The Big Unpack

Yay! Home James! O.R Tambo has never looked this good... After a happy home-coming we've spent the past week unpacking a life that got packed up in quite a hurry a very long time ago (too long to remember where most parts of the life were put unfortunately).

Our Round The World summary to come!

The Home Stretch: Zambia and Victoria Falls

So after Lake Malawi we made our way a little further south to Llilongwe before heading west into Zambia. Three long days of driving followed, stopping in Chipata, Lusaka and finally Livingstone at Victoria Falls.

Zambia's scenery was beautiful, very green and rocky hills all around. We learnt that it is possible to have a detour off a detour, a double detour if you wish, obviously the road works on the main tarred road were taking so long that the detour dirt road washed away too, and a detour off the detour was necessary. These roads have got to win the prize for most bumpy roads of the overland trip. As we bumped along, something made a loud clunking noise from under the truck, reminiscent of a small tree going under the truck. We pulled over, our driver dug around under the engine trying to reattach a piece of suspension that had fallen off (with no small tree in sight we guessed this piece of engine must have been responsible for the clunking). After a few unsuccessful attempts he chucked the loose piece into the truck and we took off again, leaving us hoping that it wasn't a very important piece of engine really (kind of like tonsils or an appendix).

In Livingstone we did a sunset cruise on the Zambezi which was very cool, crossing over into Zimbabwe the following day. Had a fantastic time relaxing the last few days of our trip at Victoria Falls rest camp, swimming until we were pruney, seeing 'the smoke that thunders' at Vic Falls, and feeling a bit bummed because we were not able to go white water rafting as we had not planned to have the right amount of dollars while in Tanzania, one of the last opportunities to do so.

Monday the 16th November arrived at just the right time, (a few jumps on the bed helped express our excitement), we waved a sad goodbye to our overland truck who continues all the way down to Cape Town over the next 3 weeks, and were soon flying home to Jozi in a British Airways plane fulled with tourists, while we, for the first time in 8 months, were the locals (and it felt lekker).

Where the Malawi are we?

Well we're two weeks into our trip, and we're taking a breather for 3 days on the shores of Lake Malawi, finding ourselves with a bit of time and a computer, what a treat! So thought we owed our blog and our dedicated readers a quick update!

First up was our 3 day Masai Mara trip in Kenya, which is in its 2nd year of drought, and the carcasses of cows, and herds of skin-and-bones cows being herded by tall Masai in red blankets with sticks on the roadside was so sad to see.

As you know we were so excited to be in Africa again, but unfortunately Africa did not seem all that excited to see us, because after a fantastic day game viewing in the park, seeing the most amazing things (our best leopard sighting ever, rivers packed with crocs, and the still impressive dregs of the annual wildebeest migration back down to the Serengeti), we had the very nasty (and I must say, terrifying) experience of an armed robbery in our tent in the middle of the night when a Masai (or a con Masai) sliced a new door into our tent with a machete, stole 2 bags, and sliced Steven on the neck in the chaos (a papercut, Steven says). Nothing valuable was stolen, and we got both bags back within a few days, with nothing at all missing. We have been well aware of God giving us a hand and sorting things out for us this whole trip, and this was another time when we felt that He was looking after us because it could have been so much worse (we heard when we returned to Nairobi that another 3, similar, some much worse, incidents had occured in the same area in the past month...). After some serious deliberation about whether we felt like continuing, and a sleep after which we felt better, we decided to push on and to try not to let it ruin our trip.

Next was Tanzania and the Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater...absolutely beautiful. Rains poured down on a parched land as we drove into our bush camp in the middle of the Serengeti, with no fences around...fantastic. The abundance of game is amazing - highlights were a leopard dragging his kill up a tree, two cheetah feeding on the remains of their kill and then chasing away a Serval cat who was sniffing around, and a lion kill - a zebra with her unborn baby inside, being fed on and played on, by 3 cubs...such a contrast of cruel and cute you aren't quite sure what to think.

We then made our way to the tropical island of Zanzibar (pic above) which despite being our 2nd visit, did not disappoint, still LOVE the place! We even treated ourselves to a night in Stone Town at Africa House Hotel, which was well worth it.

After that it was down into Malawi, to spend 5 nights along the beautiful lake, which is where we are now (Kande beach to be precise). This afternoon we'll be taking a boat trip to a nearby island for some freshwater snorkelling.

We've really been enjoying the trip, despite the bad start, we've got into the swing of things (put up tent, take down tent, and doing our duties sich as 'cook's help', 'security' (which is basically cleaning and lockup of the truck), 'dog's bodies' (this is Steven's permanent job, renamed by him as Dogs Balls, so now we have finally found the true meaning to his most favourite saying of all "dog balled'... and it involves setting up chairs and tables etc), and 'dishes' which is by far the worst...and we're with a fantastic bunch of people...so basically having a whale of a time!

Looking forward to being home in a week! Yeeehiiii!

Hello Africa, tell me how you doing

After a very early start on the 20th, we boarded the plane for our last long-haul flight to Nairobi. We were picked up from the airport by a driver from Wildebeest Camp, and realised we certainly were in Africa when we nearly hit a Zebra grazing on the side of the highway on the way to the camp. It feels fantastic to be in Africa again! It feels more like home than we've felt for the past 7 months, which is just a wonderful feeling. The camp is so lovely, and we relaxed here today, catching up on a very behind blog (you might have noticed)!

Because we are going to be without internet access probably until we get home, we thought we should fill you in on what we will be doing for the next month.

Tomorrow he head off the the Masai Mara on a 3 day trip, returning here on Saturday. On Sunday we start the last part of our Round the World Trip (!); a 21 day overland trip down Africa, through the Serengeti, to Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar, then down Lake Malawi and into Zambia, until we end at Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe, flying home from there on the 16th of November. Just can't believe we're at this point already, feeling both excited to get home, but also wanting this last part to slooooow doooooown so that we can absorb every moment of every day that is left.

Mini S.A in London

On Saturday the 17th we caught a train back into London, and made our way on the underground to Wimbledon. Friends from S.A Angela and Hennie, very kindly gave us a wonderful stay with them for a few days, and it was lovely seeing them again.

We had Sunday and Monday to explore a little on London. Really enjoyed walking around a place you've heard so much about, and seen so many pictures of. We spent a whole morning walking around Hyde Park, seeing the crazy people on their soapboxes shouting about this and that, all the usual controversies, and walked through the city, past Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey and the buildings of Parliament, Trafalgar Square, St. Pauls Cathedral, the Thames and the Tower of London. London has quite a grand feel about it, the old buildings and spikey steepled skyline are impressive, the parks are lovely, and everything just works really well. There is a very cool vibe too, and we loved the old world touches, like the red telephone booths, old-style policemen helmets and black taxi cabs and lamp-posts.

On Sunday night we went with Ang and Hennie to their church, which was so cool because we haven't been able to go in ages, where we saw 3 South Africans that we haven't seen in ages...Ricky Anderson from our church, and Neil and Beatrice who we first met on our Israel trip last year...it was such a surprise. But after hearing a South African girl pray in the service, and another South African give an announcement, and then seeing a Blou Bulle spare tyre cover on a Discovery on the walk home, I guess we shouldn't have been that surprised!

An English Country Garden in Shrewsbury

So, flying back to London on the 14th October, we then caught a bus to Shrewsbury, Shropshire, in the Midlands to stay with my aunt Rosemary for a few days, and see my cousin Logan too. We had such a lovely time exploring the real English countryside, which is undeniably pretty. We soaked it all up on many walks in the area, including Pim Hill and Little Stratten, my aunt thinking up a new delightful place for us to visit each day. We cycled to nearby villages of Clive and Grins Hill, seeing the bramble, heather, hedgerows, pheasants, green fields of cows and the ponies that were somewhere in my memory and imagined eye from Enid Blyton and many, many pony stories. We explored the town of Shrewsbury, and I was most excited to see that those cute red telephone booths really do exist (not just in Harry Potter). We got so spoilt by Rosy with all the best English treats....our mouths still water at the memory of those flapjacks (which are not like our flapjacks, but more like deliciously gooey homemade crunchies) and far too many cups of tea. A very wonderful stay, and even after having been there so short, it was sad to leave!

Chapter 4: 3 months in South America

So here is a very late summary of our time in South America!

Total days in South America: 103

Cheapest bed: R35 for a double room at Hostal 6 Augusto, Copacabana, Bolivia
Priciest bed: R542 for two dorm beds at Los Quernos camp, Patagonia - because they had no tents for us!
Cheapest meal:R7.80 each for a delicious 3 course 'cena' (dinner) in Cuzco, Peru
Priciest meal: R332 for us both for our splash out meal in Buenos Aires, Argentina

Highlights: Learning Spanish in Montanita in Ecuador, Inca Trail, Jungle and Orphanage volunteering in Peru, Hiking in Torres del Paine National Park and Skiing in Chile, 4 Day 4x4 Tour around the Bolivian Altiplano, Iguassu Falls and Paraty in Brazil.

And the winner is: 2 volunteering weeks in the Jungle, Tambopata National Park, Peru

Most useful items in our bags: Beanies and gloves, thermal underwear, mosquito repellant and coils, Shewee (ask me if you're brave enough and I'll explain), head lamp, ski jacket brought by Nats and Daryll

Least useful items in our bags: Summer gear lost at the bottoms of our bags since we left Lindy in the States, Poncho.

What we loved: We especially loved Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia for their 3rd world character, locals in colourful traditional dress, interesting local transport and goings-ons, fascinating food and way of life. We enjoyed Chile's slurred unintelligible Spanish, Andean mountains, Atacama desert and cacti, and Patagonian wilderness. Loved Argentina's Mate (grassy tea) in silver jug and straw that everyone sips all day on, tango, and colourful buildings. And Brazil's African/Caribbean feel and tropical rainforest mountainous scenery was wonderfully unexpected.

What we did not love: The overnight, very broken bus ride to Tupiza, Bolivia!