After the safari’s I split with the girls, they headed back to Kenya, whilst I stayed in Tanzania. The idea of climbing Africa’s biggest, most famous mountain was just too awesome a thought.

My journey started with a matatu ride from Arusha to the mountains base passing through the small town of Moshi to pick up equipment, you hardly expect to need warm gloves and snow pants when you visit Africa, but there I was sorting through piles of clothing for the right sizes.

The mountains peak hid itself behind clouds the whole ride there, I didn’t get a single glimpse and from the base it’s impossible to see the top.

I started climbing at early midday and had an easy walk through a thick rainforest, the world was a million different shades of green, laced with threads of vibrant colour as strange and amazing flowers popped out at me the whole way.

My group consisted of my porter, a cook, my guide and me, the cook prepared food for both me and an Egyptian fellow who climbed with his own guide, but we camped at a shared campsite each night.

Walking to the first campsite, I wasn’t alone, there were a few other groups climbing the mountain as well, which meant there were other porters, cooks and guides as well.

My porter (Simon) walked with me to the campsite, but I was amazed at the way many of the porters carried the equipment on their heads, many of them not even wearing proper shoes. (On the trip back I found out my porter didn’t have a proper sleeping bag and gave him mine.)

The trees on the climb up turned from typical lush rainforest to thick mossy drier trees, the moss on these old trees would hang down over their twisting branches, like long beards or scraggly hair.

I arrived at the Machame campsite after about 4 hours of relatively easy walking, the mountains peak was still clouded from my view, but I was told it would be there to greet me in the morning. The elevation here was about 3000m.

I took to bed soon after dinner and when I awoke, the magnificent mountain sure met my eyes, it seemed so far away, its strange oblong peak covered in shining white. It hung there for only half an hour before the clouds once again surged to hide its glory.

The bearded trees soon made way to low lying scrub, sprinkled with flowering plants and abundant birdlife, most notable were the ravens, loud, wily and not afraid to steal your lunch out of your open hand.

The halo of clouds over Kilimanjaros peak parted during the day to allow a spectacular view and a few camera shots to boot.
The next campsite, Campsite Shira 2 was on a slightly inclined plateau at elevation 3840 metres, the sloping landscape down into the valleys around the camp were fantastic during sunset, especially since we were above some of the lower cloud cover now.

The next day saw us walking up rocky slopes, the scrub having disappeared and replaced with patches of low grass. The reason for this was that the landscape was all igneous rock, cooled lava formations from past volcanic eruptions littered the area.

Many of these formations were strange and wonderful, ranging from soccer ball sized to gargantuan. Though the largest visible was indeed a sight to see, the aptly named ‘Lava Tower’, a mammoth of rock, you could see where the past movements of the lava flows had taken part in its formation. (elevation 4600 metres)

Another added bonus of the odd formations of this cooled lava was that it made for great climbing walls.

Throughout the day I found the walk almost too easy, powering through it and made it to Barranco campsite in no time, an elevation of 3950 metres.
The amazing thing about Barranco campsite was the pre-historic like vegetation littering the area, waterfalls flowing down through the camp and the giant rock Barranco wall standing behind us, I felt like I had walked into the age of the dinosaurs.
The vegetation I later found to be called ‘Giant Groundsels’ amazing vegetation that only occurs in the higher altitudes of tropical African areas.

This campsite was where I got my first taste of altitude sickness (and luckily my last), I began getting headaches and eventually threw up, it was not a good feeling when you’re thousands of kilometres from friends and family.
I took a nap and managed to sleep it off, waking much more refreshed, I learned from my guide that the mountains motto was ‘Pole Pole’ which is Swahili for ‘slowly slowly’ and that the trick to making it to the top was taking small, slow steps.
When morning came we ascended Barranco wall making our way to the top we passed Karanga camp and upwards towards Barafu hut. Past Karanga the landscape was barren of vegetation, save for a few occurences of moss or lichen growing on the boulders of igneous rock which scattered themselves around the steepening slope upwards.
The temperatures began to drop significantly and hints of frost could be seen in some of the crevices around me, eventually we made it to camp at an elevation of 4550m and set up .

Just in time for the snow.

Though not heavy, it was enough to keep us in our tents for the most part, well most of us, I decided to brave the weather for a little bit to explore the campsite and see the sunset.
I have never seen such a fantastic view from a toilet window, and I doubt I ever will again.

Getting up from a tent at midnight in below 0 temperatures is not one of my favourite things in the world, neither was the gruelling 6 hour hike through a layer of ice and loose rocks. At points I couldn’t feel some of my toes and I have to say, it was the toughest and most painful hike I’ve done in my life, added to this, my camera battery died, even the moon looked foreboding having turned a blood-red hue.

But it was more than worth it, when I reached Stella point at 5685m.

What I saw then is one of my favourite memories of my life, and the most beautiful sunrise I have ever seen.
Sitting down on a light dusting of snow to watch the sunrise, well above a scudded cloud line stretching out as far as one can see, suddenly the world turned to gold.

Around the rising sun the cloudscape erupted into a fiery splendour of vivid oranges, red and yellows as if the clouds themselves were burning.
The once white dusting of snow over the entire mountain became molten fire, burning ferociously then settling slowly into a sea of heavenly glowing gold.
Looking down upon the vivid green of the rainforests far, far below I felt far removed from the earth, sitting above the clouds on the throne of gods.

Though I could have sat and watched the sun curve its way across the sky forever, my guide urged that we had to move onto the final destination, Uhuru peak.

The hour and a half climb to the peak was far easier than the previous hike up and on my way I saw a palace of ice.

The glaciers near the peak of Kilimanjaro are sub-lime, blues so deep and clear, ice so pure it stunned me to look upon it. Icicles and natural contours on the side of the glacier reflected in the perfectly still water made it seem that the glacier was twice its size. The freshest air I’ve ever breathed, here was a piece of the world that seemed untouched by man.

Finally making it to Uhuru peak I sat down and relaxed, taking a snack, 5895 metres above sea level, the highest point in Africa!

It was a journey well worth it, but not over just yet, making our way down the mountain toward Mweka Camp (3340m), the climb down is covered with slippery sediment and shale rock, most of the time I found myself riding the sliding rock down the slope.
To help pass the time I made a friend, an American rancher who had also summited on the day, finding a comradeship in the sharing of the experience we made it to camp. I slept like a log that night.

The last part of the walk was a simple matter, heading back along a beaten path through the layer of thick rainforest bordering the mountain we walked through a little village at the base, but not before stopping for a celebratory drink and jumped in a Matatu for a quick ride to Arusha where the comforts of internet and a real bed to sleep in awaited me.

The following days leading up to heading back home after my trip in Africa were mostly taken up with heading back to Kenya to meet the girls from my group again, staying with a family whom we made exceptional friends with and passing through Mauritius to see my friends on the way home.

An adventure of a lifetime indeed.

-JoshG

For now I’ll give you the low down on how the safari went.

Now on to the show.

Though not a bad safari, I think once you’ve seen these animals consistent and up close before, they lose their attraction. Having seen lions playing around, stalking and so close you can touch, then going on another safari and seeing them just sitting in the grass, it doesn’t feel as amazing.

That isn’t to say I didn’t enjoy my trip, there were highlights, such as seeing a baby gazelle’s first steps in the world, driving through the middle of a small herd of elephants, we even got to see a cheetah, though at a distance.

The first day of the safari took us to Manyara National Park, full gazelles, impalas and other strange deer looking things (this was were we saw the baby gazelle). There was also an abundance baboons, at one point we turned the corner to find something like 50 baboons sprawled from the trees on one side of the road to the other, playing, chattering, fighting, eating, it was all pretty cool and we had to slowly move along the road to set them scampering out of our path.

The park overlaps into the great rift valley so theres a windy road up and down to get in an out, but the view of the escarpment is awesome.

Next stop was Ungorongoro crater, though not quite what I thought it would be, it was still pretty nifty in it’s own right. The drive down into the crater was a bit chilly with views of masses of white mist slowly rising, we didn’t get to see any of the crater till we got into it, just a wall of pure white up around and over.

We were greeted by a few Masai attempting to sell us all kinds of jewellery and other bits and bobs, but we escaped out into the crater quickly from here.

The crater was massive, walls rising up from all sides, yet inside still thrived a living ecosystem, predators and prey, it was all there. We managed to catch sight of a cheetah whilst we were there but no leopards at al, though we also saw both black and white rhino’s.

Driving around we came across a safari van that had just happened to have a busted tire, right next to some lazy lions sitting in a tree, fortunately for them the lions were too lazy.

So all in all the Crater was pretty neat, when you think about the fact that it is its own mini system, being isolated from all other wildlife around it for thousands of years. The crater also has one of the highest concentrations of elephants apparently, due to it’s isolation.

Well, i’ve gotta write up my Kilimanjaro blog now ^_^

-josh

The ferry to Zanzibar takes about 2 hours from Dar, a short trip to the Island. My first impressions were’nt overly smashing, it seemed like another african island, with the regular streetstalls and pestering salesmen, there was also an abundance of tourists which seemed to irritate me somewhat. One has to keep in mind that for the past 3 months I’ve been in secluded area’s where seeing a Mzungu is a bit of an event, thus when I saw groups of 20 tourists just meandering round the streets it was slightly disturbing.

The west part of the island in Stonetown, where we spent the first couple of nights, was a lovely place all things said, there was the old fort to look at, a wonderful museum, the sunsets were gorgeous, the locals generally friendly, but it didn’t particlarly jump out at me, not yet.

Stonetown is a labrynth of houses and stores, much like Lamu in that the buildings melt into one another in a mazelike fashion. The amount of times the three of us got lost between the restaurant we just had dinner at and wandering, peeking, poking, prodding, hoping, flailing and powerwalking in an attempt to find the guesthouse for the night isn’t worth mentioning. The streets are hard enough to find you’re way around in the day, let alone when there’s no friendly faces to direct you. One ends up thinking “Oh i know this place from when I got lost last time! Though I have no idea how to get back from here…”.

While we were in stonetown we met up with a couple of the blokes from the volunteer program, we’d organised it so our Zanzibar visits coincided as such, It was cool just bein’ able to sit back ‘n’ relax, have a chat at the restaurant by the ocean, while you dug you’re toes into the sand.

One of the more fun factors of stonetown (if you have an iron stomach, the girls got a little green) are the seafood markets at night. There’s a single street you walk down that is jam-packed with small stalls that are thrown up just after sunset. The tables a laden with prawns, crabs, lobster, octopus, felafel, samosas, fried bananas, street food galore. People stand with their hand crank juicers making fresh sugarcane juice, while others offer a particularly nice piece of work called the Zanzibari Pizza. This pizza is pretty much tomato, onion, capsicum, mince and an egg, all cooked on a coal hotplate, in a wrapping of wafer thin dough. Tastes Awesomeo! (There’s also a desert option with chocolate and banana, not bad but it doesnt beat the savory)

After a couple of days of Stonetowns charms, shooting pool beneath a Boabab tree, watching kids play marbles in the middle of the road, facing off against locals in a game of Keram (similar to pool but you flick checker pieces with your fingers), we decided to head off to Paje, on the east coast of the island.

The east coast beaches are one of a kind, I thought Lamu was awesome, it’s nothing in comparison.

Stepping out of our thatch roofed beach huts and taking no more than 10 paces lead to a tropical paradise sensation. Turquoise blue waters stretched out into infinity as a wreath of pure white clouds adorned the horizon, hovering just above the coral reef where foamy waves frolicked in and over the coral reef a mere 500 metres out from the beach. The sand, a heavenly white and so fine the grains almost indecipherable to the naked eye, makes a narrow strip of creme seperatingthe greeny blue waters and the lines of soldiering coconut trees.

Just sitting beside the water relaxing, reading a book, snoozing, walking the beach picking out shells, paddling in the magical aqua flavoured water, It was a little taste of heaven. On our second day we decided to organise a snorkel out to the reef, about 500 metres from the beach. I for one got to ride a motorbike up and down the beach, cruising under the guise of organising snorkelling equipment (I had the snorkel instructor on the back), gave me my adrenaline rush for the day.

The three of us proceeded to hire regular bikes and cycle up the coast a few K’s to find beaches even nicer than what we had in front of us already (yes it’s true there are nicer beaches, I saw it with my own eyes!). While we were busy enjoyin toting along, stopping for the occasional dip and enjoying the blissful views the wind decided to come up rather strongly, at our backs. This was all fine and dandy until we needed to turn around, from there it felt like one massive uphill.

Eventually hauling back to our huts, we jumped on board the small boat (well it was like a canoe with two floaters out the sides, powered by a single guy with a pole) and skiffed off to the coral reef.

Most of the coral ranged from yellow to beige to a slight pink tinge, nothing too vivid but still entertaining enough. I managed to follow a couple of schools of fish, spotted some bright yellow and black fish that were so flat it looked like someone had run over them recently. I saw mellowed fish darting between red sea anenomes, black urchins dotting the spiked and brain coral, a couple of evasive fluorescent fish dashing away and a couple of starfish with deep red linings on their skin.

I for one enjoyed myself floating and swimming in and around the coral, even if the wind had made it a bit choppy and murky, there was still plenty to see.

The day concluded with more of the traditional lazing about in the setting sun and reading books over a seafood (or in my case vegetable curry) dinner.

Our two days in Paje more than made up for whatever the rest of Zanzibar may have lacked, though the sunrise wasn’t that amazing, the sunset from stonetown is something to write home about, but having described sunsets already in this blog, I’ll spare you the personification, similies, metaphors and other literal whatnot. But I will say that the sun almost set looked like a big red bouncy ball someone had left in the horizon, much too large to look like the regular sun at any rate.

On the coast Rastafarianism has it’s happenings going on in the background. Being a guy with a rather large, blonde, unruly hairdo, i tend to attract the name ‘Rastaman’ from the locals, the next phrase often includes attempting to sell me marijuana, but not always. I took it upon myself to buy myself a rasta styled hat, I’m still working on finding somewhere to give me dreadlocks, but it’s getting there.

The trip back from Zanzibar to Dar was not a comforting experience, being shamefully seasick I kept to my form of a curled ball and avoided throwing up. So now I’m sitting here and tommorow I plan to go to Arutia and safari in the Ngorongoro crater, see lions, elephants and with a bit of luck hyenas, a cheetah or a leopard.

While that will entertain the three of us for the next three days, I will then split with the girls to climb Mt. Killimanjaro while they go to trek up Mt. Kenya. After that we’ll meet back up in Nairobi to say our farewells and while I get to enjoy Mauritius and bring the one man band home, the other two will hike through europe and beyond.

Well it’s midnight now and I’m rather extremely tired, my photos failed at uploading  so you might have to wait till I get home, or perhaps in nairobi if I can be bothered.

Well tata for now, gnite n all that. Catchya in 3 days

-josh

I started the trio trip with Isobel, Gemma and me in tow, from Nairobi to Mombasa to Malindi to Lamu, back to Mombasa, and now sittin in Dar Es Salaam in Tanzania.

That is more hours on cramped and bumpy buses than I care to think about, but on the bright side, I’ve finished three and a half books.

Mombasa was a colourful city, whether it was the noise and traffic, the middle eastern style of the place or just the vibrant and amazing fruits we havent seen in three months, i’m not quite sure. Though I do suspect it was the fruits.

An overnight stay in Mombasa and we were away up the northern coast, a little place overlooking a dismal beach in the rain caught our attention, but not long enough to stay the night. Back Matatu it was. For those undeducated chaps out there a Matatu is like a Tarago van used for public transport in kenya, you can generally fit about 25 on a packed one, even though there are only 12 seats.

The next stop on the coast was a little place called Malindi, a brilliant place to stay if you’re into the whole beachside, paradise, bleeding money out of your ears resort thing, but for budget travellers it’s not the most ideal spot. The place is a popular destination for holidaying italians, so there is an abundance of italian eateries and a couple of em not too bad at that.

The beaches in Malindi though brilliantly white, were covered in seaweed, not that pleasant to swim in, so we were off again, this time to an island just off the upper coast of kenya, a little archipelago called Lamu.

Now Kenya is a country covered in people, most often the people you meet seem nice and genuine but the conversation quickly turns to what can they get from you, the mentality process goes something like this:

*Look a Mzungu (swahili for white person)*
*Greet Mzungu*
*Act friendly as all hell and ask Mzungu a series of questions about themselves*
*Edge the conversation to themselves and their predicament*
*Proceed to ask the Mzungu for their phone number, hat, watch, money, hand in marriage, jewelery or any other assortment of things*

Not everyone in the country is like this, just the ones that are super keen on getting friendly, often the ones who stop you in the street. Sometimes you just get yelled at with a “Give me your bag” by some complete random, or people will chant “OBAMA OBAMA OBAMA” to which you politely mention you’re Australian, they give you a funny look and continue chanting.

This is just a small assortment of the strange things people do when white people walk by. So when people helped us with our bags off the ferry onto Lamu Island, helped us to a brilliant hotel and even offered a boat ride ONLY ONCE and then didnt even ask for our names, let alone a phone number. I had to say I was impressed with the place.

From our hotel in lamu we had a waterfront view, sights of grass-thatch rooves of the old town and a breakfast included, we could sit on the roof and watch the palm trees wave lazily at the small sailing boats wafting through the blue waters, reading a book with our feet up and our heads back.

The whole coast of Kenya has a huge Islamic influence, the island of Lamu was no exception, the houses of the old town wove a maze of small roads criss crossed in a higgeldy piggeldy fashion, intermixing the middle eastern style of building and closeness with the palm thatched rooves and island feel. It was as if the place had been made by those people who decorate a place to feel like a tropical paradise, until you realised that THIS was their inspiration for it all.

The people were genuinely friendly, never asking for more than a simple greeting or a wave, the accomodation and food was absolutely chipper and at smashingly cheap prices. On our second day we took a Dhow cruise (a traditional little wooden sailing/fishing boat) out to another of the islands for lunch. We were hitched with a couple of decent brits for the ride and found out they were staying in the same hotel as us, from then on we were stuck like glue.

The whole feel of the place, wandering through the street in the morning to see children running and playing, yipping “JAMBO” (Kenyan word for G’day) at you and bouncing on their way, the board games played on the side of the street by the older kids and the abundance of small side doors leading to brightly coloured clothe shops, souveneir stores, carving workshops and the ilk. Oh and i Havent even mentioned the beaches! Those pristine white beaches with clear water, sand as smooth as talcum powder and water so warm you could swear you’d just peed your pants.

On our second day we took a donkey ride to another of the picture perfect beaches, yes donkeys, here’s a hint. if you ride a donkey, use double padding, their spines stick out like no-ones business, and it rubs.

The island of Lamu is littered with donkeys, the first thing you hear in the morning, if not the muslim call to prayer is bound to be some stubborn donkey makin’ a racket. Theres even a donkey safe haven, for injured or old donkeys.

I won’t keep you too much longer, as I needa catch a nap before I head out to Zanzibar tomorrow, but I want to tell you about Ramadan. Because of the massive arabic influence most people follow it, so all day fasting is followed by most, which means restaurants generally dont open till 6:30 p.m.

It makes one slightly guilty walking around snacking on an icecream or chips when everyone else is starving, ya’ get more than a coupla’ dirty looks. Though at night the place comes alive, the food is good, the people are exhuberant and the town comes alive. Theres the added bonus of Ramadan foods, which are bought out just before sunset, they’re deep fried delicacies ranging from meat samosas to chicken flavoured bean things, to rice pudding tasting cakes (dubbed exotic sea sponges due to the texture) and donut ball things. It really is a lot of fun trying it all out, brilliant finger food.

Lamu was paradise in a nutshell.

Well I’ve written over 1000 words now, that should be enough till I get back from my stint in Zanzibar…. perhaps, im still keen to upload more photos.

Well all of you look after yourselves and please send your wishes, prayers and good luck my way, I’m sure I’ll find a use for it all

Till next time chaps

-Josh

After the bumpy bus ride our first trek took us to lake Nakuru which was an extra day we added onto the three next days in the Masai Mara. I’m glad we did, because we got to see animals which the Mara didn’t have.

The first thing i noticed when we drove into the national park was the colour of the lake, it was pink. THe lake gives off a pink hue due to all the flamingos and pelicans that stand around in the water feeding, yes I said pelicans, they’re slightly pinkish too.

We saw rhinos, water buffalo, baboons, golden jackals and even a lion, though only in the distance (don’t worry we find more later). The ride we saw it all in was kind of like a tarago van, with a pop top roof so we could all stand up, look around and snap photos, not that standing up was all that easy some of the time.

We stopped at a lookout over Lake Nakuru to see the grand scale of things. The flamingo’s could be seen as a pink lining round the edges of the lake as baboons played around in the park, jumping along the rocks on the cliff and even stealing things from the safari vans. Made good entertainment for those of us they weren’t nicking stuff from.

We didn’t get too close and personal with many animals on the Nakuru safari, but after the long and bumpy ride to the Masai Mara we did. The Masai Mara is like how you see Africa in the movies, long stretches of Savannah grasses, random single knotted tree’s stick out from the ground to give the birds a perch. Theres herds of wilder beast mixed with gazelles and zebra’s just moseying around, lion cubs prowl each other, play hide and seek then snuggle with their mother. The giraffes and elephants breakfast together in the late lazy morning sun, golden jackals stand attentive for a few seconds before dashing off to find another spot to pose in.

It just feels like a completely different world out there, horizon to horizon is wilderness, beautiful but deadly. One of the highlights of the few safari days was the trip out to the mara to see the sunrise, the world was at peace as the sun rose from it’s hiding place, bursting a blood red through the grasses and mountains. Twisted tree’s were silhouetted, herds of zebra were quiet and no birds sang as the sun slowly rose through the scattered clouds, bathing the world in dripping golden rays.

It was awesome, to say the least.

One of the small disappointments was that we didn’t get to see the big five (buffalo, lion, rhino, elephant, leopard), we saw everything but the leopard, there were no cheetahs or meerkats either. One of the afternoons we got to visit the Masai tribe and see their traditional way of life. They wear red clothes to scare away dangerous animals and carry short sticks for cow herding. Cows are their wealth and lifeblood, they drink their blood and smear their houses in cow poop, every part of the cow is used somehow, it costs 10 cows for a wife @_@.

The Masai initiation rite is killing a lion, not bad aye, I managed to pick up a few trinkets there, a lions tooth and a leopards tooth. Talking of big cats I didn’t mention how close we got to the lions, there were plenty of lions everywhere in the Mara, we got so close to some that they brushed up against our safari vehicle, I could have reached out my hand and patted her >_<

It was an experience i have to do again someday, out of this world, the whole circle of life thing happening.

Well I’m uploading photos for your entertainment as I write this but theyre taking a looooooong time. I’m in Nairobi right now and tonights the last night we get to spend together as a team, all seven of us together. The menu is a restaurant called Carnivore, apparently world famous, making it into the top 50 best.

I’m spending my month in Kenya and Tanzania now, its all set, my flights go out on the 27th spend a couple more days in Mauritius, then I’ll be home the day just before big camp starts, from one party to the next and ALL of you guys better be comin’ to camp.

Heres a link to all of my photos, if it doesnt work just look at my photos in myspace then in the Africa album. Click here.

until next time, likely I’ll be in Mombasa, Peace Out.

-Josh

We’re all off to safari tomorrow, first lake nakuru to see the flamingo’s and rhinos, then off to the masai mara to see lions, girraffes, wilderbeast and all the rest!

Sorry for not updating these past 3 weeks, I’ve been busy as all hell working, and you’ve missed out on a lot. For the past while we’ve been working in a place called Mutumbu, alternatively called ‘The White House’ not because of it’s colour, but because of it’s occupants. Out first project was reflooring school rooms that had become mangled through overuse, a rather grueling task but we also did work in the communities in places such as rangala baby home or agunjah community centre. I for one helped teach computer classes, was good fun, wasn’t too hard as it was an area i knew about.  Our last project was building a cow shed and supplying it with a pregnant cow for a school, only made do-able due to all the donations we were given. A special thanks to everyone who donated money and items and made it all possible.

It’s been good here in Africa made a few friends, seen some new places, learnt more about myself and others. Good life experience all up. In school I always learnt how to manipulate numbers and words, i learnt science and maths. It was academic intelligence. Here in Africa I’ve learnt about people and life, the way things work outside the schooling systems, street smarts as some call it.

It is true, i do miss home, it’s taken three months but i’m finally just a little homesick I may not travel for my extra month round kenya and tanzania, we’ll see how God works my flights.

Till I hit the net again

peace out

-josh

We all arrived in Kakamega and settled into our thatch roofed bandas (funky grass huts), it was awesome settling in and then sitting out in the deck chairs watching monkeys jump from tree to tree.

Felt good to be back in nature, going for bush walks, seein’ the local flora and fauna, just relaxin’ with friends.

The monkeys were awesome, they’d swing around the tree’s then jump down and run around on the ground, or sit there with curious and quizzical looks on their faces. We watched as a couple of ladies sat outside eating sandwiches then tried to scare the monkeys away when they got too close, ended up with a monkey in a tree munching away and sandwichless ladies.

Kakamega is also famous for having about 400 species of butterflies, so there was a small butterfly farm there and numerous other butterflies always swirling through the air. Our walks through the rainforest we’re pretty cool, our guide always pointed out the different types of monkeys or bird calls and the different species of plants which could be used for medicine or were just plain rad.

One of the best walks we went on was the sunrise walk, we’re we left at 5 in the morning to climb one of the mountains and see the sunrise as the forest woke slowly from the night.

Although we didn’t see the sun itself we did see a spectacular play of crimson red clouds hulking on the horizon, a smashing backdrop for the huge stretches of rainforest from horizon to horizon. The best part of it all was standing quietly down in the jungle and up on the mountain hearing different birds or primates wake up and echo through the whole place.

Just lying in the long grass watching the red horizon blister and bubble as the masses of whispering green giants let loose the calls of a thousand birds is just something you don’t soon forget.

After our experience on the mount, we walked halfway down and into a bat cave. It wasn’t a particularly long cave, but it was pretty neat all in all, some of us were fascinated with the silhouettes of bats flapping at the cave mouth, while others were crouched in corners with the willies scared outta’ them.

All in all I was sad to leave the place and all it’s natural beauty, the endemic birdlife, the wild flowers, the wisping of butterflies and of course the monkeys.

Well it’s off to a place called Mutumbu to help out in the community and see what needs we can fulfill.

much love to all and have fun.

-josh

Sorry about the spelling and grammar mistakes in the last blog, it’s hard when you don’t have much time.

I’ll introduce the team for you all, since i have’nt yet, theres seven of us in total, Georgina (team leader), Westy,  Veti, Nic, Gemma, Isobel and me. It’s a cool little group, bit like a family really, each person with their own personalities and attitudes, from anal clean freaks to messy slobs, introverts and extroverts, it’s all covered.

I’ve decided I’d like to stay in Kenya and travel for an extra month with a couple of the others, still gotta clear my finances, change flight dates and the whole rigmarole but it’s on the to do list, once I get the go ahead from the rents. The plan is budget travel to the coast of Kenya and take a trip either up or down the coast, stayin’ at Mombasa on the way through. A visa run needs to be done at some point, which the plan is a boat to Zanzibar for a couple of days, then trek it back to Nairobi either visiting Mt. Kenya on the way over or the way back.

Well it’s a night here in Kisumu then we’re heading out to Kakamega national reserve to see the monkeys,  butterflies, birds ‘n’ monkeys in the rainforest there. it’s our three day break in the middle of the program so it’s chill time to relax an’ reflect on the happenings of the past month and a half. And did i mention, real live MONKEYS!

Well tata for now, I’ll be back in three days to give you a little more about monkeys, and hopefully a bigger update on our accomplished project.

-josh

SInce my last blog ‘ve built a plaground at an orphanage, and moved to a place called rangi and been laying bricks ever since, for a kitchen. The lifestyle has been like one big camping trip, with everyone taking turns at cooking, running round in the dark with kero lanterns and fighting off insects left, right and centre.

During our first project, the playground, it was more of a break in to projects, not too hard, bit more spare time. But this project is all out, work like a dog during the day and hit the bed hard.

One thing about Africa is the unending supply of cold, glass bottled coke, it’s everywhere, like out in the villages where you have chickens and donkeys running round and you buy rice off the side of the street, theres always a coke stand nearby!

Man today was awesome, me and one of the other team members (Nic) came into the town, to get here we caught a 40 minute motorbike ride through some of the best scenery EVER. Get’s the adrenaline rushing whizzing past great green mountains in the distance or neverending rolling hills of yellowing maize fields (maize is like really tough corn, the staple food for most people).

Some of the views from the mountains over the surrounding area are breathtaking, fields flowing forth like a river from horizon to horizon, green hills rolling back and forth over the winding dusty roads, spotted and flecked with small mud tin or thatch roof huts poking out of the herds of banana tree’s.

It would take me hour’s to put it into words that would do justice.

We’ll im still alive and running amok but i must finish up soon as we have shopping to do, rice appears to be coming forth as our main diet mixed with meals of pasta and the odd attempt to mash chickpeas.

One thing i have to say for Kenyan food, it’s brilliant, extremely simple and somewhat repetitive if eaten everyday but it’s good and filling, I’ll write you an essay on it later.

I’ll write a bigger blog in about two weeks, much love to all and keep sending prayers and wishes.

-josh

My flight on the way through HAD to stop in mauritius for four days, what a pity ; )

I’ll expound and extrapolate on the paradise of mauritius and it’s brilliant white beaches and clear oceans sometime in the future, but for now i’ll tell you a little about Kenya.

Brilliantly different culture, only thing i’ve experienced that I can relate to it was my short stint in egypt. The totally different culture, unlike anything in europe or america, just seeing a developing country up close is something you don’t forget in a hurry i guess.

I spent my first days in Nairobi, exploring the city and grouping up with the team I’ve got here. My first day in africa I visited a girraffe orphanage, not just a ‘look a girraffe how nice’ experience, we actually got to feed the girraffes, drench our hands in girraffe saliva and if you’re a daring enough individual, get your face licked. (errgghhh girraffe dribble) Extremely hands on stuff and plenty of girraffes to snap scenic shots of.

The next big stop was an elephant and rhino orphanage, though not as hands on as the girraffe experience, nor as slimy, it was speccy to see 10 baby elephants running around. This ai’nt behind a glass wall either, the carers bring them out into a play in an area everyone stands behind a rope and watches the elephants roll around eat, drink and generally run amok. If they come close enough you can even pat them, if theyre not attempting to charge you in the process.

I’m currently sitting in Kisumu after my looong and bumpy bus trip, this isnt jus bumpy, its like you get bumped RIGHT out of your seat, and keeping the book still enough to read? nice try.

Next major stop is a hippo tour on lake victoria, then to an orphanage to help out!

Till then, have fun.

-josh