constant nomads

Rock and Roll

 

 

Rock and Roll will never die, Glastonbury 2009

Rain beat down like Tyson enraged. Mud slipped and slided away. Lightning struck, covering the surrounding country side in a warm white glow.

Warriors surged forward, laden and weary they trudged through. The Glastonbury hordes drew the battle lines.  The serene West Country, now pocked marked with regiments, fires burned all around as the weary warriors spoke with full mouths and the juice of the gods flowed relentlessly.

Dawn was grumpy, dark clouds circled, menacing and taunting the sleepy eyed warriors. Slowly, slowly the advance began, regiment after regiment, marched forward, the battle paint still fresh. Read the rest of this entry »

My Mozambique

 When Vasco da Gamma got lost at sea, he somehow managed to round the tip of Africa. Not knowing where he was, he set foot on South Africa. His presence angered the local tribes and hostility grew, not having found a reliable water source, Da Gamma and his men were sent packing, with their tails between their iron legs…

Instead, he made landfall on the small East African country of Mozambique. Here the people were friendlier and the land fertile and more hospitable. So naturally he stayed, unbeknown to him India was a stone’s throw away from him. The Portuguese would keep this secret closely guarded for over one hundred years.

When the Dutch and English finally broke through the end of the earth, the Portuguese already had a vast monopoly of colonies. Unfortunately, most of their subjects lived in adverse conditions, permanently in an intense state of fear. The Portuguese slave traders would go on to ravage the interior of Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe to mention a few, for centuries to come, sparing no one, showing no mercy. Read the rest of this entry »

My Nephew OB

The Air Malaysia plane roared unrepentantly West, full throttle all the way. We all sat , elbow to elbow. Some writhed and some twitched. Five, six hours and my eyes finally closed, I sat there huddled with the rest and replayed my own movie.

In the next scene, I find myself at Cape Town international, breathing in that familiar African air, more precisely that salty Cape air. The green of the jungles melted away, leaving a brown canvass behind; giant trees shrink and become dwarfs before my very eyes.

In the distance I see my parents, looking, searching, has the prodigal son indeed returned… Our embraces are so powerful and I can feel my heart pounding against my dad’s chest, I fight the tears and in broken sentences and hugs, kisses and touches we realise how much we have missed each other. Read the rest of this entry »

Actions speak a couple of words

It’s hard for me to believe that I have been in a relationship for 6 years. Me, a bushmonkey!

Even harder to believe is that most of that time, we have been on the move, nomadic in every sense. Travel, has become a way of life for us, and to this day we are still on the move, never sowing a seed, always looking for greener pastures.

I will tell you, it’s not easy travelling with the person you care so much about. Yeah, in the beginning it was tough, coming to grips with our individual personalities and generally been very polite and affectionate. In our case, it was a little harder: Sue and I could not be more different. Both in body and personality, I am a shorthairymidget, enough said, and she is a 6 foot German, blue eyes and blond to make sure you knew it. We also had very different views on things and it would be some time before we would come to grips with many of our unique personas. However, let’s not stray from the subject, Sue stands out like a sore thumb, both in Africa and Asia. I still joke with her, that I could see her from a mile away, even in the most crowded cities, I just had to look up…hehehe, I am obviously not a petit French delicacy, so I am sure she would counter these remarks with her own jokes, which she has many off…   Read the rest of this entry »