T.I.A... This Is Africa

Uganda... I loved it.

Me, Anna, Sofa and Joe going Rhino watching

Words alone cannot describe how incredible this place is!!!

Leela, Ben, me and Joe loving the spray from Murchison Falls

The people are amazing...

Local dude earning a buck carrying our boats from the take-out to our matatu (van)

The food is delicious...

Lunch stop near Masindi... where our love for Mango chutney all started

The size and abundance of wildlife is beyond comprehension...

Me and the Rhino chilling

Just a small group of Giraffes that we saw on safari

Our safari to Murchison Falls was amazing...

The campsite we shared with the Hippos on the 'Delta' at Murch Falls National Park

Nile Festival was the best kayaking event I have ever seen (and entered)...

Nile Fest competitors after the prize giving

Sam defying gravity with a massiff Airscrew on 'Nile Special' wave during the BigAir comp

The girls absolutely stoked after finishing the SilverBack Boda Boda Xtreme Race

The rapids are scarily big but relatively friendly...

Me about to get swallowed on the right line of Bujagali Falls

and the play waves can take you from zero to hero in seconds...

Sofa (always the hero, never zero) about to fly down 'Nile Special'

And the partying is out of this world!!!!!!!!!!!

A impromtu dance video starring Sofa, Hessie, Joe and myself with off-topic commentary from B and Machineeeee, and backup drinkers Jenny, Benny Hucko, Leela and Will... NRE BAR after our day bender at the Adrift pool...

If pictures say a thousand words then feast your eyes out on these because I actually can not verbalise how awesome this place really is...

The girls stoked at the top of Murch Falls

The road to the Rhinos was like this for 4 hours

7 of 11 kiwis... the majority of the crew loving the African sunset

Local kids mesmerised by the kayakers during the Big Air Comp

Boda boda rides into Jinja... Ben and Jenny speeding ahead

Cool as local kids playing at their pre-school (Sponsored school for orphans)

Anton proving his Zappa intensified gymnastic skills... just another ordinary night at NRE bar

Joe with the stoked naked locals

My cool as braids (that cost $20)

Chilling out at the Hairy Lemon (tiny little awesome Island on the Nile River) playing volleyball

Little Ugandan Gromms lovin playing in our boats

Our massiff Christmas tree

Me flying over the last raft on the assult course during the SilverBack Xtreme Race

Yoga sessions in the morning with team kiwi

Chilling out at the Adrift pool/bat

Christmas at Hairy Lemon Island... chilling with everyone at the Jaquzzi swimming hole

Bringing in the New Year at Sipi Falls; Soph, Brendan, Ben and Me

I had such a great time in Uganda kayaking lots, but also celebrating Christmas at 'Hairy Lemon Island' and bringing in the New Year at Sipi Falls, so I decided to extend my ticket to stay here even longer... so I spent another month at Bujagali Falls kayaking abit, resting injuries alot and volunteering for Soft Power Health. It was one of the best decisions I have ever made, but it made it soooooooooooooo much harder to leave!!! Loved those 3 months... cheers to everyone there... love you guys!!!

Im a vegetarian!!!

Due to my current lifestyle of travelling ALOT (over 100 hours of flying time this year alone) I have decided to try and decrease my ecological footprint by becoming a vegetarian!!!

It is definitely not going to be an easy task for me but Im going to attempt it because at the moment Im using at least 8 worlds to support my lifestyle which really isn't cool.
So Im saying seeya-later to the farm girl in me, mums butterflied lamb, bacon and eggs for breakie and a good old rare steak and exchanging them for bigger and better things... vegies!!!!!

The delicious smelling Swiss BBQ that I had to endure on my 2nd day as a vego!!

So far Im loving not eating meat and I am not even finding it hard because all the countries that I have visited recently have had amazing vegetarian dishes that Ive fallen in love with!!! Spainish tapas, Swiss chocolates, Italian fungi pizzas, Ugandan Chapatis... just to name a few!!!

I definitely think that NZ will be the hardest country to keep away from the animals, so thats lucky that Im not going back there for a while!!!

If anyone is unsure what an ecological footprint is, or is curious to find out what yours is... then google it and do the quiz... then take the next step and actively change something in your lifestyle if your not happy with the result!!! We only have 1 planet so do your bit!

Huckin it westwards across Euro

With beautiful Tirol in the background I headed West across Europe to begin the next leg of my trip... filled with touristy stuff and partying... heres the highlights and lowlights of Monaco, France, Spain and London...

Monaco:

Me and Helz hanging outside the mighty Monaco Casino

Hung out with Helz in Monaco for a week, mingled with the rich and not-even-famous, ran amuck while fabulously drunk on Helens birthday and got pampered by Helens dads maid for the week.

Before the Rose wine started flowing on Helens Bday

Tried to sneak onto a train in Montpellier (France) but got caught by butch French officials who didn't speak much English, but after claiming ignorance and poverty I luckily got let off (thrown off).


Then I got abit lost, but was saved by Therese a German girl living in France who spoke to me in English... she offered to help me with directions but when she did not know where my hostel was... offered her house as a place to crash instead!!! So before asking my name or saying hers we were walking to her place where I stayed for the next 2 nights!! She gave me her keys and left me in her place while she went to work. Super nice generous girl. And she knows Emi Earles older bro John - random!!!! Thanks Therese your a legend!!

Yum French chocolates and treats

Just being cheeky again I realised that my train ticket from Monaco to Montpellier ($60 Euros) had actually been issued for the day ahead (by mistake) so when I got to the station the next day I got my cash back from the ticket... and accredited on to the next leg of my journey!!! Sneaky, cheeky and on a budget!!

Just another crazy Barcelona art piece (thats 40m high)

ESPANA: Barcelona
-Craziest buskers ever on La Rambla (the main road)
-Parenta Familia and other amazing churches and architecture around the city
-Biking around the city, free coffee, eating baked beans in burritos

Yeap that is actually a dude upside down, under a table, dressed in white... asking for money

Madrid
-Arrive at 8.30pm with no accommodation booked, Friday night, still super busy, getting abit worried after 3 places said no room, randomly found a hostel and the owner slept on the couch so I could have a bed!!
-Great tapas!!!!

This lady stayed covered in mud for hours on end in the middle of the Spainish Summer heat... didn't move a muscle!

-"Tomorrow is tomorrow" - the owners favourite saying so that you could not pay in advance for a bed, had book in and pay every single day.


London Highlights:

The trusty tube

-Yummest Indian food ever in Bricklane, followed by salsa dancing in a Brazilian bar with Flo, Libby and some Brazilian dudes


-Ellies illegal residence on top of a construction site. 8 rooms, shower and bathroom BLOCK, livingroom the size of a tennis court, have to sign in and out during business hours to the construction workers for 'safety'
-Homemade curry by Flos dad

-£4 pizzas

-Watching Capaeira - a form of maritial art/dancing created by the brazilian slaves hundreds of years ago - very similar to break dancing but more traditional
-Catching up with Flo, Ellie, Dave, Holz, Fran, Moody and Libby

Then it was back to Monaco to hang out with Helz again before flying out to Uganda... where the real fun begins!!!!!!

4 month holiday starting now!!! Austria & Swizterland

Now that I have finished working I have officially got 4 months off work that I can completly dedicate to travelling through Europe and kayaking in Uganda.

The first stop is South-Tirol, on the boarder of Austria and Italy...this area is phenominally beautiful and a winter paradise with some of the best skiing in Europe. Its also pretty crazy because the people don't consider themselves Italians or Germans...they speak their own language (Ladina) and have strong traditions and customs that are stricty abide to, to keep their Tirolian mana strong.

I stayed with my buddy Miu Miu for almost a week, walked everywhere possible around the area, ate great traditional Tirol food and got asked if I was a German way too often!!

The Oetz River were the comp was supposed to be held

Then it was off to the Adidas Sickline Kayaking Xtreme Race in Tirol, Austria which was promising to be an awesome event but mother nature decided against it and poured down with rain non stop so the race had to be cancelled due to high river flows. Such a shame cos it would have been real good but no worries, they kept the party going and that was a pretty mad night even without the race being held-Austrians and kayakers know how to party!!

Angi and Sophie the legends at the after-party!!!!

Randomly met up with some real cool Tirolians (Ben, Sophie and Angi) that I had met on the side of the canyon way back in Italy a month before hand. Then 1 hour later I was going rafting with them, then at their place drinking beers, then getting offered a rafting job for next summer, staying with them, then going to Switzerland the next day with Sophies friend Peter for the next 3 days!!!! I love these guys and I cant wait to come back to Tirol and hang out with them all next year!!!! Great people

Mountain biking in Switzerland, loving the colours of autumn and the great riding

Peter and Shifa at the get out of some section on the Inn River just out of the Swiss boarder.
(Shifa is a Swiss chocolate maker and fattened me up the whole week on the best chocs Ive ever tasted in my whole life!!!!!!)

Then it was back to Tirol to celebrate the girls successful Rafting Assessment, do more kayaking, celebrate Birgits birthday in Innsbruck.... and then go skiing the next day!!!!!

I love Tirol... theres not many places you can go boating one day, and snowboarding the next without having to travel very far. The Kaunertaler Glacier was real nice and they put up a great opening weekend!!! The field was nicely coated with some beauiful snow - especially for mid October!! It was an absolute bluebird day on the hill and me and Angi had a great time!!!!!! Im so excited about the Tirolian winter now, the only dumb part will be adjusting to the climate after the Uganda heat!!

Lago di Garda...the real Italain experience

Who would have guessed that Diego Depretto the crazy Italian guy who comes to Murch every summer, who sold me my first kayak in 2003... would end up employeeing me at his Canoyoning Company in Northern Italy 4 years later. Random story yes...but thats the best thing about travelling...the people, the places and the subsequent stories!!!

Me in my office, in the Valle de Ledro (Ledro Valley) working hard as usual

So 1 day after finishing work in Assisi I hightailed it up to Lake Garda and found myself with Diego and his extremely pregnant girlfriend Slyvia. They live in a beautiful place called Arco which is filled with some of the best sport climbing in world (Diego bolted 400m high routes decades ago which still are maintained by the council today), theres a huge mountain biking scene, a wicked lake which is world famous for windsurfing and sailing, walking tracks everywhere, top class via ferrata routes as well as only being 2 hours from the Austrian boarder which is overloaded with great skifields and rivers to paddle!!!!

View of Riva del Garda, Lago di Garda and Arco from Cima Capi (a famous Via Ferrata route)

The plan was for me, Slyvia and Mui Mui (my flattie - her real name is Alexia) to share 2 jobs while Slyvia got ready for 'MariSol' (their baby) to arrive. However MariSol popped out only 3 days after I arrived - 6 weeks premature and absolutely tiny as she weighed in at only 2.6kg. I got to see a 3hr old baby who was half the size of a 'normal' baby...yeap I got clucky as hell!!! Anyone who says that newborns are ugly abvioulsy haven't seen an Italian baby with blue eyes!!!!

Me and MariSol, showing off all the Canyoning Adventures merchandise

As it was high season and Slyvia was busy playing mumma me and Miu Miu worked hard non stop til the high season finished. I consequetiely worked 32 days in a row with only 2 1/2 days off. Pretty hard core as they were 12 hour days too...but not really...check out my typical day

7.30am Arrive at the 'magazina - Italian for workshop or office', make tea and pack the van

8am Pick up clients, drive 40mins to the Canyon

9.30am Give them all the equipment and send them on their merry way

10-11am SEISTA

11am Drive the shuttles to the middle or bottom of the canyon

11.30am SEISTA

12pm Pick up the clients, get all the equipment and drive back

1pm Have a BEAUTIFUL authentic Italian lunch made by Slyvia

1.30-2pm SEISTA

...then repeat the process for the afternoon tour

7pm Finish for the day then go home or out to dinner for another wicked Italian pasta or pizza, eat some gelato, drink some coffee then go to bed.....sswwwweeeeeeet!!

Me, Inz, Josh and Mel loving the Margaritta pizza!!! mmmm

This experience was great but it reminded me of the "Puteri Mahsuri' (the sailing ship I lived and worked on for 3 months in Malaysia last year, see older posts for details) because once again I was faced with crazily difficult communication barriers again.

While I was in Assisi I was with 40 kiwis so there was no pressure or urgency to learn Italian, but as soon as I got to Arco...I realsied pretty quickly that had drastically changed. All the Canyoning staff, clients and locals were Italians and the only time they spoke English was when they were talking to me.

So after 2 week in Arco, my Italian was 20 times better than 2 months in Assisi. Which was great but definitely not good enough. Classic times and great challenges which I absolutely loved, however it was so amazing when I started getting heaps of kiwi visiters so I could talk in English at a typical NZ pace.

Half of the 'Bakers dozen' - the team of 12 kiwis and 1 aussie who travelled together after Assisi...crazy!!!!!! They were my first contact with native English speakers since arriving in Arco...I was stoked!!!

When the work load started to slow down, and mates from Assisi same visiting I actually got to go playing in this beautiful outdoorsy paradise. Climbing, mountain biking, via ferrata-ing, running and day walk EXPEDITIONS (rather than outings) with ex-Army Laura Sutton were awesome!!!!

One of me and Laura Suttons nice Italian summery day walks...what th f**k?...snow???

Haha Josh will hate me for putting this on!! Showing off his buffness on demand

Stoked about the 30km downhill that we have to go from the top of Mt Tremalzo to Lake Garda waaaaaayyyyy down below!!!

About to superman through the dirt...my 3rd of 6 bails in the 1st half hour!!

Also when it got real quite at work Diego took me on a paddling trip in Germany and Austria which was real sweet. We found some great park-n-play waves as well as some nice G3+ (NZ Grade) to play around on as well. However we woke on our last morning in Austria to hear rain pelting down, to see white mountains all around us and fast, tree-filled brown rivers. Everything was flooded as so we had to retreat back to Italy dissillusioned with Austrian kayaking. Bummed but excited about coming back.

Eddie at Middle Oetz River

I finished work for Diego on the 1st of October absolutely stoked with my experiecne, and walked away with a handful of EURO cash in my hand, a return ticket to Uganda and camera filled with beautiful photos. If he had not given me this job I would have been back in NZ along time ago!!! He was so generous to me and I loved my stay in Arco... I will always remember Diegos generousity, Slyvias and Miu Mius cooking, MariSol, the Italian Stallion guides (Patrick, Demis and Paulo), the awesome climbing, wicked bike tracks, beautiful views everywhere, the great food and fantastic coffee.