Polo’s Bastards – Goin’ Where We Ain’t Supposed To
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These Are the Dangers of Kayaking the Kwanza in Angola from Source to Sea
In June 2016, my friend Alfy and I kayaked, hiked and waded 1,300km from the source of the River Kwanza, deep in the Angolan highlands, out into the Atlantic Ocean. Our expedition raised over USD25,000 to fund The HALO Trust’s mine clearance work in Angola. If you are interested in a narrative account of what…
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What I Did On My Vacation to Iraq
Sean R. recounts his 2003 trip to Iraq just a few months after the American invasion had begun. Ten years later, reflecting on how he saw the country just as Saddam had been deposed.
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Somalia, Spaghetti and Pirates
Hanad and Abdi sit up against the courtyard wall in the clammy evening heat. A large straw mat has been laid out, which serves both to keep us off the insects and to catch all the pieces of khat leaves they are dropping as they chew the night away. Nearer the perimeter wall, Mohamed and…
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Polo’s Bastards Worst Destinations of 2011
Well, 2011 was a hell of a year and a lot of countries made a play for their place in the list of the worst of 2011 with unexpected and out of character descents into dangerous territory everywhere from Greece to Norway and the UK. The Middle East saw massive changes and Mother Nature really…
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Becoming the Dictator – Preparing yourself for the role
So it all rolls down like this. You side with the rebels, against some idiot who thinks he has the authority to run this country because of some stupid ritual called an “election’ – the nerve! You know you can do better, people’s will be damned, once you’re in the driver’s seat this backwater of…
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Adventures in Hebron and Nablus
I refer to Palestine as that region otherwise known as the West Bank and Gaza and at least nominally under Palestinian political control. I refer separately to Israel as that region on the other side of the 1948 Armistice Line, the pre-1967 borders. I am fully aware that in the complex and convoluted geopolitics of…
Got any book recommendations?