So, I'm sorry, I didn't have the chance to update the blog .... I was just too busy, or the web or wifi connections were slower than my Grade 9's doing
homework. Too bad ....
What I'll do instead is repost some of my emails, ... too many things
happened, too many deep thoughts were thunk, I'm not going to reexamine my
brain with all the day to day things over 62 days .... sleep would be much
better.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
July 1st ... Canada Day
Hi Everyone,
Long story
short, I'm in Jerusalem. Arrived at 3am July 1st ... got some sleep.
About to go on a free city tour of the Old City, followed by a tour of the
Mount of Olives.
It hasn't sunk
in just quite yet, but it will in a few hours.
Gotta go.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
July 5th ... Amman, Jordan
First week has been utterly amazing, between Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Galilee, the Dead Sea area on the Israeli side, and now Amman, Jordan.
Too many
places packed into one week, no time to really write something useful. Sorry
...
I'm in Amman
right now, amazing place, I'm glad I came here for two days before our group
heads down to Kurak and Petra tomorrow. That too should be pure brilliant.
Our group
meeting is in an hour .... spent the day with an older NZ couple and an Aussie
girl in our group touring around Jerash (amazing ruins) and Aljoun (old castle
from Crusader days). Good way to kill the day.
It's hot, but
very dry. The old bones agree with the dry over humidity. Feel very, very good.
Gotta go ...
don't be surprised if you don't hear from me for a while.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
July 12th -- Red Sea Riviera ...
Just me ... in
Dahab, Egypt.
All is
good. Having a lovely time in the Sinai Peninsula, away from all the crap.
Amazing diving/snorkeling spot at a place called the Blue Hole.
Tomorrow,
we get a special flight into Cairo to avoid the 10 hour bus-convoy to Cairo. We
will have the chance to see the Pyramids if all goes as planned.
I'm
betting most things will settle down, especially during the Holy Month of
Ramadan, where everyone fasts from sunrise to sunset. The Intrepid Trip is
cancelled, but between another older couple from NZ, and our tour guide, we
will most likely stick around, roam around to obvious places, and stay away
from downtown Cairo and Alexandria as long as possible. We will be staying at
the airport hotel, the pyramids are close by, away from downtown, and then I
will take it from there. The south of the country should be fine, Luxor,
Aswan, etc, but you never know.
I will
be safe, I promise you that. If we are not, we will be out of here asap.
But my tour guide is an amazing guy. I trust his connections and
knowledge of the place. He's out of a job for a few months with Intrepid now,
so he's more than willing to help us out. But a group of 4 or more will be needed
to make things viable. So far there's three of us ...
One day
at a time, one day at a time ..... I'll worry about things come the morning of
July 14th ...
Gotta
go, time for dinner. My guide is allowed to stop fasting at around 6:45pm ...
in about twenty minutes.
Bye for
now .... everything so far is great, (Really !!!!) but no time to do a
blog .....
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
July
18th -- Luxor, Egypt
An
entire day and night going down the Nile on a Felucca. Wow ... jumping into the
Nile to cool down, then having dinner on the boat, then sleeping under the
stars will be something I'll always remember. Ran around Karnak Temple today
after arriving, then onto the Valley of the Kings tomorrow, and that will be it
for Egypt. By the time Sunday rolls around, I'll be in Zurich, Munich, or maybe
Prague. The rest of the tour will have to wait for some other day. It would be
too impractical to do now. Train into Cairo Saturday morning, then probably
will soon be at the airport. Europe for 10 days I think .... bye for now.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
July
20th ... TaaaaDaaaa!!!!!
The
winner of today's contest of "where will I end up tonight???" goes to
the stunning, gorgeous, Bavarian town of Wurzburg.
Took
the overnight train yesterday into Cairo, straight to the airport, booked a
flight Frankfurt (delayed two hours due to "military exercises" (yeah
right) ) but my friends were in Berlin. Soooooooo ... train to Wurzburg,
get here by 7pm. Only problem is, everything is pretty much booked out. So ...
a very lovely guy at a hotel looks on the web and finds a Best Western for
merely 109 Euros ... it's ok though. Running around this gorgeous place is
better than watching the Canucks lose a playoff game in person (ouch, I know).
It feels so beautiful to relax in an European town at night with a gentle
breeze and nobody, I repeat, nobody bothers you. That is worth about 80 Euros
in itself. Gee ... that's funny, twenty years ago, my daily budget used
to be $60 maximum. That's the difference in twenty years, plus the small detail
of having a job. And yes, I am safe ... and able to have a shower for the
first time in a long time. :o)
Off to
Rothenburg tomorrow ... Then to Munich and Prague. My friends in Frankfurt were
in Berlin visiting grandparents, like I thought they might.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
July
24th Munich ....
One
great day/night in Wurzburg, two great days in Rothenburg, and I got everything
accomplished in Munich in one day. Everything is good.
Quick
run over to Salzburg, before training north to the Czech Republic ..... it is
warm, but not Egypt warm, if you know what I mean.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
July 27
- Prague ...
All is
beautiful, but very, very warm. Cesky Budejovice and Cesky Krumlov were nice
too, esp. Krumlov ... just as beautiful as it was in 2001.
If I
type more, it will get too repetitive ... bye for now .... another day to walk
around for nine hours ... tomorrow, off to Dresden, working my way back to
Hanover and Frankfurt. Gotta go ....
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
August
1st -- Nairobi, Kenya.
It was
crazy day yesterday but I made it here in one piece. The flight from
Frankfurt to Cairo was no problem, but the flight down to Nairobi was extremely
chaotic. Egypt Air changed the gate 30 minutes before leaving and never
bothered to tell anyone. So we all get to gate H4, and all the security people
are all picking their noses doing nothing. Then the passengers needed pretty
much an hour to figure out where their seats were on the plane, and where to
put their luggage, then the seats were extremely cramped. It was the longest
five hours in a long, long time, but we finally arrived at 5am .... we should
have arrived by 3am .... but I digress.
The
funniest part is that Nairobi Airport is getting a brand new terminal right
beside the old one. So we arrive, and all the duty free shops are all destroyed
like in a riot or something had just finished. Glass is just everywhere ... and
all duty free booze is just sitting on the ground, not being guarded. And the
airport bosses have all these random ordinary people carrying all the alcohol
from the old terminal to the new one by hand at 5 am, like there is no problem.
Guys in heavy winter coats and baseball caps looking like they are calmly
looting the terminal was something I will never forget. Weird but true ... you
can't make this stuff up I am afraid.
So
anyway, I am just relaxing and catching up on sleep. I might head to a giraffe
sanctuary tomorrow, then the tour starts on Saturday. Then it will
camping for 16 days in Kenya, Uganda, and Rwanda. The driver told me yesterday
the gorillas are better in Rwanda than in Uganda, but knowing my luck, they
will all be on vacation in Uganda to visit relatives .... but you never know.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day 39 - KampalaThe connection is slow, so I'll make this quick. We been rained on a lot since the trip started, but it hasn't ruined anything of big circumstance. Animals have been pretty good on the first game drive, we saw just one lion in Lake Nakuru Park, but she ran away from us up a hill. We entered Uganada today, and the roads were WAY better than I thought, actually better than the ones we were on in Kenya for the most part. Kinda weird, Uganda is relatively small, but yet has an equal population to Canada ... go figure. The campsite we have tonight
is good, last night I was a wise wimp and stayed in the comfy dorms in Eldoret, Kenya since it was just downpouring on us. We leave for Kibale National Park tomorrow to see the chimps, I just hope it stays
dry.
Wish us luck ... the drive today was long, tomorrow's is shorter, and watching the day go by along the streets of Uganda is very colourful and interesting. Slightly different to all the other places between Nairobi and Joburg ... all is very, very, very green.
Gotta go ....
__________________________________________________________________________
Day 43 -- Queen National Park, onto Lake Bunyonyi (spelled wrong, I think)
Wow ... We had gorgeous campsite at Kibale National Park, sitting on top of a tea plantation. Our morning group had an amazing chimp tracking day, and an amazing massive chimp sat in front of us, for about 30 minutes .... it took awhile but the photos came out amazing. Thank God ... that's all I will say about that. The boat cruise on Lake Edward and Lake George at Q.E. Park was very special too, if you like hippos, eagles, crocs, and elephants. No lions .... or leopards, but no surprise there.
Onto Lake Buyonyi tonight, and into Rwanda tomorrow, to see the gorillas. If our luck maintains true to form, we should be in for something special. The drive today was along a construction site 8 hours long, but you get used to it. No problem ...
Gotta go ...
Day 44 - Into Rwanda, stop over in Kigali, and now in Ruhengeri, near the Volcanoes National Park.
Well, we made it.
Lake Bunyonyi, in Uganda was so beautiful (I spelled it right this time), the lake was way up high on a mountain top. Swimming in the cold lake was so magnificent, much better than a shower. Quick to bed, I wish we could have stayed a day to relax. Too bad.
So, it was another long day, we were up at 5:30am, to pack up, and gone by 7am. I hate packing and put down your tent in the dark .... especially when the canvas tent is full of dew
We reached the Rwandan border by 8 am, and it took about an hour and a half. Just standing around waiting for nothing by a small stamp in the passport, and handing over $30 US to boot.
We got into Kigali by 11:00am, and visited the Genocide Museum, not the most cheery of places, but it was very good to revisit the tragedy that makes this country hopeful. Most of the story was a blur back at university, so many things happened so quickly in April 1994, so it was good to get the full backstory that goes way back to the Belgians. If the European powers hadn't artificially labeled the Hutus and Tutsis in the first place, no one would have been targeted in the first place.
The country is full of mountains and hills, so it made a very dramatic drive up and down the countryside over and over. Almost looks like north of Chang Mai in Thailand, but the hills are way higher. The amazing thing was the fields of crops go literally all the way up to the top of each hill, which looked amazing. We arrived at our Missionary hostel by 4pm, and the shower was very well worth it. We will explore the town of Ruhengeri eventually, it's hoping with fire and brimstone on a Sunday. Needless to say, Rwanda is very Catholic
...
We find out tonight who goes looking for the gorillas tomorrow, and then the next day. Only half go at once. Curious how long it will take to find them. Sometimes it takes an hour or so, other times, a bit longer. Hope it doesn't take too short of a time, or else there will be nothing to do the rest of the day. The hour with the beasts
better be as slow as it was with the chimpanzees.
Nothing else earth shattering to say .... talk to you later.
_______________________________________________________________________________________
Day 46 - Ruhengeri, Rwanda.
There are some moments you'll always remember, hopefully when you're an old man in the nursing home drooling on your best dress shirt. Yesterday will be one of them. We were to be on the "moderate" walk to the gorillas, since all the fancy schmancy high-end companies get the best options, however, our walk was easily impossible to beat. We were to walk 4 hours round trip in total (first through farmer's fields until you get to the edge of the mountain forest). But, and this is a big but, I can not lie, it took 3.5 hours just to find them in the first place. Then we had an amazing hour with a family of 14, seeing 9 of them. Better than TV. Simply breathtaking.
The silverback male (around 25 years old) was massive,along a mother with a baby, and three younger gorillas play fighting and rolling around the brush. Watching them eat, play, and roam around was just ..... wow. We got back and in the end, it took almost 8 hours. The pictures came out superb ... better than I thought possible. Lots of very amazing close ups and non close-ups.
Had a good long sleep in today, pancakes for breakfast at the Catholic Mission we are staying at, then had a five hour walk around the markets, town, and other special stops around Ruhengeri. Visited a women's project that makes bags, and clothing, and also a traditional herb/plant doctor. Very interesting, and I'll leave it at that ... tomorrow, back to Uganda, long day on the truck, and we arrive at Lake Mburo. Walking safari in the morning on the 15th .... hope the roads aren't too bumpy. Fingers crossed once again. Gotta go ....
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
Long days in the truck, but we survived. The drive back into Uganda from Ruhengeri was superb, being way up on the mountains looking down into the valley is something I will always remember. By 5:30pm, we arrived at our camp at Mburo, and the entire place was infested by millions of tiny little flies that look like mosquitoes, plus the mosquitoes too. The bathrooms/showers were just covered in them, so luckily we had just one quick night there. The safari walk was good-ish, but we got there late, so it was cut by 45 minutes. Lots of zebras and warthogs around, and the odd buffalo.
The next day we set off to Jinja, ... but first we had another stop along the equator for lunch. Cute little landmarks on either side of the highway, which was better then the other crossing we had visited.
Jinja is known for two things, the source of the Nile, and water sports. So a group of 8 of us went whitewater rafting. Awesome, just awesome, although flipping over once was admittedly very, very freaky. Most of the 8 rapids over the 7 hours were grade 4 or 5, and we had to walk around a grade 6 since they aren't commercially allowed. We got great pics of the experience, since all 8 of us divided the costs up. $100 is a complete ripoff, but if anyone chips in, $12.50 is sort of worth it.
Two days driving back, and I'm waiting for tomorrow to head over to the Masai Mara. We didn't see many cats (lions, cheetahs, leopards) so I'm hoping to finally luck out. Hopefully 4 days will be enough to see all the elusive animals, but nothing is guaranteed of course. Had a good 12 hour sleep last night, so the body is back to decent. Even cleaned my hiking boots and socks, amazing what gets you excited when you're on the road.
Got a new battery just now for my watch, so it works again !! Just have to keep the plastic strap in one piece, the tape I have is holding together about 3 broken pieces. I tried to buy a Kenyan rugby shirt today, but alas, a 4XL still wasn't big enough .... oh the differences between stores in different places. I can honestly say I haven't gained any weight on the road.
Leaving on the 25th, and will try to fly home to Toronto on August 27th ... like to see the Jarmans and catch a Jays ballgame, but we will see. Gotta get there first. Still don't know if the Nairobi airport is 100% back to normal, but I think it's close.
I still have 5000+ pics left on my memory cards, so I'll be ready ..... over 10,000 easily. But I should delete a few more tonight while trying to kill time.
Well, we made it.
Lake Bunyonyi, in Uganda was so beautiful (I spelled it right this time), the lake was way up high on a mountain top. Swimming in the cold lake was so magnificent, much better than a shower. Quick to bed, I wish we could have stayed a day to relax. Too bad.
So, it was another long day, we were up at 5:30am, to pack up, and gone by 7am. I hate packing and put down your tent in the dark .... especially when the canvas tent is full of dew
We reached the Rwandan border by 8 am, and it took about an hour and a half. Just standing around waiting for nothing by a small stamp in the passport, and handing over $30 US to boot.
We got into Kigali by 11:00am, and visited the Genocide Museum, not the most cheery of places, but it was very good to revisit the tragedy that makes this country hopeful. Most of the story was a blur back at university, so many things happened so quickly in April 1994, so it was good to get the full backstory that goes way back to the Belgians. If the European powers hadn't artificially labeled the Hutus and Tutsis in the first place, no one would have been targeted in the first place.
The country is full of mountains and hills, so it made a very dramatic drive up and down the countryside over and over. Almost looks like north of Chang Mai in Thailand, but the hills are way higher. The amazing thing was the fields of crops go literally all the way up to the top of each hill, which looked amazing. We arrived at our Missionary hostel by 4pm, and the shower was very well worth it. We will explore the town of Ruhengeri eventually, it's hoping with fire and brimstone on a Sunday. Needless to say, Rwanda is very Catholic
...
We find out tonight who goes looking for the gorillas tomorrow, and then the next day. Only half go at once. Curious how long it will take to find them. Sometimes it takes an hour or so, other times, a bit longer. Hope it doesn't take too short of a time, or else there will be nothing to do the rest of the day. The hour with the beasts
better be as slow as it was with the chimpanzees.
Nothing else earth shattering to say .... talk to you later.
_______________________________________________________________________________________
Day 46 - Ruhengeri, Rwanda.
There are some moments you'll always remember, hopefully when you're an old man in the nursing home drooling on your best dress shirt. Yesterday will be one of them. We were to be on the "moderate" walk to the gorillas, since all the fancy schmancy high-end companies get the best options, however, our walk was easily impossible to beat. We were to walk 4 hours round trip in total (first through farmer's fields until you get to the edge of the mountain forest). But, and this is a big but, I can not lie, it took 3.5 hours just to find them in the first place. Then we had an amazing hour with a family of 14, seeing 9 of them. Better than TV. Simply breathtaking.
The silverback male (around 25 years old) was massive,along a mother with a baby, and three younger gorillas play fighting and rolling around the brush. Watching them eat, play, and roam around was just ..... wow. We got back and in the end, it took almost 8 hours. The pictures came out superb ... better than I thought possible. Lots of very amazing close ups and non close-ups.
Had a good long sleep in today, pancakes for breakfast at the Catholic Mission we are staying at, then had a five hour walk around the markets, town, and other special stops around Ruhengeri. Visited a women's project that makes bags, and clothing, and also a traditional herb/plant doctor. Very interesting, and I'll leave it at that ... tomorrow, back to Uganda, long day on the truck, and we arrive at Lake Mburo. Walking safari in the morning on the 15th .... hope the roads aren't too bumpy. Fingers crossed once again. Gotta go ....
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
Day 52 - Back in Nairobi, Kenya
Long time no talk, just the long way back from Rwanda back to Nairobi.
I'll stop here ... talk to you in 5 days or so. Still safe ....
Dean :o)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day 56 - Back in the big smoke, Nairobi.
Four days later, and the editing now begins.
Amazing, we were very lucky all the way around. The only thing we missed was seeing a rhino, and we were THIS close to seeing the crossing of thousands of wildebeests crossing the Mara River. But they just wouldn't go. Just as well, the hippos and crocs were in the way, so there was no clear path before someone
was going to eat eaten first.Four days later, and the editing now begins.
Amazing, we were very lucky all the way around. The only thing we missed was seeing a rhino, and we were THIS close to seeing the crossing of thousands of wildebeests crossing the Mara River. But they just wouldn't go. Just as well, the hippos and crocs were in the way, so there was no clear path before someone
But we saw 2 leopards right away on Wed. morning, and lots of large prides of lions. All the little lion cubs were sooooo adorable. Then we really lucked out and saw our cheetah, sitting on top on a small hill, as he looked out to higher ground, where the impalas were hanging out. So, the final score after four days is as follows:
Lions 35
Cheetahs 1
Leopards 2
Giraffes 15
Hyenas 1
Mongooses 20
Elephants 45
Wildbeest 5,000,000 ( I counted every one)
Zebras 30,000 (a very respectable second place finish)
Vultures 120
The place we stayed at was superb for the price, good food, great funny staff, a very strong tent on a concrete foundation with a shower and bathroom inside, and best of all, we only had 2 others in the 4 wheel drive mini-van. Lots of room to stand up in when the roof opened up, and lots of elbow room to take pictures. We had a wonderful guide named Tom, who tried to save us from the Kenyan massage as much as possible (ie. bumpy roads)
So, leaving late tomorrow night, not sure how to kill the last day ... not really in the mood to go shopping ... we will see.
Talk to you eventually, maybe from home in 6 days .....
