Friday 28 July 2017 After an 0430 ‘no answer’ call to Air Baltic, I headed back to Lufthansa. The woman on the counter said go and try some other numbers. They wouldn’t work so I went back to Lufthansa and struck a helpful woman who actually got hold of an Air Baltic supervisor in Lapland. […]

Tuesday 25  July 2017 Linda (Louis’ wife) picked me up at 0630 and we headed southeast. As we reached the city limits we had to slow to a crawl to get through the thick smoke. Like in Madagascar, the indigenous people here love lighting fires. As a result the farmers every winter have to burn off […]

Friday 21 July: Sylvia It was quite sad to wake this morning knowing it was to be our last (at least this visit) at Mombo Trails. Doc was as excited and positive as ever this morning as we headed out. Despite having seen several small groups of female kudu we hadn’t seen any of the magnificently […]

Monday 17 July: Sylvia It was great to catch up with my sister, Debbie, her husband, Dave, my niece, Joanna and my stepmum, Leonie, when we arrived in Johannesburg yesterday evening. After a few hassles – somehow I had booked and paid for 7 rooms instead of 3 – we enjoyed reconnecting over G&T’s and […]

Tuesday 11 July 2017: Sylvia I am somewhat conflicted staying in this place. Even more so than in many others I feel a burden of privilege. The locals live in small villages dotted around the area and earn approximately US$1 per day working in the fields or in the sisal factory. They live as subsistence […]

Saturday 8 July 2017: Roger Landing in Johannesburg around 8am we waited for nearly an hour to get through security and passport control in spite of just being in transit. Just after 10am we boarded the small AVRO RJ85 four-engined jet for a comfortable flight to Antananarivo. Madagascar was apparently first inhabited around two thousand years […]

Thursday 6 July 2017 Having spent Wednesday and part of Thursday catching up on some work and a bit of writing while Sylvia has been hard at work, we felt relaxed as we headed to Marseilles at 3pm to catch our flight via Frankfurt to Johannesburg and then on to Antananarivo in Madagascar. Prior to […]

Tuesday 4 July 2017 – Not a cafe in sight I took another stroll up the Pic where I had a chat with a young guy who was up there on fire watch with maps and a good pair of binos. He had also brought up a supply of canned drinks to sell to thirsty trampers. […]

Friday 30 June 2017 After spending the day catching up on a few admin things I picked Sylvia up at 3pm and we headed to Marseilles airport. We were booked on a Ryan Air flight to Rome. Terminal 2 where they depart from is quite basic but the boarding process was efficient and on time. On […]