English: Diary Africa trip 2009-2010

Date: Sat, 6 Jun 2009

I just started my Africa trip this week in Mombasa, Kenya. I had a good time so far in bumping into the right people in the right time.

I got to know a shop owner, who is a freelancer also, dealing with anything legal (no drugs or women, etc), but houses, lorries, diamonds, handicrafts, antiques, cars, plots, etc. This guy, Yusuf, takes good care of me, taking me out of the brothel I stayed the first night, looking together for a better one. As he has always business to do outside of town, I can join him and we have a look on the sights on the way, like parks, crocodile farms, temples, markets and so on.

So, tomorrow, I will leave for Malindi, as I can visit a friend of Yusuf, Athman, who has a bed and breakfast there, also working for an office and with several NGOs. This makes it probably a very interesting stop, as otherwise, I would not really think about going to Malindi. After that, I will go to Lamu, which I visited 20 years back. Apparently, it changed, but it is still nice. I will see.

Anyway, I have a very nice time here. People are friendly, just raining season just begun instead of being nearly gone. World climate change affects the whole world.

Cheers Andy

Date: Fri, 19 Jun 2009

I had a beautiful time here in Kenya so far. First, I bumped into this local man and his family. I had a great time in Mombasa and got to know many things about life here. Yusuf is a kind of freelancer, trading everything except of women and drugs. At least, that’s what he is saying.

After 3 days in Mombasa, I went to Malindi to visit Athman, a friend of Yusufs brother. I stayed there with the family and again, we had a great time. I spent quite some hours with Rahima, Athmans wife, in her shop, talking to her and her girl friends passing by. We had quite one or the other interesting discussion. It was a very good experience to stay with a family, thanks a lot for all your hospitality and friendship.

Also, there are a lot of things to see around Malindi like Gede Ruins, which are a couple of hundred years old. They are in the middle of a big forest with huge trees.

After that, I went to Lamu. I have been to Lamu 20 years ago and I loved it. It is amazing, but it did not change much. There are now 4 cars on the island instead of 3 twenty years back. Some more hotels and restaurants, some more touts maybe. The rest is the same. The old buildings, the narrow streets, the friendly locals – like paradise.

I did 2 trips on a local sailing boat, a Dhow. We had grilled fish on the beach, visited several small villages and Takwa ruins, an old Swahili settlement. For sure, there is also the beach, the tasty fish and other seafood.

Now, I am back in Mombasa. I spent my birthday here with Yusuf and his family. Got quite some presents, which are thankfully easy to carry around.

Well, next destination is Nairobi, hopefully Masai Mara, and then Rift Valley.

I am also very happy to receive mails!

Greetings from beautiful Kenya

Andy

 

Date: Tue, 30 Jun 2009

So far, the journey has been very good, everything went out well. As I stayed quite long time on the coast, I am a little bit delayed now. I thought it would happen somewhere on the way, just not that early. After celebrating my birthday in Mombasa, I left for Nairobi.

By accident, I got to know 3 Scandinavian ladies going on Safari the following day, they had a free seat, and due to me taking part as well, the whole journey turned out to be cheaper for everyone. First, we went to Masai Mara for 3 days. It was just amazing. We have seen all the big five and a lot more animals. It was lions, hippos, elephants, giraffes, gepards, leopards, buffalos, birds, crocodiles, monkeys, and lots more. It was just great. After that, we went for one day to Lake Nakuru, where we have seen many flamingos and other birds, quite a view hippos and had another beautiful day on safari.

Back in Nairobi, I went one day to meet the friend of a friend from Germany. She is living in Nairobi in a beautiful house and we had a beautiful day in her garden with a nice pizza lunch and some wine, which I felt quite a lot after 4 weeks with nearly no alcohol at all.

I also met an Austrian friend of Yusuf, who showed me Nairobi city and different living areas in town. He seems to be an important guy being married to the nice of the president. Tomorrow we will go for a trip to Karen Blixen museum and to Nairobi National Park.

Probably, I will leave Nairobi around the end of this week, going towards Lake Bororia and Baringo, then to Eldoret and Lake Victoria. In Eldoret, there is again family time, as a brother of my friend Yussuf is living there with his family, desperately waiting for the "muzungu" (the white tourist) to come for some days. From there, I will do some day trips to the tea plantations and to Lake Victoria, then it will be time to leave for Uganda. So much for today. I am always very happy to get emails. Greetings Andy      

 

Date: Mon, 20 Jul 2009

I left Nairobi (also called Nairobbery due to all the robberies and muggings in town) without any further problems.

Usually no one visits Gilgil in between Naivasha and Nakuru, but I did a brief stop here. When travelling to Kenya by plane, I met a German living in Gilgil with his wife, step daughter and granddaughter. He invited me to visit them on the way. I gave them a call from Nairobi and went there the next day. There is not so much to see in terms of tourist attractions. It is staying with a local family, getting to know their way of life. I was sharing a room with daughter and granddaughter, so it is 24 hours African life around.

One day, we went by motorbike taxi to the farm of relatives. It was very nice to see the landscape. The area is very hilly and there are fields of maize and crops everywhere. They also grow potatoes. The house was very nice and had electricity because of solar panels on the roof.

Back to Gilgil we went by matatu, shared taxi. Usually, they hold 14 passengers on 14 seats, there were about 25 people. According to a passenger on another ride, children under the age of 12 are not counted, chicken and other animals for sure, also not. Also, big luggage like sacks of potatoes is not counted, but was on board….

One day, we went to lake Elementeita, a salt lake, which has got many flamingos, who like this salty water. It was a surrealistic sight, white salt, blueish water and rose flamingos.

A beautiful day!

From Gilgil, I took several matatus to Lake Baringo. I have been here 21 years ago and I loved the place. So, I was hoping to find the place as nice as before. It was even better this time. The camping place now is really developed with a restaurant, common toilets and showers and room accommodation for those without a tent. Even a tented camp is here.

At Lake Baringo, there are many big and small birds to see, but the biggest things are the hippos. There are plenty of them in the lake, and they come out at night for their meal. Well, they are big, but they do eat only grass. This takes quite a while (in fact the whole night). Their favorite place for food is the camping ground. Just imagine waking up at night because of very loud chewing noise…. Yes, it is the hippos! And they are close and they are big, and they have big teeth also…. One can be sure, when you see hippos eating grass about 5 meters from your tent, the first thing, which comes across you is the urgent need for a toilet….

One day, I did a day trip to Lake Borgoria with some friends. This is as well a rift valley lake and just about 35 kilometers from Baringo away. It feels and looks completely different, as this is a salt and soda lake. Most animals do not like this type of water, but flamingos love it, because their favorite food lives in there (some special crabs).

Besides the flamingos, there are many other birds and antelopes close to the water. Also, they have hot springshere; some of them erupt as geysers and are up to 2 meters high.

From Baringo, I went to Eldoret, where I stayed with the brother of Yusuf from Mombasa. I stayed for 4 days with Hassan, his wife Munira, son Mohammed and nephew Mustafa. I had a beautiful time there. I felt very soon like at home in their house. Especially with Munira I had the feeling I met the sister, I never had, as we had so much in common. Like in Gilgil, it was again very interesting to see family life. One day, we went all together for a trip to a place where they rebuilt traditional houses of different tribes and a little zoo. For the children, there was a pool, so this was a very relaxing day.

After 4 days, it was not easy to leave, but there is still so much else to see.

From Eldoret, I went to Kakamega Forest. These are the last remains of tropical rainforest in Kenya and local people are very serious about protecting it now. I spent two nights in a lovely camp, which I had just to myself. First, I found that rather strange, sitting in a camp with nice little bandas (huts) and no one else around, but I loved the quietness there. Also, there was a ranger protecting me at night.

The first evening, I did not know about that, and I was quite astonished about a guy with a gun standing in front of the shower waiting for me to come out. What a relief, when I learned, it was not one of the bad guys, but a ranger to protect me from wild animals!

In the park, I did several guided walks, as most of the trails are very small and not a lot of signs around. I went to see a beautiful waterfall, a nature trail with huge trees, a bird and a butterfly walk. All of them very nice with lots of explanations.

After Kakamega, I went to Kisumu at Lake Victoria. I just arrived, when I got a call from a very nice lady named Lina. She told me she just got a call from here former boss in Mombasa, that there is a friend of him in town and she wants to show me her city…. Well, Yusuf likes to take care, even when he is not around.

We had a beautiful day exploring a huge market; we had a lot of fun looking for music CDs in a little shop and had some nice talks.

After nearly 7 weeks in Kenya, I left today for a new adventure – from today, I am in Uganda. the first City, I am in now, is Jinja. It is at Lake Victoria and claims to have the source of the river Nile. Therefore, I will have a closer look. Looks like a place for a couple of days, before heading towards Kampala.

The next mail will be about Uganda. I am always happy to receive mails.

Take care and greetings from Uganda

Andy

 

Date: Tue, 11 Aug 2009

I just arrived in Uganda after travelling for nearly 7 weeks in Kenya. My first brief stop was in Jinja. Here, the most promoted highlight is the source of river Nile. Actually, there is not really much to see, as there is this really big Lake Victoria, and there is a big river flowing out of the lake. Well, this is one of the big sources of the white river Nile. Still, it was a nice feeling to be there, as I have been to the source of the Blue Nile in Ethiopia in 2003.

After one day in Jinja town, I went to Bujagali waterfalls outside of town. The waterfalls are just beautiful, as there are quite a few high cascades. Especially in the late afternoon, they are a spectacular sight. Lots of tourists come here for rafting opportunities. But there are a lot more locals at the falls. The falls are a beautiful sight, but just imagine having there quite a few colorful rafting boats full of shouting mzungus riding down the river and the falls – this is a major attraction for locals and draws local tourists, school classes and the occasional farmer with a lonely cow there in the late morning especially for this event.

From Jinja, I went to the capital of Uganda, Kampala. In downtown area, the city seems like a big mess, but once you are a bit further outside, it seems more like an enormous village.

Just after I arrived, I got a phone call from my good old friend Yusuf, saying he is also in Kampala. He was supposed to meet someone here to bring him to the border of Uganda with Congo for some timber business. This person never showed up, so Yusuf was stranded here. Well, I went to the bus station and picked up my lost friend. As this Ugandan person did not pick the phone the whole day, we had to make a decision about what to do now. As locals here do not really like to travel alone and most  Africans are not very skilled in reading maps (in that case Yusuf is no exception), I decided to travel with him to Mpondwe.

So, the following day, we took a bus to Kasese. Locals said it would take us 5 hours…. Well, that was the African way of putting it, at the end it took us 8 hours to go there, but at least the scenery was very interesting, as it changed from very green into bush and then into more or less barren savannah.

The following day, we took a shared taxi to Mpondwe. (Shared means really shared with 8 people plus driver in a normal car). Never less, it took us more than an hour to reach the Mpondwe, as our driver failed to stop at a police check post and was therefore heavily fined at the next stop….

The wood is stored at the border in between Uganda and Congo, so it is necessary to register with the police to leave Ugandan territory. There was plenty of wood, just not Timber, as this is apparently growing only in Sudan. As there are no suitable roads in between Sudan and Congo in this area, there is no obvious reason, why there should be Timber from Sudan sold at the border of Uganda with Congo. But also therefore, someone needs to know how to read a map. In that matter we are doing circles….

Anyway, it was not Timber, but it looked pretty nice and it was hard wood. So, Yusuf looked for someone to get into deep talks for this wood business. Finally, we even got permission to take some photos, which will be a good way to show, that there is plenty of this stuff already there.

After some hours here at the border we boarded another bus going back to Kampala. For going back, we took the northern route via Fort Portal. It is shorter, but there are many mountains…. So, the information with 5 hours was again different in reality…

I felt really sorry for poor Yusuf, who had to travel the following day all the way back to Mombasa, which is a grueling 20 hours trip.

After all these adventures at the border, I was ready to contact the people I wanted to meet in Kampala. First, I gave Father Caesar a call. I got to know him some years back in Regensburg. A good client of our travel agency booked flights for him and 10 former street children to come from Kampala to Germany for the catholic youth day with the Pope in Cologne.

When they arrived, they visited me in the office and so I got to know Father Caesar. When I was planning this trip, I got into email contact with him and well, we met at Kisube church outside of Kampala. This was a very interesting day, as this was the Kisube Parish Youth day. The ceremony in the church was very different from the services we know in Germany. There was clapping, dancing, people had quite some fun there.

After church, the festival continued outside with traditional dancing, theatre and a nice lunch.

Father Caesar also invited me to spend a couple of days with a group of Italian scouts, which arrived the following day.

This was a very interesting time. We visited quite a few schools. Some of them had also scouts. It was very interesting for me to learn about the ideas of the scouts. In one school, the scouts showed us how they do camping here in Uganda with building their own tents out of leaves and woven mats.

Other schools liked to present themselves with choirs, some even with guitars or played sketches for us. The most fun we had with the primary school, and especially the boy scouts were treated like stars, as they took child after child on their shoulders. I had a great time with this group. Thanks a lot for all!

After a couple of days with them, I got into contact with Rhona, who is the cousin of a friend of a friend in Germany. She is Ugandan and lives here in Kampala and she is taking care of some street children. She rented a house which accommodates 15 boys at the age of 10 to 22. Apparently, it was not easy to make them leave the streets. The longer time they spent there, the more difficult it is. Most of them are into drugs like sniffing glue, many lost their parents due to civil unrest or HIV, and some just left their families due to unbearable circumstances. Rhona tries to attract them by offering free food twice a week after praying together. It is usually something like 60 to 100 children, who come for the food. The ones, who come regularly, are offered a place in the house, if there is space. At the moment, the house is full with 15 boys, but there are plans to build up more beds.

I had a great time with these former street children, sitting together, asking questions, trying to give answers, praying and singing.

Well, I wanted to help but as my money is rather limited, I thought it might be best to do what I am good in. So, Rhona and I decided to do a lot of photos of the children, the home, the slum, the unbearable conditions there and hand them over to Robinah to make her fund raising in Germany hopefully easier… At least that is what we are about to try.

Also, Father Caesar is willing to get into contact with Rhona, which is very good idea, as he has 20 years of experience in working with street children. I rate him as a mine of information with plenty of contacts which can be only good for Rhonas organization and the children and youngsters there.

After one week in Kampala I had the desperate feeling that I needed some fresh air out of town. I was lucky to get the last seat in a minibus going for 3 days to Murchison Falls National Park in the northwest of Uganda. Here are the huge Murchison Falls and quite some animals. We have seen many giraffes, buffaloes, monkeys, warthogs, elephants, but no lion.

Also, we did a tour on the Nile with a boat, which was a very good way to see many hippos on the way. Some of them were even out of the water for eating grass during daytime. The boat is going near the waterfalls which are an impressive sight from down there. But it is even better from up. The way there is very slippery, but the scenery is just great! We had a wonderful time in the park.

Now, I am back in Kampala. I spent some more time with Rhona. I will never forget that beautiful Indian dinner, we had at her cousin Annas house. Her husband John is a wonderful cook and Anna presented a lovely chocolate cake on top.

The last few days, I spent in Jjanya, which is a small village about 40 kilometers from Kampala. Just a few weeks before I left Germany, I came across an organization named Ukihi, which is from my hometown Regensburg. They are doing projects with a local school there, and that was the one in Jjanya. To make it as easy and affordable as possible for me to reach the place, headmaster Charles fetched me in Kampala. We went by minibus to the next bigger place and from there by motorbike the rest of the way.

The school and its children were just lovely and I had a great time there. The people from Ukihi did quite some work at the place like constructing new buildings, giving paint or a new roof to some of the older houses. There is a solar system providing energy for late time studies now and there is a water pump to avoid long walks with water canisters. The pump is broken at the moment and under repair in Kampala. Ukihi is providing all these help as the school takes former street children without asking for school fees. Instead they get all these facilities, which are helpful for all children. To attract more children to school, there is now even a program to give each child a porridge lunch. The numbers increased dramatically after this program was installed (from more than 600 to now more than 700 students).

I spent as much time as possible with the former street children and it was very interesting to hear about their dreams for the future. All of them are very happy and grateful. They know that they got a chance in life, probably the only one they ever had, and that they have to make the best out of it. So, all of them want to study as hard as possible to make their supporters believe in them and to make them continue their work.

As I was staying on the school compound, I had all these nice people around me 24 hours a day and I really loved each single minute of it.

As I have even more contacts from Regensburg here in Kampala, I will see another school not far from Jjanya, this one is in Nsumba. This school was supported by DJK Regensburg and is surely as well worth a look.

After that it is time to leave Kampala for another destination. Next stop is Kibale National Park. That is the best park for spotting chimpanzees. Then, I will make my way down towards Rwanda.

All that is going to be a story for the next mail. I am always happy to receive mails

Greetings

Andy

 

Date: Sat, 29 Aug 2009

After the last mail I was a few more days in Kampala. I spent an afternoon quite comfortably with Rhona, her sons and a friend at Rhones home. It was really nice that we had some time for talking and laughing, without street children, without slum, noise etc….

On my last day in Kampala I drove with Father Caesar to Nsumba. Here is the school which was supported long time by Regensburg DJK. There are many buildings, which were built with the help of young Germans, other houses were redeveloped, a water pump was installed, and there is an orphanage for quite small children also. For these 50 children 4 women are responsible. The little ones did not want us to leave anymore.

As school holidays just started, there were only the former street children at school. They have, finally, no other home. More than 80 street children have found here a future – a great success!

Nevertheless, after all time with Father Caesar, the scouts and the time with Rhona it was time to leave Kampala. It was not easy to leave, but there are so many more things to see in Uganda.

My next destination was Fort Portal. This is relatively high altitude and thereby it feels quite chilly. From Fort Portal, I took a shared car to the small village of Bigodi. On a map, one probably will not find this village, as there are just a few hundred people living there.

However, nearby there is Kibale National Forest and there I absolutely wanted to go.

But first, however, to Bigodi and my lodging there: I lived there with the family of John Tinka. Tinka has done a lot for his village which was as poor as most Ugandan villages till 10 years back. However, things changed, when Tinka had the idea about taking advantage out of a swamp just next to the village.

The villagers converted the swamp into a small park with footbridges for visitors, they qualified guides who know a lot about fauna and flora and it worked. Today, there are quite a few tourists visiting the area and pay entry for it. The calculation rose – since some years income comes regularly by the visitors to the local community. Besides, in the meantime, a women's co-operative has formed which pursue a small store with art craft beside the park entrance, a peanut butter factory was founded, a secondary school was built and various home stays accommodate visitors now. The latter means, that tourist can directly live with families and pay for it.

I stayed with Tinka, the co-founder of the project. This was definitive with family connection, because here live beside him and his wife still the granny and 9 children between 8 months and 22 years….

During daytime, usually everybody was occupied with various works like laundry washing and ironing, washing dishes, preparing and cooking food or Tinka working in the office…

When it comes to food, because this is asked quite often: In Uganda people eat mainly banana. These can be the sweet bananas as we know them from home, or, however, cooking bananas. They come to almost every food as an addition; the whole is called Matoke and tastes a little like mashed potatoes with light banana mark. Otherwise there is often Posho, maize mash, and beans or cooked beef or chicken.

However, with Tinka and his family I had a lot of fun. In the evening there was singing, dancing or stories were told.

I was very lucky to get a permit for the national park on the spot. Thus I could visit the chimpanzees in the Kibale National Park. Normally one must walk about 1 or 1.5 hours, until the guide can localize the chimps in the park. Also there we had luck. We have found the first chimpanzee's family after 10 minutes. The chimpanzees sit normally high in the trees and are very difficult to take photos. One can hear them, however, far away, because they communicate a lot with each other. The hour with the Chimps passed too fast. It ware simply fantastic!

Presumably it is even more impressive with the gorillas, but to get a permit in short notice is almost impossible, moreover, the permit costs a whooping 500 dollars. However, this is quite too much money….. At that time I thought it might be cheaper in Rwanda, but I learned later that it is the same price.

The next day, I visited the marsh in which also many monkeys live, indeed, no chimpanzees. In addition there come many birds and rare plants. Here I had once again luck, and have got to know 2 ladies from Netherlands, who took me after the tour in their car 20 kilometers towards my next destination.

So, it was very easy to reach Lake Nkubura, as I needed only 30 minutes more with a motorcycle taxi. It is not really easy to sit with full luggage (big tour backpack and small day backpack) on the back of a motorcycle…. It is not comfortable, in any case.

At Lake NkurubaI did a tour to some of the crater lakes in the area. It is a beautiful landscape of bananas and tea plantations with the crater lakes in between. The lakes are more than 60 meters deep, and they are considered to be free of bilharzias (this is these small worms that bore by the skin and attack the internal organs). But, as said, that disease is not common here. Apart from that, it was too cold to take a swim here, as the lakes are at nearly 1800-metre altitude!

The next highlight of Uganda was half an hour of motorcycle taxi, 5 hours of minibus and then on the next day over again 3 hours of minibus and 45 minutes of motorcycle taxi journey away – Lake Bunyoni. This lake lies away at 2000 meters altitude and is only few kilometers from the border with Rwanda. The lake is wonderful and surrounded by terraced mountains. One knows such terrace fields rather from Nepal than from Africa…

In this area there are due to HIV a lot of orphan´s children. Immediately behind my hotel there was one of the orphanages. Here live 59 children in some small houses, who are looked after by several adults. Well, accommodation is very tight, as there is not enough room to accommodate these children in a proper way, e.g. the 5 smallest children divide a bed. They sleep crosswise, and then five of them fit. Others sleep on the ground. The shell of an additional building stands, however, is still far away from his completion, particularly as currently there is no money to continue.

The children are enthusiastically, when there is a visitor, and then they sing and dance. Two boys from the orphanage took me against a small donation for the orphanage on a boat tour to some of the islands. This was a good opportunity to get into conversation with the both. Their parents have passed away due to HIV, leaving behind a total of nine brothers and sisters, everybody in the orphanage. Both latest brother and sister have by the birth also HIV. There a reasonable answer is already difficult for one….

Then one of the older brothers has brought me by the motorcycle to the border. Thanks a lot to Gordon; this saved me definitely a lot of waiting. I hope to find a solution to some of the problems they have there in the orphanage.

After four weeks in Uganda I crossed the border to Rwanda. The border procedure was absolutely unproblematic. Germans even do not have to pay for a visa for Rwanda. Stamp in the passport and ready! Astonishing!

After well one hour I reached by bus the capital of Kigali. Here there was even more astonishing: the motorcycle taxi drivers do not try to get a higher price from tourists, the motorcycle passenger gets a helmet, and all drivers have a uniform and are registered by number!

Moreover, it is very quiet on the streets, only little horning, there is zebra crossing and the motorized road users stop for pedestrians! This is new! There is a ban on plastic bags; all people carry their buys in paper bags. The western world can learn quite a bit here!

And the best, there is French tick – as a former Belgian they speak not only French, but also food has a french air! Very pleasant after all these mostly untoasted toast breads of the last nearly 3 months…

At my hotel in Kigali I got to know Hans from Switzerland. An interesting type. Comes from the construction branch and has sold everything at home after an illness and travels the world for 6 or 7 or more years by motorcycle. The good thing is, that he covered the African countries I am going to and he is going towards Uganda and Kenya…. One can imagine, that our conversation material did not find an end!

With Rwanda everybody has certainly still the genocide in memory, which has taken place here in 1994. Within 100 days about 1 million people were killed here. It was a conflict, steered by the government to which mainly the minority of the Tutsi, but also moderate Hutus fell victim. UN has failed then pitifully, particularly as the whole has happened with announcement, and the commander wanted to extend the mandate, but unfortunately, received no approval for it.

The Rwandese are considerable quite far in the processing of their past, there is in Kigali a big memorial with many photos, films, exhibition pieces and a garden with common graves in which 250 000 dead people lie. An urgent monument, particularly as it reminds not only of the genocide here in Rwanda, but also of Nazi Germany, former Yugoslavia, Armenia, Namibia and the Hereros and Cambodia under the red Khmer. 

Here I have also met Audrey from Canada again. I met her first in Murchison National Park in Uganda. She works for two months in the commemorative site and could give me of course a good insight into the history, but also in her work.

On one day I have visited with Hans the commemorative sites outside from Kampala. This was quite a kind of travelling – well, I sat on top of a 300-kilogramm-motorcycle…. However, climbing this high motorcycle is another issue. Thankfully enough, there are many little walls, high stones and the like in Rwanda, which I could use to climb this huge bike….

The memorials of Ntarama and Nyamata are very distressing. Basically, these are 2 churches in which 6,000 and 10,000 people were killed. The skulls and bones of the victims are accommodated in the churches in shelves, the clothes lie on the benches. It is not easy to visit these places, but on the other side it is important to see them.

It is astonishing how many monuments of the Genozids there are here in the country, above all if one thinks of the discussions with us in Germany. It took us a lot longer than 15 years for our memorials. Here, there are already many of them. Besides, there is a trial for the really big guys during the genocide in Arusha, other have to go to court in the country and there are village trials for the ones, who took part but are seeking for forgiveness. Besides, people try to create school programmers to show of the today's ones and the following generations how all that happened and how one can hopefully avoid a repetition.

One afternoon I visited Pierre. He works for the organization mission de la Criox Glorieuse. This organization looks after orphan's children, HIV infected people and others in need. It is important to note, that this organization distributes not simply money to the poorest, but tries to give work to the people or to train them on jobs, so that they can search a work for themselves. The orphan's children live in groups per 6 or 8 children with a so-called mother together. The groups exist either of boys or girls of different age, so that the whole reminds of a family. The separation after gender is a must be, because the children of a group sleep in the same room. The system reminds a little bit of the children's villages SOS where also a woman is responsible for a group of children. More than 80 orphan's children live here and are supported by different organizations. There is a school for children from 3 years and one elementary school.

A fantastically controlled and well functioning organization with own cows, pigs and chickens as well as workshops to the education of carpenters and tailors.

A couple of days I was traveling together with Hans in Rwanda, actually, he was travelling on the motorcycle, I by bus. We agreed always the next hotel to meet again and went from there to day trips by motorcycle. First we went from Kigali to Butare. This is close to the border with Burundi. Some 25 kilometers away, there is the school of Murambi. Here many thousand Tutsi and Hutus fled, but the militia found them and killed everybody. The corpses lie even today in the former classrooms and have been preserved with pulverized lime. It is a memorial hardly to be endured. The bad one is that here also very small children and babies were killed brutally, and one sees all that already very exact. I was glad that I was not here by myself and could discuss the seen with Hans.

On the next day we drove further on to Kibuye, a wonderful place directly at Lake Kivu. This was a real holiday feeling here. A mountain lake at an altitude of 1500 meters, surrounded by mountains, in the lake many small islands, clear water, a good hotel and a restaurant with very good food with view of the lake – what else one needs?

By bus it is easier to come from Butare on the inland route to Kibuye, however, is not so exciting and does not have the nice views like the route along the lake, which Hans did by the motorcycle.

So, the next day, Hans put me on his big motorbike again to take me parts of the way he just came from the other day. It was simply great. Not the road, for sure, as this one was very bad, but the views were just spectacular!

Here at this point again thank you very much to Hans, who drove part of this track even three times just to make me see all these beautiful things as well!

From Kibuye we went to Gisenyi, which is also at Lake Kivu. This road was in bad condition as well, as it took me 5 hours for 115 kilometers by bus. Gisenyi faces a lot of dust at the moment, as all streets are torn open just at the same time and renewed. Because here also the border traffic with Congo goes through, the whole place is dusty, dusty, dusty – so at the moment this one does not win the price as a pearl of Lake Kivu, rather a gigantic dust flag! From there we went to Ruhengeni, where then our ways separated. Hans went further to Uganda, I back to Kigali. These were very nice travel days with an uncomplicated travel partner. I hope very much that he can realize his travel book project and that he will find his dream place for a hostel somewhere in the world. Also, the world is a village and another meeting somewhere in the world is not unlikely.

My last day in Rwanda I spent with Tobi and Barbara from Austria. Barbara is working in Kigali for Unifem, her boyfriend was visiting her for 2 weeks. They offered me a seat in their 4 wheel drive just for the share of gas for a daytrip to Akagera National Park. There is not an abundance of wildlife as in Masai Mara, but it was very nice to see giraffes, antelopes, zebras and hippos. Besides, I had a beautiful day in nice company out in the bush. The landscape is very dry here, so it is an interesting contrast to the rest of Rwanda, I have seen so far.

The evening I spent with Uwe and Andrea from Switzerland. They adopted a little boy from Rwanda and this was the first night he spent with them in the hotel. So, there was something to celebrate, even more, after he fell finally asleep. I am pretty sure to meet them somewhere again, no matter, whether Switzerland, Germany or anywhere in the world.

So, tomorrow, I will leave for Tanzania. But this is another story for another mail. Thanks god the world is still big enough for many more adventures.. Let’s go and see them!

Cheers, Andy

 

Date: Sun, 13 Sep 2009

well, I already spent quite some time in Tanzania. According to Lonely Planet guide book, the road from the border with Rwanda towards Kahama was in very bad shape. Actually, it was a lot better than the guide meant. Well, things like these happen, when traveling with a 3 years old guide book. In the late afternoon I arrived in Kahama, the coach to Mwanza coming from somewhere else was delayed and it was not foreseeable, when this one would arrive. So I decided to spend the night in Kahama. I had a very charming coach driver who drove me by big bus to the hotel (a private transfer in the gigantic coach). Presumably I was in Kahama the only Mzungu, so in the hotel the receptionist and the guests were astonished about the new entry. Then the coach driver drove off again to organize my bus ticket for the next day, saying, the bus station is no place for an unaccompanied woman… Tanzania seems to be a very pleasant country, at least for single women…

Then a young man walked me to the Internet cafe, which was at least 30 minutes of a walk – once there, I found out, that he did not have anything to do there himself. Well, it was already dark, so this poor fellow even waited for me and brought me back to the hotel an hour later. The next morning he took me very early to the bus station, as this is no place for a single woman… Well, in any case, a great start for Tanzania!

On the next day I went by a very slow but safe bus to Mwanza. Mwanza is situated south of Lake Victoria and is the biggest town in this area. Here I visited Nafisa, a sister of Yusuf from Mombasa. She is married in Mwanza and lives here with husband Murtaza and granddaughter Khadija. In spite of the restrictions at the moment of the holy month of Ramadan they decided, that I should stay with them in their house. This must have been rather difficult time for them, as religious Muslims do not eat or drink at Ramadan during daytime. Besides, there are many restrictions on travelling and there are many set times for prayers in the mosque. Usually, there is dinner in the mosque and at 4.00 o'clock in the morning people get up for having breakfast to make it through the day. After that, most people go to bed again and follow, nevertheless, during the day their normal business. Nafisa insisted on preparing breakfast and lunch for me. I can imagine, it is not really funny to cook for other people great Indian dishes, if you are not allowed to eat yourself…

As the granddaughter Khadija is only 3 years old, she is also not feasting for sure, but it is somewhat different, whether one does some food for the granddaughter, or for a guest. Anyway, I felt like at home with the three of them and would like to thank her over again for the hospitality, their help and their friendship towards me!

In Mwanza I also met Jose again on the street. I got to know Jose about 2 months ago in Nairobi in the hostel I was staying. He comes from South America and is travelling in East Africa for 3 months. For the next day we agreed to visit an island. As it turned out, that this would cost us 52 dollars per person, we changed our plans and went by normal ferry to the next town and spent some time and then went back again. Thus we also got to journey on the lake for about a dollar for going and coming back…

From Mwanza it is not really far to Arusha. The problem is that on the short route, one would have to cross two national parks, Serengeti and Ngorongoro crater. This means for tourists, that one must pay the national park fee of 50 dollars per park whether you spot animals from the bus or not… This makes little sense! So, I decided to take a bus around all these parks and go south of them towards Arusha.

Well, I spent 14 hours in the coach, 5 of it on a very bad piste. When we reached Arusha finally in the evening, we were completely covered by fine reddish dust, even inside the backpack, which was stored in the belly of the coach, the dust had spread…. Well, the next day, I had to give a big laundry to the backpack from in- and outside.

In Arusha I was lucky once more in finding a group of 4 people, who were about to go on safari and had one more seat in their jeep available! We went to Lake Manyara, to Ngorongoro Crater and to Tarangire National Park. Our team was international: a young woman from Finland, a couple from France and one Japanese. Besides, there was a local driver-guide and a cook. We spent the two nights near the Manyara National Parks on a rim overlooking the park.

The first day we drove to Manyara National Park. The specific features here are the lions climbing trees. Unfortunately, we did not see one of them, climbing or not. But there were a lot of antelopes, monkeys, giraffes, elephants and hippos. Beside the salt lake there are some freshwater lakes, which the animals share for drinking. The water comes from the slopes of Ngorongoro Crater.

In the evening our cook presented really great food and from the close village an acrobat's group came for a visit. Quite a bit touristy, but that’s what the villagers are living on.

The following day, we visited the highlight of the area, Ngorongoro Crater. Millions of years ago, this must have been a gigantic volcano, which broke down sometime. Today there is only the edge of the volcano which is 2200 metres high. The crater is 600 metres down! Also the weather is different every kilometer. While driving up it becomes colder and colder and above all foggy! As foggy as Regensburg on a really bad november day…. Also as cold!

However, once you enter the crater, the wind almost stops. The fog disappears and makes room for the sun with a few clouds.

As there is water the whole year around in the crater, the animals stay here in contrast to Masai Mara / Serengeti. There is a lot of zebras, gnus, buffalo, various antelopes, cheetahs, lions, flamingos….. And all that in a spectacular, very dry scenery, salt lakes, freshwater pools with hippos, marshlands and brush land. Magnificent scenery and a really great day!

The last day of our safari we spent in Tarangire National Park. It is above all known for its big elephant herds. However, besides there are also zebras, gnus, giraffes, antelopes, lions and cheetahs. This national park is well known for its many baobab trees. These trees look really funny, because they have a very big trunk and extremely lots of branches. There is a legend in Africa, after which of the baobab wanted to look absolutely different from the other trees. So he complained after his creation with God because looked quite just as all the other trees. As a result God was furious, tore out the baobab and put him back to front in the earth…..

After the safari I spent another night in Arusha, before I went to Moshi. Moshi is a little bit sleepy provincial town at the foot of the Kilimanjaro. The town and her inhabitants live above all on trekking tourism. There are various streets which are nearly as bad as the part of town in Arusha with the safari enterprises. The only difference is, that here it is all about trekking or souvenirs instead of safaris.

On the roof of my hotel in Moshi I got to know a man from Holland, who runs a travel agency in Moshi together with his wife. Due to the economic crisis many porters and guides who have worked earlier at Mt Kilimanjaro have apparently lost their work. This year 60 percent less tourists are about to climb the biggest mountain of Africa than normal. Logically, less tourists means, they need fewer porters and fewer guides. Poverty and desperation rise and with it also the risk to be attacked somewhere as a tourist. However, they advised me to take a guide for my trip to Marangu to avoid the risk of being mugged on the road. So I got to know Benson, a guide which comes from a village close to Marangu. These 15 dollars per day were well invested money, as I had a great time and I felt in very good hands.

Unfortunately, the Kilimanjaro did not show up these 2 days, but the area around Marangu is very beautiful by itself, very green and there are some waterfalls to see and hills to climb. I also tried one of the local specialties – banana beer. I do know quite a few people, who would get an immediate outbreak of herpes already at the sight of the mug…. Not to speak from the contents inside the mug! The taste of that one, well, I would say, it is a quite nasty mixture of old banana and fermented chopped up muesli… Sounds about as fantastic as it was! However, once a while you come across things you just have to try, and I know, that my stomach was never weak with things like that!

As Mt Kilimanjaro did not want to appear at all, I just took the advice of Benson and added one more day in Moshi. This day was quite rainy in the morning, and then we had a nice walk in the forest close Moshi and tasty lunch with the aunt. But still no mountain.

I had already given up, when the following day a phone call from Yusuf at the early hour of 6.30 got me out of bed (in Ramadan watches and timings go somewhat different). In a kind of reflex, I was peering out of the window and there was the mountain! Mt Kilimanjaro was complete and was visible without clouds! Only for one hour, but this was enough. This was the cooperation of a good advice of Benson and the early phone call of Yusuf! Thanks a lot to both of you making me see Kili!!!

From Moshi, I travelled to Lushoto, which is in the Usambara Mountains. Lushoto is a rather small place with a few thousand habitants and is situated at about 1200 metres altitude. Here, I found the ultimate guesthouse. More an oasis of quietness and peace, the hostel more like a home stay, a charming owner and very good food. All that in the middle of a nice mountain world with a lot of banana plantations, fruit trees, cabbage patches and other vegetables. At this point thanks to Julius, the owner of Karibuni Lodge. I had a great time in Lushoto! The walk to Irente Viewpoint was especially great. Here, you are really in the first row, without any fence you can see very far and 1200 metres down! Exactly that day, there were final school exams, so many students showed up at the view point as well to celebrate themselves and their 4-week vacation time starting now. For sure, they wanted the Mzungu (the white tourist) to be in the mid of things!

On this tour we came once more across a bar with local specialties. This time sugarcane beer. Well, why not. One thing is for sure – that stuff was definitely better than the banana one. A bottle is 200 Tanzanian shillings, which is about 0,18 Dollar. On the 500 shilling note, the bar owner could not give change, so the rest of the money went to a local round for the other two customers. For sure, they were rather happy about this idea.

Now, I am in Dar es Salaam, the biggest town of Tanzania with approx. 4 million people. As it is week-end and, besides, Ramadan, it is rather quiet in spite of the size of the town. Today, I went by bus for a day trip to Bagamoyo. In the past, this was one of the most important harbors of the African coast and the terminus of the trading route from Lake Tanganyika to the sea. Mostly, slaves and ivory was traded here and many of the European Africa travellers of the 18th and 19th century began and ended their trips here, e.g. Livingston, Burton and Stanley. At the end of the 19th century Bagamoyo was for a short time the capital of Deutschostafrika. Therefore, there are many German colonial buildings, most in an advanced stage of decay, but the government now puts in some money for restoration. The town itself has a sleepy charm. About 5 kilometers from town, there are the ruins of Kaole, which date from 13th to 15th century. This was an absolutely nice and relaxed daytrip with only friendly people round me.

Tomorrow, I  will leave for Zanzibar. Apparently, there are only two possibilities, either you like Zanzibar a lot or you hate it, there is nothing in between. Am already curious, what my feelings will be. It is definitely very touristy, with a lot of touts, fake guides, and other dubious characters, but it must be very beautiful also. We will see! This is going to be part of a new story. It is time to release this mail now.

For this moment greetings from Tanzania.

Andy

 

Date: Sat, 17 Oct 2009

Well, I was really skeptical whether I would like Zanzibar or not. I think it is wonderful. For sure, it is quite touristy with all the things coming with it like fake guides, underemployed taxi drivers, impertinent suitcase porters, irritating shop owners and children who are accustomed to candy distributing tourists. Apart from that, it is simply great to walk around in the old small lanes, to get lost there, to land in a point which one knows again and so slowly discover the old town. As there was Ramadan (the fasting month of the Muslims), many stores were closed during daytime, and unfortunately, also many of the restaurants and cafes. This affects for sure also tourists, who are mostly not Muslim. However, it also has quite some advantages. According to the locals it was rather quiet at that time in Stonetown, because many tourists avoid the time of Ramadan. I would not necessarily want to know how busy Zanzibaris, if there is even more tourists than now…. On the whole trip I did not see as many (package) tourists as here. Another thing is that locals have to be very economical with her energy in Ramadan. So tourists can stroll through the old town without getting too much unwanted attention.

However, there are great museums here, the houses in the old town are mostly really nice and I live in Stonetown at a hotel which is accommodated in one several hundred year-old house. Quite traditionally with a so-called Pilipilibed, a gigantic bed which is very high, it has got a frame and carvings. Super comfy!

Of course there are also great beaches in Zanzibar. In the northern part there are very nice, almost white sandy beaches, which are nearly not influenced by the tides, so one can swim there the whole day. For sure, you are not here by yourself, but anyone expecting this, should better not come to Zanzibar anyway. Here the lodgings are expensive with starting at the budget edge with around 30 dollars for a single, but as it is very quiet at the moment, it is very easy to get the price down to less than half. Yes, am already very native….

Some days in the northern part of Zanzibar I spent with Paul from UK, who lives always half a year in Tanzania, the other half in the UK. He is living in southern Tanzania in a small village, giving people there a lot f support and leading a project there. Especially, he is into education, no wonder, as he used to be a teacher himself. Also, he is into tourism, guiding once a while clients through his second home country. However, I had a beautiful time with Paul exploring northern Zanzibar and I really hope to met again anywhere in the world. Possibly in Tanzania as his project sounds very interesting. Thanks a lot for everything, Paul!

In Zanzibar I have also spent more time than initially intended, because I wanted to experience the end of Ramadan, Eid al Fitr, and here. The Zanzibaris are known for the fact that they celebrate religious parties especially intensely, colorfully and loudly, and this I did not want to miss! Well, it was definitely worth staying the extra days.

In and around Stonetown there was on four days 2 parties in the evening. One party was directly by the sea where there is every evening a night market with great food. On these days after the end of the Ramadan it was much bigger, more authentic, more colorful, a lot more people and of course also much more interesting food. Above all of course sea food, but also chicken, pizza, soup, fruit and this very tasty sugarcane juice with lemon and ginger and ice cubes guaranteed made of tap water. I have missed this sugarcane juice since my departure from Mombasa painfully and my sugar cane seller here with the best juice because particularly a lot of ginger and lime, was glad every evening about my visit. No wonder, as I was one of his best customers with at least two gigantic mugs in the evening (1 liter of juice)….

The other party was exactly on the other side of the town and was much more of an authentic local party. Here, they had stalls with loads of plastic toys, photo studios, plenty of food stalls and an even disco with a DJ. This one was extremely loud. Though there was light, it was still very dark just a few meters from the stalls, so people constantly fell over other people sitting on the ground consuming here their fish kebab, soup or chicken. A unique mess, simply fantastic!

After a few other days on the beach to chill out from all these festivities I continued travelling towards Malawi. Because there were so many interesting things to see and to do in between Kenya and here, I was rather delayed. So I decided to skip Mozambique  on this trip and travel directly to Malawi.

Then, finally, after 2 very strenuous days in the bus, I arrived close to the border with Malawi. Bus rides in Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Tanzania are quite strait forward and are usually relatively quick. In Tanzania it is possible to travel 300 or even 350 kilometers in 5 or 6 hours by bus. In Kenya many streets are under repair at the moment, so it takes a little longer, in Rwanda the distances are very short anyway; you can cross the whole country in something like 4 hours….

Well, Malawi seems to be a little different, when it comes to public transport. Most busses are extremely slow, drive off if they are crammed full, to some destinations no public means of transport goes, e.g., to Livingstone….

However, Livingstone lies at the end of a bad street on a mountain. At last I had luck and after waiting for nearly 5 hours, a truck with a big load of sand and 30 passengers on top took me uphill. It was only 10 kilometers up to my camping ground, the so called Mushroom Farm, but at least we sat on sand on this very bumpy road…

Mushroom Farm lies directly with a precipitous slope, from where it goes several hundred meters downhill. There are small platforms, on which a tent well finds place. The view is great, however, for a run to the toilet at nighttime the setting is a kind of adventurous…

Some staff from Australia celebrated his birthday one evening, so all guests were invited for a barbequed pig, great salads and potatoes and a lot of drinks. Drinking at a setting like this one can not consider as safe, the only accident that night ended just with some painful bleedings….

Next, I went to Mzuzu, one of the biggest towns in the north of Malawi, which does not necessarily say much. This was a very easy travelling because Richard from the States filled his jeep with backpackers, who wanted to go down as well. As we shared the petrol costs, this helped everybody.

In Mzuzu, I spent the night in a hostel with the amusing name Mzoozoozoo. Tasty burgers and cheap beer make the bar with restaurant a magnet for all kinds of travellers, locals and others, who got stuck here already for months and seem to belong already to the inventory…

From Mzuzu it takes only 1.5 hours by minibus to Nkhata Bay. The street winds down the mountains and each 5 minutes it becomes warmer a few degrees. Nkhata Bay is a rather tourist place mainly for backpackers. In Nkhata Bay, there are (still) no expensive hotels. I stayed in a place called Mayoke Village, which is some 20 minutes walk from the village. It caters mainly for backpackers. From the englishman, who is already 10 years on the road to expats, and volunteers, who come from various parts of Malawi to the lake for the weekend. Travel tips are available from other tourists as well as from the staff. According to the funny geography of Malawi, the main question among travellers was, whether someone was travelling north or southbound. So, one gets info for onward travelling or people rave together about things they have seen on the way coming here…

After I met Dani, a German lady running a restaurant called Kaya Papaya in Nkhata Bay, I also had a nice place for Thai and other food in town.

As we got along pretty well, we decided to travel together for 2 days by ferry to Ruarwe. One needs about 5 hours there by ferry. There is also a street to Ruarwe, but this one is in very bad condition, so everybody advises against using it, because too dangerous. The journey by ferry was an experience for itself. Most tourists travel first class on the upper deck, we took the whole sportily and travelled 3rd class together with the africans. It was quite a mess with loads of luggage just anywhere, congested wooden seats, but the malawians are ready with pleasure to make some room for newcomers. So, this was nice traveling with friendly people.

Ruarwe is a rather small village in the northern part of lake Malawi, which is served twice a week by ferry. The only other way to reach the place is this extremely bad street.

Zulunkhuni Lodge is located close to the waterfall with the same name about 15 minutes walk off the village. There is a big garden with big trees, flowers and veggies. The chalets allow a wonderful view over the lake and here the water is particularly clear. It was a wonderful time there, without electricity, without radio or television, also mobile phones do not work here as there is no reception. It was very peaceful and quiet and a good spot for a rest.

As we did not want to use the road, there was only a choice to stay here for one or for 8 nights, because the ferry northbound has only one more place to go and returns after that coming back to all the places in reverse order.

After a few more nights in Nkhata Bay, I went by bus to Senga Bay in the southern part of the country. After picking up more and more people on the way, this bus was completely overloaded. Apparently, this was so obvious, that we got struck in a police control. The driver had to pay a fine, then all passengers were allowed to board the bus again! This is once again a very African logic.

Or another funny story yesterday at the market: 2 bananas cost the exorbitant price of 20 Kwacha, there are 4 for the special price of 50 Kwacha…. Some people in this market will not win a price for the best mathematicians in this world!

Senga Bay is a very extensive village with about 30,000 inhabitants. There are no mountains in the background like in Nkhata Bay, but they have a nice sandy beach. The hostel Cool Running, where I stayed, is very pleasant with a big garden, many trees and particularly comfortable couches under shady trees near the beach. Very nice for a lazy afternoon.

One morning here I spent with the local army who had parachute training. The commander was very happy about curious tourists with their cameras… Just imagine tourists with big cameras in an army camp in Germany!

Next step was Lilongwe, the capital of Malawi. This was an especially easy travelling because the owner of the hostel had to go by car to Lilongwe the very same day as well. Somewhere outside the city I was picked up by Guenter Baumann, a friend of a friend of my mum. As I arrived very early in the morning, I got a superb breakfast with self baked brown bread and self-made jam. Great!

Lilongwe is a very green city with lots of trees and gardens, but so far, I could not find a real city center here. Walking here is not the best choice as everything is very widespread and far away. Actually, there are at least two city centers, one with a big market and the other more quiet and modern city center with banks, insurances and supermarkets.

My first evening in Lilongwe, I was invited with Guenter and Marianne Baumann. They had some friends for dinner in their house. Dinner again was very delicious with meat, different veggies, hash browns and salad. After dinner, we sat together for some card games. Apparently, I learned fast, as I won…. Many thanks to Guenter and Marianne Baumann, who are wonderful hosts and Marianne is a great cook on top!

Today, there is my last day in Malawi, a country I enjoyed a lot as people are very friendly and calm. Tomorrow, I will leave going to Zambia. This is going to be another story.

Take care

Andy

 

Date: Sat, 7 Nov 2009
 

I spent my last day in Malawi in the capital Lilongwe. There is a big market, where one can find just anything. The afternoon I spent with Guenter and his dog – with the typical Malawian name Anton – outside of Lilongwe for a nice walk. This was rather interesting as Guenter could explain many of the plants. He has even written a book about the plants of Malawi.

The following day, I travelled to Zambia. Border crossings in this part of Africa are usually very easy, you just turn up at the border, pay usually 50. – US and then you go!

Finally, before in Lilongwe, I was able to solve my bank problem which was left over from Karonga close to the border with Tanzania. At that time I tried to pull out of the ATM the amount of 100. – Euro. I got a receipt from the machine, but unfortunately, no money! The branch in Karonga could not solve this problem. The whole thing was transferred to Lilongwe with the statement that the money would be returned to the credit card within the next 24 hours…. These were African 24 hours. Nearly 2 weeks later I showed up at the headquarters of the bank in Lilongwe to sort that problem out. Well, at the end it was not possible to transfer the money back on the card. I got it instead in cash, in Malawian Kwacha. Usually no problem, but this was on my last day before I left Malawi…

It is usually not a good idea to show up at the border with such a high amount in local currency, as every moneychanger knows that one must exchange the amount urgently. Malawian Kwacha is not the kind of currency you get easily rid off later in Zambia.

Moneychangers at the borders are usually creepy characters, but on this border they were especially audacious. One of them tried to cheat me even in so silly -audacious way that it was almost insulting!

First he smuggled between his 50000th notes some 10000th which look quite similar. When I confronted him with that, he stated, I gave him not 18000 Malawian Kwacha, but only 11000…. However, there I already pocketed his money! I proceeded to the immigration leaving him to think about the following options:

1. We cancel the whole deal; each one gets the whole amount of money back

2. We leave everything as it is

3. We go to the police

For sure, this guy was not happy about all that, but at last we cancelled the whole transaction and occupied neutral people with counting of the money.

From the border it was not far to Chipata. Here, I spent the night in Deans Hill View Lodge. A very relaxed and inexpensive lodge with the best (hot) showers for a long time. Dean is from England and likes to help travellers with all kinds of information. Dean knows a young local man, who offers a taxi service to South Luangwa National Park. The insiders info that the young man had to fetch customers in the park was a good one and it was a lot easier then to discuss the price of my journey going there…

You can also go there on public transport or by hitch hiking, but it is very time consuming and one can easily spend a whole day on this dusty road. In this nice taxi, it took me only 2 hours.

Croc Valley Camp is located directly along river Luangwa only a few kilometers of the national park entrance. Due to the nearness to the river there are quite a view regular animal visitors in the camp. During the day we had a visit of some elephants. Apparently they do not have affection for small yellow tents (as mine!)… Anyway, the camp manager made me leave my tent in a hurry, when the elephants came too close. The elephants were apparently quite attracted by my tent and got closer as I wanted them to be (especially, as I was laying in there)…

South Luangwa National Park is one of few national parks, where they offer night game drives. Rather exciting thing, because then you can see the nocturnal animals. Of course hippos, but also hyenas and leopards, smaller bush cats and a lot more. The entry fee of 20 US is valid for 24 hours, so most people combine a night and a day game drive on the same ticket. During daytime there are many elephants, different antelopes, zebras, giraffes and lions.

Unfortunately, our safari van driver was not exactly the best of all Zambian drivers and put our vehicle twice in the sand. We got stuck so badly, that all guests – despite the lions around – had to get out of the car and push….

As all this took us nearly two hours, our group got a free game drive the following day…. Unfortunately, it was the same driver who tried something new this day and got stuck in a gig hole on the track. So, we had to raise the vehicle by carriage siphon and stones on one side to get free again!

The way back of the national park to Chipata was easy travelling, because I was invited to join to a group of italians in a small truck. This was comfortable travelling for these 3 hours to Chipata, thanks a lot to Francesca and Stefano for their help!

The next day, I went by bus to Lusaka. That is about 7-hour journey through a very dry area. Every now and then, there are small villages, otherwise prickly bushes, some bundles yellow grass and a more or less straight street.

Lusaka is the capital of Zambia. It has got a very modern centre with quite a few skyscrapers, which reminded me of soviet constructions. In the main street, there are many banks, assurances, a big supermarket and some boutiques, also lots of fast food restaurants, mostly chains from South Africa.

A little bit outside the centre, there are two big shopping malls, which could just stand in Europe or America. There is also an uninspiring museum, some not really attractive markets – that’s it basically!

No wonder, that this is not really a tourist hangout!

I also left Lusaka fast. My next aim was Livingstone close to Victoria Falls. The Vic Falls are most imposing in or short after the raining season. There is nearly no water in october or november. There is more water on the Zimbabwean side than on the Zambian, so I was thinking about going to Zimbabwe. As I did not have a double entry for Zambia, this would have been a rather expensive idea.

In my hostel in Livingstone I got to know 2 people from England, who also longed for rest. Thus we had the idea to leave the city for some time for going to Bovu. This is a small island about 1-hour journey from Livingstone. On the island, there is only one small hotel. There is no electricity and no mobile phone reception! It was very quiet and peaceful. There was a lot to do, mostly by boat, like sunset boat ride, all around the island or an excursion to the village nearby. Here, Brett and Evelyn, the owners of Jungle Junction Lodge, support the construction of a school. Volunteers for that are welcome any time! Currently the small children are in school in the church, the bigger ones must walk every day 5 kilometers one-way to go to school in the next village!

Back in Livingstone, I cancelled the idea to see the falls on the Zimbabwian side. Brett had the idea about taking a flight over the falls. He probably thought rather of a helicopter flight, but, nevertheless, a micro light sounded a lot more fun! And it was simply great! Of course, first I was a little bit nervous as this micro light is really small and it also shakes quite a bit. But I forgot about this completely, as soon as we flew over the falls and gorges! After the flight, people can buy the CD with the photos, the pilot has shot during the flight. The camera is on one of the wings.

From Livingstone, I went by shared taxi to the border with Botswana. The border crossing is very well organized and also crossing the border river by ferry was unproblematic. On the other side, in Botswana, there was no public transport, but apparently the border officials felt very sorry for me having no car. So, they stopped the first good looking jeep and asked the driver to take me a couple of kilometers to Thebe River Camp in Kasane.

This crossing is very easy, so it is hard to understand, why most tourists in Livingstone panic for possibilities to master this border crossing anyhow and end up in an organized safari to Chobe National Park in Botswana. Maybe a clever business idea, rising the fears of the backpack horde of this border and by doing so selling more safaris to Chobe originating in Livingstone, because then the border crossing is done by minibus in the group…

However, Thebe River Camp is quite big and a lot of overland trucks stop here as well. These are exactly the kind of the travellers, who independent tourists usually try to avoid. Overland trucks are often booked by young, rather inexperienced travellers. The classical route is overland from London to Capetown, but for sure, one can do also only part of the way. Usually, these trucks go to big camp sites or they camp just in the bush. Mostly, they also cook together and buy food at local markets to save money. Some more up market versions do have a cook on board. Group dynamic plays a big part of it and wild parties are common and often. The latter is also the reason, why individual tourists usually try to avoid these groups.

At the bar of Thebe River Camp I got to know Kibonye and Simon from Kasane. They are teachers in a private school; Kibonye is from Botswana and Simon from England. We spent an interesting afternoon together and they took me with them to town. They introduced me to Heinz from Germany, who spends several weeks a year in Kasane. He bought a house in Kasane some years ago, where now also Sandra, a very nice local lady, lives.

They invited me to visit Sandra’s mother in the village of  Kavimba the next day. Kavimba is a remote small village about 80 kilometers from Kasane.

The journey to the village was interesting, the area is very dry, and most trees have barely any leaves, a few trees strange enough with lots of green as it had rained 10 days ago. Apparently an extensive rain is enough for some trees to grow immediately leaves. The village has about 800 inhabitants, there is nearly no work except of farming, due to the long period without rain the habitants have to walk for 15 kilometers for drinking water – oneway. Here, people live on subsistence economy, above all maize which can be harvested once a year. There is an elementary school in the village, however, for secondary education children have to go to Kasane. For most families this is not possible, as Kasane is far away and the children have to attend boarding school. Therefore, usually it lacks of money.

Sandra supports her mother as far as possible. However, currently she is without a job herself, so Heinz helps out at the moment.

The way back we drove through Chobe National Park. This park borders Chobe River, which has water the whole year. Accordingly, many animals are here the whole year. Chobe is known above all for the big elephant herds, which can be easily spotted in the evening or in the late afternoon taking a nice cool bath in the river or in the mud. Also, there are many hippos, buffaloes and different antelopes. There are also warthogs, giraffes, crocodiles, leopards, lions……

Heinz also invited me to stay with them instead of living in Thebe River Camp. This was great! I changed my small yellow tent for a nice flat with sleeping couch, fridge and a bathroom completely for myself! What an improvement! All this came even with full board – it was like holiday from travelling and, in addition, a time in which I have seen and experienced a lot without any organization work on my side! At this point thanks a lot to Heinz and Sandra. I will definitely not forget my time in Kasane!

Besides our 4 visits to the national park, we visited also various lodges like Elephant Valley Lodge. This lodge is situated close to a big water hole. The animals come here in the late afternoon and at night to drink and can be watched from a view platform. This is one of these super expensive lodges, a travel agent would love to book for a client (prices begin with 400 or 500 dollars per night). I was quite content with a coke and the view platform.

One afternoon, I spent on a boat on Chobe River. This was especially interesting, because we were very close to hippos, buffaloes, crocodiles and elephants. We were also lucky to watch two young elephants in a violent fight.

After nearly one week in Kasane with a lot of interesting insights into the african life, I went with a collective taxi to Nata and then by bus to Maun. Maun is the centre for journeys into Okavangodelta.

Okavango River starts in Angola, flows through Caprivi Strip of Namibia and then enters Botswana. Here, the river branches off in countless arms with various islands and finally ends in the sands of Kalahari Desert. This scenery of water, islands and reed is best experienced in a traditional mokoro, a small wooden boat. These boats are mostly made out of the trunks of baobabs. It takes approx. one month to make a boat like this. With low water it is punted through the canals, after the rainy season locals row the boats. Of course, tourists can not go by themselves to the delta, as a foreigner would easily get lost in the channels and in between the islands.

Together with two Australians, I did a day trip with 2 mokoros. For the night, we took our tents to camp on one of the bigger islands. There are no shops and no restaurants for sure, so we had to bring our own supplies.

The journey by mokoro to the island took about 3 hours. It was a great experience to be punted through the canals. These canals are often formed by hippos, which create with their bulky bodies a channel for the small boats. Logically, the punters are always watching out for hippos in the channels and lagoons. Once, a hippo just came out of the water about 10 meters from us, our punters became quite nervous and hurried back. Though hippos are herbivores, but they might become angry if one gets to close to them. It has already happened in the past, that hippos attacked mokoros and passengers. Also with a deadly end. In the afternoon, we went to a hippo pool, where we watched these huge animals from a proper distance.

After a tasty spaghetti dinner with fantasy sauce soon everybody disappeared in the tents. Boating simply makes tired, whether one punts or is just sitting inside.

In the middle of the night it suddenly started raining – in an amazing amount! The rainy season should begin, actually, in about 14 days, but anyhow, this downpour looked quite like the start of rainy season! In the morning this weather did not stop. Nevertheless, we went in the rain for our walking safari. Nevertheless, quite unexpectedly, we saw many animals. It is rather different, whether you watch big animals like elephants, buffaloes or giraffes from the secure car or you meet while walking… Because of the rain, we went back to the tents soon. Despite rain jackets we were completely soaked. We hoped that, nevertheless, the rain must stop sometime, so we simply waited for a while in our tents. After two hours, it was sure that it will not stop and that we have to break down the tents in the rain. This is always unpleasant, but in such a downpour it is really bad! And then the journey back by mokoro… As there is nothing to do, you just sit there and it is getting colder and colder. In between we stopped sometimes to get rid of the water from the plastic seats…. On the speed boat for sure it became even colder. I cannot remember that I was so cold before in my whole life!

After 30 minutes on the speed boat we arrived in Maun, where there was coffee and a hot shower waiting for us. We were lucky and could rent safari tents, as ours were completely wet, moreover, it also rained in Maun! These safari tents are very comfortably and have even beds and electricity inside. This was exactly what we needed.

Two days later Adam from England found a guy from South Africa, who guided a film crew from Brazil through Botswana and was about to leave for Windhoek in Namibia by jeep. He gave all four of us a lift for nearly 900 kilometers and we paid only for the fuel. Surprisingly, the distance Maun – Windhoek is not served by bus. One can drive 2 parts by bus, in between about 250 kilometers people have to hitch. It takes at least 2 days for this distance! For us in our nice jeep, it was only 10 hours to Windhoek.

For me, there is a lot to organize in Windhoek, the visa for Angola, the permits and camping reservations for Etosha and Sossuvlei. I had to think carefully about dates and distances, because this part I will not do by myself!  In two weeks time, my parents will fly in. This is going to be a completely different kind of travelling – instead of just by myself we will be three people, instead of public transport we will have a jeep with two tents on top. In Namibia camps in national parks must be pre-booked, so it requires an exact planning. Quite unusual after 5 months of life of one day on the other. But well, that is a challenge and I am still a travel agent – and still it is fun organizing things like these! After 5 months on the road, it might be time for a new T-shirt, a hairdresser also does not hurt after all months. Finally, one wants to look nice for the angolan embassy and also for the parents….

Well, so much for today. Namibia deserves a special mail. There is quite a lot to see.

Many greetings from Windhoek and I am looking forward to many answers!

Andy

 

Date: Fri, 11 Dec 2009

as I could not manage to finish this first Namibia newsletter before the arrival of my parents, I just write about my first two weeks here right now and the three weeks travelling with my parents will fill another mail, which is going to be released in a couple of days. I wish you fun while reading!

The first few days in Windhoek, I spent more or less with organizing all kinds of things. First, I had to find out, which part of Namibia my parents wanted to travel in, as the country is too big to cover all in a 3 weeks trip. Next, I needed to book the campsites for the national parks ahead, which needed a careful planning with the time, so I placed one at the beginning and the other one at the end of our trip. This gave us the opportunity to be completely free within these set dates. These campgrounds tend to be booked out easily, so this was the first thing to do. Then, I went for the permits to enter the national parks. It needed quite some phone calls in between Germany and Namibia, but after 3 days all that was sorted.

So, the time came for my own small trip through Namibia. I rented a Toyota Corolla with a local agent for a good price and set off for the southern part of the country. The first few kilometres were a kind of scary. First of all, the company is based in the city centre, so one immediately starts with a lot of traffic while driving off. The whole thing on the wrong, the left, side. For sure, like for everybody else at the beginning, I used more often the wiper than the indicator, when turning left or right! After a few more kilometres and a lot of concentration, this became better, but it never stopped completely…

My first longer stop was in Mariental. Here, there are quite a lot of big supermarkets, where I got some brown bread, salami, veggie and fruit supplies. Yes, it is really a small German country here! From the wheat beer about Sauerkraut up to very german Surhaxen you get everything here! Of course, there are also many German local names and street names. The scenery clearly less typically German – very dry countryside, dry yellow grass, a few dried bushes, a few trees with scanty foliage. The people among you, who know me at least a little bit, can say that is exactly the landscape Andy likes, the more dry, the better it is!

The street to Keetmanskoop was very good, partly with overtaking lanes when uphill. With some more time on the road, I became a little bit more courageous with the speed, and so it was no problem to drive 500 kilometres already on the very first day!

To reach to Quivertree Forest, I had to drive my first piece of untarred gravel road. This was less problematic than I thought (however, it was also due to the fact that especially this gravel road was in a very good shape, but at that time, I did not know!).

I put up my tent directly on the campsite right in front of the quivertree forest. A very well equipped extensive camping place with solar energy and very good sanitary arrangements. The quivertrees are only one attraction of this camp, because here there are also cheetahs. They live in an extensive area near the camp and are fed every late afternoon. Two of the cheetahs live since their birth with people, so they are tame. Particularly courageous visitors can go in the enclosure and touch the cats! This was something quite special, to stroke a cheetah! The fur was quite soft whether by many strokes of the others before me or from nature, I really do not know….

After this impressive experience, I went to the quivertree forest. These trees are aloes and the long branches are hollow inside. In these branches, the trees can store a lot of water, which is absolutely necessary in a dry area like this one. The bushmen of the Kalahari used these branches for the keeping their arrows, hence, the name quivertree. These trees look really surreal in the evening light, just by the by the shape itself, but also because of lots of them have gigantic bird's nests hanging in the branches. The whole area is very dry and it was also extremely windy, so sand and dust just flew around. So, I was happy to leave for my small yellow tent with a good book and a torch.

The next day, I went to the Fish River Canyon. This is one of the highlights in southern Namibia. This canyon is the second largest canyon on earth. It has two viewpoints, from which one can look more or less unsecured down the canyon (nothing for weak nerves or people with fear of heights, as it is going down several hundred metres). As it was very cloudy, the light in the afternoon was not very good for photography, but a careful look out of the tent the next morning shortly after 6.00 o'clock confirmed that the morning feels well. The canyon was above all in yellow, orange and sandy tones. I found it rather impressive, the tourists who already visited Grand Canyon in the States, were apparently rather disappointed. Well, apparently, sometimes it is good to leave out things to enjoy others more!

My next destination was Ai Ais, an oasis with hot springs. Already the way there was spectacular, a kind of lunar landscape with lots of big rocks, black sand and uncovered rocky mountains. The street was very winding, so that one had to be very careful with the driving. Ai Ais is basically a hotel, a campground without any green, a restaurant and a swimming-pool with supposedly healthy water. I liked the pool, but not the rest, so after a jump in this healthy water, I continued to the border with South Africa.

Just when I arrived in Noordoewer, it started to rain with a hefty thunderstorm. Anything else but good conditions for camping.

Hey, it was really pouring down, but I was lucky and could build up my tent under a roof, so I did not sit completely in the wet.

In the evening, there was this very nice South African fellow, who prepared a delicious chicken, which was good for one more desperate hungry person. Travel info for my onward journey was included and thus I came across quite some new ideas, where I could drive after Luederitz.

The night was rainy, but not was too cold. Indeed, I had to remove twice a gigantic frog from inside my tent. This frog was very eager to share the tent with me instead of staying outside in the rain… There is this story with the prince in the body of a frog – should have kissed him maybe?!

The next morning, it stopped raining, but it felt rather chilly (not more than 20 degrees, which felt rather cold). The gravel road from Noordoewer to Rosh Pinah follows partly River Oranje, so there are rather often really nice views of the river, the mountains or vineyards. In spite of or partly also because of the dramatic clouds it was nice weather for photos! In Rosh Pinah the tarred road started again, so it was fast driving to Luederitz. Well, only 300 kilometres more. The feeling for distances in Namibia is a little different from Germany….

In Luederitz, I voted against my tent and for a backpacker hostel, because Luederitz tends to be rather stormy and chilly. In the evening, I really needed my thick Fleece against the cold! Luederitz is something special, it is incredibly German. The main street is called Bismarkstrasse, many other street names are also German, there is Surhaxen with herb, wheat beer and apple pie after grannies recipe. Of course one speaks German here! The houses are German style as well, just a little bit more colourful.

Just 15 kilometres away from Luederitz, there is Kolmanskop, a former mine, where they used to dig for diamonds.  Till the fifties, about 4000 Germans lived there. The town was organized very well with a school, there was a hospital, a slaughterhouse, a bakery, and they even had an ice machine for the fridges. The men worked in the mine, and as the terms of employment were so good, there was no lack of manpower. The workers could bring their families with them. There were even club afternoons for the ladies.

Close to Luederitz, there is Luederitz Peninsula. Here meets yellow sand, dark rocks and turquoise sea water. There are many birds and sea lions, which lie around especially at Diaz Point on a small rocky island. There are also very nice sandy beaches. Indeed, the water temperatures, which are suitable for sea lions and penguins, are usually not good for people to swim – unless, one is not afraid of 10 or 12 degrees centigrade…. The cold water comes directly from the Antarctic.

After one more night in Luederitz, I travelled on the tarred road back to Keetmanskoop and then further to Mesaurus Fossils. The son of a farmer has found the fossils 20 years ago just by chance. They have fossiled animals, which must have looked like small crocodiles; however, these were probably herbivores. The fossils are very interesting and the guided tour was very nice, also, there are quivertrees which grow on a very rocky terrain.

As I really enjoyed driving on gravel roads so far and wanted to have more of these beautiful isolated areas, I decided to go further into the Kalahari. This sounds more courageous than it is. This area exists of rather dry river valleys without any water, red sandy dunes with a few bundles of yellow grass and a lot of gigantic farms. Crossing the dunes was definitely lots of fun, of course not on the sand with my Toyota Corolla, but on the normal maintained gravel road. I was told, that these untarred streets in Namibia are maintained all 14 days by bulldozers. However, the roads in this part of Namibia were in a very good shape.

One night, I spent in Red Dunes Camp shortly before Gochas, indeed, not on the dune itself, because there are only two campsites there, and they were booked up. Camping on the dune for sure is something special, as the location is great, the views and the sunset are spectacular. But you definitely have to book ahead.

The camp at the farm was not bad either, as I could pitch my tent on real green grass. This is something extremely rare in this area! Moreover, I got some nice dinner. Well, if someone wants to have a closer look on the Red Dunes Camp, just go online, have a look: www.reddunecamp.weebly.com! Very nice and friendly place!

The next day, I went back on the road towards Windhoek. Actually, I wanted to spend the last night of my tour through Namibia at Arnhem Cave, where they have a very nice campsite. But things change fast in this part of the world and rather often things turn out different than planned.

I was travelling with three maps on my Namibia trip. On one of them, the cave was not marked at all, on the second to the west of Dordabis, on the third to the east of Dordabis…. Great, after I had studied the map thoroughly, it was clear that it was not my fault and my abilities of map reading, but that at least one of the maps had to be wrong (if not even both!). So I asked some of the locals, in which direction to drive and was sent after detailed discussion of 6 people to the west. Okay, this was a good tarred road, moreover, towards Windhoek. After 40 kilometres, there was still no cave or at least a sign for the cave, so I asked again in a farm. Well, they send me to the east…. At that time, it was already 5.30 pm, but in the summertime the sunset in Namibia is around 7.20 pm, so there was still time to reach my destination.

Shortly after that, the gravel road started again…. And again no sign for the cave…. At another junction, locals sent me north and short time later I was completely lost. Around 7pm, I finally gave up the thought of the cave completely, above all, after I nearly ran over a warthog and shortly after I had overlooked a sandy woe, which catapulted me almost into a huge thorn tree. In this area, there are not much hotels or even campsites, so I was more than happy about a sign saying Mountain View Lodge 20 km. When I arrived at the fence of the lodge, there was a sign saying: Warning! Private hunting area! Sharp Shooting!

For sure, I would do the hell and enter there at nighttime! So, I continued driving.

6 kilometres further on, there was another, smaller lodge, where I asked for help. Now, I felt completely lost, especially after this nearly clash with the warthog, I wanted a place to stay for the night.

This lodge was also a hunters place, but the owner recognized immediately the seriousness of the situation and gave me a room, a glass of cold beer and a comfortable chair to relax for a while. After a shower, I felt much better. In this lodge, they had three clients from Bulgaria, who were here for hunting. In the evening, of course, there was bush meat, first a bush meat sausage, then steaks of blue gnu, everything hunted by the Bulgarians. I will not repeat the gossip of the hunters while dinner, as this was something really special and might create one or the other vegetarian among the readers of this mail….

The next morning, they gave me a tasty breakfast, this time without the hunters, because they went out for an early morning drive to shoot some zebras. Then, it came to the question of payment. The night before, I found already out, that this lodge usually charges 150. – US per night and person. Well, still cheaper than a broken car because of an accident in the dark, but also rather expensive for someone long on the road. I was completely surprised when Geraldine, the owner, told me, she would not touch any money from my side, as this was an emergency and she just wanted to help! She wished me a lot of fun in her country combined with the hope, that I will meet only friendly people on the way (Indeed I did) and that I enjoy the beauty of her country!

Wow! This was really nice!

Driving back to Windhoek at daylight was easy, just back along the gravel road, turning right once at the T-junction and then always straight! If only everything was so easy!

All in all, I drove 3002 kilometres during this 8 days trip, half of it on gravel. All that without any technical problem. All twisted tent pegs were bent into shape by Pieter of the Red Dune Camp in his workshop, not to speak of Geraldine of the hunter’s lodge. Also in other respects I had only good experiences with country and people in Namibia so far.

In Windhoek, I based myself in Chameleon Backpackers, for me one of the best hostels in southern Africa. The dormitory is relatively small with 3 bunk beds only and every dormitory has his own shower and toilet. There are also double rooms with private facilities. Included in the price, there is a nice breakfast. There is TV, internet, a small travel agency, a bar and a pool. Of course the inhabitants are international, as usual, in hostels of this type. There are people from Australia, Asia, Northern Africa, Europe, South America and there is quite one or the other interesting character staying there.

I did not want to keep all that from my parents and decided to book a room for them here, even if doubtful voices from Germany came, that other parents would never stay in a hostel… I can already tell this now: They loved the place!

I will close this email now, as the next one will be released in a couple of days covering the journey with my parents, where we went to see the sand dunes and the northern part of Namibia.

Well, see you soon in the next mail and I am always happy about many answers.

Yours Andy

 

Date: Mon, 21 Dec 2009

Well, there is News from Africa, part 2 Namibia as promised. There is so much to see and to do in Namibia, so this became again a very long mail.

Before I left for my own small trip to southern Namibia, I had organized the booking of the campsites and bought the permits for the parks.

Now, I was waiting for my parents to arrive. We were probably excited all three of us, when they landed the 18th of november in Windhoek. Of course the reunion after more than 6 months was something quite special. Quite tired after 9 hours of flight I took them to Chameleon Backpackers. Still, I did not give them a lot of time for resting at daytime to avoid them sleeping the wrong way. So, already on the first day, in the late morning we explored Windhoek by ourselves, in the afternoon we took an organized sightseeing tour by bus. In the evening, there was a small welcome party at the hostel with very nice Moroccan food, cooked by our chef Mohsine from Tangier.

For sure, everything was new for my parents, foreign and on top it was quite warm for the newcomers from cold old Germany.

Quite spontaneously, my parents decided in the evening to see the soupkitchen in Katutura the next day, before we fetched our car in nearby industrial area north. In this soupkitchen I was working the last few days before the parents arrived.

Katutura is that part of Windhoek, where underprivileged black people live. In former times, this was the township, the white have established, when the black population was excluded from the city center. Monica, an active local, has brought to life a soup kitchen for children about 2 years ago. With the support of 3 ladies from Sweden and 3 young men from Germany, a house for the children was established in october this year, so that the children must not sit anymore with their food outside in the hot sun.

Now, about 200 children come here every day to get their maize mash with beans. They are fed in two sessions. This is often the only meal of the day. Volunteers can come and help for a day or more, also donations of food, clothes, and cosmetics, just anything are welcome.

So, first, there is singing and praying together with the children, then the volunteers distribute the food. After the dishes are done, there is always time to play with the children.

For sure, especially for my Mum, it was an overpowering experience to see these children here. They are absolutely happy, all charming and it is unbelievable to see, how calm they wait till it is their turn to get their share and put it slowly with fingers in their mouth. All children are quite crazy to be carried around. My Mum was about to take all 200 children back home….

The whole project is currently financed by one single donator who comes from Canada and transfers every month 300 US on Monicas account. The money is enough to buy food for 200 children once a day during the week.

Of course 2 meals a day would be better, moreover, Monica would like to install a kindergarden with nursery school for the smallest children. There is still a lot to do. The optimism of Monica and the will to work very hard, allow to hope that these aims can be realized!

From Katutura, we went with a local taxi to the rental station – exactly that kind of taxi, white locals and hotel staff keep warning tourists over and over not to take. There were recently incidents of kidnapping, or that passengers are driven completely somewhere else and robbed. On the other side, no call taxi would go to Katutura to pick up someone there…..

At the car rental, we had to go through a lot of paperwork. After that, it took us quite a long time to get the car explained. Why that took so long? Well, this was a 4×4 car, which I drove 30 minutes before in my whole life and Dad not at all before. There was quite some equipment, we do not need in daily life in Germany like carriage siphon, tube to the indulgence of the air or for inflating of the tires, the fridge and the stove, and then of course our roof tents!

Yes, my parents wanted to travel in Namibia not from lodge to lodge, but they wanted the real adventure with a 4×4 and tents on top. Well, they got their big adventure!

Then, finally, after two hours, we left the rental station. I drove the car to the next supermarket close to the town border, and then my father discovered his passion for a 4×4 and for driving on the wrong, left hand side and drove all the remaining 4300 (!) kilometers himself.

The first night, we spent at Spreethoogte Pass, where we had a brilliant view of the mountains and the namibian desert. Above all the sunset was spectacular. Building up the tents was a major issue, as it was quite windy on this pass. Finally, after something like 1.5 hours both tents were ready, mum had a fight with the gas stove in these stormy conditions, but managed to create some nice dinner.

After the first night in our roof tents, we knew that this was the kind of travelling fitting to us. All three of us slept well, no one fell down the ladder. It took us rather long to build up our tents, but we just needed more practice and some more tactics, and then it would become better and faster also.

Our next destination was Sesriem, where we had booked two nights a state campsite. Already on the campsite we had to use 4×4, as we got stuck in deep and very soft sand there!

The afternoon, we did a hike in Sesriem Canyon, a deep gorge dug by a river. There must be a lot of water at times to create a canyon like this, but for sure, this is not too often the case.

In the afternoon light, the canyon has beautiful colours like yellow, sienna and orange and offers new great photo motives with every turn.

In the late afternoon, we went to Elim Dune, which is just 3 kilometers from the camp. Here one can observe very well the change of colours on the facing Naukluft Mountains in the fading sun. And of course, finally, there was a lot of sand. Lot of people do not fancy sand between the toes, I just love it!

As we wanted to experience sunrise on top of a dune, we had to get up very early the next day. So, I decided not to build up my roof tent this time because of saving time early in the morning and to sleep rather on the mattress in the sand. My parents, not at all cowardly, decided to do the same and so all three of us spent the night outside. At that time, I could not yet anticipate, that this idea would become one of the highlights of the whole trip for my parents! Well, staying overnight in  the 1000 stars hotel is definitely something special, above all in the desert where one has the feeling that the stars are a lot closer to the earth than anywhere else.

The next morning, we were among the first to enter the national park and the first at the big dunes. It was quite foggy at the beginning, so the sunrise was not as expected with a lot of shining colours, but there was this very interesting phenomenon, when sun and fog met with the sand dunes. Though the colours were not a brilliant yellow or orange, but, however, the scenery with fog had definitely its own charms.

Next, we went to Death Vlei. Right next to gigantic sand dunes, there is a very shiny, white area, which is sometimes flooded with water. It does not rain very often here, but when it does, the water cannot be soaked easily by the sand, so it creates a lake. The water evaporates of course very fast in this hot sun. The remains are a very bright, almost white layer which is very hard and breaks later in cracked pieces. On top of that, the sun burns relentlessly, and there is besides a few gnarled, mostly dead trees no shade and of course also no animals. An extremely inhospitable, but spectacular scenery! One has here the feeling to be on another, extremely inhospitable planet.

The highest dunes with up to 325 metres are in Sossusvlei itself. Here the views from top of the dunes are definitively spectacular and the sand sea is simply overpowering to all sides.

As Dad and me love playing in the sand, both of us went back in the afternoon. Thus we drove again 65 kilometres one-way to the big dunes, this time to see Hidden Vlei. Photo technically seen, this was one of the highlights, as the time, light as well as the forms of the dunes were fantastic.

As my parents have carried along my laptop for downloading my photos, there was a lot of space for new ones. Including Namibia, there are already 9000 photos! I will definitely not be bored when I will be back once, as it will take a lot of time to go through them!

After our sand adventures, we went to Swakopmund. The drive there is rather monotonous from Solitaire, as there is not an awful lot more than stones and grey stony desert for a distance of approx. 200 kilometres. The biggest highlight on the road was two cyclists going the other way, who also did not seem to be very happy there. No wonder, as it was very hot, very monotonous, and there was a light gradient for the whole distance.

Swakopmund is very German, very foggy and very sleepy on a sunday afternoon. As it was also rather cold, we rented a room at Desert Sky Lodge. This was not an awful lot more expensive than to camp there. Lots of people rave about Swakopmund with its german architecture and all the German traditions, but all three of us, we were not too impressed. We did a very nice trip by boat to WalfishBay for the pelicans, fur seals and dolphins. For sure, it was quite cold on this boat, but it was worth the excursion.

This evening, we had an appointment with a very special person. The mother of a friend of my parents lives since 22 years in a home for elderly people in Swakop. Of course we paid the lady a visit. We thought rather of coffee, but she greeted us with champagne and white wine, so we all had a very interesting and amusing evening.

Close to Swakopmund, there is an area in which many Welwitchias grow. These plants can store water very long and can become up to 2000 years old. These plants are very rare and grow only in Namibia. We drove the so called Welwichia drive, which is designed like a natural trail. Besides the Welwitchias, they explain also other plants on boards, e.g., the importance of lichens to hold loose sand. Also, in this area, was the lunar valley. This is a big canyon with spectacular views.

After this excursion, we went back to Swakop and continued towards Skeleton Coast. Here, in former times, lots of ships stranded, the people could hardly survive in these life-hostile surroundings without any water or food. Today, a well maintained road runs along the coast, but it is extremely windy here, virtually always foggy and for Namibia also very cold. Nevertheless, quite a lot of tourists come here, above all locals. Here the water is very rich in fish and lots of local men come here with gigantic fishing gear, which sometimes even does not fit in their cars, so they transport it tied at the front of the car.

10 degrees outside temperature was a little bit uncomfortable, so went rather early into our nice and relatively warm tents.

The next day, we went back to the warmth, first of all we drove to the petrified forest. Here, fossilized trunks lie around, they are from 260 to 280 million years old. The biggest ones are up to 30 metres long.

The next highlight was Twyfelfontein with its rock art paintings, which are something like thousand or more years old. Above all the image of a lion is well known. Moreover, there are a lot of antelopes, hippos, rhinos and footprints of animals or people, which were scratched in here.

On our way to the north shortly before Palmwag, we had our first breakdown: the protective frame, which should preserve car and passengers from bigger damage, when there is a collision with an animal, was broken and was hanging down on one side. What to do now? There was no way to continue like this. So, we called the rental company. Welding was not possible as there were no mechanics, putting the whole thing on the roof or inside the car, was also not possible as too big.

Finally, we left it in Palmwag, and went further on to Sesfontein, where we spent the night on a rustic camping place. Rustic, because shower and toilet were open sky and there were also no doors….

Our next stop was in Opuwo, the biggest town in northwestern Namibia. This town attracts people from the whole area, and many come here in search for a job, which cannot be for so many people at all. Often, there is no money for the return journey, so lots of people are stuck, and the number of people begging for just anything was especially big here. Here, besides, there were a lot of Himba women, and usually very traditional living tribe of the area. Put out of place in a big city like this, they suffer a lot from lost traditions, poverty and alcohol. For us, it was only a stop for stocking up food and petrol. We spent the night a little bit outside of town and celebrated the birthday of my mother in a nice restaurant.

The road from Opuwo to Epupa Falls at the border with Angola was in very good condition, so in the early afternoon we already reached the waterfalls. These waterfalls are affected by the angolan dam at Ruacana, but 5 days per week, they open the dam, so the waterfalls look really great.

The following day, we did a tour to a Himba village with John, who is Himba himself. First, we bought presents like maize flour, sugar, coffee and salt.

Here, the Himba still live very traditionally in their huts made out of wood, soil, cow dung and dry sheets from trees.

The women apply every day a paste from ocher and fat on the whole body. So, the whole skin has a red brownish shiny colour and a strong milky smell. This paste is regarded as personal care, however, it helps also against heat or cold, against mosquitoes and other vermin and, in addition, is looked as beautiful. They never take a bath or a shower, this is reserved for men, women apply this cream and taking care of their body and being even more beautiful takes a lot of time.

The chief of the village is a very important and rich man. He was already in Europe, because the Namibian government wanted to establish a dam in the country of his people. He protested against it perfectly with the help of a lawyer in front the European court of law. Now, the money was frozen and probably the dam project is dieing.

These people live a very traditional life, but they happily accept gifts from the outside world, when they are rated as useful. Like everywhere with traditional living people, western medicine is always asked for. Above all, people are usually asking for eye drops, which I have to carry around for myself in huge amounts anyway, as well as painkillers. Very good gifts, which are always appreciated, are strong shopping bags and basically just anything, one can use as a jeweler. (The funniest ever seen thing was used film rolls in Rasta hair in western Africa).

We had a beautiful time in this village and it was very funny to see the children being fascinated by the hairy legs of my father….

The afternoon, we made a nice little hike with John in search for crocodiles and monkeys along Kunene River. We found some of them, but only from a far distance. However, the next morning, we discovered a small crocodile not far from our natural swimming pool in the river….

The road from Epupa to Ruacana was upgraded just recently to so-called D road, which means, that it is maintained now and then. Nevertheless, this road had some difficulties like deep mud holes and precipitous gradients, both not possible to drive with a normal vehicle. It does not necessarily need a 4×4, but definitely a car with high ground clearance, so that one does not get stuck. In addition, we were a bit in fear of another flat tire, as we were already using a spare, as we could not get a replacement for the other one at Epupa…. But everything went well and we arrived safely and with an extremely mud-sprayed car in Ruacana.

Ruacana is a small place, so again, there was no chance for a new tire. But from here, the roads were tarred, but at the same time it was very boring to drive, as we all liked the gravel roads a lot more.

Our new tire and some good supermarkets, we found in Oshakati. The night we spent close to Etosha at a place called Sachsenheimfarm. What sounds first quite funny, it turned out to be one of the nicest campsites of the whole trip with great parking lots for the cars with tents on the roof, a lot of green for table and chairs, electric connection in all parking lots, big trees, good sanitary arrangements, swimming-pool, bar….. What does one need more?!

From here, it was only 200 kilometres via Tsumeb to Tsintsabis. In Tsumeb we had to repair a tire once more. Tsintsabis was our next destination, as we wanted to learn more about Bushmen and Treesleepers. We camped this night near Tsintsabis in a place called Treesleeper Camp. Here, people can build up their tent also on platforms in trees – of course not if one has the tent firmly installed on top of the car. Outdoor sleep on the platform without mosquito net was no option because there are too many malaria mosquitoes at this time of the year in this area.

The first day, we visited with Elizabeth, an employee of Treesleeper Camp, two families in the village. Again we bought food and coffee as presents. The situation of both ethnic groups (Bushmen and Treesleeper) is very discouraging. The people cannot live any more in their traditional way they used to live, because they have no land, in which they could go hunting. Nowadays, they live in towns and villages, have no education, so there is a lot unemployment, so there is no money for food or clothes, of course also not for medicine. HIV and TB are big problems in these ethnic groups, alcohol abuse does the rest. A very sad situation, also linked with the feeling, that by the current lifestyle and the lack of education of the new generation, the passing on of skills from the old to the young generation will not work anymore. So, important skills like track reading, traditional hunting, surviving in the bush, searching for water, herbal medicine etc. will disappear soon.

All in all, very interesting, but also very sad experience.

At Treesleeper Camp, they also organize a so called bushwalk. We went to the bush with a young man from the tribe treesleeper. These people have their name, because while hunting in former times they used to sleep in branches of a tree. On this trail, we got quite a view explanations on very useful plants for traditional medicine, poison plants for arrows, the construction of traps, different animal tracks, the collecting of flying termites, when they swarm out, as well as the life earlier in the village. On one side, it is very positive to keep the knowledge present, however, it is also a fact, and that these skills are not used in everyday life any more, but to show to tourists like in a living museum.

Next, we went to one of the highlights of a Namibiatrip, to Etosha Pan. There are three campsites in the park, in each of them we had reserved a place for us and our car with the Namibian Wildlife Resort. It turned out to be a good thing to do it that way, as in each campsite, there was a water hole, which was visited at dusk and night by other kinds of animals. We were rather lucky, as we spotted a lot of impalas, gnus, zebras, the most different big and small antelopes, giraffes, elephants, rhinos, jackals and lions (from the distance).

The distances between the camps are just 75 kilometres, so there is plenty of time to crisscross the park in search for animals at various water holes.. All camps have a pool, but only Namutoni offers grass for the campers. Both other campsites have the charm of a big sandpit with electric connection. But well, one comes here not to hang around on the camp, but to base yourself close to the water hole with a chilled beer and a ready camera with a lot of space on the memory card….

We spent three really great days in the park and we were lucky to see many animals. These days, we were on a different time schedule. Getting out of tent the latest at 6.00 am, sitting at the water hole, breakfast and breaking down the tents from 9.00 am, then driving towards the next camp, take it easy in the pool, from 6 to 9 pm at the water hole, afterwards dinner.

But it was worth the effort!

The last days of our trip, we spent at Waterberg Plateau. Here, in 1904 a disastrous battle took place between german troops and the Hereros. Subsequently many soldiers of both sides and a lot more civil Hereros died, when the German troops forced the civilians to try to escape the battle into the desert. Ten thousands of them died of thirst in the Kalahari desert. Not exactly a chapter in the German history to be proud of….

Waterberg Plateau is an about 40 kilometres long hill. Here, there are many nice walking trails and a viewpoint with beautiful view from the plateau. In spite of the heat, we climbed up to the viewpoint and even a spitting cobra could not make us give up the plan.

This cobra rose itself just about 50 centimeters in front of me and spitted in my direction. So, I moved slowly backwards and after a few metres in between me and the snake, I picked up some stones and threw them towards the snake to scare it away. Later, we found out, that these cobras are very poisonous and if the poison gets into someone’s eyes, you can easily loose your sight. Well, as only having one good eye left, this might have been a very bad story. But thank goodness, nothing really bad happened!

Waterberg was our last destination, before we went back to Windhoek. After nearly three weeks of travelling we were really good in building up and breaking down our tents. Instead of 1.5 hours at the beginning of our trip, it took us now only 20 minutes – for both tents together!

The last night with my parents we spent again at Chameleon Backpackers. Many of the friends I got to know before we headed off, were still or again there and so, there was a great reunion with the new, old friends.

The last evening, we went to an institution which one should not miss in Windhoek by any means: Joes Beerhouse. Here, they have all kinds of beer, but also very interesting bush meat like zebra, kudu, ostrich or crocodile! All that very tasty and a worthy end of our trip!

Well, I had a great time with the parents in Namibia, not always easy, will say for all of us! Nevertheless an experience for all of us, we will all remember for a long time. Maybe, I often wanted too much and they had not enough time for themselves or to recover, but there is simply so much to see in Namibia! For one or the other rough answer as well as a certain impatience on my side, I would like to apologize! They have done very well, and I am proud of them, as it was something they never did before!

I was very happy, when they decided in may this year rather spontaneously to visit me in Africa, and I am very glad that this trip was a successful one. Some of my customers in Germany send me a saying from Humboldt the other day per mail, which fits perfectly to this:

"Worst of all world views is the world view of the people who have not looked the world."

I think, it is very important to travel, to see the world and to win new friends and to get new ideas. The world is too big and too nice to remain at home!

So, I will close this Namibia mail. The next one will still cover some time in Namibia. This is due to the fact that I wait here for Shahid from the USA, who will hopefully travel with me to Angola and presumably to the Congos. Because he is still fighting for his Angolan visa, I will probably be in Windhoek till Christmas time. Well, there are worse things in the world than that, particularly, as I have found quite a few friends in Chameleon Backpackers.

So, greetings from Windhoek, and I am always happy about mails.

With this email I also wish Merry Christmas and a very happy new year to all friends in the whole world!

Yours Andy

Date: Sun, 27 Dec 2009

After the trip with my parents I spent some more time in Namibia. At Chameleon Backpackers, I found friends, who are living since several months in Windhoek and also work here. Surprisingly, there are quite a few pilots here, who either work in Windhoek or in Swakopmund like Etienne and Jerome from France or are looking for a job as a pilot like Mohamed from Egypt or Dave from England. Then, there is Hendrik, the German doctor with his huge enthusiasm and his unlimited love towards Africa and its people in spite of all the crime and sad stories he experiences every single day in Katutura hospital he is working in. Besides the hospital, he works also for his NGO, where he looks after HIV patients free of charge in Okahandja 70 kilometers north of Windhoek. As his work in Katutura hospital is not well paid (sometimes not paid at all) and the other job with the HIV patients is for free anyway, he works also at the bar in Chameleon. It is amazing, where he gets his energy from, everyone else would have despaired long before and would leave to sick African people to the Africans… From next year, he is going to build up 12 new clinics all over Namibia. This new project is sponsored by Wilderness Safaris and a mining company. There will be even jobs for pilots to fly Hendrik around. And finally, there will be also money to pay a doctor properly! There is also Nicole, the wife of Mohamed, originally from Australia and Caroline from Sweden, girlfriend of Hendrik, who helped Monica at the soupkitchen since october and was one of the Swedish ladies who were building up the house, where the kitchen is situated now. Not to forget Mohsine, actually, in Windhoek for a couple of weeks to build TV and other towers, do threatening climbs on top of these towers to repair things there. He was never too tired even after a long hot day at the construction site to prepare tasty Moroccan food for the whole crowd in the evening after work. Now, he is back to Morocco for a well earned holiday.

I was not completely lazy in Windhoek. I took a few days of rest after the 3-week Namibiatour with my parents. After that I was again ready to work in the mornings in Katutura at Monicas soupkitchen. The children here are 2 to 16 years old. Monica provides once a day a meal for them. This is often the only meal of the day. So, first in the morning there is singing, dancing and praying with the children, then we distribute the food, clean the place including the dishes. After that, there is always time to play with the children. The smaller children are quite crazy on body contact and want to be carried around as long as possible. Blond hair is something special of course and absolutely exciting. Quite a few girls on my arm use the chance to play around with my curls, so most afternoons I have to fight to get of the new knots in my hair…..

I also had a very unpleasant experience in Windhoek going back from the supermarket by myself, when I was threatened and robbed by two men in the middle of the town on an open street in the afternoon. The men were following me and that is why I walked faster, then both of them ran after me and they had a knife…. Well, I did not plan to play hero just because of a backpack, a phone, the equivalent of 15 Euros in Namibian dollars and 2 bottles of soft drinks. The backpack was gone. Thank god nothing bad had happened to me personally. Friends from the hostel came just the very moment by car when it happened, but could also not prevent the attack and were even threatened by knife, when they wanted to help me. I noticed only, how shocked I was, when I was again at Chameleon and safe.

The next few days, my friends took great care of me. They did not want me to go out by myself anymore. But after some days I had to go back to normality, as I am by myself and travelling alone through Africa, so I must be able to walk again by myself in the streets of Windhoek. Some days back I got the news, that Shahid finally got his Angolan visa in exchange for a small additional donation to the Angolan Embassy. So, he will probably arrive here soon. So, soon it will start, the adventure West Africa, an area, which was already for a long time an unlived dream with Shahid as well as with me. The visa for Angola was always difficult to get, but that we have it now both in the pocket or better in the passports, equals somehow a miracle. Angola, both Congos, then Gabon, which will most likely seem rather civilized then after crossing the Congos…. Well, one can see, I am really excited about this trip! It is also time to move on, as I am now in Windhoek since 3 weeks!

People keep asking me, when I will return to Germany. Well, good question. Probably sometime in april, that is at least the plan. Well, I spent a lot more time in Namibia then I estimated and planned before. So, I must see how realistic all that is. However, I do not worry about it now, it makes no sense to rush through the next countries, because the roads in Angola are in a very bad condition, besides, it is rainy season, which usually does not make gravel roads any better. Christmas eve I spent with my friends from all over the world at Chameleon Backpackers with a nice fish braai. Next week, wednesday, we will be probably on the road towards the Angolan border. I have no idea about internet access and phone network in Angola and the Congos, but I will try to send signs of life in one or the other way. Greetings from Windhoek and thanks a lot for all the Christmas greetings.

Yours Andy

 

Date: Tue, 26 Jan 2010

After Shahid had missed the flight from Johannesburg to Windhoek and had to spend the night in South Africa, finally, he arrived in Namibia 30th of december. After a short walk through central Windhoek and the feeling that the town has clearly changed since his last visit ten years back, we took our bags and went to Katutura, where to bus towards the border with Angola should leave from around 6 pm. It was quite strange to say goodbye to the friends in Windhoek, as I spent 3 weeks there. Monica insisted on taking us to the bus station to make sure that we sit in the right bus! A nice move!

After all, now it started, the adventure Angola. In Chameleon Backpackers I got to know a very nice Angolan family from Luanda. They gave me their telephone number, so if something goes wrong or there is any problem with the extension of my visa, I have friends who can help. The brother of the woman works with the visa authorities in Luanda….. I took this as a good omen! So, on the last days of december Shahid and I left Namibia. The bus was supposed to start around 6pm….. Well, it took some time till the coach was full and so we started at 10pm towards Oshikango. It rained heavily during the journey, we were cramped in the coach and the music they played I would not really call music. But it was a good feeling to be on the road again! Around 8am we reached Oshikango and moved on to the border.

Borders in this part of Africa are not as easy to cross as in East Africa or in southern Africa. Crossing the namibian border was no big deal for sure, but to enter Angola was a little bit more of a challenge…. Of course we got a special treatment as we were the only white people queuing up. They picked us out of the normal queue, because our case would be handled by the boss personally. This is rarely good news. In our case it was a delay of about 1.5 hours, as at this early time this gentlemen for sure was not available. When he showed up, he absolutely wanted to see our letters of invitation for Angola. One needs these invitations to get the visa generally. Logically these letters of invitation stay with the embassy, where one applies for the visa. In my case it was even not a letter of invitation of an Angolan person, organization or a hotel, but a letter of recommendation of the German embassy in Windhoek. But the border official did not know this and also did not need to know it. We were asked embarrassingly exactly for our finances, had to prove, that we carry at least in 3000.-US per person and lots of credit cards…. Not that plastic money would be of any help in Angola… Well, finally, after other 30 minutes of questioning we were allowed to enter the country. One of our magic words was presumably the Africa Cup of Nations, the football event which takes place in Angola just a few days later. It is absolutely understandable and very normal, that the both of us specially come from Germany and the States to see football matches in Angola…. Everybody who knows me at least a little bit, knows that my football understanding is still less than rudimentary…. So, this is somewhat a joke, but why not – if this is the reason that we may enter -please, why not!

After we had changed the US dollar in local Kwanza on the street as there was no bank available, we went to the bus station in Santa Clara, the border town on the Angolan side. The bus was okay, the music definitely better than on the Namibian side, the street in the beginning super nicely tarred and well maintained. However, this changed very fast! Though these were no man-high holes, I had been warned by the few travellers crossing Angola before, this was really a pretty bad roller coaster sand track next to the new to be build road. However, the locals in the bus were all in a good mood. This had its reason: a truck before us has lost full whiskey bottles over and over again, which surprisingly enough were not broken. The more whiskey bottles they could pick up on the way, the better the mood became in the bus…. About 8.30 pm and after 9 hours in the coach we finally reached Lubango.

At the beginning, our first town in Angola put us on a patience test. It was anything but easy to find a place for the night. All more or less inexpensive hotels (less than 100 US) seemed to be booked up just at the New Year's Eve night. Finally, with the help of several nice local people we found a room for an okay price. Though from the outside the hotel looked quite peculiar, it did not show any name and had no outside door. Oh well, it had a door, indeed, but only the frames, one was able to walk through the frame just like that and there was the reception… But the room was okay and it was possible to lock the door including the frame.

So we tried to solve the next problem: Dinner! In Europe as well as in most other countries of the world it is normally no big deal to organize something to eat on New Years Eve. Not so in Lubango, Angola. Everything was closed, if these are snack bars, cafes, restaurants, supermarkets, markets, there were even no mamas on the street selling food! For not having to go to bed completely hungry, we based ourselves in the piano bar of the Grand Hotel for a drink. Unfortunately, there was also no food there. After we both had slept away New Years Eve, we thought of a nice breakfast the next morning – but also this did not work out, there was nothing to buy, as there was nothing open. So we looked at least for a less expensive room. So, we found pension Jasil. There was no running water and also no private bathroom (what for, if there is no running water anyway). This room was a real bargain for "only" something more than 50.- US. Well, Angola is expensive, and you do not really get a lot for your money…. At least, finally, we got some lunch at the Grand Hotel. As it was buffet style, we could also eat so much that it was enough for the rest of the day. In the afternoon we bumped into Carlos, who has been to London for several months and therefore speaks very well english. Together, we went a little bit outside of Lubango to a church sitting on top of a hill. From there, we had a great view over the town. The next day, things were back to normal again and we found an open restaurant, where we got some breakfast.

After changing some more money on the street (On saturdays the banks are also closed of course), we went to the bus station. We were very lucky and got the last seats in the bus to Namibe, a provincial town by the sea. In the bus, there was also Baptista, who had to go professionally to Namibe. He works for an organization, which supports HIV patients. The whole thing is financed by selling of second hand clothes. Baptista is the one, who administers the money and looks after the paperwork. Then he and his partner helped us in the search for an inexpensive lodging in Namibe. From the money we saved in this inexpensive lodging we went to a nice fish restaurant by the sea, and got a very nice plate of seafood with lobster , mussels and scampi! In Namibe, there are nicely restored colonial houses. Even more interesting was a shop selling cornflakes – for the equivalent of 28.- US! The next day we went back to Lubango. This time the sun was shining, so we had a really great view at the hairpin bends and the rock formations on the plateau – really spectacular. The plan was, actually, to continue the same day to Benguela, but there were no busses the same day and even the coach society SGO was booked up for Benguela for the next three days. At least we got tickets for the next day with another company. So, we spent another night at pension Jasil.

The journey to Benguela lasted about 6.5 hours and was first going through thick bush, then down the mountains and it became drier and drier. Over and over again we could see stones with red-white marks to warn about mine fields. According to the stones, there are still many areas with land mines lying around. Benguela turned out to be a very pleasant town. There are some really nice old houses from the time of the Portuguese, the town has a lot of places with big shady trees and, besides, the town is by the sea. People are very relaxed and are glad to meet foreigners. The good impression of Benguela is also because of the lodging we found there. We lived in Nancy’s Guesthouse. Nancy is an American lady, who lives since many years in Benguela. She is leading an english school and an attached guesthouse. She has a heart for the few travellers passing through Angola, knows the problems of the expensive lodgings, and she is a mine of information and willing to help with tips and tricks, whether a visa needs to be extended, a lodging in Luanda should be found or an excursion to Lobito be planned. Whatever it is – ask Nancy and your problem is solved. For sure, the hostel is spotlessly clean, there are interesting people as potential teachers living here as well, and there is air-conditioning in each room and a shared bathroom with cold and hot (!) water! An oasis of rest for a traveller! Thanks to Nancy for all her help and the support she gave us!

In town, there is a lot to discover, above all interesting things to eat. On our second day Shahid has exaggerated it, however, somewhat – cooked cattle hoofs and afterwards chicken innards…. Well, the very same evening the food poisoning was there, which made him staying in the room and bathroom for the next day. At least he selected the right place for something like that. After one rest day Shahid was fit again and we went to Lobito. Supposedly from there should be every now and then ships going all the way to Luanda. Such a boat we did not find, but Lobito has a good internet cafe, nice restaurants directly by the sea and some colonial houses, so there is enough to keep one occupied for half a day. Thanks to Nancy and the good Paypal we also solved our money problem in getting some more US cash. Nevertheless, Angola is clearly more expensive than expected and this money transaction got us a big relieve. 

After 4 days in Benguela, we had to leave Nancy and her hospitable place, in which we, nevertheless, spent more time than first planned. The bus to Huambo was going through a wonderful landscape. First, it was very dry, then there were a lot of rocks, finally, scanty green, followed by bushes and trees, many baobabs and finally green fields, the further we drove towards Huambo. In this area, there were less warnings from land mines then next to the Lubango – Benguela road. However, the villages and small towns seemed to be inhabited by only a few people. Lots of the houses seemed to be completely abandoned. The area around Huambo was particularly a battle zone in the last days of the war, I can only suppose that many people have fled at that time and left their houses, which are still empty.

Huambo is the second largest town of Angola to Luanda and is at an altitude of about 1500 meters. So, the climate is very pleasant, in the evenings it is even chilly. Huambo was the center of the fights which took place after the armistice of 1988. The war was finished, actually, 4 years before, then in 1992 an election, which was not recognized by UNITA, led to a new conflict. The result was more fighting and the center this time was Huambo. These fights cost the life of several hundred thousand people. The town was nearly completely destroyed, even nowadays there are quite a few houses with shot holes.

Huambo was one of the places where we had to look longer for a tolerable place to stay. A Portuguese brought us first to a pension, but the manager wanted to have a funny 80;- US for this room, but this was nothing more than a hole! So we continued to look for something else and found restaurant Gigi. According to our guidebook Gigi is a local restaurant. Basically, we went there to have a drink and to dump our luggage for a while till we found a place for the night. As so often on this trip, things went different. We got to know Raymondo, who is working for radio Huambo. He supplied us with a complete fan equipment for the football matches. While talking to him, we found out, that there are also rooms available at Gigi's restaurant! We immediately went into negotiations and got one of these rooms at an affordable price. At least, we were the first tourists, who stayed in this pension! So, they gave us a special price.

Huambo has a little real places of interest, but the locals were especially friendly towards us. There are two big places in town. One has a gigantic monument with a reading soldier. Around this place, there are the most important buildings of town, the governor’s palace, town municipality, post, etc. The other central place is with a lot of green, fountain, a playground and many benches to sit down. In Huambo particularly strikes how young the population is in Angola. We saw hardly people more than 50 years old. Most are more likely clearly under 20! I am not really sure, why it is like this, but there are probably several explanations: The war has certainly cost many adults life’s, whose children now grow up as orphans or half-orphans. Moreover, many people still live in little villages in the countryside, however, the children in bigger towns, the old people remain in the village. Shahid and I were often the Methusalems in the bus or a restaurant in comparison to all others there…

In Huambo, we met Edelgard, who works for a German aid company in Huambo. We spent an interesting evening with her and her South African colleague in a restaurant. When we stayed in Huambo, the CAN started, the Africa Cup of Nations, which was held this time in Angola. Of course we sat at Gigi’s restaurant, like the Angolans equipped with Angola flags and Angola caps in front of TV. First, everybody in the restaurant was completely enthusiastic about the game, as Angola was leading 4:0 against Mali. All that went to zero, when the game finally ended with 4:4…. The next day, we had to get up once more early. Early in this case is really early (4.15 am), because our coach to Luanda should already leave at 6.00 am. At this time of the day or more likely night, it is always difficult to find transport to the coach station, but after 30 minutes walking with full luggage we found a shared taxi with a super nice driver who even did not want to accept money of his first tourists! The Angolans were mostly very friendly and curious, when they saw us with the backpacks. Tourists are still a novelty in Angola, even if it is now already 2 years that they issue tourist visas. These tourist visas are still awfully difficult to obtain. So, no wonder, that that many locals have never seen a tourist…. If these people with their big backpacks speak just about 10 words of Portuguese, people become very curious about us…

In Luanda we were very lucky to get a room at Cuamm, an Italian NGO working in health in Angola. Lucky, because hotels in Luanda are really expensive and in the lower price range also not safe at all. We paid 100 US, – for our room without own bathroom, which is a real bargain for Luanda, and it was a very safe place with day guard and night watchman!

Luanda is a gigantic town with a lot of slum-like town quarters which spread out round the town and are called Favelas. The first evening we went to the city center along the promenade by the sea for a restaurant, but there was none. In the city center, there are banks, administrative buildings, etc but no normal restaurant. They are about 1 or 2 kilometers from the city center. Even simple restaurants there charge at least 20 dollars for a meal, which is nothing fancy, just a normal meal…. Well, Luanda is currently the most expensive town of the world!

One afternoon, we met Helder. I got to know him and his family at Chameleon Backpackers in Windhoek, where they spent their christmas holidays. Helder was a mine of information about Angola, its history, geography, politics and of course its inhabitants. Thanks a lot to Helder for the patience with all our questions!

First, we organized our visas for the Democratic Republic of Congo DRC. Getting this done, took us 2 complete mornings. Luanda does not have a lot to keep tourists busy in terms of sights. Still, we needed quite a few days in Luanda, just because everything takes so long to organize. Especially, when you need to go to another part of the city, this can take forever, because the traffic is simply infernal here! For example our trip to Esquinza: this is a place about 15 Kilometers from our hostel, where the coach sets off in direction for Mbanza Congo. The return trip took us about 4 hours! Going there was easy, as a local took us there in his car, going back by public transport was not so funny anymore. Above all, one of the multiple coaches we took just ended its tour in the middle of a Favela. I felt not really good to walk around in such an area without a local. But also here we were lucky, as a nice collective taxi driver, who even spoke good English, came along and took us out of this area…

Everybody, who knows me just a little bit, knows that I usually do not care at all about football, but as there was this Africa Cup of Nations in Luanda right at that time we have been in the city, this was like a must to visit! Tickets for the games were supposedly sold at the banks, but we could not find out, which bank, as we were sent from one bank to another. So we decided to try our luck by going to the stadium for the game Mali- Algeria. Reaching the stadium is a story for itself – the stadium is very far outside of town, so private taxis are extremely expensive! As we also failed to find a shared taxi, I asked two men sitting in a car, which was richly decorated with Angolan flags, whether they know, how we can reach the stadium by public transport. At least, I thought that I had asked this, in portuguese language, which I do not speak at all… They waved us into their car and we drove off. At that time, I was still mistaken by the thought that they bring us to the next shared taxi…. After about 20 minutes of driving, we thought all this was rather strange, however, we were at the same time curious about where they would take us. After a total of 50-minute journey, we stopped at a coach of full football fans, the driver of our car put some money for the coach in Shahid's hand, and then they turned around and probably drove back the whole way… Anyhow, I must have seemed very persuasive, completely impecunious and absolutely football-fanatic….

After reaching the stadium, it took us a while to find out, that the games are sold out. Of course, there was still the black market, where we finally got our tickets! The mood in the stadium was great. The first game Mali- Algeria did not have as many visitors as most people came later to see the Angolan team. The stadium for the second game was really nearly full, which means that almost 60,000 people attended. Lots of them wore the national colors, waved flags, had wigs and costumes… Just great! On top of that – Angola won this game! As we feared a veritable traffic chaos after the game, when all visitors drive home at the same time, we left the stadium before the end of the game. Very fast, we found a minibus leaving towards Luanda. Unfortunately, it turned out, that the driver had to help a friend, who got stuck with his car on the highway near the stadium. The towing lasted forever, so we ended up having exactly the problem which originally wanted to avoid by leaving the stadium earlier. It was absolute chaotic on the streets. At last we walked a good 40 minutes till we reached another road, where we found a nice driver, who took us all the way to favela Sao Paulo. After another long walk we found a collective taxi in the city center, from there only 30 minutes by foot to reach the taxis to the Ilha, 10 minutes later we were back in our hostel – shortly after midnight and completely finished…. But it was a great day!

After 5 days in Luanda we went by a hellishly uncomfortable coach to Mbanza Congo, which is close to the congolese border. This bus was supposed to start somehow in the morning, actually, around 9am, but everybody was there – up to the driver… He came at 10.30am, and thus we could begin our trip. The journey to Mbanza Congo should last, actually, about 10 hours. There are about 450 kilometers, and the street there is in a very poor condition. Of course, it took us longer, but I did not expect us to arrive at the absurd time at 1.30 am at night… The other people in the bus probably had, as everybody made themselves at home in the parked coach to wait for the next transport to the border or at least for daylight…

The plastic seats were already quite uncomfortable before and did not become better during the long trip. Prepared with a sleeping-bag and ear plugs it was a kind of okay. The next morning around 6am a collective taxi took us to the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo DRC in Luvu. The border crossing was very time consuming, finally, after 6 hours all passengers of our minibus were on the other side and we continued our journey towards Kinshasa…. By the way, we were the first tourists who passed this border crossing, the officials on the Angolan side spent quite some time in finding the right book to register us leaving Angola here….. Now we are in Kinshasa. An absolutely chaotic town with few places of interest and little charm, but very lively, very African and above all with a lot of inexpensive restaurants! Our experiences in DRC I will describe in another mail. It is really time to send off this Angola mail now! Many greetings from Congo

Andy

 

Date: Mon, 8 Feb 2010

Democratic Republic Congo DRC is so gigantic that it is quite difficult to win a more or less reasonable impression in a few weeks. Many areas are not really good to visit since for many years as there are quite a few civil wars, especially in the eastern areas Ituri and Kivu, which are the formerly tourist areas with all the mountains and the mountain gorillas. So, on my trip I visited only one very small part of DRC, and all that on the western, "safe" side. The capital of Kinshasa is currently a gigantic building site with a lot of dust, too many people, too many cars and smog. Also really hot. Of course also not safe, when it comes to criminal activity, raids and extortion by corrupt officials, policemen and soldiers. It is easy to realize all this as a tourist. Our hotel was in the centre, it was relatively clean and secured by day guards and night watchmen.

There is not so much to see in Kinshasa. We organized our visa for Republic of Congo RC, visited the arts market, where there are great masks and other tourist stuff and were often in Lebanese restaurants. The ethnographic museum with all old masks, music instruments and statues of king Leopold and Stanley is one of the most interesting sights. In Kinshasa, we had to pay attention with taking photos. Though supposedly the old system was abolished that one needs a written confirmation to be allowed to take photos, but not all policeman or soldiers do know about his new policy. In whole DRC there are incredibly lots of uniformed people, who are paid extremely badly and take every chance to improve their low salary by a "donation", a so-called "motivation" or a present called a "cadeau". The first time we encountered this, was right at the border, when the international vaccination pass is controlled – people with the right document give only a small motivation, those with only a written confirmation but not the correct pass give a donation, those without everything pay a lot…. And things like these happened each day.

After 4 days in Kinshasa we had organized all important things and we were ready for the journey to Kikwit. Quite a few people may ask now: Kikwit – where is that and what is there so important to see that one travels 525 kilometers? According to our guide book Kikwit is only known for a disastrous Ebola outbreak 1995, which caused nearly 200 deaths.The only other thing, the guide book speaks about, are a few waterfalls further away.

Neither Ebola nor the waterfalls were the reason for our trip there, but we had an invitation of Vincent and Celine Uluma to visit them in Kikwit. Vincent has worked one year ago in Guenzburg, the town I grew up, as a doctor. At this time, there were some clinic materials discarded in this hospital – things for OPs, beds, cupboards, medical devices, etc. Will say, a lot of things, they do not have in DRC and were urgently looked for. So, the idea was born to send these things, nevertheless, by ship and truck to Kikwit. The transport costs were paid by Lions Club in Guenzburg. After a long journey, the objects arrived at Kikwit and are used now at several medical centers in the area. When the Lions Club Guenzburg got to know about my trip, the idea arose immediately to get me into contact with Dr. Uluma. However, I had not thought, that he invites us immediately to come to Kikwit and to stay with him and Celine, his belgian wife.

In Kinshasa, we found out, that in the mornings, there are coaches going to Kikwit from a bus stand near the international airport. So, we went there shortly after 7am. There were quite a few busses, all of them for Kikwit. We had more than a closer look on all the vehicles and selected the best looking bus, which already had lots of passengers. We thought, this would be the earliest departure then. It took some time to get started, gigantic loads were delivered and loaded on the roof. This was about 1 pm. Then about 2 pm our backpacks followed on the roof of the bus and shortly after we left. We knew from Vincent and Celine that it would take about 10 or 12 hours to get to Kikwit, which is about 525 kilometers from Kinshasa. So we prepared ourselves on an arrival at night. But once again everything came different than expected. At last we left Kinshasa about 4 pm, after we had spent some time in a garage and in a gas station. More or less 10 kilometers out of town we had a breakdown – a thing of an hour. 5 kilometers later was the next hold, a spare part had to be brought – well, good that we were not jet far from Kinshasa. After the part was delivered and was inserted, we went on in the darkness. There we still thought, okay, for Vincent and Celine it is better if we arrive early in the morning as in the middle of the night….. In the morning around 5am, the bus broke down completely – right in the middle of the worst part of the road. At that time, we did not even cover half of the distance to Kikwit. Most passengers prepared themselves for being stuck for several days in the bush, waiting for another spare part and a mechanic to arrive from Kinshasa or Kikwit. Those with money (not many) looked for some other transport. Therefore, we walked with full luggage to the next village. There was a coach, which was just about finished with its repair. This coach was laying here already for 5 days (not really a proof for a good vehicle), but now it was repaired, and so hopefully in better condition than before and hopefully also better than our first coach. There was also not much choice anyway. We had to pay half a fare per person again and continued our trip.

After other 8-hour journey we arrived in Kikwit after a total of 27 hours. Blond hair is something not seen often in Africa, so the immigration officer in Kikwit found us immediately in the coach and started asking disagreeable questions. Of course, the aim was a gift, a bribe or whatever. But short after our arrival, Celine arrived and got out us there! Mrs. Uluma is already well known in Kikwit, and immediately the haunting was over! We had a great time in Kikwit with Vincent and Celine. We learned a lot about DRC, its history, geography, the people and politics. And of course its great nature, this country is blessed with. When, finally, the country will stop its wars, people could live very well here in the countryside. Of course, the streets need an improvement, also transport. Poverty is big in this country, people are really going hungry to bed here, children are malnutrition and there are many illnesses. There is also a lack of spiritual food, if it is only a cinema. In Kinshasa there is one again, but this might also be only one in the whole country. King is, who has a television, above all at times of the Africa Cup of Nations, when one could really make some money on entrance fees!

We spent 10 days in Kikwit, a town with about 1 million people which seems, however, more like a big village. In the city centre, there are gigantic mountains of mud and sand. With every rain, the mud mountains on the streets grow. The trees, which held on the earth earlier, were cut down and illegal huts were built instead. Since then more and more mud slides in the streets of the town. In Kikwit there is 6 times per week electricity – three times in the mornings for 3 hours, three times in the evening for 3 hours… Richer households and also some of the medical centers (however, not all) have a generator. Of course, we visited with Vincent many of the medical centers, in which now equipment from Guenzburg is used. Over and over again I also bumped into aluminum boxes of Munk technology in Guenzburg. Everything what was delivered is in use and makes the life of many people here a lot easier! Thanks to those in the clinic and Lions Club Guenzburg, who made this possible. I do not want to know at all, how the situation would be like without all that…. Several times, we went with Vincent in the bush, visited the farm, which is supposed to produce fresh meat for the clinic in the future, we looked after a patient, who lives 120 kilometers away and went to a meeting in the biggest hospital of the area. To see this big hospital with a sister took us 3 hours! One day we could combine the visit of a patient with the visit of the waterfalls of Kakobola. These waterfalls are really gigantic and for sure are rarely visited by tourists.

After 10 days it was difficult to say goodbye to Vincent and Celine. At this point, I would like to thank you so much for your hospitality and patience with our questions. We had a great time in Kikwit and I hope very much that we soon meet again in Europe!

The way back, we took it easy and went by plane. The flight was an air-screw machine with 25 seats and we needed just 75 minutes to reach Kinshasa. We did not plan to spend the night in Kinshasa, but leave after another visit of the arts market immediately by boat to Brazzaville. Well, this was the plan. But things can change very fast, especially in Africa… It took about 2 hours to go through the paper work at the border and till we had the tickets for the boat. So, finally, we crossed the river Congo to Brazzaville. On the other side, a local agent was supposed to help with the paper work there. However, that is, where the problem started. For some reason the immigration officer at the beach in Brazzaville had a problem with our agent, there was a big palaver, shouting and there we already knew, there is something going totally wrong…. The result was immediately delivered: we were escorted by uniformed like dangerous criminals to the boat and were deported to Kinshasa! Just imagine – pushed away by the relatively sure and somehow friendly RC back to DRC. And logically without valid visas for DRC, as they were stamped with the crossing the border of course…. This put the authorities on the other side into big problems, at last they gave to us new visas for only 60. – US per person.

Just before it was getting dark, we found ourselves with full luggage on the unsafe streets of Kinshasa. At this time it is anything but easy to find a hotel room. The next day we tried our luck once again. At 7.00 am, we went to the border office at the boat in Kinshasa to meet the chief officer there. He called several times the chief at the other side, until he gave his okay that we could travel. At 10 am, we left again by boat to Brazzaville.. However, this would have been too easy: the officer on the other side again did not want us to enter. Though this time we had pre-booked a hotel in Brazzaville by phone, but the officer did not want to accept that. He wanted to see a reservation on paper. So, we had to call the owner of our hotel to come and fetch us at the beach! We were really happy when he finally arrived. It did not take long and, finally, the paper war was over.

Once you made it into Brazzaville, the place turns out as a very pleasant city. Brazzaville has many restaurants, some hotels, well sorted supermarkets, some internet cafes and lots of taxis. Actually, everything, one needs. There is not so much to see, but this is nothing unusual for African cities. There are a few monuments, a handful of interesting buildings, the city has recovered from the war quite well. First, we paid Ecofac a visit. This is the park management for the Odzala National Park in the north of RC. It was very difficult to find out where the office is, then it was difficult to get info about the park. Supposedly groups go to the park soon, but nobody knows, when. It depends on the number of the participants, how expensive the trip is. So, the question of the group size and of course also of the date is not unimportant. Unfortunately, today, after 5 days in Brazzaville, I do not know more than on the first day. Africa makes me mad sometimes…. But well, on monday I will try again, and if there is no info, I will leave on tuesday towards Gabon.

Shahid is on his way home to the US. We had a great trip through Angola and DRC and have lived our Angola dream. With him it was definitely easier to travel in these both countries and of course also much safer, logically also cheaper, as lots of expenses can be shared. Thanks for the great time, Shahid!

I will continue by myself now, first within RC to a small place called Oyo, from there a very bad street leads to Franceville in Gabon. This bad road is only travelled by trucks not by public transport. Okay, something new, I did not have trucks on this trip yet!  The next mail will probably come from Gabon, about the continuation of the journey to RC and Gabon. Greetings from Brazzaville. I am always happy about mails.

Yours Andy

P.S. A few days ago I got the great news that friends of my parents have decided to support Monica and the children in the soupkitchen in Katutura near Windhoek financially. They donate 1000 Euros, so four other children can go to school for a year, including school uniform, books and writing utensils. In the name of Monica and the children many thanks to all who gave some money!!!!!

Date: Sun, 7 Mar 2010

Well, I spent more time than expected in Brazzaville, as I was a kind of suspicious of maybe having malaria. So, I wanted to be sure and do a test in a clinic, before heading in the bush. The test was negative, so the following day, I boarded a bus to Oyo.

Oyo is the place of the president, here he was born. As a decent president should behave, he looks after his native country and so Oyo has definitely better infrastructure, better streets, schools, administrative buildings and even soon a hospital than other places about the same size (about 10,000 inhabitants). Oyo is also connected by a narrow, but very good tarred road with Brazzaville. Therefore, the coach trip for these 400 kilometers took only 5 hours. In RC, people are very friendly towards strangers, but, nobody thought of me a tourist. Usually, foreigners come here for business.

In East Africa, I was often called mzungu; the equivalent here is mundele (white person). Here, I encountered something a bit bewildering, as lots of children called me Chinoise the french word for Chinese. Well – as in many other african countries, also in RC it is mainly chinese people, who are working in road construction. Local children make quite obviously no difference between foreigners from Asia and Europe, and as I am obviously not black, I must be Chinese. No doubt about this!

In Oyo, I visited the most important things by motorbike: the residence of the president, the huge villas for the big family of the president, the cemetery where the favorite daughter of the president and wife of president Bongo of Gabon is buried, the lodgings for the ministers of the president… Not difficult to find out without even being there, this is the town of the president! And the locals are proud of it.

In between all these palatial buildings, there is also space for normal citizens. In Oyo, they have a big, well organized market, a harbor for cargo and passenger ships, and a few supermarkets usually run by Lebanese and Mauritanians and all-important: a small chicken barbeque, where half a chicken was sold for only 3 US! Currently, the most important streets around the president palace are a big mess and about to be paved soon, as in mid march, the president will held a big party with many African presidents and all available ministers. Apart from dust and noise due to the road construction, most of the habitants along these roads did not have running water or electricity since weeks, as both was put down because of security reasons. This also affected my hotel, but a bucket shower with water from a nearby river is nothing unusual in Africa, and they also provided candles in the hotel. A problem was the heat at night – 30 degrees centrigrade in the room without a fan is somewhat unpleasantly warm…. Although I am already quite African when it comes to temperatures after more than 8 months traveling here, but, however, 30 degrees is definitely too much. Anything more than 27 degrees for sleeping I still rate as a bit uncomfortable…

The original plan was to stay in Oyo only one night, finally, I spent three nights here. The reason was a little bit weird, as I was robbed the first evening – by a young man, which appeared first quite nice and normal. We visited his family and friends, exchanged telephone numbers when we sat together in a small local bar. When I went to the bathroom, I asked him to take care of my backpack. Better not to take a bag in African public toilets… Shortly after he accompanied me back to my hotel, which was very nice as it was already dark, especially; as there was no electricity and the streets were dotted with gigantic holes due to the road construction… The fact, that the camera was missing, I realized only the next morning, when I packed! As I had the telephone number of this guy, I took my miserable french and called. He stated he does have the camera and, moreover, left Oyo this morning for work. I explained in drastic words, that I will finish him in this small village of 10,000 souls, if he does not hand over the camera. First, I went to the police, accompanied by a few hotel employees, some neighbors and other interested people (finally, there is some action in sleepy Oyo), then the military. After that, a lot of people wanted to help and swarmed out in the whole town to tell everyone on the street, whom we search and why… Well, in the early afternoon, the guy got cold feet, and camera was delivered to the hotel by a small boy…

After that day, I was probably known by at least half of the population of Oyo as the mundele with the camera! In Oyo at least I was not rated any more as Chinese! After all, the delay had many positive sides. First, I got to know Tayssir, a Lebanese and hotel and restaurant owner. As he offered me a special room rate, I moved into is hotel. Moreover, I got to know an absolutely charming local lady, Marietta. We had a lot of fun at the market, went to a tailor, I even tried myself in crushing seeds and palm fruits at her home… I always knew that I am not very good in cooking, but I even failed in crushing seeds into fine powder… Something else happened because of this delay: At Hippocamp Hotel in Brazzaville, there is a book for overlanders, where people can write down their reports about their travels and share their experiences on the way. A lot of people raved about Michel in Okoyo, who happily helps out travellers passing through, even providing them with an AC room in his own house, nice food and all other amenities. He is the big boss for the road construction project between Oyo and the border to Gabon, and for sure, as it was on my way anyway, I wanted to visit this hospitable french guy in Okoyo. It turned out, that Tayssir knows Michel! He gave him a call and so we found out, that the following day, Michel would travel by jeep from Brazzaville via Oyo to Okoyo! I took that as a great sign of destiny and got ready for a lift for the following day! The road to Okoyo is under construction, and therefore still a bad road. This part, I was about to travel by truck.

But it is definitely better and safer to travel a road like this with a local-expert driver in a good jeep than in an old and bad maintained truck. Michel is absolutely an original, indeed, probably a little bit lonely as the only mundele within about 250 square kilometers. Anyway, as my french was already improving and he was speaking slowly and clear, we found a lot to talk and the four-hour journey to Okoyo passed fast. By truck this would have been a trip of half a day – at least!

Okoyo is a nest with about 3000 habitants, not so long ago without a tarred road, still without electricity or running water. For the road construction workers, housing is a little bit different for sure ­ their houses have air-conditioning and all the other comfort, moreover, there is even satellite internet! Michel occupies some locals as cook, house keepers, etc. When we arrived around midnight, the cook served us a great dinner, which was followed by something I have already dreamed for a long time ­ really good cheese. Well, I am staying with a French man here! In Okoyo, there is not an awful lot to see: there is a small market, one shop, which is better sorted than the others (does not really mean a lot), an elementary school, a hospital (without doctors and without interior arrangement or medicine, because the doctors who have originally worked here, took everything with them to their own private clinics in Brazzaville), there is a police station and various churches – that's it basically.

Not far away, there is a quite big river. On the shores, Chinese workers build two ships at the moment. These ships are supposed to transport goods for the road construction on the river. For sure, as there were so many Chinese people here, local children called me again Chinese…. A lot of my time in Okoyo, I enjoyed staying in the air-conditioned house, it was nice by itself not being on the move at the moment, and I simply took it as a resting place from traveling. I read a lot, watched French TV und spent quite some time at the net, trying to find out about the best way to reach western Africa. All that came with good food, cheese and ham sandwiches, beer, champagne, red whine, pasties, just anything one can imagine. All these things need to be bought in Brazzaville, about 9 hours by jeep. For sure, all these items are imported from Europe, and there is only one shop in Brazza selling all this stuff, probably at whooping prices.

As the road here is in a terrible condition, it is used by only few trucks. Which transport goods from Gabon to RC or vice versa. Another possibility are sometimes Chinese trucks which go once a while from Okoyo to Franceville to organize supplies for the road construction. During my four days with Michel, there was only once a truck going to the border with Gabon. And this one we managed to miss. As my visa for RC was only good for 15 days and it was already about to be finished, Michel decided, that he will send me by jeep to the border. One day, one of engineers has to travel all the way to the border anyway to take some photos of the road and the bridges, so why not now.

So, I left Okoyo as I came – in a fancy jeep with a driver. However, this part of the road was by far the worst, I travelled on this trip so far….It was 80 kilometers to the border. Astonishing enough, it took us only 4 hours, as the driver was really a good and brave man.The road was really cruel. Here, I also want to say thanks to Michel for his friendship, for organizing everything for me and for being a great host. The border between RC and Gabon are about 20 kilometers from each other, and I was glad that the jeep was allowed to take me all the way to the Gabonese border post, as for sure, in between, there was also no traffic! Crossing of the RC border post was kind of stressful, as the official could not read tourist visas and strictly stated the visa was already expired. It needed some time and argumentation skills to make him allowed me to leave. To be on the safe side, I also just refused to understand the bad word cadeau (present) …. So, after a while he just gave up and let me go.

Entering Gabon was easy, it just took some time, as the only official was just about to pick up a letter at the post office.- 26 kilometers away. So, there was a little bit of a delay. However, was not of any importance, as the Gabonese border post was the end of travels by Michels jeep and there was no other transport to continue the journey anyway. With the border official another car arrived and my luck of the day continued.

Julian, a friendly man over 60 without a single tooth in his mouth, was pleased to have a tourist in his car and drove me 26 kilometers to the village of Leconi. Here, we completed the entry formalities together. Julian is the boss of a factory for processing of manioc – which is not only used as local food, but also for production of medicine and oil. I never before came across that, so on a trip like this one can really learn a lot! For sure, I was interested to see the factory and the huge manioc plantations. After that, he took me to Hotel Leconi, and as I showed a lot of interest in his work in the factory and as he the boss, he decided on the spot, that I am a VIP guest from Europe, who is paying a visit to the factory, the manioc plantations and village Leconi. So, accommodation and food will be on expenses of the factory…. Wow, that is something unusual! Just imagine a reaction like that in good old Germany!

At Hotel Leconi, there was also a team accommodated to prepare the setting for the movie "The lion of Poubara". This movie is about lions, which will be freed to live in the jungles of Gabon. Emmanuel, an architect, is working here to construct the huts and villages for the movie. This was very interesting also, as I learned a lot about the former life of people in the villages as well as about the work at a movie setting.

In Leconi itself, there is not so much to do or to see, the treasuries are outside of town. Not far away, but on a dirt road, there is the pink canyon. This canyon shines really super pink, especially in the late afternoon. Unfortunately, the famous infamous porous, very tiny mosquitoes, wake up exactly at the same time. And they can bite really terribly. Later, I also learned, that those bites or stings heal quite badly, above all in this muggy-hot climate with approx. 35 degrees centigrade and a humidity of about 90 percent.

Next day in the afternoon, Emmanuel had to drive to Franceville, so, I got a nice ride in a private car again. In Franceville itself, there is also not so much to see or to do, but the countryside is lovely with a lot of hills and also forests. In parts, Gabon looks like very green hilly parts of Europe, just houses and for sure people look different. Emmanuel was here for work, but as this work was always in the bush, it was for sure interesting for me to come as well! There was also Jean from France, who is in charge for the planning of the setting with the lions, which are to be freed in the forests of Poubara. It was a matter of finding the right place with the right light, the right trees, with possibly many lianas and thick bushes, where it is easy to hide the cage, etc….. Then in the afternoon, Jean left by plane to Libreville and Emmanuel and me went to a small village. Here, the locals had produced huge piles of mats for the movie villages. Now, the mats were counted, loaded in a big truck and transported to Leconi. The negotiations and the counting of the mats lasted much longer than planned. Normally not a big problem, but this time I was a bit pressed in time, as my train to Libreville should go around 7.15 pm… And of course – if you need a local transport to be late, it is certainly on time. Well, to make it short, I missed the train! But for sure, there are more disagreeable places than Franceville to get stuck for 2 days…

There are quite a few things to see outside Franceville, however, without a car, it is somehow difficult to reach them. About one hour from Franceville and also in Poubara, there is a liana bridge and a big waterfall. As Emmanuel had to go back to Leconi, I took a taxi to go there. Already the journey itself was highly adventurous, since already on the way there a tire burst with a big bang. The bridge was really great. Of course, it was swinging quite a bit, and my guide, an about 12 year-old fellow, had a lot of fun in making it swing even more…. The waterfalls and rapids were impressive, above all the setting in the middle of the rain forest. The way back became even more exciting. Shortly after our departure, the second tire burst. For sure, no one is carrying that many spares. In Gabon as in other african countries, there is of course no phone network in the bush. So, we drove slowly with our broken tire and increasingly more broken growing rim 20 kilometers up to the tarred road. From here we could inform a friend of the taxi driver by phone where we are, so that he can deliver another tire……

The same afternoon I found a snake sunbathing just in front of my door… It was not a really big snake, maybe half a meter, but in Africa I do not really trust any of these creatures, especially so close to my room… The waiter, whom I asked for help, had a quick look on the snake, came back with a big piece of wood – this was the end of the snake. Apparently it was a poisonous one, not to die from, but one needs to stay several days in hospital after a bite….

From Franceville it is a long way to the capital of Libreville. Other overlanders told me, that the road to Libreville is in a very poor condition. The train is a lot better option to travel these 820 kilometers. If everything goes well, it takes about 10 hours. However, last week, they had an engine problem and the poor passengers were three full days and nights stuck in the train….. So, I decided, I better stock up on food and drinks before entering that train – one never knows. The train left exactly on time. This allowed me to hope for the rest of the trip. I was travelling first class, as this assured a reserved seat. The first 4 hours I travelled together with a nice Cuban doctor, so we had 6 seats for the two of us. Then 2 more people entered our compartment, which made sleeping less comfortable, but still a lot better than in second class without any possibility to reserve a seat. Strange enough, sometimes, Africans like the cold, the AC in the train was put so cold, that I got up at night to get my sleeping bag out of the backpack. Around 8 pm our train stopped in the middle of nowhere and did not move anymore. There was also no electricity, so it became rather hot within a very short time. Soon, there was the news about a more or less severe engine problem…… Several oil-smeared mechanics came and went, a few uniformed train people came and went without further explanations. We sat like this for 3 hours – then suddenly, the train continued without any further problems to Libreville, where we arrived after 17 hours early in the afternoon.

My domicile here in Libreville is called Maison Liebermann. Behind that is the organization of Christian women, however, they also offer rooms to tourists. So far, in these places of the church I was never questioned about my religion, but as my parents gave me two names (Andrea Maria), maybe this comes in convenient for those Christian places and stops them from asking the obvious…. The first afternoon in Libreville I spent with the attempt to withdraw money out of one of all these ATMs in town – just to come back to the normal procedure changing cash with a Lebanese around the corner, after the ATM has eaten twice my Visa card. It is not exactly a pleasant to see the Visacard entering the machine, but not coming out again! Now, I know, all this happened, because my bank issued a new card against all promises during my travels, which is now very safe back home in Germany – the old one was invalid then. It is quite astonishing, as exactly the same thing happened on my last Africatrip in 2002, just with another bank…..

The first full day in Libreville I spent with organizing the visas for Cameroon and Nigeria. For Cameroon was absolutely unproblematic and done within 1.5 hours. For Nigeria was a little more difficult. First I had to wait quite long because Madame secretary had to eat her lunch just at that moment – about 20 people waited patiently, until she finished. Everybody knew, that this lady is the important one for getting the visa. So, whether one is angry or not, you have to remain quiet and polite, otherwise you already failed before you get to see the ambassador himself…. The ambassador wanted to see a letter of invitation, which I could not present, of course. Where should something like this come from, the few Nigerians from Regensburg I know, might be better not to mention at all… In any case, I tried to convince him, that I work in tourism and I try to get into contact with other agencies in Nigeria to bring finally the amount of tourists into Nigeria, which this beautiful country deserves…. He apparently liked the answer, in any case, I was allowed to fill my request form, deliver two photos and pay the enormous sum of 50,000 CFA, about 75 euros. Whether the ambassador is known for being eccentric or not, I do not know, but up to now I never had to paint a colorful map with my travel itinerary for a visa. But well, there is a first time for everything. So I copied a map from Lonely Planet, bought some nice pens in four colors and started to paint. Actually, I wanted to travel around only the northern part of Nigeria, but as the ambassador was from the south, I had to plan the itinerary in such a way, that his regions are also represented. Proudly I presented in the afternoon my work, which was fixed to the other documents. The next day, I went back as told at 12.00 o'clock. And there was a wonderful, richly colored visa in my passport, and there was an ambassador really proud of his work of the day… As I was into organizing visas now, I just continued and went also to the embassy of Benin.

The next day, I went by collective taxi to Lambarene. The street winds through very thick rain forest, every now and then small villages or single houses. In Gabon, there are only about 1.5 million people, more than half of them live in the capital. In Lambarene, I stayed with the Soeurs Bleues, Christian sisters, who rent some rooms to travellers. The most important place of interest in Lambarene, actually, also the only, is the hospitalof Albert Schweitzer. Here, there is a museum with photos, old pieces of furniture and various surgical cutleries, machines and microscopes from the time of Albert Schweitzer. At that time today the clinic was apparently better equipped than various other african medical centers nowadays… The clinic is still operating, and people here are treated here for a donation only. Otherwise Lambarene is a town with about 30,000 inhabitants. Life here is rather quiet and contemplative.

During breakfast, I got to know a local, who offered me to bring me to a friend, who speaks German. At the end, it was not German, but English, still it was very interesting, as this man was the prison director of Lambarene. Here, there are 200 people arrested, indeed, the rooms are so incredibly full, that he has decided, that the prisoners may stay outside during daytime. It seems first like a normal village here, laundry is washed, toddlers are supplied – only that the villagers are not allowed to leave the area.

The next day, I took the boat from Lambarene to Port Gentil. Here there is no road, travellers can take either the boat or fly. A kind of strange, that the most important industrial town of the country, Port Gentil, is not accessible by road. However, the trip on the river was wonderful, the river is very wide, but mostly the boat was going along the shore, so I had plenty of time to take in the nice scenery of the jungle. Animals are not to be seen here, but plenty of gigantic trees, bushes, palm trees, every now and then small villages, often with colossal churches. The journey lasts about 7 hours and it was no single second boring.

Though Port Gentil is the most important industrial town of Gabon, however, it gives a very provincial impression. There are hardly high buildings except of the harbor buildings and the oil pile works in the sea. During the fruitless search for a working internet cafe (no connection because of thunderstorm last night) I got to know Gisela from Germany. She is living since many years in Gabon, is married here with a local and just left her work to drive me around by car! Port Gentil is not exactly blessed with places of interest, but there is a nice beach, the buildings from Total, the harbor area with a view over the oil rigs in the ocean and the new hospital. Thanks a lot to Gisela for a great afternoon with much info about country and people!

The following day, I returned to Libreville via the ocean in a big ferry. After one more night in Libreville, I traveled by minibus to Oyem near the border with Cameroon. In the coach, I got to know Pepe, who is married in France, and who on the way for a brief visit of her parents in Oyem. Travelling with her was two-year-old son Cameron. She offered me instead of staying in a boring hotel to come with her to her family. Things like these are always exciting! The father is divorced from Pepe's mum since a long time and has married anew. Polygamy is here something very normal, he is married with two women and has a somewhat unknown number of children. Place and money is limited and of course everybody must help. Older children from approx. 6 years pay attention to the smaller ones, others cook, wash laundry or dishes or get wood for the cooking fire. I shared room and bed with Pepe and Cameron. Because the bed was not really exorbitant big, I was hit once a while by arms and legs of a not so good sleeping Cameron. After I decided to sleep the other way around in bed, it became more spacious and I also caught some sleep. People here like Pepe and her family are very rich in heart, and I want to say thanks a lot for this very interesting day with your family. I felt treated like a Queen staying in your house and I hope to meet somewhere in Europe next time. The remaining way to the border was easy, also the border itself was no problem and after few minutes I was in Cameroon! If just all borders were simple as that one! In the meantime, I am in Kribi, a small town by the sea and enjoy a few days being lazy on the beach. The next mail will cover Cameroon. Greetings from Kribi, and, as usual, I am glad receiving mails.

Yours Andy

 

Date: Tue, 30 Mar 2010

as easy as it was to cross from Gabon into Cameroon, so difficult it was to get away from this wretched nest on the border and towards Yaounde. It took ages for the shared taxi to get full. After nearly two hours of waiting time, finally, we were six people plus driver. The car was extremely old and in a very poor condition, so I had (entitled) worries that we would make the 26 kilometers to Ambam. Well, the first thing we found on the street was another car, which has driven off the road, then we had to wait for half an hour for a broken, across-standing truck to be removed, finally our right front tire blocked. Notable, during driving! The driver maltreated the tire with a hammer, which in spite of (because of?) the treatment moved no millimeter. However, it was possible to go backwards….

Well, this is Africa, so we drove the last 12 kilometers through the hills and forests backwards. After the car broke down completely two kilometers before Ambam, I changed to a motorcycle taxi and finally reached the bus station of Ambam after nearly three hours traveling time for 26 kilometers. The remaining way to Yaounde was easy in comparison – just five hours in a coach, which was very full, but had no single breakdown….

In Yaounde, I found accommodation in the guest house of the Presbyterian Church. An inexpensive option, besides, quite centrally situated, moreover, the only possibility in the city for campers. That is the reason, why one can find here a lot of overlanders from all over the world.

Here, I got to know Marcel and Daniel from Germany and Barbara from Austria. They started in october last year in Germany in a 31 year-old vehicle and are on the way to South Africa. Our plans were the same for the next few days, thus it was obvious that we do it together.

Two days later, we went to Kribi, the other three by car (which was so full with the three of them and their luggage, that there was no room for another person), so I went by bus. Kribi is a really nice small place by the sea. The hotel Tara Beach is even a few kilometers from the city on an especially nice piece of beach with quite bright sand. This was exactly what I needed after all these long journeys by bus. Having a rest, doing a barbecue with my new friends, lying on the beach, swimming in the ocean, and finally, reading a book, which had nothing to do with planning the further steps of my travels…. Vacation instead of travelling!

After four days in Kribi, we headed to Limbe. Limbe is also at the sea, indeed, the view is a little bit spoiled due to some oil drilling platforms nearby. Limbe is the starting point for climbing Mount Cameroon, with more than 4000 meters the highest mountain of West Africa.

However, from Limbe, there is also access to the Ring Road further to the north. As Daniel wanted to climb the mountain, Marcel and Barbara wanted to do the Ring Road, there was a free place in the car!

The Ring Road is just 400 kilometers long and is in a very mountainous area near the border to Nigeria. All together we spent five days exploring this beautiful area. The first day, we went partly back on the road towards Douala. However, before reaching this huge city, we turned north towards Bamenda. There are thick banana and palm tree plantations on both sides of the street. Later, it became hilly and, unfortunately, also more and more cloudy. All of a sudden it poured like crazy. Unfortunately, not only outside, it rained also heavily into the car, well, this happens, when travelling in a very old car…

Shortly before getting dark, we reached our aim for today, Bamenda. Unfortunately, the mission, where we wanted to spend the night, was booked up, but according to the GPS, there was another inexpensive option in the old part of town. Strange enough, this hotel, based in the old town was called "New City Hotel". However, the hotel was okay with good beds, private bathroom, each room contained two condoms and a poster on the door saying it is a HIV free hotel…!

In the evening, we cooked a delicious dinner with fresh mushrooms bought on the street, a few onions and rice. However, cleaning these forest mushrooms was a major issue and not as easy as our mushrooms back home…. The bathroom did not look that great any more after this extensive washing of our mushrooms… But at least it tasted great.

The next day our adventure on the Ring Road started. The road was in good condition and it was very nice to drive here. After the village of  Wum (what a name) the nice road deteriorated and it became worse and worse. There were gigantic holes in the middle of the road, for sure, it was not tarred any more since a long time, and then there was a really steep gradient, which we made only with the second approach…. We also passed villages with funny names like We, Su Bum and, finally, Bum.

Shortly after the gradient, we found out, that we lose quite some oil. Somehow, the oil tube got a hole. Now, we had to improvise, as it is not possible just simply to shorten the tube and to attach the remaining piece, as this requires special tools, which we did not carry with us. So we cut a piece of a water hose and created a cover round the original tube as a strengthening. The whole thing we wrapped in firm adhesive tape and hoped this would do till the next bigger village with a garage and some good mechanic…

For sure, the whole action took quite some time and we found ourselves on a bad road in the middle of nowhere and it was soon getting dark. But what for did we carry tents and sleeping bags? So, we watched out for a suitable piece of land. However, in the mountains it is not that easy to find a reasonable big enough place for a car with roof tent and another tent next to it.

Shortly before it was completely dark, we found a more or less convenient, nearly even spot with some grass bundles and whipped our night's lodging.

Our dinner creation was interesting, if not exactly gourmet style, as we involuntarily garnished our rice corn mixture with a few ants and various night butterflies. At least we had two bottles of beer to wash it down….

The next day, the road was not really an awful lot better. Partially, the rain had dug deep channels in the red sand of the track, in parts it was nearly one meter going down – basically in the middle of the street…. Later this day, we read a small note in the guide book saying, that the authors recommend walking this part of the Ring Road… Well, as the name indicates, this road is more or less round, the author fails to tell, how the driver would get back to his car after walking these 20 kilometers… Good fun!

Despite the bad roads, the area is wonderful, very mountainous, many small villages with extremely friendly people, rather unspoiled from tourism. No wonder that there are not so many tourists out here given the road conditions!

The early afternoon we reached Nkambe. A local mechanic tried more or less without any success to repair the leaky oil tube. As it took quite some time and it started to rain anyway, we based ourselves in Millennium Hotel. The room was nice, apart from the curtain rail that nearly killed me, when it fell down, while I was writing my diary. The fact that the wash basin was not connected with the drainpipe was also no problem, as there was no running water anyway.  Instead, a very nice hotel crew brought buckets full of really hot water to the rooms.

In the late afternoon, we got to know three Belgians, who support a school in a village nearby. They were accompanied by Denis, a Cameroonian, who studies in Belgium and is originally from the village with the school project. In the evening, we squeezed everybody in Denis small car and went to a local bar with attached restaurant for dinner. It was an extremely funny evening, partly, as it took the kitchen nearly two hours to prepare our food. The waiting time most of us filled with quite some beer on an empty stomach…

The next morning, another mechanic came and tried his luck (skills?) to attach the oil tube. This attempt was a bit more successful than yesterdays one, as it was still leaking, but only a little bit. So, by midday, we could continue our journey.

The street became a little better now, and we were able to move faster. Along the Ring Road, there are many villages, where people are still living a very traditional life. Here, they still have Fons, village chiefs, who live in palaces and are highly respected men. It is a very men orientated society, as a female tourist one must be careful not to insult the etiquette. In the village of Mbot, we found a Fon palace right at the street. There were several men, who were happy to explain the drawings on the walls and the masks at the door entrances. The Fon himself is a very friendly man who even permitted us to visit the palace and to take photos! Once again a great experience with the spontaneity of the Africans!

This day, we went even further to Kumbo and drove to the highly recommended Merryland Hotel. Maybe too much recommendation in the guide books, as neither the employees nor the hotel was that great. Well, it was clean and there was warm water. This is a kind of important at an altitude of nearly 2000 meters, as it was pretty chilly here…. Above all it started to rain again.

The next morning, we found a nice small restaurant with great omelets for just 250 CFA. These are about 35 eurocents per omelet. After that, we headed for the road towards Yaounde. Slowly we lost height and in the late afternoon, we reached Bandjoun. It was another four hours to Yaounde, so we based ourselves in a not quite clean, but okay hotel. At night, however, here I had to fight the cockroach battle of my life. Unfortunately, I had not washed down a dead cockroach. So, consequently, at night the relatives came to the burial, basically, all available cockroaches of the entire hotel were in my bathroom… This was almost an invasion, but these animals do not like bright light, and so most of them disappeared in holes and I simply kept the light on in the bathroom. For sure after flushing the dead one down the toilet….

Around midday the next day, we reached Yaounde and went back to the hostel of the Presbyterian Church. As my friends wanted to travel south, they were in need for a visa for DRC. So, this was the first place we went to. The application for the visa was very straight forward here, but in the middle of this process, there was heavy shouting outside in the backyard of the embassy. Suddenly, there was a man lying there, who did not move anymore! The secretary explained, also shattered, that there were some people, who unloaded this man in the courtyard. He was dead, apparently without any family, and from Congo. This is Africa; nobody knew what to do now. So, no one did anything and this poor man was lying dead in the sun in the backyard of his embassy!

Before we left, Barbara and I covered the man with a sheet, which was lying next to him anyway. This is probably the least, what one can do in such a case!

The following day in Yaounde was an extremely bad one also. Nothing worked out. Barbara and I went to town to accomplish quite a few things. First, we wanted to print out some photos, which we wanted to send by post to some new friends along the Ring Road. As this lasted forever, we decided to go in the meanwhile to the French cultural institute to get the musical tickets for the same evening – unfortunately, nobody had heard about this musical, for which Daniel has seen advertisement somewhere on the street… Next, we went to a sport shop for some t-shirts for Barbara. Well, there were t-shirts, but neither the color nor the price matched. Back to the photo shop – the photos still needed time and were not finished. So, we tried to buy a train ticket for tomorrow going to N'Gaoundere. Completely unsuccessfully, we gave up after being sent from one office to the other for about an hour. These are the days I ask myself honestly, what the hell am I doing here? Finally, the internet cafe, where it took me 30 minutes to open my account, and then there was no connection anymore….

As the others also did not have a great day, we decided to go out for dinner tonight (in the meantime, five tourists). No good idea, as on the way back to the hostel we were attacked by four men with iron sticks and machetes. The first man came from the back and bumped into Barbara and me, apparently trying to bring us to fall. We both knew instinctively on the spot, that there is something going terribly wrong, if an African runs in the dark. So, we started to run as well, another female friend and Daniel did the same. It was maybe another 200 or 300 meters to the hostel. Then, there were another three men jumping out of the bushes, who went after Marcel, who was the last one and therefore had to defend himself. They hit him with the iron stick, robbed everything, he carried. Later, it turned out, that this could have gone out a lot worse, as these sort of bandits are often completely drugged and people get killed for the equivalent of 5 euros or less.

For sure, it meant a lot of running around for Marcel, as he lost a lot of papers, like car documents, driving license, international vaccination card, mobile phone…. We all had to go to the police station for a protocol, which we had to pay. Later, it turned out, that Susanna of the hostel had to pay the police to come at all! But, it was still a blessing in disguise, as no one was really bad injured!

The following morning, I tried my luck again at the train station, and voila, I was able to buy a first class seat ticket for the train to N'Gaoundere the same evening. That morning I found out, that these tickets can be bought the earliest 24 hours in advance. As the train leaves 06.10pm, and however, the ticket counter closes at 06.00pm, there is no way getting the ticket the day before….. If only everything was so accurate in Africa…

When buying the ticket in the station, I got to know Katrin, who is originally from a village on the Ring Road. The last 10 years, she spent in Stuttgart/Germany, where she has got a small beauty saloon! The world is sometimes really a village!

The train started exactly at 06.10pm, which I took as a good omen. Normally, the journey should take about 14 hours, however, sometimes, the passengers sit in the train for three days, as the trains are likely to jump out of the rails….

Shortly after we left the station, Katrin and I began our search for free beds in one of the sleeping cars. It turned out, that a Muslim friend of Katrin knows quite a few of the conductors, and so we headed there to ask for available beds. It took a while, but after one hour, we had two free beds. Apparently, sold out does not necessarily mean sold out. It just depends in whose pockets the additional money is going… Anyway, the journey became so much more comfortable, and all that for just 11 Euros more!

Apparently, I was back on the sunny side of life, as we reached N'Gaoundere the next day at 08.30 am. I was told, that in the same train, there were three ministers travelling, so everybody worked on the fact that this train had no delay. In that case, in the future, I will try to travel all the time with some ministers on board….

In N'Gaoundere, the mainly Christian southern Cameroon and the mainly Muslim northern Cameroon meet. There are many mosques, but also a big cathedral, many Christian shops next to those with prayer mats and Koran stands. Halal butcher shops beside loud DVD players with dubious movies.

All that came with a very strange kind of weather, which seemed foggy at first sight, but, actually, was whirled up dust and sand from the Saharadesert, the so-called Harmattan.

In N`Gaoundere, there is not so much to see or to do, but it is still good enough for a relaxed day in a not touristy town and a stroll through the market. Besides, I got to know here quite a few friendly people like Yanick from a Cameroonian newspaper and Patrick and Presley, who were here for a job training and were travelling in the same train.

My next destination was Maroua. As the road was in good condition, it took us only nine hours for these 550 kilometers including breaks.

Maroua and surroundings were also suffering from the Harmattan wind, which should normally blow between november and the beginning of february. The word climate change is also here not unknown anymore. This wind is transporting fine dust and sand, which dries up the area, which is by nature already very dry. Of course, this is very bad not only for streets and buildings, but also for people, animals and plants. The skin gets dry within a very short time, people are constantly coughing and eye problems become a normality. (Especially great for someone like me, who is not really blessed with great eyes anyway…). In Maroua, I spent the night at a hostel with nice African round huts, called Relay Ferngo.

The following morning, I left for Rhumsiki in the Mandara Mountains close to the Nigerian border. Travelling with me was Vandi, the receptionist of Relay Ferngo, as his cousin was about to marry the same day in Rhumsiki.

There is a tarred road all the way to Mokolo, the only bigger place in this area. Here the tarred road ends, as most of the public transport. So, except of market days, all people travel by motorbikes.

These motorbike taxi guys speed usually like lunatics completely overloaded on sandy tracks with more potholes one can count. It is quite an experience and after these 55 kilometers to Rhumsiki the least, one encounters is a very sore bottom, but it is absolutely worth it. Dust from below from the road, dust from above by the Harmattan wind, from the side by oncoming cars and occasional trucks, dust of all sides. A backpack is no problem for such a motorcycle taxi, the load is just put on the front, and off we go….

After 2.5 hours on the bikes, we arrived in Rhumsiki, a village in the middle of an absolutely spectacular scenery. There are rocks and mountains just everywhere, because of the sand in the air, one could only see the ones not too far away. However, this was creating a very interesting, nearly surreal atmosphere, where people seemed very small and somehow lost in the big dust and amid the great scenery…

Rhumsiki is one of the bigger villages in the area with about 4200 habitants. The main thing here is agriculture and sheep and goat herding, but also increasingly tourism. Currently, there is no season, but there must be quite some tourists in between june and august and november to january. Many tourists come here for trekking, on foot or by horse. Also, there are a few climbers, who try the precipitously rising rocks.

With Costa, a young guide, I explored the village and the market. Here the people belong to quite different religions – there are Christians, Muslims and Animists. All of them are living peacefully side by side and with each other. Actually, really with each other, because marriages between the religions are absolutely usual and normal, the children have the religion of the father.

In the late afternoon, Vandi, Costa and I headed to the wedding of Vandis cousin. He was marrying his fourth wife! The brides are paid by the father, normally three cows or their equivalent in money. A man can marry as many women as he wants, as long as he has the money for doing so. In addition to the payment for the bride, there is the wedding itself, which needs to be paid (here were about 400 people attending) and for sure the husband has to give each of his wives the same attendance in time and money.

This system is not unknown in Muslim society, if limited to the amount of wives, but it was new for me, that Animists do the same. This wedding was an Animist wedding with traditional music, dance and gifts (mostly money). All this was on open field with a lot of onlookers on the other side of the fence trying to catch one or the other banknote flying through the air….

This was a great opportunity to take photos of men, women and children in their traditional dresses. A unique experience and I cannot thank Vandi enough that I was able to attend this wedding not to speak of the other help with buying CDs, getting transport, changing money, etc.

In the village itself there is a feticheur, who is contacted by the Animist inhabitants in case of a problem or if someone urgently needs an advice. This feticheur has got a crab, with whose help he forecasts the future. The crab is put in a calabash with sand and water and covered for several minutes. Depending on where the crab is staying after some minutes, there is already an answer to the question the client had asked. I had asked the crab, whether the remaining trip would go well or whether I must pay additional attention somewhere. The feticheur had to ask the crab once more, as she did not sit exactly to give a doubtless answer. According to the crab the remaining trip will run without any bigger problems, but it might be difficult once a while.

Ah, Nigeria?Quite interesting!

The next day, Vandi and me lent a motorcycle and went to a small market in the countryside. The way out there was more like a path, but I liked this small market much better than the big one in Rhumsiki. Here, there are no tourists and no one is asking for money, candies or presents.

In the afternoon, we drove in the other direction, to pay a visit to the ill grandfather. He lives on the other side of the border in Nigeria. A dried out small river "marks" the border. The more than 80-year-old grandfather had fallen at night and has injured himself, but thank God there were no broken bones. We got a doctor seeing him, who also wrote down a prescription for some medicine. I myself stayed in the meanwhile with the women of the house. We ate dry fruits similar to cherries, which were, what a miracle, quite dusty, but otherwise very tasty.

After we visited many other cousins, uncles, aunts and heaps of friends, we drove back to Rhumsiki.

At the restaurant of my hotel, there was already the roasted chicken waiting for us, which we had bought at the market in the morning.

After two days in the mountains, we went back to Maroua by bike and minibus. In Maroua, there are quite a few things to see also. There is a huge market, a museum and an artists market. Besides, people are very friendly here and very interested in the whereabouts of any tourist in town (not that there are many there). So, I made friends with Yero, who is working in the pharmacy industry. We had quite a few interesting talks and I hope we stay in contact.

Since a few days, I am now in Nigeria. It is a very interesting country, people are very nice and I did not encounter any problem so far. (Knock on wood). But this Nigeria part is going to be another story.

I hope to get quite a few emails from my English speaking friends soon.

Greetings from Kano.

Andy

 

Date: Fri, 23 Apr 2010

In life, there are things, everybody agrees. It is the same with travel tales. The worst stories ever told, came usually from Nigeria – too many people (every fifth African is a Nigerian!), chaos, scams, internet fraud, Biafra, religious conflicts, Sharia law, bureaucracy, corruption – the list is anything but entire, but everybody, who has traveled through Nigeria can report about it. What does that mean now for me? I would say another exciting country… Nevertheless, better finding out myself, whether these horror stories tell the truth or whether they are legends and myths….

However, the road connecting northern Cameroon and Nigeria is in a very poor condition, just like most streets close to borders in this part of the world. Somewhere in the bush, the minibus leaves the tarred road for a sand track. After half an hour driving in the sand we ended up in a provincial town. Because of the border traffic these little towns often have gigantic markets as goods can be traded on both sides of the border! Passing the border was absolutely not bureaucratic      (I expected a kind of Nigerian paper war) and I was not asked for a gift (so, entering the country is possible without any bribe). It was even very different from what I expected: the officials were happy about my visit, offered me the most comfortable chair (this was with four legs!!!), gave me a cup of tea and asked me politely, on which side in the passport I would want the entry stamp to waste as little space as possible. After that they helped me changing money for a quite good rate… After that the immigration officer gave me a ride on his motorcycle to the motor park to make sure that I do not end up with the wrong car.  It was not really difficult, as there were only two cars, out of them only one to Maiduguri. Nigeria? Yes, I was not on another planet, but had just recently entered Nigeria….

The car was extremely full with 8 people plus driver and their luggage. The landscape was desert like with a few dry bushes and lots of black plastic bags flying through the air. Finally, we reached Maiduguri after four hours driving. Vandi, the receptionist of my hotel of Maroua, was also after my departure from Maroua taking care of me. By phone he had informed his cousin Luka in Maiduguri about my travel plans and had urged me to call Luka, as soon as I reach Maiduguri. Well, I did as promised, and just shortly after, Luka was there and brought me to the guest house of Maiduguri University.

The late afternoon, Luka accompanied me to the black market. Banks in Nigeria are not of great use. Money is better and easier changed on the street or in the market. When changing money, I usually prefer having a local with me out of several reasons. I do not particularly trust moneychangers, above all if one is new in a country and does not know the exact exchange rate. Besides, when changing a bigger amount of money somewhere on the streets is usually not unnoticed by quite a few others. So, these people know by then, that I am running around with quite some cash in my pockets…. So, better being with someone!

The next day, Luka brought me by motorbike to Kano Motor Park. However, it took the minibus four long hours to fill up. We were a nice group travelling together, almost all of us women, so that our trip was very amusing. Wherever we stopped, me fellow travellers bought street food out of big baskets and buckets, which was sold by small girls. They always bought tiny amounts, so that I could try many different snacks! We definitely had a lot of fun!

After eight hours we finally arrived in Kano. According to the guide book, there are more than 3 million people living here. Whether this number is correct is very doubtful, the government estimated last year 8 million habitants, independent organizations are telling numbers like 14 millions. However – the town is gigantic, there is the absolute chaos on the streets, cars, minibuses and motorcycles are racing like wild bumblebees without recognizable traffic rules through streets lined by blow holes, which are often extremely narrowed by little shops on both sides of the road. In addition, beggars linger in between the vehicles, which stop at traffic lights, water and newspaper sellers go from one car to the other and boys with begging bowls walk through the dusty streets…. In Kano, there are also motorcycles rickshaws which are used above all by devote Muslim women, who would not like to go on a normal motorcycle taxi, which is not considered as a proper means of transport for a woman anyway. All this reminded me very much of some cities in India, of course people look different here.

Kano can be very strenuous, so was important for me to have a reasonable lodging, where one can really recover from running around the streets during daytime. With the guest house of Ecwa – Evangelic Church of west Africa, I found one of these places. The room was big and clean with private bathroom, TV, fan and AC – all this for the equivalent of 20 Euros, which is a very well invested money. In Kano, there is quite a lot to see, however, one needs just alone due to the size of the town a lot of time.

Especially interesting is for sure the old part of town. Here, there is a big emir palace, which ordinary people like me can only see from the outside. In theory, one can also arrange a visit of the interior and even a meeting with the emir, but to get the permission needs several weeks. Anyway, there are a lot of other things to see and to do in Kano. The centre of the old town is the big mosque which was built in the sixties in Saudi style, after the emir came back from his pilgrimage from Mecca. Before, there was an old sahel style mud brick mosque at the same place. Close to the mosque, there are the indigo dyeing pits. The holes with the indigo are up to six meters deep. These punches are filled with indigo, water, cinder and acid. Depending on how long the material is dipped there, the color ranges from very bright up to deep-blue. In this hectic town, this was one of my resting places, where I called in over and over again. Simply sitting down on the edge of a not used hole, chatting with the workers about the news of the day, playing with some of the children there, is there anything better?

In Kano, there are two very good museums who are accommodated in traditional houses. It is not only the artifacts, but also the architecture of the buildings in itself, which made the visits of these museums interesting.

Not very far away from Kano, there is the old city of Zaria. By minibus it is possible to reach Zaria from Kano within 1.5 hours – as soon as the vehicle is full. And this can last…. However, we were waiting nearly three hours…. With the minibuses there are different models of filling it up with passengers: most often I had the version 2:4:4:4. This means two people next to the driver, in the rows behind each row four passengers. This is a little bit problematic, as there is only one seat next to the driver, and in the rows behind three seats per row. Children, animals and luggage do not count at all. Well, these minibuses are packed and travelling under conditions like these is not always a pleasure!

Well, the journey to Zaria was especially problematic, as we had a very big African mama aboard, who clearly needed two seats. For sure, she did not want to see that she should pay the double price… The argument took quite some time. At last, she paid for one seat only, but paid extra for her exorbitant luggage…

Zaria is a very old town with an emir’s palace. Here I was allowed so see the court and some of the rooms, but not the inner ones. There, I got to know Hamza, a very nice employee of the palace, who took great care of me the rest of the day. First, he showed me some parts of the palace and organized a meeting with the first secretary of the emir. Then, he fetched his motorbike and took me to the old part of town. In Zaria, there is a compact old town, which is surrounded by a high wall. Some houses are decorated with great patterns in Hausa style. The thick walls provide cool temperature inside in spite of the glowing heat outside.

In the afternoon, Hamza took me on a tour outside of town and drove me all the way to Amadu Bello University. This is one of the biggest and best known universities of Africa and one can study here all subjects. I was glad to see mosque and church next to each other on the campus, apparently Muslims and Christians found here their place to learn and study. Of course, the northern part of Nigeria is mostly Muslim, but the students here come from all over Nigeria and also from completely Africa. Accordingly Muslims, Christians, Animists and others study and live together here. Religious problems I did not feel here, which does not necessarily mean, that there is none. Kano is the stronghold of the sharia law in Nigeria and the Islamic right is also taught in Zaria University. Personally, I have never had a problem with people here, whatever religion they belonged to. Actually, it was right the opposite. The problems in Jos, where Muslims and Christians are fighting since many years, are according to most Nigerians not a question of religion, but of politics. Christians as well as Muslims have confirmed that the religion is abused by politicians of every religious direction for their purposes and thus the fights break out over and over again.

From Kano, I continued my travels to Katsina, which is just 30 kilometers from the border with Niger. I wanted to visit Katsina anyway, because there are quite a few things to see, but something else arrived as well: at the hotel in Kanu, I got to know Mariya and her husband Ishyaku, both absolutely charming people. And they invited me to visit them in Katsina. Actually, I thought of staying one or two days there, but these plans were immediately crisscrossed my hosts by introducing a four days program… However, at even this amount of time was not realistic at the end.

Not that there would be so many tourist highlights here in Katsina, it was more things like visiting friends and family, attending a big wedding, which was of course incredibly exciting for me. The church service at the wedding ceremony lasted nearly three hours, there was a lot of dancing during the service, there were several choirs singing and of course everybody was dressed in fantastic, colorful traditional clothes. One day, we visited Gobarau minaret in the old part of town, which is a spiral minaret. Spiral minarets are very rare, so people assume that the builders maybe derived inspiration in Samara/Iraq or in Cairo/Egypt. Moreover, there is an old school and of course a lot of old houses and crooked lanes in the old part of town.

However, most interesting was being part of family life with my new friends Mariya and Ishyaku. They have four children; the fifth is on the way. Going to the market, eating together, buying a new TV, going to church – well, just normal life. One morning, I went with Mariya to hospital. She had to attend some tests because of her pregnancy. Hardly anyone in Africa goes alone to hospital. When it turned out, that Mariya had her examination exactly the day I was about to leave, I just decided on the spot to add another day in Katsina to accompany her… However, after five days I really had to leave, which was not easy. Here, I want to say thanks a lot to Mariya and her family for their great help, their hospitality and their friendship. I hope very much, that the idea with England will work out and we will soon meet somewhere in Europe. If this is not working out – then I might just have to come back to Nigeria myself – to the country, I was warned more than just once, and to its inhabitants, I had nothing else but good experiences.

However, I also have to mention, that many Nigerians warned me about their own people. Namely they warned me about people from the southern part of the country. Of course everybody told me not to go to Jos Plateau because of the religious and political problems there. Port Harcourt is problematic because of kidnapping of foreigners. Without exception all north Nigerians told me to skip Lagos, because there is the misery of an estimated 18 million people, the chaos, the survival of the fittest and the corruption rule all means of life.

Because at that time I thought I would fly home from Cotonou, Benin, I had a minor problem, as the only border in between Nigeria and Benin, which is served by public transport, is via Lagos. For several months, if not longer, it did not seem advisable to visit Niger. In 2007, the second rebellion started, which led to the fact, that tourists were advised not to visit Agadez and the areas north from there, which means, that all touristy highlights were out of reach. The non-appearance of tourists had far-reaching consequences, as the main source of income just broke away. Many locals lost their work, as drivers, guides, hotel employees, restaurant operators, commercial owners, etc. For sure, this misery affects not single people, but whole large families.

The rebellion is now officially finished, most weapons are delivered. Tour operators stopped all travels in the area. Those, who had the chance to leave Agadez, did so. The remaining are mostly without a job and without money, often also without a future. A dangerous mixture for everybody, who are at the wrong place at the wrong time. Even more problematic and dangerous are the bandits who appeared at the same time with the rebellion. They are still a problem and terrorize country and people not only in the desert and in the Air Mountains, but also around Agadez. They attack cars, trucks and busses, steal, what they can grab and seldom travellers die during an attack by accident. So, it is definitely not an easy going area at the moment and not a place to hang around by yourself. On the other side, on my last big Africa trip 2002/2003, Agadez was my favorite city. So, my aim was from the beginning to reach also this place on my trip. So, I had to find out, how the situation in Niger is like now, and above all, whether it is possible and advisable to travel to Agadez at the moment.

First, I paid the Consulate of Niger in Kano a visit and asked carefully, whether they issue visas at the moment, and whether trips to Agadez are possible and permitted. The first secretary took my fears absolutely serious, called several authorities by phone and informed me, finally, beaming with delight that the streets to Agadez are sure, however, I cannot go further north or in the Sahara desert. I verified all this with Eva, a friend from Austria, who lives since many years in Agadez. With her I stayed on my last big Africa trip three weeks. She said basically the same like the ambassador. I promised her not to go out by myself, but only accompanied by her or a friend and so, I was very much welcome to come and stay. After that, I put again all pros and cons, then I was sure that I wanted to go. Therefore, there was also the solution how to skip Lagos – in travelling via Niger and from there to Benin!

Though the border crossing between Nigeria and Niger was time-consuming (for only 30 km to Maradi with crossing of the border we needed 2.5 hours and I had to fill six papers at five different places, voila, here it was, the Nigerian bureaucracy), but it was not really difficult. In Maradi I waited just a bit more than an hour for the bus from Niamey, which took me to Zinder. Zinder I already knew from my last Africa trip, when I spent some days here. Of course, a town changes in this time, but the most inexpensive hostel was still Hotel Malem Kalkadanu, close to the bus station. I did not really catch a lot of sleep there, as the room cooled down on 33.9 degrees centigrade by 2 am in the morning, before it was slightly hotter… All that reminded me of a super hot hairdryer… Moreover, the other rooms were booked by students, who without an exception wanted to get to know this while person, who stayed in the same cheap place. Due to the heat, just the thought of entering the room was pure horror, so we all stayed till early morning on the terrace talking and discussing…

At 6 am, the bus to Agadez started. Most African bus stations resemble big, apparently disorganized markets. What looks like the absolute chaos, however, absolutely has a system. In the morning, there is mobile tea shop and ladies with sandwiches. Later, fruit and omelets sellers arrive, boys who sell cooled filtered water from plastic bags and young women who balance cooked eggs in a bucket on the head. Besides, a lot of others have cooled Coke and Fanta or can sell you from the mobile chemist's shop an aspirin or get you a scratch card next door for loading credit on the mobile. For those with more time, there are people who cut finger and toe nails or even a haircut is possible. Already when boarding the bus, it was clearly visible, that this bus was going into Tuareg area.

In Zinder, there are mostly people from the Hausa and Fulbe tribes living, north from there is Tuareg country. It is easy to recognize them with their up to five-meter-long turban, often only the eyes are visible. Absolutely sensibly in this climate with all the sand and dust in the air, not to speak of sun protection. Besides that, Tuareg men usually wear long, wide trousers and a wide shirt up to the knees, all that traditionally in indigo-blue. (The indigo often looses color, so the Tuareg are often called also blue men). The outfit is often rounded by a skillfully worked leather bag, which is worn around the neck to stow money, papers, etc. I was very happy to be on the way to Agadez. In 2002/2003 I spent a really great time here, in the Tenere desert and in the Air Mountains and made friends with quite a few locals. Of course, I hoped to meet many of the old friends. I did not even think about to bump already into one of them in the bus towards Agadez! The turban, which covers also large parts of the face, does not really make it easy to recognize somebody.

Still, at 5 am, it was still completely dark, I was about to enter the bus, when one of the fellow-passengers seemed to me astonishing familiar. Obviously, it was the same to him, as he saved a seat next to him for me. Well, soon it turned out, that 8 years back, he was the one, who took me by jeep into the Air Mountains to meet a group of Austrian tourists. These five Austrians allowed me to travel with them for the rest of their desert trip, which was the last 10 days. It was a great experience. Now, it was just great to meet Ahmed again after all this time. One can imagine that these seven hours to Agadez were passing by in a very short time. Once again I found out that the world is in reality a village! In the early afternoon, we arrived in Agadez, my favorite place of my last Africa trip. Assanaga, the driver of Eva and friend of the family, already waited for me at the bus station and took me by motorbike to Eva. What I found in Agadez and the last part of my journey I will write in the next and possibly last "News of Africa". Greetings from Agadez and, as usual, I am always very happy about emails.

Yours Andy

 

Date: Wed, 5 May 2010 

Well, I finally made it to Agadez. Quite a few things changed since my last visit 2002/2003. With the rebellion, the bandits and without any tourists, many locals, who had the possibility, left Agadez. Those, who stayed behind, are often the ones without money, without job or education and without possibility to change all this. Lots of families ended up in poverty, as there was no possibility to earn money as there is simply no work.

Desperation can lead to different reactions than normal and it can happen easily that someone ends up at the wrong time at the wrong place. So, I had to promise my friend Eva not to go out by myself, when in Agadez.

Eva’s house had always been a very open house and it still is. It was seldom a problem to find somebody to go with me to get things done in town or to get invitations to do something together with friends. For sure, it was different, I was used now to do whatever I wanted and it was a strange idea to need other people for going out. But I knew it was necessary and therefore okay like this.

On the other side I enjoyed the rest, Eva’s library with books in German language, good food and the visits of friends quite a lot.

From the old friends of my visit 2002/2003, there were not many left in Agadez. Some took part in the rebellion and still have to hide themselves, others live in the Air Mountains, as there is currently no work in Agadez anyway, and others live in Niamey or even in Europe.

But, as mentioned before, Eva’s house is still an open house and one gets to know all kinds of interesting characters.

There is Assanaga, the driver and friend of the family, with whom I was driving in and around Agadez per motorbike. Abdou, who is good in solving problems with all kinds of electrics, and Bebe, a Marabout with house construction skills. All three of them are masters of the guitar and quite some evenings, we spent in the courtyard drinking touareg tea, playing the guitar and singing. Just great!

At the moment, Eva is building a cultural centre in Agadez together with her son Christoph. We spent a lot of time there, the walls and furniture were painted and the bar was installed.

When I arrived in Agadez last time, I had the same problem like now – I was in desperate need of a haircut. It was five months ago, I went to the hairdresser in Windhoek…. In 2003, I made the horrible mistake to visit a local hairdresser. Three ladies were arguing about the fact, who would be the one to cut my hair. A somewhat Solomon judgement said, they all will do my hair. Well, the result was simply terrible, the sides of different lengths, the front too short, from the back a real big hole within the hair… It was so bad, that I even refused to pay for this so called work and Eva had to do quite some damage limitation at home. Well, from damage one becomes clever, as everybody knows.

This time, I immediately asked Eva to do the hair cut and the result was a lot better.

Of course, there is still Yachya, the nice neighbor just a street away from Eva’s house, who produces so wonderful silver jewelry. And it is still the same: of course, at Yachyas place, you find always something to take back home.

Yachya invited me to the wedding of one of his daughters. For sure, things like that are always exciting. At a total of two days with a lot of music, drums and dances, this was a very typical touareg wedding. People came and went as they wanted and because it was, as said, just around the corner from Eva’s house, I could also go by myself. For sure, all that was a very photogenic event, as everybody came beautifully dressed.

Another frequent guest in Eva’s house is Malam, a marabout. These marabouts fulfill an important job in Africa. They are seers, healers, therapists and give religious and spiritual advice. They protect against bad magic and can release also from such. I myself felt this on my own body, as I suffered since october last year from bad pains in the right foot, which did not want to stop. Now, after Mallams treatment, it became a lot better and will soon hopefully disappear completely.

Well, the success agrees with him. When Malam advised me urgently against travelling on tuesday, as I would not reach my destination in good health and, moreover, should think over Benin completely, it was not difficult for me to decide to look for a flight from Niamey/Niger instead of one from Cotonou/Benin. Finally, the flight from Niamey was just a few Euros more and the last bus kilometers decreased with that decision from more than 2000 kilometers to less than 1000.

Unfortunately, Mallam could not protect us against all bad stuff. One night, one or more men climbed the high wall of Eva’s house, sneaked around the dog Shakira, who usually does not led anyone unknown in the house, and stole quite some cash out of our rooms. Camera, laptops, radios and credit cards were still there, they were only interested in cash. This night, as all the others, we all have slept outside, as it is by far too hot inside the rooms. Nevertheless, no one of us has heard or seen the thief, although he or they must have sneaked in just a couple of meters away…

A very uncomfortable feeling, not to mention the stupid situation to be completely without cash….

The police came, but as often in Africa, they did not really give the impression to be pleased about this new job….

Besides Malam, we asked some more marabouts for help in search for the thieves. Up to now, unfortunately, without any success.

One of these marabouts advised me to get a Gris Gris, a talisman, which should protect me from bad things. Good idea, with all these things, which happened in the last few months, it would not hurt to have the protection of a strong Gris Gris…

After more than two weeks with Eva in Agadez, I started the last part of my trip in Niger: the 1000 kilometers bus ride to Niamey. In 2002, the road between Niamey and Agadez was excellent, but, unfortunately, this has changed. Quite some parts are completely gone, other parts are covered with sand. The trip took 14 hours, a little longer than normal. This was due to the fact, that we had to face a bad sand storm on the way, then it started even to rain. All this reduced the view considerably, so we arrived later than planned in Niamey, the capital of Niger.

Ibrahim, a taxi driver and friend of Evas son Christoph, was waiting for me at the bus station and took me back home to his house. There, I got a tasty dinner and an urgently necessary bucket shower. As I had to wait some hours for my flight and Ibrahim had to drive taxi, I greatly appreciated his offer for his part of the bed. So, I shared a gigantic mattress with Ibrahims wife and their three children, until he came back at 1.00 o'clock at night and drove me to the airport.

The flight with Royal Air Maroq to Casablanca was on time, was mercifully completely unspectacular and six hours later I arrived in Morocco. This is already the fourth journey to Morocco, indeed, I have never been in the region Tangier / Riff Mountains. I wanted to combine some sight seeing in the area with the visit of an old friend of this trip – Mohsine, whom I got to know in Chameleon Backpackers in Windhoek.

In Casablanca, it was very easy to move further on – there is a sprinter train from the airport to the big railway station in town. I was very lucky, as there was a train to Tangier just 15 minutes later. Just enough time to get a new simcard, to top it up with some credit and to run to the train!

After six hours, I arrived in Tangier, the journey passed very fast, because I was traveling with two very nice young ladies from England.

Mohsine fetched me at the railway station and took me to a small hotel near the old part of town.

Online, there are not too many positive comments about Tangier. I myself liked it a lot, there is quite a lot to see and to do, there is the medina (old town), which has very winding small streets with white, yellow and red houses, small shops, restaurants and hotels. There is a Kasbah (castle) with a good museum, a few old town gates and quite some nice lookouts at the sea. On a clear day, and I had quite many of them, it is easy to spot Spain on the other side!

On one day we drove a little bit out of town. There are some parts of town, where there are lots of gigantic villas, which mostly belong to foreigners, above all Saudis. There are also many view points as well as the Hercules Cave, which faces the sea. The peephole reminds strongly of the map of Africa, however, it is all natural, not helped by man…

From Tangier, it is not far to Chefchaouen. I have been four times to Morocco but I never made it up there, although I always wanted to.

From Tangier, it takes three hours by bus. Though it is only 110 kilometers, but it is deep in the mountains.

Chefchaouen is a relatively small city in the Riff Mountains. They have a wonderful medina there with many crooked lanes, lots of blue houses, many shops, hotels and restaurants. Of course it is very touristy, but this absolutely has its reason – it is simply beautiful here, very quiet and the people are very relaxed. The latter might have partly its origin in the local habit of smoking Kif (hashish)….

Besides the old town, there are also the cascades, waterfalls. Here, local women come for doing their laundry. At the cascades, the way begins to the mosque which is on top of a hill nearby. From there, one has an excellent view of the old town.

After two days in Chefchaouen, I returned to Tangier to spend one more night and a day there. I had no bigger plans for this first of May, just spending some time at the beach and do maybe some last minute shopping. Actually, I wanted to take the night train to Casablanca, which leaves at 9 pm at Tangier and arrives at 04.30 am at Casa Voyageur in Casablanca. The sprinter train to the airport is just 20 minutes from there. So, I thought, that all this fits very well with my plane at 08.30 am to Frankfurt. Well, also on my last day in Africa, things went different.

On Tangier beach, I got to know a really nice family. They warned me from taking the night train out of three reasons: 1. there are lots of thieves especially on this train. 2. Exactly that night they change the time for summertime, which means that arrival time is one hour later. 3. Night trains in Morocco are very often one or more hours late… 

Well, within seconds the whole plan seemed not that good anymore!

But there was a possibility – there was also a train at 5 pm! Moroccans love to help tourists, so, the family packed their things, took their children and me in their big car, drove me to my hotel, got the luggage there and within 15 minutes we were on the way to the train station.

As I had very nice fellow-passengers in the train, these six hours to Casablanca passed really fast. After travelling four months in francophone countries, my French has improved, so talking with fellow passengers was no problem anymore, as long as they were not talking too fast.

At 11 pm, I arrived at Casa Voyageur, the big train station in Casablanca. My fellow-passengers insisted on accompanying me to an inexpensive hotel close to the railway station. They claimed, that railway station areas are not exactly known as the safest places on earth at night time, which is probably very true, so I was very happy not to be by myself.

Well, on Sunday, 02.05.10, my Africa trip ended completely unspectacular  with a short train journey to Casablanca airport and 3.5 hours later I arrived in Frankfurt.

I knew, it would be cold in Germany, but I failed to imagine how cold 13 degrees centigrade can feel – simply very cold!

After 333 days (what a number!), my journey through Africa is finished. I have been to 16 countries. I brought home an estimated number of 15 000 photos, 17 nice colored simcards, I have many new friends, new impressions and new ideas. I made experiences, no one ever can take away and which I will hopefully be able to use in Germany as well. Maybe, it is going to be a little bit difficult to get used to cold, old Germany, but my husband Werner and my friends, Germans, Americans and last but not least my new African friends will help me to find back into life here. Monica, my friend from Windhoek, has summarized all this a few days ago quite well in a SMS: she thinks, that I experienced a lot last year in her continent, a lot of good things, but I had to face also quite a few bad things as well. Now it is time to go home. I am and I will remain her European African sister, I became part of Africa and its people and feel in Germany as in Africa at home, as I had the chance to take my time in Africa, to get to know the people, their culture and their traditions. I will miss my new friends, just as I am glad to see my old friends now again. However, I also know that she is right with one thing: we will soon meet again, that’s for sure….

When I write these last sentences, I am the first day back home. Still, everything is quite new, sometimes even unusual, but I am used now to face new things and make the best out of it. Why should I change this attitude here now?

Now, this is (at least for the moment) the last email "News of Africa".

Greetings from cold old Germany

Yours Andy