Hartbeespoort

This morning, we woke up very early and drove to Hartbeespoort, informally known as "Harties", a small resort town in the North West Province of South Africa, situated on the slopes of the Magaliesberg mountain range and the banks of the Hartbeespoort Dam. The name of the town means "pass of the hartbees" (a species of antelope) in Afrikaans. It was previously known as Schoemansville, named after General Hendrik Schoeman (1840 - 1901), a Boer General in the Anglo-Boer War who owned the farm that the dam was built on. The dam was originally designed for irrigation which is currently its primary use. It is fed by the waters of the Crocodile and Magalies rivers.

Picture from intotravel.co.za

So, why did we wake up so early? To make it in time for Om Die Dam ('Around the dam'), the annual 50k ultra marathon (they also have a half-marathon and a 5k). The sun hid behind the clouds and granted us some beautiful running weather. The 5k path led us through quiet, hilly residential streets with beautiful homes (most with barking dogs, who seemed ready for the annual onslaught of morning pedestrians).

After the run, we walked to the Hartbeespoort Aerial Cableway (apparently the longest monocableway in Africa) and took a ride to the top for a spectacular panorama of the town, the calm waters and the endless mountains.

Touching Moment

 

1964 | TANZANIA - A touching moment between primatologist and National Geographic grantee Jane Goodall and young chimpanzee Flint at Tanzania’s Gombe Stream Reserve. (Photo by Hugo van Lawick).

From Boston Globe's 125 Years of National Geographic. Thanks for sharing, PR.

Giraffe Centre

The Giraffe Centre in Nairobi, Kenya was started to protect the endangered Rothschild giraffe and to help breed it in captivity. The program has been very successful.

It is a wonderful place to interact with giraffes from a raised platform. Not only do you get to observe them at very close quarters but you are also allowed to feed the giraffes little treats made from molasses by hand! They seem to love them enough to play a game of tennis-watch for them. See for yourself:

It's surreal being so close to so many of these tall beauties. I learned that they are intelligent creatures, they actually respond to their names!

Most intriguing however, was the fact that their saliva is so antiseptic that their mouths are perpetually clean. In fact, they eat leaves from the thorny acacia since the thorn wounds heal rapidly owing to the antispectic nature of the saliva!

Here are some pictures from our trip there. You will also see some happy warthogs who enjoy the treats that the giraffes drop.

Giraffe Centre

The Lone Acacia

I often wondered about the images that pop up when he hear the word 'Africa' (or type it in Google for that matter). Sunsets, giraffes, elephants, lions... and the acacia tree (or two). For me, the image that remained etched in my mind after just a few days at Amboseli, is the image of the lone acacia tree. You turn your head and you see miles and miles of flat land, hills in the distance and directly in view, there it stands, the lone acacia tree. I saw it so often and wondered how the landscape managed so cleverly, to repeatedly bring into view, (with changing backgrounds), just one lone acacia, standing tall.

Babies on the Brink

This set of BBC pictures shows babies of endangered species being carefully hand-reared in specialist facilities around the world.

The Coquerel's Sifaka, like all lemurs, is endemic to Madagascar. Madagascar is home to more than 250,000 (5% of the world's plant and animal) species of which 80% are found nowhere else on the globe (including six baobab species).

The Barbary Lion, originally from Morocco, is a Lion sub-species that became extinct in the wild in the 1940s.

The Aye-Aye is also a lemur, the world's largest nocturnal primate, native to Madagascar that combines rodent-like teeth and a special thin middle finger to fill the same ecological niche as a woodpecker.

The final image is an endearing picture of a baby elephant from Kenya's Dave Sheldrick Shelter.

Out of Africa - II

After hearing innumerable references to the film, I finally watched 'Out of Africa'. The film, which is based on a true story, and adapted from the writings of Karen Blixen, showcases various aspects of Kenya, notably:

• Kikuyu: Kenya's most populous ethnic group. Environmental and Political Activist and Author Waangari Maathai is Kikuyu.
• Maasai: an indigenous African ethnic group of semi-nomadic people located in Kenya and northern Tanzania.
• Kenya's Natural Beauty: Aerial shots of the beautiful landscape reminded me of Yann-Arthus Bertrand's photograph of the Flamingos on Lake Nakuru in Kenya.
• Life in the early 1900s when the British controlled Kenya (then British East Africa).

I enjoyed the film very much (except the hunting scenes) and found it romantic and touching.

The film on Wiki, and the book it was based on.

African Desert Rift Confirmed As New Ocean In The Making

I was sent (Thanks, R), this interesting article about a 35-mile-long rift that broke open the desert ground in Ethiopia.

Picture from rochester.edu article on the same topic.

"In 2005, a gigantic, 35-mile-long rift broke open the desert ground in Ethiopia. At the time, some geologists believed the rift was the beginning of a new ocean as two parts of the African continent pulled apart, but the claim was controversial.

Now, scientists from several countries have confirmed that the volcanic processes at work beneath the Ethiopian rift are nearly identical to those at the bottom of the world's oceans, and the rift is indeed likely the beginning of a new sea."

The Sahara Desert

• The Sahara ("The Greatest Desert") is the world's largest hot desert.
• At over 9,000,000 square kilometers (3,500,000 sq mi), it covers most of Northern Africa, making it almost as large as the United States or the continent of Europe.
• The desert stretches from the Red Sea, including parts of the Mediterranean coasts, to the outskirts of the Atlantic Ocean.
• The Sahara divides the continent of Africa into North and Sub-Saharan Africa.
• To the south, it is delimited by the Sahel: a belt of semi-arid tropical savanna that comprises the northern region of central and western Sub-Saharan Africa.
• The Sahara covers huge parts of Algeria, Chad, Egypt, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Western Sahara, Sudan and Tunisia.
• Here's a beautiful image of the Sahara.
• Read more here.

Mauritian Moments

Quatre Bornes Sunday Market


Baie Du Cap


Shallow Beaches


Trou Aux Cerfs


Black River Gorge Viewpoint


Rochester Falls

I love the way a waterfall sounds. This one was noisy and beautiful. There were lots of people swimming and diving and one local fellow wanted me to pay him to watch him dive! Fat chance! :P

Windows XP

A large part of the Mauritius looks like the Windows XP Screensaver. Green grass (sugarcane fields) and clear blue skies. From Wiki: Sugarcane is grown on about 90% of the cultivated land area and accounts for 25% of export earnings.

Grand Baie

The first beach I went to in Mauritus was in the Northern region of the island - Grand Baie. This place is a definite must-go for any tourist. The area is filled with delightful stores (all of them look like they were picked out of five star hotels and laid out neatly). Definitely the kind of place you can shop at if you've got bank accounts in Dollars and Euros.

Just behind these pretty stores, I caught sight of the blue-green waters and it gave me such a high! I sprinted all the way to the beach and pulled out my camera and clicked away!

The sand on the beaches is white and SO soft, I cannot describe it! It almost felt like talcum powder! And it felt SO good under my feet, I kept running to and fro between two trees just to feel the sand under my feet and I'm pretty sure I scared a couple of kids with this behaviour.

And the water! Gosh, how can this be sea water? It is so soft and smooth and (somebody please throw me a thesaurus here). It feels like the whole ocean is a giant swimming pool. There aren't any waves - the sea is extremly calm and relaxed - probably where the Mauritians get their laid-back and relaxed attitude from!

It's heavenly to sit on the benches under the trees and look at the beautiful, calm waters - I could've stayed there for hours!

At Grand Baie, I really wanted to go on a Glass Bottom Boat ride. Quite self-explanatory, but anyway, a glass bottom boat is a regular boat with a large portion of the bottom made of glass. Initially, this doesn't matter of course, but a few miles into the sea and you start to see all sorts of exotic marine life. Beautiful, large corals - some as big as cars, I tell you! And in such brilliant colours, shapes and patterns. I couldn't stop ooh-ing and aah-ing. And then the fish start appearing. Nasser, who owned this boat, pointed out all sorts of wonderful fish. The ride lasted about an hour and on the way out into the ocean, we passed by several five start resort beaches, where we saw cartloads of foreigners bathing in the sun and the water. Lots of people were enjoying different kinds of water sports also.

Midway through the ride, Nasser stopped the boat and gave us pieces of bread to throw into the ocean. All of a sudden there were hundreds of fish everywhere, hungry for bread, crowding around our boat. It was so exciting. I held pieces of bread a little under the surface of water and got a total high from feeling the little fellows nibble at my fingers. While feeding the fish, it was a treat to look through the glass and get a clear view of all the fish.

Blue-Green happens to be my favourite colour combination. To get such an overdose of it was simply overwhelming! Miles and miles of calm, blue-green waters with the sun dancing all over in little gold patterns. Sheer bliss!

Gris-Gris

One weekend, we decided to explore the Southern part of the island. So we rented a Toyota Corolla and off we went. All along the Southern Coast you will see large boards that read "Bain Dangereux, Dangerous Bathing". At first this made me grin a whole lot (following the mental image of a sexy vamp in an action flick soaking in a bath tub).

After the calm seas of the North, I met the angry seas of the south. There are lots of rocks and high cliffs along the coastline and the waves crash upon them with all their fury. The first spot we went to is called "Gris-Gris" which is Kreol for Black Magic. It is believed that at some point, Black Magic was practised here (which is probably why my hair was flying all over the place and I felt like a Golliwog-Voodoo doll). :P

Casela Bird Park

In May 2005, I visited the Casela Bird and Nature Park. Casela is a mini-zoo with a fantastic collection of birds (and plenty of other animals including tigers, zebras, javan deer, etc.). The aviaries are well maintained and have many exotic birds including some of my favourites - the Toucan, the Makaw and the Bleeding Heart Pigeon. If you come to Mauritius, you must meet the famous "Pink Pigeon". Luckily, they've saved this one from extinction (and a lot of the hard work was done by Gerald Durrel and his team). I saw many amazing photo opportunities but the I had a really hard time taking pictures because of the cages! :(

The Casela Park entrance ticket costs Rs.150 but they have a superb safari ride through the mountains for just Rs.30. I spotted these beauties while we were heading towards the mountains.

At Casela, I had the privilege of meeting Lori, the cockatoo. She is 30 years old. She can talk, dance and whistle a variety of tunes. She loves meeting new people. I had read about her and was eager to meet her.

At the petting zoo Lori was in her cage and as soon as I saw her I said "Hello" at least 10 times and she wouldn't reply. I kept wondering why until the sweet lady who takes care of her (and who took this picture) said "Oh, Lori speaks only French"!! She responded to my first "Bonjour" and happily climbed onto my arm to have a nice conversation with me and whistle some tunes for me. She was fascinated with my camera. I took a picture of her and showed it to her and she was amazed with it - she kept touching it with her beak. She also liked my bag and had a nice time walking all over it. So adorable!

Le Morne Beach

Chamarel

The closest I’ve been to mainland Africa, is to the beautiful island of Mauritius. I crossed the equator for the first time and spent two months there in the summer of 2005. I had a great time there and hope to go back someday. My next few posts will be my journal entries from 2005.

In the South-West of Mauritius is the lovely village of Chamarel - where one can see the gorgeous natural 7 coloured earth. The 7 coloured earth is basically layers of lava that cooled at different temperatures (which explains the different colours). Also, the colours come from the high metallic content in the earth. Rain or shine, one patch of coloured earth never mixes with another (If you mix the colured earth together - it will eventually settle into separate coloured layers! Weird, huh?) and apparently, there have been several failed attempts to flatten the earth here.