Few places have captured my imagination like Uzbekistan. The first time I went in 2011 I was there for two weeks and apart from Russians, I only saw two tourists (Australian ladies). It was astounding that a country with such incredible architecture, reasonable food and friendly people had so few people visiting it, but how […]
Places to Return to – Uzbekistan Read More »
May 22, City Hotel St Polten, Austria Well you can probably tell from the title…. the day didn’t pan out exactly as I hoped. I was up at 4am, had my prescribed Ironman breakfast of bread and bananas, and got a taxi to the race area. I borrowed a pump from a delightful
Is it possible to cough up a lung? Read More »
May 21, City Hotel St Polten, Austria My darling hubby/support crew extraordinaire and I are in gorgeous St Polten for the weekend. Several months ago, when i was uninjured and feeling strong, I signed up for a half ironman…. thinking this would be a pretty easy race distance and good practice for the full ironman
Enormous, Scary Lycra Clad Aryans Read More »
May 14, Ibis, Malabo, Equatorial Guinea Before visiting all I really knew about Equatorial Guinea was the thwarted coup attempt against President Obiang funded by Margaret Thatcher’s son in 2004 (a.k.a the Wonga coup), for which he pleaded guilty (eventually) and was given a four year suspended sentence and a $500k fine in South Africa.
Thwarted Thatcher Coup… Read More »
May 12, Star Land Hotel, Douala, Cameroon The Lonely Planet aptly describes Douala as ‘sticky, icky and frenetic’. True dat. I would also add ‘ cacaphonic’ (not an actual word but an apt descriptor), as there is a constant background honk of horns. Arriving at Douala airport, I was impressed by the levels of filth and how badly it
Sticky, icky and frenetic Read More »
May 9, Royal Palm Hotel, Libreville, Gabon In the next of a series of mad dictatorships – welcome to Gabon. Omar Bongo was president for 42 years from 1967 until he died in 2009. The reins were taken up by his son Ali Bongo who has been in power since, ‘winning’ the 2009 election with 42%
Potentially the worlds greatest wildlife destination, but I wasn’t going to find out….. Read More »
May 8, Mikhail’s Hotel, Brazzaville, Republic of Congo A lovely day wandering around Brazzaville in the Republic of Congo – the formerly french one, a.ka. Congo Brazzaville (not to be confused with the Democratic Republic of Congo – the formerly Belgian one, historically called Zaire). It was weird arriving here yesterday, the flight was 40
May 6, Virunga Hotel, Musanze, Rwanda I love gorilla trekking. I came to Rwanda solo in 2013 and gifted myself a gorilla trek as a 40th birthday present. I enjoyed it so much, I planned this trip so hubby could get to see them too!. Watching gorillas play is just delightful!!!. Things have become more
More gorilla love….this time in Rwanda Read More »
May 4, Nyiragongo Summit Shelters – Democratic Republic of Congo After a relaxing couple of nights doing precisely nada at Mikeno lodge in the heart of the Virunga National Park, we roused ourselves early this morning to prep our gear for the climb up Nyiragongo summit (3470m), home of Africa’s largest lava lake. The volcano
May 1, Bukima Tented Camp, DRC After a damp cold night at a tented camp at 2400m where hubby and I were the only guests, it was lovely to wake up this morning to a perfect view of Mikeno and Nyiragongo out across the farmlands in the Congo. We shared our breakfast with Jacques the
Gorillas in the mist, rain and thunder Read More »