My Birthday!! in Tanzania

First, thanks for all the birthday email! My golden birthday lived up to twenty seven years of anticipation! We spent the day at Mikumi National Park in Tanzania at an all-inclusive camp and went on three game drives. The lodge had specially modified vehicles with no windows, so we had a 360 degree view. It will probably be the last time in a park where it's just us and the guide, so we get to decide when and how long we stop to watch the animals. We saw many of the animals that we've mentioned before, but we also saw a parrot and SEVEN lions!! The managers took us on our sunset drive and brought a few beers, so we got to watch the sun go down with the hippos and crocs, sipping on Kilimanjaro Lager. At dinner, our guide from the morning drive and a bunch of the other staff carried out a small cake with two candles and sang Happy Birthday. Because of park fees and the high cost of accommodation in the parks, we will probably camp during the rest of our National Park stays, but thanks to a generous birthday gift from Sandy, we decided to splurge. I think we were the first customers they had who wanted to be dropped off on the highway to try to flag down a bus!


To backtrack just a little, I was surprised at how dramatic the change was crossing from Malawi to Tanzania. Driving along the road in Malawi the trees and vegetation was dense. You could occasionally see vistas with huts and gardens on steep mountain sides through an opening in the trees, but once we crossed into Tanzania, there were huge farms everywhere! A lot more developed here. Another adjustment is the bus system. The bus rides have always been an adventure, but until this country, the bus drivers all took turns. There was one bus filling up at a time, and the others waited for their turn. Not here! But one great thing about the buses is that you have access to all the great produce and various other items available in each region! This picture doesn't convey how crazy it gets, but it gives you an idea. Some common choices have been bananas, oranges, roasted maize, samosas, coke, fanta, peanuts, cashews, sun glasses, underwear, and cell phone airtime, to name a few. Buying through the bus window is also great because you can see how much the locals pay for things. This is how it works. You tell someone what you want and they give it to you. Then you show them how much money you have so they can give you your change. After you have your item and your change, you then pay for it.
We spent the last two nights in Dar es Salaam--a city of about three million people, but it still has quite a few dirt roads! We wandered around yesterday and went to their National Museum. It has the 1.75 million year old skull that Mary Leakey dug up in the fifties along with some other amazing items, and most of them weren't even in cases. We took the ferry this morning to Zanzibar (famous Swahili spice island), and we're staying in the old city known as Stone Town. I'm out of time now, but we'll try to post from here again before we leave!

Liwonde National Park and the Ilala Ferry

Kim and I have had a tough time finding decent Internet lately, so we'll do our best to recap the last couple weeks. After Blantyre we headed for Liwonde National Park. Definitely one of the craziest transportation attempts so far. When we got off of the minibus in Liwonde, about 6 km from the park gate, we were literally swarmed with men trying to get us into their taxis or onto their bicycle taxi. Why not take the bike right? It was quite a trip. I think now is a decent time to mention that most of the people we met in Malawi (and elsewhere) have not seemed overly concerned about body odor. So I'll just say that 20 minutes 5 inches from that guy's armpit was plenty for me!

Riding the Bicycle Taxi

The camp we stayed at in the park was pleasantly surprising. We slept in our tent, but the tent spots were under a long thatched pavilion that could support about 10 tents. While we were setting up our tent we saw a baboon stroll through the camp, which made me a little nervous about sleeping with our food! In fact, the next morning we saw a baboon steal some food from the tent nearest us. The park offered various activities and breakfast/lunch/dinner in the lodge. We went for a sunset drive one night and a canoe safari one day, and we ate our dinners at the lodge.

Canoe Safari in Liwonde

The canoe trip was especially nice. We saw lots of birds, about 10 Kingfishers put on a show for us as they hovered and dove for fish all around our canoe. We also paddled right alongside a pod of about 12 hippos! It was great to get to see them close up--they are very vocal! We also had plenty of downtime to relax around the park and do some reading. In all, it was a very nice few days. (We did see lots of other animals as well: buffalo, antelopes, warthogs, elephants, and zebra. It's funny how quickly those animals become second mention, but they are still fun to see.)

Relaxing and reading at the park

We had to leave the park to catch the Ilala Ferry at Monkey Bay, Malawi. We managed to get a ride from Mark and Jenna, two South Africans we met at dinner who are working in Malawi. It was really nice to ride in a truck with A/C and nobody on each shoulder. Also, Mark had been a safari guide in Tanzania for a few years, so we got to pick his brain a little along the way.

The ferry is such a scene. You can tell that years ago it was pretty stylish, but the years have taken their toll, no toilet seats, mostly rust where iron was, and the wood is years past needing a new coat of paint. That said, it's still worth the trip. Kim and I got a cabin class room, everyone else had to sleep on the deck, or under decks down by the engine. Turned out to be the best decision we've made in a while, because the water got pretty rough that first night! So nice to have our own sink, if you know what I mean!

The Ilala Ferry

By far the most fascinating part of the trip was trying to get off the darn thing. Without my noticing about 400 people filled a space for 200 and each of them must have had 75 pounds of luggage (mostly fish or some other commodity). And there is one exit. If you've ever been to a Twins playoff game or a Vikings game, think about trying to force everyone in the Metrodome out one exit, and give each of them a gunny sack or two full of vegetables. That's about what it was like. I know I stepped on at least 5 people and was myself stepped on multiple times. Interestingly, this will prove to be a pattern we saw over the next couple weeks, whether waiting in line for something or in traffic, people just fill in the open spaces, no matter how much it will slow everything down.

The deck of the ferry

We spent six nights at our ferry port in Nkhata Bay. In all a nice town, pretty low key. The best part of it was walking along past the children, who are everywhere (without any parents in sight). They go out of their way to say, or more likely yell "hello". There were plenty of white people in the town (100 or more), but they never got tired of saying hello and waving to us with big smiles. It was nice to have so many reasons each day to return a big smile.

We've put some new pictures on at the link on the left, so check 'em out! Good-bye until next time, we miss you!

Into Tanzania Today

Kim and Mike made it to Tanzania today! She said they switched time zones, too, so they're 8 hours ahead of Minnesota now (and one hour ahead of me).

Do you miss them as much as I do? Here is the last time I saw them. Aren't they cute?

Text Message

Hi everybody! Just a quick update to let you know Kim and Mike are doing well. I got a text message from them a few minutes ago. They're in Nkhata Bay on Lake Malawi. She said "the two night ferry ride was lovely except for puking on the first night."

I hear from her every few days, and I'm going to try to update their blog when I hear from them from now on. They're having a great time!

Love,
Brooke

Goodbye Mozambique, Hello Malawi

I guess I'll start this one with a story about Farooq. We met him on a 'chapa' (the 15 passenger vans Kim mentioned before). He's from Malawi, and about 26 years old. Hands down the nicest guy we've met so far. Our conversation started when he asked us how much we paid for the ride to Vilanculos. Our fare was 250 p/p, and the fixed government rate is 175. He taught us quite a bit about why the chapas are so overfilled. Turns out, the driver only gets charged by the government for 15 passengers per trip, so any extra fares go directly to the driver and the doorman. It turns out we were charged "for our luggage" and that is why we paid more, but Farooq told us to be on the lookout for similar overcharges in the future. When we got to our destination he walked with us for a while and pointed us in the right direction. Two days later we were on our way to the market to get some bread for our upcoming bus ride when we ran into him again. He walked along with us for a while and showed us a few things. Most interesting was that he pointed out the mayor's place. Previously Kim and I thought it was a 5-star luxury resort. This is in a town were most of the people live in reed houses. Farooq didn't seem to think he would get re-elected this year as the townspeople were getting suspicious. At least I hope they were. So, I guess we have a new friend that we'll unfortunately likely never see again. Too bad.

Our lift to Maputo courtesy the Heubners

I've been having a really tough time getting pictures uploaded lately. A few days ago I spent two hours and finished about 17, only to realize that Kim had already put 5 of those up. Today, to test the speed here, I put four shots that looked good in the thumbnails, but they mostly apply to Kim's last post. I can apologize for the lack of coherent story line and illustrations, but it's the best I can do.

A cold morning, one fish, and lots of fun

Mozambique has been great, and we'll probably be in Malawi tomorrow. Some things about Mozambique that will remain with me are the reed and thatch houses, the friendly people on the streets, relaxing on the beach, and the utter lack of animals along the roads. The reed houses are spectacularly built, and the thatch on the roofs is 8-12 inches thick in most places, very watertight. The houses are so authentic, and the people living there seem happy with their lifestyle. Most places have veggies growing in the garden and clean clothes hanging from the line. The children are playing and adults mostly doing something. Far, far less people just standing around than in South Africa. (They also walk a lot faster here.)

Now that's a shrimp!

In Maputo we were routinely hassled by street vendors, but as we got away from the capital most of them we content with a simple "No, thank you." In South Africa, they were very persistent, intent on telling you the price, and quickly lowering it, for things you had already made clear you didn't want. I found it very refreshing, in fact we finally bought some art from a street vendor.

Our dhow to Maxixe

The roads were not great here, but better than I thought they might be. There's a good amount of swerving to avoid potholes and just driving on the sand shoulder to avoid the tar altogether. But the countryside is very nice, a lot of it reminded Kim and I of Kruger Park in SA. But there are NO animals. None. I read that many of them were killed during the civil war here 25 years ago and the populations are recovering in the parks. But none, anywhere in the open. In SA I could understand because most of the land along the highways was under cultivation of some sort so the animals have been confined to the parks. But here, there are miles and miles of untouched wilderness, but not a single creature (other than birds) to be spotted. Utterly fascinating the impact we can have. So if you want to see animals in SA or Mozambique, expect to pay a park entry fee.

We got to spend quite a bit of time relaxing on the beach here, and it was fantastic. I got another stupid splotchy sunburn yesterday. Apparently when I sprayed the sunscreen on, I missed my triceps, the upper right part of my chest, and between my shoulder blades. I look completely ridiculous. Luckily, the spray sunscreen is almost gone, and I'll be using the traditional rub on kind from here on out.

We're really looking forward to Malawi, of which we have heard only great things from fellow travelers. Of course, we don't really know where we're headed or when, but have a few things picked out. I'm really looking forward to spending a little time in the national parks. One of them allows you to take a bicycle out instead of a car, which sounds great to me. I guess I'm ready to see some more animals after Mozambique.

Thanks to everyone who has posted comments lately, and it's true, there are cows/goats/sheep routinely on the SA roads. For Auntie Connie, I've been doing a good deal of thinking about what might be able to be done here to best impact the people, but it's terribly complex so I'm not ready to write about it yet. To everyone else, check out our pictures using the link on the left, as we've just added some more.

Mozambique

We're in Vilancoulo, Mozambique! Right now we're both sitting at computers facing the ocean. The tide is pretty far out, and there is a big shrimping boat, some dhows, and what looks like Noah's Ark, tipped over in the sand. A nice breeze is coming through the window, and it's blowing the leaves of the palm tree just outside. I'll try to post a picture in case you can't believe we're actually in paradise. Unfortunately the internet here isn't especially fast (that's the only thing I could possibly change right now), so I don't know if it will work.

We had a wonderful week with Mom, Dad, Jon, Brooke, and Jed at Ponta Malongane. The resort where we stayed was just behind the dunes. It is an ideal set-up for divers, and has mostly camping accommodation. We stayed in the Tent Mansion--the "Loggerhead Tent." It was built for sea turtle researchers. The whole thing was set up on a deck with a kitchen and eating area on the main level. Half a level up had the "starlight" shower and toilet. Then upstairs again were two big canvas tent bedrooms and a deck overlooking the water. There were two other small cabins connected by walkways, and the whole thing had the feel of a giant tree house. We all loved it. We had easy access to the beach, and it was perfect for swimming, playing trackball, poker, Yahtzee, cribbage, water balloons, reading, campfires, and big family dinners. Michael and I also went SCUBA diving twice with my Dad, something I've been excited to do since my first dive six years ago.

The week went by pretty fast, and we still hadn't quite figured out how we were going to get north. It is only 120km to Maputo the capital of Mozambique from Ponta Malongane, but the roads...well, there are no roads. Lucky for us, the Rittgers decided they were up for an adventure. They decided to take the bumpy, unmarked sand trails to the Capital, and there was just enough room in the back of their truck for the two of us. Jed got us there in about five hours. We went to the market and had a really nice dinner in Maputo, and the next day we said goodbye.

Michael and I spent another night in the city, then we went to a small beach town called Tofo for a few nights. In Tofo we stayed in a reed chalet with the ocean right outside our front door. There was a little market in the center of town where we finally bought some paintings. We might still be in there now, if they had an ATM. But we ran out of money, so we had to move on.

We're using the local transport now, so moving on is an adventure. We had to take a boat to get to Maxixe, and we knew our options were motorized ferry or dhow. We decided a leisurely trip in a dhow sounded nice, so rather than walk down the ferry pier and step onto the boat, we had to walk through 100 yards of muck with countless tiny crabs by our feet, then wade through the water to climb into the boat. Oh, and Michael dropped our guidebook (read travel bible) in the water! So once we're on the boat, we're set, right? Pretty soon we get to cruising...get out of the way, and let the bailing begin! Next we hit a sandbar. The driver had to get out and push us across it. It actually was a really nice trip. The rest of the way to Vilancoulo was in a taxi. I don't have time now to give a full account, but let's just say at one point there were twenty four people and at least two chickens in a van made for fifteen.

It has only recently occurred to me just how amazing it is that Michael wanted to do this trip. I start to think, there is no way he could have imagined this is what it would be like. But he handles everything like it's just what he expected, and it is obvious that he is enjoying himself. It's been great to get your comments and emails. You can expect your postcards in the next couple of weeks. Our updated cell phone number is on the left, but it will change again when we get to Malawi sometime in the next week or so. We'll try to post again soon!