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MY KENYA DIARY: IN QUEST OF EAGLES
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By public demand, and after a delay of an embarrassing number of years, I've finally put my notorious essay, Ender and Hitler: Sympathy for the Superman, free on the fabulous internets.

A bibliography of my published books and stories.

Here's a simple card-counting FAQ to get you up to speed on the basics. Here's the true story of the notorious DD' blackjack team, told for the first time on the fabulous internets. No other team went from a starting investor's bankroll of zero to winning millions of dollars.


A Sadean take on Asimov's classic Three Laws of Robotics can be found in Roger Williams' NOW REVIEWED ON SLASHDOT!!! The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect. Adult readers only please -- explicit sex and violence. For updates on the "Dead Tree Project" and other topics, you may visit the official fan site, Passages in the Void..


My Bird Lists -- My Louisiana State Life List, My Yard List and, tah dah, My World Life List.


HEY! What happened to the Peachfront Conure Files? The world's only OFFICIAL Peachfront Conure site now features free peachfront conure coverage, including a magazine length Intro to Conures previously published in American Cage-Bird Magazine, now free on the web. I offer the best free Peachfront Conure information on the internet. If you have great Peachfront Conure info, stories, or photos to share, contact me so I can publicize your pet, your breeding success, your great photograph, etc. on my site. Thanks.







a photo guide to a hike of sword valley to rose and red valley, g�reme national park, turkey

2009-04-17 - 6:50 p.m.

all photos � 2009 by elaine radford

a balloon full of tourists soars over my head as i hike the sword valley

How about some photographs from my hike of the Sword Valley and down through and into the Rose and Red Valleys, as reported on March 27, the day of the Long-Eared Owl?

It's easy to find the trailhead into the Sword Valley. Just stroll from G�reme town in the direction of the G�reme Open Air Museum. Before you reach the museum, you will notice a yellow sign on the left hand side of the road telling you that you have reached Sword Valley both in Turkish and in English. It was here, in the scrabbly trees near the creek not far behind the sign, where I heard the outrage of sparrows and was drawn to the perched Long-Eared Owl, but, alas, I can't guarantee such an owl to every hiker. Just keep your eyes open.

There is a ridge that parallels the road. You ascend this ridge, taking as much time as you like to examine the rock-cut structures all around you, and then find yourself with a wide overlook of the valley. A tiled roof alerts you to the presence of a major rock-cut church:

There is nothing to stop you from climbing down and then up again to the church, and indeed, I saw evidence that people have been camping on the site, no doubt when the weather isn't quite so nippy at night.

Swords Valley is an interesting place to explore and photograph even if you go no further:


ever get the idea that sword is a euphemism for something else?


i got my life syrian woodpecker in this area


a sword formation photographed whilst looking in the direction of the castle


still in the sword valley but getting closer to the rose valley now


kinda chunky "swords" if you ask me

At some point in my leisurely pokings about the Sword Valley, I wandered into a vinyard. Nobody around except us Steppe Buzzards, tee hee. Oh, and those lost files you've been wondering about? I think they're now a pigeon roost at the back of the vinyard:


At some point you ascend a ridge out of the other side of the Sword Valley, to find yourself with a breathtaking overlook of the Rose and Red Valleys:

By following the signs, often little more than arrows painted on rock, you can hike into the Rose and then into the Red Valleys and back down again to Göreme.


the colors change with the light, this was mostly an overcast day with occasional bursts of sunlight


some plain tan structures between the rose and red valleys


a view of the rose valley from a red valley ridge


gimme that old tyme condo, if it was good enough for grandpa, it's good enough for me

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