After 10 weeks of travelling, we arrived in Congo-Brazzaville.
We already read in literature that Congo is one of the richest (!) countries in the world for her natural resources. Yet her people are considered one of the poorest in the world, because of the second lowest nominal GDP per capita.
Over the years, but especially after the mid 80s, the economy dramatically declined. people are starving from famine, many war victims and diseases killed aproximately 5 million people. This resulted in a dramatically declined national output and the revenue for the government.
the economy relies on the mining businesses. Congo is a large supplier of industrial diamonds, cobbalt and copper.
Women are not safe in Congo. United Nations is not yet ready to change the situation as it is at the moment. lots of women are raped, abused and murdered.
Although Libya is a rather dangereous country at the moment, we still decided to leave for Libya in week 7.
Libya is a country in the north of Africa, next to Egypt and Sudan for example.
Muanmar Gadaffi reigned from 1969 until 2011, when he was killed after the movements in Tunisia and Egypt. This was hot news for a long time. During this period, it was nearly impossible to enter the country. Foreigners were evacuated to neirby countries or even back to Europe.
23 October 2011: the liberation of Libya, remembering and honoring the 30.000 deaths caused by the civil war. Now the National Transitional Council (anti-Gadaffi) represents the political body of this country since March 5.
We arrived at the Republic of Chad, week 8. We had some troubles passing the borders from Libya to Chad, but thankfully things turned out positive.
Chad is also a country with many diverse regions, such as desert in the north and savannah in the south. A little weird are the two national languages: French and Arabic. Well Arabic isn't that surprising actually. The country is bounded to Libya, Cameroon, Sudan, Central Africa and Nigeria.
Thomas and Sarah had a pretty hard time speaking French, as their Arabic was very poor. I speak some Arabic which I've learned in Jordan, Israel and Egypt. But speaking French wasn't a problem at all for me and Jessica.
Immediately, we noticed that people are very poor here. Probably one of the poorest countries I've ever seen before, besides Senegal. Above that, the vast majority of the people are Muslim and Roman Catholic. It is also a country where polygamy is forbidden by law, but yet it's very common. one third of the women live in unions where polygamy is common.
Week 9. The capital of Central Africa is 'Bangui'. National languages are French and Sango (which is spoken in Congo and Chad as well).
The climate is tropical, while we expected it to be very dry, even desert-like. This is the case in the northern areas, it is nearly impossible to stay there for a long period of time (especially at noon when the sun is high and the air is very hot and dry). It's exhausting. We're all dazed and knock-out by the continuous heat.. What we needed was a well deserved refreshment. We washed ourselves in the falls of Boali on the Mbali river, which were absoluty stunning and fresh.
When we visited the locals, we were shocked about their health conditions, as life expectancy is very low (this must be around 45 years old, imagine this in Europe...). HIV is a serious problem in these countries, and Central Africa is not an exception. People are poor and forced to work on dry landscapes, while agriculture is so important. A good thing is the free education in Central Africa. But still the largest part of the adults can't read nor are they able to write.
after 11 weeks of travelling, we arrived at my favourite destination all times: Madagascar.
Typical for the east coast is the rainforest. The same rainforest is also a big issue now: the largest parts of the forests already vanished.
In the center of the Island, we find dry savannahs (as seen in Africa), Baobab trees in the west, palm-tree beaches at the beautiful coasts. You can't imagine the beauty of these beaches, unless you've seen it yourself.
How to explore Madagascar?
You better go by jeep (safari, book via your touroperator) or rent a jeep on your own for a few days. That is what we did: for a short period of time, we rented two jeeps, crossing and cruising threw the fauna and flora of this big island. It's also possible to ask a local guide to go along with you. It's worth the price !
As we moved on threw the rainforests, we spotted a lot of extraordinary reptiles (geckos, chameleons) and tortoises (no shortage of these animals here!). Madagascar is also called the Island of Lemurs. We saw a lot of these creatures passing by.
Technically, Madagascar seems to be a mini-continent on it's own. it is the fourth largest island in the world, with a wide variety of flora and fauna.
We just arrived in Bulgaria, more specifically in the capital, Sofia. The sun was burning hot. We had to pull off our clothes.
The average temperature is 23 degrees and the climate is favorable for growing fruits, wines, vegetables,...After breakfast, we were ready and set to visit a local market. Agriculture plays an imporant rule in the Bulgarian economy and it's one of the few sectors which has a positive trade balance.
We were really curious about the main industries. When we finally arrived at the market, we saw a lot of market stalls and with different sorts of wines. It's no surprise, agriculture is one of the main industries, with his rich nature and continental climate. We had the oppurtunity to taste those generous Bulgarian wines :)...Bulgaria is a famous producer and exporter of wine to more than 70 countries. It's the second largest producer of wine, with France being number one.
There are many vineyards to be found throughout Bulgaria, except in the capital Sofia, because of the unfavorable climate over there.
For geographical reasons, the vineyards are widespread in five regions. Each region has his own quality to build up a vintage. In the centre of Bulgaria, we discoverd a lot of hilly areas with a fertile soil perfect for producing red wines such as Bulgarian Merlots and Cabernets.
In the Eastern region, they produce a lot of white wines because of its temperate climate around the Black Sea. Khan Krum and Varna are specialties of this area.
Some important Bulgarian labels are:
- Mavrud: it tastes like Bordeaux
- Gamza: It's a wine that is identical to the Kadarka in Hungary
- Melnik: This name traces back to his producing town 'Melnik. It is the smallest town in Europe. Its wine has a dark red colour and a thick taste.
There is a story that someone who wants to have a baby boy has to drink this wine a lot.
Bulgaria is not only famous for his wines but the country is ranked on top of the world for many other commodities such as anise, raspberries, sunflower seeds. The economy is a free market and can the country itself be classified as industrial and agrarian. Bulgaria's major products consists of refined petroleum, iron, copper, gold, coal and weapons. Accordingly, the most important industries are mining and energy.
Mining is one of the most important export earnings. Much of the production takes place in Kremikotsvi and Pernik.
Tourism is also one of the key sectors because this country is an attractive place for visiting historical museums, nature parks and other special places.The Bulgarian tourism shows an upward trend. The number of foreign tourists who visited Bulgaria is now over 2,7 million.
Greeces most well known building. Its a wholly temple, and its being restored. The Parthenon is one of the proves of the rich history Greece has. Greece has a big financial crisis now, but the Parthenon proves Greece wasnt always bankrupt. It was one of the richest cultures in the history of mankind. So of course, the second day (after resting one day from the trip) we started visiting the architecture of Greece. So we went to see the Parthenon. Its very impressive, there are illusions in the building, to increase the perfection of the building to the human eye. And with the restoration almost complete, itll have the honor it deserves to have. The third day, we stayed in the same area, to visit more architecture. More temples, of course, because there are lots of them in Greece. Of course, the trip wasnt all about the architecture, so we tried to combine lots of things on the same day. We also went to see the ancient theater of Epidaurus. Its amazing how these theatres of hundreds of years old, still manage to provide such a good range for hearing, without any technology. Just because of the special form and design of this architectural masterpiece, its possible to hear perfectly what the person far away is saying during the Greek play (which was played during our visit there, tickets were bought the first day already). During the play, we could also enjoy the wonderful nature scenes around the theatre. The special thing about the architecture of Greece is that scientific research proved that all these temples were painted in very flashy colors (blue, green, red, ). So even though the architecture is still very beautiful, I guess it was even more beautiful in the time Greece was the dominator of the world.
After 11 weeks of traveling we arrived at one of the world's poorest countries: Madagascar. It is a country that gets its income mainly from agriculture. On our journey through Madagascar, we met an organization that has been engaged for several years in numerous projects in that country. CMGDM ( Coopération MarGas pour le Développement Madagasikara) is the name of the organization. That organization has already achieved a great deal during the period 2008-2010. They have refurbished bungalows, created new tourism opportunities, improved water supplies, training, etc. Because we were very impressed by this organization, we decided to follow the organization for a couple of days. Rice is the main product of Madagascar but unfortunately because of the lack of modern machinery and obsolete irrigation systems Madagascar can only rely on rice from other countries. CMGDM explained to us and to the local population how they can use the ground on a more efficient way and to obtain a higher production. We helped with pulling the seeds out and planted new seeds that are much farther apart than originally had been done. We have also learned that it is not necessary for the plants that they are under water permanently. But thanks to the heavy rains of recent months the fields stood under water. Later that week we made a tour in a factory of sugar that CMGDM had built. This sugar is processed and made ready for export. Vanilla and coffee also makes a large part of the export. Along our many walks we saw many fishers and nomadic tribes. What we found strange were the few types of livestock. But the locals told us that livestock are not valuable to life from. They do not possess the necessary food to fatten the animals and the animals barely give milk. But most of the nomadic held Zebus. Zebus are held for religious reasons. They are not slaughtered and are not kept for the milk. The milk we drank in our hotel was almost sour because the milk truck came too late to collect all the fresh milk. The vegetables and fruits we saw on the locale markets were not always of equal quality. The rainy season was just over so a lot of harvest failed. When we returned to our hotel we saw regular trucks and jeeps stuck on the muddy road. When a truck got stuck we could not believe our eyes: Within a few minutes the truck was completely plundered. So Madagascar certainly needs more money and resources for the economy of to move forward.
After nine weeks of traveling, we arrived at one of the largest countries of Africa, but also one of the most dangerous countries namely Congo. Fortunately, since 2012, peace has more or less returned to the country. But our jeep was frequently stopped by police and checked for weapons.
Despite that, the local Congolese population was very happy with us as Belgian tourists. Congo is a formerly colony of Belgium and they still cherish that time because of the improved road network, nutrition, education and better medical care.
There was certainly no shortage of attractions in Congo. The first thing we visited in Congo was the mighty Congo River. It forms the border between Congo Kinshasa and Congo Brazzaville. In some places the river seems very quiet but that is not true, there unpredictable whirlpools are everywhere. Especially I had a lot of fear as the boat was old and looked unstable. We sat with many people on the side of the boat. We were very lucky that our boat did not overturn because in some places we were a few kilometers away from the river bank. We came back to the mainland after a few hours.
After a long jeep trip on a bumpy road we arrived at the waterfalls in Zongo. These waterfalls are 70 meters high and are surrounded by green. We arrived through a path at the bottom of the waterfall. Fortunately we had a raincoat on because we felt the water falling on the rocks that is coming from the waterfall. Later that day we visited the mangrove forests. The mangrove forests forms the border between water and land. During low tide we saw during the roots of the trees. Mangrove Forests protect the coast against the force of tidal waves.
We also visited the National Park Solanga by boat. This park is the largest nature reserve in the African rainforest and the second largest rainforest in the world. We walked through small streams and branches to come out in one of the many open spaces. Our guide told us we had to be very quiet so we would not disturb the bonobos. During our walk we encountered peacocks and crocodiles. An inhabitant was so happy to see us that we continued our trip on an elephant. Despite the fact that the park is listed on the list of endangered world state we saw evidence of poachers and plunderers.
The last day of our holiday we went to the port town of Matadi where we met with the local fishermen. They told us that fishing and the growing of crops are important sources of income. The Congo River is obviously very important for the freight to and from Congo.
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- Gemiddelde waardering: 0/5 - (0 Stemmen) Categorie:Week 10: Democratic Republic of the Congo
Week 6 from 25 until 2 April
We were about halfway in our trip and we were very curious to visit Greece. The country looked very beautiful on the internet but we wanted to see it with our own eyes. Although the temperature was around 20 degrees, there were already a lot of tourists in Greece. During that week we went from city to city or island by bus or by boat. During our long bus rides we could enjoy the mountains, nature and the abundance of water. The first thing we visited was the lake of Corinth. It is a narrow lake with six bridges. Five bridges are for cars and one bridge for the railway. The bridges are located approximately 70 meters above the water surface. So we had already suspected that Greece is not totally flat. The next day we visited the theater of Epidaurus. This theater is huge and to our surprise we could hear everything that a group of English speaking tourists was telling below in the theater. Because the bus could not drive to the excavations of Mycenae, we did a part of the trip on foot. Unfortunately there was on the outside not much to see. Normally there are several bodies in each grave. The bodies were buried with many artfully crafted objects: gold cups, goblets, masks and ornaments, beautifully decorated swords and daggers. But unfortunately we could not see that. Later that we week we visited another Greek island Olympia where we visited the Old Olympic stadium. It was not a round track as we had thought, but a long rectangle. A line showed us the start and finish. Athletes were not walking in circles, but returned at the end of the runway. In the past, there was seating for 45,000 spectators and a tunnel in which athletes would make their appearance from. Now there is nothing left from the tunnel and the stadium. We also visited Delphi and the temple of Apollo. During or trip back to Athens, we stopped at the Byzantine monastery. Thomas laughed with us because we were obliged to drag a long green skirt over our dresses. We bought a bracelet after the visit. The bracelet had drawings of several holy persons; the person who stays longest on your bracelet becomes your guardian angel. To finish the week in beauty we went to the Acropolis. There it was very windy but the view over Athens was very beautiful.
Congo - Economy
Libya (politics)
Republic of Chad
Central African Republic
The Nature of Madagascar
