Anna in Africa

Saturday, November 12, 2011

Days 162-164

For a few days we stay in the amazing Cape Town. There is so much to do here! Hiking, shark-cage diving, Robben Island, scuba diving, and looking around the city.

Some of our group will be leaving and some new people will be joining us as we head up to Nairobi and Cairo.

Days 150-161

This is the southern-most tip of Africa and it marks the place where the Indian Ocean meets the Atlantic. I've never been more south than this in my life!

Cape Town
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_Town

Days 135-149

We head onto Namibia now:

Namibia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Namibia

Ondangwa
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ondangwa

Kaokoveld
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaokoveld

Brandberg Mountain
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandberg_Mountain

Windhoek
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windhoek

Kalahari Desert
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalahari_Desert

Days 125-134

Now we are in Angola, a country recovering from two decades of civil war:

Angola
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angola

Luanda
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luanda

Lubango
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lubango

Saturday, November 5, 2011

Safety First!

Today I took a self defense course. It was great learning how to escape or incapacitate someone if I were to be attacked. Likewise, here is something from the Oasis Overland website. Knowing that they (and I) have these skills makes me feel a little safer:

Last week at Oasis HQ our overlanding and office crew were joined by several overlanding colleagues to participate in a Travel Safety Training day. The course covered lots of topics including personal safety, assessing risk, emergency first aid, firearms and landmines. Do you know what to do if you are aggressively questioned at a check-point? Well the good news is our crew do!

The training was delivered by Charlie McGrath who spent 15 years as an Army Officer. He now provides safety training to a range of clients including journalists, Gap Year Travellers and business professionals. Charlie and his team also provided training to Ewan McGregor and Charlie Boorman prior to their ‘Long Way Round’ and ‘Long Way Down’ expeditions – trips that may of our travellers try to re-create by travelling from Cairo to Cape Town.

During the day the team watched several thought-provoking video clips which helped to highlight what to do in an emergency situation. In true overlanding style we didn’t bother with a conference room – oh no. Instead we watched video clips and listened to scenarios on the back of our truck called ‘Habibi’ and practiced first aid in our ‘outdoor classroom’! Who needs a posh room when you have a truck!

After a delicious lunch, the group set about going back to basics and thinking about how they would effectively deal with a road traffic accident or a situation where emergency first aid was given. This reiterated the skills that our crew already have. Oasis driver Nev volunteered to be the victim and ended up semi – undressed in the search to “see if he had any injuries”! Whilst it was amusing watching him play the manikin, it was a stark reminder for all our crew of the important of acting quickly with any emergency situation.

Our day ended and after bidding our farewells, we all remarked what a worthwhile and useful exercise it had been. In Oasis style, we lit the BBQ and debriefed into the wee-small hours!

Days 109 -124

And onto the Congo's!

Republic of the Congo
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_the_Congo

Brazzaville
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazzaville

Congo River
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congo_River

Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly Zaire)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Republic_of_the_Congo

Kinshasa
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinshasa

Matadi
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matadi

Jungle Themes

A week and a half ago I turned 18! In honor of my up-coming adventures, I had a jungle-themed birthday party.

If you look closely, you can see the monkeys, lions, tigers, giraffes, hippos and more :-). Everything was decorated jungle style; it was adorable and I loved it!

Thanks to my parents and brother for putting it all together!

A week later was Halloween and keeping with the theme, I dressed up as a lion. I poofed up my hair which looked like this for awhile:

I debated putting this picture on the internet- I look like cousin It!

But the finished product looked good:

It was a roarin' good time! I'm not lion! ;)

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Days 88-108

And on to West Central Africa! Wow, here we are several months and and we're not even half-way done! It's amazing how we'll go from mud huts and rainforests in one day to skyscrapers and big cities the next.

Cameroon
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cameroon

Yaoundé
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yaound%C3%A9

Ambam
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambam

Ntem River
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ntem_River

Gabon
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabon

Libreville
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libreville

Lopé National Park
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lop%C3%A9_National_Park

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Cameroon's Main Road

And this is why Cameroon will be the hardest part of the trip...

Days 64-87

Accra Beaches (We relax here for a few days :D)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labadi_Beach

Togo
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Togo

Benin
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benin

Ganvie (Lake Nakoue)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ganvie
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Nokoué

Nigeria
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigeria

Abuja
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abuja

Cameroon (The hardest part of the trip)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cameroon

One of the things I'm looking forward to is the mix of all the different languages; all the ones I do not know and the few I do! A large portion of West Africa speaks French and I'll be able to put my four years of high school French to the test ;-) Maybe my couple years of German too. And I'll use some of the very little Pidgin English I know while in Nigeria. No wahala!