More pictures of the trip. :-)

Thought I'd better get on the stick and post some more pictures of our trip. This will probably be the last set I post here. I figure if you've seen one rhino picture, you've seen them all. Same goes for elephants, lions, leopards, etc.

The young man in one of the pictures in this group is dressed in his Zulu costume. It was Heritage Day in South Africa and South Africans are encouraged to dress in their traditional garb. He descends from Zulu warriors, so he is wearing a period-exact piece. The pink across his chest and the necklace around his neck are beaded pieces. The Zulus have a huge business in jewelry now. In fact, everywhere I looked there was jewelry for sale, hand-made by the tribe. The beads they use are different too. All are glass, but they don't look the same as the beads we see coming out of China now. These, in his outfit, were gorgeous. His sandals are hand made, as is the rest of the outfit. He was one of the few employees at Jock Safari Lodge to wear traditional clothing that day, but I'm glad he did. Besides which, this guy was adorable. Tall and handsome. Sigh....

The red and white flowers are from a bush called an Impala Lily. It blooms with these flowers before it ever gets leaves, similar to a Lilac. The picture, luckily, captured that wonderful color. But no fragrance. :-(

The next is a Lilac Breasted Roller. This is one of the most beautiful birds I've ever seen. She/he stands about 6-7" tall, so its not a big bird. It is named the "roller" because of the acrobatics it does when its looking for a mate. It soars high into the sky, then dives, rolling as it falls, to attract the attention of the opposite sex. I wasn't able to catch this dive with my video camera, as it happens unexpectedly and very quickly, so I had to settle for a still picture of the colors. :-)

Then some elephants again, cause I fell in love with them over there. They are the true kings of the bushveld, jungle, or wherever you go. Lions will run from elephants and if they don't run fast enough, the elephants will chase them. I have it on video. :-)

Now onto a Blue Wildebeest and a Rhino family. :-)

I'll stop here and make another post with some Cape Buffalo, birds, and a few others. :-)

The Trip

We're known for taking "trips of a lifetime", incorrectly named because we seem to be taking these every couple of years. This year was a Safari to South Africa. The day we returned, after two weeks, was the day my second week of classes was posted. Since those classes started, I rarely have time to do much of anything except study, housework, a little sewing, a LOT more study. But I promised a lot of people I'd post some pictures and tell them about the trip.

First, we stayed for four days at Jock Safari Lodge, which, in my humble opinion, was the greatest part of the trip. Their compound is within Kruger Park (they've purchased what is called a concession there, and it allows them to run tours from their location). The room we had was really nice, with outside decking overlooking a dry riverbed (dry only because it was the end of winter and the rains had not begun yet). The entire compound is surrounded by electric fence, so no fear of finding a lion curled on your deck in the morning. :-) I loved going on the safari rides, held at dawn and dusk. The morning trip would require leaving before 6am and would arrive back in time for lunch, usually around 11am. The afternoon trip would begin around 3pm, but wouldn't end until around 7pm. I have some wonderful video, some of which I posted on a special "group" I made on Facebook, so that my friends could see. If you are reading this and want the link, just let me know. :-)

The second place we stayed was at Satara, which is a South African-run rest camp. Rest camps are necessary as you can only enter and leave Kruger Park while the gates are open from around 7am until around 6pm (times vary according to the time of year). If you are in the park when the gates are closed, you MUST be in the one of the Lodges or Rest Camps. I think the fine is 500 Rand if you are caught inside the park and NOT booked into a rest camp. And while that doesn't amount to much with the exchange rate of 70 Rand per US dollar, it is a LOT of money for the everyday South African to pay. Satara wasn't much. John only booked it for us as he'd never been that far north and wanted to see the difference between the northern and southern part of the Park. I should tell you that John was born in South Africa, but moved with his parents to England when he was very young. He went back there as a young man to study for an advanced degree at University, then returned a couple of times later, but he hadn't been in the park since the 1980's. Satara was very close to what American's would call "seedy". It definitely needed some TLC, which it wasn't getting. But the little huts were clean, and I suppose in the grand scheme of things, it was a nice area. But I'd never stay there again. The huts were composed of a bathroom and bedroom, with an outside porch with included your seating and your kitchen. To my American eye, this was very odd, but workable. One of the things I did not like at Satara was a lack of space. These little huts were tiny and not modern at all. There are far more modern "camps" up in that area of Kruger, so this wasn't a good choice, in my opinion. The second thing I really hated was that we were on our own as far as traveling around and taking pictures and spotting game. This is tough, because without a trained eye, I'm sure we missed a LOT. And on this kind of trip, you do not want to miss much, as it isn't like you're going to be back there next week.

We next went to a place called MalaMala Game Reserve. Their property BORDERS Kruger Park, but they are not held to following the park rules. One thing you cannot do in the park is go off the road. In other words, there are lots of dirt roads at Kruger and you can drive on them all, but you cannot just take off driving through the bushveld. MalaMala does just that. On most of our game drives there, we were cutting through the bushveld, rather than following the road. Makes for a very rough ride. I'm still not convinced that we saw more game by doing this.

They also did something at MalaMala that I strenuously objected to...they follow predators (such as leopard, lion, hyena, etc). If they spot a Leopard, they may follow her for hours through the bush. Granted the animals don't seem to notice that the vehicle is there, and they aren't "chasing" her (in other words, she continues doing whatever it was she was doing, and she isn't running away from the vehicle). But I'm a true believer that just the ACT of watching something will somehow change it. In one case, there were two couples (us and some very nice people from Australia), and both the woman and I objected to following one leopard female because she hadn't eaten for TWO days and we both felt we were warning her prey about her presence. Luckily our game guide agreed to stop, otherwise, I doubt that his employer would have approved.

MalaMala was just ok, in my book. The rooms there were furnished so as to be thought opulent. The problem is that the place is not fenced. So if you decide to take a walk around, you'd darn well better keep your eyes open and be paying attention, cause you have NO idea who or what might be around the next corner. If I wanted to stay someplace where I couldn't go outside my room at night, this would be where I would stay. Otherwise, no.

Here are a few photos we took (I promise, once you've seen a few of these, I'll go back to posting about sewing and school, lol).

In these pictures you'll see a young male elephant that came over to the vehicle to say hello. An African Hornbill bird (this one happens to be a Red Hornbill). A female lion returning to her cubs after a night of hunting (we'd watched her hunting the night before). Our "hut" at Jock Safari Lodge, with me just barely getting caught in the picture. And a baby Lion who gave us a little bit of a growl while we were taking pictures.

Long Time No See

OK. Boy do I owe myself some time to sit down and reflect on school, the trip, sewing time (or lack of), and just some everyday stuff.

I've been contacted by a woman who would like me to make her wooden valances for her dining room. Now, I should have known better than to do a wooden, fabric covered valance for ANYONE, but little did I know that by doing a friend a favor, I would now be in the spot of having to say no to one of HER friends. Darn! I HATE it when something grows when you don't want it to.

First, fabric covered wooden valances are a pain in the you-know-what. The measurements for each window have to be exact, not even a mm off, since once covered with quilt batting and the fabric, they actually have to fit the window you've measured days before. Second, my first valances were done ONLY because a friend had tried to do them herself and had the wood already cut and had gotten stuck on how to do the fabric and batting. I know mine are different than some because the front of the valance (the part that actually hangs from the wood) is fabric. So you basically have a shelf of wood that you cover with batting and fabric, and on that you attach a fabric front and sides in a pleasing design (in this case, I did 3 shield shapes across the front and one shield shape on each side, and the shelf itself was 6" deep. The depth of the shelf needs to be in good proportion to the windows, so that requires a bit of planning also.

All things I really didn't want to do for anyone else, especially not someone I don't know. But I think I'm going to do them, just because this woman is a good friend of MY friend, and I'm not in the mood to disappoint anyone right now.

And on top of the valances, which really don't take too much sewing, but a lot of time "constructing", I need to get back on the stick with my own designing and sewing. I have two sketches, one for a jumper with an assymetric neckline, and the other for a jacket with a shawl collar and raglan sleeves, that I really want to construct the patterns for. In addition, winter is on the way, and I'm thinking that I'd love to make a pattern for a hooded scarf (but not a knitted one - maybe wool plaid). So as you can tell, I really should get back to it. :-)

Frustration

I haven't gotten to the pictures yet, which is a bummer. I did manage to edit one video of a very rare Black Rhino that we'd seen when we were staying at Jock Safari Lodge, within Kruger Park. I had promised them that I would post the video on their Facebook page. These rhines are rarely seen. They are very shy. The video I took was taken a half mile away, and it didn't come out badly. This weekend, I'm going to work on getting the photos up on Photobucket so that family and friends can see them. Then, I have to do a video/slide show for friends here in VT who all want to see the animals....and we took videos and stills of lots and lots of animals.

In Africa, they call one group of animals The Big Five - Lion, Leopard, Elephant, Rhino, and Cape Buffalo. By our second day on safari we'd seen all five! That usually doesn't happen. In our case, it was serendipitous, because after seeing the Big Five, we then started watching carefully for all the other animals. All in all, we took over 1500 still photographs and about 600 videos, so you can see why it is taking me so long.

In addition, my classes started on September 29, and I had to get online each day of our trip in order to keep up. The college had given us an estimate of 30 hours a week that we would have to spend online in order to do these intensive courses. I think they were dreaming. While on vacation, I ended up being online 25 hours. This week, after only 4 days, I've spent almost 40 hours online, and still have two quizzes to take and a paper to write. One instructor made the statement that each course was originally meant to take a semester to teach. Each course we're taking is 5 weeks long, meaning that we're covering 4 semesters of work between now and April 30. Sigh...........

I'm frustrated more because the classes aren't giving me the time to think, let alone do anything extra. I'm usually very good at managing my time, but in this case, I've had to shift my organization skills into hyper-drive.

Heading Home....

We start the journey home tomorrow. I'll write more about the trip over the next week or so, but for now, I'll say this. I'm going to truly miss the elephants of Kruger Park. They are the most amazing animals, as well as being far smarter than us dumb humans want to ever admit.

The Park and the surrounding area was wonderful. The trip was ok...I enjoyed the animals, but there were some things I just did not enjoy. But later.....

I'll post more when we arrive in NY on Saturday morning (leaving Friday afternoon, traveling 15 hours by plane, but gaining hours...talk about confusing).

I'm posting only a couple of pictures here.

We took about a thousand pictures and videos, but all will have to be edited. I was thoroughly amazed (and loved it) that the animals were within touching distance most of the time. These zebras were just standing, posing for me. :-)

These pictures were NOT taken with a regular camera. These stills were taken with my video camera!

Malaria and other mundane things I have to worry about

I haven't mentioned our upcoming vacation much because I'm getting less and less enthusiastic the closer it gets. It isn't because it won't be an exciting trip, and it isn't that we won't enjoy ourselves once we're there. It is the preparation that has gone into this.

We have cats, and because we feel very responsible towards those animals, we hire a house sitter to take care of them while we are gone. We pay her what amounts to a small fortune (no I'm not kidding, around $125.00 a day), and for that, we get someone who will care for the house and the cats like we do. This is our second house-sitter. The first one was a doll, but she moved away to get married, and thus we had to go advertising for another. We found our current sitter through our veterinarian (whom we call Auntie Janine because she's one of my best friends as well as our vet).

We have preparation to do for her end of this vacation. Things like medications, food, treats, toys...those all have to be ready for her. And everything needs to be stored in an orderly fashion, as she has to be able to find everything she needs to run a house.

Then there are the preparations for the trip itself. We are going on safari. Yep, you heard right. A safari. First we'll spend a couple days in NYC, where I'll try my best to find a pair of casual boots and will visit Mood Fabrics (featured on the show Project Runway). Then we'll get on a plane and fly to South Africa. We'll fly from Johannesburg to a smaller, rural airport near Kruger Park. We'll spend 3 days in Kruger Park...then we'll move on to a couple of different large game preserves bordering Kruger. Each day will have at least one game drive...and possibly a game hike. Every morning, we'll go out with a guide at dawn to specific places within the preserve and/or Park.

When we're in the vehicles, we will have a guide and a ranger (for the lack of a better name for him) who will be armed. For the walks, and this caused me a little bit of pause, the guide and the ranger will be armed with elephant guns and handguns. Our nights will be spent surrounded by mosquito netting in quite elegant rooms (we've seen pictures).

The preparation for this which is causing the most problem is Malarone. This medication is to be taken beginning two days before you arrive in any malarial area and for 7 days after you leave. Obviously, you also slather on bug spray everywhere you go for the time you are in an area where malarial mosquitos might be found. The "mosquito" season in South Africa runs from October through March, but we are going at the end of September and because of Climate Change, we may find mosquitos waiting for us (oh goody gumdrops).

I had no problem with being told we had to take the malaria medicine. My problem arose when I tried to get it prescribed and filled at a pharmacy. Our local hospital, Fletcher Allen, decided that it would cost us $321.00 EACH for the appointment, the medicine, and the counseling. I told them more than once that neither of us needed any sort of counseling, but their reply was that it was mandatory.

Next I called my doctor, who told me that the counseling had to be done by the "travel office" at Fletcher Allen. I told him that we didn't need counseling, that we understood malaria, Malarone, and what we needed to do. He then, finally, granted my request to prescribe it. Great! Well, maybe not. First the drugstore didn't stock it and it had to be ordered. Then, when they tried to charge our insurance, the insurance carrier went crazy, going even so far as to call us on the phone and ask what we thought we were doing, lol.

Finally, we get the scripts filled and find that the medication is $171.00 per person. So we paid the $342.00 gladly, considering Fletcher Allen was about to charge us almost double that.

So, we will begin taking the medication on our second day in New York, and we're hoping to avoid insect bites during our trip, so that we can arrive back home safe and sound.

The rest of the prep has been the clothing, which has to be pretty specific, based on the conditions we'll encounter. We're taking one set of clothing for New York, then we will pack all of that away and store one suitcase at JFK airport while we're gone then pick it up when we arrive back in the US.

As you might be able to tell, this has occupied us for the last month, and now we're down to the last week and a half or so before we leave. I'm excited, and somewhat relieved to have it finally arrive. We've gone on some wonderful vacations, adventures if you will. Hopefully, this vacation will be as great as the last 3. :-) We'll see.

New peekers....

You're definitely allowed to peak at this blog now and again. Keep in mind, I don't care if you "follow" it or not. My worth isn't based on how many followers I have, or how many people comment. I do this solely for myself...sometimes to vent, but usually just to play it back to myself.

Enjoy, read, comment, or not. But whatever you do, enjoy.