Clint Flip

Clinton's first taste of South Africa was on a wine tour through Stellenbosche which also included cheese and a chocolate factory. Now, if I had have known it was going to involve a chocolate factory I may have gone, alas, I hate wine and went to a movie with Shae instead. No regrets really - Clinton bought two big chunks of chocolate back and a bottle of wine which he insisted I was going to like. (I happily ate the Choccy, tasted the wine after I received some death threats if I didn't.. and promptly tried to spit it back out.. not really, but I didn't like it as predicted!) After Stellenbosche we drove around 45 minutes to Capetown where the tour ended at approximately, precisely 10:30am. Clinton, Shae and I had a shark dive organised ... read more

Namibia was mostly an adrenalin filled trip. Firstly though we spent a few nights at Etosha National Park. Still, nothing can compare to the Masai Mara, however we did get to go on a night game drive here which was a first. The highlight of this drive was seeing lions. The tour guide got out a bright flash light and asks "If anyone asks if I used white light, what will you say?" We all chirped in with a resounding "No" and he says "Good, cos it's illegal and I'd get into a lot of trouble" He did explain that it doesn't matter too much with the lions as the light doesn't effect them, however it blinds antelope and other animals upto 45 minutes which makes them a good target for prey. He shone the light ... read more

My last entry I left off at the booze cruise. We need to go back to our quiz night in Malawi for the start of this event. Firstly we picked a name out of the hat to buy clothes for. I coincidentally got Clinton, Clinton picked Nil and Sara (the American) picked me. On our way to Zambia we stopped off at a market where we were told that the people there know and expect us to buy hideous clothing so they come well prepared. In fact, one of the guys sales pitch was "These are very, very ugly - look awful.. want to buy?" When we arrived we were, as promised, swamped with guys with garbage bags full of scaringly hideous clothing. For Clinton I grabbed leopard print lingerie (crotch and all) with a fluffy ... read more

It is time for another update... In Zanzibar we stayed in two separate places. The first place was Stonetown where a major slave trade used to be held, and the other place was Northbeach. In Stonetown all the females had to cover up to down below their knees and their shoulders (Yet they still sold bikinis there?!) We didn't do that much there, we walked around the spice, fish, meat and vegie markets, and ate at one of the night markets where the main dish was some form of seafood. The following day we went on a spice tour on our way up to Northbeach. We were taken through the spice groves and given some plant/berry/bark and told to guess what it was. None of us did a really good job of that. We were then ... read more

Since our last entry we haven't really had a chance to get on the net. Currently we are on Zanzibar for 4 nights and finally in one place longer than a night or two so I have some time! After the gorillas we headed back to Nairobi which was 3 days of full on driving in the truck (we're talking generally 10 hours a day) It was a little exhausting as we'd get up at 6am (sometimes earlier) and be on the road for most of the day, with just a lunch break in the middle. We spent 3 nights at a camping ground (It had a bar and a "disco" so it wasn't basic but we were still tenting it.) We had optional activities like Hells Gate National Park, which we skipped for a sleep-in ... read more

Yesterday mornng we were in Uganda in a nice cosy private cottage room with proper beds and a bathroom! (luxury) - After Four hours of rough, pot hole filled road (in a very cramped mini-van with 11 other people - we whacked our heads probably half a dozen times!), and a one hour border crossing, we found ourselves in Rwanda and in a dorm room with 12 other people on bunks! We woke this morning after a very disturbed sleep at 5am to travel to the Volcano National Parks office to start our Gorilla trek. Our group of 18 people split into three smaller groups as only a maximum of 8 people can visit one family group of Gorillas a day. We ended up in a group with 2 of our fellow travellers, and 2 other ... read more

It's been a while since I last wrote to you all, so thought I might catch you all up on our adventures. Mauritius was beautiful as the post cards/pictures normally show, however there is a whole other side to it too - the slums, to which we pretty much stayed around though our accommodation was alright. We were there for 4 days, and due to jet lag, we pretty much did nothing for the first 3. On our one active day, we went on a day tour down the west coast of Mauritius. We went to Bella Mare which is the place where a lot of expensive brand name clothes are manufactured, and they sell them for less than half the price there (though still too expensive for me to buy.) We then went on a ... read more

Well! After madly packing up the house, moving, unpacking, and cleaning our rental place, Clinton and I were ready at 11pm the night before we were to head off!!! Very very last minute job as per usual. We didn't get any shopping done so we're without quite a few important items! As I have just found out, we didn't bring our vaccination certificates with us which I've been freaking out over, however we've just been advised that a photocopy (which I have) *should* be ok, we just might be charged a fine for not having the original... every time we pass a border. It is very annoying.. but glad we can still go on the tour! We've done nothing in Mauritius as of yet. Both very jet lagged, and moving weary! Tomorrow we might go on ... read more

Hi All, Just setup this Login. Planning on adding photos along the way and Update our traveling accrodingly. Currently the unit is a mess as it needs all the contents packed up as we are not continuing our lease. Our items will be scattered across a few locations to save on storage costs. so Long for now. Clinton and Flip... read more