The 1000 Day Holiday

Spent this morning Sandboarding the dunes around walvis bay with Julia. Helped by a trusty quad bike to make the jaunt to the top stress free. It rode very much like heavy powder.

Great day, pics are up

Also popped past the lagoon where speed week is on. This is a week long event for kite surfers and windsurfers trying to break the speed record. Currently for a kite being ~77km/h over a 500m course.

However they haven’t had any wind at all 🙁 so no kiting, and no watching insane speed kiting either.

Windhoek doesnt look like africa at all. Very western looking.

Kinda reinforcing an idea i heard a few weeks ago. If youre going to travel africa. Go from north to south. His reason was racial. People being scared of the “locals” for most of their trip. And the further south you go the more crime.

The backpackers here has signs up eveywhere saying do not take a bag with you to town, as everyone will know youre a tourist. and youll get mugged at knifepoint!

Not to worry about me tho. Today I have a chopper moustache, wife beater singlet and $4 sunnies I bought on the street. No one would mess with me!

Well that was 2 different trucks that I hitch hiked on in Botswana.

The first truck driver spotted me on the Zambian side of the border and told me to find him on the other side. Hanging out waiting for his papers to be completed turned into 4 hours. And then he couldn’t find the last page of the paperwork.

During this time he had explained the noises coming from under his bed. He was smuggling birds from the Congo. In the end he was stuck at the border, and I cut my losses around 4pm.

The driver of the next truck to pick me up was downing the beers. Didnt seem to matter too much as it was a 300km straight road, Although once it was dark we did fly past a elephant seriously close to the road.. hmm.

ended up stuck at a vet/foot n mouth control point in the middle of the desert as the trucks arent allowed to drive after 6pm. So it looked like i was spending the night in the open.

The police on the post took an interest in me, told me to sit with them and have a chat and they’ll sort a ride out for me. All the other hitch hikers booted off the trucks were swamping the few cars coming thru the checkpoint.

After an hour or so a very flash and new looking car pulled up to the check point. The cops said this would be my ride so grab my bags. It turned out to be a government car. He took me to the town of Nata 50km away where the N-S & W-E roads meet. A town comprising of gas stations w attached bottleshops and diners.

He even arranged a motel for me. Told me to lock the door, and watch the satellite TV. Turned out that the satellite TV was only the 7 free to air GOD channels.

Then on the way from Maun to Windhoek I had the pleasure of Rod Stewart, Whitney houston love ballads. It was good tho, as I covered 800km in ~10 hours. Fastest ever 🙂

Hitchhiking is king. Payment is expected tho. The going rate is a crazy $1/100km… A real bank breaker.

Wow, Yesterday body boarded and rafted the Zambezi. Was an awesome day. I thought we would be boarding the smaller rapids, however we were put thru grade 5’s on the boards. Totally awesome. The waves and holes are insanely big when looking at them from 6 inches off the water 🙂

We flipped on rapid 12b. Didnt manage to get back to the raft and got sucked under. A totally surreal experience. Couldnt tell which way was up so just had to chill out and wait for my vest to pop me up eventually.

Very peacefull, lots of pretty bubbles in brown water to look at.

Completed the day by doing a microlight flight over the falls. Seeing a croc launch into the water was super cool/spooky how fast it disappeared.

Tomorrow Im heading into Botswana towards the Okovango Delta.

Headed from Salima to Zambia, only to realise at the border town I hadn’t tried all the beers in Malawi.

So I stopped in Mchinji, Had a carlsberg Stout. and a 1L carton of beer called Shake Shake.

Its a lovely maize beer with lots of floaty bitys, milk products and all for the grand price of 50cents.

Now in Chipata in Zambia.. woot more new beers to try.

Popped thru these places.

Kandy was an overland truck version of nhakata bay. so everyone was in their cliques. However had a good beach, if only it had more wind for kitesurfing.

Salima was just a place to sleep 🙂 met a cool local guy tho. ohhh.  and Im addicted to Nali. Chilli sauce that comes in lots of different flavours…  yummy!

Spent the last few days hanging out on lake malawi. Nkhata Bay mainly. Doing an advanced diving course at the moment, in preparation for the shark diving in South Africa.

Its been really cool. A great bunch of people at the lodge to hang out and talk rubbish with. The locals have really good english too. So that keeps it interesting. They all say very seriously. I must talk to you later on. All they want is my adidas & nike gear :) 

There has been some wind, so as soon as the whitecaps appear im lokking for someone with a kite/windsurfer… but none to be had. maybe further down the lake.

Will be headed inland for Zambia after this. Oh and I’m loving the $8/hr internet 🙁

To Malawi I go!

Tomorrow I head from Mbeya into Malawi. More beaches, scuba diving and such!

Hiked camp 3 trail (13km) yeaterday. Spotted the red colobus monkey (only place in the world). And inflamed my knee again. Joys.

Was a great hike, was a bit concerned when they estimate 10 hours to complete it. Thought it must be near vertical. finished in 6 hours, so not too bad.

Well apart from copious amounts of Konyagi (local gin/ethanol)

A few great days spent hanging around Kendwa Rocks & Nungwe in the north. Pristine beaches and a great crew; albeit Aussies 😛

Snorkeling the Mnemba Atoll was a bit of a let down for the coral has been damaged by dynamite and drag net fishing in the past but did see some Octopus & Moray eels up close. Still a great day out cruising on a dhow.

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Also popped over to Mtemba on the east coast. very quiet, and lots of seaweed collections for japanese consumption.

Met up w Louis again by chance. He had “fallen asleep” while getting a henna tattoo on his hands, so the lady had done all the way up his arms.

We were in Mtemba village (population about 50) trying to find somewhere to have dinner. No english is spoken here. All they can offer us is for us to buy some maize meal from the store, and then pay someone to cook it for us. We decide to pass. Then a local girl about our age starts talking to us and pointing at Louis. Having trouble working out what she is saying, another local helps out and says she wants to know if Louis is a boy or girl.

Louis looks a little confused, and then with a big grin on her face she points at the henna on his hands. Only girls who are getting married get it done. Nothing like getting paid out by a local.
Now headed back to the mainland and south towards Malawi