For most of my academic life, I had some idea of what the grading policy would be for my work-I always lost all the penmanship points, but got most of the rest of them. You could, of course, use this to game the system-you’d get to know your lecturers, what they liked or didn’t, and you knew what to focus on.

The Oxford system, like life, is much more complicated and difficult to navigate. To start with, we had to tread a fine line between business writing and academic writing. Secondly, your papers are all double-blind double-marked. You hand them in at the exams schools with only a number on them, and you receive them back, without comments, with only a mark on them. You had to read others’ papers and intuit what you may have done wrong. Third, you didn’t get to know who marked them, so you couldn’t ask. The lack of a grading scale meant that it was that much harder to deconstruct what you didn’t know.

Yes, it’s unfair. And frustrating. Welcome to life. It’s a little glib, but it’s also a bit of a dose of reality.

Just like you might go out and start a business or get a job and it’ll turn out wrong, you’ll fail, lose all your money, your grandma’s house, and whatever else, so it is with work.

On the flip side, you might end up with a great mark for something that you thought was terrible. Maybe you hit on some nice insight, or maybe you just got lucky. Sometimes overanalysis is worse than underanalysis. Sometimes you just manage to start Friendster and have a decent run on VC money while you figure out what to do with your life.

This series is all be tagged “Lessons learned” if you want to read all of them.

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(The most important parts of which they don’t teach you)

In my final set of posts about Oxford, I take a look back, six months out, and reflect on what I learned at Oxford.

I suspect that some of this applies to all business schools, though much of it will certainly only apply to Oxford. I feel very fortunate to have the gall to apply, raw intellect to get in, persistence to succeed, and perhaps the wisdom to let a little of what I’ve learned sink in, not to mention a great heap of humility in the face of so many talented and fascinating classmates.

Business school – like any school – is an experience, not a lesson or a set of skills. If you want to learn the skills of an MBA, you can do it on your own, with books. I’d start with a good micro- and macroeconomics primer, an accounting book, the McKinsey book on valuation, The Seven Habits of Highly Successful People, and then start working through the Personal MBA.You can teach yourself strategy, operations management, valuation, management, statistics, economics, and marketing all on your own. What you won’t get out of that is the experience of others’ experiences, the network, and the time off/huge student loans. It’s up to you.

Some of what you’ll have the opportunity to learn at Oxford is here. This is beyond all the cool guest lecturers, the Oxford Union, the speakers, conferences, and amazing professors you would encounter there.

This series is all be tagged “Lessons learned” if you want to read all of them.

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And we found someone who has no issue whatsoever with pollution, global warming, or much of anything else…

The other sign said “Yes, we have Anthracite”… Just in case you want to run your black-smoke spewing steamship.

kwaZulu-Natal
He used us as an excuse to go and visit his father in kwaZulu-Natal, close to where he grew up. Keith’s father is a fascinating character who left (then) Rhodesia ahead of the revolution and works as an artist in bronze sculptures, doing highly realistic animals. The house is a garden of artly delights. His artist-name is Llewellyn.

Birds by Llewellyn

In Natal, we went to Keith’s old rambling school which was styled after UK public schools, but with much more land and a game reserve. On a drive down to the river, we came across four giraffes sitting down who just stared at us for quite some time– within about 15m of us. It was, actually, really really cool.

The Golden Gate & the Free State
After the brits landed and took over, many of the Dutch settlers headed off into the hinterlands of what would become South Africa to set up their own states. One of these, still remaining as a province, was the Orange Free State. It’s one of the areas with good farmland and which mostly surrounds the country of Lesotho.

Hartman and I hired a car and headed towards Lesotho, but not before spending a night in the Golden Gate park. This was an area where Voortrekkers, Brits, Zulus, and San passed through, as it offered water, shelter, farmland, cover, and all the things that a people need. It’s also stunningly beautiful– Probably the Free State equivalent of the Yosemite Valley.

The other Golden Gate, (minus San Francisco)

Lesotho
A stunning, gorgeous, rough, subsistence-based country entirely surrounded by South Africa. The mountains are so high here that the British and Dutch settlers and even Shaka Zulu pretty much left it alone. After the Difaqane the Basotho people migrated in and Shaka didn’t think it worth it to move in. Their loss.

There’s not a whole lot in Lesotho (pronounced “Le-soo-thoo”)– gem diamonds and water, pretty much. They grow a fair amount of food and sheep, goats, and cows. Wild animals are pretty much nonexistent (although on a hike I’m pretty sure I found a hyena print, and if anything could survive, it’d be the hyena) as everything is cultivated.

They do have water, though. Lots of it. It rained quite a bit while I was there (including one serious 50k/hr wind with huge raindrops for the last 2km of that aforementioned hike– I got seriously wet, though my back was bone dry, such was the wind) and you can easily see the places where the water washes the rich topsoil away– they call them Dongas. A man named Fanuel Musi filled in the ends of the dongas with stones– creating rough stone walls which catch the rich topsoil– a remarkable, simple, elegant, low-tech way of land conservation. His wife or his firstborn son takes you and shows you the work for a small donation, and you get the impression that Mr. Musi was a fascinating character– and stubborn!

Our second and third day was in Malealea, also known as the Gateway to Paradise. one of the many collective-style projects that dot the country. Malealea has a lovely backpackers who nightly host an excellent chorus, and a band who made thier own instruments from oil cans and whatnot, who were also excellent. Unfortunately, they made a CD whose quality is really bad… I’ll have to live it through memories.

Give me that big booming bass, in your face.

What’s that about a job?
After leaving Lesotho (for far too short of a time– I’m itching to go back with a proper tent, water filter, during hopefully the slightly-less-rainy season to do some significant hikes or possibly pony trekking– we headed back to Jo-burg, where I got the results of my my job interview–

I got it!

I’ll be moving to Kampala, Uganda after just a few days back in London for six months. There’s a nonprofit called CEIHD (Centre for Entrepreneurship in International Health and Development) allied closely with UC Berkeley who is leveraging carbon finance to fund efficient cookstove production in Uganda (and elsewhere). I’ll be working closely with their partner (who’s actually developing the stoves) to develop a comprehensive marketing/sales strategy, organisational & operational controls, financing packages, and sales initiatives to drive these things– basically, I’ll be using all the “MBA stuff”, and doing exactly what I went to business school to do, while fleshing out my experience, management skills to do the work that I want to do.

Which rocks. I’m quite excited. If you read this on my blog and you haven’t had an email from me, please excuse me– I haven’t had a decent Internet connection for a couple of months now and am very behind on my email.

The thing most worth doing in Jo-burg…
is the Apartheid museum. It’s even worth spending an hour lost (road signs and maps don’t seem to match too well…) finding the place. This museum traces the situations that gave rise to Apartheid, its history, and its fall. It does so in a very fair way, without needless blame on the parties involved, including self-criticism where appropriate.

Museums filled with nation-building have an effect on me, and this legacy is so close and real to us today– most of us can remember at least part of it, and the legacies of Apartheid are very visible all over South Africa. It’s very moving. They say it’ll take about 2 1/2 hours, but we spent four there, and could have spent longer.

The most difficult to enter room for me– one noose for each “official” political execution. How many unknown Mandelas or Bikos died before they could flourish?

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This elephant is very old and very excited.

Maybe he was watching the young whippersnappers?

Lots of babies, the teeniest to the right.

Fish eagle mating pair with prey.

What are you lookin’ at, punk? You making fun of me?

Zen baboon, zen wannabe baby

Kingfishers in tree

Camo-croc.

Yet another African sunset…

Economic collapse
I have very few photos in Zimbabwe, save of the Falls themselves. It hurts to see the kind of desperation and economic collapse that exists there. Vic Falls’ position as a tourist destination makes even more surreal: Within a few hundred metres of people paying $150 a pop to bungee jump, white water raft, abseil, skydive, etc, there are grocery stores who have nothing on their shelves– even if they have the money. The local restaurants have hand-lettered menus with prices crossed out, and more often than not, your choice of meal rests on what’s available.

Outside of each backpacker’s or hotel there are five or more men with Zimbabwean curios who wait to sell or trade their wares to you. Outside of ours, there were a total of ten people who left. People traded socks, sunglasses, tank tops, towels; nearly anything has value. I asked a few people and the way this works is there’s a wholesale-style craft market outside of town which will also trade for goods. Then, there is a secondary barter market where the traded goods are exchanged again, sometimes for food. All along, things can go to families.

Foreigners are required to pay for accommodation and meals in foreign currency, though locals must buy in Zim dollars at markets (when there is anything to buy). Banks are required to submit all forex cash to the central bank each night, which means that they will loan money indiscriminately, especially later in the day. This keeps a flow of currency and goods coming in, and keeps a flow of money going to the government via the central bank. The central bank sets the official exchange rate, which is somewhere between 25% and 30% of the market rate.

Meanwhile, the finance ministry prints Zim dollars as fast as it can.

Set prices, and chalk for the Z$ price

It’s a terrible cycle, and one that no one knows how to break, if it can be broken at all. It’s set up a horrible system whose lynchpin is Mugabe. The alternative would be a power vacuum, in which anyone, someone who could be worse (yes, we have seen worse than Mugabe, and probably will again) could fill that role.

The people
The Zimbabwean people, however, are quick with music, with laughter, with wit and with knowledge and understanding of the world around them– People could and did speak intelligently about the US elections, the South African ANC split, moves for land redistribution in South Africa (and fears that it would go similarly to the way it did in Zimbabwe, without learning lessons from their own past mistakes). Many people in Africa consider their primary and secondary (pre-university) education better than any in Africa. (This is one of the few areas in which Mugabe has to be recognised as doing something good– he maintained the top-tier education system that he inherited from Rhodesia). Smiles are everywhere, and they come quickly. The tribal differences between Shona and Ndebele have been put aside– there is no longer the violence that has been very recently seen even in ‘civilised’ South Africa.

If people can fix it, they will, if not, they seem to live with it– and not to complain or worry too much about things outside of their control.

The Falls
David Livingstone named everything he could after Queen Victoria. The falls were originally called “Mosi-a-Tunya”, which means “smoke that thunders” in Shona. They’re pretty cool, even at low water season (like now).

Gerit takes photos of the falls

Smoke that thunders– in high water season, one can’t even see down the falls, the mist is so thick.

Ruud gets close to the edge with his magic camera. Ruud was like Macgyver– with binoculars, nightvision goggles, and a supafly Canon D30.

Hartman “goes beyond this point” (where it was decidedly not slippery)

The bridge from which the foolhardy bungee jump. More from the Zam side than the Zim, unfortunately.

Water buffalo stare-down, from 10m or so. All of Vic Falls is in a national park & game reserve. There are elephants & baboons, too. One is advised to not have a shiny camera out all the time.

End of the (truck) journey
Mariah and I had planned to travel through Zim, to Great Zimbabwe, a medieval-era fortified city, on our way to Malawi and Mozambique, but the situation in Zim has given us pause. We’re going to transit back with the truck for 2 days back to Jo-burg, see Keith, I’m going to interview for a job there, and then see what we’ll see. Probably Mozambique, but maybe just the eastern side of South Africa.

The overland truck tour was, I think, a pretty good– and relatively inexpensive– way to see a lot of stuff in a reasonable time. It was roughly US$1250 for 21 days, including (almost) all meals, accommodation (18 nights in tents, 3 in lodges), park fees, etc. There were a couple of other things we had to pay for– the Zim visa, for instance (they change the fee all the time).

It’s a good way to also get a fairly safe intro to traveling overland in Africa, and some slices of information (depending on your guide– I think we were very lucky here) that otherwise might be missed. And there were interesting people to meet, which was nice.

It was, however, a little bit isolating at times. Much of traveling in Africa as a white, comparably wealthy, foreigner, however, will always have an element of this. Most of the campsites and backpackers are gated & fenced, for security reasons. Most of the time you’re riding on trucks with the other extranationals. This protects you from petty thieves and touts, but also means less interaction and less understanding. I might do second trip like this, but it would have to be something or somewhere that I needed to see, or be on my way somewhere– transit with a bonus, more or less.

Farewells, and on to the next thing!

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Here, the Okavango river splits into five “fingers” of smaller rivers that make up the delta. There are loads of wildlife here– Zebras, Giraffes, Wildebeest, Storks, Eagles, Cranes, and especially Hippos.

Hippos are incredibly cute and also quite terrifying. To explain why is to explain first what a Makoro is.

A Makoro is kind of a cross between a Punt and a canoe. It’s poled along by polers (see below) but it’s very tippy. I tried it and fell in once, but only whilst turning around in the grass.

Hans, poling Holger and Silvia.

You take a truck (a WWII-era Daimler) to the edge of the Delta where you get into a Makoro, and then you have a very sunny (25th-ish parallel) but very relaxing Makoro ride to your camp.

Gladman chilling before cooking– a lot.

Camping is pretty primitive– bush toilets (short-drop), spaces cleared, boiling water to drink, etc. Then you go on nature walks to see what you can see. This can be a number of things. Ours included: Hyena tracks, Hippo tracks and scat, Giraffes, Zebra, Wildebeest at 20m, baboons at 100m, and, eventually, hippos at about 10m.

Hippos are terrifying– to repeat myself. To see one showing you its teeth from about 10m away, when you’re sitting in a fibreglass makoro is quite scary– especially when you see them move through the water– fast.

I’m big. No, really, I’m big. I have big teeth, and I will F*$@ you up. Seriously. Don’t tempt me.

They don’t really mess around. The guides– who are quite smart and educated– are rightfully terrified of them.

But they’re cool as well. And seriously impressive.

We spent most of our time in the water, and me reading Steinbeck’s East of Eden, when we weren’t taunting the hippos.

It was good. Peaceful. Quiet.

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Think of the Black Rock Desert, not nearly as hard, far more salty, and surrounded by arid savannah with a few water holes. Here there are a wide variety of antelopes, from teeny tiny Steenboks up to the Oryx and Eland Antelopes, Lions, Hyenas, Leopards, Wildebeest (AKA Gnu or Nature’s Nachos), Black and White Rhinos, Giraffe, Elephants, a variety of great African Eagles, Owls, and more.

And we saw loads. Much of the game in Etosha has adapted to the local environment and don’t migrate as game in other areas do. The game is focused around the watering holes, which means that lots of it can be seen, along with fascinating interactions. Additionally, there are floodlit water holes at all of the major campsites, which means that, although there is a lot of game driving, much of the big game comes to you.

Nature documentary fans will know what the water hole means– action! although I didn’t see anything get eaten, I did get to see a bit of interaction!

Unfortunately, the USB ports on my machine have become pooped, and I can’t get the photos off for Etosha, so you’ll have to make do with descriptions.

Lions
Our guide tells us we were lucky– we saw lions on each game drive and on the second night at the campsite. Mostly males, but we did see nine lions, including six lionesses on the final morning game drive out. The first time we had a Near Dark-style run for the gate at sunset– they lock the gates to the campgrounds at sunset, and woe betide the traveler who doesn’t make it– apparently, you sleep in your car at the gate.

Black Rhinos
One of the only things that doesn’t fear the lion– quite the opposite in fact. We saw rhinos several times, but they were most interesting at the watering holes– they came by late at night. The last time we saw them, there was a family of three (bull, cow, pup) joined by another cow. The second cow left, and then a lion came up to drink.

The Rhino has little to fear from any predator save man. They are huge, thick-skinned, fast, and strong. The old, the infirm, and the young, however, do. And they are protected fiercely by their parents.

When the lion came to drink, at first, he was ignoring the rhinos, who formed a defensive ring with the bull between the pup and the lion, snorting at it. The lion drank for a while and then finally stopped, staring at the rhinos. After some time and more snorting, the bull rhino did a mock charge– ran about 10m towards the lion, who turned and walked away. Amazing.

Elephants
Elephants are one of southern Africa’s success stories. A huge group of these giant beasts hogged the watering hole one evening, playing, drinking, and spraying themselves in the 40 degree heat while the other animals waited, very patiently, to drink. Elephants get to do whatever they want to do.

Hyenas
Unusually, we got to see a couple of hyenas, both the brown and the spotted variety. These guys typically hide away from everyone, but in Etosha, the lack of human hunters has them somewhat less fearful. Elsewhere, they’re considered pests and killed on sight, as they will hunt and eat anything, pretty indiscriminately, and are quite fierce.

The Pan
The Etosha Pan itself is the remnant of a prehistoric lake bed. It’s a salt pan that coveres nearly 5000 square kilometers (110×60 at its widest point). The name of the park comes from the pan itself, which means “Great White Place”.

Next
Onwards and upwards– to the Okavango Delta, hippos, water buffalos, more elephants, and who knows what all…

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The Score, so far

So far, we have:

Springbok (a tasty little deer-like creature)
Gemsbok
Oryx
Mountain Zebra
Ostrich
Baboons
Great White Sharks
Southern Right Whales
and countless types of lizards (including the ones that switch feet on the hot hot sand), beetles (including ones that stand on their heads to catch moisture & ones that drum the ground to call mates), scorpions, ants, ant lions, turtles, and more…

And have spent most of our time on the coasts and in the desert. We have more desert tomorrow (we head from the Namib into the Kalahari, which stretches from here to Angola. We have (today) crossed the Tropic of Capricorn, so it is officially hot. Unlike in the subtropic climate we were in before, which was, um, hot.

For real.

Current thoughts and reflections
I’ve had a lot of time on the truck to think. I mean a *lot* of time, and it’s been good, overall. I did listen to a couple of audiobooks and definitely did some zoning out dozing while staring at the side of the road passing by… But a lot of what’s come out is my career thoughts and directions, some of which has to do with the current market climate and some of which just has to do with lessons learned, strategies for getting where I want to go using what I have, etc.

Today, I decided to revisit Matt from (Re)Bar‘s List. As he told me at Ra & Xtna’s wedding, he got to making a living running (Re)Bar by making this list. I made a list, which spanned big things (I want to create positive chagne in the world) to little things (I want to ride my bike to work), and that’s what got me to Oxford. I kept thinking that I should revisit it, and I have. It’s been enlightening to look at some of the positions I’d applied for but hadn’t really wanted (and have turned down, in some cases… perhaps not the right thing to do in this market, but I am little if not goal-oriented) with my new list in mind. It’s also been very good to re-examine some of what I do want to do and start to re-think my own “value proposition” in terms of my list. So that’s good.

The Photos
What’s one of my blog posts without some photos, preferably without me in them?

Sunrise, sunset… Sunrise, Sunset. Many early mornings. This is the sunrise from Dune 45 in the Namib Desert. A rough and *cold* 130m dune climb before the sunrise, but worth it.

Another Canyon, another sunet, this time Nick & I climbed back up…

The next of the weaverbird. They keep building these until they collapse, and then they start over. There’s a whole ecosystem going on in here with a small hawk and some wasps that live here, protecting the weaverbird from snakes.

It’s been a hectic few days: We arrived in Cape Town to hang out with Zeenith et al for a few days as well as finalise our booking on the trip, and Mariah remembered that she had 1/2 plus 1/4 page in her passport– not enough for the largish African visas by stamp-happy officials. Fortunately, the folks at the US Embassy were friendly and helpful and pasted new pages in right off… though we lost a day, and thus didn’t get to see a whole lot of Cape Town.

The itinerary for our whole trip is here.<?>

The first three days of the tour

After securing 11th-hour pages, we dropped off at Nomad to pay for our trip. We were very lucky to get on this trip as there are only 11 people for the first week (that will swell, I believe, to 17 after reaching Swakopmund<?>, with a capacity of 22).

The first day was very civilised, with wine tasting and a comfortable campsite in the Citrusdaal<?>. We were warned that this was to be our “last stretsh of civilisation” and went forth with laughter.

That night in Citrusdaal<?> we went on a 3 hour hike with a guide Skoki and saw, among other things, 500 year old bushman paintings. Skoki is so named because he gave his parents a shock: They are Cape Coloured (see below), but he came out looking very black. The walk was fascinating, full of traditional wisdom, stories about the relationship between species, and traditional uses of plants and birdsong. We saw some scorpions, lizards, beetles, ants, (in particular the “ball biting ant” who climbs up trouser legs but is “only a problem for the men”), ant lions, and other small things.

Skokie explains the 500 year old Bushman paintings

A hairy bit of hiking…

Brief SA racial politics

(any mistakes are my own and will be corrected… please do so!)

In South Africa there is not only white and black, but there is another race known as the Coloureds. These can be either mixed-race or of an older race indigenous to South Africa. Under apartheid, Coloureds were separated from whites, but were also rejected by the blacks.

Having crossed the border

Namibia, on first impression, is desolation. Beautiful desolation, but desolation, nonetheless. There are scraps of life, and weathered sandstone cliffs, leading me to believe that if there were water, this would be fertile land. Close to the border (close to the river) there were grapevines growing wine, but out here there is hundreds of kilometers of desert scrub, probably good only for goat farming, if even that (I see no goats).

Fish River Cañon

Although this is an Afrikaans/German settlement (not to mention the Bushmen, Bantu, etc. who were here before), for some reason they use the Spanish spelling of Cañon. It may be the Portugese influence. Who knows?

This thing is enormous. Older than the Grand Canyon in the US, and nearly as large. It’s 27km from rim to rim, and 550m deep. There is an ~85km hike you can do from where we were to the hot springs at its end– 4-5 days across the desert. It’s far too late in the year to do it now, but it’s something I’d come back to do.

Part of our group walking next to the Cañon

Prophetic handholding? Nick and Leslie.

Watched the sun set, ate an early dinner, early to bed, and onwards the next day!

The Sunset, complete with black birds who landed right on the edge of the Cañon between me an dthe sun. Check that lens flare!

Good looking Verloren von Themats

But the bride wins

Blessings on the happy couple

Arriving in style to dinner…

And dancing with style all night…

Update

For those of you who care, we’re probably not climbing Kilimanjaro. A bit too little time, and it’s just too far away. Plus, a flight from either Dar es Salaam or Nairobi back to Jo-Burg will cost more than flying straight back to London. Plus, it’s going to be the rainy season shortly. 9 days of hiking in increasingly cold temperatures in the rain sounds like no fun.

We think we’ve decided to drop it for now and come back at the optimal time, but to go straight to Dar or Nairobi for the next trip.

Tuesday AM I got off the British Airways 747 in Cape Town, South Africa, for Francois and Dorita’s wedding. I immediately ate Biltong, got some Rooibos tea, and drove out to Stellenbosch, where I dropped my bags and packed up for a paintball game.

Yes, it is exactly as cheesy and goofy as you might think, running around in the woods wearing army surplus fatigues and jumping over rocks, acting like the army kid in Stand By Me. It’s also just as fun as you secretly think it might be where you won’t admit it to the cool kids.

Wednesday we got up really early and went to do the shark cage diving. We saw six great whites, from 2m up to about 3. They are magnificent animals and it’s a privilege to see them. It’s fairly expensive but it is (yet another) once in a lifetime opportunity. I recommend it– but take your seasick tablets at least an hour or two beforehand, not 20 minutes. I got really seasick and couldn’t change into my wetsuit, which means that I couldn’t get into cage in the 12C/55F water, which probably would have cured my seasickness, ironically.

What it’s like

SA a lovely place. The Western Cape (where I am) has excellent outdoorsness, to rival California’s beauty, plus baboons, zebra, elephants, ostrich, and more. It’s cheap (but not that cheap), people are friendly, and the food is quite amazing.

Food porn 1: Kloovenberg Rosé

I had a late lunch/early dinner in Franschhoek <sp?> one day at Le Bon Vivant which rivaled meals that I’ve had at La Toque or WD-50. Springbok (venison-like meat but better) and appetisers that were simply divine. The prawn app had grilled, tempura-d, souflee’d (in an eggshell) and carpaccio’d prawn. The main was springbok, which is a fantastic little SA staple meat, like venison, with no gaminess whatsoever. I even got a little 3 layer sillhouette of trees (parsley) between hand-cut potato crisps.

Food porn 2: Rocket (Arugula) and strawberry w/ Feta salad at the roadside café.

Food porn 3: Carpaccio

Food porn 4: the dessert taster (good for 5 people. The mint sorbet on th eleft was they key to surviving this with tastebuds intact, though the pear was really the best bit.

Food porn 5: assorted taster app. That’s red onion and lamb consommé in the glass. It’s pure liquid deliciousness.

The Plan

After the wedding, we’re going to head off on an overland trip– 20 days, crossing the Western Cape, Northwest Cape, then through Namibia, Botswana, and finally arriving at Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe. After that, who knows? Probably on up through Zambia to Dar Es Salaam, Zanzibar, and then climb Kilimanjaro.

Updates may appear suddenly on the road– the internet doesn’t reach the bush, mostly. In fact, given the troubles I’ve had so far, you may not see this for a while, so you’ve no warning.

Fortunately, I’m not too terribly prompt, so hopefully there will be few(er) worries.