The Path of the Nile

"...And now your eyes see it... layers of memory are ushered away to reveal kingdoms tasted in dreams long ago... Canyons of orange and beige roll down into empty dells of rust and bone; dusted staircases and shattered statues licked with gold. Pillars of alabaster split the horizon and strange mountains rise like chiselled breasts, mocking the sky. Kingfishers glide across braided ripples of copper and blue; crown of Ramses emblazoned by the fire of a sleepy star. Finally this land reaches out a hand to you, as time itself stops... a secret mark passed from the heavens kisses your brow. You have held all of this within your heart from the earliest days of boyhood. Even you had forgotten! This magical place. Land of kings, sand and stars. Your dreams upheld, an offering to the righteous sun; arms quivering. Swollen and full, you gasp. This is really happening. You are really here. The inner river finally reaches the outer shore; all tributaries aligned with the wide arms of the great valley..."

The Voices of Ancestors

Deep, in the Bush, this kind of Africa still lives, where children run barefoot in the dust to the pounding of stone and millet, where the voices of ancestors still echo across the sunburnt hills, where the red sun hums like a glowing ember behind the billowing grey choke of campfires, blades are sharpened each morning to the tremble of the dawn chorus, arrowheads are delicately rolled in poisonous weeds by thick cracked hands, and grounded bark and pollens remain the cure-all for every disease and ailment. Here, fading gently with time, the cradle of mankind's legacy on earth waits, waits for hungry passengers of the cosmic drama to dine on its forgotten nectars and deliver its message to a world bereft of a spirit...

Life in a Monastery, Cyprus

I began a journey at the end of Spring that set a great and terrible tremour in my foundations, sparked a fire in my spirit beyond all imagining... pyres are made to burn, and ashes make fertile even tired, wintered soil. Even a desert becomes a delta in the rains... What my eyes and soul witnessed in those days I will never forget. 

Fever Sevilla

~ Feverish Flamenco, Arabic Baths and Dancing in Fountains ~ Sevilla, Andalusia, Spain. City of domes, fountains, arches and spires; home of Flamenco; collide of two great continents ~ Europe and Africa. The pride of the West fixed atop the exotic grandeur of the East. Seville bewitched my senses, enriched, seduced and beguiled me. I was [...]

Deep in the Indian Jungle…

Dodamarg. Maharashtra. India. Alone. Free. Alive. You are deep in the jungle in South India, wading gently downstream, on the very edge of a river: fast-flowing, powerful, and swollen with fresh monsoon waters. You are in the safest, shallowest waters, under the thick canopy of tropical trees. You are alone, and you have never felt more [...]

In the Light of Brussels

"...Then with nothing at all, But the little we are, We'll have conquered all time; All space, the sun, and the stars." - Jacques Brel Take yourself on a journey through the centre of Europe, the heart of Belgium; to Brussels - a city of no fuss, no pretense - just a mirror; a canvas to arrange the colours of [...]