India: take a look Rural Rajasthan is a riot of colour and noise. A full-on blast of your senses. Wonderfully, mentally exhausting, as your brain juggles to keep it all in. A complete contrast to New Delhi, Agra Taj Mahal: Take a walk through the monument of love or the slums of Dharavi. You can read about that here Dharavi Mumbai visit: the Slumdog...
Kenya: we arrived excitedly… Kenya, all was not well in the safari camp. Really not. So, having arrived in Nairobi full of excitement for the month ahead in East Africa to visit Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania and Zanzibar… we found ourselves stranded in Nairobi airport by our local Kenyan travel company. First, you wait. Then you wonder. Then you realize...
Augrabies Falls: it has a room with a view Gorge Cottage Oranjekom, wow! How do you end 3 weeks of camping, 7,056 miles of driving and sightseeing across 3 countries in Southern Africa? Well, by staying, here. Just look! The King of the wilderness castle. Firstly, there are rooms with views, and then I newly declare, there are views, with rooms attached. Hence...
Namibia: is there anybody out there? Namibia is roughly the size of the United Kingdom and has a population of under 2.5 million. While navigating from the North to the South, you can drive for hours seeing no one other than the odd passing tourist. That is striking enough. More surprising I found, was that the further south we travelled, it became more, well –...
Namib Desert bliss: until the tourists come. Sitting in blissful solitude in the Namib desert. Watching the sun peep over the pink-orange pyramid of sand. Hands and toes numb and cold to the new morning air. Silence. Silence. And then. Flashes of white lights approaching like a line of oncoming invaders. Racing furiously to catch the sunlight on the iconic...
Milky Way: we are living in a snow globe We sat in darkness in the Namib Desert, man-made light completely snuffed out. Watching the Milky Way, a thousand thousand stars and the brightest planets twist and lower above our heads as we made our way spinning through the universe. For the first time that I have ever seen it was clear that indeed, we, were moving. And...
“Nooooooo they are not hats, dirty, very, very bad. Children – take the sanitary towels off of your heads now. No, you are not an elephant.” Environmentally conscious traveller – a lesson learned. So, travelling broadens the mind. Travel teaches you things. Travel throws up things you never thought of before but wish you had. And then...
Mbunza visit: otherwise entitled the dug-out canoe fiasco So, we just got out of this dug-out canoe, from a crocodile and hippo-infested lake, with a Mbunza tribesman. I say got out. That’s a simplification of the situation. First, I was pushed by Iain from behind, then pulled by the tribesman from the front, before finally kind of, falling out. Tumbling if you like...
Border Crossing in Botswana: think about it when planning Border crossing planning when driving through Africa. Planning for Botswana turned out to be more complicated than first expected (though entirely worth the effort). I pretty much planned a route on Google Map to get from A (South Africa) to B (Namibia) crossing Botswana on the way. To discover, A to B...
Botswana Botswana Driving through Botswana, you get the sense that you are the outsider. Not threateningly. You are the alien to the otherwise preserved and balanced way of life. Animals and man seem to have it just right. And here you are, speeding along in your tin can that appears to have no place here. That said, the locals welcome your odd arrival. Children run...