When Emperor Constantine woke up on May 28, 1453, it would have been to the depressing thought that it was likely his last day on Earth. Justinian was emperor of the Roman Empire (we tend to call them Byzantine, but they thought of themselves as Romans), although at this stage it wasn’t much. The Ottoman army… Continue reading The Day I Walked Around the Roman Empire
Category: Travel stories
Mongolia – crap, fire and herbal-tea
I once had a student come to me for help looking at sheep crap. It took the mystery out of what this stuff actually is. Under the microscope it’s quite a treasure-trove of little bits of plant leaf. From the various patterns you can tell what plants the sheep had been eating. The crap was… Continue reading Mongolia – crap, fire and herbal-tea
The Honey Trees of Kalimantan
I was sitting in a ger in Mongolia when I put up my hand to go to Indonesia. My ulterior motive was to get a chance to get into the Indonesian rainforests. Back in 1988 I had read Eric Hansen’s book “Stranger in the forest: on foot across Borneo”. I was impressed. The guy spent… Continue reading The Honey Trees of Kalimantan
Mongolia – Nights under the nine stars of the Pleiades
Erik von Daniken’s ‘Chariots of the Gods’ came to my town when I was a kid. Alexandra, New Zealand was perhaps a bit information-starved. There was one-channel TV, radio of course, and a couple of newspapers. And then there were the ‘Pictures’ (one a week movie screenings at the cinema). So a well-marketed movie about space-travellers once… Continue reading Mongolia – Nights under the nine stars of the Pleiades