European river cruises(乘船游览)

In the summer of 1965, Tété-Michel Kpomassie became the first African to explore Greenland. He was 24 on the day that he stepped onto the port at Qagortoq, on Greenland’s southern coast. But his arctic journey had actually begun some seven years earlier.

Kpomassie’s amazing life story starts with a bit of chance and a book. He was a teenager when he bought a book about Greenland in Togo. Immediately, the topic attracted him, and he knew that he must go there.

He traveled along the west coast of Africa, eventually crossing into Europe. There, he stayed for some time before leaving for Greenland. “I took my time to step out,” he recalled. “When I arrived, everyone stopped talking; all were staring. They didn’t know if I was a real person or wearing a mask. Children hid behind their mothers. Some cried, believing I was a spirit from the mountains.”

Kpomassie found his true home in Greenland’s northern reaches, where the Inuit culture that he’d read in a book as a boy was very much alive. Over the next 18 months, Greenland’s first African learned to ski, ice fish and hunt, and adapted himself quickly to the new environment.

He returned to Togo in late 1966 and adapted the journal he’d kept into a book. Kpomassie then went on to give lectures about his experience in halls and classrooms throughout Africa and Europe. And he settled down in Paris and raised a family, returning to Greenland on three occasions in that time. His book An Africa in Greenland was first published in France and has since been translated into eight languages.

“All the while I knew where I ultimately needed to end up,” he said. Now approaching 81 years old, Kpomassie is packing up his apartment and heading back to northern Greenland, where he intends to live out his final years.

The Sahara is the world’s largest and most magic desert, but knowledge about it is surprisingly limited. Even estimates of when it formed vary widely, from more than five million years ago to mere thousands. Now, however, geographers studying wind-carried Saharan dust on the Canary Islands have come closer to settling this: it is, they report, close to five million years old.

One reason for the uncertainty over the Sahara’s age is that researchers use different methods to estimate it. These include studying desert dust found in sediment (沉积物) under the Atlantic Ocean, analyzing sandstone and modeling the ancient climate. To help settle the uncertainty, Daniel, geographer of the U.S. Geological Survey, and his workmates looked at sediment on Spain’s Canary Islands. They found evidence of Saharan dust. The dust appeared in ancient soil layers (层), whose age they assessed on the basis of fossils (化石) found in the same layers — and that age agreed with the earlier ocean’s sediment studies. The researchers reported their findings in November in Palaeogeography.

“The conclusion of the study is very good,” says Zhongshi Zhang, a climate modeler at the University of Bergen in Norway, who was not involved in the work. “Because the dust found on the islands is distinct from the ocean’s record,” Zhang adds, “it helps to build the case for a five-million-year age.”

The Sahara is the biggest source of wind-carried dust in the world — and that dust’s journey does not end in the Canary Islands, which lie just off the western coast of Africa. It continues onto places such as the Amazon rain forest in South America, Daniel notes. Amazon soils are poor in nutrients, and he says the new results help to show how rich dust from Africa could have been supporting the South American region’s incredible biodiversity for millions of years — adding to the Amazon’s own origin story.

How to prepare for a thrilling hike? Hiking needs mental and physical preparation weeks before the material day. If you’re a fan of hiking mountains. Here is a guide to help you.

You need to train your body at least three months before the challenge.     16     You can start with baby steps and gradually take more demanding exercises and distance. You can often carry your hiking stick to promote stability. Keep track of your progress to help you achieve your goal.

    17     . Wear light absorbent pants to reduce friction and promote absorption of sweat. Long pants keep you safe from stinging weeds, insects and tough weather.

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You must consider various factors before purchasing the most appropriate hiking shoes. First, mind the terrain (地形) of the hiking ground. A mild terrain will do fine with light shoes. On the other hand. A tough, hard and mountainous terrain require hardy hots to help navigate the rocky grounds.

Your bag is your lifeline when hiking. Water is the most essential itch when hiking. The body performs best when you hydrate frequently throughout the challenge. Carry adequate clean water and sip often.     19     These are primary tools to help you find your way, water points, emergency towers, and other places. Hope for the lest but always prepare for ever-agencies. Thus, ensure you have a flash light, a lighter and a whistle.

Hiking is a refreshing way of keeping fit, having fun and building resilience.     20