Jangano2009!

RE: jangano2009.blogspot.com

2012-01-24T18:59:00.000+02:00

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RE: jangano2009.blogspot.com

2011-12-19T21:18:00.000+02:00

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RE: jangano2009.blogspot.com

2011-12-08T04:48:00.000+02:00

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totally natural to search engines. Such inbound links help your website rank higher in Google and other search
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Thanks,
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Founder & CEO, TwinLinks

RE: jangano2009.blogspot.com

2011-10-25T20:59:00.000+02:00

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Deanne Foster

Founder & CEO, TwinLinks

RE: jangano2009.blogspot.com

2011-09-13T22:55:00.000+02:00

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Thanks,
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Founder & CEO, TwinLinks

jangano2009.blogspot.com question

2011-06-29T14:43:00.000+02:00

Hello,

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for one of yours.

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totally natural to search engine algorithms. Such inbound links help your website rank higher in Google and other search
engines.

Our partner sites that link to your site are at least 3 years old with a minimum pagerank of PR3.

Visit http://twinlinks.net to submit your website.

Thanks,
Rebecca Wilson

Founder & CEO, TwinLinks

Check out my photos!

2010-07-16T19:03:00.002+02:00

Hi,

I set up a profile where I can post photos, connect and share.

Do me a favor and confirm our relationship here.

Thanks,
Amanda Le Breto

Update

2009-07-23T11:59:00.001+02:00

I know that we are no longer on the road but old habits die hard so i
decided to post a little update. And also to apologise for the delay.
We've been home for over a month but still we haven't edited or
uploaded the final videos, we haven't had a party, in fact I'm not
even sure that we wrapped it up properly. So over the next couple of
weeks the last few videos will go up, and it will be tied up.
A few of you who have signed up to blogger will get reminders on your
email that our blog is being used but the majority won't. And we all
know how quickly word gets around, especially in Zim, so if you see
anyone who has dropped off could you just tell them that we're not
quite finished.

Some more thank yous!!

2009-07-19T22:14:00.001+02:00

A little addition from Nicky to Mands' last blog entry: We were all very grateful to Majdi and his family in Wadi Halfa, N. Sudan who put us up on our way up and down to Egypt. Robert and I had a convivial evening with David Snelson and Alisha Ryu in Nairobi - thanks so muc h and dinner's on us next time! We'd like to thank Heinrich von Pezold's colleagues Antoine Millerioux and Rogerio Lopes Henriques who arranged for us to stay in Ilha and Quelimane respectively, and my colleague Filipe Charles in Maputo who made the Global Health Communication (GHC) office available to the Jambanja team to stay in for a night. Thanks too go to Leeann and Pricey in Durban - great to see you guys again! -- who hosted Alexander and arranged for the rest of us to stay at the delightful Virginia Forest Lodge which was truly a home from home. After leaving our wonderful hosts in Cape Town, Loki and Lucy ( when we split forces with Mahali), Jambanja turned up on Charlotte Bracken's doorstep in Jo'burg where we had a very happy lunchtime celebrating her birthday. We stayed a night with our dear friends Caro Valette and Johnny, Julien, Hugo and Tom Landry, who are coming back to Zimbabwe next month! Then on to Gaborone where after a five year gap Sarah, Tomo, Emma, David and James Thomas made us incredibly welcome and persuaded us to spend an extra night with them (Sarah's sister Alex and brother-in-law Angus kindly housed us in their guest room). And finally back home where heartfelt thanks go to Robin Powles for managing our household while we were away, to our neighbours (especially Grace Danana, Lindsay and Paul Franklin and Conor and Emma O'Beirne) for their support and to our staff, Media, Shingi and Lovemore who looked after the house, garden and menagerie for us.

And our Special Thanks Go To...

2009-07-07T12:59:00.001+02:00

We have been so grateful to everyone for your support over these past 6 months – whether by phone, physical presence, e-mail, the Blog, prayers or thought. It has been a fantastic comfort and encouragement to us all.

A special thanks however, must go to the wonderful friends upon whom we have prevailed in eight of the 14 countries we’ve travelled through on our Overland trip. So without further ado, we would like to publicly say a heart-felt thank you to our following friends...

Zambia - Hugo & Alice, Zoe, Ivan & Dima FIRX

Kenya - Matthew & Alice, Ruby & Guy OWEN

Chris & Karen, Daisy, Barnaby & Jasper STEPHENSON

Tony & Adrienne MILLS

Ethiopia - Ali & Johnathan & Holly NAPIER

Gavin & Lizzie, Isabella & Amalie COOK

Sudan - Amy & Shaun, Noah & Oscar HUGHES

Egypt - Kate & Rick, Anna, Joe & Sam PHILLIPS

Burundi - Val & Charles, Sam, Matthew & John CARR

Mozambique - Heinrich VON PETZEL

Clare & Tim, Jonathan & Zea COLE

South Africa - Colleen MEYBURG, James, Tristan & Sophie EGREMONT-LEE

Lucy WELFORD, Loki, Felix & Scarlett OSBORN

Sussi & Steve (Darling) GALLEY, Holly & Ben BEATON

Dibs & Rog, Jazzy, Monty & Gabes HAWKINS

Mush & Jannie & Jakers VAN GEMARK

Finally, to our team mates, JAMBANJA: Robert, Nicky, Max & Xander, without whom there wouldn’t have been Jangano 2009. Thanks guys, it has been an amazing, wonderful and unique journey travelling the African continent with you!

The MAHALI team,

Gus, Mands, Jake, Ben & Little Max x x x x x

In Sickness and In Health...

2009-07-02T21:31:00.001+02:00

After a blessed six months on the road, we are so grateful that by and large, we have remained relatively healthy. At least, there have been no hospitalisations and apart from only four independent visits to local doctors (in Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique & RSA), we have managed to rely on our trustworthy in-house medical advisor, Rob Adams! We were superbly prepared for all eventualities, however, should we have had any need for any of the highly specialised equipment we carried, ranging from basic dentistry to blood transfusions to sutures!

The trip began with one patient already on board: that was Little Max with his grossly swollen mumps face, followed timely by Ben on Christmas Day, in Tanzania. Minor aliments such as coughs and colds have been par for the course, as indeed has been the odd upset tummy. The young boys have been unfailingly predictable in their various collections of cuts, scratches and bruises. Xander wins first prize here, in his astounding ability to gather such a sum of said trophies!

In the more interesting category of ailments, there have been cracked-heels and wind-cracked skin Gus & Little Max) in the Western desert, coral-sliced feet (Big Max & Jake), a marauding wart invasion over Xander’s elbow and fingers, which – when ‘burnt off’ – changed form into vast bulbous blisters (not unlike something out of Dr Who!); infected bites and suspected jiggers in the feet (Robert), a recurring earlobe cyst (Benedict) and a painful trio of armpit boils (the patient of which shall remain anonymous, to be saved from embarrassment !)

But the final category contains The Best (or is it The Worst?) of Jangano 2009’s medical afflictions...the most bloody prize goes to Little Max, who managed to put his hand through a glass door in Cairo. He sustained a very impressive cut that sliced deeply along one of his fingers – thankfully, the slice didn’t go through the finger totally and it remains fixed firmly to his hand. Even more thankfully, we were staying at the time with Dr Kate, who fixed Max up beautifully! The most conventional (and only) disease award goes to Gus, who picked up malaria in Malawi. Unfortunately, he shivered his feverish way all through Mozambique and into RSA before confirming it was indeed malaria. In the meantime, he had been consistently mis-diagnosed with bilharzia, tick-bite fever and a lung infection! Finally, Ben wins the Most Gruesome prize. When in Tanzania, as the local doctor was lancing a “boil” on his scalp just above his ear, it wasn’t pus that emerged from the sore swelling, but a fat, squirming putzi-fly grub! Yes indeed, a grim sight to behold, but one of those sickeningly fascinating moments, too, when one cannot take ones eyes away from the sheer disbelief of such a thing!

So all in all, we have been incredibly blessed in health and safety. Much has to be said in favour of our simple diet for our good health during these months, however frugal and plain it sometimes was! Though now we are about to reintroduce the ‘naughty but nice’ stuff, such as red wine and dairy back into our diet, I don’t foresee any resistance! Our final quandary is What To Do with our unused, massive box of medical kit?

Maybe we’ll just hold onto it for the next trip...?!

Our Dolphin Safari, by Ben (June 2nd, Ponto do Ouro, Mozambique)

2009-06-21T11:58:00.000+02:00

Only four days ago, while the Adams family (except for Xander) went diving, we had our own adventure. We had organised to go on a dolphin safari. At about nine o’clock, we went to the dolphin office. After about five minutes later, a lady came to tell us about the safaris. The dolphins she said we were most likely to see were Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins and the In-Shore Bottle-nosed dolphins. She also said we might see a Whale-Shark. That seemed almost impossible!

We took a Rubber Duck out to sea. It was a one hundred and eighty horse-powered boat with two engines. It was fun going over the waves! After twenty minutes, about fifteen km out, we saw a fin. Then the skipper Mitchell told us what it was...a whale shark! We saw a massive black shadow under the water. Mitchell told us to put our fins and goggles on and jump in the water. It was seven meters long, but completely harmless. These whales can get up to eighteen meters long. After that, we travelled about five kilometres and then we stopped and went snorkelling. Not everyone got in the water. I’m glad I did though, because we saw a turtle.

On the way back, another man that was with us, spotted some dolphins. We were so excited, but unfortunately they were sleeping so we couldn’t swim with them. We carried on. A bit after that, we saw a massive pod of dolphins. There were about forty of them. Then Mitchell said, “Hey look, there’s Rob!” Rob was one of the dolphins. They could tell who he was, because he has white markings on his left side. But yet again, unfortunately, they were sleeping, it was so annoying! Then a bit later on, we saw another black shadow in the water. It was the same whale shark as before, but this time, there was another one with it. We got in the water and swam with the bigger one.

When we got back on the boat and started going back, Mitchell told us to hold on. We picked up speed, caught a wave and crashed onto the beach! It was so fun! We said thank you. One of the best things that I have done is that.

My 7^th Birthday, by Little Max

Three days ago I had my 7^th birthday on the edge of Africa. I got a remote-controlled Batmobile and two really cool lego seta, a wobble-board and a soldier set. We woke up in Cape Agullhas . It was the last time we camped together as Jangano team. Now we are in Cape Town and we are staying with Benjamin.

Feelings by Max A

2009-06-19T16:01:00.001+02:00

Our last night as Jangano 2OO9 was spent camping at the very bottom of
the continent, at Cape Agulhas. Here a vote was held comprising of ten
questions about the trip.

1. Favourite campsite? Dune palm camp
in the Western desert.
2. Least favourite campsite? Bee camp in
Western Tanzania.
3. Favourite non-campsite? Staying with the
Phillips in Cairo.
4. Favourite meal? Coshery, a
mixture of rice and noodles made by the three lighties. Guess who the
winning votes came from?
5. Least favourite meal? Raw chicken in
Quelimane, Mozambique.
6. Coolest thing we did? Swimming with
the whale shark in Mozambique.
7. Most enjoyable day? Find the LRDG
vehicle in the middle of the desert.
8. Favourite landscape? No winner but
Ethiopian highlands, Rwenzori mountains and the Great Sand Sea got two
votes each.
9. Most interesting people that we met? David and Bridget,
fellow travelers who we met up with on the Aswan-Wadi Halfa ferry.
1O. Favourite beach? Jakobsen's
beach on Lake Tanganyika in Western Tanzania.

Although these were the winning votes they did not show the whole
story. Everybody had different opinions on every question. Other votes
included:

1. Guzman's Pass, Western Desert, Egypt; Namunyak, Northern Kenya
2. Russels Place, Pemba was another but Bee Camp had this category
pretty well wrapped up.
3. Chimpanzee Place in Murchison Falls National Park, Uganda and Casa
Heinrich on Ilha do Mozambique.
4. Fried breakfast in Colobus Camp, Uganda and Breakfast in Mike and
Arlene's B&B in Durban.
5. Gus cooked a meal of corned beef in Sudan that had Xander throwing
up. Soggy cornflakes in the NFD got my vote and Jake picked his 'three
legged chicken' in Western Kenya.
6. I loved the White Water Rafting in Jinja, Uganda and the Gorilla
trek also ranked pretty highly. Axe-throwing in Pemba was Little Max's
choice. How out of character. NOT!
7. The desert won outright here. Four votes went to the LRDG day and
two more to the desert transect in Sudan.
8. I love the view of Kariba and the Zambezi escarpment and Marsibit
National Park also got a vote.
9. Ben liked the Mursi tribe and another one was the Australian biker
that Robert and Gus met in Wadi Halfa.
1O. The beach on Lake Kivu in Rwanda and in Pemba took a vote each but
Jakobsen's was a real favourite and got most.

This still doesn't cover everything but most of it. It was extremely
hard to choose with over 17O days on the road to choose from. I think
each section of the trip was given a fair showing except for the
desert sections. Even though we spent less than three weeks altogether
in the desert it pulled almost 4O% of the 'favourite' votes. It is
officially our favourite section of the trip!
Although this is slightly a self-indulgence exercise I hope you find
it interesting.
Max from Gabarone, Botswana.

P.S. The Adams/Harfords are getting home tomorrow. Its going to be our last day.

13 June - Into Cape Town - by Alexander

2009-06-14T20:31:00.003+02:00

We've got to Cape Town at last! We are staying at Lucy and Loki's house. Before we got to Cape Town we went to Cape Agulhas the southern most tip of Africa (meest sudlike punt van Afrika, in Afrikaans). We had bacon and eggs and pee'd off the end of Africa.

We had pictures of us and shouted JANGANO!!! We stood one leg on the Indian Ocean side and one leg on the Atlantic side and waved our Zim flags.

And then we drove into Cape Town. We got there at night so we basically had supper and went to bed.

The next day I got up and went downstairs to play with Felix, Lucy and Loki's son. We played with aeroplanes. About an hour later me Daddy and Max went to a shop where we bought some books. I bought a VW camper and caravan in the toy shop. We we to the top of Chapman's Peak and looked for whales but we didn't see any.

Before that we went to see some seals. They are so sweet they are furry and swim really nicely. We got about a meter away from one that barked at us. We went to a restaurant. I got an Appletiser and a sandwich> We got home and for the rest of the day we played with toys. Before supper we went to the beach where we kicked a ball around and then we had fish and chips.

5th June - Ponto D'Oro, Mozambique, by Alexander

2009-06-14T20:06:00.003+02:00

On the second day at Ponto d'Oro the Le B's and I went on a dolphin safari. The first thing we saw was a whale shark. The boat driver said that everyone should put on their mask and snorkel and fins. We slipped into the water and swam off to find it. I couldn't see. The shark was camouflaged with the coral. What I saw was that it had white spots and was at least five or six meters long.

It wasn't a very good sighting so we got back on the boat and went to look for dolphins. We saw a turtle but I didn't snorkel with it. I only saw it's shell. After a but we carried on on our dolphin trip. We finally found a pod of three but they were all immature (so can't be swum with - RA) so we went to look for more.

We found another pod of at least forty. We saw a dolphin called Rob, who had white spots from a cookie-cutter shark. They say he is at least twenty years old. The dolphins were sleeping so we couldn't snorkel with them either.

On the way back we found the same whale shark, this time he was easier to see because the sea bed was sandy. His eye was tiny but his head was about one and a half meters wide. I had a lovely time on my ocean safari

NEWSFLASH NEWSFLASH NEWSFLASH

2009-06-11T22:22:00.003+02:00

At 10.15 am, on a blustery Thursday morning (11th June 2009), the Zimbabwean flag was hoisted over Cape Agulhas, the southernmost tip of Africa. In so doing, the Jangano team ended the downward leg of their trip and turned towards Cape Town for the final run in. The end, sadly, is all too nigh! More news shortly.......

Ilha da Mozambique (By Ben)

2009-06-11T22:16:00.000+02:00

Sunday 24^th May (a bit late, sorry!)

We are on an island in the Indian Ocean called Ilha da Mocambique, meaning Island of Mozambique. We are staying in a friend’s holiday house. The house is really big with three floors and a beautiful view of the sea and the mainland. There is a causeway to get across from the mainland to Ilha. The history about this place is that it used to be the capital city and the country was named after the island.

We have been here three days and in that time we have gone to the Governor’s palace, which was amazing and huge. It had a big chapel in it with a huge wooden thing painted with gold paint. It used to belong to monks before it was a palace.

Yesterday we went on a dhow to an island called Ilha da Goa. It was the best. It looked like something from a magazine. It was paradise with its soft white sand, turquoise water, really big waves, palm trees and loads of really beautiful shells. There was a lighthouse about one hundred and forty years old and it still worked and there was still a lighthouse keeper.

I loved Ilha! I’m definitely going there again one day!

Diving by Max A

2009-06-05T08:22:00.001+02:00

I missed the chance of diving in the Red Sea but more that made up for
it in southern Mozambique. Two wonderful spots, Inhambane and Ponta do
Ouro. In the former we had two wonderful dives, just the parents and
me, and our Dive Master, Alan.

But my favourite dive was right down south, off Ponta. Again the three
of us jumped in a boat with a few others and buzzed out to Doodles
reef. We kitted up in wetsuits, BCDs, regulators and of course, air
tanks. Then we rolled off the side of the boat and descended. The
water was amazingly clear and warm and I could feel that this was
going to be a good dive. At 18metres we hit the bottom, adjusted
everything and set off on our underwater safari.

I'd never seen such richness in underwater life. Little yellow fusilia
fish hugged the reef in the thousands, trying to avoid the hungry
tuna. Red and white striped lionfish swam in threesomes with all their
spikes upright. A large ray with a white belly and grey top 'flew'
gracefully past, flapping it's 'wings'. A Guitar fish or Sand shark
hid in the sand and didn't move as we swam past. They are quite rare
and very good at looking like the sandy bottom so you don't see them
often.

A fat, yellow and black spotted moray eel with his angular, shaped
face languished on the rocks outside his cave, most of his body and
tail hidden. It's tempting to hold onto the bottom at times like these
to get a better view, but a good reason not to are stonefish. Like the
lionfish they are extremely poisonous and a serious sting can kill you
in under an hour. Stonefish, funnily enough look just like stones,
they don't move and unless you can recognise the shape or spot the
eyes they are impossible see. I very nearly put my hand on one even
though it had already been pointed out to me. Now that would have
ruined the dive.

My two favourites though were the massive potato bass. About the size
of a sofa they dominated the 'horizon' and were like zeppelin
airships. I swam along side the biggest and looked it in the eye. It
tolerated me for a bit but got rid of me with just a shake of his
collosal head.
And the other was a turtle. He was a hawksbill with a sharp beak, a
green smooth shell and brown coordinated flippers. Very relaxed and he
just let us watch him while he chomped on coral and swayed around in
the surge. I love turtles. They are so pre-historic and all of them
look like they've lived for 65 million years since the dinosaurs left
us.

It was the perfect dive and I have no doubt that I'll be back at Ponta
do Ouro very soon.

Update

2009-06-05T08:21:00.001+02:00

We left Ilha de Mozambique on the 25th of May and travelled hard for
three days via Quelimane, Gorongosa, over the Zambezi and on to
Pomene. From there we drove to Inhambane where we stayed for two
nights and squeezed some diving in. A night in Maputo and then a bit
more diving in Ponta do Ouro. The non-divers had an adventure of their
own which I'm sure they'll write about soon. Then into South Africa on
the 2nd. Jangano reluctantly hit the shops in Durban and then moved
on.

We are now in Howick. Where? You say. It is just inland from Durban
where we parked up last night. We were aiming for Sani Pass near
Lesotho but unfortunately a bit of plastic on the front of Mahali was
melted by some over-enthusiastic grease. So the wheels are wobbling
all over the place, but hopefully it will be fixed today.
And then onwards to Cape Town!

Finally - Our Mountain Gorillas Encounter!! (by Mands)

2009-05-29T20:40:00.000+02:00

Before I begin, I need to apologise for the extreme tardiness of this blog . The combination of remote travel over the past 6 weeks which has presented very few opportunities for internet or electricity, plus an unaccountable inertia on my part, has meant a loooong delay in getting this piece written. My sincere apologies. But at last, here it is...

As if seeing the chimpanzees wasn’t enough good fortune. How do we continue to be so blessed on this trip? It had never occurred to me that we would get to see gorillas: the cost alone, at US$500 pp, is prohibitively expensive for most backpackers’ budget. In spite of the cost, however, the lure of seeing mountain gorillas (of which there are a mere 720 remaining in the world) still attracts plenty of tourists to Rwanda and Uganda. So much so, in fact, that there is a waiting list several months’ long for obtaining a permit. Not having booked months in advance, it didn’t enter our heads that a visit to the gorillas was even a viable thought. Not until we crossed the border from Uganda into Rwanda, that is...

Suddenly finding ourselves in a Host Country of these magnificent creatures, where every other hotel, motel and hostel is called Gorilla Lodge, Gorilla Nest Inn or Silverback View Hotel did the thought enter our minds: how silly to be here, Right Here, in the heart of Gorilladom and not at least try to see them. So we decided to test Fate and enquire at the National Parks office. After all, it was low season and still technically the rainy season – a factor which severely reduces tourists’ chances of seeing the gorillas. We didn’t expect a positive answer, therefore we were not going to be disappointed. But at least we would have tried.

We stopped off at Ruhengeri and enquired. The office not only had available permits, but several of them, and for every day of the remaining week we were around. On hearing this news, for an instant I couldn’t breathe. Then my insides burnt hot with the desire to see the gorillas. I could not believe that it was possible, yet here we were, confronted with the decision Should We Go or Not. Suddenly, the $500 fee lost its importance, knowing that however much it is, it would be more than worth it. How can one weigh up the price of a Once in a Lifetime experience such as this? I waited to see what the others would decide, holding my breath with anticipation. But when Nicky asked me what I thought, I blurted out my answer. YES!! I really do want to go! Gus and Nicky have already seen mountain gorillas, so it was up to Robert and Big Max. Fortunately, they both ended up agreeing to seize this unique opportunity and so we bought 3 permits and prepared ourselves for a Once In a Lifetime treat!

Fast forward to Saturday 2^nd May...The dawn sky shone brilliantly on the surrounding volcanoes, as if in apology for the glum, cloudy day we’d had the previous day. It was a good omen, I knew it! Robert, Max and I drove from the camp (to a chorus of farewells from the rest of the gang) to the National Parks HQ. We’d given a lift to three others: Seth from the States and Belgians Annike & Kris, who also ended up in our tracking group. We were ‘assigned’ the Amhora Group of gorillas (of which there are 16 family members). An aptly named group, given that they were the first gorilla family discovered in the forest after the Rwandan genocide: Amhora means Unity in the Kinyarwanda language. Our guide was a young and enthusiastic man named Oliver, who knew every single gorilla in all seven of the groups that have been habituated on this side of the volcanoes. My toes tingled in anticipation and I was impatient to get going. But we still had to drive out to the starting point, about 50 minutes away and then spend another 40 minutes walking through rural villages and fields, before finally arriving at the start of the forest. It began in wild bamboo, but changed shortly to thick forest undergrowth that climbed upwards, becoming increasingly steeper as we headed up the unrelenting volcano. This was no easy stroll, it was hard work as we fought entangling vines, long sharp grasses, giant stinging nettles I’ve never before encountered the size, or sting, of and the most hostile of all, the aggressive, biting Army ants. I didn’t mind any of it one bit, however, because I knew we would be richly rewarded. Which indeed we inevitably were.

After a hard hour’s climb, the trackers (men from the local community who spend every single day with this particular group of gorillas) called down to us that they had located the forest dwellers. My heart pounded as I scanned the mountainside, searching desperately to catch a glimpse of one of them. Before I knew what was happening, however, I walked into the backs of our group who had stopped abruptly, on account of the sudden appearance from seemingly nowhere of an adult silverback! Totally unperturbed by us, he nonchalantly loped in front of us and went ahead to find another bush where he could uproot a tasty bunch of the wild celery plant that grows abundantly on the mountainside. We were astounded! With mouths agape at our first and unexpectedly close encounter with this huge furry beast, some of us tried to suppress the nervous, incredulous giggle that welled up. We were told very strictly that no noise or sudden movement was allowed in their presence and as much as was possible, we had to maintain a 7m distance from the gorillas. This stipulation is less a security factor for us, rather more a health consideration for the gorillas, who are vulnerable to human germs.

As we continued our almost-vertical scramble up the mountain, we came to a natural clearing, where Lo and Behold! Our expectations were fully realised at the sight of the core members of the Amhora family of gorillas!! The bush was still incredibly thick in parts, so we continued to be surprised by sudden appearances of these huge creatures. I had my own special experience when – being at the back of the group – a mother gorilla had followed after us through the leafy tunnel into the clearing, without our knowing. Without warning or fuss, she simply carried on her way with baby on her back, right past me. I had no idea what to do other than put my head down in a submissive posture, making sure not to make eye contact (I’d learnt that from the Dian Fossey movie!), but the space in the thicket was tight and didn’t allow for space off the path and she brushed her strong body against my legs. A small part of me was terrified, but not because I thought she would turn on me, rather because I felt I had crossed a sacrilegious boundary by making physical contact with a wild gorilla, however unwittingly. Mostly, though, I bubbled with euphoria and the amazed awe of having been so close to one of these special, rare creatures. The best bit was seeing the 10 month old baby gorilla – as cutely clichéd as all the magazine photos portray – make eye contact with me as it passed by, turning its head to maintain its bewildered gaze upon this hairless creature that grinned so stupidly at it! It was so unutterably cute, it took an enormous amount of self-control not to put my hand out to touch it!

Once having located a gorilla family, the deal is you get to spend only one hour with them. For many obvious reasons, this is clearly a good stipulation for the gorillas’ sakes. As the observer, however, the frustration lay in the fact that 60 minutes of absorbed focus and awe whittled down to what felt more like 6 minutes! We stood up the mountain from them constantly amused and amazed by at the antics of the baby gorilla: playing tag with its young ‘toddler’ sister, rolling over, falling backwards down the slope, climbing over adult relatives who were too busy eating shoots to pay any attention, and hanging upside down from the branches of a small bush. The other gorillas, the adults and sub-adults, concentrated solely on eating; we were fortunate enough to have found the group stationary at snack time. Watching the way these massive, hairy beasts delicately stripped off the bark of stalks before eating them, the way they itched themselves, the way they communicated between themselves, as well as with us, was a constant source of wonder. In so many ways, gorillas appear to mimic us humans: the raise of an eyebrow, a sideways glance, the tender touch of affection, the selective appraisal of which shoot to eat for lunch. So uncannily human. And yet still intrinsically wild and beast-like. We were all fascinated.

I was also extremely conscious of the fact that what we were experiencing here was something so fragile, so tenuous. These mountain gorillas – blissful as they currently are – are incredibly vulnerable. Not only do they live in a habitat that happens to be a live volcano, but also within an area of extreme tension and human aggression, sandwiched between volatile DRC, Rwanda and Uganda. Their long-term future is not rosy. We were phenomenally privileged to have shared an hour in the lives of these wondrous animals. It was very hard to tear ourselves away from them. But the visions and memories of each of the Amhora family members are strong. May they always remain so. Most fortuitously for us, one of our group is a professional cameraman – our very own Rob Adams! I’d just like to end by saying a special Thank You to Robert for being the one to forgo a degree of intimacy with the gorillas, as his hour’s experience of them was witnessed largely through the lens of a camera – for the benefit of us all. You can see his stunning short video through our blog site connection............. Great job, Robert, thanks so much!

out of the mountains and down to the sea...

2009-05-24T22:27:00.000+02:00

Well, we're on the homeward stretch now. Or so it seems. We've
followed the shore of Lake Malawi down to Cape Maclear, turned east
to Lishinga, crossed the mountain and forest of Niassa province, and
arrived on the Indian Ocean coast at the exquisite Ilha da
Mocambique. Here, we've settled in for a few days at Casa Heinrich,
the beautifully restored house of a friend from Zimbabwe, eaten
prawns and Lula (calamari), swum in the clear sea, ridden a dhow out
to Goa island and climbed to the top of the hundred year-old lighthouse.

Ilha is an astonishing place, capital of Portugese Mozambique for
over four hundred years, full of decaying grandiose buildings in the
great Imperial Portugese style at one end of the island -the Stone
Town -, and tightly packed reed-roofed African houses at the other -
Reed Town. Today, Sunday, we were lucky enough to meet Franciso
Monteiro, a passionately committed young Portugese architect working
here for UNESCO on a project to rehabilitate the mighty fortress that
dominates the island's northern end. He gave up part of his weekend
to show us around the fort, and we stood on the battlements at the
end of the island, looking out over iron cannon at dhows sailing down
the sunset.

Many buildings in Stone Town are in ruins, the consequence of forty
years of decay, and the forty thousand war refugees who thronged onto
the island - only two kms long by a few hundred meters wide - in the
eighties. Some have been restored, others have survived the gruelling
past decades. There are a handful of delightful restaurants and
cafes, a good hotel, a Centro Nautico offering dhow trips, and not
much else. Ilha is a long way from becoming Mozambique's Zanzibar,
but the beginning of it's rebirth is perhaps apparent.

Over the next few days we'll head south, through central Mozambique,
passing, at Inchope, only a couple of hundred kilometers from the Zim
border, only 6 hours from home. Then south, to Inhassoro, where we
hope to finish our Mozambique time with some diving, and more prawns,
and another spectacular Indian Ocean sunset or two, doubtless
accompanied by a cold Manica (or two).

Malawi to Mozambique photos

2009-05-24T19:52:00.001+02:00

Jangano goes boating on Lake Malawi.

Another busy border crossing - Malawi to Mozambique

Camping wild under an Inselberg in Niassa Province, northern Mozambique

The hundred and twenty year old lighthouse on Goa island, off Ilha da Mocambique

Sunset over the Indian ocean, from Casa Heinrich

East African Lakes - by Benedict

2009-05-22T21:52:00.000+02:00

We have travelled a lot in East Africa and something we have seen a lot of are lakes. Some lakes we can even swim in, such as Lake Langano in Ethiopia, Lake Kivu in Rwanda and Tanganyika in Burundi and Tanzania. Otherwise, other lakes we’ve seen but not swum in, is Lake Nasser for the border of Sudan and Egypt, Lake Turkana in Kenya, the second biggest lake in the world which is Lake Victoria in Uganda and Lakes Albert, George and Edward also in Uganda. A few things I forgot to say about the lakes we swam in, was that Lake Tanganyika is the second deepest in the world and the longest in Africa. Lake Kivu has big gas bubbles that are poisonous and Lake Langano has fluoride in it.

moving on

2009-05-14T19:19:00.003+02:00

We've had a lot of travel the past few weeks. Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, and now into Malawi. Much of it in the rain, on slippery roads. The tents have hardly had a chance to dry out, insect bites go septic fast...

But it's been an astonishing month of volcanos and tea estates, genocide memorials and gorillas, lakes and rivers and mountains, long days and rainy nights. Food's been a little short at times, though we enjoyed cheese from Goma in the DRC, and ripe avocados almost everywhere.

And now we are firmly back in familiar territory, on Lake Malawi, heading south and east down the lake towards Mozambique in a few days time, then onto South Africa. In four weeks time we'll be dipping our toes in the southern ocean, and celebrating the southern-most point of our journey.

Onwards and downwards!

New videos!

2009-05-14T19:03:00.003+02:00

I've just uploaded two new videos to our youtube channel and the website. The easiest way to access them is to go to www.jangano2009.com and click on "videos - going down". Alternatively you can go to the jangano2009 youtube channel, or click on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-aJypn-bgM to watch an account of our visit to the Hope Centre Burundi, where Val and Charles Carr from Scotland are helping build an orphanage outside Bujumbura; or to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsegommK0iot to watch a music vid of a tough day driving the muddy roads of western Tanzania.

I should apologise for the low quality of the videos uploaded - we are sending them from our satfone, and we're trying to keep the costs down. The better the quality, the more data there is, so the more it costs to upload. We think you would rather get regular updates in not-so-good quality. Once we have a good connection, and some time to spend on updating, I will try to upload higher quality versions. In the meantime, please bear with us!

Food, glorious food

2009-05-14T15:55:00.011+02:00

Many of our devoted followers have commented on how skinny we are looking in our photos and video clips. Thank you! Before we left there was concern that we would all balloon in size because we would be sitting in our cars all day. As well as fears amongst our nearest and dearest that our brains would become addled without gainful employment or school to stimulate the grey cells. Well, as you will have seen there has been plenty of food for the mind on this trip. But perhaps we haven't demonstrated quite as clearly the variety of physical fodder we have consumed. Personally speaking, my culinary experiences have been an important aspect of the expedition, one to which my diary bears considerable testimony. Memories of specific places are accompanied by recollections of what we ate, who cooked it and even who washed up!

FOOD 1 is the key food box in Jambanja containing tins, carbs, condiments and the odd packet of popcorn that was evidently purchased in Zimbabwe circa 1999 because it still has a price label saying 10 dollars (zim) on it. Its looking a bit empty now as we are well into southern Africa and never more than a day away from a supermarket or seafood. We have another box, FOOD 2, which by contrast contains the malt whisky, several Rwandan baskets, and an old bottle of Angostura bitters which I fondly and erroneously imagined we would be mixing into our gin and tonics at the end of a hard day's bush bashing. Each car has several other ammo boxes full of utensils, cutlery, saucepans etc. as well as gas stoves.

Most of you will want to know who does most of the cooking. Well some of our resident chefs have made it easy for us both to recall their contribution and at the same time ensure they get off lightly on cooking duty thereafter. After trying out several recipes of his own device which put corned beef centre stage I think Gus realised that it was no coincidence that first Alexander and then he were violently sick a few hours later.

Here is the famous Le Breton chapati making team. This morning Gus decided he would make pancakes but at the sight of the gluey wholemeal gloop he had created, he convinced us that he was planning to make chapatis all along.

Bread is of course a staple, and when we can't buy it en route we have occasionally baked (burnt) our own loaves in the camping bread maker that was purchased from a 4x4 shop in Joburg last year. Of course its all in the kneading.....
What of the other chefs at the Jangano 5 star restaurant? Max and Jake have proven dab hands at fried eggs, popcorn and general tin opening duty. The three laatjies made a memorable and delicious meal in which they re-created kosheri, a favourite Egyptian dish of rice mixed with noodles. They did this by cunningly cooking some rice and yes, wait for it.... mixing it with 3 minute noodles. And Mands takes first prize for doing the most to ensure we don't go to bed feeling hungry every day. My speciality is a buffet supper which involves opening tins of humus, tuna, sweetcorn and anything else suitable, and artfully arranging it with some raw carrot and tomato. Decorated with herbs and spices it looks good and has become a favourite quick fix especially when firewood or gas or imagination are in short supply.

Fortunately sometimes we are staying with friends and enjoying the luxury of a fully equipped kitchen to play with....or else their long-suffering staff may even cook for us. Having breakfast with Kate Phillips in Cairo:

And other times we eat out. One of the cheapest and best meals we had in Egypt was at Mustapha's street cafe near the (rebuilt) library in Alexandria.

And one of our most upmarket meals was at the New Cactus restaurant in Kigali, Rwanda, when Robert treated us to excellent oven-baked pizzas!

Fashion Violations

2009-05-14T15:50:00.004+02:00

The time, sadly, is drawing all too rapidly to a close. And with it we, inevitably, start to reflect. Sitting on a lakeshore in Malawi, watching the absolute disregard of my youngest son for anything remotely connected with fashion (inherited from where, I wonder?!), it occurred to me that none of us had escaped the last few months without occasionally straying from the bounds of what might be called Sound Fashion Sense. Some of these may have been circumstantial, but others were clearly premeditated. Here, for your enjoyment, is a cross-section of some of the more serious Fashion Violations of the trip to date......

The leading causes of Fashion Violations are, of course, climatic. Take, for example, the following item of rainwear recently modelled by Nicky on a back road in western Tanzania.

Ben and Mands were clearly struggling to cope with the unexpected chills in the Western Desert below.

But quite what was going through Mands' head as she adopted the following attire to keep warm at over 3,000 metres in Ethiopia remains a mystery!

The next most-common cause of Fashion Violations were our (sometimes desperate) attempts to blend in. Take, for example, Robert's ill-conceived attire as he tried to mingle in Egypt....

Or Xander and Ben's sorry efforts at local headgear (cunningly fashioned by a passerby from a rug he found on the floor)....

Big Max's attempts to pass off as a Hamer warrior in South Omo were laudable, and he even followed local custom by decorating his AK in appropriate style with a piece of goatskin wrapped delicately around the nozzle. Not everyone's idea of top fashion, but not bad!

Below is a genuine Hamer warrior who, for reasons known only to him, chose to abandon his rather fine traditional dress and instead don an ancient satin ball-gown, presumably appropriated from a passing Victorian explorer's wife. Not one of the Jangano team, but an outstanding Fashion Violation, nonetheless!

Not all Fashion Violations were circumstantial, and some were quite clearly premeditated. Take, for example, the bizarre decision of the entire Le B family to pluck purple flowers from the grounds of a hotel in Lalibela, put them behind their ears and then allow themselves to be photographed in such a pose. What WERE they thinking?!

If we were to award a prize for the most serious Fashion Violations of the trip, however, there's no doubt in anyone's mind who it would go to. For his persistent ability to mix and match the most unlikely combinations of clothes, and for the utter lack of self-consciousness with which he sports them, Little Max scoops all the prizes. Here, in one of his more imaginative ensembles (green sleeveless vest, blue boxers, long grey socks and charming cammo crocs), is Little Max, the undisputed King of Anti-Fashion in the Jangano team!

And as for me, well, I can only feel a sense of relief that the baton is now in the hands of someone else!

Happy Birthday to me!

2009-05-14T12:21:00.003+02:00

It wasn't an auspicious start to my 44th birthday. We had been forced to camp in a gravel pit just off a dirt road that had taken us through some beautiful miombo forest, south of Kigoma in Western Tanzania but with no accessible camping spots off it, we had little choice but to take the first place that offered any space to set up camp. So on the 10th May we woke up in damp,smelly tents, amidst a swarm of bees that had been disturbed by our presence. For about a month since leaving Nairobi we had been subject to frequent downpours and our kit hadn't really had a chance to dry properly. The stink was compounded by the fact that the beautiful troupe of Colobus monkeys we saw near Fort Portal in Uganda (see Youtube clip), had peed liberally all over our flysheets. Its actually surprising the bees wanted to come anywhere near us. My lovely sons presented me, somewhat hurriedly, with beautiful handdrawn cards before dashing off to escape the stings and to pack up. Other celebrations were deferred in the interests of getting away with minimal damage.

So things could only get better. And indeed they did - hugely better. We spent the rest of the beautifully sunny day and the rather rainier night in Katavi National Park. This park is a well-kept secret, highly rated by afficionados of Tanzania who know this gem but which is usually overlooked by visitors in their headlong rush to see the Serengeti and the Ngorogoro crater in northern Tanzania. Rather than staying in the public campsite (empty) we opted to pay quite a lot for a 'special campsite' which basically meant we could camp anywhere in the park. We were only the fourth set of private vehicles to enter Katavi in 2009. En route to a suitable spot we saw lots of plains game and birds on the stunning open vlei area and then pitched our tents near the river - though not too near. See pics for why.

We also came across this dead elephant who had attracted the attentions of dozens of white-backed vultures - he had been detusked and had probably died of natural causes since he was very close to the ranger post.

In the late afternoon Robert and I enjoyed sundowners and a spot of birdwatching and then the balloons and an al fresco shower courtesy of the Le Bretons. More beautiful handdrawn cards from their boys and some lovely presents organised by Mands who puts my own family to shame.... I'm looking forward to reminding Robert of that when we get to South Africa. The moon was almost full and bathed the campsite in light, until the rain started and R and I hastily got up and put the flysheet on our tent.

And the final prize arrived the next morning as we set off up river to a lake in the eastern section of the park when I spotted a lioness sitting regally on the opposite riverbank. And if I say so myself it was a pretty remarkable sighting at quite a distance (hence the lack of photos). With binoculars we realised there was another lion lounging lazily on the branch above her, and then two more in a tree to the left. We had missed the tree-climbing lions of Ishasha in south-west Uganda: this pride more than made up for it.

And a heads up for all those godparents and doting relatives reading this blog entry. The next birthday celebrations on our expedition will take place in Cape Town on the 13th June: Max's 16th birthday coincides with our arrival party planned for that day (all welcome!), and we'll also be congratulating Max Le B who is turning 7 on June 11th.

Uganda photos

2009-05-14T12:16:00.002+02:00

Volcano crater embroidered with terraced fields

Long horn Acholi cattle

Trying to work out why Mahali has punctured her fuel filter...

Jangano team cross the Equator - again!

Another great roadsign...

2009-05-14T11:26:00.003+02:00

Another favourite roadsign, this one spotted in Murchison National Park in Uganda.

Rwanda landscapes

2009-05-12T21:16:00.001+02:00

Tea estates near Kinihira

Tea fields under a heavy sky

Jambanja in the tea estates

Volcanos at dawn

The mighty silverback of the Amahoro group

The youngest of the Amahoro group

Nyaragongo volcano, smoking above Goma

Nicky, Mands and Jamilla yoga-ing on the shores of Lake Kivu.

Fishing boats at dawn on Lake Kivu

Our campsite at Jamilla's LaBella Lodge, on the shores of Lake Kivu, south of Gysenyi.

Gorillas in Rwanda!

2009-05-06T19:23:00.002+02:00

Amazing! Mands, Max and Robert were able to track a family of mountain gorillas on the slopes of a volcano in Rwanda this week - one of the most extraordinary wildlife encounters we have ever had. We walked a long hour and a half up the side of a volcano in the Parc National des Volcans, north of Ruhengeri, with an excellent guide from the Rwanda national parks service, and found the Amahoro group, with their mighty 200 kg silverback and his extended family. We watched them for an hour - an extraordinary privilege.

Watch the video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mm3K4aQyjzg

- we will be writing about this experience very shortly, and uploading some photos too.

We're in Burundi now, in Bujumbura - and are crossing south into Tanzania tomorrow. More soon!

Volano Campsite, by Benedict

2009-05-04T17:01:00.000+02:00

Carrying on from Ishasha (Uganda), we went to a campsite right next to three volcanoes. Muhavura was the biggest volcano; it was just like a normal volcano shape, like Kili. Not that interesting! The second biggest was called Sabinyo, which was pretty cool, because of its top; it was all jaggedy and it was interesting. The smallest had a cool name and it was the most interesting one of all, because you could see the crater and it had a flat top. It was called Gahinga.

Our campsite was called Mgahinga Community Campsite. It had chalets and dorms, so we didn’t put up our tents. Jake, little Max, Xander and I all slept in a dorm, while my mum and dad and Robert and Nicky slept in the chalets and Big Max slept on his own in one, because he had a cold. The important thing was that Mgahinga was a home to Mountain Gorillas. We didn’t get to see any, because most of them had gone into Rwanda over the top of the volcano. The feeling was still nice being close to them and their home. It was fantastic!

new video...

2009-05-03T17:27:00.003+02:00

A little late - we are camped beside Lake Kivu in Rwanda, and heading towards Bujumbura in Burundi in the next couple of days - I've cut and posted a new video, called "Another Day, Another Border", which gives an idea of a fairly typical day in the Jangano adventure. It follows us as we cross from Kenya to Uganda, on the rough road round the back of Mount Elgon.

R

11 years on by Nicky

2009-05-01T11:21:00.001+02:00

When I came to Rwanda for the first time in 1998, I arrived in a country completely defined by its recent bloody past: the signs of the genocide of 1994 were everywhere, from the bullet holes riddling lampposts and the parliament building to often blank and traumatised expressions on the faces of those I saw walking the streets of Kigali. Not to mention the legions of NGOs busy setting up shop to support the rebuilding and rehabilitation process. I was working with a newly assembled team of young Rwandans to develop a radio soap opera that would deal with reproductive health issues and would be broadcast on the BBC. The workshop participants included men and women, Tutsis and Hutus, English-speakers and French-speakers, former exiles and those who had been in Rwanda throughout the genocide. It was my first assignment as a freelance consultant after leaving my cosy research position at Reading University.

To say it was challenging would be an understatement. Not only was I grappling with the intensity of running, solo, a three week participatory workshop on research methods for communication projects, and getting to know and understand my colleagues, but I was on an extremely steep learning curve with respect to Rwanda itself. I read in-depth and factual accounts of the history of animosity between the two tribes, as well as Feargal Keane's more personalised account of witnessing the end of the three month genocide, and the tragic 'We are sorry to inform that that tomorrow we will all be killed'. I saw a hard-hitting new play written by an up- and-coming young Rwandan playwright, in which she used the image of the three stone cooking fire to represent the three tribes of Rwanda - the Hutus, the Tutsis and the Twa (forest-dwelling pygmies who make up about 1% of the population) - and to make the point that all three are needed to support and sustain the country as a whole. I also visited the genocide site at Ntarama that Gus has written about. But in 1998 the bodies had not yet been removed and interred or rearranged into neat rows of skulls and bones and clothes: they lay as they had fallen, still decomposing, scattered among the low benches of the church.

11 years on, it’s a sad but unsurprising fact that Rwanda is still defined largely by the big G - genocide - although to that has been added the other big G - gorrillas. But there are encouraging signs too. Kigali has been rebuilt and barely resembles the town I first saw. The radio soap opera, called Urunana (meaning 'hand in hand'), has been on air for more than 10 years and has won numerous awards. I have just had a cup of coffee with Narcisse Kalisa, now project manager, and one of the original workshop participants I trained. We talked of what has changed and what has remained unchanged. Of course things aren't perfect but Rwanda, of all the countries we have travelled through, seems determined to achieve a better and happier future for all its people.

The Magnetic Pull by Max A.

2009-05-01T10:58:00.001+02:00

When we left Harare 4 months, 1 week and 3 days ago the trip was just
a trip. It didn't mean anything to us that we were going all the way
to the Mediterranean. But gradually as we got closer, the full meaning
of Jangano 2009 came to us and we realised just what we were
extracting from the 6 months. Then we turned around, came back through
an amazing time in the Western Desert, Luxor, Sudan, the Omo valley
and then the NFD.

But now in Central Africa the pull has caught me. At the moment we are
a week away from Harare if we drove straight there. But that will
become less and less. In southern Tanzania it will be two days drive.
Then in Beira it will be 9 hours drive to get home. And I have no
doubt that everybody will feel some sort of pull from Zim, and maybe
even the temptation to pop home for a bit to see everyone.

But that will have to wait as we head on south to Cape Town.

The Darker Side of Africa

2009-05-01T09:16:00.001+02:00

Well, we’ve seen it. Yesterday afternoon we visited Ntarama church, the site of one of the bigger atrocities during the Rwandan genocide (5,000 people killed in one day). After that we went to the Genocide Museum in Kigali. Between the two, we can truthfully say that we’ve had our fill of sobering genocide memoria.

It’s not for the faint-hearted, and we weren’t sure how the kids would handle it. But they’ve seen so much already on this trip that we felt they’d probably take it in their stride. And, for anyone living in Africa, the events of 1994 in Rwanda are an important lesson in what can happen when it all goes wrong. So we agreed to go together and, with hindsight, it was a good decision.

The Ntarama church is stark. The church stands as it did when it was attacked. The grenade holes in the wall haven’t been patched up, and the scorch marks on the floors are still clearly visible. At the back of the church, rows of shelving hold hundreds and hundreds of human skulls, salvaged from the church when, eventually, it was cleaned up. Many of the skulls bear the marks of the machetes that killed their owners. Along the sides of the church hang the clothes of those whose families never came to reclaim them (most likely because they didn’t survive to do so). At the front, on top of the original altar, several large coffins hold the bones of the dead. Beside them are piles of shoes, belts and handbags, and beyond that a heap of plastic plates and mugs, water containers and tin cans. For three days before the attack, the 5,000 people had sheltered in the church in unimaginable conditions. Only ten escaped the slaughter, two of whom we met as guides around the church.

It’s not a conventional tourist experience. But it wasn’t a conventional political happening either. The least we can do is ensure that we and our children learn from it.

I think they did. They were subdued, of course (although Little Max’s ability to make irreverent remarks at inappropriate moments remained undiminished!). The display of children in the Genocide Museum had a particular impact. They showed life-size photos of some 20 kids, with a brief description of what their favourite foods were, which football teams they supported and what they wanted to be when they grew up. And then, at the bottom, was a one-line description of how they died. You couldn’t fail to be moved and the boys really empathised with this.

I’m glad we took them. They’ve seen so much of Africa’s beauty, and they have such a gloriously untainted perception of the continent and it’s people (you should see the uninhibited way in which they smile and wave at passers-by). An occasional glimpse into Africa’s darker side can’t be a bad thing. Whether they choose to live in Africa or not once they’ve grown-up, it will always be a part of them. And they’ll need to have a balanced perspective if they’re ever to do their part in trying to make it a better place. Hopefully, impressions like this will help.

Big Max and Jake Rafting the Nile, by Little Max

2009-05-01T09:16:00.000+02:00

Twitcher tendencies

2009-05-01T09:14:00.008+02:00

My trusty pair of binoculars, and my Christmas present from Robert of a guide to Birds of East Africa has been put to good use on our journey as we have passed through some of the most prolific regions of the continent in terms of birdlife. In Ethiopia, Kenya and most recently Uganda, we have viewed a huge variety and high concentrations of both familiar and more exotic species. After 10 years living in Zimbabwe my interest in the avian life of the parks we regularly visit there has developed into something of a passion: I am still very much an amateur, but birdwatching has added a colourful and, as we anxiously scour the pages of the guidebook to identify yet another bird, an investigative angle to our travels.

Alexander has always been a bird lover as those of you who have met our parrots will know.

He recently drew these lovely pictures, inspired by our trip up the Albert Nile to the Murchison Falls, in northern Uganda, of a red-throated bee-eater and a saddle-billed stork.

Whilst we didn't catch a glimpse of the famous but elusive shoebill stork in Murchison Falls national park, we saw many favourites: fish eagles by the dozen, pied kingfishers hovering over the water, their wings a blur; white, yellow-billed and saddle-billed storks, goliath, purple, black-headed and squacco herons.

In the park on a game drive earlier in the day we saw this eagle - is it a martial or a steppe eagle - one of our followers is bound to know!

And the extraordinary Abyssinian ground hornbill, who we first saw in Ethiopia of course.

And this ox-pecker looks so cheeky, daring to sit on this buffalo's back.

Adding comments to the blog...

2009-04-26T19:55:00.002+02:00

Some of you have tried to add comments to the blog, but found it quite an ordeal. To comment on this blog you have to have an gmail email account, and use that to sign in as a "follower" - a fairly simply process, but one that could consume more time than our busy fans might have.

If you can't be bothered to go through this process but want to put a comment up here, please send an email directly to one of us - I won't repeat our email addresses here as we don't want our inboxes spammed into oblivion, but I'm sure you all know an address for one of us - and we will put your comment up as a blog entry.

It is a source of great pleasure to us all to know that our friends and families around the world are following our adventure through this site - so thanks, all of you, who check in every now and again to see how we are getting on!

R

New videos

2009-04-26T19:38:00.002+02:00

I've uploaded a couple of new videos today - a cut of Max and Jake white water rafting on the White Nile at it's source, near Jinja, in Uganda; and a short clip of a parade of magnificent Colobus monkeys that leapt and chattered through our campsite south of Fort Portal, in western Uganda.
Of the white-water rafting, Max Le Breton wrote:

"We are staying at Explorers camp. The Camp is close by the White Nile. Today Jake and Big Max went in an orange boat. There were seven other boats. We waved at them as they went past."

Watch the video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpZggdagofU to see for yourselves!

The Colobus Monkey video is at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uoztThfLMjM

Hope you enjoy them!
R

Never Mind the Hippos

2009-04-26T17:11:00.003+02:00

Swimming in Africa isn’t without its hazards. We’ve just come from Murchison Falls in Uganda, where the White Nile gets squeezed through a tiny gorge a few metres wide. It’s a magnificent spectacle, but it was a hot day and the sight of all that water was too much for us. We simply had to swim. Mands leant into the spray in an attempt to cool off, while Nicky gave serious thought to jumping in there and then.

Wisely, perhaps (given that the Falls are some 50 metres high), we decided against. There was a campsite a couple of hundred metres upstream from the Falls, and it was said to have a natural pool in the river, calm enough to swim in. So off we went. But when we got there, there were four hippos in it. If we jumped in, they’d have no way out except over/through us. But we were roasting, and there was no way we could sit by and watch them frolicking. So in we went, keeping a wary eye out for them. Although not what you’d call relaxing, it was a heavenly swim.

We’ve had some awesome swims along the way, although they rarely come without some form of additional excitement. There was a hot spring we came across at an oasis in the middle of the Egyptian desert. Wonderful to jump into, after several days without a wash, but as Little Max shows here, it came with a powerful smell of rotten eggs!

Then there was the river in the Omo where tiny, almost invisible fish nibbled us persistently as we were swimming, convincing us we were under some form of sustained attack (much to the amusement of the onlooking Mursi tribespeople). Don’t ask about the headgear!

In 45 degree heat on the shores of Lake Turkana, we were reliably assured by Kenyan National Parks staff that swimming in the lake was quite safe. We desperately wanted to believe them, as it was hellishly hot. But when we reached our campsite at Alia Bay, we saw not less than four crocs at any one time eyeing our children, and had to rethink.

But then, occasionally, the perfect swimming spot appears. This was one of them. In the Chalbi Desert of northern Kenya, there’s an oasis called Kalacha, where some far-sighted person has helped the local community develop a small lodge with a swimming pool. It wasn’t a big pool, but my goodness it was a welcome one. No hippos, no crocs, no nibbling fish and, best of all, cold beer.

Now that's what I call a perfect swim!

Rainy Season in Uganda... (also by Mands)

2009-04-26T17:06:00.001+02:00

A Night Time Thunderstorm (by Mands)

Restless, disturbed sleep, tossing in the sticky heat of the tent. Too hot to have anything touching my sweaty skin, let alone have the synthetic sleeping bag on top. My consciousness wakens, more from a sense than a sound, until my foggy brain recognises the distant but encroaching rumblings. The sky is lead-like, groaning from the heavy load it carries, desperate to burst apart and break the terrible tension. I want it too, in a small way – a rainstorm would relieve me of this sleepless wrangle. But already I recognise the ominous rumbles in the sky as being far more serious than a refreshing down pour. This storm that is stomping its way toward us is angry. The sky booms louder in deep throaty outbursts. The wind lends its support to the fury and blows up strongly, without any warning, without any apology. It too is furious and it is scary. Now I realise the trouble we are in! Torches outside light up around the tent: on-off, on-off, on-off. But there is no one outside; the flashing light comes from the sky. It is another accomplice in this imminent raging storm that is about to wash our tents away. I am fully conscious now and worried for the children in another tent. Will they be fearful? The thunder is louder and the lightening brighter and the wind stronger than they have ever experienced before. And all there is between the rampaging elements and ourselves is a piece of nylon, which right now is fighting for its life to stay pegged into the ground!

Then suddenly I feel calm. I remember to relax, not to resist, to tell myself that All Is Well. I know somewhere deep in my Being that we are protected and even as the first bursts of raindrops splat against the tent – slowly at first, then faster and heavier and more solidly – I have a strange feeling that we’ll be all right.

The crescendo lasts a mere five minutes – but it is emotionally exhausting experiencing so much anticipation and excitement of a true tropical rainstorm. Incredibly, the eye of the storm decides to bypass our solitary campsite just in the nick of time. It takes the thunder and the lightening and the wind and all its fury elsewhere. I am filled with relief and gratitude. Moreover, the air has cleared and I crawl into my sleeping bag no longer listless, contentedly acknowledging that we have been spared a wet and uncomfortable night! Sleep comes easily.

Chimpanzee Tracking, by Mands

2009-04-26T17:06:00.000+02:00

We are in Uganda. It is lush, verdant, fertile and absolutely awesome! With such healthy rainfall here, there is a proportionately healthy presence of rainforest. And in the rainforests, there is an abundance of life! One of the more special species that resides in Uganda’s forests is the smaller cousin of the more commonly-regarded mountain gorilla. Unable to afford US$500 a head for the gorilla tracking, however, we decided on seeing chimpanzees instead. Sadly, no children are allowed on such trips, so the ‘Lighties’ had to stay behind at the Kanyiye Pabidi eco-tourism lodge, where we were staying.

So, early one morning last week, with long trousers tucked into socks (as warned to do, in case of vicious soldier ants), we headed out and along the road track that we had driven in on. The morning’s walk was to take up to four hours, with no guarantee of even seeing the chimps, but as we strode along the track, optimism sounding in every step, we just knew we would not be disappointed.

After a couple of kilometres along the dirt road, a hole appeared in the seemingly impenetrable green wall of the forest. It was our cue to enter this unique world of primary, unspoilt rainforest. Once my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I was surprised to find that it wasn’t so dark inside after all. Yes, it was thick bush and plants and trees grew at every level, but in Nature’s perfect way, every different living representation had its perfect place in which to survive in this busy and phenomenal ecosystem. Fortunately, set paths had been cleared to make our tracking that much easier.

With happy thumping hearts, we commenced our walk, absorbing every sound that was possible to be heard: more than anything, the birds constituted the main sounds of the forest. Constant songs, each talking to us in their own way, each trying to make its voice heard in the thick foliage.

We had literally walked a mere few minutes inside the forest, when Joshua our guide stopped, lifted his arm in a definitive gesture to Stop! and Be Quiet! He had seen something. Surely not a chimp? So quickly, so close to the road? This was too good to be true! My heart raced; I ached to see what was ahead of us on the path further along. A dark shape. Oh, my word! It was indeed a chimpanzee! It had seen us too, of course, so moved off into the forest. But it was soon followed by another and then another: Joshua had found us a small sub-group of chimps! It was breakfast time for these little guys, so they were on the move in search of berry-filled trees. We immediately headed off the track and into the thick, entwining branches towards this small community of chimpanzees. Fortunately, they are very vocal animals and in telling each other what was going on, they also told us where to find them! We tried our hardest not to disturb them too much, but it was difficult not to tread on the odd dried twig that snapped loudly underfoot. We soon stopped and stood in wonder as we came to an area dominated by one particularly large tree, whose extensive branches provided perfect chimp platforms. There before us, was a sub-group of about 12 chimpanzees, although it was difficult to see them clearly through the thick bush and even harder to get good shots of them with the camera. But somehow having to work so hard to catch sight of each one, made every individual sighting all the more precious. These small hairy “people” in the trees were extraordinary: so human in the way they looked around, picked berries, checked themselves for nits, scratched their face or arm or back, gestured to each other. And yet, the sharp reality of them as wild animals – still so far removed from us after all – was immediately apparent when we saw how they leapt from one branch to another, so agile, so balanced, so confident 20m above ground.

At one point, Big Max slipped down a muddy bank, which sent the alarmed group into a frenzy of ape-screams, frantic and hysterical. It sent chills through me to hear such a cacophony of intense screaming. We laughed nervously amongst ourselves, shocked but delighted to have witnessed such an extraordinary display of chimpanzee behaviour.

We were transfixed for the half hour we had watching the chimps. Sadly, they moved on, busy with another agenda for the day. But what a privilege it had been for the six of us and one of the highlights of our trip to date.

NFD by Big Max

2009-04-20T17:55:00.000+02:00

The Northern Frontier District of Kenya is one of the most out of the way places that you can go to. It is basically the Northern area of Kenya. The area of Somali bandits, the Chalbi desert and Lake Turkana.

We were fortunate enough to not run into any bandits (they've all gone home to be pirates) but we were awed by the lake and disorientated by the vast pans of the Chalbi.

Apparently you can swim in Turkana, as long as there is someone standing on the bank to throw stones at the crocodiles. Hmm. We bunked out of that option and admired from a distance. It is a beautiful lake, fed only by the Omo river and with no outlet except evaporation. As a result it's very salty. But still spectacular.

The Chalbi is nothing like the Sahara. It floods occasionally leaving massive, wide open salt pans with a crusty top but soft sand underneath. We attempted a crossing but were beaten for the first time and had to switch routes.

And it is impossible to talk about that area without mentioning North Horr. The centre point, yet as remote as Gokwe or John O'Groats. I liked it though. It had character that can only develop in those circumstances. We were able to find chai, chappatis and there was even a bar with satellite tv.

This only skims the very surface of the very north of Kenya b ut hopefuuly gives some idea as to some of the aspects.

Around Mt Elgon.

2009-04-20T16:47:00.003+02:00

Mt Elgon from the Kenyan side - the view from Tony and Adrienne Mill's farm.

Mt Elgon from the Ugandan side - the view from the Crow's Nest Lodge, Sipi

Over the past couple of days we have rounded the mighty Mt Elgon, from the Kenyan side, through the delightful, sleepy border post at Suam, and into Uganda. A slippery, treacherous road snakes for eighty kilometers round the Ugandan side of the mountain, to Sipi, where we stay the night at the "Crow's Nest", overlooking Sipi Falls. In the morning, a steep climb down to the pool below the falls, then a drive down to Jinja, and the source of the Nile. Now we are at the Nile River Explorer's campsite; Max and Jake have had an exilarating day white water rafting on the river that has accompanied us through so much of the Jangano expedition; an appropriate farewell, as tomorrow we move on to Kampala, and so say farewell to the Niles, Blue and White, that have been beside us, more or less, since January.

Sipi Falls, eastern Uganda - note the comparative size of the Janganos exploring the undercliff!

Milking the cows, by Xander

2009-04-20T16:33:00.002+02:00

Today we went to the milking barn. We waited for someone to come and tell us there is a cow ready to be milked. What you do is you put your hand in Vaseline and rub it on the udders to stop it from hurting. The you would put a bucket under the udders. Then you would squeeze and pull and the milk sprays out. Waiting outside is a cat that is waiting to drink the left-over milk. The cat was big, fat and grey and looked like it had drunk a lot of milk in its life.

Homage to the Ancestors

2009-04-20T15:45:00.005+02:00

Hi all

From Western Kenya, where I’ve been indulging in a spot of traditional ancestor worship, visiting some of the spots my ancestors frequented and marvelling, once again, at the feats they achieved.

The first ancestor due for some respect is my Mum. We visited the Kaplong mission hospital where she laboured for the best part of 48 hours to produce me (during which time she endured a minor earth tremor and a slightly alarming one-on-one visitation from the local village looney). Then it was but a small mission outpost in rural Africa, conveniently situated to provide succour to the massed labour forces of the tea estates around Sotik. Today it is a sizeable hospital serving hundreds of thousands of people. Even so, I think it would take considerable courage to book into their labour ward today, and I can only imagine how much courage that required 42 years ago! Respect, Mum!

Sadly, in the torrential afternoon rains that have become a feature of our lives since coming to Western Kenya, we didn’t have the time to find the Ngoina Estate near Sotik where my father was working at the time I was born. But we did manage to find a car very similar to the one he used to drive around in. He called it the Ngoina Ferrari. At 850cc, it may well be the smallest car ever built. Certainly the smallest car he’s ever driven. This specimen was found in the garden of a small lodge next to the Tea Hotel in Kericho, and seemed a suitable substitute. The kids loved it, too. So here’s to you, Dad!

From Kericho through Kisumu and Kakamega (where my grandfather once joined a swarm of other impecunious settler farmers in a largely pointless and unproductive goldrush) and on to Kitale. Kitale was the main town market town for my grandparents and retains a faded colonial charm lost in most of Kenya. It is also home to the Kitale Club, where my folks had their wedding reception and from which several of the photos on our mantelpiece at home were taken.

Amazingly, the Kitale Club has enjoyed a revival in recent years and is in immaculate form, complete with golf course, swimming pool and several rentable cottages. We stood on the front step for a mandatory photo, and then poked around inside. Although I obviously wasn’t there when my folks were married, I doubt it has changed much since then. All the photos on the wall date from the 1930s, and even the billiard balls in the billiards room are probably the same ones that were used after dinner at the club in fifty years ago.

We had an amazing piece of luck while there. I spotted a mzungu and approached him to ask if he knew the only contact I had in the area and, naturally, it was he. Tony Mills, one of the last white farmers in the Trans-Nzoia, who still has fond memories of my grandmother from when he was a child, and who instantly invited us all to come and stay at his farm. What a luck!

And so, on the next morning, armed with a 1950s map of the district (at which time there were 950 white farmers, now down to three!), we went on the ultimate pilgrimage, in search of Kimwondo, the farm my grandparents built from scratch on the slopes of Mt Elgon, and the farm on which my Dad was born and raised.

We found it. Definitely not in the same state it was when my grandparents left it in 1969, but very definitely still standing ( a minor miracle, given that it was built from timber nearly 80 years ago!).

As we climbed up the hill, the first thing we found was a sizeable collection of shops built around Mr Patel’s original Duka (which I think was this one below).

After that, the primary school my grandparents built, and then a secondary school that has since grown on the same site.

And then finally, against a backdrop of cleared fields and cultivation (where once there was forest), the original house itself, still standing and home to the Kiboi family, who have vague and largely unrealistic plans to turn it into a tourist attraction of some sort.

It was, of course, an emotional moment, seeing this farm that has been so much a part of my life, but on which I’d never actually previously set eyes. Although it seems hard to imagine now how remote it was then, the scale of their achievement in developing this small piece of Africa from nothing is still evident. I’ve never doubted that they were true pioneers, but it brought it all home for me, and I left with a strong sense of responsibility to continue the tradition.

And here ends the self-indulgent ancestor worship. We’ve loved every moment of it, and the whole experience has been much enhanced by the commentary (not to mention the extraordinary hospitality) of Tony and his wife Adrienne, who still farm the Trans-Nzoia without electricity, drawing water from a river and knowing every single one of their several hundred dairy cows by name!

Today we leave for Uganda, and tomorrow we will visit the source of the White Nile at Jinja.

More soon!

Sand River Camp, Maasai Mara, by Alexander

2009-04-16T14:42:00.001+02:00

Today we arrived at Sand River Camp. I got out of the car and went for a swim. The camp was on a river bank. There were two big shady trees, some rocks and some long tall grass. We are camping with our friends called the Stevensons. Their names are Chris, Karen, Jasper,Barnaby and Daisy. We went on a game drive and we saw something really cool - three cheetahs.

It was so cool because they were very rare. They ran after a Tommy's Gazelle.

What made us laugh is that they rolled on their backs and gave big yawns. They were spotty and slim and moved very stealthily.

A New Chapter

2009-04-14T08:32:00.000+02:00

Posted By Mands 14 April

Yesterday, the Jangano team definitely started on a new phase of the Trip.

Socially: having had a wonderful month of sharing our travels and experiences with others (since Addis with my sister Vix, then since entering Kenya, with the Owens and then the Stephensons), we now find ourselves back to being Just Us once again. Even better, back to being the full 9-person team, with Jakers back from boarding school. It is great to feel truly Jangano again – having had what has effectively been a Half Term break! Robert, Nicky and their boys spent nearly a week in Nairobi with Chris and Karen Stephenson and their gorgeous children Daisy, Barnaby & Jasper. Gus, our boys and myself stayed with Matthew & Alice Owen and their gorgeous Ruby & Guy. The Half Way servicing of our trusty cars (they have covered 20 000km plus by now) meant enforced urbanisation for 5 days (extremely busy time for the Dads, great fun for the kids and Mums!)

Our final social safari (comprising 18 of us altogether) had us headed West toward the Mara, to spend the Easter weekend on a Maasai friend's stunning piece of land on the banks of the great Sand River. After which, we all bade a final farewell to our wonderful mates at a place called Narok. From thence continues our westward journey and begins the new geographical chapter. The most significant change for us is that we have experienced rain for the first real time since we started the Trip. And not just a little rain shower, but a true, tropical Rainy Season downpour! In fact, it rained solidly from Narok until Kericho, in the western Highlands of Kenya. And this is what the pattern is set to be for the next month's steps...This obviously affects us hugely, in terms of camping, though we're trying not to think too much about it yet and would rather hope for the best! But, yes, the next month is certainly going to be soggy and damp! We are determined, however, for the rain not to dampen our spirits. We have three more amazing countries to go through that are fairly unknown to us (though Gus, Nicky & Robert have been to them on work assignments in the past): Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi. We sat down – in front of a cosy fire – to a serious Planning session last night, in an attempt to determine the maximum opportunities for this next stage. To our shock and amazement, we realised we have only 10 weeks left on the Jangano journey to Cape Town. Eeek!! So much still to see, do and go to?!

So, psychologically, we also begin a new chapter, as we realise we are southbound, ever-nearing southern Africa, our "home territory". It is strange to think that our Time Away, which felt like it would last forever, now suddenly and abruptly, has the proverbial grains of sand falling through the hour glass so quickly. Let us therefore continue to enjoy every moment of every day of this next special chapter – even in spite of the rain!

A new video...

2009-04-11T21:41:00.004+02:00

Yet another new video, shot in the Milgis and Seya luggahs of Northern Kenya, and edited here at the Aero Club of East Africa in Nairobi, where I am holed up for a day after bailing out of the expedition to do a quick job in Dubai and points south. I'll rejoin the team in the Masai Mara tomorrow.

You can find the new video on youtube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmWykH9YusE - or on the Videos - Going Down page of our www.jangano2009.com website. It gives a taste of travel in Kenya's wild Northern Frontier District, east of Lake Turkana, south of the Chalbi desert. Cineastes among you might enjoy the homage to the great Francis Ford Coppola in the second half. "I love the smell of bacon in the morning. It reminds me of... JANGANO!."

Falling off the map

2009-04-11T20:24:00.008+02:00

There are not many borders in this scared and surveilled world where you can just fall off the map, but we found one of the few. We drifted down the Omo towards Omarati, a desiccated township beside the Omo river, marked only by a vast, and failed, North Korean attempt to build a collective farm. Nothing of which remains now but powder-dry field markers where the irrigation scheme failed, and a ten-acre yard full of rusting North Korean bulldozers.
In a baking border control office we checked out of Ethiopia, sitting on requisitioned school benches while a charming young immigration officer stamped us out of his country.
We then drove sixty kilometers further through Ethiopia, heading south towards the top of Lake Turkana, seeing virtually no-one except a young warrior who stopped to share our lunch and drink several gallons of our water. While he rested, I cleaned and oiled his AK for him, then (after I'd removed the mag - and the round that was in the breech) he let the boys all hold it.

The border was marked on our GPS, but as we circled towards the Lake, there was nothing to see - no border marker, no barrier, no sign saying "Ethiopia wishes you a safe journey" or "Welcome to Kenya". And so we crossed into Kenya - across a tangled thicket of thorn scrub, with no witnesses, no officials, no sign. We met Matthew and Alice, and Ruby and Guy, and Mike, under a tree, as planned; ten minutes late, in the middle of nowhere, on a plan that had been made six months earlier - which is, I think, not bad.

We chose to go to the police post at Iloret, a blasted, ruined collection of buildings overlooking the Turkana basin, no sound but the blast-furnace wind and the crackle of static on the police radio. The cops registered us; and that was it. No stamp in the passport, no paperwork, no checking of visas. If we had decided to go round Iloret, rather than through it, we could have disappeared.

And this is a good part of the world to disappear; Sudan, Chad, CAR, Congo only a few hundred kilometers away; this is a part of the world where those with an inclination to drop off the map could indeed drop off - and stay off.
This is a time when governments in the West are becoming more and more fascist in their obsession with watching their own citizens - yet where known terrorists can pass through immigration into the UK on a student visa with evil intent. A time when the citizenry of the West seems to be sleep-walking into a police state that would delight a Stalin or a Hitler.
Yet down here, where the world's bad guys come to play, you can drift out of one country, switch passports in the bush, and simply vanish.
Excellent. Sleep well.

The Hamer of Omo

2009-04-11T19:24:00.001+02:00

Hamer Women at Jinka Market compare fashion notes..

How would this dress go down in Paris or Milan?

Xander and friend

Max looking pensive.

Nursing mother....

Uber-cool hairstyles.

Nicky looking lovely

Hamer women comparing scars. Her AK sling is (apparently) made by Giorgio Armani.

Hamer men having a quick drink while they decide which chick is worth beating up next.

Flower-power, Hamer style

Sign at the entrance to Mago National Park, Ethiopia

2009-04-11T19:19:00.000+02:00

Hmm. No wonder they have problems with poaching....

culture clash...

2009-04-11T19:17:00.003+02:00

What an(other) amazing few weeks! The Jangano Juniors have written
about our time in southern Ethiopia, but I'd like to recount my own
experience there.
From Addis, we wound our way down into the Omo Valley, in southwest
Ethiopia. Left almost entirely to their own devices by successive
Ethiopian governments, the Omo tribes are cut off from the rest of
the world by the vast Sudd Marshes of Southern Sudan to the west, the
mountain fastness of central Ethiopia to the north and east, and the
barren wastes of Kenya's Lake Turkana region to the south, the Omo is
inhabited by tribes of semi-pastoralists who have been barely touched
by the twentieth century. With a couple of fine young guides, we
descended a thousand meters into the Mago National park, and camped
beside a river where our askari talked quietly and conversationally
to himself through the night to advise the elephants crashing through
the undergrowth nearby of our presence.
The next day he took us to a village of Mursi people, where we
dropped through the time-space continuum into the late stone age. The
hundred or so Mursi have the most extreme body adornment of any
people I have come across - lip plates 20cms in diameter, inserted
into a slit cut in the lower lip which is extended over time till it
will take a dinner plate.
The encounter was uncomfortable - the Mursi have, in the past couple
of years, become something of a "must-see" on the global adventure-
tourism circuit (a circuit which we would like to think we are not
following, of course). The encounter between heavily armed stone age
pastoralists and twenty-first century high-end tourism has not been
an easy one, with both parties seeing the other through hunter-
gatherer eyes. The tourists want photos, the Mursi want money. The
tourists try to get photos without paying, the Mursi have no interest
in letting them get away with it. For a society which half a decade
ago had virtually no concept of cash - and had never seen a camera
- , these guys have picked up the essence of mercantile capitalism
pretty fast. They make the bazaar merchants of Khan el Khalil and
Luxor look like amateurs.
Andrew, our guide, worked extremely hard to break the ice -
suggesting that we get out our fishing rods and spend a couple of
hours fishing with the Mursi in the river before even thinking about
showing our cameras. Which we duly did - though only the Mursi caught
fish, which they left gasping in the mud on the river bank until we
dropped them back in the river, as it offended their totems to eat
fish. When we thought we'd shown them we meant well, we produced a
camera or two - and were promptly overwhelmed by aggressive demands
for "picture, one picture, you give five Birr". Women thrusting their
plated lips at us, or (most disconcertingly) popping the plate out
and entwining the rope of loose lower lip around their finger; men
with AK's - the only sign of modernity in the village was the AK
every man carried (presumably that's what they buy with the money
tourists give them for photos) - pushing bead-bedecked children in
front of us; a mob, really.
And of course, we did want to take pictures. But more than that, we
(rather naively, perhaps) wanted an "encounter". Wanted to reaffirm
our essential liberal white African belief that we are all the same
under the skin. Wanted to understand and be understood.
The Mursi, bless 'em, where having none of that. We were only there
to open our wallets in exchange for pictures. They have this down to
a fine art; every person in the photo gets paid, and every shutter
click is counted. It can add up pretty quickly, when there are twenty
women barging into your frame and their menfolk stand behind you with
locked and loaded AK's. We tried to explain that we were not only
there to take photos - and were treated with much the same contempt
as the fish they had hooked with our rods and lines minutes before.
As we left - more of a rout than a dignified exit - we were treated
to an example of why this problem has occurred. A white Landcruiser,
with a bling-laden young Ethiopian guide from Addis and two rather
fey women tourists, raced into the village. The windows slid open,
camera lenses stuck out the side like a gunship, and the new arrivals
clicked away for all they were worth as the driver executed a neat
three point turn, waited till the mob had almost engulfed the car,
then slalom-ed away in a cloud of dust, leaving the Mursi scrabbling
for the fluttering one Birr notes that were their "payment".
No wonder they gave us a hard time.

meeting Jake at Nairobi airport

2009-04-06T15:56:00.000+02:00

Happy Le B’s being reunited again!!

Welcome back, Jakers!!

Back with Jangano!

2009-04-06T12:23:00.000+02:00

Hi, this is Jake

I arrived in Nairobi on Saturday the 4^th of April 2009 at 19:30. As I got out of the plane and walked halfway across the airport, I couldn’t stop thinking about seeing everyone else. Just before I got to the baggage hall, I had to get a VISA. This was annoying as I am sure all of those travellers will know by now, especially if you have travelled to Africa recently. I was required to fill in a form, which I filled in, then stood in a huge queue but when I got to the end, they said that I needed another form! Anyway, I was so excited once I finished the form, I ran downstairs to get my bags, and looked out to where everyone was waiting and I saw my family there with a big Zimbabwean flag. Luckily, Vicki was still there and I had time to say hello, before I had to say goodbye.

For all those interested, school has been brilliant. My house, Matopos, is on top of a hill and so I have to walk up and down that at least three times a day, with bags. The sport is so much better than at HIS and it is good fun. The school is based on Outdoor Education and so there are a lot of good outdoor sports that are available, but this term I haven’t taken part in many of them, though I did do the Sole Survivor challenge, where you go out with only clothes and one can of food and have to survive 24 hours out there by yourself. Actually you were allowed to bring a sleeping bag, but being Zimbabwean, I didn’t. Then the only thing that you could do to make sure you didn’t get bored was to make things from whatever you found. I got a nasty surprise when I opened the can as the teacher organizing it had taken off the label so I didn’t know what it was, but I am guessing it was sadza and mince (mealie meal) or mashed potato and mince. Whatever it was, it was expired and tasted disgusting so I threw it away and didn’t eat anything the whole 24 hours which for me, is a record! It wasn’t too bad though and will give me good memories of boarding school.

Anyway it is great to be back with the Jangano team and I am sure you will hear more stories soon,

Jake

Two new videos

2009-04-05T18:56:00.000+02:00

Back into civilisation, in Nairobi, with a decent internet connection
and power for the laptops for the first time in a fortnight; so I've
cut and uploaded two new videos to our youtube channel and our website.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anzS02vG8t4 is a piece by Alexander
about our trusty Volcano kettle. http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=0jl8FAzuEn4 is a longer story about our days out in the Great Sand
Sea searching for a truck abandoned by the Long Range Desert Group in
1942.
Both of these will shortly by linked through the "Videos - going
down" page on our website at www.jangano2009.com and there will be
more videos coming up soon - including something from the Omo Valley
in Southern Ethiopia, a bit of off-road fun in the Luggah's of
northern Kenya, and the long-awaited "Mandy's Desert Salon"!

A favourite pair of boots

2009-04-01T17:50:00.001+02:00

Around the time of the first Gulf War, in early 1991, several
container-loads of US and British military kit turned up in the
bazaars of Peshawar, in Northern Pakistan. Korean war-vintage flak
jackets, baggy US-issue cargo pants, water bottles, compasses - and a
consignment of British Army desert boots. As a young reporter for the
Daily Telegraph, with a beat covering mujahedeen-controlled
Afghanistan, I was always on the lookout for good walking kit. The
lightweight, high sided, canvas and suede boots fitted perfectly -
with a stitched tongue so dust and stones didn't get in, they dried
fast, packed small, and when worn with normal trousers looked much
like normal suede shoes.

These boots first saw action in Jaffna, covering the war in Sri
Lanka, in the summer of '91; they covered three "Falls of Kabul" - in
'92, to the muj; '95, to the Taliban; and '01, to the Coalition. They
climbed mountains in Tibet and Pakistan and Kosovo. They held me
steady under fire in Bosnia, and Somalia, and half a dozen other
summer-time wars of the nineties and noughties. They waded through
swamp and march in Eastern Congo and the Zambezi Valley. They shod me
to interviews with Benazir Bhutto, and Fidel Castro, and Ahmed Shah
Masoud, and the mad, bad Hitler Hunzvi during Zimbabwe's farm
invasions. They kept me upright in the opium fields of Nangahar, and
amidst the bones and scraps of clothing at a massacre site in Eastern
Rwanda.

They were, in short, a favourite pair of boots.

They began to fall to pieces in the luggahs of northern Kenya, back
in January, near the beginning of the Jangano expedition. I had them
stitched together in Axum in Ethiopia, but by the time we reached the
Western desert they were, as it were, on their last legs. They are
now, it seems, irreperable - at least to me. I know Africa well
enough though, to know that nothing on this continent is irreperable.
So I will be leaving them here, in a glade of acacia trees under
mighty Mount Poi, a few kilometers from South Horr, where we have
camped the past two nights, confident that before the sound of our
engines has faded into silence after we leave tomorrow morning, some
Samburu warrior or passing goat herd will have picked them up, shaken
them out, sniffed them, and decided that as far as he is concerned,
they have at least another eighteen years of life left in them.

I wish him safe travels and a smooth road.

The Omo Valley (by Little Max)

2009-03-26T07:12:00.003+02:00

The Mursi People

We visited the Mursi People on Sunday in Mago nat. park. We saw the wimin with a lip plate in there bottom lips. When I first saw them I thort they were fake! The people were funey and strange becos the children were naked and some girls were showing there bumeys!

Bull Jumping

We went to a Hamer village to see the Hamer people. We saw the bull jumping. There were ten bulls lined up for the bull jumping. A naked man had to jump on to the bulls backs. The wimin were dancing around the circle. I was tiyed the hole time but I had a good day.

The Omo Valley (by Ben)

2009-03-26T07:08:00.001+02:00

Arriving in Mago National Park

Coming through Jinka, we met and picked up our guide Andrew and went to the Park. We found a brilliant campsite right by a river and under lovely lush trees. We saw some colobus monkeys and some very naughty baboons. It was about 42 degrees celsius so we had a nice refreshing splash in the river.

Visiting the Mursi People

The next morning we drove deeper into the park and entered a village - a Mursi village. When we got there, the first thing I saw were the mud and straw huts, then the men. The men wore goat skins as clothes and had their bodies covered in chalk. Then I saw the women....They looked odd, quite crazy and scary. Scary because of their bottom lips, which had clay plates inserted in them. All of them wanted their photo taken to get some money. They were quite aggressive with that. I didn't like it at all. We then went to the river by walking through a field of tall sorghum. Xander, Max and I swam in it whilst the dads and the local men were fishing with rods. Altogether it was an incredible day

Omo Valley tribes by Xander

2009-03-26T06:45:00.005+02:00

24 March. Omo Valley, Ethiopia

Today we visited a Mursi village. The ladies all had stretched lips and all had plates in their lips. Sometimes they took the plates out and their lips hung there.

They dressed in a nice way. The dresses on the ladies were made out of bark. On their heads they had beads and warthog tusks. The men carried AK-47's which is a cool gun. We went swimming in the river and fished with the Mursi and they used our rods.

Hamer village. Bull Jumping

When a Hamer man is ready to get married he has to do a Bull Jumping ceremony to show he is a man. When we got to the the man's village the people were singing, drinking, dancing and blowing horns. Then I noticed that everyone was moving to a shelter where they were making coffee. Ben Max and I played a game where we were all bushmen.

Young men whipped female relatives of the man who was going to jump the bulls. The women didn't scream, shout or cry. After a bit the whippers herded the bulls into a line of twelve and the man jumped them. He jumped onto them and ran across their backs six times.

moving on

2009-03-19T05:55:00.000+02:00

A quick update, to mark our position, as it were... We have just had
a couple of days in Addis, where we have been joined for the next two
weeks by Mands' sister Vicky - Hi Vicky, welcome to the Jangano
experience!

Today, we leave Addis with cars cleaned, boxes repacked and laundry
done, and head down towards the wild and extraordinary Omo Valley in
southern Ethiopia, where tribes of pastoralists live virtually
untouched by the modern world. Then south again, into northern Kenya,
around the end of the month, to Lake Turkana; and Nairobi around 4th
April, in time to meet Jake off the plane from school.

We'll update as and when we can, but contact will surely be sparse
and sporadic for the next couple of weeks.

Halfway point

2009-03-15T08:04:00.006+02:00

We celebrated Ben and Gus's birthdays this past week - happy birthday, guys! A couple of fellow overlanders, David and Bridget, from Somerset in the UK, who are travelling across Africa in a Land Rover, whistled up a birthday cake in the car park at Aswan harbour as we waited to load our vehicles onto the ferry south to Sudan.

Cake eaten, paperwork completed, and several hours spent waiting in the sun, we waved goodbye to Jambanja and Mahali, and the Landy, and watched, with some trepidation, as our beloved vehicles sailed away down Lake Nasser on a rusty barge. Then we boarded the rusty barge that masquerades as a passenger ferry, and sailed away into the sunset ourselves.
Now we are about to leave Khartoum, south again to Ethiopia, crossing the bridge between the two halves of the Jangano expedition. We've been on the road for almost exactly three months, and have the same to run again.

. A couple of days of refit and "housekeeping" in Addis, and then the next big phase of our adventure - the Omo Valley, one of the wildest places on the planet!

Nubian village life by Nicky

2009-03-15T07:39:00.015+02:00

On our way down through northern Sudan we meandered through some picturesque Nubian villages where life hasn't changed for hundreds of years and loved the whitewashed walled compounds with their colourful doorways set amongst date palm groves and brilliant green fields along the Nile.

Apparently the white donkeys of this area are the strongest in Sudan and therefore much sought after.

In every village large pottery water jars are arranged by the roadside for thirsty travellers.

A group of brightly clad women stopped to greet us on their way to a wedding.

Luxor by Big Max

2009-03-13T20:38:00.001+02:00

I just looked at the blog for the first time in ages as we have just arrived in Khartoum. And realised that nobody has written about Luxor. I really enjoyed my time there and I plan to write a couple of pieces about it.

Im sure some people must think that endlessly going around ancient sites must completely bore most memebers of the Jangano Team. But it doesnt. Even the three younger boys never complain. They seem to possess an amazing amount of energy that just isn't dimmed by sightseeing.

And Luxor is one place where you have to be in the mood. Pretty much the first temple we saw was the Temple of Karnak which is a brilliant complex. Massive, 64 hectares of columns, statues and obelisks. It really lit the fire for all of us and showed me that there is more to the place than the tombs in the Valley of the Kings.

The city of Thebes was the most magnificent in ancient Egypt and held the strongest dynasties. Rameses II, Rameses lll, Tutankhamun, and dozens of other mighty Pharoahs were based there. They built like beavers. Temples of Amun Ra here, statues of themselves there and millions of other monuments. It's just incredible what is there and what is still being excavated.

The mayor of Luxor has said that he wants to make his town into the greatest open air museum in the world. And if there is one place where that is possible then Luxor is that place!

Into Sudan

2009-03-09T08:42:00.004+02:00

Many of our friends have expressed some qualms about us crossing into Sudan again, following the ICC ruling against President Bashir last week. We are confident that we won't have a problem, and our Sudanese friends assure us that there is nothing to worry about. We will travel fairly quickly to Khartoum - probably only taking a couple of days to cross the north of the country this time - then another day or two out to Ethiopia. So our exposure to the country on this part of the journey will be very limited. We'll post an update once we get to Khartoum, and again once we are in Ethiopia next weekend.

Susan Tsvangarai

2009-03-09T08:36:00.003+02:00

We were stunned to hear of the death of Susan Tsvangarai in a car crash back home in Zimbabwe. It is a terrible tragedy for Morgan and their children, and for the nation.

We send her family heartfelt wishes of strength and perseverance at this awful time. Morgan's task of leading the reconstruction of Zimbabwe was always going to be immensely difficult. It is hard to imagine how he will manage it now, without Susan by his side. But we are sure that all those who wish to see Zimbabwe peaceful and prosperous will ensure that Morgan gets all the assistance he needs now.

New Videos!

2009-03-09T07:31:00.004+02:00

I've put up six "video postcards" from our time in Egypt on our website. There's a lazy day on the Nile, our arrival in Cairo, Ben's exploration of a pyramid, our visit to El Alamein cemetery, dipping our toes in the Med at Marsa Matruh, and finally an impression of our days driving in the Great Sand Sea.

The first five are on these pages of our website -

http://www.jangano2009.com/video-gallery.php

along with several other videos from the first leg of our expedition. The Great Sand Sea vid is on the new "video gallery - going down" page at our website

www.jangano2009.com

which is where all our new videos will be available.

You can also see all the Jangano2009 vids on our youtube channel, by clicking the "our YouTube channel" button on the right of this page.

Enjoy!

Hey! from Clive

2009-03-08T16:59:00.000+02:00

Hi Guys

I'm sure you don't want the whole world reading my update, just sent through to you!!?

Sorry about that, I thought that I was sending it to an e-mail address, but you have to understand, that I am only a simple farmer here in Zim!!

But I'm sure you can all have a quick read, and then get rid of it off your site!!

Cheers for now & happy travels!

Clive

Exercising on the move

2009-03-08T11:16:00.007+02:00

We're often asked how we get enough exercise on the road. Here are some of the ways we keep ourselves fit and healthy.

1. Towing the cars. By hand.

When the children need a bit of a run around, we stop the cars and hitch them to the kids for a tow. It also gives the engines a chance to cool down.

2. Jumping on Big Max.

One of our favourite exercises. Certain hefty grownups have had to be banned from it, due to complaints from Big Max's ribcage, but it never ceases to amuse the younger members of the team.

3. French cricket.

A perennial favourite on HarfordAdams/Le Breton expeditions. Our rule is that we play until we lose the ball. Some of our recent games in the desert have been very short indeed!

4. Gymnastics.

Sandy Mandy's desert gymnastics classes have proved very popular with the team. Here Ben tries the technically challenging Reverse Teapot with a Double Tuck manoeuvre.

Big Max having a go at the handstand.

5. Graffiti in the sand. An unconventional but effective means of exercising some of the junior team members.

The graffiti.

How it was written.

6. Yoga.

Not sure what this was supposed to be, but fortunately no mechanical recovery equipment was actually required to get Mands out of it, although the winch had been primed......

Inside a pyramid by Max A

2009-03-08T07:21:00.002+02:00

I know that this is a little late but a trip into a Gizan pyramid is worth a write up.

The entrance of the Great Pyramid of Khufu is a little unprepossessing, just a hole in the wall. A short climb up the wall brings you to the beginning.

From there the adventure begins. The first corridor is wide and high with a sandy floor and feels like more of a chamber than a secret passage.

After that it becomes more intrepid; the second passage is dark and narrower and I had to stoop to get through. I can get claustrophobic at times and I began to feel the first stirrings of it there.

The massive causeway comes next, 84 metres long, 12 metres high and 5 metres wide. My sense of awe compounded by the 45 degree slope. You actually feel like it points to the heavens. It was there that I first felt the weight of stones on top of me from the atmosphere and I imagined it all collapsing.

This is not a good idea and I don’t recommend it to anyone as it is sure to excite claustrophobia. But I pushed it out of my mind and continued.

The heat levels are rising from the moment you step inside but only become unpleasant at this point. Only 150 people are allowed in every day and without this limit it would be unhealthily warm. Even with the restraint my mind was cast back to Hugo Fircks’ tobacco barns where 78 degree heats were used to dry tobacco. It wasn’t that bad at Giza but it was rather stifling.

At the top of the causeway there is a short but extremely low tunnel. I was bent double going through. And as I can’t even touch my toes this was rather uncomfortable. Fortunately it didn’t last long and rather abruptly opened up into the burial chamber. This climb had brought us to about two thirds of the way up the pyramid.

It was hot in there, uncomfortably so and we shuffled over to the giant stone sarcophagus. The only memorabilia left inside. There were some inscriptions on the walls but I didn’t hang around to study those. I was baking in a massive oven.

The route out was exactly the same but slightly quicker, everyone looking forward to the (relatively) cool air outside.

This is how I felt inside but once I was outside I finally appreciated the greatness of the ancient Egyptians. Their knowledge, their belief and their grandeur! Will we ever see anything like it again?

Xander heading off with a spade and loo roll.....

GOING TO THE LOO IN THE DESERT! (by Mands)

2009-03-07T22:53:00.001+02:00

A question almost everyone surely would love to ask, but dare not for fear of being too personal?!

There is not a lot, however, that escapes the “too personal” when travelling in close companionship with others.

Especially when you’re on the road for 6 months together!

And especially when camping!!

Camping, under any circumstances, generally breaks down most of the “too personal” barriers. We in the Jangano team have most assuredly passed into the realm of sharing personal information about our bodily functions. Many a conversation around the campfire has been inspired by a noisy release of gas from one of us – I mean, from one of the children.

Peeing is the easy part. Well, if you’re male, that is. It has been somewhat more challenging for Nicky and myself, but we have been creative in our use of kikoyis (so long as we can persuade someone to stand by dutifully holding the cloth up, whilst looking away!) But we have managed admirably, though I say so myself.

The more tricky aspect of ablutions – the unmentionable – has actually proved to be quite a source of fun and amusement. One has to be prepared, however, for there are a few essentials that one cannot complete the exercise successfully without. These include the obvious loo roll, a small shovel (optional) and a box of matches or a lighter (compulsory). One can then confidently march out of camp to find the nearest -or furthest- bush, tree island or sand dune to hide behind. It’s always best if you can find a spot with a view, of course, such as atop a stunning sand dune, or amongst giant wind-sculptured boulders. It can often be a glorious moment! We can usually gauge the level of success by the facial expression of the returnee. Smiling: good; glum: not so good. If there has been a couple of days without success, we have discovered the perfect recipe: a handful of those delicious fresh dates that can be found at any Egyptian souq.

Yes indeed, us Harford-Adams/ Le Breton campers are really getting to know each other at a new level!

The Western Desert

2009-03-07T18:13:00.004+02:00

You'll notice that our latest batch of postings from, respectively, Aswan and Luxor (Robert and Gus sorting out vehicles in Aswan, everyone else enjoying themselves in Luxor) have something of a desert theme. This is because the majority of our last two weeks have been spent in the Western Desert of Egypt, and it has been a truly inspiring experience for all of us. There can't be many places in the world quite like it....

Although it was something we were anyway hoping to do, a chance meeting in Cairo with friends of friends opened the door to a whole seam of opportunities we hadn't considered. Without a second thought, Sandy and PJ (said Friends of Friends) gave us, in short order, a map of the desert, a series of GPS waypoints and a suggested itinerary, a spare sand ladder and two more jerry cans. It was an act of exceptional generosity, as a result of which we were able to embark on some really quite adventurous, "out there" kind of desert travel.

After a flying visit to the El Alamein museum (just to get us in the mood), and a very sobering walk around the Commonwealth war graves site there, we made our way to Siwa, the famous old oasis that, amongst other things, played host to the Long Range Desert Group during the second World War. It put us firmly in the mood for some off-road adventuring of our own, and before long we were heading off on a compass bearing to find an abandoned LRDG vehicle in the middle of the Great Sand Sea to the south of Siwa.

We had several days of wonderfully enjoyable and exciting travel in the desert, during which we saw nobody else at all, and really felt at times as if we were the only people left on the planet. We found our LRDG vehicle, too, and in not much different condition from when it was abandoned 68 years ago. That gave us quite a sense of achievement, locating one small piece of rusting metal in the middle of a vast desert!

We had, on many occasions, to lower the tyre pressures almost to nothing, get out the sand ladders and dig and push to get our vehicles through the sand. But nobody complained, and it soon became apparent that the kids were enjoying the digging so much they were positively willing the cars to get stuck. I think I may have been like that when I was a kid, too....

Taking the air out of the tyres....

and pumping it back in again.....

We had some breathtaking campsites along the way, and huddled up in our sleeping bags each evening (for it was VERY cold at night!) content in the knowledge that there was nobody for miles around us in all directions.

Things didn't always go perfectly, of course, and Robert and I had to perform an emergency operation on the handbrake drum in Mahali, which decided to give up the ghost in the middle of the desert.

Naturally I don't expect the handbrake to work (functioning handbrakes being, to my mind, an entirely superfluous cosmetic attachment), but I'd rather they didn't screech and howl like a banshee. When this one started doing that, it had to go. Just as well. When we opened it up, it was in many more pieces than it's manufacturer had ever intended....

Now, sadly, we leave the Western Desert and turn back into Sudan. Although we have many more excitements ahead of us, and much fun still to be had, it's hard to imagine anything else on our route will give us quite us much pleasure and satisfaction as we gained from these few days. Thanks Sandy and PJ for your help in setting us up, and thanks too to the gallant men of the LRDG who stayed with us as inspiration throughout the trip!

New Technologies

2009-03-07T18:05:00.003+02:00

Bizarre though it may seem on a trans-Africa overland trip, one of Mands' goals for this trip is to become more computer literate (her being the only one of us grown-ups lucky enough to have a job that doesn't require her to sit in front of a computer from dawn to dusk!).

Last week she took delivery of a brand new laptop, over which she is slowly starting to assert a small degree of control. By the time we reach Cape Town, she'll be an old pro for sure! In the interim, however, there will inevitably be a few glitches. The e-mail below, which she meant to send privately to Robert but inadvertently posted on our blog site instead, may, I suspect, be one of them!

Personally, I take it as a sign that she's doing her utmost to become a technohead like the rest of us. But perhaps it's her way of subtly telling me that I won't actually be getting a Volcano stove for my birthday this year! Oh well, I have a few birthdays ahead of me yet.......

Gus XX

Driving in the Desert (By Ben) With Pictures

2009-03-07T17:48:00.004+02:00

Getting the cars out of the sand is a real team effort!

It’s been fun coming down some of the dunes. Personally, getting stuck is really good fun. We have to get everybody out of the cars and digging under the wheels to move the sand out of the way.

Jambanja got extremely stuck at one point, when we were coming over a steep dune and it got stuck on the top. We had to dig not only under the wheels, but everywhere else also.

Jambanja's wheels spinning on top of a dune.

Every time Daddy stops the car, we love to jump out and play around in the sand – unless we’re stuck, of course!

It can get very hot and on one side of our car the window is broken, so we can’t open it. But when we do open it, it can’t close again and then it gets very cold because it’s very windy. Daddy is a good driver in the desert, because he’s experienced this kind of sand-driving before. The desert sand is sometimes hard and sometimes soft. We can go fast on the hard sand, but we go slow in the soft sand.

Driving fast on the hard sand

The Pyramids by Little Max & Ben

2009-03-06T21:37:00.001+02:00

Little Max: I thought they were very good. You have to climb up a lot inside the biggest, the actual Great pyramid. We climbed ladders up through teensy tunnels. We didn’t get to the very top, but half way up there was the burial chamber. It was hot in there and a bit hard to breathe! We saw a sarcophagus with a broken lid, but it was empty.

We didn’t have time to go to the small pyramid, but we did go to the Sphinx. It wasn’t as big as I was expecting and I thought you could go inside it, but I was wrong. Two sarcophagi were just behind the feet of it. I loved the Sphinx and the pyramids! I would like to go back some day.

Ben: I felt really happy that we went there and grateful that we are able to go there. Around the pyramids, there were lots of tourists and guides and camels and a lot of plastic bags flying around in the air! At Giza, there were the 3 great pyramids. They were probably the biggest I will ever see in my life and they are very famous. They’re magical.

Inside the biggest pyramid, I felt happy, excited, scared and annoyed. Annoyed, because they took our cameras away and we could only have them if we had a guide and we didn’t want a guide. It was really steep going up to the middle of the big pyramid, which is as high as you can go. In the burial chamber, it was really hot; I felt as if I would collapse and there was a massive stone coffin with half its lid off. There wasn’t anything inside, though. It was a bit disappointing to come all the way into the pyramid and up and up and up and being worried that we might fall, and then getting into the room full of tourists and finding an empty stone coffin! They should have left the body inside, but taken all the treasure, to make it more realistic and more exciting!

Desert Adventures by Alexander

2009-03-06T12:13:00.004+02:00

Getting Stuck

We got stuck about ten, twelve times. Once we got bogged so badly we
had to get the Hi Lift Jack out and lift the car up and dig. We also
had to use the tow rope to tow the car out.

LRDG truck

We found a Long Range Desert Group truck which me and big Max slept in. It had a machine gun holder and six ammo closets. We played a soldier game in it. The underneath was in brilliant condition. The top was OK but rusty - I mean RUSTY. The bonnet was missing and it was very deeply dug in.

The Dunes

The dunes are so smooth and they moved so fast and the edges were so sharp they were brilliant. The tops were like snakes and you got sunlight on one side and shadow on the other. The longest dune line in the world is 120 kms long and we drove along it!

Desert fox

We saw a desert fox. He ate one of out sweets. He or she was beautiful. It came to our camp and drank water from one of our cups. And he wasn't at all afraid of us. It looked a lot my my Granny and Grandpa's dog Pippin with long ears and a long bushy tail.

Sleeping Out.

We sometimes slept out under the stars and on some nights it was warm, some cold. My Dad taught me how to use Orion and the Plough to find the North Star.

New video

2009-02-20T08:17:00.001+02:00

We've uploaded a new video - shot on the ferry from Wadi Halfa to Aswan - onto our youtube channel, and linked it to the website. The youtube URL is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khRRAKDQXSQ

Jangano gets to the pyramids!

2009-02-20T07:52:00.005+02:00

Yesterday, in a sandstorm, we made it to Giza to see the Pyramids. Which (to my surprise) are as astonishing as they are said to be. The boys will write about our trip in the next couple of days, but here are a few pictures, for the record, of the Jangano Team at the Pyramids.

This afternoon we are heading to Alexandria with Rick and Kate and Anna, Joe and Sam for the weekend: then on to El Alamein to pay our respects, and out into the Great Sand Sea for ten days of desert adventuring.

Which we will tell you all about as it happens!

Jangano at The Great Pyramid!

15 February 2009, by Alexander

2009-02-17T08:33:00.007+02:00

We are now in Cairo staying at Kate and Rick's house with their dog, their parrot, their two guinea pigs and Sam, Joe and Anna their children.

Today I woke up and played Lego. I went down to breakfast I had Frosties then we went to a huge castle. We went to a mosk (mosque) which was quite impressive. We went to another huge mosk which must have been a couple of hundred feet tall.

The we went to the prison where you looked through the bars and saw dummies of the criminals. We got some crisps then we went to the museum. We saw two fighter jets and six or seven tanks. I saw a missile about 10 meters long and two DUCK (amphibious cars) and a bulldozer. Inside the museum we saw loads of gun and models.

A Quick One on Rugby

2009-02-15T09:22:00.001+02:00

Who would have thought that you'd have to drive over 10 000 kms across a whole continent to watch a game of Six Nations rugby. Well thats what we've done.

7 weeks after leaving Harare we arrived in Cairo (evidently) and last night sat down in front of the telly. Forget pyramids and all that stuff. We just came here for the rugby. And what a match it was. Gripping, England against Wales with everyone convinced that Wales would triumph. Despite this we were all infected by Rick's warped sense of optimism and we all screamed and shouted at the tv at every oppurtunity. No referee decision or England mess up went unpunished by us. Despite the score line (23-15 to Wales) it was highly enjoyable and summed up all the best aspects of 'Jangano'.

Max

Egypt From Above - an unlikely perspective (Mands)

2009-02-15T00:32:00.001+02:00

This was indeed an unlikely perspective. I had never intended to find myself in a plane again on this Trip, but last weekend I received news that my Dad was unwell, so of course - being in the extremely fortuitous position of northernmost country to Europe - I jumped on a plane to England for a weekend with my parents.

So there I was, seeing Egypt from Above. We had joyfully been reunited with the cars the previous day, so the Team had set out in our old faithfuls six hours previously from Aswan. In a uniquely Mands-type calculation, based entirely on guesstimation, I fancied I might even be able to spot Jangano below me, roughly half an hour into the flight around Luxor. Afterall, there is only one road that follows the Nile from one end of the country up to the other. How fanciful! How naive!

Of course, the plane was flying far too high for me to spot anything so small as our two cars, but I had been classically deceived - my mind had interpreted the optical illusion below me as being much closer than it was. I sat transfixed by the window, looking upon the baked mud-pie below, broken up by centuries of weathering, marking the desert with cracks and crevasses. Hang on a minute! I'm falling for the trick again - these 'cracks' in the parched land are actually huge deep valleys. Everything is on such a massive scale down there - a perspective we simply don't see from the car's 2D angle. Egypt from Above is so much more of a dry, dusty desert than I had imagined.

Except where the majestic Nile wends its magical way, of course. And it truly is magical, for in the midst of this endless cracked land, there is an extraordinary lush green band searing through it. Nothing exists beyond the emerald green margins bordering either side of the River Nile. I am in awe. In fact, I am in a daydream. Hypnotized by the nilotic snake slithering through the country below, I imagine how the others are doing in the cars, driving this route oblivious of the 3D enormity of Egypt.

I am stirred suddenly by recognizable landmarks that appear: a factory of sorts, albeit in the middle of nowhere. I look to the hazy horizon and see the beginnings of civilisation. Isolated patches, surrounded by sandy desert. A couple of roads, but not a single tree yet to be seen. I've lost sight of the Nile. Maybe it's on the other side? Another stretch of Nothingness: just flat and featureless. Oh! Now it's cut in two by a 6-lane highway, out of nowhere! I am instantly excited, as the thought of possibly sighting the famous pyramids at Giza leaps into my consciousness.

The plane descends, coming round. I still don't see the sprawling mess of Cairo - instead, there is more desert. How bizarre?! I think I hear the undercarriage activated; are we going to land in the middle of the desert? We turn again - I am now disorientated. As we approach the airport, details of Egyptian life below reveal themselves to me. I see flat-topped roofs, construction sites, mosques with their minarets, squalid blocks of flats, roads jam-packed with stand-still cars. Welcome to Cairo!

We land and everyone claps. I join in, not because I feel relieved to be on solid ground, but because I am grateful for the stunning show I've just watched of Egypt from Above.

mea culpa...

2009-02-14T22:27:00.001+02:00

Well, I think "oops" isn't really good enough, is it? Thanks, my
love, for being such a good travelling companion for a long day and
many miles....

and Happy Valentine's day.

xxx

St Paul's monastery, Red Sea, Egypt

2009-02-14T22:00:00.003+02:00

The inner courtyard at the monastery of St Paul

The 6th century stone refectory table

The tower where monks used to hide from Bedouin nomad raiders

In the sepulchre of St Paul, where he died and was buried by St Anthony in about 328AD

My romantic Valentine's Day by Nicky

2009-02-14T21:35:00.003+02:00

Last night at 11.30 Robert suddenly realised that he had left our passports at the hotel we had stayed at in Hurghada on the Red Sea Coast the previous evening. What a tempting prospect...... Imagine beautiful white sands and blue skies, imagine bijoux little hotels set amongst gently waving palm trees, imagine cocktails served to you whilst lounging by an eternity pool. Now erase that mental image and visualise a half completed concrete strip mall stretching for 10s of kilometres along a coastline that is strewn with barbed wire warning of landmines, and plastic bags. Tacky hotels that compete with overpriced restaurants and shops for space on the endless roads and roundabouts. It wasn't much fun on first viewing. Today we returned for a second look. (R and I) left Cairo and our lovely warm comfy bed in Rick and Kate Phillips' wonderful home at 5.30am. 4 1/2 hours later we duly collected the passports - which were safe and sound at the hotel. And, lucky things, we got a third look at the horrors of Hurghada and much of the rest of the Red Sea coast (a mixture of oil tankers, building sites, gas fields, ceramics factories spewing dirty smoke, military radar stations, enormous wind farms... you get the picture) as we headed back to Cairo after a quick restorative coffee (a round trip of nearly 1000 km).

But silver linings and all that.. it meant that we had the time to visit St Paul's monastery, one of the earliest monasteries in the world dating back to the 4th century. It is a Coptic monastery: the Coptic church split from the rest of the Eastern Orthodox church because the Copts believe that Christ was purely divine and not also human. We fortuitously gave a lift to an architect who was bringing some blueprints to the monastery and he arranged for a wonderful English speaking monk, Father Matthew, to guide us around the original cave where St Paul lived for 90 years in the 3rd to 4th century AD. He (St P) lived on dates and a half loaf of bread that a raven brought each day. When he died St Anthony instructed the two lions present to dig a grave and sent St Paul's palm frond garment to the patriarch at Alexandria; reputedly many miracles were performed in its presence. The chapels, including St Paul's cave, are adorned with beautiful icons and frescoes of saints and martyrs: all the paintings are at least 200 years old and many nearer 600 years old. Superficially they resemble the iconography of Ethiopian orthodox churches but a lighter less stylised technique is used

We saw the grinding mills (some of the mechanisms dating from the 14th century) where the monks ground their flour until recently and we ate freshly baked bread rolls cooked by novice monks. We drank from the original well spring which provides only 4 cubic metres per day - insufficient for 85 resident monks and many 100s of day visitors, and now supplemented by piped water from the Nile, 100km away. They make wine too, from grapes grown in the Nile Valley. We didnt get to sample that but had a cup of tea instead. The original refectory dates from 6th century and judging by the layer of dust over it, possibly hasn't been used since.

The newly constructed monk cells and cathedral, and restorations have been done traditionally and sympathetically, using the local stone and blending into their surroundings. Sad that the same principles have not guided the coastal developments. We got back to Cairo in time for a delicious supper and an exciting if ultimately unsatisfactory England-Wales rugby match.

We're in Cairo

2009-02-14T21:12:00.001+02:00

We've finally made it to Cairo! Halfway point and we're really happy
to be here.
Max

The Cars Are Back!

2009-02-11T18:07:00.001+02:00

Today our best friends came back.
No its not a whole load of my school chums. It's that Jambanja and Mahali are back in Jangano hands. They have been under the control of Sudanese business men and then Egyptian bureaucrats for the last week but have just been cleared from customs.
When dad and Gus drove the cars up the ramp onto the barge in Wadi Halfa we were apprehensive as to how long it would be before we got them back. The infamous unreliability of the Lake Nasser shiping companies held true and it was three days before they actually pulled out of port. This was because the captain decided to load 200 tonnes of cement onto the barge. Then they strapped four barges together with some fishing line and pushed them down the lake with one motor.As a result it took 2 and a half days to complete the journey.
It is well known that bringing a car into Egypt takes at least two days so we prepared ourselves.It was Gus and dad with the amazing Karmal fixing and 'backsheeshing' (bribing) for two days that finally got our cars out of 'prison'.
And what excitement it was when we saw two laden Toyota Land Cruisers coming down the road. We are free, no more taking nag and carriages or knackered Peugot 504 taxis to get around.
We're leaving Aswan tomorow and heading up to Cairo. I'm actually really feeling a need to move on now after a week here.
Max

New video

2009-02-09T23:00:00.001+02:00

There's a new video up on the video page of our website, and on the
jangano2009 youtube channel. It's a story about crossing the Nubian
desert. When Max and I edited it we set it to "Paris, Texas", theme
by Ry Cooder, but unfortunately some clever chappy at youtube spotted
the copyright infringement and so it is now "muted". But the pictures
are pretty.

Our Day on A Felluca (by Max, Ben and Xander)

2009-02-09T16:25:00.002+02:00

Max Le B: Yesterday, we went on a felucca. It’s a sleeping boat, because the Captain can sleep in it; he sleeps under where they put up the big flag. We went down the Nile. I enjoyed myself because we blew some wind with our mouths on the sail to make it go! We overtook another felucca. At lunchtime, we ate some watermelon and we had a special treat: some coke! We had fish for lunch; I ate 4 eyeballs and they weren’t very nice, but I was just hungry. I got off the boat and had a little swim. We threw the fish bones in the River Nile. Maybe a croc will eat them? The sun was setting by the time we came back.

Benedict: Yesterday we spent the whole day sailing on the River Nile. At first, I was a bit worried we were going to sink. Also, I have lots of cuts, so maybe I’d get bilharzias. But in the end, nothing happened like that and I felt really great. We had a good refreshing swim, where there wasn’t any bilharzias. Fortunately, there wasn’t any crocs; we reckon they’ve all been killed. Our felucca had this big king size mattress on all the wood, which we lay on most of the time. We played games and ate and read and listened to music. We played Sudoku and wrote diaries. It was so fun and so relaxing. Captain Kiwi and his ship mate made us a brilliant lunch, just like a buffet! My best part of the day was the swimming. I loved our day on the felucca!

Alexander: Yesterday, we went on a felucca. A felucca is like a big boat with a huge sail and a very tall mast. The captain’s name was Captain Kiwi and he gave us some lunch, which was fish and rice and salad. We stopped at a little island place and the captain and his mate cooked our fish. Me and my friend Ben swam in the Nile and played Lego on the beach. It gave me an influence to maybe be a sailor when I grow up! My mum and Ben and me stroked a little donkey, which was cute. We found a tiny, tiny shell. Me and Ben played a game where we were like cabin boys on a ship! That was quite fun! We saw for some reason, lots of fire engines and ambulances going along the road. We saw party boats with loads of people on, which we hoped was nothing to do with that. We were on the boat for about 7 and a half hours, relaxing and playing games on our i-pods and listening to music. It was a really good day and really fun.

Being a kid in Sudan (by Little Max)

2009-02-07T17:04:00.000+02:00

Being a kid in Sudan isn't bad. Firstly, since most people there aren't that tall, you don't feel as short as you do in other countries....

Another cool thing is that, becasue we slept out in the desert a lot, nobody really cared if went to bed in our pyjamas or our clothes.

And nobody really cared how dirty we got either. Which was just as well, as some of us got VERY dirty indeed!

When Mummy wasn't looking, we got to play some really great games. This was my favourite - it was called "Let's Pretend Alexander's a Donkey". It is a great game.

Another thing about the desert is that all the grown-ups become more relaxed and they don't seem to notice all the dirt and stuff any more. Maybe it's because they're also really dirty....

The best thing about being in the desert in Sudan, though, was that everywhere we went, without exception, they have these awesome great big sand pits, which are free for anybody who wants to use them. We could play as much as we wanted, wherever we wanted.

Oh yes, and the last thing about the desert in Sudan is that it turned Daddy back into the Biggest Kid of all. Look at this photo.

I love the desert in Sudan and I can't wait to go back!

Rest and Relaxation by Nicky

2009-02-07T13:53:00.004+02:00

We've been in Aswan for two days now, waiting for our vehicles to arrive by barge from Sudan. Well, actually we are waiting for them to leave Wadi Halfa (where we caught our passenger ferry to Egypt) and then they take 24 hours to cross Lake Nasser followed by approximately 2 days of bureaucracy to release them from customs. What a shame then that we are stuck in a place with views across the Nile, full of feluccas which are little sailing sloops with huge triangular sails (photos to follow soon), fantastic ruined temples, a bustling but friendly and relaxed souk, museums, swimming pools, ATMs, excellent food (esp. shwarma and felafels), strong coffee and karkady (hibiscus tea) and great internet access! Big Max has been enjoying the freedom of being able to stroll off to check Facebook and to buy clothes and food and get chatting with the shopkeepers. After Zimbabwe of course, this place feels like an absolute shrine to commercialism. Talking of which, people look at us unbelievingly when we say we are from Zimbabwe - sure that with our white faces we can't really be from Africa.

As ever the little boys attract a lot of attention - not all of it completely desirable! They are enjoying a bit of downtime: the most successful item in the games box has been Alexander's huge crate of lego, which of course we complained about when we were packing back in Harare, but which provides the boys with hours of constructive entertainment. Number two top toy has probably been the set of carefully selected toy cars and tanks he brought (including a bright pink Lotus Esprit that my brother Mark might remember). We got the cricket bat out in the desert, and Max pumped up the soccer ball to play with the friendly youth we met on our first afternoon in Sudan. He and I have enjoyed a few games of Scrabble: I better sharpen up because he beat me for the first time (I think) a few days ago. Harry Potter has also been a great inspiration for the boys imaginative play (lots of scrambling on rocks, shouting 'Expelliarmus' and 'Expecto Patronum' and searching for suitable wands - which as you can imagine is something of a magical feat when you are in a desert with no trees). Ben and Alexander are ploughing their way through all seven volumes. And I have to admit I have also re-read the entire series since the beginning of the trip, with greater enjoyment, and less irritation at the grammatical glitches, than the first time. Maybe thats the effect of travelling and becoming more relaxed and mellow by the day....

Out of Sudan - Day 45

2009-02-03T16:43:00.001+02:00

Ok, well, we said we'd try to upload something to the blog every day.
And we would, if we could... but for the last seven days we have been
travelling hard across the Nubian Desert in northern Sudan. And I
know, from painful experience, that computers don't like deserts.
Now we are in Wadi Halfa, where the road north through Sudan runs out
into Lake Nasser, and where the Jangano team will be boarding a ferry
up the lake to Aswan in Egypt. We are staying in the airy, leafy
courtyard home of a Nubian family under a veranda roofed with split
palm trees and cardboard boxes - it doesn't rain often in Wadi Halfa
(the last time was in 1996!).
We moved out from Khartoum last Tuesday, after four days staying with
Shaun and Amy and their lads Oscar and Noah. Cleaned the cars,
changed oil, sorted out permits, did a ton of laundry - the four days
of "housekeeping" it seems we need when we hit a big city and set
about catching up with ourselves. Without Shaun and Amy's hospitality
it would have been a whole lot harder. Thanks guys!
Since then we have more or less followed the Nile on it's "big bend"
- where the Nile turns north, then south, then north again in a
thousand kilometer 'S' across the Nubian desert. All along the
river's length here we have seen the remains of four thousand years
of civilisation - Pharaonic, Nubian, Kushite, Roman, early Christian,
and Islamic. Strange elongated pyramids, like the ones at Jebel
Barkel and Meroe; the lion temple at Musawarrat, built by the
Egyptians two thousand years ago - and across a shallow valley, the
sprawling great compound, possibly once used as a training area for
elephants.
At Old Dongola we clambered through the fortress of the ninth century
Christian kings of Nubia. And in a village on the east bank of the
Nile we passed a small, battered, forgotten Meroitic pyramid, a
memorial to the British soldiers of Kitchener's Army who died in the
recapture of the Sudan from the Mahdi a hundred and fifty years ago.
History everywhere.
Sudan is one of Africa's most brutalised countries - at war with
itself, in the South, in Darfur, and in the Khordofan region pretty
much without cease since Independence. Yet strangely it is also one
of the safest countries in Africa to travel through, so long as the
traveller sticks to a wide corridor either side of the Nile. So
almost uniquely in these troubled times it is possible to camp wild
in the desert without fear of militants or other nasties. Which is
exactly what we have done - seven days of desert driving (and on one
day, a hundred kilometer, straight-line transect across the desert,
eight hours of startling arid beauty, white dunes, pale golden pans,
hard black rock outcrops, and at the end of it a delicious wadi with
a stand of thorn trees at the foot of razor-edged dunes).
We have come into Wadi Halfa dusty and dessicated, the cars carrying
kilos of sand in every crevice, exhilarated and exhausted, with a
real sense of achievement.
And also a knowledge that we are at the end of an era. Everywhere
along the hard road north from Nairobi to Wadi Halfa we have passed
road building teams. Half the construction equipment in Africa must
be deployed here, and the snaking ribbon of black tarmac is evident
along the route. In a few months time - perhaps even by the end of
this year - it will be possible to drive from Nairobi to Wadi Halfa -
and therefore from Cape Town to Cairo - almost without leaving the tar.
Which will be excellent for Africa, of course - fast roads and
reliable cellphone signals will transform the opportunities for those
who live and trade along this route. But there is a sense of
something passing, too. By the time our children are old enough to
drive the length of Africa, they won't necessarily need a 4x4 - it
will probably be possible to do this journey in a Mercedes.
So tomorrow we take the ferry to Egypt - approaching the apex of our
trans-African parabola. On up the Nile to Cairo, the children already
excited about the prospect of the Valley of the King, "proper"
pyramids, and the Sphinx. Across the Nile delta to Alexandria -
and then the long road back home...

Photos - Northern Sudan

2009-02-03T16:32:00.001+02:00

Mahali crosses the Nile on a ferry

At the Pyramids below Jebel Bekhar, Karima, Sudan

Gus and Robert surveying the Nubian Desert

The Jangano team, Karima, Sudan

Desert Sunset, Nubian desert

Dawn in the desert, the day of the Great Transect

The Nubian Desert

Mands and Nicky presenting perfect pyramids at sunrise (downward dog, to yoga initiates)

Mahali on the piste (English joke)

Nubian Desert camp, day 6 of the crossing

Photos - Khartoum to The Nile

2009-02-03T16:24:00.000+02:00

9th Century painting of children being rescued from the Fiery
Furnace, Khartoum Museum

Photos from Northern Ethiopia

2009-02-03T16:18:00.000+02:00

The cave Church of St , outside Lalibela.

In The Desert - by Ben

2009-02-03T14:18:00.000+02:00

The desert is VERY hot and sandy. There isn't much greenery, but
there are quite a lot of rocks. It doesn't rain very much. There are
lots of little desert animals like gerbals, desert foxes, camels and
insects. There aren't many people here, but the one that do, live by
water in oases. We have been in the desert for seven days. In one of
those days we only drove in the desert and saw the road once. When we
were doing that I went on the side of the car the whole day (mostly).
I have only slept in a tent 2/7 times. The other four times I have
slept outside on a yoga mat with my pillow and my sleeping bag under
the stars.

Health and fitness by Nicky

2009-01-27T06:35:00.002+02:00

It seems to be customary for travel bloggers to give their readers a blow by blow account of every minor ache, pain and bowel movement. And that's second only in popularity to rambling accounts of the bureaucracy and inefficiencies encountered en route. I am delighted to report that our expedition has been almost entirely free of both types of obstacle and despite starting with a bad case of mumps and meandering through several cut toes and head colds we are all fighting fit. Our yoga practice has suffered somewhat although this week Amanda and I have made the most of the cool green garden of our friends Shaun and Amy Hughes in Khartoum to get back into a routine. The boys have swum whenever possible - at the German Club here, the British Embassy pool in Addis, and in flouride-full brown Lake Langano (actually very pleasant). They occasionally do a bout of crunches and press ups and even a run or two. We have walked in Samburuland, northern Kenya, and walked and pony trekked at Wenchit Lake where we visited hot springs. Robert and Gus appear to get most of their exercise doing car repairs or by flexing their right arm whilst holding a dumbbell shaped remarkably like a beer can. Not in Sudan of course, where sharia law prohibits consumption of alcohol. (thats the official version anyway). And of course for the most part our diet has been extremely healthy - lots of fruit and veg, very little dairy and meat or sugar. All this has resulted in the team collectively shedding about 12 or 15 kg - a welcome development for the adults but we have been trying to fatten up Xander again as all his trousers keep falling down. Not surprisingly our comprehensive First Aid kit which takes up an entire ammo box has barely been touched: at the end of the trip we plan to donate unused items to a small organisation in Zimbabwe that runs a couple of clinics, and is also called Jangano.

Into Khartoum...

2009-01-25T18:41:00.003+02:00

Serene Amy, surrounded by the detritus of the Jangano team...

Myna and Shaun, looking as if the year's haven't passed.

John and adoring fans. Maybe some years HAVE in fact passed.....

Graveyard for Antonov biplanes, on the roadside in Sudan. We counted 18 of them sitting out in the sun.
Robert and our first puncture. His obvious glee stems from the fact that it wasn't on his car!

Three boys wandering down a street in Gonder, Ethiopia.

Latest snaps from the gang...

2009-01-25T18:40:00.001+02:00

Hi all

As Max says, we've made it to Khartoum, which in itself is quite an achievement. A few landmarks passed:

1. 8,000 kms done in the first month
2. 5 weeks gone today(already!)
3. First puncture (on a shockingly bad road in Ethiopia)
4. First broken shock absorber (ditto)
5. First week of boarding school completed by Jake. (Not a peep out of him yet, as predicted!)

Now staying with friends Shaun and Amy in Khartoum, which has been wonderful. Also a chance to catch up with John and Myna (ex HIS in Harare). Still as weird as ever!

More photos to follow....

Gus