In the meantime, enjoy!

Trouve, Adam and Chips - very very snug!

Meg - also very snug, not as snug as Trouve, Adam and Chips

A shark

The shark and the cage

Possibly the same shark as before, but still a shark

The cage, the shark and the bait

Shark, bait and cage

Nothing wrong with Mokolodi at all, merely an issue with Frontier who misrepresented the Botswana volunteer placement to us – which ultimately led us to engaging with them and the placement in Botswana.

We left the project at the end of April and received no follow-up from Frontier, perhaps understandable given the extent of their wrongdoing. However, they didn’t even provide us with a formal apology for misrepresenting the project, despite admitting liability in a very legalese email to us.

So, we carefully considered what the best next steps would be for us. The options seemed to be a small claims court claim or some sort of exposure in the UK press. After much debate, we concluded it was less about the money and more about ensuring other volunteers were aware of the issues we experienced.

After some effort from ourselves and a good friend in the UK PR industry, the UK journalist Mark Foxwell picked up and ran with the story for the Mail on Sunday. After some detailed investigation, it seemed that our predicament became a catalyst for a far larger story, exposing some serious financial irregularities between two ‘Frontier’ companies, owned by the same two directors.

The story “Not-for-profit gap year firm Frontier shares its fees…and its directors” was published online last night (Saturday 8th August) and will hopefully be in the Mail on Sunday today.

Needless to say, Caroline and I are satisfied with the result, and hope that future volunteers read the article and others published out there, before deciding who to hand their hard earned cash to before heading away on a volunteer project.

The past two weeks have flown by, and I certainly could’ve done with a couple more in London, but there you go. As I write, we’re transiting in Abu Dhabi on the way to Melbourne where we’ll be greeted by Jem and Dee – will be good to see them. After which, I think the next two weeks will be equally manic, sorting out accomodation, bank accounts, mobile phones and building up the business plan (that bit will be me, Caro is still undecided).

Whichever way it goes it’ll be exciting stuff, and I think we’re both looking forward to settling down finally after the past 6-months. More anon I hope…

Tim and I booked our overland trip with Intrepid, who outsource their African Overland trips to Dragoman. We were huge fans. Obviously everyone has differing needs on the road and you need to choose the company that is going to cater best to yours. But we felt that Dragoman provided friendly and capable crew, a vehicle in good nick, good routes, sensible itineraries and they attracted a good variety of people who were, as a rule, all happy to get in and contribute to the smooth running of the trip.

But we crossed paths with many (50+) overland trucks as we made our way around Africa, and we spoke to passengers from a few. And I get the impression that almost everyone we spoke to felt that their truck and the company that they had chosen were the best. Which adds up to a lot of happy travellers and hopefully some reassurance to people struggling to choose a company that they are probably going to be happy with their holiday at the end of the day.

The thing about overlanding is that how much you enjoy the trip is going to be influenced by how well you enjoy the company of your fellow passengers. And this is outside the control of the tour operators. Short of screening their passengers, they cannot guarantee the ‘type’of people that will be on the trip. Though obviously the reputations of different operators means they generally attract different travellers – so understanding their brand will help you understand the types of people you’ll probably end up travelling with.

For instance, we noticed that Acacia (English company, modern trucks  in good condition, really friendly and fun crew, similar route to us) seemed to attract a younger crowd. Their trucks we encountered had lots of students and gap year people and their youth seemed to be characterised by an eagerness to impress. They were painfully competitive – carrying on about things like whose truck was faster and  flashing their breasts and butts when their truck overtook us on road. And they were far more conscious of things like the way they looked. As an illustration, the girls on the Acacia truck were often spotted in the ladies toilets applying make-up – which seemed unnecessary, given the surroundings and the activities – and the vast majority of other overlanders seemed to be able to function happily without it. But they all looked to be having a great time – and I would recommend them highly to younger travellers.

Dragoman/Intrepid seemed to attract predominantly people between 20-35. The average age of our group was 30 – but we had quite a few 18-21 year olds too. At one stage we had a sixteen year old and her mother (and they were great) and one of the other Drago trucks had a lady in her sixties. So we were a real mix.

The only outwardly unhappy overlanders we encountered were a Kumuka truck which travelled alongside us for much of the time we were in Uganda. They were struggling with a vehicle which was repeatadly breaking down – and leaking tents. On a night we slept through a powerful storm, without a drop in any of our tents, the vast majority of the Kumuka truck were forced to evacuate their tents and sleep in the bar. And on top of the misery of wet sleeping bags and belongings, the campsite owner charged them for it! They were very unhappy campsers. But they are one of the cheaper players in the market – so maybe you get what you pay for. Regardless, a good friend of mine, who’s opinion I value, travelled with these guys in 2008 and recommended them to me: “Our overland tour was great – it was with Kumuka and we thought they were fantastic and wouldn’t hesitate to go with them again.”  His trip was without issue. So a lot of it is the luck of the draw.

Christie and the peeps from the Uganda and Rwanda route

What we liked about Dragoman/Intrepid

- The truck was spacious and old school. Comfortable but not too polished, still felt like we were roughing it a bit, authentic overlanding. We had one or two problems over the eight weeks we were onboard. But they were dealt with quickly and we were kept informed of what was going on. Our ability to stick to the itinerary was never affected.

- The truck was equipped with a fridge, library, comfortable seats and also some tables to play cards, write journals etc. whilst on the move. There were sockets for charging cameras and phones. Windows wound down all the way so taking photos was a breeze. Everyone got a chance to play their music (from their MP3 players through the truck speakers) during the drives.

- Rather than individual lockers we had one large luggage locker at the back of our truck. I preferred this. It meant that my bag didn’t have to be smaller than the dimensions of a fixed locker size (which it would have to if we had travelled with one of the companies providing individual lockers) and there was room for the other bibs and bobs (masks etc.) I bought along the way. The locker was managed in such a way that our belongings were safe and secure.

- Crew (driver, co-driver and cook – Matt then Jono, Emily and Denford) were diverse in age and nationality (British and Zimbabweans). They were good company, mixed well with us and were both friends and leaders, fun but professional – getting us where we needed to be, on time. They kept everyone happy. There were low-to-no issues amongst our groups – and if ever there were niggles these guys easily resolved them.

- Denford’s cooking was fabulous, tasty and healthy – we ate a mix of local cuisine (such a pap, eaten with our hands) and more familiar favourites.

Denford dishes up some of his fab food to Katie

- Whilst it was a “participation camping” style of trip, our daily jobs were easy and manageable

- Tents and bedrolls (yes, they supplied these – one less thing for us to carry) were in good nick and clean

- They managed the kitty well and at the end of some legs of the trip we actually got some money back, or got some additional activities covered. Bonus!

- They don’t skimp on the important things – like 4WD vehicles for safari in the Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater.

This article from the Independent that looks at overlanding is worth a read too…

It wasn’t a perfect performance, but ultimately the Lions were by far the stronger and simply the better side, much as we had been in the 2nd Test and in the 2nd half of the 1st Test. So whilst the win means nothing in terms of the series, it is the first test win the Lions have had since Australia eight years ago.

The atmosphere at the game was good, but nowhere near the test at Loftus Versfeld. It seemed that a lot of the local fans considered it a bit of a nothing game, so didn’t turn up – or the tickets just weren’t sold. It was a shame to see large pockets of empty seats, but there you go.

After the game it was the usual drink-a-thon in hospitality, after which we took in a few bars in the Sandton, Rivonia, Sunninghill area.

Today, Chips and Trouve are braving their hangovers in the Apartheid Museum, Adam is with Meg in Sandton downtown, and I’m nursing myself in a mall in Rivonia near to our accomodation (which we spent a less than comical hour at 4am last night trying to find with a local cab driver who clearly didn’t know the area at all!).

Aside for losing the series, it’s been a great tour, and has cemented my belief that the Lions tour is the best rugby tour in the world. Bring on Australia!

The sea of red

It was one of the best games I’ve ever been at.  Really thrilling.  Made better by a stunning performance by Simon Shaw, at 36 he was the best player on the pitch, and he covered every inch of it.

Great try - come on the Lions

The shame is we lost.  After 60 mins we were 16-8 up.  Then a string of injuries ripped apart our back line, and forced the scrums to go uncontested.  We lost all the advantage we had built by dominating the scrums, and any shape we had in the back line just went.  South Africa piled on the pressure and we were getting hammered.

With seconds remaining the score line was at 25-25 and frankly I would have settled for a draw.  It would’ve meant going to the final test with the chance to tie the series.  A win would have been better, but we failed to put the game away in the first 20 mins of the 2nd half.  So it looked like a draw.  That was until O’Gara decided to place an up and under directly into the centre of the park, rather than say kicking it long and forcing the South African back three to run it back.  Unfortunately, as he followed up the kick he decided not to challenge for the ball, effectively taking the South African player out in the air with his shoulder.  Penalty awarded!

The kick was 55 metres out, but straight on, and at altitude the length was never going to be a problem, the direction might – sadly though it wasn’t.  The kick was slotted,  the whistle went, and the Lions not only lost the test, but also the series.

It was devastating.  We deserved the win, but we threw it away.

In hospitality before the game

In the aftermath of the game, we decided to drink our monies worth in hospitality, which I think we probably did! (if we were paying excessive London prices!!)

Maximising the free booze after the game

As we were walking out after being kicked out of the hospitality tent (it had closed, we weren’t too drunk, not yet) we got chatting to some South African guys, who, as it turned out ran one of the bars / boxes in the ground.  So, there we were, back in Loftus Versfeld, drinking more free beer – excellent.

In the box - not as pissed as I look!

All of us with this ex-Blue Bull player

To top it all off, after a few drinks, we headed down to the pitch itself to have a run around – brilliant.

An empty Loftus Verfeld, and me running onto the pitch

After that it all gets a little blurry.  Needless to say it was a good night!

The end - this time, I'm as pissed as I look!

For the sake of receiving denigrating comments for the lads – I was pretty pissed by the end of the night, highlighted by the fact I was caught dancing on camera…might make it on here one day!

Monday turned into a day of lazing on the beach and cooking up a meat feast in the evening. After a few hands of cards and we were all pretty wiped out – in bed by midnight.

Tuesday, we got going reasonable early, with the intention of going to the marine world at uSharka.  After getting there and wandering round a little, we decided it wasn’t worth it, so mosied on up the beach for a milkshake.  In the afternoon we had decided to head north to Umhlanga and to the Natal Shark Board where they perform a dissection of a shark a few times every week.  Essentially the Shark Board has shark nets up along a large stretch of the Natal coast line in an attempt to reduce the number of sharks swimming close to the shore and munching on unsuspecting swimmers.  Anyway, when a shark is caught in the net it’s usually tagged and released, unfortunately some do die, and the previous day a dusky shark (Carcharhinus Obscurus) had been caught and died in the nets.  So there we were, sitting in front of a 3 metre shark on a dissection table.

Shark dissection

As the dissection dude started opening the shark up, it reminded me of the scene in Jaws were Richard Dreyfuss and Roy Schneider go and check to see if the shark someone caught, was the one that ate the kid.  Similarly, there was a lot of fluid pouring out of the shark – and it really stank!  Disappointingly the stomach was empty, but everyone was surprised (including the guy dissecting) to find that the shark, a female, had been pregnant.  So he proceeded to pull out a 2 foot long shark pup from the mothers womb – perfectly formed, but obviously dead.  There were a further 11 pups in the shark, which they weren’t about to pull out in front of the large number of school kids there!  Extremely interesting, and at R25 per person, excellent value.

Shark pup

After a quick beer in a nearby bar we headed back to the Bluff before a night out to watch the mid-week Lions game against the emerging Springbok.  The game was played in Cape Town in the wind and rain – we were all pleased we hadn’t headed along for it.  The game was a 13-13 draw – pretty shabby, with no real contenders for a test team place.

Wednesday we left Durban, heading towards the Drakensberg.  En route we were staying over in Nottingham Road were Adam had a recommendation on where to stay. We went via the Valley of 1000 hills, which had a lot of small hills and valleys, we didn’t count 1000, but they could well have been there.  Rocking up into Nottingham Road we had a feed at the local Austrian restaurant?!, checked into a hotel for the night, popped to the local brewery to buy some beer and went to the nearby cheese manufacturers to buy some goats cheese – lovely!

We were staying at the apparently legendary Nottingham Road Hotel which had the oldest pub / bar in Kwa Zulu Natal, called Notties.  Chips, Trouve and myself (Adam was napping) hit the bar around 6pm, discovering there was a quiz night on – we decided to compete.  In the end we didn’t actually do too badly, but we didn’t win.  The quiz had two winners, and as they had no tie break question they elected to auction off the prize, a bottle of Apple Sourz.  After a few pathetic bids of 10 rand, 20 rand, 25 rand, I decided to cut to the chase and offered up 100 rand.  Obviously over priced, but the proceed were going to the local charity – we decided (after drinking a shot or two from the bottle) to keep it for the Drakensberg the following evening.

After the quiz, we had a bite to eat in their restaurant, then back to the bar for a few beers.  In the end it turned out to be quite a few beers.  And after the locals had all left around 10:30pm, we had a lock in with the bar manager, Terry, and one of the staff there, Warren.  We played drinking games (spoof and slaps – plus we nailed the apple sourz as well as some purple drink?!) until what must have been the early hours.  Fantastic night, excellent bar.

The next day we were a little late to get going, unsurprisingly!  We decided to hot foot it to the Drakensberg, we were staying in the Natal National Park in the Northern Drakensberg at Thendele.  Thendele is a camp ground with chalets / cabins looking onto the ‘Amphitheatre’, a section of the Drakensberg, 500m high and 5km long, that looks a little like an amphitheatre.  We arrived around 2pm, and after unloading went for a walk to the nearby Tiger Falls – sadly they were pretty dry, but a good walk nonetheless.

Our chalet in the Berg - overlooked by the Amphitheatre

When we got back the wind had really begun to pick up, making the chalet (nor very well fitted windows) into a bit of a wind tunnel.  So we got the fire going, and cracked into the cheese we had bought near Nottingham Road – all very tasty.  After a while the wind dropped, so we decided to give the braii a go – annoyingly it was bolted down, so if the wind picked up we knew we would have to put it out, rather than causing a fire in the national park.  Disappointing, after getting it going really well, the wind became too much, almost blowing the coals off the braii itself, so we put it out and cooked the steaks and ostrich burgers on the stove.  After a night of cards and watching the football (South Africa playing Brazil in the Confederations Cup) we decided it was time for bed – as the only heat was coming from the fire and a small electric heater, the two bedrooms were absolutely freezing, so we decided to pull all the mattresses into the main room.  It was the right idea, as it was bloody cold.

The next day, we were due in Pretoria, and decided to head there via Rourkes Drift, the location of a famous battle between the British Army and the Zulus.  It was a fair old trek, eventually getting there at 1pm.  As we knew we had a 4hr journey to Pretoria from there, we really didn’t the get chance to understand exactly what happened there – we whizzed round the museum, but that was about it.  (Later we found out that there are better battle grounds at Spioenkop, very close to where we were staying in the Berg!  Interesting, the Kop, the stand at Anfield, is named after Spioenkop).

Our 4 hour drive grew to something more like 6 hours – poor estimations, and lots of roadworks.  But eventually we got to Pretoria, and settled into the Thatch Cottage, about 1km from Loftus Versfeld, the scene of the next Lions vs. Springbok battle.

The Bushmen are the oldest ethnic group in Namibia having inhabited Southern Africa for an estimated 20,000 years. Around 30,000 San live in Namibia, but only 2,000 of them still follow a traditional way of life.

The group who live in Ju/’Hoansi have established a visitor program, which they call The Living Museum. It’s an interesting way of looking at themselves, but not a bad description for what they offer.

The area they live is quite remote, so we had a long drive to get there – willing the truck not to get bogged in the deep sand roads. We camped close-by and that evening they performed a traditional healing dance. The next day we went for a walk with one of their medicine men and some of the women, learning about traditional hunting, and gathering plants for that day’s food and medicine requirements. We also got to sit with the men and make bows (to shoot arrows) – cutting the branches, stripping them, shaping them and then tying them with thin rope we watched the bushmen twist.

The adults and babies wore traditional clothing – very little in general – mainly beads and dyed animal skins. Most of the children dressed in clothes for school. The were happy for us to take photos and as you’ll see they are gorgeous looking people, petite and quite asiatic in appearance. They were some of the healthiest people we saw in Africa, and seemed happy and humourous. There were lots of laughs, many – no doubt – at our expense.

Oh – by the way. The San are the people who have clicking as part of their language. It is amazing to listen to them speaking!

We had a bit of a rigmarole finding the accommodation, Ocean Blue Guesthouse, but fortunately a Bluff local, David, pulled over as we were attempting to hike up the road (just shy of a 5km walk to the guesthouse from where we were) to our guest house with our bags.  Turned out that he headed up the local tourism group, as well as owning a restaurant called the Chicken Shack.  So, David gave us a lift, and we were in our accommodation by 10am.  Ended up being a two bedroom apartment overlooking the Indian Ocean, all for R600 a day!

The only missing piece at this point was Adam (often called Adam “The Liability” Davies)  – having received scattered updates from him, we knew that he was heading up from the Wild Coast and was likely to be late.

So - Adam got lost. And after various phone calls relaying directions, he met us at the Chicken Shack and by 1pm, we were all set to head to the ground, a little later than planned, but a good 2hrs ahead of kick-off.  David’s mate Howard gave us a lift in and after a slightly fraught time hunting down our hospitality area, we were properly getting into it (well the beer at least).

Turned out all the cash we had forked out for the tickets had not been entirely squandered, as we had excellent buffet food, and plenty of beers laid on.  So after a plateful of lamb and 16 beers delivered to our table we started feeling at home.  Only issue was we had 30 minutes to neck the beers before we had to get into the ground.

In the end, we were in our seats by 2:55pm with the roar of “Lions, Lions, Lions” ringing round the Kings Park stadium.  The stadium itself is next door to the new stadium they’re building for the 2010 World Cup, which is looking quite impressive.  Kings Park is pretty special though, with immensely steep stands on both sides, everyone seems to get an excellent view.  The atmosphere was awesome. Even seemed to be better than I remembered the Kiwi tour to be back in 2005.

Adam, taking in the atmosphere

The anthems

A Good Start

The game kicked-off to the anticipation that a) the Lions would continue to perform as well as they had done in their provincial games b) we would kick any penalty coming our way with Jones playing and c) we would be dominant in the scrums.  After the first 40min we had a pretty dismal performance.

Vickery had single handedly concede 4 penalties, and was being out scrummaged (possibly unfairly) by “The Beast”, Jones had missed the 2-3 penalty chances he had, and we really weren’t firing.  We did have one try on  the score board, and Ugo had come extremely close to getting another (stopped only by seemingly lucky defence and the Third Match Official (TMO)).  Half time was, 19-7 to the Saffers.

The 2nd half was in contrast remarkably different.  After 5 minutes Vickery was pulled off and replaced by (Adam) Jones, and all of a sudden the scrum looked shored up – good to see.  Then the Lions seemed to have more possession, strung together some reasonable phases (and Chips eventually relented and went to the bar to get some beer for us!) and things seemed to be turning, but as the game entered the last 10 minutes, it did look out of reach.  Then we got a score to put us within 5 points of the lead, with a few minutes on the clock.

We might just snatch it

The atmosphere really grew – all the Lions fans saw that we could snatch a win, and the Saffer fans could see it too.  Sadly, South Africa got their hands on the ball and closed down the game, winning 26-21.

The end

Overall disappointing – poor 1st half scrimmaging, a couple of TMO’s disallowed tries, a few missed penalties – on another day it could have been the Lions game.

The only thing left for us to do was drink!  Back to the hospitality, the guys went to the bar, and I went to the toilet.  Walking out, I bumped into Richard Heberden, a chap Chips and I played rugby with at Old Wimbledonians.  It turned out he was over with a few of the old chaps (Frank, Scally (Mike) plus a few others) we played with 8-10 years ago, including his brother Martin.  We cracked through a few with them then headed into the car park where Adam had arranged to hook up with a distant relative of his, Ro, for beers and a braii.

The Old Wimbledonians crew

Ro had laid it all on, even buying in carefully selected Ale style beers for us real ale drinkers.  As the evening progressed it became steadily clear we were going to drink him dry (not a problem, but I think he thought he had bought a truck load to cater for us!).  So, he pulled out a bottle of Jamesons, cut the top off a 2 litre plastic beer bottled, and started to mix whiskey and waters in it, pouring it into glasses and sharing it amongst us.

Ro and friends

For some, this was the final straw.  Well, for Trouve at least.  He had already gone walkabout a little earlier in the evening, and now we found him asleep / passed out on the grass.  All the guys we were with were going “Is your mate Ok?‘’ and  “How does he sleep with his leg up like that?“.  Knowing Trouve as we do, we simply said “He’s fine” and carried on drinking.

Trouve takes a well deserved break

A while later, we admitted defeat (as we had ran out of booze) and decided to let one of the Saffer chaps we were drinking with take us to a bar, Harvey Wallbangerz, somewhere in Durban (we’re still not sure where).  By this point, Trouve had slept off the worst of it and was having a second wind.  In Harvey’s we drank some blue muck out of a jug, the memory thereafter is a little hazy, but eventually we got home at 2am ish.

In the aftermath the next morning Chipsey revealed that he managed to climb into bed with Trouve, after falling asleep in his own bed?!  Sleeping arrangement were – 2 bedrooms, Trouve and I in one with two single beds, Adam and Chips in the other sharing a double bed.  So Trouve and Chips shared a single bed for most of the night.  No one was sure why or even how they managed to fit into one bed, but they did!  They won’t be living this one down!

Tim and I tried to spend some time on the internet to book our flight back to Australia and a few other jobs – including arranging to pay Australian customs a ridiculous amount of money to destroy a small potpourri pillow they found in our belongings when they inspected our shipment. We were given the choice of spending $385 to have it treated by gamma irradiation – or $88 to destroy it. Talk about extortionate! I wish that particular item had been discarded in the UK! Anyway, the blackouts were recurring – the electricity was going down about every 15 minutes – so we gave up on the internet.

There was some bad news after dinner. Jono and Emily had been doing part of a service on the truck, and the gear shaft had snapped. Jono was concerned we wouldn’t be able to get a part locally – so we started making worst-case scenario plans for getting us to Livingstone. It involved packing up all of our stuff (and you cannot imagine how much stuff is now strewn about this truck) and spending two days driving on local buses. It would have been an adventure, and at least the eleven of us would have been travelling together. So it was a relief when an alternative fix was suggested and when the sun rose this morning Emily, Jono, Tim, Dave and a helpful local mechanic (who came in on a Sunday morning – amazing!) gave the fix a go.

Dave and Tim help fix the truck - Jono supervises

Tim, Dave and Jono work miracles and get us back on the road

It worked – so we were on the road again about 9-ish.

Today has featured little more than driving. Zambia is beautiful so there’s been some striking scenery – and some fun interactions with people when we’ve stopped for toilets and drinks along the way.

The day ended in Lusaka, the Zambian capital.  Dave and Janice were meeting a friend of theirs who lives there.  We dropped them at one of the typical out of town malls, Manda Hill, and as we had been unable to do any food shopping we headed in for some fast food.  Pizzas or burgers seemed to be the flavour of the evening – a bit of a change in the diet was well received.

We eventually got to our campsite, Eureka, around 7:30pm, set up camp and headed to the bar for a few beers.