Blogs from Africa - page 2985

Short drive - long drink Today was what might be called a 'warmer/settler' day. Not too much time in the truck, introduction to dorm living and an alcohol fuelled tour of four regional wineries where the normal conventions of responsible service of alcohol were completely ignored. After the truck brief, we finally got away about 0930hrs, and were at Stellenbosh a little over an hour later. Much better views of Table Mountain! Stumblin Inn We arrived at a rather down at heal backpackers where the group was split up over two rooms. Given the gender mix - 16 pax, about 2/3 female - it was not going to be possible to have a boys and girls dorm. Especially when the four place room was a double and bunk beds. So much for any notion that we ... read more

Last week end 6 of us headed out to Soussevlei, which is home of the biggest sand dune in the world and is in the Namib desert. I'd be lying if I didn't say one of my main reasons for going was because we were told by a group of our guys that they didn't think we'd be able to do it. So clearly, super competetive Erin kicked into gear and had to prove them wrong. Just getting there was an adventure...the driver that was going to take us didn't have a working phone, so we had to just hope he'd appear, and sure enough he did. Just in time to figure out the center's combis that we were going to use were nowhere to be found. So 3 hours later, Mohamed and Joseph, our driver, ... read more

Ouagadougou, 4-11-‘06 15:35 Toch ook maar zoiets opgezet, aangezien er misschien toch mensen geïnteresseerd zijn in mijn avontuur in Afrika. Na een emotioneel afscheid op Schiphol, kwamen Bart en ik aan in Casablanca. Eerst ff geïnformeerd of we wel van het vliegveld afkonden en de stad in aangezien we 6 uur tussentijd hadden. De infoman zei dat het niet kan, maar kwam met te weinig goede argumenten, dus na 50 euro gewisseld te hebben in de trein gesprongen die toevallig net vertrok. 40 minuten later aangekomen in Casablanca, het eerste beste café ingestapt. Biertjes besteld, borden gratis geroosterde sardines verorberd, veel aandacht gekregen van de vrolijke (dronken en stonede Marokkanen) en weer de trein ingesprongen. Een uur te vroeg naar bleek, aangezien we (Bart) niet helemaal met het tijdsverschil rekening hadden gehouden. Dus nog drie uur ... read more

Zimabawe is a beautiful nation which has the capacity to be self sufficient. However, under the rule of its current dictator, Robert Mugabe, who lines his owns pockets with extorted wealth, the supermarket shelves are empty and his countrymen and women are forced to eat scraps from rubbish dumps just to survive. Meanwhile rich government officials act as the mafia to local businesses. This is why I don't condone travel to Zimbabwe with the current situation. Inflation at this time was around 2000%, but now (2009) it is about 100 times that and typhoid fever is rife with no medicines the treat the masses. Despite this, my tour started in Victoria Falls, rather than in Livingstone, a couple of kilometres away across the Zambezi in Zambia, which would have been preferable. One can be forgiven for ... read more

The next day we went to Robbin Island- prison home to amongst others Nelson Mandela. Again we weren't very lucky with the transport- god did I feel seasick.. ask Rik I moaned the whole crossing!! and I mean moaned!! However all my moaning was well worth it when we arrived. The tour was very thought provoking and made more prominent by the fact that half the tour was taken by a former political prisoner who had been imprisoned for 11 years and the other half by a young student on a mission for World Peace... was nice to see people cared for things so passionately. It was interesting to sit in the cells (and they are tiny) and see the pictures and one belonging of the individual who had lived there.. We were really lucky to ... read more