Despite what I said in my last post about the Falls not being hugely impressive to look at in the dry season, there is one major benefit: the Devil’s Pool. Only accessible in the dry season, the Devil’s Pool is a natural-made infinity pool that sits on the very lip of Victoria Falls over 100m high with a walk and swim over the Falls themselves to get there.

The calm before the storm

There are no ‘health and safety’ warnings at the Devil’s Pool. There’s no rope around the edge, no ladder to get in and out and if you don’t follow your guide’s advice, there’s a high chance you could die. Sounds fun doesn’t it?! Hell yes it is!

When I first told my friends, before I left home, that I planned to do the Devil’s Pool, some laughed nervously and others outright told me not to do it. My mum? She just shrugged and said ‘if it’s your time [to die], it’s your time’; gotta love her nonchalant attitude right?! But I was determined to do it. Not many people in life can say that they laughed in the face of death (it was a very nervous laughter I can tell you) but Devil’s Pool gives you that opportunity.

What I didn’t realise when I booked the Devil’s Pool was that you would actually have to swim over the Falls. As in, be a strong swimmer, follow your guide and don’t mess up. The other thing I didn’t realise? The boat that would take us to the sand island on the Falls departs from one of the most luxurious hotels in all of Zambia; The Royal Livingstone Hotel. I walked in with black feet, dirty clothes and a backpack and everyone else was over 50 dripping in diamonds and pearls. Even the staff looked me up and down wondering why I was there. Yeah, I know how to stay classy.

The Royal Livingstone Hotel

Catching the boat to the Devil's Pool

We had to walk/swim over this to get to the Devil's Pool -it hurt!

So Laura (a girl I had grown exceptionally close with on my tour) and I got in the boat, headed over to the sand island (where they serve the food) (yes, they really do serve food in the MIDDLE OF VICTORIA FALLS) and got a quick briefing from our guide. We just stood and stared not quite comprehending what we were about to do but over the moon to be doing it. Before we knew it we were clambering over rocks and wading into the water to begin our UNASSISTED swim. No rope, no-one pulling you across, just you, your fear and a crap load of kicking when you do the front crawl. We made it over to the first set of rocks before resting (we may be young but the water was deceptively strong!) and then we were off, holding hands to stay in formation before clambering over more rocks and seeing it; the Devil’s Pool.

Then the realisation hits. YOU’RE ABOUT TO SIT ON THE EDGE OF VICTORIA FALLS – WTF ARE YOU DOING?! LET’S DO THIS!

The view from the top!

The 'WTF' moment seeing Devil's Pool

We were told that you could either jump or slide into the Devil’s Pool and in my mind, with the WTF fear swirling around my brain, I was going to slide in but after watching the three American girls jump in before me, I decided that life was too short to not live and jumped right in – waaaaaaahooooooo!…..

Wahhhoooooo!

This is about the time I warn you not to wear a fashionable bikini to the Devil’s Pool because things tend to become a little loose with the jump and current i.e. you’ll come out of the water and sit on the edge of Victoria Falls for a good 10 seconds before you realise (or anyone tells you) that BOTH your boobs have popped out. Oh yeah, and everyone still waiting to jump from the rocks are men. Fun times! Meh, I couldn’t have cared less. In case you hadn’t noticed – I just jumped into the Devil’s Pool on the edge of Victoria Falls!! Nothing could bring me down.

Laura and I on the right

The photo in which I'd just put my boobs back into my bikini!

Laura and I sat on the edge of the Devil’s Pool hugging in disbelief that we’d just done something so incredible. Before we knew it, we were going around for a second time. This is again the time I warn you not to wear a fashionable bikini because it stops you climbing up the rocks as you’re trying to hold on to both your bikini top AND bottoms as the current is forcing them off. Everyone will laugh, you will give up caring and pretty much moon everyone.

Holding on preparing for our second jump!

When we swam back and walked over to the edge of Victoria Falls to see the Devil’s Pool from another incredible angle, Laura and I couldn’t talk. We just stood there crying and hugging each other. We couldn’t believe it. We’d just JUMPED into the Devil’s Pool! Over 100m high, we had jumped into a tiny pool 1m from the edge of Victoria Falls; simply mindblowing!

The rest of our group sat in the Devil's Pool

We then sat down for the best egg’s benedict I have ever tasted and talked with the rest of our group about our Devil’s Pool experiences with views of Victoria Falls all around us. What a setting! Laura didn’t know it yet but I’d organised a surprise…the chefs had baked her a cake and came out singing Happy Birthday; she burst into tears and seeing her so happy made me cry too.

It’s certainly a day that neither of us will ever forget and for all the right reasons.

You see, it’s not just about your experiences when you travel, it’s about the people you share them with and I couldn’t have asked for a better person to share such happy tears with.

We all struggle in life. We have bad times, lost times, sad times. You don’t want to look to your past because it’s painful, you feel bored living in the present and the future looks just as bleak as you feel. You don’t think your life is ever going to change and you’re right because nothing is every going to change unless you make the first step towards it. Life is about learning through making mistakes, not perfect decisions.

A couple of years ago, I thought I would never be happy. I knew there would be moments where I would experience it but I didn’t think I would ever be able to say that I was content or happy with my life; I thought that only happened to other people. I didn’t think I would ever know what I wanted to do with my life, or feel driven but then, something happened. I experienced something that altered the course of my life and I wanted to share it with you…

Two years and 1 day from today, I was in London by myself for the weekend visiting the Adventure Travel Show and scared to death but extremely excited about my three months solo around Asia which I had planned for March 15 2010. Life felt pretty damn good. I was also, although unknown to me at the time, pregnant. One day later, two years ago to this day, I found myself in a random London Hospital, alone, having a miscarriage. My world stopped and all that happiness I felt was within my reach came crashing down. I was at one of the lowest points in my life.

On the way home, I wrote a letter to myself, as a promise to the ‘future me‘, that I now carry with me wherever I go to remind me of how bad I used to feel so that I can appreciate how far I’ve come and how much life has changed. It’s deeply personal and I’ve never shown or told anyone about it but I want to prove to you that if I can change my life, you can to:

Dear H,
I miss you.
I’m not sure why you left or even where you went but I want you to come home; I need you.
Life hasn’t been the same since you went. I’ve made so many mistakes and lost so much; I can’t help feeling that if you’d stayed, none of this would have happened.
Did I say or do something to upset you? I wish you would tell me so I could fix it and you would come back to me.
You know, I thought I’d found you last year?! I was so close to reaching you but I fell over and when I looked up you had gone again. I’m still looking; I haven’t given up but I’m finding it harder to keep going, the more false leads I find.
How long has it been? 10? 11 years? I can’t even remember what you look like anymore and worry that when I do find you, we won’t recognise each other. I’ve changed. No matter what I’ve said in the past, I do need you. I know I pushed you away and I’m sorry for that; I just didn’t feel as though I deserved you.
I hope we find each other soon. I worry that the longer it takes to find you, the less likely it is you’ll want to see me. I’m not very well right now but I know that seeing you again would help. Even if you said ‘hello’ and left me with only a forwarding address, it would be better than nothing. Just knowing we were back in touch would put a smile on my face.
I hope you can forgive me?! I just want, no, need you to give me a second chance. I promise I won’t push you away again. You will be my top priority and I won’t let anything get in the way of our friendship.
I feel incomplete without you; life doesn’t feel worth living. I promise to respect, love and celebrate you if you’ll just come back to me Happiness.

Where have you gone H?
I miss you.
I need you.

It brings tears to my eyes writing that letter out knowing I felt so low but….
How have things changed since? Firstly, I took that first step to change and got on the plane to Asia. I’m not going to lie. Getting on the plane when I felt so scared and heartbroken was one of the hardest things I ever did and I didn’t have the ‘time of my life’ in those 3 months; I struggled. I cried beside pools, on the beach and booked private rooms just to be alone BUT I experienced moments of happiness so great that I knew I could keep going and that I should.

Life isn’t measured by the amount of times you fall down but by how many times you get back up again. When I had the moments so happy only my heart could measure, I knew that travel (and writing about it) made me happy, really happy. The type of happy that words fail to explain. That’s when I knew that despite everything that had happened in the past, travel and writing were my future. I was on the way to mending my heart and I began to feel that I could be content in life.

I won’t lie, coming home broke my heart all over again. Every street reminded me of my ex, every guy I bumped into looked just like him and friends announced their pregnancy at times I should have been expecting her. My heart ached with grief for six months before I finally felt ready to let her go and move on. We said goodbye when Sweetpea captured her own sunset…

That’s when my life really began to change, when I knew that I would be happy in life because I felt ready to live again.

So I began to prepare for my next trip…six weeks overlanding through Africa from South Africa to Kenya a few months later. I felt so much stronger heading into the trip and although the sheer thought of it scared the hell out of me, I knew I could do it.

Six weeks travelling through 7 countries was hard but incredible. I spent hours on the truck thinking and couldn’t sleep for all the thoughts running through my head; I was working through all the baggage in my life. The pain in my past, the routine of my present and the unknown fear of my future. But then it happened, I ‘found myself’ and suddenly everything in life clicked. It felt like I suddenly found the key to unlocking everything about myself. Right there and then, in that moment, I knew that, not only, was travel and writing what I was meant to do in life but I knew I could make it happen. I’d never known such confidence and self-belief before and couldn’t stop smiling, thinking about the endless opportunities ahead.

Travel did the talking.  It allowed me to quietly unpack all my emotional baggage and gave me time to put it all back together neatly and in that, I found my own level of spirituality. I’m not sure I could have ever achieved it or truly appreciated it if I hadn’t gone through such hard times before I realised how happy travel makes me feel.

You can take the same journey. You can do something out of the ordinary and push yourself to achieve your dreams. It doesn’t have to be big; it can be something as simple as trying something you’ve never done before such as taking a day trip to a place you’ve never been.  Knowing it’s something different and new can give you enough confidence to take on something bigger and better for the next step! I’m not travelling at the moment and I have a few big obstacles standing between me and my next trip but you know what? I’m ok with that. Before Asia, I would have just given up; I think, if I’m honest, I would have given up before Africa too but now that I’ve experienced nature at its finest? I feel whole and a whole heart can take you a long way in your life journey.

Two years ago today I lost Sweetpea, never thinking I would be happy and whilst I can still cry over my loss even today, I am content in my life.

If you think your life will never change and that you’ll never find your way you’re wrong. Take the first step and your feet will find the path for you.

Victoria Falls - Zambia

It’s an amazing place but because I was there in the dry season, it just wasn’t a ‘wow’ place since, instead of the continual sheet of water thundering over the top, there were several smaller (but still huge) waterfalls, the gorge seemed smaller than I thought it would be and it just didn’t set my heart on fire as much as I thought it would. Rumour has it (and from what we could see) the Zimbabwe side is much better in dry season. Victoria Falls isn’t perfectly flat, it tilts like a set of scales and the Zambia side is at the top meaning that all the water heads into the Zimbabwe side so remember that if and when you visit…a stop in both countries might be all worthwhile!

However, the beauty that I saw whilst at Victoria Falls Zambia? That’s a whole other story because I fell in love with it. Seeing rainbows everywhere, the beautiful views of the gorge and being able to walk on the very edge of Victoria Falls in Zambia more than made up for my initial disappointment. As you walk along the viewpoint trail and bridge you have these almighty views surrounding you. Rainbows to your right, rafting gorges to your left and another country right in front of you; it’s hard not to fall in love with Victoria Falls in Zambia.

The rainbow is in Zambia but the spray in the canyon at the top of the photo? That's Zimbabwe!

The beauty of Victoria Falls, Zambia

One of the best things about seeing Victoria Falls Zambia in the dry season is the fact that, away from the fenced view point, you can walk over the falls themselves. Actually get off the track, walk over rocks and see the view from the very edge of Victoria Falls Zambia over 100m up. You do it at completely your own risk but the pay off is incredible!

Walking over the top of Victoria Falls!

The rainbow of Vic Falls

I think I was more nervous about climbing over the rocks and dropping my camera than I was sitting at the edge of Victoria Falls Zambia but I faced my fear and climbed over into the middle of the falls to take this amazing photo.

I thought I was brave to sit here with a 100m+ drop beneath me...

That’s when I realised that there was a much better photo I could take…

...until I decided it was much cooler to dangle my legs over Victoria Falls! =D

Life is about being scared but living anyway right?!

In case you haven’t noticed, the world is pretty big. There’s a lot of ground (and sea) to cover and you’re not going to be able to get through it all in your gap year (unless you happen to know Superman or have a time machine). So you pick specific places to go to. Maybe you choose Asia because it’s cheap and an easy route to do or Australia and New Zealand because you get to work and save money. We all have our own reasons for our destinations.

These places offer amazing experiences but you’re not really ‘travelling the world’ are you? You’re not visiting every country within each continent; you’re being selective and it’s totally acceptable to do that.

I'm just as happy in the middle of nowhere...

I went to Asia and I’ve been to Africa but I currently have no desire to go to India (although slightly tempted to head there for Holi Festival), I don’t want to go to the Middle East and I don’t ‘care’ about Eastern Europe. Yeah I know, you’re all gasping in horror, just like I would if you said you weren’t interested in Africa but we’re all different. Sure, I could miss out on ‘blah blah blah’ over in Russia or something amazing somewhere in the Middle East but right now, I just don’t care. It’s not that I’m being arrogant to think that nothing in those countries would interest me, it’s just that for the moment, I have priorities. Just like you do.

Maybe going to India has always been your dream since the day you first saw a documentary about the Taj Mahal or you want to go and explore the depths of Russia – go for it! It’s not my adventure or your friends and families – it’s YOURS. Sure you might get some weird looks if you say you fancy going to Uzbekistan but who cares? You have your reasons for going and that’s all that counts. People are still going to be jealous when you catch that amazing sunset or when a local invites you into their home for lunch.

Maybe when I’m older and my priorities/ideals have changed, something will inspire me to explore a little further out of the ordinary and head a little more into the lesser known parts of the world but for the moment, I’m quite happy to follow in the steps of millions of people before me and head to Asia, Australia and New Zealand; after all, there’s a reason so many people go to there. Besides, it takes some serious money to travel the world. You haven’t just got mainland countries but all the little islands in the middle of nowhere…are you going to visit every single island in Micronesia? How about travelling to the middle of the Pacific Ocean for Pitcairn Island? No, I didn’t think so. But if you want it, go for it!

...as I am partying with my ladyboy friends!

Likewise, who cares if you set yourself 5 days somewhere and up staying for nearly 3 weeks (I did that in Koh Tao, Thailand) – it’s your journey. It doesn’t matter if you didn’t get somewhere that was on your itinerary; you were obviously having too much fun with your new found friends. What DOES matter if the fact that this is YOUR time to do whatever you want. No one’s going to care if you went to the middle of nowhere in the Middle East or partied it up on Koh Phangan; all their care about is that you had the time of your life and enjoyed yourself.

So instead of telling people you’re going to travel the world, tell them that you’re going to travel YOUR world.

Snuggled up in layers and my sleeping bag, I stepped on to the safari truck and headed into Chobe National Park, one of the most beautiful places the world can offer.

Within moments of our game drive we were greeted with families of giraffes and more elephants than we could count; we were completely surrounded by wild animals and couldn’t decide whether to take photos or just sit and watch; it was an amazing sight.

Giraffes in Chobe National Park

Such a cute and curious baby elephant

Elephants everywhere! =)

We were driving through the dry land when suddenly the dirt hills were gone and the park opened up into this beautiful wet land…Chobe National Park certainly had the ‘wow factor’.

The beautiful sunrise at Chobe National Park

Chobe National Park, however, isn’t just famous for it’s land animals but it’s amazing variety of birdlife and we certainly saw our share with mighty Fish Eagles and Vultures (ironically sitting in a dead-looking tree).

Fish Eagles ready to swoop

Yep, the Vultures are waiting for us to die!

But like all game drives, we were on the hunt for cats and we certainly saw promising signs that we were going to find some…

Now who's the hunted?! Um, us I suspect

The game drive took us high up and allowed us some incredible views of Chobe National Park as it showed just how big it really was.

The beauty of Chobe National Park

By the time we’d finished our game drive, it was already lunch so we headed back to camp for a couple of hours of food, relaxing and preparing for our second trip to Chobe National Park later that day for the sunset cruise.

I didn’t know it then but, although Chobe National Park stirred some amazing feelings within me in the morning, it was the afternoon cruising down the Chobe River which really took my breath away.

You take a slow, flat boat and sit on plastic garden furniture as you share the cruise either your group and others.  You bring your own cooler boxes filled with drinks (soft or alcoholic) and any snacks and relax for a couple of hours as you’re surrounded by beauty.  Most of my group seemed more interested in drinking their beers and having a giggle but not me...I was the one sat in my plastic, broken chair with my legs over the edge of the boat attempting to take in the incredible beauty that I was seeing right in front of me.

When I saw these elephants, I cried.  I couldn’t contain my feelings.  I was sat talking to one of the girls from my trip about how speechless these animals were making me feel and before I knew it, silent tears rolled down my cheeks.  I wasn’t seeing these hundreds of elephants on TV or reading about them in a book; I wasn’t even seeing them in Disney’s Animal Kingdom…I was seeing them with my very own eyes in their natural environment.  It was at that precise moment that I realised that I was really in Africa.  I wasn’t on a truck that could have been anywhere or sleeping under a huge night sky, I was in AFRICA, ON SAFARI; speechless.

I freaking love elephants!

Lurking hippos in Chobe National Park

Hippos beginning their mating orgy

What you might not be aware of is that Chobe National Park sits on the border of Botswana and Namibia and the countries argued over many years about Sedudu island in the middle of the wetland, despite it being underwater for four months of the year. They didn’t go to war though, they took it to the International Court of Justice and in 1999, Sedudu Island was awarded to Botswana, so there’s a random flag in the middle of the wetland…something different when you’re playing ‘I spy with my little eye’

The Buffalos chilling out

I have horns - check me out ladies!

Even crocs like to sunbathe!

Hippo family

Talk about a 'Jaws' moment der dum der dum...

He got bored of me taking his photo

Elephant march

When it was finally time to leave Chobe National Park and the sun began to set, I took some incredible photos but most of all, I took with me some incredible memories and stood in silence as I realised what an honour it had been to see such beauty.

Sunset in Chobe National Park

Sunset in Chobe National Park

Sunset in Chobe National Park

As the sun finally fell and we left Chobe National Park, I shed one final tear in amazement that I had spent the last 2.5 hours in the company of natural beauty; my heart had been stolen…

Sunset in Chobe National Park

Saying goodbye and getting my heart back

You see, it’s not that I didn’t like the Old Me, it’s just that she didn’t like me very much.  She would take great pleasure in reminding me of times I had failed in life and made the wrong decisions, she would laugh because I wanted to be happy and would call me stupid for daring to believe that dreams can come true.  She wasn’t a nice person.

She knew my deepest darkest secrets.  She’s seen me cry myself to sleep and pace my room at 4am and whilst I thought she was supporting me, she wasn’t; she was just hanging around to stop me living my life.  She didn’t tell me jokes to cheer me up, she kept letters from ex-boyfriends reminding me of my broken heart.  She didn’t hold my hand when I was worried; she kept gifts that reminded me of painful people.  And she didn’t tell me that everything was going to be okay; she told me that there was no point trying because I was only going to fail.  And yet, she’s been my closest friend for as long as I can remember; I never felt as though I was ready to ‘go it alone’; never ready to tell her to leave.  She was a comfort because despite everything going on in life, I knew she would always be there for me but as I began sorting through my stuff I realised that I didn’t want her to be there for me anymore; I didn’t need her so it was time for her to leave.

So as I came across words I’d written at my darkest moments and gifts filled with memories of painful people, my urge to throw her stuff away grew stronger so I got myself a bin liner and began to fill it, leaving her further behind with every item I threw away.  Before I knew it I had a full bag.  A bag full of regret, painful memories, broken hearts and fear; all the things she had collected over the years which she had never thrown away despite me telling her to.

Don’t get me wrong, there were some tears as I threw her stuff into the bin; saying goodbye to a lifelong friend is incredibly hard but we’d drifted apart.  She wanted me to stay broken and I wanted to fix myself and achieve my dreams.  I don’t blame her for all the things she’s done to me over the years; we’re just different but I felt it was time to say goodbye and move on with my life.   

Yesterday my heart had a roommate called Old Me.  Today I have my whole heart back and she’s just called Me; I think she’s going to be my kind of girl

A mass of local people helping us to cross the Okavango Delta

Getting across the Okavango Delta to a sand island is a dream. You pack your bag, sit in a mokoro (dug out canoe) for an hour and relax as you hear nothing but the ripples of the water and the birds singing. Oh and the reeds smacking you in the face; I might have forgot to mention that!

Stillness of the Delta

It's so big!

The circle of life

A maze of reeds

Sunset on the Okavango Delta

Sunset on the Okavango Delta

Sunset on the water

After we did the game walk where we spotted nothing (yep, luck of the draw) we realised that we were the first 6 back to the mokoros and since we had some time to kill before dinner, our polers let us go out on to the water to watch the sunset. It was just us, the water and one of THE most incredible sunsets I have ever witnessed in my life; I felt like I could reach out and touch it.

I managed a couple of amazing shots on the water with the sunset which remain some of my favourites of my whole trip.

The poler at sunset

The poler at sunset

The poler at sunset

Nature really is a beautiful thing don’t you think?

A: Age you went on your first international trip:

10 with my dad and grandma to Italy to visit all my cousins. Oh yeah, did I not mention I’m part Italian? And yes, there really are mafia in my family tree so don’t mess with me or you’ll be sleeping with some olive-oil covered fishes!

B: Best (foreign) beer you’ve had and where:

I don’t do beer but I’ll say that the Devil’s Shooter cocktail that I had in Bali was pretty damn awesome especially since I sharing it with a really hot American guy that I played Florence Nightingale to

C: Cuisine (favorite):

You expect me to choose?! Ok, for Asia I’m going to have to say Thai all the way but Nasi Goren in Bali came a very close second. For Africa I would say zebra…so sue me, I know they look pretty but they have thousands…they won’t miss two or three (thousand ahem)

Mmmm Nasi Goren!

D: Destinations, favorite, least favorite and why:

Yikes, this is a big question! Hmmm, well I’m going with either Namibia or Tanzania as my favourite. Sorry but Asia doesn’t get a look in on this one. And despite having the most amazing time in Bali and it being my favourite spot in Asia, it was also my worst because I got sick to death of saying ‘no’ to ‘taxi, taxi, transport?!’ NO DUMBASS – I JUST THIS SECOND GOT OUT OF A FREAKING TAXI WHY WOULD I WANT TO GO INTO ANOTHER ONE???!!!

Beautiful Namibia

E: Event you experienced abroad that made you say “wow”:

Spending a week on a liveaboard boat in the Similan Islands, Thailand diving 4 times a day. It was just me, 10 men and no native English speakers; it was the best week of my life. I saw everything from sea snakes and sharks to turtles and manta rays and my dive guide and I made the boat rock that little bit extra if you know what I mean

Leopard Shark

F: Favorite mode of transportation:

Microlight. After flying over Victoria Falls I’m hooked and want to get my license at some point in life; magical!

Microlighting over Victoria Falls!

G: Greatest feeling while traveling:

Finding yourself.  Travel can do everything it says on the tin and help you discover everything you need to know about yourself.  You can see your strengths and weaknesses, it gives you perspective over your life and if you’re looking for some direction, you may even find what you meant to do with your life just by getting on that plane!

H: Hottest place you’ve traveled to:

Koh Tao, Thailand. I went in one of their shoulder seasons (wow ‘shoulder season’ makes me sound like a 60 year old travel agent) and just as I got there a heat wave started at 42c which sounds great but when you try and cool down in the sea only for it to be a freaking warm bath, your blood pressure rises as well as the temperature!

Koh Tao

I: Incredible service you’ve experienced and where:

Pick a spot in Japan and I can tell you about the great service I had.  Nothing was too much trouble for them, everyone was so polite and all the time they wore the most genuine of smiles I have ever seen on anyone!

J: Journey that took the longest:

London to Tokyo. I was dreading it. 12 hours to Hong Kong and then another 4 to Tokyo?! Yeah, no thanks. But 2 movies, 3 episodes of family guy and 90 minutes of sleep later I was in Hong Kong and 1 movie and some sleep after that I was in Tokyo; it felt like 8 hours; a total dream but boy did I need a shower when I got in!

Shinjuku Tokyo

K: Keepsake from your travels:

I always have three keepsakes from my travels – photos, journal and money. I love looking at my photos and remembering why I took them or how I felt at the time. It’s the same when I read my journal back…I’ve been known to have a weep (and when I say weep, what I really mean is bawl my freaking eyes out) when I’ve read how I felt at a certain point on my trips. I always try and keep the smallest denomination of note in a country’s currency – it’s a great souvenir and makes a great piece of art too when you get home!

L: Let-down sight, why and where:

Phuket, Thailand. Whenever you hear the word Thailand you think of white sand and turquoise water but it all depends on where you go and since Phuket was my first stop in the country I can’t say I was too impressed. I wanted the brochure dammit! But a few miles out in a boat, I got it and I stopped having my tantrum

M: Moment where you fell in love with travel:

When I went diving around the Similan Islands in Thailand.  Not the first few training dives because I was too busy concentrating on not killing myself but the first dive of my liveaboard boat where I was surrounded by a wall of fish that opened to reveal beautiful coral and things I had only ever watched on the TV.  When I felt safe and was having fun, that was the moment I realised that travelling was about finding new things and I’d just discovered a whole new universe; magical!

N: Nicest hotel you’ve stayed in:

Well, technically I didn’t buy the room but I DID stay the night if you know what I mean? A 5* hotel in Hong Kong where my entire ‘private room’ in my hostel could have fit into just his bathroom. Oh how the other half travel when you’re an international rugby star

O: Obsession—what are you obsessed with taking pictures of while traveling?

I’m a sucker for landscape scenery and sunsets. I’m not one of those artsy fartsy people that takes photos of old men with crinkly clothes and wrinkly faces, I like my photos of scenery to be like I like my sex; ‘OH MY GOD that’s amazing!’.

Okovango Delta by Mokoro boat

P: Passport stamps, how many and from where?

Meh who’s counting?! I just like to see how pretty it looks =)

So pretty!

Q: Quirkiest attraction you’ve visited and where:

The condom house in Shibuya, Tokyo – a condom in every size, shape and flavour you could ever imagine. I’ll leave the rest to your imagination.  Let’s just say that there isn’t a thing in the world where Hello Kitty doesn’t go

Condomania!

R: Recommended sight, event or experience:

I’m going to cheat here and say overlanding Africa from Cape Town to Kenya.  There is nothing quite like it.  You can see everything naturally from the Masai villagers to the animals in the national parks and up the adrenaline by doing anything from quad biking to sky diving.  Without a shadow of a doubt, overlanding Africa was THE best sight, event and experience I have EVER had the fortune of having.

S: Splurge; something you have no problem forking over money for while travelling:

Adventure.  There is nothing I hate more than to see other backpackers not having fun because they ‘can’t afford it’.  Well, excuse me, but WTF is the point of travelling if you can only afford to sleep on the beach and eat once a day?!  Sure, there is natural beauty everywhere but everyone wants to experience something different.  When in Zambia, I was almost the only one that did any additional activities because they couldn’t afford them…what a waste in one of the most beautiful areas of Earth!

T: Touristy thing you’ve done:

It’s all ‘touristy’ but just because everyone’s ‘been there, done that, got the cheesy t-shirt’, it doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be visited! Who wouldn’t want to go and visit a Buddha in the middle of a mountain on a Hong Kong island or take a photo next to the Eiffel Tower? Idiots, that’s who.

Eiffel Tower, Paris

U: Unforgettable travel memory:

All of it.  Everything from eating a really good Thai dinner from a street vendor on the beach to dangling my feet over the edge of Victoria Falls.  It’s all unforgettable; even the bad stuff.  The moment it becomes forgettable is the moment your heart is no longer in it.

V: Visas, how many and for where?

Including the ‘visa on arrival’ pieces of crappy card you have to fill out on the plane or crossing a border? I have no idea – YAWN!

W: Wine, best glass of wine while traveling and where?

I don’t drink wine either (yeah, so drinking is expensive for me when I’m travelling) so I’ll tell you that the best buckets are served at the Lotus Bar on Koh Tao, Thailand. Drinking plastic buckets filled with coke, rum and M150 amphetamine drink as you dance the night away on the sand with fire dancers.

X: eXcellent view and from where?

It’s not much of a view in the sense that you can’t see that far but being able to see 100m DOWN is a pretty cool view from the edge of Victoria Falls even if I do say so myself

The view from the Devil's Pool, Victoria Falls was pretty spectacular!

Y: Years spent traveling?

Well considering I used to fly solo to see my dad from the age of 6 I’m going to say 14 years Yeah I’m hardcore! Just don’t tell anyone I travelled with a cuddly toy. Oh wait! I still do! Crap it =/

Z: Zealous sports fans and where?

Hong Kong! I landed there the weekend of The Sevens rugby tournament and ended up going to watch the finals on the Sunday – it was amazing!  The crowd was electrifying, I couldn’t stop singing and shouting along with everyone and there were gorgeous men everywhere; heaven!

Hong Kong Sevens 2010

Apparently I have to tag people now but from all the A-Z posts I’ve read out there, I’m not sure who’s left to tag so tell me to kiss tag you and I’ll tag you at the bottom here =)

I can now call Kerri, Lauren, Monica, Julia, Jennifer and Sheryll friends and hope to make many more over the coming year. I met up with Monica at the World Travel Market, went back up to London the next week just to meet Sheryll and her boyfriend (yeah, I travelled 6 hours across country just to meet them lol) where I also met Oneika

 and am due to see Kerri in April when I go to Edinburgh for the first time. I hope to meet Jennifer early in the New Year and keep my fingers crossed that my one day I will meet Julia and Lauren somewhere halfway around the world where they’re getting drunk and kissing their boyfriends faces off (pass the sick bucket).

2011 was also the year I began to write on here properly and fell in love with it. Travel is my new passion but, as I’ve said before, writing is something that I feel I was born to do in some capacity (whether it makes me successful or not) and above all other aspects of blogging be it advertising, networking (and all the other boring crap), it’s my avenue to write that keeps me coming back for more. I’d be lying if I said that your support didn’t mean anything either. Truly, you are often the reason I keep ploughing ahead when I begin to doubt myself. You supported my honesty when I told you my story, laughed with me when I told you about peeing in a bush and joined me in custard pie throwing when I found a hater. I couldn’t ask for better readers.

This was the year that something very important happened too…I didn’t just go to Africa; I went to Africa and found myself. I travelled overland from South Africa to Kenya and saw everything from elephants to leopards including the most stunning sunsets I have ever witnessed in my life. I pushed myself out of my comfort zone and jumped into the Devil’s Pool at Victoria Falls before microlighting over them, took a hot air balloon ride over the Serengeti and climbed a sand dune in the middle of Namibian Desert for sunrise. Even talking about my adventure brings tears to my eyes knowing how complete my adventure made me feel. I left my heart in Africa and I ache to go back.

Elephant

Dangling over Victoria Falls!!!

So what does 2012 hold?

Not as much big travel as I’d like but plenty more talk of Africa, a quick stop in Edinburgh and a crap load of trips to London and elsewhere in the UK to meet fellow travel bloggers, to meet YOU! Next year will be all about meeting and making new friends/connections whether it’s on or offline.

I will also start to take my blog more seriously. This year I simply ‘dipped my toe’ into the awesomeness that is the travel blog community and it’s taken me a long time to realise the amazing potential and opportunities of it so it’s time that I took advantage of that. That means that my site will undergo a huge redesign in the early part of the New Year, updating some necessary crap and, more importantly, adding new features! Can I get a ‘oooooohhh’ – why thank you

I’m also going to be all over the internet like a pervert on Kim Kardashian (minus the pervert bit and I’ll swap Kim for Paul Walker but you get my drift). I’ll be writing guest posts, being interviewed and adding my opinion to stuff that really does matter so keep a digital eye out for me!

2012 is going to be the year of Me (because I’m selfish like that) and I will hopefully tick off some bucket list items and life goals so don’t forget to stalk me on Twitter and Facebook to talk about travel, men and life as a quarterlife crisis sufferer! Go on, you know you want to

What does 2012 hold for you? Nb If you’re about to leave for a RTW adventure, don’t tell me; I couldn’t handle the jealousy

Here’s why…

I hate Facebook because… You send me friend requests from people I don’t know.

We all get them. You see the notification and think ‘I haven’t met anyone new recently, who’s adding me?’. Then you check and you realise you have NO IDEA WHO THEY ARE. You don’t recognise the name or the insanely small distant photo of their face so you’re stuck; what do you do? Facebook is a social network but adding anyone you don’t know just feels weird. So do you add them in the hope that you do know them and will laugh at all this later? Or do you ignore them because it’s probably just a weirdo that can’t laid and thinks you’re hot?

I hate Facebook because… The people online are never the ones I want to speak to.

Time and time again you log onto Facebook to see who’s online and 9/10 there’s a crap load of people online but no one you’d want to speak to. It’s your family (yawn), some person from school (that you haven’t spoken to since the initial ‘how have you been’ chat) or the ‘ok people; you know, the ones that always seem to reply with one word answers. Yeah, totally awkward.

I hate Facebook because… You fill my timelines with crap about games.

I have no problem in you playing one of the gazillion games available but just stop shoving them in my face. I don’t want to give you a shovel to clobber that snake, I dont want to pat your dog and I don’t want to hide you from the Mafia; I’d be happier to just shoot you myself.

I hate Facebook because… You take all the fun out of dating

When you meet someone on a night out, they don’t ask you for your number anymore, they ask if you’re on Facebook. It used to be that, when dating, you didn’t find out each others snurnames for weeks or months but now it’s one of the first things they ask. I get that Facebook is a big part of peoples lives but what’s wrong with trying to switch off the online world every now and then? Not only that but the second you add eachother the mystery disappears; you can take a walking tour of eachothers life before you’ve finished your drink. I’ve seen your vomit, your ass and your cross-dressing for your ‘night out’. I now no longer want to date you.

I hate Facebook because… You tag me without asking

Eating chocolate stones...ungraciously!

You go out at the weekend with friends or colleagues and whether you were drunk or just made a fool out of yourself sober, someone took a photo, uploaded it and tagged you for the world to see. Everyone can now see your double chin, the pose in which you don’t just look fat but really fat and you’re wondering how you even made that ridiculous face. Sure you can un-tah yourself but the damage is already done. The person you’re dating has already seen he photo and decided to block you.

I hate Facebook because… You won’t let me forget that relationship

Friends of friends comment on your ex’s status and before you know it you can see everything from their latest conquest to the moving on and being happy without you. Likewise, everything you say and do can reach YOUR ex and you can soon find yourself ‘needing’ to justify everything; even blocking doesn’t help.

I hate Facebook because… I have to announce a relationship

When you’re in a relationship you have to announce it to the world but that can cause so many problems. What if you announce it too soon? The other person gets the ‘accept relationship request’ and they freak out and walk away? And what about if the OTHER person requests the relationship connect? Do you think it’s sweet or stalkerish? And lets’ not forget when you have to announce that the relationship has failed – that’s a crapper for both sides with everyone suddenly asking questions at a time you just want to be left alone! It’s a ticking time bomb from start to (potentially) finish!

Come on, you know you do too despite being on it…why do YOU ‘hate’ Facebook?