On my way to Turkey

Here I am, on the road again. Yes, again you'll say. Never enough, I would add.

So at this point, I'm somewhere between home and Turkey. Crazy? Bah!

I had chosen not to travel this summer. But I changed my mind. Hesitated between Switzerland, Croatia, Turkey, and the UK. Asking around, I found myself a traveling partner ready to board for Turkey. Decision made!

But now, the conditions got worse there. Protests are going on and on in Erdogan's country. Go or not to go?

Of course, there is the financial aspect. Flight was booked and I won't get a refund unless I'm sick or it's way too dangerous to go there. And I have that feeling that the risks, ever present in Turkey, one must admit, are probably concentrated in some public places like Taksim Square. Would be surprised if the protesters invaded the mosques and the other very touristic attractions.

So I'm leaving. I'll see. My instinct will be my first ally. Nothing keeps me from changing my plans if I feel unsafe. But for now, after looking at the warnings on the government website, I'm not worried.

Let the adventures begin...

Hostels in Amsterdam

With Brel's song in mind (Amsterdam), I started looking for a hostel in Amsterdam. Just in case. Because I usually travel in the low season. But not this time. And it appears the city of vice might get crowded in June.

Conclusion : when hostels get full without any effort from the owners, there is no need to offer a good service. When you look at this, the average rate on hostelworld, for any of these hostels, is pretty low. Cleanliness, staff, apparently, everything is "not so good".

So I gathered my informations from friends living in Amsterdam. They confirmed : the hostel world in that city is a jungle.

A jungle because you might end up with smoking, drinking, noisy roomates. With the Red Light nearby, you know... That's where you might want a hostel with a no-smoking, no-drinking policy.

A jungle too because when you read previous customer's comments, you understand it's gonna be pricey for average service. When your description states the showers don't work that well... and you don't plan on fixing them, it means you probably still make a lot of money out of your crappy hostel.

Other downer : unless you want to go far away from the city, the fares double for a bed on Saturday. Yes! You won't find a bed under 60 $... in a dorm.

Anyway, I booked to ensure I would sleep somewhere. Took a cancellation insurance. If I find some people to share a room, it might be cheaper in a hotel...

That said, I won't hold back from commetning once I get there. Stay tuned.

La Nouvelle

On another subject, I now write a column called Le Bourlingueur in the weekly newspaper La Nouvelle. French readers will find me there once a week.

Those who leave

We never really come back from a long expedition. Or maybe we do. For some. But nostalgia, as small as it can be, never turns itself off.

There are those who inevitably go on, who keep on traveling once you're home. Like that girl I met four days before the end of my own adventure. She was in the first week of six months of exploration.

And there are those others who look at you with eyes wide open when you say you haven't been home for months. They're jealous and believe they can't do the same. Or they face too many obstacles.

Then you have those who write to you to ask how you did it. Write back again to say they are planning their own round-the-world trip. And, like my friend Ben, who I met in Japan, they start their own blog to keep in touch with their friends and family.

Ben is leaving in less than a week. For six months. And I can see myself, one year ago, just about to jump. The unknown staring at me. Knowing my adventures would bring me far away from where I thought I would go.

I smile thinking of Ben embarking on his own journey. And I'll follow him with a lot of interest.

What advice could I give him? Plan a little. Not too much. Be open and go with the flow. Try new things. Get to know people. They might be the best friends you'll ever know, even if for only a few hours. Embrace the lows. They are moments to regroup. Accept what you can't change. Don't let fear get the best of you, but listen to yourself when you get that feeling you should stray from your path... Have fun, and if you can, stop in Cambodia for a least a couple of days.

So there are those who are leaving, and those who already understand that feeling. Those who make us feel better when we believe nobody shares our way of seeing the world. So I found that post, which I recommend you read if interested in how traveling affects you. It's called Date a boy who travels.

A simple goodbye to Africa

Cape Town, South Africa

There was no way we would let our last day in Africa go without making the best out of it. The optimists thought four hours were all we needed to go from Wilderness to Cape Town. Me and my friend woke up at 6 AM to bring back the car where it belongs.

We're still debating to see if we should be proud of it or not, but we litteraly "opened" a McDonald's like others "close" the bars. For breakfast. Because no other options. No time to lose : the road ahead was long enough.

In the end, it took five hours, maybe more, to reach our destination. After the third "Wake Me Up Before You Go Go", rain started to fall. Hard. Well, not that much. But enough for the radio to ask drivers to stay home. Several accidents had already happened and were blocking the roads in the big city. It felt like a big snowstorm in Quebec. For a simple rain shower.

Anyway, the wheather situation, with temperature going down, was reassuring about us missing out on the expedition to Robben Island. We would have been miserable had we gone. My shoes, the only pair in my bag, were still damp from the day before. Nothing to help.

So we spent the last part of the day eating, comparing the price of items we bought to see if they were cheaper in the souvenir shop or after we negociated with locals (generally, we saved money. Woot!) and visiting District 6 museum. One needs time and a taste for reading to appreciate the museum... When we got out, while we had paid for our parking, a street guard tried to get some money out of us. We couldn't leave Africa without escaping a scam.

But that was not the end of the adventure for us, who were a little short on time to give the car back and make sure my copilot would catch his plane. Yes, yes, yes, a big traffic jam on the highway. And... yes, yes, yes, the fuel sign lit to tell us the Ferrari was thirsty, right there, in the middle of a sea of cars. You know, when you really don't want to see what happens when you run out of gaz and need to search for it while driving to the airport.

With stress on our mind, we fueled the car and got to the rental desk on time. We still needed to clean the car (two guys, two weeks, a car... See the picture?). Anyway, we had time to eat a snack and to dry my shoes before we split.

The copilot disappeared for the security controls while the check-in counter for my flight was still not open. I saw my friend's plane take off before I could finally get rid of my luggage.

Boarding the KLM plane, after having three hours to kill on my own, I had that strange feeling I would be back soon on the african continent.

And for those wondering, yes, we got the picture from the photo radar. Speeding on the South African highway didn't go unnoticed.

The interest of the unforeseen

Wilderness

I've already said it, the unforeseen brings the best surprises. Whether you panic trying to fit everything in the schedule like it was planned from the start, or you do with what you have and you have fun no matter what.

When we woke up in Knysna, before visiting the township, we wanted to leave as soon as possible towards Cape Town so we could spend at least one more full day in the big city. But knowing it would be impossible to visit Robben Island, we knew we could take it slower.

In the end, after the township and a more than welcome meal, it was already late. So we opted for a one or two hours drive before stopping in Wilderness, a city that wasn't on the radar at first.

Wilderness, it is the calmness in the outdoor. It is also one of the most interesting hostels we found, the
Fairy Knowe Backpackers, with its volleyball field, its meals served on a big common table, and a bar outside, under a roof.

We met interesting people and chose, the next morning, to go horseback riding in south african nature. Our guide was going slow, knowing we were not used to that activity, which didn't stop my horse scaring me by tripping... After, we stayed, rented a kayak to go up the river and walked to a waterfall.

Back in the hostel, we decided to drive to Swellendam. But to make sure everything would go well, we tried booking a room. Surprise! No bed left.

And South Africa isn't France. No way to find another city around there to spend the night. After some useless maths, we had no choice but to book the last two beds in the dorm, in Wilderness. The next morning, we would have to drive for five hours to reach Cape Town.

We had fun anyway in that calm city and we forgot we had less than 24 hours before we would leave Mandela's country.

Visit a township

Knysna

Enough with the elephants! To leave Addo park, we made our way towards the south part of the reserve. Slowly. And there was a lot nothing out there. Until we ran into an elephant alone on the road. Nearby! Nearby! Nearby! At the exit gate, the guards made sure we were not leaving with an animal... or anything else that was forbidden.

We then stopped for one of the best meals we had in South Africa, in Jeffrey's Bay. Still, we had to make our way near the water, to Die Walskipper.

Built on the beach itself, directly on the sand, the restaurant offers portions so big you will probably need to bring the leftovers with you. There is homemade bread, meat cooked on a fire and a magnificient view on the ocean. On the other hand, it might be uncomfortable to see the richness of the marina next to a poorer township.

After that, we spent the night in Knysna, a small town where most of the lights go out after 8 PM.

One of the highlight in Knysna, other than The Heads, those cliffs forming one of the narrowest entry port according to some, is the visit of a township. Those are to South Africa what favelas are to Brazil. To go there, we chose the tour our hostel, Island Vibe, was offering. It is advised to never walk alone in a township.

The guide first brought us to The Heads before driving us to the township. The kids there, living in small poor houses, were so happy to see us. For some of them, strangers mean they'll get candies. So they reach out for them.

We also stopped in the rastafarian community, where we visited a nursery. We ended up in a bar, on top of a hill... at noon.

The visit of a township should and must be on your to-do list in South Africa!

In the afternoon, we left for Wilderness, not without aknowledging there was no tickets left for the ferry to Robben Island, on the day we would be back in Cape Town. Bad karma! Even when trying to book ahead, luck wasn't on our side.

Elephants! Finally!

It may be nice to have time to sleep, but it's not every day you get to visit South Africa.

We had to throw ourselves from our beds to finally wake up and start our first complete day in Addo Elephant National Park. We had booked a game drive in the morning too, to make sure we would see as many different types of animals as possible. Departure time : 6. AM! For me, that's almost in the middle of the night.

Nyway! This time, there were 24 of us in a huge truck. At our first stop, after encountering zebras on the way, we could see five or six hyenas, which had just caught their breakfast : a fresh turtle. Seeing that many hyenas, apparently, is rare. Bucket list : check!

For the rest of it, it was just an endless trip around the park, where we didn't see that many animals. Some buffalos again, some kudus... and some more kudus.

Back at camp, we ate our own breakfast before stopping at the convenient-grocery store to buy some food. It is the only store in the park. By chance, you can find everything there. We bought noodles, frozen vegetables, frozen meat, some spices and something to calm thirst. And what we needed for lunch too. The frozen things are a good idea. Because when it's 40 degrees Celsius outside, for tourists having nothing to keep food fresh, meat gets bad fast.

So we started exploring the park with the Ferrari. As recommended, we drove from waterhole to waterhole. Until... Around noon, when the sun is at its peak, elphants, warthog, zebras and jackals all go to drink. So we spent long minutes watching a whole groupe of elephants taking care of their babies. They took turns to drink and get water to cool down. Amazing!

After, we stopped at the picnic area, protected with barb wires (there are nine lions going around the park), to eat our lunch. Here, strange birds are everywhere and small monkees, obviously used to humans, were watching, waiting to steal our food. Me not trusting monkeys. Me ate fast.

In the afternoon, we saw nature more than anything, animal hidding in the bushes.

At the end of the day, we reached our final destination, Spekboom camp, where we had booked a simple tent with two beds, a lamp, a barbecue and a shared kitchen with a fridge. Camp is situated in the middle of the park, with walls and barb wires around. From one side, there is a view on a waterhole.

Other than the relative calmness and the darkness, it's the starry sky, without too much light pollution, that stole the show. Worth! Every! Penny!