True Adventurers!

True Adventurers is what a woman living in a very remote part of the Central Kalahari called us.  I guess it is all a matter of perspective.  I would have called her that before considering calling myself one....what follows is a montage of pictures and words from the past few days.  I have found that adding pictures is not that easy from my tablet, and editing after the fact, impossible, so what you have here is a little bit disjointed. My apologies...I think that you will get the idea though.

In the spirit if adventure, as

 you might imagine, the Internet accessibility in Africa is not like you would see in Silicon Valley. So, I haven't been able to keep up with the our travels as much as I hoped to.  Since pictures are worth more than words,, I am giving you a photo montage today.  There are anew shots if the plane in here, which might imply that all is not well with our Dixie...not true.  She just had a small leak in the drain valve of one fuel tank. The airport security guy did not like the looks of it, so we used some gaffer tape (think you Rob!) to put a Rube Golberg gas collection device (a water bottle) in place while we are on the ground.  This seemed keeping in the theme of African ingenuity.  Note the very clever duct tape repair on the bungee jumping platform 350 feet above the water in the Victoria Falls gorge.

Here are some of my favorite quotes so far:

"you have the clocks, we have the time"
"don't kill the artist" (a reply when we negotiated for a trinket with a street vendor)
"we also have problems with cougars here, but a very different kind" (in response to a statement about hikers in Washington encountering wildlife.)

Here are some pictures from the past few days.  More words to come later.

The last 36 hours

It has been amazing 36 hours.  Starting with a somewhat strange south African experience in a mini Las Vegas (Sun City Cabanas).  This was the first stop, as it poised us for the trip across the border, and i suppose that it gave us a snse of a differnt biew of the South African people, but it was not really what we expected to encounter  Monday morning we  made our way through South African customs in Pilanesburg.  They staffed the entire airport for the three of us and even made us go thought the security screening procedure for our private plane. They were not as fussy as the folks at TSA though and allowed us to bring a fifth of gin, a bottle of wine and 3 pen knives on board.

We then headed to Gabarone, the capital of Botswana, to clear immigration and customs and get gas. Dixie, our plane (her call sign is DYX), needs to refuel every couple of days.  We also had to file a flight plan and pay some landing fees, all of which required a fair amount of paperwork.  This included a bizarre experience where we walked across the tarmac, into the terminal building, through immigrations and customs (but without our luggage, which was still on the plane) back through security and onto the tarmac.  Thus, we were now legally in Bottswana.  The people though are quite nice and taught us how to say hello (dumela) and thank you (ke ala boqa).

We then made our way north across the Kalahari desert to Deception Valley Lodge. It is named this for the mirages that come from the sand pans, which make people think that they are walking to water. This is an amazing and very remote place, run by a South African family, who have built this lodge on their 15,000 hectacres.  After the afternoon flight, fighting thermals (read turbulent) for a couple of hours, we were really glad to arrive, and just in time for a late afternoon game drive.  Within two hours of arriving the expert tracking skills of Chote and Jacu brought us to a pride of lion, which included 5 six month old cubs. I took several dozen pictures, which I haven't  had a chance to sort through yet  too many but the ones below give some perspective about how special this place is.

This morning we went on another game drive, had lunch and then an afternoon walk in the bush (no lion spotting is time..they were all sleeping),  this evening we are going to see how the Bushman used to live.  Then tomorrow we are off to the Okavango Delta.

The adventure begins!

After  40 hours of flying, I arrived this morning at the Johanesburg airport.  Janna from Sky Africa collected me and together with Catherine and Zabeta, we went to a smaller airfield, called Brakpan.  We are now waiting for the skies to clear so that Catherine can do her flight checks (for insurance purposes).  We will then load up the plane with all of our stuff ( and there is a lot of it!) and head to Pilanesburg.  That will be the last stop in South Africa for a while. Tomorrow we head to Borswana and the Kalahari!

Wow, that was something

I just spent 14 hours with my new friends at Cathay Pacific.  I have flown a lot.  I have over 200,000miles logged with Alaska Airlines alone.  They are great.  Cathay Pacific is in an entirely different league. Starting with my suite, which, among other niceties, had the most comfortable seat I have ever been in on an aircraft (thank you Hugh Barrington!), to the hand written thank you card, to the showers in Hong Kong. It has all been absolutely over the top,

Today I am going halfway around the world  It is a really long way to travel, but I don't think that I could possibly be any more comfortable and catered to than I have been so far.  Next stop:Johannesburg!

Lounging

I am cooling my heels between flights.  The first leg of the journey went well, with no delays coming out of SeaTac or arriving in SFO.  The quality of my companionship, though was another matter.  My seat-mate arrived late, and proceeded to distribute her three very large, heavy bags throughout the cabin.  I am pretty sure that she had more luggage as carry on than I do in total for 3 weeks in Africa.  I have a personal pet peeve about this arriving late with many bags maneuver. (I've been that this particular rodeo before.) The end of flight luggage grab usually involves the luggage owner climbing over seats and bonking people in the head and legs while retrieving her junk. Since she was on the aisle it also meant that I got to watch her assemble said junk while being pinned to the window, while she balanced all of her bags on her seat.   During the flight she politely declined the breakfast, instead asking for hot water, 2 creamers, and a spoon......Wait for it!  When the ingredients arrive, she dumps something that looks like powdered green peas, and smells like a barnyard into the water, adds the creamer and stirs.... incessantly.  Apparently, the stuff separates quickly because the stirring continued the entire flight.  I was pleased that I only got to enjoy her company for 90 minutes or so.

Continuing on the theme of  people watching, while walking between terminals an older (French?) man with a Hercule Pirot mustache and a smoldering cigarette asked me to take a picture of him using his phone.  I was happy to do so...he then told me about the museum in the terminal and asked me to tour it with him.  I didn't...but I was nice about declining the offer.  Later the dude at the information desk told me that the museum was not that great and advised me not to waste my time on it.  So, it's good to know that I didn't miss anything.

It is a beautiful day in San Francisco.  Of course, I am not outside.  Instead I am in the Cathay Pacific Lounge.  It is nice.  Functional, with good working computers and lots of marble.  They fed me a lovely lunch of rice noodles, green beans, and stir fried rice.  Below is the won ton and dan dan noodle combination they made to my order.  I was hungry.  It was yummy.

As you an imagine, the Cathay Pacific lounge has people from all over the world.  As I'm sitting here typing, a youngish man with an Indian accent has been talking to someone on his cell phone using his blue tooth ear piece.  He's been pacing up and down the lobby gesturing, as if he's in a play.  I couldn't help myself, because it seemed so funny, so I took a picture.  He was pretty much staring at me  (albeit through an opaque glass) when I took the shot above.  The glass makes him look ghostlike, which I don't think he'd appreciate.

The next leg of the journey should board in about an hour.  This is the REALLY long flight. Fourteen hours 20 minutes.  I'm thinking that I'll be watching a couple of movies, and reading a book or two, and maybe finishing a pair of socks!

Syttende Mai

Today is Norwegian Independence Day, and the first day of my big trip to Africa.  The first stop on the 40 hour journey to the other side of the world was SeaTac airport.  The security lines at 5:15AM were as bad as I have ever seen them. (where are all of these people going?!)  The small amount of money and time I invested in getting a TSA-Pre clearance paid for itself in spades this morning.  My Luggage is checked.  Boarding passes in hand. Next stop:  SFO!

Final Countdown

It's down to the last of the packing.  One large green duffel bag, which has a 2 wine bottle shipper box inside (you can't go to another continent without a little Washington wine....right?!), 2 smaller duffel bags (for on the ground moving around), snacks, toiletries, spare Ziploc (always useful), handiwipes, and a few clothing items.  Total weight 42 pounds.  My carry-on, which is stocked full of electronics, weighs 27 pounds.  My weight limit:  20 kilos, or 44 pounds....No worries, the wine doesn't count in my weight allowance, right?!!!!

A Short Decade Ago

Ten years ago this summer I travelled to Luzon, Philippines to visit my friend Catherine.  We explored the Sagada rice terraces, golfed, did some diving, and most importantly, met some really interesting and fun people.  It was a fantastic, memorable trip.  Tomorrow I embark on another travel adventure with Catherine, in which I hope to meet equally wonderful people and explore magical places.

Things are falling into place

Today I was able to finalize several pre-departure  to do's:

1. Annual service for my car.
2. Medical evacuation insurance.
3. Finalizing and signing our wills.

I also learned that by virtue of the fact I'm my departure date is BEFORE my next birthday (9 days before to be exact), I saved $40 on item #2.  That equated to roughly half of the original estimate.  Who knew that another digit in your age could make such a big difference?!

Good planning?

I finished my hat and scarf project, which means they are now included on the pre-departure checklist.  Not only did I manage to finish (just) in time, but I also had less than 6 inches of yarn left...out of 300 yards to start.  Good planning???? Sure!

Put a bird on it!

You know that you've thrown a great party when your guests just don't want to go home.  Our last mingler was of the winged variety.  After 10 minutes, a lot of coaxing, which included some gentle prodding with a towel, and every door in the house wide open, our little wren friend finally got the hint and made his way back to the nest!