Jakey Jake

Thursday 10th June
Tonight we arrived at Kandi beach on the northern western end of lake malawi, after stopping in nhakotakota for a brief look at a pottery place and to see some history, this is where most of the slaves came before being shipped to other destinations. Kandi was pretty windy but it was also a prety picturesque beach. We pulled in just before sunset, giving us enough time to pitch tents and get ready for dinner, which was chicken and chips with salad. Tonight i played a couple of games of pool before retiring to my humble abode with sun tzus art of war.

Wednesday 9th June
We barely made it up in time, and corrado was nowhere to be seen (he went out with his friend the night before). after quickly packing the tent up and having breaky we were off, we had another hitcher, this time it was an aussie from frankston, named dave, not anywhere near as attractive as naomi but he was still good conversation. anyway the bus trip was 10.5 hours. i managed to do a lot of reading, I finished the carl jung autobiography. That was a damn insightful book on the human psyche, he was a brilliant man. The drive took us through a lot of zambian country. Its very scenic, i think the trees are the best thing so far. They have very few limbs until you get near the top of the tree and then they spread out like some old decrepit fingers that have no leaves… they are amazing. and all the little villages that we go through with their huts and all the people on the side of the roads waving or asking for money and the women carrying all their stuff on their heads. Its pretty beautiful country. We still havent seen game though, so im really looking forward to that, what elese do you come to africa for?? the big FIVE

Tuesday 8th June
This morning we left at 9am and we had a few people catch the bus with us to lasaka. none of us boys were in much of a talking mode, even though naomi that caught a lift with us was very cute, the booze had taken its toll. so we spent the first hour looking at photos and stuff and then the next few hours sleeping. In the end i struck up a conversation with our hitchhikers and i got along well with naomi, she ended up giving me a few places to check out while i was in london and some of her friends to meet up with. SO that was really good. Once we got to lasaka we said goodbye and we left for our camping ground. Lasaka actually had a tall building which was standing on what seemed to be stilts, it also had subway and KFC but distinctly lacked a mc Donalds. unfortuantely we didnt get to check it out as out camping ground was a fair way out. we eneded up playing pool with these south african guys at the bar there who were adamant that tanzania was by far the best place in africa. we had an early start in the morning so it was early to bed for me

Monday 7th June
We woke up fairly early as we wanted to get across the border and i still hadnt seen vic falls. So i ran down there just on 8am. What an amazing sight. The zambezi river flows down to this gorge where it falls 93m into a cavern. Its a little hard to see as the spray comes rushing up the other side of the gorge and sprays water all over you and leaves a misty haze that looks much like a cloud. still what you can manage to see is impressive to say the least. I managed to get some ariel views from a guy that flew over it so you can get a good idea from those. anyway i had to run to get back to the camp to get to zambia. on the way i encountered a plethora of africans selling me whatever warez they had, namely wood carvings and bone engravings. They all seem to want to give me a special price, as they did in asia, but these guys even “liked my jeans, and my shoes are kewl eh”…. chris managed to get an ashtray and a comb for 22.000, 2 condoms, 2 batteries and the pair of socks he was wearing. classic. Anyway my impression of the people here is a bit edgy, they seem pretty friendly and fun but there seems to be some underlying cynicism, possibly to do with magabe, but then you cant talk about that can you???

Sunday 6th June
We woke early because Corrado, John, the truck driver, and i were going to try out bungee jumping off the second highest bungee bridge. well i hate heights and i thought i would be able to conquer my fear. alas i succumbed to my fears only after paying 75USD and walking right to the edge. yer maybe im a wuss… but im a more alive and less stressed wuss.. maybe another time (the hangover certainly didnt help). i spent the rest of the day just relaxing and recovering. Everyone else went off to do things like fly over the vic falls or go horse riding. sleep was the better option for me, and reading i got through quite a lot of my book which was productive and i managed to get an early night.

Saturday 5th June
I awoke to the sound of the most deafening thunder ive ever heard. It made me imagine just how incredibly rough the sea around the cape of good hope could get. Its no wonder many sailors lost their lives around this point. Im glad it woke me as i had to be up very early to catch my plane to zambia. In fact it wasnt zambia it was zimbabwe, victoria falls to be exact. I had no dossier of the tour, no idea where they were staying or where we were supposed to meet. On the plane i met a guy named clive from joberg who was a graphic designer, he was a pretty kewl guy, and we got chatting about software and stuff. which kept my mind off the fact that i was completely unsure of what i was supposed to be doing once i landed. Apparently i was going to be greeted by the four horsemen and the apocolypse, but it didnt end in tragedy thankfully. the taxi driver knew kamuka and where they stayed. It was at the shoestring camping gound. im kewl with camping, i just wish i hadve known that we were going to be camping and i wouldve brought more than a sleeping bag. useless buggers kamuka are. anyway once i arrived at the grounds i met up with our tour leader, she was a bit of a cutie. so i thought that was all good, and then i was introduced to the rest of the gang. There was only 5 of us, all men. Jeremy from perth who is a pharmacist, Chris from LA who was a graphic designer, Corrado from Italy who im not sure of his profession, and Joe who is german and was an engineer. anyway there were others from the grounds who we met up with and we ended up going out to the local pub, explorers, for numerous drinks, and then we were off to this guys place for a jaccuzzi party. … bizaarr introduction to africa to say the least.

Friday 4th June 
I had a pretty bad hangover this morning so i decided to walk down to the waterfront, which i was told was pretty dangerous. I didnt have a problem and i was carrying a digital camera around. Guess it helps that im 6′4 and fairly solid. Today i pretty much sat in the cinema, i watched the day after tomorrow, starsky & hutch and the butterfly effect. Damn i missed the cinemas. I probably shouldve spent the day looking around capetown more and doing stuff but it was great just to chill out. didnt even go out this evening, just decided to read the carl jung book, its got me hooked… totally absorbing, and incredibly enlightening. Tomorrow i leave for zambia, hopefully ill be ok without a visa…

Thursday 3rd June
I awoke on the plane at about 5am south african time and looked out the window and saw the most incredible sunrise, i have a feeling im going to quite like africa, apart from perhaps the worry of being involved in some sort of violent crime, although so far had ben pretty safe and i had been through a civil war in nepal. stopped over in johannesburg for a couple of hours before taking another plane to capetown. I caught a shutle bus from the airport to long st, which is capetowns backpackers and nightclub precinct. Its a pretty bohemien sort of street but it does have a good feel to it. It was strange seeing so many africans wandering around, considering my experience with them was fairly limited, i was pretty wary of them. I asked the guy working at the backpackers what i could get up to this arvo and he said that the ferry out to the prison nelson mandella was kept in was a good bet, i also told him i wanted to throw myself out of a plane and swim with the great white sharks and i only had tomorrow to do both. He said he didnt think it could be done but he would call around. so off i went to the waterfront precinct to catch the boat. i bought a ticket for the 3pm session which was the last for the day, as i had just missed the 2 oclock. so i wandered around teh waterfront, its very beautiful, even more so after having been in asia. Capetown looks incredible with table mountain in the background. I went back to the dock at 2.45 and waited until 3 but they put over an announcement that the boat was to be delayed. 20 mintues later they annouced it was canceled, so much or the tour. I got my refund and decided to go and watch the movie troy. pretty good film although i dont like eric bana as an actor. afterwards i went out on long st, made a few freinds and probably got a bit too drunk and made a bit of a fool of myself, ahh well these things we do I wasnt going to be able to skydive and swim with the sharks so the guy at reception asked me what i wanted to do, i said swim with the sharks as i can skydive other places. He tried calling around but they were all full… so instead of tomorrows anticipated excitement, i had nothing to do…

Wednesday 2nd June
What a trip, i cant beleive how fast this tour has gone, and weve covered sooooo much damn ground. This morning we arrive in shanghai, i really want to get teh new maglev train to the airport, but well see how that goes, considering mikes directions are a little on the weak side, scratch that, they are appaling, often hes pointing left and saying right, so you try and clarify where it is you are going and hell say something completely different like keep going straight its upstairs. beewildered and confused you set out knowing that you have the hotel card so the taxi can return you to whence you came. anyway hopefully at the stopover in hong kong ill be able to get my carl jung book. but who knows??? South africa here i come I did managr to catch the maglev train, but not quite the way i had wanted. Instead of the taxi dropping me at the station in the city and then catching the train to the airport, he decided to drive as fast as the maglev and take me to the aiport… obviously Mike had told him the wrong thing so i had to get a return ticket and do a round trip from the airport. Its pretty awesome, it does 33km in less than 8 minutes, topping out at 431kmph. Anyway i almost missed my plane because of it, useless taxi driver and he was pulled over by the police for speeding on the way there. Once i was in my seat on a south africa airlines flight (a brand new plane) i was ready to catch some zzzzs and watch some new movies. Bye bye china…

Tuesday 1st June
What a wonderful sleep in i managed to have. I even had my breakfast order written down by mike the night before so i wouldnt have a problem getting the breakfast i wanted. so i got up and left the room only to realise i had left the note wiht the order in the room. Not wanting to wake charles up i figured i would go to the internet cafe for a while and check my mail. None loves me to be expected really, and aza still hasnt replied, thats almost two weeks now… c’mon aza where are you?? i went back to get my order, then i went down to the restraunt only to be told NO…. arrrrrgh. DAMN IT… i figured it was because the kitchen was closed… i found out later that the kitchen was open and serving brekky til 12…. why on earth did she say no????????? anyway im outta here tomorrow… the end of my asia tour… only 4 more continents to go….