Samstag, 31. Januar 2009

Last day in Livingstone

Today is our last day in Livingstone and I'm glad we're leaving tomorrow. As there is still not much to do here. At least the weather is good today no rain. However, after some time one's done with hanging around.

And today is also the day of bad news, Tigi my mum's cat died. He was our companion for almost 17 years and now he won't be there when I get back to Switzerland. It's sad. That's another reason I'm glad we're moving, new impressions are always good to help forget the bad things.

Yesterday, we went out for dinner in town. We went to a nice African restaurant with traditional food, of course. It was great. After dinner there was dancing and the dancers asked us to join in. I run off, because me and African dance..no way eventhough T.I.A.. Holy crab. I mean girls, remember the afrodance workshop years ago? Yep, I couldn't do that to the locals ;-). Anyway, some of the waitresses tried to teach me some African dance, I sucked but they had fun and that's what it was all about. I had a good laugh at myself too, I must admit :-).

That's all folks. Still no pictures the connection seems to be to slow here. I tried to upload yesterday but it didn't work..holy crab.

Freitag, 30. Januar 2009

Livingstone

Jambo

I'm still in Livingstone. Not much happened. The day before yesterday we went on a booze cruise and were sooo drunk,we got thrown out of the restaurant at our camp site. There was a lot of singing going on. And a lot of shouting and screaming and and and. Our tourleader had to calm us down drunk as he was. He got us a speech.... After an hour we were alowed back in the restaurant. It was fuuunnnnn. Unfortunately, we had to say goodbye to Vishalla and Amy. They left yesterday, it's a pitty they're not part of the tour anymore, we'll miss them a lot.

Yesterday I went to watch the others on the Gorge swing. It was fun to watch but I'd never jump of a cliff. It looked sooo scary. We spent almost the whole day there and by the evening we went back to the camp site to meet Humphrey our cook and he took us on a tour around Livingstone. We got to see a local school, the market and Humphrey's house. It was amasing. I liked it a lot and the school was really nice and friendly looking. After the tour we had to say goodbye to Humphrey because we're getting a new cook for the next three weeks. It won't be easy to keep up with Humphrey for the new cook because Humphrey rocks :-). However, T.IA. and we'll survive with a new cook.

Today Kate and I went on the Lion's walk which was splendid, brilliant, amasing, awesome. I can't find words for it. We got to walk with 3 lions and could touch and pet them. The lions were only 8 month old and walk with us if it was the most normal thing in the world. It was great, breathtaking although a bit scary because we never knew what they were up to and sometimes they tried to play with us, which huuuurrrtsss. But the guides were great and always chased the lions off if they were to close.

That's all folks. Unfortunately, still no pictures. Hope, I can post some soon.

Mittwoch, 28. Januar 2009

Zambia..hoootttt

Soorry, for not writing for a long time. In Botswana it was difficult to access internet and when I could, the internet was sooo slow, I had to answer mails first and do other stuff.

In Windhoek not much more happened, we went for dinner with the group in a really nice restaurant and I could drink an Erdinger Weisse which was delicious. We had some confusions about the bill, but this would take too long to explain and it's boring anyway.

From Windhoek we moved on to Ghanzi which is in Botswana already. We were on a bushwalk there and it was great. I went for an upgrade (meaning not to sleep in a tent) and didn't use it at the end. The story is funny, we arrived in Ghanzi after an 9 hour drive everybody was exhausted by the time we arrived at the campsite. Our guide showed us these nice little huts they looked sooo cute and cosy (in daylight)..so I decided to go for one of these huts instead of building the tent at night. So the night came and the instects with it, and a giant ant as stroling around the camp. My hut didn't have a door and I'm petrified of instects as some of you might know..soo suddenly the tent seemed to be the better option and the Dutch girls and I went to get the driver to so we could get our tents. The driver was just laughing at us and so was the guide. But believe me I've never slept better in my tent then that night ;-).

The next day we went on to Maun and were we could get some stuff for the delta. Maun is not really nice but it was nice to be abble to get some drinks and stuff. Unfortunatelly, I couldn't change money in Maun because they wouldn't accept Mastercard at the ATM and there was no time for me to change money at the counter :-(. Fortunately, I could pay my water in the supermarket by Mastercard otherwise I would have been fu... at the delta.

From Maun we went further (by the way Maun is a town in Botswana) to our camp site which was greaattttt. We had a swimming pool a great bar and we had time to spend at the pool which is very rare on this trip. We spent one night at the camp site and were picked up by a truck the other day to go the okovanga delta. On Mokoros we travelled on the river to get to our camp site which offered nothing..no toilets no water..nooottthhinnggg. Sweaty and stinky we arrived at our camp site and set up the tents. We had time to relax and sweat a little more before we went for a game walk. It was great to walk in the wild and also a bit scarry because there were lions..we didn't see any though. We saw elephants, giraffes and some impalas and a half eaten impala up the tree, that was the storage of a leopard. We didn't see the leopard though.

Back at the camp site it was dinner time. After dinner our guides (the Mokoro polers) danced and sang for us. It was great. There is a little story about the toilet in the bush camp. Before going to bed I decided to go pee as we were in the wild I was a little scared but went anyway. There were four of us. So when my turn was I went to the whole (our toilet) and was ready to pee the instant I wanted to let go I heard something like an elephant or whatever. I was soooo scared I couldn't pee. I went back to get one of the girls and they were, of course, laughing at me. Anyway, not being alone helped to pee ;-).

The next day we walked down to the hippo pool and watched them having their bath. I was great, the noises they make sound like laughter and we joined them laughing. Back at the camp, Humpherey, our chef had breakfast ready, but before eating we had to take down the tents..We went back to the camp close to Maun for the last night in the delta. At the camp we were running for the showers and washed our filthy clothes. And then we headed for the pool of course ;-).

The next day we went on another long drive towards Zambia. We stopped close to the Chobe National Park for 2 nights and the day before yesterday we had another beautiful game drive. We saw loads of elephants, some buffalos, impalas and birrdsss.

Yesterday we left Botswana to come to Livingstone. Our guide was slightly scared of the Zambian boarder because where we crossed the boarder from Botswana to Zambia the Simbabwe people would cross too as well as the Namibian so our guide was expecting a lot of people and hours of queuing. However, it took only half an hour and we were through and off to Victoria falls where we spent 2 hours. I was soaked after Vicoria falls not only because of the falls noooo when we thought it couldn't be worse it came worse. It started raining...yes..So, everything apart from my camera was wet, soaked. It was terrible. All I wanted was to have dry clothes and a bed and a DVD player and a TV. But noooooo, of course there was no bed etc. However at the camp site we're staying now I paied for another upgrad 10 Dollars a night, a bigger tent and a proper bed was the offer and I took it gratefully. I'm sharing with Kate, she's Canadian and very nice and most importantely, she doesn't snore ;-).

Pretty much, that's it. Hope you had the patience to read it all and thanks for staying tuned. And sorry, noooo photos..T.I.A. shit happens.. ;-)

Dienstag, 20. Januar 2009

Windhoek

hello, here I go again.

After spending 2 days in the Etosha National Park spotting game, we arrived in Windhoek. 2 hours is the time we have to do everything, using internet and do shopping.

The Etosha National Park was amasing although we've not seen many animals. However, we've seen elephants, giraffes, rhinos (not close but I could zoom them in with my camera), gemsbok, springbok, zebras and lions..juhuuu. I love the elephants they're great. They walk as if nothing can bother them and they're sooo cute :-).

The campsites were great we had a waterhole near by and at night we gathered around the fence and watched animals. Unfortunately, it rained the last 2 days as it is the end of the rainy season and therefore not many animals came to the waterhole. Anyway it was great watching them at night.

Not much else happened but there's one for Mr. Ken, read carefully ;-). On the way to Windhoek me dosing on the truck what do they play on the radio? hae? Bonnie Tyler..holy crab. I couldn't believe my ears ;-).

So, that's all folks. The weather is better here in Windhoek, no rain and a hot brise therefore I'll go and check out the city before I have to climb the truck again.

Oh yes, I've almost forgot. After spending two marvellous nights in Swakopmund without snoring, my tentmate snores even worse. She bought a spray against snoring but it turns out it makes it even worse. So, I'm back to 4 hours sleep a night and will look like shit by the end of this journey. I'm thinking about booking a spa holiday ;-). Bloody hell.

Again I can't upload pictures, so sorry.

Freitag, 16. Januar 2009

still in Swakopmund

Guten Tag, here I go again..

I am enjoying a quiet day here in Swakopmund and for the first time on my travel I slept through, noooo snoring, because I am not with my tent mate in the same room...yiiippiieeee. Feels soooo good if you can sleep through.

Today I mailed some of my things back home. I just brought too much and had to get rid of some. That was quite an adventure. Yesterday, I organised a box from one of the shops, actually it's called "Pick n Pay"..hihihi, we had that in Switzerland too. Anyway, I went in there and asked if I could buy a box to wrape something but they didn't sell boxes. So, the lady at the information desk called another employee and told him to take me to the storage room. I went there with him and he showed me a pile (is it a pile? not sure in German it's a "Stapel") of boxes and told me to choose. I found the perect size and took it. Smiling I went out of the store, didn't have to pay a penny :-). And shall I tell you what? The box was an Aromat box...hehe, they've Aromat here. Isn't that splendid? Holy crab, did I have a laugh.

Yep, so today I went to the post office to send my stuff, but I didn't have anything to close the box I supposed they'd have something at the post office. Of course, they didn't, I mean T.I.A. not Switzerland although this town is soooo German ;-). So, I had to find tape to close my box. The lady behind the desk told me to fill in forms, close the box and come back. So we (Vishala was with me) went to the Municiple office to ask if they'd some tape. They didn't but one of the ladies told us to wait and took the box. While waiting I filled in the forms and by finishing it, the lady comes back with my closed box. Ah I tell you these Namibians are the BEST :-). So back to the post office. There I realised that I hadn't put the address on the box so I borrowed a pen from the post office lady and started to scribble the address on top of the box and my arm hurt and it was soooo annoying but I managed. So I gave the box to the lady and you know what she did? hae?! She taped my forms on top of the address I've written and the address was on the forms, so there wasn't any need of writing it on the box, but I did it anyway...holy crab.

Anyway, my stuff is gone now, so keep your fingers crossed it'll arrive at my mum's place.

That's all folks. Will write to you again in Windhoek where I'll be in appro. 2 or 4 days. And sorry, still no photos. Hope, I'll be lucky in Windhoek

Donnerstag, 15. Januar 2009

arrived in Namibia been to the desert

Hello everybody, I decided to write my blog in English because of the "oes" and "aes".

Sorry, there are still no photos but unfortunately, here again, it is not possible to upload some. Hopefully in Windhoek I'll have a chance.

We've left Cape Town on the 10th January and arrived in Namibia the 12th January. Since then we've travelled a lot. In Cape Town we've been to the townships, district 6. It was interesting although a bit weird to walk through the townships knowing these people have nothing and we're visiting their homes with our photo gear and nice clothes and everything.

We've been to a bed and breakfast located in the townships which was great. The landlady does a lot for the community and helps the local kids to get out of the townships. The bed and breakfast was very nice and was very clean. We've learned a lot about the community work the lady's doing.

From there we went on towards Namibia and stayed the nite on our first campesite which was very beautiful and run by a guy from Cape Town who was and overlander tour leader before. We had bbq there and did some wine tasting and, for the Zanzibar-girls fraction we had HOT water..jajajaja ;-).

On the second day we did a lot of driving and driving I was happy when we arrived at our second campe site. There we had dinner and a few drinks and a lot of fun because the others were drinking Jaegermeister (I was smart enough to pass that ;-). The next day a few of our group had a bad hangover, I wonder why ;-).

On day 3 we left South Africa and went into Namibia, we had to leave one of the group behind because he had a greek passport and the Namibians didn't like that. Poor guy had to go back to Cape Town to get a visa, he joined our group today again.

Some more driving was done on the 4th day and we had an early night because yesterday we went to the desert to visit Dune 45, which was great. I almost didn't make it to the second view point because of my bloody lungs....jjaaaa, I know shite smoking. But the view was great from the top of the dune, we saw the sunrise and I took loooooaaadsss of pictures..most of them I had to erase after but a few I kept.

Yesterday we had our first bush camp which means NOOOO shower. We're quite stinky today but the people from Swakopmund don't seem to bother ;-). For the next two nights we'll be staying at a hotel which is awesome and we'll have access to a laundry service and there a shower in the room and real beds and real blankets and cushions...juuuhhhuuuuuu. Lucky me :-).

I must say the camp sites up to now weren't too bad some of them even great. The only problem is I don't get much sleep, not because of the noise from partying..NOOOO, because my tent sharer snores..not even earplugs help..holy crab and I can't sleep in the bus because I can't sleep on buses sorry, on trucks oh whatever. Which means by now I look like freaking 50.

For everybody who's interested the group's great and I'm not the oldest and I'm the only Swiss and I already start to think in English and talk to myself in English...Unfortunately, there are no Irish on board, we've Australians, Canadians, Dutchs and one American and me. The tour leader is Kenian as is the driver and the chef is a human being from Zambia. They're great and the driver and the tour leader are teaching me Swahili which is brilliant...

Hm, that's all folks, for now. Might come back tomorrow but can't promise. Baadaye :-)

Freitag, 9. Januar 2009

arrived ....

finally in Cape Town. For English please scroll down..

Eigentlich wollte ich euch ja mit schoenen Fotos beeindrucken, aber irgendwie will dieser Compi hier meine Kamera nicht erkennen und deshalb muesst ihr auf ein Bild von meinem Hotel verzichten..so sorry, werde aber frueher oder spaeter rausfinden wie ich denn Pix uploaden kann..no worries. Bin gut geflogen und in Cape Town angekommen. In Joburg wurde ich fast schon uebers Ohr gehauen aber konnte mich rausreden ganz nach Traveler-Manier, das erste Erfolgserlebnis..bin schon ein bisschen stolz.. :-). Schon komisch so allein in einer fremden Stadt, aber ist ja nur heute morgen treff ich bereits meine Reisegruppe. Es ist schoen warm hier und schwitzen tu ich schon wie ne Grosse :-). Das Hotel ist super und grad um die Ecke von meinem Treffpunkt fuer den Overlander..ach ist das nicht super :-). Das waers schon fuers Erste..Ihr hoert von mir.

Finally arrived in Cape Town. The flight went pretty good and also the changing of the plane in Joburg I managed without problems. Was a bit scared of that because had to collect my luggage first and wasn't sure there if there was enough time. However, everything went well and now I'm sweating in Cape Town :-). As this bloody computer doesn't work with my camera no pictures yet will try to figure out how to do it in future and hope to be able to present some pictures soooonnn...that's it for now...read more soon

Donnerstag, 8. Januar 2009

About to leave

Mein letzter Tag in der Schweiz für eine lange Zeit. Stressig ist es, so kurz vor der Abreise. Ich musste einen neuen Rucksack kaufen, weil mein Alter doch zu klein war für soviele Dinge, vorallem die Medis benötigen extrem viel Platz und natürlich auch meine Bücher die nicht fehlen dürfen. Natürlich hab ich auch Kleider mitdabei aber ich befürchte, das ist noch das Leichteste in meinem Gepäck. Ob ich den Rucksack je wieder so perfekt packen kann ist fraglich, weil Mama hat geholfen. Drückt die Daumen, dass alles gut geht, bin schon seehhrr nervös.

Here for my English friends:

My last day in Switzerland for a long time. I'm very nervous and exhausted and a bit scared. Was running around buying a new backpack and my Mum had to help packing because I just couldn't manage. Hope I'll ever be able to pack the bag like this again, otherwise I'll be in trouble. Too many books are packed and of course too much medicine, but what can you do? It's 6 months away from home, I need my stuff and of course I need this Malaria stuff which consumes lots of space..holy crab. You'll hear from me soon maybe even by arriving in Cape Town. Keep your fingers crossed that I'll be fine.

Dienstag, 6. Januar 2009

Nervoes? Me..neeeee ;-)

Ach herrje, der Countdown läuft und läuft und läuft, nur noch 2 Tage und es heisst wirklich Abschied nehmen. Ich bin seehhhrr nervös, mein Mami trägt's mit Fassung. Alle ärztlichen Untersuchungen habe ich hinter mir, ich bin kerngesund, sagen die Ärzte, mein Hirn sagt was anderes, aber die Menschen in den weissen Kitteln sagen, sie wüssten wovon sie reden.

Gestern Nacht gab's ein paar schweissgebadete Erwachen, auch genannt Panikattacken, die sind ca. so ausgefallen: WAS ist wenn die meine Buchung nicht haben (konnte drum bis eben nicht auf meine Buchung zugreifen). WAS ist wenn ich nicht genügend Platz im Rucksack hab (ja, manchmal bin ich ein Tussi und vorallem ein Gadgettussi, ach ihr müsstet all diese wunderbaren Dinge sehen, die ich gekauft hab ;-)). WAS ist wenn ich meinen Abflug verpasst hab? Beruhigt wurde ich eben von meinem Reisebüro, ich hatte meine E-Mailadresse falsch erfasst und konnte deshalb nicht auf meine Buchung zugreifen, es ist aber bene und ich darf am 10.1.09 in den Overlander steigen..juuuhhuuuu. Meine Flugbuchung sagt, ich solle doch am 8.1.09 losfliegen, besser nicht vorher weil sonst mein Ticket nicht gültig ist und meine Gadgets haben schon irgendwie Platz, sonst muss halt das Abendkleid zu Hause bleiben.

Heute Morgen hätte ich fast meinen letzten Arzttermin verpasst, Danke, Danke Ruthie für die SMS auch wenn zu früh, Dank dir war ich grad noch pünktlich bei der Tante Doktor.

Das wär's von der Countdown-Front. Jegliche Art Beruhigungsmittel sind in Glattfelden herzlich Willkommen, Notfalltropfen hab ich schon, aber alles andere darf noch bis Donnerstagmorgen geliefert werden.

Übrigens wird mein Blog wahrscheinlich Englisch werden, weil ich tatsächlich Menschen kenne die nur Englisch sprechen, auf den Vorschlag einen Deutschkurs wegen meinem Blog zu besuchen, haben sie komischerweise nicht sehr erfreut reagiert, da ihr ja fast alle Englisch könnt, müsst ihr nun in den sauren Apfel beissen. Oder vielleicht wird der Blog ja zweisprachig, ach, lasst euch doch überraschen ;-). Ja, bis bald und BERUHIGUNGSMITTELLIEFERUNGEN nicht vergessen ;-)

Freitag, 2. Januar 2009

Bye bye home

Heute ist es also soweit, es heisst Tschüss sagen diesmal der Wohnung. Ach, ich werde sie sooo vermissen. Dafür darf ich noch ein paar Tage ein Revival von Teenie Zeiten erleben, es heisst back to Mama :-)