For the last two months Poodle and I have had somewhat of a crush on everything Lori does. It all started when we feasted our eyes on Lori’s photographs of Namibia. We oohh-ed and ahhh-ed at the rich earthy colours of her photographs, relishing the soft, warm light that seemed to follow her lens. It was this initial admiration that encouraged us to search for more of Lori and we were not disappointed. Lori’s blog, Lori times five, presented us with colourful snippets of her artisan ways including pom-poms (who doesn’t like pom-poms?) and hands down the best looking orange peal we’ve ever seen.
We began to act as though we knew Lori. This is one of the many conversations we had that centered around Lori:
“This is so Lori,” Poodle said, pointing at Lori’s beautifully knitted Halldora.
“I know!” I responded. “Don’t you love how she disregards capital letters? So very E E Cummings of her.”
Poodle nods in agreement. “She’s the best.”
We were relieved to discover that our savvy travel consultant, Dee Dlamini, put together other African expeditions for Lori and her husband, Chuck as well. Lori captures the Victoria Falls and Lori explores Zimbabwe and Botswana quickly followed this finding. But we’ve been slower to produce the fourth blog in the mini-series for the sole reason that it would mean closing the first chapter of The Adventures of Lori (we’re hoping that Lori and Chuck will go on another trip so we can launch chapter two).
In the last installment, I wrote about the popularity of what is commonly misunderstood to be Mark Twain’s quote – “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did…”. In keeping with the theme, I’ve decided to bring The Adventures of Lori to a temporary close with one of my personal favourite quotes about traveling. It describes what for me is one of the greatest gifts of venturing far from home: the ability to admire the familiar from a fresh perspective. It reminds me of Lori because she has a unique way of looking at things, irrespective of whether it’s a common place orange or the great Zambezi.
And so it is with a tinge of regret and a healthy dose of pride that we bring you the last photographs (at least for the time being) from Lori.
This is Zimbabwe through Lori’s eyes…
A final note on Lori’s admiration for Africa…
“Your beautiful continent continues to bring lots of joy to my life!”
If you love Lori’s photographs and stories as much as we do, why not plan your very own adventure to Zimbabwe. Contact one of our expert consultants to get started.
For more of Lori’s photographs and stories, take a look at Lori times five.
Beautiful.