Comments on: For this I will endure midget seats, bad air and the unredeemed incompetence of customs officials everywhere http://blogs.timeslive.co.za/wanderer/2009/11/12/for-these-i-will-endure-midget-seats-bad-air-and-the-unredeemed-incompetence-of-customs-officials-everywhere/ Making Tracks... Wed, 18 Jan 2012 23:48:53 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Kate Nathan http://blogs.timeslive.co.za/wanderer/2009/11/12/for-these-i-will-endure-midget-seats-bad-air-and-the-unredeemed-incompetence-of-customs-officials-everywhere/comment-page-1/#comment-4890 Kate Nathan Sat, 14 Nov 2009 16:54:02 +0000 http://blogs.timeslive.co.za/wanderer/?p=1423#comment-4890 You are absolutely right - Libya must be one of the last bastions of the truly unfamiliar and exotic for Westerners. South Africans like their beer and might be slightly put off to know it's a totally 'dry' country - no alcohol at all, not even in five-star hotels. But it's worth it! What an experience to walk through the sleeping 2 000-year old Roman ruins of Leptis Magna and Sabratha - and no seething crowds, just a few small tour groups in the distance. Leptis and Sabratha are unquestionably the most important part of the Tripoli trip - but, do take in the Jamahiriyya Museum and a morning in the Medina. Great for a two-night stopover en route to Paris or London or anywhere else in the network of Libyan airline Afriqiyah which flies into JHB twice a week. I say go now, while it's the undiscovered jewel of North Africa - before the tourists get there. You are absolutely right – Libya must be one of the last bastions of the truly unfamiliar and exotic for Westerners. South Africans like their beer and might be slightly put off to know it’s a totally ‘dry’ country – no alcohol at all, not even in five-star hotels. But it’s worth it! What an experience to walk through the sleeping 2 000-year old Roman ruins of Leptis Magna and Sabratha – and no seething crowds, just a few small tour groups in the distance. Leptis and Sabratha are unquestionably the most important part of the Tripoli trip – but, do take in the Jamahiriyya Museum and a morning in the Medina. Great for a two-night stopover en route to Paris or London or anywhere else in the network of Libyan airline Afriqiyah which flies into JHB twice a week. I say go now, while it’s the undiscovered jewel of North Africa – before the tourists get there.

]]> By: John Buxton http://blogs.timeslive.co.za/wanderer/2009/11/12/for-these-i-will-endure-midget-seats-bad-air-and-the-unredeemed-incompetence-of-customs-officials-everywhere/comment-page-1/#comment-4886 John Buxton Fri, 13 Nov 2009 09:45:10 +0000 http://blogs.timeslive.co.za/wanderer/?p=1423#comment-4886 ...er IT skills not up to attaching a pic ... sorry …er IT skills not up to attaching a pic … sorry

]]> By: John Buxton http://blogs.timeslive.co.za/wanderer/2009/11/12/for-these-i-will-endure-midget-seats-bad-air-and-the-unredeemed-incompetence-of-customs-officials-everywhere/comment-page-1/#comment-4885 John Buxton Fri, 13 Nov 2009 09:42:01 +0000 http://blogs.timeslive.co.za/wanderer/?p=1423#comment-4885 A friend of mine recently visited the Darien area in Panama. Very inaccessible and very, very wild. It's the only gap in the pan-american highway, and uninhabited except for a few indigenous groups, due to the harsh environment and the colombian narco boys hiding from their govt army. He had to charter a plane to get in, take all his stuff with him plus a couple of guides. The really interesting thing is that there a lot of abandoned mine workings from a nineteenth century attempt to set up a silver mine. By the Scottish I think. Terrain was too harsh for the jocks - maybe there wasn't enough whisky. Tempted to read Nostramus again. Most travel is fun provided you don't end up in Frankfurt when there's an 'r' in the month. I always get a buzz from driving my Landrover from London to Hungary - here is my Discovery at our place near lake Balaton. A friend of mine recently visited the Darien area in Panama. Very inaccessible and very, very wild. It’s the only gap in the pan-american highway, and uninhabited except for a few indigenous groups, due to the harsh environment and the colombian narco boys hiding from their govt army. He had to charter a plane to get in, take all his stuff with him plus a couple of guides. The really interesting thing is that there a lot of abandoned mine workings from a nineteenth century attempt to set up a silver mine. By the Scottish I think. Terrain was too harsh for the jocks – maybe there wasn’t enough whisky. Tempted to read Nostramus again.

Most travel is fun provided you don’t end up in Frankfurt when there’s an ‘r’ in the month. I always get a buzz from driving my Landrover from London to Hungary – here is my Discovery at our place near lake Balaton.

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