They promised to train like beasts and fight like monsters. We came to see if they were true to their word. In a simple square ring, in an old garage, at the back of an unheralded industrial unit, down a small road in the city of Guelph. The smell of deep heat and old … Continue reading Fight night
Category: culture
Coyote and Squirrel Camp
Time was, before social media, global warming or Donald Trump, that there were a lot more dangerous animals around squirrel camp. 10-foot beavers would chomp off campers’s heads, giant mosquitos would drink their blood with a single slurp, great ostrich-sized predatory grouse would ambush campers with a loud thud and peck out their large intestines, … Continue reading Coyote and Squirrel Camp
How Squirrel Camp got its bear fence
Squirrel camp, like many wilderness camps, has an electrical fence surrounding it. Normally they are called bear fences, but they can in fact keep many kinds of animals out. There was a time in fact, where there was no fence at all. The bears knew all the food in camp was safely locked away in … Continue reading How Squirrel Camp got its bear fence
Squirrel camp and the great storm
Squirrel camp today is not completely like the camp first built. The original lacked a place to store new vs old eggs, or a spot for each persons’ electrical wires, or a place for hare poo, or other essential things. The original did however have all the huts to sleep in arranged together in a … Continue reading Squirrel camp and the great storm
Squirrel camp and the northern lights
In the beginning there were three ecologists (one tall, one medium height, one short). In the boreal forest. Before that there were squirrels and lynx and bears and other such creatures, but as they cannot hold pens to write their stories down we can hardly start with them, so we will start with the three … Continue reading Squirrel camp and the northern lights
Keep moving, just to be still
New country, new me. New sports, new food. New people, new office, similar routine. New bars, new beers, still get drunk, same old hangover. New job, same mission. Same blog, but from Canada. Having finished wandering through Morocco, Spain, Hungary, Kyrgyzstan and India, I am now becalmed in Southern Ontario, Canada. I have a new … Continue reading Keep moving, just to be still
One went to the cricket
Crash. Bang. Wallop. Hashim Amla smacks the ball over the boundary for a 6. The crowd roar. We jump and dance, throw confetti and wave signs. Cheerleaders gyrate around the ground. I’ve made some new friends and together we celebrate these batting heroics, this “rampage” as the bright video screens inform us. We settle … Continue reading One went to the cricket
This eagle could keep a village in meat for a week
I dwelt on that statistic as I held said eagle. Huge and majestic, it was a live weight sat on my outstretched be-gloved hand. We (myself and a group of assorted Flemish bird watchers) had just paid 700 SOM (about £7) each to watch the Kyrgyz eagle hunter Ruslan fly his bird. We also got … Continue reading This eagle could keep a village in meat for a week
The Wager
And so a deal is struck. Emily, 178cm, American, will take on Untumak, 160cm, from Kyrgyzstan, in a horse race. Untumak will provide the horses, Emily will chose the course. Being the away side perhaps Emily is at a disadvantage, but being a cowgirl from California and boldly proclaiming that she can ride anything with … Continue reading The Wager
The Charismatic Megafauna
The journey continues in Hungary, and I'm doing my best to get to know the people and what makes them tick. That involves talking to as many as possible, seeimg what they like to do and looking into their history. Seems that Hungary has something of a heroes culture. Go to Budapest and you find … Continue reading The Charismatic Megafauna
