Goodday fellow bloggers, and those loyal to the writings of the ever-talented travelling duo that is Ross and Shea. My name is Shaun, a recently promoted member of Team “JoburgtoScotland” having flown in for a guest appearance during the Uganda-Kenya stint alongside a brother from the same mother, with the tenacity of an enraged honey-badger, it can only be Ross-Boss himself.
So without further adieu, allow me to pick up from where he left off as we made our way across a painfully truck-congested border post from Uganda, into the very birth-place of Disney’s “The Lion King”, indeed we were now playing on Simba’s turf. Pit-stopping in Nairobi, we stayed at a fairly bad-ass over-landers campsite. It was like over-lander Utopia, a place where flashing your skottel braai, camping chairs and mosquito repellent was your ticket in. Amongst the over-landing equipment eye-candy was this monstrosity of a vehicle belonging to a slightly deranged German who was a “professional” over-lander in every sense of the word.
A clear MacGyver fan at heart, he had bought himself a German ex-military “tank”-come-“snow-plough” and transformed it into Moto-indestructible. We use the term “deranged” quite lightly, but to be honest after spending roughly 3 years on the road, travelling throughout Asia, Europe and now Africa, and being arrested at least 3 times for suspicion of being a terrorist he was properly mad by the time we caught up with him.
Onwards to the coast saw us arrive in the beautiful coastal city of Mombasa, which I believe in Portuguese roughly translates to Whales… no I joke, I have no idea how they got the name. There’s stacks of fascinating history behind this place, with Portuguese, Arabic, British and Native Africans all having occupied the city at different times over the last 500 years. Vasco Da Gama himself, who was the first European to set foot on South African soil for those of you who didn’t know, also was the first to discover Kenya, arriving in Mombasa in 1498… what a legend.
We wandered round old city streets and iconic landmarks including the Portuguese-built, Fort Jesus. A flippen impressive structure considering it’s more than 400 years old. The most remarkable thing is that those Pora-sailors carved this colossal thing out of solid rock! I kid you not. Literally took 3000 slaves all of 3 years to do, so to be fair they deserve the credit. The Portuguese were no doubt on the side eating Prego’s and kicking a soccer ball while these legend Swahili folk were hard at work. Nonetheless impressive.
The Coast is packed with things to do and sights to see. Indeed life was good, amidst sailing into the sunset in a traditional Swahili Dhow, swimming in Bioluminescence (that crazy plankton in the water that glows at night!), daytrips to exotic beaches, market-place browsing and feasting on the freshest seafood platters money can buy. Let’s just say we weren’t struggling to keep ourselves entertained.
The only downer, if you happen to be an individual of European descent, is that the locals often mistake you for a walking ATM machine. As a result, you are bound to get haggled at every opportunity, but keep your wits about you, your head down and your back hand strong and you’ll be just fine 😉
Joburg to Scotland 