Tuesday July 16th 2024 "Something to think about, next time your train-driver says he's lost!"

May I start today by asking you a rather personal question, friends? Have you ever been on the London "Tube" and got the impression that the driver is frankly "lost" in the labyrinthine tunnels of the world's oldest underground railway system, and keeps "driving round and round", maybe on the Circle Line, for example?

Well, don't dismiss the idea too quickly (!). It's the kind of mistake a commuter subway train-driver in New York City has just made, and if you can make it there, you'll make it anywhere, as the old song has it ! Did you see the story in today's Onion News?

It's a sobering thought, isn't it, and this morning, when Lois and I are on our morning walk, we find ourselves in similar terrain to that picture of Mazzara's train above - rolling grasslands next to some god-forsaken railway line - and just for a second we wonder whether we'll come across that poor guy, you know, that train driver Mazzara, until we remember we're in England now, so probably not (!!!!). 

And that's most likely for the best, frankly - we don't know how the guy's passengers would have made it back on foot to their destinations in New York City from here in the Malvern Hills, that's for sure (!!!). [That's enough exclamation marks in brackets (!) - Ed]

Is that a bit silly? [Yes! - Ed]

on our walk today we see a god-forsaken railway line in 

terrain eerily similar to the one New York City train-driver

Sal Mazzara found himself lost in yesterday (!)

Luckily Lois and I have got other issues to "talk through" on our morning walk today, when we've quite finished "putting Mazzara's problems to bed" (!). [Second warning (!) - Ed]

Did you see that delightful debate on the internet this morning, on the quora forum-website, on the vexed question of, to paraphrase, "Why did Madagascar, an island so close to Africa, get settled first not by Africans, but by travellers from Borneo, 5,000 miles away on the other side of the Indian Ocean?" ?

You do the maths! 

People had been living in Africa for 300,000 years, give or take a year, but seemingly never made it to Madagascar, the Indian Ocean's largest island. And yet, despite the maths, it's true - it was travellers coming all the way from Borneo, and not Africans, that were the first people to settle Madagascar on  a permanent basis, which they seem to have done around the 5th to 7th centuries AD. 

And the language spoken in Madagascar today is closely related to the languages still spoken in Southern Borneo, believe it or not!

It's one of the great surprises of history, isn't it, and we're glad to see that one of mine and Lois's favourite pundits on the quora website, Boston University Archaeology Master Matt "Matinée Idol" Riggsby, he of those famous "film-star" good looks that have driven so many female quora-aficionados wild with longing, has at last weighed in on this vexed subject.

Matt explains this morning that, for starters,  "250 miles is a lot more than a daytrip away", adding that "the strong north-south currents of this part of the ocean make it easier to just stay travelling up and down the coast of Africa than to fight those currents and travel eastwards out to sea. And this area's coastal fishermen had absolutely no incentive to develop Polynesian-style navigation techniques." [my paraphrasing].

Another of our favourite pundits, Rachel Anderson, who's British and a self-styled "scientist, teacher, knitter, autist, mum" has already weighed in also, pointing out that "the direction of the trade winds, predominantly east to west make it much easier for Austronesians, as well as the Arabs and Indian sub-continentals, to land in Africa, than for Africans to travel east and north-east. The Austronesians could even get the practice in, island-hopping short distances down from Asia."

Rachel and others have also pointed out that there is evidence of earlier occupation in the north of Madagascar, from around 2000 BC, that could have represented random or accidental settlements by Africans, possibly by shipwrecked or lost mariners, settlements that died out, however. 

After all, if these early settlers were indeed shipwrecked fishermen, they probably hadn't thought to bring along any women with them, which is a bit of a problem with any hopes of starting a "colony" on a long-term basis, to put it mildly! 

You do the biology haha!

But joking aside, there's a serious point here also, isn't there. It's at least something to think about for male coastal fishermen, if you're setting sail: make sure you've got at least 2 women on board in case of shipwreck on some god-forsaken isle! It isn't exactly rocket science haha!

And genetic studies indicate that those original settlers from Borneo had at least 30 women of child-bearing age with them, which will do as a bit of a "ballpark figure" for any coastal fishermen out there, something to aim at at least, just as a "rule of thumb"!

Fascinating stuff, though, isn't it! [If you say so! - Ed]

14:00 And for Lois and me also, our thoughts are very much centred on Africa today, as we get into bed for "naptime", our 17-year-old granddaughter Josie is just about to land in Dar-es-Salaam with her 20-strong group of schoolmates from Guildford, Surrey. 

The group is en route to some Tanzanian village to help out with various projects, to be agreed with the local village chiefs. 

As usual our daughter Alison in Headley, Hampshire is keeping us up to date with the latest pictures, which is nice.

the group, from an all-girls-school near Guildford, Surrey,

pictured here at London's Gatwick Airport, prior

to catching their plane to Dar-es-Salaam via Dubai

the women's bus leaving Dar-es-Salaam for the project area - Josie 2nd from left, up front

Awww!!!! 

And, in a nutshell,  that picture says what it's like to be 17, fresh-faced and excited and not a bit tired, despite having spent many many hours on a plane from London, and with the prospect of a day's travel on a bus to "their village". Oh to be 17 again - my goodness!

Good luck, Josie! And let's hope that she doesn't have a similar experience to that of our other daughter, Sarah, who was around Josie's age, and in her "gap year" between school and university, when she went on an overland mixed-sex truck holiday from Tanzania to Zimbabwe and Namibia and back, in 1995.

flashback to 1995: our daughter Sarah (standing up, at back of Land 

Rover) with some of her group of fellow English backpackers

on an overland trip across Africa, here experiencing "engine trouble"

Sarah says that when her mixed-sex group of young backpackers arrived in one African village, the village chief started to bargain with the male members of the group, offering them several cows in exchange for the group's females, who, like Sarah, were mostly young Englishwomen in the 18-30 age range. 

Thankfully, Sarah says, the men in the group declined the chief's offer. Plus I think that strictly speaking the men would have needed the women's permission to put the deal on a proper legal basis. Am I right? Let me know (postcards only please!).

But what a crazy world we live in !

flashback to 1995: our daughter Sarah (second from right), then 18, 

with some of the young women in her mixed-sex group of 

backpackers crossing Africa by truck: a village chief

offered to exchange these women for a bunch of cows - what madness!!!

22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzzz!!!!!