Blogs from Angola, Africa
A bus from Quito scheduled at 5.00 morning, so obviously I was waking up, hurrying, … the bus arrived at place 5.30 so I got a chance to smoke a cigarette, socialize with people :) Trip to luanda was long, but not hard, 12 hours I ate bananas, slept and was reading a book. It was starting to go dark, which meant I was kinda braking rule “Never travel at dark”, but it was not a choice. Two people tried to get a lot of money from driving me, but finally I managed to catch a minibus which took me to the point I needed, even got me a person to help out to another bus, there are many good people in Angola. So here I was changing one time and another and another again, finally ... read more
1
Happy new year! This is sadly our final blog for Africa as we have completed the circle and headed back to Walvis Bay. Southern Namibia After leaving Cape Town with a killer hangover after a great night on long street we had a grueling 700km up to the border with Namibia. It passed fairly easily, we spent a night at springbok camping under the stars before crossing the border the next morning into Namibia. We only had 2 weeks left in Africa and we were really looking forwards to camping in the wilds of Namibia as the whole point of the trip had been about wildlife and wilderness and we had been a bit lazy in the cape staying mostly in backpackers. Our first stop in Namibia is fish river canyon which was a full day’s ... read more
aion online kinah earn is not only in fighting, but also in death. Now, let me tell in details. 1 dead, will be out of the experience, the experience is probably out for the current escalation of experience 3 per percent, which 1 per percent permanent loss, 2 per percent can be redeemed the loss of experience could be grayed out in terms of experience. 2 per percent can go to the NPC next to the resurrection point redemption aion gold flower, flower aion online gold is approximately 2 per percent experienced 20 per percent, I am now 42 death of a need to 5W buy 2 per percent experience, it takes several death aion kinah will be reduced. 2, death after the resurrection there will be weakness of the state at 70 per percent of ... read more
After a couple of days camping at a catholic mission school in Matardi,preparing and repairing for our race through Angola,we departed DRC via a remote border post to the north at Songololo. We camped the night in a quarry. The roads were terrible and we made slow progress until lunchtime on day 2 (of 5) the radiator was destroyed by the fan after a particularly deep hole. We limped into N'Zeto a small seaside town and spent the next 6 hours on the roadside getting the radiator repairs. When these proved to be ineffective we were allowed to stay in a construction compound 3 Kms out of town with fence and security. We ended up staying nights 2,3and 4 there before getting a proper repair done.Our unexpected stay in N'Zeto was interesting. It seems they backed ... read more
Me and Giant Oryx Buddy, Luanda
When the last of the DRC officials had checked our passports and waved us on, we found ourselves in a big dusty square, where a group of guinea fowl pecked the remains of a soldier's sandwich, and a few sleepy shopkeepers eyed the newcomers. The Angolan immigration team were friendly, if serious, and they taught us how to say 'hello' and 'thank you' in Portuguese. I had not really turned my mind to the practicalities of travel in Angola. For days my brain had been awash with will-we-won't-we get the Angolan visa, will-we-won't-we make it through the DRC without incident... now we had, and we were here, and it was a bit like waking up after a strange dream. As taxi drivers made their furtive approaches, reality suddenly hit home. We had been granted five-day transit ... read more
aaron hands up
In 97 days I will be with you in Thailand. I try not to think about it but I am sooooo weak I can't go very long with out thinking about you and when I am going over to see you. I gota little meloncholy yesterday at Steve and Joyce's when I was playing cribbage with Ted and NOT you. When you left in January I thought it would be months before I would even hear anything from you. I thought for sure you would forget about me and I really thought our relationship would be over. Or at least we would have to start all over if or when you came back. But now it almost seems doable. I don't know why we have to be apart, but mine is not to reason why but ... read more
The Giza Plateau
Egypt Day 5 We woke up to the sound of the air conditioner humming at full power in the hotel room, as the sun yesterday was quite a bit to handle. Then we boarded a felucca (small sail boat, where the wind is the only source of power to get us down the Nile river) The early part of the morning included, a pop can that was traveling down the river faster then us. The afternoon was a bit better with a new gust of wind, the felucca was moving at a quicker pace then the morning, we actually caught up to the can. For a break as a group we stopped at the side of the river and went for a nice cold swim in the Nile, now there are no crocs in the water, ... read more
Egypt - Day 1 The land of sand, sun, and people that want your money. No matter what they do, or ask, it is all about those hard earned/swindled dollar bills. Our flight from Paris this morning wasn’t a problem, but when we left Rome to head to Egypt the take off and the landing parts of the journey were brutal. The plane seemed like something out of the 1980s, complete with cigarette holders. I motion we all join together and give some extra money to Italy for some new planes! And, oh yes and the puking girl that was ahead of yes on the plane made the trip extra yummy. My favorite part didn’t even involve the planes, it was bathrooms. Whether they are on a train, a plane, or a terminal… people smoked in ... read more
A loose peleton...
Just a typical Sunday bike ride....The rainy season has provided just enough moisture so far to firm up the sand (kind of) and make things look deliciously green making for some stunning photographs!... read more
This is a story I wrote sometime ago... having myself visited the diamond areas of angola some years back; I viewed with scepticism the sudden interest in blood diamonds... and what exactly it really means to war in africa and diamonds as a product that women...covet... In 1992 during a lull in the Angolan war, I put together a syndicate of seven adventurers from various backrounds and nations and set off with three four by fours to the north eastern part of angola which is known as the LUNDA province.. During our wild and crazy time there I learned a lot about the REAL facts of the diamond trade... and this is WHY i am responding to this latest documentary ( which by the way - never made it to the dvd versionof blood diamond with ... read more
