SOUTH AFRICA

Drakensberg – Sani Lodge

Durban – Hippo Hide/Happy Hippo

Cape Town – The Backpackers and Long Street Inn

Joburg – Diamond Diggers

MOZAMBIQUE Tofo – Fatima’s Nest (Heard better things about Bamboozi) Maputo – Fatimas (Base Backpackers)

ZIMBABWE Victoria Falls – Shoestring Backpackers

Harare – Small World Backpackers

SENEGAL St. Louis – Pelican/ L AtlentideGHANA Accra – Salvation ArmyCape Coast – OasisTANZANIA Dar Es Salaam – Holiday HotelArusha – Arusha BackpackersMoshi – Moshi BackpackersZAMBIALivingstone - JollyboysZIMBABWEVictoria Falls – Shoestring BackpackersHarare – Small World BackpackersMOZAMBIQUETofo – Fatima’s Nest (Heard good things about Bamboozi)Maputo – Fatimas (Base Backpackers)SWAZILAND Manzini – The CowshedEzulwini – Lidwala Backpackers SOUTH AFRICA Durban – Hippo Hide/Happy HippoDrakensberg – Sani Lodge Cape Town – The Backpackers and Long Street InnJoburg – Diamond Diggers

We decided to stay on Long Street for our last weekend so that we’d be a little closer to downtown. We saw an amazing exhibit at the South African National Gallery and the District Six Museum. All in all an amazing end to an amazing journey.

We then headed on a tour of the peninsula. We were nearly blown off of our bikes heading to the Cape of Good Hope, but we were rewarded after with a visit to the penguins. Unfortunately, I now know that penguins mating is not reminiscent of Happy Feet.

We then headed to Cape Town’s wine country, Stellenbosch and Franschoek. We mountain biked to our first winery and then luckily caught a ride to the next two. Our guide was fantastic and a wealth of information. His wife is a social anthropologist, and it was clear he took an interest in her work and in South African history. An amazing combination

Dacia and woke up on our third day and hiked to and up Table Mountain. Even though it was not nearly as painful as I had expected, I still couldn’t believe the guy who passed us and then proceeded to turn right around to head back down. Barefoot.

After our second to last long bus ride, we finally arrived in Cape Town. We decided to stay in CT for a week and we hit the ground running. Our second night in Cape Town we hiked up the Lions Head to watch the sunset and then the full moon rise. We had amazing company and made it up and down without incident, even if I was shaking after the vertical ascent on a ladder. Luckily I wasn’t the only one.

Back in Durban we ended up meeting some awesome Americans and were entertained by Wade and the guy almost falling out of his stool. We explored the city, made it rain once again at the Victoria Street Market, and marveled at Durban’s amazing public transport. Then we headed to Coffee Bay (Buffalo!) to enjoy some time along the Garden Coast. We lucked out and ran into some past travel buddies: Ben, who we met in Tofo and Christian who we met in the Drakensberg Mts. The weather didn't work in our favor, but it was still a fun time and we did get in a hike to the Holl In The Wall, even if we couldn't swim through it. The tab system, was dangerous, but definitely a great place to stop on the way to Cape Town!

We completed the pink hike and celebrated the Slovenian holiday on 11/11 before getting on some horses to head to Lesotho for a few nights. On our way back we stopped at the highest pub in Africa.

The public transportation from Maputo to Durban was surprisingly easy. Unfortunately the weather wasn’t as easy so we spent our first day in South Africa heading to the mall to enjoy heavenly fountain sodas and getting a new phone charger. From Durban we went up to the Drakensberg Mountains. We stayed near the Sani Pass which leads up to Lesotho. Whereas it had rained in Durban and along the coast, it had snowed in the mountains. Thanks to our amazing travel luck, the sun came out just as we were heading up there. Unfortunately it was still cold even with the rays, so we had to stop and stock up on fleeces.

Getting into Swazi was a trip, but getting to the Cowshed was downright scary. Until we realized our cabbie was very nice and not taking us to the backwoods to do away with us. We arrived at the Cowshed in a near starvation state, but were saved by the golf resort restaurant. We then headed to Manzini where we hiked up Sheba’s Breast. It had rained heavily the day before, so there was a lot of butt slides, and graceful falling left, front, right and back. After we rewarded ourselves by making it rain at the craft center. I just kept telling myself that I was supporting small enterprise development. Let it rain.

After two days in Zimbabwe we arrived in Mozambique to spend a few days with Andrew, a volunteer from Cape Verde who is extending service for nine months through Peace Corps Response in Chimoio. Andrew’s house is pretty much the picture of perfection. It was a great time hanging out with Andrew, dancing to Zouk, and attempting to crash a high school party with other volunteers. From Chimoio we headed down to Tofo. We lucked out in meeting Pierre and Yuko on the 3 AM bus. A long ride and ferry ride later, we made it to Tofo. Amazing seafood and beach. Our last night in Chimoio, was a long one with James, Ben, Elias, Christian and Natasha. We did get to glimpse a vampire running into the water and spotted a wild creeper on the beach all before taking the 3 am bus to Maputo.

From Zambia we headed into Zimbabwe. We were all a good bit reluctant to do so, but Zimbabwe is now one of my favorites. The people were beyond friendly and nice there. I would have loved to have had more time there. We decided it is the most underrated African country that we’ve been to yet. Polite people, beautiful, great cities and towns. Overall just not what I had expected before going. Any bus that shows Diary of a Mad Black Woman is obviously good.

Youseff versus the mean ‘Big Ginger’. Crocodile tears over Steve. Lost wallet recovered. Babyface? You don't even know how happy I am to see you.Dacia dance impersonationVictoria Falls with Sui and LauraWhich is better, a BC connection or a FUBAR connection. Equally amazing.Feta Cheese and vick’s all around.Palming it up.

After all this travel we were really happy to stay anywhere, but the hostel in Livingstone was incredible. It had everything you could ask for. We decided to not rush to Mozambique and stay for as long as we could without Leah missing her flight. We stayed in a dorm with a Frenchie Romain, who was willing to put up with our antics and was a lot of fun. We went to see the Victoria Falls on our first full day there and signed up for a white water rafting trip that night. We ended up in the same boat as Romain and with three students from Germany. The Zambezi has 25 rapids ranging from a scale of 1-5. Our boat flipped at rapid four which was a grade 4. I for some idiotic reason couldn´t keep a grip on the rope and ended being a ‘long swimmer’. Basically you just get let loose on the rapid. I was scared out of my mind after spending most of that rapid being trapped underwater and not able to see where I was going or what I was near (like rocks). Luckily they tell you to just wait it out and you will come up for air, so I just tried to do that (all the while screaming bloody murder in my mind). I was pulled into another raft and settled in for a hot minute before that raft also flipped on a smaller rapid. Only three boats flipped that day and I was in two of them. The rafting gods might not be smiling down at me but they sure as hell were probably smiling at me. After that it took a bit to stop fighting the urge to jump ship and walk the rest of the way but luckily I stayed in. We didn´t flip again but we did jump off the rocks (semi-cliff) and decided to swim a few of the rapids instead of staying in the boat. Awesome day. The next day I did something mothers across the world tell their children not to do. I jumped off a bridge. At 111 meters, it´s one of the highest jumps in Africa. When they told me that I absolutely had to jump forward 3 meters, I got pretty nervous. Your feet are tied together and it’s hard enough to walk (had to more or less hop to the edge), let alone jump. Regardless, I did it and then proceeded to flex my feet hardcore because I had an irrational fear that I´d slip out of the foot apparatus (towels and a not so strong looking clothe cord).

Our two day train ride ended up taking four days after a slight derailment. It's a good thing we weren't in a rush because we were able to just enjoy the view and excessive amount of french fries.

Bat in the butt = unfavorable.Bird watching.Soups on a Safari – Cucumber and tomato.Coffee Tour FailJohn – Raki Master and last minute Kili hiker.Hyenas versus Zebras.Baby elephants playing in the mud.

We stayed in Moshi for a few nights to catch up on rest and to see Mt. Kilimanjaro. We were able to meet up with Lizzie and Zarina and spent a lot of time drinking amazing coffee at the local coffee house that brews the locally grown beans. When the weekend of relaxation was over we had to head back to the city to pick up our Mozambique passports. We decided to take the Tuesday TAZARA express train across the border into Zambia.

After stopping in Dar Es Salaam to go to the Moz embassy, we were finally off to Arusha to organize our safari. We were lucky enough to find three fellow to join us on a safari. We decided to arrange our safari through Sunny Safaris with JoJo as our guide and Marceli as our chef extraordinaire. Over four days we'd travel to three parks: Tarangine National Park, the Serengeti National Park, and the Ngorongoro Crater.

JoJo told us we were lucky because we were all girls, but whatever the reason, we saw incredible animals and were lucky enough to see the big five. Everytime we turned around we saw something new, birds flying off the back of running giraffes, a lion and lioness playing together, lion cubs, baby elephants digging in the dirt, a cheetah above our head, leopards enjoying their kills, and plenty of beige brigadiers.

We then went north to Nnuguni Beach and spent a few days doing a whole lot of relaxing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sm4HQomMkGM

We flew from Ghana to Tanzania. When we arrived we headed straight to Zanzibar. For the first few days we stayed in Stone Town. We ate amazing street seafood, enjoyed the sunsets, went swimming with dolphins at Dolfini beach (clever right?) and walked around a ton. The most memorable experience though was going scuba diving for the first time. I’m still not down with fixing my mask underwater, but I killed on the phantom drill. Scuba diving was incredible. Leah and I were able to see a shipwreck and tons of coral and fish.

Lucky run-ins.Couples.Global Mama store. (http://www.globalmamas.org/default.aspx?AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1 )Ellie the Elephant.Fro yo in baggies.

We finally reached Mole and went for an early morning walking safari. We saw tons of warthogs, monkeys,’ bambons’ (as our guide calls them), and antelop or kob. The forest smelled incredible, like mint in your face, it was hard to remember we were in Africa because it was so lush and green. The hotel overlooks the watering hole so I spend the afternoon on elephant watch while chitchatting with people and reading. We didn´t see an elephant on our walk or at the hole, but WAWA. West Africa Wins Again. We were staying up talking to an Australian couple and the guard came up and just whispered elephant. Very dramatic and very close. There was an elephant just hanging out in front of the hotel, eating plants. Ellie in all her natural glory?

We headed to Kumasi from the Botel and had to take very tong Trotro rides up to Tamale. We finally connected with some Peace Corps volunteers and spent the night at their regional house. It was nice to hear about their sectors and experiences, but unfortunately the next day it was time to push out again for the bus to Mole National Park. The bus stops were loud, chaotic, and reminiscent of Santiago in Cape Verde. I devoured more street food in one stop than I probably have elsewhere in my entire life.

We caught a trotro to Hans Cottage Botel with a few other travelers including a couple Mirana and Charlie who were Benin volunteers. We all headed to see the canopy walk and a few of us tried to do it sans hands. Tricky on a rickety rope and wood bridge. From there we parted with Brett and Amanda and a five of us headed to the monkey sancturary where we met a wacky couple and got caught in the rain. At the Botel we soon saw tons of the crocodiles that they boast about. One of the staff went up to one to pet it and tried to convince us to do the same. No way, ma’am. That’s crazy and I’m no Steve Irwin. The Botel was probably the weirdest place we´ve stayed in. It kind of reminded me of the setting for a creepy horror movie. http://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrRQm_J_zr8

We then headed to Cape Coast. As we were walking into the slave castle we ran into Brett and Amanda, two other volunteers who just COS´d. Surreal. We stayed in Cape Coast a few days and walked around and explored the city. I nearly cried when I saw a book store.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRMEr-J6hXY

From Senegal we flew to Ghana, after a short stop in Cote D’Vore . We spent the first day in Accra getting oriented to the city. Whereas in Senegal the Talibe was heartbreaking, in Ghana the kids were incredible. They were just so excited to see Americans, and would scream “HELLO! HOW ARE YOU? I AM FINE” across a busy street. Another striking contrast between Ghana and Senegal was religion. Ghana is extremely Catholic. I’ve never seen so much publicity for God. After being in Senegal for Ramadan, it was a bit of a shock to see so many Jesus loves you signs. Did you know that Jesus would want you to get your haircut at Christ’s hands haircutters? You are in God’s hands now…

Our hosts.

N'Ice Cream, pastries, and fresh bread.

Kayaking through mangroves.

Hobbit huts.

Holidays: Konkrite and Memorial Day.

http://http//www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTdvSn_4y4I

A sept-place ride with seven or eight loves of bread later...