Drink on the eastern side of the African continent can appear limited to locally-brewed international soft drink brands. Coca-cola for instance, is one of the only international bodies to seemingly recognise the existence of Somaliland, the breakaway republic within Somalia, with a plant in the capital Hargeisa. That is, until… Continue reading
Antoine de Saint-Exupery landed on the sands of Cape Juby in 1926, having leapfrogged his biplane along the North-west African coast from Toulouse in the south of France. I reached the same sands, a rubbish-strewn beach of occasional low dunes, 85 years later. Cape Juby had become Tarfaya, and I… Continue reading
Spending the weekend in the Royal Geographical Society’s Ondaatje Theatre at their London headquarters for the annual ‘Explore’ weekend (see last blog) got me to thinking of those adventurers who predated me. The theatre’s wood-panelled walls are marked out in gilding with the names of the world’s most important explorers…. Continue reading
I was there. Honest. Vilankulo, Mozambique. I may be back in Britain but Encircle Africa activity has been keeping me busy all the same. You can now check out the first cluster of excellent photographs from the expedition on flickr at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ian_packham and launch a slideshow at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ian_packham/show/ As time… Continue reading
I’m pleased to say that the animated map of the planned Encircle Africa route, that has sat quietly and patiently on the main page of the blog, has now been updated to represent a slightly simplified version of my actual route over the 13 months I was away. You can… Continue reading
My legs aren’t too interested in Melilla’s hilliness. I take a direct route to what I had considered the fort, in fact Old Melilla, a series of 4 fortified precincts providing layer after layer of defence. Its not so much an old town as a giant castle rising and falling… Continue reading
With only 4 km between Tabarka and Algeria, I have to cross over to Europe. Algeria is one of those places that makes getting a visa very very hard. So I board the Carthage for Marseille, France. I nap until its more or less time for sunset at 6.15 that… Continue reading
I´m the last to board a minibus to Tunis so we leave straight away, past the wind turbines catching the coastal winds outside of El-Haouaria. We climb olive-speckled hills to Soliman, and then travel another 30 km or so to Tunis. Tunis quickly felt like a friend´s unwelcoming elder brother;… Continue reading
It was very easy to find transport to Sfax and then to Mahdia. We’re never next to the sea, there is always a thin strip of land home to knarled old olive trees. Mahdia medina is thriving, with colourful tourist nicknacks contrasting the whitewashed walls. I walk to fort Borj… Continue reading
I wake intermittently early morning from odd dreams, from fear I won’t be able to get to Sabratha for lack of knowledge and language. Its another accidental taxi hiring, given I don’t know the words for “bus” or “depot” or anything similar. The driver first good-naturedly mocked my copied down… Continue reading
