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St. Mary of Zion is where many believe the Ark of the Covenant currently rests but which access is prohibited by all except one lone monk and it remains perpetually un-verifiable.” border=”0″ />To save myself a stopover in some dinky town and an extra morning of travel I traveled to Aksum by private Land Rover with a group of Dutch Med Students I had met in Gonder. The trip was long, cramped, expensive ($300 total is a ton in Africa even with 10 hours of fuel) but the scenery in the Semien Mountains was spectacular and that comprised the majority of the trip.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Mary_of_Zion

[To be continued...]

Mountain Gorilla Highlights:

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I just completed The Most Punishing Hike Of My Life, but was rewarded with one of the most amazing experiences of my life: I came face-to-face (within 6 inches) with a 400 pound Black Back Mountain Gorilla, (an adult, but sexually immature male of about 9 years old).

After my bus trials and tribulations I spent four days resting up in Kampala, doing errands (Western toiletries!), going to the movies with the friendly Canadian couple that I met in Arusha, and generally chilling out on the lovely grounds of the Red Chili Guest House (where I also ran into several overland tour groups that I had met multiple times in Southern and Eastern Africa). Finally I felt ready to head out and I took another somewhat harrowing bus ride down south to Kabale (for 7 ½ hours the driver sped along and wove at high speeds in and out of massive, Mini-Cooper-sized pot holes). This trip was taken with a young English couple, and we then shared an over-priced taxi to beautiful Lake Bunyoni (even after stern negotiations one cannot avoid the Mzungu prices in Africa).

Third World Travel at above-First-World Prices
[Note that the politically correct term is Developing World and Third World terminology is obsolete Cold War rhetoric]
Africa is much more expensive than I expected, even after researching prices and speaking with others who had been here before. Part of this expense is due to the flaccid weakness of the US Dollar (thanks, George W.) and the large dependence that most Southern and Eastern African countries place on the historically solid US currency; many locals and businesses prefer dollars over their own currencies which may have astronomical inflation rates. Zimbabwe is the current red-headed economic stepchild with recent inflation measured at over 1,000,000 % (your $10,000 cash bundle from last year is worth $1 this year, plus the notes themselves have expiration dates that prevent them from holding any value beyond 3 months). In addition to a devalued dollar, many African opportunists play a fun game I liked to call Screw-The-Tourist where they set their prices in US Dollars, which are nearly impossible to get in Africa (when possible one incurs a hefty 8-15% exchange rate gouging), they adjust those dollar prices based on how far the dollar devalues relative their home currency, and then when you move to pay in the local currency they bump the exchange rate an additional 10-20% in their favor; it’s all just one big, fun, shell-game of getting fleeced at every end.

Serengeti & Ngorongoro Highlights:

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I spent 5 days on an epic safari in Tanzania to Lake Manyara National Park, Serengeti National Park and Ngorongogoro Crater (the famous caldera volcano that is home to the most predictable year-round population of Big Game in Africa and is part of the largerNgorongogoro Conservation Area).

After some serious road travel I arrived exhausted in Nkhata bay the next morning after the 1 ½ hour mini bus ride from Mzuzu (they strive to pack 19 people plus luggage and kids in a tiny mini-van). Getting off the bus I was swarmed by boat touts asking to escort me by boat to my chosen lodge, Myoko Villiage, but I tried to decline them despite their claims that the transportation was free (I later learned it was free and so needlessly missed out on the boat ride). I did accept a ride by truck and after riding for 15 minutes over a brutally rough dirt road I arrived at Myoko and was warmly greeted by the locals working there. They were mostly full but I arranged to get their last room which was very dilapidated under the promise of being upgraded to the nicest room with bathroom the next night (only $15 in Malawi what would have been $40 in any other Southern African country). Finally settled I had a snack and got to resting up from the road travel, reading, and catching up with my journals (which I had been a month behind on without a laptop). From here I will travel to Dar Es Salam, Tanzania and on to Zanzibar but that journey will take 2 full days to get there over some of the worst roads in Africa so I rationed I had better rest up for 4 nights here before heading out.

After an 8 hour bus ride to Lusaka, Zambia, then 2 nights in Lusaka, a successful computer find/purchase, a 10 hour trip over the border into Malawi to Lilongwe I arrived on May 22 exhausted and in a very shady part of the city. Fortunately I had found a Zambian guy to cross the border with and we were able to share a taxi to the boarder, and 2 more on the other side of the border to head to Lilongwe (110 Km from the border) and also fortunately I got the taxi driver to drive me to the nearby lodge without having to walk alone after dark in an area notorious for muggings. After a pleasant night sleep in a clean but cheap lodge (Malawi is the only cheap country in Southern Africa), I was shown to the open market and “bus station” which other than the presence of 2 parked buses offered no other resemblance to any organized transportation. I made the mistake of getting on the bus and paying the driver at the suggestion of the lodge woman who led me there, but not yet realizing that the buses only leave when they are full (I was the 3rd passenger on an 80 person bus). But I was entirely entertained over the next 2 hours while the bus gradually began to fill at the luggage that was loaded inside the bus in the passenger space, including 4 truck tires, numerous sacks of corn/flour/sugar, bushels of bamboo, spools of cable, cases of fluorescent bulbs, and a stack of bicycle tires. For some reason the driver started the engine a good hour before we departed, perhaps to give the would-be passengers the illusion it was about to depart and lure them into boarding this bus rather than finding another or boarding a 12 person mini bus.

On the morning of the 17th I slept in then said goodbye to the Spanish Armada and the Aussie Woman as they headed off for the airport, then I took a taxi to the border, which crosses an old steel bridge that goes over the Zambezi River just below the falls and just at the edge of the cloud of mist. After unsuccessfully haggling with the rip-off artists / taxi driver for a ride across the 2 Km bride (0.9 mi) I decided it would be more interesting to walk across the bridge with my heavy but manageable bags, much to the surprise of the taxi drivers who finally and too late came down in price. On the Zimbabwean side of the border there is a line of 3 or 4 miles of trucks waiting to cross over but since the bridge is almost 100 years old they only let 1 truck drive on it at a time. Apparently some drives have to wait for more than a day to cross, inching their rigs forward 1 truck length every 10 minutes or so, which seems to me to be huge incentive for drivers to drive AROUND Zimbabwe, but perhaps these were coming from Mozambique in which case driving around Zim would be an ordeal. I also crossed the Bungy Jumping platform and reflected fondly to my jumps in Berlin and in New Zealand though I felt no need to repeat the experience here when my funds could be conserved for other opportunities.