Out of Africa

Our African trip came to an end. 'So how was it?', 'How was Africa'? What comes to mind is: 'Wonderful nature!', 'Kids waving and smiling at you from every corner, shouting: Mzungu! Mzungu!', 'Women carrying stuff on their heads', 'Unbearable heat during the day', 'Buzzing mosquitos driving you crazy at night', 'Traditional villages', 'Chaotic cities'. Africa is big and diverse. African experience is intense. You'll see extreme beauty of nature and extreme poverty of people. Though, you need to be careful not to get misled by appearances. The beauty may conceal much more dangers and annoyances than you think, whereas the hardship does not need to prevent people form being joyful, hospitable and helpful. This 'inner happiness' in spite of the dire conditions is one of the most alluring and fascinating traits of the African people. If you wanna taste the spirit of African joyfulness just listen to African music.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iuqLHOj9so

Africa is beautiful – hopefully the previous posts leave little room for doubt on this :).


Africa is big! The five Eastern African countries that we visited cover the area of more than 1.5 mln square kilometers, which is only 5% of the whole continent of 30 mln square kilometers. We travelled more than 5500 kilometers on our journey around Victoria Lake. Although we covered less than 1/3 of East African territory, we still travelled further than the way from Lisbon to Moscow (by car around 4500km – check google maps if in doubt).

If we count in our Victoria Falls detour we need to add 2400 kilometres each way (we flew most of that distance, fortunately).

Intriguingly, our maps do not reflect this vastness of land, due to the spherical shape, the surface of Earth gets much smaller while it approaches the Northern and Southern poles. Our maps ignore this basic fact, which makes the Northern countries look much bigger than they really are. It makes us wonder is it just a negligence or another manifestation of European superiority complex. Just have a look at this map, which accurately reflects the relative size of the continents ...

At first this looks like a scam, isn't it, though this one is more true than the one we've seen all our life :). The fact is that Africa is by far the second biggest continent, larger than China, the USA, India and all Western and Central Europe together!

Africa is poor. The most rudimentary living conditions we saw in Maasai villages. Maasai are the pastoralist people roaming with their cattle across the plateaux of Tanzania and Kenya. They live in round huts made of clay, their roof covered with straw.

In these huts Maasai still sleep in the same room where they cook over a wood-fire – try to imagine the smell in their huts.

Maasai sleep on a bed made of wooden sticks and branches, on such a bed cow-skins substitute the mattress – clearly not too comfortable; below Maasai's bed their hens and chickens have their home. While our car broke down close to Ngorongoro Park, all the 'warriors' (every Maasai adult men is a warrior), came to check why we were lingering on in the proximity of their village.

Some of them were armed with iron spears, all of them wore traditional red and violet robes. Both men and women have big piercings in their ears and tribal tattoos on their cheeks.

Still, you keep on getting surprised how modernity comes to these places. A group of young Maasai asked us in English where we were from. Upon hearing that I was from Poland, they shouted: 'Lewandowski, Lewandowski', the football player. I asked, puzzled: 'How do you know Lewandowski?'; 'From television, how else?'; 'How can you watch television if there is no electricity in your village?'; 'We study in Arusha.' This conversation also made us wonder, how strongly these guys must be attached to their community, that even in spite of tasting the comforts of modern life, they are ready to come back to these medieval conditions and put on again their traditional outfit.  

Sure, Maasai example is extreme, though still the things and appliances that we take for granted in Europe are out of reach for millions of people in Africa. Electricity is still a luxury for many Africans, the same goes for the supply of running water. Anywhere you go you will see people (usually women and kids) walking with plastic canisters and carrying water home. Most of the Africans still cook over a charcoal and lit their homes with kerosene lamps.

Can you see the woman turning the hand-crank to pump the fuel?

The same people that don't have water pipes will have mobile phones. If they don't have electricity, how do they charge their mobiles you may ask? It's simpler than you think, there are public charging stations, even if the power wires have not made it to a town, it'll be charged from solar power. Equally surprising for a European, is the fact that many villages that don't have electricity will have a mobile phone network coverage! As mobile phone is not only a means of communicating here, it is also a means of making payments - 'M-Pesa' system is an African 'credit card'.


Africa is expensive. Eastern Africa is ridiculously expensive. Actually, this is our most serious complaint on Africa. Not only you feel ripped off most of the time, but seeing the poverty all around you keep on wondering where does this money go?



Africa is hot! Ryszard Kapuściński, the reporter and travel writer, has given an excellent and vivid account of what the heat is like in East African coastal town in his excellent book: 'The Shadow of the Sun' ('Heban' – the original title in Polish). As his account perfectly reflects what we felt like and we cannot describe it any better, let us quote him: 'The heat was dreadful, and it was impossible to walk for any length of time: there is no air to breathe, your legs grow weak, your shirt drips with sweat. After an hour of wandering around, you are fed up with everything. You have but one desire: to sit down somewhere in the shade. Better yet, beneath a fan. And then a thought strikes you: do the inhabitants of the North appreciate what a treasure they posses in that grey, drab sky, with its one great, miraculous advantage that there is no sun in it?'


Africa is not a 'gourmet' destination, unless you are a fruitarian, in this case you will be in paradise – bananas, pineapples, mangoes and papayas are excellent and come in enormous quantities. In most of the places (apart from five stars hotels) in the morning you will be usually on fried egg diet, whereas in the evenings most of the time you will be served chewy goat or beef with 'Irish' (sweet) potatoes, rice or matoke (mashed green bananas).

Cows in Uganda have very long horns and even more chewy meet

Still we managed to find some culinary jewels - Abyssinia Exotica in Nairobi serves excellent Ethiopian food,

Shehnai in Mombasa serves great Indian cuisine; the floating restaurant 'the Moorings' on the outskirts of Mombasa has unique ambience; the night food market in Zanzibar's Stonetown is a must if you happen to be around; the cakes in Bujumbura's Cafe Gourmand could rival the ones produced by Belgian patissiers. The Indian culinary influence is omni-present; on the Indian Ocean coast it is not surprising. Though, even in the landlocked Uganda, you'll get everywhere chapatis, samosas and 'the rolex' (egg omelet rolled in a chapati bread).


Africa makes you meet inspiring people, both locals and other fellow travellers. Obviously, this feature is in no way intrinsic to Africa as you'll meet great people wherever you travel. Staying in backpackers hostels, going to local markets and eateries, taking public transport and being open-minded clearly increases the chances of mind-broadening encounters. Some of the people we met stayed in our memory more than the others. Fred, the director of the Children's Centre in Kampala. Children's Centre is a boarding school that provides shelter, education and vocational training to homeless children from Kampala's slums. I've been financially supporting this project, through a Brussels-based charity: 'Les enfants de la Rue' for the last six years. We are grateful to Fred that he showed us around the Centre as well as for the discussion we had about modern Uganda and its complex tribal social structure. We are also respectful for the good work that the Centre, managed by him, is carrying out. Our safari guide – Godson, showed us the beauty of African wildlife. The two Polish missionaries that we accidentally met in Kampala's outpatient clinic - we appreciated their open-minded attitude even towards the religion and the insights into the ups and downs of Mzungu life in Uganda. While 'on Holidays' in costal Watamu, Claudius and Julia, who are also on a few-months long career break, were great companions to talk and dine during long African evenings. The Polish couple in the fifth month of their car journey from Cairo to Cape Town – the chats about adventures and misadventures of Africa travel made our short trip to Zimbabwe even more worthwhile. Respect for the four people going by bike from Cairo to Cape Town that we met in Zanzibar and the solo biker going from South to the North whom we came across in Livingstone and again in Lusaka. Traveling is our addiction :)!

Zam & Zim – countries of ups & downs

During the rainy season, the landscape around Lusaka, the capital of Zambia, appears rather European – flat and green. From the plane you see a familiar rural landscape of loosely spread settlements, where woodlands are interwoven with fields. The first great surprise awaited us already at the airport – there was a real welcome committee. Zambian officials shook our hands at the exit from the plane...

the traditional Zambian performers were dancing to the wild rhythm of the African drums...

Cool, isn't it? These are the advantages of taking an inaugural flight – yes, we were the first ones to fly on FastJet's new route from Dar-Es-Salaam to Lusaka.

Through the windows of a taxi-car, Lusaka looks tidy and well-arranged, so we jump into conclusion that we must have arrived to the most civilised country in Africa and our regular defense systems are put to rest. This first cosy impression is well... premature. We get to the bus station and we soon experience Africa's hustling at its worst. Twenty or so guys jump at us, each shouting straight into our ears that we should get their bus, they pull our arms and want to relieve us immediately from the burden of our luggage. They all ensure us that their bus is just about to leave. Experience has already taught us that the more aggressive the bus hustlers are, the less their bus is likely to leave anytime soon, especially if it's still half empty. Experience has also taught us, that in this situation, the only way to leave anytime soon is to find the office of a respectable company, which sticks to the timetable. Of course, the hustlers stand in your way and drag you to the sides to prevent you from finding the one. In case you ever plan to go from Lusaka to Livingstone, remember that the one is Mazhandu Bus Family Company :).


Livingstone is a rather soulless town in South Zambia. Obviously, it was named after a great explorer David Livingstone. This town is, though, a gateway to the most magnificent site in Southern Africa – Victoria Falls. Town itself is boring, but it offers a bunch of exciting activities that can keep you busy for more than a week. First day we get amazed by the views of the falls, the second day we get stunned by the bath in the Angel's pool. The third day ..., it turns out that many activities are cancelled due to the rainy season, the access roads and rivers to the Zambezi park are flooded, water is also too high for a rafting. Famous Victoria Falls bungee jump is very expensive and anyway we feel we had enough of hair-raising sensations after the Livingstone Island bathing. Reluctantly we opt first for a walking Safari in the Mosi-oa-Tunya National Park and one-day trip on the Zimbabwean side.


We were hesitant about the walking Safari, because in the wet season the odds to spot wildlife are meagre. The animals are dispersed due to an abundance of water and food, high grasses obstruct the view and elephants decided that it's just too wet and roamed far away on the Zim side. In the end, we decided to 'take a walk on the wild side' and did not regret it. It gets thrilling while you stand eye to eye with a buffalo and start thinking: is it about to charge?

In these moments, the fact that next to you stands a ranger with an AK-47 is quite reassuring. You find out that dangerously looking wildebeests are very squeamish - they kept on running away all the time, whereas nice looking zebras can be vicious – they kick and bite. Fortunately, no one from our expedition has experienced their viciousness, though the guide insisted that they are so; the guide's opinion is therefore vividly contested by Ieva – for her zebras are just perfect.

The highlight of the walk was an encounter with a wild, white rhino. First, we kept on tracking him for at least half an hour and then he appeared, lazing in the bushes no more than three meters from us.

 You see him so close and you cannot help contemplating: 'Wow, it's big!'; 'Wow, it's horn is really big!'

At such a distance, with no protection of the car shell, the slightest movement of this creature makes you freeze – you look around and calm yourself: 'That's fine the Kalashnikov guy is still there'.

Although Zimbabwe was only 10 kilometers away, we hesitated to go there because even a one day trip would cost us in visas 80 USD per person – 30 USD to get to Zim and 50 USD to come back to Zam. Eventually, having nothing better to do on the Zam side we decided to make the trip. They stamp you out on the Zam side, then you walk for five minutes, you cross the scenic Victoria bridge, you walk another 10 minutes on the 'no man's land' and you get to the immigration office on the Zim side. They check my passport, issue a visa, all is fine, until they tell Ieva: 'Madame, you are from a group C countries, which means that you need to apply for a visa in your home country'. 'That's too bad' - we shout back. First of all we are already stamped out of Zambia, which means that we need to pay 50 USD to come back and second I've already paid 30 USD for my Zim visa. This fee turns out to be, of course, non-reimbursable. We are though in Africa, the land where all is feasible, the officers come out with two alternative and brilliant solutions: alternative one – I go by myself to admire the wonders of their beautiful country; alternative two, for an additional USD 70 'agency fee', the formalities normally reserved for a Zim consulate in Vilnius, can be somehow sorted out at the border. Ieva doesn't find it particularly appetizing to pay in total USD 150 for a one-day trip, on the other hand if now we decide to turn back we'll anyway lose together USD 130, without even seeing anything. We pay and off we go.


On the Zim side we spot first wild warthogs, grazing calmly on the grasses growing alongside the road – they don't see to be bothered whatsoever by the presence of humans. 

Shortly after you get approached by the street-sellers. Surprisingly their key merchandise are former (now, out of circulation) Zimbabwean dollars. The country was plagued by hyper-inflation that reached grotesque levels, in exchange of 1 USD you can become an instant trilionaire by getting a single banknote with a nominal value of 100, 000,000,000,000. 

If, somehow, you are not interested in these, indeed unique banknotes, from another pocket the same seller will swiftly pull out copper bracelets. If, even the copper does not satisfy you, from yet another pocket, the same seller will take out wooden masks (they have flat and elongated shape that's why they fitted into the pocket). If you have no money, no problem, all the vendors are more than happy to exchange their precious works of craftsmanship for your great shoes or T-shirt. And yes, they all assure you that they made the bracelets and the masks themselves, in spite of the obvious facts that they always look the same). Zimbabwe is called the land of rains and thunderstorms and indeed it rains cats and dogs the whole afternoon.

Zim turned out, in the end, to be a tasty experience. In the evening we tasted a warthog steak with an African dancing troupe in the background.

In the afternoon (the day after) we tasted a British colonial dolce vita - high tea at the Victoria Hotel, the oldest in Zim, where the Zebra skins and Antelope heads hang at the walls, together with the posters praising the wealth that the Colonies bring to the crown. Let's make it clear, this place was not really our style, we treated it more like a hotel-museum, a relic of the past. Of the past that we neither approve of nor we long for. Of the past that for millions of African people meant slavery, humiliation and exploitation and for the chosen few from Europe – a paradise on Earth. Victoria Hotel is the place where everything was left as it was 100 years ago in spite of the fact that all around has changed. A place where the film crew producing a sequel of the movie 'Out of Africa', based on a novel by Karen Blixen, could start making it straight away without any rearrangements and decorations (all they need to do is to remove computers from the counters). The view from the hotel's terrace over the Victoria Bridge that accompanies the high tea biscuits is beautiful.

If Ernest Hemingway stayed in this kind of places, no wonder that: 'he never knew of a morning in Africa when he woke up that he was not happy'.

Victoria Falls – lovely moment please linger awhile!

There are these rare moments in life when you see something so beautiful that your eyes just fill with tears and all you want is that this moment just lingers on and on! Such a moment happened while we were walking on the Victoria bridge shortly before the sunset. The view of the falls from the bridge is spectacular; the view of a Zambezi river gorge 120 meters deep below us is hair-raising. So, we kept on starring at the falls ahead and into the precipice beneath; out of a sudden, the rainbow started to emerge from the middle of the waterfall crest; we rushed up to the edge of the bridge and, while we leant over the bridge rail, we spotted the shadow that the bridge cast over the hill opposite. Then, that unforgettable moment came – we looked down and we saw an inverted rainbow, as if it was smiling at us. The rainbow looked as if it was the mirror image of the shadow of the bridge's arch. More than that, we realized that the rainbow below us is actually the same rainbow that was emerging out of the waterfall crest, only at that moment it occurred to us that the rainbow was actually not a bow, it was a perfect circle! We were speechless, not sure where to look - at the rainbow circle, at the fall, at the bridge's shadow, beneath into the river gorge, and then the second rainbow, parallel to the first one, appeared at the bottom of the gorge!

Livingstone Island – into the Angel's pool

People sip coffee, enjoy exquisite cocktails, chit-chat, read books or just sit and relax at Livingstone Hotel's deck that sticks out over the Zambezi river. The deck is no more than half a kilometer upstream of the falls, it seems to be a perfect setting for chill-out - the river flows calmly, it's vast, actually it resembles more a lake than a river. You can taste here the dolce vita of paradise and yet you are just few hundred meters from the gates of hell.

This few hundreds meters away, this tranquil water, reaches the brink of the 100 meters deep and 1.7 kilometers wide precipice to become the single largest curtain of falling water on the planet!

The impact of such quantities of water falling from such a hight creates enormous clouds of spray. The rain here, is actually the opposite of rain - it does not fall, it literally springs up from the falls' crest, creating big white clouds that raise from the ground up to the sky. We saw this cloud every day from Livingstone town, 10 kilometers away from the falls, and they say that it is still easily visible 30 or even 50 kilometers away. The first time I spotted it, I could not believe that the falls can create this mass of steam; I thought – do they have a nuclear power plant there? 'The white smoke' looked as if it was coming out of these large, conical, condenser chimneys of a power plant producing terrible amounts of heat.

Victoria falls can be matched in size only by Iguazu Falls at the border of Argentina and Brazil. Iguazu is wider, but Victoria is higher. Both falls are surrounded by a thick, evergreen rainforest. That's why, while approaching both of them you get this similar strange feeling – you hear them from far away, but you don't see them; as you get closer, roaring of plunging water gets louder and louder, but you still cannot see them, because of too dense rainforest's foliage. You walk more and more impatiently and then, out of a sudden, you reach the edge of the cliff and the falls emerge in front of you, much closer and much bigger than you expected them to be! Iguazu is like a Latino man, it shows itself off at once in its all length and width, whereas Victoria is a like a prudish British lady, it hides its beauty behind the cloud of its mighty spray, only when you walk along its water curtain, it reveals its parts step by step. And this walk is a very wet one, an umbrella won't do, as you experience as much of horizontal rain as of vertical rain and anyway the vertical one 'falls' mainly from the bottom :). You come back completely soaked and all you think is that getting soaked never felt so good!

It is hard to find a name that depicts the Victoria Falls better that the one given by the indigenous people 'Mosi-oa-Tunya' – the Smoke that Thunders. The first white man to see this breathtaking sight was a famous explorer David Livingstone. Interesting enough, he caught a glimpse of it, not from the cliff in front of the falls, but from an island that lies in the middle of the precipice, just where the water starts its 100 meters plunge! So, off we went in the footsteps, or rather in the water-marks, of Dr Livingstone. Whereas in 1855 he got there in a dugout canoe, we made it in a speed boat. Alike Dr Livingstone we stood on the brink of the falls, and like him we admit that it has been one of the most exciting moments we had ever experienced. At this sight he has exclaimed: “Scenes so lovely must have been gazed upon by angels in their flight."

Imagine that you are on a small piece of rock, the water is raging all around you, you look to the right you see the falls, you look to the left you see the falls, you look below, you see 100 meters precipice and lots of white, wild water below. You stand there stunned by what you see and they tell you: 'it's jacuzzi time'! 'Jacuzzi?!' you ask: 'Where is that'? The answer is not exactly what you expect: 'Just there, in a pool at the brink of the falls, yes exactly there where the water starts its 100 meters free fall'. At first you don't believe that it's even possible, let alone you don't see any pool, all you see are just big masses of water flowing wildly forwards and down. Nevertheless, the guide grabs you firmly by the hand and leads in the direction he indicated before. 'Is he out of his mind and drags you to a certain death with him?' – you ask yourself. One step, second step ... tenth step, walking has never been such a frightening experience. And then you make it, you get into the pool, you feel the force of the current dragging you into the falls. The guide holds you tight, makes you sit. Only then you realise that you are in a pool indeed, there is a parapet that prevents you from flowing into the abyss. You lean back, it's a jacuzzi you will never forget! You are in a place called the Angel's pool, and yet you are just at an arm's length from hell.

 On the way to jacuzzi :)

Can you see the people on the other side? 

Fancy a water massagee?

Huraaah!

Burundi – the poorest country on the planet?

We discussed at length should we go or not to Burundi. It is the only country for which the Foreign Travel Advice gov.uk advises against all but essential travel, fortunately except for the capital - Bujumbura. On the other hand, even if Bujumbura was our destination, to reach it from Rwanda still we needed to cross half of the country. What's wrong with Burundi, then? It is one of the poorest countries on the planet (even Afghanistan and Central African Republic seem to have higher income per capita)! The latest available World Bank GDP per capita report lists Burundi as the poorest country with a nominal domestic product per person of 251 US dollars! Its annual domestic product per person is 55 times smaller than the one of Lithuania (14100), and 166 times smaller than the one of Germany (41800). Even as compared to its neighbors, Burundians are almost three times poorer than Tanzanians and Rwandans and four times less well-off than Kenyans. Burundi has been so impoverished by the fatal combination of its landlocked geographic location, an never ending civil war and the conflicts spilling over from its unstable neighbours, such as Congo and Rwanda. Good news is that Rwanda after the horrors of the 1994 genocide became surprisingly stable.

The signs of deprivation are visible everywhere. Kids travel from one village to another at the back of the lorry trailers. When a lorry slows down in a town, they jump at its back and climb up until they attach themselves to the railings and put their feet on a trailer door knobs. The ones that are better off and can afford a bicycle don't miss a 'free-ride', either. They've got a well-developed technique - a cyclist first needs to sit down on a frame of its bike and only then is within an arm's length reach of a truck. They can travel like this for half an hour, one of the 'free-riding' cyclists managed to do so with the whole bunch of green bananas, which can easily weigh 30 kilos. Needless to say that this mode of transport is super dangerous, also needless to say that on the mountainous roads it's a great relief for anyone that otherwise would need to walk or pedal. The people often look just miserable their cloths are dirty, full of holes and worn out. We've seen very few people smiling, which contrasts with the neighboring countries, where the people seemed mysteriously joyful and well-disposed towards foreigners in spite of their dire situation.

What is there to see in Burundi? Not so much, actually. Bujumbura is beautifully set at the coast of lake Tanganyika, which is world's longest lake and second deepest and second biggest in terms of water quantity (after Lake Baykal in Siberia). The Lonely Planet guidebook recommends the Bujumbura beaches as the most beautiful inland beaches in Africa. Hmmm... the setting is picturesque indeed, though the beauty of the beaches is clearly over publicized. What we liked most about Buja is its gastronomy, the Belgian-French influence is clearly visible or rather taste-able there. While walking into the patisserie Cafe Gourmand, we felt as if we entered the teleportation machine straight into 'Au Vatel' in Brussels for the quality and look of its pastries and a rooftop bar in Barcelona for the quality and esthetics of seating. Almost a perfect place, with only one complaint that the quality of service was also 'typiquement bruxelloise'. If you ever happen to be in Buja, don't miss a dinner in Botanika and a drink in Bora-Bora bar with a view over Tanganyika lake and the sun setting behind the mountains on the Congolese side.