Take me back to Africa

27 Apr

I’ve been seeing some memories coming up on Facebook lately from eleven years ago. This time 11 years ago I was exploring East Africa and absolutely loving my time! In total it was a six week trip, but that included a couple of days in Dubai on the way over, and a few days in Sydney on the way back. I’ve been talking about Africa with Benny since he was in NICU and we’d spend many hours a day snuggling. One stage when he was a little bigger and slightly more responsive I started asking him about where he’d like to travel to when he got bigger, and Africa was a definite positive response. Now at four he’s super keen to go there and do a safari. Hopefully one day in the not too distant future we can make that dream a reality. But for now I still have the joy of looking through the photos and remembering the amazing trip that it was!!

Dubai blows my mind. To think most of it didn’t exist in the 60s and now how massive it is, is crazy! I really wanted to do a trip out to the desert but unfortunately I left booking it too late and there were no spaces, so I got a hop on hop off bus ticket and explored that way. Lots of cool stuff to see and if I’d been there longer there definitely were some awesome things to do. I think next time I head that way I’ll spend even longer there so we can go to the waterparks and more thoroughly explore the souk (market).

My first week in Africa I stayed with my best friend. She was living in Gulu, in the northern part of Uganda. Staying with her, seeing her life there, and getting to experience a tiny glimpse of life there was eye opening to say the least! I remember the first time I saw some baboons on the side of the road i was SO excited! But by the end of the road it was more “urgghhh, baboons”. We went to visit a school one of her friends was a principal at and joined in their sports afternoon. Definitely a cool experience! Visiting local churches and riding local busses (i was definitely surprised when I saw someone selling live chickens to people on the bus which they just stuffed under their seat!). Totally an experience of a lifetime!

After my week in Gulu I went to join the tour group. We started in Kenya, headed back through Uganda, then through Kenya again and down to Tanzania. Epic, epic experience that I would do again in a heartbeat! Some of the highlights were trekking with the mountain gorillas and knowing we were some of the 500 people getting permits worldwide to do it that day, hot air ballooning over the Serengeti, having warthogs roaming through our campground at one of our stops, seeing a herd of elephants in the road in front of us and getting to hear them trumpet, getting nudged by african buffalo through the tent while we were sleeping as they were eating and so many more it’s hard to mention them all. Hopefully some of the photos do it justice and maybe get you inspired to travel further afield too.

We finished in Zanzibar, an amazing way to finish the tour. My bestie joined us for that part of the tour which was super special. I’m so in love with all the different doors in Stone Town, and hanging out on the beach for a few days was a great way to unwind after so much time spent on the road.