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Showing posts with the label Africa

Photo Weekend: An African teaser

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Followers of this space may have figured out that I've been in Africa for the last month. After a very full schedule of hiking, safaris, and a visit to Victoria Falls, I came back to the US in time for my son's wedding (a schedule that was undeniably a little fraught). Naturally I don't have the photos edited and I'm not quite ready to do a proper trip report, even of the first bit, but I thought I'd throw out a teaser with a few highlights. The trip had basically five parts. 1. Tanzanian Safari.  Petey Possum is ready for adventure!   Some things have to be seen to be believed. 2. Mt. Meru Climb (Tanzania) Are we really going up there? Yes, we did! 3. Mt. Kenya circumambulation (Kenya) Going around that. Weather. 4. Kenya Safari Animals large... ... and small 5. Victoria Falls Hope that this has caught your interest enough to keep you coming back! I'll be posting full trip reports (lots of photos!) as I get the photos edited. Watch the weekend posts over the ne

Non-fiction Audiobook: Cathedral of the Wild, by Boyd Varty

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Another in my long list of books about being in or traveling in the wilderness, Boyd Varty's memoir is a little different.   Title: Cathedral of the Wild: An African Journey Home Author: Boyd Varty. Audiobook narrated by the author. Publication info: Random House Audio, 2014. 9 hours. Hardback Random House 2014, 304 pages. Source: Library Publisher's Blurb: When Nelson Mandela was released after twenty-seven years of imprisonment, he needed a place to recover and adjust to his new life. He went to Londolozi Game Reserve. Founded over eighty years ago by Boyd Varty's great-grandfather, Londolozi started as a hunting safari. But in 1973, Boyd's visionary father, Dave, transformed it into a nature reserve, creating a blueprint for modern-day conservation. This transformation is the backdrop of Boyd's family history and his own personal odyssey. Alongside his feisty, daring sister, Bronwyn, Boyd grows up learning to track lions, raise leopard cubs, and pilot L

Mystery Monday: Love and Death Among the Cheetahs

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Title: Author: Publication Info: Source:   Publisher's Blurb (per Amazon): Georgie and Darcy are finally on their honeymoon in Kenya's Happy Valley, but murder crashes the party in this all-new installment in the New York Times bestselling series. I was so excited when Darcy announced out of the blue that we were flying to Kenya for our extended honeymoon. Now that we are here, I suspect he has actually been sent to fulfill another secret mission. I am trying very hard not to pick a fight about it, because after all, we are in paradise! Darcy finally confides that there have been robberies in London and Paris. It seems the thief was a member of the aristocracy and may have fled to Kenya. Since we are staying in the Happy Valley—the center of upper-class English life—we are well positioned to hunt for clues and ferret out possible suspects.   Now that I am a sophisticated married woman, I am doing my best to sound like one. But crikey! These aristocrats are a thoro

Review: Caravan, by Dorothy Gilman

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  Title: Caravan Author: Dorothy Gilman Publisher: Fawcett Crest, 1993 (original by Doubleday, 1992). 248 pages Source: I think I found this at the library book sale. Or else on Mom's bookshelves. Publisher's Summary: A lushly romantic adventure story set in the North African desert in 1914, told by the impeccable Lady Teal as she reminisces in her London town house about her decidedly peccable past… With her anthropologist husband murdered and their caravan stolen by fierce Tuareg tribesmen, Caressa’s choices are death or a life of slavery. Concealing her dangerous beauty beneath the faded robes of an Arab boy, she embarks on the adventure of her life, harassed by vicious nomads, slave traders, and the envious witch doctor, Isa. Only a handful of carnival magic tricks stand between her and oblivion. Then she discovers an inner magic so mysteriously compelling that the desert people call her a sorceress. With it she will secure her freedom and discover the love of h