Up the Mountain Slowly, Very Slowly (New York Times Magazine)
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Kilimanjaro Article in NYT
I promise we'll stop posting things soon and clogging your inboxes, but the timing of this article was just too good!
Up the Mountain Slowly, Very Slowly (New York Times Magazine)
Up the Mountain Slowly, Very Slowly (New York Times Magazine)
Saturday, October 27, 2007
Wildlife Videos
A lion eating a bit of impala. (Stonybrook Game Reserve, Tanzania)
A big ol' hippo. (Lake Manyara National Park, Tanzania)
Two African Slideshows
100 of the very best shots from our trip.
A baby animal slideshow (just for you, Barb!)
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| 100 (or so) Best of Africa |
A baby animal slideshow (just for you, Barb!)
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| Baby Critters |
Friday, October 26, 2007
Ostrich Videos!
We are back in the United States safely as of last night--38 hours of travel from Zanzibar. We have plenty of pictures and videos to share. We'll start with these two from Highgate Ostrich Farm, two of the funniest videos of the whole trip.
Sarah rides an ostrich.
Feeding an ostrich
Sarah rides an ostrich.
Feeding an ostrich
Monday, October 22, 2007
Hakuna Matata!
Greetings from the sun-kissed island of Zanzibar, where we are whiling away the last few days of our African vacation on the beach. Our biggest lesson so far: go ahead and pay the absurd local prices for nice sunscreen, because the budget sunblock from Greece (!?!) on sale here appears to actually be moisturizer.
We spent our first two nights in exotic Stone Town, where the Omani influence on this island is clear--it's like you've been transported to the Middle East, circa 1850. We did some shopping, took a spice tour, and dined at a restaurant named in honor of local hero and Queen lead singer Freddie Mercury (for the record, Freddie: the restaurant stinks). We then took a very long and strange minibus journey (highlight: buying toilet seats on the way) across the island to Matemwe Beach Village. It was a lovely, low-key place, very pleasant and full of young couples. We didn't get out of the hammocks except for feedings, sailing, and cheap outdoor massages. We're now at our final stop, the Zamani Zanzibar Kempinski hotel. It is quite a place--really the lap of luxury, especially after our Kilimanjaro experience! Today we didn't manage to leave our pool chairs for seven straight hours. Very rigorous.
Red but happy, we're looking forward to being back on US soil Thursday evening, and we look forward to seeing many of you all soon (or at least talking to you on a phone call that doesn't cost $4/minute like it does in Tanzania--yikes!).
Hakuna matata!
At the Kempinski Hotel, on the east coast of Zanzibar.
Sarah skippers our boat through the warm waters of the Indian Ocean.
We spent our first two nights in exotic Stone Town, where the Omani influence on this island is clear--it's like you've been transported to the Middle East, circa 1850. We did some shopping, took a spice tour, and dined at a restaurant named in honor of local hero and Queen lead singer Freddie Mercury (for the record, Freddie: the restaurant stinks). We then took a very long and strange minibus journey (highlight: buying toilet seats on the way) across the island to Matemwe Beach Village. It was a lovely, low-key place, very pleasant and full of young couples. We didn't get out of the hammocks except for feedings, sailing, and cheap outdoor massages. We're now at our final stop, the Zamani Zanzibar Kempinski hotel. It is quite a place--really the lap of luxury, especially after our Kilimanjaro experience! Today we didn't manage to leave our pool chairs for seven straight hours. Very rigorous.
Red but happy, we're looking forward to being back on US soil Thursday evening, and we look forward to seeing many of you all soon (or at least talking to you on a phone call that doesn't cost $4/minute like it does in Tanzania--yikes!).
Hakuna matata!
At the Kempinski Hotel, on the east coast of Zanzibar.
Sarah skippers our boat through the warm waters of the Indian Ocean.
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Tanzanian Safari!
After we came down from Kili, we thought our death-defying antics in Tanzania were pretty much wrapped up. Boy, were we wrong! Drivers in Tanzania are generally terrible, but our driver for the two hours back to Arusha from the foot of Kili made most Tanzanian drivers look like models for Driver's Ed. Some of the highlights: talking on the cell phone while driving, blind passing, texting while driving, talking to passengers and facing them while driving, speeding, barely swerving to avoid animals and pedestrians in the road, using both lanes (of a two-lane road) as available travel lanes, etc. We were flabbergasted when he apologized for hitting a massive speed bump at about 50 MPH, considering that was one of his few driving habits that did not make us fear for our lives.
The low point of the entire trip, though, was when he said he would be our driver for the next three days of safari! After making it back to our lodge and almost kissing the ground in relief at being alive, we called our safari operator and told her that under no circumstances would this wannabe Demolition Derby driver be our driver for the next three days. She quickly changed our driver and we waited to find out what a clown he was.
As it turned out, John, our new driver and safari guide, was an excellent driver, a knowledgeable guide, and a very friendly travel companion. We spent three days on safari--one day each in Tarangire NP, Lake Manyara NP, and Ngorongoro Crater NP. Each park was quite different from the others, and collectively it was a very different experience from our South African safari. The highlights:
1. Obviously the #1 highlight was at lunch the first day--a picnic lunch outside. Several baboons were circling our table, eyeing our lunches. John chased them off several times with a stick. At a moment when we were all concentrating on our lunches, a pretty large baboon jumped up on the bench that Sarah and I were sharing--literally 8 or 12 inches from our faces. Sarah, in her own words, ran off screaming like a "4 year old girl," but had serious trouble getting out of the bench and ending up dumping part of her lunch on the ground. Thinking quickly, Thomas turned to face the baboon and roared at it like a lion. The baboon was not fazed. Finally John ran it off with a stone. We knew Sarah had made an impression on the many, many fellow picnickers when John was speaking with another guide later in the day and the guide looked at Sarah and said, "So you're the friend of the baboon?" Hilarious. Another reason Thomas liked John is that he mentioned this incident about every two hours for the next three days.
2. We saw LOTS of baby animals (you would have loved it, Barb): a baby giraffe, baby zebra, all sorts of baby baboons and vervet monkeys, a baby hippo, baby antelope of various sorts, many baby elephants, and many baby warthogs. There was apparently an eight day-old rhino in the Crater today, but we couldn't quite spot him.
3. We also saw a lot of animals we had not seen up to this point, or got a better look at some we had seen only at night. Most notably, we spent a good amount of time observing the hippos in Lake Manyara and Ngorongoro Crater parks. The funniest hippo incident was when the dominant male of one group lumbered out of the water right in front of us and marked his territory by (sensitive audiences skip the next part) pooing and scattering it all over several bushes with his tail. This was only topped by the fact that when he got back in the water, he sat right on another hippo's face. Friendly! We also spotted several nasty-looking hyenas out for a morning hunt, a cheetah stalking some gazelle, and a number of cute little jackels.
Tomorrow morning we head for Zanzibar, a small island off the coast of Tanzania known for its rich Arab heritage and ancient spice plantations. We'll spend two days in the historic Stone Town, and then five days soaking up rays on beaches lapped by the Indian Ocean. We'll hopefully blog several times from there before we head home a week from tomorrow.
The low point of the entire trip, though, was when he said he would be our driver for the next three days of safari! After making it back to our lodge and almost kissing the ground in relief at being alive, we called our safari operator and told her that under no circumstances would this wannabe Demolition Derby driver be our driver for the next three days. She quickly changed our driver and we waited to find out what a clown he was.
As it turned out, John, our new driver and safari guide, was an excellent driver, a knowledgeable guide, and a very friendly travel companion. We spent three days on safari--one day each in Tarangire NP, Lake Manyara NP, and Ngorongoro Crater NP. Each park was quite different from the others, and collectively it was a very different experience from our South African safari. The highlights:
1. Obviously the #1 highlight was at lunch the first day--a picnic lunch outside. Several baboons were circling our table, eyeing our lunches. John chased them off several times with a stick. At a moment when we were all concentrating on our lunches, a pretty large baboon jumped up on the bench that Sarah and I were sharing--literally 8 or 12 inches from our faces. Sarah, in her own words, ran off screaming like a "4 year old girl," but had serious trouble getting out of the bench and ending up dumping part of her lunch on the ground. Thinking quickly, Thomas turned to face the baboon and roared at it like a lion. The baboon was not fazed. Finally John ran it off with a stone. We knew Sarah had made an impression on the many, many fellow picnickers when John was speaking with another guide later in the day and the guide looked at Sarah and said, "So you're the friend of the baboon?" Hilarious. Another reason Thomas liked John is that he mentioned this incident about every two hours for the next three days.
2. We saw LOTS of baby animals (you would have loved it, Barb): a baby giraffe, baby zebra, all sorts of baby baboons and vervet monkeys, a baby hippo, baby antelope of various sorts, many baby elephants, and many baby warthogs. There was apparently an eight day-old rhino in the Crater today, but we couldn't quite spot him.
3. We also saw a lot of animals we had not seen up to this point, or got a better look at some we had seen only at night. Most notably, we spent a good amount of time observing the hippos in Lake Manyara and Ngorongoro Crater parks. The funniest hippo incident was when the dominant male of one group lumbered out of the water right in front of us and marked his territory by (sensitive audiences skip the next part) pooing and scattering it all over several bushes with his tail. This was only topped by the fact that when he got back in the water, he sat right on another hippo's face. Friendly! We also spotted several nasty-looking hyenas out for a morning hunt, a cheetah stalking some gazelle, and a number of cute little jackels.
Tomorrow morning we head for Zanzibar, a small island off the coast of Tanzania known for its rich Arab heritage and ancient spice plantations. We'll spend two days in the historic Stone Town, and then five days soaking up rays on beaches lapped by the Indian Ocean. We'll hopefully blog several times from there before we head home a week from tomorrow.
Monday, October 15, 2007
Pics from Kili
We're at a safari lodge with a veeerrrrry slow Internet connection, but hopefully we can post these pics from our Kili adventure!
Up on top of Kilimanjaro, with our guides Philbit (left) and Said.
Mr. Tom, party of 11! The whole crew that helped us up the mountain. They were great guys, even if they never did get Sarah's name. [Try to find the cook. He looks like Akon. Answer to follow.]
Up on top of Kilimanjaro, with our guides Philbit (left) and Said.
Mr. Tom, party of 11! The whole crew that helped us up the mountain. They were great guys, even if they never did get Sarah's name. [Try to find the cook. He looks like Akon. Answer to follow.]
Saturday, October 13, 2007
We Did It!
Jambo! ("hello" in Swahili--what you would say when passing other hikers) We've just arrived back in Arusha, Tanzania, after an exhausting but exhilarating seven-day climb of Kilimanjaro, the highest peak in Africa at 5895 meters above sea level. It was an amazing trip, and the view from the top made the five and half days up worth it!
We set out last Sunday morning with a party of eleven--the two of us, a guide, an assistant guide, a cook, a "waiter," and five porters (!?!). The first two days were relatively easy. On Day 3, however, we ascended to Lava Tower (4600 meters or so above sea level) as part of the acclimatization process. We didn't acclimatize too well at first--we both felt pretty crummy that night--headaches, nausea, etc. Day 4 was also pretty grim--Sarah was feeling especially bad, but Thomas wasn't much better. Day 5 was a short hike to Barafu Camp, at about the same altitude as Lava Tower. By this point we both felt fine--it was a great day and spirits were high!
That night we had dinner at 5 and went to bed immediately after. We then awoke at 11 PM, had a light breakfast, and began the final ascent at midnight. The temperatures were below freezing and we were using headlamps to see our way up the mountain. More than six hours of ascent in the dark later we made it to Stella Point, on the rim of the Kili crater, where we literally saw the sun come over the horizon. Given Kili's location and altitude, we were among the first in Africa to see the sun rise yesterday! We lingered there a bit longer to encourage Sarah to finish the last forty minutes or so.
We finally made it to the peak around 7 AM, where we celebrated and took a few pictures. Then, since we were both feeling so-so at that point, we hightailed it for Barafu Camp. We had brunch there, and then continued our descent to 3100 meters above sea level, where we felt much better! We put in about 13 hours of hiking yesterday--whew!
We had a short hike this morning, after breakfast and a rousing musical sendoff from our group of nine Tanzanian guides/porters/cook/etc. We can't say enough about them--they were so kind and encouraging. They called me Mr. Tom the whole week, and we never knew if they knew Sarah's name until the song. During the song, they called me by name, but called Sarah "dada" (Swahili for sister)! Hilarious!
All in all, it was a fun but really challenging week. We underestimated the effect of sleeping in a tent for six days and living with "long drop" toilets (think outhouse, but with no seat. Grim.). The altitude also hit both of us, Sarah a little harder than Thomas, but a big factor for both. It was also daunting focusing on getting to one peak for five and a half days--a bit hard to stay focused! We definitely feel a strong sense of personal achievement after conquering the mountain, and feel our own personal mountain high!
[Pictures to come later--a bad connection here in lovely Arusha.]
We set out last Sunday morning with a party of eleven--the two of us, a guide, an assistant guide, a cook, a "waiter," and five porters (!?!). The first two days were relatively easy. On Day 3, however, we ascended to Lava Tower (4600 meters or so above sea level) as part of the acclimatization process. We didn't acclimatize too well at first--we both felt pretty crummy that night--headaches, nausea, etc. Day 4 was also pretty grim--Sarah was feeling especially bad, but Thomas wasn't much better. Day 5 was a short hike to Barafu Camp, at about the same altitude as Lava Tower. By this point we both felt fine--it was a great day and spirits were high!
That night we had dinner at 5 and went to bed immediately after. We then awoke at 11 PM, had a light breakfast, and began the final ascent at midnight. The temperatures were below freezing and we were using headlamps to see our way up the mountain. More than six hours of ascent in the dark later we made it to Stella Point, on the rim of the Kili crater, where we literally saw the sun come over the horizon. Given Kili's location and altitude, we were among the first in Africa to see the sun rise yesterday! We lingered there a bit longer to encourage Sarah to finish the last forty minutes or so.
We finally made it to the peak around 7 AM, where we celebrated and took a few pictures. Then, since we were both feeling so-so at that point, we hightailed it for Barafu Camp. We had brunch there, and then continued our descent to 3100 meters above sea level, where we felt much better! We put in about 13 hours of hiking yesterday--whew!
We had a short hike this morning, after breakfast and a rousing musical sendoff from our group of nine Tanzanian guides/porters/cook/etc. We can't say enough about them--they were so kind and encouraging. They called me Mr. Tom the whole week, and we never knew if they knew Sarah's name until the song. During the song, they called me by name, but called Sarah "dada" (Swahili for sister)! Hilarious!
All in all, it was a fun but really challenging week. We underestimated the effect of sleeping in a tent for six days and living with "long drop" toilets (think outhouse, but with no seat. Grim.). The altitude also hit both of us, Sarah a little harder than Thomas, but a big factor for both. It was also daunting focusing on getting to one peak for five and a half days--a bit hard to stay focused! We definitely feel a strong sense of personal achievement after conquering the mountain, and feel our own personal mountain high!
[Pictures to come later--a bad connection here in lovely Arusha.]
Friday, October 5, 2007
A final South Africa post...
OK, all done with blogging for the night! Tomorrow AM we leave for Tanzania and Sunday we begin our ascent of Kilimanjaro. We will likely not have Internet access until next Saturday evening at the very earliest. Wish us luck!
PS: I notice that video below may not be working. I'll re-upload it later at some point if so.
PS: I notice that video below may not be working. I'll re-upload it later at some point if so.
Pumba, Simba, and the Gang
It was the big animal event we'd all been waiting for--our first safari in Africa! We spent three nights at Gwalagwala Game Lodge, a private game reserve just west of South Africa's famous Kruger National Park. We arrived Tuesday afternoon and were greeted at the tiny Hoedspruit airport by Dorian, the owner of the lodge. He drove us to the lodge and showed us our lovely tent and the rest of the camp. "Tent" is a bit of a misnomer, actually--the tent was on a wooden platform and included a full wood and stone bathroom, as well as a front porch overlooking a river.
The schedule was somewhat unusual: we were awoken around 5:00 AM by a man softly calling "Good morning!" through our tent walls. We then stumbled out of bed for tea or coffee and headed out for either a drive/walk on the Gwalagwala reserve or a "Big Five" drive on the neighboring Thornybush Game Reserve. [FYI: the "Big Five" are lion, leopard, elephant, rhino, and Cape buffalo]. We returned to camp around 9:30 or 10 for breakfast, and spent the middle of the day napping, reading, and playing Scrabble. Afternoon tea was served at 3:15, and then we headed out for another game drive.
Our first evening game drive was spectacular: we spotted four of the Big Five, including a pride of seven lions and a whole host of elephants. We also saw a group of four rhino, including a ridiculously cute seven month-old baby rhino who stuck to his mother like glue. Our amazing tracker Lawrence then led us to a herd of Cape buffalo. We swung around in front of them and turned off the open-top Range Rover. We then just sat there in the twilight as a huge herd (75+) of the buffalo moved around us. We were surrounded by buffalo in all directions. Keep in mind that the Cape buffalo is regarded as the most ill-tempered of the Big 5!
The next morning, amazingly, topped our first game drive. Using all their expertise, Lawrence and some other trackers managed to find an elusive leopard (they are notoriously difficult to find). She was absolutely stunning and superbly camouflaged. Earlier in the day, we had seen a herd of impala sprinting away only to later find just yards away a lion pride moments after the lionesses had caught one of the impala. We parked right next to the dominant male, covered in blood as he gnawed on the impala--the smell was awful and you could hear bones crunching as he worked his way through it.
Other animal highlights included:
* Seeing two hyenas trotting through the darkness on our way back to camp one night.
* An absolutely huge number of warthogs, including one nearly tame one who hung around camp.
* Walking within feet of six giraffes at the same time. They are inquisitive and not all that skittish--they would happily peer at you for a few minutes, then go back to eating treetop leaves.
* The monkeys who were all around camp--we woke up from a nap to find six on our front porch!
* A huge (four foot) monitor lizard just outside our tent.
* Many, many zebra, impalas, water buck, and other antelope
There were only 12 guests at any time at the camp, and two of the other couples while we were there were young honeymooners from the UK. It was great to have people our age with whom to share the experience.
Finally, a comic highlight. We were encouraged to ask questions of our guide about the animals. On our first night, it rained heavily. HEAVILY. It had finally tapered off when we found the Cape buffalo. A South African on safari with us asked the guide: "That wetness on their back--is that some sort of secretion or have they been licking each other or what?" His wife turned around in disbelief and said "It's the rain, you idiot." We did everything we could to not fall out of the truck laughing. Amazing.
Our new pet!
Momma Rhino and her baby (Sarah's favorite!).
Elephants out for a walk.
A beautiful leopard.
Impala running away...
...and for good reason: the pride's dominant male tears into a prime piece of impala!
Sunset in Thornybush Reserve
The schedule was somewhat unusual: we were awoken around 5:00 AM by a man softly calling "Good morning!" through our tent walls. We then stumbled out of bed for tea or coffee and headed out for either a drive/walk on the Gwalagwala reserve or a "Big Five" drive on the neighboring Thornybush Game Reserve. [FYI: the "Big Five" are lion, leopard, elephant, rhino, and Cape buffalo]. We returned to camp around 9:30 or 10 for breakfast, and spent the middle of the day napping, reading, and playing Scrabble. Afternoon tea was served at 3:15, and then we headed out for another game drive.
Our first evening game drive was spectacular: we spotted four of the Big Five, including a pride of seven lions and a whole host of elephants. We also saw a group of four rhino, including a ridiculously cute seven month-old baby rhino who stuck to his mother like glue. Our amazing tracker Lawrence then led us to a herd of Cape buffalo. We swung around in front of them and turned off the open-top Range Rover. We then just sat there in the twilight as a huge herd (75+) of the buffalo moved around us. We were surrounded by buffalo in all directions. Keep in mind that the Cape buffalo is regarded as the most ill-tempered of the Big 5!
The next morning, amazingly, topped our first game drive. Using all their expertise, Lawrence and some other trackers managed to find an elusive leopard (they are notoriously difficult to find). She was absolutely stunning and superbly camouflaged. Earlier in the day, we had seen a herd of impala sprinting away only to later find just yards away a lion pride moments after the lionesses had caught one of the impala. We parked right next to the dominant male, covered in blood as he gnawed on the impala--the smell was awful and you could hear bones crunching as he worked his way through it.
Other animal highlights included:
* Seeing two hyenas trotting through the darkness on our way back to camp one night.
* An absolutely huge number of warthogs, including one nearly tame one who hung around camp.
* Walking within feet of six giraffes at the same time. They are inquisitive and not all that skittish--they would happily peer at you for a few minutes, then go back to eating treetop leaves.
* The monkeys who were all around camp--we woke up from a nap to find six on our front porch!
* A huge (four foot) monitor lizard just outside our tent.
* Many, many zebra, impalas, water buck, and other antelope
There were only 12 guests at any time at the camp, and two of the other couples while we were there were young honeymooners from the UK. It was great to have people our age with whom to share the experience.
Finally, a comic highlight. We were encouraged to ask questions of our guide about the animals. On our first night, it rained heavily. HEAVILY. It had finally tapered off when we found the Cape buffalo. A South African on safari with us asked the guide: "That wetness on their back--is that some sort of secretion or have they been licking each other or what?" His wife turned around in disbelief and said "It's the rain, you idiot." We did everything we could to not fall out of the truck laughing. Amazing.
Our new pet!
Momma Rhino and her baby (Sarah's favorite!).
Elephants out for a walk.
A beautiful leopard.
Impala running away...
...and for good reason: the pride's dominant male tears into a prime piece of impala!
Sunset in Thornybush Reserve
Ta-Ta Tiida
We finished the Garden Route with a grueling drive to Port Elizabeth, through rainy conditions, major road construction, a long detour, and a delay caused by a herd of cows crossing the road. MOOO! We pulled into P.E. in gale-force winds and heavy rains. It was not a charming place.
Tuesday morning we finally had to turn over the keys of our trusty Nissan Tiida to the agent at Alamo. After clocking up almost 2000 km on her, we had gotten quite attached. The prospect of driving on the left and in South Africa (the carjacking capital of the world) was a bit intimidating, but we had no serious problems. One of the funniest aspects of driving in South Africa is that all gas stations are full service. You pull in and about five guys descend on the car like a NASCAR pit crew, filling up the tank, cleaning the windows and mirrors, checking the tire pressure, etc. It was wild.
Another funny thing about driving here is that you would look at an oncoming car in what we normally think of as the driver's seat and see a small child, or someone reading a map, or someone asleep. It was hard not to panic and remember they were only passengers!
Sarah only had to shout "LEFT LEFT LEFT" one time and we never got seriously lost, so we considered it a successful road trip! Once we left the Tiida, our travels up to northern South Africa were a litany of weather-related delays, service incompetence with the rent-a-phone people, and a page on the airport PA (which we never answered as we sprinted to board our flight) saying: "Passenger Hall, report to the SAA ticket counter urgently!" We made it all in one piece, and even had two meals (!?!) on our two short-hop domestic flights. Now on to the animals...
Thomas and the trusty Tiida
The shadow of the Tiida on the road.
Thomas kisses the Tiida goodbye.
Tuesday morning we finally had to turn over the keys of our trusty Nissan Tiida to the agent at Alamo. After clocking up almost 2000 km on her, we had gotten quite attached. The prospect of driving on the left and in South Africa (the carjacking capital of the world) was a bit intimidating, but we had no serious problems. One of the funniest aspects of driving in South Africa is that all gas stations are full service. You pull in and about five guys descend on the car like a NASCAR pit crew, filling up the tank, cleaning the windows and mirrors, checking the tire pressure, etc. It was wild.
Another funny thing about driving here is that you would look at an oncoming car in what we normally think of as the driver's seat and see a small child, or someone reading a map, or someone asleep. It was hard not to panic and remember they were only passengers!
Sarah only had to shout "LEFT LEFT LEFT" one time and we never got seriously lost, so we considered it a successful road trip! Once we left the Tiida, our travels up to northern South Africa were a litany of weather-related delays, service incompetence with the rent-a-phone people, and a page on the airport PA (which we never answered as we sprinted to board our flight) saying: "Passenger Hall, report to the SAA ticket counter urgently!" We made it all in one piece, and even had two meals (!?!) on our two short-hop domestic flights. Now on to the animals...
Thomas and the trusty Tiida
The shadow of the Tiida on the road.
Thomas kisses the Tiida goodbye.
Monday, October 1, 2007
Wrap-Up and Off to the Wild!
A fun final few days with our trusty Nissan Tiida (more on her later) along the Indian Ocean coast. We are now in Plettenberg Bay, a lovely beach town where the sun finally came out after a few cloudy days. Yesterday we took a spectacular hike along the Robberg Peninsula, where we saw whales, seals, and plenty of bird life. The views of the churning Indian Ocean were amazing. Other sightings included a pair of eccentric British bird watchers, whom we met at our hotel in Wilderness--they even brought binoculars to breakfast and peered out the windows at the elusive blue-tailed booby-fringed monkat, or whatever they saw! They were potential subjects for the "Best in Show" crew's next movie. We wanted to stay and just watch them, but we thought it rude.
After the hike, we checked into our lovely guesthouse and headed out for dinner. At dinner, our waiter asked whether we wanted to change tables to watch the US-South Africa rugby match for the Rugby World Cup. We said that (a) we were unaware the US was participating in the first place until about 10 days ago and (b) we'd rather not watch the US get pummeled after South African radio talked about what a bunch of patsies we were all week.
Today we're off on the final leg of the Garden Route, to Port Elizabeth. On our way, we may stop at Monkeyland and/or Birds of Eden (where Sarah will continue her ornithophobia treatments). The guest house owner told Sarah to take off her earrings because some unfortunate elderly American tourist just a few weeks ago was set upon by a monkey anxious to grab her hearing aid! Yikes! Needless to say, Thomas put in his contacts.
We're off tomorrow on an early morning flight for Kruger National Park for our first safari experience. Not sure on Internet access at our lodge there, but we will of course update the blog ASAP!
After the hike, we checked into our lovely guesthouse and headed out for dinner. At dinner, our waiter asked whether we wanted to change tables to watch the US-South Africa rugby match for the Rugby World Cup. We said that (a) we were unaware the US was participating in the first place until about 10 days ago and (b) we'd rather not watch the US get pummeled after South African radio talked about what a bunch of patsies we were all week.
Today we're off on the final leg of the Garden Route, to Port Elizabeth. On our way, we may stop at Monkeyland and/or Birds of Eden (where Sarah will continue her ornithophobia treatments). The guest house owner told Sarah to take off her earrings because some unfortunate elderly American tourist just a few weeks ago was set upon by a monkey anxious to grab her hearing aid! Yikes! Needless to say, Thomas put in his contacts.
We're off tomorrow on an early morning flight for Kruger National Park for our first safari experience. Not sure on Internet access at our lodge there, but we will of course update the blog ASAP!
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