The Adventures of Jim & Rhonda

Finally!!!! Here are pics of India. Enjoy them and we promise Egypt and Africa will be up very shortly. Cheers, J&R

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Unbelievably, we’re back!!! We only told 3 people that we were returning early, our friends Ron & Dario, who picked us up, and my brother who needed to make sure our money was available so we have been surprising loads of people!

Our flight home was pretty good overall, certaily much better than the 32hours of flight time it took last time we flew home from South Africa! We flew 12hrs from Cape Town to Frankfurt on a brand new South African airways flight….fantastic. There were on demand movies at each seat, good food & wine, and a camera on the tail so we could see take off and see the plane throughout the entire flight. Very cool. Upon arrival in Frankfurt we took a cab to our hotel for an overnight. Even though it was a little bit of a pain to bring all of our bags to the hotel it was certainly nice to have a bed to sleep in and 12hrs to be off the flight. A couple of good German beers and some sausage and we slept great, although what a huge difference in peoples attitude and friendliness now that we’re back in the Western world.

Wed., we flew from Frankfurt to Portland, the flight wasn’t full so Jim and I spread out a bit which made it more comfortable. Not as new of a plane but still a very nice flight. Upon arrival it was truly great to see Ron & Dario and they went all out for us…the made our room into a little B&B and assembled all of the things we’d missed on our trip like French press coffee and bagels and even bought us pj’s… love those boys!

Thu. we drove down to Salem and completely shocked Jim’s parents…they were expecting us to call that night and instead we showed up at the house..it was priceless! I made them dinner and the next night we drove back to Portland to see Ken & Wendy and I made Jim’s favorite, sour cream chicken enchiladas and our friends Krista & Guy came over too…it was wonderful to see everyone after so long.

The first week back Jim went up to Canada for the week with Ken, who is working up there and Wendy and I have been bumming around, painting the interior of the house, etc. I got to see my brother, his wife and their adorable kids and stopped by my old work. Unfortunately, doesn’t look like I’ll be going back there with the current economy but we’ll see what happens in the future! It was good to see the old gang and so far we have dinner plans for 5 nights next week, RIGHT back into the social circle for sure!

It’s now 8 July and we’ve been back for almost 1 month. We are still finding it unbelievably difficult to get adjusted to life back in the USA. There is just too MUCH of everything! Too many choices, too big of food portions, too many people, etc. We now know exactly what we’d been told about how hard it is to assimilate back into your original life- it truly is much more of a culture shock than leaving! One thing that we’d sort of forgotten about is how many Americans are grossly overweight, not just a little bit but REALLY overweight. We haven’t seen that in so long it’s still a bit shocking to the system.

We have seen pretty much all of our good friends since we’ve been back and had a fantastic “surprise” party that Ken & Wendy planned for us. No big surprise but there were around 35people able to attend(amazing in itself since it was over 4th of July weekend) and we had a blast. Wendy & I pretty much got the house all painted and it looked gorgeous and even though the weather was a bit threatening the rain held off until around midnight so all was good.  We’ve managed to get out on the boat a couple of times and still have a few more social engagements to attend…ha ha, ever the social bunnies!

This week did see the departure of our dear friends Vicki & Darin and their kids Logan & Samantha and we’ll miss them terribly. Vicki was transferred to South Carolina and it’s a wonderful opportunity for them but we’re awfully sad to see them leaving. We helped them out as much as possible with getting everything packed up and ready to go so, sad as it is, we are very glad we got back in time to see them a few times before they’re outta here.

Now, the dreaded task of job hunting. As nice as it is to come home to lower home prices, the economy is still pretty much in the crapper and jobs are a bit harder to come by. Not that there are not jobs out there, after spending the last 8months living in 3rd countries we truly aren’t feeling sorry for a society of people living in $400,000 houses and driving SUVs while complaining about the economy. There is certainly a huge slowdown, although I , personally, am not sure if it’s really a recession, but there are jobs out there. Not necessarily “career” jobs but we can get a job if we want! We just got a resume program and are getting our resumes all up to date…quite a challenge for me as I haven’t had to look for a job for 11 years!!! OUCH.

But, what can we say….we are feeling incredibly restless and have got major itchy feet. What will the next few months hold? Well, you’ll all just have to wait and see but, in the meantime, we promise to get photos up on the blog soon! Still living the dream, Love, Jim & Rhonda

Well, here we are back in Cape Town, one of the prettiest places on earth. It was a bit sad leaving everyone yesterday when we arrived. We drove the 1hr from Stellenbosch playing all of our favorites tunes and singing and dancing down the aisle of the truck (it got a bit crazy on there more than once on those long drives) and hugging. The truck dropped us at the Seapoint Inn so Jim and I had to gather our gear and call a cab to take us to our B&B at 4th on Varneys. We had brief goodbyes since we’re planning on seeing everyone else again in the upcoming days as we’re all hanging around Cape Town for a bit. It will be odd to suddenly not see people you’ve basically been living with for the past 2 months!

Our B&B is totally fantastic! It actually lives up to it’s website. It’s run by 2 guys and it just gorgeous, our room has floor to ceiling windows, a fireplace, beautiful bathroom, tv w/ DVD player, couch, king size bed, etc. ahhhhhhhhhh. We got all checked in and headed out for a wonderful lunch and to see how far the waterfront is from us (turns out only about a 15minute walk..yippee) and had planned on meeting everyone for dinner. It was Rob’s last night in town as he’s already flying out tomorrow but we couldn’t get his cell number to go through and the hotel the others are at couldn’t get them a message until this morning and blah blah. So, we went to the very upscale market down the street and got stuff for a carpet picnic in our room, bread, cheese, pasta salads, wine, etc. A very nice evening over all.

This morning we woke up to the best breakfast we’ve had since Cairo and spent most of the day down at the waterfront buying some African music, booking tickets for Robben Island, etc. We’re looking forward to another great stay here in Cape Town.

Well, that is it. We’re actually fully updated so I’ll blog again in a  few days with info on our days of fun here. We can’t believe in only 3 weeks we’ll be back home so we must make the most of our time left! Wishing you were all here with us in Paradise!!!! love, Jim & Rhonda

Back again! On 19May we headed off to Botswana for the second part of our trip. The 10 of us from the original truck, Jim & I, Tim, Giles, Mel, Toni, Aneeta, Keith, Rob and John plus Joe, the new addition and our new guide, Nicho and driver James. We got a smaller, new truck which is a bit more comfortable and we’re looking forward to better roads and camps!

It was a short drive to the border of Botswana and the crossing is by ferry. Thank goodness we are done with visa fees! We camped in Kasane and unfortunately the camp was really crowded for the first night. The next morning we all piled into trucks at 5am for a gamedrive. It was pretty funny with us all sitting in our openair vehicle in our sleeping bags to attempt to keep warm! The game drive itself wasn’t great as we didn’t see a lot of animals but it was really gorgeous scenery and I just love the smell of Africa in the morning more than almost anything! After a couple of hours to have lunch and relax we headed out for a sunset cruise. It was truly lovely. Botswana’s north is covered in water and we saw Kudu, crocodiles, and loads of hippos and elephants. We had gotten some wine and cheese in town and it was a really nice trip. However, what we thought would be an early night changed when John announced it was his birthday. Jim & I, luckily, were already in bed by the time he said it at the bar but unfortunately we had to be awake for 2hours while everyone was drunkedly stumbling around camp singing “fluffy sheep” (I can’t explain in print except to say it’s become our silly theme song..we’ll demonstrate it when we get home), falling into tents, throwing up, etc. Not pretty! So glad we’re old and boring and got to bed before the ruckus!

The next day we took off at 5:30am (yep, that is right…left camp at that time meaning breakfast in and tents down, etc. yuk)for a 9hr drive to Maun. Basically nothing happened that day except we got to camp and did see Rene and Lawrence and our old truck (they hit Maun/Delta on their way to Joberg) and it was nice to see them. The camp is nice enough and at least we FINALLY had really hot showers. We’re starting to hit more and more camps where they burn fires to keep the water hot which is lovely!

22May (happy birthday dad!) we headed out for 2 nights in the Okavango Delta. This area is famous for elephants and hipps and we had a great time going out. It was about 1 1/2 hrs on the truck and then about 2hrs by makoros , which are dug out canoes. The scenery was beautiful and it was so peaceful. In our 2 days in the Delta we went on 3 nature walks (and didn’t see much but it was nice to be out hiking around), had dinner by campfire, and had our polers sing and dance for us. It was really nice. The 2nd night we went in the canoes to the hippo pond to watch them as the sun set. They were not too happy we were there (one of the polers got killed by a hippo around 6months ago) but it was an amazing experience to watch the sunset from the water.

Back in Maun for 1 night we had all opted to take the optional flight over the Delta. It was a wonderful experience. There were 5 of us per plane and our pilots flew map of the earth so we got to see hundreds of hippo, elephants, giraffes, crocs, impala, etc. A really worthwhile experience (just think of “Ouf of Africa” ).

25May we were off to Namibia. It was an 8hr drive and a decent camp for 1 night and truly, one of those travel days with nothing much to report. The change from Botswana to Namibia is quite astonishing as were surrounded by water in Botswana and Namibia is so dry and desolate in many places. Day 2 we headed to the first of 2 camps in Etosha National Park. Just driving in we saw loads of game, the highlight being 2 huge male lions and 1 female that were lounging right near the road. Literally dozens and dozens of giraffe, zebra, elephant, etc. The camp itself was the nicest we had had by far. Lovely tiled bathrooms, kitchen facilities, a great bar, pool, restaurant, gift shop, etc. Very nice! They also have a water hole that is set up as a viewing area so we went before and after dinner and saw lions and rhinos with some other animals come down to drink. It’s a magical experience to sit in the dark and watch them all come in while listening to the sounds of the night.

Next morning (happy birthday Warren!) we headed to the south end of Etosha park to our next camp. Basically, whenever you’re in a national park it’s a game drive whether that is the intention or not! That camp was also very first rate and had a water hole with viewing area. Between the drives and viewing areas we certainly got in a lot of animals in 2 days.

From Etosha we had a nice short drive to the Cheetah Farm campground. It’s 2000acres owned by a family who raises cheetahs. They have 3 “tame” ones that live in their house complex with them, as well as 15 “wild” ones. Along with some cool dogs, a baby giraffe, and lots of cows and sheep it’s quite a place. We first got to have our cheetah petting time which was truly amazing. They wandered among us (the 3 tame ones) and we got to pet them, take photos, etc. Their hair is much coarser than expected and they truly seemed quite tame, until they fed them, that is, when they started ripping into huge hunks of donkey meat. I don’t think I need a cheetah living with me! Then we went out on trucks to feed the wild ones. The difference was quite obvious since the guys had to carry sticks to keep them from jumping them and there was much growling, snarling, and fighting amongst them for the meat. All in all a neat experience!

From the cheetahs we had, you guessed it, another very long driving day to the coast and Swakopmund. This town is an actual “town” something we haven’t seen in a very long time. Before we hit Swakop we stopped at the Cape Seal Colony. Thousands of really stinky, noisy seals live there and we tooks some photos and had lunch but it was cold and windy and so smelly we really couldn’t wait to leave! In Swakop we had chosen to upgrade (the group was staying in dorm rooms) to a private double and we are so glad we did! The 9 of them are in a very crowded dorm and we were given the “famly suite” which had 2 bedrooms, a full kitchen, living room w/ tv, and big bathroom all for an upgrade cost of only $20/night!!! Absolutely fantastic, especially since we had 3 nights there!

Swakop was originally a German settlement when people started coming in from the Skeleton coast (so named because people would walk along the coast looking for diamonds and the weather and landscape is so tough most would die) and is now a happening little activitiy hub of around 40,000 including the township. The main activities are quad biking on the dunes, sandboarding, and ski diving and the biggest company is run by an American named Beth and her partners. They first came there 13yrs ago at the end of a RTW trip and realized the potential for activities to keep people in town more than 1 night passing through and they’ve become very successful. In our 3 days there we ate well (I actually got to cook which was great, great, great!) and we did some activities. Jim did the quad biking which I skipped because the tendon in my wrist is still not great. We both did the sandboarding although I did the lie down one and Jim did the one on a snowboard….all great fun except it is exhausting walking up those dunes after every run!, and we both did the township tour which was a disappointment after the one we did in Malawi. Overall, however, we all really enjoyed our time in town.

By 1 June we headed out of town south through the Naumklitt national park towards South Africa. The first day was just another day of driving but we camped in a gorgeous location that looked very similiar to Yellowstone park area in the US.

On 2 June (our 18th wedding anniversary..happy anniversary to us!!!!) we started out at 4:30am!!!! yikes, but part of the day was climbing the dunes for sunrise pictures. It was really nice. Mel,Tim,Giles, Aneeta, Jim & I were the only ones who climbed to the very top and we got great photos and it was beautiful watching the sun rise over the mist and the dunes. Well worth it. Another day of driving and we got to camp at Konkiep Lapa. Jim and I had upgraded again and the lovely owner, Elsa, gave us a nice big room. Aneeta very nicely took over my cooking duties as a treat and we had great pasta and garlic bread for dinner and then we found out everyone had signed a card and Elsa had baked us a chocolate cake. We all had a load of shots and some wine in the bar after dinner and it turned out to be an unusual but really great anniversary!

The next day we left for what was meant to be a relatively short driving day but we had yet another flat tire, our second in this truck, and it took the guys in town 2 1/2 hrs to fix it! Oh well, as usual, T.I.A. and we’re now used to being the object of an entire towns attention. After it was finally fixed we got to Fish River Canyon for a bit of a hike for some photos. Fish River is the 2nd or 3rd largest canyon in the world depending upon whom you speak to and it was a great hike. Then, on to Orange River camp. Due to our delay we didn’t get there until after dark but luckily the camp cooked dinner for us that night.

Most of the group went on a canoe trip the next morning. We stayed behind due to my wrist but also to attempt to do some laundry and get our bags a bit more organized since we’re off the truck and traveling on our own again soon. Scary thing that was! We have managed to acquire way too much stuff. ugh! We may be shipping soon rather than carrying it all home. The afternoon we all spent lying on the grassy lawn in the sun drinking wine and talking….very relaxing!

Off at 7am the next day for our final long driving day on the truck! Sometimes when you cross into South Africa they actually remove all the bags from the truck, etc. but luckily we escaped that crap. The scenery got more and more beautiful as we traveled further into SA. Namibia was beautiful in it’s own way but whenever I’m in a desert environment for long I really long for green! We camped at Gecko’s Backpacker lodge for our last night in a tent. It was a fun place with hostel rooms, lovely setting, fireplace room, tv room, etc. Very comfortable. I was just feeling tired and was in bed by 10pm but, big surprise, some of those boys partied until 2am. Amazing how they can keep it up but then, they’re all young 20’s not 40’s like we are!

6 June we drove for about 2 1/2 hrs into Stellenbosch, a town I love in South Africa. It has a huge dutch feel to it from all the dutch settlers and is so scenic with a great range of restaurants, etc. without being overwhelming. At 10:30am we all headed out for our wine tour. We went to 4 wineries (including Simonsig..one of my very favorites) and had lunch and back to the Stumble Inn around 5pm. We had upgraded again, sure we just could not handle a dorm with everyone together for their final night. It was a very basic room but at least we got some privacy! We ordered pizza for dinner and everyone had a great time (some too good) singing and dancing. Amazing that this journey with these new friends is over after our drive into Cape Town the next day!

Next update, Cape Town, one of our very favorites anywhere! Until then, love you all, Jim & Rhonda

Hello friends & family, back again. We’re now at a fantastic B&B in Cape Town so I actually have time to blog!

On 7 May we had our first days in Malawi. It is one of the poorest countries on earth but the people are wonderfully friendly and cheerful. Our first night was on Lake Malawi just for a brief stopover. The camp was ok and we had a very early departure the next day but the good part of that was that we got a gorgeous sunrise over the lake.

That evening we arrived at Kande Beach Camp further south but also on the lake. Lake Malawi is the 5th largest lake in the world and is 365 miles long and 52 miles wide, certainly big enough to have actual tide action. Kande Beach is very popular with overland trucks and it was pretty full when we arrived. It turned out we were there 4 nights rather than 3 as originally planned. It was made official at this point we would not be going into Vic Falls on the Zimbabwe side. Even though nothing is really happening in that area, because of travel warnings in the UK and US none of us would have valid travel insurance if we did enter the country. So, Kande was certainly a great place to chill out.

We upgraded to a beach hut for $12/night. No en-suite bathrooms but right on the lake with great little balconies. Not only was it great to just swim and hang out for that time but there were activities as well. Some of the groups got their PADI dive certificates or just went diving, Jim,Darian & Julie did a 1/2 day fishing trip (my stomach had been acting up a bit so I declined that and hung out reading on the deck), we did a whole pig roast one day and played lots of volleyball. That, combined with just reading in the hammocks made the time fly. One day we all went on a village walk to meet the locals right in the area. We met a lot of families and dozens of kids followed us along on the way wanting photos taken, etc. It was great fun. We went to the school and hospital and it was incredibly evident how very poor they are. While there Jim & I sponsored one child for a year at school. It’s astonishing what $150US can do for someone in another country!!! In the village we also had  a dinner at a local family. The food was bland and uninteresting but it was served by candlelight and then all the village kids danced and we joined them and THAT was great fun. One thing we bought was a “malawi chair” which are fairly well known. You can get them in all different sizes and ours is fairly small since we have to carry it home but they’re simply carved wooden chairs on which you can choose what you’d like carved. Ours says… Jim & Rhonda, RTW 07-08 and has some animals on it. Very cool.

Then, we embarked on 3 very long driving days to get to Livingstone in Zambia. We first had to cross the border and pay an exhorbiant visa fee of $135!! Horrible. And in 3 days we did about 30 hours of driving over horrible road conditions. We spent the first night in Chitawa, 2nd in Lusaka (where at least we got an hour to spend at a real mall!), and finally arrived in Livingstone, which is just across the border from Victoria Falls, on day 3 at around 5pm. WHEW, by the end of those 3 days we were all completely stir crazy in the truck. Plus, because we picked up Karen, our new trainee, we had less room in the back. We took Karen along because Justins family is in Zimbabwe and with the violence breaking out all over the country due to the elections he really needs to go home which is a dreadful situation but he certainly should be back with his wife and son.

On the way to Livingstone we stopped in the town of Mizuni to buy used clothes for the fancy dress party. Seems every trip they have people draw names and pick out an outfit for that person to wear on the booze cruise. Just from seeing everyones selections I can tell it’s going to be quite an event!

We ended up being in Livingstone for 5 nights, a bit long, because our new guide/driver and our new truck don’t leave until 2 days after our current truck heads home to Joberg. The camp is comfortable enough and it’s great weather which helps out! The bad news is that due to high water conditions we found out we can’t raft the Zambezi or do any of the fishing or waterboarding which is a big disappointment as the rafting was high on our list! Oh well, go with the flow. The whole group did sign up for the sunset (i.e. booze) cruise and Jim & I also decided to do the microflight over Vic Falls (what we call ultralight at home) and a canoe trip on the Zambezi. The microlighting was fantastic! A 15minute flight over the falls so we could not just see how large they are (which is impossible to tell from the ground because of all the mist rising up) but also to spot some wildlife along the way. The canoeing was great as well although not exactly what we’d planned. The video made it look like an easy glide down the river viewing game and birds. Turns out the first thing we’re told is about the angry hippos that like to chase the canoes and to paddle hard and follow instructions and that we go around 12km! yikes!  We did see some angry hippos, although none of them were too aggressive to us, and also did about 7 rapids that were category 2 & 3 so it turned out really nice. Not exactly like the rafting but at least we got a taste of it. I did pull a tendon in my wrist during one particular hippo/rapid moment but that is now healing up nicely.

Livingstone as a town is just ok. Quite small but they do have a very nice crafts market where we got a couple of things, including 2 matching wooden masks that are almost 3ft tall..oh why do we always buy the biggest or heaviest thing??? They had internet (very slow) and some decent pizza and between our activities we all mainly hung out by the pool in camp.

Now, the booze cruise…oh boy, that was one of the funniest nights we’ve ever had. When you see the photos you’ll understand even more. Jim’s outfit was chosen by Kamie and was a leopard print skirt, knee bands, and a shirt that looked like something out of a conchita banana commercial. Rob (who is all of 18yrs old) had me and actually bought me a red teddy!!! Oh yes, just what I wanted to wear, along with leopard print pants and top. Frightening! Everyone looked completely ridiculous but we had a great time. After the 2hr cruise we partied away at the bar on the beach where we took off and things got quite messy for some of the gang…luckily, we were ok but it sure made for great people watching and stories the next day!

On 5/18 we woke up to say goodbye to some of our old gang. Julie, Darian, Lorraine and Brad are continuing on to Joberg with the original truck, Scooby. Drew & Kamie headed on their own to Joberg by air, Lynsey & James went to Namibia on their own and Violetta is heading back to Tanzania to volunteer before going back. We are down to 10! Next blog we’re off to Botswana with the new crew! Love you all, Jim & Rhonda

Hi folks, So sorry it’s been such a long time since the last blog!! We’ve been covering THOUSANDS of kilometers and seeing so much stuff it’s mindblowing! We’re doing great and are currently in Swakopmund, Namibia on the Atlantic coast. I’m going to do a couple of blogs from here and hopefully get things up to current by South Africa!

The Ngongoro Crater is absolutely amazing! We camped for 1night near the crater rim and had some great local entertainment from one of the tribes. Dancing, singing, and acrobatics..very cool and the boys who did the gymnastic moves were amazing. If they lived in the States they’d be part of Cirque du Soleil! On the way to that campspot we stopped for some shopping and Jim and I , of course, had to buy some things. It’s fantastic to have a place to store things on the truck without having to worry about carrying them on our back! Jim bought a masai drum and shield and I got a gorgeous wooden bowl. Beautiful stuff although I must say the cowhide that makes up the drum and shield definitely has an odor about it!

In the morning we headed out around 6:30am for the crater. The road leading in is in very poor condition and with all of the recent rain was huge vats of mud. We had a 4wheel drive, which is essential, and passed about 6 trucks and cars that were stuck. The crater itself is huge, 19km across it encomposses a very large area. The game viewing was great and we were blessed with near perfect weather. We saw our first black rhino (the white rhinos are the more common) , hundreds of zebra, wildebeest, some jackals, elephants, buffalo, etc. and then, the highlight of the day….a huge male lion literally lying right on the edge of the road. We parked about 4feet from him and he was nice enough to even get up and pose for some photos! He was absolutely gorgeous with a huge, luxurious mane of hair..just amazing.

That afternoon we headed back to Arusha for 1 night and then had to endure 2 long days of driving to get to Dar es Salaam on the coast. Our first night at Tembo (meaning elephant in Swahili) Jim and I once again upgraded because it was pouring down rain and the thought of putting up a tent was not appealing! That stop was just overnight but it was beautiful scenery along the way. Tanzania is still in rainy season (as you guessed!) and everything is lush and green. We passed near Kilimanjaro again but never did see it as it’s been clouded in.

The next day we arrived in Dar es Salaam, the large port town on the Indian Ocean. Dar itself didn’t look great and officially has the worst road we’ve been on this entire trip running through town. However, we arrived at our campsite and were thrilled! The sun was shining, the campground is on the beach, and we could upgrade to a beach bungalow for only $8/night!! woo hoo. They were tiny, bathrooms were still with everyone else..but for 2 nights it was lovely to be able to fall asleep to the sounds of the ocean rather than being back behind the main buildings in the camping area! I know, I know, for a “camping” tour we’ve been doing a lot of upgrading but hey, it was worth it!

Our time in Dar was just spent doing laundry, lying on the beach and in the bar, and swimming. The water is gorgeous and warm and everyone was enjoying days of no rain! On day 3 we packed up to head to the spice island of Zanzibar for 4 nights and, as soon as we started walking to the ferry with our packs the rain arrived again! ugh. The ferry crossing was uneventful except for the fact that they played the worst movie any of us had EVER seen..but, no worries it was at least over quickly!

Upon arrival in Stone Town the sun greeted us and we could see what an amazing town we had come upon. We had 1 night here and then were heading up north to the beach for 3 nights. After lunch and check in Jim and I and Julie & Darian, another couple from the tour, headed out to walk around and take photos. The town has a labrynith of streets and fantastic buildings. It was originally used as a slave trading headquarters for the Middle East and many of those buildings still remain.

At sunset we met up with the rest of the crowd at Africa House hotel (gorgeous!) and bar to have a sundowner and then headed to the night fish market for dinner. It was great fun, just 1 street full of fresh fish that you could get grilled up but most of us tried out the “Zanzibar pizza”. Not really like a pizza at all, it was dough and fillings but was enclosed like a calzone and deep fried. Delicious! Two pizzas each and a coke set us back $3! We then headed to Mercurys for a drink. It’s a restaurant dedicated to Freddy Mercury, who was born on Zanzibar (who knew??). Bedtime pretty early after a truly great day.

The next morning we headed out for our StoneTown and spice tour on the way North. We got to visit some of the old slave buildings in town and then went to a spice farm to see the actual plants that make up the spices we all use. Jim and I had done similiar tours in Bali and India but it’s still interesting. Our beach hotel was not quite what we had hoped for. Originally we thought everyone got their own accomodations on Zanzibar but then our guide Rene said due to high season she had booked us all in this particular one. We figured, ok, $50/night is a bit less than the places we’d looked at so we went with it.

The first room they gave us was gorgeous, however WAY back from the beach. So, we asked for one of the beach rooms (where some of the group had rooms) and were told we could have one the next day. Fair enough, we moved the next day to one of the beach rooms… which were not nearly as nice but were at least right on the beach. What we didn’t like about the place was the location. When we’d been looking at properties we’d found some only a few miles outside of Stone Town but still on the beach. This property was near a village but it was a $30USD taxi ride there and there was nothing actually to see once you got there. And, being in a remote spot there were only 3 other restaurant choices within walking distance…1, at a French owned hotel had only fixed prize menus starting at $60pp and the other 2 were exactly like our hotel, basically. There was also very little to do except a snorkel tour. We all ended up being a bit bored just hanging out which was too bad. Zanzibar is a gorgeous, gorgeous island with amazing turquoise water and it’s just great…but the property had no palapas or beach chairs and with no where to really walk to or anything it just wasn’t quite what everyone had hoped for. 1 couple went back to Dar  1 day early and 1 woman went back to Stone Town for 1 night and I’m thinking we should have done either of those 2 options. But, it was at least nice to be in 1 spot for 3 nights!

Our ferry back to Dar had a much better movie playing but was really rough. We were fine but, unfortunately, a few people spent the 2hrs throwing up. Not nice! Back in Dar we were at the same beach bungalow for 1 more night and had a great time there, by the end of the night we were all a bit tipsy (ok, drunk!) and all jumped in the pool with our clothes on! Good times in Tanzania!

The next morning we were off for a long drive to Malawi. As I mentioned we have covered thousands of kilometers on this trip which is not great but….the only way to truly see things right? We crossed over the border (no visa fee this time thank goodness!) into Malawi and spent the night at a fantastic camp called Old CountryInn. It was set up in the hills and had some really unique architecture to the buildings. Jim and I upgraded again (I know, we’re a bit spoiled) to a very cute room with actual curtains on the windows, a chair and flowers! Dinner was put on by the camp and was one of the best meals we’d had since we’ve been in Africa. Spinach soup and actual good bread to start, a very tasty beef stew and sauteed vegies over rice and brownies and hot chocolate with Amarula for desert. So good! Too bad we were only there 1 night and then yet another long drive to get to Lake Malawi.

That is it for now. I’ll try to get the Malawi and Zambia blog info up to date tomorrow before we head back to the wilds of Namibia. We’ll be home before you know it but for now we are absolutely still Living the Dream in Africa! Love you all, Jim & Rhonda

For everyone who’s seen the movie blood diamond you’ll know that this means “This is Africa” and it is so true! Nothing is quite as you’d expect it to be.
Our flight was due to leave Cairo for Nairobi at 2am on 19April and instead left at 4:30am. Long 4 1/2 hrs waiting in the airport! We had about a 1hr connection in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and then on to Kenya. We weren’t quite sure what to expect since all the latest news reports were of the rioting but it is actually quite a nice city. There are certainly slumy areas but overall it was green & lush with lovely parks and was quite clean. The Hotel Boulevard was just ok but for 1 night no worries. At 6pm we met 11 of our group and had an early dinner and bed.
As we expected, everyone else on the trip is in their young to mid 20’s! We are definately the old farts in the group. Lots of Aussies, 2 Scots, 2 Brits, and an Irish guy make up the rest of the group. The next morning we 11 and our guides Renee and Justin headed out to the market for supplies and then drove a couple of hours to Lake Naivasha to meet up with the remaining group members. There were 21 of us the first couple of days and since 2 girls have finished their bit so we’re at 19 in the group plus guides and the driver until after Victoria Falls.
We do love camping….the only negative here is that it’s the end of rainy season in Kenya and Tanzania. ugh, not that much fun to wake up in the morning to have to get up and break down camp in the rain. The truck is HUGE, 24 seater but underneath has loads of compartments for bags, tents, food, camp supplies, etc. It’s quite a group effort and we’re broken into 4 teams, each day 1 team is responsible for helping Justin cook dinner, 1 team does clean up, 1 cleans up the truck and 1 does set up of the chairs, tables, etc.

For the last few days we spent the time driving out to the Masai Mara Reserve to meet the Masai people and do our first game viewing. The Masai still live quite traditionally in most cases and we took loads of photos. As for the game drives, it is amazing as we’d remembered from our time in South Africa a few years ago. We’ve seen thousands of zebra, wildebeests, impalas, etc. and dozens of warthogs, topi (a type of large antelope), elephants, giraffe, buffalo and also some lions and a cheetah.

After 2 nights back in Nairobi (where Jim & I splurged on a $22/night room with ensuite bath ) we had a long drive yesterday into Tanzania. The landscape and scenery here in Tanzania is absolutely stunning so even though we were on the truck for 7 hours it was enjoyable. We’re currently camped outside of Arusha, a rather bustling market town of a capital, and this afternoon head in 4X4 jeeps to the rim of Ngongorono Crater where we’ll do a half day game drive tomorrow morning.

So far we’ve been stuck in the mud, had a flat tire and had quite a lot of rain.  But, we’ve also had some great times around the campfire and everyone has a great attitude and hey, we’re all in it together! The sightseeing and people watching is as amazing as we’d hoped for and, even though the camping gets old occasionally, the trip so far is incredible.

Today we’re splurging on a french press because we can’t stand the crap nescafe at camp any longer and they have absolutely amazing coffee in this area we’re not willing to miss out. Plus, it will help our moods on days we DO have to get camp broken down in the rain! The good news is, in 5 days we’ll be on Zanzibar for 4 nights …dry in a hotel and hopefully having good beach weather, and as we drive further into Zambia, Malawi, etc. we start hitting dry season. That is really the only down side so far.

The food in camp is a bit monotonous. Breakfast everyday is toast, cereal, etc. Lunch is always leftovers from dinner and sandwich makings, and then dinner is a stew or something similiar. It’s all tasty enough, but I’m sure we’ll be buying some of our own snacks to supplement it with soon.

Well, time to head back to camp and back up to head to the crater. The animal viewing is meant to be fantastic there, it’s own mini version of Rift Valley (where we were at Masai Mara). Not sure when we’ll get back on line so hope everyone stays well until we are in touch again. Living the dream in unpredictable Africa. Love, Jim & Rhonda

We are so glad we decided to return to Luxor to spend some more time. When we were on the tour we saw all the “biggies” but there is so much more to see!

We’re still loving the St Joseph hotel and would gladly stay there again. The rooms aren’t fancy, but are very clean and spacious and the staff is fantastic.

It’s very hot, over 100 degrees everyday, so after breakfast we do our sightseeing for the day and then have been spending afternoons around the hotels rooftop pool. We visited the Luxor Museum and were thrilled with it. The museum in Cairo is completely overwhelming due to the sheer number of treasures but, it’s a well known fact, that nothing is arranged very well and almost nothing is even labeled. So, the gallery type setting of the Luxor museum and having everything clearly marked was great. We also visited the Mummification museum. Quite small but interesting all the same.

One morning we took the public ferry across to the west bank. This is the non-touristy side of the Nile and we met a young boy who walked with us, pointing out some things and just chatting and then spent a delightful hour or two at a sidewalk coffee shop drinking thick as mud turkish coffee and smoking a sheesha while chatting with some local taxi drivers and watching the world go by. There were almost no other tourists and almost no shops or anything so the time was extremely pleasant. If we ever come back and stay longer we found there are also some very nice flats for rent for a week or two (or longer) for only around $200/week!

We did pay for 1 tour to take us back to some monuments. In one morning we toured 2 tombs at the Tombs of the Nobles. These were fascinating because , being partially done, they really showed the process the artists took to draw and then paint the interior of the tombs. Next, on to the workers village at Gurna. The workers for tombs were not slaves, however, once they began working on the tombs they were forced to live on the West Bank and could not return to the East Bank. Some of the workers who were artists also worked on small tombs for themselves and they are amazingly well preserved with vibrant colorful scenes. Very interesting.

Lastly, we went to Medina Habu, the temple of Ramses III. This is second in size only to Karnak and was very impressive in itself. There are just so many treasures that it’s almost impossible to see them all without multiple trips. We still never even saw anything at the Valley of the Queens or the Temple of Menerptaph.

The rest of our time in Luxor was spent walking the streets and exploring. This heavy dry heat takes a lot out of you and we’re very glad we booked a hotel with a pool. We found a fantastic restaurant through Lonely Planet named Oasis Cafe. The owner is American and it’s a beautifully done small cafe with smoking and nonsmoking rooms (thank god!!!) , jazz playing and a wonderul menu. Their Oasis salad was actual lettuce (something we’ve seen very little of in months and months), slices of apple and mango, blue and gouda cheese, and walnuts with a mild blue cheese dressing. Absolute heaven! And their curried chicken salad is also great although Diane, if you’re reading this, you still win the prize there!

Tonight we take the sleeper train to Cairo for 2 nights (sort of) arriving at 5am tomorrow morning and leaving at 2am Saturday morning to Nairobi. We have ended up really enjoying Egypt. The people are wonderful, probably only second to India for being open and welcoming. If you could just eliminate the taxi drivers and the incessant smoking EVERYWHERE it would all be good! However, 1 month was certainly enough and we are so excited to be underway on the safari. Our trip to South Africa in 2003 made us realize that Africa will absolutely change you and we can’t wait to get back to , not only the animal sightseeing, but the culture and people and music that are so fascinating to us.

Only about 2 1/2 months left to go on our trip and it seems incredible that we are now thinking of the countdown to go home rather than the countdown to depart. We would not have missed this entire experience for the world and are certainly deeply changed by it all. We absolutly are going home more willing to accept other countries and cultures and much more patient for sure. We also realized that we don’t need that much. At home it is difficult to not get sucked into the desire to acquire more stuff but just living out of 1 bag per person for all this time showed us what we really require is not much at all! That being said, I do really miss my bed and my kitchen!

Next post I hope to report many animal sightings and not too much rain (it’s currently raining over most of southern Kenya. NOT good for our camping!) Miss you and love you all at home and we’ll talk to you soon. Living the Dream, love, Jim & Rhonda

Hello to everyone from Luxor. We are SOOOOOOO thrilled to be out of Hurghada. It was basically just not our scene at all.

For our final time in Alexandria we had a great day doing a walking tour and spent quite some time in a cafe talking with a British man who is studying for one year in Egypt. He gave us some good advice for lunch, our walk, etc.  We must have walked 7 miles that day and covered all of downtown and were absolutely beat that night. We ended up just going around the corner from our hotel to get a pizza and some snacks for the travel day the next day. The guys at the restaurant were great, just a little sidewalk hole in the wall and we got salad and 2 individual pizzas for about $9 and we had a good time talking to them.

Our travel day to Hurghada was long but went well. It was a 3hr train ride back to Cairo where we ended up with a 3 hour wait in the bus station. They’re redoing it and none of the shops or snack bars are open yet but it’s going to be really nice when they’re done with it. With people watching the time went quickly. In the course of this trip Jim and I have figured out we are masters at wasting time!

From there we took a 6hr bus trip to Hurghada. The Superjet buses are 1st class and the trip went smoothly. It was a full bus and we enjoyed talking to a family that are Egyptian but live in Texas now. The scenery looks like Mars. Truly, the desert in Egypt is nothing like anything in the states that I’ve seen. There is not a shrub, cactus, piece of grass, just nothing but sand and dunes for hundreds of miles.

We arrived in Hurghada at around 8:30pm and then the fun (not) started. We were using a week of Jim’s parents timeshare through RCI. We’ve used the Worldmark properties many times, including for Fiji and twice in Australia on this trip and they’ve always been just amazing, great resorts, great service, full kitchens, the whole bit. RCI is affiliated with Worldmark but a whole different world. Jim first got flak from the security when he just went in to make sure we were at the right resort (they have 3 in Hurghada). He finally got to reception and HE had to find our name on the list because they couldn’t find it. Then, he came out to get me and the cab to go in and we couldn’t get the security to even open the gate and let us in without a big thing. Then, of course, the taxi driver felt he needed twice the agreed upon fare because he’d had to wait 10minutes (but then, you already know what we think of Egyptian cabbies). We finally got to reception together and they were not going to let us check in, even with our name on the list, the confirmation # , AND passports showing our names because we didn’t have the voucher. The problem was, we had booked the resort on the phone and they mailed (not emailed) the voucher to Jim’s parents. Since we were in India in the time we couldn’t get the real thing and the scanned copy never printed well but, we’ve never been denied a hotel room because of no voucher before! We finally had to get the manager involved and advised him it wasn’t easily readable but we’d email him what we had gotten the next day.

The next shock was the room. Instead of a 1bdrm condo, what we thought we had paid for, we got a nice hotel room with a tiny shower and balcony with great view over the pool and a queen bed as well as a connecting room with 2 twin beds, a fridge and a sink. No microwave, no dishes, no cutlery, nothing. So much for the “partial kitchen in all rooms” The really silly part was that the 2nd room had no bathroom but actually had it’s own room # and door!!! As if they could rent it on it’s own with no bathroom available anywhere??!! So odd. On top of that the minifridge and tv didn’t work. So, 5 phone calls and FOUR hours later it finally got resolved.

Anyway, Hurghada, turns out, is sort of like Cancun on acid. Very touristy and upscale looking but with few internet cafes and NO bookstores with books or magazines, a first so far on this trip. There are no Americans here(in fact, the locals whom we’d spoken to would yell “hey americans” when Jim and I would walk past), almost no independent travelers at all, and about 97% of all travelers here are Russians and the occasional European on charter flights with all-inclusive packages so just getting a drink at the Sindbad resorts was a challenge because we didn’t have an all-inclusive band and they never had change, etc.

The pool was lovely, but so cold we never really got in it. We did spend most of the days at the beach resort Sindbad across the street. Now, keep in mind we are REALLY spoiled with beaches on this trip, so, when I say this beach wasn’t great it doesn’t mean it was bad..but it certainly was not Australia or Vietnam or Thailand or India or even Bali! It was very small and jampacked with people. The good news of that was the fantastic people watching. The Russians have a very interesting fashion statement going on…basically they look like we did in the USA in the late 80’s / early 90’s with big hair, too tight, short clothes, handbags in metallic colors, etc. Really a good time watching everyone.

We are more laid back beach shack type of travelers and so Hurghada was basically just much too built up to be a favorite of ours. The water, however, in the Red Sea is really gorgeous turquoise. It was a bit chilly but other than that had very good visibility. We did take a one day snorkeling trip but it was really windy so made snorkeling mostly impossible. There had been sandstorms throughout Egypt the day before and it still hadn’t fully died down. What we did see underwater was great though:)

Getting a bus ticket to Luxor was yet another hassle. We asked the taxi driver to bring us to the Superjet office(and we knew where it was because we came in there) and , of course, he took us somewhere else where his buddy worked. When we said we wanted Superjet he said they didn’t go to Luxor, only Cairo. We said we still wanted to go check it out and imagine that, Superjet DOES go to Luxor and we got tickets with no problem.

Our final experience of no fun with the hotel was when we asked if they could print off one page of an email of ours if we sent it to them. We had booked our hotel in Luxor for today on asiarooms.com and needed to print the voucher. One internet cafe didn’t have printers, the next had a printer we couldn’t get to work, etc. So, we asked at the hotel. 4 different employees told it was impossible for them to print anything. We asked for the manager and were told he wasn’t available.So, we wait for the client services rep. who assures us they can do it but we need to email it to the hotel and then she can print it. So, we email it and she tells us to speak to one guy, he says he can’t do it and to talk to her, then they say they didn’t receive it even though it didn’t come back to us and we verified the email address. Around and around we went until finally Jim got really pissed and demanded to speak to the manager and right now. He was able to print it off for us but again, that simple 1 page printing process took us 4 hours of hassling. In all of the hotels in 33 countries we’ve traveled to we have never had such horrific customer service.

So, glad we were to leave Hurghada today to take a 3 1/2hr bus ride to Luxor. In an odd twist it was the exact same driver that took us from Cairo to Hurghada who drove us to to Luxor today. There were only 3 of us on the bus and Jim spent some time speaking to the other passenger, George, who is from Luxor but actually works at the Sindbad in Hurghada. Ha ha, he told him about our problems there (George works in the kitchen) and he agreed the front desk/ reception employees are a disaster.

Upon arrival in Luxor we got a quick cab to the St Joseph Hotel. It got rave reviews on traveladvisor.com and in Lonely Planet and we can see why. It is a basic 3 star hotel.We got a room with a balcony with a Nile view and the staff spoke great English and were extremely helpful with info on what was available on site.  Breakfast is included so for $41/night we’re happy campers! The minifridge works and we were immediately much happier than we’d been for the entire last week!

It’s hot today in Luxor, around 100 or so although it’s cooled off nicely this afternoon. After we checked in we headed right to the Thomas Cook office to get our sleeping train booked to Cairo. They were also very helpful there and we are all set for the train so it’s official- we have no more reservations to make!!! We’re really, really excited about that. Over the course of this trip we’ve made hundreds and hundreds of hotel and transportation arrangements and we are tired!!! So, we have everything reserved until we meet the safari group in Nairobi on 19April and they’ll take care of us from there. Our hotels in Cape Town and Frankfurt, where we’re overnighting on the way home, are all confirmed and all of our flights are done. WHEW, we’re not going to know what to do with ourselves without all the planning!

Anyway, Luxor is beautiful and we have some sightseeing planned that we didn’t get to do with the Grand European tour and our hotel has a lovely little pool and restaurant on the roof overlooking the Nile so we’re just going to get happy with Egypt again for our last week! Hard to believe it’s only 1 more days before we are on safari, the one thing we most wanted to do on this trip.

We hope you are all happy & healthy and look forward to seeing everyone in only 2 1/2 months! Lots of love, Jim & Rhonda

Greetings from Alexandria!

We had a great 12 days with the GET tour. From our last post we left Aswan and headed downstream back to Luxor, stopping at Kom Ombo along the way to see the temple we missed on the way down. Once back in Luxor we spent the night and then flew back to Cairo.

Back at the lovely Semiramis we finally actually toured the pyramids at Giza and the Sphinx. Truly amazing sights and the evening sound and light show was great as well. However, there we had a very strange turn of events. It never rains in Egypt, and I mean never as in 10minutes every 7 years or so. So, what happens, we’re getting seated for the sound and light show and a wind starts blowing in that is cold enough that we all rented the blankets they have available there and then it started to rain! Yep, rain. And, the beginning of the show there were bagpipes playing. It was completely surreal, sitting wrapped in blankets with the pyramids lit up, in the rain, with bagpipes around us. You just never know what might happen when you travel!

After the tour ended Jim and I took the train to Alexandria. 1st class was quite comfortable with reclining seats and footrests and plenty of room for our backpacks. After getting used to India’s very timely system, however, we weren’t expecting the 2 1/2 hr train to take 4hrs 15min. No worries though as we had no agenda for the day. We had received our sleeping bags and pads for the safari in Cairo, courtesy of my boss Kathy and our Egypt office so we had that extra baggage and really needed a DHL. Lucky for us, we met 2 great ladies from Seattle on the tour, Val and Ashley. Ashley agreed to take a 2nd checked bag home with her and just send it by ground to mom & dad in Salem, thus saving us big bucks from DHL as well as opening up room in our backpacks for the sleeping bags and pads. It was all good! Thanks again Ashley!!!!!

In Alexandria we got a cab to the hotel and thus started our hassles with traveling in Egypt on our own. It’s a tough country if you veer off the main tourist path because very few signs have any english lettering. Sameh had been good enough to help us find a decent hotel in our price range so we were good there, but, the driver didn’t pay attention when we gave him the name, drove us to a different hotel, and then wanted more money than agreed upon. No dice buddy since Sameh had even written the name down in Arabic for us!

The Kaoud Sporting Hotel is ok, room is oceanfront on the mediterranean with a balcony and the staff is all friendly. It’s a bit far from the main downtown area but we need some serious walking after all that food on the boat anyway! The first day we , quite honestly, spent most of the day just reading, napping, and watching TV with one long 4 mile walk thrown in. We aren’t used to this touring business and were tired from having a schedule! I know, I know, you’re all feeling really sorry for us..not!

Yesterday proved to be challenging. We had asked the hotel if there was a direct bus from Alexandria to Hurghada rather than taking the train back to Cairo and then the bus to Hurghada and said we needed a morning bus. Due to some communication issues they ended up booking us on a night bus (thus we would miss the first night we have booked at the timeshare) and gave away the tickets we had been holding from Cairo to Hurghada on the bus. We were not happy! Luckily, she realized it had been her error and today was able to get everything fixed and we are back to taking a train to Cairo Friday morning and then taking the afternoon bus to Hurghada on the Red Sea for the 7 nights in the condo. We ended up being out $40 but, at least we got things resolved because we had few other options for that travel day and were stressing it a bit!

In the course of last night we also managed to completely break our adapter. When we were in New Zealand I managed to blow up our original converter. So, we were forced to not only get a new converter but also new adapters to reverse the power to work with our US appliances. Now, we had managed to irreparably mess up the prongs on the adapter that works for Asia, India and most of Africa. Once again Randa (pronounced just like my name..we found out Rhonda is of Turkish/ Egyptian origin..who knew!) came through and sent out one of the men from the front desk and in 10minutes had a new adapter for us. Very good!

We spent a few hours at the Green Plaza mall this afternoon, stocking up on some needed toilitries and catching a movie. It was our first english language movie since Australia so a good time. We saw There Will be Blood with Daniel Day Lewis..not at all what we were expecting but he certainly deserved to win the oscar for that performance! Of course, per usual we had a run in with the taxi driver who brought us back to the hotel. We showed him our room key (with the name in Arabic) and agreed on 10egyptian pounds ($2us). So, he isn’t really sure where it is, even though he said he did, had to stop for directions, etc and when we get to the hotel actually gets out of the car to follow us into the hotel again to demand more money. Then, even gets the front desk involved. They first agreed the price is normally 20pounds (even though it only cost us 10 to get there!) but when we said we’d showed him our key and he agreed they sympathized with us but said if we just gave him another 5pounds he’d go away. We did very unwillingly and let them know we though it was crap that the cab drivers all pull this crap. Totally pissed us off.

Tomorrow we’re doing the city walking tour and spending some time downtown and then, once again time to repack and move out. We’re not looking forward to our travel day on Friday which starts with our 8am train departure from Alexandria and will end around 9pm in Hurghada but, we have no options really:)

Looks like spring has officially hit the NW and we hope everyone is safe & sound. Living the dream (the good, the bad and the ugly!!!!!!!!), Love you all, Jim & Rhonda