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Amazing - yup, that’s how I would describe it. For years I have been thinking about what it might be like - 5 years ago I even planned a trip to Zimbabwe, Botswana & Namibia but that went up in smoke - long story… Anyway, I decided not to put it off any longer and booked it a few months ago - I knew my Mum had always wanted to go so I thought I would treat her - bank balance notwithstanding!Overnight flight from Heathrow to Nairobi was uneventful but unfortunately not punctuated with periods of deep sleep and relaxation. Immigration was a breeze - $50 and you’re in - once through we were greeted by extremely friendly cab drivers eager to relieve us of our newly gotten currency. Met up with our group and set off in 2 minivans to Lake Elementaita, where we were going to spend the first couple of nights. The roads outside Nairobi are diabolical - huge potholes, broken tarmac, and massive ruts meant that driving in anything like a straight line was completely impossible. So, no sleep, dazed and jolted wildly for several hours - I sometimes wonder why anyone would choose this for a ‘holiday’!

Once we arrived at the Lodge (gorgeous colonial building overlooking the lake) we could rest for a while, grab some food and then we went for a walk down by the Lake with a local Masai, called Joseph (strangely they all have Masai and English names - which I think is a shame) and we went bird spotting - not something I would normally get very excited about, but then we don’t have 500 species in the UK - we saw storks, herons, pelicans, flamingos (at the right time of year there are enormous flocks - this wasn’t it), eagles and woodpeckers - our guide could spot and identify them when they were only a brown flicker to the rest of us

After a couple of hours we retreated to the Lodge (I love saying that) and had a quick nap - then onto the patio for a cold beer and watch the sun go down - I would love to describe the incredible sunset for which this part of Africa is rightly famous, but it was slightly overcast so it just went from light to dark… After dinner we were invited to watch some local dancing - this worried me - it’s a bit package holiday/cruise ship kitsch but amazingly it was really cool - they were really fun - tons of energy, they really seemed to be enjoying themselves which was highly infectious - and of course they made us join in…

Day 2 - early start to travel to Lake Nakuru, famous for huge flocks of flamingos as seen in Out of Africa. We went down to the shore and got out of the vans - to one of the most spectacular sights I have ever seen - flamingos as far as the eye could see - thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, packed tight like sardines and making lots of noise - we also saw some buffalo, storks, pelicans and a small group of zebra - you really wanted to be able to turn your head 360 degrees so you could take it all in… then a fish eagle appeared and landed amongst the flamingo (which are part of his diet) and they all shuffled up and provided him with a safe area of maybe 10-15 metres - quite surreal.

Later on in the park we also saw White rhino, various gazelle and topis - around every corner was the promise of spotting more animals - I like that we choose to hunt animals with cameras now rather than guns.

The following day we made the long, and extremely bumpy ride to the Masai Mara, broken by a trip on a lake where we saw lots of birds, including pelicans, and some hippo - although most of them remained underwater and teased us with mere glimpses. After many hours on the road we were all exhausted - on the plus side we arrived at a beautiful camp site right in the park - no fence, no separation between us and the animals. Our tents had proper beds, electricity, running water, proper loos and a shower - luxury! We were told that once we had gone to bed we weren’t allowed out of the tents without a guide (just in case something was prowling around looking for an easy meal!)

Before we settled in we went for our first game drive and saw elephants (from afar), giraffe, gazelle, impala, and lots and lots of wildebeest - enormous herds having migrated from Serengeti in Tanzania to the Masai Mara in Kenya. It was amazing - open plains, a blissful soundtrack and wild animals just doing what they do with us as observers…

Back at the camp we sat around a fire and discussed our day and swapped photos with each other - then we sat down to a fantastic meal (made by the camp’s Italian chef) and a few cold beers…

Next day we were fortunate to spot a couple of male cheetah (not sure if animals get pluralised), one of whom jumped up into a tree which was amazing to watch…

We only had a couple of days at the camp and it went so fast - but we were very fortunate to see a large number of animals - in particular we had three sitings of lions - a couple of females hiding in the bush, a lone female looking for her pride, a male lion out in the open protecting a recent kill, and best of all a couple of lionesses with their cubs - possibly the nicest thing I have ever seen…

I’ve just got back from Norway, possibly the most beautiful place on the planet, with my friend, Alex. Spent 17 days cycling, camping and travelling across the country from Hammerfest in the north (way up in the Arctic circle) down to Bergen, generally recognised as one of the prettiest cities in the world.

All our photos are on Google - here.

Stuff I learnt

• If you’re taking all your stuff with you on a bike, then you definitely need panniers, otherwise every mile hurts, a lot.
• Alex is unbelievably tolerant of childish and petulant outbursts, and general moaning about how heavy my rucksack was
• You really don’t get bored of looking at fjords

We arrived in Tromso and went to a campsite which on the map looked really, really close - unfortunately we hadn’t prepared terribly much and the first hill nearly killed us, but we persevered over several miles(!) and got there about 10 o’clock at night. I asked the girl on reception when it was going to get dark, and got the brilliant response “it doesn’t get much darker than this” - now it wasn’t bright daylight but you could certainly pitch a tent without lights.

Had a delicious meal of dried pasta though due to a slight bit of clumsiness it was very slightly over-peppered (by several hundred peppercorns) which did little to improve the very little flavour.Got up after a good night’s rest and decided to explore a little - went to Tourist Info, and the very nice man explained our options for exploring the region. We also got a recommendation for a nice little walk - to the top of a nearby 1200m mountain “fairly easy” was the description. Wrong - really, very hard would have been closer to the mark. But it was worth it for a stunning view across the valley.

Sommarøy

The following day we decided to head out to one of the nearby islands and camp in Sommarøy. About 40km. This was a very long, very hard trip - see points above about training and carrying very heavy rucksack. Still, once we got there we did manage to find the best place to camp I have ever seen (think of The Beach) - truly incredible.

I was fairly sure that we had just got very lucky so imagine our surprise when the following campsite was, if anything, more spectacular, by the edge of a lake with mountains in the distance and an extraordinary sunset. It was perfect.

Husøy

Next day we decided to go for a day trip to Husøy, a tiny little town/island on the edge of a slightly bigger island - the ride was pretty easy (we’d left our bags at the campsite) although we did need to get through a couple of tunnels (see below). The only downside was the glorious descent into the town (which meant a stinker of a climb out of it). We stopped and had coffee and a bun and then went for a little explore - and even did a bit of scambling which made it feel a little more like a Famous Five adventure!

Tunnels

Norway has more road tunnels than other any country in the world to save you having to drive around the long, deep fjords - we managed to find a couple without any lighting, which meant cycling in the dark, and I mean pitch black for about 10 minutes. Exciting, scary and probably quite stupid - it’s weird trying to stop yourself expecting to hit a wall in front of you every step or time you pedal.

Playing Cards

Unfortunately our luck ran out slightly, and it decided to rain, and rain, and rain.. there was nothing for it but to sit tight and hope that it would be better the next day, which it wasn’t, nor the next, nor the next. Luckily Alex had brought a couple of packs of playing cards and rules for a dozen new games which haven’t been popular for about a 100 years (something to do with the arrival of other forms of entertainment like the radio, and the introduction of nursing homes for the criminally annoying). And we passed the time, and popped down to the local shop (5 miles) and bought very large packets of crisps and lots of chocolate, and then didn’t eat any of the proper food we had bought because after 1500 calories of crisps you really are quite full indeed.

Plan B

We now had to make a choice, tough it out, and risk spending the majority of your holiday in a small wooden shack playing Canasta or try something else.. we went for the latter and found an internet cafe which showed that this part of Norway had had its sunshine for the year… So we decided to rent a car for a couple of days, scoot up to Hammerfest (so Alex could join the Royal and Ancient Polar Bear Society) and also check out the ancient carvings at Alta. There was a plan at the outset of the trip to go to Nordkap, the most northerly town in Norway (and Europe?) but the Lonely Planet suggested it was merely “the most northerly rip-off in Norway” so we gave it a miss.

Alta

Not a pretty town (destroyed in the war) but our first taste of staying in a hotel was delicious after a week on super lightweight Thermarests. Its one attraction is the ancient carvings (European Museum of the Year 2005) - and they were briliant - you got to walk around a very well maintained site and look at little stick drawings of reindeer, elk and boats - all really, really cool - if you’re ever in the area it’s well worth an hour of your time!

and then onto Hammerfest… there’s no reason to go there unless you’re a qualified welder and then there are about 2,000 reasons a week to spend your time on the edge of the world - though it did happen to have the best bar we had been to and we had a great evening talking to said welders who couldn’t get enough of telling us how much money they were making… and in the morning we woke up to reindeer in our campsite which was truly brilliant!