K2K Expedition Update

2006-02-15T00:03:00.000-08:00

Equipment review:

Ratings:
* Product needs improvement
** On the right tract but still lacking something
*** Product performed as expected
**** Impressed with product surpassed our expectations
***** Incredible, awesome wouldn’t bother with any other competitor

(The following was taken into consideration when rating the products; performance of the product given our tough conditions, durability over the 5 month period and price of the product in comparison to its competitors.)

Kayaks: *****
We used 3 kayaks for the expedition. These were all New Zealand made Perception kayaks. They are not fiberglass and are made of Polyethylene. To sum them up they were absolutely brilliant! We could not have asked for better. We had no problems with storage space, even when we were new and stupid in the beginning and took way more than we needed, and the only problem that we did have was one broken rudder. The broken rudder, I might add, would never have occurred had we not decided to land on the rocks in rather big waves. I am almost 100% sure that had our boats been fiberglass, we would have needed a replacement for the double on day 4 when Shayne and I decided to ram the boat into the beach while being dumped by a nasty wave. We could actually feel the boat bending beneath us. There were several other occasions when we tried our hardest to break them but couldn’t, one of these times being the rock landing as pointed out above. The boats were put through their paces and not only on the water. They survived being strapped to the top of the Land Rover for about 7 000km on the trip up, which included them being used as a viewing platform in the Serengetti. They were strapped onto a dhow, the roof of a dhala-dhala and a ferry, were trampled on on the ferry over to Zanzibar and then were strapped back on the Land Rover for another 4 000km’s to get them back to Cape Town. Thank you Paddlers and Perception, we could not have had any better boats.

Kayak sails: ****

These were unfortunately not used very much due to the prevailing winds. When they were used, however, they provided us with some valuable extra km’s each day. They were very simple to use and folded away very nicely (with the exception of the double’s sail) when they were not being used. I think that we had a top speed of about 13km/h with the sails.

Set Endorfin paddles: ***
This is a wingtip paddle as opposed to a flat blade which most sea kayaks use. We chose it based on its strength and the fact that it was a wingtip. We were hoping to make up for lost speed due to our slightly slower boats. All 3 needed repairing during the trip; two paddles cut mid way along their leading edges, which we managed to repair with fibre glass. A little further down the coast 2 broke in the exact same position, a quarter way up the blade, rendering them useless. We expected them to last longer than they did and there seems to be a design fault with this blade, they broke from wear and tear and not due rocks or other hard surfaces. We also used an old battered Epic paddle which lasted the entire expedition without any trouble.
These paddles were fairly priced.

Garmin GPS: *****
Well, I can’t praise this little machine enough. We would possibly not have made it back if it wasn’t for the Garmin eTrex Legend C GPS which was equipped with the Blue Chart oceanographic maps (sponsored by Garmin http://www.garmin.co.za/). This GPS was in the water and sun everyday and still works flawlessly. We used the maps to navigate around reefs and sandbanks and to find possible camping sites for the night. GPS co-ordinates were smsed through by the ground team whenever possible and this ensured that we always found each other. Testament to this is the fact that we only failed to meet the ground team once on the whole trip, and that was only because there was not a road to where we had landed. They knew exactly where we were but just could not physically get to us. We were once caught up in a storm near Kilwa Masoka, and could not see the land. It is amazing how quickly you can get disorientated and without the GPS we would have headed a long way out to sea.

Life Vests: ****
These were very comfortable and it they did not impair us in any way. The only complaint that we all had was that they did not have a pouch to keep various items, like GPS, suncream etc, in. They would be ideal for shorter sports like canoe polo which does not require the pouch.

ARK drybags: ****
These bags were super tough and kept all our equipment, food and clothing 100% dry, even when dragged through the sea for several hundred meters. Our cameras were not in one of these when they got drowned! Their handles made them easy and convenient to carry (and for criminals to steal!). They were of the 15 and 30 litre variety and packed very nicely into the holds of our kayaks.

Canon: ****
We had 2 pieces of Canon equipment (sponsored by Canon South Africa http://www.canon.co.za/).

The first was our state of the art XM-2 broadcast quality video camera. We really abused this machine and even drowned it on day 3! After a few days in the sun it was working again. None of us had any previous filming experience and the camera was very easy to operate and.

The second was our EOS350d digital SLR camera. I am sure that most of you saw some of the amazing pictures that we had on our website which were all taken by this incredible camera (We started with 2 but something happened on day 3 which reduced us to 1!). The pictures on the website were only the tip of the iceberg as they were only some of the approximately 10 000 photographs that we took. They were also all dramatically reduced in quality to enable us to post them on the website in some dodgy internet cafes. If any of you are considering buying a SLR camera, I would highly recommend that you get a digital. Having a digital camera enabled us to take as many photos of a scene that we wanted and could then just delete the rubbish. It allowed us to play around with various aperture and shutter speed settings without worrying about the cost that would be involved by having to develop a lot of bad photos. We could also immediately see the effect that the setting had and could retake the photo as many times as we wanted. Basically, the camera enabled a couple of idiots like us to take some pretty decent photos.

Duesouth:
Clothing: *****
Most of our clothing was sponsored by Duesouth (we each also had 2 shirts sponsored by Spec-Savers). This consisted of 2 t-shirts (1 long-sleeved and the other short-sleeved), a set of zip-off quick-drying pants, peak cap and a rain jacket. This clothing was used every day for 5 and a half months and by the end of it we didn’t have as much as a hole in any of it.

Equipment: *****
We were sponsored Duesouth sleeping bags, mosquito nets. The sleeping bags are specially designed to pack really small (perfect for when your space is very limited) but they are not that warm. This suited us well as they took up almost no space in our kayaks. The mosquito nets were even smaller than that and proved invaluable protection against those nasty buzzing bugs!

Other equipment:
MSR Whisper Lite Multi fuel stove: ****
We used this very seldom due to the abundance of drift wood on the beaches so we made a fire on most evenings. When we did need it it was great because it is capable of burning almost any liquid fuel that you can find. It takes a bit of work to get it primed and burning properly but then it works like a dream. We unfortunately let ours get a bit wet with sea water and when we needed to use it again it had corroded and the jets had got clogged up. Our fault!

MSR Mini Works Water filter: can't comment
This was, believe it or not, was never used. We had always made sure that we had sufficient water with us and the purifier was just for emergencies. We were lucky that it was not needed.

Reef rash vests: *****
On many a day, after paddling for 5 or 6 hours, we would start talking about what we thought our most valuable equipment was. Our Reef rash vests always topped the list. We were in the sun for 5 to 8 hours a day and without our rash vests we would have been in hospital with serious sun stroke after the first week. Richard and I had the same rash vest for the entire trip and it did not wear out. If I ever have to spend a lot of time in the sun again, my first buy would be a Reef rash vest.

Island Tribe Sun cream: *****
The rash vests could obviously not cover our entire bodies and for that reason we were sponsored by Island Tribe. This has got to be the most water resistant sun cream in the world. When it says “Wash off with soap” on the bottle (and trust me it means it) the stuff is properly water resistant. Putting Island Tribe on was as routine as eating oats in the morning, but probably twice as important.

Zartek 2-way radios: *
During those same conversations I mentioned earlier we used to think about our worst buys. These 2 way radios topped the list. They cost about R700 each and claim to be able to talk 15km if you are in line of site. We put them to the test on a day when we had no cell phone reception and they were useless. I had asked Shayne to stay on the beach and I was going to call him after every 500m to see how far we could talk. At 500m we could hear each other, but only just. I tried again at 800m, after having lost a bit of faith after the first call, and there was no reply. I could almost have shouted to him and he would have heard me! I kept trying just incase but never got hold of him again. So much for 15km! My advice would be to buy a different make.

Storm Case: ****
The Storm Case is a super tough, water and dust proof, floating protective box for anything you like. We used ours for our cameras when we were in the kayaks and just strapped it to the deck. Our cameras were in this case when they drowned but further investigation showed that we had closed a strap in the seal and that that was the actual reason for the water getting in. Our fault again. That was on day 3. We used it (without any straps caught in the seal) for the rest of the trip and had no further problems. We even sank it to the bottom of a swimming pool and tried our best to get some water into it but couldn’t. I would definitely buy and use one of these cases again.

Ikelite Waterproof housing: ****
Ike, as it became known, was the answer for transporting the video camera when on the boats. Its only problem was that it was heavy (9.5kg) and very bulky. We took it diving when we were in Pemba, Zanzibar and Mafia Island and had no leaks or other disasters. It is designed to have neutral buoyancy when under water and is actually very maneuverable and easy to use. You can control evry function on the camera while it is in the housing through a number of well designed knobs and levers. It was also the perfect housing for the camera when in the car to keep the dust out, although the sound quality is dramatically reduced when inside the housing.

Inverter: ****
All our electronic equipment was powered by a 700watt inverter, which basically turns 12 volt battery power into 220 volts. Without this we would not have been able to update our website as often or store all our photos because it was the only means we had for recharging our laptop and running our DVD burner. We even took it with when we were away from the car and could connect it directly to a small battery, that we carried with us in the boats, using crocodile clips.

Fridge (Engel): ****
Our fridge was great and only stopped working once. That was only because it has a built in battery saving function and stopped working because our battery was low. It was quite a luxury because whenever we met the car we knew that there would be cold coke and un-melted chocolate bars waiting for us!

Ammo boxes: ****
We had 4 of these which fitted perfectly under a shelf in the back of the Land Rover. They are very tough and were used as a seat or a step and did not show any signs of breaking. The only thing that did break on them was one of the latches which are made of plastic. You can get ones that are made of wire at any outdoor store and it is a good idea to take some of these as spares. They just clip into place.

Jerry cans: ****
We had 5, 25l metal jerry cans with us - 2 for petrol, 2 for water and 1 for paraffin. The water and paraffin ones got to stay in the car so were not really tested too much. The petrol ones were on the roof and were rained on, were in the sun, had kayaks strapped onto them for about 10 000km and were driven through trees and bushes on a number of occasions. They stood up to it all. None of them even developed any leaks. On the downside, they are very heavy and take up a lot of room. General roof rack guidelines, for a Land Rover, recommend that you do not pack more than 75kgs on the roof as this will make the vehicle too top heavy – that is only 3 jerry cans! (Don’t follow our example of loading a roof rack!!)

Tripod camping chairs: ****
We had 4 small tripod camping chairs which came with us in the boats and it was so great to not have to sit in the sand. By the time we finished we only had 2 left due to the material that they were made of having broken. I think that the major reason for them breaking was the fact that they were constantly wet with sea water, and am sure that had they not been constantly wet they would not have broken.

Fire tripods: *****
We had 2 of these and stupidly only started taking 1 on the boats with us half way through the trip. They make cooking on a fire so much easier and I would count them as being an essential on any camping trip. We would have eaten a lot less sand had we had it with us from the start.

Shoes:
Hi Tech: **
Salomon: *****
Because of the sea urchins, we needed to wear shoes whenever we went into the water. We used 2 types of quick-drying “amphibious” shoes. Richard had a pair made by Salomon and I had a pair of Hi-Techs. I am only going to comment on those as they were the only ones that were used for any decent length of time. The Hi-Techs were uncomfortable from the beginning and gave me blisters every time that I wore them, even after 5 months. As a result I would only wear them if I really had to. Richard’s, on the other hand, were great and incredibly comfortable. He still has his and I gave mine away. I would buy the Salomons next time.

2006-01-26T23:42:00.000-08:00

K2K Report back presentation

Thanks to all of you who were able to make it to our little presentation last night, it was a privilege to have you all there and your support was greatly appreciated.

For those of you who weren’t able to make it, it was a true K2K experience. We served traditional K2K snacks, peanuts & raisins, energy bars and rice with a spicy tomato, mango sauce! All washed down with either a bottle of cold black coke or a cup of game! The only alcohol served was Akuna Matata the dodgiest white spirit we could find all the way from Arusha, Tanzania!

After milling around chatting, reading stories from the blog and looking at a couple of pic’s we presented a slide show which highlighted our progress down the East coast of Africa. All in all I think we managed to keep everyone on the edge of their seats waiting to hear of our next little hiccup or African experience!

For those of you who couldn’t make it and would have loved to be there don’t worry, I’m going to be hosting a couple more in and around Cape Town and will let you know when and where asap.

I’m sorry that the rest of the team, Graham (New York), Shayne and Kristal (Oz) weren’t there to share it with us but don’t worry guys all is under control and everyone was very impressed with your efforts!!

2006-01-12T05:41:00.000-08:00

K2K’s final obstacle! So close but yet so far!

Our 32 day stay in Mozambique had been one of the highlights of the entire expedition! That was up until we arrived at the South African boarder where we were told that we were now illegal immigrants and for over staying our welcome! A summarised version of the recently signed agreement between South Africa and Mozambique allowing respective nationals the liberty of spending up to 30 days in each others countries was thrust into our faces!

Your typical boarder officer, uniformed looking as official as possible armed with a stamp and over sized bureaucratic ego began informing that we had spent too many days in their country and these were our options;

Pay a fine of R500 for each day over the 30 day limit
(He quickly scribbled this figure on a random piece of paper and looked up hoping for us to pull out wads of cash! Had he taken a closer look at our dirty unshaven faces he would have realised his odds were not much better than winning the lottery than getting that out of us!)
We had R200 between the 4 of us!

Return to Maputo where we can explain our situation to the authorities.
Maputo – 200km away along some of the worst roads we have travelled!

Wait for their chief to arrive and explain our predicament to him, arriving in 10 minutes!

No prizes for guessing what we did!

The 10 minutes turned into 3 hours! The chief arrived at 5pm was the boarder was closing, he too tried to worry us further by mentioning the possibility of spending the night in jail! We told him we only had R200 between us and obviously not keen on going anywhere but home to our beloved country!

In the dying minutes he quickly changed his tune and ordered his men to stamp our passports and told us to get out of there!

We crossed in unexpectedly high spirits with the national anthem blurring; we managed to grab the SA officials, who were able to input us into the system so we are officially still out of the country!!

Home at last, Kosi Bay, the 2nd K in K2K lay less than 20km away!

We arrived at the campsite and had to tell them we had come all the way from Kenya before they agreed to squeeze us in for the night! The champagne and celebrations followed before we settled down to one of our final true K2K meals!

We had done it! Kenya 2 Kosi had successfully completed! Other than losing a couple of paddlers and harvesting some interesting facial hair, we paddled from Lamu, Kenya to Pemba, Mozambique and managed to brighten the lives of quite a few locals with our balls!

What lies ahead!

Thank you to everyone involved, sponsors, family and friends and those just waiting for our next blog entry! All your support and encouragement was much appreciated. Every comment made on the blog was read a couple of times! There is still much more to come, we will hopefully be releasing a documentary of our expedition and publishing an uncut version of this K2K Blog together with some more glossy pics! Look out for a couple of articles in the following publications, SA Paddlers, Business Day and Getaway they are hopefully all going to be releasing something in the next couple of months.

We are going to be holding a report back evening later where we will be showing pic’s, telling more stories and will be answering any questions.

Date: 25 January 2006
Venue: 4 Esme Rd, Newlands, Cape Town
Time: 7:00pm
RSVP: Please mail us if you are interested - info@k2k.co.za

Southern Mozambique

2005-12-19T05:02:00.000-08:00

Vilankulos cont.

Keeping us in shape required taking on the locals!

Our evenings were spent braaing; fish, prawns or muscles with good tunes and cold beers. Tough life!

Thanks again to the locals they made sure we didn't go hungry!

Morrungula yet another perfect spot

What a spot! Situated at the end of a huge bay with white beach sand running it s entire length with a great point break out front, it’s not surprising that most people we spoke to said that this was their favourite piece of Mozambiquean coastline. We chose our spot with care, amongst the GP registration holiday makers and all their toys! With the beach meters from our baracca, (4 posted thatched structure with half walls) plenty of shade and lots of grass it was the ultimate! The rustic remote beach was to be our playground for the next few days. We had a couple of paddle surfs at the point break, a game or two of soccer and well the rest was spent running, walking and exploring the area. On one occasion we went searching for fire wood in Mlevi, great timing as we shuddered up to the top of the hill we looked across to an orange red ski that oozed with life. One evening after we went for an evening walk to a remote beach bar which we had discovered the day before. It wasn’t long before the lights had to be turned off. In these parts of the world, electricity is generated micro locally, and at 10 o’clock the generator is stopped. Alias, as the lights dimmed the lovely welcoming bar ladies pulled out their couple of candles and the eveing went on! With the sea breeze flowing through the open planned beach bar it was a time like this that made us smile.

100km detour to buy 2 pine apples…..boy was it worth it

A little drawing game en route to Guinjata Bay was so distracting that we missed our turn off and ended up doing an extra 100km! Trying to adjudicate between Pablo, Leonardo and Irma required my undivided attention, it did however lead us to the most delicious pine apples ever tasted!

“10, 10, 10!” The gathering of young kids kept yelling standing on tip toes to reach up to Mlevis window. 10, the one English word the locals have taken a liking to for the past 100km. Pine apples, tomatoes, onions, garlic, mangos they all cost 10!

Boy I can’t wait to fill up Mlevi!

K2K hits another homer, thanks to Jeff’s Resort!

Searching for a new and exciting beach along this stretch of coast can be quite a difficult task given the current company! Andrew, Chris and Julia have all spent various varsity holidays roaming the Mozambique coastline, being on an adventure of exploration into the unknown we couldn’t settle for anything familiar. Guinjata Bay, just south of Inembane was one little hide away which none had experienced.

The thick sand track winding its way through the coconut forest eventually lead us to the top of a high dune, over looking a never ending beach below! There we met a friendly, helpful and enthusiastic team who know what they are doing when it comes to building beach bungalows! Sorry, did I say bungalows? Thanks Jeff, your little hide away is about to become over run with more out going outdoor adventurers, I only hope that they can fit their booking in given your current availability!

Camping has become routine and the thought of sleeping in a bed, having a hot shower, and drinking from the tap have all become something which we try not to think about! Well that has all but changed and Jeff’s Place, has distorted our way of life and introduced us back into the ways of civilisation! Though our long beards and smelly clothes still give us the edge when it comes to bartering I’m quickly realising that we are heading into familiar territory!

For those of you looking for the perfect spot to explore the jewels of the Mozambiqican coast Jeff’s Place in Guinjata Bay dosen’t get any better! The incredibly positioned bungalows overlooking the warm ocean, world renowned dive sites, superb game fishing (so I have been told!) and endless deserted beach lined with coconut palms should keep you out of trouble!

View from my room!

Snorkelling in the eye of the storm!!!!!

Until now we have not been doing an awful lot of snorkelling despite paddling over some really beautiful looking reefs, mostly due to the fact that we kept on forgetting the snorkelling gear, so when we heard that there were some nice snorkelling spots just off the beach where we were staying in Morrungula we jumped at the opportunity. We found out all we needed to know to prepare us for a pleasant morning of marine viewing and set out bright and early the next day to catch the tide at its lowest.

It was a perfectly calm morning and the sea was glassy, so despite the very minimal cloud cover, conditions could not have been better. We paddled the kayaks not much further than 500m out and paddled down the coast not more than a kilometre or so by which time we could see some dark clouds brewing something serious in the distance but still not threatening us in any way. Andrew and I quickly got our snorkelling gear on and jumped in to the big blue, moments later, after some less than exquisite sitings of a fish or two, we were being surrounded by huge black clouds which literally burst. The wind picked up from nothing to a gale force before we could even get in to our boats but eventually we were all in and heading for land as quickly as possible. Luckily the wind was behind us but paddling was still very tough with chop big enough to surf down, I was struggling a bit paddling in the single which had no rudder system and realised just how well Rich had done paddling that boat for hundreds of kilometres over the last few months. Slowly but surely we made it back to our starting point with only the final obstacle left to tackle… the waves breaking on to the shore. Jigs and Andrew were up first and cruised in effortlessly and after Richard glided in without a problem I was not quite as worried, however I was not quite as graceful in my attempt and my nose came down the wave diving straight in to the water which sent me flying head over heals in my boat and spilling all the snorkelling gear which I had hurriedly thrown in at my feet. I washed up on shore but we could not find the mask and snorkel. All in all it was an exciting experience, maybe not in the way we had hoped but a good adrenalin rush nonetheless.

Mlevi the Roo

Before setting off we were told not to put more than 75kg on the roof of Mlevi! Well that was sort lived and for the past 3000km we have been travelling with closer to 750kg! Thankfully the Mozambique government together with the rest of the East (majority of the contactors have been Chinese) have been hard at work and the roads up north are improving dramatically!

Our shocks have been taking the brunt of it all but have recently decided to give up the ghost resulting in the renaming of Mlevi to Roo! The notorious 15km stretch across to Guinjata Bay was like being back on the water, every bump sent us bouncing down the road like a over sized Roo.

We have since arrived in safely in Maputo were we are currently getting them replaced before we land up like most Roo’s as road kill lying lifeless on the side of the road!

Pemba to Vilanculos

2005-12-19T04:18:00.000-08:00

Pemba - Andrew

Those who greeted me upon arrival at Pemba airport where, one person that looked like he’d been sleeping on the streets for about 5 years, ‘it’ ended up being my brother, and then there was my sister Julia and Chris don’t know where they found him. Anyway what a great flight. The temperature outside was round 35 C that’s a bit different compared to Europe, where the temperatures where never far above zero. I was swiftly taken to a local hangout where we had some ‘cool’ drinks on the balcony. It wasn’t long before I found out why I had come all this way. Other than just being here with Rich and the team, I knew that I could be in for a number of these. Great isn’t it, it was as if I had stepped straight into paradise.

The team had been waiting for me for a number of days so it wasn’t long, the following morning actually, when we headed off onto the African road, heading south towards, Kosi Bay.

Lightning storms keep us going - Richard

Our drive south from Pemba has seen us past through some of the most beautiful landscape to date! The arid dry countryside of Tanzania has given way to a tropical Garden of Eden! The rain and regular daily thunder storms have been keeping us on our toes and pushing us south. The greenery has been totally unexpected and something we haven’t seen since leaving Arusha area (central Tanzania)!

The spectacular thunder storms which we have been trying to catch on film have brought out coconut size toads and super size insects, even Julia is coming to terms with her new little friends.

Ilha da Mozambique – Africa’s meeting point for civilisation

After leaving Pemba we headed for the famous island of Ilha da Mozambique, the original capital during the Portuguese rule. Separated from the mainland by a dead straight 2km causeway, this historical rich city was inhabited by the Portugese for over 500 years, the Dutch and English both tried to dislodge them and if they had succeeded Cape Town’s history would be some what different!

The place had a captivating feel about it, as if our little drive across the causeway had transported us to Lisbon at the turn of the century! The fact that the buildings lay in such poor repair reminded us that we were still in Africa! The grandeur and history seemed to ooze out from the old buildings, as locals continued to live very primitively in the skeleton buildings!

A quick drive round the island’s perimeter to get our bearings and find ourselves a spot to rest our weary bodies seemed to attract the attention of most locals! Mlevi all rigged up with its three bright red kayaks plus a bed, trying to squeeze down the narrow ancient roads was quite a spectacle. Jonathon, a local kid who spoke the queens English came to our aid and led us to a very creatively decorated guest house. Our only choice was the roof top deck over looking the water with a mosque across the road! Fortunately all the speakers were broken and the expected 4am wake up call never materialised!

After days of searching we finally managed to track down our elusive prawns at one of the local restaurants overlooking the water!

Not having the choice of a lie in, we were up and about walking the old streets before breakfast, and unfortunately didn’t notice the locals all squatting with their backs to the ocean before we plunged into the “clean refreshing” ocean! Christopher being the only one who was fortunate enough not to be wearing his board shorts escaped the cleansing! With no formal sanitary infrastructure on the island the locals use the beach for this purpose!!! Needless to say Andrew spent the rest of the day trying to clear is throat of all sea water!

What were we dreaming of!

Just as Mlevi was enjoying the fact that we were on our return home and we were trying desperately to off load as much as possible to lighten the load! We hadn’t gone more than 100km when we found ourselves negotiating with the locals to buy ourselves a local bed! Not too sure what we were thinking but our bodies were obviously trying to tell us they needed some rest and were tried of loading, packing paddling etc! This however has resulted in the opposite! We have spent more energy loading and off loading the bed than we have conserved relaxing on it!

Zambezi

It feels like another life time, certainly another trip that all 4 of us young relatively cleanly shaven adventures were standing in awe of the mighty Victoria Falls! Watching the Zambezi plunge down the 100 odd meter drop!

It was moving standing there watching the powerful swift flowing waters once again! A thought which crossed my mind was, where were we when the water we saw come over the falls would have passed the point we were about to cross!

Once a major obstacle is now easily passable by an efficiently managed ferry service. We spent an hour hiding away from the 30 odd degree heat while a newly punctured tyre was repaired by the local road side shack!

Flat tyres – Catch up time

We were unbelievably lucky for the first 8 000km of our little adventure. We had been through the Serengeti into the Creator visited 5 different countries, 2 months exploring East Africa! Our first flat came well down the Tanzania coast at a little spot called A Tent with a View, where we discovered to our amazement and disbelief that we had left our wheel spanner in Johannesburg!

Well, well since that first little incident we have been making up for lost time, Shayne and Kristal will vouch for that! Shayne got to a stage where he was sick and tired of jacking Mlevi up that Kristal had taken over and is now applying for a position on the Ferrari pit team!

Our latest casualty ended in near disaster, Jigs took the reigns and with 30km to the mighty Zambezi we all started back seat driving, keep left stop swerving around etc. when we eventually looked out the window and notice that our back left was practically riding on the rim!

Bed, boats you name it they all had to come off so that we could get to our second spare wheel! Before we had the adventurous task of lifting Mlevi with the high lift jack a screeching of tyres came thundering from behind us!

Being back on the road again is a great thing and sitting around definitely gives us itchy feet, the adventure into the unknown, the people, places and the knowledge that we are going to experience excitement, problems and times of joy is what has kept us trudging forth for the past 5 and half months!

“Life is a journey and not a destination!”

Whenever we travel, kayak, road or dhow, we always know we are going to see, meet and experience something special!

Our final leg of our expedition Pemba – Kosi Bay! With the paddling behind us we have been able to eat up some mileage and enjoyed watching the changing vegetation from the comfort of Mlevi, where the issue of dodging potholes, wincing every time we hit a biggie full on, as the shocks bottom out and the occupants are thrown wildly around inside, has replaced our worry of a freak wave picking up unnoticed and trying to navigate past seriously rough waters due to refraction off cliff faces, or paddling head on into a howling gale!

Notable:
Rock climbers paradise
The strikingly beautiful landscape between Pemba and Ilha da Mozambique

The simple act of refuelling becomes hard work!

“Fill her up please!” and handing over a garage card to the well dressed petrol attendant at the sparkling clean BP, is something we can only dream of!

Up north petrol is as scarce as food in Zimbabwe, you can find it if you really look hard but the quality, quantity and price is always going to be a issue! As you all know Mlevi is no Smart car and attending to his terrible drinking habit requires proven bargaining skills, a spare jerry can, a sleeve of a old shirt and a Land drover full of MT (Metikasi – Mozambique currency)!

It seems that when ever a fuel tanker passes through these parts the fuel thirsty vultures decant its entire contents into whatever dirty vessels they can get their hands on, leaving the derelict pumps as dry as the Namib!

Unlike most items you buy at the market, petrol is something we can’t really do without and requires a different approach, the usual bargaining tactics of; “That is far too expensive, I’ll find it some where else,” or “Pretending to leave and walking away!” could result in you walking a little further than intended!

The spare jerry can is to measure the quantity of fuel before they put into your tank, dodgy looking containers of varying sizes, appear from the depths of their dens and many travellers have been taken for a ride! “This contains 30L!” was on the one vultures comment. Closer inspection revealed that it clearly stated on the container that it was 25L, which they had obviously tried to paint over! Yet they still try and argue! I say fuel specifically; because you can’t always be sure as to what you will be getting – dirty diesel (gasoleo), petrol (gasoline) or paraffin (petroleo), or a combination of the three!

Quick lesson: Petrol – pink in colour with a distinctive smell, usually marked with red caps, when poured onto your hand and allowed to run off all the contents should evaporate leaving nothing more than a shiny oily texture, anything more would indicate that water has been added and you won’t be going very far!

The sleeve of an old shirt is for filtering the petrol before entering your precious tank! How much MT you hand over will depend on your experience and bargaining skills, the hard line approach usually works best!

So next time you fill up your car at the local petrol station, count yourself lucky and be happy that there is a regulated price!

Surrounded by wild animals!

A friendly traveller who we chattered to at one of the “petrol stations” told us about a half decent spot where we could camp for the night between Quilemane and Vilankulos.

He never mentioned anything about the wild animals which desperately wanted our help and attention! After negotiating a half decent price for us to erect our tents amongst their building rubble we took a stroll around the place to get some idea of exactly where we were and why we were paying extremely prices for our square foot of dirt!

Out of the dark a series of cages appeared, each containing a poor broken animal, shy and cowardly far from their former selves! The male baboon sat their staring at Chris crouched on its half meter brick pedestal! Our first and hopefully last crocodile was lying in a 15cm deep pond, with water so dirty that you couldn’t see the bottom! I only hope they come to their sensors and see that these animals below in the wild and not in the small dirty cages they are currently in!

Vilankulos – K2K enter a dream world

Aircon, ice makers, microwaves are great, but for us………. drinking water… from the taps, beds, toilets, showers and electricity rates higher on K2K s list of luxuries that the Vilankulos lodge has to offer..!

Morrungula campsite

“One of the best camping sights I’ve ever been to!” were the words of adventurer and expeditioner Richard Thomas, as he drove his laderned Landy onto Morrungula’s lush green grass.

And what a spot! Situated at the end of a huge bay with white beach sand running it s entire length and the location resulting in a great point break it’s not surprising that most people we spoke to said that this was their favourite piece of Mozambiquean coastline. We chose our spot with care, amoungst the GP regesteration holiday makers. With the beach meters from our baracca, (4 posted thatched structure with half walls) plenty of shade and lots of grass

Aussies have a lot of balls!

2005-12-09T03:00:00.000-08:00

We have finally tapped into the Australian ball market and they have started chipping in in a big way, thanks to the work of Lyn and Cayli Marshall. The following is a list of our Aussie donors:

$20 - Virginia Creed
$20 – Marg Nolan TRSC
$20 – Chris Norwood
$20 – Lynn Davis
$20 – Mandi Wels
$20 – Karen Griffiths
$20 – Ros Barker
$20 - Lia Leehy
$20 - Garry Chapman
$20- Denise Tanner
The above are all from the school that Shayne and Kristal went to (www.igs.vic.edu.au)
Others:
$100 – Linda Hammond and Denis
$20 - Cayli Marshall (just to get on the blog and be 'famous', I might add!)
$20 - Chris Goy
$250 - Exel Brisbane Branch (www.exel.com.)
$20 - Steve from Exel HK
$20 - Michael from Exel HK

Thank you so much for your help!

Leg 7 Mtwara - Pemba

2005-12-09T01:01:00.000-08:00

Turned away at border

Having spent 5 days killing some time in Mtwara, we finally decided that it was time to move into Mozambique and start the final paddle towards Pemba. It was only a couple of days after spring tide which meant that the ferry would be running (see ferry crossing below).

We set off for the border, which is not very well signposted (or at all!), and were soon on the wrong road. After 50km we thought that it was maybe a good idea to turn on one of our 3 Garmin GPS’s which confirmed that we were well on our way to Malawi! We eventually found the correct road and with a lot of help from the locals made it to the border post that is situated approximately 10km north of the Ruvuma River.

After about 2 and a half months in Tanzania it was about to be permanently behind us, or was it…?

We were able to find most of the border officials who were scattered around under the trees surrounding the customs building but alas, no customs official. Nobody even seemed to know where he was, although 2 policemen in a nearby pub seemed to think that he was manning another border post! Despite several attempts to convince the other border officials that we did not need to see the customs guy and that all our affairs were in order, we had to accept the fact that it would be another night (possibly more) in Mtwara. We even tried the failsafe soccer ball gift to get us through but that did not work this time!

Ferry crossing

The wandering customs official had returned the following day and we passed through the border with no issues. 10km later we were on the bank of the mighty Ruvuma River and stopped near a crowd of people to await the ferry. We had assumed that we were in the right place to catch the ferry because what else would a crowd be gathered on the banks of the river for? And we assumed that the ferry was on the Mozambiquean side and that was why it was not where we were waiting. We can assure you that what they say about assumption being the mother of all stuff ups is totally true, because by chance we saw the ferry docked about 200m further down the river! It would have been a long wait!

It was a bit of a wait in any case because we had to wait for the tide to rise in order for there to be enough water for the ferry to cross. Crossing of the Ruvuma was always one of the most worrying parts of the trip because we had heard many reports about there being no ferry or that the ferry would be out of order. The alternate route is a good couple of hundred km’s inland and is on terrible roads so is not something that one would want to take!

We had to wait until 3pm for the tide, so after getting confirmation from the locals in both English and Swahili that there were no crocodiles or hippos in the river at that point, we went for a swim and some exploration into “no man’s land”. The fresh water was a welcome change from the salty water of the sea but the crowds that had gathered around to watch us swim made us wander about the accuracy of the reports about the crocs and hippos! We are all still around so I guess it doesn’t really matter anymore.

We were the first car onto the ferry and it took about 20 minutes to negotiate through the sandbanks and to reach the Mozambiquean side. The “road” to the border post (also about 10km from the river) was terrible and we nearly got stuck twice. On one occasion we had to wait for a big lorry to get pushed out of the mud by about 20 permanently posted locals before we could continue.

HINT: If you are planning a trip through this border post then here is some info about it that will help you. The ferry should run all year round. During the dry season (more or less July to January) it only runs at high tide and only when tidal variation is above 4m. Basically that means that it runs 3 out of every 4 weeks. The week that it doesn’t run is the week around neap tide – tidal variance is least then. In the wet season it runs every day and the tide does not effect it due to the large amount of water in the river. The cost is US$25 but you can get it for US$20 plus a soccer ball for the captain, but he may have too many of these soon so maybe take something else instead! Decide for yourselves about the crocs and hippos!

The very best employed at border

The car had been searched a total of no times up until the Mozambique – Tanzania border (7 border crossings up to then), so I suppose that we were due for one. For this task Mozambique used their most “intelligent” official to check our car and its contents.

I was asked to open the car for this “human sniffer dog” who wanted the entire car unloaded. Once I told him that he could do this on his own he changed his mind and decided to select a handful of suspicious looking bags.

Each time he wanted a bag opened he would look at it for a couple of seconds, waiting for me to sense which one he wanted opened, and then once he realized that I hadn’t got the hint he would punch the bag – a clear indication of his intentions. I suppose that if he had been able to speak English or if I had been able to speak Portuguese we may have spoken, but we did not have this luxury!

One by one he searched through the bags and pulled out all the suspicious items – malaria tablets, asthma pumps, wine corks??, and other such dodgy items – and asked me to explain each by giving a meaningless grunt while holding the item up. He was particularly interested in the various medicines that we had and, not believing me, he tried to read the label for himself. After pondering what he had found out by reading the labels written in English, he sniffed each item to confirm his suspicions and put offending item to one side for further inspection by one of his seniors. It took him about 45minutes to just go through all the medicine our clothing bags, but the best was yet to come – the first aid bag!

As I opened the bright orange bag the poor man must have thought that he had made the drug bust of the century. He nearly fell over when he saw all the pills, syringes, needles, malaria testing kits and saline solutions for our drips to mention only a little of what is contained in that bag. He immediately started sifting through the bag, opening every bottle and container, “reading” all the labels thoroughly and putting every single item in his suspicious items pile for further inspection. The cherry on the cake came when he grabbed a Nurofen container and could not open it due to the child locked lid! Shayne and I had to restrain ourselves from packing out laughing. Our man had had enough of not knowing what the hell he was dealing with, and with that started shoving all the items back into the bags. Once done he asked where we kept our cigarettes, which appeared to be all that he was looking for! The man was left empty handed. He had even gone on a bit long to deserve a soccer ball!

Wind and current finally arrive……………..! (Rich)

As I sure you all know, sorry to harp on about it but for the last 3 and half months we have been paddling into a stiff head wind and against the current! Just in case you thought we were on a holiday and sitting back with our feet up!

Well, well to our great surprise and unbelievable relief they both turned up to join the party, better late than never! We expected the northerly Kaskasi wind 2 months ago! The home stretch looked like it was going to be a breeze, quite literally!

So for the past couple of days our Pecreption kayaks (www.paddlers.co.za), fitted with Pacific sails kindly sponsored by Perception kayaks, have been the fastest thing on these waters! Dhow captains have been extremely busy writing out their Christmas wish lists with our little red boats fitted with sails taking up their top spots!

Graham and I were able to literally sit back and give ourselves a little 10km rest as we sailed into Mocimbia da Praia, with an average speed of 7km/hour!

You cant get any fresher than that!

Shayne and I arrived in Mocimboa da Praia a day before the Richard and Graham were due to meet us, and saw it as a perfect opportunity to have a nice lunch together at a “nice” local restaurant. We were seated under a huge blossoming mango tree which spontaneously dropped its fruit and guests simply picked up and ate as entrée, we soon caught on and scrambled on the ground picking up the juicy mangoes. Soon the waiter came and after having our hearts set on having prawns we were disappointed when the waiters charades and farm noises told us he only had chicken available. Chicken and chips it was. The waiter hobbled off and some 30mins later I saw him sit at the table next to us with a bucket of potatoes and start to peel and cut them into what was to be our chips. My patients was beginning to run thin as he was taking his time making each chip perfect. He did this for maybe a hour when he then got up took our chips round back, finally our meal will be on its way. But he appeared again, this time walking over the chicken coop where he simply reached in and pulled out a chicken, and before a knew what was going on… off came its head…then it was dumped into a boiling bucket of water where he proceeded to pluck its feathers off. Shayne must have seen by my face that something over his shoulder was not impressing me and turned just in time to see our soon to be meal being pulled out of the water and shoved into a brie grid and tossed onto the open flames.
2.5 hours later our meals arrived… the poor chicken and the fresh potato chips sitting on top of our plates. I have to admit my heart went out to the little chicken, but I have to say it was the nicest chicken and chips we’ve ever had. Goes to prove the old saying, freshest is best.

Jigs and Chris join the team. (Chris)

We stepped off the plane in Dar es Salam to be hit by 35 plus temperatures and after fighting our way through the hundreds of taxi drivers eventually made it to our hotel where we dropped off our stuff and spent the rest of the day exploring Dar. After a painfully hot night in a room with a fan that only worked during the short intervals of power that the whole city lives off we, arose casually thinking we had ample time until our taxi driver from the previous day would come and pick us up… only to realise soon afterwards that our alarm clock was still on South African time and we were about to miss our flight! A mad rush to the airport involving a few near death experiences with a taxi driver that didn’t seem understand any English but certainly new what “we are in a rush!” meant, resulted in us just getting on to the plane just in time and two very relieved individuals!

After a short flight and our arrival at a dilapidated shack they call Mtwara airport, we were hit by taxi driver warfare once again and so they lengthy process of trying to extract the correct fare began… eventually we settled on a price almost a third of what they had originally quoted and we were at the Mozambique border in no time!! Crossing the river to the Mozambiquean side either meant waiting 8 hours for the ferry to depart on its daily trip or hopping on a local’s three meter long dug out boat and have him pole us across the two km wide river which would only take “an hour”… we opted for the later and two and a half hours later or one Tanzanian hour if you like, we were on Mozam soil. We sat on the river bank unsure of what to do next during which the locals all gathered around us and stared at us and followed our every move! Then the heat began to take its toll and the thirst set in until eventually I had to beg a local to let me buy one of his prized bottles of water from his small personal stash, it took some negotiation but eventually he gave in. A few hours later the site and sound of Mlevi (the k2k land rover) and Rich was a most welcoming one and so began the trip back to their camp which would prove to be another adventure altogether!!!

Mlevi gets seriously bogged! (Rich)

A logistical nightmare! You will never be able to meet all your paddlers on time and in the right place etc.! These were some of the comments thrown at us by experienced expeditioners when asked for their advice and opinions!

With only one more pair to meet, and not having had any mishaps, we were looking good and couldn’t wait to prove them all wrong!

Being ahead of schedule most of the way meant that our final couple’s original rendezvous had shifted from Lindi, Tanzania to Mocimboa da Praia (MdP), Mozambique. This meant that arguably Africa’s most remote boarder crossings south of the Equator lay between them and us! Having just crossed the boarder and feeling relieved to climb back into my kayak after only having travelled a couple of km along those roads, I was a little concerned if we were ever going to see them!

A couple of local trucks and only one bus per day if you were lucky, travelled this remote stretch, from the Ruvuma River to MdP (+/-100km)!

As luck would have it 3 hyper, surf crazy Aussies were looking for a ride from MdP to the boarder! All was looking good until we reached a first major obstacle! A muddy open river crossing! It took us a good hour with 3 Aussies, 4 Mozambiquans and 2 Tanzanians all pushing and re-aligning logs etc. to finally cross!

I tried to ignore the fact that I still had to cross it again on my return journey!

We finally arrived at the river to find Julia (our first lady paddler) and Chris waiting patiently for my arrival! The hot African sun was clearly taking its toll, the ice cold coke’s brought smiles to their cracking lips as they salivated at the sight!

We finally made it to the dreaded crossing and after asking a couple of locals which was the best line, and remembering the wise words during our 4x4 course not to try and create new tracks but to keep to used tracks I decided to take the same route as I had taken earlier.

We build a solid bridge with as much of the scattered wood as we could find and hit it with some serious juice! Aqua plaining over the mud and scattered water my worries began to drift away! The unfortunately the opposite bank wanted some attention and wasn’t going to be over come that easily! The front right wheel caught the bank at a terrible angle and the rear right began to spin causing Mlevi to sink deeper and deeper! The more we dug the more the water rushed in to fill the newly created space!

A gathering of passing locals began to congregate who stood back to spectate. Watching Mzungu’s getting down and dirty wasn’t something they saw every day! As soon as I told them that they would be handsomely rewarded for their help, they grabbed the spade, ripped off their shirts and got stuck right in! Woman and men all working together listening to our instructions! Each attempt was fruitless and we only sank deeper and deeper!

We eventually started to look for other options, a mangrove stump was inspected for us to try winch ourselves out! The only stump in sight! The bonnet was up, the tree hugger (short super size tow rope used to protect the tree from the cable) was set in place and the cable was unravelled! It just reached! Not having had to use the winch before and having heard how dangerous they can be, I marshalled everyone a safe distance away!

We all stood back holding thumbs that this would all soon be over and that we could continue on our journey and the locals couldn’t wait for their little bonseller!

The winch wouldn’t retract! It was all we needed our final straw wasn’t going to help! We had tested it just days ago and now was when we needed it! Just our luck!

The locals began to get dressed and gather up their belongings, the sun had long gone and the reality of having to pitch our tent, which Julia and Chris and brought along to replace our stolen one, might be put to use before we expected it! All I could thing of was how were we going to get out of here! The mud would surely harden over night and just solidify round the tryes!

Our prayers were answered a moment later when another 4x4, the only vehicle I had seen the whole day came flying towards us! This was our chance, he was going to have to drive over me if he wanted to pass before towing us out!

In the torch light we fitted the tow rope and with all the locals pushing we finally popped out!

Julia’s and Chris’s K2K experience was well under way!

Base training for the Duzi! (Julia)

For months, Chris and I had been eagerly awaiting the adventure of a life time, the highlight of which was to be the paddling! Tropical waters, beautiful reefs and an archipelago of islands! WOW! We definitely weren’t disappointed as we slept our first night on a deserted beach which was on an island clearly not visited very often by mzungu s (Swahilli for white man) due to the fascination of the locals with us. Which we soon learnt we were going to have to get used to.

As for the paddeling, I can’t belive that we actually thought that being in Koboco (the double kayak that looked like a hippo ) would give us the advantage we needed to stretch Graham and Rich a little…. Boy were we wrong! There was a definite constant pattern of us tailing behind and it didn’t take long to realise how ‘harrrd’ these boys really were. A typical scenario would be; our three boats floating in the middle of the ocean, on land in sight, with Chris and I waiting in anticipation as Graham read his GPS to get the direction of the next set of co ordinates. He would look up point far into the distance and the ‘land’ on the horizon that only Rich and Graham could see, this would be where we would stop……FOR LUNCH! Meaning it would only be a half way mark and required many tasty treats (fizzers) to get me there.

I must admit that our 35-50km s a day on the water was aided by the wind and the currents much to our gratitude! J There was even a 15km stretch when Chris decided the wind was of more benefit then my input. I took one for the team and happily became sail master while Chris continued to paddle.

The days on the water were long and hot, but nothing a few energy bars, fizzers and a legendary Portuguese rolls couldn’t get you through. Especially as Rich and Graham had become such guru’s at this, finding the ultimate camp site was always guaranteed and a great motivation on the water.

Reef a spanner in the works

We left Mocimboa da Praia quite late in the morning for a 3-day paddle to Pangane. It was Chris and Julia’s first day so we thought that we would take it easy. After 20km the tide had decided to hand us a nasty surprise in the form of an exposed reef 1.5km wide and which stretched all the way to an island. We could either carry the 3 very loaded boats the 1.5km over the reef or paddle about 7km around. We chose to carry but changed our minds after 500m of carrying the double. Paddling around was also not an option so we decided to spend the night on the island instead!

Fake sandbank provides false joy

The reef of the previous day was actually a blessing in disguise because the island was possibly the last mangrove free land for about the next 45km and we would have had to spend the night at sea!

At about 3pm we were getting a bit worried because we had not seen a beach the whole day. And then, appearing out of the mangroves on the horizon, was a beautiful, abandoned white beach. We could not believe our luck but as we got closer we saw a dhow sail behind it and out the other side! By that stage of the trip we knew that that is not one of the characteristics of normal land and that it was sandbank! Once we landed on it though, we saw that the dhow had headed into a village and that there was a piece of land that we could camp on in relative privacy - we only had small crowds gathered around for a change!

Sold! The land that we almost bought…

From about 10km out we could see a big red block on the beach. Shayne and Kristal had done well by putting the red waterproof cover of the tents on the beach so that we could see where to go. This bit of initiative was because we had not been able to contact each other on our satellite phones (had not put a + infront of the phone number!) and therefore did not have the GPS coordinates.

We had landed at Pangane, a beautiful peninsula with wide white beaches and even a campsite! We decided to spend another day here to rest and to explore the area. We had been looking for a piece of land the whole trip and had finally found it. The designer in all of us came out and we started plotting what we were going to build where and discussed the logistics of getting there etc etc…

We assigned Shayne and Kristal the task of speaking to the authorities in Pemba about obtaining a lease over the land. The news came 2 days later via satellite phone – the land had already been bought!

Prawn to be wild!!!!!!

Something we had all been looking forward to for a long time was the Mozambiquean prawns….! Since crossing the boarder….2 weeks ago, we’ve all been determined to get some for the ‘barbi’. Reputation and experience would show that prawns are not the hardest thing to come by in Mozambique but since arriving in Pemba, the mozam prawn seems to have eluded us. Since the opening of the prawn farm in pemba town a few years back, the local fishermen do not seem to be interested in bringing home any prawns at all so we thought that we would just go and buy from the farm. Arriving at the farm we were greated by some rather high walls topped with barb wire and more security guards than your average prison. However they refused to sell us prawns as they only had a licence to export their produce but they did tell us that we shouldn’t have a problem finding some of their prawns on the street as so many are stolen from the farm… hence the state of security surrounding the place.

Further information led us to the only known legal distribution outlet of the infamous king sized prawn! A dodgy dilapidated building with “Prawn To Be Wild” splurged colourly above the heavily bolted door! This too wasn’t going to produce the goods!

Further investigations and enquires have provided the following interesting info, if we are having serious with drawl symptoms! There are plenty eager locals willing to risk their freedom for an extra months salary! Just give them the go ahead, your desired quantity and you will have your prawns the following morning!

Reality: A 30 day jail sentence or a 13th cheque is waiting for them! We are however having ethical issues as to whether we should be supporting such activities, with the whole Mozam coast before us I’m sure we can hold out a little longer!

Longest day a real mixed bag

We left Pangane for the final 3 days to Pemba. They were going to be a long 3 days as we had 120km to go, but we had fixed the sail on the double so were confident that we would make it quite comfortably. We were also in luck in that the wind was blowing quite strongly from behind us. We were headed for Ibo Island but had to go via Matemo island to get there.

As we approached the island we were sure that we could see some chalets on the beach. A resort? We had been fooled many times before by resort-looking villages so did not get our hopes up too high, but this time it was no illusion.

We landed on the beach and got some really strange looks and the security guards quickly approached us and asked what we wanted. We asked to talk to the manager and within minutes we were drinking cokes at the bar with a South African couple and were washing, I mean, swimming in the pool. We had to turn down a second drink (don’t know how) because we still had a long way to go. We headed off and had lunch at sea while we sailed at a good speed towards Ibo.

The wind was so strong that we even stopped paddling for a while while we sailed along. I think that it was especially sweet for Richard and I as we had spent the last 3 months paddling into the wind and at last it was on our side.

We decided to paddle past Ibo so that the next 2 days would be a bit shorter so we aimed for Quirimba Island instead. We had to head out of the archipelago for the 1st time in Mozambique and the sea was quite rough. Richard and I landed twice to see how far we would have to drag our boats to get to the beach but decided to keep on going in the hope that the tide would rise. In the distance we could see 2 rather large and well-built buildings. Could it be another resort? Surely not 2 in 1 day! We were right again, not another resort, but it was a farmhouse, on an island with a German farmer. Strange I agree, but the farmer let us camp in his garden and his wife organized us each a bucket shower. Before we could shower we had to drag the boats up the beach because the tide was not playing ball! Once clean we were invited for a beer in the house and some history about the coconut farm which had been in the family for years.

After the beer we tried to fire up our gas cooker but it had seen a little too much salt water for its own good and did not work properly (or at all)! We have eaten a lot of rice on this trip and in all sorts of different ways, but uncooked was definitely not a way that we were keen to try. We had to make a plan. A plan was indeed made as was a fire behind the cottage! Our rice was cooked in no time! After a cup of coffe, we carefully covered the fire with sand and sticks. Nobody will ever know that it was there, except all of youof course!

Paddle into Pemba

We had spent the previous night camped at the base of a lighthouse. The lighthouse was still in working order and provided us with a great view of the coast and sea around us. Richard and I woke up early so that we could see the sunrise from the top of the lighthouse. It was our last sunrise that we would experience on the paddling part of the trip so thought that we would get out of our comfortable beds a bit earlier on this occasion!

We had found that the wind tended to blow a bit stronger in the mornings so thought that leaving early would be a good idea. Well, it would have been if there was any wind. The sea was totally flat and not a breath of wind was to be found! We had to paddle!

It must have been the longest 25km paddle of the whole trip. We had to cross 20km of bay to reach our coordinates in Pemba, which meant that we could see Pemba for 20km before we actually got there. Believe me, at 5km/h, the end of the bay never feels like it is getting any nearer.

We had packed more than enough food for the last day and ended up having about 4 “lunch” breaks. During one of these breaks we were greeted by a pod of about 100 playful dolphins. They were jumping and swimming all around and underneath us for about 10 minutes. These were by far the most friendly dolphins that we had seen the whole trip.

We couldn’t have asked for better conditions to finish the paddling leg of our expedition (although a tailwind would have been good!). Richard and I could not help thinking back to 15 August 2005 – the 1st day of our paddle in Northern Kenya – where the conditions were almost exactly opposite. We could not believe that Pemba was only a couple of kms ahead of us. We had ruled the thought of paddling into Pemba out of our minds for so long and here we were. The trip had flown by!

In Pemba, we were not greeted by any crowds or journalists, but only by the other half of our team, Shayne and Kristal. With the six of us all on the beach in Pemba, we had done what we had set out to do and had completed the main part of a trip that had been first thought of almost 3 years before!

Party at the police station! (Chris)

On one of our daily quests for the mysterious Mozamiquean prawns we came across a local soccer match in down town Pemba, seeing this as an exellent chance for some great footage to tie in with the soccer ball theme of the expedition we all jumped out of Mlevi, cameras in hand, and made our way into the crowds of people. The soccer players enjoyed putting on a show for the camera, thinking it was moving them that one step closer to the premier league. On our return to the car we realised that someone had helped themselves to some of the camera equipment we had left behind. Another unfortunate experience but a good wake up call for us to be more careful in poverty stricken Africa.

Next was the job of reporting the theft at the police station. Past experience has shown that even in the most advanced parts of South Africa, trying to report a theft can be difficult but even so, I don’t think any of us anticipated the ordeal that awaited us! Just getting a case number from them proved to be a three day affair in a police station which was not the most efficient to say the least! None of the police could utter so much as a word in English so trying to make a statement would have been impossible had it not been for an English speaking civilian passing by at the exact moment as they were looking for a translator… we were in serious luck! This friendly guy sat with us for ages relaying our story to the police while they jotted down some notes on a piece of paper they pulled out of the dust bin. They told us to come back the next day to see if they had found anything and pick up the case number which we did but this time we were not so lucky as far as having a translator at hand goes and there were different police behind the desk from the day before. So the games started… firstly, a lengthy game of charades in which we tried to explain why we were standing in their station, eventually they put two and two together and told us to come back the next day as the statement and case number was not yet ready, this was due to their next favourite game… it was called pass the typewriter.

The entire police stationed functioned with one typewriter between all the various offices and departments and at any given time you would see a policeman come in to the room and take the typewriter from the desk in front of you, he then had to keep a steady eye on it as a slip up or half hourly break meant that someone else would pop in to his office and take the typewriter away, thus being the main reason for the complete lack of administrative work that gets done around the place and the reason there are ten policemen milling around doing nothing at any given time.

On day three in the police station, after a much quicker game of charades, we learnt that they had actually typed up the statement and the captain had it, we were sent through to his office where he continually spoke in Portuguese as if we were somehow going to ‘all of a sudden’ understand him. He then demanded 500 000 meticas (about R150) for absolutely no reason at all other than the fact that we might want to give it to him, not falling for that trick we soon had a copy of the statement made (at the post office up the road) while they held on to jigs as their ransom for the original copy back. We gave them back their original copy in exchange for Julia and now finally have our statement and case number… which is all in Portuguese.

Our balls

2005-11-13T02:36:00.000-08:00

As most of you know BDO Spencer Steward has been very generous in supporting the sponsorship of Our Balls. There is however a chance for you to support us as well and bring more than a smile to an African child!

We would like to thank the following individuals for their support thus far and encourage the rest of you to please help by purchasing a soccer ball for a little as R100. Please see our website (www.k2k.co.za) for further information. If any of you have difficulty in making the payment for international reasons we do have a British and Australian bank account available.

We have sold 40 balls to date and have set ourselves a ambitious target of 100 balls before we complete our expedition, set for the end of the year! We will keep you all posted as to how we are doing and lets hope that we will see your name up here as well!

We will be doing the draw in January when we are back, so there is still time for you to stand a chance to be going to the Matlou Ranch in the Tuli Block in Bostwana!

Name No. Balls

Venning Family 12
Bernie + Jane 4
Mel 2
Lucas Scheepers 1
Greg Krupp 1
Andrew Pitt 1
Risien Family 2
Dan + Jane 1
Tim + Marileze 2
Michelle + Guy 1
Tom + Sophie 3
Gilly + Kate 1
The K’s 1
Nadine 1
Thomas Family 6
Natalie Kent 1
Anne, Phil and Marne 12

Leg 6 Expect the unexpected!

2005-11-11T05:48:00.000-08:00

Kilwa Masoko – Mtwara 200 km, in 6 days

The Mugs!

Our two new team’s mates had flown in for the adventure of their lives! Calm, flat sheltered waters was what they had, had in mind! I’m sorry but that is not what lay ahead of us! A friendly passing yachtsman’s warned us before leaving Kilwa Masoko that the waters we were heading for were some of the roughest and toughest they had navigated since leaving Madagascar! After being thrown around in 3-4 meter swells with a head wind beating into us I can’t argue with his friendly word of warning!

We named our 2 new team mates “The Mugs”. The reason for this was that that before we set off on the expedition we had watched a kayaking video about navigation and various other kayaking skills, and to make the video a bit more light hearted, the producers had put in a couple of skits about “The Mugs” who were 2 guys who just did everything wrong and did the exact opposite of what would be correct. When Shayne took them out for some training before the start of the leg, memories flooded back of the skits in the video when we saw the guys in the kayak and Alan and Lee even looked like “The Mugs” from the film, and that is where they got their name from.

The first day out of Kilwa was just that, huge surging swells making every paddle stroke a serious effort! After spending close to 3months on the water Graham and I felt at home, it was the two new comers who had other ideas! Not have spent more than 2 hours, in their lives, in a kayak (those were the 2 hours of training which Shayne administered the day before) they were clearly well out of their depth and very, very happy when it came to the end of the 19km day and they were told they could surf a wave onto the coral beach!

Bed wetting

We were all rudely awoken by the crashing of waves at our feet! Two were less fortunate than the others! Allan and Lee’s woes continued and it was their tent which needed empting after a couple of waves woke them from their deep sleep!

I woke to hear Allan say to Lee; “Lee, wake up the sea is going to wet us!” to which Lee replied; “Don’t worry man it is miles away!”…………The next minute we were all running around at 3am in the morning trying to salvage all our gear which was being washed out to sea!

Before going to sleep we made sure that we pitched our tents well above the what we thought we the high water mark!

We are still unsure as to why the tide at night is that much higher than during the day. We presume it has something to do with the effect of the suns gravitational pull which counters that of the moon’s. If anyone has the answer please let us know, thanks.

K2K welcomes choir!

Having discussed their concerns about their safety and negotiated their release from the K2K Expedition, Alan and Lee were in high spirits. Feeling that they had eluded death on a couple of occasions over the past 2 days and pleased that they did not have to paddle any further through shark infested, 1,3km deep water, they burst into song!

It was like having a jukebox. Any song that we demanded they sang, and really well too. “Tie me Kangaroo down sport” was about the only song that the rest of us could attempt to sing properly! It was a great evening and just a bit of a pity that they had decided to leave us because it was good having them around.

K2K Paddlers left high and dry

After coming to terms with the news that our two new team mates were leaving us, Richard and I headed off for an average days paddle. Kiswere was our target. We had exchanged GPS coordinates for our rendezvous, in case there was no cell reception. It was a fool proof plan because as it turned out, there was cell phone reception and Kiswere was even on our map. Rendezvous would be a breeze…

It did not take us long to get to the coordinates but to our surprise the car was not there yet. We pulled the boats up under a tree so that we could wait in the shade. There was no time to relax though because the local villagers immediately recognised us, probably from being avid fans of our website and having seen the various newspaper articles that we have appeared in, or possibly just because we were the first white people to visit the village in over 3 years! One really gets the feeling of what it must be like to be a celebrity. Some mothers even brought their young children along to show them what an “mzungu” looks like!

Shayne had sent us a message saying that the mugs were still with him and that they were a bit lost but would see us in about 30 minutes. After about 2 hours of waiting, and with the villagers still staring at us, we decided to teach the local children a song to sing to the others when they arrived. It took about an hour to get them to sing the 5 simple words of the song properly, complete with the Aussie accent. “Tie me kangaroo down sport, tie me kangaroo down!” echoed across the bay. How appropriate!

But it was not to be. After another 3 hours of waiting we got a message asking if we would be alright for the night without the car and whether we had enough food and water to get us to the next point, Mchinga. He knew the answer, which was “Of course not!” but thought that it was the best way of saying “Good luck chaps! You’re on your own for the night. See you tomorrow after your 45km paddle!”

We have luckily become quite resourceful and, thanks to BDO Spencer Steward (http://www.bdo.co.za/) and some of you for donating soccer balls, we managed to make it through the night. 1 ball took care of our accommodation, which was a double bed in the one man’s house (don’t know who he kicked out!), another got us a good meal of rice and beans that evening and one more was bartered for a couple of litres of water, some biscuits and chapattis for the long paddle that awaited us the next morning!

K2K Bogged Down

After the mugs had decided to leave the k2k expedition the Kristal and I managed to make some extra space for them in the already cramped Mlevi. It was not going to be an issue as it was a short drive to the main road where they could catch a ‘dala dala’ to the airport at Lindi, as we headed off to our rendezvous with the 2 remaining paddlers. It took us 2 hours to get back onto the ‘main’ road and we asked about dala dala’s to Lindi for the boys, but there were none. The smiles of the two choir boys were quickly washed away, as the broken English news hit home. There was two options, wait for a lift on the back of a: truck/bus/donkey/bicycle or hippo, or hitch a ride with us to the next town and try and get a lift from there. Surprisingly the chose the latter option. We kept driving and asking about dala dala’s but the boys where out of luck, it was not to be.

After 4 hours in the car and having not seen a turnoff to the Kiswere(our meeting place with the boys) we resorted to the trusty ‘Garmin GPS’ (http://www.garmin.co.za/) which told us we were off course and had to backtrack ~50kms. It was all becoming a bit much for the 4 of us squashed in Mlevi, we were sticking to the plastic seats, our bodies were so close the sweat from each other was trickling from one body to another and we had to make a decision. We put it to the Mugs, we can either leave them here on the side of the road to again try their luck with any passing traffic, or spend another night with the K2K team as we were running out of time and we had to meet the paddlers in a short time. Reluctantly they chose to spend another night and we promised to drop them at Lindi the following day. With that organised we set off in what we thought was the right direction where the boys were.

The GPS was telling us that there was a road to our right and after going back and forth we found a path just wide enough to squeeze a Bike through and thought that this must be it. Trusty Mlevi loved it and she pushed through the thorn tree’s, shrubs and dirt mounds, and up ahead we saw it opened up into a nice normal road and we were sure and glad we had found the correct route. But as we soon found out it was a “just joking” road as it all of a sudden dropped off into a 4m pot hole. And then it started, the road was basically disintegrated in front of us but there was no way we could possibly turn around. 30km of hectic 4WD and having to put it into Diff lock around 8 times, the 30kms took approx 3 hours to get to a little village which the GPS showed to be Kiswere but we were still 4kms away from the boys GPS location. We stopped in the village and pointed to the bright red boat on the roof and said ‘Mzungu’ they seemed to understand what we meant-“where are the muzgu’s with the red boats?”. We followed our excited guide on his bike through the village carefully, and led us 2 a mangrove swamp that we had to cross. After double checking that we really had to go this way and the Mzungu’s are really there we engaged diff lock and headed head on into the swamp. Our guide obviously underestimated the weight of Mlevi as we sank deep into the sand. By this time we had the whole village out staring, laughing and pointing at the crazy white people who are now wheel deep in think muddy sand. Luckily the village men and boys were very eager to help and jumped straight into chopping tree’s and branches to put under our wheels and attempting to push Mlevi out. It proved to be impossible, until Shayne had a brilliant idea and saw the opportunity to finally use the winch.

I left the boys and the villagers to set up the winch and thought I would walk ahead to tell the paddlers that we had found them. I walked with a guide for another 5mins through streams and mangroves (clearly not Mlevi territory) until it opened up onto a beautiful beach with a stretch of white sand for as long as you can see… but no red Kayaks or Mzungu’s in sight. He explained that there are Mzungu’s riiiiiiiiiight over there on the horizon if you hop into a motorboat and went there. As I dismally walked back to tell the Bogged boys the bad news that we are in the wrong village they had already started the winch up and were on the way out, and a U-turn and back track was the only way out. After laying sticks down to harden the track, Mlevi went back over the where it had just come from, unfortunately the sticks weren’t enough and again Mlevi is bogged and the winch had to be used again.

Our soccerballs came in handy again as we paid for the villagers services with 4 soccerballs which they went crazy about and started a massive argument who is the owner of the 4 balls out of the 60+ villagers who helped us get unbogged. Mlevi started up and hightailed it out of there before things turned ugly.

K2K stretches their stroke

So there we were, slightly lighter thanks to the distribution of a couple of soccer balls with a huge day ahead of us! A couple of chapatti’s for breakfast, which we could have used to strengthen the soles of our flip flops, we headed off for a long day on the water! The villages turned out in numbers to shout words of encouragement and gave us one of the best send offs! Probably because they weren’t going to see another Mzungu for another 3 years, and to make sure that we weren’t lying and that we did start using our secret engines!!

We took it easy from the start, the swell continued to throw us around and only once we were safely out of the bay and well behind the breakers did it begin to calm. We rounded point after point, crossed bay after bay. Like many other physical forms of endurance exercise it comes down to how strong your mind is and the ability to take your thoughts else where. If you focus on something on the land you will inevitably start thinking that you are going backwards or not going any where! In order to maintain motivated and energised we set ourselves little goals, breaking every 10 or so km’s. Once you are inside 10km of your final destination things start looking up, until you are trying to close it out and the last couple of km’s seems to drag on and on!! The tides are currently against us and making our butts that much harder and shoulders wider! Low tide is currently around mid morning and we therefore have to paddle round the reefs instead of over them, with majority of our paddling carried out during the morning when it is cool and less windy! Yes I know things

We definitely owe Ryan, one of the team mates we send goodbye to a couple of days ago for leaving us his stash of corn syrups! The rubberised chapattis provided us with little desperately needed sugar!

When we finally arrived at our destination we had covered 45km in 7:30 hours, not bad considering the wind and swell. But the relief of meeting up with the rest of the team and the delicious pasta Kristal cooked us soon erased any memory of the hard day’s work!!

Pete joins for a paddle

Pete is a guy who we have kept bumping into in the strangest and most unexpected of places. We first spotted him in the small town of Kisiju, where we saw the unmistakable walk of an “mzungu” strolling along the beach and where he later came over to admire our pig! We crossed on the same ferry to Mafia Island, bumped into him on a snorkelling trip on the other side of the island, he arrived at the same campsite as us in Kilwa Masoko (after spending 8 days on a local fishing island learning to catch octopus!), we then passed him on the side of the road when his lorry had broken down and he finally wandered into the same village that we were staying in called Mchinga. It was clear that he wanted to paddle!

He was headed to Lindi and so were we. He had planned to go in the car, but we only had room in a boat! Actually, we did have room in the car but though that we would offer him the opportunity to paddle seeing that it was just Richard and me paddling since the mugs had left and it is always nice to have some company. He jumped at the chance with both hands and the next day he was kitted up and ready to paddle the 26km into Lindi.

He said that he was going inland and is heading towards Malawi, but we are sure to bump into him again. If not, good luck on your trip and drop us an e-mail letting us know where you are!

K2K robbed!

It had turned out to be a long day’s paddle, largely due to the fact that we had spent the night in one of Lindi’s finest cockroach infested guest houses where we had squeezed all 4 of us into a double room. Our target was somewhere between Lindi and Mtwara, a paddle of approximately 40km as it turned out.

As we approached the protected bay, which we had intended landing in, we noticed that there was a rather large village in the same spot. “Let’s go a bit further so that we are away from all the people,” Richard said to me. “Good idea. Nobody will see us if we camp in those trees over there,” I replied. What I actually meant was, “We will never see the bunch of thieves hiding in those trees over there!”

We landed about a km away from the beach due to the tide being way out and left the boat tied to a rock while we did a little reconnaissance mission to find the best place to stay. We found the perfect spot, vulnerable from all sides, and returned to the boats to get all our equipment. Out it came, dry bag after dry bag, already conveniently packed for the heist. The thieves could not believe their luck when the tide came in and Richard and I left our roaring fire, kettle on the boil, to go and pull the boat up the beach.

When we returned we sat down to a not so nice cup of tea, which Richard tried to poison me with by making it incredibly strong (he even used 2 teabags for my cup!), and to relax and read our books. I started setting up our camp in the manner which had become routine: 1) lay down the groundsheet, 2) Set up tent, 3) Roll out the sleeping mats, and 4) Unroll the sleeping bags.

Step 1 was fine. Groundsheet spread out. The remaining steps had me thoroughly confused though. I could not find the tents, mats or sleeping bags but knew that they were there because I had personally removed them from the boat. I asked Richard if he had moved them but he hadn’t. We both started searching. Under the groundsheet, in the boat and even under our shirts and paddles (as if they could really have been there!) but we found nothing. It then dawned on us, WE HAD BEEN ROBBED!

For the second time in 3 days we found ourselves out in the cold. Luckily we had the groundsheet, emergency “space” blankets in our medical kit which is always in the boat, and the wind was quite strong which meant that there would be no mosquitoes. How bad could it be?!

For those of you who are interested to see what our night was like then, tonight, when you get home, go to the kitchen and grab yourself a roll of tinfoil (the wide one which will barely cover the width of your body) and unroll a piece as long as your body. Set this down on the carpet at the bottom of your bed. Then get the strongest fan in the house, and aim it at your new bed and turn it on full blast. I guarantee you that you won’t sleep a wink between trying to cling onto the foil and by being woken up by the crinkling sound each time that you roll over!

The up side of it all was that the following day the boats were somewhat lighter and our clothing and outdoor equipment sponsor, DUESOUTH (www.duesouth.co.za), will now be quite well known in a small village in southern Tanzania!

Zanzibar and New Arrivals

2005-11-03T06:58:00.000-08:00

Chumbe Island Hotel – Taking responsive tourism to the next level!

This international acclaimed eco-tourism island draws researches from all over the world! Like them we were naturally spell bound by the amazingly well thought out and designed resort. Totally dependant on the water which falls from the sky they are like a desert surrounded by an oasis!

We covered the 14km from Stone Town in no time, heavily laden with all our gear our daunting memories of the first leg came flooding back, but the feeling of total independence and the knowledge that a hot meal awaiting our arrival and friendly staff softened the situation.

The incredible journey and the process leading up to the islands success has taken almost 10 years. Trying to get through to the local fisherman that coral reefs need to be protected for their survival was no easy feat! Constant confrontations with angry, armed fisherman was a regular occasion in the beginning!

Their focus on responsible tourism has led them to many international awards over the past couple of years. They have converted the old lighthouse masters house, dating back to 1904, into the main building which contains a classroom where many local and foreign visitors are taught the importance of protecting and preserving the fragile coral reefs. I personally learnt a tremendous amount and enjoyed being taught by the extremely knowledgeable and friendly local rangers.

Treated as visiting researches we ate with the local staff, and scavenged off any leftovers which the guests didn’t finish….

The afternoon was spent swimming, relaxing with the local guys and being guided around the island’s indigenous forest. Omrai, the knowledgeable head ranger pointed out some extremely dangerous flora, one particular specie’s sap can be fatal and was used as poison in the past. They have introduced a handful of indigenous duiker from Zanzibar mainland, in the hope of breeding them. To finish off the evening stroll we were treated with a bird’s eye view of the island and a spectacular sunset from the top of the 100 year old, 32m, gas operated lighthouse!

Fortunately the visiting guests saw the hunger in our eyes and don’t worms and which meant we were able to share the left over prawn curry!! Truly delightful!

That evening we were introduced to our worst nightmares – a deadly coconut assassin – The coconut crab! These prehistoric creatures have a fetish for coconuts and the ability to scale the coconut palms to retrieve them! Spanning up to 60cm from the front two pincers these beasts are something to watch out for when walking the narrow forest trails after sunset! Coconuts have earned serious respect, after watching numerous come crashing back to earth with a thundering thud! A falling coconut therefore is one of our biggest threats. Hence these “little” coconut crabs have been aptly named – Deadly coconut assassins! Fortunately they aren’t as ruthless and accurate as the Jackal!

One of the islands current projects which we helped out with, is the removal of some destructive Crown of Thorn (COT) star fish which are destroying the slow growing coral in no time! Speed of growth depends on the water temperature but varies between 0.5 – 6 cm a year!

The hotels accommodation is made up of 6 eco-friendly banda’s, which are in a league of their own with regards to responsible tourisim! Each banda’s roof has been specifically designed to catch the most valuable resource on the island – water! This is stored below the building in it’s 15 000L tank, sufficient to last for entire year! Their focus on grey water (that which has already been used) is impressive, all water used for washing is carefully collected and re-used for the surrounding gardens before disappearing in the 6cm of soil cover (this is the maxium depth on the island and yet baobabs flourish on the island)! All the electricity is naturally provided by solar panels on the roof of each banda. The compost toilets were also a first for us, instead of flushing, you add a cup or two of carefully harvested compost! The neat little wind generating extractor fan would ensure that the john remained odour free!

You get the picture, this little Robinson Crosio island of the 21st century was definitely something unique and worthy of all its international recognition and more! We were very honoured to have visited it and promised to spread the word of their great work!

For further information please visit http://www.cih.com/ or for booking accommodation http://www.toescapeto.com/

Mbweni Ruins – Where the past meets current day luxury

Paddling the 9km stretch from Chumbe to Zanzibar was led to a new experience for the team! Heading north for the first time we experienced something quite unique! The wind and current were pushing us along, instead of its usual head on pounding we were flying along with the tail wind! Oh how we look forward to the Kusi (the local trade wind which is meant be coming in November which blows from the North!)

We eventually stumbled on the beautiful Mbweni Ruins Hotel, situated 8km south of Stone Town, the stunning gardens are host to some reconstructed ruins dating back to Livingston’s time when he and fellow missionaries had come over to free slaves and put an end to the inhumane brutality of slavery!

The hotel hosted us for 3 memorable nights, the grand elaborate rooms over looking the water and stunning manicured gardens were definitely a treat and had set the bar for the rest of our stay while on the island! It was the perfect spot from where we could explore the legendary old town of Stone Town and get lost in it’s quaint narrow streets!

The hotels inviting pool over looking the Indian Ocean was were we spent most of our time when we weren’t exploring the old town. Watching the sun set over the water was another new experience and something we aren’t used to. There is generally one basic rule to navigation for us – keep the coast to the right and all will be fine! That theory was obviously thrown out the window!

For further information please visit http://www.cih.com/ or for booking accommodation http://www.toescapeto.com/

We were taken on an outing to the local orphanage in Stone Town, situated in the middle of town over looking the harbour, but with Ramadan having just started (4th October) things were quiet and the head master was very strict. He didn’t allow us to see too much, however as usual the presentation of a couple of soccer balls all that changed and he lightened up immediately and the broad smiles said it all! The children numbers are surprisingly on the decline, they were around 100 a couple of years ago but were currently around 40! The majority of the kids (all between 1-18yrs) come from either deceased parents or those who have ill parents) we were surprised to hear that aids wasn’t as a significant contributor as we imagined, but do they know really the origins of the illness!

Stone Town – The centre of East Africa for centuries continues to mystify!

Having spent quite sometime exploring the old town of Lamu, which is meant Stone Town a couple of years ago and without all the tourists! So I was always interested in how it would compare!

Well, I agree although the town does have a extraordinary feel, a dominate aurora about it, the grand old buildings of the days of Sultan’s over looking the harbour give it a air of importance and grandeur which Lamu doesn’t seem to have. Then again Stone Town was for centuries the place from which the entire East Africa coast was dominated from.

We found a local hotel which had the most beautiful view of the entire town – from the roof tops we were able to take it all in and the sounds of prayer echoing off the buildings and down the narrow streets reminded us of exactly where we were!

Getting lost in these narrow winding streets is something you have to experience if you ever find yourself on the spice island! The friendly people and general activity in the less touristy quarters provides the perfect opportunity for you to delve into the lives of the locals and it doesn’t take long before you are engulfed by the leisurely pace and realise that there is no other way! The locals constantly testing your knowledge of Kiswahili (Swahili in Swahili!?), with the ever popular term Mambo (whats up?) to which you reply Poua (cool!)!

There are however streets where it is quite evident that tourisim is the islands number one!

Spice up your life on a spice tour

Visiting on the worlds greatest spice islands we had to do a spice tour, which happen to prove more useful than initially thought! Did you know that the reason why vanilla is so expensive is that the plant has to be individually pollinated by hand! And that cinnamon tree is referred to as the king of spice – you can use the bark, roots, leaves and fruit etc. However the one thing which we were most interested in was the fact that ginger is used as a local aphrodisiac for the ladies!

The tour lasted a couple of hours and ending with a delicious tasting of spice teas and other spices!

Nungwei – The party capital of the island, a bar to remember

There is only one place on the island for a party, I’m talking about a little bar on the beach made out of two dhows. That is the way I like them, peacefully resting on land serving a far more important purpose and not rocking around making all its passengers ill! It is call Choles Bar, the one place you are allowed to camp on the island.

When we pitched our tents 5m away from the large sub woofers I knew there was little point in trying to get any sleep! After watching the sun slip below the horizon with a cold Tusker in hand we were set for an entertaining evening!

The beach is lined with large bar/restaurants perched on stilts over looking the water, each one trying to entice you in for a platter of mouth watering sea food. Needless to say we settled for the local chachula – japati with some dodgy meat!

Thanks to my parents, who joined us for a week of adventure on the island, picked up some essentials on their way through duty free including 2L of J&B, which added some spice to our otherwise ordinary coke! It turned out that our little bar was the centre of attraction, everyone gravitating there after their juicy meals.

I, being the fifth wheel had to make a plan for myself after the two couples disappeared into their tents and left me with most of the 1L whiskey bottle to devour. The bar full of overlanders, Welsh medics and locals all wanting to drink each other under the table left me with no other option but to get stuck in and enjoy a wild, noisy and entertaining night! I wish I could divulge more details of the nights proceedings but unfortunately you are going to have to ask one of the medics, my memory is very sketchy…………….!

Needless to say next 5 hours spent on the water were less pleasant with only having managed 45min sleep!

Metemwe Beach Village – There is only one

Situated on the north eastern side of the island is a little village, Metemwe. There are a handful of resorts scattered along the beautiful white sand beach, one of them being Metemwe Beach Village. They have built a unique bungalow, one of a kind called Asali suite. My mother and father, honoured guests of the expedition and Toescapeto were staying at this special spot had very kindly allowed us to crash their romantic spot!

You have to see it to believe it but I’ll try paint the picture. A 14m unsupported circular thatch roof rises above you, as you enter through the front door which looks onto the surrounding open planned bungalow. Right in the centre of the space is a medium sized Jacuzzi, just to wash the salt off, before kicking back in the day dreamer’s corner, full of cushions and super comfy mattresses/beds for the paddlers! There is a large double room separated by beautiful blinds which lead to the outdoor bathroom with an undisturbed view of the coconut palm forest! The neat open plan kitchen comes fully stocked with a over sized bar fridge full of ice cold Tuskers!(Kenyan beer) This is all built right on the white sand beach looking out to the beautiful turquoise Indian Ocean!

Thanks again to Toescapeto and obviously Gail from Metemwe Beach Resort for one of the best two nights on tour todate! If you are looking for a spot to pull into on your next paddle down East Africa, or a romantic luxury beach bungalow all to yourself then this is definitely it! Go check it out:
http://www.toescapeto.com/information.asp?offerid=11&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;day=00&month=11&year=2004

New Arrivals – Dilution of testosterone! (Kristal)
Justine and I arrived safely at Zanzibar airport after our 5 minute flight that we thought would most likely be our last. We were jumping out of our skins with nerves of what to expect and beside our selves with excitement to finally see our boys after 3months. After arriving in the dodgy Stonetown airport we stood around for what seemed like a lifetime for our luggage to come through so we could run into the arms of the boys who we could see through the big glass doors. We weren’t so sure it was them at first, the beards and the scraggly hair put us out, but the big toothy grins and waves assured us it was them. Justine and I thought they had got dressed up for the special occasion of our arrival, as they were wearing collard shirts that looked clean, but later found out they got a “bargain” of 11 shirts from a second hand local shop… mmm so that’s what the smell is.
The first thing I noticed was how hairy these guys had become! And then how tanned and muscley they look compared to my pale and not so toned body. But they didn’t seem to care and we were both just so glad we had finally got to our final destinations with them. There was much to catch up on as Shayne and I jumped in the back of the van, Justine and Graham in the middle and Richard and…the driver jumped in the front and took us back to a most luxurious hotel were we ate our first ever so tasty local food.
I have been with these guys for almost a month now and I think I will need a lot of back up to help dilute the testosterone levels of this bunch of males. I am beginning to simply having to adapt to the male way of life. (Its actually not all that bad if I just block my nose.) But I honestly think the ‘boys with balls’ have done extremely well for them selves with out a female or a maid around. I have caught on that the dishes get washed after each meal in the ocean and sand is used as a jex, the toilet paper is always somewhere rolling around on the bottom of the car floor and after you take the first layer off its clean enough and smelly clothes I have come to learn are “good for you” and so are creepy crawly things in your food. (and I havnt been sick yet so maybe they are)
To this point I have enjoyed every step of the way, experiencing Africa at its best. Actually no, I didn’t enjoy catching flea’s from the Ferry’s over grown rats, but they seemed have moved along now after airing out everyone’s sleeping gear. And “pole pole” (Slowly Slowly) I am catching onto all the guys jargon that they came to adapt on this trip and some of the South African Lingo and can laugh along at some of their inside jokes. Surely enough I think I am slowly settling into the K2K’s simple way of life, surviving and taking each day as it comes.

K2K swept off their feet! (Shayne)
Finally after much anticipation the day arrived, the arrival of the girls. Kristal and Justine arrived off the plane, Justine for a short week long holiday and Kristal for the rest of the expedition. Yep, Kristal is the official replacement for Aaron and also a much needed female influence within the group. Our hygiene was beginning to slip and with Kristal’s seemingly endless supply of ‘wet wipes’ we were ‘encouraged’ to clean our hands at every available opportunity. But ‘wet wipes’ weren’t the only gifts Kristal brought the team. A new Kite and kite board was presented as well a early 21st present from my parents, I along with the rest of the team were eager to try the 12 meter kite. Unfortunately the next day was windless and the kite would have to wait. A few days later we finally got our opportunity to get the kite out and have a test flight. ‘OH DEAR’ the power was a serious surprise and after a few drags through the water Graham and myself were starting to get the hang of it. It wasn’t long till we were flying through the air and landing safely in the water. Some of us though, weren’t so elegant…Richards turn was up and after a quick basic lesson in what we had guessed to be right rich took the beast by the bar and had a go. He started off slowly and was getting the hang of it. While Graham and myself watched from the beach at rich increase in skill and confidence. We both pointed out he was getting dangerously close to the shore. Within seconds of our observation rich was pulled clear out the water and slammed onto the beach and dragged a few meters before we finally rushed to his aid.

Magical Mtoni Marine (Rich)
Our first night on the island was spent at this superbly managed, sociable and convenient resort! A stones throw away from Stone Town (couldn’t resist) we literally dropped our kayaks off the edge of the pier, between some rather large vessels, waved goodbye to the excited locals who had gathered to witness the peculiar event and were at Mtoni in time to watch the sunset! The only obstacle being a departing ferry whose crew jumped up and down screaming at us to get out of their way!

We returned here for the afternoon while waiting for our ferry to depart and were once again treated like royalty by Waldemar and his friendly staff. Relaxing on one of the best beaches on the island drinking a couple of cold Tuskers and admiring our new shirts we were very happy with ourselves, as the sun set!

We all decided that if we were to return to the island this is one spot we would definitely return to, its close proximity to town, beautiful beach, friendly staff and good feel factor did it for us!

K2K welcomes eager fisherman! (Ryan+Ian)
After months of waiting the day finally arrived. Leaving Jhb we were expecting to spend a night in Dar before heading across to Zanzibar to meet the team. Fortunately we were able to charter a flight on arrival in Dar for a little more than the cost of a fast ferry. This flight turned out to be a tiny four seater, but with our luggage sitting on our laps we had a relatively safe flight and the most spectacular view of the island. Richard and his dad picked us up and we headed off to Stone Town to find a roof-top bar to enjoy our first Kilimanjaro. We spent our first few days living in luxury at a guesthouse in Jambiani. A very special thank you must go to Mr and Mrs Thomas for their generosity, it was an unforgettable stay. We eased into the paddling with an 18km section of the east coast on our first day. Other than a headwind we had an easy paddle and were confident that we were fit enough for the weeks ahead (little did we know!).

The ride of our lives (Ian)

With the paddling put on hold until we returned to Dar it was a perfect opportunity to explore Zanzibar and how other than by motorbike. We had an extra night on the island before catching the ferry so Rich, Ryan and I decided to hire scramblers and head up north to Cholo’s bar at Nungwe. It was amazing cruising along dodging dhala-dhala’s and it wasn’t long before I thought I was an expert rider. If you want to see the island and are limited for time then a motorbike is the way to go. However I strongly advise against having sundowners at Cholo’s bar (which was spectacular) and then heading into the nearby village to find more alcohol. I paid the price for being too cocky on my bike and even though I was going slowly I still managed to slide along a gravel road. Something I will never forget is Rich riding up to me saying how sorry he was and that it was all is fault because I was actually looking for him at the time ( I was the only one to blame that night!). We were travelling very light so of cause the first aid kit was left behind. I had to make do with a swim in the sea and some local vodka to clean my wounds, followed with a cutup sarong for a make-shift bandage. Needless to say we had a great party that night, with the vodka mixed with “big black coke” to ease the pain.

The ride back to Stone Town as you could imagine took a lot longer thanks to my cautiousness as I was feeling very sorry for myself. It was still an eventful ride, we were stop twice by local police requesting to see our permits. Thinking everything was in order we soon discovered that the permits had been forged and true to Africa a bribe was soon to follow. This bribe however was not initiated by us but instead by the owner of the motorbikes who eventually settled on a payment, which only happened after the cops had miss called him. Our second run-in with the law was thanks to Ryan’s antics on the bike. They knew straight away that the permits were forged (makes you wonder…) but they were more concerned about Ryan standing up on the bike. After some idle threats to take us to the police station they were soon distracted when I enquired about some jack-fruits hanging in the nearby tree. Even though they were not ripe and most certainly did not belong to them they were keen to sell us one. With the distraction in place it wasn’t long before all was forgotten and we were back on the road to Stone Town. Thank goodness there was no major damage to the bike because the owner knew about the fall when they came to collect the bikes (just like in a small town news travels like wildfire on an island!).

Ferry crossing rivals any refugee camps (Shayne and Kristal)

K2K team was abit stumped as to why the ferry left Stonetown at 10pm. We soon found out. Everyone spent the night on board the ferry which harboured in stonetown before heading across to Dar Es Salem at 3am arriving in Dar at 6. Initially we thought this was great, we loaded the boats and because of our skin color we were assigned the “VIP” section of the ferry. This included lovely designer synthetic leather couches, and vomit/urine stained foam mattresses, which looked precariously eaten. Anyway while Kristal, Ian, and myself set up our fort, Ryan and Rich were off on a mission to find us some food for the evening. The arrived back with Zanzibar Pancakes (dough filled with bananas and chocolate), and chippatis, we all tucked in and enjoyed our meal before what we suspected to be a long night ahead of us.

We claimed our spot on the mattress and settled down, before Kristal pointed out she needed to make a routine toilet stop…I hand you over to Kristal to explain her ordeal: After begging sleepy, restless Shayne to come with me so I didn’t have to venture into the unknown alone, we took our first steps down to the lower economy class section of the boat. I have never seen such a sight. Thousands of swquashed locals bright eyes pierced through me. I staggered through the crowds, being knocked back and forth with the motion of the waves and was finally pointed out the direction of the bathroom. I didn’t like the thought of where I had to venture to finish such a easy task. A heavy metal door swung open and Shayne and I were almost knocked over with a wave of a very unpleasant stench. The toilets so conveniently situated in the bow of the boat, so I took the most terrifying steps of my life, down, down, down. The motion of the ocean had obviously been to much for people having to squat over tiny holes in the ground because the entire floor was 2inches under their business. The sight was to much for me to even dare to step off the last stair in my flip flops and I ‘U’ turned as fast as a could for a breath of any air apart from the air down there! There was no way I was being convinced to return down there so we set off to hopefully find a bathroom in which I didn’t have to swim in. After several failed attempts and many gagging experiences I decided that I will hang on for 8hours until we reached dry land. Shayne found my stubborness quite amusing but told me if “You are not going to go now don’t whinge to me hours later, because they’re only going to get worse!”. So there I lay, trying not to think of water as water lapped at the sides of the boat. Not daring to say a whining word.

After not finding a suitable bathroom for the new comer who has not yet adapted to the way of life for us Tough African K2K boys, we settled back down on the flea ridden mats that were kindly provided for us. We all lay side by side, Rich bravely taking the out side next to Ryan, head to toe, then Ian at Ryan’s feet and us laying at Bravely at Ian’s Toes and next to the left over from supper. Supper, costing us around R1 each proved to be to much for us and had plenty left over which we planned to have for breakfast when we docked at 6am in Dar. But a little fury friend beet us to it. Actually it was not little, a huge rat sat bravely next to my head munching on a most tasty meal. I didn’t dare to move, but simply turn over and pull covers over my head. Out of sight out of mind… almost. Later that morning Rich informed us it had ran across him during the night and he chose the same method as myself, to keep his eyes shut in fear of what he might see. But that wasn’t all, we had a lovely local lady who had crept up from economy and made herself comfy in our “VIP” room who was feeling quite sea sick. Now instead of rushing to the toilet or outside to hang her head over the rails like most considerate people she simply found it necessary to noisily throw up what seemed to be everything she has ever eaten in the most loud, foul and sickening way possible. As soon as you thought she had nothing left to throw up, there she’d go again… and again… and again. By the morning it was as though there was something wrong if we couldn’t hear her, hawking, gargling and gagging.
But, like the over grown rats, we tried to cover our ears and noses, fearing if we smelt it, we’d be joining her. After a restless night fending off giant rats and scratching at my skin at what I hope were imaginary lice, we finally stepped onto the dock, I would have kissed the ground if it hadn’t been for the cockroaches scurrying around my feet, ‘its good to be back’ I heard myself say.

Fifth leg begins!

Early on the 18th of October Shayne dropped Richard, Ryan and me (Ian still being injured and ruled out of action by a local doctor) off at the nearby slipway to begin the fifth leg of k2k.

The main challenge for the day was to be the crossing of the shipping lane into the Dar-es-Salaam harbour, the busiest on the East African coastline. As we approached the shipping lane, a huge oil tanker was seen emerging from the harbour. For a few minutes we thought that we may have been able to duck across in front of it but sanity prevailed and we decided to wait and go around the back. It was just as well because the ship was deceptively fast and we would most certainly have become cute little red bow ornaments! Once the ship had passed, we carefully looked left, then right and then left again before we made our dash across the danger zone.

We stopped on a beautiful sand island for lunch and to wait for Shayne to sms us the coordinates of the campsite that we were going to be staying at. We were pretty confident that we could see it about 3km away and thought that we were in for a cool 30 minute paddle, this was before the sms came through with different plans. I plugged the coordinates into the GPS which informed us that we still had 10.7km to go! What the GPS did not tell us was that it was low tide and that the 10.7kms also included carrying the boats over sea urchin infested rocks!

New team member a real pig!

Louis the pig! After much debate as to what mascot to get to provide us with entertainment during the quieter times, we finally decided on a little piglet! Those that made the short list were; a little kid, no not one of the local children but rather the fury, horny ones that run unexpectedly across the road, a chicken and a pig! Being a majority Muslim community where pigs are considered dirty filthy animals little Louis was unfortunately not the most loved creature around! This however soon become very useful and quite entertaining! We pulled into a little local fishing village called Kisiju for a night before heading over to Mafia island, and the usual mobs were quite put out by little fella! The little harmless piglet was seen as a furious guard dog and kept everyone at quite a distance!

Louis’s eating habits were also his unfortunate downfall. Apart from having to compete for every last scrap of food with Graham, he had just grown too big for the car. It was for this reason that Shayne and Kristal traded him in at the local bar in Kilwa Masoko in return for a couple of beers! The barman, who is the new proud owner of Louis, assures us that he is still alive and well and that he is still too small to eat!

Refugee ferry crossing

We found a ferry in Kisiju which was able to take us the short distance to Mafia Island. We had been told that it was a speed boat and that it only cost Tsh 4 000 each. When we arrived to get on we could see that it was a boat alright, but the speed part was way out! 100+ people were crammed onto the small boat which looked a bit like a tugboat. Added to this the roof was piled high with all sorts of cargo, including 3 red kayaks and also doubled as first class seating once the ferry was on the move.

It felt as though we were on a boat from Cuba headed for the United States and were wandering how long it would take for either the coast guard to pick us up or for the boat to sink. It did not take very long! After about 2 hours the engine stopped as a storm was brewing. We were stuck within sight of Mafia! Richard and Ryan provided the insail entertainment when they lept off the boat and started swimming in the crystal clear water.

We had said that we were going to give it an hour and a half and then we would get off and paddle to the island, but after a lot of banging with a rather large hammer, the engine started running again and we just managed to limp into Kilindoni “harbour”.

Dodgy Scuba on Mafia

Mafia Island is a place where very few people ever go and even fewer have had the opportunity to scuba dive there. It was for this reason that Richard, Ryan and I decided to pay the US$70 to dive. For this price we imagined that we would be getting state of the art equipment and expert dive masters to lead the dive, but soon found out that that was not to be. No depth gauges on any of the dive gear was the first indication that we had paid way too much. If any of you dive you will know that the amount of time that you can safely spend underwater is dependant on the depth that you go to, so a depth gauge is quite important! The regulators (thing you put in your mouth and breath from) all “free flowed” and could only be stopped by shoving it into your mouth!

Once in the water the lack of expertise became even more evident. When you descend on a dive you need to do what is called equalising. This is where you basically block your nose and blow gently to equalise the pressure in your ears with the water pressure and this prevents your ear drums from bursting. Many people battle with this and need to go down very slowly and even sometimes ascend a bit before descending again. I had our underwater video camera with me and had spent a bit longer on the surface than the rest of the group while I turned it on. As I stared descending, the dive master grabbed me by the leg and yanked me down (obviously thinking that I was battling to descend). Had I been having trouble with my ears, that could have burst or damaged them! The dive master was very lucky that I could not catch him due to my useless fins, which were about as much good having cardboard strapped to my feet, because I would almost certainly have turned his air off!

Run in with authorities

Mafia Island has quite a large area which has been declared a marine park. They do a very good job in looking after it and charge foreigners US$10 per day to be in the area, but don’t confuse them by arriving by kayak (which bypasses the main gate – on the land) as this could land you in serious trouble, no matter how much you cooperate.

When we were about to leave we went to the marine park offices to pay our US$120 (4 of us for 3 days) to Mr January. He informed us that the head of the marine park would like to see us so we went off to his office. After questioning us at length about our expedition they proceeded to blab on and on about how we had not followed their regulations for entering the park but what they were actually more interested in, was the sound of their own voices. We tried to tell them that we were there to help and give their marine park some publicity on our website and were also quite interested to interview them on camera about what they do etc, but they wanted to charge us for that too! “Forget it!” was our answer to that bit of cheek!

The previous day we had arranged an interview with Mr January to find out what the park does and so on but he didn’t bother to show up. Then, at the meeting, he accused us of not having done our homework and that we didn’t have any idea about what they did. They also said that our trip sounds like a total waste of money to them and that we must have lots of money to be doing it. We had had enough of their blabbing and just tuned out while they proceeded to pat themselves on the back and let us know how great they thought they were.

The meeting ended by them telling us that they were going to drop all the other “charges” against us and just charge us the US$10 marine park fee. They also wanted our advice as to how they can improve their park and if there was anything that we had seen elsewhere that we thought could benefit them. We did give them some pointers, but omitted the most important point that they should stop thinking that they were the most important individuals in Tanzania!

K2K Hits Rock Bottom

After two days at Kims Beach we set off for the Amani Beach Protea Hotel, where Graham and I had gone two days early to ask if they would be able to assist us with accommodation. The assistant manager took our number and said he would get back to us. We had still heard nothing buy the day we set off so we just headed off and 18km later pulled in there to see if there was good news. We figured that it being SA owned they would be really hospitable, after waiting for an hour the response was no they cant help us, not even let us camp at the back, and to add to that they would not even let us pop in the pool for a fresh water dip despite us paying good shillings for drinks in the pub. We then set off around the point and Shayne found a great spot ontop of some cliffs owned by a guy called John. He said we could camp for nothing. The only problem was that the beach down below was purely a rocky reef. We had no choice but to go in. Rich timed it well and scooted in between a set. Graham and I were doing well till we were almost on the rocks when two waves doubled up and dumped us straight into the reef. The boat just bent and bounced over them and landed us on a table top rock all safe and sound. Hair raising landing. The boats held up fantastically. We then discovered that Rich’s landing resulted in the rudder pin being snapped clean through. A bit of bush mechanics and it was ok for the next leg.

The soul destroying reef (Ian)
After a strong course of antibiotics and a few days off to allow for the swollen ankle to return to normal I was back in action. With the paddling team back to full force we almost had a perfect start to the 31km paddle that lay ahead, but as we paddled out Ryan and I were caught by a big set and one of the waves washed straight into me. In doing so we lost one of the hand lines, which set the trend for our fishing attempts for the rest of the leg. It was a spectacular paddle, with no protection of a reef we were out in the open and time seemed to fly by due to the constant change in scenery. We neared our destination for the day, a place called Buanyi, which is a huge bay protected by a reef. We were hoping to be able to paddling over the reef but we soon discovered that the tide was not in our favour. The reef stretched for about 3km and when we finally neared the end of it we were welcomed by some huge waves breaking on the point. Our best route into the bay was to negotiate the waves. After spending some time watching the sets coming through we all managed to time our entries perfectly. It was only a few days later when we were telling a local where we had come from that he exclaimed: “Buanyi! That is the palace that many souls have been destroyed!”

Return crossing

We spent the night on the edge of the marine reserve where we bought some fish from the locals. We managed to make some good use of the amazed local children by getting them to gut and fillet our fish, all for the price of 1 BDO Soccer ball! It is amazing what these balls have got us. Being well fed we had a good nights sleep before the 25km crossing from Mafia Island to mainland Africa. As usual, we fuelled ourselves on oats the following morning and were pleased to see that the wind was behind us for one of the first times on the trip. The crossing went off without any hassles and we managed to find a beautiful beach to pitch our tents on in the middle of the crocodile, hippo and Zambezi Shark infested waters of the Rufiji Delta.

Night in the mangroves

After 6 days away from the car, the day had finally arrived to meet up again. The rendezvous was to be a small village called Somanga. Shayne sent us a message saying that Somanga was a hole and did we mind paddling a bit further to a campsite that he had found. After a bit of grumbling from the team we agreed and received the coordinates. The only snag was that the campsite was up a river and we had to find the mouth from the sea.

Shayne had no idea where this mouth was meant to be but after about 30minutes of trial and error we finally found the correct river mouth and paddled into one of our best campsites to date. It was not an official campsite but just off a road that Shayne and Kristal had found.

It was in the middle of a mangrove swamp but had the really good advantage of having no unwelcome prying eyes which are usually present every night. We ate really well and had some luxuries like chocolate and cold coke (and whiskey) which always makes camping with the car so valuable to us.

Kilwa to Kilwa dhala-dhala nightmare

We were meant to paddle from the Mangrove campsite to Kilwa Kivinje over 2 days but decided that we would rather bite the bullet and do it in one day. We had been told that Kilwa Masoko was really amazing (Shayne and Kristal had been staying there while we were in Mafia) so the plan was that the car would pick us up at Kivinje and then take us to Masoko for the night. We would then return the following day to paddle the remaining distance to Kilwa Masoko. About 10km from Kivinje, just as the wind really started blowing into our faces, we got a message from Shayne that the car had broken down and that he had to get towed to Masoko. He would therefore not be able to pick us up either. The team was not happy when I relayed the message to them but I assured them that there would be a dhala-dhala that would take us there. I was right, but boy, what a ride.

After being quoted Tsh 30 000 to keep our boats at a local fat cat’s house, we rented a room at a local guest house for Tsh 2 000 where we kept the boats safely under lock and key for the evening. While the manoeuvring of the boats was going on we had a dhala-dhala waiting for us. I must tell you that these drivers are not the most patient of people and by the time we got into the vehicle the driver had resorted to leaning on his hooter on the steering wheel and only stopped when the door had been closed behind us!

He had clearly lost time and was determined to make it up. 60km/h through the streets of the village was the warm up lap for the 20km of tarred road to Masoko. The tarred road afforded him the opportunity to get the machine up to a top speed of 130km/h with all 25 of us in the back clinging on to our “seats”! A 100m stretch of road works nearly ended the terror trip when the driver swerved violently and went off the road and then over-corrected to send the mini bus into a 130km/h speed wobble. He managed to get the vehicle under control again which we are still not sure whether it was a good or a bad thing because it meant that the trip was not yet over. He accelerated around the next bend and down the long straight into Kilwa Masoko where the cardboard padded brakes amazingly brought the dhala-dhala to a standstill. We had originally negotiated to be dropped off at the campsite where the others were but decided that we needed to stretch our legs instead!

K2K Cooks up a Storm

Just when Ian and I thought we were done with our paddling leg the sea had news for us. It decided to send us of with a bang.
It was our last days paddle from Kilwa Kivinge to Kilwa Masoko, this was after a gruelling 37km paddle the day before into the wind and big seas. We tried to get an early start but the Dhalla Dhalla slowed us a bit. We got out boats out of the guest house storage room in Kivinge and were greated with a 600m drag in the sand to get our boats to water as it was low tide. We then started our last days paddle. All went well for about 14km when we stopped for a snack on a reef. We then headed across the bay for the next point about 14km away. Paddling into a stiff breeze over beautiful torquise water. A huge storm was brewing out at sea. Ian and I dug in and started really giving it stick to get across before the storm hit. We were still about 6km from the point when the wind hit us. It was the first storm that had hit the K2K boats at sea. Huge waves and howling wind for 20min. That gave us a renewed respect for the ocean. It let off and we paddled the remaining 12km into Masoko to a welcome from Shayne with 4 cold Tuskers. What a great ending. 70km in the last two days. What an experience. Graham, Rich, Shayne and Kristal have done a sterling job to put this together. Well done Boys, and Girl! What a great experience. Thanx.

Kilwa Ruins Lodge – Kristal and Shayne’s Update

2005-10-27T04:04:00.000-07:00

While the boys are paddling and diving around various parts of Mafia Island Kristal and me are in heaven. After an early wake up of 4am when the boys had to catch a boat to Mafia, Kristal, Myself and ‘Ngluie’ (our pet pig, yep we have/had a pet pig) set off on what we new was going to be a long day. Well the roads where so bad they would rival those of the Serengeti. So bad we broke the shelf in the back that housed our dear piglet the shelf narrowly missing piggy’s fragile snout. After propping the shelf up and letting pig stretches his trotters we carried on. It took 8 long and very bumpy hours to get to Kilwa Masko. We arrived and spent the first 2 nights camping at a 5 star camping ground with FLUSHING TOILETS and A SHOWER!!!! We were in heaven. Piggy didn’t think so though as the tree which we had him posted under to stand guard was infested with vicious bull ants which made a tasty treat of his little eyes lids. But a plate full of putu and caned tomato paste cured his wounds a treat, he was soon back to his grunting mischievous self in no time. Although we love piggy, the resort we were camping at were not so keen on him rummaging through their gardens and basically being a pig. So we set off looking for a Christian local, who had to be up to our standards to have our precious mascot. Soon we came across the kind bar man who met the critical criteria better than the rest. He assured us he wouldn’t make bacon of him for at least another 6months as he was not yet big enough. It was the best we could do, so I hesitantly handed him over while Kristal ran behind the building and blocked her ears so she didn’t hear his heart breaking squeals as he said his goodbyes. We are hoping that between now and the 6month deadline piggy will make a lasting impression on his new found owner and they live happily ever after together.

We soon found some South Africans who owned a resort down the beach and got chatting on what we are doing. We returned day after day to their resort, eating the food and relaxing under their thatched umbrellas on the beach.. From our first impressions of the place we were in awe. Built by the hands of the owners own children this place is truly a lost haven. We don’t know whether it was the efficient and friendly staff and atmosphere or the tranquil sound of birds and waves 10meters away as we sat in on comfortable hand made chairs surrounding the bar, that had us addicted, but each day we found ourselves returning for more. After our second day on their beach, they very kindly offered us a bed until we met up with the rest of the team. We gladly accepted and found ourselves nestled in a modest little cabin perched up amongst tree’s and garden with many chirping birds. This quaint little resort offers accommodation for families of all shapes and sizes or privacy for couples with a different agenda. What ever the occasion the bar is a main feature and somehow you will find yourself sitting around sinking a few sun downers with the staff, guests or yourselves just enjoying the atmosphere. The breakfast, lunch and dinners provided are to die for. The catch of the day is usually \incorporated into the delicious dinner. One of the main attractions of Kilwa Ruins Lodge is the game fishing that it offers, its particularly known for its big catches of Yellowfin Tune ranging from (40-100kg). Sailfish, Marlin, Wahoo, Kingfish, and Darado are some of the other game fish regularly caught. Kilwa Ruins also offers snorkelling, kayaking, water skiing, hippo viewing, tours of the near by historical ruins, seasonal game viewing, game fishing, over night camping on deserted beaches or simply relaxing around the fresh water pool or under thatched umbrella’s on the beach. We have been nothing but impressed with everything about this lost paradise, and want to send out many warm thanks to all the helpful, friendly staff and Carri-Ann and Kerri-Lee for their kind welcoming.
If you are interested in maybe visiting Tanzania, then definitely consider contacting Kilwa Ruins Lodge. www.kilwaruinslodge.com or email carri@kilwaruinslodge.com
Ph: +255 748 637 026
Or Gaby on +27 82 490 6775 email: gaby@kilwaruinslodge.com

We leave our peaceful spot on Saturday and head north again to meet up with the rest of the k2k team. We will hopefully update the blog with loads of pictures and lots about Zanzibar on the 1st!

Lost in the wilderness

2005-10-24T07:46:00.000-07:00

Hi all expedition followers, we apologise for the lack of communication over the past couple of weeks. Africa is still a dark and distant continent and internet cafes aren't as readily available as cold black coke!

Since last update:
We spent 12 days sunning oursevles and paddling around Zanzibar!
Welcomed Arron's (aussie team mate who headed home in August) replacement - Kristal also from Aussie!

3-interesting ferry crossings!
3 new team mates: Ryan Phelan, Ian Bredin and Louis The Pig! Who are with us from Zanzibar to Kilwa (some where in the middle of deepset darkest!) Not too sure if the pig (the real thing who we thought would make a handsome meal, sorry pet.) We left him with Shayne but not to sure if he is still with us !!

We are currently at Mafia Island Lodge planning our next dive!

This is just a little taste and to let you know we are still alive and paddling. The crossing of Mafia channel is still to come and pending the out come of that, there will be the usual humourous enteratianment + pics................................!

Leg 3 - Tanga to Dar-es-Salam

2005-09-26T21:15:00.000-07:00

Richard goes too far in the quest for food!

I don’t know how this one slipped through without being mentioned and dates back to the beginning of the second leg when we were still in Mombasa. As you may recall we had a day to kill when the weather turned bad and we decided not to paddle and to take a trip into the heart of Mombasa instead. En route we had to negotiate the swarms of people, donkeys and other cars that usually accumulate near the ferry. Richard was driving and had had enough of the “dodgem cars” that always has to be played to avoid colliding with people, and narrowly missed (or so we thought) an elderly lady who had strayed into the middle of the road. Traffic had backed up and we were waiting for our turn to get onto the ferry when suddenly a pointing finger, followed by a shouting face, appeared through the passenger window where Shayne was sitting. “Why you drive into me?!! You not even apologise! You no say sorry!!” We were all taken aback and had forgotten the incident, which we thought had not even happened a hundred meters back. “I am sorry. I didn’t know that I had hit you” replied Richard as diplomatically as he could while he tried to figure out what had happened. “You think I am animal? Why you treat me like animal?!” screamed the lady, but directed at Shayne this time. She was after answers and did not seem to care who was going to provide them. By this stage Mark and I were sniggering in the back finding the situation most amusing, but would probably not have had she seen us and unleashed her questions in our direction. Shayne had started trying to explain that it was not him that she should be interrogating as he had no steering wheel and that she had the wrong man! Despite all his attempts the questions and accusations kept coming “Who you think you are?! I old woman! You no look were you drive! You treat me like animal!” The next ferry could not have had better timing, providing us with an escape route and we sped off, taking care not to hit anybody else in the process!

Mark heads north from Dar to join K2K Team

"In God we trust" is the motto of Scandinavia Coach service from Dar to Tanga. Well there were no chickens on the roof and the BO (body odor) was only slightly worse than my garlic breath from the night before's indulgence in a restaurant on the beaches of Dar es Salam.
I (Mark Cowley) was the armature for the 3rd leg. It was not my first trip to East Africa, but my first to Dar. What a pleasant surprise compared to Mombasa to which I had visited many a time over the past 20 years to visit my grandparents. The streets were cleaner but the driving just as chaotic.

I had flown into Dar the day before from Johannesburg. Tanga is some 240km north of Dar by road and 60km short of the Kenyan border. My friends Nick and Carol, put me up for the evening and had taken me out for dinner with Dino and Quindon whom I had last seen in 2003 on our Kenya safaris.

Scandinavia express is the "semi-luxury" coach service which costs $10 at peak hrs (8am) and $7 at 3pm for off peak. It is $17 if you pay for both, after missing the morning one with misunderstood directions.

The 3rd leg begins!

I was collected from the bustop in Tanga in Mlevi. What an awesome site she was! Then it was off to the camp spot for the night where dinner in the restaurant was superb. It was kind of a hello dinner for myself and farewell to Mark and Kyle who were heading back to Nairobi the following day.

After a short squall in the night we were up at first light getting the kayaks ready for the day. Graham had recovered from his sunburn. Richard and Shane saw Mark and Kyle off at the bus stop. They were headed back to Mombasa for their flight to Nairobi, then Johannesburg and finally home to Cape Town.

The water was flat and calm as we were shielded by a chain of islands about 5km from the coast. 15 km and almost 3 hrs later it was time for lunch on our own private beach 200m long and with only a Fish Eagle for company. Lunch consisted of peanut butter and jam sandwiches, an energy bar and peanuts. I was soon to find out that that was standard for a day’s paddle.
Then we were off and another 8 or so km in total we bumped into some of the local muzungu (white) farmers from Arusha (tea or flower growing farmers from close to Kilomanjaro), down for a bachelor’s weekend, before setting off again.

By the end of the 29.7km for the day I was taking serious strain and could not have gone an inch further.

Enough fish to feed Graham?!

The team is a little concerned about one of its members! Any K2K member will tell you that meal times are a very special time of the day. Doing as much exercise as we seem to be doing, energy is burnt up faster than it is being replenished, our metabolisms have kicked into over drive, none more so than Graham who is quickly earning a reputation for being the teams “bottomless pit”!

Just before turning into Peponi Resort we encountered one of the strangest scenes on tour to date! A local delivering the biggest fish we have set our eyes on, by bicycle! I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, a huge fish strapped over the back of this guys bicycle was surreal! Mlevi screeched to a holt and we both jumped out – one armed with the Canon XM2 video camera and the other the Canon 350D, like the paparazzi flashes went off in all directions, trying to capture the unusual situation!

Peponi Resort, rustic Africa at its best

We stayed at a beautiful place called Peponi Resort (http://www.pepnoiresort.com/) where we were supposed to be camping for the night. Denis kindly moved us from our tents into a banda (chalet) on the understanding that if paying guests arrived that we would move back to our tents.

For anyone thinking of traveling up into this part of the world we strongly recommend this charming place. We immediately felt at home, they have put their minds and souls into this beautiful spot, creating a tranquil, peaceful and carefree atmosphere. Under the shade of the palm trees your worries seem to drift far away!

Saturday morning, 17 September, another %$#& Day in Africa. The sun was shining brightly, there was a gentle breeze rustling the palm tree leaves and the distant sound of the tiny waves.
Peponi was so good and the atmosphere so peaceful we decided to spend another day. After breakfast it was back in the kayaks following the Peponi dhow with its 3 Spaniards, a Canadian and one English guest. First stop was 3 km off shore for some snorkeling, then off to "Sand Island" another 3km off shore. This was literally a sand bar in the middle of the reef. What a postcard picture that would have made with the dhow coming in against a clear blue sky and a turquoise sea.

It was time for Mark to learn some kayak exiting maneuvers and for Graham to practice his Eskimo rolls. Then it was on the sand bar for some Frisbee throwing and beach soccer with the dhow passengers.

Two of the Spanish guys went off to the side of the island and took their kit off and frolicked around like excited puppies! People are strange (it turned out that they were just a little bent)!
It was back to Peponi for Octopus lunch. The food may be a little slow coming out the kitchen, but wow it sure tastes good.

2nd day on the water

Sunday, 18 September and we had 18km to Pangani. We bid farewell to the Irish and the Spanish and did a ball handover to Roehna, an English volunteer worker with the street children in Moshi.

Graham and I took the double. There was no where for lunch so it was off with the splash covers and some R&R in the swell (at first the idea was not appealing, but it turned out to be OK). Lunch was bacon and banana toasted sandwiches, followed by peanuts and raisins and an energy bar.

We dragged a line behind us for the entire day with no luck until we arrived at the entrance to Pangani. When we started to reel the line in we thought we had caught the reef, but the reef kept on moving! Thwa! Our supper was free. The disappointment! At the last minute it was off and K2K’s first real fish was not to be!

Swiss Dairy in Africa?!

It was then through the surf and on to Leo and Beatrice's guest cottage. Leo, a very kind Swiss gentleman has been living in the area for 40 years and was currently producing creamy milk, cheese and ice cream from his dairy, the only thing missing was some Swiss chocolate! A very pleasant and yes, extremely together Swiss couple who made us feel right at home, there spacious airy guest cottage was the perfect place to relax and catch up on our reading!

After cleaning up and having a few glasses of limejuice with Leo and Beatrice, Graham and Shane went fishing with no success, so it was off to the Duka (shop on the side of the road) for some tomato and onion to add to our rice for supper. It was my first experience of driving around in the countryside, the roads seem to run at random, nothing is sign posted, there is rubbish and totos (children) everywhere. As usual we were the center of attention in the huge Landrover with our red Perception kayaks on the roof.

Pechie (the cook) Shane bought some milk and cheese from Leo and we had custard and canned fruit for dessert after the tomato and onion mix!

The Tides, another secret hide away!

We were off for a short 18km to "The Tides" (http://www.thetideslodge.com/) where James entertained us with stories from the Tsunami. What a beautiful spot with a stunning bar/restaurant literally on the beach overlooking the Indian Ocean. At high tide the swell crashes onto the beach meters from where one can relax, martini or G&T in hand.
Set away from all the big cities this little hide away is the perfect beach escape, offering all the usual water sports. The 10 banda’s all positioned on the beach have stunning sea views with nothing more than a couple of coconut palms between them and an idyllic white sand beach stretching a couple of km either way. This is the perfect spot for swimming, unlike most of the other spots along the coast which are effected by a wide tidal shelf, this sandy beach drops off to a decent depth and therefore you can swim whenever.

3rd time lucky!The rumours that there are in fact fish out there we finally put to rest! Shayne and I were itching to stretch our muscles and get some time on the water. Our current fishing success rate was pretty dismal and we were determined to put the record straight!

Line in tow we began cris-crossing the bay, back and forth, checking to see if we had hooked anything? We were out there for about 20 min when Shayne exclaimed: “I think we have something!” not wanting to get too excited and having heard it all before I hesitantly took the line and gave it a tug! We had indeed managed to lure something into taking our hook! It didn’t seem to resist much and before we knew it we were trying to grab hold of a snapping Barracuda and avoid being bitten by its razor sharp teeth! We had finally caught our first fish, one and half months into the trip! To be fair we haven’t trawled too much and therefore could really expect to catch with our line sitting in Mlevi!!

K2K covers some serious distance!

The next day was a big one on the water, 38km. We had an early breakfast at 7am. The muesli at the Tides had to be tasted to be believed, with the secret ingredient being coconut! By the time we had finished getting ready, brushed our teeth put contact lenses in it was 8am.

We had been taking the double the past few days and had been making some good time so we kept to our winning formula. I came in with no training and found the first 3 days very hard going, mainly on the shoulders and lower back. The biggest problem with these long paddles initially is the lack of stamina. I kept on wanting to stop and 'look around and enjoy the scenery.' The kayak’s maximum speed is some 9km an hour, but we soon found that about 6km per hour is the optimum speed when one has to keep the same speed for very long distances. We found that for each doubling of effort one only gets a third more speed.

We cut straight across some very big bays and at one time were some 5km from the shore. There was also the disappearing island. Graham decided that lunch on a coral island a km or 2 off shore would be nice. The only problem was that as we got closer and closer the island became a part of the main land as a part of the main land through an exposed reef at what was now low tide and we were left to bob up and down and eat our lunch out at sea.

Distance in a kayak is very deceptive. If you can just see it above the horizon and you know it is only a meter or two high it is probably 10 or so km away. If it is higher then like our island it is some 14km away. At 6.5km/hour this a good 2 hours plus paddling before one finds whether any island is in fact an island or not!

We trawled 2 lines for the entire day. Just as we were stopping for lunch Graham snared a 6kg fish. It was impossible to get the triple barbed lure out of the fish’s mouth so we put him out of his misery and dumped him in the rear hatch before he did to much damage to Graham with his spines (or escaped).

Tent with a view – What a view!

The next night's stop was just after the next village or so, James had said to us the night before. A place was called “Tent with a View.” http://www.saadani.com/. We heaved ho 3 or so km after the village with an enormous stretch of white beach to the left and right and not a sole in sight. It was very shallow here. We stretched our legs before getting back in the boats slowly heading south and looking for the first sign of civilisation. We found it a few km down the beach. Where we could see an elderly musungu Memsa (white lady) wondering around on the beach.

As we landed, she greeted us with "your colleagues have arrived." This was quite a relief as after the long paddle we were pretty tired and the cell phone coverage stopped just past The Tides Lodge, the batteries in the two way radio’s were also dead so that would not work either.
Up until this point we had been able to send the vehicle off after the kayakers. The drivers would find the next spot for the night and sms the GPS co-ordinates to the paddlers, who would then hone straight in on the exact point. The only difficulty as we found out when trying to land at Peponi was that one of the GPS’s was out by 1km! This may not sound like a long way, but in a kayak it takes at least 10min to do 1km.

The Memsa took the kayakers to find Shane and Richard, who had Mlevi unpacked. What a mess! It had turned out that the fridge was not working and the day before's catch of Barracuda was starting to stink and the back right tyre had punctured! Mlevi was due for a repack and this looked like a good spot!

We soon discovered that the tyre wrench had been left in Johannesburg! Thank goodness there had been no punctures in the last 7,500km! The Pieche (chef, not Shane this time but the real thing) and one of the repair men from Tent with a View helped with the tyre change. The lodge had a Landrover as well so they had all the tools. They even repaired the tube for us. We repaid them with a soccer ball which they seemed very happy with.

Tent with a view has 10 tents all positioned on stilts under Makuti (thatch) roof’s each with their own uninterrupted view over the ocean! The unique beautifully fitted bathrooms are slightly lower at the back. Pure luxury in the middle of Tanzania bushveld! They bake their own bread, buy fish from the village but everything else has to be trucked in from Dar. Jackie, the manager very kindly let us stay for the night in the luxury tents! Once again K2K had found a truly amazing spot on the coast of East Africa! Toescapeto (http://www.tpescapeto.com/) we sure have some special places for the future!

The chef cooked Graham’s fish and boy was it exquisite. Flavoured with basil and crumbs, we have yet to have a bad meal on the leg!Sadaani Safari Camp - Bush + Beach
After a good night's rest it was a mere 25km to the next stop inside the Saadani Park at the Saadani Safari Lodge. The psychology of being in a kayak is weird. If you get yourself psyched up into doing a long stretch then it feels easy to achieve the distance, this short distance around a point proved a little harder than expected.

Saadani Safari Camp (http://www.safarinow.com/go/saadanisafarilodge/) it yet another Tanzanian beach treasure. It is the same concept as Tent with a View except that the wooden platforms were not raised. The manager, Conrad from Pretoria was pleased to see us and kindly only charged us for drinks and the park fees of US$20 each. This US$80 plus the cost of meals and drinks at Tent with a View of US$100 had blown a week's budget in two days! Ouch, but it was great not to be camping! Staying in such luxury was something the team really appreciated and never took for granted!

This unique setup is one of a kind, the boarder of park running along the coastline makes it the only park in East Africa to offer such a diverse range of eco-systems! The camp’s ingenious setup makes the most of it, one minute you can be quietly overlooking a watering hole waiting patiently for anything to come and drink and the next you can be running along a beautiful open sandy beach trying not to step on scurrying ghost crabs!

Most of Africa's tourist attractions have their prices listed in US$. It was quite interesting to read that Zambia was going for what they called Low impact Tourism which involves charging a premium for visitors. Tanzania has a US$50 visa entry cost. We heard that the Tanzanian's had just doubled the day fee in Serengeti to $60! Local is becoming very lekker as Tanzania seems to want to bill their tourists out of site!

Sadaani has a pool table and a swimming pool which provided the team with great enjoyment! Conrad was telling us that the place has been built in such a way that it can be moved, literally picked up and moved back, built in the dunes which have a habit of shifting! The pool is thus a giant rubber bag that has been placed in the sand, another well thought out concept, along with their Star house! (A raised platform over looking the beautiful bush covered only by a huge umbrella, which is obviously retractable during the evenings

The roads in the area are sand roads. Black Cotton sand used to grow cotton and turns black when water is added. Not only does the sand turn black with water, but it turns slimy as well. The lodge once sent a tractor to pull a vehicle out of a road in the park and itself got stuck for 2 weeks.

Conrad sympathised with the paddlers hunger pains and gave us extra pasta for a treat. This was after the BDO Team of Graham and Mark whipped Richard and Shane on the wobbly pool table, 2 to1.

Conrad was also telling us about the AIDS problem in the local fishing village, 80 volunteers were tested and 17 found to be positive. When one considers that probably only those that thought that they were HIV negitive volunteered the rate is perhaps closer to 50% infected. The African way of having numerous relationships seems to stretch all the way up through sub-Saharan Africa. One can only wonder and speculate at how the demographics in this part of the world will evolve over the next few years.

It was off to bed to ponder Africa's problems with the sound of the ocean 7m from our beds at high tide and 10m at low tide, this was quite a steep beach for a change.
Tides are extremely important as the less steep the beach, the less further you have to walk at low tide carrying 50kgs of kayak, paddles, etc the better. One often has to walk across a coral reef with slippery sea weed and sea urchins to await an errant step.

Paddlers head off for a night in the African bush!

The next morning saw us packing the Kayak with a tent, water and numerous other provisions. Mark and Graham had a stretch of 55km to cover, too much for one day. The Saadani River could not be crossed by vehicle so the drivers had to drive a big loop around the game park and could not track back to get close to the paddlers for the night.

After 28 km of paddling through the muddy waters coming out of the Saadani river into the sea the Kyakers found a spot to camp for the night. What a perfect spot! The fire was sheltered from the wind behind vegetation and the tent was slightly exposed to ensure that it was nice and cool. The Kyakers managed to pull everything off the beach so that nothing was visible from the sea or beach. The beach was called baobab beach for the 2 baobabs that were situated on the beach overhanging the campsite.

Mark was amazed at what came out of the dry bags for the 5 star camping. Portable stools to avoid having to sit in the sand. A large ground sheet get out of the sand. 3 pots and a kettle for the all important food cooking.

Dinner had to be cooked before it got too dark. Dinner consisted of Rice (for a change), Soya mince and sweet and sour sauce. Then it was up onto the beach to enjoy the view and sit in the stiff breeze to get away from the flys. We had been trying to avoid the odd fisherman walking along the beach, but we were surprised by Chipa, the local commodity trader as he called himself who was almost speechless when he came across two crazy Musungu’s sitting on stools on the beach under a Baobab tree having supper! Chipa’s English was excellent. He explained that he was off to Zanzibar that evening by dowh to buy goods to sell from his beach duka.
What a life!

It was then an early bed as there is little to do once it gets dark. The little two man tents are remarkably comfortable provided it does not rain. Once the rain cover is off one is basically sleeping in the open with a mosquito net to protect from the marauding mosquitoes.

The Kyakers were then up early to pack up and head off for another 25km or so paddle to a camp site in Bagomoya. Bagomoya started out as the first landing spot for a lot of the explorations of East Africa. It was away from the Arab strongholds of Mombasa and Dar es Salam and both the Germans and the British found it a good place to colonise from. It was also an important slave post.

Piechie Shane earned his name again, welcoming the Kayakers with a home cooked loaf of bread cooked over a coal fire. This coupled with pancakes on the scottle was a very welcome homecoming indeed!

The camp site was pretty basic and the wind came up really strong in the afternoon. To the point where the awning on the side of Mlevi had to be weighted down with a 3l wine box. Otherwise it was very pleasant. It was a 1km walk along the beach to the fisherman where we bought 2 Coral eating fish for the equivalent of $4. Richard and Mark wondered around the Dukas in town on foot for fresh vegetables. This method of shopping attracts far less attention than driving a great big landrover around.

Dinner was fresh fish with tomatoe and onions and rice desert was pancakes with syrup and sugar on them. We even cut up a kg or so of sweet potato, but this proved to bee to much and was kept for breakfast. The K2K like and army runs on its stomach. Spare time is consumed by cooking. Cooking has become an entertainment and so has eating it. We are all convinced that Graham has worms. He will eat and eat and eat until everything in sight is finished and he still looks as trim as can be although says that he has put on 7kg. This must all be muscle.

The next morning we are all unsure about where to spend the night. The is apparently a stunning spot 15 or so km down the coast.

Paddlers get stretched!

The place which was meant to be 15 or so km down the coast turned out to be 7.5km, hardly enough to be able to stop paddling with a straight face! Richard was obviously of the same opinion and phoned me to tell me that they had reached Lazy Lagoon (apparently an awesome spot!) and wanted to know where we were and whether they should continue to the next spot.

Shayne and I had just finished packing up camp from the night before so told them to keep going and we would find a nice spot for the night. We really excelled at this task and found White Sands Hotel & Resort (http://www.hotelwhitesands.com/). The only flaw of the spot was confirmed when I sent the co-ordinates to Richard and asked whether it was too far for them to paddle. The reply was “16 km gone, 32km to go!” ie. too far! The place was too good to turn down and we had arranged 2 rooms for the night, had a swimming pool, hot showers and Dstv! “We’ll make a plan and get back to you. Keep going for now” was the sms sent back to the paddlers.

Shayne and I jumped into Mlevi and headed off to find a place further up the coast where we could possibly collect the paddlers, still stay the night in the hotel and then drop them back at the same place in the morning to carry on paddling. We tried all the tarred roads that we could find that went along the coast as well as a good couple which turned out not to go anywhere near the coast. No luck. We only had 2 options left. 1) sms the guys to find a beach, spend the night (with no food, tents or sleeping bags) and ruin the friendship or 2) go offroad!. We chose option 2, after all, we were driving a 4x4! With diff-lock and low range engaged we ventured down each and every dirt road and track, finally finding a good spot to collect the guys. Co-ordinates were sent and were duly approved.

We headed back to the hotel for a good lunch and an afternoon by the pool. With 4km to go we received an sms and set off to pick them up, but only after finishing watching an interesting movie on Dstv. 4km usually takes about 40 minutes to paddle but it took the poor guys a bit longer than that on this occasion. It turned out that they had paddled 42km in the day and therefore had every reason to take it slow (30km is what we would usually call a tough day)! White Sands Hotel & Resort was just the reward that they deserved. This hotel is really worth staying at if any of you are ever in Dar.

Leg 3 comes to an end!

Richard and I dropped Mark and Shayne off at the place where we had picked Richard and Mark up the day before. There are some great islands just off the coast before you get to Dar and the plan was for us to go to the yacht club, drop the car off and paddle out to meet them on the island. After some trouble both finding the club and being allowed in by the guards (due to us not being members) we set off to join the 2 who were by that stage getting ants in their pants on the island, wondering where we had got to. We spent a bit of time on the island (Mark and Shayne had been to all 3 while they waited!) and then left together for the yacht club. It was the first leg that all 3 boats and 4 paddlers paddled the last stretch together and was great to come is as a full team. Another record was also set with Mark becomming our first guest paddler to complete the entire leg, from beginning to end. What happened Mark Hibbert and Kyle? He is at least 10 years older than you!!

We were met at the yacht club by some of Mark’s mates (Nick and Carol Mathews), who took us to their house for a hot shower and to change clothes before heading back to the yacht club for the weekly fish braai. They Mathews’s have been very good to us and have let us stay for the last 2 days. We have totally taken over and their garden looks like a bomb has been dropped on it with all our stuff scattered around while we try to do what has now become almost a weekly repack of the Land Rover (the sad thing is that I don’t think that we are getting any better at it!) We would really like to thank them for being so hospitable, every night that we spend in a bed makes the world of difference to us and we always leave nicely recharged and ready for the next leg…Zanzibar this time!!

Leg 2 Mombasa - Tanga

2005-09-18T08:51:00.000-07:00

Leg 2 - Sorry guys more pics are on the way...

Sand Island – Tiwi Beach 30 Aug 05

Sand Island, a beautiful little hide away set on it’s own protected beach, named after a little sand bar in the middle of the bay. Rustic well equipped chalets dotted around the bay amongst the palms forest provides the perfect place to relax and get away from it all, situated only 25 km from Mombasa they are ideal if you want to escape the busy touristy spots like Diani Beach but still experience the beautiful tropical beaches of the Kenyan coastline.

The kind manager answered our call and upgraded us from a tiny two bed back shed to a beautiful little self catering bungalow over looking the turquoise waters! This quaint little spot would be an idea location for a welcoming meal for our two new recruits, Mark and Kyle.

After what was a good opening paddle for Mark who really didn’t know what he was getting himself into with regards to the amount of energy one dispenses while on the water, we arrived at Sand Island.

Wanting to get a gauge just how fit Mark really was I asked him the night before: “So sir I’m sure you are quite fit?” Knowing Mark and his dedication to everything I knew he would have spent sometime in the gym preparing himself for the 2 weeks of adventure! Not wanting to eat his words in a couple of days he quietly replied: “We’ll see tomorrow!” As the previous entry noted – paddling in the open ocean is quite different from sitting in an air conditioned gym on a rowing machine!

Kyles arrival – Kyle

Waking up early on the first, the K2K team was greeted with an amazing East African sunrise. I arrived late the night before from the Mombasa airport and had not seen the

dew covered backdrop of the Sand Island cottages – a forested bay lined with corals and palm trees – a big change from the snow covered Cape weather.

Not two minutes after waking up I was handed the standard paddling gear and a cheeky cup of one minute oats – time to paddle! With Kiboko (the 2 man kayak) in hand, partnered up with Mark, we headed towards the reef protected sea. Not a standard stroll as it seems to be custom in these parts to dodge the possible falling coconuts from 10 meters above.

All greased up with some Island Tribe sun cream, Richard, Mark and myself headed off into the blue yonder… Okay, not so – it was low tide so we only managed to paddle about 200 meters before running aground on the reef banks. After a few deliberations and some advice from the expert Rich, it was decided to walk within the reef until navigable water was found again. Since my K2K training comprised of 3 sessions in the gym over 1 month, I felt that this was much better than negotiating the ocean swells crashing over the reef – I know, chicken!

The paddle was straight forward for the experienced – flat water in front of Diani beach for about 18km. I was dead, holding my head high to not show the pain! Mark was easing the pain of his previous days paddle with a couple Neurofen’s, I was red in the face from exhaustion, and Rich was ahead in the distance having a nap on his boat waiting for us to catch up.

With frequent checks of the GPS to ensure that we were still heading Due South, Rich navigated us perfectly to the Pinewood beach resort. Graham and Shayne were waiting for us with ice cold Coke’s and a more than welcome plate of ‘not so slap’ slap chips. Pinewood is at the end of the busy Diani beach resort stretch offering seclusion from some of the other resorts. This was to be our home for the next few days, and it certainly wasn’t the ‘roughing it in Africa’ that I was expecting – yes, I had landed with my bum in the butter!

Pinewood Village -

K2K had set its sites on another Kenyan sea side resort since it had left the hospitable protection of the last – Turtle Bay. When the expedition was in its infancy Pinewood was the first resort to answer, saying that our trip sounds amazing and that they would love to have us come visit, we have therefore being looking forward to our arrival for an awfully long time! Being able to spend one or two nights in the comfort of these resorts is a huge treat for all us tired wore out paddlers, and is greatly appreciated!

Pinewood, a small boutique resort with unique accommodation options for guests that are looking for something special and different, and where personalized service is at the forefront. The new in-house ‘Aqualand’ offers the most comprehensive watersport facility on the Kenyan Coast. Situated on the beautifully secluded mile-long sands at Galu Beach, 25 miles south of Mombasa and about 1 hour from the airport.

Your holiday can be as active or as quiet as you wish, we were definitely looking for a quiet and relaxed couple of days to recover and recharge our batteries!

Mary, Pinewoods manager was very accommodating and made us feel right at home. We arranged a couple of tours into the surrounding communities and a tour of their new Treetop resort they are currently building further down the beach. The area is littered with resorts and it was interesting to chat to the locals and hear what they thought new developments in the area.

The real issue for the surrounding local community is whether they will be employed by the resort once it is completed? There was talk about another resort which promised employment opportunities, only to bring in staff from further up north! However the relationship between Treetops and the fishing village seemed balanced and the elders we spoke to were confident that they would be employed going forward. Speaking of elders, the eldest person in the village was 60 years old! Of a estimate population of 60 adults!

After running around visiting the local communities capturing as much as we could on film it was time to kick back and relax! Kyle was of a different opinion and heard rumours that the Kenyan Brewery’s were having a poor year and wanted to help them exceed their annual budget!

It came close to ending in tears when we had to tear each other out of the local night club – Shakatack! After spending a couple of hours dancing to the local Kenyan rhymes!

Lucky Boys – Mark

Whilst staying at Pinewood, Hamid – Pinewood Hotel’s Sport guru/ Tour Guide – took us on an afternoon trip to watch and film a local soccer club match; the Lucky Boys vs. the Ready Stars. What a game. What a crowd! Fans were sitting around the pitch and in the trees. Yes, in the trees. The video camera definitely took a double take on the tree top supporters.. welcome to Africa! The game is played very intensely and when soccer balls are hit out of bounds i.e. into the surrounding bushes, there are a team of boys ready to get stuck in and find it. As for the field, it is quite patchy with isolated patches of dry grass whilst the rest of the field is sand. The game style would suit a Bruce Fordyce type athlete because all you do is run. And when the ball finally comes your way you try and keep it close to you and show some special tricks to the adoring fans before kicking it as hard as you can forward. It doesn’t really matter where the ball goes after that just so long as you got a chance to show off how many times you can bounce the ball on your foot and make it balance on your head. I’m definitely stretching this a bit but seriously there is so much talent, ball-skill-wise, but not much thinking as to game strategy and finding players. Looking past all this and you find yourself smiling and enjoying the overall atmosphere of the game.. you will not find the hooligans you find at a standard European football game which was very refreshing. For all the British/ European football crazies reading this (it’s a popular blog so there must be many) you need to travel to Kenya and watch any local soccer match and learn how you can watch and not have to throw toilet paper onto the field or bite your neighbour’s ear lobe when things get tense..

Dream holiday home up for grabs!

After leaving Pinewood Mark and I headed off to see if we could find a decent place to spend the night, our first attempt was at someone’s beach house. We managed to phone the owners with the help of the gardener. Mark told them our situation and that we were looking for somewhere to camp for the night. Well she was not interested in our plight, and told us we could stay for USD 100, so we headed off to find a new spot. About 1km down the beach we pulled into another beach house, again we phoned the owners who after a bit of sweet-talking let us stay the night. She explained to us that they are trying to sell the place, a truly amazing house on a great bit of beach, 20kms south of Diani. Anyone who is interested in buying along the Kenyan coastline I suggest you get in touch with us and we can forward you onto the owners, this spot is incredible, the perfect family holiday house – it’s a shame it is not closer to Aussie!!

Shimoni

Sorry to see our beautiful spot disappear into the distance, Mark, Graham and I set off for Shimoni. A little town opposite Wasini Island, famous for its great snorkelling and dolphin spotting! The paddle was smooth sailing, passing Funzi island and across another relatively deep bay. A black sailed “pirate” dhow was up for a race but I’m sorry to say his little sail was no match for the strength and power of our strokes!

It took us a solid 5 hours to finally pull up at a quaint little spot owned by and Mia a kind couple heavily involved in deep sea fishing, if that is what you are looking for this is the place to do it, Simon, their son holds a number of records and would rather spend a week on the ocean than one day in the city! I think would take the city option after our little dhow crossing up to Lamu!

They run a couple of neatly furnished cottages which they kindly allowed us to use for our cooking and eating purposes. Over looking the calm channel out towards Wasini island where we had two delicious meals on the stoep.

The following day was spent snorkelling on a reef just off Wasini Island, walking amongst mangrove forests and trying desparately not to capsize Kiboko (our double Perception sea kayak) as Kyle and I managed to transport Mark (who sat between us like a king on his throne) safely across the 2km passage back over to the mainland!

The evening began as usual – Chef Shayne producing yet another delicious meal, but ended in a some what abnormal fashion! Sorry, you are going to have to wait for the release of our book to hear the rest, it had something to with Kyle’s 1L bottle of Klipdrift and a couple of Smugglers armed with pool cues………! I have said enough already, all I can say is that we were all very happy that no one had to paddle the next morning!

Moa

We had left Kenya and were now in Tanzania, the boats where on the roof and our goal was to get back to the water ASAP. We found a little fishing village, Moa, on the coast and asked in our limited Swahili if it would be possible to camp. They were more then happy for us to do so and after speaking to the Village Chief and the other 25 members of his ‘party’ we found a decent spot. Within minutes our camp was set up and we where sitting around relaxing. The chief offered us lunch which we gladly accepted. We went to a local restaurant and we ate with 3 of the other elders, communicating more with sign language then vocally. We didn’t know it at the time, but when the chief had asked us to lunch, with his 3 deputies…we where paying. After a delicious meal of ‘Rice, Beans, Tomato, and Fish Heads’ we went back to camp to relax. Then they arrived, first 1 then 10 then 250. The whole village was out on an excursion to see the ‘Wazungos’ (White Wanders) and they were amazed. 6 hours later they were still sitting and staring at us, expecting us do magic or breath fire, who knows. But they did not budge and their stare never faltered. We felt like caged animal being looked at in the Zoo. That night one of the village elders cooked us a meal, and brought it to us…it was ‘Ugali’ and fish, defiantly the same fish from lunch that non of us ate, but it was dark so we turned off our head torches and ate. The fish was surprisingly very nice, a lot better then it looked.

The next morning we woken at 5am but one of the villages who had written us a letter it went something like this:

Dear My Friends

What I am wanting is monies and watch and shoes and hat and football and fone. I am poors mans and you friends. My nickly name is Joe Bomali. And I am thank you for friends to me. My address is P.O Box ### Tanga, I am poor mans so I don’t have fones, maybe one day I will be luck and have fones.

Your Friendly,

Joe Bomali

Moby Dick – Mark

Moby Dick is alive and well and living about 10kms outside Tanga in Tanzania. Really really. Rich took Kyle and myself on a 30km paddle where we would get the opportunity to spend a night out in the middle of nowhere out beneath the stars. So, towards the end of the 30km leg we were all paddling looking for an ideal spot that wouldn’t be covered in sea water by high tide and would provide a comfortable enough foundation to set up our tents. After paddling for a bit, and doing a few ‘reccies’ around certain spots, Rich and Kyle managed to find an elevated crop of land about 50 metres long and not very wide. Anyway, we settled into our new home, set up the tents and began putting a fire together. There was an area that was near a blow-hole that was surrounded by enough coral to shelter from the wind should it get up later in the evening. I took up the goal of putting up some decent coals and all was going well before ‘Moby Dick’ began to voice his unhappiness at being disturbed. As the tide began to come in Moby would spurt more and more water out of his blow-hole. Rich had said that there was no way I would be able to keep the fire alive with all this going on. I, being the stubborn S.O.B that I am gladly took up the challenge saying that I would be able to stave Moby off at least until the tide reached its highest and would begin going out. Pride is a terrible thing. I ended up stubbing my front toe on coral trying desperately to run from the wooded area of this small rocky outcrop to the fire and thought I was winning, until Moby gave the final say. A large wave entered the blow-hole and it was all pretty much over. Moby: 1, Mark :0 .

Best spot in Tanga – Graham/Shayne

After seeing the guys off in Moa, Shayne and I headed for Tanga to find a place to stay. We had been given a contact at the yacht club by Bill Morris but unfortunately for us this contact was ‘on safari’ at the time so we had to make another plan. Roughing it like we are, we decided to head to Tanga’s finest hotel, the Mkonge Hotel, to see if they would be interested in letting us stay there for 2 nights. It was a long shot as we had usually pre-arranged this sort of thing with the other hotels and resorts that we have been to. We told them what we were doing and that they would most likely feature in our documentary and on our website and that we would promote them as much as we could. A few minutes later we were being shown around the hotel and more importantly to our room! The hotel is perched atop a set of cliffs and looks out onto the yacht club and has a magnificent view of the whole bay. Our rooms were also great (Dstv, hot shower, toilet – the sit on and flushing type! and we each had our own bed!). We got 2 next to each other with an inter-leading door. This was really handy due to the number of times that either the one room or the other locked their keys in! The bar area and restaurant were amazing and both had a view out over the bay. After filling our bellies with cheese burgers (the paddlers had peanuts and energy bars – lucky buggers!) we headed to the pool to relax with a Kilimanjaro (local beer) or two, did some filming and took a whole lot of photos. That night, while the paddlers ate some basic pasta and fought the blowhole, Shayne and I dined on prawns and chicken (after a starter of course), followed by a dessert of ice cream and fruit salad. We managed to stumble back to our room where we watched TV until about 2am (paddlers still fighting blowhole!). The next day, while lounging at the pool, we got a rude sms from the paddlers saying that they were 4km away (I had grudgingly sent them the GPS co-ordinates of the yacht club the night before*) and that we should get ready for them. We downed what was left of our beers and made our way to the yacht club were we waited a couple of minutes before they arrived. They thought that we were joking when we turned into the hotel but had huge smiles on their faces when the first beer went down on the terrace!

*We usually do this so that the ground team can get ready with all the cameras to film and photograph the arrival of the paddlers

Captain Zanzibar in the Doldrums - Kyle

Pemba island – the beautiful paradise island in the Indian ocean – now we just have to get there!

Having read (and heard many many times) of the K2K dhow trip to Lamu, we were now to catch a dhow to Pemba... why? Coz it’s the cheapest mode of transport. Much of the previous day was spent negotiating with port authorities and dhow captains the price to get to Pemba. This would normally be as easy as getting a bus ticket from one place to another, but this part of the world seems to dominated by ‘Mzungu tax’ – the premium paid by travellers straight into the back pocket of local officials – and believe me, everyone makes themselves out to be a local official!

The negotiated price for the dhow was USD8 per head, and we had made friends with the highest port authority in Tanga so as to avoid any Mzungu tax. Our captain was adamant that the time of departure was 1AM English time, not Swahili time – K2K arrived at the port at 4AM only to find all the dhow’s and crew fast asleep at the port- Swahili time rules in these parts – we boarded.

The K2K team passed out on the warm concrete cargo of the dhow, only to be awoken by cries out from land ‘Wazungu dokument’… the sleeping wazungu hesitantly crawled to the port security office only to dodge another bribe – the dhow set off for Pemba.

The dhow crew could not speak any English, and our Swahili was limited to ‘hakuna matata’ – this lead to some creative methods of communication… the language barrier was later broken when a peace offering of Marlboro Lights was offered to the crew – instant friends were made resulting in the mzungu captaining the dhow and sharing the ugali and smelly fried fish with the crew.

A couple of hours into the trip Mark looked pale and was not drinking fluids. After having ruled out sea sickness and malaria, Mark let us know that he was having trouble having a pee off the back of the rocking boat – this was evidently causing much pain, but the only sympathy he received was a couple of laughs.

The Rough Guide travel book reads ‘a 5-6 hour dhow trip to Pemba’. 14 hours later in the dark and no wind we paddled (with sticks) into the harbour of Wete, Pemba. Mark loved the flat water – he managed to release some water eventually and more importantly have a drink to wet the dry mouth. The dirty beds of the government hotel were fabulous!

Dhala Dhala joyrides! – Mark

Once reaching Pemba Island, there are these taxis called dhala dhalas that you need to negotiate with in order to get around. You travel 14 hours on a dhow risking sea sickness only to have the chance to meet a bitter end travelling on one of these! It is one of those experiences that needs to be captured on IMAX to fully grasp the intensity of what exactly goes on. The bargaining part is actually pretty straight forward, these guys are only interested in turn over so getting passengers on quickly with as little fuss as possible is the name of the game. So we all get on for our first trip which will last about 40 minutes to get to our destination; Fundu Lagoon. Ok, all the mums please stop reading now..

Ok, the bags are on the top of this mini-bus impersonation only with cute wooden seating around the interior circumference of the car and an open air section also around the back part of the taxi where all the passengers sit and sh%t their load. These maniacs cruise along happy go lucky – lucky being the important word – with very few thoughts going on other than whether they checked their break pads last year.. or not. I had the experience of working in London for a while and so had the chance of travelling on the under ground. That is pretty much what you experience on a dhala dhala. You get on quickly, find a spot inside where you can, and then you’re off. And the speed just picks up until it peaks at somewhere where the passengers can no longer make out the surrounding outside terrain and the thought of ‘tuck and roll’ – should things become pear shaped on a hair-bend – becomes more of a recurring idea. You start mulling it over, thinking how best you should position yourself for when this speed merchant turns a corner and this makeshift thing on 4 wheels finally decides to go with the flow and lie on its back. Actually, I was looking around at most of us ‘Umzungus’ (whities) and saw that most of the chaps were travelling with their eyes closed clearly trying to transport their minds to a happier and safer place. I was getting so worked up! I thought when things go bad I would make sure I would get out of it and drag the driver behind a horse naked over a poison ivy field laced with coral. Crazy crazy. We all got out at the destination and walked straight faced with a bit of a newly acquired twitch towards a much larger and sturdier 4x4 that would take us the remainder of the trip to Fundu Lagoon.

Top Secret - Fundu Lagoon – Rich

Fundu Lagoon – Mind blowingly beautiful!!

I’m sorry but there are no words to really explain the share beauty and tranquillity of this amazing secret hide away, situated on the Wambaa peninsular on the Western coast of Pemba island, I don’t want to say any more……the fewer people who know about this place the better! Like your deepest secret you swear never to reveal!

Alas we have promised to help promote them and we are therefore committed to fulfil our promise and try return their grateful hospitality! Not that they need too much marketing, a place like this spreads like wild fire via word of mouth – if you are looking for the ultimate in barefoot luxury, your own private banner over looking one of the most beautiful bays, with no disturbances other than a couple of playful dolphins, then look no further!

Fundu Lagoon is what this is all about, there were enough honey moon couples to fill a handful of Dhala dhalas! Not that you would know what they are if you were staying there! All guests arrive by boat, except those who have spent the last mouth and a half paddling down the East Coast of Africa! I think we are probably their only guests to ever arrive over land! Sticking to our tight budget we had hired a driver to this remote peninsular!

We were all bumbstruck when Katea, the general manager of the resort showed us to our beautifully positioned luxury tents high up on the hill overlooking the turquoise bay below! Mark and Kyle were allocated the Directors quarters and immediately felt like the rich and famous!

After coming to terms with our good fortune and the fact that the 5 of us had landed up in one of the most romantic places on this planet without our loved ones….? We had to refocus and headed off on a village tour, led by Thomas, our very knowledgeable guide.

There are over 6 small villages on the peninsular with no real infrastructure to support them. The shocking road, lack of running water or electricity are a stark reminder of exactly where you are and the idyllic images of Fundu Lagoon seem to be dream like.

It took over a year for the villages to accept their new big brother and realise the benefits of having foreign visitors. Locals were initially looked upon as outcasts if they were employed by the resort, wanting to cut off all ties they were scared of the foreign influence on their basic and simple life style. Children didn’t go to school, there was no point, the boys learnt to fish, the girls learnt to cook and sew, and they all learnt how to harvest their sacred crop – cloves!

What if you didn’t want to be a fisherman or a basket weaver?

Thanks to guests' voluntary donations the village is building a school. We visited the school which is not yet completed but hopes to open at the beginning of the next academic year.

The villages now realise their good fortune of the resort and when ever guests are taken on village tours the locals run out and express their appreciation with a broad smile and the welcoming gestures – “Karibu sana!”, you are very welcome!

The village tour ended with the sun setting over the bay, a beautiful ending to our first day at Fundu Lagoon, a day we will always remember!

The following day was spent awestruck on the international acclaimed reef off a little protected island a couple of km from Fundu. Mark and I spent the day snorkelling, dodgy flying fish and pointing out the most beautifully coloured sea life, totally mesmerised by the beauty of the place. Kyle and Graham did a similar thing a little deeper, aided by oxygen they dodged super highways of brilliantly coloured fish and tested our new friend – Ike (our water housing for our Canon XM2 video camera!)

Russel and Cindy, the very friendly and well organised couple who ran the local dive centre had shown us some of their footage (professional underwater movie makers!) - of their morning dive the evening before! We were once again trying very hard to contain our excitement and were captivated by the unbelievable images they had taken of the spectacular underwater world! Graham who was initially not going to dive quickly changed his mind and signed up before he finished his next Tusker! (local beer)

It was therefore Kyle and Grahams job to attempt to capture something, anything close to what they had shown us, Ike was tested during the first dive and he made us smile when they returned to the surface without any leaking! A couple of weeks too late I know but better late than never! Their second dive was a new experience for both divers, it was Magnum’s (Kyle’s new found nick name, nothing to do with his little growth on his upper lip I promise!) first underwater appearance on film and it was Grahams first time behind the camera lens at 16 m! We all can’t wait to see the footage, trust me you are going to love Magnum’s little cameo!

Swahili Divers our saviour!

After our two amazing nights at Fundu, one in incredible luxury and the other spent on the beach…..?! We headed back to Wete to find a dhow returning to Tanga, we it thought would be as easy as bargining for a dhala dhala, we were initially told that our return trip would be far easier than getting there!

How wrong we were, we arrived in Wete the main port town, still not too sure how, thought we would be wrapped around one of the beautiful palm trees (Daladala drivers you have something to learn……….!!). We found only two dhows moored in the port, one was being off loaded while the other looked ready to sail at a drop of a hat!

It turned out that they wanted USD 250 for the sailing dhow and USD 300 for the motorised version, not even all Magnums charm could make them drop their price! We jokingly said we could fly for that much………!

Having spent our first night at one of the local Guest house, 5 squashed into a double room we were searching for something more friendly, chilled and a meal which we didn’t have to swallow without chewing!

Swahili Divers came to our rescue, the perfect spot to stay for anyone visiting Pemba, situated in the middle of the island’s main town – Chake, this easy going friendly atmosphere quickly smoothed our souls and offered the perfect refuge from the stinking heat and dusty streets. Not too mention the food! Peter, the head chef definitely has got a spot on our team, no offence Shayne but this guy was amazing!

After another crazy day running around, or should I say “flying” around the island compliments to the local dhala dhala drivers we were all very happy to rest early.

We spent the following day wondering round the markets, taking FBI pics of the locals, sorry if we offended anyone, and must have spent a good couple of hours at a local spice duka (shop) hassling the assistant before we walked out of there with enough spices to open our own back home!

Return crossing

Having gone to the airport the evening before in a Daladala, we were informed that no daladalas travel to the airport and that we would have to take a taxi. We were running a bit late so our bargaining power and time to argue was diminishing by the second, so we gave in and took the taxi. The price wasn’t too bad (Tsh5000, equivalent of about R25 for all of us), but was steep compared to the Tsh500 that we would have had to pay in the daladala – Shayne and I had paid Tsh400 the previous evening for a return trip! We arrived at the airport in time and went to the counter to check our baggage in and they began to check the money out of our wallets. US$55 for the flight (less than the dhow would have cost us, so, fine) then there was the US$5 airport tax which came as a bit of a surprise but this is often the case so we paid it. Lastly there was the safety charge for about US$1 each for…well, we still don’t know! No more hidden costs and we boarded the plane and were soon looking at the wonderland of Pemba from above. The dhows below seemed stationary when compared to us and we were all very glad on our choice of transport. There was no choice actually – we had to get back to Tanga by the following day to meet our new paddler, Mark, and the dhows had all left the previous day and were in Tanga which meant that we would have had to charter one specially to take us across the channel. The price of the dhow was going to be the same, actually slightly more, as the flight and it was a matter of 14 hours compared to 20 minutes. As I said, there was no choice! The view of the island from above was unbelievable. Turquoise waters and white beaches stretched into the distance on both sides of the plane, with patches of reef everywhere in between. It was gone too soon though and we all feel that for the price we paid, the pilot could easily have done a quick low-level lap of the island!

Resorts, beers and new team mate!

2005-09-08T04:10:00.000-07:00

22 to 24 August 2005
Turtle Bay welcomes returning paddlers

There was little over 15km between our classroom stop and Kenya’s number one all inclusive holiday resort, Turtle Bay. We left early as the sun rose over the water, to get to our destination as early as possible allowing us enough time to relax and put our feet up! (And in time for the buffet breakfast which is served until 11am!) The water was pretty flat and we could paddle inside the reef for most of the way. The water was the bluest and clearest that we had seen up to that point and could see all the way to the bottom despite being about 2 kms from the beach at times. We had to leave the safety of the reef just before Watamu due to it narrowing and joining with a couple of kms of cliff. Our decision was confirmed as being the correct one moments later when Shayne, who was already at the resort, sent us an sms which read something along the lines of “Cliffs at the point seem quite dangerous so maybe stick east of the reef and come in afterwards.” We had no problem getting out through the breaking waves and before long we were within site of Turtle Bay. 3 km to go was the information supplied to me by my Garmin GPS. I relayed this information on to Shayne and told him to notify Sabine (marketing manager at Turtle Bay Beach Club) that we were about to arrive. Only one obstacle lay between us and the luxury of the resort – the reef. We now knew what was dangerous! We didn’t have any other option but to go in through the huge waves that were breaking over the reef. We watched for a while and then chose our line. I went in first but had got it wrong! A massive wave had snuck up on me (Richard somehow managed to escape it) and was determined to give me a much closer view of the reef than I was comfortable with. I braced hard to my left and somehow managed to ride the wave in sideways (not very graceful but it did the trick). The next wave was a lot smaller but was at least expected so I did not have any hassles riding it in. I looked back to see Richard upside down in the middle of some big breaking waves. He had escaped the first big wave (that had got hold of me) and managed to ride its larger brother in until he tried one move too many at which point he was toppled into the water and tumbled only inches above the sharp reef. Oh, did I mention the sheer cliffs that were waiting not too far away?! We had discussed this situation at length before and had come to the conclusion that if somebody fell out in the waves, the others were not to go in to try and help as this would undoubtedly end up in that boat also getting dumped by the waves and thus doubling the original problem. BUT at this stage I was certain that a large group had gathered to welcome us in and were no doubt watching the drama unfold from the shore, so I really didn’t have any option but to go back into the waves to try and help Richard. Besides that, I was sure that Shayne would be filming and that if I was also to fall in it would make really good TV! I got close to Rich who informed me that he was fine (this was only seconds before he stood on a sea urchin and was no longer quite that fine!). Needless to say, seconds later I was also in the water, trying to avoid the squadron of attacking urchins! It took us the best part of 10 minutes to get back onto our boats, compose ourselves and to start the embarrassing paddle to the beach where the crowds had gathered. “Beep-Beep! Beep-Beep!” went the phone. It was Shayne- wanting to know where we were! They could still not see us and had not seen a thing of the drama! Once we were on the beach we were greeted by Sabine (Marketing Manager of Turtle Bay) and a whole army of her staff who were singing and dancing to welcome us. A fair number of the guests were also there and were very concerned about the large waves on the reef and wanted to know how we had possibly got through them. With straight faces we told them that after 2 weeks in the water those waves were nothing and that we had no problems at all.

Mlevi feels neglected

Mlevi the Land Rover had been waiting for us at Turtle Bay for about 2 weeks while we headed up to Lamu and back. She was obviously feeling neglected and decided to teach us a lesson by acting like a typical Land Rover. First she decided not to start. We thought that it was just the battery and drove her around a bit, after pushing all 4 tons of her to get her to start, to try and charge it but it didn’t make a difference. The battery was clearly not the problem so we called in Paulo, the local mechanic. He arrived with 3 spanners and a screwdriver and the 3 of us looked at him very sceptically but thought that we would give him a chance. We didn’t really have any other option, especially now that Aaron was gone, 4 tons is big ask to push and then jump in to start when you are alone and parked in beach sand! Paulo, with the help of Patrick, the local ambulance driver, had solved the problem within minutes. It was just a loose wire which had obviously taken a beating in the Serengeti and had been finished off by the local roads, or lack thereof! Impressed by his work, we got Paulo to look at some other problems. The radiator had sprung a leak, the accelerator was sticking (not ideal when you want to slow down for a series of potholes), the front suspension was rattling in quite an alarming manner and it was probably time for an oils change and a bit of a minor service. Paulo agreed to have a look at it and took the car to his “workshop” in his backyard. Hakuna matata! He could fix it but it would take some time. The suspension was broken, again largely due to the roads in the Serengeti and finished off by the local roads. This he had to weld but had apparently done this hundreds of times before (I have no doubt considering the state of the roads), the radiator had to be taken out and sent to a friend who could fix it, the accelerator was no problem and the service would be done along with fitting new filters and replacing the oil. The following afternoon it was all done. Like new! How much would this cost you in SA? R4 000 or R5 000? Take it to Kenya guys, and only pay the equivalent of R650!

Clinic visit

On one of our days at Turtle Bay we visited the Timboni Village Health Community Dispensary to do some filming for our documentary. The clinic has been running for a couple of years and was recently relocated and upgraded thanks to the donations from some of the regular guests at Turtle Bay. The resort is actively involved with the clinic and is trying to make it sustainable. They act as a type of middle man between the guests, being the donors, and the clinic and are there to help the committee of the clinic as and when their assistance or guidance is needed. The resort has a manager who they call the community projects manager, Chris, who took us to the clinic and the school. It was alarming to see how little the clinic had in the way of drugs and equipment and they still manage to take care of a large number people on a daily basis. The main illnesses that they deal with regularly are cholera, malaria, dehydration and typhoid. Mainly water related illnesses which is due to the very low quality of the water that is available in the community. They gave us a list of the equipment that they need most (see the picture – retyped list will be posted on our site soon). We are in the process of making another website where we are going to focus on the communities and projects that we have visited and where we will give the details of how you can help them if you want to. It is amazing how little these people have and how any small donations makes a huge difference.

Sonneti Academy visit

Following the visit to the clinic we stopped at the Sonneti Academy. This is a school that was started by a former employee of Turtle Bay Resort, Mr Mongly. The school’s motto is: “Discipline is the foundation to success”. The children were definitely living it! Every classroom we entered the children would stand up, greet us and at the top of their high voices, while pointing to the sky scream their motto!

At the end of our tour we donated 5 BDO (http://www.bdo.co.za/) sponsored soccer balls to the 450 strong school, it was a spectacle to behold! The director of the school took the 5 balls and threw them out into the smiling surrounding children – total hyphen erupted, screaming youngsters flew around the small enclosed area kicking the balls as hard as they could! The chaos lasted about 10min, we all thought it was going to end in tears but these kids were hard and a flying ball crashing into them was far better than it not!

25 August 2005
“It's Tusker Time!”

The official end of our first leg was in the small town of Kilifi. It a 32km paddle from Turtle Bay which took us no time at all, the whole stretch was inside the reef. We were fortunate to have a contact there with Jackie Evans who is the aunt of Mark Cowley, one of the paddlers joining us later in the trip. We phoned her up and she said that she had some South African guests who would be keen to meet us. Shayne the driver for the day was sent ahead to find the place and to send the GPS coordinates to us on the boats.

Upon arrival he found out just how welcome we were and the tone for our stay was set without a doubt by the cold Tusker that was shoved into his hand even before he had turned the car off! He was ushered inside, shown to our rooms (yes rooms, complete with showers, hot water and clean soft beds!) and promptly escorted off to the beach with the 3 families (Richard and Bridgette Firth, Richard and Petal Wainwright and Phil and Lucinda Durnford and all the kids) to do some snorkelling. We arrived later and were greeted by a never ending wave of people emerging from the sea, Shayne somewhere amongst them. Seconds later it was “Tusker Time” and we were sitting on the edge of the pool enjoying the local brew, and a couple of delicious sandwiches which were very kindly made for the 2 hungry paddlers. It was great being around some South Africans again and they were really so good to us.

Tusker Time, as we found out, was pretty much anytime and went on for quite a while with one beer being replaced by the next before you had even noticed that the first one was finished. That evening a feast had been prepared and we stuffed ourselves full of prawns, rock cod, vegetables and a whole array of other interesting food which we washed down with Tusker. Then it was time to go crab hunting and we charged around the beach for an hour or so trying to catch ghost crabs. The technique, obviously mastered over many nights by the girls, was to chase after a crab and then when it was just within a pincer length of your toes to let out an eardrum bursting scream! This technique did not seem to work too well and I was much more impressed by that adopted by the dog which would chase the crab, catch it in his mouth, crushing it slightly, and then move on to the next one. Neither was appealing enough for me to try! Later that night Phil, Richard, Richard, Richard and I stayed up until 2am to try and solve all of Africa’s problems. Phil and the 2 older Richards were the brains behind this operation with “Little” Richard and me contributing only slightly to the master plan. We could both see that these guys knew what they were talking about! Each problem got simpler and the solution certainly more obvious with every glass of Johnny Walker Black Label and Kenyan Cane and Coke that we drank, and, after about a bottle of each, all Africa’s problems had been solved!

In the morning we were greeted with a breakfast like none other, and prepared for the day ahead - a 20km paddle to Vipingo. Shayne had taken over from me due to the severe sunburn that I had suffered on my hands over the past couple of weeks thanks largely to my malaria tablets, which can cause extra sensitivity to the sun in only 5% of users! (Unlucky I guess!) Everybody went down to the beach to see us off, and probably to make sure that we had actually gone! I left after narrowly avoiding Tusker Time and the second leg was underway! Little did they know that that was not the last time that they would see us!

Thanks again to all of you for your very kind hospitality and for really making us feel at home. We would have loved to stay longer but unfortunately the trip had to go on……...!

26 to 27 August 2005
Cliffs of death

Graham went ahead to find us a spot for the evening, Vipingo was our expected destination, 20km further down the coast. An average to easy days paddle on paper, but as we have learnt and many before us the sea doesn’t always behave!

Shayne and I headed off with the waving gathering seeing us disappear very slowing down the beach. Like a walking race, unlike the 100m, watching us leave isn’t the most exciting thing, especially if there aren’t too many crashing waves to negotiate! Anyway on we went, not doing too badly, passing Kilifi’s creek mouth was interesting and after passing an outside reef all was well and we thought we had only flat calm waters ahead!

Well how wrong we were, cliffs we waiting for us! Being high tide, huge open ocean swells were rolling in from the deap open and crashing up against the jagged 20 m high cliffs! It was quite spectacular watching the water being shot another 20m up into the air! But not that spectacular watching our little boats trying to keep a straight line in what soon became a very rough angry ocean! The rolling swells were met by the outward bound refracting waves causing absolute nightmare for us two paddlers!

Shayne usually a happy smiley, very excitable kind of guy had gone very quiet and looked very unhappy with the whole situation, there was no out! We had to go on, I contemplated the possibility of towing him, but this would really be ideal in the heavy swell! Pole pole (slowly slowly) were only words of inspiration I could come up with! What felt like eternity was 4hours, it was definitely the slowest 12km we have paddled!

Vipingo and Supersport!

I arrived at Bill and Angela Morris’s house and was immediately greeted by Bill and a beer! We sat on the balcony awaiting Shayne and Richard and Bill kept disappearing to check the “score”. I soon found out that he had DStv and the Springboks were playing the next day (and had been winning for a change)! Time for a break guys, tomorrow there will be no paddling! As the anthems started our luck ran out along with the electricity! It was a cruel twist! Bill had the solution though and before long we were dodging potholes in his 4x4 heading back to Kilifi to catch the rest of the game. Then it was off to the Boatyard!

Boatyard and the South Africans again

Bill was determined to rub the Springboks' loss in and took us straight to the Boatyard which is the local hangout in Kilifi on a Saturday. As we drove in we saw a Matatu (local taxi) leaving and knew that there would only be one lot of people who would be going to the Boatyard in a Matatu, the South Africans. It was good to see them again although we had to explain ourselves as we were meant to be 60km down the coast by that stage and not drinking in the pub! Bill had to drag us away in the end and thank goodness for that because it was heading for another ‘big one’ with all the alcohol that was being sent our way, not that we are complaining though! That night Angela had cooked us a great meal and we stayed up until late watching the news on the long forgotten magical box.

28 August 2005
Valuable contacts gained in Mtwapa

Bill and Angela had phoned Sue and Curley McPherson in Mtwapa, which was our next stop, and had arranged for us to camp in their garden. After chatting to Curley for a couple of minutes about our trip while we waited for Richard and Shayne to arrive, Curley got out his list of contacts and started giving me names and numbers of people that he knew along the remainder of the Kenyan coastline. It was a long list and there was no reason for us to be sleeping on anymore beaches in Kenya! This was to come in really handy over the next couple of days and (as I sit in Tanzania writing this) we only had one night where we had to find a place to stay on our own! Curley has also been very good in following up and phoning us to find out how we are getting along – sorry my phone keeps cutting out Curley!

Fame at last!

Thanks to Turtle Bay and their marketing department K2K has become a household name in Kenya, well, not quite but we did make it into the newspaper! It is amazing how people are willing to help you when you produce a newspaper article with your picture in it. Fame is great! We have managed to elude the Paparatsi so far but are sure that they will find us soon!

29 August 2005
Lucky strike in Tiwi Beach

We paddled the short stretch from Mtwapa to Mombasa and then had to find a place to stay. This was the one place that we had not been given a contact but were sure that if we knocked on enough doors we would eventually get a place to stay. We loaded the boats onto Mlevi so that we could all go and look (not too keen to leave one person on their own in Mombasa of all places!). After driving around for a couple of hours with little success with some of the hotels on Tiwi Beach, we decided to try some private houses. We were in luck with the very first one, but it did take some smooth talking and we managed to score ourselves a piece of lawn on which to camp. We set up our tents and after doing this Gra and Rich headed back to Mombasa town to pick up our newest team member ‘Mark’. That nights weather was one of the worst in K2K’s history. The rain bucketed down for over 5 hours without any sign of stopping.

29 – 31 August
Mark’s blog so far..

I arrived in Mombasa after a days’ travel leaving Cape Town early (06h20) on Monday. Everything went well but I was worried about clearing all the baggage clearances as mine was 7kgs over the limit. My other travelling companion, soon to join the trip later in the week, had spoken to Kenya Airways and subsequently said that if I said that ‘Hillary’ (operations manager for K.A.) said it was fine, well, it was fine. To cut a long story short, I owe a big thanks to her for getting those heavy bags of backup travel food for the team up Africa. There were moments when I got a frown and a vacant stare with ‘No, no, no, no.’ But this was always alleviated by the saving grace of President Hillary. Your must be an important and generally very good person! Anyway, I arrived in Mombasa and it was an eye opener. Taxis sprayed with funkadelic designs with disco interior lighting that really made our dilapidated taxis back home look road worthy! Anyway, they were all over the place hooting and not indicating at all really. For them there was no such thing as ‘right of way’. It was a rumour that I was glad to see Rich (who had picked me up very kindly) also ignoring behind the wheel of the intimidating Landy (Mlevi). It really was great to see them (Rich and Graham) arrive at the airport in such a foreign place. Really really. I was filled in on the latest happenings as well as given the finer details of some of the stories that had come to pass. We arrived at someone’s house on the shoreline where the guys had set up camp for the night. Apparently Shayne had pressed the doorbell and charmed the pants off the house-sitter who had eventually allowed them all to set up the tents. I was very chuffed to have my first night in Kenya under the stars – I had prepared myself to rough it after all. I was also pretty excited about the paddle the next day. Unfortunately it decided to blow up a bit of a storm.. for the night and well into the next day as well. Wednesday would eventually be the day when I would set off for my paddle and first experience of what had been so carefully planned out by the K2K team. I would like to say it didn’t disappoint, and, in truth it didn’t. But, to put all niceties aside, it was a very hard day of paddling and I was given a bit of an awakening as to what I could expect for the next 2 or so weeks. To better paint the picture, I must let you know whom I paddled with. ‘Richie T’ a.k.a ‘the-human-blade’ – so named for his uncanny ability to morph with his paddling boat and create some ‘thing’ able enough to cut through water like it wasn’t there. He completely mocked me. Let me break it down; the first 3kms we walked with the boats in tow because the tide was too low. All fine so far. In fact, nice chats generally. We eventually found some deeper water and finally got on our way and for the following 6kms were given the luxury of paddling inside the reef. Still all good, but noticing signs of the pace picking up a bit and my arms feeling a little achy. Also noticing the back of Ricahrd’s (yes, no longer ‘Ritchie’) boat more and more. Did I mention that a head wind picks up everyday around 10am? Well it did. I brought it up when I managed to catch up (only because he had stopped to check his navigational handheld computer) and was hoping to find support for the going becoming a little tougher but was met with “Nah, it’s been much worse than this trust me.” Ok, no support maybe I am just battling a bit. After breaking for lunch, we continued for another 9 kms and I felt every metre of it pretty much. I even tried meditating whilst I paddled but it was no use. The lead I was feeling taking over the blood that was running to my arms was too overwhelming. So there you are, I felt sorry for myself, it was windy and overcast, we had by this point paddled out past the reef and were in the open sea with all its lovely currents, and all I could see was the back of Rich’s boat at least 100metres ahead of me. I brought this all up with Rich later as I felt it would create a barrier to our friendship if it ever happened again. Happy to say that we are now friends again. That was my first paddle that seemed to last more than the 5 hours it took us to finish it, and I must admit that I was a lot less fit than I had initially expected.. When I arrived at the beach and met one of the other team members – Shayne (the Ozzie) – the first thing I said was; “So (pant, pant) you (pant) doing this for another (pant) 4 months?” Shayne: “Yeah mate.” Me: “You’re crazy..”. I did have a much better paddle today though.

Urgent SOS from K2K Team

2005-08-28T08:00:00.000-07:00

We are now 1 man short (read below) and are in urgent need of a replacement! We need someone to join us for the rest of the year and especially for the Tanga to Dar leg from the 15 to 30 September where there will be only 4 of us. If any of you know of anybody, or are keen yourselves, who would like to join us, please contact us by sms (simplest way) on my phone (Graham) 082 822 5613 or Richard 083 561 1151. Just think, this is a golden opportunity to join what we have started, and will be a good time to join as we are busy ironing out all our initial problems. We are also now open for more guys on each of the legs so please let us know. Please spread the word and help us out. Thanks. Regards K2K Team

1st leg underway

2005-08-28T06:40:00.000-07:00

Tropical Paradise

For the past 3 weeks we have been in survival mode – eat what you can when you can! 4 young men travelling through Africa arrived upon Turtle Bay (http://www.turtlebay.co.ke/), Kenya’s number one all inclusive holiday resort situated on the shores of the Indian Ocean next to Kenya’s internationally acclaimed Watamu National marine park less then 100km km north of Mombasa. Not having seen more than oats for breakfast, absolute hysteria and excitement broke out when the friendly helpful staff welcomed us and informed us of the fact that Turtle Bay was an all inclusive resort! Ie all our food and drinks would be taken care of!! We all looked like we had just heard our greatest dreams had come true!

We would be guests of honour in this beautiful resort where we could prepare ourselves both mentally and physically for our demanding adventures which lay ahead!

After being showed to our luxurious rooms, set amongst the resorts own 10 acres of exotic and beautifully landscaped gardens, by a smiling staff member we lay in owe of our fortune and couldn’t wait to see what else was in store for us, crystal clear waters rich in corals and other marine life, white sandy beaches, water sports and many other day time activities!!

One of the unique things about are expedition and the reason why we have been able to contact the local communities en route, which we are trying to provide a voice for and hopefully donate more than just soccer balls to, is our relationship with a very together and organised UK tour operator Toescapeto (http://www.toescapeto.com/ if you would like to visit anyone of these resorts we visit please contact them, they are the best in the business when is comes to personalised luxury getaways!) Their ambition to “revolutionise travel” means they focus only on the best resorts. Each one has been hand picked and their attention to detail is never compromised – their aim to provide each visitor with more than just a holiday but a life time experience they will never forget!

We would like to thank Toescapeto and all your resorts involved for your support and we will continue to promote and spread the word of your good work!

We arrived at Turtle Bay on a Sunday and therefore had a day to relax and catch our breath before the beginning of one of the biggest weeks for K2K! Our visits to the communities which Turtle Bay has been involved with would have to wait for our return, Chris the gentleman in charge was out of town.

How to get to Lamu?

After coming to terms with our good fortune and filled our tummies with some of the tastiest food we had eaten in a long time, it was time for action!

Our next goal was to arrange our transportation up to Lamu, our starting point of our paddle. For the past 4 weeks we were only making our way up to the beginning of K2K! The real adventure still lay in store for us!

We left Shayne and Aaron passed out by the pool with their chosen drink in their hands, we were off to Malindi, a slightly larger town 25km north.

The chaos of Malindi quickly engulfed us and it didn’t take long before we were speaking to our man – Abdullah – a legend in the making! The slickest, smoothest talking local we had ever met! “Ma frends wot kan I du ya for?”

We had already spoken to a number of local bus companies about our situation and that we had to get to Lamu with 3 large kayaks! They all told us that none of the Matatus (local mini buses) didn’t have roof racks and all the big buses going north would be able to fit our boats in their tight storage compartments.

Abdullah had a different outlook – his attitude was simple – “I’m gona to get ya ta Makowe Lamu!, I hav frends, I am fishman too, ya wont dhow, I can arrange!” There was no stopping this man he saw a big tip at the end of the line and knew that if he helped us he would be rewarded!

After telling us that he worked for a film company – Paramount Films, as their kind a couple of weeks ago, we knew this man was no stranger to the situation and we were in good hands. Remaining aware and not letting our guard down too much was also very much on our minds! Kenya was infamous with regards to its quick thinking conmen!

Graham grabbed our Canon XM2 (our digital video camera) and asked Abdullah if we could interview him? Well, well, he seemed to come to life his enthusiasm became even more punctuated, his words justed rolled off his tongue! Graham continued to fire questions at him trying to out smart him, but there are never a silence, this man was a born actor!

We were onto something good, after our little interview, we had arranged to return the following day at 9am to hear exactly what he had managed to arrange for us and the cost of each possible option! They were;
a)Lorry – hitch a lift with a passing lorry
b) Rent a car/truck
c) Catch a dhow
d)Take our own Mlevi (our trusted landy and get one of the hotels drivers to return it to Turtle Bay)

Being close to the Somalia boarder, this stretch of coast is notorious for bandits robbing any passing vehicle and therefore all had to be escorted by police escorts, which would ride along with you in your vehicle! Exactly what they would do if some bandits did chose your particular car as their target is something we didn’t want to think about let alone discuss!

Graham and I returned excitably back to the others telling them of our options and showed them our brilliant footage we had captured of Abdullah!

The dhow option sounded the most appealing in theory, not in hind sight! It presented the following opportunities:
See the coastline we would have to paddle down, a couple of days later
Learn to fish, local crew could have taught us the tricks of the trade
Got general idea of ocean currents, waves, tides and when it would be the best time to paddle etc.

The matter was discussed at length and we all decided that although it was the most expensive option, it would be an amazing opportunity!

We then decided to do a little more research into the whole matter and stopped in at one of the local fishing shops here at Watamu, the owner arranged for us to meet with a local captain, he told us that it was too windy and the seas too rough, the Kusi was still blowing to strongly and we should reconsider taking a dhow! Great, all our hopes were dashed! We didn’t really want to be stuck out in rough seas in a little dhow, but the other options didn’t really appeal to us!

We had the evening left to contemplate it and wait until the next mornings meeting with Abdullah to hear what he had to say!

The next day was spent sorting out our boats, unpacking our dusty vehicle, we had everything neatly laid out in the car park, we painstakingly separated items, to take and those we were to leave. Luxury items and those which were necessities! Limited to the capacity of our 3 boats (Go check them out at http://www.paddler.co.za/, they are Perception Kayaks, we have a Streamline, a Contour single and a double, kindly sponsored by Paddlers themselves.) we didn’t want to take anything which was unnecessary! Sleeping mats and the like were quickly thrown into the luxury pile!

While Graham and Aaron continued to pack, Shayne and I headed off in search of Abdullah!

It didn’t take long to find him, the next minute he was sitting in the back seat explaining all our options to us!
Lorry – was out, no passing lorry for the next couple of days
Rent truck – cost us Ks 20 000 (USD 270)
Dhow – Ks 25 000 (USD 333) Was still an option he has found a friend who was willing to brave it!
Take our own – becoming more of an option!

He told him that we were keen on the dhow option and that we wanted to speak to the captain and see if this was still an option! He took us down to the beach front and there under a large baobab tree sat a old looking fella, which turned out to be Captain Omar!

We sat with them for a while and discussed the issue, the reason for the high cost was that the crew wouldn’t be able to return back to Malindi for another month or two and therefore they would have to live in Lamu and wait for the winds to swing round! Great, this didn’t sound great for our proposed paddle in less than a weeks time!

We agreed to come back in the afternoon and speak to the other captains who were currently out at sea fishing. At least then we could get a couple more opinions and see their dhows, we weren’t going to agree to anything until we had the whole picture! Captain Omar’s dhow was resting on the sand and it didn’t look that large! Definitely not big enough to fit all our boats, plus 7 people, we didn’t recon that it was much longer than Kiboko! (Our double)

That afternoon Aaron and I were back there with one mission – to get ourselves the cheapest and safest looking dhow we can find!

We spent a good couple of hours searching the beaches, speaking numerous captains, inspecting their boats explaining our idea of wanting to get up to Lamu with three large boats!

It was a long hot day and eventually after not having too much success, they all wanted at least Ks 30 000 – 35 000 to risk their lives and live off for a month up in Lamu, Aaron and I decided that captain Omar was our man. He looked the oldest and most experience captain we had met, and the only one who would take us for a very cheap Ks20 000, boats and all! We tried to explain to him that our boats were big and that we might battle to fit them in, but he didn’t seem too concerned and mentioned that he could take over 2 tons in his little dhow! This was all obviously being translated through Abdullah and therefore we weren’t 100 % sure as to if he was telling him exactly what we were wanting him to say! He could have been telling him the complete opposite!

Aaron and I headed off to think it all through clearly before making our final decision! Once made we had to find Omar again, and after travelling deep in the village’s maize of little streets, with Abdullah as our guide we found our captain and agreed to pay him a deposit of Ks10 000, so that he could prepare for the voyage and pay his family something so that they could survive while he was away!

We agreed to meet him at 2 in the morning and plan to set sail at around half 3 when the tide came in!
10 – 15 August
K2K Launched From Kipingani Explorer, Lamu Island.

After our horrific dhow trip we were all very relieved to arrive in the most peaceful place on earth. Kipingani Explorer (one of Heritage Hotels http://www.heritagehotels.co.ke/, many amazingly unique private hideaways) is situated on the south side of Lamu Island. This first class hotel whined and dined our sorrows away. Everyone was amazed to hear that we had travelled up by dhow, only 2 weeks before a much larger dhow then ours had capsized going into the bay, and it took 5 days to pull it safely out of harms way. We had 4 magical nights, with 5 course meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner. An amazing place to relax before what we all knew was going to be a very tough couple of days ahead.

We spent the days preparing for our journey Due South (Due South one of our key sponsors, they have provided us with clothing and some outdoor gear, the high quality of their products have been a necessity and have stood up very well thus far! http://www.duesouth.co.za/) Thanks guys.) Testing our sails, sponsored by Perception Kayaks (manufacturers of our sea kayaks http://www.perception.co.nz/) which we found to work amazingly well if the wind blew anywhere but directly into us.

One of the focuses of our expedition is the community interaction of these resorts we have been in contact with and will be visiting as we drift Due South. How have the communities been effected by the resorts, do they benefit from all the foreign money or are they ignored and never see any up liftment? How do the resorts help out and is it sustainable? There are many relevant questions which we will be trying to answer as we pass through them.

Kipangani Explorer is heavily involved with the local community, particularly the fishing village of Kipangani itself. In fact they are dependant upon them for their survival! The resort itself is situated on the dunes over looking a beautiful lagoon, all the walls of the banners (private chalets over looking the lagoon) and central bar/restaurant area is made out of tightly woven palm matting, which has to be replaced every couple of years. This along provides sufficient work for the local matters. The supporting beams are all mangrove poles and also have to be regularly replaced due to the harsh elements during the monsoon months!

All the fish eaten by guests (definitely some of the best we have ever eaten) is obviously purchased from the local fisherman. Due to the remoteness of the village and the distance to the closest school, the resort has been instrumental in the establishment and further development of the local school. We unfortunately were around during their holidays and therefore were only able to see the empty premises and donate a couple of balls to an individual connected to the school.

We hope our visit to your village and the footage we took of your stunning resort will reap some benefits for you in the future, we will keep you posted!

Thank you Heritage hotels, Kipangani in particular, all your kind and very friendly staff, you made us feel like honoured guests at your unbelievably beautiful luxurious hide away! We all agreed that this little spot is one place we would all love to return to and but next time replace our kayaks for loved ones!

We left Kipingani at 10am, the tied was high, which made getting over the reef a little easier. After the staff sang to us and wished us luck on our journey, all the staff and guests jumped on the hotel’s large dhow and followed us 4 kms out to the lagoon mouth, all the time singing and praising for a safe voyage! This definitely boosted our confidence and gave us energy to round the potentially dangerous point!

15 August
Hungry Masai

We paddled for 5 hours on the first day, getting 25km in. We landed on the beach without any issues near what seemed to be a resort as there where huts on the cliffs above where we had landed. We where approached by a very unfriendly looking massai, holding both a sword and spear. He spoke no English and clearly was not impressed with our arrival on his beach. On one occasion when the massai was standing staring at us, Shayne’s curiosity got the better of him and he asked the massai whether there was anything dangerous on the beach (there must have been something to warrant all his weapons), to which he replied “eYes!”. Shayne then asked what we should be afraid of and without hesitation he replied “eMe!” Aaron’s eyes grew as wide as saucers and he reversed into his tent like a hermit crab. Eventually he went and got an “mzungu” (Swahili for white person) who was the owner of the hotel. It turned out they are still in the development stage so he could not offer us a place to sleep. However he did let us camp on his beach, and told one of his guards to watch our stuff as hyenas usually roamed the beach at night. He also informed us that a week earlier on the very spot we where camped a male lion was roaming around…! No drama for us, our Serengeti experience would hold us in good stead, except there was no car, only boats and paddles to protect ourselves, and of course our friendly massai warrior. We ate some delicious canned corned beef with pasta and tomato sauce…with a side serving of sand!

Coffee with a different aroma!

After this delicious dinner we thought that a cup of coffee would be the appropriate end to an interesting evening so we pulled out a brand new tin of Tancaf, which we had been saving since Arusha in Tanzania. It did not take long for us to notice or fatal error – this was not instant coffee! As there was no chance that we had packed our coffee percolator we were faced with a practical problem, how to strain the coffee for the next week? Drastic measures where needed, as we all craved coffee and the thought of paddling in rough conditions and going cold turkey was not an option, Graham came up with an ingenious solution. We all drank our coffee happily but the smirk on Graham’s face and his sudden decision not to have any coffee should have let us know that something was amiss, like his sock…! K2K was well and truly under way!

Without the luxury of our 2cm foam camping mattresses our first night was to be long and sandy! None of us managed more than a couple of minutes sleep! With the thought of hyena’s, lions and the hungry looking massai around I’m not surprised!

16 August

We were up away without too much hassle, boats still heavily loaded and with a continuous head wind progress was slow but steady. Our target was a little fishing village called Kipini, just more then 30 km further down the coast.

Kibobo the Catapult

There was one little obstacle between us and our next place of rest, a point surrounded by reef jutting out 15km into our paddle. We decided to take the prudent approach and land just before it, grab a bite to eat and refuel. I was in one of the singles and said I would go in suss it out and from the beach tell the others when it was safe to follow. I had just pulled my spray deck off having landed safely and was going to indicate when Shayne and Aaron should come in, but it was too late! They were caught in no mans land and a huge wave picked them up and …….. flung them through the air, crashing into the powerful wave! At one moment I thought they would survive and manage to hold it, but the wave was too steep and Kiboko (the name of our double kayak, meaning hippo in Swahili) doesn’t like to go head first down any sort of breaking wave!

Shoes, water bottles, hats and sun glasses were dispersed around them, as they began to swim for the safety of the shore! I managed to grab what I could and help them safely onto dry land to catch their breath. All except a pair of sun glasses were retrieved and it didn’t take long before we were devouring our peanuts and resins, energy bars and some Herberlife shake. Thanks Horst and Billy for the shakes they have and will continue to replace our energy!

Point crossing

After refuelling we jumped back into the kayaks and where once again pounding through the waves trying in desperation to get beyond the breakers. Once through we navigated our way around/through the point and reef, where the water was a lot calmer and for the first time, the wind wasn’t directly against us. We had the luxury of having the swell pushing us south and therefore were able to surf a couple, which was far more enjoyable than the pounding head winds we had experienced earlier that day.

We paddled the last 15kms and landed on a remote beach only 50 meters from a troop of baboons. Armed with a well shaped piece of drift wood, Caveman Richard took off after the baboons with a hungry look in his eye, as though if he got the chance he would quite happily eat one. We set up camp behind the dunes and where ready for a good dinner, we ate Pasta, Tuna and Pilchards in tomato sauce, with a side serving of sand of course. We climbed into our tents and tried to ignore the sand that was flying in from every direction. There was no stopping it, and nothing could be done but attempt to sleep in a sandpit.

17 August
Kipini, in search of water and supplies!

Fresh water is obviously one of our major issues and something which we soon realised would be our life line in this remote part of the world! Between cooking and drinking we consume about 16 litres a day between the 4 of us. Drinking being the most valued, which we purchase from local shops “Mineral water please?” most of them don’t seem to stock it and it takes a couple of visits before we find what we are looking for. The locals drink the water they retrieve from their village wells, our tender stomachs are however not quite ready for that, although we do use it for cooking.

We store our water in a number of different collapsible water containers, some of which appear on our “Worst buy’s list” as the valuable liquid seems to escape faster than we thought possible through the “sealed” nozzle!

Having been on the water for 2 full days and Kipini being one of the last major towns we would see for a while, we thought it wise to pull in and restock our water supplies. Graham and Shayne set off with a local guide to show them the way, while Aaron and I maned the boats and were entertained by the local fishermen, children and who ever passed by our stretch of beach.

The locals were all very fascinated by where we had come from and what we could carry in our boats, their eyes lit up every time we opened our hatches to get something out, as if we had magical craft, “where is the engine?” they would all ask, and we would point to our biceps “I’m the engine!” would be the standard reply!

Kipini was situated on a river mouth which was inhabited by hippos and crocs, the locals told us that if we would have camped there that night we were sure to have a couple of over sized visitors wanting to snuggle up! Fortunately all we saw were a couple of birds, including a beautiful male fish eagle devouring its prey!

Camera’s…………….hmmmmm yes, where is that water housing?!

It was a heavy day’s paddle, “pole, pole!” has become our motto while on the water – “slowly slowly!” When on the water you often don’t think you are moving forwards, in fact you feel like you are going backwards, not the greatest feeling and the only thing indicating your forward motion is the sight of the blue bottles drifting slowly past! Then again is that not just the current?!

It was getting late and we were nearing our 4 pm cut off, arms were tried and all we could think of was the delicious rice with tomato sauce, and don’t forget the pitch of sand, waiting for us! Shayne was having a tough day, not having done too much paddling prior to the trip his shoulders were taking strain, understandably so, we had been on the water for the better part of 3 days and we hadn’t been taking it easy!

Graham was off in his single a couple of hundred meters ahead, it was Aaron and I in the double and we were coasting along beside Shayne, when all of a sudden I heard a high pitched squeal coming from just behind us?! It was Shayne, a freak wave had broken just in front of him and his tired body didn’t have enough energy to avoid the crashing wave which tumbled him like a washing machine on long cycle! To add injury to insult, a tag team of blue bottles attacked him with great precision, one on the forehead while the other tied his hands.

It didn’t take us long to turn, rescue him, empty his boat and get him back into his cockpit. Needless to say, Shayne was not a happy paddler by the time he was back in the boat. All this time our Storm Case, which housed all our camera equipment, was being towed along in the bobing surf!!

By the time we arrived on the beach for the night the sea water had got the better of our two very precious cameras! We took two cameras along with us for the first stretch, our still Canon 350 D and our Canon XM2 video camera! When purchasing the Storm case we were told that it was indestructible – water tight / shock proof / dust proof and it would even float! We were planning to have special water housings for both cameras but unfortunately they had not arrived from the US in time before we left and therefore had to take the risk and do without them for the time being!!

Was it worth the risk? Well, we will keep you posted!

Not wanting to cause any further damage we removed the batteries and memory cards, dried them as much as possible and decided to wait until we arrived in Turtle Bay (Kenya’s number one all inclusive resort http://www.turtlebay.co.ke/) before we braved it and tested to see if they worked!

Tana Delta

From the water we spotted a number of thatched roves perched on top of some high dunes, something usual along this totally deserted part of the world!

We instinctively knew that these were not local dwellings and that they might lead to something else! While Aaron and I were discussing the possible loss of our cameras and which one if any would ever again work, Graham and Shayne headed off up the dunes in search of some “mzungus”!

They returned about 30 min later with empty beers in their hands, proclaiming their great discovery of an amazing hide away over looking the most beautiful delta and that there were 3 young lads who were related to the owner of the establishment who would love to have us for the night!

After explaining to them the potential tragedy of our wet cameras, they seemed to not care too much; obviously the beer had been good and was in full flow through their blood stream!

It turned out that this stunning spot, called Tana Delta, perched right on top of the highest dunes in the area is a private resort owned by a number of partners, the 3 guys who invited us in are currently on a gap year and were putting their feet up for a couple of days, fishing and on basic detox! Well, I don’t think there is a better place in the world to do that!

There are a number of beautifully designed rustic chalets dotted all around the hill side, some facing the wide open river delta and others over looking the warm Indian Ocean. We were all very impressed by the tranquillity of the place and the kind helpful friendly staff.

That evening our rice and tomato sauce, much to Aarons disagreement, was put on hold and we were cooked the most delicious fish, potato, rice, veggie and salsa dinner we had eaten in a long time! Kipangani Explorer seemed such a long way away!

We were given the highest chalet to rest our weary bodies and boy did we sleep well, not even the most beautiful view of the delta below could keep us awake!

Thank you so very much Tana Delta for you hospitality, this is one place we will all hopefully return to sometime in the future!! Toescapeto (http://www.toescapeto.com/) this is definite must see, something you guys need to add to your next product trip!!

18 August
Kamikaze Duke

It was my turn in one of the singles, we have 3 boats (thanks Paddlers http://www.paddlers.co.za/) two singles and a double, the singles provide more freedom and can potentially be quicker through the water, if the wind is blowing in the correct direction. We have sails for all three boats, but due to the direction of the wind for this first section we made a strategic decision to leave the doubles sail behind and only take the two single’s sails. We had been using the single’s sails on most days and could just pick up the strong continuous Kusi (name of the trade wind which blows from the south) if angled at the right direction.

So off I flew, loving the little bits of wind I was able to catch, however to spice up the ride and increase the adrenalin, I began paddling just on the edge where the breakers broke and could therefore surf the odd swell as it came rolling in! I was loving it, paddling had a new dimension and the tiring old pumping into choppy water was a thing of the past, no longer was I looking at the blue bottles as they slowly drifted past, but I was on the look out for the next big swell, timing my paddle stroke so to position myself in exactly the right place on the steapening swell!

After cursing along for a couple of hours, with the others battling it out, amongst the heavy wind and choppy water, Graham and Shayne (in the double) dubbed me Kamikaze Duke (Duke – my nick name from Uni) due to the fact that I was paddling a fine line and was going to come short sooner rather than later!

They were right, a couple of near misses led a couple of direct hits! If my timing was slightly out the rolling wave would finish me! Over I went for the second time! Seeing their frustration I decided to call it a day and stay further out and escape the wrath!

Kiboko ploughs beach

Again it was time to call it quits, we had made good progress and with 30 km under our belts it was time to find another protected spot to lay our tired bodies!

We spotted a large tree and headed directly for it, however due to the steepness of the bank and the fact that the tide was up, the waves were at their fiercest! Kiboko (Graham and Shayne) was up first, in they went choosing their line carefully!

After bracing strongly into one wave the last little wave picked them up and carried them high into the air! Graham at the back had a birds eye view of the closely approaching beach as the nose of the boat began to dig itself deep into the sand! Shayne thought it was over, there was no way he was going to walk out of this alive. Moments from his and Aaron’s initial beating came flashing back!

Miraculously they held on and with all the weight in the boat, the sand gave way and they ploughed their way safely up the beach!

19 August
K2K blown into disarray

We were up early, as was becoming usual for us, and tucked into yet another tasty breakfast of oats and, well, oats! The sea was dead calm and the launch posed no problems on this occasion. Everyone was feeling really strong and we did 10km before the wind got up, but boy did it make up for its late arrival! The flat sea turned into a cauldron of angry waves, all out to get Shayne and me yet again. Our early average of about 6km/h had been reduced to 3km/h largely due to Richard and Aaron thinking that they could paddle slower in a headwind and still go faster (that’s a tailwind guys!). After drifting about 5km in the wrong direction while we waited for them, Shayne thought that it was time to have a stern word to them about the situation. This had the opposite effect than desired and had near dire consequences.

In the distance we could see Ngumeni which was a peninsula with big cliffs, mangroves instead of beaches and, most noticeably, two big missile launching platforms perched in the sea in front of it. Somewhere at the base of the peninsula there was meant to be Ngumeni village which was our target for the day and where we were going to spend the night (unless Richard and Aaron had it their way, in which case we would probably have slept further back up the coast than where we had spent the previous night!).

I had one of our Garmin sponsored GPS’s which had already led us safely and accurately through 7 countries and around numerous dangerous rocks and reefs. I had no reason to doubt it and Richard and Aaron should have had no reason not to listened to me but they were obviously still upset about Shayne’s earlier comments and were not interested in listening! My instruction to them was “Aim WELL to the right of the towers” which they interpreted as “Keep the towers well to your right and head as far out to sea as possible and don’t worry if you can’t see the land anymore.”

We headed straight for the village while the other 2 took the alternate route and did the opposite to us on every turn. There were some big reefs to navigate around and we took the route per the GPS while the other 2 headed off to sea, ensuring that the towers were well to their right and thinking that the boat with the navigational equipment must surely be wrong. Shayne and I, knowing that it was not a good idea to split up, kept waiting for them but gave up on that when we could see only their sails occasionally bobbing above the horizon. Both we and the wind had now changed direction which made the use of the sails (single boats only) possible and they were now paddling parallel to us but much further out to sea. Waiting was therefore no longer any help and just meant that they were getting further and further away.

We could have either paddled out to join them or could have continued to the village in the hope that sanity would prevail. We chose the latter after we had decided that it would firstly have been about 5km in the wrong direction and we would probably never have caught up to them, secondly, that it was them that was off course and not us, thirdly, that surely one of them would come to their senses and decide that the boat with the GPS would probably have been in the right place or they may even decide to look at the map, and lastly, that we would not be able to help in any case if they were being blown out to sea (unlikely considering that the wind was not blowing out to sea!) and, if this were the case, we would be of more help on the shore where we could get a boat to rescue them (and where we could enjoy a hot meal in the local restaurant while we waited!).

Half an hour later we paddled straight onto the beach in front of the village (thanks yet again to Garmin!) and climbed a small dune to see if we could see the 2 runaways. After a couple of concerning minutes we spotted them finally heading towards us (a nice change!) having done a good couple of extra km’s! They somehow still try to argue that we should have followed them!

There are always two sides to a story!

Thanks guys for your side of the story! Very entertaining reading indeed, for someone who wasn’t there it sounds like you were heroes and that without Garmin you wouldn’t have a clue as to where you were going!

Graham and Shayne: That is probably true, but we DID have a Garmin GPS and you didn’t so I will leave it up to our readers to decide who did or didn’t have a clue.

I’m not going to cause a stir, but we had you in sight all the time, the reason for the split in the team, which shouldn’t have happened in the first place, an important lesson for all of us! If you would have considered the team you would have waited no matter the circumstances, for those of you who don’t know a double is far quicker through the water than a single, which makes sense two paddling one boat! I think the soar back and shoulders must have been too much for the other two and all you wanted to do was to get to safety, fair enough, but don’t then think you were so courageous and wise! I do recall that it was the two of you who couldn’t possibility paddle any further and who had to keep popping Nurofen to survive!

If you cannot take the story like a man and admit it when you are clearly wrong and your only comeback is an attempt to make us sound like weak cowards through irrelevant comments then that is fine, but lets put it in context and see if it holds water.

We have not anywhere said anything about being either wise or courageous. I do believe that it was Garmin who we gave all the credit to. You are quite right; a double is faster than a single. That is a fact, unless the single has a sail helping it along (as was the situation here) in which case the single is much faster especially in strong wind. Also, surely if we were so sore and injured you should have had no trouble in keeping up? And then maybe you should have been closer to the sore and injured in case they got into trouble*. And you still want to go on about the team? Ok. Do you recall when the TEAM had been in the sun for hours and Shayne was in pain, but you wanted to play in the waves? How much longer did the TEAM have to be on the water? I don’t need to go on.

You are right, we probably couldn’t have paddled too much further right then. I had hurt my back on the way in to the beach (end of the paddle) and Shayne had very sore shoulders because he had only got into a kayak for the first time in his life a few days earlier and had just paddled 180km over 6 consecutive days. We should be applauding the guy, not attacking his character. Where did you want to paddle to anyway? We had arrived at Ngumeni which is where we had planned to spend the night. After the Matatu trip (see below) we decided to paddle to a beach which was away from sticky fingers. I was in serious trouble with my back at that stage but, for the TEAM, Shayne and I got back in the kayak and paddled through a large set of waves which finished Aaron off. This meant that we had to return to the beach to stay the night. When Aaron opted out the next day, Shayne went with him (so as to not leave him alone ie TEAM!) and Richard and I were left to paddle the 40 or so kms to Watamu. My back was no better but for the TEAM I took Nurofen to ease the pain, gritted my teeth and paddled the 40kms.

So what was your point about our characters? Did us taking Nurofen the following day get you lost? Or was it Shayne’s sore shoulders?

* To the reader, once a single has been capsized it is possible to turn it over, empty it on your own and to get back in, but the double needs two single kayaks to help do this. It cannot be done by its 2 paddlers’ alone due to its size and weight.

For the record the towers were to our left, and all we did was continue in a straight line, “Head for the towers keeping them on your left.” Was what our navigator told the team, which is precisely what we did! Having the map with us we knew exactly where we were and keeping a careful eye on our injured duo we had things under control.

The word “WELL” makes a big difference to our instruction, but there was probably a large amount of sea sand still in your ears! Ah yes, the map. The one strapped to the back of the boat which came out when? At the missile towers? Wasn’t 25kms into the paddle a bit late?

Matatu joyride

Having finally reached our destination, Ngomeni, all in one piece and the team re-united we had a decision to make. Either we settle in for the night and paddle round Ngomeni Point the following day, or we opt for the Matatu (local mini bus) joyride and hop over the point with all our gear to another little fishing village and continue with our paddle.

Not very happy about the first option as I was worried that if we do it once it will be easy to do it a second time etc., we are here to paddle but the team is what counts and should be our number one priority. We were however looking worse for wear, Graham had serious back troubles, Shayne’s shoulder was killing him and Aaron had been stressing about the point crossing for the past couple of days. So we clearly weren’t mentally and physically prepared for what lay ahead!

While the others relaxed and recovered, Aaron and I headed into the village to find our staple diet of water and bread. You can be assured an escort when ever visiting one of these little spots, there is always one guy who sees you as his income for the day, your man, someone who will take you to where ever you want to go, and hopefully negotiate the best price for you!

After telling him that we needed a Matatu, to take us and all our gear over the hill, he said “No worry my friend I will organise!” He told me not to worry about the price and that due to the time of day there weren’t many passengers around and that any Matatu driver would jump at the extra bob!

When we returned to our boats, a dilapidated Matatu sitting very low already was parked waiting for its next joyride! I played the usual, “Sorry my friend we can only afford Ks 500!” and walking away a couple of times, standard procedure with everything over here, the west’s pricing system is far less tiring! “Our man” not wanting to lose out on all his hard work, came coming running back “ok, ok, they take you!”

If they can! Having travelled over 8 000km we had seen many, many Matatu’s and believe me this was definitely not one of the better looking ones! The roof structure was in serious disrepair, not too mention that there weren’t any roof racks! Where exactly were they going to put our boats! Our request for them to flatten the seats and slide them inside, was totally ignored and before we knew it there were 3 large Perception Kayaks stacked precariously on top of this crippled Matatu! I wish we had a working camera!

We were under the impression that WE had hired the vehicle! Well well, hiring a vehicle in this part of the world means nothing more than the driver has a guaranteed income and that any additional passengers he can squeeze or squash in the, fatter his margin! Sitting perched up in the front on all our gear I was amazed to see how many locals disappeared behind me, at almost every corner we would screech to a holt, the door would fly open and another couple of weary travellers would jump in, without anyone ever getting out!

The journey couldn’t have been longer then 15km but seemed to go on forever! We all held our breaths as we flew recklessly along, bouncing over potholes, dodging stray goats, bicycles and pedestrian’s! My nerves would be some what calmed when the door man / tariff collector would jump out and do a quick inspection to see that our boats were still attached and all the ropes, tied onto what ever extruding object was available, (window fasteners, rear view mirrors, handles etc.) were still tight and hadn’t rattled lose!

We eventually arrived at our destination all shaken up, very happy, and amazed to see our boats still in one piece attached to the concaved roof! Was that little episode more or less risky than the point crossing?! We will never know all we can say is that we will definitely think twice before opting for another joyride in a Matatu!

Video tapes drown

We arrived in Mambrui safely, all in one piece, still not too sure how we ever made it! Our next problem was where were we to spend the night! With about 30 local kids surrounding us, each one of them eyeing out something they could only dream of getting their hands on, we naturally decided that where we were was not going to do. Either we find a resort or safe haven where we can get away from the local community, or we jump back in our boats and head a little further down the coast to a remote spot away from the village!

The decision to paddle a little further south was taken and Aaron set off into the large surf! As he reached the final breakers his luck ran out and the back breaker crashed over his boat and left him swimming! Boat being washed toward shore, he grabbed what he could and tired to swim after. The one thing which he had in his possession was a dry bag full of used video tapes, which were tightly sealed in a cooler box. All our footage we took of our stay in Lamu, one of the most highly valued items we had with us, the cameras could be replaced but the tapes and the events captured on them definitely couldn’t!

Aaron said to me when he finally returned to the safety of the beach – “all I was worried about was our tapes, the boat could be replaced but not the tapes!”

Lets hope that they are not ruined and we can still use them in our documentary which we are hoping to produce of our expedition! Another valuble lesson – do not carry anything which is of high value within your cockpit, or even in your boats unless you are 100% sure it is protected against water!

Town elders guard K2K

After Aarons little fall out, he told me that there was no way that he would be able to get back out there again and that he would drag his boat along the shore if he had to go anywhere. The seriousness in his tone told me that there was no way I was going to be able to persuade him. With the others (Graham and Shayne) having safely made it out bobbing amongst the swell, I decided to give it a bash and tell them there was no way we were going anywhere and that we better look for a place to sleep where we were.

They had no choice and therefore we all returned safely to shore. There was a resort a little further up the beach which looked promising and we were sure that they would be so kind enough for us to pitch our little tents at the back of their huge property, out of harms way!

Well after speaking to them for about 1 hour, Graham and I eventually decided that there was no use, the Italian management were useless and definitely not going to help, they wouldn’t even give us reasonable discount, we were up against the Euro and therefore didn’t have a chance!

One of the local guys understood our frustration and began making a plan, he called a couple of his mates and it wasn’t too long before we were talking to one of the village elders and a local custom official. They said that we were more than welcome to camp at the local school, but this proved to be far too far and we decided to camp right on the beach outside the resort! This was nothing new for us and we happily pitched our tents amongst the dune under growth. The two gentleman told us that this was not a safe place and that if we slept there unguarded we would be boatless by the time we woke up!

The town elder was prepared to guard for a little fee, but again they told us that one was not enough and that we needed two guards! Not wanting to cause too much trouble with the locals we eventually agreed and felt far safer having the town elder and his sleepy mate watch over us as we rested our tired bodies!

20 August

Aaron opts out – K2K team reduced to 3

We woke bright and early, paid off our “awake” guards and prepared for a day on the water! The tide was out, and there, not more than 20 m away was the exposed reef! The reason for the size of the breakers which finished poor Aaron the evening before! The shear depth, width and jagged teeth of the reef meant that we couldn’t paddle for the time being and had to wait for the tide to rise before we were going anywhere. The frustration amongst the team was evident and stress levels began to show. All we had been doing for the past week was paddle, paddle, paddle we didn’t understand the concept of rest, our rational thought process was impaired and that is exactly what we needed – rest!

While Shayne and I had gone off into the town to pick up some water and bread for breakfast, Aaron had spoken to his mother and got the details about his bothers terrible motor bike accident! He had fractured his spine and would have to be in a cast for a couple of months.

Graham and I had been joking with Shayne and Aaron from the beginning that their malaria tablets, Lariam (widely known as a depressant), would push them over the edge at some stage, but our jokes backfired when Aaron actually decided to go home! It could also have been the fact that the far wiser and older Graham and I had won a bet with the 2 youngsters which meant that they would have had to be our slaves for our stay at Turtle Bay Resort. Aaron, Shayne is working hard attending to our every need, and don’t think that it is actually me who is typing this!

K2K is down to 3 again!

The Italian Job

After debating our options for a while the decision was made to chill out, rest and gather ourselves. Aaron would arrange for the car to pick him and Shayne up and take them to Turtle Bay, while Graham and I would regain our strength for the paddle ahead. We would paddle together and meet them in Turtle Bay in two days time.

The Italian management’s attitude problem hadn’t changed much since we last spoke and continued to see us as more of a nuisance than anything else. The local guys were the opposite and loved discussing the future of African football, Kenyans current lack of structure in the game and were just generally very intrigued as to where we had come from and where we were going! “Where is the engine?”, “How!” and couldn’t wait to see us navigate our way through the surf!

Luna landing

After seeing our beloved Mlevi (our Land Rover) for the first time in a long time, Graham and I decided to paddle for an hour or so that afternoon, and have less to do the following morning, kms in the bank would be good!

After covering 6km we decided that would do and pulled up onto a totally remote wind swept beach! This place was incredible, it was as if we had landed on the moon, there was no form of live to be seen, the only movement was the sand being swept wildly along the flat low lying beach! With the light disappearing quickly we pulled our boats up the beach and starting sussing out the place, looking for a spot which would protect us from the continuous gale! We managed to find a dune not too far from the waters edge, which was as good as any, not much higher than 1.5 m it didn’t give us too much protection but would do for just one short night!

We gathered some drift wood and had a roaring fire going within no time, using the boats as a wind shield down the one side of the dune we were able to create a some what sheltered space!

The shear nothingness of the place was amazing; it felt like we were the only people on the planet, the flat open sand stretched to the horizon, highlighted by some higher dunes. The only thing reminding us that we weren’t in fact the only surviving humans was a young shepard herding his 50 strong head of cattle over the distant dunes! The scene was surreal!

The fact that we could paddle along, stop and pull our boats up onto the beach where ever we wanted, collect fire wood and spend a night without seeing, or hearing anyone else is something amazing, and what has made the last couple of days so incredible and appealing! The absolute remoteness of this stretch of coast has been unbelievable!

21 August

Flat turquoise water for a change!

For the past couple of kms the coast line had taken a dramatic change for the better, the turbulent, dark murky water had given way to calm, turquoise tropical waters! Picture perfect, postcard stuff, golden sand, palm fringed beaches! There was also another little addition to make things that much more pleasant, a reef positioned just off the coast protecting us from the ocean swell allowed us the luxury of flat calm waters. The reef runs down the majority of the coast about 300 m from the shore, if the tide is at the right height we will be able to paddle within all the way down to Tanzania!

Swahili night classes for K2K

Graham and I landed on a little beach just north of Watamu, called Mayungu Beach where we would rest before heading into Turtle Bay! The restaurant which we arrived at agreed to have us for the night, after explaining to them that we were heading down towards Mozambique in our little canoe’s they were all very impressed and told us that we were very welcome and that their guards would take great care of us!

After the restaurant closed and the waiters were replaced by two very inquisitive guards our Swahili lessons began! We took out our Swahili phrase book and explained to them that they had to teach us. They couldn’t have been there longer than 5 minutes and Graham and I were seated over looking the cool warm Indian Ocean with not one but two focused teachers attempting to teach us there “very simple” language! After hearing the 10th phrase our brains were full, we hadn’t had to concentrate for longer than 5min for the past couple of months and knew there was no hope of us remembering anything our new found teachers were telling us! Their eagerness to help and their broad smiles whenever we repeated a phrase correctly was humbling!

My tummy started growling and the thought of our left over dinner began to play on my mind! I asked one of our new friend’s if he had eaten dinner yet, it had just turned 8pm, and he said no, “We have no money!” Do you believe it or not, do you take it as a loaded question and try and not be taken for a ride or do you provide them with a meal! After having learnt that Bread = Mkaze, or Superloaf, my tummy began to churn even more!

The next thing I was off, Soldier and I were off to the closet shop to find ourselves some Superloaf! At Ks12 per loaf (R1.2) I requested 6 from the young man hiding behind the gaze netting pulled across some protected bars. It made for a fulling meal, left over spaghetti stuffed into half loaves of Superloaf! Soldier and his mate’s bright smiles showed their appreciation! It was a cheap price to pay for 4 hours of dedicated Swahili lesson!

Hammock in the wind or flea infested bed?

These were the options, either a flea infested mattress, which our teachers had managed to dig up from some where, or our hammock stung between two palm trees! Graham had been in search for a spot for his hammock ever since we found them in Arusha, now was his chance to test the beautiful green beast!

I opted for the potentially itchy and longer lasting option! Tucking myself up behind a low wall to escape the cool breeze! I fell sound asleep within minutes! I had a very peaceful bite free sleep!

Graham, well he had a different story, being exposed to the on shore wind meant his night was far less restful. The constant flapping of his hammock reminded him that he hadn’t quite reached the comfortable bed of Turtle Bay!!

Update from Lamu

2005-08-12T04:25:00.000-07:00

Great game viewing in crater

Our campsite (Simba Camp) was nestled on the crater edge with great views into the crater itself. The only downside of the campsite was that it was packed with tourists and did not really feel that we were on the edge of on of the most famous game conservation areas in the world. After paying a bribe of a soccer ball at the gate, we were allowed to enter the crater without a guide. There was no room for him in any case and I am sure that the prospect of sitting in a kayak on the roof, in a reserve which has the highest concentration of predators in the world, would not have appealed to anybody. It was a misty morning and the drive into the crater was testing with us only being able to see about 5m ahead and with cliffs of 100m+ awaiting any false move. Once we descended below the clouds we could see the plains of the crater stretching out below. It was to be a great day! The Crater lived up to its reputation and delivered cheetah, lion and leopard within 1 km of each other! Elephants and buffalo were everywhere and it got to the stage where we drove past them as if they were just impala.We had been sitting watching some lions with cubs on a zebra kill when all the safari vehicles started speeding off. They are in radio contact with and let each other know when there is something special to be seen. We were not going to let the lack of radios and the fact that we had paid a lot less than those in the safari vehicles disadvantage us, and duly follwed. From a distance we could see aboiut 15 safari vehicles all parked in a row. Our imaginations went wild. “Wild dog? Cheetah or lion kill?” were some of our ignition thoughts. It must be something very special to make so many people rush away from a pride of lions with a kill. As we approached there was a lone rhino sleeping on the left but that could not have been what all the fuss was about so we started scanning the right….nothing. We then noticed that all the tourists has their binoculars trained on the left. Could they have all rushed here to see the sleeping rhino that was going nowhere? When a German tourist was asked what they were looking at, he excitedly informed us that if we looked carefully we would be able to see a rhino sleeping in the grass! Not quite the wild dog we had hoped for but our big 5 sighting was complete and only in a couple of hours!

24 hours, and not a minute more is what you are allowed in the Ngorogoro Conservation Area. We timed our entry very badly and had entered from the Serengeti at 13:10 which meant that we had to leave at 13:09 or pay for another day – not an option on our tight budget! Our Land Rover exited the steep crater with the utmost of ease but not before drinking half our tank of petrol. We were well on track to make the gate, until we were stopped by a ranger near the top of the crater. We thought that our earlier bribe had suddenly caught up to us. To our surprise it was the opposite. The ranger had followed us out of the crater and had seen our “CA” number plate and just wanted to chat as he was a South African. He wasn’t at all bothered by the lack of the guide and obviously scared our view on the matter. The conversation, although really welcome and interesting, had cost us valuable time. The big V8 roared up the remainder of the crater, using another quarter of a tank of petrol, and charged through the rain forest and then wound down again towards the gate. With brakes smoking, 13:06 was our official exit time!

Waves too big, dhow too small! The tale of how the expedition nearly ended!
9-10 August 2005 (Pictures still to follow - sorry. Technology is getting thin up here!)

After our initial suspected robbery we arrived back our dhow at 2pm, otherwise known as 8 in Swahili time. It was still low tide and we quickly loaded our kayaks on board. Surprisingly they fitted and we were anxious to get on with it. However, despite us having the watches, the locals definitely had the time and made us wait an hour or so until they decided to join us on the boat. Our captain was “Omah” along with his crewmates “Safe” (ironic) and “Hassiem Omah”. The tide was now up and the first signs of trouble began to emerge. Firstly the sturdyness (or lack thereof) of the boat had now become apparent. Our crew were now saying their last goodbyes and were on the waters edge. We turned around to see that our captain had removed his pants and was wading towards the boat, his sailing experience was obvious as he was using a certain part of his body as a rudder to guide himself towards the boat at which stage Graham announced loudly “Oh great, we have got Captain Ding-a-ling!”. Thankfully his English consisted of only “Eh-yes” which was the answer to every question and he did not understand. “Are we going to die on this boat, Omah?” was one of the questions asked in jest, to which he calmly replied “Eh-yes”. Not the ideal news for the beginning of the trip! Thankfully he put his pants back on and we started to sail. Our dhow as only a meter or so longer than our kayaks and about 2 meters wide. We left the safety of the bay and were off into the deep blue sea. The swell was a lot bigger now than we had first thought (about 3 meters). This took its toll and Rich who, being the kind person he is, decided to feed the fish on numerous occasions. We had only been traveling for 2 hours before it had become dark and the swell was still big. We found a bay where we had planned to sleep on a beach. There was no beach when we arrived and were greeted only by mangroves which surrounded 2 massive missile launching silos. The captain dropped the anchor and announced “Sleep here”. Richards eyes nearly popped out of his head as his stomach churned in disagreement. We tried to get comfortable for what we knew was to be a long night. Graham had prime position at the front of the boat with an anchor as his pillow an a rope for bedding. The rest of us weren’t so lucky. While Aaron and myself nestled into the cockpit of the kayaks using the dry bags as pillows, Rich opted to be close to the edge of the dhow with his head rested on the rudder with the rest of his body slumped into the damp hull. The 3 crew were clearly hungry and hammered an old paint tin into shape with an axe in order to make a suitable fireplace. The banging continued deep into the night along with the shouting. We were trying to sleep but the constant dagga smell made our already weary stomachs feel even worse. After what felt like eternity the captain announced “We go Lamu”. It was 4am and were extatic at the thought of getting to Lamu and the safety of land. The sea was relatively calm. There were even moments where some of us (not Rich) enjoyed the trip. Our average speed was 8km per hour so it was low going. As we got closer to Lamu the sea got rougher. There were now numerous large waves crashing all around us. Our confidence in our captain was extremely low as we got tossed from side to side by waves. Graham was in the closest position to a crow’s nest that we had and was perched atop the big double kayak. He had taken on the role of letting the rest of us know when to expect a big wave by sounding the alarm to hang on with a calm “Oh dear!” On one occasion we heard an “Oh dear” and the boat rocked violently, this was shortly followed by “Oh #&%^!”, an expression not heard from him before and the boat nearly turned over as we just avoided the breaking wave. This was followed by a really calm “Ok guys, this is definitely it!” and by the groans of fear from the crew at the back of the boat. A second later we all saw the huge wall of water curling over the deck which then thrashed into the boat nearly tipping it over. Everything was soaked but both the 2 ton boat and ourselves had survived. The urinal of the boat (half a milk bottle) was now being used to bail water out of the boat which had become knee deep. Oh dear! Luckily the rough seas were momentarily over 30minutes later and returned to normal swaying. After a little while I heard an odd noise coming from the back of the dhow. I turned around to experience the captain squatting on the edge of the deck like a greyhound, one hand still on the rudder and the other balancing oddly as he relieved himself of excess waste. The channel into Lamu was the most hair-raising of them all. With our destination only 500m away we were forced to “dhow surf” in through the breaking waves. Although all their other downfalls, our crew knew how to sail a dhow and negotiated the channel like experts delivering us safely to our destination in Lamu, Kipungani Explorer!

Still to come: "Midnight maddness in Mombasa", "Day of giving" and "Our Stay at Turtle Bay"

Into the wild!

2005-08-05T11:35:00.000-07:00

Chaos in Arusha and no Kili!

We have been travelling for about 2 weeks now and every day has been hot and sunny, except for today, the day that we would have been able to see Kilimanjaro! There has been a lot of excitement over the past couple of days in anticipation of seeing Africa’s highest point. It was not to be and we could not even see the foothills of the mammoth mountain. The disappointment was soon replaced by saucer sized eyes when we entered the chaos of Arusha – the tourism capital of Tanzania. Busses, trucks, donkey carts and safari vehicles were all jostling for the main position on the road. As if this was not bad enough, the officials had installed a series of rumble strips and speed humps. They also thought that matters may have been improved by confiscating all the stop and yield signs and chucking in about 1 million people on each block, all instructed to try to sell you something that you don’t want or need, or asking you to give them your cap or even your watch!

K2K catches the end of the Great Migration

Our mission on our full day in the Serengeti was to catch up with the famous Wildebeest and Zebra migration. These animals travel up from the Serengeti in the South to the Masai Mara in Kenya in the North, which always has an abundance of water. It took us about half a day to get up to the North of the park and we came across about 10 to 20 thousand Wildebeest and about the same number of Zebra right on the Kenyan border. The photos do not do the scene any justice and we did our best to capture the moment on film too, but I doubt that even that will give you the full picture. They were not in the height of the migration and were therefore not moving very quickly and were well spread out over the hills. It was a sight that was well worth the hours on the bad roads!

Lions raid camp and Graham left for dead!

Our scrumptious dinner (consisting of chicken, rice and sweet corn – far tastier than it sounds, I promise you!) was interrupted by hooting Land Rovers charging through the bush for no apparent reason. We thought that this was the first time that we could put or spot light to good use and turned our 1 million “candles-in-a-box” on all at once. And there they were, 2 female lions on the prowl in our camp! Oh dear! Panic erupted all around us! The Italians were leaping into the long drops to try and hide, the Swiss had still not emerged from their car after the stories of the night before and the New Zealanders were surprisingly still eating their diner and were seemingly not at all afraid of the lions. It later came out that recent events had convinced them that The Lions were of little or no threat to them! They were soon to change their mind and disappeared into the safety of their vehicles, apparently suffering from a bout of food poisoning! The hooting 4x4’s had succeeded in chasing the lions away and the camp returned to normal. Shayne and I continued to scan the bushes with the spotlight, unconvinced that the lions would have gone far. There they were! They had not retreated at all and had only disappeared to fetch the reinforcements – there were now 3 lionesses less than 20 meters from the camp! Shayne had learnt from the locals and sounded the alarm by sitting on the hooter! Italians – long drop, Swiss – car (still) and New Zealanders – nowhere to be found! 2 of the major rules in the Serengeti are: 1) Stick to the roads and 2) No driving after sunset. A perfect opportunity to break both! Shayne fired up the big V8 ‘Mlevi’ Land Rover and charged off into the bush. I happened to be holding the spotlight and managed to dive into the back seat of the car as it sped past. With kayaks still on the roof (sorry Margaret – kayak sponsor http://www.paddlers.co.za/) and slowing us down only slightly, Shayne sped off after the luckless lions which were now running away with their tails between their legs! Once they were a fair distance from the camp, we decided that we should return but only after a short, illegal, game drive. The camp residents hailed us as heroes! Okay, not quite but the local guides were impressed by our spotlight and came over for the demonstration by Ranger Shayne. The demonstration had been going on for about 10 minutes and it had been about 45 minutes since we had last seen the lions. As Shayne wrapped the demo up, 2 shapes appeared in the distance. Aaron said that it was the lions but Ranger Shayne said that it was just hyenas. The arguing continued for a couple of seconds until it became clear that the authentic Aussie was actually correct! 2 Big male lions this time, heading straight into the camp, 30 meters away! Italians – long drop, Swiss – car (still) and New Zealanders – nowhere to be found! Ranger Shayne leapt behind the wheel again firing up the engine, Aaron was the front passenger and Richard “John Varti” was filming from the back. Off the vehicle spend towards the lions! Excited, Shayne turned around to see that we were all safely in the car. Richard was filming as usual, Aaron was controlling the spotlight and I was…replaced by Shadrack! Oh dear! One of the guides had beaten me to it and had jumped into the car in my place. As I ran to the other side of the vehicle to see if there was place for me, the car did a wheel spin and left me in the dust! Not a problem. The Swiss car was nearby so I thought that I would be safe there. As I approached the Land Cruiser game viewing vehicle, the Swiss decided that they too wanted to be part of the action and instructed their driver to follow Mlevi! And there I was, all alone in the campsite with only our Hi-Lift jack to defend myself and a camera to capture my last few minutes! Shayne thought that he was doing a good job of herding the lions away and so did I. The Italians had emerged from the long drop and were watching the action from their car. They suddenly erupted into excited squeals and were telling me to get into their car. I had thought that Shayne was doing a good job of chasing the lions away and kindly declined their invitation. As I took photos of my back stabbing mates in the bush, I noticed a large shape moving through the bush, 15 meters from me! The lion! It took me about 0.5 seconds to scale the side of the Italian viewing vehicle, invited or not! The lions proceeded to drink from the camp’s water supply and were not at all afraid of the humans. Once they were done they agreed to pretend to be afraid of the vehicles and got chased into the night! Aaron and Shayne said that they would sleep in the car “in case the lions came back and so that they could film them”, you make up your own mind about that explanation!

Road users land on roof!

As beautiful as the Serengeti is, its roads leave a lot to be desired! To get to our campsite in Seronera we had to travel 300 km’s from Arusha. 160 km’s was on good tar and the rest was on dirt. Of the 140 km’s on the dirt, there was about 1 km that was not totally corrugated. The corrugations were only the beginning of our trouble as the road was also home to hundreds of supply lorries and local safari vehicles, all of which had the mentality that they were the most important users of the road and that they had to drive as fast as possible to skim over the corrugations. This resulted in us having to swerve off the road on numerous occasions to avoid being flattened! Needless to say that we encountered a number of the same vehicles overturned further down the road!

Aaron's Outlook thus far

2005-08-01T22:47:00.000-07:00

Fresh Water heaven found on Lake Malawi
28th July

Even in the darkness of a Malawi night it was plain to see that our expedition had uncovered a beautiful camp site on the beach of Senga, Lake Malawi. The sunrise of the next morning looked like it had just been taken out a movie, and after many pictures were taken, the four of us charged in the calm 26oC waters of the lake with our Kayaks. We spent the next 4 hours snorkeling around an island 2Kms off the beach, watching the brilliantly coloured, fresh water tropical fish that inhabited the island, some of which were specific to only that island, and live no where else in the world.

The dawn of the next day saw the lake whipped up into a wild sea, and the previously calm watered beach, was now being pounded by waves big enough to surf on, and as we found sink k2k’s boats!! A campsite that we found at Kande beach, 250kms north of Senga, proved to be the ultimate test of kayaking stamina, as the waves pounded a few very wet yet enthusiastic K2K paddlers.

Tension rises at boarder crossing

The sudden realisation that Yellow Fever vaccination certificates may have been needed at the Tanzanian border bought on a little group tension due to the fact that Shayne and myself had opted not to bring our certificates, as we understood they were for entry back into Australia and not needed else where. However after a few crossed fingers we managed to enter Tanzania without even being asked for them, and with all members of the group.

Richard nearly sweeps local child off his feet!

After a long and tedious day of driving through Tanzania a stray child who was playing a game on the side of the road, and ran out into the middle of the road gave all of us a very big scare. Fortunately we narrowly missed the child however not before coming very close to rolling the car. Richard who was driving at the time stopped soon after to change his underpants.

Genuine farm yard showers

After 4 smelly days of no showering we were informed by Tim from Cape Town that the farm yard campsite south west of Iringa, provided some magic showering opportunities. After a poor nights sleeping due to the ear piercing birds that continued to keep us (not Graeme) awake and extensive efforts by myself to “Quiten the birds”, we all arose at around 4:15am. A hot shower that early in the morning was well appreciated. Thanks for the recommendation Tim!.

The “Real” Kamakazi’s !

Africa has come up with its own form of kamikazes, and they are the bus and truck drivers. To date we have seen 9 recently rolled trucks on their roofs, sides and noses. This is not an unusual site in this area of the world, due to the speeds and weights these trucks and buses do. It is certainly amazing how these fully loaded buses with people hanging out the doors and stacks of luggage loaded 6 feet into the air on the tops of them defy gravity, as they have been passing us down mountain passes doing close to 140kph!! A local informed us contrary to the travelers companion books, that traveling at night by car was in some cases safer than during the day, as the buses don’t generally run late into the night.

Exphixiated by a python or Swallowed by a Hippo?

As we arrived at the turn off into the Pangani campsite we came across a freshly killed Boa Constrictor stretching 10 feet across the road. As we set up camp beside the river in the dark after arriving at 10:30pm, everyone was on the look out for the older brothers of the sibling python we had earlier seen stretched across the road, some of which may stretch up to 18+ feet in length and more than capable of swallowing an Impala (or us) whole. The light of the morning meant that we were able to see exactly where we were camping and the owner of the campsite exclaimed that often Hippos would arise out of the river and onto the banks that we had occupied the night before, with a smirk he remarked that they “Have not been here for a couple of weeks however”.

Shayne's posting

2005-08-01T22:38:00.000-07:00

25th July Cont.
Aaron shouts Zambian Cops drinks!! (Shayne)

It is not an unusual sight to see police roadblocks along the way in Zambia, asking for documentation on insurance and drivers licenses. We had already passed through several…this however was not a police roadblock Aaron was waved down and a cop cheerfully explained. “You have exceeded the limit!” The alleged offence was for driving 72km in a 50km zone. Something we all thought was highly unlikely as this is close to “Mlevi’s” tops speed!! But we knew better then to argue and were told the fine was for 67500 Zambian Kwacha (+-R93 or US$14). We handed over the money and the cop then asked for Aaron’s license. Aaron searched through his bags for his license the cop called him over and told him not to worry. He told us that because he was feeling generous he would do Aaron a ‘fava’. Instead of putting the fine into the computer system, (which we could see no sign of) he generously took the money from Aaron and handed back 27500 kwacha. He told Aaron that by doing this he would save Aaron because if he got caught speeding again the fine would be much bigger the second time around. We agreed and left. The fine works out to be about US$9 so we were pleased with the dodgy result.

‘This old ball is Rubbbbeeesssshhhhh’ (Shayne)
‘Mlevi’ pulled up to a bare dust covered ‘field’ where kids kicked around a rubbish bag held together by string. Their ‘ball’ as one of the kids later explained was quite literally a piece of rubbish. We handed them a brand new ball thanks to sponsors BDO Spencer Steward.

The smiles on the faces of the children awash with joy as they shouted laughed and danced around the field holding their new treasure high above their heads. One of the older boys picked up the old ball and slammed it into the ground, sending up a mushroom of dust, exclaiming “this old ball is RUBBBEEESSSHHH!!! The kids continued to dance and cheer, the joy on their faces radiating, it made all of our day seeing these kids with absolutely nothing overcome with joy over something as simple as a soccer ball. The memory of the children’s laughter and happiness will be something that we cherish for ever, knowing that we brought a little more enjoyment to their poverty stricken lives. Hopefully not only giving them the physical gift of a soccer ball, but something far more useful, hope for the future.

Bridge Camp (Shayne)
The sun was set and we were still driving looking for a campsite recommended to us by the ‘biker boys’ at Livingstone. We were on a steep hill decent when we were forced to stop by a mass of people in the street. A street market, selling everything from fruit to woven furniture. All under candle light…this provided an airy atmosphere. We asked some locals for advice and they pointed us in the direction of the camp. The camp was great. Right on the riverbank with a pool and bar overlooking the amazing views of course this could not be seen till early the next morning when we left for Malawi.

26th July (Shayne)
The road was long and the going tough, Mlevi threatened to topple over as we swerved across the road dodging pot holes that resembled quarries. As we stopped to admire the stretch of road we had just conquered we heard a thundering as a taxi (mini bus) came flying along the road not even trying to avoid the mass of craters before him. The mini bus bounced past us and out of sight, ‘Thudding’ as it got air out of potholes. We were in shock and sure we were going to see it crashed further down the road.

Arriving at the border, we went through with a bit of confusion, as the Malawi border post is situated 10kms away from its Zambian counterpart. This we were simply to understand, as there were no signs and no officials explained anything. It was not until we had turned around that we asked a local and they explained the strange location of the Malawian border post. We again passed through with no problem. The amount of our luggage is a certain deterrent to any official looking to search. As yet we have had no issues, “Touch Wood”!

1st update on the road-Lusaka

2005-07-25T06:06:00.000-07:00

K2K off with a BANG – 18 July 2005 Rich
We set off at 5 am on Monday morning after spending 8 hours longer than expected to pack Mlevi (our Landover – meaning drunkard in Swahili). We crawled out of town not having slept a wink! Trouble struck 50 km outside of Beaufort West when our rear right tyre decided it had had it and brought Mlevi to a grinding holt!

After watching our regular jack buckle under the weight of the heavy load, we resorted to the notorious high lift jack! Having been told by many experienced 4x4ers not to use a high lift jack to change a flat, we gave this piece of equipment some serious respect – as if it was the most deadly snake ready to strike at any moment!

After passing high lift jack 101 we nervously rolled into Beaufort West without another spare tyre! Another valuable lesson, a second spare wheel is worth its weight in gold and should not be sacrificed! We have our Cape Town base to thank for their quick response time and had one of our 3 spare wheels sitting in Cape Town on its way to meet us in Johannesburg!

After replacing 3 of our tubes and tightening our front shocks, we eventually left Beautfort West 2 hours later! Thanks Pitstop, Claremont for not tightening our shocks you installed and fitting VW Golf tubes to our V8 Landrover!! We know who not to visit when we return!!

It took us a total of 22 and half hours before we reached the City of Gold!

19 July 2005
K2K Team Heads North (Rich)

A historic moment arrived when the core team met one another for the first time! The two Aussie counterparts were no longer a rumour and were clearly excited and up for an adventure!

The rest of the day was spent flying around JHB picking up last minute supplies, not that we didn’t have enough already! Mlevi barely made it up in one piece and now add two Aussies their gear etc. we were going to be quite packed, over loaded is more like it.

Calling it a tight squeeze would be the understatement of the year! The car was packed and ready to go but we had one of the most important things sitting on the garage floor, OUR BALLS!

We placed a box of 50 balls in the middle of the back seat which created a nice division between the two passengers in the back – the perfect hide away if there ever was one.

We managed to squeeze a couple beers with some mates at the local Newscafe, sorry we were so late guys but packing our Mlevi (our Landy) was no easy task, before crashing for a couple of desperately needed hours sleep.

20 July 2005
Matlou Ranch Rich

The team rose early and they were on the road before the sun rose! We were heading for Matlou Ranch, the largest privately owned game park in Botswana, situated on the banks of the great greasy Limpopo River!

Our first boarder crossing between SA and Botswana went off without a hitch. The SA officials gave Shayne a little word regarding his dual citizenship but nothing too serious. The Botswana guys weren’t too keen to be film stars so we had to do some Special Assignment under cover shooting! Lets hope we still have it, I might have recorded over it!! Lesson to be learnt!

We were met at the boarder by Oksana, one of our initial sponsors and the owners of Matlou Ranch, who has been very generous and has, help our expedition financially, for which we are very grateful.

First real African Sun downers Rich
That evening we climbed a little koppie (small rocky outcrop) for our first truly African sunset! We toasted to the adventures that lay ahead and for everyone who has and continues to support us along our way! Yet another tough day in Africa!

That evening we were truly spoilt with as much Kudu stew as we could muster!

21 July 2005
The Hunt to support the local community Rich
Shayne and Aaron helped out the community by providing them with some Impala meat. We spent the better part of the afternoon driving around in search for the perfect specimens, male adult Impala. Well done gentleman the locals are going to be really happy with your contribution.

Elephant sightings Rich
Towards the late afternoon Graham cleared his curse of not seeing any elephants at Matlou Ranch, when we came across a herd coming down to drink at one of the few wet watering holes in the park. It was a spectacular setting, these huge animals moving soundlessly through a Baobab forest!

During a late evening game drive a nervous mother elephant, trying to protect her young one attempted to mock charge our vehicle, which was aggregated by a chanting local diesel mechanic we had on board as our “man” (someone indigenous to the area who can give us insight into the local culture and help us out with whatever we might need), who was attempting to get his own back on them for stomping down his fence. The trusty game viewing vehicle left the elephant before anything too serious occurred.

Candle lit dinner Kudu schnitzel Rich
After a long day out hunting we were treated to our best meal on tour to date! Unbelievably tender Kudu schnitzel, garlic roast potatoes and too many veggies to mention, we topped it off with some legendary Cane and coke! Thanks to the chefs at Matlou Ranch we will savour that meal for a long time to come!

22 July 2005
Onto the salt Pans (Rich)
We were reluctant to leave the beautiful tranquil surroundings of Matlou Ranch but the excitement of the unknown and what lay ahead spurred us on to head north.

Mathathani School
Matlou Ranch have been heavily involved with a local school – Mathathani Primary, supplying school books, helping out with tours and more recently a providing some very smart traditional dancing outfits.

We were very fortunate to be entertained by some of the grade 5 children when we paid them a visit and handed out 3 soccer balls. We were all touched by the experience, these children were unbelievably appreciative of our small contribution, it really hit home as to how privileged we truly are, that something so small meant so much to them.

Zambian Soccer stars of the future Rich
On our way through Francis Town, 200km south of Nata, our final destination, we drove past a large soccer pitch, where many young and old children were playing, what looked like quite a organized game. We had passed many pitches before but none where being used, this was a perfect opportunity to interact with the locals and donate some of our 50 strong balls!

Shayne pumped up a ball and gave it some real welly as he hoofed it onto the field during mid play! We all watched in anticipation to see their reaction! It took no longer than 5 sec before their old brown ball was kicked off the field and replaced by our bright red shining ball! We all smiled with joy, and felt pleased with ourselves that our ball was favoured over their’s.

However as quickly as it came on it was removed!? We weren’t quite sure why? Many of the locals standing around obviously noticed us and started coming towards us “who do these guys think they are?” Coming here interrupting our practice and kicking balls onto the pitch! It didn’t take long before we were introduced to the head coach of Tafic F.C., the local premier club in Francis Town. He was very interested in hearing who we were and what we wanted, the next thing we were interviewing him for our documentary and learning all about the Botswana governments stand on the game and who puts up all the finance for the domestic and international teams! We parted with another ball and his details and some very interesting facts on the state of soccer in Botswana. As we drove off the practice returned to normal and our ball remained on the side lines? Coach told us that our plastic balls were perfect for practicing but they were on the light side when it came to the big boys with real force before their strike.

First night camping Graham

Our first proper camping night was at Nata Lodge on the edge of the Makgadikgadi Pans. We got there in the dark and had to spend some time trying to figure out how to pitch the tents as we had only done this once before and that was during the day time. Our chefs, Shayne and Aaron, cooked some great kudu steaks and an interesting stew which Richard and I are still not entirely sure as to exactly what went into it! We don’t really care though as it was awesome!

22 July 2005
Makgadikgadi Pan Graham

We left Nata to go up to Vic Falls and decided to take a detour into the Makgadikgadi Pans. The pictures and film really battle to show the sheer vastness of the place. There is literally miles and miles of absolutely nothing in every direction.

23 July 2005
Vic Falls Graham
We arrived at Vic Falls after a longer than expected drive from Nata. It was quite late in the day so we decided to set up camp at “The Campsite” (see “The Snake” below for more about the campsite) and re-heated the stew and kudu from the day before, which was still really tasty! We headed off to the local pub and met up with some of the white water rafting guides who convinced us to go with them to a club called “Croc Rock”. Once we had got over the initial fear that we were about to be robbed, we realized that it was a really good place. It had a live band, a great bar (even though it ripped us off!) and very friendly locals. We stayed there until about 2am and got properly hammered!

The SNAKE Graham
We decided to book into a 9 man dorm because we had been told that there was nobody else staying there and that we would have it all to ourselves. It was only US$ 1 more than camping and a lot less effort so we decided that it was the better option, until…we met the Snake and his mates. We had settled down to our meal when a really dodgy character, who introduced himself as “SNAKE”, approached us. He was looking for the key to the dorm as he had just checked in with 3 smelly mates. He was tall and skinny, was wearing a Bob Marley hat complete with the mandatory dreadlocks, had 2 dope pipes stuffed behind his ears and had apparently just ‘flown in’ from Botswana! This fellow proceeded to help himself to our food, drank all sorts of substances out of our cups and then disappeared into the Vic Falls night only to be seen again at 6 the next morning, thoroughly high and unable to sleep. The munchies started to kick in and he once again started to tuck in to our biscuit stash. Aaron spent the rest of the morning sterilizing the cups that the Snake had been contaminating! It was great to see the back of the Snake when we finally left! Sorry, but we were too scared to take a photo of this creature!

The Falls Rich

The legendary Victoria Falls discovered way back by Dr Livingston in ___ didn’t disappoint and once we got over the staggering entrance fee of US$ 20, which is apparently supporting the entire Zimbabwe economy, we strolled around in awe of this world heritage site. The amazing updraft cooled and at times drenched us, protecting our camera equipment was our main concern. Aarons enthusiastic interviews we captured on film, standing on the lip of the falls with the up draft raining on him are something to look forward to.

After spending all our remaining Zim dollars we crossed the spectacular Victoria Falls bridge separating Zimbabwe and Zambia, all trying to ignore the fact that there were people bungi jumping from the highest point – 111 meters!! We all decided that we would return and do the rafting, the bungi is for guys with real balls!!

Royal Livingston Rich

Once we put up camp at the post popular spot in Livingston, Jollyboy’s, we headed out to change some money, being a Sunday all the banks were closed so our best option was going to be a local hotel. We headed straight for the Royal Livingston, the grandest establishment this side of the Zambezi!! We found ourselves awestruck sitting right on the banks of the mighty river with a seriously expensive drink in our hands! We all decided that once we had made our millions we would return! With the spry from the falls as a back drop this deck perked on the banks of the might river has to be the most beautiful spots around and is a must see for anyone passing through Livingston!

2K5 Africa Rich
On our way across the boarder two serious off road twin bikes caught Aaron’s eyes, “now that is how I would like to travel!” he said, clearly the confined space in Mlevi was getting to him, I’m not surprised, sitting in the back seats does feel like you are confined to a holding cell!

It turned out that these two serious adventurers had come from London and were on their way to Cape Town! We spent the rest of the evening picking their brains for the best spots to pull into and hearing all about their amazing adventure, go check out their site http://www.2k5africa.co.za/
Sounds like they have had an incredible time Saving the Africa Rhino’s! Thanks Mark and Jason, we appreciated your info and look forward to Candi Beach!

25 July 2005
Zambian Schools Rich
Heading north for Lusaka we saw a sizable school on the side of the road, not having visited a school in a couple of days we decided to pull in and see if we could find any teachers. The school had over a thousand students, the children were all very excited to see us and surrounded the Mlevi marveling at all the sponsors logos and our big red boats.

After handing out 4 balls and exchanging addresses and signatures in the Deputy Headmasters office we were asked what else we had for them, they were desperate for any books to fill their library. It dawned on us how desperate these schools were! Our balls definitely brought smiles to all the kids but for the teachers, books etc would have been more useful, we left feeling like our small contribution hadn’t meant that much to them, interesting…

A teacher from a school down the road happened to be there and directed us towards his school which was far smaller and very well behaved, it didn’t take long before every child had surrounded the vehicle and wanted to touch our hairy arms, car and our balls! We definitely felt far more appreciated than the larger school we previously visited and decided smaller schools should be our focus. We ended up donating 9 balls, 4 to another sports coach who happened to be in the right place at the right time and coached at 4 different schools.

Smiles all round, these little visits definitely lifted our spirits and brought us closer as we feel more appreciated by bringing a smile to many needy peoples faces. The one teacher commented to the other; “this has been a really good day!”

We are currently in Lusaka and will keep you updated. We have already taken over 1000 photos so there is a lot to look forward to. They are just a bit of a mission to put on the site!

Farewell party!

2005-07-14T16:00:00.000-07:00

We eventually gave up hope of someone throwing a farewell party for us so we decided to host a party for ourselves! It was a great success and we managed to get some strangers from the street to come and pose for the photo!

We sold quite a lot of soccer balls which got signed by the donors who also wrote a message to the lucky kids who will be receiving the balls.

Thanks to all that came and especially to those of you who sponsored a soccer ball.

We are planning on leaving Cape Town on Monday 18 July, but if all goes well we may leave on the 17th.

Camping test run

2005-07-11T15:49:00.000-07:00

We took a trip up to Tittiesbaai for a camping test run which proved to be most helpful and we learned a lot (like to remember to pack the gas cooker!). Nice start K2K!!

We had a great campsite which was right on the beach. The hard floor was not too bad and I rather enjoyed the muscle shell jabbing me in the back!

Ready to head Due South!

2005-07-11T15:33:00.000-07:00

Due South is an exciting new outdoor store and has sponsored us our clothing and camping gear for the trip. Their high quality range includes products such as North Face and Columbia.

We spent about 2 hours in their flagship store in Canal Walk trying on clothing and checking their gear out. They have some great gadgets, a lot of which can't be found elsewhere. We tried really hard to convince them that these could also be used for kayaking, but there was no pulling the wool over their eyes!

4x4 course a breeze!

2005-07-09T14:29:00.000-07:00

We took our 4x4 to the Land Rover Experience in Paarl today and had a lot of fun in the mud. We are still amazed at some of the places the car went and the hills that it climbed without landing up on its head! We hopefully won't have to push it to these sort of extremes on our trip but it is good to know what it is capable of. I am actually hoping that we don't have to do any pushing at all!

For our eyes only!

2005-07-08T14:10:00.000-07:00

Spec-Savers have sponsored us sunglasses to protect us against...well, the sun! We were also very pleased to find all the items in the picture on our doorstep the other day and they have already come in handy. Spec-Savers has 192 stores country wide and is undoubtedly the number one eyewear brand in South Africa. They are also the sponsors of the South African Ironman Triathlon.

Baggage has arrived! Oh, and 2 Aussies!

2005-07-07T15:40:00.000-07:00

Shayne and Aaron have arrived in SA and are hiding in the Free State. Just 2 questions from the K2K Team: 1) Where are you going to practice your sea kayaking in the Free State? 2) What's in those bags? They are bigger than all the kayaks put together!

Welcome guys, we are glad that you are finally here and that this trip is about to happen!

Nervous looking Aussies leave for SA

2005-07-06T15:29:00.000-07:00

Shayne and Aaron left Melbourne this morning for a 24 hour flight to South Africa. From the photos they look pretty nervous but I am sure that they are far less worried than those that were on the other side of the camera!

K2K collects boats

2005-07-06T15:08:00.000-07:00

We have collected our boats from Paddlers.co.za. They are plastic Perception sea kayaks from New Zealand and are state of the art. We are going to be using 2 single kayaks and a double. Paddlers are the suppliers of these boats and many others and have one of the widest product ranges around. They also supply a host of paddling accessories.

Derrick and Margaret from Paddlers have been very helpful in providing us with a lot of training and advice and have been an invaluable source of information due to their vast experience in sea kayaking.

Richard is, however, still quite frightened of the sea and prefers to practice in a heated swimming pool (with a wetsuit too!).

Protected by the Island Tribe

2005-07-04T15:21:00.000-07:00

We were pleasantly surprised when we arrived home today to find 2 large boxes full of sponsored Island Tribe suncream. This suncream is used by many of the top surfers and kayakers due to its fantastic water resistant properties. They also produce a unique and very handy 2 in 1 suncream and aftersun combo. Sun protection is going to be a vital part of our trip and is going to become a daily ritual!

Paddler comes to visit

2005-07-01T10:19:00.000-07:00

Ian Brebin, who is joining us for the Dar - Mafia leg, was recently in Cape Town and we took him out for a paddle. I think he was very relieved to be back on the shore after all the stories he was told of the Great White sharks which inhabit these waters!

We got hooked, but will the fish?

2005-07-01T10:12:00.000-07:00

We spent about 3 hours in the fishing shop today and left them smiling from ear to ear when we finally swiped our poor credit card! We have got fishing equipment to supply a small African tribe for a couple of years so it had better work!

What's on the menu?

2005-06-29T17:42:00.000-07:00

Cheap pilchards or cheaper pilchards? Now that really is the question! With departure date drawing closer, the team is getting ever more anxious about the well being of their tummies. The menu is looking very bland but is functional to say the least. There is, however, not much that a couple of spices will not disguise.

Dry, Dry, Dry!

2005-06-29T11:55:00.000-07:00

We have been sponsored dry bags and spare split-blade paddles by ARK. These are going to keep our food, equiupment and clothing dry and in working order throughout the expedition. The paddles will also come in very handy as they are compact when taken apart and fit into a kayak quite easily. These will be used in the very likely event of one of our main palles being lost or getting damaged. ARK Manufactures high quality dry bags and inflatable river craft and accessories.

Reef equips K2K

2005-06-27T10:00:00.000-07:00

We visited Reef wetsuits today to pick up the rash vests and paddling shorts that they have sponsored us. Reef manufactures rash vests which have 98% UV protection against the sun. This is in the highest category that CANSA has got for UPF and is rated by them as being "Excellent"! This shows that Reef has products of the highest quality.

22 days to go

2005-06-26T13:16:00.000-07:00

The K2K Expedition leaves in 22 days time! Everything is falling in place well and they are on track to leave on time.

1st trip to the petrol station

2005-06-25T02:57:00.000-07:00

“Mlevi” takes its first of many expensive trips to the petrol station. 80 litres is nothing for this thirsty giant which will take 120 litres in a tank when on our trip.

Australians set loose!

2005-06-24T02:06:00.000-07:00

The K2K Te

am has been joined

by 2 Australian convicts, Shayne Marshall and Aaron Yeats, who have escaped the

ir university for 6 months in order to do the whole trip with us. Good luck to them for getting back to the books after 6 months nothing but sun, surf and beaches!

K2K gets Land Rover

2005-06-24T01:50:00.000-07:00

The K2K Team has just acquired a 4x4. It has been named "Mlevi" (drunkard in Swahili!) due to its bad drinking habbit! It is a 1993 Land Rover Defender V8 and is going to take us safely through Africa.

K2K Expedition helps community through soccer

2005-06-10T00:39:00.000-07:00

The K2K Expedition sets off on 20 July 2005 with an aim of delivering 500 soccer balls to the children of the East Coast of Africa. Have a look at their site to see how you can donate a soccer ball. www.k2k.co.za