Goodbye 2010, Hello Timbuktu!!

5,4,3,2,1, Happy New Year from 33,000' aboard Virgin America on the way to New York. Sir Richard Branson has kindly bought the plane a round and I've just popped a Karma Brut bubbly. I toast to my fellow passengers as I begin the journey to my final destination: Timbuktu.

Where is Timbuktu, you may wonder...next to Shangri-La? It's actually in the north of Mali, West Africa, where I will be attending the Festival in the Desert and meeting my good friend and fellow photographer/filmmaker Ron Wyman. I'll also be writing and shooting a travel piece for my newspaper, and this blog will be a terrific opportunity to lay down some color for that.

Ron recently made a wonderful film on Tuareg musician and amazing guitarist Bombino:
Bombino will be playing on the second day of the fest and I can't wait to meet with him and hopefully jam! Just picked up a Martin backpacker guitar, so I'll be spending the entire trip doing the two things I love most, music and photography...this sucker only weighs two pounds and sounds great!

Looking forward to a camel trek, trekking in Dogon country and meeting locals...stay tuned, more to come! Happy New Year!

When my mom got mad at me when I was a child, she used to say: "I'm going to send you to Timbuktu!" No worries ma, I'm going...