by Richard | Jan 22, 2010 | Africa, Cape to Cairo, Travel
Traveling from Cape to Cairo was, in many places, a very solitary experience. I would be lying, however, if I said that I was ever completely on my lonesome. Less than a foot high, generally quiet and inedible in Ethiopia and Sudan – I had a partner. He was a...
by Richard | Jan 10, 2010 | Africa, Cape to Cairo, Egypt, Travel
The flight home was about the only uneventful part of the journey. Two days ago, facing the Giza Pyramids, I couldn’t bring myself to understand, to appreciate, what it means for this journey to have come to an end. Back in South Africa – exhausted –...
by Richard | Jan 5, 2010 | Africa, Cape to Cairo, Sudan, Travel
Khartoum, Sudan. Pariah state of the western media, with a president indicted by the International Criminal Court for the genocide in Darfur. It’s Tuesday evening and the man in front of the taxi, who is taking time out of his own route, unasked, to find me a safe...
by Richard | Dec 31, 2009 | Africa, Cape to Cairo, Sudan, Travel
Watching Abu Simbel shining in the night sky and surrounded with the dark desert beyond, brought in on the cold winds that cut across the deck of our ferry, I said my silent goodbyes to Sudan. In truth, I had said farewell out loud, in person, the evening before....
by Richard | Dec 16, 2009 | Africa, Cape to Cairo, Kenya, Travel
It’s dark. We left Marsabit an hour ago, by which time night had long fallen, but as I clamber down into the lorry’s cargo hold, the darkness becomes a dense, clinging oil. Occasionally pierced by small torches as the dozen or so others in the small space...