October 2010
3 posts
Vilankulo and some great diving
After several days of yet more loooooong African bus rides, Chris and I landed in Vilankulo. Click here to read about diving in paradise and our visit to the ghost-town island.
Northern Mozambique and more border crossing...
Northern Mozambique was a major change from Malawi and Zambia. Click here to read Julia’s blog entry about the African version of “luxury” buses and another border crossing adventure.
Photos from Northern Mozambique
September 2010
4 posts
Zomba
After two months without any real exercise, we decided to hike up a giant plateau in Southern Malawi. Click here to read about it.
Zomba photos
Here are some photos from our time in Zomba, Southern Malawi.
Cape Maclear
We liked Malawi so much, we went back for a second helping. Clear here to read about Chris’ experience with “happy-pants” sandwiches, botched fishing adventures and riding in the back of African pick-up trucks.
Cape Maclear Photos
Here are some photos from our time in Cape Maclear, Southern Malawi.
August 2010
11 posts
Zambian safari
We had an amazing safari in Zambia’s South Luangwa National park. Click here to read Julia’s blog entry about our safari…
Zambia safari photos!
African cultural lessons
Traveling in Africa has been an interesting learning experience. Click here to read Julia’s blog entry about some of our African “learning experiences”.
Backpacking with Julia
While Julia and I have been together for over a couple years and taken some brief vacations, this trip is by far the longest. Spending this much one on one time together has taught us a lot about each other, and also pointed out some funny differences. Julia seems to have perfected the art of traveling during her yearlong backpacking trip through Central America and Asia. While I have also done...
Photos from Nkhata Bay (Northern Malawi)
Nkhata Bay
We had a fantastic time on the Northern coast of Lake Malawi. Click here to read about the place we loved to much, we got “stuck” there for 10 days…
(Almost) Crisis at the Malawian border
Crossing into Malawi turned out to be a little more stressful than we imagined. Click here to read about our slightly scary day of overland border crossing in Africa…
Tales of a Serengeti Safari
We had an amazing safari in the Serengeti (Northern Tanzania). Click here to read Julia’s blog entry about our first safari experience…
Serengeti Safari Photos!
Here are some photos from our safari in Northern Tanzania. Enjoy!
Safari preparations...
We thought that it would be a snap to organize our safari once we arrived in Tanzania. It turned out to be MUCH more of a mission than we expected. Click here to read Julia’s blog entry about our quest for the perfect budget safari in the Serengeti…
Zanzibar Beaches and Scuba Diving
Zanzibar was a nice mix of sightseeing around Stone Town and relaxation on the tropical beaches of the East and Northern coasts of the island. It was also a great place to spend my birthday with Julia and take some time to get my PADI Open Water certification. Zanzibar is a little expensive, but a nice spot to get certified as the diving was amazing with tons of tropical fish (anthias, angel...
July 2010
11 posts
Zanzibar!
Click here to read Julia’s blog post about our adventures in Zanzibar…
Photos from Zanzibar
World Cup (Julia's perspective)
Ok, so we’ve heard Chris’ side of the story, but click here to read Julia’s take on all of that World Cup craziness…
World Cup Photos!
World Cup Quarterfinals in Jo’burg
While I had to use all of my powers of persuasion to convince Julia to add a flight to Jo’burg and 4 nights in a dingy/overpriced hostel to our trip itinerary (in her words she wasn’t “100% on board” is an understatement), it turned out to be an amazing highlight of our trip. Yes the hostel was overcrowded; yes everything was overpriced especially taxis and hotels, and yes Jo’burg is not the...
Air Madagascar brings people together…
Click here for Julia’s blog entry about our adventures in Northern Madagascar (our last stop in that country)….
Photos from Northern Madagascar
Communication Troubles in Madagascar
While the wildlife and outdoor scenery here in Madagascar has been one of a kind, Julia and I are still grappling with a language barrier that has lead to some funny encounters with locals. The people here mostly speak Malagasy and French, so unfortunately our collective knowledge of English, Spanish, German, and Italian has been unhelpful. We have learned some very basic French phrases, but this...
An island paradise in Madagascar →
After our extreme chicken bus adventure getting from the capital to the East coast, we were really ready to relax at the beach. We headed from Tamatave to Ile Ste Marie (Saint Marie island), and…
dutchashell asked: How are you going to get all of your new animal friends home?
Photos from Ile Aux Nattes in Madagascar
June 2010
8 posts
Meeting my chicken bus match →
We purchased our initial Jo’burg –Madagascar tickets through an American travel agency in May and decided at that point to organize domestic flights for the majority of our trip. The first leg of…
Lemurs! →
After two days in Tana, Chris and I headed off to Andasibe national park. Our plan thus far had been to work our way from the capital of Madagascar to Sainte Marie island over the course of a week,…
Lemurs are ridiculously cute
Madagascar – not for the faint of heart →
After a little over a week in Cape Town, we hopped on a plane to Madagascar. I’ve always been intrigued by this mysterious island that some call the 8th continent and have really been looking…
First days in Madagascar
Here are some photos from our journey from Cape Town to Madagascar and the first couple of days in Madagascar’s capital. Enjoy!
Reunited with our bags!
After almost a week and a half of strange outfits and a dangerously low supply of socks, I am pleased to report that we have been reunited with our bags! Woohooo!
When we picked up the bags, we noticed that they had LHR-CPT South African Airways stickers on them. How peculiar! It turns out that our bags hadn’t come to Cape Town via a shipping company, but we had paid heaps of money for a...
Some photos from our first week in Cape Town...
Touch down in Cape Town →
We’ve been here for nearly a week now and are happy to report that we love our new city! Cape Town is a beautiful, cosmopolitan city, and I really think that we are going to like living here. We…
May 2010
5 posts
In transit: 3 days, 3 continents and luggage drama... →
It took us 3 days to get to Cape Town. First we flew from Oregon to London, had a 36 hour layover and then continued on to Cape Town direct from London. Our trip from Oregon to London was…
Oregon: relaxed rainy days and a little firearms... →
After 2 weeks of packing up our apartment in SF, preparing to move to South Africa and saying goodbye, Chris and I headed up to Oregon to spend a few days with my family before launching off on our…
Manhattan Beach, CA: going away bbq with family...
While this blog post does not appear in chronological order, I also want to give a shout-out to our family and friends in So Cal for sending us off with an awesome BBQ hosted by my mom. Julia and I really enjoyed seeing you all and while I am not sure if Carey’s USA theme caught-on like she hoped, the guitar glasses were amazing. Since Frash couldn’t make it, we had to postpone the Tiny Dancer...
Oregon: relaxed rainy days and a little firearms...
After 2 weeks of packing up our apartment in SF, preparing to move to South Africa and saying goodbye, Chris and I headed up to Oregon to spend a few days with my family before launching off on our big journey together. It was great to have some time to relax and decompress before our departure…and Oregon is the perfect place for a little chill-out time. One of the highlights of our visit to...