Travel Story «Ruaha Internet Cafe»

Tanzania | 0 Comments 17 March 2009 - Last Update 17 March 2009

Mambo? Poa! Mzima? Mzima! Freshi? Freshi! Shwari Cabiza! Safi.

Kiswahili greetings aside, today is an exciting day. I was walking down the main road of Ruaha, our local village, yesterday, when I sign in a shop window stopped me in my tracks. "Internet cafe". I though, has this been here all along and I've never noticed it? Or maybe it is like the poorly named Internet Music House, also in Ruaha, which doesn't even have a computer, and deals only in burned cds and dvds (which seems to be perfectly legal here, as there is not alternative). But no, it is a brand spanking new internet cafe, a 20 minute cycle from my house, with flashy dell computers, fairly slow internet, and very loud hip hop in the background.

It's also my first internet for two weeks. Think about it. When's the last time you had no internet access for two weeks? I bet the answer is something like 1998.

So what have I been doing for two weeks? Well, two weekends ago, we all decided to stay in Kilombero for the first time in a while and do some local exploration. Overlooking the Kilombero plains, where we live, are the Udzungwa mountains. Within them is Sanje falls, and on the Saturday we took a taxi and went on a trek up to the top of the waterfall. The mountains are a national park, and so are relatively untouched. A path has been made for the trek, but you are surrounded by thick trees, some of them huge, with curling liana vines and massive buttress roots (thank you year 8 geography). It is known as the Galapagos Islands of Africa, I think because it is so untouched, and contains a number of species of plants and animals not found anywhere else. We saw a few types of monkey jumping around in the trees, a couple of buffalo spiders (complete with horns) and ominous elephant tracks along the narrow pathway. The best though, was reaching, at the end of the walk, a rock platform just above the main drop of the waterfall. From there you could see for endless miles across the plains. It is, by far, the most beautiful place I have ever been. We were also able to swim underneath the first, smaller, drop, where I struggled to get underneath the falling water. 

On the Sunday, I went to Mikumi Snake park with my friend Edward, who I have mentioned before, and who turned up 4 hours late with his friend Festo in a really flash 4WD. The snake park is not much more than an ouside version of London Zoo reptile house, except the wardens will open samll doors in the back of the cages and poke snakes who are being boring, and tapping on glass to annoy them is encouraged. 

Since then, we have been back to Dar last weekend, to try and get our visas for Zambia. Of course we didn't think that embassies might be closed on weekends, which, yes, they were. We should be fine though, as we are getting a friend to sort it. The same friend took us in the evening to an Irish pub near his house. Yes, an irish pub. There was a really good Tanzanian band playing Nirvana and Warren Zevon songs. Also, they had Guinness, but wasn't serving it as they were worried they would run out before St Patrick's day.  

I am missing out a lot, such as my adventures at Clarence and Everestis house, and out epic journey home with too many bananas; Fanatic Liverpool fans burning Man Utd tops; Being offered Nazi gold by students; Eating buffalo meat and almost killing myself with a chilli. But those are stories for another day.

I have also set up a photobucket account. My username is vianairobi. Not sure how you access it you're end but I'll upload some photos to it. Let me know if it works, and if it does, what you reckon.

So, Usiku Mwema na Tutaonana Baadai.

Much love x 

 

 

 

 

 

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