KENYA . THE END

Mood status: A little sad!

Location: Hotel room, Nairobi

Last night in Africa and last post ever! I’m going to miss seeing elephants on the roadside. And romantic sunsets. And regularly drenching myself in mosquito repellent. And powdered milk. And tin crockery. Not the bush toilets though.

Before my goodbyes, some quick dot points and photos on what we got up to on the last couple of days:

• Maasai village walk visiting a local school and snakebite clinic
• Maasai dress-up party
• Elephant orphanage
• Giraffe conservation program

Africa. Beautiful Africa. As our tour driver said to us during goodbyes, “spread the gospel”, and that I will! It is a beautiful place with beautiful people, and it’s shit how it’s got such a bad reputation. Yes, there are people and places that are dangerous and you have to be a little more vigilant there than in other countries, but it’s nowhere near as bad as what a lot of people think it is.

But the most important thing is that these are people who need help. I know it sounds cliché and lame but if you go to Africa and don’t see the plight of the people there, I actually don’t know what could ever touch your heart. Do what I did and go there for a holiday or for whatever selfish reason you want, it doesn’t matter. You’ll leave thinking more about them than yourself, I guarantee it. While I don’t know exactly what I can do to help, at least I want to (and eventually will). And anything - whether it be travelling, movies, music, whatever - that can motivate people to care for others is always, always a good thing.

Huge, huge thanks to those who read my rambles over the past month. I’m extremely surprised but very appreciative that it received over 750 views! I honestly thought that there would be maybe 5-10 of you avid readers out there - unless there is, and you each just check the page religiously and in that case an even bigger thank you. For me, writing is the new photography when it comes to my travels!

Go see Africa for yourself. Seriously.

TANZANIA . MORE AND MORE EPHELANTS

Mood status: Bittersweet – only one day left!

Location: Internet Café in Arusha, Tanzania

Can you believe that the campsite that we’re staying at is called Snake Park? SNAKE PARK. Goddamn. Public enemy #1. Nothing sends a shiver down my spine quicker than the mere thought of a snake. But I’m traveling and with that comes trying new things so I thought, there’s no better time to try to get over my snake phobia. Here is a photo of me holding my first – and last - snake ever.

So much has happened over the past few days it’s going to be hard to tell you all of it in the short time I have now. We’ve been on a 3 day excursion to Serengeti National Park and to the Ngorongoro Crater where almost all species that are famous to Africa call home.

The Serengeti is strangely vast and flat, and dotted with rock formations every now and then, very Lion King-esque. The Ngorongoro Crater is a large, unbroken, unflooded volcani caldera which was formed some 2-3 million years ago when a giant volcano exploded and collapsed on itself. Some say that if this hadn’t occurred, the volcano would stand taller than Mt Kilimanjaro. Camping on the rim of the crater itself, had us located higher than the tip of Mt Kosciusko. As cool as it was, it was bloody cold.

We had three days of amazing game driving where we saw all animals but one – the leopard. The pesky leopard. At least he’s given me a reason to return to mother Africa.

Like the game drive at Kruger, I can’t really say much about the experience that would really give you guys a good sense of what it’s like. It’s just amazing and definitely bucket-list worthy. What I can say though, is at all costs, avoid having a hangover on a safari as the combination of a weak stomach and a bumpy ride will have you leaving a trail of vomit and bile around Tanzania. Possibly know this through experience...

TANZANIA . VROOOOM!

Mood status: Heart-racing!

Location: Streets of Zanzibar, Tanzania

We were just in a wild car chase!!!

The craziest thing just happened. A van was driving extremely erratically and hit our maxi-taxi, and then sped off! So the driver – who was in charge of 14 shocked and stunned tourists - decided to give chase and began swerving, driving on the wrong side of the road and cutting corners at ridiculous speeds!

*Indicative only

As we were chasing the van, we saw people jumping out of the back and legging it. Maybe about 10 minutes into the chase, the van veered off the road and into a ditch, which meant that we were able to come up behind him and block him in.

Our driver was SO angry by this stage. He got out of the taxi, went up to the other driver and yanked him out of the drivers seat and strangely – put him in the back of the maxi-taxi with all of us there! He then yelled something out in Swahili to the van driver who was clearly drugged up on something, yanked him back out of the taxi and started pushing him around. By this stage, a large group of locals had started congregating around the scene trying get in on all the action.

Another taxi was called for us and so we missed out on all the drama that would have unfolded between our other taxi driver and the van driver who had made their way to the police station.

We’re all safe thank God and wouldn’t ever want to be in that situation again, but to say the very least, it was probably the most thrilling thing to have happened to us on our trip!

TANZANIA . UGLY

Mood status: An absolute feral

Location: Still on the white sandy beaches of Zanzibar, Tanzania

Thought I’d post a quick one about a photo shoot that’s happening on the beach at this very moment. It’s for a German clothing company that is equivalent to our Myers.

Rule #1: You do not bring bikini models to a beach full of people who have been camping for 3 weeks.

Revise:

Rule #1: You do not bring Brazilian and Puerto Rican bikini models to a beach full of dirty, hairy girls who have been camping for 3 weeks and eaten mountains of high-carb foods day in, day out.

Rule #2: Please, just please. Not when we’re all hungover too.