Category Archives: Uncategorized

Wedding Night Jitters

Just when I thought my French was getting better… Last night I was listening to a shopkeeper across from my hotel tell me about the traditions of the Muslims in the area. He was talking in French and I was pretty proud of myself that I was understanding most of what he was saying. Then […]

March 15

Taghit Oasis and the Search for New Superlatives

There are places in the world that can defy a travel writer’s art. There are scenes that are so breathtaking that they completely defeat him. I feel that dunes of Taghit have defeated me.Taghit is an oasis village on the edge of the Grand Erg Occidental, Algeria’s western sea of sand. It is a small […]

March 01

Photos from the Camps

Here are a few of my favourite photos from my days in the Saharawi refugee camps. This girl was part of the parade marking the Saharawi ‘National Day’, February 27th. They celebrated the day before, however, because all the foreigners who were in the camps for the race were leaving on the 27th. A Saharawi […]

February 26

Among the Saharawi

I feel like I am a long way from anywhere right now. I am in Smara, the largest of the Saharawi refugee camps in southwestern Algeria. These camps have housed Saharawi people since the mid-1970s when thousands were expelled from their land in the Western Sahara by the Moroccan army. In 1981, the Moroccans built […]

From Dead to Red to Med

Greetings all. I am in Algiers now after nearly two weeks of luxury. I attended my first travel media tour in Jordan and while bus tours and big groups are not the way I prefer to travel, I could get used to five star hotels and free meals in posh restaurants. The tour brought us […]

Welcome to Elsewhere

Greetings, and welcome to the first posting of Elsewhere.I’ve been thinking about starting a blog about my travels and writing – and the writing and travels of others – for quite some time now. Today, just hours before I head to Algeria and Morocco to begin research for a new book, seems as good a […]