10 Pieces update – one step closer to reality with your help

I’ve been sporadically asking you for favours for ‘10 Pieces’. But again, I thought it might be good to summarise my progress with the initiative.

To recap, I came up with the idea on a trip to Kyrgyzstan with my Mum. We were walking around a stunning National Park that was spoilt by litter and I suddenly wondered what could be achieved if everyone coming through picked up 10 pieces of litter. This gave birth to 10 Pieces today, which is ‘an environmental sustainable tourism initiative encouraging group tour travellers to pick up 10 pieces of litter per day of their overseas tour’.

Fast forward to 2011 when I created this blog and decided to try implementing 10 pieces on my 11 months in Africa. I cannot begin to claim I picked up 10 pieces of litter every single day but on my trip, I picked up litter when and where I could and was motivated to – often picking up a hell of a lot more than 10 pieces. In any case, it gave me many insights into how I could make this initiative work. See my previous blog entries here:

http://10piecescleaner.blogspot.com.au/2011/07/10-pieces-pledge.html

http://10piecescleaner.blogspot.com.au/2011/12/essaouira.html

http://10piecescleaner.blogspot.com.au/2012/03/climbing-up-and-skiing-down-mount.html

http://10piecescleaner.blogspot.com.au/2012/04/10-pieces-update.html

Upon returning to reality (Sydney), I had already missed the first two weeks of my final semester of my Master of Business in International Marketing. I got back on a Monday night and then had night classes that Tuesday, Thursday and Friday where I was already a tad behind. Struggling with the jetlag was the least of my problems! On the Friday night, I had the Capstone subject of my Masters – Business Project. That night I was informed that our proposal for the topic we planned to individually research for the semester was due on Monday at 5pm. Panic! Normally I would base projects on my job but given I’d just gotten back from 11 months travelling and was at uni full time, I couldn’t do that. It was a little 'out there', but I hesitantly asked my lecturer if I could research whether or not ‘10 Pieces’ should launch and fortunately she agreed.

That semester was a tough one with 3 subjects competing for my attention and as I actually cared about ‘10 Pieces’ I devoted an excess amount of time to it. Two focus groups, seven one-on-one interviews with Marketing Managers and Responsible Tourism Managers from adventure tour companies, one-on-one interviews with Clean Up Australia and Two Hands Project, and an online survey with 194 respondents later (which many of you completed for me – thank you!), I had completed my research and then spent considerably more time analysing it all. Fortunately it all paid off with a High Distinction (90%!)

I was overwhelmed by the interest shown by both travellers and group tour companies alike, which propelled me to registering 10 Pieces as a company in February this year. Since then, and after volunteering at Coogee Beach for Clean Up Australia Day, I found out about a competition called ‘The G Project’ which sources ideas that will have a positive impact on our planet. One person from each category: Freedom; Beauty; Knowledge; and Community will win a trip to Costa Rica to pitch their idea to a panel of judges for the chance to win $25,000 towards implementing it. This could be the perfect way to kick start 10 Pieces and I am doing my best to get as many votes as possible, a criteria to get considered by the judges.

To help, if you haven’t already, please register by creating a profile, click on the email link you receive, sign in and then visit this link http://www.thisisyourplanet.com/ideas/beauty/128 and click on ‘Vote for this idea’. You can vote every day until 3 June and every vote counts. Commenting adds to my overall score (pulse) too so please feel free to leave your thoughts. If you’re still reading this post now you must either be one of my hardcore fans (hi again, mum! x.) or you must really want to make a difference to the environment. So thank you in advance for your help!

An initial shortlist will be announced on 4^th June and the 4 finalists will be announced on the 24^th June. I really think I have a chance at getting considered for this – at least within the initial shortlist. But not without your help! Please vote for my idea and help make it a reality.

Thanks also to those of you who have already supported me by completing my survey, encouraging me to keep pursuing the initiative, and more recently voting for my idea. You rock! Let’s make this happen!

How can you help?

Vote daily until 3 June 2013: http://www.thisisyourplanet.com/ideas/beauty/128

Follow 10 Pieces on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/10PiecesCleaner

Follow 10 Pieces on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/3117748?trk=company_search

Where the heck did I go for 11 months? And what else can you read about my trip?

I'm assuming some of you will be curious about the 1st question. And only my hardcore fans will care about the 2nd question (hi, Mum! x.)

I started off volunteering for a month at Thanda Private Game Reserve in South Africa. I then went hiking in search of lemurs in Madagascar for 2 weeks. And then I lost the plot and went overland from the UK to Cape Town to Cairo. I was supposed to get off in Cape Town but decided, what the hell, I may as well keep going for another 3 months and finish off the trip.

For those of you who have been finding it a bit hard to follow exactly where I went, this is the route we travelled on our Oasis Overland 40 week 'Trans Africa' trip.

The next Trans trip is actually starting on 10 November 2013 so feel free to book here! Our trip took a slightly different route as we went through Mali instead. You can see more details of our West African route here (thanks to Guber!)

For the fans(!)...

Aside from this blog, I've generated the following content about my 11 months in Africa:

African Impact volunteering (South Africa)

• African Impact blog - http://www.africanimpact.com/blog/guest-bloggers/volunteer-in-the-heart-of-the-untamed-african-bush/
• Thanda photobook - http://au.blurb.com/books/3986566-making-a-difference-one-less-poacher-in-thanda

Explore tour (Madagascar)

• Madagascar photobook - http://au.blurb.com/books/4303958-i-like-to-move-it-move-it

Oasis Overland Trans Africa tour (UK to Cairo)

• Cameroon article - http://www.oasisoverland.co.uk/blog/2012/06/18/oasis-overland-trans-africa-group-is-famous-in-cameroon/
• Oasis Overland photo comp 2nd place winner - http://www.oasisoverland.co.uk/photocomp_winner.php?id=566
• Wanderlust blog of the week - http://www.wanderlust.co.uk/magazine/blogs/blog-of-the-week/blog-of-the-week-rocking-the-rock-churches-of-lalibela?utm_campaign=Newsletter+06%2F09%2F2012&utm_medium=Newsletter&utm_source=email

Photobooks on my Oasis Overland 40 week adventure are yet to come. They are going to take some time...!

And I am desperately trying to get a hold of the Nigerian News segment from my Nigerian Government friends. Now that is some coverage...Stay tuned...

What we missed the most whilst overlanding and what we didn't miss

This is a list of things I compiled that our group missed the most whilst being on the road:

• Loved ones inc. family and friends
• Closely followed by food e.g. cheese, yoghurt, fresh fruit, icecream, calamari, Tim Tams, salt and vinegar crisps, baked dinners..
• Hanging out on our couches
• Watching trashy soapies
• Using a phone
• Exercise – gym, kickboxing, rock climbing, salsa, etc.
• Sleeping in
• Having a nap without people taking photos of you
• Getting around without having to see people naked all the time even at breakfast!
• Cold drinks especially cold beer
• Hot showers (or even just any shower)
• Toilets
• Forced toilet stops – not being able to when you need to but being forced to go when you don’t
• A bug-free night
• A bed
• Somewhere to spread out
• Privacy, privacy, privacy – you can’t even pee on your own
• Noisy sex (for the couples evidently!)
• Any sex (for the singles!!!)
• Not having to face a truck to go to the toilet
• News of the outside world
• Being able to go into a shop and getting what you want/need
• Fast internet (or even just internet as often we don’t have any access to it)
• Not being constantly on the move or having to see something
• Not sleeping on bedding that deflates in the night
• Not having cracked hands
• Not having a washing machine

Not really that much I guess. Living the dream – love our lives!

And here’s what we didn’t miss:

• Work (every day of the week is a Saturday – woo hoo!)
• Deadlines
• Bills
• Routine
• Monotony of everyday life
• Politics
• Where boredom is doing your laundry in Pointe Noire, Congo, not working 12 hour days at home
• Geelong (Dom)
• Lack of colour
• Chavs / bogans (Lee!)
• Predictability (love the randomness Africa has to offer)
• Lack of street meat
• Flatness of Australia (Dom)
• Wet summer that Sydney just had [2011-2012] (we had 2 ½ months of not a single rainy day)

On the serious side though, a trip like this makes you more appreciative if nothing else. When I got back, I appreciated running water, I appreciated my bed, I appreciated the food I'm used to eating and most importantly I appreciated all my friends and family who had supported me taking this trip in the first place. Never again will I take anything for granted.

A glimpse of Egypt then homeward bound!

The phone rung at 3am with our chirpy wake up call. Ugh. We rolled out of bed and shortly after were on our way to Abu Simbel. Our first stop was at a hotel where all other tourist buses and minivans congregated so we could all leave in a convoy for safety. It took several hours to get there and luckily most of us managed to get some more sleep.

When we arrived, our guide, Romani, sat us down and told us all about the Egyptian culture and the history of these two temples. Ramses II had one temple built for himself and one for Nefertari his wife, dedicated to Hathor, the Goddess of Motherhood (taking 20 years to complete). Ramses was the greatest warrior but he was selfish as he asked people to worship him here – until then worshipping was only for the gods. Further, the temple he had built for Nefertari contains four statues of him and only two of her!

The two temples were carved into the mountain in the 13^th century BC though they were relocated from the lake edge below when they were working on the High Dam (between 1964-68) otherwise they would now be underwater. The temple relocation was incredible. The temples were cut into huge pieces weighing up to 30 tonnes each and the joints were only allowed to be a maximum of 6mm according to the contract but mostly they were only 4mm. You could barely notice the joins and the only real damage is to the 2^nd statue which was broken after an earthquake in the 6^th century AD.

Most of the other tourists had left after an hour or so, giving us the site almost to ourselves, which was incredible. It was low season too and perhaps tourism hadn’t yet picked back up in Egypt at that point in August 2012.

The next morning’s start was much more leisurely at 9am when we left for Aswan Dam. Turkey, our guide, told us the dam has 180 emergency gates. The high dam is 60km south of the low dam and has 12 turbines, each generating 175,000kw of power for electricity. The other benefits include keeping Egypt from flooding, keeping the crocs away from the Nile and saving temples, although there are still four underwater.

Our next stop was the Temple of Philae dedicated to Isis, the goddess of faith, entertainment and love, the Mistress of the Universe. Again this site was relocated and you can see the iron pylons in the nearby water where the old site used to be.

Finally we visited the unfinished obelisk – what would have been the biggest until they discovered a fault in it and abandoned it.

And thus ended my brief glimpse of Egypt as I had to come back and finish the last 3 subjects of my Masters and had already missed the first two weeks by that stage. We had a Nubian dinner farewell followed by drinks in one of our hotel rooms. The red and white wines we’d bought were so horrendous we couldn’t drink them so we had ‘Volga’ vodka instead – which was almost as foul. Dom mixed it with 7Up and thought it might taste better if we added Hibiscus crystals. No sooner had he put them in did it erupt and soft drink and vodka sprayed out everywhere – on the beds, walls, floors, etc. Everything got a tad sticky… but it was a night to remember nonetheless.

In the morning, we said our goodbyes – a particularly teary one to Princess – and I left the others to finish the last couple of weeks of the tour whilst I flew home to Sydney after nearly 11 months on the African continent.

Ferry madness from Wadi Halfa to Aswan

Taking the ferry from Wadi Halfa to Aswan was stressful to say the least. Sonny, Oli and I were leaving the trip in Aswan which meant we had to pack up all our gear and remove everything from the truck as it was travelling on a separate barge and may not arrive to meet us in time. Everyone else left most of their camping gear and souvenirs on there. Packing was an ordeal as I had bought far too many souvenirs and ended up with 5 bags. Luckily I took everything though as when I left the trip, the barge still hadn’t left Wadi Halfa as it had a broken engine!

After another stop to the trusty Wadi Halfa fish market gathering ice, both of the ‘Trans’ trucks drove to the ferry terminal where we all waited around for ages. Finally we got stamped out and went on to the ferry docking area where we waited to board. It was complete chaos! Locals were pushing right past us to get the best spots on the top deck. I felt like a giant Michelin man as I had my large camera bag on my back, my day bag on my front, a huge carry bag with sleeping gear in one hand and my big backpack in the other. I had to get help carrying my duffle bag. My shoulders were aching. I was getting squeezed to death in the crowd. And it was hot.

At one point, everyone got so annoyed with all the pushing that they all just ran for the entrance. The ticket man was enraged but fought as hard as he could to prevent people from pushing through onto the ferry without him checking off their ticket. As I was about to board, to top things off, a fly flew into my mouth and got stuck in my throat. I had no free hands so my only option was coughing it up and spitting it out. Charming.

We then had to make our way up several flights of stairs to the roof which took any residual energy out of me. We were told to try and reserve spots for our two groups under the life rafts but everyone kept hopping over our barrier and crowding it out. We ended up having to move to another area near the Captain but managed to successfully block off an area, sharing it only with one respectful local and his prayer mat. The poor guy didn’t have a very good night though as water was dripping out of the overhead air vents and he had to keep waking up and mopping it up so it didn’t drench his prayer mat.

Each group had one tiny room below where everyone got to store their valuables. It was directly opposite the men’s bathroom so the smell got progressively worse throughout the night and the corridor got wetter. There was no lock on the door so someone would always have to stay in the room and protect the luggage. Fortunately the room was air-conditioned and peaceful so it still preferable to the upper deck in my opinion.

On the deck, it was chaos. More and more people kept piling on board. It was also boiling hot, and the two drivers, Nev and Steve, put tarps up over our areas which provided some relief whilst we were waiting for everyone to board as there was no breeze.

At one point, the Captain ushered me in to take photos of him and his crew

including one who was changing the ship’s flags and wanted a photo kissing the Sudanese flag. He was proud to be Nubian.

Finally we pulled away from port and everyone cheered. A breeze started trickling through. We were now on our way to Aswan. We virtually kissed our truck goodbye – for me, it was the last time I would see it after living out of it for the better part of 9 months.

Everyone was entitled to one meal ticket (lunch, dinner or breakfast). I opted for lunch – beans and peas in a sauce with rice, bread, pickled carrots and veggies. Nothing to write home about but it filled the void.

Around 10pm, we floated past a lit-up Abu Simbel – magic. Even more magic was the fact that Nev didn’t want to sleep in the air-conditioned cabin opting for the deck instead which meant I was able to share it with Princess. We barricaded ourselves in the room and chatted until we fell asleep. I slept relatively well. In the morning, we went up on deck to see how the others had fared but they didn’t get much sleep at all. There was a great deal of yelling and tonnes of bugs attracted by the ship’s lights. All attempts at sleeping were foiled by 4.30am in any case with the extraordinarily loud call to prayer.

For breakfast, we cracked open a watermelon which was a welcome refreshment as the temperature started rising again.

After being treated to glimpses of many sights along the river banks, we finally arrived and there was again a mad scramble to get off the ferry. I had to get help with more of my bags this time as I struggled walking what felt like a pretty long distance in the heat. After getting everything x-rayed, we emerged from the madness and piled into two air-conditioned minivans – thank goodness. What was even better was that we were staying in a hotel after camping for so long. We couldn’t have been happier. We downed the hibiscus juice we were given on arrival and most of us ran for the showers. Aaah, relief! Stress over.

By the end of the day though I simply fell into bed if not from the exhaustion, from the thought that we would have to wake up at the ridiculous time of 3am for our trip to Abu Simbel.