Tomorrow is Magda’s last night in Pemba this time :( She has been here 8 weeks already; time really does fly when you’re having fun! I’m going to miss her very very much, but cross my fingers she decides to come back soon. Anyway, her leaving calls for a party – tonight!
And Jutta is back! She has been 6½ weeks in Germany on vacation. It’s nice to have her back :)
I also have to leave the country in the end of the month to renew my visa. Am thinking of Malawi this time. Everybody I meet who has been there says it’s beautiful! I will have to go by chapas (local buses) and it will take me at least 4 days or so to get to Monkey Bay and then I’ll probably continue to Kande Beach which is supposedly stunning. The other alternative I might have is to go with Frank to South Africa, by car. That would mean seeing a lot of Mozambique! Which also would be a great trip! The next week will tell which trip it will be – am looking forward to whichever…
torsdag 22 juli 2010
fredag 16 juli 2010
My latest adventure…
…turned out to be malaria. And – yeah it is nasty! I know I’ve said it before, but now I have experienced it myself!
It all started with Frank last week. He got really sick and we figured it must be from the bush trip. A couple of days later C went down but nothing happened to me. I felt a little weird and a little nauseous that whole week, but nothing seemed to break out so I thought (and certainly hoped) it was just imagination. Then came Sunday.
Magda and I had been watching the game at Russell’s the night before, with a couple of glasses of wine ;) so I thought it was just a hangover. Not too bad or anything, but I was tired and didn’t really feel like eating. After meeting up with her and Pieter at Mar e Sol on the beach I walked over to C. By the time I got there I was really exhausted and was starting to think that it might be a little bit too much for a “normal” hangover.
Then it took about 4 hours before I was sick, sick, sick. Of course we had gone to Russell’s for the final soccer game, which probably turned out to be a good thing because Frank went home to get me medicine so I could start as soon as possible. But in halftime I had to ask C to take me home – I really needed to go to bed. That was one of the worst nights in my life! If I wasn’t sweating oceans I felt like I was deep frozen, all the time with this horrible ache in my whole body. Still, I must say I consider myself lucky since I didn’t get it in the hot season – that must be hell!
Both Frank and C are much better and they were even sicker than me I think, but thanks to Frank I got medicine very early and that probably prevented me from the worst symptoms.
I recovered quite fast though and am back to normal already.
It all started with Frank last week. He got really sick and we figured it must be from the bush trip. A couple of days later C went down but nothing happened to me. I felt a little weird and a little nauseous that whole week, but nothing seemed to break out so I thought (and certainly hoped) it was just imagination. Then came Sunday.
Magda and I had been watching the game at Russell’s the night before, with a couple of glasses of wine ;) so I thought it was just a hangover. Not too bad or anything, but I was tired and didn’t really feel like eating. After meeting up with her and Pieter at Mar e Sol on the beach I walked over to C. By the time I got there I was really exhausted and was starting to think that it might be a little bit too much for a “normal” hangover.
Then it took about 4 hours before I was sick, sick, sick. Of course we had gone to Russell’s for the final soccer game, which probably turned out to be a good thing because Frank went home to get me medicine so I could start as soon as possible. But in halftime I had to ask C to take me home – I really needed to go to bed. That was one of the worst nights in my life! If I wasn’t sweating oceans I felt like I was deep frozen, all the time with this horrible ache in my whole body. Still, I must say I consider myself lucky since I didn’t get it in the hot season – that must be hell!
Both Frank and C are much better and they were even sicker than me I think, but thanks to Frank I got medicine very early and that probably prevented me from the worst symptoms.
I recovered quite fast though and am back to normal already.
torsdag 8 juli 2010
Moving
Hopefully I will move into my new house this weekend! It has taken me a couple of days extra because things happened that I couldn’t foresee (am beginning to get used to that). Monday I went into town to buy some buckets and pots & pans, without those things I can’t live there. But before going to that shop we had to go to the clinic with Magda’s finger; she had a bite that just didn’t heal and needed to be cleaned properly. Once that was ok the time was after 12.00 so, of course, the shop was closed for siesta. That meant either hanging around in town 2 hours or walk back home and take a nap. We walked back home and took a nap :) Tuesday the ATM machine stole my bank card so I couldn’t take out any money and I didn’t have ID with me so that took another couple of days to sort out. Today I managed to get some shopping done finally, but now C is sick so I can’t get the bed…
Life in Africa is definitely a bit different from Sweden!
Life in Africa is definitely a bit different from Sweden!
fredag 2 juli 2010
The bush
I have just had one of the best weekends in my life!
Early Thursday morning last week C and Frank came to pick me up for our bush trip. We left Pemba at 06.30 and headed towards the Niassa National Reserve and Lucingi Camp. C drove the first half of the distance; 200 km on the highway, which took us about 2 hours. Frank drove the next 250 km, which took us about 5 hours… My neck is still a bit stiff after all the bumping up and down on the dirt roads, full of pot holes and all different big holes you can think of. But I must say Frank is a really good driver! And the scenery is beautiful!
Towards the end of the drive we got a BIG treat => a pack of 10 Wild Dogs that let us come quite close and didn’t hurry to take off. Wow! And even if I knew that was something else I didn’t realize just how rare it is to get such a good look at them. I read later during the weekend that there are only approximately 5 500 wild dogs left in Africa. And I got to see 10 of them!
Arriving at Lucingi, Gordon and Dorothy welcomed us to the camp. It is a very nice camp, beautifully situated on the riverbank with a view over the mountains. We were told that we were sleeping in tent 3 and after settling in we had dinner. The food was great and Gordon & Dorothy’s stories even better. It’s been a while since I laughed so much in one evening. They told us hilarious stories about their lives as cops in London and we had a wonderful night!
After breakfast Friday morning we went to Lugenda, one of the other camps that is managed by Derek & Paula, also very beautiful and a bit more upscale than Lucingi. On the way there we stopped by the river to see if we could spot any Hippos – and we did. There they were; 4 of them lying in the water. We only saw their heads when they came up occasionally for air, but that’s definitely enough. Frank and walked as close as possible but were still probably about 100 meters away. That was exciting!
Coming to Lugenda we met up with Nick and Andrew who treated us with lunch before we went on a game drive. I had to pinch my arm a couple of times to make sure it was for real. This is the truly wild Africa and driving in an open jeep in the middle of the bush is just amazing. We didn’t see that much game going out, but it really didn’t matter because the experience was fantastic in itself. And of course we did see some animals; a Wart hog, Impalas, Bushbucks and monkeys.
For sundowners we went up a really steep hill (I almost thought we would roll over at one point) and had an amazing view of the sunset. Life at its best!
On the way back to camp some exciting things happened; first we heard an elephant trumpeting very close by, but couldn’t see him since it was pitch black. And then we saw a leopard :) my first! So now I’ve seen all Big Five. Unfortunately it sneaked away quite fast into the bush, but I did get a good look at him. And later, on the way back to Lucingi, we actually saw another one! That is almost incredible!
So now I really wanted to see the elephants and crocodiles. I knew there were crocs in the river right outside the camp, but they hadn’t showed themselves to me. Usually they crawl up on the sand bank in the middle of the river to have a nice sun bath, but not when I was in the camp… Eventually I got to see the tip of the heads of two of them but that’s not nearly enough, so I guess that’s one thing I have to come back for.
Because - on Saturday afternoon I got to see an elephant!
We had a relaxed and nice day in the camp and went on an elephant look out at about 4 o’clock. I was, of course, really excited! After driving about half an hour we spotted a young bull. When he saw us he took off into the bush and Derek, Nick and I followed him – by foot!! It took us about 10 minutes before we saw him again behind some trees and now he was only 20 meters away! At that point I was quite happy about the big rifle Derek was carrying because the elephant picked up our scent and was getting a bit anxious. I managed to take a great ;) photo before we slowly moved away from him. He took off the other way and we could safely return to the car. But wow – just imagine that!! My day was made!
Sunday morning we took off and landed back in Pemba around 5.00 pm after a wonderful and adventurous weekend. I couldn’t be happier. And, even if I have suspected it a long time, I can now confirm that I am in love. Totally, wildly and madly in love! With Africa.
I am still uploading pics from Ibo and hope to publish them soon. Then I will continue with bush pics…
Early Thursday morning last week C and Frank came to pick me up for our bush trip. We left Pemba at 06.30 and headed towards the Niassa National Reserve and Lucingi Camp. C drove the first half of the distance; 200 km on the highway, which took us about 2 hours. Frank drove the next 250 km, which took us about 5 hours… My neck is still a bit stiff after all the bumping up and down on the dirt roads, full of pot holes and all different big holes you can think of. But I must say Frank is a really good driver! And the scenery is beautiful!
Towards the end of the drive we got a BIG treat => a pack of 10 Wild Dogs that let us come quite close and didn’t hurry to take off. Wow! And even if I knew that was something else I didn’t realize just how rare it is to get such a good look at them. I read later during the weekend that there are only approximately 5 500 wild dogs left in Africa. And I got to see 10 of them!
Arriving at Lucingi, Gordon and Dorothy welcomed us to the camp. It is a very nice camp, beautifully situated on the riverbank with a view over the mountains. We were told that we were sleeping in tent 3 and after settling in we had dinner. The food was great and Gordon & Dorothy’s stories even better. It’s been a while since I laughed so much in one evening. They told us hilarious stories about their lives as cops in London and we had a wonderful night!
After breakfast Friday morning we went to Lugenda, one of the other camps that is managed by Derek & Paula, also very beautiful and a bit more upscale than Lucingi. On the way there we stopped by the river to see if we could spot any Hippos – and we did. There they were; 4 of them lying in the water. We only saw their heads when they came up occasionally for air, but that’s definitely enough. Frank and walked as close as possible but were still probably about 100 meters away. That was exciting!
Coming to Lugenda we met up with Nick and Andrew who treated us with lunch before we went on a game drive. I had to pinch my arm a couple of times to make sure it was for real. This is the truly wild Africa and driving in an open jeep in the middle of the bush is just amazing. We didn’t see that much game going out, but it really didn’t matter because the experience was fantastic in itself. And of course we did see some animals; a Wart hog, Impalas, Bushbucks and monkeys.
For sundowners we went up a really steep hill (I almost thought we would roll over at one point) and had an amazing view of the sunset. Life at its best!
On the way back to camp some exciting things happened; first we heard an elephant trumpeting very close by, but couldn’t see him since it was pitch black. And then we saw a leopard :) my first! So now I’ve seen all Big Five. Unfortunately it sneaked away quite fast into the bush, but I did get a good look at him. And later, on the way back to Lucingi, we actually saw another one! That is almost incredible!
So now I really wanted to see the elephants and crocodiles. I knew there were crocs in the river right outside the camp, but they hadn’t showed themselves to me. Usually they crawl up on the sand bank in the middle of the river to have a nice sun bath, but not when I was in the camp… Eventually I got to see the tip of the heads of two of them but that’s not nearly enough, so I guess that’s one thing I have to come back for.
Because - on Saturday afternoon I got to see an elephant!
We had a relaxed and nice day in the camp and went on an elephant look out at about 4 o’clock. I was, of course, really excited! After driving about half an hour we spotted a young bull. When he saw us he took off into the bush and Derek, Nick and I followed him – by foot!! It took us about 10 minutes before we saw him again behind some trees and now he was only 20 meters away! At that point I was quite happy about the big rifle Derek was carrying because the elephant picked up our scent and was getting a bit anxious. I managed to take a great ;) photo before we slowly moved away from him. He took off the other way and we could safely return to the car. But wow – just imagine that!! My day was made!
Sunday morning we took off and landed back in Pemba around 5.00 pm after a wonderful and adventurous weekend. I couldn’t be happier. And, even if I have suspected it a long time, I can now confirm that I am in love. Totally, wildly and madly in love! With Africa.
I am still uploading pics from Ibo and hope to publish them soon. Then I will continue with bush pics…
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