Frank in Africa ‘08

Blog about my Trip to Tanzania, Malawi, Namibia and South Africa

I asked for a Hammer they gave me a Rock

hey hey visitors of my site (350 unique visitors and counting), how are you people doing…?!lots has been happening since my last post, my last post ended with me saying I was gonna climb this mountain, which I did, I could type 3 blogposts about just that trip, but I really don’t have the time or energy for that, so you’ll have to do with the short version of the story for now… me and Beer decided to take the day off and climb the mountain, we had hoped for some sort of path to the top, we were wrong, after about 15 mins of climbing (following a rainwater drainage pipe) we came across 2 young african girls wearing slippers/sandals who were on their way down, which made me feel like some sort of tourist wearing my leather boots, we asked them if there was a path, they said no. after following the pipe line for another 10 minutes or so, and avoiding huge bumble bees (red with black) we heard a lot of water, there was some sort of water storage and filtering plant halfway up the hill, there was a little man made path next to the fence which ran up hill for about 20 minutes, after that there were no more paths, so we started climbing, after a few minutes beer yelled “Ants”, he wasn’t wearing any socks and was getting eaten alive by these ants that bite and dont let go, Beer had to go back and I decided to keep going by myself (which as everybody knows isn’t a smart idea) so I pulled up my socks all the way to my knees and started climbing, after about 30 minutes the spiked bushes and trees turned into white rocks, boulders, really big ones, and it started to get really steep, but I decided to keep going, the view was already amazing and I could see the top. I took lots of pics of the view and these strange blue reflective bugs that were everywhere… I reached the top, which was a total vertical piece of rock that was to high to climb, and drank my water before going back…going uphill was the easy part, downhill was terrible, I ended up with lots of scratches and wounds on my arms and legs from the plants, I even fell and almost broke my leg, but the adrenaline was flowing and I felt great, on my way down I heard water, and I figured it was the water plant we came across on the way to the top, but it ended up being a waterfall/river which was awesome. there was a lot of water coming down, lots of strange birds with white tails and mushrooms, it was such an unexpected and awesome sight that my wounds stopped hurting and everything was great… I made it home before dark, satisfied but tired.not much else happened in Zomba, just the usual walking to the internet hotspot and back, and working on the webisodes. there was an open air concert of Blaxtar (the dutch hip hop artist) and Gosple (the malawi hip hop artist) and it made it verry clear to me that people arent ready for hip hop yet, they didn’t care, there was no excitement and we (the white people) seemed like a better circus attraction…after a week of Zomba we took a busride back to Blantyre (where we landed, the capital) it was a bumpy ride, and the rappers were singing the whole time, not just hip hop, also other stuff, some of my requests were awesome, seeing Blaxtar do a Methodman impression was crazy…Yesterday we checkin into this new hotel place, its basically a construction sight, they promised us silence but well… this is africa, after finally getting a room and unpacking I tried to hang my mosquito net but I couldnt get the lil screw to grip the ceiling, so I asked for a hammer, after 10 minutes this guy came back with this rock he had picked up somewhere and handed it to me, the hammer didnt really work, but its 1 of those little experiences I’ll carry with me for the rest of my life…no pics today…they still need to be sorted… 

Tags: Malawi by Frank
2 Comments »

feb 13/14

Another day at tasty bites, we’ve finally finished webisode 4 and Beer is currently trying to upload it with 1kb/sec and is swearing at the world…I think people are getting a little stressed, that’s why we’ve decided to go climb a hill as soon as we’re done with this, to connect with mother nature, Beer want to take a taxi to the top and just check out the view, but I just wanna walk through nature… we’ll see… I’ve been a little sick, having to go to the toilet 5 times a day, I don’t know if it’s the food or the Malaria pills, Malaria pills make you lose more hair than usual, which I noticed last night, I think that after 2 and a half weeks of taking pills we are all starting to experience some physical and mental problems, people are having really strange dreams which somehow continue when they wake up, which results in some funny moments.  The country is so beautiful, Beautiful green trees and flowering plants, dark orange sand, rocky mountains and perfect blue sky, it’s like constantly being in a zoo where you can touch everything and you can get as close as you dare to, yesterday I wondered if this monkey was gonna pee on me because it was sitting about a meter above my head, it didn’t but if it would have it would have still been awesome, the people are amazing too, women carrying around babies on their backs and a large container with peanuts on their head at the same time, there are also guys constantly mowing lawns by hand (with large knives) I don’t really understand why, my guess would be to keep black/green mambas away.  I haven’t really had a conversation with a local yet because they don’t speak english, they just answer everything with “yes yes” and smile, but have no clue what you’re talking about, which causes problems, especially when you’re asking for directions. Today Blaxtar arrives with my Hard Drive! thanks people of Grrr for helping me out. lets hope I’ll be able to fix my computer, so I can be more productive and get back to a regular blog updating. Chapter 2 of the tour starts tomorrow…Check out the pics!!! 

Tags: Malawi by Frank
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feb 10th

Today we left Dar es Salaam - Tanzania, I’m happy to leave somehow, I got kinda tired of the city life there, to much noise and polution. we left at 7:30 in the morning, took a taxi to the airport and checked in, it all took really long because there was a lack of organisation at the airport, there was no structure, they had to check my bag because it had 2 external hard drives in it, but jeroens bag, which also had 2 HDDs didnt get checked. Everybody made it through the bag check eventually and we were late, but the plane wasnt even there yet…

The flight itself was fine, I slept for a bit and they gave us breakfast, scrambled eggs with a lil sausage and some fried potatoes. when we landed I knew it was gonna be a totally different place than Dar es Salaam, it’s so green here because its the rain season, and its all so peaceful and beautiful. After a long drive from Blantyre to Zomba we checked into the hotel, we have 4 small lodges I guess the word is, me and Beer share 1, and next to us are the other 2 guys (Jelle and Jeroen) the women are up hill slightly, which is great because they talk too much.

After unpacking we went to the city centre, which somehow reminded me of an old Western movie, old looking scructure with the paint coming of, and the hand painted sign, it’s great, but not a place I can photograph I think, since we’re the only white people here and it’s clear that we’re a circus act to the locals… we visited a small market which was crazy, and after that had dinner (beef curry), at this place called “tasty bites”, it was ok.

I didn’t sleep much because Beer had an allergic reaction to all the dust, and he kept me awake most of the night with all his disgusting sounds ruining the nice sounds of the stream nearby…

Tags: Malawi by Frank
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