A curse on all their houses!

Aargh! What were they thinking?

TVNZ have decided in their infinite wisdom to schedule the new season of LOST against TV3s Heroes. Here's a newsflash for you guys - the people who watch one of these crazy shows are the same people who watch the other!

Why force us to choose? Trying to outdo TV3? This is exactly why people end up going to the InterWeb for their TV shows, and then you both lose out anyway!

Well at least this has got me so annoyed it has prompted me to get blogging again. We'll see how we go this time. I know, I know... still no Africa photos yet - so how about this to tide you over... two new additions to theclagues household.





J&J

So Very Cool

Two posts in one day - shocking. What do you expect now I'm back to work ;-)

Just had to show you the extreme awesomeness that is this news article:

Ultimate exca-vacation

That is all.

J&J

Home

So we made it home again.

You may have noticed the lack of photos posted, but honestly - it's for you're own good! We came back with over 3,400 photos - but that is from 36 days, and two cameras!

We have started going through them now severely trimming them down - it's like "yeah these are all great photos - but we don't need eight photos of the same mountain. From the same angle."

So once we've got things organised a bit better I'll be posting some highlights here.

But we had a fantastic time - loved every minute of it.

J&J

Best. Day. Ever!

We have nearly finished our Safari tour - photos later when it's not 4 million degrees.

We have been in the national park and seen lions and elephants and zebra and giraffes - extremely close...

We are now in Zambia - today we saw Victoria Falls - we flew over them in a helicopter this morning - then this afternoon went out to Livingstone Island where you can swim in a pool RIGHT at the edge of the falls. Amazing pictures - I cannot think of a crazier place to swim!

Have to go now - this is costing me 300 Kwachas per minute!

J&J

Camping

We have survived our first two nights of camping!

We had to be at a hotel in Windhoek at 10 am on Wednesday to meet our tour. We expected to find a big safari truck, but instead we found a guy with a sign and and a van. And there was only one other guy on the tour! (Plus the four of us). Hmmm, this might be interesting.

And it got even more interesting when our van driver was stopped at a police checkpoint outside the city and had to turn back because he didn't have a fire extinguisher!

Once we got underway again, we got an unexpected chance to appreciate the scenery while our driver changed a flat tyre...


Once we got to Sesreim though, we discovered our Van Man was just a transfer and we met up with the real tour, and an actual safari truck:

Our tour group is cool - with 14 people in total; 5 Australians, 2 Danes, 1 Portugese... as well as 2 Italians who don't speak much english! There are two guides as well - Rino and Willie, who are great fun.

We set up camp under the stars: (bonus points for whoever names the constellation visible here)

The camp was actually really well equipped - with a toilet block and hot showers... but somehow I don't think they'll all be like that!

And then went out for a sunset walk in the dunes. The next morning we got up ridiculously early to see sunrise from another dune, but I think you've seen enough sand for the moment, so I'll skip those 300 photos :-)

Later that day we did a 5km walk in the desert (which is HOT) and saw the Dead Vlei - which is ESPECIALLY hot and dry - even by desert standards!

That evening we took a walk down into Sesreim Canyon...

And saw our very first (WILD) live snake! It was pretty small, but also very poisonous, and sounding very pissed off the way it was hissing!

Yet another gorgeous African sunset to finish an amazing (and tiring) day!

We are heading north tomorrow, away from civilisation, so I'm not sure when we'll get to the next internet cafe. We'll post when we can though - so keep checking!

J&J

PS: Also got a chance to try out the underwater camera the other day.... and it works!

Sand, Sand and More Sand.

We had the wedding on Saturday, it was very nice and everyone looked lovely etc etc.

No time to blog about that just now - just enough time to load a few photos of ... sand.

The day after the wedding Ronald (he's my brother-in-law's brother-in-law - work that out!) took us out to find some sand. As I mentioned earlier - that is not terribly difficult in Swakopmund. He took us out to Dune 7 - which is apparently the 7th tallest dune system in the world. And we climbed it....


Picture walking up the downwards escalator - except it's sand... and twice as steep.

I just about died. I was seriously considering telling the others to send me a postcard from the top.


Quite satisfying once you're up there though..... and it's a long way back down (check out the size of the cars) - but much MUCH quicker.

The views from up here were amazing though - and for the first time we really felt like we were in Africa.


We are back in Windhoek now - officially starting our Safari tour today - but we don't meet up with the group until tomorrow morning.

J&J

Namibia!

We made it to Namibia!

Sorry, no photos just yet, as the internet cafe I have found has a 'no USB' policy.

We spent one night in Windhoek (the capital) after our flight up from Cape Town. The next day we caught a minibus shuttle out to Swakopmund at the coast (4 hours - but so hot it was much worse than the 19hr bus ride!)

Here we met up with soon-to-be extended family, and had a 'Braai' - (a bbq).

Swakopmund is an amazing town - the sand dunes are literally right up to the edge of the houses - I'm sure they have to go out each day and sweep the desert back!

I'll find some way to get some more photos on here.

I have to dash off now, because the wedding starts shortly.

J&J

*cough* Guest Book *cough*

Blame it on the rain

Today is our last day in cape town. We leave for namibia early
tomorrow morning. We are planning a drive around the cape of good hope
in the rental car today. The weather has turned a bit rainy, but we're
glad we had an awesome sunny day on sunday. And it never rains in
namibia anyway!

--
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Cape Town!

We made it to Cape Town! And we survived our 19 hour bus trip. The bus was actually more comfortable than the plane, with nice soft seats that reclined a looong way. Got to see some of the countryside as we were going along too - lot and lots of very dry land! Even saw our first african animals... well, they were sheep and cows and goats - but they were african! Later on we saw some ostrich and some kind of Bok.

Got a glimpse of some real african poverty too - shanty-towns made of corrugated-iron houses, and only a bit further up the road (presumably) rich vineyards!

On arrival at Cape Town we had some drama, walked to the car rental office we had booked, only to find them closed! It seems they had lost our booking. But we got it all sorted in the end and have picked up a shiny new Toyota Yaris today.

Better go, time's running out at the internet cafe - but don't say I never blog!

J&J

Bring on the bus!

We made it to joburg, and luckily enough so did our luggage. We had 12 hours to kill before the next stage, so we really wanted to see the apartheid museum.

Luckily, we were able to find a place to have a shower and a rest beforehand, so we went off to museum feeling slightly more human.

The museum was amazing. You just walk through it thinking 'how could anyone think this was a good idea?'

now we are at the bus station waiting on the bus that will be our home for the next 19 hours. It's a luxury bus, but after the movies-on-demand on the plane - will it stack up?

J&J

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Halfway round the world...

We have made it to bangkok so far. I'm writing this on my phone from the airport. Now that's commitment! We're waiting for our connecting flight to joburg. I'm loving the individual screens on the plane, and movies on demand. Already watched indiana jones, iron man, kung fu
panda and speed racer. Awesome.

--
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Twas The Night Before Take-Off

Twas the Night before Take-Off
And Jason and Juliet
Were just so Excited
They couldn't get to Bed

The Bags were all Packed
The Lists Ticked Off
Just a few more Hours
And then we'll be Off!

Do you like the clever way I rhymed 'off' with 'off' there? Amazing.

So, we're all packed. And we've managed to come in at the right weight with our luggage which is nice. We have no problem with the airline's 20kg limit, as the safari tour we are going on has a 12kg limit each! Lucky we're light packers!

Our flight leaves at 1:15pm tomorrow. Helen is picking us up to take us to Auckland.

Not sure when we'll get to do a blog after that - so here's a run down of the plan:

Fly from Auckland to Bangkok. 3 hour stopover.
Fly from Bangkok to Johannesburg. 12 hours there (6am to 6pm). We only have two objectives for our time in Jo'burg - see the Apartheid museum, and not get killed. We'll let you know how we get on.
Then at 6pm we board a bus for a mammoth 19 hour bus trip from Jo'burg to Cape Town. It is 1500 kms - the same as the distance from Hamilton to Invercargil.
Arriving in Cape Town we will pick up a rental car and drive to our accomodation for the first shower in a very long time!

Wish us luck!

(I have my phone with me (Jason), if anyone wants to text).

J&J

PS: Got another email from the travel agent today - saying the airline have changed the flight time again. The day before we leave. Awesome. Just about fainted, but turned out it was only a five minute change to the departure time from Jo'burg on the way home. Why even bother to tell us that? We have to be at the airport three hours early anyway!