June 23, 2016 – The Longest Safari The morning pickup was at 6 am. An eerie mist had settled upon the reserve, clouds having rolled in during the night. The sunrise game drive was therefore going to turn into a cloud bursting adventure. Departing the lodge at 6:30, we definitely didn’t have enough layers. The […]
June 22, 2016 – Game On! Despite being exhausted, I just couldn’t sleep. Somewhere and sometime I must have drifted off as it was suddenly 7:30 in the morning; shafts of sunlight streamed through the floorboards and wooden sides of the lodge. We are perched on the side of a ravine, hence the name Ravineside. […]
June 21, 2016 – On the Road To Entabeni Violent protests erupted in Pretoria, one of the three South African capital cities. The people are upset that the African National Congress has nominated what is essentially a carpetbagger mayoral candidate rather than a preferred local nominee and they are letting their displeasure by known. Nineteen […]
I got back to Orlando yesterday afternoon. What an incredibly long flight from Dubai to home. I was more than a bit discombobulated and remain so as I type this. After the 15 hour + flight, and the three hour layover, and the 8 hour flight from J-burg to Dubai before that, my legs were […]
June 19/20, 2016 – Gaspings and Ravings From An Oxygen and REM Deprived Mind at 37,000 Feet Fourteen hours. That’s the flight time to Dubai. Then after a few hours layover, we fly another 8.5 hours to Johannesburg. It’s a long trip, but I built in a hotel stay to enable us to at least […]
Bags are packed and checked in. Seats assigned. Sitting in the airport waiting to board. I ran this morning a short-ish 6 miler as I’ll be sitting for quite some time. I’m leaving on a jet plane for Johannesburg. And to get there, I’m flying through Dubai. I think Mom is more excited about flying […]
So, yeah. Dehydration is still a thing. Nutritional choices is today’s thing. I’ve been far too permissive of indulgences and, um, less than stellar food options. I’m heavy. And I’m feeling it. And so beginning July 1st, the halfway point of 2016 (how the hell did that happen?!), I’m making a mid-year resolution to redouble […]
Editor’s Note: Delayed Post From June 17, 2016: Yesterday I thought I was being smart by breaking up my run into two shorter distances. I ran a 5 miler in 47:01 and drank a bottle of water, then came home to have some Powerade and cool off. Went out for another 5 miler that found […]
Machu Picchu was not a secret to its people. Scholars for decades felt Hiriam Bingham had rediscovered a lost city of the Incans. Books were written, digs were dug, and artifacts displayed worldwide. Charleton Heston shot on location there, donning a fedora and a leather jacket to swashbuckle his way through a 1954 technicolor jungle […]
June 12, 2016 – The Long Voyage Home What a night. Each leg of the three flights are short. About an hour from Cusco to Lima, three hours from Lima to Bogota, and then three and a half to Orlando. But the layovers kill me. Two hours in Lima where I broke down and had […]