Tongue and Puckle... a fair ye Scottish Adventure!!!

Leaving Durham behind, Eliza and I were somehow miraculously still speaking to each other, and were on our way to Edinburgh, Scotland. The Edinburgh Fringe Festival is the world’s largest arts festival, held annually in venues across the city, and this year our friend Matt (aka Barker) was in a show.

Arriving in Edinburgh, we once again met up with Aaron, and made our way out into the city in the hope of somehow managing to run into Barker – who has a reputation for being rather disorganised, and an apparent allergy to any form of telecommunication device. Of course, my hopes of some sort of miraculous northern hemisphere cure for this allergy were soon dashed, and Eliza, Aaron and myself had a great afternoon guessing where Barker might be, after calling ‘his’ phone number, only to discover the phone did not in fact belong to Barker – but to someone he had met in Scotland, and who had absolutely no idea where our dear Australian friend might be! 

Down in Duuuurty Durham!

Today I write from somewhere between New York City and Washington DC, having spent two days in the Big Apple with Lindsay and Sam (who you are sure to hear about when I finally catch up to writing about Africa!), and having spent more money in 48 hours than in the past two months! My time in New York city is not over yet, however the three of us have decided to head south for a couple of days to give the credit cards a break, and I have another four days back in New York later in the week.

New York City

Not only does this week mark another continent on my trip, it also marked 10,000 pageviews of this blog – an achievement I never dreamed possible! When I left home almost ten months ago, I was expecting my mum to check my blog eight times a week (twice on Sunday), my dad once a fortnight, and then three ‘randoms’ to accidentally stumble on it each month while trying to find the nutritional information of ‘smiley fritz’. This would have provided me with 390 pageviews to date, and I would have been an incredibly happy blogger. However, somehow we have managed to reach 10,000 pageviews (I think it’s more likely my mum is forcing her entire year 2 class to keep my blog as their homepage, and making them reopen their browser before every class!), and for that I want to say a very big THANK YOU! Thank you to those people who have encouraged me along the way, thank you to those who comment and let me know you are reading along… and thank you to my dear friends Stan and Stacey for ensuring I have always had a fair bit of information to keep the blog going (and thanks mum for having a big class!)

After having way too much fun, way too little electricity and even less internet, and way too many bumpy roads through Africa, I am now only about eight weeks behind with my entries… which today I pick up from Durham, Eliza’s home for the year.

Crime, murder and an underground adventure! Shenanigans in Sheffield!!!!

Today I write from the luxury and comfort of a hotel room, having finished my 41 night camping trip through southern and eastern Africa, and somehow having managed to survive the traffic, roads and open sewers of Nairobi. As the noise through my window continually reminds me, this is a hectic city, with undoubtedly the most ridiculous traffic I have seen anywhere in the world. Not only do traffic lights appear to be optional, but so does the side of the road on which one might choose to drive, the lane (or footpath) in which you might decide to career, and don’t even get me started on the speed at which taxi’s drive – usually on the wrong side of the road!!!

However, Nairobi has also impressed me greatly, and while I have been continually reminded of it’s reputation as Nairobbery, and as one of Africa’s least tourist-friendly cities, what I have seen to date has been very pleasantly surprising. However, I’ll leave that for another entry (which gives the local crooks time to change my views), as I still have a few hours left before my flight to New York.

My last entry covered my week in Iceland, from where I returned to the UK, in search of some much needed sunshine. (There are only very few places on earth that could be said to provide less sunshine than the UK, so I thought I’d better use this opportunity to document such a rare event!!!) 

Ice, Ice Baby! A week in Iceland!

Arriving in Iceland, Eliza and I were met at the airport by Stefan, whose wife Gudmunda had offered to have us to stay with her and her family. Gudmunda, Stefan, and their three energetic children live in a suburban home in Reykjanesbær, where we were welcomed with a pillow fight on the couch and dinner with the family, before Stefan took us out for a tour of the Reykjavik Peninsular.

The Reykjavik Peninsular stretches around 50km’s in the south-west corner of the country, and is the least ‘earthly’ place I have ever been – with volcanic geysers, lava cones and craters, and The Bridge Between Two Continents – a man-made bridge which spans the visible gap between the tectonic plates of Europe, and those of North America.

England!!!

Internet in Africa continues to prove almost impossible to find, and while I am posting this entry today, it was actually written over a month ago! I hope to catch up soon!!!

---------------

This evening I write from Etosha National Park, Namibia, a game-viewers paradise, and an absolutely spectacular home to my tent for two nights. Yesterday I ventured out on my first African game-drive, and was not disappointed! Ten lions, five rhino’s, dozens of zebra, giraffe, orix, kudu, springbok, hyenas and an elephant all joined forces to make my first day on safari one which I am sure not to forget. The Etosha campsite surrounds a stunning waterhole, and I apologise in advance for the standard of this entry – the 16 giraffe just metres in front of me, and the spectacular African sunset are sure to drag my concentration away from my computer screen!