Antananarivo, Madagascar´s capital with two to three million citizens who just call it Tana, has been marked as the world´s third most polluted city just behind leading Baku/Azerbaijan and Dhaka/Bangladesh in a Forbes-ranking in 2008. But there must have been some improvements ever since then. When it comes to air pollution I´ve seen worse in […]
Kategorie: culture
Mouila – A quiet place – Ein ruhiger Ort
Mouila is indeed a quiet place – not to say sleepy. It is the capital of the Ngounié region, named after the river which is the most important tributary of the Oogué. 30.000 inhabitants are living in Mouila that is linked to Lambaréné and Libreville in the north as well as Ndendé in the south […]
Lambaréné – Visiting Albert Schweitzer – Zu Gast bei Albert Schweitzer
Lambaréné is situated southeast of Libreville on the banks of the mighty Oogué, the “Congo of Gabon”, before it branches out, feeding several lakes and flowing into the Atlantic Ocean in a giant delta 100 kilometres west near Port Gentil. The town lies in the middle of dense rainforest, just like in the times of […]
Lopé
We were lucky because the van actually brought us to Ndjolé without thrombosis, bruises or other injuries. At the market in Ndjolé, we had to accept the fact that there was no way how we could reach La Lopé by road on that very day, so we took a taxi to the train station a […]
Libreville – No way out
When you get off the plane as a northern or middle European in Libreville, it is like walking against a wall. It is the extreme humidity that hits you like a weight packed upon your chest. At least I felt so when we arrived at Libreville at half past seven in the evening, after a […]
Gabon / Gabun – Un voyage ardu
During our travels in eastern Africa in the past years, we have come close to the DR Congo quite a few times – as well as the rainforest of the Congo basin, the second largest rainforest just after the one at the Amazon basin. 2017, we´ve finally visited it´s easternmost extension in form of the […]
Harar
The legendary city of Harar is in Ethiopia´s east only a few kilometres from the border to Somaliland at 1.850 m at the outermost point of the Ahmar mountain range. Famous for its UNESCO World Heritage old town enclosed by a defence wall, modern-day Harar has around 200.000 inhabitants and is quite a typical African […]
Meet the Dorze – Zu Gast bei den Dorze
The Dorze live up in the Guge mountains north of Arba Minch, and they belong to the so called “Museum of tribes” in southern Ethiopia, ancient ethnic groups living just like their forefathers. Long ago, the Dorze had been a tribe of hunters and warriors, but when the regions big game disappeared, the people had […]
Gambella
The city of Gambella as well as the eponymous region are oddities in Ethiopia, lacking the significant features of the rest of the country, especially the highland culture. The region is more linked to South Sudan because of the nearby border. The city has been established by Britain in 1907 as a port at Baro […]
Hayk
A few kilometres north of Dessie, you get to Hayk, a bland small town stretching along the road. But one or two kilometres from the town centre, one can find the eponymous lake on an altitude of 2.000 m amidst a lush mountain scenery that couldn´t be more picturesque. The lake is 85 m deep […]
