Hey guys
Apologies for the lack of posts but I'm truely a lazy person after all of this travelling.

Basically, after 24 hours in Perth airport which is one of the most souless places on the planet I jumped onto the plane set for Jo Burg. Have to say I was ever so slightly nervous as we landed in a city I had heard so much about. It seemed everyone I spoke to had some sort of horror story for me just to boost the old confidence, and it seemed apt that we would land in fog so the whole city looked ridiculasly eerie as we approached the airport.

Anyway after arriving and having saying hello to Bob Geldoff (one of the biggest people behind african aid and organiser of live 8 etc) I met my dad and we heading out to the Kruger National park. This was pretty uneventful although my dad did managed to get pulled over for speeding IN the park itself which I thought was quite a feat.

After seeing all the big animals and getting shouted at by a guide for leaving the car (for about a second) we headed towards Namibia. On our way we were passing little towns which looked very sinister in the dark, as most of Africa does and had not found anywhere to stay. After we had consinded ourselves to driving through the night we managed to stumble across a knackered old sign which advertised a bed and breakfast and exploring 3 miles down a dirt track found the weirdest place I have stayed in my life.

Looking around it appeared as though there was nobody there and through the living room window we could see the heads of every african animal you could think of on the walls. We would later find that the owner was the most stereotypical south african you could hope to meet, sporting the camoflage gear and even the stupid mustache and racist outlook on life and had shot them all. That night we slept wondering which one of us would be the newest addition to the wall.

After being caught for speeding and running a red light the next day and managing to talk our way out of it we headed for the border. Unfortunately or foolishly as it should be, we used our remaining money to buy fuel before heading the 130 km from the nearest town to the border. Of course there was a fee to bring a car across, of course. The border guard looked seriously worried and even took us to the next town to see if we could change some cash. Then after about an hour of trying to find a solution my dad came across the money in his wallet. I began to worry about my travelling companion. The border guard would later confide in me that if my dad could lose 100 Rand he had too much money, with 100 rand being less than $20, how little he really knew!!

We visited fish river canyon which was impressive but was down roads those who have been on the rally would appreciate. We headed further north to the Dune fields of Namibia and went quad biking on them which was amazing fun. Not sure the conservationists would agree.

From there we headed to Victoria falls which were again impressive but I feel I might be becoming battle hardened to all these sights as I could only feel that they werent as impressive as Iguazu in Argentina.
A more impressive feat was being catted up by one of the very few gay african guys in the place, not pleasant.

We then had to ditch our hire car and take on the thrill and danger that is public transport. We got off to a good start as the bus we were travelling on took an hour for the mechanic to get started, that was followed by the driver asking if anyone would like to lead the prayer before we set off. Turned out we needed it as it was an interesting trip though involving dodging lorries that had crashed off the road, crusing around corners at around 85mph and of course the standard potholes! We passed one lorry which was full of maize and had about 6 guys unloading it, yet they still had time to stop work and come over to our window and ask for money as we drove past. We met a really interesting guy from the american peace corps who explained we were on one of the safer buses as one company had been shut down after 6 fatal crashes in one month!

We then arrived in Malawi which is my favourite African country now without a doubt. Stunningly beautiful and whilst you still get hasselled by some locals most are so friendly and generous despite having so little themselves. We decided to slow our travels as we were travelling so much but not seeing alot or meeting many people and Malawi was the first place I feel we have really seen in depth. I was a little concerned about a blood paracite you can catch swimming in lake Malawi which can cause organ failure amoungst several other unappealing conditions I wont go into, but it was a hot day and it was way to appealing to worry about death so I got right in.

So the plan of action involves a flight to Tanzania and on to Zanibar island for a week or two and from there who knows.

Apologies for the lack of pictures but as most places here only have electricity generated by solar panels you can see what I'm up against asking whether anyone has internet access.

Hope your all well
Andy

P.S. To the ironsides, enjoy Kazakhstan, its just about to get interesting!

Was also gutted to find out that I missed meeting Ewan McGregor and Charlie Boorman by a day as they are doing the long way down from John O'Groates in Scotland to Cape Town. Would have been nice to talk about the travels but it was not to be.