Week 7 -8. Christmas spirit - where are you?

Week 7/8

A different experience over the last fortnight as I've just taken a holiday from my holiday.  I parked the bike in Malawi and flew out of the country to join Megan in Israel for the week leading up to Christmas. Here she was booked on a "Highlights of the Holy Land" tour. Main reason for going was of course to see Megan again (especially as my return date to Australia is moving to the right) but the thought of learning more about the region which has dominated our news so often was also very tempting, especially as the practicality of getting there on the bike layer in the trip is looking questionable (currently the Egotism authorities Winn let motorcycles cross the Sinai due to terrorism concerns.  This was first time I've ever been on an organized tour and I did have some concern as to his well I would cope - but fortunately we had a good guide and a good mix of people and it turned out to be much as I expected,  a mix of great to have someone else organise your accommodation, travel arrangements and sights to see, and frustrating at the same time because you weren't in control. I only had one bad temper day!

The reason for my good temper.

In my travels I've visited many places and almost without exception I've seen beautiful things and met lovely people and come away feeling good. I won't pretend any great insights from it all but overall its helped me come to the view that people, whatever their politics and religion are good and basically want the same things, a roof over their head, food warmth, better lives for their kids, a little bit of money on the side for emergencies. It's always made me hopeful about the world despite the problems.

The visit to Israel has challenged that. Again people I met individually were lovely and there was undoubtedly beautiful scenery but I've come away depressed. I have never met or seen such deep seated, and to me such intensely irrational, intolerance between groups as I learnt about there. Intolerance that expresses everything as black and white, no shades of grey, that doesn't accept any part of history except that bit which supports your cause, that ultimately screams my (imaginary) god is better than your (imaginary) god, and that gives me the right to wish death and destruction on all of your kind.  The feelings came to a peak in Jerusalem standing near the Western Wall and in front of the Temple Mount or Al Aqsa Mosque (depending on your religion) where the concentration of religious bigotry and armed soldiers, who are little more than kids with deadly guns, became to much. I had to turn and leave. You feel like banging everyone's heads together and telling them all to stop behaving like spoilt kids, if this is religion I want none of it,  I'm staying atheist. In many senses Jerusalem felt one of the least christmassy place I've ever spent Christmas eve and Christmas day - very little feeling of peace and goodwill to ALL mankind on the air here - three people were murdered as part of the disputes in the time we were there.

Fortunately most of the time the troops are simply bored and on their mobile phones

Despite all the above I am pleased Megan and I met here,  I've learnt more about the problems and fault lines that exist in the region in one week than I ever could staying at home, and doing it as part of a tour, where the guide impressively and skilfully managed to provide a relatively unbiased commentary on what we were seeing was a good way to get the experience.

That's this week's rant over and here are some photos of the tour highlights.

Outside the shrine holding the Dead Sea scrolls - at the Israel Museum, which had to be the best museum I've ever been to, it need far more than the three hours we had. 

The only ones without a religious opinion 

Al Aqsa Mosque or the Golden Done on Temple Mount

As confused by religion as me

The reputed birthplace of Jesus  (and two of our tour group for whom it was important)

Palestine - West Bank

Israeli solution to the problem (850 km of it)

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Masada - one of the most extensive and intact 1st century AD sites I've ever had the priceless to visit.  One of the tour highlights (but now also caught up in the history war )

View from Masada looking out at the Dead Sea

Fratenising not permitted

A nice smile to finish with

Week 6 Malawi - the friendly country.

It's Malawi this week. The country markets itself as the friendly country, and from the people I've met I'd  say its very true - but when I consider how friendly Zambia and Zimbabwe also were is not really a point of discrimination. This highlights one of the things I struggle with as I write this blog,  whilst I, for convenience, tend to describe things on a country by country basis, the reality is not so clear cut, the changes I see are progressive and don't normally occur abruptly at a border. Over the last six weeks as I move north what I've seen is societies transitioning from being relatively wealthy but with the businesses predominantly white managed or owned,  to poorer, less mechanised but with more indigenous entrepreneurship. But as you see differences you also see similarities, the two most striking being the relative youth of all the populations and the struggle each is having with integrating the democratic process as we of the west understand it.  The two issues interact and how they will play out over the coming years is an intriguing, if scarey,  question - especially in a time of climate change and rapid globalisation.

Anyway enough of that, here are a few photos from my first few days in Malawi which covered the capital Lilongwe (which is nice and compact) and some of the countryside to the south of the country.

Typical small town market day - this sprawls across the road as you had south making progress slow (but very interesting)

Malawi's friendly police - I've got to talk to a lot of them as they love their check points (fifteen in one day is the best score so far)

Typical on the road lunch - Nseema, which is maize porridge and meat sauce and typically costs around $1. It's yummy. 

Bicycles and people everywhere - compared with previous counties there are very few cars and trucks. 

Tea plantation near Mulanje in the south of Malawi

And the reality of life for many - a slum in the capital Lilongwe.

Week 5 - Hey there's an elephant by my tent.

Week 5 has been another case of three countries in one week as I zigzag my way up the continent. I know I'm not taking the fastest or most direct route but after spending 5 weeks and over 8000 kilometres covering approximately a quarter of the way (and the easy quarter where there are no travel restrictions or visa issue problems) I am beginning to get a feel for the immensity of Africa. It is also making me reassess how long it will take me to get to Cairo. I don't want to race through but rather continue to travel at a pace I'll enjoy and give me enough time to see things rather than just race through; the original plan of February is looking unachievable March or April is now looking more practical.

This week I have finished traveling through Zimbabwe, passed through Zambia (which I feel I have given short shrift) and arrived in Malawi.

After the ruins at Great Zimbabwe, which is where I was at the end of last week,  I rode up to the countries capital Harare, in part because that was where my only Uncle and Aunt had lived in the 50's and early 60's (when the country was still Southern Rhodesia) and to me as a child growing up in Wales this seemed impossibly remote. Harere is my favorite african capital city to date. It is relatively small and compact, easy to walk around and has some character in its mix of a few old colonial buildings and lots of 50's and 60's brutalist concrete public architecture interspersed with some more modern towers which are tending to look old before their time. All this is combined with hectic life continuously pouring up and down the streets with continuous good cheer and friendly greetings. It's not pretty but the pictures below don't do it justice.

An organisation with a big job on front of it. 

One thing that is noticeable in Zimbabwe is that street names, unlike in most other african countries I've visited to date, have not been changed from their colonial originals (on fact many of the signs look like they are the colonial originals). For a country that is now fairly stridently anti-west it seems strange and does lead to some peculiarities - the sign below was pointing to a street called "Rotten Row" that appeared to contain the head quarters of Mugabe's despotic ruling Zanu PF party - a party that it is a criminal offence to criticise.

From Harare it was on to Kariba, which is on the edge of a lake of the same name which forms part of the border with Zambia. The lake is artificial, formed by a dam and designed to supply both Zimbabwe and Zambia with electricity via a hydro electric scheme  - something it is failing to achieve at the moment as water levels are so low due to drought and late rains that during my time in the two countries the electricity was off as often as it was on; and a lot of time it appears both countries only function via small Chinese generators sitting on many shops verandah. The reason for visiting Kariba to see more wildlife, it was reputed to be a great area to see elephants and hippos and there were certainly some,  but the campsite proved shadeless (and its only character was not its facility or location but a manageress who became increasingly drunk as the day progressed), it was also 43 degrees during the day and still 34 at 9 pm at night so instead of spending the planned two days there I left after one.

Elephants wandering in front of the campsite

This may not look like much but it's as close as I want to get to a pod of hippo's

That next day took me onto Zambia,  a straightforward border crossing but one that liked both its paperwork and revenue collection;  by the time I left I'd purchased a visa (US $50), Carbon Tax ($5), Road Tax ($20) and local council tax ($4) plus insurance for a month ($20). After the border I did Zambia a disservice by whizzing through it but I did, amongst other places, manage to stay at another national park called South Luanga, for two days. Here the elephants were definitely plentiful, roaming freely around the campsite. On the first night the manager came up to me at the bar and said "I don't want to worry you but one of the elephants is nuzzling your bike with its trunk". Apparently it could smell lingering traces of some mangos I'd carried on it earlier in the day - and elephants love mangos.  No harm was done. The second night they left the bike alone and decided to walk past my tent  instead. Fortunately the hippos and big cats in the park stayed out of the campsite but during the night you could hear them roaring on the opposite side river bank (and the river was nearly dry so no barrier). Locals assure you lions (or any of the big cats) have never been known to attack anyone inside a tent, nor elephants stand on them - but hippos strangely weren't mentioned.

After that very restful interlude it was onto Malawi at the very tail end of the week - but we'll leave that to next week's update.

Beach holiday

Week 4

Look carefully - they seemed remarkably unperturbed

The week started as I finished the last one, with me continuing to travel gently up the beach front resorts of Mozambique coast. It was a very enjoyable, and cheap form of travel,  camping for less than $10 night,  food bill of not much more,  and beer only a dollar fifty a bottle. Here's a few random shots of places on the coast - all very scenic and tourist friendly.

At one of the resorts I took a "sea safari" which is a fancy name for a short boat trip followed by some snorkeling. The lure of this trip though was the potential to swim with whale sharks. These, for those who have forgotten their marine biology are gentle 6 to 10 metre plankton eating animals. Of course no trip guarantees you will see them, but we hit pay dirt and ended up being able to swim with 9 of them. And best of all most were playful juveniles who gave us an amazing experience as they swam around us in the water, often passing within a metre of you. (The photo below was taken by someone else on a different trip but gives you an idea of how beautiful they are).

After awhile though I had to turn inland and take the highway across to Zimbabwe. This gave me a couple of long, and very hot, days riding to fully appreciate the niceties of the local road surfaces (occasionally smooth with the random deep pothole to keep you awake,  more regularly deep potholes occasionally connected by a short smooth patch) and driving styles. Amongst the other vehicles you soon learn to keep a very wary eye out for the local "combi's" which are minibuses used for local inter- town transport. Combi's only leave a town when they are full with people and their roof rack,  and often a trailer,  are full with luggage - they then hurtle up the highway with a mission to overtake everything in front before suddenly jamming on the brakes as they need to let someone off or more often because they've spotted another potential passenger at the road side that they're convinced they can squeeze in. The net result is you are continually playing leap frog with them and you soon start to recognise the individual vehicles, usually by their luggage load - oh god here comes that three piece suite again he always cuts to close as he comes by,  or oh it's only the fridge he always leaves plenty of room.

A dreaded combi - this one lightly loaded

Once back in Zimbabwe you find the road surfaces improve considerably, which is a bit of a surprise, and the driving doesn't, which isn't.  I'm currently in the capital Harare after having spent a couple of days in the very picturesque hills of the eastern highlands and another day at Great Zimbabwe (where I spent time with Megan when we were in the 4x4 and impressed me enough to justify a second visit). Below are a few photos of sights and people on the way.

School kids are everywhere - Zimbabwe, irrespective of other issues has highest literacy rate in Africa

One week - three countries

Week 3

Did I take a wrong turn somewhere?
(Hint look carefully at the sign) 

A lots happened this week. Last week it was lots of hanging around Johannesburg, this week has instead seen lots of travel, I've left South Africa, travelled through Swaziland and I'm writing this drinking a beer at a beach resort in Mozambique.

In Swaziland (trivia fact - Africa's last absolute monarchy) I spent the nights staying in three different national parks.

Traditional houses

The first two parks didn't have any large predators so I could simply walk (and ride my bike) around them  without restriction. I had a couple of really enjoyable morning hikes as a result and it felt both good to be getting some exercise again and bring able to get up close to the animals.

A cute lookin Honey Badger
(Google Honey Badger fights Lion to see what they are really like )

The third park however had hippos, rhinos and lions - not good walking or riding territory - so I went on an organized early morning game drive instead and was rewarded with these.

Mozambique hadn't initially been in my plans but after talking to the guy who fitted my new shock in Johannnesburg I was convinced it would be worth a visit. The border was crossed at Wednesday lunchtime and I approached it with some trepidation as it was the first time I would use my "carnet" the document that assists temporary importation of the bike into some countries. As it was it all went really smoothly,  queue up at a few counters, hand over the paperwork, stamp stamp and suddenly out of one country and safely into the next.

After South Africa, Mozambique feels a lot more chaotic, there's lots more hustle and bustle on the streets, crowds swarm, traffic rules are looser (lots looser), but perversely it also in many ways feels safer. I can't really explain why but I think it has a lot to do with the fact that, unlike SA, people are not forever telling you how bad crime is and how dangerous things are plus every house is not wrapped in razor wire; after awhile those things just sink into your psyche and you begin to feel there are risks everywhere. It probably also has do with me just getting more comfortable traveling again.

I spent the first night in Maputo, the capital, which has a run down charm and an energy that reminds me of Asian cities but there was not enough of it to keep me there so I  moved on the next day. I'm now moving up the east coast stopping at beach resorts as I go. Tonight I'm at Tofo a small town that positively reminds me of Bali thirty years ago: Beautiful beaches,  simple but effective tourist infrastructure and little hassle from touts - get here before it all disappears in mass market tourism.