Italy: North-South, Up-Down

Thankful for not having any extra holes in my body and no hoof prints on my face from Pamplona, I took my leave of Spain and travelled to Italy.  The route was to land in Milan and spend two days on the Italian Riviera, then head south to the Sicily/Naples area to retrace my grandfather’s footsteps during WWII. 

Visit to the Holy Land

Next big stop on the sojurn took me to the  lands of Israel and Jordan.  Spent three weeks here, mostly in Israel, and got to see and experience some  pretty amazing things.  Stayed with my good friend JJ whom was also studying abroad in Australia.    He is  originally from Montreal, but immigrated to Israel about a year ago.  Duan and I  planned a visit to coincide with the completion of his  time in the Israeli military to help him readjust to the civilian lifestyle before he had to go back to work.  Based ourselves out of his apartment in Tel Aviv for trips all over the country. 

Back to the First World

After an incredible 4 months testing out the third worldness of Africa, it was a welcomed change to arrive back in the first world comfort of Europe. Things as simple as say, a well paved, clearly marked road nearly brought tears to my eyes. I landed in Switzerland, and spend about a week in the mountain town of Interlocken, then made a quick trip to Salzburg, Austria and Munich, Germany.

Simple put, Interlocken is a bad ass town. It is nestled up at the base of some of the largest peaks in Europe, tucked in between two tourqoise glacier-fed lakes, and the capital of all outdoor adventure sports in the northern hemisphere. If you go to Switzerland, its a must.

Rounding Off East Africa

After Uganda it was time to head back to Kenya to get back to work on the project. Spent some more time in Nairobi getting things organized for when the students from Penn State would arrive. Met with the students and faculty from the University of Nairobi and it was cool to get to know them a bit. When the students finally did arrive, we moved into high gear and began building the tower for the wind generator in Nairobi, and then moved all the pieces up to the site in Homa Bay for installation. It took some pretty inspired work to get it done, but in the end we got the 30ft tower in the ground with the generator proudly sitting on the top. It was a fairly calm day, and was looking rather anti-climactic with a large group of people from the community there for the handing over ceremony and the generator sitting there doing nothing.

The Last King of America

Yes, after getting freaked out about the place, I decided to go to Uganda.  It ended up being an incredible place, beautiful nature, impressive sights, safe and loads of fun.  In fact, I would go back there in a flash.  Spent the majority of the 2 weeks there in Jinja, a town at the headwaters of the Nile River on Lake Victoria.  Stayed in a mello hostel/campsite on a cliff overlooking the Nile a few miles outside of town.  Unbelievable place.  Did an incredible white water rafting trip down the Nile itself, with several grade 5 rapids.  Yikes that was awesome.

While at the campsite, met some people doing some volunteer work in the area and managed to join them on a safari they were taking to Murchison Falls National Park in the north of the country.  In a big overland truck went up for 4 days and got to see chimpanzees, approach rhinos on foot, see all sorts of big game including elephants getting frisky (impressive for the shear mechanics involved), camp out in the middle of the park and even got to do some big game fishing on the Nile.  This was a lifelong dream come true.

So much more to this trip I would like to describe, but have to move on!