Jan 1, 2011
You lost us a bit, we know, but we are settling down so our every day life is not as exciting as during our world trip. But no, this is not so true. If you see our life from the outside its pretty exciting.
Since the beginning of December, after we moved to Tanzania, we live in the bush, the tropical forest of Wami river, near Saadani. We work hard to start up the new Saadani River Lodge among 30-35 local employees and some hippos who stroll into our working space.
We both wake up very early, at around 6:00am – zero time for Swahili people – and our view is magnificent. We stay in a luxurious suite, No4, overlooking the wami river and most of the days we have some hippos bathing next to us.
Its an exhilarating wildlife show by all means. During the day, we stay at the storekeeper’s office, organise everyday works, relating to mentainance, constuction and housekeeping of the new lodge. Given that the lodge is 110 km. of Dar es Salaam and 60 km. away from the nearest town (Bagamoyo) from a gravel road that gets flooded when it rains, logistics are hard.
Getting supplied by diesel – for the generator – food, water and other materials is a tricky business. Imagine that for 2weeks we survived with no cash and we had to send an LPO to Dar even for getting a 10lt. bottle of water.
We will be provided a proper house here, a really nice one but its still completely empty, so till it gets equipped with furnitures and A/C, we prefer to stay in the only functional lodge suite, for which a normal customer should pay at least 600 USD…
Looking back to 2010, we both feel it was an amazing year. These days one year ago we were in central America travelling with friends from Guatemala to Costa Rica. From there we left our Land Rover Discovery and flew to Buenos Aires to follow the Dakar rally.
Vula stayed at the tango capital and I drove all the way to Chile in a VW Amarok pick up. Mid January we flew back to Costa Rica, entered Panama and from there travelled to Colombia. The first half of the year we lived in south America. We reached Ushuaia as soon as the southern winter kicked off and from there back to Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro, in search of a cargo vessel to get back to Europe.
We found the Italian Grimaldi option and we rolled on with our car in the Grande Amburgo with which we crossed the Atlantic in two weeks time. Mid August we disembarked to Dakar, Senegal and from there we drove all the way through Sahara (ie Mauritania and Morocco), to Spain.
It was a nostalgic trip, pretty the same as the one we had done during the first month of our three and a half years expedition. We met the same friends as in 2007 and it was all the same for them. For us it was different, as we had travelled the whole world…
Different was Greece, our home country, after so long. The people were depressed thanks to the serious financial crisis. We were excited at first hand to get back home and start a new life but after the first month, we faced a real dilemma; to live in Greece or not to live.
At my work there was not proper space for me any more. I should work hard as a free lancer just for a normal salary, just enough to survive. Our dreams to write a book and make a documentary on our trip seemed out of reach. We got frustrated.
So, mid November, only two months after we returned, decided to move to Tanzania, thanks to the invitation of our friend Costa Coucoulis, owner of the Saadani Safari Lodge here. It was an old dream to live one day in Africa so we decided quickly to try it. So here we are, undertaking the role of managers in a luxurious safari lodge, soon to be opened.
At times I feel unsure if we did the right thing. We were to used to feel completely free travelling for so long and now we have to rely on other people. Its not easy but its a real challenge for both of us. Vula seems to adore our new lifestyle. Me, too but I really want to see for how long.
We want to make the lodge work, prepare our house in the bush and later start writing and travelling a bit in Africa during our days off. We may bring our car here on May, which is now parked safely at Noesis, the futiristic Technological Museum of Thessaloniki.
On January a small exhibition will start there for our expedition. On the other hand, we prepare our new website, TheWorldOffroad phase2. We have a lot to do in the year to come. We wish you the same for 2011 and most of all approach your life positively…_A.Temperidis
Maziwa, the Saadani River Lodge Masai security guard
Our old website is here!
