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Sophie Jones

Sophie Jones

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    • Sophie JonesViajanteSophie's Trip
      Dinosaur footprints!12

      Lesotho

      23 de fevereiro de 2023, Lesoto ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C

      Next I went to beautiful Lesotho, the "Kingdom in the Sky". Lesotho has the highest low point in the world, the entire country is above 1000 meters above sea level. I travelled to the capital Maseru by bus from Bloemfontein in SA, and the first thing that struck me other than the beautiful setting of the city within the mountains is how genuinely helpful the people were. People went out of their way to help me and give me information with absolutely no agenda or expectation of anything back. As the "public transport" in Lesotho consists of shared minibus taxis, this helpfulness of everyone that I encountered was very useful!
      I spent a couple of days in Maseru before heading to Morija, a town in the "lowlands" where you can hike to see dinosaur footprints. I couldn't get into the guest house I wanted to stay in because it was fully booked with a school trip from Cardiff! Anyone that asked where I was from thought I was with them, and one woman that was giving me a ride up the hill nearly took me to the school where she was heading to meet my "friends" and assumed that's where I was heading too!
      Next I went to Senmonkong, a beautiful town in the Highlands where I trekked on a horse to see the stunning Maletsunyane Falls. I decided to ride a horse there because the Lesotho people still largely travel by horse so it seemed fitting, but an hour in I was regretting it and got off to walk! The scenery was incredible though, and getting to wander through the villages and see the people riding around on their horses usually wrapped in blankets, balaclavas, and pointy hats was really interesting.
      Next was a 2 day journey to get to Sani pass on the southern border, not because it was so far but because of the taxi connections. People in Lesotho seem to consider any journey longer than 2 hours to be very long, and you have to leave at the crack of dawn! Sani pass is an old donkey trail used for transport between Lesotho and the southern Drakensbergs that winds up the mountain, it's known to be a very difficult road that can only be done by 4x4. I finally made it to the pass just as the clouds were climbing up the mountain, it ended up like being inside a rain cloud. So I did the only reasonable thing and settled in for some drinks in Africa's highest pub! The next morning the clouds had cleared and I had a perfect view of the pass and the surrounding valley. After a short hike I was ready to hop onto another minibus taxi and head down the pass and back into South Africa. Luckily the taxi drivers are very experienced at driving this road and it all went smoothly!      Leia mais

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    • Sophie JonesViajanteSophie's Trip
      1

      Luderitz

      14 de fevereiro de 2023, Namíbia ⋅ 🌬 23 °C

      We eventually made it to Luderitz after the breakdown as a kind German family gave me a lift to find a tow. The next day while Ori sorted the car I went on a boat trip to see the bay, famous for its penguins. By coincidence, the German family that gave me a lift to town were also on the boat! We also saw seals and were lucky enough to see dolphins as they followed the boat jumping in its wake.

      The next day we visited Kolmanskop, an old diamond mining town that was abandoned in the 50's and has been reclaimed by the desert. It was a very beautiful and surreal ghost town to walk around. Nowadays there is a huge area of land to the south of Luderitz to the S. Africa border that is totally off-bounds because of the diamond industry.

      Kolmanskop was our last stop in Namibia, so we hit the road and travelled the 750 km to our first stop in South Africa, before parting ways. Ori was off to Johannesburg and I was off to Lesotho!      Leia mais

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    • Sophie JonesViajanteSophie's Trip
      1

      The Great Namib Desert Roadtrip

      10 de fevereiro de 2023, Namíbia ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C

      In Swakopmund I met up with an Israeli guy called Ori that had been overlanding in Africa for 10 months and was heading in the same direction as me, so we decided to team up for a roadtrip!
      First we headed to some San rock art that dates from 2-5000 years old, before camping at some insane rock formations at Spitzkoppe. The first night I cooked while he made the fire, before we realised that we had our skill sets the wrong way around and reversed our roles for the rest of the trip!

      The next day we headed to the heart of the Namib Desert where we climbed the "Big Daddy", a 325m high sand dune, one of the highest in Namibia. What the hell I was thinking climbing that I don't know but it was worth it in the end for the stunning views of the desert. At the base of the dune is Deadvlei, an old valley that is so dry that even the trees can't decompose, making them over 900 years old. It's one of the most beautiful places I have seen, making it a perfect place for Ori to be blinded by getting sand in his eye. After about 20 minutes of waiting for it to dislodge with occasional eye flushes and no luck, a (trainee) EYE DOCTOR just happened to wander past and offered her services. After a quick eye-lid inversion, a dousing, and sticking the handle of my sunglasses in his eye later, the sand was dislodged and we were good to go, what a bit of luck!

      With quite a distance to go before our final stop of Luderitz we stopped for the night at a horse ranch where a friend of Ori's was staying. Miles away from anything the view of the stars was probably the best I'd seen yet. And of course it wouldn't be a road trip without car troubles, we had 3 flat tyres in 2 days, and broke down about 20km from Luderitz with no phone signal, so I hitchkiked into town to find a tow company. But we made it in the end, and what I loved about Namibia is that every time we were stopped, every single passing vehicle (of which there were few) stopped to check if we were ok.      Leia mais

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    • Sophie JonesViajanteSophie's Trip
      1
      22

      Zambia to Namibia

      7 de fevereiro de 2023, Namíbia ⋅ 🌧 21 °C

      After seeing Vic Falls in Zimbabwe I decided that I wanted to head straight to Namibia, which meant heading back to Zambia again as that was the best way to get there by public transport. Despite the fact that it was the best route, it still took about 7 hours to travel 200 km by bus as the road was so bad we were just creeping along, barely avoiding the craters in the road! After that arduous journey a friend and I decided to stay the night at the Namibian border town before I tackled the night bus to Windhoek. We found a cute lodge on the Zambezi with the crocs and hippos, and enjoyed the last of the fantastic thunder and lightning storms that we'd be seeing for a while as we were about to head into the desert for a couple of weeks.

      I spent a day in Windhoek before heading to Swakopmund on the coast, a quiet town with a cool vibe and interesting architecture. Travellers tend to gather in Swakop before heading off into the wilderness so it was a good chance to meet some people and have a bit of fun. I took in some of the local sights such as Sandwich harbour where the Namib desert meets the sea, and Walvis Bay bay where hundreds of lesser flamingos gather. I also did a sky dive which is unlike anything I had ever experienced before! Not quite sure what I was thinking, it goes against your every survival instinct, but now I just want to do it again asap! And the views of the dunes from up there was incredible!      Leia mais

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    • Sophie JonesViajanteSophie's Trip
      Always good to have the local beer - Mosi is a Vic Falls specific oneSome of the many currencies accepted in Zimbabwe11

      Victoria Falls

      27 de janeiro de 2023, Zimbábue

      Victoria Falls is about as awe inspiring as you'd imagine, the sound and spray that comes off it is amazing! Kind of explains why the traditional name is Mosi oa Tunya, a.k.a. "the smoke that thunders"! You could see the tower of spray for miles around, and when you're next to it it's like standing in a rain shower. Once I'd seen the falls from the Zambian side, I crossed to the Zimbabwe side to see it from there too, as that side is said to have a better view. Between border posts myself and my friend Laure decided to zip-line across the canyon that makes the border, because why not! The views were beautiful but it was over too soon!
      When on the Zimbabwe side I spent some time sight-seeing in the town with my friend Simon before he was heading off to Harare, and he managed to negotiate a bargain deal on a helicopter ride so despite my fear of helicopters I went along for the ride, and I'm really glad I did! Aside from being a stunning once in a lifetime experience, it really gives a great perspective of the falls that you don't get from the ground.
      Victoria Falls town is known to have wild animals often roaming the streets, including elephants, hyenas, and wild dogs, so they warn you about walking the streets after dark. Luckily all I encountered was some warthogs chilling on the side of the road!      Leia mais

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    • Sophie JonesViajanteSophie's Trip
      1

      Zambia

      25 de janeiro de 2023, Zâmbia ⋅ 🌧 26 °C

      After 5 weeks of Tanzania I'm finally in a new country (nevermind that I'm writing this from two countries ahead)! Zambia made an impression from the start as we had a 3 hour bus journey from the train terminus to Lusaka, the capital. Our on-board entertainment on this journey included a man selling toiletries, cosmetics, and other snake-oil type products as if it were Splott market, and a preacher that seemed possessed at times.
      Unable to face another 8-hour bus journey after being on a train for 2 & a half days, myself and 3 guys I made friends with on the train decided to hire a vehicle and go for a bit of a road trip to a camping ground on the Zambezi for a couple of nights. A bit of a navigation error meant that we ended up taking a road that we had no business taking! A perfectly good tarmac road clearly marked as a main road on google maps just suddenly descended into a road worse than any farm track that I'd been on, with huge pot holes, river crossings, fallen trees, and stretches of mud that had claimed other vehicles. With the excellent driving skills of Simon, the guiding skills of Marco & Ivan, the help of some friendly locals, and some straight rum for stress relief, we finally made what should have been a 2-3 hour journey in 7 hours (if you want to know what I did - it was mostly moral support, offering of food & snacks, and the occasional lugging of rocks and pushing the truck). We arrived at our campsite at around 11.30pm and threw a celebratory party that we made it!
      The next day after nursing our hangovers, we went for a walk into the bush to hunt for elephants, which had apparently been in our campsite 2 nights previously. All we found were footprints and dung. Then we went on a boat trip (in the pouring rain) and saw loads of hippos plus a few crocs. The next day it was back to Lusaka, making sure to get the truck cleaned to hide the evidence of our expeditions from the rental company, and then one final bus journey together from Lusaka to Livingstone, where we were off to see Victoria Falls!      Leia mais

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    • Sophie JonesViajanteSophie's Trip
      3The Zambian border crossingOur final destination at Kapiri Mposhi1

      The Tazara Railway!

      21 de janeiro de 2023, Tanzânia ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C

      So after Tanzania I headed to Zambia, and do I get there by plane like a normal person? No of course not, far better to take a 55 hour train journey 1860 km to the middle of nowhere in Zambia! I purchased a 1st class ticket for $40 which bought me a bed in a 4 person cabin, but this was far from luxury! I wouldn't have changed it for the world though, the train took us through some incredible scenery, including the largest National Park in Tanzania. There was a dining car where we could get simple meals for about £2, and a bar where the beers were around £1. The many stops and unexpected delays also gave us opportunity to buy freshly cooked food and drinks through the windows or from the platform which helped to break up the monotony of the dining car food!
      The best part of the train was the social part, it was a great way to meet both local people on the move and other travelers. I spent most of my time in the bar watching the view and chatting to people or playing cards. One day I spent ages talking to a woman who ran a scheme to educate young mothers and prevent teen pregnancies, as well as teaching young unemployed people agribusiness. I met travellers from all over including Germany, Croatia, Belgium, Holland, Korea, Japan, and Sweden, some of who I continued to travel with and hope to remain friends with long after this. As much as I could have stayed on the train for a bit longer I was very pleased for a shower and a motionless toilet by the end!      Leia mais

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    • Sophie JonesViajanteSophie's Trip

      Arusha & Moshi

      13 de janeiro de 2023, Tanzânia ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C

      While in Northern Tanzania I took the opportunity to see Arusha, walking around the town and checking out the Natural History Museum which has some amusing taxidermy. It also houses a giant tortoise that was so large that I thought it was a statue. But I think my favourite bit was the giant bats living in the trees outside of the museum!

      Then I went off to Moshi for a chance to glimpse Mount Kilimanjaro, which hides behind the clouds for most of the day but is usually visible early morning and late afternoon. You never get bored of seeing it. I took a short hike at the base of the mountain to see a waterfall and visit a coffee farm where we made coffee from the raw bean to the cup, by far the best coffee I'd had in Africa (which to be fair isn't saying much!)      Leia mais

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    • Sophie JonesViajanteSophie's Trip

      Ngorongoro Crater

      11 de janeiro de 2023, Tanzânia ⋅ ☁️ 21 °C

      The final part of my safari was to visit the Ngorongoro Crater, a 20km wide caldera formed by a collapsed volcano. Inside the crater is a sheltered habitat that appears to be a sort of garden of Eden. We saw most of the animals that we had already seen again, plus lions and lion cubs at an incredibly close range, a hyena with a kill, a cat playing with a snake, a baby wildebeest take it's 1st steps about 20 minutes after being born, and a rhino! All within the most beautiful scenery. We also visited a maasai village were we got to see and join in with some traditional dancing, see inside their huts and visit the school.Leia mais

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    • Sophie JonesViajanteSophie's Trip
      111111

      Serengeti

      10 de janeiro de 2023, Tanzânia ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C

      After Tarangire we were off to the Serengeti! Even with no animals this park is spectacularly beautiful, with the vivid greenery from it being the rainy season and the forever changing sky. After being warned that seeing certain animals in the park was far from a certainty, we had seen hyenas, lions, a leopard, and a huge herd of elephants within about an hour of arriving. We saw a massive male elephant that was in musth right on the side of the road we were on that the guide was careful to give a wide berth to and then keep in front of in case it decided to charge at us, then we saw a huge herd of elephants including a tiny 1 month old baby chilling and eating by the side of the road.
      As we arrived in the park late afternoon we soon headed to our campsite (basic campsite- no glamping for us!) That night we had our 2nd sighting of hyenas as they were circling the camp as we were preparing for bed. Ok they were only after the bins, but that didn't stop me from avoiding leaving the tent all night! We had also learnt the call they make by that point so hearing them just meters away is something you're never quite prepared for!
      The next morning we were up early to catch the sunset and then saw some giraffes enjoying their breakfast right by the road before going to a bustling hippo spot. While hippos are very cute, let me tell you that you can smell them well before you see them! That day we also saw more lions, monkeys, baboons, eagles, buffalo, another leopard (or possibly the same leopard in another tree) and herds of zebra and wildebeest as far as the eye could see.
      I don't think anything can quite beat the Serengeti!      Leia mais

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