I have 3 stories to tell which give quite a good view on the way of life in Sydney:
- The first day I arrived I wandered around in the city to get some first impressions, I still had a note of 100 south african rand in my pocket(little less than 10€). When I took my camara out of my pocket the note fell on the ground without me noticing it, a girl just ran after me to say I dropped some money on the street: honest as hell!
- Most of the time I wander around with my lonely planet in my hand (those tourists!!), but as soon as I hold and look at the map in my book some ozzy just stops and asks if I'm lost and directly gives the good directions...
- Yesterday I went to a party with life music, when I came back we wanted to take the bus, the first one stopped and we asked if he stops near our place, but no bus did ride that direction so late at night, he promptly offered to ride along for free and he could drop us off a little bit closer so we didn't had to walk that far, this was a public bus!(ask 'de lijn' in Belgium to do that...)
I'm in Sydney already for 4 days and the city is amazing. The first 2 days I just walked around to get the first impressions, after that I took a surf camp on the northern beaches of Sydney, 7 mile beach. The feeling of surfing on the waves is amazing, there is a steep learning curve though but at the end it's all worthwhile, after 2 hard days (4 hours surfing a day is a lot) I could ride the waves up to 1 to 1,5 meter but some more surfing is already planned for next WE. I met a lot of people on the camp (mostly temporarily residents and students of Sydney Uni), the offered promptly to stay with them in their appartment in the middle of Sydney (King's cross). Now I can start exploring the rest of Sydney from here. Anyway some pictures of Sydney can be found here. Ohh did I forgot to say it's 30 degrees here :-)
Hi, I just arrived in Sydney after a veryyy long flight, weather is not so good for the moment and my surf classes are starting on saturday but what do I see in the local forecast as of saturday 28°C, now it's only 15°C: freeezzing
Anyway I go explore the city cause I have to be back for happy hour in 4 hours, something I cannot miss...
Our last destination in Tanzania was the Selous national park, just to make sure we saw the last wild animals before leaving Africa. This park is a nice alternative to the most known northern counterparts: Serengeti and Ngorogoro. On our whole day game drive we only crossed 2 other vehicles, a rare thing in national parks... The only goal I had was to see some lionesses with cubs and of course most dreams come true!
The ride back with the local bus was quite a fuzz due to some brake problems we spend whole day on the road but we were not complaining. Overall Selous was great just as all other things visited in Tanzania, time to move on...
We've been to Zanzibar, also known as the spice island, for about 5 days. We took the fast ferry from Dar es Salaam to the main harbour in Zanzibar, Stone town. Stone town has an arabic atmosphere: narrow streets along the thick concrete buildings and the adhan called by the muezzin which wakes you up early in the morning. We escaped from the busy city life and took the daladala to Bwejuu, a small coastal village on the east side of the island. Here we saw again the paradise beaches like we've seen in Kilwa, almost deserted white sand beaches and very warm sea water, ideally to float for a while.
I know it's been a while but a lot happened last week and a half. I've been welcomed to Tanzania in the Dar es Salaam airport by a local beauty with the name Kat :-) (100daysontheroad.blogspot.com). We had a small negative experience but you can check that one on kat's blog, anyway we're both fine just a little administrative runaround!
We've been to Kilwa, a small region in Tanzania where almost no tourists show up due to the bumpy road you have to take (10 hours in a crowded bus). These beaches just make you think paradise does exist: white sand, blue clear water, coco palm trees and friendly relaxed people (all children run up to you saying bye bye as this are the only english word they heard before...).
We've been to Zanzibar as well and are heading for Sealous nature park tomorrow morning, next week we are already leaving the country, I'll post more info then as I'm in transit for 24 hours so time to kill
Anyway some pics
All the best
grz
K
I'm writing this from a dead corner in South Afrika, that means that I left the Namibian building... I was sad to leave this fantastic country but more is coming up... I at least said goodbye with the best thrill of my life: the last 2 days I was in Swakopmund, the most adventurous town in Nam, the morning I started with sandboarding in the dunes: amazing!!!, the local guys invited me to join them for free the next day because it was soooo much fun, pitty I had a plane to catch BUT the best had still to come: I did a skydive from 10000 feet with a 30 sec freefall at 220 km/h, this moment is undescribable and is the most appealing drug you can find, going from 10000 to 5000 feet in 30 secs makes your belly go wild. Thx to Mias for the nice lesson in 'how to make sure you're alive...'
Tomorrow I'm heading to Dar (Tanzania) nothing planned yet but we'll see.
All the best back home and take care
grz
K
