Tag Archives: animals

The Thar Desert, or Great Indian Desert, is an arid region that forms a natural boundary between India and Pakistan. A relatively large area, it spreads across four Indian states (Gujarat, Haryana, Punjab, and Rajasthan) and two Pakistani states. The Thar Desert is the most densely populated desert in the world, with 83 people per square km. This population lives in small villages, far apart from each […]

View full post »

I’ve been dreaming of camels lately… That’s probably because the annual five-day Pushkar Camel Festival in Rajasthan, Northern India, finished earlier this week, and a number of my friends – including photographer Karl Grobl and local guide DV Singh – were there. I couldn’t help but feel a little envious, as it has been two years since I visited India […]

View full post »

The Tiverton Canal Co. calls it: “The Fastest Way to Slow Down!” I think they are right. Being transported up a canal, towed by a slowly plodding shire horse, makes one imagine English country life as it must have once been. Scenes from Thomas Hardy novels spring to mind. It was towards the end of July – the last […]

View full post »

It’s a different world out there… In this day and age where travel is relatively quick and easy, and when communication is virtually instantaneous, it is amazing to me how much diversity still exists. Some ethnic groups have managed to resist the influences around them and to preserve their age-old traditions. Sumatra is just one of the […]

View full post »

“There is a pleasure in being mad which none but madmen know.” – John Dryden, The Spanish Friar (1681) “There is a pleasure in being mad which none but madmen know.” That is the Dryden quote that opens Gerald Durrell’s first book: My Family and Other Animals. And an apposite quote it is! When I first read the book as a young adult, I remember […]

View full post »