Europe

It has been a whirlwind of travel since we landed in Frankfurt. We arrived early in the morning, rented a car and hit the road. We have visited roman ruins in Germany, amazing castles in Luxembourg all the while enjoying amazing scenery and sunsets over the North Sea. It stays much lighter at night than in Africa. In Belgium a visit to Ypres, Flanders Field, to see the museum, soldier grave yards and many other sights. Today in France we visited Vimy and the Canadian War Memorial. That was very emotional as was our visit to the Somme battlefields and cemeteries. This very brief but it lets you know where we are. Tomorrow we head to Mont St. Michel.

Travelling the Coast

In Cape Town we rented a car to take the long drive to Johannesburg. The first day we went to The Cape of Good Hope. The weather was fantastic and the views were spectacular. Baboons also inhabit the area and wander along the roads. As we were leaving a fog rolled over the Cape giving it a very Hitchcock mood. Farther along the coast we also stopped at h'Aghalus which is the farthest south you can get on the African continent. The drive was extremely scenic with the waves of the Indian Ocean crashing on the shore. We stayed one night in a beautiful old home build in 1880. Looked like an old plantation house. What an atmosphere! On the way to Coffee Bay we got a real taste of how many Africans live in their very modest homes with no electricity etc. Many were painted in bright blues, yellows and pinks. In Coffee Bay itself the waves were absolutely amazing crashing onto the shore and the charming little cabin we stayed in over looked the ocean and we had African drums beating in the background. Amazing! Having our own car was great as we could stop in any of the places which caught our attention like Grahamstown the homes of Cecil Rhodes University. A beautiful place! Last night we stopped at a charming little town of Clarens. To our amazement at the place we stayed they were having a three day workshop for the top blues guitar players in South African. What a treat! It was like having a free concert watching these amazing players jam. Now we are in Johannesburg and fly to Frankfurt on May 27. We will be back in Canada on May 11. The whole trip has been a super experience and we still have more to come.

Cape Town

We are now in Cape Town, South Africa. It is a very modern and vibrant city. There are so many interesting buildings and things to do. One major hi-light for us was to take a tour of Robben Island. That is where Nelson Mandela and many political prisoners were held during the apartheid era. He was there for 18 years! The island has been a place for centuries where convicts, political prisoners and lepers were incarcerated. A former political prisoner took us on a tour of the jail. We also saw lots of seals and Cape penguins on the island. Today we took the cable car up to Table Mountain. The views from there are nothing short of spectacular. We hiked over a great deal of the top of the mountain. Tomorrow we are renting a car and heading down to The Cape of Good Hope, then following the coast to end up in Johannesburg. We fly out on April 27 and will rent a car in Frankfurt and travel around Europe before flying to Toronto on May 11.

Namibia

Driving into Namibia by bus we saw an elephant by the side of the road then a lot more off the road in the trees. Quite exciting. When we arrived in Windhoek we were surprised by how modern the city was. After getting settled in we began to walk downtown and were warned to be careful. Two women had been robbed at our backpackers. As we walked down a very busy main street I felt something tugging at my backpack. Looking in a store window I could see a guy trying to get into my backpack. I had a few choice words for him. We rented a car and camping equipment and set off for Etosha National Park to view the animals. It is a very German country. When we stopped for gas in Outjo we saw a German bakery and was the food ever good. We stopped there two more times. At the park we saw giraffes and zebras in a big herd crossing the road. The park is very upscale and expensive but in we went. The park is very big with a mixture of impressive scenery. There were lots of Sprinbok and such. It was exciting when Donna spotted a large female lion sitting on the road as we drove to a lookout. Where we stayed there was a watering hole but we had no luck seeing animals. Next morning we drove around and spotted more animals that we hadn't seen the day before. After the park we visited a petrified forest. Today we drove to Swakopmund which is right on the Atlantic coast. What a surprise! It is just like a German town with palm trees. Big breakers were crashing onto the shore. The town is very charming and we walked around enjoying the sights, buildings and museum. The safest town that we have been to so far. Tomorrow we are heading back to Windhoek and will try to find transportation to Capetown, South Africa.

Victoria Falls

We are in the heart of Africa. The town of Livingstone, Zambia, is very near Victoria Falls. We went there today with three friends we met on the road. The falls did not disappoint. They were spectacular. The water level of the Zambezi is quite high which made the view amazing. One is able to get very close to things as there are no guard rails like there are in Canada. We took many, many pictures. Putting on our ponchos we walked along a path and crossed a foot bridge where the water was running several inches deep due to the mist from the falls. It was like a hard rain. At the end of the trail we could see Zimbabwe but Robert Mugabe wasn't waving back at us. Near the entrance there were some baboons. One got quite agressive and was trying to grab women's purses. I speculated that he'd learned that women carried things to eat in them. A park employee chased him away. This was a fantastic day. Tomorrow we are scheduled to do a walking safari and are supposed to get up close to the animals. Should be exciting. Sunday we are boarding a bus for Namibia. The adventure continues.

Zambia

Today we are in Lusaka, the capital of Zambia. It's quite a modern city but outside the city it is quite remote with mostly traditional mud hut villages. To up-date what's been happening, we abandoned our boat trip up Lake Malawi. It turned out that it was very expensive and they would only accept American dollars. So, we decided to stay in Monkey Bay for an extra day. It's a beautiful spot overlooking the lake. Following that we went by matola (truck/taxi) to Cape Maclear and stayed at another very beautiful spot looking out across the lake with islands. There were some very colourful sunsets. We did some exploring about the town. From Cape Maclear were made our way by bus to Lilongwe. Where we were staying we ran into a group of about sixty cyclists doing a 12,000 km ride from Cairo to Cape Town. A number of Canadians were among them and they had lots of tales to tell. That would be quite an experience. It looked very well organized. Up early we again were on the road for a very long bus ride. The scenery was very rural with mostly mud huts. We saw two baboons scamper across the road in front of the bus. Now we are resting a bit at Chachacha's and will soon be heading for Victoria Falls, something we've both been looking forward to. We'd like to up-date more with more detail but we can't always get access to the Internet and it is often very slow when we do. We hope spring weather has arrived at last.

Tofo To Malawi

After an eight hour bus ride we arrived at Fatima's Nest in Tofo and our first real glimpse of the Indian Ocean with its long, sandy beaches and big rolling waves. We spent two days swimming and exploring the area and sleeping in a traditional thatched hut. From here we had to take a bus into Inhabane, transfer to a boat across the bay to Mexixe. We had to wait a couple of hours for the bus to fill up to take us on to Vilankolos, another beautiful spot on the Indian Ocean. From the bus most of the homes along the way were made with walls of sticks or reeds or rocks held between sticks then plastered with mud. The roofs were thatched with large overhangs to keep the rain off the walls. Vilankolos is known for its archaepeligo and shallow warm water. There is not much choice of food in town as Mozambique is quite a poor country, but the scenery is lush and green and we found the people to be very friendly and helpful. There didn't seem to be any Internet in town and we met a lawyer who let us use his office computer to check our e-mails. Donna mentioned that he spoke English quite well and he told us that he'd fasted for a month in the bush and when he arrived home he went to get something to eat, he was struck down and when he woke he began to pray and it was in English. Wish I could learn a language that fast! We began to travel with three other Canadians and we had a marathon bus ride. We left at 4:30 am and with two mini-buses ended up in Chimoio late that afternoon. We spent the night there, rose the next morning at 4:00 am to catch the bus to Tete over rough roads and we thought that we would have to spend the night there, but we managed to catch a bus which cross over the Zambezi River and to the border of Malawi and luckily from there another mini-bus that took us to a backpackers hostel in Blantyre. The countryside into Malawi has very large hills and is quite lush. We noticed immediately that there is more wealth here. Tomorrow we catch a bus to Monkey Bay where we will take a boat, named the Ilala, up Lake Malawi, a three day trip. What an adventure!

Mozambique

We caught a mini bus from Nelspruit and rode with the locals to Mozambique. It was a very interesting ride. The people on the bus were so helpful. They looked after us. One fellow took to the proper places, we got stamped out of South Africa, walked across the border, and then had to get our visas. One fellow who has sat with me waited with us. I thought the people on our mini bus would be impatient; however, they laughed about it all. We also had an unexpected stop when there was some great excitement as someone got on our mini bus and the others from another mini bus got very angry as the bus doesn't go unless it is full which meant that they would have to wait. It got a little tense. They blocked us in with another van, put blocks under our tires to prevent us from leaving. Then our driver and another passenger paid the other fare and we were off. The driver also took us right to our lodgings. Everyone was so helpful. We have also adopted a young lady from Austrailia who has been tagging along with us. Today we all walked about Maputo, the city where we are staying to look at the sites. Trying to get money from ATM's is an interesting experience. Tomorrow we are up early and off to Tofo right on the Indian Ocean. It's nice and hot here and we look forward to a swim in the ocean.

Johannesburg, South Africa

We have arrived safely in Johannesburg after a long trip. First there was a train ride from Marrakech to Casblanca, then we flew to Paris, changed planes and then continued to Johannesburg. That was just about the only way we could do it and it was also the cheapest way. Once we landed we got picked up at the airport by a van from Diamond Diggers, a hostel. It's a very nice place and we've met and talked with lots of people. Because all out planning had been French West Africa, we've had to get our heads around about what we are going to do here. Our first plan is to travel by bus tomorrow to Nelspruit where we hope to look around, go to Kruger Game Park, the largest in South Africa, and get our visas for Mozambique.

Change of Plans

We went to Agadir and were hours from hopping on a bus heading to Mauritania. Checking the travel warnings we discovered that both Mauritania and Mali had been up-graded to severe travel warnings. Even soldiers are being kidnapped. Since we had planned to travel overland to the other countries in that region, it became apparent that it was too dangerous to do that part of our journey. Flights within Africa are almost non-existant, so we are headed to South Africa via Paris, just a small detour. We will arrive in Johannesburg on March 12th.

Essouira

Essouria was the next stop on our travels in Morocco. After a three hour bus ride we headed into the medina to get our lodgings. We found a nice place, the Hotel Samara, where there was a wonderful view from the roof top patio overlooking the Atlantic Ocean with the surf pounding on the rocks below. In front of us was the old wall surrounding the city, replete with canons pointing to the ocean. This was the setting for for the opening of the film Othello, one of the stars being Orsen Wells who even has park named after him in town. Essouria is much more laid back than Marrakech, quite quiet and we did a lot of exploring. It is supposed to be famous for it's fish but the area near the wharf for eating was somewhat disappointing. Perhaps the cold wind discouraged people from dining there. Before bed we watched the waves crashing on the rocks with an almost full moon illuminating the town and water. After Essouria we begin the long and challenging trek to Mauritania.

The Sahara Desert

We took a four day trip with a French couple and a Moroccan driver. We crossed the snow capped peaks of the High Atlas Mountains to Ait Ben Haddou which is a famed adobe castle. A shallow river separates the town from the castle and berbers on horseback ferried people across the river. Next on to Ouzazarte situated on a wide oasis. It is a modern city and the Hollywood of Morocco with its famous cinema studios. We crossed the Anti Antlas Mountains which are made of black rock cut by deep canyons. We passed through date and fig orchards and mud walled Berber villages until we reached Zagora where we mounted camels and rode into the desert. The sun set as we rode and we had only a small sliver of crescent moon to light the way. Our young guide leading the camels was very self-assured and we were confident he would not get lost. After almost two hours we reached the Berber camp and were treated to a lovely soup and chicken and vegetable tanjine. Around the campfire we were entertained with traditional instruments and singing.

The next day we arrived at the Merzouga Erg which are huge shifting dunes and where they filmed Lawrence of Arabia and many other desert films. We rode into the desert on camels again as the sun was setting. All the young bloods began to race up a huge sand dune. Donna followed suit and showed how fit she is. She made it to the top and then came down not out of breath while some of the young guys were completely exhausted. From the top she just leaned back while descending. It was so high it was just like flying on the way down. It was cold with the wind blowing sand everywhere almost instantly covering up everything behind you.

The next day we continued on to the Toudra Gorge, through the Dades Valley and the Route of a Thousand Kasbahs. Kasbahs are the ancient mud walled villages that are now being abandoned in favour of modern housing. A few families still live in them and nomads use them part of the year.

Still no pictures but if you Google these places you will get an idea what they look like.

Marrakech

Our trip by train was relaxing. Marrakech has a very modern and clean railway station. We had a positive feeling coming into the city as opposed to Casablanca. We caught a local bus to the Djemaa El-Fina which is a huge atmospheric space in the heart of the medina and the backdrop for one the worlds greatest and most curious nightly spectacles. It is a page out of medieval pageantry. There were snake charmers, acrobates, musicians, male dancers (maybe), food and juice stalls and stalls where you could buy just about anything your heart desired. We stumbled upon a really funky hotel completely covered with brightly coloured ceramic tiles. Some walls had full tiles but others were a collage of fragments of tiles. There were honey-combed stuccoed ceilings and doorways. The place looks like a modern art museum piece. We were told that this was a magical place and it is.

We may be out of contact for a few days as we are off on a trip into the desert. Very exciting!

Casablanca

Casablanca is not quite what was expected. Not as romantic or exotic as I had hoped. This a large cosmopolitan but run down city. It still has some old buildings which had to be amazing in their day but have been let go. I have seen so many old motocycles. Some could date back to WWII.

Earlier today we had a long wait outside the Mauritanian embassy with quite a number of others. One girl who we saw yesterday at the Chella was there and Donna talked to her. She and her partner started riding a tandem bicycle in Paris and are now in Africa basically doing what we are except by bike!

Tomorrow we are off by train to Marakech (express). The trains are quite good to travel on and since it will take about four hours that will be a bonus.

Rabat

Rabat is the modern, cosmopolitan capital of Morocco. Once ensconced in our shockingly pink hotel we walked through the medina, through a huge cemetery which overlooks the Atlantic Ocean and down to the beach area. There is another huge cemetery across the river in Sale. It must have some significance. There is a surfing school and some young men were catching waves. The breakwaters are spectacular with huge rocks and chunks of concrete defending the beach and river against the ocean. Across the river is the twin city of Sale which is historically famous for pirates and such. Looking back from the beach a large walled casbah overlooks the ocean from the high ground. We have done a lot of exploring seeing the magnificent Tour Hassan and the extraordinary mausoleum of Mohammed V. The Chellah was also a treat. It was begun by the Romans and even though it is a ruin the fortified walls still stand. A treat inside was that there were storks with their giant nests scattered among the trees and ruins. I still have not been able to post pictures. Sorry, but we have been taking lots. By the way the calls to prayer start at about 5:30 am from a loud speaker right near our room. No alarm needed! Tomorrow we pick our visas for Mauritania and then we are off to exotic Casablanca.

Fes

We really enjoyed Chefchaoun but had to leave. A little excitement on the way to the bus with a guy waving a plastic pistol, not at us. The bus ride was interesting passing very lush fields which were still being farmed by hand or with donkeys pulling plows. Upon reaching Fes we hiked toward the medina in beautiful sunshine. Once there we began the task of finding lodgings. It is difficult because you constantly have "friends" who want to help you find something, for a fee of course. The medina is a labrynth of 9400 winding, narrow, twisting, you get the idea, streets. The entire medina is surrounded by a high battlemented wall. We explored for hours and did not get lost. On the second day we looked for the tannery but had no luck. We stayed in a pension in the only roof top room that overlooked the kings palace. It was a fabulous view of the palace and the medina perched on the hillside, but we could not take pictures or the soldiers would turn up. It was a lovely spot to have breakfast with the view.

Chefchouan

Chefchouan is spectacular sitting in the heart of the Rif Mountains. We are staying a cute pension. The town is a labarinth of narrow winding streets washed with white and blue walls. Shops and homes line the streets. We have wandered for hours drinking in the amazing sights and sounds of the city. Very little traffic noise. Today we hiked into the mountains visiting the ruins of an old mineret. Donkeys are still the beast of burden. We heard a braying ass (me) which was amusing. The views from the mountain trails were spectacular and we took lots of pictures but still will not be able to post them from here. The air is so clean and clear. A waterfall comes down the mountain and there is a station where the women wash clothes by hand like on old washing boards with water from the river washing and rinsing everything. The food is good an we have eaten most meals in the plasa next to the Casbar. This is a very exotic setting so we decided to spend an extra day. We are having a wonderful time. Donnas skills with languages is an amazing thing to watch:

Morocco

We are in Tetouan, Morocco, right now and clumbsily typing on an Arabic Keyboard. We had good flights to get to Tanger (Tangier) and loved the nice sunny warm sun. We were able to get a good room in the old quarter and explored from one end of town to the other. It is rich in chararcter. Today we took a one hour bus ride to here. Its a wonderful city in the spectacular Riff Mountains. We have done a lot of walking exploring the many colourful markets. A very well kept city. There does not look like a recession here as there is new construction everywhere. We are going deeper into the mountains tomorrow. The adventure has started well. I will try to add more when I get on an English keyboard.

Wetzlar

Wetzlar

On Saturday, we spent the day with Cathy and her family. We toured around Giessen looking at the old buildings and we also did some shopping. On Sunday, February 15th. we caught a bus and travelled to the historic and picturesque city of Wetzlar. It was cold so we were bundled up. As it was Sunday and not the tourist season we had the place to ourselves.　The buildings are so old, many dating back to the 1200's. Once I commmented that Donna must have painted one of the ancient houses as it was so colourful and intricate, just like her place on Hyatt. We did a lot of walking touring the town. One steep climb took us to the ruins of a castle overlooking the environs of Wetzlar. A wonderful view!

Germany

Donna and I have arrived safely in Germany on Thursday, Feb. 12 th. after an uneventful flight. Don't let Air Canada employees help you. We were not able to select our seats. The plane was "booked solid and we were lucky to be seated together". We were lucky as it wasn't fully booked and Donna was able to stretch out and sleep on the unused seat next to us. There were numerous empty seats. In Frankfurt we caught a train to Giessen then bused the rest of the way to Heuchelheim and then Kinzenbach where Cathy lives with her family. It was great fun seeing the grandchildren again although both are fighting colds. We got oriented as we walked with Cathy to pick Lukas and Anna up from school. It was fun to get reunited again.

On Friday the 13th. Donna and I headed out to the historical city of Marburg by train. It was chilly with snowflakes in the air as we toured around the streets of the city enjoying the amazing architecture. Many of the buildings had been erected in the 12oo's. Some had lost lost their shape over the centuries and were leaning significantly. The Schloss (castle) was very interesting with exhibits of children's toys, furniture, armour and such. The local bake shops had typically tantilizing pastries which were impossible to resist. We actually ate a meal at a Lebanese restaurant and it was delicious. Late in the afternoon we returned to Kinzenbach for a delicious supper. We'll post pictures at the first opportunity.

Donna and Rob's African Adventure

The time is swiftly approaching for our seven month African Adventure. Donna has been preparing for this for two and a half years. This blog has been set up so that we can share with friends and family how our adventures have been transpiring. It is exciting to look forward to the many sights, sounds and languages that we will experience. We will be a backpacking duo starting in north Africa and gradually hopscotching our way through French West Africa, Madagascar, etc. until we finally arrive in South Africa. The first leg of the trip will be a flight on February 11th. to Germany. We will visit my daughter, Cathy, and her family (my grandchildren!) for a week. Then on February 18th. we catch a flight to Tangier, Morocco.