Tagged With: transportation
Lake Kivu boat ride
Lake Kivu is on the border of Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The DRC city of Goma, which is immediately across the border, had been in the news recently because M23 rebels had temporarily captured it, but everything was calm and peaceful when I was in the area. (Bird photos by Posh!) … Continue reading
Nyungwe to Gisenyi
Dear reader, I’m falling dangerously behind in blogging these days so the next several posts will be photo-rich/text-poor in an attempt to catch up to present day! It was a long day in the car driving from Nyungwe to Gisenyi. The scenery was gorgeous. We’d actually passed this sign on the road, but I … Continue reading
Cyangugu, Rwanda
Getting to Cyangugu wasn't a whole lot of fun. Even though the roads were perfectly paved, my seatmate spent most of the journey throwing up into a paper bag. Plastic bags are illegal in Rwanda, an attempt to limit litter and pollution, but I had one handy so I gave him the plastic ziplock bag … Continue reading
Bujumbura, Burundi
I’ll admit it, I wanted to visit Burundi mostly to check it off my list. I knew very little about this small country other than it had been colonized by the Belgians who played on ethnic divisions between Tutsi and Hutus which resulted in several bloody eras in the nation’s recent history. I arrived in … Continue reading
In transit
It took about six days and several bus rides to travel from Matema in southwest Tanzania to Bujumbura, Burundi. Sorry there aren't many photos to accompany this post but as you read, I'm sure you'll understand why I wasn't snapping pictures. Matema to Mbeya I was planning to get up around 4am in order … Continue reading
Dar to Mbeya: a really crappy bus trip–or–the kindness of strangers
4:45am: alarm goes off 5:30am: in a taxi to Dar Es Salaam's Ubungo bus terminal 5:55am: help a jet lagged and overwhelmed German couple find their bus company 6:05am: buses bolt out of the station like lightning and almost run over a young girl. Passersby chastise the girl 6:15am: find my … Continue reading
Zanzibar to Dar
I knew I'd have to leave my quiet beach sooner or later, so when the time came, I caught a dala dala to Stone Town. Dala dalas are local buses and there seems to be a few different vehicles types. In Zanzibar the dala dalas are like pick up trucks with an extended bed where … Continue reading
Welcome to Tanzania
I changed my flights a couple of days before leaving for Tanzania and the only seats available were in business class so Mini Bear and I flew in style! We had the most incredible view flying over the green waters of the Mediterranean and the dusty brown landscape of northern Africa. The light through … Continue reading
Rovaniemi, Finland
We caught an overnight train from Helsinki to Rovaniemi, the capital of Lapland which sits just a few kilometers from the Arctic Circle. The train ride was beautiful, which is just as well because traveling north to the Arctic Circle in July means you enter the land of twenty four hours of daylight so at … Continue reading
Helsinki
Many of my fellow passengers on the first ferry of the morning from Tallinn to Helsinki had clearly been up all night indulging in Tallinn's nightlife so the ride was pretty quiet. The ferry was a pea green and orange ship that must have held around two thousand passengers on its nine decks. Even though … Continue reading