It is with deep regret that I admit my upcoming departure from Southern Africa. As I mentioned many times before, I have fallen in love with this place, and have since promised myself that I will return (hopefully soon) to continue this adventure another time. I have had a most phenomenal time here, and if given the chance, I wouldn't change one bit of how this trip played out.
I had a most phenomenal time at Karongwe Game Reserve, seeing everything I'd hoped to see and more; Cape Town was a dream with the Cohen's being a most helpful and accomodating host family; and Durban was an incredible new experience in which the Lazarus' hospitality and assistance in meeting new people was fantastic. I could say more about all three of these stops, but that would leave me typing until next week, forcing me to miss my plane and... wait a second... :D
For those wondering, the title of this blog post is (as it appears) English, English, Afrikaans, Southern Sotho. Afrikaans is one of the many official languages of South Africa, one in which I learned helpful phrases such as "shlumpi ingala" and "skankank," and Southern Sotho is the official language of Lesotho - my final adventure.
Today I finally managed to book a tour to go through the Sanni Pass, a road that goes through the Drakensburg Mountains in Lesotho, a completely seperate country engulfed by South Africa (look it up on a map or in an atlas). It was about a three hour drive from Durban to the bottom of the pass, and then three hours up the mountains where we met with a Masuthu woman, learned about the history, lifestyles, and culture of the Basuthu people (plural of Masuthu), and then proceeded to eat lunch and imbibe at the highest pub in Africa! It was a spectacular view from the top, and the local beverage of choice was quite... um... interesting. Not quite my cup of tea, but hey, it's Africa right? :D
The story behind today was much longer, but you'll have to hear it from me in person, seeing as I can't possibly explain it well enough on a web-based medium, as is the case with everything I've done and seen thus far.
To all the people who I have met and had a blast with in Africa over these past seven and a half weeks, thank you so much for making them the experience of a lifetime, and to all who helped make it happen, thank you so much also from the bottom of my heart. Sorry to make this sappy, but I really can't help it... a good love story has to be sappy at some point, doesn't it? I hope to keep in touch with all of you, and hopefully we will meet again on another grand adventure :D
Monday, July 7, 2008
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Bum in the Butter
"So you've landed with your bum in the butter."
This endearing new phrase quite accurately describes my arrival to Durban. I am staying with the Lazarus family, and they are treating me very well. They are wonderful people, and I am very lucky to be housed by such accommodating families in my post-expedition travels.
I arrived in Durban on a slightly delayed flight, and after being picked up by one of Sidney Lazarus' employees, I arrived in a whirlwind of Shabbat preparations on Friday afternoon. I had 30 minutes to get changed and ready, and was then whisked off to shul for services. It was amazing, and exactly what I needed after starting to feel the distance between myself and the USA - the tunes were lovely and most of them were the same or very similar to the ones we sing at home! The people were friendly and happy to see me, not to mention that I arrived in the midst of a weekend long college (high school) reunion, so watching everyone see each other for the first time in x amount of years not only was fun to watch, but also brought a sense of nostalgia and familiarity to the city, despite having never in my life been to Durban. It was great. Saturday brought services again (which were lovely), lots of tea (which I wish I knew how to actually prepare), and a braai later that night followed by a very delicious and decadent milkshake. Sunday was the final brunch of the reunion, so while they were preparing the meal, I visited the Holocaust center (apparently Cape Town is not the only one) and made some new friends at the reunion! Adir and Gilad, both living in Durban, introduced themselves to me and we had nice conversation throughout the remainder of the day :)
Monday and Tuesday I spend the day at Glenview Animal Hospital shadowing Dr's. Clow and Tasseron, which was really great! The last time I spent any extensive time in a clinic was in High School, and it felt nice to be back in the veterinary setting. Today I spent the day shadowing the veterinarian at uShaka Marine World (like sea world) and got to see all the behind the scenes facilities. It was really great! I would have really liked to touch a dolphin, or even swim with one, but apparently they get really aggressive with people they don't know when they're not in the "show" setting, so unfortunately I wasn't able to... The aquarium was really awesome though! They had it all set up in a shipwreck-style facility, so not only were the fish really cool, but walking through the building was fun as well :)
Durban is very much like home - mild climate, residential-ish, very "green" in the sense that there are lots of trees and foliage everywhere. The only MAJOR difference is that the ocean is five minutes away, rather than the 4hrs from Charlotte. It's surprising to realize that I am still in Africa... it feels very unafricaiy (sound it out :P) here, and I'm not really doing a whole lot that I couldn't do at home. Later this week though, I'll go to the international surfing competition called Mr. Price Pro, so that will be really cool hopefully :)
I'm not so sure I'm ready to come home next week, and I can't BELIEVE that it's already the seventh month of 2008... it seems like yesterday that I was hanging my mosquito net *sniff* :P
This endearing new phrase quite accurately describes my arrival to Durban. I am staying with the Lazarus family, and they are treating me very well. They are wonderful people, and I am very lucky to be housed by such accommodating families in my post-expedition travels.
I arrived in Durban on a slightly delayed flight, and after being picked up by one of Sidney Lazarus' employees, I arrived in a whirlwind of Shabbat preparations on Friday afternoon. I had 30 minutes to get changed and ready, and was then whisked off to shul for services. It was amazing, and exactly what I needed after starting to feel the distance between myself and the USA - the tunes were lovely and most of them were the same or very similar to the ones we sing at home! The people were friendly and happy to see me, not to mention that I arrived in the midst of a weekend long college (high school) reunion, so watching everyone see each other for the first time in x amount of years not only was fun to watch, but also brought a sense of nostalgia and familiarity to the city, despite having never in my life been to Durban. It was great. Saturday brought services again (which were lovely), lots of tea (which I wish I knew how to actually prepare), and a braai later that night followed by a very delicious and decadent milkshake. Sunday was the final brunch of the reunion, so while they were preparing the meal, I visited the Holocaust center (apparently Cape Town is not the only one) and made some new friends at the reunion! Adir and Gilad, both living in Durban, introduced themselves to me and we had nice conversation throughout the remainder of the day :)
Monday and Tuesday I spend the day at Glenview Animal Hospital shadowing Dr's. Clow and Tasseron, which was really great! The last time I spent any extensive time in a clinic was in High School, and it felt nice to be back in the veterinary setting. Today I spent the day shadowing the veterinarian at uShaka Marine World (like sea world) and got to see all the behind the scenes facilities. It was really great! I would have really liked to touch a dolphin, or even swim with one, but apparently they get really aggressive with people they don't know when they're not in the "show" setting, so unfortunately I wasn't able to... The aquarium was really awesome though! They had it all set up in a shipwreck-style facility, so not only were the fish really cool, but walking through the building was fun as well :)
Durban is very much like home - mild climate, residential-ish, very "green" in the sense that there are lots of trees and foliage everywhere. The only MAJOR difference is that the ocean is five minutes away, rather than the 4hrs from Charlotte. It's surprising to realize that I am still in Africa... it feels very unafricaiy (sound it out :P) here, and I'm not really doing a whole lot that I couldn't do at home. Later this week though, I'll go to the international surfing competition called Mr. Price Pro, so that will be really cool hopefully :)
I'm not so sure I'm ready to come home next week, and I can't BELIEVE that it's already the seventh month of 2008... it seems like yesterday that I was hanging my mosquito net *sniff* :P
Friday, June 27, 2008
Last Day in Cape Town
So I'm sitting in the Cape Town Tourism Center on Burg St. sipping the most delicious hot chocolate I've had in a long time, it's drizzling outside, and I can't believe that I only have one week left in South Africa. I'm going to try to squeeze in the Iziko Museum - a museum about the history of slavery - this morning, but it opens at ten and I must leave here at noon, and there isn't much else that is open that I can do this morning so I thought I'd update :)
I am still having tons of fun - thank you all for commenting on the blogs thus far... I really wish you all could be here with me to see these things! It's going to be very hard to explain everything in adequate detail when I return, so hopefully my pictures will be sufficient enough.
Yesterday I went to the Jewish and the Holocaust Museums of Cape Town, to try and get an idea for the Jewish impact here. They were both very interesting, and I think they are the only museums of their kind on the entire continent (unless I misunderstood, I'm fairly sure that's accurate). Then I made my way on the tourism bus back to Hout Bay to take a boat out to Seal Island. It wasn't the most impressive boatride or island of seals that I had expected, but it was still pretty cool. What it is, basically, is a bunch of rocks that are close together on an invisible land mass underwater that is absolutely FULL of Cape Fur Seals. They were pretty cute, but relatively inactive due to the cold wind that was sweeping the coast at the time. The most exciting part of the boat ride was the waves.
Seal Island is one of three places in the world where the "Big Wave Competition" is held. You can imagine why. I think the competition involves surfing, which I was not about to do, but the waves were SO huge that they were curling and breaking out at sea, reforming, and then crashing against the mountainside on the mainland. It was intense. At times, the boat was at about a forty five degree angle to the water! It was pretty nerve wracking, and I think it probably would have been more fun if I had someone to talk to, but the only other people on the boat were a couple speaking (i think) german, a woman and her son speaking afrikaans, and seven japanese tourists speaking (guess what) japanese. And then me. :P
Then I walked back to the house from the harbour - it took me about 20 minutes, which I thought was pretty good because I was essentially climbing up the face of the mountain. The streets are very much what I envision San Francisco streets to be like, where there's a flat piece and then an almost vertical incline up to the next street. But it was fine :) I got a few funny looks from the locals, but I simply smiled and continued on my way up.
I leave for Durban this afternoon, so the next time I write, I'll be on the other side of the country! Ciao!
I am still having tons of fun - thank you all for commenting on the blogs thus far... I really wish you all could be here with me to see these things! It's going to be very hard to explain everything in adequate detail when I return, so hopefully my pictures will be sufficient enough.
Yesterday I went to the Jewish and the Holocaust Museums of Cape Town, to try and get an idea for the Jewish impact here. They were both very interesting, and I think they are the only museums of their kind on the entire continent (unless I misunderstood, I'm fairly sure that's accurate). Then I made my way on the tourism bus back to Hout Bay to take a boat out to Seal Island. It wasn't the most impressive boatride or island of seals that I had expected, but it was still pretty cool. What it is, basically, is a bunch of rocks that are close together on an invisible land mass underwater that is absolutely FULL of Cape Fur Seals. They were pretty cute, but relatively inactive due to the cold wind that was sweeping the coast at the time. The most exciting part of the boat ride was the waves.
Seal Island is one of three places in the world where the "Big Wave Competition" is held. You can imagine why. I think the competition involves surfing, which I was not about to do, but the waves were SO huge that they were curling and breaking out at sea, reforming, and then crashing against the mountainside on the mainland. It was intense. At times, the boat was at about a forty five degree angle to the water! It was pretty nerve wracking, and I think it probably would have been more fun if I had someone to talk to, but the only other people on the boat were a couple speaking (i think) german, a woman and her son speaking afrikaans, and seven japanese tourists speaking (guess what) japanese. And then me. :P
Then I walked back to the house from the harbour - it took me about 20 minutes, which I thought was pretty good because I was essentially climbing up the face of the mountain. The streets are very much what I envision San Francisco streets to be like, where there's a flat piece and then an almost vertical incline up to the next street. But it was fine :) I got a few funny looks from the locals, but I simply smiled and continued on my way up.
I leave for Durban this afternoon, so the next time I write, I'll be on the other side of the country! Ciao!
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Cape Town and a Bittersweet end to the GVI Expedition
It is well into my sixth week, and I am in the beautiful and everchanging city of Cape Town! Fortunately, the weather has been fantastic the past few days, so I have been able to make the most of my time here.
This is not to say that my final week with GVI wasn't sad. I had an incredibly hard time saying goodbye to my home for the past five weeks, and have informed the staff that they wil definitely see me again in the future (hopefully near). We had about a six hour bus ride to the airport in Jo'burg, at which point I had another magnificent experience with the system. After taking my bag and telling me to go stand in another line to pay for my mysteriously overweight luggage, I was on the verge of a meltdown upon the realization of leaving my new friends and having no earthly idea of how to proceed, where to go, and what to do. Luckily, I managed to pull myself together and I made it successfully to Cape Town WITH my luggage! It was a fantastic achievement in itself that my luggage didn't decide to wander off.
So sad goodbyes said, I arrived in Cape Town and met Mr. and Mrs. Cohen who are my lovely hosts for the week. They and their two boys, Tivon (6) and Jacob (4) are wonderful hosts and a fantastically nice family :D They have helped me make all of my arrangements for the week and are allowing me to stay in their basement where I have my own bedroom and bath.
This week has been very eventful! Saturday I got to know Hout Bay, the city that the Cohens live in. We went down to the harbour (only about two minutes away from their house, which overlooks the water on top of a hill) and watched a few rugby matches in the living room. On Sunday, I met up with Lynne who was on the GVI trip with me, and her two friends from the UK, and after walking around on a misty morning, the clouds finally cleared and we went up Table Mountain via the increidbly steep cable car. It was beautiful! The clouds were covering the ocean and most of the city though, but we stayed up there for sunset, so that was a really nice introduction to Cape Town. The following day, Monday, I met up with Andy, another GVIer, and we tried to go to Robben Island with a few of his new friends from the Hostel that he was staying in. The tickets ended up being sold out, so we booked for Tuesday morning, and while the rest of the group was out on the island, we went to the Cape Town Aquarium, which was really nice. When they came back, around 2pm, the six of us went on a Township Tour, introducing us to the shacks and poor conditions of millions of people around South Africa. Tuesday morning I met Andy again and we went over to Robben Island. The weather was absolutely gorgeous! There was not a cloud in sight, a slight breeze, and fairly warm sun - couldn't have asked for a more perfect boat ride. The swells in the ocean were impressive, tilting the boat drastically sideways on each passing, but it was really nice. The island was very informative, and the tour was great - we got to see the jail cell that Nelson Mandella was held in! It was really an interesting experience.
Because it was Andy's last day on Tuesday, he really wanted to go up Table Mountain. As I mentioned before, it was an absolutely beautiful day, so after some persuasion (not much, really) I went up Table Mountain again :D But this time, I was able to see EVERYTHING. Even across into False Bay, on the other side of the cape! It was really cool. That afternoon, I said goodbye to Andy and proceeded on my way home with the Cohens. Today was a really awesome day, as Wednesdays go. I managed to catch a tourbus down to Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope, and on our way we saw PENGUINS! (Sarah and Katherine, feel free to insert a prefix) :D I hate to admit it, but they were actually quite cute. I got some really good pictures I think. We went out onto the point by the lighthouse in the south-western-most point of the continent, and then made our way back to Cape Town via Scarborough (there was actually a building that said "Scarborough Fayre" on it... it made me smile) :)
I had the driver drop me of at Kirstenbosch Gardens, a world-famous garden with plants galore! It was gorgeous, and even though I was walking around on my own, it was great. I had a nice conversation with a perfect stranger, and had time to think and reflect on my trip thus far. It was an incredibly wonderful afternoon.
I don't know how much anyone knows about the situation in Zimbabwe right now, but it's pretty terrible. If you don't know what's going on, I highly suggest you go to bbc.com and check it out. I was shocked to find out what was going on there, and even more shocked to realize that there wasn't much coverage before I left about the atrocities of the government there. Living with two lawyers for the week, I have become much more aware of public situations and goings-on, and feel that it is only right that I spread the message to become more internationally knowledgeable to others.
My time in Cape Town has really been packed and fun-filled! Tomorrow is my last full day, so I think I'm going to go to a few museums if I can manage that, and then just hang out for a bit with the locals. Go to a map and find the southwest corner of Africa, and if you look closely, you just might see me running around trying to absorb it all :D
This is not to say that my final week with GVI wasn't sad. I had an incredibly hard time saying goodbye to my home for the past five weeks, and have informed the staff that they wil definitely see me again in the future (hopefully near). We had about a six hour bus ride to the airport in Jo'burg, at which point I had another magnificent experience with the system. After taking my bag and telling me to go stand in another line to pay for my mysteriously overweight luggage, I was on the verge of a meltdown upon the realization of leaving my new friends and having no earthly idea of how to proceed, where to go, and what to do. Luckily, I managed to pull myself together and I made it successfully to Cape Town WITH my luggage! It was a fantastic achievement in itself that my luggage didn't decide to wander off.
So sad goodbyes said, I arrived in Cape Town and met Mr. and Mrs. Cohen who are my lovely hosts for the week. They and their two boys, Tivon (6) and Jacob (4) are wonderful hosts and a fantastically nice family :D They have helped me make all of my arrangements for the week and are allowing me to stay in their basement where I have my own bedroom and bath.
This week has been very eventful! Saturday I got to know Hout Bay, the city that the Cohens live in. We went down to the harbour (only about two minutes away from their house, which overlooks the water on top of a hill) and watched a few rugby matches in the living room. On Sunday, I met up with Lynne who was on the GVI trip with me, and her two friends from the UK, and after walking around on a misty morning, the clouds finally cleared and we went up Table Mountain via the increidbly steep cable car. It was beautiful! The clouds were covering the ocean and most of the city though, but we stayed up there for sunset, so that was a really nice introduction to Cape Town. The following day, Monday, I met up with Andy, another GVIer, and we tried to go to Robben Island with a few of his new friends from the Hostel that he was staying in. The tickets ended up being sold out, so we booked for Tuesday morning, and while the rest of the group was out on the island, we went to the Cape Town Aquarium, which was really nice. When they came back, around 2pm, the six of us went on a Township Tour, introducing us to the shacks and poor conditions of millions of people around South Africa. Tuesday morning I met Andy again and we went over to Robben Island. The weather was absolutely gorgeous! There was not a cloud in sight, a slight breeze, and fairly warm sun - couldn't have asked for a more perfect boat ride. The swells in the ocean were impressive, tilting the boat drastically sideways on each passing, but it was really nice. The island was very informative, and the tour was great - we got to see the jail cell that Nelson Mandella was held in! It was really an interesting experience.
Because it was Andy's last day on Tuesday, he really wanted to go up Table Mountain. As I mentioned before, it was an absolutely beautiful day, so after some persuasion (not much, really) I went up Table Mountain again :D But this time, I was able to see EVERYTHING. Even across into False Bay, on the other side of the cape! It was really cool. That afternoon, I said goodbye to Andy and proceeded on my way home with the Cohens. Today was a really awesome day, as Wednesdays go. I managed to catch a tourbus down to Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope, and on our way we saw PENGUINS! (Sarah and Katherine, feel free to insert a prefix) :D I hate to admit it, but they were actually quite cute. I got some really good pictures I think. We went out onto the point by the lighthouse in the south-western-most point of the continent, and then made our way back to Cape Town via Scarborough (there was actually a building that said "Scarborough Fayre" on it... it made me smile) :)
I had the driver drop me of at Kirstenbosch Gardens, a world-famous garden with plants galore! It was gorgeous, and even though I was walking around on my own, it was great. I had a nice conversation with a perfect stranger, and had time to think and reflect on my trip thus far. It was an incredibly wonderful afternoon.
I don't know how much anyone knows about the situation in Zimbabwe right now, but it's pretty terrible. If you don't know what's going on, I highly suggest you go to bbc.com and check it out. I was shocked to find out what was going on there, and even more shocked to realize that there wasn't much coverage before I left about the atrocities of the government there. Living with two lawyers for the week, I have become much more aware of public situations and goings-on, and feel that it is only right that I spread the message to become more internationally knowledgeable to others.
My time in Cape Town has really been packed and fun-filled! Tomorrow is my last full day, so I think I'm going to go to a few museums if I can manage that, and then just hang out for a bit with the locals. Go to a map and find the southwest corner of Africa, and if you look closely, you just might see me running around trying to absorb it all :D
Friday, June 13, 2008
Week 5 with the Big 5
Today is the first day of the fifth week at Karongwe Game Reserve, and believe me I am doing everything in my power to stop time, but for some reason it's just not working... every day we are still seeing most of the animals, walking in on cheetahs and learning new facts about the ecology here, and every day I am finding myself falling more and more in love with this place.
Yesterday a group of six of us drove down to the southern part of Kruger National Park for a night and a day (just about 24 hours inside the park) and it was absolutely wonderful!!! We got into the park around 4pm on wednesday afternoon and drove down to Pretoriuskop Rest Camp for the evening. After cooking ourselves a nice Briye (or Barbeque) on a non-starter-assisted fire prepared by the girl scout :) we walked around a little bit inside the camp, talked, laughed, had a great time, and then went to sleep in a little grass hut. It was such a good night :) The next day, we got up at 5 and left the camp at 6am, driving all the way south to Crocodile Bridge and then back to the northern part of the bulge to Skukuza and then out of the Paul Kruger Gate. It was amazing!!! My friend Patty and I sat in the trunk of the Hilux that we rented, so it was cool to see everything backwards, even if it was a bit of a bumpy ride. We saw four of the big five (elephants, rhinos, buffalo, and lion - we didn't expect to see a leopard in the middle of the day) and TONS of other cool stuff. The one thing on my list that I wanted to see really badly was an African Wild Dog - the most endangered mammal of South Africa. In the last five minutes, on our way on the road leading out of the park, we saw THREE OF THEM!!! It was so cool, even if it was just for a minute to see such awesome and rare animals.
Another cool thing that we saw was a MASSIVE herd of water buffalo crossing a river. At first all we saw was the dust that they were kicking up, and it looked like someone had set the park on fire and that was the smoke. It was so cool... very similar to the stampeed scene from the Lion King. I can't list everything that we saw, but among the cooler things were Rhinos, an ostrich, a flamingo, lots of elephants, lots of giraffe, and some HUGE crocodiles. It was such a great day in the park! We actually almost got locked in - we thought we had exited at 5:15pm - the park closes at 5:30 - so we were taking group photos and helped a man restart his car just outside the gate, but it turns out that there are TWO gates, just about 1km from one another, so we actually didn't leave the park until 5:45. The guard almost wouldn't let us through, but when he asked us where we were from, one of the guys in the car mentioned Canada (i decided against pointing out my americanism) and he reluctantly let us pass... phew!
Anyways, life here is fantastic still... i can't believe that my time with GVI is almost up, but fortunately i'll still be here in this AMAZING country for another two weeks after that :D
Sending all my love and hugs, and maybe some cool air to NC where I hear that it's only about 100F :)
Yesterday a group of six of us drove down to the southern part of Kruger National Park for a night and a day (just about 24 hours inside the park) and it was absolutely wonderful!!! We got into the park around 4pm on wednesday afternoon and drove down to Pretoriuskop Rest Camp for the evening. After cooking ourselves a nice Briye (or Barbeque) on a non-starter-assisted fire prepared by the girl scout :) we walked around a little bit inside the camp, talked, laughed, had a great time, and then went to sleep in a little grass hut. It was such a good night :) The next day, we got up at 5 and left the camp at 6am, driving all the way south to Crocodile Bridge and then back to the northern part of the bulge to Skukuza and then out of the Paul Kruger Gate. It was amazing!!! My friend Patty and I sat in the trunk of the Hilux that we rented, so it was cool to see everything backwards, even if it was a bit of a bumpy ride. We saw four of the big five (elephants, rhinos, buffalo, and lion - we didn't expect to see a leopard in the middle of the day) and TONS of other cool stuff. The one thing on my list that I wanted to see really badly was an African Wild Dog - the most endangered mammal of South Africa. In the last five minutes, on our way on the road leading out of the park, we saw THREE OF THEM!!! It was so cool, even if it was just for a minute to see such awesome and rare animals.
Another cool thing that we saw was a MASSIVE herd of water buffalo crossing a river. At first all we saw was the dust that they were kicking up, and it looked like someone had set the park on fire and that was the smoke. It was so cool... very similar to the stampeed scene from the Lion King. I can't list everything that we saw, but among the cooler things were Rhinos, an ostrich, a flamingo, lots of elephants, lots of giraffe, and some HUGE crocodiles. It was such a great day in the park! We actually almost got locked in - we thought we had exited at 5:15pm - the park closes at 5:30 - so we were taking group photos and helped a man restart his car just outside the gate, but it turns out that there are TWO gates, just about 1km from one another, so we actually didn't leave the park until 5:45. The guard almost wouldn't let us through, but when he asked us where we were from, one of the guys in the car mentioned Canada (i decided against pointing out my americanism) and he reluctantly let us pass... phew!
Anyways, life here is fantastic still... i can't believe that my time with GVI is almost up, but fortunately i'll still be here in this AMAZING country for another two weeks after that :D
Sending all my love and hugs, and maybe some cool air to NC where I hear that it's only about 100F :)
Friday, June 6, 2008
Under African Skies...
This past week has been nothing short of breathtakingly beautiful. I spent five days in the Drakensburg Mountains on a mountain called Mariepskop in GVI’s “Mountain Phase Cottage” Here we conducted small mammal research where we set and checked around 80 traps for mice in different landscapes. While this was really cool to be able to handle and measure mice and small rodents, what was even cooler was the view from pretty much any place on the mountain.
The Drakensburg Mountain Range is the largest intrinsic igneous rock formation in the world (meaning it was formed under the earth’s crust and then pushed upward to become mountains), and even though we were just in the northern tip of the range, the views were absolutely stunning. Several evenings we went up to the top for “sundowners” where we had a drink or two and watched the sunset – and it was just incredible how far you could see from the top :D
Also, we were so far from any city or town, that the stars you could see once the sun went down were just unbelievable! You could even see whole other galaxies! We found a book at the cottage that outlined the stars in the southern hemisphere, and so we read through it and tried to see what we could find. I don’t think I mentioned how awesome this cottage was… needless to say, it was awesome. It was this cute little one bedroom house, where me and three others slept, and then a hallway-room of sorts where one person slept, and then two people slept out on the “conservatory” which is basically a porch that is walled in – like a sun room type thing. Then there was a kitchen, a bathroom, a storage room, and OUTDOOR SHOWERS!! It was so cool to take a shower at night under the stars… one can only hope that there wasn’t some creepster somewhere out on the mountain top looking in… :) The cottage is on top of a hill in the middle of the canyon, so we had a perfect view of sunrise and sunset every day, even though the view from the top was much better, it was nice to have that just in our backyard :)
This past week has been really relaxing, and our group has really gotten to know one another much better. They’ve divided us up into three groups of six (one girl went home because she was homesick) so it was just the six of us and two staff members up in the mountains.
We went on this INTENSE hike one morning that took us three and a half hours (a new record time) and did a really good job of illustrating just how out of shape I really am :D I was the “pace setter” meaning I was the person just behind the guide who huffed and puffed a meek “slow down” between breaths so that we all stayed together… it was really rewarding though, and I’m really glad I did it. It was roughly a five mile hike (7 kilometres) and there were times where it was literally an 85 degree angle uphill… so it was rough, but we did it!
That’s basically what’s been going on this week… like I said (other than the hike) pretty laid back and relaxing. This coming week will be more hectic with doing visibility measurements all over the reserve and doing prey counts and other various measurements on drives, but I’m still having a BLAST! I’m working on organizing a group trip to Kruger National Park next week on our day off, so hopefully that will work out for us. Love and hugs until next posting!!
The Drakensburg Mountain Range is the largest intrinsic igneous rock formation in the world (meaning it was formed under the earth’s crust and then pushed upward to become mountains), and even though we were just in the northern tip of the range, the views were absolutely stunning. Several evenings we went up to the top for “sundowners” where we had a drink or two and watched the sunset – and it was just incredible how far you could see from the top :D
Also, we were so far from any city or town, that the stars you could see once the sun went down were just unbelievable! You could even see whole other galaxies! We found a book at the cottage that outlined the stars in the southern hemisphere, and so we read through it and tried to see what we could find. I don’t think I mentioned how awesome this cottage was… needless to say, it was awesome. It was this cute little one bedroom house, where me and three others slept, and then a hallway-room of sorts where one person slept, and then two people slept out on the “conservatory” which is basically a porch that is walled in – like a sun room type thing. Then there was a kitchen, a bathroom, a storage room, and OUTDOOR SHOWERS!! It was so cool to take a shower at night under the stars… one can only hope that there wasn’t some creepster somewhere out on the mountain top looking in… :) The cottage is on top of a hill in the middle of the canyon, so we had a perfect view of sunrise and sunset every day, even though the view from the top was much better, it was nice to have that just in our backyard :)
This past week has been really relaxing, and our group has really gotten to know one another much better. They’ve divided us up into three groups of six (one girl went home because she was homesick) so it was just the six of us and two staff members up in the mountains.
We went on this INTENSE hike one morning that took us three and a half hours (a new record time) and did a really good job of illustrating just how out of shape I really am :D I was the “pace setter” meaning I was the person just behind the guide who huffed and puffed a meek “slow down” between breaths so that we all stayed together… it was really rewarding though, and I’m really glad I did it. It was roughly a five mile hike (7 kilometres) and there were times where it was literally an 85 degree angle uphill… so it was rough, but we did it!
That’s basically what’s been going on this week… like I said (other than the hike) pretty laid back and relaxing. This coming week will be more hectic with doing visibility measurements all over the reserve and doing prey counts and other various measurements on drives, but I’m still having a BLAST! I’m working on organizing a group trip to Kruger National Park next week on our day off, so hopefully that will work out for us. Love and hugs until next posting!!
Saturday, May 31, 2008
An Unbelievable Week
I am having trouble realizing just how much I've seen in the last seven days. That list of animals that I said I hadn't seen - completely checked off. I've seen SOOO much, its ridiculous!
Last tuesday (i think) I actually got to witness and participate in a Leopard darting!!! The newest male leopard on the reserve, Shiluweni, while in transport to the reserve from his original location, broke both of his top canine teeth on the bars of the enclosure that he was held in, and while he was eating and hunting fine, Constant, the Game Reserve Manager, suspected that he had abscesses on both teeth and wanted to check it out. Upon his darting, they found that both roots were severely infected and abscessed, so they called in a dentist (AND WE GOT TO GO INTO TOWN TO WATCH!!!) to take out the teeth and in a week or so they'll put in titanium replacement canine teeth! We wanted to pimp out his radio collar with some bling or something, since his teeth will already be grilled out, but Constant didn't really like that idea so much :P
So when we got into town to watch the surgery, there were tons of people there, but we got to get in up close and personal, touch the leopard, play with his tail, see him like I never would have believed. This surgery, actually, is the first time they think that it's ever been done on a wild, free ranging animal, so it was incredibly exciting (all 7 hours of it). How did I help, you ask? Well, I, Halli Sigal, took the temperature of Shiluweni, which involved probing his anus with a thermometer, but hey, how many people can say that they've done that? :D So that was an amazingly incredible experience - he was so soft! And his paws were HUGE! Ben, I hope I'll be able to touch a Lion, but if not, then hopefully this suffices.
Also, I don't know if you know what a Pangolin is (look it up if you don't), but they're INSANELY rare animals that are very secretive and don't come out into open spaces often. To see a Pangolin, according to Lo (one of the staff at KGR), is less likely than getting struck by lightning. This means that the next time it rains on the reserve, I'll be getting struck twice, because in the past five days, I've seen TWO!! One last night, and one a few nights ago - it was amazing!!! Lo was driving us on our evening drive (we go on a morning one at 5:30am and an evening one starting at 3pm) around the reserve tracking the animals, and on the radio, someone came on saying that they'd found a pangolin on the other side of the reserve. Normally it would take about half an hour to get from where we were to where the pangolin was... I think our tires touched the ground a total of five times and it took us about six minutes to get there :D We were FLYING through there so fast that we in the back of the truck might as well have been standing up because the bumps were so bad that we were out of our seats 90% of the time. But it was SO worth it. He was such a cool animal, and out in the open and everything! They're awesome, if you have a chance to look it up, definitely do so.
I'm running out of time, but in the last week I also saw a porcupine, a few civets, an aardvark, honey badgers, LION CUBS!!!, cheetah (and cubs), hyena, geez... so much stuff that I can't think of right now... the only things I haven't seen are caracals and servals that I can think of basically. The people are fantastic, the food is great (very fresh), the landscape is breath-taking, the stars at night are awesome... :D
This place is incredible. I have fallen in love with South Africa :D
Last tuesday (i think) I actually got to witness and participate in a Leopard darting!!! The newest male leopard on the reserve, Shiluweni, while in transport to the reserve from his original location, broke both of his top canine teeth on the bars of the enclosure that he was held in, and while he was eating and hunting fine, Constant, the Game Reserve Manager, suspected that he had abscesses on both teeth and wanted to check it out. Upon his darting, they found that both roots were severely infected and abscessed, so they called in a dentist (AND WE GOT TO GO INTO TOWN TO WATCH!!!) to take out the teeth and in a week or so they'll put in titanium replacement canine teeth! We wanted to pimp out his radio collar with some bling or something, since his teeth will already be grilled out, but Constant didn't really like that idea so much :P
So when we got into town to watch the surgery, there were tons of people there, but we got to get in up close and personal, touch the leopard, play with his tail, see him like I never would have believed. This surgery, actually, is the first time they think that it's ever been done on a wild, free ranging animal, so it was incredibly exciting (all 7 hours of it). How did I help, you ask? Well, I, Halli Sigal, took the temperature of Shiluweni, which involved probing his anus with a thermometer, but hey, how many people can say that they've done that? :D So that was an amazingly incredible experience - he was so soft! And his paws were HUGE! Ben, I hope I'll be able to touch a Lion, but if not, then hopefully this suffices.
Also, I don't know if you know what a Pangolin is (look it up if you don't), but they're INSANELY rare animals that are very secretive and don't come out into open spaces often. To see a Pangolin, according to Lo (one of the staff at KGR), is less likely than getting struck by lightning. This means that the next time it rains on the reserve, I'll be getting struck twice, because in the past five days, I've seen TWO!! One last night, and one a few nights ago - it was amazing!!! Lo was driving us on our evening drive (we go on a morning one at 5:30am and an evening one starting at 3pm) around the reserve tracking the animals, and on the radio, someone came on saying that they'd found a pangolin on the other side of the reserve. Normally it would take about half an hour to get from where we were to where the pangolin was... I think our tires touched the ground a total of five times and it took us about six minutes to get there :D We were FLYING through there so fast that we in the back of the truck might as well have been standing up because the bumps were so bad that we were out of our seats 90% of the time. But it was SO worth it. He was such a cool animal, and out in the open and everything! They're awesome, if you have a chance to look it up, definitely do so.
I'm running out of time, but in the last week I also saw a porcupine, a few civets, an aardvark, honey badgers, LION CUBS!!!, cheetah (and cubs), hyena, geez... so much stuff that I can't think of right now... the only things I haven't seen are caracals and servals that I can think of basically. The people are fantastic, the food is great (very fresh), the landscape is breath-taking, the stars at night are awesome... :D
This place is incredible. I have fallen in love with South Africa :D
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