For your much-anticipated viewing pleasure, here is the African Safari Song. I’d recommend clicking on the little “360p” icon to the bottom right and selecting the highest resolution – probably 480p. It might give you better sound quality, which is what it’s all about.
Many thanks to Connor, who we first met with his other half Louise in Livingstonia, Malawi, where he was working as a doctor and Louise as a teacher. Connor, we’ll send royalties to you as soon as they start rolling in.
In a fight between our lifeline on the trip, a £250* Katadyn water filter, and a £0.10 concrete slab, the cheaper fellow won.
We spent a long time weighing up the merrits of the filter before we left, but as soon as we got to Sudan, it lept into action. Bottled water was no longer available, taps were an unheard of foreign luxury and the water we could get our hands on, normally from communal 40 litre stoneware jugs on the side of the road in towns, was cloudy and stagnant.
From the moment we had begun using it, bottled water, where it was available, became a more and more expensive luxuary. The filter became a regular fixture in the day. The flexibility it has offered us, especially now that we can bake bread, was invaluable – we could be away from shops for days at a time without worrying about food or water.
Despite only having one month of the trip left, a new core is on its way – the peace of mind the filter has allowed has paid for it many times over.
*bought at cost price by Epic Store.
When we left, we never considered taking an oven with us. They’re just, like, quite big things.
But then we met some fellow travellers with a Dutch Oven, heated on a charcoal fire. Our minds started ticking.
Two months later, in Southern Tanzania, we saw a ghetto bread oven in use. Essentially a set of shelves in the corner of the hotel kitchen (which we were kindly allowed full access to due to the torrential rain), hot charcoal was placed on every second shelf with the loaves on the shelves in between.
A week later, we tested our new oven. The results have been spectacular.
After only 4 attempts, we created what has since been certified as an Ultra Double-plus Turbo Bonus Cake. And they continue to improve. We’ve even managed to bake bread twice, although the first time the hyenas got it. We watched them eat it from our tent, but Louise was too chicken to go and get it off them. The second time we got it though, and it was wasn’t half bad.
On every long trip, there are some pieces of equipment which end up unused and neglected. One such, I am glad to say, has been our high lift jack winching kit – we’re now out of the wet season, beyond the worst chances of getting stuck, and it’s never been out of its bag.
By contrast, there are items which end up invaluable, sometimes in unexpected ways. Enter the turbosquare.
A quick guide to making coffee on the road in Africa. The one man in Dodoma selling green coffee beans was still there, still in the same place in the market in Dodoma. We got a kilo – should be enough to see us to Cape Town.
