Namibia Safari Adventure

Sorry it's been so long since I've updated this! I have to go back and post my entries from my New Zealand trip as well. Oops.

So, I just spent close to 3 weeks in Africa running a program in Namibia. My colleuge and I also managed to fit some holiday time in as we ventured off to Etosha National Park, Swakopmund, and even Botswana where we stayed at two different safari camps - Kanana Camp and Nxabega Camp. They were amazing!

The trip started with a little personal travel. Michael and I arrived about half a week early and spent 4 days at Etosha National Park. We stayed at a lodge just outside the park, rented a car and drove in each day. Unfortunately, we were there during the rainy season which I don't really recommend. First of all, we didn't have a four wheel drive - HUGE mistake. The park was near flooded and several times I thought we would be abandoning the car and making a swim for it. PS: Sedans are built for off-roading and navigating gianormous pools in the middle of the road!

We managed to see quite a bit in those few days including giraffes, wildebeast, zebras, elephant, springbok (et. all antelope) and various birds but our great achievement was spotting not one but 3 HUGE white rhinos and having a gorgeous leopard walk right out infront of our car! Now these rhinos were montrous creatures. We had some distance on them but you could tell the biggest one was sizing us up. I don't think our sedan would have stood a chance against this guy! The leopard was amazing and completely unexpected. We didn't get any pictures b/c it happened so fast but we would get another chance later on to make up for that!

As we headed back from Etosha we stopped at a Cheetah Conservancy Reserve and saw some amazing cats. It was really cool to see all the tracks around the cat enclosures where wild cheetahs had paced back and forth (as some of the ladies were in heat). They were attracting free cheetahs from far and wide! Yikes!

After visiting the conservancy, we headed back to the capital city of Namibia - Windhoek for a week of working with the team. This was to prove to be a difficult week b/c within the first day I caught the most intense, horrific african flu of all time. I seriously thought it might be malaria (of course I wasn't taking anti-milaria pills - dumb, I know). I ended up getting the worst fevor I've ever had. So much so that at night I would be delirious. I actually woke up one night with sweats and of course the room was pitch black (seeing as it was nighttime). Well, I woke up and opened my eyes - and I couldn't see anything. I instantly came to the realization that I had gone BLIND! Yes, I seriously thought I had gone blind - I was that out of my head. I was so scared I just told myself to keep my eyes close so I could forget about and deal with it in the morning. It was AWFUL! I pretty much suffered with this stupid flu for the rest of the trip. I am just now getting over it 2 weeks later. Ugh.

Well - our trip was only approaching the half way point. Once we finished up our first week, we took the weekend to visit the highly popular adventure town of Swakopmund on the Namibian Skeleton Coast. This was SO much fun! The activity we ended up choosing was quad biking in the Namib Desert. AMAZING! This was so much fun. We did "rainbows" on the dunes and saw the most amazing desert landscapes. Incredible. The town itself is a picture of Germany if you couldn't tell by the name. Most Africans speak German there as well as Africaans or and perhaps a tribal dialect. Michael and I drove all around the town and out to Walvis Bay to see the flamingos. Usually there are thousands of them but it was the off season so we only saw a couple hundred but still - that's a lot of flamingos! As we were driving around, we'd get directions to various places and I kept hearing the strangest instructions. "Go down this street and you'll come to a set of robots. Take a left here". Or "Go through two sets of robots and it's on the right". Ummmmm, robots? I didn't see any R2D2's or Tom Servos so I finally put it together - that would be what they call traffic lights. It kept cracking me up!

After a lovely weekend in Swakopmund, we headed back to Windhoek for another work week. I'll skip this part!

Fast-forward and we have finished our presentation week. We then flew out to Kanana Camp - our first stop. We took these tiny 4 seater planes to each camp - the smallest I had ever been in! Very exciting! As we flew over the reserves we could see elephants, hippos, giraffes and other animals running around! I couldn't wait to get on the ground and see them up close. :)

Kanana was a great camp. Michael and I were the only ones there so we got a lot of special attention. We would wake up first thing, eat an amazing breakfast, go for a game drive for a few hours (which included drinks out int the bush of course), come back to the camp where drinks would be waiting for us, enjoy an afternoon siesta for a few hours, meet back up for tea time, head out for an afternoon game drive and safari drinks, come back for drinks and more rest time, then meet up for an amazing 3 course meal with the guides. The food was SO good! I was loving this agenda, I have to say! The picture shows our guide setting up the Amarilla and hot chocolate cocktails for us - a tasty mid-morning treat.

We saw some great things at Kanana. I think the highlight of this camp was our boat excursion into the delta. Surrounded by papyrus plants 7 feet tall, our tiny motorboat navigated through extremely narrow channels and into huge hidden lagoons. We saw lots of birds like cranes, pelicans and storks and I could tell this was making Michael extremely bored. He was on a mission to see hippos. Now, let me preface this with a weather update. It had rained every single day we were there. EVERY DAY. As we headed out in this tiny little boat, we could see the emense storm out in the distance. It was menacing. Ok, back to the story - so we stop in this amazing lagoon for wine and cheese - yes, we had a cheese platter and wine on our tiny dingy. As we are sitting there, we spot a group of 4 or 5 hippos in our lagoon! We couldn't believe it! So we stayed there for EVER taking pictures - all the while, the wind is starting to pick up and the water is becoming unsettled. More pictures. More pictures. and I start saying "um, guys, maybe we should start heading back..." All of the sudden, the gust of wind blasts across the lagoon like a tidal wave and the storm unleashes it's fury. It's POURING. I can't even describe how instense this storm was. Now we are racing back through these little papyrus alley ways. It still amazes me that our guide knew his way around in there. It all looks the same! Anyway, as we flying back we coming around this tight corner and out of the water lauches this HUGE hippo! Right in front of us! He is trying to jump out of the way of our boat. Then suddenly - there's a bump.. apparently, we ran right over a second one! Michael and I looked at each other - I'll leave it to your imagine as to what we shouted! We look back at our guide who is obviously shaken as well as we had temporarily stalled - without thinking twice he jams the motor on full blast and we take off again. He told us later that this is how most people die from hippo attacks. The hippos will retaliate and flip the boats - it's very easy for them. We couldn't see them under the water so we had to get out of there fast! It was crazy! Definitely an exciting venture out to the sleepy delta. ha ha!

Our second camp was Nxabega. Again amazing camp with a similar daily agenda to Kanana. Eating, sleeping and game drives. I love it! Our highlight at this camp was the leopard sighting! After looking for two days - I finally spotted our leopard in a tree! She was gorgeous - and we managed to track her for about 30 minutes. After she left the tree, we followed her into the bush where she walked right along our jeep. Wow.. Not to mention - if felt good to be the hero of the group for a bit! haha.. At this camp there were some more people, a Dutch mother and daughter, an American couple and a Spanish family of four. It was nice to have the mix!

All in all the trip was good. I was exhausted when I got back but got some amazing pictures to show for it. I'll head back to Africa - this time South Africa in July so hopefully I'll get some more tourist time in. I'll keep you posted!

A Namibian Preview

It didn't take long for NRS to send me back out on the road once arriving in Sydney. After one long, restful week I was on a 13 hour plane ride for Namibia. First stop, Johannesburg, South Africa - unfortunately just for the night. I had heard some horror stories about getting through customs, agents looking for bribes, luggage being dug through etc - but I didn't run into any of that. Phew! I did get the stamp though! Yay! The next day we were back to the airport again to catch a short 2 hour flight to Windhoek, Namibia.

Namibia is HOT right now! We were picked up from the airport by one of the station guys, Franko. Nicest guy ever. I totally love the accent here - very unique. We stayed right in the heart of the city - which takes about 20-25 minutes to drive across (without traffic). It's a pretty quaint town. The tallest buildings around were pretty much hotels. The town as a strong German influence as was reflected by the architecture and restaurants. I did manage to pick up a cool souvenir from the vendors outside our hotel. A large carved giraffe (about a meter high - yes, trying to get into the conversions) - the wood carvings here are amazing. It should look pretty cool in my new place - whenever I get that!

The landscape is pretty intense. I asked Franko and he described it as "semi-arid". It's all low-lying trees and brush - with a red sand/clay base. It's extremely flat for miles and miles until these sudden, dramatic hills/mountains spring out of the horizon.

The station is basically made up of two houses next door to each other. The team was so incredibly friendly and accommodating. It was amazing. Franko drove us to and from the office everyday and even took us out to the most famous restaurant in Southern Africa - perhaps all of Africa (according to Franko). It's called Joe's and serves a large selection of game. I had the Gembok which was SO tasty! The restaurant itself almost reminded me of a Joe's Crab Shack only much nicer. It had all these antiques and random items hanging from the ceiling along with dozens of animal heads and horns. It also featured large fire pits outside and traditional thatched roofs. Overwhelming. I sampled some of Namibia's best beers - it was a great evening.

Now for the most horrendous trip back of all time. In fact, I'm writing this in the middle of my fiasco b/c I won't even get on a flight for about 12 more hours. So, we flight back to Jo-berg from Namibia only to realize the travel agency didn't give me nearly enough time to make my flight. My colleague wasn't actually going to Sydney with me - he was heading to Perth on a different flight. We then spent 50 minutes running back and forth all over the airport trying to get someone to help Michael make his flight - it was already way too late for me and the next flight didn't leave until the same time the following day. Ugh. So by some miracle, Michael made his flight. That left me by myself in the middle of Jo-berg airport with no flight for 24 hours. No worries - surely British Airways will book a hotel room for me for the night?? Um, that would be a big, fat no. My flight wasn't late - so I am out of luck. The desk takes pity on me and helps me book my own stinkin' room. And I'm not kidding - the only room left is this smoking room at a dinky little hotel airport by the city. Nice. So that is where I am now. Not typing this is my room mind you - the wireless won't reach that far. I am sitting in the lobby. Nice - Oh yeah, and I have no luggage. It was completely out of reach - in the depths of the airport and would have taken hours to retrieve so I am in my same stinky clothes - that I will get to live in for the next 24 hours. Lovely!!!

Ok - that was a big rant but had to get it off my chest! There is good news! Michael (my AD) has proposed that we make a big trip out of our Namibia program. So, we will be heading over there early to check out some game parks along the coast. We'll also get the weekend in between our first and second week so see the desert. After the program, we have decided to head to Botswana for a week to explore the delta and surrounding game parks. I am SOOOOO excited!

So, that was my first experience. All of it, except for today, has been great so I call the trip a success! It's just thickening my skin for the many trips to come.

Reunion In Sydney - 15 Years in the Making...

I just had to write about the most unexpected and amazing reunion I've ever experienced and it all happened yesterday. A little background:

As you may know, I grew up in Singapore and as a result, made friends from all over the globe. One such friend was Henry Armstrong (seen here at Max's birthday party with sister Westerly) - a Singapore born Aussie that lived in the same condos as I did. Henry and I became fast friends and played together all the time. Some of my fondest childhood memories are running around our complex playing made up games, swimming in the pool and going on mini-adventures around the island together. It was a sad day when Henry and I had to say good-bye.

Ever since that time, I've kept Henry in the back of my mind, always curious as to where in the world he might be. I hadn't assumed that he would be in Australia at all - seeing as most people leave Singapore and head off in a totally random direction. I looked for him every so often on MySpace but to no avail. About a month or two before I left for Sydney, I decided to join Facebook and became totally addicted (like everyone else). For some reason, it wasn't until I was here in Sydney that I decided to search around and see if Henry might be on there. To my surprise... he was! I found him in 3 seconds after 15 years of absolutely no contact. Now the strange part - he lives just a few hours outside of Sydney and has for years BUT he had JUST signed on to Facebook himself right around the time I did. Sooooo amazing!

It wasn't long before we were in touch and decided to meet up. Well, last night Henry and I met for a drink at the Blah Blah Bar. He looks EXACTLY the same (+15 years). It was so amazing! We both just laughed for about 15 minutes but immediately fell into reminiscing mode. We caught each other up on families and our lives but mostly talked about our favorite memories from The Peak and SAS. It still blows my mind that we were sitting there - catching up. We even started telling this random lady next to us about our story - she was impressed. :)

So that is the story. We certainly plan to not lose touch again and feel pretty certain we'll be hanging out again some day. Not to sound completely cliche but - what a small world...

Cheers,
B.

Best Farewell Ever

Wow - just when you come to think you've grasped how amazing your friends are they end up doing something so surprising it leaves you honored to be even associated with them! That's how I feel about Bel and Rich! (And Mel, Dennis and Mark) :)

The day starts out with a raging rainstorm which pretty much just made me roll over and go back to bed but poor Bel was probably freaking out due to her surprise being outdoors! I made my way over to Warringah Mall for the first time after the rain stopped. This was good as I was able to take a bus I had never used before and see a little bit more of my surrounding area. I indulged in some serious retail therapy and checked in with Bel to see what plans she had cooked up. I got a few hints - dress warm, bring music and Mel, Dennis and Mark would be picking me up at 5p. I was so excited and had no idea what she was up to!

I rushed home to fix myself up - carefully straight-ironing my hair (later realized to be a huge waste of time) and got ready to go! When the gang picked me up I had no idea where we were going but we headed towards the Sydney Harbour Park I had just visited a few weekends before. Mel had the great idea to blindfold me with my scarf! We parked and they helped me walk to the surprise spot. And then the big reveal! Bel and Rich had set up this amazing spread of cheeses, olives, strawberries and chocolate, smoked salmon and cream cheese and lots of champagne all on the cliffs of North Head! We could see the city across the harbor and the sun was set low in the sky. It was amazing! I couldn't believe they had done all that for me! As decoration - they had the Aussie and American flags laid out on the table. The wind was amazingly strong - I just couldn't capture it in the pictures!

After the sun set, we packed up and went to Bel and Rich's favorite bar - The Skiff Club. This reminded me of the Changi Sailing Club where we used to belong in Singapore. It's a great bar with a deck overlooking the Manly Harbour and all the boats! We found a spot out on the deck and apparently had a three hour photo shoot after I looked back over the pictures! What a great night!




After way too many champagnes - Mel and I attempted to go see a band but completely missed it! Oops - so we basically just turned around and came home again. The end of the night is extremely hazy so even if we had made the show - I probably wouldn't have remembered! Ouch!




So this is now my favorite memory of this exchange! This has been such a fabulous experience and it's still not over. Mom, Dad and Becky get here in two days to explore Sydney and then continue on with me to New Zealand. How did I ever get so lucky? :)

Cheers,
Bridget

Reconnecting with Nature

As I entered a few important dates into my Outlook calendar the other day, I suddenly realized "Holy Crap! I only have 3 weekends left!" This came as a surprise for me as I was just coasting along - enjoying the days and weekends as they passed by. Well - not anymore! I had to take a good look at my To Do list and start making some serious progress! First on the list (recommended by just about everyone I came across in Manly) was a stroll through the Sydney Harbor National Park aka North Head. The same comments resounded with each recommendation, "the views are amazing!"

The walk to the park from my apartment is about 15 minutes and there isn't much to the park until you get to the main attraction (which are the cliffs!) As I walked through I was hopeful that I would some across some endangered bandicoots but to no avail. All I found was this mouse! But at the time, I couldn't really remember what a bandicoot looked like, so I snapped a picture just in case. Stupid mouse!


The views from the cliffs are magnificent! Extremely dramatic in every regard! The entire experience was dramatic actually - as I headed out on my walking tour I knew that I was playing with fire or I should really say water. The ominous clouds did not lie as they unleashed their fury right as I reached the cliffs. Luckily, there happened to be this tiny concrete hut (the only shelter, period, for quite some time) right there. I dipped in to the hut to hold out for clear skies with 4 other soaked tourists. When the clouds parted the sun came out and it was a beautiful afternoon from there on out.

As I headed back to town, I suddenly saw this little path almost covered by brush. I decided to continue my adventure and headed down the path for a little exploration. By the time I came to the end, I saw it was well worth the very muddy trek down. I came to some gorgeous cliffs not guarded by safety fences or walkways. Yes, very smart seeing as I was by myself! But I did manage to get some amazing shots! I didn't dangle my feet over the edge or anything so I figured I played it pretty safe. :)

















So, that's one more thing to strike off the list. I still hope to do some kayaking around Manly and get to Hunter Valley for some wine tasting! Time is of the essence!

Cheers!
B.

Bowling, Drinking and Running

Yes, that is the order we did it in too. It's not highly recommended - we'll it isn't recommended unless you can space the running part out a few days! This weekend was Dennis' birthday so we had big plans to go to the horse races! I have never been to a horse track before so I was all excited about the experience. Well, apparently there has been a serious outbreak of the equine flu here - bringing the entire equestrian industry to a standstill. No races, no shows, no transporting horses in anyway. They are saying that it will not only affect The Carnival which is kind of like our Kentucky Derby in the States but possibly the Olympic hopefulls for 2008 in China. Pretty serious! So, needless to say, we needed a sudden back up plan for Dennis' birthday. What did we do instead??? Bowling!!

Now, it seems bowling is not that big here because just about everyone except for me had not been bowling in 10+ years.. if ever! On top of that - we lucked out with a cosmic bowling night. We started at Bel & Rich's place for drinks and apps. After much champagne - we headed out to the bowling alley for some serious competition! We had a blast! The girls dominated the 3 game series - showing the guys how it was done! Of course, we ended up closing the place down and headed back to Bel & Rich's for some late night celebrating and much needed pizza. At this point - the furthest thing from Bel and I's mind was the 13k race we had to run the next morning...at 8am. It was a long night.

And then suddenly it was morning! Where did that come from? Ouch... we awoke - half drunk - very tired. Should we forget the race? Roll over and go back to bed??? No, becuase we are dumb. We dragged ourselves out of bed, put our numbers on and headed off to the race. We started on beach - sun shining, waves crashed, head pounding... We managed to actually run quite a bit of the race. More than I expected actually! There were some spectacular views as we ran along the coast. I wish I had brought my camera on this one! At least you can see our course on the left. We finished the 13k's (little over 8 miles) in 1 hour and 49 minutes. That put me at 1023rd place out of out of 1593 at 7.15 km/hr. I love that they posted all these stats! Yeah - we definitely walked the hills. Funnily enough - this race is called Pub2Pub. We ended The Arms - a great pub overlooking a picturesque harbour - but the last thing we wanted was a drink! We ended up heading home after a scrumptious pub breakfast to sleep off the damage we did the night before! The rest of Sunday was spent snoozing on the couch - much needed and I felt, well-deserved!

City 2 Surf 2007

I did it! On Sunday, 12 August I ran my first 14k race - The City 2 Surf race from Sydney to Bondi Beach. Well ok, I didn't exactly "run" the entire thing. There was some walking involved but I am very proud of Dennis, Bel and myself! Bel and I ran quite a bit and finished the race in about 1 hour and 50 minutes. Dennis left us in the dust! A 14k race is roughly about 8.7 miles which was officially the longest run I had ever participated in. This was the 37th annual City 2 Surf run with just over 64,000 people entered. Intense! I have run the Peachtree before and there were a few similarities but overall - this was a far more challenging run. The Peachtree is overall pretty flat with the one large challenge called "Heartbreak Hill". The City 2 Surf is extremely hilly the whole way through - and also has a "Heartbreak Hill" starting around kilometer 5. It stretches 2k's and is one of the steepest hills I have ever seen! The hill lasts FOREVER!!!

So, here's the breakdown of the whole experience! Bel and Rich picked me up around 7:15am (much later start than the Peachtree) and we headed into Downtown Sydney. The race started near the famous Hyde Park. We were in the HSBC section meaning - we weren't star athletes in the first section (aka Kenyan) and we weren't pram pushers in the 3rd section. We crammed into our section and it wasn't long before you started to see the festive runners - dressed up in everything from gorilla suits to nothing but speedos. Nice. Right before we started - our entire section began to strip off jackets and pants to get into their running gear. Where did all those clothes go? They all tossed them to the sides - the sides of the streets, fences and bus stops were covered in clothes! Apparently, everyone wears something old over their running gear and then "donates them to charity" by tossing them over the crowd onto the side walks. A charity then comes by and picks it all up.

Finally the horn sounded for our section and we were off. It was so crowded - we probably shuffled along for the first 5 minutes before we could even break into a swift walk! The race was pretty challenging the entire way through. There were plenty of hills which kept us struggling! By the time we hit the bottom of heartbreak hill I was already getting tired! That hill was a KILLER! MUCH, much steeper than the Peachtree and MUCH, much longer. The race wound up the large hill keeping you guessing as to whether it ended just around the next bend or kept going for eternity! Apparently, someone keels over every year on the hill but I think we made it through this race with no fatalities! Hurray! For perspective - we started in the city behind us and here are Bel and I - ALMOST to the top of heartbreak hill!

As with the Peachtree, people came out to watch the runners and cheer them on. I have to say, the Peachtree has this race beat when it comes to sideline support. There were a few bands along the way as well as neighbors standing in their yards with hoses spraying the passing runners - but the fanfare didn't really compare to the Atlanta race. I do believe City 2 Surf wins in the racer costume department though. People in Atlanta were likely to get arrested for some of the outfits we saw - plenty of budgy smugglers (speedos) and a few true to form Borat's in his famous green bathing suit - ugh!

Just has my legs were about to give out - we finally rounded yet another massive hill and began to descend into Bondi Beach. The finish line emptied right on the beach boardwalk and it was beautiful! The weather was amazing - sunny and clear skies. The ocean was super blue and made for a spectacular finish line! We met up with Dennis at the end and he got us into a sponsored tent! Yay!! Free food and drinks were the perfect reward for all our hard work. A few champagnes later and we were on our way to Michael O'Donnel's house - an NRS AD we work with. He lived about 2 blocks from Bondi Beach and was hosting a big BBQ in honor of the race. A few drinks there and we caught a cab back to Manly. But - no rest for the weary - we headed straight to Bec's house - a good friend of Bel's for a roast! So yes, we managed to eat back everything we had burned off during the race. By the time 8pm rolled around, Bel and I were fading fast. Rich was kind enough to take us home and I literally crashed into bed at 8:30p and was dead to the world!

It was a great weekend although I wish the race was a Saturday because now I am at work when I would much rather be sleeping in and nursing my incredibly sore legs! I guess it's better to just push through the pain!

Oh yeah - Bel and I also managed to raise about $400 through friends sponsoring us for the orphanage in Kenya that NRSI supports! It was well worth the effort on our part and we had a great time doing it!