Blogs from Africa - page 2964

LISten, bLISsed in: it just so happens to be that lis, the name i have been forever called, is the suffix contained within the latin names for nearly every species of lepidoptera in the genus evergestis. evergestis lunulalis, evergestis dimorphalis, and of course, evergestis AFRICALIS: a rare species of butterfly discovered in guenee in 1854. how appropriate, then, that in this metamorphic time of travel through the continent where life was first birthed and butterflies first breathed and rymths first beat, that i should adorn the spirit of this experience with the name: africalis. it is me. this is the beginning of the magicmaking mermaidwhispering moroccanmystering and ancienthistorings. so, weLCOme (!!) to the journal of the journeys, where the stories will be shared with edible re-tellings to satiate the hunger for worldly wonders... i fly from ... read more

Zambian Lobster Knees My knees are the delightful pinkish-red of a well cooked lobster. Today four of us from the group went rafting with a group of five from another Kumuka trip that has also just ended here in Victoria Falls. We went with a Zambian company who do an 'all day' raft down 25 rapids over 28 km. In reality, they only do 23, because they enter downstream from the first rapid, and just pick up the tail of it, and they walk one rapid that is classed as Grade 6, and would not be suitable for inexperienced rafters. The rafting was better than every commercial rafting I have done in Australia and New Zealand. It was not just head and shoulders above rafting the Coca in Ecuador. What would have been called a rapid ... read more

I was surprinsingly emotional this morning as I stood taking pictures of the sunrise from atop the cliff. Lake Manyara, who would have thought? Today is not only my 35th birthday, but also the one year anniversary of the beginning of the end of my house on Burris street - and my life as I knew it. It was one year ago today that I was supposed to go downtown to meet some friends for a birthday drink and had to cancel because my kitchen was completely flooded. I had no idea what was in store for me at the time, but if you had told me then that this flood would lead to a fire that would leave me homeless, which would lead to a robbery, which would lead me to being posessionless, which ... read more

Today’s the big day. I was up at 6am for the morning game drive, while Fi decided to have a lie-in. We went to a different part of the Mara this morning, south along the Mara river towards the Serena. We saw a large herd of elephant, a big pride of Spotted Hyena, a very large crocodile and the paradise pride loafing around on some rocks. I got back to find Fi was up and ready for breakfast. We were both getting pretty nervous by now, in fact, I think that if there weren’t armed guards surrounding the camp, she might have been tempted to make a break for it. We went to meet the priest, Farther Francis Thumbi. He was brilliant, and said that we could have whatever type of ceremony we wanted. We said ... read more

Al weer twee weken veldwerk achter de rug, en tevreden? Niet echt, het kan natuurlijk altijd beter. De dagen hier zijn kort en heet en de week wordt ook niet ten volle benut. Op maandag na het middaguur vertrekken we pas met de drie vrolijke Afrikanen vanuit Ouaga richting rimboe en de vrijdag slaan ze ook over, waardoor er maar drie bruikbare dagen overblijven… Ondanks de korte tijd in het veld toch veel grondmonsters genomen dankzij de uitstekende hulp van Issouf en Daniel, de gids die de plaatselijke bevolking in het Takkie-Takkie te woord staat over wat wij wel niet aan het doen zijn. De eerste week kregen we te eten van de vrouw van Daniel, maar dat hebben we maar zo snel mogelijk afgezegd, want dat was meer “pour le chien’ zoals wij alles noemen ... read more