East Africa, Days 1 & 2

On Saturday, March 8 we flew from Port Elizabeth to Johannesburg and then onto Nairobi, Kenya.

Just before landing we got to see Mt. Kilimanjaro from the plane!

We left at about 8:30am and arrived around 6:30pm. Kenya was hectic. Their international terminal burned down recently so they had to make-due in an old parking garage. Now we never travel with cash because we have learned that exchanging money = getting shafted, while taking local currency out of the first ATM you come to = less shaftage. So that's always been our strategy. Imagine our surprise when we found out that we had to pay our Kenyan visas (50$ each) in USD and they would not accept Kenyan shillings! Of course we had no USD as we came from SA and there were no ATM's in the "terminal" so we were off to a poor start. They finally let Jeff leave the customs and immigration area and go out thru security to an ATM while the 3 of us and our passports acted as collateral for his return. In the end and about 45 minutes later it all worked out but for a second there I thought we were going to be deported from Kenya!
We finally emerged from the Terminal and found our guide. They met us with our Safari vehicle so we got to check that out right away. We drove about 45 minutes to our hotel. Nairobi is interesting. It's definitely rougher than SA but you feel a bit safer as everyone is going about their business and not really scoping you out. There is less there as far as nice restaurants, malls ect. but also much less of a gap between the haves and the have-nots so there seems to be less crime. Our hotel was really nice. We were tired and hungry so we had a nice dinner and headed straight off to bed.
Breakfast on our first non-travel day:

The next day we got up and met our guide Sam at 7:30. We had about a 5 hour drive to Masai Mara National Park and then an additional 1.5 hours through the park to get to our first accommodation - a tented camp right in the middle of the park!
It was nice to see Nairobi in the daylight.

 These busses had HUUUGE loads strapped on top!

We drove through the city then out through the rural areas and finally down into the Rift Valley.
 East Africa rift valley:

 Trying on a wool hat at a roadside stand:

About 2 hours into the drive we headed onto the "rough road". We would not see pavement again for many days!
As we drove the villages got smaller and smaller until we were driving past Masai villages. For them 1 village = a senior warrior and all his wives and children. There are no fences around game reserves in East Africa, so lions, cheetah and leopards roam free and often visit villages outside of the National Parks. It was shocking to see very small children herding goats and cows out in the middle of NOWHERE where we were forbidden to leave the vehicle to pee. Sam assured us that those tiny kids knew just what to do with lions and could easily defend themselves and their herds from the threat. Us - not so much. Apparently screaming your head off and running in the opposite direction is not the best strategy against lions...

They live in these surrounds they build so that they and their herds are safe at night. They have huts inside the big fence and they herd all the animals right in with then and everyone is safe after the sun goes down.

The Masai is the one tribe in East Africa that has for the most part kept their traditional ways and not integrated with the modern world. They eat mostly cow's milk mixed with blood, and meat. They do not eat game animals ever and consider it taboo so they are allowed to live next to and even enter all National Parks since their lifestyle is compatible with conservation efforts.
We passed many people who all waved enthusiastically to us. Sam told us that most of the people we waved to would never in their lives see a paved road. Wow.
Finally at about noon we hit the park.

We headed in and immediately started spotting animals -

one of the first things we saw was a leopard!

These are incredibly difficult to spot. Many people go on safari and never see one. Jeff has a work colleague that goes on safari yearly and he has seen ONE. It was on our wish list so it was just amazing to see this incredible animal in the wild within 15 minutes of entering our first park. There was an air of total celebration among the 3 vehicles that were there. In the drive from the gate to our camp we saw 4/5 of the big 5... everything but a Rhino! We drove on and saw herds of buffalo, a few lions, and other animals and finally got to our our camp around 1:30.

 Lovin' it!

 This is what I call camping!

 Lunchtime overlooking the hippo pool:

 Kid's side of the "tent".

We checked in, checked out our massive tent complex with adults on one side, kids on the other and a big shared porch and then headed to lunch. It was hot and we were feeling dusty so afterwards we had just enough time to take a swim in the pool to refresh and cool off before meeting Sam at 4 for an evening game drive. Everyone swam except the big guy - the gravity of this big lounger on our porch sucked him in!

Our evening game drive was awesome.

We saw a HUGE lion pride! At first we thought there were only two:

 but then a cub scampered by.

The lions had big full bellies and Sam thought he smelled something dead so there might be a kill in the area. We followed the cub into a ravine and bam! lots more lions and cubs eating a kill - a big Eland. The cubs were taking their turn to eat but there was an Auntie Lioness that was being possessive of the kill and pretty mean to the cubs. You will see what I mean in the video.

 We watched the pride eat and nuzzle each other and just nap in the evening sun with their big food-stuffed bellies.

The littlest ones had a snuggle with mom and some mama milk after some rough treatment at the paws of their aunt:

Then we headed over the savannah and saw a lot more amazing creatures and watched the sun set over the park.

We got back to camp around 7:30 and watched the hippos in the pool call to each other while we had a drink and chatted with a Masai warrior named John.

Then dinner! It was 3 course awesomeness and we enjoyed sitting over the river listening to the hippos sing and re-capping our day.
Ostrich-egg light sconce on the dining deck:

Our first full day on safari had been a big one and we were exhausted. I think all of us were sound asleep by 9:30pm!

The Lions are way cooler in video than they are in pics. Check out days 1&2 VIDEO HERE!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

"Normal" Life

 Since May, we have been traveling or hosting guests. So it's been quite a while since we've experienced "normal life". After a ton of soul-searching and agonizing we decided to switch schools for this year. This was not a decision we took lightly... after all, we'll have to change schools again when we move back to the States and that's a lot of change for the kids. But hind-sight being 20/20, now that we are half way through the term and settled in I can absolutely say that we made the right choice. Kids are happy with more time in their day to relax and play, I drive less, life is simpler... whew!

Roxy graduated Beginner 1 and moved up to Beginner 2 in Agility. She continues to KILL it on a weekly basis and makes everyone laugh with her crazy speed and the fact that not only can I NOT keep up with her, I need to get ahead of her to direct her around the course but she's too fast! This has resulted in some "signature moves" between the two of us and keeps everyone in class laughing. Oh... and if I mess it up too many times she gets frustrated and bites me!

 Teddy started guitar lessons and has just exploded on this instrument. He's been telling me for 2 years that he's playing the wrong thing and now I'm starting to believe him. We have a blast jamming together and since I've never formally taken guitar I'm learning a lot too. And his teacher is totally rad...that helps a lot.

 Crossfit is in full swing 3 days a week. Kids are loving it and building such healthy bodies and learning good movement patterns. And for me the Crossfit Games are on. And even though I swore up and down that I just didn't care, once they started I sorta-kinda DID care. Bummer....

 We got to celebrate my birthday in the middle of summer. SUCH a treat for a February girl. Skiing and snowball fights is more what I'm used to so eating birthday dinner outdoors in a sundress is an experience I will miss when we get back home.

 Teddy had his first few cricket matches. I still have no idea what this game is about...

Teddy at the bat!

 And all day, everyday, this one is right next to me. She's in the car, next to my desk, in the kitchen. Such a wonderful little soul, and such a blessing. She guards me. From the gardener, the gas station attendants, people asking for money. It's great because I can't roll down the windows to give them coins or she'll eat them. Promise you, there are scratch marks on the windows where she has tried to get them THROUGH the glass. Awesome excuse. When she's in business mode she flips her ears back so the sounds go Right. In. This way she gets a 2-3 second head-start....

 We put a zip-line in the tree-fort which has been hours of time and fun. And no trips to the emergency room yet.... knock on wood...

 And of course, we're soaking up those beach days as much as we can.

We had a BIG Valentines Day.... Teddy asked his future wife out on their first date. I picked them up at their different schools and he took her to Waka Berry. He said "Hey! I look like a cowboy and you look like a Ninja!" Dream-girl!

I had to sit at a different table. They were adorable!

And being the International Ambassador of Good-Will that I am, I decided to test the functionality of some local speed cameras. Turns out they're working.... IN AFRICA! Who'd a thunk it eh? I had no idea those suckers were actually turned on. I received this citation in December. For a speeding incident LAST MARCH. Do you have any idea how many more of these fines may be on their way? We're going to have to flee the country.

Bedtime continues to be hysterical. On any given night either S, T or Roxy is in some crazy configuration: Ted may need a few more animals...

No idea what this is about...

Last Sunday we went and explored a new beach waaaay over by Cape Recife. This is the Eastern-most Tip of Africa. It was a beautiful day and the perfect temperature for a beach-hike.

We were looking for penquins and we didn't find any but we did find a cool ship-wreck!

But now that we've had a taste of normal life we're putting it on hold for 2 weeks. On Saturday we head to Kenya and Tanzania for an African Safari trip. Can't wait to tell you all about it....soon!

A visit from Papa and Brit!

 When we came back from Rhode Island, Papa and Brit were on a plane just a few short days behind us. Finally - summer guests that can experience the high season in SA!! We wasted no time and set off on some animal encounters.

In between fun, it's the middle of summer so we had lots of time at the beach and in the pool!

We went to Seaview Lion Park and were amazed by how much our baby cubs had grown since September!

And then we met some new ones that were small enough for Sasha and Teddy to pet:

Then it was time to head off down the Garden Route for some adventures.

And Brit did this!

We stopped at a wonderful little organic dairy farm and met some new-born calves.

 And had the most AWESOME cheese-plate lunch imaginable! And then more calves were born while we were eating!

 We spotted our first baboon of the trip right outside of Plet. We were excited but didn't realize that we were going to drive up the baboon highway the next day. We saw soooo many!

 We stayed at Bella Manga guest house again, but this time we stayed in a converted grain silo. Girls had the upstairs and boys had the downstairs.

 And we conquered the Plett Puzzle Park!

 Then it was time to head into the bush, past Angie's and into the Bavaiaanskloof. There were quite a few obstacles on the road though...

 We spent the first 2 nights back at the Makkedaat Caves and Jeff drove out to meet us.

It was great to be there in the summer and get to experience the farm dam and slide!

 And there were plenty of these guys everywhere!

 We even got to see a bunch of guys trying to wrangle an ostrich. TRYING being the operative word. Ostriches pretty much go wherever they want!

 After 2 nights in the cave we moved into the Speekhout treehouse for 1 night. I had been trying to score a night in this thing for what seemed like forever, but there's only one treehouse so you have to get it early.

We ate lunch and then hiked way up a ravine to a crazy little swimming hole. It was tiny, but very cold and deep. We had a nice refreshing swim in the middle of the dry 'Kloof.

 The treehouse was just awesome. Showering out in the middle of a tree was pretty cool.

 Early morning Tree-house snuggles!

When we got back from our road trip the kids started a new school year, so our big adventures had to wait for weekends. The girls took a ride down to the beach...

 And we had an very memorable trip to Addo with some magical elephant viewing. It was SO good that we stayed too long and when we got to the main gate it was padlocked shut!

No wonder we had the elephants all to ourselves... the park was closed!

 Such good hosts... see how well we take care of our guests?

 Then we did a game drive evening at Schotia. We asked for and got our same awesome driver that we had last time! The Lions were everywhere and on the move. We saw a female,

And then another pair about 30 minutes later. Right after this the lions got up, started walking down the road, and then took off after a young giraffe! It was awesome.... VIDEO HERE.

The giraffe got away but it was a wild chase in an open safari vehicle. After that we headed for the lapa and had some good grub.

 We had such a fun group that night!

After Schotia Papa and Brit only had a few more days before they had to fly back to one of the most EPIC winters on record. They made it their mission to soak up as much sun as they could and bank those days for when they got back home to cold and snow!