few days on the beach snorkeling, sailing and relaxing then on to the crater where I'm told we have a great chance of seeing leopards so fingers crossed.
Glad to hear all is going well back in sunny England (hope the warm spell is continuing) and I'm sure I'll be in touch again soon.
Laters
Jonathan
Internet Cafe
Zanzibar
East Africa
posted by JP at 10:48 pm
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