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SKP Guy

@skpguy.bsky.social

Writer, Geographer, Traveller. Human human being

2,531 Followers  |  1,743 Following  |  1,014 Posts  |  Joined: 16.11.2024  |  1.5163

Latest posts by skpguy.bsky.social on Bluesky

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Into the Jungle – Finding a way across the Lagoon Over the years there have been various methods for doing this.  The slowest would be to travel round the estuary by road, but this would be a trip of over 100km and could take up to 5 or 6 hours.  …

alanpmills.wordpress.com/2017/04/18/i...

08.10.2025 06:24 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Insect Safari – Scud One of the best parts of the trip was meeting people along the road side.  We were not supposed to take lifts, but it was difficult to refuse when you knew you were the only vehicle on the road for…

alanpmillsuk.wordpress.com/2014/02/18/i...

08.10.2025 06:23 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Insect Safari – Camp and TV Part 2 Once the shower was over we raided the freezer for frozen tonic water, opened the gin and made our mixers.  Gin is a drink which suits the sub-tropics perfectly.  It is a thirst quencher, it is a r…

alanpmillsuk.wordpress.com/2014/02/18/i...

07.10.2025 15:01 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Into the Jungle – The best of ports, the worst of airports The west coast of Africa has always been a problem for ships.  Most of the coast line is a barrier beach, backed by mangrove swamps, the water itself is fairly shallow offshore and heavy draft boat…

alanpmills.wordpress.com/2017/04/17/i...

07.10.2025 15:00 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Return to Cayman – Is it conservation? With so many conservationists in our party, the inevitable debate surfaced about whether this place, nick named Sting Ray City, was for the benefit of sting rays or people.  There are several tour …

alanpmills.wordpress.com/2017/04/16/5...

07.10.2025 06:27 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Insect Safari – Camp and TV Part 1 The place we were staying was not difficult to find, as it was at the only turn off between Mahuwe and Mushumbi Pools, the next major village along the dirt road.  However, until we got used to the…

alanpmillsuk.wordpress.com/2014/02/18/i...

07.10.2025 06:26 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Insect Safari – Judith Part 3 To add to our tension, we had been told that close to the border were still uncleared mines.  But we were also told that there was a fence that marked where the mines started, so we didn’t worry ab…

alanpmillsuk.wordpress.com/2014/02/18/i...

06.10.2025 16:00 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Return to Cayman – Getting to know the sting rays The guides took the lead and from a bucket they held above the water they took some small squid and first placed it gently on the surface.  A ray immediately approached , covered the squid and when…

alanpmills.wordpress.com/2017/04/15/r...

06.10.2025 16:00 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Return to Cayman – Meeting the rays The conference over, there was a little free time the next day before we needed to head for the airport and several of us who did not have high level meetings to attend or other business on Cayman …

alanpmills.wordpress.com/2017/04/14/r...

06.10.2025 06:46 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Insect Safari – Judith Part 2 We tried to ask whether anyone had a jack.  Then we realised that there were probably only two vehicles in the village; one a bus which was heading back from Harare, the other a van which hadn’t mo…

alanpmillsuk.wordpress.com/2014/02/18/i...

06.10.2025 06:46 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Insect Safari – Judith Part 1 I got to know this area well because this is where we had one of the scariest times with our dodgy Land Rover.  Let me tell you about the darling vehicle that we had. We christened her Judith, afte…

alanpmillsuk.wordpress.com/2014/02/18/i...

05.10.2025 18:41 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Return to Cayman – Ridge to Reef sightseeing The walk gave us a chance to explore the landward side of Grand Cayman.  I enjoyed it a lot – I always like scrambling about the interior of Caribbean islands.  While most tourists will stick…

alanpmills.wordpress.com/2017/04/13/r...

05.10.2025 18:41 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Return to Cayman – On the Mastic Trail (2) We decided we did not need to wait around and continued along.  Fortunately the National Trust left their botanist with the Kew Gardens contingent and other keen plant taxonomists and they were abl…

alanpmills.wordpress.com/2017/04/12/r...

05.10.2025 05:39 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Insect Safari – Scorpions and Tsetse Part 2 Next morning, I was told it was a whip scorpion, a sort of false scorpion totally harmless to humans, but which preys on smaller animals on tree trunks.  In fact on several nights we went on insect…

alanpmillsuk.wordpress.com/2014/02/18/i...

05.10.2025 05:39 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Insect Safari – Scorpions and Tsetse Part 1 I’d never seen a scorpion alive in the wild.  I am beginning to think they are mythical creatures, like griffins or dragons.  There are certainly some animals around which match up to them in siz…

alanpmillsuk.wordpress.com/2014/02/18/i...

04.10.2025 15:42 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Return to Cayman – On the Mastic Trail (1) Often neglected in the Caribbean is the land vegetation.  The coral and the deep seas get so much attention, as do the endemic birdlife, reptiles and amphibians.  But the curious mix of land habita…

alanpmills.wordpress.com/2017/04/11/r...

04.10.2025 15:42 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Return to Cayman – Encounters with the blue iguana One of the elements of the conference were that the local Cayman Island guys wanted to show off their conservation successes, of which Cayman had many.  Although many of the Caribbean Islands had i…

alanpmills.wordpress.com/2017/04/10/r...

04.10.2025 06:48 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Timeline 1989 June – Portugal – The Port Run 1990 Left Durham University 1991 January – Started work at the Natural Resources Institute, Chatham, Kent, UK 1992 1993 June – Zimbabwe &…

alanpmillsuk.wordpress.com/timeline/

04.10.2025 06:48 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Introduction Working short term abroad for ten years during the 1990’s, I was often asked on my return, “what was it like” by a whole host of people. Most were not really interested, and either wanted me to ask…

alanpmillsuk.wordpress.com/about/

03.10.2025 15:57 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Return to Cayman – Party on the Plane The party started at Heathrow.  Now normally I am used to heading over to the airport, sipping a coffee and a Danish while reading the paper and waiting to board, then settling down for hours of mo…

alanpmills.wordpress.com/2017/04/09/r...

03.10.2025 15:57 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Return to Cayman – The Environmental Warriors of the OTs Having worked in several overseas territories, predominantly on environmental projects, I had got to know an amazing group of enthusiastic scientists who valued the special nature of the small isla…

alanpmills.wordpress.com/2017/04/08/r...

03.10.2025 06:22 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Thanks to the Followers And Look Out for the New Adventures Yesterday’s post marks the end of the story of my travels while working for NRI.  I hope you have enjoyed them all and maybe learnt a fact or two.  Thanks to those who have followed and favou…

alanpmillsuk.wordpress.com/2014/10/12/t...

03.10.2025 06:21 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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STRING KNIFE AND PAPER – Postscript After that day, I continued to travel far and wide on that trip.  A ferry ride to Zanzibar (where I celebrated my birthday), via Harare I spent a few days in Lusaka.  Via Lilongwe I travelled up, c…

alanpmillsuk.wordpress.com/2014/10/11/s...

02.10.2025 15:26 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Blown Away – Acting Suspiciously At Atlanta And then it was more than a bit bumpy as the plane shuddered into the cross winds but as soon as we were aloft the pilot almost immediately turned the aircraft into the wind, we bounced against the…

alanpmills.wordpress.com/2017/04/07/b...

02.10.2025 15:26 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Blown Away – The last one to leave The traffic was less than usual for Cayman’s capital, Georgetown, which was a relief.  Our route was only a few kilometres as the airport was just behind the main urban area.  I paid the taxi…

alanpmills.wordpress.com/2017/04/06/b...

02.10.2025 07:14 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Airplanes – Reflecting on the African Transect The hotel Karibu was an amazing place.  Out in the northern suburbs of Dar,  on the Msasani Peninsula, the kind of twee, manicured and spacious neighbourhood that you find in any African city wher…

alanpmillsuk.wordpress.com/2014/10/10/a...

02.10.2025 07:13 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Airplanes – Leg Four and Dar We traced a ridge of mountains down to the coast and swung out over the Zanzibar Channel before coming down to land in the western sprawl of Dar itself.  The tempo of life had changed again and I w…

alanpmillsuk.wordpress.com/2014/10/09/a...

01.10.2025 16:34 — 👍 2    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Blown Away – One sensible route There were one or two others, already booked out on the handful of flights left to leave that morning.  As I was heading back I wanted to speak to reception.  They were still being quite forceful a…

alanpmills.wordpress.com/2017/04/05/b...

01.10.2025 16:34 — 👍 2    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Blown Away – An anxious night A couple of groups were left in the hotel from the conference.  One were the Jamaicans.  The hurricane was heading towards their shores already and no flights were going into Kingston or Montego Ba…

alanpmills.wordpress.com/2017/04/04/b...

01.10.2025 06:18 — 👍 2    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Airplanes – Leg Three Some planes landed. Other planes took off.  Some were surprisingly large.  It was now approaching noon.  Apart from two chocolate éclair sweets, I had eaten nothing.  I didn’t like the look of anyt…

alanpmillsuk.wordpress.com/2014/10/08/a...

01.10.2025 06:18 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

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