joelsupertramp

Last week was great. I have to say it was my best time in Ausralia so far...having only been in Australia for 3 weeks thats not much but its a start. Travelling on a Surfari trip really got me out of the city and onto something that seemed totally Australian. After a medium bus journey up to Kempsey on the east coast, in between Sydney and Byron Bay, we managed to get onto the waves from day one on a beautiful stretch of coastline, totally alone(apart from the rest of my group). The beach was clean the sea warmer then the outside temperature, and i got my first dose of the week. The next couple of days was the same, travelling to different beaches, depending on the weather conditions, pretending to learn about point breaks and ... read more

Hello again to all who are still reading this. Its been over 2 months now since my last entry, and my return from Brasil. But back on the travels now, and so far it has been great re-introduction to the big wide world. Flew into Sao Paulo on the 22nd May, and stayed back at the lovely oca hostel i once visited. The usual goings on happened, but i did managed to spend a lovely saturday afternoon in this massive great big park, chiling out with some americans and a dutch guy, trying to get to grips with throwing an american football about. Anyway, onto Santiago on the monday... which was going to be a bus journey but ended up getting the plane across. Arrival and time spent in Santiago was good, howver after a morning ... read more

Back to the grind of Itumbiara now. Ive been back here since Wednesday, after my time in Aguas Lindas near Brazilia, and nothings changed much to be honest. The last couple of days have been busy though, seeing old friends, catching up on missed church and ferrying Joaquim around in his car to and from the Physiotherapist! anyway, remembering Aguas Lindas was fun. My time there was well spent generally going to the free- flight project everyday... exchanging portuguese insults with the lads that went to play football and basketball there everyday. Kind of miss the shouts of ´toca bolla joel' and ´gringo loco' etc... The last weekend i was there we had a festa of feijaida(!) which was a charity meal party thing where the food was faijaida... pork filled bean feast feijao dish. Any ... read more

Ive been in Brazil for 4 weeks now. The news i hear from england is obviously about financial doom and gloom, and all the snow...trust me to miss out on all the fun, but hey, im in brazil and its 30 - 36 C most days and nights, so im getting that summer feeling all the time at the moment. Settling into life here has been good, everyone as usual is very kind, cooking for me, showing me around, translating for me etc. My portuguese is very limited still, but i have never really been one for new languages, but i get by all the same. Its been a steady move into brazilian life... the cultural differences aparent between here and england, can be seen just by looking around. Although not as bad here in Itumbiara ... read more

My Extension of continents visited on this trip now numbers 2! I am currently sitting writing this listening to Andrea Bocelli, and pondering Obama day tomorrow...yes it is a big thing here in Fr. Joaquim´s house in Itumbiara, Brazil. Tomorrow i think sees us closing the doors, battening down the hatches, turning the phone off, and watching barack work his magic to the world. My trip from South Africa, was eventful...Visa fines, even though id paid it....but when the South African immigration guy tells you you havn´t, there isn´t much place to argue! anyway, added to that the nice people at joh´burg airport decided to leave my bags at the checkin counter, so i had to go smelly for a few days in buenos aires but no worries! Yes, so buenos aires... a big city, with ... read more

hello, to all, a belated merry christmas and a happy new year to all. I think my last entry, i was going off to mozambique for a trip, but unfortunately that never materialised. Instead my last month in South Africa, saw me getting stuck into life with my family once more, but this time, more time to explore the surrondings, do a spot of varnishing and quite a lot of meat eating, killing animals and braii's! i seemed to have learnt a lot about 'traditional African' life on this trip just from everyday things. The South african way, and 'laid back attitude' has also been fully exposed to me, which can be a little annoying at times. African's seem to have this idea that with every celebration, or lazy weekend, we need meat to accompany it, ... read more

This is my first message in a long time it seems. The last written explaination of life in SA was back in jefferey's bay, since then i made it to storms river, where i managed to pluck up the courage to do the worlds highest bunjee (caught on dvd so u can all have a laugh when i get home), more surfing down in Wilderness in the western cape, then a mixed time of too many late nights, idiotic moments where i let my gaurd down, and trying to experiance the beauty of a city within a mountain range. Cape town's experiance has confused me. I found myself once again questioning the whole idea of what i was there to do. Too many times i find myself in the early hours down long st. (main pub/bar ... read more

So a few weeks from my last entry, and i've managed to make it down to the eastern cape to Jefferey's bay - some kind of surfing mecca. Down the east coast has been fun if a little tiring, St. Lucia in Kwa-Zulu Natal, down to durban for a few days, on to Coffee Bay( surfing outcrop on the wild coast), on to quite a boring port elizabeth, and here to Jefferey's bay complete with surfing factory outlets, surfer dudes, so on and so forth... my purpose of South African travel seems to have taken a slight turn from original plans... not bad in a way but deviates from what made me interested in South Africa in the first place. The idea of lots of 'foriegn travellers' going down the coast for hostel stays and party ... read more