Kilembe & Buwatha, Rwenzori mountains / Ruwenzori-Berge

Near Kasese along the main road to Fort Portal at the northern tip of the Rwenzori mountains, a road goes up to the mountains for about 8 km until it reaches Kilembe. The small settlement has been founded in 1950 as accommodation for the workers of the local copper mine. Most of Kilembe residents earned […]

Bwindi Impenetrable

Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in south-east Uganda comprises 331 square kilometres of dense montane rainforest as well as cloud forest between 1.160 m and 2.600 m in altitude. The forest are home to more than half of the remaining mountain gorilla population – about 400 animals. They live in around 30 groups, twelve of them […]

Lake Bunyonyi – Der Bunyonyi-See

Lake Bunyonyi is located only 7 kilometres from Kabale at 1.900 m altitude, while the surrounding mountains reach heights of 2.500 m. The lake was formed around 8.000 years ago when lava blocked Ndego river, and that led to the flooding of the valley. Today, Lake Bunyonyi is 25 km long, 5 km at its […]

Nyabushabi Primary School, Kabale

When we visited Kabale, the gate to the Virunga volcanoes as well as to Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, in 2012, we were lucky to get invited to Nyabushabi Primary School just outside the town on behalf of a Swiss student of teaching. It was a Friday, and the younger pupils were having a football tournament […]

Nkhotakota Wildlife Reserve

Nkhotakota WR is located on the slopes from the central highland down to the lake at the bottom of the Rift Valley, and it is the oldest reserve in Malawi. The landscape is characterized by dense bushland and montane forest, often Miombo, with many rivers flowing down the escarpment to the lake. There are countless […]

La Montagne des français

Between Antsiranana and the Indian ocean lies the “mountain of the French”, a 340-meter-high rock massif officially protected as a reserve since 2013. Even though it is not a big mountain range and despite its proximity to the city, the reserve is home to five species of lemur, 50 bird species, 40 species of reptile, […]

Les Trois Baies

East of Antsiranana, Montagne des français rim the bay, protecting the city from the sheer brute force of the annual cyclones approaching the island from the east. Ramena, Antsirananas “seaside resort” with beautiful beaches and astonishingly calm water, is situated right at the entrance to the bay. Beyond Ramena and the mountains, three strikingly picturesque […]

Antsiranana (Diego-Suarez)

Antsiranana is the northernmost city of Madagascar, and beyond Antsiranana, there is only the Cap d´Ambre, the northern tip of the island. Its Malagasy name means port, and that is quite a striking name. The bay of Antsiranana is encircled by mountains and is said to be the largest natural port on earth, with a […]

Joffreville & Montagne d´Ambre

Joffreville (Ambohitra) in the Montagne d´Ambre had been built by the French colonial rulers for strategic as well as climatic reasons. Today, the small town offers not much more than picturesquely decaying colonial architecture and the opportunity to go hiking in the nearby Montagne d´Ambre National Park. Around 5.000 people are living in Joffreville today, […]

Journey through a mouldering land – Reise durch ein zerfallendes Land

An important ressource rarely taken into account, often disdained and most of the time “tramped on” without bothering much is soil! But that is the surface of this planet, generating life and nutrients as well as keeping everything alive. Desertification – the ongoing spreading of deserts – and erosion are devastating enormous amounts of soil […]