Zanzibar

The white sandy beaches, crystal blue waters and palm-tree lined roads of Zanzibar became my home for around 2 weeks after I had left Mozambique. Luckily, an old South African Round Square friend (Andrew Morgan) now lives and works on this little island off mainland Tanzania, and so by staying with him and some of his friends around the island I managed to stay my whole time there without paying one single nights accomodation! (although I did take it as my duty to see that the fridge was always well stocked with beer...). So cheers Morgs...
The photo above was taken on one of the snorkelling trips I did. Dont worry the boats that take you out are much safer than they look!

The streets of Stone Town (capital of Zanzibar)

One of the many old-fashioned Indian style doors for which Stone Town has became famous for.

Just passing those lazy hours in the middle of the day...

On a 'sunset cruise', with Dutch friend Freddy in the background (pretending to steer).

Some of the Hotels and Restaurants well out of my price range which line the beach of Nungwi (on the North Coast).

My (much more affordable) accomodation. Yes that is the kitchen.

The guy on the left is the guy who was hosting me in the above 'kitchen-view' accomodation. The rest are his band, performing at a local bar. Many hours were spent lazing around the house jamming various tunes, and Im happy to say I have rediscovered my passion for guitar. Believe it or not they actually invited me to perform some songs with them, and despite bringing down the level of musical talent significantly, I think I did ok.

Hired a motorbike for 2 days to cruise around the island on! (Yes Dad, that is a Honda XR250!)

Hanging with some of the locals.

Yes Dad, that is a Sea-Doo sticking out of the beach!

Attempting to climb a coconut tree. This was as far as I got.

Me taking full advantage of my newly-acquired Scuba diving liscence, with instructor Marianne.

Daniel (the guy on the right) was a local painter who I bought some souvenirs from and who also was keen to show me how to paint African style! So here I am, amazingly, doing art! Wierd I know. I still have the final product to take home with me, so you can judge me on my ability then. The following series of photographs are my entries for best sunset photo competition. (admittedly Zanzibar - and a good digital camera - makes it very easy for you).

Locals doing flips on the beach.

Yeah baby.

M

Tofo

So, where was I? Tofo? Wow, that seems like such along time ago...In fact the time I spent lazing around this beach town in Mozambique spanned roughly the first 10 or so days of August...So yeah, over a month ago. Since then I've been from Zanzibar to Kenya to Ghana (where I find myself right at this moment!) So plenty more blogs to come...(hopefully)

The view from the beach looking back towards the backpackers. The biggest building on the sand dune on the left is the bar/restaurant. Yep, I was literally living on the beach!

Mmmmmm

Me looking very happy with myself at one of the local restaurants with a plate of calamari, chips and salad (tastes better than it looks).

The spanish speaking crew. Rodrigo (Chile), Lucas (Spain), Sebastien (Argentina) and Ignacio (Spain). Cool guys.

The restaurant menu, written on a cardboard box. I was lucky enough to witness a price increase while I was there, obviously due to soaring demand.

Another view of the backpackers from the beach.

The boats that the local tour operators use to do ocean safaris, snorkelling and diving.

So many people talk about the diving in Mozambique. So I thought that while I was here I should do it! This was taken on the second day of our 4-day course, just before we went into the open water for the first time! The girl on the left was my South African instructor, with my Spanish diving buddy Lucas on the right, who was doing the same course as me.

Practising in the pool.

So that was a (very) brief look at my time in Tofo. Lets just say that the rest of my time consisted of very civilized activities, and absolutely no drinking whatsoever.

M

Zimpeto Orphanage

Finally, another update! So far in this blogging series I've only covered my time in South Africa around the time of the World Cup...since then, I have spent almost a month in Mozambique and now a week in Zanzibar! So I think it is unlikely I will ever catch up entirely, but may as well keep trucking on. So here I will just give a quick glimpse of my time at the orphanage in Mozambique...2 weeks of amazing experiences I will try to show you in about a dozen or so photos...(to get an even better idea, check out the many photos of me on facebook which other people have posted, who were at Zimpeto at the same as me). The photo above was taken on the weekly trip to the beach.

We passed alot of time playing basketball.

Every evening we were treated to this sunset over the soccer pitch...

Myself and two fellow Melbournites crammed in the back of a truck (guitars, speakers, tents, luggage and a keyboard all packed in behind us) on the way to Muhlase, a local community for an overnight outreach.

The church under construction at Muhlase.

Just an example of some of the clothes that find their way across the Indian ocean. I have also seen AFL beanies and rugby jerseys around the streets of Maputo.

With the local kids in Muhlase.

The official Zimpeto Boy Band (with me as the token white guy). These 3 photos are our attempts at an album cover...

Three of my best friends from Zimpeto (from left Americo, Emanuel, Kote)

I am paying an obscene amount of money to use the internet here, so that is all for now, and I hope you guys are appreciating the blog updates! Will try to report back again soon...

M

Lesotho, Storms River and Cape Town

So it has been over a month since I last updated here, so I have alot of ground to cover, and very little time to do it in! I am currently sitting in an internet cafe in Maputo, capital of Mozambique, having spent the last two weeks almost completely cut off from the outside world at an orphanage in Zimpeto, about 15 kms from the city. I will have to save photos from my time at the orphanage for another update, so this blog will skim over the second half of my journey through South Africa, from Lesotho through to Cape Town.
In Lesotho, I spent 3 days with a program called Kick4Life, which is basically an HIV Aids education program targeted at youth, which uses football as a way of getting the kids together to deliver Aids testing and education. As part of the activities, a friendly football match was arranged between the visitors (see picture above, basically consisted of me with a whole lot of English guys) and a local team. After a 2 all draw, we prevailed 4 to 3 on penalties!

The local soccer pitch.

In the background is one of the villages were I stayed.

A German friend and I went pony trekking!

After Lesotho, I was joined by Lauren in Port Elizabeth, and we started our journey down the Garden Route of South Africa to Cape Town. Our main stop on the way was a place called Storms River, where the main activites include hiking and mountain biking, as well as these flying fox thingos which were fun!

Lauren and myself ziplining along a series of waterfalls...

The Big Tree.

On one of our hikes...

Eventually we made it through to Cape Town...This is the view from near the bottom of the hike which we did which goes up through that gorge to the gap at the top, taking you to the top of Table Mountain.

Lauren taking a quick rest along the way.

At the top!

One of the highlights of our trip was touring around the wine country surrounding Cape Town. Many of the wineries were set amongst stunning backdrops of mountain ranges like the ones above...

A nice view of Cape Town from near the bottom of Table Mountain.

On our last day in Cape Town, I went on a day trip to Cape point, along scenic roads very similar to our Great Ocean Road. This is me at the Cape of Good Hope, the most South Western point of the African continent...

My internet is about to expire, so that is all for now, will be back again soon!

M