Today we aren’t travelling that far at all. In fact we’re just heading north over the border to the CAR’s neighbour, Chad.
CAR was a tough place to visit, sadly things aren’t about to get any easier. Lonely planet provides a fantastic intro to Chad:
“Chad has always been some place where travellers wave goodbye to their comfort zone and say hello to adventure. Even when it is safe to visit, which sadly it is currently not, the art of travel here is demanding in every sense of the word. ”
Like CAR, Chad is undeveloped owing to decades of war and unrest. As a result infrastructure is lacking, life expectancy is short and there are high levels of corruption. However Like Libya its neighbour to the north, Chad does have oil reserves which make up 96% of its exports.
Other than oil, Chad is not endowed with natural resources and has a harsh landscape which bridges Saharan desert to East Sudanian savanna. Chad is named after lake Chad, the second largest lake in Africa although this place is in threat as Lake Chad is rapidly shrinking. Chad is surprisingly large. It’s the 20th largest country in the world and is larger than South Africa.