Ruben bloggar frå turar, innland og utland

As expected the availability for internet was poor pretty much everywhere I went, but I am going to sum up my holiday here in one post (trying to be short). Pictures below. If you came to this blog to read about my volunteer work, just stop reading, but if you are interested in my travels to South Africa, Namibia, Mozambique, Mauritius and Seychelles keep going.

Cape Town (29/11-15/12)
Friday the 29^th of November I flew to Cape Town, but my flight was several hours delayed, so in Johannesburg Airport I found a wheel chair and rolled around, killing time. I got a lot of looks, but I didn’t mind. After a while, when I decided to check in I placed the wheelchair where I found it and walked past some of the people I had previously rolled by. When they saw me, I got so many looks, and it was so funny.

When I arrived Cape Town I met the Norwegian nurses that had been placed in Nambia and Lusaka for 3 months. Good fun! I also climbed Table Mountain and Lions Head, which felt so great since I really missed mountains in Zambia. After a week on holiday I went to University of Western Cape, where I met all the other volunteers. We had a week of lectures and stayed at campus and on Saturday the 14^th we had an oral group exam. My groups topic was Mega Sport Event (World Cups in South Africa/Brazil and Olympic games in development countries).

Walvis Bay/Swakupmund Namibia (15/12-21/12)
Sunday morning I took a flight to Walvis Bay where I stayed 2 days on my own before Makus and Anita came to join my Namibian adventure. We rented a car and drove to Swakupmund where we rode GoKarts (beat Markus 2 out of 2) in 60-70 km/h, sandboarded and drove quad bikes in the dessert. It was really cool and we all had a great time. I left Namibia a week before Makus and Anita and on my last day we did some kayaking with a seal colony.

Maputo/Tofo Mozambique (21/12-2/1)
I arrived late on the 21^st and slept at a hotel/guesthouse for 4-5 hours before taking the packed bus to Tofo. It took 10 hours from when I sat in the bus until we arrived Tofo. The bus was crammed with food, luggage and people. I checked in at Mozambeat hotel with a few others who took the bus. The tourist season hadn’t really started so we weren’t many at the motel. And those I met became good friends of mine, which I’m hoping to see again before I go back to Norway.
My luggage never arrived Maputo, so I bought some “cheap” clothes at the market and waited until Christmas Day for it to arrive Tofo. By then I had been diving and snorkelling. The best day was Christmas Eve when I scuba dived at 6:30 AM and saw a white tip reef shark(!) and afterwards went snorkelling and went face to face with a Whale Shark(!!). That was amazing and one of my big dreams for my holiday. The rest of the time I dived more and snorkelled once more. I found a favourite bar and met a guy who was driving his family back to Johannesburg on the 1^st of January and he asked me if I wanted a lift. So I sat in a car (front seat) with AC and lots of leg space for 6 hours instead of 10 hours in a crammed bus. I could even party hard on New Years Eve.

When I got back to Maputo I met up with a friend I met in Tofo and we walked to the market, but on the main street the police stopped me and wanted to see my passport. Since I had left it at my hotel I got in trouble. They wanted to put me in jail for the night and fine me about £80, but I said I didn’t have that much money. I bribed them with £8, no jail this time. I flew out of that horrible country 4 hours later.

Mauritius (3/1-9/1)
I flew in to Mauritius with an overnight flight and waited about an hours for my transport. I had booked a flat for a week, so I could cook my own food and be a bit more healthy.

I was expecting to lay on the sunny beaches every day for a week and do some diving and snorkelling. This didn’t happen. It started to rain the moment I got to the paradise island, and it rained every single day during my stay (with some sunshine in between the showers). But that was actually perfect, since I went hiking in the mountains instead of tanning on the beach. I grabbed a bag with some food and water, drove my rented pick-up to the Black River Gorge National Park and hiked all day. Usually 2 trips, and for about 5-6 hours, which made me feel so good again. I was active and since I was on my own I could choose my own pace.

The week in Mauritius was so great, and I am so happy I got to discover the National Park, which had lots of hiking paths.

Seychelles (9/1-21/1)
I flew a direct flight to Seychelles Friday the 9^th of January. I went straight to my hotel, at Coco d’or Hotel. When I come to a new country I always feel very excited and happy, even if I’m dead tired, so instead of getting some rest I went to a Casino before hitting a night club. A met a few good people from Germany and Seychelles. I went to bed at 5 in the morning, and I woke up the next day (just hours later) sick. So I chilled and rested the next two day. On Monday the 12^th my Godmother, Sissel, came, and I spent the rest of the week with her on the other side of the island. We rented a car and drove around. We saw tea and sugar plantations, turtles, Victoria (the capital) and the other small islands (Perlin and La Digue). The weather was decent I got to chill on the beach and go snorkelling.

Lusaka (21/1--)
I’m back in Lusaka, and it feels good to be “home” again, safe environment and familiar faces. Back to work, but they didn’t expect me until the 28^th, so not too much to do the first few days.

I tried to keep it short

Christmas Eve 15 meters below the surface

Whale Shark 24/12-13

Yeah, I spotted it

Casual photo

SMILE!

Under a wave

At a safety stop

A river in Mauritius

Full moon in Seychelles

Dark Dog existed in norway 15 years ago, and I was a big fan. This is from Seychelles in January 2014

Norwegian food!!

Decent breakfast

Smaller areoplane than at Haukåsen

Clamps from a Norwegian farm at Seychelles

A bit friendlier than the bulls I was running with in Pamplona in July

Sissel and me rented bikes

Caveman

La Digue

A shed

Sugar plants

Making friends whereever I go

Two weeks ago I arrived Cape Town, and the first thing I did was to rent a car and drive to Gansbaai where I surprised my friends I worked with in June/July earlier this year.
I only stayed there for 2 days, before returned the car and got into Cape Town, where I stayed at The Backpack, which is an awesome hostel. It was clean, nice and close to Long Street (without being kept awake during the nights). There I met the Norwegian nurses who had been working in Lusaka, there was also another 6-7 nurses who had been working in Namibia. So the first day I spend wine tasting. The word tasting might be substituted with drinking. Because after visiting 5 different vineyards we was pretty influenced.
The rest of the week I spent with some of the other sports volunteers doing different activities, like quad biking on sand dunes, hiking Table Mountain and Lions Head (sun set), kloofing (abseiling and cliff jumping) and mountain biking for 30km.
It has been a great week, but since I haven't brought my laptop I hadn't been able to upload my pictures and videos from my GoPro camera. Which means you will only see pictures other people have been taking on this post.
Last Sunday I went to University of Western Cape, where all of us sports volunteers finally met. Some work in Zimbabwe, others in Brazil and then the majority in Zambia.
Tuesday evening we had a nice dinner at Mama Africa with our lecturer Anders Hasselgaard, also known to be a former Premiership player in Norway. On Wednesday I went on another hike, this time up Table Mountain and Devils Peak. I really miss hiking in mountains so I've been hiking a lot since I got here. I haven't spent one day at the beach yet. If the weather is nice, I'm hiking the mountain!