Footprints Across Africa: A Journey to Remember

  Our adventure has now officially started, we’re here at a local rest stop at the top of the first major climb out of Kigali and I’m face down in the engine of our Land Cruiser helping to search for the radiator cap which was explosively ejected from the top of the radiator when it was removed to add some water as we were overheating.    I’ve nicknamed our aging Land Cruiser the Antichrist in a nod to one of my favorite movies of all time, The Gods Must be Crazy.    Andrew eventually spots the cap wedged into a narrow spot between the fender and the suspension and we use a stick to free it .    Unfortunately the aging Land Cruiser won’t start and we have to do a running start to get it going again but we are soon on our way again.  Leaving the hotel in the morning after checking out we had two stops to make before we headed into the mountains; visit to the Rwandan Genocide memorial and a local market.  We pulled into the large traffic circle...

  After a short hop from Athens we landed in Cairo and made our connection to Kigali, departing about 45 minutes late.     It became clear that we were entering a new phase of the trip as our hand luggage was X rayed and we were all patted down before being allowed to the departure gate, little did we know that this was just the first of many checks. Flying into Cairo at night the sheer scale of the City is mind boggling, lights spreading out in all directions as far as the eye can see, the inky blackness of the Nile winding through the Center and the abrupt edge of the start of the utter darkness of desert a stark contrast.  About an hour after departing Cairo I felt the plane take a gentle turn to the left and opened up the flight tracker.    You know you’re not in Kansas anymore when your plane has to detour to avoid rebels armed with SAM’s.    Rather than a direct path following the Nile down to Rwanda we took a distinct detour over the Red Se...

  Pythia was the name of the priestess presiding at the Oracle of Apollo at Delphi. There are more than 500 statements which have survived from various sources referring to the oracle at Delphi. The priestess was located in the lower chamber of the temple and was seated on a tripod like throne with 3 legs that was placed over a crack in the rock from which emitted gases that caused a hallucinogenic state and this was augmented by the burning of laurel leaves which induced a different kind of high to augment the readings.   Only men were allowed to ask questions of the oracle and only after giving appropriate offerings.    People came far and wide to ask the priestess for her advice and the prophecies were admired for the cleverness of the phrasing.  Early in his reign around 300 BC, a young Alexander the Great went to Delphi to consult the oracle on his proposed campaign against Persia. Unfortunately he arrived in November during a time when the oracle had cease...