Round and About

Well Namibia is fantastic…

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew and Claudia) — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 00:29:00 +0000

After visiting the Ruacana Falls which are currently in flood and absolutely spectacular we decided to head a little further west to Opuwo to see this part of the country. On arrival in Opuwo we were haggled by some young indigenous folk and we realised how harsh we have become from the continual harassment we have received throughout this trip as you are a “white man” that clearly means you must have money and you must give… give… give, so now that we could actually express ourselves in English these poor little beggers got a proper mouthful (we will have to work on our humanitarian side again). We stayed at the Opuwo lodge which was average but nothing to write home about and saw some of the local Himba people and the great country side but we did not do much more in this area.

look at us camping!!

From our swimming lessons in Angola we had damaged one of the tension pulleys on Mo and needed to get a replacement so headed through to Oshakati on the Monday to get a replacement part. We decided to take the short cut through the C41 which is actually still being built so took a lot longer to get through than expected, as the effects of the flooding is all over the north. On arrival in Oshakati we discovered that it was actually a public holiday so there was no way we could get some work done on Mo so decided to head a little further east towards Ondangwa. We were forced to stay in a B&B here as the one and only campsite around a small dam was now one large dam with underwater campsites and a few happy geese.

From Ondangwa we were then directed to Tsumeb as the Toyota parts we required were not available. This is directly due to the recent earthquake and Tsunami in the East which has resulted in a shutdown of parts availability.

water in Etosha

There was much excitement from Clauds as the next day we were heading to Popa Falls in the Caprivi Strip to meet up with her folks, Ed and Gail who had decided to come and join us for our Namibia leg and even bought a tent to initiate their first camping holiday. We had a call from them on their first night to say that they were in a puddle of sweat but their tent was finally up! We set off early in the morning and joined them for 2 nights at Numba River Lodge which was only partly flooded. Ed came prepared with half the bottlestore and had even hidden wine under the spare wheel in his Freelander. This campsite is particularly pretty and well designed and between catching up, we managed to fit in a boat cruise to see the Popa rapids. From here we headed into Etosha for a 3 night stay, 1 at each camp heading west. Although exquisite, there was so much water around that the game viewing didn’t meet expectations but we did see a pair of mating lion, magnificent birds and countryside. Will need to return one of these Augusts sometime.....

Nam roads

Next stop was Twyfelfontein after a visit to the petrified forest and our first sighting of Welwichias, hardy slow growing ancient plants that typify photographs of Namibia. Twyfelfontien is famous for its rock engravings done by the nomad communities. We stayed at a campsite called Xaragu which means Meerkat and besides the infestation of king crickets, we had a very pleasant 2 nights stay. Gail and Ed were now into the whole camping idea and we can see that this certainly won’t be the last of this new type of holiday experience! Even if little lessons are learnt along the way like keep your tent closed at all times to avoid midnight doom sessions when the mozzies creep out of the corners where they have been waiting!

Skeleton Coast

Although Skeleton Coast was a big tick for us, we couldn’t have done it faster as a comedy of errors unfolded and we thought Ed and Gal were ahead of us and they the same which resulted in us trying to catch each other. Bear in mind that there is no cell phone reception for 200km! Anyway, we eventually tracked them down and caught up in Henties Bay for a bottle of wine to curb the nerves!

more typical scenery

As we pulled into the Municipal chalets, Andrew commented on just how awful these little huts looked and imagine having to stay there, just as our GPS announced ‘arriving at destination on right!’.....damn! it is however the best value for money at R270 per self catering chalet per night (2 people). Wined and dined at a few of the many great restaurants that seemed to be around and of course indulged in many an oyster!

a rare sight in Etosha!

On our way to Sossusvlei we stopped off at the old army base (and had a quick look from the outside before the guard came to enquire what we were doing) where Ed served more than 45 years ago, Rooikop, a great step back in history and some very funny army memories were shared with us! One that tickled our sense of humour most was the assistance provided to those men that had been called up and were dragged out of the bush for their conscription but could not tell left from right. To ensure that their marching ability improved, they were to tie a rag around one ankle, and some grass on the other and the marching continued with shouts of “Gras....lappie.....gras.....lappie!”

Sossus Oasis

And onto Sossusvlei, to stay in a beautiful upmarket camp ground (Sossus Oasis) where each site has a latte shaded area, your own toilet, wash up area and shower ‘on suite’, a novel concept and even biodegradable wash up liquid was provided. (there is such a thing as executive camping).

here Gail comes up the dune

Due to the unusual amount of rain Namibia has had, we were lucky enough to spend a full day picnicking (yet another few glasses of wine of course) in Sossusvlei as a real vlei filled with water. Ed and Andrew even had an afternoon swim after climbing the dunes (a fine exquisite red coloured sand that we have not ever encountered before).....you can see why so many calendar photos are taken of this area. Claudia spent ages on the dunes desperately trying to photograph a barking gecko which burrows into the sand constantly and is not an obliging participant!

one teeny bit of exercise that we did!

the elusive gecko

From here we took the scenic route down to Luderitz on the D707, what a spectacular route with scenic changes through the desert – every hill we came over seemed to present another new type of landscape, from dunes to rock, to grass to purple mountains, then grey – you need to see for yourself.

Namib wild horses

We stopped to see to wild horses of Garub, the theories of their ancestry are not exactly understood but they are thought to be escapees from either a shipwreck, a rich farmer who fled before the war, or the soldiers that served in the war but sometime during this period. We counted over 150 and were lucky to see them as water and food is certainly not scarce at the moment.

picnic in a cave

Luderitz – windy, arid, barren, harsh but dramatic! Stayed in a self catering apartment on the experience advise that camping is just not fun on the coast when the wind howls as it usually does! We spent the day looking for agates on Agate beach (and found 2!), visiting Diaz Cross, the lighthouse on Shark Island and watching the seals before another round of oysters at Shearwater Oyster Factory – we even skipped the tour as it was the same price as another 6 oysters!

sunset in Etosha

The following day it was onto the Fish River Canyon with a visit to Kolmanskop diamond ghost town on the way which was abandoned after WWII once the diamond barons returned and discovered larger stones at the mouth of the Orange River and established Oranjemund. Kolmanskop is fascinating by how the Western world can arrive in a desert, make ice which was provided to each household daily, build a railway of 60km in 10 months, a hospital that could sustain 250 patients for a community of about 1400, build grand homes, have a dedicated entertainment manager with bowling alley, gymnasium and hall all within 10 years only to abandon it all for greener pastures. A well worth visit.

Agate Beach - Luderitz

As the last stop with Ed and Gail, we arrived at Canon Roadhouse to visit the famous and second largest canyon in the world. Impressive, but again, harsh climate and scenery with no vegetation – we decided that we needn’t return to hike the 85km to Ais Ais. We waved the fogies goodbye and made our separate ways onto SA. What a great holiday and a very good way to ease back into ‘normality’.....

Fish River Canyon

So here was are, in Elandsbaai SA, after a last stamp in our passports for a while and a better than expected nights camping stopover in the craggy mountains of Kamieskroon at Pete’s B&B with a 270 degrees view of what will be covered in wild flowers once the rains arrive.

Kolmanskop Ghost Town

A brief summary of the next few weeks includes meeting Simon tomorrow for a week’s cruise to CT, thereafter, Southbroom to see Ammy and Mark’s new bambino, Mia, then Easter with the Gordons and catch up with Daryl and Chris in the Drakensberg and then we can’t avoid it anymore, we will be hitting jovial Joeys and look forward to seeing you all, but for now, around and about is rounding up until............

aaah no! Last stamp imminent!

first night in SA - Kamieskroon

Dry Land... Where art tho'?

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew and Claudia) — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 10:52:00 +0000

And here we are in Namibia, been a while since we had internet connection specifically since our 3G bill rolled in, I won’t even mention what it was but we refrained from even trying to link up.

The last 2 weeks have been fast but fun! We were seriously looking forward to Gabon, the one country we had read about and were particularly keen to see the mystical surfing hippos, beach ellies and of course some gorillas! We headed for Libreville, the capital, so we could try and resolve our Congo visa and find out about flying into the secluded reserve Luango on the coast. Libreville is expensive so we decided to drive North of Libreville to the land tip Cap Estas where we found the village Mama and managed to agree that we could camp in front of her house which was on the beach. Yet another beautiful spot, and Thomas from the local restaurant took us out to the village bar for the evening and even insisted on paying for our beers! We had a great evening despite our broken French!

poor trees!

The Congo visa was a no go unless we bought another (the entrance guard made us re-dress twice before we were allowed in even though I was wearing a long dress and Andrew a collared shirt – our embassy outfits) and Luango was closed due to the government not having reissued the airplane license to get there – oh Africa! So we now needed to hot foot it out of Gabon to hit Congo by the 11^th March.

We did however stay at the Albert Schweitzer hospital in Lamberene which was fantastic which is built on the banks of where 3 rivers join. The museum was really worth a visit and they have set up the Nobel Prize winner’s old hospital pretty much as it would have been – you don’t want to have had to have dentistry in those days! The Dr is specifically famous for having set up the hospital for Leprosy sufferers and to imagine how they were so intrepid to head into deep Gabon in the early 1900’s is remarkable!

Albert Schweitzer Hospital

We unfortunately hit Congo at 5pm on a Friday which is a no-no in Africa – drunken border officials and the potential of beers or cigarettes in the car was more a priority than getting our formalities done. But nevertheless, we managed to escape the policeman trying to catch a lift with us to South Africa for greener pastures and the toothless wonder who kept repeating my second name as if he could taste me, and slept the night in the only “Auberge” in the village. For $5 you get a double bed with fan and mozzie net, concrete slab in a grey facebrick room just big enough for the bed and a wooden slat door – and free bar music thudding and loud neighbours – but you can survive anything for a night!

No comment!

At this auspicious place, we also came across a traveler from Luxembourg who apparently (no English, some French) had traveled by ‘camion’ (truck) from Dolisie (12 – 18hrs) and was not being allowed into Gabon. We are not sure exactly what happened as his visa looked correct but he was told that he had to go back to Brazzaville and fly in to Libreville instead. So what transpired is that he hopped in the car with us and we drove him back to Dolisie. It is amazing how when someone ‘official’ either makes a mistake or misunderstands there’s no going back and although all seemed legitimate for him to cross the border, you can bet that some misunderstanding along the way resulted in the initial suggestion to fly in which then became the only way.

I had spent the night wide eyed as our Luxembourg hitchhiker had told us how the road to Dolisie was absolutely “CATASTROPHE!!!!” and “DANGEREUX!!!!”. With this in mind and the distance, we hit the road as the sun was rising and within 10mins came across the first stuck truck and our hearts sank. But this was really it and yes the roads are pretty appalling and the rains have started but we got to Dolisie by early afternoon and gave Boban a slightly different experience in Mo which he called “royale”.

and the roads with rain begin (Congo)

You can usually bank on staying at a Catholic Mission in most towns which is what we did in Dolisie. You are usually welcomed by the nuns and provided with a spartan but adequate room and feel safer by the fact that it’s a religious institution. From Dolisie we headed for Pointe Noir which is divided between poverty and secluded and expensive expat communities. You can camp at the Yacht Club but it would have been difficult to sleep due to the heat and the many begging hands everywhere so we opted to stay in a hotel and spent a luxurious night with a/c, a pool and white linen – what a treat! The next day was out of Congo into Cabinda, out of Cabinda and into the DRC. Cabinda is part of Angola and the visa overlanders get issued is a double entry 5 day visa so you get 5 days for Cabinda and 5 for the rest of Angola and if you look at a map, you can quickly see how ridiculous 5 days is to get through such an enormous country.

You can always bank on staying at a mission

We spent 2 nights at the Sisters of Jesus and Mary mission in Moanda and even wandered down to the beach to find a barbeque and bar and the whole community dressed in their finery for the occasion. It made us feel scruffy when we looked down at our grubby camping gear and you certainly stick out like sore thumbs! But nothing like some fatty kebabs, fried fish, fried plantain and a few beers to while the afternoon away. The remnants of the war are all around you in the DRC specifically the deserted grand hotels that would have been spectacular in their day.

And another mission (DRC) where we bumped into Stanley and Julia again with their 2 girls, Senna 15months and Oewyn 5yrs

We left the DRC very early so as to hit Angola and start our 5 day visa clock. There are 2 main roads you can travel, either the inside “highway” or the coastal road. We picked the inside road for the first half of the country so that we could travel quickly and try to get to Lubango and try extend our visa. First off we travelled the whole afternoon once border formalities were complete through windy mountain roads and little villages – quite beautiful but had to eventually turn around once stopped by a policeman who had to mimic using a canoe to explain to us that the bridge further down the road (past Madimba) was no longer and there was no other way around! There went day 1 but we did bushcamp in an old quarry and had a river bath which was all part of the adventure. Then the next day we had to retrace and hit the coast expecting to fill up in N’zeto which is a substantial dot on the map with an airplane symbol implying petrol (to us anyway) as petrol is cheaper in Angola than DRC so we had not yet filled up. We just made it to find a dusty single rd town with a few rusty pumps in the middle of the road that had clearly not worked for years and years. Hmmm, now what? We managed to flag down a Portuguese lady in her diesel Land Cruiser and with much pointing (Andrew and I will beat anyone at charades after this trip) we managed to find out that Mo took Gasolina and not Gasoleo which was another new word we needed to learn in Portuguese Angola – we had just gotten used to asking for ‘essence sans plomb’. Anyway, we ended up paying double for the cheap petrol as we bought bottles from a house on the side of the road.

Don’t bother trying to get an extension, we wasted our time at Immigration in Lubango as the initiative was zero and a transit visa was a transit even though we tried to explain that we wanted to explore the coast, spend money and do what tourists do, even for an extra 5 days….but no!

Filling up with gasoline in N'zeto

We bush camped again outside Xangango so that we only had a 2 hour stretch to the border the next morning, we’d get into Nam early and start heading to the west to explore. Hah! What a morning that was. The rains have seriously started and of course it has already resulted in Namibia flooding in the north. We had the most exciting, hair raising and unpredictable drive. We decided to take the ‘shorter’ cut from Xangango to Ruancana but not only being the only car on the road and no evidence of any other tracks, we started splooshing through the odd puddle, skidding through slooshy mud and it got wetter and wetter until we met up with one massive lake where the road was supposed to be – now what? We found a little village (i.e. 3 huts and a small herd of cattle) and were directed in our best Portuguese understanding and a map drawn on the ground onto another potential route but no indication of a border on this route and of course we weren’t keen on another smuggler’s route episode but we had little choice.

Bushcamping in Angola

Another bushcamp in Angola outside Xangango

At this point we heard another car in the distance and quickly found his tracks and started to follow – it was quite phenomenal what this car in front of us was doing and was a lot braver than what we would have done without the reassurance that we wouldn’t be stranded in Angola for months in the middle of a vlei.

ok, but what's on the other side?

Mo swimming!

Mo waiting to cross the river

Hundreds of metres of knee height water not knowing what was waiting for us further on and less and less possibility of turning around. We hit the overflowing river and could not believe we were supposed to go through but again, there were tracks going in and no sign of the vehicle so we pressed on. Once we got across the river we both looked at each other almost in surprise that it was possible – go Mo and Andrew! I think we were about 10km from the border according to our GPS when we came around the corner and saw the last thing we wanted to – a Land Cruiser drowning in the middle of a mass of water. Gulp! This time he didn’t quite make it.

at least there are winching trees around!

here goes nothing!

there she goes!

We apprehensively wandered up and were at least relieved that they were still running but in a hole. This is when serious 4x4 started when we had already breathed a sigh of relief once we were through the river. We tried to approach from behind to winch them out, Mo then got stuck, we then winched ourselves out onto a bank and then winched them out and there is no way I can explain the terror of what I was feeling whilst Andrew was getting max 4x4 satisfaction! I don’t think we could actually believe it when we got through and somehow came to an official border we did not know about – I don’t think I have been that happy to see dry land, we made the 5 day visa limit and although the first camp in Namibia at Hippo Pools Community Camp was partly flooded, we could still camp in a few sites and spent the rest of the evening replaying our adventure over and over, giggling hysterically and still a little gob smacked that we made it. We have however decided that we’ve done enough swimming in Mo for now and so the dry and good tarmac roads of Namibia have been a welcome relief!

hmm, now we also stuck

passenger vehicle we had been following

AJ in full swing!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew and Claudia) — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 07:21:00 +0000

From Banter Graphics, all your friends and family, and everyone that follows your blog. We wish Claudia a very Happy Birthday!

We hope you have am amazing day and get spoilt as much as you can be in the depths of Africa.

We all miss you both. Keep well and travel safely

We will always have Cameroon!

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew and Claudia) — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 08:44:00 +0000

So we are loving Cameroon… the people, the scenery, food, beaches etc. have been outstanding!!

We left mile 8 (Etisah Hotel) after three days of glorious weather, on our final day we helped some local fishermen get their boat out the ocean and they had a few Grouper on board, so we bought a decent sized fish and headed to the market to buy some coals, cabbage, tomatoes and whatever was available and home to have a lekker fish braai (Stancill it reminded me of our vacation at the Keys!!)

You need to like cabbage, tomatoes, onion, avo, bananas, paw-paws, pineapples, cassava to do this trip! Once in a while you may find lettuce, carrots or celery but that's about it!

The following day we headed into Limbe as it was time to move towards Yaounde as we still needed to get Visas for Congo and DRC. We joined John and Jenny (a great couple we have met doing an overland trip back to SA) for a fantastic lunch at the Limbe Wildlife Park where a South African has opened up a restaurant with her husband whom used to manage Moyo (so the burgers, Pizza and ginger icies were superb)… highly recommended!! We decided to look around town to see if we could find a cheap hotel as we wanted to get moving early the following day to get to Yaounde and it was our 1 year anniversary so thought we would spoil ourselves , and what a find… The Holiday Inn Resort which is towards the main town gave us a room with A/C, massive swimming pool (3m deep), hottish water and a TV with 60 stations for only 14 000 CFA (around R 200.00)!!! I asked the waiter to set a little table out in the garden for us as a surprise for Clauds, so the two of us headed down to a romantic dinner and had the most fantastic meal (Bar fish and pepper soup with Plantane) the only warning about the spot is check your Vodka and Gin as someone is making a buck by adding water to the bottles.

Amazing swimming, surfing not so much!

It was time to head up to Yaounde so hauled through on some of the best roads we have had on the trip thus far and booked into the Presbyterian grounds… what a dump and run by the most ungodly people around, all they are interested in is money and charge for extra water and to plug your computer in. we looked around a bit and the hotels are incredibly expensive or just way too dodge… Ringworm once on this trip is enough! I also drove through the presidential lane again so we had eight cops jumping out at the gringos taking our passports, drivers licence and carne while we still are wondering what the hell we have done wrong. Anyway it is a massive circle with four lanes entering the circle the four lanes continue straight through the circle and exit on the other side, there are road markings going straight through and apart from two small no parking signs on either side there is no way to know that this is now the “presidential lane”. So once again I was sitting with the police… needless to say my skills are definitely improving and after changing the topic of what we had done wrong kept asking them where the church was, we are lost and need to get to the church, we are good citizens and are staying at the church, us god fearing people. So we got another police escort with two cops who showed us where the church was (luckily a different church across the road), we gave them 3000 CFA ($ 6) for their time and waited until they were gone before returning to the original church. I think we have mentioned there are 3 trucks with around 25 people in each doing a similar trip and that every two of these trucks pulled in so the lawn was scattered with tents and 50 people which was too intense for us and we needed to move the next day… oh I almost forgot, Clauds had slight food poisoning too from a funny tin of tuna (no week would be complete without an ailment of sorts).

Camping at St Benedict's Monastery with Julia and Stanley, Niels and the kids (Yaounde, Cameroon)

Monday we hit the DRC embassy after the taxis tried to rip us off and we decided walking would have to be the option, and bumped into Stanley and Julia (an amazing couple travelling with their two kids of 14 months and 5 years… incredible). They thankfully told us where they were staying at the Monastery on the hill so we made the instant decision to go and join them. The DRC visa was pretty straight forward, it cost 90 000 CFA ($ 180.00) each, BLOODY EXPENSIVE. And they were issued to us the following morning at 10h00. We did some shopping as there are really great food supermarkets in Yaounde, as well as great patisseries. We sorted out Mo’s “leaking” problem, so all good on that front.

The shop under the tree that arranged Mo's new light in less than a day from Douala!

We collected our visas the next day to deliver them at the Congo embassy and were told to return the next day at 1, which we duly did and needed to get onto the road to make the 4 hour journey to Kribi for some more beaching! We were told to wait with no explanation and no questions allowed until about 2:30 when they eventually handed our passports back and ushered us out. They were surly, dismissive, and had another agenda which we are yet to work out. We then noticed that they had made the expiration date on the visa the 11^th March (must be used prior to this date) which was too soon but when questioned we were told that it wouldn’t be a problem as a visa is a visa! But we have learnt our lesson on this trip and although we could not get any joy out of them, we reckon we still haven’t quite finished with our embassy visits and need to see how we can resolve this in Libreville.

Lope Falls - Kribi, Cameroon

Anyway, we got to Grand Batanga that evening, about 15km south of Kribi and pulled into a charming little place called Etoile de Mer where Andre (Belgian) lives with his 7 year old daughter and they run a small hotel in the back of their house and allow camping in their garden which is right on the shore with a toilet, and shower for use. We ended up staying 3 nights and Andre make tuna carpaccio with olive oil and parmesan for us accompanied with a bottle of blanc de blanc and his home made vanilla, litchi and cinnamon rum. Quite superb! He is an incredible carpenter so his house is beautiful and an auto-electrician by trade so we were sent in to Kribi the next day to his friend Ebaneser to buy a new filter and oil which he assisted us in changing which was great as Mo was nearly due for a mini service.

Camping in Andre's garden - Grand Batanga, Cameroon

On the border of Equatorial Guinea we read about a park called the Reserve de Ca’ampo run or affiliated to the WWF with gorillas, chimps, various other primates, birds etc and decided we would drive there and suss it out for a few nights. Having arrived on a Saturday afternoon, we managed to find the off-duty office manager and we arranged that we would leave early the next morning with our obligatory eco-guard and guide for 2 nights.

Ecoguard and guide and the supposed road through the park

We spent the night on the banks of the river overlooking Equatorial Guinea but not where we intended on staying as the little chalets on Campo beach seemed deserted and after waiting around a while and no-one arriving the house manager of quite a larny house next door offered to set up a room for us for the same price as the chalets (about $6). We drove over and parked Mo round the back and were welcomed into the house for the night (the owner was away in Libreville – not sure how that was all supposed to work but it suited us). He then went to the effort of setting up a little table on the patio for us so we could enjoy the view and we cooked the usual one pot wonder of 2 minute noodles and sauce of sorts. The hospitality of some people is remarkable. It was up early the next morning to collect William our Eco-guard at 5 and drive through to the park to collect the guide and set up camp at the huts they have built near the village. It was about a 45km drive along good dust roads. Bitter sweet as although the roads are good, it is only due to the loggers that have started decimating the forests in the area – the circumference of the trees that go past in the trucks that drive like bats out of hell leaves you with a very heavy heart…….after the adrenalin rush as they clang and rattle past you in a cloud of dust.

Our latest camping spot on the tip north of Libreville. Village Mama allowed us to camp for free for a 'cadeau' at our discretion

We had read in the Bradt Guide that it was possible to drive through the park and we were thinking of doing this at the end of our stay as a more direct route to Gabon. Hah! You can’t even get a car near the park as the last bridge would swallow Mo and the roads in the park are so long gone that it is actually only possible to go on foot now! Unfortunately the park is really nothing to write home about as poaching is rife and although we saw 3 species of monkey and a few birds, nothing sticks around long enough or nothing is even really there to see. It is a very sad situation. The park only has about 50 visitors a year and although it was pricey (about $150 for 2 nights in a cabin with no bedding, electricity or running water, the guide, eco-guard and the camera fee (which we didn’t even use)), no park can possibly be sustained on such an income. We doubted whether anyone patrols the park and reckoned that it’s only when there are tourists that they even enter the reserve. We did however see evidence of forest elephants, buffalo and apparently may have come close to a single gorilla but there are no proper paths and hacking one’s way through the forest is noisy and incredibly hot and frustrating after 5 hours of nothing. It was however fantastic to see the original forest but unfortunately we won’t be recommending a visit and can sadly see the end of this movie already as the logging encroaches on the park and the plan is to reconstruct the road right through.

Crossing the equator - we tried dismally to test out the flow of water down a plug hole on either side but failed! A celebratory swig was easier.

We headed back to Grand Batanga for a night as we needed to get a small part for Mo as we had a small oops! when collecting our eco-guard at 5 in the morning. We reversed very gently into a bulldozer and smashed the rear lights of Mo on the one side. Although the bulldozer wheel was clearly in sight in our camera, the digger was just above our camera and protruded quite substantially. But not a disaster at all. We found Efram in Kribi at around 11am (by asking the Laundromat) who made a call to Doula and promised that he could get us a new one by that afternoon! We gave him til the next day as we needed to get the laundry done and to our surprise, we pitched up the next day and there it was, exactly the right thing, ready and waiting and had been sent using the chiefs service so transport of the part only cost about R30. Somehow when you think Africa could be broken, it can seriously surprise you!

Cameroon's Kribi coast

That night we stayed at Tara Plage in Kribi as we had bumped into Fran and Tom (SA and Zimbo), our other over landing compatriots who we met in Ghana and had the most magnificent tuna steaks with grilled plantain for dinner!

South African Zimbo war!

At The Top

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew and Claudia) — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 06:30:00 +0000

What a way to celebrate our 1st Wedding Anniversary!

On Track

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew and Claudia) — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 12:27:00 +0000

Hey Friends and family,

Well as Clauds has already mentioned we are back… eight days of dealing with the Nigerian Immigration and the thought of updating the blog was rather depressing.

We are currently sitting at Mile 8 beach in Limbe with a stretch of black volcanic beach in front of us, a palm trees for shade and a few fishermen pulling in their catch for the day, I spent a few hours this morning snorkelling around the rocks, the ocean is incredibly clear so you get a totally different feeling under water with the black base… get jealous!! The area we are currently in gets the second highest rainfall in the world being over 10 000 mm per year, crazy however we have lucked out and have only had one downpour and have had superb weather otherwise.

Mount Cameroon was spectacular but hell on the quads, the scenery was like nothing we have ever seen before with old and new lava flows and craters… thanks to Shaun for the biltong and great steaks from SA we finished off the last two steaks last evening over a lekker braai and they were scrumptious (don’t think we will have meat like that for the next few months). Before I forget I better add that Clauds also got stung by a bee up on the mountain but this in comparison to all the other disastrous episodes seems incredibly mild… my wife is an absolute trooper and never looses her GO attitude.

When we finished Mount C the six of us piled into Mo and headed to a little beach resort at mile 11 called Seme Beach Hotel, it was great to have warm water and a clean bed for two days, we ate burgers at the restaurant and had a romantic dinner once everyone left of chicken and chips (surprise surprise for Africa) which was great. The hotel had a very cool spring flowing through the grounds which had fresh water trout and bass (I think), so I put on the goggles and did a few laps (I could swim for about 90m in one direction and check out the fish which was awesome).

Yesterday the 16^th we packed up and started driving further West to see what we could see, the road ended at a lagoon in a small town called Sanje so we packed a picnic lunch and caught the little Pirogue (makoro) over to the beach side (the guy working the boat had to have been the most defined muscular guy I have seen before, think I should take up running a little ferry for a few months after this trip to cut off the beer gut that seems to be developing). The beach was not great as it was steep but we found a palm tree facing the lagoon and mountain and had an enjoyable afternoon, its rough here in Africa… we then hopped back into the car with two locals and drove them to thier village while we tried to find some fresh food and a place to sleep for the evening, we arrived at mile 8, a little gem of a spot with no one else around so I think we will spend a day or two here while Clauds burns heal.

Mo has been great with almost no problems, however for the past few days I have been trying to dry out the passenger floor, there is pooling of water which has been baffling me, I thought it was condensation of the a/c unit, then I thought the rains were leaking somehow through the new roof carrier on her top, but this morning after much investigation I discovered that it is the a/c unit. Right by the center consol, under the dash by Clauds feet, water was dripping from the a/c unit, I unscrewed a few bolts and opened up the plastic container slightly and collected around half a litre of water, so in total I think I have collected around 1 litre… Dad, Ed someone please call a mechanic and let me know if the a/c filters are blocked or if this is normal, perhaps with the slow 4x4 and the a/c being on with the exhaust pipe right there this tends to happen (I don’t think it is right though).

So either than that life is sweet and its time to take a goef in the ovean, cheers from the J’s!!

Getting the lazy legs going again………….12th Feb

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew and Claudia) — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 12:23:00 +0000

Off we set for our 2 night, 3 day hike to summit Mnt Cameroon, and to experience the vastly contrasting countryside from humid jungle to savannah to black volcanic rock, craters, and of course shale and scrub as you get higher.

like land coral

Porters and a guide are obligatory but thank-goodness as you need to take plenty of water, food, sleeping bags, tents etc and it would be impossible to manage all of that for most. What an amazing experience and thank-you Dawn!!! for inviting us and the SA Woolworths stopover and all the catering, we ate like kings! And so glad we could join you – was clearly supposed to work out.

waiting for our guide and porters - African time!

Mount Cameroon last erupted in 2001, and the craters in the photos are from 1999 so very much still considered an active volcano, the eruptions kept at bay by the villagers appeasing the mountain God with sacrifices and dances. It is apparently said that the Mountain God lives in a cave on the mountain with a sugar cane plantation at the entrance to the cave and anyone is allowed to eat as much sugar cane as they can whilst there, but cannot take any away with them. From this the principle of take nothing but photos, leave nothing but footprints has been borne.

and we're off!

But it is NOT easy! If you don’t have much info on climbing the mountain (as we didn’t from Lonely Planet - Africa), and without any briefing before, be warned that it is difficult terrain over 3 days, and you climb from near sea level to 4085m by lunchtime day 2.

up, up and away!

are we nearly there??

No windy path, it’s just straight up, or straight down. In fact you can see the same village you leave from all the way up. Once you reach the summit, you then take a slightly more meandering path down and through some of the most fascinating scenery we’ve ever seen to Man Springs, but it’s a 17km walk on day 2 which includes summiting so it is challenging, and a 14km walk on day 3 all the way down on sore legs! But we really loved it and would definitely recommend it – you just need to turn a blind eye to the litter around the resting huts and take a tent rather, instead of sleeping in the huts which are past due a shake up. (so much for the Mountain God principle J)

like land coral

is that slippery path really on the edge of the crater?

"Queen Caterer" Dawn

horses on the back volcanic beach at Seme Beach Resort, Limbe

Dusk on the black beach sand

Wet Jungle roads? The least of our worries now…10th Feb

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew and Claudia) — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 12:20:00 +0000

Wahooo!! Cameroon! Immigration and customs was a doddle at Mfum on both sides of the river and Cameroom was a welcome sight. In fact, when we checked out of Nigeria, Immigration even asked us whether we had come in through an unmanned border rd and had then gone to Head Office for the stamp (as it was clearly from H/O) – which didn’t seem an issue at all and was clearly not the first time this had happened.

Whew - Cameroon Jungle roads still dry (just)

Cameroonian bridge we went over as we crossed the border.

Anyway, the rains haven’t really started so the roads were still ok but it’s clear how they could become very tricky very quickly. We drove all the way to Buea and set up at the Presbyterian Synob Office which is the starting point for climbing Mount Cameroon which we were going to do on the weekend with Dawn (friend from work based in Lagos) and her friends. I unfortunately had a small run in with a pot of some boiling oil that I dropped whilst trying to tip out……hmmm. Anyway, no emotional scars, maybe just some reminders of Cameroon for a while……maybe a long while….

from the frying pan into the fire

Have passports, will travel ………..9th Feb

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew and Claudia) — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 12:18:00 +0000

So of course we hit the road just before dawn and headed for the border. The road was surprisingly good all the way to Ikom, besides a patch just on the other side of Makurdi. We stayed in Ikom (10 hrs/630km from Abuja) at a pleasant hotel called Jangded in Ebusam Cr where we had a “Point and Kill” which is essentially a term for selecting your catfish which is swimming in a small pool and having it cooked the way you prefer. We didn’t partake in the point bit or watch the kill bit but it was surprisingly good with yam chips and the tomato ‘soup’ (stew) Tony cooked it in.

Cutting a very long story a little shorter....8th Feb

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew and Claudia) — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 05:55:00 +0000

We now have an Angolan Visa as you can only really get a transit visa anyway unless you are prepared to hang around for at least a week etc but our issue snowballed as now Cameroon didn’t want to issue us a 30 day tourist visa whilst we had 2 escorts (duh! who would?) and only a transit for 4 days with the option of going to the South African High Commission in Yaoundé to explain our situation and ask them for help……it is quite possible that one would not even make it to the capital in this time…….but with much begging and pleading and our escorts now explaining that they were there to assist us in any way, the head of Cameroon luckily had a personal immigration issue to resolve so tit for tat, we got sorted – which resulted in us having an escort back to immigration that afternoon by the Nigerian Officials and the Head of Cameroon embassy with his driver – was becoming loony tunes! But we did share a giggle with our officers who pointed it out.

So back at immigration, for over a week and our “file” has grown to over 25 handwritten pages and is still being passed around from office to office. We were then sat in front of an officer who is a lawyer and we got to write our entire statement being warned that anything could be used against us blah blah but besides wondering if we were going back to square one with a pending court case, we were relieved that someone, that was at least literate and articulate, had now asked US for our story.

He also said that he understood what we were going through as he had been stuck (as an immigration officer) at another country’s airport without a visa (for a whole 20 mins! before he was sorted) and again we had to make it clear that we had visas!!!! We were then put in front of the Deputy Head, a Dr with a string of academic acronyms behind his name and an office full of awards and accolades, and were told that he ‘was going to give us a soft landing, but we had broken the law by not reporting to immigration and not having visas’. Argh!!

So we showed him the signed proof that we had that Head Office had been consulted prior to us driving to Abuja and that we had visas and with a very puzzled look on his face, as the file had reached him previously in the week, he said that all we needed was an ‘endorsement stamp’…YES, breakthrough!!!!!!! He clearly at that point could not understand why anyone was wasting his time, and ordered for us to get the blooming “endorsement” stamp, reprimanding his colleagues/subordinates for mismanagement. 8 days of emotional abuse and we were sent to the original office where we started and were out within ½ hr with our silly little stamp! And have collected quite a few business cards for a ‘definite catch up’ in SA someday! So we are now sorted just before the final instruction was to have another escort to the border. Obviously that was clearly unnecessary once the small requirement was clear.

….Definitely the most frustrating 8 days ever.

But all in all, we still need to add that Nigeria was completely different to what we expected. We found the police and locals friendly and welcoming and although we’ve never seen so many guns and everyone in a uniform greets you with a massive rifle slung across their chest, we never felt threatened and all things considered, we thoroughly enjoyed Nigeria.

The Saga continued...2nd Feb

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew and Claudia) — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 06:02:00 +0000

Well it’s not over til the fat lady sings but after spending 9 hours at immigration on Monday (31^st Jan) staring at people doing nothing staring at us doing nothing, without passports and being told to exercise patience, we eventually left (at 6pm) once everyone had gone home (home time being in the air from about 2:30 after having literally done nothing all day and were told to return the next morning.

Without exaggerating, we sat in an office with 11 people and 4 of them did absolutely nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing but either sleep, stare, stare some more or page through the same couple of pages of the paper, the others might have stamped the odd passport, it was actually rather fascinating).

Do not take this route into Nigeria!

Tuesday we arrived armed with snacks and books to read (as we were obviously offered nothing the day before) and again we sat an entire day in waiting rooms waiting for we weren’t sure what, catching a glimpse of our ‘file’ that got bigger and bigger with more and more reports and notes written into it. No questions were allowed and obviously no pressure from us as you just can’t rock the boat. Somewhere, in the lower ranks, there was a MAJOR misunderstanding and with a mixture of complete incompetence, arrogance and broken telephone, our matter had ended up with the Head Controller of the Immigration Services, “Madame” who now wanted to see the file.

By now we had even managed to win some high ranking officers onto our side and having had an apology for the misunderstanding and an acknowledgement that it is not our fault if there are roads on the map that are not patrolled, we were still getting nowhere.

Late Tuesday now, it was agreed by Head of Operations that we would be escorted out of the country by an official (called Controlled Exit) once we had been accompanied to the Angolan and Cameroonian Embassies. So off we went again this morning to Immigrations (which is almost 40km away I might add!) and were preparing ourselves for another day of little progress. But we only waited about an hour and were assigned 2 officers to escort us. Already this is ridiculous as essentially if we were such a risk, we should never have been allowed out of anyone’s sight, but it’s clear that the mistake has been on their side but with all the commotion and senior involvement, there was no backing down and the process needed to seem rather formal.

So off we went to go get 2 visas in the next hour and begin our controlled exit with 2 surly officers treating us as if we were human traffickers by refusing to communicate at all. And guess what, you can’t just crack the whip and get 2 visas for other countries in an hour, surprise surprise!!! And we need to follow the normal process which was apply today for Angola and collect on Monday! So all that’s happened so far is that we have been kept in the country longer than we would have been in the first place. Whilst driving there, I managed to catch a few glimpses of our endless handwritten reports and figured out why the high ranking officer who was eventually on our side was laughing at our report and admitted that we were clearly being used as a punching bag as apparently the South African Embassy is messing with Nigerians at the moment. Still not sure how making an example of us was going to get back to the SA embassy.

Anyway, so the first section of the report specifies which Section of which Act of which Year blah blah we contravened and that we had already been in the country illegally for 3 days – which of course is not true as we had visas. The next section was a specific request “seeking approval for further interruption of journey and final repatriation of the couple” – approved! Ah hah, so go ahead and see how long their patience lasts…..ok, you win, this is a very silly game….The next section had something about how we were misled by Kontagora and that the border was in fact not manned. Thereafter, another report suggesting that officers assist us in getting visas and the last one I managed to read specified who.

View of Mosque from Sheraton Campsite and morning wake-up call

So that’s where we are, 10 days at the Sheraton Camp Grounds instead of 5, and we are sure that they could not be bothered to actually escort us out the country personally. In fact, not long into our travels today with our escorts, when it was clear we were not criminals, we were showing them on the map where we were going, got invited to the one guy’s wedding later this year, were told that immigration was clearly messing in our affairs and we would be given a letter for the border which would also quickly get us through any police stops so that our journey wasn’t interrupted any further – go figure! We didn’t even need to take our escorts back to the office as we offered to pay for a taxi for them and after a call to the office “to confirm finalization of their assignment – sir!”, we went on our way….we even got to the point of familiarity of sharing a bottle of peanuts.

But the fat lady has not yet sung and we have to report back to immigration once visas are complete for our final direction on which border we exit etc.

Big Boo Boo!

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew and Claudia) — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 07:03:00 +0000

So after spending another night in the Park with absolute camping exclusivity, and listening the roar of lions early in the morning, we set off for Kandi in Benin to refill with petrol (we had also given away to the Frenchies of course) and supplies. Hmm, well not quite the size of the dot as implied on the map and 3 petrol stations with not a drop of petrol, and petrol attendants waving us away from their dozes in the slithers of shade.

We did however find the Kandi Auberge and negotiated a camping fee for 2 nights and so spent a day dusting the contents of the car and getting the few supplies we could from the market, like pineapples, tomatos, onions and some random bottles of olives and tinned mushrooms in the sparsely stocked mud hut store.

We set off early the next morning before light for Nigeria, crossing in the North on a road clearly marked on the map as an ‘improved’ road. We asked for the route at the ‘Gendarmerie’ and luckily they happened to be going to the last village, ‘Segbana’ in Benin on the border so we followed them and had our own private police escort! Stamping out was easy as we directed the police on how to sign and stamp our Carnet and passports (so obliging when it’s actually a customs and immigration role!), and set off across the border anticipating a Nigerian immigration office on the other side. After reaching the first village, our GPS indicated that we had definitely crossed the border but there was no official station in sight. We pressed onto the next village and came across a stick boom and a police officer who said that we would need to continue to the next village, and even wrote down the villages we would pass through to our next point on the map, as they had no stamps available....and the ‘bush road’ as it’s called got smaller and smaller ending up with no visible tracks whatsoever, soil eroded motorbike paths and yet another tiny village that directed us onward.

Camels loaded to the gunnels with who knows what, plenty milling Moslem traders with dark sinister looks and sunglasses, although very friendly and no sign of immigration! Things were a little unsettling but we knew we were headed in the right direction.

Hmm, and then a few of our first water crossings, not my best! Sloosh through the first, skid and mud splatter through the next and freak through the next as water sloshed over our bonnet! Not a tree for a winch or a person in sight! Would have all been fine if I didn’t look across and even see that Andrew had misgivings in his expression! Anyway, we plunge on and the road comes to a dead halt with a massive expanse of water in front of us (at Rofia).....yes, we need to wait for the ferry to take us across the Niger Reservoir. I am by now comparing the fun of having a Thai massage on the beach versus the idea of putting Mo on a rickety ferry with a few other over laden trucks, whose engine is broken and therefore has two banana boats pushing it across from either side with a little motor boat engine, and of course, we have NO MONEY! Well, no Naira to pay, and too far a road to go all the way around. Now what?

Overladen truck loading onto ferry

Mo loading onto ferry

We hung around asking whether we could pay with dollars or a tin of beans but no luck! Eventually we asked a well dressed looking chap if he knew where we could exchange money and he literally pulled out his wallet and gave us the money for the ferry and waved us on our way. We wish you well Mr Saviour Nigerian man!

So Mo got loaded up and we put putted across to the other side! Whew! And on we went, still illegally in the country, desperately wanting to find some officials as opposed to holding thumbs we catch them off duty! We were stopped by an immigration hut on the side of the road and clapped our hands with glee which I think completely threw them. We were then asked to take a seat on the side of the road and explained our dilemma.....hmm, well we were supposed to go to Babana to get out stamps on the border (of course we were just supposed to know that) but they understood where we were coming from and directed us onto their offices in Kontagora, so off we went again, now well into the country as stowaways. We found customs as it was dusk, and the friendly officials were sitting outside washing their feet and enjoying Friday eve. Relief, as we had now been driving 12 hours and averaged a whole 22.5km/hr!!!!

After much banter and scrutinising of the map, they generously assisted us in stamping our Carnet for Mo and suggesting a motel to sleep at, suggesting we meet them in the morning to assist us with immigration. During the lengthy wait when you’re not actually too sure what’s going on, I was complimented on the fact that I had covered up (with my beach sarong) and was respectful as ‘those things’ are only for my husband! Andrew then got lectured on how he could possibly let a woman drive, although he thought it admirable and indicative of an independent woman, which we just giggled at as we weren’t too keen on rocking the boat admitting we actually had a right hand drive!

Hotel Safara was safe and clean and we even got to sit on the edge of a Moslem wedding that was held at the hotel, even as the power was unable to cope with all the eventualities and kept cutting! Next morning early, we met our customs officials as agreed and were escorted to the office using a separate car so that there was no thought by the next formality that we had perhaps paid a bribe to customs. What they did however explain to us is that we actually came along the smugglers route and would therefore be considered spies (aaah, so that’s what all the confused but cheerful dark glasses clan was all about!). And if we weren’t African, and American specifically, they would have definitely sent us on our way back to the border! Yay for Africa.

But not so successful, and after a long rehashing of our tale, they had no entry stamps and could only offer us illegal alien stamps for those that announce themselves when already in the country. Looong deliberations and much patience exercised, we were eventually told that we had to go back to the border escorted by an official! Not possible as we had to get to Abuja by Sunday to hit the Angolan embassy by Monday, the drop off day for the visa application.

A lot more hanging around and putting on a helpless quivery lip from myself, another solution was suggested whereby if we could instil enough trust, we would be allowed on our way to Abuja to head office (i.e. he was obliged to escort us to the border and if anything went wrong from us, he would lose his job). A colleague’s friend sent off into the market to buy airtime, a call to head office and we are allowed to go on our way on the promise that we would go to immigration first thing Monday morning in Abuja to meet Mr Kumle.

Our camping possie behind the Sheraton

Whew! So here we are, camping at the back of the Sheraton Hotel between the dump and the staff quarters washing line but all is good and if nothing else, we weren’t hassled once by officials along our unofficial road and have only encountered friendly, enthusiastic police and officials. Apparently the ‘official’ road just past the ‘official’ border has 20 stops within the first 20km all exercising their strategies of declaring right hand drive illegal or requesting papers or just directly asking for money. Perhaps ‘Mandela’ country has also been to our advantage as it’s usually the first question asked of us, and how is Mandela? Send our regards.

So we’re off to see Mr Kumle tomorrow, hold thumbs! If you haven’t heard from us in the next few days, at least you know of our last position! J

And of course the conclusion to anyone heading from Benin to Nigeria, rather go through the border via Nikki!

Our French cooks at the roadside truckers diner, R40 for 2 big beers, some yam, some goat (we think) and some liver wrapped in intestine (we think), some dragon slime (okra), chickpeas, rice and chill tomato sauce, all rather delicious :) and constitutions still strong

Bushveld Utopia

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew and Claudia) — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 11:26:00 +0000

We have been in Benin’s Northern game park called Penjari, for two days now, it is the true outdoor experience. We are camping in very basic locations where we seem to be the only people around, actually we have only heard one car this morning and nothing since. The camp we are at overlooks a spectacular dam and the sun is about to set. The Fish Eagles are calling and there are flocks of Bee Eaters and Hamerkops flying around (yes flocks, amazing!).

We have spotted plenty Elephant, hippo and crocks along with a plethora of local buck all similar to our own but slightly different from Impala to Roan Antelope, I feel like I am back in Botswana when we were 4x4'ing around and you were simply allowed to camp out anywhere with nobody else around... absolute bliss.

We had a very awesome evening last night when we set up in a spot that we weren’t sure we were allowed to be and around 20h00 a vehicle pulled in with their headlights focussed on us (oh hell have we done something wrong and is there another bribe, fine luring??). It ended up being 5 folk living in Benin, (a family of 4 chilled Frenchies and a local Benin friend from the village where they are working for a year) TOTALLY LOST, no fuel and no water!! We helped them out and they spent the evening, a truly spectacular time under a tree with bats that would fly in from time to time to pollinate the buds, everytime the bats arrived it felt and sounded like rain fall as they swooped amongst the branches and then off to feed on another tree to conclude the cross pollination.

Camping in the school yard

We ended our time in Togo with a day tour of the Tata houses up North which are miniature castles built in mud. Their religion is anamalism/ voodoo so there are fetishes outside the entrances for hunting, protection, curing of snake bites and fertility. Each mound has normally got blood and some sort of sacrifice (piece of a goats ear, guinea fowl parts etc.). We arrived late and were accommodated in a local school yard (what and awesome chilled out headmaster).

The Tata: You enter through a small door which can house chickens and a grinding mill, then through into a larger open area where the animals are kept at night and then upstairs to the living quarters and you can overlook the landscape for enemies from here. The round towers are silos for grain, nuts, and oil etc. We cant believe they still build the same fortresses and live in them. The initial design was based on a hollow Baobab tree and they then used the fortress to forge off predators and try to fight the westerners who wanted to take the strong males and females for slavery. A very informative and well worth visit. The main road through Togo is bad and very slow, plenty of potholes and trucks (Benin’s road structure seems to be in much better condition.

On a personal side we are loving the little villages and random places, however have had enough of the general understaning that the foreigner and specifically white man will provide and MUST provide... no mater what we are doing there is always a hand awaiting some sort of handout, even stopping on the side of the road in the most desolate of places we can find, we suddenly are encountered by one or two locals staring at us which eventually turns into a wanting hand... not happening on our side as it never ends...

Malaria? whats that?....

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew and Claudia) — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 11:15:00 +0000

Its Tuesday the 19^th January and we have now been in Togo for a few days, internet contact is very scarce and we cannot link in with our 3G for some reason. The local keyboards are also different to ours back in SA so emailing takes an incredibly long time figuring out where certain buttons are.

We left Green Turtle last Thursday and headed back to Accra to make a few changes to our gear and get some additional supplies. On our last day at Green Turtle we headed off to Cape Three points, the furthest land point to 0;0 so we calibrated our watches to the GPS as this was about the most accurate time possible by land. It is a very cool spot with a lighthouse and we got a short private tour by Charles, the local guy looking after the lighthouse, he is quite inventive and has made stacks of maps and directional arrows pointing to New York, Cape Town etc. Very cool and well worth the drive.

The final hours were also spent at the local hospital at Dixcove where Clauds has managed to pick up the big M (Maleria), we spent a few hours in the hospital waiting for the test results, they had run out of the 15min tests so had to wait for the slide to manually dry. We both were allowed to take a peep down the microscope. Malaria’s gestation period takes around 7 – 10 days and we had only been in Africa for 6 days which meant Clauds was bitten in the airport as we landed... lucky girl. We were a bit slack on initiating our malaria cure in South America so can’t blame that... my dear wife is really testing out her tolerance for diseases, but a quick three day course of anti malaria cure and she is right as rain!! We however did end off our day back at camp with some Crayfish and Tuna we bought in the market... delicious (the folks from SA and Belgium all pitched in for a real feast!!)

We entered Togo on Saturday eve a bit later than hoped as whenever someone tells you a journey will be 2/3 hours we need to adjust it to 5/6 hours. The police are fascinated by our vehicle so there is no way of getting away fast. The border crossing at Lome was pretty easy apart from our shipping company importing our car fully and not filing in the Carne (a temporary import and export permit) which meant the clearing agents had to spend 1.5 hours convincing the Gharnaians that the car was cleared. Anyway all was cleared and we left the border after 18h00. The Togo side was straight forward and they signed us through.

We found a little spot called Chez Alice which is 12km outside of Lome (capital of Togo) along the beach road which has some basic camping facilities but perfect for our needs (a running shower is a luxury which they had), cost per evening was CFA 1000 per evening each which amounts to around R 15.00 each.

On Sunday the 16^th we walked down to the beach which is not for swimming but were met by Dan, a very cool old local chap who showed us around his beach house which he had decorated in shells and other items off the beach, he also manufactures drums (some people are just born artists). Dan proceeded to spend the remainder of Sunday with us taking us off to the local market in Lome and took us out razzling in the evening to Gods Beach (we partied away with some locals just chilling in different nightclubs). He also found out the exact whereabouts of the Angola embassy for us and we all caught a taxi in on Monday morning (with slight hangovers).

Dan's House

The embassy was closed... DAMMIT!!! For no apparent reason however the guards tell us that they had a ministry meeting or something, sounds like absolute bull but we will try again on Tuesday. The Angola visa is very important for us to get as we cannot enter the DRC without it and there are very limited embassies. In the meantime our small camera has packed up but some locals believe they can fix it so we left it in town.

Tuesday 18^th and we head back to the bloody embassy by ourselves after the 35 min taxi ride and the usual 15min mortorbike ride (very fast and really great for the adrenaline rush) we skid into the embassy gates again... we get the same guards blankly looking at us stating they do not know why but the secretary general we needed to see had not come to work and we should come back tomorrow... NO WAY MUTHERS!! So we sat at the gates and said we would wait until someone arrived at work who could assist us... we were quickly given a telephone number of the head hancho and were informed that we could apply for our visa here but it would take 7 – 10 days as the visa needs to be sent off to Abuja in Nigeria, the same would need to be done if we went to the embassy in Benin which was our next stop as we do not want to spend too much time in Nigeria but alas it seems like we are off to Abuja to get our visas...

Dan the man found us on Tuesday evening and insisted we have a fish braai at his spot with some local Cusava/ Jam and a fantastic sauce. We had to buy all the ingredients and he would cook, we couldn’t say no and had a really superb evening feeding some locals who also pulled in (the whole community seems to really help one another out), we even had a drumming session under the full moon... The Togoliese have to be some of the most hospitable people we have met on our journey thus far including South America. (any one going to Chez Alice should definitely find Dan whom you will find straight down on the beach, he has the last house on the right with the red doors, he is awaiting every ones arrival...)

This morning Wednesday 19^th, Clauds went to town with Dan to pick up the camera (which is still broken), i packed up the car and we started driving around lake Togo, we misunderstood the Lonely Planet and drove to a town called Togoville expecting some accommodation... NOT!! We were informed once we arrived in this small town that the resorts we were looking for were on the other side of the lake where we had just come from, there was however one “hotel’ in town... we negotiated a price for camping in their back yard and have set up camp next to a slightly green pool. We have everything we need including flushing toilets and showers so it has worked out fairly well. I must admit the best thing about our trip has been the total randomness in every aspect, from the people to accommodation to roads etc. Well we sit here on a small stretch of grass with a great dinner of chicken, tomatoes, onion, rice and chilli boiling away and you have to remind yourself how cool Africa can be!!

Tomorrow we head North in Togo looking at some waterfalls as we are wanting to go to one of the game parks in North Benin so we figured we would begin the Northerly route now as we need not go to the capital of Benin which is on the coast.

On our congrats list:

Ammy and Mark your new addition Mia is absolutely adorable congrats again!!!

Ed and Gail congrats on your wedding anniversary.

Later

Surfs Up!

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew and Claudia) — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 06:20:00 +0000

Tuesday morning 07h00, surfs up so we head off down the beach to a little cove and spend the morning in the ocean (my surfing skills definitely need some serious work)... wow what an amazing way to spend Tuesday morning!!

We met up with some other Saffers that are heading home from the UK so joined them for a Tuna Braai last evening and we are heading off in a short while to go and try to catch some Crayfish for dinner this evening... rough life!! Hopefully tonight we will also see some turtles as this will be our third attempt at seeing them.

Things are going really well since we arrived in Ghana, our kit all seems to be working great and we have definitely made the right decision on all the gear we have bought along. MASSIVE THANKS to all our mates that supplied us with music, now that we are in the car we spend hours going through all your playlists, its freaking awesome. We got a bit nostalgic looking around the car the other day and identifying all the little gadgets and things that our family and friends have given us for this trip, everything we have been given seems to be in full use.

Tomorrow we are going to try and find a spot called “Cape Three Points” which is the closest land point to 0.0, even though we are about 5 degrees South no other land point is closer, should be interesting.

Its time for us to grab some dinner, so were off down the beach to test our skills at catching dinner...

Trouble with the Law

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew and Claudia) — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 09:00:00 +0000

How is this spot we have just arrived at for a few nights? It’s called Green Turtle Lodge and it’s about 30km west of Takoradi (+/- 230km west of Accra).

As we mentioned before, we decided to go west a bit to test out our gear so we can pass through Accra again and get anything we need on our eastward bound route home. Also, we are getting a gauge on how far we can drive in a day – 200km in about 5 hours so we reckon we looking at 50 days of 200km (max) – so far……..

We stopped at Big Milly’s Backyard on the way for 2 nights, fantastic place and a Reggae party that rocked until 1:30 this morning – we jived til the end and wondered if the singer was really singing as it could have been Bob himself he was so good, but no valuables allowed on the beach, perhaps a little too close to Accra.

We got hit with our first and hopefully last unsuccessful police stop today as we didn’t take the curbed police lane past their hut and went straight – OOOPS!!!! With much whistle blowing and running out in front of us we were asked if we thought we were the president….apparently an enormous offense and after having the reckless driving law read out to him, Andrew managed to escape a court appearance tomorrow, a MASSIVE fine and handing in his license and credit card. I sat in the car waiting patiently as only he was summoned and when he eventually returned, Inspector Ken was giving him his personal cell number, just in case, told me that Andrew was such a good man, and with a spot fine, we were sent on our way, with much warning about being careful – just as the haggling started because he was wearing slip slops and something about a right hand drive car being illegal. I am already exhausted by the endless stops and the inevitable “what have you got for me for New Year?” but we were warned! Completely worth it when we get to paradise for a mere R22 each per night for camping (we get to use the ablutions).

And CONGRATS to our blog manager, Craig, and Carissa on their engagement – excellent choice you two!! Very happy for you, you make a brilliant couple!

It began in Africa....

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew and Claudia) — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 08:57:00 +0000

Happy New Year everyone! May 2011 be as good as we started it.

Wow, what a bash! Gilly and Manuel took us to the Yacht Club which was a party and a half – the best New Year we can remember (sort of remember J!). Thanks guys for such an awesome time! What a pleasure to stay with you and have familiarity and luxury all in one! A seriously interesting day on the Favela tour watching (out the corners of our eyes, sunglasses pointed the other way) guys count out money, gun on belt surrounded by bags of marijuana!

Your apartment is awesome, and we could see Christ from our bedroom and didn’t feel the need to HAVE to go up there and do the touristy thing. Naughty naughty, and thanks to Gill for offering us pics of Christ that we could pretend we took J

So we left Rio, and flew to Sau Paulo and onto SA for a short stop over. We were met by the fogles who took us home for a home cooked meal and Daryl and Chris came over. What a lovely and random stop over – we could have had a week more to catch up. Was great to see our pooches who have been somewhat Wilsonified and after they eventually managed to heave themselves out of their new “baskies” they suddenly recognized Andrew and went berserk – it was very cute. But it was back to the airport after a few hours and onto Ghana. Minus one bag but safely there and making camp at Guy’s house – what a pleasure to have a base. And there was Mo, patiently waiting for us, what an awesome sight.

After a good sleep, we missioned out to Shoprite to gather supplies like a fire extinguisher and gas bottles which we weren’t allowed to ship but we came back with neither and a car full of everything else – over 4 hours later, getting lost and of course becoming accustomed to driving on the wrong side of the road with a right hand drive!!

6^th Jan

Today we missioned (notice second use of this non-existent word!) off to the Nigerian embassy to apply for a visa – and of course armed with all the docs we reckoned we needed, we still had to go back and gather another 5 docs – honestly ridiculous but there’s no arguing. We made it back late by 10 mins and a few less hairs as we don’t get another chance til next week and fingers crossed we get to collect Andrew’s bag and the visa tomorrow. We have decided to head west tomorrow to test our kit (we head East home) and then come back East thereafter on our big venture along the coast.

Very comforting to be able to open the window to an apple seller and ask him in English how much he is selling his fruit for and he answers in perfect English. Quite a difference to Kwanto Es? And then we don’t actually understand the response and just look at each other and hand over a big note and see how much change we get. Ghana and Nigeria are English speaking countries, Togo and Benin will be French and then a lot of French after that but at least it’s better than my Spanish!

Congrats to Abs and Neil on their new daughter Madeline, and we wait with baited breath for your daughter Am and Mark, hopefully she decides to make an appearance in the not too distant future!

Rio and counting???

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew and Claudia) — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 09:47:00 +0000

So here we are in Rio (WOW... ) I have always had this romantic idea of Rio and five hours in, so far so good...

We spent an extra eve on “our little private island” Ile Grande, what an AWESOME place (anybody thinking of a honeymoon or little get away I don’t think it could be beat). We have spent the last six days chilling by the beach, snorkelling around the island, riding in speedboats, discovering waterfalls, checking out some cute monkeys, meandering among a plethora of beaches and catching “taxi boats” that look like they should be a toy floating in a kids bath... LIFE COULDNT BE BETTER!!!!!!

Anyway back to Rio, and today we truly understood the frustration with the Brazilian transport system, we were sold (on the island) a three hour high speed boat cruise into Rio harbour where we then would be privately shuttled to our residences (only 20 people per boat)... Yeah right... we were shuttled onto a very cool colourful old boat and spent over an hour chugging along to some random port, then shafted into a minivan, where they did fit 20 people and our luggage (my legs are at least 6 inches too long for the space provided), and we shunted along to Rio which eventually took us over five hours... evidently we were lucky and got here safely so again we right it off to a great experience and i will no longer be grumpy...

I am writing this blog in Clauds’s university friends (Gill and Manuel’s) apartment 16 storeys high with a view overlooking Leblon beach and on the other the statue of “Christ”, an absolutely beautiful spacious parquet floored spot having a Vodka lime and soda at around 27 degrees, we feel at home already and looking forward to a true Rio New Year!! (FYI we were informed of basic housing costs around here and Cape Town sounds like a bargain).

I better inform you that Clauds has been to the doctor this afternoon as she has picked up another crazy disease, you were not told about the first being Ringworm that she contracted somewhere in Bolivia, but we were not aloud to talk about as she was so freaked out. She now has something called Limphonites (or something like that) that she contracted from cutting her foot on the island on some rocks and it has now spread. She thought it was just a slightly infected cut this morning that was pretty painful but Gill managed to swindle a doc appointment this pm, and yes my wife is once agiain infected... so Mr Anal is once again freaking out about general disease (this however is just an infection and cannot be transmitted like Ringworm where I quarantined my wife... no touching for a week...)

Thats it for now, off to sort out the lasagne before the ladies have too much wine.

Hope you all had a fabulous Christmas and are looking forward to a superb end to 2010......!!!!!!!

The Karma Sutra of sleeping on a bus

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew and Claudia) — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 09:41:00 +0000

19^th and 20^th December

Made our way further up the Uruguayan coast to Points Del Diablo, only about a 2 hour ride from the playground of the rich and famous (Del Este) but worlds apart. Think left over hippie fishing town, only sandy beach roads, small cabin type housing, no ATM, and kms and kms of unspoilt beach. Evidence of (unfortunately dead) but nevertheless a turtle on the beach with vultures eating it and another dolphin relative with a long thin toothy bill. Bren, thought of you as we galloped along on Rosenor and Emilo our beautiful and very obliging horses for the morning. What a treat, and half way during the ride, we stopped to let the horses explore in the forest and Fabio whipped out a bottle of red wine and a bag of biscuits which we duly made our way through passing it between us (no glasses) at about 9:30 in the morning!

The hostel we stayed in was probably our best so far, built by a young couple a year ago for that reason so it’s very functional. Massive open kitchen and sitting area. It was full and quite a walk into town (say 25mins) so most people cooked for themselves in the evenings – quite an interesting affair to have 10 people cooking in the kitchen, all different meals and all different nationalities.

We set off the next day on a mammoth walk along the beach into the reserve which is really an old Fort on the hill and a massive camp ground – we would guess about 1000 sites in the pine and blue gum forest that was pretty much empty but we were told by Fabio that from New Year the season picks up and the little village of Diablo goes from a mere 700 people to 30 000 and the camp grounds are packed! Once we had done the 12km I think was all it was but it felt much further, the idea of walking all the way back was just a bit much and we couldn’t seem to work out how to catch a bus back and not too many people around to ask, so we eventually spoke to some military guys who flagged their fishermen buddies down and we climbed into the rust bucket and got driven back. We paid a ridiculous price but it was worth it and they couldn’t believe their luck as their drinking money just suddenly appeared!

So far Uruguay has been our favourite country and took us by surprise as we hadn’t heard much about it along the way. But we need to move on, Brazil and Ile Grande is calling for Christmas.

The Karma Sutra of sleeping on a bus – 283 positions that leave you with a stiff neck!

5 buses later, and 53 hours exactly and we arrive in Paraty, an entire day late and still married!!

Wowee, how we underestimated that one. The one serious drawback not being able to speak the lingo is that making future travel plans is near impossible so we hop on a bus and only when we get to the next stop can we devise our next move. We gauged that we’d hit Paraty by the 22^nd but could not gauge exactly how much waiting time was required between bus legs. So, an 8 hr wait and then another 5 here and there becomes an interesting test of patience! And we thought a bus ride to Cape Town was long, try 20 hours with a toilet that absolutely honks and a seat that is impossible to get comfy in. But if you manage to get 2 seats, the best way to lie is facing the seats, head on the aisle side and feet at the window, trust me, I have tried all of them! If on the other hand you are my poor husband, you sit up right with the person in front consistently trying to put their seat back and getting a knee in the their back, with head lolling about when he sleeps. But we managed and arrived to an incredibly kind host and exquisite villa we had all to ourselves as he was closing the next day for Christmas – who gave us a beautiful breakfast for free and didn’t charge us for both nights. So worth remembering – Pousada Acquarela, belonging to Emerson.

Paraty is gorgeous!!! Cobbled streets, white houses with coloured window frames and shutters. Art shops, seafood, mini islands off the mainland and rows of brightly painted wooden boats offering rides. Pity we missed our other night there for a smelly bus!

24^th December

Another bus, but a quick one! And a ferry ride takes us over to Ile Grande where we get 4 nights! Paradise found! It’s everything we were hoping for. Palms, boats, white sand, warm water and great food! We have also been lucky with a beautiful Pousada to stay in that has a pool and a perfect view of the bay.

25^th December

Ho! Ho! Ho! – Merry Christmas everybody!!!

What a beautiful day. Packed our towels and off we went on an island exploration hopping from one mini beach to the next. The one crossing required a bit of swimming so we wrapped the towels around my neck as I had inherited a tube from some party animals the night before. Andrew got the giggles and took some photos of me – said this one was for you Gav – “tits bobbing!” and the slip slops pic is especially for Rob and Em – check ‘em out! Have sent you the odd message but I don’t think sms’s are going through. Hope your wedding was spectacular. We heard it was awesome and can’t wait for the pics and detail!

We met a really lovely Dutch couple that we spent Christmas dinner with, they are just here for the weekend living in Sao Paulo. The restaurant (that Lize had booked way in advance) is tucked away in the middle of the forest a short(ish) walk along the beach all secluded. Fantastic evening, we decided we would be each other’s family for Christmas.

26^th December

Again, another “hellish” day in paradise. Set off this morning in a speedboat for a day trip around the island stopping off at beaches along the way to snorkel, swim, laze around and explore. The island is about 32km in length so it was a full day’s excursion finishing off with lunch at a beach restaurant. If this place wasn’t as expensive as it is, I think we’d be hanging around a lot longer!!

Salt anyone?

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew and Claudia) — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 12:37:00 +0000

Wow, well it’s been a while since we updated the blog. Was such a treat to hit civilisation again in Argentina that we have been seriously chilling and even updating the blog is clearly too much effort.

So After La Paz, we hopped on a bus to Oruru and from there managed to get the last 2 cattle class tickets on the train to Uyuni where the salt plains are in Bolivia. The train really makes a nice change to the bus with that rhythmic rocking and being able to just watch the world go by. The scenery was beautiful, probably a bit like the Karoo as a comparison with dust devils and mountains in the background. We spent a day in Uyuni, which you can see in 45mins and booked for the salt plains tour the next day.

The scenery was startling. Salt plains as far as the eye could see which could be ice from it’s looks (not the heat!) dotted with islands of cacti and volcanic rock, and even the odd bird. The first night we spent in a salt hotel – the whole thing is built from salt bricks and even has some sort of salt mortar. The photo shows how they literally cut the salt bricks from the plains with an angle grinder and they are the perfect width as the next layer was much more powdery. Wish we could have brought a few bricks home for the farm – pure salt licks!

The next day saw us going into red dust terrain to see lagoon after lagoon with flamingos. Again interesting and extraordinary, from Borox mining and arsenic lagoons – we’re not really sure as our guide didn’t speak a word of English and talking about terrain and mining hasn’t been in our frame of reference, we just getting by ordering food, a room for the night and a bus.

Anyway, maybe we can look up Lagoon Verde for more info as it was also promoted for being the 8^th wonder of the world.

The 2^nd night we stayed in what could have been a mud hut in Hammanskraal (minus the litter) which was fun, just incredibly cold at night but wow!! what a night sky!!

Seem to have no concept of date, time and day so can’t remember when we left but we made our way back in the train to Argentina from Uyuni the next night. We stopped in Villazon, on the Bolivian side and made our way to the border which was a few km walk – amazing how you can get around with acting out, miming, pointing and the odd Spanish word. We somehow worked out that you need to walk across the border and catch a taxi into town and then a bus from there. So we hit Salta – a beautiful Argentinian town with a population of about 500k. Back to a normal altitude, shops, restaurants, cleanliness.

Yet another big bus ride to Mendoza which was selected as a destination when Rob and Jax gave us the coffee table book about off the beaten track places to visit! Mendoza was compared to Napa Valley and we decided to pin point it as a destination. 19 hours later we arrived in Mendoza –beautiful! The pavements are wide, the houses are quaint and the restaurants are plenty!! Meat, meat and more meat, we had such an awesome steak – and I have to admit, Argentinian meat is better than SA!! And we keep trying it to ensure that it really is the case! We ended up staying 5 nights in Mendoza and going for a run the one day now that we could breathe at a normal altitude. Mendoza also has a massive park (500 hectares) to explore including stadiums, water, rose garden etc. It’s very popular to hire bicycles and cycle round the wine farms which we did yesterday and then end of with a chocolate and preserve factory – awesome day out!!

We have also been pretty amazed at the time schedules and haven’t quite accepted the siesta thing – blooming inconvenient when you want to go to the shops anytime between 2 and 5/6. Even the banks and the mid sized supermarkets! Then everything is open til 10 or so and the restaurants don’t start filling up til at least 10/10:30. What is fascinating is the fact that small kids are also still up having dinner 11pm with their parents.

15 December

On the road again.........

We’re off to Beunos Aires overnight, another 14hr bus ride!

16^th December

Beunos Aires for the day and just couldn’t pass on the opportunity to go to a Tango in the evening – very romantic! But we’ve realised that big cities hold little attraction for us so we only stayed 1 night and then caught the high speed boat across to Montevideo, and up to Punta Del Este. Lovely here!! Apparently the playground of the rich from Argentina and Brazil and certainly looks it. Mixture between Plett and CT in terms of accommodation, high rise apartment blocks and exquisite individual homes all mixed in together. We are staying about 5mins from the beach and 2 mins from the shops which are all Louis Vuiton, Tommy Hilfiger, and beautiful decor shops!

Off to go and do our normal lunch thing which is to find a supermarket, buy some wine, rolls, ham and tomato etc and sit in the park and ‘make picnic’!

Wishing you all a safe and happy Christmas break! Will be thinking of you all. xx

The Hygiene Chronicles!

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew and Claudia) — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 06:53:00 +0000

YEEEHAA!!! Just got news that Mo has landed safely in Ghana, cleared customs, no damage and is already parked at the house waiting for us, HUGE THANKS TO ED, GUY AND ANDY FOR SORTING THAT OUT!!!!!

We are travelling South by train (with all the locals as we got the last two cattle class tickets as everything else was sold out, lucky us!) to Uyuni, the salt plains in Bolivia and I cant believe that we are almost one month down in our trip. We finally spent some time yesterday trying to choose the rest of our route before Christmas in Ile Grande, Brasil.

We are generally living at around 3800 MASL which means there is no extra exercise or exertion as you loose your breath walking up a flight of stairs, looking forward to some normal heights so we can breath again...

We did Death Road yesterday out of La Paz, it was AWESOME!!! 63km downhill on a dirt track, starting at an altitude of 4700m and finishing at 1000m (MASL). Clauds was fantastic and whipped over half of the teams ass in getting down, luckily you don’t have to look over the edge too much as you are pretty much focussed on the track ahead of you so we had no height issues. It is definitely the way mountain biking should be done... the tour company “Overdose” is very jacked which unfortunately means that they do quite a few stops on the way down to check everyone is alright and keeping together. The vegetation was amazing, starting high up above the clouds with no vegetation and finishing at the start of the Amazon basin.

I had a bit of a wobbly in La Paz (which is just another typical 3^rd world city, too many indigenous) with the cleanliness of our hotel. Showering in luke warm water with my flip flops on and refusing to walk around the room without shoes is not my kind of establishment. When leaving this morning I found an old ear bud under my bed and it was time to get out, on the bright side they only charged us the equivalent of R 120.00 per eve for the both of us including a terrible breakfast. While discussing hygiene I better explain what occurs while heading to the head to have a session (dump); firstly on entering a general abode check the floor as you are probably going to slip (shoes are essential even in your hotel), you then need to establish whether your throne has a toilet seat or not (I can't fathom what these people do with toilet seats but it seems to be quite the rage to steal them). Ok so you have now established your view for the next few minutes, you get ready to make a “crows nest” (putting loo paper around the dirty toilet seat so you don’t actually have naked skin touching it), but ALAS!! there is no toilet paper so off you run to go and find some crummy single ply that will do the job, FYI never blow your nose with the toilet paper over here, it all ends up decorating your chin and shirt. Right, the urge is now getting desperate and you make it back to your “happy place”, perch on the end of the seat and try to have a moment in peace. During your session you look around for some reading material and what do you find on the dirty wall in front of you? something in bloody Spanish with a terrible translation explaining that you need to place ALL toilet paper into the bin next to you, and you wonder do they really mean ALL the toilet paper?? so you kind of stare over at the overflowing bin next to you and realise that the smudge marks on the paper is not from the ladies wiping off their mascara but something oh so much more vulgar. Your moment of peace and glory is shattered and your sphincter valve freaks out and shuts down before you could 100% complete the daily chore... so you get up, add some more stench to the dustbin, flush if there is any water and hope like hell that you can sterilise your hands on the way out before having to manoeuvre around the germ infected door knob ... SESSION OVER!!!

Copa.....Copacabana......da da da da da da da dah da duh dah da da!

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew and Claudia) — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 06:51:00 +0000

27^th November

Copacabana

Copa.....Copacabana......da da da da da da da dah da duh dah da da!

So after our indulgent night of pizzas and whatever English movie we could find on the TV, we set off for Ile de Sol the next morning, cocoa leaves stuffed into our cheeks to assist with the altitude. Instead of catching the easy route on a ferry to this Island off Copacabana, we decide to walk the 17km to the closest point as the crow flies to the island and hire a row boat to take us across.

It’s a good walk, especially at over 4000m in places, uphill is a new experience. But really worth it with amazing views of Lake Titicaca and walking through the tiniest of villages, it’s hard to imagine how they survive. Andrew assisted the boatman across by having a go with the oars.

We only took the basics with us (most hostals are happy to store your stuff, all in good faith from our side) and found a little hostal on the island run by the typical looking Bolivian woman. Long thick black plaits, usually with additions at the end that look like dangly tassley things you hold curtains back with, squat, thick gnarled nails, bowler hat on and lots of layers of skirts. Electricity and hot water were not guaranteed and we didn’t crack it lucky but were lucky to get fed as all but one restaurant on that side of the island actually had food and we had picked it luckily before the rest of the island visitors (say 12 people) came in, drawn by the candle light in the window (no electricity).

29^th November

Another hike to the Northern side of the island through little cultivated terraces along the coast, to catch the ferry back to Copacabana. Andrew braved a swim in the Lake, and then we sat on the bay shore munching our huevo and tomato sandwiches that or hostel hostess had made for us. After a very long ferry ride back, I think we walked faster, we hit the bustling metropolis of Copacabana (all 3 streets or so!) and found a pub run by an English guy who gave us interesting insight into living in Bolivia as a Gringo. Been there for 10 years and only now is being accepted into the community even after supporting and sponsoring the local soccer team, being engaged to a local and bringing money into the community. Said he was even expected to supply the booze at one of the local’s weddings because clearly he must be rolling. Hard to believe that you don’t lose faith.

30^th November

And we’re off again, to La Paz, the biggest city in Bolivia. Thought we were very smart to find a direct 4hr bus trip for R15 but realised quickly that you get what you pay for. I think direct means that you don’t veer much off the direct route but you stop constantly to pick up and drop off locals, fish in buckets, pick herbs from the side of the road, drop off gas bottles and poor Andrew could literally not fit into the seat without the guy in front of him having 2 knees in his back. And similar to home, fresh air is not a priority and some windows can’t even open up anymore. Anyway, we had a tussle with the old lady in front of us as we’d open the window and she’d promptly shut it – she won.

30^th November

La Paz

Just another big smelly city........but a popular mountain bike ride is on the cards for tomorrow, 60km downhill along “the most dangerous road in the world”. I had opted out on this one and decided that jewellery shopping might be more my thing until FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) set in, so here goes. Only an average of 100 people die each year!

The Friendly Swiss!

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew and Claudia) — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 07:20:00 +0000

21^st November

Cock of the Rock Lodge

We set off early in the morning on our Jungle Tour which started in Cusco and drove down through into the cloud forest for night 1. We actually did see the Cock of the Rock which is the Peruvian National Bird, bright red – very pretty. Our trip was booked out of season so we were only a group of 4, a Swiss couple in their 40’s and us. But we are polite and ask them some questions to pass the time at our candle lit dinner.

Cock Of The Rock

22^nd November

Manu Wildlife Centre

Once we had driven all the way to river level, we hop into motorised dugouts and start a 7 hour boat ride down the river. Beautiful!

Cannot get over the size of the trees, they are all monstrous – even the banana plantations – the trees towered above us.

Manu Wildlife Centre is abandoned besides our little group as far as tourists go (it holds about 60), some wildlife biologists and a National Geographic photographer who had been literally waiting for over a week in a hide for the Tapir and Spider Monkeys to come eat clay at the clay lick. He has food brought to him and just waited (no showering clearly)........apparently his American NatGeo Producer had seen a clip from ’94 of a baby spider monkey slipping off the branch and falling into the mud and this was now the script and she would settle for nothing less and he (Alistair McCuin) was sent out to refilm this in high definition!! Caused much shaking of heads in the camp.

Manu Wildlife Centre

We went and watched macaws and parrots eating clay early in the morning (assists in digestion) which was very cool. The Swiss are going off already.

23^rd November

Manu Wildlife Centre

Our guide is excellent as far as spotting wildlife goes as well as teaching us all sorts about the plants, butterflies, mammals, frogs and mainly birds. Couldn’t fault him. English wasn’t great but certainly good enough. We didn’t see as many animals as I was expecting but we did see Capaibara, Aguti, Tamarins, spider monkeys, brown cappachin monkeys, woolly monkeys......no tapir after hours of waiting at the hide and no jaguar even though they were around. The Swiss still haven’t asked us one question but we’ve had to trawl through pictures of their house, children, dog.......

24^th November

Manu Wildlife Centre

Awesome ox bow lake raft ride – saw plenty birds and even the Agami Heron which was apparently enough to give an ornithologist a reason to visit as it skulks around at the edge of the water, very slowly and of course the edges are seriously overgrown – still not sure how Klaus even saw it in the first place.

We couldn’t find any DEET with more than 7.5% - not that I am sure anything would keep the mozzies away, we are being noshed alive, but no potential of disease, just itchy and irritating. I’d rather sit in silence than try and have shallow comments stating the obvious with naive and stupid Swiss.

25^th November

Puerto Maldonado

More travelling down river, by boat, then road, then boat to get to Puerto Maldonado where we fly back to Cusco.

I thought Andrew was going to murder the taxi driver as he drove an automatic car with one foot on the brake and the other on the accelerator – simultaneously and accelerated and then slowed down continuously for 140km. I got to watch from the back (squashed next to 2 smelly Swiss) as he also expanded on the uses of an ear bud. First, you swivel it in one ear, inspect the success of the dig, then hold it between 2 fingers while you hold onto the steering wheel. Then, pop it into the next ear, inspect again. Once satisfied, push the cotton part off each side and flick those out the window, and finally chew each end into a tapered point which you can use as a toothpick. Once process complete, throw out the window.

I refuse to try to be nice anymore, the last straw being when Swissie asked me whether I thought the driver flicked his lights and hazards as we went past other drivers to let them know that he had important people in the car. I just nodded and said probably, what was the point? The naughtiest thing she had ever done was let the service light in her car stay on for 3 days before doing something about it.

26^th November

Fly Back to Cusco.

Jungle tour was fantastic and I think we really got a good feel for the real jungle, it was expensive but worth it, and one can understand the expense when you look at the logistics of supplies and the empty boats that go back up the river and all staff including boatmen are employed all year round even though there is no revenue for the rainy months of the year.

Spent the last day travelling with an English Wildlife Biologist who lives in Peru who told us a bit about the gold mining activities and the impact on the river. Unfortunately tonnes of mercury are being dumped into the river every year as the daily process of extracting the gold results in the miners just allowing the mercury to evapourate into the air which condenses and goes into the river. They are finding mercury in fish that “uncontacted” villagers are eating on a 3 day boat trip up the river. The miners could use equipment to either reuse the mercury or at least save the environment but as Rob said, mercury is about 0.5% of their operating costs and all they are worried about at the end of the day is how much gold they have and whether it means beers and a prostitute or just a stripper. We say good bye to the Swiss, and 6 days later, they still don’t even know what we do back home. Adios!

Hop onto an overnight bus to make our way into Bolivia. We have arrived in Copacabana which is 3800m above sea level and both of us can feel it a little. Fuzzy headache and getting up to our hotel room is exhausting stuff up those stairs but the view is beautiful of the little village over the edge of Lake Titicaca with all the boats and restaurants.

Our hotel is USD$20 for the night and we have a double bed, single bed, TV, view and on suite bathroom – we just ordered room service pizzas and decided to stay in, acclimatise and watch TV J

Thursday 18th Update

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew and Claudia) — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 07:14:00 +0000

Today we are both fairly stiff but have completed the four day Inca trail finishing at Machu Picchu. The walk only covered a distance of around 32 km but took us over four peaks with the highest being 4200 meters above sea level, so some days you dont cover much territory but mother do you cover some pretty steep treks (Emm and Rob “Four Peaks” came to mind often)… the hike was absolutely beautiful and much of it was walked along original Inca trails which consist of stone walkways which ultimately cover thousands of kilometres around the country.

3am in the rain and not loving life

We had an awesome group of 18 people with 18 porters and three guides. The food selection was absolutely amazing for a hiking experience with spreads that were absolutely delicious, I have been working on my garlic tolerance and think there may be a breakthrough, perhaps the altitude and cocoa leaves are helping…

Machu Picchu - A pile of tourists rocks

Machu Picchu was pretty cool to see but quite frankly not my cup of tea, the place is one massive pile of rocks and has turned into a tourist “rip off” station, yes there is some pretty cool history around but after walking for four days and seeing a crap load of Inca sights I just couldn’t find the huge attraction with MP. We did however also walk Wayna Picchu, this is a steep hill which is part of MP, and has some seriously steep steps in certain areas.

Wayna Piccho 4 Ammi

Unfortunately Clauds really does not do heights and had a bit of an panic attack at the top and we had a few tears of desperation (Annmarie your friend is going to kill you for making her head up there, as this is an open blog I will not inform you of the choice words you were called yesterday coming down). The weather was a bit misty but the experience was overwhelming.

Dead Women's Pass - 4200m above sea level

Stunning Chick with a view

We spent a few days in Cusco before the hike and will be spending another few here before we head off on our six day jungle tour, hopefully we will get to see some good wildlife and just be able to chill in the rainforest for a while. Cusco has a few historic attractions but it seems to be a large hub for backpackers, every turn you seem to be presented with another hostel. We spent our first few evenings in a hostel called Loki which accommodates 250 people. It was way too hectic for us old bullies as the bar pumps continually and we unfortunately got the room just behind the bar (sometimes we do need to relax and rest up).

Cusco Market

Today we have moved to a very cool little spot called Eco Packers which allows us for the first time to make a home cooked meal tonight and grab a chilled bottle of wine while lounging in the courtyard… Clauds has had a few stomach pains since yesterday so it is really great to just hang out.

Cusco Main Plaza

Huacachina

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew and Claudia) — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 06:23:00 +0000

Yo my home land... so we are here, landed and finally chillin, got rid of my concerns yesterday after stressing about which backpack and why my jeans were soaked in wine.

Lima was cool, but not so much, lots of cathedrals and crappy weather, thoroughly enjoyed my morning run (Nicks, Oscar’s double was running with me) and travelling on the local transport. The weather was overcast and “about to rain” but really doesn’t. Baracca Backpackers treated us well (we thought Baracca was the name of the owner only to find it is actually a suburb... naive us!) and sent us on our way to Huacachina a little oasis in the middle of the desert. Spent last eve with my stunning wife surfing dunes and having a few drinks, woke up this morning apologising for having a few too many drinks (R 60 all you can drink and eat buffet for 1.5 hours) but ahoy... was informed by Clauds that this will happen again.

Sand boarding in Huacachina

Dune Buggy in Huacachina

The folks here are very cool but not too much different to the indigenous back home (I need to state that in my writing I do not mean to be racist or demining in any way, just honest...) for instance we sit here on a top storey of the backpackers overlooking the most awesome dunes but if you focus on the detail there is a chair, toilet seat and a bed holding the roof down, not sure if this is meant to be or some drunked Saffa threw them out the window a few years back and just forgotten about (CJ my man you would be doing your nut over the detail).

We spent this morning slightly hungover with our new found friend Manolo he found us while hitching over to Huacachina and is slowly improving his English (our Spanish is less than shocking, but surviving, NO GARLIC has been an issue).

We checked out a few local wineries which we never expected and bought a bottle of Cisco 44% baby!, slightly tequila tasting but better! We requested a local meal and realised how much us tourists are really ripped off (only paid around R20 for soup and a solid piece of chicken or meat compared to the usual R 70).

Wine farming in Huacachina

This is only our second stop but is seems that loo paper or towels do not come standard in these type of establishment so LU LU (Lucien VV) has become our new password to establishing session time.

Ok well we have a 16h00 dune buggy organised and its time for a cerveza by the pool, will catch you later when the inspiration hits... swheet like a lemon !!

Chiramoya fruit – pic for Ed!