Off on my travels

[Barry]

brilliant , you have to watch them otherwise you might end up in Timbuktu !!

I've visited Timbuktu, didn't know what to expect but was pleasantly surprised.

There's a lovely mosque there, built from mud bricks. You can go inside, unlike the more famous one at Djenne.

But sadly Mali is off-limits at the moment; it's just too dangerous. A shame, because the Festival of the Desert used to be held in Timbuktu.

[Pigmy Pony]

I've visited Timbuktu, didn't know what to expect but was pleasantly surprised.

There's a lovely mosque there, built from mud bricks. You can go inside, unlike the more famous one at Djenne.

But sadly Mali is off-limits at the moment; it's just too dangerous. A shame, because the Festival of the Desert used to be held in Timbuktu.

Why, what did you say to them when having tea with them? You didn't insist on PG Tips did you, I can see how that might upset them

[Roy S]

[hifinutt]

I've visited Timbuktu, didn't know what to expect but was pleasantly surprised.

There's a lovely mosque there, built from mud bricks. You can go inside, unlike the more famous one at Djenne.

But sadly Mali is off-limits at the moment; it's just too dangerous. A shame, because the Festival of the Desert used to be held in Timbuktu.

yes not a safe place to go sadly !! tunisia seems off limits too now

[Barry]

I've visited 75 countries, and sad to say, a good many of them are now off-limits: in some cases just after a visit from me!

I wonder if there is a connection? My colleagues used to suspect I was employed by the government as some sort of agent provocateur!

[Macca]

I've visited 75 countries

That's a lot. I counted up and I've only been to 13. And one of those I never left the airport.

[Pigmy Pony]

I've only visited eleven. And I'm including Wales and Scotland.

[Macca]

I've only visited eleven. And I'm including Wales and Scotland.

Me too.

[Sherwood]

I've worked in close to 30, and visited a lot more. One almost disappeared!

[Sherwood]

All terribly amusing! The nearest tribe were Himba, who are nomadic and if they’d come across this car park, they’d probably have made use of the barriers for firewood. Given the lack of wood, some of the barrier was whale bones.

As it happens, we took our chances and escaped the clutches of the local parking attendant. I suspect they may have been trying to fill the vacancy at the time. The only person we saw on the road for about 500 miles was a chap walking from nowhere to nowhere. We stopped and offered him a lift. It turned out he was the ticket attendant, general manager and general dogsbody and quite possibly sole permanent employee of a sea lion sanctuary. I’m sure Roy has been to see the seals at Blakeney in Norfolk, as have I. I’ve even been to the Icelandic Seal reserve in Northern Iceland, in winter. I remember it was 20 March because it was my son‘s birthday. He was in Paris at the time. Rather than just wish him happy birthday birthday by text, I rounded up the only people I could find, who happened to be four Chinese diplomats from New York, got them to sing him happy birthday and posted it on YouTube. He liked that.

Anyway, having given the ticket attendant a lift, I then gave him some money, and we went to say hello to about 150,000 sealions. The smell was something else. If they had that many sealions at Blakeney, no one would go to Norfolk.

I'm guessing it was Cape Cross.