Its not easy! First of all, very few people understand English, and most menus are only in Chinese. Some restaurants have a picture menu, which is great to give a rough idea of the dish, but useless when it comes to deciding if it is safe for a vegetarian to eat. It is therefore vital to carry a small note that explains exactly what you can and can't eat. The Vegan Society in the UK produce a very useful Vegan Passport which explains, in every language that you can think of, what vegans do and do not eat, but if, as a vegetarian, you want to include eggs or cheese in your diet, you will need something different. Unfortunately the UK's Vegetarian Society doesn't do anything similar - perhaps YOU can email them and suggest that they do?

Let's talk now about vegetarian eating in practice. Here's the big problem: in China there is a general idea that whilst vegetarians don't eat meat, there's no trouble if the sauce or stock that the dish is cooked in has meat or livestock origins. Therefore, you will need a note that states that not only do you not eat meat, chicken, fish or seafood, but that you don't want the dish to contain any meat stock or juices of any animal, bird or fish origins either. Armed with such a notice, you are more likely to get the restaurant to understand you. It is also useful to have the following translated into Chinese:

RICE
NOODLES
EGG
RICE with EGG
VEGETABLES
MIXED VEGETABLES

You can then point to these words, and see what the reaction is. Sometimes the restaurant will be happy to suggest something, or to ask the chef if he will help, but quite often restaurants will not deviate from their set menu. They may suggest items on the menu that will fit in with your requirements, but they won't make a special dish for you, even though its obvious that they already have all of the ingredients.

I have often found that requesting 'mixed vegetables' gets no results. Why is this a problem? Well, the way food is normally served in China is in a situation where a group of people will order a number of dishes, then everyone will try a bit of each dish. If you are by yourself it means that you are unlikely to be able to eat more than 2 dishes, each of which will be based around one item. You'll thus find yourself eating, say, rice and a big dish of spinach with mushrooms. This is rather monotonous, no matter how much you like spinach and mushrooms. Mixed vegetables would be more fun. What a pity the Chinese haven't thought of the Indian 'Thali' concept, where a single diner gets a bit of everything.

Although lunch and dinner can be chosen quite easily by the above method, breakfast can be much more problematic, and I have found that apart from some grated raw vegetables, there is unlikely to be anything on offer that I can eat, even if a restaurant is found that is open. My usual remedy is to find a small bakery or supermarket and buy some bread or wheat product, to have with fruit. There's always plenty of fruit available, of many sorts. It will be a lot nicer than you are used to, too, as its all ripened naturally. You won't find cheese, apart from in the very big, touristy cities. Even then it will be sliced, in individual portions of tastelessness. Milk and yoghurt are a bit more common, though not in restaurants. Nuts are available everywhere, and can of course be used as a useful source of protein for both vegans and vegetarians.

You are probably wondering why I haven't mentioned foreign food. Italian, Mexican, Indian, Thai - those choices are available everywhere in the world, surely? Sorry to disappoint, but not in China! The Chinese are incredibly insular when it comes to food, and although every town will have 100s of restaurants, they'll all serve Chinese food, and only Chinese food. The few exceptions to this are in the bigger cities, where some of the large foreign chains have started to get a foothold. Before you get excited, let me tell you that the foreign chains you will see are MacDonalds and KFC. Yuk, and double yuk! Nothing for a vegetarian or vegan there, even if you DID approve of the company politics, which as a vegan or vegetarian I would very much doubt. Occasionally you might come across a Pizza Hut, but the prices there are very high, similar to what you are used to in the west. A vegetarian backpacker eating there would soon find that his budget had blown apart.

This is all very sad. The only things that the Chinese know about foreign food is from McD, KFC, and PH. No wonder they just stick to their own cooking!! As for backpackers, unless you are very lucky, you will just have to manage from the ideas given above. Self-caterers would have a much better time, as many sorts of vegetables are available in every market. Some pulses too, normally mung beans, and those little red ones. I've seen yellow split peas, and green lentils, once. Red lentils not at all, which is a shame as they are so easy to use. Tofu is commonly available, if you are a tofu fan.

The Chinese are great snackers, and the average supermarket will contain a huge variety of snacks. Check the packets carefully - they often contain animal products, even if the picture on the front looks OK. Some items are definitely best avoided - I've seen packets of pre-cooked hen heads, and pre-packed duck feet. Some packets you just don't WANT to know any more about!

Some things obviously come from our Bigger Brothers. The BBC can't be watched on TV. Normally there are no foreign channels at all, though here is Xian there is CNN and TVE to add a bit of variety from all of the local channels - that's a first. Some web sites are rather hard to access, so if you need to checkout Blog Spot or Face Book whilst in China, you need a lot of patience. You might never get there at all, actually. BBC News coverage is a bit patchy, too, but apart from these, I've managed to get all the things done that I needed to. Our news comes courtesy of the Chinese government, who have a channel in the English language called CCTV9.

For all my regular readers, you are probably wondering if we've reached the end of another section yet. Well, the answer is yes, we, have, and are sorry to be losing quite a few of the passengers. Out of a total of 14, 6 are leaving the truck here in Xian, and 8 are continuing on to Beijing. We also have some newcomers joining us: 6 people from the Kathmandu to Kashgar truck, including my very good friends Wayne and Dinah Rogers, and 1 guy who is just doing the Xian to Beijing section. More details when I have them.

What have we been up to recently? In short, finishing the Silk Road. Whoohooo - yes, we've got here at last. Here being Xian, the official end, or start, of the Silk Road(s). What an expedition it has been. We've journied through Central Asia, following the routes taken by the camel caravans of old, crossing mountains, high plains, and mountain passes. We've spent a lot of time in the desert, including a crossing of the infamous Taklamakan Desert, and a skirting of the also infamous Gobi Desert. We've braved mountain wilderness, and travelled along the Karakoram Highway to well above the limit that altitude sickness sets in for many. We went to see the stunning Mogao Grottoes, a UNESCO World Heritage Site which contain some of the finest examples of Buddhist art in China, all beautifully preserved. Finally, at Jiayuguan, we arrived at the first section of the Great Wall of China, which you can read more about if you click this link. Since then, we've followed the wall for quite a way as it snakes its way across China, before heading south to the Yellow River and the super Buddhist statues at Bingling Si. Now we're in Xian, and a chance to see the Terracotta Warriors. More news as I get it, and whenever internet access is available.

I have had a number of emails wondering whether my own journey will be affected. The answer is, no, probably not in the main, though maybe to some small extent. Our actual route, which you can see as usual on my Where is Travelling Tim page, lies far to the north of the earthquake's epicentre in Sichuan province. Click here for a China province map. However, whilst we are unlikely to be driving in that area, such a big event is bound to cast ripples over the rest of the country, and we have just heard that there may be a few days delay getting the truck over the Kyrgyzstan - China border, and that we may have to travel initially on public transport. That's all I know for now - watch this space for further details.

I'm still finding it very hard to select, resize, and post photos on this Blog, so that will just have to wait until later - possibly in Beijing, where we will have about 10 days before the journey continues to Mongolia, Kazakstan, and Russia, or maybe not until I get back to the UK. I was really silly not to have brought my AC power supply for the laptop, with the amount of hotels Dragoman puts us in these days, and the Dragoman truck is STILL waiting for its new batteries so charging is strictly limited to when we are actually moving. We *had* been expecting them in Tashkent, but have now been told that it won't be until China, which is very frustrating. I am used to Overland trucks where the battery allows us to use reading lights etc in the evenings. Not this time. The current battery is so bad that we have to turn the fridge off when parked up. We haven't had to get a jump start recently, which is a positive step, but that is only because Jay, our excellent driver, takes extreme care to see that the battery gets minimum useage. Cook lights are allowed, but that's about all.

Well, you'll just have to wait to see the photos. I've been taking quite a few, as you might expect, and have been enjoying the results that I get with the Nikon D300. Its an excellent camera, but takes some getting used to. I started off by leaving it on the standard settings, but as time has gone on I am starting to explore some of its other capabilities, and getting used to changing settings between shots, as conditions and requirements change. As mentioned before, saving and burning the large images to DVD takes a long time, and lots of battery-use for the laptop. I hadn't expected this as last year (with a 4 MP camera) everything took place so quickly, but am pleased with the superior results that this camera and its great lenses produce.

Getting back to my journey - we are currently in Bishkek, the capital city, and getting near the end of our time in Kyrgyzstan. What a fascinating country it has proved to be. I had NO idea just how mountainous it was before I came here, but as it turned out, mountains are the one thing that I will remember in the future. Not just any mountains, either. The ones here are huge, and really spectacular. Generally snow-covered at this time of year, which makes for some great photographs. We have climbed a number of high passes, and spent time trekking in beautiful Alpine valleys. Camped by some chilly mountain streams, trekked to some glaciers, and even had time for a little horse riding. This time the horse did what I wanted it to do - I must be getting better at it! The horse did have a go at knocking me off though, by walking under every low-hanging branch that he could spot, but didn't seem surprised or concerned to be reined off as each branch was approached - its obviously all a wonderful game.

We've enjoyed lots of clear nights, so I have been sleeping out, under the stars whenever possible. Not too much to bother us - very few snakes, and the Marmots that can be seen everywhere in the mountains are quite shy, and certainly leave us alone - they just whistle from a distance, like wayward builders. The other night, camped by the shores of Lake Issyk Kol, I had the delighful experience of being sung to sleep by nightingales, then waking up later to count stars and watch the Milky Way. Overlanding doesn't get much better than that.

I didn't say much about Uzbekistan in my last Blog, but that's not because I didn't enjoy it. Quite the opposite is true: Uzbekistan was one of the major highlights of this trip so far, and I hope that the photos, when they eventually appear, will speak volumes by themselves. At the moment, I don't want to bore you with a long list of superlatives, but safe to say that the Silk Road cities that we spent time in more than came up to my expectations. They were all quite different, so don't get the idea that once you've seen one, you've seen them all. Khiva, where we started, is more like a museum than a living city, though its architecture is in great condition, having been wonderfully preserved or restored. This was the case, too, in Bukhara, though it definitely didn't have the feel of a museum, and took much longer to explore. What am excitement it was to wander through such ancient streets and markets, and to think of how the city might have been in the time of the camel caravans that journied across the deserts of China, to halt here on their way to the markets of Europe and the Middle East. I climbed to the top of the big minaret, making VERY sure that there were no slip-ups of the type that broke my ankle back in 2006! Samarkand was different again - a busy, vibrant city with its rebuilt centrepieces of the Registan and the Bibi-Khanym Mosque. I particularly enjoyed the City Museum, too, which had a enthralling range of exhibits, encompassing fabric, metalwork, wood and pottery, plus some lovely paintings of local scenes.

Tashkent, in comparison, was entirely different to the previous three. Its a large, modern, city with wide tree-lined boulevards, very spread out, and takes a long time to walk anywhere. There are very few old buildings to be seen, as the city has been extensively re-modelled over the years by Genghis Khan, earthquake, and the Soviet Union. I enjoyed the city museum, which attempted to make sense of all this history, and the Fine Art Museum, which had an astonishing range of wonderful exhibits spread over 4 large floors. Even more astonishing was the fact that I was the afternoon's only visitor!

I'll end with an update on truck-life. We currently have 19 passengers on board: Brits, Australians, New Zealanders, Canadians, and Americans. They are a great bunch, on the whole, though I miss the kind of diversity brought by other Europeans encountered in the past. Exodus always used to attract a good mix of nationalities: Germans, Dutch, Danes, etc. Dragoman, on the other hand, doesn't sem to be casting its advertising net as wide. There had been great anticipation on board to meet an Indian lady who was supposed to be joining the truck here in Bishkek, but it appears that she has cancelled her booking for some reason. Five passengers will be leaving in Bishkek, which means that the truck will continue on to Xian with just 14 passengers - actually a nice number to have on board. Cook groups have been changed accordingly, and are mainly composed of 2 people now.

Thanks to all for the Birthday wishes, sent through a variety of means. I had a great day, which was marked with my special shirt - the blue one with all the printed fishes - there's a photo of it somewhere in the African pages, I think. In the evening we had a bush-camp, away from it all, but somehow a birthday cake and lots of beer had ben purchased, so a great evening was had by all.

To all my Friends on Facebook - please don't be upset if you haven't received an answer to your Facebook messages recently. Here in Central Asia, it takes AGES and AGES to get my Facebook page to refresh, and doing any more than changing the 'Status Update' can be a major pain. I DO know when you've written on my Wall, as I get one of those automatic email thingys, but to try and reply via Facebook can often take ages, and still not result in a message sent! I'll say 'Hi' as soon as possible, but if you'd like something quicker, then send me an Email - the address is on the Contact Page.

The truck currently has 15 passengers on it, ranging in ages from 22 to about 65, with nationalities composed of Brits, Canadians, Americans, Australians, and New Zealanders. Most people are getting on with each other, though there are the usual strange characters who do their best to rub everyone up the wrong way. Overlanding is a great gamble, depending totally on the people who choose to come on the same trip as you. Some you win, and some you lose. Still, there is the slight advantage, these days, that most people only stay on the truck for a few weeks. I am the only passenger who is making the full trip from UK to St Petersburg. Currently there is no one on the truck who is even going on to Russia. There was one American woman who was intending to do the last section, but she has cancelled due to a previously bad experience with the driver who is due to join in Beijing. 'There is no way I will ever travel on the same truck as him again', she tells us. I am keeping my fingers crossed that he is not, in fact, as bad as she makes out!

Its takes a little time to get back into the swing of travelling by truck. Its also easy to forget how handy it is to have 24-hour broadband internet access. Just getting ready to say something on the web, or replying to the mass of emails that can arrive takes a little getting used to when the only computer at a hotel is needed by everyone else staying there as well, so don't be surprised if there are frequent gaps between messages from me. I had thought this would be different following my experiences in Africa last year, but as is often the case, nothing is quite as you expect.

Every truck is different. It is easy to forget this when pre-planning for a journey. This time I took a laptop with me, to make things easier when dealing with my photos, especially the large file-sizes that today's semi-pro cameras produce. On the last Drago truck there was a 12v power point in the rear of the truck for the use of the passengers. I assumed this would be the same this time, so only brought a 12v power supply for the laptop, assuming that I would use it whilst going along, and in the evenings. This has turned out to be a silly move on my part. Not only is there no power point in the rear, but the driver is so worried about the state of the truck's battery that we cannot use it in the evenings. No sitting in the back, writing diaries, as in the past, and certainly no laptop charging. That can only be done in the cab, during the day, whilst we are going along. Also, we are spending much more time than I ever dreamt of staying in hotels, when the mains charger, if I had one, would have been really useful. My advice for other travellers on this route is that a mains charger is far more useful than a 12v one. Not only will you have plenty of time to use it in hotels, but you can also tap in to the occasional WiFi hotspots, which so far have been encountered in Salzburg, Istanbul, and here in Tblisi.

Away from technology for a while, and back to the journey that I am making. We had a fairly quick transit through Europe, stopping only for sight-seeing in Munich and Salzburg. The real journey started in Istanbul, where more passengers arrived. It was lovely to be back in Istanbul after all my pleasant experiences of the past, even though we didn't have a lot of time there. Its easy to forget just how long the journey is to Beijing - Turkey must be left for future exploration when I have more time. Apart from Istanbul, we visited Goreme, for its fascinating volcanic 'Fairy Chimneys', and the Sumela Monastery, near Trabzon. I'll add photos eventually: at the moment it is just too compicated.

I am enjoying Georgia a lot, which is handy as we have more time here to see things. Georgia is like Turkey was 20 years ago. The countryside is very beautiful, and the people, though rather guarded, are friendly. We started by exploring the seaside port of Batumi, then moved inland to see Gori, then crossed the high mountains near the Russian border to visit Kazbegi, and do a bit of trekking in the hills. We have visted many churches and monasteries, with more to come. I love the Georgian houses in the countryside - they are all 2 storey, with wide balconies and a large patch of garden. Many grapevines - it must be really beautiful in the summertime.

Tblisi is a pleasant capital, situated between 2 hills, and set along a river. There are many fine buildings to see, especially the Eastern Orthodox churches, which I have spent quite a while looking at. The people here take their religion very seriously, and are frequent visitors to church. The custom is to light candles before your selected icons, of which there are usually a great many, finely painted, and often surrounded with chased silver or gold work. I hope to visit Georgia again, one day.

Must dash now, but will add more soon. The next internet access will be in Baku, Azerbaijan.

'Base', once again, is the Pestalozzi International Village, in Sedlescombe, East Sussex, near to Hastings, on the south coast of England. You can see the location in Google Maps. (Tip: Maximise the window then Refresh). I am very fortunate to be invited to come back here - there's a lot that I can help with. The plan is to stay at Pestalozzi for the next 7 or so months, until my next adventure, which for those of you who like to know everything in advance, will be another Overland journey, travelling from London via Istanbul, Central Asia, Beijing, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, and back across Siberia to the Venice of the north: St Petersburg. It will be a long trip - about 6 months in all. You can see more details here, and my map of the route on the 'Where is Travelling Tim' page here.

That's all in the future, though. Right now I am concentrating on the work needed here. I expect to be very busy at Pestalozzi once again, involved in various projects as before. I was warmly welcomed back by everyone - there's such a great group of people that make up this community. The I.B. students are away on their summer break at the moment, but are expected back, starting at the end of August. No doubt I will be making a few runs to Heathrow airport to help collect them. The Pestalozzi village is still quite busy, though. The office and support staff carry on with work as usual. We also have a number of groups staying, who make use of the facilities. The kitchen staff and the maintenance people have their work cut out trying to keep up. At the moment we have a lot of French students here, and last weekend there were a judo-training group from London.

Cheetah at the Cheetah Park, Northern Namibia

Africa already seems so far away, and the many friends I made on my travels are now just memories, photographs, and messages over the internet. I miss them all already. Did all those things really happen to me? I had better note down the events of the last trip before I forget them! Luckily, I have my diary as an 'aide-memoire' to some of the things I did and some of the places that I went to. Surprisingly, on the Kumuka trip I was practically the only person who was keeping a diary. This is very different from other Overland trips in the past, when most of the seats in the truck would be occupied after dinner with industrious diary-writers.

With the ever-lowering of prices for digital memory cards, everybody now takes LOTS of photos. That's all very well as long as you can remember what the photos are of, though! I noticed that many people couldn't remember even whilst they were still on the truck. Perhaps cameras need to revert to the days of the 'Autographic back'. This appeared on Kodak cameras from 1914 onwards, and allowed the photographer to write a note on to the back of the film with a special stylus. Today's digital cameras are not that clever (!) as they only allow editing of the 'IPTC' data when you download the photos to your computer, so whilst travelling I keep a notebook - good old pen and paper - with details of each photo taken.

German architecture at Swakopmund

Since my last posting from Swakopmund, a lot has been happening, We did indeed head up the Skeleton Coast to the Cape Cross seal colony, where there were any number of fur seals to see. They were not particularly bothered by their visitors, though I suppose that with teeth like they have, they can look after themselves pretty much! I remember getting chased by fur seals in the Antarctic - its not something I want to repeat! You can see an aerial view of Cape Cross on Google Maps here (Tip: Maximise the page and then Refresh). I see there's a truck in the carpark - I wonder if its an Overland truck? Spot the company, anyone?

Cape Cross - where the Portugese landed

In 1486 Portuguese Diego Cáo, the first European to get this far south, landed here and erected a stone cross in honour of King John of Portugal. 400 years or so later, in 1893, German sailors from the ship 'Falke' removed the cross and took it back to the oceanographical Museum in Berlin. In 1894, Kaiser Wilhelm II ordered that a replica be made with the original inscriptions in Latin and Portuguese, but decided to add a commemorative inscription in German! Sixty or so years after that, it was decided to put another replica cross at the exact position of the original, the German replica having been sited incorrectly. The second replica also showed the cross as is originally was, without the added German inscription. The first replica had become a historical artifact in it's own right though, so it was left where it was originally erected. Consequently, there are now 2 crosses to be seen at Cape Cross, and a third in Berlin. Quite funny, really, and almost as interesting as the seals.

From Cape Cross I waved goodbye (privately) to the Atlantic Ocean as I wouldn't be seeing it, or any other ocean, until I got back to dear old Blighty. We headed inland to Otjitotongwe - not a place to ask directions to if you are drunk! Not a place to visit if you are drunk, either, as this is the home of the Cheetah Park - an area of land set aside for injured and rescued cheetahs. They are an animal that can be quite hard to spot in the wild, so it was great to get amongst them (in the truck!) as they were being fed in the evening. Most of these here are still classed as 'semi-wild' though 2 had been brought up on the farm from kittens, and it was even possible to stroke them. I was surprised to find out that they have very coarse, wiry hair - not what they look like from a distance at all.

Bird models at Etosha

The Etosha National Park came next - a real highlight for this leg of my journey. It promised, and delivered, a lot of game viewing, and was just as exciting as such parks as the Serengeti or Ngorogoro Crater. I was lucky enough to spot a pride of 17 lions. We saw plenty of other game: elephants, springbok, steenbok, impala, orxy, giraffe, zebra, wildebeest, warthogs, jackals, hyena, honey badgers, and many others.

Traditional 'Makoro' canoes in the Delta

From Etosha we covered, for me, familiar teritory as we headed along the Caprivi Strip then into Botswana and the Okavango Delta. Slightly different, though, was the entry point - this time it was via the town of Maun, giving me a chance to see a new bit of the Delta. Was it better than the Umvuvu Camp, in the north west? Well certainly we didn't have to go via the Sepupo Truck Stop, who's rip-off proprietor had charged the Dragoman group 500 US dollars for a boat ride that should have cost 90. The Delta around Maun was much drier, though. Less time in the canoes. More time on the land. Less water-covered Delta. Much more wildlife, though. Easier access - this time we drove in by 4WD truck rahter than speedboat, before picking up the Makoro canoes. They were the traditional wooden ones too, rather than the fibreglass copies I had seen before. A more 'traditional' experience, but a wetter one. You had to sit very still in the wooden Makoros, as the water would slop over the gunnel with the slightest movement. All in all, I find it hard to judge between the two, so I'm sorry if you are looking for a lead whilst making up your mind. I enjoyed them both, a lot. If you get the chance, go to both too.

A leopard in Chobe National Park - not tame this time!

Moving on north towards the top of Botswana, we stopped at Kasane, next to the Chobe River and adjacent to the Chobe National Park. This park excelled itself with the large variety of game that we saw. All the 'usual suspects' were there - elephant, buffalo, zebra, and various types of antelope. Hogwarts, too - whoops I meant 'warthogs' - bloody Harry Potter. The most exciting moment was when we saw 2 leopards; one of which climbed a tree to watch the other, and sat there for quite some time, oblivious to, or rather should I say uncaring of, its observers. With only a basic camera available, and no zoom facilities, I used the trick of photographing through the eyepiece of my binoculars again, with brilliant results. That's one of my photos, above. If you try this for yourself, I've found that its best if you extend the eyepiece-masks, to keep the camera lens slightly away from the glass of the binocular eyepiece, then let the camera work out the focussing through the pre-focussed binoculars. It takes a bit of practice, but well worth it for the memories you will take home with you. My binoculars are a cheap pair of 10x50s - that's the equivalent of a 500mm lens on a film camera!

Elephants crossing the Chobe river

From Kasane it was just a short drive back into Zimbabwe, where the trip ended at the Victoria Falls. We were all under strict instructions not to comment at all on the political troubles currently besetting that sorry country, but now I'm back in England, its safe to talk a bit about it. Wow what a mess things have got to these days! 4500% inflation. Practically nothing in the shops. No diesel. No soap. No rice, even. Prices changin by the hour. The average people of Zimbabwe are REALLY struggling. I'm amazed the country hasn't collapsed into anarchy and civil strife yet - the ex American ambassador was predicting that it really won't be long before this happens. We can only hope and pray that when it comes, it will be as quick and as painless as possible, so that the ordinary people can pick up the threads of their lives. It won't be pretty, that's for sure. All the time I was there, I was continually aware how lucky I was that I could afford food, clothing and shelter, and that with my British passport I could leave whenever I wished. Lucky also that I had American dollars - the only currency that actually bought anything. The official exchange rate was, and has been for quite some time, 250 Zimbabwe dollars to 1 American dollar. On the black market in April, people were getting 17,000 to the US dollar. When I returned in July, the rate had reached 100,000 to the dollar.

Mosi-oa-Tunya - 'The Smoke That Thunders'

I stayed at Victoria Falls for a few days before flying out, and enjoyed seeing the Victoria Falls themselves again. One day I went over to Zambia, to see them again from that point of view. There was certainly a lot less spray obscuring the falls than there had been in April, but there was still a LOT, so a visit definitely requires a full set of waterproof jacket and trousers!

By the time the day I was to leave Victoria Falls arrived, nearly everyone else from the Kumuka truck had already moved on. Martina and Sam had left to take the truck south again - it was to be Martina's last trip with Kumuka. Others had changed trucks, heading north to Kenya, or south to Mozambique. Some had flown on to their next adventure, whilst others had flown home. That last choice was mine too, with British Airways back to London via Jo'burg. The flight went well, despite my bags getting broken into by the Jo'burg baggage handlers. They didn't actually take anything, though - hey: I'm an Overlander - we don't have much to take, and what there is needed washing before anyone else would touch it!

Thanks to all for the emails and snail-mail letters of support over the last 8 months - you know who you are. Now I've a chance to draw breath, whilst helping everyone here at Pestalozzi. Watch this space - insha'Allah (if God wills it) Travelling Tim will be back on the road through Central Asia next March (2008).

Carved barrels at the Stellenbosch Vineyards

Hows the new Kumuka truck going?, you are probably all wondering... Its good. In fact, its very good. We have a really nice group of people: 17 in total. There are 2 Brits, 4 Irish, 1 American, 2 New Zealanders, and the rest are Aussies: 8 of them. The age range is from about 20 to 54, so there's a good range of personalities, and we all seem to be getting on together very well. These things are always a matter of chance, so its nice when you get a group who get on well together. There is no cook (Yippee!). The 'crew' consist of an Australian driver named Sam, and an Irish 'tour leader' named Martina, who organises everything and everyone in a very competent manner.

Group photo in front of the Kumuka truck

The truck has a number of differences between others I've been on, some good and some bad. There's no roof-seats, and the windows are poorly designed such that when they are open, they slide down over the lower section so you end up looking through double glass. We have our own day-lockers under the seats, which is good, but the catches are so small they can't be locked! There is plenty of baggage-space, and the truck has good visiblity. The passenger compartment is separated from the drivers compartment, so in the back its a lot quieter than a Dragoman truck. There is an amplifier for music, but you can't turn down any of the loud speakers.

The Fish River Canyon

The route has been well thought out, with some long driving days mixed in with plenty to see and do. I really enjoyed looking around the huge Fish River Canyon, and the BIG dunes to the south of here. We also got to spend some time in the desert with one of the local bushmen, and learned a lot about desert living and desert survival. I fed a squirrel - hey its not 'big game' but it made my day!

Climbing dune 45

After Swakopmund we will be heading along the Skeleton Coast to the Cape Cross seal colony, and then to Etosha National Park for a lot of game viewing. After that its across the border to Botswana, and another look (for me) at the Okavango Delta. This truck goes in via Maun, which Hannah the Dragoman rep maintained was too touristy, so it will be interesting to compare the two and see what the truth turns out to be.

Cape Cross fur-seal colony

After that its straight down the Caprivi Strip - that's the little thin purple bit on my Africa map, across the top of Botswana - and back into Zimbabwe, or rather back into Victoria Falls, which tries all it can to pretend it is not really part of that country! I'll be there for a few days before flying out, and hope to see the Victoria Falls themselves again, as there should be a lot less spray obscuring the falls than there was on my last visit earlier on in the year.

Oh, by the way - I did check for letters at the Swakopmund Post Office, on Garnison Street, but none were there. If YOU sent me a letter, please let me know. If it gets returned to you, don't be surprised - Namibia seems fairly organised.

As a big fan of travelling by rail whenever possible, especially long journeys in sleeper trains, my choice of route through South Africa, and how long I spent at each place was largely dictated by the frequency of trains. Unfortunately, since privatisation, the railway network - especially the number of stations and trains - have suffered substantial cutbacks. From a traveller's point of view, this means that although there are some excellent long-distance trains, they do not run very frequently: in some cases, even on very major routes they might only have one train a week! This makes it difficult to plan a circular schedule, but after a visit to the railway station for time-tables, and a lot of head-scratching, I came up with a route that, whilst not perfect, at least allowed me to see a bit more of South Africa and its countryside before I had to head back to Cape Town.

Shosholoza Meyl dining car

There are a variety of different train services in South Africa, but the ones that are safe and suitable for tourists are called Shosholoza Meyl. They offer comfortable sleeper coaches with compartments for 2 or 4 people. The sleeper coaches are very comfortable, and have all the usual modern facilities, including a hot shower! On the train there will also be a restaurant car that serves a range of food and snacks, and even a bar/lounge car, where you can drink a glass of wine or beer whilst watching the excellent South African scenery go by past the big picture-windows.

Shosholoza Meyl bar car

The route I ended up with was as follows:


Cape Town to Pietermaritzburg by train: 36 hours (2 nights) Timetable

Pietermaritzburg to Durban by coach: 1 hour

Durban to Port Elizabeth by Baz-Bus: 15 hours

Port Elizabeth to Johannesburg by train: 21 hours (1 night) Timetable

Johannesburg to Pretoria by coach: 1 hour

Pretoria to Johannesburg by coach: 1 hour

Johannesburg to Kimberley by train: 8 hours Timetable

Kimberley to Cape Town by train: 18 hours (1 night) Timetable

The above, coupled with the places in South Africa I had already seen on the Dragoman truck, and the time spent in and around Cape Town, whilst not extensive, have certainly given me an excellent introduction to South Africa.

I took a few photos of the trains, much to the amusement of the staff. You can see them on my new South Africa Rail page.

Whilst the trains are very nice, and quite safe for foreign travellers in my view, the same cannot be said for the stations. Many along the way have been abandoned,vandalised, stripped, and left to rot. Those that are in use are more often than not more like a battleground than a friendly places for passengers to come and go. If you have a ticket you can safely pass the security guards and go through the big steel gates to the relative comfort of the platform, but the station concourse itself is often quite a threatening environment, and I was always glad to leave it behind.

One exception to this, surprisingly enough, is Park Station in Johannesburg. Jo'burg these days has a terrible reputation for crime and violence, so I was rather nervous arriving by train, knowing that as the local Metro trains are definitely off-limits to foreigners, I would have to transfer to a coach for my onward journey to Pretoria. I need not have worried. Park Station concourse is clean and modern, with plenty of security guys everywhere you look. The booking offices for the coach companies, such as Greyhound, Interstate and TransLux, are right on the concourse itself, as are the coach-departure platforms, so it is not necessary to leave the station at all when transferring from train to one of the major coach companies. There are even some cafes near the coach offices - this is more than can be said for the platforms, which are clinical and bare of any amenities. The same is true for all of the other stations, and I just can't understand the reasoning behind this. Surely its better to rent out the buildings to people who want to run cafes and shops to serve the travellers, rather than trash the buildings and turn your stations into Stalingrad-lookalikes !! Its certainly a good way to put off potential travellers - I almost get the idea that Spoornet would much rather be a freight-only company!

Street art in Port Elizabeth

As there are no rail-links between Durban and Port Elizabeth, I decided to give South Africa's famous Baz Bus a try. The Baz Bus is a service especially targetted at backpackers, and is designed to get let you backpack safely around this not-always-safe country. When you book your ticket, you tell them which hostel you are staying at, and which hostel you wish to go to in your destination-city. You then wait at your hostel at the pre-arranged time, the doorbell will ring, and there will be the driver waiting to escort you to the safety of the Baz Bus, which is usually a largish minibus with trailer for the bags. You spend your journey with like minded backpackers, and then at your destination they drop you off at the required hostel. Very handy indeed. No need to get a taxi from the central bus station. No need to get dropped in the middle of nowhere. The driver will even stand next to you while you use an ATM.

My question is, why does South Africa NEED a service like this? What has happened to society here that causes so much violence, so much unease, that such a service is required by visting foreign backpackers? Answers on a postcard, please, to The President, Government Buildings, Pretoria RSA.

On to pleasanter topics. What's South Africa got for the backpacker to look at? Actually, quite a lot, no matter where your interests lie.

The only complete Dodo skeleton in the world!

For a start, they've got the world's only complete Dodo skeleton - its in Durban's Natural History Museum. They've got real-live sharks and piranhas swimming around in Pretoria Zoo's aquarium (different tanks, though. I wonder which would win in a fight?). There's lots of great architecture, in Pretoria, Durban, Cape Town, and elsewhere. They've got some great museums and galleries. Quite a bit of wildlife. Some amazing scenery, too, though if you are only travelling through the Free State on the way to Johannesburg you wouldn't think so. Rather too much scrubland that no one knows what to do with - I guess that's why the 'Blue Train' is so popular!

For backpackers, besides the hand-holding of the Baz Bus, there are a LOT of really excellent hostels. You would be well advised to book your hostels in advance, and to help with that, there's an excellent FREE guide that can be picked up at most hostels here. You can also download the latest edition from the web - just visit the Coast To Coast website.

In planning my travels, I estimated on a budget of 16 UK pounds per day. As is often the case, that turned out to be not quite enough - I seem to be averaging 280 Rand per day, which is about 20 UK pounds currently. This includes a single room, 3 meals per day, snacks, internet access, and all my travel expenses. OK, you could do it a bit cheaper than this if you tried, and I would have met my estimate if I had always stayed in shared dormitories, but I prefer a single room for privacy, security, control of the light switch, and an absence of snoring!

No, this is a Museum!

My advice to anyone thinking of backpacking around South Africa: book your accomodation and travel beforehand, stay out of the cities at night, and always ask at your hostel for advice on which areas are safe and which are not. Get a good guidebook, get a copy of 'Coast To Coast', but above all, YES, do come - you'll have a great time, see some great things, and meet a lot of great people.

Well, I've got a few more days here in Cape Town, so will use it to see a few of the places I haven't yet managed to visit. I'm staying at the Zebra Crossing hostel again - you should too - its really nice there. Here's what Footprint have to say about it:

Zebra Crossing Backpackers, 82 New Church St, Centre, T/F 021-4221265, guest phone T 021-4239841, zebracross@ intekom.co.za Started life as a relatively small place, now expanded into house next door with more spacious rooms. Several spotless dorms plus double rooms, good views of Table Mountain, internet and travel centre, café and bar serving great breakfasts, snacks and meals, helpful management, but can be a bit too quiet.

As far as I am concerned, quiet is good! No doubt there will be plenty of noise next week when I join my second Overland Trip, this time with Kumuka, a new company for me. The trip, for which you can see more details here, departs Cape Town in South Africa on the 24th of June 2007, and takes 21 days to journey via Namibia and Botswana to the Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe, where it arrives on the 14th of July. Once again, an Overland Trip is ideal for travelling through Namibia, as there are many wild and desolate areas to see that are well outside the range of public transport.

Fish River Canyon, Namibia

I'll stay at Victoria Falls for a few days, and will probably have time to add a new blog page before flying back to London on the 17th of July:

BA6282 d 1350 Tue17Jul07 Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe a 1530 Tue17Jul07 Johannesburg,South Africa
BA0056 d 2015 Tue17Jul07 Johannesburg,South Africa a 0620 Wed18Jul07 Heathrow Terminal 1

This page contains some railway-related photos that I have taken during my recent travels backpacking around South Africa. I thought that they might be of interest to other steam-railway and railroading fans. No attempt was made to provide a complete picture of current or past railway operations in South Africa.

You can click on any of the photos to get the full-sized image in a new browser-window.

If you wish to place one or two (!not all!) images on your own non-commercial site, please download and save them on your server. DO NOT hot-link to them. The condition of use is that you include a link back to this page, and that they are not used commercially. For any other use, please contact me for permission and prices.

Abandoned steam locos near De Aar

Shosholoza Meyl kitchen staff

Shosholoza Meyl dining car

Shosholoza Meyl dining car

Shosholoza Meyl 2-berth sleeper compartment

2-berth compartment showing sink under the table

Shosholoza Meyl bar and lounge car

Shosholoza Meyl bar and lounge car

Shosholoza Meyl bar and lounge car

Shosholoza Meyl bar and lounge car

On the train to Pietermaritzburg

The next group of photos were taken at the Natal Railway Museum, in the small town of Hilton, which is just a few kilometres away from Pietermaritzburg. Click here to show the location in Google Maps. The museum is based at the old railway station at Hilton, which has not been connected to the main line since 1960, when the twin-bore Cedara tunnels were completed. They are a massive 6.023 kms in length, and completely bypass the station in Hilton. The museum was founded in the same year that the tunnels were completed and is today an interesting collection of steam locomotives, running stock, and a small indoor display of memorabilia, run by the local garden-centre. There is also a fine display of model railways housed in an adjacent building. Work on the models is undertaken by a small but dedicated band of enthusiasts, who meet on Friday mornings. The outdoor exhibits are open for viewing at normal office hours - if you are in the area, please go along and give them your support. They would also welcome an influx of volunteers and funds, as there is still a lot of work to do to maintain the locos and bring them up to working condition. Unfortunately the area along the tracks is not adequately fenced, and so the locos have suffered from some vandalism, and these days need access to the footplates protected with razor-wire!!

NB: The notes below come from the society's own pamphlet.

Class 1 (No 1276)

Designed by Hendrie, these engines were the first class of tender locomotives on the NGR. They were powerful and capable of running longer distances than the tank engines being used at the time. Although not the first eight-coupled type, they were the prototype design from which later eight-coupled designs evolved, through Classes 3, 12, 14, and 15 and finally the 15F, 23 and 25 classes. This Class 1 locomotive was NGR 306 and SAR 1276. She was in service for just over 70 years. In her final years she was used for shunting at Glencoe, Vryheid and Empangeni.

Class 1 (No 1276)

4-man Bicycle Inspection Vehicle