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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...]

After surviving the horrible Kenyan death-roads (likely the worst roads in the world) and 2 days of buses from Kigali, Rwanda through Kampala, Uganda, I ended up in shady Nairobi, Kenya (affectionately known as Nai-robbery by locals although thankfully I had no problems). After one full day and 2 nights there I hopped another long distance bus for Mombasa, on the South Coast of Kenya. The Swahili culture is one evolved over many generations of intermarrying between Arab, Indian and African traders along the coast of Africa from the South end of Somalia through Kenya, Tanzania and into Northern Mozambique and extending only about 10 miles inland along the coast and throughout the islands (Zanzibar and Lamu being the most prominent isles). Although ethnically the culture is centered along this coastal regions both Kenya and Tanzania have adopted Swahili as their official language (although with slightly different variations).

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).

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.

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.

The next morning we awoke at 7AM (that’s considered sleeping in for an African Overland Tour), packed up camp and ate breakfast before heading the last hour to the Zimbabwe border. Apparently this border can be somewhat unpredictable based on the whims of the Zimbabwean officials and even the political climate, so we were lucky it only took us 45 minutes to cross (many other borders take 5 or 10 minutes) and soon we were driving into the town of Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe – on the Zimbabwe side of the Zambezi river and the largest waterfall in the world by water volume. Vic Falls seemed such a peaceful town one would never know that the country was undergoing a major election crisis that could easily erupt into civil war were it not for the press coverage on the Internet. Part of that peaceful feeling comes from the fact that it mostly deserted by tourists these days and while Vic Falls was once the Tourist Capitol and Extreme Sports Capitol of Africa, the Zambian side town of Livingstone has taken over the past year or two since Western Governments has placed Zimbabwe on the Extreme-Caution, No-Travel list. Like most of the Governmental Travel Warnings the Zimbabwe Warnings seem highly over-blown and end up hurting the people mostly and not Mugabe. Maybe my opinion would change were I to have visited Harare (the capitol), but I would recommend visiting Vic Falls to anyone who asked. But because of all the restrictions Zimbabwe is in crisis and there are massive shortages of gas and food (entire grocery stores have only 8 or 10 items to choose from and most of supplies are only available on the black market). These shortages make Victoria Falls an even more expensive experience than it probably always was, with most prices for food, lodging, and transportation even more expensive than in any Western City. Money is also a huge problem since the inflation rate is higher in Zimbabwe than anywhere in the world (something like 180,000 % in 2006/2007). Because inflation is so ridiculously high, no one wants to hold Zim Dollars since they will be worth less even a day later and thus the local currency in Victoria Falls runs on US Dollars but tourists are forced to bring them in with them since ATMs only spit out worthless Zim Dollars.