So, I’ve travelled a lot. I’ve lived in many countries on many continents and feel I know the world reasonably well. To the point that we almost came fourth in the school PTA quiz because I knew most of the answers in the geography round (and we played our joker).

But today I learned there is a country in the world I had previously never heard of. Today I came across Mayotte.

Okay, maybe country is stretching it a bit because according to Wikipedia it is in fact an “overseas department and region of France”, off the coast of Africa.

Why have I never heard of this place? Granted, it’s pretty small (pop. 212,000 according to Google facts), but I thought I was clued up on the world. What else do I now know about Mayotte? It’s capital is Mamoudzou,  it has 93km of highway, of which just 72km are paved, and “approximately 25% of the adult population, and five times as many women as men, enter trance states in which they believe they are possessed by certain identifiable spirits who maintain stable and coherent identities from one possession to the next” (more Wikipedia info).

A beautiful Mayotte scene

The reason I heard about Mayotte today was because someone from that tiny island visited this site. I am now a little bit fascinated by this country – it’s not too far from South Africa, maybe we’ll even get to go there one day. If you’re my visitor from Mayotte  please come and say hi, I’d love to hear more about your home.

And in the meantime, I’m on the look out for more unknown countries….