Last evening in Nairobi. We were taken out to this Ethiopian restaurant where, at the end of the meal, I had my first sip of coffee in about 18 years – having definitively given it up in favour of tea back in about 1995. Still, looking at this photo one might understand why I was persuaded to partake once again, even if just in a small way.
In case you thought I was just here to soak up some rays (though it’s a valid reason to travel, I admit), this picture is taken at the KAPC campus, our collaborative partner here in Nairobi. Evidence that much of Africa has totally skipped the landline era and gone straight into mobile. I wonder how the world would be different if Alexander Graham Bell had tried using radio for his communications experiment instead of copper wiring.
Guess that’s me in Africa, then.
Awesome day today, so many things seen and shot that it was very difficult to choose a single photo; the only reason I didn’t go with one of the wild giraffe that I was, at one point, stood about 20 feet from, was that I did the wildlife theme yesterday. Crescent Island, on Lake Naivasha, may have just become the most beautiful place I have ever seen – a complete trip back in time, had a brontosaurus been spotted munching on the acacias it would not have looked out of place. These four guys were working in a lagoon by Crayfish Camp, where we had lunch. (For a few more see my Flickr stream: the link is at the bottom of the page.)
First day in Nairobi. It’s only 5.30 as I post this but there’ll be no more photography today – flashing a digital camera around on a Saturday night in downtown Nairobi probably isn’t an advisable tactic. Anyway, the photo of the day has clearly already been won. Note the babies clutching to the chests of two of them (centre and right). The City Park in Nairobi was actually full of these critters, and probably the locals treat them as pests, but like the squirrels in public parks in the UK, they know when they’re on to a good thing with the tourists.
The idea of flying over the Sahara did appeal at first, but for much of it there was almost nothing to see – as one would expect, I suppose. Nothingness – at least, when seen from 35,000 feet – got boring rather quickly. However, flying over this huge expanse of water among the dunes did wake up the photographers amongst us for a while. Look closely enough at this shot and you can also get a sense of the curvature of the Earth: the horizon has a definite bend to it.
Have been kind of saving this one for a day like today – a full-on hectic scramble from meeting to meeting where I barely had time to sit down let alone take photos. But here are the seats on Exchange Square to provide an abstract. (One irritating bit of litter, that I noticed too late, has been cropped out…)
Off to a new country tomorrow: first ever visit to sub-Saharan Africa, as I’m going to Kenya. 3.15 am alarm call coming up…
I took precisely no (n=0) good photos today, but this one makes it to encapsulate the fact that I am in a sort of limbo week, still getting up before dawn to trug in to Manchester on the early morning cattle truck, waiting for my sabbatical to get going. Wintry morning with freezing fog today, but not much longer to suffer this.
If it wasn’t for that flash of green on the shot (behind the girl’s head) this one would be perfect…
Incidentally if all goes according to plan I am only going to be on the Manchester campus three more days until mid-June – tomorrow, Thursday and next Thursday. Travelling awaits…
Another of my occasional drinking haunts, the Trades Club in Hebden Bridge, has yet to feature on this blog, but let’s allow it to sneak on today with its regular weekly chess club, held in the back room and run by the impressively bewhiskered gentleman (John) you see here. A black and white photo for a black and white subject.
Five hundred days. Well well. An ordinary day to mark this milestone, however. Captured this shot on the way to the supermarket; a more in-focus version of this shot, taken from the same spot some nine months ago.
