Who has been to Africa? Tell us about your travels.

"africa"? big place you know. that's like saying "europe", as if it's all the same. i was in ethiopia for a week, one of the experiences of my life.

I’ve been to Ethiopia and Tanzania. Both different. Amazing places and amazing people. Very spiritual. It’s a trip you won’t forget.

I had a farm in Africa, at the foot of the Ngong Hills

Lived and traveled two years in West Africa in the 90s. Don’t know how much has changed in 20+ years, but it was definitely a “roughing it” kind of experience, with moments of amazing adventure. No, it wasn’t the safari experience that many people think of when considering “Africa”. But, very different infrastructure and culture than what we’re used to. I guess it depends what you want out of the trip.

In Africa all seems to breathe freedom and peace and to make one forget the world and its sad turmoils.

R1. I am perfectly aware that Africa is made of some 54 countries, you stupid asshole.

Well, with that charm all Africa will turn out to welcome you!

I bless the rains down in Africa.

I won an Oscar for my time in and "out" of Africa.

[quote] I bless the rains down in Africa.

And then?

I got me Ebola thar

Cairo. Fascinating. Had a private driver and saw all the sites without the "hassle"

[quote] I bless the rains down in Africa.

[quote] And then?

It's gonna take some time to do the things we never had.

Don't bother OP. It's a shithole country.

I'd love to go to the Massai Mara, OP, and stay here.

If the Dafur orphan doesn't make an appearance in this thread, I'll be disappointed.

I've been to Tanzania. I did not enjoy it but I was glad to see it. The poverty is grinding. The desperation and low level lawlessness that results is... ever present. It is heart breaking to see badly disabled people begging in the street in Dar es Salaam, which when I was there last, ten years ago, was pretty careworn. A national said to me: there is no middle class here, just haves and have nots.

It is odd to be unable to walk unaccompanied because you will get mugged. Not harmed, but robbed. Such is the desperation. I met a girl who that morning had been robbed of her iPhone while jogging. She was sanguine about it. Said it wasn't the first time and was her fault because she knew better. It is wearying to sit in a bar at a hotel and have to fend off the really aggressive prostitutes who get in because they've got a deal with staff and that's how desperate they are. I was travelling alone on business and when dining alone came to take my meals in my room, just to be left in peace. It is sobering to visit the back country and see a hospital with no windows, and apparently not much else, yet a Coca Cola or Pepsi sign pretty much everywhere you go.

And yet... yet... there is joy in the poverty and the scramble. That is normal life to them. Despite the horrific circumstances there is joy among the people and all the emotional aspects of regular life. I realized how manipulative the commercials from Care and Oxfam are. Yes, they live in terrible circumstances and no, it is not good enough and yes the west should figure out what part we have to play in bringing them forward and get the fuck on with it. But the people just keep on keeping on. They are not all sitting around sobbing, covered in flies, starving and dying, as the fundraisers would suggest. They do not need us to nanny them, they need us to work with them. There is an essential dignity about the people who are grown adults raising families and living their lives, just in really difficult circumstances. I felt the earnest aid workers had infantilized them and shown a lack of respect for their dignity and ability to care for themselves, as much as circumstances allow. I left feeling we needed to change the circumstances, not change the people.

Africa is fascinating, frightening, maddening, moving. It was a real experience and I am glad I went and know I will not return.

R16... he's on a hunger strike. That tough little fucker didn't last this long by giving it away.

Visited Namibia, Botswana, and South Africa 3 years ago.

The moment I returned home I wanted to get on a plane and go back, and will once this current craziness is over.

Absolutely jaw dropping landscapes (Namibia and SA) and seeing an elephant in the wild for the first time (Botswana) is the most magical experience. Wonderful people too. Definitely GO, OP!

It's not all that.

R17 Thank you for such an interesting response.

[Quote] I bless the rains down in Africa.

[Quote]—Toto

Speaking of:

[quote] They are not all sitting around sobbing, covered in flies, starving and dying, as the fundraisers would suggest.

When I watch TV and see those poor starving kids all over the world, I can’t help but cry. I mean, I’d love to be skinny like that, but not with all those flies and death and stuff.

R17 is exactly what I’ve imagined the experience would be like. Not fun but educational. Having reached 50, my adventurous travel days are fading so I can’t imagine I will go. It’s incredibly valuable as education - but not a fun vacation - like India.

R17 here... I don't mean to make it sound awful... I had fun moments and saw fascinating things. One of the best meals I've had in my life was in a restaurant in Dar. But it is a very different and you cannot hide from the reality of life there. We'd go to restaurants guarded by Masai (sp?) warriors. Not because it made a good photo.

I got traveller’s diarrhea in Rwanda. Rad! Luckily it only lasted a day.

The mountain gorilla trekking was cool, too.

Saw some lions eating a giraffe corpse in Botswana. Gnarly. And I learned hyenas have massive penises. A fun trip ,I do say.

R26 there is a big concern that someday will transmit some illness to the gorillas and kill them off. Can you tell me a bit more about what the gorilla experience was like?

I saw the beautiful silverback gorillas in the Bwindi in Uganda. They are eerily similar to us. It's more fulfilling to see them in their natural habitat than in a zoo.

R28. Was it at all frightening to be near the gorillas? How much did you pay?

I saw a silverback tortoise at Jersey Zoo (formerly Durrell Wildlife Conservation).

I, of course, have been.

R29 it is not frightening at all. The rangers groom them to tolerate human presence. They have gorilla trekking permits at $600 (currently discounted at $450 due to covid10). This is cheaper than Rwanda's permit at $1,500

We like it. Great photo opps. It's a land where everyone asks if you're okay, unlike, well...never mind.

I’ve traveled to North Africa (Egypt and Morocco) when I was younger and single.

I’d love to go to SubSaharan Aftica—but now that I’m partnered, how easy is it for a gay couple to be tourists there?

R35 I travelled with my partner. Africans are quite homophobic but they are also not outspoken. They will probably ignore it. We did not at anyone moment feel endangered (like the gorillas). Obviously PDA should be minimal to none.

Uganda has history of a gay king who killed his subjects because they chose Christianity over him

R30 Did you know that Jersey Zoo is in terrible shape financially due to COVID shutdown? If you have any money to give, please donate to them online. They may have to shut down.

I was impressed with the way that Kilimanjaro rises like Olympus above the Serengeti

I've been to Morocco. I got bitten by bedbugs, was threatened by the local mafia, was involved in a car crash, I shat my pants (literally, not figuratively), got spat on by an angry taxi driver and yet still had the time of my life.

I went to Cape Town. Stunning city.

Yes, Egypt. Cairo only, but that counts.

The Congo is so beautiful too. There are tribes that have never come in contact with a white person

Oh, I've been to Nigeria and the shores of Liberia

While I sipped ginger beer on a yacht

I drank a martini in eSwatini

And ended up in Nouakchott.

Like R39, I was in Morocco, except I thought it was kind of a sh*thole. I was almost stabbed in Tangier for not buying a carpet, saw a toilet on a train out of Casablanca that still gives me nightmares, and was actually shot at in Marrakech after getting lost in the souk and coming out of the city walls at some random gate. Oh yeah - and the food was total sh*t too - I don't recommend the horse-burgers. Probably the worst place I've ever visited, and I've been to over 60 countries.

[quote] currently discounted at $450 due to covid10

I remember COVID-10.

[quote] Did you know that Jersey Zoo is in terrible shape financially due to COVID shutdown? If you have any money to give, please donate to them online. They may have to shut down.

I did not. Henry Cavill should do a nude calendar to raise money for it.

I was in Egypt a long time ago (in 1981), but I was in Kenya in March of this year. On an organized group tour. It was great--we went to four or five different game areas and saw lots of animals up close--and we were supposed to spend our last two nights at the Maasai Mara as mentioned in R15, but after a lovely lunch and tour of Karen Blixen's home in Nairobi, we were advised the next day that instead of heading out to Maasai Mara, that they were going to try to get us out of the country before it got locked down due to COVID. So our trip was cut short and we ended up being flown out of Nairobi to Dubai, where we had to spend the night (with no luggage) and then on to LAX on a 17-hour flight.

I'm going to Dubai!

Well, r36 - you know how bitchy fags can be.

Be prepared to pay the dash!

R39 = a M

Though I walk through / Warm sands in Africa / Winds will grow soon / To storms in Africa

One of my dreams was to buy a car and spend 6 months to a year driving from Cairo across North Africa, then turn south through West Africa, then onto South Africa, then head east ending up in Mombasa for a holy fuck I did it! celebration dinner.

Then I realized that I'd be robbed, car-jacked and murdered before I got to the Libyan border.

I took a day trip from Spain to Tangier. We spent the day being hassled for money from 9:30 a.m. until about 4 p.m. It ended with us running away from the border control office and being stopped by agents with guns.

Wasn’t my favorite, but it was just a day trip.

R53 = Saffy

R54, your last sentence gives me high confidence you don't sweat the small stuff.

I blessed the rains when I was there

R57, are you also R8?

R56, I actually want to go back. I would just plan better.

Seth Efrica.

Yes, but it's only a 3 hour flight to North Africa from the UK. You can go to Tangier (Morocco) for the weekend from here.

This whole thread is just OP trying to get stories about BBC out of you suckers.

I love North Africa: Egypt, Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia.

I've driven through East New York, so yes.

Capetown like Prague but with less Negros.

Does the drive thru safari at Six Flags in Jersey count?

I spent a couple day in Morocco - short jaunt over during a trip to Spain. Other than that I have been to Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Mozambique, Malawi, Zambia, Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, Lesotho and Eswatini / Swaziland. I did a lot of tromping about the world with a pack on my back and a dollar in my pocket back in my youth. Hitchhiked or used public transportation and stayed with locals or the occasional cheap hostel. Great memories.

What time does Tyler swing by the tented camp to present hole, R15 ...

Yes, a school program with Dakar Academy, in Senegal. Solid experience, but did not venture outside the capital city; the school did not allow us to. It was a teachers workshop, with people coming from France, America and the Caribbean, to learn afrocaribbean culture.

Only Marrakech and Cape Town. Surrounded by chic white people in fabulous white spaces. Hardly knew I was in Africa at all.

We spend most of the winter in Cape Verde (Sal) which is just off the coast of Senegal, it's a former slave trading post so they mainly speak Portuguese.

.

R44 what year was that? i was just in Tangier and Marrakesh last February - nice and friendly locals.

I am in Toronto and got invited to a wedding in Morocco. I have very little money, not to mention the pandemic, so I said no, but I haven’t heard back from the bride, who might be pissed off. Surely as a regular person, I can’t be expected to go, particularly as I only know the bride thru work and the groom not at all? I am not a rock star.

Went to Cape Town this past Nov/Dec for 9 days. Great visit. I was warned about the crime there and to be extra careful at night and only use Uber. The dollar goes a very long way there. My 2nd night, I had an appetizer, ribeye with a veggie, 3 drinks for a total of $30 US dollars. I will return when this craziness is over.

I've only been to South Africa. Joburg and Capetown. Capetown is gorgeous and full of profound history. Lots of fun gays at night. I was truly fascinated by Joburg. The suburbs are grouped around malls and every freakin house is behind a tall security fence and barbed wire. It was freaky. Downtown was experiencing a kind of artsy renaissance, so it was fun. I have friends there, so it was nice to have natives to take me around.