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Travelling 2020
  • Gemma Craig H

Travelling 2020

Our travelling plans collide with the global pandemic Covid 19 and take some unexpected turns. Quite literally making it up as we go and travelling to any countries that will take us! Read more
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  • Gemma Craig HTravelling 2020Gemma Craig H

    Dubai Day 3

    August 26, 2020 in the United Arab Emirates ⋅ ⛅ 38 °C

    After a cooked family meal and an early night we both woke up pre 7am feeling fresh!!

    So to take advantage we decided to beat the heat and headed straight for Jumeirah Mosque...

    Afterwards we taxied to Zabeel Park and had a short walk around whilst we waited for the frame to open.. The Dubai Frame was a bargain for £10 each and turned out to be a fascinating insight between the old and new Dubai. The top had a clear glass walkway showcasing the sheer drop below, my legs weren't steady on the first few steps!

    We had to head back to the hotel to collect our laundry and ended up relaxing for a while..

    By evening we taxied to The Penthouse at Five for the sunset/city views... And they definitely did not disappoint! As we left Gem heard the staff talking about a certain Sheikh? And as we approached the lift, said Sheikh plus bodyguards were also waiting... He let Gem in first and said 'ladies first...' times are changing! And on the way down he welcomed us to dubai and joked about us also being rich as we're from London.

    From here we headed to Barasti Beach Bar to watch my friend play volleyball and to take in the city views from poolside!    Read more

  • Gemma Craig HTravelling 2020Gemma Craig H

    Dubai Day 4

    August 27, 2020 in the United Arab Emirates ⋅ ☀️ 36 °C

    We were picked up at 6.45am for our desert Safari by our driver Faisal from Arabian Adventures, (a local from Dubai). We could already tell he was a character when he started laying into his UK cousins' thick Brummie accents!

    After a 40 minute drive we had arrived at the Dubai desert conservation reserve (a desert privately owned by Emirates). We spent the first hour spotting wildlife (gazelles, onyx, lizards and birds).

    Once the safari was over we were taken on a thrilling dune ride which felt a bit like a roller coaster. Next we tried sand boarding which was brilliant. After this was the dreaded camel ride. Craig's whole body was shaking with nerves but he did it in the end - horses next 😉

    The final part of our day was a lovely breakfast in the desert - it was so calm and peaceful. Again we had the whole experience to ourselves, another COVID bonus!    Read more

  • Gemma Craig HTravelling 2020Gemma Craig H

    Dubai Day 5

    August 28, 2020 in the United Arab Emirates ⋅ ⛅ 40 °C

    Friday is the first day of the weekend in the UAE and we were told by Craig's friend Aleysha that we had to try a Friday Brunch - they were all bottomless booze and great value for Dubai. After a bit of research we settled on Cargo in Pier 7 on Dubai marina which was meant to have great views over the marina.

    We weren't disappointed - we had a 4 course Asian meal of sushi, dumplings, noodles and katsu curry with unlimited beers & passion fruit margaritas for an equivalent of £40 each. We only managed about a quarter of the food but took the leftovers away with us 🙂

    The music was great and the restaurant was lively so it was the perfect afternoon. We were back at the hotel by around 4.30 and Craig was asleep by 6 🤣    Read more

  • Gemma Craig HTravelling 2020Gemma Craig H

    Dubai Day 6

    August 29, 2020 in the United Arab Emirates ⋅ ☀️ 37 °C

    We were both up early again so decided to head to Deria which is Dubai's old town. We went straight to the spice Souk where the first vendor pounced and showed us around his shop, offering us tasters and smells of the teas spices and chocolates. After paying probably over the odds for some tea and dried fruits we decided we'd had enough of the spice Souk.

    Next we took the Dhow boat over Dubai creek which was great! With the temperature already 35+ we stopped to cool down in The Arabian Tea House which was beautifully decorated inside with lovely staff!

    We spent the rest of the morning wondering around the traditional Al Fahadi streets. Once we'd worked up an appetite we stopped for £1 Vada Pavs (spiced potato burgers) for lunch in Veg World - a traditional Indian restaurant with amazing reasonably priced food!

    The afternoon's activity was the world's longest zip line (a compromise on my end to a sky dive). It was equally terrifying and amazing. The terrifying part was lying on the edge of the building whilst being strapped to the zip line. The staff said 'don't look down if you're nervous' but there's no where else to look!! As soon as the zip line started it was brilliant and we both loved every minute!

    We made the most of our adrenaline high and got a taxi to the Burj Al Arab beach and took a 5km stroll all the way down to kite beach for the sunset. Exhausted after this, we went back to the hotel and slept well!!    Read more

  • Gemma Craig HTravelling 2020Gemma Craig H

    Dubai Day 7

    September 1, 2020 in the United Arab Emirates ⋅ ⛅ 36 °C

    We started our day with a trip to the Tanzanian Embassy of Dubai, we naively thought they would be able to offer us some help/advice on our visa application but with the generic 'just look on our website' answers we might as well have been talking to robots!

    From there we headed to Atlantis Aquaventure Waterpark, and with the local kids going back to school today it was perfectly quiet around the whole park!

    Theres little to no pictures from the day as Gemma, Phones and that much water are a recipe for disaster! But we did have the best time, without a single queue for anything we got to ride everything, most twice, and still managed to relax on their beach for the afternoon as well.

    The best (scariest) two rides were the 'leap of faith' an almost vertical straight drop and 'Poseidon's revenge' where you start standing on a platform which is pulled away and you free fall for a few seconds before continuing the rest of the slide.

    We got a taxi home and stayed local for our dinner. We found an Indian restaurant called Raju Omlet which had a cool interior designed to look like a local Indian street that served the nicest egg based Indian Dishes - we ate loads and payed £16 for the privilege, we'll definitely be going back!    Read more

  • Gemma Craig HTravelling 2020Gemma Craig H

    Dubai Days 8-10

    September 3, 2020 in the United Arab Emirates ⋅ ☀️ 39 °C

    Last last few days in Dubai were a bit of a waiting game for our Tanzania visas to be approved. We were also trying to go easy on the spending as we were feeling the pinch from Greece, the Maldives & Dubai (not backpacking hotspots for a reason!!)

    We spent our time catching up on Netflix, going to the hotel gym and relaxing by the pool. It only took us a week to realise we actually had a pretty decent view of the Burj from our pool.

    Lucky for us the food options close to us were amazing. We made the most of cheap lunches / dinners (usually between £10-£20)!

    Raju Omlet - already mentioned but we visited 4 times in total, it was that good! We loved the spicey potato and egg rolls and sag aloo style dish.

    Mama'esh - Palestinian bread based restaurant with middle eastern style pizzas, humus, stuffed vine leaves and pomegranate salad

    Kamat - veggie Indian restaurant which also had delicious Vada Pavs!

    The highlight of the last few days was discovering that the world's tallest hotel was a five minute walk away which had a stunning top floor bar called Vault! The views of the city were so incredible that we went two nights in a row!    Read more

  • Gemma Craig HTravelling 2020Gemma Craig H

    Tanzania Day 1 - Dar Es Salaam

    September 4, 2020 in Tanzania ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    Our flight to Tanzania was with Fly Dubai, the budget carrier for the UAE. It took 5 hours to get to Zanzibar and a further 20 minutes to Dar Es Salaam. The funny part was that the connection in Zanzibar wasn't actually a connection - we stayed on the plane, a few people got off and the plane took off again (as if it was a train stop haha).

    We picked up a sim card at the air port and hopped in a taxi to our hostel 'The Slow Leopard'. The terrace outside was lovely and the rooms were nice too.

    We spent the afternoon sorting out some washing and getting accustomed to the local beers, aptly named Serengeti and Kilimanjaro and cost less than £1 - a welclme contrast to the £10 beers in Dubai!    Read more

  • Gemma Craig HTravelling 2020Gemma Craig H

    Tanzania Day 2 - Dar Es Salaam

    September 5, 2020 in Tanzania ⋅ ☁️ 27 °C

    Our second day started with exploring the local area. We headed to slipway mall which had a traditional market, boutique shops and a beach front promenade with restaurants. We haggled (badly) for some beach trousers and a Tanzania football shirt and had a lovely lunch at a beach front Thai restaurant.

    We headed to Coco beach for a walk in the afternoon. It was absolutely heaving with locals and was lovely to see everyone having so much fun. We had a drink in a shack and Craig had some interesting looking meat skewers.

    Whilst waiting for our taxi we started chatting with one of the guys working on the beach and 3 minutes later there were about 20 people chatting to us saying hello and welcome (caribou).

    We settled on a lovely Mexican dinner which was right around the corner and about £10 for food and a few Margaritas ☺️    Read more

  • Gemma Craig HTravelling 2020Gemma Craig H

    Tanzania Day 3 - Dar Es Salaam

    September 6, 2020 in Tanzania ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

    This morning we were up and out of the hostel early and on our way to Village Museum before 9am. The museum had all the different kinds of tribal huts and our tour guide explained how each was built and also how each tribe had their own sets of rules. Some looked after the cheifs senior wife better and others looked after his Junior wives better, but one constant was that the cheifs had numerous wife's and also that boys have to be out in their own house at 13!

    We were then treated to a song and dance by the local tribe who were amazing!! They finished up their dance and then dragged us up to embarrass ourselves.... We were only dancing (if you can call it that..) for about 3 minutes but with the headress and clothes they wear on it was properly hard work in that heat. Great fun though and the people were lovely!

    We lunched back in our hostel and spent the time contemplating whether we could send the video of our dancing to anyone or if we should destroy it!!

    And that evening we headed to Lukas bar for a game of pool and to Samaki Samaki for an amazing dinner!    Read more

  • Gemma Craig HTravelling 2020Gemma Craig H

    Tanzania Day 4 - Dar Es Salaam

    September 7, 2020 in Tanzania ⋅ ☁️ 19 °C

    We set off this morning for Bongoyo Island which was around an hours boat ride from Dar Es Salaam. There were only 5 of us on the boat so we had the island to ourselves. The food options were lobster or fish with chips as that was had been caught that morning - we relaxed most of the day and dipped in the sea before heading back to land around 5pm.

    The journey back was lively and the boat more than wobbled a few times, but by the time we'd debated the plans of whether to swim or stay by the wreckage we were safely ashore. I also saw a 'Kingfish' which lept up out of the sea like a massive firework and seemed to go 20ft+ before diving down which was a shock!

    That night we headed to a vegan restaurant called 'Kind Earth Eatery' which was really nice, it was like a garden terrace and had a live music. Gemma enjoyed the food...

    After we went back to our hotel and had a game of cards with our Argentinian friend Florencia before getting an early night!    Read more

  • Gemma Craig HTravelling 2020Gemma Craig H

    Tanzania Day 5 - Dar Es Salaam

    September 8, 2020 in Tanzania ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    Our final day in Dar (as the locals call it) started with some boring admin (washing) so we went to the laundromat to get everything sorted.

    We decided to find a golf course whilst we waited. Having only recently started playing I decided to do a few holes too and actually beat Craig on one of them. The fairways we pretty rough so it was a challenging 9 holes!

    By the time we'd golf'd and laundry'd we were starving so had some lunch at a harbour front restaurant on Slipway which was a little disappointing - typical of a good view restaurant.

    In the evening we had a few drinks at the George and Dragon which had a great courtyard and pool tables. I actually beat Craig 3-1 which has never happened so I won't be letting that go anytime soon.

    The picture of Craig and the lion has an interesting back story! It's made out of scrap metal on a yard employing disabled workers. We visited it and actually requested they make us a C&G sign out of metal for the flat. We paid 10,000 TSH (about £3) up front but unfortunately they forgot about it but of course we let them keep the £3!    Read more

  • Gemma Craig HTravelling 2020Gemma Craig H
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    Tanzania Day 6 - Arusha

    September 9, 2020 in Tanzania ⋅ ☁️ 21 °C

    Straight to the airport this morning for a quick 1 hour flight to Kilimanjaro! The smoothest airport transtition yet with no queues for anything and walking straight through security onto the plane! Although we were pushing our luck with the timings, arriving 40 minutes before the flight due to Dar morning traffic!

    Our hostel owner Anthony met us at the airport like long lost family! We learned all about his story in the car. He started working as a Kilimanjaro porter and has climbed it hundreds of times. He was sponsored by a German couple to attend university and study tourism. He also worked as a safari guide and a hotel manager and saved up to open his own guest house Savannah House. He has big plans for the future too and is planning on opening his next guest house. We're so glad that our money is going back to the local people.

    After dropping us back, Anthony also walked us around the local area and suggested places for us to lunch. Theres a small shopping centre with an outdoor bar/restaurant and also a Nightclub which we've already been promised dancing lessons on Friday night... Not that we need them!!

    After lunch we walked on further to explore and passed a school with hundreds of kids playing outside, some of them waved, some came over to say hello and Sadiq (8) even walked with us telling us where the shops were and to mind the road!! All so happy and all seemingly so intrigued to see a different race in their town.

    For dinner we headed to a local area about 10 minutes drive away which has all different restaurants, we have already been recommended Chinese and Etheopian but we settled on Tandoor Village and it was lovely! The menu was so big we had to eventually just pick anything but we all ended up happy! I had a Laal Dhal which was a spicy goat curry. We had a couple of beers and headed home for an early night ready for our trip to Mount Kilimanjaro in the morning!    Read more

  • Gemma Craig HTravelling 2020Gemma Craig H

    Tanzania Day 7 - Kilimanjaro Base Camp

    September 10, 2020 in Tanzania ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C

    We booked a day tour with Toni and his friend Penwell and the first stop was the Kilimanjaro base camp.

    We had a guided tour and learned that the mountain was over 5,800m high and that there were seven different routes (from an easy tourist hiking route to a difficult mountain climber route). We learned about the first two people to climb the mountain - a Dutch explorer and a Chaggu tribesman. We also learned about the different terrain and how the landscape of the mountain changes from lush rainforest to an alpine desert.

    We took lots of pictures and a watched as groups begin their trip up into the mountain.    Read more

  • Gemma Craig HTravelling 2020Gemma Craig H
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    Tanzania Day 7 - Ngoro Waterfall

    September 10, 2020 in Tanzania ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

    Second stop of the day trip to Ngoro Waterfall.

    We hiked down what seemed like thousands of steps to the beautiful waterfall with Tony and a local guide. We were given bamboo sticks for walking which were absolutely necessary given how steep the steps were.

    Once we made it to the bottom we were amazed by the waterfall, the best we've seen so far! We went for a dip and the water was FREEZING!    Read more

  • Gemma Craig HTravelling 2020Gemma Craig H

    Tanzania Day 7 - Coffee Making and Caves

    September 10, 2020 in Tanzania ⋅ ☁️ 27 °C

    After the waterfalls we stopped off at a coffee making place which also had old caves used by the Chagga tribes to hide from the Massai hundreds of years ago!

    The story of the discovery of coffee was an interesting one, dating back to an old tribe leader who requested the trees and beans be burnt/destroyed as they were seen as a nuisance, only for the smell of the burning beans to swarm the whole camp and prompt ideas for what could be made from the previously redundant tree!

    The process involved stripped the outer layer of the beans by smashing them with a giant pestle & mortar before browning them off in a pan - once booked theyre smashed again until completely powder'd - the whole process is accompanied by a song and dance as well obviously!

    We drank our fresh coffee with a nice buffet lunch and afterwards headed down the Chagga Caves! They were a tight squeeze for us and we were told that these were spacious caves for cheifs and important people, the general ones were accessible by crawling through tiny holes! The caves snaked with regular 90degree turns to block out sound and light and also to provide ambush points to attack any Massai that discovered the caves. They had chimney systems, ventalation holes and even access to river that was used to wash away the bodies of Massai killed in the caves.    Read more

  • Gemma Craig HTravelling 2020Gemma Craig H

    Tanzania Day 8 - Arusha

    September 11, 2020 in Tanzania ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

    After a long day of exploring the previous day we decided to rest and chill out at Savannah house for most of the day.

    That was until Tony suggested going for a run. Craig was up for it and it took a little persuasion but I eventually agreed and I'm glad I did.

    We ran at a slower pace than usual but we were running on pretty rough, hilly terrain the whole way but it was still actually pretty enjoyable! We ran 8km in just under an hour.    Read more

  • Gemma Craig HTravelling 2020Gemma Craig H

    Tanzania Day 9 - Arusha

    September 12, 2020 in Tanzania ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C

    We needed to head to the pharmacy and decided to walk through the local villages rather than the main road - it took just over an hour and we got lost a few times but it was great to see how the locals lived and to give some kids a giggle with our funny accents! On the walk back we got really lost and had to cross a river - I went first and fell in (only one foot so not too bad) and as gem was tentatively approaching her attempt a young schoolboy struts past her and skips across the rocks like it was nothing!! Gem had a template to follow then so made it across fine, I squelched my way through the rest of the walk home!

    For dinner we were taught to make Chapatti from scratch by Miriam who works at our hostel - she was a great and we were briefly joined by, a crazy Jamaican/American lady who was also staying there, she can be best described as one of those over excitable shopping channel TV presenters and was funny but I guess only in very small doses!

    The process seemed to take forever but we eventually had them finished and got an early night straight after our meal.    Read more

  • Gemma Craig HTravelling 2020Gemma Craig H

    Tanzania Day 10 - Arusha

    September 13, 2020 in Tanzania ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C

    Today we headed into the town and instead of walking jumped on the Dala Dala - which is Africa's version of the Reggae bus' in the Barbodos. If you don't know they are bacially old VW campers that a filled with about 20 people and have a guy hanging out the window shouting at more people to jump on!

    Once we got home we packed up our room and a little bag for safari and made sure we were ready to go. As a thank you for the chapatti making the previous night we got a takeaway for the guys from the hostel and shared some wine with Tony which was nice.

    Went out to our local that evening for the football and live band which were great and got home early ready for a our safari tomorrow!    Read more

  • Gemma Craig HTravelling 2020Gemma Craig H

    Tanzania Day 11 - Serengeti

    September 14, 2020 in Tanzania ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C

    5.45am start for the first day of safari! We travelled by taxi for about 2.5 hours from Arusha to Ngorongoro to meet our safari guide, the rest of our group and to have some breakfast.

    There are 5 in our Safari group (including us): Lee from Liverpool who is a travel encyclopedia - has visited 90 countries and has a bucket list of 50 travelling related things and is on number 48! The other 2 are a couple from Casablanca around our age who are a good laugh!

    We drove through the Ngorongoro crater to get to Serengeti. As soon as we entered Ngorongoro we saw some baboons - what a great start! Next we saw some giraffes, only a few feet from the jeep.

    At the Serengeti gate we took a group picture. Our guide gave his phone to 4 Masai girls to take the picture (it took a bit of explaining and a few tries hah)!

    We had a great run in Serengeti and saw so much wildlife: gazelles, ostriches, hippos, hyenas, vultures but the highlight was finding 3 sleeping lions, completely un-phased by our jeep which was only feet away!

    After an amazing day we reached our campsite for dinner. The staff put the tents up quicker than I e ever seen and we had a lovely dinner together with our guide Rocky. As he was telling us stories about tribal traditions a furry caterpillar wriggled across the table and he told us we'd be crying for days if we touch it (just what we wanted to hear before bed). He also briefed us on the noises we'd hear and which animals they were. Eeeekkk...    Read more

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  • Gemma Craig HTravelling 2020Gemma Craig H
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    Tanzania Day 12 - Safari Serengeti

    September 15, 2020 in Tanzania ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C

    We survived our night camping in Serengeti!!

    We both slept surprisingly well and except for a few rustles outside our tent, had no problems on the animal front! Although we were told in the morning what we thought was buffalo making noise near our site was actually 2 Lions - they were obviously nice ones.

    We set off at 6am and caught the most amazing sunrise I've ever seen across the Serengeti Plane - it was a cold start to the day but that was soon forgotten once we started searching for, and easily found, every animal we could have wished to see....

    We started with a Lioness and adolescent Lion who were grazing together looking for a spot with some privacy... They strolled past us from a few feet away and it was brilliant!

    From there we searched a little more and came across one of only 4 black rhino's in serengeti - he strolled around us from a distance and we even needed to retreat slightly at one point as our guide recognised him and knew he had a temper!

    Afterwards following a tip from other guides we sped off in a particular route without knowing what to expect and when we arrived and saw one other safari Jeep and a Cheetah! From about 30ft away she approached our (open roofed) van and jumped up onto the boot! After scoping us out for a second she lay watching her surroundings seemingly oblivious to us being within touching distance! It was breathtaking to see such a beautiful wild animal that closely and also to know that we were only one wrong move away from being eaten!    Read more

  • Gemma Craig HTravelling 2020Gemma Craig H
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    Tanzania Day 12 - Serengeti

    September 15, 2020 in Tanzania ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C

    We finished our morning trip by seeing some elephants from a distance and watching, and unfortunately smelling, around 40 Hippos relax/sleep in their swamp from only metres away!,

    After a quick brunch and shower at camp we set off on the 3 hour drive to Ngorogoro Crater (our destination for the evening and tomrorow day.

    On the drive we were spoilt with seeing our same agreesive Rhino again, although this time he was in longer grass and not as viasable. Followed by a fully grown Lion who was of course relaxing but sitting up enough to show us his face, after a few minutes he threw his head back and lay down comoletly for another not very well earned rest!

    Slightly further on we could see a Lionness in the distance panting, we approached slowly and actually saw two Lionness' who were literally half way through eating a warthog. They were panting due to the combination of a large amount of meat and no water (Lionness Meatsweats) but to see them feeding from metres away was so much more than we could have dreamed before we came!

    Finally and most amazingly we drove along behind and then beside a herd of elephants with small babies as they ammbled along. After initially scoping us out they became comfortable and one even brushed themselves along the side of our Jeep as they passed. It, honestly felt like we were a part of the herd, breathtaking again!    Read more

  • Gemma Craig HTravelling 2020Gemma Craig H

    Tanzania Day 13 - Ngorongoro Crater

    September 16, 2020 in Tanzania ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C

    Another 5.30am start for us today! We camped at a beautiful campsite overlooking the Ngorongoro crater. We weren't alone again and could clearly see buffalo and Zebras grazing between our tents once it was dark!

    Rocky (our guide) explained to us that the crater is actually a caldera (a collapsed volcano). We watched the sunset over the cliffs as we descended down the caldera.

    As always, the wildlife didn't disappoint! We saw jackells, wilderbeast, buffalo and sea of beautiful Zebras all looking like a they had been carefully and intricately painted! We saw at least 30 baboons all running from one tree to another, following the next ever so carefully!

    We had been driving for maybe 3 hours and it was time for a convenient toilet break at the parks public toilets. Just before we arrived, Rocky received a call on his radio and told us he had a surprise for us. Surprise > toilet break so we told Rocky were were okay and he put his foot down to get us somewhere special.....    Read more

  • Gemma Craig HTravelling 2020Gemma Craig H

    Tanzania Day 13 - Ngorongoro Crater

    September 16, 2020 in Tanzania ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C

    After a 5 minute mad dash we arrived at our suprise. Immediately we saw a lioness watching a group of wildebeest on the other side of the stream. A second lioness was stalking, right by the stream.

    The intention of the stalking lioness was to coax the wildebeest over the river and the first lioness was waiting to strike. We waited for about 20 minutes, watching in awe.

    Finally the wildebeest began crossing the river and the lioness, perfectly camouflaged waited patiently until the perfect moment to strike. It was fascinating to watch a hunt in real life but the action post strike was quite difficult to watch (there's a reason they don't show this bit on nature programs!).

    We had lunch at our campsite which overlooks the crater and then headed off towards Tarangire for our next day of Safari.    Read more

  • Gemma Craig HTravelling 2020Gemma Craig H
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    Tanzania Day 14 - Tarangire

    September 17, 2020 in Tanzania ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C

    Our last day of Safari was spent at Tarangire national park. We had the jeep to ourselves as Lee was doing Lake Marangu instead and Hamza and Sara were off to Zanzibar!

    We told Rocky we were happy to have a relaxed day as we had already seen more wildlife than we had ever imagined!

    In Tarangire we saw some Zebras and Giraffes but the main attraction was Elephants (perfect for me ☺️). There was lots of vegetation and water meaning that it's the perfect habitat for the Elephants.

    The highlights were a family with two tiny calves, we even saw one of them feeding. All the other elephants were very protective, always standing around the calves, making sure they were safe.

    The second highlight was a huge male of around 40 years old with tusks all the way down to the ground (well actually, only one tusk, we were told that he lost the other one fighting).

    A perfect way to finish the safari!    Read more

  • Gemma Craig HTravelling 2020Gemma Craig H

    Tanzania Day 17 - Kilimanjaro Day 1

    September 20, 2020 in Tanzania ⋅ ☀️ 24 °C

    After a motivational watch of the new Mulan film last night we set off around 8am from Arusha for the 3 hour drive to Kilimanjaro. We stopped along the way to pick up some supplies for the climb and also our guide William and chef Steven. Personally I was excited with a hint of nerves and I would say Gem was the other way around!

    We waited at the starting point for our porters to have their bags weighed and for William to sort the formalities and we headed just outside the main gate for a quick lunch before setting off around 2.30pm. At lunch we met our assistant guide Augustino who had used to be a main guide but because of his age and 'changes in technology' he had stepped back down. He spoke reasonable English but had a calming influence that would go on to be beneficial throughout the climb!

    The landscape was all rainforest with some noticeably steep parts but in general quite a comfortable walk - we stopped en route for William to point out wildlife and plants and after roughly 4 hours we arrived at Mandara Camp.

    It was so much nicer than we had anticipated and had the feel of a holiday camp with chalets and a restaurant area. After a short rest we had dinner and went straight to bed, we were at 2700m so not too cold and all in all a good night sleep.    Read more

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