Travel
South Africa First Game Drive
After having won our 6-day, 6-night, all-inclusive South African photo safari at a fund-raiser auction, we sound ourselves on a 15-hour flight to Johannesburg. We expected it to be grueling, but I think the excitement of the adventure kept our spirits high. We were going to land in Africa! Mythic land of elephants and lions! It was unbelievable until we were to see it for ourselves.
So it was a flight to Atlanta, a flight to Johannesburg, a rest overnight, then a flight to Durban, then a 3 hour drive in our rented car to the safari lodge – Zulu-Nyala. Whew! Everything went off without a hitch, thankfully, and we arrived at our really nice room for a rest, passing on the first game drive. In the afternoon, though, we joined our guide, “Welcome,” for our first ride to go find animals and it was as spectacular as we had imagined! Warthogs, giraffe, cape buffalo, and python right off the bat!
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Giant Love
Towering hulk of pure power
Death to me could be his whim!
In the heart and eye though,
Sweetness,
So I touch and stroke him
Such a rare meeting.
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Water in the Desert
Lost in the Sonoran desert in Arizona, but delighted to find a stream to follow home.
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The Prado is one of the world’s greatest art museums. It is a main reason to visit Madrid. It houses masterpieces by Francisco de Goya, Diego Velázquez, El Greco, Titian, Peter Paul Rubens and Hieronymus Bosch. A great thing about the Prado is that it is free to enter after 6:00p.m. Because it was just a few blocks from where we were staying, this meant we could visit several times.
There will be a long line forming around 5:30, but if you get there about 6:15 you almost waltz right in! Then you can see everything without paying the approximately $20 entrance fee they charge during the day. We didn’t find it excessively crowded when we went at night, but it was October, which is considered to be the shoulder season, transitioning from high to low.
The bad thing about the Prado is that they don’t allow photography. I know it is to protect the artwork because many people can’t figure out how to turn off their flash and millions of flashes at artwork does have a detrimental effect. But it still annoys me. So I did steal one shot…
This spectacular Sorolla masterpiece. And the guard in the next room heard my shutter release and came running after me. Ah…the excitement of being a criminal on the run! Ah to be yelled at in Spanish! A shrug and, “Lo siento…” and I am forgiven if in a disgusted voice.
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On the Way to the Grand Canyon
Spectacular scenery of the American Southwest en route to our grand adventure hiking the Grand Canyon!
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Beautiful sights big and small in the Italian lakes!
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Saguaro National Park
Getting out of Wisconsin for a week in February always seems like cheating old man winter, but I didn’t feel bad about bright sunny days, blue skies, and temps in the 80s a couple weeks ago! 
Saguaro National Park has two parts with the city of Tucson, Arizona in the middle. The Saguaro cactuses there are striking as they punctuate the arid landscape. Growing up to 70 feet tall and living over 100 years at times, these cacti are worth protecting. Their range is quite small as they only grow in the Sonoran Desert of northern Mexico, southern Arizona and a small area of southeast California. Thanks to the conservation efforts of laws that prevent harming a saguaro, their numbers are not threatened.
Saguaro National Park has fine trails which take you up close to the saguaros and other desert plants like the barrel cactus. It was nice to have utter wilderness just a short distance from the amenities of Tucson.
No, I didn’t miss winter at all for a few days!
Rainbow Bridge National Monument – Utah
Rainbow Bridge is the crowning glory of the Lake Powell boat tour. A short mile-long walk from the National Park wharf in Bridge Canyon gets you to this natural wonder. It is so much bigger in person than in any picture I’ve seen. That was one surprise.
The other unhappy surprises were that you are not allowed to go anywhere near it because it is a sacred Native American site. Also, I would have really loved to get around the other side of it and see what it looks like from the other view. Also not allowed. Oh well, sometimes with such an impressive sight you have to just take what you can get.
Do you know what the difference is between a bridge and an arch? A bridge is formed by water flowing under it and an arch is formed by shifting earth below causing rock to fall out. So don’t call this an arch!
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Lake Powell Boat Tour
In Page, Arizona, at the visitor’s center, we discovered that there is a boat that will take you 100 miles up Lake Powell to Rainbow Bridge. We signed up for it for the next day. Early the next morning we sloshed down our breakfast to get to the Wahweap Marina by 7:30 a.m. This was going to take all day, something like 6 or 7 hours so it started early.
It was cold and windy up top of the boat, it was October, afterall. But none of us wanted to go downstairs even though the boat had large windows and a more comfortable temperature down there. These views out in the fresh air, th
ough, were spectacular!
It is amazing to see how Glen Canyon was filled by damming the Colorado River in 1963. It took 11 years for the water to rise and fill up this canyon. Now this body of water serves as a valuable reservoir.
This day it was beautiful to watch the landscape whiz by as we motored through.
We had a side trip too, through a narrow side canyon. That was tricky maneuvering for our captain and, at one point, we did scrape the wall. But it was fun to get into a narrow slot like this.
I didn’t know if I’d like a whole day on a boat and it was pretty tiring. But it was so beautiful, I was glad to see it. It was our last day so we squeezed in more of Antelope Canyon AND Horseshoe Bend as well before hitting the sack.
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Bad Weather Hiking – Switzerland
Our first hiking day. The trip had been planned for months. The mountain v
iews had been dreamed about. That feeling of being so small next to those behemoths. And that air. Oh, the big breaths of mountain air in the sunshine. I couldn’t wait.
Ha! It had been a wonderful summer AND fall, they told us. Weeks and weeks of perfect weather, they said. And now. This. Pea soup fog and rain. No views. So sorry.
In the guidebook, that scene above has a backdrop of jaw-dropping mountains. Not for us today, though. We have to settle for the charming old stone barn on the grassy slope.
Getting to the col or pass was disappointing too…
We could barely see right in front of us. It does bring focus to the sharp terrain at the top of this col, though, forget about looking out on any vast expanse.
So, we decided to make
the best of it. It could be snowing and a lot colder we told ourselves. This is the mountains. It’s unpredictable and it can change really quickly. Or not. Maybe we need to change. Plans.
We did 2 days of this before cutting our losses and zooming off to Zermatt by train and bus. After arriving there the sun came out and we did day hikes in fabulous weather for the rest of the trip. Sometimes you just have to be flexible!
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