Chimanimani

Wet....

Lightening displays in Chimanimani

and full of very corrupt policemen.

We arrived in Zim last week and headed straight to the Capital Harare. Its much more developed than anywhere we've been so far and there are a lot more white people than I had expected (or perhaps I was just a bit ignorant before). The capital itself was a bit unremarkable apart from the fact that I could get a lump of decent cheese for under $2- yesssss. Afterwards we headed to the Chimanimani mountains for a bit of outdoorsy fun. Chimanimani itself is incredibly beautiful and loks a bit like Scotland but better (see above). Our campsite....

Chimanimani Camp

... was set on a hill so the views from our tent were incredible (see above). Zimbabwe has the second highest number of deaths from lightening strikes in the world which is obviously unfortunate but makes for great lightening shows. We watched a storm one night that had a flash of lightening every 2 seconds for about 3 hours- incredible.

Without realising quite how wet Chimanimani was going to be I had planned to cook a root vegetable stew which we had the perfect weather for. I don't know what's happened to me but I've worked out how to cook since I've been away.

Dinner time under canvas

We went trekking on one of the days which was really hard work but really beautiful and rewarding. It rained, no suprise there, so we stopped in a cave for lunch and built a fire to dry our clothes.

The most uncomfortable journey ever- jeep taxi to Chimanimani NP

Sheltering from the weather in a cage for lunch

I've never been in a lake that big before and its bizzare because there are tides and surf but its fresh water. Really refreshing when its a bizillion degrees and 100% humid.

The highlights were:
-Going on an epic, very very long swim out to an island of the coast.
-Fancy dress. Prior to getting to the lake we stopped in Mzuzu town to pick up fancy dress costumes for a party. This route is so well trodden by overland trucks that the locals knew exactly what we were looking for. Once we parked up they came running with bags of quite frankly hideous clothes shouting lines such as 'you want ugly clothes'. I wish I had taken some pictures because its was one of the most bizzare things I've ever seen. We came away with lots of 80s, animal print, lumo, sparkly, items... nice. So basically when we put all our old, out of date clothes in charity bins they go to charity shops in the UK. The items that the old biddies/trendy wendys don't want then get sent to Africa. Once in Africa they get SOLD at markets to the locals. The completely hideous left overs are then sold back to absolute mugs like me on overland trucks at a huge mark up so that we can have fancy dress parties.
-Pig Day. We decided to buy a pig to spit roast one day form the local village ( I am obviously vege so it wasn't my idea). I don't know what came over me but I decided to reconfirm by vegetarianism by going to see it get killed in the morning. Poor little Percy's eyes burnt holes into my heart when we got there and he was tied up. Apart from the squeeling the death wasn't actually too bad as it was quite quick- knife straight into the heart. I had to go for a lay down afterwards but I'm glad I did it and I think everyone appreciated the hog roast a bit more afterwards.

T making a punch

Anna doing a Percy impression

Making Roast Potatoes to go with Percy

Percy the Pig

Colin in Fancy Dress

Fancy Dress

At the moment we're in Lilongwe which is the capital of Malawi. Tonight we pick up 5 more people (3 Canadians, 2 Yanks) before heading to the Tete Corridor in Mozambique for one night and then ino Zimbabwe.

Can't wait to get back on the truck... NAAAAAAT.

written by  lizziecarver on November 24, 2010 from Mzuzu, Malawi
from the travel blog: Backpacking... it's not as fun as Insurance
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We spend 3 days in a row driving this week. Day one was fine I was terribly behind on my journal and hadn't listened to my ipod for a while. Day 2 was boring as hell, the book I was reading at the time was going through a really slow patch. By Day 3 I was looking for sharp objects. We stopped each day in the early evening pitched our tents in a clearing, made dinner, had a camp fire, went to bed, got up just after Sunrise, packed back up the tents and got back in the road.

Bush Camp

Fire Making at Bush Camp

The only saving Grace for day three was that we crossed into Malawi. Malawi is lovely, incredible poor but so friendly, reminds me a bit of Rwanda in that respect. Tanzania had felt a bit hostile so it was nice to be greeted by a zillion excitable kids, plus parents, plus grandparents where ever we went.

written by  lizziecarver on November 23, 2010 from Mzuzu, Malawi
from the travel blog: Backpacking... it's not as fun as Insurance
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Me, Meg and Alice

Profile Picture

We spent a couple more nights in Zanzibar. The highlights being:
-Diving with a huge turtle

Diving

-More banana-coladas

-A very boozy night out where I got my hands on some terrible white wine, made a dance floor with Jessica, got a approached by some Massai Men (thanks, but no thanks mate!) and ended up having a midnight swim out to some local fishermans boats so we could practice bombing of the top deck.

With a dirty white wine headache we had to pack up and move on to Stonetown which is the capital/principle city of Zanzibar. It has a massive Arabic influence and sort of reminded me of Morocco. We spent the day getting lost down side streets and eating some incredible food (Zanzibar is famous for its old spice trade). We also visited the site of the last remaining slave market in Africa which was really interested and made me realise how little I actually know about slavery... must find a book to read.

Stone Town

The source of the dodgy tummy

Meg in a Slave Cell

In the evening we went to the local food market. The food was out of this world I had BBQ tuna and prawn and falafal, then I had a Zanzibar Pizza ( a cross between a pizza and an omlette) and then had to be rolled back to the hostel. The downside to all the delicious food is, without going into detail, we have all spent the last with dodgy tummies. This has been particularly interesting and quite a bonding experience because we spent 3 days on the road in the middle of bloody nowhere with no bathrooms.

written by  lizziecarver on November 21, 2010 from Zanzibar, Tanzania
from the travel blog: Backpacking... it's not as fun as Insurance
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Last night we went of for dinner while one of the couples went out on their own for a sunset boat ride. When they came back Alice had a huge diamond on her ring finger. We were all so happy for them that we decided to go and get completely smashed... some things never change.

Tomorrow I'm going scuba diving in the National Park just of the coast. I can't wait. I have my fingers and toes crossed, i would love to see some turtles.

Zanzibar Beach

The view from my hammock

Frikin Sweet

x

written by  lizziecarver on November 16, 2010 from Zanzibar, Tanzania
from the travel blog: Backpacking... it's not as fun as Insurance
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Stupid Buffalo

Miles and Miles of Africa

Ngorogoro Crater Safari

In the afternoon we had lunch on the rim of the Crater and then headed into the Serengeti National Park. The Serengeti is famous for seeing cats and everyone knows I LOVE CATS. Almost immediately we saw a cheetah on the side of the road with a kill, and then a couple of minutes later her 4 cubs emerged we also saw leopards and heaps of lions. It was such a good day, I could watch them for hours. They are just like massive moggies!

Lion Posing for the Camera

Serengeti Safari

That evening we slept inside the Serengeti in our tents, in the middle of the park, with no fences, just a guard with a gun. It was a brilliant experience, I went to sleep listening to hyenas laughing, and it was crazy to wake up, get in the vehicles and see elephants less than 100m away.

written by  lizziecarver on November 11, 2010 from Arusha, Tanzania
from the travel blog: Backpacking... it's not as fun as Insurance
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Hanging out the Roof with the Ladies

During one of the many toilet stops along the way (we opened the beers early afternoon) we attempted some classic jumping shots

1,2,3, Jump (4th attempt)

Epic Fail

written by  lizziecarver on November 8, 2010 from Arusha, Tanzania
from the travel blog: Backpacking... it's not as fun as Insurance
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Afternoon Tea at Elsemere

Ladies Wot Lunch

The next day we decided to go on a bike safari through Hells Gate National Park. It was a beautiful day and the scenery was stunning. We rode past Zebras, Antelope and Warthogs before getting off our bikes and climbing through a gorge.

Mountain Bike Safari at Hells Gate National Park

We're back in Nairobi today (7th) just waiting to pick more people up before heading to Tanzinia. I'll be in Zanzibar next weeked... LUSH!

written by  lizziecarver on November 4, 2010 from Naivasha, Kenya
from the travel blog: Backpacking... it's not as fun as Insurance
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On Monday we all signed up to go white water rafting. Having never been rafting before I very much underestimated how big these grade 5 rapids were going to be. After an hour of drills we reached our first set of rapids. It was all going well until we got to a rapid from called the Silverback. We all got thrown out and sent flying down the rapids in different directions. There was a brief moment when I thought I was probably dead before being rescued by a kayaker. It took me a couple more rapids to get my confidence back but the rest of the day was incredible. I must have been thrown out 4/5 times but the rest of the just funny, no getting sucked under. Our favourite part was a 5 meter waterfall that we dropped down. Some how we all stayed in the boat.

Rafting Team

I'm the one in black with my eyes closed pretending its not happening

After a few G&T's last night we got up this morning and me and Meg decided to visit one of the local community projects. It was a really inspiring project set up by an English tour leader 10 years ago. They provide free schooling for all the local children, a local clinic and wider community education to adults on efficient agriculture methods, sustainability, health and family planning and ICT. They take on lots of volunteers and get a lot of their funding from tourists who have visited and UK university societies. It was quite cool to see an effective project that has found solutions to some of the local issues.

Playing with the kids at the Soft Power Primary School

The rest of today was spent eating Japatis and sunbathing on the Nile... its a hard life :)

written by  lizziecarver on November 1, 2010 from Kampala, Uganda
from the travel blog: Backpacking... it's not as fun as Insurance
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