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Africa

October - December 2023
A 67-day adventure by Jarrod Read more
  • 66footprints
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  • TravelerAfrica
    Day 12

    Hells Gate National Park

    October 21, 2023 in Kenya ⋅ ☁️ 24 °C

    Our only full day in Naivasha, we had some optional activities, but the main ones were cycling through Hells Gate National Park or doing a crater walk. The crater walk was appealing as you get to walk around the perimeter of a crater, overlooking the animals and wildlife within, while also looking out across Hells Gate National Park outside the crater. In the end, though, cycling is what we decide to do. It was one of the major activities I really wanted to do while on my tour, there was a good crew doing it, and it was a good bit of fitness. It took us a while to get started, however, and so the cycling didn't start until about 11 am. But it was really cool being able to cycle unrestricted through a national park and get up close and personal with Zebras, Giraffe, Wildebeest, Impala, and other cool animals. We cycled for a good hour or so before we got to the start of a walk we wanted to do. It was the inspiration for the Lion King movie. The main attraction, pride rock, was about a 3 hour hike away, but we wanted to save ourselves some time in the afternoon to relax and chill after a busy few days of the tour. As such, we selected the 2 hour hike to try to save us some relaxation time, but in the end, we probably could have done the 3 hour walk because the 2 hour tour was just over an hour. They must give those times for the slow tourists. But we were pretty ready to head home anyway by the end, so we jumped back on the bikes and headed for the exit. This time, we were fighting a slight incline on the way out, so it took a bit longer, but we still finished at a reasonable hour. We headed back and tried to chill, but some travel admin, chores, and organising ourselves occupied most of the evening. But it was still a great day and a chill afternoon as we tried to watch the rugby world cup semi finals that sent New Zealand to the final, which will take place next week. After this, we went back to the tents to sleep. A part from some annoying kids making a lot of noise, it was a good night.Read more

  • TravelerAfrica
    Day 13

    Nakuru

    October 22, 2023 in Kenya ⋅ ☁️ 24 °C

    Today, there was little done a part from the drive from Lake Naivasha to Nakuru. When we arrived, little was done a part from set up tents and chill by the pool. This was a nice relaxing afternoon that was quite needed, and it was a good day in the end as we got an early night and prepared for a big game drive tomorrow.Read more

  • TravelerAfrica
    Day 14

    Lake Nakuru National Park

    October 23, 2023 in Kenya ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C

    The main activity for today was going to be the game drive within the National Park. This is well known for a large population of Rhinos as well as providing a good chance of seeing Flamingos. This proved true as almost immediately we saw a family of 3 rhinos just roaming the grassland. We could get quite close, but with binoculars, you could see the animals incredibly well. It was really cool. As we headed toward the lake, we were shocked at how close the rest of the animals let us get. We started by getting up close and personal with gazelles, Buffalo, and plenty of monkeys. It was crazy how relaxed they were around people and how unphased they were by our presence. There were monkeys everywhere, and the babies were so cute that we sat for a while and watched the play with themselves. We then went to our next destination, where our guide parked up on the side of the road and looked into the binoculars. I do not know how he saw it, but somehow, he spotted a leopard parked up in the tree. Even when I was told exactly where it was, I struggled to see it. But when i did finally see it, it was incredible. Such a beautiful animal and so well disguised in the trees. We stuck around for quite a while and tried to get better photos. Eventually, the other group joined us and saw him right before it went down the tree out of sight. This meant that we had now all seen the big 5 on the trip, and we actually got to take some photos this time. We moved a little bit but didn't want to leave the spot in case he resurfaced. And sure enough, he did. This time much, much closer to the truck, and in much clearer sight. It was incredible. After some time watching and tracking him, we once again had to move on. We didn't get far until we were stopped by a bunch of giraffes blocking the road. Given that I was in the front seat, I had the best view of the giraffes where we were within arms reach of them. This was also really cool because you could see all the details of the amazing animal and I was so shocked that they were once again, unphased by our presence. We spent quite a bit of time here, mostly because we wanted to but also because they were blocking the road constantly, and multiple giraffes refused to move for us. Eventually, though, we made it to our lunch spot where we ate and then wandered around the waterfall that was inside the campsite we had stopped at. We didn't stay for long, though, as we just used this to eat because we were going to a lodge that overlooks the national park for a quick swim and a drink. This was an incredible view and a nice way to break up the game drives. Some of the other ones were very full on and tiring, so this was very welcome. We were having a successful drive, though, and thus, we wanted to continue and see what else the Lake had to offer.

    Then, in a hilarious show of irony, we spotted a lion. But despite everyone looking side to side for animals, the driver once again managed to spot it first. This is mostly because he was wandering in the middle of the road. We had no choice but to follow him and see where he went. And we got close. Only when another car came from the other direction did it get a bit awkward, but the Lion walked past barely even registering the vehicle. Eventually, he found an amazing spot to park up for a lie down. Thus, we managed to see the illusive tree lion. He climbed the tree and laid down on a branch that overlapped the road slightly. This meant he was at our eye level just a couple feet from my face. If he wanted to, he could have easily lept into the car and caused mass casualties. But, instead, he sat there calmly, looking around at us and eventually closed his eyes for a nap. It was an unbelievable experience to get so close. After this, we finally found enough time to go to the lake and see the aquatic life. This was mostly Flamingos and Ibis, and the like, but still a cool display to see the colourful animals lighting up the lake. Something I was worried about after the first few game drives was going to be getting bored of seeing the same animals, but this one reinforced the unique circumstances and situations you can find the animals in and how exciting it remains as a result. This was, however, the end of the safari and so we headed back to camp for food and bed.    Read more

  • TravelerAfrica
    Day 15

    River Camp

    October 24, 2023 in Kenya ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

    There wasn't a lot happening today, as it was mostly a travel day and our last night in Kenya. But when we arrived at the camp it was easily one of the nicest I had ever stayed in. The lay out was so cool, with a river in the backyard, with a pool, and an incredibly cool bar. They had a cheap option to upgrade to a dorm, and so I did that to avoid setting up and packing up the tent. It was going to be an early morning and so I wanted to maximise sleep and minimise work. Once I had unpacked some of my stuff, we headed to the pool and met some cool local guys where we asked them about their town. This is the region of Kenya on which the best runners of all time tend to come from. Their capacity to withhold pain (due to ancient and tribal rituals that kids have to go through without showing any sign of pain), the high altitude, and genetics makes them the best long distance runners the world has ever seen. And it's just a tiny little town in Kenya. People like Kepchoge and Kipyegon are from areas surrounding, in a county call Nandi. But after this, we essentially parked up at the bar and had some drinks until dinner was ready, then went to bed very shortly after that.Read more

  • TravelerAfrica
    Day 16

    Uganda

    October 25, 2023 in Uganda ⋅ ☁️ 29 °C

    We had an early morning to ensure we could get to the border as soon as possible to give us the best chance of avoiding a crowd. The long drive and long process to get across the border ate up a lot of time during the day. Even once we got across the border, we had a lot of driving still to go. The drive was interesting and confronting as we drove through some of the poorest towns we had seen so far. Mud huts, tin rooves, rubbish everywhere, wild animals in the streets, dirt roads, muddy water, it was quite a sad sight. So we did worry about the standard of the campsite. But the new campsite was incredible. The views from the bar were incredible, and they organised SUP boarding, kayaking, white water rafting, tubing, bungee jumping, horse riding, hiking, and much more. So we were keen to be able to park up for a few nights and spend our days either relaxing or doing some cool activities. I wasn't sure what I was going to do yet, but I had time to decide.Read more

  • TravelerAfrica
    Day 17

    Source of the Nile

    October 26, 2023 in Uganda ⋅ ☁️ 28 °C

    I woke up still unsure of what my plans would be for today. Some were doing white water rafting, but my travel insurance didn't cover me for it, despite the fact I paid out the ass for it. Either way, I was keen to see what the others were doing. After a chilled morning, Nick, Vic, and I decided we would do a kayak tour that showed the source of the Nile. They told us that it was a bottomless drinking event. Which was shocking and strange given it isn't easy to drink and kayak at the same time, but we were excited. Given it was barely 11am when we started, the guy loaded up the esky, and by the end, the 3 of us had finished a whole bottle of gin and 9 beers. So it's safe to say we were hammered. In terms of kayaking, there wasn't much, it was mostly just drinking liquor. We paddled out into Lake Victoria, where he showed us a prison and explained some of the history of Uganda, and we basically began chatting and drinking with him, while we floated downstream and crossed the end of lake Victoria and the beginning of the Nile River. This is interesting because it is the longest river in the world and flows north up to Egypt. So we basically did very little actual exercise and essentially just got caught up chatting amongst ourselves... and drinking, of course. Because we were on the water, I did not get any photos, which is a shame, but it was too difficult to do. At the end of the 3 hour tour, we were smashed and had to head back to the campsite drunk as all hell in the early afternoon. We hung around for a bit before Nick, Jack, and I decided to do a huge slide that the campsite provides. It was massive and quite scary but so much fun. I chose to go first, and was so shocked at how far you flew when you hit the water. Going feet first was fun but after that they give you the option to take a body board and go head first. It was hilarious to see how much distance you could make skimming the top of the water after the slide. It's definitely worth listening to with sound to hear everyone reaction. After this we had a few more drinks, and went to bed a bit early. We were meant to go tubing this afternoon but chose the slide instead as we were too drunk and slack to do tubing (which was also bottomless drinks).Read more

  • TravelerAfrica
    Day 18

    Otters

    October 27, 2023 in Uganda ⋅ ☁️ 29 °C

    I gave myself some time chill this morning, as I had the tent to myself because Jack had upgraded. This made a sleep in a bit easier. I then resurfaced, with not too bad of a hangover, because I had slowed down the drinking by the time it was evening. I recovered, called friends, did some journals, and had a big breakfast before I tried to figure out what to do. I had originally planned to do nothing today, but because we missed tubing yesterday afternoon, I felt obliged to do something. As a result, Jack, Lisa, Vic, and I thought we would try SUP boarding. I had never done it, so I was quite nervous about it, but I figured it couldn't be that bad, even if I'm shit at it. One thing we didn't consider was the strong current that is flowing down river. As such, it got us in a bit of strife. Jack and I started with the kayak before swapping with the girls quite shortly after starting. Swapping wasn't too difficult, but battling the current was very hard. I was struggling at first but just decided I would get close to the islands to avoid the stiffest part of the current. Eventually, I started making progress, but Jack had much less luck and couldn't stay balanced. Constantly falling in meant that he was flowing downstream. Given that I had never tried SUP boarding, I left it to the girls to rescue him since they had the kayak. But things did not get easier for them. I ended up cruising around the islands looking at different wildlife, while the other three were battling the current the whole time instead of adopting a similar strategy to me. I still felt kind of helpless as if I went back, I would also then be stuck struggling against the current. To get themselves out of the situation, the girls had to swap one of their paddles with Jack so he could double paddle out. But it meant they were stuck with a double paddle and a single paddle in the kayak. It's not helpful when trying to go straight. I almost went to shore to get someone to go save them. In a funny turn of events, they were apparently worried about me because I had gone off course, but they didn't know I was just avoiding the heavy currents. While they struggled, I kept going upstream as I was actually having a lot of fun. Eventually, they went back to shore, and I thought that may have meant that we were out of time. Turns out they were all just tired as fuck from the constant paddling, but given I didn't have my phone I couldn't know the time. We then did the slide again because Vic wanted to do it but not alone. That was really fun again.

    This was some good physical activity before our final event. A sunset cruise of the Nile, which was once again a bottomless drinks event. This was really cool as we got to see parts of the Nile we would never have been able to see, with another guide who loved to explain the history of the Nile. We then saw the dam that controls the flow of water as well as Otters. Something I did not know existed in the river, but I was very happy to see as they were very cute and not something I had ever seen before. Nick and Laura had decided to bail on the cruise and instead do paddleboarding. It was funny to see them on the river and let Nick punch three beers while he sat on his paddle board attached to the boat. We obviously wanted to make the most of bottomless drinks during the 2 hours, but I was very drunk by the time we got back. I remembered the cruise and dinner, but everything after that was a blackout. People asked me what the score of the rugby game was before I went to bed. I was embarrassed when I couldn't even remember the game they were talking about. One good note was that I had decided to upgrade to a big tent with a bed for the last night. It was looking like rain, and we were not keen to deal with that. It was a God sent and a needed good sleep.    Read more

  • TravelerAfrica
    Day 19

    Horrible detours

    October 28, 2023 in Uganda ⋅ ☁️ 26 °C

    Today was not meant to be a long drive. We had packed up our stuff with the intention of getting to the Ziwa Rhino sanctuary by about 3 pm. But due to being the short rainy season, a road along the drive was completely flooded, and Josh (our driver) didn't want to risk going through it. This meant we had to do a MASSIVE detour through Kempala. This meant we arrived at about 8:30 pm instead of 3 p.m., and thus couldn't do the Rhino walk. The other bit of irony that hurt is the fact that we would be staying in Kampala tomorrow night. So the additional 5 hours was partly the exact same route we will have to repeat tomorrow, just going the other direction. The constant roadworks and dodgy roads meant that progress was slow. You can look at my travel path to see the detour we had to take. This meant nothing really happened today. I did try to watch a tonne of sports, as it was Saturday. I had the premier league to watch, the boxing was on, and whatever else I could kill time with. We arrived late to the Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary and had to cook, so we did as good a job as we could to ensure we could eat asap, as everyone was very hungry. In the end, though, we didn't eat until about 10 pm, which was unfortunate, but at least we had a decent opportunity for a sleep in tomorrow. To make a bad day worse, the Rugby World Cup final was on, but a series of unfortunate events meant that it was incredibly challenging to watch it. Our first option to watch the game was to hope the camp site had wifi - it didn't. The second option was to find a bar or restaurant nearby the sanctuary that we could escape to for the night, but because we were in the middle of heavily defended Rhino habitat, you couldn't leave without a military escort. So this wasn't an option. Thirdly, we relied on my data that had allowed me to watch hour upon hour of sports all day throughout the bus trip. Yet when we arrived and veered off the main road deep into the forest, my data suddenly dropped out completely, removing our last option to watch the game. This was a horrible circumstance to find ourselves in on the worst day possible. The only way we could watch it was to try and find a replay the next day during the drive. This meant we all had to have our data turned off and not connect to any wifi until we had seen the replay. Unfortunately, this was the only option.Read more

  • TravelerAfrica
    Day 20

    Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary

    October 29, 2023 in Uganda

    After yesterday's detour and an additional 5 or so hours of travel, we had to make up for lost time and complete our walking Rhino tour in the morning. Given that there were a number of baby rhinos in the sanctuary, I was slightly worried that we may get too close and spur up the Rhino to react. Nonetheless, I had to trust the guide and rangers to keep us safe. In the end, it was a great experience to walk around the National Park and get within a few metres of the rhinos without any protection. Although we have completed a lot of game drives, the variety of experiences, animals, and landscapes means that you really don't get sick of them, and this activity reflected that. The guide was great. He knew each Rhino, their habits, and how to keep us safe. Whenever a Rhino would inch towards us, or when they made their warning sound, we would calmly back away to a safe distance to remove any sort of perception of threat to the baby rhinos. In total, we saw probably 10 rhinos in a couple of hours of walking, which seemed like quite a successful day. Overall, we spent more time observing, admiring, and asking questions to the guide about Rhino behaviour rather than actual walking. But it was cool and very interesting. After this, though, it was time to catch up on missed sports while we repeated the drive back to Kempala. We started by trying to watch the rugby union, but the connection was shit and we had to let it load for a very long time before we could continue. This plus the many breaks we took meant that it took us a good 4 hours to watch the whole game. A frustrating and annoying process that was only made worse when we had to watch New Zealand lose, after some horrible refereeing in the first half and 2 missed conversions / penalty kicks toward the end of the game. The kiwis in the group were devastated. To make things worse again, we still had a long drive to get to the new campsite. Luckily, I had also missed the F1, so I watched that, as well as finishing off watching the boxing. As the trip was beginning to round out, the premier league had started, and reception improved enough that I could watch Chelsea lose to Brentford, a small win in an otherwise bad day of sports. Then, as we arrived, a big rivalry game in the Eredivisie (Dutch football league) had begun. Ajax vs. PSV. One of the girls from the tour is a big PSV fan, so we made sure we watched it by the pool as we waited for dinner. They also had beach volleyball, so a few of us geared up for a game. In the end, Nick and I somehow let ourselves lose to the girls, but we have areas to improve, and we will get them next time. After this, we ate and watched the final premier league game of the day, Manchester United vs. Manchester City. This was a reasonably good game, and it ended exactly how I expected it to, a thumping for Manchester United. 3-0, the final score. It was basically a day of sport to try and kill time while we waste away on the bus. This was pretty much the end of the day, and we headed to bed to get ready for another big day or driving to get to Lake Mboru National Park.Read more

  • TravelerAfrica
    Day 21

    Equator Crossing

    October 30, 2023 in Uganda ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

    Another big drive lay ahead of us, and this time, we had much less sport to watch. As such, I watched the replay of the Formula 1 race, which happened the night before, and then taught the kiwis how to play shitheads. It's a variation of another great game, presidents and assholes. I took me a while to remember the rules, but eventually, we got there and had a few great games. The only significant stop we made during the trip was at the equator that runs right through Uganda. A part from buying a cool Ugandan football jersey, this trip was uneventful, and we continued on. Finally, we approached the campsite. Although we wouldn't be going into the National Park today, the drive into the campsite was cool enough. Plenty of wildlife and ankole cattle, which are essentially just cows with enourmas horns. They were something we hadn't seen before, and it was cool. By the time we arrived, it was afternoon and we ended the day with some yoga, laundry, and other basic stuff to try and forget about the amount of driving we have been doing the last few days.Read more

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