Fun things to do in Africa. . .

Hang out with some ndlovu on a rainy day . . .

Watch a Christmas movie on an i-pod . . .

Sit on big rocks and watch wildlife . . .

Shoot Rifles . . .

Draw the wildlife . . .

Hike Table Mountain . . .

Home Sweet Tent

Yes, we had to share our tent with creatures that had more than two legs. Some had six, quite a few had eight (amanda handled it well) and some had thousands. But bugs or not, it was our little private haven of heaven.

At night we instilled our one rule. If you were smaller than an inch, you were allowed to spend the night, if you were larger... you must be extracated and banished. So that was a nightly task. We adiosed spiders, large beetles, a couple of praying mantises, a brown house snake, and a skink. twice.

We put this headrest that was shaped like a donkey that you would use to try to sleep on a plane in our zipper at the bottom where there was a huge hole. We made him stand guard and keep out the big and the poisonous. He did alright, you know donkeys are meant to protect, and we did leave bite free, well relatively. Amana got five mosquito bites all month, I got fifty-five, one night about three on each toe.

Then we would put on beautiful music (The Out of Africa soundtrack by John Barry actually) and light up this little tiny amazing candle given to me by my friend Adi. It was intimate, finally cooled off, and fantastic. It was a dream.

As the birds finally finished their part of the overature, the cicadas would start up, and then the reed frogs, and finally the mosquitos sang soprano in our ears. We would lower our mosquito nets and carefully tuck them under our mattresses and be sung to sleep by the bush.

It made for quite noisy nights and was offset by the occassional firefly, but one of the most beautiful pieces we have ever heard. Being in the city now, we miss it desperately.

-amy

Zero

How many Discovery Channel shows have you watched about lions. Watching them running after their prey and then eating and relaxing. How much have you wanted to see them in real life and just witness their majesty in person. To see them up close and see thier scars and who they are. Our male lion on the reserve was just magnificent. He had a regal black mane and knew he was boss. He would look at you and you would melt inside. His eyes peirced you telling you that he knew he had all the power over you. They told you a story of pride and strength. Just being in his presence I literally trembled. He moved about the whole area and at night we could hear him roaring in search of his pride. We saw him mating, saw him with a baby giraffe kill, we saw him walking and roaring. We saw him playing with and tolerating his playful cubs. We spent a good amount of time with Zero and it was amazing. Never before have I ever felt so vunlerable and so blessed to be in the presence of such a awesome animal. I was acutally on the tracker seat when we came up to him in this picture as he was lying in the road. I just tried to send him good vibes! :) Apparently it worked! Whew . . .
-Amanda

Things I've Learned in Africa

-Mosquitos LOVE some people and don't care too much for others.
-Ice isn't important in drinks.
-Just now, means not right now, but in a few minutes.
-Service is sslllllllllllloooooooooooooooowwwww.
-How to take sick pictures.
-Some sweet slang.
-Carry out doesn't usually make it home.
-Pretty much everyone who is in Africa is in the midst of some world traveling expedition, no one ever goes home or works. Hmmm a mystery I must figure out.
-Washing machines are a blessed invention.
-Bugs and snakes, and scorpions and well, almost spiders, eh, not so bad.

Thursday December 25th 2008 Day 34

Merry Beautiful Capetown Christmas!

May the world be filled with love for this one day.

We got out of the house (hostel) early this morning and tried our first stab at the mini bus. We made it about five miles for 40cents and then he kicked us out and sent us to an expensive taxi, there goes that idea. We made it to Table Mountain and bypassed the cable car to hike up some gorge. And what a gorge it was. We hiked STRAIGHT UP boulders for three hours. It was hard! But eventually I made it to the top and the view was 360 degrees of awe. We hung out, opened Christmas cardds and then made our way to V&A Waterfront for a delicious seafood Christmas dinner..... We sat beneath the mountain and watched the sunset. Afterwards we gave our leftovers to a very grateful mom and hungry 2 year old girl. Amanda offered her crackers to the pair and as he handed them, the little girl's eyes lit up and mouth opened like she had just been handed the most incredible gift of her life. That is what Christmas is all about... crackers. Talked to my loved ones tonight. Merry Christmas. -
Amy

December 2nd

Sleep Out!
"Wanna have a sleep out tonight?" This is the first we hear of the sleep out. Hmm aren't we already sleeping 'out.' The answer, no, sleep out would mean you armed with your sleeping bag in the middle of wild Africa! Sweet. So we all pack up our little overnight bags and half of us hike to our riverbed campsite while the other half drive to set up camp. Bloody hot day, I don't know if we mentioned Africa in the summer, toasty. Anyway, we get there and there is a fire going and everyone is sitting around, Aim and I hiked obviously. Side note here: I'll never understand how these people can be on the verge of physically cooking the entire day, and that is sitting in the shade mind you, and then at night sit by a bloody fire! It's madness!


Anyway, once we all arrive, we get our debrief . . . "So . . . every hour someone must be on guard duty" all our faces drop a bit, haven't been given this information prior. . "Two people must walk the perimeter of camp during their hour and if anything 'potientially hazardous' occurs, wake us up" I think Rob and Lance, just enjoy scaring us! But who wouldn't. So Amy and I got the midnight hour 'till 1am. Sweet.

So everyone hung out for a while then people began retiring. Now it's a given that most people aren't really going to sleep in this situation, considering the high level of mossies and, well, the accomodations, and also the possiblity of instant disembowlement by the leapord that recently had visited our campsite, leaving his lovely tracks as proof. So as Amy and I lay there in our mossie net rigged between two coolers, we anxously awaited our 'bait hour.' Probably got a few winks in staring at the stars, on our backs unable to move even an inch due to intricate rigging, but 12:00 rapidly approached. We got up on our own as our doom hour internal clocks went off and we began our shift. Luckily, by the Grace of God, Rob, the rifle keeper, was awake during our shift. The mosquitoes were apparently having thier way with him so sleep wasn't in the cards for him during our bait hour. While we 'guarded' standing around, eyes as big as bowling balls, ears straining to hear the slightest snake slither, we did hear some good stuff. The hyena, which we heard every night were active close by, the jackals competing, a strange unidenified cat noise, and yes, Zero the male lion told us he was around as well.

It was an interesting night and in retrospect a great experience. We had the opportunity to do it again, but unfortunately, Mine and Amy's were the only hands in the air when the question came up. :( oh well. Maybe next time. . .
-Amanda

Saturday December 20, 2008 Day 29

God himself came to the bush today and blessed us with the most splendid day of them all. He made it all worth it. First of all a Christmas miracle occurred and Dennis the Menace decided to leave camp for the entire day. Amanda and I walked with Rob (the guide) and had our own personal tour. We saw a kite spider (mandas favorite) and listened to a Vervet Monkey's alarm call and tracked a leopard all morning. Rob said "if the lions charge just stand still." ..... ok? .... We were on code orange for danger. We saw a southern yellow billed hornbill, a misplaced baby bird at the dam, we took our time taking pictures of insects and grasses and had fun. Then the vervets came to camp for lunch.


Then tonight a game drive of a lifetime. Just me, manders, rob and danny (17 from Zambia.) We floored it out of camp, saw the rhino (NCOMBI) and the baby, who we have affectionately named STOMP. We just followed the rhino tracks... A hornbill flew over. We turned north to the Elephants (NDLOVU) Saw 15 and two babies that were a week old and had no control over their trunks yet. AWESOME. A lilac breasted rollar. Then to an absolutely fantastic, fly infested wildebeast kill with the pride of lions. seven lions. We just sat with them. Intimately for 45 minutes or more. It was a sighting of a lifetime. Sunset. White faced Owl. Finally we followed two hyena juvies out for the evening. Night drive tonight. A lunar moth. Thanks God, what a day! What a day. To see all that on one game drive is something you remember your entire life. What a day. - Amy

Sunday, December 14, 2008 Day 23

Have I mentioned yet that it is bloody hot in Africa? There's talk of rain, and the clouds to pile up nicely, but then..... nothing. NO RAIN COMES. We had duties this morning so up at 4:30am. Brutal. I had so much of hating boys by 7:45 that we went back to bed. Saw an impala fleeing the scene on our walk and then some growling, a lot of hissing, a crash and then nothing. We heard a kill, didn't have a visual, but heard it.
Tonight we tracked a cheetah for awhile and the finally went to visit a whole lion pride. Mom, Zero and three cubs, two boys and a girl. Those cubs definitely 6 months or older had the most beautiful faces I might have ever seen. Inquisitive, alert, sweet, personality to spare, rambunctious, and gorgeous. An wild African lion cub. I'm trying to savor every drop. -Amy

Wednesday December 10, 2008 Day 19

For some reason today we were all more beat than ever before AFTER our day off. It is tight around here with 20 people in a small area, and we are needing a change-up. In order to make a phone call home, I don't know if you understood what it took.

I had to borrow Rob's (the guide) phone, no instructions, then search the entire camp for a signal, found it, in the POUNDING sun, call Budget rentals, wrong number, found it, transferred, lost her, wrong number, finally a connection. Car rented, need a ride to the gate, sign your life away, drive back to camp in a low riding cheap car, scraping thorns and divots in the road, lock it, park it, go to bed. Up at 5 am in order to call while people are still up in the US. Get in cheap car, drive 45 kilometers, search the town for a phone, no luck, hard luck, finally. A phone booth next to dead chickens in the PUNISHING sun, and interested flies, heat from hell. Dial a zillion numbers, mess up, start over. Oh God, its ringing. Pick up pick up pick up pick up. Pray someone answers. - Amy

November 30th

A blisteringly hot day! We just sweat all day as usual. I guess you could also call this trip a detox. 28 days in the bush, experience amazing wild life and as a bonus a complete detox of any bodily toxins! Forget the steam rooms! I'll go to Africa!

Anyway, after the afternoon of sitting right on the edge of the plastic chair at the table so you have the least possible contact with any object, we went on our evening game drive. It was me in the tracker seat and we were on the hunt for, well I don't know, anything really. It was always, "what do you want to see today?" then "Leopard, Rhino, Cheetah . . ." but the best drives were when we just drove up to something or heard about a great sighting on the radio.

So as we drove along, I was in the tracker seat, or basically sitting on the hood, and another guy was driving. Rob (guide) perks up and notices something on the road and tells Johan to stop. He stops. We are all alert, 'Hmm what is it?' Rob says he notices grass on the road, why is that there? As a novice tracker, I failed in the 'look at the broken grass clump in the road and know it means elephant are close by' test. Hmmm. Anyway, we are all quiet for a second and we hear the giant heard moving in the trees to our left. So Rob quickly gets into the driver seat and FLOORS it in reverse to pick up another road that heads to where the elephant are. (This will be our first elephant sighting) Remember me in the tracker seat? Yeah, wow, I held on for dear life! Then he rockets down the dirt road, hugged on each side by wonderful thorny acacias and other lovely bush inhabitants! We were speeding along hitting bumps and trees, and though there was a tinge of fear in me that I might be flung into oblivion as they continued their chase, I was secretly grinning like a child on her first roller coaster! Talk abour a rush! Good times.

So then, after the bat outta hell drive, we drive BOOM right into the herd of elephant! Wow, right on the road in front of us. Though stunning and beautiful and one of the things I wanted to see most, a whole new world of fear came into my being. Umm, the elephant are enormous and I'm VERY close and well, what if they don't want us here? I'm the first to go. The guides know what they are doing right? That was my reasoning about 150 times on this trip! HA! But, I survived the bush, so well done Rob and Lance! :)

The elephants were wonderful, amazing and awesome. They went to the dam briefly, had a quick swig of water, then magically disappeared into the bush until next time. . .
-Amanda

Friday, December 5, 2008 Day 14

Last night at 2:30 am Amanda woke me to go to the bathroom. We met a Tiger snake on the way back. Beautiful yellow with black stripes. (Bands) He was still pretty small 2-3 feet long and slightly venomous the book said. Amanda's like... "what does that mean? Everytime you cough you shit your pants?" Funny. We had a nice big thunderstorm afterwards with strobe lightning and our river filled in. We had a lecture at 6:15 this morning and then the afternoon off. I had some stomach pains today and went to bed for four hours. It was glorious. We washed the Landrober and then took a nice sunset drive tonight. We saw a giant land snail, no lion cubs, but 3 bush babies. Starting to plan for our day off to rehab for animals called Moholoholo, then to Hoedspruit for calls home. Awesome. - Amy

Shots, Insurance and Packing

Well, the day is rushing toward us and all the things that still need to be done are numerous! Still shots to be shot with, travel insurance to be bought, and a few supplies to obtain. It's a bit stressful due to the time and money restraints, but I am trying to be faithful. God has always provided for me so I must remember that! I am a bit sad too that I will be gone for all of the holidays! One of my favorite times of year! At least I'll be here for Halloween ;) Less than two months to go! Pray for us! Any suggestions anyone has, please leave us comments!
-Amanda

Stillness

"Out in the wilds I had learned to beware of abrupt movements. The creatures with which you are dealing there are shy and watchful, they have a talent for evading you when you least expect it. No deomestic animal can be as still as a wild animal. The civilized people have lost the aptitude of stillness and must take lessons in silence from the wild before they are accepted by it." -Isak Dinesen 'Out of Africa'
-Amanda

Lions, Hyenas and Mosquitos

we are getting ready and excited.

The Call

I went up to the mountain
Because you asked me to
Up over the clouds
To where the sky was blue
I could see all around me
Everywhere
I could see all around me
Everywhere
-amy