Lakeside Living – Part 2

Lake Victoria is an amazing place. Even though you’d never want to swim in it, nonetheless it provides some stunning scenery.

We are lucky that within ten minutes by car we can be on the lakeside for an afternoon stroll or a sundowner.

Over the past few months we have been fortunate to see some hidden places on the lake in the company of a colleague we have hiked the back roads of Mwanza and seen some hitherto unvisisited beaches. We have also had a couple of recent boat trips and a follow up visit to a little area of parkland.

So here is part 2 of  a summary are some of the experiences of the past few months in Mwanza.

Part 1 is here.

Riding the Waves

A couple of times this holiday we have ventured out onto the waters of Lake Victoria. The first time was a boat trip organised by some friends. We took a speed boat out from Mwanza, passing by the many islands which dot the lake, including Senane Island – home to a small safari park, then returning for a glorious sunset. It got a bit wet too as the waves crashed over the speeding boat.

 

Ferry Cross the Strait

Our second boat trip took us across the Mwanza Strait to Kamanga, followed by a walk up a hill to watch the sunset. At 1000TzS (37p) each way, a bargain!

Kingfisher Collection

Kingfishers are rare in the UK – I only saw my first Kingfisher back in the UK last summer.

Here in Tanzania they are much more common. Last week I saw a Woodland Kingfisher – thus completing the set of all those which can be seen in this part of Tanzania. All of these have been seen in our garden, apart from the Giant Kingfisher (seen in Kigoma) but resident here. However, not all of the photos were taken in the garden.

So here is the collection…..

Woodland Kingfisher

Grey-headed Kingfisher

Pygmy Kingfisher

Malachite Kingfisher

Pied Kingfisher

Giant Kingfisher

Beautiful Bougainvillea

The rains are imminent – in fact three storms have come and gone – nothing on the scale that is to come, but a sign things are changing.

Even so the ground remains parched and yellow, dusty and dry – the exception being the Bougainvillea which is in bloom at this time and throughout the dryest time of the year and provides a welcome splash of colour to the garden.

 

Weekly Photo Challenge: (Crater’s) Edge

A submission to the latest Weekly Photo Challenge :Edge

Taken on our trip to Ngorogoro Crater in October 2014.

Rising Mists

Crater from the top

Four Become Three

Today we leave the UK and return to Tanzania. We’ve spent a fabulous time in the UK for just about seven weeks. In that time we have travelled the length and breadth of England, visiting friends and relatives along the way, but now our time here is coming to an end. Perhaps because our stay has been fragmented between different locations (our longest stay in any one place was 13 days) time has flown quickly. We have taken a lot in and caught up with most (though sadly not all) of the people we wanted too. Being a visitor in our former homelands has been strange but friends and family have been generous and kind, we have had many meals and shared good times across the land.

One of our purposes here was to prepare our eldest for University. In just over three weeks from now he will start at his favoured University to study a degree in English Literature, History and Drama Studies. The next phase of his life is starting and so will ours. 

Our family has been four for almost 16 years, since our youngest was born. It’s difficult to remember a time when we were three, but even then he was there as a toddler – a part of our family for 18+ years. Now our family must change, readjust, re-balance to reflect the changing dynamic of daily life. It’s going to be wierd, disconcerting, challenging even.

Our son does not cease to be part of the family, but the relationship will change. New experiences for him and for us will undoubtedly separate us a little. This was always going to happen, it’s inevitability established on the timeline from the moment he was born. We have brought our son up from baby to toddler to child to teenager and now to a young adult. We have done our bit and set him up for the next phase of his life. 

The fact we are 4000 miles away rather than 400 miles  or 40 miles (the distance I moved away from my parents) makes this departure more geographically stark, but in truth when you leave home, you never quite return the same person. The next few years are going to be exciting and life changing. We must embrace it and look on the positive side. For today there will be sadness as four become three but we look forward to our reunion in time to come and the stories we will be able to share.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Rare Skies

Our trip across Africa last summer took us to the Island of Likoma in the middle of Lake Malawi/Nyassa. These Islands are close to the Mozambique coast, surrounded by Mozambican waters but part of Malawi nonetheless. We had three great days at Mango Drift, a Backpacker resort.

One of the best things about our time on Likoma were the night skies – devoid of light pollution it gave us an unrivalled view of the night sky. At this time there was a conjunction of Venus and Mars ( the planets appeared close to one another in the night sky), which doesn’t happen all the time. This and the low light gave me a great picture – on a long exposure the two planets shine brightly. Mars appears a deep red and venus white – so bright it casts a reflection on the water – ‘venus light’.

My submission to this week’s photo challenge: Rare.

Those same skies – later gave the best view of the Milky Way I have ever seen – the pictures don’t do it justice.

 

Weekly Photo Challenge: Morning (on the Road)

A contribution to this week’s photo challenge  on the theme Morning.

A year ago we had just completed a month long tour through from Lake Victoria to Victoria Falls via Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia and Botswana (including a brief excursion into Zimbabwe and a travel through Mozambique waters). All the photos below were taken during the mornings as we travelled across the continent. You can find out more by checking the link

Day 1- Mwanza Airport

Day 2 – Early Departure -Dar Coach Station

Day 3 – South of Songea

Day 4 – Mbamba Bay Morning

Day 5 – Mbamba Bay

Day 6 -Sunrise over Mozambique

Day 7 – Mango Drift – Likoma Island

Day 8 – Likoma Sunrise

Day 9 – Lake Malawi Morning

Day 10 – Monkey Bay Sunrise

Day 11 – Monkey Bay – Morning Monkey

Day 12 – Arrival at Chilmba Village (Chief’s House)

Day 13 – Zomba Plateau

Day 14 – Zomba Morning Departure

Day 15 – Dedza Pottery

Day 16- Lilongwe Bus Station – Keeping Warm

Day 17- Lusaka Coach Station

Day 18 – Victoria Falls

Day 19 – Chobe Trio

Day 20 – Zip Wire over the Gorge

Day 21 – Coach from Livingstone to Lusaka

Day 22 – Kapiri Mposhi Station

Day 23 – Tazara Train – Breakfast?

Day 24 – Tazara Train & Tunnels

Day 25- Kipepeo Beach

Day 26- Sunrise over the Indian Ocean

Day 27 – Union Cafe – Moshi

Day 28 – Coffee Plantation on Kilamanjaro

Day 29 – Return to Mwanza

Slipping Right Back In?

I am not sure what I expected upon our return visit to the UK this summer but I’m pleasantly surprised that for me at least it is very much a case of picking up where I left off in 2014. I imagined that there might be a greater discontinuity or even culture shock but it hasn’t as yet been manifest.

Perhaps the effects of Social Media, FaceTime, the BBC News App on my phone and a 4G has meant that a tenuous link to the UK remained even though I was well off the beaten track in Mwanza.
We are in the midst of a week long return to MK and yesterday had a great time catching up with old friends at St Mary’s Bletchley. Whilst much had changed in the Church Yard, it seemed to us that it was very much the same SMB we left in 2014. It was good to be part of that community again.  MK itself seems little different – a few new buildings in this ever changing new city but familiar nonetheless. 
We have all got older of course and the changes are most apparent in the friends of our children and in the older folk we have met. Even so most people are as they were. Here lies the most obvious difference. 

I suppose the past two years for us have opened us to a very different way of life and a plethora of experiences. Yet perhaps outwardly we have changed little too other than a slight tan and the use of a few expat colloquialisms. Yet sitting here in MK, we are visitors, curious onlookers no longer residents.

I wonder whether the longer we are away from Britain, the bigger the differences will become.

WPC – Look Up To The Skies

A submission to this week’s photo challenge :Look Up – looking up to see the birdlife around us in Tanzania and across Africa.

Roller Turn

Black and White Casqued Hornbill

Palm Nut Vulture

Roller Landing

Bronze Mannikin

Yellow-billed Black Kite in the sun

Spotted Morning Thrush

Black headed Gonolek

Roller Close Up

White Throated Bee-eater

Little Bee-eater

Swamp Flycatcher

Yellow-billed Black Kite

Red Kite

Grey-headed Kingfisher

African Paradise Flycatcher

Red-billed Firefinch

Klaas’s Cuckoo

Common Bul Bul

Hamerkop in flight

Back to ‘Blighty’

I sit here in the lounge of my parents-in law watching Wimbledon – the Ladies Semi-Finals (Kerber vs Williams). It’s almost like we’ve never been away.

It’s our first day back in England (Blighty is an old-fashioned term for Britain / England). It was a long and somewhat stressful trip back with Turkish Air / Fast Jet.

It all started back in Mwanza with a lengthy conversation  with a ‘jobsworth’  Fast Jet official who insisted that although on weight – we were only allowed one bag each on the plane – this was neither on the ticket or clearly described in the small print – we almost missed our flight!

In Dar Es Salaam – we discovered our 3 am flight was delayed by six hours – resulting in a sleepless night in the Airport. The reason for the delay was never fully explained though attributed to technical difficulties. The result of all this delay was that we would miss our connecting flight from Istanbul to London. Thankfully but after a hour long, 1 – 2am wait in the airport we were re-scheduled for a later flight.

The delay was almost 7 hours in the end and got us into Istanbul with a little over an hour to spare before check-in. So a quick taste of European culture (Café Nero) before boarding our Heathrow flight. Arriving back in the UK about 9pm we realised that of our 7 bags, 3 were still in Istanbul. One of the three belonged to Anita who had no clothes, one to me who had no other shoes but sandals, the other to my daughter.
These were subsequently put on another flight – but one bag only has arrived thus far – the others having taken an even later flight back and expected late this evening. Although all these will be couriered across – things are still very frustrating.

I’m told this is the perils of long-haul travel – just hoping our journey back to Mwanza will be less of an ordeal.

 

Sahara

One positive of our delayed flight today was the chance to see the Sahara from above. This vast desert stretches from Sudan in the South to the Egyptian shores of the Mediterranean in the North, from the Red Sea in the East to Morocco in the West. We fly over a narrow band to it’s East and flowing through it, the River Nile (a river we last encountered in Uganda). Here the river meanders through the desert providing much needed water and minerals which in turn allow the desert dwellers a chance to farm. Adjacent to the Nile, in the rugged brown ‘sandscape’ we saw strange circular patterns – more signs of irrigation as the farmers turn the desert green.

 

The desert is far from featureless for the most part with rocky outcrops of brown dispersed amongst the pale yellows, greys, beiges and whites of the ‘sandscape’. Pipelines cross the landscape delivering water or possibly oil. Elsewhere the sands are worn by long gone rivers and streams forming tree-like patterns.

Then out of the window looms as large stretch of water, the reservoir formed by the Aswan Dam, intricate filigree as sand meets water. Resembling the Norwegian coastline,  as viewed from space.

 

Then eventually Cairo and the Mediterranean, the end of the desert and a change to green then bright blue..

Out of Africa

By the time this is published we will be Out of Africa on route to Europe, back to Britain.

We return with anticipation and expectation and just a little trepidation. For the first time we will be in the UK as visitors. 

We are of course looking forward to seeing family and friends back in our former home – but Tanzania feels like home two years on. 

How much has Britain changed in these past two years? The events of the past fortnight makes us wonder how much Britain has pulled up the drawbridge and turned it’s back on the world. We are definitely (as most expats here) Internationalists and  have been shocked by the Brexit from Europe. There’s no intent to get political here – just a statement of fact.

The weather is somewhat uninviting to us, the rain and lower temperatures are a challenge. We are hoping for a heatwave in the UK!

Then there’s the cost of living which will be significant as we will need to exist on Tz Wages. An example Is such that a good meal out for 2 here is about the same as a couple of Costa Coffees. 

The pace of life will be faster than we’ve gotten used to here and two years away from most TV means we’re gonna definitely be out of touch.

We are looking forward to 

Cinema – the nearest to here is in Kigali (Rwanda) or possibly Kampala (Uganda).
Cheese – this is expensive here and limited in both variety and quality.

Wholemeal Bread – white is common here and fresh baked bread by our house worker is good – but I miss good brown bread.

Pork / bacon /sausages etc – available in places but very expensive in the main. Good Lincolnshire sausages are definitely on my list. Chorizo sausage is a definite miss – no such thing here. 

Coffee / Coffee Shops – although an expense we miss Costa Coffees and their ilk. Good ground coffee is available in Rwanda and Arusha/Moshi but is quite difficult to pick up in Mwanza. 

Good chocolate – though we have now found panacea that sell reasonable chocolate here – it tends to be the Cadbury’s variety. We used to indulge in the occasional trip to Hotel Chocolat back in the UK and enjoy a higher quality of Chocolate.

Italian Food – not easy to get here – Pizzas bought locally are dreadful (lacking cheese and containing carrot it avocado). There are no Italian Restaurants, probably our favorite food type. 

Last, but not least family – a chance to catch up properly without the vague ties of Skype and FaceTime

The major change coming our way is in our family as we are leaving Tanzania as four and will return here as three. My eldest awaits examination results, but all things well, will be heading to University in the UK in the Autumn as not returning back.

We have spent some of the last few days visiting some favorite haunts in Mwanza. Yesterday we visited Tunza and spent a morning there having breakfast and then playing Mah Jongg. 

Our journey out of Africa has not been smooth – from the FastJet jobsworth in Mwanza who nearly cost us our flight to the six hour delay which meant a 3am flight became a 9am take off.

In Mwanza the issue was that inspire of the fact our bags were the correct combined weight the aforementioned jobsworth insisted that we were allowed only one bag each – this resulted in a lot of discussion before a superior let us through.

In Dar we arrived to see that technical problems caused a 6hr delay and a long, sleepless night in the airport. Just hoping the rest goes more smoothly. 

I’ll Miss…. The Birdlife

Term’s over, school’s out and soon we’ll be out of Africa.

Not for ever ….. but for a couple months whilst we return to the UK. Here is a short series on some of the things I’ll miss whilst we’re gone.

It may not be a surprise to those who follow this blog regularly that the birdlife has been a major part of the experience here. You can find out more by clicking on the link below and working forward. A Bird a Day in June

Bronze Mannikin

Mourning Doves

Red-chested Sunbird

Grey-headed Kingfisher

Variable Sunbird

White Throated Bee-eater

Lilac Breasted Roller

African Thrush

House Sparrows

Dimorphic Egret

Grey-backed Camaroptera

Marabou Stork

Swamp Flycatcher

Pied Crow

Black-headed Gonolek

Laughing Dove

Swallow-tailed Bee-eater

Redbilled Firefinch

Yellow-billed Black Kite

Red-cheeked Cordon-bleu

Purple Grenadier

Spotted Morning Thrush

Green-winged Pytillia

White Browed Robin Chat (Orange)

Red Bishop

Speckled Mousebird

African Paradise Flycatcher

Grey-capped Warbler

Eastern-grey Plantain Eater

Scarlet-chested Sunbird

Klaas’s Cuckoo

Little Egret

Hadada Ibes

Pied Kingfisher

Speckled Pigeon

Spectacled Weaver

 

A Bird A Day (The ones that got away) – Day 35 : House Sparrow

Day 35 of a series illustrating some of the fantastic birds we see here on Lake Victoria and across Tanzania. Sadly there weren’t enough days in June – so here are some of the birds which got away. This is an apt one to finish with – a regular visitor we never expected to see here in Tanzania.

House Sparrow

House Sparrows

Other Sparrows

I’ll Miss…. The Weather

Term’s over, school’s out and soon we’ll be out of Africa.

Not for ever ….. but for a couple months whilst we return to the UK. Here is a short series on some of the things I’ll miss whilst we’re gone.

It rarely falls below 20°C here in Mwanza – and generally day-time temperatures hover between 25°C and 30°C – so I’m not looking forward to the ‘cold’ of the British Summer – let alone the rain.

I’m hoping for a heat wave back in Britain – otherwise it’s lots of sweaters and long sleeved tops – something I have hardly ever had to wear here.

We are now firmly in the Dry Season so not looking forward to the wet either.

 

I’ll Miss …. Lake Victoria

Term’s over, school’s out and soon we’ll be out of Africa.

Not for ever ….. but for a couple months whilst we return to the UK. Here is a short series on some of the things I’ll miss whilst we’re gone.

Lake Victoria affords some amazing views. It might be full of Bilharzia and polluted, but is scenically beautiful, whether from Tunza, Talapia, Malaika, Yung Long, Wag Hill, Jembe Beach, Papa’s or Igombe it’s lovely to sit by the Lake, the gentle breeze blowing cooling air, watch the nature and relax. Sunsets are awesome.

 

Tunza Sunset

Malaika Sunset with Dow

Wag Hill Sunset

A Bird A Day (The ones that got away) – Day 33 : Pied Crow

Day 33 of a series illustrating some of the fantastic birds we see here on Lake Victoria and across Tanzania. Sadly there weren’t enough days in June – so here are some of the birds which got away.

Pied Crow

Pied Crow

Weekly Photo Challenge: Opposites (1)

A submission to this week’s photo challenge : opposites

The bee-eater stands out a vibrant green and blue against the drab brown background of the scrubland.

I’ll Miss…. The Sounds of Morning

Term’s over, school’s out and soon we’ll be out of Africa.

Not for ever ….. but for a couple months whilst we return to the UK. Here is a short series on some of the things I’ll miss whilst we’re gone.

I love the mornings here – particularly at the weekends – it’s light at 7 or so and the dawn chorus is the first thing to wake us.

Sitting on the verandah, coffee in hand on a warm sunny Saturday hearing the sounds of the garden and the neighbourhood -my favorite time of day.

The Sounds of the Morning

A Bird A Day (The ones that got away) – Day 32 : Speckled Pigeon

Day 32 of a series illustrating some of the fantastic birds we see here on Lake Victoria and across Tanzania. Sadly there weren’t enough days in June – so here are some of the birds which got away. This is a recent visitor to our garden but is found widely locally

Speckled Pigeon

Speckled Pigeon

 

African Green Pigeon 

This one is not local but found in along the Indian Ocean coast.