journal entries
Jul 05: [DW] Land of Pharaohs
Jun 05: [TS] Crazy Cairo
May 05: [TS] Sudan
Apr 05: [DW] Serengeti
Apr 05: [TS] Bandit Zone
Mar 05: [DW] Rwanda
Mar 05: [TS] Zanzibar
Mar 05: [TS] Into Interior
Mar 05: [DW] Ethiopia
Feb 05: [TS] Nile Challenge
Feb 05: [TS] The Pilgrimage
Jan 05: [TS] Mtwara
Jan 05: [DW] Tanzania
Jan 05: [TS] Wheel Clamped
Dec 04: [TS] Madagascar
Dec 04: [DW] Malawi
Dec 04: [TS] Mozambique
Nov 04: [DW] Okavango Delta
Nov 04: [DW] Zimbabwe
Nov 04: [DW] Botswana
Nov 04: [DW] Sesriem & on
25 Oct 04:
[DW] To Sun City
22 Oct 04:
[TS] Etosha Nat Park
18 Oct 04: [TS] Namibia
2 Oct 04:
[TS] Lesotho
28 Sep 04:
[DW] Wild Animals
24 Sep 04:
[DW] Wild Coast
16 Sep 04: [TS] Garden Route
9 Sep 04: [TS] Arrival
Aug 04: [TS] Intro
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introduction
some time in August 2004
Tom Sako and Damien Waterford are at it again, this time taking on the African Continent. It spans more than 30 million square kilometres and has more than 700 million people speaking nearly 1000 different languages. Someone once said that the darkest thing about Africa has always been our ignorance of it. There are over 50 countries in Africa. We hear very little about these countries and what we do hear from people or see on television is generally not very positive. On a previous trip to South and Central America we had heard about those countries in a similar way, yet once we got there we were able to see for ourselves how the people of these places were really like and it wasn't what we had seen on television and read in the newspapers. This time we will be keeping a journal and will be updating this site with short stories and pictures along the way. Tom is a plumber from Lugarno, Sydney and Damien a landscaper originally from Lightning Ridge but now residing in Telopia, Sydney. We have no political agenda just a willingness to explore and experience for ourselves the goings on of this planet.
Our planned six week trip to South America ended up taking nine months, so to say we are going to Africa for nine months could mean just that or ...well .. yeah. Some of the things we did in South America included the Rio carnival, took a four day boat trip up the Amazon river which served up meat, sawdust, black goo and transparent potatoes (didn't eat it for the first two days and then couldn't get enough of it for the last two), watched the Boca Juniors v River Plate grudge soccer match in Buenos Aires, got accused of burning down a bridge in the south of Chile, went on a five day boat trip up the Chilian coast battling eight metre seas, went skiing on the highest ski resort in the world in Bolivia, riding on top of trains in Peru, had a go at voting in the Equadorian election, met a guy in Columbia who had the worst knife scar on his face imaginable, got a taste of the Caribbean off the coast of Venezuela, bought a car in Costa Rica and ended up leaving it at JFK airport carpark (tried to give it away the day before in the streets of New York to this negro guy who asked us for some coins. After giving him a handful of coins from the console, we offered him the car. Walking away holding his coins he was saying "no way man" and you could see the whites in his eyes as he was giving us the how mad do you think I am look), went to Norlins for the blues festival, lost a $6000 consignment of opal for a week, climbed to the top of an active volcano in Guatemala (erupting every 30-40 seconds throwing lava high into the sky), helped someone move on from their home and country, bartering with the Mexican army over a minor infringement (looking in the boot of our car, they first wanted my Reeboks then my sleeping bag then Damiens camera. I think we gave them 50 million pesos which is about $2), fed piranas teaspoons and other stuff.
The plan to get around Africa will start in Cape Town, South Africa. Purchase a car there that will take us up to Namibia then across the Kalahari desert in Botswana and onto Mozambique, Tanzania and Kenya. We have been told that it is difficult to get a car into Sudan or even across the middle of the continent through the Democratic Republic of Congo. Actually we were told its impossible so we expect to leave the car and fly into Sudan and then go down the Nile river into Egypt. See some of North Africa and then head towards West Africa.
Some of the things we expect to be doing is to see some of the South African national parks and coastline, check out the Skeleton Coast (hate to think why they call it that), whitewater rafting down the Zambezi River (some of the individual names of the rapids are The Pearly Gates, The Mother, Three Ugly Sisters, Creamy White Buttocks, Gnashing Jaws of Death and so on) should The Pearly Gates be the first or last rapids? Taste the snow on Kilimanjaro before it disappears, listen to plenty of African music, give the Zimbabwe cricketers some help, see the Great Rift Valley believed to be the birthplace of humanity (was it the atom, was it the big fella or is it just a good place for a . . . .), whitewater rafting down the Congo River (a friend told me the monkeys on one side of the river were aggressive killers and on the other side calm tranquil creatures) we'll be studying the monkeys on the way down the river to decide which side to moor up on, check out historical Zanzibar, retrace some of Stanley and Livingstone's tracks but hopefully not go through their hardships, possibly use the grapple tackle and the flop to bring down a lion in the Masai region etc.
The West African countries such as The Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo and Benin interest us very much as we don't hear about this region. Maybe nothing happens there? Or maybe they're plotting to take over the world by making voodoo dolls of us all and then having a big burn off. I think we should see if we can find out where they're hiding the big stash of dolls. Better get going and we'll update this site as often as possible.
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