The following morning, whilst I dozed on the bus, we crossed into Damaraland, a beautiful desert region of Namibia where the language has five clicks in addition to more familiar phonemes. We were advised that we would be visiting a village of Himba people, a tribe native to Angola and north Namibia, and that we…
Northern Namibia #1
Back on the road again! I am collected from Rivendell hostel and taken to the meeting point in Windhoek to commence my 7-day tour ofnorthern Namibia. I found a similarly convivial crowd to the last tour, mostly slightly older (a 22-year old German girl, a mid-thirties Kenyan girl and I were the the only three…
Southern Namibia tour
A delicious Lydia-breakfast later (see previous post) and I was clambering aboard a 14-seater safari truck with 13 strangers, to commence a three-day tour of Southern Namibia. Throughout the morning’s drive I worked on familiarising myself with names and back-stories: Brazilians x3: all living in Sao Paulo Canadians x3: a couple from Vancouver and a…
London to Windhoek
Rather a lot has happened since my last post so forgive the bombardment of mini posts: only now have I returned from a lengthy spell without Wi-Fi in the Namibian desert. London fly-by: I departed from Saint Petersburg mid-afternoon on Friday 27th. My attempts to charm the lady at the check-in desk into giving my…
Flying colours
It occurred to me at 40,000 ft, early this morning, probably somewhere over Chad or the Democratic Republic of Congo, that I should write a post about air travel. Of course, there are always local idiosyncrasies, however, many aspects are universally true. Firstly, let’s identify some of the best-loved air travel personalities: The first-time flyer:…
Saint Petersburg: Venice of the North
Dear reader, If you read my last post you’ll remember I left you all as I boarded my unscheduled business-class train to St. Petersburg. (If you haven’t read my last post, please do so immediately otherwise you will cause a highly dangerous rift in the space-time continuum!) I shall reprise: I awoke to a fresh…
If you haven’t been to the Russian capital you Moscow!
Moscow! After 2 weeks learning Russian culture through visits to progressively larger cities, we have finally arrived in the capital, in all its pomp and ceremony. To be the capital of a country covering 6,000,000+ square miles requires something special. And Moscow has it. In spades. Think Paris on steroids and then add enough glittering…
Ode to a mosquito
O winged oppressor! Let me be! I don’t like your phlebotomy I wouldn’t mind a small donation But for all the irritation And I’m fine with coughs and sneezes But you spread more dire diseases If you’re part of God’s design He should have made your bites benign Luckily, I’m highly skilled In ways in…
Cold (beverages) war!
We are once again on a train; this time from Krasnoyarsk, where we spent a delightful two days without mishap or mischief (i.e. not much worth including here). Our destination is Yekaterinburg, a city near the Ural mountains. We boarded at 11.30am on May 16 and, as I awake on May 17, I already have…
The rest of Listvyanka and Irkutsk
The day after or quad-biking shenanigans, our itinerary promised a 5-hour hike near Lake Baikal. Fuelled with Russian porridge and dressed to withstand both the weather and the attacks of ticks (it was the height of their active season) we awaited the arrival of our guide. Dimitri, part-time personal trainer, part-time tourist guide, spoke only…
Irkutsk and Listvyanka day 1
We were greeted early on the morning of May 10 on the platform of Irkutsk railway station by Lena, local Irkutskian (I may be creating a new noun there) and tourist guide and Kseniya, her trainee and were taken to an MPV driven, to my great delight, by a quietly polite gentleman called Igor. Our…
The journey to Irkutsk
8.25pm, Sunday 8 May: we waved a fond farewell to Boltor, our friendly Mongolian driver, at Ulaanbaatar railway station and boarded the Mongolian 263 train bound for Irkutsk. Although our itinerary informed us there would be no restaurant car on this occasion, our arrival time of 7.25am meant that the few provisions we had would…
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