Home Sweet Home :)

As an update to what we finished off our expedition with for those who want to know, we had our day of relaxation that Kerry, Serri and Shan described however.... we were lucky enough to be granted with a tropical rainstorm! so so much for the sun aye?! :P it was okay though cause we still got to have a mooch around the shops up and down the beach :)

The next day we had a good tourist-style souvenirs shop back in Stone Town and admittedly, most of us spent pretty much all of our money! :P but I know I personally managed to get some bargains ;) Afterwards we caught the ferry back (where I recieved my final and fourth marriage proposal! haha, Neil found it all hilarious :P).

Back in Dar we travelled to a beach called Kipepeo (I think?) where we spent Dan's birthday evening. He might explain at some other time in more detail what the night was like but basically, it was amazing and the best night to finish the whole trip off :D We ate dinner (a BBQ that the restaurant prepared for us) on the beach lit by candlelight, and we sang happy birthday to him and got some of the staff to join in although it confused us slightly when they started singing different lyrics!! haha. But yeah, then we all went round the table and did a reflection over the past month, the leaders all made little speeches and it was quite emotional!! ;) Me and Shannon then decided by impulse that wed run into the sea, something which we later regretted as the waves were a lot bigger than they seemed! So I got SOAKING... yay? :P Haha, that night we slept under little leaf shelters to the sound of the waves crashing and to the light given to us by the moon and stars - it was actually immense to be honest :)

The next morning we woke up, sandy and tired only to go on a tour around Dar to see the fish market and the place where the locals make all their ebony souvenirs which was interesting... we also visited a huge shop selling TingaTinga art which was awesome, the whole shop was simply crammed with colour and it was all so good, it was ace :) Then with our Tanzanian football shirts on and bags packed we made our way to the airport and began our journey home :( I think everyone would agree that we've had the most immense time in Tanzania but we were all ready to see our families again :)

As the coach pulled up into ABK we all had our shirts facing all the parents in number order for them to see, then we all ran out and exchanged a fair few tight hugs from our parents and siblings :D

When I arrived back to the house I had my marmite sandwich and red rosy apple and i savoured every mouthful... I know you all thought I was weird for craving it but it was SO good :P Then came the shower (shampooooooo!!!!!) and the spreading out and giving of souvenirs :)

Overall the whole trip has been amazing and I don't hold any regrets for all the bag packs and failed discos its taken us to actually get to Tanzania. Its surreal that the whole thing is over and the idea that we'll never have to be silenced by Neil in a meeting because we're talking over each other (hes got that to look forwards to from the Borneo team! ;) lucky him!) but I can honestly say Ive enjoyed every minute of the expedition and Ill definatley be keeping in contact with all of the other challengers

- NAKUPENDA GUYS! :D

Elle xxxxx

Prison Island Tortoise

The gigantic tortoise on Prison Island. I could almost hide right behind it!

On top of the world!

This is a photo from when we reached the peak of Mt Rungwe. Turns out we climbed the equivilent of one third of Everest! Wow!

Photo

This shows us lot at the Zanzibar spice tour yesterday.

We are wearing grass crowns and jewelry made by the guides.

important infomation from zanzibar :)

JIM OR JAMBO ;)

hey guys,
not much else to say jasmine covered most of it, we just thought we'd entertain... no not really we just have extra time on the internet here.. whoop :)
this cost me 5000 shillings im getting my moneys worth,
so at the moment some americans are having a rave to outcast behind us and the floor of this shack is falling apart.. good times :)
plans for tomorrow...
wake up late.. lie in.. 7.30 whoop :)
markets - african trousers and ethnic goods...
BASK IN THE SUN... taking the factor 50 down to 30 :D
yes we're living on the edge ;)
big choice of all inclusive breakfast.. eggs... in the form of, fried, scrambled, omletted or boiled, gotta love a full zanzibar breakfast :)
thats about it,
big shout out to abk and tg losers
we know your following this word for word :)
we are literary genius's .. but apologies for kerrys awful spelling shes a maths girl at heart.
SO ANYWAYYYY, back to the beach that bag packing paid for :) thanks sainsburys x
oh and the one morrisons.. hmm
back to facebook ;)
big loveeeeeeeee x x x x x x x x x x x
see you thursday

shannon, kerry, serri, american crew, and neil ..whos over there somewhere >>> :) xxxx

R&R!!

Hi everyone!

We have all been having a fabulous time on R&R. Safari was amazing! Dad will be pleased to know we saw a marabu stalk very close! I was chuffed to bits as I was looking out for it especially. We saw Giraffe and Impala by the bucketload. There were some Elephants, Hippos, Crocs, Lions (we almost drove right past one huge one that was snoozing next to the path!), lots of Baboons, Grant's Gazelle and Vivet monkeys.

We took the bus from Iringa to Dar es Salaam which took a whopping 9 hours! But luckily for us we took a luxury coach. Comfy leather seats, leg room and complementary cupcakes and cokes. YUM!

We arrived in Zanzibar yesterday morning. Dad, brace yourself for the following news...
On my suggestion, we spent the day at...

... Wait for it...

... PRISON ISLAND!

The same Prison Island my dad visited 20 years ago! Wow. First thing we did was take a boat near the island, put on some snorkelling gear and swam amongst the coral reef. That was amazing! Got some great underwater snaps with my ultra cool camera (Merci beaucoup Nathalie! Gros bisous!). Then we went onto the beach of the island. Seriously, the only thing bluer than the water must have had a hell of a lot of E-numbers! Giant tortoises roamed the land! I loved the feel of their necks. Livvy and I shared a lovely hotel room. A massive bed each, hot showers and television. That was such a good day. Everyone thanked me for the suggestion, but I said to thank my dad instead. So dad, everyone sends their thanks for a great outing idea.

Today, we did a spice tour. Got so many free fresh samples straight from the tree/vine/root. We tasted a variety of fresh fruit, all of which were beautifully scrumptious! As I have been on this trip, I have developed a love of coffee (YES! Finally!) and so I took the opportunity to buy some freshly picked pure Zanzibar Coffee (Something Zanzibar is world famous for). I tried some at dinner last night, after a very tasty Kingfish meal. Both were very very yummy. We are now currently at Kendwe Rocks, a stunningly gorgeous beach hotel resort. The sand is unbelievable! We have just come off a sunset sailboat ride up and down the beach.

Tomorrow we plan on staying here the whole day and just having a chilled relaxing day on the beach (Ah! Lovely!).

Looking forward to seeing everyone again. Big kisses and much love! Would love to have uploaded some photos, but the computor I'm on right now is a bit iffy. Maybe tomorrow.

Na Kupenda!
('I love you!')

Jasmine :)

xxx

WE MADE THE SUMMIT!!!

After a week of tough trekking, it's finally over!

In the last week every single one of us has walked 80km up the Rungwe mountains. On Saturday we made the torturous climb to the summit of Rungwe mountain, 2960m high. Everybody made it and we all felt amazing! The scenery was brilliant once the cloud cleared up, however it would only clear for a couple of minutes.

It was a long week but unlike acclimatisation, we ate food! It was nice to wake up to oats and hot milk prepared by Andy, Aaron and Kerry every morning. I think it's going to be a new breakfast for everybody when we get back home. It was like melted flapjacks. In Pete's words.. "OOooohh heaven is a place on Earth!" Yeah I think we found heaven!

So now we've arrived back in Iringa and are ready for the Safari tomorrow, which we managed to bring forward a day, giving us more R+R time. We're currently investigating Zanzibar and it's looking hopeful! With our budget as it stands, we may even afford 4 days there! But we're also looking into other areas north and south of Dar Es Salaam incase there's anything else worth visiting.

Only just over a week til you get to see your babies again! :)

We can't wait to come home, but also, we don't want to leave!!!

See you all soon, and we'll hopefully blog again in the next couple of days after safari. Sorry about the grammar if anys too bad, I'm in a bit of a rush. See you soon! xxx

Trek Time

It's been a great past few days working on building a classroom, and seeing it come together. I would have loved to see the kids' faces when they saw their new classroom, but unfortunately they haven't moved in to the school yet. On the other hand, some of us are off to an actual school in a few hours, which should be an amazing experience.
The hard bit starts tomorrow, a 6 day trek awaits, but it should make the fun that comes after even sweeter.
Blog time is over for today, so you'll all have to wait another week for the next update!

Aaron