BootsnAll Travel Blogs

South East Asia!
After a few chats and some info grabbing from Stu Meikle, I booked flights to Bangkok via Dubai and set off in mid January….in snow
The flights were pretty uneventful and I arrived safe and sound and met at the airport by Stu who had left a month or so previously and was leaving for home that same day! …we got the train into town and I booked into the NASA Vegas hotel, then we set off into Bangkok centre, using the canal boats for transport – which was fun!
We had a good walk around so I could get my bearings, then we had something to eat, a thai massage and a couple of beers in one of the red light areas (where I also had my nipple tweaked by a ladyboy!) quite an introduction to Thailand! Lol
Then it was back to the hotel for Stu to shower and ten head off to the airport and back to the UK and an early night for me.
The next 4 days consisted of me being VERY happy traipsing around Bangkok, using canal boats, river boats, buses, taxi’s, tuk-tuks and moped “taxi’s” and of course lots of walking.
I think I must have seen almost all the sights there were in Bangkok: including (of course) the national museum, grand palace, Wat Arun, Jim Robinson’s house, Marble Temple, Kings’ house, Lucky Buddha – and every other buddha statue I think! …
Ive kinda glossed over the temples and things – but believe me: the grand palace and the VAST array of temples and temple complexes on almost every street corner are AMAZING! …in size, decoration, grandeur and …tranquility too – despite being mobbed by a gazillion tourists. The Grand palace is akin to a Disney spectacle: the gold and jewel encrusted buildings with their guarding statues and immaculate gardens are absolutely unbelievable! I spent many a happy hour sitting at the back of temples watching the monks and priests going about their business, or watching the great unwashed come in to give offerings and receive blessings/prayers. Met too! …I was blessed (I think) by a ‘priest’ who then tied a string bracelet around my wrist
I Took a long meandering trip to find the Ton Buri train station which was not where I thought it was and it didn’t help that the ferry boats no longer stop at one landing so I ended up getting off at the wrong one! Hey ho…. once I got there I found that I didn’t have to book a ticket anyhoo!
so, back to town again (moped ride) and more pineapple pieces to eat. This time I walked around all manner of places that didnt eem to be on the tourist map and werent populated by tourists at all ..which was nice ….it meant the coffee shops were all empty 😉
As I couldnt get a place booked on the Chaing Mai sleeper train, I decided to wing it a bit and left Bangkok for Kanchanaburri – the home of the ‘Bridge on the River Kwai’ the train ride was fun …chatting to an american guy and a couple of english girls, then they all left at kanchanaburri station, but the guard fella told me to stay on to the next stop for my lodgings. When I arrived at the next station I was amazed to find that this was actually the Bridge on the River Kwai!! ..and again the guard stopped me from getting off at the platform and instead, waited till the train pulled away and stopped it actually on the bridge – in amongst tourists – to let me get off actually there on the bridge!!! what a fabulous welcome to the place!!!!
The bridge is almost completely rebuilt, but there are still two spans which are original.
Eventually I took a moped ‘backer’ to my place of residence: a raft house on the river!!! …bluddy amazing!!! …incredibly basic room made of bamboo and floating 5m from the river bank – thethered and with a rickety bridge to get me ashore …but MAN! …how KEWL!!!!!
that night I went into town to try and find the yankee and english girls but failed 🙁 …I did however find lots of food in the market… nom nom and then a dutch girl who I had a nice chat and a good few beers with 🙂
Next day I travelled by bus to the Erewan waterfalls …an hours bus trip and then a great walk thru trees and up a hillside covered in the bluest pools and most amazing waterfalls. Seriously a fabulous place! (apart from the russian tourists who are a complete nightmare!) 5 hours of heaven is a fitting description of that place!
Next day I was leaving and after packing before sun-up, I asked the oldest guy in the world, who spoke very little english but did seem to run the raft house hostel how to get back to the station etc. He was the nicest most helpful guy in the world and even came after me as I walked off to give me a backer on his scooter to the station!
At the station I had a while to wait, so befriended an old fella there, bought him a coffee and he introduced me to one of his friends who ran a stall at the station …they sat with me and laughed and carried on till the train arrived (despite them not speaking english and me not exactly fluent in Thai!) Back in Bangkok, I checked -just before getting on my daytime train – that the sleeper was full (as I’d been told a few days before) …nope, there were LOTS of spaces!!! so I sold my daytime ticket back and got a sleeper bed 🙂
quite a nice trip on the train – chatting to a swiss girl and eating supplied soup and sarnie, then the guard/attendant fella comes along and makes the bed for you 🙂 I had a great sleep ….deffo the best way to get to Chiang Mai!!
I booked into my hostel at Chaing Mai and then explored the old walled town for the rest of the day (finding the CHEAPEST and best place to eat at a roadside cafe …deeeeeeelish!
The next day I booked a 2 day trek into the mountains (very touristy) and joined Nadine, Emma, Rishi and his cousin Amir and Stas (russian) and met our guide ‘JJ Jungle’. First stop was an ellie camp where we paired up to ride an ellie for around a mile or so …very touristy, but I enjoyed it 🙂 then I fed the ellies some nana’s I had for snacks. Then we had a good walk into ‘jungle’ with JJ showing us some of the local flora and tricks (including making and throwing a spear) That night we stayed in a hut on the edge of a village and JJ made us a curry thingee and we had a couple of beers.
Next day we had another long walk to a great waterfall where we played for a while (great natural rock slide into the pool at the bottom 🙂 ) then me, Nadine and Rishi left to get a raft trip back to civilisation. Nadine and I decided to head to Pai the next day on a scooter, so we hired one that night. I googled the trip to Pai and got varying distances but all less than 50km…. we headed out at sun-up but only in T shirts …BIG mistake! ..it was freezing! ..pertickly as we had to cross some mountains!! and it was truly bitter on the tops!… we eventually found a cafe and stopped for a very cold coffee. After that it wasn’t so bad to Pai. Sadly Pai wasn’t as interesting as we thought it would be – its kid of a hippy town apparently …just seemed like most other towns to us!.. got a nice curry meal tho 😉 and some passport photos. Then it was back on the scoot for a very quick ride back across the mountains to Chaing Mai.
We (me and Nadine) had decided to travel together for a while, so back at CM we booked an overnight bus to the Laos border. We quickly packed our stuff and joined the bus (meeting a very funny and confused french canadian girl on the bus too 🙂 ) the bus trip was a bit boring, but eventually we ended up at Chiang Kong ..and the worst hotel Ive been to since Malawi!!! hey ho … brekkie in the morning and eventually we paid for a boat trip along the Mekong river to Luang Prabang (meeting Lea and Matt – a french couple – during the confusion)
Much confusion at the Laos side of the border (across the river), but eventually we got on a boat and the trip started. The boats are really quite nice with coach style seating and beers and food available. The scenery was fabulous as we meandered along the river – taking too many photos as usual. That evening we stopped at Pak Beng and stayed in a canny little hostel/ hotel thing. Had a VERY average meal that night – actually I didnt even GET a meal!! service was so poor! But was a canny night with some of the peeps off the boat .
Brekkie the next morning and we were off again in the next leg…to Luang Prabang. Same MO …lots of photos, fabulous scenery and good craic on the boat (and snacks we’d bought ashore -including the tiniest but nicest nana’s in the world! )
In Luag Prabang we (me, Nadine, Matt and Lea) all travelled to the same hostel and got booked in easy enuff …nice enuff place. Then we (me and Nad) headed out for a great meal (cheap, again 😉 ) then a walk to the night market which is fabulous! : so many stalls selling trinkets and hangings and embroidery and stuff! ..I bought a bracelet….
Next day we had a good walk around including the temple on the hill (seeing the ‘buddha’ footprint) the national museum and photo gallery. Then we took a van ride to some waterfalls (yes, more waterfalls) had my first coconut, swam in the pools and had a great day generally 🙂 Back at LP we ate in the night food market getting a great buffet for 10,000Kip (nothing 😉 )
Next day was more walking around and then a meal with Matt & Lea and then we went to Utopia bar …the kewlest bar in the country 🙂 sitting on hippy roll mats drinking beer and listening to all manner of nationalities chatting away with some great music in the background – great night B|
Heading north next: to Nongh Hoiw where despite the rain we had a great time (ignoring the bus ride) visiting the caves where the Laos hid during the US air strikes (during the Vietnam war) …with Nad suffering a war wound in the process …damned barbed wire 😉 and drinking the weird Laos coffee – tasted almost like hot chocolate and VERY sweet
Next day was another bus trip on a packed and uncomfortable little bus to Luang Nam Tha. We were looking forward to this place as its quite far north and supposed to be less touristy but very scenic. We shared a tuk tuk with a Swiss fella who now lives in Laos, so he gave us some info on places to go. WE stayed in a nice hotel and had a canny meal that night. Next day it was back onto a scooter for a trip around to see the temples and the local waterfall. All good until we stopped for lunch/tea and sat in a nice place while the heavens opened outside! …torrential rain and thunderstorm! … we gave up on any ideas about going trekking 🙁 so went to the bus station to book a ticket to Vang Vieng ..running out of fuel in the scoot about 30m short of the petrol station lol.
16 hours on a bus to Vang Vieng!!! ..at least it was a proper coach style bus ….and the roads werent too bad after the first couple of hours….. though the music on the bus WAS! …shocking and loud right up to 01:30 am!!! Eventually arived in the dark with drunks everywhere and it raining 🙁 a tuk tuk driver tried to rip us off, but I gave him a hard time and didnt pay him at all in the end 😉
We eventually got sorted in the Banana Bungalows …great little wooden shack beside the river and with great views of the surrounding mountains. Next day we rose to a couple of hot air balloons sailing right over us, almost within touching distance! I did a deal with the owner and got a better ensuite room for the same price 🙂 Lots of great eateries here …so we found one we liked and ate a lot of curries and sticky pancakes there 🙂 ..and some beers and milkshakes, sitting on short benches with amazing view. I did a walk up the local viewpoint which was quite a stiff walk …and a lot of fun …with great views.
We bumped into Matt and Lea again! ..so had more beers with them. We hired a scoot again and did a trip to the blue lagoon …fabulous proper blue water and the BIG cave …lovely big cave …we managed to get lost in! Lol After that I ordered a visa for Vietnam (giving away my passport to some random in the prodcess! and booked a bus to the 4 thousand Islands. I couldnt sleep that night so went for a midnight walk along the Mekong …was lush sitting in the dark, watching the stars and listening to the bars close and people go home.
Last brekkie with Matt & Lea and we were off to VV 🙂 we had one bus to Vientaine, then swapped to a Disney bus (?) to Pakse. Was a canny laugh on the bus …it was a sleeper again – and with a free meal too 🙂 unfortunately, in the morning we hit a buffalo and her calf and the bus suffered a puncture. As we waited for the repair, we realised that both the buff had died of injuries 🙁 We had to swap buses to finish the journey.
At Pakse, we had missed our transfer bus, so jumped on another bus to take us to the Mekong (again) at the river, we got on a slow boat to take us to Don Khon – our destination.
We walked along the river a little till we found somewhere that looked cheap enough 😉 …it was – $5 for the night, but it was a tiny little basic room with a cold water shower out the back. The good news was that we had hammocks out the front on the verandah overhanging the river. Very scenic with bamboo trees, kids playing in the canoe boats etc. we had brekkie in another nice little restaurant with the low seats on platforms (great way to eat!) then went for a walkaround finding a ruined school building, an old bridge and a great beach area. The next day we hired cycles and toured around the area, finding more scenic areas and an old choo choo train which used to run over the old bridge we’d previously found. We also had a great coffee at the bamboo bar and a walk along the waterfalls across the Mekong – there’s a fault line here more or less at the border to Cambodia so there are stunning cataracts as the level of the riverbed changed by 20m or so.
We also had a sunset riverboat cruise out into te delta area, passing the busier resort where the ‘young folk’ go….. among the great sights has to be the peeps playing in the river on a sandy beach …..and the water buffalo lying in the water between them!
Last day of me and Nad together and she was off to catch a bus and continue with her trip (heading eventually to Oz) I had a walk along the river (meeting the french candaian chick and some guys from Leeds we met on the ‘crash bus’)
CAMBODIA!
Then it was my turn to leave – heading back to the mainland and on a bus to the Cambodian border …. where I handed over my passport and $30 to another random! Chatted to frenchie canadian again and waited for an age in some border shops while our visas arrived. – and watched a charlie chaplin movie on an old TV!
Then we were off again thru the border and heading to Kompong Cham. At KC, it was dark when I arrived and I just wanted somewhere to sleep so paid $3 for the crappiest room ever woith the worst bathroom ever! Next morning I checked the location of a nice hotel and walked over the new – impressive- bridge and off to where I thought it might be …. it wasnt. I eventually asked for directions, but no-one spoke english or knew the name of the hotel I was looking for. As I walked off from asking, the fella caught me up on his scooter and beckoned for me to get on ….he then took me and my bliidy big rucksack back over the bridge and into the centre of town, straight to my hotel! …what a nice guy! … the hotel was FAB! …VERY impressive room and hotel WITH WiFi!! for $10 (hey, I’m worth it) I then hired a scoot and tripped off to the market for some crazy street food and then back over that bridge again and tried to climb the old lighthouse …except I bottled it…metal staircase as far too shakey – as was I! Lol
I really enjoyed KC had a nice feel to it: there’s a bamboo bridge that I think is rebuilt each year …very scenic! ….had a nice ride over it, drank more coconut, visited lots of temples and ate loads of street food. Its also Cambodian new year so there were hordes of scoots with 5 and 6 peeps on them all around the streets! ..great night for sightseeing!
Enough of that its time to go to Siem Reap. I arrived on the bus and got settled into my guest house/hostel then hired a cycle and trotted off to the temples.
AMAZING! …the temple complex aaround Siem Reap are incredible! ..amazing architecture, so different to anything else ..and so intricate in detail carvings on EVERY surface! …truly an incredible place Even the gate entrances to the area are immense and imposing. Next day was same again but touring more of the temples almost littered around …including the Lara Croft temple of doom with its trees erupting thru ancient walls.
Coincidence: I sat at brekkie at the hostel thingy chatting to a frenchy type fella who tells me he works in Whitehorse, Yukon,Canada …we eventually realised that we worked for the same person: Jackie of the Hart to Hart farm! …what a small world!
More temples and more ‘Jack Fruit milkshakes’ (my new fave) and I found ‘pub street’ where all the young folk (and some oldies) go to get hammered and eat actually really good Cambodian food (a tuk tuk ride, 3 x beers, fa chicken caesar salad and a Temple Bar t shirt for £9.50! – I also bumped into some elderly yank folk that I met at the Laos border (feels like a lifetime ago)
Enough of temples…lets go to Phohm Penn

Pnohm Penn is a proper city with asian markets and old ruined and rough buildings and a very wide section of the Mekong river – but I REALLY like it! … had a great walk around and coffee/brekkie in some riverfront restaurants. I hired a scooter which gave me the craziest ride of my life: no-one takes ANY notice of any roadsigns, or ettiquette …it is complete mayhem and madness on the city roads …COMPLETE madness!!! …but fun 😉 Eventually that night I sat in the night food market and ate all manner of foods the cook cooked to roder in front of me on a market satll … then I sat on a rush mat amid loads of locals and tourists alike! …. great way to eat. Then off to the restaurant bars to have a beer.
I got chatting to a french girl/lady – Nadia fro mPAris …who eventually told me she had fallen for the ‘niece going to your country would you talk to her” scam ….ending in her playing cards for BIG money – she lost $2000!! ..and they were going to pick her up in the morning for more! I told her I would pick her up in the morning and make sure nowt bad happened. As it happened they saw me talking to her and drove off without stopping that morning. I rode my scoot to Cheung Ek …the infamous ‘killing fields” genocidal centre. What a place …you can still see bone shards and clothing gradually coming out of the ground as the rains wash the soil away – incredibly sad place 🙁 Then I went to the Khmer Rouge prison in the centre of town. Again, a very sad place – how people can do these things to each other is beyond me!
The rest of my time in PP was a blur of temples, palaces, coffee and salads ..and a nice night with Nadia and her friends.
I then booked a bus trip to Vietnam, Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City)…taking a great cambodian massage before I left.
I met a dutch guy (Martijn) on the bus to Saigon …who told me about a great holiday island I could go to ..more of that later.
At PP I got a taxi to my hotel which was pretty cheap and also quite nice. Spent the next day having a great time walking the city streets and drinking strong coffee in a variety of coffee shops including one in a park with a group of ladies practising some kind of martial art/dance/keep fit thing with swords! I also visited the American War museum – my first lesson: only us westerners call it the Vietnam war…..the museum has some great war machinery in the grounds outside and a whole lot of propaganda inside …but hey! – I do believe we are the masters of both ‘in your face’ and subliminal propaganda so, who’s to say who’s worse?
A great night market meal of bbq kidneys, rice and beer and I was tucked up in bed ready for the fun and guns of the Cu Chi tunnels!
I took a bus from the city centre and hoped the driver understood what I wanted …eventually another passenger who spoke a little english told me it was time to get off and another Viet guy beckoned for me to follow him 🙂 we walked a ways with virtually no conversation tho it was kinda nice in a strange way ..eventually we got in to the main entrance, padi our dues and then he was led away while I had to sit and watch the ultimate I crap propaganda – an ancient b&w video of the struggle against the american invaders! ..”kill the americans” was displayed or shouted at every opportunity! … finally it finished and a uniformed fella took me on a guided trip thru the bush to show me the tunnels, traps and trenches dug by ‘charlie’ it was quite enlightening seeing how they did it and how small the tunnels are (the normal tourist area has been opened up to allow the “fat americans” thru, apparently)
had a nice chat with the guide over yet another pineapple (my staple diet nowadays, it seems) talking about the war quite openly and guiding and UK life – he told me a lot about it lol
once Id finished, I bought a couple of AK47 memento rounds for Tucker back home and then headed to the range 🙂 … where I paid to shoot the crap out of some targets with an AK47 and then an M60 machine gun on ‘auto’ LUSH!!! that thing makes one hell of a noise!
I finished the day off back in Saigon at Crazy Buffalo bar having a couple of beers and watching the flashing lights 🙂
Final day in Saigon was spent walking about and visiting the saddest zoo in the world: everything looked crazy: asian ellies dancing to and fro, leopards pacing back and forwards, a completely bald and sored lion lying in a fitful sleep, the only good part was watching as the staff opened a divider to allow a male and female tiger together …she wasnt happy lol Finally I took a trip up the highest building in SE Asia and bought a pair of rip-off BEATS headphones 🙂 …and bought a flight to Con Dao island (thanks Martijn!!!)
Con Dao island was historically a prison island: first by the french, then the americans, and finally by the Viet. Its a sleepy place thats trying to grow up and join in the money game …thankfully its not winning at the moment. That means theres not a lot going on! 🙂 not many restaurants, one coffee shop and a couple of bars …but long empty beaches, jungley walks over mountains and lots of empty hotels.
I got sorted in one and after unpacking went for a walk along the town beach …lovely beach with lots of small ‘junk’ fishing boats parked up ..and a gazillion of the worst biting sand flies ve ever known! ..MAN they HURT!!! the day ended with a meal by myself and then a good sleep. Next day and the heavens had opened ….strong strong winds and torrential rain 🙁 …I stayed in most of the day. After hiring a scooter, I visited one of the islands prison buildings (with infamous ‘tiger cages’ where the guards walk along the grilled open top cells and poured anything they wanted on the unfortunates below A ride around the island showed there were prison buildings of one sort or another all over the place :/
The island did have some beautiful sights tho … the fishing boats are incredibly photogenic and a visit to the fishing port and eating Banh Mi (spicy brekkie sandwich) turned me into a bit of a spectacle I think – lots of people walking behind me and wanting their photos taken ..lot of fishermen posing on their boats … lorra fun to be had! 🙂
Back in ton I changed to a cheaper hotel (actually part of the taxi driver’s house!) really nice tho 🙂 then I found I couldnt get OFF the island! ..the weatehr was too bad for the ferry (which apparently isnt for tourists anyhoo and the plane is booked for weeks!!! seems the island IS a prison again!

I left the UK straight after the Silverstone MotoGP in June and after a nice flight (including Dubai to Joburg on a lush A380) I stayed overnight in the Dove’s Nest motel – as usual.
Next day I got the Gautrain down to Park station and after a bit of a headache, managed to get on the bus up to Polokwane., where I was picked up by Annelien and Ruby and transported up to Pont Drift border post. A short drive later and I was back ‘home’
First jobs were a tractor carb rebuild and repair the electric fence around Annalien’s lawn – destroyed by Springhares 🙁 )
The first highlight of this trip for me – apart from seeing my Tuli family – was a 3m rock python we found on our way to party at Mohave camp. It was very chilled at the side of the road and stayed for photos and tea (prolly) though it did get a bit excited when I picked up its tail to see if it was male or female! lol
It seemed a bit strange being back in the bush and meeting Josh and his girlfriend Tash, who were now the student coordinator(s) ..Josh grew up in Tuli (Craig – his dad- sold the business to Stuart!) but I soon got acclimatised -after having our semi-resident 5 lions in camp twice in a week! A week later we had the first of our annual school groups: Cowan House from KZN
We had a great week and the kids really seemed to enjoy themselves (as did Pam their organiser and nurse) – we’d seen the lions during a ‘call-up’, a great daytime sighting of a female cheetah and had a sleepout at Bedrock.
As is becoming the norm nowadays, I had my birthday in Tuli – we had a good old evening around the campfire with lashings of Hunters cider and LMP (lemon meringue pie) The next morning I ended up driving to our leopard cage to check if we’d caught anything: I was SO ill with hangov…..bad tummy from a bad pie, or summat. I couldnt even SPEAK to the students. As we arrived at the cage we found a female leopard in the cage! ..We were after a male, so had to release this one (no mean feat, with a very angry leopard and a very hungover Chuggy!!!
After that I had a couple of weeks with both students AND guests (one of the students being a complete pain and only wanting to take photographs, whilst the french family were absolutely lovely! We had some great sightings, which sadly included a young ellie which we saw on a consecutive days – separated from its mother and herd ..it died from dehydration in front of us 🙂 We also had our lions making an Eland calf kill and returning to the carcass the next night, where we also found a leopard skulking around the bush …the leopard tried to leave without being seen by Mabella (dining on the eland) but it ran straight into Sebatana behind us, and had a quick but VERY loud fight, before disappearing off into the bush!
Once the Clifton school group arrived, I shared the Trails camp with ‘Uncle Mikey’ and we had a great time showing the kids around and teaching them a bit about the animals and the bush. We also had Gabby at our camp, which meant the food organised/supplied by Annelien and granny was always well cooked and served ….and the camp was run perfectly (including warm water in our handwashes outside the tents every morning!!!)
As soon as the schools left, Tucker arrived for a 10 day holiday! …great to see him out there and to see wot I get up to
We spent some time in Mohave camp with the students, some time in small tents out in the bush (Bedrock area) on our own and a night or 2 in semi-luxury at Serolo camp
sadly we didnt get to see the lions – despite trailing their fresh tracks over Eagle Rock and having a mad dash to catch up with the students who HAD seen all 5 lions 🙁
still, there were plenty of ellies around and we got to see Lobatse (cheetah) and her cub nice and close. Sadly we also got to see one of our female leopards very close-up: she had been killed by a male leopard 🙁 She was buried after taking the usual carcass measurements)
We had a nightmare of a sleepout too – we pitched up at Leopard koppie and set fire, ate some nice food and just bedded down, when a gale force sandstorm blew up …..it was terrible, with the fire being almost blown out, gale force winds, sand everywhere in our sleeping bags etc.
We managed to get thru the night – but only just!
One of the highlights of Tuckers trip was deffo the Pels Fishing Owl we saw in trees at Pels Pools (strangely enough 😉 )
More great students came and went …we had a lot of fun (pertickly with the TUSK group: Erin, Zoe, Petra & Roman) and Josh and Tash had to leave(Tash cos she’s heavily pregnant now and Josh cos he upset the govt. peeps by working without permit!) Jordan (Josh’ mate) replaced him – we had a lorra laffs going out on drives and walks together – nice guy (for a South African 😉
For a period of time we also had a clan of spotties (hyaena) move into a rocky home near Elephant neck. We regularly walked in there and got within a metre! there were 4 pups – 2 of approx 3 weeks and 2 of approx 7 weeks. Fabulous to get so close to them and see cubbens so small 🙂

HOLIDAY!!!
As planned Stuart, Annelien and kids together with me and the legend that is Johannes, drove up to Nata to meet Chris and Jackie with their daughter Christelle and 2 other vehicles with families (Petrius and co. and Albi & co.) We stayed in Nata for one night, then drove across to Planet Baobab, Nxai pans to Baines Baobabs, then on to Audi camp in Maun for out next night.
The Okavango delta was next – entering the South Gate and making our way past 1st and 2nd Bridges to stay at 3rd bridge for a night – where a spotty joined us for our braai! (literally appearing in the ring of faces, mush to the surprise of those either side of it!! lol
Following day it was North to Savuti and into Linyanti camp – though we were quite late due to Chris’ car having fuelling problems. We also had a fabulous view of Wild Dogs whilst Albi got his car stuck in sand 🙂
Linyanti is a great area – plenty of ellies, hippo, buffs, etc. and lots of water!
Next up is Chobe and into Kasane, staying at the Toro camp. Nice place to stay right beside the river. We also had a river (booze) cruise (my first proper drinking session on Southern Comfort!)
Next we split up with the other 3 cars staying whilst they stayed and Tigerfished in the Zambezi, the Tuli family crossed into Zimbabwe to check out the delights of Vic Falls. 2 minor altercations with the wonderful zim police force later (fined for various road offences and Stuart lucky not to get arrested for aggression against them!) we set up home in a nice and cheap lodge. We shopped, drank coffee (repeatedly) had lunch at the Vic Falls hotel and watched peeps jump off the bridge in a variety of ways (usually tethered to the bridge by some means)
Back to Kasane for the night then an early rise and set off to Elephant Sands – Ive stayed here before and its fabulous for ellie watching 🙂 – we set up camp and immediately were passed by a troop of ellies (all male) 🙂 We had a few beers that night and then the next morning JUST missed the Wild dog pack coming to drink at the waterhole 🙁 …a few beers during the day and a saunter around in the Beast (VX Landcruiser) and then back to base to watch a constant stream of ellies at the hole, and then a wild dog pack! ..I got fairly close to them as they approached which was pretty special B| The rest of our stay was full of ellies and Wild dogs and leopard tracks in the morning! I love this place 🙂
After our 3rd night here, we left and headed back thru Francistown back home

Back at the ranch, we had plenty sightings of cheetah, lion and ellies…..and a fabulous almost hour long viewing of an Aardwolf!
I had a day in South Africa at Mapungubwe for the Children in the Wilderness camp. and then lots of student walks and drives (and parties) lots of car maintenance and a prolonged stay at the House whilst Stuart was away.
Another fabulous, wonderful amazing Tuli break.

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I was fairly knackered and a little dehydrated when I got there, so I filled up with burger and chips, an electrolyte drink and lots of water. Curious place – its a tiny little town ...very remote and looks a ... [Continue reading this entry]

The next few days were a mix of sunshine and rain so I didnt get too much use out of the hostels rooftop loungers. I spent a lot of time walking around the city – which I quite liked – despite ... [Continue reading this entry]

I arrived on a cold night and fell straight asleep in my dorm room at the YHA Central (Melbourne) woke up in the morning to a sunny start (that was about to change) so I headed out to find my car. I ... [Continue reading this entry]