Monday 3 October 2011

it's business time.....


So, after 2 weeks travelling around Kenya and Tanzania in a truck and sleeping in a tent, we're back to the mundanities of our normal lives.  On Saturday morning, I woke up next to the Indian Ocean in Zanzibar.  When I next woke up in a bed, after 30-odd hours of travelling, it was to get up and go to work on Monday morning.

Hey ho.

Waiting for our transfer to Heathrow in Nairobi airport on Saturday evening, I looked around at all the white people wearing very corporate looking t-shirts trumpeting about how they had climbed Kilimanjaro, and I realised how lucky we had been in our choice of trip.  No disrespect, but there are so many of those guys that they must almost climb the mountain holding hands.  I'm not claiming that we went all that far off the beaten track, and indeed, we went to have a look at Kilimanjaro from the  foothills (and the mountain was entirely veiled in cloud throughout... so I couldn't honestly tell you that it even exists), but as well as spending time in the Serengeti and the Ngorongoro Crater gawping at the wildlife, we also went to visit schools and played football with some kids from an orphanage.  We lost.  Obviously. 4-1.  One of the kids was wearing a Watford shirt, weirdly (haven't they suffered enough?).  But anyway.....

It was a great trip... as with our last trip to Africa, made by a happy combination of what we saw, our guide and the group we were travelling with.  I'll bore you with more details and photos later in the week, in the meantime I'll content myself by saying that we saw lions enjoying what one of our guides splendidly called "comfortable time".... which lasted about 10 seconds, and didn't seem all that comfortable for the lioness.  After his labours, the poor old boy was clearly exhausted and flopped flat out onto the ground, clearly satisfied with a job well done..... well, who can blame him?

I can't wait to go back... perhaps next year to go to Uganda and Rwanda to see the gorillas and to Kenya to have a look at the Masai Mara.

LOVE Africa.

1 comment:

  1. Bit of a Peeping Tom, eh? Although I suppose the lion was an exhibitionist as was asking for it.

    I can see why you love Africa so much. I've always wanted to take a tour like those you've been on. Glad you had another excellent trip!

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