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 to happen next: yes, I have a Plan... well, just a little one, the output of this last week's serious agonising. No, I don't expect any of you to sympathise for a second. The subject ... read more

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 diligent attendant - no impersonal parking meters and draconian traffic wardens for us in Namibia; the Old Duchess who is gently reminding me of her little quirks (Keith, if you’re reading this, she’s STILL IN ONE PIECE, honest!), and who could hardly be more different than the little “toy car” I’ve been driving in ... read more

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 ebullience of our travels; nevertheless, we both loved it.) Travelling with Amanda has always been easy. We have known each other since the half-student/half-living-like-a-grown-up days of Law School at Chester and, although we’ve never done a Big Trip together, she joined me and my then-travelling companion, Delia, for three weeks ... read more

The various places that Amanda and I visited during the second week of our trip have one thing in common…. well, the heading for this blog entry has somewhat given it away… yes, SAND. When we were planning this trip, the one area that I’d insisted on including was the Skeleton Coast. Amanda, fried from juggling what really amounted to two jobs at once (someone should do away with the concept of “part-time secondment” once and for all - there ain’t any such animal: you just end up doing your fulltime day job squished into whatever time is left from your allegedly part-time role in the client institution which role, itself, tends to expand beyond the agreed limits), was afraid that this would involve just too much driving and, a valid point, what was there to ... read more

What do you do with a free ten days in Namibia when the early appearance of the rainy season (6-8 weeks ahead of its anticipated arrival) makes driving on your own to the few parts of the country that you haven’t yet visited somewhat unwise? Faced with the option of kicking my heels in Windhoek - don’t get me wrong, I’m fond of the place: it’s just that there isn’t a vast amount to do and I feel as if I’ve “done” most of it - I arranged to go back to the Cheetah Conservation Fund where I’d had such a ball back in September. But first to “pay” for the loan of a vehicle to get me up and down the country. Keith Leggett, the scientist with whom I’d worked on the desert-dwelling elephant project, ... read more