February 24th.
Another tardy post. Time has been going by very fast on our adventure. We spend a lot of time on the road doing either safari, or driving between parks/lodges. Anyway, I type tonight with the obligatory delayed posting from the SOPA lodge in the Serengeti National park in Tanzania. I aploogize for the long time between what will be many posts, as they chard ridiculous rates as I have said before.

We didn't see much today other than a sleeping leopard at a great distance, and a hyena so fat his belly nearly dragged on the ground. The Serengeti however is really an impressive isolated place to be. The view this evening as the sun set was nothing short of spectacular.

The previous two nights were at the Sopa Lodge at the rim of the Ngorongoro Crater. It is perched at 7800 feet on the rim of a crater that was a former volcanic caldera. It is about 15 miles across, and again a stunning site to see. We spent a good part of the day in the crater itself, and saw a Black Rhino. Again at a long distance, but an impressive animal to see in the wild none the less. We also had the imprinting on our minds (ranging from 8 to 47) of a couple of Baboons "getting it on" about 20 feet in front of our vehicle. Some may have been scared by this site as it was quite a blatant display that happened quited unannounced in front of us. Kelly was the only one who missed it. This was evident by the fact that she repeated several times "what? What is it?" The rest of us stood with our mouths dropped stunned unable to answer. The only thing missing was some cheesy porno music! The Baboons as you may well know have really nasty backsides to them. The males are frequently playing with themselves as well, often tugging on their appendage and playing it like an air guitar for the benefit of any who will watch. I can only assume that they think we do, as they frequently do it when you just drive up much like a greeting. JAMBO!

Leaving the crater this morning, we stopped by the archaeological site of the Dr's Leaky who discover 3.5 million year old missing link fossils. It was an interesting diversion en route to our current location. The guide at the museum who gave us the lecture apologized to anyone who was a creationist among us as it was clearly just not possible given the evidence available that the earth is only 5000 years old.

February 20th. I apologize for the reverse order of things, but am just getting these previous writings posted. This was written on the 20th.

Yesterday was memorably painful. I awoke in the morning having been visited by montazuma's African cousin. COLOBLO. As all Swahili words end with a vowel, the N and W were dropped from the English words "colon blow"when this African deity was named. To make matters worse (Much worse) we drove for a grueling seven hours over REALLY bumpy roads causing me to go into lactic acidosis from colon cramps. When we arrived at our destination below Mount Kilimanjaro, I was completely exhausted and in a sweat from the long battle with my own sphincter. I Immediately ran to the closest bathroom where I severely mistreated the facilities and the surrounding air for a Kilometer. Kelly was relentless in her comments about being unable to breath the air in our room for a couple of hours. I felt absolutely ill that night with aches and chills, and severe whinitis. Thankfully though the powers of Immodium, pepto bismol, and a few rounds of worship to COLOBLO in the sacred bathrooms (which Kelly will tell amplify sound greatly), I awoke this morning significantly improved and by mid day was back to normal.
We did another game drive this evening, and the excitement of seeing a baboon, giraffe, or zebras has waned some. For those animals the only thing that can improve their beauty for us would be to see one of them chased down and eaten. Nothing personal.

Well today was the last day of our safari. We are currently in Lake Manyara in Tanzania. We part ways tomorrow, with Steketee and crew off to Zanzibar, and Kelly and I off to Victoria Falls for two nights (one lay over night in Johanasburg tomorrow the 27th). Internet connectivity has been difficult at best and probably won't improve until we get to Cape Town. To make matters worse the pre-typed blogs for previous days are trapped in this micosoft machine until we have time to fix the problem. Likewise, we have had two camera failures (one broken and another possibly needing a new battery) and are down to one (Video and good stills that I can transfer to this computer yet) until we can get to civilization, so any photos we send will be before this week if we get enough time to upload some.

Those difficulties aside, we have been having a lot of fun and have been exposed to the genitalia of more animal than we expected. We have now witnessed (hard to turn away) Baboons, Lions, elephants, monkeys, and gazelles procreating. Any notion that I thought I would ever have to tell Kelly about the birds and the bees is has been addressed on this trip! I will need to tell her though that there is some intimacy involved with humans, and not only time for business. This is apartenly true in the animal kingdom.

Here is a photo of a Rhino and its calf. Sort of wild. Transplanted from South Africa to the park it is in. Lake ??? I will correct that later! Blurry photo of a leopard. Didn't know it was that bad. Will correct that later too! Anyway, I got to turn this over to Kelly.....

February 17th and 18th. Well we have had a day an one half of safari and have seen a lot of animals. A highlight yesterday was over 100 elephants in view at one time. Really stunning, and our guide of 17 years said

he had never seen so many in one place in this area. very impressive to say the least. All of us including the children were particularly impressed by the 5th leg of one of the elephants..... Holy crap! That appendage was nearly as big a whole person. We have also seen a lot of poo, in fact, we have come up with over 20 words for excrement, and have concluded that the English language has more words to describe poo (pardon the pun) than any other language we can think of.

CRAP, DROPPINGS, SH_T, CACA, #2, WASTE, DUMP, EXCREMENT, GUANO, POOP, POO, POO-POO, GROWLER, FECES, B.M. (bowel movement), SCAT, TURD, MANURE, TOILET PAINT, DOO DOO, FERTILIZER, RECYCLING, GROUND PASTRY'S (cow pies generalized), ROAD APPLES, STOOL, and probably many more.

In addition to elephants, we have seen a variety of hoofed animals, Hippos, Giraffes, warthogs, lions, cheetahs, various birds, and have over a week of safari left. It is certainly something to be able to see these animals in their natural environment first hand. It is remarkable how they all share the same space. That depends of course on whether or not you are prey or predator!

We traveled today the (19th) to lake Nakaru. The vistas here have been stunning. Our lodging has been very nice everywhere. Excessive really, but we haven't minded. The food has been generally quite good as well. However, as we are captives in lodges that are in national parks, anything extra costs plenty such as $4 beers, and $20-30/hour Internet access, which is so slow that it is impractical for using for blogging. I would put that as the only negative so far given the significant expense of this trip already invested. That aside, the weather has been prefect. Not too hot, and an occasional rain squall that comes through. Our current location is much dryer however, and we don't expect rain here. JK

Jombo, Jombo, Jombo (Hello, Hello, Hello).
We have arrived safely in Nairobi Kenya. We were fortunate to have secured a separate row for each of us on the plane, and so we each got 2-3 hours of sleep by laying down (as much as you can at 6 foot 2 inches on three plane seats) for our 10 p.m. four and a half hour flight.
The guy behind us in customs used to live in Salem (Battle Creek area), and had been to Ketchikan, so w e sat with him and his friend for an hour or so waiting for another plane with two of our companions at the airport. A pleasant visit. They were both on vacation from Cairo where they are learning Arabic and living. Certainly have had more opportunities for conversation since we began our travels to Kenya.
The weather has been fabulous our first day herre, and the accommodations have been very pleasant. Saw a few huge birds on the way from the airport but that is all of the animals so far. We are after all in a city of 3 million. In contrast to Cairo with its stagnant air, there is a cool breeze here, and the sky and clouds are brilliant. In the city at least the streets are clean and there is very little litter to be seen. A very nice change from Cairo for us green minded travelers. Anyway, I include for you a couple of photos from our little oasis here in Nairobi, and the group of eight that we now are. Needless to say, we are very much looking forward to our coming days of adventure, and will do our first safari late tomorrow afternoon….. JK

February 13th

Well we have made it back to Cairo and are holed up in our room catching up on email and bloging. I was feeling cash poor becuase you have to tip (or at least it is expected) at the airport porters, the taxi driver, the hotel porters, our "handler" and for meals etc. I didn't anticipate the sheer number of $2-$5 tips never mind the suggested $10-$15/day for the guides. I joked with Kelly that I came to SEE EGYPT not BUY it. We have had to wrestle our bags from porters at the curbs as we don't mind bringing our own bags (one each with wheels no less) into hotels and airports! Anyway it this was ironic as if you have been with me from the begining, my friends who we will meet up with in two days in Nairobi emailed for money and everyone thought it was a joke! I suggested that they may just have callous friends which turned out to be the case!

Anyway, my ATM hasn't worked and I was becoming very worried before American Express came to the rescue. I didn't use my cell phone as it is very expensive, and was able to call them using Skype. If you haven't used Skype you don't know what you are missing. Anyway, I was able to get a transfusion, and not have all of my friends laughing at my desperate cries for help as a joke from the Kenyan scammers!

We are just hanging out today and tomorrow and getting rested for the red eye to Nairobi Kenya tomorrow at 10 p.m. to 4 a.m. That will be fun.

We will hope for scattered email access while on Safari if I don't post before then.

I leave you with a couple of shots from Aswan. JK

February 12th

We were in Aswan all day today. We toured a couple of ruins, one of which was by motor boat to an island between the old and new dams. This temple (and over a dozen others I am told) was moved when the newer “high dam” was built. It was reconstructed exactly as it was in its current location. The trip on the water was fun and the air is much cleaner here. There were again a lot of boats and so another traffic jam on water though. And this is the low season! We then went and saw the “High Dam” which had replaced the “lower dam” here in Aswan that was built in 1902 or so. The new dam is the only functioning one on the Nile River, and is very (nearly 900 meters) at its base. Much different than dams in the U.S. Enough about the damn dams.
In the afternoon we went to a botanical garden again by boat. This time it was by a sail boat called a Felucca (sp?). It was a pleasant ride in a sail boat and the cleanest air we have breathed all trip. Very quiet, and a highlight for me. Sadly, there is a lot of litter in the Nile, and the felucca brought us a lot closer to it. The banks up close are well lined with garbage… People just throw garbage on the road or in the river at least half of the time. Pretty disgusting really, and you would think that people who depend on this mighty river would take better care of it.
I didn’t read much about the history before coming. First the Egyptians ruled starting somewhere around 2500 B.C. with up to 300 gods to worship, than the Greeks with their gods followed by the Romans with theirs. Finally the Arabic people around 600 A.D. came and now about 85% of Egypt is Muslim, and 15% Christian. I didn’t mention the English occupation, or the Germans in WWII. It is amazing how many times Egypt has been occupied by foreign forces and religions including to this day.
It would be hard from my astute perspective (A militant agnostic…. I don’t know and you don’t either) to come and tell people this history (as our Egyptologist guides have), and discount the validity of the Egyptian religion as they seem to do, while not questioning their own. Near as I can tell the ancient Egyptians had a great system of governing if nothing else (gods and religion aside) that must have been fair to the people to have survived for thousands of years. If it were not for the ability of a superior force to conquer a civilization and impose its belief systems I suspect that they would still be around today. Anyway, we are back to Cairo tomorrow, and hopefully I can post these finally.

Pictures: our stateroom decoration by our attendant, and the type of boats and scene of the sailing trip to the botanical garden island in Aswan.

February 11th

We made it from Luxor to Edfu over night. We went through the the only set of locks (at least that is what they tell us) on the Nile just north of Edfu at 1 a.m. I think. It was hard to know because there were antelope running up and down the hall outside of our state room all night making it difficult to know if I was conscious or not. Needless to say the continuous migration in the middle of the night did a fair job of preventing us (me at least) from sleeping. I do recall opening the window at about at about that time though, and seeing a concrete wall moving by slowly. I think that was the lock. I would have liked to have seen the locks, but we had a 7:00 a.m. start today, and given the sheer number of boats in line to go through them at 11 P.M. when we had arrived, I figured it was going to be 3:00 a.m. or later so we went to bed.
The antelope in this case were a half dozen children taking shifts running back and forth in the hall outside of our room. They had to be taking turns, because it was nearly a continuous rumble for several hours. Did I mention that they were also screaming like howler monkeys at over 110 decibels too? Apartently it is a culturally acceptable thing to be as annoying as possible between the ages of 5 and 10 in Egypt. It turns out that this two week period is a school break, so about half of our ship is native Egyptians. This troup of children (if it is fair to call them that) reminds me of the Lord of the Flies! They showed no respect for others as near as I can tell, and their parents have done nothing to restrain them.

For a time yesterday, I had feared that these monsters (if I had called them Antelope earlier, I stand corrected, what I meant to say was heyinas) had killed their own parents because the partents were nowhere to be seen while I was running on a treadmill in the small exersize room on the ship whilst the mob climbed on and abused the remaining exersize equipment around me. I imagined that I was next….. This especially seemed true when I realized that they had chased everyone else off. Only then had I realized that I had been thinned from the herd.
On the entertaining side, when we arrived to the locks (it was semi-dark with only lighting from the locks and surrounding city), venders came out in small boats and pelted us with stuff they wanted us to buy, and again asked me how many camels for my daughter. Our mistake was to open the large sliding glass door on our stateroom as this allowed the unsolicited (unless opening a window is a solicitation...) pelting to begin. By pelting I mean that there was an almost immediate hail of unwanted merchandise flying through our window. What makes this more remarkable is the fact that our window is probably 20 feet off of the water, and yet they never missed. Each of them had one arm that was twice as big as the other. This of course was their throwing arm. Anyway, it was entertaining for the first 5 minutes...

The barganing was feirce and our will weakened from the near head shots as the stuff hurtled into our room. We were finally able to ward off the artillery (by bocking the window and throwing stuff back faster than they could get in the window pleading "We don't want anything" "Please don't throw anymore!" and "no thank you" in rapid succesion. When the tide was turned in our favor we quickley closed our window. Whew!

The photo is of the woman who thinks Kelly is a rock star, and her children (and others?) who were the Antelope. Sorry I meant Heyinas. Looking at the picture now maybe they were all her children. Is it possible that some people can reproduce every 6 months? She was actually very nice so no malice intended. The other photo is one of the twin pylons at one of the many temple that we have visited. More to come....

February 10th

We were delayed in our departure from Luxor by high winds today, (Tuesday February 10th). Only by an hour or so. Apparently the police here limit river traffic in high wind conditions which I would say were a steady 20 mph going across the river with a lot of dust in the air. When the word go came; 50 or more boats left all at once. All of them are similar in size (probably 40 feet wide and 200 feet long) and you can imagine the mayhem. It is probably a common occurrence but for us a treat to watch. It was like watching a race get started. First one to the locks (we have to go through a set of locks today) is the first one through them or at least in good position in the line. We had to go under the only bridge in Luxor after about 5 miles and everyone was jockeying for positions. It became essentially a game of chicken. We had another huge boat like our own at times not more than 20 feet off of either side as we approached the bridge with only room for two in our passage. I can proudly say that our captain (insane or has no peripheral vision) won, and one of the boats had to slow VERY hard to miss the bridge pylon. It was a zoo as no other I have ever seen in a maritime sense, and I am surprised that there is still a bridge here. I of course couldn’t understand them, but the captains and crew were screaming very angrily at one another. Easy to hear the anger when they are only 20 feet away. Pretty funny. I can only surmise that our captain is deaf as well. I guess you had to be there…..
Of note, I am typing this from the ship. If you are reading this, it means that our captain has delivered us safely. I must stop now as I have to brace myself for a potential collision!
I have decided to type these ahead of time because the internet connections have been very slow and spotty in availability. Another thing that we take for granted. Each picture has taken about 10 minutes to post for our blogs which has been frustrating at best.
Anyway, we are having a great time thus far. Tah Tah. JK

Luxor Feb 9th and 10th

We are in Luxor, sitting in a McDonalds where there is free wifi. McDonalds in Egypt! Don't worry we are not eating here, just coffee and blogging.
Our "cruise ship" is pretty nice. I will send photos when we get out on the river and can see one that looks like it. If you want you can google "Queen of Hansa" and find it. We thought we were special until we saw over 100 boats like it here tied along shore. Over 400 of them on the river Iam told. Luxor is a 90% tourism based economy. Yesterday we went to the Valley of the kings, Karnac temple, Luxor temple, and others. It made for a long day. In any event the ruins are truely amazing engineering feats. I have been impressed, and they have left a memory imprint that should last.
Kelly has been a bit of a Rock star at times among some local youth. She blushes well. Others, (rude youth/middle aged men) are asking me how many camels I want for her. I keep trying to get 10, but they only will come to 8 camels so far through hard barganing. I will try harder today. Some of the local vendors (we call them predators or vultures) are rabid. It is as if they haven't eaten meat in weeks! Similar to Mexico experiences at times.
On a high note (for me anyway). We as yet have had no gastrointestinal distress. What I like to refer to as "spray painting the toilet" has not visited either of us. We have not had to start our malaria drugs yet, so perhaps that will change! Can't wait.

I have had one alcoholic beverage here. The shaking has stopped. I include a photo of a satisfied customer drinking a foul lauger (not my favorite). They may have invented beer in Egypt, but they certainly didn't perfect it! Any port in a storm for a thirsty bloke! More to come. Cheers..... JK

Well we have been in Cairo for a day now. The flight was uneventful, and we made our connections and contacts as planned. However the Jet lag is still washing away. We are now poised to go to the pyramids tomorrow. From there it is back to the airport (oh fun!) for a short flight to Luxor where the following day we begin down the nile river. I don't know what Internet access we will have there. In fact, if you are reading this blog it is because we got Ruth to paste it from an email as we couldn't access it. Anyway, we staying near the pyramids (we can see them 1/3 mile away) which are quite impressive. If not in their size but then when you think about all of the poor souls who built them. Cairo has a lot of people, and a lot of traffic that drives at 20-30 mph with only inches between them side to side. If they will fit 8 abreast then 8 it is until it has to funnel down to fewer; and then the jockeying begins. Impressive to watch, and I am surprised all of the cars don't look like hand pounded steel. Lots of smog and litter as well. The mosques prayers and loud speakers make it easy to remember to get up at 5 a.m.... We didn't do much today other than rest and a couple of short walks. Kelly is bored and ready to do/see something as am I. We will post when we can. JK
Two for one blog. We spent the day in Cairo and toured the pyramids and the main Museum. We are now at the airport with internet access!!! so here is a post. Will try to get more soon, but am going to let kelly go first.