I type to you from Cape Town. Our final destination has been reached! We even have Internet included in our accommodations if you can believe that! Victoria Falls was truly stunning to see and experience. We arrived the first day and went straight to the falls which were right next to our hotel. It is my understanding that they are actually dry during the dry season, but the water was medium high on our visit and ROARING over 300 feet to the bottom. There was so much mist that it created a downpour of rain in most areas unlike any I have experienced. Really quite hard to describe, and as I don't have a water proof camera with me, not easy to photograph either! We are hoping to get some of our electronics back on line, so we can post photos of them. We went back the second day in just swim suits as any attempt to stay dry if you get into the thick of it would be futile with vertical, horizontal and up flowing rain driving at you from all directions. Anyway, a definite highlight for us. There is a good reason it is called the "smoke that thunders".
The second day in the morning we went white water rafting below the falls a few miles on the Zambezi River. Quite a few class 4 rapids. They said 5's for two of them but I would have to say they were 4's. Anyway, that was great for me and Kelly. We were with two English couples (50's) and one Australian gal who was probably 30. All of us were tired after hiking to the base of the canyon. Especially the older ones. One of the English gals looked absolutely terrified for most of the trip. There was no turning back after we got started down this great canyon, so I was feeling quite bad for her quivering lip frequently over the next 2 hours of rafting. We stopped to jump off of a 35 foot cliff (I was the only one to jump from that height) and Kelly and a couple of others jumped from about 15 feet. There was also a rock water slide and just a lot to see. That evening we took a rather boring evening cruise on the upper part of the river, but it was relaxing. That brings us to this morning. One more visit to the falls, and the enjoyment of eating with thieving monkey's that are warded off with limited success by staff with slingshots. They would make dashing runs across the restaurant and steal food off of tables right in front of people. Very entertaining to say the least.
Monday, March 2, 2009
Thursday, February 26, 2009
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.
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.
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.....
Saturday, February 21, 2009
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
Sunday, February 15, 2009
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
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
Friday, February 13, 2009
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
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