Karibuni Kenya

This blog is a look back at how the travelbuzz scheme effected my trip and a few thoughts about my travels.  With regard to health posts, music of the week etc I’ll steadily update them over the coming weeks.

Firstly, I thought the scheme was a really good idea when I first got the email about it and read some other blogs sta travellers had written and that has remained my feelings through my travels.  It was good to have a blog just for friends and family to follow as well, but also made better by the STA scheme as then it reaches a wider audience and could help people planning a similar trip to mine.

That said, if I were to do it again I would take a laptop with me, since sometimes with the slow pace of the internet and it constantly deleting my posts, sometimes writing  the blog became more of a chore than a pleasure.  With the time limits I had to use the internet as well, I missed out on writing in more detail about some of the things I did, where as had I have had the laptop I could have taken more time and care over the posts and enjoyed the process far more – I still loved doing the blog, but could have got more out of it with better preparation and more time.

Writing the blog did also make me look at things in a slightly different way, and made me more keen to try different things out even if I wasn’t 100% sure I would enjoy doing them.  It didn’t make a massive difference to how I approach my trip, but definitely the impact it did have was all positive.  I tend to like to explore places anyway and think one of the best ways to get to know a pace is just to get lost and find your way back again, but it was enjoyable to be able to write about places I found while lost as well as sharing with fellow travellers I met on my trip.

I didn’t meet any other STA travellers on my trip, but all those I met I told about my blog and recommended both STA and Travelbuzz to them, and in many cases received very positive responses.  The more people that get involved the better for us all and the more, interesting and varied information would-be travellers will be able to find out.  Certainly they can be a lot more help than I found the lonely planet!

As for life now that i’ve come back, it’s been more different coming back this time than on previous occasions.  Whether that is just because I am noticing it more or some other reason I am unsure.  I am now back into uni life and back with OTC, so my trip feels like it was longer and longer ago.  Every time I see a photo of somewhere I’ve been or hear a song I heard out there, though, it takes me back and reinstills my yearning to be back there for longer – when Africa gets in your blood it never leaves you.  I am now broke from my last trip so it may be a couple of years before I go again, although I’m trying to find more work to save up enough for next summer.  I’m  not sure exactly what i’d do, but at the moment am thinking of flying into Niarobi, doing a couple of weeks in Kenya then going through Tanzania to Malawi and then back again to TZ and flying out of Dar.  But we shall see. I’ll keep updating the blog with different info or pictures etc and hopefully will end up writing it again back out in Africa next summer – fingers crossed!