Time to say “badaaaye” to the beach. On our final day we managed to fit in a trip to the only remaining colony of red Colobus monkeys in Zanzibar. They were completely habituated to humans and just went on doing their monkey thing as if we didn’t exist at all.

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Back in Kiwengwa the girls said goodbye to Bimu, Aisha, Saleh, Ahlam, and Faitham. They gave them gifts of t-shirts, friendship bracelets and shared the food we had left. Even Geoff made a friend, Chopper was one of the guys on the beach selling boat rides out to the reef. He had a great sense of humour and we exchanged a lot of banter during our walks up and down the beach.  We went out with him a couple of times on his boat. During one especially funny exchange he said that Geoff reminded him of an English actor, Geoff was hoping it might be someone handsome and rugged but when he eventually came out with it, it was……..Mr Bean. Much laughter from everyone except Geoff. We gave him Geoff’s waterprooof phone case as is phone holder was broken and he was very touched. (He’s stayed in touch via whatsapp since we got back). We left gifts and a message in Swahili for our housekeeper.

Drew and Cara squeezed in a last dawn walk on the beach and a cheeky little sea urchin gave Cara a parting gift of one spine in the bottom of her foot – ouch! We did one last crazy African drive back to Stonetown, rush hour made it extra exciting, with buses coming head on towards us to miss the potholes on their side of the road. I have now taught myself not to scream in terror when this happens, I just think “oh well… I’m sure it will all be fine, hakuna matata”. I hope that when I’m back home and I pull out in front of someone onto the Hayling bridge they will have a similar hakuna matata outlook on life, but somehow I doubt it.

We decided to fly back from Zanzibar, it wasn’t a great deal more than the ferry and although that was an experience, once in a lifetime is probably enough.

A short plane ride and we landed back in Dar Es Salaam. There we spent a night in a luxury hotel, ate the best breakfast of my life in a Lebanese Cafe and began the inevitable process of catching up with real life in preparation for our trip home.

Whilst chilling at the hotel beach we indulged in strawberry daquiris. We were playing our Swahili songs and Cara was singing along much to the amusement of the waiter.

Africa, you have been a place of surprises from beginning to end. Breath taking landscapes, unexpected animal encounters, unique experiences and most of all generous and hospitable people. You have surprised us at every turn and we will be back.

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So the last week of our trip was spent at the beach doing not much except eating, walking, swimming and sleeping. In between all of this I acquired a small cat family, a battle scarred old Tom with an injured leg who puts up with my amateur vet attempts to clean his wounds, remove a few ticks and even give him a bit of a wash. A week on he is back on top Tom cat form – no limp, a fat belly and chasing lady cats all night. Sophia Loren is a pretty tabby, clearly she is well fed as she won’t even look at the cat food and only seems interested in the extortionately priced parma ham and parmesan we have treated ourselves to. Number 3 we think is Sophia’s (and also possibly related to Tom) daughter as they are always together. She does like a wee morsel of cat food but will steal cheese and ham from Sophia given half a chance. All 3 love raw fish, when Geoff was fishing they employed every tactic they could think of to steal his bait, very comical to watch an extended paw coming up from underneath the table in an attempt to drag the fish down without being spotted.

Drew and Cara have made friends with lots of local kids and disappear at regular intervals. The bluetooth speaker has been a big hit, we now have a full play list of the latest Swalihi favorites. Another source of much laughter was the discovery of  snapchat filters, as you can see from the photos. One of the funniest things is the reaction of tourists when they see a group of girls wearing hijabs gyrating on the beach with my 2 bikini clad blondes. They stop, they look, they look again, then out comes the camera. The only thing which grabs their attention  more is the sweet little baby who the girls usually have with them (she is one of their siblings). She is very cute but even so it is surprising that some tourists think it’s OK just to grab her for a photo opportunity. Would you do that on a beach in Europe, not unless you want to be arrested for child abduction. Oh well TIA !!!

Flossing on the beach

As well as tourists the beach is busy with locals selling everything from boat rides to the reef, paintings, beaded jewellery, massage and  all manner of things except cold drinks which you can only get in the hotel bars at hotel prices.  There are also guys (very beautiful) dressed in traditional Masai clothes, they work in hotels and on the beach selling supposedly traditional crafts. I don’t know whether they are traditional or made in China but I do know that a lot of the jewellery is made by kids here in Zanzibar villages. Drew and Cara have chatted to a couple of the guys who said that they come here for 2 or 3 months to work, they all live together in a Masai “ghetto” and then go back home with the money they have made to resume their herding  lifestyle. I have read all kinds of stories about Masai in Zanzibar on the good old internet and am no closer to the facts but they really do stand out walking along the beach or playing football with their mates in their red robes. The only thing which stands out more are the herd of cows sleeping peacefully in the sunshine like it’s the sort of thing cows do everywhere in the word.

Food shopping here is an experience, we shop in the local village which is much appreciated. So much so that when we turn up I have my own personal shopper who helps me pick the best stuff (this is more useful than it sounds as often the most battered looking stuff is the best. I have singularly failed to pick out a decent avocado whereas my friend has 100% success rate). Last night he was extra excited as 2 new vegetables had arrived and he very much wanted us to try some. He gave me cooking instructions and turns out they were pretty good although I still have no idea what they were. The food here is so fresh and tasty but apart from the street stalls and a very small supermarket there isn’t much else. We have failed to find anywhere to buy fresh meat and more surprisingly not many places to buy fresh fish. Geoff and I did find a small fish market on one of our forays and bought some delicious rock lobster and some bits for fishing bait but that was quite a drive from our village.

This area is very popular with Italians and the whole row of villas are owned by Italian families. So even though there isn’t a proper supermarket there is a small Italian deli which sells ridiculously expensive Italian products. Given the lack of meat available we cracked and bought some parma ham and joy of joys some parmesan cheese. It’s amazing what you can make when you put it together with some really good veg. Now you know where Sophia gets her sophisticated tastes, she clearly mugs the Italian owners when they visit.

There are quite a few hotels here on the beach although none seem to be anywhere near full. The hotel are self contained bubbles and so often on our travels it occurs to me how much you miss out on if you travel this way. One of the best parts of our trip has been our observations and interactions with local people which only happen if you at least attempt to be part of the place. Each to their own and there have been a few times on this trip when I would have sold my soul for a night or two in a luxury resort hotel but then I wouldn’t have had much to write, laugh or cry about which would be a dull thing indeed.

The journey from Entebbe to Zanzibar definitely comes under the category of an “experience”. 2 overnight flights via Kigali to Dar Es Salaam. A short taxi hop to the ferry port, a 2 hour ferry ride and another taxi to our hotel in Zanzibar. Sounds easy when you say it like that but I think we lifted our luggage on and off x-ray scanners at least 8 times. Airports and ferry ports in Africa must be the safest in the world. We spent a few hours in queues for almost everything. At least we had our Tanzania Visas in advance, those who didn’t had to queue at immigration, then queue again for a visa then go back to the immigration queue. That’s a lot of queuing!

The ferry port was shut when we arrived at 5am and pretty quiet for about an hour. Then it all got a bit hectic. We were manhandled by a local porter who pushed us to the front of the ticket queue, organised our luggage and made sure we had comfy seats to wait on. Best money we have spent all holiday! The ferry was packed with locals, bewildered tourists and a few Masai in traditional gear. There was also some kind of live animal in a sack in our seating area. It’s owners had managed to keep it quiet for most of the journey ( I’m not going to give that too much thought) but near the end it let out such loud angry squawks that it woke everyone up. A crew member marched up and down a few times trying to locate the source of the noise before evicting its owner to the outer deck.

We docked at Zanzibar, more porters, more x ray scanners and joy of joy another immigration queue as Zanzibar is a semi autonomous region with its own customs and excise rules. However now we are here, settled in a pretty courtyard hotel with comfy beds and a sunloungers to doze on all is good.

Had an explore around Stonetown which is very medieaval and Arabic in flavour. It’s made up of narrow alleyways with tall white houses either side. Motorbikes and push bikes speed up and down so you need to have your wits about you. The hire car was delivered to a street down towards the sea front as that was about as close as a motor vehicle could get.

Next day Geoff did a miraculous jigsaw puzzles to fit all the luggage into the teeny boot and we are off to our beach destination on this East African adventure. Boma Vichupi, a beach front villa in the village of Kiwengwa about 40km northeast of Stonetown.

Usual roadworks and potholes mean that we bump along, sometimes on the wrong side of the road and sometimes on a road that is barely there at all. We pass children on their way to school, girls all dressed up in long black dresses and white hijabs. We turn off the “main” road towards Kiwengwa and after a brief mapsme malfunction we arrive at Boma Vichupi. And yes it definitely was worth it.

The pretty white villa sits right on the beach, the sand is white and the sea is turquoise. The villa belongs to an Italian family and it’s as pretty on the inside as it is outside. The kitchen is stocked with all sorts of pans and equipment, including a stove top coffee maker and there is even coffee in the cupboard.

Geoff unpacks his fishing gear, grabs his swim shorts and heads off in search of bait. Girls head off along the beach to explore and I sit on the porch enjoying the view. Bliss.

Claire’s place grew on us during our 2 and a bit day stay. There was a supermarket nearby, by this I mean an actual supermarket full of food as opposed to a Ugandan supermarket, which is a kind of dusty corner shop selling random things like food processors and toasters plus an odd assortment of food. They do sell a fantastic range of spices but we have discovered that anything you buy from these shops which isn’t in a tin is permeated with a vague spicy flavor and an odd smell. Turmeric flavored weetabix and sanitary products which smell vaguely of curry aren’t that appealing and just when you think you have found some decent unsweetened bread you find your tuna sandwich also has some undertones (and in some cases definitely overtones) of garam masala.

Anyway this supermarket is fully stocked although it also has “super” prices. We have a teeny kitchen and as our hob thing doesn’t work Claire kindly offers me the use of her kitchen. It’s a different experience cooking on 2 gas bottles with burners on the top whilst kneeling on the floor but I do produce a bloody lovely spag bol. I miss cooking when we travel, there is something very relaxing about preparing a simple meal.

Whilst we were in Entebbe we visited the botanical gardens, a nice walk with a little Cafe bar on the edge of the lake. We also went to the Uganda Wildlife Education Centre, otherwise known as the Zoo. As with most zoo trips it’s not a very uplifting experience, the animals looked in good health, the enclosures were clean and just about adequate but very little evidence of conservation or education. Lots of parks and water play for young children and a nice seating area where we sat watching the chimps play.

Had our one and only trip on a boda boda, 3 people, one small motorbike, no helmets. I think that’s enough health and safety rules broken in one day to last a whole year.

 

Our next journey will be to Zanzibar so we made use of the wifi and the shady garden to plan the next part of the trip.

Driving through villages

Jinja Base camp delivered its final delight of our stay with a great cooked breakfast. We were heading for Entebbe but decided to stop to explore what’s left of the waterfalls and rapids around Bujagali and Itanda. 

This area was a rafting mecca equalled only by the Zambezi until dams built in 2011 and 2016 submerged the waterfalls and the most famous  rapids. Raft trips still run but they have to put in further along the river and the really big rapids no longer exist. Nonetheless even though we weren’t rafting we had an adventure all of our own as we followed the sat nav which took us along a narrow dirt road with deep ruts and red muddy slides. As we hit one huge dip we banged our heads in the roof and the back window popped open. Still it was quite entertaining and even though we can’t have been more than 20km from a busy town it was clear no one had ever seen a mzungu driving along here. Lots of waving, shrieking and “hello how are you” with lots of biscuit sharing along the track.

We reached the falls from the wrong direction and paid 20000 USH (about £5) to park the car and have a tour down to a rocky area alongside the falls. Had a little paddle in the Nile and marveled at a couple of teenage boys swimming acroas the river without getting sucked down river by the current.

As we drove off we went past the official falls site and paid another 20000 USH for a slightly different view point together with an explanation of the spiritual importance of the area. There were some rocks shaped like people and some shaped like a boat which were covered with brightly colored cloths. Local people here pray to them.

Our final driving adventure was into Kampala. Geoff drove like a local whilst Drew and I winced in anticipation of collisions which never came. Cara was in the front and mastered the art of poking her head out briefly and asking psychopathic minibus drivers to let us in. It took as an hour and a half to do about 20km.

Finally the roads became quieter as we passed the centre of Kampala. We entered onto an almost deserted  brand new toll road complete with unmanned ticket booths and people sweeping the edges of the dual carriageway with small hand held brooms. With a spot of expert navigation from Cara we arrived at our Air B&B near Entebbe lake shore. It’s well located and clean but that’s about the only good thing I can find to say about it. And we have 2 nights here until our visas for Tanzania are valid. Oh well you win some you lose some. I should probably be honest here and admit that when we arrived 4 hours ago I was heading into a state of serious misery but I have just had a delicious pizza by the lake and a beer or 2 so right now it all looks a little more optimistic.

Home for tonight is Jinja Base Camp, a rafting/hostel/B&B place in the suburbs of Jinja. Unexpectedly we have a kitchen which is a great source of joy.

We also meet Fiona a VSO worker up in remote Karamoja who is as in need of a change of people to talk to as we are. The final source of joy is the bar which serves a reasonable glass of red which was much enjoyed lounging on the comfy sofas.

We spent an entertaining afternoon at the source of the Nile Park being photographed by some business people on a conference whilst Drew and Cara haggled for gifts at the nearby market.

Today was a day of work – coffee making from bean to cup. After a walk through the village we stopped at a small subsistence farm. We planted small coffee shoots which will take about 6 years to grow before producing coffee berries. From there we went to work picking the ripe red coffee berries and spotting colorful iguanas in between. We weren’t the quickest and most of the trees only had a handful of ripe ones as it’s not quite peak coffee season but eventually we had a decent bowl full.

On the walk from the farm to the coffee shop we stopped into someone’s house where everyone was drinking a homemade maize wine through a tube. Apparently they do this most of the day, we did have a sip from a mug, tasted like sour sherry, not entirely dissimilar to the glass of wine I had in the hotel in Mbale apart from the added bonus of the gritty texture. Drew said it was passable and that she quite liked the texture which is quite amusing considering the texture of a banana could send her into a state of terror until quite recently!

The next stage is to remove the outer berry, this is done using a pulping machine, the white shelled beans are fermented for 24hrs then left to dry outside for anything from 2 to 4 weeks. Once dried the beans are pounded in a large wooden pestle and mortar to remove the hard outer shell.

After blowing away the dusty shells you are left with something which looks like a pale coloured coffee bean. We roasted these over a small fire and as the beans turned dark brown a warm roasted, smoky coffee smell wafted its way up. The final part of the process was to grind the beans in a smaller pestle and mortar and make the coffee.

The finished cup was unexpectedly smooth and gave a nice caffeine burst which helped motivate me into another hill walk in the afternoon.

Did a full day’s drive with an overnight stop in a fancy hotel in Mbale to soak up the joy of a really hot shower funnily enough this was cheaper than our Safari tent at Murchison Falls but then it didn’t have the visiting hippos.

This morning we drove to Sipi falls near Mount Elgon. We are now in Eastern Uganda, with just the mountain between us and Kenya’s rift valley. The views are endless miles and miles of Ugandan plains disappearing into the distance below us. We opted to do the “3 waterfalls in 4 hours walk” taking a guide with some trepidation after the last experience.

A fairly unpromising start as it rained heavily about 2 mins into the walk and continued for the next 45 mins. It wasn’t cold and once you are wet you kind of get used to it, in any case it eases the shock of the spray from the falls. The rain stopped at some point although not really sure when as I was having a fantastic day. We climbed up hills , we climbed down to waterfalls, through forests, villages, coffee farms and beautiful meadows next to the river. Then we slithered a lot down steep muddy tracks, I slithered a few times on my bum despite the best efforts of our lovely guide Emmanuel who helped us through all the tricky bits. At one particularly steep rocky part 2 angels in the form of Kevin and Richard appeared as if by magic to help us out. They were all very young and we had some good chats along the way about life up here in the mountains. We played let’s see who can spot the tiny chameleon on the coffee plant (I am still claiming to be the winner!!)

We arrived back at our home for the next 2 nights Rafiki Lodge, very muddy, slightly damp but very happy. The cold beer and delicious meal (with the best home made bread) made a perfect end to the day.

“Hippo” night was followed by a lovely breakfast overlooking the Nile River. It’s a beautiful site here with lots of nice touches such as comfy sofas with a river view and fresh popcorn before dinner. Nothing is too much trouble but the price tag for a night’s stay is pretty high so having collected our packed lunches we moved on again. I am becoming an expert at packing up the car in under 15 minutes.

We jumped on a small river boat for a trip to the falls and were lucky enough to see some huge crocodiles. The hippos were now snoozing contentedly in the water unaware that they had kept me awake half the night – thanks guys. The boat driver obviously had read all the hippo horror stories and sped away from any that looked like they might fancy rounding off the night’s activities with a spot of boat eating for breakfast. A lone giraffe, several waterbuck and some beautiful birds kept us entertained til we arrived at the base of the falls. The weather was sunny but cool and it was a very pleasant way to spend a morning.

We carried on into the Northern part of the park where Drew practiced her off road skills successfully, I was less successful in hiding my complete terror at this experience. Athough lunchtime is not usually the best for game spotting we saw quite a few animals who were more than happy to pose for photo opportunities. We chose a top picnic spot alongside a herd of giraffe, spent ages watching a warthog family and enjoyed the watching the oribi (a small deer) leap out of the ditches unexpectedly.

As we left the park gates a smallish group of elephants who were more than happy to ignore us were doing elephant stuff a short distance from the road. We watched 2 young ones pushing each other around and generally bickering until one of the adults had enough and marched in between them. So far it seems that elephants prefer to spend their time everywhere they are not supposed to be.

More hippos predicted for tonight but I have solid walls in my little African style banda and best of all an ensuite bathroom so I can sleep in peace even if they decide to squelch past my door.

Last lap of the trip to Murchison Falls National Park  and today it was poor Drew’s turn to feel unwell. Once again we rattled along terracotta red dusty roads until we reached the park gates. Usual reams of paperwork to complete and then off to see the falls. There is a massive road construction project taking place in the park, and as you bounce along part made roads you have to negotiate your way round huge industrial machines. It is financed by China and straw- hatted Chinese work alongside their Ugandan counterparts in hard hats. The roads they are building seem much bigger than the needs of the park, several billion gallons of oil  have been discovered under the lake, big roads equals oil extraction I think.

The falls themselves were quite something, believed to be the strongest in the world (not sure how you measure that but it sounds dramatic so I’m sticking with it). We managed a few pictures then hordes of school children on a day trip appeared and we became the celebrities. The official teacher/photographer set us up with endless groups of kids some more willing than others. One poor small child screamed in terror at the thought of sitting close to us. Suddenly it began to rain very heavily, we dashed back to the car as the paths and roads turned into rivers. A hair raising drive followed as we slid and skidded along the road. We caught up with the kids, who were walking up the hill as the bus couldn’t make it fully loaded. At the top of the hill the bus had clearly slid in the mud and was stuck.

When the road became a river

The drive to our spot for tonight involved more slipping and sliding as it continued to rain. Geoff said afterwards that he had throughly enjoyed himself, I am struggling to get my head round that. We arrived at Murchison River Lodge very bedraggled. It’s a mixture of ensuite tents, bandas and more basic tents (still have beds tho). At night there are wandering hippos and they recommend you walk back to the tent with a member of staff to avoid unexpected hippo encounters. We let Drew and Cara have the tent with ensuite as Drew was still feeling poorly and we went for the more basic version near the river.

Needless to say I was a wee bit scared about walking to the shower but there didn’t seem to be any hippos lurking so all was good. However after a few hours of blissful sleep I woke up to the sound of loud munching and squelching round my tent. The hippos were out in force, I drifted in and out of nightmares about hippo attacks and then woke up when I heard something pushing against our bags which were propped up on the edge of the tent. A torch check didn’t reveal the source but I gave up on sleep at that point and just lay listening to the night sounds. The girls said that the hippos appeared outside their tent not long after they went to bed and they took a very funny video of themselves screeching and laughing in a slightly terrifed manner in the dark as the hippos crashed around outside. See the video link below:-

Fright in the night