Africa in 2006

The initial purpose of this trip was to visit Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic, three countries that I had missed on my previous African tours. I also intended to visit my friend Abdeldjalil in Tripoli before covering the Mediterranean coast eastward to Alexandria.

I plan my trips carefully to avoid missing highlights through ignorance. I never follow my plans precisely but I have generally been fortunate enough to do and see most of what I wanted. This time however things did not turn out as I had hoped. I did not succeed in getting a visa for Angola. African friends and European expats in Libreville (Gabon), convinced me that it would be suicidal for an elderly backpacker to travel to Kinshasa and Bangui without local support. Finally, the letter of invitation that Abdeljalil sent me was not sufficient to get a Libyan visa. All that was disappointing but I compensated by deciding to tour the Middle East and had an interesting trip.

This year's adventure took me from Montreal to Portugal, to the Canary Islands, to São Tomé, to Gabon, to Cameroon 1 Yaoundé, to Cameroon 2 N'Gaoundéré, to Cameroon 3 North, to Chad, to Dubai, to Oman 1 Muscat, to Oman 2 Nizwa, to Bahrain, to Qatar, to Kuwait, to Egypt, to Lisbon again, to Amsterdam and back to Montreal where I was diagnosed with lung cancer.

After six months of being examined by a variety of specialists and three biopsies I was informed that the initial diagnostic had been erroneous because of so-called "false-positive" test results.

I was relieved to hear that and took a week's vacation in Cuba to recuperate from the emotions of that incredible six month adventure.

Now I feel fine and I dream of having another look at Argentina in January 2007.

I continue developing this site for the pleasure of sharing the joys of discovery with you. Meeting wonderful people of all skin colours, ethnic origins and beliefs has inspired me to set up the Humanist Foundation of Quebec to promote critical thinking and intercultural tolerance.

You may download and use the globetrotter's photos provided you mention "Photo by Bernard Cloutier" with a link to this site below each photo. High resolution versions can be acquired from our agent Travel-Images.com.

If you feel like it, you may exchange comments and impressions with other readers in the questbook or express them to me privately by the e-mail link. Putting a link on your web site, if you have one, would invite your viewers to enjoy free virtual travel as I hope you did.