It has taken me five months to write about all the books I bought during my unexpected extended stay in Cape Town last September. During my first trip to Cape Town in 2013, I went book shopping only after I had returned from Tristan da Cunha. Why go book shopping before my trip to the island, when I'd have to lug my books all the way to Tristan and ( Read more... )

During my trip to Miami Beach earlier this month I mailed a package to Paul Barbato, the host of "Geography Now!". I had mailed him a package last autumn from Tristan da Cunha, yet this package contained more souvenirs from Tristan as well as some from my 2011 trip to North Korea. I am happy to say that he featured my second package on the episode ( Read more... )

I finally got around to uploading some videos I took with my camera when I was on Tristan da Cunha last September and October. They are all short, from a few seconds to just under two minutes. See what Tristan looks like when you approach it on a foggy afternoon, and see some perspectives of the coastline you can only see when you circumnavigate ( Read more... )

One of my favourite YouTube channels is Paul Barbato's "Geography Now!" wherein he profiles a different country week after week in English alphabetical order. He just talked about Korea (North). On Fridays he discusses the flag of that week's country and also shows the fan mail he has received. I decided that I would send him a package of souvenirs ( Read more... )

Yesterday I received my postcard from Tristan da Cunha:


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I sent 71 postcards, three greetings cards and three packages from Tristan da Cunha. The mail came back with me on the Edinburgh, so it didn't matter if you were the first person I wrote to or the seventy-first. I wrote a postcard to myself, as I did when I was on the island four years ago, and covered it with stamps in small denominations. Unlike ( Read more... )

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Aside from a weak Internet connection on the island that I sometimes could only access on weekends and evenings, I have essentially been off-line since September 21. I had been able to check basic view Gmail and post some blog reports but had no chance to edit them or upload photos. Now I am busying myself adding to my Tristan blog and catching up ( Read more... )

(I have just arrived in Cape Town after a week's trip aboard the Edinburgh from Tristan da Cunha. I have found a flight that leaves for Toronto tonight. I will update my blog within the next two hours when I have to leave for the airport, and during my stopovers in Amsterdam and Boston ( Read more... )

On Monday, October 9 a sign was posted in the post office saying that mail going on the next departing ship, the Edinburgh, the ship that I will be travelling on to Cape Town, needed to be in by Thursday, October 12 by 1:30 p.m. In total I have sent ( Read more... )