The end of the journey of a lifetime....

  J´burg, South Africa
Saturday, February 25, 2006

And so the journey of a lifetime regretfully ends with a few tears and regrets that this kind of life of travel can't be continued forever. It is with a lot of wonderful memories of adventures and fun that I board the airplane to ol' blighty.

In summary, I have taken the liberty of plagerizing the Mastercard ads...

6 months in Africa: $6800
177 days of living, breathing and feeling the spirit and soul of the wonderful people in of Africa: PRICELESS

And finally, here is
Hannah's African TOP 40 (all of the stories behind each of these can be found on my travelblog under each country)

1. Watching a baby being born in front of our eyes on a bus amongst the chickens (Ethiopia) (no photos of this, just the bus journey!)


2. 4 days of sparkling white sand and clear blue sea, skinny dipping and guitar playing in Zanzibar (Zanzibar, Tanzania)


3. 4 day community tourism trek through remote villages in northern Ethiopia (Gashena, Ethiopia)


4. Visiting the Genocide Museum (Kigali, Rwanda)


5. Swimming in a rock pool right on the edge of Victoria Falls (Livingstone, Zambia)


6. White Water Rafting (and nearly dying) the White Nile (Jinja, Uganda)


7. Going to sleep under the stars to the sounds of the drums in Sahara desert (Merzouka, Morocco)


8. Climbing (just!) Table Mountain and the fantastic view from the top (Capetown, South Africa)


9. Visiting a remote himba village and learning the traditional way of life (Opuwo, Namibia)


10. Sowing fields of peanuts and maize in remote Botswana (Mokubilo, Botswana)



11. Sleeping on a remote island and waking to the call to church drums, borrowing the local canoe and canoeing to church (Lake Bunyonyi, Uganda)


12. Meeting Frankie Fredericks at his home! (Windhoek, Namibia)


13. Waking up to the 4.30am call to prayer from 5 different mosques from the rooftop (Fes, Morocco)


14. Spending a few nights in paradise - snorkelling and sliding down waterfalls in an area so remote you have to travel 5 hours by boat or walk 5 hours to the nearest village (Ruware, Malawi)


15. Travelling in style - hitching a ride with a petrol tanker and then sleeping the night on the floor of a petrol station (Dar es Salaam to Iringa, Tanzania)


16. 4wd-ing and having to dig the car out of the sand in lion territory (South Luaunga National Park, Zambia)


17. Learning to surf! (Tofo, Mozambique)


18. Attending, and for some unknown reason becoming the star attraction at the Ramadan festival in Harar (Harar, Ethiopia)


19. Surviving a 30 hour nightmare bus journey involving 2 busloads of people in one bus, 5 people on a seat built for 2, 3 burst tires and a baby peeing on me (Mwanza to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania)


20. Cycling to island monastries and later that night chewing chaat (potent hallucigenic leaf) on the banks of the blue Nile (Bahir Dar, Ethiopia)



21. Catching a burglar in action - and surviving! (Windhoek, Namibia)


22. Sleeping in the receptionist's cupboard when the hotel was completely booked out (Kigali, Rwanda)


23. Camping and watching the most beautiful sunset EVER in the rocky landscape of Damaraland (Twyfelfontein, Namibia)


24. Having a Silver Back piss on us as we trekked the mountain gorillas (Bwindi, Uganda)


25. Listening to Berber music being played in the nightmarkets of Marrakesh (Marrakesh, Morocco)


26. Enjoying the stunningly beautiful scenery of the view across the lake over to Congo and then listening to the entire bus burst into song (Cyangugu, Rwanda)


27. Tasting the fantastic South African wines on the wine trails with our great friends Sam and Ryan (Western Cape, South Africa)


28. Having dinner with Derartu Tulu, 2 time Olympic Champion (10,000m) (Addis, Ethiopia)


29. Getting my hair plaitted (and extensions) African style (Kabale, Uganda AND Maputo, Mozambique)


30. Walking to the market to buy fresh seafood and veges and cooking with what we had for 4 days (Tofo, Mozambique)



31. Microlighting over Victoria Falls (Livingstone, Zambia)


32. Smoking kif in the carpet shops in the rolling hills of northern Morocco (Chefchaouen, Morocco)


33. Drinking tej (very lethal) and dancing with the locals at Lalibela, city of the rock-hewn churches (Lalibela, Ethiopia)


34. Watching traditional music group perform and chatting with some great rastas (Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe)


35. Eating the mopane worm - and liking it! (Mokubilo, Botswana)


36. Camping in the trees (South Luanga National Park, Zambia)


37. Enjoying fantastic homegrown food and smoke with an eccentric colonial English man on deserted Banda Island (Banda Island, Uganda)


38. Visiting the original rasta village and learning all about the rasta religion and its Ethiopian roots!(Shashemene, Ethiopia)


39. Surviving being flooded out and having to off-road in our 2wd in remote areas of Namibia (journey from Soussesvlei to Windhoek, Namibia)


40. Renting an entire apartment on the beach front of one of the top surf beaches in the world (Jeffery's Bay, South Africa)


Good-bye Africa. Thanks for the best 6 months of my life.