December 2018

Each start of a skiing season, I'm fearful that I won't remember how to execute. But, each time, the muscle memory kicks in.

I can't get out of my head the images of hundreds of seemingly happy African children with no hope.

May Bridge's next 39 years be lived with as much elan and cheer as her first thirty nine!

Note: The kingklip was terrific. TIMDT, however, would not order the fish because Bond told her, that notwithstanding the excellence of the fish as a dish, the real fish itself, a deep ocean swimmer, was really ugly.

The southernmost point of Africa is actually Cape Aguilhas about 90 miles to the east.

TIMDT observes iconic mountain as ship eases into port.

He made a miraculous escape from prison, became a national hero at home, and launched his storied political career.

This has to rank as a top ten wildlife sighting if only for its sheer scope.

Emotionally and psychically affected by a trip up the Congo River in 1890. Wrote masterpiece 40k word novella, "Heart of Darkness," capturing his sentiments on his river trip. The book is considered one of the great works of fiction in the English language.

Africa's size, contrasted with her pervasive poverty and hopelessness, is almost too hard to process.

Due to the extended time it took for communication, Taunt never found out that he had, just a month before his death, been fired for incompetence and drunkenness.

...but you could backstop a séance with the rhythmical, eerie, haunting Tchiloli performance and probably get good results.

Napoleon started out with 400K troops...returned, defeated by Typhus, with 20K troops.

At NULL ISLAND. 0 degrees latitude. 0 degrees longitude.

In all my years of travel and motorcycling, I've never seen anything like this.

"Dr. Livingston, I presume."

Over a 200 year period of active slave trade, 14 million Africans were captured and moved as slaves to the Americas...of which 500K to US.

Grim economy, as it stands today, offers little future for these boys...short of working their way north to Europe, legally or not...usually not.

Our guide, Dou Dou, said that authorities are thinking of restarting the Paris Dakar rally in 2020. Since 2007 risks of terrorism along the route have attenuated.

"Doobee Brothers." "Listen to the Music." "The people need something to make them happy."

I was a bit nervous. The grades were up to 18%.

Will there be consequences if free cultures renege on that "responsibility?"

From 1492, the Canary Islands, twelve days sail from the Spanish port of Cadiz, was a way point for all Spanish shipping between Spain and the New World.