Turner Syndrome Association of New Zealand Incorporated

Providing support to people affected by Turner Syndrome and their families in New Zealand

African Adventures

My friend and I had a wonderful month in East Africa (Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and Zanzibar) in September 2008. There were 18 of us altogether, all Kiwis, travelling on the back of a truck with old coach seats and lockers underneath. We camped in tents most nights, except for 9 out of the 28, when we had proper beds and a roof over our heads.

AKte's Africa AdventureOur guides were a native Kenyan and his Kiwi wife, their almost two year old son providing most of our entertainment! We certainly had plenty of experiences, when the truck got stuck in the mud, when it broke down for 9 hours, seeing all the wild animals and hot-air ballooning over them, rafting down the River Nile, seeing the Ngorogoro Crater and Mt. Kilimanjaro (just the top of!), going to visit a school and our guides mother, brother and sister at their home for lunch etc., etc.

We only had 2 days of rain and it wasn’t too hot as we were fairly high up most of the time, till we came down to the coast and over on Zanzibar, where it was very hot, but we could at least have swims in the Indian Ocean. There were also some depressing parts, seeing how the African people have to live, in their mud huts, with little power or water, and hearing about the slave trade. I think we were all glad we’d done the trip, but were glad to be home, and think how lucky we are here in good old New Zealand.

Kate (Previous Secretary)