Category: Eastern Africa

  • A Rwandan Spectacular

    A Rwandan Spectacular

    It is impossible to do justice to a country like Rwanda through words or even photographs. Compared with actually being there and experiencing it first hand in full 3D technicolour, everything else I can say or show you pails into two dimensional black and white. I am sure something changed inside me whilst we were…

  • The Land of 1,000 Hills

    The Land of 1,000 Hills

    Lake Victoria was a long drive from the Kondoa Irangi Rock Paintings and we had been unable to find a campsite anywhere in between. There were a few wild camps marked on IOverlander but none had been visited for years and it all seemed very risky. But with no choice we decided to just drive,…

  • Lord James of Stirchley

    Lord James of Stirchley

    After two relaxing days at our fascinating eco lodge at the foot of Kilimanjaro we decided to drive further round on the mountain road to the western face. We were aiming for the Simba Farm campsite which fellow travellers had said was luxurious. The first thing that struck us as we drove was how much…

  • Mountains in the Mist

    Mountains in the Mist

    After two lovely weeks on Zanzibar, arriving back in Dar es Salaam was an assault on our senses. The crossing had been a little rough and we were feeling slightly sea sick. As we disembarked, the port was heaving with people – taxi drivers trying to grab our bags and hustle us into their waiting…

  • Zanzibar

    Zanzibar

    Despite having had almost no sleep we were up, dressed and sitting at the rooftop restaurant of our noisy hotel well before 9am Breakfast was fat balls, noodles and pineapple – an interesting and typically African combination. After sampling the delights of our hotel restaurant, we went through our own fridge and cupboards either eating,…

  • Beaches and History

    Beaches and History

    Dar es Salaam is not the most interesting, or the prettiest, of cities We had spent three nights there getting Henry sorted out, stocking up on food, fuel and cash and having a couple of very nice meals out. I had even splashed out and treated myself to a new iPhone 14 – bought purely…

  • Revolving Fortunes

    Revolving Fortunes

    We had been in Tanzania for ten days already and only just started. It is a big country with a lot to see and do and we were already relishing every moment. The campsite we had arrived at late the previous day was close to the Mikumi National Park which we would normally be keen…

  • To Tanzania and New Friends

    To Tanzania and New Friends

    We were on our way to Tanzania. New adventures, millenia of history and world-famous sites awaited us. When we arrived at the border we were amazed to find the French couple, the Swiss/Indonesian family with the young boy and the French cyclist all there at the same time. We chatted, laughed and shared information whilst…

  • Water, Water Everywhere…A Soggy End to Malawi

    Water, Water Everywhere…A Soggy End to Malawi

    The whole northern coastal area around Lake Malawi was a scene of devastation with roads and bridges washed away in floods and homes and lodges destroyed. People here are used to dealing with challenging environmental conditions but El Nino was making life particularly difficult this year. Our plans had had to change but we had…

  • Battling with El Nino

    Battling with El Nino

    Our first couple of weeks back in Malawi had been fabulous. The southern part of the country was spectacular and between pottery classes, high teas, forest retreats and mountains we had kept ourselves very happily busy. And now, after a bad spell with my back, we were finally heading down from the Zomba Plateau towards…