Early morning we carefully moved our sleeping boys into the car and set off. We were on our way to a chimpanzee sanctuary just down the road (3.5 hours apparently). Google maps obviously is unaware of the state of the road as it reckons it should take under 2 hours!

The careful transfer of the kids was pointless, as soon as we turned onto the main road they were shaken awake. I don’t really know how describe the road to you… It had some tarmac and a hell of a lot of pot holes. Not the small pot holes we complain about in the uk but massive pot holes you fully drive into before you start to drive out. Some were over a foot deep! If you hit one at speed it gave you an instant head ache!

(Entering a pot hole)

These pot holes lead to what my husband referred to as the pot hole dance. Cars did not stay in a lane instead they darted here there and everywhere avoiding the worst of the pot holes. (Really I think ditches would be closer term than pot holes). Not only do you have to watch out for pot holes but also for massive trucks coming straight at you as they also partake in the dance. I have only seen trucks this big in the Australian outback. They are massive, some at least 3 times the length of a standard UK lorry! Overtaking them is another interesting activity, playing chicken with one of these is not recommended!

(driving at the side of the road)

A few miles in Husband says ‘I think I will drive at the side of the road its less bumpy!’ and it was! I can say it is the worst road I have been on, the good news is they are fixing it! There are signs of improvements and some patches of new road. The bad news is  there are road works, miles and miles and miles of temporary road running along side the new road. On the whole the temporary road sections are better than the old road sections but they have the added issue of speed bumps! If you thought the old speed bumps near the Odeon back home are bad then these are horrific plus they are practically impossible to see. There are a few clues to them appearing though… sometimes there are signs saying slow down to 20 km/h, other times piles of rocks or burnt out cars placed at the side of the road (meant to stop you skipping round the side of the bump), another clue is if there are people stood trying to sell their wares as they take advantage of the fact you have to practically stop to get over the bump safely.

I was expecting to see animals being transported in various ways as we have seen on previous trips and sure enough we saw trucks of cattle, pickups full of caged chickens and bikes with goats and or chickens on the back… but I did not expect to see a truck coming towards us with 2 giraffe heads sticking out the top! I have no idea how they made the road without breaking their legs.

Our destination turned out to be worth the journey. The chimpanzee sanctuary accommodation was a semi circle of lodges set in the middle of protected forest. How ever we had promised the boys we would camp so we set up our tent in between two of the lodges as the boys pestered us for food and drink. Putting up the tent in the heat of the day is not a mistake we will make again, leaving it half done we set off to see the chimps and had a pleasant drive around the reserve. The flood plains are particularity stunning.

The rest of the day we spent putting up the tent (the pegs were useless in the baked ground), and chilling under a massive thatched pergola as the boys played with a staff member’s little boy. At bed time the boys were completely hyper and very excited about sleeping in a tent but with it being pitch black we managed to convince them to settle down for what turned out to be a peaceful night sleep.

(Baby Blue in a Nomad travel bed, they are brilliant!)

The next morning we continued another 2 hours down the bumpy road to our nearest shopping center. Where we spent the afternoon stocking up on birthday presents, clothes and a few other supplies. And when I say shopping center its nothing like the shopping centers you get home, there were maybe 25 shops most selling very expensive clothes but the main attraction for us was Game which is kind of like a poorly stocked ASDA. Lego boy excitedly ran up the toy aisle looking for his favorite product of which there were 3 boxes, he reacted surprising well, he seems to be getting used to the idea that things are harder to get and appreciating what he has more.

After a 5 hours return home we settle the boys down to sleep ready for their first day at school.