http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/JohnMorley/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from JohnMorley en-us Fri, 18 Dec 2009 12:54:07 +0000 Fri, 18 Dec 2009 12:54:07 +0000 Across the Kenyan border we stopped once again at Eldoret and had a fantastic Indian meal. It tasted all the better for being the first proper Indian meal wersquod had in months.Next up was Naivasha which is next to Hellrsquos Gate National Park. The area around Naivasha is famous for its flower growing. It has the perfect conditions with volcanic soil high altitude around 2300m and an ab http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Kenya/blog-414413.html We crossed into Rwanda from the border town of Kabale where I had my hair butchered by a barber who had never cut a white manrsquos hair before. The border here was a little more tense than most of the others. People were literally being thrown out of immigration for pushing in the queue.Rwanda had a similar sort of scenery to Uganda but more impressive. We stopped in Kigale on the way to Mus http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Uganda/blog-412184.html We crossed into Rwanda from the border town of Kabale where I had my hair butchered by a barber who had never cut a white manrsquos hair before. The border here was a little more tense than most of the others. People were literally being thrown out of immigration for pushing in the queue.Rwanda had a similar sort of scenery to Uganda but more impressive. We stopped in Kigale on the way to Mus http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Rwanda/blog-406301.html From Eldoret we crossed the border to Uganda. The terrain here is steep but lush mountains. On our way to Kampala we passed an oil tanker upside down at the side of the road and on fire. Our dirver has seen quite a few of these before. Wersquove seen some spectacular crashes in Africa but this one has to top the list.We didnrsquot really see much of Kampala except a shopping centre and our ca http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Uganda/blog-401468.html Nairobi was our first stop in Kenya or rather the wealthy suburb of Karen. We've seen a lot of Barak Obama signs generally through Africa but Kenya the birthplace of Obama's father is in a class of its own. There are Obama pubs Obama cake Obama tshirts. Senator beer has recently changed its name to President. The expectations of Africans in general is way too high given that his job is http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Kenya/blog-400072.html Iringa was our first stop in Tanzania. It's up in the mountains so it was a welcome relief from the heat. Here we had a meal prepared for us with Ugali the local staple food. Most people here eat just one large meal a day. Ugali is very very filling. We stayed in a converted stable which was all the better for being our first bed for a monthI think Tanzania has more speed bumps than the rest of http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Tanzania/blog-399996.html Lilongwe Malawi's capital was our first destination. Malawi is probably the poorest country we've been to so far. The capital has one or two restaurants and a supermarket but that's about it.Heading North from Lilongwe we hit Lake Malawi which is over 500km from north to south. The lake is so big that it has proper sand beaches and looks like the coast. Kande Beach was our first stop on the lake http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Malawi/blog-399972.html Our first stop in Botswana was the kind of city of Maun gateway to the Okavango Delta. The delta is quite unique in that the Okavango River rather than flowing into the sea spreads out and evaporates across the Kalahari Desert.Our first excursion here was two nights bush camping on an island in the delta. We were accompanied by a group of locals who took us to the island in dugout canoes call http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Botswana/blog-399933.html Chobe was our last stop in Botswana before crossing into Zambia. The border here is actually the intersection of four countries Botswana Zambia Zimbabwe and Namibia. The ferry that took us across the Chobe River looked like it might sink at any time. This was the first proper chaotic border crossing we'd been to in Africa. Zambia hasn't been quite as fortunate as Botswana and suffers from wide http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Zambia/blog-399945.html The South AfricaNamibia border is formed by the Orange River named after the Dutch House of Orange. We stopped at the Felix Unite campsite on the Namibian side of the river and our group managed to sink two unsinkable canoes.Namibia is the second least populated country on the planet Mongolia is the only country with less people per sq .km. A lot of the country is desert either the Kala http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Namibia/blog-394076.html We arrived in Cape Town late at night so stayed in the airport hotel for our first night. The airport is quite chaotic as they are currently refurbishing it hopefully in time for the 2010 World Cup. Arriving in the city centre shows why a lot of people regard Cape Town as the world's best setting for a city. Table Mountain dominates the skyline but there are other peaks such as Lion's Head and Si http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/South-Africa/blog-388703.html The state of Western Australia is about the same size as India but only has 2 million people compared to over a billion in India. 85 of the population live in or close to Perth and 99 of the population live on the coast. There's an awful lot of nothing in Western Australia.Perth itself is a nice enough city but lacks character even by Australian standards. This is partly because the original http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Western-Australia/Perth/Perth-City/blog-365634.html Alice Springs is pretty much in the centre of Australia. It has a population of around 30000 people but it doesn't look that big. When out train pulled into the town it seemed that the train was longer than the town. Whilst we were here the temperature got up to 42 degrees and often didn't go below 30 degrees at night.The Desert around Alice springs is about the same size as Europe and is normal http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Northern-Territory/Alice-Springs/blog-365627.html When we boarded our flight to Adelaide in Melbourne the checkin lady asked where we were going. When we mentioned Adelaide her response was Oh it's a very quiet place. That's the most positive comment she could come up with. It turns out that she's right.Adelaide is actually quite a nice little city. The whole city was planned from the outset. It follows a grid system which is bisected by a r http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/South-Australia/Adelaide/blog-362888.html Melbourne is known as having one of the highest quality of life scores of anywhere in the world. It didn't look like that on the way in from the airport though. There's lots of building works and lots of industry. When we got to the bus station there also seemed to be a very large number of crazy people even more than London. The next morning though everything seemed a lot nicer. The city is http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Victoria/Melbourne/City-Centre/blog-362879.html We flew into Sydney in the evening so by the time we arrived in the centre of town it was dark. We had chosen not to stay in the centre of Sydney but in a suburb called Manly which is about 17km from the centre of Sydney on the north shore. The main way to reach Manly is by the famous Manly ferry which passes the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Sydney Opera House. Our first trip on the ferry was at http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/New-South-Wales/Sydney/Manly/blog-362874.html From Airlie Beach we took a two hour flight down to Brisbane. We hadn't planned to come to Brisbane originally but our friends Karen and Dave who we met in Australia and who subsequently lived in London were planning to be on Moreton Island at this time which is just off the coast of Brisbane. Moreton Island is similar to the more famous and touristy Fraser Island. The main difference is tha http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Queensland/Brisbane/Moreton-Bay/blog-362864.html We arrived in Airlie Beach from Auckland via Brisbane. Proserpine airport is a tiny place with just a couple of flights a day. The baggage just gets carted out into the car park and a huge bunfight ensues as everyone tries to find their luggage. From the airport shuttle bus we managed to see kangaroos turns out it's quite easy to see kangaroos in Australia.During our first wander into the small http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Queensland/Airlie-Beach/blog-362850.html From Rotorua we headed northeast to Mount Maunganui. We hadn't really planned to come here but our friend Nicky's parents John and Sue live here and as it's only an hour from Rotorua we thought we'd pop in and say hello. It was quite late by the time we arrived so we found a great campsite by the beach and then drove around to the address given to us by Nicky. There was nobody in so we left a http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/North-Island/Bay-of-Plenty/Mount-Maunganui/blog-361636.html Wellington was a lot busier that anywhere we'd been to on the South Island. They had motorways with flyovers and slip roads. Before now we had hardly driven on any dual carriageways let alone a motorway. Even for a busy city though nobody seemed hurried. Everyone seemed to be sitting in the cafes rather than troubling themselves with going to work.We visited the Te Papa museum which explains a l http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/North-Island/Wellington/blog-361340.html