Hi Everyone,

Wow, it has been a long time since my last blog entry , reading over them I now see that I havent written since Morocco which was at least three months ago. Here I will attempt to make up for it with a very quick overview on what I have been up to.

Okay, so after my time in Morocco I headed to Portugal and then to London. While in London I caught up with the Jensen's and the Wong's (Former Maunsellites) who so kindly took me under their wings and gave me a place to stay. We visited all the main sights in London and I took the opportunity to rest up a bit before heading to my last frontier..Africa.

In early May I boarded a flight from London to Nairobi which was where my overland tour of Africa was to commence. Originally I was going on the 52 day trip but soon extended to go the full distance, 73 days.

The overland trip visted nine countries. To keep this as simple and brief as possible I will just list each country and write a little about each.

Kenya - Kenya was my first introduction to Africa and it was a great place to start. At the start of the trip we headed to Lake Barringo which was our first introduction to the African Wildlife. We stayed at a camp where you would walk 200m and see crocodiles sitting on the banks of the lake, we could also see hippos sitting in the water. At night my tent buddy Lorna and I woke to the sound of grass being ripped from the ground, after peering out the tent we seen that two hippos (the size of a small car) were wandering around close to our tents grazing on the grass, we couldnt have asked for a better start to our trip. Other highlights in Kenya were the giraffe sanctuary where we got to kiss a giraffe and the David Sheldrick elephant orphange which was amazing.

Uganda - We had a blast in Uganda, it is a country that I would love to return to one day. We went rafting on the Nile River which was really fun while at the same time being incredibly scary. The rapids were grade 1 to 6 although we only did up to the grade 5s. After the boat was flipped on one of them I though I was going to drown. We also has a massive night in Jinja which was great fun although if I started to write about it, it would probably take me and hour to finish so I will leave it at that for Uganda.

Rwanda - Ahh Rwanda, the place where I find myself now (I have returned to do some volunteer work). We only had a few days in Rwanda on our trip but one of those days is right up there with the best. It started with trekking the Mountain Gorillas in the morning which was incredible and then visiting a local school (PREFER Pre School) run by a lady by the name of Cathy Emmerson. That night we had dinner and drinks in what seemed like somebodys backyard and watched a drumming and dancing display. It was a really good day, I enjoyed the school so much that I am back there now to do a month of volunteering work.

Tanzania - What can I say about Tanzania it is an amazing country, we spent a fair bit of time in Tanzania visting the game parks and the island called Zanzibar which was another trip highlight. The Masai Mara (not sure if it was Kenya or Tanzania) was absolutely incredible it sounds a little stupid but the sky there is one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen, you need to see the photos to understand.

Malawi - Malawi was a blast, the wood carvings there are amazing (I bought far to much stuff). We spent a fair bit of time in Malawai although most of it was spent relaxing by the massive Lake Malawi in Kande Beach. The people in Malawi would have to be the friendliest in Africa, they all have english friendly names like Mr Elephant and James Bond...which makes remembering them much easier.

Zambia - Livingstone was also great fun, although I cant really recall how I spent most of my time there. Oh thats right, one of the days spent there, myslef and one of the other girls Vikki went to a place on the edge of a gorge where they had a gorge swing, flying fox and abseiling. They were all great fun, the gorge swing I thought was scarier than a bungy jump and the head first abseiling was 10 times worse then anything I has ever done!!A few of us also took a microlight flight over Vic Falls which was amazing, I had no idea that the falls were that big.

Botswana -Chobe National Park was the best park we visited in terms of wildlife viewing. The game drive was undertaken from a barge that cruised along the river getting us really close to all the wildlife (particulary the elephants). We even got to see elephants swimming which was really impressive. The Okavango Delta was a pretty big disappointment, we seen b***** all on our game walks and had nothing to do during the day, other than paddle the makoros (dug out canoes) around. Alot of time was spent soaking up the sun while reading a book.

Namibia - One of my favourite countries. Most of our time was spent in a place called Swapkomund which was an old town with alot of German Influence. This is the place to go if your looking for variety in the landscape and lots of adventure activities. As you drive through Namibia the scenery is contantly changing from rocky outcrops to vast plains to massive dunes - it is really impressive. We visited the biggest seal colony I have ever seen while there which was cool. The highlights for me in Namibia were the sandboarding and quadbiking and also the visit to a cheetah farm where they rear the animals from a young age so that you can pat them and watch them eat, it was really cool.

South Africa - I could write pleny about South Africa but I dont have the time. I spent my first week there in Cape Town which is a pretty cool place with plenty to do although the weather wasnt great so that held us back a bit. While in Cape Town we visted Roben Island, a township called Langa, and also did a tour of the Cape Penninsula. I also went cage diving with the great white sharks which was incredible. Alot of our nights were spent drinking wine and eating at resturants. We also went and seen a few movies as its cost around $4, about the same it is to hire a DVD from a shop in OZ. After the last of the tour group had departed I headed up the east coast. When in Plettenberg Bay I went skydiving which can only be described as the ultimate rush (something that everyone should experience at least once) and then wnet to Jeffreys Bay where I did a fair bit of shopping as the surf clothing is really cheap. I then spent a few nights on the wild coast just chilling out and eventually made it to Jo'burg to catch my flight out to Rwanda.

So that is where I'm at now. I have been here for three days and are having an absolute blast. At the moment there is two other volunteers here but in the next few weeks we have a heap of people coming to help with the construction of a building which will be used as the school, its going to be a very busy time. The kids are amazing, we basically help out with the pre-schoolers and some of the older kids by feeding them, keeping them entertained, and preventing chaos, it has been great. The other day all the kids were all given uniforms, they all look very smart in their new kits. I have plenty of photos so you will see them when I get home. Cathy and Teste (the main people running the program) have been amazing, its also been great hanging out with them getting a feel for the local culture. I am looking forward to my next three weeks here.

After I finish in Rwanda I am returning to Oz to spend some quality time with the folks. I expect to be back in Mlebourme some time in October.

It's been a great adventure and I've had a blast. Apologies for the very delayed posting of my blogs and also for the tardiness of this particular one, its difficult to sum up three months of travelling in so few words (and time).

Hope to see you all soon

Mandy xxx