Farewell London!

After months of saving and planning we're finally off to travel the world - first stop Zimbabwe! (Obviously the first step being to survive Zimbabwe, just kidding...) We're spending six weeks volunteering at a lion breeding and rehabilitation project at a game reserve in Gweru, which is a three-stage project that aims to combat the population decline (90% in the last 30 years), and has the eventual aim of releasing the lions into the wild. It's a far cry from office work, with our day-to-day tasks involving bottle-feeding lion cubs, snare sweeps, walking with the lions, building enclosures, elephant and horse-riding, and night encounters to monitor the lions' behaviour as they hunt! Click Here

Next stop: Victoria Falls. Aims: relaxing followed by adrenalin rushes! Bungee jumps, gorge swings and canoe safaris against the backdrop of the largest sheet of falling water in the world, which the Africans call 'Mosi-oa-Tunya' - the smoke that thunders. From there we fly to Johannesburg and catch the overnight train down to Cape Town, spending time exploring the city and Table Mountain, doing a sky dive, and traveling along the garden route.

We then have the longest flight of our trip, from Cape Town to Auckland, where we'll embark upon a whistle-stop journey down to Christchurch via glaciers, mountains, hot pools, dolphins and glow-worm caves in our home for the month: a Wicked campervan!

From Christchurch it's straight to Melbourne, where we'll have a rest before picking up another van and driving along the Great Ocean Road, then to the Blue Mountains and up to Sydney for a few days. We fly to Ayers Rock and back, and then drive all the way to Cairns in another little van, taking in the sea and sand at the likes of Fraser Island, camping 'Robinson Crusoe' style and snorkelling at the Whitsundays, meeting koalas (and probably snakes), exploring the rainforests, and sampling the infamous goon!

Christmas and New Year will have been and gone by the time we work our way around North Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia and South Thailand. Possibly the most unpredictable part of our trip, we'll be trekking, taking days-long boat trips, visiting floating markets and seeing the sun rise at sacred temples, but not befriending lady-boys, nor attending Ping Pong shows... And as we purposefully made South-East Asia the final leg of our trip with it being the cheapest - hopefully we won't see you all too soon :)

Keep in touch and we'll miss you!

Lots of love,

Siobhan and Tom xxx