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Published: August 6th 2007
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Hello everyone,
Sorry for the lack of bloggage in the last few weeks but damn these underdeveloped countries. Don't they know how important the internet is?? Only kidding, we've had a hectic last 2 weeks involving lots of driving.
After Zanzibar/Dar es Salaam in Tanzania we headed to Malawi. We camped at 3 different sites around Lake Malawi which makes up a fifth of the size of the whole country! Basically Lake Malawi is like a tropical island location in reverse-the land surrounds the water (obviously) but the beaches aren't dissimilar to Zanzibar's. Did very little but chill out for the majority of Malawi as all the places we stayed were by beaches, visited Lilongwe-the capital but it's small and consists mainly of people selling African artifacts/'curios'.
Had one highlight of a night on Kande (pronounced 'candy') Beach by the lake. We all went to a market and bought second hand clothes for someone else in the group (randomly assigned) and had a massive fancy dress party, Janice and a girl called Esther made an absolutely diabolical punch which they force fed to the entire group and were subsequently lambasted from all angles!
From Malawi into Zambia
Idyllic? You decide......
and spent most of our time in Livingstone-a large town on the border with Botswana, Zimbabwe and Namibia. Zambia is a little better off than it's neighbouring countries and prices were a little higher. Our site was right next to the mighty Zambezi river and just a few kilometres from Victoria Falls. We visited the falls on one of our first days there and were all blown away by the beauty and power of them-if any of you get the chance you have to visit them but be warned, you get sodding wet!!!
Had a booze cruise on the Zambezi which was lovely, saw a large female Elephant crossing the river for an early evening drink and snack on the banks opposite, a truly beautiful thing to witness and yet nothing on this trip compares thus far to the 'gorge-swing' we did......
.....imagine if you will being tied into a harness attached to a line that crosses a massive gorge and then being asked to lean back over the edge of a small platform before falling off backwards for 3.5 seconds of free fall and finally reaching a speed of approximately 140 kph and being
swung across the
Beauty.
gorge back and forth for a few minutes before being lowered onto your still trembling legs at the bottom of the gorge! Janice and I did a tandem jump which was great (we also got to do a forward abseil and the 'flying fox' which is a zip line over the same gorge in which you are attached to the line via your back and jump out across the gorge). If none of this does the trick just check the website www.thezambeziswing.com needless to say it was scary.
Anyway, we spent a few lovely days in Botswana after Zambia. Highlight would have to be camping for a night in the Northern Kalahari, camping 'out in the sticks' doesn't even come close-a few nights before we arrived an adult Leopard rocked up to the site whilst everyone was gathered around the camp fire, growled at them and drank from the site's bird bath before disappearing again into the night. Apparently such things are (relatively) rare but it hasn't rained in the Kalahari for at least a year so Leopard's etc are getting less picky about their regular drinking spots.....we were instructed not to walk far from
camp.
Finally we
They made us do it!!!!
have arrived in SA. Spent a few nights in Jo'burg (just after all the cab drivers in the city decided to have a shoot out in downtown Johannesburg, apparently it was a bit of a war zone!) Anyway, we visited the Apartheid museum and I personally found some of the exhibits so emotive that they made me want to cry/scream at human stupidity! Apparently not the way Mr Mandela would have us feel as he views the museum as a testament to how we overcome evils in the world-not bad for a man imprisoned for the best part of 3 decades.
We are now in Cape Town and we both love it here (read: moving here in the future so Mumsy you had better get over your fear of long-haul air travel!). Climbed Table Mountain today and we are both suitably knackered-it really is a long way up and back down and we didn't use the cable car like most of the cheating tourists! The cabbie on the way back from the mountain thought we were nuts for walking the whole thing! Tomorrow we visit Robben Island where Nelson Mandela
was held for 18 years of his total sentence
Victoria Falls-Majestic we think you'll agree.....
and then we are going to hire a car and drive the Garden Route.
Janice and I both apologise about the lack of photos/detail recently we will get on top of it ASAP but the computers are all really slow here!
Mum and Dad Atkins we miss you loads too-I'll call soon. Karl I miss you too buddy. Everyone from London etc. please get your backsides organised and get your trips out here planned! We can't wait to see any of you that are coming out, we'll party hard-it will rock.
More hugs and kisses.
Fatkins and Monkey.xxxxxxx
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Amy
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I'm so bloody jealous!!!!