Sunday 28 December 2008

Christmas

Finally, an opportunity for Mands to contribute to our blog!

Having traversed through Zambia and Tanzania at a fairly relentless pace over our first week on the road, we were rewarded magnificently when we found ourselves at the Tanzanian coast, just south of Tanga, spending Christmas at campsite Peponi. Up to this point, we’ve been so preoccupied by The Trip, that Christmas almost passed us by. And indeed might well have done, were it not for the 3 youngest members of Jangano, who kept the faith that Father Christmas would find us, even there. And guess what? He did not let us down! (It may have had something to do with the largely inscribed message in the sand reminding him that “We Are Here!”). However, other than Santa’s presence and presents (of course!), Christmas Day passed us by blissfully unawares, as we swam in the sea and pool, walked the length of the beach and generally relaxed in this little paradise. Our one Christmassy concession were the crackers Nicky cleverly produced as we exchanged a few gifts. The best Christmas present to ourselves was staying at Peponi for an extra day and not having to pack up camp! We all took a dhow out to sea on Boxing Day for some snorkelling fun on the nearby reef, which was divine, though some of us came back extremely red and burnt!

Our restful treat over, we packed up and headed out yesterday morning, leaving Tanzania (for now) and continuing our trek northwards into Kenya. Our route took us up past the town of Moshi, where we saw the magnificent and awesome Mount Kilimanjaro – a special moment for me, as it not only brought back great memories of my climb earlier this year, but also meant I could show my boys this beautiful part of Africa. Hopefully, Jakers will find himself back there one day too…

Our drive into Nairobi was a surprisingly long and arduous one and we broke our own rule of not driving in the dark, just so we could reach Matthew and Alice’s house in Karen. We had left the coast at 8.30am and arrived pretty shattered last night at 9.15pm – one of our longer days’ drive! Sadly, Matthew and Alice are in UK at the moment, but they have generously left us their house to enjoy for the 2 days we now have in Nairobi. It is glorious to be back in a bed again (already somewhat worryingly feeling the effects of sleeping on the ground?!) and feeling properly clean! Shees! If this is how we feel after just ONE WEEK on the road, what the heck are we going to be like after 6 MONTHS??!

1 comment:

  1. Hello all of you. Wow, what an epic you're having and only 1 week into it. Most jealous of your Xmas sun - its b****y freezing here. Had a very urban Xmas in London with Dan's sister and brother in London, plus partners and, of course, little and most cute 5 mth old Ulla - the new addition to the extended Davies clan.

    Off to Cornwall tomorrow for walks on Bodmin moor and some surfing unless the sea has actually frozen over (yes mad, but I'm in need of some character building activity!).

    I have to say - you lot are all so incredibly photogenic - no recalcitrant children or random facial gestures in the photos! I think we've managed one decent family photo in the past year....

    Keep the blog posts going - they're warming us up. xxx

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