Sharm El Sheikh - Egypt

Hi all. We are now at our part of the trip where we just take it easy and relax. Sharm El Sheikh is famous for its diveing and marine life. Its right at the top of the Red Sea in Egypt. The water is just so so clear and there are heaps and heaps of bright coloured fish and coral. All the lodges and hotels we have stayed at have been really nice, but this one takes the cake. The Marriott is right on the water and has the biggest pool yet

So we are just diveing and laying on the beach and going out at night. Next we head to Victoria falls where we stay 3 nights before heading home. So its the last part of our huge trip. We have done 6 countries right across the east coast of Africa, we do 14 flights and have seen so so much I don't know where to start. But have taken heaps of great pics - some of which you see here. Don't know if we will have internet acess in Vic Falls so I may have to say good bye now and thanks for looking at my blog over these past 5 weeks we have been travelling. I am now really looking forward to home and to catching up with everyone. So unless I can get on in the enxt few days to show you some pics of the falls, its bye and hope to see you all soon!

Ben, Mark, Margaret and laura!

Hi again everyone. As usual I am rushed for time and a good connection. We have left Kenya and basically all the animal part of Africa and am now in Egypt. We have seen the Pyrimids, Sphinx and all the tombs etc. Its scarry to know that there are real mummies in there. We are on a crusie boat sailing down the Nile river at the moment which is cool. The boat is huge and has a great pool. But you see everything as you cruise by.

Some of these new pics show our last animals which include the huge flocks of Flamingos, Rhinos etc and of course the huge pyrimids etc. I will write more again when I get to the next place I can have more connection time. Hope you enjoy the pics - there are heaps more as well.

Ben

Some more pics

Hi all again. Just uploaded these few more pics! We are now back in Nairobi in Kenya for a couple of days before heading up to Cairo in Egypt for the next part of the tour. We have three days here where we will be visiting an Elephant and Giraffe nursery to see all the baby animals and up to a place where the flamingo's cover the whole lake! Its late now and so I just put these up and will continue my story tomorrow and try and bring you up to date with everything! By the way, all these pics are taken with either mine or dads camera! Everything is so close!
See you then.

Ben

Back again! We went to three big game parks in Tanzania over nine days. We stayed in really cool lodges which were right in the middle of the parks. So, sometimes wild animals would walk right past our cabin! At night we have to call a guard with a torch so we can walk from our cabin to the restaurant to protect us from the animals.

We saw lots of giraffe like the pic above as we drove around.

This is me in the 4 wheel drive looking at 2 lionesses and a cub under a spiky tree!

This is the cub I was looking at!


We went hot air ballooning over the Serengeti! It was amazing the antelope looked like ants!

This is a lioness cleaning herself.

This is the hot air balloon getting blown up and ready!

This is the big boss male lion watching the lionesses hunting Wildebeest. It was a pride of 13 lions including 4 cubs. we watched them stalking and hunting down a heard of Wildebeest. They were right beside us staying down low in the grass as they stalked the Wildebeest! It was very exciting and interesting to watch!

These are two Cheetah! The fastest animal on earth.

This is Laura and I with some Masai people who live in the Serengeti!

This is a grumpy old baboon! We see heaps all the time!

This is how close the Giraffe gets as they are very shy.

This is a hungry angry lioness about to eat a meal!

A heard of water Buffalo. They are massive! Bigger than baby elephants!


As I said we are now back in Nairobi and where we went to an elephant, rhino and giraffe orphanage. It was funny to watch the baby elephants drinking from big milk bottles!

To morrow we are off to lake Nakuru where we will see all the flamingos and other stuff! Then the next day off to Egypt for that part of the trip including 4 days cruising on the Nile river! Should be cool! I will get some more pics and stories up on this blog soon!

Hope everyone at home is well!

Ben

lake Malawi

Finally got to a pace where we have good internet! We had a great time swimming and snorkelling in lake mallawi and playing with all the local kids. This part of the trip dad is driveing and so we are really off the beaten track. Not many people know about Malawi and very few come here for their holiday this time of year. Mostly African people come here as well a some Europeans. But is not on the main tourist route! We went on a special boat trip to an island and hand feed the tropical fish in the water while we were snorkelling! Really bright coloured fish everywhere and they came right up to your mask and feed out of your hand! We also watch "Brutus" and "Ophelia" who ae two huge fish eagles who came when the men whistled and called ther name. They wouls swoop down and grab the fish that the men threw to them!

After lake mallawi we drove to Lilwogwe and stayed in a local hotel as we had an early flight the next morning. The other thing that happens in Malawi a lot is black outs and no water. All of a sudden all the powere will just stop and you don,t know when it will come back on again! Driveing to all these places makes me realsie how lucky we are. Most people don't have cars and have to do everything on foot or by bike. the kids have to walk a long way a few times a day just to get water and then carry it back to their home. they also have to do most of the cleaning etc as well. its is not unusual to see a 8 or 9 year pld walking along with a big container on their head full of water while alsi carring their baby brother or sister on their back as mum is loaded up with stuff of her own to carry!

We then flew from lilongwi to Narobi where we stayed over night. Both me and Laura were sick and a planned night out had to be cancelled as I was really sick! But I got better the next day and we flew on a little propeller plane to Mount Kilimanjaro where we meet our tour guide and driver. We have a our own 4 wheel drive that has a pop up roof for looking at animals etc and our own driver! His name is Woneder and he's cool! He will be our driver and guide for the next 12 days through the big game parks.

Anyway that will do for words at the moment - will do some more tomorrow night now we have good connection. We are in the middle of the Seringetti National park at the moment but we have done and seen so much up until now which I will tell you about tomorrow. From arriveing in Kilimenjaro to now! The above are just some pics of just a bit of what we have seen and done so far!

ben

some pics!

. Heaps more pics to come including lots of animal pics etc! Still testing this with African internet!
This is the wedding party of the girl and boy that got married in Blantrye

Still learning the best way to put these pics up so sorry if its a bit out of order. We are on Malawi lake and went snorklelling yesterday some really colourful fish and the fresh water was nice and clear! Great swimming with the local kids just in front of our unit! Those pics will follow if these ones get up ok!

This is mum, laura and I in our first hotel in Blantyre! Very cool!

Ben

We are here!

Hi all. Well we are here! We have done so much I don't know where to start! Sorry it has taken a while to post this first bit but the Internet in Africa is a bit unreliable!

Anyway we landed OK after a 14 hour flight, stayed over night in Jo-Berg then fly again to Lilongwi in malawi which is like their capt ital - a bit like Canberra!. Then we picked up our car and drove to Blantyre where the wedding is! Wow what a drive. Right through the middle of Africa! Little villages everywhere, people all walking and riding bikes everywhere and huge places where we had to slow right down to drive through the crowds of people. It took 6 hours to drive but we saw so much! And the countryside was amazing! Flat to big mountains and all very green and beautiful! We stopped at places and lots of kids etc came around us and wanted to say hello!

We stayed at a very cool hotel on Blantyre which had a great pool which looked over Blantyre. It was fun playing in the pool and looking across the town at the same time!

the wedding was great! We went to the church where we watch all the traditional things they do. They sing and dance all the time! Its fun when the bride and groom dance their way down the isle! We then went to the reception and watched as they all danced again and through money at the bride and groom! Just a tradition they do. All good fun! We were treated as special guests and asked to perform many things that are considered a big honour at weddings in recognition of us being there! So we had a great evening.

We then left Blantyre for a place called Hippo lodger and yes there were Hippos in the river! The next morning we went on a boat ride and saw lots of huge wild hippos and elephants! Big heard of elephants walked down to the river and played in the water. there were some baby's as well!


We are now in Cape McClear on Lake Malawi and it is just perfect! It is the biggest lake in the world! All fresh water and its great! We are surrounded by a village and when dad and I went swimming in the lake all the kids came out to join us. They sang a song "who let the dogs out" but put my name in instead of "dogs" hahah it was funny!

Oh yes I forgot to mention the bride and grooms sent us to there grandparents place which we vistied on the way to cape McClear. We were deep into the country at a real little village of huts etc. I played with all the kids.

I have put up just a couple pics as I have to do something to make them a bit better to place on this blog so a lot more will come soon! But at the moment I hope these stay up there OK! I will also have pics of the hippos and elephants as well in my next post as they are still all in the camera!

Cya! Ben

Our trip to Africa!

Hi all! We leave for Africa in just three more sleeps! I will be updating this blog with pictures and my own story's about what and where we go! I am taking a little netbook so I can log on to the web whenever we can. Most of the hotels etc we are staying at seem to have WiFi but being Africa I just don't know if I will have access all the time! Also we are a long safari and also on a Nile cruise during the trip so don't know if I will be able to update during those times, so sorry if I don't keep it 100% up to date but will do it whenever I can with new story's and new pics! Say hello whenever you want to by clicking on the "Post a comment" button and leave a message if you want!

Cya all and my next post on here will be from Africa!!!!!!!!!

Ben