Where 42 Kiev, Ukraine --OR-- There is no Bad Weather, Only Bad Clothes

'There is no bad weather, only bad clothes' I was told as I arrived in snowy sub-zero Kiev with what had suddenly become a backpack of substandard garments. I did find that this was offset by volume, and so wearing an unlikely high number of layers made the weather improve significantly. However it wasn't until, after some days, when there was a sudden rise in temperature (up to zero) that I started to feel 'warm'.

I asked a local girl what Ukraine was famous for. After a moments thought she replied 'Andriy Shevchenko (footballer)... and Chernobyl !' Both expensive mistakes - one seems to have faded into just a distant memory whilst the other is still red hot and can only be visted with a Geiger counter in hand.


The Grey

- The Cloud - In India 2 years ago I remember that I only saw one cloud (in a blue sky) in 2 weeks. It is the same here, one cloud in 2 weeks, except that this single cloud is the colour of an elephant and the size of Eastern Europe, plus it is stuck right here for 2 weeks!

- Whenever I have visited ex-Soviet countries (Ukraine was part of USSR 1922-1991) I have seen the Soviet style housing i.e. grey tower blocs (sic), and as usual here they are situated some distance from the centre, across the (frozen) river. However this is the first time I have 'lived' in one. There is a dense forest of concrete blocs, a whole city 'nicely' planned out around amenities and sprouting as far as I can see. The gardener has indeed been successful. The age of each can be deduced from merely counting its floors - the oldest have only 6 whilst the new ones (yes they are still building) go up to 20. Inside the common areas the decor has disintegrated not through vandalism but just because it was never really meant to last 20 years. The not so rich are crammed in with an extended family sleeping in one room (plus kitchen and bathroom). The 'richer' may have a spare room to rent out. Either way, space is jealously guarded and the number of rooms a well boasted measure of wealth.

- Away from the spectacular Soviet monstrosities of the centrally planned centre, uniform grey men have thrown up repetitive housing blocks in their own image, or maybe this modern barracks for the people is intended to be a reflection of the featureless monotony of our favorite depressing gun metal grey cloud which dominates the country and so camoflages the housing as it merges into the freezing landscape. These central planners have seared their brand deep into the psyche of the people who reluctantly but obediently buy into it.

- The sun is a stranger - she alone is able to temporarily life the gloom. Even the snow, tempoarily dazzling with its pureness, soon fades to grey as it strives towards uniformity with its resting place, soon disolving into a darker landscape devoid of life other than for grey pigeons, stark trees - a reminder of what once was and what may be again. This land, and many of the people seem in hibernation, waiting for the first signs of spring.



- Walking - Most civilisations have developed simple but effective systems to cope with the elements, but here, despite regular snowfalls, partial thaws and refreezing, not one thought seems to have been directed at reducing the paths to anything other than an ice rink. Actually there is one man that does this. One man in the whole of Ukraine (which is the largest country wholly within Europe) who has the job of clearing the paths - I know this because I saw him once near the border with Poland - but if he isnt visiting your city this year, your paths will remain icey.

- Churches - At first I thought that going into a church to get out of the cold was a good idea. But most must have ganged up against paying their electric and heating bills and surely have been cut-off as a result. Entering into most is being plunged into a dark domed freezer with a small window (with curtains) high up on a far wall. I warmed my frozen hands above the forest of candles lit by the orthodox worshippers.

- Black and brown bears still dance in the circus to a human tune. A sad throwback to me, but the locals see nothing wrong in parading these animals in chains.

- Zebra crossing marking on the road have faded to... nothing. Not that it was that important because even when the green man is displayed cars can still 'go' (legally) so long as they avoid hitting any stray pedestrains who may have decided to risk crossing the road. As a result the traffic doesnt go that fast but it randomly lurches across the crossing from gap to gap without warning. Personally I prefer to cross on the red man as at least the cars are predictable...

- The Metro - Fast, efficient, cheap and packed. The escalators are by far the longest I have ever seen. Unfortunately the blue 'm' signs on the surface are tiny so it is almost impossible to spot where the station entrances are. 'Fortunately(?)' there seems to be a Macdonald's next to each one and the large golden arches are far easier to spot...

- The tiresome ritual of dressing in multiple layers before stepping out the door, and the reverse when I came back... Inside it was warm though!


The Bright

- The Beach - amongst the tower blocks there are a scattering of lakes and sandy beaches have appeared - there is a whole beach culture, sunbeds, sun, volleyball... at least there is in summer... in winter they are not surpringly desolate.

- The Food - Traditional, tasty and healthy. Ok so there are numerous MacDonald's, but excluding them the food is good and real. No nasty cook chill preprepared meals here. And the soups are something else.

- Caviare - Cheap and after the initial shock of having fish eggs on bread for breakfast (and many other meals), it was tasty!

- The metro costs 1/50 of that in London, the bus 1/10, beer 1/5, coffee 1/2 whilst bananas are more expensive. But the average earnings are far lower than London, although there are enough rich people for a significant number of western sports cars and designer handbag shops.

- Beer is cheaper than milk! And they also make English beer - Porter to be exact (one bottle has the Houses of Parliament on it)- and they do it so well that I exported some.

- The Opera - 'slightly' more accessible/cheaper than in UK - I saw La Traviatta in Italian with Ukrainian 'sub-titles' - so I had no idea what was going on.

- Tea - A strange several hour tea ceremony (involving music and dancing) with green tea balls which incredibly grew into flowers when put in boiling water - and the tea tasted good too! Ok so tea balls come from China but I have never seen them anywhere else... nor do I know how they work.

- Eating original Chicken Kiev in Kiev. Tasty.

Oh and my trip was so well timed that I missed Xmas in UK AND Ukraine. I spent 25/12 in Kiev and returned before the Ukraine Xmas on 7/1. Though we did get a real Xmas/New Year tree and covered it with lights

So it was an eye opener - I would love to go back in a warmer time of the year when there are less grey clouds!

Love
Ankur

Where 30 - Goa, India --OR-- How to Run Away from a Tsunami --OR-- How to Start a Sex Riot on a Railway Platform

HI Everyone,

Last time a tragic and unexpected world disaster happened I was in Oz, and although I watched it on TV, felt very remote from the collapsing twin towers. This time I literally got my feet wet.

But I am getting ahead of events. Trivial as it now seems ... I was just escaping Varanassi (a city which is everything your mother told you not to be) in north India, but it wasnt that simple. My train was due at 11.35pm for a 7 hour journey, so a nice overnight trip. I waited on the platform, and waited and waited. I got out my sleeping bag, sat on it, and waited. I fell asleep ... for hours on the platform (a large % of the population sem to sleep on railway platforms so I was far from alone) and when I woke my train had still not arrived. Finally it rolled in at 8am - my overnight trip was now in daylight and I was mighty pissed off at having wasted a day on a train when I should have been there by then! Eventually it got me 'there' over 10 hours late.

No-one else I met had had any problems with their trains, so I was confident that the next one I caught would be pretty much on time. Due at 8pm for a 14 hour journey, I waited on the platform thinking well if its an hour late thats not too bad. I waited all that evening, past midnight, got my sleeping bag out again, went to sleep, still no train; all night long there was no train; it got light, no train; all morning, no train. I asked why it was so late and, in a reply that was typically Indian, was told 'Late Running!' Not absolutelly satisfied with that I pressed further and was told 'Technical Problems!' Then I gave up asking (and probably swore loudly - most peole there didnt speak english anyway). That afternoon, just as I was thinking about how much confusion it would cause if it was 24 hours late (each train has a no. but there is one of that no. every day and no way to distinguish which days train it is) it turned up 16 hours late. Worst still, I had to scramble off the train at 2.45am (having stayed awake trying to guess the station we were passing through and trying to read the Hindi train signs in the dark) and then spent the rest of that night sleeping on the platform. At least then I got some sleep as I wasnt worried about missing my train!

Enough about trains (and I wont even mention the buses). I had theough that India is a place where loads of foreigners go, and in some places there are quite a few. But most places they are thin on the ground. This means that the enormity of the Indian male population sees fit to descend on you whenever they can. On the street they call out like little kids, and queue up to shake my hand. But it is at train stations where I was cornered and where no-one has anything better to do. I got completely surrounded by on one platform by about 50 guys all wanting to talk to me - only about 3 of then actually spoke english but they translated into Hindi for the benefit of the masses. Once you stop being overawed by the whole thing it can get pretty interesting - especially when you mention their favorite subject. One guy asked me 'Are you married?' to which I replied 'No'. He then looked at me in a very confused way and after a pause said 'Do you like sex?' Then I was a bit confused, until I twigged what he meant. In India marriages are arranged and there is no sex before marriage. I said in my culture you do not have to be married to have sex. Once that got translated it bought the house down, all the (presumably unmarried twentysomethings virgin) macho guys went mental, jumping around llike nuts. Eventually the crowd was broken up by the riot police (well, one policeman with a big stick) and I tried to look innocent and hide somewhere else on the platform.

In one small village I was cycling along and an old guy was walking the other way. Despite no suggestion of a uniform anywhere, he stood up straight and saluted me ... old habits perhaps.

Nearly all signs are in Hindi especially at railway stations. At one place the whole train info was entirely in Hindi apart from one sign on the platform in English 'Please do not spit.' Very helpful.

All this travel has been with purpose as I have been to a few tasty places:

- Khajuraho - Fantastic small stone temples 1,000 years old adourned with an enormous no. of carvings of incredible quality and almost perfectly preseved. Most are of everyday life, beautiful women with gravity defying chests and bums so flat that it looks like they're bottom halfs are pointing the other way. Amoungst these are what people really come for - a good collection of 'karma sutra' carvings - hardcore porn so old that it is 'art', explicit sex in interesting and often improbable positions (some needing a couple of helpers to help then into the start position) presented in film strip style with a row of carvings culminating in orgasm! Oh and there is the odd cow thrown in for good measure. Yes, it really is art. Yes, I can send you the photos. Just email me your credit card no and expiry date...

- Ajanta - A row of 30 Buddhist temples carved into a cliff on a horseshoe bend in a river. They date from 200BC. The largest is 20m x 20m inside with over 20 carved pillars, wall paintings, buddha statues etc. All instunning condition considering their age.

- Ellora - More caves carved into solid rock, but one of which is stunning. Instead of building a temple they started with a solid cliff and chipped away at the rock (apparently 7000 men for 150 years - although presumably not the same 7000 men) creating several floors, domes, towers, loads of carvings of real quality etc And all with just the rock that was there, exactly where it was. The concept is mind boggling. The reality is so good, and so like a normal (superb) temple, that I had to keep reminding myself that it was created like that. Must be the most under-hyped thing I have ever seen.

Now i am all caved out. Or should that be caved in?

- Matheran - A hill station perched on a flat topped mountain, which is reached by a 2 hour 'toy train' ride. The town has no means of transport other than hand pulled rickshaws, all the supplies have to be pulled around by 8 men pushing a cart up steep slopes. There is no traffic or even cycles. Is this really India?

And then to Goa. A very pleasant state which is not like anywhere else I had been - for a start there are as many tourists as locals, but Xmas is Xmas and Goa is one of the few mainly christion areas of India (Portuguese influence). Goa has miles of empty coastline withh great beaches all the way along it - so as usual nearly everyone crams into a couple of small beaches. We got an idyllic place right next to the beach and just a few metres above (the very basic shack was on stilts). Xmas passed by and then on morning of Dec 26th we heard about a tsunami somewhere in Indonesia. Didnt sound too serious then. That evening we were in a restaurant just above the beach when waves of water started coming over the wall into the restaurant. It seemed odd but I was more concerned that I hadn't finished my (milk) shake, but suddenly we were nearly the last people in the restaurant - the staff were the first to leave - and we exited rapidly onto the street behind where it was just panic. Indians drive autorickshaws and motorbikes like lunatics at the best of times but in a panic - it was mayhem, but when the locals start running you had better join them. A few people were hurt in the rush but I didnt see anything too bad. We found the tallest solid looking building in town and slept on the roof. Next morning the beach looked very different with some restaurants on the beach hit badly (but they were open again a few days later). The water had come up to just below our hut, but it wasnt the level of water that was the worry, it was not knowing what caused it and not knowing what was going to happen next. Apparently it was a high tide caused by the effects of the eathquake combined with what was due to be the highest tide of the month anyway.
It doesn't really bear thinking about, but if the Portuguese had built their trading post on the other side of India, facing East (and it had some nice beaches) we would probably now be just a statistic in the body count column of this event. I try not to think about it.

So that was Goa. Now it is back up north, another month and a half in India and then Pakistan...

Meantime: This is India, a land where nothing is unbelievable - except everything the locals tell you. If you ever ask a closed question (to check info etc) the reply is always 'Yes' even if they haven't understood the question. And it is always accompanied by that bloody annoying little shake of the head (that only Indians can do) which means 'Yes'. Or 'No'. Or 'I have 9 kids to feed, 2 water buffalo and some potatoes. How much will you give me for one of my kids.'

Ta ta from the land of the long wait,
and
Happy New Year!

Love
Pete

Where 23 - Cartagena, Colombia --OR-- How to Find the Lost City

HI there,

I´m sure that when I planned this 6-month trip i was supposed to have about 5 and a half months in Central America - now 2 and a half of the six have already gone and I am still in South America - so much for the maths. But at last, via a strange route, I have made it to the top of South America and the last port of call before heading across to Central America.

When I last wrote I had just arrived in Bogota where Sally came out to see me and we travelled together for 3 weeks through Colombia and Venezuela. We headed North East though a string of colonial towns where we spent Xmas and then into Venezuela to Merida, in the mountains for new year and then right across the country to the south east to see Angel Falls, then to Caracus (where Sally flew out) and along the coast, safely back into Colombia, to Santa Marta (to find the Lost City) and to Cartagena.

HIGH POINTS
- Bogota is full of interesting fruits, teas and powders. Some of them are very good if you have a cold, others make your nose run - and some of the tea was intesting too...
- Spent Xmas in a well preserved colononial village called Barichara in Colombia where on the wall of every single house was a crib - they do love their cribs - and every street was lined with lights, Xmas trees and (even though these people have never seen snow in their lives) snowmen - made of plastic cups! There were no other foreigners in the place, which was great, and entertainment was laid on for the locals who danced all night in the plaza, to salsa and the band who didn´t come on stage until 4am Xmas morning - and hardly anyone was drunk ! Not like England at all.
- In this village stayed in a nice small hotel but when I asked for the key to the room I was told - ´no key - its very tranquil here´... and this is Colombia. I have never been anywhere where I have had my own room but no key! Is this now the safest place on the planet? I was a bit dubious but she was right, and no, nothing was lost or disappeared.
- And the xmas beers were only 25 pence each. Not real English beer, fizzy stuff, but ice cold.
- Angel Falls (Venezuela) - The highest waterfall in the world, almost 1,000 metres of sheer drop awaits the water that comes off a flat topped mountain - only ´discovered´ in 1935 as it is so far away from ... anywhere. The water seems to turn to mist a third of the way down as it loses motivation to get to the bottom, and it almost stops. We managed to time it all the way down though and it takes about a minute (about 60kmh or 37mph) which isn´t bad going. It is huge but difficult to get into perspective when viewed from the bottom. Although it looks like hardly any water is falling, when it reconstitutes itself into a river at the bottom, it is a raging torrent!
- And now I´m on the north (Carribean) coast in the blazing heat (even though it is their winter). I´m trying to keep out of the sun as much as possible whilst all the locals are happy walking around in full length jeans - maybe they think it is cold!


The Treks
I´m not entirely sure why I/we decided to do these treks but I guess they seem like a good idea at the time.

Pico Humboldt
- In Merida we decided to do a 4 day trek/climb up the countrys 2nd highest peak, Pico Humboldt at almost 5,000m. The first day was a real slog uphill through a rainforest carrying over 20kg of equipment including crampons and ice axe. We passed a few day hikers in the rainforest - maybe we made them feel small with all the stuff we were carrying (as they jogged past us!) or maybe they just thought we were stupid, but then carrying an ice axe in a jungle is about equivalent of wearing scuba gear including tanks and fins/flippers whilst walking down Oxford Street doing xmas shopping.
- After starting at midday we only made it to the campsite, totally exhausted, 10 mins before it got dark. All of my muscles were screaming so loud that I couldn´t hear a thing.
- Overnight I left my waterbottle outside the tent and it froze (at about 3,000m).
- The 2nd day was over tricky rocks and took 8 hours, but them we had to get to bed early for day 3.
- New Years eve - Up at 3am and left at 4am trekking in the dark. By 9am we had reached the bottom of the 45 degree glacier that we had to climb - 5 mins later my calves were being pulled apart by the crampons - unfortunately there was an hour of ice climbing before a further half hour over rocks before we made it to the summit. And what a view. What an experience. There is no way I´m ever doing that again!
- I made it back to the tent totally exhausted and crawled into it at 4pm on New Years Eve and didnt come out again that night. Not much of a party then!
- Unfortunately we still had to come all the way down which took all of day 4. Sheer madness - those day trekkers were right!


Lost City (Cuidad Perdida), Colombia - Built during 700 - 1400AD by Tyrone indians as part of a trading network of towns over hundreds of kms - Population around 3,000. Discovered in 1975 by graverobbers (searching for the Indians gold).
- This trek has diminished in popularity since the kidnappings there last September (but they have all been released now so it must be OK!) - and less people doing it means it is even more worth doing. So ...
- Six days trekking through dense jungle to the middle of nowhere. Its hot, by god it is hot - and about 100% humidity - your clothes are saturated with sweat within half an hour of starting walking each day. Fortunately there is only an average of 4 hours trekking a day - in the afternoon you get to cool off in the freezing rivers and try and dry your clothes for the next day (tricky cos unless it is sunny in the afternoon, nothing dries).
- After 3 days of walking uphill and wading through rivers (fortunately only carrying about 12kg this time), a flight of narrow moss covered stone steps emerges through the vegetation by the riverbank in the middle of dense jungle. 1,200 steps (all slippery as they are covered in moss) leading up to the Lost City which is of course built on top of a mountain...
- Since there were no buildings ( they were all wooden and have decayed) I wasn´t expecting much, but it was more spectacular than I had expected - the numerous path and stairways that connect the 170 terraces (each housing between 1 and 5 houses) were amazingly intricate, almost delicate, and many of them disappeared into dense undergrowth, impossible to follow without a machette.
- And on the fourth day I had the whole place (almost) to myself - apart from my guide and a couple of local indians. Fantastic - well worth the walk. And I didn´t get kidnapped - again!


Low Points
- One night in the jungle at the Lost City I got over 100 mossie bites on one foot - and that is depite mossie net, repelent and wearing socks. The other foot only got about 70 bites.
- Xmas and new year are the time for fireworks here - so if you want to get a good nights sleep during the couple of weeks around then , forget it. Some one will be up at 4am just to set one off. And they aren´t even pretty, just VERY LOUD!
- It is a bit odd enjoying Xmas festivities surrrounded by fully armed military. OK so they still look young enough to be wondering what they will be getting for Xmas, but in a small 'peaceful' town they do look kindda out of place.
- Ciudad Bolivar in Venezuela - It ever you wanted to see an example of colonial decay then this is it. Build a string of huge colonial mansions, do no maintainance for 50 years, close most of it down, and let the rooms out to backpackers. It must have been a great place once - although not quite sure when that was...
- The Orrinocco (Flow) - So evocative of a magnificent river it makes you think of more than just the Womble and Enya. But naming such a dirty and disgusting river after a womble is just a sad joke! Oh and it flows through Ciudad Bolivar. And Enya can never have been to the Orrinocco, it just (sort of) rhymed with 'flow'
- Venezuela is a strange sort of country. Its main problem seems to be that it just doesn´t work very well - a good summary was provided by a bus I went on - the door latch had failed so the door wouldn´t stay shut, but instead of mending it they employed a third man (they are always 2 - one to drive and one to collect the fares) to close the door and tie it shut each time after someone got on or off.
- Lemon flavour crisps - yes really - And you just have to try them - once - sort of odd though. If you close your eyes and imagine that you are eating pastry and not potato, they sort of taste like Lemon Merangue Pie...


Oh and met a Brazilian who went into the Tesco Metro in Bristol, England, looking for the Underground - and she asked a few people before someone told her there wasn´t one - well you just gotta laugh!
(For non UK people Tesco Metro is the name of a supermarket and Bristol doesn´t have an underground.)

Now onto Panama - and its canal - I dont think it has a lot else...

I hope those of you in the Northern Hemisphere survive the cold spell - it should be over by ... May?

Best wishes

Pete

Where 3 Cape Town, South Africa

HI All

At Vic Falls we picked up some more people - and lost some really good ones (I have to say that because they might be home now and reading this)....

We travelled into Botswana (rich country due to all their diamond deposits) to Chobe national park then Maun and then flew by light aircraft into the Okavango delta (one of the few inland deltas in the world - all the water evaporates !) where we camped for a couple of nights in the middle of nowhere. We came out of the delta on Xmas eve by speedboat and spent Xmas day at Sepupa Swamp Stop - Xmas day was blisteringly hot - we all had presents (sweets and a 'secret santa' - it's amazing what you can get for US$5).
Then to Namibia - fantastic country (my favorite in Africa) despite most of it being desert - it really is interesting honest ! Oh and hot - about 40C but very dry so the heat was bearable.
Toured round various parts of the desert and spent NewYears Eve at a massive rave in the dunes......then Etosha national park where it hasn't rained for a year and the animals have to come to the waterholes to drink - so we saw loadsa animals. Then South all the way down to South Africa, Cape of Good Hope, Penguins and Cape Town - a wonderful city.

High Points
- Watching the elephants play in the water at Chobe - they formed a line of 5 just like they were in the circus and waded in...
- Morongo trips in Okavango delta (dug out canoes for 2 people plus a poler) we went for hours through the narrow channels surrounded by water lillies and the occasional hippos and antelope.Idyllic.
- Sitting on an osterich in Namibia - a tad unstable (there is no saddle) and all you can grab onto is it's neck - though not very tightly !!!!
- Windhoek - capital of Namibia - an ultra modern and very pleasant relaxing city in the middle of the desert (like Adelaide apparently) - shoppping heaven for those that way inclined!
- New Years Eve Party in the dunes - about 5,000 people, 2 sound stages (main one rave, the other everything else) - absolutely amazing.........
- Sandboarding down the dunes - if it sounds like you just walk up a dune with a 2m x 1m piece of plywood, lie down and launch yourself down the steep side then your very close - just add a crash helmet and elbow pads and you can get up to 80kmh, then add a jump at the bottom and hold on f***ing tight - pure insanity.
- Quad Biking in the dunes - believe it or not you can go almost vertically up a sandune on a quadbike (160cc) if you get a bit of speed up....but then you have to go almost vertically down again - very similar type of insanity to sandboarding - 35km of great fun - almost continuous adrenalin rush especially as I/we were all just out of control almost all the time!
- Rock painting that are about 6,000 years old - Oh yes ... of COURSE this is a cultural trip ??
- Welwitschia plants - these can be up to 2,000 years old although the ones we saw were only approx. 300 years old. They grow at 1mm p.a. and only have 2 leaves but because of the wind and desert conditions they leaves are very tatty and they look like large lettuces that are passed their sell by date !!!!
- Sitting with 3 semi-tame cheethas at a cheetah reserve. You can stroke them if you are very careful and one of the handlers is keeping it calm - but then they wandered around us and nobody moved an inch in case we scared them(!) - they are beautiful animals but they have very big and sharp teeth (we were so exhilarated/scared stiff by them) - more dangerous than sandboarding but even more memorable!!
- sitting next to the waterholes in Etosha NP. Herds of elephant, giraffe, zebra, springbok(crashes of) black rhino and (prides of) lion all came to drink at the various holes we watched. Saw 15 lions in 1.5 days.
- Sunrise over the dunes (had to get up at 4.15am though and clamber up a large dune - worse than working for a living!!)
- Kolmanskop ghost town - no ghosts but an ex-diamond mining town which was abandoned in the 50's and the wooden houses have filled up with sand - weird.
- Fish River Canyon - 161km long, 27km wide (at widest) and 550m deep - all carved out by water - although for most of the year the river is dry ! Very spectacular.
- Robben Island off Cape Town - where Nelson Mandela (and most of the current SA cabinet) were imprisoned from 1964 until mid 80's (released from another prision in 1990 and became president in 94). The cells were only 2m x 2m and they were kept there 23.5 hours a day (then instead they volunteered to do hard labour just so they could get out a bit). A monument to the struggle against apartheid - very moving. Much respect to them for spending the best years of their life in such conditions and then not seeking reprisals once they got into power.
- Going up Table Mountain for sunset and then watching the lights of Cape Town twinkling goodbye on my last night in Africa beautiful - what a way to finish what was a fantastic trip of 12,000km by road through Africa.


Low Points
- Fishing on Xmas Day which was great except that we saw more hippos than fish and caught the same no of each - i.e. none.
- Getting up at 4-15am to watch sunrise over dunes, walking up a large dune in the dark only to find that my camera was (permanently) buggered! (Sand from NYE party had worked it's way in!). Just bought new camera in HK.
- The sea in Namibia (which is within the tropics) was colder than winter in Brighton !! due to cold currents from the Antarctic).
- drinking the water in Okavango delta - it was chewy, dark brown and YUK! but that was all we had for 3 days.
- Smell of Cape Cross Seal (lion) Colony - can't think of anything to compare it to - it was that bad.
- Meeting some intelligent white (Afrikaans) people in Namibia who were so racist (and claimed to base their beliefs on the bible) - basically white man was made by god whilst black man descended from chimpanzese - incredible that such beliefs persist.


And that was wot I saw in Africa. (if you read it all - well done, if you didn't then I can't blame you!) - let me know if you want to stop receiving these junk emails and I will take you off the list.

What did you get for Xmas (more than me I guess !!!!)

Now I'm heading for Hong Kong...

Luv Pete