Katherine Howell

We didn't have much luck with transport or bureacracy in Brunei. The ferry from Limbang wasn't running and the taxi drivers wanted ridiculous sums of money at exchange rates that didn't make sense. We eventually made it to the border, and were pleased to be finally assigned transit visas - a short-term visa for those moving on in the next few days which costs about half as much as a 30 day visa. We were in Bandar Seri Begawan by mid afternoon, sweating our way from the bus stop to our hotel. We spent the afternoon in air-conditioned comfort, washing ourselves and our dirty hiking gear and resting our weary bodies while watching Star Movies. The sunset looked spectacular, but it was all we could do to watch from our window, not having the energy to ... read more

Amongst the list of things I really hate, right up there with parking tickets in front of your own house and hot cross buns, is the animal game. Or the animal game disguised as something else. It's just not that entertaining to think of every animal (or band or insert other topic here) you can beginning with a certain letter on long journeys. It's especially not entertaining when you play against people whose repertoire of remembered animals includes the cookie-cutter shark, but I suspect that just illustrates that I don't like to lose. Luckily, given Justin and Whitley are of the cookie-cutter mould, they only insisted on playing in the car on the way there and back, and we had 4 lovely animal game-free days hiking the Tongariro Northern Circuit. The circuit is a 50km trek, ... read more

It is perhaps a measure of the depth of the appreciation we have developed over the year for efficiency, having learnt to make do with precious little of it, that the excitement of our hassle-free and very fast check-in for our domestic flight from Johannesburg almost overshadowed our arrival in Cape Town, probably the most beautiful city I've seen so far. Buoyed by this, the lovely sun with its dry heat and the ability to explore the streets safely, we spent the first full day in Cape Town wandering Long Street, with its book shops and funky little clothing stores. After the purchase of even more books (I think Brigid is up to 13 and I have 5) and the first items of clothing (other than happy pants and Banjuka tu t-shirts) we'd bought in over ... read more

It's hard to believe our time in Kilifi is almost over - we fly to Johannesburg tomorrow. After eight months here, we've developed a lot of affection for the place and its people and, for a while, especially when we've returned from other east African travels, it's felt almost like home. But, the excitement of 2 weeks in South Africa and then back to our real home to see family and friends for Christmas has certainly made it easier to say goodbye. We have thousands of memories of Kilifi that we'll bore our grandchildren silly with one day, I'm sure! Highlights of the last two weeks include... - Taking my computer and a DVD of The Lion King in to Upendo for the kids to watch. While a lot of them have seen some TV in ... read more

Many countries in Africa have titles extolling the virtue of their people and land - Uganda is ‘the pearl of Africa’, Malawi the ‘warm heart of Africa’ - presumably both an example of national pride and a marketing catch-cry for tourists. Rwanda’s is a little less ambiguous than the above examples - it is the ‘land of a thousand hills’. Rumoured to be a country of amazing beauty and one that has made remarkable headway into peacefully moving forward after the horrors of the genocide in 1994, we were curious to see for ourselves this small east African country given our current proximity to it. General Kenyan inefficiency meant that Brigid’s work visa had not come through nearly 6 months after it was applied for, and her tourist visa was due to expire. So, we had ... read more