Everything You Wanted to Know About Dik-Diks

I’m spending my final days in the US sleeping on the couch at my friend Marie’s place in Jersey City. It’s in a great area where all the neighbours sit on their stoops and watch the world go by. There’s a giant cat on the roof of a building around the corner and the nearby Italian deli sells fantastically cheap bagels with hardly any Sopranos-style attitude.

I’ve known Marie ever since she emailed me for advice about getting a Sudanese visa in Ethiopia. I told her to follow the consul’s instructions to the letter. (Readers of Swahili may remember I christened him the Visa Nazi after the hoops he made me jump through) She did and received her visa in record time.

Marie has just written a book about her adventures in Africa called Stalking the Wild Dik-Dik. Her publishers sent me a copy to review and I’ve got to say I loved it. (And that’s not just because she’s putting me up for a couple of nights!)

I’m always getting emails from women asking me if they could travel like I do. Marie’s book shows that you can – even as an American in a post 9/11 world. It’ll make you laugh. It’ll make you cry. It’ll change your life.

Now we’re off to a new Peruvian restaurant that just opened called Cerviches. Marie’s hoping they have Inca Cola on the drinks menu. I’m kinda hoping that too.