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Contest #778 – Bob Marley Birthplace and Mausoleum, 9 Mile, Jamaica

Robert Nesta Marley was born on 6 Feb 1945 in this small village in Saint Anne Parish about 80 km from Kingston. When he died in 1981 from metastatic melanoma, he was laid to rest in a mausoleum next door to his birthplace. Because of the linkage with this pioneer of modern Jamaican music, the town is sometimes referred to as “The Reggae Graceland”.

Those who found the location before the hint were:

  • Lighthouse
  • Martin de Bock
  • Eloy Cano
  • Paul Voestermans

And after the hint:

  • Robin
  • Graham Hedley
  • Garfield
  • hhgygy
  • Phil Ower
  • Gillian B
  • Ashwini Agrawal
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Contest #777 – Gaddafi Canal, Timbuktu, Mali

Muammar Gaddafi, near the end of his Libyan dictatorship in 2006, visited the city of Timbuktu in Mali as part of the celebration of the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad. While there, he inaugated a project to build a canal from Kabala to Timbuktu, a distance of slightly less than 10 km. $8 billion later, the canal opened, and it had major problems from the start.

The canal crossed grazing areas where the locals would shepherd their animals. Before the canal, when it rained, this involved leading the animals across shallow pools, a quite easy task. Two bridges had been built, but they were far enough apart to make the trek to them onerous to the locals. Now, with the steep, concreted (aka, slippery when wet) walls of the canal, and the fact that the canals went from dry to rushing whitewater rapids with the smallest amount of rain, a great many people and animals lost thier lives.

Those who found it before the hint:

  • Lighthouse
  • Eloy Cano
  • Martin de Bock
  • Paul Voestermans
  • Graham Hedley

and after the hint:

  • Ashwini Agrawal
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Theme clarification

As many of you have noticed, this series has had a theme — countries not visited by WOGE before (except, of course, the one where we actually stated that the theme was being suspended for the special occasion).

However, we have 2 times during this theme picked locations that appeared in the far distant past. Apparently, the Google search methodology we have been using to rapidly test whether or not we’ve been to a country does not seem be picking up the long distant posts.

So, we are making a modification to the parameters for the theme going forward in an attempt to not confuse our wonderful players.

The theme is now “Countries not visited by WOGE since Andrew and Paul took over the game (Contest #371 posted November 28, 2014)”

Sorry for the confusion.

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Contest #776: Treetops Lodge, Nyeri, Kenya

Treetops Hotel (2006)
By Pradiptaray

In February of 1952, the Crown Princess of England, George VI’s daughter Elizabeth, and her husband Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, were touring the British colony of Kenya as a stop on the way to a tour of Australia and New Zealand. On the 5th, they took a expedition into the countryside and after a long day of sights, stopped for the night at Treetops. Sometime that evening, King George VI passed away in his sleep, and at that moment, even though she was unaware, Elizabeth became Queen. She would not find out for almost a day, until her party arrived back at thier base in the country, Sagana Lodge.

Plot twist… This is NOT that Treetops Lodge. That establishment burned to the ground in 1957, and was quickly rebuilt across the road. You are looking at the replacement hotel.

One of our contestants, CuriousJM, mentioned that they highlighted the location in their blog, and I found it quite informative and well written — I highly suggest a peek.

Those who only thought they found this site:

  • Lighthouse
  • John-john Ken
  • hhgygy
  • Garfield
  • Gillian B
  • Paul Voestermans
  • Martin de Bock
  • Phil Ower
  • Eloy Cano
  • CuriousJM
  • Graham Hedley

And after the hint:

  • Andy McConnell
  • David Kozina
  • Ashwini Agrawal