The trip back to the UK

On Friday 14 October we were allocated a 20 foot container for the Landrover and were told to report to the KPA container depot in Nairobi at 0930 hours on Monday 17 October.  On arrival on the Monday we learnt that the Chinese computer system used to control container movements and payments in Kenya had crashed and no loading could be done until it was repaired - a local official told us it crashed regularly every Monday morning! 

Whilst waiting, a customs official appeared and inspected the Landrover, checking the engine and chassis number against the documents I held.  Several hours then passed whilst we sat in the hot sun waiting patiently to hear the system had been repaired.  By lunchtime nothing had happened so I contacted our shipping agent for an update.  He said the system might be repaired by mid afternoon but as it was now 1pm, all staff in the container yard would go off for lunch so there was little he could do to chase things up until 2pm. 

Once the lunch break was over he appeared and said he had decided, as we could still not gain access to the container yard, to speed things up by loading the Landrover into the container using a ramp outside the container depot.  We drove off with him and after a short while ended up at a building site where he proceeded to reverse the container lorry against a mound of earth and told me to drive down this into the container. 

It was impossible!  The Landrover was only 3 inches lower than the container top and the side of the earth mound was damp from recent rain and at a very steep angle to the lorry, furthermore, there was a 2 foot gap between the lorry tailboard and the side of the mound.  He suggested he fill this with stones but I refused.  It was just too dangerous to contemplate.  Had the vehicle slipped in the mud it would have been impossible to reverse back up the rain sodden hill and, in any case, the angle of entry would probably mean the Landrover roof rack would snag on the container door top.  After all the near impossible terrain that we had encountered during the trip it would have been ‘sods law’ to have written the Landrover off while trying to get it into the container!  We therefore returned to the container depot and waited until mid afternoon when suddenly things began to happen.  The computer system burst into life and we were given a pass to enter the restricted yard where the container was then removed from the lorry and I was able to drive the Landrover into it on flat ground.  The Landrover wheels were chocked and the vehicle tied to stanchions on the inside of the container.  At last we were free to go after a nine hour wait!

When we got back to our accommodation in Nairobi there was an email from the shipping agents.  They had managed to book the container on the MV Northern Valour, leaving Mombasa in late October, but not to England……to Salalah in the Oman!  I immediately queried this and was told it was normal for a regional ship to take containers to a major port for trans-loading onto a bigger ship bound for the UK.  This was understandable but a quick look at the map showed me that the MV Northern Valour would have to sail up the Somali coast to reach the Oman and then the bigger ship would have to sail back down the same route to the UK.  These are pirate infested waters and the MV Northern Valour was attacked by pirates on this route only a year ago! 

The report of the attack on her makes interesting reading:

On 18 November 2010, in the early evening, a pirate group failed in its attempt to pirate the MV NORTHERN VALOUR in the Somali Basin.  The MV NORTHERN VALOUR reported it was under attack by pirates and had been fired upon with machine guns and an RPG, approximately 400 nautical miles (750 kilometres) South East from Mogadishu (Somalia). As the two pirate skiffs approached to within 200 metres of the ship, the vessel’s master increased speed to 21 knots, mustered all non essential personnel in a safe room and activated self-protection measures.  The skiffs, outpaced by the vessel’s speed, eventually abandoned their attack. The MV NORTHERN VALOUR later confirmed it was safe.

Oh well, fingers crossed …with luck the Landrover will arrive safely in the UK in about a month’s time – I’ll let you know!

With the Landrover safely stowed away, I booked Ian and me onto a British Airways flight leaving Nairobi a couple of days later.  We had a great journey back.  A pilot friend in England had secretly arranged for us to be upgraded to Club Class.  The British Airways Second Officer (recently RAF) was there to greet us at the aircraft door as we boarded and it transpired that he and the air hostesses had been warned to expect two bedraggled adventurers coming straight out of a Landrover onto the plane after an arduous 3 month trip through Africa.  Champagne was poured as we stepped over the threshold of the aircraft and an excellent french wine was uncorked for us to drink with our dinner.  We were treated like lost heroes and were really well looked after and, I must say, the air hostesses looked simply beautiful after 3 months in the bush. What a way to come back to England!

Ian in Club Class after a few glasses of champagne!

Well, the long, exciting and varied journey through Africa for Ian and me is now over but it will not be complete until the Landrover is safely back in England.  I will let you know when this happens, in about a month’s time, when I write my last blog entry for this wonderful expedition.

Until then……………………………….. 

Our Final Days in Africa

After over 9000 miles (15000 km) of driving up through Africa, the finale to our long trip was to cross the Equator.

The last 3 months have been a fantastic experience for both Ian and me. We have seen much and learnt a great deal about Africa and its people.  Now we must return home and over the winter I hope to be able to give a series of talks about the trip and hopefully raise some more much needed funds for the National Parks we in Conservation Zambezi have supported over the years.

So, after 3 relaxing days with Anne and Mark Simpkin near Mount Kenya we set off back to Nairobi to put Jo and Jessica on a plane back to the UK and then arrange for the Landrover to be shipped back home.  With luck, I am told, we will be allocated a container early next week.  Once in its container the Landrover will be inspected by a Kenyan Customs Official and the carnet will be signed, the doors closed and then Ian and I will be free to book a flight back to London in the following days.

We are lucky.  The trip is ending at just the right moment as the Kenyan wet season has just started (a month early) and there is mud everywhere now!

I will let you know how we get on with our shipping plans in the next blog.

Tsavo, Nairobi and Timau

This blog has been written by Jessica and Jo.  We have at last found a fast internet connection so have uploaded pictures onto our last couple of blogs, should you wish to go back and look at them.

We left our campsite on the Indian Ocean near Mombasa on Sat 8 October for the drive to Tsavo National Park which is half way to Nairobi.  There is only one two lane road from Mombassa to Nairobi and it is horrendous! The traffic is nose to tail the entire way, mainly with container lorries driving to and from Mombassa port. Most travel very slowly, frequently break down and because of the weight of traffic, are very difficult to overtake. We estimated that at any one time there were up to 40,000 container lorries travelling one way or the other on this 300 mile road.  It was a most frustrating drive and a hot one!

We finally arrived in Tsavo West National Park around lunchtime on Saturday and pitched our tents in a wild camping site allocated to us on arrival before going for an afternoon game drive to the black rhino sanctuary. Sadly the rhinos did not want to be seen and we saw nothing! We then returned to the solitude of our tents for a night of wild camping. As night descended we lit a large fire and listened to the animals around us.  Jo had to get up in the middle of the night and, as instructed, shone the torch all round the perimeter of the camp first. In the torch light she picked up six pairs of yellow eyes…Jeremy (who was with her) assured her they were only jackal, it was still the quickest pee in living memory!

The following morning we had a more successful time.  We firstly visited Mzima Springs where the lake has an under water observation tank.  We saw several hippo and crocodile who were completely un-phased by our presence. We also saw lots of giraffe, zebra, impala, bush buck, warthog and the famous Tsavo red elephant (so called because they dust themselves with red earth).

We then set off for the second half of the journey to Nairobi. On the way we stopped for a break by the side of the road and Jessica stood on a upturned rusty nail which went through her shoe and an inch into her foot. After many expletives and howls of anguish we got her back to the Landrover where we cleaned up the wound as best we could and then made many phone calls to England to try to track down anyone with medical knowledge, but being a Sunday afternoon, everyone was out!  We therefore continued on to Jungle Junction campsite in Nairobi which we reached just before dark. This campsite, situated in the middle of urban Nairobi, is a favourite with overlanders who camp there or use it to store their vehicles between trips. It was a far cry from the solitude of the game park but there were hot showers which were much needed after the red dust of the Park which got everywhere.

The next day (Monday 10 October) we set off again northwards toward Mount Kenya which is some 150 miles north of Nairobi, stopping on the way at the Aga Khan hospital to have Jessica’s wound checked for infection. Once she had been sufficiently reassured that amputation was not immediately necessary she was given antibiotics and pain killers and we set off again for Timau to stay with Anne and Mark Simpkin who own a flower farm there.  Kenya, north of Nairobi, is dramatically different – fertile valleys, productive farming and quieter roads. We climbed and climbed until we reached Timau, situated on the foot hills of Mount Kenya at an altitude of some 8500 feet.

Anne and Mark’s farm seems to be on the roof of the world with beautiful views in all directions. They had kindly set aside their guest cottage for us to stay in with comfy beds, hot water and wonderful hospitality. At last we were able to relax for a couple of days, get the cleaning done, wash out the tents and prepare the Landrover for shipping back to the UK next week. Mark and Anne gave us a tour of their flower farm and production line where 40,000 roses are picked each day and flown straight to Russia, five days a week. It is a labour intensive business which employs 100 local people as the rose bushes are planted in greenhouses stretching for hundreds of yards.  Apparently the conditions at this altitude are ideal for producing perfect roses. Certainly their colours were stunning with flowers ranging from deep velvet red to burnt sienna and ice white. 

Tomorrow we return to Nairobi where Jo and Jessica will catch an evening flight back to the UK.  Jeremy will then finalise the shipping of his Landrover back home and then he and Ian hope to catch a flight back to the UK in the next week or so, but more of that in the next blog.

The Drive from Dar es Salaam to Kenya

We left Dar es Salaam early on the morning of Tuesday 4 October for the long drive north to theAmani Nature Reserve in the Usambaras Mountains of northern Tanzania.  For much of the time we drove through a very poor part of Tanzania with endless ribbon development of square mud huts where people are eking out a living from virtually nothing.  Much of life seems to be communal with scrawny goats browsing and grazing where they can and a few chickens scratching in the red earth, polished from endless brushing.  The dirt roads were lined with immaculately dressed school children who, we assume, walk for miles to go to school in shifts.  The people are generally not very friendly and looked suspiciously at us as we drove past.  Considering what they have and what they see in us, this is hardly surprising.

There were small townships along the way where people trade in vegetables, second hand car parts and the inevitable coca cola.  As we passed through we became an immediate source of income and were surrounded by hawkers and expectant children.  We stopped to buy petrol and were charged for 80 litres.  When we got going again we noticed that the fuel gauge was not registering full, as it should have done after a fill up.  Our first thought was that we had been ripped off, but a generous second thought was that the fuel gauge was faulty.  We waited until the next fill up which showed that the gauge was not faulty and the guy in the first garage had ‘seen us coming’ and fixed the pump to deliver less than its gauge showed!  As ever, no proof!

After the heavy traffic of Dar es Salaam in the early morning we made good progress on tar roads towards the small town of Muheza where we left the tarmac and headed for the Usambaras Mountains on a rough dirt road.  We had assumed it would take us about an hour to cover the 3000 foot climb along 20 odd miles of track to Emau Hill where we planned to stay but the road conditions were atrocious and nearly two and a half hours later, as dusk was falling, we finally crawled into the campsite.

The Usambaras Mountains are unique to Tanzania in that they are clad in dense rain forest. The Germans and later the British established a research station here and grew many species of plants and trees.  Now the area is a nature reserve.  

Then, some 11 years ago, an Englishman called Stephen Valentine met the parish priest of Amani Parish and they decided to form an organisation called ‘Tukae’ (meaning ‘Let us be Together’ in the local Shambaa language) in order to help reduce poverty amongst the people of the Eastern Usambaras Mountains.  They are trying to educate the people to be self sufficient and so give them transferable skills like dress making, cooking and cleaning to a standard required in a camp that attracts tourists.  To raise money for this venture they established a remote campsite deep in the forest where people can stay. It is an ambitious project but the disadvantage of it is the camp is so remote it can only be reached in a 4 wheel drive vehicle and so cuts down the number of people who can go there.  Bird watchers use the campsite as the bird life in the mountains is superb.  For us, the area was in such contrast to the arid regions we had visited on our journey through Africa and we revelled in the cool mist and light rain as we walked along the mountain paths near the camp.  

The African Violet was first discovered here in these mountains and, although not the season for flowers, we saw the plants growing in profusion out of the rocks.
  

The same can be said for many plants which we nurture as house plants in the UK which grow here like weeds.  

It drizzled for much of our time in the mountains and we could see why the rain forest came into being with so much rainfall each year.  Despite all the rain however the collection of water for the campsite is a problem as it lies above the source of the local stream and Jeremy suggested to Stephen that he installs a solar pumping system like that used by Lynne Taylor in Zimbabwe to provide water for the camp.

Kenya

After two days in the mountains we left and embarked on our journey to the border with Kenya. Border crossings take time and endless patience while paperwork in triplicate is checked, rechecked, stamped and sent to another office for the same procedure all over again.  The staff do not always seem to recognize the documents, but have to ‘save face’ and so go through all the motions.  We have to be very careful as they also wield a lot of power and can refuse us entry into the next country.  The quickest crossing to date has taken 2 hours.  At the Kenya border the official put the wrong registration number of the vehicle on the insurance document so we had to start all over again! 

The early history of Kenya is similar to that of Tanzania in that the Arabs were the first foreigners to reach its shores.  Some settled and intermarried and they created the Swahili culture along the coast. The first Europeans to reach Kenya were the Portuguese in 1498. They dominated the coastal regions for some two centuries and introduced maize and cassava but did not penetrate inland.

Kenya came under British control in the 1880s. Subsequently white settlers flocked to Kenya taking over the best land.  Indians also arrived about the same time and formed a middle class of traders. The Kikuyu (the main local tribe) responded in 1924 by forming the Kikuyu Central Association under Jomo Kenyatta and this led later to the Mau Mau uprising from 1952 to 1956. The British responded by declaring a state of emergency and British troops were sent out to deal with the insurgency, using concentration camps to detain the Kikuyu until it ended.

In 1963 Kenya became independent and joined the Commonwealth.  It now has a population of about 40 million and has become one of the more wealthy countries in Africa. Nairobi, the capital, is the commercial hub of the region and Kenya’s main exports are flowers, coffee and tea. Tourism provides the main source of income, accounting for approximately 65% of GDP.

The frustrations of the border crossing over we set off (in the mid day sun) towards Mombasa and saw an immediate difference.  The Kenyan countryside was more fertile, better planted and tended and the whole standard of living was raised a notch.  This does not mean prosperous, but there was more feeling of well being and the people were much friendlier and keener to please.  By late afternoon we reached our camp site on the coast which was virtually empty - there was only one other tent there!  It is a beautiful spot right on the coast some 20 miles south of Mombasa.

Tourism has been badly hit by the activities of the Somalis and it would appear that all advice in the UK at the moment is telling people to avoid the Kenyan coast.  We are still south of Mombasa and so fairly far south – we will not venture any further north up the coast and tomorrow will head inland.  The locals here are hugely dependent on tourism and all the police are heavily armed so there is an element of desperation and for that reason alone we feel safe as they can not afford for somthing to happen down here.

Tomorrow we leave for Tsavo National Park and then on to see Anne and Mark Simpkin at Timau, some three hours drive north of Nairobi.

A week in Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar

The background to Tanzania is interesting.  Its known history begins with trading contacts with Arabia two thousand years ago.  In the 15th Century the Portuguese arrived and claimed control over the coastal regions of Tanganyika (now Tanzania) but never settled there. Little attempt was made to penetrate the interior until the middle of the 18th Century when Arab traders began to explore the area as part of their constant search for slaves.

European exploration began in the mid 19th Century and in 1866 David Livingstone established a mission there as a part of his crusade against the slave trade.  At the end of the 19th Century, German colonization began.  During the German occupation there was a boom period in the development of roads, railways and cash crops but in 1905 the two year Maji Maji Rebellion began against German occupation, leading to the death of some 120,000 Africans.  Brutal colonial rule provoked this rebellion and a scorched earth policy was used to crush it. Many Tanzanians regard this as the first moment of a nationalistic movement.

The Germans lost control of their territory to the British after World War I under the League of Nations agreement (the British had previously seized Zanzibar from the control of Arab traders).  In 1954 Julius Nyerere, a former schoolteacher, founded the Tanganyika African National Union (TANU) and the move towards independence and self-government began. In 1961 this became a reality and Nyerere became Tanganyika’s first president. Shortly afterwards the British deferred their control of Zanzibar back to local Arab leaders but this led to a revolt and Zanzibar (and the island of Pemba) joined Tanganyika and became Tanzania.

Julius Nyerere was the key guiding figure in the history of Tanzania right up into the 1990’s and his influence is still strongly felt here today. He was much loved by the people but his socialist and self-reliance policies did not work and left the country in economic ruin, leaving Tanzania as one of the world’s poorest countries. It is now slowly emerging from this situation.

The Gumbleton girls left us on Friday 29^th and embarked a long journey home via Nairobi where they had to wait for 7 hours! Jo and Jessica arrived the same day (and are writing this blog today to give a girly input!)

We are still in the same campsite but we have just come back from Zanzibar where we spent an amazing 24 hours. It is the most beautiful island with paradise beaches; white sand and turquoise sea.

We spent the time in Stone Town which is a ‘city’ with a lot of Arab influence. Unfortunately it is falling down and badly maintained and the locals rely totally on the incoming tourists to spend their dollars, of which there are many.

The local markets are everything they are promised to be and we had great fun diving into the dingy souks, haggling and coming away with local spoils for pence – Christmas is sorted! It is a spice paradise but interestingly spices are not indigenous to Zanzibar. Saffron abounds but it is still expensive (relatively!) We found a lovely bar and restaurant called The Africa House where we had cocktails out of coconut shells whilst watching the sun set over the sea. The most beautiful image in Zanzibar is of the dhow crossing the sun rays on the sea as it sets.

We stayed in a traditional hotel with carved doors (Jo was obsessed with these doors and took MANY photos!)

We each had a four poster bed (even Jo and Jeremy in a double room had one each!)

We caught the ferry back on Sunday and Jessica was surprised by how quick it was – only 2 hours long. When she went to Zanzibar 5 years ago, on her gap year, she took a local boat which took all night and everyone slept on the floor in rows!

Back in the campsite in Tanzania, things work spasmodically….both the water and electricity are often off and the water is certainly not hot! And the staff have to be encouraged to turn it on and clean the showers. Meanwhile the gardens are immaculate and beautifully tended and one man is fully employed to sweep the sand…It is very beautiful though with our tents on the edge of the water and we are surrounded by thatched huts. It is the perfect picture postcard.

There is a good restaurant and we have been spoilt on this first phase of our trip by eating out every night! Long may it continue, but we fear it will not be long! Wild camping starts again tomorrow when we leave for Emau Hill Camp in the forests of Northern Tanzania.