Sand dams can be great, if you put them in the right place. If you put them in bedrock on one side and soil on the other, the next time a torrential flood comes down it'll wash the soil away and just go around.
Looking for Water December 4th 2016 The PhD brought me to South Africa. Fieldwork to date had involved two month-long trips to Ethiopia last year and now I was on the hunt for another type of shallow aquifer with the potential to provide water for irrigation rather than relying on increasingly inconsistent rains. The timing was unfortunately impeccable as southern Africa is currently (in November 2016) two years into its worse droug ... read more
Africa » South Africa » Limpopo After the British seized the Cape of Good Hope area in 1806, many of the Dutch settlers (the Boers) trekked north to found their own republics. The discovery of diamonds (1867) and gold (1886) spurred wealth and immigration and intensified the subjug... ... read more
When I started this blog in 2007, it was more of a highlights package of trips generally focusing on one place or aspect. My rule had been one blog per country unless I lived there, but I eventually realised that fewer blogs were appearing. Having got around quite a bit, I'm now revisiting many countries. It's getting trickier to get to completely new countries so I might break that rule on occasion. The PhD fortunately didn't curtail travelling with research in sub-Saharan Africa and India as well as the chance to attend conferences with a sneaky bit of travelling tacked on before or after th... full info