Wednesday 9/6/17 Part D

The rest of this morning's photos are of the leopards, the cub eating an impala, a warthog at the waterhole ( I just took a video of a group of them taking a mud bath at the edge of the waterhole), and a nyala.

Wednesday 9/6/17 Part C

We woke up at 5:30 this morning to make our 6 AM drive through the bush.  OAT certainly does treat us well.  There was coffee or tea before the drive and then when we boarded the jeep, we had blankets and hot water bottles for our hands as it was quite cold.  We were lucky again as we saw a white backed vulture nest.  Apparently there is one chick, but it was hunkered down due to the chilly morning.  We also saw a Burchell's coucal (bird), a tawny eagle.  AND then we saw a LEOPARD!!  And not just one, but a mother and a 7 month old cub.  Chewie explained that the mom had made a kill early this morning and she was teaching the young male how to smell out where she had hidden it.  We followed them for quite a while and saw when the cub discovered the dead impala hidden behind a tree.  The mom relaxed while the cub ate his fill.  It was totally amazing!  We stayed there quite a while and watched.  We did not stay long enough to see, but the female would eat after the cub.  She was very patient with the cub, but she knows he has to learn all aspects of the hunt as he will be on his own when he is 3 years old.  We also saw a red-billed quelea (bird), a crested Francolin (bird) and a slender mongoose.  We stopped for bush coffee, tea or hot chocolate with ginger biscuits or lovely muffins cooked by our chef, Godsave.  We eventually made our way back to camp about 9:30 and then had breakfast, although I just had yogurt and fruit and I was quite full already.  For those who were hungry, there was a full English breakfast available with eggs cooked to order.  We have until 2:45 until lunch so I went to shower and then have been out here working of the blog, but being interrupted by the most magnificent sights:  a tiny baby nyala, a group of warthogs giving themselves a mud bath in the water hole, and a monitor lizard.  Apparently our days here will be similar: 5:30 wake-up, 6 game drive for 3 hours, time on your own, lunch at 2:45, game drive at 3:30 for 3 or 4 hours, back to camp for drinks and then dinner.  Last night's dinner was a BBQ with kudu being one of the meat options.  It was a tiny bit gamey so I stuck with the butternut squash soup, homemade bread, spiced cabbage and roasted potatoes with a lovely fruit dessert.  BTW. on the topic of food, yesterday's lunch was homemade lasagna, salad and fruit shortcake for dessert.  I hope you all will recognize me when I come home weighing 400 pounds!  Today's pictures are of a tawny eagle, a yellow-billed hornbill, and two shots of a Cape buffalo.  More to follow.

9/6/17 part b

Here are some more pictures from yesterday:  an elephant, a momma elephant and her baby, an impala, the full moon and our spectacular sunset.

Wednesday 9/6/17 Thornybush

OMG!!!  Our first game drive last night was totally awesome!!!  I am just going to list some of the things that we saw and I will try to get some pix up also.  We saw a small bird called a purple roller bird,  a hairy thorn bush which the natives use as toothpicks, a common duiker, a terrapin, which is a fresh water turtle (did not know that only turtles that live in salt water are properly labeled as turtles).  We learned the difference between black rhino, white rhino, and elephant dung.  We saw African wild dogs - we saw a pack of 5 and there are less than 400 left in South Africa so we were very lucky. They are actually the #1 most endangered animal in South Africa and their nickname is the painted predator.  This group had 2 males and 3 females.  We also saw a vervid monky, a scrub hare, many nyala, a tree squirrel (about the size of our chipmunks, a pack of hyenas, a civet cat, which is not really a cat but is related to the mongoose.  AND then we saw ELEPHANTS!  It was magical!  There were quite a few in the herd including a mom and her 3 year old baby, who was copying everything that mom did.  If mom tore a branch from a tree to strip it of its bark, baby did the same (just not as nimbly).  We also were so lucky as to have a full moon last night and we had the most gorgeous sunset when we stopped for drinks - also great views of the Drakensburg mountains.  The pictures today are of a young nyala, our table setting at lunch with a zebra napkin holder, a view from my seat in the safari jeep with Chewie driving and Conright spotting, a purple roller bird, Chewie giving a lesson on identifying dung, and an African wild dog.

Tuesday continued

We had an hour's plane ride to get out in the bush and then another hour by van and then another  hour by safari jeep to get to our lodges at Serondella.  The ride here was an adventure in itself.  On the fast ride by van, we didn't get to stop, but we saw an African Fish eagle in a tree and a Steppe eagle on a huge nest in another tree.  We also saw zebras, giraffes, warthogs, impalas, baboons, monkeys, vultures, kudus, Cape buffalo, a horn bill bird and probably some others that I can't think of right away.  We settled into our lodges (very beautiful) and then walked around to the viewing sites around the lodge.  I am sitting on the deck now while writing the blog and we just saw three adult and one baby warthog come to the water hole for a drink.  We will have lunch in a few minutes and then we will go on our first game drive.  Monica is our hostess and Chewy is our guide for the game drives.  They both seem very enthusiastic and we are all excited to go.  We (Dave and I, Lana and John) are here at Thornybush on the pre-trip with Juanita and Greg from Maryland and Vicky and Mike from California.  I will try to get back to the blog (hopefully with pictures) after the game drive if there is time or after dinner if there isn't.  First impressions:  Smiling people everywhere, lovely light green colors of the leaves (it is early Spring here) and of course the marvelous elephants.

Tuesday 9/5/17 Johannesburg

Yesterday was a long day of being on the plane.  We got up early and went to breakfast at the hotel before getting on the airport shuttle at 6:20.  We got to the airport in plenty of time - Lana even had enough time to do a little shopping!!!  Our flight to Africa was long, but smooth.  I sat next to a couple from Amsterdam going on holiday to South Africa.  They were being brave to rent a car and go traveling on their own.  Lana sat next to a young man from South Africa who gave her a few tips on local dining specialities.  Our OAT driver, Gordon, met us at the airport and made sure we were all set with the hotel before leaving.  I must say, OAT does a lovely job of taking care of their guests.  Gordon told a few funny stories about things that have happened while looking for animals in the bush.  In one of them, he picked up a woman for a drive to a bush camp and asked her if there was anything she needed before their drive.  She mentioned that she needed a new hairbrush.  He said that was fine, but what happened to your old one.  She said that a baboon stole it!  He said she could have easily gotten it back by looking for the most well groomed baboon in the bunch. Our room was lovely and we were tired, but I did have a little trouble falling to sleep, but when I did, I was out for the count!  I can't give you any impressions of the country as it was dark when we got in last night and from looking out the window this morning, the view is of any anonymous city.  Later this morning we will fly to our first safari camp so am looking forward to getting out into the bush n seeing some of the country.  I do have to say that the breakfast buffet at the Protea Hotel here is extensive.  There were various stations for omelets, bread, juices, fruits, sushi, etc.  Your finished plate was whisked away as soon as you ate your last bite.  The staff is well trained and very friendly - lots of big smiles.  So . . . if there is wifi at Thornybush, I will get back on to let you know what happens to the rest of the day.

Amsterdam 9/3/2017

Wow!  It seems like I've been up for hours and hours (mainly because I have)!  We woke up early yesterday morning and had the car all packed so that when Lana and John got to the house a little before 8, we were all set to go.  We drove up to Laura and Nick's Hull house, visited with everyone, had a tour of the house and a quick bite to eat and then headed to the ferry.  The ferry is 5 minutes from the house, but I'm glad we left early as when it was time to board, we were the last ones allowed on board as it was very crowded.  Dan and Alex were right behind us - they were going to go into the city for the afternoon - and they didn't get on the boat!  The shuttle was easy and half price for seniors.  A shuttle took us to our terminal (a 5 minute drive) and we had arrived at Logan.  We got to our gate, which was at the end of the world and then just read, walked around, and people watched.  There was a flight that took off to Amsterdam a couple of hours before ours and there was a young couple who came off the plane after everyone had boarded.  Apparently, she has a huge sensitivity to peanuts and someone on the flight previous had eaten some.  The washed down the seat, but she could still smell it.  I don't really blame her as something like that could mean life or death to many people.  Unfortunately, that meant that they had to off-load their luggage, which took over a half hour so the rest of the people on that plane had a delayed take off.  We had no such issues on our flight and took off fairly close to the time we were assigned.  I did doze a bit, but not enough to call it sleep.  Dave had an "ants in the pants" lady sitting next to him AND she spilled red wine on his pants, which fortunately was removed with soda water.  We arrived in Amsterdam at 7:30 this morning and took a shuttle to our hotel.  We stowed our bags and then walked to the train station.  We eventually - with a little help from a young man - figured how to work the ticket machine, but unfortunately go on a train going in the wrong direction.  I told the conductor and, wow, what customer service!  He got off with us at the next stop, walked us around to the correct train to go back towards the city center and even passed us along to a conductor on the new train!  (Like that would happen every day in the U. S.!).  We arrived at Central Station and walked over to the Maritime Museum.  We had a lovely lunch in the museum cafe and then did a tour of the museum.  There were some awesome exhibits - one of which I think I will mention to Mystic Seaport!  We went outside to see the boats in the bay and discovered a swimming race was just starting.  Hundreds of swimmers were jumping into the bay and swimming down one of the canals in waves.  Just like a road race, they were swimming various distances - 2 K, 5 K and even 10 K!  It was fun to watch and I hope I got a few good shots.  We walked back to the station and then rode the train back to the hotel.  When we got off at our stop, we had to ask directions back to the hotel as we had gotten off at a different part of the station and couldn't see which way to walk.  A limo driver was very kind and set up off in the correct direction.  We took a respite for an hour or so and then went down to the desk to have our boarding passes for tomorrow printed.  One of the clerks had a suggestion for dinner so we went for another walk.  We passed it the first time, but asked a couple on the street and walked back two blocks to find it.  In our defense, the name of the restaurant was obscured by a large umbrella over the outside tables.  The dinner was very nice and one of the waiters even gave us a ride back to the hotel as we were all flagging by that time!  We have showered and are ready to hit the sack (actually, Dave is snoring already!) and will get up early for our flight to Africa tomorrow morning.  I will try to get pictures on at some point, but my eyes are at half mast so it won't be tonight.  I just wanted you to know that we arrived safely and are ready for our next adventure.