THE BIG 50

There was a time when I was dreading this birthday.....cuz after all 50 is old .......or so I thought when I was much younger!!  Once we started planning this trip my concerns about turning 50 started to fade. Our idea was that if 50 had to happen, then let's make it as much fun as we can. Here is how the fun played out on my birthday..

I celebrated the end of my 40's watching the sunset over the Namibian desert, dining on Oryx tenderloin with a lovely glass of red wine.

The place we stayed, The Agama River Lodge offered to make a bed on the upper deck/roof of the adobe house we were staying in.

I fell asleep gazing at a million bright stars in the black sky. It was a perfect night to do it as there were no clouds to obstruct the star gazing, no bugs and a nice cool temperature that required only a light sleeping bag for warmth. 

We woke the next morning to the stars slowly fading and the sun rising over the mountains.

Steve sang happy birthday and offered a piece of delicious chocolate coconut brownie complete with a burning candle. 

We drove the hour to the park gates of the National Park for the Namibian Desert and spent the day exploring the red sand dunes. 

One of the highlights was climbing up to the top and beyond of one of the dunes. 

It was really a good choice as a place to spend a 50th birthday. Not only was it a beautiful and very different place then we usually visit, at one point I was in a stand of 500- 600 year old petrified trees next to sand dunes that were 2000-3000 years old and part of the oldest desert in the world. I felt like a kid in comparison!!!!

Once the day became too hot to be out in the desert we checked into our room at the amazing 5 star lodge, the  Hoodia Desert Lodge, that Steve had booked for us. 

We lounged by the pool enjoying the pristine desert landscape that surrounded us. 

Next on the agenda was  a perfectly chilled bottle of South African champagne on the front deck of our desert villa. 

 

As if being on a round the world trip, staying at this awesome place drinking champagne wasn't gift enough, Steve gave me a necklace with a lapice endless knot pendant that he bought in Bhutan. 

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We both got new clothes for the occasion. Check out my $15 outfit complete with matching shoes!!  

Dinner was as amazing as the rest of the day. We had Oryx as the main, this  time done as kebabs and a divine chocolate dessert.

When our waitress found out it was my birthday she immediately returned with a chilled bottle of champagne. The only thing better than one bottle of champagne is....

All in all my birthday was fun (sleeping under the stars), fiery (hiking through the red sand dunes), fancy (the super luxurious lodge), fantastic (the champagne)  and just fabulous (celebrating with the love of my life). Thanks Steve!! 

Africa - Namibia - Windhoek

30C and sunny today in Windhoek. We were pretty tired yesterday after all of our flying. Departed at 1850 from Kigali, got to Nairobi at 2130. Long layover there - 5 hours. The flight at 2 in the morning was 90% empty, so we each got a row of seats to ourselves. After that four hour flight, we had only 70 minutes to make our connection in Johannisberg, but we made it with no problems. I should have booked a later flight,  but the early one was hundreds of dollars cheaper! By the time we cleared immigration, got money and took the 45 km cab ride into Windhoek, it was 1000. The Hilton let us check in early. 

Had an unfortunate experience with dinner last night. We went for sushi at the hotel, and it took us an hour and a half to get our food. The poor chef was just a bit overwhelmed.  He apologized, but I sent a note to the hotel manager last night suggesting that they get waiters to help him deliver the food so that he could spend more time slicing raw fish and less time walking around with sashimi.  This morning, the head chef dropped by our table at breakfast and told us that he would send up a fresh tray of sushi and a bottle of champagne to our room this evening. The hotel manager dropped by later to thank us for the feedback. Got to love the Hilton! 

Windhoek is a lovely little city. 250,000 people. Feels a lot like Red Deer or Regina, but the terrain is just like the out skirts of Las Vegas. Feels very friendly and safe. For the first time since leaving Canada, we are in a place where you can drink the tap water! The Hilton is located right accross the street from the Supreme Court. Jackie has pictures of court houses in every country we have been in - our drivers always knew that they should point out the court buildings to Jackie and slow down so that she could get a shot. She even observed court in Rarotonga for a short while. So far, I think that the Supreme Court of Bhutan was the prettiest edifice. 

I told many people before this trip how I (Steve - some of the blog words are mine, some are Jackie's, most of the photos and especially all of the really good ones are her's!) was dreading turning 50, and how being 50 means that I am not 25 anymore - meaning that I am no longer interested in staying in a room that only costs a buck but is smaller than I am! Now I realize that turning 50 is AWESOME and being fifty means that I can enjoy a lot of guilt free luxury!

Getting my hair cut this afternoon and then buying a few groceries - mostly lunch stuff. Pick up a rental 4x4 tomorrow morning and then we are off to the desert to celebrate Jackie's birthday at the Hoodia Desert Lodge in Sossuvlei.  

And here is a picture of Windhoek and the Supreme Court from the roof top pool at our hotel. 

Ya, sorry, not as cute as baby gorillas. Did I mention that most of the really good pictures are Jackie's?

Although these are mine! Mama in the picture above is eating a combination of nettles, thistles and sweet bamboo shoots. I would like to know what her mouth is made of! Gorillas get all of their liquids from consuming plants; they have been observed going up to five years without drinking any water. This juvenile female gorilla below brushed Jackie's leg after Jackie jumped out of her way. We were told not to get closer to the animals than 5 m, but nobody explained the rules to the wildlife. 

Lasting impressions of Rwanda

Our Rwanda sector of our trip has been very expensive, but a lot of that was due to the high cost of permits. Permits for Gorilla tracking cost $750 per person per day, but that fee funds a lot of conservation efforts. 10% of the money goes directly to local communities for education, roads and healthcare. A lot of the funding goes towards paying for guides and trackers - and many of the old trackers are former poachers. 

We also stayed at some amazing hotels in Rwanda.

All of them except one had a great gym and beautiful outdoor heated pools. Steve was working out at the gym in Kigali when one of the trainers asked him what he did to work out. 
" Mountain climbing"
" Oh, marathon running! Excellent!"
"No, sorry, I said mountain climbing. I ran one marathon once, but I would not run another. They are way too difficult."
" They are not that difficult. You know, there are even some white people who can run marathons!"

The last thing that we did before leaving Rwanda was climb Mount Bisoke, a 3700 m volcano that is the 3rd highest mountain in Rwanda. It is illegal to hike in the park without a guide, so it cost us about $50 each for the trip. For our fee, the Rwandan government sent a troupe of 8 soldiers out at dawn to ensure that no rebels had snuck accross the border from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. When we actually did the hike, 3 soldiers walked 50m in front of us and two more walked 25 m behind us to ensure that we were not bothered by rogue elephants or buffalo. All of them were armed with semi automatic rifles. 

We also had a private guide who walked with us. 

Apparently, we set a new speed record for a tourist ascent, although the guides have done the climb faster when they did not have any tourists and the trail was dry.  

It was the muddiest trek of our lives! They don't call it rain forest for nothing! Most of the time, we were ankle deep in mud. It was super fun coming down - parts of it were like running scree, parts of it were like skiing, and parts were like sliding down a giant mountain of snot. We figured that both of us would wipe out at least twice, but it turned out that our butts only hit the mud once each. When we returned to our hotel after any of our wildlife viewing, the bell staff would take our mud soaked shoes and rain pants and return them, cleaned, a few hours later. For the hike,  we had the brilliant idea of renting rubber boots. Thank goodness that we did otherwise they may not have let us on the plane in Kigale!

Rwanda - Gorillas in the Mist

We woke up so heavy rain. I wasn't too worried as we have had brief rain showers most days that we have in Rwanda. It is after all the light rainy season. I started to get worried two hours later as we were waiting at the Park office and the rain continued at its heavy rate. There was some talk amongst tourists that the gorilla trek may get cancelled due to unsafe muddy conditions. At first I thought that this may be good as the weather could be better tomorrow, then I remembered that we had to book months in advance to get a spot so it would be virtually impossible to rebooki for the next day. Mising out on the gorillas would be extremely disappointing as they were the main reason we had included Rwanda in our trip. Before I had an opportunity to consider this any further, Sam our guide showed up to tell us that the trek was on and that we were going to see the Ntamburu group which has19  gorillas. The group included three silverbacks and three babies (one month and two one year olds). The rain continued for the drive to the start of our hike and for the next two hours. 

The trail was super muddy and slippery with stinging nettles lurking in the foliage on the side of the trail. I tried dancing around the deep mud puddles, but when I mistook mud for a rock I was ankle deep in mud the dance ended and I just walked through the mud. 

The rain stopped just as we met up with the trackers who let us know the the gorillas were  a few minutes away. We left our packs and walking sticks behind and followed our guide a few metres into an opening that was enveloped by mist. I was right behind the guide when he stopped suddenly. I turned to follow his gaze and saw a mother gorilla with her one month baby on her back. I resisted the urge to cry out and instead watched as she ate bamboo shoots seemingly completely oblivious to our presence. 

The baby stayed on her back and watched us with the same level of curiosity that we watched her and her mother. 

As I looked around I saw one of the silverbacks was a few metres behind her enjoying his own patch of bamboo shoots.  

It was hard to move away from them, but out guide urged us on for a closer look at at another of the silverbacks that was feasting a few meters uphill. 

They are HUGE. A silverback can weight 250 kg (550 lbs ). In this group there is one dominant silverback which is the oldest of the the group, his two brothers are second and third in command. He will rule the group until he dies or loses a fight to a silverback from another group that challenges his leadership. With three silverbacks in the group this is unlikely to happen.  Leadership will pass to the second brother. The brothers will not challenge each other for leadership, the only challenge to  will come from outside of the group.

We spent one hour with the gorillas wondering through the group watching the adults eat, rest and walk by us. 

The two one year olds were very playful and entertaining. One kept trying to beat his chest but mostly just flayed his arms rarely making contact with his chest and if he did without enough force to make any sound. 

By the time our hour was up the gorillas were settling in for a nap and the rain started to fall again. 

Africa - Rwanda - Golden Monkey Trek

We are in Parc Nationale du Volcanos, which is nestled in the corner of Rwanda between Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This morning we went trekking to observe Golden Monkeys. They are just about extinct - there are only two known communities left. We observed the smaller community, which has about 150 individuals. 

These monkeys like eating tender bamboo shoots, so they tend to make frequent trips to the ground to grab some fresh ones, and then ascend a short way into the bamboo to chow down. 

They are somewhat habituated to people, so they let you approach to within a few meters. They were absolutely fascinating to watch!!!

We had a ton of fun watch ing these guys! We were in a group of 13 tourists, but there were so many monkeys that each of us had our own bunch to watch. We were accompanied by 4 professional trackers, who follow the community as a full time job. We also had a guide and two armed rangers from the national park service - the armed guys were there in case of rogue elephants or buffalo. The fees to enter the national park are very, very steep, but they put 10% of the fees into local improvement projects such as schools and hospitals. The rest of the fees are used to pay off former poachers (they now work as trackers!), for conservation and to improve national infrastructure. Lots of road building here right now - most of it by hand!

Tomorrow - gorillas!!

AFRICA - Rwanda- Chimps

We had an early morning start to see the chimpanzees. We were up at 4:00 am and on the road by 4:45 am. The goal is to hike in arrive shortly after 6:00 am while they are up and eating. The hike to chimps was through a tropical rainforest. The Guide kept in constant contact with the trackers who had been up before dawn to locate the chimps.

We heard the chimps before we saw them. 

Their loud joyful call to each other sounds more like they are in agony, so it really gets your attention.  It was challenging to see them as they were  up in the canopy.

 

Towards the end of our time, we had a clear view of one chimp that we could observe from a 

high trail that put as close to the same elevation that he was at. 

He was a real poser giving plenty of opportunity for great viewing. Looking towards us, 

eating fruit

spitting out the pit and skin

peeing 

then making a temporary nest 

and settling into it for a quick nap. 

It was the perfect end to the morning.