Kenya - "Jambo rafiki, habari?"

Above - B2 is not a great flyer or long car drive traveller. Poor bugger was travel sick every time we got a plane or had a long drive. Despite the way the photo looks, we didn't just leave him at a shop front door...not for long anyway!

Above - A Bull elephant flapping his ears and blowing the trumpet. Masai Mara Reserve.

Above - NS jumping with the Masai Warriors. What a buzz!

Above - Small church on the drive down into the Great Rift Valley. It was built by Italian POW's in 1942. The Peppercorn tree frames the church beautifully.

Above - A lovely mud pack to reduce those wrinkles? Buffalo at Lake Nakuru National Park.

Above - NS & FS atop the Baboon Hill Look out, overlooking Lake Nakuru.

Above - "So Yushi, I'm going to Africa to do a safari in the wild, what do you think i should wear?" "Well Nakita, I'd wear you're tight mini, pink Kashmir sweater and those Italian leather boots with the big heels. That should make trekking through the mud really easy".

Above - Another of the BIG 5, the White Rhino, Lake Nakuru National Park. This guy was massive in real life, makes you wonder why they were so hard to spot.

Above - Armed with their binoculars, the boys were always on the look out from the safari van.

Above - Baboon King...Rafiki, Lake Nakuru.

Above - Is that you Marty? Zebra at Masai Mara National Reserve.

Above - Are the animals on the inside or the outside...you're call. Fact is, there is no fencing going around the Masai Mara Reserve. Whilst the area is well protected by the park guards, i figure the big cats keep most wanderers at bay.

Above - The evening storm rolls through at the Masai Mara. Acacia tortilis, also known as 'the great flat top thorn tree', can be commonly found through the Masai Mara. Also common through the Great Rift Valley is the Acacia drepanolobium, also known as the 'Whistling Thorn Tree' and the Acacia xanthophloea, also known as the Yellow Fever Tree because it grows near water where one is likely to be bitten by mosquito's.

Above - My personal favourite, the giraffe, Masai Mara.

Above - Lioness, Masai Mara. Seeing these guys in their natural habitat is simply mind blowing.

Above - Exiting our camp one morning, we came across this big bull elephant right out the front. He wasn't too happy we were trying to use his access path, but after we backed up, he slowly moved away.

Above - I've got this ringing in my ears, i don't know why. Masai tribesman.

Above - Masai women performing a dance and song to say good-bye.

Above - Masai Warrior in all his glory.

Above - NS and B4 hanging with some Masai tribesman.

Above - We were honoured to be invited into a Masai warriors hut. It was pitch black except for a tiny 'porthole'. The camera flash shows the blood and oat stew simmering over the coals. It was really warm in the hut, another amazing experience.

Above - NS with the Masai blanket to keep warm on the early morning safari, whilst FS plays the game of searching for more of the BIG 5.

Above - Masai boy stands out front of his home. The huts are constructed solely by the women, made from sticks and cow dung. Each hut takes about 3 months to finish. Whilst tiny, the huts will accommodate a family with up to about 8 kids, the kitchen and bedding are in the same area and a small room is also allowed for the baby calves to sleep at night.

Above - FS sitting on the bed, which is part of the kitchen and children's bed and adjacent to the 'living' area. Yes, space is sparse.

Above - Yep, the flies are a problem, but the kids here don't seems too bothered by them.

Above - B2 jumping with the Masai warriors.

Above - The Masai warriors loved B3 because he was wearing red, and he could jump pretty well too.

Above - B1 was a little shocked when grabbed by the warriors, but got into things when they told him the better he was able to jump, then the more girlfriends he would get.

Above - Are you looking at me? Buffalo, Masai Mara.

Above - What's going on under the blanket?

Above - The first pride of lions we came across at Masai Mara. We watched until they made their way to a small thicket of bushes nearby. In the bushes were 3 huge male lions. Do not get out of the car when in the Masai Mara!

Above - The same pride of lions make their way towards us.

Above - A Topi.

Above - B4 rugs up.

Above - A leopard with it's Thompson's Gazelle kill. The leopards are usually very difficult to find at the Masai Mara, we were lucky to have such a good Kenyan guide in Sammy. He drove like a madman, but found all the wildlife.

Above - Recently ploughed fields under the Flat Topped Acacias, Great Rift Valley.

Jambo rafiki, habari...translated, "Hello friend, how are you?". We constantly came across so many friendly faces in Kenya, all chanting the same welcome. Before this, 'rafiki' to me was the crazy old witch doctor baboon from The Lion King movie who had all the funny sayings and the great karate moves at the end when they fought the hyenas.

Following on from Ugandan, we flew from Entebbe to Nairobi and were greeted by our Kenyan guide, Mr Sammy. This guy was awesome; he had the whole hospitality thing down pat and made us all feel really welcome, but best of all, was his knowledge of Kenyan wildlife, culture, history, politics, landscape, and a few jokes thrown in between. As usual, B2 didn't handle the flight too well with another bout of flight sickness, and the 4 hour drive from Nairobi through the Great Rift Valley and into the Masai Mara didn't help him either. Our first brief stop was at the ridge of the Great Rift Valley. Even though it was a slightly foggy day, the view was spectacular and the variance of the landscape was immediate, from the densely foliated slopes to the sparse plains and on to the crops laid by the farmers and the shrouds of large Acacia and Euphorbia species. B2 didn't really get to see anything as he was cradled into the fetal position on the ledge of the look out with sickness, to which B1 took too much delight and of course some of the locals were perplex by the whole scene as well.

Making the long drive through the GRV towards the Masai Mara National Park was really interesting, seeing loads of local tribes people and the rural farmers ploughing their land in preparation of the new season. The landscape was exactly like what you would expect to see back in the dinosaur era, everything in varying extremes from the size of the trees to the rock formations and beyond.

Arriving at our tented camp, we were pleasantly surprised at how good it was. We stayed at the Saravo Mara in what is essentially a 5 star tented camping experience, very nice and certainly added to the charm of being on safari. No time was wasted though and our first afternoon/evening safari was on. WOW!!! This place is nothing short of amazing. I could never try to explain the exhileration of being in such a place and on a game safari. FS and i had talked about this as a dream holiday since we were teenagers and couldn't believe we were here.

The safari is essentially a game of cat and mouse. Sammy, our guide was switched right on and frantically speaking his native swahili over the 2-way radio to other guides in the hope of finding some of the Big 5 and other wild life. Our safari van, complete with extra heavy duty suspension to handle the atrocious roads, was going flat out across the plains and through huge mud pools, stopping at the first possible sighting of an animal and then we'd go into creep mode, like a hi-ace van shaped lioness creeping up on it's prey. Our first big cat sighting was the very elusive Leopard, dragging a recent kill up the tree before shredding it of it's flesh. The late afternoon storm was beginning to roll through and cracks of lightening sparked the hills in the distance and here we were, parked down wind from a such a sight, gobbed smacked and in awe. After composing ourselves, i grabbed the game shooter, steadied my finger over the trigger and when the crosshairs were lined up and focussed on my target, i hit the trigger and the rapid fire shutters of the camera went crazy. A week in Kenya saw me with about 2,500 photo scalps...a nightmare to edit, but irrisistable when faced with so many great potenial shots.

We did about 4 game drives in the Masai Mara and came across all of the Big 5 and loads of other amazing wild life, infact i'm not sure there is anything that we didn't get to see. Of course nothing quite compares to finding a pride of lions in the wild doing their thing...which seems to be mostly sleeping, but we found a couple of different prides, with lots of young lions jumping over each other and their sleeping dads and suckling from their sleeping mums.

One of the most memorable days of our lives was being fortunate enough to spend a day with a Masai tribe. Absolutely fascinating people, we had a million questions which our Masai elder was happy to answer. Swahili is still the native language, but alot of the Masai are learning English at a nearby school. So, from the initial greeting of Masai Warriors performing a dance and the widely known jumping, myself and the boys were able to join in (it's infectious in any case). We were then led into the village. The construction of the tribal village was explained and similar to so many cultures, the men and women have very distinct roles. The women only, make the homes from sticks and cow dung, taking about 3 months from start to completion. There's no shortage of cow paddys around as the herd is led into the security of the fenced off tribe each night. The large circular fence is made from the thorny whistling acacia trees, made only by the men, and the men take turns at guarding the tribe each night from prowling intruders. It is the men who sheppard the herd each day, walking the plains of the GRV with only a dagger and a spear for protection from the wild life. We were amazed by the diet of the Masai, being told that they consume no greens at all. There were no crops being grown by the tribes. Cow's blood and an oat like mixture, along with meat is the staple diet of the Masai. The nearby creek is used for water collection in the morning, washing during the day, and watering the cattle later on. When we finally had to bid farewell to the Masai, the women conducted a lovely dance and song for us...for which FS joined in and we boys watched.

Our last couple of days in Kenya were spent at the Lake Nakuru National Park, where again we did a few safari drives and game spotting. We spent our last day in Nairobi before bidding a "see you again soon" to Kenya and flying back to the UAE, home of the never ending desert sand and camels. Since returning from Africa, FS has had me re-do the house to accommodate all of the souvineirs, wall hangings and tribal gear we bought...being the eternal suckers, i'm sure we paid 3 times as much as we could have bartered, but seeing as we all loved the places so much, it's nice to have so many surrounding memories.

Summary - Kenya is a mind blowing place for it's wonderful natural attractions; it's like living a National Geographic documentary, you could do it over and over and always find something new and interesting.

Uganda - "Hey Muzungu, how are you?"

Above - The happy Rice Bubbles, loving their life in Uganda.

Above - Typical housing area in the capital of Kampala. Lots of poverty in Uganda, yet after so much hardship as a nation, things seem to be looking more positive for the future.


Above - Think you've got a bad job? These ladies use a metal mallet to pound large rocks into small gravel. A tonne sells for about 40,000 Uganda Shillings, that's about $20 aussie! Now think how long it would take you to pound a large granite rock into a tonne of 50mm gravel?

Above - Taking the boys to see their relatives, Ngamba Island Chimpanzee Sanctuary.

Above - Feeding time at the sanctuary. About 40 orphaned chimps have been relocated to the island after habitat destruction and illegal animal trading rescues.

Above - FS in the morning...i mean, a chimp yawns.

Above - The lush green fields of Tea production on the drive from Kampala to Jinja.

Above - Off to market to sell some corn and sugar cane.

Above - Mbiro Rain forest, a large ficus reaches for the sunlight.

Above - Ugandan kids roadside near Mbiro Rain forest. Word gets around that a Muzungu is in town and kids come out of the jungle from everywhere. Really gorgeous kids, all of them.

Above - Jinja town main street. Very colonial feel about it.

Above - The funny face family about to launch themselves down the River Nile on some white water rafting, Jinja.

Above - The River Nile opens up so many exploring experiences. Here B3 checks out the day's catch with a local fisherman.

Above - We jumped out of the rafting just before the grade 5 rapids at Bungali falls. Our raft guides were top notch blokes.

Above - FS and NS, Bungali Falls, River Nile, Jinja.

Above - Local school kids chasing the car. There are kids everywhere in Uganda, not sure what the ratio of kids to adults is, but I'd guess 20:1. Remember your oldies telling you as a kid how they walked with bare feet, 10 miles to school and back; well most of these kids do, they have brilliantly coloured uniforms, bare feet and massive smiles!

Above - NS chilling at The Haven. The photo doesn't do nearly enough justice to the back drop and scenery of the surrounding falls and landscape.

Above - Rural Ugandan family. We were lucky enough to come across a lovely little tribe, kids running everywhere, the men digging mud pits to make the bricks, and the women breast feeding whilst sweeping the yard.

Above - A Mum and baby.

Above - FS with some of the village kids.

Above - NS with Ugandan family. We're all laughing because the women sent FS away and wanted me to stay.

Above - Security is everywhere, every shop and house has an armed guard and the police are on every corner. A little intimidating at first, but i guess that's the result after so much conflict.


Uganda did not disappoint! From the second you step off the plane in Entebbe, dodge the pot holes on the runway and make your way through visa ques in 95% humidity, this is Africa in your face, and what a great feeling.

We were met at the airport by Rachel 'are you a runner too' Rice, wearing her best African dress and smile. It seems the Dark continent had really made a bright impression on the Rices, very happy and satisfied with their relocation, even if their tans hadn't improved any.

We were not even 2 km down the road, and I'd just cracked a joke about the donkey and cart on the side of the road travelling faster than RR would drive, before we had our first introduction to the corruption of the police. A couple of AK47 slinging coppers stride over to the car, tell us we were speeding and produce a radar reading which is timed 10minutes earlier than when we'd even landed in the plane. RR knew the scam and ruffled through her purse, slapped 50,000shillings into the officers hand and he wished us a good day. This is Africa in your face. We all had a great laugh and now had fodder against our 'proper' school head for bribing the cops.

The drive from Entebbe to Kampala was a real eye-opener; the red/orange soil, the dark green lush jungle crawling over everything, people everywhere, kids carrying 5 gallon drums to collect water, women carry baskets on their heads on their way to or from the market, Boda Bodas zipping between cars and trucks, lean-tos held together with mud and sticks, new buildings being built with flimsy cut sticks acting as scaffolding, men carrying hundreds of shoes or plastic balls to sell as street hawkers, the delivery men from the grocery carrying 2 x 50kg bags of rice on their bike sweating profusely as they push the load up the hill on a sun scorched and humid day, and of course the roads. There's maybe a couple of dozen asphalt roads in Kampala (the capital city of Uganda), and even these have massive pot holes every square metre. The roads are just wide enough to fit 2 passing cars, or in Ugandan terms... a large lorry, a 4x4, 5 Boda Boda, 10 cyclists and 50 people crossing the road...everyone is then swerving to avoid the worst of the pot holes, so you can begin to picture the scene on the roads...This is Africa in your face.

A week was never really going to be enough time to spend in such a country, but having the Rices jungle abode set on acreage as our base was a great help and meant we were able to maximise our time to see and do as much as possible. We did plenty of walking through the nearby streets, the boys were fascinated how so many people were walking around with rifles and machine guns slung over their shoulders. Just a note on this, each guard is only given 2 bullets and has to account for both at the end of each month, unless of course they're trying to prevent a crime at the place they guard. Walking through a town is always the best way to experience the people, smells and sounds, and whilst it's impossible as a family of Muzungu (white coloured people) to blend in, we were able to wash away any of the interpretations we may have felt on our first day. Later the same day RR, FS and myself went for a jog through the surrounding streets, winding our way to the bottom of Tank Hill and through streets past market stalls, through a local quarry where the women and men use tiny metal mallets to smash bowling ball size rocks into tiny bits of gravel, and past the farmers working the crops. It was interesting watching a few Ugandans out jogging also; it is little wonder they have such successful long distance runners. As we clunked our way up the hills, they would seemingly glide past, extending the heel of their foot for what seemed like an eternity, but effortlessly flying by. We enjoyed a few icy cold Nile Specials that night.

FS spent some time at RR's school, helping with a couple of kids but mostly just observing and taking in the relaxed environment the school offered. We went to the Uganda National Culture Centre to watch the Ricicles successfully try out for the local production of The Sound of Music. The UNCC has played host to some of the most important and touching rehearsals and productions in Ugandans Modern Arts history.

Another day we took the 1 and half hour boat trip into Lake Victoria to the Ngamba Island, a home for orphaned chimps. The boys really enjoyed the antics of the chimps that we saw during feeding time. Like clock work, they all appear out of the jungle to be fed, and each has his own style for trying to attract the attention of the keepers throwing the food. B3 and B4 liked the chimp who made fart sounds the most, and of course spent the next week mimicking this at their own dinner times.

We took a road trip out to the Mbiro Rain forest for a leisurely stroll, coming across a few monkeys in the trees and then later that afternoon heading out to The Gately in Jinja for a fine feed and cool drink on a sprawling colonial property. The day after we headed back to Jinja, to go rafting down the River Nile. The drive out was filled with more rural landscape of sugar cane, tea, and corn fields. The road side stalls selling cooked corn and bottled water were eager for any business they could muster and as usual we saw hundreds of kids walking either to school or home for lunch, or working in the fields next to their parents. The white water rafting was a blast and we spent as much time swimming as we did in the boat. The rapids were pretty mild seeing we had some littleies with us, but B3 and R3 took on a larger rapid whilst sitting astride one of the support kayaks, with both completely disappearing under the rapid before popping up again, B3 holding on for grim life after slipping. The rafting also opened up a whole other side to life for the typical Ugandan. Almost like stepping back in time, watching the men fish from their traditional dug out canoes, the families washing their clothes on the river side rocks, all set to the back drop of thickly planted wild slopes and again the red/orange earth.

For me, one of the most special moments came one afternoon when we were way off the track on our way to The Haven...very aptly named. We were driving down a dusty winding road, more jungle and greenery either side of us and then lots of local village communities. The houses/huts were fascinating, all made from the mud of the red earth and tied together with stripped sticks from acacia trees. The roofs were thatched with palm fronds, banana leaves and sometimes a piece of old corrugated iron. These people appeared to have nothing in terms of worldly possessions, and people were busying themselves with the requirements of day to day life, like making bricks from the mud to either sell or use, the women kept their modest homes immaculate, free from falling leaves or other obtrusion and the kids when not on the end of a plough or garden fork were nursing a younger sibling. Still, when we slowly drove past, they all waved and smiled. Some of the kids yelled "Hey Muzungu, how are you?", in their perfectly practised way and held a hand out hoping for a shilling. Of course this is almost impossible to resist (although some people take offence at the term Muzungu, we were too naive to be bothered by this and the fact is, we really must have stood out and deserved to be called something i guess). Anyway, a couple of shillings to some kids and bang, 20 more kids appear and soon, you've got half a community of kids laughing and chasing the car for what seemed like kilometres. The whole experience was amazing; seeing people living so basically on what in reality must be for them a day to day existence, to seeing the smiling faces of the kids, witnessing the delight of a mother when we gave her a few shillings and a pineapple as thanks for letting us breifly into her family's lives, seeing that most of these kids and adults had barely a shirt on their back. Bang...this is Africa in your face, the good feeling, the bad feeling, the desperate feeling and the hopeful feeling.

You know that feeling when you borrow something off someone and then it happens to break when you have it. Well, after the many millions of potholes that i'm sure MR would have encountered in their short-to-date living in Uganda, i was lucky enough to be able to loan his car for a few sight seeing trips during our stay. Sure enough, one afternoon, pop, the tyre blows, no need to panick for fear of losing control, as the maximum speed capable of any car in Kampala is about 40km/hr (because of the number of potholes). Before i have even stopped the car, i'm surrounded by a half dozen men in what must be the industrial side of town. Bugger, the only swahilli i know is 'Muzungu', and that's not likely to help. Then, before i have even got out and begun looking for where MR keeps his jack and tools, one of the guys is trying to get the spare off the back of the car and some others are jacking the car with bricks and iron bars. One man stands back, seemingly supervising the goings-on with a watchful eye and an occasional nod to anyone standing idle, so that before i know it, i have 8 guys working on the situation and none of them are letting me get an egde in sideways. It happens to be peak hour traffic, which shouldn't be confused with thousands of cars beeping each other at a stand still, but rather dozens of cars all trying to vy for a better position on the run into the next pot hole. I happen to be parked next to the next pot hole. Anyway, i'm finally allowed to help when it comes time to throw the dirty blown tyre on the back of the car, and even i wasn't naive enough to think i was the beneficiary of a dozen men's kindness. When all was done, the silent supervisor made his way to the front of the group and demanded 30,000 shillings. Now, whilst i usually love to bargain on something, this wasn't exactly a bargaining crowd i thought. I guess i was left with no option here and for the sake of less than 20bucks aussie, we all left feeling pretty happy. Except MR, who had a blown tyre as his spare now. I think i fixed you up for that MR, let me know otherwise.

Summary - Uganda...a bloody great place for anyone wanting some adventure and reality in their lives to visit.