It's been a mad few days. We've driven all the way from Cape Town to the Fish River Canyon making 3 stops and a border crossing in 4 days. First stop was the cederberg, a place I adore it's mind blowingly beautiful, the climbing and hiking is just brilliant, and add that to the fact that it feels so remote yet only a couple hours drive from Cape Town and that makes it one of my favorite places. 

The three of us had an absolutely rocking time, we left Cape Town quite late and hit the dirt road turning into the cederberg at about midnight, from there we drove for about an hour until we had all had enough and pulled up for the night. It seems to be a bit of a theme so far on the trip that we've had spectacular campsites. That first one really set the standard. It was underneath the tafleberg mountain and just perfect, plenty of soft sand to make sleeping comfortable and two massive boulders at one end with a tree between them. It was so good we used it for the first and second night. 

We got up at about 7.30 on day two packed up and heading up the wolf berg cracks up to the Arch. If your into climbing this route is about as good as it gets. The rock faces are huge and dramatic and the climbing difficulty varies a massive amount. There's also caves with Khoi San rock art that's thousands of years old, plenty of buck and other wildlife and spectacular views. That day was a bit of a hard shunt, about 6 hours of hiking, 3 hours of climbing including some really scary free solos. We also put in a abseil off the top of the arch and then turned it into a massive rope swing. That rope swing was epic, equal parts exhiliration and pure craziness, it was terrifying. The walk down was hard work, we came down partly in the dark and were all totally exhausted by the time we made it back to camp. 

The next morning I woke up with an intense craving for a cup of tea, this is an englishmans affliction. Nothing will stop us, not even a half an hour walk througha bog in the freezing cols predawn. This walk had to be undertaken in order to get fresh water from the river. After a quick breakfast 3 unwashed smelly and dirty boys hot the road for the .ong drive to the Namibian border. Driving the length of SA N7 highway is a real treat its pretty much mountainous desert the entire way, beautiful. 
We hit the border at about 8pm and as an international crossing its an absolutet joke and one we had a few laughs at. The SA side was pretty good, very formal and as you'd expect but the Namibian side was where the fun began. The border post is actually a construction site and its chaotic, you've got no real idea where to go and no signs telling you, we almost drove right around customs and through the post altogether, we actually stopped and turned around and drove back to customs after we'd realized we'd totally bypassed it and were through. I love border posts there always a little tense and exciting at the same time. I always put on my best smile and try to be as charming as I can, because who needs hassle. The Namibians were nice enough but a little ridiculous, most of our paperwork wasn't checked, all they seemed to be interested in was where Matt was from, how my camera could be so small and what I did for a living. As we were finishing up a customs official appeared and asked us "so where's the bottle of wine" implying that he was going to make it difficult for us if we didn't anti up. Unfortunately for our fat official friend we didn't have any wine so he had to settle for a couple bottles of beer. Yes I'm serious that really happened. 
Anyway once all that was over with we headed up to the fish river and the Ai Ais national park. The next 24 hours were some of the most brilliant I've ever had. We didnt know exactly where we were going so just kind of headed up the highway, out of nowhere the tar road ended and we crashed off it onto a crappy dirt road. In a bid to find get directions we pulled into a little shanty town and while no one could really help us out with directions we did find a little shabeen and had a quick beer! 
A sign that read 'Road Closed' seemed like perfectly good reason to us to drive down that road and what a brilliant move that was. It took us right along the side of the fish river in the lower stretches of the canyon. We pulled off the road at about 1am and made camp. When we woke up in the morning we found ourselves in a location beyond description. I'll let the photos tell that story. By this time it had been a few days since we'd all had a shower so we made good use of the river, I await the broke back mountain jokes. 

Every now and then you get the opportunity to do something that literally makes you jump for joy.
In exactly 1 week time I'm going to have that opportunity when myself' and 2 buddies set off on an epic road trip.

We’ll be covering nearly 6000 kilometres across 5 Countries in Southern Africa. Everything about this trip gets me excited, firstly there’s where we are going. If someone asked me to write a list of my top 10 favourite places in the world 3 of them would be along this route. Starting off from Cape Town we’ll head to the Cederberg in SA, Then the Fishriver canyon in Namibia onto a stop over at the Cardboard box in Windhoek, Ghanzi in Botswana, the Okavango Delta, Makgadikgadi and Victoria Falls on the Zimbabwe Zambia border. From there we’ll head back to Cape Town via Joburg and Bloem. It’s the perfect route!!!

Secondly there are the people I’m going with, Matt Guerrieri and Ezan Vercueil.

Matt is a recent university graduate from North Western in Chicago. He’s the youngest of the group and has an attitude that I love. He’s also a very switched on dude with a wicked sense of humour. Matt and I have been climbing together a few times, he has a fierce determination and just does not quit. A few weeks ago he took the worst fall I have ever seen. Matt got pretty bashed up and the shock alone would have dropped most people but Matt toughed it out.
We were in a really awkward spot and had to walk another 45 minuets out through dense bush. He must have been in incredible pain but not once did he moan or complain. He just got on with it and I was blown away by how gutsy this dude is.
 
Ezan is a very different character, He’s tall long haired, very athletic and can climb better than anyone I know. He’s just as tough as Matt but a little more on the eccentric side. He’s the oldest of us and has done allot of travelling around the world. He’s the most laid back guy I know and reminds me of the Character ’Odd Ball’ in the Movie Kelly’s Hero’s. 
Ezy is literally the stereotype of the old Hippy. He’s supremely creative, a great photographer and has an incredible sense of fun, the two of us are cut from the same cloth, he just seems to be able to do everything better than me!!

Thirdly there is the Van, pictured above. It’s the perfect road trip vehicle! A 1972 VW Kombi, modified, battered and graffiti up! She’s the original hippy mobile and all of us have fallen in love with her. 
 
 This road trip is going to be a once in a lifetime adventure. It’s the kind of trip that everyone dreams of; it’s like something out of a movie. 

3 dudes in a 40 year old VW Kombi across some of the worlds most beautiful landscapes. Each of us feels so privileged to be apart of this trip and we’re so excited by it that we’ve decided to try and do something positive with it. Ezan came up with the idea to name the trip ‘The Random Acts of Kindness Tour. The Idea being that for everyday we’re on tour we will complete a random act of kindness. This could be anything from giving a hitchhiker a ride to picking up litter to spending some time on a volunteer project. The only requirement is that it has to be for the benefit of the local community. If anyone out there has any suggestions on how we can fulfil this obligation please get in touch, we’d love to hear your thoughts. 

That’s an outline of the tour, ill be posting more in the coming days! 

Cheers
Terry 
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