Author: travelingjim

On Thursday, having had no joy with getting my walker fixed or replaced, we flew up to Nairobi to begin 18 days with Gate 1 travel on a photo safari through Kenya & Tanzania.

The flights up, Durban to J Burg, then on to Nairobi were quite pleasant and without serious incident. Aided to some extent to check my walker on through as baggage. There was a minor complication getting from the landing gate to the departure gate in J Burg but when the walk got to be too much we were able to fairly quickly sort a wheelchair.

While waiting in the lounge in Durban we had a minor panic.

Alexis went to get something out of my backpack, in which, among other things is my CPAP and all my meds. She picked it up and it wasn’t mine! PANIC! (It is required that we have at least one on each leg of a trip😂.) I must have grabbed the wrong one off the X-ray line.

Alexis takes off with it to the security point to try and correct things! About a minute later a guy sits down near me and suddenly exclaims, “WHERE’S MY BACKPACK!” I look over and see mine next to where he’s seated. I instantly realize what happened, quickly explain to him and make a dash for the door of the lounge. Sitting by the door is the wheelchair they brought me to the lounge with. I grab it, and using it as a walker, make a mad dash to security where I find Alexis and a guard going through the backpack she’d brought down trying to ID the owner.

After explaining the whole thing to the guard & Alexis, we took the guy’s backpack back to the lounge and set everything right.

Let’s hope that’s our last panic, but it probably won’t be.

BTW, all the panics we’ve had while traveling, and there have been many, have worked out ok. Not always as we’d have liked, but ok.

Our first stop is at the Radisdon Blu in Nairobi where we have a full day + in very nice surroundings to simply relax and revive ourselves. Tonight we meet up with our guide and fellow travelers, tomorrow the adventure begins.

The view from our room

Nairobi is the capital of Kenya. The name comes from the Maasai phrase Enkare Nairobi, which translates to “cool water”, a reference to the Nairobi River which flows through the city. The metropolitan area has a population of 6,547,547.

It is not the safest place so we won’t go about exploring the city on our own as we usually do.

Our most interesting side trip was to a rescue sanctuary for African cats.

Here we were introduced to the African Wildcat, not much larger than some of our domestic cats. This guy was real friendly and seemed particularly interested in my walker, rubbing his scent all over it.

I wonder what our Siamese will make of that when we get home.

Next we joined a Caracal in his pen. He was much less friendly, hissing at us and the handler a lot. We couldn’t get close to him.

Our third cat was a Serval. These guys are nearly 2′ tall at the shoulders and weigh up to 40 pounds.

Our guy was another cuddly dude and we got to pet him.

Last was the cheetahs. Another friendly pair that played with the handlers but we were not allowed to touch.

Much larger cats, up to 35″ at the shoulder and 160 lb, a bad reaction from them to a stranger touching them could be extremely dangerous, even fatal.

All in all, this was the most exciting day of our time in SA.

While at ZN we took a side trip to the Elephant Experience. They have there three domesticated elephants that can’t be returned to the wild and with which we were able to interact.

In the feeding process we were able to feel the hide, drop food into their trunks, put food into their mouths and feel the tongue and stroke their tusks.

That’s as close an encounter as I expect I’ll ever have with elephants.

DAY ONE

This evening we depart for a month of travel in Africa. We fly out of Los Angeles about 11:30 pm and don’t get to Joburg until Tuesday afternoon. I suspect we’ll be knackered on arrival.

DAY ONE.1

Well yesterday was a bummer! Got to the airport only to find out flight had been cancelled and we were rebooked for tonight. In and of itself not too big a deal. However, that screwed up a couple of connections! 

BTW This is one long set of flights, 14 hours to Addis Ababa, another 5 to J-Burg, then another hour to Durban. Toss in about 4 hours of layovers & I expect to be getting a little gamey by arrival.🤪

DAY ONE.2 GETTING THERE

Ethiopian Airlines is a mixed bag! As I previously stated, they, with a little help from us, screwed up our flights. Once on board however, they were delightful. The food was good & generous, the lie flat seats not as good as the Dreamliner but nonetheless, excellent.

We made landfall in Lomé, Togo (West Africa)

Roughly 48 hours of planes and layovers and we are in Durban, SA. And boy was it rough!

It started with Ethiopian Airlines canceling our Sunday flight and rescheduling it for Monday. That wasn’t a big deal except they neglected to reschedule connections. When we finally got that straight we couldn’t get Business for the Addis Ababa to JBurg leg (5+ hours) and even though there were empty seats on the flight they “couldn’t fix it”. It seems everybody has the authority to screw things up but nobody has the authority to fix anything.

Coming through security at Addis Ababa (darned if I know why that was necessary as we merely changed planes on the same airline) they decided my walker, I brought the lightweight one, had to go through the x-ray machine BUT it wouldn’t fit!

After a long but losing argument they took it to baggage with many, many, many promises and assurances that it would be brought to the plane’s door upon landing. Frankly, I wasn’t as surprised as maddened when it didn’t show up. After a lot of scrambling, I’m so sorrying, and shoulder shrugging, I gave up, got a wheelchair down to baggage reclaim. Luckily, I knew enough to check oversized luggage first, and there it was! Then it was on to security again, this time a different airline. There they simply waved the walker through but not to be completely sensible, confiscated my 4” shears that have traveled through countless security lines without problems.😜

The good news is we drive to Zulu Nyalla and safari. Pictures of animals in the near future.

DAY ONE OF THE ADVENTURE After a good night’s sleep we were wide awake and much refreshed at 5:00 am. Breakfast wasn’t served until 6:30 so we brewed some tea, munched on some snacks, played on our phones and did most of our re-packing until then.

Breakfast was surprisingly good. Eggs scrambled correctly and thick English style bacon and many other goodies. After second helpings and a couple of cappuccinos we went back to the room and finally got underway about 9:00 am for Zulu Nyala, a three.5 hour drive.

SA, at least along this route, is very pretty. Long rolling hills filled with lush greenery and trees. The roads quite decent most of the way although in places only two lanes.

They have a somewhat different approach to single lane traffic. With wide shoulders, most will pull on to the shoulder at speed to allow an overtaker to pass. I was more often the passes than the passee and it worked quite well. Until that is, I got caught in a speed trap doing 102 in an 80 zone. 😱

A young cop waved me down and we went through all the normal, license/registration etc. Then he walked me over to his car, showed me the radar readout and the fine book (1500 Rand ~ $500) for that offense and told me that I’d have to follow him 20 Kilometers back down the road, etc.

All the time he was very sympathetic to my problem, friendly and solicitous but what was he to do.?

Then I asked him if there was some way we could skip going back to the police station. He thought a minute and said he couldn’t issue any receipts from his car but if I was ok with that he could charge me 500 Rand on the spot. For a minute I thought I was back in Georgia!😏 I couldn’t say ok fast enough! I told him I needed to go back to my car for the cash and he asked if my wife was going to be ok with our arrangement. I told absolutely!

We walked back to my car and I took the cash from Alexis and started to hand it to him but he said no and indicated I should put it in his notebook. Ok. I guess he didn’t want to be seen actually touching the cash.😂Anyhow, within about 15 minutes we were on our way. I was happy to part with less than $100.00 and be on my way hassle free and I was more careful about the posted speed limits the rest of the way.

We arrived at our new temporary residence and got checked in at about 12:30. Then the first order of business was lunch.

Our room is great. Plenty large and could accommodate eight people. The master bedroom is open to the rest of the place, about 20×20 with a good sized bathroom, large shower & double sinks just behind. The other room which has sleeping accommodations for six and also doubles as a sitting room with a small frig is about 20×30 and opens on to a front patio of nearly equal size. BEST OF ALL IT’S AIR CONDITIONED!

At 3 pm we took off on our first game drive of 2-1/2 hours. The first thing we saw, even before getting to the truck, were the crocks right here on the site. They live in a pond that is adequately fenced off so there is no safety issue.

Once in the trucks we were treated to Cape Buffalo, Wart Hogs, giraffes, rhinos (White & Black), monkeys, hippopotamuses, Wildebeest and birds. And of course the Nyala for which the park is named.

Baby rhino

Rhino, notice the hole in his horn. That’s from placing tracking device there.

Cape Buffalo, One of the big 5 and extremely dangerous.

Wart Hog, one of our guides said they really are as witless as depicted in, Lion King.

Young female Nyala

Vervet Monkey

Male Nyala for which the park is named

A pair of terrapins

African Starling

Wildebeest

Dung Beetles (2) rolling a ball of dung down the road

The largest beast we faced. Stopped at the edge of the road as we crossed the tracks.

Too tired to stay up for 7:30 pm dinner, we returned to our rooms, ate the hardboiled eggs we’d liberated in Durban and crashed for the night. Tomorrow’s trek starts at 5:30 am so nite nite😴

DAY TWO

The game drive starts at 5:30 am so with only a cup of coffee to fortify, we were on our way. First order of business, find the park’s cheetah!

We found him taking his leisure near a fence marking the edge of the reserve. He was pretty relaxed and an obviously full belly indicated he’d already had breakfast so he was in no hurry to go anywhere.

Here he’s inspecting droppings of some other critter.

Then he marks it. I don’t think one wants to be too close when he sprays.

This is a wrap for Zulu Nyala. I’ll include some more interesting shots and I’ll make separate entries for our time at the Elephant Experience and the Chet’s Rescue.

Terrapins

BRADSHER’S

January saw us off to Mesa Arizona to visit my old Navy buddy and his wife. Brad & I have been friends since early 1964 when we met at a Navy school in Vallejo CA. In fact Brad and Alexis dated a few times well before I ever met either of them.

We spent the weekend reiterating old Sea Tales (that’s the Navy term for outrageous lies)😂 and catching up on the goings on in each other’s lives.

FEDERER

Alexis and I are big tennis fans but not big enough to pay the prices to swelter in the heat of the major tournaments & matches. In early February Roger Federer, long time #1 in the world was playing a charity match in San Jose against the USA#1, Jack Sock.

We thought we’d never have a better chance to see top tennis players live so we gassed the car and headdd North.

Although we have toured Roland-Garros (French Open) and Wimbledon stadiums seeing these guys and a doubles match between Fed/Bill Gates & Scck/Samantha Bee was way more exciting.

MARATHON TIME

By this time I had decided to do my annual marathon back East. I had narrowed it down to Scranton, PA (Oct 7) and Syracuse, NY (Oct 14). Both cities about equidistant from Binghamton and their marathons in a workable timeframe. But for now it’s training and as a part of that the Redondo Beach Super Bowl 10k and the Rotary, End Polio Now 10k. The training continued on a weekly basis until October.

BEATRIX

March found us in San Diego for a meeting of the Beatrix Potter Society. More Alexis’ gig than mine but I enjoy it too. Then in early April we scooted up to the San Francisco area to spend some time with our friend Judith.

WISCONSIN DELLS TO BRANSON MO.

April 22 we embarked on a trip to the Wisconsin Dells and on down to Branson Mo. Why the Dells? you might logically ask. Well, we’d never been there and are not likely to return 😊. I must say it’s a lovely area for camping, hiking, fishing and hunting but those are activities in which we no longer indulge. Also. Alexis had never been in Wisconsin and she wanted a look around.

We stayed in a Time Share in the Dells and it was below par to say the least.

While there we made a nice drive up to Chippewa Falls to visit with Julie, our babysitter of some 45 years past. We very much enjoyed that visit.

From there it was down to Branson. Again, one might ask, why!? Alexis’ cousin Debbie and family live close by and we had a delightful visit with them. Returning to Branson we soon found ourselves bored to tears. So we departed early and ran up to St. Lou in time to visit the Arch. On the drive up we went through the town of Uranus, Mo. I wanted to stop at the fudge factory but Alexis wasn’t having it!😂

We did manage to take the ride to the top of the Arch. Interesting. Below is the view from the top with the shadow across the river..

Next on our list was a “Canyon Lands” tour which took us through Salt Lake, Dead Horse Point & Moab, Utah, Canyon Lands National Park & Arches National Park.

DURANGO

Today’s schedule had us taking a scenic drive up the Million Dollar Highway and the San Juan mountains to Silverton, then taking the Silverton to Durango, narrow gauge steam train. However the 416 fire shut the train down and we had to continue on the bus, a continuing scenic drive.

Option 1, a 1.5 hour drive through the fire zone (if they let us) or option 2, a 4 hour drive around. Luckily, we were able to exercise option 1. That meant following a pilot car through about 10 miles of temporally single laned road.

Silverton, a town of only about 500 summertime residents, depends almost solely on the train and the tourists it brings for its economy. Today it was practically a ghost town. Worse yet, it was announced that fire danger will keep the train from running until the end of June. That’s an economic disaster for the town.

We will get a different train ride later in the week but our schedule is in flux due to today’s cancellation of the train.

Today we rode the Cumbres & Toltec train from Charma to Antonito, because the Durango line is shut down by the fire. This required wake up @ 5:30 am and all aboard the bus for a two hour+ trip from Durango, CO. to Chama, NM. Once there we did the usual for nearly an hour.

Because of the Durango shutdown extra cars, requiring an extra engine to pull thru the grades, were added to the run.

As we were ready to cross Lobato trestle we had to stop the train, decouple the first engine and let it cross alone. The trestle can’t take the weight of both engines.

We were on a flat stretch of track so one engine could pull it. Once the first engine was clear, the second engine pulled across with the train attached. It stopped to recouple, leaving our car, the 5th back, on the trestle.😱 within a few minutes the operation was complete and we were on our way into the hills.

It is a spectacular run through the mountains with amazing vistas that the camera can’t begin to capture. However, the trip was too long for this weary traveler. We finally pulled into Antonito a little after 4:00 pm only to load back on the bus for another three hours to Santa Fe.

By this time, yours truly was not only weary but right on the edge of churlish.

Ah well, tonight a good night’s sleep and in the morning it’s off to explore Santa Fe starting with a private tour of the Georgia O’Keeffe museum. Life is good!

We also visited Mesa Verde cliff dwellings. Some areas were too difficult for us to get to but we did get up close to some of it.

TORONTO

The 2018 Rotary convention was held in Toronto Canada in late June so off we went. Our pilots for this flight were both women. The first time I have been aware of an all female flight deck crew. Go ladies! The very graciously allowed me to snap a picture.

On to Toronto for the opening Parade of Nations, always an impressive ceremony. Unfortunately I was unable to get any decent snaps. RI President Riseley, Justin Trudeau & Princes Ann were among the dignitaries who addresses the convention.

A side trip to see Niagara from the Canadian side was a highlight.

ALASKA

Returning home from Canada we didn’t even get out of the airport. Rather we picked up our grandson Matthew at LAX and boarded a plane for Alaska and a cruise from Anchorage.

Day 1. After the long flight from LA we spent the night, What was left of it in a local hotel. In the morning we went out to eat. Then we went off to the Alaskan Heritage center where we saw many displays of First Peoples work and art including their living spaces and Totem Poles.

Matthew was allowed to heft a stone ax and a spear throwing stick and he generally had a good time.

About 3:00 pm we went to the HAL Hotel and got checked in and ready for tomorrow’s train ride to Denali.

Day 2. Up at Oh dark thirty to get some breakfast, had to have our bags out by 5:00 am. I repacked, putting just what I’d need in my small backpack and shipped the larger one to the ship. More about that later.

The train was a very nice setup. A dome car and plenty of room to roam. We set off on our eight hour trip through the gorgeous Alaska landscape. There were some spotting of moose in the distance but in the main, we simply enjoyed the soaring beauty of the land.

Day 3. Again an early up, on the bus at 4:45 am for an excursion into Denali Park by bus. We hope to be able to see Denali (Mt. McKinley) which spends about 70% of its time shrouded in clouds. We saw it in all its glory the last time we were here, seven years ago, to see it again today would be a real odds buster.

Our first spotting was a cow moose browsing about 30’ away from the roadside. It’s amazing how hard it is to spot such a huge animal when it’s so close but natural camouflage really work. A bit later our first glimpse of Dall Sheep. And I do mean a glimpse, even with my binoculars I could see little more than a white dot on the mountainside.

As the trip progressed we had several sightings of caribou (Reindeer), and no, we never spotted Rudolph, moose, grizzly bears and more sheep.

We didn’t beat the odds, McKinley remained hidden behind the clouds, peeking out for brief glimpse like the lady with the seven veils, for the entire trip. Nonetheless, the views of other mountain peaks within the park were spectacular! Returning to the hotel at about 3:30, we got some lunch and a brief nap. Then it was off to the Iditarod champion, Jeff King’s Husky Homestead training camp for a cuddle with the puppies, a demonstration by a team working on a treadmill, and a presentation by Jeff King (three time Iditarod winner) on the race. Quite interesting. The highlight, I think was his description of racing for 9-11 days, running the dogs six on/six off and his work of caring for the dogs during over five hours of that off time, averaging 4, 45 minute rests per day for, for him, nine straight days.

Matthew immensely enjoyed the trip. Especially when ever we told him (truthfully) that we were getting more and better animal sightings than when Alexis and I were here nine years ago.

As we were ready to board the ship I came to a disturbing realization; 1) I needed my passport to board and 2) I’d sent it on ahead with the things I didn’t need for Dinali!😱 A number of words that I’d mastered in boot camp came to mind but I won’t repeat them here. At any rate, Alexis and Matthew boarded while I twiddled my thumbs, mostly playing solitaire on my phone, until my bag was delivered to our stateroom. Alexis then brought it out to me and I proceeded through the boarding process. I won’t make that mistake again!

Aboard ship he pretty much split his time between the Lido (food) and the swimming pool and he was delighted with that as well. Now he wants to do a trip to Kenya with us.

We hit the usual ports of Seward, Juneau and Ketchikan and took in the historic sights. The cruise ended in Vancouver where we were met and given the grand tour by fellow Rotarian, Peter, who splits his time between Redondo Beach & Vancouver.

The highlight of the cruise was Glacier Bay where we could get quite close to the glacier.

FRANCE

Not being ones to let the grass grow, we barely had time repack before heading to Paris for a month. Alexis departed the day after our return and I had the luxury of an additional 24 hours.

Our Paris stay was a bit different. While staying in the shadow of Montmartre, the area was pretty rough. We never felt unsafe but it was gritty and didn’t have the Paris feel of other arrondissements where we have stayed.

Alexis had walked up to Sacré-Cœur the day before I arrived, she took the short path, a mere 200 steps. We returned the next day but walked the streets (my walker wasn’t going to climb 200 steps! It was a looong slog. Subsequent trips were made by bus.😏

We visited all our usual haunts including the American Church, Musée d’Orsay (my favorite), Louvre, many cafés, and the weirdest museum in Paris, the Museum of Hunting and Nature. Of course we also visited the Cathedral & churches. We also did something we have resisted on previous trips, the Moulin Rouge. Yes, it’s a tourist trap and yes, it’s claim to fame is mountains of mamnaries, but it seemed time to do it once.

My training for the October marathon was a bit sketchy but I did get some, including a long run along the banks of the Seine done.

TOULOUSE

After a month in Paris we headed south to Toulouse, an area of France we had not previously visited.

Here we did another home exchange, our 25th. The place was lovely and included a pool but as with most European places, had no air conditioning. 😢 Our first night there we went skinny dipping just to get cooled off.

We visited the Basilica of Saint-Sernin in Toulouse and enjoyed. After a while there is a certain sameness to the cathedrals and churches but each is also unique and worth exploring.

The Cathedral Basilica of Saint Cecilia also known as Albi Cathedral, is the most important Catholic building in Albi, France and is the seat of the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Albi. First built as a fortress in the aftermath of the Albigensian Crusade; begun in 1282 and under construction for 200 years, it is claimed to be the largest brick building in the world.

In Toulouse we visited both the Airbus factory & the Airbus Museum, we found them mildly interesting but not compelling.

It’s a short trip to Pleasanton, CA (5 days) to spend some time with an old traveling companion and her family. We’ll also do some museums in San Francisco, just a short hop away.

Our first museum trip is to the SFO Legion of Honor to see an exhibition centered on Casanova. This has turned out to be much more interesting than I had anticipated. I had a picture, as apparently do most, of the roué and little else.

What I found was a hugely successful con man as well. He apparently was a brilliant thinker and spent time educating himself in person with many of the great thinkers and powers of the day. Among them the kings of France & England and the Pope.

Pictured above are three pieces of beautiful furniture that were part of the exhibit. The first is a caravan that carried him about Venice. Also included were many paintings by renowned artists of the era.

All in all it made me want to learn more about this remarkable, If dissolute, man

Our trip to Oxnard was just an overnight to use a free hotel day that we were about to loose. Oxnard is a relatively small town about an hour and a half N of Los Angeles, almost to Santa Barbara.

You might wonder what drew us to Oxnard and the answer would be, nothing in particular. We hadn’t driven up that way for some time so, why not!

We really didn’t do much except drive on up to Santa Barbara, which turned out to be a bit of a mistake because the return traffic to Oxnard was terrible. Also our decision to go up there was based on a Magellan’s Travel Store we wanted to check out. That turned out to have nothing we were interested in. Oh well, there wasn’t anywhere we needed to be.

We did take a detour on the way back and that took us up close to some of the flood devastation just South of SB. That was amazing & horrible. Boulders the size of VW Bugs were everywhere, collapsed homes with mud markings up to the second story and dozens of them red flagged. It was enough to make us mighty grateful we have been spared.

This morning about 10 we headed back home. It was a beautiful drive. It rained last night and the air was clear as can be. The mountains stood out in the stark beauty that is so sharp and so different from our lush green hills back home. Portions of the drive were along the coast and the ocean was a roiling grey mass of water and heavy surf that the storm had stirred up.

Thanks for joining me!

“The Traveler sees what he sees. The Tourist sees what he has come to see.” G.K. Chesterton