arusha

Internet here has been very hard to come by, so sorry for the lack of communication!!

kenya/tanzania border

Okay, so to pick up where we left off…

The moped idea was so great in theory, but not so good in practice!

They took us to a soccer Field for the ‘trial’. Of course Jem scooted off no worries at all, but for Gret it was another story….the whole trying to jump start the engine, clutch in one hand, gears in another plus the accelerator and brake was just too much! There was a little melt down in the hot empty Field, but she stuck to her guns and refused to take it on the crazy African roads….

Luckily we had a plan B…. we hired a 250 BAJA that Jem took a fancy to, so Gret just jumped on the back happily and we drove to the east coast village of Bueju… with only a few minor incidents with cows and crazy overtaking ( not on our behalf!!) on the way…

So we made it to the east coast and had a fantastic tree house accommodation for 4 nights while there. We ate with the local family and had fresh octopus and rabbit fish that was so simple yet great tasting food…so far no BROTH to speak of (that’s for the Holmberg family!)

But after 4 days with basically not another sole in sight, the deserted beach got too much, and we decided to head up to the north part of the island… (We should have listened to you fliss!) PLUS we got absolutely burnt to a crisp…soon found out the anti malarial drugs SO make you burn faster and n o sun cream was oh so stupid!! BUT we learnt out lesson and just bought sun cream for about $20 bucks…not cheap!

Jem went all local and had a go climbing to get a coconut then ripping it apart to the amusement of the local kids…tasted good in the end!

We are in the village of Kendwa now and the beach is spectacular. People everywhere and this place is bordering on paradise!

Tonight (Christmas eve) there is going to be a massive beach party at our accommodation…massive big DJ (best in north Zanzibar!), acrobats (?!) huge seafood beach BBQ and apparently hundreds are going to come here…should be great!!

Tomorrow for Christmas day we have a snorkeling trip planned to take us down to Mnemba island which will be all day snorkeling with a seafood lunch…

NYE will be spent here too with another beach part planned…

Zanzibar has been overall amazing…Gret’s type of holiday and we swear we have seen the famous place where fliss took the photo of Hamish while up here…
Apart from a thousand cats running though your legs as you eat (which gret nearly has meltdowns about!!) its pretty much white sands, turquoise waters and sun everyday..

AND we finally got one SIM card today, that we are going to be using while here…

the number is:

+255 786809753 …msg us, so we will know if it actually works or not!! (or call if feeling the love!!)

Love to you all

Miss you all so much over the Christmas season…

“donkey donkey plod along…” : )

love Gret and Jem

written by  jem_gret on December 24, 2006 from Zanzibar, Tanzania
from the travel blog: East Africa and beyond....
Send a Compliment

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Merry Christmas to Jem, Gret, the cats and the sunburn.

And thanks for my 2.33am wake up...nah great to hear from you!

Will call later on!

Hope you had a great day!

ST out

written by  Simon Turner on December 24, 2006

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G-bang and Jem

* * MERRY CHRISTMAS * *

Am so jealous of you two, Christmas Eve officially sucked without sisters to dance with.. Commie (or the Sports and Entertainment Venue) is no longer the place to be, so the Royal was packed.

Bone has no money, so may be heading back to fruit packing.. GOD.. HELP .. ME

G keep away from those feral cats.. will keep roxy alive until your return. Jem = aloe vera cream! ouch

Love you both
Ebb x

written by  Ebony Tess on December 24, 2006

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G & J,
Thankyou for the fantastic update - loved the photos. The tree house looked a little out of the ordinary but fun. What a brilliant way to spend Chrisatmas & new year. We had a great Christmas lunch yesterday for 15 but missed you. Thanks for the phone call. Make the most of the beach holiday & keep the updates coming.
Love, Dad.

Dear Jem & Gret
lovely to hear your wonderful news , what a great trip for you both. We all missed you but we had a wonderful christmas, fifteen in all. Hamish dressed as Father Xmas and handed out our Kris Kringle presents. Look forward to more news. love Narnie.

written by  Ian Ellis on December 25, 2006

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Dear Jem and Gret
Unfortunately some of your blog seems to have been filtered off our computer, so have just read it all at Bochara Park. What an experience you're having and what fun!
Christmas has been great. Narni and Pippi, Wendy and Bridget left this afternoon and Tony and I are staying for another couple of days. Went for a long walk with the dogs yesterday and watched them run down a fox with my heart in my mouth. Fox escaped down a drain pipe and Zac limped home with a damaged paw, but OK this morning.
Today like Christmas Day is cold and showery. I've had to rug up with many layers. Probably hard for you to imagine.
Happy New Year. Make the most of your travels.
Love Sue

written by  Sue a'Beckett on December 25, 2006

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Darlings i´ts me from depest darkest Peru!!
first time i can access your blog and it rocks! you guys look so happy, and content and i´m so so jealous of your trip. quite a ridiculous thing to say considering I´m sitting in the middle of the andes having just completed the hike of my life - the Inka trail.
Enough about me - i´ll write you a seperate email and I´ll try and msg you on your new number.
Miss you both loads, got tears when I saw your pics. Can´t wait to swap stories in March.
Larny xxx xxx xxx

ps feliz navidad! was singing donkey donkey all by myself. no one else got it. then i sang ´sing to the mountains´ and still no one got it.

written by  Llama Holmberg on December 26, 2006

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Gret and Jem,
Christmas has come and gone for another year. We had a small gathering for lunch - just the five of us including Brent the Canadian and Joycie. We missed all the chatter and noise that an extra couple of girls make! In the evening we went out to Garnet & Julie's place for dinner and caught up with their family and new grand daughter- Imogen. Yesterday we drove to Bendigo - got some Boxing Day specials, then had Lunch with all the Holmbergs. John dressed up as Santa, like the old days when you were little and handed out the presents. Gabrielle,NIc,Britt and Elke thought it was hilarious. Ebony went to the Boxing Day races here in Kerang and a lovely day meeting up with the locals. We loved hearing your voice on the phone on Christmas Day, even it was early in the morning! The photos on the blog have been great, have been showing all the relatives.
Look forward to your next installment.
Love Mum & Dad. x0x0x0x

written by  Rod & Jenny Holmberg on December 26, 2006

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Dear Jem and Greta
The photos are great and, for me, bring your holiday alive. What a wonderful experience, but I don't like the sound of the cats everywhere. You both look so well and happy.
I have just discovered that accessing your blog site via 'explorer' on an Imac computer blocks the comments section. However, using 'safari' as the conduit works well - phew! I wonder whether others have had the same problem.
It was terrific having a few days at Bochara Park with the Ellises, a'Becketts, Narni and Pippi, Littles, Rog and Geoff McC. Now back in Melbourne for a bit of cleaning up at Milton Street. However the Test Match was today's distraction - perhaps I'll be more productive tomorrow. Looking forward to the New Year weekend at Sorrento before heading back to work.
Love from Wendy

written by  Wendy McComas on December 27, 2006

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Thrilled to hear of your wonderful adventures. Looking forward to a photo night when you return. Missing you. Fondest love Granny.

HI guys. Wow what a time you are having. Being a new bloggite I am getting used to the system at Bochara Park. Geoff and I are here for 3 nights with Granny for NEW year. We had a great Christmas with G's kids and Grankids and mine to Xmas lunch and then a few days of feasting followed as we ate up all the scraps!Penny and Andy's wedding was wonderful and we are now trying to catch up on some rest. See you soon and we will swap photos! I will try to write another entry from Nutshell.Much love to you both. Ro Geoff and co xxx

written by  ian ellis on December 29, 2006

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dear jem and gret. its Olly here, i'm currently at bochara park picking up the hilux so Ian put me onto your blogs site. looks like you're having a great time.....trust you to managage to get on a motorbike so soon!! i have been at home on the farm the whole time, but got a job as an assistant property valuer starting in feb, so looking forward to starting that.

i'm just having a quiet new-years at home them hope to get down to the beach for a bit to catch up with everyone and Mr. Laidlaw is down so should be interesting.

you folks where saying that all the R&R is over now and the serious business starts with the volounteer work..... i'm sure it will be a tough gig at first and there will be times when you would rather be anywhere else, but speaking from experience, if you hang in there it will be all the more rewarding. you are lucky that you have gret there to experience it all with you.

anyway mate, i can here the lux calling me so all the best and many thanks for the use of your ute. it is muuch appreciated.

speak soon. happy new year.

Olly.

written by  ian ellis on December 30, 2006

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Jem & Gret, thinking of you both today (& every day) with the beginning of a new year. What a way to start! Hope Christmas Day was great and you didn't miss home too much, I have to say we missed you! Tomorrow you start your work with the children, hope it all goes well; it will prob. be a bit of a shock after luxuriating on the beaches of Zanzibar. We will all be thinking of you and very much looking forward to hearing a bit about it. Also dying to hear about Zanzibar Island and your New Year's Eve. As Ro said, quietish one here with Rog and Eva joining us. Have just been putting fire tank and pump on jeep just in case, but actually had some rain today to replenish the tank after all the house guests and washing! Lots of fun tho'.
Had walk in Grampians with Sue & Tony - great.
Constantly bucketing water out on to garden trying to keep some of it alive.
Anyway HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU BOTH!!! MAKE THE MOST OF THIS WONDERFUL EXPERIENCE.
Lots of love from Mum (bindi) xoxoxox

written by  Belinda Ellis on December 30, 2006

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Happy New Year Jeremy and Gret, you are having such wonderful experiences it sounds fantastic over there. Just had New Years on the jetty looking at the tree all lit up and thinking of you both. Take care and best wishes for 2007. love Rog. x

HAPPY NEW YEAR
Love Dad.

written by  ian ellis on December 31, 2006

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