Holiday in Libya
dinsdag, augustus 30th, 2011Tonight I was on Dutch television (RTL4). The program EditieNL had an item about Libya as holiday destination. What has Libya to offer when the revolution is over.
One of my experiences of Libya:
We drive in our bus from Tripoli to Ghadames, something like 600 kilometers. Again we have another bus, like almost every day. We are just a small group and use a bus for 50 persons. One of our guides is a pawn of Gaddafi. After two hours our bus was hit by a car and the only thing the driver could say was Insha’Alah, Insha’Alah… We stop at the Qasr of Nalut, a beautiful ancient granary with 400 chambers. We continue to Ghadames and almost at sunset, a ball bearing breaks. The balls are flying everywhere and we can’t continue. Sun is going down, it’s getting cold, but after two hours we got a ride from another bus. Next morning we visit the old beautiful city of Ghadames. Ghadames is a fantastic white old UNESCO protected city where you can get lost easily. Next day we take another bus to Sebha where our desert tour starts. From there we take some 4×4 to enter the real desert far away from the paved roads. Gaddafis man is gone, I think he likes the sacrifice feast more than following us. The next days we drive through the most beautiful part of the Sahara which I have ever seen. We pass big seas with sanddunes, which change colours during the day; white, yellow, red, brown. We visit the rocky Acacus mountains; big rockparts mixed with sand and a lot of rock paintings. It’s cold at night, freezing and every morning we have to remove the ice from our tent. Although we drink illegal alcohol to get warm we celebrate new year to early, at 10 pm. On our last day in the desert we are looking for the salted Ubari lakes. We got lost in the sea of dunes, but the trip is breathtaking. It looks like we enter the lakes from the unusual way. From the top of the dunes we go steep downhill for 100 meter and pass some people who are skiing, which you can hire at the lakeside. On our way to find a campsite we get problems with our car, the smoke comes through the dashboard and we have to leave the car. Next day we fly back to Tripoli and say goodbye to the desert, which is just as varied as our transport.
Click here to see the item on EditieNL.
Mooi & Bijzonder
woensdag, september 1st, 2010In het september nummer van Mooi & Bijzonder staat een foto uit Ghana:
Algerije
maandag, februari 1st, 2010
Met Sawadee een 18 daagse reis gemaakt naar Algerije. Een reis door een spectaculair en afwisselend landschap. Een 5 daagse trektocht gemaakt met kamelen door het Hoggargebergte tot aan de top van de Assekrem, een paar dagen door Tassili Hoggar gereden waar het landschap van In Akacher betoverend mooi was en een bezoek gebracht aan de zandduinenzee van Erg Admer. Voor meer informatie over deze reis naar Algerije klik hier.
Reisroute
| Dag | Waar | Hoe |
| 01 | Algiers | Vliegtuig |
| 02 | Tamanrasset | Vliegtuig |
| 03 | Hoggargebergte | Wandelen |
| 04 | Hoggargebergte | Wandelen |
| 05 | Hoggargebergte | Wandelen |
| 06 | Hoggargebergte | Wandelen |
| 07 | Hoggargebergte | Wandelen |
| 08 | Tamanrasset | 4×4 |
| 09 | Tassili Hoggar | 4×4 |
| 10 | Tassili Hoggar | 4×4 |
| 11 | Tassili Hoggar | 4×4 |
| 12 | Onderweg naar Erg Admer | 4×4 |
| 13 | Onderweg naar Erg Admer | 4×4 |
| 14 | Erg Admer | 4×4 |
| 15 | Erg Admer | 4×4 |
| 16 | Erg Admer | 4×4 |
| 17 | Djanet | 4×4 |
| 18 | Amsterdam | Vliegtuig |
Royal Cameroon
dinsdag, september 1st, 2009Cameroon has more than 100 “chefferies”, we should call them small kingdoms. They are ruled by a Sultan, Fon, King or Lamido, depending on region or religion. South of the city Bafoussam we visited the chefferie of Bandjoun, one of the biggest in the country. When I entered the gate I walked through a street with a lot of huts. The guide told me that every hut is a house for one of the wives of the Fon. I didn’t count them, but they said the Fon has around 60 wives. After walking around the kingdom I passed a small museum about the history of life in Bandjoun. Near the museum, at the house of the Fon, somebody started an old mercedes. The Fon entered his car and left his kingdom. Within two minutes the car stopped and a lot of music started. There was a circumcision going on and the Fon was one of the guests. I went to the place and saw dozens of boys and young men half naked, painted white and dancing around a big tree with two sticks in their hands. After one hour the Fon went back to his car. The atmosphere got more nervous, the boys and men stopped dancing and the real circumcision started just behind the wall where the music came from.
A couple of days later we went on audition at the Fon of Aboh, near the village Belo. When we told him that we have a Queen, he could hardly believe that a woman rules a country. The next day something special happened, the Fon came to the campsite where we were sleeping. It was the first time that the Fon visited a tourist group on a campsite. He was sitting on a plastic chair while we were sitting on the field. After a small conversation he thanked us for visiting Cameroon and especially Belo and wishes us a pleasant stay. On the back of a moped he disappeared in the dark of the night…
The magazine Ontdek Afrika published my story about this experience. If you want to read this story you can download this pdf and translate the text.
Ervaar Ghana
zaterdag, augustus 1st, 2009De eerste Nederlandstalige reisgids over Ghana is uit. “Ervaar Ghana” is een reis- en cultuurgids; met meer dan 100 praktische tips, 39 eerlijke bestemmingen en een woordenlijst in 4 Afrikaanse talen.
- Historische forten
- Cacao in het regenwoud
- (Be)leven als een Ghanees op de savanne
- Engelstalig met een schaterlach
- Luieren aan het palmenstrand
- In je eentje op een olifantensafari
- Geen platgetreden paden
Er staan 50 foto’s van mij in de reisgids. Voor meer informatie ga naar de website van het verkeersbureau van Ghana:
Kameroen
zondag, maart 1st, 2009
Met Sawadee een 27 daagse reis gemaakt naar Kameroen. Een reis met bus en trein door een veelzijdig landschap en veel bijzondere gebeurtenissen meegemaakt (besnijdenis, traditionele dans, bruiloft en de nationale dag van de jeugd). Op bezoek geweest bij verschillende koninkrijken en bij de Pygmeeën. Voor meer informatie over deze reis klik hier.
Reisroute
| Dag | Waar | Hoe |
| 01 | Douala | Vliegtuig |
| 02 | Bafoussam | Bus |
| 03 | Bamenda | Bus |
| 04 | Bamenda | Wandelen |
| 05 | Bamenda | Wandelen |
| 06 | Foumban | Bus |
| 07 | Foumban | |
| 08 | Yaoundé | Trein |
| 09 | Ngaoundéré | Bus |
| 10 | Bénoué Nationaal Park | Bus |
| 11 | Maroua | Bus |
| 12 | Maroua | 4×4 |
| 13 | Maroua | 4×4 |
| 14 | Maroua | 4×4 |
| 15 | Rhumsiki | Bus |
| 16 | Rhumsiki | |
| 17 | Rhumsiki | |
| 18 | Garoua | Bus |
| 19 | Lagdo | Bus |
| 20 | Ngaoundaba | Bus |
| 21 | Ngaoundaba | |
| 22 | Yaoundé | Trein |
| 23 | Kribi | Bus |
| 24 | Kribi | |
| 25 | Kribi | |
| 26 | Amsterdam | Vliegtuig |
| 27 | Amsterdam |
With the boat from Djenné to Mopti
donderdag, januari 1st, 2009Through Mali runs the river Niger, which is vital for the country. The Inner Niger Delta is a large area of lakes and floodplains. In the rainy season it’s almost unattainable by car to reach towns like Djenné and Mopti. A lot of people say that Djenné is the most beautiful sub-Saharan town. Mopti is an important port at the junction of the rivers Bani and Niger.
Djenné is build on an island in the river Bani and is protected by UNESCO. If you walk through the labyrinth of the narrow streets you will be surprised at the beauty of all the mud houses build in Sudanese-style architecture. Made of sun baked mudbricks coated with an adobe plaster and carried by large wooden beams. The open sewer in the middle of the streets ensures you that you will not only remember the beauty of the town. At the central square in the middle of Djenné is the Great Mosque situated. The Mosque is build in 1907 and is the biggest adobe building in the world. If you go to Djenné combine your trip with the colourful market. From anywhere thousands of people come here to sell everything, the Fulani sell milkproducts, the Bozo sell fish and the Dogon sell onions.
It is a nice experience to take a small boat -pinnace- across the Bani to visit Mopti. On your way you can visit some small villages and you can sleep at the shore. The people are very friendly and all the children are very curious.
Mopti is a central node for the towns Timbuctu, Djenné, Gao and Dogon country. If you want to travel to one of these towns you cannot ignore Mopti. The heart of Mopti is the bustling and colourful port where a lot of pinnaces and pirogues come and go. Boats get loaded and unloaded, the laundry is done in the river, cars and buses are washed. People buy and sell dried fish, charcoal, pottery, goats and chicken. At the mouth of Mopti harbour you have a beautiful view. Take a drink and enjoy a wonderful sunset.
The magazine Ontdek Afrika published my story about this experience. If you want to read this story you can download this pdf and translate the text.
Dipo
maandag, december 1st, 2008Inspired by the book African Ceremonies by Carol Beckwith and Angela Fisher I decided to visit the Dipo ceremony in Ghana.
The Dipo ceremony is held by the Krobo tribe in the southern part of the country. For centuries girls undergo Dipo to transform the girls into woman. It took me months to find out when and where it was held. I contacted embassies, ministeries of tourism and tourist information centers everywhere in Ghana but nobody could help me. I called restaurants and hotels in the Krobo area, but they could only tell me that it should happen in April. Finally I got a phone call by a Krobo woman who told me that I had to go to Somanya the next day. So I was driving through sprawling Somanya, wondering where I had to go. When I entered the hotel I heard some singing and dancing and asked the receptionist what it was. She told me that it’s Dipo and invited me to go over there.
The woman of the house told me to enter the ceremonial house. Almost 15 girls were in the courtyard and I was the only man. I was treated as a vip and they wanted me to stay the whole weekend. The girls did some ritual bathing, practiced the typical Dipo dance (walk very slowly forward with your toes) and got some prayers. On sunday was the climax of the ceremony. The girls got dressed, a lot of beads around their waist, a white headscarf, a leaf in their mouth and then they walked in a procession to the sacred stone Tekpete. After a short ceremony at the stone the girls ran back to the ceremonial house at the back of a relative. The headscarf was removed and the girls got shaved and the girls got blessed. The ceremony ended when the girls got another hat and were dancing the Dipo dance.
Next morning I left Somanya, after a heavy farewell. The people were very friendly and didn’t want me to go back home…
The magazine Ontdek Afrika published my story about the ceremony. If you want to read this story you can download this pdf and translate the text.
Pictures of the ceremony:
Ghana
zondag, juni 1st, 2008
Met Jolinaiko Eco Tours een rondreis gemaakt door Ghana, met als hoogtepunten Mole National Park, Wechiau Hippo Sanctuary, Liate Woti en Canopy Walk. Verder aan de kust geweest bij Elmina & Senya Beraku. Hoogtepunt van de reis naar Ghana was de Dipo ceremonie die plaatsvond bij de Krobo. Net zoals voor veel andere stammen geldt dat volwassen worden belangrijk is en ceremonieel gevierd wordt. Jaarlijks vindt in verschillende Krobodorpen Dipo plaats, een meerdaags ritueel waarbij meisjes vrouw worden. Na een zoektocht van weken konden we 2x een dergelijke ceremonie bijwonen.
Reisroute
| Dag | Waar | Hoe |
| 01 | Liati Woti | 4×4 |
| 02 | Liati Woti | |
| 03 | Kyabobo National Park | 4×4 |
| 04 | Kyabobo National Park | |
| 05 | Tamale | 4×4 |
| 06 | Mole National Park | 4×4 |
| 07 | Mole National Park | |
| 08 | Wechiau Hippo Sanctuary | 4×4 |
| 09 | Wechiau Hippo Sanctuary | |
| 10 | Baobeng Fiema Monkey Sanctuary | 4×4 |
| 11 | Bobiri Butterfly Sanctuary | 4×4 |
| 12 | Lake Bosumtwe | 4×4 |
| 13 | Ko-Sa | 4×4 |
| 14 | Tema | 4×4 |
Libya
donderdag, februari 1st, 2007
Libya, ruled by Muammar Gaddafi, is a beautiful country which has a lot to offer. More than 90% of the country is covered by the desert. At the coastline you can visit a lot of old Roman cities like Sabratha and Leptis Magna. I think the most beautiful city in the Sahara is Ghadames, which is close to the borders of Algeria and Tunesia. The old white city is build with covered alleyways to protect against the heat. If you go south from Ghadames you will enter Acacus mountains which contain a lot of rock art and a beautiful scenery with a lot of dunes and rocks. In the central part of Libya you can visit the beautiful salt lakes of Ubari where you can rent skis to go down from the sand dunes. The seas of sand dunes near Ubari and the rest of the region Fezzan are so beautiful, it’s like walking through a painting. Sit down on the top of a dune and watch the change of colour and the move of the shadow and enjoy sunset. If you go in the winter don’t forget to take an ice scraper with you, your tent is frozen and just before sunrise the dunes are covered with ice which look beautiful. I travelled 15 days through Libya in the winter of 2006 with Sawadee. If you want more information about this trip click here.
Itinerary
| Day | Destination | Transport |
| 01 | Tripoli | Airplane |
| 02 | Tripoli | |
| 03 | Tripoli | |
| 04 | Ghadames | Bus |
| 05 | Ghadames | |
| 06 | Desert | 4×4 |
| 07 | Desert | 4×4 |
| 08 | Desert | 4×4 |
| 09 | Desert | 4×4 |
| 10 | Desert | 4×4 |
| 11 | Desert | 4×4 |
| 12 | Desert | 4×4 |
| 13 | Tripoli | Airplane |
| 14 | Tripoli | |
| 15 | Amsterdam | Airplane |
