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| Richard in our new Kayak with the Torridon hills behind |
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| In front of the house in Scotland |
Dear Currier, We have been very dilatory about our promise to keep you all up-to-date with what we are up to on our sabbatical. The days just whiz by. We are both so busy writing and traveling and Richard has been giving lots of talksOur plans to spend the summer in Uganda had to be changed at the last minute but we had a good time visiting our family house in the north west of Scotland instead.
Richard spent a week at the International Primate Society meetings in Japan in September and then we went off to Tanzania for 3 weeks leading a trip to Gombe to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Jane Goodall's arrival at this famous chimpanzee research site.
Richard did his PhD research here in the early 1970's and was delighted to find a few old friends, both human, and chimpanzee still around.
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| The site of the Homo Habilis skull |
Before Gombe we had a wonderful trip through the Serengeti and the Ngorogoro crater seeing terrific wildlife but for Richard the highlight of the trip (even more exciting than seeing the place in Ujiji where Stanley greeted Livingstone with the famous words "Dr. Livingstone I presume) was the cement post in Olduvai Gorge that marked the site where the Leakey's uncovered the fossilized skull of Homo Habilis - the first human ancestor that Richard believes used fire.
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| On the way to school, Stone Town, Zanzibar |
The trip ended with 4 days in Zanzibar - an enchanting place with a rich if sometimes brutal history. It is here that, for centuries, slaves captured in Central Africa by African and Arab slavers were shipped to Arabia and the far East. The mix of cultures; Arab, Swahili, European, Indian and East Asian which grew from trade routes between Africa and China operating since the 14th Century makes it a wonderful place to visit and the food is great. Zanzibar for us Brits is full of fascination as the starting point for many explorations of East and Central Africa by Europeans. Livingstone, Stanley, Burton and Speke all began their journeys across Africa from Zanzibar.
