Blogs from Africa - page 2963

Hallo meine Lieben Meine letzten Stunden in Suedafrika sind angebrochen. Ich kann mir noch gar nicht vorstellen, dass ich in weniger als 24 Stunden wieder daheim bin. Puh. Und wenn ich die Mails von allen der Gruppe lese, die jetzt schon seit ein paar Tagen zurueck sind, es wird nicht einfach. Wobei, die letzte Woche ohne all die Leute von der Tour war halt nicht mehr ganz so toll wie der Rest, deshalb faellts mir wohl ein bisschen einfacher, dieses tolle Land zu verlassen. Also, auf einer Skala von 1 bis 10 finde ich es jetzt nur noch 10-schlimm, heim zu fliegen. Letzte Woche waere es noch 20 gewesen... Ausserdem, ich sitze hier im Gefaengnis. Das ist Johannesburg. Wir sind in einer schoenen Lodge etwas ausserhalb untergebracht, sehr sichere Gegend und so. Trotzdem sind meterhohe Zaeune, ... read more

We had a bit of a lie-in this morning and rose to find that the staff had set-up breakfast on our veranda and there was a chef waiting to cook us breakfast. It was absolutely chucking it down again, so we were glad we didn’t go out. We got ready and went to reception for the 10.30am game drive, only to find that Patrick was saying that it was too wet to go out and that vehicles were getting stuck left, right and centre. We consoled ourselves with a farewell drink with Mark and Paula, only for them to be bustled onto a 4x4 half way through, because their plane was about to land. The afternoon game drive was a bit strange without them. In fact, there were only six of us left in total in ... read more

In the early morning of last Sunday I headed out through the flowering water hyacinth onto the waters of Lake Victoria. This lake, the largest in Africa is not really a tourist attraction and very few travelers get out on the waters. The problem is at minimum two-fold: Problem 1) the water hyacinth, said to have been imported for colonial gardens, has plagued the lake in general, and specifically Winam Gulf - where Kisumu is located - for many years. The plant filled the entire Gulf a few years back, literally crippled the Kisumu shipping economy. USAID paid about 20 million USD to eradicate it using some boat-thresher thing, to no avail - the company refused to bribe the government for a permit to bury the minced plant matter, so it was dumped back into the ... read more

Depuis longtemps, Essaouira ouvre ses portes et son cœur aux voyageurs et aux marins. Aux artistes surtout, accueillis comme des membres de la famille. Vous n'êtes pas artiste ? À Essaouira, on l'est toujours un peu… Il y a mille raisons de venir à Essaouira. Ses festivals de musiques andalouses et gnawa, l'empreinte portugaise de ses magnifiques remparts, l'animation unique de sa médina. Son climat tempéré, toujours agréable. Et bien sûr, ses plages ! On vient s'y relaxer, y pratiquer le surf ou le kitesurf. Ou simplement regarder le soleil se coucher sur les îles purpuraires, au large de ses côtes. Fière de son passé andalou, passionnée de mer et de musique, Essaouira est si riche qu'une visite ne suffit pas. On revient toujours à Essaouira. ... read more

Ello peeps, Well as stated at the end of our last entry, seeing the Great Whites was the next thing we were about to do. Now this in itself was fair enough, however there were a few small details about this that caused us some problems: The sharks are in the sea. We needed a boat to get to sea. The boat was very small. The sea was very VERY rough. Combine those things with images of Titanic, Jaws and Moby Dick and you get an idea of how our day was. The morning was overcast as we started our 2 hour car journey down to Gansbaai at 5am - it didn't get any better. On arrival we were served some kind of green yogurt and rabbit food combination along with sweet bread and a boiled ... read more