Driving Miss Suzy - tales from the passenger seat...

Thought it was about time I added my views and experiences on the trip so
far. It will all be done from memory as my journal, a leather bound book
with handmade paper containing about 500 pages, has 3 pages with writing on.
I am too busy to find the time to write a journal. Although saying that I
have managed to keep a diary of the important stuff - what we've had for
dinner every night. I'll fill you in on our 'life on the road' to answer
some of the questions out there.

Sleeping - Nights in the rooftop tent are really comfortable. There has been
the odd beast that has managed to get in and we've had to splat it -
spiders, mozzies, ants, some sort of cockroaches. The smell in the tent may
be keeping most bugs away - not smell from us but from the mozzie coils that
we burn up there every night. It kept the ellies away. We've mastered the
art of packing the tent up and the duvet and pillows stay up there which is
a great help. I'm always complaining that the tent feels damp but I guess it
is to be expected when you are pitched a couple of metres away from the sea.
One downside of rooftop tent is you have to leave it to make tea and to go
to the loo in the middle of the night, although I try and avoid that on all
occasions. Won't have anything to drink close to sleep time.
Since we've been in Tanzania we've managed to have later nights, for some
reason we were retiring around 8.00pm while in Moz, probably because we were
getting up so early - 6.00am.

Ablutions - I'm know that Carolyn and Sally will be really interested in
this. We started off with absolute luxury at Kruger Tsendze camp. Outdoor
and indoor showers, hot and cold running water and flushing loos. Things
could only go downhill from there. Our night in the Limpopo National park
was slightly different - one loo with a door that didn't close which was
used by all the builders, 2 cold water showers used by all the builders.
Accessories in the shower consisted of a hook made from a wire coat hanger
to hang a towel on. We then had a mixture of hot showers, cold showers,
grubby loos, hole in the ground Turkish loos or no showers if we were
staying at restaurant type places. At the beach campsite with the oil drum
shower they had a really different loo. Matt had said the loos were normal
and I went to check. It looked like a Turkish loo with a loo seat and lid. I
checked it out and it was just a loo seat and lid lying on the sand, that
reed enclosure wasn't in use. In Zanzibar we had an added extra in the
shower - one morning I got electric shocks when I touched the taps - I had
tingling sensations in my hands and arms and had to ask Matt to touch the
taps to see if it was just me or the great plumbing.

Budget - we did have a daily budget that we were going to be sticking to but
I think that has been blown out of the water. Although Matt tells me that if
we look at our Africa budget - from 1 December to now then we aren't
overspending. Thanks to Chez Bobo and Prince's Paradise. By the way, the
budget doesn't include Mufasa!

Now the most important subject - Food. It's what my holidays are made of. I
think it's safe to say that we are now vegetarians. Although we do slip a
bit when the opportunity arises. We haven't bought any meat since we left SA
(Matt says - we did buy bacon once!). We took supplies with us but we
finished ours in Kruger and Kaz & Rich's supply lasted us 2 weeks into Moz.
Since then we have had the occasional meal out when camping at restaurants -
chicken & chips, steak(?) and chips. We did have fish a couple of times
which was really good. I know it would have been better if we had caught it
ourselves but we didn't have permits (that's our excuse Oz!). Although one
day we will really try and catch our dinner, Matt was practicing the knots
that Oz taught him, so we know the fish won't get away when we do hook it.
We buy all our fruit and veg along the road and at markets. Sometimes they
try and rip us off but generally it's fine. We can only assume that
everything we buy is organic as they don't have huge quantities of things.
Apart from oranges, which are piled along the roadside. They seem to be a
favourite food of Tanzanians as they sold everywhere from carts, the vendors
cut off the peel and leave the pith on and then chop them in half when
selling them. But we haven't seen any orange trees anywhere!
Rice, pasta and potatoes are our staple meals along with tins bought in SA
or at the supermarket in Dar Es Salaam (very pricey).
I've taken to drinking beer now so Matt only gets to consume half the amount
he used to, although sometimes I save him a few slurps.

Zanzibar was heaven for food as we had a choice of restaurants and
everything we ate was delicious. Matt can give you that info in his next
blog.

Thoughts on places we've been to - Mozambique was interesting, I wasn't
expecting it to be as run down as it was. I expected towns to be more modern
and developed so that was quite a surprise. I thought all Africans lived in
mud huts, proved wrong again, they mostly lived in reed huts. Very tropical
and loads of coconuts palms. Not as much seafood as I expected and we didn't
get to try all the local food, although the Portuguese rolls were heaven and
almost our staple diet. Some stunning beaches and some awful roads. Locals
all very friendly.

Tanzania so far - Selous was good although I'm not sure about having
elephants walking through the camp, but I guess that's better than locals
with pangas. Ants with one helluva bite that had us jumping and dashing from
washing line to safety, could have done without them. Beaches have been
great. South beach near Dar was fantastic, like a cheap Mauritius. We are
now in the sisal area and it is so green. Still feels very tropical. Haven't
been hit by falling coconuts yet and hope it stays that way.

I haven't been lazing about the whole trip although Matt does do nearly all
the driving. I have taken the wheel on a few occasions but mainly on tar
roads. I was driving when the fuel tank bracket sheared off but that had
NOTHING to do with my driving.
It's been good being back on the road again although we do miss everyone so
keep us up to date with what's going on in your lives and keep the comments
and emails coming. Time to go and sort some lunch out, I might try and make
chapattis!