November 14, 2009
Day 1 - 1:30pm
After a few flight delays (a poor old man had a heart attack and died during the flight), I finally made it to Palolem Beach Goa! My plan was to make it here right before sunset, but unfortunately due to the delays I made it here about 20 minutes after the sun went down. So after a long long night of rest, this is my first sight of the beach. I just sat down at my favorite restaurant on the beach.
“Hello Sir”… no response “Hello, what would you like to eat?”… no response “Are you ok sir?” It took me a while to realize the waiter was talking to me, I completely zoned out and got lost in the sound of the waves crashing against the shore and the way the sun light flickers of the water and the feeling of the cool ocean breeze against my face… this place is truly magical!
Even my pet cow Betsy is out enjoying the lovely weather while trying to scam a free sack from the new tourists that find it interesting to have cows on a beach.
I’m not sure if it’s the fresh earthy air here, but I woke up today feeling healthy and alive, so I decided to start my day out right with a nice workout that included the dreaded 8-minute abs!
I now just finished a somewhat healthy breakfast of Muesli, yogurt and fruit with fresh orange juice. The only thing that’s left to do now is get some much needed sun and a long walk down the beach!
Return to Paradise is now in full effect!
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November 6, 2009
I wrote this blog 4 days before I left Africa… so here goes.
10/29/09 Mali, Central Africa
A week and half later we are finally in real Africa… or at least what you would think Africa would look like. We have left the deserts of northern Africa and its Muslim brothers behind and now are officially in sub Sahara Africa!
West Africa is whizzing by at an alarming pace as the kilometers tick away. The smiles are getting bigger and brighter the further we push south. After spending the last 5 years traveling as an American under the Bust administration… I must say I need to send a personal shout out to Obama…. “Thank you!”
Obamamania is in full effect here in Africa. Never before has it been such a cool thing to be traveling as an American… but before I go too far, this is still only Africa… the rest of the world is still on the fence!
Tensions are running high… the group is now splitting up. Nico and Kim are going their separate way, leaving Sam, John and myself in 1 car to continue on this ever growing pointless mission.
UPDATE 11/6/09 Barcelona, Spain
After coming to grips with where this trip was headed, I finally made the decision to cut the West Africa trip short and save it for another day when the time and friends are right. It’s now time for India and some much needed good food and friendly faces! But before India I had to make a stop off in Barcelona to meet with my designer and sort out a few things before I leave for mother India.
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October 30, 2009
The sight of dead dogs and cats on the side of the road is nothing new, but a dead camel… that’s a first!
Old tires litter the side of the road. I think about those tires and the stories they must hold about how they came to rest here in the middle of nowhere. As far as the eye can see there’s nothing but sand. Every now and again I see a silhouette of a camel on the horizon. The desert heat today was intense, it felt like someone was putting a hair dryer in my face. Driving through the Sahara desert with out A/C was definitely a bad idea. I feel like god must be listening to my thoughts, as a big grey cloud has just moved in and is now giving us some relief from the suns rays.
Crossing the border from Morocco to Mauritanian proved to be an interesting 5 hour adventure. Morocco and Mauritania have all but recently been at war, so the border is filled with landmines. If driving across the 2km stretch of rocky dirt road wasn’t bad enough, the thought of landmines loomed in the back of my head. Fortunately the only major problem we had was getting stuck in the sugar sand and having to push our cars out and also beating the shit out of our cars. The actual border process was much easier on our nerves, it just ate away at our time. It took us 5 hours to get our lovely Mauritanian visas. I wont go into detail as I have no real explanation why it takes so long… but lets just say things in Africa take forever. As Leonardo Dicaprio says in the move Blood Diamond…. “TIA”….. This is Africa!
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October 28, 2009
I feel like im stuck in the movie Ground Hog Day, where everyday is the same. The Sahara desert seems to go on forever!
These sand duns, camel signs and dead patches of desert grass all look the same, the smell of stinky dried fish and even the police check points (which are every 50km) seem the same. The policemen’s faces look the same… maybe it’s the malaria pills or maybe I’m just losing my mind.
The only major thing that has happened today that made it different from yesterday, was blowing 3 tires and getting stuck in the middle of nowhere and forced to camp without food. At least we were able to light a fire. It’s amazing how burning things can lift your spirits. I spent most of the night burning every dry bush I could uproot. I guess I am a little bit of a pyro.
The road ahead keeps unfolding like a never-ending book with a billion pages. I guess the same goes for my life… I’m just following the road in front of me, hoping it never ends… like the sun that just set off to my right.
My best investment in the past few months has been this 50-cent note pad so I can write in the back of the car. The group has been pretty quite, not a lot of talking going on. I guess after spending a week driving together for 12 hours a day… what’s really left to talk about? I am loving the free time to let my mind wonder, it brings me back to when I was a boy and had no real problems or responsibilities and I would just sit and daydream about far off distant lands. For some reason I was always fascinated about time, and how if it was 8pm in Florida and it was getting dark that somewhere else in the world some kid was just waking up for school. But with all that daydreaming I still never ever dreamed that I would make it to all those places.
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October 26, 2009
It’s been months since I have been able to get inside my head. The constant distractions and lack of free time “me time” have left me at odds with myself. I have neglected my best friend in the world… me!
The vast African continent and its never ending dirt roads have given me back the most precious thing in the world… the time to get inside my head and think and look at this crazy world from the outside. It’s easy to get sucked into the chaos we call “life”.
We have all been taking malaria pills for the last 2 weeks, and I think they are making us all crazy! One of the common side effects is wild dreams… my dreams have not necessarily been wild, but just recurring ones centered around Barcelona. They feel more like visions of the future rather then dreams… I now only wish I could see the winning lottery numbers.
My days have been filled with endless driving, hunger, lack of water and the constant search for directions, food and a place to sleep. We haven’t been making too many stops, as there is just too much freaking ground to cover in such a short period.
About the cars… well I guess you could call us “African Overlanders”. The term pretty much means someone that drives long distances overland. It’s funny when you see other overlanders in their big Land Cruisers/Land Rovers with their fancy GPS units, massive tires and extra gas tanks on the roof. It’s hard not to laugh at how under prepared and ill equipped we are.
Two things are either going to happen.
1) We breakdown or get to a place where we cant go any further because our cars were just not built for it.
Or
2) We make it all the way and realize in the end you don’t always need the biggest and most expensive toys to have fun!
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