Planning Resources
2001 Before Africa 2001 After Africa Spoken Languages Lessons Learned Illusions Planning Resources

Hello cyber-traveler. This site contains access to information I think I might need while I am away from home in 2001 traveling in and around Africa. It is to be a year with no fixed itineraries. Even the airline reservations are subject to change and indeed most likely will be changed as serendipity guides me in unexpected directions. Like  my sojourns of the past, this year's wanderings should take me to places few normal tourists would find appealing, places where the human condition has been tested severely, places where opposing belief systems are so deeply imbedded in the social fabric they literally tear the earth along well demarcated  "GreenLines."        Fred  Bellomy      

15 January 2001  -  Marten Luther King Day in America

Some Starting Dates and Places

18 JAN THU LV BIG BEAR 9AM FRIEND CAR TRAIN, CABS
18 JAN THU AR LAX AREA 14:00    
This starts my normal traveling routine. Once in the vicinity of the airport I'll look around for a nearby "good deal" motel where I can spend the night and leisurely wait for my mid-day flight on Friday.
19 JAN FRI LV LOS ANGELES 118PM FLT88 AMERICAN AIRLINES
20 JAN SAT AR BRUSSELS NOON    
20 JAN SAT LV BRUSSELS 220PM FLT2811 SABENA
20 JAN SAT AR PRAGUE 350PM    
After getting to know Prague I may take some short day trips into Poland and/or Slovakia. Wherever I go it will be cold this time of year!
27 JAN SAT LV PRAGUE 735AM FLT 447 SWISSAIR
27 JAN SAT AR ZURICH 855AM    
27 JAN SAT LV ZURICH 1020AM FLT 324 SWISSAIR
27 JAN SAT AR ISTANBUL 210PM    
Turkey is a wonderfully hospitable country, steeped in religious history. It is a country at the crossroads between historical Islam on one side and historical Christianity on the other. Turkey has adopted a secular public life to a degree that is considered apostasy by many in the conservative Muslim world. It is a middle ground that begs to retain the cherished traditions founded by Mohammed while promoting open philosophical inquiry and the diversity of opinions which result. Nearly everyone belongs to one of the several sects of Islam, but many people I encountered were happy to discuss questions about the Koran in much the same secular way non-devout people in the West discuss the Bible... as literature, as history, as an ethical guide, as the foundation of a social order, and to entertain the proposition that it is something other than the infallible word of God. In my opinion, Turkey dividing East from West in this next century, will be the World's most important Green Line!

I expect I will be in Turkey about a month before finding a way down to north Africa and perhaps another month in Egypt. Here I'll just be a tourist before making my way south into black Africa, possibly by freighter along the lengthy east coast of the enormous continent. With three times the land mass of continental United States, distances are immense and travel is slow, often difficult by all accounts. Eight to ten months seems like a long time to be traveling,  until the vastness of the region is considered... and the lack of transportation infrastructure away from the main cities of the fifty countries on the continent.

I will work my way south at least as far as Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe,  eventually heading back north and into Portugal and Spain where I catch my flights back home toward the end of the year. The dates on my initial set of tickets represent only the earliest dates I can use them. I will most likely return later...

 
16 OCT TUE LV MADRID 1100A FLT3722 SABENA
16 OCT TUE AR BRUSSELS 115PM    
From prior trips I know I will need many days to for my brain cells to begin functioning like a modern Western man again. So, beautiful Brussels will be my place for R&R and a time to consolidate notes for the book I am writing.
23 OCT TUE LV BRUSSELS 250PM FLT89 AMERICAN
23 OCT TUE AR LOS ANGELES 926PM    
Ironically, getting from the LAX Airport to my mountain retreat in Big Bear may prove to be one of my more challenging travel experiences. Big Bear is as remote as some of the places I'll visit in Africa! It should be a perfect place to get some serious writing done.
Metrolink trains leave the L.A. Union Station for the hour and a half run to San Bernardino at the following times: 06:17 08:58 11:30 13:25 15:50 16:40 17:00 17:30 17:50 18:55 19:50 and 20:50, but only the 08:58 and 13:25 arrive in time to catch the MARTA bus back up the hill.

The MARTA bus leaves the San Bernardino Metrolink station for Big Bear Lake about 11:00 and 16:15 everyday except Sunday. Going down the hill they meet at the RiteAid store at 08:00 and 11:15, arriving at the Metrolink at 10:00 and 15:20 respectively, for the 11:00 (arv. LA 14:24) and 17:00 (arv. LA 18:45) train connections.