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Forgive me bloggers, as I have sinned. It's been (over) a month since my (our) last update and let's just say; it's been a busy old time! So buckle up sports fans cos it's gonna be a bumpy blog... and a bit prickly...and smelly at times...but here goes.
We left you after our spine-tingling (and ball-tingling, cos it was freezing) brush with Carcharodon carcharias or the king of the ocean the great white shark. Thereafter was the start of 21 days of camping, drinking and VERY early mornings. The truck was a big overlander that is a hybrid of a coach and a 7.5 tonne truck(Look on Africatravelco.com for a picture!). More truck than coach but it's not too important. The accommodation was a reasonably generous two man tent and the group consisted of 18 tourists, a cook a driver and a tour guide. I won't bore you with the details.
First stop, wine tasting country. Well we didn't want to start off too rough. A beautiful campsite set in the vin yards of north west SA with glorious views and even more glorous wines. A nice introduction to the group (except for Dae son, the single (yet married with 2 kids) Korean guy on the trip, very odd). Next day we were up and back in the truck by 6am. Not up at 6. Tent packed and off by six! That was a theme for the next three weeks. Then off we went to the Orange river which forms the boundary between SA and Namibia. It is also one of the coldest rivers I've ever swam in! A great campsite where we were introduced to springboks (the shot not the animal). Then it was over the boarder to Namibia and Fish River canyon, the 3rd deepest canyon in't world no less! A beautiful sunset over the canyon was followed by a pretty early night. Next it was into the proper Namib desert with days spent covering long distances in the truck, stopping only at the Slaghaus for some Billtong, and nights on very basic campsites. Well it was more a case of a place to put tents. Campsite makes it sound like somewhere with toilets and showers!
Super-dune-race-45 was next. The ferric red sand dunes shooting drmatically across the scrub land, towering a hundred feet upwards at angles of 60 degrees. So obviously we took off the flip-flops and ran down it as fast as we could without killing ourselves. Well a false-start did for a few of us but Kieran had a heroic effort to come in 3rd out of the 10 or so boys in the race. Then it was off to Deadsflei which was some of the most dramatic scenery we've seen anywhere on our trip. A million year old dried up lake with 800 year old (dead obviously) trees set against the orange dunes and the bright blue sky. Awesome.
A game of footy in the evening against the locals on a pitch I'm not sure was FIFA approved and unforgiving bush that did for one football, and there was a brief interlude where we weren't sure whether there was another ball in the village. But thanks in no small part to that man from stoke with a quite superb header from 10 yards out, the travelling fans went home happy.
A bit of light relief came with 3 days in Swakopmund with adrenaline activities for those who could afford it (we couldn't) and all day drinking and karaoke for those that couldn't! (Yes we joined in on that). Some quite incredible karaoke peaked with total eclipse of the heart by yours-truly and keiran.
Sossusvlei was a big highlight though. Amazing rock formations popping up randomly from the desert floor and camping simply at the bottom of one of these huge volcanic boulders. Another beautiful sunset ensued and we were up bright and early to the cheetah park to stroke fully grown 'house-cheetahs' and watch 18 semi-wild cheetahs being fed. Bo-selecta! The night descended into more shots and shenanigans with several unfortunate pool -losers having to like the stuffed testicles of a real warthog. Yes me and H were two of those infortunates.
Next stop was Etosha national park for one of the mostt remarkable game drives ever. Lions, leopards (well leopard), Rhinos cheetahs and the biggest god-dammed elephant on gods green earth! The aforementioned elephant decided he wanted to 'have a go' and tried to charge the truck. Only the sight of Keiran with his two week long beard growth made him think otherwise. The beard growing was universal among the group and would only be relinquished on the second to last day with a comedy beard-off.
The Okovango Delta was next and we were back to bush camping with wild elephants roaming free around the camp. A great experience having massive beasts roaming within 50 yards of the tents, but don't tell the girls that's what we called them. Be dum bum che... I thank you!
After two days in the bush, crapping in a hole, we were back to civilisation and a fantastic game cruise with giraffes, hippos, buffalo, crocs, monkeys, and more elephants than you can possibly imagine. A troop of about 20 decided to cross the river just infront of our boat which was pretty magical. Oh and we'd had a few shandies by then too! Wildlife and booze, it doesn't get much better than that. The comedy beards were in full flow by now with me looking like a red-neck sheep-shearer with my big lamb chops and the big man looking quite frighteningly like a WWF wrestler with his skinhead and a massive handlebar 'tache. These were made all the more glorious by our bin bag fancy dress.
Victoria falls was next up and it isn't one of the 7 natural wonders for no reason, Over 100m high and a km long it is quite simply magnificent. A day off white water rafting just below the falls on the Zambezi was not for the faint-hearted, especially when they started poining out the crocs on the riverbank!
H and I were bank on our own after that, well only for a day trip up to Lusaka in Zambia (accompanied by 8 hours of gospel music on a 8 and a half hour night bus. Not cool God, if you're listening!) Another taxi and a plane and we were in Nairobi to meet the folks. A great week spent showing Ma and Pa Boswell and Helen's folks the ins and outs of the Kenyan slums. With a bit of painting and drainage work and a handsome new set of shelves in the Imara clinic (donations still happily received, thanks guys) and we were set for our safari. I must say we were bowled over by the improvement in the clinic since 2008 and the welcome we all received from the locals was quite humbling. Such a positive and generous race. But enough of that, we were off to see the lions.
The Masai Mara, home to 1 million wildebeest and a few David Attenboroughs is one of my favourite places to be in the world. It is indescribably beautiful and exciting in equal measure. After the first day you get a bit blase' about the Thompsons Gazelles and the thousands of wildebeest when you've seen about 10 lions too. But the scene on the second evening was like something from the Lion king. 10 giraffes all wierdly walking in formations, Hippos in the river, baboons in the trees, wildebeest, bushbucks, zebras...the works. Absolutely brilliant and then the next morning we got to see a lion eating a zebra followed by a fight between a jackel, 10 vultures and an eagle for who got to finish the scraps. Talk about the circle of life. Vultures are funny though. Proper stupid, and a bit cowardly for such a big bird.
Not long now I promise. Hang in there! Ma and Pa left us after that and we were down to 4. So Me, H, Hazel and Derek went to Naivasha for a night to do a walking safari which really makes it feel like you're getting back to nature. Being just a few metres from fully grown wild giraffes is ace. We also saw some real live flamingos. I've no idea why I didn't know they lived in Africa but it was a great surprise. One of them got ate by a fish eagle as well which isn't something you see everyday. A day in Nairobi National Park was a bit of a let down after the amazing game viewing of the last week but we did see a secretary bird chase and kill (and eat) a teeny-tiny-iddy-biddy-liddle wabbit. Which was quite frankly hilarious. If you look up a secretary bird you'll understand why. They kind of look like road runner but not as graceful. We said bon voyage t' mother-in-law and we were off to Mombasa to stay in Alcatraz. Quite simply the most piss-poor excuse for a hostel we've stayed in in 5 months...but it was 4 quid so we sucked it up. Although it did make H cry a bit which was tragic but a little bit funny. I think you had to be there! And here we are in Malindi. We've been scuba diving this morning and saw a crocodile fish, that I didn't even know existed, numerous puffer fish the size of Stewie Griffin's head and a little 4 foot reef shark, as well as our dive master quite frankly molesting a poor octapus which went lots of different colours and inked on him. Spectacular but I'm pretty sure not in the PADI rulebook on how to handle marine life! We've got a few more days here and another few scuba dives in Watamu. Then it's back to Blighty. And there you have it; 40,000 miles by plane, train, automobile, bicycle, moped, s*** smelly coach, nice air-conditioned coach, matatu, canoe, raft, speed boat, not-so-speedy boat (that broke down), tube, and a LOT of walking and where do we end up? Runcorn! I can't tell you how much fun it's been (although god knows I've tried) but thanks for reading. It's been unforgettable but there's no place like home with all our wonderful friends and family. We honestly can't wait to see you all so get your booking in early as our social calendars are officially back open. See you all soon. Pete and Helen. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx- comments