A bit of a jump ahead of where our blog should be, but just wanted to wish everyone a very merry christmas and a happy new year! have a good one! See you in 2008! XXX [View Full Entry]

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So here we are. Mango town. We have never seen so many mangoes in one place. Ever. On the trees, strewn all over the floor. Mangoes are eaten for breakfast & lunch, the after-school game was throwing mangoes at the mango tree and eating the fallen mangoes and dinner was.... Mangoes! Raay! Inevitably it stank of fermenting fruit. The local bin men were obviously on strike or something. Following the river trip, the second half of the tour was a visit to the Tsingy de Bemaraha National Park in western Madagascar. The journey there was quite nice - initially driving along [View Full Entry]

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On arriving in Tana we had booked ourselves into what turned out to be an awesome hotel called Sakamanga, Malagasy for Blue Cat, with the intention of shopping around the city for a few days for a canoe trip down the Tsiribinha river. "It's never a good idea to jump at the first offer to come along" is our first travel motto. So when the taxi driver who picked us up from the airport (and also the first person we met in Madagascar) happened to mention that his cousin had a trip leaving the following day for the river we jumped. [View Full Entry]

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We didn't expect to be here when we left on our big trip but here we are on a little piece of France a couple of thousand miles away from Europe in the middle of the Indian Ocean. We have been eagerly awaiting this leg of the journey for about 3 months, and now we are here, to all intents and purposes in France. There are Super-U's, Carrefours, Credit Agricoles, Boulangeries, the road signs are in French, the cars' plates are the French ones (and of course the cars are all Peugeots / Citroens)... and the French are... well... French! It [View Full Entry]

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Despite one South African bloke taking one look at the rather tired looking Nissan and stating "Don't worry lads no-one is going to carjack you in THAT", Raz and Uzi were in constant fear of being car jacked and mugged at every junction in South Africa. So an offer from Nan, Phil, and Haley we met at Kgaswane Park to lead us into Jo'burg to Backpackers Ritz was very welcome as it put the army boys at ease, and it meant we were sure not to get lost. Not that we doubt your navigations skills lads! 8 ) The first thing [View Full Entry]

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After the Pans we headed South in Botswana towards the South African border. But as already mentioned, Botswana is BIG and it was quickly obvious that this wasn't an afternoon pootle. First we broke the journey at Khama Rhino Sanctuary. This was a small private reserve that served as a convenient overnight stop - but also (we hoped) would give us the chance to see the elusive black rhino. This was a member of the Big 5 that we couldn't really tick off yet - our guide in Ngorogoro claimed that some half hidden black lumps were black rhinos but they [View Full Entry]

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Botswana is big. And flat. I'm not quite sure how Raz or Uzi stayed awake to be honest, driving for hour after hour in the stifling Botswanan heat with nothing more interesting than bushes to look at on either side of the road, which stretched for mile after mirage covered mile in a straight line off into the heat haze. In fact they could have fallen asleep for all we know... Sitting in the back of the Nissan with all of the windows down was like sitting infront of the biggest hairdrier man has ever known. Only you didn't end up [View Full Entry]

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After our mammoth three day Lusaka - Kitwe - Lusaka - Livingstone tour we finally arrived at Jollyboys backpackers in Livingstone. Very relieved to not be on a bus and very happy to arrive at such a fab hostel - which couldn't have been more of a contrast to the place in Lusaka. Livingstone is the base for visiting Victoria Falls on the Zambian side. Next morning we headed out to the falls. It's the tail end of the dry season and we had been warned that there wasn't a lot of water on the Zambian side. Apparently the Zimbabwean side [View Full Entry]

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We really started to count our blessings for meeting Raz and Uzi whose itinerary was very similar to ours, even more so when the offer of a lift was extended almost indefinitely. The distances in Zambia, Botswana, and Namibia are BIG. If we were to stand any chance of seeing anything besides the inside of a coach or Matatu it was starting to dawn on us that a car was needed and a 4X4 preferred. The fact that Raz and Uzi were on that route and on the same budget and timescale as us was suberbly lucky, we all got on [View Full Entry]

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Our destination following our trek up through South Luangwa was a campsite called “Mutinondo Wilderness”. It’s an area of 10000 hectares which the owners bought from the local chief about ten years ago and have turned into an eco-friendly paradise. The area contains several enormous granite ‘whaleback’ domes rising from a sea of multi-coloured trees which cover the surrounding hills and valleys. A river runs through the middle over a series of waterfalls and natural pools providing a perfect environment for the Kingfishers and other birds which thrive there. Th [View Full Entry]

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