20080429-Conakry
20080610-Yamoussoukro"How far you gonna go. Before you lose your way back home" - Tryin' To Throw Your Arms Around The World, Achtung Baby, U2.
Welcome, I am Manfred. On 22nd of July 2004 I set out for a journey.
A voyage that may last a long time, maybe the rest of my life, a trek to discover planet Earth.
In May 2005 in Morocco Hasna, now 28, comes along, becomes my wife, in Jan 2007 gives birth to our great twin boys, Daniel and David. The journey of a life continues.
15 July 2008 - Hamburg, Germany. - 3 years, 11 months, 23 days.
Casablanca M5 to Bruxelle, the beginning of a next grand voyage. Take off, Casablanca ville below, Medhina, Hassan II mosque, all white, against soft morning blue sky and sea. Soon over Spain, later the continent's edge of San Sebastian, the huge dunes south of Bassin d'Arcachon, the mouth of La Gironde, then we move away from the ocean, until the Normandy coast closes in again, in the distance England in a hazy veil. Underneath thousands of white puffy clouds, I am humming an old Pink Floyd tune from the Darkside album (wiki). A near miss with a BA aircraft. So near I can make out their colours. This you call a near miss.
Before we land I put the Creative Zen on to find the Floyd song that's in my head. It is "Time" I've been humming all morning, full of happiness, to be on the move again. It follows through with "The Great Gig in the Sky" now. hmm. Also it is better to have some music in the ear when you land back in Europe after - a year. So much infrastructure here, and they keep building. This is Brussels, headquarters of the EU. Large African immigrant population, houses architecture a bit English, it's beer one of the best, Leffe brune my favourite.
A train from Brussels to Cologne (Koeln), on Thalys (wiki), tickets are in Flemish language, not so easy to make out car and seat numbers, most travelers are foreign. Behind the bar on the train, Abdel, Tunesian, Mourad, Moroccan from Casa, Both speak some 5 languages. Service is so much quicker then in Africa. Leffe Brune for me again. Just why are the tickets being kept in Flemish only. Aachen Hbf. The weird thing is a train journey in Europe is as exotic to me as a donkey cart ride in the Moroccan countryside or a ride through the Madhina market in Bamako on the back of my friend Issa's motorcycle.
A German guy with glasses and no shoes walks up to the bar, orders a Heineken, why does he go for bad beer? I read the FAZ someone has left behind, financial markets in the US collapse. I have been following all that from Morocco. A Japanese guy wants to complain to Deutsche Bahn, they have canceled several trains recently following an accident in Cologne.
I take another train to Hamburg where I arrive past midnight. On Ebay I bought a Mercedes van a 209 D. 1987 built, the new vehicle for the next grand voyage. With family? This is what is planned. To Egypt, maybe further on to India. Hamburg, I have been here nearly four years ago, at the beginning of the journey. Stay tuned.
29 June 2008 - Essaouira, Morocco. Festival de Gnaoua.
Like Mali is not letting me go, Toumani Diabaté (myspace) Kora virtuoso guest starring magic voice Mangala Camara (seen him in Segou this Feb), then Bassékou Kouyaté (world's best ngoni player) and graceful voice of wife Amy Sacko (both featured Segou this year, myspace). Mali has come to me one last time. Bassékou Kouyaté I had enjoyed 4 times during my Malian travels. Mangala Camara twice.
I stayed on the Moulay Hassan scene for the Mahmoud Guinea, Bassékou Kouyaté, Jaleel Shaw fusion attempt, well it clicked a bit first, "Africa" shouted Guinea, holding Bassékou's hand, referring to their black skin. But eventually the Malian walked off stage. Guinea is the big master here, Maalem k'bir, did not leave much space for Bassekou. Jaleel Shaw lasted till the end and filled the space left over. Fusion happens when you give so others can take.
Well obviously I missed out on Ballake Sissoko (Kora from Mali), together with Driss El Maloumi (lute, Maroc), and Rajery (Madagaskar), the group 3 MA, brings together 3 string players from Maghrib to sub-Saharan to southern Africa. All I can do is buy their music. In the end here I am never happy with the choices I have made, always it seems I missed something special, too many special events here, Essaouira is a great place to buy all the African music I have been always longing for.
Orchestre National de Barbès from Paris closes the festival tonight.
28 June 2008 - Essaouira, Morocco.
Another year in Essaouira in June, it's festival time again. Hasna and I take 2 taxis, and hitch a ride for the last 170 kms. And Essaouira is always good for musical surprises. Ballake Sissoko, Bassékou Kouyaté and Tounami Diabaté 3 from Mali's best are on this years invites list. The fusion thing is what we are looking for between Gnaoua/Gnawa (drum n' bass, castanets and guembri) and African (ngoni and kora), American (guitar, sax, piano) and who/what else from the grand world of jazz is here this year. Festival Gnaoua 2008 Program. Seen Karim Ziad (myspace), a shear mad drummer, with amazing American alto saxophonist Jaleel Shaw together with Maalem Abdeslam Alikane yesterday with one great guitarist in one of the smaller venues, a dar (house). What a wild performance, fusion at works.
I am still hunting for the names of the guitarist. The festival is really well organised, just the program pages lack this standard.
The events on larger Moulay Hassan stage weren't less impressive. Blues guitarist Justin Adams (myspace) performed with one string fiddelist griot Juldeh Camara (myspace) (Justin Adams: "thank you Gnawa for all the inspiration your culture has given us"), they just had the BBC best album of the year for culture crossing award. One great trio that rockes. But who was the old white bearded Gnaoua, doing the percussion/drums/djembe? Again the festivals program could tell us more.
And of course we would love to be on many stages at the same time. Making our choices is the hardest thing here.
16 June 2008 - Bamako, Mali.
And Guinea Conakry has another ugly, potentially deadly strike, this time by the police, want more pay too. Military which demanded their pay increase a few weeks ago, steps in, leading to several hours of shootings between the two fractions today in central Conakry, I am hearing. This does not look too good.
I'll fly out to Casablanca soon, see Hasna, Daniel and David. The boys must be running around now. I am so curious. Summer in Morocco, YNOT.
14 June 2008 - Bamako, Mali. the hub.
From Abidjan north, Capital of Yamoussoukro (wiki) and its Basilica of our Lady Peace (wiki), by some measures biggest church in the world, through Rebel (force nouvelle) held territories and then via some bad roads home to Bamako.
See you from Morocco very soon.
Plans for the future ... vague and uncertain ...
After 3 years in Africa, after this last "expedition" to Sierra Leone, Liberia and Ivory Coast, on my own, the adventure that I needed I am now reunited with Hasna and our twin boys Daniel and David, in Morocco.
Nigeria or Cameroon seemed to far this time. The 6x6 Land Rover is parked in Bamako, Mali.
It has been such a good companion for these last 4 years, he really never let me down. There is going to be another Africa leg on this fab trek, another trip with the Landy some day.
One thing is certain we want to go to Egypt next year with my family. Leave Casablanca north to Spain and Portugal, then east, France, Italy, Austria, then at the end of 2008 via the Balkans to Greece, in 2009 Turkey, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Israel and Egypt, then 2010 maybe Ethiopia, Jemen, somehow to Iran and further to India, a change from Africa.
We'll get back to Africa and the Landy some day.
Below some highlights. Images are linked to the story behind.
The idea to travel, general note.
2004: Just recently I have lived here again in Vienna for a while, my home town, but then again something jobwise has gone wrong. It's following my old dream, I leave on 22nd of July for a multi-year journey. I intend to explore the world traveling overland. I have never been much in Vienna all these recent years, these years of my professional life, rather Berlin, London, Frankfurt.
2005, in Morocco, well I am on my trip. I meet Hasna. She comes along -
2006 becomes my wife.
2007 gives birth to our great twin boys Daniel and David.
Life is so easy.
Originally, ok. There wasn't a goal, no schedule, just - become a photographer, be cool, listen to some music, be cool, have a beer or two. The world is my oyster, its mammals, seas and deserts .... make friends, learn languages, understand, tolerate, understand, tolerate (this is so hard).
A family requires responsibility! Yes - and? Should not stop us.
The fab trek continues.
The journal entries on the right tell the story so-far.
When on the move this journal trails the real story by a few weeks, maybe a month.
How to navigate?
It is easy to understand if you go from Prep time to 2008. Just jump in when ever you feel like.
Left top Navigation bar (<--), look up "journey", you find continents and countries. Guinea, Africa.
Right top Journal bar (-->) lists pages as they appear online. The journey chronologically. Also try the years pages: 2007.
Try the Galleries, e.g. Mali-Gallery. Try Google ThisFabTrek (<--).
How to get most of it? Download the latest browser version, no matter which one. I now prefer Firefox to Opera. IE7 is so much better then IE6. Don't know the Apples. Expand the browser window to maximum. Try hit the F11 key (Full Screen, works best in Opera).
All images are clickable (open a 1536 x 1024 image). All links and images open in the same broser tab/window. Use the back button of your browser. To open links in a new tab hold down the Ctrl-key or right click.
Enjoy!
