Which of South Africa's National Parks is the right one for you?

In celebration of the 9th annual South African National Parks Week, instead of doing our usual Tuesday Trip Infographic we decided to do one about our 21 incredible parks instead. National Parks Week is about getting South Africans to ‘Know your National Parks’ and cultivating a sense of pride in these areas which protect our natural, cultural and historical heritage. 

We're lucky enough to have visited most of them and so know once exposed that's not at all a tough goal to achieve! During this week all South Africans can visit any of the country's National Parks, except Namaqua National Park, for free! With so many to choose from, how do you know which is the right one for you? Hopefully this will help... 

Posted by Tracy Angus-Hammond (@T2T_Trace)

Missing Mountains & Magic Moments in Moshi

There’s absolutely no doubt that Tanzania offers some of the most spectacular scenery and wildlife viewing opportunities in the world. The country has pristine white sanded and blue watered beaches, clichéd but very much real island paradises, baobabs in open savannahs, the annual Wildebeest migration, the continent’s largest mountain and two lakes so big they have inland beaches. Yet Tanzania is so much more than just these natural wonders. We spent a night in Moshi that illustrated this perfectly…

 We’d been to Tanzania four times before and not seen Kilimanjaro, except from the airplane, and decided we just couldn’t go for a fifth time and not at least briefly cast an eye on her. So from our stop at Mkoma Bay on the east coast at Pangani we headed inland to Moshi to see the famous mountain. We were lucky enough to make friends with another guest at Mkoma Bay who lives in Moshi and not only offered to lead the 380km from Pangani to Moshi but also a spot to camp for the night! We gladly followed Musi and Marie through the never ending roadworks (by now the same road must be in tip top condition) with our sense of excitement growing as we got closer, metre by metre, to Kilimanjaro. From a 100km outside of Moshi we started looking out for Africa’s largest mountain and were more than a little confused that the world’s largest free standing mountain was by now not immediately evident! It turns out this fact is true but made difficult to see by the fact that the area around Kilimanjaro is covered with mountain ranges, it’s just that none of these actually connect to Kilimanjaro itself. 

It didn’t help that is was a very rainy and cloudy day but as we drove into Moshi we could at last see at least the bottom of the world famous Kilimanjaro! As the locals say, we just needed to wait for her to lift her skirt and reveal herself in all her splendid glory.  Musi led us through Moshi to our camping spot for the night and after setting and cleaning ourselves up we headed out to catch some Moshi nightlife. We all piled into Musi’s car and headed to Glacier Bar, a massive house converted into several bars, restaurants and even fashion booths with a big open area in the middle where the party happens. As luck would have it the big event on at Glacier’s that night was the Redds Fashion Unibash. The fashion show is aimed at show-casing young designers from the country’s universities and offers cash prizes to those judged as having the best designs on the night. In between the fashion, all modelled by the Miss and Mr Tanzania contestants, the massive crowd was entertained by Joh Makini live in action.

Photo by Issa Michuzi

After an excellent dinner of nyama choma (grilled meat) we grabbed a drink and headed straight into the thriving mass of people surrounding the stage. The all-Tanzanian live line-up busted out Bongo Flava beats that kept the crowd literally jumping. And that included us! Bearing in mind that we’re old now and thumping club scenes are not really our bag anymore, the music has to be quite something for us to keep going – but that it certainly was. So much so we were almost disappointed when it stopped so the fashion show could start. That feeling passed the second the incredibly energetic MC stepped on stage with the phrase ‘Nice, nice, nice’, one we would hear countless more times that night. All the designs were modern, fashion forward and unmistakably African, but our favourites were most definitely the brightly coloured formal men’s wear. 

Photo by Issa Michuzi

Photo by Issa Michuzi

Despite slightly sore heads we awoke bright and early the next morning and jumped out from under our mosquito nets hoping to at last see Kilimanjaro in all her glory. Alas she was still hiding and for all we know there could have been a golf course or an ocean under all those clouds. After as many delays as possible, all aimed at giving the clouds time to disappear, we eventually headed to our next destination without having laid eyes on her. There was no sense of disappointment though since Moshi had delivered so many unexpected and unique experiences, more than making up for its hiding mountain.  

The entire Moshi encounter, from our generous host and now friend, to the slick and home-grown fashion event, is a great metaphor for Tanzania today: a vibrant, energetic, colourful, modern and cutting edge society that has so much more to offer than just safaris. 

Posted by Tracy Angus-Hammond (@T2T_Trace)

A simple (but effective) approach to encouraging tourism

The potential contribution of tourism to a country’s economy has been recognised across the globe and with this has come an ever increasing number of campaigns, initiatives and promotions to encourage both international and domestic tourism. While we were in Nairobi (Kenya) we had the opportunity to meet two inspiring individuals who, interested in promoting domestic tourism, started an organisation that has had massive success in achieving just this. What I like best about their approach is its simplicity: They wanted people to travel and so just organised this travel, offering it to anyone interested at cost price. And it’s worked! In 2009 Road Trip (KE) organised 4 trips a year and had an attendance of around 10 people per trip, fast forward to 2014 and they’re organising 10 trips a year with 50 people per trip – and more would attend if logistics allowed!

Evans Muriu and Stephen Musyoka are incredibly busy guys, not only with their hands in several successful business but they are also founders of other community projects such as the Wanadamu initiative, a database for willing blood donors, and raising funds to buy sanitary towels for girls from poor communities. Despite this they manage to find the time to organise these trips, and do so in terms of every detail: the transport, accommodation, meals and even itinerary and entertainment. And they do all of this organising without making a cent for themselves. They simply negotiate the best group rate possible, hire the transport and then pass on these costs as is to their ever-growing number of members. Best of all they allow members to pay for their trips in instalments and make this process quick and easy by having an M-PESA account. Pretty cool huh?

Road Trip (KE) has travelled all over Kenya from Mombasa to Nakuru and even neighbouring country Tanzania. Sometimes they stay in hotels, other times they camp and all in all they showcase every aspect that travel in Kenya has to offer. They have even organised trips to the Rugby 7s tournaments to support the very successful national team. The members have become more than travel mates but firm friends too and after spending just a few hours with these wonderful folks it’s easy to see why the organisation keeps growing. They have so much fun together! Evans and Stephen have managed to find the perfect balance between organisation and fun, ensuring no trip is simply a party but that the party itself is always worth attending regardless.

If you live in Kenya check out their next trip which will be an overland adventure to the Rhino Charge this weekend (31 May to 2 June).  The Rhino charge is Kenya’s premier off-road motor sport competition which takes place in 100km² of rough terrain, over 10 hours and has no set route. The winner is the 4x4 that reaches the most checkpoints in the shortest distance. By joining the Road Trip (KE) crew you’ll get to enjoy this thrilling event with none of the hassle and double the fun!  Best of all you’ll get to meet Evans and Stephen, two intriguing characters setting an example to us all.

Posted by Tracy Angus-Hammond (@T2T_Trace)