Travel stories, quotes and fun facts

The earth teaches us

The earth teaches us more about ourselves than all the books, because it resists us.

Lake Nyos released a deadly cloud

In 1986 a sudden release of carbon dioxide from the lake suffocated nearby villages. Degassing pipes now vent it safely.

Angkor at five in the morning

Three thousand people waited for the sunrise photograph at the front pond. We walked ten minutes to the east side and had a nine-hundred-year-old temple entirely to ourselves.

Nigeria is Africa's most populous country

More than one in six Africans is Nigerian, and Lagos is one of the fastest-growing cities on Earth.

The teacher at the market

He sold noodles in the morning and taught English in the afternoon and refused to charge us for a bowl once he learned we were teachers too. We came back three times to argue about it.

Nollywood outproduces Hollywood

Nigeria's film industry releases thousands of titles a year, second only to India in volume.

Travelling tends to magnify

Travelling tends to magnify all human emotions.

Ghana named itself after an empire

Modern Ghana took its name from the medieval Ghana Empire, though that state was located further northwest.

Motorbike lessons

The advice for crossing the road was to walk slowly and never stop. It is terrifying for two days and completely obvious on the third.

Ghana keeps fantasy coffins

Ga carpenters build coffins shaped like fish, aeroplanes or cocoa pods to reflect the life of the person inside.

To travel is to discover

To travel is to discover that everyone is wrong about other countries.

Ivory Coast has the largest church

The Basilica of Our Lady of Peace is the largest church building in the world by floor area.

Train street tea

We drank iced tea sixty centimetres from a railway line. Twice an hour everyone stood, moved the chairs, and sat back down as the train passed.

Senegal has a pink lake

Salt-loving algae turn Lake Retba pink in strong sun, and collectors coat their skin in shea butter before wading in.

Overnight bus to Sapa

Sleeper buses have three rows of reclining pods and a strict no-shoes policy. I slept for six hours and woke in fog with rice terraces underneath it.

Gorée Island remembers the slave trade

The House of Slaves on Goree stands as a memorial to the transatlantic trade and is visited by heads of state.

Experience is not what happens

Experience is not what happens to you; it's what you do with what happens to you.

Mali built a mud mosque

The Great Mosque of Djenne is the largest mud-brick building on Earth and is replastered each year by the whole town.

Bun cha at eleven

The stall opened at eleven and sold out by one. On the third day the owner recognised us and put extra herbs on the plate without a word.

Timbuktu held vast libraries

Timbuktu's private libraries preserved hundreds of thousands of manuscripts on astronomy, law and medicine.

Tourists don't know where they've been

Tourists don't know where they've been, travellers don't know where they're going.

Burkina Faso means land of upright people

The name was chosen in 1984, combining words from two local languages to replace the colonial name Upper Volta.

Ha Long fog

We had booked for the view and got two days of white. Then on the last morning it burned off in about fifteen minutes and sixteen hundred islands appeared at once.

Niger has dinosaur graveyards

The Tenere desert has yielded some of Africa's richest dinosaur fossil beds, including giant sauropods.