Blogs from Africa - page 2664

Since leaving Durban I have been in St Lucia. No, not that St Lucia, the South African St Lucia!! Its a really beautifull place, a national park devoted to wetlands with thousands of wild hippo's and crocs. I arrived at Bib's international backpackers on Friday, its a lovely, friendly place with loads of activities going on. We were given a tour by William and driven around town. We went down to the lakeside and straight away saw hippo's!! I have been waiting for nearly 3 months to see hippo's, and there they were, just sitting in the water enjoying the mud! Great stuff! We went back to watch them at sunset, and then had a braai and hit the town. When i say hit the town... there are about 3 pubs in St Lucia and ... read more

I was a bit apprehensive when I got to Algeciras. It was around 1pm. The sun was merciless. On pondering whether to go to Ceuta or Tangier, I imbued myself with the utmost courage - that is, I learned that the ticket to Tangier was half the price of the one to Ceuta -, got my bags and, off to the port. In the lounge, right before getting on the ferry, I met Ewa and Kasia (both from Krakow). We seemed to be the only non-moroccans bound to Tangier that Saturday afternoon. The other weary fellow passengers were no more than half a dozen. It was shortly after 4.30pm (Spanish time) when we waived goodbye to Europe and made the acquaintance with Simo, the friendliest crew member. It's hard to say so as we soon realised ... read more

So, I'm still here in Zim, drinking a hot cup of tea because the African winter is just settling in and believe it or not, it’s cold enough that I can see my breath in the mornings. I remain in exile from under the information that my Zambian work permit "should be ready tomorrow". However this is the exact same information that I was told when I was deported so I am now defining the term "tomorrow" as being sometime between now and when I have to return to Canada around Christmas time. But, being given the chance to experience life here in Harare during what could be seen as a "crisis" time. Crisis being a very relative term because the situation has moved from horrible to unbearable as seen through the lens’s of many local ... read more

Tunisia was one of the parts of our trip that was an afterthought which became an obsession! we wanted to go to somewhere in North Africa and started by thinking about Morocco but were advised that it probably was not the safest spot! obviously Algeria and Libya were out so Tunisia it was... so armed with this thought we went to the travel agent and asked for it to be included in our round the world ticket... here is where the problem begins... funnily enough one world does not fly Tunisia to Egypt! but by now it had become an obsession for us to go and so we paid the extra sector flights and hopped on the plane!! so given that we have paid a lot of money to go to Tunisia we were absolutely determined ... read more

I've noticed, that a negative strap line seems to get more visits to my blogs! Give the punters what they want! Whilst I've been here in Cameroon, the student protests have been a major news story. University students have been protesting about increases in student fees and inadequate facilities, including a lack of toilets. On April 27th the military and riot police invaded the campus of Buea University. They shot dead 2 unarmed students. The government has promised an inquiry. There's more coverage of this story at: IRINnew.org and at http://ambazonia.indymedia.org Cameroon, as a tourist destination has it all. Beach resorts, rain forests teeming with wildlife including lions, traditional villages clinging to rocky cliffs, and the regions tallest mountain. Poverty But, I wasn't in the country in the tourist season. I was here during the rain ... read more

Right, well, Neil and I hit Coffee bay on Sunday. We drove down lots of little winding roads and were convinced that we were lost! But the scenery was outstanding! This is the wild coast, and traditional xhosa country. There were lots of xhosa villages, farms and houses. They live in traditional round huts that are often painted a distictive minty green colour, with mud walls and thatched roofs. The hills roll on for miles and are only broken by the cliffs that lead down to beautiful beaches and coves of white sand. Coffee Shack itself is right on the beach and has a closed courtyard with a bar and fire and loads of stuff going on everyday. It wasn't untill Monday that we got to explore the beach; a big group of us went down ... read more