The Last Post.. umm.. hope not!!!

So, tomorrow (Thursday here) we are off to Pont Drift (yep, google that) to start our two weeks with Eco Training. First week in the Tuli game reserve in the Nth East of Botswana, then the second week at Makuleke in the Kruger National Park.  Both places have no access to cellphone, internet or even reliable power..  Sounds great to me.

 No idea why they bother trying to keep it closed, as the animals take no notice.  We like that. I almost had a warthog bump into me here last night. And they look very intimidating!

                              Not photoshopped. Sunrise from the top of the mountain at 0635 today.

                              The front gate..  really excellent place. ( The camp!!!  not the gate!!  jeeze!!  )

                                               Tshipise from the mountain top

                         a Klippsrpinger. Unique in the world of antelopes.  About the size of a large goat.
                              We spooked this one and it's mate coming down the mountain.

Everything over here has nasty thorns. Sunset, with one of the many types of acacia. Ali got hooked up really well, I just was too slow with the camera, it would have been a great shot. Ask her!!! Took some real effort to get the thorn out of her arm.  Such fun.

Animals, food and the Gym

Spotlighting in NZ is mostly about a few small animals pr possibly one or two larger ones.  Here, wandering around with a powerful torch you never quite know what is going to be looking back at you.

Last night I managed to convince Ali that it wasn't necessary to go to bed at 7:30pm (talk about a nana!!!!) and off we went to see what was out there.

A bush baby!  crikey they are noisy for a small cute thing that looks a bit like the aussy invader possum. And no, despite its red eyes and being up a tree, I felt no inclination to send a .22 bullet at it.

A little further, and we spooked a Nyala bull, or possibly a Kudu.  They are very similar. Not far from it was a family of warthogs. These were the least frightened by the light, but still retreated back through the not so effective fence.

RK News.  Yes, for those of you waiting to here what Africa can do in this regard..

A hyena who hadn't quite got the idea of looking both ways.

And, just so you don't grumble, the photo was taken with camera in right hand, window open and still going something like 60km/hr as we had traffic behind us, and nowhere to stop. Pretty impressed I even got it in the frame.

The Gym.  We aim to spend at least an hour or more at The Gym each day.

The above picture is of The Gym, taken as we approached on our way back from Musina today. It takes about 45 minutes to climb, if you don't stop to look for snakes, or watch the sunrise, both of which we have been doing, so The Gym can be a good 2 hours or more, after which, we are either just in time to make second breakfast, or if later in the day we may sink to a beer and wine moment. Someone has to, otherwise all those fine winemakers and brewers would be unemployed.

Food. Preety darn good. Yesterday we chanced the lunch buffet for R100 each for which we had 2 hot meats, lots of yum veges, rice, chocolate cake, creamy ice cream tea and coffee. We even ordered an orange juice each, and when the bill arrived, they'd called us pensioners, charged us R180 each for the meal and R20 for the juice!  Pensioners!!!!  jeeze.

We have noticed that the Afrikaan male is mostly seriously big!  They eat a lot (and BIG pieces) of meat. No wonder they can beat the All Blacks.  Guessing being 150kg would not mean you are overweight here, at least not if you are watching rugby in the pub or floating in the hot pool at Tshipise.

The bar b q is called a Brai, here, and tonight, after checking out the wildlife in the dark (close encounter with a large warthog) we got our brai lit up, and cooked a large sausage thingy with an unpronounceable name, made by the butcher (he is huge, as his lady and daughter) on site here. It was excellent. Cost about $3NZ, and could feed three people easily, although we think here it is a single serve.

Late now, all of 9pm, but we've an early appointment at The Gym..  nite nite

One of the stop off points at The Gym.

The view from The Gym

OK, yep, we are in Africa!!!

"Oh, and if you do get pulled over by the Police, put a 50 Rand note in your passport, as that really is the issue, unless you really were speeding, and then that could be the  issue, but try the 50 Rand anyway"

The parting words of advice from the nice lady at the rental car company!  There were other indications that we really were in Africa, the number of Police or military types at the airport in Johanesburg   and the people trying to scam you into whatever they had going on. The brown haze in the sky, a whole lot of very dark skinned people, and the not dark skin types speaking with thick accents and in Aafrikaans (it's late, or early!!!  and I can't spell).
The South Africa Airways flight from Perth was notable for a few things;
a: we now also quite like the Airbus A340-600 (except that the bloody French engineers have put too many computers on it, and I don't like computers running aircraft I'm on)
b: and the fact that the nice ladies who pass out the coffee, food etc, seem to be unable to smile!
and
c: the movies get quite a bit of censoring by the South African govt censor, who is averse to people saying most naughty words.

                               Travelling light  ..  how we like it. For Erin, this is a nightmare.

                                                     See,  that's us, and outside is Sth Africa.

Last night (1st in Sth Africa) was at the Howicks accomodation, just near the Polokwane airport, where we picked up the rental.  Ali booked a small car, as we've no plans of going "off road" until after the Eco Training course, so we were not expecting the road to Howicks to be worse than some farm tracks in NZ

                                 This photo just fails entirely in depicting what that road is like!

High point of the flight over here.........  Showers at the Perth Airport..  free too, with endless hot water.  Nice.  No, sorry, no photo of the showers!!!  seriously, get a grip!

           We are enjoying the driving (so far) and the 120k speed limit is excellent.
Oddly, for those of you looking for some RK news, there is none!! well, yet anyway.  Something to look forward to!

                                          I guess this clinched it..  Must be Africa  :)

We think we should operate a 787

So, being that CAA aren't actually that good at understanding the rules they are tasked with understanding, we think that maybe, if we leased a 787, they would be really happy, being that aerobatics and 787's don't really go together.

Plus, we'd be able to offer really quick flights to Karamea, and cater to all those who want to take their push bikes on the Heaphy track..  In fact, it might even be feasible to have some sort of track set up inside the aircraft, so instead of sitting and getting tired and bored, the passengers could do laps of the track.  Of course, there would be some sort of energy transfer system to harness said bikers exertion, and get that to help run the jet engines!!!

The first "ride on, ride off mountain bike flight service in the world"..  Any suggestions on names???  we might run a competition.

OK, yes, I am fatigued and rambling..  Oddly, having had a meeting with CAA on Tuesday just prior to leaving, and having to listen to statements so off the path, I think we'd have a crack at getting them to support us setting up in competition to Air NZ, just don't mention AEROBATICs

Ah, well, back to listening to the various airlines chasing those passengers with unpronounceable names who are either not going to turn up, or are in the bar, slightly pissed and not listening!  Gets almost amusing after the fifth call for "would Mr Underthaneryammoutng, please board at gate 4, your fellow passengers are now set to lynch you!!"

Only 3 more hours, then another 11 or so to Sth Africa..  :)

Testing!!!!

Ok, so this isn't really about the Africa trip..  I'm just setting up the blog, and learning how to add photos etc.  Also, I have tried to get an automatic update e mail sent to everyone who wants to follow..  looks like I am unable to get what I want, so I am guessing you will have to either find a button that lets you "Follow"  or just check the website every now and then..

With luck, and practise, I may get that sorted.  Of course, someone may be able to tell me how to sort that!

Ok, so  photos  ...   from today, lunch at 97 Trewavas St Motueka..  :)

Here we go Again, and about time!

Ok, so this is just a weeny test to get things sorted before we head off.  Please excuse (although you are welcome to pooint out) any typos, grammatical errors, misplaced apostrophe's etc..  And we do know that some who read this do indeed like their , and ' and ; to be in the correct spots..  Me, however, I just give it a go, and if it looks like how I'm thinking,,  I  am likely to leave it as it is.  Feel free to send any suggestions, and I'll feel free to ignore most if not all of them.

So, counting down to the 10th..  and yes, although we'd like to be getting all excited about the trip, the ongoing BS from our ever so helpful folks in Wellington is taking a fair bit of our headspace.  Hopefully, when we get to Sth Africa (or even before) we will be able to leave it all behind; as such.

On that, we do want to send a heartfelt thanks to all of you who are supporting us in one way or another.  It helps.  The very kind offer from .......  (you know who you are) of the discreet, and cheapish hitman, is appreciated, but at this stage, we will forego that option, tempting though it may be!

So, the itinerary..  if you are interested, google map will help here...  We get to JoBurg then fly straight Northish to Polokwane.  Stay a night, pick up a rental, and head North and East a bit to Tchipise  (excuse spelling, but google will help)  to spend a few nights at this place, as it came highly recommended as being a good plce to get over jet lag, and has a heated pool..  not sure if that is naturally, or with flames.. either will do.

On about the 18th of June we ditch the car, and get to the Pont Drift border crossing into Botswana, where we meet up with the folks from EcoTraininig..  We are with them for a two week Safari guide intro/taster course..  looks good.  First week in the  Tuli Game reserve, then back East to Sth Africa, and a week in the Kruger National Park. We fouund these people via a snippet on some TV doco about travelling around in Sth Africa.  Google is a wonderful thing :)

We leave them on the 1st of July, and get dropped off just Sth of Polokwane, where we meet (hopefully) up with the Bushtrackers 4x4 rental.  A single cab Toyota Hilux with the deck fitted out with stuff for camping, plus 2 spare tyres!!!  yikes.

And then the fun starts!!!!!