This is less about places I’ve been than places I may never reach – but we all need to dream, sometimes. The Egyptian deserts forming the backdrop for the movie The English Patient (okay, they made the movie in Tunisia) are as inhospitable and as fascinating as anywhere in the Sahara or the Arabian deserts.
The Great Sand Sea in Egypt’ [...]
Posts in category Africa
Desert dreams, discoveries and dallia...
This is less about places I’ve been than places I may never reach – but we all need to dream, sometimes. The Egyptian deserts forming the backdrop for the movie The English Patient (okay, they made the movie in Tunisia) are as inhospitable and as fascinating as anywhere in the Sahara or the Arabian deserts.
The Great Sand Sea in Egypt’ [...]
Is it safe to go to Egypt?
Honest, officer, I’m a big boy now. I can do it all by myself… but the Tourist Police officer seemed less certain, as he walked me to the public toilet in Cairo’s bustling Khan el-Khalili quarter and positioned himself outside the cubicle.
Khan el Khalili quarter, Cairo
Foreign governments urge us to ‘reconsider your need’ to visit E [...]
Do travellers need to take lessons?
Seen the TV series An Idiot Abroad? It makes me cringe – but only because I know this is exactly the way I’ve behaved in the past.
I remember arriving at the ferry terminal in Surat Thani, in Thailand. I thought I’d walked into a time-warp. Here were a whole bunch of “freaks” looking as I had been trying to look twenty year [...]
Wondering where the lions are
Jimmy Buffet did a funky, laid back version of the Bruce Cockburn song, Wondering Where the Lions Are. Bounding through the scrubby bush of Timbavati private game reserve the title is the only line I can recall from the song. It’s bouncing around in my head on shuffle repeat. Our trackers are no doubt wondering the same thing as th [...]
