1985 -An Inflection Point in Africa

In the winter of that year I spent nights in a sleeping bag on a low cot inside a tent peering out through the open flap at the darkness beyond the fire. Farther out the light from the fire reflected off the retinas so that you saw sets of two orange balls move about at the edge of the darkness. Beyond the firelight, far off in the distance you could hear a low-pitched roar. They say the sound can carry for several kilometers so it was hard to tell how far away it was except for the orange eyes. If there was a moon you could then see the silhouette of acacia trees and farther out the sloping shoulder of the volcano. Or the rim of the crater wall, depending on where we were.

So begins my travel chronicle of that influential trip in my life from Cairo to Capetown over a number of months, which came to have a profound impact on my life.