Before I left Namibia in early April, Keith Leggett, of desert-dwelling elephant research project fame, had asked if I’d be interested in coming back to work on his project in May when he and his new research assistant, Juliane Schaub, would be taking the year’s first Earthwatch volunteers into Kaokoland. I didn’t need asking twice! My role was primarily to help Juliane with the volunteers setting up and running the camp, and with local geography, as I’d been in the area a little more than she had at that point. I guess you could say I was to be the [View Full Entry]

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I’m in love…. again. Yes, I know I’m prone to this affliction, at least as regards the places I visit, but it was love at first sight with Malawi. Even the mayhem at Blantyre airport when I arrived didn’t bother me: the warmth of the people waving and smiling from the balcony above the immigration/baggage collection area (I’d hesitate to call it the “arrivals hall”) at arriving friends and relations countered any possible frustration at the ad hoc immigration and baggage retrieval procedures. There was a long queue, reaching back nearly to the foo [View Full Entry]

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…when a mazungu comes to visit. Without question, the most incredible experience of my trip to Malawi was the day and night I spent in the village of Njobvu. This is a “real live” African village which Central African Wilderness Safaris has helped establish a small tourist programme. A couple of huts have been built, in the local style, as accommodation for tourists, with associated “facilities”. A guide, Enoch, shows day and overnight visitors around the village, introducing them to the traditional healer and various villagers who demonstrate their crafts an [View Full Entry]

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[Photos to follow when I have all of the requisite technology in the same place at the same time!] I’m in love…. again. Yes, I know I’m prone to this affliction, at least as regards the places I visit, but it was love at first sight with Malawi. Even the mayhem at Blantyre airport when I arrived didn’t bother me: the warmth of the people waving and smiling from the balcony above the immigration/baggage collection area (I’d hesitate to call it the “arrivals hall”) at arriving friends and relations countered any possible frustration a [View Full Entry]

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Fortunately, I didn't have exactly concrete plans this time around, contrary to last year's military-precision schedule for which I was mercilessly teased in some quarters, and in contravention of a recently-heard edict from a Very Serious Traveller: "Always travel with a Purpose". Rather I had "aspirations" as I outlined in my last blog, but some of them were, shall I say, mandatorily rearranged by the weather. Yes, I may be 6,000 miles away from the UK, but I'm still at the mercy of the weather and therefore obliged to talk about it. But first, an update of what's (hopefully) going [View Full Entry]

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With apologies for the delay - I blame technology (and it can't answer back) - here are some photos of Windhoek which I had intended to accompany my last blog. Last year I was too cautious - and extremely mindful of the numerous warnings about carrying valuables around town - to use my camera in Windhoek. Now the town feels like my second home and, albeit I continue to be extremely circumspect, I am now prepared to take photos at least in the central areas. For anyone who's interested, I've set out below - with minor tweaks - the guff [View Full Entry]

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I’m still pinching myself to check that I’m actually here. Here in Windhoek. Here in the friendly internet café on Fidel Castro Street where the PC has crashed on me twice already this afternoon, my flashdrive appears to have gotten bent in my travels and I’ve discovered that I’ve brought the wrong cable to download pictures from my camera . Here, a couple of blocks away from where I’ve parked the Old Duchess, leaving her in the tender care of yet another dili [View Full Entry]

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The last port-of-call on my 2006 trip to southern Africa was the Eastern Cape. As I mentioned at the end of my last blog, I’d met the inspirational Dianne Lang on the train from London to Edinburgh in June this year and was so overwhelmed by her work with AIDS orphans and abused children that I’d arranged to visit her Children’s Home for a few days at the end of my trip with a view to seeing whether or not I could “handle” coming back to work there for a longer period next year. First stop was Port Elizabeth where, for [View Full Entry]

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I’m sitting at a friend’s PC in Johannesburg where, blu-tacked to the screen, is a quotation from Jennifer Aniston: “There’s nothing better than contagious laughter.” And nothing could better encapsulate my recent trip with my oft-travelling companion and long-time friend, Amanda Burge… (There was also “that Keane song” which we played as often as the road conditions would allow and which will forever conjure images of Namibia for us. Every trip needs its theme tune, although this one, it must be said, didn’t exactly capture the ebullie [View Full Entry]

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My sister suggested that it might be useful/interesting if I filled in some of the blanks of living and travelling in Namibia that I now take for granted and which would have been too run-of-the-mill to feature in any blog. Please feel free to skip through the blurb and go straight for the photos which, I’ll be the first to admit, have little to do with the blog itself but are intended to brighten up the black and white text. In the meantime, as you may have spotted from an earlier blog, I’m now in South Africa. Prising myself away from [View Full Entry]

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