Leaving Zanzibar

Not the best way of doing blogs (posting just at the beginning and at the end of the trip), but you know what people say: no hurry in Africa (Tin Tin) or Pole pole (piano piano) and of course Hakuna Matata. Besides, broadband Internet is not exceptional (ahem, professional deviation...).

So few pearls, just for the record.

Safari was great, spotted 4 of the big five, rhino is missing but I had plenty of them in South Africa, so I was just happy to have seen many lions and a few leopards on the branch of a tree ("a quattro di bastoni" come dicono i miei compagni di viaggio romani).

Camping was tough, instead. The Lobo camp in the Serengeti was the top (weird latrines, no showers, nothing around, in the middle of nowhere: 30$ per person...). But at the end, not only did we survive but had become perfect tent assemblers!

Some highlights: driving by a few lions, falling in the creek while coming back from the Natron waterfalls, eating goat cooked by a Maasai, singing "Ci son 2 coccodrilli e un orangutan" to a Swedish/Tanzanian crowd, visiting a school with 500 beautiful children, a road accident with a cow, our driver guide Isack (aka "il Pallonaro" due to the biiiig stories he was able to invent - next post: the story of the cook of the Lobo camp and the revenge of the baboon).

Then, of course, Zanzibar: the whitest sand, the most tourquoise see, giant turtles, the jambo jambo cocktail. And the beach boys, all speaking Italian and trying to drag you into an excursion to some atoll or a restaurant. By the way, we've learned a little Swahili on the way :)

More in the next posts, almost time to leave now. Tomorrow 24 hours stop-over in Cairo, then Rome, then home.

Live in Arusha

Sleepless night, landing in Kenia at 4 a.m., entering Tanzania around 9.
6 hours in a Chinese bus on unpaved roads, everywhere desert, dust and poverty.
But also colourful clothes and people dressed up for Sunday mass.

It's cold and grey (and I am not in Brussels) and my 15 travel mates seem ok. Today it's still comfortable, in a hotel in a city. Tomorrow we go for the real thing.

Next report when back to civilisation.

Pranzo di Ferragosto.
"Chicken or beef?" Courtesy of Egyptair, il Ferragosto 2009 e' piuttosto alternativo.

Tanzania, here we come

Getting ready: essentials

15 kg backpack, a pack of breakfast cookies, a 18-200 zoom, Jennifer Gartner style haircut (no need to wash for a week, I am told). Some people say it's more Monica Bellucci. I don't mind.

A good start

Our plane takes off tomorrow afternoon to Nairobi, via Cairo.

The trip started tonight, with a nightride in Rome, alongside the Colosseum, Fori Imperiali, Aventino hill... Well, you know what I mean.

Style matters

Being a group of Italians, the first conversation was a mutual apology: sorry guys if I have to use the same few T-shirts in the next two weeks.

Who knows when I'll be able to post an update...