Antonia Bolingbroke-Kent
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General | The Occasional Rant

How you can help with the UXO problem in Laos

July 19, 2012 by antsbk

During the Vietnam War, the small Southeast Asian country of Laos gained the deadly accolade of becoming the most bombed country per capita on the planet. 30% of those bombs didn’t explode, and today the problem of UXO is still … Read More


antsbk

An afternoon walking across hillsides blushing wit An afternoon walking across hillsides blushing with heather and haws. Herds of grazing wild ponies, fat and shiny as conkers. Bilberries galore. A bounding hare, springing up from the heather beside us. And ravens, lots of them, the sun silvering their soaring wings. To my GREAT excitement, I saw a male raven flipping onto his back to fly upside down under his mate - the raven equivalent of pulling a fancy move on the dancefloor. Gawd I love these mountains.
Happy 80th birthday to my fearless, funny, ever cu Happy 80th birthday to my fearless, funny, ever curious Mama. If I'm even alive when I'm 80, let alone hill walking and playing tennis, I'll be mightily happy. 

And yes, it's August, and we're wearing woollens. Welcome to summer in the Welsh mountains.
The slow march of autumn begins. The slow march of autumn begins.
The weather forecast promised a warm, windless nig The weather forecast promised a warm, windless night so, at 5.30 last night, we packed our rucksacks and headed out. Up the punishing shoulder of Y Das. South-east across the peaty uplands. Down to the edge of the reservoir, that black tongue of water licking through the hills.

We camped on a rocky bluff overlooking the water, our tent cupped in a green palm of grass. ‘17 degrees! Sunny! A 3 mph wind!!’ I laughed, pulling on a woolly hat and thermal leggings. Below, the wind galloped across the water in inky salients. We downed supper, mainlined our supplies of beer and whisky and dived into the tent, falling asleep to the sound of water slapping the rocks below. The Welsh Mountains in high summer!

I unzipped the flysheet at 06.30 this morning, just as the sun was throwing its first spears of light into the black belly of the reservoir. Hot tea. Dawn sunshine. Is there a better way to start the day? But oh! The midges! Battalions of the blighters. They bit and buzzed and chased us, until we bravely ran away, back across the heather-bruised hills and home. By 9.30 I was eating hot buttered crumpets at our kitchen table, ready for the day’s work. What a joy to be able to walk out of our door to all This – midges and all.
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Ants BK
Ants BK @AntsBK

Researching rare plant species in Western Tajikistan for an article: Adonis Turkestan, Maksimovich's tulip, Rosenbach allium, Iris hoogiana....What a trove of wonderful names.
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© 2022 Antonia Bolingbroke-Kent

  • Journeys
    • The Naga Hills
    • Arunachal Pradesh
    • The Ho Chi Minh Trail
    • Tuk to the Road
  • Books
    • Land of the Dawn-Lit Mountains
    • A Short Ride in the Jungle
    • Tuk Tuk to the Road
  • Journalism
  • Speaking
  • Other Stuff
    • About Antonia
    • Blog
    • Get in Touch