Burnham-On-Sea adventurer and historian Michael Turner has returned from a 625-mile hitch hike across Angola.
Michael, 59, hitch-hiked from the Namibe Desert north to the Savannah Grasslands around the capital city of Luanda in South-West Africa.
He has spent much of his life travelling and writing about the British explorer Sir Francis Drake – and the latest trip was organised to take photos of an area where Drake sailed by.
It comes despite the British Embassy saying he is the only UK traveller that they’d heard of as everyone else are workers.
Michael told Burnham-On-Sea.com: “I felt a sense of isolation which began on the flight as all the passengers were Vietnamese or Chinese oil, gas or construction workers and I was the oldest passenger by far.”
“There is no tourism in Angola and it is one of the most expensive countries in the world where the cost of living is twice that of Britain. It is demoralising paying for expensive poverty.”
“The Angolans told me it was miraculous that I could live off less than £90 per day.”
Michael was in Angola to photograph coastal profiles for his website indrakeswake.co.uk that were noted on Sir Francis Drake’s world voyage between 1577-80.
Michael said: “The hitch-hiking was a success due to the curiosity, respect and help from the Angolans when faced with the only foreign backpacking hitch-hiker.”
“I have recently hitch-hiked in Nepal, Oman Djibouti, Eritrea, Paraguay and to Timbuktu in Mali.”
