Blogs from Africa - page 2772

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Africa » Tanzania » Zanzibar May 19th 2007

but maybe not for me.. maybe cos i've been to Lamu.. and frankly.. first impresion.. Lamu's much better.. Lamu's a quieter more serene town with only one car and hundreds of donkeys... and Zanzibar is very developed.. many cars, many big roads.. hell, you get to see a container port when you get off the ferry! maybe that's becos i'm still in town.. going to do some diving around the waters nearby tomorrow.. and then will head up to Nungwi beach.. where many people go.. and where many people say the waters are simply beautiful... i'll be doing another dive around Mnemba Atoll (suposedly world famous).. and whee.. you can do drift diving there.. looking forward to that.. just recovered from a heavy bout of homesickness.. i guess when i'm travelling on the road and ... read more
The coast at Stonetown at sunset
Kids playing off the coast at sunset
Boats off Stonetown coast

Africa » Namibia » Fish River Canyon May 19th 2007

I am on honeymoon! No, I have not got married that was Laura. I just decided to tag along! We have been touring Namibia which has been fun. We started in the capital Windhoek before heading north to Waterberg Plateau. After that it was off to Etosha for some wildlife spotting. We saw lots and of animals including lions and rhino. We took note of Tanja's advice and stayed in the car at all times hence the fact that none of us got eaten! Our next big wildlife spotting was at Cape Cross where we saw 200,000 seals! It was amazing to see so many together but they were very smelly! After that we seemed to focus on sand and went to see the tallest dunes in the world at sossusvlei. Laura climbed up and ran ... read more
Ants build big houses!
Watching elephants in Etosha
More elephants (and zebras too) in Etosha

Africa » Namibia » Fish River Canyon May 19th 2007

Today was another long drive, over the normal 4 hours! The road from Luderitz was mainly tarred so it was an easy drive. We stopped on the way to see some Desert Horses; these have evolved to go without water for up to 4 days, far longer than Tim can go without a cold Windhoek lager on this trip! We arrived in time for lunch at Canon Lodge, one of the most attractive places we've stayed, it's lots of bungalows built around huge rock boulders that sometimes are partially built into the rooms. We spent a lot of time watching the Rock Hyrax (also known as dassies) which are related to Elephants but look like fat Guinea Pigs. After a trip through the Valley of Salads (their name for a salad buffet!) we went to bed. ... read more
Tim at Fish River Canyon

Africa » Morocco » Souss-Massa-Draâ » Ouarzazate May 19th 2007

Bus trip across the High Atlas Mountains Chatting with fellow-hostelers on the roof-top terrace of our riad-style hostel in Marrakesh, we first heard of the town of Ouarzazate (pronounced War-za-zat). Ouarzazate's main claim to fame is that this is where two film studios are located and many of Hollywood's blockbusters have been filmed here in the desert. Ouarzazate is situated on the eastern side of the High Atlas Mountains and so Michael and I took a bus over the mountains as we had heard that the bus trip in itself was something not to be missed! It was all and more than we had hoped for. The road wound through valleys and fields of green where the river had been used for irrigation. We were amazed to see a network of irrigation channels that had been ... read more
View from the top of Ait Ben Haddou
Snow on the Atlas Mountains
Tourag warrior I met along the way!

Africa » Senegal May 19th 2007

Hello all, we finally made it to Kedougou, and are living with our new host family. Every single moment of the day is filled with a new experience, some good some bad. We are sticking together through all of them, and are happy to report that we are cruising through the madness of learning a new culture quite well. We are living in 2 huts currently, one is our bedroom, the other is a kitchen/everything else hut. Kedougou is a breath of fresh air, from the other cities we have been to. The market is calm, the people are friendly, and the air isnt choked full of exaust. Also I am happy to report that there isnt as much sand down here, as in Chies. We made it clear to our family that we will ... read more

Africa » Egypt May 19th 2007

Hey all!! Forgive me father for it's been a week since I last blogged..... Well folks, forgive the extended period between updates, however, finding reasonable internet in the desert was a bit tricky (dial-up speeds anyone??) and apart from the fact that I really had better things to do than find a good internet cafe (like sleeping, but more on that later). So where was I when I last left you? Ah yes, end of day one (gotta love people who answer their own questions, hehe). Well, as I blogged earlier, there was only one other person on the Siwa Oasis trip besides myself, and that would be the jovial, chatty Lynette. A Perthite (for which we won't hold it against her), who recently packed up her gear in Oz and set herself up in ... read more
Wadi El Natrun
Wadi El Natrun
Wadi El Natrun

Africa » Malawi » Lake Malawi May 19th 2007

Tuesday 15th After my 4 day weekend this was the day to start getting things sorted. Cecelia and I went to the Teachers Development Centre, which is attached to St Peters school and waited for Mr Ngwale. He was late and I got frustrated so started to go through things with Cecelia. St Peters gave us a list of the resources they are short of and we went through seeing which ones need money and which can be made at the workshop. Mr Ngwali finally came and the Head teacher was also there. I looked in the teachers book to see what the next science lesson they would be teaching next week and thus what lesson they would observe me teaching- it was heating liquids Thursday 17th Over Wednesday and Thursday Cecelia and I got ... read more
All the resources ready to go
Making clocks
making rulers

Africa » Tanzania » East » Dar es Salaam May 19th 2007

Another hot and steamy day out on the building site to shoot. The good news is that our “Mr Fix-it” fixed our equipment that had been fried in the power surge! So we no longer had to conserve camera batteries today. Still, Richard had time in between shoots to do a bit of mortar work on the building site! The Morchimba villagers have been great. They come out to help with the building and yesterday they even cooked us up a big feed of maize, spinach and beef stew (which we had to eat with our fingers which was interesting!) It’s interesting to see here that the women do most of the hard labour. They carry these insanely heavy concrete blocks ON THEIR HEADS from the brick-pile into the building site, while the men look ... read more
A hard day's work
makeshift office
tennis balls

Africa » South Africa » Western Cape » Mossel Bay May 18th 2007

Knysna We had made our way through this town of holidaymakers, industry, new subdivisions, and luxury estates, sea- and lake-view estates, multimillion-dollar waterfront apartments, huge mansions side by side, crammed in for a piece of the view of the sea and mountains. I couldn’t breathe. We were headed for the indigenous forest with a longing to walk and be nourished by nature. To be in the calm and peace. We turned up toward the mountain, at once noticing the absence of signs and fences. No barbed wire o high gates with cameras and imposing entranceways. None of that, but instead, wooden and tin shacks leaning at impossible angles, patched together with varying bits of wood, sticks, and an occasional old door or salvaged window. Pigs and cows grazing amongst the children, playing and laughing, and ... read more
The Other Side of the Tracks
See How Beautiful
Jane on Holiday

Africa » Namibia » Swakopmund May 18th 2007

May 9, Thursday Swakopmund - Walvis Bay We all got up early today. Charlene, Trevor, Tavis, Megan, Dakotah and I got away from the house before 9am. We stopped for one pee break on the way. Just before getting into Swakopmund Charlene got two big chips in the windshield from a sand truck throwing out rocks. First thing when we pulled into Swakopmund we went to a Pick and Pay Grocery store to get some tape for the windshield and we picked some lunch food too. We visited the snake farm too. That was very cool. They told us about all the nasty snakes in Namibia. The boys got to hold a pythonwhich decided to entangle Tavis and Dakotah together. The Zebra snake has venom that decomposes flesh and there is no antivenin. The staff there ... read more




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