SINAI: “Although Bedouin culture is approaching its end, there are Bedouin in Sinai and the Negev who are still faithful to their ancient desert culture” – Clifton Bailey Here, in accordance with the rules of the desert, for three days guests can stay with no questions asked, eating and drinking for free. Only after the [...]
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Category Archives: Camel Cheese
And on the fifth day, they showered…
December 12, 2010 – 6:36 am
Our fifth night sleeping rough, this time in Cairo, again not really our fault (well it was actual Brock’s fault). We left Mauritania prepared for the 40-hour drive through Western Sahara to Agadir, Morocco, one sleep in a taxi, one on a bus. We weren’t prepared for landing in Cairo five showerless days later. Now [...]
Fifty years young, Mauritania
December 11, 2010 – 5:50 pm
28th November, 2010 Independence Day for Mauritania. This giant country on the west coast of Africa is 50 years young today. All celebrations are cancelled due to potential terrorist threats. Everything stopped. Nothing to mark the day but shiny green flags with the Islamic crescent moon and star flapping outside every boutique and boulangerie…and a [...]
Quest for Camel Cheese: Morocco
November 30, 2010 – 2:53 pm
Sueminn Cho is a production assistant intern with the WTYSL team. Here she blogs about her first experiences traveling with the camel cheese crew across the deserts of Morocco, Western Sahara and Mauritania. “Come! Yes! You should totally come! We’re going to Morocco, more camel cheese, mid-November… Yeah, here, business card… See you in Morocco!” [...]
And oh! what a story for cheese….
November 29, 2010 – 9:36 pm
And oh! what a story for cheese….Words from Abdul Razakh, professor turned cheese maker and story-teller in southern Morocco. We travelled to his tiny village outside of Essaouira when we heard about camel cheese and camels in a region where the beasts don’t typically roam. Whys and hows were quickly overtaken by a story much [...]
How to get a Mauritanian visa at the Rabat Embassy in Morocco
November 26, 2010 – 1:46 pm
Wednesday November 24th Sebastian arrived to the consulate at 8am and was greeted by a 12+ strong hoard of Romanian ‘tourists’ organized as families in 3 beat-up German cars. They were on a quest to obtain visas so that they could eventually get to the promised land of Senegal. The Mauritanian Embassy in Rabat can [...]
Camel spells alchemy in the forests of Holland….
November 19, 2010 – 5:47 pm
5.30am. Last time I work up this early was to dance and chant with the Hari Krishnas I hung out with at university. No less of an ideology but with a little less saffron and waving incense, my incentive this morning is CHEESE. Boots, hair nets and aprons on, we are greeted by 1,200 litres [...]
Naryn – I don’t know much about camels, but if you want to know about horses!
October 7, 2010 – 8:37 pm
Kyrgyz saying: “When the camel’s tail touches the ground” Meaning: “Yeah…that’s never gunna happen” Apart from having a great sense of humour we learn that the Kyrgyz people, despite (or perhaps because of) having a recent war tearing at the country’s seams, are some of the most genuinely hospitable people we have come across. A strange [...]
Bride-napping and Kalashnikovs in Kyrgyzstan…
September 23, 2010 – 9:21 am
Kyrgyz proverb: “If you lose your child you’ll cry like a camel” What were we told about Kyrgyzstan? Not to go – for a start. That there was a war on – didn’t we know? Hadn’t we heard about the revolution? Kazakh people would raise up their hands to clasp a make-believe Kalashnikov and blast [...]
How to get an Uzbekistan visa in Almaty, Kazakhstan
September 23, 2010 – 9:17 am
How to get an Uzbek visa in Almaty OVERVIEW: Not easy. There is no way of knowing exactly how your Uzbek visa application will proceed. This is largely due to the fact that the Uzbek authorities change the consular every few months. The consular we saw had been there just one week. KEY RULES: Get [...]
