Lagos to Cape Town Travel Diary
Namibia Photography Workshop Begins
The Long Journey from Lagos to Cape Town — Stealing Gear, Saying Goodbye, and Chasing Adventure
Every great adventure starts with a journey. This time, it's a 6-hour bus ride to Lagos, a nostalgic walk through old stomping grounds, and the bittersweet task of saying goodbye to Orla. Then comes the real mission: stealing Brendan van Son's Canon gear (because my cameras are busted), a mad dash through Lisbon airport, and a flight south to Cape Town. This is the beginning of the Namibia photography workshop — and it's going to be epic.
Back to Lagos: A Nostalgic Return
Hello there folks and how is it going? Welcome back to another video. You join me on the cusp of a brand new adventure. I am in Lagos of all places. It was a long journey getting here — about 6 hours, 6 and a half hours on the bus. I am here for a couple of reasons.
Back in Lagos — a nostalgic return to old stomping grounds.
First of all, I'm staying in a hostel. I haven't stayed in a hostel in many years, so it's great fun. Secondly, the reason why I'm here is to meet Brendan. I don't know if any of you know — well, I'm sure most of the people who watch this know who Brendan is and my relationship with Brendan — but he really knackered up his knee recently and he got in touch with me and asked me if I could do the honour of leading the workshop in Namibia.
So that's where I am going. It's that time of year again — Namibia time. But with an extra bonus: I will actually be going to Botswana afterwards. So I will be gone for probably about maybe four weeks in total, maybe fiveish. So I have to say goodbye to Orla today, which is always sad.
Walking the streets of Lagos — so much nostalgia.
The Algarve roads brought back so many memories.
Look at this quality lighting we have here in this hostel room. But it's so weird being down here. When the bus turned off the main road onto this kind of Algarve road, I actually felt quite nostalgic and felt quite homesick. I'm sure many of you know that we've lived here in the Algarve for about three years. I just wish I had a car. I'd love to get out and explore some more — but that will come in the future. Don't worry about that.
Stealing Brendan's Gear: A Canon Adventure
I have to meet Brendan tomorrow in a coffee shop of all places. At least I get some nice coffee. And secondly, I need to take stuff from him — I'm actually stealing all of his camera gear. Which is going to be great.
As you know, my main camera is completely busted. And the small camera is just not good enough. I've got wire hanging out of it with a battery. Nobody wants to hang around with a guy like that. So I'm actually taking all of Brendan's stuff. He shoots a Canon. So that's going to be a fun learning curve.
Brendan's Canon R6 — my new weapon of choice.
The 100-400mm beast — chunky but beautiful.
The 16mm f/2.8 pancake lens — perfect for astro.
So, I took his — what is this? The R6 with the 14-35mm, which by all accounts is a beautiful lens. And then I also have his 100-400mm, which is a beast. It's actually quite chunky, but it looks like an old version because there's an adapter at the end. By all accounts, a very good lens. He doesn't really take very good care of his gear, by the way, as one could imagine.
I also have this 28-70mm, which I'm assuming is a variable f-stop. Look at that front element, folks. It's worse than my gear. And then also this little pancake lens which he swears by for astro. As you know from last year's Namibia trip, we do get to do a bit of astro. This is a 16mm f/2.8, so it's nice and light — it should fit onto the tracker quite nicely.
Here I am — shooting Canon for the first time!
So there you go. Shooting Canon for the day. I forgot to turn this microphone on. Anyway, shooting Canon, stole his gear. I'm super looking forward to it. I've held this camera once before in the past, but I've never actually shot with it. I'm really looking forward to this articulating screen. Oh my god, look at that. But it is so dirty. I'm going to have to clean it all. But yeah, fun times. Here I am shooting Canon.
The Long Haul: Lisbon to Cape Town
We have made it to Lisbon airport. It's early and very busy — which, you know, most international airports are. But I am here now just waiting at the gate. Got through security and check-in, pretty bog standard stuff. I also left the microphone in the bag, so forgive any of the mad noise. Other than that, everything is going swimmingly.
If you want to know the route: I go from Lisbon to Angola. I have about an hour and a half in Angola to transfer, and then from Angola to Cape Town. All told, it's about 12 hours, which isn't really bad at all considering it's just straight down. I'm very excited. Super duper looking forward to getting back to Cape Town. It's been 20 years. I'm looking forward to seeing what's changed and of course meeting up with everybody.
Cape Town — 20 years later. So much has changed.
We made it to Angola. It was a bit of a panic getting off the plane because we were about 15-20 minutes delayed leaving Lisbon. It was like a ghost town — something from a zombie movie. But it turned out the connection was delayed until half 7, so I had about an hour to kill. At least I didn't miss the connection, which is always a good thing.
Angola. I really feel like I should be drinking some cola. The question is: can I get some coffee? That's the real question.
Cape Town: Arrival and First Impressions
We have made it to Cape Town. Very delayed. Very late. It's like 10 in the morning. I have to get through security and do all that fun stuff first, then jump in a taxi, head to the hotel, and go to sleep. Fun times ahead. But it was a clean and easy flight. Nothing too bananas happened.
The taxi driver was a big rugby fan — I pretended to know things.
Made it to the hotel. Time to sleep.
We made it to the hotel. Very nice taxi man — big rugby fan. So of course, we were... I don't know anything about rugby, but I like to pretend I know things about rugby when it comes to talking with people about rugby. Super nice staff downstairs. It's late. I'm going to just go straight to bed.
Tomorrow morning, get up, have a quick amble around, get some coffee, and then call it quits. As kind of boring as this travel vlog may have been, it was fun for me. When I was on the way, I was thinking — as boring as it can be and as frustrating as it can be when you travel long distance — for me, it's such a wonderful feeling of adventure. And I really love that about it.
Meeting the Group in Cape Town
I met up with the few guys that are on this little Cape Town add-on, and they are all absolutely wonderful folks. It was a real pleasure hanging out with those guys this evening. We went and had some dinner, and I look forward to the excursions that we have planned over the next few days here in Cape Town.
Meeting the group in Cape Town — wonderful folks, great energy.
It's been a long journey. I know these videos aren't necessarily everybody's cup of tea. There's no pictures involved, but sure look, I enjoy making them for my own little travel diaries. It's been a good journey so far. And as I say, lots and lots to look forward to.
Have you ever been to Namibia or Cape Town?
I'd love to hear about your experiences in the comments below. And if you're interested in joining a future Namibia or Botswana workshop, you can find all the details below. Let me know if you have any questions — I reply to every message personally.
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