Maintenance staff at the school were busy while teachers and students enjoyed their October break week. One of the improvements awaiting our return: new giant chessboards to play with.
I wanted to bring this home as a souvenir…
But it wouldn’t fit in my carrion luggage.
Haha. (sorry)
Wish I’d got a picture of the deadly spitting cobra that made an appearance on one of the pathways our first night at the lodge. But I do have some smaller creepy crawlers to share…
Baboon spider (aka tarantula)
Ground beetle
Giant millipede
There are dirt mounds like these all over the place in northern South Africa. I thought I remembered from TV nature shows that they were ant hills. I wondered why they so often have a tree growing out of them, so I asked our ranger.
Nelson told me that these are termite mounds. These particular termites don’t eat trees, but they sometimes build the mound around a tree for structural support. That was sort of interesting. But the really fascinating thing he told me about these insects is that they are farmers. The termite mound is like the tip of an iceberg – there is a gigantic termite complex down under the ground, with many chambers. The termites are busy working down there. They need a certain kind of fungus to help them digest the grasses that they eat, and they actually cultivate the fungus in those underground chambers. This fungus is very sensitive to temperature, so the termites are constantly striving to regulate the heat in their subterranean fungal gardens. The mound that you see above ground functions as a chimney, to release excess heat.
Who knew?
I first heard of the Big 5 when I started talking to friends in Ethiopia about booking a safari. The Big 5 concept was originally attached to big game sport hunting in Africa (something that in my opinion ought not to be happening any more), but the term is used widely by photo safari operators as well. It refers to the five wild African mammals that are most hazardous to trophy hunters. Pictures of the five are featured on the different denominations of South African currency.
The Big 5 gives a framework to safari excursions – it was fun to have something specific to look for when we went out. The toughest for us to track down were the elephants and the leopard.
Our guide, Nelson, and tracker, Mateo, were great. Thanks to them we spotted all five animals. And now, in the order I photographed them… drum roll, please….
Cape buffalo
Lion
White rhino
Elephant
Leopard
Why did the elephant paint its toenails purple?
So it could hide in the jacaranda tree.
Don’t look too hard.
We went out three times looking for elephants, but they were nowhere around. Finally yesterday evening we found them. You’d think it would be easy. They are BIG. They seem even bigger after you hear a couple of stories about bull elephants overturning Land Cruisers to impress the girls. Also they make a lot of noise. They spend their days knocking down trees and stripping the bark off. I’m not a lady elephant, but I was still impressed.
This elephant didn’t want the younger male getting near his herd.
Sorry about the lack of communication this week. I flew to South Africa for a workshop last Thursday and haven’t had time to post since then. I spent the first three days at the Association of International Schools in Africa (AISA) conference in Johannesburg. On Sunday the family joined me and together we drove up to Kruger National Park for a safari.
I haven’t been completely neglecting the blog. I’ve got a few posts outlined and will add them (backdated) after we return to Addis. Meanwhile, here are a few animal pictures from our visit to South Africa. Just imagine Marlin Perkins doing the voice-over.
If you’re imagining the three of us huddled under a mosquito net in our canvas tent, slurping bush pig and plantain stew out of a communal pot, you’re somewhat off base. Safari vacations come in a wide range of comfort levels and after discussing the options with my family, we went with the luxury lodge variety. We love Ethiopia but there are certain privations that have made the adjustment period a little rocky. I think we all felt we could do with a little pampering.
Kapama River Lodge, a private game reserve attached to Kruger National Park, is a great place for pampering. Here’s our daily schedule:
5 am – wake-up call from our ranger
5:30 am – continental breakfast (croissants, Danish, fruit, toast, tea, coffee, choice of juices)
6 am to 9 am – morning safari. A safari here involves riding around in big open-topped Land Cruisers. The ranger drives and tells you what you’re looking at. Our ranger is very knowledgeable, with a college degree in environmental science and many years of experience as a guide in South Africa and Mozambique. He is assisted by a tracker riding in a seat mounted on the front of the vehicle; the tracker’s job is to watch for animal tracks, poop, broken branches, and all that kind of thing. They have a radio connection with other rangers and trackers, so if someone sights something especially interesting, everybody can race over there to look at it. Our job is to take lots of pictures ( but I did find the leopard!)
9 am – full buffet breakfast – everything you might imagine for an African, American, and/or English style breakfast.
Between breakfast and lunch you can book special activities and tours (balloon ride, endangered breeding program tour, elephant visit, bush walk, etc.) or spa time (mineral baths, facials, etc.). You can also work out at the gym, lounge by the heated pools, or use the wireless Internet.
1 to 3 pm – giant buffet lunch (didn’t we just have two breakfasts?)
4 pm – cream tea (sandwiches, deviled eggs, scones, cakes, tea, coffee, lemonade)
4:30-7:30 pm – evening safari (while housekeeping does their turn-down service thing, including placing candies on our pillows). The sun goes down at 6:30, so the last hour is for seeking out nocturnal animals like hyenas, leopards, and chameleons.
8 pm – giant buffet dinner, with braai (barbecue), game specialties, and plenty of other exotic and not-so-exotic choices washed down with a good South African wine. We sit at long tables together with our ranger so we can discuss the plan for tomorrow. Then back to the room for a long soak in the oversized tub and a sound sleep in the super comfy bed.
Life is rough out here in the bush.
The school has sent me to a conference in Johannesburg, South Africa. My workshop will last three days, ending just in time for the week-long October school break. Andreas and Alekka will fly down to meet me on Sunday. We’ll rent a car and drive to Kruger Park, where we have reservations at a safari lodge.
I had a little trouble getting to South Africa. I secured my travel reservations through Expedia over a month ago. I noticed that I didn’t get the usual email confirmation the week before the trip, but I asked another teacher who said she doesn’t always get them when she books with Ethiopian Air; Ethiopian has just started their online reservation service and they are still working out the kinks ( couple of years ago you had to go to the Sheraton Hotel with cash to book a ticket.)
My taxi driver, Yonas, got me to the airport this morning two hours ahead of time. But the lady at the check-in counter said the flight was full, and I wouldn’t be able to get on. Oh no! The conference starts tomorrow morning, and Ethiopian flies only once a day to South Africa.
A group of colleagues going to the same meeting spotted me. Two of them had been told the same thing, but a little persistence had got them seats. The clerk said yes, she’d been able to seat the others, but now the plane was REALLY full (whereas before it had been NOT QUITE full). My principal argued with the lady at the counter and demanded a supervisor. Eventually one came. She wouldn’t budge. The flight was overbooked by 30 passengers, and if there were any no-shows, frequent flyer cardholders would get seated first. I’ll spare you the most boring bits, but I guess it was my lucky day because I did get on that flight at the last minute.
Even though Ethiopian Airlines has the highest airfares per mile in the world, I’ll still forgive them. They are growing rapidly, they are mostly reliable, and the airport is looking good. And they are rightfully proud to be the second airline in the world to buy the new Dreamliner 787. Here’s an article from the Economist about our up-and-coming airline.
Plus they give you little airplane crackers.
Our stuff.
It’s here! And it didn’t even get rained on.
I have my pillow! My knives! My iHome alarm clock! My hiking boots! My Professor Snape and Nancy Pearl action figures!
Ah, but you know, it’s like the day after Christmas. Where is the taco sauce? Andreas’s neckties? Why didn’t I buy the walnuts and almonds at Costco like I meant to? Sweet vermouth? Power drill? Bathroom rugs?
Still, life is good when you have a year’s supply of jellybeans.
Lorna of Arabia 