I shall be heading off on October 31st 2023 for the final instalment of an African odyssey that has taken over a decade to complete. This time commencing in South Africa and heading north for Cameroon. As yet, an unplanned route between the two points which generally becomes clearer in the weeks, sometimes days prior to movement. Much depends on what is unfolding at a national and local level and what curiosity is luring me a particular direction. If I reach Cameroon where the third part ended in 2020, then I will have managed to link up and connect a loop around the entire mainland of Africa. A route composed of four long parts that first started on January 6th, 2011.

ABOUT ME

Here we go!! Well, back in 1997 proper I decided from seeing my brother leave on long trips that one day I would be the one heading out there. I had enjoyed some shorter trips and working abroad but wanted to complete a much longer journey. One year at least. So, from 97 onwards I have been working one year then taking a year off to travel. Alternating between the two. However the one year soon grew to longer stretches and if my budget carries me I'll keep going. The lifelong ambition is to see a good fraction of the world albeit at a slower more covered pace. Working from East To West, each trip is an overlap to the last. The great ambition is to do it in 10 journey's.I just completed number seven which too me from Tunisia and all the way down to South Africa. From this plan, the changes have been on going. A richness of character, a better understanding, a greater outlook, a feeling of being different which is a good thing though I have my weakness's that travelling challenges me on. Patience, cultural differences that a Western mind perceives to be backwards and frustration of red tape.

PHILOSOPHY

Oh dear, deep water here so will keep it simple. Follow through with your plans and goals that you set yourself. Dreams don't portray the negatives or challenges that only reality produces. Have less regrets and less contracts with companies that keep you glued. Don't worry about your age as its just a number. Its how you add it up that counts!! Read a lot, think a lot, laugh out loud and never lose that spark of madness within you that I remember the Great Robin Williams saying and thought how apt and true. Out of all the people on the planet, only a few of us have the freedom to travel and out of those, very few people do in a way that presents this world in all it's colour, beauty, ugliness and intimate confrontations.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

While on the road I mainly surf or try and meet people for coffee to find out more about the every day movements that make a country tick. You can only see so many temples and ruins before it becomes a blur. But people are the glue, the colour, the ink and the pattern which clarifies the picture. Couchsurfing offers these unique chances to form friendships with everyday people that help bring clarity to their country and to humanity as a whole.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

Brilliant beyond words. The people who have hosted me have represented themselves, their country and couchsurfing beyond measure. Its been a great cultural insight and regardless of religion and races, creed and class, we share so many commonalities. There is no inferiority or superiority between humans unless we make it that way. How could I for see that I would be cooking for a party of Russians in Perm, playing cards with locals in Cairo or help paint an art school in Rwanda. Three experiences that came about solely from Couchsurfing hosts.

Interests

Photography, Writing, Reading, Hiking into mountainous areas or places with grand open spaces. Those that make one feel electric, alive and a little closer to this great planet. Cinema (specially foreign films) and comedies, essential as too much seriousness makes one far too dull.

• arts
• writing
• photography
• beauty
• dining
• cooking
• coffee
• walking
• partying
• movies
• reading
• traveling
• socializing
• painting
• magic
• survival
• hiking
• religion
• science

Music, Movies, and Books

Movies: City of God, The Constant Gardener, Laurence of Arabia, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Jaws, Dark City, Baraka, The Last Emperor, Fierce Creatures, Shawshank Redemption, Coco. Blue Planet I & II, Planet Earth I & II. The Human Planet, Home,
Music: Enigma, Afro Celt Sound System, Coldplay, Jon Hopkins, Keane, Global Underground, Thomas Otten, Goldfrapp, The Lightning Seeds. John Digweed, London Grammar, Grand National. Olafur Arnald, Gorillaz.
Books: Anything by Peter Hopkirk, Ben Okri, Salman Rushdie, Susan Cooper, Agatha Christie, Laurie Lee, Robert Macfarlane, William Dalrymple, Martin Meredith, and the Oxford and Cambridge University Press books.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I'll keep modesty in mind here as self bragging can lead to arrogance and loathing. Alsorts of different things though 90% is born from travelling. From snorkelling with dusty dolphins in New Zealand to a three day wedding in Pakistan. From meeting Afghan fighters in Ghazni to Walking across the Sea of Sand to Bromo in Java, Indonesia. Trekking to K2 basecamp, wandering around the ship graveyard of Moynaq in Uzbekistan, seeing the Revolution unfold in Tunisia, joining in the mass gatherings in Cairo, Egypt and Hiking in the Simiens in Ethiopia, Mount Elgon in Uganda, Mnt Kenya, the Fouta Djalon in Guinea and Mnt Loma in Sierra Leon are ones that stand out for different reasons.

Teach, Learn, Share

Always a happy man in the kitchen and find energy materialises itself rapidly when working with food. So can teach you about the science behind the behaviour, the skills behind the quality of the end result. Food isn't just survival, its art, magic, love, communication, gathering and quite tasty as well.
Can share in discussions and debates, though I only listen to subjects I know nothing about. An opinion based on the haziest of knowledge is rather a dangerous one.

What I Can Share with Hosts

A knowledge of food and the chance to cook for them. A chance to exchange observations and stories on the country we are both in and the greater world around us.

Countries I’ve Visited

Afghanistan, Armenia, Australia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Benin, Brunei Darussalam, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, China, Côte d'Ivoire, Djibouti, Egypt, Ethiopia, Finland, France, Gabon, Gambia, Georgia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, India, Indonesia, Iran, Israel, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Malawi, Malaysia, Mali, Mauritania, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nepal, New Zealand, Pakistan, Palestine, Philippines, Russian Federation, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Somalia, South Africa, South Sudan, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Swaziland, Sweden, Syrian Arab Republic, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Thailand, Togo, Tunisia, Turkey, Uganda, United States, Uzbekistan, Viet Nam, Western Sahara, Zambia, Zimbabwe

Countries I’ve Lived In

Australia, United Kingdom, United States

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