Walkabout - The long way home

        "Hmmm... Seven months backpacking in Africa. That sounds a bit dangerous." says the guy at the travel agent as I put my proposal to him. I shrugged... "how bad can it be?". He quickly checks the Swedish foreign affairs recommendation and it looks pretty bad. Not only will I be robbed, stabbed, kidnapped, robbed again and blown up by a terrorist, I will also be fortunate enough to contract: Yellow fever, Hepatitis A, Hepatitis B (and possibly C), something they call "tourist diarrhoea", Rabbies, Cholera, Malaria, Typhoid, Meningitis, AIDS... And that's just in Nairobi! "Bugger", I thought, they want more money from me to get vaccinations against these things. Oh well...at least now when I get blown up by the terrorists, I won't have the runs! Anyway I went to check out the vaccination office which of course was overrun by unending (yet very orderly) queues of Swedes desperate to get their hands on a dose or two of the swine flu v...

      The boarding school ( Chengelo ) I attended for five years in a remote part of Zambia was hell for a number of reasons that I won't go into here. It did however have some good things that made it almost worth while; one of these things, for me at least, was the outdoor program. Once a year each form goes on a trip into the bush and everyone is ripped from their comfort zones but (usually) end up having a great time. In form five however the form is split into three groups, one goes to Lusaka to work with a transit home for street kids, the other goes north - something like 14hrs to Mambilima Special school and I can't remember where the third went.         My group went to Mambilima where we spent a week playing, talking and teaching the kids (though I think they taught us more things than we taught them!). I think the two most striking things that came out of the experience, at least to me, were how tough these people were - if...

I've managed to work out how to draw my route on a google map. It's very rough, but it gives you (and me!) an idea of where I might be going.  View African Walkabout in a larger map If I get enough time at a computer along the way I'll try and add another of these showing where I ended up going to show the importance of being flexible.

      This is my first blog and was initially just going to be the story of the trip I’m going to take - getting from home in Sweden to home in Zambia with a shoestring budget and a couple of months to kill before uni starts. Somewhere in the many vague discussions I’ve had with people about this trip someone suggested that, if I’m going to do something stupid, I should at least use it to raise money for a good cause.       With stories of every man and his dog sailing solo around the world, and scaling Everest, I thought backpacking alone through Africa would be kinda easy. Then again with my complete lack of experience, money or any sense of direction I’m bound to run into adventures (problems) along the way. I’ve decided to skip the European countries and flying straight into Kenya and walk/hitch-hike/cycle/what ever it takes to get down to Zambia!         So if you want to read stories of beautiful sunsets and mis...