News From Brian in South Africa
The kids and I are in the Midwest for the next two weeks because Brian has a trip to South Africa and Germany. I wanted to pass along his words about his first day in Africa.
Hello from Johannesburg!
Wanted to send all of you a quick note to let you know that I made it here safely. I got to the hotel around midnight last night after almost 23 hours in the air and two stops in Minneapolis and Amsterdam. The weather was clear over Europe and most of northern Africa yesterday, and the view from the window was incredible. We flew over the Alps, the Mediterranean Sea, and after we passed the northern coast of Tunisia the landscape changed dramatically. There were very few trees, the landscape become quite desolate, and became even more so the further south we went. Once we crossed over the southern Lybia and Chad, the Sahara came into view and was incredible...we were flying at 30,000 feet and even then, looking as far as I could see, there was nothing at all but red-orange sand.
I don't think I have ever felt as wiped out as I did when we arrived at the hotel. It was a real relief to finally sleep in a bed.
My hotel is in a suburb called Rosebank, which is a very nice part of town. Even so, most of the houses/residential buildings are in compounds surrounded by brick walls topped with razor wire, spikes, and electrified fences. The trees and plants are absolutely beautiful (it's summertime here) and very unique to this region...I haven't really seen any that I recognize. There are weaver birds flying around in the garden behind the hotel, you can see them flying around with grass and straw in their beaks, and their nests dangle from some of the trees. I remember seeing something on National Geographic about them years ago, it seems really bizarre to see them in real life.
Continuing on the National Geographic theme, today's adventure took me out into the bush about 40 min west of Johannesburg, where I took a tour of a lion preserve. We were very lucky because today is the day that they feed the lions. At first I thought it would be something that required binoculars, but once the food came around the lions were literally within inches of the car. There were signs all over the place warning people to stay in the cars and keep the windows rolled up. One of the males got into a spat with one of his cubs about who was going to eat the slab of horsemeat they were given, and made sure that everyone knew he was upset. It was amazing (and a bit unnerving) to hear a lion roar from 100 feet away.
After the tour we stopped in an area where 4 lion cubs were resting, and we got to pet them. They are being raised by humans since their pride rejected them for not being strong enough (out of a typical litter of 6 cubs, only 2 usually make it to adulthood...the others are killed by their parents). They were pretty tame but we were warned not to touch them on the head or tail as they are still capable of causing some serious damage.
We also took a drive through the inner city of Johannesburg. It's a city of extremes...certain areas on the outskirts are very wealthy (we passed a Lamborghini dealership!) but once you get toward the center it starts getting really shady. There wasn't really that much to see except for a lot of shabby storefronts and piles of garbage on the streets. After seeing this, I can't even fathom what it must be like in the townships.
Work stuff starts tomorrow so I won't have much more exciting news to report. I am really enjoying the sunshine and the 75-degree weather, maybe i'll come back to Seattle with a tan!
Hello from Johannesburg!
Wanted to send all of you a quick note to let you know that I made it here safely. I got to the hotel around midnight last night after almost 23 hours in the air and two stops in Minneapolis and Amsterdam. The weather was clear over Europe and most of northern Africa yesterday, and the view from the window was incredible. We flew over the Alps, the Mediterranean Sea, and after we passed the northern coast of Tunisia the landscape changed dramatically. There were very few trees, the landscape become quite desolate, and became even more so the further south we went. Once we crossed over the southern Lybia and Chad, the Sahara came into view and was incredible...we were flying at 30,000 feet and even then, looking as far as I could see, there was nothing at all but red-orange sand.
I don't think I have ever felt as wiped out as I did when we arrived at the hotel. It was a real relief to finally sleep in a bed.
My hotel is in a suburb called Rosebank, which is a very nice part of town. Even so, most of the houses/residential buildings are in compounds surrounded by brick walls topped with razor wire, spikes, and electrified fences. The trees and plants are absolutely beautiful (it's summertime here) and very unique to this region...I haven't really seen any that I recognize. There are weaver birds flying around in the garden behind the hotel, you can see them flying around with grass and straw in their beaks, and their nests dangle from some of the trees. I remember seeing something on National Geographic about them years ago, it seems really bizarre to see them in real life.
Continuing on the National Geographic theme, today's adventure took me out into the bush about 40 min west of Johannesburg, where I took a tour of a lion preserve. We were very lucky because today is the day that they feed the lions. At first I thought it would be something that required binoculars, but once the food came around the lions were literally within inches of the car. There were signs all over the place warning people to stay in the cars and keep the windows rolled up. One of the males got into a spat with one of his cubs about who was going to eat the slab of horsemeat they were given, and made sure that everyone knew he was upset. It was amazing (and a bit unnerving) to hear a lion roar from 100 feet away.
After the tour we stopped in an area where 4 lion cubs were resting, and we got to pet them. They are being raised by humans since their pride rejected them for not being strong enough (out of a typical litter of 6 cubs, only 2 usually make it to adulthood...the others are killed by their parents). They were pretty tame but we were warned not to touch them on the head or tail as they are still capable of causing some serious damage.
We also took a drive through the inner city of Johannesburg. It's a city of extremes...certain areas on the outskirts are very wealthy (we passed a Lamborghini dealership!) but once you get toward the center it starts getting really shady. There wasn't really that much to see except for a lot of shabby storefronts and piles of garbage on the streets. After seeing this, I can't even fathom what it must be like in the townships.
Work stuff starts tomorrow so I won't have much more exciting news to report. I am really enjoying the sunshine and the 75-degree weather, maybe i'll come back to Seattle with a tan!
posted by April at 10:35 AM
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