Amazing South Africa Safari, following the Orange River to the ‘Place of Great Noise’ continue… October 3, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Africa, Map, Rail Pass, Restaurant, South Africa, Tickets, Tour, Trails, Trip , 3commentsAugrabies Falls National Park
Close to the entrance there is an information centre where you can obtain a free booklet on the park. There is also a shop that sells a few tinned goods, firewood, refreshments, wine and beer — and petrol can be obtained.
There is a restaurant next to the shop, and picnic places nearby — set among trees along one of the river’s channels. There are braai sites here, with water and toilets. (No drinking water is available elsewhere in the park.) There are also two swimming pools here, and a play pool for younger children. (more…)
A Thundering Waterfall in a dry, Desert Landscape continue… September 30, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Africa, Cape Town, South Africa, Tour, Trails, Travel Insurance, Trip, Victoria Falls, Zambia , 2commentsWalks and drives
From here there are a number of walks and drives that you can take to outlying viewpoints. One of the most popular walks is along the 2,5 km path leading to the Arrow Head viewsite. From here you can look out over the rapids that career along the bottom of the gorge far below. For the more energetic there is the Klipspringer Hiking Trail which runs for 26km along the southern bank of the river. This is a three-day hike and walkers stay overnight in huts along the route. The trail passes Ararat, a granite rock that offers a magnificent view along the gorge, and also Moon Rock, which provides panoramic views over the whole park. (more…)
Teotihuacan, the Pyramid of the Moon and the Street of the Dead September 28, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Destination, Egypt, Geographic, Guatemala, Hotels, Map, Mexico, Museum, Round The World, San Juan, Tickets, Tour, Travelling Bag, Trip , 3commentsThis great and urban and religious centre, 30 miles (48km) northeast of modern Mexico City, was given its present name by the
Aztecs who encountered its awesome ruins. In Nahuatl, the language the Aztecs spoke, Teotihuacan means ‘place of the gods’, or, ‘the place of the creation of the gods’. This great site, dominated by two pyramids, was ‘regarded by the Aztec as the original source of civilization and government, and the place where cosmic order was established.” In Aztec myth, Teotihuacan was where Nanahuatzin, a dying god, jumped into a ceremonial fire which the four creator gods (representing the Four Directions) were too fearful to enter. (more…)
The Ruined Mayans City of Chichen Itza continue… September 22, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Accommodation, Central America, Destination, Hotels, Mexico, Museum, New York, Sightseeing, Tour, Trails, Trip , 3commentsThe Caracol (the name means ’snail’ because of the structure’s appearance and interior winding staircase) exemplifies this involvement with Venus in particular and the heavens in general. The structure consists of a cylindrical tower on a two-tiered rectangular platform, and it was probably Mayan originally with later Toltec- influenced additions. The upper part of the tower has crumbled, giving an appearance coincidentally reminiscent of modern domed observatories. This probably helped speculation over a long period about possible astronomical aspects to the building. Some of this speculation has been shown by fairly recent research to be wrong, but Anthony Aveni can now claim that Chichen Itza is one of ‘the most secure examples of the incorporation of a horizon-based astronomy in architecture’: (more…)
The Ruined Mayans City of Chichen Itza September 22, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Central America, Europe, Guatemala, Honduras, Map, Mexico, Rail Pass, Science, Sightseeing, Tour, Travel Gear, Travelling Bag, Trip , 5commentsThe ruined ceremonial city of Chichen Itza lies about 75 miles (120km) southeast of Merida in the north of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. ‘Old Chichen’ was built by the Mayans in what archaeologists call the Late Classic Period (AD 600-830) on an earlier site, only traces of which have been found. Buildings in this area include what have become dubbed the Church, the Nunnery, the House of the Three Lintels and the Caracol — a Mayan observatory. (more…)
Peru Inca citadel Machu Picchu: Hitching Post of the Sun, Sun God continue… September 22, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Central America, Cuzco, Encyclopedia, Geographic, Map, Round The World, Science, Tour, Trip , 2commentsThe Torreon’s southeast window may also have had astronomical significance, for it aligned to the rising of the stars in the tail of Scorpius which were called collca, the Storehouse, by the Andeans. Anthropologist Gary Urton has found that the Andean Indians today also use that name for the Pleiades, so there may have been some conceptual, mythological link between the two groups of stars.
There are probably energy and consciousness aspects to Machu Picchu, too. David Zink writes that the site is located on a geological fault. Often what are sometimes extreme magnetic anomalies are found in such locations. My own research has shown a connection between magnetic anomalies and the sensitivity of psychics.’ (more…)
Norway Røros Mysterious Light Phenomena September 19, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Europe, France, Hotels, Museum, New York, Norway, Rail Pass, Sweden, Tickets, Tour, Trails, Trip , 2commentsThe town of Røros is inscribed on the World Heritage List because of its mining heritage. It owes this, of course, to the mineral resources of the surrounding landscape, and because it is that landscape, the natural aspect of the area, that concerns us here, this choice from the List is a little different in kind from the other entries selected for this book.
The valley of Hessdalen is situated about 19 miles (30km) northwest of Røros, reasonably close to the border with Sweden. It is sparsely populated, with fewer than two hundred inhabitants scattered in farms amid the isolated wildness of the place. Despite its remoteness, the Hessdalen area put itself ‘on the map’ because of an outbreak of extraordinary light phenomena, which commenced in the closing months of 1981 and which were witnessed on and off for a few years thereafter. (more…)
Traveling US, don’t forget to buy a Car with the Fantastic Auto Loan, we can do it September 19, 2008
Posted by dodo in : America, Europe, Rail Pass, Sightseeing, Tour, Travel Gear, Trip, USA , 2commentsTraveling in the US is not that easy. I am used to enjoy a European rail pass holiday on the train. The territory is too big for backpacker like me to walk or take crowed bus. It is impossible to take a convenient touring train or bus. Having a little trail off road, it is my favorite. (more…)
Pass by German Aachen Cathedral September 16, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Cars, Destination, Dubai, Europe, France, Germany, Hotels, Museum, Netherlands, Rail Pass, Sightseeing, Travel Gear, Trip , 2commentsThe location now was occupied by Aachen, adjacent to the modern borders of France and Holland, was resorted to even in prehistory because hot springs occur there. Exactly how far back into antiquity the place had importance is unknown, but the Celts were certainly established in the area by the time the Romans discovered the springs. The waters were sacred to the Celts and dedicated by them to the healing god, Granus. The Romans called the site Aquis Grani. They built bath complexes and shrines. Some houses edging the Hof, a triangular space a stone’s throw northeast of the cathedral, were built on first and second century AD Roman masonry, and part of a well sanctuary was uncovered. (more…)
How safe is Air Flight Journey? Commercial Airplane Accidents and Safety continue… September 13, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Air Tickets, Airlines, Destination, Rail Pass, Round The World, Sightseeing, Tickets, Tour, Trip , 3commentsWhat kind of maintenance steps do airlines take?
There are two basic types of maintenance: scheduled maintenance and unscheduled work focused on correcting faults that have occurred. For scheduled inspections, government regulators require increasingly detailed work, some of it related to a plane’s age and the number of hours and flights it has made. At each step in the process, mechanics probe more and more deeply into an aircraft, taking apart more and more components for closer inspection. Regulators give airlines some flexibility in their maintenance programmes, but a typical programme looks something like this: (more…)
A Day in Narnia, a Night in Phang Nga September 6, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Bangkok, Hotels, Tour, Trip , 3commentsOn the village green in front of the Chinese Bhuddist temple a fairground was being erected. The skeleton of a Ferris wheel loomed; shooting galleries and hoopla stalls were being knocked together.
The purpose of the structure immediately outside the temple was not so obvious. The men hammering it together had beckoned us, beaming, inviting inspection. A raised wooden runway, carpeted with the pin-sharp points of six-inch nails hammered through from the bottom, ran out 50ft and ended in a bed of nails laid on the grass. At the foot of the bed, guyed by wire ropes, a forty-rung ladder rose vertically. The rungs were steel knives, blades up. (more…)
Luxury Jet Air Flight, the true beginning of Jet-powered Flight September 5, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Hotels, London, San Francisco, Tour, Travelling Bag, Trip , 3commentsJet engines derive their thrust from the reaction to the discharge of hot gases. The jet engine uses a very simple three-stage process to develop its power (or thrust as it is known). It “sucks, burns and blows”!
During the first (”suck”) stage, the jet engine uses very powerful compressor fans to suck great volumes of air into the jet engine casing and compress it to a high pressure. Jet fuel is then mixed with this high- pressure air in a combustion chamber and it is ignited to burn at a very high temperature (the “burn” stage). This very hot gas expands rapidly and is forced out of the rear of the engine producing the force that pushes the aircraft forwards. (more…)
A Visit to Dominica September 1, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Caribbean, Hotels, Rail Pass, Restaurant, Sightseeing, Tickets, Tour, Trails, Trip , 3commentsA strange thing happened this year. A man I’d met only twice, a bit of a loner, invited me to go with him to the West Indies. I fancied him so I said yes.
I knew of Dominica only as the birthplace of Jean Rhys, a writer I deeply admire. Now when I read about the island I discovered that it is volcanic and mountainous and is the last refuge of the Carib Indians, the descendants of proud cannibals who starved to death rather than accept the fate of slavery. It is one of the wilder places on earth and contains rainforest, and boa constrictors. (more…)
One More Burmese Day August 31, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Asia, Europe, Forex, Hotels, Rail Pass, Singapore, Tour, Trails, Travel Gear, Travelling Bag, Trip , 3commentsAt five in the morning Rangoon shakes off sleep. Paraffin lamps cast pools of sputtering light on the wet streets. After a night of drizzle, the city murmurs as though sound, like the dust, has been cleared from the air by the rain. The lamps wheeze. In a café doorway a man slaps chapati dough on to a board, and stacks the rolled balls into ranks. A boy yawns and adjusts his lunghi. He oversees a water tank parked in the road. Water splashes from a faucet into a jerrican, and when it fills the boy sluggishly replaces it from a line of empty ones. A truck, far off, grinds gears and whines, coming slowly closer. (more…)
The Drums of Nefta August 31, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Africa, France, Hotels, Rail Pass, Tour, Trails, Trip , 6commentsIt is late evening and Marianne, Walter and I have just finished a large couscous washed down by several bottles of heady local wine. My companions start talking in Arabic again and I have the depressing sense of being a hick tourist fallen among real travellers. Wine- numbed and bloated, I lapse into silent recapitulation of what has brought us here.
I met Marianne on Jerba, an island claiming mythic status as the place where the Sirens held Ulysses. I too was becalmed, though the Sirens were inaudible. I would take bus trips from the island to towns in southern Tunisia but they never lasted longer than a day. Their chaos and squalor did not compare well with the pristine beauty of Jerba and, as a lone male out of season, I was prey to a horde of street hustlers. On Jerba I had made it clear that I was not in the market for anything and they left me alone. (more…)
Backpacking in Mani continue… August 30, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Accommodation, Europe, Greece, Rail Pass, Sightseeing, Tickets, Tour, Trip, Vaccinations , 3commentsAnother memorable walk was the nine kilometres from Yerolimena to Vitheia. This is the deep Mani, almost as far south as one can go on mainland Greece. The road passes through a landscape dotted with crumbling towers, those ‘brooding castellations’ which are the most striking feature of the region. It was from their gaunt tower houses that the feuding Maniot families of the eighteenth century bombarded each other with musket, cannon and rock, while a cowed population of serfs crept from their semi-troglodyte hovels between the fusillades. (more…)
Big Safari Game in the Okavango Swamp, Kalahari Desert Travel August 30, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Africa, Botswana, Cape Town, Europe, Rail Pass, Sightseeing, South Africa, Tanzania, Tickets, Tour, Trails, Travel Clinic, Travelling Bag, Trip, Vaccinations , 5commentsWe slid through the swamps while animals criss-crossed our path before and aft; kudu, zebra, buffalo, impala, and a herd of fifteen giraffe, splashing through the water with feet big as plates. Matata poled gracefully; he could have been punting down the Cam as his pole pushed blue and white water lilies aside. His ears were sharp as a jackal’s and he could spot the tracks of a hippo from an extraordinary distance. The lilypad sized footprints, at least one foot across, sank deep into the mud — heavy, purposeful tracks. (more…)
Airline/ Flight Travel Jokes August 29, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Africa, Air Tickets, Airlines, Cuba, Embassy, Flight Schedule, France, Las Vegas, London, Scotland, Tour, Trip , 3commentsI took my wife to France by airline travel last year. You know how it is — you always take something with you that you don’t need.
Florida has two main industries, tourists and alligators, and they skin both of them.
Travel broadens one — so does sitting at home in an armchair.
This is a wonderful town. When I arrived here I couldn’t walk, I couldn’t speak, I had very little hair and people used to lift me from my bed — I was born here. (more…)
Gypsy Serenade continue… August 26, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Africa, Paris, Tour, Trails, Trip , 3commentsThere in a tiled room in the basement the pleasure began: Gonzalo’s daughter danced for us. She was fifteen, lithe, conscious of her own body and beautiful in her art, and all the while as the spectators’ enthusiasm grew her father watched her, drinking Jerez, nodding his head and smiling.
Presently he drew me aside to suggest that if I would like to give him a certain sum his wife and daughter would go immediately and prepare a gypsy supper. He explained that their house down under the railway by the Bridge of Three Eyes had only one room, but his own eyes shone as he described the delights of a gypsy supper. (more…)
London Sightseeing Pass: Westminster Palace and Abbey & St Margaret’s Church continue… August 25, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Air Tickets, Cars, Destination, Ireland, Library, London, Museum, Rail Pass, Scotland, Sightseeing, Tickets, Tour, Trip, Wellington , 5commentsA cult developed around Edward. There were accounts of him healing the sick while he was alive, and rumours of cures at his tomb continued. In 1102 it was opened and his body found incorrupt. After a campaign lasting for decades, Edward the Confessor was canonized in 1161. His body was raised from the tomb before the high altar and replaced in a richly ornamented shrine, the key, sacred focal point of the Abbey. (more…)
