The road from Harar to Jijiga passes through the Valley of Marvels. The hills are made up of vertical shafts of rock that peak through the green of low shrubs like megalithic stones of Stonehenge or Malta. They rest on and against one another in different states of freedom, some… Continue reading
This isn’t the place to go into the dull complexities of modern visa application processes. Its enough to say things were simpler when consular permission from 5 European powers would have seen me through the entire continent. Awaiting Egyptian permission from the Addis embassy, I pitch east in search of… Continue reading
The past week has been my final designated ‘rest week’. I’ve been doing 2 things: wandering around the Ethiopian hinterland trying to find something interesting (not necessarily an easy task in such a vast country), and also fighting off the world’s worst cold. I suspect I caught the virus on… Continue reading
Without access to visas at either the embassy in Nairobi or the border town of Moyale it means Ethiopia is a closed country for North-bound overland travellers. Moyale is nowhere near as grim as I had been led to believe. Its quite picturesque surrounded by green and hills. All the… Continue reading
Some days Africa grinds you down. And some days Africa rips your heart out. Having been searched thoroughly I wait over an hour in the Ethiopian embassy Consular Section to be told I could not be given a visa because I didn’t have a re-entry pass for Kenya. ‘I’m not… Continue reading
The Tana Guesthouse, Malindi, turns out to be a 2 minute walk from where coaches leave for Lamu. We pass scrub and small settlements. It takes 5 hours to reach the end of the mainland at Mokowe. Its been a bone shaking journey, mostly over compacted dirt road. The easiest… Continue reading
A couple of hours along boring scenery and new road brings the Tanga express minibus to Horohoro, the Tanzanian side of the border. We pass flat expanses of farmland, and the first herds of cattle I remember seeing. Countries rarely noticeably change character on the border with their neighbours. The… Continue reading
Fun in the sun? Its the wet season The imam on the dalla-dalla from the port on Pemba island tells me its “18 miles from Mkaoni to Chake. The same again to Wete”. It takes me nearly 2 hours to make it those 18 miles to Chake. We pass a… Continue reading
I wait for the rain to stop. No one is moving about Stone Town’s streets below. It hadn’t quite finished drizzling, but I couldn’t take the sitting indoors any longer, and depart. The Pemba ferry for the next day is already fully booked, so I have to buy a ticket… Continue reading
The blue smoke that had been billowing from the 60 seater coach’s exhaust stopped at Ikiwiri (literally meaning “the white man simply died of despair”). After 2 hours we are told that if the problem (that remains unspecified) can’t be fixed soon alternative transport will be provided. I miss the… Continue reading
