10 July. This is Paradise!

Today we signed up for a snorkeling tour. We went out at around 1030, via bus to the snorkeling beach where we then waded out to our boat for the next hour. I didn't actually get to see this lion fish while snorkeling. He appeared nearly under my feet as I was walking out on the reef at low tide. Snorkeling was a blast. The water was bathtub warm and oh so salty. My eyes kept burning from the saltiness. We were in the "safety" net of the coral reef, thus keeping the sharks far from us as the crashing surf about a mile out at the edge of the reef kept the sharks from bothering us. I didn't bring one of those under water cameras, but they don't fetch the best of pics anyway. Saw LOTS of fish swimming in and out of the coral. Climbing up into the boat was a trick into itself. It wasn't so hard for me as my arms were still in good shape from my Century ride. But the poor oversized French woman sure had a tough time getting into the boat. And the lad running our snorkel expedition was useless. The two native boat lads actually helped ms. fat frenchie (oops, thats Mum's term for her.) into the boat. Im sure that she felt embarrassed.. but shes French! (oops sorry... I'm starting to sound like Paul Theroux here.)
After an hour in the salty indian ocean we were done and travelled back to the resort. On the trip, we got chatty with a young Australian lassie, Robyn. She was just a sweetie, travelling by herself. Breezes was a luxury stop away from her safari group. She was like, "after this place I have to go back to camping.... grrrrrr!" You do so get used to the luxury. (Ever seen the Celebrity Cruises ads on the telly? "I was not to be bothered til 6 am..." or " I was to have tea on the deck every day at 5..." Well, that was us! We got back to Breezes, hit the shower at the pool and rinsed off the worst of the salt film from our bodies and dove into the pool. We splashed about for a bit and then the rain came..... but did that run us out of the pool? No way! We floated in the pool and chatted with a woman from Danmark who was staying at the Breezes whilst on holiday to visit her son who worked as an engineer in Stone Town. Her young granddaughter was just a lil cutie. Ok.. snorkelling, swimming... the stomachs begin to growl. So we get out, towel off and don sarongs and meander over to the open air lunch restaurant and had a beach side table. I had the local fish which was delicious. The rest of the day was spent on lounge chairs reading and taking pictures of the windsurfers and more dips in the pool.
Dinner that night was a delicious buffet of seafood. Mmmmm. Fish, shrimp, lobbies. I was a bit disappointed with the lobbies, as they grilled the lobbie tails on the barbie til they were WELL done. But the other stuff... seafood risotto.... Mmmm oh so good. I had ordered a glass of wine before supper in the lounge/bar and the waitress never asked for my room number to charge our room.. so we just walked on to dinner.... with my wine... and when we went to leave after dinner we told the (male) server he says "shhhh, don't worry about it" LOL. Gosh I loved those young men working at the resorts and lodges..... so happy and go lucky and ready to please. And even if they were out for the monetary tips they always smiled and never frowned or whined when we asked for our luggage to be hauled to and fro. As we were finishing our supper, there started the evening entertainment on the patio outside the open air dining area. A group of young men doing acrobatics.... with cheerleader type human pyramids included... only they would run and jump up on each others shoulders. They were just awesome...... and surprisingly they didn't even have a tip bucket out!
We meandered back to our room after the show and found, our once again, clean laundry waiting for us on our freshly turned down beds. (no choccies on the pillow again.) We were leaving the next day at 11 to go to Stone Town in prepartation for our departure home.

9 July. Its Sunday and we're on Zanzibar.

Just a day to relax and hang out on the beach. cruised the tidal zone. I waited for high tide but when it came in the wind was killer.. forget kayaking! finally hit the gift store in the afternoon as it was only open from 4-6 pm and NO credit cards.. weird.
we did lunch at the local lil pub.... i had chicken satay mum had papaya salad. not bad. dinner was at the Sultans Table. Mmmmmmmm tomatoes and cilantro for appetisers, sauteed/breaded veggies, nan bread, prawns, and creme brulee. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. After this we were way too knackered so next on the agenda was bedtime. Beds were turned down on our return from dinner, mosquito nets in place but alas, once again, no chockies on the pillow :(

8 July 06.. end of safari... on to Zanzibar!

Well, one night at Tarangire was enough. Guess we got too spoiled at Plantation lodge and Migration Camp. Still have to be thankful for the ensuite loo though.
Today, we travel back to Arusha. To the airport where we catch a dodgy plane....to Zanzibar.
Will be nice to sit and relax on the beach aside the Indian Ocean. It is still hot, but muggy as heck and the rain comes in ... dumps.. and then goes away. Mum and I even swam i the pool at Breezes whilst it was raining.
We arrived on the Island. Were greeted by Island Express and transfered to Breezes on the southeast side of the island (so no island sunsets.) We definately felt like luxury prisoners as to enter the resort you went through a guard gate and drove on up to the reception area.
When we got in, there was this a-hole greeting his mates who apparently used to work there. He was doing his best to sucker free meals out of the management. We quickly buggered away from his weirdness and were taken to our bungalow. Wonderful lil room.... great verandah out front.
The first order of business was to don the swimming costumes and go for a swim in the pool. I then dashed down and signed Mum and I up for snorkeling the next AM.
We had supper at the restaurant.. which goes along with the cost of the stay. Before dinner I imbided in the Kenya cocktail "Dawa" which is their version of a Mojito. Vodka, honey, crushed ice and lime. Mmmmmm Verra verra good. Its all I needed for the nite! We supped well, I had fillet of steak and veggies. Mum had Barracuda. We had "afters" of flambe' fruit. Mmmmm.
Do we have to mention that we slept well that night under our mosquito nets?

7 July 06. On to Tarangire.

Well, today we had breakie and climbed back into the LandBruiser with Charles at the helm. This time we had our bic biros in paws and ready to pass them out to the kids on the road side. It is such a gas seeing the kids run up to the truck and hold out their hands for a pen. Had this one kid (appropriately clad in a "Ninja" teeshirt) who kept his pen in one hand behind his back and held out his other for a second pen. He kept trying to get the pens we gave to the lil lads. (we knew the lil ones would lose their pens later to the bigger lads.) Charles was just busting a gut ... I'm like... "what, remembering your days of being 9 years old again?" He just laughed and nodded his head in agreement. We stopped along side the road near Karatu and bought some stuff at the Maasai market. (of course I did the bargaining thing too.) Didnt buy too much, a couple of Maasai blankets and a nice sarong for Kitty. (the sarong just called out her name!) We had already stocked up on good african coffee beans at the Plantation Lodge. As we were driving through Karatu we slowed to pass out some more bic biros to the kids, there were two young boys on a bike and they about fell over themselves AND the bike to get to us! One young lassie was just GORGEOUS as she held out her hand for a pen. In the Maasai culture, if you have your head shorn of hair (or very short) means your higher status in the tribe. Though in Karatu it was more the Iraqwe tribe. (I spelled that phonetically.) see http://tanzaniatouristboard.com/places_to_go/towns_and_cities/karatu
for a link to this part of Tanzania. We had a not so long drive to Tarangire National Park where we had a bit of a game drive... got to see a lion munching down on a freshly killed warthog.
Saw LOTS of elephants, and of course the famous baobob trees (the upside down tree.) We checked into Tarangire Safari Lodge and got into our so called luxury tent (well heck, at least it had real beds and a loo.) Lunch at the lodge was a fair affair. After lunch, we jumped on the internet to check email for the first time in 10 days. I attempted to download my pics from camera to CD.... but their silly puters wouldn't let me put the pics onto the CD, kept saying that the CD was corrupted ( I blame the xray machines at the African airports for THAT!) That was a frustrating hour which killed my desire to go out on an afternoon drive, so Mum went out with Charles and checked out the elephants. I let my headache resolve, than sat out on the deck at the main lodge and read, drank cokes, and watched the elephants cruise by below our camp. (and noisy they were at that!). I spent some time in the gift shop buying hats and teeshirts and a few gifts. Dinner was a sad affair. Their version of Tilapia was to take a hunk of fish batter the hell out of it, stomp on it, then fry it till it was fit for use as the sole of my hiking boots. The female serving staff were grumpy as heck. (quite a contrast the the happy smiling men who were happy to please at the drop of a hat.)
But this IS the far side of the world, as we found out, cos the generator gets shut off from 3pm to 6pm and Midnight to 6am. Mum and I turned in early and read in bed by headlamp.

6th July.... still at Plantation Camp

ok.. we are staying 2 days here. Its a nice lodge. Not so pleased at how they dress the help in Aunt Jemina outfits... but the beds were comfy and they did turn downs at bedtime. The food was good. tonight we had a more enjoyable dinner..... no family with teenagers. We actually got to chat with the Brits next to us.. and they were actually enjoyable. Appetiser of Tuna, salad, soup, Main course of fillet of steak, veggies and potatoes (remember, this lodge is run by Germans.) All the veggies served were grown on grounds.. and DELICIOUS! we stuck around for "afters" and coffee. The red wine I had at dinner was ok... good... strong... not the best.. but good.
We tucked into bed early as we had to get up to travel to Tarangire National Park.... on the other side of Lake Manyara National Park. We are still smiling at this point. Before dinner, we had a shorter game run... got to see more cheetah, lion, wildebeast, elephants etc. On the way back to the lodge, we finally asked Charles, "hey, what are the kids yelling at us for?" He said "pens!" Mum is like.... "hell! we brought tons of pens for the kids.... but they are back at the lodge... we need to pass them out!" So Charles promised to slow down for us in the am to pass out pens. (the children have to BUY their own pens for school work!!!)

5th July... Morning with the Hippos

This morning we leave Migration Camp. No more sounds of hippos bellowing at sunset. No more monkeys nicking our toast from the breakie tray.
But as we leave Migration Camp, our first stop is early at the Hippo Pond. The hippos are out and snoozing, flapping water over their bodies to keep cool in the AM heat (and it IS winter too.) Note the crocodile above snoozing in the sun... either he is thinking about how to attack one of the big bugger Hippos.. or knows better to stay away.
After the hippos, we had a long drive to Ngorogoro crater.... But first we drive to the exit of the Serengeti National Park... were we find several lions hanging out right at the exit, and rather close to the loos. More driving, we then finally decend down into the new and different clime of the crater. There is multitude of life, they say that only one Cheetah lives there...but we spotted two different cheetah in two days. The crater went from cool forest to dry savannah. The lion, wildebeast, zebra, rhino, elephant, cheetah all roamed in their own lil areas. The hyena and jackal roamed and kept a careful eye out for lion kills of wildebeast. We stopped at a cool swamp/lake picnic site where, despite the birds and biting flies. lunch could be enjoyed in the cool breeze. (and the antics of the "overland truck" tourists was something for a good giggle.) Hint #22 NEVER take a safari on an Overland Truck unless you are under the age of 20 and enjoy roughing it.... ie running to a open "longdrop" loo at 3 am and having to share in the kitchen duties.....
By the afternoon, the heat and flies had taken their toll, and we were ready to check into Plantation Lodge. Nice nice lodge, but they tend to dress the female help in costumes not far from that of the mythical Aunt Jemina. (head scarves included.)
Our room was good.. nice beds with skeeter nets. Lovely verandah and a private and shower. Dinner was another delicious affair: avocado salad, bread, salad, soup, rice and veggies including fresh fried cabbage. boiled potatoes brit style and beef with mushrooms. Dinner would have been nicer with out the family next to us.... they consisted of two young daughters and a dad and an obviously new female in dad's life.... the girls (one who talked non stop about dorm life at UC Santa Cruz) would not even acknowledge this new (asian ) female.
Dinner over.. we buggered out before "afters" and crashed.

ok.. its 4th of July.....

and this young spotted hyena is taking a 4th of July dip. His watering hole isnt nearly as crowded as Bass Lake is today... and a heck of a lot quieter. Today we did a game drive in the Serengeti... it was hot hot hot. We saw lots of good stuff, a cheetah eating his breakie, lions, gazelle, zebra (even a dying zebra), Impala. Today was my ultimate stupid day... this is the day that I got the smart idea to change my cam settings from large to small fine so that I could take more pics (see... we had no puter access...so I couldnt put my pics on a CD at nite.) Not sure where or why the dang camera decided to format the disk.. but it did, to my shock, dismay and general all around pissed-offness. Now I just have to take those rolls of film in so I have pics from the previous days lost on the Digital Cam. The day was long, hot and dusty. Lunch was a rugged affair, yeah.. rugged in the Migraton camp style! They pack you tupperware containers of pasta and meat dishes, fresh fruit, bread, and Mmmmmmm DairyMilk choccie bars for "afters". They even pack real ceramic plates and metal cutlery. We got back to camp at around 4pm I think (time was not my first priority) and headed straight for the pool. Even Mum took a dunk. Got out and slathered back up with sunscreen, pulled out the book, ordered a coke and RELAXED on the sundeck. We had sent our dirty laundry out for cleaning.... so tonight we anxiously awaited its return.. all clean and smartlike....pressed too. But before we could see our clean laundry, we had dinner at "the captain's table" i.e. we at with Camp Boss Peter and Anita, both from South Africa. One other couple, the ones from Huntington beach, and a older gentleman from Connecticut joined the table. Our last minute thought was "gee, hope we don't have to dress for dinner.... our clothes are still in the laundry." Dinner was a delicious affair.... leek soup, and baked Tilapia (cos I don't like lamb). Desert was a menagerie of chocolate sin..... can't remember what they called it.. it was just chocolate, chocolate, chocolate. The meal was adorned by a nice bottle of South African Sav. Blanc. That's what is nice about Africa... LOTS of good South African wines.
After "afters" the eyes started to droop, so we found our young lad with the bow and quiver and arrows and followed him to our room.... once again all we saw of danger were hares and civits. Next morning was gonna be a early morn... tea and coffee at 6, breakie at 0630 and take off at 7. Dang that Charles.
We had been hearing bits and pieces of the 2006 "soccer" world cup. By the time I had left Scotland, Ukraine was out. US lost early. England was kicked out by Portugal on the 1st. Today, the 4th was a good day cos Italy kicked the Evil Germany out of the race. Woo hoo!!!!!

into the Serengeti. 3 July.

up early... too early. the lads at the lodge hauled our luggage down to reception. We had a gorgeous buffet breakie at pool side. Delic coffee.. but they do tend to make it a tad weak. We have to stress STRONG coffee. stuffed on eggs and fruit and coffee... we joined with Charles in the LandBruiser, luggage in back.. and off we were to the Serengeti. We skirted the Ngorogoro crater to visit the Olduvai Gorge. Didnt do down into the crater yet.. that is to come. But we travelled long and hard into the Serengeti, had lunch at the enterance to the park. Bought some diet coke and dairy milk choccie at the lil store.... the choccie had seen better days... i swear, it had been melted and resolidified at least 3 times. Got some great pics of gama lizards at the Olduvai site.
it was a long and hot day and by the time we arrived at Migration Camp ( 5 star) we were ready for showers.... too tired for even the pool). We were once again greeted with cold juice and towels.. and introduced to the camp by Manager (South African) Peter.... the staff took us to our luxury tent... and showed us the torch and the whistle (whistle is to call for assist should we need something after dark.) The park IS in the middle of the Serengeti .. so they frown on guests walking about alone after dark. There are hippos and leopards and monkeys roaming free.
We showered... changed and basked in the luxury of our tent. once again big fluffy beds covered in white linen /down duvets. and sherry in the decaunter next to the beds. We did sunset on the verandah.... I imbided in a gin and tonic (have to be a bit colonial don't we?) When the supper bell rang, i ordered the fillet of steak, veggies, (gnocchi for appetiser), and pumpkin soup. Also had a glass of red wine and fruite platter for "afters" with good strong coffee.
After dinner, went back up to the verandah for after dinner chat. There we met a couple from Huntington Beach, and another single lady from Florida. Tis funny thing on holiday... you meet up with and have chats with people that in normal everyday life you would never interact with; so I reckon travel is a good thing. Didn't someone say travel broadened your horizons?
Finally the eyes were getting droopy so Mum and headed for the room.. we were escorted back by a young lad with bow and quiver on shoulders... too bad the most dangerous creature we came upon was a hare. Next, the usual... SLEEP.

Nairobi late 1 July into 2 July 2006

Well.... 8 hours on the plane, but only a 2 hour time difference so the ride wasn't as tiring as from LA to Heathrow; still we arrive at 9pm and had to grab our luggage, go through customs and get our tourist visas. We were shuffled through to one line, and then realised we had to get the visas FIRST... which was opposite what the first customs official told us to do. We were standing at a desk filling out visa forms when this female Kenyan official came up to Mum and I and two Brits. She grabbed all our passports and said "follow me!" So we did... I'm like "ok and she is taking us WHERE?" But relax, she just took us to a shorter line where the customs men were ready and willing to take our 50 dollars American to give us a 3 month visa into Kenya. Ok... so now we get to wander out into the front arrivals area of the airport where tons of people are standing and holding placards with names on them. We finally spot the man from Albatros Travel who is to shuttle us to The Nairobi Safari Club for the night. I check my mobile phone ... yep.. have service in Afrika... safaricom. Not sure what they are gonna charge me to make a call.. and not ready to find out. Its dark, and "cold" to the locals.... (feels fine to me after 100 degree temps in Fresno.) Kinda funny to see the locals running about in their heavy wool jumpers in July (remember, Kenya is just below the equater... so its Winter there.)
We got to the hotel... and after 2 rooms got one with TWO beds. The rooms were nice, but decorated in 1950s Fancy Smancy... that kinda furniture that you know is regal but you wouldnt feel comfy propping your feet up on the sofa. The first order of business was showers. Then bed. Sleep was good.... except for the frequent clunking of Kenyan plumbing from the toilets above and below.

Morning comes at 630 am. Sunrise and sunset are at nearly the same time every day 365 days a yr (life at the equator.) Because of this... Swahili time is a 12 hour clock. 6am is 0 morning and 6pm is 0 night. go figure. breakie was a buffet..... mmmm fresh delicious fruit and once again, real proper tea :) We chowed down and went to the lobby to wait for our transit coach to Tanzania. While waiting.... i went into the gift shop and bought some post cards. The exchange rate is 1 US dollar gets you 70 Kenyan shillings (compare to 1 us dollar gets you 1255 Tanzanian shillings!) Our transit coach arrived... we piled on... and the coach moved on to collect tourists from other hotels... we got a close in view of Nairobi.. which is not the most poetic city. The drive from Nairobi to Arusha, Tanzania was interesting... just podunk towns here and there.. and as Jimmy Buffett sang "bamboo shacks and carts with bananas piled on top." Every other building was a bar. Nothing fancy.. just a shack and tables... pull up a rickity chair and have a beer.. but at least the beer is cheap and COLD. At the border.... the locals came out in traditional costume to hawk cheap souviners (i suspect Hecho in China.) If you don't to buy just ignore them. We waited in line to get our passports stamped to leave Kenya, back onto the coach... then we drove a lil way and got back in line at the Tanzanian Customs Shack (and I mean shack). There we had to cough up 50 US dollars each for a Tanzanian Visa. One of the lads, Andrew, from America had only Kenyan dollars cos he was travelling the world for the last 7 months, our driver informed him that it would be 4000 Kenyan shillings. He is like "no, 50 US is 350 KSH. " The driver says
"thats how it is." I looked at Andrew and said "well, looks like you are paying the commission to turn those KSH into dollars." He laughed.
We all finally got our visas... after an near eternity of waiting.... piled back on the bus and left the cheap goods hawkers behind. From there, it was down hill into Arusha where we were met once again by our Albartros contact who introduced us to our own private 4WD Landcruiser(LandBruiser) and our own private guide Charles.... a native Maasai who was raised by missionaries after age 9.) We were provided with a box lunch from Arusha Hotel... taken to get Tanzanian dollars and bottled water. (don't drink the tap water.) An hour's drive and we were at the Manyara National Park. Charles secured our enterance fee and opened up the Land Bruisers roof so we could get better pics. Into the park, we were lucky to view elephants, Impala, Gazelle, Blue faced monkey, Pelicans, Flamingos, Warthogs, Maasai Giraffe, half submerged hippos and LOTS of birdlife. (Charles is a birdman.)
We were then taken to our night's lodging.... E Unoto Maasai Village Lodge. There we were greeted by smiling staff offering cold juice and cold towels to clear away the worst of the dust.
The rooms were "Maasai huts"..... but the ceased being huts at the door. Once inside, it was sheer luxury... BIG huge beds covered in white, thick linen and down duvets, a huge verandah, huge bathroom and seperate shower and toilet rooms. The only thing to remind you that you were in the Bush was the fact that the generator turned off from 12 am til 6am (western time that is.) We showered, changed and went on down to dinner. The dining room and bar were in two seperate open huts surrounding the infinity pool (we arrived too late to take a dip) I imbided in my first Afrikan beer... Safari lager (they like their lager in Afrika as its soooo hot there.)
Dinner for me was Lemon Rosemary Chicken, lyonnaise potatoes, veggies and fresh bread. The salad was heaven... avocado salad.. which was a half a FRESH avocado filled with a marinated veggie... onion, cilantro mixture. (TO DIE FOR!)
After dinner the Maasai people came in and preformed their native dancing and chanting. VERY nice. We were stuffed and tired... so this long day dictated a early bedtime as Charles was coming to collect us at 7 AM. (ARGH!)

Leaving Scotland. 1 July 06

Well, three days in Edinburgh. I got my Scottish fix. We had a wonderful dinner at Wannaburger Friday night.... portabello burger and salad for me and a chicken burger for Mum. This place looked like a fast food joint but it was a sit down restaurant with delicious burgers..... AND they served Corona with lime. Once again, it was a long day, so we crashed early..... only to have to get up at like 4 am in order to get a taxi to the airport to fly back to London. Our taxi driver was a gas... he spoke in the true Gaelic.. and talk he could. it was dinna, ken, verra...... Bryan gave us a taste of his Gaelic brogue but said if he spoke like that the whole day we would never understand a word he spoke. We got to the airport and with ears full of Gaelic, hustled into the BMI check in line. Seems that EVERYONE was trying to get back to London on this early flight. We had seats...... but when we got on the plane there was another lad who had the same ticketed seat as I did.... so after the flight attendents sweated it for a few minutes they moved Mum and I up to business class. Woo hoo! We got free breakie instead of having to pay 10 quid for a box breakie. (too bad we didnt get this boost on flight to Nairobi or LA).
We had just a couple of hours at Heathrow, but we had to trek from Terminal 1 to Terminal 4
to catch our flight on Kenya Air. (getting to Terminal 4 includes shleping our stuff down to the trains level and taking the (free) Heathrow express). We found the Kenya Air check in counter
easily..... just find the largest deepest crowd and thats it. We unknowingly jumped the queue in front of a young English lad.. but he was like... "no worries...I won't tell." we did fret a little bit because appartently there was one young lad who got to the counter and they told him that his ticket wasnt on record even though he had paid for his ticket MONTHS before. But alas, we got our boarding passes and we on our way.

On to Stirling 30 June

Ok.. so this pic isnt of a real Scottish lad.. but he plays the music and dresses the part.. and looks like he coulda been in Braveheart. (You have to bear with me on the Scotland pics cos I dumbly delete my first 200 pics.. ARGH!) Today, the 30th of June, we woke up and went to breakie at the Southern Cross Cafe on Cockburn street. Verra verra good breakie with a verra verra sweet waitress of whom we gave our email addys to. Her name was Charlotte and she was just a doll.
I had the vegetarian egg breakie which came with vegetarian haggis .... which btw is much much more palatable than the regular haggis which contains any and all parts of the sheep and or lamb. At breakie, we rang up Tim on my mobile phone and arranged to meet up with him at around half twelve. So after breakie we cruised on down to Waverly Station (Edinburgh's main railway station) and hopped onto a train to Stirling which is about 1 hour from Edi. We were met in Stirling by Tim and 7 yr old Joanna... who is just a doll. Had lunch at Tim's and chatted for a few hours, whilst Joanna entertained us in between her painting. The rain clouds cleared and so we all went for a walk and Tim gave us the grand tour of Stirling. Did actually get to get a glance of the Wallace Monument from the top of a hill where we trekked to (there was a park at the top and Joanna insisted on visiting the park). Lil Joanna flew up the side of the hill as we adults huffed and puffed up the stairs.) We took pics at the top, of course mine were in cluded in the ones deleted, but Mum got a few. We walked on down and around back into Stirling and back to the train station. ..... and back to Edinburgh. On this train ride, i took the plunge and bought a bottle of Irn Bru (the drink that DI Rebus sooooo loves when hungover... oh man. god awful cougar piss!) It tastes like someone dropped several ha' pennies into the bottle and let them sit for a month. Blech.

Still in Scotland....

Well, we met up with our coach, well, the coach to take us to our coach..... we got on the proper coach, with all the right people and we were introduced to our driver/guide Bryan. He was a typical Scot with the typical humour. He even came dressed in a kilt. He got to driving, and after picking up everyone on the way out of Edinburgh, he had everyone introduce themselves. Bryan sure loved the family from Wisconsin... and knew right off to refer to them as Cheeseheads. They were good natured enough to actually LIKE being called cheeseheads. We had a LONG drive ahead of us, but along the way as we travelled through Glencoe we were given the history of the Jacobites and the revolutions. (Jacobites being followers of King James of Scotland). We got to go by Ft. William where Jamie Fraser ( The Outlander Series) was imprisoned. We stopped for lunch at Sprean Bridge just after Fort William. (on the tip of Loch Linnhe). After lunch, we travelled on up to Loch Ness in search of Nessie. At Loch Ness we got onto a boat for an hour ride up the Loch in search of Nessie. But don't even ask Biologist Ricky about Nessie, cos he doesn't believe in such nonsense. He did tell us about the large fish and also carnivore fish down below. Ricky was definately Scottish as one of his first comments were " we have GPS for two reasons: one-we are Scottish, two- we have a bar!" The humour went on as such for the next hour. The loch was amazing and if you looked at the sonar of the loch.. you would see just how deep the crevase of the loch is. After the boat ride, we got back onto the coach... Bryan began swerving back and forth and commented "honestly, I only had four pints of beer while you were on the boat..... chuckle chuckle" We rode on up to the top of the loch were we visited Urquhart Castle (or what is left of it). When the Scots abandoned it.. they destroyed it. The drive after the castle was long and slow, but we soon cruised into Inverness where we started back down the coast of Scotland. This is where everyone napped whilst Bryan played Scottish music. I slept, Mum slept... but as the Corries began to play I woke up. I was sooooooo chuffed to hear Bryan including The Corries in his forte. (Corries are my all time favourite scottish folk music.) The trek down into Perth, well around Perth, was very familier.... then I saw the railroad... and this was the route i took in 2002 from Edi to Inverness to get to Isle of Skye. The coach passangers snoozed on until we got to Pithlochry our next and final loo and snack stop. After Pithlochry, it was all down hill into Edi. Bryan dropped everyone off at central locations. As he dropped Mum and I off, I gave him a tip of 10 lbs sterling and commented "now you don't have to tell the wifey that you spent money on 4 pints of beer" he laughed. We hoofed it up to High Street and had dinner at a nice Italian trattoria.. we both had seafood risotto... WAY too much food. The wine was fair. We went back to the 3rd floor walked and collapsed on the beds and crashed.

Afrika Continued.....

Well, we arrived in Ediburgh, had our tea. Mum took a rest and I went out and got some money exchanged and hoofed it around Edinburgh taking a look see at my favourite town. I realised that Fleshmarket Close (location of Ian Rankin's latest Rebus novel) was just down the street... and I then realised that it was on this Close that I stayed in a pissy lil hovel of a BackPacker "hotel" back in 2002 (when I realised that I'd never stay in another hostel!) I sussed out a Thai restaurant for dinner, also found Leta's pub where she used to work back in 1980 (Bannermans). They still have the huge cows stuck out of the sides of a building across from Bannermans. Went back to the hotel and Mum was more alive, so we went out for dinner, but alas to our discontent, the Thai place was shut so we instead ate at a local pub.... which wasnt too hot. We walked around Edi, and stepped into Bannermans, I had a pint of carling (which Gumby promptly dived into my beer). Mum had a
lemonaide. Its a student pub, and they had a DOG Awful band playing... finished the drinks, retrieved Gumby from the pint glass and boogied. We found a small shop and purchased some breakie items and juices for the AM as were getting up at a god awful hour to go on a 12 Highland tour. It was only 10 pm but still bright and sunny. Forgot how cool it was to have sunshine 20 hours a day! I crashed away that night in the glow of the setting Edinburgh sun.

We woke up to sunshine.... at 3 am! (Yikes) struggled sleeping for a few more hours. (No wonder we fell asleep on the bus during the Highland tour). Had proper tea and muffins for breakie then went out to find our tour bus.

The End of the Holiday

Well, the Holiday is over... we endured 36 hours and 4 airplane rides to get home (including 2 6 hour layovers in Nairobi and London.) Unfortunately, we were unable to duck out of the airport (we had 3 month visas already) and go to dinner at Carnivores Restaurants. It is a restaurant where they serve all kinds of wild game.. they grill the meat on large skewers.. and just carry the skewers to your table and slice off a few hunks of meat. Mmmmmmmm.. Me Maasii woman, me love MEAT. (ok.. so Im Norweigan.. but I swear there is a link between Maasii and Nowegian.)

Well, We started off our holiday by flying to London. (I flew from Fresno to LAX, Mum flew from SLO to LAX.) I met mum at the airport and we then climbed aboard a United Flight to Heathrow. The plane was pretty much PACKED... and a lady that mum had travelled with from SLO didnt have a seat assignment.... oh were we envious when she got placed in business class! (She, Pam, was soooo chuffed with herself.) Mum and I had seats a row apart... but we got ppl to change seats so we were able to sit together, so I promptly pulled out Gumby and took pics of him hanging out on my food tray. (When I sort out how to download the pics from camera phone, Ill post them.) Anyhoo, after 10 hours of very short naps..... we arrived at Heathrow. We got through customs and then went to board a BMI plane to Edinburgh.

Once we got to Edi, it was a cab ride into town... checked in at the Castle Apartments main reception lounge. The lad checking us in had the most striking green/blue eyes... he saw my Yosemite shirt and was giddy about California as he had worked there for a stint of time.
We got another cab to the apartments.. and then the surprise came... uh, they didnt tell it was a 3rd floor walk up.. (and mind you 3rd floor in UK/EU means 4th floor in American. ) We had to shlep our stuff up the spiral staircase to our room which was NOT to the standard that we found on the website.... gee.. never believe what you see or hear on the internet... novel idea eh? But at least it was a room and a loo and a so called bed.... and they had tea!!!!!! and sugar and milk... PROPER Tea was promptly in order.