In the swamp with two Bavarians

Posted on December 27, 2013 by bioflori

After leaving Buenos Aires I arrived in a place called Mercedes which was very different to the big city. It was very simple and rural and everywhere you looked you saw people drinking mate and some of them even wore the tipical gaucho outfit, which are the southamerican cowboys. But the final stop was an even smaller, simpler and remote place. If there was not at handful of tourists coming to Colonia Carlos Pellegrini there would literally be nothing going on at all. On the bus there where also two guys from Germany which spoke good spanish and as I did not understand much, I attached myself to them. Michi, Stef and me spend the next days together and did a boat tour in the Esteros del Iberá where we saw a lot of caimans, capibaras, all kind of birds, flowers and other wildlife. An asado with a few beers among huge frogs, capibaras and caimans at the beautiful campsite concluded the trip before we had to take a private transport back to Mercedes as the bus was not going on the unpaved road due to the rain that was supposed to come (but in the end didn’t). To see some pictures click on this one:

This was five meters from my tent

I had a good time with you guys, see you back home in Europe

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The diversity of public transport (part one)

Posted on December 27, 2013 by bioflori

A Busride in Tanzania is an adventureous thing, for very little money you get a lot, if you are lucky even a free rollercoaster ride. The adventure already starts the day before when you go buy the ticket. The bus terminal is always crowded and once you get there you are surrounded by people that want to ‘help’ you. Which means every single one tries to convince you (and sometimes almost drag you to the ticket office of their choice) that with them and only with them you can get the right bus and the best price and all the other options will be unsafe and you’ll be ripped off. Once you mangaged to actually get to the ticket offices there is only left to find one at a suitable time and most of all you try to find a company that seems to have at least somewhat reasonable vehicles. They will give you a ticket that can vary from a decently printed form to just some dirty piece of paper with your name on it (or what they figured your name is) and you always try to get a seat in the front of the bus. The day of departure you got to be at the terminal at least half an hour before departure, nobody knows why because most of the time the bust does not depart in time anyway. And then the adventure really starts, first exciting thing is what kind of bus you get, best case is a bus that looks only about 20 years old and does seem to still have all parts. Worst case is you don’t even believe the bus is able to drive at all. The next thing is the driver, can be from simply dangerous to suicidal and it is perfectly normal for a single driver to be behind the wheel for up to twelve hours and all of this on horrible roads which are very bumpy and most of the not time not paved and next to the roads are plenty of examples of what can go wrong.
The second busride in Tanzania was the scariest one at the same time. As there was no bus terminal where we caught a bus we just wanted to stop a bus of our liking, but a self declared agent interfered with that. With the support of a policemen he convinced us to buy the ticket with him which resulted in him not choosing the best bus but the cheapest one so his provision would be high. The only free seats were on the last row of the bus and i was sitting next to the former window which by now was a huge hole losely covered with something not very reassuring. But the horrow had not yet started! Speed bumps were no reason to slow down so every time we passed one of these we were thrown up and had to be very careful not to hit the ceiling. As it took a while to gain speed the driver tried not to lose it at any cost and which on descending roads turned out to be scarier than any rollercoaster. Passing cars regardless of traffic from the opposite direction appeared to be a hobby of our african Schumacher. The heavily sweating young african man next to us was scared to death as well and I don’t remember ever being as happing when leaving a vehicle.

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Der Stein, der Wind und der Selbstauslöser

Posted on December 14, 2013 by bioflori

Es war einmal eine kleine pinke Kamera, sie war die treue Begleiterin von Flo und Rüdiger. Überall wo sie hinkamen machte sie haufenweise wunderschöne Fotos und erfreute sich des Lebens. Eines Tages kam sie an einen der schönsten Orte die sie jemals gesehen hatte und sie wurde ganz wild und knipste drauflos um möglichst viel von ihren Erlebnissen einzufangen. An einem Ort war es besonders schön und sie setzte sich auf eine Felsen und schickte Flo ein paar Meter weiter auf einen anderen Felsen um gemeinsam mit dem Cerro Torre, einem tramuhaften Berg, zu posieren. Das klappte auch ganz wunderbar und die Kamera war stolz auf ihren Selbstauslöser. Doch dann kam der Wind und just genau in dem Moment als die Kamera ihren Verschluss öffnete um das Bild einzufangen fegte sie ein Windstoss vom Fels und sie wirbelte herum. Sie schaffte es gerade noch ihr letztes verschwommenes Bild von der Welt einzufangen bevor sie mit einem Fels zusammenstieß und dem Dasein lebewohl sagte.
Und die Moral von der Geschicht, weht der Wind verwend den Selbstauslöser nicht!

Comic of Camera crash

Der letzte Blick

Das letzte Foto, aufgenommen während des Sturzflugs

Nachtrag: In Lima wurde ein Wunderheiler gefunden der die kleine pinke Kamera durch seine magischen Kräfte wieder zum Leben erweckte 🙂

Nachtrag Nr. 2: Der Wunderheiler war leider nicht ganz so mächtig wie erhofft und die Kamera hatte von nun an einen Sehfehler und sah die Welt nur mehr verschwommen. Doch sie bekam bald einen blauen Bruder um sie zu unterstützen. Und wenn sie nicht gestorben sind dann fotografieren sie noch heute…

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Fotos from last days in Africa and Buenos Aires

Posted on November 6, 2013 by bioflori

I uploaded some new pictures from the last days in Africa, where we stayed at the very nice Sandai Guesthouse near the Mount Kenia and relaxed a little.

Also some pictures from my stay in Buenos Aires are online

You can find them in the gallery or simply click on these fotos.

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Hello from Argentina

Posted on November 5, 2013 by bioflori

I have to admit I was not very productive updating the blog so far, I’ll try my best to do better in future. I changed the looks of the page a little and added a new page, the ‘map’ page which simply is a world map with my route. I will update it as I go on. Have a look on it where I went so far, you can find it here. I also made the foto page a little more useful and will keep you posted about new additions to the gallery from now on. I will probably not write a lot about Afrika as I want to be up to date at some point, but there will be at least a few nice little stories that I have already in mind and would be a pity not to write about.

Since the last post, which is already two months ago, my father, Rüdiger and me went to the Udzungwa mountains where we did a three day hike to Mwanihana peak. We had to hire both a guide and a ranger as it was in a National Park. But it was a very interesting experience and our guide Pascal, a very nice young man, thaught us some Kiswahili which came in handy a lot of times in the following weeks.
After that we made our way to the Usambara mountains where we followed the steps of Caro and Jonas, the bavarian couple we did the safari in Ruaha with. Martin our guide showed us a very good time on the way from Lushoto to Mtae. We had delicious and plenty local food, met a lot of very exited children and enjoyed the scenery. At the end we were ‘rewarded’ wit a glass of Bocha, a kind of wine made of sugar cane. Not sweet at all and we did both not dare and not want to have a second glass.
After that it was already time to cross the border to Kenya which, after making sure the act of terrorism in Nairobi about two weeks ago would not affect our trip, we did at the coast road and arrived with a very luxurious bus to Tiwi beach. There we relaxed and stayed for almost a week. The time we spend on the beach and the reef as well as taking a trip to the Kisite Marine Park on the only rainy day we encountered. But it was well worth it nevertheless, snorchling with dolphins always is! And also the first time at a intact coral reef was spectacular and will definetely not be the last time. We reached Nairobi one day late as we got food poisoning on the last evening and had to prolong our stay to recover. Not a nice thing to experience!
In Nairobi we were welcomed by Luca and Flavia at whoes place we could stay, but we soon went on to our next Safari. This time to the Massai Mara, words can not appropriately describe it, one has to experience such things by themselves. And also the following days were not less spectacular: climbing Mount Longonot by ourselves! a first for us in Afrika and sneaking up to Giraffes, Zebras, Antelopes and Warthogs. The days spent at Lake Naivasha with Hells Gate National Park and a biketrip to Lake Oloiden I will keep in memory very well. After that we took a tour to Lake Bogoria and broke some records. We counted 25 to 26 people and a yellow elephant in a Matatu (Minibus in Kenya) and 10 people, a lot of luggage and a kanister of milk in an ordinary car. This was only topped by the amounts of flamingos we saw at the lake and inbetween the hotsprings. On the way to our last destination before returning to Nairobi we visited the Thomson falls and the hippos that live there. And finally we reached Mount Kenia and we also climbed it. 4985 meters! It was an incredible experience and one day I will come back to this mountain. After that there was only left to go back to Nairobi and say goodbye to each other. Again a little sad I moved on and flew to Buenos Aires and my father went back home.
So here we are in Argentina now and after a few days of getting used to the new place Rüdiger and me head off today to experience South Amerika. We will keep you posted…

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So it has begun

Posted on September 21, 2013 by bioflori

‘So it has begun’ is what I thought when I left home and feels like an appropriate starting line for this blog as well. But how is this blog going to turn out? What do I write about? How will I write about it? In which language? How much time will I find to do it and is anybody going to read it after all? To be honest, two weeks after departure I still have no plan whatsoever! But as the Tanzanian people say: ‘Hakuna Matata’ which basically means something like ‘no problem, it will work out somehow’. So similarily to my trip, also the blog will hopefully find it’s own way even without much planning and turn out to be something cool in the end.

One thing I figured already out though, is that I will use my gallery and regularly publish some pictures. So at least there is something to look at and to get an impression of the places i visit and what happens to me. I might try to write little episodes that stand by themselves and give a glimpse into what I am experiencing, which people i meet and how it feels to me rather than simply iterating places and sights.
If someone that traveled with me, is going to do so or is somehow else affected by my trip and feels the need to add their point of view, I won’t stay in the way 😉

What happend so far:
After my last day at work I went to Lazise at the Lago di Garda with a whole bunch of my friends to have a good time and also to celebrate my 30th birthday a little which turned out to be a great time. After that my flight to Portugal got canceled (thank you Ryanair) and I missed out on the monkey meeting in Faro. The days before the trip to Iceland passed very quickly nevertheless and soon I had an amazing time there with my girlfriend Leni, my sister Daniela and Luki. Maybe I or one of those three will find the time to write something about that trip later on. August was planned to be a relaxed month at home, filled with short trips, the outdoors, travel planning and spending time with friends and family. Instead it was a very busy month that passed way too quickly. Good thing was that at least I managed to say my goodbyes and have at least some little time to spend in the mountains, as well as more or less organize everything necessary for my trip. But it wouldn’t be the way it’s supposed to be if everything went according to plan. Leaving my girlfriend for such a long time and finally realizing what it actually meant to be away from home for such a long time was a hard thing to deal with! But that’s part of what i was going for, right? Good thing I have my faithful travel companion Rüdiger with me. Feeling sad we left for the airport and were soon on the way to Dar Es Salaam in Tanzania. We had to change plane in Dubai and at the gate we met a familiar face. My father was already waiting there as he took a different plane there. We will spend the next two months together in East Africa before he heads home and I move on.
Since then we tried to adapt to the african way of life and it seems we did not do too bad as we spent already a few days in Zanzibar and later made our way west heading for some national parks and doing a two day safari. Right now I am sitting at the terrace of the very nice Central Lodge in Iringa, having a relaxed day and enjoying the sun and listening to loud singing originating from some place nearby. I feel good 🙂

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