Source: BBC News

I decided on a title for my memoirs long before I wrote one sentence. It was to be called I Never Did Make It To Timbuktu.

As a young journalist, three cities fascinated me – I thought nothing could be more adventurous and romantic than to get a byline from Timbuktu, the ancient Malian city, Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal, and Puffadder, a small town in South Africa.

“I wondered what it must feel like to have a Timbuktu address”

As things turned out, I did not make any particular effort to get to these places but I made it to Puffadder in 1991 when I was on a reporting trip to South Africa and I wanted to go to places that were not on the usual route.

The story of that trip is for another day.

I have never been to Kathmandu and now I do not think I ever will.

It lost its long-distance charms long ago and I cannot quite remember why I wanted to go there in the first place.

I have not been to Timbuktu either but it has retained its attraction for me. READ MORE

Elizabeth Akua Ohene is an accomplish journalist and  writes a letter from Africa for BBC World Service.  Ms. Ohene served in the first cabinet of former President of Ghana John Kufuor as Minister of Tertiary Education.