Ghana was the home of one of Africa's richest, gold dripping empires - which is why the Europeans came sniffing around this part of the West coast of Africa in the first place. The golden stool is used in the enthronement of the Ashanti kings. The Ashanti are matrilinial - it's the mother's clan that is important. The Golden Stool was also implicated in sparking off the Ashanti War of Independence of 1900 -1901. The British had demanded that they should be given the Golden Stool. When no one offered to give them the stool, the British tried to steal it. [View Full Entry]

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I've just been to Mole National Park. The 'e' at the end is pronounced. I visited it from the Northern town of Tamale. I spent rather longer in Tamale than I planned because I arrived in the town during a national holiday. I arrived in Tamale on Ghana's 48th anniversary of its independence. Mole National Park is Ghana's best place for viewing classic African wildlife, and it's cheap! The entrance fee to the park was 40000 Cedis, which is about 2 pounds sterling. A 2 hours walking tour in the park with an armed guide was only 18500 Cedis, that is [View Full Entry]

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I spent my week in Burkino Faso at FESPACO - the Pan African Film Festival. The festival is held in Ouagadougou every other year. This year was the first time that a South African film won the major award and only the 2nd time that an English language film has won. The film that won, Drum was a very good film, but it wasn't my favourite. My favourite was another South African film, Max and Mona - it was funny and that goat was a star! During the week I watched a lot of films, some of them were dreadful, a [View Full Entry]

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I didn't go to Timbuktu! Everyone I spoke to said it was disappointing and it is a very long journey to get to from Mopti. Although the journey itself is the highlight. Instead I chose to go to Bankass, which is one of the bridgehead towns for the Dogon county. It was on my way towards the Burkino Faso border, and I thought that a Dogon Cultural Festival was more important and interesting than having a Timbucktoo stamp in my passport! This festival was the first ever Dogon Cultural Festival - it was a celebration of Dogon Culture for the Dogon [View Full Entry]

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Some places are tourist honey pots for a good reason. The Dogon country is one of Mali's tourist honey pots. It deserves its status. The villages of the Dogon people are clustered around picture postcard scenery - a remote escarpment that was easy to defend from rivals. The Dogon people also have a unique culture. It's a must see destination best done by walking from village to village. This means you must be prepared to do without electricity, to use bucket showers and squat toilets, and sleep on the roofs of houses with only the stars and the moon for illumination. [View Full Entry]

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I've been taking it very easy for a few days, in fact I spent several days in bed! The morning after I arrived in Bamako I fell ill, with Malaria. That is despite the prophylaxis I have been taking. Malaria can never be taken lightly - it kills one million children in Africa every year. I arrived in Bamako on the evening of Tuesday 8th of February. At that point I felt fine. When I got up on the Wednesday morning I didn't feel rested. I also had loose bowel movements and felt nauseous. I went into town to find the [View Full Entry]

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Leaving Conarkry, the first vehicle I travelled in poisoned me with fumes, in the second car the wheels fell off! OK , I tell a lie, it was only the one wheel. I've left Guinea now, but this blog is going to about the journey from Conarkry across the country to the border with Mali. I also had to give up on this blog at the first attempt because of illness. FRIDAY 4th FEBRUARY At this stage I was still in the capital Conakry. I changed hotels for somewhere half the price I had been in the day before. The Hotel [View Full Entry]

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Just before entering Guinea I had an email from a friend about a BBC report of a coup attempt in Guinea. He said, was I going to Guinea Bissau rather than Guinea. I made it clear that I was going to Guinea and that I considered Guinea to be a safe and stable country - the human rights record is not good but it has avoided the descent into Civil War that most of it's neighbours have suffered from. So, what about the coup attempt? It seems that someone shot into the Presidential motorcade and injured one of the bodyguards. Some [View Full Entry]

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Tambacounda, is where I'm staying for the night. This town is a major crossroads between Senegal, Mali, Guinea, Gambia, and for the Niokola Koba National Park. Niokola Koba Park, is Senegal's major national park - its residents include elephants, lions, leopards, hippos, crocodiles, water buck, bush buck, kob, baboons, buffaloes, monkeys, warthogs, antelopes and hartbeest. I haven't decided yet if I'm going to visit the park or make my way to Guinea - I'll decide that in the morning. I'll go into more detail now about recent events: TUESDAY 25 JANUARY[/h2 [View Full Entry]

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It's nice to have left the predatory 'bumsters' of the Gambia behind. Bumsters is the local Gambian name for the touts and would be guides that plague the Atlantic coast. Here in Ziguinchor, it's much more relaxed. This is undoubtedly because Ziguinchor isn't a mass package tourism destination. The interior of the Gambia may be less of a hassle, but I never got there, as I spent days feeling unwell with tooth ache and didn't want to do anything. It has to be said being pestered by bumsters when I have tooth ache makes me bad tempered! Anyway, I decided yesterday [View Full Entry]

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