Cradle Mountain Janet de Morgan In northern Tasmania we encountered the raven-like Black Currawong, a cousin to the Grey Currawong we had seen in Sydney. The bill is heavier and longer, the body leaner with some white on the end of its tail. They hung around the lodge and picnic areas in search of meals […]
Chapters: Meeting Damiana | Going Fishing … or Not | Exploring | Camp Life | Trips to Town | Looking Back San Carlos sign on the hillside After a wonderful stay with Damiana and her family, Robert decided he was getting neither better nor worse, and that we should pedal on. The thrill of discovery had worn off for me. We were getting lazy, […]
In high school, I had read Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing, first published in 1959. When I learned about this dramatic exploration, my imagination went wild. I have always loved true adventure stories and this account of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s expedition was riveting. The descriptions of Antarctica and its severe polar conditions fired […]
(Photos by Allen Denison, Reed Harrison and the author) Okavango Delta, Water Trails, Islands After a night in Maun, Botswana, my tour group of sixteen helped carry our chairs, tents, food and kitchen equipment to the two flat-bottomed motor boats for the first leg into the Okavango Delta. Four of my family and I were […]
Willing to try anything during my Peace Corps service, I applied to be a temporary instructor at the Outward Bound Mountain School. Located in Loitokitok, Kenya on the slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro, the school courses were for men with one exception. Once that year, young women from secondary schools throughout East Africa participated in the […]
Willing to try anything during my Peace Corps service, I applied to be a temporary instructor at the Outward Bound Mountain School. Located in Loitokitok, Kenya on the slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro, the school courses were for men with one exception. Once that year, young women from secondary schools throughout East Africa participated in the […]
Saturday, May 7, 1966. Dear Allen and all, View from the Porch with Cattle I have launched my career as a senior science mistress. Four classes with 140 students totalhave now been exposed to “discovery science” from my class in Dar. One class is doing photosynthesis and the other transpiration, closely related subjects. Each student […]
Wednesday, April 13, 1966. Dar-es-Salaam Dear Family, School closed a week earlier than we’d planned. Three religious holidays were coming up in a row, so Mrs. King’ori, our new headmistress, decided to send the girls home on Saturday, April 2nd. The girls on the athletics (track & field) team stayed that day for the meet. […]
Okavango Delta For years just a reference to the Okavango Delta made me long to witness Botswana’s magnificent and massive wildlife habitat. This legendary phenomenon is the largest inland delta the world, over three million lush acres when the surrounding areas have become dry. Called the “Jewel of the Kalahari,” this delta teems with more […]
We spent the night in Rabinal, a town where many of the indigenous people who moved from the valley we had just visited lived in grim poverty, still waiting for the government to live up to the promises. The next day, we looked forward to meeting Juan Manuel Geronimo, President of the Association for Justice […]
Australian Wombat Australia is similar in size to the 48 contiguous states of the U.S. but has only seven percent of the U.S. population. However, this continent is home to over one million native species, of which about 80 percent of its plants and animals are unique to Australia. On my three previous trips to […]
After leaving the spiny forest, we had a couple of long drives ahead of us before reaching Ranomafana National Park on the eastern coast of Madagascar. Along the way, our guide Mark had several interesting stops planned to break the trip into manageable stretches. On the ninth day of our trip, we left Ifaty to […]
Leaving Paulet Island to the penguins, Clipper Adventurer retraced our route through Iceberg Alley during the night. The next morning, we early risers enjoyed a pod of Orcas leaping and spouting for several minutes in front of the ship’s bow. And as quickly as they arrived, they were gone. What fun! As I watched them cavort, I […]
Tawny Frogmouth Janet de Morgan Five days into our trip, Chris Dahlberg, the naturalist with Daintree Nature Tours, drove us north from Cairns on the coastal road to Port Douglas and Mossman. We were looking for birds that inhabit a eucalyptus dry forest, rich with birds not seen on Queensland’s wetter Atherton Tablelands. Australia is […]