OverlandSphere » Cats Itchy Feet

Back Home – Knickers Washed!!

Cats Itchy Feet — Sat, 25 May 2013 07:29:27 +0000

OK – I couldn’t end on that last blog. It was a poor reflection on the whole trip which has been truly marvellous, so today I hope to impart a little of what it was that made it so marvellous. We arrived home to our little house in the Pyrenees, delighted to find Mum, Patsy, Jan & Alan there to…

Ashdod – Israel

Cats Itchy Feet — Wed, 15 May 2013 09:01:38 +0000

Israel… what can I say? I have deliberately not written a blog for a while so that I could try to put a bit of perspective on everything. It’s ironic really that immediately after I write a blog about how grateful we are to be able manage to take the best from our travels, that we come to a country…

Nuweiba – Sinai, Egypt

Cats Itchy Feet — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 09:08:31 +0000

I have been meaning to write a blog now for weeks, but just never seem to have had the time to get round to it. Last country in Africa & we have been busy, busy, busy….lovin’ it It’s funny how, for us, countries seldom live up to their negative press. I really don’t know what it is. Maybe we are…

Aswan – Egypt

Cats Itchy Feet — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 15:42:09 +0000

Well we’re here – Egypt & our last African country. When we left in August 2009 a friend’s daughter was doing a school project on Egypt. We promised her that we would be there soon (well, in 18 months or so) so we could tell her all about it. Alice was in year 3 at the time – now she…

Dongola – Sudan

Cats Itchy Feet — Sat, 30 Mar 2013 10:14:45 +0000

Hot, hot & double-hot. What more is there to say? It’s about as hot as the bowels of Erta Ale volcano… You know you’re acclimatised when, at 7 o’clock in the evening, you look up at the thermometer with a feeling of relief that the day is finally cooling down, to find that it is still reading 33˚C. The rest…

Danakil – Ethiopia

Cats Itchy Feet — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 10:03:29 +0000

Wow, wow followed by many more wows…. the Danakil Depression, or more specifically Erta Ale Volcano &, I believe, one of only 6 permanent lava lakes in the world.Getting into the Danakil Depression is not an easy undertaking – we really wanted to go in our own vehicles, but the fragile security in the region, the bureaucracy involved & the…

Mekele – Ethiopia

Cats Itchy Feet — Sat, 09 Mar 2013 13:41:41 +0000

New teeth fitted – check! Nose bleeds under control – check! Rested & ready to move on – check! Time to hit the road again, with Lore & Bram who managed a quick (1000km) side-trip to Harar to feed some hyenas while we were in Addis and after celebrating the completion of their 1st year on the road. Our time…

Addis Ababa – Ethiopia (Again!)

Cats Itchy Feet — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 19:42:02 +0000

Back in Addis after a fabulous few days in the Bale Mountains. The drive to Bale from Addis can be done as a loop, so we managed to add much more of Ethiopia into the trip. Whilst is can (theoretically) be done in a day, we took 2 long days each way. Obviously time had to be allocated to stopping…

Addis Ababa – Ethiopia

Cats Itchy Feet — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 10:37:08 +0000

We are delighted to report that things have continued on a positive note in Ethiopia. It really seems now that our experience in the south was unique to the area. Yes, there is still begging, but not on the level that we experienced in our first few days. In fact the overwhelming impression that we now have of the average…

Awassa – Ethiopia

Cats Itchy Feet — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 09:19:48 +0000

Quite a lot to tell since the last blog, so here goes…I last wrote from Loiyangalani, at the beginning of the Lake Turkana route. Obviously we have now made it to the other end & what a wonderful experience it was. The total trip from Nanyuki to Turmi in Ethiopia took 7 days – just about right if you want…

Loiyangalani, Lake Turkana – Kenya

Cats Itchy Feet — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 14:29:17 +0000

Remote northern Kenya has to be one of the harshest and most beautiful regions we have travelled through on the whole of our trip. We are here eventually, but only after a false start…Once the convoy gathered (Richard & Ali, Lore & Bram) we left Nanyuki to start the long, hot trek north. All was going well, until about 50km…

Nanyuki – Kenya

Cats Itchy Feet — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 08:05:34 +0000

Ethiopian & Sudanese visas now in our passports after 10 hectic days in Nairobi. Happy days :-)We were lucky enough to stay with our great friends Will & Mel for most of the time in Nairobi, so managed to swap the confined surrounds of Jungle Junction for luxury living in Karen. In between some pretty heavy-duty socialising, including meeting up…

Nairobi – Kenya

Cats Itchy Feet — Sun, 20 Jan 2013 06:44:42 +0000

Jungle Junction, Nairobi. Probably one of the most famous (hence popular, hence overcrowded) overland stop-overs in Africa. That’s where we are now. Nairobi is the last stop before the trek north where we can give Itchy a good ‘going over’. It’s also where we will have to obtain our visas for Ethiopia & Sudan,…

Mbarara – Uganda

Cats Itchy Feet — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 04:41:43 +0000

A short blog to let you know that we have survived Christmas & New Year. What a great couple of weeks! Mum, Steve & Vics came to visit us in Uganda, much to the consternation of many of their friends & family who believed that they were crazy to visit such a dangerous place. Well hopefully they will be able…

Kibale – Uganda

Cats Itchy Feet — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 16:55:58 +0000

1000 nights on the road! That deserves blog just in its own right… so here’s a few facts & figures about the trip. A list…..courtesy of my sad spread sheet! ✤ Departure date: 17 August 2009. Those of you who can do sums will perhaps have worked out that if our departure is correct we should have spent more than…

Bwindi – Free Gorillas!!!

Cats Itchy Feet — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 14:08:50 +0000

A little event today justifies a tiny blog of its own… This morning, on our way out of Bwindi, Clive & decided to visit Bwindi Lodge to see if it would be affordable to book for January when Vic & I come back for our gorilla trek. As I was walking down the steps to the lodge I saw a…

Bwindi – Uganda

Cats Itchy Feet — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 16:50:39 +0000

It’s raining. Quite a lot. But then Uganda is lush, lush, lush so I guess that rain must be part of the equation. We have been in Uganda for nearly a week & are loving it. Very beautiful, very friendly & definitely a good place to spend Christmas with friends & family. More about that later. On our last few…

Kigali – Rwanda (again!)

Cats Itchy Feet — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 12:06:36 +0000

There is quite a contrast between urban & rural Rwanda. Off course you could say that about every country, but here I think the contrast is highlighted by the sophistication of urban Rwanda. Not just Kigali; all the bigger towns we have been through appear to us to be a level of development & sophistication above the average African town.…

Kigali – Rwanda

Cats Itchy Feet — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 17:55:27 +0000

Rwanda has been a country I have been looking forward to visiting for some time now. My father worked out here with the MSF shortly after the genocide in 1994 and, although I sadly never had the opportunity to speak to him in detail about his experiences, it has always struck with me that his experiences in this country moved…

Biharamulo – Tanzania

Cats Itchy Feet — Sun, 25 Nov 2012 13:38:12 +0000

Well we did it & I’m not in the bad books… thank you very much indeed to the accommodating thousands of wildebeest & zebra that we bumped into in Serengeti for saving my bacon! Before I go on to expound the wonders of the migration in the Serengeti, I’m afraid I am going to have to say that, for us,…

Mto wa Mbu – Tanzania

Cats Itchy Feet — Sat, 17 Nov 2012 12:07:03 +0000

OK, OK… I am now getting emails from people checking that we are OK as they haven’t seen a blog for a while, so it must be time to write again. I am very sorry (but secretly delighted!) if anyone was worried, but no need to panic… I have just been lazy! In actual fact we have been stationary for…

Lake Natron – Tanzania

Cats Itchy Feet — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 18:14:48 +0000

The great news is that we are hoping to have some company for Christmas. If all goes well Mum, Vics & Steve will be joining us in Uganda for the Christmas, New Year period. Yipee – more Stilton… oh, and great company off course!! Yes, we managed to collect the Stilton sent out by Mum and yes it was edible!…

Mambo Point – Tanzania

Cats Itchy Feet — Sun, 09 Sep 2012 06:49:48 +0000

Well – Victor Meldrew has managed to get a fine! After feeling proud of our general avoidance of police hassle, we have eventually been caught – and legitimately! We have been warned about the Tanzanian police and their enthusiasm for issuing fines, but to date have avoided handing over money, by either being innocent or bluffing well. On this occasion…

Irente – Tanzania

Cats Itchy Feet — Fri, 07 Sep 2012 17:23:43 +0000

Making our way slowly north has taken us form the cost into the lush, lush Usambara Mountains. After 9 days lazing by the beach we decided to get off our backsides & do some walking, so Usambara looked like just the place. There’s not much to write really, other than to describe these beautiful mountains. Amani, where we first stopped…

Pangani – Tanzania

Cats Itchy Feet — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 06:38:16 +0000

I can think of several ways to injure yourself in a swimming pool, but I have to say that stubbing your finger wouldn’t have been the first to spring to mind. Drowning, hitting your head on the bottom…. but stubbing your finger? As you may have guessed Clive is currently wondering around nursing a sore finger. One length & BAM!!…

Iringa – Tanzania

Cats Itchy Feet — Mon, 13 Aug 2012 13:26:03 +0000

Our last few days in Malawi were spent in the highlands of Nyika NP & back down (in the relative warmth) by Lake Malawi at Livingstonia. Nyika is a beautiful park, with an almost Scottish moorlands feel at over 2000m – night time temperatures included!! Not a huge amount of game, some scarce, camera-shy roan antelope & zebra, but some…

Vwaza – Malawi

Cats Itchy Feet — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 16:49:52 +0000

The last couple of weeks have been a mixture of regret & gentle enjoyment. Here we are, fortunate enough to be experiencing the journey of a life-time. Something that most people can only dream of. Yet we are missing some of the most wonderful sporting moments in history. I don’t feel guilty saying this, after all we have been on…

Mangochi – Malawi

Cats Itchy Feet — Sun, 15 Jul 2012 15:18:34 +0000

As you may notice from the title of today’s blog, we have finally torn ourselves out of Moçambique. 6 months and 8870 km. We were genuinely sad to leave. The last week was just has fabulous as the rest, as we made our way across the northern region of Niassa to Lago Niassa, the western edge of Lake Malawi, as…

Pemba – Mozambique

Cats Itchy Feet — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 12:32:09 +0000

Leaving Coral Lodge was quite emotional. In just 3 short weeks we had formed a surprisingly close bond with many of the staff – in particular Sara & Nelson, the lovely Portuguese managers, as well as many of the wonderful Mozambican staff. Sarah & Nelson were great company while we were there and also introduced us to Nelson’s crazy brother…

Ilha de Moçambique – Mozambique

Cats Itchy Feet — Sat, 16 Jun 2012 15:45:28 +0000

I know I haven’t written a blog for a while (sorry, sorry Mum & Gran), but we have had a slightly unusual couple of weeks! We ended up staying a little longer in Nampula than originally planned – my last blog obviously jinxed the visas & off course they weren’t ready on time. We returned to the Immigration Office on…