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East of/Östlich von Antananarivo, Madagascar/Madagaskar

Various means of transport – Verschiedene Transportmittel

Lopé II – Lost Highway

28 pictures

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Wir versuchten noch, von Mayumba aus den Süden des Loango Nationalparks zu besuchen, bekamen aber bei einem Anruf die brüske Antwort, dort sei alles ausgebucht und Camping nicht erlaubt, was bei uns allerdings zu nicht mehr als einem Schulterzucken reichte. Gabun will keine Touristen, das hatten wir inzwischen verstanden.

Transporteur

Things to put in your front yard – Deko für den Vorgarten

Lopé I – The transport issue – Die Sache mit dem Transport

43 pictures

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The next morning, we got picked up past eight. We drove to the National Park office next to a park entrance on the other side of La Lopé where we had to inscribe our data into a big book. On the way, we had picked up our guide, a short and stocky guy who was working for the researchers most of the time. He didn´t seem too convinced of the concept of tourism but at the same time, he was a very friendly one. We already knew the entrance books from the parks in eastern Africa, but in Lopé were only two or three visitors recorded per day. That was something completely different compared to eastern Africa, and Lopé is not the remotest park in the country, it is Gabon’s highlight, by far the most famous and most accessible park. (Apart from that, using the words Gabon, Lopé and accessible in one sentence feels sort of unnatural to me.)

Gabun / Gabon – Un voyage ardu

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Auf unseren Reisen in Ostafrika haben wir uns in den vergangenen Jahren immer wieder der DR Kongo angenähert – und damit auch dem großen Regenwald des Kongobeckens, dem zweitgrößten Regenwaldgebiet nach dem im Amazonasbecken. Beim Besuch in dessen östlichstem Ausläufer, dem Ituri-Wald, der im äußersten Westen Ugandas im Semliki Nationalpark geschützt wird, hatten wir im vergangenen Jahr bereits einen flüchtigen Eindruck dieses majestätischen Waldes bekommen. Aber wir wollten ganz hinein.

Cabbage – Kohl

Near / Nahe Sempaya, Uganda

Buggala Island, a place of retreat I – Buggala, ein Rückzugsort I

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From Kalinzu Forest, we caught a minibus to the east, to Mbarara where we had to change transport and took a big bus eastward on to Masaka near the shore of Lake Victoria. After the delicious Friday night BBQ buffet at the Frikadellen, a Danish-run eatery linked to the NGO Childcare Denmark, and a night at the Vienna Golden Hotel in Masaka (we couldn´t figure out why the hell this is called Vienna), we tried to take a minibus to Buggala Island, the largest island of the Ssese Archipelago which comprises 84 islands just off shore on Lake Victoria. There is a free ferry service commuting all day between the mainland east of Masaka and the western tip of Buggala Island, covering the three or four kilometres in around 40 minutes.

Kampala

42 pictures

Kampala

e/d Return to Kampala – Rückkehr nach Kampala

Five years after our first visit to Uganda and its capital, we finally revisited Kampala in July – twice. Of course, it´s a characteristic African capital, which means that it has got a modern town centre as well as sheds, huts and slums as far as the eye can see – for probably close to two million inhabitants. But set on “seven hills” amidst a rolling landscape one can also instantly observe the ongoing battle for the souls and the lives of the Ugandan people while looking at Kampala. A battle, which failed to attract my attention back then, but therefor this time, it struck me right away!