Fun fact#501
Mauritania runs an iron ore train
One of the longest trains in the world hauls iron ore over 700 kilometres across the Sahara, and travellers ride it free on the ore cars.
Travel stories, quotes and fun facts, part 6
29 stories, 51 fun facts, 20 quotes on this page. It covers Mauritania, Singapore, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Philippines, Liberia and 43 other places. Page 6 of 10.
Page 6 of 10
29 stories, 51 fun facts, 20 quotes on this page. It covers Mauritania, Singapore, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Philippines, Liberia and 43 other places. Page 6 of 10.
Countries on this page
Every country page collects its entries in one place, with a fact sheet and the guides for going there.
Entries on this page
Story#502
Rain at four
It rained at four in the afternoon for five days in a row, for exactly twenty-five minutes each time. By day three we planned our coffee around it.
Quote#503
Travel isn't always pretty
Travel isn't always pretty. It isn't always comfortable. But that's okay. The journey changes you.
Fun fact#504
Cape Verde is entirely volcanic
All ten Cape Verdean islands are volcanic, and Fogo's cone still has villages farming on its crater floor.
Fun fact#505
Guinea-Bissau has a maze of islands
The Bijagos archipelago has around 88 islands, most uninhabited, and is a UNESCO biosphere reserve.
Story#506
The jeepney route
Routes are painted on the side and fares are passed forward hand to hand from the back. Nobody loses a coin. Nobody keeps the change.
Fun fact#507
Liberia was founded by freed people
Liberia was established in the 1820s as a settlement for freed African Americans and declared independence in 1847.
Quote#508
Move, eat, learn
If you're twenty-two, physically fit, hungry to learn and be better, I urge you to travel as far and as widely as possible.
Story#509
Island hopping fuel stop
The boat stopped at a beach with a hut and a barrel of diesel. The refuelling took twenty minutes and the swimming took the rest of the afternoon.
Fun fact#510
Sierra Leone means lion mountains
Portuguese sailors named the peninsula for mountains whose thunderstorms sounded like roaring lions.
Fun fact#511
Togo is narrow and long
Togo is only about 110 kilometres wide but stretches 550 kilometres inland from the Gulf of Guinea.
Story#512
Typhoon week
The ferries stopped for four days. We ended up in a fishing village with four other stranded travellers, learned to play a local card game badly, and were sad to leave.
Quote#513
It seems that the more places
It seems that the more places I see and experience, the bigger I realise the world to be.
Fun fact#514
Benin has a lake village on stilts
Around 20,000 people live in Ganvie entirely on stilts above Lake Nokoue, moving by pirogue.
Fun fact#515
Angola has waterfalls few visit
The Kalandula Falls drop about 105 metres across a 400-metre curtain and see a fraction of Victoria Falls' visitors.
Story#516
Bagan by e-bike
There are two thousand temples and no rule about which one to climb. We picked one at random, sat on warm brick, and watched the light change for an hour.
Fun fact#517
Namibia protects its whole coast
Namibia was the first African country to write environmental protection into its constitution, and its entire coastline is now protected.
Quote#518
Open your mind
Travel changes you. As you move through this life you leave marks behind, however small.
Fun fact#519
Sossusvlei's dunes are among the tallest
Dunes here reach over 300 metres, coloured deep red by iron oxide that has been oxidising for millions of years.
Story#520
The teahouse ledger
Every teahouse on the trek kept a paper ledger, and the prices went up predictably with altitude because everything had been carried on someone's back.
Fun fact#521
Deadvlei's trees never rotted
The camelthorn trees died around 900 years ago but the air is too dry for decomposition, so they still stand black against white clay.
Story#522
Ten days to base camp
The mountain is not the hard part. The hard part is the fourteenth consecutive dinner of dal bhat and the discovery that you would happily eat a fifteenth.
Fun fact#523
Namibia has the world's largest meteorite
The Hoba meteorite weighs about 60 tonnes and has never been moved from where it landed roughly 80,000 years ago.
Quote#524
Don't tell me how educated
Don't tell me how educated you are, tell me how much you have travelled.
Fun fact#525
Botswana's delta flows inland
The Okavango River never reaches the sea. It spreads into the Kalahari and evaporates, creating a vast seasonal wetland.
Story#526
A porter's load
He carried thirty-two kilos with a strap across his forehead and overtook us on every climb. At lunch he asked, politely, whether our bags were really that heavy.
Fun fact#527
Botswana has the most elephants
Around a third of Africa's savanna elephants live in Botswana, concentrated in the Chobe region.
Quote#528
Travel in the younger sort
Travel, in the younger sort, is a part of education; in the elder, a part of experience.
Fun fact#529
Makgadikgadi was once a lake
These salt pans are the bed of a superlake that dried up thousands of years ago, and they are visible from orbit.
Story#530
Prayer flags in the wind
The idea is that the wind carries the prayer, so a faded flag has done more work than a bright one. Nobody takes the old ones down.
Fun fact#531
Zambia and Zimbabwe share a waterfall
Victoria Falls is neither the tallest nor the widest, but its combined height and width create the largest sheet of falling water.
Story#532
Thimphu has no traffic lights
They installed one once and took it out because people preferred the policeman. He directs traffic like a conductor and clearly enjoys it.
Fun fact#533
You can swim at the edge of Victoria Falls
When the river is low, a natural rock lip forms Devil's Pool, where swimmers sit metres from a 100-metre drop.
Quote#534
He that travelleth into a country
He that travelleth into a country before he hath some entrance into the language, goeth to school and not to travel.
Fun fact#535
Zimbabwe has stone ruins without mortar
Great Zimbabwe's walls were built from fitted granite blocks with no mortar and gave the modern country its name.
Story#536
The high pass
We crossed at 4,655 metres in a shared jeep with a cracked windscreen. The driver stopped at the top, got out, tied a ribbon to a pole and got back in without explanation.
Fun fact#537
Malawi's lake has more fish species than any other
Lake Malawi contains more fish species than any other lake, with hundreds of cichlids found nowhere else.
Quote#538
Let your memory be your travel bag
Let your memory be your travel bag.
Fun fact#539
Mozambique's flag has a rifle
Mozambique is the only country whose flag features a modern assault rifle, alongside a hoe and a book.
Story#540
Samarkand blue
The tiles are a blue that photographs badly and looks unreal in person. An old man selling bread at the gate told us to come back at six, and he was right.
Fun fact#541
Madagascar split off long ago
Madagascar separated from other landmasses around 88 million years ago, so roughly 90 percent of its wildlife is unique.
Quote#542
Stop worrying about the potholes
Stop worrying about the potholes in the road and enjoy the journey.
Fun fact#543
Baobabs store water in their trunks
A large baobab can hold well over 100,000 litres of water in its trunk to survive the dry season.
Story#544
Bread you do not put face down
Non is never placed upside down and never cut with a knife. Our host corrected all three of us in the first ten minutes and then fed us for two days.
Fun fact#545
Mauritius lost the dodo in a century
The dodo went from first European sighting to extinction in under 100 years, mostly through introduced rats and pigs.
Story#546
Yurt camp in the Tien Shan
We arrived to find the family moving camp for summer pasture. They fed us anyway, from a stove already half packed, and then rode away.
Fun fact#547
Seychelles has the biggest seed
The coco de mer palm produces the largest and heaviest seed in the plant kingdom, weighing up to 25 kilograms.
Quote#548
Life begins at the end
Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.
Fun fact#549
Reunion has an always-active volcano
Piton de la Fournaise erupts every year or two, and roads are built to be rebuilt after lava crosses them.
Story#550
Fermented mare's milk
Kumis is offered with both hands and refusing is rude. It tastes like sour yoghurt that has had opinions. I drank two cups and got better at hiding my face.
Fun fact#551
Comoros exports ylang-ylang
The Comoros supply a large share of the world's ylang-ylang essence, a key note in classic French perfumes.
Quote#552
Do one thing every day
Do one thing every day that scares you.
Fun fact#553
South Africa has three capitals
Pretoria is administrative, Cape Town legislative and Bloemfontein judicial, a compromise dating from 1910.
Story#554
Wind towers of Yazd
We stood under a badgir on a 42-degree day and felt actual cold air coming down. It was built in the fifteenth century and has never needed electricity.
Fun fact#555
Table Mountain has its own cloth
A flat cloud called the tablecloth pours over Table Mountain when southeast winds push moist air up the slope.
Story#556
Invited three times
We were invited home for dinner by strangers three separate times in one week. Refusing politely is a whole art form and we never learned it.
Fun fact#557
Cape Town's mountain is a plant hotspot
Table Mountain alone hosts more plant species than the entire United Kingdom, part of the tiny Cape Floral Kingdom.
Quote#558
The purpose of life is to live it
The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly for newer and richer experience.
Fun fact#559
The Cradle of Humankind holds early fossils
Caves northwest of Johannesburg have produced some of the richest early hominin fossil finds anywhere.
Story#560
The Petra shortcut
There is the main path and there is the back trail with eight hundred steps. Take the steps at seven in the morning and the Monastery is empty when you arrive.
Fun fact#561
Lesotho is entirely above 1,000 metres
Lesotho is the only country whose entire territory sits above 1,000 metres, and it gets snow most winters.
Quote#562
Travel far, travel wide
Travel far enough and you will find that the strangest thing about strangers is how quickly they stop being strange.
Fun fact#563
Eswatini changed its name
Swaziland officially became Eswatini in 2018, meaning land of the Swazis, partly to avoid confusion with Switzerland.
Story#564
Floating badly
You cannot swim, only float, and you must not get it in your eyes. I got it in my eyes within ninety seconds. A stranger walked me to the shower.
Fun fact#565
The Kalahari is a thirst land, not a desert
The Kalahari receives enough rain to support grass and trees, so technically it is a semi-arid savanna.
Story#566
Desert camp silence
After the generator went off there was no sound at all. Not wind, not insects, nothing. Six people sat in the dark for an hour and nobody spoke.
Fun fact#567
Africa has over 2,000 languages
Estimates put the number of living African languages between 1,500 and 2,000, roughly a third of the world's total.
Quote#568
Two roads diverged
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the one less travelled by, and that has made all the difference.
Fun fact#569
Swahili is a trade language
Swahili grew along the Indian Ocean coast blending Bantu grammar with Arabic vocabulary from centuries of trade.
Story#570
Jerusalem in four quarters
We crossed between quarters six times in an afternoon and the smell, the language and the music changed each time inside two hundred metres.
Fun fact#571
Africa is bigger than it looks on maps
The Mercator projection shrinks Africa. In reality the United States, China, India and most of Europe would fit inside it.
Fun fact#572
The Rift Valley lakes are alkaline
Some rift lakes are so alkaline they can burn skin, yet flamingos thrive on the algae that grow there.
Quote#573
Miles to go
The woods are lovely, dark and deep, but I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep.
Story#574
The Beirut corniche
Fishermen, joggers, families, and a man with a coffee cart doing better business than any cafe. At sunset the whole city seemed to be walking in the same direction.
Fun fact#575
Timbuktu was a university town
Sankore in Timbuktu was a centre of learning in the 15th century with thousands of students in residence.
Fun fact#576
Saharan salt still moves by camel
Salt slabs are still cut in the desert and carried by camel caravan, though trucks now do most of the work.
Story#577
Souk directions
We asked for a shop and were escorted personally for ten minutes through covered alleys by a man who then refused to be thanked and disappeared.
Quote#578
In three words
In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on.
Fun fact#579
African wild dogs hunt by vote
Researchers found wild dog packs decide when to hunt by sneezing, with more sneezes meaning stronger consensus.
Story#580
Sunrise over Cappadocia
A hundred and fifty balloons launched in twenty minutes. From the ground it was chaos. From above it was completely still and you could hear other baskets' burners.
Fun fact#581
Meerkats take turns on watch
Meerkat sentries rotate duty and give different alarm calls for aerial and ground predators.
Fun fact#582
Weaver birds build apartment blocks
Sociable weavers build communal nests weighing a tonne that house over a hundred birds for generations.
Quote#583
The road goes ever on
The road goes ever on and on, down from the door where it began.
Story#584
The ferry that crosses continents
Twenty minutes, a glass of tea, seagulls following the boat for bread, and you have changed continents on a commuter ticket.
Fun fact#585
The Atlas Mountains hold snow
North Africa has ski resorts. Oukaimeden near Marrakech sits above 2,600 metres and opens most winters.
Fun fact#586
Africa's largest market is in Lagos
Balogun and its surrounding markets sprawl for blocks, and navigating them without a guide is close to impossible.
Story#587
Turkish breakfast arithmetic
We ordered breakfast for two and eleven small plates arrived. Then bread. Then eggs. We did not eat again until nine that night.
Quote#588
It's a dangerous business
It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and there's no knowing where you might be swept off to.
Fun fact#589
Ostriches cannot fly but can outrun horses
Ostriches sprint at 70 km/h and their kick can be lethal, which is why farm handlers keep to their side.
Fun fact#590
Hippos kill more people than lions
Hippos are responsible for far more human deaths in Africa than big cats, especially near riverside paths at night.
Story#591
Hammam scrub
The attendant showed me the grey rolls coming off my arm with visible pride, as though we had achieved something together, which I suppose we had.
Fun fact#592
Canada has the longest coastline
Canada's coastline runs over 200,000 kilometres, longer than the next ten countries combined thanks to its Arctic islands.
Quote#593
Home is behind
Home is behind, the world ahead, and there are many paths to tread.
Story#594
Kangaroos at the tee
The golf course had a local rule about kangaroos on the fairway. There were fourteen of them and none of them moved for anyone.
Fun fact#595
Canada holds most of the world's lakes
Canada contains more lake area than the rest of the world put together, with over two million lakes.
Fun fact#596
Newfoundland has its own time zone
Newfoundland runs half an hour ahead of Atlantic time, a 30-minute offset kept since 1935.
Story#597
Driving the Nullarbor
Ninety miles straight, no curve at all. We passed four road trains and one cyclist who waved with an energy that suggested he had not seen anyone for a while.
Quote#598
One's destination
One's destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.
Fun fact#599
Churchill is the polar bear capital
Bears gather near Churchill each autumn waiting for Hudson Bay to freeze, and the town leaves cars unlocked as bear shelters.
Fun fact#600
Quebec keeps French alive
Quebec's language laws protect French in commerce and signage, and it is the only province where French is the sole official language.
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Your turn
Propose your travel story
The missed ferry. The stranger who handed over a key. The meal that ran until midnight. If something happened to you on the road and you still think about it, send it - a few sentences is plenty, and we do the tidying up.