gone'splorin

And not as in remote control.  Wow, we left Cape Town and flew and flew and flew, oh, and flew.  Yes, four planes.  One of them very, very small.  Four planes and two verys.  Marci commented to someone at the  airstrip (yes, this is the airport that serves this area)that we were in the middle of nowhere, to which he replied “or the center of everywhere”.  And that’s how it began for our second safari leg.  Here in the Selous Game Reserve in southern Tanzania we were back in the bush and truly remote.

Our home in the Selous is Sands River, a bush camp.  We are nestled on the banks of the Rufiji River and seriously outnumbered by hippos, crocs,zebras and all the rest of Noah’s passengers.  Again we have outrageous accommodations and our guide and driver, Emmanuel, seems to have a sixth sense about where the critters are hiding each day.  So much of the life in this area relies on the river for water and protection so the game driving is both Land Rovers and boats.  One of our morning safaris was on the river by boat.  We headed upstream under power of about 10 miles seeing amazing sights and then drifted back down river in the swift current.  A glorious morning complete with a riverbank breakfast; just Marci, me and Emmanuel.

The river ride is smooth and quiet, but the Land Rover rides are rough.  Wow, the roads here can be treacherous.  On more than one occasion I said to my self “there’s no way we’ll get up out of this rut” but these vehicles are like mountain goats.  One evening however, just about 45 minutes before sundown, we were driving along a sandy river bank and got stuck.  Uh oh.  First our guide tried rocking the jeep out.  Nope.  Then he tried jacking up the tires, one at a time, and putting logs underneath to provide lift and traction.  Nope.  Now it was getting pretty dark and although I couldn’t see them, I was sure the vultures were starting to circle overhead.

Just as Emmanuel was calling for help on the radio I remembered that when we get stuck on our Vermont driveway we sometimes can used the floormats to add traction under the wheels.  We pulled out the thick rubber floormats and placed them under the wheels and vroooom!  We were free!  The drive back to camp, in the dark, along the winding paths ( you can’t really call them roads), at high speeds because we were not supposed to be out after dark, was, well, it could be a new ride at Disneyworld.  

Before we left the Selous, we had a dip in a natural hot springs pool and saw a few more wild friends.  After 4 nights in the Selous and great game viewing, wonderful meals and a really great looking spanish guest (for me) and another great looking french guest (for her), we were back to the airstrip and count ’em, one, two, three, four, five stops to Kogatende in the northern Serengeti.

At this time of year, the attraction in the northern Serengeti is the migration of the Wildebeast. Now let’s pause a moment to understand.  The Wildebeast (or gnu as we learned in school) is about the dumbest animal on the planet.  It only does what the wildebeast next to it is doing.  And noone is the leader.  So if one wildebeast runs, they run. If one stops, they stop.  And this could be a group of 75,000 of them!  The amazing thing is that if they start running or walking in a certain direction, and come across a change in terrain, like, say a river, they will pile in and contemplate the dangers of moving ahead.  So the famous crossing of the Mara River by some 5 million wildebeast happens in chunks of 5,000 to 500,000 at a time. We saw two crossings that were incredible.

The northern Serengeti is very different from the other places we have been.  First, the roads are pretty smooth!  Lots of grasslands and plains.  Very beautiful and more green than we have seen. We also had the great opportunity to spend some time in a Masai village.  This very old culture of shepherds live in a very traditional way and are wrestling with the modernity that is being forced on them.  It was a moving and wonderful experience.

Here are a few more shots of what we have been seeing for the last 4 days.

This morning it was back on three planes to the sunny beaches of Zanzibar.  We will relax here for a few days before heading home.  We miss you all and hope that you have enjoyed these posts as much as I have enjoyed writing them for you.  We’ll post again before we leave.

Leaving Mfuwe and all of its African-ness and arriving in Cape Town South Africa 10 hours later was a mind blower on so many levels.  We’d gone from the bush to the city, from the past to the present, from cold water to hot water, from rocky roads to smooth pavement.  

The nearest major metropolitan city to Cape Town is Rio De Janiero, 4,000 miles away.  Cape Town is 6,000 miles from London, 7,000 miles from Sydney, Australia and 8,000 miles from New York.  Cape Town is far, far away.  It seems almost impossible that it is here at all.  But Cape Town didn’t just happen, in fact it literally grew from a refreshment stand set up by the Dutch in the 1500’s to service the merchant vessels running between Europe and the Far East.  Everyone had to pass by the tip of Africa so it was a pretty good place for a rest stop on that highway.

Today Cape Town is a study in contrasts.  It is a city searching for its identity.  Post apartheid Cape Town is at once fun and full of pride, and wondering if it will survive at all.  Let’s start with the fun.

Cape Town is set between the sea and the mountains.  It is a breathtakingly beautiful location with the centerpiece of Table Mountain rising over 3500 feet from the center of the city.  Table Mountain looks like someone took a chainsaw to a mountain to create a perfectly flat top, like a tabletop.  One can hike it, climb it or, as we did, funicular it.  From the top the views (and the wind) and extraordinary.  From the top of Table Mountain you can see the craggy, rocky coastline punctuated by magnificent white sandy beaches that make of this area known as the Western Cape.  In fact, within 45 minutes drive from the City Centre, one can climb, surf, swim, cycle, see penguins, speak over a dozen languages, eat fresh fish or wild game, ride a ferris wheel, and drink some of the world’s finest wines right where they are made.

Our first cultural stop was the Jewish museum, right in the middle of town.  It tells the story of jewish immigration into South Africa which, at its height in 1936, numbered over 135,000.   Adjacent to the Jewish museum is Cape Town’s tribute to the Holocaust.  Cape Town’s twist on the tragedy is to link it gently with Apartheid, the now banned government policy of apart-ness between blacks and whites.  As it is written in the museum, separation doesn’t always lead to genocide, but genocide is always preceded by separation.

We drove to the very tip of the Western Cape, which is also the most southwestern point of Africa is called the Cape of Good Hope which is a stone’s throw from Cape Point.  Both are at the end of a long peninsula at the end of a protected nature reserve.  It is a beautiful setting and many wealthy Captonians have second homes out in this area.  I must point out that on the way to Cape Point we couldn’t take the main highway that runs through town because, well, they haven’t finished it.  And they’ve decided not to.  Just one of the crazy things that go on here!

Yesterday we spent the day in Stellenbosch, South Africa’s wine country.  The winelands, as they are known, is home to hundreds of wineries and although I really knew nothing about South African wines, I’ve begun my education and am very pleased to say that we tasted some excellent wines at the kind of “undiscovered” prices that make them a deliciously good value.

On our final day here in Cape Town, we spent the majority in Kayamandi which is a black township.  Townships have a particular meaning here and without getting into the politics of how they were formed, suffice it to say that townships are where the vast majority of blacks live in South Africa.  Townships are overcrowded ‘cities’ with ramshackle structures that may have a room or two and may house a dozen family members.  There is sporadic electricity, communal toilets for some and no hot water.  Some families carry water a quarter mile to their home for the day.  It is horrible.  You would never live there.  But throughout Kayamandi there is the sound of laughter from the children and hope from the grownups.  Not universally of course, after all, there is not much to be hopeful about, but there is community.  It was an inspiring day, and a frustrating day.  Kayamandi is in the winelands and an image that will stay with me is a playground with children who may not have a meal tonight, against a field of grape vines that grow for one of the most expensive wines in South Africa.

We visited a pre-school and met young kids at a community center who had learned several dances and gave us a sample of their wonderful talent.  During the afternoon, Marci was introduced to one promising young girl who had no father and has chosen to sponsor her for a private school education.  While it is not much to us, it means a great deal to them and it’s nice to be able to start a young girl on a path toward opportunity she might otherwise not have.

The townships, to me, are South Africa’s black eye and the government should be ashamed of itself that they exist.  Good people in a very bad place.  We can do better.

Tonight is our last night in Cape Town and I leave feeling glad that I came.  It is a city that will undoubtedly change in the next ten years and I, for one, will hope for that change to be positive and to come quickly.

In the morning we’ll head to Tanzania and back into the bush.  You’ll be watching the debate, we’ll be watching…well, we’re not sure yet!

The carrier pigeon thing didn’t work out quite the way we’d planned so I know it’s been a bit since you’ve heard from us.  We’ve missed writing to you but there is so much to share so let’s get right into it.  Africa is magic.  After spending a week in the bush I am marveled that this is the same planet that we all live on. Here, nature is in charge, not man.  And nature has an elegant way to solve every problem.  Birds ride on the backs of giraffes to remove bothersome ticks and have a healthy meal.  Elephants digest only part of what they eat to feed ground insects.  The balance of nature is apparent in every corner.

We arrived at Mfuwe Lodge in the South Luangwa National Park in Zambia on the 20th.  Our senses were instantly assaulted with the sights and sounds of Africa.  Birds that seem to talk; one of which calls “Go Away, Go Away” when there is a lion in the vicinity.  Another one that says “Work Harder!”  Although many suggest it’s saying “Drink Lager!”  Elephants strolling through the bush looking to add to their daily food intake which totals over 80 pounds!  Impala that leap gracefully like little brown Barishnikovs through the fields.  Hippos spending the day in the water to beat the heat. 

On our second morning we took a 3 hour ‘game drive’ to the Kapamba Bushcamp.  It’s not camping, it’s not glamping, it’s luxury on solar power…and not much of it at that.  But as you can see, not too shabby!  Our bungalow (they call them chalets) is enclosed on three sides with the open side facing the Kapamba River.  From our bed we watch baboons, lions, pukus, impala and more stroll past.  One elephant who is missing a tail makes one of his first of three visits to us.  Marci named him “Stubby” and we’ll see him quite a few times here in Kapamba.  

Our days begin at 6am with a beautiful sunrise.  Because this is before the rainy season, the sky is clear which means that the bright red ball of a sun is with us for sunrise and sunset.  After a breakfast of fresh fruit, freshly baked breads and hard boiled eggs we head out.  Sometimes in our Land Rover and sometimes on a walk.  There’s no telling what we may see but I’ve tried to include a variety of the photos we’ve managed to snap along the way.

It’s an awesome sight to see these creatures in their natural habitat, going about their business, looking for food, hiding from predators, seeking shelter, taking care of their young.

By 11am the sun is high, the air is hot and we retreat back to camp for brunch.  There may be 7-10 different items to choose from.  All made fresh by the bushcamp staff and all the guests, which range from 4-8 eat together to compare notes on the morning’s sightings.  After brunch it’s time for siesta.  By now it’s over 90 degrees and so the shade of our chalet and a cool shower is just what we need before a nap.

By 2:30 or so we may be awoken by hyenas or the trumpet of an elephant and we get ready for the afternoon.  As Zambia is the former Northern Rhodesia, british customs persist and so before our afternoon gamedrive we must have high tea!  Then off to the bush.

By the time the big red ball approaches the horizon, and the light is too low for photos, we rendezvous for Sundowners.  It’s usually in some beautiful open area where we climb off the Land Rovers, are served an icy cold Gin and Tonic and watch the African sunset.

But the day is not done.

Nighttime is the right time for many species and we are in search of the predators that come out after the sun goes in.  Aided only by a hand held searchlight, and armed with a National Park Ranger packing heat, we drive deep into the bush.  Sometimes we get lucky…

After three nights in Kapamba we head to another camp down the Luangwa River called Kuyenda.  Kuyenda is run by Babette and Phil.  Two of the most knowledgeable and lovely people we have ever met. Phil Berry is near 80 and has lived in Zambia since he was eight.  He hears things I will never hear.  The snap of a twig 300 yards away that means a lion is hunting.  The cry of a baboon that means zebras are nearby.  Phil was one of the fist anti-poachers and founder of the Save The Rhino program in Zambia.  We are lucky to spend time with them.  Babette is the Martha Stewart of Africa.  No detail is overlooked from freshly ironed sheets to fluffy towels to candlelit dinner tables, and exquisite staging for Sundowners all created on a patch of sand in the absolute middle of nowhere.

Speaking of lucky, as you can see we have had wonderful animal sightings and have learned so much about behavior and habitat.  Africa is wonderful and our trip through it is just at the beginning.  Next we’re off to Cape Town and we’ll write again from there.  Until then…

Just the mention of the name evokes a thousand images.  Paris.  We arrived by train on Friday afternoon and we’ve had perfect days, fun-filled nights and I remembered why Paris is on everyone’s must-do list.  But first a note to all travelers: Because Abbe, Jake and Jackie were staying with us, and I’m too cheap to buy three hotel rooms, we used AirBnB, a website, to find an apartment.  We found a three bedroom apartment just off Place St. Sulpice in the heart of the 6e arrondissement.  The location is perfect and the apartment is exactly what we were looking for.  And for about the price of one hotel room.  Can’t beat it!

We’ve spent the last few days walking, eating, a little more eating, a little more walking.  Of course you can never catch up which is why you must leave Paris after several days lest you are stuck there for life!  Here’s one of of our dinner spots, L’Auberge Bressane.  It’s very traditional french, which of course means that you could be eating anything which will then be covered in a sauce made primarily of butter and cream.  It was also a short walk from the Eiffel Tower which is so beautiful at night.  

We discovered a new traditions (well, new to us anyway) as we walked over the Seine.  The bridges have padlocks locked on to the sides of the bridges.  Hundreds, even thousands of them.  The custom is to “lock your love” and throw the key into the Seine.  So, of course, when in Paris…  Here’s the M&M lock, and Jake and Jackie tossing their key into the river.  Maybe when you read this you should head over to the Mass Ave bridge and bring the tradition to the US!

Yesterday was Rosh Hashana and we all went to shul at a tri-lingual service!  It’s enough to keep up with the english and hebrew, but we added french into the mix.  And if you think that may make the service longer…you are correct.  L’Shana Tova to all and to all a year of peace.

After services we walked nearby to the Trocadero and had more fun with the Eiffel Tower.

Tomorrow Abbe heads to Barcelona to reconnect with some spanish friends from her semester there, Jake and Jackie head to Croatia to see what everyone is talking about, and we head back to London for a quick suitcase switch and then off to Lusaka, Zambia and Part Deux!

We’re in our last day in Burgundy and I am only slightly embarrassed to say that rain prevented cycling today.  After all the food and wine that has been consumed, I’m not certain that there could be enough air in the tires to support me.

It has been a glorious week with new friends and lots of fun.  The landscape and the architecture are so remarkable, it almost feels staged, though it’s quite real, authentic and many hundreds of years old.  We’ve met families that still make wine they way it was made in the 1400’s and some that use more modern methods.  Yesterday we spent the afternoon in Gevrey-Chambertin with lunch at Domain Drouhin-Laroze.  We were served by Christine Drouhin herself and delighted in the food, the wine and the stories.

For our final day we are in the village of Saulieu and will dine at a multi-starred Michelin restaurant.  Tomorrow we head back to Paris to get ready for Abbe, Jake and Jackie. We’ll post more then!  Have a great weekend.

Deep in the heart of Burgundy and the weather is perfect.  We spent our first day on bicycles yesterday and I’m pleased to report that we made it up the hills and through the vineyards no worse for wear!  We landed in Paris on Saturday and had a wonderful afternoon walking the city.  Thanks to Kathy Sharpless we had a delicious dinner at Les Tablettes which was just a short walk from our hotel.  

The train to Burgundy was fast and smooth, like all european trains.  We are traveling with our friends Cary and Susan and our new friends Steve and Amy.  It’s morning and we’re just about to head off to breakfast.  Yesterday was Mersault, Pommard and Chassagne-Montrachet.  Today we’ll visit Savigny Les Beaune, Aloxe Corton and Vosne Romanee.  Oh, and we’ll have to drink more wine.

Mon dieu!

It’s travelin’ time!  I know you haven’t heard from this blog in a while.  That’s because we’ve had a great summer right here in New England.  We’ve spent most of the summer on board “Might As Well” cruising all points between Long Island and the rugged coast of Maine.  I can confidently report that the best chocolate chip cookies are found in Sag Harbor, the best oysters in the Damariscotta River, Maine, and the best fish chowder in Rye, NH.

But now it’s time for Marci and Michael’s next adventure.  It begins this coming Friday at 7pm.  But first, a warning.  We’ll be headed deep into the bush and I am not at all confident that we’ll have internet throughout so posting may be sporadic.  If you don’t hear from us for a few days at a time, please open your living room window.  We have trained carrier pigeons on call to deliver news the old fashioned way.

Our trip will take us through five countries and two continents over six weeks.  On Friday we’ll fly to Paris with a short stop in London and head almost immediately to Beaune in the heart of Burgundy.  Just days before the fall wine harvest, we’ll join two other couples and cycle through the villages and vineyards of Burgundy. Adolf Hitler considered Burgundy the prize of France and it is where Himmler had planned the great capital of Western Europe.   Glad that didn’t work out.

The villages we’ll ride read like the wall of your favorite wine shop:  Mersault, Pommard, Volnay, Puligny-Montrachet, Nuit-St. Georges and so many more.  The rolling hills and winding roads through this beautiful section of France should make for breath-taking cycling in every way!

From there we’ll head back to Paris and meet up with Abbe, Jake and Jackie for Rosh Hashana week in the City of Lights.  It will be great to be able to spend time with them to welcome in the new year.  We have rented an apartment in the 6me arrondisment and look forward to living like Parisians for the week.

Marci and I will then head off to Africa for safari, scuba and springtime in Cape Town.  It all promises to be the trip of a lifetime and we look forward to sharing it with you along the way.

We ask only two things of you:  first, share this blog with those you think may be interested and to please write comments as it’s how we get to keep our connection to you.  We so enjoy hearing from you through the comments while we are so far away.  So thank you in advance and we’ll see you in October!

…miles.  One hundred and forty six hours.  Which actually averages just over 18 miles per hour.  Doesn’t actually seem very ambitious, does it?  But we’re here and we’re soooooo glad to be here!   When we were on the Togwotee Pass at 9,200 ft above sea level and we came around the corner and saw this, we just had to smile.

So here we are for the next three months.  We’ll have some visitors, the first is our daughter Abbe who arrives on Saturday.  We can’t wait to see her and all our friends that will come to spend a few days in this beautiful place.

Happy Chanukah, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all.  We’ll send updates periodically but we’re done subjecting you to our daily rants.  We’ll miss you and see you in the Springtime!

With love ,

M&M

I know, I wimped out last night.  I just checked, Madison, Wisconsin to Pierre, South Dakota is six hundred and ten miles.  Writing it out makes it almost feel as long as it was.  But it was worth it because now, as we sit in the Sleep Inn in Casper, Wyoming, we are just a 5 hour drive to Jackson.  Which means we’ll be in our winter home by game time.  Booyah.

So today you get a 48 hour retrospective with some photos and lots of references to being an American.  ‘Cause out here, we are AMERICANS!

Leaving Madison, Wisconsin we really started to feel, see, and hear the difference, don’tcha know.  Once out of the capital city we hit dairyland.  Farm after farm.  Not like the farms we see in western Mass or Vermont, these are farms like if Ralph Lauren owned a farm.  Serious pastures, serious black cows.  All this among every type of reference to cheese on 30 foot high billboards.  You can start to feel lactose intolerant just by maintaining the speed limit.

This continued on into Minnesota and then suddenly, it changed.  Can you say amber waves of grain?  Mile after mile of endless highway.  As the sun set

on a long day on the road we crossed the bridge over the Bad River and drove north  until we reached the state capital of Pierre.

Pierre is a simple town with every conceivable budget type food chain and a Walgreen’s.  We stayed at the Governor’s Inn.  It might have been where the first Governor stayed while he waited for the Governor’s mansion to be built…100 years ago.  So upon check in we decided that a great dinner was in order.  Those who know me know I love Trip Advisor, so the absolute hand’s down best restaurant in Pierre was said to be the Cattleman’s Ranch Steakhouse.  A family business with the whole family working there, I think the whole town was there too.  Now say what you want about the great steakhouses and their $40 steaks.  Lemme tell you how good my $12.95 12 oz sirloin was:  As tender as a tenderloin with the gigantic flavor of a grilled sirloin with no fat, sauteed mushroom and onions, a perfectly baked sweet potato and sawdust on the floor.  Does it get better?

We decided that even though we were tired, it would be cool to get up early, and drive two hours in the dark to get to the Badlands at dawn.  And we did.

The Badlands are beautiful.  We drove around for about an hour marveling at the formations that about 10 million years of erosion has created.  It’s a National Park and I am always amazed at the quality of our National Park system.

Our day in South Dakota had a little bit more in store.  As soon as we got into South Dakota yesterday we started seeing sign after sign for Wall Drug.  Wall Drug started as a tiny drug store in Wall, South Dakota and has become a western tourist empire.  After 200 or so road signs you think we didn’t stop?  We Occupied Wall Drug for a hearty western breakfast.

Our next stop was Deadwood, South Dakota.  Take a look at this shot of Main St.  Nice western town, eh?  Well, behind every single quaint storefront is a slots parlor!

And our final visit was to Mt. Rushmore.  It’s even better than the pictures and absolutely worth a visit. Plus, we got to add a fifth head to the carving!  They are very accommodating.

At 5pm we pulled into Casper, Wyoming and we’ll be in our winter home in Jackson by kickoff tomorrow.  It’s been a great trip so far and we love have you along with us with your comments and e-mails.  Thank you.

The final mileage will be revealed tomorrow night, so in the mean time, have a great Saturday night and Go Pats!