Victoria Falls, Baboons and Sunset With Elephants

It was time to say goodbye to Madagascar and the tour group and head across the Mozambique Channel to Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe to start the next leg of my  journey. Unfortunately, getting to Zimbabwe isn’t as direct as I had hoped. First stop, the Antanarvario airport, which is about 30 minutes from the hotel. Fortunately we were leaving at night, so we wouldn’t have to deal with the chaos of people and traffic. Unfortunately we would have to deal with…

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Sharing a Beach Adventure in Lomé, Togo

As I mentioned in my previous post, I didn’t do much sight seeing in Lomé, Togo as I spent most of my time teaching. However, on the final Saturday I did have an opportunity to go out and see some of the sights. The fun part was that I didn’t go alone. I shared that experience with a high school student from Togo. Many organizations try to help children around the world. One of the ways they do this is…

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Teaching Leaders in the African Country of Togo

I retired from teaching over five years ago. However, teaching is still in my blood. Since retiring I have twice gone to the African country of Malawi to teach in the pastoral training program there. At the end of August this year I went to another African country to teach, Togo. When I told people I was going to Togo, they would typically look a little confused. I would have to explain to them that Togo is in West Africa.…

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Encountering the Indri Lemur in Madagascar’s Rainforest

Our trip through Madagascar continued the next day as we left for Antsirabe. It was another long day on the road. Luckily we stopped in a little town for lunch where we were provided with singing and dancing by the locals. There doesn’t seem to be a lot of opportunities for work outside of Antananarivo, so I assume this was probably considered a good job, especially when they can receive tips from foreigners. After our lunch (I had noodles and…

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Lemurs and other Unique Creatures in Madagascar

Our journey inland began early the next morning. We loaded into our little bus and set out for a long journey. When I say long, it’s not long because of the distance, but because driving in Madagascar is an adventure of its own. The roads are not taken care of, and you spend a lot of the time slowing down to avoid potholes. One can also be stuck in village traffic along the road. For these long drive days (6-10…

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Andrea Begins An Amazing African Adventure in Madagascar

Madagascar wasn’t a place that had been on my bucket list, but I sometimes like to take the country less traveled, less traveled and far. Madagascar is so far away that getting there was an adventure in itself. As you can imagine, there are no direct flights to Madagascar. I first had to fly to Istanbul where I had a 12 hour layover. Then I took a flight to Madagascar via Mauritius. Fortunately I was able to do a free…

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Discovering the Washington side of the Columbia River Gorge

This trip has been about touring some of the byways in northeastern Oregon. There was one more byway in Oregon I wanted to tour, but we couldn’t make it work with our schedule. Instead I suggested we drive along the Washington side of the Columbia River Gorge to see what it had to offer. Most people drive the Oregon side because of the ease of the I-84 freeway. Checking out the other side of the river seemed a unique opportunity.…

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Driving From Wallowa Lake to Pendleton, Oregon

On Thursday of our journey through three byways in Oregon, we started the Hells Canyon Scenic Byway. However, it is a long byway so we did not finish it. We drove through the Hells Canyon area and ended up just past Joseph in the town of Enterprise. Today, Friday, we would finish the byway and begin to make our journey back home. In looking over the guide for Hells Canyon Scenic Byway, I realized we had missed an important stop,…

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Cruising Oregon’s Hells Canyon Scenic Byway

During our trip to Northeastern Oregon, we have followed two different scenic byways. On Thursday we would begin the third and final byway, the Hells Canyon Scenic Byway. This route starts in Baker City and goes for over 200 miles so we will not finish it in a day. While there is an emphasis on the Hells Canyon, this byway offers more than just that particular location. The first place we stopped goes back to the storied history of Oregon.…

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Up High in Oregon’s Elkhorn Mountains

On Tuesday we explored the Journey Through Time Scenic Byway in northern Oregon. However, we did not finish the route. The byway continues all the way to Baker City. It’s actually a good thing we hadn’t planned to finish it as it would have been really late if we had driven to Baker City. John Day was a good place to stop. Today we finished the Journey Through Time Byway and then drove the Elkhorn Drive Scenic Byway. It is…

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