Gran wrote to me while I was in Botswana and said: "I hope you manage to find Fidelma alright in South Africa. It won't be as easy as meeting at Victoria Centre [shopping centre in Nottingham], but I'm sure you'll be fine!" I found this sentence rather endearing, as I knew it would be easy to meet up with Fidelma, irrelevent of the fact that we were both in a foreign city. Little did I know that my self confident traveller smile would be wiped off my face in a ...

After 3 years of exploring opposite sides of the world, mine and Fidelma's travel plans finally coincided. Friends reunited, and where better than South Africa?! We left Cape Town sadly, but also excitedly, as we headed off to the Wild Coast on a surprisingly good bus service. 20 hours later we arrived at Coffee Bay, a beautiful little place dotted with round Xhosa huts along the stunning and rather, well, wild, coast. Crashing waves, rocky cliffs, mountains, wi...

My introduction to South Africa was "You've missed the train to Cape Town, the next train leaves in 2 days", followed by a 27 hour bus journey which included 6 hours on the side of the road next to our broken down vehicle, in a beautiful spot, but with only a handful of peanuts and a few biscuits to eat in 24 hours. After that rather enjoyable, typically African, journey, I arrived in the very European city of Cape Town. Cape town has quaint seaside cafes, baker...

On my last day in Otse village, I stayed with a Camphill teacher and his lovely family in their beautiful home. Him and his Scottish wife, Louise, made me feel so welcome, it was exactly what I needed. All the males of Camphill played and watched a friendly football match, and all the females played and watched handball. It was a fun event and the perfect way to say goodbye to Camphill; as Man of the Match (A bit unfair, as our team included players with disabilt...

The point of these travels was never to "find myself", I guess I've always felt pretty found. It was also not to find adventures; adventures can be found anywhere. It was more of a case of not knowing what else to do. I knew I didn't want to study yet, homecare work didn't challenge me and I had nowhere really to live (I love you mum and dad, but Buckfastleigh?). I guess my main goal was to get some work experience and skip winter while I was at it. So off I head...