I also collect handmade smoking pipes; have about 60 of them. Africa just seems like a place suitable for a nice bowlful of tobacco around the campfire. Maybe it’s the Wally Johnson stories or from some other book I read. Can't really say. But I took two pipes with me this year – both straight billiards. A smooth American Smoking Pipe Company billiard from Mark Tinsky (Montana) that was made in 1998 and a canted, sandblasted billiard from Paul Bonacquisti (New York) made in 2001. Smoked several bowls from a tin of Cornell & Diehl’s Solace that is over 15 years old – and delicious.