Tag Archives: Africa

Kenya Safari – Day 1 & 2

The Mara

Day 1 & 2 London The Thistle at Heathrow had been an excellent idea to break up the 19 hours of flying between Los Angeles and Nairobi. Get off at Heathrow, take the Hoppa shuttle to the Thistle, drop the carry-ons (big bags checked through), take the tube into London for a bite of dinner, then back for a few hours sleep before taking on the final 8 hours and two times zones of flying. The first step worked just fine – Hoppa to Thistle. The Thistle is a collection of 2 story 1970’s construction buildings arranged around a central parking court. Typical of other Thistles I’ve stayed ... [Read More]

Temporary Setbacks in the Maghreb

Calm before the storm. A chilly Monday at a site in Tunis overlooking the Mediterranean. Unrest would grip the city two days later.

My third day of meetings in Tunisia marked the mid-way point in my visit to this country of 10 million nestled between Algeria and Libya on the north coast of Africa. By now, I was used to being in a part of the world that gave my loved ones back home more than a little cause for concern. They, like most, may not be geopolitical experts. But one doesn’t need to be to recall that it was Tunisia that sparked the Arab Spring two years ago, with the overthrow of a corrupt, decades-old regime and protests that led to formation of a provisional government and ... [Read More]

A high-tech solution to a bat problem

  We got a warm welcome to the island of Lamu in the old kingdom of Zanzibar off the coast of Kenya in East Africa. Not so welcome was the bat, which flew into our room through an unscreened window one night. It proved to be a difficult quarry. When we turned the light on, it hid. When we turned the light off, it whizzed around looking for who knows what. We finally solved the problem by leaving the light on. -Mac Conway [Read More]