After a very emotional farewell to Charlie at Bangkok Airport, feeling very lost and lonely I boarded my flight to Nairobi. On arrival in Africa I was met by a driver who took me to Fairview hotel where I was looked after by family friends the Szlapaks, who are the owners of this very impressive oasis in Nairobi with incredible facilities. I was taken into their appartment and given a key-card which gave me access to the entire hotel, this provided me with luxuries that I had not encountered in a very long time! I made use of the gym and pool as well as other facilities. After 2 days of this I was picked up by Jeremy and taken to their home in Karen where I was met by Mel Mellows and a different Charlie who was visiting Jeremy. Shortly after arrival we headed up the Ngong hills with a bottle of wine to witness the sunset over Nairobi game park. This was my first real taste of Africa's beauty. The following day I was woken up very early by a very excited Charlie bearing a cup of tea, informing me I had to get up so we could go to the Nairobi elephant sanctuary. With Jeremy at work the 2 of us headed to the sanctuary where young elephants from the wild who have lost their parents are taken and looked after in the hope of being re-released back into the wild. This was a very nice experience and Charlie and I were very tempted to team up and foster one of the baby elephants; but unfortunately our budgets did not allow us. The next day I was again woken up early by Charlie who was desperate to maximise every second of his time in Africa, we headed off to a local golf course for a round of 18 holes before being met by Jeremy and returning to find Lauren and Will Mellows were home. That evening we went out in Nairobi.... that is about all I can remember. The next day I was not woken up early by Charlie as we all felt a bit fragile, we had a relaxed day and I was able to have a good catch up with Lauren about school and other things. That night we ordered pizza and watched 'The Last Samurai' before falling asleep. On my last day with the Mellows my cousin Lara arrived in time for a nice bbq which I knew would be my last decent meal for a long time. I knew I was going to miss the generosity, homely feel, and Mel's home cooking. That evening Jeremy, Charlie, and Lauren dropped us off at Karen Camp for our last night before starting our 7 week south-bound overland tour to Capetown. Very anxious we said our goodbyes Charlie cried and we had dinner before retiring to our rooms excited for the start of our trip. Up early the next day we boarded the truck and met our fellow passengers, who consisted of 4 female Chilean engineers, an American couple Catherine and Brian from Boston, a Scottish teacher called Angie from Inverness, an unkempt Englishman Nick who had a story for everything, and our 22 year old Aussie driver Matt. The truck is a huge metal tin on wheels with open windows, which feels every single bump in the road throwing you around like a rag doll. Our first drive took us south to Tanzania, driving a long I had my head fixated on the passing scenery, and the screaming children waving at the 'mizungus' (white people) as we went passed. Our first night at camp in Arusha, we erected our tents and had our dinner of spaghetti carbonarra cooked by Matt whilst listening to elaborate tall tales from Nick. The first night in the tent was very comfortable until we were woken abruptly by the 'call to prayer' at about 4am something we were going to have to get used to fast. The following day we were collected in safari jeep by our guide Frank who would take care of us for the next few days in the Serengeti Park and Ngrogoro crater. After a long drive we reached the crater which was an incredible sight. We swiftly moved on to the Serengeti to start our game drive, on that first day we saw 4 of the big 5 (elephant, lion, leopard, buffalo) aswell as giraffes, wilder beast, wart hogs, zebra, hyena, gazelle, impala, hippos, ostrich, baboons, mongoose, jackyls and more. We pitched tent at a camp in the park and had an early night because we were up early for another game drive the next day. That night we were woken by Hyenas cackling in our camp site. The next day we continued on through the park where we saw lots more animals and a female lion unsuccessfully stalking some wilder beast. That night we spent at the Ngorogoro crater where we were joined by elephants in the camp during the evening. After a nice dinner around the fire we went to sleep, however I was woken by a panicking Catherine who was distressed, I quickly got up and out of the tent to see if she was ok when she informed me that there were animals outside the tents... luckily for me the bush pigs had left by this point. Early next morning we headed down into the enormous crater where we saw a huge amount of animals, in addition we saw; a rhino (number 5 in the big 5) flamingoes. We also witnessed a pride of lions surround a buffalo in a water hole, the stand-off lasted about 20 minutes at which time we had separated into teams, I was the only member of team lion and all the others favoured the buffalo and in the end team buffalo won as he ran away before the lazy lions managed to do anything. After the drive we headed back to Arusha where we said farewell to Nick :) and unfortunately the nice American couple. From Arusha we drove to Dar Es Salaam which is on the coast and we stayed at a nice campsite on the beach, we arrived quite late and had a swim and dinner before going to bed. On the 1st of April we got the boat over to Zanzibar where we were greeted, taken for lunch and then went off to do a spice tour (best $20 I have ever spent). A very nice guide took us around the spice plantation showing us all different spices and what they were used for, the girls were made hats, bags, rings, necklaces and glasses and I was made a hat and a tie all from leaves. To end the tour we watched a boy climb a palm tree to retrieve coconuts for us to drink. We were then given all sorts of fresh fruits before being shipped off to the North of the island where we stayed at a hostel on the beach. That night the 7 of us had a nice dinner and a few drinks before going to bed. The next few days consisted of relaxing on the beach and getting badgered by beach boys trying to sell anything from sunglasses to fishing trips to class A drugs. The 3rd was our last night with the Chilean girls and we all went out for a nice meal and drinks afterwards. I then carried Lara back to the hostel as she was in no fit state to walk, again something I was going to have to get used to. Next morning we drove from the North of the island to the capital 'Stonetown', this is an old slave port with rich history and interesting architecture. That evening we went to Freddy Mercury's bar for dinner. The next day Lara and I walked through the windy streets of the city before the heavens opened and we were forced back to our hotel. We then left Zanzibar and returned to Dar where we found out that due to lack of numbers we would no longer be taking the truck and camping but instead we were going in a 4x4 and upgrading to rooms and eating out for the next few weeks. After finding out this information we decided to celebrate by having a few drinks, this was an interesting night.... after a few drinks we were invited by 2 separate couples to join them on the dance floor and asked which rooms we were staying in, next the wife of the owner was seen stripping off and wading into the sea to meet a mystery man (not the owner) who was equally lacking in the clothing department. Whether there was a swingers convention at this particular campsite we will never know but it truly was an experience to remember. After spending the next day nursing a hangover we prepared to set off in the 4x4 the following day, however there was a slight glitch when we woke to find that someone had broken into Matt's room and stolen everything. After a few hours we were back on the road headed for Malawi, we stopped to have lunch in what used to be a town hall which had portraits of various African icons consisting of Nelson Mandela, Barack Obama, Oprah Winfrey, Martin Luther King jr., and David Beckham..... after lunch we crossed the border and shortly arrived at Chitimba which is a small village on the shores of Lake Malawi. That night I sat out for a few hours under the most incredible stars I had ever seen with Venus also visible. We woke the next morning, had breakfast and headed on a tour of the local village, first stop was the secondary school which we went in and spoke with the students about what they were studying and spoke to them about everyday life in Malawi. We then were kindly invited to speak with the headmaster who invited us into his office, told us a few facts about the school and then placed the donation box on the desk. After the school we headed to see more of the village where we came across a few old men drinking what they called wine, they forced me to sit inbetween them as they fought over speaking to me about football and other manly things, they let me drink wine and offered to put me up for the night but I politely refused. We then had a wood carving workshop with the chief of the village and his 3 wives, this was a long and tiring process in which we attempted to turn blocks of wood into animals. Next we were taken to the witch doctor, who made us dance with him and then told our futures and told us things that had occured in our past which were all accurate. After a long and tiring day we returned to our rooms. Leaving the next morning we headed on a beautiful drive with amazing views of the lake, until we came to a game park were we were lucky enough to see pygmy elephants (small elephants) before arriving at a very nice swiss owned hotel. This was the first time we I had seen a tv in a long time and luckily coincided with Man City v Arsenal, this was a very sad day. Next we headed to Kande beach which is also on the shores of the lake where we spent 3 days, unfortunately the weather was not great and most of the time was spent swimming, drinking, or reading. I confess I am guilty of succumbing to probably an African tourists biggest cliche of reading Nelson Mandela's autobiography bringing my life time book tally to 4. After a few days relaxing in Kande we drove to Zambia and a place called South Luanga were we stayed at an idyllic campsite right on the river, here we could see lots of hippos in the river and on the other side of river contained a game park. The next day we went on a night drive in the game park where we saw a pride of lions hunting and a rare spotting of a Genet (essentially a small leopard), this drive was one of the highlights and allowed us to see more of the nocturnal creatures and gather a feel of what happens in the wild at night. The next day we travelled to the capital of Zambia, Lusaka where we came across KFC which is also a highlight of my time in Africa. From Lusaka we drove to Livingstone which is home to the famous Victoria Falls. This was the location for the changing of the guard where we had to say farewell to our driver Matt who passed us over to Bristolian biker Tim who would take us the rest of the way. We treated Matt to a take-away pizza before sadly waving Matt and his new passengers off. At Livingstone we stayed at 'Grubbys grotto' which was owned by a small New Zealander who resembled a hobbit. He had just provided the venue for an overland driver's reunion, some of which were still at the grotto. These people we came to know and love in the next few days, Kruney - a very friendly drunk Zimbabwean, Lit - a skinny old South African man who drank vodka coke from sunrise to sunrise and had the same conversation with you at least 4 times a day, and a couple consisting of Jan who looked after all of us and her angry husband Brian who was wheel chair bound after an truck accident. Day 2 in Livingstone we went jet boating on the Zambezi river, which was the next best alternative as the river was too high for white water rafting but turned out to be well worth it. Day 3 Lara and I went to the falls, I did the 134 metre bungee jump off the bridge which is the same jump at which the bungee chord snapped sending the Australian girl into the river, but I survived unscathed. We then went to see the falls which were breath taking, the spectacle, noise and sheer volume of water is unbelievable not to mention getting absolutely soaked! Straight from the falls we headed to the river for our cultural booze cruise along the Zambezi on which we saw elephants, hippos, and crocodiles. We met 6 girls who had just completed studying medicine at Nottingham University. At the end of the cruise I was for some reason put in charge of wheeling Brian back to the car, after getting a bit of momentum going Brian encouraged me to go faster and stupidly I obliged and ended up wheeling him at a considerable pace before the wheel of his chair collided with a tree root catapulting Brian out of his chair only to face-plant the floor which covered his face in mud and broke his glasses... luckily he was unharmed and I handed over my roll as head wheelchair driver. Some of us went back to the hostel where the girls were staying and after a few hours we decided to go into Livingstone to experience the night life. We found a 'club' which we went into and soon found we were the only white people in the entire facility, regardless we made the most of the terrible music and tried to ignore the various prostitutes wearing interesting outfits but ending up having quite an enjoyable night. The next day I discovered that my memory card was no longer working which means that all pictures taken so far in Africa had been lost. That night a big barbecue was put on for Jan's birthday which attracted more interesting creatures from the deeps to join us for dinner. On the 23rd we left Livingstone and headed to Botswana where we spent our first night in Chobi just outside of the park. Now we were back on the truck, in tents and cooking our own food. The next day we drove to Maun where we met the new member of our trip Sandro who is a 26 year old Swiss university graduate. From Maun we prepared for the next few days which would be spent in the Okavango delta.

On the 25th we were driven to the delta, where we were met by our poler (person who uses pole to manouvre makoro (type of canoe)) Roger. We loaded up the makoros with our food, tents, sleeping matts and ventured into the delta. After a few hours we arrived at our campsite where we made a fire and a cup of tea and pitched our tents. We then went for another ride where we saw hippos. On returning to camp we had a swim and I tried my hand at poling with little success. That evening we went on a bush walk and saw the sunset over the delta, we then returned to camp and cooked dinner before heading to anoter camp where the polers but on a singing/dancing performance which we were encouraged to join in. The next day Angie and I were up at 5 for a morning bush walk, we walked for a few hours crossing parts of the estuaries before circling back to the camp were again we spent the day relaxing (this time my poling had greatly improved) before heading for a sunset makoro ride. Next to the water we saw a family of elephants and also saw a stampede of zebras. We returned to camp to cook our dinner and roasted marshmellows over the fire, the following morning only Roger and I managed to be up for the morning bush walk which turned into us stalking hyena, we tracked their prints and sprinted trough the bush to try and find them, we managed a couple of glances before it managed to evade us. We also saw porcupines and reed bucks. On arrival back at camp we found tents and everything packed and sadly we left the delta and returned back to Maun to meet back with Tim and Sandro. Our next drive day took us across the border into Namibia and to a town called Divundu, from Divundu we drove to Grootfontein and whitnessed the worlds largest meteor at its impact site. From here we drove to Etosha national park, we drove to several water holes to see all sorts of animals coming together and drinking from the same source, we then went to the campsite where my mood turned from very happy to outrage when I found that the camp had no tv meaning I could not watch the Manchester derby. Instead I had to make do with a watering hole next to the camp which is floodlit at night where animals, especially carnivores can be seen at night. Wrapped up in my sleeping bag I lay there anxiously waiting for my brother to text me what was happening, I dont know whether it was my cheers as Man City won the game or the enormous flood lights but no animals were to be seen, I was last man standing as I waited for predators to come but it was in vain, I fell asleep to be woken by a ranger advising I return to my tent as a leopard was spotted in the camp and the dreaded honey badgers were around. The next morning we continured our game drive where we saw 5 lioness's and a black rhino. We continued to Kamanjab where we arrived at 'Cheetah park' we first went to the farm where cheetahs had been rescued and brought up by the owners so we got to pet the cheetahs, unlike the tigers in Chiangmai these were not sedated and there was no chance of spooning them. We then got driven out to where the wild cheetahs lived and unloaded a barrel of meat which attracted the cheetahs which came and fought over the meat. That evening I started to feel ill but I returned to camp and togeter with cooking partner Angie put together a very sub-standard beef stroganoff. The next day feeling a bit rough we got up, packed tents and headed to Spitzkoppe (Afrikans for pointed hills) where we set camp in the middle of these amazing rock features with nobody in sight, Sandro and I climbed one of the pointed hills to enjoy sunset before returning to camp for Tim's delicacy of 'chicken with a beer can up its ass' which was easily the best meal I had tasted since being on the trip. The next day I planned to get up early to climb a rock for sunrise but there was no chance of this. Instead I lay in my tent feeling sorry for myself before boarding the truck once again for the short ride to Swakopmund. On arrival I headed to the doctor who diagnosed me with sinusitus and more so put me on a double dose of antibiotics and ordered me to rest. The first night we were all supposed to go out for dinner for a 'game platter' including various types of game meat including oryx and kudu but unfortunately I had to let the team down and stay in. The following day Lara and I went for a walk down to the sea and along the pier aswell as to the lighthouse. We then came back to the hostel to chill out and I retired for an early night. The following day (today) I got up early, put on a brave face and headed down to the sand dunes for a 2 hour quadbike over the dunes. Luckily I was the only person so had my own private tour which took us all around the dunesand up to the highest dune in the area which gave a stunning view of Swakopmund, the sea and the rest of the dunes. I am now sat on the sofa in the hostel in a bad mood (probably why this entry lacks entusiasm) whilst the others are all off having a barbecue at the sky diving club. 16 days until I am home and the time is going faster and faster. See you all shortly.