I arrived in Guiria a small fishing village on the East Coast of Venezuela via a small ferry from Trinidad that took three hours to do the crossing.While we arrived right on time, we had to wait on board for over an hour till the immigration officer showed up. Guiria is a small scruffy town that has very little to offer the traveler, except for some very basic accommodations and the ferry over to Trinidad this town has very little reason to  visit here.

I only stayed one  night and moved on to the next morning by a shared taxi to Cunama which was about five hours away. In Venezuela, besides the bus the main form of transport is a shared taxi, which cost about double the price of the bus, but is twice as fast. I was fast learning that Venezuela is actually a very poor country with some major problems,as everyone was warning me about the dangers of traveling in the country and telling me how violent it was, I was told that in Caracas alone over 70 people get killed every weekend.

Cumana was a way better place than Guiria, the hotel I was staying at was a converted old mansion very reasonably priced at $20 a night, conveniently situated in the old section of town. I spent two days resting here before moving on to Ciudad Bolivar which is situated on the Orinoco River and is the major jumping off point for tours to the Angel Falls  which was high on my list of places to go. The bus ride down from Cumana was only about nine hours getting me into town at about 4 PM. I jumped into a cab which took me to  the Don Carlos Posada which is highly recommended to me. It was another one on the  converted Posadas and actually quite a spectacular place in size and design, thankfully they had some free rooms. Ciudad Bolivar is a very strange  air to itself, as it has a fantastic location right on the Orinoco River, but it is definitely not taking advantage of it, here once again you felt that Venezuela has major problems, as the river promenade was totally trashed with bottles and plastic bags and nobody really seemed to care  and everybody warned you about the dangers and to be aware at all times. As in other cities in Venezuela going out at night was not an option due to the crime,  not that there were any options as all restaurants and bars close at sundown. One of the main reasons of being for the hotels in CB  is Angel falls and Caniama NP which is  the major tourist destination of Venezuela. All hotels try to sell you  tours down to the jungle and falls at way higher prices than you could find elsewhere, I ended up finding a super cheap deal at the airport for three days at $280  which was $50 cheaper than they offered me at the hotel. Also the to company was owned by a Venezuelan which is quite rare as most of the hotels and tour companies were owned by foreigners.

Canaima NP and Angel Falls boat ride to the falls

The next morning we flew down to Cainama NP  a very old Cessna That was fully loaded with supplies for one of the camps. It is quite a funny flight, as our pilot pulled out his newspaper as soon as we were in the air and only stopped reading right before we landed. Just before you land you get to see the spectacular scenery of the national Park, and the spectacular waterfalls.

Cainama is a very small community  that serves as base camp two expeditions into the jungle and to Angel falls. The first afternoon was spent hiking around the nearby waterfalls and then the next morning we took off up river towards Angel falls. The giant canoes hauled around eight people at the time  up very shallow water, through spectacular scenery of Tepui  and jungle. Tepui  are giant  limestone tabletop mountain ranges that were  formed millions of years ago, and have unique eco systems. The rivermeandered through the forest and the Tepui, cost spectacular beaches and rock formations for about five hours to our camp will be spent the night.

We woke up at 4 AM to hike to the viewpoint over Angel Falls… it was a pretty good  one hour hike through the jungle up the hill over tree roots and rocks, and even though it was super early in the morning, it was still very hot. But the hike was well worth the as the views of the falls were spectacular.

After making it back to camp we had breakfast and then  made our way down the river back to Canaima  where we hopped onto a Cessna back to Ciudad Bolivar.  I am usually not too skittish about flying, but seeing our pilot was well into his 80s and the plane seemed about the same age I was kind of worried that he would not make it. Thankfully we got back in one piece….

The next day I flew up to Caracas, where I spent the afternoon wandering around the old part of the city, which really is the only part of town that is worthwhile, as Caracas is a wild mix of slums and very ugly modern buildings. I was warned several times not to venture out after dark, as it is seriously dangerous. This is not a problem as I had to wake up at 5 AM a.m. to catch my flight back home.

For more photos please visit the www.magener.com website click here

Chilling in Tobago was not quite what I expected, the locals claim it is paradise I do not quite agree with them as it just seams like another place that is getting messed up by capitalism.

You would not expect to see as many fancy cars..much less a brand new Chinese built 160 million $ performing arts center in Port of Spain  (for what???), but T&T as the locals call it, is a wealthy place thanks to is natural gas reserves (70 % of its production goes to the USA). With the money comes corruption and a strange breed of locals, who just seam to love rules and new cars!

I was sitting at a beach bar drinking a beer with my feet resting on the plastic chair in front of me and got yelled at for doing so! The one good thing in Tobago is the diving, I did a beach dive from Crown point, which was actually pretty spectacular, as the reefs are in ready good shape.

All in all I do not think I would recommend Trinidad or Tobago to anyone, as it is overpriced, the locals not the friendliest and has very little to offer other than some very average beaches and OK diving…You would be way better off spending your time and money on a different island  with better beaches and friendlier people.

For more photos please visit the www.magener.com website click here

Once again I had flown with Ethiopian Airlines as they were the cheapest option from Bamako.

After long search online I had found a really nice and cheap place to stay in Dakar everything I had seen was extremely expensive, and this place included room and board for $40, and the owner seemed extremely friendly. I had arranged for her to pick me up at the airport is once again I did not want to haggle or get ripped off by the taxi drivers at the airport as I was arriving late in the afternoon.

It was a very short drive from the airport to the bed and breakfast which was located in what she told me was the telecommunications workers housing area,a middle-class suburb of Dakar. As soon as you moved off the road main road, the roads became dirt actually more like sand she explained that it had been raining and the normally the streets were not quite this messed up. The houses in the area were modern looking, but very plain, her house was a two-bedroom with garage that was still half under construction as the top floors had not been added, but the rebar was still sticking up from  the roof. To my utter surprise was my bedroom was the garage! While it looked like the photos online, they  did not included  a photo of the  rusty garage door online! Needless to say I was not very happy about this, but seeing we were so far out of town I had no option but to stay there. The owner “D’Jembe Qween” was quite a  character, a dreadlocked African-American women who had moved to Dakar 14 years ago with her son, insisted on making me dinner,  all in all I must say she was a fantastic  host, so I decided to stay for a few days after all, as it seemed like she had been through a lot and needed the extra money.

Early the next day I took a cab to downtown, which took about 40 minutes as we were so far out of town. I jumped up at the main square in downtown Dakar and straightaway was hassled by some local, who insisted on following me around for about 10 minutes, till I told them that I was to beat them up if he did not stop following me. The locals in Dakar a mostly friendly, but there are some that I just the total pain, so the best thing to do is not even to acknowledge them. I made my way down to the harbor to catch the ferry to go over to Goree Island which is about 30 minutes from the mainland, one of the sightseeing highlights of Senegal. The ferry was full of tourists all going out on a day trip, many of them Spanish. Goree was one of the points from which these slaves were shipped to America.  The main town has cobblestone streets, great beaches and many restaurants. A perfect place to take a break from the craziness of Dakar.

I have had enough of Dakar and once again found something online south in a town called Mbour about an hour away. I plan on going down by bus, so I hailed a cab to go to the bus station. As usual I had to haggle to get the right price, once I was in the cab the driver insisted that it would be way better if he would drive me all the way… I actually did not want to go in the taxi, but he was so insistent and lowered his price to under $20 for the ride so I went with him. We had a long conversation on the way down, even though my French is nearly nonexistent. He tried to convince me that I should become a Muslim,  as I made the mistake of telling him that I did not believe in religion.  When we arrived in Mbour the people at the guesthouse were quite surprised that I had gotten such a great deal on the taxi ride. I kind of felt bad for the driver as I think he did not know it would take over an hour and a half to get here.

The guest house was an amazing place totally the opposite of the B&B in Dakar situated right on the beach overlooking the sea, I was the only guest there so I got to enjoy the whole place buy myself, it was basically like having a private house with swimming pool. I spent my days lazing around by the pool, reading and eating the wonderful food they prepared for me.

The guesthouse had organized me a driver to take to  me the airport, it was a very old beat up VW. He was charging me double the amount I had paid on the way down. First up as usual was a gas station where he filled up after asking me for money. It is only 60 km to Dakar airport, but the trip took us over three hours. The traffic jams were unbelievable, most of the time we had to go to side streets to be able to make it in time, as we hit the final stretch towards the airport there was a funny thumping noise coming from the front left of the car, the driver pulled over behind someone who was changing a tire, walked around the car and found that the front tire was about to fall off, and somebody had not tightened the lug bolts. Thankfully the person in front of us lent  some tools so we could fix the tire and get back on the road.

I made it to the airport with plenty of time to spare for my flight to Spain.

For more photos please visit the www.magener.com website click here

Senegal…. music and slaves…. and good fish!!
An interesting place… more modern and more touristy then expected from a place on the western tip of Africa.
I was not all to impressed by Dakar especially since my choice of hotel was not very good as it was situated miles from downtown Dakar. While the city of Dakar is nothing special, Gore Island is one of the most spectacular places I have visited.
If you want to get away from it all I recommend that you go down south to see the real Senate and its beaches.

Places Visited:

Dakar
A crazy large African city that I am not sure I would recommend as one gets hassled all the time when walking down the streets in the downtown area. Nevertheless the nightlife is second to none.

Goree Island****
Fantastic place!!! It is only a 30 minute boat ride from downtown Dakar but it is a world away. None of the hassle, pollution or scruffy mess Dakar you can walk the cobblestone streets, eat in nice restaurants by the sea. There are handful of very nice hotels.Calm and beutiful, a great place to start or end your trip to Senegal.
Getting there: take the ferry from downtown Dakar
Places to stay:

Mbour**
It is a place to see if you are wanting to see the real Senegal. You will find fishing boats as far as the eye can see, but also the beaches are littered with dead fish so unless you’re staying at a fancy resort you will not be lying at the beach. It is sad to see that such a fantastic resource is being polluted and killed this way.

Places to stay and Eat:
Koer Marrakis*****A wonderful place by the beach. website>>>

I flew from Uganda via Ethiopia to Bamako on Ethiopian Airlines as it was the cheapest option to be found. A travel in Africa is extremely expensive as most national airlines have gone bankrupt in the past few years. There are a few  major airlines that cover the north and south of Africa. Ethiopian being one that covers most of North Africa.

I had arranged for pickup from my hotel as I had no desire to deal with all the touts at the airport upon arrival. For some strange reason my bag was the second to last two appear on the conveyor belt. I was worried that I was going to miss my ride into town as it took about an hour for my bag to make it up. The minibus they were picking me up in was a total wreck as were all the cars on the road. The funny thing is that most of the cars in Bamako are ancient Mercedes-Benz cars from Europe all bashed up but still running. The hotel Tamana was quite fancy compared to the other hotels  I have spent time in, the beautiful courtyard with pool and a giant shady trees was a welcome sight.

After dumping my backpack in the room I set out to walk around the neighborhood of the hotel to see what it was like, much to my surprise Bamako is quite a scruffy town, way more so than I had expected. There were quite a few bars around the hotel and even a Vietnamese restaurant which I was surprised to see as it seemed quite out of place in such a town. Bamako is well known for its great nightlife, some of the best musicians in Africa play at the nightclubs all over town. I was lucky enough to hook up with some fellow travelers at the hotel and went out to see some amazing musicians.

After a few days in Bamako was time to move on and explore the villages and countryside of Mali. I  left my backpack in town so that I could travel faster and easier. I arrived at the bus station at 6 AM, as I really had purchased my ticket the evening before,walking around Bamako in the early morning  before sunrise is really not an option as one would probably never make it without getting robbed, but finding a cab to take me to the bus station was not very easy as  there were none to be found so early in the morning. Luckily some locals figured out that I needed a cab  and say woke somebody up and found me a ride.

Much to my surprise, the bus station was pretty calm and not all too crazy… I guess the early hour was the reason for this… and the bus left right on time, and was not overly crowded or messed up. After about four hours  of smooth ride (the main roads in Mail are very good…). I jumped off the bus at the crossroads in Segou as the bus was continuing on to Mopti… after a bit of haggling I found a MotoTaxi to take me to center of town do where the hotels were located. As it was market day in most of the streets were bustling with people and traders buying and selling their wares. Everything was to be found, from super colorful clothes to dry fish everything was laid out on the ground and everybody was haggling for the best deals.

I stayed at the hotel L’Auberge which is situated on the road down to the docks on the River Niger, it is really nice place  with a nice big pool which was very welcome as it was boiling hot even though the River Niger runs right through town. The town itself was a strange mix of colonial, mud structures and landmark buildings and dirt roads. I spent most my time either lying by the pool trying to cool down or by the river watching people and boats load and unload. In the afternoon the river becomes the focal point of the  town as everybody goes back to their villages with all of their purchases bundled up. The pinasse boats are long dugout canoes that have very pointy futuristic looking  bows and sterns that are heavily decorated in very bright colors, making them very picturesque specially when filled with colorful clothed women and all their wares.

One morning I stumbled upon a  cooperative art center  where the locals were making  and selling some of the best cloth that I had seen.  It was a fascinating place as the architecture was typical of the area, but the designs of the cloth wares was so modern that they could have been in a gallery in any major European city. Sadly I did not have any money on myself, as I was only planning to go to the waterfront just take some pictures. I went back in the afternoon to purchase some of the art, but sadly they were closed. After two days I was on my way to Djenne one of the most picturesque and famous towns in Mali, once again getting there entailed me jumping off the bus at a crossroads, what I had to find a ride to town. Only three people including me got off the bus, one of them already had a MotoTaxi lined up, the only other transport was a totally beaten up Renault   share taxi that hardly seemed roadworthy. The driver was a large man wearing a bright blue  local  dress,who told me that it would take about another hour for the cab to fill as the minimum with three people, so I sat down under the trees and talk to some local kids who were hanging out…  after a whileI ended up paying for two people more than myself as I wanted to get to town and not be sitting in the middle of nowhere for hours. after he agreed to take me and the old man for that price, he immediately ran away I thought it was kind of strange but then a few minutes later he appeared with  a gallon of gas and filled the gas  kind which is right next to his feet by the gas pedal,, to stop the car, he had to call a few people over so that they could push start us. Needless to say it was not a very  fast but we did make it to town.

Sailing down the Niger River on a Pinasse at Mopti, Mali with Rolf Magener

Finally somebody at the hotel got me a ride, turns out the driver was actually quite a fascinating person with a newish Mercedes-Benz. I asked him how he had got this fancy car, as it was in much better shape than most. He told me that some French person had given it to him in exchange for being his driver when he came down every year.

For more photos please visit the www.magener.com website click here

Mali… the Niger river dominates the country…. as do the old Mercedes cars dominate the streets of Bamako.
It is a fascinating country of diverse culture… amazing music and art. Wile Bamako is a crazy west african city, it is an amazing place that grows on you very quickly.The countryside of Mali is very lush by the river, as soon as he going land you’re surrounded by desert.

Places Visited:

Bamako****
Fascinating large  West African city with amazing night life and good food. you can spend a few days just listening to music and eating your way through this amazing city.
Place to Stay: Tamana Hotel ***

Segou***
A short ride from Bamako It borders the River Niger and has a fantastic Monday market.
Place to Stay: L’Auberge

Djenne****
Entering Djenne is like stepping into the middle ages… mud houses and streets like nowhere else… and amazing village well worth a visit  as you feel like you are living in the Middle Ages. While they aren’t many restaurants  Its Monday market is one of the best in Africa.
Place to Stay: Auberge Metteme****

Mopti***
On the banks of the Niger, Mopti is the point where you start your trip to Timboctu and to Dogon country.
Place to Stay: Ya Pas de Problem***

Uganda, the heart of Africa, where the Nile starts it journey North. If you are going for nature and adventure Uganda has some spectacular
Places Visited:

Jinja****

Kampala

Kabale**

I feel like I am not truly traveling as I flew up to Zanzibar from Johannesburg instead of taking the road up over Angola and Congo….  The Angolans were making it difficult to get the visa and I am running out of passport pages so it is the easy way out.

I had been to Zanzibar about 10 months ago and hated it, as the “locals” see Mzungus as walking wallets and everything is priced accordingly so $50 for a room without electricity is  normal…. the place I stayed Robinson is owned by a Swiss lady and there Tanzanian husband… really nice people and a nice place… thankfully the other people staying there were also really nice, a mother with her two kids who were finishing off a 3 1/2 month world trip and an english teacher mad the stay a nice one.

The bus ride to Nairobi was an easy one 15hr… of which I spent 12 sleeping, at the border crossing I got a nice surprise as Kenya had lowered its visa fee by half so I got a transit visa for $10…  arriving in Nairobi at 11 PM was nit the best, but thankfully the streets were as busy as at daytime as it was a Saturday night and I was able to walk to the place I was staying at.

On Monday I jumped on to the overnight train to Kisumu on lake Victoria another 15 Hr journey. Our departure from Nairobi was delayed as there was no electric on the train… first it was supposed to be a 2 hr delay.. 30 min later we left the station still no light,  but the cabin attendant  came and gave each passenger a big neon flashlight to light up the compartment.

We arrived in Kisumu 2 hrs late after a good breakfast and some spectacular tropical scenery. Thankfully it was super easy to get transportation to the Busia border from the station. It was only a 80 km journey but the progress was super slow, 3 hrs into it we were still 30 Km from the border and I was getting tiered of the slow progress… just then a big bus pulled up right in front of us and I grabbed my bags and got onto it.. in 15 min we were at the border! From there it was just over one hour to Jinja the source of the Nile an my first stop in Uganda.A few hours later I arrived in Jinja at a crossroad where I jumped off. Right away I was surrounded by it MotoTaxi drivers all trying to get my business, I ended up taking the guy who sounded the most reasonable to me. We piled my backpacks onto the motor cycle and raced down to a hotel in town. As Jinja is one of the stops for the Overland crowd the hotels were packed full of so-called “adventure tourists” and no rooms were to be had. I ended up going up to the falls where they were a few hostels and found a place for the night. Jinja is quite a nice place, the adventure capital of Uganda, so there are many things to do such as Whitewater rafting mountain biking hiking etc. and the crowds who come there are all into that. After a bad night’s sleep I decided not to stay in place I was staying and found a nice  amp just up the road. There were a bunch of Overlanders camping and quite a few kayakers with their tents in the camp where I was staying.

The tourists who come to Uganda are quite different from the rest of the tourists who come to Africa, the younger and goofier in general, probably because the “Overland Bus” crowd is no different than your average package tourist who does not want to mix with the locals, and think they are getting to experience the real Africa while being driven around in a truck with 30 of their equals…

For more photos please visit the www.magener.com website click here

Spectacular deserts… wide open spaces and german radio stations!!
In many ways the Namibian deserts reminded me of New Mexico. The towns and villages are a strange combination of old German style buildings and really tasteless modern architecture. The distances between towns and villages can be big… so come prepared for long drives. Etosha NP is one of the most spectacular in Africa.

Places Visited:

Windhoek
Not the most attractive or exciting African capitol, but it is laid back and quiet.
Lodging: Verdi GH

Sossulsvlei****
The red sand dunes that Namibia is famous for are here. Quite spectacula they are best visited early in the morning. If you are arriving with a car instead of a 4×4 there are shuttle 4×4 to take you into the dune area.
Lodging: Little Sossulvlei Lodge

Swartkopmund
A really strange place… I do not really see any reason to visit this place other then that there are some Flamingos on the outskirts of town and that it is 1/2 way between Sossulvlei and Etosha or the Skeleton Coast
Lodging:

Etosha NP
One of the best national parks in Africa, thanks to the many natural watering holes. It is a good idea to spend a few days in the park staying at the rest camps as they all have thir own watering holes where the animas show up at night.
Lodging:

Going back to Antarctica once again… as the last trip down was such a fantastic one, the expectations for this one are high so the Europa has to live up to a lot!!
The Europa really is a cool piece of history, built as a light house ship in the Elbe she had been converted to a Tall Ship in the 80‘s and at 97 no longer young but stronger than ever… I doubt that they will say the same of me at that age!

We were all considered trainee sailors…. so basically we had to sail the ship, which included being at the helm ( possibly guiding the ship to disaster!! ) hoisting sails and being on watch for ships and icebergs…. my favorite “job” was to be at the helm during really rough weather or being on the watch at the crack of dawn…

As luck would have it my first watch shift was the 12 to 4 AM one… it was during these hours where we made our entrance into the Drake Passage… and it was as good as they get… there is nothing quite like getting soaked by waves crashing over you while sitting watch on the bow of the ship in the middle of the night! A s soon as we entered the Drake the giant swells began!
It took us 5 days till we finally reached the South Shetland Islands… our first landing of many was at …….. and I must say it was all as beautiful as I remembered. Antarctica is one of the most spectacular places on the planet!

Across the Southern Ocean on the tall ship Europa by Rolf Magener

We ended up visiting many of the places that I had been to before, but all looked different.. there were many more Icebergs in the Weddle Sea than there were 3 years ago.. so sailing though them was a bit of a challenge, being on a tall ship made it all the more special. At one point we pulled aside a giant ice float and everyone jumped onto it.. captain Eric being the first to jump off the ship.. which I thought to be a bit strange but cool! One of the highlights of this trip for me was when we got to see the spot on Elephant Island where Shakelton as his crew were marooned.

Our first night back at sea was quite a trip…. rough seas and freezing temperatures and snow are a bad mix… the first watch was all about keeping the decks from getting frozen over…. squeegee in hand you could run up and down the deck and never be finished because as soon as a new wave crashed over the deck it would start to freeze…. needless to say after 4 hrs of this you were ready for a good night sleep.
The crossing to South Georgia took 9 days…. thankfully the weather got a bit better along the way, but sadly the food onboard did not!! For 51 days we had to endure some of the worst cooking I have ever seen…. ham and cheese served for breakfast and lunch and for dinner bloody pork chops! But the Dutch people onboard seamed to like it!

I had been told by many people before that South Georgia was going to be the highlight of the trip…. sadly it was not… but never the less it is a spectacular place. We got to hang out with King Penguins whose colonies number in the hundreds of thousands… and got to hike the last section of Shackelton’s epic journey. Our last night was spend wedged in a tiny Fjord on the southern tip of the island… I must say Europa’s crew were amazing…. truly everyone of the sailing crew were the best one could have wished for, never and adventure too large and always super polite, even when one screwed up!! and incredibly knowledgeable. The next morning we made it up the fjord to a spectacular glacier and also to some visible parts of the ancient continent of Gondwana form where all of the continents we now know broke off from.

As soon as we were out hat open sea the watches were back… 4 Hrs on 8 Hrs of rest… that every day till we arrived at Tristan da Cuna… the most remote inhabited island in the world.
The last few days before arriving in we had some the best weather and sunsets of the journey. We spent two days on Tristan during which we finally got to stretch our legs and stock up on snacks for the rest of the trip. Most of our time there was spent wondering around the settlement, some people went to play golf and others went fishing and caught about 200Kg of yellow fin Tuna and about 40 lobsters…. to which the ships cook reacted with horror… this would explain much…. as we only got 2 days of fish in the following 20 days at sea to Cape Town.
Before heading out to sea again we got to land on Nightingale Island about a 4 Hr sail from Tristan. Nightingale is an amazing place totally covered with tall grass and full of young Albatross who would snap at us as we passed them on our way up to one of the must fantastic valleys I have ever seen that was full of Sycad like Ferns and hundreds of Albatross.

Back at sea on the Southern Ocean all turned back to routine of 13 days of watches and bad food…But thankfully the weather started to improve and we no longer needed to be using our fowl weather gear.

For more photos please visit the www.magener.com website click here