November 15, 2016 Yesterday was the first day of my first group tour ever! I have never signed up to travel with strangers before, mostly as I am happy to do my own thing at my own pace, so it will be an interesting few weeks. I am overlandingwestAfrica.com from Freetown, Sierra Leone to […]
Arriving in Freetown is mildly bonkers. The airport is inconveniently located at Lungi – 3 hours drive by road, 5 mins by helicopter (but they crash often, so not advisable) or 45 minutes by ferry. It was a typically comical African process with hundreds of guys trying to facilitate your way. Surprisingly
Sierra Leone – baking in Freetown, Read More »
One of the memorable highlights of my global travels was spending a weekend in Namibia in the desert at Sossusvlei. I never really understood the appeal of the desert being a child of the mountains and the bush from NZ. But there is nothing like the sunset and sunrise in the desert – the crisp
Places to return to – Sossusvlei Namibia Read More »
I never understood why people wanted to go on Safari. Surely it was just like going to the zoo, but perhaps a bigger zoo with fences that were more spread out. What was the point of spending huge wads of cash to go to a zoo? But after the first safari drive that we
Places to Return to – Botswana Read More »
The trip got off to an auspicious start. I was on an Lufthansa flight from Munich to Addis Ababa with a stopover in Khartoum. As I tried to disembark in Khartoum, the hostess blocked my exit and double checked my boarding card. “Are you sure you want to get off here?????, I am ok
Off the Beaten Track – Sudan Read More »
May 26, Castelsagrat, France I am spending the bank holiday in our house in France. Our second home here is in a wonderful sleepy village, surrounded by baking fields of sunflowers in the summertime, and the biggest thing that is likely to happen when we are here is a gathering of hearty eighty year olds
Places to Return to – Ethiopia Read More »
May 14, Ibis, Malabo, Equatorial Guinea Before visiting all I really knew about Equatorial Guinea was the thwarted coup attempt against President Obiang funded by Margaret Thatcher’s son in 2004 (a.k.a the Wonga coup), for which he pleaded guilty (eventually) and was given a four year suspended sentence and a $500k fine in South Africa.
Thwarted Thatcher Coup… Read More »
May 12, Star Land Hotel, Douala, Cameroon The Lonely Planet aptly describes Douala as ‘sticky, icky and frenetic’. True dat. I would also add ‘ cacaphonic’ (not an actual word but an apt descriptor), as there is a constant background honk of horns. Arriving at Douala airport, I was impressed by the levels of filth and how badly it
Sticky, icky and frenetic Read More »
May 9, Royal Palm Hotel, Libreville, Gabon In the next of a series of mad dictatorships – welcome to Gabon. Omar Bongo was president for 42 years from 1967 until he died in 2009. The reins were taken up by his son Ali Bongo who has been in power since, ‘winning’ the 2009 election with 42%
Potentially the worlds greatest wildlife destination, but I wasn’t going to find out….. Read More »
May 8, Mikhail’s Hotel, Brazzaville, Republic of Congo A lovely day wandering around Brazzaville in the Republic of Congo – the formerly french one, a.ka. Congo Brazzaville (not to be confused with the Democratic Republic of Congo – the formerly Belgian one, historically called Zaire). It was weird arriving here yesterday, the flight was 40
You must be logged in to post a comment.