Elizabeth Willoughby's Blog – June 2012 Archive (11)

In the dank heat the drumming starts, beating life into the dark night air. The ceremony begins...

Three alabés (drummers) in brilliant red shirts and stark white pants are perched at the head of the room and belt out a…

Ancient sea ports and Jesus' ministry, Israel has much to offer besides its famous southern elements of Jerusalem, desert and dead waters:

I've arrived in Tiberias and am following my guide around, struggling to recall the bible stories I'd heard as a child. Some come more easily than others. Here in…

Jerusalem and the names of its landmarks were familiar to my ears through years of news reports on war, terror bombings and clashes between Jews and Arabs. Even so, I really knew nothing about it, so in preparation for my visit I poured through historical literature. It was worse than I'd imagined: a battle-scarred place of religious extremism, thousands of years of violent conflict, an eternal turmoil over possession up…

Flying into Siem Reap, Cambodia, the vista from my window is of vast stretches of land at various stages of submersion. The paddy fields that aren't under water appear as a quilt of shallow, square pools. It's December; the waters are still receding. I'm on my way to the Jayavarman, the ship that will take me by river from whence I just departed by air: Saigon.…

September in Ontario means Toronto’s film festival, but it’s also the start of a festival season that revolves around the harvest, when early autumn landscapes showcase the art of vintners, chefs and musicians:

Most famous for its natural beauty, the popularity of Canada is spreading into a new realm:…

TIFF is one of the most significant film festivals in the world. It draws thousands of visitors, big name celebrities and up and coming producers and directors who all have one thing in common: a love of film.

When the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) invited me as press, I was sceptical about the…

Kruger Park, located in the northeast of South Africa, is a 345-kilometre long game reserve that borders Mozambique. With close to 500 different bird species, Kruger Park offers sighting opportunities aplenty for birders with sharp eyes. Colourful, clever, camouflaged or uncommon, these birds…

A chance glance into the nighttime sea and my flashlight lands upon a white disk rushing through the water towards me, glowing and growing ever larger, and finally revealing its head and legs. Within moments the sea turtle passes just overhead with nary a glimpse at the audience, and the illumination is gone.…

Angkor, the centre of the ancient Khmer empire, is located in Siem Reap province in Cambodia. The Khmer flourished from the 9th to 13th centuries with the use of canals and rice paddies across the plain. Today the only remains of the empire are its impressive temples into whose walls are sculpted scenes of life and legend.

Angkor Wat is the largest,…

It is the mid-1800s, and the harbour of Rio de Janeiro is bustling and humming with activity. The coffee boom has revitalized the Brazilian economy giving Rio's port a new importance and financing the modernization of the colonial city. Travellers are coming and going, sailing the now regular passenger ships to London and Paris. They rush to and fro the ferry service to Niteroí across…

Bordering Mozambique's Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park, the eastern edge of South Africa's Kruger Park is formed by the Lebombo Mountain Range. The Crocodile, Sabie, Olifants, Letaba, Shingwedzi, Luvuvhu and Limpopo rivers run west to east through Kruger Park, some flowing constantly and others only seasonally anymore.

The southern part of the…