Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Sudan
Since my last post (I know ages ago…), we have been to Tanzania, Kenya (x2), Ethiopia (x3), Djibouti (unexpected country), Sudan and now we are in Uganda our 12th country. We will leave the cars in Kampala for 2 weeks over the holidays and regroup here on the 4th to carry on the trip visiting the remaining 34 countries on our way to the rugby World Cup.
Over the last few weeks we have;
Travelled on horrific pot holed roads full of trucks that have no regard for keeping to their side of the road. Driving in some countries is like being on a roller coaster fun in parts terrifying on others, but, if you accept that today could be your last, it really is fun… I must say, there are now many roads that are beautiful with the smoothest tar, East Africa is opening up.
Witnessed, the unbelievable sights of what people can actually carry on top of bikes, cars, heads (yesterday, it was coffins on the back of a bike!)
Visited the Ngorongoro crater, an amazing place to see animals. The crater is huge but it is teaming with wildlife.
The Serengeti and a Masai village, the Masai don’t have it easy
Needed to hire armed escorts through the northern part of Kenya (no need to use the guns, was a bit disappointed !) and dealing with the frustration of Nairobi traffic, what a mess!
A bit of car trouble and crossing the border between Kenya and Ethiopia six times without my passport to get it sorted – amazing how far a smile can get you ( luckily not to jail…). We had to load Princess onto a back of a truck that was a bit of fun!
We have been through some very efficient border posts and some horrific ones ( I’m sure I get more grey hair every time I go through the bad ones!) the bad ones can take hours the good one minutes.
A quick visit to Djibouti a place not on the list but what a friendly, beautiful place ( Lake Assal wow!), I was in heaven in the French Supermarket, the food we get on the road sometimes is very limited in places …!
Horse riding in Wenchi crater in Ethiopia I want to live there, another stunningly beautiful place.
Taking a boat trip at sunset in Khartoum to the see where the blue and white Nile meet to make the Nile and visiting the ruins outside of Khartoum. Sudan has more pyramids than Egypt – who knew….
Meeting 1000s of people as we travel through each country, every stop, no matter how remote we find ourselves we are soon surrounded in a matter of minutes! Luckily we have things we can give away when the crowds are not too big, it can get a bit scary when the village comes running at you…
The most challenging thing on this trip so far is getting clean laundry!
The best thing so far has been bonding with the team and finding our rhythm to make this crazy journey a reality, it will be weird not being with them for 2 weeks!
The experiences every day are so varied it is hard to describe them all, every sense is challenged to the full, at the end of each day you are fully aware that we are on an extraordinary journey!
