Geography games

One of the perks of a job in travel PR is that you get to brush up on your geography.  I’m especially lucky, representing adventure travel company Explore, as they go to nearly every corner of the world.  My needing to know a dignified amount of info about all their destinations, allied with a longstanding geographical geekiness, leaves me reasonably expert on useless pub quiz-style trivia like world flags and global capitals. 

Imagine my horror then when, watching University Challenge with my flatmates, I fail to get the capital of the Gambia?  The Gambia?  That’s like level two in world capitals – any old amateur could nail that one!  It’s easy.  It’s…. it’s… it’s…….

It’s Banjul, of course.  Of course.  I feel I’ve let everyone down, even though my chums don’t care a jot, and are simply perplexed as to why not knowing a West African city has rendered me totally distraught.  Luckily I recover my poise in time for another capitals question, on Sierra Leone.  The answer’s Freetown.  Phew.  Confidence restored.

If, like me, you’re a sucker for geography tests, then the game below – from Travelpod – is recommended.  It’s very diverting, and provides a strange thrill as you wobble through the levels ever more tenuously.  My best is Level 10, at which point I totally lose it and just start chucking arrows all over the place with gay – but untactical – abandon.  It’s also when they throw in random Russian cities and Southern Ocean island chains you never knew existed.  Can you do better?