Birthday at South Luangwa

Meredith asked me where I wanted to go for my birthday, and without hesitation I said South Luangwa National Park in Zambia. I don't need to explain why once you look at the pictures.  It is one of the greatest game parks in all of Africa. One thing that has surprised me is how much I love seeing these parks in Africa. Always I am filled with awe and wonder at seeing them.  I never liked zoos growing up; chalk it up to just how confined the animals look.  Luangwa is 3,500 square miles or about 75% of Connecticut.  That is a different experience. 

Our tree house at Mfuwe Lodge.

The look out the back porch.

Me reading on the back porch.

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A grouping of zebras is called a dazzle. Perfect word for that.

We ran into a rare pack of African Wild Dogs.  There are only 5000 left in the wild.

Leopard at night

Leopard in a tree on my birthday morning.  This is why you go with a guide. I would have missed this 100 times out of 100.

A bunch of vultures over a carcass.  Gruesome, I know, but its a sight I'll never forget.

Cape Buffalo

Kudu

Wildebeest

I have no idea what they are doing here other than playing in water.

I could watch elephants all day long.

Dung Beetle.  Its a ball of crap the size of a tennis ball. But that one beetle is moving it on its own. It is shocking to see rolling balls of poop on the road like this.

Giraffes do lie down!

They made a cake for the birthday night. Ran out of space for the "h" and added an extra "l" to my name that was soon removed (they love spelling my name "Kelvin"). The cake was incredible however. No complaints.

Rainy Season

On Dec 19 we left Lilongwe for Cape Town and the holidays.  The heat and sun were oppressive prior to that.  On the 19th it rained so much that that it delayed our flight and we missed connections. That was the first rain since April. It seems as if it is all or nothing as far as weather goes here.

At the airport about to leave...or wait some more.

Since getting back on the 4th, the daily temps have cooled 20 degrees and it now rains each day.  Supposedly this will continue until April. This week the rains have been particularly intense with a tropical storm off Mozambique pushing heavier rains our way. We are fine in Lilongwe-- just having to deal with some 12 hour power outages this week.  Down south, things are particularly bad.  Here is a link to the Guardian about the disaster areas and flooding going on down there.  Hopefully we can get some relief soon for the folks down there.

http://gu.com/p/44pdm/stw

The Drakensberg Mountains

After the whirlwind days of Cape Town and Wine Country we flew to Durban and rented a car and visited the Drakensberg Mountains.  This is a UNESCO World heritage site and visiting any one of those has always proven worthwhile.  We mainly hiked for 5 days in Royal Natal.  The first few days were from the base up.  This is where we did the The George hike.  The highlight of the trip was the Sentinel hike on the last day.  We hiked all the way up around The Sentinel to the top of the Amphitheater and Thukela Falls (2nd highest in the world).  Without a doubt it was one of the greatest hikes of my life.  It even included the Chain Ladder at 2800m, which was terrifying.

The hike up.  You can see the outlines of the Amphitheater.  Drakensberg means "Dragon Mountains"and it is easy to see why with clouds like this.  One of my favorite shots of the trip is this one.

In the gorge looking up.  It rained on and off the whole day.

The Sentinel hike started off like this from our hotel.  You can see the Sentinel on the right there.

Most of the hike was pretty manageable, similar to this.  I lasted 10 minutes without wanting to use my camera.

Then there was the Chain Ladder. It was two sections. One a 50 foot one and the second a 20 foot one.  These pictures don't do it justice, of course.  2800m up, the wind blowing on a rickety small ladder and, goodness, don't look to your left as it is looks like it drops off for forever.

We had to wait our turn to get there.  Here are some Germans just ahead of us.

And then Meredith on the way up.

At the top.  Relief. Except there is one more section to go now.

Here were the views from the top of the falls.  Days earlier, we hiked up to the valley below.  Amazing.

South African Wine Country

After six days in Cape Town, we picked up our car and drove an hour to wine country in South Africa. Franschoek and Stellenbosch are the main cities we visited and this is one of the worlds best regions for growing grapes. Think Napa with the same quality of food and taller mountains and you will understand why this area is similarly full up with tourists. Still it doesn't disappoint.

Here is the view outside our B+B in Franschoek.  We spent Christmas here.

At Thelema Winery.

At Warwick Winery

A magnificent day at a winery inspires some to write postcards.

At Warwick, there is a legend about a the creation of a cup that two could drink out of at the same time.  We volunteered to demonstrate for the group we were with.

It's hard not to resist the 12 foot tall beaded statues at the end of a day of wine tasting.  And no, I did not lift the Mandela stature.  I wanted to though.