Brrrrrrr!

We now know why winter is low season for safaris in this part of Africa. It turns out that it can get very cold in Africa and driving around in an open air vehice across the plains at 7:00 in the morning or 7:00 at night can be down right painful.

At the end of May, Thom's mother (Kathie) and her friend (Vickie) visited from upstate New York (see photo above). Notice how bright and sunny and warm it looks.

The day after they arrived, we took them to Madikwe Game Park for a real African safari experience and very nearly got frost bite. Even the visitors from New York (where it is winter in the middle of May as well) were uncomfortably cold as you can see from the photo below.

We did manage to see some really good game on the trip. We saw elephants out wandering around, we saw a lot of rhinos (groups of 6 or more), and we even saw some wild dogs. The park had exchanged 3 dogs to help with the breeding pool since the pack is so small. The dogs were being kept in an enclosure until they could be released to join the Madikwe pack and we were able to get a really good look at them (photo below).
But our most remarkable experience on this safari was seeing a leopard very close and personal. On our first game drive Sunday evening, just after sundown there was a report that a leopard had been "spotted" close to the fence. And we found the leopard hanging out by the fence pacing up and down alongside the road that runs next to the fence. We parked and the leopard continued pacing about, at times only a couple meters away from where we were in the open truck. We spent about 15-20 minutes in very close proximity to the leopard before we had to give our spot to another group (in Madikwe only 3 vehicles are allowed to be close to an animal at any one time).

The explanation of the cat's behavior (other than just being a cat) is that it jumps the fence to hunt cattle on the Botswana side and then after it's nice steak dinner jumps back across the fence where the farmers can't shoot it. Pretty clever for a cat, don't you think?

A few other highlights:

Tau Lodge at sunrise

Vickie and Kathie learn about rhino poo

The Great Train Adventure

We now depart from our regular posts to talk about something truly fabulous. Friday, June 1 we left Gaborone on the 7:00 am flight to Johannesburg, we then transferred to the domestic airport and caught a flight to Cape Town where we were met by a driver with our names on a sign (Debra loves getting met with her name on a sign!). Our driver took us to the Victoria and Albert Hotel on the waterfront.


We had a lovely afternoon walking around the waterfront, shopping and snacking. Our one disappointment was trying to get a sandwich from Subway. Looked just like a Subway sandwich shop but the sandwiches just weren't right. It was sad. The rest of our time in Cape Town was great and we plan to go back in the not so distant future to explore the city more fully. This trip we didn't have much time because Saturday just after breakfast we were taken to the train station. As soon as the car stopped we were met by Rovos Rail staff who took our baggage and checked us in and gave us drinks and thus, began a most fabulous adventure.

We waited for about an hour in a very comfortable lounge waiting for the rest of the passengers to assemble. It turns out there were 27 passengers total on the train which meant no lines, no crowds, lots of special attention, etc. We were escorted to the train and shown to our suite (The Tsesebe -- named after some sort of a deer like animal (dla)).

Shortly after boarding, the train pulled out of the Cape Town station and we were on our way. The next 48 hours were truly fantastic. The Rovos Rail is an unquestionable first class experience. (We must take a minute to correct a misunderstanding. Before the trip, we thought Rovos Rail and the Blue Train were one and the same. It turns out that is not the case. The Blue Train is run by the government. Rovos Rail is privately operated). So Rovos Rail is described as the "most luxurious train in the world". We haven't taken enough trains to personally endorse this description but we can say we had an incredible experience. The food was really good and served quite interestingly (4 and 5 course meals for lunch and dinner). The service was unbelievable. Every time we left our room, the hostess came in and straightened up everything. In the lounge car and observation car the staff made sure we had constant snacks and beverages. The train experience itself was an amazing blend of history and modern comforts. All the train cars are really, really old and fully restored and the wood paneling and detailing is very nice. You kind of get the feeling that you might be traveling through Africa in the 1930s.

Our journey took us from Cape Town to Pretoria. We had an hour stop in Majtsfontein Saturday evening. Supposedly it's a preserved Victorian Village. They have a creepy museum that even goes down into a basement area that used to be a jail. Frankly "the village" just wasn't very interesting. Maybe in daylight it's nicer.

Sunday we stopped in Kimberley for an excursion. Kimberley has an old diamond mine known as "The Big Hole". It's quite interesting from an historical perspective. Kimberley is where diamond mining began in southern Africa in the late 1800s. Also, this is where DeBeers came to be. According to our tour guide, it is the largest man-made mine (200 some meters deep -- all by shovels and some dynamite). Thom was hugely disppointed. He thought it was supposed to be the biggest hole. And it's clearly not that at all. The total production from the Big Hole was about 14.5 million carats. Annual production from Jwaneng (previously described in this blog) is 12 million carats. All mining activity is finished in the area but DeBeers still has offices in the town. The mine is now purely a tourist attraction.

So back on the train as we left Kimberley, we came across scads and scads of flamingos hanging out in a little lake that is actually filled from water from the Big Hole. It was a spectacular sight -- very pink.

Monday morning was another highlight of the trip. We stopped a little ways outside of Pretoria and switched engines. The ordinary electric engines pulled away, and we hooked up to a very cool steam locomotive.

And so we finished the rest of our journey being pulled by the steam engine. A perfect ending to a most fantastic experience. For those of you with lots of extra time, more photos of this experience can be viewed by clicking here

The Commute

We have an extraordinarily easy commute to work. Most days we walk to work like this...

(leaving our gate)

(down the sidewalk in front of our house)

(cross the empty lot next to the child care center)

(and then cross the street and we're at work)

One day this showed up smack in the middle of our commute...

(It's a driving school!)

Fortunately for us, it's not a very successful business and has not slowed our commute at all.