Travel

Travelling is for life

Keep up to date with my travel adventures.

Angola Sue Aspinall Angola Sue Aspinall

Entering Angola

We rode along the road by the coast and entered Cabinda town. This is built on the hillside facing the coast and has a distinct Portuguese feel and character.

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Congo Sue Aspinall Congo Sue Aspinall

Pointe Noire

Today involved a lot of travelling and trust that there would be connections to get to Pointe Noire - a distance of 500+kms.

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Congo Sue Aspinall Congo Sue Aspinall

Brazzaville

I have made Class Hotel in the Embassy area of the city, my home. Brazzaville is very different from the other parts of Congo. The centre is dominated by large presidential buildings some still empty, incomplete or decaying.

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Congo Sue Aspinall Congo Sue Aspinall

Dolisie

The final leg of the day was a ride to Brazzaville in a shared car for 10,000CFA. This was very sedate compared to the last leg. Three women and a driver on a beautiful cambered road, all the way to the capital through rolling hills and shrub covered land. It reminded me of the M6 drive through Cumbria.

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Congo Sue Aspinall Congo Sue Aspinall

Entering the Republic of Congo

One thing that you learn when travelling is never to make assumptions. Today tested me yet again around trying to control an outcome without having all the information.

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Gabon Sue Aspinall Gabon Sue Aspinall

N’dende

On our journey, we stopped at a small spring by the roadside. The passengers all got out to drink the water and spread it over their hands and faces. They said it was sacred and would bring good luck.

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Gabon Sue Aspinall Gabon Sue Aspinall

Lamberene

Lambarene has a famous hospital which was founded by 'the great white man from Lambarene'. Albert Schweitzer and his wife Helene originally came to the Andenda Mission station in April 1913 in service of the Paris Evangelical Mission who required a doctor.

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Gabon Sue Aspinall Gabon Sue Aspinall

Libreville

On returning to La Baie des Tortues Luth to catch the boat, I met Jamal. She is the mother of Ahmed, the owner and manager of the resort. We sat chatting for while and I got to know all about her family and how they came to be in Gabon.

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Gabon Sue Aspinall Gabon Sue Aspinall

Libreville

A short taxi and minibus drive from Libreville, gets you to an area of forest known as the Arboretum Raponda Walker. It's a protected 28 hectares of natural forest full of species of trees, lianas, medicinal plants and orchids.

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Gabon Sue Aspinall Gabon Sue Aspinall

Libreville

It's Sunday so I took pictures of churches and mosques. People were dressed up today and many were walking and playing around the beach area. Eid-al Fitr was celebrated yesterday, so many families were continuing the festivities today.

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Gabon Sue Aspinall Gabon Sue Aspinall

Libreville

Libreville is a world away from the villages of the interior. It seems to have cleaner air than most African cities and enjoys an estuary location close to the sea. There are green areas amongst the houses giving each quartier an European feel.

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Gabon Sue Aspinall Gabon Sue Aspinall

Mitzic

Today was a wonderful day, packed full of new experiences and a real adventure into the unknown.

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Cameroon Sue Aspinall Cameroon Sue Aspinall

Ebolowa

Ebolowa is a bustling town built on cocoa wealth. I was struck by how green it was and how a manmade lake forms the central focus of the town.

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Cameroon Sue Aspinall Cameroon Sue Aspinall

Yaoundé

On a hill behind the museum is the Renumeration Monument - commemorating the agreement of a federal structure in June 1972 which saw the French and British Cameroons centralised as the United Republic of Cameroon.

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Cameroon Sue Aspinall Cameroon Sue Aspinall

Yaoundé

After returning to Douala yesterday, I booked the train from there to Yaoundé. It meant an early start at 5:30 to get to the station for a 6:30 departure. Douala was in darkness but stirring. I was able to get a taxi easily from the road side by the hotel and arrived to a quiet and orderly station.

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Cameroon Sue Aspinall Cameroon Sue Aspinall

Kribi

Boats were arriving into the harbour and being unloaded. Their catch was then laid out on the slabs in the market. It appeared that people then bartered for the amount they wanted and the totals were collated by one person sat close by. The array of fish was amazing; snapper, prawns, lobsters and various types of fish large and small.

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Cameroon Sue Aspinall Cameroon Sue Aspinall

Douala

We drive back to the city today, stopping at two sets of waterfalls on the way. The first set are smaller and used as a sacred offering place. Salt and oil were spilt around the floor of the soil on the ledge above the waterfall. These would be placed there as prayers were made.

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Cameroon Sue Aspinall Cameroon Sue Aspinall

Baham

Elisa took us on a wonderful walk through the fields towards the large rocks of the area, then on towards a waterfall before returning to her house to be shown her kitchen. This was a very special section of my trip. Elise is a wonderful person; generous, kind and informative. A treasured friend to Betina and a joyful soul.

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Cameroon Sue Aspinall Cameroon Sue Aspinall

Foumban

Today we drove through the grassland area and through rich fertile lands heading north. Foumban is famous for its chieftains and the royal palace build by the 17th Sultan of the Bamoun dynasty.

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Cameroon Sue Aspinall Cameroon Sue Aspinall

Dschang

We drove up to the area on a hillside above Dschang town. This was where the German governors resided in the 1900s and their buildings and recreational areas still remain. This area was taken over by the French and kept exclusively for white colonial use until today when the buildings were turned into a hotel.

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