EMILY IN AFRICA

Johannesburg!

2011-08-03T15:47:00.001-04:00

Smooth flight and transfer to my hotel in Johannesburg (City Lodge Katherine Street in Sandton, and I definitely recommend it). First thing I did was take a super hot, super long bubble bath and scrubbed my nails clean. Followed by a shower. I think I used more water on Monday than I have in the last three weeks combined. After unpacking everything in my bag and shaking it to make sure I was not carrying a scorpion with me (I don't know if I mentioned that we had found one in our tent on Sunday !!!) I headed to the restaurant attached to the hotel, the White Boy Sheeben. I believe a sheeben is a place where black people used to go to drink during the time when they weren't allowed to drink, and the restaurant celebrates the combining of cultures. It was great and I enjoyed catching up on the news with their free wifi (the NBA is going into a lockout!?!).

I booked a full day tour for Tuesday covering Johannesburg, Soweto, and the Apartheid Museum. I'm glad I did it, but as with the Nairobi city tour it was a bit disappointing. The highlight of Johannesburg was a traditional healer shop (the only place we really got out of the car) where there were dead animal parts hanging everywhere, furs, calabashes for drinking traditional beer, walking sticks, and tons of other cool and spooky stuff. We also saw Constitution Hill, Mandela's current house (we could actually drive past because he is living in the countryside at the moment), their huge soccer stadium, and the general streets of downtown.

Soweto was originally short for South Western Township and was an area where millions of blacks were forced to relocate during apartheid. It's still almost exclusively black, and poorer than Johannesburg, but does have some nice areas. It's also bigger than Johannesburg in terms of population and is the most densely populated city in South Africa. We saw everything from shacks stealing electricity from street lights to Winnie's current house, Bishop Desmond Tutu's house, and Mandela's previous house. It is the only road on which two Nobel Prize winners lived. We also spent an hour at the Hector Pieterson Museum which commemorates the 1976 student uprisings and deaths. Interesting but detailed and full of annoying school kids.

Finally we made it to the apartheid museum. Your ticket assigns you to either a white or non white group and you have to go through the corresponding entrance. After this exciting start the museum was a bit dull. Heavy on details and black and white photos and footage, light on any sort of differentiated exhibits. The special exhibit was on Mandela's life. All very interesting to me, but combined with his book a bit heavy.

After that I was lucky enough to meet Chad (the leader from Bush Camp) for dinner at a pub he liked right around the corner from my hotel. We had a great time; he introduced me to a bunch of shots popular in South Africa. This morning he took me for brunch (so much better than the city tour the day before!) and then we went bowling and played pool! Who would have thought I'd be doing such normal things in Africa? It was tons of fun to stop being a tourist at last and just hang out with someone interesting! We also walked through the botanical gardens (a good thing to do with a ranger I figured!) - funny story here. We stopped to sit on the grass and these cute dogs came over to see me....I leaned over to pet one and it started jumping on me and knocked me all the way over and was all tangled up in my hair...Chad was collapsed and laughing too hard to help me. My wonderfully clean plane clothes and hair got covered in grass....which made it so much funnier to him....it was pretty amusing.

He was so sweet to drop me at the airport and have dinner with me here. Am now settled in the lovely SA lounge and will be boarding in a few minutes. 17 or 19 hour flight...can't be bothered to figure it out. All I know is it is long and I will be home in 26 hours!

What a trip....definitely sad to say goodbye to Africa and all my new friends here, but lots to look forward to at home!!

Siyafunda Bush Experience (Hoedspruit, South Africa)

2011-08-01T08:52:00.001-04:00

Monday, July 25
Traveling from Naankuse to Siyafunda

On the plane to Johannesburg, flight one of two today. Had to wake up at 3:30 am to be ready for a 4 am departure. Confirmed many times last night that I'd be leaving at 4. No one showed up to get me until 4:40. Had to stand in freezing cold outside in the dark until then. Positives were that the sky was beautiful and Sable set her alarm to wake up and say bye to me. Her friendship was definitely the best thing about Naankuse (awww). She braved the cold with me until my ride came and kept me laughing. Then we had to go to the Lodge and pick up a mainstream customer to go the airport as well. We didn't even leave the property until 5:15, which is when they said I was supposed to be at the airport! Of course a mild panic set in as we were still 45 minutes away, but I reminded myself that we were in Africa, which means (a) nothing is on time and (b) that the airport would be tiny and quick to get through. Of course made it with tons of time to spare. Was glad we were in a Land Rover because we passed a school bus stuck in a huge muddy puddle!

Flight has been fantastic, although the airport was freezing and we had to walk outside the entire length of the airport to get to our plane. Best breakfast I have had in two weeks - included fruit and yoghurt! Stuffing myself with mango and papaya in Kenya seems like a year ago, the way I savored my four pieces of melon and two pieces of pineapple! The safety video made me laugh - they said you could use electric razors (and computers and iPods) once we were in the air. Can you imagine how gross it would be if the guy beside you started buzzing off his scruff in his seat? I would barf.

Not supposed to have hot water or electricity where I'm headed (Hoedspruit, South Africa) so fairly certain this won't be uploaded for quite some time....Mental note: research programs fully in the future, don't be so damn cheap, and don't pretend you like camping and roughing it, even for great animals or scenery!!

Tuesday July 26
Siyafunda Bush Camp

This place is great! Got picked up yesterday from the airport by a super funny guy - already way better than the last place! Stopped to pick up some vital beverages at a grocery store and meet the rest of the bush camp group. My roommate is great - Maria from Australia. The rest of the group is great too, a wide range of ages and personalities, but only 9 of us in total. The funniest are the two 17 year old boys who love to hate each other and are roommates. One is the eager type from the US and the other a rugby playing gang member from Scotland.

We got to the Makalali Reserve (a private one, not a national park) and changed cars into our safari vehicle and headed to our campsite. On the way we saw three young male lions that our ranger / tracker Chad didn't know. Everyone was saying how amazing it was they were so close to camp, but I was thinking they were exaggerating.....no exaggeration - we rounded the corner and were right at our campfire and tents! But no one seemed too concerned.

Camp is super cute - just four tents, a kitchen tent, a campfire, and a covered table. Each tent has it's own shower / toilet behind it. Really nice actually! It's cold here, just like in Namibia, but at least I'm used to it! The best part is there is unlimited food! Tons of apples and actually tons of avocado too! And no work to do here, we just have to cook dinner and do the dishes on a rotation.

This morning we went on a bush walk starting at 7am. They are really big on education here, and it was really informative. Mike, whose family owns a big chunk of the reserve, took us. It was like something out of an Indiana Jones movie. Big hat, safari shorts and shirt, hiking boots, and an old school rifle that he carried like we were going to see a lion around each corner, stepping over palm fronds We actually saw basically no animals, but learnt a lot about plants (don't eat anything that looks like a tomato or cucumber). The coolest was the marula tree, which is what they make Amarula from. It also is believed to help people reach consensus so village meetings are held under it, and fighting couples have to sit underneath and work out their problems. We also looked at lots of tracks and learnt how to tell direction based on termite mounds, lichen, and the sun.

Lunch is great because we can make whatever we want for ourselves. I'm going to become a grilled cheese and avocado master!

The afternoon was a game drive, but we didn't see much. A new antelope for me called a nyala was seen, and they have a slightly different type of zebra. The game drive went well into the evening and turned into a night drive, and we saw a giraffe in the spotlight right at the side of the road! Night time is a camp fire and marshmallows! Life is good!

Thursday July 28

This is the fifth continent on which I am celebrating my birthday! Looking forward to a big BBQ tonight and a party with all the bush camp people.

Yesterday morning we had another game drive - freezing! Saw elephants, a really cute family of warthogs, and a jackal. Chad got stung by something as he was driving us, which was a bit scary and he had to go lie down, so we had a long and lovely break. We all boiled water and had hot bucket showers. Lovely! There is something about bucket showers that just doesn't compare to regular ones!

After another delicious grilled cheese and tomato sandwich we went rhino tracking. I was a bit skeptical...first we found the dung....then we found the prints....then we detoured to the most beautiful spot and watched a mother and baby hippo in the water at the river. Had to hop along big rocks to get there. It was pretty special. Then back in the car and we got a call from a tracker that he was following white rhino not too far away. We hopped back out of the car and started walking. Suddenly the woman behind me (another Emily, from Australia) gasped, and Mike in front of me raised his gun. There were two big rhinos and a baby 20 meters in front of us. We had to slowly back up and go behind a tree, but there was no danger. It was pretty amazing, I hadn't seen them at all close up before.

We had a fantastic dinner and sat around the fire chatting until 9:30 - late night by my recent standard!

This morning we had an early game drive and had a big elephant encounter. A smallish one decided he didn't like our car and did a little trumpet and charge thing. I have definitely not gotten over my fear of elephants!! We also went down a road that was not really a road - I think it was an animal path - and after dodging a bunch of thorns we saw two male impalas fighting. It was amazing!

Right now it's lunch break and I just died the hair of two of the people here - Lewis and Leena. I didn't know it came with gloves though and now my hand is super red. I'm going to treat myself to a hot shower and Maria is going to make grilled cheese and avocado for me. Birthday is off to a fantastic start!

Friday July 29

Fantastic game drive yesterday afternoon after an interesting but difficult Zulu lesson (has three or four different kinds of clicks for the letters p, c, q, and sort of h). Saw a huge family of giraffes including a really little one - maybe just a month old - and two other small ones. Thought we were going to see some fighting and mating action as the male giraffe was very interested in the female, and then another (darker and more handsome) male ran out of the bushes and chased him off...but that's where it ended. Drove past a hole that Chad has been wondering about for weeks and stopped beside it. A ton of baby warthogs (yes, there are babies here, unlike in East Africa!!) came squealing out of it and a couple ran right into the car, followed by the mother. Very exciting and badly scared everyone on that side of the car!!

Stopped for a sundowner and had a beautiful sunset over the mountains in the distance. Enjoyed a beer while taking pictures on the car. Then went to Twines, the non-camping place here for dinner. They had cooked a traditional meal with beans and some part of the corn, called san pan I think. Very hearty and good. Headed back to our camp for some partying and had a great fire, marshmallows, and some drinks. Matt (17 year old from the US) gave me a fantastic toast over marshmallows and sang a death march version of happy birthday that was very special.

Around 9:30 or so Lewis went to the bathroom and all we hear is him shouting "get the fuck away from me" and clapping his hands. He'd obviously seen something. We were very worried it was a leopard and all huddled behind the fire while Chad set lanterns around us like we were in some pagen cult or something. Our ears kept playing tricks on us and scaring us so we went to bed soon after. I tied our tent shut with a shoelace in case the animal was really hungry.

This morning we were on bush clearing, which is the only real work we do here all week. I was worried we'd have to walk through big thickets and cut out exotic plants or something, but we just had to walk down the road and trim or saw off anything that was growing too close. Quite enjoyable actually, but did have to give myself a good look over to ensure I had no ticks. So far I haven't had any, but we think a couple of people here at the Bush Camp have tick bite fever, which is just like an achy flu that lasts a few days. Really don't want it!

Here are a few pictures of camp!!

Monday August 1

If you're reading this it means I've made it to my hotel in Johannesburg and survived all wildlife portions of my trip (!!!)
I've been having so much fun at Bush Camp I haven't had much time to keep this journal up, but let me try to recap the last few days:

Friday afternoon we went on a drive / walk with another ranger named Robin. He's really great at his job, but actually used to be a consultant in Europe! He pointed out lots of birds and trees as well as tracks and poo of course. Another fun fact about the Marula tree - if you give someone the seed of the fruit it is a sign of friendship, and of course he gave each of us one. Kind of like a Facebook tree! Driving back at night we saw some eyes across the river but couldn't tell what they were. Maria made us a great carbonara pasta for dinner Friday night.

Saturday morning we went on another drive / walk with Robin. We first drove to find some leopards that had recently been sighted (maybe what we had seen the previous night) and found a mother and two cubs crossing the road. We did some awesome off road driving to try to continue following them, but didn't have much luck. Then we watched a massive male elephant eating right outside our car for awhile before driving to another area for a little walk. We turned over rocks and found a pretty big snake, we brushed our teeth with the tree that locals used to use for tooth brushes, and we saw a bunch of holes made by warthogs and enlarged by elephants. I also got smacked in the face by a knob thorn tree: when Andrea got her shirt stuck on it and pulled it off it rebounded right into my face. I have a very cute scratch on my nose but it scared me pretty badly and bled enough at the time. I really really hate all the thorny bushes around here. Then I fell into a hole which was luckily unoccupied. This was the first time I thought I was really ready to come home!!

Saturday afternoon we drove to an AIDS orphanage to play with the kids and bring them donations of juice, flour, rice, chips, etc. Over 70 kids live there from babies to 17 years old and most are HIV positive. But it wasn't sad at all - it's a really nice place and it was a lot of fun to play with the younger kids. After that we went to a pub for dinner where I had one of the best steaks of my life for about $12. Amazing.

Sunday was a totally free day which was fantastic. We hung around Bush Camp and ate, chatted, and did absolutely nothing. Robin made us an amazing BBQ at night which was a great way to end the week. And today I've just been traveling so far!!

Overall Bush Camp was a ton of fun, super relaxing, and with really great people! What a fantastic last stop! Now I'm just two nights in Johannesburg before coming back home! The first thing I'm going to do is take a long bubble bath - I haven't had clean nails in three weeks!!

Goodbye Namibia!!

2011-07-24T09:19:00.001-04:00

Sunday July 24

It's been two weeks here and it's almost time to say goodbye to Namibia! It has definitely become more fun over time and I have some good friends here I will miss, but I don't count many animals among them and I'm ready for my next adventure! I'm really glad I chunked up these two months into such different things, because it feels like a whole bunch of different trips. I really can't believe I'm on the same vacation that took me on safari in Tanzania or to the beach in Kenya or hiking Table Mountain in Cape Town. Next up is the Sifundya (I think I spelled that correctly) bush experience. I just went over the paperwork I brought with me, and I'm still not sure what I am in for. The packing list did say to bring a towel (which I bought in Cape Town) so I'm thinking my slide down the hill of luxury will continue. But it's just a week, then I have two days in a beautiful hotel in Johannesburg before at last coming home!

There's not much to report from here; rather than chasing after an eland we watched a movie yesterday afternoon, which was just what I wanted to do, and this morning we built a larger cage for Godiva, one of the caracals who has a broken leg (because Yoda was a bit aggressive when trying to mate with her!!) and now we have the day to ourselves. Packing, showering (!!!), and reading are on the agenda. I hear we might also take on the Bush men in soccer.

Don't think I've included a picture of the caracals yet; here are a couple of Godiva. Caracals can jump well over two meters in the air, and they have fur sticking above their ears that allows them to measure the wind. They are related to cats but not super closely. Same as wild dogs are related to dogs but are actually really different.

Im leaving here tomorrow morning at 4 am and am Once again am unsure if I will have internet at the next place; we'll see how creative I have to be to get access!!

Bye for now!

Namibia Still

2011-07-23T09:04:00.001-04:00

Friday July 22

Whoops looks like I was confused on Wednesday when I thought it was Sunday! Who knows what I was thinking!?! Today is definitely Friday and my last official day of activities. I'm ready for them to be done! On your last day you can decide to join any of the groups and do your favorite activity. I was lucky in that my group was on research so I just stayed with them. But it wasn't that great! First we had to go out in two trucks to chase a wild ostrich. That was pretty fun. We walked in a straight line with our arms out to make it run away from us and into the area it is supposed to live in. But then, we got dropped off far away from our camp and had to walk back through the bush and do a game count on foot. I got so many prickles in my shoes it was really annoying. And I had to go to the bathroom the whole time. And we had no idea how long it would take to get back. AND we didn't really see anything at all. Then when we got back we had to make the cheetahs Samera and Chiquita walk in a straight line for their food to practice for when they are going to photograph their footprints.

Lunch came next and they ran out of food, which is a common occurrence. I got some at least. They expect people to walk for hours in the morning, or work in the garden, or whatever, and the self portion out what one portion of stir fried veggies looks like. And then when it runs out they blame us for taking too much and the last people basically go without food. They won't even give them cereal! It is incredibly annoying and I'm looking forward to filling out a comment card. I will definitely be on time for lunch for the next two days until we leave!

Now it's the afternoon and I have opted to "be sick" and rest in my tent. I don't like any of the activities that go on in the afternoon so I'm going to just rest and read!!

Saturday July 23

Today we were on food preparation again, which is good because basically everyone else had to clean out the sheep and goat enclosure. A lot of shit. Shitty job. I fed the rabbits. Tried to feed the tortoise but couldn't find it. Really not that much to report! Here are some pictures from when we fed the carnivores. And also feeding the baby baboons their one o'clock bottles.

We are supposed to have a fun activity this afternoon but it sounds like Rudie wants to try to dart the eland again, so seems like we will just be going along with that. Ready to be moving onto my next place - will try to upload a goodbye message tomorrow before I leave!

Sleeping With Rudie, Walking With KiKi, and Other Stories From Namibia

2011-07-21T03:47:00.001-04:00

Sunday July 20

Yesterday evening Rudie, the owner of the farm, took all of us volunteers out to watch him try to dart an eland with a broken horn. He is a human medical doctor who has now converted to wild animals and was going to show us the practical part of his immobilization presentation. We drove around in the backs of three trucks looking for the eland or for their runaway zebras which he also wanted to dart and bring back. It was a nice drive, like a sunset boat cruise at the cottage, and I enjoyed the view even though we didn't see anything, ie we didn't get to see him dart anything. Instead, we came back to the presentation room and he showed us three very technical powerpoints on concentrations, dosages, and volumes of sedatives, tranquilizers, and the drugs that reverse them. Detailed instructions on what to use for each type of carnivore. Stories galore. Demonstration of how to use the dart gun and load the dart. Interesting but way too long. Cut into dinner!!

And then it was a bit of a rush because I was sleeping with Rudie the adorable eight month old baboon last night. Around 7pm when the food preparation group was making his bottle I went and filled two containers with warm water. They lured him out of the little cage all the babies sleep in to stay warn and I gave him the bottle while he sat in the bath. He gets so tiny when he is wet! It was adorable. And he was so good, just sat there and let me put water and shampoo on him. It was really hard to get him rinsed but I tried my best. Then the girls that were helping me threw two towels on me and picked him up and put him on me. He was soaking! I had to make sure to dry his tail really well too. I couldn't really get the diaper on (you have to first poke a hole for the tail, then try to put it on him while he is clinging to you and balance his empty nighttime bottle between his face and your chest all the while) and he started to scream cause he was cold (let's face it I took him out of a bath, he was wet, and it's pretty much sub zero here) so Liz, a girl who knows him well quickly put on both diapers for me. Then he got zipped into my new fleece jacket and I was sent on my way to my tent. Of course he started screaming and trying to get out the top as soon as we were on our own. It was pitch dark and all I could feel were little baboon fingernails around my face so I made Liz come and calm him down. She said I just had to hug him and walk as fast as I could to my very far away tent. She was right - he quickly calmed down and became only cold and afraid and dependent on me instead of mad at me.

Unzipping and rezipping a tent with a shivering 8 pound baboon in your shirt is pretty tough! But we made it and made it into my sleeping bag. He crawled around for a bit checking things out. He kind of play bit me once which of course put me on edge for the entire night. (I was totally fine.) Then I smelled the baboon poo. We hadn't been there more than 20 minutes when he had not only shit, but also managed to get his tail out of both diapers, pretty much guaranteeing it was about to fall off. Fantastic! So our next adventure was to get his diaper changed. I picked him up, held him with one hand and threaded his tail through the hole with the other. I should have paid better attention in babysitting class because I had no idea how the diaper flaps worked. By the time I figured it out the rascal had pulled his tail out. A few tries later we had success, and the second diaper (you have to put two on because he can take it off if there is just one) was even easier. Niki came back around then and helped us get tucked into bed. Rudie was such a sweetheart then, he went down to the bottom of my sleeping bag where it was warmest and curled up around my feet. He stayed there quite a while and then spent some time along my back, and some sitting by my stomach. He moved every 20 minutes or so so I didn't get much sleep, but it was pretty precious. At one point he had his little feet hooked into the waistband of my jeans (I wanted as much as possible between us in case he caused trouble) and his hands down on the bottom part of my legs. Every once in a while, just as I was drifting off to sleep, he'd shift a bit and tickle me and wake me up. Once he crawled out and sat by my head. I had to sit up then because any size baboon sitting on my pillow over my head is not okay with me! But he was half asleep so I just pushed him back into the sleeping bag. There is really no better way to describe him than as a little monkey!He sucked on his bottle the whole time - never lost it. He woke up at 5:30 and I likely could have got him to go back to sleep but I was a bit tired of it all by then and I didn't want him to jump on Niki so I took him back to the cage with the other babies. That was an experience in itself since it was still dark out, I couldn't wear my glasses in case he grabbed them, I couldn't move anywhere without him clinging to my front (he was cold and is scared of the dark) so putting in contacts was out of the question and getting my shoes on was a struggle. I wrapped him in a towel and off we went on the 7 minute walk. We made it, got inside, I got his diapers off, and I put him on the ground in front of the babies. As soon as I opened their door a crack he slithered under and into the arms of Rafiki, another baby. Very cute. I didn't worry about him being cold anymore! I wanted to get lots of pictures of this but the whole thing was so chaotic that I just got a couple of the bath time.

This morning all of the volunteers went out in trucks to watch them release the newest family member - a young cheetah - into her new enclosure. They pick her up from a farmer yesterday. There really wasn't much to see but it was a big production and a lot of song and dance. After, my team was on enclosure patrol again....and the electric fence wasn't working for the lions! So I had to call back to camp using the emergency cell phone and get the hell away. Luckily all of the lions were still inside. (let's face it, they have a pretty good life there, why would they leave?!)

After muffin break we got to go on a cheetah walk with Kiki. A Bushman named Johannes took us and unfortunately he didn't speak a ton of English. First we had to go drive inside her enclosure and convince her to hop into a cage in the back of the truck. Not easy, but okay we (he) did it. Then we drove to the area we walk in and all looked around to make sure there were no other animals there because we didn't want her to run away and chase them. So far so good. Then we had to convince her to get out of her cage. Didn't think that was going to happen but eventually she started walking. Then we just walked along with her. It was so beautiful. She is tame, you can pet her when she is just sitting still, and we got some good pictures of us with her just in the wild. She didn't really want to walk where Johannes wanted her to go, but I figured that was okay because she is a cheetah after all.

Then all hell broke loose. Two ostriches appeared (we later learnt they were hand raised on the farm) and of course Kiki saw them. Johannes started running full tilt to try to scare the ostriches away. I don't think he really did anything but luckily they saw Kiki in time and ran away flapping their useless wings. By this time we were running super late and now that she was distracted by Kobe beef she wasn't going to settle for the shitty frozen month old chicken nugget she gets every day that Johannes was using to try to get her to go back to the car. He told Matt to go get the car and drive it around to us (this is when we were doing the photoshoot). Kiki was walking again by the time the car got there so Johannes told us to get in and he kept walking with her. All of a sudden Sable starts banging on the roof of the cab which is usually the signal to stop, and I was in the passenger seat. Sable shouts down that Kiki is going after another ostrich and to pass her camera up. And sure enough a few seconds later Kiki bolts after the ostrich (unclear if this is the same one or a new one) and they run for at least 20 seconds and according to Sable's pictures got less than a meter away! It was pretty spectacular. But luckily the ostrich escaped. We figured after all of that Kiki would be tired and ready to go home, but no. She still refused to go. We lifted the crate out of the car. No. Then she walked away so had to lift it back in the car (very heavy) and drive to her. Then back out of the car, with string attached and Matt holding it from a distance so she wouldn't know we were going to trap her. Nothing worked. Finally Johannes called Cila who is like the manager here who came with a longer rope and more fresher meat. Finally worked. Then we had to drive her back inside her enclosure and convince her to get out. Would you believe after all that she wanted to stay in her cage and we had to coax her out yet again? Insane! Cila has now grounded her indefinitely and says there will never be another cheetah walk again. Apparently she is always hard to get to come back....

So that is the excitement of the hour! This afternoon we had to clean the chicken and bunny enclosures but that was easy. Then I thought I had an hour to myself but turns out there was a 5pm presentation on NamibRand, a private reserve that we partner with, as well as one on snakes, because Cila likes them and it was her turn for the presentation. This was a bit delayed considering we were sprinting through open plains just a few hours earlier in pursuit of a cheetah!

Now it's very late - almost 9 (!!!) - so time for bed, sans monkey! Will post this tomorrow!

Here are a couple of pictures I snapped on the enclosure walk. Obviously none of the lions! (Cheetahs and leopards only!)

Namibia Again

2011-07-19T09:14:00.001-04:00

Tuesday July 19
Sunday in town was okay. The mall we went to wasn't anything special...didn't find anything to buy. After a couple of hours we got back in the minibus and went to a really neat restaurant called Joes Brewhouse. Or Beerhouse. They had a big buffet with eland and zebra on it. I tried both (sorry ae) and they were both very good. The eland was very tender. We had lots of fun hanging out in a more normal place than the farm. We didn't see anything else of the city, but it sounds like there really isn't much at all and that it isn't the safest city. Sunday night they had crappy sandwiches for dinner so I'm glad I pigged out at the buffet all afternoon.

Monday we were back to work as usual. The groups got reshuffled a bit so we were on food prep again but it was better this time since we more knew what we were doing. I made a ton of baby bottles up. The baby baboons get three each throughout the day, so that's 15 bottles, and the baby sheep gets one twice. It's very fun to give them the bottles because they are so desperate for them. Have to force them to breathe. Also learnt how to feed the horses - one is called ice cream - but they were a bit aggressive towards each other so I was a bit nervous. After muffin break we went on carnivore feeding. This was great because we just had to hang out in the back of the truck and hop in and out at different enclosures and throw meat over the fences and take pictures. We went to the two tame wild dogs again, but also to the 13 wild dog pups which are super cute and according to volunteers here the only hope for wild dogs to continue existing in Namibia. They are going to start a breeding program but it will be expensive and a lot of work. We also visited two cheetah enclosures and two leopard enclosures. I prefer the leopards - they are more dangerous but much prettier. Finally we hit up one of the lion enclosures and saw the two that keep us up at night with their roaring. Turns out they sound like they are right outside your tent because they basically are. They were huge and very beautiful. Unfortunately I didn't have my iPad with me so no pictures.

Lunch was horrid. There is way too much British influence here. We had toast with baked beans (tasted like fish to me) and a really greasy sausage. I ate a couple of apples too because I could hardly swallow lunch. After lunch we had to feed lots of the animals again and then got to go on a baby baboon walk. It was tons of fun. They are such devils. They want you to carry them and they sit on your shoulders or lie around your neck or sit right on your head. Then they get bored and jump off or swing down your arm or jump onto someone else. Then they wrestle and play with each other and sometimes give each other a hug. We stopped and sat under a tree which they had fun climbing in, and then they would come running around us and over us and coming for hugs. One took out my hair elastic so she could groom my hair. On the way back we basically all got peed on. Pretty gross but worth it for the amount of fun we had. My baboon peed from my shoulder down the whole front of my shirt and in my hair. And, we have a water shortage right now so weren't supposed to be showering. Sable and I decided we had to rinse off anyways and had a super speedy cold shower. But I have a bunch of stuff to take to the laundry! I have Rudie tonight in my bed and I have a feeling I will get covered in pee again tonight....but everyone says it is worth doing...once.

This morning we went on a caracal walk which was super relaxing and fun. I got to carry one out (Medusa, the other was called Cleo) and put her in a crate so we could drive them to the plain where we walk them. She was so soft and nice and warm, like a blanket. Caracals are really neat - they are in the cat family but are quite different actually. Long and thin and can jump so high that their front paws clear well over three meters. We strolled around to a tree that they scratched and climbed, pet them a bit, and walked back to the car. Our coordinator demonstrated their jumping abilities by throwing them pieces of meat. Impressive! I think I got it on film.

After muffin break we took the junior baboons for a walk. I found that mentally exhausting because you never know what they are going to do, when they are going to run up behind and grab their way up your back, or jump from someone else. And they are about 30 pounds! And there are eleven of them! We took them to a tree that they can play in, with nets and stuff set up, but they had a bit of a squabble and forgot who were they were mad at, and decided it was me (I didn't move or do anything to deserve this!) so the two staff had to come protect me with sticks. Nothing happened to me at all. They like to come stick their fingers in your mouth to see if you have gum. They also enjoyed licking my knee. Good times, but not desperate to do it again super soon!

Here is a picture of us at Joe's Beerhouse

More Namibia

2011-07-17T03:06:00.001-04:00

Sunday, July 17

Well, it's been a busy few days, interspersed with 11 hours of sleep a night. On Friday I learnt about food preparation which was actually really fun. We cut up veggies for the steenbok, Lily (a very small deer), as well as Sylvie, which is a larger variety of deer. We prepared and fed the baby baboons bottles, which is fun because they are greedy and you need three people to do it so you can feed all five at the same time. Otherwise whoever finishes first will fight the others for their bottles. We were a bit new at this and accidentally let them steal the nipples off the bottles. Unsure if they got them back yet. We also had to prepare meal pap for the baboons, big and small, which was kind of like playing with play dough. The Bush Men actually make the meal pap and we have to chop up and mix in vegetables and fruit as well as compost and then shape it into balls so the staff can throw it over the fence for them. Taking food into the junior or senior camps would be a bad idea. But Miguel and I took it into the baby camp, and I ended up with a baboon (Shauna I think) eating a carrot on my head and getting me quite dirty! But they are very cute. A girl from Texas, Sable, and I also threw meat to the two semi-tame cheetahs, Samera and Chiquita. They were both raised as pets and Chiquita only has four teeth because she was raised on cat food. So it takes a while to feed them. After that we were supposed to go feed all the other carnivores, but because yesterday was a big open house day and they were going to be eating a lot, they had to fast. Instead we prepared all the food for Saturday. In the afternoon we were supposed to take the baby baboons on a walk, but there were too many last minute things to do to get ready for open day. So Sable and I made ourselves as scare as possible to avoid having to rake. We did meet the horses who came out to get groomed for giving kids rides.

Open Day (Saturday) was not particularly fun, but was very important for raising awareness amongst Namibians as well as some money. It was really well organized and the food the had looked amazing. I was in charge of selling t-shirts, posters, and DVDs. Very boring because no one wanted them. And nowhere to sit down all day. But I think 500 people came in, and enjoyed themselves, so it was fine. I did not pick the best week to come though! But now that that is over next week should be good! Lst night was someone's birthday so we had a bit of a party and a huge cake....but even the birthday girl went to bed at 9pm!

Today I'm going into town for the day. It's a beautiful day so I am regretting it a bit, but it will be nice to get out of farmland for a few hours! Those that are staying behind will play soccer against the bushmen and enjoy dessert with lunch. But I will do that next Sunday!

Here is a picture of Sylvie as I am writing this:

These are the senior baboons

Here is the chicken and turkey enclosure

And the goats and sheep (they will be let out soon)

And the bunnies

Will get pictures of the lions and leopards and cheetahs for next time!

Namibia!!

2011-07-15T08:51:00.001-04:00

Tuesday, July 12

Well, here I am on a farm / wildlife sanctuary in what feels like the middle of nowhere, Namibia, but is actually only a 40 minute drive from the airport. I have no idea when I will be able to upload this, or how good the connection will be then, so will just stick to text for now. Today is Tuesday, and I have 45 minutes until dinner at 6pm. Let me start at the beginning.

I arrived very smoothly last night. From the air it looks like Namibia is solid hard mud, but as you get closer you can see there are trees, but they are mud colored too, and the ground is mostly covered in grass, but it is also mud colored. But there are little mountains and dunes everywhere and it's actually very beautiful. A guy was there to meet me, but he didn't speak much English so we listened to the radio in Afrikaans for the drive in. Then they showed me to my bed.

It is a tent. Not what I was expecting, but the tents are actually as nice as the rooms, more private, and a lot more quite. I have a proper bed, great bedding (but it's still super freezing and my sleeping bag was a great purchase), and a really nice roommate from Ireland named Nikki. She has six tattoos and about twice that many piercings.

Most people here have a tattoo or two and I think collectively we average three piercings in addition to normal pierced ears. Most people are 18-20, but a few are my age or older. It was a bit of a shock last night, but I'm over it and enjoying most everyone's company. Many from Europe, one from Canada, and a few from the US.

Arriving was a bit of a shock, and I must admit I wasn't sure what I'd gotten myself into last night. After getting to my room, the lady told me the lantern was broken so I just dropped my bag and followed her back to the food area. It was like arriving at camp. And I hated camp. No real introductions, no information on where to get a mug for tea, etc etc. But a few people took pity on the new girl and showed me the basics. The food was very basic but good. It immediately got freezing cold. Freezing. Literally I think. We huddled around the Bon fire and I watched some of the others roast marshmallows that they bought the last time they went into town. If you want anything other than the meals, water, and tea, you have to buy it from a store here open twice a week, or from town on Sunday. It's pretty rough watching everyone else drink beer and coke and eat chocolate for dessert when you have nothing! I made sure to get my name down on the list for next Sunday (a whole week!!).

Sleeping last night was also pretty tough....I think I have the world's narrowest sleeping bag. Can hardly move in it! And so cold I bad to keep my head in it all night too. But we go to bed between 7:30 and 8:30, and I stayed in there until 6, so I imagine I must have slept quite a bit! We go to bed so early because it gets so cold and because there isn't much else to do. And as I learnt today because we work pretty hard all day.

Today I was put into my group, joining three other girls. Our first activity was enclosure patrols which was a great first thing to do because we basically walked around a chunk of the property checking the lion, cheetah, and leopard enclosures to make sure there are no holes and that the electricity is working. We also spotted giraffes and zebra which was a big deal to the others, but I've kind of seen a lot already! 10:00 is muffin break which is apparently the highlight of the day. They were pretty good I guess. Next we had to carry rocks out of the junior baboon camp. The baboons were supposed to be out for a walk but they escaped and came back early so we had to book it out of their cage because they were over excited. It was pretty tiring though. After an hour and a half for lunch we were onto wild dog time which was pretty cool. We drove water and food (raw meat) to their camp and threw the food to them. Wild dogs are super endangered so it was cool to see. Then we threw whole chickens to some of the cheetahs. After that we had to clean the rabbit and chicken enclosures. You're getting the idea that it's quite a bit of work here and also quite a few animals! I just had a shower and now it's time for dinner!

Wednesday, July 13

I slept soooo well last night. I got an extra sleeping bag so with all the different covers I was able to open my sleeping bag and stretch out more. Today I'm more settled in, but still I don't think I would recommend this to anyone I know. It's just a bit roughing it and a bit too much work! But everyone says their first few days were not great and now they love it. We will see. This morning my group was on "project work" which is code name for "hell". Right now there is more project work than normal for two reasons. They have too many volunteers, and not enough normal activities, and this weekend is Open House which is a big fundraising day and they are expecting over 700 visitors and so there is lots to do. Most of the projects seem to involve fixing the roads by shoveling sand. It wasn't as bad as it sounded, but it wasn't quite a party! Lunch was good - burgers - but all the food is rationed out which I find quite strange.

After lunch I had my "induction." I'm not sure if that is a mistranslation of "introduction" because that's basically what it was. A lot of the history of the place, information on the animals and releases, some safety guidelines, an overview of the activities we do, and advice to check our sleeping bags for scorpions. That one would have been good to know on day one! They also told us that if we had any special skills to let them know....so thinking of how pointless my efforts seemed at road work, I told them about my abilities on the business end, and it seems I will be helping the marketing manager whenever I don't want to do any activity. So perhaps that means no more road work or enclosure cleaning. I really do think it would be a better use of my volunteer time here anyways. It also sounds like this work will have the added benefit of getting onto the Internet here and learning the closely guarded wireless password...which means I could upload blogs waaaaaay sooner than I thought! Fingers crossed! (I will still get to do the food preparation, baboon walks, cheetah walks, game counts, etc though, of course!)

Thursday, July 14

Success! I have weaseled my way into the wireless password by researching email newsletter marketing providers for the marketing director. After doing a break even price analysis on all the different options she concluded I am the perfect person for the job so I guess I can continue to get out of project work (today I got to skip two hours of raking). Thought I had uploaded this, but guess it didn't go through.

Today was a fantastic day. This morning our group was doing research which is definitely my favorite activity so far. First we helped train one of the cheetahs to walk in a straight line over wet sand, because on Monday they need to get 25 photographs of her back left foot for a software project that lets them identify cheetahs by their prints....kind of like fingerprinting. Flo, the biologist in charge of research projects, is great - super enthusiastic and explains everything. After that we went out in the truck on a game count - we have to spot animals and record what we saw, where, and when. Then we arrived at the next farm over and went to check on four of the cameras they have set up there, which have a motion sensor and take pictures hopefully of cheetahs and leopards, but sometimes birds and porcupines. We didn't get any good pictures on that trip, but we had to change some cards out anyways.

During lunch break our team leader Miguel took me to meet the baby baboons so maybe I would stop being afraid of them. I'm still wary, but they are tons of fun. They come up to you and put their arms up and you can pick them up, or just give them your hands and they will swing onto your shoulder, or they will come hug your leg...or they will jump onto you from someone else's shoulder....there is quite a bit of hair pulling because they see it as another way to get to the ground. It's amazing to see how comfortable the more experienced people are with them. Looks like tons of fun! I will keep practicing, and signed up to sleep with Rudie, the baby, on Monday. I hope I don't chicken out!

By 7:30 tonight everyone was headed to bed....warmest place on the farm! Time to power through a few more pages of Mandela's memories. That book was a great deal....occupying lots of reading time!

Here are a couple of pics of the babies. The guy with them is my team leader Miguel.

Windhoek, Namibia Bound!

2011-07-11T04:37:00.001-04:00

This will be the last you hear of me for some time....I'm flying to Windhoek, Namibia today to start my two week program with the N/a'an ku se Conservation, working on their wildlife orphanage project. I'm not expecting to have any Internet for two weeks, but will try to get into town next weekend to let you all know I haven't been mauled by a lion. (really, don't worry. I will continue to be fine.)

I don't have a ton of details on what I will be doing, but I was told my daily activities will include food preparation, hand feeding the Meerkats and baboons, cleaning animal enclosures (yuck), walking the Caracals (don't even know what those are), taking the baboons on forest walks so they can practice foraging and get exercise, and sleeping overnight with the five baby baboons who are too small to stay alone. I'll also help build new enclosures for any new animals we get, and I think possibly educating school kids and farmers on the importance of conservation.

The types of animals they have varies, but I'm expecting caracals, cheetahs, baboons, lions, wild dogs, leopards, meerkats, and farm animals! I'll likely be sharing a room with two other women, so I guess I will make friends very quickly, haha!

That's all I've got for you for now! Psyching myself up for the drive-on-the-wrong-side-of-the-road to the airport!

Here's the link to the sanctuary!

Franschhoek: Wine, Wine, and More Wine!!!

2011-07-10T12:54:00.001-04:00

Before I get into today, I must tell you about dinner last night. I was trying to go to a place I saw with a set menu with springbok on it, but accidentally ended up at French Connection, and by the time I made it inside I was hooked. It was so cute and made you feel like you were somewhere in the country in France. It was one of the rare places where you can have a really enjoyable dinner on your own. I ordered the mussels and fries, and I cannot explain how amazing they were. I had no idea the Cape was known for their mussels, but it was incredibly good luck I ordered them. They were at least three times as big as we get at home, and so flavorful and juicy. I could go on and on!! I finished by sampling two local cheeses - their cheddar was good, but not as good as in Canada!

Today was an absolutely splendid day. I am spoiling myself in anticipation of things being rather basic for the next (and last! Yes mom, I know you're happy about that!) three weeks of my wonderful trip. My guesthouse put on a fantastic breakfast (homemade granola is being added to the list of things I want to make when I'm home) and then arranged a guide to take me on a half day wine tour. Franschhoek has 47 wineries in town - and a population of only 16,000. Stellenbosch is a slightly larger town next door and has over 150 wineries. A lot of these are small and produce only 30,000 bottles a year.

Before I go any further, let me give you a map to make sure we are all (ahem, mom) clear on where I am:

Above is a map of all of southern Africa. Obviously South Africa is the most south. Tomorrow I am going to Namibia (Windhoek) which is just to the north.

Below is a map of just South Africa. I am in the Western Cape province, and was in Cape Town and now am nearby in the winelands (near Stellenbosch).

Okay, now that we are hopefully clear on that....today I visited FIVE wineries in about four hours. They were all very beautiful and had excellent wine (to my very untrained pallet at least). Unfortunately because it is winter here it is very off season so they weren't doing any estate or cellar tours, and also there was nothing on the vines, but it was still very lovely. Also, in their summer you can do the tour on horseback, which would be really lovely (ae). My guide, Bradley, told me a lot about the different estates and owners and made for good company while I tasted TWENTY FIVE different wines today.

The first stop was at Moreson, which means "tomorrow's sun" because it gets the first sun in the valley. There I tried my first pinotage which is a type of hybrid red that only grows in South Africa. They had to create it because the Pinot noir grape won't grow here. I really liked the pinotage I tried, and this was the beginning of my day-long conversion from white to red wine (!!!!)

This is the view from the tasting area!

Next stop was Solms Delta, named because it is in the delta of two small rivers. It is also just around the corner of where Mandela spent his last few years in prison. The best wine here was a Shiraz bubbly...I could have drunk the whole bottle. The conversion to red wine continued! They also had a lovely museum about the history of the estate and all of the people who worked there. Their restaurant looked amazing and I was hoping to make it back for lunch tomorrow, but I think I will have to leave too early for the airport. The guide really likes taking people here because they treat their staff really well, using 1/3 of their profits to their benefit...housing, education, health care, etc.

The third stop was the Cellar Door. I should mention that these places are all within minutes of each other. Quite incredible. But the soil here is like a micro climate, so all of their wines are very different (apparently). Again my two favorite wines here were red! They also had a huge art display of several South African artists which was fun to walk around, but not to my tastes.

The fourth stop was my favorite because we did a wine and cheese pairing. Very, very good. Bradley and I also had a long chat here about what is going on in South Africa today. He's the first person I have spent time with who is old enough to remember the apartheid and so this was very interesting. He said as a kid they had no idea anything unusual was going on. He has never been friends with a black person, because they were always so segregated. They would never even think to question why they didn't see them; that's just the way it was. The first time he even understood the implications was when he was in the navy and doing training on the beach and the police came to arrest the Indian members of his group for being in an area where they weren't allowed to be. And they were employed by the government! There is definitely no overt racism that I've seen on the part of the whites, but I'm sure it exists. Everyone is still "classified" by their race; it's very strange for it to be accepted by everyone to talk about where the blacks live and what the coloreds eat. And it sounds like in some cities (like Durban) there is reverse racism where the black police officers really don't care about crimes committed against whites. Anyways, it was a long and very interesting conversation. I can't believe we don't learn about this in school.

The final stop was at the Rickety Bridge, which was initially owned by a woman, unusual in those days. It was also very lovely. Their dessert wine was my favorite but they also had a pinotage that was lovely.

After all of that wine I recovered on my balcony for a bit before strolling around the small main street. I found a shoe store called Tsonga which sells leather shoes handmade by Zulu women in South Africa. I tried on a couple pairs of sandals and loved them both. They are incredibly comfortable. So I bought them both. Apparently there is a store in Vancouver, but nothing close to home, so I figured I should stock up if I loved them that much!

I'm now deciding where to have dinner...the Cape Malay place I wanted to try is closed on Sunday nights, so I'm still asking around for recommedations!

Franschhoek (Still South Africa)

2011-07-09T12:33:00.001-04:00

My last night in Cape Town was a blast. Met up with Shannon and a bunch of her friends from their GAP trip. They are such a riot. I think it would have been a fantastic trip, despite the over landing (long bus rides and camping). We checked The Waiting Room (a bar) while waiting (haha) for our table at Royale Burgers. Fantastic burgers. Then we headed to the Dubliner for the rest of the evening.

This morning I had a mini fiasco getting to Franschhoek....I went to pick up my rental car (a 20 min walk from my hotel) and went through a very slow and detailed paperwork process....only to hear the guy say "Now with the Yaris make sure you press the clutch all the way when you start it." I was like "whaaaaaaaaat!?! Are you kidding?!? I need a manual car!" and of course they had none in the dealership. And because I booked through a travel agent there was a whole song and dance on how they couldn't change it without talking to the agent. And then they didn't know how to dial a UK number. Finally some other lady who works there came im and cleared it all up....but I had to wait two hours for them to bring in a car from the airport. Precious minutes in the vineyards ticking away!!

I tried to make the most of it though, and walked down to the District Six museum, one of the areas of Cape Town where 60,000 blacks were forcefully removed from their homes and basically put in slums so that it could be a white area. Rather depressing, but very impressively curated. Really hard to imagine this sort of thing was going on in the 1960s-1980s.

That filled in the two hours nicely, and I picked up my car and began the adventure of driving on the left side of the road. Luckily everyone is a bad driver here so I fit in fine. No one signals, which is good because every time I tried to I turned on the windshield wipers. Everyone drives 20km under the speed limit, which is fine because the speed limits are 20km faster than at home, and I didn't have to make many turns or go through any roundabouts. The strangest thing was the angle of the rearview mirror - looked like you shouldn't be able to see anything out of it!

Anyways, I made it to my guesthouse, which is the perfect word to describe it. It is positively delightful, with a large balcony and a common sitting area which seems to be all mine this weekend.

Franschhoek means "French Corner" and was actually settled by the French...the Protestants left France for Holland and then the Dutch sent them to be settlers here. It is exactly like a little French town, tons of cafes and shops on the one small main road, and surrounded by vineyards. French flags are flying, the names are mostly French, with some Dutch, and it is known as the gastronomical capital of South Africa. When I got my camembert, proscuito, and onion jam sandwich for lunch I knew this was a place I would be happy!

To recover from my stressful drive on the wrong side of the road I walked uphill for about 20 minutes to a winery called Chamoix. I just missed the last tasting, but enjoyed a glass of their 2009 Chardonnay and the view. It was lovely, and the most aggressive glass I have ever seen.

I'm now enjoying the sunset from my balcony and waiting to get hungry again for dinner. I checked out some of the menus on the way home and am hoping to have either ostrich or springbok, which is like a small deer, tonight.

Cape Town: The Last Day

2011-07-08T12:17:00.001-04:00

Today was the last of four jam-packed days in Cape Town. I started with the Sex and Slaves in the City tour, put on by Cape Town Walks. It was a riot! The two guides are actors and they take you on a two hour historic walk and explain the sites and the history through songs, dance, and funny poems, acting it out all the while. We learnt how slavery started here (lots of Malay slaves, which is a big influence in their food), how slaves could be free (become Christian - a Christian wouldn't keep another Christian enslaved - or marry a settler or escape), how slavery ended (after it ended in Europe....Europeans would bring their now illegal slaves here to be sold), and about the neighborhoods the freed slaves lived in and the missions that supported a lot of them. Super entertaining and very interesting. We stopped at the Bo Kaap neighborhood with very colorful houses, St Stevens Church which was the church for ex slaves and coloured people after the end of slavery and named for St Steven because the whites were so unhappy with the slaves getting it they stoned it like St Steven was stoned, Heritage Square, the Slave Church which was the church that supported different missions before slavery ended, the Castle of Good Hope which was really pretty but I forget what it was for, and the Slave Lodge where lots of slaves lived....in addition to tons of little stops like the flower market.

The next activity was my hike up Table Mountain. By the end of it I wished I hadn't just walked for two hours before! I met my guide Gavin and we drove to the bottom of the mountain, starting at 400m above sea level. We then embarked on a very steep climb for two hours, basically solid stairs made out of rocks. Very little flat places. We ultimately reached the top, which is 1060m I believe. I have no idea if this is at all a big climb or not, but I assure you my legs think it is quite impressive. I was so glad Gavin brought me an extra Powerade - my bottle of water was definitely not enough! The climb was very beautiful as was the view from the top. You can actually walk across the whole top of the "table" and see views on both sides. The whole way up you have a view of the city if you look back, which made rest breaks very pretty. After the hellish 1am climb up Adam's Peak in Sri Lanka I knew I could do almost anything, but this was a close second in terms of big vertical steps. Totally worth it and felt great at the top, but the last 15 minutes were pretty rough!! We took the cable car down...which was very cool because it has a rotating floor so you get 360 views on the way down. It was a lot faster than the hike up! The weather was just perfect, and the views were spectacular, but the iPad didn't make the trip, so photos will have to wait. Nothing I could find online does it justice!

Everyone should be happy to know that I bought myself a sleeping bag today, so won't freeze to death in Namibia. The girl I met from Calgary said she was freezing there, and I will take her as the authority on cold! Meeting her (Shannon) and her co-travelers tonight for the best burgers in Cape Town (giving up my mission of more Cape Malay food for friends) and a fun last night in Cape Town!

Cape Town: Cape Peninsula Tour

2011-07-07T15:22:00.001-04:00

Today has been busy - took a 9+ hour tour of the entire Cape Peninsula. Was joined by six others who have been traveling together for five weeks, randomly on a camping trip from zanzibar to here. So they were happy for someone new to talk to! Here's a map of the Peninsula, so you have an idea of what I am talking about.

We started in Cape Town around 8 this morning and drove up Signal Hill to get a lookout over the city and the waterfront, as well as table mountain. This picture doesn't capture how beautiful it was.

The we drove along the Atlantic Seaboard and stopped at Camps Bay, vacation spot of the rich and famous. It is quite pretty. Everything slows down in the winter (now) though, but I can just picture it packed in the summer.

You can see a bunch of mountain peaks in the background - these are called the 12 Apostles....yes, there are 12 of them. Table Mountain is off to the left, and this is all part of the same range.

After driving by several other nice beaches as well as little towns called Conservation Areas because they commit to things like organic wine and recycling we got to Hout Bay where almost all of us turned down an optional boat ride to see 20 000 cape fur seals (can't beat the Galapagos) in favor of coffee and exploring the harbor. Very pretty.

We kept driving along the mountains, a route called Chapman's Peak. We stopped and got out at Chapman's peak, and our guide (Fredl, which I though was a Von Tromp family member but apparently am wrong) told us that the man being interviewed there is a famous Springbok rugby player - the ex captain in fact - Bobby Skinstad. Kind of like seeing Mario Lemieux or something I guess. I found out he wasn't single so didn't bother saying hi. Haha.

We made it to the Cape of Good Hope national park after stopping to see an ostrich farm and an alpaca farm. The Cape of Good Hope is, of course, also very beautiful but quite windy. This is the point where the iPad began to act like a flag and I really had to hang onto it while taking pictures!

A very short drive took us near Cape Point which is the most south westerly point in Africa, and where the Indian and Atlantic oceans meet. We had a nice lunch there then did the 20 minute climb to the lighthouse to look out over the actual point.

On the way back we drove past a wild ostrich eating about 5 meters from the beach. One of the only places in the world you can get an ostrich and the ocean in the same shot. Pretty cool!

Our next stop was Boulders Beach in Simon Town, home to 5000 African penguins. Very cute!

Then....we were tired but the day wasn't yet over! We drove back to the outskirts of Cape Town, past other interesting things like the largest hospital in the southern hemisphere, and to the Kristenbosh Botanical Gardens. Nice place to walk around and lots of interesting plants. (dad I took pics just for you. I'm not really into plants.) The girl from calgary livened this up with stories of people who call the suicide hotline she volunteers at...was cherrier than it sounds. The gardens, city, and mountains are in this picture but it didn't really turn out.

We finally made it back around 5:30!! On Fredl's advice I checked out Van Hunks for dinner, just up the street from me. It's a Cape Malay restaurant which describes the food that evolved from South East Asians brought to Cape Town by the Dutch East India Company. I had bobatie, which is curried mince meat with an egg based topping, baked. It was amazing. Spicy and sweet. Will definitely be trying to make it at home. (Get ready M&D&Mitch) Was served with bananas dusted in coconut and rice. The house wine was great, and only 2 dollars a glass! A great end to the day!

Cape Town: Diving With Great White Sharks

2011-07-06T15:27:00.001-04:00

So, today I was picked up at 5:40am and joined a van of people going shark diving! Cape Town is one of the only places you can do this, and the place where you have the best chance of seeing the sharks - especially this time of year. Everyone on this tour was between 22 and 30 so we had no trouble passing out for the 2 hour ride in the dark to Gansbaai. After a quick breakfast and briefing we headed to the harbor where we climbed into our boat, which a tractor then pushed into the water. A zippy 15 minute ride and we dropped anchor to wait for the sharks. The boats usually hang out around Dyer Island and Geyser Rock (home to 40,000 Cape Fur Seals, which attract the sharks) but in the last couple weeks they haven't been seeing them there...so we hung out in the middle of the sea.

The put some fish heads in the water to attract the sharks (sharks don't stay in the area more than a couple days so they don't get used to the trick) and we all squished into wet suits in preparation for a sighting and the mid-60 degree water. I was in the second group of five to head into the cage. The cage is attached to one side of the boat and has steel bars which kind of interfere with the shark's ability to sense we are there. Something about electro-magnetism. You just wear a mask - scuba gear tends to scare them off - and a weight belt and when the people above see the shark coming for the bait or just to check the cage out they tell you to go under....so you do, and you see a 3 meter great white shark swimming right at you! The view from the boat is even better because often you can see them coming a bit out of the water. Visibility was less than average today which I think impacted my impression...it was cool to see, but not life changing. Maybe I've just seen too many cool things lately! You stay in the cage in the water for 10 or 15 minutes and then they change it up, and you can go back again if you want. I found the cage crowded, bumpy, wavy, and that the sharks were only there for like 2 seconds so by the time you saw them they were gone. This could be due to the visibility issue.

Even though they said the sea was the calmest they had seen it in years the waves were still two meters and lots of the guys were hurling overboard. I met 5 cool guys who just finished engineering at the University of Calgary, so hung out with them most of the day. I can do a pretty good job passing for a 22 year old guy. I wasn't feeling great either by the end of this, so was happy when the guy in charge said something weird happened with the tides and the harbor was draining of water so we had to book it back. Made it with just minutes to spare - in the 2.5 hours we were gone the harbor went down 2 meters of water! They had to get a second tractor to pull us in!

After feeding us we drove back to Cape Town, this time in daylight. What a beautiful country. We paused in Hermanus which is often called the whale watching capital of South Africa and has some of the best land-based sightings. The season doesn't really start until August and we didn't see much - a few spouts from blowholes in the distance. Also drove by some of the townships - really quite wretched, even today, as well as some of the new housing the government is putting up for the residents...not much better. Insanely close together.

Round the day out with a Thai massage because I saw a place, and haven't seen one since I was in Thailand last summer. It was lovely. Also bought a fleece hat in preparation for Namibia next week!

Of course did not have the iPad in the water with me, but here are a couple pics from the Internet for what it was like. Hope I got some good underwater video on my camera!!

Cape Town: Robben Island and the Waterfront

2011-07-05T14:39:00.001-04:00

After a straight-forward but still painful 16 hours of travel, I arrived in Cape Town around midnight last night. My hotel is just what I wanted. Walking distance from tons of restaurants, clean, spacious, includes breakfast, and comfortable. The fact that the night tables and lamps don't match and the furniture is mostly second hand actually makes it more inviting. I have been super lucky - this is wintertime in South Africa and I was fully prepared for tons of rain, wind, and cold. But this week has 0% chance of rain and a weekend high of 28C!! It still gets really cold at night though; I had a lot of trouble sleeping last night my room was so cold. Will definitely be purchasing a hat, gloves, and a sleeping bag before leaving for Namibia.

This morning I walked to the office of an adventure tour company recommended by my agent. Together we set up what promises to be am incredible 5 nights in Cape Town. Four days is hardly going to do the city justice! Today I walked to the waterfront area (beautiful except a seagull dived at me and took a bite of my sub!) and strolled around before taking the ferry for the Robben Island tour. I had hoped to have finished Mandela's book before doing this, but this is where it best fit in the schedule....and the book is taking a long time anyways. The ferry ride over was beautiful - fantastic views of Table Mountain and the city.

The tour was okay...The island is best known as a political prison for anti-apartheid freedom fighters, but actually has seen 500 years of banished people. It started with a bus tour that gives the non-jail history of the island....Leper Colony, WWII fortification, shipwrecks, the lighthouse...and also showed us the lime quarry where the political prisoners worked, the "house" where Robert Sobukwe (leader of the Pan African Congress) was held for six years....despite being charged or convicted of anything, just because the government thought he was a political threat...and a few other buildings.

Then we met with an ex-political prisoner (ours served 5 years for simply joining the ANC, a banned organization) who showed us around the prison and told us what it was like. It was pretty bad - forty to a room all day except for about 8 hours when they had to work in a lime quarry, terrible food, etc. But they organized political lectures among themselves, smuggled in newspapers, and organized comedy shows to keep their spirits up. They also campaigned to start a soccer league which became very official. (Lots of displays on that given the recent world cup.) The tour ended with a walk past Mandela's cell where he spent 18 of his 27 years of incarceration. The leadership had their own small cells so they couldn't continue to influence the rest of the members. Didn't really work that well.

Met another girl traveling alone on the ferry - she is volunteering rehabilitating African penguins and knew someone who just left for the same place I am going to in Namibia. Small world....

Also, today I realized that there are very few American chains here. Most noticeably haven't seen a Starbucks at all, only one McDonalds and two KFCs...missing the Starbucks mostly! Unrelatedly, the biggest danger I have identified here are the insane drivers. Picture the confusing pedestrian signals of Boston combined with even more aggressive drivers. I am assuming pedestrians do not have right of way. That, and the seagulls...

Tomorrow I am going....swimming with sharks! 5:40 am pick-up so will be a very early night for me! I told you it is an exciting town! Underwater camera should come in very handy!

Mombasa, Kenya

2011-07-03T11:47:00.001-04:00

I'm on my last day in Mombasa, and have really been enjoying the beach and multiple pools of my resort - bug, coral, and cloud free, unlike Zanzibar. The Whitesands is a really big resort, and does in fact have four pools (I spend my time in the "silent zone" adult pool...there are lots of families here) and several restaurants (but breakfast and dinner buffets are included, always with a heavy Indian representation. Still trying to figure out if Swahili food is very similar to Indian food, or if they are just catering to the large number of Indian tourists here. Either way I have discovered some new favorites.) The beach is 10 km long, and safe to walk on except for the annoying people selling things or trying to convert you to one religion or another. I'm getting a ton of reading done - working my way through Mandela's autobiography in preparation for the approaching South Africa leg of my trip. Not much other news to report....today's breakfast was Swahili themed and I tried a wrap made of rice flour and fried really thin like a crispy crepe and filled with potato masasla with coconut chutney on the side. I have been living as much as possible on tomatoes, mangos, papaya, and pineapple. The mangos especially are amazing. The people are really nice, but keep asking me if I'm okay when everything is totally fine. Beginning to think Frances Frei might have been onto something when she told me I had a bad resting state face the first day of class at HBS.

Oh also I saw my first man with his bellybutton pierced. Pretty sure he was straight. Europeans.

Tomorrow I spend the day traveling to Cape Town. Cross your fingers all my connections go okay. First it's to Nairobi, then Johannesburg and then into Cape Town after 11pm. Expecting it to be cold and rainy there - below zero at night. And so ends the hot, beachy part of Africa. Luckily I have maximized my tan...hopefully it lasts until I make it home in a month!

Nairobi: The City

2011-06-29T13:27:00.001-04:00

I planned to spend two days in Nairobi on this trip because I wanted to know what an African city was like, outside of South Africa. Now I know, or at least I know enough to know that I could live here if I had to, but otherwise have no desire to come back. The city is definitely big enough to support what I imagine to be a healthy expat community, my hotel is just lovely, and people seem to be very nice. But the city is very congested, most of downtown was built in the 1940s (and reminds me of a very busy and safer Guayaquil), and there is really nothing touristy and fun to do (aside from safaris).

Today started with a visit to the Nairobi National Museum, Kenya's flagship museum showcasing their heritage. Other than me the only visitors were about 100 school children. Beginning to wonder if kids here actually go to school or just on field trips! Overall the museum was interesting and better curated than I'd expected, but still worlds away from something like the ROM. Highlights included the skeleton of Amhed, an elephant who had really massive tusks (to the ground!!) and to whom they assigned two guards to spend 24 hours a day with him to protect him from poachers. He eventually died of old age. There was also a stuffed animal we hadn't seen on safari because it only lives in the Congo - an okapi. It is most closely related to the giraffe but has zebra stripes!! They had tons of stuffed animals and the most impressive bird collection I could possibly imagine. As in it took me 5 minutes to walk from one end of the room to the other and I didn't stop to look at anything! There was also some interesting displays on traditions that take place at various life stages, as well as traditions like medicine men. I found the section on colonialism particularly interesting, and it made me think of other places I have been like Penang which have a very similar look to them. Kenya also apparently has the oldest and best collection of prehistoric human remains, so evolution also had it's own room. Creepy how closely our skeletons compare to chimps!

Next up was the city tour, which was basically just driving around downtown. Much smaller than I would have thought and very few tall buildings. Most large buildings were government. We drove past the US embassy which was bombed in 1998 and my driver told me an interesting but scary story; he was just a couple blocks away when it happened and his car was thrown up in the air then he hid on the car floor convinced the world was ending. We didn't stop anywhere really - not because it was unsafe but because there was really nothing to see. We did stop at the Kenyatta International Conference Center (KICC) because it's the second tallest building in Kenya and the tallest you're allowed to go up (27 floors). I went up to see the views, but guess what!? There were another hundred school girls up there! One asked if she could touch my hair - I said okay but only if I could touch hers too. Interesting request!

Last stop was a very touristy market which was crap really, in a parking lot in the baking sun. I found someone to make Mitch a custom gift (his love of monkeys and baboons is not widely shared here, and nothing can be found depicting them) but this was a large mistake. Not only do I not really like what I got (sorry Mitchie, will keep looking) but it was very annoying waiting for it with everyone else trying to sell me things. Not a good end to the tour!

So, I came back to the hotel and enjoyed an afternoon by the pool! Tomorrow I'm very excited to be flying to Mombasa (coast of Kenya) to stay in what appears to be a gorgeous resort that I somehow booked at a steal. I'll believe it when I see it but I'm very optimistic! For my mom and anyone else wondering where all these places are, firstly I am on the east coast of Africa, and secondly here is a map with a lot of the places I have been: the crater, Lake Manyara, the Serengeti, Zanzibar, Nairobi, Masai Mara, Mombasa, Arusha!!! And for those wondering how I have time to write so much while in Africa - exploring Nairobi alone at night is not inline with "being safe" so I have some time on my hands!

Nairobi for Tourists and Children

2011-06-28T14:18:00.001-04:00

Part Two of my adventures started today. AE flew home last night and should be landing around now, and I'm happy and safe in a great hotel in Nairobi called the Fairview. It's on five acres of land, has four restaurants, a big pool nicer than the one in Zanzibar (although with highs of 18 it isn't very inviting) and much appreciated by me, a gym. It's been a lot of eating and sitting, with the result that I've enthusiastically been at the gym three times in the last 24 hours. I'm writing this after enjoying a sushi dinner and sitting in front of a real fire with a latte and listening to a great pianist in the hotel atrium.

Beyond enjoying the hotel, I saw the side of Nairobi today that I venture is reserved for tourists and for local school children, who were at all of the places I visited en masse. I really liked the driver that met me at the airport so I scheduled him in for a day of sightseeing today and for a city tour tomorrow.

We started at Daphne Sheldrick's Elephant Orphanage, located in the Nairobi Game Park which is pretty much inside the city. The orphanage takes in baby elephants from just a week old to two years, who are orphaned because of poachers or because they fell into a well and couldn't get out. Babies need milk until they are two, and so they would otherwise die. They keep them in the orphanage until they are between two and three and then spend several years reintroducing them into the wild, before they are accepted by a wild herd. It's really a cool story and apparently a very successful program.

Visitors are only allowed between 11 and 12, for one of the feeding sessions. The rest of the day the elephants are in the national park accompanied by a handler each, who acts like their family. Handlers even sleep with the elephants every night to provide company and because they have to give them bottles of milk every three hours!! They currently have twelve elephants and they came out six at a time for feeding. As they got close to the feeding area they stampeded to their bottles. Very cute.

They also take in orphaned black rhinos, but the baby they had was too "playful" to bring out, and the other one they have is six years old and blind....I visited him (Maxwell) in his pen.

Our next stop was the giraffe centre which was founded to protect and help foster the development of the endangered Rothschild Giraffe. In 1973, there were only 130 of these giraffes living in all of Africa (and only in one part of Kenya) but this breeding program has expanded the number to only 400. I guess it's hard to get giraffes to mate...it's also an educational center now for all the school children.

The reason I went is that (a) I really like giraffes, and (b) you can get really close to them and feed them from your hand!! I fed one named Jock and he was very nice. Their tongues are super weird. You take a bunch of little dog food pellets and just cup your hand and they bend down and their very long and strong tongue (think like a big snake) wraps around your entire (entire!!) hand and like sucks out the food. I looked it up - their tongues are 18 to 21 inches! They are sticky and leave a long trail of saliva attached between their mouths and your hand when they stand back up. I got to feed Jock from both the ground and the observation deck for maximum picture effectiveness. Unfortunately the pics are all on my camera so will have to wait to be shared! The whole visit was only 20 minutes, and not a must-see unless you're a giraffe fanatic!

My adventures were not yet over! Next stop was a very nice but touristy shopping center in a big house where all the rooms had different themed things. I looked very hard to find a mask or something for Mitch but nothing was quite right. Luckily I have many more weeks to look! I checked out a nice cafe there they had for lunch though.

Next stop after that was at the Kazuri beads factory. I hadn't heard of them but apparently they are well known handmade beads and pottery. They employ disadvantaged people, mostly single mothers, and you could watch them make all stages of the beads and they had a really nice store where I finally found something I liked! After looking it up online I should have bought a lot more...my $16 necklace would cost $80 at home it seems!

But the excursions weren't over yet! The next stop was the Bomas of Kenya, a cultural music and dance show that is put on every day in an amphitheater and celebrates and educates on the heritage of all of Kenya's tribes. I figured if it's good enough to support that kind of audience I should check it out. You'd think I'd have learnt my lesson at the cultural show in Chiang Mai...it was pretty painful and only mildly interesting. Lots of traditional music and instruments and costumes and dancing, but at 90 minutes it was a bit long. 101 six year old boys were in the audience (I had time to count them) and at least 50 thirteen year old girls....they all went nuts when they played this song "jambo rafiki" that we've been hearing everywhere and started to sing along and dance in their seats, so I guess at least the show was authentic!

I got out of there as soon as it was over and was back at the hotel by 5pm to enjoy the evening here! And enjoyable it has been!

Ras Nungwi, Zanzibar

2011-06-26T12:36:00.001-04:00

We are approaching the end of our almost four days in a beach resort in Zanzibar. There hasn't been much to report because we have been so busy doing nothing. Nothing that is except eating, sitting on the beach, reading, and playing scrabble and crazy eights. The views are beautiful - we have an ocean view front porch, and the water is brilliant, but the beach is not good for either walking or swimming - too short and full of seaweed and coral and rocks. Hard to beat the Florida beaches for us. The food has been incredible - lots of seafood with an Indian influence, and great fruit deserts (mango carpaccio with lemon sorbet).

Tomorrow we fly back to Nairobi in the evening, and ae heads home while I stay to explore the city and continue the adventures. Here are a couple of pics from the last three days!

Also tried to take a pic of ae's foot - has been badly eaten by bugs, spiders, and ants. Fortunately for you all the light isn't good enough at the moment. It's pretty bad though.

Enough for tonight - we are enjoying an easy listening band while we wait for the drums to summon us to dinner. I'd Rather Be a Hammer Than a Nail seems to be a big hit here.

Stone Town, Zanzibar

2011-06-26T09:06:00.001-04:00

Our first full day in Zanzibar we had a private tour of Stone Town, the main city on the islands. (Zanzibar is actually an archipelago of many small islands, the largest is called Unguja which is where we are staying.) Our guide's name was Mohammed (95% of Zanzibar is Muslim in contrast to Tanzania's large Christian population) but he said to call him Eddie, as in Eddie Murphy. He looked nothing like Eddie Murphy, but coincidentally the porter at the hotel was wearing a yellow Arabic outfit and looked exactly like Eddie Murphy in Coming to America. He was only missing the princely lock!

A lot of the tour was devoted to the slave trade. Zanzibar was the hub on the east coast of Africa, and the slaves were sent to India and the Middle East. We saw the area of the slave markets and visited the underground holding areas which were as depressing as you would think they would be. Here is a picture of a memorial statue outside the Anglican church which was built at the site of the slave market. The alter is at the spot where the whipping post used to be.

Had an extensive tour of a museum in the House of Wonders, which was a sultans palace (Omani influence). It was called the House of Wonders because it was the biggest house in East Africa and the first with running water and electricity and an elevator. Today it houses a museum where we had a very extensive tour showcasing the history of the Swahili people. My favorite fun fact was that everyone in Zanzibar learns to read Arabic fluently because they read the Qu'aran in it. AE's fun fact is that the Swahili people build their beds ridiculously high so they have storage space underneath (because their houses are so small), which explains the beds we have been experiencing while in Zanzibar.

We also saw the Forodhani Gardens Market where we had purchased sugar cane juice the evening before (and which ae swears has further contributed to her need for Immondium). It's just an area where they cook and sell fresh seafood, but it looked even too scummy for me to try. However we saw another market which was much larger and included a fresh fish section, a fruit and vegetable section, and a live chicken section. AE also loved that experience.

Note to daddy: can't believe you ate fish from a market like this in Japan. No wonder you got sick! (says ae)

Next to the House of Wonders is the oldest building in Stone Town - an old fort originally built by the Portuguese. Shaggy (yes, good old Shaggy) was playing there on Friday night. We were disappointed to be missing him by one day. I'm sure it would have been a wild party inside the fort. Mitchell, this would be where you would work if you were Zanzibari.

On a further musical note we saw the home of Freddy Mercury, which was more exciting to ae. We also saw the smallest street which was less than a meter wide.

Stone Town is famous for the wooden doors scattered though out the town, with different shapes for Indian, Arab, and African doors. Most are made of teak or mahogany and although they are interesting you tire of them pretty quickly! Every building in Stone Town must be made out of corral and be white. Also no dogs allowed on the streets. Still quite dirty.

We retired to our hotel to wash our feet in the pool and wait for our driver to take us to Ras Nungwi at the northern end of the main island, which is where we are now finishing the joint portion of the trip.

Toilet paper, missionaries and musicians ...... Oh, my!

2011-06-25T06:01:00.001-04:00

Hi. Auntie Em here. I know you've all read the blog about Serengeti under canvas, but there is an untold part of the story. We had not one, not two, but three misunderstandings about the use of toilet paper in our tent toilets. First of all you have to understand that when you arrive at these luxury camps, one of the first things that happens (of course after you have been greeted with singing, warm towels, and a welcome drink) is that your personal butler takes you to your room and shows you where to find everything. Of course in the case of the tents, there was much more to explain....a crucial part being proper toilet procedures. After each of our respective butlers had shown us around, Emily and I met for a drink. We seemed to have different interpretations of the "toilet rules".

Misunderstanding number 1: I was told not to flush any toilet paper, and that it should all be discarded separately into this little brown box (which i thought was extremely small, and i thought the whole thing was a little strange), which your butler would collect each time they straightened up your tent. (Wow, what a job, big tip required there!). So, i had my pee and dutifully put my pee-soaked toilet paper into the little box. Then after discussing the events with emily, i realized that the little brown box should have contained a supply of small brown paper bags, and it was into these bags that we were supposed to put the toilet paper...so i had to run quickly back to my tent to beat the butler there before he could discover my faux-pas and get completely grossed out by me!

Misunderstanding number 2: Emily thought her butler said to use the paper bags for "other items", and not to flush them. She thought toilet paper was ok to flush, and had already flushed some down by the time we had met up to discuss all of this. It came as no surprise to me later when she told me that her toilet had not flushed adequately!!

Misunderstanding number 3: Emily thought each "occurrence" of toilet paper use should be stashed in a separate bag. However, my butler had explained that you fill the bag, then start another one if necessary. Emily had used half the camp's supply of bags before I had a chance to clarify things to her!!

Anyway, we got it all figured out in the end.

On to the missionaries....
It was our last dinner in the serengeti....another romantic, candle-lit dinner for the two of us....we had just been discussing that after twenty-plus game drives, many starting at 6 in the morning, we could finally sleep in. The ranger approached our table....he would be coming to tell us what time we were leaving for the air strip in the morning...we figured around 9 or so.....but no, he told us we would have time for another game drive on the way to the airport, but we had to be up at 6 again!!! I was very excited....Emily, at this point, has had enough game drives to last a lifetime, and would prefer to sleep, but she could sense my elation at the prospect of one more safari!!!!

So off we went in the morning.....but not just the two of us as usual.....this time we had a family of four missionaries from Tampa with us!!!! The pastiest group I have ever seen. Not a surprise when we witnessed them entering a toilet tent to douse themselves with a complete spray can of number 75 sun screen!!! The two kids, likely in their early teens, were two of the weirdest kids I've ever met.....they are going to have problems in life for sure.....when we first saw them approaching, we saw the mom and the son together and we thought they were a nice lesbian couple.

Anyway, off we went. We knew we were in trouble when we had to stop for about twenty minutes for them to photograph some mongoose, which resembled rats as they poked their heads out from an old termite mound. I mean, really, people, this is the /:)$(;:/($ serengeti......and they wanted to see mongoose and were also eerily interested in mice and ants!!! The drive wasn't a total waste, though, as we ended up getting within about 10 feet of both a huge hippo wallowing in the mud and two male lions having a little siesta!

On we went to the air strip to catch our flight to Zanzibar ..... Which leads to the musicians:

First there was the Indian sounding band that played outside before dinner.....almost enjoyable until one of them started to sing!! Very bad. I couldn't help but think of Russell peters and I found it a bit humorous! I know, that is very bad of me, but he could have done a great imitation!!!

Then we went to dinner, and just as we finished our appetizers I spotted them.....the dreaded restaurant-roaming musicians!!! Needless to say a few uncomfortable moments while we smiled and attempted to look interested.....luckily I'd had the foresight to order some wine.

Well, those are just a few "side stories".........

Serengeti Under Canvas — June 23

2011-06-24T06:57:00.001-04:00

We've just finished three nights "camping" in the western Serengeti. Check out these pictures and judge for yourself the degree of camping we had to do!

There was also an amazing bucket shower attached to the back...we both agreed it was the best shower of the trip. Our ranger Mohammed called ahead at the end of each game drive and it was filled with the perfect temperature water waiting for us.

The cool thing about this lodge is that they move around and try to locate near the Great Migration. So it's amazing that they can set up such a nice abode and keep it mobile. The slightly less cool thing is that they didn't really know where the wildebeest were, because they can't drive off road in the Serengeti, and the lack of rain this year made them move out of the western region more quickly than usual. Sometimes they even have to rely on pilots to know where they are! That being said, we were still able to drive a bit and catch some of the straggling herds. They run around in single file, wherever they smell the rain. We saw a couple instances of thundering hooves, but mostly they just mill around and eat. We were hoping to get to see some of them cross the Grumetti River, but weren't so lucky. Maybe just as well, since the river banks are very steep and many break their legs going down and are at the mercy of their predators. One of the neat / unfortunate things about being at the tail end of the migration is that you see the ones that were left behind and not going to make it. Definitely sad, but a true glimpse of the circle of life...and of lots of very ugly vultures eating.

On a more positive note we also saw some very cute lion cubs playing and fighting, snapping thorny branches into each other's faces, wrestling, etc. We watched them until we had to go meet up with the other guests for a surprise drink and snack in the middle of the Serengeti. Today we also got very close to two very large male lions. I'm talking like 4 or 5 meters. When the one by my window started doing these very large yawns and got up, my fear of elephants was almost eclipsed. But not quite!

We escaped unharmed and left the beauty of the Serengeti, the amazing food, and the fantastic service of our two butlers Osman and Josephat for our two flights that brought us to Zanzibar. AE got to sit up front in the copilot seat which she really enjoyed, for the first flight. The second flight had a (very strange) group of 6 also from Toronto! And at the same airport we saw a lady wearing the Disney Princess Half Marathon shirt we both have. AND while I'm on the topic, I forgot to mention that the last time we were in the Arusha airport a week ago we ran into two of my friends from HBS (Joey and Julia) on their honeymoon! That was pretty cool!

Anyways, we are in Stone Town now staying at a lovely hotel overlooking the ocean and with a great pool. We strolled around a bit today and each managed to find a useful souvenir with our favorite animal on it - zebras for ae and giraffes for me. Tomorrow we are heading to the northern part of the island after a guided tour of Stone Town! In the meantime we are enjoying some live music from our amazing balcony (free upgrade!)

Animals of Ngorogoro Crater

2011-06-19T11:54:00.001-04:00

Today we had an 8 hour game drive into the crater and had some pretty amazing animal encounters. We spotted a cheetah right off the bat, which is amazing because only four live in the crater. She wasn't doing much so we moved on. Tons of zebras and wildebeest super close up, including some very cute babies.

The stars of today were the lions though. First we saw some cubs, the two males sleeping - we came back hours and hours later and they still hadn't moved - and then we saw four lionesses getting ready to hunt! We waited and waited - over half an hour - as they slowly approached a warthog. Poor guy was downwind so couldn't smell them, and has bad eyes so couldn't see them - and they got super close to him, all four of them. Maybe 10 meters! And they were ready to pounce, all tensed up like springs....and our guide said they were waiting for him to turn his back....and he finally did...and they let him walk away! We have no idea what they were thinking, except that they must be bad hunters!

A bunch of cars had gathered by this time. There is very little shade on the crater floor, and it's very sunny, so sometimes the lions lie in the shade of the cars. One was lying right outside my window! I could have pet it (I did not) or she could have jumped in my window (she did not). Anyways it was amazing.

After that we had a very fantastic picnic lunch at the hippo pool, spotted a black rhino napping, and saw a herd of elephants on the way out of the crater (one was looking at me funny, I am not yet over my very rational fear of elephants).

When we got back to our rooms a hot bubble bath was magically waiting for us. They were both very much needed and enjoyed!

We are meeting soon for special drinks and then to be in a "parade" with the other guests somewhere for a special celebration. It is freezing here when the sun goes down (pants, fleece, jacket, a hat would be nice) so I hope they don't make us stay outside for too long! Tomorrow we are headed to the Serengeti where we are hoping to catch the Great Migration. Not expecting to have Internet there, so will give a full report (of course....you are dealing with two very thorough people here) in a few days!

Happy Father's Day!!

Ngorogoro Crater

2011-06-18T14:44:00.001-04:00

Lake Manyara Tree Lodge ended with a bang - on our way out this morning we saw a bunch of lionesses and cubs eating a buffalo. Very cool, especially when one started playing with the intestines. We are now at the Ngorogoro Crater Lodge which is insanely beautiful. No point even trying to describe - let's just say you shouldn't worry about us for a few days!

We had our first game drive in the crater today - spectacular. New kind of car - has to be closed in in the crater, but they pop the roof and you stick your head out real safari style! Saw some lions, flamingos, hyenas, jackals, cheetah, tons of stuff. They have pink flamingos here! Tomorrow we will be searching for the black rhinos...here are just a couple pictures to give you a flavor of this place!

We were surrounded by wildebeest for the first time here. They make a sound like a cow crossed with a pig, and look like someone made them from all then other animals combined, so they call them "spare parts" here. Also, they call the warthog the Ngorogoro Express because they are always running somewhere! We hope to see 1.5 million of these wildebeests in the Serengeti in a couple days!

Lake Manyara Tree Lodge Day Two - June 17

2011-06-17T07:56:00.001-04:00

Joint blog here. Awesome morning. Adam brought our coffee and tea to our rooms. Armed with our binoculars and cameras we embarked on our private safari. Within 5 minutes we met a large elephant blocking our path on the road. We filmed and photographed him from a distance of about 20 feet. Just at the moment AE turned off her camera he took a half step backwards, began waving his trunk vigorously and then took 2.5 very quick steps towards the jeep, stopping only about 1 meter away from the front of the car, scaring Emily to death. She literally had visions of his trunk knocking the jeep over and her mom being really mad she got herself killed. Just yesterday on the phone her mother told her that elephants are not friendly. Even if they look nice. (But she is also afraid of Ben the dog so we took no heed. As usual, she was right.) Our ranger Malley spent the rest of the day imitating Emily saying "Oh my God." Apparently this happens all the time. We simply quickly backed up a few meters and waited for the elephant to move so we could continue our safari. It was called a "mock charge".

Our next encounter was a group of about seven giraffes, all men. Two of them were having an argument. We don't know about what. They fight by winding up and swinging their necks and each other, making a loud thud as they strike each other with their horns. Quite interesting but looked painful.

Then we stopped for a picnic breakfast at a hot springs where the water can be up to 60 degrees C. While we were testing the water temperature with our fingers, Malley was setting up our breakfast table. The usual fare. Delicious but AE was afraid to put anything in her stomach that might come out instantly liquid. She has been having some trouble. (Based on Emily's experience in Thailand, she is now treating it with shots of liquor.)

Back in the jeep to continue our adventure. Soon we spotted three hippos out of the "water" with two more walking over to join them. Upon closer inspection we realized there were 43 more wallowing in the thick nasty mud ("water"). They were pretty neat, blowing bubbles and such.

When we got back, Emily tried to have a nap but was a bit scared of all the noises. She thought she heard an elephant outside of her room. So she invited AE over to read on her deck and keep guard. Not an effective idea. (first AE had to wait for Adam to deliver her drink.) As soon as AE arrived she spotted the elephant just on the other side of Emily's outdoor shower and became very excited, ruining any prospect for a nap. So we are now sitting and enjoying drinks and the sounds of elephants and baboons and monkeys and birds on Emily's balcony as we wait for lunch.

UPDATE!!
CHECK OUT THIS VIDEO!!
Make sure your speakers are on!
It was taken from my deck right in front of my room!
Click here!