Hey Gus, thanks for passing this link on to me. I really enjoyed it, especially the Africa side (seeing as I'm part of it!), having done more than 70000km of overlanding south of the equator myself.
OK, gus, I just woke up from my two day recovery sleep. To find that London has had a "strike" from somewhere. Am trying to watch that for info on CNN.
Then I came across your thread re Africa. Just fantastic, can't read the thread and watch for terrorists, so I read the thread. Got to page 6, wrote it down so I wouldn't forget it.
This is just supercool. You should have a blog or something, somewhere for this stuff.
And so timely with the Rwanda movie (s) and all.
I love the same photo everyone does of the elephants swimming in the afternoon light, but I am fascinated that someone I know dared to take "illegal" photos of a dangerous place.
Way to go, Gus!!!!
If anyone was to do this, you were the one, because of your wonderful writing style along with the pictures.
As far as the book that is mentioned, I can't read it, I would want to go.........and I can't. I am the one who turned down a trip to Europe after high school graduation in the fifties, as I wanted to go to Russia where things were happening then. My father didn't want to go there. A typical family stand off, we stayed home.
Now I am fascinated, repelled, etc re Africa. In the last couple of years so many books have come out of true life experiences. Some I have wanted to read more than others. I haven't really gotten to any. I do read bits and pieces, could not ID the countries with a gun to my head, but I do know that where ever it is, it is interesting. And it is the Catholic country of the future. It is where it is happening.
I have seen the HBO movie, most violent true life, or fiction, movie I have ever seen. Then, of course, the "real" movie, Hotel Rwanda, same time, same place.
Have you all seen this stuff???
I can understand that you can't live there, Gus, not with a wife and daughter, not good times for that, but you have had, and recorded, a fascinating and timely experience.
Since I have not read when you did this, I will check that out. At the end you did mention never getting a DSLR...........now, you would have to go back, With your DSLR and those fantastic lenses.
ginger
COOL, super cool. Beats my walking the bridge. How many days did you sleep afterwards? I finally feel awake.
Problem is, photographing anywhere else would feel like a let down right now: except Africa.
Hey Gus, thanks for passing this link on to me. I really enjoyed it, especially the Africa side (seeing as I'm part of it!), having done more than 70000km of overlanding south of the equator myself.
spam
for those who want a guide my sister-in-law's brothers run a service called Dorobo Safaris. Goolgle it the people that have posted stuff about them are impressive.
Talked to thad last year in Wisconsin. I first met them in mid 70's in Arusha.
Thad on right
Wonderful, wonderful, and wonderful....
What a fabulous trip and wonderful of you to share it with all of us. This of course will qualify as "memory of a lifetime" for you and your family. And you have the proof in your terrific photos! clap
Glad to see you made it the Big Apple (NYC) - my home for 16 years, although now I live only about 25 miles North, so it's easy to get to. The city still amazes me, and I've been around here my entire life.
The African travelogue was particularly interesting. Are you sure Andy wasn't just flattering you on some of the pics so that you would post more of the food?
Thanks david. We were rather concerned about driving off the roads into the grasslands that we could hit a land mine. There are millions still in the ground. Looking back it wasnt the smartest idea to be driving off road along the borders.
Mugabe is doing deals with the chinese now to populate & farm the land that people have been driven off...he is also buying fighter planes (what he will do with them is beyond me as they are old) The chinese need land & zim needs food.
I saw chinese entering without visas at the airport.
I wasn't aware of this deal with the Chinese.
Needless to say, they will work harder and smarter than the natives, make enough money to buy land and, in time, it will be their turn to be thrown out. Mugabe and his cronies will never tolerate free competition. I used to work with several Asian people from Uganda, booted out by Idi Amin for the same reason.
Ian, thank you, I think, for bumping Humungus's outstanding travelogue. My whole morning has passed as I read his and other threads. What a pleasant and knowledgeable bunch of people!
Thanks Ian for the bump - this brilliant thread was our introduction to DGrin and Smugmug. I worked in Kenya for three years which included some shorter-term jobs in Tanzanian and Nigeria. Didn't have an SLR lens to do it justice, but took endless Super-8 colour film which was 90 percent stolen years later so now have very little left to show for the wild life and people life 'movies' I had. Pretty distressing. I never did get to Uganda to see the gorillas: but through work got to see the most amazing places, it has to be photography heaven, the whole continent.
Probably that experience led to my horror of zoos: I know they do great work and have their place, but always a sense of tragedy compared to the brilliance of the natural environment.
What a wonderful narrative along with some stunning shots. I'm looking forward to seeing and hearing about your travels. Glad you made it back in one piece; seeing that you like to take all those forbidden shots:D.
Chris
A picture is but words to the eyes.
Comments are always welcome.
Soon, however, the trip becomes a nightmare. Danger dogs Theroux at every turn, from armed Somali highwaymen in Kenya to land mines in Mozambique. Beggars importune, disease and squalor press in. A man with a runny nose sells oranges, ''handing the snot-smeared fruit to customers.'' Appalled by ''the filth, the dirt, the litter,'' beset by ''fungal infections, petty extortion, mocking lepers, dreary bedrooms, bad food, exploding bowels,'' Theroux narrates a Job-like ordeal during which he is ''abused, terrified, stranded, harassed, cheated, bitten, flooded, insulted, exhausted, robbed, lied to, browbeaten, poisoned, stunk up and starved.''
You have to realize that's just Theroux's style. I've read several books of his, and he always plays up the lurid and sensational aspects. Of course I'm sure he encountered plenty of those travelling from Cairo to Jo'burg.
If you like hair-raising travel writing, read something by Kira Salak.
This was a fantastic thread, 'Gus, and I appreciate somebody giving it a bump!
Took a safari on elephants. Pretty cool as the animals dont run from the ele's & you get very close but hell after growing up on horses i can say that an elephant would have to be the most uncomfortable animal ever to ride. By the time the distance of his step makes its way up 10 feet it is amplified considerably.
Gus I will start by saying hello and welcome back .. it is my pleasure to meet you.. i am newly delurked .. i really can't express in words how i enjoyed reading your about your trip... i teach world history and love africa .. your story and photos has only strengthened that .. thank you for sharing and allowing me along.. it sounds like a true one in a life trip.. i have considered going my self.. the portrail of the people is grand .. they are a treasure in themselves and the photo of the little boys is more than words... i have a colleag who went over with a group and dug well for water in villiages like you've shown..they are amazing .i bet the experience has been amaizing for madeleine you can't get this in a class room ... thanks again for sharing .and i look forward to reading more and becomming better aquainted...
curtis
Gus I will start by saying hello and welcome back .. it is my pleasure to meet you.. i am newly delurked .. i really can't express in words how i enjoyed reading your about your trip... i teach world history and love africa .. your story and photos has only strengthened that .. thank you for sharing and allowing me along.. it sounds like a true one in a life trip.. i have considered going my self.. the portrail of the people is grand .. they are a treasure in themselves and the photo of the little boys is more than words... i have a colleag who went over with a group and dug well for water in villiages like you've shown..they are amazing .i bet the experience has been amaizing for madeleine you can't get this in a class room ... thanks again for sharing .and i look forward to reading more and becomming better aquainted...
curtis
Comments
One day!
gubbs.smugmug.com
regards
alan
Bugs
Spiders
Flowers
Catapultam habeo. Nisi pecuniam omnem mihi dabis, ad caput tuum saxum immane mittam
http://www.mcneel.com/users/jb/foghorn/ill_shut_up.au
Then I came across your thread re Africa. Just fantastic, can't read the thread and watch for terrorists, so I read the thread. Got to page 6, wrote it down so I wouldn't forget it.
This is just supercool. You should have a blog or something, somewhere for this stuff.
And so timely with the Rwanda movie (s) and all.
I love the same photo everyone does of the elephants swimming in the afternoon light, but I am fascinated that someone I know dared to take "illegal" photos of a dangerous place.
Way to go, Gus!!!!
If anyone was to do this, you were the one, because of your wonderful writing style along with the pictures.
As far as the book that is mentioned, I can't read it, I would want to go.........and I can't. I am the one who turned down a trip to Europe after high school graduation in the fifties, as I wanted to go to Russia where things were happening then. My father didn't want to go there. A typical family stand off, we stayed home.
Now I am fascinated, repelled, etc re Africa. In the last couple of years so many books have come out of true life experiences. Some I have wanted to read more than others. I haven't really gotten to any. I do read bits and pieces, could not ID the countries with a gun to my head, but I do know that where ever it is, it is interesting. And it is the Catholic country of the future. It is where it is happening.
I have seen the HBO movie, most violent true life, or fiction, movie I have ever seen. Then, of course, the "real" movie, Hotel Rwanda, same time, same place.
Have you all seen this stuff???
I can understand that you can't live there, Gus, not with a wife and daughter, not good times for that, but you have had, and recorded, a fascinating and timely experience.
Since I have not read when you did this, I will check that out. At the end you did mention never getting a DSLR...........now, you would have to go back, With your DSLR and those fantastic lenses.
ginger
COOL, super cool. Beats my walking the bridge.
Problem is, photographing anywhere else would feel like a let down right now: except Africa.
Will read more later.........
Where the H was this thread, wonderful!!!!
for those who want a guide my sister-in-law's brothers run a service called Dorobo Safaris. Goolgle it the people that have posted stuff about them are impressive.
Talked to thad last year in Wisconsin. I first met them in mid 70's in Arusha.
Thad on right
What a fabulous trip and wonderful of you to share it with all of us. This of course will qualify as "memory of a lifetime" for you and your family. And you have the proof in your terrific photos!
Glad to see you made it the Big Apple (NYC) - my home for 16 years, although now I live only about 25 miles North, so it's easy to get to. The city still amazes me, and I've been around here my entire life.
The African travelogue was particularly interesting. Are you sure Andy wasn't just flattering you on some of the pics so that you would post more of the food?
Regards....
Keith
Everything has changed so much since I was last there in the late '80s, I would really like to go back.
This is one of the best threads I've seen in htis forum, I'm really impressed.
Cheers!
David
www.uniqueday.com
Needless to say, they will work harder and smarter than the natives, make enough money to buy land and, in time, it will be their turn to be thrown out. Mugabe and his cronies will never tolerate free competition. I used to work with several Asian people from Uganda, booted out by Idi Amin for the same reason.
Cheers!
David
www.uniqueday.com
Ian
excellent idea - this is a great thread, one of the best on dgrin
Portfolio • Workshops • Facebook • Twitter
Ian, thank you, I think, for bumping Humungus's outstanding travelogue. My whole morning has passed as I read his and other threads. What a pleasant and knowledgeable bunch of people!
Linda
Thanks Ian for the bump - this brilliant thread was our introduction to DGrin and Smugmug. I worked in Kenya for three years which included some shorter-term jobs in Tanzanian and Nigeria. Didn't have an SLR lens to do it justice, but took endless Super-8 colour film which was 90 percent stolen years later so now have very little left to show for the wild life and people life 'movies' I had. Pretty distressing. I never did get to Uganda to see the gorillas: but through work got to see the most amazing places, it has to be photography heaven, the whole continent.
Probably that experience led to my horror of zoos: I know they do great work and have their place, but always a sense of tragedy compared to the brilliance of the natural environment.
http://www.sherbrookephotography.smugmug.com
Chris
A picture is but words to the eyes.
Comments are always welcome.
www.pbase.com/Higgmeister
Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life...Picasso
If you like hair-raising travel writing, read something by Kira Salak.
This was a fantastic thread, 'Gus, and I appreciate somebody giving it a bump!
Gus I will start by saying hello and welcome back .. it is my pleasure to meet you.. i am newly delurked .. i really can't express in words how i enjoyed reading your about your trip... i teach world history and love africa .. your story and photos has only strengthened that .. thank you for sharing and allowing me along.. it sounds like a true one in a life trip.. i have considered going my self.. the portrail of the people is grand .. they are a treasure in themselves and the photo of the little boys is more than words... i have a colleag who went over with a group and dug well for water in villiages like you've shown..they are amazing .i bet the experience has been amaizing for madeleine you can't get this in a class room ... thanks again for sharing .and i look forward to reading more and becomming better aquainted...
curtis