That was the year that was 2011. Sierra Leone & Uganda

2011 has been another exciting and interesting year for Laura and I. In January 2011 I was still only four months into self-employment (after quitting teaching - see Leaving Teaching blog) and our priorities were to be able to pay the mortgage on our lovely house. In fact our house was on the market for half the year as we looked to downsize. In February, Laura, me and our friend Sam headed off for a big adventure to one of the poorest countries in the world, Sierra Leone. 

Sierra Leone

It would be fair to say that Laura press ganged us into this particular trip, she was determined to visit this unlikely tourist destination which up until 2002 was consumed with a devastating civil conflict. In fact when we told people where we were going the immediate response was 

"Isn't there a war going on there?"  

Whilst my concern was having enough money to cover the mortgage, after researching Sierra Leone, Laura longed to visit and the trip was split into two. Firstly we would visit a community project in the north of the country which had been set up by the brother of a teacher at one of the schools Laura visits as part of her work at The Methodist Church and then it would be down onto the coast for a beach holiday. Sam had never been to Africa let alone this far off the beaten track.

We landed in Lungi in the early hours and after a long delay got a mini bus the 400m to the hotel. Even though we could have walked it, we didn't know it was that close and it's not advised to walk around many places in Africa at night. We checked into the hotel and found ourselves in a damp ridden room. In fact some of the hotel walls were literally bleeding water. Having been to Africa a number of times before, Laura and I are not flustered by such things and have our own saying "T.I.A." which means "This is Africa". The only thing that really bothered me was the fact that this hotel was very expensive (they have many NGO workers staying so can charge inflated prices) but it had a pool and a bar with Sky Sports so for a few days it was ok.

Two days later it was time to head to the town of Kamakwie in the north of Sierra Leone. We were met at the hotel at 11.00am by Rev. Alusine who had travelled all the way from Kamakwie to meet us and to take us back. Then the fun really started.

We had to get transport to the port in order to get a boat to Freetown. For some inexplicable reason, the airport was built on land across a dangerous bay in Freetown. Every traveller has to make the trip across the bay. In recent years the helicopter has dropped into the sea twice. We chose a boat. Our cab to the port had a boot that didn't close and had more dents than a well used stock racing car. Upon arriving at the port we were hassled by locals trying to earn a buck by offering to carry our bags. At this point we didn't know how we would be crossing the bay, we assumed the normal passenger ferry where we were warned to be extra vigilant with our bags. As we moved further and further into this small village though it looked less and less like a port. Suddenly I realised we were at the waters edge of a fishing village and we would be using local transport. Access onto the boat was not via a traditional jetty, rather it entailed two men carrying people through the water and throwing them into the boat. Worse was to come however. Upon sizing up Sam and I, the worried looking men pleaded for a third to help carry our Adonis like frames to get us into the boat.    

Travelling With The Locals

Despite no life jackets, any form of shade and the fear that my bag would be ruined in the water coming through the holes in the boat, the 40 minute ride was quite enjoyable, especially when I started up conversations about English Premier League football. Everyone in Africa tends to support Chelski, The Arse or Man U so I was delighted that they had heard of Tottenham Hotspur. We faired a little worse with Notts County and Southend United. Disembarking was literally an uphill struggle. We pulled up next to another boat which we needed to climb through in order to get to a steep concrete slope. Our bags were ahead of us with locals, we struggled to get out and up but eventually found ourselves in another busy town with people hassling us for money. Thankfully Rev. Alusine spotted the car that would take us by road to Kamakwie and I was relieved to see it was a VW Golf. 
Relief was short lived. As quickly as we got in the car, we had to get out. It had a flat tyre. Coincidentally the group of youths who had been standing around the car for a while had the tools and were able to change the tyre for a small fee! After the locals changed the tyre we were off. Approximately 2 hours into the journey we were entertained by a loud alarm going off in the car. It didn't stop. In order to make it stop, I turned my ipod on loud. This of course didn't stop it for Laura and Sam but at least I was immune. A further hour into the journey and we had to pull over. The driver looked at the engine. We started off again, alarm sounded, we stopped. Some stops were longer than others. We had to get water from houses along the roadside. Often we had to find a 'hand brake' which took the form of large rock placed behind a wheel. Sometimes we could go for 20 minutes but that was mainly freewheeling down hill without the engine on. Eventually Rev. Alusine got through to the provider of our vehicle and arranged another car. Somewhere on the way to Makeni we swapped cars and got in a taxi. The next two hours were great, unless we hit a bump in the road which sent shudders up our spines. And this was on tarmac.

At Makeni the tarmac stopped and 4x4's are generally the vehicle needed. We had 60 miles to travel to Kamakwie on a dirt track in a Nissan taxi. The time was 6.30 pm. The rest of the journey was very bumpy and long. With 6 miles to go we got to a concrete bridge which ripped into the underside of the car and pulled the exhaust off. We had to get out. It was 9.30pm, pitch black in the jungle. I couldn't believe it. What a day I thought. Resourcefulness however is a great trait of many people in Sierra Leone. Using scissors we provided they cut off the rear seat belts and used them to hold the underside exhaust up. We limped into town after 10pm travelling at 15mph but sounding like an F1 car. Laura's contact Richard came to the guest house to meet us and have a beer. It was one of the most enjoyable beers I have ever had the pleasure of drinking. We thanked Rev Alusine for collecting us. On top of the one way journey he had done with us, he had done the return earlier too! 

Presenting the Spurs shirt, notice how filthy my tee shirt is

I thought it would be a good time to present him with his present from the UK, a Tottenham Hotspur shirt. He seemed pleased as you can see in the picture. Little did he know that there are many similarities between the journey we had just shared and following Tottenham - basically being immense frustration and endurance.

We spent 3 days in Kamakwie, visiting the market, the elders, the Community Centre, schools and a vocational college. Laura's amazing photo at the vocational college has won The Guardian's Travel Photography competition for 2011 and can be found here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/gallery/2011/dec/28/been-there-photographs-year-2011#/?picture=383572093&index=10

More photos can also be found at http://www.lauracookphotography.net/travel-adventures
Information on the Sella Community Project can be found here. http://www.sellacommunity.org/charity/

Richard, me and Sam

One day Richard took us out to the land he has bought and showed us his mining operation. He runs a gold mine as an ethical enterprise and is currently mining in the swamps before starting on the hills. It is an impressive operation due to the amount of work he has done setting up schools, the micro credit scheme, employment he has provided and how valued he is in the community. It was quite an experience. 
Kamakwie itself was a very peaceful town where a culture of entrepreneurship is prevalent particularly amongst women and where foreign visitors are not approached for money. In the next few years a tarmaced road is expected to be built between Makeni and Guinea which will pass through Kamakwie. This will also bring more tourism to the three national parks that Kamakwie is close to. 
The most amazing part of travelling to such a remote area was meeting and speaking with Rev. Alusine about the civil war that raged in the 1990's. We heard horrific stories of murder, rape and torture which led us to ask how the place was so peaceful today. His answer was profound.
"It is about forgiveness" 
He went on to say that people who had murdered other peoples family members were living side by side now. 
"Without forgiveness we could not move on, and it is God that allows us to forgive and have love in our hearts".

When our time was finished in Kamakwie we got a cab back to Makeni (an old Peugeot Estate with massive tyres attached) and were met by a driver from www.visitsierraleone.org in an air conditioned Land Rover and started our 'holiday'. First stop was the amazing Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary http://www.tacugama.com/ near Freetown and then we spent two nights on the coast at the beautiful River Number 2.

From there we moved to Franco's place which was also beautiful and is renowned as one of the best places to eat in Sierra Leone.

Uganda

In July Laura and I led a team of seven people from our church to Uganda for a weeks outreach mission at Rock Baptist Church in Tororo, East Uganda. This would be the third year in succession that Laura and I had visited Uganda so each time we made sure we would see something new. After our experience in 2009 we had warned the team not to be too expectant of our accomodation so it was a lovely surprise when we found ourselves in The Prime Hotel. http://prime-hotel-tororo.com. It was clear that we had been blessed. The hotel is possibly one of the best ion Uganda and did amazing currys!

We had a brilliant week serving the town of Tororo with our brothers and sisters from Rock Baptist Church. This included town cleaning, hospital cleaning, visiting schools and hosting a youth conference. I even did some teaching (right) and also gave my first sermon.


We also had a day off during the week so we visited Sipi Falls which was just north of Tororo.
  
After Tororo, on the way back to Kampala we stopped at Bujagali Falls in Jinja (left) and after a night in Kampala we headed to Kabarega National Park (Murchison Falls National Park) for a safari. We stayed in Masindi before entering the park and then at Red Chilli camp in the park. 
http://www.redchillihideaway.com/.
During our first afternoon we did the boat trip up the Nile to see Murchison Falls and we were graced by hippos, elephants, crocodiles and a giraffe on that journey.

Laura and I, Bujagli Falls (2010)

Finally, we did a safari drive the next day. In 2009 Laura and I were lucky enough to see a lion and lioness and this time we got to see a couple of lion cubs!

The Team - Stephen, me, Laura, Kirsty, Hannington, Lewis, Arthur, Andrew, Viv.

So that was my year of travelling with the exception of Oktoberfest in Munich in September which I will blog about separately. 
Laura also visited Malawi, Mali and Uganda (again) during the year.

With regards to working, I picked up a lot of work in schools with a number of companies and am so happy that I made the decision to leave full time teaching. 

2011 was great and I am very excited about 2012. Have just heard today that Laura has won The Guardian Travel Photographer competition and we have won a luxury safari trip to South Africa. 

Happy New Year to everyone! 

Fiji 1998 (My Love of Travelling Part 2)

This follows:

http://travelhappinesslife.blogspot.co.uk/2011/12/my-love-of-travelling-part-1.html

My longest stint of travelling took place between November 1998 & July 1999, a total of eight months. During that time I changed as a person, both physically and mentally...mostly positive. When I think back to when my parents picked my up from Heathrow I am sure they must have thought that this man standing before them had eaten their son. I was (at least) 2 stone heavier, had a shaved head, goatee and an Australian accent. Travelling definitely changes you. You become more educated, more sociable and without a doubt, more confident. Physically, some people get fitter. Unfortunately my diet of beer and junk food did not have that effect.   

Following my two months travelling across USA, I spent June 1998 watching the World Cup at home and in July started working back at Carlton. My plan was to work back there for four  months, organise my PGCE place at University of Leeds and then leave for a eight month jolly around the southern hemisphere. On Wednesday 16th September I took the afternoon off, went to Bridge the World (www.bridgetheworld.com) with my mate Ricki and I bought my round the world ticket. Then got the train to then Premier League outfit Coventry City for a Southend United cup game. I like remembering significant days like that.  

My round the world flights1998/1999

The flights I booked were:

London to Fiji (change in LA)
Fiji to Auckland
Christchurch to Sydney
Cairns to Perth
Perth to Johannesberg   
Cape Town to London. 

The actual trip I did was very similar but I changed Jo'berg to Harare in Zimbabwe. 


On November 5th 1998 I boarded a B.A. flight to L.A, had a six hour stop over and then took a further 10 hour flight to Fiji. Those who haven't been travelling are always interested in whether you were alone and how you felt. Then they often say "I couldn't do that". 
My experience tells me that approximately 70% of travellers are alone and this actually helps if you wish to meet other travellers, you naturally gravitate to one another and form groups yourself. Pairs of travellers already have 'safety in numbers' so people don't really look out for them. I was nervous but realised that you have to go through feelings like that in order to reap the ultimate benefits. It was nerve-wracking but exciting. Looking back my memories are of amazing times with brilliant like minded people. I can count on one hand the number of times I felt lonely in 8 months.
Once on the plane at Heathrow, I was greeted by the person in the next seat to me, a young girl of similar age who it turned out was going travelling to Fiji. Without saying it, we shared a collective sigh of relief that we weren't alone any more and we both relaxed. We hung out at LAX and then met two further female travellers also on their way to Fiji. As we landed in Nadi on 7th November another female traveller joined us at immigration so as I walked through the exit I was now accompanied by 4 females. We all decided to go to 'The Beachhouse', a backpacker lodge on the south coast of the main island and that's how my big travel started.

http://www.fijibeachouse.com/index.html

I had planned for two weeks in Fiji and in October had made arrangements to meet a girl called Sara (who was a friend of a friend at Carlton) in Fiji. Without knowing if e-mail would be available (I now had an e-mail address) we arranged to meet outside Thomas Cook in Nadi at 12.00pm on 13th November. I had no idea if Sara would turn up but I went nevertheless. Amazingly she did (albeit one hour late), in a rental car and with another three ladies. As a group we went to Mana Island and stayed at Ratu Kini's hostel (http://www.ratukinidiveresort.com.fj/). The photos below are from Mana Island. 

.

When my two weeks were up in Fiji I headed to the airport for the short flight to Auckland, New Zealand. At the airport I met a Canadian guy called James who I had previously met briefly at The Beachouse and who was heading to Auckland. Little did we know this was the beginning of a long friendship and as well as being in Fiji together, we would enjoy New Zealand, Sydney, I would visit him in United Arab Emirates in 2005 and he would come to my wedding in England in 2008. Mine and Laura's trip to Canada to see James and his family is being planned. 

Fiji had been amazing, and I had some incredibly humbling experiences, church on my first morning, then being invited to dinner by some locals who worked at the Beachouse and finally visiting a local school and listening to the most beautiful singing I had ever heard. I also really liked the relaxed Fijian lifestyle, the structure of their society and how important families and family values were. Fiji officially rocked.   

Next up:

http://travelhappinesslife.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/new-zealand-bungy-and-male-pattern.html

My Love of Travelling (Part 1) - USA

Steve Gore changed my life. 

I went to University with Steve (Staffordshire University 1992-1995), we were on the same course (BA Geography) and lived together for 2 years. Steve was 4 years older than the rest of us so had done a few other things with his life. One of those things was that he had done a little bit of travelling. 
Every now and again as a bunch of house mates we'd chat about the world and where we would like to visit and Steve would tell us stories about some of the things he had done. The stories were exciting and they inspired me.
Steve had a photo of himself with Sydney Opera House in the background. It wasn't a particularly spectacular photo but to me it became the photo that I wanted to own, only I would be in it instead. It wasn't an obsession with Sydney or Opera it was just a statement  - 'here I am in Oz'. 
In December 1998, three and a half years after leaving University, I got that photo.

I was telling a group of Year 11 students in a school in London - 'it's not what you know, it's who you know'. My life has been a testament to that. Before my last final exam at University I had secured a job at Carlton Television in London selling airtime. My cousin worked there and helped me get the interview, I had to do the rest though. I spent nearly three years there even though I knew that my passion was to be a teacher but the main aim was to save enough money to GO TRAVELLING. Thankfully they did all my saving for me, every February we would receive a sales bonus, in 1998 my bonus was 55% of my annual salary. I earned approx £15000 per year so I received just shy of £8000 in one payment on a Friday at the end of February. 
On the Monday I resigned. I had my plan. Two months travelling across USA, back to Blighty and if I had enjoyed the travelling experience I would buy a round the world ticket to take in the Southern Hemisphere later that year.

At the beginning of April 1998 I flew to the States. I had not yet entered the realm of new technology (internet and e-mail) so the only booking I had done was on the telephone with a YHA Youth Hostel in New York City. I had a flight out to New York and a flight back from San Francisco at the end of May. That was it.

My Route Across USA on a Greyhound Bus 

New York City customs were difficult (no surprises there) particularly in getting their heads around the idea that someone would come to the USA without an address to stay at. 
"I'm trav-ell-ing" I said in a tone that suggested they didn't understand my language. I learned my first rule about travelling - have an address and be polite. I got through though. I got to the YHA at 103rd St to find there was no booking for me but plenty of beds so no problem. Went straight out with some guys from the room and I was there - 

Day 1 of my travelling life - New York City. Over the course of the few days I was there I did the tourist thing, Statten Island Ferry, Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, Central Park (inc. John Lennon Memorial), Greenwich Village and went to the tops of The Empire State Building and the World Trade Centre Twin Towers. 
   

While in NYC I investigated train or coach travel for my expedition but there really was no comparison. For cost and flexibility it had to be the Greyhound Bus. After NYC I went to Washington DC then up to Boston and then Chicago. I stayed with old friends from UK in Chicago. I went back on myself for Niagara Falls (a total anti-climax) before I headed to Memphis where there was a Blues Festival on (and where I met some very scary hairy farmers from Arkanas who tried to start on me) and then onto New Orleans. 

Capitol Building - Washington D.C.

View from Sears Tower - Chicago

Niagara Falls

Graceland

From there up to St Louis, across to Denver (possibly the most boring city ever although the Red Rocks Rockies trip was enjoyable) and then to Flagstaff for the Grand Canyon. On the way I decided to do the flight over the Canyon which was only $125. 

St Louis

St Louis Arch

From Flagstaff I travelled to San Francisco where I had arranged to meet my mate Ricki plus a colleague from Carlton and her brother. I arrived in San Francisco on May 15th 1998. I remember arriving with no accommodation and it was already 10pm. I hate getting into places late. I found a grotty hostel and next job was to find a place that would show the F.A. Cup Final Arsenal v Newcastle. I found out about the 'Mad Dog in the Fog' bar and got there at 6am. There was already a queue. Unfortunately Arsenal won so I consoled myself with a bit of breakfast and started chatting to a local guy and his nephew. They were heading to a 'double header' of football later on in San Jose, a San Jose Earthquakes home game plus USA v Macedonia international game after! I asked to go along and they kindly agreed. It was a great experience.

Next day the UK guys came over, we hired a car and during two weeks drove down route 101 to San Diego (I popped into Mexico for a day trip) and then headed to Nevada and Las Vegas taking in Death Valley. 

Alcatraz - San Francisco

Dumming in L.A.

Toga Party - San Diego

Ricki & Me - Death Valley  

Vegas '98

San Diego was a particular highlight as we found a great backpacker hostel which had frequent parties and met some great people, some like football author Steve Phelps who we are still in touch with today. I returned home at the end of May 1998 just in time for the World Cup in France. 

I learned an enormous amount during those two months.

1. The Greyhound is a tough way to travel. It is full of some dangerous characters. Advice for single female travellers is to sit at the front near the driver. I also thought it was sound advice so took it myself. Bus stations were a bit hairy too. 
2. It took me a while to get used to travelling. For the first couple of weeks I could not decide if I was enjoying it or not. Booking accommodation was quite stressful with only the telephone to do it by. Today it would be much easier by using the internet.  
3. At the time I found the USA to be quite backpacker unfriendly and a tough place to start. Many hostels are not anywhere near the standards of those in more backpacker friendly places like New Zealand and Oz and some are not really for 'backpackers' - you will find many different types of people in them, not always so savoury either. 
4. I learned that I loved the excitement and 'buzz' of new places and new people. I would say I'm quite a 'landmark' traveller, that is I see it in pictures or television and I want to go there. I am also quite outgoing so I love meeting new people. 

5. HIGHLIGHTS
a) all of NYC
b) Looking over Lake Michigan from Sears Tower in Chicago and realising it was a fresh water lake
c) Visiting Graceland
d) Watching Ben Folds 5 on the banks of the Mississippi in New Orleans 
e) Playing drums with a band in St Louis. We played Sweet Home Chicago.
d) The Grand Canyon
e) Driving down the California Coast
f) Toga party at hostel in San Diego
g) The madness that is Las Vegas, and doing the ride on top of the Stratosphere
  
Upon returning to the UK I went back to Carlton and worked for another four months while I also secured my place at University of Leeds to do the PGCE and buying my round the world ticket. On November 5th 1998 I flew to Fiji.

next up - 

http://travelhappinesslife.blogspot.co.uk/2011/12/how-travelling-changes-you-my-love-of.html