Salut Junior - just a quick update before I am jetting off to Vic Falls tomorrow. I went on several day game drives, a night game drive and a sunrise walking safari inside Kruger National Park and came face to face with some pretty awesome creatures. The place is full of giraffes, rhinos, hippos, impalas, buffalos, some leopards and lions, cheetahs, and all kinds of other normal zoo animals. Continued from Nelspruit into the Blyde River Canyon to see some spectacular scenery and ended up in Pretoria. Day tour of Johannesburg and Soweto today - what a huge place this is! Hiked around squatter camps inside Soweto and went to Orlando West, the site of the 1976 student uprisings and the only place on earth with a street called home by two Nobel prize winners. Oh, and did I mention that this country went absolutely bananas when they announced that they would become the host of the 2010 Football World Championships? I will remember where I was on that day!

Heya Junior - back in South Africa! Went on a special trip through Swaziland and Mocambique... now that seems more like the *real* Africa. Just crossing the land borders is one hell of an experience, a zoo without comparison. Spent a few days in Maputo and enjoyed bars on the beach, nightlife with African live music, and lots of run-down communist-era architecture. I even checked out the Museum of the Revolution! Crossed the bay to Catembe (with about 100 other people in a 20-foot "boat"!!!), yet another step back in time, and marveled at always-friendly and smiling people despite their below-poverty lives. One side note: My passport is beginning to run out of visa and stamp pages! The Mozis alone plastered yet another full-page visa and four stamps in it. With 8 countries still to go in Africa alone that's not good news; I will probably have to figure out how to get a new passport - while in Africa, so good luck to me. Oh yeah, before actually getting into Durban I did go diving out of Umkomaas... fantastic experience with manta rays up close, dolphins, huge turtles, and all sorts of other fun stuff.

Hello KJ... Hakuna matata and greetings from South Africa. Jetted via SYD and JNB into Cape Town - what a beautiful city! Did the whole nine yards... Robben Island and Mandela's famous prison cell number 5, sunset from the top of Table Mountain, and one heck of a spectacular Cape Point tour. Visited the fur seals in Hout Bay, drove the famous Chapman's Peak road, mountain-biked in the CP nature reserve among baboons and rock dassies, climbed to the Cape Point lighthouse and all the way down to the breathtaking views at Point Dias, and finished off with an amazing hike atop the cliffs of Dias Beach to Cape of Good Hope (with one hell of a scary picture, me standing on the last rocks of the clifftop to document it!). Continued on via Cape Agulhas (that's where Atlantic and Indian Oceans meet, the southernmost tip of Africa) to Oudtshoorn, the ostrich capital of the world. Yes, I do have a picture of me riding an ostrich!!! However, my favourite stop was at the Cango Wildlife Park and Cheetahland - I popped some extra bucks for the conservation efforts and was rewarded with a climb down into the pen alongside two rangers and was allowed to actually pat those awesome pussycats!!! Drove via the Garden Route (George, Knysna, Plett Bay) to Port Elizabeth and put in a monster day of driving to reach Lesotho, the Kingdom in the Sky. This country's lowest point is the highest of any country in the world, and the place and its friendly Basotho people are nothing short of absolutley special. I disappeared for several days at the Malealea Lodge and went pony trekking through the rugged mountains, to secluded villages, gigantic gorges, and thundering waterfalls. Exited the country via the zoo called Maseru Bridge, drove along the Maloti mountain ranges to Golden Gate Highlands NP, and spent the night at Harrismith - what a quiet and ugly place, but for the first time in days I have access to water toilets, power, telephones and even Internet. Going hiking in the northern Drakensberg ranges today and will continue on via Durban into Swaziland and Mocambique.

One last G'Day from the Top End, little K! Wasted a few days in Darwin being sick like a dog (read: I actually went to see a doc!) but it went considerably better last Tuesday so I embarked upon a four day Northern Territories Blitz to visit Kakadu NP, Katherine Gorge and Litchfield NP in airconditioned tour group comfort. Witnessed awesome display of power of crushing Saltie croc jaws, hiked all the way up to the top pools of Gunlum Falls, canoed up Katherine Gorge to take a dip in the Southern Rockhole, crossed the new Ghan several times along the way, checked out Charlie the famous water buffalo (well, the stuffed dead one) from Crocodile Dundee movie fame in Adelaide River, end finished with many more waterfalls throughout Litchfield NP. Long flight ahead this night - via Sydney and Johannesburg to Cape Town. No worries mate, as Yours Truly has the upper deck, first row window SkyBed... woohoo!!! The only way to travel...

Yo KJ - here's the current short-term update:

04/18-04/25 Darwin and NT, Australia Wrestling salties in Kakadu NP.
04/26-04/28 Cape Town, South Africa Table cloths and Robben Island.
04/29-05/17 Overland safari Southern Africa Garden Route, Lesotho, Drakensberg, Durban, Zululand, Swaziland, Maputo and Mocambique, Kruger NP, Jo'burg.
05/18-05/21 Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe Side trips to Zambia and Namibia.
05/22-05/22 via Jo'burg, South Africa to Nairobi, Kenia Bad travel planning.
05/23-05-30 Mahe and Praslin islands, Seychelles [Bugs would say:] Ain't I a stinker? Hahaha... more tropical islands for me!
05/31-06/22 Overland safari Eastern Africa Masai Mara NP, Kenya. Via Kampala, Uganda to Kigali, Rwanda and the Mountain Gorillas. Into Tanzania to Serengeti NP, past Mt. Kilimanjaro to Zanzibar and the Spice Islands, on to Dar es Salaam.
06/23-06/29 Tel Aviv, Israel. Long trip via London. Swimming in the Death Sea.
06/30-07/04 Madrid, Spain Time for nightlife al fresco!

More details later.

G'Day little Kermit... Still enjoying the last days of summer here in Perth - discovered a beauty of a beach, Swanbourne/Nedlands, right between Cottesloe and Scarborough, for some desperately needed FKK. No more tan lines, woohoo! Went to see some kick-ass ass-kicking at the Subi Oval - the Freemantle team showing off some of the impressive Aussie-Rules Football, better known around here as Dockers Footy. Indulged in yet another wildlife park, Caversham in the wine country of Swan Valley, but the skippies weren't up to much jumping around as they had been fed all day by children out of school. After a sunny day in Freemantle, a.k.a. Freo, which included a fantastic visit to the former maximum-security prison and great people-watching on the city's famed Capuccino Strip, I was not to be denied again: A day trip to beautiful Rottnest Island and a full day of biking all over the place resulted in my next boink, boink, boink moment - little quokkas! Hillarious skippies, basically miniature joeys, that are just a joy to watch and to play with in the limestone and sand dunes of the bays. More Subiaco nightlife today, another lazy beach day and maybe another stroll around Kings Park tomorrow, and then I am off to Darwin and the Northern Territories' swamps of Kakadu NP - Salties, here I come!

Salut Junior! Survived the double-whammy jet lag just fine and went on to Tasmania. Spent some time feeding my favorite little boink boink boink critters (a.k.a. kangaroos, wallabies, etc. pp.) at Bonarong Wildlife Park, cruised around the harbour and even inspected the reasonably famous Cascade Brewery - all in all, Washbear time!!! Back to Melbourne, on to Phillip Island... yes, froze the ass off at the Little Penguin Parade. Via ferry from Sorrento to the Great Ocean Road, a quick side-trip to Bells Beach in Torquay (the famous Oz surfer beach where the annual championships are held), all the way to the Twelve Apostles and back to Melbourne's sacred MCG for some kick-ass Aussie Rules Football at night. Weekend in Sydney with all the bells and whistles (those sharks almost attacked us!!!) plus an afternoon in Manly, and back to Melbourne for a few more days - most notably the Rialto Towers observation deck... woohoo, exactly my thing! I have finally made it to Perth today, all the way out west - it is super sunny and hot here, so beach time now!

Hi there KJ - It is freeeeezing everywhere in Scandinavia! Enjoyed my two days in Helsinki very much; kind of another blast from the past... things look and feel quite Baltic (duh!) and Soviet-Union-ish, so to speak. Oslo is another beauty, but far more westernized than the Finnish stuff. I'll probably not be a frequent traveller to this spot - almost as expensive as Japan, absolutely over-the-top ridiculous! Small Whopper menu is about USD 12, the tall Starbucks latte goes for about USD 8, and we won't even talk about beer and such... Arrived in Lillehammer yesterday and for all the 1994 Olympics hype it is actually a rather disappointing little town. Continued on to Hafjell and its fantastic ski areas - woohoo! I really am beginning to get the hang of it; nothing but black stuff is off limits these days. Awesome weather today; can hardly walk after snowboarding all day and hanging with the Eurovision Winter Games crowd. Well, I won't have to walk too much during the next few days, anyway - 3 hours by bus to Oslo, then about 27 hours (and two short skipped nights) via London and Singapore and Melbourne to Hobart... a measly eastbound jet lag, who cares!

Hola Señor Frog... greetings from an upbeat and recovering Madrid. It was quite emotionally draining to visit the many oceans of flowers and candles in and around Atocha station and throughout the city but it seems that the place is coping quite well. People are living their usual spring-time lives in bars, cafes and terrazas as good as they can. What a great advantage that I don't have to visit any tourist sites anymore - simply diving into the city life is an amazing medicine. Easter weekend might be best in Paris but Madrid and its parks and avenues are my hands-down favorite for spring-time feelings. I've been walking probably more than 10 miles every day; there are just so many new things to discover here, as always. I'll be back in June for another week, so leaving for Helsinki tomorrow is that much easier. Ooops, yeah, casual note on the side - yet another addition to my little relaxed itinerary here: I felt like three nights in Finnland before heading to Oslo, so here we go. It's that easy, if you haven't noticed yet.

Hola Junior... well, what can I say... I am flying to Madrid tomorrow and it will be good to see my friends after all that has happened there last week. Fortunately, all of them are doing well but some do have people they know that were injured in the attacks. I will spare you another rant of mine on this shit - I really couldn't care less if it was ETA or Al-who or whatever. All that counts is that some idiots exploit open democratic societies for their issues and that they deserve nothing but some of our own aggravated violence to death in return. No compassion with their issues, no mercy with their families and children, just nuke'em. And if I hear one more Christian asking for crosses in schools I will carry a cross myself and hit them with it. And if I hear one more Muslim asking to carry their head covers in school I will personally undress them and strangle the shit out of them with their desert scarves. Buddhists seem to be cool so far - they shut up and retreat into their Zen temples and leave me alone. And ETA? Or IRA? Or RAF? No laws, no mercy - that's how they play the game, so let's play it as well and kill them whenever we see one of them - boom, boom, game over. *** Oh well, by the way, I just spent one otherwise fantastic week of snowboarding in Italy. Austria was just no fun and not very accommodating so we ended up crossing the Alps yet again to refresh the good old memories of Livigno. Tons of awesome snow and I am actually beginning to get pretty good at this snowboarding thing!