Thanks for the Donations!!

The donations that collected at Aristeia were fantastic. We (well, mostly you guys who donated) collected $1,000 which amounts to R7,000 which is a huge donation. With that money we are able to Tetavax two whole troops, one male in a one-one, and have some cash left over for darts or to go to the babies' Build-A-Hok Fund. I chose one troop from Section 1, because my friend Leigh-Ann monitored them and I helped her take photos of all of those baboons. I chose Buster troop which has 10 individuals, who are apparently difficult to dart, so that should be fun for Stephen to tackle. I also chose a troop from Section 3 that my friend Mandy monitored. Section 3 houses the baboons that have been there the longest and are least likely to be released back into the wild, which is why it is important for them to get immunized against tetanus. Mandy and I chose Chewie Hok because those baboons are nice baboons. I don't have much information on them because all of them don't even have names, although there are 7 baboons total. I also chose one of their male one-ones (separated from Chewie troop in his own cage), Blue's Dad. Blue's Dad is the father of Blue, Stephen's very first baby that he hand raised, so that is really special. Stephen was particularly excited about that. Everyone at care was so happy to be able to Tetavax two whole troops. Samantha, who runs some fund-raising and the Facebook page, even got teary-eyed. I just want to thank everyone who donated!!!
BUSTER TROOP:




Buster






Carlo






Carlotta





Danni and Devereaux






Chuck






Dakota






Trilly







Friendly







Roy






Thank you all so much on behalf of everyone from CARE!!

Harnas and Windhoek

Harnas is another animal rehabilitation center. It takes in all kinds of animals though- baboons, lions, cheetahs, leopards, kudus, etc. Dan had worked there a few years ago before coming to CARE, so he was able to tell us about the place and show us around. We saw a baboon he helped raise. Unfortunately the two people who run the place and know him well were on vacation that weekend, so we didn't receive as much behind the scenes special treatment as we were hoping. I heard they had some baby leopards rehabilitation in their center that I was hoping to meet, but oh well. It is an incredibly nice facility with huge animal enclosures and guest houses, the whole nine yards. Brad and Angelina have even stayed there! No joke. Then they donated a bunch of money to Harnas. It was nice to start our trip with animals and then end our trip with animals. It was also great to see some baboons before I left Africa. We took the morning tour, during which they feed the lions, cheetahs, leopards, wild dogs, and baboons. We also got a tour of the school and the other grounds. We woke up and went to sleep to the sounds of lions roaring, which you can feel in your bones. We ended our trip with a nice meal together, all wearing plaid. My last night at CARE was also a plaid party, where everyone was required to wear plaid. Adam, Dan, Mandy, and I all looked so nice in our plaid shirts. Harnas was a great way to get back to our animal rehab roots for our last day together. The next morning it was up before the sun again to pack up our car and head for the airport!





Wild Dogs waiting to be fed, at Harnas










Adam flew home to the states yesterday as Dan and Mandy flew back to CARE for a few more weeks. I'm now hanging out in Windhoek by myself for a couple of days before my flights back home. I returned all of our rented camping gear, got some necessary permits, and have found a Mugg and Bean, a restaurant/cafe that I came to know and love when I studied in Durban. Luckily, they now have free wi-fi. This afternoon I also did some last minute shopping (although, I'm not sure where I'm going to pack it!). Tonight I plan on going to Joe's Beerhouse, which is a famous funky restaurant here that has crazy dishes of game meat. My traveling companions really wanted to go there but we just didn't have the time, so I am going to go on behalf of all of us. And I have to pack up all my stuff again, which should be interesting to be sure.

I had an UNBELIEVABLE time here in South Africa and Namibia. This was a crazy trip of a lifetime and I couldn't have done it with better people. Now I'm gearing up for my long trip home (Windhoek-Jo'burg-London-Chicago-LAX, yikes!) and looking forward to some much needed Chinese food!!

Sossusvlei Sand Dunes

On our drive down to Sossusvlei, which is desert with huge sand dunes that you can't miss when coming to Namibia. Anywhere you look at pictures of Namibia, you'll see those red dunes. We stopped at Dune 7 outside of Walvis Bay and struggled to the top, where we got some excellent views of surrounding dunes. The real treat was running and jumping and rolling on the way down. Sand gets everywhere! We had a nice scenic drive through the Nauklift mountains to our campsite, where we enjoyed a fire and utter emptiness. We stayed outside the town of Solitaire, which is the smallest town in Namibia, which is really saying something. It basically consisted of a small restaurant and shop and a petrol station. It was early to bed that night because we awoke at 430 am to pack up camp and drive to the dunes for sunrise.

The Sesrium/Sossusvlei park opens its gates at sunrise, which was 6:30 am. The dunes were incredible. The morning light hits them just right so that they look a gorgeous orange/red color. We stopped to take plenty of pictures of the landscape and of the game they had, which I was unaware of beforehand. They had lots of springbok and gemsbok and jackles. Visitors are allowed to climb one dune, Dune 45. We were the first people up that dune in the morning. It was hard going up, but the view of the surrounding dunes and mountains was breathtaking. One magazine said it would "spiritually recharge your soul for years to come". Again we spent time taking photos and enjoying the scenery. We began our descent the same way we came up, but veered off onto the backside a little ways from the bottom. Again, it was so fun running and jumping down a dune. That is, it was fun until I started going a little too fast and the tip of my boot caught on some sand and I face planted at the bottom of the dune. Dan lost it laughing as Adam rushed to make sure I was okay. I hurt nothing but my dignity. But my camera was okay! I cradled that thing and it was the only thing I was worried about hitting the ground. Luckily I only escaped with a bruise or two and a load of embarassment. Someone always has to fall though, right?

We fussed around the dunes for a little while longer, but then hit the road again because we had a long drive basically across the country to Harnas Wildlife Foundation. However, the road we took out of Sossusvlei proved a little too tricky for our low-clearance Nissan sedan. It was a gravel/dirt road through the mountains. At first it was great; beautiful mountain passes and even (a serious highlight!) wild Mountain Zebras. These hare different from the more numerous and popular Burchell's Zebra, they have thinner stripes and their stripes go all the way down their legs. I never thought we would actually see some, but there they were on the road. And boy did they run when we came around the corner. The zebras in Etosha do not move for cars, so it was neat to see these wild ones. Soon though, there were some small river crossing. And then more, slightly larger river crossings. There were numerous times where we all thought our car was stuck in the water and wouldn't be able to cross. Dan fantastically maneuvered every one of them as we all held our breathe, literally. Seriously, it was one of the stickiest situations any of us had gotten into. We would probably still be on that road if we had gotten stuck. But our little Nissan pulled us through. We reached Harnas late at night after another fog and dust filled dirt road leading up to the gates. A long treacherous, but beautiful day on the road.

Swakopmund

We left Etosha National Park and headed to the desert and coast of Swakopmund, originally a German colony town. We spent a whole day doing nothing; walking around town, hanging out at a cafe, shopping, going to the movies. It was incredible. None of us have done that in months. Dan and Mandy hadn't seen a movie in a year, since they got to CARE. It was incredible to just hang out and have a normal day. We ate some good seafood, watched the sun set over the Atlantic and got our feet sandy. We also saw the movie Water For Elephants, which was NOT as good as the book. Reese Witherspoon barely tried in the movie. Big letdown, but going to a movie theater was priceless.

The next morning, Adam and I did something I've been aching to do for years...Skydiving!! We went to the Swakopmund Skydiving Club where we met Pip, our dive buddy. I went first, suited up in an awesome suit, got a quick 15 minute rundown of what was going to happen (yes, only about 15 minutes-T.I.A.), and went to the word's tiniest plane. This plane didn't have seats, just the pilot and a cushy mat on the floor that maximum 4 people could cramply fit it. Oh, and no door. We took a scenic 20 minute flight up to 10,000 feet. We flew over sand dunes that edge right up to the ocean. It was a tad chilly, but actually really really cool. I was also calmer than I thought I would be, probably because there was no turning back now. I watched Pip's altimeter climb to 10,000 feet. We maneuvered our feet out of the door like we had practiced, clipped together of course, and out we went. It was terrifying! The air was sucked out of my lungs for a dizzying 30 seconds of free fall. One of the coolest feelings ever. The view was incredible of the distant desert and the coastline. Then Pip pulled the parachute and we floated towards the ground. He pulled us in crazy circles, which almost made me lose my breakfast. We landed very easily, and it was all over. I thought I was going to pass out from all the excitement, but a beer at 9:15 am helped calm me down. Then it was Adam's turn to jump. We both received videos of our jumps and certificates. Then it was back to our campsite to meet back up with Mandy and Dan.

That afternoon we went to the Cape Cross Seal Reserve, which hosts the largest seal colony in the world. And boy, did it smell like it. There were thousands and thousands of seals. We only stayed and took pictures for about half an hour before we all wanted vomit. And boy do seals make a lot of weird noises. It was really interesting to see seals on the coast so close to a desert. We enjoyed a delightful sunset dinner at The Tug, a tug boat converted into a restaurant.

Our final morning found us having a quiet breakfast at a super quaint little cafe in town, and doing some last minute shopping, where Adam and I made some large, insane purchases, but I don't want to spoil the surprise for my parents. We drove on down to Walvis Bay and saw a few flocks of wild Greater Flamingos, on our way down to our next stop, Sossusvlei. On our way down though, we crossed the Tropic of Capricorn, the sign for which made for some fun pictures. All in all, a nice relaxing, adrenaline pumping few days in Swakop.

Etosha National Park

Our next three nights and 4 days were spent in Etosha National Park. Etosha is voted one of the top 5 parks in all of Africa. Most of the park is made up of the Etosha Pan, a humongous salt flat, that when dry in the wintertime, animals must seek water at one of the many water holes around the park. It was one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. The weather was perfect, we had our own vehicle to drive around in, and there were animals a plenty. Within our first our, on our way to our campsite, we found a couple of lions. Every morning, save one, we found lions. One morning it was just us for about half an hour watching these lions, until a truck pulled up with a family of seven. The kids climbed out of their truck and sat on the roof of the truck's cab. As the lions came closer and closer to our vehicles we could see that the lions were eying those little kids as something tasty. They kept looking at them intensely and crouching down. Then all of a sudden, they started towards our car. There was a moment where I could have touched the male lions' head out of my window. There was also a moment when we realized that they differentiated between the car and us as a whole, and us as people separate from the car. At that point, Dan told us to roll up our windows slowly. Naturally, I rolled mine up slowly! Afterward, Dan said it was a little too slowly and there was a moment when he thought the lion was ready to reach in and eat me. But man, do I have cool photos! These two brother lions ended up walking right past and rubbing themselves on our back bumper, which was entirely too cool because that is not an aggressive act, it is more of them saying 'hey, you guys are okay'. Turns out we were the ones almost eaten and not the nice children farther away. We actually stopped them later and asked them to send us their photos and video of the lions by our car. Our adrenaline was pumping so hard after that.

We continued to see amazing animals, including the very, very rare ardwolf. Their mostly nocturnal and we caught on just before sunset. We saw rhino, elephants, springboks, oryx/gemsboks (my favorite), black-faced impala, gazillions of zebra, the rare damara dik-dik, giraffes, wildebeests, and much much more. Our campsite had a flood-lit watering hole where we watched the rare and super endangered black rhino drink every night. We also were lucky enough to see a leopard drinking there. It was so stealthy most people didn't even notice it there. We saw some gemsboks fighting, which was my highlight I think. Our car was dangerously charged by a big bull elephant. We were hurrying back to our campsite before sunset when the gates closed and this elephant would not get out of the road. He was just making us reverse and reverse. Thankfully a park game vehicle came and chased him off the road allowing us to pass. If they didn't show up, we had no idea what to do other than hope the ellie would move off the road soon.

We also saw a honey badger at our campsite. Honey badgers are also incredibly rare and incredibly dangerous. They are about the size of a large skunk or racoon, and black with a white stripe down its back. They are aggressive and vicious enough to take down lions. Nothing messes with honey badgers. One night while eating dinner, Adam and I saw it walking right behind Mandy, probably less than 5 feet away. Dan immediately told us to get up and slowly walk backwards away from it. The boys then watched it carefully and tried to chase it away, cautiously, with rocks. It went under our car and then scampered off into the bush. That was by far our closest call with the wildlife, more so or on par with the lion.





Mom and baby Black Rhino coming to the Halali waterhole at night.








Also, due to some mis-communication, we only paid for two of our four nights camping! We were also 'allowed' to sit out of our windows (and kids allowed on the roof of their trucks in front of lions). There seemed to be no rules in Etosha, which was kind of fun.

Etosha was an incredible part of our trip, and it was only the beginning.

NAMIBIA!!

I got it in my head to go to Namibia about one year ago. I have no idea why, but I went to Borders and bought a guide book and read it cover to cover. I didn't even have plans to come back to South Africa yet, but I was interested in Namibia, a country most people have never even heard of. Then I tried to convince anyone and everyone to meet me down here when I was done at CARE, but no one could. I hoped beyond hope, these things never work out!, that someone at CARE would want to come with me. One day I had mentioned it to my friend Adam, and he immediately was in, and then wheels started turning. A few weeks later our good friends Dan and Mandy, on a complete whim, decided they were coming too. Plans were made and come June 1st, I said goodbye to the baboons and off we were going to Namibia. Adam, Dan, and Mandy were my three best friends at CARE. We would always sit together during mealtimes and laughed more than anyone else there. I had met Dan on my last trip to CARE, but Adam and Mandy are new friends. Adam is super sweet and funny, Mandy is crazy hilarious, and Dan is awesome and super knowledgeable about the bush (helpful when we got to Etosha). We knew we were in for a great trip.

Dan and Mandy left CARE early in the morning on the bus to Johannesburg, while Adam and I took the afternoon flight. We met up in the Jo'burg airport, then split again to take different flights to Windhoek, the capital of Namibia. Namibia, which is twice the size of California, has only around 2 million people living in it. It's a safe country and great for road trips.

Goodbye CARE

My last few days with the baboons were fantastic. I spent as much time in the baby hok as possible. The last day was rough though. I spent about 4 straight hours in the hok before I had to leave. I said goodbye to all the baboons one by one, chasing them down if I had to. Last, but certainly not least, I said goodbye to Toughie. I took him into the airlock, the buffer zone between the hok and the outside world, and gave him big hugs. I tried to put him back in the hok but he whined and jumped back onto me. It took a few more tries for him to let me leave. It's hard to explain, but it was the sweetest thing ever and almost made me never leave. By the time I finally left to go to the airport, I practically had tears in my eyes. Saying goodbye to the people was difficult too, but at least you can stay in touch with them. I don't think Toughie or the other babies are on facebook. It was an absolutely awesome three months with better baboons and people than I could have imagined.
Then it was off to the airport!

Actually, some sad news. I found out that during my trip in Namibia, Chiquita passed away. The day before I left, she had a relapse where something in her brain just wasn't working right. She couldn't walk or eat and just did not look okay. A few days after that she passed away. I'm still not sure on the details, but she must have had some major head trauma. Chiquita was taken from her wild mother because we noticed something wasn't right with her one day. We thought it was tetanus, but it turned out to be a fractured skull. Molly nursed her back to health spectacularly, but sometimes it's just not enough. Poor Chiquita.