In May 2013 we, Steve & Val Hayes, went on a three week holiday in Namibia and Botswana, which we have chronicled, with photos in a series of blog posts. I didn't write any of them on LJ, because putting photos in is a bit of a schlepp, but here's a list of links to the various posts, in case anyone is interested.

One purpose of the journey was to ( Read more... )

Last week I went to the Amahoro Gathering at Hekpoort, about 40 miles west of Pretoria. About 250 people gathered from various countries in Africa and there were a few from other countries as well.

"Amahoro" is a word in Rwandan languages meaning "peace", and I think it was chosen to represent the rebuilding needed in that country following the ( Read more... )

A couple of weeks ago seraphimsigrist mentioned Rider Haggard's King Solomon's mines and his protagonist Allan Quatermain.

And so I pulled down my copy of Allan Quatermain and reread it, partly because it's the only one of Rider Haggard's books I possess, and when I read his books as a child it was one of my favourites. I was quite shocked to see that I'd ( Read more... )