| Diary
May
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania 2004-05-26 17:44
Hi!
Our last days on Zanzibar turned out to be really nice (just like every other day on this tropical island). Last week we mentioned that we were going to participate in Zanzibar Pool Competition. And what a night, we had so much fun! If you are curious about the results we can reveal that Helena got her ass kicked in the quarter finals and that Daniel impressed a lot, getting all the way to the final where he unfortunately lost against a Canadian guy.
Before we left Zanzibar we made a steady pallet for the bike so that we smoothly could put it on the plane when we arrived at the airport in Dar. To keep the volume weight down we removed both back tyres. Other parts of our preparations where to find a couple of guys that had a pick-up and that could help us to lift the bike on and of the pick-up and down into the ferry when we arrived in the harbour.
And last Tuesday we said our good-byes to all our new friends on Zanzibar and hopped on the night ferry to the mainland. After a sleepless and hot night with high waves and heaps of screaming babies we finally arrived in Dar six o’clock in the morning. Five minutes later we found a new pick-up that gave us a lift to the airport. We were so positive when we arrived at the airport cargo department one hour later, since the bike were already packed and everything we were curtain that we would be out of there before nine.
At 4 pm(!) the crew at the airport were finished with getting us the right receipts and customs papers. The productivity in Africa is absolutely frightening. Everything takes so looong!!! But on the other side, how effective would you and I have been if we hade a monthly salary of about 50 US dollars?
However, after a sleepless night in the ferry and after nine hours on the airport the hard and boring stuff was finally out of our ways. The bike was on its way to Jordan (the flight was leaving the next day) and we could go to our hotel and sleep.
The next morning we were on our way to the city centre to pick out our flight tickets. Before we left our hotel we quickly checked our emails. The Swedish embassy in Jordan had replied on an email that we had sent three weeks before. The embassy apologized for the late answer and advised us not to go to Jordan since its illegal to ride a motorbike there(!), only the police and the military are allowed. This must be the only country in the world where you can’t ride a bike!!! The Swedish embassy told us to change our destination since we by all means would get into big trouble when we arrived; they thought that we might not even get the bike out of the airport. The bureaucracy in the Middle East is nothing to play around with. This information came like a chock to us. Before we decided to go to Jordan we had been in contact with the Jordan Embassy in Germany (the closest one to Sweden) and they didn’t mention anything about this. We had also been in contact with the AA Association in Sweden that issued a new Carnet (custom paper for the bike) for us, that would cover the Middle East.
PANIC!!! God, what a panic! The feeling that went throughout our bodies when we read this email is one of the worst feelings we have ever experienced. At this stage we thought that our bike was already in the air, on its way to Jordan. We thought that we, in addition to the 1120 expensive US dollars we had already spent on this transportation of the bike, was going to have to pay at least the same amount again, to get the bike out of Jordan. At this stage we thought that this trip was over, that we would have to go home.
The first thing we did when we had calmed ourselves down a bit was of course to call the airport. And thank God we had the luck on our side, Mr PikiPiki was still in Tanzania, we called two hours before its departure. As quick as we possible could, we jumped into a taxi, went to the airport and looked for the big boss. And thank God, again, we could change the destination without any problems. We picked the alternative (of course we had to fly with the same company) that was furthest away from Sweden, Greece. Jepp, we are going to Greece. We don’t know if we are going to laugh or cry. We were so much looking forward to exploring the Middle East. But, what can we do? That’s life. And we were definitely lucky, things could have been a lot worse then they are. If we would have read the Email with a big E two hours later, well, we don’t even want to think about that…
So on Sunday we are going to Greece. Right now we don’t have a bloody clue about where we are going from there, how our route through Europe will look. More about that next week.
Pictures will be out before soon.
Helena and Daniel
Zanzibar, Tanzania 2004-05-15 10:00
Hi there!
Unfortunately our Africa adventure is now coming to an end. As we mentioned a couple of weeks ago, we were supposed to drive back to South Africa via Mozambique (a country we would love to visit) but since the ferry that crosses the river/border between these countries have been seized because of corrupt tax cheating, it’s now impossible to go straight from Tanzania to Mozambique. And since we don’t feel like spending our time and money on unnecessary D-tours, we have decided to fly direct from Dar es Salaam, here in Tanzania, to the capital of Jordan, Amman.
We are now back on the paradise island Zanzibar. But this time we are not only sunbathing, swimming and drinking beer (just a little bit), now we are spending quit a lot of time trying to find cheap flights for us and the bike to Jordan. Even if we probably won’t get it as “cheap” as we did, flying from Ghana to South Africa, it looks like if the prices will be OK (around 1800 US dollars for everything). But of course we should probably save this OK-talking until we are actually in the air with all the receipts, according to our earlier experiences we know that Africa is always filled with surprises.
Since most of the travel agents here in Tanzania persist not to sell one-way tickets to non-residents (don’t ask us why) we have also contacted the Swedish embassy in Dar for a letter of recommendation. Since the Middle East wasn’t included in our originally plans we have also had to contact the Automobile Association in Sweden for a new “Carnet de Passage” (the customs paper for the bike) that has been sent to us here on Zanzibar and that we hopefully will receive anytime soon. Further on we have decided that we will pack the bike (put the bike on a pallet) here on the island instead of at the airport. And to transport the bike smoothly to the mainland we have “hired” a “fixer” that we now have meetings with several times per week. You didn’t think that we were on holiday, did you?
If everything goes according to our plan, we will leave Tanzania and Africa 21st May, next Friday. Of course it feels a little bit melancholy to leave Africa, that truly has been an amazing continent to explore on a motorbike, but at the same time we are really, really excited about going to the Middle East.
Unfortunately we don’t have time to write anymore this week. Besides fixing everything with the flights we have to improve our skills at pool. You see, on Saturday the “Destination Africa-duo” will defend the Swedish pride in Zanzibar Pool Competition. Wish us luck! And stay tuned.
All the best,
Helena and Daniel
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| Helena is relaxing on the east coast of Zanzibar |
Stonetown, a labyrinth of narrow alleys |
Zanzibar is famous for its sunsets |
Arusha 2004-05-04 14:21
Hi again!
After ten days with a whole lot of sunbathing, pool playing and beer drinking on Zanzibar we took the ferry back to Dar es Salaam, took place in Andy and Anna’s Land Rover and steered north, to the national parks Ngorongoro and Serengeti.
The night before we entered Ngorongoro we camped just next to the entrance. Typically both I and Daniel started to feel a bit sick. Daniel had an infection in his body that made all his small wounds big, swollen and festering. He also had a stomach so bad that the grass around us started to wither. Me, I had a cold that was getting worse and worse. But we just had to try not to think about it, we were going on a safari for the first time in our lives!
6 am, the next day, we were finally inside the Ngorongoro. The highlight in this national park is the Ngorongoro Conservation Area which is a 23 kilometre-wide and 600 meter deep volcanic crater packed with just about every species of wildlife in East Africa. This is without any doubts one of the most amazing places we have ever visited. First of all the views from the crater rim are incredible and then, after a pretty challenging, steep and bumpy dirt road, you get down to the bottom and se all these animals. They are everywhere! Buffalos, monkeys, wilder beasts, warthogs, zebras, elephants, lions, cheetahs, rhinos, hyenas, hippos, many different kinds of birds, you name it. Except from the shy leopard, we saw it all. And you do not only bump into animals in Ngorongoro and Serengeti; you also bump into the Masai people. We have seen plenty of Masai people all around Tanzania but it’s in the national parks and the areas around them (and in Kenya) you will meet the “real” Masais, Masai people that still live in the “stone age” independent of the fact that it’s year 2004. And these people look fantastic with their red cloths, traditional spears and big handmade jewellery.
After an outrages day in the extremely beautiful Ngorongoro Crater we headed off to Serengeti. As soon as we got there the sun disappeared behind the horizon and it was time to find a camping, put up the tent and sleep. Even though both me and Daniel where pretty ill the excitement had taken us through the day perfectly well. As soon as we got to the camping though, we were both starting to feel really bad. Since neither on of us where particularly keen on putting up the tent nor pumping up the air mattress, we of course started to fight about who where the sickest one:-) Andy and Anna, who where doing what they could to help their sick passengers, asked the guard at the camping if it was possible to find medication anywhere. The answer was; “Yes, there is a pharmacy, but the medication is finished”. Africa!!!
There are no fences around the camp sites in these national parks, and when we finally, with some help from Anna, settled everything with the tent we heard a lion who were roaring not to far away. Funny! But since we were so tired we didn’t have any problems to fall asleep, listening to the lions around the camp site. In the middle of the night Daniel however woke up because he really had to take his bad stomach to the toilet. Aware of the danger outside, he really didn’t want to leave the tent and therefore ignored his stomach until he really, really had to visit the long drop. And just as Daniel had crawled outside the tent strange noises started to take place followed by a dejected low whispered “fuck”, Daniel never got as far as all of us would have wished. And this night turned out to be ever more funny and long when Daniel discovered that the camping didn’t have any water….
The next day we all woke up at dusk and got ready for a new safari day, this time in Serengeti. Serengeti is famous for having the world’s biggest concentration of wilder beasts, gazelles, zebras and antelopes. The wildebeest, of which there are up to two million, are also well known for its 1000 kilometres annual migration to the national park Masai Mara in Kenya. We were a bit to early to se the real migration, that usually starts in the beginning of June, but we were lucky enough to se their preparations, when they are getting together. It was pretty powerful to se thousands and thousands wildebeests pass you in gallop. Other highlights in Serengeti was when we said hello to a big male lion who was sunbathing about one metre from the car (we saw a total of 15 lions in Serengeti), when we came across the strange sight of two hyenas eating a third hyena and when we saw a bunch of blood thirsty vulture that tore a zebra into pieces. And how we were feeling this day? Answer: Even worse.
After a full day in Serengeti we went back to Ngorongoro, where we had decided to spend our second and last safari night. And this night had another interesting surprise coming. Around twelve a’ clock we suddenly woke up realizing that our tent was moving. We thought that a lion or a hyena was attacking the tent, got scared and started to scream. And when we screamed the animal outside started to move to tent even more and made a scary noise. As soon as we started to get really scared the animal however, thank God, took off and the guards of the camping came running, asking us if we were OK. Luckily we were perfectly fine, the tent however, now have a new 1, 5 metre “window”. The guards explained to us that it was a buffalo that had attacked our tent, probably he got stuck while grazing and got scared. We are, I think, extremely lucky that we came out of this incident without even one scratch. Buffalos are not the kind of animal you want to get to close to, they are among the most dangerous animals there is, being really unpredictable and sulky. Do we have to point out that we spent the rest of the night in the Land Rover?
The following day we went back into the Ngorongoro Crater, spent half of the day there, and then drove to the closest big city, Arusha, where we went to the doctor and got some antibiotics. In Arusha we also had to say goodbye to our new good friends Anna and Andy (that we ended up travelling with for one month), who are now steering south, back to South Africa and their new jobs in Kruger National Park. We miss you!!!
Even if our three day safari contained some unpleasant surprises, it’s definitely one of the most exciting and awesome things we have ever done. During our days in Ngorongoro and Serengeti it also felt like if we got a glimpse of how a big part of East Africa must have looked like before the “great white hunters” came into the picture. It felt like we travelled back in time, what an amazing experience! To go on a safari in Africa I something that we definitely recommend to you people back home!!!
Read about the meeting with our sponsor child Robe below.
So long,
Helena and Daniel
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| Ngorongoro Crater |
Smile!!! |
Ngorongoro Masai |
Nairobi, Kenya 2004-05-04 13:50
Hi again!
After a couple of days of necessary rest and recovering in Arusha we took the bus to Nairobi, Kenya, where we had an arranged a meeting with our sponsor child, Robe. And using public transport in Africa was new to us, and scary. The bus driver must have thought that he was participating in a rally race or something, my God he was speeding. We know that it’s risky to drive around on a motorbike, but I sure as hell never felt that scared on the bike.
In Nairobi we had three days to spend before the big meeting with Robe. And Nairobi is definitely the most developed city we have seen since we left South Africa; sky scrapes, shopping malls, cinemas, cafeterias etc. But as we have mentioned earlier this city is called Nai-Robbery, the crime statistics are terrifying. It was pretty funny when we checked in at Iqbal Hotel that’s located in the city centre. Like we always do when we arrive in a big city, we asked the receptionist about the places you should avoid at night etc. The answer was: “No, why do you have to walk around at night? It’s very, very dangerous! But, if you have to, do not bring any valuables with you; do not talk to anybody and no eye contact.” Charming city, Nairobi.
Last Monday, 26th April, it was finally time to meet the ten year old girl, Robe, that we have been sponsoring for about a year. What we didn’t know before this meeting, was the fact that Robe lives around 800 kilometres north from Nairobi, in a small village outside Marsabit National Park. Christian Children’s Fund Inc, the sponsor child organisation in Nairobi, had transported Robe and her grand mother a long, long way to met us.
And the meeting with our sponsor child and her grand mother, Wayama, turned out to be an incredible experience. The first thing that crossed our minds when we saw them was how healthy and beautiful the looked. I don’t know what we had expected; at least not that two well dressed “super models” would enter the room. And their tooth, even Robe’s around 60 year old grand mother (she doesn’t know how old she is) has such perfect teeth. During our seven month in Africa I don’t think that we have ever seen local teeth in this good condition. Another thing that we noticed as soon as we met Robe was that she was wearing a shirt, and holding some toys, that we sent her before we left Sweden. We where a bit surprised that all our gift actually reached her.
Robe is an orphan, her mum and dad died a long time ago because of bad health and no medication. Now she, her thirteen years old sister, her grand mother and sex other relatives are sharing a small mud hut with two rooms. Since we started to sponsor Robe she has, among other things, gotten a new school uniform and a lot of school material. These days she and her family also have four goats, more money for food and free medication.
Before this meeting Robe had never been particularly far away from her small village, definitely not in a big city. The days she and her grand mother, Wayana, spent in Nairobi must have been so confusing. All the cars, all the people, all the stress, all the big shops and us; white people with strange colours on our hair, they had never seen anything like it. We took Robe and Wayana to a restaurant and bought some hamburgers, something they had never ever tasted. While they tried to figure out how to eat the hamburger they glanced at the TV, something they had never ever seen before…
After a pretty confusing lunch we took off to the “snake park” where we, amongst other things, got the chance to se one of the worlds most dangerous snakes; the black Mamba. After an appreciated visit at the snake park it was time for some shopping. Since Robe and Wayama live so far away from Nairobi, we didn’t get a chance to buy everything that we had planned. We bought some toys for Robe and than instead gave some money to her grand mother, enough so that they can make their house a bit bigger.
It was definitely two different worlds that met this day in Nairobi. And I think that everybody who was taking part in the meeting felt the same; a bit uncomfortable and confused but at the same time we all thought that it was extremely funny, interesting and exciting. And Robe, what a girl! So tough, so full of live, always smiling, so special. If feels so good that we have met her, now on we know exactly who we are sending money to every month. We are no longer sponsoring a name and a picture; we are sponsoring a girl that we really like, a girl that we truly care about. We can’t wait to visit her again!
We would like to thank Barnfonden in Sweden and Christian Children’s Fund, Inc in Nairobi, Kenya for making this meeting possible and very smooth. A special thank you to Florens and Mohammed!
Se you next week,
Helena and Daniel
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| Roby is licking the lid of her new favorite dessert, ice cream |
Robe's grandmother, Wayama |
Here we are relaxing in a park |
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