Blonde and Bald Nomads

When our 4x4 Isuzu with our very own canvas chateau on top, was delivered to our guest house in Pretoria and I knew then that everything we had planned, talked and dreamed about for the last few years was really now about to come to true. We were about to go camping in Africa----with the animals!! While Ian and Hennie (the owner) got immediately into the mechanics etc etc I just stood there recalling all the wonderful memories of camping around Aus (and remembering my initial thoughts of snakes and spiders)and then began to get very excited about the next and last stage of our “1st taste of Africa” trip, camping out there with elephants, giraffes and cats etc etc …….! Then suddenly I looked up at our bedroom on top and remembered why I had ... read more

Rovos Rail  From the Sublime to the. 'Cor Blimey' now a 1600km Train Safari following 160 year old trail forged out of the African Bushveld on - "the most luxuriour train in the world" - owner Rohan Vos. The night and morning in Pretoria we spent busily trying to make our 29ers look like Louis Vuitons and spit and polishing ourselves and the best of our gear so we didn't look like we had been backpacking for the last two months- we didn't really need to worry as we looked just as good as everyone else and occasionally better.  And as the 'Pride of Africa' departed from Rovos' Capital Park private station  we sat on our bed in our suite having our first of many glasses of Champagne (on the train) we just put our heads ... read more

If your planning a trip to the third world of Rwanda make sure you have the 60 dollars US for your visa, but don't worry if you only have the copy of your application on your iPhone - that's no problem in Rwanda. The acceptance of the iPhone for our visa verification was just the start of many wonderful surprises about this little land locked "jewel in the crown" in the heart of Central Africa. But we were both just a little worried when Ian was still inside immigration and C was escorted to the other side to try and cash a travellers cheque! Eventually a cash ATM prevailed - we got it sorted but it made for an interesting start. The rest of the first day we just slid into afternoon siesta in our sort ... read more

"Here is looking at you kid!" Mahabah- Moroccan for hello, A late departure with Webjet from Madrid to Morocco gave us time to make our switch from our Spanish dictionary to a small dictionary of Moroccan, and the flight over treated us to a beautiful blue clear sky day, so we were able to see how narrow the Gibraltar strait was between Europe and Africa and could see all the boat movements in the busy passage. Mid afternoon we arrived in Casablanca. The cultural change was so evident the European fashions had suddenly been replaced with anything between traditional Burkas to bright and colourful kaftans - it even smelled different. Once through customs we spotted Canadian Judy with a "Insight " tour tag on her bag. She like us had missed the tour pickup due to ... read more

Farewell Pamplona and San Fermin, weré off to hike a 100kms of the pilgrims walk, from Pamplona to Logrono. The Pilgrims way to Santiago is a thousand year old route that goes in total over 800kms and we are about to walk 100 of that. Santiago was one of Jesus Christs 12 Apostles who according to tradition preached in Hispania before being decapitated in Jerusalem in 44 AD. Legend has it that his body was taken in a boat to the end of the Western world where he was buried. 8 centuries later 812 a hermit saw miraculous shining lights found a cemetry with his tomb in what today is a Compostella de Santiago at the most western point of Spain. Within a few years the Compostella became a pilgrimage site as important as Rome and ... read more