5 o'Clock Somewhere by Narina Exelby

On connections across the globe and moments shared from afar

Hi there, my friends! Welcome new subscribers. I’m so glad you’re here. You’ve come to a spot with a wonderful community, so feel free to jump in the comments and say hi.

I had a piece ready to send to you this week. Then I learned a collaboration I was part of would be dropping Sunday. The project draws a wonderful triangle on our globe—from the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco to Scotland’s Shetland Islands to Washington state in the US. And I had to share it with you. We need, I believe, to think of those connections, between us all, now. So I’m putting the piece on ice till next week. But here’s a hint: It grapples. And it contains a joy and a sorrow.

For now, the collaboration, the creation of

Narina Exelby

of Travel: NE Where, a woman whose traveling life and way of putting what she experiences of the world to words delights me. It’s part of her 5 o’Clock Somewhere project, pairing women from disparate parts of the world to write in a moment of unison. I wrote alongside the brilliant

Charlene Storey

of haver & sparrow. Charlene and I both recorded our words, and Narina’s intro and outro includes some wonderful background sounds.

Click on the link to have a read or a listen.

5 o'Clock Somewhere #4

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Narina is a “roaming South African writer whose default setting is to seek out quiet spaces.” She’s written for Lonely Planet and contributed to The Telegraph, The Guardian, High Life, and many others.

Check out her gorgeous words and photos and audio at Travel: NE Where, one of the first publications I subscribed to here, and a very apt name. A quick perusal of the stack will show you that she has, indeed, traveled far and wide.

Three of my favorites from her archive include:

• “Between rocks and hard places,” from Zimbabwe, “a story of a rather awkward looking bird the Ndebele people refer to as (drop your voice and you’ll hear its call) ihundundu”

• “Lesotho in 5 days: A Journey across the Kingdom in the Sky” from the escarpment of the rugged Drakensberg mountains

• “Borneo: this is not a story - this is the truth,” from the jungled heart of Borneo

I also love her pieces on extraordinary women.

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Thank you for reading! Join me in the comments over there on mine and Charlene and Narina’s piece, “5 o’Clock Somewhere, #4.”

And please jump over and share this project if it resonates. This sense of connection—of us all thinking and writing or creating in whatever forms suit us—across the globe speaks deeply to me. It seems especially poignant right now. Restack it by hitting the little recycle button or share it with a link. Thank you for reading. Thank you for being here. Thank you for being you.

See gorgeous landscapes. Contemplate connections between disparate things. Never miss a post from the Rolling Desk.

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You can also follow me on IG or FB if you’re still into that jam. I’m still in both spaces for now.