christopher james
hongkey kong
Shamelessly unable to embrace responsibility. Time to travel!
“The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.” - St. Augustine
Travel Blog Posts
September 8th 2010
After Etosha, we all part ways, but an abrupt change of plans means that I catch up with C in Rundu. My arrival prompts him to change his plans too and we both hitch into the once volatile Caprivi Strip before crossing the border into Botswana at Mohembo. From there it's a hot and hefty bus journey south to Maun, the tourist gateway into the world famous Okavango Delta, with a brief and abortive stop at Sepupa (which the LP erroneously claims to be a much cheaper - though actually much pricier! - alternative to access the Delta) along the way. I instantly feel a fondness towards the people of Botswana, and not just because we get a couple of free lifts on the way to Maun. Everyone is just so damn friendly. And friendly without ... read more
August 31st 2010
From Windhoek we team up with an Israeli couple, H and A, and head north to Etosha National Park, Namibia's big safari hotspot. Before this trip started I promised myself that there would be no expensive safaris along the way as they would leech the life rapidly out of my bank balance. However, Etosha is irresistably cheap; the combination of five people in the car actually making this far from a financial splurge. In two days I spend $75 on everything - car hire, fuel, park entry, camping and food. Bargain! Also, as the only one registered to the car, H does all the driving. Bigger bargain! Now, I could easily be tempted into many a tautological paroxysm of adverbs about just how unfathomably, fabulously, fantastically, maginificently, magically, monumentally, insanely, impossibly, incredibly awesome it is to ... read more
August 19th 2010
We have an immense stroke of luck on the way out of Luderitz. Well firstly we get a free lift when leaving, which isn't a bad start. But then we get a text from one of the many couchsurfers C has been spamming since Cape Town. He is in Aus with a car and looking for people to go to Sossusvlei. We're 20 minutes from Aus and Sossusvlei is our next intended destination. We couldn't have planned it better! Our new French companion, N, is the only registered driver but is more than happy to play chauffeur and we set off north through the arid Namibian wilderness. 8hours later and we finally pitch camp about 30km outside of Sesriem, the gateway to the dunes around Sossusvlei. Anticipating an early start we all turn in pronto and ... read more
August 16th 2010
The World Cup - my ultimate travel goal in Africa - has been and gone. My clothes are torn with an uncountable number of holes in them. My tempestuously tempered tent has holes in it. Even my beleaguered, long suffering (but far more faithful) flip flops have holes in them, making walking a hazardous occupation (though they've barely seen any action in South Africa - Cape Town's cold climes are hardly conducive to the doning of such flimsy footwear). I am exhausted after many months stuttering down this continent. I am in dire need of regular sleep, regular meals, just regularity full stop. A flight home really should be the next step. The ridonculously obvious remedy for such tortuous woes is, of course, Namibia. There's a bus from Cape Town to Keetmanshoop? Oh, go on then, ... read more
August 10th 2010
I'm not exactly sure what to expect when arriving in Cape Town after 27 hours on a bus from Durban. I was here seven years ago but many more recent travel memories have since pushed those from South Africa into the increasingly cobwebbed crevices of my recollection. What does spring to mind is a stunningly beautiful city and in that respect at least nothing seems to have changed. It is undoubtedly one of the World's most glamorous destinations and I am lucky enough to spend almost 10 weeks there. It's difficult to leave. My reason for coming to Cape Town and ostensibly the excuse for my seven months meandering down the eastern side of Africa is the Fifa World Cup. And - sorry to all you plebs who stayed at home - it doesn't disappoint. Every ... read more
May 31st 2010
Leaving Maputo I get to experience travel like an African lady. After I offer a little bit of my Coke to thirsty looking young boy, about five years old, he decides that I am a much more preferable travel companion than his mother and insists on standing between my legs as we are about to leave. This can't be very comfortable so I pick him up and drop him on my lap and for the next four hours do what women do all day everyday across Africa; travel with at least one child on top of them. I doubt I provide as much pillowy comfort, but he seems happy nevertheless. Of course back in England, should I offer some sweet drink to a small child then proceed to sit him on my lap for a number ... read more
May 24th 2010
Ilha is actually further east than any part of Tanzania, yet Mozambique is one hour behind timewise. Consequently it gets light very early here and also in Nampula, a little to the west of Ilha, where I must return to catch a bus heading south. But the energetic sun of northern Mozambique has not risen as my transport departs at 2am! Even by standards here this is a getting a bit ridiculous. On the plus side I do save on an expensive night of accomodation by sleeping on the bus. Well I say sleeping... In fact I spend most of the time moving between seats, from row to row, trying to get horizontal for long enough to pass out. Yet every new passenger who arrives as the vehicle steadily fills up seems to have a ticket ... read more
May 16th 2010
Crossing from Malawi to Mozambique I get a little rush. Despite an excellent travel partner for the last month it feels good to be exploring on my own again. There's also a certain thrill to be had in entering a country in which once again I have no grasp of the language - Mozambique is a former Portuguese colony rather than the predominantly English ones I've visited recently - and very little knowledge about the place full stop. To the best of my recollection the first minibus ('chapa') I take once in Mozambique sets a personal record: 28 people in a 14 seater, plus driver. Fitting all the luggage inside along with the passengers resembles the failing attempts to salvage a game of Tetris on the blink. Every square inch of space is swiftly swamped as ... read more
May 4th 2010
The next leg of my rather meandering Malawian travel is dominated by a ferry down the length of Lake Malawi, from the northern "town" of Chilumba all the way to Monkey Bay close to the southern tip of the lake. The Ilala Ferry is about sixty years old and like all nautical colonial relics it was actually built back in Britain first (in this case Glasgow in 1949) before being taken apart, shipped to Africa, carried a few hundred kilometres overland piece by piece and finally reassembled. Since then the boat has barely changed at all - the state of the toilets certainly suggests so - but its in fairly good nick compared to other elements of Africa's colonial inheritance that I've encountered (i.e. it still floats). Cost being of greater importance than comfort J and ... read more
April 18th 2010
My bus ride out of Zimbabwe is an excellent indicator of the sort of reception I will be getting in Malawi: a thoroughly warm one. Yet again my neighbour is an extremely chunky young woman and I ask myself the question (between deep inhalations of breath) whether there is such a thing as a small African lady south of Ethiopia, and if there is, why does she never sit next to me on the bus? The powers that be scold me for being so judgmental by making this girl an absolute sweetheart and she kindly keeps me entertained with conversation as we speed along to the sounds of Abba and the seemingly omnipotent and omnipresent Shania Twain - that's just one omni short of being Africa's Almighty. Another guy who I chat to periodically throughout the ... read more
Maroon 
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