Category Archives: friends

Canada, family, friends, national park, snow

The first week in a lot of snow – Canmore, Canada

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At last – after just over a week in Canada, as chance to sit down on the couch & sort many photos & to remember all that I’ve done in the last ten days. The biggest accomplishment of the early part of the trip was just making it to Heathrow on time. London had got a couple of inches of snow the day before my flight & of course it was wreaking havoc with London’s transport system. As my flight wasn’t until 1330, I gave myself four and a half hours to get across London & check-in (what should be a two hour trip). It was quite novel walking to the station pulling my case through a fair bit of snow. What wasn’t novel was there being no trains through Sidcup to London due to a shortage of drivers. So it was back walking the way I came to catch a bus to Eltham station (on a different branch). By the time I got there, the platforms were full & there were no trains for twenty minutes – when one did arrive it was packed & no one could get on; seeing my chances of getting to Heathrow disappearing with London’s ability to run public transport in a little bit of snow, it was a walk back up the hill to Eltham to see if I might get a bus towards London. I could – but it was painfully slow & it was about now I was pretty sure I would miss a plane for the first time. After a painfully slow DLR ride, I was on the much quicker Jubilee through to Central London & on the slower Picadilly line out to the airport – my chances were improving all the time. I made it with twenty minutes to spare & Air Canada check-in was a breeze (c.f. Virgin Atlantic last time in T3). As the day was quite clear, flying out over a completely snow-covered Britain was absolutely stunning. The flight passed very quickly chatting to the guy next to me, playing cards & watching District 9; Air Canada exceeded my expectations – but that was probably because they were low. Naturally, flying over Canada & Hudson Bay it was just as white as Britain & quite spectacular. Alex kindly picked me up from Calgary (returning the favour of Trish & I dropping him at Gatwick very early in the morning a few months ago). It was cool being in a place where there a few feet of snow everywhere & the roads were still working well. It was just over an hour to Canmore (home for five weeks – about twenty minutes from Banff) & I could just make out the Rockies standing in the darkness. The rest of the night was spent catching up with Megan & Alex & discussing plans for the next few weeks.

Friday, Megan & Alex were both at work so I had a nice relaxing day getting organised, braving the cold & walking in to the big smoke of Canmore – it was a wonderfully clear day & a little bit colder than I was used to London (about -5°C). It took about forty minutes to walk down the side of the Bow Valley, cross the Bow River

– I managed not to slide over or get run over by looking the wrong way when crossing the road (Canadians out here seem to be very courteous to pedestrians & will stop for you if you show the slightest signs of attempting to cross the road). Don’t think I did much except wander around getting my bearings & head back to the grocery-store & buy a few supplies; I’m getting used to London prices, but even so groceries here seemed a tad expensive. Another fair chunk of my day was spent catching up on all the recent third season episodes of The Big Bang Theory – after a couple of self-aware episodes, the hilarity was back.

Megan had Saturday off work, so we went out trying to get a few essentials for Sunday on the skifield (Sunshine). In gear shops in Canmore & Banff we caught up with Adele’s friends James & Craig and later on we met James’s wife, Becca (& I hired skis from her too). Adele had organised to stay with James & Becca when she arrived on Monday & as the furnace in Alex & Megan’s place was driving me mad by waking me up at 0330 & then keeping me awake, I didn’t need much persuasion to join her later the next week. On the way back we stopped at the first big frozen lake that I had seen – Lake Minnewanka, there were people fishing through the ice, others writing big letters by walking through the fresh(ish) snow;

Dinner with Craig & his flatmate, Kelly – enjoyed sharing USA roadtrip photos & my Kenyan ones. Sunday, we were all up early as Alex started work at 0700 (he works at Sunshine) & Megan & I were going to hit the slopes for the day. Alex had organised for me to have a lesson as I had only once previously been skiing & that was a few years ago when Adele was living in Queenstown. Coming from NZ, Sunshine was a huge skifield (www.skibanff.com) which really encompasses three mountains & has twelve lifts – & there was so much snow. As we had a bit of time before my lesson started, Megan took me up the beginner’s lift & sent my down an easy run. It turned out my balance was much better than I thought, which is just as well as my stopping was non-existent & I spent most of the time going side to side down the small valley trying to scrub speed. The lesson (turned out to be a private lesson as I was the only one on it) was great, there was a lot to take in as such sports (or any sports really) don’t come naturally – by 1400 I was knackered & struggling to keep my arms in the right place. I had a few little crashes, nothing too serious but I was surprised that when I fell on my left shoulder (supposedly the good one) it hurt quite a bit – thankfully not another dislocation. I was a lot better by the end of the day (not that that is any measure of ability), very tired, but keen to get up the mountain again.

Lazy Monday morning before James & Becca picked me up for the trip to Calgary to pick up Adele. We had most of the afternoon to spend before Adele arrived – we spent driving around in circles & at a mall. The (ice) hockey store was immense & quite overwhelming; the most amusing shop was the Western shop – I have never seen so many cowboy boots & some of them are just outrageous. Apparently, walking around Calgary can make one feel that you have fallen in to the set of a Western. After a bit of a wait for a late plane, it fantastic to see Adele again – we had a bit of extra time catching up in the car due to me instigating a rather circuitous trip around the NW corner of Calgary, we made it home eventually.

Tuesday was another easy day – a chance for Adele to hopefully get over all the flights, the eight night shifts previous & a bit of sickness. Becca had a split shift day at work, so after we finished the first half we hired skates & went down to the local ice-rink (just a small, shallow frozen pond) – James joined us in his lunch break & I tried to relearn ice-skating.

I made even slower progress than normal – I attribute that to the skates being hockey skates (blades curve up at both ends), as well as me being rather uncoordinated. By now the weather had become positively balmy – well in positives (perhaps as far as 5ºC) & a lot of the snow that I had a seen around town the first few days of my visit had melted. After a couple of hours around town when everyone else had gone back to work, Adele & I went out for a beautiful night skate.

Up at Sunshine on Wednesday, we (Becca, Adele & I, later joined by Alex) found some nice new powder – which the girls quite enjoyed; I found it a bit hard to get used to as it was different to what I had learnt on.

We had a great day on the snow & after the others took me on a few blue runs (one up from the green runs I had been doing) & I had a few inconsequential backward falls, I was more confident to hit the green runs by myself & practise my turns, balance, stopping & let the others go off & try some black runs. I had a blast that day & really enjoyed the progress – another lesson might be in order after another day or two on the slopes. Becca found her favourite patch of powder near the end of the day, so the girls hit that a few times & I eventually got around to it – bit steeper than I was used to, in the end I got halfway down turning before I just gave up & headed straight down towards the big powdery run out. Adele’s exhilaration & amazement of all the snow was very enjoyable to hear. I think we will be back up there quite a bit.

A few different plans were kicked around for Thursday – in the end the weather was sufficiently good enough for James, Becca, Adele & I to head out on a road-trip to the Columbia Icefield (this contains the glacier that James & Becca guided on last summer). We took the TransCanadian Highway past Banff & at Lake Louise (after calling in on a friend working at yet another gear shop) turned off towards the icefield & towards Jasper. We stopped at anything along the way that caught our interest. It was great to be back on snowy roads & Adele & I were amazed by the scenery of the Rockies.

The next stop was at the frozen Bow Lake – we tried to walk the few hundred metres to see the lake in our boots, but stopped half way after getting sick of wading through waist deep powder.

We will be back this way next week for a back-country skiing overnight trip to Bow Hut. Off in the distance we could see the (frozen) Bow Falls that James & Craig have recently climbed. With a few more photos stops we were in to the summer playground of Becca & James – they were intrigued to see rock faces that they climbed during the summer completely covered in ice. Unfortunately, we couldn’t see their glacier as it was covered in cloud – but the wind was fierce & the snow so dry it was drift in quite a large way. After watching a couple of climbers start off on the Weeping Wall,

we continued on to Tangle Falls & the others spent an hour or two climbing up there. I’m still a bit dubious on ice-climbing & what all that work will do to my shoulders, so I was content to take pictures & admire the scenery.

Bit of a slow drive back to Lake Louise, but we quickly had our skates on & were skating around a rather bumpy rink that is in the corner of the lake. The facade of a castle had been built out of ice on the rink, that was quite beautiful – along with all the fairy lights still on the trees in front of the hotel. Dinner with said friend & late home.

Banff called yesterday & we caught a ride in with Craig for the day. A lot of time was spent in various gear shops as Adele ended up buying a touring ski set up. It snowed pretty heavily all day & we enjoyed wandering around in that & checking out various parts of the town – it wasn’t very cold. In some souvenir shop there were some very impressive stuffed animals – bears, moose, wolves, bison & even a couple of pheasants amongst a lot of others. After Adele had successfully given her credit card a thrashing & a couple of lunches, we took Craig’s van up the hill in the snow to the hot pools. It was nice to be driving again & I was surprised at how easy it was to be back on the right hand side. It was some what surreal sitting in a 39ºC pool with big snow flakes falling & melting on one’s head.

around home, bikes, family, friends, London, MTB, national park, UK

Walks, Christmas, a ride & New Year’s

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I’m mildly disturbed that all my bags are packed for a month long trip & my bike is firmly in the garden shed. If the small amount of snow that has fallen today, & whatever falls tonight, doesn’t bring London’s public transport to a standstill before noon I’ll be back at Heathrow & then on to Calgary. It seems ages since I’ve been on a train or the tube – so it’s more than two weeks since I did my last bit of walking around London. That particular time I met up with my NZ cousin Chris & we followed the walking tour from Soho down to Trafalgar Square. Unlike in NYC, the origin of the name Soho is an old hunting cry – Soho Square was once part of a royal hunting ground.This walk wound around quite a bit & went down lots of small old alleys that we would have missed otherwise. Of relevance to NZ was a house that the botanist Joseph Banks used to live in & of most interest to me was the site of the Broad Street pump. In 1854, 37 of the 49 occupants of the street died of cholera & Dr John Snow was the one who worked out that the common factor was the water pump that they drunk from. The handle was removed & the death rate fell immediately – this work was perhaps one of the most important in the study of disease. Walking through Chinatown brought on a very interesting discussion with Chris on their family being in, & then evacuated from, Beijing in 1989 amongst the Tienanmen Square chaos. It wasn’t long before we were at NZ House, Pall Mall & then Trafalgar Square, where Chris left me & I went on up to Regent’s Park.

There was still a fair amount of snow & ice lying around on this particular Sunday, so it was a bit of a careful climb to the top of Primrose Hill. But as it was another nice crisp clear day, it was well worth it – good views of the city with London Zoo & Regent’s Park in the foreground – & some clowns playing touch in the snow. Crossing over Regent’s Canal & past the zoo I seemed to walk around most of Regent’s Park. With all the snow & frozen lakes it was quite beautiful & there were a surprisingly large number of people out & about.

I think it was the Tuesday before Christmas that I popped out to Hammersmith to take a quick look at a small photographic exhibition of Kenyan wildlife. The photos were quite good & mostly scenes at Nakuru & the Mara – so it was nice to see them. However, I wasn’t that enamoured with them to shell out nearly three hundred pounds for each small print. Up the Piccadilly line to drop off a couple of presents for Andrew & Shelley’s girls & then I was off to check out the Christmas Fair in Hyde Park. With all the German stalls, great smelling food & amusements it was a very Christmasy experience.

Thankfully it didn’t snow on Christmas Eve, so the drive down to Trish’s sister’s house just north of Dover was very easy. Jan cooked up a storm & it was a great day spent with family. As it was a gorgeous day I couldn’t help but go for an explore – so a short drive later I was at the top of the famous cliffs. It was a little strange seeing eight ferries sitting in the port doing nothing. But much more impressive was the sunset – I stuck around a good half hour to see it go all the way down. Back home very early on Boxing Day; later that day we went around to Trish’s brother’s for another great dinner.

After a couple days relaxing & getting the bike ready, I was off driving to Taunton to stay with John & Anna the night before what promised to be a very wintery ride on Exmoor on Wednesday. Since I last saw them, the Lambert family has doubled in size with the arrival of twin girls three months ago & their house has much more than doubled in size with the move from an apartment to a two-storey house. It was great to see John & Anna again & meet the girls – a little sick, but thankfully they seem to sleep well (one night is hardly a representative sample, but I was impressed). With a leisurely two breakfasts & getting organised, John & I drove an hour through very close fog to Withymoor – where we eventually met up with four others. Well wrapped up against the cold (we would have been lucky if it got to three degrees Celsius), mud & rain we set off through the village trying to follow a route that Dave had plotted on his Garmin GPS. Mr Garmin was to provide us with much amusement in the rain as he sent us all around the National Park on the most unlikely trails (or non-trails). A nice gentle & reasonable climb to start before we got off the road & on to the grass & tracks – with all the rain the day before, we were quickly soaked by all the standing water.

We had some good fun, but thankfully gentle, & slippery downhills.

In all we were out about three or so hours & I had a complete blast – it was at least six weeks since I had been on my bike & therefore six weeks since I did my shoulder, I was very pleased with how it stood up to the ride.

Unfortunately, by the time we got to the pub they had finished serving lunch. Back to John & Anna’s for a much needed bike, clothes & body clean; a quick dinner then it was driving through the night & rain to get back to Andrew & Shelley’s before they all went to bed. I’m always surprised at how well I manage to sleep on the floor of their lounge.

New Year’s Eve – spent a delightful four or five hours babysitting (two year old) Vittoria – reading books, pretend cooking, chasing her around the house & (the best game of all) pretending to be asleep. After Andrew & Shelley returned I was rather worn out – mostly from babysitting, but perhaps a little for the driving & riding the previous two days. A quick escape for another exploratory walk – this time to the rather delightful little centre of Pinner. We were joined for a quiet New Year’s Eve by a friend of the Patricks & we enjoyed a good meal, a strange game of Settlers (never seen so many long roads with four people playing), slight excitement when the new year ticked over, more excitement when Andrew touched the cork on the champagne & it went flying & champagne went all over Shelley & the Settlers set.

New Year’s Day was a gorgeous one, if very chilly – and also Andrew’s birthday. The six of us went out for a walk around a rather frozen in part lake & Vittoria amused us all by skating on the ice in her wellies whilst hanging on to the safety net of Dad’s hand. Lazy afternoon & then I babysat the girls again while Andrew & Shelley escaped for a birthday dinner. A nice cross London drive after they returned & I was back in Sidcup by eleven, ready for a sleep in my own bed & facing another drive – this time north. Trish & I spent the weekend staying with another of cousin of Mum’s – very pleasant weekend it was too. A little bike riding around the village, dropped in on my great-uncle Alan (who for almost ninety, is doing remarkably well living on his own & looking after himself). For dinner we met yet another cousin of Mum’s (three cousins, but no brothers or sisters present) & also my second cousin, Catherine & her boyfriend, Chris. Catherine & Chris have recently been to NZ & Australia, so it was great to hear their stories. That’s about it really for the last few weeks – the last few days have been spent recovering from the week before & mostly preparing for Canada.

Asia, family, friends, travel

From the archive – Thailand & Nepal – I

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[The diary that I compiled during our visit to Adele in Nepal in January & February 2008 came up in conversation the other day. As far as I know only Mum & I have ever read it – so here is part of it for posterity, the photos are complimentary – yeah, they are for free.]

24/1/8 Thursday Auckland – Bangkok

Tim took me up to Betsy’s (he is still talking to me after I almost burnt the kitchen down last night – too many pizza boxes in the warming drawer!). Managed to watch most of Bullit at McFadzeans’ – must see the last two chapters sometime.

Betsy & Paul & I picked up Mum & Dad from the Domestic Terminal, then on to International. The others went to lunch while I checked in. Who should rock up but Charlotte & Alice Dean? Charlotte is on the same flight as us to Bangkok – thankfully she didn’t have much luggage, so my overweight bike bag was ignored.

Lunch for all seven of us, Alice tried to buy some duty free Baileys even though she wasn’t travelling – this proved unsuccessful! Departed AKL 1545 & after too many movies (Devil wears Prada, 3.10 to Yuma, Simpsons); TV programs (US Office, ‘70s Show & Rebus); a great R.E.M. Live album; the usual average fare at dinner time; some inventive sleeping positions (Charlotte in footwell of economy seat); Charlotte trying to get a first class upgrade & next to no sleep for me – we arrived in Bangkok twelve hours later.

A new airport since our last visit (eleven years ago) – very impressive, even if it did mean travelators for eternity. A pity no one from the hotel came to pick us up.

We rode in a big new Hilux on very good highways into the city centre & the usual skinny side streets to get us to the hotel. Checked & then managed to sneak Charlotte into our room – she slept in the closet.

25/1/8 Bangkok

Awoke/got up 0800 (or is that 1900?) after a fitful sleep on a slab of granite – apparently the closet was much more comfortable.

Early (or not so) swim for Charlotte (not with the carp – good catching fish apparently) & a look out of the city from our room. Not nearly as many cranes on the skyline as eleven years ago – but some pretty decent towers (probably as a result of all those cranes previously seen).

Went for short stroll around hotel surrounds with Charlotte – managed to get sprayed with holy water by the travelling monk – he had set up shop, as it were, in the back of a Navara complete with a rather large statue.

Late breakfast, then walk for an hour or so past World Trade Centre (now Centre World), down Sukhumvit Rd to Dad’s tailor. Mum & Dad managed to spend an hour sorting out clothes while Charlotte & I harassed store attendants in a bookstore (with the aid of a Bangkok map); walked down to Soi 8 (where we stayed with David & Twon last time) & spied where we stayed last time (it’s now lime green); rode the glass elevator that Adele & I got stuck in last time! Finally got taxi back to hotel & saw Charlotte off in pink taxi (all her dreams come true) to Mochit bus station.

Spent the latter part of the afternoon dozing, reading & waiting for Mum to get back from her walk (all by herself).

Dinner & then another hour or so walk around a rather large block – found many more signs of construction – a new overhead expressway & multiple high rises going up. And no – I don’t want a ride in your taxi or tricked out tuk-tuk (resplendent with mags & a chrome exhaust pipe). (It is interesting to note the numerous shells of multi-storey buildings (~4-10 storeys) that are nothing more than the remaining concrete pillars & floors – some seem to be being rebuilt, most are not.)

26/1/8 Saturday Bangkok

A much better sleep, but still didn’t get to breakfast much earlier. Walked down to Jim Thompson’s house & museum – he came to Thailand in the ‘60s (from USA) & reinvigorated the silk industry in Thailand. His house, next to a canal, was a collection of traditional Thai architecture (he was a architect) – all living on second story as ground floor prone to flooding in rainy season.

Got our photo taken in a tuk-tuk by a driver who was friendly enough until we told him that we didn’t want to go & look at silk clothing at his friend’s shop.

Mum got her wish to ride in a tuk-tuk when we found a normal one to take us back to the tailors – a great ride, but I’m not sure Mum enjoyed the U-turn across five lanes of traffic, the fumes, the noise, the bone shaking or anything about it. So after the tailor Mum & Dad opted for a taxi (one of the shocking pink variety) – a much slower trip, made slower by being pulled over by a traffic cop – nothing a quick bribe didn’t fix.

Another big walk (by myself for a change) – this time in search of the big “Mountain Bike” sign I saw from a distance last night. I wasn’t seeing things – the sign was there, but no sign of any bikes, just barstools now. Carried on walking out of the main foot traffic area. Wandered down many side streets, saw a lot of sewing in the downstairs rooms, also saw a group of the aforementioned pink taxis in various stages of repair – some mechanical, paint & panel work ongoing.

Quiet night at hotel resting, packing, eating – Kathmandu tomorrow!

27/1/8 Sunday Bangkok – Kathmandu

If this is anymore illegible than normal, it is in part due to the fact that I am in my room writing by torch light. It is near the end of the second of the twice-daily three hour compulsory load shedding (reminds me of a Melter SOP). I’m not quite sure what the problem is with the national grid – but there is obviously one of some sort & magnitude. [Found out later that don’t have enough dams to hold enough water.]

An earlier start today – up at 0600, but it only took twenty minutes to drive out to BKK – there with plenty of time. The new airport has only been going for about two years & it is massive & the roads going to it are pretty big too – although there was little traffic on a Sunday morning. However, it would seem the roads aren’t big enough – a whole other Skytrain route is going in from the central city to the airport. We followed the construction most of the way – the concrete snake in sky just keeps going & going.

Arrived in Kathmandu early afternoon & not too much has changed. Spent much too long queuing for a tourist visa, no one was too interested in our customs forms (they went in the bin), every second person who went through the metal detector beeped but no one cared enough to check it out & there was the usual assault by porters & taxi drivers looking for some rupees. Thankfully we were me by a van & driver from the Tibet Guesthouse.

Managed a stroll around Thamel with Mum, the signs in ‘English’, of some description, provide much amusement as always. Managed to book a six hour mountain bike tour tomorrow around villages outside of Kathmandu – can’t wait to get on the bike & explore.

But right now I am shagged – so time to sleep.

Africa, friends, national park, travel

More safari & animals

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I’m sitting in the departure lounge waiting for VS672 back to London. That has got to be the easiest & quickest international (economy) check-in I’ve ever done – even Nairobi airport is better than Heathrow! The security in triplicate did seem to be a bit of overkill though. After the excitement & all the travel of going to Uganda last weekend, this week has been pretty lazy really – sitting around resting my shoulder (which is much better, thank-you) & slowly ploughing through “The State of Africa” by Martin Meredith. It is a pretty dry & long history book about Africa since most countries were granted independence around fifty years. The words dog and show go a long way to summing it all up – it was all pretty depressing; the detailed explanations of what happened in Rwanda and then Liberia & Sierra Leone in the nineties were particularly grueling reading. I eventually finished it – so the challenge is still there, Carmen.

Friday afternoon, Adrian knocked off early & the three of us (Kimberley included) jammed the Suzuki full of camping gear & food & headed off to Nakuru National Park for the night.

The great advantage of Nakuru is that is only a relatively easy two-hour drive from home (not that I did any driving, thanks Adrian). I was also assured that I would see plenty of rhino – the only of the Big Five that I did not see in the Mara. Lake Nakuru was disturbingly low, but it did mean we got to walk over the salt flats to try & see the flamingo – apparently, there weren’t all that many, but still more than I had ever seen at once. Shortly after, we did see my first rhino in Africa (this one had a young one with it) & then we found three more making there way across the dry part of the lake bed.

We managed to get to the campsite & pitch the tents & get the fire going before it got too dark. It was so great camping out & when the clouds cleared quickly, there was of course a great sky to look at. As we were chowing down on some quite wonderful steaks & the rest of our dinners a very large herd of buffalo made their way down the ridge next to our camp for a drink. Later on at about 10.30 well after the rest of the herd had made their way back past; alone buffalo, who was pretty damn big, wandered over a lot closer – thankfully he was just curious & not the slightest bit shirty. After a fitful sleep (for me at least) we were up before six to go on what turned out to be a fantastic game drive.

I’m not so good at describing game drives – but as always it started off slow & then we saw a whole heap more of rhino (they are frigging massive – in both senses of the word; but no great surprises there), including this rather cute pair.

Down at a water hole there were a lot more buffalo & as we were next driving aimlessly around (or so it seems when you are looking for game), Adrian was very interested in what had a herd of impala rather spooked. Eventually he & Kimberley spotted a leopard slinking through the bush – I was in the back, so couldn’t see it as much as I tried. After waiting around for quite a while wondering where it had gone, it eventually crossed the road right in front of us – what a beautiful animal. We tried to find it on the other side of the bush it was walking through, but had no luck there – we traded sightings with another van (they found our leopard & we found their group of seven lions later on). The said lions were happily resting near the road & we quite easily watched them for ten or fifteen minutes.

By this time it was going on for four hours of driving & no breakfast, so we started heading back to cook brunch & decamp. On the way back it was quite neat to see a small group of giraffes near the road & then cross right in front of us.

Upon our return, we discovered that the pesky baboons had gone through our fire lighting material & decided a bottle of kerosene was the only thing worth taking. Needless to say, that made lighting the charcoal a bit harder; but with a lot of fanning of flames, bacon & scrambled eggs & toast was finally cooked & devoured before we decamped & hit the gravel roads for another few hours. Exploring some different areas of the park, we didn’t see a whole heap (except some more magnificent giraffes) before we headed up to Baboon Cliff for a great panorama of the lake. The resident baboon up there must have been fed previously as he was mighty bold, jumping on the car as soon as we stopped & tried to get in the window. A swift punch in the face & much throwing of rocks from Adrian saw him off; that was until he came back to jump on top of the next van that came up & try & get in the open top – completely freaking out the child inside.

On the way out of the park, it was back to the group of lions we had seen earlier – they had moved a whole five metres to the shade of a different tree, so we quite happily watched them while we had lunch. Just before we left the park, we stopped & watched a wonderful black-maned lion & lioness lazing around between attempts at expanding the Nakuru lion population; pleasantly, it started to hose down while we were there – the park definitely needs a lot more rain.

So it was back home to pack (for me), eat & sleep. So that is the end of my Kenyan adventure for this time – I sure am looking forward to getting back to London & having a decent sleep without being woken up at all hours by crazy dogs. I’m not looking forward to the winter however – the Kenyan weather has been fantastic. In the air now & just crossed the equator for the fourth time in three weeks – plane is a lot better & less cockroach infested than the Akamba bus. Less than six weeks to Canmore, Alberta! Hope my shoulder is up for skiing.