The heart of Africa

We’ve now spent 3 months in Africa and have packed a lot in. During our time we have had a lot of experiences, some good, some bad. This blog tries to put into words how Africa had made us feel and what we think about the places we have visited and the people we have [...]

In search of Moses

And so with Kazakhstan as the sacrificial lamb, we hopped on the 07.15 bus to Dahab and the Sinai Peninsula. Sinai is the great and terrible wilderness of the Bible across which the Israelites journeyed in search of the promised land having been saved from the Egyptian army by the alleged parting of the Red [...]

On the banks of the river Nile

It has often been written that Egypt is Cairo and Cairo is Egypt. Cairo is the semi-mythical capital of the Arab world and a city of sprawling confusion. Home to some 16m Egyptians and the “city of a 1,000 towers”, modern day Cairo resonates faded decadence and shabby charm. It’s not a pretty city – [...]

Alexandria but no sign of Colin Farrell….

Prone to bouts of wonderful stupidity, it took Muneeza to point out to me that Alexandria was connected to Alexander the Great. After I had abused her for mistaking poor Hollywood blockbusters with ancient kingdoms. We took a day trip to the eponymous city from Cairo as I was determined to soak up some culture and [...]

Stop hold your fire, put down your weapon – Nairobbery heaven

I warn you this is a long blog – I’ve had 9 days to sit and compose this in the hotel business suite (not as nice as its name suggests) fuelled on Tusker beer…… So our plan to stop in Nairobi for 5 days and then have a long stay in Egypt were curtailed by [...]

Oh Kenya Where Art Thou?

The exit from Moshi summed up our disdain for bus journeys. We arrived at the Raqib office as instructed at 08.00 for the alleged 08.30 departure. Bien sur mes amis the bus was not in sight at 08.30 and we stood there shivering in the cold, cold rain. Just before 09.00 a rickety old shack [...]

Animals, animals, everywhere

We are now safaried out! The day after our Kili climb was painful, with Muneeza heading for a massage to relieve her knee and foot pain and me moping around the hotel with an increasingly sore throat and heartburn. We opted to book a 3 day safari to give us some serious relaxation and headed [...]

Uhuru, cause of mixed emotions

So finally we arrived at the offices of Akaro Tours in Moshi for our pre-climb briefing and to meet our guide for the 6 days. Our guide, a local chagga called Jimi, explained what was going to happen over the next few days and checked our kit. Once he was satisfied, we said our goodbyes [...]

Jambo, tales from Tanzania

We made a not so swift exit from Mozambique, taking a painfully slow chiappas bus from Ilha back to Nampula. We had planned to take a private taxi, already arranged with one of the chaps who worked at our hostel on the island. Unsurprisingly he wasn’t on time and given the unreliable nature of transport, [...]

Mocambique, La Ilha bonita

On Tuesday 26th October we skipped merrily to the aiport knowing we had avoided 2 days of bus and train challenges. A few hours later we were gripping the handrests with sweaty palms as the plane buffeted through what the pilot described as “light to medium turbulence”. Both myself and Muneeza are nervous flyers when [...]