Africa and India-Me & the Kids

By Shaun Donovan

Having completed their overland journey of twenty thousand kilometers (twelve thousand miles) from Cardiff to Singapore, Shaun and his daughter, Hayley, have now flown over to India, to meet up with her two brothers, and also Hayleys boyfriend, for a ten-day exploratory tour of Goas finest beaches. During this time, our infamous five also pay a visit to an amazing spice plantation, go on an unforgettable crocodile safari, have a stupendous swim under a spectacular waterfall, and ride a gigantic elephant, before the lads finally returned home to the United Kingdom, while Shaun and Hayley continued on with their overland journey.
Mumbai was their next port-of-call, where they visited Elephanta Islandthe home of the third largest caves in the world, before moving on to Aurangabad, to pay homage to the incredible Ellora and Ajanta Cavesthe two largest caves on the planet. Delhi was next in line, including a visit to the breathtakingly beautiful Taj Mahal in Agra, before flying over to Abu Dhabi for a short visitand then on to South Africa. After taking a cable car to the top of Table Mountain and enjoying panoramic views over Cape Town, our intrepid explorers indulged themselves in a fabulous bus tour around this bustling city, before going scuba divingwith a handful of sharks!
Next in line was a thousand-mile bus ride across the plains of South Africa, before crossing borders into Zimbabwe and standing on top of the world in the Matobo Safari Park, before being mesmerized by the magnificence of Victoria Falls. To keep the adrenaline flowing, our two adventurers then embarked on a zip-slide across the incredible gorge, which separates Zimbabwe from Zambia, before finishing off their visit with a death-defying, white-water rafting trip over the rapids of the Mighty Zambezi River.
Apart from paying their respects at the David Livingstone Museumand Shaun having his toenail ripped off in Kapiri Mposhiour weary travelers then traversed another thouand miles of African soil, which included two of the hardest journeys of their lives, until they finally reached the city of Arusha in Northern Tanzania. At this point, our perilous pair took off on an unbelievable three-day safari to Tarangire National Park, Lake Manyara, and the Ngorongoro Crater, where they came face-to-face with the infamous Maasai Warriors, before rounding off their incredible journey with a day-trip to the mystical island of Zanzibar.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse UK
• Release date: May 18, 2015
• ISBN: 9781496991874

Shaun Donovan

Shaun Donovan was born in Cardiff, South Wales, on 9th August 1959. The son of a carpenter, he joined his father in the building trade after leaving school at the tender age of fifteen, but Shaun was soon disillusioned with the industry, and so he changed careers, working first as an office clerk, before moving into the lucrative world of sales and marketing. Being a keen motor-cyclist and also an avid travel enthusiast, Shaun spent numerous holidays riding his bike around Europe and North Africa, spanning a distance of 10,000 miles, and visiting 13 countries, along with several islands between 1981 and 1983. In 1984, Shaun married Caryl, and a few years later they became the parents of three children, Liam, Carl and Hayley. However, after being made redundant in 1991 due to the recession, and with little hope of re-employment in the near future, their marriage collapsed the following year. In 1998 Shaun moved to the Canary Islands to live and work, and two years later he took his three children around the whole of America, and across into Canada, utilising the Greyhound Bus system to cover a total of 12,000 miles. Apart from giving them the holiday of a lifetime, Shaun also kept the promise he had made to them two years earlier, by treating them to a wonderful week in Disneyworld. In 2001 Shaun met Sally on the island of Tenerife, and in 2007 they took off on another great Greyhound Bus ride, only this time around the whole of Australia. Three years later Shaun returned home to Wales, and the following year him and his daughter, Hayley, set-off on a 60,000km (40,000 miles) jaunt around Asia, Africa and India. Shaun is currently working on his next travel extravaganza, which includes visiting a dozen countries in South America, before traversing the length of Central America -and then ending-up somewhere in Mexico?

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© 2015 Shaun Donovan. All rights reserved.

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Published by AuthorHouse 05/13/2015

ISBN: 978-1-4969-9185-0 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4969-9187-4 (e)

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Contents

About The Author

Other Titles In This Series

Battle Of The Greyhounds Part I - America

Battle Of The Greyhounds Part II - Australia

Timeshare – A Journey Into The Unknown

Chronicles Of A Biker

Asia –Me & My Girl

Acknowledgements

The Mighty Zambezi

Preface

Introduction

Asia - Me & My Girl

1. Goa

2. Dudhsagar Waterfall

3. The Good, The Bad –And The Downright Ugly

4. St. Francis Xavier

5. Diwali

6. Mumbai

7. Elephanta Island

8. The Ellora Caves

9. The Ajanta Caves

10. Delhi

11. Agra

12. Qutb Minar

13. Abu Dhabi

14. Table Mountain

15. Two Oceans Aquarium

16. Swimming With Sharks

17. Go Greyhound –In Africa

18. Bulawayo - Zimbabwe

19. Matobo Hills National Park

20. Victoria Falls

21. Judgement Day

22. Zambia

23. Kapiri Mposhi

24. Mbeya, Tanzania

25. Lake Manyara

26. Maasai Warriors

27. Tarangire National Park

28. Dar Es Salaam

29. Zanzibar

30. The Journey Home

Epilogue

Index To Areas Visited And Places Of Interest

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Shaun Donovan was born in Cardiff, South Wales, on 9th August 1959. The son of a carpenter, he joined his father in the building trade after leaving school at the age of 15, but was soon disillusioned and so he changed careers, working first as an office clerk, before moving into the lucrative world of sales and marketing. Being a keen motor-cyclist and also a travel enthusiast, Shaun spent numerous holidays riding his bike around Europe and North Africa, spanning a distance of 10,000 miles, and visiting 13 countries and several islands between 1981 and 1983. In 1984, he married and over the next seven years he became the proud father of three wonderful children, but after being made redundant in 1991 due to the recession, and with little hope of re-employment in the near future his marriage collapsed the following year.

Whilst on the dole, Shaun read the best-selling paperback ‘Jupiter’s Travels’ by Ted Simon, and decided to transpose the book into a movie called ‘Freedom Run’. He spent a week with Ted at his various homes in California, where after lengthy discussions, they decided on promoting the idea to film and television companies on both sides of the Atlantic. Because of the cost involved the BBC suggested a six-part documentary series for television instead, entitled Steps of Jupiter – 20 years on in which Shaun would re-create Ted’s 4-year journey around the world on a motor-cycle himself -and Ted would meet him at strategic points along the way, but unfortunately sponsorship was not forthcoming and so inevitably the project had to be shelved.

In 1998 Shaun moved to Tenerife, and in 2000 he took his three children, Liam, Carl, and Hayley, around the whole of America, and across into Canada on a Greyhound Bus. Apart from giving them the holiday of a lifetime, he also kept the promise he had made to them two years earlier. In 2001 Shaun met Sally on the island and in 2007 they took off on another great Greyhound Bus ride – only this time around Australia. Three years later Shaun returned home to Wales and the following year him and his daughter, Hayley, set-off on a 60,000km jaunt around Asia and Africa. Shaun is currently working on his next travel extravaganza, which includes visiting a dozen countries in South America, before traversing the length of Central America -and then ending-up somewhere in Mexico! (He is also writing his latest book, which is currently entitled ‘Bat-out-of-Hell –The Movie’ –but that is another story!)

OTHER TITLES IN THIS SERIES

BATTLE OF THE GREYHOUNDS

PART I - AMERICA

From scorching deserts to snow-capped mountains, through forest fires and gangland war-zones, Shaun Donovan rides the Greyhound Bus to the four corners of America…. and beyond.

Having survived an unbelievable white water rafting trip in Colorado, a death-defying sky-dive in Las Vegas and an unforgettable swim with sharks in Florida, Shaun journeys on, scuba-diving for shipwrecks and coral reefs in the Florida Keys, before riding several roller-coasters for pleasure as he travels the continent.

Lucky escapes, a pilgrimage and a dream fulfilled as his 20,000km (12,000 miles) trek through forty-eight states, Canada and the Bahamas are completed and a promise to his children is finally kept.

An epic voyage of discovery, combining thrills and excitement, disappointment and despair, as each normal days ride is turned into the adventure of a lifetime.

To see the American journey in full colour pictures, just go to Shaun’s web-site:

www.taffys-travels.com

On the web-site there are also links to all of Shaun’s other books –which include lots more amazing and exciting journeys around the world.

BATTLE OF THE GREYHOUNDS

PART II - AUSTRALIA

After successfully completing his 12,000 mile bus ride around America, Shaun Donovan now embarks on his latest and greatest challenge - to circumnavigate the coastline of Australia. Apart from using the Australian Greyhound Bus Company to traverse the majority of the continent, Shaun and his fiancée, Sally, also ride the famous ‘Indian Pacific’ and ‘Ghan’ trains from west to east and south to north of this vast continent -a 20,000km (12,000 miles) journey which must be completed in less than 50 days.

In a compelling story of determination, desperation -and in some cases deprivation, read how Shaun and Sally are roasted alive in sizzling heat and stifling humidity, get drowned-out in tropical storms and flash-flooding -and survive an onslaught of electrifying lightning bolts, devastating cyclones and bone-shaking earthquakes before their journey is finally at an end.

Add to this a lethal concoction of shark, stingray, and snake attacks they stumble upon during their trip -and mix it up with crocodile, box jelly-fish, blue-ringed octopus and deadly stone-fish encounters, and you’ve got yourself one hell of a story-line to tell.

Like his American voyage of discovery, many things were learned and achieved, but there was also despair as his dreams of scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef and visiting Ayres Rock were shattered due to weather conditions and personal circumstances, both of which he swears will be done on his return to one of the most diverse and exciting continents on the planet.

To see Shaun and Sally’s circumnavigation of Australia in full colour pictures, just go to Shaun’s web-site: www.taffys-travels.com

On the web-site there are also links to all of Shaun’s other books –which include lots more amazing and exciting journeys around the world.

TIMESHARE – A JOURNEY INTO THE UNKNOWN

Timeshare – a journey into the unknown is a very frank account of the ten years Shaun Donovan spent working as a sales representative and a manager in the industry, both in the Canary Islands and on the island of Cyprus. During that time he closed over three million pounds worth of personal sales, along with training hundreds of new recruits to become ‘timeshare professionals’.

With over 3,000 tours to his name and around 700 sales under his belt, Shaun has made many friendships in the business, not only with his fellow colleagues, but also with many of his clients, who kept coming back year after year to see him, (often to spend more money), after he had introduced them to the wonderful world of luxurious holidays.

Inside the book he also describes in detail how he broke all the ethics of his profession, by mixing business with pleasure, and running off with his client! Read how their Shirley Valentine romance eventually turns into a living nightmare, as everything goes tragically wrong for them and their world of dreams is systematically torn apart.

Apart from all the heartache and despair, there are also some wonderful holidays, which Shaun and his family enjoyed together, along with loads of great travel stories, which include two unbelievable bus journeys across America and Australia, a ferry-hop around all seven Canary Islands – and two unforgettable cruises to the Greek Islands and Egypt.

Shaun’s manuscript is a compelling catalogue of anecdotes, which has all the ingredients of love, hate and compassion, violence, drugs and embezzlement - along with one of the best insights into the world of timeshare ever produced.

Combine all this with the unparalleled passion of one man, who truly believes that his product is the best thing since sliced bread – and you’ve got yourself a book which may possibly change the way you think about one of the most lucrative and volatile industries in the world today.

To see Shaun’s timeshare story, along with his worldwide travels, in full colour pictures, just go to Shaun’s web-site: www.taffys-travels.com

On the web-site there are also links to all of Shaun’s other books –which include lots more amazing and exciting journeys around the world.

CHRONICLES OF A BIKER

‘Chronicles of a Biker’ is a compilation of anecdotes which Shaun Donovan wrote during his 12 years of riding (and racing) motor-cycles between 1975 and 1987. Now, in 2012, some 36 years after writing his first memoirs of a misspent youth, Shaun has encapsulated dozens of these truly memorable and remarkable (and in some cases unbelievable) stories into one book.

In the first few chapters, read how Shaun survives an onslaught of terrifying crashes, each one leaving him with several broken bones -or huge chunks of flesh hanging from his battered body, as he lives-on to fight another day. Also included are the tales of his unlawful misdemeanours, as he is continually chased –and caught by the police, culminating in several endorsements, along with the loss of his driving licence on no fewer than two occasions!

The second-half of the book is dedicated to three amazing journeys which he undertook between July 1981 and August 1983. Spanning a distance of nearly 15,000km on the road (and a further 2,000 nautical miles on ferries), Shaun traverses 13 countries, 1 principality and several islands in Western Europe, before crossing continents into North Africa, to say his first ‘Hello’ to the countries of Morocco and Tunisia.

Apart from crashing in Spain, dodging psychopathic drivers in Italy and having to put-up with various punctures and breakdowns along the way, Shaun has a whale of a time with various friends and partners, as he crosses the Pyrenees Mountains, glides over the Austrian Alps, and blasts his way up and down the motorways of Western Europe, discovering a handful of paradise beaches, dozens of quaint little villages -and several wonders of the world before his triple-adventure is finally at an end.

Just like Shaun’s first two books, ‘Battle of the Greyhounds, Part I - America, and ‘Battle of the Greyhounds, Part II – Australia’, which tell the stories of his epic journeys as he circumnavigates these vast continents by Greyhound Bus, Shaun writes every biking tale with such conviction and an unprecedented passion, that one could truly believe they were riding pillion-passenger with him from start to finish.

To see an outline of Shaun’s epic journeys around Europe and North Africa in full colour pictures, just go to Shaun’s web-site: www.taffys-travels.com

On the web-site there are also links to all of Shaun’s other books –which include lots more amazing and exciting journeys around the world.

ASIA –ME & MY GIRL

After living apart for over 18 years, Shaun Donovan and his teenage daughter, Hayley, decide to make-up for lost time, by embarking on a 60,000km voyage of discovery: a journey that would inevitably take them half-way around the world. ‘Asia –Me & My Girl tells the amazing true story of the first half of their incredible adventure, as they travel 20,000km (12,000 miles) overland from their hometown of Cardiff, in South Wales, to the Far Eastern shores of Singapore.

Read all about their unforgettable six-day crossing of Siberia, before traversing the infamous Gobi Desert in Mongolia –and how they are kidnapped and virtually held to ransom by a bogus taxi-driver and his compatriots in Beijing, China. Shaun also tells the unbelievable stories of how he and his daughter had a magnificent day in Xi’an, visiting the Terracotta Warriors -before meeting the farmer who had actually discovered them –and how the pair of them had their photo taken with the one and only living survivor of the notorious ‘S21’ Prison Camp from the ‘Killing Fields’ of Cambodia.

In Thailand all hell breaks loose as our intrepid explorers spend their days bottle-feeding leopard cubs, walking with tigers –and swimming with elephants, before climbing the 7-tiers of the Erawan Waterfall, crossing the Bridge over the River Kwai, riding the Thailand to Burma ‘Death Railway’ -and walking the length of ‘Hellfire Pass’. To round-off their ten-week ‘Voyage of Discovery’ our dynamic duo pay a visit to the phenomenal PETRONAS Towers in Malaysia -and in Singapore they come face-to-face with the ‘Lords of the Jungle’, as they embark on their first ever ‘night-time safari’.

To see an outline of Shaun and Hayley’s incredible 20,000km overland journey from Cardiff to Singapore in full colour pictures, just go to Shaun’s web-site: www.taffys-travels.com

On the web-site there are also links to all of Shaun’s other books –which include lots more amazing and exciting journeys around the world.

This book is lovingly dedicated to my sons, Liam and Carl -the two men in my life, who have made their dad an extremely proud man.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

It has taken me three-and-a-half years of intensive research to be able to complete my two latest books, entitled ‘Asia –Me & My Girl’ and ‘Africa and India –Me & The Kids’. These two manuscripts combined tell the story of a 60,000km (40,000 miles) journey across half of this planet, which my daughter, Hayley, and I undertook between 10th August and 1st December 2011. None of this would have been possible had I not had the continued support –along with endless guidance from various people whom I have never met in my life, but have been in constant contact with either by telephone or via e-mail since the initial conception of this somewhat bizarre adventure.

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On the very top of my list is Bryn Thomas, author of the ‘Trans-Siberian Handbook – a book which not only helped my daughter and I every step of the way from Moscow to Beijing, but one which also enlightened me on virtually every town, city and village along the Siberian route, including travelling right through the centre of Mongolia and into China. Every write-up on our Trans-Mongolian crossing is thus attributed to Bryn, as these are purely excerpts from his amazing book. I would also like to thank Caroline of ‘Trail-Blazers’, for her continued help and support from day ‘1’.

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Second on my list has to be ‘Mark Smith’ –‘The Man in Seat 61’, for had it not been for his amazing book on train and bus timetables around the world, then our voyage of discovery would have been a lot more difficult to complete in the time allotted –and I am sure that without his continued guidance from start to finish my daughter and I would have ended-up missing-out on so many of the wonderful and exciting places on this planet.

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Thirdly, I would like to thank ‘Yuri’ from the company ‘Real Russia’, for had it not been for his diligence in sorting-out our visas for Russia, Mongolia, Belarus, China, India and Vietnam –along with booking our train tickets from London to Moscow and Moscow to Beijing (and also our 3-night stopover in the Cosmos hotel in Moscow) the journey might never have begun?

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Obviously there are dozens of other people who contributed in making our travel extravaganza a raging success, such as ‘Viet’, who helped me with my dental problems in Vietnam, Elina and Sha, who not-only gave my daughter and me a place to stay in Malaysia, but who also assisted us with several other important -and somewhat immediate issues. And then there are the people whom we befriended along the way, of course, such as the two Ben’s in Moscow, the Malaysian couple and our Dutch friend in China, the South African and Swiss girls in Vietnam, the ‘second honeymoon’ couple on the island of Koh Tao –and Shaun, the landlord of ‘The Masons Arms’ in Koh Phangan –to name but a few.

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Our grateful thanks also has to be given to all of the people who took us on some amazing excursions, to many unbelievable places –half of which I had never even heard of before, such as Ha’Long Bay and the Sung Sot Cave in Vietnam, the 6,000 year-old Banpo Village and ‘Shanghai Venice’ in China, the Angkor Temples and S21 Prison in Cambodia, the incredible Tiger Temple and the magnificent Erawan Waterfall in Thailand, the Ellora, Ajanta and Elephanta Caves in India –and so on.

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It also goes without saying that Hayley and I will be eternally grateful to the people who transported us halfway around the world, such as the numerous train and bus drivers, who shuffled my daughter and I from one end of a continent to the other, the endless taxi-drivers who whisked us from train stations to hotels, bus stations to apartments –and city-centres to the back-of-beyond! And let us not forget the tuk-tuk drivers –the guys who gave us several adventurous rides -and more stories to tell than almost anyone else on the journey. We must also give our grateful thanks to the various flight crews, who flew Hayley and I from one country to the next, in order that we could continue our overland crossing of continents –or sub-continents, as the case may be?

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Finally, Hayley and I would like to thank all of the wonderful animals who became a part of our extraordinary expedition, such as the elephants who transported us (and we jostled with in the water) in Thailand, the leopard cubs we bottle-fed in Kanchanaburi, the tigers we walked with in the Tiger Temple, the sharks we swam with in Cape-Town –and every kind of animal that we got up-close-and-personal with on our amazing three-day safari in Tanzania.

Apart from all of the friendly people –and the numerous animals which Hayley and I encountered on our travels I would like to conclude our grateful thanks by giving a personal Thank you to everyone and everything which assisted me in my research programme, in order that I may pass-on the wondrous tales and extensive knowledge I gained, to my readers -in the hope that they will enjoy reading about them as much as I enjoyed writing them. From the numerous tour-guides, who lectured Hayley and I on just-about anything and everything, to the writers of the mountain of books, leaflets, pamphlets and postcards which I purchased along the way –along with stacks of additional information which I learned from literally dozens of web-sites from all over the world, I would like to thank you all from the bottom of my heart. I would also like to thank my great friends, Paul Taylor and Nathan Hurford, for their continued guidance and assistance with all of my I.T. problems –most of which were probably caused by me in the first place!

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Every travel story I have written about is true to the best of my knowledge, all of them having been expanded in detail from the 350 pages of foot-notes, which I wrote on a daily basis along the way. Also, the expenditure is virtually down to the last penny, having kept and numbered almost every receipt from start to finish. However, if there is anything I have left-out, or possibly written incorrectly, then please forgive me –and feel free to e-mail me on the ‘contact-us’ page of my web-site www.taffys-travels.com and I will be happy to discuss the matter further. Apart from this I sincerely hope that you enjoy reading either of my two new books (or hopefully both of them) and that you may even consider reading the four others in this series, after studying the synopsis of each individual manuscript, which is set-out at the beginning of this book.

Shaun Donovan

THE MIGHTY ZAMBEZI

As we approached the first rapid our captain called a halt to the rowing, before telling us its ranking on the scale of one to six. This rapid was a grade ‘2’ (if I remember correctly) and so our captain then explained what we would need to do in order to get through it safely. As it was Hayley’s first-ever rapid –and she was at the helm of the dinghy, I felt nervous for my baby (let-alone me) but after being tossed-about like a toy in a bath for a few seconds, we came through it unscathed -and as we got back to calmer waters my daughter suddenly announced that she couldn’t wait for the next one! (There goes my brave little girl again –totally fearless). Our second rapid was a ‘3’ I believe, and within the next few rapids we hit a ‘4’ as well, but it was only when we hit a ‘5’ that things got really hairy –and for the first time our captain gave the order to ‘DIVE’, as our boat got thrown from pillar-to-post, bouncing up and down on the waves for what seemed like an eternity -but was probably only a few seconds. And then we came to rapid number ‘7’, which was affectionately known as ‘The Muncher’.

Unbeknown to us at the time, but our captain was about to play the dirtiest trick on his ‘galley-slaves’ that any captain could do, as he lulled all six of us into one massive false sense of security.

Now this is what we call a ‘split-rapid’; on one side of the river it is only ranked as a ‘2’ on the scale, but on the other side it is ranked as a ‘5’, and so I am going to give you guys a choice; you decide which side of the rapid that you want to negotiate and I will accept your decision.

By now we were all feeling quite confident of course, having successfully traversed half-a-dozen rapids, a few of them being rated quite high on the Richter Scale (as I call it) -and so we all guessed that the worst thing that could happen to us was to have to take a ‘dive’ inside the boat if the rapid got too choppy –and so we decided to ‘go for gold’. After being given the order to ROW by our captain, we all swished our paddles at a rapid pace, but just as we came within earshot of the rapid itself, our captain suddenly bellowed-out loud "By the way, there is a seventy percent chance that we will be turned-over on this side of the rapid", causing everyone of us to take a sharp intake of breath, because we all knew that it was way too-late to turn-back now!

As we hit the rushing water the order was given to DIVE –and so we all did -instantly, but within seconds the force of the rapid must have thrown our dinghy clear out of the river, because the next thing I know I am under the water, battling furiously with the waves, as I try desperately to get some badly-needed air, but each time I only end-up with another mouthful of salty water, as my lungs begin to fill-up -and I start gasping for my last breath. Through the waves I can see our captain, who is now standing on the base of our capsized dinghy, trying his uttermost to overturn it into the upright position, and so I begin swimming towards him for all I am worth, whilst trying to catch the smallest of breaths, as I continue swishing my head from side to side. Finally I manage to extend my head above the waves, and I can see that the boat is in an upright position again –thank goodness.

The captain has extended an oar out to me, shouting for me to grab a hold of it, but it seems a million miles away from me right now, as I continue fighting against the tide, my energy-levels decreasing by the second. I make a dive for the oar with my right hand, but I miss it –and so I throw my body forward with every ounce of strength that I’ve got left in me, before making a grab for it with my left hand –but again I miss my target –and this time my whole body goes under the water. In desperation the captain immediately lowered the oar deep into the water -and between the rushes of the waves I manage to spot the wide paddle -and so I make one final grab for it. Gotcha I say under my breath, as my right hand wrapped itself firmly around the base of the pole. Realizing that I now had a firm grip, the captain immediately pulled hard on the paddle, thus raising my head above the waterline and drawing me towards the boat, where I was able to grab hold of one of the ropes, as instructed in our training session.

I was then told to Hold-on tight by our captain while he went-about dragging the rest of the guys from out of the water, before finally hauling me on board. After taking a swift look around the boat I could see that my little girl was not on board, and so I screamed-out Where’s Hayley –where’s my daughter? There was a short pause, as no-one seemed to know the answer to my question –including our great leader -and immediately my mind was thrown into a state of sheer panic.

PREFACE

‘Africa and India –Me & The Kids’ is the second half of a two-part journey, which my daughter, Hayley, and I undertook between 10th August and 1st December 2011. The second half of the journey actually began on Monday 17th October 2011. (Please see the route-map(s) and general overview of the entire journey, which is shown directly after this preface). Initially, Hayley’s boyfriend, Craig, was the only person who was due to meet-up with us for a ten-day holiday in Goa, in India, as a kind of kick-start to the second half of our 60,000km (40,000 miles) travel extravaganza. However, within weeks of leaving the UK my daughter and I decided to invite my two sons, (Hayley’s brother’s), Liam and Carl, to fly out and join us in Goa as well –hence the title ‘Africa and India –Me & The Kids’ was born.

What happened to Hayley and me during the first half of this voyage of discovery (10th August -16th October 2011) is told in another book, entitled ‘Asia –Me & My Girl’, which tells the story of our 20,000km (12,000 miles) overland journey from Cardiff to Singapore. Because both journeys would run consecutively the organizing of everything, such as visas, vaccinations, medication, insurances, clothing and accessories, was therefore done as a ‘job-lot’. The ‘Introduction’ chapter explains how the whole trip was initially conceived, before being pieced-together –and in the chapter that follows it, I have written a condensed version of what Hayley and I got up to on our way to Singapore –which I hope you will find interesting-enough to want to read the full story.

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THE ENTIRE 60,00KM JOURNEY FROM BEGINNING TO END.

THE JOURNEY BEGAN ON 10TH AUGUST 2011 AND ENDED ON 1ST DECEMBER 2011

The journey was split into two halves, travelling overland from Cardiff to Singapore being the first half. After flying from Singapore to Mumbai my daughter, Hayley, and I began the second half of our ‘Voyage of Discovery’, by travelling around India, before flying-off to Abu Dhabi, for a one night stopover –and then on to Cape-Town, to begin our travels across Africa. Each journey was set-out in various stages, which are as follows:

The first half of the journey:

INTRODUCTION

I had already spent several months studying various ways of travelling ‘overland’ from the UK to Australia -although the term ‘overland’ is not strictly true of course, as both the UK and Australia are effectively islands –and therefore one has to either pass under -or travel over water to get to them. Going by truck with a professional expedition company seemed to be the most logical and affordable way of doing the journey –and it was also undoubtedly the safest way, as not only would Hayley and I be travelling in large numbers, with experienced drivers who had done the trip before, but we would also be guaranteed a roof over our heads every night, along with enjoying the delights of munching our way through three solid meals a day. Most over-land trucks would invariably follow the old Silk Route through Europe into Asia, via Turkey, and then travel-on through Iran and Pakistan into India, before dropping down into Thailand and travelling the length of Malaysia, until they eventually reached Singapore.

At this point the majority of the UK to OZ travellers would then take a (relatively) short flight over to Darwin, thus completing their overland journey from Britain to Australia. However, there was one major flaw with this option, which turned-out to be the deciding factor for Hayley and me to choose an alternative route -along with utilising ‘several’ different modes of transport (as opposed to using just one vehicle) to get us to the Far East. The Pakistani government had refused to let any westerners, who didn’t already have an entry visa, to cross the land borders into their country (for fear of terrorist attacks I believe) and so it meant that last-minute travellers, such as Hayley and me, would now have to fly from Tehran over most of Iran and the whole of Pakistan, before meeting-up with the truck (and the passengers who had already bought their visas) again in Delhi in India. Even though Hayley and I would then travel all the way down to Singapore with the rest of our overland crew, I felt that the heart of the trip had already been ripped-out (so to speak) and so I turned to ‘The man in seat 61’.

I had been told about Mark Smiths’ incredibly comprehensive web-site some months earlier and I had glanced-over it on several occasions, but now his book on worldwide travel-routes (primarily by train, but which also included several bus routes in various countries) had just been released, and this would not only turn-out to be my bible for our journey –but it would also be the answer to a prayer. Finding a route around Pakistan was not going to be easy, as sitting directly above it was Afghanistan –a war-zone country that I certainly had no intentions of visiting in the near future –and surrounding Afghanistan was Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan –five relatively remote countries that I knew absolutely nothing about. However, encircling all of these unknown entities was Russia –a country that was bigger than half of the individual continents of this world, and one whose landmass spanned from north to south and east to west of the northern hemisphere. Thoughts of the fabled ‘Siberian Express’ (of which there has never been any such train, by the way) ran amok in my brain, and so I began researching all there was to know about the Trans-Siberian Railway, and the various routes which one could take from Moscow to the other side of the world.

Thanks to an excellent book called ‘Trans Siberian Handbook’, by Bryn Thomas (a book that would be my ‘New Testament’, if you like, for the six-day Siberian crossing) I soon found-out that there were three main routes; the ‘Trans-Mongolian’, the ‘Trans-Manchurian’ and the ‘Trans-Siberian’. The Trans-Mongolian route runs virtually the length of Siberia, before taking a south-easterly trajectory, which slices right through the centre of Mongolia, before crossing borders (once again) into China and ending-up at the capital city of Beijing. In contrast to this the Trans-Manchurian route travels further along the main line, passing the northern borders of Mongolia, before finally descending into China and doubling-back into the city of Beijing. However, the Trans-Siberian route differs greatly from the other two, as the train stays in Russian territory for the entire journey, right up until it reaches the Pacific terminus at Vladivostok. As Hayley and I really wanted to see what the landscape of Mongolia was like -coupled with the fact that we intended travelling south from Beijing and not due east over to Japan or the Philippines, our chosen route was simply a process of elimination.

Also, because we intended travelling overland all the way to Singapore the next item on our agenda was to sort-out our ground transportation from Cardiff to Moscow. Once again my Travel-Bible came to the rescue, as it enlightened me with a list of various trains which could transport Hayley and me from England’s capital city to its Russian counterpart in around 48 hours. As for getting the pair of us from Cardiff to London, well it seemed that the ‘Mega-bus’ was the perfect answer to that part of the journey, as not only did it run on a daily basis –but it was also amazingly cheap as well. Having sussed-out the initial stage of our expedition I then had to plan the rest of our journey from Beijing to Singapore. After meticulously studying numerous world-wide maps and scrutinizing more train (and bus) timetables than I had ever done in my life before, I came up with a route-plan that would take me and my daughter through China, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and Malaysia (in that precise order), before finally reaching the mystical city of Singapore.

At this point in time our intention was to hop-over to Bali for a one-week holiday, before dropping-down into Australia for another week or so (time permitting), to complete the first half of the journey. We would then fly over to Goa in India, to meet-up with Hayley’s boyfriend, Craig (my two sons, Liam and Carl having yet to be invited) for a ten-day holiday, before continuing-on with our travels around the sub-continent and then moving on to Africa. Now that everything looked fine ‘in theory’ it was time to look seriously at the practical side of things –such as sorting-out the paperwork. Setting-up such a mammoth expedition on my own would have been a bureaucratic nightmare I am sure, but after contacting a company called ‘Real Russia’, (who are based in London –and recommended in Mark Smith’s book, of course), our train tickets from London to Beijing were booked in no time at all. However, when it came to obtaining visas, time was already running short -and so Hayley and I decided to apply for only the most important visas –in other words ones which we would need to produce upfront, such as the Russian, Belarusian, Mongolian and Chinese visas –simply because we would be travelling on board various trains whilst crossing into all of these countries.

We also looked at visas which may be difficult to obtain at border crossings, and could therefore hold us up for hours (such as crossing from China into Vietnam) thus possibly causing us to miss our connecting transportation. Finally we looked at visas which were confusing-enough to obtain on line –let-alone having to do battle with pompous officials, who may only speak a smattering of English –and sitting on top of that list was the Indian visa. Apart from asking one or two rather obscure questions on their application form, the Indian government also insists on having a different sized passport photo to almost every other country in the world. (The mere thought of having to wait for hours-on-end in massive queues, in stifling humidity, at an Indian Embassy or consulate in Singapore was enough for us to get the ball rolling). Thankfully, visas for most of the African countries which we intended visiting could be obtained at the respective borders, although stories of bribery and corruption by African officials was rife, of course –and so I anticipated having to pay over-the-odds for one or two of them. If truth be known, at this point in time Hayley and I were still uncertain which end of Africa we would end-up flying into –and where we would finally exit this gigantic continent? Cairo to Cape Town -or vice-versa, had always been on the cards, but getting through the Sudan (either way) was always going to be a problem –and we knew it.

Thankfully, Real Russia were also able to organize all of the relative application forms for half-a-dozen visas, which Hayley and I filled-in on line, before sending both of our passports to London for a total of six weeks, as they did the rounds to the Russian, Mongolian, Belarusian, Chinese, Vietnamese and Indian embassies (for individual visas), before finally being returned to us -less than 72 hours before Hayley and I were due to set-off on this extraordinary adventure. For the last two months my daughter and I had been frequenting various camping outlets, buying such things as sleeping bags, (complete with liners), mosquito nets, bum-bags, Poncho’s and transporter bags, along with a host of miscellaneous items, such as Insect repellent and bite and sting soothing sprays, various travel plug adaptors –and a whole herd of spare batteries and chargers for the various electrical items that we would also be carrying with us. (This included a notebook lap-top, an Amazon Kindle, a compact video camera, two digital cameras, two mobile phones, an MP4 player –and a dongle!)

Armed with a wardrobe of specialist clothing, such as trousers with detachable leg-pieces, jackets with more pockets and pouches than a business-mans’ wallet and mountain boots that we could literally walk to the ends of the earth with, Hayley and I began filling our brand-new rucksacks with everything we could possibly need for a journey that would take us halfway around the world. While all of the above was going on Hayley and I also had to have several vaccinations for the forthcoming trip, which included Hepatitis ‘A’, Hepatitis ‘B’, Tetanus, Diphtheria, Polio, Meningitis, rabies, Yellow Fever and typhoid. (Hepatitis ‘B’ and Rabies requiring no less than ‘3’ jabs of each, before the treatment was finally completed). My daughter and I also took a total of ‘300’ malaria tablets with us, which we would administer on a daily basis -starting about one week before we reached our first malarial zone. To top all of this preventative medicine the day before we set-off I was diagnosed with extremely high blood pressure -and so I also took two months supply of Ramipril (blood-pressure) tablets with me –which would have to be replenished by the time we got to Malaysia or Singapore.

Sorting-out all of the currencies we would use over the coming months and ordering it in various denominations was a mixture of strategic planning –and pure guesswork. Insurance to cover the pair of us for up to six months was the last major item on our agenda -and thanks to us both having decent bank accounts with Lloyds TSB the cost of the additional premiums for both policies was relatively minimal. As for our initial accommodation, well I decided to pre-book a one-night stop-over in the Wellington Hotel in London and a three-night stay at the Cosmos Hotel in Moscow. Although I had strategically planned almost every day of the entire journey, from beginning to end, I knew that there would be major directional changes along the way, primarily due to unforeseen circumstances, coupled with various time constraints –and the occasional battles with bureaucracy.

However, rather than boring you with what my daughter and I ‘intended’ accomplishing, let me firstly give you a brief insight into the first half of the journey (including a break-down of the expenses incurred prior to leaving the UK) -and then I will describe in detail the complete story of what Hayley, and I actually ‘did’ accomplish between the 17th October and the 1st December 2011 –the ‘46’ days it took us to travel throughout India and across the southern half of Africa.

EXPENDITURE COSTS ‘PRIOR TO SETTING-OFF’

ON THE JOURNEY:

At the tail-end of this book is a comprehensive analysis of (almost) every penny that was spent throughout our amazing journey. However, prior to setting-off on our latest ‘Voyage of Discovery’, there were numerous items which needed to be purchased (or booked and paid for) in advance, which included various pieces of computer and electrical