“Quirky, unusual, fresh, and like nothing we’ve seen before…” – i-escape.com
-
Stage 2 Marathon des Sables 2016: Comms from Ash
Now that she is in the thick of the race, only now do you realise what an immense effort this is. Here are her postings from her departure from the UK, via my brother Nick: 8 April: Ash left Mells yesterday afternoon and spent the evening with her tent buddies, a chicken burger and a…
-
My Sister-in-Law, Ash Sinfield, takes on the toughest foot race on earth, second stage today…
Ash has just completed the 2nd stage of the Marathon des Sables (Marathon of the Sands) today. She has been training for two years. It is a six-day, 251 km (156 mi) ultramarathon, which is the equivalent of six regular marathons. The longest single stage (2009) is 91 km (57 mi) long. This multiday race is held every year in…
-
Scorpions, Spiders and Lighting Fires with the Bushmen of Tsumkwe
A boy scout trip with a couple of bushmen at Meno a kwena is always going to throw up some surprises. Fire was always on the cards but it was the hunt for the small things that was particularly interesting. Matchbox size entrances, on the harder parts of the ground, were indicating the presence of…
-
AfrikaBurn – Burning Man Festival in the Tankwa Karoo
Abi, Nicole (thanks for the pics) and some equally flowery damsels took flight to join the flock of slightly off-piste revellers on the edge of the semi-desert in the Northern Cape. Images speak louder than words.
-
Absinthe: A taste and talk on the blisteringly powerful creative lubricant which has earned an enduring place in alcoholic folklore…with Roger Jorgensen of Jorgensens Distillery
What better way of welcoming in the festive cheer by coming to taste and listen to the story behind mind-bending effects of the notorious medicinal tonic, Absinthe, otherwise known as the Green Fairy, and its re-birth on a Wellington farm. Invented in the late nineteenth century, consumed by the bohemian café societies of Europe and…
-
'Chasing The Devil' – In Search of Africa’s Fighting Spirit. Tim Butcher lectures at The Library, Franschhoek
Best-selling author (Blood River) and adventure-traveller Tim Butcher lost friends in Sierra Leone during its civil war and was threatened with death by the Liberian warlord Charles Taylor, but he faced down these demons by trekking 350 miles through the jungle on an epic journey to one of Africa’s most overlooked regions. He wanted to…
-
Baltic Oddballs
A voyage is not complete without a degree of bizarreness. I knew this passage would be a little out of the ordinary and had put some effort into research. A former military prison where you can stay – they treat you as a prisoner; a restaurant resembling a hospital where you eat with surgical instruments,…
-
Gravediggers; Sweaty Twins; the Harushas of Theth; a bizarre serenading boatman and multiple shots at dawn – some of the characters so far….
The first foray into the unknown has taken in Montenegro, Albania, Macedonia and Kosovo. Not your a-list destinations, but the so called underbelly of the Balkans. These are some of the characters that opened our eyes to the local hospitality, filled with generosity, usually flushed down with some home made rakija, no matter what time…
-
Herzog's extraordinary new film on Antarctica
On location at a research station in the Antarctic, the film director Werner Herzog is enthralled by the wildlife – and the wild people – he discovers there. Below follows an excerpt of an interview with Hertzog on what he discovered. “It was what lies beneath the ice, not what exists on top of it,…
-
Following the aroma of Hospital Food
In the heart of Old Riga the doors opened at restaurant “Hospitālis” where everyone can enjoy a pseudo hospital atmosphere. Its creation involved Latvia’s largest hospitals and Medical history Museum, contributing to its authenticity is the fully restored attributes of the diverse medical offices from the Soviet era. It is rather bizarre. The menu sticks…
-
Bugs on the menu – The Explorers Club Dinner
Every year, the Explorers Club (the esteemed New York one) holds its annual black-tie fund-raising dinner and cocktail hour at the Waldorf Astoria in New York, featuring its famous array of unusual eats and bug-filled dishes. Just some of the things on the hors d’oeuvres menu that night: Yak Wellington, sweet-and-sour bovine penis, maggot-covered strawberries,…
-
Horst gored by Rhino
True to form Horst (who contributed greatly to the ambience in the Explorers Club) has run into an ambush; a rather large grey aggressive one, while he was photographing it. Luckily he is back on his feet, after some rather nasty surgery to his rear, and full of beans after some care from Anne and…
-
The Snakeman of Zagreb
Neven Vrbanic, professor of all things scaly and with forked tongue, has been surrounded by snakes since he was seven years old (and president of Croatian Union of Exotic Animals). An obsession that will live with him to the grave, and he will no doubt take a few along with him down there. We all…
