Jun 01 2008
Off to Africa!
Departure is getting VERY close - in about 36 hours I get on a plane to Ethiopia to work this week. Then at the end of the week Lyanda and Claire fly via London, and we meet up in Nairobi next weekend. After a couple of days in Nairobi feeding giraffes and having a lunch seminar on post-colonial theory, we’re flying to Mombasa on the coast, and spending ten days as volunteers at the Colobus Trust, then a week in the coastal village of Takaungu, and then a weekend in Watamu at A Rocha checking out the Assets ecotourism project, centered on the Arabuko-Sokoke forest.
Then we fly back to Nairobi and bus to Arusha, Tanzania. After many late night e-mail exchanges with various outfitters, we have just about finalized our safari plans at last, choosing Active Tanzania as the outfitter we’ll be using for a five day camping trip from Arusha to Lake Manyara, Ngorongoro Crater, and Arusha National Park.
Then we head east, spending three or more nights at Muller’s Mountain Lodge in the Usambara Mountains of Tanzania, then on from Tanga to Zanzibar for four nights at Maruhubi Beach Villas during the Zanzibar International Film Festival, and then three nights on the other side of the island at Casa Del Mar.
The last week of the trip (July 20-27) is completely unprogrammed. Maybe we’ll be into island life on Zanzibar and extend by a week, maybe we’ll squeeze in a last safari to the southern parks in Tanzania… who knows!?
Regarding the shoe topic: go for comfort - pay for it now or pay for it later… the worst is if your feet hurt! ~ : )
Zanzibar is a must…you will not like yourself very much if you do not include it in your list.
I can help you pick out a couple of hotels there :-).
Wow! What an adventure. Can’t wait to read along and live vicariously. Carter will dig reading about Claire’s travels too. And sign us up for the slide show when you get home!
The Staleys
Go Furtwangler-Haupts! Mike and I have been wondering when you all were taking off and how the trip was shaping up. Hope you all have a wonderful time. We’ll look forwrd to reading about how it all goes. (And go figure, here is Laura Staley also commenting — Seattle is a small town. Hi Laura!)
Long this is not met.