Travel Diaries

This is not really a plant expedition as the whole reason for being in Yemen was to help build the Sanaa to Taiz Road. At the time we were 2 people out of about 200 Europeans in the whole of the country and Yemen had just come out of 12 years of civil war and […]

Myself and Beryl set out upon our first visit to Madagascar not really knowing what to expect. I had already had some communication with Alfred Razafindratsira who ran a nursery in Antananarivo and he was going to have someone to meet us at the airport when we arrived. In the event our route to Madagascar

Its Monday 1st November and here we go again on a trip to Madagascar. This time I am going with Dutch friend Leo vanderHoeven who I will meet in Paris and then we will take the Air France flight to Antananarivo. We arrive at 23-50 hrs. local time and were met by a car and

November 2007 and myself and Beryl are of to South Africa for 3 weeks holiday. This is not really a plant trip but I have been told that I am allowed some time to search out plant locations but we must also do the tourist sites as well. We arrived in Cape Town on 6th

At last we are going to Socotra , thought I would never get there. Having lived in Yemen for 3 years in the 1970s it was not possible to get to Socotra as the Island belonged to South Yemen which was under communist control, this was a source of great disapointment for me as it

Its Wednesday 10th of February and myself and Leo Vanderhoeven are of to Madagascar again. We follow the usual route from Heathrow to Paris and from there direct to Antananarivo arriving late night on the same day. We are picked up by and taken to our hotel just a short way from the Airport, just

February 2012 and myself, Leo vander Hoeven, Jaap Keizer and Rikus vanVeldhuisen are of to South Africa for 3 and a bit weeks plant hunting expedition. Myself and Leo depart from Heathrow and on arrival in Cape Town we collect our hire car and make our way to the town of Tulbagh where we will

It is November 2013 and I am off to Ethiopia for another plant hunting expedition. I had been in Ethiopia some yeras before en route to and fro from Yemen but had never stayed long enough to explore any of the country. This time I will be meeting 3 Dutch friends Rikus vanVeldhuisen, Wiebe Bosma

November 2017 and Beryl and myself are of to South Africa to meet up with Rikus vanVeldhuisen and Jaap Keizer for a three week plant hunting trip to take in South Africa and Namibia. Never been to Namibia so very excited to be seeing a whole lot of new plants. We set of on 7th