Nairobi- Addis

Dear all,
We are now in Addis, Ethiopia. Internet is a problem. We have to update another time. Tomorrow we are going upnorth to Lalibela, the rock hewn churches. We almost have our visa for the Sudan, even with connections it is sometimes difficult to obtain. But Addis is great. So much culture, nice musea, wonderful food. No traffic jams, nice people. Although the boys get fed up with the "hey you, you, you" other children shout. Hope we will be able to update soon.
Helma

Lake Nakuru National Park

At the gate I left my window open and suddenly there were monkeys in the car. Everybody ran to the car and tried to get them out. In the end they stole liquorice and our tomato's. We had to go back to the market to buy new tomato's. At last we were in the park in the camping area where I spotted something big in the distance. It was a white Rhino! We jumped in the car and saw the Rhino but we also saw something else.... Lions!! and a dead zebra.
The lake is known because of the lesser and greater flamingo's and pelicans. It was a beautiful sight. After we finished photographing the lions we toured around the lake seeing a spotted hyena, lots of water bucks, buffalo, baboons, elands, impala's, gazelles, giraffes and even my favourite animal the warthog. But I don't know how many Rhino we saw, more then 15!! imagine that. The next day the weather was not so nice and we thought we lost the way. The road was terrible but Ed saw his favourite animal: the tortoise! I was the happiest person although Ed and Helma have seen enough safari parks now. Now we're off to Nairobi. Evert

Kisii - Nakuru

We had the idea to reach Lake Nakuru because we had made good time at the border. But how kind all the Kenians were, the policemen, the immigration officers : Jambo, Jambo, welcome, the roads were in a very bad state.
We managed to drive through the first city Kisii. It was chaotic and so busy, nothing compared to our Limbe and Blantyre. The road was jammed with many minibuses or matatu's but the views were excellent. We spent the night in Kerochi in the middle of all the tea estates. in a way we felt like we were in Thyolo. But even this small city had a huge supermarket, even bigger then Shoprite.
The next day we thought we could reach lake Nakuru in 2 hours, it was only 107 km. How wrong we were. It took us about 4 hours. We never saw put holes like in that road. When we finally reached the highway, the connection between Kenya and Uganda, we thought things would change. Wrong again, another 25 km dust eating before we reached the lovely place in lake Nakuru.

Lake Victoria

The next day we left the park at the west entrance and headed for lake Victoria. Musoma was a nice and quiet village with beautiful views on Lake Victoria. It was a bit difficult to find accommodation. Ed thought that the place close to the lake was : "3x niks". But in the end it was our best option. The sunset was beautiful. But no swimming in the lake.. too much bilharzia. We had a very good night and fell asleep with the sound of the waves which reminded us of the Venraay cottage in Malawi.

The next day we left. The road was in an excellent condition and border formalities were done quickly. Yes we were in Kenya. Now there is no return possible. We have to move on.

Serengeti-2

After a delicious breakfast at Serengeti Serena lodge, we headed for the Wildebeest migration, but we are not alone. We have a guide with us, his name is Hamis. After surviving a long history of the Serengeti, we arrived at a waterhole where a lot of zebras were very panicky to drink. When we started the car the zebras that were drinking quickly stopped and ran away as fast as they could.
Then we saw "meat" in a tree. That meant a leopard was nearby. And yes after waiting we finally saw my leopard. As extra we also saw 3 lions in a tree relaxing. Further on we saw elephants with a really tiny baby, it was so cute. Then we went looking for the migration of the wildebeest. We saw several small groups who were trying to catch up. They walked, ran, jumped in a straight line. We also saw 5 baby's without a mum. That was very sad, we knew that the hyena was nearby. And we saw it relaxing near the water after a long day following the wildebeest. In a distance we saw the migration, but we were unable to get closer. Wow.. I love the Serengeti. Bart

Serengeti-1

Monday 5 May we finally went to the Serengeti. Yes, a lot of money but well worth it. First a long dirt road with beautiful views, back to the Crater. Then we visited a Masai village. Yes, very commercial but well arranged. Take as many pictures as you like. They told us about their culture and visited their cottage. The boys were horrified of all the flies, although inside there were hardly any. It is not difficult to understand why there are so many flies, everywhere is cow dung. Evert was invited to dance with the Masai men. He jumped very well. In the end we exchanged our football for 2 bracelets. It was a very interesting visit.
We still had a long way to go. The views were excellent and Helma was very happy to see finally a big group of giraffes, more then 20! In the Crater there were none, because no trees. We saw lots of Grant and Thomson gazelles and everywhere warthogs which made Evert very happy. it was hot and dry. After entering the park we saw our first reward; 2 adult female lions and 6 cubs. Beautiful.
The only problem in the Serengeti were the Tse-tse flies. perhaps they were attracted to our blue car. They enjoyed Helma's blood the most so she could hardly walk the next days because of the swollen feet. Never mind, we were sitting in the car anyway. Because of the low season we stayed for a good bargain in an upper class lodge: Serengeti Serena lodge and we enjoyed it!

Ngorongoro Crater

We were advised not to go into the Crater using our own car because it was very steep and our car is very heavy. We had to hire a guide anyway, because you cannot visit the Crater without a guide. A good advise because it is easy to loose your way and now Ed had the chance to use the video. Although it was very cold and hazy, around 11 am it cleared and the views were wonderful. We saw flamingo, lots of zebra and wildebeest, buffalo, eland, water buck, warthog and so on and so on. But we also saw lions. One was on the road, we could not miss her. When we stopped the car she saw a shadow and moved next to the car, we could have touched her! We also had an encounter with an elephant which was quite scary. It was a wonderful day which we all enjoyed very much. We only missed Anneke, who usually makes the photo's when we are on safari. Now we were so busy to do it ourselves. But I think we managed well.

Some photo's from Marangu area

The market in Marangu and relaxing at the waterfall.
We left Moshi for what it was. The weather was not nice, raining and we could not see the Kili anyway.

Marangu - Arusha

We spent 2 days in the house of Dille, a friend of Kitty. He and his wife run a village education project, with school developments for the English language, computer skills and vocational training skills. We visited a primary school and a vocational centre. Very impressive. We also hiked all the way down to the village. Trough the villages and the banana trees and the waterfall. The market is very colourful. And the evenings were very cold.
Dille gave us also information about places to stay near the Crater. He had students everywhere and cell phones are so handy!!
3 May we arrived in Arusha. Also a big city, lots of traffic and the gateway to the Ngorongoro Crater and the Serengeti. And Shoprite is the place to be to meet other overlanders and to buy your goodies. We met 2 Dutch couples also driving back to Holland. One couple comes even from Rotterdam. It's a small world after all.

From Dar to Marangu

On Queensday we left for Marangu. We wanted to take the shortcut to Msata. Unfortunately we heard there that the road was closed because of flooding! A D-tour of 200 km. Back to Dar, through the chaos of that big city with all the trafic jams. Then 100 km to Morogoro. We were lucky, not too much traffic but it mend we could not reach Marangu that night. The road was in a good condition. The views were excellent. We passed lots and lots of sisal plantations and the boys were reading.

In Marangu the scenery was beautiful. Totally unexpected rain forest and very green. OK, it was raining a lot. That is why the Kili could not be seen. But the moment you see the Mount Kilimanjaro it changes everything. What an impressive site. We had the idea to walk or hike to the first hut. But the fees of the National park were huge. 60 USD for 1 person, only for a walk of 4 hours? No, we arranged a guide and did our own tour.