Musicians arrive in Cape Town after epic voyage

BY KJW Exactly 100 days to the day they left London the castle cowboys arrived in Cape Town in true style - just in time for sun downers and just before their car collapsed. They have driven roughly 12 000 miles through some of the most beautiful countries on earth, meeting fellow travellers along t

he way including Nando the most well travelled chicken in Africa. Nando’s travelling says are now over and she has been granted asylum in Harare by Craig’s parents. “We decided that she had enough of travelling in the sweat box that is her bucket. I must say she has settled in very well and is enjoying the flying ants, she is getting to be a very fat chicken,” said Lyndsay, the regular correspondent of the six member crew (Craig, Lyndsay, Ricardo, Jenny, Bruce and Kevin). The last few weeks of the crew’s journey certainly seem to have gone smoothly. With game viewing, breathtaking views and plenty of good food, memories of being stuck in the mud in Cameroon and driving through bandit country in Burkina Faso seem to have faded into the rosy glow of nostalgia. Lyndsay said: “I must say that it has been a fantastic trip. We have no regrets at all, everything that we have done has been worth it and we have lots of stories and memories to share with everyone.” We last left the crew on their way to Arusha in Tanzania. “We stopped off at a small game reserve, called Mkomazi,” said Lyndsay, “It will only reach national parks status next year 16 years after opening. It is very evident that this is a new park, as there is not too much wildlife to be seen, apart from a very impressive Rhino breeding/ re-location programme.” The crew still thoroughly enjoyed themselves, at the end of their stay they met up with the manager of the park Tony Fitzroy who worked for 20 years with the “lion man of Africa” George Adamson. For Lyndsay that was the highlight of the trip “What an honour, and what a guy. He has some amazing experiences to share; we could have sat there talking to him for hours. If you watch any of George Adamson’s movies or documentaries, you will see Tony,” she said. Their game viewing was not over, after Arusha, they headed off to the Serengeti travelling through the Ngorogoro conservation area and camping out on the edge of a 2 million year old crater on their way into and out of the Serengeti. “Talk about freezing cold in Africa,” said Lyndsay. “But the view the next morning was well worth it. We woke up covered in mist and cloud, only to see the sun shining though onto the crater. Down we went, awesome to see the different wildlife in the crater, with their unique gene pool. The crater was formed over 2 million years ago, when the volcano erupted. We saw two more black rhino, there are only 17 rhino left in the wild in Tanzania, all of them in the crater,” said Lyndsay. The Serengeti itself was “beautiful, absolutely beautiful” with the crew catching sight of their first cheetah with her cubs just after entering the park. They only had a limited time to try and see as much of the 12 000 acre park as possible as it’s quite expensive to enter. They were not disappointed as they watched giraffes fighting, saw buffalo, elephants and caught part of the lion migration seeing a whole pride with their cubs snoozing in the mid day sun. After Tanzania, the crew decided to move on to Malawi and skip Kenya and Uganda as they could not guarantee seeing the silver back gorillas. After indulging in some more sea food, diving and horse riding in Malawi the crew made their way through Zimbabwe to South Africa and on to Cape Town to complete the last leg of their journey. They drove down the garden route to Cape Town. In Lyndsay’s words “WOW that is some really beautiful country.” The crew stopped off at Storms River but were unable to bungee jump as it wasn’t open. “We just admired the view, all 226meters of it,” she said. Having parted ways in South Africa, the crew have no other immediate plans “other than relaxing with family and friends, catching a tan and hitting the gym” according to Lyndsay. “It has been nothing but eating and drinking since we crossed to the East Coast – not helping our figures at all.” For Lyndsay and the rest of the crew travelling through Africa has been an emotional and life changing experience. Lyndsay’s final words testify to that. She urges: “Anyone who is thinking about doing this trip – stop thinking about it, just do it! You only live once!”

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