The MagnusAndCheryl Blog
Campbell Clan Complete Saturday, March 20th, 2010 One week into life with our new baby Zoe and we are handling the sleep deprivation pretty well. Luckily for us, not only is she healthy and gorgeous but she seems to be a sleeper too (thank goodness!). We are currently revisiting those baby routines such as oracle-like reading of poo-runes for various signs of consistency, colour and frequency!

Indian Summer In Sunny Scotland Sunday, October 14th, 2007 18 months later, we have finished our roundabout migration from San Francisco to Scotland. We are in the middle of the serious business of job and house hunting, but not before we enjoy the most fantastic October weather... read full story

Crash Landing Back On Earth Saturday, August 10th, 2007 Back home after 15 months on the road, things seem familiar but strange. Pop culture seems stuck in a time warp: magazines are still full of stories about Britney Spears and Brangelina... read full story

Serengeti Safari Sunday, August 5th, 2007 For the last two weeks we have traipsed across Tanzania, in the shadow of Mt. Kilimanjaro, through the endless savannah of the Serengeti, hiked the lush mountains of Lushoto and zipped across the turquoise-blue sea to the spice-laden tropical shores of Zanzibar... read full story

Curse Of The Campbells Saturday, July 20th, 2007 On our last trip around Asia, disaster followed closely behind us: Chechen separatists caused a massacre in a Moscow theatre just after we visited, SARS broke out in southern China as we sailed unsuspectingly through, a major terrorist attack hit Bali just as we planned to go there and a bus of tourists were murdered on the Lao road we had passed through a week before. We were lucky, but the message seemed to be don't follow us around!... read full story

Armed Convoy To A Refugee Camp: An African Aid Case Study Thursday, July 5, 2007 The north of Uganda has been trapped in a vicious civil war for two decades. The Lord's Resistance Army rebels are fighting to form a society that strictly observes the 10 commandments. In an irony apparently un-noted by the LRA command, their mechanism to bring about this utopia is to terrorize villagers, burn houses, rape women and kidnap children. Abducted kids are taken as sex slaves or indoctrinated as child soldiers. These traumatized youngsters are often responsible for the most brutal killings, creating a terrible cycle of violence... read full story

Volunteering In Uganda: A Day In The Life Sunday, June 24, 2007 Our day starts with deceptive normality: a slice of toast, music on our i-Pod and a nice cup of tea. Things quickly take an 'African' turn as we step outside: furtively dodging the resident troop of vervet monkeys that delight in attempting to pee on our heads from the rooftop! ... read full story

Earthquakes And Rocket Men Sunday, June 17, 2007 It's almost a month since our last blog. Since then we've taken to living in Kampala, the capital of Uganda. It is a lively place but with rush hour pollution you could cut with a knife. A trip to the shops feels like the equivalent of smoking a packet of cigarettes every day! ... read full story

A Little Pigmy Up Friday, May 18, 2007 Uganda is home to thousands of Batwa, more famous as the forest-dwelling Pygmies of numerous dubious movies of the past. We joined a community development initiative to visit one of the tribes, unfortunately now displaced from the forest and exiled on the top of a hill without water supply (albeit in an utterly gorgeous location)... read full story

Ghastly Genocide Friday, May 11, 2007 Rwanda is incredibly green. It's known as the Land of a Thousand Hills and the terraced fields all around are translucently verdant.... read full story

The Illusion Of Time Tuesday, May 08, 2007 Buying tickets and arranging transport generally just got a little harder when we reached the untouristed south-west of Tanzania, with few people speaking any English... read full story

The Day Of The Con Monday, May 07, 2007 What with Malawi being the "Warm Heart Of Africa" and Tanzania famed for its reserved and peace-loving people, we were expecting a sedate border crossing between the two countries. A surprise lay in wait... read full story

T.I.A. Friday, May 04, 2007 This Is Africa - a byword for the different set of rules for doing business that seem to apply here... read full story

Zambian Zoweeeeeeeeee! Tuesday, April 24, 2007 Zambia is reputedly the "Real Africa", which based on our experience here means: extremely nice people, luscious green countryside, very basic living standards (lots of very cool looking mud huts), plain food and horrifically bumpy and dusty roads on which no vehicle is able to travel for more than an hour without a seemingly terminal breakdown! .. read full story

On The Edge In The Okavango Monday, April 09, 2007 The wildlife encounters here have been at times heart-stopping. Deep in the Okavango Delta, we paddled on a dugout canoe to within yards of a pod of hippos. These grumpy and territorial beasts are the biggest animal killers of man in Africa (mosquitoes notwithstanding) and on a frequent basis take exception to nosey tourist canoes, biting them in half with often fatal results! The two males in the group we saw were busy fighting for dominance, so we luckily escaped unscathed... read full story

Botswanan Beneficence Thursday, April 05, 2007 Our guidebook told us Botswana is an amazing place to visit but very expensive. However, we have run into a succession of lovely people giving us rides on buses, trucks, boats (and even a lift on a light plane!) to the exotic-but-hard-to-reach areas of the country. The only disappointment was reaching the Kalahari Desert to find that the famous nomadic bushmen had been kicked off their land to make way for a game park. Another unique culture takes a pounding... read full story

Sowetan Scotsmen Sunday, April 01, 2007 A total contrast to the paranoid security fever at our worryingly pro-Apartheid hostel on a walking tour around the legendary township of Soweto. This place is home to more than a million people; vibrant, friendly and generally safe. We met old comrades of Mandela, inspiring local community groups fighting the spread of Aids and a rather bizarre religious group - the Zion Christian Church - worshiping amongst the tin roof huts with a wild leaping Zulu dance. The really odd part was that they did this dressed in Scottish Kilts! ... read full story

Blog From Behind Bars Tuesday, March 27, 2007 We are currently in Jo'burg, South Africa. It's a slightly surreal experience, with us corralled in a gated compound. If we want to go out, the electric gate opens and a vehicle whisks us out with everyone on high alert for car-jackings... read full story

Bye Bye Brazil! Monday, March 12, 2007 After a month in vast, rhythmic and sexy Brazil, we are on our final night in the Americas. Tomorrow we head out to Africa for the final phase of our trip... read full story

Tales from the Amazon Friday, March 08, 2007 For days we navigated the Amazon in dugout canoes searching for the elusive jaguar, anaconda and pink dolphin. The biggest surprise, however, came when trekking deep in the jungle, an ear-shredding shriek came from behind us. It was Cheryl. I struggled back through the thick foliage, cursing that i didn't have a machete handy as my hands tore on the razorsharp palm edges... read full story

Bakersfield Bonanza in Brazil Monday, February 26, 2007 Our trip to Rio coincided with the worldīs biggest street party - Carnaval. By day the beaches were mobbed with gorgeous bodies wearing the skimpiest thongs (and thatīs just the guys!). By night exotic transvestites cruised the streets, dressed in wild feathered outfits. That was all great but even better, the family Tourney (Dale, Barbara and Leah) jetted in from Bakersfield to join us for sun, samba and shopping! Add in one of the worldīs shortest ever jungle treks, an incalculable number of caiparinhas and some endless card games of Hearts and a fantastic family holiday was had by all... read full story

Can I Write An Animal-Related Blog? Of Course, Toucan! Friday, February 16, 2007 The Pantanal was hot, sticky and - as expected - swarming with ravenous mosquitoes. In a shock turn of events, for once Cheryl took the brunt of their ire, taking quite a savaging... read full story

Panting towards the Pantanal Sunday, February 11, 2007 As we head north, the heat and humidity gets more oppressive each day. Traveling along lines of longitude is quite strange as in 3 short weeks we've gone from freezing Antarctic to the hot and sticky tropics... read full story

Steak Out In Argentina Monday, February 05, 2007 If you are what you eat, we are now two extremely large, juicy but lightly grilled steaks, after stuffing ourselves for weeks on the worldīs best cuts of beef (liberally washed down by fine wines) in Argentina. It seems even vegetarian meals here come with blood sausage and t-bone steak on the side in this meat-crazy country! ... read full story

Bountiful Asados in Buenos Aires Thursday, February 01, 2007 Slowly sobering up from a liquid diet in our visit to the Mendoza wine region, we are checking out whether Buenos Aires is worth all the fuss. So far so good - amazing steaks, cheap wines and friendly, charismatic locals everywhere. Our cheap-n-cheerful hotel rolls us straight onto one of the most exciting streets, surrounded by traditional parrilla restaurants, slowly roasting whole pigs in the windows... read full story

Landscapes Of The Mind Saturday, January 20, 2007 We just completed traversing the world from the Arctic north to Antarctica in the south! ... read full story

Falling Off The End Of The World Sunday, January 7, 2007 Today we visited the end of Terra del Fuego, 18,000km from the tip of the Pan-American Highway in Alaska. Thatīs a lot of rickety buses and rocking ferry rides. In a few minutes we tip off the end of the world and head out to Antarctica. In an act of soon-to-be-punished hubris, we scoffed at wiser council that suggested anti-sea sickness pills and are traveling au naturale. Our only protection against the wildest seas in the world is a soothing bottle of aged rum! ... read full story

The End Of The World Friday, January 5, 2007 We saw in the New Year on with the room spinning around us. For once this was not purely alcohol-related (though flaming sambucas did make an impromptu appearance), Gary and Kirstinīs boat bobbed woozily in the windy harbour of Ushuaia. The self proclaimed "End Of The World" seemed a suitable place to see in the Bells - and supposedly Robert de Niro was in the next yacht over! Unfortunately, Bobby failed to First Foot us (probably frightened of Magnusī famously accurate Taxi Driver "You TalkinīTo Me?!" impersonation...). Of course, it turns out there is another town, Puerto Williams, a teeny bit further south than Ushuaia but why let the facts get in the way of a good tourist attraction? ... read full story

A World Of Paine Saturday, December 30, 2006 We've just arrived to the southernmost town in the world, Ushuaia, meeting our great friends Kirstin and Gary on their boat Wandering Albatross. For us it is the end of the line of an amazing 8 month overland trip across the Americas - it's a strange but wonderful feeling to gaze out into the bay, knowing we have traveled every mile across the Americas and are about to fall off the end! Now we are working hard with our nautical friends: tasting fine wines, sampling yummy cheeses and preparing for quickly-approaching trips to Antarctica... read full story

Cheryl and Magnusī Chilean Merry Christmas Thursday, December 21, 2006 We just stepped off the boat at Puerto Natales, ending a 3 day ferry trip through the fjords and past the glaciers of southern Chile, surviving the aptly-named rough waters of the Gulf of Pain. A gorgeous passage and near mirror image of the ferry trip we took to Alaska 6 months ago - just on the opposite end of the world! ... read full story

Ferrying Through Famous Fjords Monday, December 18, 2006 We are about to board a ferry to cruise through Chilean Patagonia towards the southern tip of the Americas - a region of misty fjords and glaciers. The standard of living in Chile is fantastic - right up at U.S. or European level. Unfortunately that also means everything is 4 times more expensive than in Bolivia, so we need to get out of here sharpish... read full story

Ciao To Pinochet In Chile Monday, December 11, 2006 We paused in the picturesque seat of Chilean government, Valparaiso, on the Pacific coast. As we walked the streets, news came through that the former dictator Pinochet had finally died... read full story

Stargazing In La Serena Sunday, December 10, 2006 Heading south towards Santiago, we stopped in the Atacama Desert... read full story

Salt overdose in Uyuni Saturday, December 09, 2006 We just crossed the border into Chile following an off-road jeep expedition to the giant salt flats of Bolivia... read full story

Lightheaded In La Paz Monday, December 4, 2006 We spent the last couple of days in the thin air of the Bolivian altiplano - including visits to the highest capital and highest golf club in the world. Outside our La Paz hotel is the Marketplace of Witchcraft, including bizarre potions and dried llama fetuses (to be burned for good luck) - yuk. The ladies in the marketplace look fantastic, dressed in traditional dresses topped off with pork pie hats - straight out of Tintin! ... read full story

Scammed at the Peruvian Border! Thursday, November 30, 2006 Today we crossed the border from Peru into Bolivia and are staying on the shores of Lake Titicaca ... read full story

Colca Canyon Condors Monday, November 27, 2006 We are currently in southern Peru exploring the condor-filled Colca Canyon... read full story

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