Earlier in the week I was very pleased to participate in the latest Night of Adventure, an evening of adventure talks raising funds for the charity Hope and Homes for Children. Pointing towards the Indian Ocean at the Night of Adventure See the other photos on the Night of… Continue reading
The 13 months of Encircle Africa circumnavigation really only had one aim inherent in the idea of circumnavigation: to get back home. Almost four months after my return, I have managed to complete a first draft of what will hopefully become published literature. I am also still asked what it… Continue reading
Encircle Africa was the first solo and unsupported overland circumnavigation of continental Africa by public transport. It came as somewhat of a surprise to me that I would be attempting to achieve something never completed before in such as manner. Africa’s a big place; the second largest continent. So I… Continue reading
All across Africa I was aware others had been there before me. This became increasingly apparent as I reached southern Africa – Angola, Namibia and South Africa. Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias reached Tombua, in the far south of modern day Angola in 1487. He had made his way along the… 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
