Africa

Zambian BBQ

2007-02-19T23:48:00.000+02:00

Back in Lusaka we got invited along to a BBQ to celebrate the birthday of Charles and David. Charles works with my Dad at Christian Voice in Zambia... David is his nephew and they share the same birthday. Here are some of the photos from the day...

Boat Trip

2007-02-19T23:37:00.000+02:00

In the evening we took a slow cruise up the Zambezi river to watch the sunset... the boat was called the African Queen and I got some awesome photos... check these out ;-)

Tiger Fish

2007-02-19T23:20:00.000+02:00

Now does anyone know which fresh water fish has the strongest fight in the world?.. yes that's right the TIGER FISH. Native to the waters of the Zambezi it was an opportunity to good to to be missed therefore I got up bright and early and headed up river to hunt me a Tiger.

I didn't get a single bight for three hours - however I didn't mind too much; cold beer in hand I just kicked back and took in the scenery. Then suddenly I caught two fish back to back... the first being a Bream (nice to eat)... and the second the legendary Tiger Fish! It gave a decent fight on the line but I manged to land it.

The highlight of the day was watching a female Fish Eagle (the Zambian national bird)... swoop down and snatch a fish right out of the water. I managed to capture this awesome moment on film!

The Mighty Zambezi

2007-02-19T12:31:00.000+02:00

A trip to Victoria Falls is not complete without a trip down the Mighty Zambezi river. At this time of year its in High Water and extremely powerful - therefore the boat of choice... White Water Rafting! The Zambezi is a mad river, full of large rapids (grade 5) which are just crying out to be ridden. Pete and I joinedA trip to Victoria Falls is not complete without a trip down the Mighty Zambezi river. At this time of year its in High Water and extremely powerful - therefore the boat of choice... White Water Rafting! The Zambezi is a mad river, full up with a group of others who were also in search of adventure on the rapids and booked in for a days rafting with some local guides.

I'd been rafting before in the French Alps; however that was quite tame and only a couple of people fell in... the Zambezi on the other hand is completely mental and took every opportunity to sallow us up, churn us around and then spit us out. We had two complete flips at rapids called Terminator 2 and Oblivion... which to our delight was captured on film.

Mosi-oa-Tunya

2007-02-19T11:38:00.000+02:00

'The Smoke that Thunders' - this the name given to Victoria Falls by the locals. I've loved spending three incredible days at this beautiful awe inspiring location. At this time of year there the Zambezi river which feeds the falls is very high, causing A LOT of water to pour over and create large clouds of vapor which then rain down as you take in the awesome sight. The noise of the falls sounds like the roar of an engine which increases to the point of deafening when standing directly opposite - you have to shout to on another just to be heard.

There's a permanent rainbow over the falls due to the year round sunshine and clouds of water vapor... at some places this turns into a complete 360 degree circle due the amount to water in the air. At certain points during the year there's even whats known as the lunar rainbow - this is a rainbow that appears at night, illuminated by the moon!

We are staying at the Zambezi Sun which as so close to the falls a drop of water vapor hits you as you walk around. In the evening you completely understand why the locals call it 'The Smoke that Thunders' as the clouds of vapor appear dark against the twilight sky.

Lusaka

2007-02-12T19:23:00.000+02:00

I've spent the last couple of days in Lusaka, Zambia's capital city. Its here where my Mum & Dad are spending a lot of there time... Christian Vision the charity which they work for have a farm here which is HUGE... It takes about 40 mins just to drive from one end to the other! On the farm there is a school, bible college and radio station. There's quite a few local families who live and work on the farm. There's loads of kids everywhere and as you walk they follow you around hiding behind trees and bushes!

The bible college is for training up church planters who are then sent off into rural Zambia to make disciples. The radio station broadcasts on FM into Lusaka and on short-wave to the rest of the country. The content is very evangelistic and aimed at sharing the gospel with as many people as possible... Christian Visions vision is to touch a billion people across the world with the gospel. Its awesome to see this in action first hand especially watching my Mum & Dad in their element!

On Tuesday morning we leave early to travel out to Livingston to spend 3 days at Victoria Falls. In true Zambian style we're traveling by bus (no aircon and NO TOILET!)... a six hour journey, the bus will be packed with locals so its going to be quite an experience. The country is very poor so there's not many cars (the roads have big potholes in so only 4x4 can travel around anyway!) This means most local people travel by bus or walk... you'll also often see many a Zambian packed into the back of a battered pick-up truck. The people are very friendly and are always smiling; they even wave as you pass by... just like London then?!
Below is a photo of the small house my Mum & Dad live in when in Zambia... lots of scorpions and spiders running around!

Catch of the Day

2007-02-09T22:02:00.000+02:00

On Thursday I was booked to go diving with Great White sharks... however to my disappointment the trip was canceled at the last minute due to bad weather. Instead we decided to visit Cape Town's botanical gardens which are on the southern side of Table Mountain. There's a lot more rainfall on the Southern side which gives the landscape a tropical jungle feel. If you compare this photo with my trip up table mountain earlier in the week then you'll clearly see the difference.

Once on the opposite side of Table Mountain I took the opportunity to visit Camps Bay & Clifton. This is where the rich and famous buy property overlooking the seafront and beaches. The wind here in the winter is often gale force and as you can see it has quite an effect on the trees... its not called the Cape of Storms for nothing!

On Friday we went on a fishing trip to hunt down the famous yellow fin tuna. These fish start at about 10kg and can grow over 100kg! The weather was not great following a cold front that had moved in over night... however we decided to go for it anyway and started out at 5am. Yellow fin tuna hunt in very deep water, therefore we had to drive out 30 miles off the coast which took a couple of hours through rough water. Once out there I caught a 60kg Yellow fin which put up quite a good fight for half an hour... now its in my belly ;-)

Welcome to the GUN show

2007-02-08T09:06:00.001+02:00

One of my coolest childhood moments happened when I was 12 years old which involved my Dad giving me a gun... ok so it was just an air-rifle; but to me as a 12 year old kid I'd just been given an 44 Magnum! On Wednesday I got to re-live some of those memories and fire off a few rounds with the genuine article. It appears the gun laws in South Africa are a little more relaxed than in the uk. In true John Wayne style our host for the day Sebastian appeared wearing one on his belt... apparently he feels naked without a gun with him at all times?! Anyway that worrying fact aside he did have a bag full of guns to play with and we were all wearing HUGE grins ;-)

We tried out 10 different weapons ranging from the tiny 22 through to one of the largest hand guns in the world the 454 Casull Raging Bull. Starting off with paper targets we quickly got our aim tuned in so we could move on to blowing up wood, bricks and water bottles. Other guns included detectives special colt 38, Glock, colt 45 and of course Dirty Harry's choice of gun the legendary 44 Magnum!

Once we'd finished with the handguns we moved on to some clay pigeon shooting with a pump action shotgun - my smile grew even wider as I pumped the shotgun to release the smoking cartridge between each shot. The climax of the day was blowing up water bottles with a sawn-off shotgun (apparently only useful for two things... blowing up water bottles and robbing banks!) This was a great way to cool down after a couple of hours of shooting in the sun.

Climbing Mountains

2007-02-07T12:04:00.000+02:00

From the moment I arrived in Cape Town and saw Table Mountain I've knew I just had to climb it. On Tuesday I convinced My Mum and Pete to give it go with me and attempted to climb up the very steep PlatteKlip Gorge. The path was a giant staircase made up of rocks and boulders... on some occasions we had to use our arms to pull ourselves up over some of the larger rock formations. We all made it to the top and it took us a couple of hours. Once at the top we were treated to some spectacular views of Cape Town. We all felt a real sense of achievement having climbed the mountain, especially as 99% of visitors use the cable car and miss out on the views as you climb.

On the return journey both Mum and Pete wanted to take the cable car back down which gave me the opportunity to go a little faster down the same route we had just come up. I gave myself the challenge of beating Mum and Pete to the bottom. There were quite a few loose stones on the path which made running down quite tricky ; if I twisted my ankle I'd still have to hobble down since there was no one else with me. About half an hour into my decent my legs were shaking like jelly and I was finding it increasingly difficult. At one point I did slip sidewards and landed in a big bush (ouch!)... it was a good job the bush was there otherwise I'd have fallen down a 20ft drop. I managed to get to the bottom in 50mins and did indeed beat Mum and Pete. However I'm suffering the after effects today... sore legs and a little too much sun!

In the evening we had our first 'braii' (bbq) which was delicious ;-) It was cooked the traditional way over wood charcole by one of our local friends... we had chicken, beef and lamb accompanied by some the wine we bought the day before... yummy!

Where the beer flows like wine

2007-02-06T08:52:00.000+02:00

On Monday it was Pete's 24th Birthday and to celebrate we headed off to the Stellenbosh wine route for a tasting session. The Stellenbosh wine region is incredibly beautiful, especially at this time of year when the harvesting of the grapes has begun. We decided to visit the Zevenwacht wine estate which not only offered tasting of their wines but also a tour of their winery. I prefer red wine and managed to work my way through 6 glasses of various variety's... in the end I decided the Tin Mine Red was my favorite... I'll be bringing back a bottle so if your special you may get an invite over to try some ;-)

Once filled with wine we spent the rest of the day in Stellenbosch town center (thanx Mel for the tip). Its a peaceful town full of small shops in white washed buildings selling mostly arts and crafts. In the evening we headed over to the restaurant called Moyo... this was an incredible place where there's a wide selection of African foods including Springbok, Snoek and Ostrich. The restaurant is outdoors with several canopy's covering overhead - candles and lanterns provided the light which gave it beautiful atmosphere. One of the first things they do is paint your face - if your bald they paint a big sun on the top of your head! The whole day was a really special time with my family and a great way to celebrate my bros birthday.

Helicopter Ride

2007-02-05T09:20:00.000+02:00

We decided a fun way to start our time in Cape Town would be a helicopter flight over the city. This was the first time in a helicopter for both myself and Pete so we were both pretty excited. We found a company who specialised in Huey helicopters (the large military choppers used in Vietnam war)... however unfortunately the CIA were investigating them for buying helicopters straight from the American military and had grounded their fleet for a while. Anyway we decided to take a trip on one of their normal 4 seater choppers instead.

Pete got to sit up front whilst Mum, Dad & myself sat in the back. The ride lasted 30 mins gave a view of both the Atlantic & Indian Oceans. When we crossed over to the Indian Ocean side of Cape Town we spotted a bush fire... as we got closer we saw two fire helicopters taking sea water and dumping it on top of the fire. Very quickly they had managed to extinguish the flames, which to my delight I managed to capture on film.

Arrived In Cape Town

2007-02-05T09:01:00.000+02:00

Well I've now arrived in Cape Town and have already begun to get to know the locals... let me introduce Jethro who is one half of the guard dog team at the house where my Mum & Dad are staying. Jethro is HUGE and comes complete with Turner & Hooch style mouth slime!

My parents are staying in small guest house in Durbanville which some friends of theirs own. The shared grounds have swimming pool, tennis court and braii (bbq) area. Its a great place to relax and chill out... I'm looking forward to catching up with my Mum, Dad and bro over the next few days.

Itinerary

2007-02-05T08:11:00.000+02:00

Itinerary

Saturday 3rd Feb - Arrive in Cape Town, South Africa
Saturday 10th Feb - Fly to Lusaka, Zambia
Tuesday 13th Feb - Bus ride to Victoria Falls, Zambia
Friday 16th Feb - Travel back Lusaka
Tuesday 20th Feb - Fly to Maputu, Mozambique
Wednesday 28th Feb - Fly back to Cape Town, South Africa
Saturday 3rd March - Fly home to London, England