Date: 28 March 2007
Time: 11:05
Place: Nairobi, Kenya
Feeling: Angry at this keyboard that only writes words down 5 seconds after i type them. Otherwise chilled



Heres a picture that Sj made plotting our trip as far as Zanzibar. We will be a little further up by now but it gives a good idea of how far we've gone, and how far we are away from home. But so far Nairobi of all places is where i feel most like i'm in South Africa, and its not as terrible as everyone makes out to be. I suppose we haven't been out in the city at night, maybe my opinions would change then, but for the moment i really like it. Tonight we get onto a train for Mombasa then head up to the Lamu Archipelago. And it my dates are right we'll be there for a full moon party (there seem to be these in all touristy island places so i assume there will be one). And this is pretty much the end of driving in Stanley which is bittersweet. Nice to be sort of free and not to have the car to worry about, but also its going to mean a lot more planning and time on suicidal busses and stuff. Also the car has begun to stink thanks to some broken beers in the back, as well as garlic salt which came out of the bottle. Thats all for now, going to get a visa.

Urang Paradise

Jared is dreaming right now. I imagine it goes something like this...

How to climb a wall in Zanzibar

Before we begin. Let you be warned. This is a stupid, useless post. It is raining, a huge cloud is covering Mt Kilimanjaro and Moshi on a Sunday afternoon is not the bustling metropolis we were hoping for. We are bored and feeling silly. So here it is, a sure fire way to climb a wall in Zanzibar.

Step 1: Prepare Zed. (Zed is pineapple or wildberry flavoured cane. It comes in 60ml plastic packets. It is very cheap. It is very good.)

Step 2: Drink Zed. (Easy step.)

Step 3: Enjoy Zed.

Step 4: Go to Forodhani Gardens and eat many, many Zanzibari Pizza. (Send individual requests for recipe.)

Step 5: Look at great wall about to be conquered.

Step 6: Serenade the wall air-guitar style.

Step 7: Send the two best and hottest climbers up first.

Step 8: Get rest of climbers up. (Manly facial hair only adds resistence in this crucial step.)

Step 9: Rest.

Step 10: Hug wall goodbye on way to dodgy club.

Zed challenge completed Shayno. Yes.

The cheezy tourist photos

The desolate Page beach

Jared, on Page Beach

Nungwe Beach when we arrived

Our dorm

Riders of the Storm(s)

"Once you accept the keys to the hog, you become a lifetime member of the danger club!", shouts Hawk (Matt) as we fire up our bikes. We have rented a scooter and two 250 dirt bikes and have just formed the first ever Zanzibari biker gang, known as the Riders of the Storm. Hawk, The Sweet Eazy (Pd) , No Name (Another Matt, an American), SS (Dave, another American - SS stands for Scared Shitless) and myself (Night-Rider aka Jared) are lead out of Stone Town by some locals and head towards Page. The ride there is stellar. We go through some heavy rain (hence the name) and decide to take cover at a local school, where we bump into the damn Aussies (Nick & Sam) again.

The rest of the ride was pretty decent. After lunch at Page we head north, taking a "short cut" and ended up on roads that would be barely passable by car, totally hardcore. We arrive at Nungwi just as the sun begins to set and It was without a doubt the best sunset I have ever seen. Words fail to describe so I won't even try. Pd took some wicked photos but we left the cable to upload them in Dar, so that will come later.

Took a short road back to Stone Town today, albeit in the poaring rain. Glad to report back though that no-one fell off (except Pd when learning on a field before we left, he's okay).

We have vowed to keep the gang alive. So if anyone is keen, email us a 1 page letter about why we should pick you to join our gang. 5ml's of your blood will also have to be couried to us.

But now just chilling and will take the night ferry back to the mainland tonight which means we miss the cricket, pretty bleak. Go Proteas!

Beard Update

Quick. Beard competition time. Please vote on your favourite in the following categories:

Volume

Style

Hardcoreness

Shape

Colour

...and any others you want to make up.

Challenge Update

Wicked. Time for a challenge update. Before I begin, just a big thank you for the challenges. Going through Africa is quite boring and there is not a lot to do. So having challenges really has been a great cure for the boredom we have experienced so far. No seriously, thank you. We really enjoy them!

First up. Gun photos. Malawi has these security checkpoints every so often and at one particular checkpoint we noticed the army dude had a very wicked gun slung over his shoulder. Immediately remembering the list of challenges, we asked him very so kindly for a photo. He was stoked, and even asked for our adresses so that he could write letters to us. What a chilled guy. His name was Maxwell Anderson.

Second challenge. Pimping out Stanley. Orange fluffy dice and a kiff Jagermeister towel. These adorn our dash and are loved by all who venture into Stanley. The towel also provides an excellent place to put our shades bru when laak the sun isn't too lank bright bru. Sorry, jocked out there a bit.

Next is the all important chappie holder. This was Pd's brilliant invention and was constructed while Matt and I were digging Stanley out of the mud in Botswana. Nice one Pd.

Driving through in the hot Malawian sun proved a bit much for the ginger in me and so a bottle of sunscreen made an appearance in the holder. I may having been jocking out again and there is a small chance I had my elbow out the window. (Taking after Sj.) I apologise for this.

One of the most pimpalicious upgrades has been our flip down dvd monitor. I'll let the picture speak for itself.

(Note an episode of The Office being played.)

And finally, walking through the market this morning we found ourselves a light up aerial. It flashes green and red and we're planning to place it at the front of the bonnet. It looks wicked and the guy promised that it would bring lank street cred to Stan.