Walkabout - The long way home

    With the economic crisis still raging and unemployment still rising, the prospect of getting a job was looking pretty bleak. Add to that my lack of work experience, no driving licence and poor spoken Swedish and you've got next to no job prospects. Nevertheless I've been applying for jobs, mostly online, for a couple of months.        Right in the beginning of my searching, through some family connections I got some peacework at a building site. Well it was more like an oversized jigsaw puzzle actually - it was a 200 odd year old log house that someone had taken down up north, labelling all the pieces, to be reassembled pretty close to where I live. So my job was basically to run around the site carrying log 14A here and a sack of moss over there - the bottom of the rung work (not that I'm complaining, well my back did a bit but anyway I'm grateful for the work!).  "Wait. A sack of moss?" I hear you ask. Yes moss, the same moss you're thin...

      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...