Jambo! As they say in Zanzibar! and Karibu to my latest entry! (Welcome :))

Soooo, last stop in Africa soon, will probably have one more entry before I leave :( VERY sad about leaving such an amazing group of people and such a wonderful place :( I think i can definitly say I will be leaving my heart in Africa, i never expected to love it so much as I have, and I will definitly be coming back for sure! But moving on to the here and now,

The last night in Kandie Beach was fantastic fun and the day itself was beautifully sunny and hot! EVERYONE else went on a villiage tour but me and Louise decided to stay behind and have pancakes for breakfast and relaaaxxxx...however we decided to go to the market and ended up taking our own little villiage tour when we got lost! we went so far that we actually met up with the rest of the group anyway! (which meant we had to leave very quickly before they tried to charge us for the tour as well!) We ended up meeting them all for lunch in the villiage anyway - a traditional Malawi meal done by the locals - interesting...lets put it that way...obviously its a lot pooer area so the food was basic for us - but a feast for them! Still, it was nice to sit with the kids and visit all their shops :)

Afternoon was spent beating Justin at pool and watching people play volleyball on the beach. That is until it started raining, at which point both me and louise who were sunbathing at the time decided that since we were both British and sunbathing in the rain was our forte, we would have a competition to see who could stay the longest before they either got too wet or electricuted from their ipods! It turns out we are both really stubborn. And thus we got VERY wet - it wasnt until Steven gave us an out by saying it was a draw that we could get up! Still, we showed em how its done in England, thats for sure! Rain...what rain! As long as I can still see blue sky somewhere on the horrizon its ok to sunbathe - thats the rule!

That evening, as i said before, was fancy dress as traditional african people! Now most people decided to go as bushmen or traditional african women etc etc however, i decided that i would go a different direction and went more for the whole tarzan and Jane look...it seemed like a good idea at the time except that my sarong kept falling down throughout the night! Most of the guys however looked like very feminine versions of Rambo. Obviously there was lots of alcohol flowing that night, tabs made at the bar and later regretted and of course lots of incriminating photos taken! The best part though was at the end when we were settling our tabs, Kav sold me to the bar tender to settle his!! So next thing i know im round the other side of the bar getting a free drink and he still has to pay!

So, Saturday, day 40 for anyone counting, and Very hungover.

Drove to a different camp on the lake today, stopping on the way at a couple of markets and a nice little roadside cafe where we had a pizza lunch - LAKKAR! (Basically 'cool beans' in Africaans) At the next camp there was a market outside it so i decided that i would go bargain the hell out of them for some nice s*** to send home :P And boy did i do well! I swapped batteries and some US dollars for a chess set with peices included, i got a hand carved (slightly dodgy carving though) jewellery box with my name on it for the equivilant of 5 pounds and some batteries, and finally a nice hand carved picture thing for an old pair of shorts! I did so well infact that Ric then asked me to go back with him to bargain for a chair - which he got for some shampoo and about 4 pounds! The only 'unexpected' part of the day however was the marraige proposal i got from 'fantastic steve' on the market - he told me to stay and fall in love with him...and various other things which i shall not mention for the parentals' sake...funnily enough though i found the strength to decline and quickly RAN back to camp!

And then to Sunday - crossed the border into Tanzania today, changed money - the usual - and yes it rained a lot - again the usual! In fact it rained sooo much that by the time we got to camp EVERYONE in the group wanted to upgrade to a proper room to escape the tents! Wimpy actually said he had never had that before on a trip - but like hell i was gonna put my tent up in the pissing down rain...or sleep in it for that matter! We all had a group meal at a local restaurant which was really nice and then got to sample the camp speciality - Amarula hot chocolate. Now for those of you who dont know, Amarula is like Bailey's - but nicer. A lot nicer. And funnily enough it goes VERY well in hot chocolate!

Sunday was a pretty short chilled day really because we had a very early start the next day - 4AM!!!!! sooo not impressed! oh and did i mention it was a 14 hour drive to go with it! even the buffet lunch paid for my wimpy himself couldnt stop the sting from that wake up call! But still...i wont complain....much! No really, it wasnt that bad, and there was some great conversation on the truck, you know that kind of conversation where everyone involved is too tired to really know what they are saying! yes people it was one of those! Tanja i think decided to be our tour guide of Dar Es Salaam (here on called Dar) and decided that the people were known as Salamian's - they exported Salami as their main source of income - there were mermaids involved at one point who love the salami and so come to the mainland to breed with the salamian's, oh and the president of Dar was about 4 years old! Called Prince Salami i do believe!...how cultural we are!

Soooo by this point i might add, none of my bank cards were working so i had NO money - i was not a happy bunny because i hate borrowing money from people, plus its very fustrating when you actually have money in your account for the first time in ages and they STILL wont let you get to it! But anyway....we had to get the ferry over to the campsite as it was on a little island just off the mainland - the camp was called Mikadi Beach Lodge and served alcaholic slushi's! I liked the place straight away funnily enough! It also had a pool (but it was empty) and a pool table (much mroe useful) as well as a lovely chcken dinner that was served to us later on :) oh and did i mention it was a beach camp - i.e. there was a beach - it was beautiful! especially at night and in the early morning - truely beautiful.

It did kind of dawn on me that night that i only had a few days left and how hard it was really going to be to say goodbye, obviously i know its all part of travelling and it was my choice not to go all the way to Nirobi with everyone else, but it doesnt make it any easier...

So that leads me to today - Tuesday. We left the camp and then got a different ferry to get to Stone Town which is in Zanzibar. Obviously looking forward to it but unfortuantly it is quite a Muslim area so we have to cover our legs and shoulders all the time - fine usually but in 35 degree weather - not impressed! especially as the guys can where whatever they wanted! Stone town was a georgous little place with lots of alleys and little shops and places to get lost in - although i still couldnt get money out which was very fustrating - still had a really nice day though, and the hotel was really nice too which always helps :) yes people no more tents for the rest of the trip woohoo!!!! ..i mean aww ill miss my tent!....yeah...right...

Me and Kav ended up having lunch with Wimpy at a little spot called mercury's (obviously named after freddie Mercury as he was born on the island) -there was queen memorebelia EVERYWHERE! but no queen music, very dissapointed! But still, lunch was great, especially as wimpy and kav paid! It was so nice that we ended up having dinner there too with the rest of the group - i ordered the sweet and sour seafood - i didnt get it. instead i got a seafood grill with squid, prawn and octopus...still very nice, but not what i ordered. at all. oh well, TIA!

Oh and afterwards we went to a little place called Mia Amore (i think) which was a gelatto place - basically italian ice-cream - A.MA.ZING! I was a VERY happy bunny tonight!

p.s. did i mention that one of our optional activities today was to stand in an ATM que for an hour and a half only to find it didnt accept mastercard?! ...it was NOT worth it.

xxx