Departure tax - shocking Sierra Leone - nothing at the airport works - no Wi-Fi, no cash machines that work, no card payments.

Backpacking in Sierra Leone🇸🇱: Scrap Your Departure Tax and You Might Get More Tourists

“We are not born for departure, but we do learn to take it” – R.E.M. In the last 20 years of backpacking the world, only TWO countries charged me for departure tax to be paid in cash at the airport when leaving…and the shitlist reads… 1.New Zealand🇳🇿. 2.Sierra Leone🇸🇱. Of course they are not my Read more about Backpacking in Sierra Leone🇸🇱: Scrap Your Departure Tax and You Might Get More Tourists[…]

Backpacking In Niger🇳🇪: Top 9 Sights In Niamey, The Capital City

Backpacking In Niger🇳🇪: Top 9 Sights In Niamey, The Capital City

“It really really really could happen” – Damon Albarn. Niger’s mainstay, Niamey is a lesser ventured capital city. I didn’t know a lot about it before my visit. We heard that boating on the Niger River and heading out to a giraffe zone would be the highlights and the normal things for backpackers to do Read more about Backpacking In Niger🇳🇪: Top 9 Sights In Niamey, The Capital City[…]

Backpacking in Niger 🇳🇪: Top 17 Memories of Niamey

Backpacking in Niger 🇳🇪: Top 17 Memories of Niamey, The Capital City

“I want to be wild because my life is so tame” – Noel Gallagher. I thought I’d do a different post on Niger, as opposed to my usual textbook top 7 sights posts. So here I’ll share my top 17 memories from my time backpacking in Niamey. Niamey is the capital city of Niger, and Read more about Backpacking in Niger 🇳🇪: Top 17 Memories of Niamey, The Capital City[…]

Friday’s Featured Food: Beef🥩Pepper🌶️Onion🧅Rolls🥖At Breakfast At Eto'o Restaurant in Abidjan, Ivory Coast 🇨🇮

Friday’s Featured Food: Beef🥩Pepper🌶️Onion🧅Rolls🥖At Breakfast At Eto’o Food Restaurant in Abidjan, Ivory Coast 🇨🇮

This edition of Friday’s Featured Food will take us back from Ivory Coast in December 2024 to Cameroon 9 months prior via a visa quest for the Central African Republic. In March 2024 when backpacking in Douala, Cameroon, I asked my guide Mebah Markdonald (of Discover Cameroon Tours) if I could attend a top division Read more about Friday’s Featured Food: Beef🥩Pepper🌶️Onion🧅Rolls🥖At Breakfast At Eto’o Food Restaurant in Abidjan, Ivory Coast 🇨🇮[…]

Backpacking Simultaneously In Mauritania 🇲🇷 and Spanish Sahara 🇪🇭: Visiting Cap Blanc, The Most Western Point Of Saharan Africa

Backpacking Simultaneously In Mauritania🇲🇷and Spanish🇪🇸Sahara🇪🇭: Visiting Cap Blanc, The Most Western Point Of Saharan🏜️Africa

“Go West, life is peaceful there” – Pet Shop Boys. In December 2024, Marek Bladowski and I had a wild dream to backpack to the western most point of Saharan Africa. What even is that? Is there even a point where such a place exists and publicises itself? We dream up the wild things. Life Read more about Backpacking Simultaneously In Mauritania🇲🇷and Spanish🇪🇸Sahara🇪🇭: Visiting Cap Blanc, The Most Western Point Of Saharan🏜️Africa[…]

Thirsty Thursdays: My Top 10 And Bottom 2 Bars In Central African Republic 🇨🇫

“Love’s a hide and hate display” – Nicky Wire. I never expected to visit 5 bars in the CAR, nevermind double figure it, but here we are, there we were. In my previous few countries – Niger I drinkpacked only 5 bars and in Burkina Faso just the 9, with Mauritania limited to 5 non-alcoholic Read more about Thirsty Thursdays: My Top 10 And Bottom 2 Bars In Central African Republic 🇨🇫[…]

101 Countries And Out: Retiring My Beloved Forest Green Mindshift Gear ThinkTank Backpack

113 Countries And Out: Retiring My Beloved Forest Green🌳☘️Mindshift Gear ThinkTank Backpack🎒🍀💚

**It’s time to retire my lovely forest green backpack!!** “Days that found you; grace that bound you” – Teenage Fanclub. General wear and tear, two snapped zips, one broken zip cord, a torn sleeve and more stains than a brothel’s bed, but this exact green backpack has successfully backpacked through 101 countries with me in Read more about 113 Countries And Out: Retiring My Beloved Forest Green🌳☘️Mindshift Gear ThinkTank Backpack🎒🍀💚[…]

Jealous of this guy's Omam-Biyick shirt - what a jersey that is - 1990!

Living My 1990 Football⚽Dream In Cameroon🇨🇲: Watching The Top Division Play-Offs And Meeting Samuel Eto’o In Douala!!

“They can come true yeah. They can come true” – Gabrielle (Dreams). Before you read this, look at the above photo and watch Omam Biyick’s legendary header below. I watched it live after school in June 1990 in Marlo in Bangor, Northern Ireland. I wanted Cameroon to win. I loved it. I love it. I Read more about Living My 1990 Football⚽Dream In Cameroon🇨🇲: Watching The Top Division Play-Offs And Meeting Samuel Eto’o In Douala!![…]