Uganda's Uniqueness

Already back in my old room in Groningen for 2 weeks now after almost an amazing year in Afrique, lived for 3 months in South Africa and 6 months in Kenya and travelling through 10 countries in Southern and Eastern Africa.
What a year it was! A perfect combination of studying, working and travelling.

My last post dates back more then 2 months so time to tell y'all how my last 2 months were in Kenya and Uganda.
The last 2 weeks of our internship in Mago in the beginning of February were about rounding off the tasks we were working on. The basketball court I raised funds for got finished finally after a delay of several weeks and costing almost triple the amount that we expected, but the foundation helped allot and soon I will send the final photos to the sponsors.
Before we arrived in Nairobi we wanted to spend some more time in Kenya's nature parks, 2 days at the hotsprings of Lake Bogoria and 2 days in the extreme luxurious Crater lake resort this all for very affordable prices thanks to our connections.
As planned my friend Noud arrived on the 11th of February and Linda left the 14th after spending an amazing 8 months together in Africa, but she felt she had enough and wanted to go home. This gave me time to travel to Uganda with Noud hopefully time enough to sell the car. With Noud we drove back to my internship to get some stuff and to change the brake pads of Beast. Left for Uganda on the 17th just a day before my Kenya visa expired and we took Robin a French guy we met in Nairobi with us. On the way to Jinja we met a guy on a bike who knew Noud from school years back, what a coincidence that was. Spending a few days in Jinja we decided to go to Kampala for some serious partying with 2 Israeli girls and with the 5 of us (me, Noud, Robin, Orit and Shoshi) we spend travelling a week first to Murchison falls in the north and then to the crater lakes in the west of the country. Saw the mighty Murchison falls, chimpanzees and had a great time experiencing Uganda.
In western Uganda we decided to travel with the 2 of us again heading south to Kabale and Kisoro. In beautiful Kisoro with many high vulcanos on the background I wanted to see the rare mountain Gorillas on the border with Rwanda and Congo, you are allowed to spend an hour with these huge creatures and after searching for them in the jungle we found them within 2 hours. It was an amazing and unique experience to watch these human like animals just a few meters from us. Costs: a shocking 500 US Dollar!! but hee how often am I in Uganda and the costs to see these animals are raising every year. Back in Kabale I felt a bit feverish and slept bad and as I expected: Malaria got me! finally after spending 8 months in Malaria country they had me. Did a test at the doctor got some pills and in 3 days of feeling bit weak I was better. In the meantime of the last few weeks I kept in contact with an Australian guy I met who was interested in buying Beast. On the way back to Kampala (skipping Rwanda unfortunately because of time) we met with the 3 Australian guys who were heading down to Cape Town and got enough of travelling by public means. We partied a night and discussed the price I wanted for it; 6500 US dollar, 1000 dollar more then we bought it for but we did have spend some money on maintenance and camping gear. As they were on a tight budget we agreed in a contract on a 2 term payment, the 2nd payment done by them when they sell it in June. Maybe not the smartest decision but as I trust them, and Beast is going back home to Cape Town and for the money I wanted for it, it was the best solution. Felt sad when my old companion who never let us down drove away out of sight in this small city of southern Uganda.
Noud and I were now depending on public transport to Kampala (my first bus in Africa in almost a year) arriving in Kampala Backpackers (serious partying again) we met with an old friend from Nairobi; Heron and with him and Melina a girl from Canada we wanted to spend some time on one of Uganda's islands. 4 Days of perfect weather on a perfect spot near the lake we relaxed, drank, smoked and got seriously burned while playing Frisbee. Ooh and I caught 2 fish with my hands leaving fisherman friend Noud in silence. Not all perfect but shit happens... my camera got stolen with all my gorilla photos on the camp site blameable on my laziness. (Got some photos of the same Gorillas of a friend who saw them a few days after me) On our way back to Kampala (yeah ofcourse serious partying again!) and Jinja Noud's camera got stolen from him on the street and Melina's camera a few days later so very few pictures remained of the last week in Uganda. Travelling through Uganda with Noud was perfect and we met many nice travellers on the way.
On monday the 15th of March we crossed back into Kenya to my internship place and from there on the next day straight to Nairobi for a 5 day exhibition for promoting the guesthouse. Noud left the 18th and my flight was the 23rd back to Dusseldorf, Germany and then Holland, back to see my Linda, my friends and my family.

What a RIDE it was!!! One year in Africa.... and a more perfect year I couldn't have imagined. I had no expectations of this dark continent before I came which is the way to do it. I learned allot about life here, poverty, people, problems, nature and wildlife, met amazing people and grew so much thanks to my internship with Linda which will help allot in the near future. Africa is truly amazing and if you're ready; Do IT.

Thanks everybody for your posts and following my adventures.

For more photos and many videos check;
http://picasaweb.google.nl/jcopray/

Some people asked me already "Hey Joost where are you going next?" uhm no idea yet first spend this summer, my first summer in NL in 6 years, in Groningen with my friends and then the world is open again.

''Challenges and obstacles in Western Kenya''

Hey everybody, Ok I know that it has been a while since my last post, more then 4 months ago actually. So what have I been doing these last months on my internship in Western Kenya, you might ask.
Well many developments here in the guesthouse we are working in. Linda and I are the managers of a guesthouse in Western Kenya, the guesthouse is located on a school compound and serves as a training centre for the catering & hospitality students as it is a hotel school as well. Our main task was to write a marketing plan for it but meanwhile we have taken the function as managers and are constantly busy with improving the service standard in the hotel.
Regarding marketing we are busy with getting a name here in Western Kenya (which is not very known by tourists), visiting travel agencies frequently, improving the website and translating it in Dutch, German and Swahili, placing signs and promote the guesthouse on fairs. In the last 4 months we have been on 3 fairs and a conference about ecotourism, we were visited by a media team last week to make some footage about Western Kenya, we have met the Minister of Tourism already twice and some other ministers and next week we are invited for the official opening of an Impala sanctuary in Kisumu were we will meet the Prime Minister. All in all we are really trying our best to put Mago on the map.
As managers of the guesthouse we try to improve the service and facilities, the guesthouse has been operating for more then 2 years now and it has never been marketed and when we arrived many things were below standard.
Things got missing from the storage, many things were broken etc, but by making strict controls and checklists we are trying to change this.
The result is there; after many questionnaires from customers we improved allot and more and more visitors come thanks to our Western way of implementing new structure in the organisation.

Kenya is great but after handling with the people here frequently you often know why businesses are sometimes not running efficient because many and (trust me) many people here don't think about long term planning.
We have the feeling that some people just don't want to change their way of working, when we want to change something we have to mention it at least 3 times to that person. Of course in the Western world people in general are more educated thanks to government funding of education, less poverty etc.

These thresholds and obstacles are often very frustrating but we do see them as challenges and we really like living here and working in this organisation. When confronted with these challenges we know that we will be better of in a Western company later on; especially regarding when things are being done right away when asked, better time planning and long term investment.

The trips we make for example to the Masai Mara and Nairobi we combine with sightseeing the country. My parents visited me in October for 3 weeks and Linda's parents in November and so on we went twice to the Mara to see the Big 5 (lion, elephant, buffalo, rhino and (not yet the) leopard) and dozens of other animals, went to the coast with my parents and Nairobi a few times to combine it with visiting tourism bodies like travel agencies and tour operators. It was good to see our parents again after 5 / 6 months away from home.

Our BEAST car is still doing very fine and so far we only 3 flat tyres, some problems with the power steering motor, a small battery fire and something that was broken with the break fluid controller, all in all not much for a car from 1988 travelling more then 17000 km from Cape Town, South Africa!
When we were travelling from South Africa to Kenya we often slept in the car and after arriving at our internship we slept from September till November in a nice room in the guesthouse. After the 2 volunteers left (who were here for more then a year) in the beginning of December we got to move to the big house on the compound. The house were we live in (for free!) has 3 bedrooms, big kitchen, living room and a nice terrace were my hammock suits perfectly. And like the cherry on the cream we have a maid in our house who cleans and cooks for us.
How many people can say this about their internship living for free in a huge house with a maid in a country with nice temperature, with allot of freedom of being your own manager of a Guesthouse.

Of course the other side is that as we are living on the compound that we have less free time in the weekend as when guests are there you are the one who has to check if everything is going well. And as we are pretty far from the city or other white people we don’t have allot of options to make new friends. Some people working here we do consider as friends but many here just want to be friends with you because of the fact that we have money.

From this moment I can already say about my internship that I learned allot, with only a few weeks left here one of the biggest changes I have seen in myself that I can be an asshole when needed. People might know me as that friendly guy and that is how I like to be, keeping everyone as a friend but in my time here I learned different. In the first few months we tried to approach people in a friendly way and saying it normally how to improve their behaviour but these methods don’t work here in Kenya (at least); shouting and being extremely strict or money punishments only works. I don’t like being like that but if you want to change and improve something here (and that is why we are here) you have to be an asshole to people or they just don’t listen.

Another project I have been working on for about 2 months now is creating a basketball field for the students of the school. The idea came from that I saw in the storage a big bucket full off good quality basketballs but no basketball field anywhere around.
As I played basketball for many years I wanted to give something to the school and students as I heard that they would really appreciate it. I started a sponsor campaign for getting the required 550 euro needed for the goal posts, building a retaining wall and concreting the field with the official sizes 15m by 28m.
Within no time I had the money given from friends and family and the building could begin.
The basket posts are finished and the field is levelled and at the moment 2nd year masonry students are mixing the cement with sand and stones to make a strong base for the court.

By the end of the week the baskets will be placed (with a valuable message on it; AIDS KILLS, Drugs KILLS & Education your Future) and the lines will be painted on the field.
A big drawback for me is that the total costs will be much higher then I expected. More sand, cement and stones are needed and the 900 euro line will be passed. I am at the moment looking for more sponsors but a big amount I will have to pay for it myself.

Between all the hard work we are doing here, we also were able to create some free time between Christmas and New Year to go to Uganda, just 2 hours from here.
We left Mago the day before Christmas and picked up a friend of us at the border, who we have met a month before in Nairobi. With him (Marcus) we celebrated Christmas on Banda Island; a small island in Lake Victoria with a small campsite and hostel on it. We had a very nice time for those 3 days but unfortunately we had rain every day. Jinja was our next stop, this small village is also known as the source of the Nile (the point where the river Nile begins).
Here at a nice hostel I celebrated my birthday and New Years Eve among fellow tourists and travellers. For my birthday I got from Linda a rafting trip on the Nile, a grade 5 rated full day of rafting with some serious waterfalls and rapids. Many of the rubber boats flipped over and I ended up in the water several times.
On New years day we left to Sipi falls, three beautiful waterfalls on the border with Kenya. Within 2 weeks we were back at our internship. Uganda is really nice, very green and much cheaper then Kenya is.

So what are the plans the following 2 months; in 2 weeks time we will leave this place and we will travel back to Nairobi. Linda will fly back on the 14th of Feb. and Noud a friend of mine will arrive a few days earlier and with him I will go back to Uganda and Rwanda to travel and to find a buyer for our car. In March I will come back to Kenya to help promote the Guesthouse on a big exhibition in Nairobi and I will fly back home on the 23rd of that month after spending a year in Africa.

Sorry again for waiting so long with this post, but better late then never.

Photos: http://picasaweb.google.nl/jcopray

Greets from Western Kenya.

Crossing the Equator

Back to the developed world, after our remote adventure called Mozambique. The river border crossing was a hell of an experience, but still very pleasant. When we crossed the river we asked the boats man if there were any accidents with cars crossing on the three small boats in the past. “None” they replied. But in Tanzania a white travel agency guy said that there were boats sinking with cars on it in the past. So good that we made it with our Beast. Good roads (with the occasional %$#& speed bump), full markets and stores full of products lacking in Mozambique were waiting for us.
Still 2 weeks left of our 2 months journey until our internship started on the first of September in M a g o, Kenya.
We were traveling with our German friend Martin who was traveling across Africa with his motorbike and after relaxing in a nice guesthouse we moved on to a place called Kilwa Masoko.
Close to this small village there were some islands which we visited the next day. Many old ruins from the ages of the Sultans and Portuguese were scattered over the island. Hardly any tourists visit these Unesco World Heritage sites as it is not on many mass tourists’ lists. A night out with Martin ended in a nice bar with a stage with sing and dance performances from local artists, really nice to see.

Zanzibar was next on our program, this island 70 km offshore of Tanzania with some form of independence from the mainland is the highlight of many tourists itinerary, and so we had also some expectation of being amazing.
Took of early in the morning and soon we were lost in the chaos of Dar es Salaam. Near the southern beaches we found a guesthouse/restaurant where we could park our car for 2 euro a day, as we were not able to get the car on the island.

Finally bought a ferry ticket for the 16:00 o’clock boat to Zanzibar. After 2 hours we arrived in Stone Town, Zanzibar where a dozen touts were waiting for us. Everyone trying to sell a ride to their hotel or a tour on the island. Zanzibar is known for these people who annoy tourists all over the island.
After a night in a hotel near the docks we started thinking about our car and the place where we parked it on the mainland. Before we parked it we checked some other places where parking was more expensive but we decided to park at the place which looked more remote but cheaper.
As Beast is our most valuable possession we decided to park the car in a safer place. This took me a whole day, 2 hours back on the ferry then a taxi then another short ride on another ferry then a tuktuk and after parking the car at a resort, a taxi, ferry, taxi and the big ferry back to Zanzibar. Maybe a waste of money but better safe then sorry. Linda spent her day on the island visiting sites in Stone Town.

Zanzibar is known for its culture, white beaches and clear blue water. In the north, packed with hotels and resorts, we found a bungalow close to the beach for a reasonable price. In the 3 days we stayed here we visited a turtle aquarium where you could swim with huge turtles and spent days swimming in the sea.
As this is a major attraction in Africa we thought that the development of the island would be progressive. The opposite is true. After talking to some people we found out that the President of the island (which is the vice president of Tanzania) is as corrupt as can be and one of the richest persons in Africa.
Many villages don’t have enough water pumps, garbage is found everywhere, education facilities are hardly found and many people are illiterate. This all to keep the population dumb and any form of political resistance is crushed by the police. The opposition is said to have won the last elections but major fraud helped the current president to stay for another term. These situations are not uncommon in Africa and we heard about these scandals in several countries on the continent.
Zanzibar was nice but not amazing, this came mainly through our expectations. Better to have none as I did with Africa so then there can never be disappointment.

After a few days on Zanzibar we took the cheaper night ferry back which took 9 hours instead of 2 with the fast one, sometimes woken up by people throwing up onboard. Our beloved Beast waiting for us in Dar es Salaam and that morning we left to the Usambara mountains to the small village of Lushoto. The roads in Tanzania are well tarred but close to villages, speed bumps sometimes appear without warning which is extremely annoying. At a certain point Joost was stopped again by police for speeding, driving 76 were 30 was allowed. Ai! as we thought but the fine was just 20.000 shilling (which is just about 10 euro!) and as I got a look in the officer’s ticket/fine book all the people stopped were given a 20.000 shilling fine didn’t matter if you were a resident or tourist or if you were driving 5 km or 70 km to fast.
After a night camping we were recommended to do a hike around the villages and in the rainforest nearby.
A really nice walk and we saw that day 2 cameleons, really nice rare animals with their freak eyes looking at every direction. We slept in a small banda (type of bungalow) on a viewpoint just on the cliff of a huge mountain.
Driving further to Moshi, where our plans were to spend the night there just to see the highest mountain of Africa, Kilimanjaro in the distance. As it was to cloudy to see the mountain we moved to Arusha 80 km further to a nicer campsite. Arusha is the Safari capital of Tanzania and many tours can be booked here to different parks in the region. As we thought Zanzibar was bad with people who bother you, Arusha is worse.

The back of our car already has many stickers of countries where we have been and we found a new one in Arusha. We changed the sticker “I have climbed Mount Kilimanjaro” into “I have NOT climbed Mount Kilimanjaro because it costs US $ 1000” This ridiculous price for entering a park and climbing it yourself is considered by many tourist not worth to pay.

Crossing into Kenya, stopping in Nairobi just to get some Kenyan Shilling and driving further to Naivasha.
A few National parks were nearby and we decided to visit Hells Gate NP. This year the Kenya Wildlife Service raised their prices for all the national parks in the country. For $ 25,- per person per day we could enter the park. The first half of the park looked really nice with huge cliffs and many animals. Buffaloes, giraffes, zebras, antelopes could be seen everywhere. The second half of the park had some geysers but as we wanted to see them we noticed suddenly in the middle of the park a huge power station getting the electricity out of the hot steam. That night we slept in the park on a beautiful viewpoint on a mountain overlooking the savanna.
On our last day we wanted to relax and spent our day at a campsite with swimming pool before driving to M a g o, our home for the next 6 months.

As we already experienced in southern Kenya the extreme drought, crossing the equator and arriving in M a g o and surroundings everything looks green here. As it is on about 1400 m above sea level it has a nice climate of +/- 25 degrees every day and hardly any mosquitoes are found.

Arrived on the school compound of M a g o Polytechnic / Guesthouse we met the volunteers Renske and Pepijn our supervisors for our internship time here.
As Linda and I both study Tourism Management we got a task to promote and write a marketing plan for the guest house in Kenya and Europe. The school is specifically for the poorest students in the region and many courses can be followed like: carpentry, masonry, sewing, mechanics, hospitality and computer skills. The guest house acts also as a hotel school for the students studying on the compound.
All the money that is generated in the guesthouse goes to the school and the students. And as there are hardly any guests staying we are brought in to change that.

We are staying in of the luxurious rooms and currently have the whole guesthouse for us alone incl. the giant restaurant kitchen and we are welcomed by 7 small puppies born a few days before we arrived.
The first week we spent finding our way in the region, arranging phone numbers and internet and looking at the facilities we have to promote. This week school starts here after a week of holidays, and we slowly get to know all the staff members.

We are really looking forward to our stay here and making a change in the lives of this community and showing my parents around who are visiting us in less then 3 weeks.

So travelling through 7 countries and driving more then 10.000 km from Cape Town our car did amazing with only 1 flat tyre. We experienced so many amazing things and saw incredible places. Now our time here we will be seeing Kenya’s attractions and in our free time Uganda, the gorillas in Rwanda and probably Ethiopia. And there is a change that we have to drive back to South Africa in March to sell our car.

Some counters of indication

Dead dogs along the road: 20
Dogs peeing against our beast: 7
Albinos: we stopped counting but at least a few dozen
Linda scarred from animals: 14
People asking 'You sleep in the back of the car?': 9

Photos: http://picasaweb.google.nl/jcopray

Hope you all enjoyed our adventures, in a few weeks I will write again about our progress here.

Greets from
Claus, Clark, Yawn and Hast (these are the names people pronounce for Joost)
Belinda, Lucinda, Cinda (for Linda)
Hilarious!!

For contacting us:

My Kenya number is 00254 733211727. Linda’s 00254 733211733 (her birthday is the 12th this month)

And the post address:

M a g o Youth Polytechnic School / Guesthouse
P.O. Box 1
50325 M a g o
Kenya

Rough, Remote, Rewarding Mozambique

This post is dedicated to the country of Mozambique. What a rough ride it was the last 3 weeks after we left Blantyre, Malawi. Linda felt a bit sick during our 3 days in Blantyre especially because she took a Malaria 3 day treatment. However the Malaria test was negative but later on we found out that she did have it, later in this blog I will come back to it.

What we heard of Mozambique is that it would be rough to cross it but well worth it. The infrastructure in the country would be bad and time should be taken for getting to places. Also the poverty would be more visible than in the places we have seen so far. Our plan: straight to the white beach and from the border this was about 350km. We crossed the first 200 km in more then 4 hours, thanks to the shitty dirt roads and broken up tar roads. Arrived in Quelimane late in the afternoon and we experienced our first big Mozambican city. Many of the buildings were collapsed or stripped from anything useful, this in combination with tarred streets with potholes the size of golf bunkers and up to sometimes a meter deep. An image of a war zone.
As we learned more about the history of the country, we found out about the once so pretty Colonial houses of the Portuguese era. About 40 years ago many Portuguese had to leave almost over night after the Independence and fleeing for the civil war that followed. Their houses were never renovated but left to decade for the next decades to come.

The next day we got to feel the Caribbean like style of Mozambican life. Strange to suddenly hear Portuguese instead of English in the countries that we crossed already. The diesel price was less then a dollar, the Coco nuts 2,5 € cent and the Pao (small bread) amazing.
After asking around about nice places to stay at the coast we heard about a small fishing village called Penbane, where we could camp. Six hours driving brought us at this nice small place, and with luck a white guy stopped behind us and recognized the South African car. He told us that the camp site was not operating at the time but we could stay at his lodge at the beach.
We happily accepted his offer and we could use a beach lodge's bathroom next to our camping spot. The lodge was especially for people who flew in with small planes and stayed in the luxurious lodge for a few days, when we were there nobody else was. Five days of relaxing on an huge empty beach began. The managers Chris and Lyn were very helpful and made our stay unforgettable.

Our next destination Ilha de Mozambique about 400 km north of Penbane and as this is northern remote Mozambique it took us 3 days to get there. From Chris we heard that crossing it driving parallel to the coast wouldn't be possible as a bridge was missing at one point. From others we heard that it was possible so we just went and see. At night we camped in the wild as we couldn't find a campsite, a nice experience I thought, Linda hated it. At the river crossing we heard that it was not possible but with a small detour of a kilometre we would be able to, 2 guys came with us in the car and showed us the way through a forest of palm trees on a small footpath (and this all with our Beast, you should have seen it) We ended up at the river mouth with many people crossing the river by foot. As the 2 guys showed me the way through the water I drove about 150 meters through water sometimes almost a meter deep, Linda recording everything on video. Incredible experience!

In Angoche we planned to stay a night. Life here in Mozambique goes really slowly, not much happens in the villages we crossed. If the infrastructure wouldn't be so bad, many lives of the people here would look much different then it is now.
About Africa... as very few have a car or bike, you see many people walk or cycle. Huge distances are crossed and many women carry the most remarkable things on their head. From buckets of water, boxes of eggs, to meters of fire wood just anything! In Angoche we saw a guy walking with a tv on his head (and I ain't talking about a small one, check the photos!)

Arrived at the bridge of Ilha de Mozambique we camped at a nice spot next to it. The island has much history as the Portuguese landed here about 200 years ago. As I thought that the island would be a bit more developed and houses renovated, it looked just like the other cities in the country with some big buildings in better condition then the rest but many falling apart. Still an impression could be sketched of how it looked like 40 years ago.

After 2 days we travelled further north to Pemba, a nice beach village were Linda got here Open Water diving certificate in 4 days. I did 2 dives as well and it was already 5 years ago when I did my last dive in Australia. A nice quiet camp site accommodated us for the time being. Linda felt a fever coming up and for precaution she took a blood test, after 15 minutes waiting the receptionist told us with a smile on her face ''Yeah you have it'' (like it would be strange if she wouldn't have it), Linda almost panicking asking her 3 times ''I have it!!??'' After consultation with the doctor there and 2 more precise test the doctor told her that she had it in Malawi 2 weeks ago but now the blood test just showed that it was still in her blood but not harming her and she would be Malaria free for the next 3 months to come he said, a relief.
We asked many people about the border crossing possibilities with Tanzania as it could be a challenge to get over the river Ruvuma with a car. This was the situation: there are 3 border crossings which we considered; 1 bridge close to Malawi (as we were at the coast it was 800 km from us on shitty roads), 1 bridge was being build 200 km from the coast (but from some we heard that the bridge wouldn't be operating yet so we decided to take option number 3. The closest one was a ferry crossing but because the ferry sunk 1,5 years ago we heard about that it was possible to put the car on 3 small boats tied together and they would take us across the half a kilometre wide river for around 200$ !!!.
In Ilha de Mozambique we met a German guy on a motor bike who also wanted to take that crossing so we decided to risk it. The ride to the border was sometimes rough, with quite some sand paths and we saw our friend Martin fall 3 times with his bike, harmless but hilarious. We arrived too late to cross that day because the tide was to low so we camped next to the border police of Mozambique, after bribing the cops for about 35 euro (as it was officially not possible to get the car over) our bargaining began for getting across to Tanzania. The boats men started with a ridiculous price of 650$ for the bike and car. We got it down to 220$ and left finally after waiting for 5 hours that next day on the most remarkable crossing I have ever seen. Three small fishing boats tied together with 2 motors bringing us with the car on top with many detours avoiding sandbanks and islands in the river, in the half an hour journey we saw many hippos swimming by. Check out the photos and movie on my photo site.
An amazing end to our Mozambique adventure.

Photo: http://picasaweb.google.nl/jcopray

At the moment I am already close to the border of Kenya and the last 2 weeks in Tanzania I will write in my next post.

Hope everything is fine with you all.

Malawi: More than just a lake

Let me tell you all more about life here in Afrika. As we have been travelling now together for more then 3 weeks things are still very good. We have been in Malawi now for more then a week of which we chilled at Lake Malawi for most of the time.

What can I tell you so you all get a better picture of how things go here. Regarding travelling the main roads (so far) in Zambia and Malawi are paved, smaller roads are dirt roads. The dirt roads are the most fun as our car is really tested on these classic African roads.
The people here are (not) surprisingly all black but in the places interesting for tourists you see white people working at NGO’s or travelling like us. We met already quite some westerners who are doing similar trips like ours. Some drive it all the way back to Europe or come down from Europe, motorbikes no exemption. I am already creating plans for getting my motorbike licence and drive from Holland down south along the west coast of Africa which also suppose to be amazing, Anybody interesting to come with?
As driving around you see allot of poverty and people are really trying to do anything to get some money, when we need some sugar cane or vegetables we drive around to find exactly that woman with some kids around and buy what we need from here, giving some extra as we know that it will be spend wisely in the family. I expected actually more people begging for money or food but mainly children are asking for that empty bottle, pens or a little bit of money when you are passing by.
We are taking care who to trust and we always look twice if the car is locked but in general so many people we meet are really friendly and of course in the places where tourists come the market people ask for more money when they see that you are not African but we get better in bargaining every day.

As we have a certain budget per day we camp in our car as often possible, this costs us on average US 5$ per night, we sleep once a week in an hostel which is a real treat sleeping in a normal sized bed compared to our 1.20m / 1.50m bed. Diesel here in Africa costs us around a US dollar per litter, sometimes more like here in Malawi sometimes less like in South Africa.
For cutting costs we eat meat once/twice a week (also because our Cool box isn’t the best) and the rest of the days lots of cheap vegetables prepared in nice garlic or spicy sauce.
We found a nice name for our dish; CoErdish. Ok so we met this German/South African couple who were driving their Jeep to Germany and they had “Manic trip” on the side of their car, this standing for Marvin and Nicole. Mocking their idea we came up with Co(pray)Er(nst) dish an oath to my good friend Mirko’s background (Kurdish)

Arrived in Malawi’s capital Lilongwe we got our car checked (as this is normally to prevent breakage) and we renewed the oil filter which is recommended to do every 5000km. We were relieved that we finally could get some money with our normal bankcards from the ATM’s instead of going into banks and get it from our credit cards.
We planned a week or so at the lake, first 3 days in Senga bay and then Cape Maclear. Nice blue water, camping just 2 meters from the lake and chilling in our hammock. After a day of kayaking to a remote island and some snorkelling Linda got a bit sick.
With some fever and of recommendation of some volunteers of the clinic nearby Linda started a Malaria medicine course of 3 days. The next day we went to the hospital to get her blood tested to see if she has Malaria, the test was negative but the days after she still felt a bit sick, with today doing already much better, her sick days resting in a proper bed in an hostel in Blantyre. To this day we don’t know yet if it was a minor form of Malaria or something else.
At the moment we are in the city of Blantyre waiting to get our Mozambique visa tomorrow, this is because we can’t get the visa at the border crossing we want to use.
Getting some groceries and Dollars before our Mozambique adventure, northern Mozambique supposed to be quite remote, wild but also beautiful with white beaches and crystal clear water.
Our plan is to stay 2 or 3 weeks in Mozambique and then following Zanzibar in Tanzania for a week.

Hope your summer is just as good as mine.
greets

This is real Africa

Hello people

At the moment I am in Lilongwe, the capital of Malawi. In the last 2 weeks Linda and I have been crossing Botswana and Zambia and what a ride it was!!!

After my return in Port Alfred from Cape Town with Hans and the Toyota Hilux 4x4 D/C aka “The Beast” I had 3 days to buy some last things for the car like a jack for lifting the car, 2 new tyres, a bed in the back and some other things. It felt good being back and to see my fellow students again. Many of the Humanitarian group left already travelling through South Africa but all of the other Dutch and South Africa students were there and everybody was planning to leave on that Thursday the 2^nd of July just like me.

Erik a friend of mine was also planning to go to Johannesburg and he would be driving with me the 1200 km in 2 days time. Said goodbye that morning to some people on the campus and thanked the coordinators for the awesome stay at their campus. For many students these 10 or 20 weeks were their highlight of South Africa but mine it was just the early breakfast of the huge dinner called Africa. ;)

That night we slept in a small town called Windburg just passed Bloemfontein and the day after we drove to Johannesburg where I would stay at Kas a friend I met 2 months earlier while travelling near Lesotho. But first I had to go to the AA (Automobile Association) to pick up my Carnet de Passage, this 10 page documents has all the details of the car on it and it helps with crossing borders and for some it is even necessary to have or else a South African car is not allowed in that country.

After driving around Johannesburg to find it we got stuck in some serious traffic jams but finally I managed to drop Erik of at his girlfriend’s place and I made my way to Kas his place inside a huge gate were my car would be safe. Quite necessary in one of the most dangerous cities in the world.

Linda had a delay of an hour and a half so I could sleep a bit more, she finally arrived around 11:30 at Johannesburg International Airport. After only seeing each other on web cam with shitty connection it felt good to have her back for our huge Africa trip.

The next 2 days we stayed in the northern province of Limpopo to rest and buy some camping equipment before crossing into Botswana were we stayed at a Rhino Sanctuary seeing about 8 rhinos and other wild animals.

As you might ask how can we sleep in the back of our car when it is only 1.20m by 1.50m and 0.50m high but diagonal it is about 1.85m and when you zip 2 sleeping bags together you manage.

When we headed up more north we experienced the mosquito’s so I created a net inside the back to prevent us from being bitten. We are not taking any malaria pills as a few doctors told us that it is very bad for your health when being in malaria region for 9 months. It is safer to get malaria and then treat it with medicines which takes 3 days which we carry with us, this way you build up some resistance against the disease.

Botswana is an enormous country with less then 2 million people in it, we found that the people were not that friendly and the prices were almost European and the amazing Victoria Waterfalls in Zambia were waiting for us. In general the roads in Botswana were really good. The last 80 km we encountered the pothole roads which make Africa so infamous for.

As the South Africa-Botswana border was hassle free the Zambia border wasn’t. This 750m crossing over the Zambezi river on a small ferry was extraordinary and when we reached the Zambia side we had to visit 5 counters to get all of our paper work done. 208 dollars in total; 50$ for a visa each, 20$ for the ferry, 20$ for road tax, then carbon tax, then third party insurance. But with the friendly Zambians on our side it took us less then an hour. Arrived in the small city Livingstone we checked in a nice hostel where we stayed for 3 nights. The following day the Victoria waterfalls were on our list. Just like the waterfalls between Brazil and Argentina, these falls are amazing. Raincoats were really necessary as we both got soaked wet even wearing them. A month has passed since my last two bungee jumps in south Africa. But the bridge jump between Zambia and Zimbabwe was yet on my list. What an amazing jump this was with a spectacular view over the Zambezi gorge.

Of course I heard of the sad news of Michael’s tragic death but amazingly I found in a cinema a live concert which they showed on a huge screen. Just amazing. After resting for 3 days in Livingstone we made our way to the north-east of Zambia.

Zambia is the real Africa: friendly people, dusty cities and friendly police officers. After overtaking a few cars on a part were I wasn’t really allowed to, the police stopped us, and we got a fine of 270 000 Kwacha equal to 50 euros. But with the least amount of hassling I got it for 50 000 Kwacha (about 7 Euro). Who says corruption is bad??? Changing our plan from first visiting the south Luanga national park which would cost us 75$, we headed to Malawi where we are staying now. After walking around a small market we bought some nice shirts and food. And some specific moments in life you buy the best things; and what did Linda find?.... an official McDonalds shirt for 13.000 kwacha not even 2 euros (check the photo with my white/red stripped shirt) How sweet is that and that in a country where there are no McDonalds!

The main difference between Botswana and here are the warmer nights, especially recognisable of the condense in our car the next morning, the friendlier people, the mosquitoes which are still hated really badly by Linda and the natural candies of cold sugar cane (type of bamboo stick were you suck the sugar water right out of).

Just been in Malawi for a day this country is easily classified as one of the poorest and most populated of Africa. Of the 12 million people, half of the population is under the age of 15. The car is still doing amazing and many people look back to see the German and Dutch flag shining in the front of our car.

Today the amazing Lake Malawi is waiting for us and we will chill out on the beach, doing completely nothing.

Again for photos check http://picasaweb.google.nl/jcopray/

Greets from amazing Africa.

Bungee Shark Beast

Ok I know it has been awhile since my last post. Many things happened here in South Africa; good things and now I am spending my last few days in Port Alfred before my departure up north to KENYA baby!!!

So what happened the last weeks on the campus in Port Alfred... The computer literacy classes went smoothly and in the last week of our project we created a final test so we could measure how our students performed after 8 weeks of basic computer classes. Of the 27 teachers, 23 made the test and everybody passed, the majority even above 80 %. This in mind that many of the teachers first didn't know how to select a sentence and never heard of Excel. The test had questions about how to make a graph in Excel or insert a photo in Word. We based the result on the questions they asked and their Word and Excel file with their answers. As promised we held an Internet class at our campus for them to experience what the internet is and what you can do with it, afterwards we gave our students the diploma they all deserved. Everybody was so happy when we handed it over, and we got some really heart warming speeches from them about how we helped them so much and our patience. Was really touching to see that we really made a difference at the school and in the community. I couldn't have done it without my amazing group (special thanks to Esther, Doutsje, Ellis, Anke & Annerie) Thanks to the smooth group work we finished the final report and manual we made for the teachers easily and on time.
This module was really relax just like Africa is but what we have achieved is so much, just amazing what Humanitarian work can do.

In between weekdays we have weekends and what are weekends for.... Partying and trips to nice places in the country ofcourse!!
A few weekends ago I left to Plettenberg bay with Tim, Lidwine, Daisy, Jildau, Daphne and Theresa; our mission the highest bungee jump in the world! 216 meters of which you fall about 170 meters. As many of you know I have jumped before about 11 times in Australia, New Zealand and Thailand and as I can be considered a fan of Bungee I decided to jump twice!! (also because the second jump was cheaper ;)) What a rush again after 4 years of not jumping!! Especcialy the second jump a backwards elevator for the fellow jumpers among us a hell of a scary jump! That weekend we also visited Monkeyland and a Snake sanctuary and at saturday night me and Tim heard about a Goa party we attended, which was just amazing!
The weekend after another Goa party was planned near Jeffreys bay about 3 hours from Port Alfred, it ook us more then 5 hours to find the place but the party was insane! Really nice.

On Friday the 19th of June Hans and I left to Cape Town, the days before it was hard to say goodbye to the Humanitarian Group and the party on wednesday was great. On saturday we had a shark dive planned and to save fuel we picked up a friend in Port Elisabeth; Ilse who Hans and I met in Hogsback wanted to do the shark dive as well so together we drove to Gansbaai the White Shark Capital of the world.

On saturday morning we left with a small group of 10 people to the open sea close to an island full of seals. Big tuna fishes were soaking in big buckets of water and by pouring that water in the sea; huge freaking sharks soon swam around the boat. The cage was hanging next to the boat and with just a thick weatsuit and diving goggles we were as bait in an open can of fish ;).
Each group of 5 people made 2 dives that day which was fortunate as some boats have more then 20 people on it which can result in only 1 dive per person. As you can see on the photos the sharks look pretty small but still a few were almost 4 meters long. Bought a nice DVD from that day which I will show when I am back.
The day after we made our way to Cape Town. My mission in Cape Town besides visting Table Mountain and RobbenIsland to find a nice car for Linda and I to drive to Kenya.
As I talked to many people here in South Africa what would be the most suitable car for that sort of trips because in many countries they know these cars. Everybody reccommended a Toyota Bakkie (South Africa's name for a pickup) and soon I found an advertisement on Gumtree (kind of Ebay) and a guy wanted to sell his 4x4 Toyota for 52.500 rand about (4.700 euros), on monday I was on his doorstep, made a test drive, and bargained it down till 48.000 rand and he would arrange the Roadworthy (APK). Thanks to my parents who borrowed me some money and part of Linda I just had to have this car. And as I could only withdraw 750 € per day Hans helped me allot with paying the full amount in 3 days and on Saturday the car was registered on my name and in my posession. My third shared own car after the Skunk Van in New Zealand and the station wagen in Australia with my buddies Freek and Dennis.
In the mean time in Cape Town Hans and I went to the District 6 museum, Robben Island, Table Mountain, Cape point and the Castle of Cape Town, and my first Rugby match between the second teams of the Lions and the Springboks and 5 times to the cinema as a ticket was only €2,50.
Cape Town is a really beautifull city and quite safe for South African standards. See the photo site for pictures, For the people who know the famous Dutch designer M.C. Baumgarten (aka Pappielauw formerly known as Michiel) I found his creation Jolli which he made and won a designer contest in Holland and in South Africa I bought it; a photo shoot was the result.
After registration of the car on saturday we went to RobbenIsland as the previous days it was sold out or cancelled during bad weather. After the interessting tour through the island we left Cape Town that afternoon to go to Hermanus a popular spot where you can see whales from the shore. That night we met felllow humanitarians Sabrina, Lidwine, Rebecca and Anna in the same restaurant as they were making their way to Cape Town. Nice to see them again for the last time. On sunday we left early after spotting one whale in the distance and planned to go the Cape Agulhas, the most southern point of Africa and then continue another 800 km to Port Alfred.
Just 200 km from Port Alfred we suddenly got a flat tyre on the highway in the dark and as we didn't had a jack to lift the car we were lucky that we were near an exit of the highway and we knocked at a farmhouse's door and the people there helped us with changing the tyre. Lucky us!!
First thing to do on monday get a jack, and 2 new good tyres. I also got a piece of wood in the back of the Bakkie to make a bed inside. Ooh and the Car has a new name The Beast!

My plan for this week is to buy the last things neccesary for the trip to Johannesburg. On thursday I drive with Erik to Jo-burg in 2 days to stay with a friend there and then I will pick up my girl the next day on saturday morning to continue to Botswana. Really can't wait, 4 days left!!! Then 2 months of propper African travelling will begin to Kenya. YEAHH!!!

For photos go to http://picasaweb.google.nl/jcopray/