I can’t see very well out of the window (I’m in an aisle seat), but I suspect we are flying over the Alps into and across Italy on our way to one of the most storied cities on earth. […]

Returned last week after three weeks in France on assignment for National Geographic Magazine (this was spring 2013) … That makes me still a Last Ape Standing :-). Unbelievable trip! It’s been busy and deadlines loom on various projects so […]

It’s been a crazy! five months since 2013 showed its face back in January — The release of Last Ape Standing; thrilling trips to Africa, England, Spain and Portugal for National Geographic Magazine (with more to come); wonderful reviews of Last Ape in the New Yorker, New York Times Book Review and many other publications, and, most importantly to me, very kind thoughts from […]

A Pittsburgh story: I arrived home the other night, and grabbed a taxi at the airport. Long day — up at 6 am in Oxford England and home in Pittsburgh at 9 pm 20 hours later. But I always enjoy talking with taxi cab drivers wherever I go so […]

When I was in Potberg, South Africa last week, I was wandering around the grounds taking a few pictures. Chris Henshilwood (see other dispatches) had pointed out that troops of baboons often wandered the grounds too. […]

The next morning we were up and off at 9 am, well schooled in the ways you could be snake-bit, bushwhacked by baboons or swept out to sea. Everyone’s gear was jammed into three Toyota Land Cruisers and off we went with cameras, lasers, […]

Christopher Henshilwood is talking about the best way to keep the baboons under control. He is the scientist in charge of this excursion to the coast of Africa, and one of the top archeologists in the study of prehistoric life. He stands 6 ft. 5 inches, with long, stilt-like legs that carry a slender, rectangular frame in long strides wherever he goes. […]

I packed up my bags in my very nice central Cape Town hotel room, threw them in my rented VW and began to navigate my way, warily, and on the wrong side of the road (to me at least), out of the city. […]

A drawing of the great Colossus of Rhodes. This is MUCH better. Here, in row 38 F on KLM's very comfy 777-200 jetliner, I am a happy man. Unlike Delta's flying sardine can, I can write! I can stretch my frame, recline and sleep, which I have been doing, peacefully, I think (was I snoring?) for the past 4 hours. (Travel tip -- take 3 grams of melatonin [...]

Here I sit in Amsterdam's Schipol Airport. It was here in this port city that the Great Age of Discovery began 500 years ago. That's when the Netherlands and the powerful Dutch East and West India Companies undertook to build their planet-wide trading empire. It's ships sailed the globe and controlled trade from Europe to Indonesia and Japan in the east to the new world (including New York - then [...]

This week I depart, a Last Ape Standing, on assignment for the National Geographic Magazine for South Africa, then later London and Oxford. [...]