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.
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.
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