Day 4: Off to Tanzania

So, early this morning we had to farewell the lovely staff at the Southern Sun hotel, Nairobi. They had packed us a picnic breakfast to take with us. Our driver Paul, from Gamewatchers was waiting outside in a van so we clambered in and set off. It was still dark and there was very little traffic on the motorway as we whizzed past huge, colourful digital billboards which loomed over the road. The last time I had seen billboards that large and fancy had been in New York City, USA and suddenly I was transfixed. "Oh, what a surprise!" I yelled, spotting a billboard with a 3 metre tall viking warrior on it! "I have to send a text to Mrs Henderson!" I added. "They have Ragnar Lothbrok here!!" 

Now, I don't know why I was surprised to see a billboard advertising a very popular TV show in Africa. Television has a global audience and I know that, so I should not have been surprised.  Here's one of the best things about travel to foreign countries-it is confronting. What I mean is this: what you see and experience in a foreign country may be totally different to what you imagined and expected and you then will have to think about your own thinking and ask yourself questions like: Why was I surprised by that? What attitudes and opinions about this place might have made me feel that way? Maybe some of my attitudes and opinions are incorrect? Perhaps I will have to adjust my ideas because something has happened that is the complete opposite of what I expected.

Soon were pulling into the curved roadway outside the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, gliding


past gorgeous life-size metal sculptures of rhinocerous, wilderbeasts, warthogs and lions which looked almost real in the early morning light. Soon we were checked in and settled down to wait for our Kenyan Airlines flight. In no time at all our boarding call came, and, scattering a few croissant crumbs, we crossed the tarmac to the jet which would whizz us to Tanzania. The Kenyan Airways plane that we boarded had a slogan sprawled across it that said, "The Pride of Africa." That was no understatement; what a very good service they provide and our pilot, who was a female, gave the very best on-board announcements that I have ever heard on any airline. Usually when you are in a plane the captain or someone else will make an announcement in a voice that lacks expression and gives you the impression that they are thinking: " I really hate having to make this boring announcement and it's sooooo  beneath me but I have to do it, I  have no choice." Then they speak so quickly using such poor phrasing that you sit in your seat afterwards thinking, "I really hope that what he just told me was not important because I did not understand a word he said!"

About halfway through our flight we got a wonderful view of Mt Kilimanjaro which I think is the second highest mountain in the world. It is so high in fact that even though it sits practically on the equator, it has snow on top all the year round. It is a volcano with a lovely rounded top so off course we liked it instantly because it reminded us of all our fab volcanoes at home.Less than an hour later we had buzzed over the border and were landing in Tanzania, one of the countries which borders Kenya. The airport was named after the mountain and had the prettiest gardens including lots of absolutely gorgeous Flamboyant trees which were covered all over with flame coloured flowers.


Then we were greeted by Tasha, from Roy Safaris who was to be our driver/guide for the next three days. We climbed into our land rover, and set off for Sopa Lodge, on the rim of the Ngorogoro Crater, a place I had dreamed about visiting ever since I was a child. Yes, it has been a very long-held dream and I was pretty excited as we set off on the long drive via the city of Arusha. The sun was high, the sky was blue and the wide open plains of Tanzania lay before us.

Day Three: In and around Nairobi.

We slept late this morning and wandered through the garden of our hotel
(Southern Sun, Nairobi) to the shady restaurant. There we had a nice, lazy  breakfast watched over by tall, smiling chefs in white hats. They food included everything that you could ever wish for for breakfast and a whole lot of other things as well including sweetcorn fritters, savoury rice and slices of corned beef fried like bacon. This hotel really feels like a peaceful oasis and the staff are very friendly and efficient. There were an awful lot of business people, both African and European there who were clearly having business meetings and it appears that Kenya has a thriving business environment.

Stephen spent the morning taking photos of the garden while I wandered about trying to identify all the unusual plants in the lovely gardens. I really wanted to see if I could spot any of the little singing frogs that I had heard the night before so I lurked around the fishpond for a while but they must have all been sleeping.

At 1.30 our guide from Roy Safaris  arrived to take us to some places we wished to visit. His name was Moses and soon we were finding our way through the noodly traffic chaos of Nairobi. We went nearer the city centre and saw quite a lot of construction going on and passed some really nice parks full of beautiful, huge trees and extravagant tumbles of bouganvillia and other tropical climbers.They are building a skyscaper for the Inland Revenue Department and another one for the ministers of parliament. But, there are not nearly enough lanes or traffic lights on the motorway and not enough footpaths. I think we have similar problems in New Zealand.

We passed by lots of private schools which were all quite fancy and were surrounded by fences. There are two official languages in Kenya, one is English and the other in Swahili. They must have really good teachers here because everyone here speaks English exceptionally well.

Moses drove us past lots of mansions where rich people live but they were hard to see as they are all hidden away behind tall walls, and are surrounded by large gardens with hectares of lawn and gorgeous, glossy towering trees.

Soon we arrived at Kazuri, which is a pottery bead making company which employs mostly women. We had a tour through the factory and looked at all the ladies moulding, carving and painting the beads. I couldn't decide which was more colourful, the ladies or the beads they were making. This is a very good business as it provides employment, sickness benefits and a pension scheme for women who otherwise would have no income.

Next, we moved on to Karen Blixen's place. She is the lady who wrote a story about her life (autobiography) and called it Out of Africa. No-one who has read her book or watched the movie made from her book will ever forget it. The first line of her book is so famous: I had a farm in Africa, at the foot of the Ngong Hills.  Ngong is Swahili for knuckles and when you look up at the Ngong Hills they really do look just like your  knuckles when you clench your fists. So, we got to go and look at at her house and see the gardens (which are lovely). She is very famous and well-loved in Kenya because she did so much for the people who worked for her.

Next, we went to the Giraffe Sanctuary and got to feed and stroke lots of enormously tall giraffes. This was quite fun to do but I really did not like their long, blue tongues all that much.

The next place we visited was the Davis and Daphne Sheldrick orphanage for baby elephants. Here they raise baby elephants who have been found alone in the bush. Usually this is because their mothers have been killed. They look after the elephants and teach them how to be elephants and after a few years years they are released into the bush. I can't tell you how cute they were!

Here is a  link to a video of the baby elephants coming home from their day in the bush.Their keepers bring them back to their pens each night to keep them safe and when they get close they all start running as they know it is time for their drink of milk. The man in the cream vest in the video is my husband. He is a very enthusiastic photographer.

After that it was back to the hotel to have a nice dinner and go to bed early because we had to be up at the crack of dawn the next day to catch our plane to Tanzania as our next place to visit was the Ngorogoro Crater.

Day Two-Dubai to Nairobi

Here's how to learn a new language easily. Sit in an airport for a few hours listening to all the announcements about who is late for their plane, where they should go and what their flight number is. When you are hanging around an airport for a while, there are a few strategies to help make the time seem to pass by more quickly: the first and best strategy is to sleep, but it's not always safe or comfortable enough to do this; after that it appears that to most people the next best option is eating but unfortunately you can't do that for hours on end; then there is people-watching and this can keep you amused for quite a long time. Next,there is shopping, and let me tell you, all airports all over the world want this to be the thing that you spend most of the time doing. Dubai airport is a wonderful example of this-the locals here have been in the buy/sell/trade industry for hundreds or thousands of years ever since an Arab merchant decided that the Dubai Creek would be a good place to moor his fleet of wind-powered cargo ships. Nowadays, those ships include ones that move through the air rather than over the sea. We call these aeroplanes! And boy, what wonderful market places the local merchants here have built.
We spent our time at the airport in Emirates Terminal No 3 and it is a glittering temple that celebrates air travel. It's basically a fabulous tunnel house: the curved roof is made out of shiny steel, white tiles, white-coated metal and hectares of curving glass. Huge white, arches soar above you like giant spinnaker sails for a mega-monster yacht and the floors and walls are shiny, polished marble and granite. And the shops! Well, they are full of glittering wonders also, including the most heavenly-looking food and drink. You are supposed to feel that this wonderful palace was invented just for you, and you are almost right. It was invented just for your money, or rather, just for the purpose of relieving you of some of it.

Eventually though, you max out your credit card or simply get tired of wandering the gleaming pathways and you drag yourself wearily to your depart gate and discover that Quantas Flight Number Q 003 that Mr and Mrs Gazpacho Pickeroni are late for gets announced in Arabic as well as English and pretty soon you start noticing the repetition of certain sounds and announce, " Oh!  Zero must be  sifr in Arabic!"  Gee, it's so easy to learn another language.

Meantime, people watching had established that the make up of our fellow travellers on our flight to Nairobi was going to be quite different from our Auckland crowd. Our new flight was going to be mostly African or Asian people and just a few Europeans. Also, there were going to be lots of kids on board including two little African boys of about six and eight who were as lively as grasshoppers, and the dearest little chubby baby who had an African dad, a European mum, and a head covered with the cutest frizzy, black fluff. On board, I found that I had a young Philippino couple next to me and I was dying to ask them all about themselves during the flight but no sooner had they had lunch than they fell asleep and stayed that way for most of the trip.
We had another good flight and delicious meals. I hate to say this because I love Air New Zealand, but I think Emirates slightly outdoes them. Their on-board entertainment system is awesome and I decided it would be appropriate for me to watch the new Tarzan movie. It was really bad though because it just wasn't believable. I mean, even Tarzan wouldn't have been able to leap off a cliff and crash down through the tops of trees without hurting himself a little bit. So, I gave up on that and fell asleep instead, awaking just as they announced we were descending towards Nairobi.
Oooooh!! This was exciting! Soon, I was actually going to see Africa for real. My first glimpse out of the window was of dry hills the colour of clay and occasional clumps of dull and dusty green. Soon we were zooming over a flat landscape that seemed strangely familiar I guess because I have watched lots of TV programmes over the years about African animals.
Finally, we exited the plane and wow! It was hot. They said it was 27degreesF though fortunately a nice breeze was blowing. Nairobi's airport terminal was a complete change from Dubai--it's basically a tin shed with aircon but they were very efficient and soon we were through customs. I found out later that we were actually in an over-flow area for times when the airport is really busy. The rest of Nairobi airport is pretty much the same as airports anywhere.I must tell you that the customs lady took my finger prints and a photo of me but they never even bothered to do that to my husband. They must not have liked the look of me!

Out we went into the blazing sun and there were two nice African men called Paul and Dennis who were holding a card with our names on. We jumped into their air-conditioned van and they drove us across town to our hotel, the Southern Sun. Whew! Paul told us that the population of Nairobi is 4 million people and we saw a lot of them on the streets walking home from work. Unemployment is a problem here-40% of Kenyans can not get work so the ones who do have jobs work very hard at them. The people on the streets were mostly tall and thin-I guess they get that way as many of them commute to and from work each day on  foot and they walk for miles in their tidy business clothes. Apparently, it is not unusual here for people to walk 10km to work in the morning and then 10km on the way home.

Boy, the traffic was crazy.They don't seem to have a lot of lanes here and when you got to a roundabout it was all a jumble of cars trying to go in all sorts of directions. There are a lot of trees and flowering shrubs in Nairobi and all sorts of brightly coloured, ricketty looking buses crammed full of people. That car trip was long and kind of overwhelming but eventually we reached our hotel which turned out to be like an oasis of calmness and quiet compared to the busy bustle outside.
It is so nice here-the hotel is on several levels inside a walled-compound and it kind of sprawls around a gorgeous garden filled with the most amazing tropical plants, fishpond, fountains and swimming pools. There are cool, wide verandahs which shield you from the sun, and covered tiled pathways that wind through the garden. Best of all, the dining room looks out on a pool and it is totally open to the air and delightfully breezy. We had a yummy dinner cooked by cheerful chefs in tall white hats and an African spider joined us for dinner, hunting busily for his dinner on our crisp white tablecloth. Then, on the way back to our room we passed by a fish pond and heard the cutest frog noises ever.Apparently they have little frogs here and the boy frogs of course are always looking for girlfriends. Each night they all start singing in little voices that sound sweet and high like tiny pipes. It was a lovely sound to drift off to as we fell asleep on our first night in Africa.

Day One-Auckland to Dubai

Yippee!! We have arrived in Dubai, the cross roads of the Earth! This place is amazing.It is huge, glittering and dazzling and everything looks so brand-new. At the moment we rare relaxing in a nice quiet lounge as we have four hours until our connecting flight to Nairobi. So, we are now in what's called the Middle East--we passed over Australia and the Far East (Asia)  first on our westwards flight from New Zealand. We travelled with the night, keeping time with our slowly revolving planet so that the entire trip has been in darkness and it was still night when we first saw the lights of Dubai gleaming like jewels on the horizon.
Our plane was magical, it is called an Airbus 380 and it has two levels. All the rich people sit upstairs in First Class and Business Class and all the poor people (like your poor, old teacher) sit on the bottom floor in Economy. But, how can anyone call themselves poor when they can afford to get on a plane and fly across entire seas, oceans and continents to amazing places they have never seen before? Plus, we had a big bonus-they changed our seats for us for free because we were so early to check in and we got to sit in what's called an exit row. These rows are great as you don't have anyone in front of you and you can stretch out your legs. Plus, plus. I got to sit next to a nice-looking young man and we got talking. He was really sweet and guess what?  His girlfriend is a teacher too and he has got a dream job. He is a professional cricket player and was on his way to play in a tournament in Dubai and after that he goes to another one in HongKong. He must be good as he plays for New Zealand and Holland.

So, over all the first leg of our journey with Emirates was really great. We need to give a big shout out to our travel agents Claire and Maree from Travel Associates, on Mt Eden Road, Auckland who recommended we try the non-stop flight to Dubai. They have given us so much helpful advice. I slept a lot and the food and service was great. I watched a Star Wars movie and the first episode of a TV show I haven't seen before (about aliens) so the time went really fast.

Early observations: travelling people are mostly very quiet and polite!! Everyone on our plane was so quiet and patient and we didn't even have any screaming babies. Now we are in the lounge where you get to serve yourself drinks and food and people have such good manners, they wait nicely in queues, talk softly to each other and say please and thank you a lot. I am totally impressed. They must have all been to schools as good as Ohaeawai!!!

Well, it's time to get ready for our next flight. We have to take a train--would you believe that this airport is so humungous that it takes you 20 minutes on  a train just to get to where your plane will be waiting?? Get ready to travel the world when you grow up. It is just more amazing than you could ever imagine!!!

The Africa Trip 2017--Getting Ready

Well, it's Day One Minus Three-Thursday 5 January, 2017, and I've started counting sleeps. Only three more till we take off to the place where all our ancestors come from-Africa!!! Magnificent, mysterious, magical Africa---I expect it to be all those things and more based on a lifetime of reading books, listening to music and  viewing movies and TV shows about this mighty continent.

But, whew!! There's a lot to do and already I feel like I need a holiday just to get over getting ready for this holiday!!! Here's a list of the pre-trip stuff we have done already:

Consult with specialist Africa travel agents and arrange airfares, hotels etc
Consult with local doctors to review health history and find out which vaccinations/medications we require for the trip
Consult with specialist tropical disease expert doctor in Whangarei and receive immunisations. These include: yellow fever, hepatitis,tetanus, malaria.

Pay the bill for those and other medications such as insect repellent, sunscreen, pain killers, tummy bug pills and various lotions and potions etc-total cost approx $800. Ouch!

Buy new luggage because you will be travelling sometimes in very small planes and your total baggage allowance per person is restricted to soft-sided bags only and a total weight of up to 15 kilos.Purchase two super-light and super-compactable bags.

 Add on two pairs of breathable, lightweight safari pants. Thank you, Katmandu, your products are always excellent value.

Realise that baggage restrictions mean you need an everyday back pack which is small and very well designed so that you can  hyper-organise the stuff that you need to carry with you in the cabin of a plane and also when on day-trips. Fortunately, only I need one of these as my husband already has lots of specialist camera bags and gear. Go looking for one extraordinary, super-light high-spec backpack with air-cool technology. Purchase the Tenba Shootout 14L Actionpack 632-451.

Just the name of it was exciting. I almost felt like a young cowboy!  Junior writers, I hope you are noticing that I am adding lots of really specific nouns, adjectives and even numbers to my story to add interest!!   Cost: $288.00. Who cares/ it is super cool.  But thank you, Tenba. You guys design great gear and no one ever regrets buying quality stuff 'cos it always makes your travel so much easier.

Read numerous books about Africa including: The Flame Trees of Thika and the Mottled Lizard by Elspeth Huxley; Out of Africa by Karen Blixen;The Tree Where Man was Born by John Barkham;The Shadow of the Sun by Ryszard Kapuscinski;  African Diary by Bill Bryson; The Making of Mankind by Richard E Leakey and The Scramble for Africa by Thoma Pakenham. Take note that most of those writers may have lived in Africa but are not African, so the ideas and opinions in their books may not be correct and/or even up to date.

Pack and weigh all your stuff about six different times, each time jettisoning cargo because you are overweight, until all your junk is pared down to the absolute essentials.

Mow the lawns, spray the weeds, clean the house, get a haircut and go down to school to move a bit of furniture around in Team Moana rooms ready for the end of January!!

And finally...
The bags are packed
We're ready to go
We've lined them up beside the door........
Suddenly, there's a song in my head and I feel excited.