In Nanjing I waited for the Goldilocks time, not too cold, not too hot – to walk the entire Nanjing City Walls. The winter had been miserable. Snow, ice, rain, puddles. With no heating in my office, I sat and shivered with my feet on a hot water bottle. In the lab, beakers full of liquid… Continue reading A Day Circumnavigating the Nanjing City Walls
Category: Travel
Fifty, 500, or 5,000 years old? Ancient cultural landscape in the hills of Central Turkey
‘Fox-holes’ perhaps? Did snipers crouch in these to fire down on an enemy below? What were these little rings of rocks strategically placed high up along the edges of central Turkish gorges? (see the featured image) How old are they? Fifty years? Five hundred? Five thousand maybe? We geologists all lived in a wonderful house… Continue reading Fifty, 500, or 5,000 years old? Ancient cultural landscape in the hills of Central Turkey
In the Footsteps of Anthony Bourdain: Restaurant CoCoCo in St Petersburg, Russia
A meal in CoCoCo, a top St Petersburg restaurant? One featured in an episode of TV chef Anthony Bourdain? Would I be blowing a week’s travel budget, just to get a few outrageously little servings, then need to fill-up on pizza anyway? After a few days in St Petersburg we had formed a rule of… Continue reading In the Footsteps of Anthony Bourdain: Restaurant CoCoCo in St Petersburg, Russia
‘Woman with nails in both sides of skull’ – the Nanjing Massacre Memorial
Arguably, the most shocking part of Iris Chang’s book ‘The Rape Of Nanking’, comes in its Epilogue. During my 12 months living in Nanjing (sometimes written Nanking) , what struck me was a disturbing lack of even slightly old buildings. There are some old treasures – Nanjings famous city wall, is an almost entirely intact, 40 km… Continue reading ‘Woman with nails in both sides of skull’ – the Nanjing Massacre Memorial
Uganda – Hell-train to Kasese
As I lowered my arse out the door of the moving train, with my trousers and undies around my ankles, I saw a terrifying sight. ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. I had a vague plan to get to South Africa, kind of over-land. Starting in Nairobi, Kenya, I had made it to Kampala, the capital of Uganda. The city… Continue reading Uganda – Hell-train to Kasese
When Corals Lived in the Mongolian Gobi
Corals in Mongolia – is there a better example of dramatic Earth-change?! The Gobi Altai -the mountains flanking the Gobi Desert, are far from the sea. They are semi- arid, bitterly cold in the winter, with lots of bare rock and virtually no trees. Nomadic herders keep their flocks on the move, there is so… Continue reading When Corals Lived in the Mongolian Gobi
Tourists and War-Graves in Taganrog, South Russia
The man in the Taganrog Park spun around and said something at us. The only word I made out was ‘anglesky’ (‘English’)- the Russian had heard us speaking. Taganrog is well off the route of the average Western tourist in Russia. We were in Taganrog because our guide and driver Olga Tikidzhan (see her contact… Continue reading Tourists and War-Graves in Taganrog, South Russia
Hey – I tracked a Chinese dinosaur!
A small claim to fame….Last year I found some little dinosaur footprints in China, and the resulting paper has just been published on-line. I spent a year at the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology as a Visiting Professor. The first field trip was to the province of Sichuan, a couple of hours flying to… Continue reading Hey – I tracked a Chinese dinosaur!
Nomadic Women’s Underwear – in Greek Tanais on the Russian Don
You’ll see the chick with red and green silk bloomers at Tanais… The River Don is one of Europe’s big ones. Even if you haven’t heard of it, the sound should be somewhat familiar – there’s Danube, Dnieper, and the Dniester. They all contain the ancient word ‘don’ word, which simply means …. ‘river’. The… Continue reading Nomadic Women’s Underwear – in Greek Tanais on the Russian Don
How to see the Porthole Dolmens of Russia’s Caucasus
Travelling in Russia last year I got a chance to see some of it’s famous prehistoric ‘Porthole Dolmens’. Now there is a solid dollop of ‘Atlantic facade’ DNA in me – i.e. Ireland and Scotland, and one of my pet fascinations is for the ‘megalithic monuments’ of those areas. Building megaliths was a widespread phenomenon… Continue reading How to see the Porthole Dolmens of Russia’s Caucasus