As promised, here are pictures relating to my previous blog entry on Zambia and Zimbabwe. Enjoy. Since then I spent two days in the Okavango Delta, an area of the Kalahari Desert in which 18 billion cubic metres of water flood in to every year. The time was spent floating around in a mokoro, a canoe dug out of a sausage tree, seeing elephants, hippos and giraffe. The night was spent deep in the Delta, where I spent the night listening to lions growl, hyenas cry and hippos grunt. From the camp sight I went on some wild walks. We tracked a lion but to no avail. In doing so however, we stumbled across a herd (is that right word?) of buffalo and were face to face with them a distance of 30 metres. The guide ... read more

Due to camera memory card issues I'm unable to load any photos. In the knowledge that people don't really want to be reading pages of solid prose I shall keep this blog posting short and succinct. Needless to say, however, lots has happened: I now have a bleached afro and no bike. I set out from Lilongwe with three of the lads and we had some really good days of cycling including my longest of the trip which was 130km in one day. Once in Zambia we did a good bit of camping and I really began to enjoy the routine of getting up early, cycling, eating and sleeping. In fact, one of the things I really noticed about the cycling was the appetite I developed. I was always hungry and always felt the need to ... read more

Lots has happened since my last blog. I have owned three different bikes, had a total of six punctures, cycled 760km through East Africa, been conned out of 35 squid and held a snake (this is a BIG deal for me). So after returning to Arusha I had time to kill waiting for the rest of the cycling party to meet me there. I decided the time would be best used cycling to Meserani Snake Park, a 50km round trip, to try out the bike (the second of the three). Less than 1km into the journey my chain my rear-gear shifter cord (I don't think that's the correct technical term) snapped. I stopped at a nearby bicycle repair store and the guy did a decent job of fixing it. The remaining 24km to the snake park ... read more

Stamping a passport and writing down the name and number of its holder takes half an hour. Or at least it does in Ethiopia. Once Radek and I had yawned our way through this process we jumped on a truck heading from the border town of Metema to Gonder, our preffered destination. Yawns were soon replaced by laughing and shouting as Radek and I, in the open trailer, hurtled through the Ethiopian contryside, a land of beer, gorgeous women and crazy people. Within 15 minutes of the journey's beginning I had my top off, a beer in hand and had already been told by a voluptuous girl that she loved me. People waved and children came running towards us screaming variations of 'you, you, you, give me money, give me birr, you, you, you, faranji (white ... read more

Prepare yourselves for a continuation of the picture-imagine-exercise first introduced in the last blog as I write about all the fun I had in Sudan. Sudan is the biggest country in Africa. Ruled by Pharoahs throughout much of its ancient history it was plundered for its assets before being brutally colonised by the British in 1898. Since independence in 1956 it has faced relntless revolts against power and (if you're up to date on your news you should know this) is currently limping through a general election a year before te Christian south will vote on the issue of independence from the Muslim north. Anyway, travelling with Istvan and Radek proved to be a strange but rewarding experience. Radek is gung-ho in every way and thinks nothing through. He charges around a predominantly Muslim country where ... read more

There is nowhere to stick my camera memory card so you will have to make do with imagining the events I describe. I've fallen woefully behind on updating my blog. I am actually in Ethiopia right now, and will be heading to Kenya within the next few days, but this blog entry will focus on my time in Egypt. Cairo is a huge smog-filled city of car horns. But I enjoyed my time there. For three nights I stayed in Lialy Hostel which is situated on Midan Talaat Harb right in the middle of Cairo. My priority was to secure a Sudanese visa before heading south and cracking on with my journey. The process of obtaining this visa is complex (and for some nationalities is impossible). I first had to attend the British Embassy to obtain ... read more

Before I begin this blog entry I'd like blame any spelling/punctuation errors on the fact that I'm using an Arabic/French keyboard and consequentally many of the keys are in different locations to the 'usual'! I'm writing this from hot Tunisia. All the locals here still consider the weather to be quite cold and so many are walking aroung with coats and fleeces on! I, however, have already brought out the sunglasses, sun cream and mosquito spray. After my last blog entry from Genoa I headed to a village called Nervi. Put simply, it was gorgeous. Despite the chill, the sun was shining and the seafront promenade was populated by local families on afternoon strolls. I got stuck into an ice-cream whilst watching the world go by and for the first time, as I gazed across the ... read more