Weekly Photo Challenge: Cheetah’s Close Up

A response to this week’s photo challenge Close Up

As featured in my other blog Victoria to Victoria. Yesterday we got close up to cheetah’s here are some of the pictures.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Elephants Close Up

A response to this week’s photo challenge Elephants Close Up in Botswana.

Yesterday we visited Chobe National Park and saw lots of elephants close up.So here is my offering. 
  

  

  

 

    
    
    
    
    
    
 

Victoria Falls

Today we reached Victoria Falls the halfway point (Geographically) of our trip from Victoria to Victoria. Here are two of the pics from today for more visit our other blog 

   

 
I guess it’s now Victoria to Victoria 😉

Weekly Photo Challenge: Half and Half

A response to this week’s photo challenge :Half and Half

there have been so many glorious sunrises and sunsets on our trip from Victoria to Victoria, and these fit the theme perfectly. This one stands out though because of the angle. It was taken last week at Monkey Bay in Malawi.

Here are some other Sunrises /Sunsets from our trip in Tanzania,Malawi and Zambia over the last three weeks.

Keeping things Charged

One of the challenges of travel in this electronic age is keeping things charged. As I write this I have 10% left on my iPhone. In hotels and homes this is fairly OK and although more challenging when camping.

In fact the bigger issue is connectivity – especially when crossing borders. My other blog  is more erratic because of this. Do follow our journey as we reach the Victoria Falls tonight.  

Leaving Malawi

Today we say farewell to Malawi.it has been a great 10 days. Anita has introduced us to her home country of old, the place she lived for almost two years, the people she knew; Paul and Helen; Bambo James and his family; the villagers of Chilimba; Saulos and Patricia; the family of Pastor Ndomondo; Sam. All of these name have become faces to me now.

We have enjoyed traveling from Likoma to Monkey Bay to Zomba, Liwonde, Dedza and now Lilongwe. Malawi is a great place with fabulous friendly people. We shall come back some day I am sure. Next stop Zambia! 

 

Anita’s Return

I make no bones about plugging my other blog today as we returned to Chilimba, the village where Anita worked as an NGO in 1992/3. It was a truly special day and I hope you’ll find some time to read it.  

https://victoriatovictoria.wordpress.com/2015/07/18/day-12-zomba-to-chilimba/ 
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
   

Dark Skies

While we were on Lake Nyassa/Malawi we were blessed with some very dark skies. No light pollution and a late rising crescent moon gave us the chance to see the Milky Way in glorious detail. This combined with the fact I was able the find a setting on my camera with a very long exposure and large aperture meant I was able to capture some of this on ‘film’. You can follow our journey across Africa on Victoria to Victoria

    
    
    
    
    
    
    
   

Weekly Photo Challenge:Symbol of Malawi

A response to this week’s photo challenge : Symbol

A flag is the symbolic representation of a country. Here as we are currently in Malawi, we have seen many a glorious sunrise. The red sun on the Malawian Flag represents the rising sun.

Out of Contact

We have emerged from a dead zone where internet connectivity was limited or non- existent. This has been both refreshing and frustrating in equal measure.

Our sister blog has suffered as it has not recounted the dailtbtravels over the past 5 days.

We have traveled across Tanzania crossed Lake Victoria into Malawi and now are in Monkey Bay. You can read more on our blog VictoriatoVictoria 

Weekly photo challenge: Angkor Doors

In response to The Daily Post’s weekly photo challenge: “Door”

The ruins of Angkor Wat in Cambodia are fascinating – in particular the jungle temple where the trees have overgrown the entrances. These are more doorways than doors but still fit the theme.

Angkor Temple

Angkor Wat – Jungle Temple

Angkor Roots

Bikes Angkor

Angkor Temple

Angkor Wat

Angkor Wat

Angkor Roots

A Day of Packing

Tomorrow we head to Dar on the first leg out our holiday (vacation) to South Central Africa. A journey that will hopefully take us to Malawi, Zambia and Botswana. We’re going to be traveling by Boat, Train, Coach and Plane and if you are interested you can follow our journey on a dedicated blog Victoria to Victoria.

Today has been a day of packing and as we are planning to save costs by camping, we need to squeeze in our recently purchased tent along with the clothes.

It’s probably a good thing as it limits the clothes we will take (I am never good at choosing what to take!). Once in Dar we’ll re-jig  for our onward journey, but planes have rules and needs must.

Almost a year ago we were packing in a much bigger way as we were approaching moving day and leaving England for Tanzania – time has flown fast.

Funeral Chimes

Most nights as we sit in our house we hear a mournful wailing tune. In some ways it resembles a very sad ice cream van, which is followed by a public address system announcing something. It travels up and down the roads the sound waves ebbing and flowing as it goes. For some time we have wondered exactly what this is and recently we discovered what it was. The system used as a way of informing the locals that someone has died. The recording below is a little rough as the tune is actually quite quiet.

Mwanza Overview

This afternoon we have met up with an American expat friend of ours for lunch and a chat. It was good to talk.    

We went to a local Hotel for a meal. The Pigeon has an affordable restaurant with great views over Mwanza.

We’ve only been at night before but in the afternoon sunshine we had an amazing insight into ordinary Mwanzan life as we looked down from the seventh floor on the houses below.

In these houses, hidden behind the shop fronts everyday life goes on in Mwanza, cooking, washing, preparing foods, children playing all observed from high above. A unique perspective on Mwanzan life.

weekly photo challenge: Zanzibar Doors

In response to The Daily Post’s weekly photo challenge: “Door”

At Christmas we visited Zanzibar and spent a few nights in Stone Town renowned for its ornate carved doors. Some were in a state of disrepair others pristine – here are a selection.

End of Year

Today is the last day of term, the year has shot by. The students left yesterday but staff are in today. Those leaving are clearing out, those staying like me are tidying up. 

So for me it was a chance to tackle the cupboard in my room. It brought back memories of clearing out my office a year ago. 

    
    
 
There are a number of colleagues departing this year (the nature of International Schools with two year contracts I suppose. Qatar, Thailand, Uganda, Australia, Romania, Netherlands and the UK are all on the list of next destinations for colleagues.  

The year has flown by. I have achieved a year without absence for the first time in many years (possibly only the second time ever!). 

A year of teaching ICT – in many ways the same as ever but in so many ways different.

A year in which no child has been openly defiant, no child has sworn at me- these two are occurrences sadly unheard of in the UK.  A year of well behaved and eager students, hot weather, wet or dry. A year of monkeys in the playground, exotic birds in the trees, new computers, old computers, power cuts and generators. 

So the term is up and holidays about to start. You can follow our Summer travels on a new blog Victoria to Victoria. 

Victoria to Victoria

We’re soon going to be going on our travels as the Summer Holidays begin. Our plan is to travel from Mwanza to Livingstone in Zambia (Victoria Falls)  and back taking in Malawi (and Kenya!) on route. The Kenya bit of our journey is a late addition as we need to be in Nairobi in early August to drop my son off for some work experience, resulting in an extra loop.

Our journey will be entirely on public transport – following the success of our trip to Uganda at Easter, plane, coach, train all the way there and back again!

This blog will continue and will summarise our journey once back and some of the more mundane living before, during and after, but we wanted more of a daily travelog as we travelled along on our journey.

You can find all about our trip on a separate blog Victoria to Victoria which will be our travelog – feel free to subscribe.