Kaokoland has been described as one of the last true wilderness areas of Africa. It is a remote and uninhabited region, with the exception of a few Himba villages. We regretted missing this part of Namibia in 2019 and were determined to visit this time. If you plan to travel to Namibia’s “Wild West” make sure you have enough water, […]
Scattered across the remote North Western corner of Namibia lie (or stand or sit) some 37 stone men (possibly more, possibly less – no-one really knows). These half-size statues, comprising stone and steel, started appearing a few years ago amidst great secrecy. The artist prefers to remain anonymous and rumour has it that he/she works on an installation during the […]
We really wanted to see this bird; it looks so ancient – right out of Jurassic Park. It lives in the swamps of Eastern Africa and is classified as vulnerable due to habitat destruction. We had met a couple of guys who recounted how they had spent 13 hours in a dugout canoe in Zambia’s Bangwuelu swamp in search of […]
On reflection, the Western route from Zambia in the rainy season, might not have been the best choice, but once in Katavi National Park, we were committed to the plan! The road through the Park was easy enough and the tarmac around Mpanda as good as any in Europe. It’s after Mpanda that things start to go downhill! We met […]
When we first considered Africa, we toyed with the idea of driving from Morocco down the West Coast. I looked at the map and the highlights of each country, searching for something that really stood out. I hesitated at Gabon (possibility of seeing gorillas), but there was no way I could bypass Angola. My research showed a country with BIG […]
We couldn’t blog about Namibia without mentioning the wildlife! As we drove out of the airport at Windhoek, we saw giraffe (albeit behind a fence) and we knew we were in for some special animal encounters in the country. Whereas the centre and south of Namibia has many large fenced private farms, the north has more “conservancies”. In these conservancies, […]
Francine found a novel way to get from the UK to Namibia, but it had good and bad features. The good – a business class flight that cost less than an economy ticket (on the same flight!). The bad – it involved a slight detour via Istanbul and catching the Frankfurt/Windhoek flight the following day. So far so good – […]
It’s not Marrakech! When we arrived in Morocco, we had a rough idea that we would travel a conventional route – down the coast, passing through Casablanca, Essaouira, Agadir, Marrakech, etc, and back up on the other side of the Atlas mountain ranges, which split Morocco in half. But, as we wanted to test Bertha in the desert and we […]
We emerged from a minor road skirting the Anti Atlas mountains at the town of Agouim, with two choices of how to get to Skoura. We could turn right (road to Ouarzazate and Skoura – 110km) or turn left (road to Touama, crossing the High Atlas range, then to Demnate and back across the mountains to Skoura – 400km). We […]
The town is peaceful and laid-back; The people are friendly and welcoming; The bread is warm and fresh from the oven; It has a “Land’s End” feel to it (surrounded on three sides by Algeria); There are more palm trees than cars; The Palmeries are cool, green and lush; The Ksars are maze-like and built in the traditional way; The […]