On The Road Again

18/04/2012

Last nights cook group was in charge of making breakfast, so I was up with the sparrows at 6.30am. Tonight's campsite doesn't have shower facilities, so I made the most of the showers at Kembu camp. Breakfast was baked beans on toast, and I was in charge of grilling the toast over the gas hob. I didn't think it was the greatest idea feeding everyone up on beans when we would be spending most of the day on the truck, but all good so far.



Kembu camp, where we spent the first two nights of the trip is also a working dairy farm, so we had a quick tour of the farm and visited the Kenana Knitters. Women from surrounding villages hand spin, dye then knot everything imaginable from local wool. There were the usual slippers, scarves and jumpers, but also lots of knitted toys and hand puppets in the shape of lions, giraffes and elephants. The colours of the wool were beautiful, especially when you consider that the dyes are all natural, made from things such as beetroot and red cabbage. The women then export them overseas, mainly to Europe. I bought a beautiful rug, which looks very warm and cosy.

Then it was on the truck for a day's driving towards the Ugandan border. We drove along some pretty horrible roads, and I don't think you've experienced potholes until you've been on the road in Africa. Sometimes the truck rocks so much going along, that you can close your eyes and believe you're out on the high seas in rough weather. But mostly it's pretty comfortable on the truck. The seats are comfy, there is a music system, and my favourite thing of all... a 'beach' where you can spread out and chill, play some cards or have a nap if required.

One of the fun things about overlanding is the varying toilet facilities. So far we've had drop dunnies, squats, holes in the ground and bushes on the side of the road. Today was out first 'bush wee' stop, and it was here that I got jealous of the guys and their ability to stand up while urinating. Us lucky females had to find as secluded spot as possible and hope like hell no one walks up on you in the act. For my part, I half slipped down a clay embankment and into a thorny berry bush to find a decent spot.

I spent most of the drive up on the beach playing Presidents and Arseholes. I must have been having an off day, because for some reason I spent the majority of the game as Arsehole - but I did manage to get from arsehole to president in one go which made me feel better about myself.

On cue at 3pm it started raining again, so we arrived at Camp Turbo in the wet. But we're pros now at quickly assembling our tents in the rain. Vicki, my tent mate, has been overlanding before and could probably put the tent up in her sleep if she wanted to.

It rained for most of the evening, and we had some beers while waiting for dinner. Mitch organised a few strawpedos (sculling Smirnoff ice, using a straw as a snorkel) for the group, which got the night rolling. The group on the trip gets along really well so far, and over the last few days I've spent most of my time laughing. To the point where my cheeks are starting to hurt. It was quite a late night, with the last of us up past 1am. Maybe not the smartest idea when the tents needed to be packed up by 6.30am!! Oh well.