Today

TRUCKS  AND  BOATS  TODAY

 Wherever man settles, congestion follows.

Even in a village, local vehicles gather

Along the beaches of the Indian Ocean, 

boats accumulate.

Waiting for high tide and good fishing.

Children play games amongst the stranded boats

Between the villages and the waterways, transport of goods has greatly improved.

This is a mattress truck.

An oil truck does its best

As happens world-wide, this logging truck is careening along the road, dust flying, on its way to the log-sorting yard!

(And - YES - that's a Canadian flag flying attached to our vehicle - our intrepid leader brought it in her suitcase and attached it to our vehicle)

 

 Road-building creates scars across the landscape, and the quarries, too, where gravel and sand are scraped from the surface, are left  and can be viewed from Space.

This is a quarry abandoned when local roadways were finished - only a couple of years ago - mounds already rounded by several rainy seasons of pounding rainfall.

As we approached major centres, city traffic began to pile up - and slow down.

The noise intensified as every driver honked his horn all the time.

Traffic jammed, and finally came to a full stop.

Vendors cruised these jams, trying to sell their wares.

One fellow ran by and reached inside our vehicle and tried to snatch a camera.

 Some of our group bought handicrafts which were not for sale in stores.

Making the best of it all, these stoppages developed into social events.

Traffic blockages were often due to the meeting of a narrow street and a not-so-narrow vehicle

This driver just got across the bridge, but we had to wait a while..  There was concern his load might be too heavy for the bridge . .

The speediest way to travel around is by plane.

This is a Police Plane

And these UN planes dot the small airports across the landscape.

No-one knew why they were there, when they had come, when they would leave, who was travelling on them.

But it was good to see them there, all the same.

To see Africa from a plane, watch again the movie Out Of Africa 

There is some great footage in there.

But I always prefer the countryside, so I'll leave you with the following photo - taken away from the hustle and bustle of modern-day living.

 And next time: we go back to BEFORE the time of our Dr. Dillon - to prepare for thoughts about what he encountered, as described in the book.

THANK  YOU  FOR  READING  ALONG.

And thank-you to everyone writing comments - I love them all!!