Travel stories, quotes and fun facts

Egypt moved a temple

Abu Simbel was cut into more than 1,000 blocks and reassembled 65 metres higher to escape the rising Aswan reservoir.

The chai stop

The bus stopped where there was nothing except a man with a kettle. Twenty-eight people got off, drank tea from clay cups, smashed the cups on the ground, and got back on.

Alexandria's library burned more than once

The famous library declined over centuries through several fires, funding cuts and political upheaval rather than one dramatic blaze.

Sudan has more pyramids than Egypt

The Nubian kingdom of Kush built over 200 steep-sided pyramids at Meroe, roughly twice Egypt's total.

I went to the woods

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life.

Wedding on the train

Half the carriage was a wedding party travelling to the ceremony. By hour three, they had taught us a dance and by hour five we were invited, sincerely, and we still regret not going.

Ethiopia keeps its own calendar

Ethiopia runs a 13-month calendar about seven years behind the Gregorian one, and the day starts at sunrise.

Ethiopia carved churches downward

The eleven churches of Lalibela were cut down into solid rock in the 12th century, roofs level with the ground.

Varanasi before sunrise

The boat pushed off in the dark and the ghats woke up in stages: bathers, then bells, then flowers on the water, then the sun straight up out of the far bank.

In wildness is the preservation

In wildness is the preservation of the world.

Coffee likely began in Ethiopia

Wild Coffea arabica still grows in Ethiopian forests, and the country's coffee ceremony can take well over an hour.

The Danakil is one of the hottest places

Average yearly temperatures above 34 degrees make the Danakil Depression among the hottest inhabited regions on Earth.

Kerala backwater bus

The public ferry cost less than a coffee and served as the school bus. Children got off at their own gardens, one by one, waving at the boat.

Eritrea's capital is modernist

Asmara holds one of the world's best-preserved collections of 1930s modernist architecture, including a petrol station shaped like a plane.

Not till we are lost

Not till we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves.

Living root bridge

It takes fifteen years to grow a bridge and about six hundred steps down a valley to reach one. The man who showed us said his grandfather started the one we crossed.

Djibouti has a lake saltier than the sea

Lake Assal is about ten times saltier than the ocean and sits 155 metres below sea level.

Somalia has the longest mainland coast in Africa

Somalia's coastline runs roughly 3,300 kilometres along the Indian Ocean and Gulf of Aden.

Traffic as fluid dynamics

There are lanes painted on the road and everyone treats them as a suggestion. After a week, crossing the street stops feeling like courage and starts feeling like grammar.

Live in each season

Live in each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit.

Kenya's rift is splitting the continent

The East African Rift is slowly tearing Africa apart, and in millions of years a new ocean may fill the gap.

The wildebeest migration never stops

Around two million wildebeest, zebra and gazelle circle continuously between Tanzania and Kenya following the rains.

The Sri Lankan train to Ella

Doors open, feet out, tea plantations for four hours. Somebody's grandmother told me to move back from the door, in Sinhala, and I understood every word.

Kilimanjaro has three volcanic cones

Africa's highest mountain is made of Kibo, Mawenzi and Shira. Kibo is dormant rather than extinct.