from Africa to Australia

Tanzania

The night ferry reached Dar around 6am. Buses were fully booked for the first 2 days so the only option of getting south was the train. First class was sold out but there were some seats available in second (6pax a cabin) for the next day. Men and women are separated on the train, but luckily our cabins were adjacent so during the day we could be together. It took us over 24hours through nice landscapes and small rural villages to cover the 900km to Mbeya.
Arriving there we got a minibus to the bus station where we got 2 more to the Malawian border. The border closes at 6pm and we got there a few minutes before closing, thanks to some guys who gave us a ride on there bike. To end an already very exhausting day we took another over packed minibus to Karonga, the nearest town 100km further.

Malawi

Again a travel day… 2 minibus rides took us to Nkhata Bay, on the shores of Lake Malawi. The N-S road in Malawi is paved the whole way and (for African standards) in good condition. The only negative thing is that different from Kenya and Tanzania, were there is a legal limit on the maximum amount of passengers, the Malawian drivers just keep filling up their vehicle. So you sit very uncomfortable with luggage under and on you, surrounded by fish (dead), chickens (alive) and no leg room whatsoever. Ones definition of ‘personal space’ changes completely. There is always room for more and one more and one more… (20-25 people were no exeption).

But the Malawian scenery is magnificent. Mountains on one side, the mighty Lake on the other, fields with baobab trees, forests, terracotta huts,… You see women in beautiful coloured dresses walking for kms with a child tucked away on the back. And while they are balancing a heavy bag on their heads, they carry buckets of water. Guys ride their handmade bikes which are stacked with wood or coal, and they end up pushing their bikes uphill because there are just so heavy. And little boys walk around in their rags or are playing football with a ball made from banana leaves. While it may sound nice, its poverty, nothing less. You can’t get much poorer then these people who lack just about anything (running water, power, toilet, all things we take for granted). But most people are filled with a joy of life we rarely experienced anywhere else. There is so much laughter, smiling and humanity among the locals. And they still make time for each other. Everyone greets each other, and not just a hello. It’s a ‘how are you’-ritual which takes 30 seconds each time and they get offended if you don’t do the same thing. Africa is an amazing and inspiring continent and it holds an special place in our hearts.


So we decided to have a rest day in Nkhata bay. I did 2 dives in the lake and although the visibility was not so good (rains had started so the water gets murky) I liked it. Diving freshwater is a different experience and watching new fishes (the ones you have in an aquarium back home) is always exiting.

We had an early rise, broke up the tent and made our way back to the village. There are better ways to start your day, then a 30 min walk in the blistering sun with heavy backpacks. There was only 1 minibus in town but luckily it went our direction. After a couple of hours we changed minibuses and 3hours later it was more of the same. This time we got in the back of a lorry filled with people, animals (dead and alive), bicycles, bags of sand, rice, grass. After 10h of non-stop travelling we made it 300km!! further south.

Using local transport (especially minibuses) is very intensive and time-consuming. There are road blocks at least every hour, they stop every 50m to drop people (or pick some up), and in every village they wait until they are full. But the good thing is that we were always the only white faces around. In the whole of Malawi, we didn’t see one other tourist on the road. And the locals are so friendly and always someone wants to talk to you. And in every small village you pass, they sell hawker food (amandas, corn, samosas, fresh fruit) so you never go hungry.

We slept in a town that only had 2 ‘guesthouses’ and 1 place to eat. We slept in 2x3m room behind the bus station. At 3.45am, the first minibus was ready to leave, so the driver started honking non-stop until it was full, and when that happened another driver took over. So by 5.30 am we were on the move again. About 7 hours later we made it to Blantyre, the commercial capital and the second city in the country. We stayed in a really nice backpackers and we had a hot shower for the first time since we left Laura’s uncle house in Kenya. It was also the first place in a long time that had power the whole day and not the ‘22h power-26h no power’ regime most countries (Uganda and Malawi everywhere, Tanzania and Kenya in rural areas) upheld. And there was coca cola again!! The whole northern part experienced a drought because the factory had run out of the gas which makes the bubbles, so there was only beer, water and fresh juice.

Where to go??

We hadn’t figured out what to do from here. We had about 10 days till our flight to Sydney. We really wanted to go to Mozambique and its beautiful beaches again, but flying there was way too expensive and getting overland through the northern part of the country is madness. It takes you 3 days of bus rides to get south and then another 2-3 days to get to Jo’burg. Laura’s body was aching after a week of sitting in minibuses in Malawi so we decided to ditch this option.
Taking the bus straight from Blantyre to Jo’burg would take 26h and proved to be expensive as we had to buy visas for Zimbabwe and Mozambique (100euros). A travel agency told us that you could get cheap standby tickets at the airport. You couldn’t book them anywhere. Just turn up in the morning and hope that there is a seat available. So we took the risk. And how easy did it go! And it even turned out slightly cheaper then the bus and it only took 2,5hours!!
So suddenly we were in South Africa. We had too much time just to stay in Jo’burg and too little to go anywhere else. Flying over to see if Cape Town had changed sounded attractive, renting a car and going to Kruger Park was not too bad either… we just didn’t know where to go!! So many options, so many places to go. To postpone a decision we put ourselves on the waiting list of the already overbooked flight to Sydney. And an hour before departure they called our names!! So we checked in and rushed towards the gate. What a day: we left the backpackers in Blantyre that morning with little hope to catch a flight to Jo’burg and suddenly we were on our way to Australia!!

Sydney

It was a (small) culture shock, like being transferred into a different world. Sydney is a beautiful city. The harbour bridge, the opera house, the gardens, the centre, Bondi beach … its all great. We stayed in Kings Cross, which is the main backpacker area. It’s also the red light district and filled with hookers, sex shops, pushers, hustlers, nightclubs, students, drunks, junkies, tittie bars, crooks… there was never a dull moment, 24h action. We also realized that now we’ve been to all the continents!!

After a couple of days we finally found a campervan we liked. It’s old (1981 Toyota hiace) but Louise (that’s what we call her) drives well and came fully equipped (fridge, bed, cupboard, bed, kitchen and gear, esky, gas fire, wetsuit and snorkelling gear, roadmaps, powerplugs… ). We didn’t had it checked out by a mechanic before we bought it, but we had a good feeling about it and the guy we bought it from was honest. Lauren’s mechanic serviced it a couple of days ago and he said it was in good shape and should get us around.

Philippe, Laura and Louise on the road

So after a small week in Sydney we couldn’t wait to hit the road. As it is an old car, it doesn’t start easy in the morning, you got to use the choke. It also cools downs at night (single digits) so that makes it even harder to start. But so far I always manage to get it running. The good thing is we’ll probably never get a speeding ticket as 90-100km/h is about as fast as Louise wants to go.

The first day didn’t go that smooth. Laura drove us smoothly out of Sydney, but a couple of times she tried to start in third in stead of first (the gears are on the left side attached to the steering wheel, so add this with driving on the left, and you’ll understand that it gets confusing in the beginning) which resulted in me pushing the van from a 4-lane road while cars were passing me.

Out of 3 nights we sleep 2 nights on free park grounds close to the road and 1 night in a caravan park so that we can have a shower. We took it really easy, driving along the coast and taking in the beautiful scenery. We get all our food in big supermarkets and prepare all meals in the van. This saves a lot of money and for the first time since we’re travelling we don’t need to worry where to eat. Now I can finally repay Laura and drive her around in stead of she me, but I love cruising around here.

We have been too so many beautiful places already. But among the nicest so far were the small whaling town of Eden, Wilsons Promontory NP, the 200 km long Great Ocean Road (which is one of the most impressive and beautiful roads in the world) between Torquay and Warnambool, the Grampians NP, and so on…
We have seen wild koalas, kangaroos, wombats… we’ve swam in beautiful but freezing cold rough oceans… hiked through forests…ate fish and chips in small seaside towns… just too much to mention. As you’ve probably heard, there have been massive bushfires in Victoria, so even in Melbourne the sky is hazy.
Australian people are friendly and easygoing. Everybody is your ‘mate’ and everything is ‘no worries’. You just got to love the accent!!

Hey Lauren!

So 10 days and 2000km later we made it to Lauren’s home on Christmas eve. It was great seeing her again after all those months!! Her parents, Paul and Liz, are so friendly and they make us feel right at home. We had Christmas lunch at their place together with Paul’s brother. We got presents from Lauren, her parents and even her boyfriend Scooter. We really didn’t expected this, and we felt bad because we had send a package from Belgium with presents for her and her parents, but so far it still hasn’t arrived.
In the evening we went to Scooters home for more drinks with his family. It was a long but an amazing Australian Christmas day!!! And it was the coldest Christmas since recordings, 14 degrees, brrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. But now its getting warmer, 30 something, phiueeew.

We haven’t been doing much more, Just relaxing, enjoying happy hour and nice meals. We have been to the city twice. Melbourne is great! They are nuts about sports (cricket and Aussie rules football, but any other sport will do) and they love food. The city is filled with restaurants, brasseries,markets, bistros,… and it’s the best food from all over the world.

Near future

Tonight we’ll go in the city to see the fireworks. And there is a party at Lauren’s place, so it will be a great night! Tomorrow, if the hangover is not too bad, we’ll probably go into the city. There is a huge festival (www.summadayze.com) during the day in a park (with basement jaxx, darren emerson, mylo, martin solveig, bob sinclair, etc…sold out:-(, but we’ll go and see/listen from the park.

It’s an understatement but distances here are huge, you can’t believe it. So with pain in our heart we decided not to go to West Australia (which is a 3-day drive and bigger then the whole of Western europe). We will put Louise on the ferry on the 3rd and tour Tasmania for 2 weeks. After that we’ll be staying in Melbourne again. We normally have tickets to go and see the Australian Open (tennis) and Lauren bought tickets for the already sold out Big Day Out Festival (www.bigdayout.com) by the end of January (the killers, muse, tool, justice, the streets,…). After that will go to the middle of the country, Alice Springs, then up north to Cairns and down the eastcoast in Queensland to Sydney.

So we’ll hope you all have a great night tonight!!! And best wishes to all of you!! Enjoy!! When you’ll be having a countdown, we’ll be in bed…

This is our Australian phone number: +61 /4 236 529 57

See ya!!

best wishes!!

We wish everyone a merry christmas and a very happy, healthy, `may all your dreams come true` 2007!!

After a week on the road with Louise (our campervan)along the coast from Sydney to Melbourne we are at Laurens place in Melbourne having a very nice and relaxing christmas.
We don`t know yet what the plans will be for new years eve... we`ll let you know...

seeyu!!
L&P

picssssss

zanzibar malawi sydney
we are ahead of schedule...

Zanzibar

....only the name itself…

STONE TOWN

The moment you get of the ferry you enter into a different world.
Stone town looks and feels very Mediterranean/ Arabic with its narrow streets, alleyways (smaller then 1,5m) in which it is impossible to find your way but great to wander around and get lost. As we did a few times.

It is packed with Arabic style houses,, shops, balconies, mosques,… where old people just sit outside there homes and children run around, playing or on their way to school. it hosts a very conservative Muslim society where ancient traditions are still respected. We felt in love with the place immediately. We spend a night in stone town before heading towards the northern tip of the island.

NUNGWI

After hours for looking for an affordable beach bungalow (5$ government tax ppn makes everything more expensive on Zanzibar), but booked one for 7 nights for a very reasonable 10$ a person.
We spend our days here lazing on the beach, reading, diving, snorkellingtrip, swimming,… Nungwi is one of the main tourist destinations but its still very low key. Apart from beach bungalows, restaurants/bars and some shops, there is nothing. Not even a road, just a normal rural African village.

The white sand beach is amazing and the turquoise sea really is spectacular (picture perfect). Each evening we enjoyed a fresh seafood (the best I ever had)meal with tom and yoletta, a couple from London who we met on the ferry.

Tom and I went diving one day and between 2 dives I was swimming and suddenly 7 dolphins appeared from under me! But this would only prove to be an appetizer for our upcoming dolphin swimming trip later that week.

LAURA AND THE CAMERA, PT 2

One day the 4 of us walked to kendwa (a superb stretch of white sand 30’ walk if it was low tide, otherwise it involved some swimming). While we were looking for souvenirs at some beach stalls, Laura left the camera (again ;-)) in one of the stalls. When she realized it 30 min later, the 2 of us rushed back but of course nobody had seen or found anything. we had only been in 3 shops, so one of those three should know something. because we needed a police statement to claim it on our insurance, the owner of our bungalow contacted a policeman (the closest police station is a 30 min drive away). The next morning Laura, a police officer, the bungalow owner and a friend went back to the ‘crime scene’. Surprisingly, the police took the matter really serious. He took the 3 shopkeepers aside for an interrogation on the beach. Laura told him that she didn’t know in which shop she left it, and she didn’t want to accuse any of them directly. Anyway, the police suspected one guy, because he kept changing his story and he was known for stealing before.
But everybody had to go to the policestation for statements and further interrogation. So everybody (Laura and the accused) went in a minibus, for which the bungalow owner had to pay. Laura had no clue what was going on at the time (her Swahili is not that good). After het statement, Laura had her fingerprints taken and felt like a real criminal herself. She was told to come back on Monday, and bring me because they needed my statement as well, before we would get our paper.

So on Monday the of us and the bungalow owner and his friend who were very helpful and were really troubled with all this, hired a minibus and went back to the police station. After I wrote my statement, we were told to wait for the judge(!!) and he would hear our case in his courtroom. Whooooohhhh… we didn’t want all of this, just or piece of paper for the insurance, that’s all!! But the police told us that a judge should hear us before they could give us that paper. His honorable called in sick, so the whole delegation had to move again, to another court 30 min down the road… so all of us, together with the accused, some cops and I don’t know who crawled in our minibus and we headed off. By then it became clear to me that the police really wanted to blame it on that one shopkeeper (they still had him in custody!! over a camera he might have stolen, just unbelievable). They just wanted to solve the case, even if it meant twisting some arms and bending the truth a little.

The courthouse was smaller then my high school classroom with piles of paper and (old??) files scattered around the back, meters high. The judge, a women (an odd thing in a Muslim society I thought!!) sat in front while all other parties (accused, defendants, lawyers, witnesses, cops, and us) sat happily mixed together on benches. While the first case was being trailed in Swahili, the 2 of us were getting really uncomfortable. We just wanted a statement, not putting some poor fellow in jail over it. But apparently they took it very seriously. And to my great surprise justice is swift here (Friday camera stolen, Saturday to the police, Monday end of investigation and straight to court). I (who went through law school) was just dazzled by this. By the end of the first trial (which was about a guy who sold fake ferry tickets or so to some other guys we think) we were called outside to talk to the public prosecutors who was going to trial our case. By this time laura was sweating and getting very nervous about the fact she was about to have her first court case, let alone it was in Swahili and in Africa!!!! Again, We never wanted any of this!!!

I left my patience at the entrance and made it very clear to the prosecutor that we didn’t know who stole it, and even if we did, if didn’t want to see anybody getting into jail for it. We told him that the police made it seem, trough their statements and final conclusions, that laura pointed out one guy, which she didn’t. the police were a little to eager and all we wanted was……..when it finally dawned on him, he told us that we could go back to the police station and get our statement, which we finally got after 4!!!days. When I asked what was going to happen with the shopkeeper he and the police officer were very vague and quickly went back into his office.
F***** ass****

DOLPHINSWIMMING

Later that day, tom yoletta laura and I went back to stone town and booked a spicetour for the day after. It was a nice day with a very nicely spiced lunch, fruittasting (Zanzibar has the best fruit you can imagine. The mangos and pineapples just don’t come any bigger and juicer then there). It was interesting to see everyday life on the countryside.

When we got back, tom and I went out to make arrangements to go dolphin swimming off the southern tip of the island. We managed a great deal: just the 4 of us in a boat and we could leave stone town as early as we wanted. We got up at 5u30 and by 8 am (when normal trips leave stone town) we were in the boat looking for Flipper. 30 min later we saw a group and jumped in the deep blue. It was a family of more then 40 (tom counted them), including playing adolescents, babies and there mothers,…

It was just us and them, no one else. They came very close. If you stretched your arm you could easily touch them. At one point I free dived (breatholding) to the bottom (10-15m) and while looking up, I was surrounded by these beautiful and intelligent creatures. Later on I wanted to point out some playing dolphins at tom who I tought was next to me, but when I turned my head a dolphin was investigating me, 10 cm from my face. He scared the living crap out of me!! Laura her flippers were not flipping, so she had to swim hard. But she has never been so happy to be in the ocean!! All 4 of us were so full of joy, just smiling the whole time. It was one of the best things we ever did (and you know how much I love my diving)!!!

It was quite intense and exhausting because you jump in before the dolphins. You watch them approach and then you try to follow them for a while (if they don’t swim to fast). When they are out of sight, you crawl back in the baot and they drop you again in front of them and the whole process repeats itself. So after 60-90min we called it a day and headed back. More and more boats had already joined us or making their way to us. It is probably not that much fun for the dolphins when there are 30 people chasing them and jumping in (maybe they didn’t like just even the 4 of us), but if they are really fed up with it they just dive deep and swim away. And they have an incredible speed, not a change to follow them then.

That night we got on the night ferry and after a very noisy night we made it back to Dar es Salaam around 6 am. We said goodbye to tom and yoletta (going home), who were great company during the last 2 weeks!!

The rest will follow in week…
Take care !!

XXX
P&L