Our Ntate*

Ntate says he wants us to know, because we have always been so supportive of his family, that his 19 year old son is now a married man. 

Ntate says last Friday his son brought home a “young girl – young like him” who is six months pregnant.

Ntate says “In Lesotho culture we must accept this or pay six cows.  So we will accept because where will we get six cows?”

Ntate says there is still a plan for both of them to return to school – maybe next year if he can gather the money for the fees.

Ntate says he is the only member of his family (a wife, two daughters in their 20s, and this son) who has work.

Ntate says, “Thank you for always being behind my family.”

We are speechless.

*Ntate is the word for “sir” or “Mr.” in Sesotho.  It’s what you respectfully call an adult male acquaintance or a respected elder man.  You can use it with the person’s first or last name, but it can also be used by itself.

Kruger Park

We had a wonderful time in Kruger Park this past week.  We both remarked how different the experience was from our other safaris.  First off, we drove ourselves.  That meant that Jay had to both keep his eyes on the road and out his window – a challenge even for the best of drivers.  Luckily the roads were great overall, and a lot of times we came upon cars that were already stopped for animal sightings (Oh yeah, and Jay is a fabulous driver with mad skills!).

The second way in which it was different is that we didn’t have any kind of radio to help us locate animals.  We would set out each day with an idea of which roads we would try and then just take it all by chance.  When you pay for a driver to take you on safari, the radio is a huge part of the experience.  The driver knows exactly where the animals are and rushes you to the next spot.  We decided that we probably saw as many animals in our two days exploring Masai Mara in Kenya (with a paid safari driver) as we did in our four days exploring Kruger Park by ourselves.  It was just a different kind of adventure. 

The third way it was different was that we got to spend time with some of the animals that we found.  We could back up or stay put as long as we wanted just to watch what they were up to.  One of our favorite stops was to watch dung beetles at work.  Have you ever seen them?  Here is a video.  It looks like it’s in fast forward, but really they just move fast like that. 

 

Did you see the one that flipped the other one away?!  They’re crazy!  They have a lot of dung to work with, since every road we drove on had huge piles of elephant poo.  Apparently elephants excrete 50% of what they eat in a day!

Here are some elephants we spent time watching from a bridge over the Oliphants river.  We drove past this bridge multiple times, but this was the only time we saw elephants there.  They were great to watch.  Those trunks are amazingly utilitarian!

Another elephant we watched for a while was the one we got stuck behind on one of the subsidiary roads.  It was just us and him, and since we weren’t interested in making him upset, we followed him at a snail’s pace for quite a while!  This one was in musth which is when male elephants become hyper-sexualized and aggressive.  You know one is in musth if they secrete urine as they walk and they are found alone.  As mentioned, we weren’t interested in following too close.

 

The next day we got caught behind another elephant on our way back to camp.  We can tell you from experience that elephants do not move quickly.  The camps close their doors at 6:00 on the dot, so our only relief was that we were behind a safari truck that was also headed to camp.  We were pretty sure they wouldn’t shut the doors before that truck got in.

We found lots of things in the middle of the road, actually.  Here are some lionesses that were taking a mid-morning nap before the guy in the white truck in the right side of the picture almost ran over their tails…

And here is a wildabeest who posed for us.

We had the pleasure of signing up for a night drive at one of the camps where we stayed.  On this kind of drive, people hold out spotlights and everyone looks for reflections from animal eyes.  If you see some, you yell “stop” and then work on getting the animal in the spotlight.  On our drive we saw all sorts of things – lots of springhares, night birds, a hippo, an elephant, and a group of hyenas.  The bush is quite active at night.  Here are the best pictures we could muster (night drives are not for amateur photographers with dinky cameras like me!):

We were lucky to have found a water hole that was full of giraffes and zebras one day in the park.  This giraffe decided we were his friends, and came over to hang out with us.  He was cool.  Giraffe’s are quite gentle creatures, but they’re still massive!

Our favorite find was this white rhino, whom we found on our last day in the park.  Here is a picture:

We managed to find all of the big five (elephants, rhinos, cape buffalo, lions, and leopards) on our trek.  The leopard did not make it into the picture, and he was a challenge to track down, but you’ll have to trust that we definitely saw him cross the road and slink around in the tall grass before heading out of view.  We were both so excited when we saw him that I wasn’t fast enough with the picture!

We also stayed in some wonderful places.  Our favorite was a rest camp called Oliphants.  We had a little bungalow with a kitchenette attached that looked right out on the river.  Here was the view:

It was very peaceful to listen to the water.  The hippos, who are night creatures, have funny grunts when they graze  (don’t worry, there was an electric fence between us and them!).

All-in-all, Kruger was a great trip, and we have visions of coming back one day.  It certainly was worth the effort!

Blyde River Canyon and God's Window

Okay, now on to the start of our April vacation!  

Our trip took us from Lesotho to Pretoria, South Africa, Graskop, South Africa, Kruger Park, Swaziland, and Johannesburg.  Here is the route map to give you a sense:

Today I'll give you an update on the first part of our trip, which took us to Graskop for some time exploring Blyde River Canyon and the beautiful area around the so-called “God’s Window”.  After getting up very early and driving a good five hours from Pretoria, we enjoyed a lovely hike around the canyon.  The landscape is surreal.  Here are some pictures:

The three prominent, round rocks are called the Three Rondavels (Rondavels are the round houses that some tribes prefer in this part of Africa).

After our hike, we drove to God’s Window, right outside of Graskop.  Here is the sign that describes God’s Window.

And here is what we saw through God’s Window:

 

As you can gather, there wasn’t much going at God’s Window while we were there, but we’ve been told by several people that the area was featured on the television show “The Bachelor” and is very beautiful.  Maybe God needs help to clean his window...

 

Our last interesting news from this part of our trip was that we stayed in  “The Igloo”.  Here is a picture:

Despite it's odd appearance, the igloo worked out well since the kitchen was highly functional and there was a television with Discovery Channel (a very rare treat for us!).  It’s sure to become one of our stories – how many people can say they’ve stayed in an igloo in South Africa?!

'Till next time,

J&S

Beautiful Weekends in Lesotho

Hi Everyone!  Sorry it’s been a while.  January, February and March flew by at an amazing pace, and we are still trying to catch our breath.  April vacation has allowed some time to relax a bit, but we were quite busy with a trip to Kruger park.  Before we write about our adventures on April vacation though, we wanted to fill you in on our adventures in Lesotho these past few months. 

First off, we won a bid in a silent auction last October for a weekend in Semongkong (place of smoke) which boasts a beautiful waterfall and the longest commercial rappelling opportunity in the world (it’s true!  Check out your Guinness Book of World Records!).  Our weekend included great food, sleep, lots of reading, sleep, and a fabulous (if difficult) hike down to the waterfall…followed by sleep.

Oh yeah!  And we stayed in Prince William’s suite!  Did you know he and his brother sponsor a charity here?  Here’s the link if you’re interested.  Despite its fancy title, the suite was very much like any other Basotho hut-turned-lodge dwelling – simple and functional.

Here are some pictures of our time at Semongkong:

Just a month later we got the opportunity to visit another fabulous Lesotho lodge with our hiking club, the Maseru Hash House Harriers.  Ramabanta used to be a trading post, but now functions as a lodge, and we were fortunate to stay in one of their gorgeous en-suite rooms with an amazing view.  Here’s a picture:

We took two different walks from the lodge, and both of them included loads of wildflowers that the Basothos call Cosmos.  They are amazing.  Check it out:


Okay, that's all for now.  Stay tuned for our Blyde River Canyon, God's Window, and Kruger update!

Our Christmas Adventure!

For the past three weeks we have been in full adventure mode – taking advantage of everything that South Africa has to offer.  Honestly, the only thing we didn’t do was Kruger Park, and that trip is planned for April.  We will leave this area feeling like we thoroughly explored it and know it well.  We couldn’t have asked for a better vacation.  Plus, we got to visit with Sarah’s mom, step-dad and step-sister.  It was awesome!

To begin the trip, we drove 4 hours to Royal Natal National Park in the Drakensberg Mountains.  We actually stopped there last year when coming back from our Christmas trip, but we didn’t have enough time to explore, so we decided to go back.  This time, we had a chance to do two different hikes and to stay at a backpackers with a gorgeous view of the park.  The most amazing part of the park is a natural mountain amphitheatre, which we hiked toward on our canyon hike.  Here are some of our favorite pictures.

After Royal Natal, we made our way a bit south to journey up the Sani Pass into the Eastern side of Lesotho.  We hired a driver to take us up, since the roads can be intense, and we were glad of the decision when we got to the hairpin turns at the top of the pass.  At the top we enjoyed a drink at the highest pub in Africa.  It was a gorgeous trip.  

From Sani Pass, we drove to the coast to enjoy Tsitsikamma National Park, whose best feature it it’s amazing ocean views.  The park is best known for one of its multi-day hikes called the Otter Trail.  We didn’t have multiple days to offer, but we did manage to do a day hike on the first part of the trail.  While the walk was a bit intense because it involved crawling over rocks right on the ocean, we saw otters and the hike ended at a beautiful waterfall that fell directly to the ocean.  Here is a picture: 

As if that wasn’t adventure enough, on Christmas Eve we arrived at Kalk Bay and met up with Sarah’s family.  The flat we stayed at was gorgeous, with a wonderful view of the harbor, and we hardly wanted to leave, but we did manage to take in the Cape Town sights.  Here are some Cape Town pics:

 

Beyond Cape Town, we took a trip to Shamwari Game Reserve outside of Port Elizabeth and spent time on Safari.  It was an extraordinarily fabulous place, where the helpers attend to guests’ every need and the drivers take their time so that guests have time with the animals and time to learn about them as well.  It was a wholly enriching experience.  We even stopped on our evening drive for cocktails! We saw a lot of animals, but the most spectacular were (in order) the elephant who was very excited, the black rhino, and the male lion.  Here are some pictures:

We also managed to take a tour of the winelands and did some wine tastings.  None of us had ever really done that before, but we learned a lot and had a great time!  The winelands are beautiful, and the wineries were all so unique from one another, which none of us expected.

 

Finally, Jay went shark diving with Jerry and Jayann in Gansbaii (about 1.5 hours from Cape Town).  They saw three sharks, and one was enormous – about ten feet long!  Unfortunately, Summer is not the time to view sharks at their best, so there was limited visibility underwater, but the experience was amazing.

So there it is, folks – our Christmas vacation 2011-2012.  We don’t regret one moment of it and would love to do it all again!

We hope you are well and wish you a very happy new year.

S&J

Happy Holidays, everyone!

It was a very busy end of year for us! As you can tell by the lack of updates on the blog, we had little free time, but we did have fabulous adventures!

At the end of November, we took the 6^th, 7^th, 8^th, and 9^th graders to Cape Town on a Classroom Without Walls trip. The drive from Maseru takes 15 hours, so it was quite a commitment, but we tried to break it up with a stop in Plettenberg Bay to see Monkeyland on our way, and on the way back we left at night and slept on the bus. Here is the map to give you a sense:

All-in-all the trip went fabulously thanks to a lot of teamwork with our awesome Upper School colleagues and a lot of great spirit on the part of the students and the wonderfully invaluable parent chaperones. The trip included a Cape Point tour, a visit to Simon’s Town Penguins, beach time, time at the Company’s Gardens, a tour of the Slavery Museum, a visit to the Castle of Good Hope, a ride to Robben Island, shopping at the Victoria and Albert Wharf’s HUGE mall, a tour of Parliament, a view of the National Geo-Spacial Center (where they make all of South Africa’s maps), and even some time at the University of Cape Town. The students were very, very busy!

Of course, things didn’t all go to plan: we had to cancel our trip up Table Mountain because of weather and then a back-up plan that fell through. Also, when we got to opening night for Phantom of the Opera, the stage was not dry and the cast had to do the whole thing choir style while sitting in chairs on stage. You can imagine how that went over with a large group of pre-teens and teenagers who had only read the story once…we had to wake a few students up during the ovation!

Just a week after the Cape Town CWOW, Sarah took a trip to Antananarivo as part of an accreditation visiting team. Madagascar is beautiful, but suffers from political unrest that disrupts everyday life on a regular basis. Antananarivo is in the center of the island (not a great spot to see the beaches, which are undoubtedly the best part of the whole island!), but we still got a glimpse of some beautiful rice paddies and we got to experience the real Madagascar-grown vanilla ice cream with genuine Madagascar chocolate sauce. It was awesome! Here are some pictures:

The accreditation visit itself was a great experience as well. It is a lot of work – each team member researches and writes a large section of a report during the course of the visit – but it was a wonderful opportunity to see how they do things at another small African international school and to get a look in other teachers’ classrooms. As a professional development opportunity it was unparalleled, and I highly recommend the experience to anyone who is offered the chance!

Finally, after putting in grades and comments, helping with the lower school play, and wrapping things up with students, several of whom are starting at new schools in January, we made our way back to Cape Town to meet Sarah’s mom, step-dad and step-sister for vacation. This entry is being written from what has to be one of the best picture windows in the whole world while Sarah is watching the boats bobbing around in Kalk Bay Harbor.

Tune in next time for a report on our amazing adventures in Cape Town and at Shamwari Game Reserve in the Eastern Cape. Oh yeah, and I'll put up that safari poem, too!

Hope your new year is off to a great start!

S&J

Seaduma: House cat or African Wildcat?

It has come to our attention that our cat, Seaduma (that's the word for the sound of thunder in Sesotho) may be part African Wildcat. Take a look:






























We discovered this striking similarity while looking at a poster of "Mammals of Sani Pass" during our recent visit there. Not only is Seaduma the right size, he has the right striping, light eyes, and translucent ears. It is said that African Wildcats are the descendants of domestic cats in the Middle East, but in this case the similarity is so striking that the link must be closer. He was found in our friends' back yard during a thunderstorm last year, so who knows where he might have come from!

This may explain why the vet got freaked and thought he might have rabies the last time we took him in. Here's a picture of an unhappy African Wildcat (photograph by Trudy Waltman :
Seaduma has always been good to us, though, so we're confident that he has enough domestic cat in him to tame his wild side (most of the time!). It's either that or African Wildcats are really good snugglers!

Next time: A safari poem by Sarah (written in Kenya in October).