Of all the gin joints in all the world…
This being Casablanca and all, my Casa-based friend Jody and I wandered into Rick’s Café, modeled on the gin palace that appeared in the Humphrey Bogart-Lauren Bacall Hollywood movie, Casablanca. […]
NOTEBOOK
Canter past Patagonian icefields. Sail the tranquil waters of Lake Como in Italy. Sip coffee in a Palestinian village. Listen to the ancient voices of Australia’s Arnhem Land. Climb the mountain paths of northern Albania. Let’s go!
Cruising Casablanca
It bodes ill for my bank balance that the first photograph I take in Morocco is of a necklace. Massive rough chunks of amber strung carelessly on a piece of […]
Midnight feast
The other night, I had a knock at my door. It was the daughter of the mesaharati, a man in the neighbourhood who walks through the streets banging a drum […]
Notes from Ramadan
It’s 2.30am and I can hear the blender start up. It happens every night, I could just about set my clock to it when my neighbour starts clinking pots and […]
Feasting, fasting and fighting
The fasting always gets to the market boys after 3pm. The hours before fitar (known as breakfast even though it occurs around 6.30pm – it’s literally, ‘breaking the fast’) are […]
Sweet tooth
Hi all – a lighter blog back home in Cairo after the last, fairly grim one I’ll admit, which was a radio script of a piece for Ireland’s national broadcaster, […]
Kenyan drought sees tribes go walkabout
The four Maasi tribeswomen are keen to talk. Sitting on the bare ground as red dust swirls around us, they tell how the drought across the East African country of […]
Farewell to coconuts and mangos
Mombasssssa, Mombasa, baby. Where coconuts wash up on the shore and there are three different kinds of arrowroot on the breakfast buffet. The very name of this city conjures up […]
A horn for a horn
Poaching in one of Kenya’s premier national parks, Amboseli, is at 20-year highs, says the African Wildlife Foundation, which reported in April that 703kg of whole or partially chopped elephant […]
Notes from meetings with the Maasi
During an afternoon siesta in my tent in The Mara, I hear the cluck and warble of two little Maasi herdboys at play. Their cattle are grazing on the opposite […]