Travis


 

Well it all started when I was searching for contests on http: www.contest.com when I saw this add on there about an all expenses paid free trip to Africa. So I entered the contest and in a couple weeks I got an email that I won the contest and I got the tickets that next day. Now I'm off to what I think is going to be Egypt.

The first place that I visited was Karnak, Egypt. Here I will be doing

Day 1: While I was there, I went on a three day dirt biking trip and the exiting part was that I had never been on a dirt Bike in my life, so I had to learn how to do it step-by-step.  When I was going there, I thought it was going to be just some old raggedy-sack village, but it turned out that it was actually very beautiful there. And the awesome thing is that I was able to see the pyramids right from my hotel balcony. Well after my first day in Africa I went to the hotel for a well deserved rest.

Day 2: Right after breakfast the next day, I started on the dirt biking tour again, right after figuring trying out how to get on the dirt bike bike again of course. While on the the tour I found out some amazing stuff like that Egypt is actually 50 feet below sea level, and that until around 525 BC Egypt was ruled by the Persians.It turns out that the guy that told me all of this actually wrote part of infoplease.com which was very cool to meet that person. Speaking about things below sea level, I got to visit the Qattara Depression which is 436 feet below sea level. My ears started to pop when I went down there. after that I went strait to bed totally exhausted from all of my exitment twords the next day of the tour.

Day 3: The next day I rushed through my breakfast to get right back to the tour. And I finally did the the thing that I have always wanted to do in Egypt for the past two days, and that is visiting the pyramids! I'm still wondering how they built the pyramids, but they probley had lots of time to build them since they were one of the first civilizations in the whole world. after I did all that exploring I said good bye to some of the friends that I made and gave out some email addresses. Now I'm off to the next country. 



The second place that I visited was Ihosy, Madagascar. Anyways, I'm going to be surfing for today and tomorrow then I'm going on to scuba diving (Man, there is no end to the things that I don't no how to do.) then move on to the next country.

Day 1: When I was flying above Madagascar, it looked like it was like twice the size of Arizona. when I was passing the northwest, there was a whole bunch of farms. Oh, and did you know that Madagascar was the fourth-largest island in the world. I'm really exited now that I'm going to be surfing. (Oh boy, another sport that I have no idea how to do.) First I'm going to have to learn how to surf, then I can go on to the real thing. After falling a couple times I finally learned the basics to surfing (Well it's a good thing I'm a fast learner...at some things anyway.) I was finally able to do some tricks after a little while like riding some bigger waves. they said something about there being a surfing contest so I need to do some training if I want to win it. Well after a day of falling, slipping, and tripping at the beach, I went to my luxury hotel for a good nights sleep.

Day 2: Today I got up very early so that I could get some training in before the contest. A couple hours later they had the contest and it turns out that the contest was a barrel ridding contest. After every one went through the contest they gave out the results and scores, and I actually got second place! Well after much exitment I went back to the hotel that was right next to the beach. But when I was heading there saw a whole bunch of lemurs just hanging out in the trees right by the hotel that I was staying at.

Day 3: I rushed through breakfast to get to my first time scuba diving. I found out that scuba diving isn't as hard as I thought it was going to be. Besides almost strangling myself trying to put on the gear, It was pretty fun. Seeing all the exotic fishes there in the water. After drying myself off I packed up my stuff and headed to the airport to go to the next country.



<span style="color: rgb(235, 30, 30)"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)">The third place that I visited was Limbe, Cameroo <span style="color: rgb(235, 30, 30)"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)">n. Here I'm going to be taking a three day African wild life safari with the Rhumsiki and the Garoua tribes.

<span style="color: rgb(235, 30, 30)"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)">Day 1: <span style="color: rgb(235, 30, 30)"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)">I can’t wait till I get to Cameroon. The reason why I am saying that is because that the people that scheduled my trip had some connections with the Rhumsiki and the Garoua tribes, so now I can stay in their village and be included in their culture. And when I was reading the email they gave me about Cameroon, I noticed that they produced a lot of petroleum there. When I finally landed at the air port and got my bags, a small group of the Rhumsiki and Garous emediatly took me to their village. When I got there, they treated me just like a king there. For dinner they had some of the best food that I've had in this whole vacation. We had some grilled chicken with side dish of bread sticks stuffed with manioc leaves and topped off with some fresh garlic spread. Then when I was going to the place where I was going to my room I noticed that there was a hamic in stead of a bed, so that night I slept in a hamic. <span style="color: rgb(235, 30, 30)"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)"> Day 2: The next day they gave me a five star bed (or hamic) and breakfast. (I told you they treated me like a king.) Then after breakfast, we all hopped into the jeep and got out our cameras to take some pictures of wild life. The first animal I saw was a small group of kangaroo's. Then a little while later I saw a group of lions, tigers, and cheetahs. That night I wen strait to bed since I stayed up till 1:00 AM playing limbo. And it was kind of weird last night because all kids looked at me as if I was from a completely different planet of some thing.

Day 3: On the final day of my vacation in Cameroon, We got into the jeep pretty early, like at 6:00 in the morning (or some thing like that) so we could get a good look at some of the birds in the wild, and I need a l to leave a little bit early so that I could leave for Kenya before it gets dark there. The first bird that I saw out there was a flamingo. (And no, it was not a tacky lawn ordament that my great grandma keeps like a million of in her front lawn.) The next thing that I saw was some tucan's in a tree trying to teach their young how to fly. (Then I emidiately started to think about the Fruit Loop's commercial on TV. And the final thing that I saw was a Cinnyris reichnowi. (Which is a very long name.) Now I'm off to the next country which I think is going to be Kenya.  <span style="color: rgb(235, 30, 30)"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)">

<span style="color: rgb(235, 30, 30)"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)">The fourth place that I visited was Mombasa, Kenya. Here I will be going on a hot air balloon ride first off. Then I will be feeding and tending to some of the elephants there. <span style="color: rgb(235, 30, 30)"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)"> <span style="color: rgb(235, 30, 30)"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)">Day 1: When I was looking at my GPS, I noticed that Kenya was right on the equator so I knew that it was going to be pretty hot out side. Which reminds me of that time that I went to Puerto Rico on the hottest day of the year, I remember that when I walked out of the plain I immidiatly caught on fire. (Okay maybe not immidiatly, but it sure did feal like it did.) That's probley why people were giving me the "why is he doing that" look as I was running on the side walk asking people for ice. Well it took the plain like a whole day to get there and when I got unpacked I wen strait to my bed and watched TV for a little bit then I went to sleep soon after.

Day 2: The next day I got up at like 12:00 and got in the car to take of for the field that that they told me to go to, where they will aready have the hot air balloon waiting for me. To pass some time I read a information article on Kenya's historical background, and I found out that paleontologists believe people may first have inhabited Kenya about 2 million years ago and the main groups of tribes are the Bantu. As soon as I got there, the pilot and I got in to the hot air balloon and took off into the sky. It only took about 25 minutes for my ears to do their pop rock imitation from going high up into the sky. Then 5 minutes later I was able to see the beach way off in the distance. Then. After a couple hours of site seeing and picture taking, we finally touched ground. (and I kissed the ground)

Day 3: The next morning after I noticed that the whole time that I've been in here I never caught on fire. (like that time in Puerto Rico) Then the people that owned the presservetory came by to pick me up and give me a private escort. (Ooooooo, fancy!) I also noticed that there were a lot of farmers here in Kenya. When we all go there they unlocked the fence to the elephant park to feed them. At first I thought that they would just feed them a barrel full of peanuts but I found out that their diet actually consists of mostly grass, shrubs, leaves, roots, and bark from any of the tree's found in their habitat. After we fed them I rode back to my hotel, packed up my stuff, and headed out for the next country.



<span style="color: rgb(248, 18, 18)"> FRIDAY – MAY 23 **(end of period) – Country 5 Diary and Current Event** The fifth place that I visited was Ibadan, Nigeria. Here I will be doing some paragliding and I'm also going to be doing some hang gliddi. (Some thing that I have always wanted to do my whole life.) And this is all going to take place on the Mandara mountains. So let's get started on the last country on my vacation.

<span style="color: rgb(235, 30, 30)"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)">Day 1: When I was on the plain looking at the map of Nigeria, I noticed that Nigeria was about one-third larger than Texes. (Wow, that's more wider than Mexico's largest area.) Than when I finally landed, I rode to my hotel, got unpacked, ate dinner, watched TV, then I went to bed.

Day 2: That next morning I rushed through breakfast to get to my last event on my vacation. When I was ridding to the hang glidding sight, I read a brochure on the historical background of Nigeria that the people at the air port gave me to read. And I found out that Nigeria was first inhabited by the Nok people <span style="color: rgb(235, 30, 30)"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)"> (500 B.C.–c.  <span style="color: rgb(235, 30, 30)"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)"> 200  <span style="color: rgb(235, 30, 30)"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)">A.D.  <span style="color: rgb(235, 30, 30)"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)">)  who soon found out that was oil there and has been dependent on it ever since. When We got there, I immediately flew out of the car because I was so exited to be there. But fist I had to practice a little bit so I don't end up falling out of the sky while doing the real thing. So I had to head over to the seven foot hight clift. After a little while I found out that it was just like flying a paper airplane. To go upward, point the tip up. If you want to go down, point the tip downward. then I spent the rest of the day figuring out how to open and how to steer a paraglidder. I had trouble falling a sleep that night because I was so exited about doing the real thing tomorrow afternoon.

<span style="color: rgb(235, 30, 30)"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)">Day 3: The next day I did basicly the same thing that I did yesterday morning complete with flying down the stairs. When I was ridding in the car, I noticed that there was a lot of Islamic church's in Nigeria, it's probley because the country is under the influences of Islamic cultures. When I got there I went strait to the clift and got ready to take off. Then after getting a running start I took off into the air and flew way up above the Mandara mountains right by a flock of birds. After a couple hours of flying, I landed, went back to the hotel got all packed off and headed for home.



Whew, I'm finally done with my 15 days of the African vacation that I won. Yea I'm pretty sad that it's all done and over with, but it was really fun anyways, since most people in their whole life time.

Thanks for reading, Bye!