Traveling Part II

[tomscott]

Very happy to say that after a lot of planning Traveling part II is booked!! Me and SWMBO are heading to Africa for 54 days starting in Cape Town and end in Nairobi.

Spanning eight countries through South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya. This journey is full of diverse cultures, abundant wildlife, spectacular landscapes, stunning beaches and loads of adventure. We track the Big Five across open savannah, explore the Okavango Delta in a dug-out mokoro canoe, encounter gorillas deep in the Ugandan wilderness. We Travel aboard rugged overland truck and wilderness camping will bring you closer to the region’s wildlife.

Couple of highlights...
Fish River Canyon, Sossusvlei Dunes, and Spitzkoppe, game drives in Etosha, Serengeti, and Lake Nakuru National Parks, Guided township tour (Swakopmund), Okavango Delta overnight bush camping excursion, Ngorongoro Crater visit with game drives, Guided tour of spice plantation (Zanzibar), 4-day Zanzibar excursion, Guided mountain gorilla trek, Guided chimp trek (Kalinzu Forest Reserve).

Then we are going to south east asia for 41 days starting in Bangkok finishing in Sanur traveling through Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand!

Couple of highlights...
Full-day snorkelling excursion, City tour of Medan, Visit to orangutan feeding platform, Orientation of the Cameron Highlands, Orientation walks of Bandung, Berastagi, Sipirok and Bukittinggi, Entrance to Bromo Tengger Semeru NP, Mt Bromo sunrise climb, street food crawls.

Then we are staying in Bali for a while to do our Padi and travel around a few of the other islands including Comodo Island! Cannot wait!!! We fly early Jan and come home early May! With the possibility of heading to India for a while budget depending.

The Z4M sale has been its weight in gold to do these incredible trips.

 

[DPG]

Sounds amazing Tom and I look forward to the pics.

Some stunning scenery out there.

 

[original guvnor]

Great stuff Tom. Have a fantastic time.

My biggest regret is not doing something similar when I was your age. I plan to rectify that though in the next few years!

 

[ZermattV]

Good stuff mate - look forward to the updates

 

[rhys4]

Have a wonderful time

 

[obewan]

Looking forward to the usual stunning pics

Enjoy and be safe

 

[paulgs1000]

What a trip - you're going to be well travelled after this Tom, wow.

Just wonderful - what a fabulous opportunity

 

[mr wilks]

Great stuff Tom. Have a fantastic time.

My biggest regret is not doing something similar when I was your age. I plan to rectify that though in the next few years!

Me too , i was in our first house with mrs w at 19 , first kid at 23 & the rest is history now i cba with the idea of travelling unless by car :wink: loathe airports but they are a necessary evil if you want to see the world
Sure the trip will be as memorable as last time Tom , a pal spent 3 weeks in SA in his 20s on his own first thing he bought was a gun

 

[dalecan]

That is going to be awesome Tom. Make sure you take a good first aid kit with lots of stuff for upset stomachs along the way. I haven't done a lot of traveling on the African continent, but last year we climbed Kilimanjaro and the Tanzania locals were fantastic.

Great stuff.

 

[tomscott]

Thanks for the well wishes still a little to go now! Yep trying to get as well traveled as possible as this is probably my last extended trip unfortunately.

I still haven't managed the finish the thread of the last trip yet with pictures as I just haven't had the time to sort them! But I will get round to it. This time round I'm going to aim to put one image up on all my outlets per day instead of blog as I just didn't have time! Which will hopefully give a good idea of what I'm up to.

 

[aquazi]

Wow... Enjoy...

I did a similar asian tour in 2010.... Mt bromo is some sight... But is a mission of a drive to get there... But the ash flats are something else.

 

[Darren Slone]

How wonderful Tom, your trip sounds amazing!! I'm sure you'll keep us posted, have fun and be careful, said in a proper grow up, dad stylee

 

[Taz]

awesome tom, to say i'm jealous is an under statement

have you won the lottery?

me in tanzania a few years back

 

[BMWZ4MC]

Looks fantastic Tom - I'm very envious. I'd love to see more of Africa. A good friend of mine drove a Routemaster bus from London to Cape Town a few years ago and had a life-changing experience.

On your travels through Kenya, be sure to visit Carnivore Restaurant in Nairobi http://www.lonelyplanet.com/kenya/nairobi/restaurants/steakhouse/carnivore and Ali Barbour's Cave in Diani Beach 35km south of Mombasa http://www.lonelyplanet.com/kenya/diani-beach/restaurants/seafood/ali-barbours-cave-restaurant:

I can recommend luxury camping in the Masai Mara too - monkeys will run across your tent at night whilst leopards pad passed the door.

When you're in SE Asia a trip to Kota Kinabalu in Borneo to climb Mt Kinabalu and dive the Tunku Abdul Rahman Marine Park is well worth it. I worked in KK for a while and would love to go back. This is Mt K viewed from a plane over the Marine Park (not my photograph):

You climb from humid tropical rainforest to above the tree line and on to a bare rocky summit covered in ice. You reach the summit just before before dawn on the second day to watch the sun rise over the Philippines. As the rainforest heats up with the sunrise, clouds form from the moisture in the canopy and roll along the treetops in the valley thousands of metres below you. You start to see the valley floor only through windows in the cloud as if you are floating in the sky itself. Eventually the valley disappears and you are left in crisp, clear air hundreds of metres above a sea of white cloud. It's a truly incredible experience.

The Marine Park is completely unspoilt (at least it was in 2002) and full of marine life. I saw rays and turtles on every dive and came across a 10m whale shark on one dive.

Have an awesome time and as others have said, be safe.

 

[sp3ctre]

Very jealous... love South Africa, spent a lot of time there.... also spent 2 years in Kenya and really miss the place. Can't wait to see the photos!

 

[DPG]

What doesn't say on your top Taz? "Pete" and "Beer"

 

[tomscott]

awesome tom, to say i'm jealous is an under statement

have you won the lottery?

me in tanzania a few years back

Wow looks fantastic! Really amazing stuff credit to you Taz. Hopefully we will get the opportunity to work with some locals along the way but maybe not to this extent!

No I haven't unfortunately Ive been working flat out ramped up the weddings had 3 this month which has been pretty intense and stressful. I was working in Skipton on Saturday, set off at 6am and its about a 2 hour drive and didn't get home until 1am then 2500 odd images to work through. Also got my job back at the newspaper on a 6 month contract which was really nice so I've been working full time doing sort of 9am-5pm with them and then 5-10pm working on my photography most days for the 4 months I've been home putting every penny away I physically can.

Also been quite lucky that I've been getting a few more commissions than I'm used to, working at Silverstone for publication, the editor has also been pushing me for more work so I've been out shooting local events and other specific things like the perseid meteor shower. Ive also been working with United Utilities photographing the reservoirs for them to use in publication material. So its all been keeping me busy, hard work but I really want to get away again and its been really great been able to save a lot which means I can do a bigger trip. The last of the Z4Mc money has helped too! But the only problem is its pushing me further and further away from getting back into one but its a sacrifice definitely worth it. I had my fun with it and can't have everything.

 

[tomscott]

Looks fantastic Tom - I'm very envious. I'd love to see more of Africa. A good friend of mine drove a Routemaster bus from London to Cape Town a few years ago and had a life-changing experience.

On your travels through Kenya, be sure to visit Carnivore Restaurant in Nairobi http://www.lonelyplanet.com/kenya/nairobi/restaurants/steakhouse/carnivore and Ali Barbour's Cave in Diani Beach 35km south of Mombasa http://www.lonelyplanet.com/kenya/diani-beach/restaurants/seafood/ali-barbours-cave-restaurant:

I can recommend luxury camping in the Masai Mara too - monkeys will run across your tent at night whilst leopards pad passed the door.

When you're in SE Asia a trip to Kota Kinabalu in Borneo to climb Mt Kinabalu and dive the Tunku Abdul Rahman Marine Park is well worth it. I worked in KK for a while and would love to go back. This is Mt K viewed from a plane over the Marine Park (not my photograph):

You climb from humid tropical rainforest to above the tree line and on to a bare rocky summit covered in ice. You reach the summit just before before dawn on the second day to watch the sun rise over the Philippines. As the rainforest heats up with the sunrise, clouds form from the moisture in the canopy and roll along the treetops in the valley thousands of metres below you. You start to see the valley floor only through windows in the cloud as if you are floating in the sky itself. Eventually the valley disappears and you are left in crisp, clear air hundreds of metres above a sea of white cloud. It's a truly incredible experience.

The Marine Park is completely unspoilt (at least it was in 2002) and full of marine life. I saw rays and turtles on every dive and came across a 10m whale shark on one dive.

Have an awesome time and as others have said, be safe.

Sounds absolutely amazing! Thanks so much for the recommendations I will certainly try and do a few of these along the way. The trip is a YOLO so I think a lot of the places with stay is on a glamping sort of basis which I'm actually looking forward to. The wildlife is definitely the highlight for me I can't wait to try and see the big 5.

Mt Kinabalu and the Marine park sounds right up my street too, incredible. What is amazing now is that you can just go to these places with no hassle quick google and you can be there what I love so much about traveling now a days that everything is so accessible.

 

[tomscott]

Very jealous... love South Africa, spent a lot of time there.... also spent 2 years in Kenya and really miss the place. Can't wait to see the photos!

Haha I will certainly be sending you some messages about info on these places Jim

Like I said on fb your input will be invaluable

 

[tomscott]

How wonderful Tom, your trip sounds amazing!! I'm sure you'll keep us posted, have fun and be careful, said in a proper grow up, dad stylee

Wow... Enjoy...

I did a similar asian tour in 2010.... Mt bromo is some sight... But is a mission of a drive to get there... But the ash flats are something else.

I certainly will, I'm going to give the blogging idea a miss this time as it just wasn't feasible last time. So I'm hopping to post a pic a day across my social media outlets to try and give an idea of what I've been up to

Great Aquazi if you have any info it is most certainly welcome