One more for the road

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Hi All,

Just putting together a proper blog entry now that Anj and I are settled back in Toronto...lots to tell regarding our visit to Cape Town, jobs, apartments, the horrible weather and me being attacked by a pack of stray raccoons while busking for pocket change in the downtown core...but I digest.

Here are some more photos from a bit back during our trip around the country with Barbara and Tom Ryan. Needless to say, it was another wonderful jaunt around a wonderful country. In the previous email, I talked about the changing environment of Botswana and we had a front and centre seat for this in our trip with the Ryans. Driving out to the Nata salt pans in an open backed safari truck, we saw some beautiful landscape and flocks of rare birds. Unfortunately it started pouring on our way back and Anj, Tom & I tried to keep dry huddled together under an umbrella while speeding along in the back of the truck. Not very effective, but an adventure nonetheless.

The highlight was and always is spending time in the Kalahari. Anj and I got two nights there alone before heading back to Gabs. We went for daily trips out to the quarry to swim, ate like royalty and had the entire lodge to ourselves with narry a person around us for tens of kilometres. Sorry, there are no pictures of me wandering in the pitch dark in my boxers and a headlamp looking for the loo at 3am, trying to avoid scorpions and snakes. Ah, things are exactly the same here in Toronto.

This was also our last set of visitors for the year. Amazingly, we had 8 total visitors come all the way to Botswana just to see little old us (and perhaps Africa) and all since September. We can't say enough how much it meant to us (and our sanity) to have such close friends and family visit us.

Hope you all enjoy these photos and thanks for keeping in touch so well.

Love,
Bry & Anj

NOTE: LOTS MORE PHOTOS ON THE NEXT PAGE (INCLUDING ONE OF ME SHOOTING A RARE TIGER)

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Photos

Smoke break
Enjoying a smoke in a bone pipe

Tom and Bry in Khama
Relaxing outside our cabin before the game drive

Family of Ostrich
Mom and four baby ostriches. Our first time seeing their young. Amazing

The Unending Sky
We will definitely miss the size of the sky here. Nata nearing sunset.

Spot the Rhino
Rhinos everywhere in Khama. Many did not need the help of binocs to be seen.

Close enough
One of the 21 rhinos seen that afternoon.

Lilac Breasted Roller
The national bird of Botswana and beautiful. Unfortunately we ran over at least one of them on the way home.

African Spoonbill
A rare sighting. Note the spoon-like bill. Apt name.

Open Skies
The skies begin to open up again in Nata.

Now look at the water
Nata. The water is 300 m closer in at least. Crazy.

Flooded in Gweta
This marks the turnoff to Planet Baobab in Gweta, which was completely flooded this time. Not a chance we could make it in there.

Just made it
A few hours later and this road was unpassable.

Roughin it
Tom enjoying the open air ride (ahem) to our spot in the bush.

Back on the wagon
Anj took well to the back of the truck. Lets see if she starts riding on the outside of streetcars back home.

Our pool
Not quite, but we had the quarry to ourselves that day.

Lady and the Water
Barbara enjoying the view

One last glimpse
A last ride in the bush

The scenery
Quite amazing that most of this France sized country looks exactly like this. The sand is as good as any beach's