Home on the African Road

Mt. Namuli

In Conjunction with Engelhorn Sports

I feel bad for my seatmate on the plane the other day. I’d like to issue an apology but I never got their name. The woman had harmlessly asked me where I was coming from and where I was going. I tried to keep it simple at the start. I told her Malawi and Cape Town. But then she asked me why I’d been in Malawi.

I should have said I was in Malawi for work and opened my book. Instead I told her I’d been stranded in Malawi but was on a trip to Mozambique, that I’d been in Ethiopia and was en route to Cape Town, and that ultimately I was heading home to Boulder, Colorado. When her why came again, I told her about the vertical grass.

Click to read more ...

Mobile Home, Africa Style. Namibia 1

The Outdoor Research/Exped Aires Mesh, Poodle Sold SeparatelyThis is where I’m going to live for the next five weeks. The tent, not the lawn. The tent is going to Namibia with me and the lawn will stay here outside of my house in Boulder. (The poodle, unfortunately, will also stay at home.)

There is chance this tent will get trampled by an elephant. Either with me inside of it, or not. Kate Rutherford, who is joining me on the trip put it this way “if I have to go by getting stepped on by an elephant, I have to go.” Maybe. I hear most elephants don’t like to step on tents. Lions, scorpions, hyenas too, right?

Click to read more ...

Girls On Point

Sarah H heading into the steepnessUp until five years ago I climbed with men more than women. It wasn’t a conscious choice, it was just what I was surrounded by. These days it is almost the opposite. Maybe some of that has to do with the murkiness that surrounds cross-gender climbing. With women, it’s relatively simple. And it’s getting easier. But it is still surprising when you get to go out and dry tool with three other ladies.

Click to read more ...