Always a lot going on..

-
Image
I have had a serious of "near zero days" (reference hiking jargon), but I think they mostly just seem like zero days. I am getting stuff done, just not at 100% efficiency. Not sure anyone can move with 100% efficiency... Anyhow, I am planning on starting my next journey on May 1st. -- more details as they unfold. I know what I like and dislike. I know what turns me on and off. It's time for that knowledge to be guidance. We booked a trip to Wyoming/Yellowstone park in a few weeks. It will tackle at least three items that have been on my list 1.) Visit Yellowstone (in winter). 2.) A longish snowmobile trip. 3.) A visit to Wyoming. That will be my 50th state. That will make it all US states, 100 countries and all continents. I will likly be getting involved with MTP (Most Traveled People) https://mtp.travel/ where they break countries into regions. I decided I like this music. DiDuLa - "On the way home"
Post a Comment

Southern Africa!

-

I was successful getting to all 8 countries I planned.

South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Mozambique, Eswatini (Swaziland), Lesotho, and Namibia.

The trip was 14 days with 13 flight segments. The shortest flight was 15 minutes in an ultralight and the longest flight 16+ hours. I rented a 4x4 in Lesotho and another in Namibia.

Among many other things in my travels, I walked across the Victoria Falls bridge between Zambia and Zimbabwe and took an ultralight aircraft ride over the same bridge and falls.

Namib Desert from the air. Look for my 4x4.

Skeleton Coast

Heart of Namid desert near uranium mine


Maputo, Mozambique-- City Hall and Samora Machel statue

Maseru, Lesotho-- I was delayed at the airport leaving Lethoto by about three hours. I had to find a nother hotel in Namibia since I wasn't going to drive after dark. The delay was caused by the Airport being shut down because of an expired battery in the airport fire truck. We had to wait to get a new battery. After the battery was installed, the fire truck drove around the airport and you could feel the sighs of relief of the airport reopening. There are only three flights to/from Masuru a day. All from Jo'burg. No concessions to speak of and no soap or toilet paper in the restroom.

Maseru, Lesotho-- View from the best hotel in the city during the golden hour. Great scenery in Lesotho.

Zambia-- checkpoint around National Park

Zambia

Eswatini

Eswatini

Eswatini

South Africa

Namibia-- Namib Desert

Namibia-- Namib Desert

Zambia

Zambia

Zambia

Zambia









































Comments

David Schinsing said…
I think some of those places are the "shithole" countries, right?
10:56 AM
Don Bridges said…
No "shithole" countries, just "shithole" people.

Welcome back - glad you made it home safely.
7:50 PM
Don Bridges said…
No "shithole" countries, just "shithole" people.

Glad you had a great adventure and made it back safely.

Let me know when we can trade stories (Finland and Estonia were amazing).
7:52 PM
Charles said…
I had some great take-aways after meeting with different folks across the eight countries. Generally, these eight countries are declining in most of the of indices associated with a good civilization. (See CORRUPTION PERCEPTIONS INDEX, for example). I had several people indicate to me that racism is not an issue. It certainly was. Now it has much less to do with race and much more to do with class and caste issues. With all the languages spoken, 11 official languages in South Africa. Language can be better tied with a social class or caste than race. Fascinating stuff. I realize that "caste" is generally reserved for use with hindis, but the concepts are observed in sub-Saharan Africa with multigenerational occupations.
6:35 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

-
Image
I have a few hours to kill at the Denver airport. I really can't think of anything that we forgot to pack or that we did not consider. We had ethics training this morning. Interesting. Everyone in my group is excited, both the people you have deployed 10 times and the fingees like me. It was mentioned this morning that it is estimated that less than 22 thousand people have set foot on Antarctica. If you consider that most of these were probably on the peninsula going to the Ross Island and the interior is even more rare. I took the picture of this jeep the other night. It looks like what my jeep could become if I keep all the body panels in place.
Read more

Always a lot going on..

-
Image
I have had a serious of "near zero days" (reference hiking jargon), but I think they mostly just seem like zero days. I am getting stuff done, just not at 100% efficiency. Not sure anyone can move with 100% efficiency... Anyhow, I am planning on starting my next journey on May 1st. -- more details as they unfold. I know what I like and dislike. I know what turns me on and off. It's time for that knowledge to be guidance. We booked a trip to Wyoming/Yellowstone park in a few weeks. It will tackle at least three items that have been on my list 1.) Visit Yellowstone (in winter). 2.) A longish snowmobile trip. 3.) A visit to Wyoming. That will be my 50th state. That will make it all US states, 100 countries and all continents. I will likly be getting involved with MTP (Most Traveled People) https://mtp.travel/ where they break countries into regions. I decided I like this music. DiDuLa - "On the way home"
Read more
-
Image
I made it up to Mt. Terror today. It was a totally different scene from the other day. It was calm and the snow had become the familiar "styrofoam packed" stuff that has a predicable rheology. We landed after a few passes and only one attempt. The helos have a problem with "contrailing" in these conditions. It can be very dangerous. The craft becomes engulfed in its own contail making visibility impossible at landing. It takes a lot of skill and experience to avoid the situation. It was expertly done. The ship was really steaming on our final approach. After we landed we still had to climb up an ice sheet to the summit where the gear is, about 200 feet in altitude.The training with the ice ax is really appreciated... such as how to use the ice ax after you fall down a glacier face to save yourself. It was a peak experience. We were supposed to be dropped off and the other tech was flying to our "end user". It turned out the "end user" was ...
Read more