Well now, looks like its my turn again.
I’ve got a load to write about so will try and keep it a lot shorter and sweeter than last time.
After arriving in arusha we got absolutely hounded by about a million safari touts all telling us we could go on a luxury safari for a dollar each etc, following us around and I was also lucky enough to get shouted at and told I had a ‘wet brain’…not entirely sure I deserved that.
We eventually found a decent safari company and set off on a 5 day camping tour of the Serengeti, ngorongoro crater and lake manyara. There was five of us; me, smellis, a bloke called alberto (who was subsequently called dave for the rest of the trip after I called him david once, a la david Attenborough, for taking an awesome photo of something and the tour guide caught onto it and we didn’t have the heart to tell him it was a joke), then there was maria from England and then a nutter called Yohan from Sweden.
We saw the big 4…everything but a leopard (well…Katie saw the big 5…although to be fair she did think the ‘leopard’ that was pointed out to her was a badger so im not sure it counts…). In a fairly dramatic twist, maria got malaria and had to be speedily driven out of the Serengeti at midnight and Katie was her guardian angel and went along with her like the little saint she is. (I was left with dave and the Swedish nutter playing cards…not sure who got the raw deal there…)The guide was not keen on taking her cos of petrol money so Katie cracked out some impressive law lingo and scared the guide into taking action, it was like an episode of the West Wing, shes definitely heading to the right profession.
Anyway…after the drama we had an awesome time. Got up early to watch the sun rise over the Serengeti which was pretty special (complete with yohan making the ‘call of the elephant’) and then went on a game drive and saw a pride of 12 lions running out of the ladies toilets (amazing but also a bit annoying cos i was really desperate by that point) and loads of hippos and a hyena eating something covered in blood and also saw a cheetah making a kill (it missed but thats beside the point) and generally had an awesome time.
We then got on the bus to moshi and when we got there discovered katie had lost her phone along the way. And her shoes. We bought her another phone but couldnt really do anything about the shoes. Then the next day we were walking along and a local lady walked past with one shoe on her head that looked remarkably like katies! We stayed in moshi for a while but again got a fair bit of abuse from the locals, katie got yelled at for something like not saying 'hello' for the gazillionth time to a woman who was about three streets away and then i got yelled at for politely saying 'no thankyou' to a guy selling me something (probably katies other shoe..). Turns out we're not a huge fan of tanzanians.
We then went to the airport for flight to rwanda. Turned up all nice and jolly wth our tickets and were promptly told that the plane was full and we werent allowed on. We were unamused. Turns out 25 korean diplomats had turned up with what can only be described as a small country's worth of luggage, you could have fit both me and katie into some of those bags, and therefore the plane was too heavy so we couldnt go. Cue katie ellis law-complainer-extrordanaire, she was soo good! i was a little bit scared of her actually...anyway, after a hell of a lot of complaining we got promised to be on the next flight (via uganda..) and got bought lunch. We then promptly took the piss and ordered far too many gin and tonics, ha, we win. Thirteen hours later than planned we arrived in Rwanda.
Rwanda is such a modern place, little coffee shops and shopping centres and lots of important looking people around. Theres sooo many people (one of the most desley populated places on earth i'll have you know) and there was lots of hills to walk up and down around the town so we moaned alot about that, naturally. Whilst there we visited the genocide memorials which were harrowing to say the least. We're glad we went but it was pretty heavy stuff. Our guide took us into one of the mass graves that neither of us was particularly keen on and then promptly lifted the lids of all the coffins to show us what was inside which we were both fairly horrified at! Its scarey that it was only in 1994 that it all went on, scarey.
We only stayed in Rwanda for about four days and then flew back to kilimanajro without a hiccup. We got on a 9 hour bus ride to dar es salaam (again armed with pringles and cookies...it just wouldnt be the same without them), got off the bus where a man literally took our bags off our back, put them in the boot of a taxi and then asked for a tip, its so annoying! it seems we're expected to tip for absolutely n.o.t.h.i.n.g which we have decided to refuse to do and now are mean and horrid and keep our money to ourselves and away from annoying men. Got the ferry straight to zanzibar where we are now, living it up on the beach, staying in a banda on stilts, drinking far too much gin resulting in me 'breakdancing' and cutting my foot, both of us spending far too much time in hammocks and generally having a rather marvellous time. Katie is technically a cripple now though as she walloped her toe on a piece of coral (entirely sober i'd like to point out) and now has a fairly comical massive bandage on her toe, bless. We've met up with our chums lawrence and frank from home and also a couple we met in arusha so theres a nice group of us all bumming around together, theres a full moon parrty tonight so we're all getting excited about that, woohoo! The gin stocks have been replenished, dont panic. Right...i think thats it for now. Faaaarr too much typing for one day and im missing out on the sunshine (its been absolutely hammering it down all day, beach paradise my arse)...hope all is well and life is good. Lots of love, Beth and Katie xxxx
