TravelBlog » explorer_keith

explorer_keith - Keith Martin

Where I Have Been

Map Legend: 11%, 31 of 263 Territories

Lived In

Traveled Through

These are all places I hae traveled through or lived in over the last few years. My goal is to get rid of all of the gray on the map.

I am from Georgia, but I have lived in California for the past few years. I have been working as an engineer since I got out of school six years ago. I have grown tired of working the never changing rat race of ‘normal life’, so I am embarking on a multi-year round the world journey, a retirement of sorts, beginning with a winter contract job in Antarctica. From there, who knows where I will go, but I plan on seeing the whole world and all of the unique cultures, remote wildernesses and amazing history that this planet has to offer. I am planning on traveling as inexpensively as possible, without sacrificing the quality of the adventure, but I am also going to work along the way to help cover my expenses.

Update: 03/03/2008 - I am taking a break from life on the road for a while. I am going to get my blogs up to date over the next several months.

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Joined on: January 16th 2005
Last Login: May 9th 2008

Blog Entries: 62
Photos: 1819
Recommended by 14

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Blogs & Travel Journals

by explorer_keith, order by Date newest first.

By explorer_keith
July 25th 2007

Into the Wilds of Africa

Africa » Botswana » North-East

Elephants on the Shore
This was the first group of elephants we found in the park.

It was a beautiful African morning. I was standing on the dusty riverbank soaking up the warm sun and watching an amazingly long line of ancient trucks and busses and a few private vehicles wait their turn for a spot on one of the two tiny river boats that were ferrying the vehicles back and forth across the river. I had already passed through Zambia’s border post and from where I stood I could see three other countries - Zimbabwe was off to my left, across the river, Botswana was next to it to the right and, off to my right, [View Full Entry]

By explorer_keith
July 20th 2007

Feeding Crocodiles

Africa » Zambia » Livingstone

The Baby Crocodile
He was very calm in my hand, but he still tried to bite me from time to time.

So there I was standing on the side of the road with the contents of my backpack disgorged on the new asphalt. There was a very animated man running in circles with a Zulu spear held high above his head. His war cry filled the air, “Contraband, Contraband, Contraband!” The officials had decided to search the whole bus and I was not the only one standing there with all of their possessions strewn about, but it was my backpack that had produced the spear. It was clear that the officials had found what they were looking for, because they stopped paying [View Full Entry]

By explorer_keith
July 6th 2007

To the Skeleton Coast

Africa » Namibia

I Am Tough!
I would presume this was one of the dominant males in the sea of seals.

Our journey from Etosha National Park passed through some amazing desert scenery. In fact, excluding the small town of Kamanjab, where we stopped for coffee at a traditional German bakery, and the noticeable absence of large animals along the road, the scenery was about the same as it was in the park. It was late afternoon when we pulled off of the well maintained two lane road and came to a stop at a small, unmarked gate. We were enthusiastically greeted by two dust-covered children and their goats. Our guide shouted a few unrecognizable greetings to the children and they responded [View Full Entry]

By explorer_keith
June 23rd 2007

North Through Namibia

Africa » Namibia » Etosha National Park

Reflections
The waterhole at Okaukuejo was amazing for animal spotting and photography.

We were driving northbound through Namibia’s sparse, desert landscape. The wide open, grassy expanses that had defined most of the scenery during our journey towards Sesriem in the previous days had given way to large, scrubby forests of stunted trees and thick brush. The terrain was mostly flat, but, at times, rolling brown hills and jagged, pyramidal peaks jutted up out of the forest and broke up the beautiful monotony. The feeling of desolation that had been so prevalent in the southern Namib Desert was not as apparent there. I was sitting in the front seat of the same bus that [View Full Entry]

By explorer_keith
June 18th 2007

The Sands of the Namib

Africa » Namibia » Sossusvlei

On Elim Dune (3)

I don’t remember the first time I learned of the Namib Desert. My first images of its mountainous red dunes probably came out of the pages of National Geographic Magazine or one of my early school textbooks. Regardless of where I first learned of them, I have been drawn to the dunes of the Namib Desert since I was very young. I almost traveled to Namibia back in 2003, but I abandoned the journey when I discovered that it would have cost me the same amount of money to do a two week trip to the area as it would have [View Full Entry]

By explorer_keith
June 12th 2007

Kalahari Bound

Africa » South Africa » Northern Cape » Upington

On The Boulder Pile
This was the view from the top of the giant rock pile at the entrance of the sanctuary.

After we arrived in Pretoria and found our hostel, which was owned by the daughter of the lady that owned Greatbatch, the hostel we had stayed at in Kimberly, we started to relax - It was a big change going from the peaceful, wilderness of Kruger National Park to the busy streets of Pretoria, the capital of South Africa. We had intended on going to the South Africa vs. England rugby game, but, due to a problem getting tickets, we ended up watching the festivities at a sports bar a short walk from the hostel. My friends were big rugby fans [View Full Entry]

By explorer_keith
June 3rd 2007

On Safari in Kruger

Africa » South Africa » Mpumalanga » Kruger National Park

The Long and Winding Road
This leopard was injured in a fight of some kind and was just walking down the road. It was not bothered with the cars so we got to see him up close.

The image of Africa that I hold in my mind is one of grand wildernesses filled with strange and exotic animals. This image was formed mostly in my childhood with the help of the pages of National Geographic and the heavily abridged stories of Dr. Livingstone and Mr. Stanley's adventures in Africa that could be found in my school textbooks. Later, the African wildlife documentaries and the grand stories from Hemingway, Conrad and Haggard, as well as the unabridged stories from Dr. Livingstone and Mr. Stanley, filled in the gaps and brought life to my mental image. I knew when I [View Full Entry]

By explorer_keith
May 26th 2007

The Fight for Zululand

Africa » Swaziland

The Battle of Isandlwana
Evan Jones put on an amazing tour of the Zulu battlefields.

There we stood on the side of a dusty, dirt road in the warm early morning sun. We were surrounded by a band of proud Zulu warriors to be and we all stood there and listened in awe as our phenomenal guide, Evan Jones, told us a tale so fantastic and surreal that it seemed to be a masterpiece of fiction, one worthy of the highest praise, yet every word was true! The story started with peace and harmony, like most stories do. The land was divided: on one side of the river were several colonies from Europe living in small [View Full Entry]

By explorer_keith
May 15th 2007

One Happy Kingdom

Africa » Lesotho

One Beautiful Kingdom
The valley of Malealea was where I spent most of my time.

I had found the Africa I was searching for, but, until I had crossed the imaginary line in the sand, I had not found. On the South African side of the line there were towns and cities filled with a fear-based misery that seemed to affect both the obscenely rich and the hopelessly poor alike. All of the fear and all of the racial segregation instantly disappeared as we drove through the border post, received our passport stamps and emerged into the mountain kingdom of Lesotho. It was an amazing contrast! There were no signs of the fortified homes, the electrified [View Full Entry]

By explorer_keith
May 10th 2007

Swimming With Fishies

Africa » South Africa » Western Cape » Cape Town

Big Blue
This scene in my hostel depicts a fleet of Dutch sailing ships, similar to the Europa.

There was only one thing going through my mind as I watched the 'Blue Pointer' pull up to the dock. It was a line from one of my favorite movies and it seemed fitting at the time: "You're going to need a bigger boat!" The sun was just beginning to show itself behind the distant mountains when we pulled out of the harbor at Simon's Town, passed the small lighthouse and headed into the rolling waters of False Bay. Our destination was a small group of rocks jutting up out of the water called Seal Island and it was about half [View Full Entry]