South Africa ~ The Great Trek: Part 1 (a very long post)

In planning our trip around the world, a return visit to my country of birth was a no brainer. South Africa has so much to see and even through Danielle and I manage a trip home every other year, with just a week and a half, after you put in time with the family, we don’t have enough time to really do any exploring of the many landscapes the country has to offer. I have been to the north, natal and through the interior before, but it was when I was a child and I don’t really remember much of it, so being able to devote 4 weeks to SA is a treat and we have made full use of every day.

We started in George, the small town in the Garden Route that my parents live in. After a few days, and the arrival of my brother from the UK and Danielle’s mom from the US we set off in two cars over the Outeniqua Mountains and north east to the Golden Gate Highlands National Park in the Northeastern Free State. This park is set in the foothills of the Maluti Mountains and has magnificent scenery, abundant wildlife and very impressive sandstone formations. We spent 2 nights in the log cabin mountain retreat and were treated to some amazing sunsets. During the day we hiked up a valley to get an up close view of the sandstone. The park is a hidden gem, and I would highly recommend giving it a visit.

Next we headed into Mpumalanga in search of trout. My bother Richard is a avid fisherman and the area around Dullstroom is known for its trout fishing. We spent 2 nights in our own 5 bedroom farm house “the valley of the rainbow B&B”. Richard took us all down to the dam for a fly fishing crash course. I am sad to say, although we could see the fish, they were not biting.
Now we continued our journey, stopping for a stroll through and lunch in the town of Pilgrim’s Rest. This town is famous for its gold prospector history. The buildings are unique, being built of tin and timber with the intention being that once the gold ran out the prospectors would move on, however the gold lasted almost 100 years.

We found ourselves in the Blyde River Canyon, and this was not by accident. The scenery in this area has been called the most beautiful in SA and the vistas are spectacular. I specifically wanted to visit this area for the “Gods Window” viewpoint, rumored to have been the inspiration for the Lord of the Rings books. After taking in the views of the canyon and the pinnacle (an impressive column that rises out of the forest below) we headed into the town of Sabie. We stayed at the Valley View guesthouse. Just a heads-up, this is not the 4 star establishment advertised, I would advise looking elsewhere if your expecting 4 star. Accommodation aside, the next day was awesome, we drove the waterfall tour. I would recommend the following; Berlin Falls, Lisbon Falls, Horseshoe Falls and my favorite, Lone Creek Falls which at 230ft sends spay onto the surrounding forest. We also made the drive to Bourke’s Luck, which are beautiful potholes carved by the swirling waters at the confluence of the Blyde (“joyful”) and Treur (“sad”) rivers.

Another morning, and another long car journey through the mountains towards the Kruger National Park. Kruger is SA’s largest national park at 19,633 sq km or 7,580 sq miles (the size of Israel) and is one of the best wildlife sanctuaries in the world.

However, before arriving we still had a few spots to visit just outside the Orpen Gate. 1st stop was the Moholoholo Rehabilitation Center. This gave us the opportunity to learn about the challenges facing wildlife conservation in Southern Africa. My sister also got to get a little too close to a Vulture (see the pic).

Then after a short drive we reached our destination for the night, “Tshukudu Game Lodge”. This private reserve has all of the big 5, but on a smaller scale than Kruger thus increasing your odds of excellent sightings. We spent the evening in a land-drover doing just this. And it gets better, they have a few wild cheetah and one called savanna who is friendly to humans. We found her walking in the bush and under the watchful eye of the game ranger we got to spend some time with her one on one. Luckily she was distracted by the fresh meat she was eating. That night we returned to our tented camp, and an already raging fire in a traditional South African “Boma”. We cooked dinner under the stars and were visited by a bushbabie who seemed to like our bread rolls. Although the tents (which have real bathrooms, and beds etc.) were very nice, Danielle and I got very little sleep given the strong winds that night compounded by the noise of lions in the bush near by... my bother and sister found themselves sleeping in the car :-). At 6am the next morning, the Game Ranger Chris met us and took us on a foot walk through the bush. We had too other friends along for the walk, one was a labrador bursting with energy and a lazy Lion Cub. At first the lion did not want to walk with us, but once the dog found something to pick up with his mouth and run around, the lion then wanted it and the cat and dog chasing began. This walk was incredible, not only did we get to walk with a lion, but we walked past Rhino, Giraffe and Hippo. If you have a chance to visit Tshukudu, I would definitely recommend it.

Ok, thats all for now.... stay tuned for part 2 of the Great Trek across South Africa.

Tshukudu Safari

5 mins of internet.... we just came back from walking with a Lion and a game ranger through the bush. It was an awesome experience. Yesterday we spent the evening with a Cheetah we found on our game drive. Now time to pack up and head into Kruger National Park.

Later

Ryan

The Great Trek Begins at 4am tomorrow morning

Ok we are off into the bush for the next 18 days. First stop Golden Gate National Park.

http://www.sanparks.org/gallery/v/parks/golden_gate/

then onward to the Blyde River Canyon and the surrounding areas

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blyde_River_Canyon

then through Kruger National Park

http://www.sanparks.org/parks/kruger/

and finally a few days fly fishing in the Drakensburg Mountains

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drakensberg

Now off to bed, we have 1000km to drive tomorrow... night all.

- Ryan

I am back and with me video from Paris and Egypt

So I have been MIA because I have basically been in bed on a off for a week now. We got to South Africa Sunday night, and Monday morning I was very sick and I am still trying to get over it. As a result I have been slow to update the site, but see Danielle has been filling in. All the video from Paris and Egypt is now on youtube, so take a look.

http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=vanwykrl

Here is one of me sailing on the Nile:



I am working on catching up with all the pics from Egypt and Paris as well. Also you will see some on Flickr from Spain.

- Ryan

Paris... Better Late then Never

Hi All,
We all know that I am not the computer crazed person in our relationship, so when ever there we have the opportunity for some computer time I let Ryan have a go first. The problem however is he gets so wrapped up into it by the time he is ready for me to have a go our time has run out. Now we are in SA and Ryan has gotten his fill and I know have time to complete my thoughts on Paris. I love my husband dearly, but after reviewing our blogs I noticed his are a little dry for my tastes.

We have had a blast in Paris. 1st day we went to Notre Dame and walked around the Latin Quarter.  At night as you all know from Ryan, we did a Segway tour.  However he left out one funny detail. Guess who fell. Even though I am the clumsy one I did not fall. The segway was a little odd at first but I got the hang of it quickly and was zipping around in no time. Ryan however, had a minor dust out which hurt his pride more than anything.  He was talking smack saying I am a clutz and he is the multi talented snow boarder. Anyways, he bounced back real quick and was more worried about losing the deposit he put on the segway more than anything, but no damage so no worries  The 2nd day we went to Versailles.  It was nice but NOTHING compared to Peterhoff just out side of St. Petersberg.  The 3rd day we went to all of the museums, the Louvre, the d'orsey, and the Pompidu.  The Louvre was boring and old fashion, the pompidu had an architecture exhibit which was great and a few interesting exhibits, but for the most part was a little too odd for our tastes.  The d'orsey was fabulous, some of the best most complete impressionist collections on Earth.  The 4th day we went to the Eiffel Tower.  Anyone going to the Eiffel Tower should get off the Trocard metro station, it is not the metro station in all the guide books or on all the maps, but it lets you off right across the Seine on top of a hill with an amazing view.  It is just a short walk (3-7 min.) right across the bridge and then you are there.  After that, we went to the arc d'triumph and then did some window shopping on the champs-elysees.  I got to go in all fun shops and even better Ryan was kept entertained because allot of the major car companies have shops on the street too. It is a little wired walking out of louis vuitton and going right into Toyota next, but it was great.  The car shops, yes I will admit it, were fun for me too. They had concept cars you could touch and formula one simulators. The last day we went to Sacra Coeur, Montmartre, and the moulin rouge.  The view from Sacre Coeur,  a beautiful old church on the highest hill in Paris, was amazing, and the artist square in Montmartre was fun.

I love Paris!   It is one of my favorite places, and what made it even better was showing Ryan all around like a local.

Well bye for now,D

Attention girls of the St. Louis Book Club :-)

So girls, I have a book for you to read. I finnished it recently and think it will give you plenty to discuss during book club, leaving more time for the guys to play some xbox. The title is ´A thousand splendid suns`. Check it out.

And who says French women are the most fashionable

Hi Guys,
Another quick observation for you (all be it somewhat useless since I have no pictures). So... a little over a year ago, a former colleague, after her recent trip to Paris, said that Parisian women were the most fashionable. This seemed to make since to me, because the last time I was in Paris (about 14 years ago) I would have agreed. But now after being to most of the major European cities I totally have to disagree. So here is my ranking... keep in mind this is time sensitive, so if 10 years from now you chose to visit any of these places, please don´t hold me to it.

1. Madrid, Spain. These women know not only how to dress but to accessorize. The style is simple elegance with great hand bags and shoes, either flats or heels. The jewelry is either just one key fashion piece to bring together the outfit or understated classics.
2. London, England. These women embrace the trends, but not blindly. They find the new trend that works for their body type and go with it. The jewelry is big and bold. The shoes are mostly trendy flats with the occasional heel. Not a big hand bag town but the few I saw were nice.
3. Moscow, Russia. This is a little harder, because some of the women here can be a little trashy, showing too much skin. I think this is because of Russia´s relatively new position in the world economy, like most neuveaux rich, they tend to be very flamboyant and label conscious. But still I still think these women can put together great outfits.
4. Paris, France. I thought more women would have the same great style of the Prime Minister´s chic wife, but this is so far from the truth it is sad. Even walking down the champs-elysees, one of the most fashionable streets in Paris, I maybe only saw one or two women who had a good sense of style. Everywhere else women looked very ordinary ant not special.
5. Rome, Italy. There were far too many tourists here (maybe we just visited the tourist areas) for me to see who was was a local so I could not judge the style fairly.

Well I welcome anyone elses thoughts too. I hope you enjoyed more random thoughts from Danielle.

A little bit of heaven

Hi all,

A quick note form another airport lounge. Let me just say Ryan having platinum status is a life saver. Cario was not nice but it was a place to sit down away from the crowds. It is Ramadan and while it was not too big of a deal in the city. (no alcohal in 80% of the resteraunts, even though it is served normally. Plus the majority of all shops close from 9am to 7pm except there are always a few cafes & pharmacies open near all the sights and hotels) but in the airport it was craziness. It seemed as if the whole country was going on a pilgramage to Mecca, you have never seen so much chaos in your life, people were doing things you would get arrested for in any western country. Plus Ramadan requires that all healthy muslims must fast from sunrise to sundown so there were a lot of hungry and thristy people. And then right about the time we needed to go through securilty it was sundown so people everywhere stoped eveything they were doing to eat and drink. I mean everything. Security closed, check in closed and people just sat down wherever they were to have a full on meal. We had alot of time so we were not worried, but it was complete madness. However every one was also so generous. People who had not eat or drank anying for 14 hours were offereing us some of their meal and welcoming us to their country. A totally sureal experience, that I am gad we got partake in...

Now to our little piece of heaven...We arrived in Madrid at 4am from Cario and it was dead, a few cleaning people, one customs guy, one information guy etc.. We were unable to get a boading pass or check our bags all the way through to Johanesberg from Cairo beacause our flight from Madrid to Johanessberg was more 24 hours away. So we had to pick up our bags in Madrid and re check for Jo Berg. Everyting was basically closed until 6 am except the Iberia business class check-in. We then got our boarding passes and checked our bags through. The man at the desk appologized because the lounge would not open till 6 am but we found two couches and took a qucik nap. At 6 am we got to the lounge when they had a quiet room with giant chaise lounges just for sleeping. We took a nice nap then went for showers in these amazing multi head steam showers with fresh towels and luxury bath products. Now I am on the internet while Ryan is eating a free breakfast. Well I am finishing up now so we can explore Madrid.

Got to love the dorky tourist pics

Here is the link to the photostream with pics from Egypt:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ourdreamlist/

Egypt Pics are in process

Given the internet is incredibly slow in Egypt I have not been able to upload any pics until now. I don't think I will be able to upload more than a few today, but check the photostream via the link on the right side of the blog for new pics.

Guess where we are in this picture :-)

Egypt, truely amazing

Danielle and I are sitting in a Cafe at Cairo International Airport on our way to Madrid, Spain. So I finally have some time to reflect on our time in Egypt and to post some photos to Flickr.

First where did we go. Well we started in Cairo and met up with our group of fellow backpackers and Hoda our Egyptian guide.

"If anyone from the group is reading this, thanks all, we really had a great time experiancing egypt with you and good luck on you travels. Also thanks to Hoda for an awesome trip."

Next we visited Giza, then hopped a sleeper train to the City of Aswan. Then a police convoy to Abu Simbel and back to Aswan. While is Aswan we took a boat to Elephantine Island. Next we sailed down the Nile on a Feluca and spent the night on an island in the Nile. Then continued sailing and once on land again joined another police convoy to the city of Luxor. Luxor included a visit to the Valley of the Kings and then finally another night train back to Cairo ariving early this morning.

Ok, that is all good, but what did we actually do. Well to keep it short, the highlights included the visit to the pyramids at Giza, the Syphinx, the Tutankhamen exhibit at the Egyptian Museam, a cammel ride through the desert to a St. Simon Monastry, a visit to Abu Simbel, me actually sailing a feluca on the nile river (it was awesome), a visit to Karnak temple, the Luxor temple at night, and the tomb of Ramses the VI.

Some thoughts on Egypt as a destination:

The sights are awe inspiring, but at the same time you find youself puzzeled by how badly they are protected, with tourists touching hyroglifics that are 3000 years old, and rubish being left everywhere, and the lack of climate control to protect the tombs and artifacts. I am very glad we have had the opportunity to see what we did, because I believe that unless Egypt gets their act together the rate of deteriation will ruin the sites for our children and their children. That being said, they are doing things, a new modern egyptian museam is being built to house most artifacts and the trash situation was well managed at the valley of the kings.

The scale of the monuments cannot be captured by a camera, you have to see it with your own eyes. The size of the pyramids, the size of Karnak, you just cannot take it all in. I know you are thinking, I have seen pictures, but trust me, pictures do not do these things justice.

Cairo is out of control crazy, so many people, traffic like you cannot believe, people flood the streets in between speeding cars, taxis and busses. The poverty, the dirt, the noise can at times be overwhelming and this is all compounded by intense heat. But then nightime comes, and although the chaos is still present it seems to be more managable to the individual, and the lights wipe away the dirt that is visible in the day time. We stayed in downtown Cairo, and got to see ordinary people go about their daily business, and deal with the challange of overcoming the chaos in navigating from our hotel to a place to eat, or a store. The streets are non sensible by western standards, no one obeys any traffic laws, people stop their cars on flyovers and hang out with friends, and no one uses their headlights at night, but everyone uses their horn continuously.

For me personally the highlight of the trip was sailing the nile, I talked with the capitan of the Feluca and he allowed me to take the helm, and I was sailing, tacking my way up the great river. The views of desert in the distance, with green along the shores, the cold nile water, and the silence was just beautiful. Also our traditional meals on the Feluca, and at the various houses we visited were awesome, filling me right up. These visits were also a great way to get a small exposure to the lives of the average Egyptian.

Karnak temple was truely amazing, the scale of the structure, the design and execution. I said the Romans knew their engineering, well I think I need to give the crown to the ancient Egyptians.

This is becoming a really long post, I have some much more to tell, but it will need to wait until we see family and friends. Oh, one last thing... I have never experianced heat anything close to the temperatures we were exposed to on this trip. The one advantage of the heat though, its the low season, and we did not have to wait for any sites or resturants.

PS. Peter, I hope you like the pictures of Uncle Ryan and Aunt Danielle by the Pyramids and Spyinx.

Egypt = Police Convoy at 100 mph

Hey all, we are eating lunch at a small cafe in an alley of Luxor, and they have free wifi.. Today was the last of our police convoy trips in Egypt. Basicaly if you want to move between certain locations you need to join a convoy of busses escorted by the police with big guns. The whole experiance is a little scary as the busses race to their destination at rediculous speeds through checkpoint after another. Well we are off to see Karnak in a few. Lots more to tell re our time in Egypt but that will need to wait until we have time at the airport in a few days.