Our Final Blog

Welcome to our 100^th and final blog.

Amazingly we’ve had nearly 10,000 ‘hits’ so thank you to everyone who’s read any of our blogs and a massive thank you to anyone who’s read all 100. We’ve attempted to relay our experiences both good and bad whilst making it entertaining yet still capturing the spirit of adventure.

After all the months of planning, research and saving our only objectives were to stay safe plus keep fit and healthy. We knew that if we could accomplish these then our 9 months away would be a total success. We did and it was.

In fact we feel so well that if someone could send us a wedge of money we’d carry on for another 9 months without hesitation. Unfortunately we’re not ready to come home but our time is up and we’re excited about catching up with everybody again. We realise how hard it’s going to be but no matter how difficult it is, its been worth it.

Secretly we’re very proud of our achievement and despite it being a ‘holiday’ its not as easy as it may sound when reading the blog.

A special thank you to Vanessa’s mum and Gary for using their valuable time off to fly to Bolivia and meet up with us for what was one of the highlights of our whole trip.

With mixed feelings its time to sign off and return to an English summer.
 

TRIP SUMMARY

TIME SPENT AWAY:  9 months

CONTINENTS VISITED:   4 - The Americas (6 months), Asia (10 weeks), Africa (25 days), Australasia (3 days)

COUNTRIES VISITED:  15 – Thailand (7 weeks), Bolivia (4 weeks), Namibia (25 days), USA (25 days), Guatemala (24 days), Burma (16 days), Nicaragua (14 days), Panama (14 days),  Peru (14 days), Argentina (14 days), Colombia (11 days), Chile (11 days), Belize (8 days), Costa Rica (8 days), Australia (3 days).

LONGEST STAY IN ONE PLACE:  11 nights at Haad Salad Villa on Koh Pha-Ngan (Thailand)

FAVOURITE COUNTRIES:   Guatemala, Peru, Burma and Namibia (although Thailand and the USA never disappoint)

MOST DISAPPOINTING COUNTRY:  Panama

MOST DISAPPOINTING PLACES:  Panama City (Panama), Koh Phayam (Thailand), Mendoza (Argentina), Granada (Nicaragua)

INDIVIDUAL HIGHLIGHTS:   pools and caves at Semuc Champey (Guatemala), Macchu Picchu (Peru), Santa Catalina Monastery (Arequipa, Peru), riding on the back of a Harley Davidson (South Carolina, USA), Uyuni salt flats with Vanessa’s mum and Gary (Bolivia), Inle Lake (Burma), earthquake in Antigua (Guatemala), flooding in The Atacama Desert (Chile), driving a red Ford Mustang (USA), snorkelling with sharks and stingrays (Belize), flying over the Nazca lines (Peru), eating Thai curries on the beach (Thailand), Koh Kham beach (Thailand), Panama Canal (Panama), Angthong National Park (Thailand), The Spotted Cat jazz bar (New Orleans), watching hummingbirds in Minca (Colombia), Vanessa’s Sydney Harbour Bridge climb (Australia), Vanessa performing with street artist (New Orleans), staying with Al and Cathi (Charleston, USA), the thousands of temples in Bagan (Burma), floating in the bath-like sea whilst listening to the Red Hot Chili Peppers (Koh Pha-Ngan, Thailand), self-drive safari in Etosha National Park (Namibia), the towering sand dunes in Sossusvlei (Namibia), the ghost town of Kolmanskop (Namibia)

BEST FOOD:  Green curry in Thailand, Jambalaya in New Orleans, sticky rice with mango in Thailand, oryx steak with monkey gland sauce in Namibia

WORST FOOD:  Everything in Panama City

BEST PLACE NAMES:  Ollaytaytambo (Peru), Bat Cave (USA), Lake Titicaca (Bolivia), Duck (USA), Ai-Ais (Namibia)

HOTTEST PLACE:  Bagan (Myanmar)

COLDEST PLACE:  Copacabana (Bolivia)

MOST EXPENSIVE COUNTRIES: Chile and Australia

CHEAPEST COUNTRIES: Thailand and Bolivia

 

 

Namibia....Reflections

Our Toyota after covering 3500 miles of Namibian roads!

What a fantastic way to end our nine month trip. We had high hopes for Namibia but we wondered if the pending return to an English summer would spoil things but it completely exceeded all our expectations and we barely gave home a thought. Until now.

Our little Toyota Corolla barely stayed in one piece as we covered more than 3500 miles, two thirds of it on un-tarred gravel roads which at times was more than a little hairy. The last leg was from the Atlantic town of Luderitz to Fish River Canyon, the second largest canyon in the world. We stayed one night there in the wonderfully named town of Ai-Ais in a bungalow about twice the size of our house!

In fact all the accommodation here has been extraordinarily good. A far cry from some of the hovels we’ve endured since our trip began. The food too has been way above what we expected, especially the meat.  In particular the poor little oryx which Vanessa wasn’t overly pleased about me sampling but Namibia does have marmite and some cheap South African red wine so everyone was happy!

Back in the capital, Windhoek for our last few days to collect our thoughts, our clean washing and to catch the last of the warm African sunshine before returning home.

Namibia has undoubtedly been one of the highlights of our whole trip. With deserted roads, great food and accommodation, wall to wall  sunshine and some of the most spectacular scenery and game viewing, we just couldn’t go wrong. All this in a country that remains very poor, struggles with high unemployment and where life expectancy is around 50 due to their continuing battle with AIDS, TB and malaria. Somehow it remains stable and a safe place to visit with the friendliest of people.

TIME SPENT:   25 days

TRANSPORT:  1 flight, 6 taxis, 1 hire car

NUMBER OF PLACES WE STAYED:  10 (2 guest houses, 7 lodges, 1 hotel)

FAVOURITE EATERY:  Barrells in Luderitz

WILDLIFE SPOTTED:  monkeys, warthogs, babboons, mongooses, oryx, black rhinos, elephants, giraffes, leopard, impalas, kudu, ostriches, zebras, wildebeasts (gnu), hartebeests, lion, springboks, seals, flamingos, penguins and the tiny antelope…..the dimara dik-dik

TOURS TAKEN:  20 day self drive

BEST VALUE FOR MONEY:  South African red wine

 

Namibia Images

Aaaahhhh!!

Rhino tries the new kudu toothpick!

Eric & Ernie in Etosha

Nelly.....

Oryx aghast at excited elephant!!

Sunrise in Etosha

Family from the Himba tribe

Cape Cross seal colony

Vanessa at Dead Pan, Sossusvlei

Sossusvlei

Ghost town of Kolmanskop

Our desert lodge at Sossusvlei

Quiver tree found only in Southern Namibia

The massive Fish Canyon

The ghost town of Kolmanskop

Sossusvlei

The towering sand dunes of Sossusvlei

 As we left Swakopmund on Namibia's west coast, the cold grey mist continued to engulf the town until we thankfully reached the desert once again. Our next stop was the spectacular scenery of Sossusvlei which no amount of reading or research can prepare you for.

 Dune 45, more spectacular than its name.

Our accommodation was in a stunning location, isolated in a beautiful valley surrounded by rugged mountains but it’s the sand dunes that are the big attraction and sunrise is the time to witness their splendour when the colours are at their most vivid. It has to be one of the most beautiful places we’ve ever seen as these towering orange dunes rise 350m from the valley floor. Climbing what looks like a razor edge from the base is a fantastic experience and running down the steep sides is even better. Throw in some white dried up lakes and some old twisted  trees with the dunes as a backdrop and you’ve got yourself a surreal landscape which we stared at for hours and ran the camera batteries out.

Reluctantly we had to leave this wonderful place and it was a spectacular but long six hour drive south to the German coastal town of Luderitz, our base for the next two nights. Not only does it sound like a concentration camp, it was back in the cold grey cloud and our hotel, despite being a 4 star was clinical and cold. There was a certain irony that just a few hours previous our breath had been taken away by Sossusvlei’s scenery and now our breath was being taken away by the life draining out of us.

The ghost town of Kolmanskop

However, Luderitz does have a trump card. It’s the surreal ghost town nearby called Kolmanskop. A former diamond mining town which had a hospital, swimming pool and even a theatre but by the mid 1950’s with the discovery of more diamonds further south it began to lose its importance and eventually it was abandoned to the shifting desert sands. Today it’s a ghostly and bleak setting but fascinating to see such a prominent place slowly being eroded away and engulfed by the wind ravaged desert.

Zebra Crossing

It was a case of true love as Vanessa came down with the same toe infection as me so it was another visit to the doctor before we could finally leave Windhoek and head off into the Namibian sunset in our Toyota Corolla.



 

Always check your mirror!

A three hour journey north on the excellent and virtually traffic-free roads to our first stop, Waterberg Plateau. We made the 200m climb to the top of the plateau look like a couple of geriatrics carrying two bags of heavy shopping as we hobbled up and limped back down whilst avoiding the warthogs and babboons along the way.

Next stop was the magnificent Etosha game reserve, one of the largest in Africa covering a massive 25,000 square miles. Our home for four nights, sleeping with the wildlife and uniquely being able to complete your own self drive safari with just one instruction, ‘do not get out of your  car!

Just a few kilometres inside the park Vanessa yelled, ‘giraffes’ and from that moment we were hooked. We set off the next day at 6am in the early morning chill and immediately spotted a black rhino and then a family of elephants that crossed the road in front of us after we backed the car up a little. From then on we saw countless kudu, zebra, ostrich, impala, hyena, hartebeast, oryx, giraffe and elephant herds of 60 or more.

The original zebra crossing

As well as the hot and sunny days, the real beauty of Etosha is the floodlit waterholes near the lodges which after dark you can just sit and watch more wildlife come to you. It was on the first evening that we got the cream as a leopard suddenly appeared and strolled down for a nightcap but the lions continued to elude us.

If there’s a lull at the waterhole then it’s a case of simply sliding down on your seat and look up at the clearest of skies and stare in amazement at the staggering number of brilliant stars and the milky way. It’s a magical place.

We took our customary walk down to the waterhole on our final morning before our 5.30am breakfast and to our astonishment, matching us stride for stride was a lion just a few hundreds from our front door.

Content, and with all our limbs intact, we drove south for hours across the seemingly never ending Namib Desert until it dramatically meets the Atlantic Ocean at the town of Swakopmund. With our whole trip nearly complete we suddenly ended up in the strangest and most luxurious accommodation to date, a guest house called ‘The Alternative Space’. Our room was a space, 60 foot long with with white curved walls covered in nude pictures which we suddenly realised was the German owner!

The town itself was a baffling place. The weather had changed to misty, grey, and about 14C and as we sat on the seafront drinking tea and eating chips we felt like we’d been transported home early to Weymouth. It couldn’t have been more British and it was difficult to believe that we were still in Africa.

We had just enough time to drive along the coast to visit a colossal colony of more than 100,000 seals. Their continous cacophony of throaty sounds reminded us of the plane full of Chinese on our flight from Bangkok. Luckily we left with a free souvenir, the overwhelming odour of seal that stuck beautifully to our already soiled clothes.

A Taste of Africa

Thailand...signing off

It was already a massive wrench for us to leave our paradise in Thailand but it was made worse by the thought of enduring our longest period of travelling so far. From Bangkok we had 30 hours ahead of us including three international flights. Firstly three hours to Hong Kong and then a 13 hour overnight flight with a plane full of disgusting throat clearing Chinese to Johannesburg and finally two hours to Namibia situated on the south west coast of Africa. Despite this still being a massive part of our trip its tinged with mixed feelings as sadly it means we are on our final leg, our final country and the final few weeks of our nine month trip.

Thailand had been a wonderful experience from start to finish but it did have a sting in its tail or more like a sting in its toes. Our first taste of Africa was the inside of a doctor’s surgery! We emerged a mere £60 lighter but armed with magic potions and a course of antibiotics for a pathetic and painful toe infection which must have come from a bite whilst wallowing for hours in the bath-like sea for the past few weeks. So, fully deserved I suppose.

Even limping around the city of Windhoek didn’t take very long as its not the sort of African capital you would probably envisage. Its small and quiet but very clean and modern with excellent traffic free roads plus a good choice of cafes and restaurants.

Luckily we’re staying in a gorgeous little guest house with a pool, ideal for putting your feet up which spookily enough was just was what the doctor ordered. It’s winter here now which means the days are dry, hot and sunny but with chilly desert nights.

In a day or so we collect our hire car and venture off for a couple of weeks to explore the country’s deserts, dramatic Atlantic coastline, monumental sand dunes, bizarre German towns from its colonnial past and one of Africa’s greatest wildlife reserves, Etosha National Park.

 

Thailand Images

Haad Yao, Koh Pha-Ngan

Local fishermen, Koh Pha-Ngan

Life in Thailand

Tonight's fish curry

Down to the beach for sunset

Marsh gecko

Red snapper supper

Nice hats!

Sunset on Koh Pha-Ngan

Vanessa with some spare time

Not a bad view from our beach bungalow

Squid drying in the sun

Thailand....Reflections

Life on Koh Pha-Ngan

Seven fabulous weeks in total spent in Thailand which included four different islands and four visits to our new Asian home from home, Bangkok, interrupted only by our two week trip to Burma.

The ‘land of smiles’ didn’t disappoint apart from the strange island of Koh Phayam where we stumbled upon the the rudest people of our whole trip so far. So unpleasant were they that it actually became funny to witness in the end.

The food has been continuously delicious which has been gratefully accepted after mostly poor to mediocre food all the way through Central and South America.

For the final few days of our two week stay on Koh Pha-Ngan before heading back to Bangkok for the final time we decided to treat ourselves to a beachfront bungalow, a bottle of red wine to help us view our last Thai sunset and a Thai massage. The sound of the sea gently lapping in time to the cracking of bones made it my first and most definitely my last.

It’s been a fabulous period of our trip where we’ve had the chance to do next to nothing for next to nothing apart from read, swim and enjoy the food. We’ll be sorry to leave especially as we enter our final month and our final country, Namibia, before heading home.

TIME SPENT:   7 weeks

TRANSPORT:   2 planes, 18 trains, 6 undergrounds, 3 buses, 1 overnight bus, 3 minibuses, 6 ferries, 2 tuk-tuks, 13 taxis, 4 speedboats, 5 mopeds, 2 motorbike taxis, 2 kayaks

NUMBER OF PLACES WE STAYED:  8 (1 hostel, 5 beach bungalows, 1 backpackers, 2 hotels)

FAVOURITE EATERY:  Aimmy Restaurant on Koh Mak

WILDLIFE SPOTTED: geckos, snake

TOURS TAKEN:  Angthong National Park

BEST VALUE FOR MONEY:  Thailand!!

 

Full Moon

The stunning Angthong National Park

There couldn't have been a greater contrast between our new home for the next couple of weeks, the island of Koh Pha-Ngan in the Gulf of Thailand, compared to Koh Phayam in the Andaman Sea. Here the sun shines, the water is like a bath and the people are friendly. In fact it's sheer bliss.

As the ferry docked we were a little nervous as the island holds the infamous full moon party where up to 75,000 revellers in the high season paint themselves in neon paint and then continue to lose their minds, literally. The Thais are a pretty shrewd bunch though as they soon realised that full moon comes around far too infrequently so they've introduced a half moon party and of course, a black moon party.

Paul on one of the Angthong islands

We were confident we'd find somewhere perfect for us though. And we did. A cosy hut on Salad beach where ironically nothing but curry passed our lips and the owners had a pet dog called Baguette which we didn’t know whether to stroke or choose off the menu. Set on a tranquil bay with turquoise waters and a good selection of eateries the order of the day was pretty simple. A swim before a leisurely breakfast, several more swims, sit in the sea to watch the sunset and then choose a location to consume more delicious Thai calories in the evening.

Reading has become the novel pastime as the last time I read a book was 18 years ago but book number four is now being thumbed through. After Vanessa's read them first of course.

Our busy schedule has been rudely interrupted a couple of times however. Firstly by us deciding to grab a moped for the obligatory look around this tropical island to confirm that we'd chosen pretty well and had no desire to move. Only Hat Rin beach where they hold the full moon party was more picturesque but only if you can ignore the smell of kerosene and the discarded bottles of just about everything. Secondly, a day trip to the stunning Angthong National Park. A string of 40 or so jungle cloaked islands with hidden emerald lagoons and perfect white sand beaches that rise out of the calm blue waters. An arduous 500m climb rewarded us with a spectacular view and aching limbs for a few days after.

The full moon shone brightly as the party-goers donned their neon body paint, fluorescent shorts, vest tops and headbands and ventured off looking really cool and original, or so they thought. Looked more like a very bad 80’s Wham video.

 

 

Burma Images

Traditional weaving, Inle Lake

Life on Inle Lake

Farmer at Inle Lake

Leg-rowing fisherman on Inle Lake

Old Burmese lady

Traditional face painting and sun protection

Bagan

Schwedagon Temple, Yangon

Schwedagon Temple, Yangon

The Prawn Lady, Mandalay

The eyes have it.

The teak U-Bein Bridge

Life on the Irrawaddy river

Ethnic ladies of Shan state

Dyed cotton drying in the sun, Inle Lake