Backpacking in Africa Jonny Blair
“Fly me down to capital city in the sun”- Noel Gallagher. It came as more of a shock to my travel friend Malina than me that the muddy, agricultural hub known collectively as Porto Novo is the capital of Benin. I guess I kind of expected it. Having witnessed some unusual capital cities on my Read more about Backpacking in Benin: Visiting the Capital City, Porto Novo “Baby”[…]
“You’re turning every modern theory on its head” – Super Furry Animals. Travel is a journey that takes us to many different places around the world. Not all of them are inspiring, some of them are painful memories, some are bad timing, some bad luck, some bad judgement. Many of them are surprising places that Read more about Bottom 7 Countries to Backpack In From My Round the World Journey[…]
“I bless the rains down in Africa” – Toto. I toured the vivacious capital of Togo with my Polish friend Malina. It was my first time in Togo, my 7th time in Africa and it was a whirlwind trip where we also toured Lake Togo, Coco Beach and Togoville. On the same trip, we border Read more about Backpacking in Togo: Top 6 Sights In Lomé, The Capital[…]
“Under neon loneliness; motorcycle emptiness” – Manic Street Preachers. Benin’s largest city, Cotonou is a sprawling fast-paced affair drenched in predictable West African mayhem. There is no exit door, once you’ve dumped your backpack in this monster. Don’t even think about it. Despite not holding capital city status, it’s the blood sucking beast of the Read more about Backpacking in Benin: Top 8 Sights In Cotonou[…]
“We sat and watched the sun go down. We picked a star before we lost the moon. Youth is wasted on the young; before you know it’s been and gone too soon ” – Robbie Williams. Togo is for sure one of the world’s hidden gems. It’s a country which inexplicably loses visiting numbers to Read more about Staying in Paradise at the Coco Beach Hotel, Togo[…]
I’m posting this not just to tell our story but to help fellow tourists who visit Benin. There are scams, liars, cheats, frauds and rip off merchants all over the world but West Africa is notorious for it. We were backpacking in Benin recently and here is just one example of a liar, cheat and Read more about Backpacking in Benin: The Stupid Insulin Scammer in Cotonou[…]
“I can feel you watching, even when you’re nowhere to be seen, I can feel you touching, even when you’re far away from me” – 5 Seconds of Summer. Arrival in Togo in October 2018 meant a sixth visit to Africa for me and my third time in West Africa. I was travelling with my Read more about Backpacking in Togo: Touring the World’s Largest Voodoo Market in Akodessawa, Lomé[…]
I was backpacking in Morocco in 2017 as part of a tour where I visited Casablanca, Marrakesh and delved south into Western Sahara. I was able to get a cheap flight from Krakow in Poland direct to Marrakesh in Morocco. This made it easy to visit Marrakesh and backpack my way through the main sights Read more about Backpacking in Morocco: Top 5 Sights in Marrakesh[…]