Blogs from Africa - page 3054

Though Marrakech was entertaining, after a few days I was ready to wind off of the well-beaten tourist path and delve a little further into the less frequented parts of the country. I intended to go to the Cascades d´Ouzoud, waterfalls a few hours bus ride outside of Marrakech. I decided to take public transportation, which involved taking a bus to a small town, Azilal, and then a shared taxi (7 people smashed into a small, puttery, yellow Mercedes) the rest of the way. The bus ride ended up taking four hours, and at that point I thought that it was too late to wait for a taxi to fill up to take me there and try to find a hotel before dark. I searched out a hotel in Azilal, and found a very cheap place ... read more

Well. It’s all finally over. Well actually it was over about two weeks ago but we just haven’t got around to updating the site until now. We have had an absolutely fab time travelling around Southern Africa. We flew from Perth to Johannesburg and from there on to Cape Town the next day. After spending a few days in Stellenbosch with some friends we headed back in to Cape Town itself. It is a beautiful city with lots going on. We took a trip down to Cape point, (which is NOT the most southernly point of Africa, but the most south-westerly) stopping off to see some penguins on the way. The next day it was up Table Mountain for some fantastic views of the city. On 1st July we met up with our group to head ... read more

i am in great spirits today. just met some austrian and german exchange students i am keen on. morogoro was a nice little town. the four hour drive in the bus was nice since the landscape changed so much. i kept writing quickly everything i saw on the ride, the colors changed, the flowers changed, the trees, the distances to which i could see, the landscape, the types of houses, everything. went from large metropolis to the mountains built in the great rift valley, mountains that spike up every which way and make little sense in the landscape. reminded me exactly of the mountains i was in last summer around this time south of mexico city. first day we woke up at 5 in order to enter mikume national park at 7. the drive into the ... read more

So let me begin with our crazy arrival to Cairo. Steph and I had both requested airport pickup from Cairo International, but what do you know. No one was there to pick us up. After waiting around for an hour, another AUC driver offered to take us to the dorm. When we arrived everything looked perfect. We gave in our passports and relaxed in the lobby of our dorm (what looked to be a 5-star hotel). Then all of a sudden a lady come over and said there had been a mistake and that we were at the wrong dorm. She said it was no big deal that they would get us a cab to the other dorm. She wrote the name down of the dorm and hailed down a cab (aka a pos from about ... read more

It was time to get away from the noisy medinas and head into the countryside to experience the real Morocco. Next few days were spent driving through some spectacular scenery in the Middle Atlas mountains. First stop was Midelt with a lovely auberge and refreshing spring water pool. Took a wander through the nearby village and chatted with some local women. Next stop was Todra Gorge. It's an amazingly lush valley with kasbahs surrounded by various crops such as pomegranates, peaches, apples, maize, alfafa, beans, cabbage, etc. Along the walk, we gorged on fresh figs straight off the trees. It's also blatantly obvious that it's the Berber women that do all the work in the fields and carry crops on their backs like mules. Apparently the men only till the soil, a grand total of about ... read more