ThereAndBackAgain

ashramblings

jes2007 — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 19:04:00 GMT

You can follow my sojourn in India on http://ashramblings.blogspot.com/

VSO

jes2007 — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 22:18:00 GMT

I'll be volunteering through VSO

I'll be based in Rayagada in Orissa province

And as I expect visitors here what I've found re tourism stuff so far http://www.orissa-tourism.com/index.html

http://www.orissatourism.gov.in/new/index.htm

I'll start posting thoughts about my preparations over the next few months

Gallery: Algeria 2009

jes2007 — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 22:17:00 GMT

Algeria, March-April 2009

jes2007 — Mon, 6 Apr 2009 22:10:00 GMT

So back again for my third visit! Becoming a habit, n'est pas! Oui, my French is getting better although I still find group conversations hard and thinking quick enough to keep up is difficult, but one to one and everyday stuff is fine. I'm really pleased with the progress.

However I have been given another challenge by Ahmed's mother. Aicha speaks a few words of French and no English and has issued me the challenge of learning Tamashek in order that our conversations can be more direct. At present when I am with the women of the house she and I have to try to communicate via Ahmed's sisters English. Esma is only 17 and has some basic English from school and last year she was a very shy 16 yr old who was placed on the spot to show of her English. Now she has more confidence and can translate, but she is 17 and doesn't really want to be bother with this extra chore! She has so much to do round the house now.

The trip was great. We stayed at Sidi's house again on my arrival - there have been improvements since last year - the water supply is in and the water boiler is in place. Running water - a luxury!

When we headed to the desert Ahmed's friend Moussa (nicknamed Moussa2 to avoid confusion with Moussa1 one of the drivers on my first visit) and his new French girlfriend Claire came with us. Our cook this trip was a young man called Boubaker, who is also a musician and I videos of him playing on Facebook. I liked him very much - so full of life and always singing! It is the first time Ahmed has hired him, he normally works with the camel trains with Ahmed's brother Allelo, so came on recommendation. He was a very good cook and great company. I do love the soups he produced, they reminded me of my mother's, it is of course the animal fat in the stock that is the secret. So so tasty!

We spent our time first in The Tardart again, visiting Tin Merzouga and Moul en Naga - stunning dunes; then we headed over to Essendilene and Tilledilene skirting the great sand sea of the Erg Admer. I love that part but we didn't spend so much time there this trip. We got caught one day in a sand storm in the lat afternoon as we headed for our evening stop, visibility was really restricted, but we safely made camp. That night we were absolutely covered in sand by the morning even with sleeping behind the windbreak! We also had a couple of really cold nights when I wished I had brought my thermals! No kidding! We also had a few very hot days, I imagine the temperatures were up in the 35-37 C mark - definitely too hot to do much between 11AM-4PM except play UNO and take a siesta!

My last day was spent with the women and children of Ahmed's mother's house. The house is so full of kids, difficult for me as I am not used to this level of noise! Ahmed's youngest sisters - Esma and Amel , youngest brother Wofa, and cousins Aicha, Sarah, Imad and another small one whose name escapes me, and his nephew, Abdullah, were all there - again UNO goes down well! Sara and I exchanged a listen on each other MP3 players, although I have no idea what it was I was listening too!

Claire and I had spent the first afternoon with the women of Moussa's suster's house when the guys got the final things ready for the trip. This trip has shown me more of the women's lives here. Very domestic, home centered. It seems so strange given the Tuareg way that so much of the Arab way has been adopted. Traditionally Tuareg women are very independent, unveiled and have a lot of freedom, there was no segregation of men and women. Now they are still unveiled, although shawls have always been worn, very practical to cover your head and shield your eyes in the desert sands. But now the social ways are much more segregated – creeping Arabisation. Many of the houses are divided into women's and men's rooms, and effectively there is two separate worlds. Ahmed, his brothers, and his father all came to say hello to me but the men are always of out and about. Their lives are lived so much more out of doors than the women’s. When Ahmed and I went with Boubaker for a picnic on my last evening, we went out to the sands just outside of town. It is quiet a gathering place for the young people of Djanet and various other people I had met on other trips came to say hello. All men of course, it is outdoors! Boys will be boys anywhere with their 4x 4s!

I like Ahmed's family house better than the more modern ones I have visited. It has a open courtyard where people can mix and into which you first enter. On one side it has a public room with TV and has a guest area, it is effectively like a lounge or parlour. The courtyard is nice to sit out in on a summer evening as I did with his mother. Of to one side are the private family rooms of the house which I have never been in, of to the other is the yard where the goats are kept and also the wash block with the toilet, shower facility and with a washroom with a very large sink and what looks like either a washing machine or drier I wasn’t sure. That surprised me! To the third side of the courtyard is the kitchen. This house is in the old Zelwz part of town and I really like it a lot.

I had a long talk with Ahmed this time about his life. He clearly has a lot of responsibilities, being the eldest. Only one of the family is married – Hadija, mother or little Abdullah who has grown so much since I last saw him and whose face beams as soon as he sees his uncle Ahmed. I know Ahmed and Allelo work but I think that is still the only ones, although Morad must now be of an age to be working also. His parent have 8 children, 7 at home, so it is a big family to support. His parents are retired, I think they are somewhere in their mid to late 60s. This past year has been very hard, many fewer tourists, presumably because of the economic climate and the Euro exchange rate. He doesn’t see marriage and a family coming anytime soon – such a shame because seeing him with the youngsters I think he’d be a great dad. It is a lot of responsibility for a 35 year old!

Recently he had a prang in the 4x 4 which has left him with a problem as the 4 wheel drive keeps kicking out. He’s managed to sort everything else but the axel part will clearly cost a lot of money to replace and fix properly – take its cost in Algiers and triple it by the time it gets to Djanet! He is lucky he is a trained mechanic and so can fix this himself. His profit from this season’s trips is going to fix the car and to fund a new 4x4, but he clearly needs more personal clients next year to get a new one sooner rather than later. So anyone wishing to visit the desert…I can recommend a good guide, drivers, cook..and you will have an amazing time!

But back to this trip, it was nice to spend the last day at the family house and to have a shower after the desert trip and to rest up in anticipation of a long tiring flight home. Not that any of my trips back have been without incident - on the first trip, we had 3 attempts to get out of Tamanrasset because of bad weather on the Mediterranean cost, on the second trip I fell asleep at Algiers airport and missed my flight, and this time we took off only to find a fault on the plane, so had to circle for about an hour to use up fuel, to return to Algiers and board another plane. I have to give Air Algerie credit, they handle problems with consummate ease, perhaps they are so used to it that their practices all run smoothly, but many other airlines could learn a thing or two about customer satisfaction from them. Anyway I arrived home only 1.5 hrs late, thanks to Keith for the pick up.

When will I be back? I don’t know. I’ve asked Ahmed to visit here if he can get a visa. It would be so nice to show him my country, my life, my friends and family and to repay the great hospitality his have shown to me. In shallah!

On my way back again

jes2007 — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 07:55:00 GMT

Here I am sitting with a nice cold glass of wine the evening before I head of back to Algeria again. Little did I know when I named this blog that There and Back Again would actually happen so often! This is now my third trip to Algeria.

As usual I am staying overnight at my friends, K&B, near Heathrow before and after my travel trip. Thanks guys! This time the boys are of out for a family dinner and I have the place to myself. So my feet are up and the wine is being enjoyed and I am playing with my new eeePC. It will be my last alcohol for 3 weeks after all :) The eeePC was what I was looking for last March before my boat trip but they weren't really available then and I was quite frustrated at not being able to find what I wanted and needed for travel computing. When several folks came on the boat with them I was really envious - I'm quite the early adopter really !

I feel much more confident this trip about my French and am looking forward to seeing how it holds up. This past month I have taken time to have some 1-2-1 face to face French lessons to improve my confidence at speaking and my ability to comprehand others. I just hope it has worked and that Ahmed hears the difference. I feel I have really made that effort and now it needs to be put into practice.

Vanuatu

jes2007 — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 10:41:00 GMT

What can I say about these islands? My expectations were high for a number of reasons - my friend Tony and his wife Geraldine were joing me for the last two legs through these islands. I'd travelled with T through Central America but had yet to meet Gerry and hadn't seen him for 3 years, Vanuatu was always one of the island groups on my list of places to visit as I felt they would be more remote and less visited than many of the others.

The ship had 3 legs through these islands, the first from Fiji to Espiritu Santo, the second round the Banks islands, and the third back from Luganville on Espiritu Santo to Port Villa on Efate.

The Banks islands are to the north of the chain of islands known as Vanuatu, they are much less visited than the pthers islands and we went as for north as Irepurapura. As a consquence of less yatch traffic , the Banks are less prosperous then many fo the other islands. Port Villa looks positively a metropolis in comparision, with traffice, proper streets and street signs, advertising, shops selling perfume etc. In contrast the Banks communities are small island villages centered around community life, school, church, fishing, rearing pigs, outrigger cannoes. The various villages put on great shows when visitors arrive with much custom dancing, organised walks, music and feasts. There normal cash income comes from copra - hard work for a family gathering coconut shells, dehusking them, then either carting them of to someone with a smelter to extract the oil or doing it themselves. It takes about 1 1/2 days to colllect a ton of copra and 2 1/2 days to extract the oil. For this work the familes who work on the bigger plantations get about 1500 Vatu for the collection stage - that is about $ 15 US. There are Japenese owned platations on the biggers islands who employ families in this way. After processing the value is around 60,000 Vatu, $600 US - quite a mark up, so if you can do your own smelting down then your income can go up. The copra is then taken of the islands by boat. Unfortunately the last time the boat had visited the Banks islands was March, so the coconuts and copra are standing wrotting in sacks and the familes have no cash, and no point in collecting more are it will just rot away. The timings of the copra boats are under the control of others and I feel sure they use the timings to control the price. It is a commodity and fluctuates. In the past year it has been down as low as 36,000 Vatu. In other words life is hard. These communities can be self sufficient in food but not in manufactured goods. The boat was signalled from shore one day where we had nt planned to stop and out came an outrigger. What were they after? Guitar strings! Unfortunately we had just left all (24) spare strings on the last island. They also welcome you with music - string bands, with guitars and bass strings built on drums. I have to say I won't miss this music - the pitch is very high and sharp for my ears - but you can't fault their enthusiasm and desire to entertain with a genuine welcome

Trade is the name of the game and bananas, mangoes, papaya, cabbages, pak choi are all available now and in return we can give flour, sugar, help fix a fishing spear with our welding equipment, T shirts, childrens clothes or whatever. Because the ship returns to some villages reglarly we can also put together a box of small things they need, for example, sewing cotton and needles, watch and calculator batteries.

During our legs thorugh Vanuatu we had with us a local liason, Isiah Bon, from Ambrym. Isiah tried to teach us Bislama, the local pidgeon english, with with all the island groups communicate with each other as each island has its own language, actually some islands have several. "Nem blong me Sheila. What nem blong yu?" It is straightforward on paper, but when you hear it said at speed - wow - totally not understandable.

Isiah also arrnage for us to be gided up the Ambrym volcano, Benbow - only 1179 feet but it took 4 1/2 hours to climb. The weather was not conducive to any view into the crater and not to taking pictures but the landscape on the way up was terrific. Blisters and scraps abound and we are still limping about some 4 days later. It was a real scramble up over lava rock and loose lava sand and having to overcome my intrepidations about walking along ridges. But I made it - not everyone who set out did - I was the last one up but I did it!

T'gallant

jes2007 — Mon, 6 Oct 2008 23:16:00 GMT

One can't really come on a tall ship without climbing the rigging.
Every voyage crew has the opportunity to do this to whatever extent they wish. Soem are quick to be up and out on the yards, others less so.

Back in March, in Auckland harbour, I climbed the rigging up to the fighting top and went out on the Course sail yard to help unfurl the sail. Somewhere in French Polynesia I again climbed up to the fighting top and enjoyed the view at sea. The bow sprit was next to be conquored, leaving the top of the mast. This was a daunting prospect for me and I put it of for ages before deciding that I would do it. On a quiet day, Monday 6th October to be precise, at anchor just off Luganville, when many of the voyage crewe were off on the beach, I was escorted up to the top gallant by one of the permenant crew, Dave. I made it! Picture and video to follow

Samoa

jes2007 — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 06:03:00 GMT

I am in Samoa for a few days between voyage legs. It is a lovely island. One of my vogaye buddies and myself have hired a car and are touring the island.

The main island is 'Upolu, which is a good size taking about 6 hours or so to drive quicky round, so we have 4 days to do it slowly. We had hoped to get over to Savai'i, the other island in the Samoan group, but there is a Father's Day holiday this weekend and all ferries are booked solid.

The villages here are quite something, very traditional, The houses are built without walls, a la pavillion style. This makes for very open living which is truly suitable for this climate. The whole thing stands on a base of concrete or volcanic rubble. These are furnished with mats on the floor and in the gaps between the wooden roof supports to keep the rain out and too much sun. Depending on the wealth of the family the contents of these huses vary a lot, from just mats, to tv, fridges, beds, tables, chairs etc Each house has a separate kitchen area. The structures are often on family or clan type plots with several families living around a central shared open structure.

I thinks it is the most interesting island thus far from a cultural point of view. The scenery is stunning. This island is most like what one pictures a tropical south sea island to be - eroded residual volcanic peaks with costal strip. A beautiful island, with its culture still thriving. Everyone wears the lava lava, from school boys to old people, in business and for pleasure, although you also see western tee shirts and shorts in the kids and younger men, the women are more demurly dressed and the fabric colours are bright and vibrant, often having an African feel to them. I'd recommend anyone to come here.

Gallery: South Pacific

jes2007 — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 09:53:00 GMT

Marquesas and Tuomotous

jes2007 — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 10:11:00 GMT

We've spent the last few weeks cruising through these two groups of islands.

The Marquesas are volcanic peaks, high, green, and the place for tattoos. These are a real work of art there, unlike anything you have seen elsewhere. But no I didn't get one.

The atolls of the Toumotous have been spectacular. In particular Makemo, which had the most incredible reflections in absolutely still waters, unadulterated by polution or air movement. Totally remote, quiet and perfect. One of the most stunning places in earth - wait till you see the pictures!

Of to Moorea for 10 days during the ship's refit then back onto the Cook Islands

Tahiti Iti

jes2007 — Thu, 1 May 2008 10:09:00 GMT

3 of us went off round the island to see the real tahiti. The main city Papeete is not exactly a great place to be, a bit seedy, everything closes on Sundays and holidays like today and it is exorbitantly expensive, eg 980CPF for a beer. The exchange rate is 75 CPF to the US Dollar The city is hot, sticky, busy, noisey, too much traffic - need I go on? The rest of the island is much quiter, the scenery is green, lush tropical vegetation, think visit to a tropical greenhouse, our indoor plants growing outside and you have it. The road circumvents the islabd hugging the coast all the way round, lined with houses, but very few places to stay especially on the east side of the main island, Tahiti Nui. Tahiti Iti is the smaller southern part, more rural. We spent a day down on its south coast at Teehupoo which is a big surfing place which has an international competiton on there over this coming holiday weekend. Nice to get out and see this part. Will post photos later

Reflections from the first few weeks

jes2007 — Thu, 1 May 2008 10:08:00 GMT

We'd not had very good winds at all out of Auckland and the first few weeks was spent getting used to the watch systen and the crewe and fellow voyage crewe. Your body tells you quite quicky which watch is for you 12-4, 4-8,8-12 for me I prefered the 12-4. Nightime is an intruiging time to be out on watch, when there is no moon, in total darkness you seem to be floating through, with the moon out and full it isstunning on the sea, the shadows and sounds are often quite eerie.

Yes I was sea sick on our first day out, the next day I felt quite rotten but aftern that everything has been OK. I'm amazed how our cooks produce food in these circumstances everythign is swinging and swaying around in the galley and still you get in from a cold wet watch to find hot comforting food awaiting you. And you need to stock up to fire the furnaces to keep you going in the cold.

The Roaring Forties were everything I thought they would be and more! I found the experience of the storm absolutely exhilerating! We even had hail stones! The colour of the waves were this ammazing deep blue, with black, with crashing white water spreading into a green blue. The roar was incessent. The skies were these incredible shades of grey. At the height of the storm the hail was in our faces and did bring the reality of the situation home as you stood on deck trying to steer the ship. As the storm settled to its quiet point the silent skies and flat seas became grey, but an amazing shade of molten grey like mercury, with a gentle swirling. The clouds were every conceivable shade of grey - slate; light, dark, white grey, black grey, purple grey, deep thunderous greys interspersed with patches of bright peach like something out of a Dulux colour pallette. It reminded me of how seas and sands move in the same way, just over a different timeframe.

When is Easter Island Tahiti?

jes2007 — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 10:10:00 GMT

Just a short note to point you all to an explanation of why I am in Tahiti and not inEaster Island

Unprecedented storms in the southern ocerans meant diversions exhilerating force 10 gusting 11 but avoiding a force 13 so check out the detail at http://news.sorenlarsen.co.nz/pebble/

More when I have more time
All is well

Travel Quotes

jes2007 — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 03:30:00 GMT

Here I am at last. I finished work on Friday, sold the car and am all set for what I have been calling for some time The Big Trip. I have to relay some marvelleous travel quotes that a colleague put on my leaving card from work (Thanks Peg!)

"If you look like your passport photo, you’re too ill to travel" – Will Kommen
"Being in a ship is being in jail, with the chance of being drowned" – Samuel Johnson
"Long voyages, great lies" – Italian Proverb
"A good traveller has no fixed pans and is not intent on arriving" – Lao Tzu
"Two of the greatest gifts we can give or children are roots and wings" – Hodding Carter
"He who would travel happily must travel light" – Antoine de St Exupery

And my favourite

"When preparing to travel, lay out all your clothes and all your money. Then take half the clothes and twice the money" – Susan Heller

*********************

I’d definitely prefer to be lighter than what is currently packed, but I think I am close enough – don’t deck boots take up so much room in a bag!

People have been asking me my reasons for going to this part of the world – well here they are......

Reasons for Going Part 3 (with due deference to Ian Dury and The Blockheads)

The stories of Robert Louis Stevenson
The adventures of Captain Cook
The diaries of James Banks
The paintings of Paul Gaugin
The music of Rogers & Hammerstein
Childhood dreams of Treasure Island, Mutiny on the Bounty, the Blue Lagoon
Tatoos
The songs of Jacques Brel
Katherine Hepburn’s last film (Love Affair)
The Onedin Line
To sail a tall ship, to learn to avigate

I always wanted The Big Adventure
I love being outdoors. I love the wind in my hair, so as The Boss says "Roll down the window and let the wind blow back your hair">
And as The Monkees used to sing "I want to be free…"

Reasons for Leaving

Loosing Ni messed me up. This is still part of me refinding myself, my dreams and a new life full of hope and love. (Funny how these find you again in the most unlikely of places and times, and how the music does come back. )

Live your dreams, don’t sit around waiting on them to happen. Life’s too short.

There’s so much of the world to see. To follow Star Trek and Captain Cook and “Boldly go…”at least where I’ve never been before both geographically and emotionally

I’ve been deep into the desert where there is little/no water. Now it is time for being amidst the ocean where there is little/no land. To quote the Tuareg "Aman Iman : Water is Life".

And to specifically quote Ahmed, "You have to go in order to come back again." Funny in retrospective that I had adopted Tolkein’s "There and Back Again" as the title of my blog! I’ve been back somewhere this year and that's a first, am going back to NZ after a 10 year gap, I wonder where will I be back to next?

Next stop Auckland. With embarcation on 24th and Easter Island beckoning on or about 27th April after approximately 34 days ocean sailing through the Roaring Forties! More then. here's the ship...Soren Larsen

Algeria - Feb 2008

jes2007 — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 07:06:00 GMT

Well back I did go! And yes it was worth it. We had a lovely time.

Once again travelling through the Tardart region to the south east Djanet, then onto the Dunes and Essendilene areas further north. I loved the peacefulness of the valley at Essendilene - Tolkein must have envisaged some of these rock formations, they are quite ethereal.

Dunes, dunes and more dunes - stunningly beautiful landscapes, like something from another planet. In the dunes, the colours in the sand are astonishing - everything from deep reds, ochry yellows, whitish greys, to greeny blues. And textures abound too - soft sand that slips through your fingers, dangerous sand that can entrap a vehicle, coarser grained, firmer sand on which you almost leave little in the way of a footprint, but not quite. Tracks abound everywhere - from the giant beetle, to the muffalo, the camel to the ubiquitous cat cat (4x4). And the bird - in particular the Mula Mula - black with a white head and tail, smaller than an English Blackbird, bigger than a Robin. I've never seen such an inquisitive bird. It will come up close and look at you, cocking its head enquiringly. I woke up one morning to two small finch like birds only 6 inches or so from my face. They have no fear.

This was a very laid back trip - rising around 7, breakfasting, getting on the move around 8:30-9ish, settling for lunch somewhere about midday, resting up to escape the heat of the day, and finally settling for the evening around sunset. A roaring fire to keep you warm in the evening, with music, singing and dancing. Playing games - the universal UNO and the local Tisdas - like draughts but different in that the pieces move in all directions, one square at a time to move, two square jumps to take "eat" your opponents pieces - being used to unidirectional draughts it was quite hard to think in multidimensions!

Managed to achieve a very brief hook up with Sala, a driver from the Nov trip, after we spotted the tour group he was with and raced across the sand to catch up with him.

It was nice to meet Ahmed's friends and members of his family including one of his brothers, two of his sisters, and most surprisingly meeting his mother. I liked seeing him in his own element enjoying their company, chatting with friends in town and making music. I would like to spend more time next visit in Djanet getting to know his friends more - Alleed, the football fan, who was envious that I have been to some of the great football stadiums like Man U. It seems like he knows everyone, there is a companionship and camaraderie between people that you no longer see here - whether it is a business relationship networking when the guides all meet at the airport, or the social networking at the cafe in the early evening when the main thoroughfare is a bit like the equivalent of The Promenade - everybody is there to see and be seen, to chat and be chatted to, to drink tea. Well at least all the men are there - the woman's life - well that's another matter. It will only become visible with more language and closer acceptance.

And talking of language, my French is still not good enough but having found the Michel Thomas Course I will persevere - it is a completely different approach to learning to speak a language. One based on the use of linguistic building locks to construct sentences of increasing complexity. But I do need immersion, no English speakers! My Tamashek has increased as well - I now know a few more introduction phrases including how to say what my name is and ask someone's name, and my numbers, as well as good morning, good night, how are you? And I can sing the first verse of Terakaft's Rastaman Aridad!

I do hope I have the opportunity to return and to reciprocate the hospitality shown by him and his family to me to him here one day. However it will be a long gap with my boat trip looming and life could change direction very quickly for either of us. We shall see. Meanwhile the phone and email will have to do us. I didn't want to leave. But as Ahmed says you have to leave in order to return. And return I certainly hope to do. Meanwhile his photo, Tuareg music and lots of good memories will now accompany me half way round the world.

Gallery: Algeria Feb 2008

jes2007 — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 06:46:00 GMT

Gallery: Algeria

jes2007 — Mon, 3 Dec 2007 09:25:00 GMT

Algeria - Nov 2007

jes2007 — Mon, 3 Dec 2007 05:41:00 GMT

Spent the best part of the month of November in Algeria. A little bit of time was spent in Algiers, Cherchell, Tipaza, before flying south to Ghardaia, and then on to the main point of the trip which was 10 day in the Sahara - basic camping, visiting Djanet and onto the Tardart region.

Incredible geological formations and huge sand dunes, rock carvings and paintings close the Libyan border. I successfully managed to climb up to the Tassili plateau - although only 600m or so in height it takes 4 hours and the underfoot conditions are treacherous - rocks and boulder - not sprained ankle territory but broken leg territory! Luckily neither and we all made it up and down again safely. Andy, my gym instructor, should be proud! On my return, he said I was the only one of his clients who comes back fitter than when they go on holiday! Well, no possibility of over indulgence on food or drink here!

The sand dunes of Moul el Naga and Tin Merzouga are gorgeously red - a classic desert landscape. Camping out was one of the highlights of the trip. Snug in your sleeping bag watching the stars cross the clear desert sky - beautiful, perfect place to be.

Then westward across the Sahara heading for Youfihakit, Tamekrest and the Hoggar Mountains. Youfihakit - never heard of it before, but I now have a beautiful lasting memory :) of a desert night. The landscape is all mushroom rock formations, quite bizarre. We were there at the time of the full moon and the light was something else - the closest thing to it is the light you get in the north of Scotland in mid summer when the sun has gone down but its light is still seen in the night sky. This desert light has a blue, grey, pinkishness about it - you feel like you are walking on another planet! Maybe it was the company!

The Hoggar is everything you see from its photos, a stunning vista from the top of at Assekrem with the mountains shrouded in all their glory at sunset and sunrise. A cold, breakfastless walk up but worth it. The guardian's bergamot tea was a most unexpected delight!

Three attempts to fly out of Tammanraset because of adverse weather conditions frayed our patience a little, and made us miss our day in Algiers itself. Never mind, the desert was the point of coming.

There is no place like the desert. There is no place I feel more at home. I seem to cope well with the dry heat. I love the open spaces, its quiet peacefulness, the forms of the rocks, the shadows they cast, the changing colour schemes from day to night. As Ahmed says "Le desert est tres calm". If you want to forget about the western world, the rat race, the hassles, the chaos, the stresses of our modern life, then this is the place to be. Ahmed recommends 15 days in the desert to de-stress. I'd love to do it. 10 days was far too short.

What hit me this time was first in Algiers airport and then even more so in Paris - the people, yes I'm now used to adjusting to the crowds, the noise and the light on returning, but this time what got me was the nasal onslaught, a sheer cacophony of smells - manmade smells - not just the aftershaves and perfumes of the airport duty free, but the floor polish, the toilet disinfectant etc - all those man made, artificial smells that are just there, and ignored, normally. They were awful.

This trip made me realise just what I value in how some people respect their environment and are very much in one with it. When was the last time you saw a someone swerve his car to avoid a lizard, then stop to ensure it was alive, not stuck up the chassis somewhere but safe in the shrubbery; when was the last time someone stopped his car, you though to take a leak, but instead to pick some medicinal herb he's seen growing in the middle of nowhere. There's something almost Buddhist about it, even though the Tuareg are not obviously religious, they are clearly very spiritual. It brings you back to what really matters in life. I think that was why I was so emotional, so touched, on receiving a small gift - something given such affection, such generosity of spirit, that it dwarfed all the more expensive presents I've ever received and made them drift into oblivion. A small gift given with a big heart makes such a large impression. Perhaps there's a lot to be said for being in a smaller world but being more close to it. I'd love to return.

Gallery: Devon

jes2007 — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 09:16:00 GMT

Long weekend