[ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 19.05.2016] The natural born pyromaniac in me edges closer still, despite the increasingly unbearable heat emanating from the pit directly in front of me. If it feels as though I am a willing co-voyager on Jules Verne’s Journey To The Centre Of The Earth, about to descend deep into the earth’s bowels, then it …
[ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 07.05.2016] I may be a little odd. You see, I really rather enjoy spending upwards of twelve hours at a time going nowhere fast in cramped, hot and often unhygienic conditions on third world public transport systems. Sometimes I even wonder if I don’t actually prefer it to reaching the destination itself. Despite …
[ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 02.05.2016] One of the absolute privileges of travelling in Europe is discovering its majestic capital cities. London, Paris, Rome, Athens, Berlin, to name but a few, are all names that evoke enchanting days spent admiring superlative architecture and immersing oneself in millennia of history and culture. In Africa, the complete opposite holds true: …
[ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 01.05.2016] Hostel Life:If the backpack is the raison d’être of the budget traveller, then the backpacker hostel is his/her lifeblood. It is both the glue the binds a sequence of travel experiences and the source of social interaction that can often help to define an entire trip. The hostel’s primary function, as indicated by its …
[ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 18.04.2016] The whispers began to circulate before the plane had even taken off from Beijing airport, but it was not until dinner on our first night in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea that the rumour was confirmed: for the first time in the history of the event, the 29th edition of the …
[ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 14.04.2016] The traffic is snarling, that really is the only way to describe this pre-dawn suburban Nairobi logistical catastrophe. Our coach is currently stranded in an ocean of vehicles facing so many different directions as they attempt to find an escape route that it seems as though the world’s largest magnet has drawn …
[ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 12.04.2016] The rain, when it came, was not entirely unpleasant; the relative temperatures of both water and air were more than bearable and the darkening skies made the brooding hills seem even more dramatic. In a remarkably uncharacteristic display of forward planning, I had even thought to bring my backpack’s impermeable cover to …
[ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 26.03.2016] Power cut. Cold shower. No Wi-Fi. As warm embraces go, Mama Africa might have tried a little harder when welcoming me back to her bosom, particularly after twenty hours of travel, two entirely sleepless flights and a 6am layover from hell in the zombie wasteland ghetto fleapit masquerading as Addis Ababa International …
[ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 21.02.2016] “The King, officer. Where is the King?” We are at a crossroads of dirt tracks somewhere in Eastern Swaziland and the last signpost to the Hlane Royal Residence was 27km back. With no map and two South African marijuana smugglers driving us in their battered bakkie, the chances of success in this …
[ORIGINALLY POSTED 08.02.2016] “Stop! STOP!!! STOOOOOOOOP!!!!!!! Hyenas, mother and cub, 8 o’ clock!” You never forget your first safari sighting. Neither will my nine tour companions, as my shrill, robbery-victim falsetto threatens to shatter every pane of glass in our spotting vehicle. That the animals have not scarpered across the border into Angola is a …