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Monday, February 25, 2013

Back home in South Africa

 Goliath Heron at Sunset in Lake Baringo, Kenya (Dec 2011)

We arrived home safe and sound, and very weary on Saturday afternoon. Thanks to everyone of my blogger followers for your kind comments and wishes for our safe travels. It sure worked!.

I am a little involved with organizing an event which I will post about on Wednesday. So I hope you'll all forgive me for the short post and also for not visiting your blogs. I will be back soon! 


BTW. I'm busy with my photo archives and just had to post the above photo on this post.

I hope you all have a wonderful week.

Friday, February 22, 2013

In Transit from East to South Africa

Our trusty driver, Mohamed met us at the airport and soon

we were on our way through the traffic
 
We're in Dar Es Salaam; we arrived on time after a pleasant flight from Mwanza. The traffic was bearable and we'd soon booked into our normal hotel, The Seacliff.

Always elegant, always welcoming: The Seacliff, Dar Es Salaam

The porter led us to our room on the second floor and as he opened the door, I was greeted by the largest bouquet of roses, chrysanthemums and fine greenery that I'd ever seen. Grant had organized for the hotel to have this ready for me to celebrate my 60th birthday and our upcoming 41st wedding anniversary!
 A gorgeous bouquet of roses, chrysanthemums and greenery
I felt thoroughly spoil

And as if that wasn't even, once again, we have a sea facing room as well. 

 Overlooking the hotel pool and the Indian Ocean beyond

 Isn't this just too glorious?

The next time I log on, we will be, God willing, safely back home in South Africa. I wish you all a wonderfully, warm and happy weekend. 
 


Blue Skies and Striking Birds

Do I hear groans of despair? A THIRD post about birds in Tanzania. Sorry folks, but this bird was so beautiful against the Tanzanian sky I need to post it on my Skywatch Friday meme.

The common, but strikingly beautiful Black-Shouldered Kite against a clear blue sky

Black-shouldered Kite as captured on the mine on Monday evening

As this post is aired, we'll be driving to Mwanza, on the first leg of our journey to South Africa. We board the 8.30 flight to Dar Es Salaam and should be settled into our hotel on the Indian Ocean before midday today. 

Thereafter I hope to find a pair of high-heeled sandals in the shopping complex near the hotel. (I haven't told Grant this yet, as in my experience, men tend to roll their eyes when you mention shopping for clothes or shoes!) Then we'll pop into the well-stocked supermarket, also near the hotel and buy a couple of dozen tins of cat food. The shop manager stores these for us; on our return from SA we'll collect the carton and bring it back to Mwadui for the three lads. 

At 6am Saturday, we board the South African flight to Johannesburg. We touch down in SA at 10.15 and if customs isn't too busy (it normally is over weekends), we should connect with and board our Bloemfontein flight by 11.35. We arrive in Bloem at 12.30 where we'll be met by Angus, Amanda and our two Marquard grandchildren, Joel and Abby. 

Then it's an hour-and-a-half road trip from the city to our town, Marquard. Finally after two days of traveling we'll be back home. 

I wish you all a wonderful weekend ahead. 

For more beautiful sky shots, please click here