5) Victoria Falls Bungee, Zimbabwe/Zambian border (110m/360feet):
A bit of a controversial choice as this has featured quite heavily in the new recently when a girl’s bungee cord snapped! Also, it’s not in the top 5 highest bungees in the world but it’s gotta be the most beautiful. 111M of sheer fear as you jump of Victoria Bridge, into a circular rainbow thanks to the mist caused by the falls. When your finished you can see Victoria falls as your backdrop, nothing short of amazing.
PRICE: around $110

Me jumping at Victoria Falls. Arggggggggh...

4) Bloukrans Bridge, South Africa – (216 m/708 feet):
The world’s highest single span arch bridge, the Bloukrans Bridge bungee is the third highest bungee in the world at 708 feet (216 m). It’s also the highest point in the world from which you can bungee off, and formally the highest bungee jump in the world.
PRICE: around $100

3) Verzasca Dam, Switzerland – (220 m/720 feet):
It found mainstream fame with the opening sequence of the Bond movie Goldeneye, the Verzasca dam offers a pure freefall swinging bungee from a single cord. If banging into a massive concrete structure at a top speed doesn’t scare you, then this is the jump for you. The Verzasca Dam bungee jump is the second highest bungee jump in the world.
PRICE: $280

2) Macau Tower, China – (233 m/760 feet):
The tallest, highest bungee jump in the world! 6 seconds of unadulterated freefall from the 11th tallest building in the world. It doesn’t come cheap but it grants you automatic bragging rights forever. With the ‘right’ conditions you can find yourself stretching to just 30m from the ground.
PRICE: $300

1) Volcano Bungee near Pucon, Chile (250m/820 feet):
The price isn’t exactly backpacker friendly but basically you get flown up to an active volcano in a helicopter, soaring some 10,000 feet in the air, jumpers sit perched on a helicopter’s skid and then you have to bungee jump off the helicopter into the caldera towards the molten lava. The cord stretches between 350 and 375 feet, leaving jumpers hanging just 700 feet above the volcano Pretty amazing stuff.
PRICE: A disgustingly, prohibitively expensive $9,995 for a 6 day package

Honourable mention:
The Royal Gorge Bridge, Colordo (321m/1053 feet):
Technically, it can be considered the highest bungee in the world but very few people have ever jumped from the bridge, it’s not open to the public and it’s only available every now and again. Often used to break records sporadically.
PRICE: Unavailable to general public. Booooooo.

River Nevis, New Zealand (134m/440 feet)

If you’re on the backpacking trail in New Zealand, a bungee jump over the roaring River Nevis is not to be missed. From a teetering cable car, high over the Nevis River, you enter the jump pod and soak in the rugged scenery. This is the highest bungee jump spot in all of New Zealand, so all New Zealand Holidays should try to factor this beauty in. The freefall lasts for almost 9 seconds and will allow those who jump to see the full extent of this area’s beauty.
PRICE:$200

The Best 5 Bungee Jumps in the World is a post from: onestep4ward.com

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What drugs should I take for malaria?

Good question and although there a numerous different options – there are 3 main choices that people tend to go with, all of which profess to be around 98% effective:

1) Doxycycline: This is the drug of choice by backpackers worldwide – why? Because it’s the cheapest. It’s highly effective and cheap as chips. You should take it with water and food to stop yourself getting quesy, but if there’s no food around it’s no big deal, you’ll be fine!

Generally, in Western countries, these cost around .50 cents (30p) a pill. You take it daily so a 6 month trip will cost ya less than $100. If you have the confidence (and sense) to wait and buy it when you arrive somewhere, like Thailand for example, you’ll more than halve your cost.

Doxy can make your skin more sensitive to the sun so sunburning on this pill can be common, not ideal when you want to lounge on a beach in the Philippines somewhere :S

POSTIVES: Cheap cheap cheap and easy to get everywhere, including the countries you plan to visit

NEGATIVES: Increases your skin’s sensitivity to the sun, can reduce the effectiveness of birth control pills (hear that ladies, be smart!), can cause nausea.

COST PER 6 MONTH TRIP: $100 or less, much less if you buy it abroad.

DURATION: Start two days before travel, throughout your stay in an endemic area and continue for four weeks after return

2) Malarone: The flashpackers’ choice, at a cost of $3+ a pill and a daily dosage your 6 month stint is gonna cost you over $500! But with little or no negatives it’s without doubt the ‘best’ pill in terms of prevention vrs side effects.

POSTIVES: Higly effective AND you only have to take it for one extra week after your trip

NEGATIVES: Pricey at $3 a pill to be taken daily

COST PER 6 MONTH TRIP: Upwards of $500

DURATION: Start two days before travel, throughout your stay in an endemic area and continue for one week after return.

3) Larium (Mefloquine): Hmmm what to say about this wonderful drug?! I took this for months in Africa and the rumours of crazy dreams are 100% true, this stuff does crazy stuff to your brain after dark. Quite funny in fairness, especially if a few of you are taking it! Anyway, it’s not much more expensive than Doxy, you only have to take it once a week (a big plus for a forgetful guy like me)

POSTIVES: Only have to take it weekly, pretty cheap

NEGATIVES: Crazzzzy dreams for the first month or two until you get used to it

COST PER 6 MONTH TRIP: Around $150

DURATION: Start two and a half weeks before travel, throughout your stay in an endemic area and continue for four weeks after return.

I should also note that Chloroquine (in addition to proguanil) is another anti-malarial drug that crops up now and again. From meeting people on the road, and internet research I’d stay clear of this – mosquitoes demonstrate widespread resistance!

Ok guys that’s the general vibe on anti-Malarial drugs. I have taken doxy on a crazy Chinese cargo boat trip through Burma, Thailand and China – it was fine, no side-effect at all. Then I took Larium throughout my time in Africa (until I got bored and stopped taking them) and again, aside from vivid dreams, was fine again. The choice is yours – happy travels!

Malaria – What Drug You Should Take to Prevent It! is a post from: onestep4ward.com

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1. How Much Does it Cost to Go From Cape Town to Cairo?
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It’s a long way – I can vouch for that. Lots of people drive their own motorbikes/cars or go on organized, expensive overlanding tours, as an advocate of independent travel I recommend planning nothing and going for it freestyle! I met a few people doing a similar trip to mine as I was on the road and the times they were allocating for the journey ranged from 4 months to 1 year. Personally, I took about 6 months and I wouldn’t recommend much less than that – sometimes I felt like I was rushing, ultimately it’s a personal choice and everybody travels at different speeds but around 7 months seems to be the general consensus for an optimum duration, long enough to see everywhere you want without feeling rushed but not too long to get too frustrated at what I shall diplomatically refer to as African inefficiency!

Crossing the nile by hot air balloon

How much does it cost to go from Cape Town to Cairo? Quite a lot I’m afraid guys. Africa is not the continent for backpackers on a seriously restrictive budget, better to save some extra cash and hold off the trip for a year or two as opposed to rushing in and missing out. I would say that the trip from Cape Town to Cairo could be done, in 6 months, for around $6,000 at the bottom end of the scale (missing out on some of the more expensive activities). This could shoot to $15k if you want to do every activity available, stay in decent places and avoid the (often less than delicious) Sub-Saharan African cuisine.

Trekking mountain gorillas in Rwanda

Here are a few of the ‘optional’ (this is in inverted commas because although now they seem optional, when you’re there you’re almost definitely going to want to do it!) things that you may have to factor into your budget, things that quickly make you wanna rethink that tight budget:

• One-Way Flight to Cape Town/Cairo: from Europe $500, from North America $1000
• VISAS: around $500
• Shark diving with great whites: $200
• Car-rental/local flights/long distance buses in South Africa: $200 (minimum)
• Climbing Kilimanjaro: $1000
• Scuba in Mozambique/Kenya/Tanzania/Sudan/Egypt: $100
• White water ratfing the source of the Nile in Uganda/Zambezi at Victoria falls: $150
• Bungee (various locations): $120
• Trekking with wild mountain Gorillas in Uganda/Rwanda: $500
• Safari in Tanzania/South Africa/Kenya/Zambia: 3 or 4 days costs around $400

Reaching the summit of Kilimanjaro

Ok guys, so these external costs can mount up to $3k or $4k alone – then you have to think about food, transport, accommodation and entrance fees on top of that. If you think you’ll be traveling for around 6 or 7 months, that’s approximately 200 days – if you’re good on a budget maybe $20 can do you = $4k, plus the $4k in fees = $8k. But $20 a day is tough in most of Africa (Malawi aside). I probably spend the best part of $10k in my trip, including flights and a ticket to the World Cup Final in Johannesburg – a lot of money for sure, but worth every penny! If you have any questions about things to do on the journey, just drop me an email on Johnny@onestep4ward.com or leave a comment, I’d be more than happy to help…

How Much Does it Cost to Go From Cape Town to Cairo? is a post from: onestep4ward.com

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Hotel Rwanda:

Good movies are movies that have the power to captivate people, great movies are movies which can almost transcend their art form and help you realize the emotions of the characters. Hotel Rwanda is truly a great movie.

Based in Kigali, the capital city of Rwanda, it tells the horrific true story of the 1994 genocidal massacre involving the Hutus and Tutsis where the death toll reached an incomprehensible 800,000 Rwandans in 100 terrifying days. All humanity was not lost however and Paul Rusesabagina, played with great passion by Don Cheadle, risked his life time and time again when he accepted fleeing Hutus and Tutsi reformists in the Hotel Des Milles Collines, bribing the Interahamwe militia with anything he could get his hands on. You can’t fail to be moved by the story and sitting in the Hotel Des Milles Collines, guiltily drinking an orange juice, trying to comprehend what happened there a few years previously is one of the most somber and surreal experiences of my life.

NOTE: I should also mention another great movie covering the same story – Shooting Dogs. A movie from the BBC and runs Hotel Rwanda very close.

Last King of Scotland:

Retelling the rise and subsequent gruesome reign of the execrable Idi Amin, The Last King of Scotland uses a little poetic license to merge 3 characters into James McAvoy’s brilliant Scottish doctor who somehow or other became Idi Amin’s main confidant. The movie documents their relationship and touches on the horror that came with Amin’s reign. Ugandans are refreshingly open about their history and, with tact of course, it’s possible to sit in a café in Kampala and chat with the older generation about Amin’s reign and the damage done to the ‘Pearl of Africa’ as Uganda is affectionately known.

The Lion King:

If you haven’t seen Simba singing and dancing along with Rafiki, Pumba and Timone then, my friend, your childhood has a huge Disney shaped hole in it and needs to be addressed as soon as possible. As you backpack around east Africa you’ll see the strong Swahili references throughout the movie, a great reference point for a charming region and an equally charming movie. Simba means lion, Poomba means warthog and more endearingly (as you’ll hear yelled across the street countless times) Rafiki means friend.

Any trip to Africa isn’t complete without a safari and I challenge anyone to say they were out looking for wildlife and didn’t, even once at least, perhaps even just in their head, hum a quick rendition of The Lion Sleeps Tonight. In the jungle, the mighty jungle…. You know how it goes!

Blood Diamond:

TIA. This Is Africa. Indeed. The movie which gave birth to the mainstream usage of this age-old maxim – When your bus leave 3 hours late, TIA. When your food arrives and is nothing like what you ordered, TIA. All fun and games of course, but this movie paints a slightly grimmer picture of TIA-  namely conflict or blood diamonds. Set in Zimbabwe (or Rhodesia as Leo Di Caprio, politically charged, insists on calling it throughout the movie) it tells the story of a local man who comes across a valuable diamond. The lengths at which people are prepared to go to is a shocking reminder to how cheap life can be on this continent sometimes. The movie points a stern finger at a European diamond company (I’m sure you see the parallels with reality here!) who horde the diamonds, keeping the prices high and thereby maintaining the violent acts dished out by the people in charge of the diamond mines across Africa. It may not be a true story per se, however I bet you’ll think twice about those diamond earrings next time you reach for your jewelry drawer.

District 9:

Set in South Africa, the storyline goes that an extraterrestrial race come to earth and are forced to live in horrible conditions. They are rejected by the mainstream population of both South Africa and the world and are relocated to District 9. A far fetched story I hear you say?

Not quite… the movie is based on historical event which transpired during the apartheid era, specifically when 60,000 blacks were ‘relocated’ to District 6 in Cape Town. Don’t let the xenophobic themes get you down though, when you are sipping your ice-cold beer on Long Street in Cape Town you’ll feel a whole different vibe now, I assure you of that =)

5 Great Travel Movies for Africa is a post from: onestep4ward.com

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I arrived in Lusaka, the capital of Zambia, headed to one of the 2 guesthouses and threw of my bags. Standard practice with my lack of planning meant that I had no local currency, no idea what to do or see and no map so I spent the rest of the day rectifying that! Walking around the city, people are so keen to talk to you and with the former British colonization, nearly everyone can speak English.

I often had people walking me around the city, showing me where I needed to go and not once was I asked for any form of payment, a welcome break from my years in Asia and the constant haranguing from touts!

As far as a city goes, Lusaka is pretty relaxed. There’s not necessarily so much to see or do but simply walking around and soaking up the atmosphere can easily fill a day. There are a couple of local markets that I walked around which were an experience in themselves and I even managed to find a Subway franchise and treat myself to a footlong meatball marinara (easing myself back into my backpacking ways slowly after a year in Australia )

Lusaka soon came and went and I was off on a 5 hour bus (that’s an African 5 hours apparently which is somewhere between 7 and 9 hours in reality) to Livingstone, the town closest to one of the 7 Natural Wonders of the World – Victoria Falls. Essentially, Vic falls was the reason I had come to Zambia so I was buzzing at the prospect of finally seeing it. The bus journey was fine, if a little overcrowded, but it was broken up sporadically by various breakdowns, overenthusiastic gospel preachers and wildife so it was certainly entertaining. The roads in Africa, so far, have seemed pretty good so it was relatively smooth throughout (*disclaimer – relatively smooth in relation so some less developed countries I’ve been too, relative to the West it’s like a very, very dusty rollercoaster)

Livingstone is awesome. Of course it’s set up for a fair bit of tourism being so close to Vic Falls but it’s laid back, relaxed and affordable. I stayed in a cracking hostel called Livingstone Backpackers for around $8 a night for the dorm. I shared a room with a cool Dutch guy who had driven from Holland in a 80’s military landrover through the centre of Africa to be here, he had some crazy stories about getting put in prison in the Congo for 3 days en route and taking a secret agent across a few countries over 3 weeks – I love the people you meet on the road!

On day 2 I got peer pressured into bungee jumping off the bridge which crosses one of the gorges at Vic Falls. 110m freefall for $110 fee, extortionate – yes, but worth every cent! Jumping off the bridge, into a circular rainbow caused by the mist coming off the Falls, white water surging past beneath you and a full view of the Falls behind you as you bob up and down after your jump waiting to be reeled in. Don’t get me wrong, I was terrified but it was definitely something I would recommend.

You can feel the wet mist coming from the falls from nearly 1km away, it truly is something special and you can see the ‘smoke’ (read:mist) from miles and miles away surging up from the falls high into the sky, it’s difficult to describe it so you should come and see for yourself

The bridge that you jump off for the bungee :S

This day marked a special date too – the start of the world cup!! We watched Bafana Bafana (South Africa) draw with Mexico in the local bar and the atmosphere was great, I really hope an African side goes far in the tournament because the continent will go crazy. After the game we got dragged to another couple of bars and then to a Zambian club and let me tell you, these guys no how to have a good time!! Everyone ear to ear smiles, dancing like crazy, buying me drinks because I was a guest in their country – one of the best nights out I have ever had for sure, I clambered back to my dorm about 4am I think :S

Early start the next day, pretty standard in Africa it seems so everyone is up around 7am. I went with the crazy Dutchman and his car to National Park to see the Falls close up. The water levels at the moment are the highest they’ve been in 40 years so the mist is at an all-time high, which is a sight to behold. I think to get the best experience you would need to come both at the peak of wet season to see this and also at dry season to see the sheer size of the falls, or am I just looking at reasons to come back?! We walked around the park, monkeys running around EVERYWHERE, completely unperturbed by humans. I was walking around in flipflops when some guy tells me to go down a track because it’s beautiful but “watch out because I saw a cobra down there” WTF?! You don’t here too many sentences like that back in Ireland.

It’s almost needless to say but the Falls up close are something else. The noise is deafening and the volume of the water is incomprehensible, my photography does it no justice at all but here are a few snaps regardless:

At one point you cross a bridge probably 100 metres from the centre of the falls and as you cross you are entirely engulfed in the spray, literally soaked! Brilliant experience and you can hardly see anything due to the amount of water in the air – crazy.

I’m back in the hostel now, thinking about leaving Livingstone today  I have to be in Johannesburg by in 3 days for my first World Cup match and I have no idea how I am going to get there :S either through Botswana or Zimbabwe by bus I guess…

STOP PRESS:

Luckily I bumped into some guys who are also going to Johannesburg via Botswana although they are aiming to arrive one day later than me, rather than go alone like Steven F*cking Glansberg I thought I’d arrive in South Africa a day later with them. Anyway, that meant I could visit the Victoria Falls from the Zimbabwe side of the border this time so I nipped over to Zimbabwe today and WOW!!! I thought it was amazing yesterday… the Zim side  blows the Zam side out of the water, it was awe inspiringly beautiful today, from the Zim side you get a much better grasp on the sheer size of the falls and they are much better viewpoints so if you make it this far then go that extra step and check it out from Zimbabwe – you won’t regret it!

Backpacking In Zambia – Victoria Falls is a post from: onestep4ward.com

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I flew Air Zimbabwe from London to Harare, one-way and on my own – starting another leg of another (unplanned) trip around the world. The vague idea is to get from the bottom of Africa, all the way to the top by land over 6 months or so – taking in the World Cup, climbing Kilimanjaro and trekking with Gorillas in Uganda/Rwanda – all depending on the common constraint… cash :S

So I arrived in Harare on my own and to be honest I was pretty scared, never been to Africa before and I was all on my lonesome. The backpacking Gods were shining brightly on me though and I ended up meeting a Zimbabwean girl who asked me to help her lift her excess luggage off the conveyor belt onto her trolley. A little bit of chat ensued and to cut a long story short, within 90 minutes I was at her extended families place with her cousin getting fed breakfast by the maid!

Really, they were so nice. I spent my first day in Harare getting driven around by these 3 girls, shown the sights, introduced to the highend of society ( I gathered their social class early on, firstly by their massive house, security guests and 2 full-time ‘help’ and swcondly by the virtue of the fact that President Robert Mugabe went to her cousin’s wedding because she was married to the Secretary of Defence for Zimbabwe!!) so I landed on my feet and my African fears were quickly dissipated. That combined with the fact that Air Zimbabwe made a mistake with my flight so I was comped a 5* hotel in the city centre for my first night’s sleep in Africa made my initial experiences all the sweater!

Harare, as a city, is pretty nice – open, spacious roads punctuated with palm trees, but the poverty and disparity in wealth is there for all to see. The average monthly salary is around $150 but the cheapest accommodation there is $100 per night!!! It is NOT  a cheap place to travel, consider yourselves warned but it is interesting, and race/colour/creed or whatever you want to call it is never far from people’s tongue. The family took me out for drinks and I was having a conversation with one of their (black) friends about their group’s relative wealth. She began to tell me about the farm her family owned and she was so quick to insist it was nothing to do with Mugabe’s ‘reallocation’ of farms that I didn’t even have time to crack a joke about it

The next day, by a turn of fortune the ODI (One Day International) cricket final was on in Harare, featuring Zimbabwe (Zim to the locals) against Sri Lanka, by new-found, awesome friends soon had us in the corporate boxes section watching the final for free and a great day was had until I had to rush for my flight to Zambia.

In the airport I managed to obtain a couple of remnants from Zim’s recent turbulent economic past:

Anyways, awesome time was had, with awesome people met and I’m off to Zambia, a little scared all over again albeit not so much after such a positive opening experience to this beautiful continent.

Backpacking in Africa – Zimbabwe is a post from: onestep4ward.com

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