March/April 2015 - Malawi

Malawi - more of a tropical feel, high humidity, big thunder clouds and rain storms, lots of lightning and wild wind.  Very poor, lots of children... every woman seemed to be carrying a baby on her back with another at her side and many times more coming behind.  Also, apparently, there is a high HIV rate.  Large signs about children and HIV, and one sign said "Don't Marry Me, Educate Me."

Two of our truck drivers are from Tanzania and Zimbabwe; they are both married with children and actively looking for second wives.  I met a man at one of our camps that told me he had 20 children and 17 grandchildren and he was 50 yrs old. There were about 6 kids with him when we met.

Schoolkids were amazed at the bikes on top of the Tour d'Afrique truck. They were extremely cute. I'm not sure that the kids who didn't have school uniforms were able to attend school. I was told that it costs $11 per year including the uniform but if the family doesn't have it then the child cannot attend.

Roadside market - potatoes out front, everything was stacked attractively to look good.

More Tanzania Pictures

Low-lying clouds and green hills and valleys

Lots and lots of roadside markets with bananas and sugarcane and mangoes for sale.

We went through Tanzania during the rainy but were very lucky they did not amount to much. The sky and layers of clouds were incredible.

March 2015 - Tanzania

Sorry about the long delay in blogging; I have many excuses - equipment failure (my fault), no internet, bad wifi, too busy biking, eating and sleeping, etc.  I see that I started this blog almost a week ago and will try to send it today.  I am now in Maun, Botswana at a very lovely resort and enjoying the comforts of a hotel room with a hot shower, air conditioning, king size bed with clean white sheets, a balcony surrounded by tropical trees and a restaurant that serves western type food (and wine).  I just finished a breakfast of 2 scrambled eggs, bacon, 3 toasts, fruit salad, yogurt, pineapple juice and coffee; it sure beats the gruel, bakers white bread, peanut butter and bananas that we are served most mornings...they do have good coffee and the bananas are great.

Tanzania -  it was the rainy season and the sky was very interesting/ beautiful, very blue with large thick white and grey clouds but we were quite lucky and only got rained on a few times but those deluges will stay in my memory.  Greener and mountains in the background.  Arusha, although we were only there for less than a day, looked and felt very interesting and fun.  The Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater safaris were incredible.

Baobab tree - see the men sitting at the base of the trunk for scale.

Landscape along the way. Cows at a watering hole; people collecting drinking water at the same locations.

Typical scene, men relaxing in the shade

March 11, 12 & 13th - On Safari!

Oh my God!  Day 1 - Left Arusha at 6am in a safari land cruiser outfitted with a rifle, shovel, convertible roof, six seats in three rows (room for the driver, cook and 4 passengers), tents and food and drove 370 km (about half on dirt tracks) to the Serengeti via the rim of the Ngorongoro Crater.  We stopped on the rim and with binoculars looked down into the Crater.  We watched Cape Buffalo, elephants and rhino.   Then made our way to the Serengeti where that afternoon we saw lions laying in the grass, giraffes up very close, zebras, leopard, cheetahs, wildebeest, warthogs, elephants, hippos, two crocodiles, baboons, monkeys, gazelles, elands, and other things that I can't think of now.   What could be left for tomorrow; will we be totally bored?  That night our camp was visited by Cape Buffalo; I heard snorting outside of my tent and then the sound of hooves walking away...I didn't look b/c I didn't  want to know what was out there.

Day II - Up at 5:30am for coffee and cookies and on our game drive by 6.  The animals were on the move...elephants roaming, monkeys swinging in the trees, cape buffalo gathering...then we came across a pride of 13 lions feasting on a Wildebeest; the fed lions would walk away with huge bellies and blood all over their faces and paws.  Later we saw another pride ripping apart a zebra.  The male with the full mane ate first and went into the shade to rest, then the females and younger males (manes, just beginning) ate while the two cubs tackled the zebra head biting on its ears and nose.  Meanwhile, other zebras would come by to watch (standing about 100' away), apparently once an animal has been taken down the others relax and stop running b/c they know the threat is gone.
We watched hippos wading in the water under the watchful eye of a crocodile while a stampede of wildebeest and zebra came down to the watering hole to get a drink.  The crocodile would submerge itself occasionally and we would hold our breathes waiting for some action, which never came.
We watched two herds of elephants..one had a very, very large male (much bigger than the rest) but there is no scale in the photo to prove it.    You could see how destructive they could be; they striped a tree of bark and pulled large branches off another tree in the 40 min that we were watching them.

Malawi

My electronics continue to defeat me.  I now can't even send or receive emails on my iPad or phone.  We have been in Malawi now for over a week and crossing the border into Zambia tomorrow.  Malawi is extremely poor and many kids are orphaned.  I met a teacher yesterday that said that 16% of her students are orphans. There are so many kids here.  All of the women have babies on their hips,  another tagging behind and often pregnant.

The countryside is lush and beautiful.  The people wear bright wraps and the kids dirty, holey clothes but they seem sweet and happy.  We hear so much singing along the road, it is great. 

On Safari in the Serengeti - March 11th to 13th, 2015

Karen took a few days off from the Kenya/Tanzania portion of the route earlier this month to do a safari in the Serengeti along with some other riders. Here are some pictures.

Mom and cub, hanging out in the grass

Big male lion, satisfied after his recent kill/meal

Cape Buffalo

Lazy hippos

Dining on an early morning kill - the cubs get the head. Other zebras come closer to watch once they know the lions are eating and the threat is gone.

Technical Difficulties - Hopefully a Real Update Soon

(Update from Ryan)

Apologies for the lack of posts. Everything is going well and my brother heard from her a couple of days ago, but Karen is having trouble sending/receiving e-mails on her iPad. According to the Tour d'Afrique schedule, she just crossed from Tanzania into Malawi. Hopefully she'll figure out her internet problems, since she has a lot to update us on. 

Meanwhile, she was able to send me this one picture from her safari earlier this month in the southern Kenyan Serengeti.

Mom and cub hanging out in the grass