It was with both excitement and trepidation that I left my hostel in Moscow to board my first Trans Siberian train. 29hours travelling pleskart (3rd class like a big dorm) to my first town of Yekaterinburg! I managed to get the metro ok but got a bit confused finding 4 train stations all in the same area. Luckily my Cyrillic has improved enough for me to know the second station was right (knowing my appalling time keeping record I had allowed lots of time!) On the train I quickly settled into my bunk rapidly learning train etiquette of removing shoes and [View Full Entry]

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Leaving Tobolsk station I managed to give myself my first proper injury of the trip (unless you count bleeding feet from a million blisters). I tripped on some dodgy paving and carrying both bags I couldnt balance properly so ended up falling flat on my face. Giving myself a nice bruised and swollen nose (somehow worse than when I headbutted the steering wheel of the van I crashed!) Very sexy grazed and bruised knees and worst of all a bruised swollen wrist that I thought for some time was broken! For those of you that know me well you would know [View Full Entry]

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I am sat writing the first part of this update in the beautiful gardens inside the kremlin still pinching myself to say I'm really here! I must admit to being a little sad to move on from St. Petes I found it a beautiful relaxing place but I was very excited to be seeing Moscow. I headed to the station very early paranoid I was going to miss the train. Travelling pleskart I was on a bunk you had to pull down. The woman opposite me was grumpy and insisted on making the beds straight away leaving me no option other [View Full Entry]

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Well after a horrendous goodbye at the airport I was off on my adventures! I was last to board the plane still not convinced I was going to leave! Once the doors were shut the exhaustion of the last few days kicked in and I slept through take off. Sat next to really cool old couple who have travelled the world (hope that's us babe). Couldn't believe how hot St. Pete's was on arrival. I very easily managed to find the right bus and metro despite my appalingly bad Cyrillic knowledge. Unfortunately I managed to get lost once leaving the station! [View Full Entry]

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We had a reasonably easy border crossing into Uganda wish I could say the same for the 'roads'. We could easily have been driving through the middle of fields judging by the speed we could go and the pot holes (some the size of a large dog). The difference between Kenya and Uganda was immediately obvious and incredible. The houses were round thatched mud huts in the middle of banana plantations, people on the side of the road seemed more aloof with only a few waving at us as we went by. Our first stop was Kampala, the capital. Our first [View Full Entry]

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After the exhaustion of Kili it was nice to get back to 'civilisation' and head back to my lovely hostel in Nairobi. I was too tired and sore to do anything there so spent the day relaxing before heading over to the poshy la la hotel to meet the guys on the truck. I had a huge fantastic room to myself even with a bath!!! After chilling in my room and watching King Kong on tv (quite apt since I was hoping to see gorillas!) I nervously went to the bar to the "night before trip" drinks. I could see a [View Full Entry]

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I was not looking forward to my Kili climb at all feeling my training for it had been woefully inadequate! It then started badly with a 6 hour bus ride from Nairobi to Arusha along probably the worst roads I had ever travelled, feeling thoroughly sorry for myself arrived in Arusha to find no one there to pick me up as arranged. Having no Tanzanian Shillings I was a bit upset at this and ended up calling the hotel who very sweetly paid for my taxi on arrival. My tour guides arrived at the hotel shortly later after having waited at [View Full Entry]

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Well the flight to Nairobi didn't go quite as well as to Dubai being squashed between two large smelly men in the middle of the plane. I then proceeded to watch Bucket List got very excited when they were on safari and then made an arse of myself crying when one of the characters died! Onto Nairobi it was pleasantly warm but raining! As promised there was a taxi waiting for me to take me to the hostel. I cant say my first impression of the city was very favourable since the roads are little better than dirt tracks. The drivers [View Full Entry]

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Hi everyone, finally I get around to starting my blog (hoping beyond hope the computer doesnt crash!) Well my trip started with a fantastic flight to Dubai having all four seats in the middle to myself. Dubai was a lovely 35 degrees on arrival (18:30). My first impression was of disorganisation at the airport unable to locate my pick-up in the throng of people. Eventually sorted it was a short drive to the fabulous hotel. My room being enormous having a great view of the north part of the city and a bed as wide as it was long. As soon [View Full Entry]

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