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Normally I travel without much of a plan, deciding every day where I go next. That doesn’t work in Madagascar because there isn’t much of a transport network and what there is is not well maintained, distances are large, and many options just aren’t on the Internet. I found this agency, https://remoterivers.com, that worked out…

Back on the capital but this time with opportunity to check it out. The affluent part is on a ridge that is 200m higher than downtown. The queen’s palace, moat museums and several churches are up here, as is my hotel. Great views. All the attractions are closed, maybe because everybody is packed into an…

When it’s not New Year’s Eve, the Madirokely village on Nosy Be is just a sleepy place. Pretty but there isn’t much to do here. I chose a hotel in the tourist part of town because that’s where the hotels are. There is also a local part with bad traffic, rutted dirt roads, and the…

What dis you do on New Year’s Eve? I went scuba diving. Arranged a dive trip to Nosy Tanikely, a small island not far from Nosy Be where I am staying. The corals are not the brightest I have seen, but they have swarms of fish, turtles, and a shark. It’s not the season for…

The other thing Madagascar is famous for. This is the Avenue des Baobabs not far from Morondava at the west coast. The trees here are a thousand years old, and the oldest in Madagascar is estimated at 2000 years. They rise to about 30m, but their cylindrical trunks with diameters of 3m makes them seem…

There are five species of lemurs on Madagascar. I had already met King Julien. At the Kirindy national forest I got to see three more. I especially liked the sweet white guys. Lemurs don’t appear to be afraid of humans. Also saw a bat that seems to have lost its way and simply hung off…

That’s it with hiking this year, it’s time to head north to Antsirabe, a big town that serves as a transport hub. From there it’s all downhill to the west coast. But since some sections of the road are really rough that would be a 20-hour drive so I stayed in the Colour Café in…

We got a heavy thunderstorm lasting five hours that night of the 24th, with heavy rain and lots of lightning. I was counting seconds to estimate the distance; too close and I would have had to abandon that freestanding tent with its metal poles. It was a good tent but at one point I had…

The 23rd and 24th were the first two days of hiking in the Andringitra National Park. It’s beautiful and a series of relentless ascents and descents, about 600m per day and 11-12km. Camping, no electricity and no network. I had four people with me, the park guide who was hiking with me and three others…

You have seen the Dreamworks Madagascar movies? One of the most exuberant creatures is King Julien,  a lemur with a fancy pineapple headdress lording it over the other lemurs. Lemurs are to Madagascar what kangaroos are to Australia. Technically King Julien is a Kata lemur, but people here call the species King Julien now. Even…

Madagaskar is the world’s fourth largest island, off the coast of eastern Africa. Once again my EU passport did its job and I just walked in with a minimum of formalities and waiting. The taxi ride to Antananarivo (always have to count my a’s here) was traffic hell and I could barely breathe, apparently nobody…

On December 20, 1848, slavery was abolished on La Réunion. This is celebrated with a big parade in Saint-Denis, and I waa there. People show their traditional attire and facepaint, beat drums, and dance. No floats. It took hours and it was very loud! I think I spotted Hagrid.… Read the rest

After all this hiking I went to the towns of Saint-Gilles-les Bains and Saint-Paul. There is a saint behind almost every town here. Diving wasn’t possible, I checked five centers and all were fully booked, so I spent time on the beach and had a great fish for lunch with a view of the beach.…

Had some time for the village itself. It won the title of one of the 150 prettiest villages in France, and the only one on La Réunion. It’s well-deserved. Low wooden buildings with tasteful decorations, not too many cars, and polite people. Very pastoral. Embedded in steep mountains on all sides. The village wakes up…

One would think I’d have enough hiking yesterday, so today I went all in and visited the Trou en Fer, a deep canyon with a waterfall. Trou en Fer means Iron hole; the water carries iron and colors the walls red. Getting to the viewpoint is hard. It’s 9km on narrow, rocky often very steep…

La Reunion doesn’t just have seaside towns, it’s actually more known for its steep green mountain ranges, including an active volcano (which is unfortunately hard to reach). So I was looking for options this morning in Saint-Pierre. The plan was to go scuba diving but I decided to see the mountains instead, and the most…

La Reunion is a small island. It takes two hours from saint de4nis in the north to Saint Pierre in the southwest. Since the northern coast is all steep cliffs, they built this enormous bridge a few hundred meters off the coast into the sea, very impressive. Saint Pierre is just as sleepy as Saint…

Off the coast of Madagascar, a very large African island, is the small island La Réunion, formerly Bourbon island from which vanilla beans take their name. It’s still a département of France,  which means I just took an 11-hour domestic flight from Paris. There are no arrival formalities, everybody speaks French, and you pay in…

It’s been a very warm and picturesque October. Here are some photos from yesterday’s bicycle ride in southern Brandenburg. All are straight from the DSLR camera, no color correction.… Read the rest

Macedonia Square is the largest square in the country, and I was right above it from the balcony of my hotel room. It’s the nexus of the old town in the north, on the other side of the river, and the considerably less attractive new town in the south. Much of the grand buildings here…

Spent sone time walking the bazaar, which is really a tangle of pedestrianized alleys filled with tourist shops, cafés, and jewellery shops, but still manages to look pleasant and quiet. At the western side is Skopje’s fortress, which is really just the original bastions and watch towers with a fantastic view of the city. The…

Pristina is the capital of Kosovo. Not quite as pretty as Prizren, but with plenty to see in and around the city. Like Gračanica Monastery, completely covered in murals inside. It’s actually quite cramped, I don’t see how you could fit more than 20 people inside, but that means more space for the murals. There…

Countries are small here, it’s just two hours by bus into neighboring Kosovo. Neither country is an EU member (yet) so there is an ID check at the border. People smoke a lot, even the bus driver did, and so did restaurant guests… They need to get that under control asap. But Kosovo uses the…

Macedonia is a religious country, churches are all over the place. Not the towering cathedrals of northern Europe but little ones dating back to the Byzantine empire, covered in frescoes and without pews. You want to pray, you do it standing up. This is St. Pantaleon south of Skopje, built in the 12th century. According…

The canyon is near Skopje, the capital of North Macedonia, the country north of Greece. I really loved Albania a few years back, so I wanted to see some of the neighbors. Friendly people, a beautiful countryside, and filled with churches, monasteries, and also mosques. Matka canyon isn’t far from Skopje. They offer boat tours,…

This year, the olympic games will be held in Paris. They lit the olympic flame in Olympia and brought it to Marseille on a historic sailing ship, the Bélem. I was there at the old harbor when it arrived, together with what felt like half of Marseille. The banner shows the flame being carried through…

Nantes is a French city near the point where the Loire meets tje Atlantic. City landmarks are usually cathedrals or other buildings, but Nantes has an elephant. The elephant is a giant mechanical steampunk animal with three floors, built by an artist collective that also built all kinds of other mechanical animals. Some are tiny,…

The neighborhood of N’Gor of Dakar can be reached only by two roads, the rest is blocked by a large military airport. The place feels very different from downtown Dakar: it’s very rich, modern, and clean, and half of it is new development. Large billboards advertise split-level luxury condos that are in total contrast to…

I found it hard to find beauty in Senegal. Everything is simple, functional, and dusty. But N’Gor island is beautiful with its painted buildings, its artist, and its flowers. N’Gor sounds like a Star Trek species but it’s a neighborhood in the northwest of Dakar, with a small island a few hundred meters off its…

There are people who believe that Ramadan, the month-long Muslim fasting period, is threatening Western culture somehow. To me it looks the other way around – based on the ads I see in Dakar, Ramadan is turning into some kind of commercialized Black Friday. Welcome to Western culture. I was a bit afraid of Ramadan…