When the day came to a close, we piled into airport shuttles to head back home.

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Then we piled into his Renault van and drove in the darkness toward the school, an organic farm where he lives with his wife, Anke, five kids, chickens, rabbits, sheep, pigs and 54 dogs.

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What do we get from all the bells and whistles piled into today's PCs?

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Once it was over, they piled back into the van, heading out to what we hoped were much smoother travels.

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Barrelman Stephen Ward is quick to issue a warning: "Watch your back around Rupert, " he says, as we walk towards the truck that has pulled into the farmyard, its bed piled high with freshly gathered apples.

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We headed northeast from the salt flats of Djibouti one night, crammed into a Land Cruiser piled with luggage, sleeping briefly on straw mats in the dirt courtyard of a village of Afar tribespeople.

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