Arisaig, Scotland

August 25 to 26, 2018

I had business in Scotland and came a day early to explore the West Highlands. It was a very dreary day (1) as I took the train north from Glasgow. Upon arrival at the sea-side village of Arisaig, a short walk took me to the village center. There is a memorial here in honor of the Czechoslovakian ex-patriates who trained here for special operations behind enemy lines during World War 2.

Thankfully, the weather had broken by morning when I set out to kayak in the clear, cold waters of Arisaig sound. There were calm winds and partly sunny skies as our group explored the Skerries, a group of low-lying islands in the sound. On a few occasions, we exposed ourselves to 2 to 3 foot rollers coming in from the south. We came across a group of about a dozen and a half seals swimming nearby, who watched us carefully, ready to submerge if they felt threatened.

As I was waiting for the late afternoon train back to Glasgow, I was surprised to see a steam train chuffing north into the station (2). The ride back to Glasgow was much more pleasant than the ride up yesterday. The train was much less crowded and the rain had stopped. We soon crossed the "World Famous" (according to the conductor) Glenfinnan Railway Viaduct (3).

The remainder of the ride was quite scenic. We passed seaside villages and streams cascading from steep mountains into lochs. At the highest stop on the line, we were deep in a moor, with the railway station the only building visible for miles across the tree-less, rocky, and boggy landscape.

(1) There was plenty of liquid sunshine, as they call rain here in Scotland.

(2) This was a seasonal tourist service running from Fort William to the end of the West Highlands line at Malaig. 

(3) I noted that the viaduct was on the cover of a Scotland tourbook a fellow passenger had. You may have seen it in the second Harry Potter movie, when the Weasley's flying car catches up to the Hogwarts Express.

Soggy Glasgow

Arisaig Station

Czechoslovak Memorial, Arisaig

Arisaig Harbour

Kayak lunch break

The steam train chuffing north, Arisaig

Views from the train 

Breakfast in Paris & Dinner in Dublin

August 18, 2018

After an overnight flight from the Seychelles, we had a 7 hour layover at the de Gaulle Airport in Paris. Seven hours was long enough to justify clearing French immigration before proceeding onto Dublin (1). We took a train to the Gate du Nord and had a marvellous baguette (2) and chocolat chaud (hot chocolate) for breakfast. 

We had a nice walk to Ile de la Cité, the historic heart of the city, where Notre Dame Cathedral (and thousands of tourists) is located. In the park behind the cathedral, we happened upon the Rock Choir (a group of women from the U.K.) who were singing rock and pop songs from the 1980s. 

When we arrived at Dublin, the immigration officer asked where we were staying. When I replied "Temple Bar," she responded: "Temple Bar on a Saturday night? At least you can sleep on the plane back to the States tomorrow" (3).

We wandered over to the Abbey Theatre to see what was playing, and bought tickets for a play called "Jimmy's Hall." The play centers on Jimmy Gralton, who helped build a community education and dance hall in Ireland in the 1920s before emigrating to the U.S. He returned to Ireland during the depression in the early 1930s (with his "yankee passport") and worked to revive the hall and its mission (4). He was met with resistance from local landowners and the parish priest for his radical ideas. He was eventually deported by the Irish government, reportedly the first and only time someone born in Ireland was deported from the Irish State. I knew little about the 1930s in  the Ireland as the country was forming an identity outside the U.K. (especially regarding  the different visions of the role the Catholic church would play in the Irish State), but the play provided the necessary context. 

The play combined straight acting, period music (In English and Irish), dancing, recitations from relevant statutes and rulings, historical recorded voices, and a short film of Irish government officials meeting with sitting cardinals. Despite having had no sleep for a day and a half (5), I was on the edge of my seat. The National Theatre Company were first rate. For example, the actor playing the local priest (a bad guy) played the role with subtlety and came across as someone genuinely concerned with protecting the youth of the village.

It turned out to be one of the best theatre experiences I have had in some time. The play provided much food for thought, and I plan to follow up with some reading on the relevant period of Irish history. At the end of the performance the crowd rose for a genuine and heart-felt standing ovation (6).

The following morning, we went in search of tea and scones. We fell into conversation with an Irishman near us. He was in Dublin for what he called "The Irish Superbowl," pitting Galway (his team, represented by maroon colors which we saw all over Dublin) against Limerick (in Kelly Green, also seen all over Dublin) in a hurling match. He described hurling as like "hockey without the ice." He went on to reminisce about his years living in Boston, his marriage to an Italian woman, his Italian wife's parent's family history, his grandmother who lived to 107 years old, and how tickets to hurling matches got harder to buy (and more expensive) when women started attending the matches.

(1) While both France and Ireland are both in the E.U., they have separate immigration processes. France is in the Schengen zone of common European border controls, while Ireland is not, linking itself to UK immigration to facilitate travel between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland (which is part of the UK (a)).

(a) The Ireland/Northern Ireland border is one of the stickiest points in the current Brexit negotiations. If a hard border is re-established between Ireland (an E.U. member) and Northern Ireland (a non-E.U. member after Brexit), this could jeopardize the Good Friday Accord of 1998, which ended "the troubles" (i) in Northern Ireland. Another complication of these negotiations is that the current UK government depends on the support of a Unionist Northern Ireland party to maintain its majority in the UK Parliament.

(i) "The troubles" is the name given to the tension and violence between the I.R.A. (wanting Northern Ireland to be part of the Irish Republic, and associated with the Catholic population) and the Unionist faction (who wish for Northern Ireland to remain part if the U.K., and associated with the Protestant population). The troubles were particularly violent from the early 1970s until 1998.

(2) Somehow only the French can make a really good baguette, although there are bakeries in Hanoi, Vietnam (a former French colony) that come very close to the Parisian standard.

(3) Temple Bar is not actually a bar, but a neighborhood in Dublin. The name is derived from an old embankment (barr) protecting the neighborhood from flooding of the Liffey when the tide came in. The neighborhood is now known for the large number of bars (in the modern sense) where people gather for a libation or two. The neighborhood is reminiscent of Bourbon St. In New Orleans, complete with roving stag (i.e., bachelor) parties and henny (i.e. bacherorette) parties. 

(4) The timeline is similar to my own paternal grandparents' journey. They also emigrated from Ireland in the 1920s and returned to Ireland (with their "yankee passports") in the 1930s. In the gent's loo (men's room) during the interval (intermission), I overheard an older gentleman telling his grandson about their family history during the 1930s. 

(5) I cannot seem to sleep on planes.

(6) In some places (such as on Broadway) standing ovations have become perfunctory, with some shows (e.g., Mamma Mia) even requesting that the audience stand for the last musical number which, of course, pre-positions the audience for the standing ovation. 

Gare du Nord, Paris

The Seine at Ile de la Cité

Notre Dame Cathedral, rear view

The River Liffey, Dublin

Playbill for the show we saw

Saturday evening revelry, Temple Bar

Posters protesting the Catholic Church's historical treatment of children

Day in the Seychelles

August 17, 2018

Our flight back to Europe had a 23.5 hour layover (1) in the Seychelles, which are an archpelago of tropical islands in the Indian Ocean. The islands were originally a French colonial posession, later controlled by the British, and are now an independent country. Due to this historical sequence, most of the place names are French (e.g., Anse Royale, Beau Vallon, Pointe at Sel) (2), while the cars drive in the left (as in England) and they use UK-style electrical plugs.

We spent the night here, relaxed on the beach at Anse Takamaka the next day, and continued our air journey in the evening.

(1) In airline speak, a layover is officially just changing planes, while a stopover is visiting somewhere en-route. Most airlines consider a transfer time of less than 24 hours to be a layover, which is usually much cheaper than a stopover.

(2) One notable exception to the French place names is the capital, Victoria. The local population is taught French, English, and the local Creole, which many families speak at home.

Anse Takamaka, Seychelles

The Cullinan Diamond Mine

August 15, 2018

We left Swaziland to drive to the town of Cullinan near Pretoria. The largest gem-quality diamond ever found  (3,106.24 carats) was unearthed here in 1905.

We took a tour of the diamond mine site. The diamonds were created deep in the earth millions of years ago and came to the surface long ago as a result of volcanic eruptions. Mining started in the early 1900s by simply digging a big hole. The company later switched to tunnel mining when the hole became unstable. 

The diamonds were extracted from land originally owned by a cattle rancher (1). During his lifetime, the rancher refused to consider any offers for the land. After the rancher's death, Thomas Cullinan pretended that one of his cattle had died of disease on the land. He was told to immediately bury the deceased animal to avoid infecting the local herd. In reality, Cullinan just wanted an excuse to dig on the land to satisfy himself that the land contained diamonds before making his purchase offer.

After running the mine for many decades, DeBeers sold the mine gto a South Africa company (Petra Mining) (1) in 2008. Using modern technology, Petra has found many 1,000s of gem-quailty diamonds that had been disposed of with the leftover kimberlite (3) by the previous owners.

(1) The same man had earlier had a cattle ranch further West in the Orange Free State. Gold was discovered on this earlier plot, which he sold for a smsll fortune. Ironically, he bought the land on which the Cullinan mine would eventually sit to get far away from any mining and focus on his cattle.

(2) "Petra" is from the greek meaning "hard rock."

(3) Kimberlite is the name given to the type of rock in which diamonds are usually found in Southern Africa. The name is derived from the town of Kimberly, South Africa, where one if the early African diamond mines was located. 

Leaving Swaziland

The big hole, Cullinan mine

Bringing the kimberlite up from the mine

Bulembu, Swaziland

August 12 to 14, 2018

After our flight to Johannesburg we spent the night at a hotel near the airport. An Afrikaner family was also staying, and they seemed surprised we were from America (1). They asked us: "Do you really do your own cleaning and gardening in America? We just hire the blacks here." They were somewhat surprised when we told them we did our own cleaning and gardening.

We drove east toward Barberton in Mpumulunga province where the road through the hills to Bulembu, Swaziland begins. We were pleasantly surprised to find the road was officially a "geotrail" with many well-kept rest areas explaining the history (both human and geological) of the region, with many of them offering scenic vistas and picnic sites. The area has abundant Black Chert rock which holds microscopic fossil evidence of life from over 3 billion years ago.

At one rest area, there was a man cleaning who asked in Afrikans if I had any water. While I know nothing of the language, he indicated drinking and he was delighted I had a full water bottle to give him and he said what sounded like "Dainkey," which I presumed to be Afrikans for thanks. 

Later, we stopped to chat with two people on the side of the road who had prospector hammers and field note books. They were geologists from Europe studying the iron-bearing rocks in the region.

While we were at the South African exit border post (which closes at 4:00 p.m., as does the Swaziland entry station) a Swazi woman looked at our car (a small VW) and asked "Do you plan to go into Swaziland with that car?" We assured her we were only going to Bulembu (less than 2 miles from the border) and she seemed satisfied that we were not too foolhardy (2). At the Swaziland entry control station, the customs official seemed pleased to hear me greet her in siSwati and to discover that I had visited the country before.

Bulembu hosted a large asbestos mine from the late 1930s to 2001. The asbestos was transported out of the remote valley via a 20km cableway to Barberton, South Africa, the nearest railhead for shipment around the world. We visited a small museum at the site of the cable way station.

When the mine closed in 2001 (due to asbestos safety concerns) the remote town (known as Havelock) which had had a population of over 10,000 was abandoned and the population fell to about 100. An organization called Bulembu ministries purchased the town and established an orphanage to care for some of the many Swazi children whose parent had both died of AIDS (3). The organization runs the lodge where we stayed plus a dairy and a water bottling facility, and produces honey to support their activities.

The lodge had a lovely lawn where we watched the sunset behind the mountains, followed by the setting of the crescent moon and Venus. There were a number of small brush fires visible on the nearby hills, which were purposely set to burn off the dry tinder. The locals call the winter/dry season here "fire season."

When Seevee, our waiter, discovered we were from America, he asked if Texas were the largest state in the U.S. He seemed surprised when we told him it was not. Bulembu had recently hosted a group of students from Texas A&M who told Seevee that, while the food, mountains, cows, etc. in Swaziland were nice, they were all bigger in Texas.

(1) We have encountered a number of people who were surprised to see Americans driving in southern Africa. I'm not sure why. There are at least two direct flights daily to Johannesburg from American east coast cities.

(2) The road past Bulembu covering the 20 kms to Piggs Peak is unpaved and can be difficult to drive, sometimes even with a 4×4 (a).

(a) 4×4 pickups are known in southern African English as "bakkies."

(3) AIDS is a serious health issue in Swaziland. Free condoms are widely available, including at some border posts.

The road east of Barberton, South Africa

Al-fresco toilet at rest area

 Black Chart rock

Register and vote Swaziland

Cable-way cars for asbestos, Bulembu

Inspector's car for cable-way. 

They must have had good views.

Controlled Fires on hillside in South Africa,

View from Bulembu.

Climbing Mount Emlembe

August 14, 2018

We arranged for a guide to take us up Mount Emlembe, the highest point in Swaziland at 6,109 feet. Benjamin met us and we set out for the 5 mile (one way) hike to the summit about 2,000 feet above the village. 

Along the way, he told us about some plants and their usages. Various plants are useful for colds, for tea, for sleeping, etc. The rubbings from snail shells found on the mountain are applied below the eyes to protect them from the sun.

We passed a number of cows pasturing on the mountain. If a cow is killed by lightning on the slopes (1), the meat can be cooked on the wood of local protea trees and eaten where the cow fell. Moving a lightning-struck cow (or its meat) into the village would encourage the lightning to follow. 

On our descent, we stopped at the house of Benjamin's 81 year-old mother for a chat. She spoke English quite well, and inquired about how long the flight from the U.S. was. She said she was afraid to fly, a view generally shared by my wife. While we were chatting, a herd of goats was released from a nearby barn. They dashed to their pasture as fast as third graders released for summer vacation from school.

Upon return from our 10-mile trek, I soaked my tired body in ice (2).

(1) Benjamin says lightning strikes cows about a half dozen times a year on the exposed higher elevations of the mountain.

(2) Actually, it was the pool at the lodge. But, given that it was late winter, the effect of swimming in the pool or soaking in ice was almost the same (a).

(a) Daytime temperatures in Bulembu average in the high 60s at this time of year. During our visit, there was a warm spell with temperatures in the mid 80s. 

Our destination: Mount Emlembe

Former golf course, now cow pasture

South Africa/Swaziland border marked by change in color of vegetation in middle distance

Gorge in South Africa during ascent

Views from summit

Border fence near summit

View of Malolotja Nature Reserve (Swaziland) during descent. Benjamin, our guide, is to the left.

View of Bulembu village during descent. 

The mine tailings are visible in the center.

Goats dashing to pasture after release from their barn.

Two-day camping safari at Chobe, Botswana

August 10 to 12, 2018

The Chobe Safari started with a boat tour on the Chobe river. Crocodiles were on the shore, along wigh various shore birds such as African fish eagles and darters. We saw the elephants swimming over to their feeding area on an island in the river. Some impala were cautiously drinking from the river, with one eye on the river for crocodiles and the other on land watching out for lions.

The afternoon game drive followed the river further into the park and to our campsite for the night. The campsite is umfenced to allow free movement by the animals. At about 9:00 (on a dark moonless night), I heard some chomping noise that sounded like elephants. My impression was confirmed with a fellow camper's flashlight. Our safari driver, Campbell, advised us to just stand still if an elrphant comes close, especially if the elephant begins to charge. Apparently, elephants have bad eyesight and may be convinced you are a tree if you do not move. Thankfully, we did not have to put the guide's advise to the test. Even so, it was still a bit disconcerting to hear the stomp/chomp noise of elephants continue as we all tried to fall asleep.

The following morning, we dropped off the other five guests (who were on a one-day camping safari), leaving my wife and I to have morning and afternoon game drives to ourselves. We enjoyed seeing the impala pronking, and learning about the licak birds as the driver told us it is usually pretty quiet on the morning drives.

Shortly after hearing that the mornings are usually quiet, we noticed a buffalo dashing to the river followed by four lions (1) all stirring up a whirl of dust. Soon, the buffalo was overtaken, a lion mounted its back and the large animal was brought down. The four lions worked to kill their prey as the buffalo kicked and cried out (2). One lion was at the buffalo's throat, but due to inexperience, the adolescent cub was unable to quickly subdue the struggling animal. After some few minutes, the kicking and crying from the buffalo ceased and the lions began to feed. Soon, a jackal appeared, hoping to share in the meat from the kill.

That evening, we were joined by ten other guests. A young guy from Belgium was surprised to hear that we began our trip at the Wacken Metal Fest before going on safari. He said he really liked a folk metal band called Eluveite, and almost fell off his chair when we told him we had seen them live in New York.

On our way out of the park the next morning, there was a large herd of buffalo gathered around the carcass of the buffalo the lions had killed yesterday. They had chased the lions away from the deceased buffalo.

(1) The buffalo was probably hoping to cross the river to safety, as the lions will not go into the river for fear of the crocodiles.

(2) There was one other safari vehicle nearby which  rushed to the scene, but soon departed. I was surprised, but our guide said the scene was too much for one of the guests in the other safari truck who was crying at the buffalo's fate.

Nile crocodile

Impala cautiously drinking

Elephants crossing the Chobe

Giraffe bending down to get minerals from the soil

Young elephants

Southern giraffe

Blue eared starling

Our accomodations

Lion feasting on fresh buffalo

Baobab tree

Vulture in tree

Buffalo gathered around their dead companion