Jenniferious

Jenniferious

Jenniferious

A very junior doctor.

Non-chronological, disjointed, often faintly medical themed travel stories.

I invariably lose enthusiasm and give up writing half way through a trip.

Consequently non of this makes any sense whatsoever.



Africa » Namibia » Luderitz December 15th 2017

Kolmanskop is one of the most striking, unusual places I’ve visited on my travels. Beautiful, desolate and haunting, I have never seen anything else quite like it. In 1908, a German railway labourer uncovered some interesting stones while shovelling sand. Thus began the history of diamond mining in Namibia. To begin with, diamonds were so plentiful you could simply walk through the desert and scoop them up with your bare hands. On a clear night with a full moon, you could see them glinting in the sand. Or so the story goes. Kolmanskop was the town that sprung from nowhere to mine this treasure. Fuelled by the explosion of diamond wealth, it rapidly sprouted luxuries unimaginable for Namibia at the time. There was a ballroom, bowling alley, swimming pool, ice factory, hospital, sports hall, it even ... read more

Africa » Namibia » Luderitz December 14th 2017

About an hour outside of Luderitz, we stopped to try and find the Namibian wild desert horses. There are various colourful theories about their origin, involving shipwrecks and famous historical figures. They are the only population of wild horses in Africa, and are scientifically interesting because of how they have evolved, over a relatively short period of time, to survive in the desert. Despite being an invasive species they have been afforded protected status, I suppose due to their uniqueness and the length of time they have survived here. The population never expands beyond much beyond 150 animals due to the harsh environment, so the damage they could do is limited. Their only source of water is a man made borehole next to the viewing hide just off the main road, so the horses are usually ... read more
Namibian wild horses outside of Luderitz
Desert horses
Hammock

Africa » Namibia » Luderitz December 14th 2017

When we suffered a varied and constantly escalating selection of car problems on our road trip through East Africa, there were always other people around to help. Usually a very large number of other people, giving advice of variable quality. We were towed (twice) by helpful strangers in Botswana, and push started on an almost daily basis through Malawi. When we opened the car bonnet on a Tanzanian highstreet, no fewer than 8 random men took it upon themselves to peer inside and offer their opinions. It was conflicting advice delivered for the most part in Swahili, but at least there were people around. The problem with roadtripping through Namibia, the second least populous country on earth, is the lack of other people. Of course this is also a large part of what makes the country ... read more
This roadsign says "SAND"
Africa's most redundant roadsign

Africa » Namibia » Fish River Canyon December 12th 2017

Cederberg to Fish River Canyon was a full day driving, 8 hours in total. We stopped off at Springbok just before the border, a small dusty place with a frontier town vibe. The local industry seemed to revolve exclusively around vehicle repairs, luckily for us. After fixing the lock the previous day, we’d uncovered another car problem. The fridge in the back should run off a second car battery, which didn’t seem to be working. It functioned fine while driving, but cut off as soon as we killed the engine. We had the battery tested at a branch of SupaQuick and were told it was working but flat, meaning there must be a problem with the charging circuit. Off we went to find the local electrical mechanic. He identified the problem almost immediately, when an important ... read more
Canyon Roadhouse
Canyon Roadhouse
Canyon Roadhouse

Africa » South Africa » Western Cape » Cape Town December 11th 2017

I'm not going to write about Cape Town, because I have too much to say. I wouldn't know where to begin, and if I did begin I might never stop. In 31 years and 33 countries, it’s the greatest city I’ve seen. My boyfriend and I had been living and working in Cape Town for 3 months. Both of us would trade our London lives for this city in a heartbeat, but despite an understaffed healthcare system, as foreign doctors it’s incredibly difficult to find employment here. We’d been volunteering at a hospital in the notorious Khayelitsha township, but indefinite volunteering is not sustainable, and our visa wouldn’t allow us to work, even unpaid, for any longer. The time had come to move on. We were left with 4 weeks before our flight home, and a ... read more
The view from our Cape Town balcony
Cape Town
Driving to Cederberg

Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Franz Josef May 10th 2014

Franz Joseph is a tiny little town that’s sprung up to cater for tourists visiting the nearby glacier of the same name, though the ice is now retreating and according to most estimates will be gone within 30 years. Given that it’s been there for tens of thousands, this is a genuinely alarming thought. I had a moment of panicky leftwing guilt at the realisation that I’d just flown, and then driven, a very long way to see a glacier that I am now appalled is retreating due to global warming. I resolved that I was going change plans and do the regular glacier hike instead of the helicopter hike, because using an extravagantly fuel inefficient mode of transportation to go look at a disappearing glacier seems faintly ridiculous. Unfortunately it turned out that the bottom ... read more

Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Franz Josef May 7th 2014

The Mauri name for New Zealand is "Land of the Long White Cloud". I might have gone with "Land of the Long Wet Shower", but I can definitely see what they were getting at. Clouds are a prominent feature of the landscape here. They don't impassively form a backdrop like normal clouds. They morph and hover weirdly like UFOs. Cling in clumps to the sides of mountains like fake cobwebs at Halloween. Curl round your feet like dry ice at a school disco. The day after the kayaking incident I drove 350km from Milford Sound back to Te Anu then on through Queenstown to Lake Wanaka, via Arrowtown and Cardona. As far as whole days spent driving go, it was a winner. The road from Arrowtown to Cardona, in particular, necessitated stopping every 10 minutes to ... read more
Arrowtown

Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Milford Sound May 6th 2014

Day four it was raining vigorously enough to make up for all the raining that didn't happen on days one two and three. I had booked to go skydiving but it was cancelled due to the inclement weather. I was secretly pleased, because somehow the idea of being terrified whilst cold and damp was infinitely less appealing than being cheerfully terrified in the sunshine. I decided not to hang around in Queenstown another day. Instead I planned to drive to Te Anu and then on to Milford Sound. I had no idea what a 'sound' was but there seemed to be lots of them in New Zealand and I had been told that there would be seals and you can kayak, so it sounded like the sort of thing I might enjoy. Plus apparently it always ... read more
Chasing Waterfalls

Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Glenorchy May 4th 2014

It would be rude to come to New Zealand without indulging in at least a little bit of nerdy Lord of the Rings tourism. With this in mind, I decided I was going to go on a trip to the place they filmed the Misty Mountains and Lothlorien Forest scenes, and obviously I was going to do this on horseback so I could pretend to be an elf princess. Unfortunately in a burst of overexcitement when I first arrived in Queenstown, I had made the potentially unwise decision to book this horse riding trip the day after downhill mountain biking. I woke up a little apprehensive, unsure if my knees or my bum could take it. Horse riding seems to be a big thing in New Zealand, but I have minimal experience of things equestrian. That ... read more

Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Queenstown May 3rd 2014

So I just had a little peek at TravelBlog for the first in many months, and noticed I have at some point inexplicably been awarded membership of the “TravelBlog Hall of Fame”. I did not know that this was a thing, but it would seem that it is a thing, and I am in it. http://www.travelblog.org/Topics/34398-1.html Apparently only 20 of the 300,000 or so bloggers on the site earn this each year, so I’m utterly baffled as to how I’ve found myself on the list. But thanks!! This is awesome and confusing in equal measure. I suppose I should use this as motivation to finish uploading my Africa journal before I lose it all by accidentally tipping gin and tonic on my laptop again. But I just got back from a little trip to New Zealand ... read more
Autumn Tree
Ruby
Mussels




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