More Pictures

Florence, Nia and Travelling Ted at the Equator

Birds in Masai Mara

Cheetahs in the Masai Mara

Children at Aquinoe Centre

Diani Beach

Mount Kilimanjaro

The Jungle Junction mudbath in Nairobi

 

 

Giraffes fighting in the Masai Mara

Flamingoes in Kenya

Lioness with kill and cub in the Masai Mara

Struggling in the mud at the Aquinoe Centre

Traffic chaos at the Kenyan border

Falls at the mouth of the White Nile Jinja

Being holed up in the Kampala Sheraton has at least given me time to sort out some more pictures.

5 Days in Uganda

Finally getting through the border we drove towards Jinja to be beaten by nightfall. We ended up in "The Executive Hotel". Pete and I and 2 children to spend the night in the truck in the hotel car park   "guarding" vehicles. The others took 2 en suite rooms. Problem was no water and no electricity. Sarah declined the option of walking off with bucket on head to collect water! For this privelege we paid US$46 each room!
At least it was a relatively secure place and an early getaway meant we were in Jinja by mid morning although due to a good deal of local misinformation it took us a further 3 hours to find a campsite. A beautiful area by the waterfall at one of the sources of the Nile.
We met up with Rhys from Soft Power, another charity we had made contact with and donated the last of the footballs and a few other items. Quite an impressive organisation. Again more detail to follow.

We then moved onto Kampala. Camp sites in major cities are definitely to be avoided! The advantage was that the camp site we were in was very near to Sanyuu, the babies home we were to visit.
Several visits to the home were made and quantities of milk powder, nappies, wipes, toilet rolls donated. Sarah and the children spent several meal and bed times helping out. It was apparently a production line, even Nia(age 4) at one point was bottle feeding 2 babies. Imagine social services reaction in UK but with only 4 staff on duty reliance has to be placed on whatever volunteers are available.


We have seen so much poverty and deprivation but the babies home was well run, clean and the 49 babies happy and cared for although rescources were obviously stretched. We had several bags of clothes donated back in the UK which we passed on mainly to the babies home. A full report of the visit and photographs willl be posted shortly.

We still await the shock absorbers from the UK. TNT held onto them for 6 days before deciding they couldn't deliver to Uganda so FEDEX has now been enlisted. Thanks to Andy from Autofast for sorting. A very useful and efficient source of spares if anyone is in need. Hopefully next week they will arrive and we can continue north. In the meantime Sarah and co are at Lake Victoria and Pete and I (both suffering from some bug) are ensconsed in a hotel in Kampala.

We are finding Uganda very strange compared to everywhere else we have been. Every other international visitor seems to be involved in some form of charity or aid work. In Malawi and Zambia where we saw appalling poverty we  met only the occassional one.

Ugandan / Kenyan border

At the Ugandan / Kenyan Border

As I write we have been at the border for nearly 3 hours. The first sign of problems was the 9 km stretch trucks waiting along the approach. We had been warned earlier in the day to use a "Mr Fixer" and given a contact. A good suggestion. We were inundated by would be Helpers but could at least use a recommended! Apparently all we need now is a receipt for the hundreds dollars just paid but the electricity doesn't last long enough to print!

Some good photos of the road chaos to be posted later.
A high spot for once has not being mobbed. Just 4 boys asking if we had a book for them. We managed to persuade Thomas and Florence to oblige and they are now sat on a wall avidly reading. At least something useful we have done and cheers the heart.

However to return to the beginning from the last blog.
We all spent a few days at the beach in Diane, near Mombassa and then made our way back again to Nairobi. After much screaming on my part we managed to finally take delivery of the replacement shock absorber.

Great excitement to be replaced soon afterwards with gloom. With purchase, courier fees and duties we had paid nearly £300 and the shock absorber was broken. Not much option but to try again. In the meantime we decide to risk the broken part and plough onto Aquinoe Learning Centre via Lake Baggoria.
What amazing scenery in northern Kenya. Again photos posted later although heavy rain dampened the views.

Yesterday we visited Aquinoe School. I will write a full report of our visit separately in the next charity update but we as in the past all felt totally inadequate. On behalf of all our donors we paid for some food, an outstanding electric bill, which meant that the school could be reconnected and a few items for the school, mainly items for the special needs children.

And so today we were aiming to reach Jinga in Uganda. However, more time has passed and we still await the necessary receipt to drive on! Patience!
Sent from my iPad

Now we can move on or maybe not!

Passports collected we plan the next part of the journey - back to Tanzania and the Serengeti, onto Rwanda and Uganda and into Northern Kenya. Now all starts to unravel again. A routine check of the truck and broken shock absorber is discovered. Are any available locally - you guessed NO so again a courier job from UK. Decision is now made to go to the coast for a few days. Pete and I, having no truck to travel or bed to sleep decide to fly to Mombassa and join Emma and family in the villa they hired after the |Masai Mara. The others brave the road again and drive down.
Must say a few days at the beach will be very much appreciated by the younger ones and as for uswe cant wait for all trhat seafood. Heard Emma was sitting on the beach today eating crab. tomorrow its us and meantime a night in a hotel in Nairobi.
The only other blitch on the horizon is the heightened tension because of the terrorist threats here.

Passports Arrive!!

Our passports were stolen back in August. The temporary replacements got us as far as Kenya but now miracle of miracle we finally pick up our "proper" passports complete with Ethiopian visa. Route to get this far goes as follows:
Application for replacement passport sent from Windhoek, Namibia to Pretoria (only place that issues full passports if you are in Southern Africa)
Passports returned 3 weeks later to Namibia FEDEX office. We had arranged that they would then be couriered to UK where our son would get replacement Ethiopian visas.
 No joy -now in Zambia we are told they could only be sent onto a British High Commission. OK Dar es Salaam then it is so more courier fees.
Pick up passports in Dar es Salaam. Ethiopian Embassy will not issue the visa so decide only option is to courier from Nairobi to UK.
Courier from Nairobi to Ethiopian Embassy in UK with prepaid return, turn around service promised. Visa side worked well, DHL did not!
However finally after several phone calls to UK they finally arrive so 2 months after the loss we are now back in posession of passport and visa!!!
Moral - Do not lose your passport!!

Family Excursion to Masai Mara

Now the part where we expand to 13, the original 8 plus Emma, husband Chris and children William (9) Grace (6) and Alfie (3). The excitement (and argument) who would sit where! The boys "bagged" the 2 spare seats in the truck. Again a journey that should have taken 4 to 5 hours took us 7+. Bad roads, the truck missing a turn, drink and "loo" stops all contributed but we did find a camp site before nightfall and had an amazing time. We had planned to spend 3 nights and then move onto Lake Nakaru. A lovely camp site, just outside Talek Gate - Crocodile Camp, masses of game and lethargy persauded us all that we really didn't want to see lake Nakaru. Although we knew we were late to see the migrations we went in pursuit anyway and amazingly nearly managed to see one group of wildebeest and zebra go over the river. We had followed them down to the rivers edge then they decided to amble on. After a few  hours sitting, driving etc we came upon another group which actually did start to go over the river bank. Again not to be - the animals suddenly decided to come back and started running away. You can imagine the childrens reactions. William and Thomas really disappointed that they didnt actually manage to see the crossing. The girls - Florence and Grace, age 6,  upset at the thought of any of the animals being killed by the huge crocodiles waiting, cheered up. Well you can't please them all! I had been a bit sceptical about the Masai Mara - too many tourists etc but was proved wrong. Yes, there were a couple of occassions when there were so many white mini buses viewing some spectacle that it looked as if we were at a bus station, but it was possible to get away from the main tourist groups and we saw so much -
Mating lions (or copulation as the boys describe)
Large prides of lions
Lioness with cubs and kill
Lions with giraffe kill
Cheethas and cubs
Large herds of wildebeest and zebras
Hippos
Enormous crocodiles
Large numbers of hyenas and hyena kills
etc etc

We have been on safari many times in South Africa, Namibia, Botswana etc but as I read in one guide book  "if you can only have one day of doing a safari in your life time then spend it in the Masai Mara".

And so to Nairobi

Due to meet Emma (daughter) and family we pushed onto Nairobi. We were all ecstatic at the new, deserted road from Amboseli, optimism rose we would be in Nairobi by late lunchtime. We hadn't taken account of driving standards in Kenya! After the initial 100 km or so we joined the main Mombassa - Nairobi highway. Full of trucks on their way to or from Mombassa, the road deteriorating to rough hole filled tracks in places, contractors "mending" the road and worst of all the apparent rules of the road meant that progress slowed to about 30km an hour. A 2 lane road became 5 or even more lanes. What a nightmare. It was more like the dodgems than a road. We eventually made it to a camp site in Nairobi hours later. I (Mandy) was instantly for going into a hotel - it was pouring rain, a muddy small camp site etc. I couldnt find support for this as noone wanted to venture back into the traffic so there we stayed. It didnt improve! The tent and truck leaked. Thomas lay in a pool of water and my side of the bed in the truck was soaked. At least the sun shone later so we could dry everything and effect repairs. Apart from the traffic we found Nairobi amazingly civilized. Lots of shopping malls with all the food we wanted. lots of restaurants  and time to get the washing done, leaks repaired etc. as well as meeting up with Emma and friends. The children were in heaven, cousins to play with and lots of toys at Emma's friends house. All very relaxing.