Dan - I got the news this week that after two years of nervous anticipation due to the old Cov postponing things, Morocco are re-opening their borders and I am finally going to be trekking 100km across the Sahara desert fundraising for the charity Coppafeel! in approx 7 weeks time! Eek!
I will be passing through Casablanca, Ouarzazete, the Mharech Dunes and Gorge, the Rhris river bed, climbing jebel El Mrakib to Tafrouat and then on to the Bouzaine Dunes and Announ Baadi before heading back to Ouarzazete and home. Are there any interesting historical facts about this are you are aware of (I’m thinking Crusades related perhaps) that I can regale my fellow trekkers with on our journey?
Dan - There's an article on Boris Johnson in the Sunday Times with the headline question "Has this experiment in celebrity government given us the most disreputable leader in history?" Be interest to know your answer to this.
Long-Comment Alert, typed from ky mobile: Just walked for the last hour, listening to your masterclass podcast on History Extra. First, you sounded so professorial. Your game face was evident. Not one profanity. Second...being rather horsey myself and interested in all things in that regard, what are good sources to read more about the origination of the stirrup as it relates to the knight and war? They have been around for centuries, as is proven by excavation. When did the lighbulb go off in the western world that it might be cool to not fall off while warring horseback...and why not sooner? Was it ego because those not "Of God" were deemed interior?
Third, I love your writing, such as today's narrative on your walk and the life hidden in the cold of Winter(as I also love to observe at dawn, on my walks). When do we get to read "Essex Dogs"??? SO looking forward to it. Thanks for reading!
Apparently, through Mary of Teck, Elizabeth II is related to Vlad the Impaler. Through this relation, she is probably also a descendant of Genghis Khan. Which means, she is descendant of both Charlemagne, which most people of European ancestry are related to, and Khan, who many people of Asian and Eastern European descent are related to.
Dan - I got the news this week that after two years of nervous anticipation due to the old Cov postponing things, Morocco are re-opening their borders and I am finally going to be trekking 100km across the Sahara desert fundraising for the charity Coppafeel! in approx 7 weeks time! Eek!
I will be passing through Casablanca, Ouarzazete, the Mharech Dunes and Gorge, the Rhris river bed, climbing jebel El Mrakib to Tafrouat and then on to the Bouzaine Dunes and Announ Baadi before heading back to Ouarzazete and home. Are there any interesting historical facts about this are you are aware of (I’m thinking Crusades related perhaps) that I can regale my fellow trekkers with on our journey?
"Hidden by time yet to pass"... what a beautiful sentence.
Dan - There's an article on Boris Johnson in the Sunday Times with the headline question "Has this experiment in celebrity government given us the most disreputable leader in history?" Be interest to know your answer to this.
Long-Comment Alert, typed from ky mobile: Just walked for the last hour, listening to your masterclass podcast on History Extra. First, you sounded so professorial. Your game face was evident. Not one profanity. Second...being rather horsey myself and interested in all things in that regard, what are good sources to read more about the origination of the stirrup as it relates to the knight and war? They have been around for centuries, as is proven by excavation. When did the lighbulb go off in the western world that it might be cool to not fall off while warring horseback...and why not sooner? Was it ego because those not "Of God" were deemed interior?
Third, I love your writing, such as today's narrative on your walk and the life hidden in the cold of Winter(as I also love to observe at dawn, on my walks). When do we get to read "Essex Dogs"??? SO looking forward to it. Thanks for reading!
Apparently, through Mary of Teck, Elizabeth II is related to Vlad the Impaler. Through this relation, she is probably also a descendant of Genghis Khan. Which means, she is descendant of both Charlemagne, which most people of European ancestry are related to, and Khan, who many people of Asian and Eastern European descent are related to.
I'm really enjoying history, Etc at the moment, as I'm stuck at home with my son as we both have the dreaded plague.