Back in Akagera

-

This past May, I had a chance to do a one-day safari in Rwanda's Akagera National Park and it was fantastic. I believe I even posted some pictures that meagerly attempt to show just how special that park is. On that day I saw everything that I had hoped to see, that is, with one significant exception. In all of my safaris (including South Africa, Botswana, Zambia and of course, Rwanda) I have always wanted to see a hippo out of the water and I have always failed miserably. Consequently, all my hippo pics look suspiciously like photos of gray boulders peaking out of the water. Even the best of all the photos inspires the thought "Wow, that rock almost looks like a hippo". So, with that in mind, some stubborn determination and a lot of wishful thinking, I headed back to Akagera two days ago. So, how did it go? Well, I think it is unseemly to brag, so I will allow this photo to do it for me, but suffice it to say that I was very giddy that day.

I have some other cool pictures, but this Internet connection makes Miami's elderly drivers look speedy, so in order to preserve what limited sanity I still possess, I will wait until a future date to post them.

Comments

  1. AnonymousDecember 3, 2007 at 11:58 PM

    Great picture of the hippo even though you are quite aware of my many phobias. Such as ladybugs, long words, and many others: hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia and so on... Still you continue to post pictures of such things:). Glad to hear you were able to enjoy this trip a little. Look to forward to your adventure in February for obvious/personal reasons.
    shawn

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Five reasons why it's better to visit Yellowstone National Park during the winter.

-
Image
 It is well documented how much I hate the cold. I believe that anything below 65 degrees is just unnecessary. Anything below freezing, sheer lunacy.  Yet, here I was in Bozeman, Montana for a long weekend in February.  I was not exactly upset. This is an unspeakably beautiful state and one of the remaining four I'd yet to visit.  I just wish they'd show a bit more self-control when it comes to Winter. Why does it have to snow so much, even during a year when locals were complaining that there was not enough snow? They don't even blink at 20 below zero, an actual temperature that we experienced. It's simply too much!  Cold or no cold, I was not about to pass up the opportunity to visit the country's first national park, because of course I wasn't. The plot twist is that now that I have, I am firmly convinced this is the best possible time to visit. I can even give you five solid reasons why. 1. It's cheaper. The park, which covers almost 3,500 square miles a
Read more

St Martin: Naked Beach or Airplane Beach

-
Image
Our fourth stop, St. Martin, presented a question that I can only assume most people are not faced with on a regular basis.  Did we want to go to the naked beach or to the airplane beach?  Undoubtedly, there are other things to do on this half French, half Dutch island but with no tour guide, very little research and a rental car, those were the only real options available to us. We had maps, brochures, phone apps all within our disposal but try as we might, there were no museums, forts, historical sights or even largest balls of twine-type exhibits for us to visit.  Not even trying to crib from the ship's own excursions booklet was of any help. In hopes of stumbling onto something, we played around with the car's pre-programmed GPS with its long list of other beaches we could choose from.  We picked one at random, pulled in and saw that it was indeed a beach. Sand, water: check.  One empty restaurant with a bored looking waitress: check.
Read more

Hoi An Taylor

-
Image
Two things I learned mid-way through my tour of 'Nam: 1) Hoi An is probably one of the most beautiful cities in all of the country. 2) Getting there via a Camel line night-bus from Nha Trang is not such a great idea. Earlier, I wrote about how efficient and stress-free the Fula/ Pula buses were.  On this journey, I met their bizarro world counterparts, the Camel bus line (or to use their full name, the "You'd wish you ridden a camel instead bus line").  Not to get into all the nasty details, because #1 is the memory I am taking away from all this, but the bus was filthy and smelled like feet. For 13 hours, the driver was reckless, even by regional standards.  And they crowded the aisles with local villagers sleeping on the floor, making it impossible to reach the (possibly working) bathroom.  Not that this mattered, I guess, since I woke up to find- first thing in the morning- a toddler with his penis in a water bottle and a group of women making "ssssss&qu
Read more