The Globetrotter

The Leavers Ball

2006-10-18T11:11:10Z

The Leavers Ball remains copyright of the author lemonjelly, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Sivakasi, India 2005

2006-10-16T19:10:46Z

Being one to take everything to the extreme, I chose to go to India to gain some valuable (and very expensive) work experience.
I really did not know what I was letting myself in for when I went out there. The only pictures I had really seen of Indian life and culture were off the Taj Mahal, mountain ranges and the amazingly rich culture of Rajasthan.

I thought that India was becoming quite a developed country - I thought wrong. Sivakasi is a small town of little consequence in the middle of the state Tamil Nadu. It is basically a dust hole which relies upon its firework industry. Its far from a tourist hot spot but its a long way off a shanty town.

My work experience was amazing! I was taught a few of the nurses jobs and I got to shadow the doctors who even taught me how to examine the patients - Some examinations however were not that pleasant, namely a rectal exam of some old geezer.

One of the major culture shocks - after the indigestable food, was the state of public health care. I feel privileged that we have such the NHS as it seems far from disfunctional in comparison to the Government Hospitals. I saw nurse use the same needle up to 5 times and none of the surgical kit is specially sterilised.

Of course none of that stopped me from having a truly awesome time. I met some incredible people, made some great friends and got to have some once in a life time experiences.
I was able to observe an amputation and a caesarean and assisted in delivering a baby, which has got to be my all time greatest achievement in life so far.

Of course it wasn't all about the medicine. We took days off to visit Madurai

Sivakasi, India 2005 remains copyright of the author lemonjelly, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Quantocks

2006-10-18T11:11:59Z

This weekend was the bronze D of E assessed expedition in the quantocks - for those as clueless as me, the quantocks are in Somerset around Hinkley Power Station. I must say that I am disappointed or perhaps for want of a better word - gutted!! How come on all the expeditions I have ever done as a participant it has always rained for atleast 4 hours on one of the days and these Bronze kids do there expedition in the middle of October and its actually kinda sunny!

Now having been exposed to the realities of D of E staffing for a weekend I have come to a conclusion about D of E - Everyone involved in D of E seems to be very "special" (that means both participants and leaders).

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Quantocks remains copyright of the author lemonjelly, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Xiamen, China 2004

2006-10-16T17:40:50Z

My first proper travelling adventure was on a once in a lifetime school trip to Xiamen in the southern province of Fujian in China. It is a really extraordinary city, it lacks the hustle of the overcrowded cities of Beijing and Shanghai, but it has some fantastic temples and beautiful beaches with stunning views over the ocean. Ok, so it doesn't sound that "extraordinary", but it was a city on an island, conected to the mainland around it by 3 bridges.

The whole purpose of this trip, which was sponsored by the British Consulate, was to promote relations between Britain and China and encourage is to learn Mandarin. If anything it put me off the latter, as it was incredibly hard to learn. I did however, make some great friends whilst out there. The 2 that i still keep in contact with most are Harvest and Popo. - Yes that is there real names!! Amazingly they chose these bizarre english names for themselves.

I love China!! Can't wait to go back to see the Great Wall and the Forbidden City and spend a small fortune (in chinese terms) in Beijing. - Thats all there is to say really

Xiamen, China 2004 remains copyright of the author lemonjelly, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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East Africa Pictures

2006-10-16T17:37:56Z

East Africa Pictures remains copyright of the author lemonjelly, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Yorkshire Pictures

2006-10-16T17:39:02Z

Yorkshire Pictures remains copyright of the author lemonjelly, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Day 4

2006-09-11T21:24:41Z

The final day, in true d of e spirit was gorgeous. We had a "nice" walk along a river and then we walked up to High Pike and the back down into the valley to the finish. Of course it would have been nicer if there weren't so many midgey insects swarming around just waiting to attack me and we hadn't bumped into the assessor in all her purple glory just as we had been singing a song about her.

To amuse ourselves on day 4, we took great delight in writing a song(on my arm in permanent marker) which completely slagged off Yorkshire. When we got tired of that we started singing a song "Hey Big Purple!" about the assessor who sported a rather fetching purple coat.

As we approached the finish, we could see where exactly we were supposed to finish, but had no idea how to cross the river between us and the finish. It was suggested that we just walk right through the river, but i then pointed out that i had finally dried off after being soaked through to the bone for 3 days and would like to remain so until we got home. We eventually found the bridge that we were supposed to cross although it really didn't seem like it could be where the path crossed the river, seeing as it had a sign on it reading "absolutely no public right of way WHATSOEVER". - We risked it.

Despite having left at 8.15am, we still didn't finish until about 5 and we were knackered, but that didn't stop us all from having a party on the bus on the way home.

Day 4 remains copyright of the author lemonjelly, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Day 3

2006-09-11T20:24:16Z

I was relieved to get away from the Braida Garth Farm. By this time on the expedition my thoughts of Yorkshire were very negative, what with the rain, the endless and boring hills, the orange water at camp and everything being wet. Thankfully, after only 3 hours of walking and a small amount of rain, a gap formed in the clouds and we saw the sun and blue sky. The sun really lifted our spirits as we continued to ascend Whernside, the tallest hill in Yorkshire.

Finally, we reached the top of Whernside in time for lunch and for once we could "enjoy" the view, although i can't say the views in Yorkshire are particuarly "breathtaking".

The rest of the day was spent walking downhill, much to the dislike of Caroline and i. Our "brain" feet were really struggling, but none the less we made it to camp 3, in the village of Dent.

It was a really nice sunny evening and despite the assesor hanging around we had a good time, especially when the dog at the campsite kept chasing Ross and wouldn't let him go up to the toilets. Its a shame we couldn't get it on camera because it was dark, but it was hilarious to watch.

Day 3 remains copyright of the author lemonjelly, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Day 2

2006-09-11T21:46:10Z

Well after 10 hours walking on day 1 and very little sleep due to very noisy campers at the camp site, i was shattered on day 2. Again it looked like a perfect walking day when we woke up, but i wasn't taking any more chances, i wore my waterproofs and gaitors, determined to stay at least semi dry.

I am so glad i waterproofed myself, because as soon as we started to ascend the hills, the cloud started to drift in again and surround us. It was truly miserable. I may have enjoyed walking in the rain if we could have at least seen the views (not that they are that wonderful).

The route on day 2 involved walking through some of Yorkshires "star attractions", but i must say i didn't see anything fabulous about trow gill of gaping gill, they were a bit pants if you ask me.

Anyway, Ingleborough seemed to be a never ending hill, i may think that because all we could see was white all around us, but it really did go on forever and yet again we were all getting pretty wet and i was really concerned for the contents of my bag. My sleeping bag had got a little bit wet on the first day, i was simply praying that it could survive another soaking. Another worry was that Caroline was getting drenched. I will admit that i thought her poncho was kinda funky when we started on day 1, but it was a tad impractical in the torrential rain. Thankfully, i found a fleece neatly folded at Little Ingleborough and Caroline was really glad of it. She must have a guardian angel or something, either that or i stole someones fleece whilst they had gone to the toilet.

When we got to the top of Ingleborough, Lisa used the last of her enthusiasm to do a lil' trig jig on the camera and we gave Andy the flat cap we found in the "miracle fleece" pocket. - He can really pull of the Yorkshire man look.

Time dragged as we headed to camp at Braida Garth Farm and my feet were killing me, as i'd been walking in wet boots all day. Although the weather brightened up towards the end of the afternoon, we were really behind time and Carolines foot was hurting really badly. In the end, as we approached the end of the waterfall walk, caroline was walking with one boot off and me and ruth were carrying her bag between us. By the time we got into camp that night, it was beginning to get dark, we had been out almost 11 hours and we were exhausted. We were definitely getting a raw deal on this expedition. So much for the 8 hours recommended walking a day.

Day 2 remains copyright of the author lemonjelly, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Day 1

2006-09-11T21:47:03Z

I swear that D of E expeditions are cursed! Either that or i'm cursed. I felt sure that this summer, having had a heat wave, we would have glorious weather for our Gold assessed expedition. How wrong could i be!!!

I was lulled into a feeling that it was going to be a nice day when we left the campsite in the minibus to get to the start point. The weather was mild, white fluffy clouds in the sky, it all seemed like ideal walking weather. Little did i know that this was the last that we would see of blue sky and the sun for 3 days.

Feeling like luck was on our side i decided to risk wearing a waterproof coat but no waterproof trousers - that was a school boy error! Just as we got up to the top of the first hill, the heavens opened and drissled on us for the next 8 hours or so. Needless to say, team spirits were low. The rain eased up after lunch and actually stopped as we approached Pen y Ghent, however seeing pen y ghent for the first time but seeing that monster of a hill looming ahead of us did nothing to reassure us. As we approached pen y ghent from the really steep side, it looked incredibly scary! We couldn't even see the top, because cloud had started moving in and we got wet again. Normally i would have been glad to get to the top, to see the view normally gives you a sense of achievement, but up Pen y ghent all we could see was rain and cloud.

Luck was clearly not on our side, because the rain just got heavier and didn't desist until we had got to our campsite in Horton in Ribblesdale. By this time, i was completely soaked through. Even my previously invincible boots had given in and i had been walking in small reservoirs for the past 3 hours.

Needless to say, i thought that team morale had reached rock bottom, little did i know what the next day had instore for us...

Day 1 remains copyright of the author lemonjelly, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Magical Zanzibar

2006-09-10T20:59:50Z

After Kilimanjaro, i was well ready for a week of chillin on Zanzibar. The boat trip across from Zanzibar was slow, but the views of the east african coast and islands were truly spectacular. There were so many small islands that looked like paradise desert islands. Before heading across the Paje on the east coast, i toured stone town with its amazing architecture.

I arrived at Paje in time to see the moon rise across the indian ocean. Paje is like a slice of heaven. My hotel Paje by night is like a beach with little bungalows all surrounding the bar, restaurant and health spa. It was so much fun sitting in the bar and chatting to all the people especially the waiters. I've never met people who are so laid back - it reminded me of the people on the Malibu adverts - they're seriously easy going!

Chilling on the beach was lush whilst i recovered from Kilimanjaro, as it was so pretty and swimming in the gorgeous turquoise ocean was lush, but zanzibar has a lot to do, so i went snorkelling, scuba diving, into Jozani forest to see the Colubus monkeys and over to Prison Island to see the giant tortoises.

Leaving Zanzibar was not something i did not want to do, but sadly my time was up and so was my money, so i headed back to Nairobi to fly home......sadly zanzibar concludes this years summer adventure, so i guess i'll just have to plan the next.

Magical Zanzibar remains copyright of the author lemonjelly, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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To the Roof of Africa and beyond...

2006-09-10T21:00:24Z

One of my lifes ambitions is to climb Mount Kilimanjaro, the tallest mountain in Africa and one of the worlds largest volcanoes. I mean its some achievement to climb it, so i did.

I was so lucky to have such a nice group and such a fantastic set of guides and porters, because i know i would never have made it to the top of the mountain without them.

The first 4 days were pretty easy. I was really lucky that i didn't suffer from altitude sickness at all, the food was really good and apart from it being a bit cold at night i was fine. We had pretty good walking weather and it was surprisingly warm considering we were walking above the clouds from 1700m - 4600m.

The penultimate day of our trek, was the day that we attempted the summit and boy was it tough. We started at midnight and walked in a zig zag up a 3km scree slope of a 1 in 3 gradient for 6 hours. - Its a lot harder than it sounds and i'm so glad i did it in the dark otherwise i would not have thought it possible. To make matters worth, once you pass 5200m, there is less than half the density of oxygen than there is at sea level, so its tough. Its basically like walking up a height of 3 empire state buildings with only one lung. The altitude finally got to me when i reached Jamaica rocks at 5400m, where i started vomitting, but luckily that was it.

I made it to the top at 8.15am on 11 July. The view of the glaciers up there was amazing, you just had to look beyond all the people keeling over and vomitting around you.

Descending the peak, Kibo was almost as tough as getting up it as it involve scree skiing down 3km, which is really tough on the calf muscles.- i was exhausted, but there was no rest for the wicked. after an early lunch, we had another 4 hours walking down hill to get to our last camp on kilimanjaro, which totalled 15 hours of walking that day.

To the Roof of Africa and beyond... remains copyright of the author lemonjelly, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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On Safari in Masai Mara

2006-09-10T21:02:59Z

Having decided that Nairobi looked rather boring i decided to splash out $260 to go on safari. We headed off on the 7 hour van journey to Masai Mara at 7.30am - which is way to early for a trip which is supposed to be a holiday. Getting out of Nairobi was a nightmare and i have decided that Nairobi really is not as nice as it seems in the centre. There really are hundreds of slums on the outskirts and the main road out of town barely qualifies as a track.

Well the 7 hour journey was definitely worth it. The views of the rift valley from the top of the hills surrounding it were breath taking. We were driving down on a cloudy overcast morning but it was still pretty incredible.

There was a lot of wildlife on the way to the national park, but inside it was incredible. There were whole herds of elephants, giraffe, zebra, gazelle, Lions, Lionesses etc...

We even saw a crocodile when we went down to a river to look at the Hippopotami. I'm kicking myself that i didn't take binoculars with me because the cheetahs were really hard to spot in the long grass.

Our camp was just outside the national park which was a bit scary, but it was really cool because it was actually run by a masai village, so the masai men guarded the camp and sat round a campfire and had a chat with us during the evenings. They invited us in to their village one day, gave us a tour and made us dance with them which was really embarassing. I drank some of the Masai beer they offered me aswell and boy was it strong! It was more like whiskey than beer.

On day 3 of the safari, we decided that jeeps were for tourists and hit the mara on mountain bikes instead. Not wanting to risk being eaten alive we thought it would be safer to explore the area just outside the national park. It was incredible, without the jeep the animals all seemed intrigued by us interesting creatures travelling on 2 wheels. The best part was when we rode right past a sleeping lion. We had no idea it was there until our guide at the rear of the group pointed out that we were about 5 metres away from the lion. The picture is truly awesome, but i was cacking myself, cause it turns out it wasn't really sleeping. Needless to say we got away fast.

On Safari in Masai Mara remains copyright of the author lemonjelly, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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