New Zealand is one of our favorite countries, a place we would love to live one day. While there we were fascinated by penguins. At one viewing spot, near Omaru, we were told to be very quiet, turn off cell phones, don’t make any quick movements because they were shy birds. What a laugh we all had when, after 45minutes of fruitless scanning the brush for a sighting, someone pointed out that the penguin was hanging out right next to the viewing platform…NOT hiding in the bush!
Africa has always been a dream destination, one for the bucket list. Romanticized in such movies as Out of Africa and I Dreamed of Africa, a land of adventure and amazement. A decade ago, the tour company I work for, Grand European Tours, first started selling a trip to South Africa and lucky us, we were one of the first in the company to get to go on tour and check it out!
Over landing Africa is an amazing, and often challenging way to travel. Spending the time to drive the arduous route from Nairobi through Tanzania, following the lake in Malawi before veering SW into Zambia, Zimbabwe and Botswana. Continuing through arid Namibia and finally reaching South Africa you will travel thousands of miles on a trip that takes several months to do properly and, even then, you feel as though you missed a lot.
Foto Friday comes to you from the Okavango Delta in Botswana, one of the best concentrations of wildlife on earth. I love zebra stripes and have countless pictures of them, in particular zebra butts. What can I say, the stripes are hypnotic!
Although all of our time in Africa has been amazing, I was especially drawn to the wildlife of Botswana.
Watering hole in Botswana
Egypt, a country of thousands of years of history and a still amazing, vibrant culture. We spent a month traveling throughout the country and were fascinated by the “ships of the desert”, the always cranky, never comfortable to ride, camels.
Camels at the pyramid
They say the lion is the King of the Jungle. You only need spend a short time in Africa to realize they are absolutely correct. We’ve seen many of these majestic creatures during our time there, this handsome fellow was in the Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania. (and we were close enough that this was NOT taken w/ a zoom!) Enjoy
