If you had asked me a month before, “Where will you be in a month?” the answer would have been something like “Malawi” or “Tanzania”. Ireland was not a place I was even considering, yet there I was walking off of the plane in Dublin, Ireland. The decision to alter my loosely formed African itinerary from an overland journey all the way to Cairo, to a quick jaunt through Europe was somewhat of a spur of the moment decision. I had been sitting in an internet café in Swakopmund, Namibia, on the Skeleton Coast, looking at a recent e-mail from my mom, which detailed her upcoming vacation to Ireland. I had been on the computer trying to find a way to get through Sudan to Egypt. The word on the street was that people with a ... read more

It was a beautiful African morning. I was standing on the dusty riverbank soaking up the warm sun and watching an amazingly long line of ancient trucks and busses and a few private vehicles wait their turn for a spot on one of the two tiny river boats that were ferrying the vehicles back and forth across the river. I had already passed through Zambia’s border post and from where I stood I could see three other countries - Zimbabwe was off to my left, across the river, Botswana was next to it to the right and, off to my right, a small point of grassy land formed Namibia’s tiny portion of the rare four country border. I was headed across the river to Botswana and, as luck would have it, I didn’t need to wait ... read more

Our journey from Etosha National Park passed through some amazing desert scenery. In fact, excluding the small town of Kamanjab, where we stopped for coffee at a traditional German bakery, and the noticeable absence of large animals along the road, the scenery was about the same as it was in the park. It was late afternoon when we pulled off of the well maintained two lane road and came to a stop at a small, unmarked gate. We were enthusiastically greeted by two dust-covered children and their goats. Our guide shouted a few unrecognizable greetings to the children and they responded with wide smiles and waving hands as they threw the gate open and ushered us into their domain. We drove down the dusty track for a few minutes and then we came to a stop ... read more

I don’t remember the first time I learned of the Namib Desert. My first images of its mountainous red dunes probably came out of the pages of National Geographic Magazine or one of my early school textbooks. Regardless of where I first learned of them, I have been drawn to the dunes of the Namib Desert since I was very young. I almost traveled to Namibia back in 2003, but I abandoned the journey when I discovered that it would have cost me the same amount of money to do a two week trip to the area as it would have cost me to visit Southern Africa for several months - The idea of going on a long trip had been floating around in my head since I had returned from Nepal a year before and ... read more

The image of Africa that I hold in my mind is one of grand wildernesses filled with strange and exotic animals. This image was formed mostly in my childhood with the help of the pages of National Geographic and the heavily abridged stories of Dr. Livingstone and Mr. Stanley's adventures in Africa that could be found in my school textbooks. Later, the African wildlife documentaries and the grand stories from Hemingway, Conrad and Haggard, as well as the unabridged stories from Dr. Livingstone and Mr. Stanley, filled in the gaps and brought life to my mental image. I knew when I stepped off of the Europa in Cape Town that my image did not match the reality of modern Africa, but I also knew, that with a little searching, the wilds of Africa could still be ... read more