Zimbabwe trip (J1)

At the end of July Botswana always celebrates Presidents day, which gives us two public holidays and a nice long weekend. This year we decided to make use of this, and of all the flyer miles J2 had collected from flying to Maun for nearly 3 years......

We had a lovely 4 days in Zimbabwe, and finally got to see a little more of the country than just Vic Falls. The sad thing is that there are hardly any tourists there, due to all the bad press etc in relation to the political situation. Our assessment of the situation: EVERYONE IS MISSING OUT, Zimbabwe is really nice and very friendly to tourists.

We first went from Harare, where we arrived, about 3 hours east into the mountains. The landscape was really beautiful. We stayed in a place called.......(see picture)

Our lodge was called "Inn on Ruparara", and was at a really scenic spot with great views of the surrounding areas.

As an example: this was the view from our room / cabin.

There was also a very nice little bar called "Trevor's wine room"

And it was still winter, with VERY cold nights. Luckoly the lodge had some roaring fires going at nighttime and even hot water bottles in bed.

Here is a picture of some of the chalets at the lodge.

Of course we did some exploring in the area, and someone was really excited (to get out of the plane and car)

The next morning we joined a very experienced guide for a nice morning bush walk on the nearby gamefarm.

This is the Ruparara hill, which the lodge got it's name from.

The afternoon we did a gamedrive, on which we saw eland, giraffe, kudu, zebra, wildebeest, impala, etc. The gamedrive finished with sundowners...

And after the game drive warming up in front of the fire.

I don't have many pictures on Harare, where we spent the following two days, but we had a really nice time eating and drinking at some nice places, realxing and exploring the city. The above sign was at a small sanctuary.

J1

BIG girl bed!

A certain 2 year old is now the proud owner of a new big-person bed. Everyone is excited. It's actually a tiny bed for her tiny room, but it's still a big, big deal!

Retrospective HD photo....

...and to answer any questions regarding "...why we need 2 motorbikes?", just take a look at the ergonomics of this bike, with a 5-foot-tall female on board! For example, check the foot placement on the ground (tiptoes), and how I have to pull myself nearly up on top of the fuel tank, just to reach the handlebars. Then see the photo below (of Sneaky Pete), and imagine the difference in comfort/safety! :)

(old photo of Jill on Harley, April 2011)

It's been awhile...

So we've been a bit lazy blogging because we weren't really sure if anyone out there was still reading it. However today while on skype, my (Jill's) dad mentioned it, so I guess that's reason enough to keep going! In fact, if you DO read this blog, click on "0 Comments" below the post, and leave us a message every now and then.... that way we know you're out there.

One thing we've really enjoyed this winter is going motorbike riding together, WITHOUT the 2-year-old. Motorcycles are a good hobby for couples who sometimes (unintentionally) need to be forced to ditch the small person in their life and have some adult time! A couple months ago I bought this new Honda Steed for myself - it's a 400cc cruiser from 1994, which is the year I graduated from high school, incidentally, which makes it special. It was love at first sight and I named him Sneaky Pete. After my favourite pedal steel guitar player, and based on the fact that compared to the Harley's earth-shaking engine, he is pretty sneaky.

Today was a public holiday, so JJ got to spend a few hours with our neighbours while The Mr. and I took a lovely scenic drive followed by lunch at a new Chinese restaurant in town. Photo of my new favourite toy, above.

JJ random pics (J1)

Some random pictures of JJ that I have had on my phone for some time:

This one was at Bezalel wineries at Orange river. There was this little tractor in the parking lot, and JJ was fascinated with it. Of course this made her pappa very proud, especially because this was his favourite brand when he was a kid.

Lets see.....Can we please have some salad for starters, for main course I would like to have a burger, and a baby-chino for desert.

This was when pappa was cutting up wood with the chainsaw for the cold winter. Of course the earmuffs were to protect pappa's ears, but JJ was taking care of hers, and did not hate the chainsaw any longer....

J1

Crash (J1)

I suppose that having WORK trip to a national park, driving around doing fielwork while seeing elephant and bufallo sounds very nice. Unfortunately our experience about a week ago was kind of ruined by this cow on the road, and the stupid driver from opposite side totally blinding me with his headlights. Short part of the story: the car was a wreck and written off by insurance, due to some miracle we did not roll or crash into oncoming traffic and escaped without any injury, and even went on with our work the next day in a rental car. Here some pictures of the crash, some more 'fieldwork pictures' following this week.

J1

recent Namibia and SA trip (J1)

There was a trip to Namibia (Gobabis and fish river canyon) and South Africa (Oranje Rivier wine region) together with our good friends (who have now left Botswana). The trip was filled with all sorts of things, including great food, yummy biltong and wine, relaxing, awesome scenery, car trouble (due to bad diesel) and lots of fun. Here some pictures in a somewhat random order.

J1

Sun City (J1)

Some pictures from our recent visit to Sun City (South Africa)

J1

hiking trip in February (J1)

We have managed to get quite a few (weekend) trips in this year, catching up with some of the pictures: these are from a hiking trip in the Waterberg in February.

crossing the river....

someone could not stay awake for the 20km

beautiful scenery

but watch out for spiders....

almost back

well deserved braai and drinks afterwards.

J1

Belated birthday trip post

J1 has been constantly reminding me I have not contributed any information about our fantastic 5 days away for my (the birthday girl's) birthday - life has been too hectic and I'll admit to being a little too preoccupied with getting my motorcycle license (!!!) to sit still for long enough to do it!

So without further ado...

On the 8th of March, I was begrudgingly forced to attend a site meeting in BW's 2nd biggest town, Maun, for work. Obviously, waking up at 5am to fly on a bumpy puddle jumper for 2 hours and spend the entire day in the sun and 110F/40C degrees in sand up to your knees, surrounded by asphalt and ill-tempered construction workers, only to turn around 10 hours later and fly back home where the day is basically over already, is NOT my idea of a good birthday.

So you can imagine my surprise and elation when just as I was getting ready to check in at the Maun airport around 5pm for my flight home (after a very long, hot, frustrating day), I was met by none other than J1, our friend Petra, and J3.... who pulled up in our own car, out of nowhere, right in front of me!

As it turned out they all 3 hopped in the car in Gaborone about 30 minutes after I left the house for the airport that morning, and drove the 8 hours up north, just to surprise me (Petra just came along for the ride & to help out J1 on the road - we left her with friends and headed off on our merry way after some birthday drinks at the cafe across from the airport, with a few of my collegues who also were "in the know" about the whole plan).

J1 had organized 4 wonderful nights at a combination of two very nice lodges for the 3 of us:

This one, and

This one.

The most magnificent thing about the 2nd lodge is that it is on a cliff overlooking the Boteti River, which hasn't flown for over 20 years - but is now chock full of water. Meaning elephants and hippos right beneath your tent. It made for fantastic game viewing and was really special to be there for this unusual event.

Photos....

My birthday dinner in our chalet at RTL - brought personally to us by the staff to "eat in" rather than having us walk in a super-huge rainstorm to the main lodge dining room. You can see the luxurious (giant) bathtub in the back:

The nice thing about this lodge is that it is on a private game farm with no predators, meaning you can do lots of nice walks amongst the wildlife. We saw giraffe, the elusive black springbok, zebra, eland, oryx, ostrich, etc, etc, etc. All on foot (us) and all very close up:

(above: black springbok - very rare)

Stop No. 2: In the Makgadikgadi Pans, where the Boteti is currently flowing - we had a really posh safari tent overlooking the river.

They blew a hide out of the side of the cliff, so that you could watch the river from a cool rock-room. Here is the entrance:

view from inside the cliff-hide:

We spent a whole afternoon hiding out from the sun inside that cliff... it was hard work.

View from the pool back up on top of the ledge @ camp: Swimming lessons:

Look behind you!

Relaxing in the heat:

Thank you for taking us, Papa...!