My guide for my safari in Tanzania was named "Good luck", and with that good luck I saw cheetahs and lions and leopards and many things. And heard hyenas laughing at 4am.

During the night if you look out the lights of the ship reflect off the waves. It is like one is on a ghost ship on the seas of the night. People were already streaming off the ship when we went for breakfast this morning. We left the ship and walked into a bit of Las Palmas. Unlike previous cruises bottles of water haven't been on sale as you depart.

I looked out earlier than usual to admire the prettiness of Funchal as we arrived in port before the sun had awoken. We had ordered breakfast in our room to speed up being ready in time for our very first excursion of the cruise. It arrived as requested at 7am, far too much milk which came in covered glasses like the orange juice did. My oatmeal was more of a milky gruel. We were in plenty of time to board Coach #2 for the Gardens of Madeira. No stickers with our tour number on them to worry about falling off our clothes this excursion. A LCD display above the driver in the coach read "Andrea Bocelli Great", I thought about making a joke that it seemed like a man singing most of the time, but one of my fellow Brits outdid me by in all seriousness saying our driver wasn't very modest.

The sun was shining as we walked independently around Funchal in Madeira. Solar power really helps with taking pictures. Truly a garden city, nature blooming. We went as far as Reids Hotel but didn't stop for a coffee there.

A dirty building site. Unfair but that would be my one sentence summary of Egypt. Most of the country is sand, and the wind blows the sand (and rubbish) everywhere. Half-finished buildings with cement staircases going nowhere are everywhere. Drivers don't worry about such niceties as lanes, or even staying on the road. In a traffic jam vehicles slew randomly off road, across the rough ground beside the road, and force their way back on. Pedestrians dice with death - our coach stopped to help a man who had failed to cross a 5-lane motorway on foot. Sheep and goats destined to die in the Festival travel crammed into the back of tracks. Donkeys pull laden carts to add to the mayhem. By the road vegetable stalls sit well into the night. It was a long long tour from Port Said to Giza for the Pyramids and back. Made longer by the prolonged misguided lecture on Islam we had - I did know of how Islam's founder had revised the Bible to suit the sword he found. Hawkers were nearly everywhere, a constant threat. Despite multiple warnings people still found themselves trying to buy back cameras, or disputing change with wily Arabs. While I could see how poor most of the people were, and understand why they were the way they were, I was very relieved when we had run the gauntlet to get back onto the ship. Our guide was harsh on her own countrymen - their situation is dire, serious overpopulation, widespread poverty, has coloured their existence. I'm not sure if Brits were raised in such conditions that they would not be worse (given that many young Brits rate getting smashed out of their brains as life's goal.)

A visit to Uganda with a small Christian charity Afrinspire that I help set up computers for which are sent to Uganda and other African countries. In April people from that charity went to see projects supported in Uganda, and I tagged along to see Africa for the first time. This wasn't a tourist trip - we didn't see gorillas in the mist, or other vistas of nature which I hope to see one day. But we did see Uganda from street level and got to meet Ugandans face to face. It was a real privilege to go there, and be welcomed so warmly by those I met. Excuse an attempt at a stream of consciousness, or perhaps a Nile of consciousness. My memories not a coherent whole. Instead scenes and sights and sounds and smells tastes into my thoughts tumble. Where start I? Above the clouds? Above the sands? Desert plain blank featureless snatches. Yet circles large circles written onto the dry expanse. Signs omens of? On the flight map names legends are displayed - Serengeti, Nile, Lake Victoria. I am being borne towards someone else's world.