Past Travels: South Africa

Firstly, as of today it is officially 1 week until we set off on our travels!!!!!! (que enthusiastic readers)

Many are surprised at our choice of Kenya as our first stop, mainly as it's not your classic aus/thailand gap year.  I think the main reason for this decision and our love of Africa is due to our amazing little taster of South Africa two Summer's ago. Walking into my bedroom, you will see countless African paintings and masks and if you catch Megan stripping off you'll see three elephants tattooed onto her rib. YES WE CANNOT WAIT TO RETURN!!!!!

On the way to Kruger Park, we encountered a coach reversing backwards along a motorway and ending up in a ditch - resulting in a group of girls playing cards outside a petrol station for around 10 hours and a very bumpy journey in the back of a truck in the pitch black!

We aided Operation Wallacea with their conservation research by catching dung beetles, waking up at the crack of dawn to listen for bird calls and listened to THE most boring woman on the earth talk about insect preservation techniques for hours on end! We also had a really sweet night of star-gazing, midnight game drives and bush walks where we most definitely spotted a cheetah's tail (maybe, we think!)

We ate waaaaayyyy to many treats from the tuck shop (mostly because ELM wanted to flirt with Clive), drooled over the rangers QUOTE: "don't worry...I've used this rifle before ladies" and darted for the toilets past our bedtime hoping not to run into any hygenas on the way.

After 2 weeks here, we headed through Swaziland and back into South Africa to Sodwana Bay - this time to drool over the dive-masters. We accomplished our fear and grew to love diving, after a very stormy first dive where we lost eachother in the massive waves and panicked as we began to think the welsh school pupils were plotting against and switching off our oxygen tanks - things get a little crazy under the pressure of an entire african ocean.

Outdoors showers, beach-side markets and African singers turning up at our braai. Yes, we were now officially in love with Africa.

ello mate

BUGZ

Mates for once

Ready for some elephants

MOOOOOOO

Stole our sandwiches

BUG QUEEN

Buck-shit-spit, actually putting shit in our mouths and seeing who could spit it furthest

Fighting as usual

Fresh from a dive.

The best.

Peace out xxxx

Finally... We're booked!

Whenever we begin to discuss our trip with worried relatives, they ask "But nothing's booked yet?" to wish we shamefully answered "no", and once more their smiles were restored and their fears banished. 

But the tables have turned!!!! and the excitement grows!

Our flights (and travel insurance) are now booked and paid for.  Thing's were slowed down a little for us, living in Jersey, as companies specialising in travelling and gap years do not have offices over here.  So, after one horrendous phone call in which we began hysterically laughing and throwing the phone to one another, we resorted to communicating only through email.  So, this weekend Megan when to visit her cousin at the University of Brighton.  Where STA travel conveniently have an office.

Two and a half hours of details and decisions later, it was definitely for the best to have visited an agency in person! The staff were brilliant and each had travelled all different parts of the world so knew exactly what kind of flights and insurance we should be looking at. After spinning the globe on the desk around multiple times, I managed to figure out exactly where we were heading...

With our first stop switching from Niarobi to MOMBASSA to take part in Camp Kenya (elephant sanctuaries, hanging out with local tribes, game drives and volunteering in local schools.... more details to follow after the next pay cheque!) we were left with a grand total of EIGHT flights through our five destinations. For under £1,700 for all the flights, booking through STA was definitely a good decision as we could use our under 25's discount saving huge £££££!!!!!!!!

Finally booking is a HUGE relief, leaving us with only visas, transfers and a few essentials to buy before simply earning our much needed spending money for food, accommodation and necessary extras; eg SKY DIVES, BUNGEES JUMPS, ADVANCED DIVING COURSES, and hopefully some other wild adventures!


Brighton itself was wild but great, the perfect british weekend away finished off with fish & chips on the pier in the rain, mmmmm.

Check out the moody brighton sea...


Updates soon!
Megan and Jodie.

The Plan

    Hujambo, Selamat Sore, Hai, Sawatdee, Ayo Bowan.

 

So firsts thing's first on the travel front; the plan - believe me it's changed alot over the course of the last few months. 

First, we were all about Bali, Thailand, Australia, New Zeland and Fiji.  The classic gap year route with countless bagpackers just like us to meet, surf, sun and beautiful auzzie boys.  Saaweet enough, but when we sat down to think about what we wanted from our experience and from each country we planned on visiting, we were unsure.  We don't want to just gain a tan and sit on a beach drinking smoothies (although for a little while it might be nice!). We want exotic locations (not just a hot England), exciting cultures to learn about, cool sites and beautiful, rare species to see!

So, we decided to mix things up a little;

Kenya - Bali - Malaysia - Thailand - Sri Lanka.

(hence the 'hello's at the beginning of this post).

Unfortunately, we had to crop Madagascar out of the equation where we had planned a diving, teaching and conservation project, due to cost reasons.

We plan to stay for roughly a month in each country.

Kenya; the one place in which we plan to stay still, mostly due to it being our first and probably most dangerous stop.  We're in the process of organising a volunteer project; perhaps staying with a tribe, building for the community and a conservation project all in one...

Bali; I suppose it's difficult to give a real plan at this stage of each of the stops, as really our plan is to explore and see something new - the religion and temples as well as the wildlife here,

Malaysia/Thailand; Something very exciting/death-threatening here. Our flight drops as to Kuala Lumpar in Malaysia and picks us up in Bangkok (eeeeek!)  So making our way along the coast, visiting different islands on the way should be interesting!  We are also looking at a short conservation project with Orangutans in Malaysia with real gap if funds permit.

Sri Lanka: Our last stop before home and the most planned yet.  Jodie is lucky enough to have friends from Sri Lanka who have helped us plan our route, places not to miss out on and some volunteering.  After arriving in Colombo, we will hopefully be able to stay with some of the locals who live not far away before heading straight up to the mountains to explore the temples, the national park and visit a friend's family (hopefully digging into a traditional dinner of curry) and to volunteer in the children's orphanage.  Then, as we begin travelling down towards to coast and more touristy side of Sri Lanka, we will stop off at the wildlife orphange, volunteering there for a couple of days.  We will finish our trip with the "beach boys" as our Sri Lankan helper puts it before heading home to Jersey.

Woah, apologies for the waffle but hopefully you find our plan even a quarter as exciting as us! 

Comment and let us know what you think or if you've been to any of these places - tips much appreciated!

We'll keep you posted,

Jodie and Megan

(photos from Nat Geo)