Emily in Africa

OK, so the most astute of you will realize this last post is waaay overdo and that for all you know, I may still be stranded on that safari I was mentioning below. Well, fear not, noble readers, I did indeed escape Tsavo and have been happily living in Vancouver attending grad school at Simon Fraser University for the past few months. Somehow, however, I am currently procrastinating my last minute packing for my next trip to Kenya in T-minus 19 hours. I'll be heading back to Mombasa to work on coral reef ecology for my grad studies and if you're interested in the stories/antics and inevitable adventures that willl accompany that trip, you'd be looking for the original website:

http:\\www.morefeistynomad.blogspot.com

And yes, several people have suggested to me that this new link is indeed similar to http:\\www.feistynomads.blogspot.com, and http:\\www.onefeistynomad.blogspot.com, or perhaps even http:\\www.solofeistynomad.blogspot.com. What can I say -- Alyss and I picked a winner!

As always, thanks for reading.

love, em

Well I am happy to report I am no longer ashamed to be a traveller in Africa. Yes, I have finally gone on safari. And the best part is, I didn’t go in a tourist minibus! With the kids out of school for a two-week holiday, Christina decided it was time to get out of the city. And so, we hatched a plan to head for Tsavo East National Park, one of the more remote and less touristed safari parks. Friday afternoon, we hit the grocery store, petrol station, bank, loaded up two 4-year olds, one 10-year old, one nanny, many bags of groceries and hit the road. For 10 meters anyways. Yes, we hadn’t even made it out of the driveway when we got a flat tyre.

But one hour later, we were really on the road - and oh, what a road! Just for the record, the Mombasa-Nairobi highway is one of the worst roads in the entire country – especially the first 60km out of Mombasa where pavement is in short supply and potholes are not. The crashed tractor-trailer trucks that have been left abandoned by the side of the road doesn’t do much for one’s confidence either. It really is amazing to imagine that all the goods shipped in and out of East Africa come down this highway! By sheer luck and excellent driving, we managed to avoid some close calls with trucks, matatus, buses and one goat.

So after 3 hours of driving, some very frayed nerves and one night in a lodge later, we finally entered the park early Saturday morning. The park is huge reaching from the middle of Kenya to the border with Somalia. In fact, the entire north half of the park is entirely closed to visitors due to an increase in illegal Somali poachers with AK-47s. But not to worry, we stuck to the south end and saw lots of animals that first morning. The only one up close was the large babboon that nearly got in through the car window while we were parked outside the range station, but that’s ok! Even if it was far away, we still saw a herd of buffalo, elephants, zebras, ostriches, and one very large ex-lava flow.

After a brief siesta in the afternoon (for me anyways, Tina was busy saving the life of the nanny who nearly drowned in the pool, which is another story entirely). We headed back into the park around 5pm, just in time for prime wildlife viewing. Which is was – the late afternoon light on the plains was beautiful. I think it was the contrast of colours that was the most amazing: red dirt roads, green bush, blue skies, the setting sun turning the lakes pink….it was pretty neat. The big excitement was a lion “sighting”. To be honest, ,it wasn’t more than a grey amorphous shape about 2km away in the bush, but I’m sure I saw a tail! However, that half an hour we spent peering at the lion made us a little late for our expected departure time from the park. Since all cars have to be off the roads by 630pm to avoid being trampled by elephants and/or attacked by lions, we figured we would just put the pedal to the metal and somehow make the gate 80kms away in under an hour. Which sounded like a great idea…until the sun starting setting really fast and we were nowhere near the gate. Not even on the same page in the map.

It’s at these times one makes a “plan B”. Ours was to turn on the headlights and bomb it as fast as possible to the gate while avoiding all trampling elephants and then use our beguiling charm to have the park guards unlock the gate and let us out. So it was all looking fine…until we turned our headlights on. They flicked on and then promptly turned off. In fact, all the lights in the car turned off. So then we were in the middle of a safari park at dusk with no headlights, interior lights, dashboard lights…things weren’t looking good. While some people (like my mother) may think this was cause for panic and alarm, we simply moved on to plan C: find somewhere to sleep..and fast! After a quick peek at the map while convincing the kids in the backseat that of course we knew where we were going and that we driving without lights makes for a proper safari experience, we reversed course and headed for the nearest campsite. We sped along cursing quietly under our breath for nearly 18 kilometers, of which the of very speedy driving and then another 2 of me holding my headlight out the window for light, we finally pulled into the campsite and heaved a big sigh of relief. Besides, was it really our fault that this just happened to be the most exclusive tented camp in Tsavo?

In case I didn’t mention this before, plan C also relied heavily on the fact that we were a carload of women and children who, unfortunately, did not have a reservation for the evening. Luckily a couple from Nairobi hadn’t managed to show up for the night (something about trampling elephants? Just kidding, mom!) so here was one tent left in the whole place. Even more luckily, our accomodation included all meals! Score! Sure, it mean I was no longer on a “budget” for my safari adventure, but have you seen this place? FYI, in addition to a toilet and toilet paper, there was also a sink and shower in our tent.

(ED. NOTE: OK, flickr has done all she can do and is now refusing to upload more pictures..but, do check out the link on the right, if interested)

After an entertaining dinner (imagine 3 screaming children descending on a luxury dining room), it was finally time for bed…for the kids, of course. Christina and I stayed up late drinking Tuskers by the fire and enjoying various impalas and waterbucks that came up just 10m away from us. Amazing. All the tents are placed around a large clearing and a waterhole, which is the only year-round water source in this remote area of the park. During the dry season when all the water in the bush has dried up, you can see elephants, zebras, rhinos, hippos, hyenas and even lions at the water hole just next to your tent. Which is also why they keep armed azkari (guards) patrolling the site. But alas, it was the rainy season and so the only animals we saw that night were impalas, antelopes and waterbuck. Hoofed animals only go so far after one’s impression of a Kenyan safari is based mainly on the Lion King.

Luckily the next day we saw lots of cool animals, and right up close too!

But almost more importantly, several other things happened as well:

1. We actually made it out of the park,

2. We did end up using our beguiling charm to talk our way out of an US$30 park fee for staying an extra day,

3. I drove stick in a safari car with my left hand (very fun), and

4. We discovered that by making a sarong barricade, you can almost not hear the howling of two very overtired children in the back seat. Here’s a picture of brilliant discovery:

So safari was a big thumbs up. But it was still nice to get home – actually, that’s a whole other story. While you would think that we would have been organized to make it off the the most dangerous highway in Kenya by dark since we didn’t have working headlights, that would be giving us way too much credit. However, for future reference, jiggling your swiss army knife in the fuse box under the hood really does work! And so our lights miraculously start working again, we held our breath, and somehow managed to make it all the way home. There’s just nothing life a do-it-yourself safari in Africa.

It’s great to be back! Even though I spent 5 hours in the air, it still took me over 24 hours to arrive in Mombasa – never dull travelling in Africa! But since I spent my first afternoon with Christina and the clan at a fancy resort swimming and napping under the palm trees, I’m pretty sure it was all worth it! I think that was my main problem in South Africa – have I mentioned there weren’t any palm trees there? And they call it a civilized country! The other thing that South Africa doesn't have is a tasty post-lunch snack called Labania, a sweet peanut and jaggery sugar snack that is my favourite thing around. Other than all the palm. And look, there's both in this picture! (Taken from Nicko's banda on the beach, the usual lunch spot)

So all is well and Kenya will be a great place to spend my last month in Africa. Jake has agreed to rent out his toy room to me for one last month as long as I help him pick out a car to take to school every morning. Fair trade if you ask me! This week is school holidays and one of Jake’s friends, Chazzer, has moved in which makes two 4-years olds running around – and helping me with my work in the mornings. It’s quite nice doing work early in the mornings and having the two of them crawl in and out of my lap. Until they start arguing and screaming anyways, but someone else usually takes care of that. It’s a sweet life.

But most days are spent either in the office doing loads of work or road-tripping up the coast visiting fisheries landing sites with Christina. Luckily the Likoni ferry has miraculously been fixed while I have been gone and it’s practically speedy getting around! But don’t worry, we still roll the windows down and plan our escape routes, just in case! We also saw a huge sting ray caught on the South coast the other day – my favourite part was watching the guy cut the head out and then put his hand through the hold and sling it over his shoulder to carry it up the beach. Never seen that before.

So life is good and I hope it’s treating you well too. If anyone just feels that need to get out in the next few weeks, there’s always space in my toy room.

So it's been a long two weeks and I'm sorry for disappearing from blogging. Even though I'm in a country with the fastest internet connection I've seen in a long time, it just wasn't happening...But no excuses, here's what's been happening:

I arrived in Cape Town two weeks ago and went straight to Gansbaai, the small town famous for its great white sharks where I was going to spend a 6-week internship working on sharks...not sure what, but something to do with sharks.

Yup, the sharks are cool - I went cage diving one morning and it was pretty cool. I think I've learned though that I'm just not a "shark person". I don't wake up giddy with the excitement of spending all day on a boat and watching sharks. I guess we all have things to learn about ourselves. So this in mind, when it appeared there was an opportunity to go back to Mombasa and keep working on fisheries, I was in. Big time.

So (melodrama unmentioned), I am now in Cape Town where I've spent the past two days sightseeing and running around arranging visas, airline tickets and malaria pills. To say it was stressful would be an understatement, but I am now pleased to announce I am on the next flight out to Mombasa and I cannot wait to go back! Even if it means no fast internet, satellite tv, hot water, paved roads and/or reliable electricity (so there definitely were a lot of perks in South Africa). Speaking of luxuries, I'm on the fastest internet connection I've ever seen (and will see for the next month) so there's lots of new stories (below) and pictures (on the right). I'll be in touch!

P.S. And I wasn't kidding about my iShuffle - it's deader than dead. The Apple guy says it has altitude sickness. They definitely didn't write anything about that in the manual.

Cape Town is great. The weather is beautiful (a sunny and 100% not-humid 27C), the scenery is great and the food, well, it's spectacular! So far highlights have been every meal! First there was amazing Cuban nachos and wine, then pancakes with fruit, muesli and real maple syrup, calamari and chips (the best calamari I have ever had) and today at the Cape Town airport, a delicious hamburger and salad. Yup, I am living a life of luxury!



(side note: Do you know that everyone always laughs at me when I take these food pictures? It's a good thing I've discovered the tripod and the self-portrait. But seriously people, it's just for times like these! And Alyss always understood!)

And aside from the food (although we all know a happy Emily travels on her stomach), I've a had an amazingt time. The streets are always hopping with people and music, you can walk everywhere and it's got such a great vibe. When I'm not running around stressing over tickets to Kenya, it's a really great place! And I can't wait to come back and do all my Africa shopping in one-month just before I fly home. It's going to be great! Anyways, pictures below (and more on the link at the right):

During my nearly two weeks in South Africa, I saw a lot of sharks. Big sharks. So that was pretty cool. I was working on Shark Fever, a big boat (catamaran to be specific) that took 12 tourists, 2 crew, 2 research interns and 1 shark research out to sea every day. Even on weekends. Even if it was cold. And windy. And cold and windy. And...well, you get the idea. Gansbaai was freaking cold and always windy. And did I mention there were no palm trees?

The claim to fame of Shark Fever was it's shark diving cage. And don't let the "diving" thing fool you - it's really just under-glorified snorkelling. You don't even get a snorkel! But you do get a really thick wetsuit for 15C water, a mask, and specific instructions not to touch the sharks. One day, a tourist didn't listen and got his finger busted open by a shark. There was a lot of blood and we tried not to tell other tourists about it. So I went cage-diving one day and it was pretty cool - that's a lot of teeth and jaws coming towards you!



But what I really did was keep track of what sharks we saw during the day by drawing pictures of their defining features (like scratches on their dorsal fins, rope marks, etc.) and then record what time during the day we saw them. All day. Like below (that's Mark the other intern who was actually keen on sharks and doing a fantastic job!)


And then we'd take the tourists to see the seals, come back into shore, have a beer and then Mark and me would go home and watch TV until we went to bed. Since it appears Gansbaai is the sleepiest Bavarian town I've ever been too. We lived outside of town by the harbour where there were no restaurants, groceries, pubs or other form of entertainment. But we did have great neighbours and tasty barbeques (called "braais" - that took me a long time to figure out).

So day in, day out, there were a lot of sharks. For the last week we even had a crazy German film crew on the boat. FYI I'm going to be the next big thing to hit German television. Just so you know.

When I came to Africa there were a few things I had to do. Absolutely, positively could not leave Africa without having done. While for some people, these things might be going on a safari or climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro, but for me, it was seeing Pam Gordon. Pam and her boyfriend Mark have been in Africa since September and they are currently living in a small village in western Kenya near the border with Uganda. And sure that small village is a more than 20 hour bus ride from Mombasa, but was that stopping me? Absolutely not. Especially since I took a plane.



I arrived in Kisumu with the sunset on Thursday night where Pam and Mark met me at the airport. The sight of Pam jumping out of the tuk-tuk and running to meet me is something I won't forget for a long time (nearly brought a tear to my eye!) We spent the first night in Kisumu over beers and pizza catching up for hours - quite the Queen's reunion. The next morning we hopped on boda-bodas (my new favourite form of transportation -- a pillow attached to the back of a bike complete with rider who pedals you around) and went on a quick tour of town. Kisumu is amazing - it's much more chill than Mombasa, both in weather (I wore a long-sleeved shirt!!) and attitude. No one really bothers with you or trys to sell you things...a refreshing change to be honest. We spent the morning at an internet cafe (Pam and Mark's weekly brush with technology), buying groceries and I even managed to get a sneak peek at Lake Victoria and the infamous tilapia/nile perch fishery (more on that later).

After buying more groceries than we could carry, we piled into a tuk-tuk and headed for the local bus station. The small village where Pam and Mark live is about a 2 hour bus ride from Kisumu and we spent the whole bus ride chatting in fast Canadian english and catching up on Mark's NGO work in the Congo, Pam's backpacking through Africa and my own travels. It was so normal to be hanging out that it was quite a shock when the bus suddenly lurched forward and bananas and long poles of sugar cane started being handed through the window! I had definitely forgotten I was on a rickety bus ride through Kenya!



After surviving 2 hours of really really really bumpy roads (unbelievable, and we were in the back of the bus too which didn't help!), we hopped off the bus in Ruma and quickly grabbed our backpacks and boxes of groceries before the bus hurtled off down the road. The next thing I saw was Pam running down the road after the bus waving and shouting for it to slow down!! Turns out they had given us the wrong box of groceries!! Which, considering it had chocolate, chicken, cheese, peanut butter and a 3L box of wine, would have been a HUGE disaster. But luckily after the bus realized Pam wasn't just waving goodbye, they stopped, exchanged boxes and then we were on our way into Ruma.

Ruma is amazingly green. I don't know what I was really expecting...actually, I do. Red sand and dusty trees. Oh wait, that's Mombasa! But I definitely hadn't expected western Kenya to be so green - there's grass! And it even comes with dew on it in the mornings! Seeing all the mountains threw me too - such a change from the coast. There's much to tell about Ruma but there's only time for highlights now, so:

-Pam and Mark live in a cute little cement house with no electricity, no running water and a bucket for a shower. There are lanterns and candles for light and one-burner kerosene stove for cooking/boiling water/etc. It's like camping...every day. But with good company and a glass of red wine to watch the stars come up, what more do you really need?



-Saturday was a big party at the Ruma Women's Group, where Mark and Pam are volunteering. The organization does a bunch of amazing things, but this ceremony was the graduation ceremony for the first bunch of kids to come through the school program. There are 300 partial and full-AIDS orphans in the program and they are supported through primary, secondary and polytechnic education with money for class fees and lunch. It was great to be included as a guest of honour for the whole-day ceremony which had singing, dancing, speeches, and even a little bit of homegrown Kenyan rap.

-We went exploring (well I did, they knew where they were going!) through fields and along roads at sunset, into villages and market squares. And yup, there are lots of cute kids everywhere. And the best part is they love having their picture taken! Never a dull moment - especially with little kids yelling "Mzungus!! MZUNGUS!!!!" and running after you full throttle to see what's going on. Hilarious




-Nights were usually spent drinking wine, cooking up amazing concoctions on the afore mentioned ONE-burner stove, and staying up late listening to BBC on Pam and Mark's shortwave radio. We did so many fun things, but just chilling out in the evenings were one of my favourite things in Ruma. It was great to catch up with Pam, who I haven't seen in over a year, and meeting Mark was great too. It's amazing how well you can get to know someone in just a few days....especially when you acidentally wear each other's contacts for a morning! And that's not even mentioning the insanely crazy bus ride on the way back to Kisumu! Yup, Pam and Mark are doing well, having a great time in Ruma and doing amazing things with their volunteering. They've started up a small library which they are turning into the first community library this side of Lake Victoria and completing a Participatory Rural Analysis which will help Ruma secure development funding in the years to come.



-Sunday morning was a 20km bike adventure (my bike had no brakes) down bumpy dirt roads to Lake Victoria and a fishery landing site! Could I be any happier? It was a great bike ride and so cool to see the 2nd-largest freshwater lake in the world. OK, I'm a nerd - I'll admit it. But all the fisherman, their big boats and HUGE fish were pretty cool to see, especially since I've got pretty familiar with the reef fishery on the coast over the past month. Quite the difference.

-Leaving Sunday afternoon was hard - it was so nice to catch up with old friends and I wish I could have stayed longer. Pam had to stay in Ruma for community work she had on Monday, so Mark (eager to head back to the internet cafe) and I braved a very very interesting bus ride back to town. Basically the entire bus was PACKED with people. I spent the first hour trying to find room for my feet to stand up straight (wasn't happening) and trying to reposition myself out of people's armpits (a definite disadvantage of being short). Luckily the bus cleared out after the first hour (due to police checks and actual enforcement of passenger limits) and low and behold, we had seats! So we were doing really well...until that fateful popping sound, the tire ripping sound and having an impromptu tire change on the side of the road.


But Mark and I made it back to Kisumu in one piece with lots of time before my flight back to Mombasa. So we headed for the nearest bar that served chocolate milkshakes (it had been that kind of day), watched some soccer, had a masala dosa and then I headed back to the airport. 72 hours well spent!