Janet's Travels

I was born in Ghana, West Africa [thanks to dad doing contract civil engineering work there] and lived 1st 10 years of life hopping between Ghana, UK and Zambia. From age 11 I settled in Cape Town. I grew up + was schooled here. Having spent a large percentage of my existence in Africa somewhere, the "African ways' have rubbed off on me. Due to the 'temporary' kind of lifestyle I grew up with [living in different places and going to a multitude of different schools in my early years], caused the travel bug to be very firmly planted inside. Altho' it took most of my life to discover + unearth it, travel is in my blood and I think always has been. Eventually I hope to make this an interesting account of how travel, the world, its cultures and its people have untapped the free spirited person that has been trapped inside all my life. There is most definitely more to life than material possessions, money, politics and war. What follows from here on, attempts to describe how my life did an about-turn and how it has affected me long term... The other discovery is that I love to write. I've always kept personal diaries + journals + have yearned to find an outlet for them [even considered writing a book once but didn't know WHERE to start]! Then I found RealTravel... 1986: First trip overseas as an adult [UK + EUROPE]. 1997: Left CAPE TOWN for London. 1998: Lived/worked in LONDON. Travelled to NORTH AMERICA. 1999: Still based in London. Travelled to AUSTRALIA. 2000: Still based in London! Travelled to NEPAL. Trekked to EVEREST. 2001: Stillllll in London! Did numerous countries in Europe: BELGIUM, AUSTRIA, SWITZERLAND. 2002: To GREECE and then back to Cape Town. 2003: TANZANIA. Climbed KILIMANJARO. SERENGETI, NGOROGORU CRATER, ZANZIBAR. 2006: Travel bug bites again. Travelled overland to EASTERN EUROPE, RUSSIA, SIBERIA, MONGOLIA, CHINA + TIBET. The earlier journals aim to look back and reflect on past travels that myself and my partner at the time undertook [not yet completed]. We'd made a big decision to literally pack up, move to London, base ourselves there, earn pounds and see some of the world. We lived in Cape Town, South Africa [I still do] and owned a house [I still do]. The cars, other possessions and the permanent jobs that we both had became something of the past. A non-materialistic and more transient and nomadic lifestyle was to become the norm. One year turned into two. Two into three. Three into four... In April 2006 I once again packed up and left to hit the backpacker trail, this time with a long-standing friend of many years - David - also a widely travelled person. [Note: a lot of the dates are place holders only, so I could map out our journeys]. Eventually I'll get to complete the blog.