Stepping out

Nervous, anxious, even a hint of nausea.

I think they would be the perfect words to describe the emotions that course through the veins of any professional footballer when they see Paul Scholes approaching with his tackle face on.

As for me, I am due to fly out tomorrow morning (Saturday) at 6.00am, meaning I must be at the airport at around 4.00am, meaning it is unlikely I will sleep! I have had so much to do in recent days and weeks that I have hardly even thought about the fact that in a matter of days I will rolling through the deserts and vast landscape of Africa. I fly via Amsterdam to Nairobi and arrive in the Kenyan capital at around 8.30pm. Flying into a new continent at night will be rather overwhelming I think, but the fact that I have a pick-up awaiting when I get there is certainly reassuring. Then on Sunday morning we take off for the Masai Mara National Reserve, a huge game reserve filled with zebras, gazelles, cheetahs and all the rest of that bunch. I think it's fair enough to say that will be a rather nice start. The one possible hindrance on this trip is the time of the year I'm going; it's rainy season in most parts of Africa, meaning I will likely be subjected to huge rain storms every now and then. At the same time that could be a pretty incredible experience and the rain does dry up very quickly. But the big plus is, it is a good time for game viewing and for scenery as the grass is green and the landscape comes to life.

In preparation for my travels, I joined the 'dark side' and purchased an Iphone 4, which on first impressions is bloody sweet, although I'm not sure what good Football Manager 2010 is going to do to my social life on the trip! Anyways, it's loaded full of music and apps so I think that will keep me going during the quiet times.
Oh yeh, I'm also trying to bring my guitar with me, but I still have to get confirmation from the airline that I'm OK to do that. The guitar I think would keep me from boredom during the down times while apparently the tribes love when visitors can play music from their native country (although I'd imagine my tour-mates will soon get sick of Christy Moore's Ride On, leaving my uncultured self with a bit of a dilemma!).

Well, people, I shall try to keep this updated as often as possible (I didn't over the last month or so as my sitting in front of a Lonely Planet book and laptop was hardly worth talking about) and I'm hoping my iPhone app BlogPress should help me do that every couple of days for the most part. I intend to maybe make a video diary and also upload plenty of photos but from what I hear, that will be rather difficult given the internet services in most of the countries over there.

I must also add that this week I also booked the flights for the next step in my adventure, and I fly out to Bangkok from Dublin on January 8 for a 7 week adventure in South East Asia. Exciting times!

Keep in touch everyone and try and get following me (over on the right column) if you can. Talk to yous all soon!

Love and kisses,

Neil.