South Africa

And so to our last stop before heading home, South Africa. After 6 months of public transport we splashed out on a hire for three weeks to tour round the country and headed straight to Blyde River Canyon and then Kruger National Park. Both were great and a far cry from the parks of Madagascar. Kruger especially was very well organized and it was very cool to drive ourselves around on game drives trying to spot the animals.

We then headed back to Jo'burg for a night before dropping down to the Drakensberg mountains. Here we spent a night in Clarens before hiking through the Golden Gate national park. A couple of nights at the famous Amphitheater backpackers enabled us to do some quality hiking close to the Lesotho border, although it was freezing at night in the tent.

For the last few days we headed to the Elephant coast, just south of the Mozambique border, and the iSimangaliso National park (Formerly Greater St Lucia National Park). Here we camped for a few nights before hiring a log cabin for some well deserved R&R at the end of the trip. Jo then flew back to Jo'burg whilst I went south to wait for the World Cup to start.

Here marks the end of our little Africa Adventure. We've met some great people, stayed in some amazing places and pretty much hit every pot hole on the way! Traveling around Africa on a budget can be tough but the effort you put it is more than matched by the rewards on offer. The people are fantastic, ever willing to help out a lost and weary traveler whose grasp of the local lingo leaves a lot a lot to be desired. The scenery was awesome, especially in the mountains and by the sea, taking our breath away at every turn. And the animals were very special, giving us plenty of jaw dropping moments. Thank you Africa, you were awesome!

We hope you've enjoying reading our blog and maybe feel inspired to visit Africa. If you do we have one word for you. Go! You'll love it...

Jo & Liam

Animals of Madagascar

Last post from Madagascar. First up the lemurs; Ring-tailed Lemur, Bamboo Lemur, White Lemur, White and Black ruffled Lemur, Brown lemur, Indri Indri and Golden Sifika

Chameleons, Geckos and Tortoises.

And a Stick Insect!

Beach to Rain Forest

So with Liam just recovered from Malaria we head back to Tana and book ourselves on the next flight to the beach. We head up to Ile Saint Marie off the North East coast of the island. Just to get even further away from civilisation we take a small canoe over to the tiny Noisy Nato (no cars, just beach, bungalows and forest).

We spent a couple of nights on the west of the island, generally just lounging on picture perfect beaches and eating great seafood. Then we discover a great little place run by a friendly South African and check into some gorgeous bungalows. The highlight of this place is the friendly lemurs that live in the trees above and who come down to the deck for some belly rubbing from the tourists!

Our enthusiastic host Okie serves us a delicious crab dinner on night one, plus an assortment of local shots (this was also the night that Chelsea won the Premiership so cause for celebration). And on night two sets up a projector on the deck for an outdoor viewing of the animation Madagascar - gotta love it.

Just in case we weren't relaxed enough we booked in a day at Betsy Spa and are treated to massages and a seafood lunch whilst listening to the Indian Ocean. The perfect way to recover from Malaria (and nursing someone with malaria).

Reluctantly leaving paradise we headed for the national park of Andasibe-Matadia, a big rain forest reserve on the east of the island. Here we did some great walking including a night hike by torchlight.

Back to Tana for our final day where we hit the local markets, where we discovered I had a pretty good talent for haggling the price.

And then it was time to leave this beautiful island. But it's au revoir not goodbye as there's so much more to see and do I'm sure we'll be back one day.