Alright, I am inside the O R Tambo airport in Jo'burg. I have passes security and passport control. So so far so good. However I did not get my boarding pass for my second flight, the one to Canada. I gave myself time, enough time I think, but......
Sunny warm day here, th cold front is over. It is nice to leave Jo'burg on a nice day.
Tuesday, June 30, 2015
Sunday, June 28, 2015
Friday, June 26, 2015
Adventure With Elephants
During my road trip in South Africa I actually went to Adventure With Elephants. I normally don't like going to touristy things like this, especially since animals are often unhappy in things like this, but I asked around about it and everybody thought that it was great. SO I went. And it WAS great.
You get really close to the elephants and get to interact with them.
Yes I did put my hand inside his mouth and touch his tongue.
The photo below is my favourite, in fact it is my new wallpaper on my laptop.
And then you get to go for a little walk.... well you sit and the elephant walks
In summer you can swim with them, but this time of year the water is so cold that even the elephants don't want to go in.
Yes I did put my hand inside his mouth and touch his tongue.
The photo below is my favourite, in fact it is my new wallpaper on my laptop.
And then you get to go for a little walk.... well you sit and the elephant walks
Tuesday, June 09, 2015
Rock Dassies from Augrabies Falls National Park
Rock Dassies (also known as Rock Hyrax - Procavia capensis) look a bit like marmottes. They are the closest relative to elephants. They climb trees to get to the green leaves and I have to admit that even though they are great climbers to me they seem totally out of place in trees. They are not called rock dassies for no reason. They do leave in rocks in big groups.
They have two weird little front teeth. In fact those teeth are tusk like and are their incisors just like elephants, whereas other tusked animals (like the warthog) have tusks developed from their canines.
See what you think about them in trees.
They like the green leaves and are able to eat them even with the serious thorns of the acacias trees.
Look at the way they are able to balance
Particularly amazing considering their toes
And I even saw one in a quiver tree.
Here is another weird thing about dassies. They have at least 21 different vocalizations, including trills, yips, grunts, wails, snorts, twitters, shrieks, growls, and whistles. Males also sing complex songs that can last for several minutes and serve a territorial purpose, like bird song. When researchers looked at how males put together different syllables (wails, chucks, snorts, squeaks, and tweets) to compose a song, they found the order of the syllables was significant; that is, dassies songs make use of syntax, the manner in which different elements are combined. They also found dassies from different regions used different local dialects in their songs. (from wired.com)
They have two weird little front teeth. In fact those teeth are tusk like and are their incisors just like elephants, whereas other tusked animals (like the warthog) have tusks developed from their canines.
See what you think about them in trees.
They like the green leaves and are able to eat them even with the serious thorns of the acacias trees.
Look at the way they are able to balance
Particularly amazing considering their toes
And I even saw one in a quiver tree.
Here is another weird thing about dassies. They have at least 21 different vocalizations, including trills, yips, grunts, wails, snorts, twitters, shrieks, growls, and whistles. Males also sing complex songs that can last for several minutes and serve a territorial purpose, like bird song. When researchers looked at how males put together different syllables (wails, chucks, snorts, squeaks, and tweets) to compose a song, they found the order of the syllables was significant; that is, dassies songs make use of syntax, the manner in which different elements are combined. They also found dassies from different regions used different local dialects in their songs. (from wired.com)
Rabbit in the Kalahari Desert
Augrabies Falls National Park is considered to be within the limits of the Kalahari Desert. I spent a few days in the park and loved it. It was great to be able to walk around. I was there just as the cold front of winter was rolling in and it was surprisingly cool. Even cold at night truly. Very different from what I remembered since the last time I was there it was December the hottest time of the year.
I saw quite a few animals but I want to start with the rabbit I saw. I love the size of its ears.
I saw quite a few animals but I want to start with the rabbit I saw. I love the size of its ears.
Baobabs
Baobabs are amazing trees and there are much legends about them.
Because when the leaves are gone their branches look like roots reaching into the sky the Bushmen have a legend that said that the god Thora somehow grew to dislike having baobabs growing in his garden and threw them over the wall of Paradise onto Earth below. Even though they landed upside down the baobabs kept on growing.
Some people believe that if you pick the flower of a baobab you will be eaten by a lion, but if you drink water in which baobab seeds have soaked you will be protected from crocodile attacks.
Bushmen's belief is supported by the fact that young baobabs look so different from the grown ones (even the leaf is different) that bushmen believe that there are no baby baobabs, so they have to come from somewhere else.
Here is a picture with a car to give a scale
If you want to see baobabs I would recommend going to Musina (Limpopo Province, South Africa) and along the N1, South of Musina, for at least 30 kilometres the baobabs are plentiful, or along the R572 west of Musina.
I also went to see the Sunland Baobab which is reputed to be the largest baobab.
For scale I am in this picture. See, it is a pretty big tree (47metres in circumference)
And they even have a bar inside the tree.
Because when the leaves are gone their branches look like roots reaching into the sky the Bushmen have a legend that said that the god Thora somehow grew to dislike having baobabs growing in his garden and threw them over the wall of Paradise onto Earth below. Even though they landed upside down the baobabs kept on growing.
Some people believe that if you pick the flower of a baobab you will be eaten by a lion, but if you drink water in which baobab seeds have soaked you will be protected from crocodile attacks.
Bushmen's belief is supported by the fact that young baobabs look so different from the grown ones (even the leaf is different) that bushmen believe that there are no baby baobabs, so they have to come from somewhere else.
Here is a picture with a car to give a scale
If you want to see baobabs I would recommend going to Musina (Limpopo Province, South Africa) and along the N1, South of Musina, for at least 30 kilometres the baobabs are plentiful, or along the R572 west of Musina.
I also went to see the Sunland Baobab which is reputed to be the largest baobab.
For scale I am in this picture. See, it is a pretty big tree (47metres in circumference)
And they even have a bar inside the tree.
Monday, June 08, 2015
Tea Plantations near Tzaneen, Limpopo Province
I am now totally blogging out of sequence, but I am a bit tired of blogging about Kruger.
After Kruger I drove through Tzaneen a town of the Limpopo Province often described as "a large tropical garden town". In fact you could really grow anything at all in Tzaneen. In the hills around the towns I have seen: banana, mango, macadamia, sugar cane plantations and also tea plantations. Unfortunately the tea plantations are not run commercially anymore but luckily they have not been uprooted so here are a few photos.
These are the three leaves picked during harvest.
The tree plant is a camellia plant it is Camellia sinensis.
After Kruger I drove through Tzaneen a town of the Limpopo Province often described as "a large tropical garden town". In fact you could really grow anything at all in Tzaneen. In the hills around the towns I have seen: banana, mango, macadamia, sugar cane plantations and also tea plantations. Unfortunately the tea plantations are not run commercially anymore but luckily they have not been uprooted so here are a few photos.
These are the three leaves picked during harvest.
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