Heading Home

I'm a sucker for scientific history so by that standard this was
definetely a good day. I started out touring around cambridge, first
by myself and then on a walking tour. I'm listening to bill bryson's
a short history of nearly everything and its beyond cool to hear about
this and that that happened at the cavendish laboratory and then
reliaze I was just there about an hour prior.

I headed back to london, checked into my hotel, and caught a train to
greenwich which is obviously has it share of science history. I
barely made it to the old royal observory and the official base for
the prime meridian before the park closed. They project a green lazer
down the line from quite a ways off.

Now I've been out again for a final pie and couple of pints and am
back to get some net time and repack for the trip home.

Last net before heading home

I'm online in london now for about an hour - until 3pm seattle time -
and thats it before heading home in the morning.

Cambridge

So its sunday night and I am in cambridge. I finally got bitten a bit
by winter train schedules (and some strikes) over the past couple of
days so my itinerary has not been quite what I thought.

I spent some time saturday morning walking around glasgow and then I
went to try and catch a train to northwest scotland, either oban or
fort william was the plans. Two problems. First the trains out that
way are always slow and in the winter they don't run very often. I
thought I found a workable schedule to Oban but the train was I
thought I would take only runs for two weekends in june. So I just
caught a train to Stirling and went to check out the castle there.
This was for a very long time the strategic capital of scotland.

I continued on to Edinburgh last night and stayed there. I caught a
literary pub tour and actually stayed out past midnight for once.
This morning I went to the castle and scottish musuem, walked around a
bit more, and then went to find a train to somewhere. This is where I
found that system maintenance and strikes had drastically reduced the
number of trains to the south. I caught one to london and the first
class pass bailed me out again since that was the only place with
seats left.

I found a train back up to cambridge from london king cross and here I am.

Glasgow

I did my tour of loch ness without spotting anything suspicious, saw a
distillery and drank the product, then headed down to glasgow where I
am spending the night. Definetely a party town on a friday night.

Not sure what I m doing tommorow. The trains to northwest scotland
are much slower than I would like. I did get a chance to see the
snowy mountains today though.

Inverness

Yesterday I walked around York som more in the morning then caught a
train to Newcastle. Got to see their millenium bridge in action - it
rotates open, and had a pint of cask brown.

I hopped an afternoon train to Edinburgh, but when I saw it was going
all the way to Inverness and I had a nice first class seat, I decided
to just stay on. The only unfortunate part was that it was quickly
too dark to see much of the Scottish highlands we were passing
through.

This morning I am booked on a whiskey distillery tour and then going
to Loch Ness. I will probably head back down to either Edinburgh or
Glasgow this evening.

Yes, i'm in York

I did actually make it up to york and am staying here tonight. I
should not have said anything about kiling first class because i
promptly found this morning that there were no first class carriages
on the route I was taking until the very last segment from manchester.

I could really use way better information systems to plot my routes.
The use of someone wandering on a pass is clearly not normal. They
always assume you know where you are going and roughly where that is.
Its a pain to get schedule where one of the end points is not your
current station or where the route does not pass your current station.
This makes my wandering a little iffy since i generally get off a
train not know when the next onee going where i want will leave.

At any rate York is very nice with huge ped zones and lingering
medeival bits everywhere.

I will most likely head to scotland tomorrow after some more time in
york since by the time i arrived things were already close to closing.

York

So i think i will go to york in the morning Mostly because i'm tired
nd feel like a long train ride.

Cardiff

I'm in a Cardiff bckpackers for the night. I'm actually not feeling
so well so i think i will just be mellow here instead of hunting
pints. Amazingly the hostel has a poor cognac selection.

This industrial net cafe keyboard is lame enough to even slow me down.

I have determined that the UK is a carefully honed cash extraction machine.

The first class britrail pass is pretty cool. First is generally
vacant even when the rest of the train is standing room only. They
come by and bring cafeeine, snacks, and newspapers. I listen to
audiobooks on the ipod while watching the countryside slip by. Not
bad really.

Don't know where i am headed tommorow. Possible stratford-on-avon.
Or manchester. Or york.

Wales

I have decided for no apparent reason to head to Cardiff today. I'll
probably try to drop by bag at a hostel and then hop back on the train
to explore around.

Its a nice sunny morning here in Oxford.

Oxford

I've decided to head to Oxford tommorow. Probably stopping at Windsor
along the way.

London

We are out of africa and I am spending the night in london. We
arrived this morning from Port Elizabeth via Jo'burg. Debbie flew
back to Seattle after a quick trip to the british musuem and around
the town a bit. She should be landing in a couple of hours.

I hit the natural history musuem where I was amazed to find long
queues due to a refurbed dinosaur exhibit.

I'm heading off on my rail pass in the morning but not exactle sure
where to as of yet.

Jeffreys Bay

We are in jeffrey's bay, sa tonight. Internet access has been sparse.
Frequently we find cafe's closed at 5pm anf the backpackers will
have only one slow term in constant use.

Got in the waves a bit today. This is a famous surf break.

Heading to addo elephant park tommorow, then to port elizabeth.
Flying to London the day after.

Fires

We took the Rikki to Stellenbosch gardens yesterday and hiked from
there up tabletop mountain, skeleton gorge if you know the area.
Walking towards the cable car station (another 2 hours) we heard
sirens and weren't sure what it meant. When we got there everything
was closed and there were just about to load the last car down. The
fires had flared again and they were closing operations for the day.
Luckily we manged to get the ride down.

The winds were intense into the evening, strong enough to rattle the
whole building, and we could see fire from the hostel. A new spot
opened up and spread quickly driven by the wind. Someone had a long
night as it seems to be under control this morning.

Our rental car will be delivered in a couple of hours and then we are
off to the cape peninsula and probably sleeping in the winelands
tonight.

Late notes on Zimbabwe

Random thoughts and notes on Zim a couple days after leaving. Most
would apply to Botswana as well although that country seems on the way
up and Zim on the way down.

River rafting guide is a highly sought after, well paid career.

Western CD's go for $25, used.

There were no bustling markets in pirate media like you would find in Asia.

$100/month is the baseline for a desirable competitive job.

There are about Z$100,000 to the USD. The notes used are primarily
Z$20,000. The print so many they leave one side blank.

There are 50 cent slots in the casino. Thats 50 zim cents. All
addicted gamblers should be sent there with 10 USD.

I had offers to trade random crafts for everything I was wearing or
carrying, with seemingly no correlation to value.

I was never actually threatened.

Cell access

We are back in full cell coverage her in capetown. I should be
reachable via cell phone for the remainder of the trip exclusing
flights.

CPT

Another quick note on capetown. This is the first place I have been
where I could even imagine living for a while. Its nice to be
somewhere for a bit where stepping outside of the hostel or camp doe
snot put you in peril by animal or human violence.

Capetown

We arrived in capetown yesterday. Managed to catch an early BA flight
(did not actually realise that Kulula was owned by them).

We pretty much walked all over for about 8 hours today, starting out
at 8am (still on a jet lag schedule as far as I'm concerned) and hit
the waterfront, downtown, the castle, and picked up some SA wine on
the way back. So cheap. I am done with castle beer.

Tommorow tabletop mountain, which is beautifully framed from the deck
off our room.

Leaving Zim

Done with Victoria Falls. Heading back to Botswana tonight, then
jo'burg and flying to capetown the day after. Probably no more access
until then.

Rafted the zambezi yesterday which was good. Probably the best
rafting scenery I've ever seen. But the lunch gave me food poisoning
which took me out of action for a few hours. Seems OK now though.

Victoria Falls

We got to victoria falls, zimbabwe yesterday and have not actually
seen the falls yet. In a couple of hours we will jet boat up under
them. This afternoon we are going to a lion park and tommorow is a
full day rafting trip on the zambezi.

Internet cafes are plentiful here so I will probably be back with more
updates in the next couple of days.

No cell access

I should have written this earlier, but as long as I am in botswana
and zimbabwe, I have only emergency outbound calling. My cell phone
will be functional again in 5 days or so when I am back in south
africa.

Back from the Delta

We got back yesterday from 2 days camping in the delta here. I dont
think any night noises in the pacific northwest are likely to bother
me any longer after being woken by the sounds of lions, hippos and
more. We found hyena and warthog tracks at our site in the morning.

Today we will visit the pans where the flamingos have come in early
due to the strong rains. Fortunately we have managed to avoid most of
those and stay fairly dry.

Maun, Botswana

Have not head access in a while and have just a brief chance at a slow
connection now. Kruger was great, saw lots. Lots of driving. 900k
yesterday. Elephants along the highway today in Botswana. Into the
delta tommorow.

Lazy day in Jo'burg

Gemini backpackers picked us up at the airport this morning and we
will just hang out here all day. Waiting on pizza delivery for
dinner.

Flights were uneventful and in 5 or so hours in london, we managed to
ride the Eye, stop for beer and beef pie, and spend some time in the
national gallery.

Email Test

This is just a test to see if email posting works. It seem likely
that email would be our most common posting method while travelling.

Getting Ready

Gettting ready to go to Africa and so I will initiate the mandatory blog.