A day in Nairobi and my last day in Africa

My last day in Africa was spent in Nairobi. As it was described in the guide book as the most dangerous city in Africa, even more so than Johannesburg, I did feel a bit anxious about spending time there. It was however a really nice city in which I didn't feel scared at all. Unlike any other city I'd visited in this part of Africa, Nairobi was very built up and full of smartly dressed people. One thing it did have in common however, was that all the people were lovely and friendly.

I visited the Nairobi National Museum and spent some time in the botanical gardens. The receptionist kindly let me in for the price of a resident as I didn't have enough money without going to the cash machine. This meant I got into the adjacent snake park for free. Although it was rubbish and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone (the snake park that is), I was pleased to meet a very hungry tortoise tucking into it's lunch.

From the botanical gardens there were views back over to the city center. There were also lots of interesting statues.

Another area of the gardens I rather liked was the medicinal plants section. For anyone who has swollen testicles I've included a photo of the sign which tells you what plants will help.

Leaving Africa was really very sad indeed. It is a land I've come to love and feel very much at home in, and one day I hope to return. Most people I met who discovered I was travelling there alone expressed how foolish or brave they thought I was for doing so. My advice to anyone wondering whether to travel alone where I've been is most definitely to go. I've not once felt unsafe and have met such wonderfully kind and friendly people who live amidst the most beautiful and exciting land. It is definitely a place not to be missed!

The Kenyan Coast - Watamu

After the tour I decided that the last week or so of my trip needed to be a relaxing one and so I headed to a village called Watamu on the Kenyan coast.

When the tide was out you could walk over to little islands normally surrounded by the sea. Caution was needed whilst walking though, as there were numerous rock pools full of all sorts of fish and thousands of spiky sea urchins.

Being a place where it was hard to escape from chatty local men and not somewhere I felt particularly comfortable lying in my bikini, the guy running my guesthouse kindly showed my the empty pool at his friends guesthouse which I was allowed to use whenever I wanted. In between heavy rain showers I spent some time enjoying the hot sunshine here.

I spent a day doing a couple of dives, where again there were lots of fish and coral and it was really pretty. After the last dive we came out of the sea and onto the boat in the middle of a huge rain storm. By the time we'd got back to shore I was cold, but jumping into the sea to get off the boat was amazing as it felt as warm as a hot bath.

Another day I went to the house of the family of the guy who ran the guesthouse. They cooked me delicious food and wanted me to eat far more than I could manage. They also invited me to go back before I left Watamu so they could give me a cake they would make for my family. This was despite me laughing at an inappropriate time - the mother couldn't speak any English and spoke to me a lot in Swahili. I was laughing as I couldn't understand what she was saying no matter how hard I tried. It turned out though that she was explaining that as a Muslim she couldn't leave the house for three months because her husband had recently died.

The guesthouse was in a maze of houses and the first few times I left and tried to get back I got completely lost and had to ask someone to show me the way. It is fortunate people here are so friendly and happy to help. I'm not sure why I found it all so confusing as in similar situations in Stone Town on Zanzibar I had done so well.

Two lovely additions to the guesthouse were the neighbours cats who came to visit each day and very much liked being made a fuss of. There were also two other guests staying at the same time as me, who strangely enough were from the little town where my parents live in England.

It was just the sort of week I was hoping for!

A Terrifying Day

Towards the end of the tour I had an extremely terrifying day. With a lot of adrenalin in between, it ended in loving something I thought I'd never love, and disliking something I thought I'd never dislike. It also ended in a bit of a hang over...

The day started with a big wake up when I did a tandem bungee jump into the Nile. Having done a couple before and never really enjoying them and both during/after each one saying I would never do another one, the only reason I did it was because you could touch the water. As it was something I'd never done I thought I'd give it a go, with a friend with me for courage. This time I absolutely loved it. It was still the most terrifying thing making yourself leave the platform, but as we were tied together at our feet no jumping was involved. We just stood sideways and lent over until we fell off. I felt the rope tighten before we'd touched the water and thought that they'd got the measurements wrong and we weren't going to go in. But then we kept on falling down and our heads went into the Nile. Once we'd stopped bouncing we were lowed into a waiting boat and then taken back to shore. I would have quite happily done another one straight away but we had other things to do...

Our next challenge of the day was white water rafting. Again this was something I'd done before, and I remember it being one of the most fun things I had ever done. Oh how this has now changed! Being rainy season, the water levels were high and the rapids were particularly big. After doing the bungee jump my friend and I felt brave and sat at the front of the boat (possibly a mistake). The first white water we came to was a waterfall. We were told this was a grade five rapid and there was some questioning as to whether the water level was too high for us to go down. Our guide decided we would go anyway and said that really we needed to go down either backwards or forwards but not sideways. We messed it up though and ended up going down sideways. Despite this all was fine, we didn't fall in and we were still enjoying it. We had a few more big rapids and waterfalls and then we came to 'what would be the worst white water you would ever sensibly go into'. Before hand our guide asked us what we wanted to do. We had a choice of three different parts of the river, a grade three, a grade four, or a grade five - grade five being the biggest and the one we decided to go for. Our guide did explain that there was a 97% chance the boat would flip over. He told us that unlike all of the other rapids where you were supposed to hold on to your paddle and the boat if you could when it flipped, if we were going to flip then he would instruct us to chuck our paddles and that by no means should we even attempt to hold onto the boat. He also said that it would be like a washing machine and a very long swim. I did not think it through! Almost as soon as we hit the huge roaring waves our guide shouted to chuck our paddles. We all threw them away and jumped down into the boat clinging onto the rope which surrounded it, preying it wouldn't flip. Soon enough though it was very clear that we were not going to stay in the boat. I took a deep breath and then was thrown out into the crashing water. I truly thought I was going to die. There were guys on little canoes who would help you get back to the boat if you came out and I was under the water for so long, completely unaware as to which direction the surface was in, that I thought the only way I could survive would be if one of the rescue guys pulled me out. But straight away my next thought was that they'd never see me under all the waves. After what felt like a lifetime I came back up to the surface. Another instruction from our guide was once we did get to the surface to open our eyes before we breathed in. I opened my eyes and before I'd even had time to breath out, let alone in, I saw another wave crashing down onto me and forcing me back under. Again it felt like forever before I got back up to the surface. By this time I really did believe that this was it. Faced with what looked like never ending smashing waves in front of me and hyperventilating through fear and trying to get some air I resigned myself to the fact that if I went under again I would never come up alive. Fortunately I was out of the worst of the rapids and saw my friend come up and then a rescue guy came and got us. There was a worrying time of wondering if everyone else had come out ok and then we were all back on the boat. My friend who was at the front of the boat with me had felt exactly the same as I did, but no one else on our boat had thought they wouldn't survive. We stopped for lunch and then for the rest of the day spent the whole time completely terrified on what was probably pretty small rapids. Sadly I don't think I'll go white water rafting again.

Once back at the camp and a little bit traumatised we decided the only thing to do was have a stiff drink. The bar looked out over the Nile. Torrential rain pored down and lightning lit up the whole river in front of us. There was an upside down canoe on the ceiling and if you could use the ropes hanging from it to get in, then you would be given a free shot of sambuca to be drunk whilst you were still upside down. This was not a challenge to be missed, and also not a challenge to be only done once. The night ended 45 minutes before we had to get up to face the next day. A day that I was happy to be spending the whole of travelling on the tour bus!

Nursery schools, the perfect gin, and close encounters

Still staying on the banks of Lake Bunyonyi, a few of us visited a nursery school. This was an organised trip and it felt like everything the children did was done to try and get us to give the school money. It was still a fun morning though as we played and sang and danced with the children (all except one who I found left behind and sleeping in one of the classrooms).

On one of the hikes I did, we came across another nursery school. The children all ran out to the road to great us when they saw us pass. Their teacher came to see what all the fuss was about and the children then sang us their national anthem and other songs which involved praising God and their teachers and school. We were shown around the school by the head master, and never once were asked for any money or got the feeling that was what they were after. Quite refreshing after the school we'd visited in the morning!

Another find whilst out walking was that of sachets of gin, which as the box told you meant that 'The mornings will always be BRIGHT and CLEAR, No Hangovers, No Headaches'.

From Lake Bunyonyi we moved on to our next camping spot on the edge of Lake Mburo. This was a particularly exciting place to camp. During the day light hours we were surrounded by warthogs and when it got dark we were told we should walk around in pairs. This was because there were hippos in the lake and they liked to walk through our camp site to get to where they liked to eat during the night. Hippos apparently kill the more people than any other animal. It might not be that they're simply horrible but just very territorial. If you get in their way they'll charge you, flattening you if you're on dry land and drowning you if you're in the water.

We watched the hippos in the lake as the sun set and then as we sat by the fire in the evening we could hear them grunting close by. Everyone had a very early night that night and I don't think anyone used the toilet in the middle of the night! In the morning though, we were up before light and sure enough there was a hippo munching on the grass only a few metres from where we were camped.

Scenery

The south west corner of Uganda, near where the gorillas live, is an amazingly beautiful place. The forest has long since gone and now in it's place are mountains and hills mostly covered in tiered fields and little villages.

We camped on the edge of Lake Bunyonyi, a beautiful lake full of islands, surrounded by hills and mountains.

This was the only place on the tour that we had a couple of days to do what we liked with, and so I took the opportunity to do some hiking. It was really fun to walk around the hills meeting the people and animals that lived there, never knowing what would be around the next corner.

Here cows have the coolest horns, which are so long and perfectly curved.

Mountain Gorillas

After a very early start we set off in 4X4’s towards Bwindi Impenetrable Forest where the mountain gorillas of Uganda live. We drove down bumpy roads above green, valleys full of thick white cloud. Once at the headquarters for the gorilla treks, we met our guide who looked quite funny carrying a bright pink bag and a massive machete.

We set off on foot along a track running through little villages dotted in between the tiered fielded hills until we got to the forest. From here we followed a path made by elephants and when we needed to turn off, our path was made using the machete our guide had bought along. There were lots of pretty flowers along the way and also lots of nasty biting ants.

After two hours we found the group of gorillas we had been looking for. They were all sat with their backs to us and for quite a while refused to face us. The forest was on very steep slopes and was so thick that we couldn’t go around to the other side of them. They kept slowly moving away with us following behind.

This was quite a different experience to my chimpanzee encounter. Then there were just two of us and it was a very personal experience. Here though there were eight of us and unfortunately quite a few of the people in my group weren’t the most selfless of people. This meant that they always had to be first and so often it was rather tricky to see the gorillas.

Towards the end of our time with them though, the three of us at the back were able to follow a few of the gorillas who’d split off from the rest and we got to spend some time watching them relax and eat as they sat and faced us. This was really amazing, and they looked so gentle and content with life.

Hippos Everywhere

We took a river safari boat trip where we saw so many hippos all extremely close to the boat. We were told to be careful not to fall or drop anything in as they would surprise you by suddenly coming up out of the water in front of you. This they did, but nothing and no one was lost.

There were loads of water buffalo and we spotted a pair of mating monitor lizards which if undisturbed will apparently continue mating for an entire day. We also saw a lion in the trees on the river bank (who even looking through binoculars I wouldn't have known was there unless someone told me), and lots of different birds.

The start of a trip through Uganda

My next country to visit was Uganda. Here I joined an 11 day tour to go in search of the mountain gorillas. Very much used to traveling alone, I did find being part of a tour group a bit hard. Everything was so rushed and it felt like you just travelled through places rather than actually got to know them a little. If you liked somewhere you couldn't decide to stay a few days longer and if you didn't like a place you couldn't just leave. I was very fortunate in that there were a few really nice people on the trip, but there were also a few who I would much rather not have had to spend any of my time with, let alone 11 days. By the end of the tour, after having to get up before 5am on most days I was exhausted and very glad to be able to travel alone again, but I did also have a lot of fun.

Over the first couple of days I got to secretly hold a security guard's gun, whilst hiding from onlookers around the side of the bank he was supposed to be guarding. I crossed the equator and hung off the sign which implied we were in UG N A. Perhaps someone with the initials A and D had decided they'd quite like the missing letters. I went on safari where most of the animals were in hiding but we did see water buck and buffalo and some very pretty scenery. We also had a break down and so tried unsuccessfully to tempt the lions out of their hiding places as we sat outside of the truck waiting for it to be fixed.

Mafia Island and the Whale Sharks

Almost half way up the Tanzanian coast is Mafia Island, and it was here that I met the whale sharks.

We set off on a snorkeling trip to find them, across the sea which was so calm it was almost perfectly flat and the clouds reflected beautifully on its surface. After about an hour in the boat we spotted one and once close enough were allowed to jump in and swim. We’d found of group of about six, all either a spotted lighter or darker shade of gray. They swam up to the surface with their huge mouths wide open to catch the plankton, and then swam along the surface for a while before diving back down into the darkness. Often they had any number of cleaner fish around them and even in their mouths. If you swam above them you could watch their gills expand and ripple as they swam, and if you chose to swim next to them then you could look into their eyes. Well, one eye anyway as the other would always be around the other side. At times they swam really fast and it was exhausting trying to keep up, but a lot of the time they slowed down a bit and you could happily swim at their speed.

There were two particular moments that I don’t think I’ll ever forget. One was when a friend and I were swimming along next to one of the whale sharks and we realised that another was swimming right next to us on our other side. So we swam along for ages in between them, almost able to reach out and touch them. It felt like we were just two of their friends and was very special indeed.

The other moment I was alone. I was swimming along above one looking straight down onto it when I looked up to see another swimming directly towards me and perhaps only three or four metres away. We were about to have a head on collision! I think we saw each other at the same time and so took immediate avoidance action. I swerved to my left and the whale shark fortunately swerved to my right with the hugest swish of it’s incredibly powerful tail. They are such graceful creatures which don’t normally seem to make any sudden movements and although we were in the middle of the ocean with the hugest fish in the sea, there was something so calming about the whale sharks that I hadn’t felt scared at all. I have to say though that after this experience I did feel extremely tiny and vulnerable. I’m certain that if one of them wanted to it could just casually swoosh it’s tail and take you out without any effort at all.

Aside from the calm sea and the huge whale sharks I was also lucky enough to spot a very cool little squid. He caught my attention by squirting out a cloud of black ink, which filled a space far bigger than itself. I followed him as he bobbed up and down below the surface, although he didn’t squirt any more ink at me.

On another day I did a couple of dives although these weren’t where the whale sharks are as they didn’t hang out by the reefs. One of the dives was a completely new experience to me in that there was such a strong current – something I’ve discovered I’m not particularly keen on. As you descended if you looked down at the bottom you saw it rushing past you, which I found extremely disconcerting. There was no way you could swim against the current and so if you spotted anything you wanted to have a look at you had about half a second to do so before you were swept well and truly past it. I love diving but I do feel a little anxious about the possibility of getting separated from whoever I’m diving with. This was a constant worry as there really wasn’t much you could do about it, what with having very little control over your position in the sea. However at times our dive guide would cling onto rocks on the bottom to try and get everyone together. Normally I’d completely avoid touching the bottom for fear of damaging the coral but I felt that I could either risk hurting them or risk killing me so I also clung on when I saw other people doing the same. This was very hard though as you’d be horizontally clinging onto the rocks whilst the sea was doing all it could to pull you off and drag you away. I was not that sad when this dive was over.

The rest of my time on the island I spent exploring. I found some lovely beaches and forests, met lots of fishermen and ladies and saw a lot fish either drying on the beach or being prepared to sell. I’ve discovered that if you see lots of little pretty shiny things lying in the sand then often these are the scales of fish which have been scraped off, usually by women after the men have caught them.

I also discovered a very effective way of being able to walk on my own without numerous people coming to chat to me – walk with a dog! Being a predominantly Muslim population, the people of Mafia Island are not particularly keen on dogs and in a lot of cases seem to be quite afraid of them. After befriending a lovely dog whilst out walking, he decide he wanted to walk my way. I did try and persuade him not to follow me but he would not listen and so we walked together all the way back to my guesthouse which was about an hour away. Not one single person came up to me when normally I most likely would have had very little time on my own. In fact most people crossed the road to get as far away from me and the dog as possible.

A terrible journey

My journey back into Tanzania was not a pleasant one. The transport – all pick up trucks – left from a little town four hours south of the boarder. The vehicles only left when they were full and so to be sure of getting one you needed to set off at 2 in the morning. Fortunately they picked you up where you were staying, so you didn’t have to wonder around in the dark trying to find one.

Everywhere in Mozambique had been really hot and my last night, well what little I had of it, was no exception. I lay in bed trying to get a bit of sleep before the journey, so hot that I had to fan myself with a piece of paper. Still very hot when it was time to set off I foolishly packed both my jumpers unreachably in my big rucksack.

As we drove around the town picking people up all was fine. But when the truck was full and we set off, all was not fine at all. We sped ridiculously fast down the dirt/sand roads, which resulted in two things – cold and pain, both of which were pretty extreme. I had a little shirt handy for cover my shoulders, but even with this wrapped around me it was still completely freezing. The immense pain was due to hitting all the many bumps in the road at such speed, that at each one you flew into the air and then smashed back down onto the bare metal. To try and reduce the impact and also to avoid accidentally flying off the back, I clung onto the side as tightly as I could. This however left my arm with cuts and scratches from the plants that ripped at them as we passed. I was not in the best state when we arrived at our destination!

One good thing about the journey was that as we drove in the pitch dark through the countryside in conditions which made sleeping not an option, the sky was absolutely beautiful and so full of stars that you really had to look to spot the constellations.

When we got to the boarder it was light. Unsurprisingly we’d made good time and so had a two hour wait before the boarder opened! After eventually being stamped out of Mozambique, myself and the other people from the pickup I was in, along with all the people from another pick up, had to squeeze rather scarily into one vehicle to get taken to the river which formed the boarder. Here we were punted across in boats until the water became too shallow to go any further and then we had to get out and walk. On the other side mini buses were waiting to take us to the Tanzanian boarder post and on into Tanzania. It was so good to arrive!

Zomba - a hike, a horse, solitude and variety of the food kind!

My next and last stop in Malawi was in a place called Zomba, and if I'd had more time I would have quite liked to stay longer... if only for all the amazing food. I could not believe the variety of fruits and vegetables and even herbs that were on offer at the market! Why what can be grown there or on the overlooking Zomba Plateau is not exported out of the town I do not know. I had heard that you could get strawberries there (which was very true) but this was not my sole reason for the visit. I'd also heard that a trip up onto Zomba Plateau was beautiful and that you could go horse riding there, so I thought I'd take a look.

I decided to try and get a ride up to the top of the plateau as I was told it was a long and steep walk, but I discovered that a taxi cost a ridiculous amount of money, even by English standards, and that no public buses went up there. I did however make friends with the guard at my guest house who very kindly managed to get me a free lift with the staff bus for a posh lodge which was at the top of the plateau. This not only meant that I got up there in comfort for nothing, but it also meant that one of the kind members of staff showed me all around the lodge and it's wonderful grounds. Sadly she didn't offer me the eat as much as you can style buffet breakfast though.

My day on the plateau was not a day when I felt like being sociable. So with photographs on my camera of two different looking and not at all detailed maps from guidebooks I'd managed to borrow along my trip, I set off declining the offer of a guide to try and find a waterfall. This proved to be surprisingly easy as I just walked in the direction I thought it should be in, which fortunately it was, until I heard water. I then spent quite a while climbing down to where the sound was coming from and then followed a river and lots of smaller waterfalls upstream until I got to the big one. At each waterfall I came to I wasn't sure whether it was the big one, but at the big one it became clear that this was it as a couple of other tourists (funnily enough from Salisbury - near where was once my home) were there with their guide. With new found confidence in my way finding abilities I then decided to try and find a peak to climb to the top of to get some views. I headed to the highest one I could see, past yellow berries, a snake, another random Cedar Tree nursery and up a smooth rock face to the top. Except this wasn't really the top, and no sooner had I got to where I'd thought was the highest point, I saw a higher peak a bit further on. This peak really was the highest around and on the top was a big tower with a little hut placed upon it. No one was around so I took the opportunity to climb the ladder to the top and get out of the window onto a platform that surrounded it, where I could see for miles in every direction. I'm still not really sure what this peak was called but it was a good one!

I then did manage to have a ride on a horse. Perhaps two hours was a bit ambitious after not riding for a very long time, but although I couldn't walk all that normally when I first got off, I did really enjoy it. My horse was big and black and called Zara. Despite her size Zara was terrified of a lot of things, one of which being baboons - a fear I now identify with. This fear meant that any rustling in the bushes was then followed by an often successful attempt to gallop very quickly away. This I did find quite disconcerting but we made it through without any falls and we even had a surprising shower of torrential rain, which was quite a joy to experience after so long without any. I had a lovely walk (once I could walk properly again) back down to Zomba town, the whole time passing the most stunning views down off the plateau across towns and villages and the many purple flowering Jacaranda trees to mountains in the distance.

Every town in this part of the world always seems to be busy and full of people. Most of the time I'm now quite happy with this but sometimes it's nice to be outside and alone. The problem with this is that generally wherever you go, someone will find you and come and talk to you. I often have a song by a band called Bush in my head which goes 'I'm never alone, I'm alone all the time'. I think perhaps only this line fits in with my current experiences of traveling alone in Eastern Africa but it's not at all a bad song to have repeatedly in my head! Anyway, in Zomba I found a botanical gardens. In a past blog I wrote about the particularly unexciting botanical gardens of Dar Es Salaam. Zomba's botanical gardens were the complete opposite. They had a huge selection of plants and trees and different environments and they also had something else - peace and quiet and no people - it was lovely!