Odds and Ends

These first couple of pictures are of the Golden Orb spider. My mom sent me a little slip of paper she has found about these spiders in South Africa, and then, lo and behold we saw one. They spin a golden web which is difficult to catch with a camera, but you can kind of get the gist of it. They are huge too and the markings on their abdomen are really cool.

Next up is a hike I did on Table Mountain. That mountain has neverending opportunities for beautiful hikes. This was through an area called Silvermine and you can see that there is a fog over the city and we are up above it. Kind of similar to the hospital in Portland. The next picture is of Table Mountain/Devil's Peak from our balcony at sunset. Gees, we get some nice sunsets. And last is a picture of Hout Bay which is a suburb of Cape Town on the other end of the mountain. We went there for the only good, yet still subpar ice cream in town, but when we got there it was closed, and possibly permanently. I'd give just about anything for some cookies and cream right now.

World Cup 2010 is over. South Africa did a really amazing job hosting it. I have to be honest, I had my doubts, but they pulled it off without a hitch.

We went to see Holland vs Cameroon at the brand new Cape Town Stadium. We went well in advance to take in the atmosphere, and it was so much fun. The city was covered from head to toe in orange. Everyone was a Holland fan on that day. It was an amazing experience and the downtown fan walk was so festive. the entire event downtown was very well organized, safe, and everyone was in good spirits.

If only Holland could have continued their good fortune all way way to the end.

reptilian friends

These little fellas live around our place... the little Gecko was inside the house, as many are... and the Chameleon was outside in the garden. Cute little guys i think...

i think the simpsons speak for themselves.

And fall blossoms at the Kirstenbosch

Knysna and Noetzie

Some of our friends in Portland gave us the names of some friends in Knysna who we met up with. The girl's name is Bethany and she is American. She married a South African, Andrew. They are great people and are in the process of trying to move to the US, possibly Portland, so we may be seeing them again in the future. Anyways, they were incredible hosts to us in Knysna. They put us up in a place that Andrew's parents own outside of Knysna called Noetzie. It's a conservation area and they have a place right on a lagoon that opens into the ocean. It's awesome there with lots of monkeys that you have to be careful so they don't get into the house. We canoed up the river which was amazing. They have a bird there called the Knysna Loerie which is green with wings that are bright red, but only underneath so you can only see the color when they fly and it is really impressive. We saw a bunch around the lagoon. We also canoed out to the beach where there are a bunch of old castles. You can kind of see them in the picture. Then we spent the next day hiking with Bethany in the Knysna Forest where there are apparently around 10 or so elephants, but they are very rarely spotted. Even though I felt confident we would be the lucky ones, we were not. We also went to a really great farmers market there that is run by a Texan of all people. And we had the best cheesecake maybe ever. My new goal in life is to figure out the recipe. The other picture is of a blooming aloe plant. Kind of crazy.

Tsitsikamma Forest

We went for a canopy tour in the Tsitsikamma forest which is a beautiful forest on the southern coast of the country. They call the area the garden route because it is so green relative to the rest of the country, but they are in the middle of a huge drought...like 10 years, with no signs of any changes. Thanks, climate change. Anyways, its no Oregon forest. But still pretty. This was the most organized anything we have dealt with in this country and they move a lot of people through this canopy tour. It's a bit more touristy than we wanted because you see lots of other people, but it was fun nonetheless. We were in a group with this couple in the picture and they were hilarious. The tour is a very ecofriendly way to see the forest because you don't walk through it, you just slide on cables. They are able to mount the cables without harming the trees at all--no screws or bolts. They use pressure to hold the cables on. You can see the pictures of the cables wrapped around the tree. They also have someone frequently check the root system of the trees to make sure they aren't being harmed.

We then went to Storm's River campsite in the Tsitsikamma which is where the two pictures of the water are taken. It is a great campsite with the exception of the millions of people that were there as well. The next night we moved onto Nature's Valley campsite in the forest and it was much more our pace. Less people and campsites more than 5 feet from each other. And lots of little Vervet monkeys. They are really cute, but they are the racoons of South Africa. We were told not to leave anything out or they will take it whether its food or not. We watched as about 7 monkeys totally ransacked another campsite. It was pretty hilarious...for us...probably not the people who owned all of the stuff.

Addo Elephant Park

We stopped for a couple of days in Addo. We drove through it the first evening and then took a horseback ride through it the second morning. We got to see a lot of animals, but mostly different kind of antelope. In these pictures you can see some zebras, a tortoise, a warthog, an elephant that is very far away, and a female kudu. The male kudu had spiral horns that were really cool. In fact, we camped outside of the park and when we were driving in the morning there was a huge male kudu that was running right in front of us on the rode. It was amazing. As I am thinking this animal is so beautiful, Matt says "I'd sure like to have his skin." Sick. He's been tying a lot of flies lately and apparently the hair from a kudu would make great flies.

We camped out on this farm that was about 10 miles outside of the park, literally in the middle of nowhere. We got there in the dark and were completely by ourselves. We set up camp and then got in the tent and started eating dinner. Then Matt says "Can you believe we are camping in the middle of Africa?" Right then, we hear this terrifying noise which is one animal attacking another animal and it seemed really close. It went on for a good 5 minutes. I told Matt we needed to get the food out of the tent and I wasn't going to do it. The noises went on to an extent all night. We debated for a long time what we thought they were and we think they were some sort of monkeys, but we'll never know. They do have lions and leopards in the area, but they didn't sound like cats.

More Lesotho

Just a few more parting shots of Lesotho... let the pictures speak for themselves.

An addendum by Megan--the picture of the horses is right by the bunk house we stayed in. They just wandered around while I was sitting outside reading.

The fishing in Lesotho has amazing potential. the biggest fish landed was a brown trout of 7 3/4 lbs. it was a massive hog of a fish and 2 more bigger fish were spotted but not caught. fish of 5 and 6 lbs were also landed and many fish were caught. My luck was not very good for the trip and i really only had one full day of fishing. I caught 3 fish on the day and that was it for the entire trip. day 1 was a bad draw of water and in general, my luck was very poor as far as fishing the good water. a case of poor planning but a very fun trip overall. Megan did not get much fishing in as the conditions were very difficult and there were too many fisherman anyway.

Well, Over the Easter Holiday Megan and I ventured out into the interior of South Africa and into the Mountain Kingdom of Lesotho for a nice vacation. The main purpose of the Lesotho trip was for fly fihing, but it turned out to be a magnificent place full of amazing people and scenery. We spent 4 days in total in Lesotho and here are a few pics of what we saw.

The people there are still subsitence farmers for the most part. The so called "poor

" people of this area did not look poor to me. sure they had to grow their own food and eat their animals, but thats exactly what i want to do with my life... so not poor to me. also they did their wash in the river, used the river for drinking water, etc etc. it was amazing to see. they all had smiles on their faces and diud not look liek the poor people in rural South Africa or in the townships of South Africa.

There was a really nice feel to the place. we saw some spectacular rainbows too. the guides we had were excellent. Megan did a nice pny ride too.

The water fall is called Semonkong Falls. its amazing we have never heard of this waterfall as it is absolutely spectacular and belongs in the category with many of the other big falls. We hike dright down to the base and i even casted a line at some water... alas there did not seem to be any fish directly below the falls, but it made for a scenic place to fish. now above the falls was a different story altogether... to be continued with more fishing stuff...

Janice's Visit and lot of pictures!

So we still haven't figured out how to post pictures in the order that we want, so here are a bunch of pictures in not particular order. My friend Janice came to visit from the States. She was our first visitor and she set high standards for the rest of you. Check out the picture of the loot she brought us....millions and millions of chocolate bars, coffee, and music. She is now officially our new favorite person. Actually, we have to make a public thank you for the nice packages that a lot of you have been sending. It is always fun to get mail, and with little pieces of home in them. Thanks for everyone that thinks of us. And thanks, Janice for coming to visit and bringing so much great stuff.

Anyways, the day Janice arrived is the day that I woke up with a swollen lip. That picture is in there somewhere. I think it must have been a bug bite. I am just glad that the swelling went down relatively quickly because I looked scary.

We had a great time with Janice. We hiked to the actual top of Table Mountain for the first time, as well as all over the mountain on multiple different days. We felt pretty tough because it was a long hike until this 80 year old guy passed us on his 8 and a half hour circuit hike that he does twice a week. Then we felt not so tough. We found a cave that you can explore and go through. It was a little creepy and kind of an adrenaline rush because we weren't super prepared for it in terms of batteries in the flashlight--if they had gone out we would have been stuck. But we got through it and you actually had to crawl out of the last part. There is a picture of the part we exited where we crawled out. I am so glad that our batteries worked. We visited the penguins again and I included more pictures because they are just adorable. We went wine tasting which was great. The winelands here are beautiful and the wine is amazing and best of all--cheap. We did a wine/chocolate pairing at one of the wineries which is, in my opinion, how all wine tasting should be done. Janice is a more fun photographer than us and took pictures of some of the random things throughout the area. I have included some of her pictures--my personal favorite--the beaded elephant with the gigantic balls. You have to wonder why they felt compelled to include those things. They had to have added a few hours of extra work. But definitely worth it for the few minutes of extra giggles that we got. We also ate some really good food. I have pictured some of the best duck ever.

Janice, unfortunately had to leave us and go back to the real world, but we had a great time with her.

In other news, we are headed up to Lesotho in a few weeks and then will return to Cape Town via the Garden route. I am really excited to get out of the city for a while and see some of this country. We will have loads of new pictures from that trip, but in the meantime we are living a regular, boring life with nothing much interesting to post. It's kind of nice.