h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

This is another gem, the photographs are excellent. Somewhere I would like to visit.

Is this an extinct volcano the rock formation appears to be an ancient lava flow, well done

~ I would like to see a sunbird on a sugar bush. .. ... . .. ...

Hello and thanks, I'm happy you enjoyed this! Bobstafford, these mountains are remnants of huge outpourings of lava all over South Africa, from about 190 million years ago. I guess there's some basalt but there are also numerous other kinds of rocks, it's a geologically very compex region.

Does the Limpopo River originate in Limpopo province? I used to enjoy reading "The Elephant's Child" by Kipling, which mentioned the Limpopo River.

"Then Kolokolo Bird said, with a mournful cry, 'Go to the banks of the great grey-green, greasy Limpopo"

Is the river really grey-green in your area, or does it get that way further downstream, or is Kipling making stuff up?

Hi! Actually I think the Limpopo river originates in the Northwest Province, but it forms pretty much the entire northern border of my province, separating it (and South Africa) from Botswana and Zimbabwe. And I've never seen it grey-green or greasy! At worst it is muddy, and the mud over here is reddish-brown mostly. It's a huge river and it varies of course, some parts being clear, some silty and so on. It also dries up a bit during bad droughts so much of it is just sand!

Ha! That will teach people to mistake Kipling for a science book. I'll bet the animals in South Africa don't even talk.

It reminds me of the postcards they sold in Elmira, New York. The postcards showed Mark Twain's study, which he gave to the local college. The caption claimed that when Mark Twain wrote 'Huckleberry Finn' from that study, he could look out over the Chemung River, 'which reminded him of his own Mississippi.'

This ridiculous claim made my Mississippi-born mother laugh until she cried. The Chemung is a smallish river that I have seen go nearly dry. To compare this wadi to the Father of Waters is like comparing the water slide at the amusement park to Niagara.

I love all of these pictures, by the way - it's a glorious pictorial journey! Thank you for going where no h2g2er has been before - and being kind enough to take pictures.

"I'll bet the animals in South Africa don't even talk" [Dmitri]

It's likely that most animals talk, though The language they sue is understandable only by other animals of the same species.

Unlike the animals in Kipling stories, was my point.

Then there's the African grey parrot that converses with artificial intelligence:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3JLqhFo8j4

That's just weird enough to be interesting.

Just remind me not to invite either of them to my next book group, though.