Spotting lions and vowels

So, I am just back from the latest round of travel. My first stop in the middle of June was South Africa en route to Botswana. David was just wrapping up a seminar in Pretoria, S. Africa and we planned it so I would arrive a few days early and he would stay a few days late so we could have a quick look around Kruger National Park, in the north east part of S. Africa. I flew overnight and caught a quick hop from Johannesburg to Nelspruit where I rented a car. David was due to arrive the next day, so I was on my own in wild and woolly South Africa, a country whose reputation certainly precedes it. I was feeling a little bit jumpy given that I was running on very little sleep, I've heard so much about the violence in S. Africa and (I noticed as we were landing) driving occurs on the left side of the road. Hmmm...good thing I once lived in Japan.

My rental was a cute little VW rabbit, which I drove to the park, stopping briefly for food and water. Once I got in the park, I promptly began my safari adventure. I reserved a hut in the Malelane rest camp - a remote satellite camp of Berg en dal rest camp. Kruger is spotted throughout with a number of these rest camps, which are basically camp grounds with restaurants, gas stations, and a grocery store. All of the camps are completely surrounded with high fencing. You know, because of the lions. And the rhinos. And the elephants. And, well you get the picture. It's South Africa! The hut was a simple affair - a round stucco building with a grass roof. Electricity, bathroom and bed were all included and everything was quite comfy. That afternoon, I spent about three hours just driving very slowly through the park. My efforts paid off in 1 elephant, a giraffe, a whole herd of impala and a leopard which everybody but me could see. In Kruger, a strict 'don't get out of your car under any circumstances' rule applies. You can understand why. This also explains why I couldn't really jockey into a better position to spy on the leapord. I photographed the tree he was in anyway, just in case I could see in better detail once I downloaded the photos.

The next morning bright and early, I picked David up at the airport and we headed back into the park for a 4 day adventure filled with all the wild life you could shake a stick at and more. One highlight, at least for me, was the morning walk with armed rangers. We had great fun getting way too close to two rhinos. I have blurry photos to prove it. On an evening game drive, we found a whole lazy pride of lions, one of which was lounging about in the road. What a bunch of divas, those lions. One afternoon we stumbled on a huge (in so many ways) herd of elephants at a big watering hole. There were 50 or more elephants of all shapes and sizes. We also hung out around a lake filled with hippos, who are a noisy, splashy group of beasts.

On our last morning, we were stopped by a heard of buffalo who were in no hurry. These creatures are an underestimated species. 1200 to 2000 pounds of beast with giant horns that include a heavy helmet that looks like badly parted hair, they are not to be trifled with. Every animal in the savannah knows this. Until that morning, I thought they were glorified cows. A close encounter with 20 of them modified my view of the African buffalo. We had to sneak our car in between two waves of the herd. Not something I am wont to repeat.

Each night we stayed in a different rest camp, all of which were different and nice. In each area, the landscape was also quite different and was likewise hospitable to different animals. We saw all of the big five except the leopard. Well, technically, I was in proximity to the leopard, as I said. But, I don't really think that counts. We also saw many zebras, one hyena, a wild dog, several small cats, lots of baboons, monkeys, and countless varieties of deer-like creatures including kudu, Sable antelope, springbok, etc. It was such an excellent time, I would do it again in a moment. No questions.

After S. Africa, I spent three days in Botswana for work. Botswana is a stable, relatively wealthy country. It's capital, Gaborone, is absolutely boring. I have nothing to report.

My next stop after a 20 hour hiatus in Hamburg, was Slovenia, a tiny country bordered to the north and west by Austria, the west by Italy, the south by Croatia and the east by Hungary. I could be missing a border country. I don't have a map handy and I am too lazy to google it. In any event, this former part of Yugoslavia is an outdoor person's paradise. The country is filled with huge, peaky, green mountains, pale green rivers, beautiful lakes and every type of outdoor activity you can possibly imagine. David and I absolutely fell in love.

We spent a week in Ljubljana (pronounced Loo-blee-ahna), which may be my favorite city ever. It is the Europe I always imagined - old buildings, throngs of quaint little street cafes, musicians on the street, everyone eating ice cream, a castle on the hill. In a word, charming. And perfect. Ok, that's two words. But Ljubljana deserves it. It especially could use the extra vowels. There seems to be a shortage of these in Ljubljana in particular and Slovenia in general. It doesn't change my feelings for the place, but it makes pronunciation a bit difficult for my english-speaking tongue.

From Ljubljana, we made our way to the mountain region of Slovenia. The first night we stayed right near a beautiful mountain lake and watched a bit of a strong man contest. Weird, but fun. After this we moved onto Bovec, a town renowned for adventure sports. Here, we tried canyoning, a fun sport that involved a 45 minute hike up a mountain to a spot where we could access a mountain stream. The next two hours we spent descending through the canyon mostly by jumping into the creek, sliding on rock slides and jumping into cold, deep pools. The water, in the 40s by the feel of it, necessitated a full, thick wetsuit with booties. We also got helmets.

The peak for me was the "surprise" slide. Our guide made each of us lie flat in a pool at the mouth of a water fall which we weren't allowed to look down in advance. He proceeded to pick each of us up and 'slide' us one-by-one down a 6 meter waterfall enclosed on all sides by a rock formation. We each splashed below into a deep pool. It was really scary and fun. Especially since you didn't know what was coming. David outdid us all by being dropped off of a three story water fall. I was invited but declined. It was hard enough watching him fall more than 30 feet. He emerged hooting and pumping his fists in the air. He still gets glassy eyed when he talks about it.

We filled our days with amazing hikes. We walked for hours and saw nearly no one. The last day and night and next morning we spent in the Vipava valley (a wine region). It looks exactly like Italy only without the high prices or tourists. It was so weird. We drove for hours and saw no tourists. None. In Europe, in July. There isn't really any infrastructure for tourists in this part of Slovenia in spite of how beautiful it is. I can't imagine this will last. We stayed at an operational farm that also houses tourists. It was a big, old farm house surrounded by vineyards with an amazing view of the valley. We spent the evening eating great food, drinking great wine and scheming about how we are moving to Slovenia. We both felt like we found the place we want to spend the rest of our lives. David swears if we move to Slovenia, he will live there until he dies. It's that nice.

Ok, I've gone on enough. I still love Hamburg, but (with only a tiny feeling of betrayal) I admit that my heart is in Slovenia.