The long road home

The Baltics and Eastern Europe

annekebroadbent — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 18:24:00 GMT

On the Ferry from Finland to Estonia we met some other Kiwi's travelling in a Camper, so we were real pleased when we bumped into them again int he camping ground in Tallinn, and again in Riga. Tallinn was a very pretty city, a beautiful old town which was unfortunatly very crowded with FIVE cruise ships in the Tallinn Harbour. From Tallinn we headed down to the coast to a beachside town "Parne" for a night, it was a lovely beach, but being the Baltic Sea it was quite a hike out into the ocean to get past knee deep!

In Riga we did a day trip out to Sigulda, which had been described as "The Switzerland of Latvia", we both agreed it was a fairly ambitious title! We also celebrated my "pre-birthday" the last day of my 20's, Simon managed to find me a cake and some Jacobs Creek Bubbles... luxery!

We were crusing through the Baltics pretty quick so after Riga it was on to Lithuania for my real birthday! My Birthday was spent on the Curinion Spit in Lithuania, its a small sandy spit which is half owned by the Russians (Kalingrad) and is really quite pretty. My birthday was spent drinking a fantastic bottle of Laurent Perrier Champagne, sent over by some London friends and eating Caviar (when you are that close to Russia, its not extravagent!) before recovering the next day on the beach. Lithuania had a beach system we had never encountered before, and we must have missed the sign for "female only" because it seemed we ended up on the "Ladies only" part of the beach, and poor Simon got told off when he went for a swim... so we moved. In our defence though, there were other guys around.... we had though we were avoiding the nudist beach!

Because we were not allowed through Russia (so frustrating, we considered seeing if they would let us through with our Russian Visa's from last year...) we had to drive down to Poland the long way, around Kalingrad. The roads in Poland were probably the worst we have seen in Europe, deeply grooved and rutted, potholes the size of a small child. They were single lane roads but they tended to drive like they were double (or even triple) lane, it was very slow going. One of the weirdest things in Poland was the prostitutes on the sides of the road, touting for business in the middle of the day on a national highway. I thought they were selling Blueberries, OK, so she was wearing a bikini, but it was a hot day. I did think the high-heels were a little over the top though...then I saw more and more girls (wearing less and less) and decided Simon was right, it probably wasn't just blueberries they were selling.

We skipped through Poland, overnighting in Warsaw (where we had been before) and visiting Krakow to see the Salt mines and the old town (we were getting a bit UNESCO-old-towned-out) and spent a night out at Auschwitz and Bikenau visiting the musems and the former camps.

Slovakia was next on the list, we had heard good things about the National Parks in Slovakia so headed in for some hiking. We did an 8 hour hike in the High Tatra Mountains, that was really nice and we were up pretty high, we then headed into the Slovensky Raj park for more hiking. This was hiking that Health and Safty in NZ would not have approved of! The path followed a river upstream and where there was no chance of putting a path along the side of a cliff, they sort of bolted little platforms to step across along the side of the cliff (it looked like BBQ grill plates bolted to the side of the cliff!) and huge long ladders up the sides of waterfalls. It was a lot of fun (and pretty scary to!)

It was short drive from here to Egar in Hungary where the Red Wine "Bulls Blood" is made. Our camp ground was right next to where all the vineyards do their tasting, and at EUR 0.30c a glass Simon and I spent two very good afternoons there (and it was hot outside the wine was in nice cool dark caves!) Here we met some Australians who we gave a lift into Budapest the next day and met again for dinner that night. Budapest was a pretty city, although compared to the rest of Hungary it was really expensive. Simon and I spent two days checking out the city, eating Goulash and drinking more Bulls Blood before heading on to Lake Balaton, the biggest lake in Europe (in Hungary). It was a beautiful lake and a nice campground to relax after the incredibly crowded campsite in Budapest (we could barely get our door open they had parked so close!).

Currently we are in Slovenia, our "Doris" has just had her service and we have checked our Lubijana and are now heading up to Bled. We meet Simons Parents in Italy on Sunday and are looking forward to seeing them and eating Pizza!

More updates will hopefully come soon! (although given that this one took 4 months, dont get your hopes up!)

Namibia

annekebroadbent — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 22:50:00 GMT

So, the Namibian Border opened at 8am and I think we must have been the first through. We were over Botswana and the rain. Bring on Namibia! Our first stop in Namibia was a lovely campsite just over the river from Angola. All of the toilets and showers in this campsite were outdoor with different themes. There was the "Loo with a view" (looking over the river to Angola, Hippos in the forground), the "His and Her's" loos (two toilets side by side, his was grey, hers pink), showers were the "Garden of Eden" (set in an amazing little garden - fenced off!) and the "Holiday Inn 4 star shower" all sparkling white tiles and a pair of sunglasses ties to the wall to wear in the shower!

We spent a night at a "Cheetah Farm" where this guys takes in cheetah's caught by local Farmers and has a breeding progam. He also has 3 tame Cheetahs wandering around his house like (rather large) cats. We spent an hour patting (they purr like cats)and playing (watch those claws!)with the cheetahs before stopping by a wee orphened giraffe who likes to suck your thumb. Later that afternoon we went out to watch the "wild" cheetahs being fed. We stood in the relative safety of the back of a ute while the owners walkeda round the vehicles and offloaded the meat. The Cheetahs were circling and a couple would hiss and try to swipe the guy, his response was to wave a stick at them ?!?!? I think I would have waved more than a big stick!

The landscape in Namibia is very rocky/sandy and it was probably lucky we knew eachother quite well at this point because the roadside toilet stops had almost no bushes to shelter behind! We visited the Himba tribe for an afternoon, as part of their culture the women do not wash, rather they "smoke" themselves with Herbs and then rub red-ochre dust and butter fat over their skin, giving their skin a dark red colour. We bush-camped in the desert and the boys spent the evening hunting for scorpians under rocks (there were several found) and we climbed the famous "Dune 45" sand dune in Namibias extensive desert.

This was all before we hit Swakopmund, on the coast of Namibia where we had 4 days to chill out and loads of activities to keep us busy. Simon and I both went "sandboarding" down the nearby sand dunes. Simon opted for the "stand up" version on a proper snowboard. I opted for the lie-down version on a sheet of waxed-up plywood. While the stand-up boarders trudged up and down the same slope learning to snowboard (Simon claims his was just as much fun as mine but mine was way cooler!) we shot down 6 different slopes. They actually speed-gunned us and I was clocked at 57km head-first down a sand-dune. Evidently I was a pro (or possibly too scared to move a muscle, which is apparently the correct technique) as I avoided all face-first sand-plants and a rather nasty gravel patch at the end of one of the dunes. Simon on the other hand was covered head-to-toe in sand after escaping the beginners group and trying to teach himself to turn to the board.

The coast along Swakopmund was very wind-blown with a lot of sea-fog rolling across. There are a number of wrecked ships along the coast and the sand-dunes reach right up to the beaches, leading to the name "Skeleton Coast". Simon and I went for a run along the road out of town (the Trans-Kalahari highway) and I felt like I was running along the set of a horror-movie, nothing around for miles, eerie fog and nasty ship-wrecks in the distance.

From here the plan had been to head to Fish River Canyon, apparently the second biggest canyon in the world after the Grand Canyon. But it appeared the African rain wasn't quite finished with us. There had been a lot of rain and after two hours int he truck our driver asked us to jump out and walk up a rather steep hill. This was not unusual, quite often we'd stand aside while Ronnie (we switched our Kenyan driver for an Ozzie in Tanzania) negotiated particulary nasty sections of road. And Ronnie very almost made it to the top of a rather steep slippery section of road before the truck became stuck. We were fairly used to boggings by now and set about pulling down the sand-traps and digging out the tryes, but it didn't budge. Plan B is to collect rocks and stones and put them around the tyres to give the wheels some traction, so Plan B was implemented, also with no success. After several attempts we were still stuck and the truck had slipped closer to the edge of a small bank and was rather close to toppling over. We offloaded all tents, bags, jerry-cans, to make the truck lighter, by which time the rain had stopped and we waited for the road to dry out/help to come. Typically, within 2 hours of being stuck, four small boys appeared from no where. I've no idea where they came from or where they went to, but they wandered up, inspected the truck, made a few jokes (I'm sure at our expense) and disappeared again. Unfortunatly part of being in Africa is that there is no AA to call when you need a tow, coupled with the fact that there is probably one tow-truck in Namibia that is capable of towing a 15 tonne truck and that was a good 500km away. So, to cut the story short, 7.5 hours (and several more attempts)later with the help of two passing 4WD's and a whole lot more pushing we managed to get out! The night actually finished quite well as the lcoal town was also underwater so the campsites were closed. We had to use the rest of our kitty-money to pay for a rather nice hotel in town (again 4 to a room, so despite sleeping on the floor, it was dry and had a bathroom!). We were comforted to know we were the 5th truck in the last 8 weeks to be stuck on the same road. Bring on South Africa!

The rest of the trip was a real holiday! We spent two days driving down to Stellenbosch (the wine region) where we spent a day tasting wine, eating cheese and generally being silly-buggers. Back in Cape Town we spent a night in the hostel saying goodbye to people before retiring to "our mansion in the hills" (aka: Si's Aunt and Uncles place). This time we managed to see Robben Island (although I think I spent more time watching the Hells Angels Convention.... you should have seen their girlfriends!) and also a tour of the Townships (basicly where most of Cape Towns black population live).

We've had an amazing time in Africa and have learnt so much (I now measure civalisation on the availability of Diet Coke - its a pretty accurate measure!) We're sad that Zimbabwe still hasn't finalised the election and have been watching with interest as it was certainly one of our favourite countries.

Gallery: Africa

annekebroadbent — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 01:41:00 GMT

Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia and South Africa

Botswana

annekebroadbent — Tue, 8 Apr 2008 16:45:00 GMT

In Botswana it rained. We knew we'd be following the back of the wet season all the way down Africa, and it seems in Botswana it caught up with us. It was only an hour or two drive across from Vic Falls in Zimbabwe to the Chobe National Park in Botswana but all of a sudden the clouds became dark and the roads looked rather wet. You should have seen our faces when we pulled up at our camping ground - it was all mud - yuck!

Before we left Zimbabwe Simon bought a local newspaper. The Papers are all owned by the goverment and they make for interesting reading. I've held onto this newspaper and it will be coming back to New Zealand with me - you will never have seen anything so one-sided in your life. There was nothing subtle about it - if it hadn't been so sad it would have been funny. 4 full page advertisements against Morgan (the opposition leader), even the cartoons were childish attempts to discredit him.

Sorry - back to Botswana. Botswana had these funny rules, meant to combat foot-and-mouth disease that meant that we were not supoosed to carry any wooden products or animal products from one region to the next. Every now and then we had to stop at check points and walk us and our shoes through disinfectant baths and wait while they sprayed the tyres of the truck. This also meant several times a day we had to implement "Operation Dairy Product". The driver or leader would buzz us from the cab when we were approaching check-points and we's have to empty the on-board fridge of all food quick-smart and hide it on of the under-floor lockers. We also had to make sure all our wooden souveniers were well hidden in the event they decided to seach the truck. This all became rather tedious by day two, but while they did open a few lockers on one search, they never found our "stash" (including two 6ft wooden giraffe's a girl had bought).

The Okavanga Delta was one of the main reasons for stopping off in Botswana. Its a large wetland (fresh-water) area dotted with islands and (of course) wildlife. Its one of Prince Harry's favorite places in Africa and he was there at the same time as us.

We loaded our overnight gear (including tents and cooking equipment) into our Mokoro's - dug out wooden logs - two of you to a Mokoro, and a "poler" stands on the back and poles you through the reeds while you lie back in the sun. After an hour you pull up on a small island where you camp for the night. Its a bush camp, meaning no "facilities" but after 7 weeks in Africa I don't think we really noticed the lack of bathrooms/runnign water. We swam near our campsite (they assured us that while there were crocs and hippos in the area, they wouldn't come to where we were swimming - quite how they knew that I don't know!) and in the afternoon went for a walk around the island looking for animals. It was about then that we noticed several thunderstorms on the horison, and after several hours of walking... we didn't quite make it back in time! Several thunderstorms hit us at once and we got drenched! We ended up taking refuge in our tents (which held up suprisingly well under the torrent of water outside) and didn't leave our tents for 13 hours until the rain stopped sometime the next morning!

Our last stop in Botswana were some famous rock paintings. After a days driving we made it to the gate of the campsite, only to discover the area was underwater. A quick look around and a vote decided "Bugger Botswana, lets get to Namibia" so we turned around and headed for the border.

But Botswana wasn't quite finished with us yet as it appeared Namibia was "closed" after 6pm (the border office was shut), so we stuck around for another (wet) night before heading over the border.

Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe

annekebroadbent — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 00:05:00 GMT

Malawi is a desperatly poor but very beautiful country. We spent 6 nights travelling through Malawi and camped on the beach at Lake Malawi most nights. The lake looks like and ocean, with beaches and sandy shores. It was lovely. And while it sounds like all we do is lounge on the beach... there are some long, hot, bumpy (this being Africa!) days on the truck before we get to each place.

On the lake we hired a peddle-boat and spent the morning paddling around near our campsite. A small kindergarten nearby had seen us and all the children came out and waved us into shore before they sang and danced and practise their english with us.

Zambia was literally a blink-and-you-miss-it country. We were just transiting through for 3 days, the last day of which we spent most of the afternoon at a shopping centre stocking up on supplies for Zimbabwe.

Such is the situation in Zimbabwe at the moment that most of the supermarkets are empty and its really difficult to buy food - especially fresh produce. So armed with massive shopping lists we managed to stock our truck for the 12 days we are in Zim.

We are really enjoying Zimbabwe. Its a really amazing country which is made very depressing by the current political situation. We'd read the stories about the Zim dollar and hyperinflation but nothing really prepares you for the BAG of cash you are handed when you change up USD$20 (and you don't change anymore than that at a time because it may not be worth anything tomorrow). Zim has funny parallel market system whereby foreigners are not allowed to hold Zim dollars unless they hold a bank receipt to prove it was changed at the bank. Problem is that USD$1 is only worth ZIM$30,000 at the bank, whereas its worth ZIM$20 million on the paralell market (a week ago when we arrived in Zim it was worth $15 million)- and the prices in the shops are based on the paralell market. Needless to say, we are avoiding the banks.

At the moment the largest note they have in Zimababwe is $10million. Its worth 50 cents. 18 months ago when the note was issued it was worth USD $400. Its a very sad situation.

But we have loved Zim and all there is to do here. We spent 2 days on house boats on Lake Kariba in the north near Zambia. Then a couple of days at Antelope Park where they have a Lion breeding program and you can walk with the lions, play with Lions cubs and Swim on the back of an elephant (which Simon did, I played with baby lions instead!).

From there we headed to Bulewayo where we met the "Steve Irwin" of Rhinos. We actually got out of the Jeep and followed this guy along the path of the Rhino until we found 2 adults and a baby. This guy (Ian) was something else. He was just so interesting to listen to and we founf out some much about the bush and Africa's animals. He showed us several plants which could kill us in 30 seconds. Told us about the Bush-men of Africa (Remember "The Gods must be CrazY" movie?) - he even speaks some "bush-men" complete with the clicking of the tongue. Anyway, back to the Rhinos. He was picking up handfuls of dung and explaining the difference between Black Rhino Dung and white rhino dung (Black Rhino eat twigs and leaves as well as grass - white only eact grass). He got really excited when we came across dung he reckoned was 15 minutes old.... and it was white Rhino dungm which was good since apparently the Black Rhino are "nasty" and will charge (I thought all Rhino were nasty but what do I know?). If you can imagine us all hunched down, sneaking through metre long grass, upwind from the rhino, heading for a wee bush to perch behind. We were within 8-10 metres of the rhinos and it was pretty darn scary. Mother and baby walked off so we followed them for a bit. Then the Bull (3 tonne adult male) came closer for a wee sniff, I was seriously crapping myself. Simon has a great photo of him with the rhino behind him. But there was no way I was turning my back to the Rhino! After about 20 min we retreated and returned to the main group, where I noticed the other guide (who was taking a group in after us) was carrying a gun. I asked our guide why the other guy had a gun and he didn't. He told us "I'd rather loose a client than shoot a Rhino". And that pretty much summed up Ian. He was so passionate about the Rhino, his knowledge was amazing (and I was pleased I was not with the group heading out next knowing what he'd just said!).

We are now in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, where Simon has thrown himself off Bridges (he did the Gorge swing twice - like a Bungy except you swing throught the gorge rather than bounce around on a bungy). I did a huge flying fox through the gorge which was awesome too.

Tomorrow we head into Botswana and the last 3 weeks of our trip. We're looking forward to a bit more "1st world" comfort. Tap-water you can drink, supermarkets which actually have stock..... maybe even a washing machine (oh what luxery!).

Tanzania

annekebroadbent — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 23:42:00 GMT

The landscape changed almost immediatly between Rwanda and Tanzania. Every inch of land in Rwanda is intensly cultivated with Tea, coffee, rice, Bannanas etc. But in Tanzania suddenly the land is the Savannah-Scrub type bush which is what you imagine when you hear of the Serengetti and other national parks.

Because of the issues in Kenya (this was early Feb so Kenya was still a serious no-go-zone) we were taking a different route from Rwanda following the edge of Lake Victoria down through Tanzania to Arusha (the Capital city). This is not a route many tourists take and it proved higly amusing, if a little daunting. We had three full days of driving (7am to 5pm) to reach Arusha and the "roads" were a constant source of amusement. Pot-holes the size of craters..... puddles the size of swimming pools! On the last day the road was not tarcealed and recent rain had made it almost impossible to get through. We all had to climb off the truck (in ankle deep mud), grab a spade, shovel, pick-axe and start moving the rocks and dirt at the side of the road into the mud and puddles to try make it passable. Some skillful driving by Mugo our Kenyan driver got us through until we reached a swimming pool sized pond. We watched another truck negotiate its way through before Mugo gave it a shot (with all of us clinging on up top int he truck!).

There was no where to buy food for lunches or dinner so for 3 days we lived on the local staple diet of "goat and rice" or "beef and rice" for lunch and dinner. There was also no where to camp along this route so Becs managed to get us into local guest houses along the way. We'd book out all 5-6 rooms the "hotel" had and cram 4-6 of us into each double room. The owners of these "hotels" had a habit of switching the water and/or power off at the most inappropriate times... leading to some frustrating moments!

We felt somewhat like a travelling circus (well our big yellow Truck is kind of obvious!) with locals stopping to watch us go past and kids running along with the truck and crowding aroudn the door when we stopped. One night we had around 100 kids standing outside our "hotel" watching us through the gate. When we left to walk across the road for a "beef and rice" dinner we had 100 kids follow us... Simon almost caused a riot when he pulled a football out of the truck and tried to play with them.

Tanzania was full of highlights though and the first one was the Serengetti and the Ngorogoro Crater National Parks. We spent 2 days out on game drives, camping in the parks (with no fences between us and all the Lions, buffalo, cheetah etc we had spent all day watching!). Our first day we pretty much saw everything you could wish to see. Lions snacking on a Wilderbeast. Leopards resting in a tree. Cheetahs stalking Antelope in the tall grass. Giraffe's, Zebras, Elephants. There was just so much! Our frist day in the crater we thought we'd hit the jackpot when we came across 4 Lions stalking an injured Buffalo. We spent an hour watching them before it was decided the Lions were too darn lazy and were going to wait until the Buffalo got really weak before they took it on.

After the gameparks we spent a few days driving towards Dar es Salem where we took a (terrifying) ferry across to Zanzibar Island. Apparently we caught the end of a cyclone (from Madegascar) which made for a very rocky ride (hooray for sea sick pills!).

Zanzibar Island was a welcome break from the Truck and the Tents. We stayed in a lovely hotel on the beach and spent our days swimming, reading, walking on the beach, snorkelling and generally catching up on washing and bits and pieces.

So that was pretty much Tanzania. Loads of photos which won't be uploaded for another few weeks sorry.

So, onwards to Malawi.

East Africa

annekebroadbent — Wed, 6 Feb 2008 20:26:00 GMT

Wow, where do I start? We are on a Truck called Pumba with a Guide called Becs (a good Tasmanian Girl). We are currently in Rwanda before we head out to Tanzania and we've been having a great time.

Uganda was cool, we visited an island of orphened Chimps and then spent 3 days in Jinja where we scared ourselves senseless white water rafting on the Nile. It was totally random that 6 weeks ago we were on the Nile river in Egypt, about 6000km north!

The rafting was grade 5 rapids (thats big baddies!) and my boat flipped twice, its not terribly pleseant being thrown out in the middle of a grade 5 rapid and although you you do pop up pretty quickly it seems like and absolute eternity while you are stuck down there. I made Simon payt an extortianate amount for the DVD of our trip because I wanted to proove to anyone who will watch that I truly am a hero for doing that!

Uganda has this very dark red soil and it gets in EVERYWHERE! It stains your clothes and dyes your skin (it was getting quite difficult to tell if you were tanned or grubby!) its still all throuhg my ears and and I don't think my toes will be a normal colour for a long time!

Simon and I went for a couple of runs here and you attract a lot of attention with kids running with you or stopping and waving yelling "Hello Mzunga" (White person).

We are now in Rwanda whre we visited the Genocide museum (scary the recent history of this country) and headed up to the Volcanic region, near Congo, where we have been trekking the gorilla's.

What and seriously cool day! We opted for a longer trek and terkked the Sousa group of Gorilla's, this is the largest group in Rwanda with 38 gorilla's so there was plenty to see. After about 2 hours of walking (about an hour of bush-crashing through some pretty thick jungle and stinging nettels - ouch!) we found our Gorilla's. It was awesome to see them up close (they were usually within 1-2 metres of you) and just watch them eating their breakfasts, they seemned quite happy to watch us watch them. They have several guards who stay with the groups all day to protect them from the poachers and also radio down to our guide to let him know where they are and which direction they are heading. The guards are lovely, they talk to the gorilla's ("arrrhmmmm" "hmmmmmm" "arrhmmm") and they all seem very comfortable with eachother.

The Silverbacks (head of the groups) were huge, these guys could have picked me up in one hand. And they made a fair bit of noise (a bit of chest beating) when we first arrived but once the guards talked to them for a while they were OK. There was even a 5 week old baby gorilla, it was so amazing and I have loads of photos.

So, tomorrow we head into Tanzania (a de-tour since we are not allowed into Kenya) and towards the Serengetti Game Park.

Stay tuned for more news ......

PS: Sorry about spelling, I'm so not goign to try correct it on this dodgy French keyboard and really slow internet!

Gallery: South Africa

annekebroadbent — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 05:34:00 GMT

Photos from SA

Gallery: Jordan

annekebroadbent — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 20:56:00 GMT

Gallery: Egypt

annekebroadbent — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 20:32:00 GMT

South Africa

annekebroadbent — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 02:38:00 GMT

Although we were a bit worried about flying with Egypt Air, the flight down to Cape Town went very well. We were greeted at the airport by my uncle (Grant - yes this is Simon writing this piece) and soon after arrived at their amazing house in Constantia. After 2 weeks on the road this was bliss so most of the next week was spent relaxing, swimming, enjoying the sun and going to beaches.

Christmas day was spent with the relies and their extended family. It was great to be back to the summer Christmas Day, with cricket, plenty of wine and beer and of course more time in the pool. Grant put on a great act as Santa Claus and we all ate and drank way too much. New Years was also great with a party of about 60 people at my Uncle and Auties place.

Since Christmas we have kept up the relaxing regime and also started ticking off the touristy sites. Cape Town is a great city with heaps to do and great beaches. The weather has also been great with most days either at the beach or swimming in the pool. Here are some of the highlights from the Cape Town area:

- Days out in Stellenbosh and Franshhoek wine areas (yes the days after were very slow)

- Numerous beach visits and coastal drives

- Cape Point - walking trails and almost getting blown off the point

- Shopping (more one for Anneke than me)

- Walking up Table Mountain, this was possibly the hottest day of the summer so it was like a sauna and workout in one

- Elton John - fantastic show at the cricket ground

- Madame Zingara's - Dinner and a Cirque de Sol' type show in a big tent in town.

We also spent a week up in Hermanus (about 2 hours east of Cape Town on the coast) for a bit more R&R. As well as having great beaches this is normally the big whale watching place in South Africa. Unfortunatly for us we were out of season, but we did see a couple of (probably) lost whales while we were there. Fortunatly Hermanus is also close to the action for seeing Great White sharks and I spent a day out on a boat shark cage diving. This was an amazing day and we saw about 10 sharks in the day. It is quiet strange being down that close to the shark that you can touch them (and these were not small sharks). However, after that day I did tend to stick to the shallower water when I went swimming. Sorry also forgot to mention Anneke didn't quiet make it out that day. She said shopping was more of the type of excitment she was after.

The rest of our time at Hermanus was spent mainly at the beach, skiing behind the boat and also a bit of time out catching crayfish (yes they tasted great!!!). Kind of like your typical kiwi summer holiday.

Our final little trip around was up the famous Garden Route for 5 nights. We started the trip by driving up to Kynsna (about 5 hours from Cape Town). Our first day there the weather wasn't great, so we drove around the main sites and went up for a walk through the National park and around the old gold mines. Later on the sun came out so after a bit of time at the beach we went and sat out at the local oyster company to indulge.

The next day we moved up the coast toward Jefferys Bay. On the way we stopped off for a tree top tour (basically a set of flying fox's set up between the trees in a National Park). That was great fun and also a great way to see the park (including a few local monkeys and some Chameleons). After that we made our way to the famous surf spot of Jefferrys Bay. Unfortunatly Anneke spent most of the rest of the day in bed (one of the oysters from the night before had decided to put up a fight) and there was no surf. So all I could do was pretend what the surf should have been like and check out the local surf stores (which were very good). That night we also had one of South Africa's now famous power cuts, but luckily the local fish and chip shop had a deisel generator and I didn't have to rely on our stash of biscuits.

The next day after a bit of shopping (yes Anneke was feeling better) we headed back west to Plettenberg Bay. Again another spot with beatiful beaches, so more time at the beach, another power cut and fish and chips for dinner again.

Our final day on the Garden Route we got up early to spend some more time at the beaches before heading for Outdshoorn, the Ostrich capital of the world. The place kind of reminded me of Dannevirke (apart from the Ostiches it wasn't very exciting), so we decided to move on after the compusory purchase of a feather duster taking the scenic route through the Klein Karoo back to Hermanus.

Now it is all winding up before we go to central Africa and we are getting everything ready for the safari. It does seem to have gone far too quickly and I can't thank Grant and Nicky (Uncle and Auntie) enough for having us stay and helping us get around. We have had a great time here and look forward to the week we are back here before heading back to London.

Next step, Uganda. We are not sure on the quality of internet but we will try to update this soon.

Jordan

annekebroadbent — Fri, 4 Jan 2008 03:29:00 GMT

We left Dahab by bus for a trip up to the ferry-port. Somehow our driver got lost on the way and we stopped to ask directions from a passing local on a camel (seriously). After untold delays our ship set sail for Jordan. Because its such an @rse to get through Israel, they send us by boat across to Jordan, so we have nice view of the Israeli and Saudi Arabian coastline. After a number of missions around Aqaba to get Jordanian currency (some link was down and it meant not one of us could get any cash out) we sorted out some funds and headed into the desert to Wadi Rum, and dersert camp where we were to spend the night. Our dinner was cooked Hangi-style (thats on hot rocks in the ground for those non-kiwis) and after a wee bit of dancing around the campfire were retired to our little tents. We had noticed in Egypt that they obviously weren't too keen on health and safety type rules and this was reiterated in Jordan when the campfire was dying a little so the dude just poured straight petrol onto it. Not once, several times.

The next morning we opted to drag ourselves up at 5.30am to watch the sun rise, I think I was wearing very piece of clothing I own, darn it was cold! After that we went a bit of a jeep safari around the weird rock formation type things that is Wadi Ram.

Next we headed up to Petra for what was one of the highlights of Jordan. I won't go into detail except to say that is was awesome and I highly recommend a visit (and it was darn cold too so take a poly-prop).

On our last day we went to the Dead sea. 114 metres below sea-level, you can actually see the rocks at the edge of the sea caked in salt. The dead sea was easily one of the funniest things I have ever done. While you know you are going to float, nothing can prepare you for just how much you float, it is just the weirdest feeling! Even tying to stand up you bob like a cork, even if you could touch the ground you can't because it just holds you out of the water, we were all laughing so hard. The bottom of the sea is this thick black mud which they sell in the shops so you plaster that all over yourself and let it dry before washing it off, it all added to the fun.

From there we went on to Ammann, the biggest city in Jordan. It was raining so we decided to visit the local shopping mall (Mecca Mall) to check out the locals. Firstly getting into the place was a mission, they have scanners and "bouncers" at the entrance, scanning bags and turning people away. It was like getting into a nightclub, we pushed our way through the crowd and were ushered inside. Inside was totally manic, and we seemed to get the impression Mecca Mall was the local pick-up joint as they are not allowed to visit pubs or bars.

On our last day we travelled back down to Aqaba (4 hours) took the ferry back to Egypt (2 hours) and then we driven right across Egypt back to Cairo (7 hours). We played a lot of i-spy on that trip (although being in the desert makes a difficult game (sand, rock, road), one is required to be inventive, eg: i-spy something beginning with "S"....... Saudi Arabia).

Our last day in Cairo was spent at the Egyptian Museum checking out all the mummies that belonged in the tombs we had visited in Luxor -the mummies were amazing, thousands of years old and you could see their eyelashes, fingernails and even the veins in their heads.

We had a fantastic time and got on really well with our tour group - some great people I hope to see again.

Next stop.... Cape Town!

Egypt

annekebroadbent — Fri, 4 Jan 2008 02:52:00 GMT

We were travelling through Egypt and Jordan with Travel Talk. A tour Company I had not used before and I have to say I was mighty impressed. Right from our airport pick-up the service was great!

We left Heathrow at stupid-o'clock on Saturdy morning (mental note to self - don't arrive at heathrow before 4.30am as the check-in counters are not open). In our attempt to re-align ourselves with the budget-travelling-set we were flying via Milan with Alitalia and I was convinced my bag was going to be lost in transit. I should really have given the italains more credit, as, after experiencing some of the worst air-turbulance ever, us and our bags arrived safely in Cairo.

The tour kicked off almost immediatly, although Si and I opted to skip the cheesy belly-dancing evening for an early night after a rather frantic last 2 weeks in London.

After a day viewing Pyramids in Cairo we boarded an overnight train to Aswan which is right down the bottom of Egypt. The overnight train was suprisingly comfortable (although I was very happy to have my sleeping bag as the air-con was freezing!) and Si chatted to an Ozzie guy from another tour who passed on a bunch of trashy mags to keep me amused during the 3 hour delay the next day.

Down in lower-egypt (as they call it) they get rather wound up about tourist security and all tourists are required to travel in convoy (something to do with tourists being attached in the 90's and being pretty close to the Sudanese border). This gets rather frustrating and means your timetable is pretty heavily dictated by what time the convoy leaves to your chosen destination. For visiting the temple of Abu Simbel, it means the convoy leaves at 4.30am, you arrive at 7am, have 2 hours to look around and are back in Aswan by lunchtime. Its quite frustrating as it means you arrive and leave at the same time as 50 other bus-loads meaning its very crowded for a couple of hours a day but empty the rest of the time. It also means you feel quite rushed getting around the place as you know you only have two hours. It was amusing, however, to watch all the tour leaders leap off the bus and sprint to buy tickets.... can you believe they have only one guy selling tickets.

I won't bore you with details of all the temples and places we visited, I'm not sure I can remember them all. But I will say the highlights were definatly the Pyramids of Giza, the Sphinx and the temple of Abu Simbel.

We left Aswan by Felucca, a traditional Egyptian sailing boat crewed by three Nubian chaps (the Nubians are indigenous to Lower Egypt). It is a simple boat with one flat deck covered in mattress's and a cupboard underneath for your bags. You sleep sardine-style on the deck, your crew cook you tasty meals of pasta. You help yourself to beers and coke's from the chilly-bin on board. And you hope you don't need to go to the toilet too often as there isn't one. Toileting meant pulling the boat up and finding a bush. Easier said than done in the desert. Worse was finding an un-used bush. I'll leave that to your imagination.....

We spent 2 days and 2 nights on the Felucca and it was lovely to relax in the sun and watch the Nile flow past and chat to our fellow tour-mates.

We spent a couple of days in Luxor, more temples, Valley of the Kings etc before we headed off to Dahab on the Sinai peninsula. Dahab was fantastic. It was the first time we had a couple of days to just chill out and relax. It was very windy but we found some sheltered loungers where we drank fresh strawberry juice and contemplated a swim in the Red Sea. We did a bit of snorkelling as they have a number of reefs right off-shore, it was impressive, but I'm a tough cookie to please. I've been to the Great Barrier reef too many time.

In Dahab we ran into Simon's cousin (we knew they were travelling but thought they had left Egypt by then) so we had a few beers with them and dinner one night too. The food in Dahab was great - and nice to be beside the Beach too. Given that it was off-season we were constantly offered free starters and desserts with our meals so it made it that much nicer!

From Dahab we split off again and headed out to Jordan with 14 of our tour.... but I'll save that for another intallment.

Leaving London

annekebroadbent — Tue, 4 Dec 2007 23:38:00 GMT

For the second time in three years I am officially homeless and (as of tomorrow 5pm,) unemployed as well! We are staying with some friends in St Johns Wood – Abbey Road actually – I should find that pedestrian crossing the Beatles made famous – and we’ve managed to condense our stuff down to our packs and a few boxes/suitcases. Given that we arrived 2.5 years ago with 20 kg’s each, we seem to have accumulated a lot of “stuff”.

My current work-wardrobe has entered the “twighlight zone” of “things that are about to be thrown out” so I’m looking rather tramp-ish when I hit the tube in the morning. Yes, for my last two days of work I am being a “real” Londener and taking the tube to work, until now I have always walked to work. I reckon if I had to do this tube thing everyday I would have quite London a long time ago. The actual journey itself is only about 10 stops, but it’s the lining up to get through the ticket barriers, lining up to get down the stairs, lining up to get on the train etc that drives me nuts. I am proud now though that I have perfected my “grumpy look” whilst reading the newspaper and also my ability to avoid eye-contact and nose-to-arm-pit encounters (an unfortunate consequence of being my height).

I have also perfected my “crossing the road in China” tactic for getting through crowded places. I adopted this tactic when in China and its proved to be quite valuable in London. The key to successfully crossing a crowded London Bridge station at 8.45am is not to make eye-contact. This is also the same when crossing a road in China. The second they know that you have seen them, they won’t stop, you will have to stop. But if you put your head down and charge through you will be amazed how everyone gets out of your way.

I have managed to wangle a ticket to our Christmas function 36 hours before we leave. The Christmas parties are the best thing about London in December, on any given night of the week you will see loads of men in Black-tie and women in dresses not suited to the current climate (and heels that don’t work well on the cobblestone in London). There is a huge industry in the Christmas Party, I think EY host the same Christmas party (at the Tower of London) 6 times over 2 weeks to allow the entire London firm to attend.

So that’s our last few days in London, I will be sad to leave London, I have really enjoyed living on the Monopoly Board and while I still feel like I have lots of unfinished thing here I do feel like I was no longer taking advantage of all London has to offer and that it was time to move on.

So, Saturday, first stop Cairo….. stay tuned.