THere and Back

On The Move  22/06/2010

Juba was in my mind  a place not having much to recommend itself to the world at all Just another rat infested hole with a lt of people sitting around,But as Noel and I were driving around doing some errands before we flew to Nairobi we both decided it was a little better than before a few more tar roads ,finished new buildings,but maybe the excess rats ,dirt ,rubbish and the mountains of plastic bottles had been washed down the roads and thence into the White Nile and dpwn into Egypt for recclng at another dump on the way due to heavy rain that has just been.


But it did seem more vibrant and moving forward in anticipation of the UNs new 20,000 strong base  they are constucting in.So reat assured your tax payers dollars are been well spent frrging and accommodating them and making sure the Administration is first rate.The build up is due to the referendum for South Sudan independence,which will be in January .


I went to a shop called VAMP and met an intriging lady called Talith .Who has set up this great shop suppling frozen meats cheese,vegies grog and eventually Chemist products .She imports all here goods from Uganda,Kenya and Holland ,has hers own trucks and likes a challenge every mans type of woman.It is a great addition to Juba and we will certainly be using it to fly our food supplies up to Thar Jars .I am sure her timing is perfect and she will do very well hope fully we will be able to use some of her logistics skills and knowledge for our own operation when we start nringing gear in from Mombasa .This will be necessary due to independence and the North making our lives hard as they are already with the obstructionist behaviour going on now with our containers and fuel deliveries.


Nairobi?Well what a go ahead place this is .Buildings ,business parks,roads all going and lots and lots of people.Many without jobs many with and the main thing they all do is start a business.The Kenyan lives for the scent of money ,and is happy to take it off you and provide all kinds of services to do so.I spent 2 and half days searching out suppliers for our needs regarding all aspects of the operation,all major machinery and motor car brands are in Nairobi and offer as good service as any where you will find also the farm shops are good but do lack the range of gear we are used to having at home,Also found a future procurment man some helpfull ladies who handle overweight areo plane lugggae and seem make it lighter for a fee .just like most things here there us always away to get it done at the right price.


If your thinking of coming to Africa for a family holiday make sure you have lots of doe as it very exepensive for non residents all game parks ,tourist destinations,Visa and all essentials are in US dollars and it is between 75 and 100 dollars a day to do anything so save for a long time.(not feeling too good)


Saturday flew to Zanzibar.
Tropical Paradise?  The next few days will tell if that is true or not.
On arrival it seems just like another Juba without Donkey carts they use tiny Bulls (Nairobi no animals so it is people pulling the carts}
to pull them rubbish every where and I just thought another shit hole why did I bother as we progreesed furthe across the island it did change for the better once out side the city are althougj it is an island of sand and limstone not exactly a Paradise there are frew good raes for farming and one huge avenue of Mangoe trees with trucks a metre or two round .The houses are cement and iron and some made out of the Limestone.The people are Muslim and are a lot smaller and different to the mainland .Most are friendly but I dont think they realy us underneath as they have over the years and still now been ripped of by the European way back from the slave trade days when it was a major market to now with the predominantly foreign owned tourist trade.


The hotel is aresort on a beach with reef right up to it and is indeed vert nice and is very well set up but not the place I would have picked for a break ,Full of honey mooners ,ptach up couples and families not a grumpy middle aged man feeling crook and annoyed any how I am sure I will enjoy. The beer is cold.