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La, Atlanta, Miami, WV, DC, London, Johannesburg.
Hello from Maputo, Mozambique

Sent in Mar. 19, 2005 from Backpackers Ritz in J'burg.

Friends, I am on a 75-day tour of East Africa, 23 days on a
safari tour, the rest of my own, though I am not yet
sure where I will take myself.  Some of this will depend on
visa requirements of various countries, how soon I can get
them, if I can enter without a visa, or get one at port of
entry, etc.  I know all of South Africa from my visit in
2003.  This time it is serving as my hub, though I will
revisit some parts on this occasion too.  Americans do NOT
need a visa to South Africa.

1. Useful Info

a) Time. All East (black) Africa, including So. Africa, is
7 hours ahead of USA EST, 10 hours ahead of PST, like the
Middle East, Jordan, etc.  Tanzania is 1 hour ahead (later)
of the rest, Kenya too.

b) Climate.  Mid March to about June is the wet season in
East Africa.  Often very hot sunny days are followed by a
downpour at night or just a few hours later.  The nights
are on the cool side; at the rim of Ngorongoro it was cold.
 I had neither a sleeping bag nor a blanket, so suffered
more, also because 3 Cape Buffalo found their way to our
camp and one was thumping around my tent.

c) Things to bring along.  You MUST have Yellow Fever
vaccination BEFORE arriving in East Africa.  They check
this in Malawi.  (You also need the same if you travel to
Paraguay and to Brazil if you have been in Venezuela or
Paraguay in the last 6 months.)  Be on some sort of Malaria
regimen, even if you think you are immune.  The heat,
humidity, and mosquitoes are relentless.  Dar Es Salam and
Zanzibar (on Indian Ocean) is where you will experience the
most bites. A strong insect repellent is a MUST as also
diarrhea pills and the usual assortment of other pills,
like against runny nose. Be prepared to be in continuous
sweat and feeling wet, the more as you move north to Kenya
and the equator.  However, it is cool to cold at nights and
mornings in mountainous northern Malawi and Tanzania,
especially in the Ngorongoro Crater, where you will need a
sleeping bag.  (I slept in long jeans and heavy shirt.) 
Bring along sandals too to breathe your feet.  It is too
hot and humid for walking shoes.  Do NOT automatically jump
in a lake or river to cool down.  Aside from occasional
crocodiles, especially near where rivers and creeks join
lakes, there is bilharrzia in some parts.  Ask someone
first.

d) Travel Warnings in Africa. NORTHEAST: Western Sudan
(Khartoum and Nile OK), Somalia; WEST: Guinea-Bissau, Cote
D'Ivoire, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Nigeria; CENTRAL: Congo,
Central African Rep., Chad (?), Congo (Zaire), Angola;
EAST: Burundi.

Difficult to get in or inhospitable: Algeria, Libya

Too expensive to get to: MADAGASCAR.  Americans DO need
a visa to enter Madagascar, but can get it at the airport. 
The problem is the cost of the flight: $800+ from J'burg
for a 2-hour flight (+2 hour time difference).  This is
forbidding and until the Govt. decides to treat tourists as
visitors, NOT suckers, I would not go there.  Compare this
to about $1000 for the 21-day tour with Nomad from Zimbabwe
to Nairobi and you see how exorbitant Madagascar is, not to
mention the visa and exit fee you also must pay.  Another
way of getting there is by boats that leave from Durban for
much cheaper (?), but I am told this takes 3-4 days
one-way.

e) Need Visas: Kenya, Tanzania (both on R-St. NW, near each
other, in Washington, DC.  $50 for single entry, $100
multiple for Kenya (which I got for specific travel plans),
$10 to expedite.  I got both the same day before 12:30. You
also need to get visa to Eritrea BEFORE you arrive.  All
the rest you can get at the airport or point of entry.

You can get all visas at the point of entry.  If
you are on an overland tour, the tour guide will do this
for you, collecting all passports.  However, if you are
traveling on your own and are on a bus, your bus may leave
you at the border if the proceedings take too long, when
everyone else have gotten their entry stamps.  So in this
case, get the visa BEFORE you leave your country.  Also
know that there are TRANSIT visas for about half the price.
 For example, for Tanzania it is $30, instead of $50 to
$65, allowing you 14 days in the country to transit.  I
will make use of Transit visas when I begin my return trip
(of my own) to South Africa. 
 
HOWEVER, NOTE that if you take the Greyhound bus to Maputo,
Mozambique (or other countries where visa is granted at
point of entry), the bus WILL LEAVE you if your visa is NOT
done by the time other passengers are done with entry
stamps.  This is what happened to me; the bus gave me my
bag and said bye.  However, they did arrange for the next
bus line going there--Intercape--to pick me up and take me
to Maputo.  My visa was done in about 30 minutes, 5 min
after the bus left.

f) Americans are rare in Africa, even more on a per-capita
basis. It seems I am the only American around since I
arrived here.  I met one other from San Diego in Vic.
Falls, who now works and lives in Africa.  I overheard a
missionary tell a shop owner that 25 American missionaries
are due in Zanzibar to erect a church somewhere in
Zanzibar.  I dont count such as free-soul travelers, though
it is more substantive than say Secretary Kissinger flying
to some country, shaking hands with a few leaders, then
flying off to another country.


2. Safari Tours of Eastern Africa.  You can check the other
companies and compare.  To give you an idea about prices:

* www.nomadafrica.co.za
  Tel: +27 21 426-5445  (from J'burg dial 021...) For the
tours below, go to their web site, send them email to get
the details.
  42-day tour Cape to Nairobi: a) camping (12900 Rands) +
$250 for the kitty; b) the same accommodated (16200 Rands)
+ $600 kitty.  You can join this tour at halfway mark
either at Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe or at Livingstone,
Zambia and proceed to Nairobi for  a) camping (6450 Rands),
or b) accommodated (7950 Rands)+ $250 kitty.  Note: If you
prepay this in USA, you get a break, camping for $995; in
South Africa, it must be paid in Rands, which means the
trip may be more expansive due to exchange rates.

You can also arrange Nomad tours from the hostel in Cape:

* Africa Travel Center (inside a hostel in Cape Town) at 74
New Church Street. +27 21 4234530 

backpack@backpackers.co.za

http://www.backpackers.co.za/travel/saftours.php?TourID=74&id=adventure

* Others:
http://www.kumuka.co.uk/africa_tour_southern.htm
Just heard about it, and attended their meeting for 29-day
"camping" tour from J'burg to Nairobi, BUT including
Botswana. Their price is in Pounds: 930.  I am in the
process of comparing this to the one by Nomad.

www.africatravelco.co.za

www.acacia-africa.com

Also inquire about the Bundu Bus tours, and BAZ Bus to get
around from hostel to hostel in So. Africa, and some
neighboring countries.  (I think it is expensive, but an
option.)

http://www.travelifeafrica.com/vicfalls.html

http://www.travelifeafrica.com/faces.html

http://www.travelifeafrica.com/namculture.html

3. Maputo, Mozambique.  ($=19,000 to 24,000 Local
Currency). I already mentioned that the Greyhound bus I was
on left me at the border.  I arrived by Intercape bus after
dark, and got ripped off by a taxi driver--actually checked
3 hostels, 2 full, so drove to the 3rd one: Fatima's
Hostel, which I recommend: 150,000 (about $6-7) per night
local currency.  Dont pay more than 50,000 ($2-3) for taxi
from the bus station to Fatima's.  As for Maputo, it has
wide streets and as in USA, lots of dead spaces in the
city, like a restaurant 200 yards away, then residential or
other dead buildings, then another bunch.  I like towns
around the Old Town as in Mexico, where even the huge
Mexico City has one.  Here the old part is just old, and
you need a car to go everywhere.  To get to the Zambezi
restaurant nearby, exit hostel, turn left, and walk about
150 yards--is good. Maputo is more humid and hotter--and
more African--than J'burg at similar latitude.

I'll keep sending reports along the way.

Sirman