Day 218: Nigeria, Solo
After getting to the hotel, I had worked for an hour or so on getting a video speech for my mate Michelle’s wedding uploaded onto
Day 219: Thunder Road
At 6am, Tony kindly dropped me off at the nearby taxi rank and before too long, I was sitting under a flyover in a minibus
Day 220: Glastonburied
Roland woke me up by firing up his little generator outside the hut. The lights came on and so did the telly. Wow we take
Day 221: Monsooner Or Later…
After a couple of hours of shuteye, it was back on the case for your favourite ginger wanderer here. We left the house in search
Day 222: TCHAD!
The train arrived at 7am in the central Cameroon town of N’Gaoundéré and, if we were VERY lucky, we could make a border hop to
Day 223: Think Once, Think Twice…
We arrived back at the railhead of N’Gaoundéré at about oh, God knows?, and promptly checked into a nearby hovel for about three hours of
Day 224: Taps
Started the day in fine fettle – crossed over the border into the Central African Republic (and got tapped for €20 for my endeavours) then
Day 225: The Best Eclairs In Africa
I rushed to get my visas for Equatorial Guinea, DR Congo and Gabon. The visas for DR Congo and Gabon were straight forward, but the
Day 226: The Third Guinea
I headed over to the Equatorial Guinea embassy only to be told that all the borders were closed and that they didn’t issue tourist visas
Day 227: Spanish Whiskey
Last night we made friends with a girl called Vivian who said she would help us do the old border hop into Equatorial Guinea (the
Day 228-35: Listless In Libreville
16 August 2009 – 23 August 2009 A week in one blog entry? Lazy I know, but whatchagonnado? Quick rundown of the last week: no
Day 236: The English Disease
One of the more remarkable things about my journey thus far is that I haven’t had a day off sick. Flu of the Swine, Bird
Day 237: Er… Do I Get a Lifejacket?
Ha! You want to see the Steamboat-Willie style affair that I’ve got to get on to Sao Tome on Thursday. Plus I’ve just been told
Day 238: The Dirty Mac Brigade
The ‘Andrea’ was originally scheduled to leave last Monday, but TIA, so you can forget about that flight of fancy. Today was whiled away at
Day 239: Why Oh Why???
Awoke at 6am, eager and excited to get going today even if I did have that early morning sickly feeling. I zipped up my backpack
Day 240: The Temple of Boom!
I woke somewhat perplexed to find myself in a hammock in a Bwiti temple, but then I remembered I was in Gabon and all was
Day 241: Going Nowhere, Fast!
It was a extremely short sleep before I was up and at ’em. First up I rang Jean, the contact I have for the ‘Andrea,
Day 242: The King Is Dead, Long Live The King
Oo eck – Election Day! So here’s the situation – Omar Bongo, the former longest standing African president (since 1967 no less!) died a couple
Day 243: Pining For The Moon
Monday began like most days here in Libreville – although now I have Jean-from-the-Andrea’s phone number I don’t need to pack up all my things
Day 244: My Kingdom For A GPS
I had a mission. Mission GPS. The results of the election still hadn’t been announced so half of Libreville was closed and it wasn’t going
Day 245: Do You Know The Way To Sao Tome?
We had a couple of things to do – first up, get some damn maps (sorry, Hugh – charts) of Sao Tome downloaded so we
Day 246: The Blue Desert
So then your humble narrator found himself back on the high seas. The Reol was tiny – the smallest vessel I’ve been on so far,
Day 247: The Hidden Gem
Sao Tome. Wow. What a great little place. We pulled in at around 5pm, without proper charts we had no idea where. It turned out
Day 248: Blister In The Sun
That night we made tremendous progress back to Gabon. I really liked Sao Tome, but there was no sense in hanging about – I’ve still
Day 249: Sail of the Century
After yesterday’s epic sail we only had about 70 nautical miles to go today. I woke to find myself staring transfixed over the silver –
Day 250: Clinging On For Dear Life
We motored in to Port Mole at 7am, gathered our things and got taken by the ferryman back to dry land. THE ANDREA WAS STILL
Day 251: The Overlander
In a trend that will no doubt continue for the rest of the month, I got up at 5am only to find that there was
Day 252: Exit Planet Dust
Setting off again at dawn, I found the shared truck for Dolisie (the junction half way to Congo’s capital city, Brazzaville) actually left early. I
Day 253: The Last Thing I Needed
“Vogons have to be just about one of the most unpleasant races in the galaxy. Not actually evil, but bad-tempered, bureaucratic, officious and callous. They
Day 254: The Saddest Song In The World
RULE 2: NEVER TRUST A VOGON I awoke on the little couch in the ‘chief’s’ office. Gone was any chance of me submitting my visa
Day 255: The Heart of Darkness
RULE 3: VOGONS HAVE NO EMPATHY “The only way to get a drink out of a Vogon is to stick your finger down their throat”.
Day 256: The Horror, The Horror
RULE 4: VOGONS ARE UNFEASIBLY STUPID You cannot reason somebody out of a position they haven’t reasoned themselves into. Appealing to my captors on the
Day 257: You’re Free But You Can’t Leave
RULE 5: AVOID AFRICA I’m sorry. I’ve cracked. The wars (all 47 of them, want a list?) may be over (kinda) and I was desperate
Day 258: The Second Pizza of Freedom
RULE 6: NEVER EXPECT AN APOLOGY I woke up before dawn to find that my guard had gone. I went for a walk around the
Day 259: England Expects
First thing, I headed off to Kinshasa over the River Congo, escorted on and off the boat by British Embassy Officials. I’m taking no chances.
Day 260: Heroes Day
Today is Angolan Heroes Day, so the Embassy was closed. Looks like I’m going to be here for the weekend… Not that I’m complaining. I
Day 261: A Hard Day’s Night
So… after two days, I finally got to the Angolan Embassy and found out that there was a chance – an outside chance – that
Day 262: The Dirty Stop-out
A great lie-in was interrupted by my desire to watch as many of Alex’s DVDs as possible before I had to leave. So I camped
Day 263: Why Fool Yoda Is
Today was another DVD-fest, a Hitchcock triple-bill (The Trouble With Harry (Crap), Topaz (Good) and Marnie (Okay)) culminating in Michael and I watching James Dean
Day 264: Visas and Viruses
Okay. Today was my DAY OF ACTION. I headed down to the Angolan embassy first thing in the morning, armed with my passport my old
Day 265: Hen’s Teeth
I returned to the Angolan embassy, fingers and toes crossed. I hung about for an hour or so before somebody came to help me. I
Day 266: Anglin’ Fer Angola
5am! Are you having a laugh? The bus didn’t leave until nine!! I could have had a good lie-in, although this will form the pattern
Day 267: The Go-Slow
I was roused at 6am and thought great – we’ll be in Luanda tonight. My phone had stopped working and I needed to get a
Day 268: Breakdown
So I slept a second night in the truck cab. Again I was awoken at 6am; why, I have no clue, as we didn’t set
Day 269: Luanda House Party
I woke up resoundingly NOT in Luanda. We hadn’t moved all night. Peter was nowhere to be seen. I was determined to get to Luanda
Day 270: Gung Ho-Hum
With less than 48 hours left on my visa, Emilio’s wonderful driver, Yuri, picked me up at 5am to drop me off at the bus
Day 271: Exit, Stage Left
Got up at 6am. Bus left at 9. If you think there’s a pattern emerging here, THEN THERE IS AND I’M GETTING A LITTLE BIT