Part I: Man of the World
1 January 2009 – 31 December 2009
This is THE ODYSSEY!
The Odyssey is an epic adventure, a world first, a race against time, a year (or two) of living dangerously!! Scouse film maker Graham Hughes’
Day 1: Hey-Ho LET’S GO!
7.30am. Woke up to find that sand demons had filled my teeth with silica gel and that a brass band had barged its way into
Day 2: Global Positioning System
Arriving at some ungodly hour in Posadas, we took a taxi over the Paraguayan border. And back. I would love to tell you how much
Day 3: On The (Bolivian) Buses
Another very early morning and after joining me on the bus to San Salvador De Jujuy (pronounced HooHoy, which is something I’d expect Mr Burns
Day 4: Carry On Up The Andes
Arrived, shaken but not stirred, in Oruro, Bolivia. I felt the best course of action was to find out when the first bus for Chile
Day 5: Bo Diddily Crazy
The maid was supposed to wake me at 6.30, but didn’t. Luckily, by some miracle I woke up myself at 7am after clocking up a
Day 17: A Drunken Sailor
Spent the entire day at sea and in bed, trying to shake off the monster hangover from the night before while getting my video diary
Day 18: Bus Up Shut
Woke up still in Point Lisas, Trinidad. We hadn’t moved on to Port of Spain. Something was wrong – the electric generator had failed and
Day 19: The Port of Port of Spain
I stayed at the Inna City guesthouse, rose with the lark and headed down to the docks. All the boats were not leaving until Wednesday.
Day 20: September’s Coming Soon
Spent the day on the edge of my seat. Annette picked me up in the morning and took me to Chaguaramas where all the yachties
Day 21: Yelling At Neptune
We set off from the marina at around half two in the morning and headed north to Grenada. It was slow and painful, but at
Day 22: Union Island Blues
Currently sitting in the Tourist Centre opposite the jetty in Hillsborough, Carriacou island waiting for the guy who said he’d take me to Union Island
Day 57: Land Ahoy!
We arrived in Veracruz, Mexico at around 1pm local time. Yippee! Unfortunately for my itchy, goddamn-month-behind-schedule feet, the shipping agent says I’ve got to wait
Day 58: Go Yell It To The Ocean
The bus arrived at Tapachula near the Guatemalan border early in the morning to find another bus to Guatemala City waiting to take me away,
Day 59: Nineteen Seventy-Nine
I only slept for a few hours before we hit the El Salvador border and then it was off the bus, with queuing and formality.
Happy 30th Birthday Graham!
Congratulations on your 30th birthday, Graham…hope you like the pic!
Day 60: The Tailor of Panama
I arose before dawn for the last leg of the southern journey that had been necessitated by the fact that I didn’t get to go
Day 61: The Saviours of El Salvador
Back on the groovy bus up through Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras and El Salvador. No cute girl for me to annoy this time, but I
Day 106: The Iceland Cometh
It’s a funny old world – turns out the First Mate off the Reykjafoss used to be part of the original crew on board the
Day 107: Hoppípolla
Where is everyone? While the Reykjafoss was almost guaranteed to have the Captain, Andrey, Albert or Chivas knocking about, the Dettifoss is deserted at night.
Day 108: Well, It’s a Fair Row…
I managed to find the Captain this morning, after we had arrived in Torshavn in the Faroe Islands. He was disembarking to see a friend
Day 109: Western Approaches
After another night of tossing, turning, giving up and reading until light. Today I kicked around one the bridge with the Captain for a little
Day 110: Homeward Bound
we docked in Rotterdam at 5:45am and by 6am I was ready to get off the ship. However, I found myself pacing up and down on
Day 111: The Five Nation Pub Crawl
Wow! I mean, really, wow! Today really started last night when I was met by my top chums from the old school, Lindsey and Michelle,
Day 137: The Road To Casablanca
The plan was to get the 7.30am bus to the coast. However, however, however… we got a taxi to the southern bus station (a good
Day 138: Due South
The connection to the desert town of Dakhla – the furthest south one can go on public transport in Morocco – was seamless. I had
Day 139: The Mauritania Disaster
Yawning and creaking, I staggered off the bus. It was still dark in Dahkla. After a particularly weird conversation involving the local police and a
Day 140: Due North
My bus arrived in Agadir at 6pm. By 7:30pm I was on the bus to Rabat, safe within my womb. I touch no-one and no-one
Day 141: Letters of Transit
Now I know how Ilsa felt. But at least she had Rick to save the day. I arrived in Rabat at 5am. I tried to
Day 142: Access Granted
I just found out that this change in the rules about getting a visa on the border came into effect LAST WEEK. Bad timing or
Day 218: Nigeria, Solo
After getting to the hotel, I had worked for an hour or so on getting a video speech for my mate Michelle’s wedding uploaded onto
Day 219: Thunder Road
At 6am, Tony kindly dropped me off at the nearby taxi rank and before too long, I was sitting under a flyover in a minibus
Day 220: Glastonburied
Roland woke me up by firing up his little generator outside the hut. The lights came on and so did the telly. Wow we take
Day 221: Monsooner Or Later…
After a couple of hours of shuteye, it was back on the case for your favourite ginger wanderer here. We left the house in search
Day 222: TCHAD!
The train arrived at 7am in the central Cameroon town of N’Gaoundéré and, if we were VERY lucky, we could make a border hop to
Day 223: Think Once, Think Twice…
We arrived back at the railhead of N’Gaoundéré at about oh, God knows?, and promptly checked into a nearby hovel for about three hours of
Day 272: A Breath of Fresh Air
Arrrrrrgh! ANOTHER get-up-at-5am-bus-leaves-at-11am day. I tell you, good information is priceless. Cliff and I wound up hanging about for hours before we actually left, but
Day 273: Intercape Mainliner
It was a comfortable night on Tashia’s couch, interrupted only by the once-an-hour shrill of my mobile phone waking me to change the video tapes
Day 274: Cool Run-Ins
So… into the tenth month on the road and I finally, finally reach South Africa, what had, in my original estimation, been the half-way point
Day 275: Five Quid A Page?!
The British High Commission in Pretoria is a little tricky to find – I wandered about for about half-an-hour before I realised that the building
Day 276: A Break for the Border
A little water to help slacken my brain’s outer membrane and I shook off my hangover. Andy and I compared notes from the previous evening,
Day 277: The Nuns of Gaborone
Best blog entry title of The Odyssey? Up at 6am and down to the nearby service station where one goes to cadge a lift to
Day 305: The Hangover
Urgh. What a stupid idea THAT was. I woke up at 3pm, realising instantly that at 3pm, I’m supposed to be on board the Trochetia
Day 306: The Reunion in Réunion
Finally free of the good ship Trochetia (at least for a while) I made my way from La Port to St. Denis and caught the
Day 307: Passportout
TEAM ODYSSEY has a tentative lead – a cargo ship, the “DAL Madagascar” leaves here on Thursday (today is Tuesday), perhaps bound for Madagascar. This
Day 308: Vans Across The World
My poor old Vans. Used, abused, stuck to my feet for over 300 days of constant toil and hardship and now imbued with a smell
Day 309: The DAL Madagascar
The guys from next door came over for a farewell breakfast, which kind of spilled over to a farewell elevenses and then a farewell lunch.
Day 310: Slight Return
So by a bizarre set of coincidences, I find myself back in Mauritius. That’s okay – the last time that I came here, I actually