The lessons Africa tought me...well a few of them...

as you can imagine five months in Africa has tought me alot. Far more then i could ever fit into one teeny tiny blog post so here are a few of the things i learnt along the way... starting in South Africa because that's where we started....

South Africa opened me up to my family history. its where my moo is from and i never quite appreciated until recent years how it would have been like to grow up in apartheid south Africa i think i now have some understanding of the way things were. We went out to Robben island (Cape town) and to the Nelson Mandela museum (Mthatha) which stand to show us and the coming generations the many horrors of apartheid and educate to stop something like it ever happening again. I also learnt to ALWAYS carry our camera no matter how annoying it seems... in Tsitkamma after walking for an age and not seeing anything cool we put the camera in our tent and wandered through the campsite only to stumble across a massive male baboon just chilling on the grassy verge! argghhh how frustrating!....

Swaziland tought me that sometimes jandals just don't cut it...(not often)...when we were playing football against the locals (and that's the local football team not just kids! they had football boots and shin pads and i had bare feet!)shoes would have been a good option jandals don't allow for quick manoeuvring and turns out not only was the ground nice and hard there were also a ton of camel spiders hanging about oops!....

In Mozambique the lesson about reading instructions first was learnt as in "take one seasick pill at least an hour before activity" this would have been helpful instead i took it about 30 seconds before activity and so fed the whale sharks as well as snorkelling with them...

ALWAYS KNOW WHERE THE RHINOS ARE....seems simple but in Zimbabwe we were almost trampled by a big bull...We were sitting quite relaxed watching a group of four rhinos when suddenly (thankfully) someone spotted a fifth coming up right behind us lucky for us they have poor vision so the big beast probably didn't even know we were there!....

Now this ones for LP and it seems pretty basic...in the Okavango Delta we headed out to an island on Makouras (dug out canoes) and LP rolled his sleeves up to his shoulders without any suncream....he still has a funny tan line....so Botswana taught us to always SLIP SLOP SLAP...AND WRAP.....(Emily this may be Kiwi thing....ill explain when i see you )....

In Namibia we learnt that given the chance sand goes anywhere including places you didn't even know it could go. Much to the hotel cleaners disgust after a morning of sand boarding we filled the shower with sand collected in clothes in shoes, in ears, nostrils and mouths... (ill let you imagine where else).....

Zambia taught us to follow your gut instinct... even if it means getting up on new years day before the sun has woken up. Alas this was a lesson learnt to late we didn't follow our intuition and wake up to go on a game drive and so missed the wild dogs and the only spotting of them on our entire epic Odyssey...poo....

Malawi...oh yes lake Malawi... the lake of near death by drowning...it was here that i learnt that I'm really not to keen on small boats if i cant control it meaning i like kayaks and canoes but almost all other small boats are out...i also learnt that if it looks like bad weather to me then being in the middle of the lake on a small island is not the place to be....

In Tanzania we parted ways with some friends for a short time and in that short time i learnt i don't like being apart from sister wife,bandwagon Mark and old Sampson (although i am very proud they climbed Kilimanjaro ! yay!) and Zanzibar taught me about the durain the king of fruits a fruit that smells so bad that Zanzibar flights ban smoking and durain's...(they taste average so I'm not really sure why you would bother with this one).....

Nairobi in Kenya taught us NEVER TO RIDE IN A MATATU (mini-bus taxi) after one shattered through the wall to our campsite killing the driver injuring another and with all the passenger's taking flight before the police showed up. This incident also taught us that we are lucky to have free health care as in Nairobi ambulances will only turn up to an accident if they are paid up front to deliver the person to hospital so most people prefer to travel there by taxi.....

On our first trip into Uganda we were staying in Kampala at a campsite which had Vervet monkeys (as we learnt staying in campsites all over Africa they can sometimes be a pest as they steal food etc this is encouraged by people feeding them) the lesson learnt was that although people shouldn't feed them the one little guy did look cute as he stole a cracker right out of Sam's hand!....

Rwanda is a great country its beautiful, green, clean and the people are amazingly warm and friendly. Despite this it has a horrific past which we learnt all about at the genocide museum in Kigali. the museum aims to educate so that people understand the realities of what went on not only in 1994 but also in the smaller but no less important genocides that checker Rwandas past. the hope is that through education atrocities like this will never be seen again. its a harsh lesson to learn that humans are so fickle as to turn on life long friends and neighbours in a spree of needless killing.... we also learnt about Rwandas beautiful great apes the mountain gorilla there are currently less then 800 mountain gorillas world wide but efforts are in place to stop the decline, including the tourism industry although permits to track the gorillas are expensive a large portion of the money goes into conservation for these great animals. seeing them face to face in the wild was an amazing experience there is nothing like making eye contact with a Silverback male who weighs over 200kg and seeing in his eyes he understands that you are standing there just watching him its incredible....

our second trip into Uganda went a ways as to teach me about Patience as I've already said i do lack patience somewhat but when you are stranded at a hilltop campsite next to the Nile as your passport is being sent to Australia for an Ethiopian visa what can you do?...i did what i had to and so spent my days lounging in the sun reading and talking to friends see I'm not to bad at this Patience lark....

our second spell into Kenya didn't teach me anything profound but it is a skill that i can probably take with me for years and years to come...it is the ability to squat and pee behind a rock that is almost as flat as the rest of the almost completely flat landscape...that's right you heard me....Northern Kenya is stunningly beautiful and pretty empty of people but my gosh it is flat!....(i can also pee really quickly as people kept throwing it out there that there might be bandits in northern Kenya so every time i peed it was quick like a ninga just in case a bandit jumped out from behind an almost completely flat rock!...

In Ethiopia i learnt that mothers probably are always right i get told to try things that i didn't like as a child and that as an adult i might like them...we went to a coffee ceremony and it would have been beyond rude not to try it so i downed a whole cup... the first whole cup of coffee i have ever drunk in my entire life and whilst you may be expecting a revelation that actually i loved it ...(i didn't)...all i can say is that it wasn't completely revolting and i wouldn't be opposed to trying other things...(please note i still hate peas and corn with a vengeance)...

Sudan is a lesson that took several days to learn Close the tent doors and windows whilst camping in the desert!!! unless of course you want to be part of a Sand storm! No one likes sand in their sleeping bag its just not cool!...it did take us a few horrid nights to realise this as sometimes the wind picks up or changes direction in the night so even though its a lovely view of the stars and a nice cool breeze in the evening you WILL regret it in the morning...

and to finish off my lessons learnt in Africa we finish with Egypt where i learnt two things. First that sometimes what you see on the news isn't necessarily the case...the protests in Egypt where still happening when we where there but all the people we met where lovely and friendly to tourists (except the leery men who are just gross) we were told not to walk around at night but as long as you used common sense Cairo was perfectly safe. The other thing we learnt and the conclusion to this blog is that mosquitoes are much easier to kill in the mornings....when they are full of you blood!......

Snap back to reality

how strange it is to think that 5 months ago we set off from Truro to head into the big wide world and take our chances in Africa.... we have now come full circle and are back in Truro!....

let me tell you the final chapter of our African Adventure...i believe we left off in Luxor....

on the 21st March we were up before the sun to head off on the long drive to Cairo we set off at 5am we followed the Nile for a while...(crocidile)....then drove to the coast and followed the Red sea road all the way up till Cairo the scenery en route is bizarre huge luxury resorts next to huge construction projects...(seemingly abandoned)...next to tumble down shanty towns next to huge resorts etc despite the fact that its coming into holiday season in Egypt the coast was deserted with a few lonely fishermen the only souls we saw as we cruised by...we arrived into Cairo about 6pm but it took over an hour to drive through the hectic traffic to our hotel...not helped by the fact that it seemed to be tucked away in a maze of tiny little streets we had a bit of time to sort our stuff out and clear the truck before we headed out for a final meal...it was at the top end of the price scale but the food was AMAZEMENT we went to a little Lebanese place me and LP shared 4 appetisers which turned out to be far more food then was required (but it did provide us with a meal the next day also!) after the meal we headed to the hotel where we watched a slide show of photos from the entire trip which was hilarious and stirred up memories..... South Africa seemed so long ago! the next day we headed off to see the Egyptian Museum and also the mighty pyramids at Giza we had a mini bus and a guide for the day which was great Waleed is an Egyptologist and really knows his stuff at the museum he showed us around for a few hours telling us the history and setting the scene for the pyramids in the afternoon as we were driving there we could see them from ages away its really quite bizarre as they are almost swallowed into the city just a patch of desert surrounded by city we started off at the GREAT pyramid this one is missing its top it used to be tipped with gold but this has long since vanished we struggled to find a place to stand where you could fit the whole thing into a photo and also tried to avoid all the touts who rather then hassling seem to hustle one guy gave LP stuff to hold then took the camera from around his neck took a photo then demanded baksheesh for it LP offered him an E£1 in the spirit of get this man away from me and he wouldn't take it he kept demanding E£10 so we walked away and he got nothing....we got back in the mini bus and drove around the side of the pyramids to a point where you can see all three at once and get a crazy photos pretending to hold them...very cheesy but cool....(don't judge me ha ha)....then we went to the third and smallest pyramid which still retains some of the granite casing that originally covered it now its just on the bottom few tiers we even went inside...its quite creepy in a way we were the only people in there its the kind of place that if you were even just a tiny bit claustrophobic you would freak out!...the ceiling is super low to walk in you have to bend double as you walk down the stairs and although it is all lit up you cant actually see the bottom it just goes on and on and on until you get to the bottom...then you can stand up but only for a moment as you then have to duck under a stone beam and walk bent over through a tunnel then you get to a room where you can stand there are more stairs going down and then more again until you reach a room divided into little sections the whole thing is completely empty and free of decoration its all just bare stone walls but it is amazing i felt like an explorer...(you have to pretend not to see the air conditioning unit and the lights and stuff)...when we came out we took a look at the middle pyramid this one still has a white limestone casing but only right at the top as it was stripped away in the search for the entrance...that night we said our first goodbyes....the next day we got to hang out with sister wife Teri and Old Williams...(they were split from the group after visa issues for Sudan)...we met outside the Egyptian museum where like something out if a movie we ran to each other with open arms...much to the amusement of a group of Egyptian students who filmed it on their cellphones and then interviewed us on the Egyptian revolution and on the state of countries in the middle east...it was all pretty surreal...our day went coffee lunch coffee all the while chatting away filling each other in on the last few weeks since we last saw each other!....Next day was sad goodbyes first of all Sam and Lynley in the morning then after spending the day together in Alexandria we said goodbye to Mark and Teri, Sue and Dave and Zan....the next few days it was just me and LP in Cairo we went to the Islamic quarter to the mosques, the bazaar and to Al-azar park a beautiful spot of green away from the hustle and bustle of the city, we went to the Coptic quarter and visited the hanging church and the indoor overpriced souk and other then that we just hung out eating a load of falafal then our flight was cancelled and we had the option of staying another day or leaving early we chose to leave early as we already had our train booked and it lost us less money...So early on Monday morning we got up and sped to the airport arriving there in about 10Min's...(that's with the taxi driver doing an insane 140km an hour right behind a bus and weaving in and out of the traffic!)...we boarded our BA flight and realised why our original flight was cancelled...there was no passangers! the plane wasn't even at 50% capacity! we arrived into London where we chilled out at Hazes flat... (thanks heaps!)... and went out for a gorgeous meal... (thanks heaps again!)...the next day...(that's yesterday)...we met up with Dave and Sue and picnicked in St James park...(and yes the picnic was from waitrose)...where we got attacked by pelicans... in the afternoon we said our final goodbyes to Sue and Dave and headed to paddington to catch our train to Truro so here we are full circle its been a crazy, amazing wonderful challenging brilliant fun five months lets hope the next 5 will be as exciting!.....

(sorry in advance for spelling/grammer mistakes!)

So i have soooo much to tell you and im sorry if i miss things out but i have left my journal somewhere so am doing this if the top of my head and due to lack of internet i have an extreme amount of days to catch you all up on!....well here goes....so we spent 7 nights in Mozmbique one in Maputo the capital city where the most exciting thing to happen was a friggin awesome lody (ice-cream)... we spent an afternoon lunching and interneting then went out for a meal altogether where i hiccuped whilst taking my doxy causing it to explode in my throat which lead to several days of a burnt throat and a foul taste in my mouth...

next morning we took a walk down to the market and marvelled at all the piles of fruit,veg,seafood and randomly budgies....that afternoon we drove to Tofo where we spent three lovely days sunning ourselves on a beautiful soft sandy beach every morning we were up by about 6am as the sun is instantly hot as soon as it rises and failure to get out of tents leads to slow cooked peeps haha!... the first day we headed out to sea on a small rigg and went snorkling with whale sharks i saw two and was within arms reach of a huge 5metre beauty! i did however get quite seasick so the whale sharks got my brekkie along with their usual plankton!...

the next day we chilled all day either on the beach or in the pool returning to the water everytime we came close to being dry the heat was so intense!...i lied it was 3 nights there not days so the third morning we were on the road again heading up the coast to Vilancouls (hope thats spelt right) where we spent 2 more nights as soon as we arrived hot and sticky from the road we jumped into the pool which overlooks the most goregous sea!...

the next day we hoped into a local boat (no seasickness this time) and headed across to one of the islands we used the moter going there and the sails comming back the trip each way took about an hour and a half once on the island we set off on a walk which we thought would take 30 mins only we misheard and it actually took and 1.5 hours it was a cool walk though we saw heaps of crabs and a whole flock of flamingos which were white until they lifted thier wings, underneath was brigh bright pink! when we got back to the boat a lovely lunch awaited of chargrilled red snapper rice colslaw crab and fresh fruits just what we needed! after lunch we snorkelled the reef for a few hours and saw so many amazing fish and corals then it was back to the mainland as the weather was changing and raining was comming close....that night we had an array of seafood (which LP actually tried...didnt like but tried) we have now had oysters,mussels,clams,crab,prawns and of course fish!...

next day we got up and drove all day and camped in a place we named bug city due to the intense volume of bugs amongst which were blister beatles and we are now travelling with 3 guys with blistered butts from sitting on them! that was also where we spent our 5 year anniversary so there wasnt much celebrating mostly hiding from bugs!...

next day we drove the 50 remaining miles to the Zimbabwe border where we crossed slowly but surely into our 4th country! we are now at Antelope park which specilises in rehiblitating lions although they also have other animals elephants antelopes (funnily enough) and other game zebra and giraffes.

yesterday the skies let rip so half a day we sheltered in the resturant making use of the free tea then when it cleared in the afternoon we set off to do 'elephant training' where we got to feed the elephants get on their backs watch them play football etc then we hoped on for a 60min safari atop Africas huge beast! we saw zebra and a tortoise and thats all the rains chase all the animals (giraffe included i really wanted to see one!) to the other side of the park for shelter but the ride was amazing they are such gentle intelligent beings!

then this morning we awoke at 5.30am to head out walking with the lions we went out with 3 juviniles one male two females the male is a bit of a loner so headed off on his own but the females were lovely rubbing up against us and letting us pat and cuddle them they are so lovely! when we left the male was stll awol and was later found by the river eating fish! tomorrow we leave Antelope park for another game reserve where we will hopefully see black rhino!......

We jumped the worlds highest bungee...need i say more...

Of course i friggin need to say more cuz theres so much to tell! so let me put some dates in here so you know where i am and i know where i am and it saves confusion on both ends cuz lets face it I've confused myself already with this rambling...so its a Thursday the 11th of November and we leave Knysna (from where i last blogged) we left camp around 8am and let me tell you was i in a foul mood or what? (pretty much because later that morning i was planning on flinging myself off the worlds highest single span concrete bridge also home to the Guinness world record holding highest bungee) at about 9.30am we pulled into Bloukrans bridge where we paid, were weighed, harnessed and had a quick safety briefing before walking out to the middle of the bridge on a "bridge walk" for those of you not mental enough to have ever done this its basically a metal meshy cage bolted onto the underside of the bridge so yes you can see straight down into the gorge (where the river runs a muddy reddish brown...as the guide says from all those crapping their pants) when we got to the jumping platform we were told our jumping order LP was second i was third so he saw me as he was being hoisted back up and i watched him on the screen i jumped like a retard... it basically looked like i was trying to climb back up whilst jumping but LP jumped like a bungee ballerina so graceful sailing through the air...the bungee is 216m with a 4 second free fall and a 3 second pendulum swing then a minute to be winched back up (a full 60 seconds of major wedgie time)...we have a huge number of photos as proof as well as certificates...I'm so proud of us...and i was the only girl so even prouder of me!.... that afternoon we arrived at Tsitsikamma national park for one night it was friggin windy and rainy and in the campsite we saw a massive baboon apart from that we chillaxed....

12th November we arrived into Addo Elephant park where we set up camp,checked out the watering hole for a few hours (saw some Kudu in the far away distance) that afternoon we did a game drive as the day cooled down saw heaps of elephants (funnily enough) including several teeny tiny babies they are so friggin cute the curl their little trunks round the mamma's back legs as the walk and a juvy mock charged our truck which was quite exciting...the park hands out checklists so i was in my element checking off animals while LP took photos we also saw black backed Jackals meercats,yellow mongoose kudu and some pumbas...next day we did two more drives one at the crack of dawn and one late afternoon we checked off buffalo,a boomslang snake,osterich zebra eland red hartebeeste and a dung beetle ....

14th November we spent almost all day driving when we arrived at Chintsa ready to set up camp and get some food only to get well and truely stuck in the mud! we spent about 4 hours in total getting covered in mud (some alot more covered then others...i put up tents and carried bags up and down for peeps) that night we had to leave the truck stranded in the very churned up road to await being pulled out the next day (by a 4x4 pulling a tractor pulling the truck all in all it got out but it took a broken bull bar 1 broken chain a broken cord thing and some broken strappy things) that night was a big one getting back to camp after 4am with not everyone making it into tents and several waking up with drunken related injuries....(not me i was sober to tell all the tales mwaaaahahahah)....

15th November we spent the morning in camp with most peeps nursing their heads then after lunch we headed for a very quick spot of beaching the wind was roaring so after a quick swim and a spot of hole digging we retreated to the pool which we didn't swim in we played a fierce few hours of volleyball and played with Bella the dog (who adopted us and spent all evening the night and next morning trailing us around even sleeping away from home cuz she loved me so much!)...

16th November spent a good 12 hours trucking along the coast...nothing to report there....

17th November arrived in St Lucia where we will be staying at another national park on the look out for leopard and white rhino we have just had some delightfilled Wimpys and are feeling stuffed....(ruining my concentration is the Jesus music playing here in the Internet cafe and the fact that the e key sticks every time i push it!)...off to Swaziland on Friday....LOVING IT!....

Catch up on our first week on the road...

(please excuse any spelling errors i am speed typing...and lazy..)

hello my little lovelies! we have now been on the road a week and are loving it! its so scorching here most days but night times are quite cool we are realising that perhaps we don't have as much practical gear as we should...but hey...

Since i last wrote we have been up to quite a lot! our first day on the road we spent ducking in and out of wineries in Stellenbosch along the garden route I mostly wandered around the lovely grounds LP did sample some but un-surprisingly was not much of a fan...we got to visit a cheetah sanctuary that had Cheetahs captured rather then destroyed after eating livestock its a breeding programme as well so lots of cubs so cute! also theres little kittens all over the show they wont let me cuddle them though!that night we set up camp and sat looking up at the ...clouds...when the stars are out they are so bright!...

next day we headed into Stellenbosch town its a uni town so lots of students we wandered round for a while then headed to the edge of town where there is a nature reserve there we saw loads of birds and three tortoises and a heap of lizards...

the next day it was back on the road first stop was Betty's bay and a penguin colony they were everywhere! so cute waddling around like drunk old men.. my favourite is when they run really fast then fall over we spent a good while just laughing at (with?) them!then it was back on track to Hermanus "the worlds best land based whale watching"only all we saw was the water from a blowhole...we did see two chameleons and i got to hold one! also we have seen Dassies everywhere including babies at the penguin colony they are so friggin cute i cant catch one though despite numerous efforts!...that night we were bush camping complete with poo pit but was so lovely having a tent in the middle of nowhere we walked up a big hill and sat and watched the sunset the colours were amazing...

next day we roasted as we walked over the dunes onto the beach and a long slog into town we saw whales along the way which was lovely! when we got to town cold drinks were a necessity after which we headed back to the water where i swam in my knickers and bra it was so hot the water was coldish but crystal clear and there were fish all over the show...that night back at camp we saw our first snake yay! it was long long long a mole snake we have been told!...

next day we rolled out of camp and were on the road about 3 hours till we reached the southern most tip of Africa Cape Alguhas it was sooooo ridiculously windy there so we didn't spend to much time by the beach instead heading to the campsite and pitching up i got quite bad hay fever so retired to the tent... whilst LP went to watch Cricket in the bar...

Next day our first long day in the truck about 7 hours total not much other then being in the truck we did however see our first elephant and Baboons and i sampled oysters for the first time raw with Tabasco i actually quite liked them...

today we saw some sweet bids at camp they were lorries (unsure of spelling here) and also a mother and baby bush buck right behind our tent! the wildlife here is amazement everyday we see something new it blows my mind today we are having a town day Internet, money changing, postcards then this arvo we are off to play golf...in our jandals...

We are in Africa!!

So this morning i finally got to accomplish a childhood dream setting foot on African soil and even better i don't have to leave for almost half a year I'm so excited i could wet my pants! Our first day has been a good one after arriving in Cape town this morning we got to the hotel checked in showered dressed and what have you then set out adventuring we didn't have much of a plan just to wander...we ended up at the Victoria and Albert waterfront where we spent the afternoon taking in the scenery eating ice-cream watching a slightly strange Italian movie being filmed and riding on a boat around the bay with a comedian as a guide it was very interesting and lovely to get some breeze we even saw seals! on the way home however i stubbed my toe so bad i left a small puddle of blood on the pavement and a large puddle of blood in my jandal ironically our very comprehensive first aid kit was sitting in our hotel room whoops! apart from that slight mishap it has been a lovely day bring on more Africa!...

Look what I can do!

The last few weeks i have been a busy little bee sewing up these cute little bags... (We call them moon bags but don't ask why its one of those things that doesn't make sense if you weren't there and so is just a tad weird!)... any who I'm so impressed with my sewing skills and i now know TWO different stitches which is extremely good as before i started i knew a grand total of none!

My lovely auntie is the one who taught me how to make them and also provided me with the dried lavender to put inside... harvested from her beautiful garden earlier in the year...

They don't really have alot to do with anything but I'm so proud of myself that i had to show them off so enjoy....

On another completely different note this week has been bizarre for me... normally i have no trouble sleeping what-so-ever as in i can sleep anywhere anytime on trains,planes,buses,cars in the morning, in the afternoon, at night, in a bed on the couch, i have even been known to curl up in a little ball on the floor in the staffroom at lunchtime for a 20 minute kip if the mood so takes me... but this last week i close my eyes and just lay there sleepy but wide awake at the same time its so strange i think its excitement but not my usual jump up and down screaming i could throw up I'm so excited excitement more of a extremely zen peaceful excitement in which i dream (whilst awake) of Africa and all the adventures we will so soon be having....so soon as in two more sleeps till we leave!....

Its the final countdown!

"We're leaving together...but still its farewell...."

This time next Sunday we shall be at Heathrow airport just waiting for our flight our last few hours in England before getting on that airplane and arriving in Africa....just seven short days and we will be leaving... its kind of surreal now that its almost finally here...i only have two more shifts at work tomorrow and Wednesday LP has five (but i need the extra days to pack up we have already started by putting LPs cricket kit up in the loft)

the countdown is officially on once work is over we are all going to enjoy "Christmas" this year we are having a little celebration on the 29th October! and then its final preparations and off and away! Africa here we come!...

Books Books and more books!

I all things Africa and since i can say that my only natural talent is reading i think its only natural that i love reading about Africa i can safely say that two of my favourite books of all time are "A story like the wind" and "A far off place" by Laurence Van Der post (i wasn't so keen on the movie adaption which is a surprise as its Disney and i love all things Disney) other memorable African books are "Half of a yellow sun"-Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and "The other hand"-Chris Cleave... anyway its safe to say I've read some amazing African books in my time... but since we first started planning our Africa trip earlier in the year my reading list has been almost exclusively African from African themed novels ("things fall apart"-Chinua Achebe,"Heart of Darkness"- Joesph Conrad,"white mischief"-James Fox the list goes on and on and on...) to travel writing ("Dark star safari"-Paul Theroux, "Geldof in Africa"-Bob Geldof, "Livingstone's tribe-A journey from Zanzibar to the Cape"- Stephen Taylor again the list goes on and on...)to guide books (lonely Planet-Africa)...i am from all fronts absorbing all things Africa including now watching African themed movies (the constant Gardener,Out of Africa,Gorillas in the mist...and a whole lot more downloaded and on LPs i-pod to watch whilst in Africa...)and listening to African tribal music that LP has down loaded... i have now read all the relevant books that the Truro library has on offer and have branched out to reading about all of Africa Rather then just the countries we are going to i am currently reading "Blood River" by Tim Butcher its all about his journey across the Congo following in the footsteps of H.M Stanley's famous expedition its an amazing book and a real eye opener to how other people live... its sure going to be different from our African Adventure riding in relative luxury compared with the hardships that the vast majority of the Continent endure...

I have also recently finished reading "The map of love"-Ahdaf Soueif in it there is a powerful paragraph (many of you will have already read it in some form its one of those things that circulates in forwards emails...)

"if we could shrink the Earths population to a village of 100 people, with all the existing human ratios staying the same, it would look like this: There would be 57 Asians , 21 Europeans, 14 from the Americas and 8 Africans. 80 would live in Substandard housing. 70 would be unable to read. 50 would suffer from malnutrition. 50 percent of the entire worlds wealth would be in the hands of only 6 people. And all 6 would be citizens of the untied states." -Ahdaf Soueif

of all the things i have read lately this really stuck out to me...It really makes you think...

I got Your Money Monies!

This morning when i headed downstairs to put some washing on i stuck my head out onto the porch to see if we had any post... and to my delight found a little package that had been squeezed through the flap in the door... i already knew what it was but resisted opening it till LP came home from work... when finally he arrived home just moments before i had to head out the door to work... we opened it together and what did we find...MONEY 6435.2 in various African currencies to be exact...you see i am lucky enough to have a lovely Auntie who travels for work in Africa who sent this little bundle of joy...anyway 6435.2 yeah baby we have hit the jackpot!....only when you convert that into pounds it does only add up to £13.12...but when you consider that 1000 Kenyan Shillings will buy you a meal in a restaurant or that 20 Kenyan shillings will get you a ride on the bus or that 250 Malawian Kwacha will get you two bottles of beer its all pretty good really i cant wait to actually get to Africa and spend it!...

Visa Fever

Since we are going to be heading through a whopping 15 countries in Africa I'm rather pleased that we only have to get one visa before we go... so last week we sent away all our forms and passports (and some money) for tourist visas for Egypt...i was fairly certain they would arrive on time but there's always that tiny little nagging feeling that something will go horribly wrong!...now some of you may say I'm worrying for nothing but considering LPs UK work holiday visa arrived mere hours before we got on a plane i think this is reasonable! lucky for us we didn't have weeks of uncertainty and annoyance as our visas arrived back this afternoon...LPs looks so lovely but mine is crooked he says we will have enough stamps and whatnot in our passports to worry... but then again his is straight so he would say that!...I'm quite pleased that i have something in my passport as its my brand spanking new NZ one its black and silver so much cooler then LPs stinky old blue one!...

strangeness lurking

let me start with an apology... it is almost certain that even I cannot make this post relate to Africa or travelling or anything that my blog is normally about... but today I saw something I just cant keep to myself...Its not often that you see a lady with a beard yet today I saw two... yes that's right two ladies each sporting a beard... why?... do they not have mirrors at their houses? because I'm fairly certain that if i wake up tomorrow with a beard the first thing I will do is grab the closest available wax strip/tweezers/razor that comes to hand... so how can both these ladies walk around with over a centimetre of beard protruding from their chins!?!...now as i write this I'm thinking to myself "are you being a hypocrite Georgia?"... for just yesterday I was complaining to LP that at the moment I look a bit like a man in drag... there is a reason for this and that reason is I'm currently growing out my eyebrows... about a month ago I looked in the mirror from across the room and I looked like I only had one eyebrow!...yes I am guilty of over plucking but its only because I don't actually want to look like a man... be it in drag...once when I was at school a close guy friend of mine turned to me and said "no offence Georgia but you kind of look like a man" I'm sorry but on what planet is that not an offensive comment? luckily I did find it quite funny I'm reasonably sure i don't look like a man (except with my bush man eyebrows) so believe it or not I laughed about it... now I'm not really sure where I'm going with any of this but had to share it with someone beards on women are not attractive...

on another note (which actually does have something to do with Travelling....) today I quit my job from tomorrow I officially only have two weeks left of work... then three days to finish packing,pack up our room,say all our goodbyes and head off into the great unknown...Africa we are coming home....

Panda Hat and other bits and bobs

Last year around this time.... well a little bit later when I was thinking of what I wanted for Christmas I started to see people wearing the coolest hat around... and to tell you the absolute truth I was so jealous I didn't have one... I wanted one so bad but didn't know where to get it.... I even walked up to a girl on the street and asked but hers was gift and she didn't know...I sent LP on a mission I wanted this hat for Christmas so bad... but alas come Christmas morning there was no panda hat...sometime during the year I found out who sold them as a friend had one but there was none left...you can then imagine my utter absolute extreme excitement when yesterday we were out and about at the shops and happened to stumble upon one! lucky for me I have an amazing Auntie who brought it for me and I have barely taken it off since... despite the fact that the last two days have been two of the loveliest days in weeks!... Panda hat is in fact going to now travel with me always at all times panda hat is not only a hat but a travel companion and lucky charm...(i know I'm so weird)...below are some delight filled photos of me and panda hat in the garden in the sunshine...

Panda hat as a mask

Panda hat as a hat

Playing with stones

Hiding behind a tree

Ok so moving on (I Know you don't want to I don't either panda hat is so amazing I'm still wearing it as I type) onto some other news...

"Money makes the world go round"

Not only a snappy tune from the musical cabaret... but also a sad truth... Today we had hoped to get all our currency we need a bundle of American dollars... so off we trooped around town getting the best quotes... we started off in M&S not a bad rate but we're not silly enough to take the first thing we look at... next we tried our bank LP left me in charge of speaking.... let it be noted for the record i didn't actually want to and surprise surprise somehow...(and I'm going to try and blame the cashier here but I'm pretty sure I just asked wrong I don't really get numbers...) they gave us an AMAZING rate I'm talking hundreds of dollars better then M&S... turns out that was the "them buying from us rate" not "the us buying from them rate" so turned out to be not that great so off we went...next stop the post office (where I let LP do the talking) the best rate so far but we still had one more place to ask and it was worth waiting for (ish) now I add the ish at this point because although Sainsburys gave the best rate (mostly down to the fact that they have preferential rates for employees... (and LP is an employee) but what a hullabaloo the travel money counter is quite new... its only been there a few weeks and they are still ironing out most of the kinks... for one it took so much longer then it needed to... we told them what we needed- American dollars,large bills,good condition,year 2000 or newer the lady at the desk just didn't seem to comprehend this... she wanted to give us some kind of travel money card and wouldn't quite listen that we were going to more African countries then just south Africa... when she finally realised we only wanted cash she tried to give us $300 in $1 bills slightly ridiculous? um id say hugely ridiculous! eventually it was decided we couldn't get all of what we wanted because they didn't have it in stock so we would get some today, they would order more, and LP would get it tomorrow... so we payed and then waited while she counted out the bills.... shes counting away "$100,$200,$300...etc...$1000,$1100,$1200...etc...$1600,$1650,$2000" im not so good with numbers but i don't think even I'm that bad but we all had a laugh about it and despite it taking a long time she was a lovely lady and we are half way to having all the cash we need so thanks Sainsburys travel money lady (called Moni which as a little joke in my head I read as Money!)

Later on......

After getting our money we did some groceries then headed home, had a spot of lunch, wrote a resignation letter for my job, then organised all our gear... last Wednesday I had a bit of a practice pack it wasn't to hard and I got mostly everything in (considering my pack is 65L but LPs is only 40L I don't think this was a bad first attempt)... but last Wednesday I didn't include everything... (not our mountain of Anti-Malaria meds, not all our electronics-torches,chargers etc and not our entertainment items-books,PSP,ipods, journals,mini-cludeo or monopoly cards)... to start off with we reorganised all our pills... they come in useless packs of 8 tablets so we put 3 packs in each box...Then we got everything we could possibly need out and put it out on the bed....we started by packing our carry on luggage. once that was done... we packed our packs LP had a brilliant idea and so his pack contains our sleeping bags,bed rolls ,first aid kit, and a few other bits and bobs and then my bigger pack has all our clothes and toiletries and boots which take up so much space! all in all it was hugely successful and LP even stuck around long enough to help unpack (unfortunately we still need things before we go)... as we unpacked we also started the process of packing up our room which has now left us with two massive bags of clothes to donate somewhere...I wonder if some of them will end up in a market somewhere in Africa....

These boots were made for walking.....

So recently as you know LP brought my hiking boots back from NZ... they have been sitting there in a bag in the crawl space above the garage since my semi-childhood bedroom was completely moved into storage.... so i figured along with the whole "i have to break these boots back in so they don't give me massive blisters..." it might be nice to have some fun with it and since my lovely friend Maezee (that's right you get a shout out!) back in NZ insisted on photos i thought i would write a random blog all about my boots (and LP's if you remember i made him get some too although he says they are are lovely to wear although he didn't use the word lovely that was all me...) so any who long story short yesterday we turned regular Sunday into... boot trek Sunday!! and went for a somewhat leisurely walk around St Clements... we are yet to re-test/test the boots on some mountainous terrain but for now at least they have had a run in the mud and puddles of the Cornish countryside....

Setting off from home...

the hard track ahead...

Me trekking along...

Jumping over puddles...

Heel click!

Taking a break from trekking to skim some stones...

LP jumps for joy!...(or more likely because i made him)

My boots as they look like from directly above...

LP's boots looking a bit muddy...

Home again home again Jiggidy jig....

Heres hoping this wee jaunt will have slightly prepared our boots for Africa...i dont think so somehow...

Heck thats alot of km!

So i previously stated a random amount of miles we were gonna travel across Africa i shall now update that figure....its actually more then 22,000km heck that's a lot of km...

So Last Saturday LP arrived home from kiwiland and ever since it has been all go on all fronts! on Sunday we jumped in the car and headed to Barnstaple for a day of learning some family history and seeing some historic family sites...here's some pictures....

Stained glass window in the Newport church in Barnstaple (The Jewells are family)

The Bridge in Barnstaple

Me and a tree planted by the Jewells

Sues Old house in Chilerton

Then on Monday me and LP had a day of organising for Africa (he got up at 5am headed up the hill to work got there where he was sent home as he wasn't actually working hopefully this will teach him to read messages a bit better)

so we started off by writing ourselves a big list then checking them off in the town....

ü 15 passport photos for LP for obtaining visas on route (I got mine ages ago when I had to get pictures for my new NZ passport)

ü Got LP some hiking boots (cheap ones as he doesn't like boots…who doesn't like boots)

ü Got some new torches (wind up ones which never need batteries how handy…)

ü Assembled almost all of our first aid kit…(all we need now is some needles just in case we end up in hospital (touch wood))

ü Got all our toiletries (including shampoo bars like a bar of soap but shampoo great space saver!)

ü Then when we got home we brought our insurance online…(over 70 outdoor activities are covered including rambling and orienteering I’m so pleased that really takes a load off! But seriously it does cover the very necessary safari and gorilla trekking so is money well spent)

ü And lastly we brought our train tickets (to London for the 31^st October )

so it all seems to be coming together in less then four weeks now we head into the unknown....wish us luck...

Journeys

"A journey of a thousand miles begins

with a simple step" - Lao-tzu

A fitting quote really... in just five weeks now we will be heading off on what i would like to call the journey of a lifetime but will hopefully be the first of many epic journeys of lifetimes...time has moved so quickly these last few weeks and it all seems to have rushed up on us... In just 6 days LP will be back from Aotearoa and we will be putting the finishing touch on our preparations (finally getting the dreaded anti-malarials i constantly harp on about,getting the last few bits of gear, get some travel insurance, train tickets to London etc) LP is bringing my hiking boots back from NZ i need to break them back in... (so expect some pics of me in my boots all over town)

our journey is going to take about 20 weeks the distance between Cape Town and Cairo (as the crow flies) is approx 4467 miles...(that's 7189km for all the normal people who use normal measurements!) bearing in mind we are not doing a straight trip that's a lot more miles on the road... so "a journey of over 4467 miles starts with a simple step" and ours was deciding we wanted to visit this amazing continent i think that's a pretty good starting point but still cant wait till we actual take our first step in Africa....