Its December…and I am currently in Chile again. This 3 week Kumuka trip takes me in and out of Argentina and Chile. Currently it’s Chile…Torres del Paine Nacional Park but let me rewind to leaving Bariloche and the 3 days at sea on the infamous Navimag. 3 days cruising the Chilean fjords is a real endurance test when you are cooped up on a boat with 200 other passengers. Nothing to do except eat, sleep and read….(could be a book in that!). To be perfectly honest the journey south across the ice fields was occasionally like some sort of existential hell. Initially the experience was exciting but the monotony of being at sea quickly kicked in. Clad in warm layers, wind and waterproofs the first 2 days of this experience afloat, the weather was crisp and ... read more

So after a magnificent week on Easter Island, it was a 5hr flight back to the mainland .. a few days in smoggy Santiago - not a city that i would put in my top 5 and then an onward journey to Pucon. I am writing this as i await for my overnight bus to take me south to the fjords as my Tour Group kindly departed without me this morning - a day earlier than originally indicated. I am so not impressed by the poor communication from Kumuka but heh..what can i do. I can speak a bit of a Spanish, I have a back that will take my rucksack (albeit not for long as it weighs a ton) and i know where ive got to get to so after venting my spleen, i took ... read more

Hello from Chile! “you must do the thing you think you cannot do” Im not sure who said that or if its a true quote but here i am doing it. Except after my sabbatical I knew i could do it….! That’s quite a yummy feeling. Ive bought a second flat, left the security of my job and flown thousands of kilometers to come back to a continent that grabbed my heart the first time round. 24 hours of travelling, leaving the cold, grey wetness of autumnal London arriving to the hot sunshine of Santiago and 7 months (at least!) of adventure lie ahead! Iberia were as dreadful as I remember and my 3 hr stopover in Madrid airport was all too familiar of previous sojourns in its wooden vaulted architecturally award winning space. 1100 pounds ... read more

Hello all Im now a mere 2 days away from heading back to Blighty. Cant quite believe this epic world adventure is coming to an end....the broken woman I talked about at the start of these updates hasnt got a look in. Im still totally up for it all! Have had a brilliant time in Cape Town and the Garden Route with Mum. Lots of wine and lots of laughs.....! So far we have ridden an ostrich, been caving in the Cango Caves, zip lined through the Tsitkamma Forest , climbed Table Mountain, hiked Natures Valley & Storms River coastline...she is off on Safari at the moment in a Garden Lodge Game Park http://www.grgamelodge.co.za/ while Im off great white shark cage diving tomorrow. I have become quite the adrenalin junkie and Mum is just brilliant. ... read more

Hi all I can’t quite believe its March already. Time is going so quickly here....since I last wrote from Livingstone we have departed Zambia and crossed into Botswana. Almost immediately we crossed the border again into Namibia - travelling along the Caprivi Strip (the toothpick shaped section of land in the furthest north east tip of the country) and then back into Botswana to visit Chobe National Park and the Okavango Delta. Yesterday, we left Botswana for the final time, back out into Namibia. Still with me?? With all this geographical movin’ and shakin’ my passport now has more entry and exit stamps than a philatelist .... evidently philately gets you everywhere! Ho ho ho... So, here we go again... the last leg of this epic African odyssey is well and truly underway and with ... read more