So with a combination of people quitting and going on vacation I got lots of hours between my two jobs. The last month I was working in Sydney I was working 60+ hours a week. But I still found time to hangout with Lee who I had met at the St Lucia project. He's taking sailing courses in
Manly. We went and
saw a Rugby Union match and a AFL game. Saw the Waratahs play the Highlanders and the
Sydney Swans play the Collingwood. I
understand for the most part the Rugby union rules but I am still clue less how the AFL rules go. It was a good atmosphere and its nice to see live sporting events especially since it is such a huge part of Australian life. Lee put me in
touch with a mate at Pro Dive Nicci she is doing a course on Underwater Photography with certification. I organized my schedule with work so I could do the two day course. It was an awesome course and I learned a lot. It was nice to get out of Sydney and get in the water. Even though it was about 16 degrees Celsius. Learned how to use manual white balance, strobes, and how to take care of equipment. I want to get a housing now for my SLR. They cost between 1500-5000. Pretty costly, more than the body of the camera. I believe this doesn't include a port either. So you are still 
looking at another 400 to a thousand just for one port. My toys just keep getting more and more expensive.My time here in Sydney is coming to an end. I leave on the 8th of July to go to Hawaii for the family reunion. There are supposed to be 90 or so of us from my moms dads side. A big family with lots of cousins. Gave my notice at my work and started getting stuff ready to leave. All the food that I had in the house I slowly ate. Hung out with my co-workers the last night both from Hunky Dory and The Rose. Said bye to my room mates and left Australia.
Pictures:
Me at the Swans game.
Hunky Dory Main bar.
Diving pic
Diving pic
Cuttle fish and Nicci's hand.
Getting color using manual white balance.
another Backpackers. I found Capetown Backpackers online and checked in there. It wasn't as nice as the Ashanti Lodge but it was comfortable. So they first checked me into a dorm with 5 other people. After spending the last few months with only one other person in the room the thought of having 5 just wasn't a comforting thought. So I was grateful when the receptionist moved me into another Dorm that had no one in it. I talked with Alanna that night. She was at the airport leaving Toronto. I am meeting her at the airport. So I found out the cheapest way to go to the airport is taking the bus so the receptionist gave me directions. I met Alanna at the airport and caught a taxi back to the backpackers. I had changed rooms in the morning so we are staying in an en-suite. We made plans to hike Table Mountain in the morning. We took the Platteklip Gorge route up to the top. It was so much harder than we thought. Met a couple Americans while hiking up from Florida. To show how small the world though is on our way
down from Table mountain randomly struck up a conversation with 2 ladies coming up(Mother and Daughter). They happen to be from Toronto. The daughter actually attends the same Uni that Alanna had just been working for. Later that day when looking on Facebook Alanna found out she has mutual friends with the girl. We spent two more days in Capetown one recovering from our hike and the other organizing a car and trying to go to Robin Island. We unfortunately weren't able to get out to the island. That just leaves something to see next time. We over stayed in Capetown so we had a very busy week and a half to get to Durban. We tried going to Cape horn but I got us lost trying to use the maps from the rental agency. I don't feel comfortable driving a manual car. I have done so a few times but nothing more then a 10 minute drive. So for me to drive in a foreign country would have been very interesting. So I did the navigating and Alanna did the driving. I never realized how draining it is to be in the car all day. We were exhausted when we got to Mossel bay. We stayed at Mossel bay Backpackers. We were able to catch the sunset down at the beach and grabbed dinner down at a beach front restaurant. Time was definitely our enemy because we definitely would have liked to stay longer in Mossel bay. It's such a cute
beach side town. The next day we decided to go to Oudshoorn for the day and see the Cango wildlife Ranch and the Cango Caves. Unfortunately we only had time to go to the Wildlife park. It was awesome we got to see many of the wildcats of Africa up close. The organization is trying to protect and reintroduce cheetahs back into the wild. So one of their atractions is a cheetah encounter. It wasn't that expensive it was 160R($28). We were able to pet a couple of cheetahs. So the most quotable thing that happened was when Alanna was petting the cheetah she was a
little uneasy and said “The cheetah is making noises”. Lol. Yes hun its called purring. We spent the night at wilderness. Yes that is a name of a place. It is exactly what its name suggests. A beautiful destination where the Wilderness park is and the Tsitsikamma mountains. We went on a short hike to a waterfall but we took a detour and ended up not having enough time to get to the waterfall in daylight so we went the next morning. It was a very nice waterfall with a few levels. I went waist deep in the cold water to go take pics of the waterfall close-up. Got some good photos. We left that afternoon and we were going to spend the night in Knysna but we decided to go to Port
Elizabeth instead. This way it would shorten our drive to Coffee bay the following day. We knew time was running out. So we had to sacrifice certain things. Which meant the hiking that we were planning on doing we now couldn't. We stayed in the nicest room in the 99 mile Travel Lodge. It was the master bedroom in the house. It had a jacuzzi bath tub and a very spacious room. Amazing wish we could have stayed longer. We had no time to do anything in Port Elizabeth so thats another place I'll have to go back to. The next morning was the most eventfull driving experience(glad I wasn't driving. Haha. Sorry Alanna) Alanna had to avoid cars, people, animals, and potholes. On every stretch we had to avoid something. Alanna did a good job...
minus a minor emotional moment. All the places that we visited were recommended by someone. Out of all the places though Coffee bay was hyped up the most which made it the most disappointing. Had a nice time though hanging out with the staff. Very nice couple. One was from the US I believe the other from UK. They manage the Sugar Loaf backpackers. A very comfy place and relaxing beach front area. It's coming down to the end. We only have a few days left. So we decided that since we don't like Coffee bay we will spend an extra day up at the Sani pass. We wanted to visit Lesotho. But from the info that we could gather there aren't any pass' you could take a two wheel drive car. So we decided just to go spend some time in the Drakensburg since that is where we had our first kiss. This time though in the Southern Drakensburg. But first we went to Hogsback. This place is a jewel had an amazing time there. Sad we could only spend a night at the hostel Away with the Fairy's. We stayed in a cute Double called Bilbo. Went and saw some of the waterfalls that are around Hogsback. Only got to see three of them but it was still a good time. Next morning set out for Sani pass on the way we
stopped at Qunu the birth place of Nelson Mandela. Very small town with a cute museum celebrating Mandela. I honestly knew nothing about him except for his name when I first visited South Africa last year. Now though I have a great appreciation for the man after reading his biography and hearing about his legacy through the people I have met in Africa. Alanna also schooled me in some of the history of Africa since this is her area of expertize. We arrived at the Sani lodge backpackers in the afternoon and found that they have trips into Lesotho.
girlfriend. Can't really do the low budget traveling I had been doing before but it was good. I flew from Durban to Johannesburg. Then got my connection to Sydney. Alanna went to St Lucia to start her job with African Impact. I went back to work at Hunky Dory and The Rose Hotel.
or Barista's or mining. I would work in the mine's but most of the jobs weren't entry level. They were skilled. Like they needed geologists or skilled laborers like technicians and large vehicle operators. I don't qualify for any of that. I ended up getting a job interview set up for the day after I arrived in Sydney with a photography 
company doing school portrait photos. So that was kind of a relief. On the 9th of February I said good bye to Hawaii again and started on my next chapter of my around the world travels. I arrived in Sydney and booked a Hostel in Glebe. At 
He put me in touch with an acquintance of his in Sydney. Which led me to my first job. I got a job with 
Others were expensive. I finally found one that had 4 people in two bedrooms. It was $160 a week and it was with in walking distance of work. I told the guy I would take it.The guys name is Smile. He's Turkish as well as all the other guys are. There's a gym there. Sweet. I need to work off all the weight I have gained back. When I left home I was around 96 Kilo's(211lbs) in Peru I was down to 84 Kilo's(185lbs) now I am closer to 100 kilo's then I would like to be. I worked 3 days at Honky Dory but then was given a week off. Mars the manager was shuffling people around.
So in that time I found another job at 
to see my niece when she was born. After spending a night in Portland area Andrew and I headed up to our Grandparents house in Kennewick, Washington. Katie and Naomi were supposed to come but Grandma was sick and she didn't want to get Naomi sick. It was nice visiting with my
grandparents and talking about my travels. My grandpa passed the traveling gene's to my dad who passed them to me. While we were there my grandparents had us go through there house which they were cleaning out. Seeing if we wanted anything. We ended up taking a whole car full of stuff home. My Grandparents had/have things from all over the world but many things from the Pacific and Asia. Andrew got the blow gun and the bow and arrow that are used for capturing monkey's in Asia. Many of these things in their house is what inspired and still does inspire me to travel. Just seeing things that I don't understand and want to experience has ledme on this journey. We only spent a night with our grandparents then headed back to Portland. It was fun to play with Naomi. She's so cute. Went up into the mountains and did some skeet shooting. It's actually quite difficult. To through the skeet that is. haha. But it was a good time. I left my brother and his family on the 12th and went to Hawaii. 
the time in the evening watching the ever so boring videos. Our first dive was at the light
more the $10 since I had looked it up on the web and asked at the Hostel. After some heavy negotiation and my stuff being moved around 3 different cars I payed $15. As I sat at the
favorable so we only got a brief glimpse of one running.
On the first of November we left Ethiopia for Sudan. Sudan is supposed to be one of the friendliest countries in Africa. Well that is as long as you aren't in Southern Sudan where they are having some civil unrest. We bushed camped our first night in Sudan near a Baobab tree. These trees are very interesting looking. Took some pictures of it. We had 3 days to reach Khartoum which is the Capital of Sudan. We have to register our selves and vehicle there.It cost us an extra $50 I believe to register. Oh well. We stayed in Khartoum for a few days. We camped at the Blue Nile Sailing club.They had free WIFI so we were all able to catch up on emails and facebook. Khartoum is where the White and Blue Nile meet. At times during the year you can see the different colors of the rivers mixing. But while we were there you couldn't really tell. It just looked brown and brown mixing. The people were really kind though to us in Khartoum. Had a good conversation with some guys who are going to the University of Khartoum, at a Schwarma shop. That is something that I learned to love during my 
time in Arab influenced countries. Falafel and Schwarma's. Falfel is a fried chickpea batter and Schwarma is also known as a Gyro or a Kebab. Basically flat bread with filling of meat and veggies. Very cheap and filling. We left Khartoum and made our way to Egypt. Our ferry is leaving on the 11th so we had a few days to get there. The truck is going on a separate barge so it needs to be there 2 days earlier. So we left Khartoum and made a few interesting stops on our way up to the border. One of the stops was at the Nubian pyramids of Meroe. 
This was a total opposite of what our experience would be with the Egyptian Pyramids would be. For one we camped about 100 meters from the Pyramids. Second we were the only ones there and Third we went into the site before it was open. It was an awesome experience being able to walk around the site with no one bothering us or people getting in the way of our pictures. We even found some little critters under our tents when we were packing up. Bought my brother a knife from one of the guys there for $5. The sheath was half leather and half Crocodile skin. I'm sure my brother will like it.
Our next stop on our way north was the area called 
We had it to our selves for the most part.There was some others that climbed the "mountain" but we for the most part were the only ones. Another good time I had was in Dongola I think it was called. So as part of my traveling I have been buying stickers of the flags of the countries I have gone through and put them on my computer. So I had a fun time walking around trying to find a place that I could get these stickers.I had seen them on cars.But since we left Khartoum people who could 
speak english were hard to come by. We had 4 hours towalk around so we went and sat at the edge of the market and had some Chai tea and Turkish coffee. Talked with a few locals and had a few laughs. Took some pics of the kids that watched us. They loved seeing themselves in pictures. Thats one of the things that is amazing about Digita
l photography is the instant gratification it gives(or disappointment). After our tea and coffee we went looking for a Schwarma. We had falafel a few to many times so we felt like meat. We found a butcher at the market that knew english and he took us to a shop where we got our schwarma's. Sooooo good. After we got our fix I went to go look for my sticker. While walking through the stalls of the market several people saw my camera and wanted their picture taken. At the Schwarma shop I had taken a picture of a kid who pointed at my camera and pointed at himself. As I took a few pictures some guy came out of the crowd yelling at me in Arabic
. I had no idea what he was saying but another Sudanese man said the guy was saying that I shouldn't be taking pictures without peoples permission. So while I was walking through the market I took pictures of people who wanted me to take pictures of them. Many of them wanted a copy. But I have no way of printing them out. That is definitely something I will look into when I go back to Africa. I will look for some type of portable printer. It doesn't really matter about the quality these people really just want something of themselves. I eventually found my shop where I could buy the stickers. I got them at a Decal shop. We got to 
though it wasn't, we slept on the deck of the ferry. We payed our $12 exit fee. lol. you pay to go to the country you pay to be in the country and you pay to leave. That is just weird. We arrived in Aswan at around 9 in the morning. Mark had to deal with customs so he sent us to the hotel we would be staying at. The 
w days in Aswan. We went to the 
for the very low price of 5 US dollars. lol. Most of the passengers on the truck took a Feluca up to Luxor. We spent 3 days two nights on the feluca sleeping on the deck and lounging. It was a very relaxing time. Most of the time was spent reading, napping, taking pics, or playing scrabble. Can't remember the name of the place that we stayed at in Luxor but on our way from the Feluca we saw the 
and no where in the valley are you allowed to take pictures. They do
sunset to take pictures. The lands is so flat and there was very little light. The moon wasn't going to come up for several hours so I wasn't sure if I should just wait and hope they would look for me or if I should keep walking. Luckily though I saw lights from other vehicles that were heading to some hotel or something farther down the rode so I walked towards the lights. Maybe they could point me in the right direction. But I found my self near our camp. I was lost for maybe 2 hours but it felt like much longer.That was a fun adventure.We got to see lots of calcium deposit mounds. Which was very cool and did some night shooting with a train and the mounds. We made our way to Giza after spending 6 days out in the desert. As we were driving into Giza the streets were dirty with everything from old electronics to plastic bottles. The canal that was next to some of the streets was so full of garbage at times that it looked like it was a floor of plastic containers. There was a dead horse and donkey in the river.The donkey being right outside of where we were staying. Not a great way to arrive in a city that
lie's right next to one of the seven wonders of the world. It was amazing though seeing the Pyramids and how close they are to the city. It was a smoggy day when we got there so just the points of the Pyramids were poking through but they were awing. AK and I had cook group that night so we had to go find stuff to make for dinner. We only saw a few small stands on our way in so we would have our work cut out for us. We are given $50 in local currency to buy the food for Breakfast and dinner. We walked around for a while but found nothing with much. Asked a few taxi drivers and a security guard they said the closest market like that is 45 minutes away. AK and I didn't believe this for one second since people in a city aren't going to drive or walk that far just to get some fresh produce. So we asked around some more and eventually got a cab to the store. The problem being that the taxi cost us 15 round trip so we only had 35 to spendon food left.We ended up deciding to fry up some chicken for the"normal" people and some tempura style vegetable's for the veggies. Got some fresh milk for cereal in the morning and spent a few dollars 
out of our own pocket to cover everything. It took us close to 3 hours to do all this. By the time we got back the truck was half cleaned. We needed to do a truck cleaning since about 8 of us were getting off in a few days. I got all my stuff together and sort of packed up my stuff. I'm leaving on the 16th of December to go to Canada to visit Alanna. So I made sure I put my stuff in an easily accessible area. The food AK and I prepared was a big hit. There was nothing left. The next day we went and saw the Pyramids up close. It was very awing to stand next to them. I got kind of tricked into a camel ride. I'll 
tell you this the Egyptians are good sells people. I didn't mind it that much though. I was at the pyramids and we all were dressed up as Egyptians. Why not get a picture of me on a Camel in front of the pyramids. I don't think I'll ever come back again so its my one chance to get a photo like this. I found it disturbing how corrupt the security guards were at the monument though. A few of them asked if I'd like to climb on the Pyramid for money. Hmmmm desecrate your national heritage site for a little bit of money in your pocket. Not going to happen. So the guys who I had got me 
to do the camel thing tried to get me to pay $120 for the 2 minute ride and the 5 pictures. lol. I walked away paying $20 and still felt cheated. But I guess this is there business. I saw a couple getting harrased by a camel owner and eaves dropped 
a bit. The guy was trying to charge them $400 for there Camel ride. Ridiculous. After a while any Egyptian who would come up to me I wouldn't even listen to what they would say I would automatically say "No, I don't want ANYTHING" I feel a little bad now looking back on it. But I had had enough. Saw a dying donkey attached to a machine right next to the pyramids. Tourism has brought out the worst in Egypt. Its all about the money. Ended the month here in Giza next stop Cairo.
