Colombian landings

Right, so if anyone had told me last year, that I would be in Colombia this year, I would have told him he was nuts. But here I am. The trip from Israel was pretty uneventful, if long. For some reason, I got stuck with a 13 hour, overnight layover in Barcelona. Now, Barcelona is (apparently) a nice city, with lots of interesting architecture, etc., but I got there just as the sun was setting, and had to leave at 9:00 the next morning. So I spend a lovely night in the airport, sleeping on a bench. At least that airport is pretty quiet overnight. There was a bit of a delay leaving Barcelona, which made the connection in Madrid pretty tight (imagine trying to hurry throught the security for a flight to Colombia...), but othewise it was okay. I can't say much about the in flight entertainment - most of the things were movies that were shown on the flight to Barcelona, or on the earlier flights I had to S. Africa. So that was pretty boring. Now I'm here, and trying to deal with jetlag, and my rudimentary spanish.

I haven't forgotten about the rest of the African trip, I just haven't written it yet. More on that will follow.

Meroles anchietae

Meroles anchietae
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard.

This is the little beast that we chased up and down the dunes. They are incredibly fast over the loose sand. Then, when they get tired of running, they just bury themselves and disappear (except for the tracks).

Web footed gecko

Web footed gecko
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard.

One of the nocturnal denisens of the Namib dunes, (Palmatogecko rangei). This little guy was basically transparent. Amazing.

Platysaurus broadleyi

Platysaurus broadleyi
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard.

The males of this species are incredibly colored. None of my photos really did them justice, but they are truly a rainbow of colors. The females are really quite different - just striped and brown. There was some confusion at first because the males are also dimorphic. People at first thought that the females were a different species, but then realized that the colorful ones were all male. They were in incredible densities at Augrabies Falls - it wasn't uncommon to see 6-10 of them in a square meter of rock face. They were also habituated to humans, so they would ignore you as you took photos, and they would go through all of the complicated social interactions. Fascinating little guys.

welwitchias

welwitchia
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard.

These plants are really amazing. They only form 2 leaves, but they are so convoluted and split, that they look line a whole pile of leaves. This area was about 15 minutes drive from Gobabeb. The welwitchias here were grazed by horses about a year and a half ago, so the leaves are all short. Most of the plants seem to have survived, though. It was truly a surreal landscape because above these washes, there was just gravel, with a few tiny blades of grass every few meters.

Yes, those are the real colors

dwarf chameleon
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard.

These cape dwarf chameleons are all over Stellenbosch, and were the hit of the meeting. Imagine 300+ herpetologists wandering around town, and discovering that the bushes were loaded with these clown-colored guys. All over town you could see... a bunch of herpetologists gazing into the bushes. Of course, it took me an entire week of looking to find one - I think I was the last person at the meeting to see one. Several people tried to find them with me, and when I was around, they weren't. Then on the last day, they appeared everywhere. This guy was the most colorful, but they were all outrageous.

R.O.U.S.?

R.O.U.S.?
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard.

No, not a rodent of unusual size, but an elephant... or at least their closest relative is the elephant. It's a dassie (or hyrax depending on where you're from) on Table mountain. Those teeth look menacing, but mostly they just ignored people and ate flowers. They were all over the top of Table mountain - and pretty much everywhere else there were rocks.

Table Mtn view

Table Mtn view
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard.

This is the view from the top of Table Mountain in Cape Town. It's a very impressive sight. We rode the cable car up to this view. We weren't sure we'd see anything because most of the top of the mountain was surrounded in fog (behind me in this photo). I guess most of the time there is fog here. The whole thing was amazing - it isn't often you can go to a place where almost all of the plants and animals are unfamiliar (though most of them also look like something familiar).

First Africa installment

I'm back in Israel again after my trip to Southern Africa. Time here is short right now because I'll be heading off to South America in 3 days. So, I'll start what I think will be the first of a few installments on the Africa trip, maybe even before I leave for the next leg. For now, I'll do a quick overview of things, and later will fill in the details and post some photos.

The trip between Israel and Cape Town was long but uneventful. I met up with my Dad's students in the Frankfort airport, and again once we got to Cape Town. We mostly spent the first day getting our bearings. The apartment I booked was quite nice, and had a view of the Victoria and Alfred waterfront. Quite nice, though a bit hard to find at first.

The next day, Kiersten and Ron arrived. They were a bit wiped out from the trip, but we made an effort to do some things. We made it to Boulders beach to see the jackass penguin colony. That was great - those things sound just like donkeys! One the way back to Cape Town, we got stopped by a troupe of baboons hanging around on the road.

On June 19, we went to Table Mountain, the dominant feature of Cape Town. We rode the cable car up and walked down. Probably not the best sequence, but it worked. The mountain is amazing because nearly every living thing on the mountain was unfamiliar. Except for the dassies (or hyraxes, depending on where you're from), which were common, and are also around Israel. The views from the mountain were incredible, even when shrouded in fog. That night I headed to Stellenbosch for the meeting.

While in Stellenbosch, I stayed at a nice place called Bertha's Guest Flat, which was a really nice, 2 bedroom apartment, with all the trimmings. The meeting itself was pretty uneventful, except for the large number of presentations I had to give. At least my two talks and a poster were all on different days. The big hit of the meeting was definitely the dense population of dwarf chameleons in town. I'll post photos soon because there is no real way to describe their insane colors. They look a bit like they've been colored in by a kid with too many colors in the crayon box. For some reason, it took me until the last day of the meeting to find them, and then they were everywhere. I'm pretty sure I was the last herpetologist at the meeting to see one.

The meeting introduced me to one of the more memorable parts of the area - the vast quantities of really good red meat from various hoofed things, washed down with really good, but extremely cheap local wine. More on food later.

After the meeting, I met up with Kiersten and Ron again, and prepared to head north. Al Muth and Mark Fisher had been at the meeting, and we'd been talking about what was ahead. Saturday, we headed north. The first very long day took us through West Coast National Park to see angulate tortoises, and then on to Springbok. There we stayed in a nice place that had a few too many loud guests in it. We got little sleep that night, since there was a constant din coming from down the hall - a hall that acted as a sound amplifier somehow. Dinner was at a place called Carne Casa, which was the beginning of a long run of meat meals.

After several passes along the entire length of the main street in Springbok early on Sunday morning, we found a place open for breakfast - in a gas station of all places. Al and I had the "ladies breakfast" which was listed on the menu as having exactly the same thing as the "Farmers breakfast", though in reality it had on fewer egg (the rest was bacon, sausage, toast, tomato, and mushroom). We continued north to the Namibia border, which is a story for later. From there it was a very, very long, mostly straight shot to Windhoek, where we stayed a pleasant night.

The next day took us away from civilization and into the Namib. It deserves a lot more space and description. We saw a lot of wildlife between Windhoek and Gobabeb - Hartman's mountain zebras, gemsbok (oryx), ostriches, springbok, warthogs, baboons, hornbills, and more. Wow. We crossed into the Namib just before sunset, and watched the sun go down over a truly amazing gravel plain before arriving at the Gobabeb station.

We spent most of the next week at Gobabeb, chasing lizards around the sand dunes. More on this later. One day we went to Swakopmund and Walvis Bay. Lots of flamingos and sand... and a parade. (more on this later)

We left Gobabeb on July 5 and Kiersten and I headed back south (Al and Mark flew out of Windhoek). Two days, and about 700km of dirt roads later, we were in the Kgalagadi-Gemsbok Transfrontier park, on the South African side. Lots of amazing animals there too. And some really awful roads. Some good stories here for later also.

We only had one day in the park, but it was a good one. The next day we went to Augrabies Falls, and saw some remarkable, rainbow colored, lizards (Platysaurus sp.). Photos will follow. After the Falls, about 500km of straight, but paved, road and we were back in wine country. One more short day of driving through citrus country and we were back in Cape Town.

On our last full day in South Africa, we spent the morning and a lot of money at a craft market, and then took a gorgeous drive along the coast to Hermanus to see southern Right whales. When we got out of the car at the viewing spot in Hermanus, Kiersten spotted whales before I could say, "where are the whales?" Amazing.

The trip back to Israel was even longer than the trip to Cape Town because I had to go through Johannesburg. Unfortunately, my luggage flew out a day later than I did, and not all of it arrived. Someone had decided to liberate my digital camera (I'd downloaded most of the photos already though), my GoreTex jacket, and about a half a pound of billtong (South African beef jerky). Still working on getting some compensation for that.

All in all, an amazing trip.