Kelly's Travels

Des and Charlotte Kelly's Travel Pages

Prior to meeting Charlotte, I had hitch hiked from Durban to London. That took place in 1960-1961. In 1963 we met and soon married. I will try and document the travels since then ,provided I can find some pictures.

During the past seventeen years since retirement, Charlotte and I have done some extensive touring of Southern Africa.

It all started when I ran out of work as a freelancing computer consultant. To cut a long story short, we sold our house and emmigrated to South Africa where we were able to build a house for considerably less than the proceeds from our Swiss house. The house quality was not sufficient and we finally convinced the builder that he should buy it back. We then moved to a caravan park and lived in a caravan for a while. Later we moved into our Unimog truck (1970 model) and toured in an old Mercedes G-wagon (1980 model) that we had imported from Europe.

Our Playground was The area between Cape Point , the Kunene River, the Chobe River and Southern Zambia.

Sometimes we wonder why we are so addicted to travel when we live in such an attractive part of the world. See for yourself what it is like in and around Richterswil.

This website will be updated from time to time......

In the early 50's I was already interested in music. My taste was light classic. The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) ran a children's program entitled “My kind of music”. With the aid of Kim SHIPPEY I once presented my 30 minutes of music.

Now I wish to supply those interested in “World Music/African” with the titles of some of my favourite CD's.

I purchased most of these CD's at CD Warehouse on the Cape Town waterfront. The remainder were procured in Antananariva near the ex open market.

Richard Nwamba has a regular program on SAFM entitled “African Connection” and has produced some albums carrying the title “The best of African Connection”

Some of my African CD Collection

Produced by Richard Nwamba

The best of African Connection Volumes 1,2 and 3. Track 18 on Vol. 1 is fantastic
Magical Madagascar

Madagascan Music

Big Red. A musical journey through Madagascar
Jean Emilien, Guitarist
Erick Manana and Anna Tanvir, Guitar and Harp
Charles Kely, Guitarist and band
Senge, Sang as bass in the a kapella group Salala

Some interesting books I have read

A good source of books, in or out of print, is :

<www.abebooks.com>

Lords and Lemurs Author Alison Jolly ISBN 0-618-36751-9
The Evolution of Primate Behaviour Author Alison Jolly
Lucy's Legacy Author Alison Jolly
The Mentality of Apes Author Wolfgang Köhler in the year 1925 Recommended by Alison Jolly
The AYE-AYE and I Author Gerald Durrell ISBN 0 00 647326 1
We did Nothing Author Linda Polman
In No Uncertain Terms Author Helen Suzman (her Memoirs)
Wenn es Krieg gibt, gehen wir in die Wüste Author Henno Martin ISBN 0949995-25-8
In English “The sheltering desert”
STORYTELLER – Biography of Laurens van der Post ISBN 0-7195-5580-9 Read a few of van der Post's books first

CRY OF THE KALAHARI – Delia and Mark Owens ISBN ????????
SURVIVOR'S SONG – Delia and Mark Owens ISBN 0-00-638096-4
PEOPLE OF THE LAKE – Richard Leakey and Roger Lewin ISBN 0 14 02.2333.9
THE HANGING TREE – David Lambkin ISBN 0-14-025388-2 (An adult novel set in Africa)
LEMURS of Madagascar A field guide ISBN 1-881173-88-7
MADAGASCAR A Travel Guide – Hilary Bradt ISBN-13 978 1 84162 197 5
DISCOVERING SOUTHERN AFRICA A comprehensive travel guide by T.V.Bulpin ISBN 0-958-5-93130 Although Tom Bulpin died in 1999. I am sure that this is not the last release of Discovering Southern Africa.
1421 The Year China discovered the world – Gavin Menzies ISBN 0-553-81522-9 An unusual but very well founded view of history. See: <www.1421.tv>
TSCHIFFELY's RIDE – A.F.Tschiffely. In April 1925 the author set off on a 10,000 mile trip from Buenos Aires to New York on horseback.