We're home!!!

around midnight on the 26th we finally flew into Melbourne Airport from our Africa trip.
We had such an amazing time and I have thousands of photos. had a great time with the children at the orphanage eating breakfast and lunch with them, we bought them all mosquito nets and spent a day hanging them on the bunk beds... didn't take long for one of the toddlers to tear a hole in hers!

After Uganda we made our way to Kenya/Tanzania to start our Safari, we were having money troubles with cards being blocked and all sorts, we weren't meant to pay for the safari till two days into it, and when we arrived at the offices and tried to transfer it with online banking we couldnt, after hours of running around from bank to bank seeing if they could help, nothing and we were so stressed that we would be stranded in Arusha, Tanzania for the rest of our lives haha. but luckily my wonderful parents came to the rescue and lent us the money, transferring the Safari money from home. PHEW

so we were on our way, we went to Amboseli NP in Kenya, Lake Manyara NP Tanzania, Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater. We saw everything! the big 5 (buffalo, lion, leopard, elephant and rhinoceros) although the rhino was from a fair distance. We saw hyenas and vultures and jackels all laying into a dead gazelle on the roadside. As we lay in our tents in an unprotected campsite in the centre of the serengeti we heard the hyenas calling in the distance and every now and then a lions roar.

If you would like to see some photos I will get around to adding them soon, I have a lot of sorting to do between my 2 cameras, my boyfriends camera and my best friends camera, we have A LOT of photos as you can imagine!


Naturally we missed Russell heaps, most nights Ben and I found ourselves thinking about him hoping he was okay with Brutus and our friends.
turned up he was a bit of trouble for them, broke out of the yard a few times chewing the wire mesh, cut his face up in the process, chewed through his lead when they tried tying him up and he also fought with Brutus a bit and Brutus came out of it with a limp, but he'll be fine. he's bigger now too, we reckon his neck and shoulders have grown a bit, he looks a lot stockier.

Any way it's good to be back! with my drinkable tap water, warm showers, electricity and no risk of Malaria or all the other million diseases

looks like I have missed a bit on the forum might take a while to catch up!

Welcome back would love to see the pics

Welcome back! I've been watching your blog from time to time -fascinating!

And yes, we'd love to see loads of pics................surprised you haven't already posted some!

Welcome back I have been reading your blog also, dying to see lots of pics

Welcome back!! Also followed your blog (thanks to a reminder from someone on here actually!)

Can't wait to hear and see more about it

Welcome back. Cant wait to see some photos. So jealous that you got to the Serangeti. its on my bucket list. Even living in africa we dont take such wild life encounters for granted. Was also following along on you blog. Your experiences were truly awesome. Russell must be over the moon to have you home (or is he giving you the guilt trip)

Welcome back looking forward to pictures

Welcome back! Can't wait to see photos!

wow! surprised so many of you followed the blog, half of my friends didn't even look at it haha it was mainly family, glad you were interested I'm not a great blog writer especially when you have limited time on very slow internet haha

ok a few pics up today I will make a thread

Welcome back Sounds like you had a wonderful adventure....... Blog ????? what blog ????? Ooops, I must've been off witht the fairies. Sorry.

I look forward to hearing and seeing more of your time away discovering etc..... Wow, must've been great to help the kids a the orphanage and spend some time with them. I bet they loved it.

Glad Russell is well on your return ( although he caused a bit of trouble and stress ) Look forward to seeing pics of him too

I'm sure you'll have memories of your trip to last a lifetime....and by the sounds of it, you'll appreciate all of your home comforts sooooooo much more now. Sometimes it takes a trip away for us to realise just how lucky we are.

Btw, in addition to what sounds like a fab trip, your bf name is superb. Just had to say that.

haha Ben, yes well I don't call him Ben a lot he is Westy most of the time. sometimes Benny boy.

Loopy I can tell you now, I feel SO lucky after living in the communities in Uganda and travelling the roads of Kenya (lucky to be alive in that one)
in Uganda the group of people and I rented a house in one of the wealthier suburbs for $27US each for a month (they were there longer than I) this was a house that many Ugandan people would dream of owning... but by Australian standards it wouldn't be worth a lot. bad plumbing, electricity goes off every night (although that is due to Ugandas power problems) it was very dingy and dark. every thing kept breaking but we were living so well for Uganda's living standards.
I found I could easily live there for a long time on less than $5 a day - this includes eating out and buying bottled water.

so yes! We are very lucky people!!!!