Home!

Well, I spent my official last night of the trip in London with Tim and Pascale. It was really good fun. We went out for a beer at a pub on the Thames and then dinner near Tower bridge. They're both doing quite well, working and enjoying London life. It was fantastic talking to Tim again about all of the adventures we all shared (with Matt of course) through Nepal, Tibet, India, Switzerland, and Germany. He remembered things I had forgotten and vice versa. It would have been awesome if Matt had been there to complete the crew, hopefully all three of us can meet up someday soon. Right now Matt's in South America, and from all reports, it sounds like he's having an excellent time.

Enjoy some of the last views of the trip.

Tim, Pascale, and I. In London.


Tower Bridge, London.


the wharf area, Thames river, London.


Tower Bridge and Thames River, London.


Night London.

A couple of odd signs on the walk by the river:

steaming X's? hmm. And what exactly makes it anti-climb paint?
it wasn't slippery...

I slept well on my last night and had a quick breakfast the next morning, said farewell to Tim. I took the Tube to Heathrow and boarded my last plane of the journey.


It was great; my flight home was the most comfortable of the trip. Nice new airbus, Virgin Atlantic tricked it out with bigger seats, huge flat screens for all, a great entertainment system with 20+ movies, tv shows, video games, music, live flight maps with satellite imagery, and great food. With all that in economy, I can't imagine what's in First Class. Because of all the toys, I didn't sleep at all.


First sight of America below, it had been quite a while.

I'm roughly estimating 38,000 miles covered, The vast majority of those on 18 separate flights, but substantial miles were covered on various buses, trains, taxis, matatus, tuk-tuks, boda-bodas, bicycles, and footsteps. 20 countries visited, passport filled, new pages added, all in a little less than 9 months. 254 days, not that I was counting.

So, right, I'm back home. Safe and sound. Trip Done. Over. Finished. Feels weird. But so great to see friends and family again.

My folks met me at Washington/Dulles with a sign which read "MOLONEY," I picked them out of the crowd instantly. It was great, hugs all around and lots to talk about. There was also a nice "welcome back Pat" banner on the house. I'm extremely lucky to have such understanding and supportive parents, family, and friends. Thanks again for giving me the confidence to reach high, always knowing there's a big net to catch me if I fall. Luckily, this time, I didn't fall.

Sure, I left some skin in a few places, on a road in India, and on a bike trail in South Africa. Spilled a little blood, swallowed my pride, learned to be patient, learned when shut up, and more importantly when to speak up. Got sick a few times, went liquid, never trusted a fart, barfed until I couldn't barf anymore. Made new friends and no enemies, fell in love, fell out of love. Was sometimes freezing cold, boiling hot, incredibly tired, exhausted, frustrated, scared; but I wouldn't have changed a thing. I was pick pocketed, lost some things, but ended up gaining so much more. Spent money, but earned experience.

So what's next? Good question. I'll let you know when I find the answer.

London Layover

The weather was pretty cold and rainy in Kaapstad (Cape Town) for my last few days, but since having mostly fine weather on my first visit, I couldn't complain. Still had one last nice afternoon for a run around the city and some outside market souvenir shopping. I also caught up with the lovely and gracious Sara and friends who are studying abroad at the University of Cape Town. I had met them a few weeks before at a hostel in Plett Bay and again in Storms River. We sank some pitchers of Sangria at a waterfront Mexican place the night I got back from Durban and then we all went out to the bars near UCT. It was a really fun night, and a good time spent with a good group of Americans. I'm really looking forward to seeing everyone back home, still can't believe it's tomorrow.

I also bumped into Toya from Buccs and we went out to some live music on Long street. Then on my last night, I went out for a really nice sushi dinner with Sara and Liz at a cool seafood place and some good times at a few bars afterwards. After that fun last night in Africa, it was goodbye. I packed up for the long flight to London and took off. British Airways made the ride comfortable and easy and I had some interesting company on that trip too.

So yeah, back in London now. I was in Africa for quite a while, and a few things jumped out at me when I got here. First, there's so many white people. Obvious I know, just not used to it yet. And what's with everyone so dressed up, clean, and in such a rush? When the train into the city stopped briefly, someone made an announcement as to why the train stopped and when it would start again, amazing. It's almost as if time and schedules are important here. I'm afraid this will take some getting used to.

I met up with Tim at his new apartment, uh, 'flat' and am now touring around the city. We're going out tonight, then I'm heading home tomorrow. I will talk to you all soon, and in person.

I'd like say a very sincere thank you to you and everyone else who's followed, enjoyed, commented, contributed, sponsored, joined up, and whom I've met during this trip. It's been an absolutely fantastic journey and adventure, which you've all contributed to in some way. All of you have enhanced this experience and motivated me to share it with you as much as I could, and I wish I could have done more. Thank you all and I'll make a more official farewell post sometime after I get home.

Just so you know, this whole trip started as a brief conversation with Matt while in my car on I-270 a few years ago. He had just come from Africa and was saying how much he'd love to go back and climb Kili. I said if he ever did that I'd like to join him; and look what happened. We certainly climbed Kili and did a whole lot more. Big things start small.

Lekker Bru

Well, it's been an active trip up the coast from Jeffery's Bay with lots of fun in the sun. I've officially started the journey home, by catching a flight from Durban back to Cape Town this morning. From here, I hang out for a few days in the 'Mother City' (Cape Town was the first settlement in South Africa, by the Dutch), hopefully catching up with a few friends I've met along the way. Then take a long haul to London on the 22nd. It's a quick stop there to catch up with the London crew and then back to Frederick, Maryland on the 24th. When saying I'm from "Frederick, Maryland" the following conversation usually ensues: Where's that? It's on the east coast, near Washington DC, the Capital. Oh, is that near Seattle? Nope, that's Washington State, on the west coast. Oh, East coast? Yes, the east coast, the side that New York is on. Oh ok! I got it. So I usually just say "Maryland, near Washington DC, below New York."

Anyway, from J-Bay, I headed to Port Elizabeth, a bigger city for a night, then on to East London. Stayed at a cool place there called SugarShack, right on the beach, then headed off inland to a place called Hogsback. J.R.R. Tolken (author of the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings) apparently once lived and got some of his inspiration there. It was easy to see why, all around there were mountains, waterfalls, and thick lush forests. I went for a couple of great hikes, and one sweet bike ride. Met some fun Swiss, a crazed Scotsman, and an even crazier South Africa who were all up for some fun in the mountains. The Scottish guy, Stu, was the chef at the hostel and avid mountain biker, it was really fun to be out on the bike with another keen rider.


View from the hostel lawn.


A beautiful fall day in the Southern Hemisphere.


One of many cool waterfalls.


The swiss crew I went hiking with.


Sunset, moon rise. Wax on, wax off.


the view from the hostel tree house, 40ft up a shaky ladder in a huge pine tree. A tricky climb with cold beer in hand.


the Hogsback Inn, nice spot.


The trail markings were hard to miss.


Madonna falls.


Waterfall # 342...


Sunset, moon rise.


I turned on the lights and look who's on my bed! no joke.
My Reef flipflop gently escorted this guy off the bed and onto the floor. He was then flung, again by flipflop, out the door and safely into the yard. This scorpion was actually not too dangerous, big pinchers/small stinger means he uses his pinchers to kill stuff and not the stinger, so it would have only been as bad as a bee sting. Not that it stung me, or the sandal.


After sunset, then moon rise. The stars were spectacular. We were so far from any cities, they some of the best I've seen, clear and bright.

From Hogsback, I caught a shuttle van to Cintsa and the awesome backpackers place: Buccaneers. It was a really really great place.


View from my room.


One of the staff and Toya, my Israeli scavenger hunt partner. Everyday at 4pm there's a free activity for everyone with free wine included. What an inspired idea? We won the scavenger hunt and had a lot of fun doing it. We won a free breakfast the next day and made it huge.

Went for another bike ride. From the hills to the ocean.


ocean view, fun fast downhill.


We rode across the beach back to Buccs.


My place.


The volleyball with free wine crew. left to right: Peter(Ireland), Caroline(Ireland), Sam(UK), Kate(Scotland), Girl on bench smiling?(S.Africa), Steve(Ireland), Emily(UK), Mark(Denmark) sitting on the ground, Maria(Denmark), and Richard in blue shirt(UK).


Amanda(Minnesota, USA) and me on the breakfast deck. She worked at Buccs and was super cool and great fun. She lead the scavenger hunt (with free wine) and the mud walk through lagoon (with free wine).


View of the lagoon and beach from the 'main house' at Buccs.


View from bus window on the road to Durban.

Lekker Bru roughly means "Nice One Brother" in Afrikaans and is heard quite frequently whilst traveling around S. Africa.

beach life

the careless and the carless

Around the coast of South Africa, east of Cape Town, is the 'garden route.' I headed on a bus from Cape Town to the beach town of Plettensburg Bay, or Plett. It was a quiet little spot tucked into a huge bay which routinely gets visits by all kinds of whales, dolphins, sharks, and seals. Because it's almost winter here in the southern hemisphere the water is quite cold, so I opted for a nice long day hike around a cool pennisula instead of a swim.



Hike around Plett bay.


This side was getting bashed by the Indian Ocean, while the other side was pretty calm and had hundreds of seals lying about.

Storms River
After two days in Plett at a great hostel, I headed up to Storms River to do some more hiking and biking... I met a big group of American girls on holiday from their semester at University of Cape Town, a fun bunch for sure, we hung out for a bit.

Went for a mountain bike ride with an Australian girl, April, in Storms River. It was so much fun to be back on a bike again, it was 22km ride with a ambitious hike in the middle. great day.


The very dark waters of the storms river dump into the Indian ocean just down there.


the unfinished bridge we walked across to get to the National park on the other side. It held.


art?


a cool waterfall that I could hear but not see off the side of the trail. I cut through the thick bush down to it and got a couple of good photos; and also picked up quite a few ticks in the process. After coming back up to the trail, I danced around stripping off my cloths trying to get all the ticks (they carry some funky disease). I think I was successful, no symptoms yet. fingers crossed.

me, bike, happy.


On the ride back into 'town' I saw these guys playing soccer and thought it looked nice with the mountain in the background.


downtown Storms River.

From Storms I took yet another bus (i've been thinking about changing the name of this blog from 'walk the earth' to 'bus the earth,' as that would be just as accurate.) Anyway, it was a quick ride to Jeffery's Bay where I am now. A great spot right on the beach, fun crowd, great surf, just about perfect.


location, location...


Oi, oi! Adrian, my roommate and surf buddy, saying hello at the Island Vibe Backpackers. We may suck at surfing, but have a great time out there.


View from the loo.


wind blown surf right on our doorstep.


The sweet guesthouse kitchen, where I whip up massive bowls of pasta and my current breakfast favorite; toast covered in baked beans and a silly amount of cheddar melted on top. a healthy start to a day on the water.