By far and away the highlight of Namibia has to have been Swakopmund though; I had high hopes of an adrenalin-fuelled three days in town and it certainly didn’t disappoint.  Me, Joe and Moose upgraded to a triple room complete with bathroom, TV and kettle. Simple pleasures after weeks of digging your own hole in dust.  We began with an afternoon ride in the Sand dunes on quad bikes reaching speeds of upto 60kph.  We apparently covered upto 100kilometres, racing up the banks and falling down the other side of 40m+ dunes!!  Our next day we woke early for sandboarding which was essentially just lying down on chipboard face first.  We had a DVD recorded, got lunch included and had plenty of runs down the massive dunes that Swakopmund is famous for.  Amazing experience racing at 64kph [i beat Joe's 62kph] so close to the sand!! 

That afternoon we dedicated to ‘Man day’ with Steve the Power as the girls were off shopping.  Man day started disastrously with Joe opting for a strawberry milkshake and a walk on the beach.   We recovered slightly by unknowingly breaking into a building site on the pier before the other two went to shear their hair.  It really started to pick up when we hit the casino and headed to the originally named Pub, before we ate alot of meat for dinner.  The evening descended into farce with a self-titled Red note day ($N100 is red).  I managed to see off all 10 of the house shots and forget anything else that evening.

Our other memories of Namibia include camping out in the desert alongside scorpions, deadly snakes and massive rock features.  Scaling these rock features for comedy pictures and playing rugby in some of the most remote areas on the planet.  In Namibia we also saw one of the most ridiculously nice sunsets, ran up half a sand dune before dying and getting up close and personal with a full-grown rhino. 

It is safe to say Namibia is one of the most amazing places I’d ever seen!!

Flew on my tod into Sydney and then again into Jo’burg where I met Joe at the hostel.  We flew into Vic Falls together into arguably the smallest airport in the world where we got our first taste of Africa.  Staying in a dorm room of 8 beds, we had our choice of all 8 avoiding the ones with ants – 6/8 of the beds!  We quickly met our truck and headed to a local football match between Falls Utd and Chicken Inn.  4-1 to the mighty Chicken Inn with 2 absolute screamers! It was quickly obvious how poor most locals were and how cheap everything was so we had a burger for $4 and beers for $1 all night. Our first animal encounter came on the walk down to the falls, with 3 elephants on the footpath refusing to let us pass.  We visited the Falls themselves on both sides of Zimbabwe and Zambia getting some cool stamps for our passports and Joe decided to bungi off the bridge separating the two countries.  We dipped our feet in the top of the falls but couldn’t make it into the devils pool.  Our official first day on the truck was quite eventful- sampled some crocodile/warthog and plenty of Windhoek beer while watching Man Utd stuff Arsenal, then decided to go for a swim with Moose- our scottish buddy.  Not the best idea and after mimicking Joes bungi, i surfaced with a red face and gash on my forehead.  In shock i felt it and could feel either side of the cut which wasn’t a great sign.

Waking up the next morning i was sent off to a medical clinic down a shanty street with chickens walking the road.  Not a great sign!  The guy asked me about a million times ‘how are you’ to which i always replied not too bad, been better.  Maybe he was waiting for me to buckle and admit i was in pain.  The guy did a great job of the 6 stitches and they are all now sealed up with a scar to show for my efforts.  Fortunately I had shaved my hair off the previous day so it was quite clean.  Great start to the trip all round!

We crossed into Botswana that day and without exaggerating I looked like either an escaped Mentalist or some sort of tool.  Botswana was very picturesque and we bush camped in the Okavango Delta for 2 nights.  It is safe to say I doubt i will be further from civilisation ever again.  Me and Joe managed to bring a bit of class to the Delta though with a sunset Mokoro trip sipping on Gin & Pineapple Fanta.  Our 2nd night we provided some entertainment for our Mokoro polers with card tricks and various other magical acts which they loved. We went bush walking and saw lots of giraffe, hippos, zebra and all kinds of deer but none of the big 5. This was soon corrected when we took a flight over the delta and saw some elephants strolling through the flooded plains.  For $60 we got a 30 minute ride, some acrobatic stunts and flew at ground level alongside the animals. An amazing experience!

Unfortunately Botswana’s ATMs hated my card which meant I was running up quite a tab with the tour leader/Joe/anyone else who would lend me money.  Pretty annoying all round!  After the Delta, we camped under the stars in the Tsidolo Hills, arguably where the site of Creation occured.  We stared at some rock paintings which were apparently pretty old and probably drawn by a 3 year old!

Namibia to follow soon…sorry it’s a bit of an essay and no pictures but despite this being a very Western town, the internet is still pretty slow/expensive!

Pride Rock

Right…firstly this is such a needed update as it is about a month since we landed in Auckland.

Since then, I have overcome Knee/Foot Aids thanks to $200 of antibiotics, Jem has dealt with Tonsilitus and we have travelled the whole of New Zealand right from the Bay of Islands down to Invercargill – ‘The World’s most southern city’.  The North Island didn’t hold too much hope for us as everyone had said to get down to the south island ASAP.

This was misleading as we had great weather, great fun doing loads of varied activities and a great bus travelling down the island.  We started with a day trip upto the Bay of Islands and did Sandboarding, followed by trips across to Whitianga where we did some Sea Kayaking.  Heading South we did some Luging in Rotorua, plus a Maori evening and Polynesian spa to relax.  Rotorua is by the way the smelliest place in the world…not in a good way.

Having stopped off in Rotorua, we headed to Waitomo where we did the highlight of the North Island- Blackwater rafting which included a 35m abseil into pitch black followed by a zip-line, and culminated in climbing a few waterfalls without harnesses/ropes to leave the cave.  Rotorua became Taupo where we anticipated doing a sky-Dive only to have it cancelled twice. Bummer.  We managed to do the Tongariro crossing which involves walking all day up and around Mt Doom from Lord of the rings.  The next day I managed to jump off a 15m high waterfall which was absolutely freezing- resulting in ridiculous panting.

The Waterfall Jump

Taupo led to River Valley which was pretty chilled…played some pitch and putt and took on a local drink [4 shots after another] and a local sport [bashing a nail into a stump].  After River Valley we headed down to Wellington where we became the most cultural people around…sleeping all day, waking up for English football and thoroughly pissing off our room-mate Bert.  Chin up Bert!!

The 4 shot challenge

Left the North Island on a sour note as the manager at Base was a total Bint.  Still…out of everyone we met there had to be one!!

South Island coming soon…with pictures!!

We arrived at Coral View resort…an island paradise and first thing we found was that we met a girl called Jenna of Royce/Loughborough/UK fame.  Pretty weird, and chatted to some guys from Coventry who turned out to be the legendary Pedro, Webby and Pipey.  Good nicknames allround.  First evening ended up with a hat party where a guy from Cheshire who turned out to be the even more legendary Cash Man dropped Jemma on the floor.  Pretty amusing all round.  Evening was a pretty quiet one and an early night in our private Bure; bumped up by chance! Next day we headed to Brekkie and downgraded to a 6-bed dorm; not too bad though.  The weather was the major blow- absolutely pissing it down.  They know how to rain in Fiji!!  The day was spent playing a few games of cards; 7s being the game of choice.  The evening ended up with an aggressive game of Uno and some drinking games.  The next day was pretty much the same; ridiculous time for breakfast, cards, lunch of fish and rice, cards, cookies, coke, then dinner in the evening of chicken, fish and rice.  More cards and more aggressive drinking games were the entertainment that evening, along with Cash Man failing at almost every card game.  Most the other guys headed off after 3 nights but we stayed on for a fourth, with Mel & Sarah eventually arriving on the 16th.  I played a bit of rugby whilst the girls caught up and having stepped one Fijian Unit, hit the sandy deck like a sack of shite.  Dusting it down as a knock, I failed to clean/attend to it which would become annoying!

We left the next day and headed to Korovou Resort/Island? and met up with the Coventry boys again poolside for some fire shows, drinking games and a game of palmy.  We tried to get on a boat to do some handline fishing but instead managed to weave a basket out of palms.  Delighted.  We headed South with them to Kuata resort for 2 nights where the accomodation was pretty basic but hospitality was amazing!  We ended up watching some of the islanders train rugby and shared Cava with them that night.  For those out of the know; Cava is a plant-based drink which looks and tastes like muddy water.  Nutritious AND Delicious.  After a few tasty drinks, we headed to bed with a big day ahead: Fishing, Snorkelling with Sharks and watching the BIG Rugby Shield Challenge match. 

So we wake up early and head down to the dining hall/restaurant and grab some breakfast ready to head out on the boat only to be told by Pedro that there has been an earthquake off Tonga and a tsunami is on the way.  Not only that, but the earthquake was strong (7.9), shallow, and close to Fiji.  How to deal with it? Panic? Head for the hills? Or do the English thing and sit around joking about how we’re done for!  Eventually we are shown on a blackboard that the reef off the mainland would absorb any tsunami and that we are safe.  Comforting words you would think…but not exactly the voice of authority you look for it to come from.  So with that out the way, we headed to the waters to go shark swimming…only for the rain to set in and for us to turn right round as we couldn’t find the reef! IDEAL.  Still…we headed to the opposite island for the Big Rugby Challenge Shield Match Final.  Only for the other team not to turn up…so the shield wouldn’t be played for.  Why didn’t they turn up? “Maybe they were busy”.  Riiiight.  Still…it was a great experience to see them playing rugby and the whole island/village come out to support them, and ridicule the fat player.  That evening was spent drinking more Cava with Webby and Tom and Jem…staying up til 2 drinking a good 15 cups of the stuff.  Enough to get anyone to start singing Oasis/Don McLean to off their head Fijians!  The next morning we eventually got to complete the shark dive- an amazing experience…hard to feel scared when they are only 2 metres long or so but still a bit unnerving.  We played a little rugby with the locals Mike Jim and Levis; 10 year olds from the island who are the future of Fijian Rugby.

Having left another island Jem, Tom and I headed to South Sea island…a tiny island close to the mainland with a reputation for bedbugs…in one bed…Bed 16!  We checked in avoiding the rainstorm and were allocated beds.  Sure enough Tom got given bed 16 and quickly swapped to bed 20.  Without sheets he asked for a fresh sheet from the cupboard, unfolding it to find a whole collection of bedbugs!! After the strangest conversation ever had, we decided to sleep outside as that would be safer for us all.  The conversation roughly followed the lines of:

“Why did you swap beds”

‘Does that matter…there are loads of bedbugs in this sheet’

“Why didn’t you come tell me”

‘That is what I am doing…I have just told you!’

“But why didn’t you call me, anyway we are moving a girl into that bed…you should never have been in that bed!”

A relatively good sleep on a park bench under cover was fine before we could escape to the relative haven of Beachcomber Island!  We arrived early at about 9:30am and ran into Cash Man and Chris from Cheshire.  We managed to find some football highlights which felt like paradise and slowly the other boys filtered down from the epic 100-bed dorm to fill us in on the nights events!  Very funny!  The day was pretty quiet…building for an epic night of drinking and staying up to watch Super Sunday.  We started drinking at 6 happy hour and it was all pretty aggressive with some great drinking games, crab racing, dancing and abuse.  Having managed to make it upto 4am, I completely passed out on another park bench.  Gutted.

Our last day in Fiji was spent by the beach nursing hangovers and catching some final rays.  That and watching Cash Man eat a Red Hot Chilli Pepper… 

We caught a late boat back to Nadi and said our farewells to most the guys.  We stopped off at a nicer hotel/hostel in Nadi and headed for a curry…what a treat after 10 days of fish/rice/salad.  Our time in Fiji was amazing…back to some sort of civilisation…next stop Auckland!!

Our 2nd full day in LA we got the bus up to Hollywood and eventually arrived after missing the stop by about half an hour and drifting into Koreatown!  After a mammoth walk we got to our hostel and had a short walk down to the Walk of stars, Kodak Theater where the Oscars are held, and the Chinese Theater.  Pretty sure the Chinese Theater is famous for…being the Chinese theater.  Bit like Paris Hilton.  Our evening involved going to the Cinema at the Universal CityWalk…we saw a half decent comedy but the cinema was really cool- massive, comfy seats and only 6 people in it.  Our 2nd day in Hollywood (10th March) we headed out into Glendale to do some shopping at a brand new mall which was amazing- open air, loads of green space and upscale shops…spent quite a bit of time and money there.  Our evening involved heading to the Staples Center- home to the Lakers and Clippers NBA franchises.  We had the luck of being in town to see LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers play; one of the biggest players, and best teams in the NBA.  The match was amazing…the Clippers [terrible team] led 73-54 at one stage before losing 83-87 after a 3 pointer with six seconds left.

Our next day we headed to Universal Studios as we had got some vouchers taking about 1/3 of the price…the park was quite empty and we headed straight to the Simpsons Ride and Studio tour.  We spent most of the day walking but got most of it done…even getting time for me to volunteer to be in the special effects show…making me disappear and sawing through my arm.  Funny but V embarassing!! We ate at the Hard Rock cafe [more goodness] and headed back…realising there was a movie premiere we hung around outside for a while and saw some not too famous people including Paris Hilton’s mum, and The Rock’s body double.  Exciting stuff.

Our last day in LA involved a few more bus journeys down to Beverly Hills and then north towards the Hollywood sign.  Nothing that exciting but a few good photos came from it.  Also found a Joe Williams on the Walk of Stars which was pretty funny.  Our flight out of LA was at 11:30 so killed some time back at the hostel before getting a shuttle to LAX for our 10 hour flight to Fiji!

UPDATE: Few pictures on here…loads on my facebook if you can get to it!

Right…first update…no pictures sadly though as there is no oosbe to upload them.  Annoying yes as there are a few gems and a few amazing videos.  Firstly….the weather was pretty decent…sunny although not that hot!! The apartment was awesome but pretty cramped- 4 guys sharing 2 doubles can get pretty cosy…especially when some are trying to hook up!! = Lots of 3 in the beds!

Goal of the week was to win big on the roulette tables and spend it lavishly in the clubs…didn’t quite work out as i lost $50 on my first day at poker.  That was the first and last the casinos saw of my moolah.  The clubs and shops saw plenty of it though.  We hit a different club each night and it felt like they outdid themselves every night…from running into WeeMan, to open air clubs 30 floors above the Strip, to rocking the VIP with some random Zambians/Ron Beasley.  Each night had a new amazing story…some not too suitable for young eyes, but many involved a huge Ego boast due to a haircut.  German, Australian and French were common but as soon as our mouths opened, all was revealed…much to most of their delight. 

Highlights have to include staying in VIP and getting served drinks all night, seeing the Bellagio fountains, the NewYork-New York rollercoaster and the final night partying the night away with a Superbowl winner.  Pretty normal nights.  The final night involved about 2 hours kip and those 2 hours weren’t exacty the best thanks to Sam O Bizzles antics in the next room.  Maybe it was your chat that was entertaining her so much?! 

Writing this from LA as we are about to leave but thought a lil update might be in order…plenty of pictures to come…and a classic video of Si doing a leg drop on his own! AS PROMISED: HERE IS THE LEG DROP:

AND….

Fiji is meant to be pretty hot/wet…not quite the paradise that Jemma has hoped for but should be nice all the same!! 

You ‘orrnssss

Packing has just started and unlike other holidays where i just bundle it all into the case, this has taken some planning.  (I reckon 10 pairs of pants should be enough!!)  Pretty weird knowing tomorrow’s the big day after 2 months of looking at photos of places/booking things.  Hopefully I have enough money and hopefully the weather will be amazing everywhere.  Last time i checked it was forecast to be 25 Degrees on Sunday!! Hopefully I will be able to stop myself from turning into this.

Next time i write I will have made it to sunnier shores and could have become a millionaire.  Although I would be happy with a Tenner or a free drink or two.

Here’s a few pictures from the winter wonderland that was London yesterday.  You might ask why I would bother leaving the house when it was so difficult to get into London.  Me and Jemma had got tickets with my folks to go to Buddy the musical which is a boyhood fave- probs where i got the sliding on my knees from!! Considering it had been about 10 years since i last saw it, i was a bit unsure how much i would remember.  The show had a little extra poignance as it was 50 years to the day since his last performance; the night before his death (The day the music died). I imagine many in the crowd were aware of this and this was why they had braved the elements to make it!

It was a great performance by the whole cast and really built to a climatic, melancholic ending.  What followed during the encore was amazing…my dad being the first on his feet to start dancing! I can’t imagine it being repeated too soon!  I imagine many people don’t immediately recognise the name but would instantly recognise many of the songs and his influence is undeniable.Alternatively youtube is always a good source:

On the subject of Rock n Roll and everything Americana…my lack of job enabled me to stay upto the ridiculous hour of 3am to watch Superbowl ex-vee-i-i-i or 43 as english people would say.  The game itself was an unbelievable spectacle…everything that is good and bad about the sport rolled into one while the show was presented very well by BBC, yet even they couldn’t block out the ubiquitous commercial forces at play in the US coverage.  Something i should probably know a bit about.

The match featured some of the closest decisions possible, the longest touchdown ever in Superbowl history- a real game-changer at half time, a stirring performance from the underdogs and an even more improbably finish. It also featured a half-time show from Bruce Springsteen. Being a growing fan of the sport, I am probably someone that NFL UK targets for their once-a-season ‘vacations’ to Wembley stadium and potentially a future franchise based in London.  Ultimately the goal is to become the 4th most popular sport in the UK, a goal which is improbable yet not impossible.  Real things that need to be overcome include the UK’s apathy to most things American and the perception of the sport as overly commercial, however, if interest were to maintain at a high level, with regular free TV coverage, it is not unthinkable to imagine interest growing further leading to a London/UK/European-based franchise.

This will come as terrible news for those out there who perceive sport intra-nationally or at it’s worst internationally.  However, as with most things, markets drive the decision makers, and as the US market becomes saturated, so it will look elsewhere, as the Premier League does; or the EPL as it is now becoming horribly known! I for one welcome global sport and believe it is a matter of when rather than if.  I’m not too sure how welcome the US national anthem would be at every match this future ’2020 NFL franchise’ plays though, or the overt, unncessary presentation of military/civic pride that accompanies it.

sleeping and I also managed to turn my hair a yellow-ish colour!! Maybe subconciously due to Watford’s recent form.  I made £75 from a free £5 bet on www.scratch2cash.com – choose the £5 free and get going…well worth the effort. I guess that pays for the Lions ‘all-weather’ jacket i bought last week.   Also looked into getting tickets for an NBA/NHL game with Jemma and a college Basketball game in Las Vegas which should be sweet!

This week I need to get my act together and get some travel insurance, visas and look into hostels…especially for my Mammoth journey from Christchurch to Victoria Falls- taking in four countries on the way!!  I also hope to get a sleeping bag one of these days in case I end up sleeping rough.

Shout to few friends who were TV stars for a few minutes around the UK on Tuesday when they had their press launch for a ‘Test above Everest’; playing a 20-20 match at base camp Everest in order to raise around £250,000.   Quite a small achievement there then!! Here is the link to their website and some news items:

http://www.atestabovetherest.com/

http://timesonline.typepad.com/line_and_length/2009/01/on-top-of-the-w.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7853571.stm

From now until I go i will probably do some sort of ‘feature’ on where I am going; mainly to remind myself!! So next week will probably cover the month of March including Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Fiji!!

or as some would say, 792 hours…or even…47,520 minutes. 

Right, i’ve set up this thing to try and keep as many people who want to, in the loop with my exploits across the world.  Yeah, i’m still in London but i am finding many ways to keep busy and this is just one of them!

So it’s now 33 days until I go away, and far from ideal, I’m unemployed.  So…in the meantime I will make money from selling all my worldly possessions on ebay and selling my body in various trades.

So far I am very excited for travels but very unprepared. Ticket is booked and the countdown is on though so that is the main thing!!

Hopefully I will find something to do in the 33 days in between.  I might try and do 1 of the 101 things to do before i die.  Like Number 60…Take part in a police line-up. or 66. Save someone’s life. Or 84. Sell all your junk on eBay and make a profit…Sweet. Productive day.