Living in Africa has its Perks

When I was packing for Rwanda, one of my luxuries (in terms of weight) was a big Lonely Planet guide for Africa. At the time, I imagined that once I was on the continent I would be able to travel all over it in my free time - Senegal, Morocco, South Africa, Madagascar... As it turns out, Africa is even bigger than it appears on maps. South Africa is 8 hours away from me, and it would be easier to get to Morocco from New York than it would be from Kigali. So I had to scale down my adventures, stay in my own backyard, so to speak.

In the time it takes a New Yorker to fly to Washington D.C. we flew to Uganda, slightly bigger, flatter. and four times cheaper than Rwanda!

First activity: Rafting the Nile

(And for the record, we had the idea before the Travel section of the Times.)

We floated 30km, through about 12 grades IV and V rapids and flipped twice.

this is a still from a video we took going through a rapid

Words would be wasted trying to explain how awesome it was. If you really want to know, ask to see the DVD of our float when I get back.

With a quick stop in Kampala, where we ran into a lot of Saybrugians (!), we continued on to Zanzibar.


It was like falling into a screen saver, perfect crystal clear azure water, beautifully decrepit buildings...



and rasta snorkeling guides!


Our guide, Doctor ("like Dr. Drey!"), took us out on his dhow (the traditional 'sewn' - as in no nails used - boats) to the Kendwa Reef just a few minutes out from our rooms on the beach.




For the last stop in our action-packed African adventure we traveled 23 hours (first an overnight ferry where we tried to sleep over the very repetitive soundtrack of Swahili soap operas, and then an all day bus ride from Dar to Arusha) to see: the Ngorongoro Crater. In other words, a safari, obviously (no Trip To Africa is complete without one)!

We descended into the crater while it was still obscured by the early morning clouds. At first we could barely see farther than the dry brush and then, suddenly, we found ourselves in the set for the Lion King - a faded and hazy, sun scorched landscape full of wildebeests by the thousands, skulking hyenas and elephant bones.

some wildebeests

a hyena on the prowl

But of course there was more than that - dozing lions, lolling hippos (that look like big rocks), grazing zebras, posing ostriches and one very old and wise looking elephant.

can you see the hippos?

Don't you wish you lived in Africa?