This website illuminates my life and adventures. My longing for freedom has led me to over 2600 of the world’s 3978 provinces, to every country on earth and to the summit of the highest peak on each continent (thank heaven for good weather!). In my travels, I learned to respect the intelligence and ingenuity of people of all races and callings both past and present. Come see the world as I see it: as a peaceful place, full of nature and beauty. With the right spirit and intent, we can make our world a virtual Garden of Eden.
DISTINCTIONS: BBC 2017 Travel Pioneer • Journal Articles • Explorer’s Club Flag Expeditions
World Parks Project • Walk Across South America • Jeff Shea Travel Map
Greenland, Warming Island, off coast of Liverpool Land, Helicopter Drops Us Off Sept 6, 2006 - On Sept 6, 2006, the helicopter dropped us off on Warming Island, a new island formed by the melting of a glacial bridge that joined it to the mainland. The map showed it as part of Greenland. We camped and surveyed the island for six days.
Turkey, Hakkari Prov, Woman
Slovenia, Rogasovci Prov, Farm
Slovenia, Borovnica Prov, Detroyed Arch
Laos, Sekong Prov, Waterfall
Slovenia, Lukovica Province, Horse Eye, 2006, IMG_6142 - This horse has a blue eye.
UK, Hampshire Prov, White Horse
Congo Zaire, The Longest Spiky Hair, 1984 - Here, a Zairoise (a female of Zaire) grooms another woman's hair. The woman doing the grooming had the longest spiky hairdo I saw in Zaire. It was the fashion at the time. They held these long spikes in place with the aid of a (hidden) wire. - October 17, 1984
On Colonel Ebeya, en route To Bumba, Congo River, Zaire
5:00 p.m.: Well, we made it. I think this will be one of the most memorable parts of my whole trip. This is really fantastic. We are en route to Bumba. Last night we had to drag our tent out of the rain and got very little sleep in all. We awoke about 5:20 a.m. and headed straight to the port. Having taken a wrong turn we lost a crucial minute in which the other group (OAT) got in front of us. Having arrived moments before us at Immigration we had to wait until the lot of them had gone through. They [the Immigration], to my surprise, checked our baggage and found our souvenir money from Uganda but not my hidden $100 and one hundred DM, although he came so close. I was confiscated afterwards gave him Z200 to get it back. We were uncertain as to when the boat was going to depart and the officers seemed to think it was going to be soon. Instead of going off to change money under the assumption that we would leave apres midi, I forced myself to pay dollars for our air ticket. The boat left at 11:32 a.m. I probably could have changed in time but every one asked said, Avant-midi and one said Tout-suite, so I couldn’t take the chance. I also went to Procure, but the gorgeous ivory had just been bought by a black man who had a suitcase full of ivory. The plane tickets unfortunately cost $45 more, total. Despite this unfortunate circumstance, we had an extremely good piece of luck in getting a cabin in the second class on the upper deck of the front ship (barge), and the very front cabin as well. It’s probably the best place on the whole assembly of cabled together vessels. The beginning of the trip was exhilarating, the sun shinning and a quick clip down the long river, talking to Tilman, hanging over the railing.
October 18, 1984
Bumba, Equateur, Zaire
How great it would be to speak Lingala. I speak with the people of the Congo. A good way to become friends with people is to express interest in their affairs by helping them. I spent the day repairing and organizing my things and playing the guitar. It is wonderful to have free time to do things. The ship reached Bumba at about sunset and it stayed there all night long. Gabrielle and I made love in the morning. It was fantastic. First, she got off then, I laid with my dick inside her without moving it felt like her pussy was melting around it. Then we started moving and both came at the same time.
There were lots of dead monkeys on the boat today. They smelled awful, and their eyes bulged out of their heads. I took photos. The OAT people got off at Bumba, the truck having arrived in twenty driving hours at a fast clip. I took photos about sunset. I drank beer and smoked pot in the evening with Tilman. Gabrielle is feeling unwell and laid on the bed all day. (I estimated it would take ten to twenty days to reach Lisala from Kisangani by canoe and maybe two to three months to Kinshasa.) The people sell and eat grubs on the boat. I saw two crocodiles on board as well. One man was skinning a monkey by singeing it’s hair and scraping.
October 19, 1984
Lisala, Equateur, Zaire
Good morning. Diary, the sex has been so good lately since I took the attitude that I don’t care if we make love or not. It seems it happens so naturally now. It gives Gabrielle a chance to work up her desire. Obviously sex is better if she is wanting it a lot. Made love with Gabrielle this morning so good! Tilman walked in on us, apologized, and left. The water in the Congo appears a mud brown and, when disturbed, it has an orange tint. We came into Lisala in late afternoon. I took some photos but was forced to expose them by a plain-clothes policeman. Tilman left for the mission. Gabrielle and I went into town and bought a few food items (8 inch pineapple Z15).
Another barge was added to our convoy. Gabrielle and I sat just below the bridge and watched them maneuver it on by spotlight in the night. Colorful is the word to describe this moving city. We had a hassle over the extra bed in our room (since Tilman’s departure—PS: he says he is going to try to get to Ouagadougou (Wagadagoo)). I solved the problem by putting the bed outside our room and then paying Z100 to the Bangole “steward” to remove it, which he did straight away. Now Gabrielle and I have a cabin to ourselves.
There is so much life, hustle and bustle on the boat. One day they load on a ton of dead monkeys, the next hordes of catfish, some five feet long. Dried fish are stored in flat elliptical baskets, weighing from one and a half to five kilos (estimate). Three kilos could cost $10. Hopefully, we will be able to keep this cabin until we arrive in Kinshasa. I am still trying to work out a “perfect” rough sketch of Spunky.
October 20, 1984
En route To Mbandaka, Equateur, Zaire
Fish, monkeys, bananas and booze
Laundry on the line, spiky hairdos.
Talking Lingala at such a fierce speed,
the sweet aroma of Congolese weed.
Zairoise, Wazungu,
all heaped together on this moving zoo.
Local whiskey by candlelight,
vending, trading into the night.
French fashion, second hand clothes,
Women mind children,
Men put polish on their toes.
Ten dollar stereo in the bar.
Pumps out static, voice and guitar.
Monkeys, deer, pig, smoked to taste,
ten foot crocodile lashed in place.
An endless procession of dugout canoes,
Beams of light cut the night
in the land of voodoo.
Today was a full day. We had breakfast of bread, avocados and coffee. The coffee is all right, however, being that our fresh water from Lisala is finished, we have to resort to Congo River water, which looks awful and probably is, considering, for e.g., that the ship dumps its waste in it - apparently there’s bilharzia in it as well! Avocados cost Z3 to 5 each and are a rare treat. I spent a lot of the morning playing the guitar. Gabrielle and I made it as well. Lunch was of rice and sombe (a spinach like green which, at its best, is delicious). It is normally served at about 2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. (rather than 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m.). After lunch, the barges floated into a small island, facing upstream for repairs. The people hacked off leafy branches which they fed to their goats. Gabrielle and I sat just below the bridge again and looked out on the barges, now five in number not including the tug, Colonel Ebeya.
The beautiful glowing light of the sunset gave the fanfare spectacular a timeless hue. Gab’e made peanuts, avocado and rice (from lunch) dinner. I gave her a buck up buck a roo [i.e., just saying the words ‘buck-up-buckaroo’ to be silly] and left suddenly when she said something about making my own coffee!! I went downstairs where I was offered a hit of good grass. Gabrielle found me. We got some local whiskey (Z5/shot) and sat below the bridge. I thought. The major thrust was:
(As ridiculous as the Pilot would consider this) Bitchiness is emulating the Pilot. It is the practice of looking at all perceptions of the body as illusions detaching yourself from your mind and body.
Gabrielle went to the cabin. I sat with a married woman, Marie, and felt her legs till she pushed my hand away from her cunt. I went to sleep under the bridge on a bench until Gabrielle found me and asked me back. Gabrielle and I retained to our room, had sex and slept.
October 21, 1984
En route To Mbandaka, Equateur, Zaire
1:30 p.m.: Sitting out on my favorite seat again at last, and the sun is beaming down. Today the river appears like a lake with islets scattered all over - it no longer has the semblance of a river. The hot sun graces the greens, the sky is a pale, beautiful blue, cumulus clouds scatter as if over the ocean. Heaps of dried fish are spread on the foredeck in their baskets, ideal for the purpose, being only 2” 3” thick but averaging 3 feet long and 1 -1/2 inches wide.
We are traveling at a more pleasant speed - maybe fifteen kilometers an hour (nine knots), which is about ten kilometers over the surface of the water. We cruise within 50 meters of the shore of islets. We have cut speed because one engine is out. Now we are in between Bolombo and Lulonga, and I note the river and islets are quite scenic in the sun. The music blares on in the bar as cold beer is sipped and occasional people dance.
(Late afternoon) Black boys sit next to me and sing the popular African Song. It is a perfect day. I find satisfaction in taking advantage of the day’s sights, sounds and sun. If I was inside, I’d feel like I was missing out on everything. In retaliation of Gab’e’s comment, I was up and out to “find my own tea” (though she was pleading to make me some [coffee]).
I breakfasted with the two Dutch girls and a Zairoise. I read up on Congo, Equatorial Guinea, and then Gabrielle came and sat with me. We patched things up. I’ve been writing since then. I went on a photo safari around the barges. I took photos of the face of a roasted monkey, a captive ten foot crocodile, the pretty Zairoise (Captain’s wife?) who sports one of the classic Zairoise [‘Zair-wa-zay’] hair styles of the spike variety.
Now I’m just finishing off a Primus beer (72 cl). During the evening, I told Gabrielle I wanted to be alone. I walked around the ship. I met two girls Mavera, Majane. I sat with the manager’s (not the Captain’s) wife, watching her husband settle a dispute involving dried fish, army men and handcuffs. I came back to the cabin, had a riff with G and talked to a college girl named Eme. Back to our cabin and G[abrielle]. DANCING IS A SERIOUS BUSINESS!
October 22, 1984
Mbandaka, En route To Kinshasa, Zaire
We woke in the middle of the night to see this zoo rolling up to a stop in Mbandaka. I had a walk about town. A man showed me a small female chimpanzee and offered to sell it for Z2000. (Bank yield Z30 = $1, black market yield Z44 = $1) The ship sounds its horn (steel trembles) and we swung back around downstream. The ship always docks facing upstream. I was reading (below the bridge) Africa on the Shoestring (Mauritania, Mali [Dogons], Niger, Morocco, Sao Tome and Principe). A British girl was attempting to join us in our room, so Gabrielle was telling me. The crisis ended when Gabrielle handled it well, twice locking the door behind herself and later explaining how we’d paid extra.
We had lunch with the Dutch girls. In the afternoon, Gabrielle and I went on the top of the adjacent barge. We did [i.e., studied] our Swahili into the dark, and we marveled at the blues of the sky, the green of the jungle, the blotch of pink where the sun went down. I went to the cabin to roll a joint, returned, but we lost it during our long interval of communication there in the dark. We came down, some guy offered me a hit of a joint, then some guy gave me some excellent sensemillion [i.e., weed without seeds]. Gabrielle and I had a smoke, then (her in Mickey Mouse T shirt and my sarong) we went to the bar. The bartender, in upturned painter’s cap) voiced accompaniment and another shook metal bean carachas. Gabrielle said, “This is my First Night in Africa.” The lively music blared, I handled a caracha. The caracha man danced me onto the floor and visiting bar folk roared with pleasure. I shake some hip and they roared again. Gabrielle comes on, the guest of an African (it is possible to earn their respect) and they roared again. Back at the bar, I swing my shirt off and they roared again. The excellent caracha man brings me out for a third dance. The children dance like geniuses. The man plays a Primus bottle. Arm in arm, then dancing apart. We experience an incredible video, live. Children sleeping on the bar floor.
Gabrielle and I make it, drunk, fall asleep.
October 23, 1984
En route To Kinshasa, Zaire
1:30 p.m.: We are sun baking up here atop the _________, the barge next door to us folks on the Banglore. Cruising slowly is wonderful (six knots). The music from the bar is wonderful too, like Calypso (?), black male harmonies and staccato electric guitar, drifting up between the Banglore and the ________ on the wind, back to us, sitting against the smoke stack. (No smoke, as it’s being pushed by the Colonel Ebeya on one engine.) On top of the Banglore, men have spread out fishes and monkeys for drying… Old steamboats out of commission... I can imagine them smoking up the Congo River. When islands aren’t blocking the way, we have a clear view of _________.
Last night was fantastic. This trip just gets better and better.
(Anecdote: Somehow, I just pissed in bed last night. Gabrielle woke me up and asked me if I urinated. (“Nope,” said I). But telltale evidence showed I had. I must have been awfully drunk. She laughed. We can hardly stop laughing when it’s mentioned.
Sex this morning. I felt like it was the first time as a total Animal. There was just this body next to me. I washed out the sleeping sheet in the morning. We went on top of the barge. I had a beer and was stoned. I went down to the electrician’s to replace the pot Gabrielle mistakenly threw out, and he and I smoked a ‘j’ [a marijuana cigarette].
We sat up there. Gabrielle had to leave, it was so hot. Later she brought lunch up (chicken). We went up to first class to return Africa On The Cheap to the Dutch girls. We did our Swahili.
In the evening, a storm brewed up as if we were on the ocean. The pilot pulled up to an island and broke the motor mount off of an angry villager’s canoe. The boat laid up to the island most of the night. The winds were very high and the water was swelling. Gabrielle and I went to bed early.
Slovenia, Cerklje Na Gorenjskem Prov, House Detail
Slovenia, Sentjernej Prov, Sentjernej Sign