Tag archive for ‘Africa’
Why Did You Travel Around the World?
Even more than five years after we took our 4 1/2 month around the world trip with our girls in 2003 to 2004, we still get questions about what the circumstances were leading up to that journey and why we decided to do it. We received our initial inspiration from several sources.
Email: Greetings from Buhoma, Uganda
It is Thursday, 3 July 2008. We are awakened at our lodge by the voices of the staff this morning at about 6am as they prepared breakfast and attended to their other duties. Later, as the sun rose, we hear the birds make their exotic calls. At that moment, we were reminded how far we were away from home. There is no electrical grid in Buhoma – the name of the settlement that includes the buildings both inside and outside of Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park. It took 180km (111 miles) of poor dirt roads to get here and the nearest paved road is 85km (53 miles) away. Our purpose for coming to Buhoma was to see the mountain gorillas in the wild.
Email: Greetings from the Long Trip Home
We are now flying over the Atlantic in the midst of a 30+ hour odyssey home, which is comprised of four flights: first to Nairobi, then Brussels and Chicago, before the final leg to LAX. Our final two days following the gorilla tracking were spent in Lake Mburo National Park, which features savanna and a wealth of antelope, zebras and birds. The highlight here was a two-hour bush walk with a private ranger / guide, complete with his WWII-era semi-automatic rifle around his neck for protection. The three of us walked through the savanna, photographing animals as they moved through the terrain.
Email: Greetings from Queen Elizabeth National Park Uganda
It’s Monday at 7AM on June 30th. Sandy and I are currently at Ishasha Bush Camp in Queen Elizabeth National Park, just a few minutes from Uganda’s border with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The camp is perched on the Ntungwe River which is fast moving and deep brown in color. Besides birds and animal sounds far off, we saw a troupe of baboons from across the river.
Email: Greetings from Entebbe, Uganda
We have been in Entebbe, Uganda for the past two days to acclimate to Africa and explore the area around Lake Victoria prior to beginning our National Park / Gorilla safari on Saturday. On Thursday we visited a chimp sanctuary located on an island in Lake Victoria. It was a 45 minute speed boat ride on choppy waters to cover about 15 miles going literally across the equator as Entebbe is only six miles north if it.
Email: Greetings from Namibia
Sorry about the lack of updates. Unfortunately, many of the places don’t have a phone in the room or access to the Internet. So we are going ahead and sending a note without pictures for the time being. We are now in route from South Africa to Namibia (about 4 hours into a 21-hour bus trip). It is a fairly comfortable vehicle with 2 stories, air-conditioning, a bathroom and fairly frequent stops to stretch one’s legs.
Email: Greetings from Victoria Falls, Zambia
Today we are in Livingstone, Zambia, near Victoria Falls. We happened to arrive here on the country’s Independence Day. They are 39 years old today, having gained their independence from Britain in 1964.
Email: Greetings from Tanzania
As I write this, we are nearing the end of our journey on the Tazara train from Kapiri Mposhi (K.M.), Zambia to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Our train departed two days ago at 3:10pm. The total journey is 1860km (a little more than 1100 miles). It is scheduled to take about 39 hours (the train makes a lot of long stops). It looks like we will be about two hours late.
Email: Greetings from Sikkim, India
We are now in a small town in the state of Sikkim, India called Yuksom. It is the jumping off point for our six day trek in the Himalayas. Yuksom is a small town of no more than a few hundred. There are only two hotels here - both small. The main street consists of a handful of small shops. The street itself is dirt.
Email: Greetings from South Australia
We are now in Port Augusta in the state of South Australia. This city, about 180 miles north of Adelaide, is known as the crossroads of Australia. The major east-west highway from Sydney to Perth travels through here, as well as the north-south route from Adelaide to Darwin. This latter road is the one we are taking, having rented a car in Adelaide earlier today. We plan to drive through the Outback to Darwin (about 1,900 miles), with a 250-mile round-trip detour to Ayers Rock. This will be our itinerary for the next two weeks.
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