We are the Champions!!!!!!!

Enough said about that :o)

Well Dar is quite a mixed bag. I cant quite decide what I think yet. We have been really fortunate in having Andy to show us around. Initially it felt like we had entered a maze of tracks in the middle of suburbia, but amoungst the chaos there does seem to be a little logic...and I mean a little. Where else in the world will you see guys working on the roads, while everyone is still driving on it. If there is a roller in the way, just drive around it and be on your way. It is quite something to see. We seem to be getting used to it. The worrying thing is the amount of cable that surounds where the guys have been digging....

Well after singing the cars praises we have hit a few snags. The other battery decided to konk out on us and just so that it did not feel alone, the alternator also decided it was tickets. So a day of poor rohan running around to get it sorted. Lucky for us Andy's has some "fundies" at the office to help us out. Well everything seems sorted, although we are now running 2 normal batteries. Visions of our 2 brand new deep cells sitting at home still taunt us in ur dreams....but alas akunamatata as they say over here!!

Today Andy took us to a little town north of Dar called Bagamoyo. Bagamoyo was where a lot of the slave trade in east africa operated from. There are ruins there of the oldest mosque in East africa erected by the persions. Made from Coral and Limestone, it is quite amazing. Simular to stone town on Zanzibar. The coast line there is also quite spectacular. It is the closest point to zanzibar, about 15km coast to coast. We really enjoyed our tour around with Andy. Check out the album for photos.

Our week here in Dar has really flown. It has been great to have a break out from the car and the road. But we are both quite looking forward to the next leg of the trip. From here we will head to Kilwa, which seems to be masked in even more history as a trading port than Zanzibaar. So we will go and check it out for a few days before heading to Mtwara and then into Mozambique via the Rovuma River Ferry.

I am really looking forward to Mozambique. I have got my mom joining us for a week so very excited about that. Going to be great to have some family around again. Was so nice having Rohans folks with us in Zambia. Hoping they might still surprise us and join us in Pemba(**hint hint**)

Anyway, heading out to dinner with Andy and Jenny tonight for a our last night in Dar...although there is small chance we might be sticking around tomorrow for some sailing....Watch this space.

Ngorongoro Crater

Yesterday Rohan and I braced ourselves for the almost extortionate cost of going to Ngorongoro Crater. After waking up at 5am to be at the gate for 6am and paying $340 for the privilege, we started our accent to the rim of the crater. It was a very misty windy road to the top. We think we saw a lion on the way but cannot really be sure...then nearly drove right into some of the biggest buffalo I have ever seen. After an hour we made it to the rim and took in the most breathtaking view I have ever seen. I can honestly say it is one of the most unique sights to see. As we started our 600m descent into the crater we just gawked. You could see black shadows of wildebeest, Zebra and Buffalo. The Lake Magadi in the middle of the crater with Hippos and flamingos was another amazing sight. All the animals seemed to be heading that way for their morning drink. I just cannot describe how amazing we found the crater. We have been warned by so many people that we would be disappointed due to the number of other cars in the crater. Well there was about an hour where it got VERY congested can’t see the cars for the animals, but this seemed to ease off quite quickly. Seemed most of the safari vehicles do the crater in the morning, then head into the Serengeti for the afternoon. We did find the driver much more friendly and willing to pass information than in the Serengeti where you got the feeling that everyone was in such a rush.
Once we got over the spectacular scenery we got down to some awesome game viewing. Huge herds of buffalo, zebra and wildebeest, birds, groups of Hyena’s just lying in the swamps, elephant grazing in the long reeds in the swamps, then what we have been looking for, a male lion just lying in the grass conserving all his energy. Then if we thought we were lucky we got luckier and saw another male about 600m down the road also just basking in the sun. Unfortunately they were not that close to the side of the road so we could not get the best pics, but it was just amazing to just sit and watch them. We both found it strange to find 2 males in such close proximity with not regard for each other. But all the same it was lucky for us. So thus far the only animals eluding us have been the wild dogs and the Rhino....although except for Ngorongoro crater and Serengeti there are hardly any Rhinos in Tanzanian and Zambian Parks.
After driving just about every track on the crater we started our accent back out of the crater and again just taking into the view. This time minus all the mist.
We spent the night in Arusha so that we could get the car serviced today. Working out to be a very expensive week. From here we will hopefully spend tonight in Moshi, which is at the base of Killi. Then start heading towards Dar Es Salaam to meet Andy and watch the final. There are some mountains in between where we plan to spend tomorrow night to break the trip.
A quick one on campsites. For those heading to the crater, we recommend you stay in the town of Karatu which is about 15 min from the gate. There is a really good campsite called Kudu Campsite and it was great. We would have stayed there last night if it were not for the car. We spent last night in the Masai campsite in Arusha which was recommended to us by many people and our guide book, and to be honest we did not think much of it at all. If you can skip the town of Arusha all together you will not have missed much. Looking forward to packing up and heading out once the car is done. Can’t believe we have already done 10 000km’s. We were going to maybe chance it and have it serviced in Dar, but thought we would rather have the peace of mind that everything is in working order for the trek to Dar and then home.
From Dar we are going to be following the coast down to Durban. We are toying with the idea of heading to Kruger then home through JHB, but still not sure.
Anyway, we hope that Sat turns out to be awesome and wish we were with everyone to see England come seriously short....until then!!

Photos

Hi
Just a quick note to say we have finally uploaded some new pics. Check them out here

http://www.candicescholtz.com/Albums.aspx

Till next time.....

Halftime

We arrived in Nairobi this afternoon. We are staying at the Holiday Inn, it was the only hotel we could find with DSTV. The boys certainly made us proud considering what we went through to catch the game it was all worth it. Now we need to plan and see where we will be next sat....

This town is seriously scary to drive in, they think the Arc de Triomphe(?) is bad they should try EVERY roundabout in Nairobi. You just have put foot and go and hope that someone slows down to let you in.

Must say it feels like we are staying in 5 star luxury here. First time I have had a bath and could just soak and relax. Totally awesome. We felt we needed a little pampering considering we have pretty much reached the half way mark of the trip. We are only staying here last night, then heading to a campsite from today for 2 nights. The budget won’t allow much more. We are heading off tomorrow to get the car serviced and hopefully cleaned with a high pressure hose. The car looks like it has been mud coated. Will also stock up on some more supplies then head out for the next leg.

Serengeti National Park

Well we finally made it to the best game park in Africa. Although it was a VERY long day it was well worth it. We got to the gate just before 7am and made it back to the gate at 18:50. 10 minutes later and we would have had a $50 dollar fine to pay for being late out of the park.
We took a guide with us as the park is vast and we wanted to get as much out of the experience as well could. About 1 hour into the drive we came across 4 lioness’s straight off a kill just chilling in the shade of a tree. Was magic to sit and watch them. From there we drove on saw plenty plenty wildebeest. Groups of about 100. The migration is still up in the Masai Mara, so these must be groups who either stayed behind or came back early. Was still awesome to see them in those numbers. There seemed to be as many zebra and Gazelle’s. After driving to the Seronera Plain which is the biggest plain in the park, we came across another female lion, she was across a river so we could not get a great view of her. We then stopped for some lunch, with what was about another 20 game vehicles. Was quite chaotic with the amount of people in the park. Until then we had not really seen more than 2 other vehicles. From lunch we came across a cheetah checking the view. This was crazy as by the time we left there were about 6 cars there. Driving back to the gate, which is a good 3 hour trip, we saw about 4 cars looking at something, which turned out to be a leopard in a tree. Except for the 8 cars watching the leopard it was amazing to see. It did not seem the slightest bit phased. Whoever spotted him must had the best eyesight as we battled to see him properly without binoculars.
From there we had to make the rush for the gate, like i said it is a $50 dollar fine if you are found in the park after 7, so all was going very well until the heavens just opened and we had to slow right down to about 20 as the car was sliding all over the place which was quite hairy for Rohan. But lucky for us we made it by the skin of our teeth. We were totally shattered when we got back to the campsite which luckily was about 1km from the gate. We had dinner and headed straight to sleep.
This morning, we came into Kenya. Like I have said before the more north you go the more chaotic it seems to become. We are staying in a small town called Kisii for the night and heading to Nairobi early tomorrow morning. Still about a 5 hour drive from here. Would like try get there around lunchtime so we have time to find a spot to watch the rugby.
Anyway will be in touch again soon, hopefully we will be needing to find a place again next week for the Final...

Mwansa

Today we drove from a little chaos town called Kahoma to Mwansa on Lake Victoria. For once we only drove for about 4 hours and it was ALL on tar, a welcome change. Although we still had to contend with the CRAZY bus drivers going a hundred miles an hour down the road and cyclists and pedestrians with death wishes. This is doing my head in. It seems the more north you move that faster they drive with no regard for anything or anyone else. Tanzania definitely has the worst drivers on this trip so far.
Getting to Mwansa we had thoughts of staying here to chill for a few days to recover from all the driving we have done in the last week only find it is the most chaotic town we have been in so far. We managed to find a place to stay for the night and are heading out tomorrow to the Serengeti Stopover Camp where we will stay till Sat morning. We actually planned to head there straight today when we arrived, but went to a lodge for lunch and decided to stay the night and head out tomorrow. We can only take so much of the drivers in one day. The first people we saw today where South Africans, a guy who works on the mines out here, and the girl who managers the lodge. Not a bad place. It is right on the lake and we had the best food for lunch than we have had for a long time. Not being able to camp really puts you at the mercy of the kitchen in these little places. Usually the food is cheap and not that bad....but not something you want to have too much of. Last night, neither Rohan nor I could actually cut the meat off the bones of our chicken so settled for rice and sauce...
Saturday we are planning to get to Nairobi to catch the rugby, we have been told it is tar all the way up, so we hope it all works out. From there we not too sure yet. We still plan to head to Hells Gate National Park; we will then see what else we can afford in Kenya before heading back in Tanzania.
We are finding that we need to outrun the rain a little. It rained for most of yesterday and last night and tonight is looking to be the same. We are starting to worry a little about Northern Mozambique and if we will make it through in time...so might actually have to shorten the trip a little or come through another route. Hoping to get a feel for it by the end of the month and see what is happening. On the one hand the rain is the nice change from the heat, but it means wet roads and mozzies (malaria) so makes us a little nervous. Problem is that everyone who sees our cruiser tells us we are worrying for nothing and it will get through anything....but we are still would like to stay on the safe side as much as we can.
While I was writing this Rohan headed out for a walk and just to prove how small the world really is, he ran into an old family friend of his dads who is staying in the room right next to us. They have not seen each other in about 15 years, so it a surprise that they even recognised each other. We landed up having dinner with Andy and will be meeting him later in Dar. Was really good to spend some time with a friendly face. Although Rohan had a few too many beers and was feeling quite sorry for himself the whole of the next day.....

Gombe Stream National Park

Well the pic speaks for itself. We got there and within 15 minutes we found them and spent around 4 hours following them. Cant explain how awesome it was. The did not seem to even notice us there...except when i got between 2 and he threw a stick at me for good measure as he ran past.

Don't have much time to write. The SA UN guys have let us onto their wireless so quickly updating. Changed my admin password to website so can upload pics again.You know you have been on Holiday too long when you forget passwords.

We are leaving here tomorrow and heading towards the Serengeti then into Kenya. Will send an update as soon as we have one.

We caught the Fiji game yesterday...crisis...we thougtht we were nearly gonners!!! We are trying to work out where we will be on sat....thinking Nairobi will DEF have something somewhere....cannot miss it!!

Chat soon.....

The Road is long...

Well we have had one of our most trying days travelling and still have a few more to come to get to the Serengeti. The road from Katavi National Park to Kigoma is the most scenic but very long and very tiring. It is marked as a main road, the B8, but it is nothing more than a track which is about 400km long. This took us most of yesterday to drive up here. And once again something which we plan to never do again, we drove about 60km in the dark arriving here at 9pm.
It was a spectacular drive as you are driving through thick thick forests and over mountain passes with breathtaking views. We are just about on the Burundi border here and you could see the forest just continues north. We were a little worried as just before we took the turn to Kigoma we went through a police check, which is usually a few guys carrying AK47’s asking where you come from where you going to and wanting your email address for when they come to SA. But these guys told us that there have been a few armed robberies from guys coming from Burundi in Tanzania. The look on my face must have said it all because he very quickly added that we would be fine as they are targeting businessmen. So the last few kms in the dark had a little added stress to it. Like I said...something we don’t plan to do again soon. At the least the hotel (there is no camping) is pretty cheap at R150 a night, so will spend tonight here as well. It is right on the lake. A bit run down but we are right on the beach with and amazing view.
There does not seem to be much camping at all along the west of Tanzania but the hotels we have stayed in have been really really cheap and the service is really amazing. We spent a night Sumbawanga where the room we chose was Tsh15000 (R92) but the manager thought we would want a bigger room so bumped us up at the same price. The next day we found out he is the chairman of the chamber of commerce for the region. It was at his office that we sent the last blog. He was very proud to show us his office and the internet cafe he ran.
Another interesting character we have met along the way was the manager of the Toyota dealership in Mbeya. Took our number and has phoned once or twice to see how we are going. Was very proud we were doing the trip in “The car of Africa”. Made us promise were going to service at 10000km’s and told us we would have NO problems with the Toyota and if we do to call him and he will make sure we come right. He even came and met us at our hotel that night to have dinner with us and help us get information about the ferry...amazing people!!
Anyway the reason we have tracked to hell and gone is to go to the Gombe stream national park. Because of the rains and having to cut out Uganda we thought we would come here as they have a chimp sanctuary and the in your face experience with the chimps is meant to be the best you can get. A bit of a mission as you can only get there by boat. The hotels want to charge about $250 to get you 25 min up the river. If you catch a local river taxi it is $1 but takes about 3 hours. You can guess the option we are going for. You have to stay in the park for 2 days (taxi times), but don’t pay park fees at the camp. So you still only pay for 24hours in the park. 2 nights at $20 each with the park fees sitting at $200 for the 2 of us, you can see why spending $250 to get there is just crazy!! A very expensive experience you might think, but it is still cheaper than $500 ahead Uganda is charging for gorilla trekking.
From here we plan to head across to Mwanza, which is right at the left of the Serengeti Plains. This will take 2 days of driving. We are not sure if we will head straight into Kenya from here or do the Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater first. We heard the migration is in the Masai Mara...so will see. In Kenya we plan to head to Hells Gate National Park, Nairobi to get the car serviced and then back into Tanzania to Killi. Whether we climb we are not sure yet. Budget is dictating this one at the moment.
Well that is the general plan at the moment but things seem to change all the time so will update you.
We just found out that that the hotel up the road is showing the rugby so we are heading up there just now to do the internet update and watch the game. We heard about Aus and NZ going out which is quite a shock...going to be very interesting from here as I think that leaves us again England for the semi?

GO BOKKE......

A Month of Sundays

Well it is a month almost to the day that we set sail on our little adventure. While some parts have seemed tougher than others, on a whole it has been something special.
The last few days in Malawi were very chilled. We stayed at a campsite called Makuzi Beach which was run by South Africans. Deon the guy who managers it is an ex Ixopo guy. Bruce he knew you and we gave him your details. Besides that fact we got infested with spiders of all colours (lumo white, green and yellow) we had a really great time. Went kayaking and snorkelling on the lake, caught up on some housework (washing etc) and just chilled. From there we headed to an awesome spot called The Mushroom Farm. It is run by a very laid back Aussie called Mick. It is built into the cliffs in livingstonia and the drive up there was an experience in itself. Narrow windey road going straight up with a sheer drop on one side. The campsites and bungalows are built into the cliffs so sleep walkers might do some rap jumping without the wires if they don’t watch out. But it was very chilled out, saw the most amazing sunrise over the lake...breathtaking!! We then headed to our last night down at the lake before heading to yet another border post. We had been warned that is was going to be a tedious one so we braced ourselves for the worst. Surprisingly enough it was as quick and easy as all our other crossings. Expensive (see below) but it means we can head to Kenya or Uganda without having to pay again within 90 Days. The only pretty crappy thing about these border crossings which makes it so unpleasant are the Money changes. No matter how much you say no thank you, they just become more determined. The Carnet and the Comesa have made our lives very easy. The minute they see it they smile. All we can figure is that it is less work for them. But all in all borders are not the nightmare I had prepared myself for.

At the moment everything has been a little more than what we anticipated from our research we had done. Amounts had been doubled since recent prices in Bradt guides. At the moment we are just have to pick and choose a little more so as to get the best out of the trip and fit in everything we really wanted to do. With regards to park fees, Tanzania is about as bad as it gets...so we are bracing ourselves for it.

In Tanzania

Hi Guys
Just a quick one. In Tanzania in a town called Sumbawanga near Lake Tasnganyka...were wanting to stick the car on the ferry and head up the lake but just found out the water levels are to low to unload the car in kigoma...so will drive up the lake instead. Looking to go play with the chimps....
besides that all good...missing you guys
will update soon with more news.

keep the comments coming. we love reading them.....
send RUGBY updates.....