About to Leave

I am feverishly crossing things off my various lists (create blog-check!) in preparation for the trip. We have (most) of our shots (since I got the painful tetanus, Hung informs me that I'll be the one handling all the barbed wire and rusty nails), and necessary visas, banking, etc done. Its amazing how tangled up we are in the monthly maintenance of our lives - it all really depends on us being here, or at least on the other end of a phone or computer.

In any case, our anticipated route will be London, UK> Nairobi, KENYA> Mombasa> Dar es Salaam, TANZANIA> Zanzibar> Selous National Park, Mtwara> Pemba, MOZAMBIQUE> Beira> Maputo> Johannesburg, SOUTH AFRICA

you can follow along generally on this map
http://www.africaguide.com/afmap.htm

but don't hold us to that!
Here is a link to an African news source if you want to know generally what is going on in the countries we are going to.

http://www.allafrica.com

of course, the big news where we are going (besides alot of corruption in Kenya that is coming out & resulting in raids on their newspapers and demos in response) is a serious multi-year drought. It is primarily affecting the Sudan, Ethiopia, and Northen Kenya. Of course, as travellers we will be able to get food & water just because we have $$, but in Tanzania electric power is primarily hydro-electric, so there is power rationing and other consequences that we cannot know from here. We are hoping that the anticipated long rains (usually arriving around this time and carrying on for several months) will come & we can celebrate with the East African people when they do.

In any case, I'll be writing as often as I can & can post photos here too, so am looking forward to keeping in touch this way.

wish us well on our journey - we will be thinking of all of you.

Adriene