Africa part 1: Better than Disney

Mrhban/Jambo/Bonjour, and greetings from the continent of Africa.

Let’s see, where did I leave off?

Right – last I posted we were getting ready to sail the 195 NM southwest from Malta to Tunisia. I am happy to report, we did just that. And by all accounts, it was our most successful passage to date. Leaving the shallow/tight quarters of the marina in Valletta was easy, the weather and sea state cooperated beautifully for the entirety of the 48-hour crossing, and backing Maelstrom into the slip at Kantaoui was a piece of cake.

So here we are, Tunisia. Where? Yep – I also had never heard of this place before. I am starting to think either I paid very little attention in my geography classes growing up, or the Ontario public school system has some flaws. Ron knew all about Tunisia before now, but he is a much bigger Star Wars nerd than me.

Anyways…

Port El Kantaoui, Tunisia, is a little resort/beach town on the east coast of North Africa. Predominantly Muslim, their official language is Arabic (although most people also speak French). It is beautiful but it is hot. I mean 38 degrees in the shade, high humidity, no rain or clouds since we arrived at the beginning of June, and none forecasted for the next 30 days, HOT.

Maelstrom does not have A/C, so we spend our days devising creative ways to stay cool. After daily, self-inflicted torture at a gym half a kilometer away (that also has no A/C) we either hang out at the local climate-controlled shopping mall theatre that shows movies in English, or we take advantage of the hotel/resort next door that offers day-passes to their gigantic pool. I find I am happiest with a cold glass of rose in my hand…but that might be for reasons other than the heat. In any case, one of us is handling the temperature better than the other. I’ll give you three guesses as to which one that is.

This place is strange.

The people are ridiculously kind, and sweet, and helpful, and polite.

The food is terrible :(

It is no place I ever expected to visit.

But venturing to this corner of the globe afforded us the opportunity to travel to Kenya - a major bucket list item, and a first time for me to travel south of the equator.

Thanks to Disney, and my mom, I have loved Kenya from afar for almost 30 years. My expectations, inspired by Animal Kingdom, for raw, unbridled wilderness and beauty were over the top. To my absolute delight, reality put those expectations to shame.

Our 11-day safari began in Nairobi. We spent two days in Masai Mara, a day in Naivasha, two days in Amboseli, two days in East Tsavo and two days in Diani. Thanks to our talented and highly capable field guide Simon we saw every animal I had ever hoped to see. And by ‘saw every animal’, I don’t mean one or two off in the distance, I mean dozens of them, 10 feet from the Land Cruiser. Lions, giraffes, elephants, zebras, cheetahs, wildebeests, ostrich, hippos, crocodiles, antelopes…We stayed in tented camps where hyenas and lions supplied a haunting soundtrack for sleep. We watched the clouds slowly lift to reveal Mt. Kilimanjaro. Monkeys stole our fruit. Baboons waved at us from the side of the road. We had to stop the truck more than once for giraffes and zebras and elephants to cross our path. We saw cheetahs hunting their prey. We watched a pride of lions eating theirs. It was violent. It was incredible. It was magical. The food was absolutely delicious. We learned a bunch of Swahili.

Sadly, I am not nearly a talented enough writer to convey the wonder we experienced in words – so I am not going to try. Instead, I will let the photos and videos we captured do all the talking. Some of the photos are below – we're going to drop three vidoes to FB/Insta over the next few days - check them out!

There are many (many) days I think we were bonkers bananas for leaving everything behind for this adventure. If doing so was for nothing but getting to experience Kenya, it will all have been worth it - and I will dream of Africa for the rest of my days.

So, what’s next?

After a visit home to see family and friends (OMG, I have missed my people so much) it will be back to the boat in Tunisia for the month of August where we hope to do a camel safari in the Sahara Desert and maybe visit Tataouine - true Bedouin style. We’ll need to begin moving west at the beginning of September if we are going to be in the Canary Islands in time to tackle our biggest sailing journey yet: the trans Atlantic crossing with the ARC+.

The quest continues. I’ll write again soon to tell you all about it.

Asante sana for continuing to follow us.

May you have fair winds and following seas.

Charity xo

Some photo highlights from our Kenya safari. Huge shout out to Ian - thank you for the photography tips - I hope I did you proud.

With Carolyn, the amazing woman who planned our whole safari. Outside Nairobi National Museum.

I really do love all animals. Nairobi National Museum.

Visiting a Masai village...fist bumps for all the littles.

We saw so many zebras it became reminiscent of deer in Alberta...but good grief, their stripes are something else. Masai Mara, Kenya.

Lions really are my favourite. Lioness in Masai Mara, Kenya.

Getting to watch this pride of lions enjoy thier breakfast was the most brutal, violent, yet beautiful thing I have ever witnessed. Masai Mara, Kenya.