snow ın turkey!

Today has been a day of mıxed feelıngs. We are hung over after a famous Turkısh nıght that was all you can drınk. Very good and very large and ınvolvıng lots of belly dancıng (gırls that hens nıght was good traınıng!)

We are also ın the most ıncredıble scenery ın a place called Goreme ın turkey and ıt ıs COVERED ın SNOW!! Woo Hoo!!!! It snowed the day we arrıved, all day the followıng day and ıs now crystal clear blue! Beautıful! As you can ımagıne I am lovıng ıt and there ıs about a foot of powder to play ın!

The bad news ıs that the truck ıs up a very large hıll and had no antıfreeze ın ıt and ıt has frozen! So, we are currently ın lımbo about whether ıt may or may not start agaın. Not the best scenarıo but I am lovıng thıs place so much that I don,t really care too much...I could stay a week! We scored on our accommodatıon too. We got put ın a brand new hotel that has just oppened and ıt has luxury rooms buılt ınto caves complete wıth spa baths and turkısh rugs. SCORE!! It has reconfırmed my thoughts that I feel we have done very well to survıve 19 weeks ın a tent, but really a hotel room ıs much much nıcer!!! :)

Off now to ınvestıgate how we can post all our thıngs home just ın case the truck dıes here...

xxx

Chrıstmas ın a Bedouın tent

From Damascus we drove to PAlmyra where some ancıent roman ruıns are located. We were only meant to stay one nıght and then drıve all day on chrıstmas day (!) but we managed to lobby Gavın and stay an extra nıght so we could enjoy chrıstmas.

It turned out to be a good day and we stayed ın a very warm bedouın tent that was comfy and fun (apart from the sex pest owners who kept tryıng to get us gırls ın for olıve oıl massages....no thanks!!).

We ended up havıng spare rıbs on chrıstmas eve..a bıt dıfferent from our norm, and then bıg fat roast chıckens for chrıstmas day whıch were delıcıous! Sadly I copped an arm burn from cookıng thıs meal so I am feeling a bıt mutated. It is not too bad but rıght on my forearm so I keep lookıng at ıt! Ew!

We ended up eatıng and drınkıng and watchıng the new Bond fılm on DVD....syrıa has LOTS of pırate software!

From what we can see, Syrıa ıs NOT an axıs of evıl!

We crossed ınto Syrıa faırly late ın the day wıth the help of a border agent and headed straıght to a town called Bosra where apparantly the worlds best preserved roman ampıtheatre ıs located. After checkıng that out we headed on to Damascus where we spent several nıght ın a freezıng cold campsıte! Thank goodness we had bought our horrıble woolly farwahs (bedouın coats) ın Jordan as we would have frozen wıthout them!

Damascus has a beautıful souk and old mosque wıth golden frescoes and nıce heated floors. We lıked that! We also spent a bıt of tıme ın the old chrıstıan quarter whıch has great archıtecture.

At thıs poınt ın the trip we hıt a slight lull - we were freezıng and feelıng very unchrıstmassy...not very ımpressed at the cold weather and grey raıny skıes. Mıssıng you all!!!!

The joys of Jordan

From Cairo we headed to Mt Sınaı to make the hıstorıc clımb. We got up at 2.30am and started walkıng to make ıt ın tıme for sunrıse. It is not a partıcularly hard walk (although ıt ıs all uphıll) and it has to be one of the most civılised hikes we have ever done...lots of tea stalls on the way and people rentıng blankets and pıllows at the top! You can even rıde a camel most of the way up ıf you are partıcularly lazy. The sunrıse was spectacular and worth the early start.

We then drove a short dıstance down to the beachsıde town of Dahab for some serıous relaxatıon tıme (and our last beach tıme before winter hıts our travels). Its a true backpacker town that ıs a bıt lıke the thailand beach scene...lots of beachside bars and banana pancakes! The snorkellıng was ıncredıble....and quite a few of our group went diving and said ıt was awesome.

Reluctantly we had to leave and make the crossıng ınto Jordan, which turned out to be a real hıghlıght for us. We crossed on a 3 hour ferry ınto the port of Aqaba and were welcomed wıth a town full of very frıendly easy going people who gave us local prıces upfront and left the hagglıng of Egypt behınd. Now that ıs a welcome change!!!

After a bush camp ın a desert settıng we headed to Wadı Rum where we jumped ınto 4WD cars and drove around the ıncredıble desert scenery. I really enjoyed thıs trıp, and even though we have seen loads of desert on the trıp thıs was some of the most spectacular wıth soarıng clıffs cuttıng ınto desert sands...and lots of sand dunes to run up and down!

Next stop was to see Petra from the town of Wadı Halfa. Thıs was a must see for us and was even more amazıng than we thought. The scale ıs huge, and the Treasury facade that ıs most commonly photographed through the crevice ın the rock ıs only one of hundreds of attractıons to marvel at. We packed ın a full day and hıked up to the Hıgh Place, then cut over to the Monastery and looked at lots of tombs ın between. We left absolutely knackered and I reckon we walked close to 20km ın the day! We also had the joys of our fırst Hamman ın the hotel (turkısh bath) and I loved the experıence of beıng steamed, scrubbed, massaged and soaked! Very relaxıng and after 17 weeks on the road was well needed!

From Petra ıt was tıme to hıt the Dead Sea and float around for a whıle. We lıked thıs bıt...although we hıt ıt on a Friday whıch ıs lıke their Sunday and there were lots of famılıes about gawkıng at us females who dared show some skın ın our swımmers! I got ınvolved ın the hot thermal mud too, and the eggy smellıng thermal sprıngs were an experıence!

From here ıt was tıme to head north and cross ınto Syrıa. I have to say though that we really enjoyed Jordan and ıt ıs a small place but packed wıth amazıng thıngs. Defınıtely recommend a trıp here.....

Cape Town to Cairo complete!

We've arrived in Cairo and I guess this marks the end of the historical Cape to Cairo trip. After 16 weeks we've made it all the way up the east coast of Africa and have arrived in the bustling cosmopolitan city of Cairo (it is crazy to find out that Cairo has the same population as the whole of Australia. Wow!!)

We've spent a few days doing the sights....pyramids and the Museum being highest on the list. We've also enjoyed wandering around "Islamic Cairo" and seeing the mosques, markets and citadels. Because it's a big city we're staying in the illustrious New Sun Hotel and are quite enjoying life outside a tent!

The pyramids are very large (big one is 146m high) and truly amazing. When you consider they are about 5000 years old it is even more incredible. I was keen to head inside the big one to the burial chamber so forked out on the extra ticket and clambered up the tunnel to find three older german ladies singing Amazing Grace in the burial chamber. Because of the acoustics it sounded like there were 10 of them in there and was really beautiful. Somewhat less beautiful is the circus of camel and horse touts who follow you around the site offering rides....I guess they are just trying to make a living but they don't leave you alone. Even the police guards are corrupt and when no one was around one of them was trying to get us to climb up one of the pyramids and take a photo (in return for baksheesh payment of course).

In the museum we saw all of King Tutankamun's treasures and lots of sarcophagus and mummies! We also had the unfortunate experience of visiting a crappy museum at the Citadel called the police museum (it was free with the entry ticket). The pickings were slim and the only thing that caught my interest was a noticeboard full of pictures of dogs digging in the sand. Intrigued I wandered over to face the caption of "dog uncovers stash of 150kg of hashish in the desert". In case anyone was wondering, that is the quality of content that makes it into the Cairo Police museum.

It's our last night in Cairo tonight and I think we're going to make it a good one...so adios for now, we're off for a beer!

xxx

Getting templed out in Egypt

We're in Luxor now and have been seeing the sights - Valley of the Kings, Karnak, Deir el Bahri etc. The temples and monuments are truly amazing....haggling for EVERYTHING in Egypt is another story.

At last time of writing we were about to head to Abu Simbel which was a great sight to see - although we still never figured out why the convoy left at 3.30am. After the tourist massacre in 1997 all tourist vehicles in Agypt seem to have to travel through in convoys that leave at specific times. All the vehicles meet in certain spots and then travel with armed guards. If you miss the convoy you have to wait a day....so when you want to go to Abu Simbel you must leave at 3.30am even though it is only a 3 hour journey away. Craziness.

Despite the early start, that night we managed to fit in some sunset drinks on the roof (where the photo of sunset was taken) followed by late night cocktails at the fancy Movenpick hotel...it was happy hour. We even finished with a midnight Maccas (first we have seen anywhere in Africa)...felt like home!

From Aswan we boarded some Felucca boats for a 2 night sail down the Nile towards Luxor. This is one of the most relaxing things we have done all trip - highly recommended! Nothing to do but relax...

We then did a fly by of the Temple of Horus near Edfu and headed on to Luxor for three days. First stop was Vally of the Kings where we were particularly proud of ourselves for baksheeshing (bribing) our way into some extra tombs. Interestingly each of the tombs we saw were very different in decoration - some very minimalist, some grand, some decorated in stick figures and others very ornate reliefs. I really enjoyed that part and all the ancient history lessons came flooding back.

We also enjoyed the "Sound and Light Show" at Karnak - where they illuminate the ruins and tell you some slightly cryptic stories (let's just say they could use some editing services when writing the script). Cheesy but fun!

Other than that we've been enjoying shisha pipes, coffees, wandering through the bazaars and eating cheese again (haven't really had any in Africa). We haven't been enjoing the haggling though...it is ridiculous....you have to haggle hard for absolutely everything which gets pretty annoying after a while. I don't mind haggling for souveniers and tourist stuff, but for every bottle of water or cup of tea it starts to get a bit annoying. Ah well, welcome to Egypt!

We're loving the travels but definitely starting to miss home a bit - on the day of Sim's wedding I was gutted to be away and spent a bit of time poring over the photos on facebook (thanks Zoe and Tiff). Sim - you look amazing! I wish we could have been there and look forward to seeing more photos and hearing more about the day...to compensate steve even let me walk into pretty much every jewellery shop in the bazaar to "buy" myself something to "feel better". hehe!!

xxx

Into Egypt

Yesterday we sailed across the Sudanese - Egypt border and are now in Aswan. Once again the change across the border is dramatic...welcome to a dense population of leering men! hehe!!

From our last post in Khartoum we did the most amazing drive we have ever done. We headed through the desert along the course of the Nile river to the border town of Wadi Halfa. The scenery was spectacular - crazy desert and then in the midst the Nile weaves its course and supports a lush green vegetation strip of date palms for about 10m on either side of its banks. Dotted all along the river are tiny towns that are stark white and have pretty Nubian paintings all over them. About 100m away from the river the desert then reclaims the land and there is nothing. Absolutely nothing but sand....and a few Pyramids that date back to when the ancient Egyptians invaded the land.

The camping in the evenings has been incredible - starry skies, cool breeze and absolutely no one in sight. Ah, this is what it's all about!

When we got to Wadi Halfa we had to wait three days for a ferry boat to arrive for us - and despite the odds we all agreed it was one of our favourite parts of the trip. There was nothing to do and no where to go but absorb the desert and local town. Lots of coffee and tea drinking and using the shower at Mazar's house (our "fixer" in the town).

The border ferry was hyped up to be a tumultuous experience best avoided by anyone with a modicum of sanity...but it all turned out ok for us. As the girls in the group Katie and I got sent on ahead to use our girlish charms to try and secure some sleeping space on the deck (it's an overnighter). We shoved and pushed our way through and ended up being some of the first up there and spread out all our stuff to guard some space. When the boys arrived we were feeling very smug! Turned out to be a great night sleeping under the stars - apart from the fact that any time we woke up the same man was sitting there staring at Katie and I all night. In the morning I noticed he had his fly undone. Nice.

The downside to the ferry trip actually started when the trip was over. We approached the port and then just sat there for about 3 hours in the sun waiting for Immigration officials to enter the boat and stamp us all through. Very chaotic and disorganised. We were all glad when we finally disembarked and made it to our hotel (truck is on a separate ferry so we have to "rough it" for a few nights!!). Even better is that Scott and Summer's parents are in town and we were treated to a nice meal to celebrate.

We're heading to Abu Simbel tomorrow which should be great (other than the fact we have to leave at 3am!!! What is with that???) Will report more soon...

xxx

PS. hope some of you notice steve's MO! We've got the whole truck doing Movember so the photos will be posted soon! FUnnily enough the Egyptians are loving it and keep yelling out "nice moustach"...that might e because they ALL have them too!

Observations....

While I've got a few minutes I wanted to jot down a few things that I've been noticing...

1. Surprisingly Africa is full of Eucalypt trees. They are everywhere...but rumour has it from the locals that they make bad charcoal.

2. Even though Kenya grows a lot of coffee they can't seem to make a good cup. Ethiopia wins hands down.

3. Kenya and Tanzania appear to have greater poverty and poorer infrastructure than Ethiopia and Sudan. I thought it would be the other way around?

4. A lot of the tap water we have come across is drinkable. I thought it would be dirty, but it seems to be ok? On that note, bottled water is pretty much the same price as at home....so not very cheap.

5. If you put a whole egg in a fire it explodes.

Have I mentioned how hot Sudan is?

We're in an Internet cafe in the middle of Khartoum which is definitley one of the most modern and buzzing cities we have come across in Africa. Sudan is turning out to be a great spot - even though it is winter it is seriously hot (especially whilst wearing "suitable" clothes and donning a headscarf). It is almost a city that has grown out of a desert - the roads are covered in sand and it has a definite arabic flavour. Men wear the white dresses, restaurants serve Shish kebab, there are loads of fresh juice stalls and the markets are full of dates and spices. Oh yeah, and there is no alcohol (amazing how when you can't have any it's all we feel like!)

So Sudan hey? After all the time people spent worrying about the border entry it turned out to be pretty simple. Oh, apart from the supplementary $65 "registration fee" that no one happened to mention we had to pay. None of us are particularly sure that the fee was very official, but given the fact a towering 6'5 man the colour of the ace of spades was commanding it we all paid up. When crossing over from Ethiopia the change is immediate - the green hills of Ethiopia abruptly end and the desert soon unravels into a not baron landscape.

We're currently staying in a yacht club that doubles as a campsite and our tents are pitched right on the edge of the Blue Nile. I'd love to post some photos but they are kind of illegal to take here. Apparantley a photo licence is required and people have been arrested for taking photos so we are keeping the cameras fairly well hidden.

We made a trip to the souk yesterday and today we are aiming to see the camel markets which should be interesting. Actually on our drive into Khartoum we came across a group of about 6 camels dead on the road that we think may have been hit by a truck in the night....very smelly.

Heading north again tomorrow so probably out of reach for a while. Adios!

Northern Ethiopia

In case anyone was wondering what happened to my blogging for the past few weeks, well it seems that Ethiopia has a block on all blog sites so I had to just write them up and save them to post later on.

In a nutshell from Addis we headed north to Bahir Dar to see the monasteries on the lake (not quite as impressive as we were hoping but still very relaxing), and the Blue Nile falls (which were great). Steve and I both ended up with flu for a few days which meant we couldn't go to Laliebela, but we tucked ourselves up in bed and emerged a few days later feeling much better. We managed to make it out to the Obama Cafe in town for the most grossly oversized and disgusting burger we have encountered so far...but the cafe was certainly the hip place to be!

From Bahir Dar it was up to Gondor to see the castles and trek in the Simien Mountains. Gondor is a quiet sleepy town with lots of good Ethiopian hospitality and a series of very European style castles. We had a night out in the San Fransisco Golden Gate bar, and tried a Tej Beat (local bar) for some home brew honey wine.

The Simien trek was GREAT. It was a two night three day trek where 6 of us (Gav, Shin, Katie, Ryan and us) drove into the mountains and got 3 ponies to carry our gear for us. We trekked up to a base camp and from there walked to several look out points. It's amazing scenery quite unlike anything I've seen before. Rather than the mountains being peaks it is more like a giant plateau range that you clamber over at 4000 m....quite high. We could certainly feel the altitude while climbing and at night the temperature dropped to well below freezing. Consequently Steve and I were also freezing as I checked the rating on our sleeping bags and it was -2, and on the way our sleeping bags had somehow got wet which wasn't a good start. Let's just say we wore everything we had to bed that night and were still freezing cold.

On the trek we saw lots of a special kind of long haired baboon, and it was also a good chance to see some locals living a truly tough agricultural lifestyle in the mountains. I don't know how they manage to cultivate the ground...we were struggling to just walk up the hills let alone farm them.

After our trekking we arrived back in town very dirty but satisfied. We then packed up all our gear in preparation to head into Sudan...everyone was feeling a bit nervous at this point as the Sudanese border is apparantly notorious for turning travellers away. Fingers crossed.

Macchiatos in Addis Ababa

I just read my last entry about going out for Ethiopian red wine. It
brought shivers back…lets just say three bottles is too much and the
night ended with us doing very inappropriate things with Injera in a
local restaurant.

For now I've left Steve doing a workout in our room and headed down to the
Internet cafe for a while. We're in Addis Ababa and are both
rating it as our favourite city so far in Africa. It's choc full of
people but has a really good vibe about it - lots of cafes, market
stalls and chaos! We've also decided to upgrade to a local hotel for a
few days away from the tent and are enjoying the delights of a hot
shower.

The focus of our stay here is getting more visas…and drinking lots of
excellent coffee (thanks to the Italians that were stationed here
during the second world war!). All is looking good for us with the
Egyptian and Sudanese visas...but not for all our group. The poor
Danish girl Maree has been told that there is no way she will get a
Sudanese visa (do you remember that Danish journalist that drew some
derogatory cartoons about Mohammed a few years back? Well apparantly
the Sudanese are not happy about that so they have banned all Danish
from visiting). Poor girl has to make alternate travel
arrangements at her own expense so she is not very happy. Additionally
Sid the New Zealand guy has to cut his trip short and go home as his
dad is very sick...so that isn't great news.

Other than that all is well for us...I did however get a tick in my
leg the other day which I wasn't too impressed with! He hitched a ride
with me for a good few hours before I found him!! Gav ended up ripping
him out for me…along with a good chunk of my skin. Ouch!

Addis is rumored to have the largest market in Africa so we've spent
several hours exploring that, and we also went to the National History
Museum which has the remains of the oldest human fossil ever found.
"Lucy" is apparently 2.2 million years old and old stands about a
metre tall. Very tiny!

One other good thing we did yesterday was take a visit to a local "spa"
facility. Not quite what we are used to...imagine what a old fashioned
psychiatric hospital might look like and picture us trying to relax
while the electricity flickered on and off. It was a good experience
though - for $7 we each had a giant hot bath soak followed by a
massage. It felt the cleanest I have been in the whole 10 weeks!

I've also just splurged out and bought some jeans…had to buy male ones
as the ladies were all too short….but luckily Ethiopian men seem to
like a tight slightly gay fit. Perfect for me!

Nairobi to Awassa (into Ethiopia)

We've made it into Ethiopia and are currently in the largest town inthe south called Awassa.

We've really noticed the change as we crossedinto Ethiopia…as soon as you cross the border the people look much more Arabic and the coffee and tea suddenly became amazing.

The trip to get here through northern Kenya was pretty full on. From Nairobi we headed north towards the Samburu national park(unfortunately our last game drive). It wasn't a great day of travel for me as I was the last of the girls on the truck to have a 24 hour throwing up virus. The game drive was still quite spectacular eventhough I was only popping my head up for the highlights! We saw a baby elephant that they think was born that day and it was struggling toget to its feet it was so tiny.

The next day we headed on an arduous journey to Meskabit, a muddy outpost town in the middle of nowhere. We had our first truck bogging incident and all had to get out and dig out the truck and create some launch ramps out of thorn bushes. Steve of course was right in the action and consequently ended up covered in mud!

When we arrived late that day we checked into Jey Jey's hotel and the following day hired a guide to walk us up the local volcano crater and visit a local village. The next day it was then back in the truck forthe drive to Moyale, the border town. For some of this journey we had to hire armed guards to join our truck as it is apparently bandit territory. Nothing like two men in camo outfits holding assault rifles in the back of the truck. We didn't see any action though…and I'm starting to wonder if the $40 armed guards were actually the new way the bandits are focusing on raising revenues?

Anyway we crossed the border with no hassles and spent the morning all running around the border town in excitement once we had discovered the local coffee, tea and cakes! Mmmm! Sure beats the tomato sandwiches we have been surviving on. Although we're not sure about the local Ethipian staple called Injera. It's kind of like a giant spongy purple pancake thing that accompanies most dishes. It's sourand a bit odd to eat…a book I am reading likens it to eating a dirty dish cloth!

From there we headed north and spent a night at Yebello and then on to Lake Awassa which is where we are now. Heading out now to sample some local Ethiopian red wine…it comes in beer bottles and costs $2 per bottle…. Dangerous!

kissing giraffes

All you have to do is put a giraffe biscuit between your lips and you get a big sloppy kiss from Kelly the Giraffe!

Apparently a giraffe can eat up to 65kg per day so that's a lot of kisses it get's to give out.

Patting cheetahs!

Yesterday turned into a very good day! After a very uninspiring game drive around Nairobi Central Game Park we were feeling a bit flat and somewhat bored with what Nairobi was offering us. At the same site there is also an animal orphanage where you can see animals that have been rescued in cages. Having seen all these animals on our game drives we were feeling fairly reluctant to part with more cash to go in there and see them sitting in cages, but we had heard from Summer who had worked there 3 years ago that they sometimes allow people to pat the cheetahs.

So armed with this knowledge I tried my luck at the entrance office by asking if it was possible to pat the cheetahs. The guy looked at me and said, "No. We don't do that here." I said, "Are you sure?" and he replied a definite NO and looked at me with that look of someone who is breaking every wildlife law that has ever been made. I went for a third try of "I really love big cats, are you sure I can't pat them" and he said no and left the office. Hmm, cheetahs were not looking good.

So, not to be perturbed about half an hour later Scott, Ryan and I went back to the office for another try. This time round I did a lot of talking and pleading and said we weren't going to pay the entrance fee unless we could pat them. And would you believe it, but success!!!

So ten minutes later we were in the cheetah cage patting our hearts out! They are beautiful animals with really short hair and the most amazing long tails. . Having thought that was the most amazing thing to happen all trip, I was feeling quite excited and it must have been showing as the guide then turned around and asked if we would like to see the baby cheetah that are kept in the nursery off limits to regular visitors....well YES of course I did!!!

So next thing we are led behind the scenes into the nursery and each handed a 2 month old baby cheetah to hold! They were about the size of a very small house cat and covered in tufts of spotted hair. SO CUTE!! After 5 minutes with them (and a 200 shilling bribe to the nursery manager) the guide, who was clearly enjoying our excitement, then asked if we wanted to go into the Forest cat enclosure and pat them too!!

So off to the forest cats we went and had a play with them as well. They are fairly similar to a regular domestic cat but a bit more muscly and broad. They even liked the same patting technique as Squirt, Fatty and Ginge.

On the way through we even had the chance to poke a lioness through her cage so we could feel her fur...but there was no way I was getting into her cage after our lion experience in South Luanga game park and hearing the male lion roar!!!

So for 10 us dollars and some tips we got to pat 4 different kinds of wild cats! Score!!! Definitley worth it!

Life on the truck...

,


I've finally got the time to jot down a few thoughts about life on the truck. Before we set off on this adventure we spent a fair bit of time speculating about how the truck would be - would we like the people, would we survive 5 months of camping?? So here is a download at week 8!

There are currently 11 passengers on the truck which is smaller than many of the groups we meet (the Kenya - Vic Falls circuit is very popular and some trucks carry up to 24 people!) . On the upside this gives us much more room on the truck and often on the long drives we can all lie down and have a snooze if we are tired. On the downside it means there are less people in the group and therefore less personalities.

The camping part is surprisingly fine! We are very fast at setting up our tents and hauling our sleeping gear to and from it each day. We sleep on some thin foam sleeping mats, topped with a self inflating air mat we've got sleeping bags, pillows, blankets and the latest acquisition is a fluffy sheep skin to keep me especially warm!! Actually that is something that has really surprised me...at night it is FREEZING cold!!

In terms of food we have toast or cereal for brekkie, and then get our own lunches along the way at local restaurants or supermarkets. For dinner we have four cooking groups and we each take it in turns to shop for and cook a meal. We often try to buy in local markets and some of our more exotic efforts have seen roasted goat, stir fried flies (that was for Chris the 13 yo!!) and local fish (which you can see Gavin buying in the picture). We cook on small charcoal stoves (see pic) and carry water cans to provide drinking and washing up water.

The cooking is actually one of my favourite parts as you never know quite what you will find in the markets to work with. It isn't Steve's favourite though...he focuses more on the eating!!! I am not however a fan of the cleaning! Nathan where are you when we need you????

One thing that has surprised us is the amount of time we spend driving. In some parts we have done some really long days on the road - starting at 5.30 some mornings and carrying through until 7 at night. Usually the roads are really bad and we go quite slow. The saving grace has been that we don't seem to get car sick in the truck so we can read books easily. We have a bit of a library on board and we have both been churning through some novels!

The highlights have definitely been the game drives and time in the villages. Interestingly it seems that if you pay a local a dollar or two to go on a village walk you get a much better reaction from the locals and can take pictures and talk to people with no problems. If we don't take a guide it isn't always so friendly.

Ok the PEOPLE...generally we have been lucky and our group is good. Of course sometimes we all have our moments and if we were at home I don't think we would choose to hang out with some of the people on the truck! Most of the time though we are happy and having a good giggle! We've got a new guy arriving on monday so it will be interesting to see how that all works as we all kind of have each other worked out!

Ok, that's enough for now! Got to go to the supermarket before we leave!

xxx

More game drive pictures

A few more of my fav pics from the game driving.

We've got flamingos,giraffe, hyena and the cutest baby elephant!

Spotting lions in the Masai Mara

We've just had two days in one of the most famous game parks in Kenya - the Masai Mara. It's actually an extension of the Serengeti park in Tanzania and the two are separated by the river Mara which I think is also the border line between the two countries. We saw all the usual game animals, but best of all was on our early morning drive when we saw a pride of 10 lions munching into a fresh catch of Zebra. The pride had 2 males, 4 females and 4 cubs and it was amazing to watch them (and hear them crunching into bones).

We also visited a very touristy Masai village where we got escourted around and shown their houses and learnt about their culture. The only good side of being very touristy is they loved posing for photos and I've included one of Steve wearing a lion's mane on his head! Later in the evening at the campsite we also had a Masai dance around a campfire and that was great to see (and do). For those who aren't "up" with Masai culture they are the ones who jump really high and practice female circumcision...nice.

Here are a few random animal facts we learnt...

1. If a lion attacks a herd of wilderbeast, then all the wilderbeast scatter rather than helping out their mate.
2. Black rhino hang out in bushes whilst white rhino roam the plains.
3. Male zebra try to rip each other's nuts off to prevent them from breeding with the females and to exert their dominance
4. Male ostrich are black and females are grey and they use these colours as camo to help them protect their eggs. During the day the female sits on the eggs and blends in with the landscape, and at night males sit on the egg and so blend in with the night sky.