Ten years ago I went to Namibia to start my World-Wide Artifical  Hypolith Project.

Now I’m going back.  I’ll be at the Gobabeb Research and Training Centre in the Namib-Naukluft National Park, in the Namib Desert.  Accompanying me will be 30 or 40 astrobiologists, professors and graduate students from South Africa and around the world.  I hope to move my project forward, with their input and help.

What to pack?  Gotta travel light, but:

Laptop computer with power cable and Ethernet cables,
USB Data stick, South African plug adapter,
Digital camera with battery charger and cable,
Coordinates of my arrays and photo templates,
Drake pennant,
Binoculars, hand lens, compass, global positioning system (GPS) with spare batteries,
Books to read on the plane (I’m thinking African authors like Wole Soyinka, Amos Tutuola and Dinaw Mengestu),
Field notebook, pencils and pens,
Colored pencils and regular pencils as gifts for local school children,
Hat, hiking boots + socks, sunglasses, sunscreen, lip balm, toiletries, bandana, clothes,
water bottle,
PASSPORT, official paperwork, cash (dollars and South African Rand), boarding pass.

I will fly from San Francisco to New York to Johannesburg to Walvis Bay.  It takes about 36 hours to do this.

I will try to post from Namibia April 26-May 6, but internet connection here is always kinda dodgy.