Second Summer

We miss Africa

sydneysox — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 19:41:28 +0000

So that’s it. We left Africa.

It sucks.

I must honestly say that the week we sent in Sabin Sands as a guest (albeit well paying) of the guys at Savannah camp and Leopard Hills were basically the greatest days that I have ever been privileged to experience with my beautiful wife. So many times we would turn to each other as we bounced down some track as Dangerous Dave or Greg floored their flatbed Rover with one hand and manned the radio with the other, and we would look at each other and just laugh because we were so lucky, so lucky to be in that special place where everything was simply perfect.

I know it isn’t something you can just go do tomorrow … Hell, we want to go back but can’t see it happening for years… But a good safari is the greatest thing I can ever imagine anyone doing.

I’m sitting in a hotel lobby in Dubai uploading photos and drinking beer that, thanks to the Amazingly strong Aussie dollar, isn’t that expensive, and thinking about the flight I am taking to Madrid in 5 hours (Skye has been asleep for 3 hours now) and I still cannot wipe the smile from my face as i think of leopards and lions and mongoose and hippos… Of the African bush down below, of the elephants invading our backyard the kudu that came up to the window of our last room an hour before we left and peered in at Skye as I was out with Dangerous Dave futiley trying to track a water buffalo…

It is amazing.

It’s gonna take a lot to drag me away from Africa

sydneysox — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 12:46:53 +0000

I think it’s something that a hundred men or more could never do.

Though maybe the place we’re staying might like us to leave at some point and being evicted into the African bush might be fun, initially, but it gets a little cold and we also might get eaten by like fifty different things.

We’ve been staying in some amazing places, at the Savannah camp and the Leopard Hills camp, both in the Sabi Sands reserve. It’s been amazing.

Basic routine is up at 5.30 for a dawn/morning game drive, followed by ‘breakfast’ at 10ish and then ‘lunch’ at 2 and an afternoon/early night gamedrive from 3.30 through to about 7.

In the middle you can do a few things – lie around on sunbeds or swim in the plunge pools watching Elephants eat all the bushes 5 feet away (happened to us the first day) or go out on a walking tour. Those on Facebook may have seen that I went out 1 on 1 with the Ranger (Dangerous Dave!) to track down an old male lion we saw in the morning… Actually, it’s this guy:

We didn’t quite find him but it was the looking that made it all exciting. Because it’s really cool here – the animals and birds let you get within feet of you when you’re in the vehicles. Or closer. We had a leopardess walk right at, then under us one afternoon. But on foot it’s different – the cars? Not a threat. But people? Definitely a threat.

Anyway, we’ve seen some crazy things. Every few minutes it’s something new. And it’s the same animals, usually. So over the 5 days we’ve been here we’ve started to learn stories. Family, backgrounds, heirarchy, territory…

A quick list includes:

- A leopardess coming back to find her cubs and only finding one, then bringing him to a kill. For a couple days we have been finding her and the rangers have speculated the other cub is dead (the circle of life!) but yesterday afternoon out of nowhere we came onto the second cub, hidden in some trees waiting for his mum to come home. So she’s been hiding them in different areas – probably because they’re getting too old and are fighting each other!

- An EXTREMELY rare African Wild Dog experience. The third most endagered animal in Africa is the Wild Dog and a small pack has moved into a den here to try and litter pups. For days we’ve seen these amazing creatures hunting and cruising the den site, and we’ve been waiting to see pups. There were 2 sites at one time in fact, the second an insurance site for a younger non-alpha female, and we ALMOST saw those pups as we heard them coming up to the entrance… but the next day, the Alpha female at the other den site went over and KILLED all the pups of the other female! The pack couldn’t keep both sites alive so the insurance pups were killed. (The circle of life!)

- Within an hour of being on the ground as we lounged in a pool out the back, a herd of elephants came into our backyard.

- Leopards in trees, leopards eating everything, leopards hunting… Leopards everywhere. Every single one of them beautiful.

- Male lions roaring, lionessess roaring, lion cubs feeding…

- Hippos, viewed from the car (cool!) and on foot (Skye almost died when it roared at us from the pond a dozen metres away)…

- Everything else I have forgotten.

It’s amazing. We leave tomorrow for Dubai but honestly… we need to come back.

Here’s one more photo:

Tomorrow – one more game drive, one more walk with Dangerous Dave and then on a flight to Dubai.

Let’s All Go See Some Lions and Shit

sydneysox — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 03:11:41 +0000

We’re leaving Sydney’s Winter behind once again and heading for warmer places.

…

That’s a lie. We’re leaving a gorgeous week of Sydney weather for Africa (warm), Spain (maybe warm) and Scotland (never warm).

But we’re going. Today. And we needed a place to upload photos, to write about Spain and to make fun of Welshman drunk on whisky falling off their bikes.

I was going to put up the World’s greatest music video to commemorate the occasion but my She stole that idea and got a 24 hour headstart by posting Toto’s unbeatable 80′s MASTERPIECE ‘Africa’ onto facebook to the adoring adulation of her and my shared friends who also happen to be jerks. (Nah, just kidding, you guys are alright).

So here’s one that sums up the first part of our trip (to South Africa, not the 23 hour flight) in less than five tidy minutes:

This has everything. David Bowie. Australia. White people patronisingly paying tribute to poor ethnicities in the name of cultural awareness before flying out of the country on a huge jet. Beer. Bowie. A catchy tune. Mullets…

See! Everything!

And if that doesn’t get you excited, how about this? It’s a picture of our stupid dogs. We couldn’t find anyone to house sit so I just tied them up here next to a delicious bush. It will allow them to forage and ennourish themselves for the time we are gone. At nights they will huddle together like best friends.

: hows it going, jerks?

Next stop: Sydney Airport, Bangkok Airport, Dubai Airport and finally Joburg.

Seattle

sydneysox — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 04:10:41 +0000

As good as this trip’s been it has a pretty awesome way of just getting better.

The last few days we’ve spent in Seattle have really continued the good work started by Portland selling me on the Pacific North-west. Seattle is a really really great city. As good, to me, as San Francisco is disappointing… but a little more on that later.

We left Portland by train for the 3 and half hour trip through gorgeous country to Seattle and arrived around lunchtime, pulling into the city next to the focus of our trip, SAFECO Field.

Then, for the afternoon we walked. Clean, leafy tree lined streets along wide pavement in a bustling city full of welcoming people reminded me almost instantly of Sydney. The weather – a perfect sunny Sydney afternoon in early Decemeber – didn’t hurt and though the vista of distant snow capped mountains around the city ensure I never got too close to forgetting where I was, the vibe that undercut our weekend just made us feel welcome.

That’s a welcome missing from California where smiles are forced and a little hollow, where tourists are tourists and locals don’t want anything to do with them and everything is just a little… or a lot if you’re in LA… more phoney.

I’d been to San Francisco once before and didn’t really like it then. It’s absolutely a very cool place with awesome locales and there is no doubting it’s deserved reputation as a world class city. Sure it’s fucking freezing and all but it’s also cold; it’s just not … friendly.

This return trip, partly a promise to Her that I’d give it another go, didn’t change my mind. Really, it solidified those feelings. We had great fun there, but it was always with people. Good people like Mike and Evan, Marie, Chris and Jose… great times and we were absolutely treated as valued guests. But alone?

There’s some things I’ve seen in cities with a lot of tourists. Cities welcome them, and their valuable tourist dollars, in so many different ways.

In Tokyo they’re happy to have silly gaijin and genuinely like and want to help but you’re definitely an honoured guest the whole time.

New York moves ever onward and there’s a feeling that no on there is really a local anyway, everyone is just a transplant from somewhere else along for the ride.

Barcelona? It’s a living city and you can walk around and look at the shit they are happy for you to see but the locals don’t care if you do or not because it’s almost midday siesta time and maybe they’ll worry about you minyana.

Sydney tries too hard, like we’re always looking for that International acknowledgment that we do belong on the World stage even though maybe if more locals looked around they‘d realise how lucky they actually are to be in what is close to paradise.

Paris smiles and lets you enjoy what they’ve known all along – it’s the best place on Earth and as long as you want to think that way you’ll enjoy it too.

But San Francisco? It’s like they set up some places for tourists to go… Fishermans wharf, Union Square, the Bridge area… and they want you to go there. And you will. But everywhere else, well, it’s a living, working city and if you want to check it out you can, but… well…

Seattle’s not in that category of city and there’s less tourists but they mix so well with locals and no one is upset to see you there… We spent two days walking around or catching the bizarre public transport or driving around with friends and I couldn’t stop shaking my head as the place just kept getting better and better. I think I learned something this week and I’m really glad I had that chance.

The Coolest City in the World?

sydneysox — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 23:24:38 +0000

It’s not just about beer. Portland is great.

After only a few hours in this little Oregon city I said the words I’d come to hear from a dozen more mouths over the next two days; “This is a really liveable city.”

It’s small. There’s no distinct, iconic landmarks, no great natural wonder, though it has a huge river crossed by three or four distinctly cool bridges and it‘s surrounded by rolling hills and tall, green Pacific-Northwest trees. There aren’t tourists thronging every street like the metro centres of all the other big American cities we’ve been to over the years.

But it’s brilliant. Guided by the former local, we walked through Pioneer Square with its clean streets, wide sidewalks and criss-crossed one-way streets that shared their way forward with an efficient light rail. We tracked through the Pearl, an awesome and eclectic reclamation project that has worked to turn old decaying industrial behemoths into clean, modern, hip social centres. On every corner there’s a microbrewery full of young people and every other street hides another cool specialty store.

We rented bikes and rode up and down a mountain, passing rose gardens, Japanese gardens and beautiful pine forests. We rode through neighborhoods, across the river, through Ladds Addition.

And we ate and we drank.

We smashed our way through the Portland Brew Festival and while I didn’t really enjoy many of the hop-heavy American beers, She did and it was three or four hours well spent. Besides, the night before I’d had a chance to smash my way through glass after glass of Oregon pinot at the Southpark wine bar (the Christopher 07 from the Dundee Hills was my favourite on the night of half a dozen). We drank at breweries, we ate burgers and pizza and fish and had better coffee here than anywhere else in this awful coffee making country.

And, continuing the great trend established in Ojai and then SF by Christopher, Marie, Jose, Leanne, we spent time with good people! Locals proud of their city with every right to be. Thanks to Joey, Bryan, Bryn, Skye, Craig, Katherine and Natalie for showing us your town.

But then again, I think you catch ‘nice’ from the water in Portland. I’ve never been to a place where more people are nice. Everyone. Including the homeless people. We got a wave from a baglady riding through a neighborhood and then, early this morning on the way to the train as we passed an old man talking to himself, he stood and shouted out… “Have a safe trip! Enjoy your travel!”

Unbelievable.

It’s a cool place and we had a brilliant time. Just a day and a half but we saw so much.

I could live there. It’s a very liveable city.

Mark Twain was right…

sydneysox — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 16:11:20 +0000

San Francisco is freezing.

It’s was a surprise to me when we learned the cold Winter day we’d left in Sydney had followed us to San Francisco as a cold Summer day of the same temperature, but a long walk up and down the cities famous hills quickly warmed us up.

Good times here already. In San Francisco and in California.

It’s been a busy few days but already we’ve covered some ground here.

- LA to SF via Ojai, San Luis Obispo and Gilroy’s shopping;

- Mexican food everywhere from roadsides, weddings, restaurants and the Mission district with friends;

- Shopping… San Francisco shopping and Skye buying 400 different things that’ll tide her over until the next time we come to the US…

- food, like crab, oysters and steelhead salmon in SF, mexican everywhere and ballpark hotdogs; and

- baseball, on which more is to come.

There’ll be more in a bit. Not much time here because we’re very busy in San Francisco and we’re getting ready to leave because we’re off to see the Sox this afternoon… I hope it warms up!

Rolling Thunder!

sydneysox — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 17:12:44 +0000

California delivered as we stepped off the plane. It was hot, alien and alive.

Long haul flights suck. That’s not news. But if they have anything going for them it’s an appreciation for life when they’re over. They’re hard work, no matter where you sitting (Unless you’re the couple next to us who paid for four seats so they could lie down), though the movies and food are better these days and I’ll remember the steward who responded to my request for a whisky with a glass full to the brim.

But when they’re over you’re somewhere. That somewhere could be home – the depressing end of a holiday or maybe the welcoming comfort of your own bed after weeks in hotel rooms – or it could be the excitement of somewhere new.

And today it’s new. California. Los Angeles, a city that we are, for the first time ever, not leaving straight away.

We got straight through customs and baggage without a problem and walked into another World. I’ve spent a long time in this Country and we come back here a lot but the accents, flags and people get me every time.

Exhaustion and another longish car trip left us zombies when we arrived at “ROLLING THUNDER” (the place we’re staying at this weekend is a ranch called Rolling Thunder, complete with a pool, two spas and a living room with a fireplace that’s flanked by two fish ponds indoors) into the arms of family and friends by the pool.

Chips and salsa were heaped on tables and the Coronas were cold.

We stayed awake as long as possible and collapsed in bed and woke to a glorious hot morning sun.

So with a breakfast of chips and salsa and a day that I will definitely spend next to a pool with beer ahead, it’s time to finish. But this weekend we’re attending the Southern Califnornian wedding of the year so I’m sure there’ll be more to add later.

The Second Second Summer

sydneysox — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 00:03:30 +0000

Winter in Sydney isn’t bad; there’s no snow. There’s no sleet, no black ice, no strepth throat.

But it is cold. It rains. The wind cuts through grid-pattern streets on a mission to hound the poor souls retreating from work at night.

So fuck that. We’re off again.

It’s funny… this time one year a year ago we were walking the streets of Carcassonne on a pleasant French summer day. And this time tomorrow we’ll be in Los Angeles.

It’s been a weird week but this morning I pulled my long forgotten board shorts and thongs from their forgotten places at the bottom of the closet and I smiled because I knew it won’t be too long before we’ll be enjoying summer again.

Today: Sydney… I can’t get to the Airport quickly enough.

Tomorrow: Los Angeles, California.

I’m not dead yet!

sydneysox — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 00:05:04 +0000

… Some of you know the big secret – we’re back in Sydney.

But we’re not finished. I’m going to write a bit about Hong Kong, the last part of our trip, and then a few more things on the trip.

Don’t stop looking now!

Croeso i LOEGR…

sydneysox — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 16:32:36 +0000

Welcome to England, indeed.

We left Barcelona in a hurry not of our choosing. The cab driver, who at some point was having a conversation on three different communication devices (mobile phone no1 in one ear; mobile phone no2 on bluetooth; taxi radio) floored his horrible old taxi the entire way out to the airport.

We weren’t in a rush, but we survived in time to wait several hours for our flight to Bristol, England (from where we would visit Cardiff for one more night in Europe). The flight, btw, was the flight no one would have cared about had it crashed; us and 98 19-22 year old British ~~losers~~ travellers with bad pink sunburns, bad minger accents and bad panama hats (guys, every one of them) or tank tops designed to show off beer guts (ladies, every one of them.)

The nice part was landing at Bristol International Airport, alive, and walking through the long lines to the front of the queue as the only International, non EU travellers.

We had a great night with the Welshman and the American, enjoying a night in Cardiff with good food and good wine (St Emillion red, for old times sake) and their good friends. One of them drank Fosters. Apparently he does it all the time. Strange.

That night I kicked the Welshmans ass at Sega Rally at his own house on his own stupid X-Box.

The next day we toured Cardiff again, seeing all the sights. Five minutes later, when we were done, we headed out into the green rolling countryside to stop at a good old Welsh pub whose name I’ve forgotten but was probably “The Horse’s Testicles” and had good local ale and food. We also got to listen to a trio of big elderly Welsh gents speaking to each other in Welsh, something I can now tick off my list of ‘things I heard happened but wouldn’t believe until witnessed’.

The goodbye was tough – they’re good people, and they were great and generous hosts who not only put us up but drove us to Heathrow.

We’ll see them, and the UK and Europe again. No doubt.

For now, though, it’s almost home… Hong Kong next for a few days and then… work on Monday. Crazy.

Next: Hong Kong, where Sezchaun food is on the menu.