Maybe just keep on with this site?

I seem to have gotten a few messages encouraging me to carry on - I thought it was a little inappropriate now I'm not in Australia, but OK, why not? I'll try to log my movements anyway, hope they're not too boring!

January to early February saw another hectic work period in Uganda, including fieldwork in the extreme west of the country along the eastern shores of Lake Albert, near the Uganda - Congo boundary. Exciting geology and the group I was working with and advising finally managed to get down to the basics and sort out the stratigraphic mess that the regional geology has gotten itself into..... This was my third working visit and we seemed to make great progress - not least thanks to Martin Pickford - an old Ugandan hand who worked on the regional geology and fossils for a total of 26 field months from 1986 to 1992..... He was amazed by the changes in the area - villages which have mushroomed in size, producing urban sprawl along the lake shores - all a result of refugees fleeing from the neighbouring Congo, settling down in Uganda and not willing to return home.... Incredible poverty, overfishing of the lake (don't blame the lack of fish on climate change!!!!) and overgrazing of the land..... All very depressing, especially in view of the incredible beauty of the Alert Rift Vally and its natural surrundings.

We had to cut the trip short as I received sad news about my brother Bill's death - although much older than me and not very well, it was still a shock - I who grew up the youngest in the family am now the only one left of parents and brothers...... A few days home and then a quick trip to England to attend burial of his ashes and a family reunion - a pleasant although sad occasion in bitterly cold but clear mid-February northern England.....

Then just a few days later we were off on our next adventure - a 3 week "multicultural" tour of Vietnam, Angkor Wat and then a final few days' relaxation on a Thai beach..... more about that tomorrow.......

not ozz now, Uganda

I got to reminiscing about the Ozz trip as I read the British "Times" travel section on the flight from Brussels to Entebbe a few days ago - an article headlined "The adventure of your lifetime" listed "ten mould-breaking choices for 2010", with - just wait for it - Number 2, "long drive - the "Savannah Way, a road trip par excellence" Ah Ah - been there, done it, but would love to do it again! Maybe with other variations and sideroads, but yes, it was a truly amazing experience! I realised that recently I've been subconsciously planning the next Australian roadtrip - can't quite decide between just "going with the flow", taking whichever route car or camper relocations take me, or seriously striking out northwards to Cape York from Cairns - maybe both? Me alone on the first bit, then with Ros on the second - the Cape York adventure seems just to wonderful (and demanding?) to do on my own.....

Meanwhile, here I am in Entebbe, soaking in the equatorial sun which has just peeked out from the morning rain clouds, looking down on Lake Victoria from the terrace of the Lake Victoria Hotel - a one-time "colonial masters" property, just down the hill from the then British Governor's, now President Museveni's mansion, the hotel now being restored and expanded by a Libyan consortium headed of course by my old friend Colonel Ghadaffi (or one of his sons or daughters), I should and will say no more....

I lost the urge to write for a while after the amazing Ozz trip, and the work pressure was too much on my last visit here to Uganda from late November to mid-December, then Christmas just involved more and more snow and minus God-knows how many degrees - it was fun digging out the cars at first, but.....

but now Lynnea has encouraged me to start again, so we'll see... it might get me writing some maybe controversial thoughts about postcolonial Africa though, but OK as long as I keep personal details out of it all??