Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Next Adventure in 2010


Hello all,
Well I'm off on my travels again to some very different places. When I came back from Namibia I was at quite a loss as to what to do next. So after a hectic visit to NY, a lovely stay in the English countryside and some good Irish country walks, I came up with a plan. It starts on Feb 28th when I fly to New Zealand for a month. I wanted to see both islands and to be outdoors as much as possible so I signed up for a tour called the Ultimate Explorer with The Flying Kiwi bus tour which takes me biking and hiking through both the north and south islands, staying in tents a lot of the time which will be great. I've missed the campfires.

On April 1st I go to Sydney for a couple of days where I'll stay with some great friends from Ireland, before heading to Johannesburg. After a couple of nights in Johannesburg, I fly to Madagascar and end up in a town called Fort Dauphin on the south of the island. I'll be spending 3 weeks volunteering with a UK charity called Azafady . They're involved in conservation, community and construction work. From what I read it'll be quite an adventure.

At the end of April I fly back to Jo'burg to recover for a weekend and then start an intense field guide course in Kruger National park. I even get to sit an exam at the end of it, all about birds, wildlife, plants and astronomy in Southern Africa.

On June 1st I'll have 3 weeks to play with so I'm hoping to go visit my friend in Botswana, a former elephant volunteer with EHRA. And I'm also hoping to pop into Namibia to see the ellies themselves. I'll be back in Dublin on June 25th.

Anyway, I'll try to keep this updated with pics and stories when I can. Email access will be intermittent, especially in Africa but please write, its always lovely to get emails from friends when I'm away. The picture above is of my parent's dog Toby who has been my shadow for the last few months I've been staying here. I think I may miss him the most!

Till soon,
Jen
xx