I count more than 26 elephants on the plain far below our cabin on an escarpment overlooking the great Rift Valley. They have abundant water, are well-fed and have lots of babies. Watching them lumber peacefully along in harmony with the universe soothes the soul.
Bush planes service the Maasai Mara reserve from Kenya’s capital of Nairobi.
(That’s famed paleontologist and anthropologist Louise Leakey debarking the plane.)
With plenty of rainfall, the Mara is fresh and green… a happy place for its residents.
ZebraCurious hartebeest… husband and wives.
Impala males practicing dominance.Lots of giraffe
Oops – did I mention elephant?
This little fella had been rolling in mud…. Some of it dried between his toes so he has an itchy foot!
Time for lunch in the bush…..
Incredible birds…
Impressive gray-crowned cranesHammerkop….. his head is not shaped that way….the crest in back is an arrangement of feathers.This guy is one of many birds who unfortunately get lumped into the category of LBJ….. Little Brown Jobs. He is nonetheless singing with gusto.
Big cats, of course….
Sleepy lionLazy cheetah
No visit to this part of Africa is complete without a Maasai performance…..
We showed our support for the conservation efforts here with a purchase or two….
A criminally short stay in this breath-taking place, filled with fascinating animals and kind people.
We will have to return to safari before all is said and done, but in the meantime, we head to a completely different part of Africa…… Cairo.
The Seychelles is a nation of 115 islands with only 110,000 people. It was unpopulated until the mid-1700s; then claimed first by the French, later by the English; and has now been enjoying independence for 50 years.
Just a few images from our short stay in this tropical paradise.
The Seychelles is presumably the only place where you will find the coco de mer variety of palm tree….Quite distinctive!
A catamaran cruise to a nearby island….
And they have turtles…. Similar to those on the Galapagos.
And of course sweet and colorful fruit.
Friendly people and natural beauty…but we must leave very soon for a safari in Kenya!
Udaipur is a bustling city in a lake region (some of the lakes man-made) where an 18th-century maharana established a palace complex and seat of power.
The palace complex is almost a kilometer long…. It seems to be floating, but is actually built on top of hills that rise above the water level.
The doors in the palace buildings are very small…..especially those leading to the private apartments of the king and his harem. The guide explained that this is not because people were smaller then…. Instead it is a defensive strategy. Infidels who attempt to invade are forced to bend over as they charge through; the maharana’s soldiers wait on the other side of the door with a scimitar and a basket to lop off the interloper’s heads, one by one!
(In this part of India, the title Maharana means “Great King”; elsewhere in India the term Maharaja is common and means pretty much the same thing.)
A shout-out to the current maharana, who has served in that capacity since his father’s death a year ago….. Although his title is largely symbolic, he leads a large foundation dedicated to community welfare. And has been so successful that he has received nine Guinness World Records for his charitable activities since 2019!
The shores of this lake are very popular with local visitors as well as foreigners….
The Taj Palace hotel was the “summer palace”, built on a rocky outcropping in the middle of the lake.
This interior courtyard served as the maharana’s throne room.
The most striking impression from our short sojourn in India is the obvious love of color and shiny things reflected in the decor throughout both royal accommodations and public places.
Ganesh, the elephant-headed god of new beginnings, wisdom and prosperity.. obviously a very popular guy!Actual elephants are also revered, symbolizing strength, divinity, high intelligence and good luck… what else could you need?
Henna is used for skin decoration…..
(I didn’t realize that henna was so thick – the chunks fell off after an hour or so, but the underlying stain will apparently last for quite some time.)
Dancers also wear bright colors, with music and movement adding to the spectacle.
This guy was very cool – balancing a spinning bicycle wheel on his head without skipping a beat!
A quick and unabashedly sanitized sampling of India – our drives to the airport through city streets showing another whole country filled with small marketplaces, storefronts, public parks, schools, businesses…. lots and lots of inhabitants – and yes, piles of trash, stray dogs and cows, street vendors and many reminders that India has the largest population of any other country in the world, at 1.4 billion people. A rich stew of humanity.
Onward we go to our next destination – the thinly-populated island nation of The Seychelles.
Hoi An – in the outskirts of Da Nang on the coastline – probably used to be a nice sleepy agricultural community. Today, however, due to the beauty of the beaches and its accessibility, it has become quite a magnet for tourists.
Massive resorts and high rises – both complete and under construction – crowd along the beachfront. And lots of “experiences” give the casual traveler a prettified taste of Vietnamese history and culture.
Bike ride through the rice fields….. including a photo op with a fisherman using a traditional hand-thrown net:
Visit to a workshop fashioning sculpture from driftwood…
Jeep ride….
Here we are skirting an area where newly-harvested rice is spread in the sun to dry. Vehicles are not discouraged from driving over the rice, which helps loosen the outer husks which are discarded before the rice is acceptable for consumption.
A stop to taste and learn how to prepare the rich Vietnamese coffee, usually consumed with sweetened condensed milk or coconut cream….
A visit to a vegetable farm, where I helped plant some spinach and the farmer showed off his irrigation technique…
And an exclusive street fair providing typical and tasty bites and beverages.
Some people go a little wild and native!
The nature of this type of trip does not really allow an in-depth appreciation for the places visited, but it is a fun way to sample a bit of its culture. The National Geographic experts who accompany the group are a great source of context and history – and the local guides are enthusiastic and can provide some contemporary perspective.
A fast-paced couple of days… and next we are off to Udaipur in India’s Lake District for an even briefer stay!
Sorry for the gap between posts – have had a little problem with WiFi strength and the blog app….
Golden Week in Japan is an accumulation of several public holidays observed over the course of six days. It is a time when mobs of people visit – both foreign and Japanese. Kyoto is a prime destination owing to its history, beauty and cultural significance.
Children’s Day is marked by hanging koinobori (colorful flags that look like koi fish)… these symbolize the wish for health, strength and success. (Until 1948, this holiday was Boys’ Day, but then political correctness dictated a more-inclusive public posture.)
Real koi fish have a strength and charm all their own!
Kyoto has a wide variety of fun and delicious foods, often depicted for the benefit of foreigners with plastic replicas….
Real veggie ramen with a full array of fixins’……
Folks in Kyoto have become a little fed up with the tourist trade, as demonstrated by these signs exhorting people to behave properly…..
How generous to have this sentiment translated into English!
The Japanese people are very committed to law and order, maybe a national characteristic that they hope will translate effectively for their less-respectful visitors.
Lots of those visitors flock to Nara Park and its temple with a regular Buddha (and an attendant)…
And a more practical Buddha who heals people, but must now be shielded with shower cap and cape from the more aggressive rubbing from his supplicants.
Nara Park is known most famously for its large deer population, who are quite habituated to humans, and have even learned how to beg for treats by bowing in a very Japanese manner…..
Needless to say, the deer have no qualms about approaching people….
Finally, as much as the Japanese love baseball, their number one favorite sport is sumo wrestling….. so much more civilized than other kinds of wrestling, it consists of several preliminary rites, and then a couple of large men are involved in a controlled shoving match.
The game can go to the quickest, the biggest or the wisest….. but always conducted with dignity.
On that note, so ends our brief stay in Kyoto… on next to Vietnam!
A mild winter in East Texas – and a new favorite photo of our little family on a rare cold day, captured on a game camera….
Mindful that it is never too late to reconnect with the people who are important in your life – I had a mini-reunion in California with some cousins, second cousins, and even third cousins!
We all had a wonderful time catching up!
Shortly after, my cardiologist told me that my congenital heart valve defect had reached the point where a replacement was needed via a non-invasive procedure through the groin. Easy peasy.
Sorry about the graphic nature of this, but imagine how the relatives of the pig who donated the valve feel!
Little did I know…..
The valve worked fine, but my heart rhythm was off; my blood pressure and heart rate plummeted, and they brought out the crash cart to keep me going with a defibrillator….
In pain, confused and honestly terrified.
Following an urgent procedure to install a pacemaker and an extra day in the hospital, everything stabilized and I got back to relative normal….. with what feels like 5 pounds of shrapnel in my chest.
The entire medical team was dedicated to getting me back in shape for our next travel adventure – a trip around the world beginning only a week after the valve replacement. I had my doubts….but here we are!
This little brush with mortality made me realize more than ever the philosophy so aptly articulated by that venerable sage, Viggo Mortensen:
Life is short and the older you get, the more you feel it. Indeed, the shorter it is. People lose their capacity to walk, run, travel, think, and experience life. I realize how important it is to use the time I have.
There is still so much to see, so many people to meet, and so many things to experience. It’s fun and we can!
SOOOO – a frantic few days of packing and preparing the animals and house, and off we went to Seattle.
Our dear friend Margaret was able to join us there from her home in Portland for a couple of days….
We join fellow travelers and the National Geographic experts in Seattle and will take off soon for our first stop – Kyoto, Japan.
There are very few people (and virtually no Americans) who can track their family history back 200 years or so without finding an ancestor (or multiple ancestors, or ALL their ancestors) who moved from one place to settle in another. We are almost all of us immigrants.
Why do we move? Scarcity of resources, lack of economic opportunity, political dissent and conflict, religious or cultural persecution, forced deportation and sometimes just plain ol’ wanderlust. As true today as it has ever been….even in prehistoric times.
Ireland’s history exemplifies this flux of people over the ages. Some of the earliest and most influential invaders were the Vikings….. who went in many directions, but whose first large permanent settlement was Dublin on the eastern shore of Ireland in about 795 CE. The Vikings or Norsemen went on from there to establish communities in present-day France, England, Iceland, Greenland and Canada.
This summer we will follow some of their travels in reverse – starting from our US home, then a few weeks in Ireland; cruising from there to England, Wales, France and Copenhagen, then some weeks venturing through Denmark, Norway and Sweden (and maybe Finland).
Joining us for the cruise part of the journey will be Henry’s daughter Holly, her husband Matt and their grown children Caleb and Lily.
Along the way, we hope to learn a lot more of the history of these movements of people, culture and ideas. There will also no doubt be photos of us enjoying food and drink, purchasing cheap trinkets, making new friends and examining fresh landscapes.
We leave behind and will miss our faithful companions Sally O’Malley and Boudreaux, who will be capably cared for by some wonderful house sitters.
Here’s a quick photo as we approach Dublin from the air… another of Henry’s great airplane-window photos…..
Will be back soon with our first report from the Auld Sod…..
The Schoolhouse in Dublin originally served as a school in the middle 1800s; it was also the site of a key battle in the 1916 Easter Uprising of the Irish against the British. It’s now a pleasant hotel in a leafy section of Dublin along the Grand Canal….. whose construction began in 1756.
On a stroll toward the city center, one is confronted with literary Dublin….. the childhood home and a memorial to Oscar Wilde (1854-1900), the flamboyant Irish playwright, poet and author. His was a short and tragic life, but brilliant and witty. Among his bon mots…. “Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.” And…. “Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much.”
Such intriguing detail on the sculpture….. Henry attempts to reproduce his wry sneer with only middling success.
A short distance away is a site of significance to fans of “Ulysses”, the monumental stream-of-consciousness novel by James Joyce (1872-1941)…… a drugstore called “Sweny” where the protagonist picks up a prescription.
It is no longer a functioning pharmacy; instead you wear a funny hat and purchase some lemon soap (also a legendary icon in the novel)…
….. and hear a song sung in Gaelic by a native speaker and a guy originally from Barcelona.
I don’t think the last part about the guys singing was in the novel (which I never managed to get through) ….. just a little something for us tourists…..
…..who get thirsty about now and end up in still another historic place.
Wow – at least the beer and food were fresh. A Guinness for the purist…
And something a little lighter for the maverick….
Irish stew…. To check off a classic dish.
Later….. fish and chips….. and the discovery of a beverage previously unknown.
A sweetish concoction that is pretty good in coffee….. bought primarily for the label art and the name.
Taking a break from tradition, we decided to check out a well-reviewed restaurant with a vegetarian bill of fare….. it was flavorful and inventive!
Driving south along the coast from Dublin, we came to Wexford, a town more or less started as a Viking settlement; not many relics of them now, but we did attain the goal of staying in a room over a pub.
(Technically over a liquor store next door to the pub – even better!)
Further along, Waterford has a rich history as a Viking outpost beginning in the 9th century CE.
(Ever notice how old people tend to resemble each other the longer they are together?)
Waterford got its name from the old Norse word Vedrarfjordr, which is thought to have meant “windy fjord”, a reference to the safe harbor it represented to the sea-faring Vikings. Eventually it became known for its manufacture of fine crystal.
And you can get an Irish whisky there!
Cork is a great town for walking around – lots of interesting store fronts and murals.
We stayed in an historic accommodation in the old Elizabeth Fort, first built around 1600 by the English as a way of keeping the local Irish under control. It went through many iterations, later as a prison for Irish women being exiled to Australia and most recently a police station.
Our room inside the walls dates from the police-station era…
Interesting history – the tray in which these cannonballs are stacked was called a “monkey”. It is made of brass. The cannonballs themselves are made of iron.
One of metal’s properties is that it contracts in very cold temperatures; some metals are more susceptible and thus contract faster than others. When freezing temperatures were achieved, the brass tray would contract more quickly than the iron cannonballs and the lowest level of ammo would pop out of the tray, collapsing the pyramid. This supposedly led to the saying, “cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey”.
Fun fact or fabrication? Of course they couldn’t tell this story if it wasn’t true.
All for now as we continue on our semi-circumnavigation of the Emerald Isle.
Little is known of the people who built this prehistoric dolmen (burial tomb) in about 3500 BCE (over 5500 years ago).
Dolmen on the left; relatively young man on the right
The vestiges of stone forts appear occasionally – fascinating constructs where clans of 50-100 souls lived collectively behind a defensive circular wall meant to deter invaders. They generally date back 1000 years or so…
It’s fun to climb up on the walls and imagine dwelling in such a place back when other clans, Vikings and eventually Englishmen were attacking and invading…. But life was otherwise pretty simple.
Also fun to scamper down!
A tower from the same era at Glendalough, a monastery that dates back to the very early Christian era.
You will note the door about 10 feet above the ground…. Access was by ladder, which could be pulled up when the holy brethren were under attack. Isn’t it interesting that so many of the remains are defensive barriers…. Walled communities and inaccessible towers and …. oops – guess we have the same things today!
Driving in Ireland can be a challenge for Americans – not just because you drive on the left, but there can also be hedgerows and stone walls restricting your vision…. And sometimes animal interference.
Some pretty pictures from along the way…
Whirlpool at the foot of the Kerry Cliffs…..
Henry meets people well…. Some of those with whom he found an affinity….
Ice cream guy (who also races horses and runs the dairy)…. And his little dog too!Folks from Italy who have been all around the world together on a single motorcycle (and their little dog too!)Nice guy who gave good advice on the purchase of a walking stick and recognized and admired our fine footwear (LL Bean Boots – great for walking in bogs and stepping in puddles).
Foynes on the River Shannon was the site in the late 1930s of an airbase that was used for the short-lived flying boat, a transatlantic airship that took off and landed on water. Pan American Airways was the American partner….
Some time after World War II broke out, the flying boat was deemed to be impractical… and air traffic in any event was soon directed to the newly-constructed Shannon Airport on the other side of the river. But not until after a clever chef in 1943 created a beverage designed to take the chill off the experience of a long flight into an often cold and drizzly destination… the Irish coffee!
Food in Ireland is not just stew and potatoes and soda bread….. it’s an island, so excellent seafood is plentiful….. here, about to dig into a pot of fresh mussels.
Something a little odd in this otherwise striking landscape turned out to be a peat-cutting operation…
Peat is a spongy deposit of partially decayed organic matter found in wetlands. It has been harvested by hand and used as a fuel source for many years…. Here’s a traditional peat cutter, some cut peat stacked to dry, and an individual “brick”.
Much more (probably way more than you want to know) about peat later…..
Other topics will be covered too, so please don’t let the peat content deter you from checking future posts from the Emerald Isle!
(Please remember to click on the title of this post or the link above that says “Read on blog” so that the videos and full formatting will load for your enjoyment!)
Achille Island in County Mayo was the primary filming site for “The Banshees of Inisherin”, a beautiful but ultimately very sad movie about the end of a friendship. One of the protagonists lived on this strip of beach.
Evidence of wool and egg production were noted along the road…
The Oweninny Wind Farm had not yet opened its visitor center to the public, but made an exception for a couple of curious seniors.
The manager explained how industrial burning of peat had provided electrical power in the area for many years…… (She and Henry are standing in front of the center’s sensory room, intended as a calming environment for neurodivergent visitors who might be overstimulated or confused by the displays.)
Here’s a look at the way peat was harvested by hand….
Peat harvesting and burning release significant quantities of harmful carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Wind power has therefore become a preferred energy source, as it does not have this effect. Old attitudes die hard, however, so the Wind Farm has established this center to educate residents and visitors on the whys and hows of the transition.
(No birds were harmed in the making of this video.)
A precious tiny cottage was the base for exploration of County Sligo….. where a guinea fowl makes its home on the windowsill and donkeys greet the morning just outside the door.
Note the clever bed built into a cabinet (where Henry tries to get a bit of shuteye).
Iain – I know you’ll appreciate this…. Looks a lot like your place!
The area included stunning cliff-side paths along the ocean…..
Plus a quiet beach that yielded several fossils that intrigued the happy rock hound.
A couple of canine encounters and lunch overlooking the beach…
We fortunately didn’t need this enclosed picnic table, but how brilliant to have this in a place where drizzle is common!
Continuing north to County Donegal, more cliff walks and spectacular ocean vistas…
That’s a lookout station in the distance that was put up during the Napoleonic wars to guard against invasion.
Not likely an Irish tune, but it fits the jaunty air of the traveler…..
Donegal Castle was not particularly fascinating….except for two things. First is its sad history as home base for an Irish noble, who in the face of English encroachment decided to leave Ireland to seek help from sources in Spain and France to secure his homeland. Instead, while he was gone, the English seized his land (and that of many of his fellow absent noblemen) and redistributed it. This episode, referred to as “The Flight of the Earls” led to large-scale allocation of property to English settlers, relegating many of the native Irish to serfdom.
The second factoid gleaned in Donegal is an incredible story linking this area to the Choctaw Nation in the US. Bear with me……. In 1831, the native American Choctaw people were forcibly relocated from their ancestral home in Mississippi to a reservation in Oklahoma territory along a route now called the Trail of Tears. About half of the tribe perished on the 500-mile march.
Less than 20 years later, they learned of the devastating Great Famine in Ireland, where the loss of potato crops led to starvation and death among the Irish populace. Despite their own tragic losses, the Choctaw raised $170 (tens of thousands of dollars today) to send to Ireland to aid relief.
In 1990, Choctaw leaders came to County Mayo to participate in a re-enactment of an Irish famine walk that occurred in 1847; in 1992, Irish leaders returned the honor by participating in a 500-mile trek in the US that followed the Trail of Tears.
One of the Choctaw leaders who now resides in County Mayo, Ireland, painted this piece called “The Gift of Life”, that hangs in Donegal Castle.
A deeply moving story that again illustrates that we are all connected – one way or another – across cultures, national boundaries, religion and affiliation…..
Another exciting encounter in Donegal…….with a real-life peat farmer!
Morris fortunately does not rely on peat farming for his livelihood as the fields are becoming depleted….. and he looks forward to retirement anyway!
Bushmills is in Northern Ireland, and is perhaps most notably known as the home of the distillery by the same name.
Bushmills is also the gateway to still another geological wonder on the North Atlantic coast…. The Giant’s Causeway.
A couple of very parenthetical contemporary observations…… In one small town, secondary school students had just completed final examinations. Flocks of young women traversed the town center toward a party venue wearing identical tubes that varied only in hue…. Here are just a few of easily 60 to 70 girls on parade.
Strangely, we noticed no boys of similar age, but maybe they weren’t as flamboyantly attired! Or maybe just overwhelmed and in hiding.
And a brilliant safety net for anyone who might end up on an uncomfortable first date, colorful attire or no…..
How reassuring…. And quite civilized!
And that will conclude this lengthy post. The next phase of our journey takes us to Belfast, where we meet up with Henry’s daughter Holly, husband Matt and children Lily and Caleb for a cruise through the British isles and Northern Europe.
Around the World Again 