16 November 2010 - Perito Moreno Glacier

·        Trip to Perito Moreno glacier – only glacier in the world not receding – 300km long and 90km wide with the face of the glacier about 120m above the water and a further 100m below the waterline

                  ·         Did a 2 hour trek on the glacier fully kitted up in crampons

·        Trek finished with a glass of whisky on ice…….

·       Night finished with a mad dash around the town hiring and buying waterproof hiking gear as my backpack still hadn't arrived - expensive exercise

15 November 2010 - Travelling day - Buenos Aires to El Calafate

·        Flight to Patagonia – minus my backpack which went to Iguazu

·        El Calafate our base for the next few days

14 November 2010 - Buenos Aires

·        Flight to Buenos Aires, Argentina

·        Managed to catch the last hour of the SanTelmo Sunday afternoon market before downing some quality Argentine beers and empanadas

13 November 2010 - Travelling day - Mossel Bay to Cape Town

·        Back to Cape Town ahead of flight to Buenos Aires

12 November 2010 - Mossel Bay

·        Mossel Bay was a bit dull

·        The highlight was the German B&B owners mullet - priceless 

11 November 2010 - Plettenberg Bay

·        Weather not great for a beach town so went horse riding

·        There were 3 dogs at the Stables – turns out one of them was half rotweiler half wolf!

10 November 2010 - Wilderness

·        Went to the Cango Caves and signed up for the adventure tour

·        Route included climbing through Lumbago Alley, Devil’s Ladder and finishing with the Postbox!

·        The scenery on the way to Wilderness was pretty spectacular - Wilderness is as the name suggests – pretty remote!

9 November 2010 - Oudsthoorn

·        Today’s stop was Oudsthoorn – inland town - 5 hours from Cape Town

·        Arrived quite late in the afternoon so it was a quick trip to the Cango Wildlife Ranch  - it was a good chance to see the lions and cheetahs up close but after seeing them in the wild you kind of feel sorry for them caged up all day

·        We also got a look at some baby cheetahs – too cool

8 November 2010 - Hermanus

·        Next stop Hermanus – famous for whale watching. Didn’t disappoint

·        Awesome mammals – photos seriously don’t do it justice when they breach out of the water especially given they weigh about as much as 8 elephants!

·        Another coast walk back to the B&B

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7 November 2010 - Franschhoek

·        Hired bikes for the day – did a 33km round trip in the end

        

·        Rode to the prison where Nelson Mandela was ultimately released – didn’t realise that it was still a functioning prison though – and being Sunday, it was clearly visiting day when we arrived

·        Cycled back, stopping of for a recharge at Rickety Bridge Wine Estate – food and a bottle of wine down – we rode home

·        Despite being 5 star, our room was invaded by bees so we had to move in order for Clare to get any sleep that night!

6 November 2010 - Franschhoek

·        Headed off to Franschhoek for some wine tasting on the weekend

·        We stayed in 5 star B&B accommodation – apparently this was meant to be me paying Clare back for all those nights camping
·        Went out for a nice dinner and had a 5 course tasting menu – Springbok was the highlight

5 November 2010 - Cape Town

·        Table Mountain today and Cape Town turned on bright blue skies and sunshine

·        Having heard plenty about District Six from our Robben Island tour (our guide lived there and told us about life under Apartheid) we ventured down for a look around – pretty interesting

·        Had a lovely dinner out with Warren and Helen - Warren introduced us to Whiskey Dom Pedro’s – essentially a whiskey milkshake – nice!

4 November 2010 - Cape Town

·        Went to Robben Island – The maximum security prison where Nelson Mandela was incarcerated for 20 years of his 27 year sentence – probably one of the best tourist attractions I have been to in a while – the tour was led by an ex-political prisoner who was held there for 8 years

·        We then drove around to Camps Bay for a few sundowners on the beachfront

      

·        Drove home to Noordhoek via Hout Bay

3 November 2010 - Cape Town

·        Let the touristy Cape Town trips begin!

·        Cape of Good Hope (where the Atlantic and Indian Oceans meet) and Cape Point were first on the agenda. Brrrr – really windy.

·        Amazing coastline though, totally made up for it, as did the baboon on our return trip who opened a car door and stole a tourists backpack and preceded to open it looking for food

2 November 2010 - Travelling Day - Livingstone to Cape Town

·        Flight from Livingstone to Cape Town – this was a massive 7 hour journey (including the stop over in Jo’berg) – It could have been longer if it wasn’t for Clare bribing a South African airways employee with chocolate and managing to get us on an earlier flight!

·        Stayed with Warren and Helen – I used to work with Warren at GT in London and he has since moved home to Cape Town

·        Their house was huge with a beautiful setting – the mountain on one side and the ocean on the other. House came complete with a cute little cat called Mouse

1 November 2010 - Livingstone - Waterfront Campsite & Livingstone Royal Golf Club

·        Today I hit the Royal Livingstone Golf Course for a round with some of the group. Clare was my official caddie!

·        The course wasn’t great – really dry and overgrown and the greens were just awful – managed to shoot 87 which wasn’t too bad in the end

·        Dinner was at a community project pizza place – the ride home was priceless – the taxi driver was playing Kenny Rogers on his tape deck so we ended up singing The Gambler the whole way home 

31 October 2010 - Livingstone - Waterfront Campsite & Victoria Falls

 

·        ANOTHER day of driving – this time from Lusaka – the capital of Zambia and heading to Livingstone

·        Arrived at Victoria Falls mid afternoon – given that it is not the wet season the falls from the Zambia side weren’t that impressive

·        Campsite at Victoria Falls was huge and really busy. Was also full of cheeky monkeys!

28, 29 & 30 October 2010 - Driving Days

·        Driving days, from Malawi into Zambia. Staying at campsites again, one of which had heaps of resident zebras

27 October 2010 - Lake Malawi

·        Went for a dive this morning in Lake Malawi – my first freshwater dive and also an altitude dive. Not a great deal to see but good fun

·       Rest of the day was spent chilling on the beach. A couple of the guys rowed out to the island (where I did my morning dive) on a local boat

·        Dinner in the home of a local family - traditional African food eaten on the ground on straw mats

26 October 2010 - Lake Malawi / Day Care Centre

·        Visited a day care centre (children 2-5 years) based on Kande Beach set up and run by an Australian lady using private donations

·        The kids were great fun, showing us their songs and dances they had learnt. So well behaved at queuing for their morning porridge

·        Before dinner we had a surprise mock wedding ceremony for Rory and Kate and got into the mood in our cross dressing outfits – mine was particularly bad - thankfully we didn’t have our camera there that night and haven’t managed to get copies yet so no incriminating photos to upload I’m afraid!

·        Pig spit roast for dinner this evening (mmmm crackling!)

25 October 2010 - Lake Malawi / Mzuzu Market

·        Driving day before arriving at Kande Beach on Lake Malawi

·        Stopped off en route to buy a fancy dress outfit for our ‘African Party’ tomorrow (each person on the trip picked a name out of a hat and bought an outfit for that person) – cross dressing was the order of the day

·        Stopped off at a craft market for some serious haggling

·        As always, we’re a novelty for the locals – we are known as ‘Mzungos’ to them! One of the guys played soccer with the locals when we stopped at one of the markets

·        Clare finally convinced me to ditch the tent and upgrade to a cabin – smart move in the end as it came with a fan and from what we heard the rest of the crew suffered big time in their tents!

24 October 2010 - Driving Day

·        Driving day

·        Caught sight of Lake Malawi, the calendar lake 52 miles wide and 365 miles long

·        Kate and Rory (Australian couple on our trip) got engaged this morning (her birthday) so it was a party vibe on the truck all day and the beers (and shots) flowed that night

22 & 23 October 2010 - Dar es Salaam

·        Back to Dar es Salaam / 12+ hours driving day.

21 October 2010 - Zanzibar, Northern Beaches

·        A day of scuba diving for me on Mnemba Island followed by a sunset stroll on the beach with Clare!

20 October 2010 - Zanzibar, Northern Beaches

·        Headed to the Northern Beaches and fabulous beach accommodation

·        Went for a sunset sail on a traditional ‘dawa’ boat

19 October 2010 - Zanzibar, Stone Town

·        Bright and early 4.30am start for our ferry trip to Zanzibar!

·        Hotel stays, so 3 days without having to put up or pull down a tent!!

·        We arrived at Stone Town (our first stop and an old Arabic market town. mostly Muslim), checked into the hotel before wandering around the chaotic markets and then heading to a nearby bar for Sundowners

·        Dinner was fresh fish and seafood cooked on skewers at the outdoor food market on the waterfront. Amazingly good!

18 October 2010 - Dar es Salaam

·        Driving day – awful roads. Campsite in Dar es Salaam. Early night

17 October 2010 - Arusha, Masai Walk

 ·        Today we were taken on a walk around a Masai village which involved seeing inside the huts, meeting the children

·        The walk finished with a traditional Masai tribal dance  

    

·        Headed off towards Dar es Salaam, stopping at dusk at a riverside campsite on the way

 

16 October 2010 - Ngorogoro Crater

·        Morning game drive before heading back to Arusha (camping again at Snake Park)

·        Game drive highlights were ostrich mating dance and subsequent very brief consummation, and two exhausted lions (post buffalo killing) sat right beside us and then one of them rested their head on the side step of the jeep!

15 October 2010 - Serengeti National Park

·        Morning and afternoon game drives

·        Again plenty of animals seen – lion, elephant, hippos, giraffes, buffalo, zebra, baby wathogs

·        Camped at the top of Ngorogoro Crater.

·        The food has been amazing on the trip so far and the cooks we had on this trip have been no exception

·        The elephants also liked the ease of access to a cool water supply!

14 October 2010 - Serengeti National Park

·        Today saw us swap the big overland truck for 4x4’s again for our trek to the Serengeti and Ngorogoro Crater

·        After stopping briefly at the Ngorogoro Crater viewpoint we headed off for an afternoon game drive in the Serengeti

·        The highlight without questions was spotting two sleeping leopards
·        Campsite was unfenced and in the middle of the Serengeti. Clare slept with one eye open

13 October 2010 - Driving Day

• Nairobi to Arusha. Driving all day, dirt tracks and potholes.
• Arrived at our campsite (Snake Park) just before sunset
• The campsite has a Snake Zoo attached where the Masai people come to identify what snake they have been bitten by before obtaining treatment in the on-site clinic.
• We had a braai for dinner as it was one of the Kiwi’s birthdays (Tracey). The night degenerated quickly with all of us doing one of the most vile shots ever – Ma’s Revenge (90% Austrian rum, tequila and Tabasco Sauce). Disgusting!

12 October 2010 - Masai Mara Game Reserve

• Morning game drive followed by the long drive (5 hrs) back to Nairobi on bumpy dirt roads
• First night assembling our own tent – Clare took on a ‘supervisory role’
• Still getting used to the 9pm bedtime and 5am wake up calls!

  

11 October 2010 - Masai Mara National Reserve

• Full day game drive. The morning drive saw plenty of activity – giraffes, elephants gazelle and the ubiquitous wildebeest
• 

• We had picnic lunch near the river where the wildebeest have to cross to head south for the migration in a few weeks time – there were plenty of crocodiles waiting patiently if they happened to survive going down or coming up the stupidly steep cliffs on either side

• Just after lunch we saw two lions resting in the shade of the tree – closer inspection revealed some decent battle scars

• Massive afternoon thunderstorm kept us campsite bound following our return – a few beers were had