First week end at site

Last week I was in Durban at the backpackers.  Seems strange a whole week has passed.  Took a few days to get physically up to speed.  Did go to Dundee on Wed. for a haircut and other errands like getting an account on the cell phone to buy airtime, and buying wine and some food.  Had several of the Home Based Care people in for crackers, cheese and wine in the afternoon.  Was fun to have company for a change beside my son "Mark".  Saturday was a beautiful day about 100 degrees and windy, my 3 loads of laundry dried in an hour on the lines.  Five of the typing students showed up.  so was a full morning.  today I cleaned the apartment , refrig and microwave, scrubbed all the floors. and spent the rest of the day gathering data with Sister Beata in order to write a business plan for the clinic and a grant.  Should keep me busy this coming week.

In Pomeroy again

What an end to a vacation!!  Had the old GI's and needed a physician visit with injections to stop the horrid vomiting.  Mark and I both were leaving that Saturday.  So after plans A, B & C.  we settled on C.  He hustled to change my flights & lodging, settle for me to stay at Riverside Cottages another nite and arranged for a car to take to the airport the next morning.  Off He went.  and I to sleep for 12 hours. Ok on Sunday and made the plane.  The only problem was my credit card did not work.  Fortunately, cash always does.  The Happy Hippo in Durban is near the ocean in central Durban and is an old warehouse.  Met a group from Australia traveling by bus and young girls from the UK.   Had a struggle to find the taxi rank on Monday but was successful in arriving in Pomeroy by noon.

cape town

Please read Mark Shirk's blog  He is writing about Cape Town  and the Wine Country  This stay in the beautiful Hilton Hotel is outstanding after Pomeroy.  Cloudy today but leaving for the wine country. Usually the clouds disapate in the after noon.  Should be a pretty dtive.  Off to one of the delicious breakfast feasts.

FIRST DAY IN CAPE TOWN

HI Mark has down such a good job on the blog   Thought it was time for me to begin.  Hard to believe we were in the jungle Not really but from the porch the heavy  looked like it.  to travel 1000 miles and be in Cape Town   Very pretty  only 60 degrees from 75 and humid a change.  Looking forward to checking out the town in the am.

Arrived in Cape Town

Not too many adventures but traveling just takes more time than you would like.
Great dinner at Mama Africa -- exotic game platter of endangered African fauna
Check it out on YouTube


More in the morning.  Tomorrow we explore Cape Town

Ballito and a SKYPE video confernce between 9AM and 10 AM Central time

Sunday in Ballito – Dealing with Details, SKYPE VIDEO CONFERENCE AT 9 AM Central Time, Monday, October 10.  Be on line.

See Mark blog at http://visitingmominafrica@blogspot.com  for today's update.

In the morning, we pack up and head out to Cape Town at 11:20 am.  So no need to rush.  The second week of the trip awaits.  The Hilton Hotel in Cape Town promises to have wi-fi internet unlimited service.  This is our best opportunity to have a video Skype conference.

We should be in the Hilton by 3:30 so I will look on line at 4:00 PM and 5:00 PM (9 AM to 10 AM Central Time in the US) for anyone who is logged into Skype and awaiting our call.  Comment on this blog if you have other times in mind and we will check it through out the next 3 days.  We will be at the Cape Town Hilton until Thursday morning.  After that, we are off to the winelands where I am sure we will be effectively back on the low speed internet.

From Mark and Mom on Hluhluwe Game Reserve

Hluhluwe Game Reserve

We are spending two nights at the HluHluwe Game Reserve - the Hill Top camp.  It has a very nice 1 bedroom chalet that is nicer than any Mom has stayed in in 9 months.  Kitchen (all the stuff), living room, bedroom, bathroom, deck, outdoor braai (charcol grill).  In short, a very nice set up.  We got up at 4:15 am for the dawn game drive.  We spend the next 3 hours tracking big game. Its was very cold to start - but we dressed in layers -- the landscape was stunnning as the sun came up.

Within a few minutes of the camp gate, we started tracking fresh elephant dung.  Mother, an expert tracker since her days as a fur trader in the old west, immediately sensed the elephant were near.  We pulled over. Quiet.  We roll forward with out the engine running.  Jacpot !  Elephant just off the road on the hill side, maybe 30 feet away.  It is dark so the flash photography couldnot capture an image.  It is two females and three juevenals.  They give us a long look.  Then they saunter behind the land rover across the road and head do the hill.  The big one stood guard on the road until everyone was across and out of signt.  Now the sun is up. It is the early dawn light, and we are off.

Shortly, a lone buffalo.  Ostricized for the society of water buffalo by the other males, he is without girlfriends and has no prospects, or Patrick, our driver speculates.  He looked handsome enough to me.  He has on the ground sleeping when hwe drove by.  Promply stood - about 10 feet from the vehicle - and sauntered off.

Ten minutes and we have bagged 2 of the Big 5. What next, oh great white hunter?

We drive on, a heard of buffalo covering a hilside, perhaps 100 individuals.  Five rhinos wallowing in a wet spot.  A field filled with a small heard of zebra and wildebeast grazing together.  The are all right by the road.  Ten feet away.  More giraffe.

In the afternoon, after a short nap, we go on a self-driving tour.  More rhino. Lots more buffalo - a herd of 200.  Interesting ground birds with colorful outfits.  Eagles and hawks soaring on the ridges. Three warthogs rooting around toward the end of the day.  Impalla in a small herd.  A juevenal decides to test his skills with the dominate male.  Horns lock, pushing and shoving, horns locked again.  The adult's horns are 3 times longer than the teenager.  He give us and starts grazing like nothing has occurred.

finally, the end of the day.  We get near the entrance to the camp.  A BIG elephant is blocking the way.  He turns to show us his enormous bulk.  Trunk up.  He walks up the road.  We follow in the car.  Shortly, he turns and gets very close.  His road, his rules, in his good time.  We wait.  More displays of enormous girth.  A huge dump.  He pees all over the road.  He marks his territory.  We are close enough to understand how bad this elephant smells. Very bad.  More pee !!  We move up the road.  Finally we pass.  He turns to show his enormous enormity again.  He moves down the road to block the next car.  The game begins again.  Elephants are very smart.  This one is posing for pictures and we are the papparzzi for Enormous Elephant Entertainment Tonight which makes him very famous and all the girl elephant swoon.

I realize the pictures below, because of the high quality, look like photos we bought in the gift shop, but in fact, we were about 10 to 30 feet away from these guys and gals and we took them.  The man with Mom is Aman, who is a sort of handy man at the clinic.

A post from Kathy

I just talked to Mark on Skype.  Barb was already in bed.  They had a great time at the animal park.  They saw lots and lots and lots of animals.  They didn't have to go looking for them.  They're just there, all over.  Giraffes, elephants, impalas, water buffalo and lots more.  It's very hard to post pictures because of the slow internet connections.  He took lots of pictures but he may have to wait until he gets home to post them.  They're leaving tomorrow (Saturday) morning for the beaches near Durban.  They both would love to have comments from all of you readers out there.  You can comment directly on the blog or send an email.  Barb's email is working well now so you can send an email with lots of news from home if you want to.  She would love to hear from everyone.   I set up a function on the blog so you can follow new postings automatically if you put in your email address.  He'll be posting more tomorrow but he's tired and had to go to sleep.  He's still dealing with jetlag.  From Kathy.

Started Vacation with Mark

We left Pomeroy for the Hluhluwe Game Reserve to see the big ones.  We saw them after we had been in the park for 3 minutes.  See Mark's blog for all the details.  www.visitingmominafrica.blogspot.com

Catching up & looking forward

Here is my first posting ... hopefully with a picture from the hill above Pomeroy.  Mark took this picture on the back from a short shopping trip to Dundee.