rain x2

ANOTHER week of rain.  The good thing is that when it rains, it pours, and then it's over.  The sun usually comes out and it's so freaking hot that it dries everything up and within an hour it looks like it never rained - most of the time.  There are the occasional days when it is gloomy/rainy all day, but for the most part we always see the sun.  Regardless, enough is enough!

When I'm in camp, I usually have after work activities planned for myself all the time.  We don't have much downtime, but when we do I usually fill it up to help the time go by.  Monday, Wednesday, and Friday nights someone usually leads yoga for a group of folks and I try to make it.  The guy that normally leads it got a new job and rotated out of Malongo in January, and the girl that normally leads it is on time off so I volunteered to lead.  Now when I say "lead" I mean that I'm the one who got all of the audio files, I bring a speaker, and I push play.  I never intended to be the one that everyone looks at when we can't hear the lady or have no idea what she means by "supta baddha konasana"?!? For the most part, everyone knows what's going on, but there have been a few times when I look up completely confused to everyone's equally confused faces and just have to laugh...obviously not professional Yogis :)

FYI - one of my favorite "poses"

Other than that I'm just praying for clear skies for the next 8 days.  It sure is hard to get construction done when it's wet!   

20 days down, 8 to go!  xoxo...

RAIN

We had SO much rain last week, and yesterday's downpour really put a damper on my blog posting.  The truth is that last week really wasn't been too exciting...

I did go to my Water Survival/Helicopter Training last week.  For as long as I can remember, I have had dreams about drowning in some form or fashion, so this whole training program was pretty much my nightmares coming true.  It's a required training, and most people think it's fun.  I am not one of those people.  I am grateful because I do think that (God forbid) if I was ever in an emergency situation I would feel slightly more confident in my survival abilities.  But I do not need to do that ever again.  Lucky for me, this training certificate is valid for 5 years and you better believe that I will not be working offshore Angola 5 years from now... 

Training pool...

It's been 9 weeks today since I left Houston, and it honestly feels like I just left a few weeks ago.  I guess having a faaaantastic vacation in between my 2 hitches helps with the time flying by.  Anyway, the good news is that I will be back on American soil in to time flat!     

13 days down, 15 to go!  xoxo....

habits

You know "they" say that it takes 21 days to form a new habit.  I've never really been on board with the theory.  I think if you're a morning person it's in your bones to wake up with the sun and if not, tough luck with a 5am wake up call.  Same goes for all kinds of random habits like having to have something sweet after dinner (ice creeeaaamm) or having to have Chapstick (the blue kind) with you at all times or being obsessed with chewing gum or having to start your day with at least 2 cups of coffee...(all habits that I wish I could break).  That being said, I've never consciously tried to prove the theory.  I mean I make New Year's Resolutions to work out every day, but I've never actively put effort into really developing or changing a habit.

Anyways, this week I've realized that "they" might just be right on this one.  I spent 28-days in countries that drive on the left side of the road.  10 of which I had a rental car, and the other 18 being a passenger/pedestrian.  So now I am back in Angola where, even though things may be quite backwards here, they do drive on the right (and correct) side of the road.  I noticed over the past few days that I am having to actively think about which way I am supposed to turn while driving.  Not only that, I'm giving people bad looks for walking on the wrong side of the sidewalk, when in fact, it's my fault.

So, I'm on board.  

Things are picking up speed on my project, and there are all kinds of new faces in camp.  Most of the folks new to Malongo have been supporting the project fabrication in Korea and are moving into new roles for hook up and commissioning activities.  So the office is pretty busy, and it's been nice to see new faces (even if I can't remember a single name).  I'm definitely looking forward to my nap this afternoon!     

Missing this beach and this boy...

5 days down, 23 to go!  xoxo...    

post-vacation blues

Just for clarification...I'm still on vacation, yet the post-vacation slump is already setting in...

So I left you last week at the peak of Chad and my travel woes.  Believe it or not, it got worse before it got better.  When we safely arrived in Johannesburg and got settled into our room for the night, we decided to get out and have a nice meal before heading to the bush - steak and wine, our go-to since arriving in South Africa.  When we got back we got connected to the wifi to check in with the folks, and Chad got an email from work saying that his small 200-person company had just been bought.  Now, this would have been stressful enough had he been in the office getting the news face-to-face, but the poor guy was 10,500 miles away and 10 hours ahead of work.  He was able to talk to a few co-workers, but I'm pretty sure he didn't have a restful night for the rest of the trip.  I'll brag on my guy again...somehow he was able to get work off his mind, relax, and really enjoy the last few days of our time together.

The next morning we met up with the group of folks that we would be traveling with for the next few days and headed towards Kruger National Park.  There were 10 total - 5 Germans, 1 Frenchman, 1 Israeli, 1 Australian, Chad and me.  We arrived at the Balule Game Reserve, where we would be staying for the night and got straight on a sunset game ride.

I've come to learn that the goal of any safari in Africa is to see and photograph the "Big 5."  The Big 5 consist of the rhino, elephant, buffalo, leopard, and lion.  Originally, they were coined the Big 5 by the hunting community because they were the ones that if you shot and did not kill, they were coming after you for revenge.  The buffalo and elephant are the easiest to come across, but apparently you rarely see the rhino, even more so the lion, and you are least likely to see the leopard.  We successfully saw 3 (or 4, but more on that later) of the 5!

Like I said, the first night we went on the sunset ride.  Only a few minutes in came right across a male buffalo.  Typically the buffalo travel in large herds, but occasionally a few bulls will get lazy in old age and want to stay in a location where food and water area easy to get to rather than grazing with the herd.  We cruised around for about an hour or so and saw all kinds of different impalas (which we would see LOTS of) and a few giraffes (my favorite), and then turned a corner and found a gigantic black rhino.  There are 2 rhinos in the bush, the black and the white.  Usually you will see the white because they are grazers and eat mostly grass.  The black rhinos eat leaves, therefore they are usually deep back into the bush and hard to see.  The rhino that we found was pregnant and angry.  She immediately started charging the truck, which freaked severals of the girls out, but our guide was so calm and knew exactly how to calm her down.  It was amazing.  As night fell, we headed to braai (BBQ) dinner that the staff provided and then finished out the night with some spotlighting.  Spotlighting is usually when you will have the best luck to see the leopard, but all we came across was a huge herd of buffalo and some smaller cats.   

Pretty view on the way to Kruger

This photo just looks like Africa to me

This little lady charging right at us....

She didn't look like she was going to stop!

First giraffe sighting!!!!

Came upon a buffalo herd...look at those creepy eyes!

The next morning we got up for a 5am sunrise bush walk in Balule.  We got to see the most gorgeous sunrise while driving to our trail, and then hit a road block - 3 black rhinos!  The guides went on and on about how lucky we were to see the black rhinos not once but twice.  We all agreed, and then reminded them that we still had 3 of the big 5 somewhere out there waiting for us - typical tourists.  Or walk was very interesting and informative.  We talked about every kind of poop that we past, what it meant, and who it was from, and then tracked some lions for a while along the river.  But sadly, we never actually saw them.  We did see one lazy hippo and several giraffes, so I'd call it a success.

I'd say this view was worth the 5am wake up...

Beautiful!

After the walk, we had a light breakfast and then some much needed free time to nap before lunch.  We ate and went on another afternoon game ride before heading to the next lodge where we would be staying our last two nights in the bush.  The next lodge really felt like Africa.  It was deep in the bush and all of the rooms were either built into the side of a hill or they were in a tree - total Swiss Family Robinson style.  It was really neat, and Chad finally felt like he was in Africa; complete with spiders, mosquitoes, moths and lots of weird noises at night...          

The next morning we were finally heading to Kruger!  We left early the next morning for the park and spent ALL day driving around taking it all it.  It's hard to say what my favorite part of the day was, so I'll leave you with all the highlights.  I think the photos speak for themselves...

Driving into Kruger

Safari ready :)

We asked out guide what his favorite animal was, and he quickly answered elephants.  Everyone always wants to see cats (which was true for our group), but cats a lazy and typically don't do much.  He explained that elephants are lively and very entertaining, and he was SO right.  We came upon this large group and watched them for a while...very entertaining.  

These next few photos are my favorite.  There were two young male elephants playing in this waterhole that we sat and watched for a while.  There were also several hippos trying to rest, since it was the middle of the day, that were getting quite irritated with the elephants.  I've also goat few videos where you can hear the hippos yelling at the elephants, and the elephants giggling (or at least that's what I think they were doing.)

There is a momma hippo getting her baby out to move to the other side here.

So the elephants followed them..

and kept playing :)

There was a HUGE group of vultures, gross.

This handsome guy put on a show for us...

Just strutting his stuff.

Driving out we came upon a HUGE herd of buffalo.  These photos don't do it justice at all.

Traffic jam

So we left Kruger without seeing the king of the jungle, but I loved every minute of the day.  There was a moment when some of the people in the group (including me) were SURE that we saw a leopard camouflaged in the bush.  Our guide has his doubts.  We stopped, stared, tried to take some photos, and agreed to disagree...which is why I say that we successfully saw 4 out of the Big 5 :)  It really was an unforgettable experience.  

The next morning there was a short bush walk scheduled, and Chad and I were on the fence on whether or not we were going to make the 5:30am role call.  We both agreed that we should go because we would be in a car/on a plane for the rest of the day, so it would be good for us to walk a bit (sensible decision, we are old.)  After the walk (sans animals) we got in the truck to head back to Joburg.  We made a stop at Blyde River Canyon, which is proudly the 3rd largest canyon in the world (#1 Grand Canyon, #2 Fish Canyon in Namibia).  It is actually really stunning, and was a great break in the 5ish hour trip.  

Chad's time in Africa had finally come to an end, and I was (and still am) SO sad to see him go.  We've gotten pretty used to goodbyes, but for some reason this was the hardest.  It didn't help that I had a 2 hour wait and 2 hour plane ride to look through all our incredible pictures, think about what a great trip we had, and then come to the realization that I won't see him for the next 6 weeks...long distance is the pits!

I'm back in Cape Town now mentally preparing myself to go back to work on Tuesday and nursing my separation anxiety with beach time and some shopping.  I will reiterate how much I love this city.  I would move here in a heart beat!  I'm book a lot of travel through Airbnb (possibly a little too much, ask Chad for details) and I found a room in a great part of town to rent from a girl, Krisitn, for my last few days here.  Kristin is actually from Maryland and has been in Cape Town for 4 years.  She is wonderful, like almost too great.  She let me tag along to breakfast and a trip to the flea market with her friends this morning.  I've got one full day left on this amazing month in Africa, and I plan on spending it parked on the beach!

Sunday morning flea market...Table Mountain and Lion's Head :)

Until next time, from Malongo...xoxo....

CPT + ZimZam

Just FYI - I started writing this as soon as I got to Cape Town, and planned on making my Sunday (22-Feb) deadline but then Chad arrived and our wifi was sketchy.  So basically, it's all Chad's fault that I'm a week late.

So I talked to a looooot of people about driving in Cape Town, and they all assured me that I would be totally fine, no big deal.  I would equate driving in Cape Town to driving in San Francisco - which I can handle.  No Problem.  Except I'm driving a stick shift.  On the left side of the road.  And there are hills.  EVERYWHERE.  I was supposed to check into my place at 2pm.  My plane landed at 10:30am and I figured I'd cruise around, jam to some summer songs, and enjoy the day.  Instead, I drove straight to the house, begged the sweet German lady that I'm staying with to let me park my car in front of her house, and hoofed it around the neighborhood for the rest of the day.

Tuesday was a very, very lazy day for me.  Usually when I'm on vacation I'm constantly on the go because I only have a short period of time to see anything and everything (another trait my mother so graciously passed along to me).  I was in Cape Town for 10 days, and going back for another 4 at the end of my trip, so I didn't feel too guilty about sleeping in and recovering from my Namibian heat stroke.  I did walk along Kloof Street that has all kinds of restaurants and shops, but other than that I was a total bum.

On Wednesday, I walked down to the Victoria and Albert Waterfront and purchased my 2-day double decker tour bus ticket!!!!  Then I planted myself on the top deck for the remainder of the day.  Literally.  I got off once to have lunch in Camps Bay, but that's it.  I'm an avid fan of the City Sightseeing double decker tour company, like they should probably pay me for publicity.  I've taken their tours in New York City, London, Barcelona, and now Cape Town.  They say they are in over 100 cities worldwide.  Challenge = accepted.

Anyways, I took the long tour around the peninsula and learned so much along the way.  During Apartheid (which in Afrikaans means "apart-hood), there were 4 classes - White, Black, Indian, and Colored.  Your class determined several things, one of which being where you were allowed to live, whites closest to the city center and blacks/colored furthest out in the rural areas.  Many of the blacks and colored wanted jobs in the city and dreamed of education, so they would travel to and from the city each day in hopes of both.  The travel was long and costly, so many "informal settlements" or illegal townships/shanty towns developed on the outskirts of town.  Some of these townships still exist today, one of which is called Imizamo Yethu.  It is crazy, because this shanty town is nestled on the slopes of the mountains and there are very nice neighborhoods adjacent to the area.

Entrance of Imizamo Yethu

This is the Constantia wine country, and it's just a few miles away from Imizamo Yethu

The weather on Wednesday was absolutely beautiful, except for the fog that just seemed to sit at the top of Table Mountain Park all day.  This is pretty common in the summertime, and they call it the Tablecloth...very fitting.

Camps Bay and the 12 Apostles in the fog

Thursday, I jumped back on the bus, but I actually did get off this time and visit Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens (SO beautiful), Hout Bay (and old fishing community), and Camps Bay for a little nap in the sun...

Camps Bay and the 12 Apostles in the clear :)

Cape Town at the base of Table Mountain.  The shadow on the city is the mountain 

View of Devil's Peak from Kirstenbosch

Oh HI!

Old fishing boat in Hout Bay

Found this little guy swimming in Hout Bay

Viva!

Friday I moved from my little place in Tamboerskloof to a loft in Greenspoint, closer the the V&A Waterfront.  I did some laundry, and waited for my boy to get here!  I got to the airport super early and successfully dumped my stick shift VW for an automatic...thank goodness.  Chad got it at around 11 on Friday night, and as all 27 year-olds do, we went straight to bed.  I cut him some slack seeing as he did just travel for about 30 hours...

Saturday morning we headed to Table Mountain.  The sign said that it was "very cold" on top, and naturally we disregarded the clear warning.  It was freezing and verrrrrry windy.  We made a quick loop, took some very beautiful photos, downed some coffee, and headed back down...buncha wimps.  To warm up, we walked down Long Street to the market in search of souvenirs (successful trip, I might say) and then headed home to get ready for dinner.  I checked my email to find out that our shark diving trip we had planned for the next day had been cancelled due to bad weather.  Secretly, I was thanking the big man upstairs, but swimming with the sharks was the one thing Chad wanted to do while in South Africa, so after some scrambling we were able to get booked for the next day's trip (hooray).  We had a great dinner, and hit the town afterwards....which left us spending the entire next day napping on Camps Bay beach...   

Steepest cable car I've ever seen

Beautiful Cape Town

12 Apostles

Chad picking out his dinner 

happy boy

(too many) after dinner drinks...

Camps Bay with my babe

Monday (23rd) was our last morning in Cape Town, so we had some breakfast and headed to Gansbaai, about 2 hours from Cape Town.  Gansbaai is a little town that is basically on the map for whale watching and shark diving trips.  Unfortunately, there aren't any whales around this time of year, but lucky for us the sharks are still there...

Notice there are people in that cage...

What I thought would be our last photo together

this is real life

but first, let me take a selfie

After our 1st near death experience of the trip, we headed to Franschhoek.  Franschhoek is one of the smaller cities in the South Africa Winelands.  I have a friend from work that lives there, and insisted that we go and stay for at least a night on our trip.  So we did.  And I am so glad we did.  It was absolutely gorgeous, and the wine was not only delicious but SO cheap.  It took everything I had not to buy another bag just to fill up with vino.  The area is known for Sauvingnon Blanc, Chenin Blanc, and Pinotage - which we had never heard of, but it is a varietal created in 1925 that is a cross between Piont Noir and Cinsaut and it is deeeeelicious.  Franschhoek is also known for it's cuisine.  So basically, we ate and drank until we couldn't eat and drink anymore for the next 2 days.  We also took a trip up to Langebaan and had lunch at the Die Strandloper, a beautiful little restaurant on the beach.  By lunch I mean a 10 COURSE MEAL.  It was everything we had not to go straight into a food coma.  We spent our last night in Stellenbosch, which is also in the winelands, but we were all wined out and sat on the balcony eating pizza instead.  

First stop, Moreson

Another from Moreson

3rd stop, Dieu Donne Estate

4th stop The Grand Provence

annnnnnd it's time to go home...

Strandloper between courses 4 and 5...we had a break

Course 9..."crayfish" LOBSTER!

We left Stellenbosch super early to make our 7am flight to Victoria Falls!  The first fail of our planning of this trip was that we booked all of our flights before actually figuring out what we were doing.  At first, we were going to go from Cape Town to Mozambique for a couple of days on the beach, but then we decided to go to Victoria Falls instead.  Victoria Falls is on the Zambezi River, which is the border of Zambia and Zimbabwe.  The Victoria Falls Airport is in Zimbabwe, so we booked our flight there.  BUT after doing a little more research, we decided to stay on the Zambia side at the Royal Livingstone (which is phenomenal, and I 1000% recommend it) and there just so happens to be an airport in the town of Livingstone.  Whatever, we got there.

So after 2 planes (+ 1 delay), 2 taxis and 3 customs lines/checkpoints we arrived at the Royal Livingstone and it felt like a dream.  If any of you have seen the movie the Great Gatsby, it felt like that.  Magical.  I should have been wearing a very fancy dress and Chad in a 3-piece suit.  There was an open-air courtyard entrance into the perfectly groomed grounds with zebras grazing and the Zambezi River in the background.  The receptionists led us to the lounge where we checked in with peach iced tea and a hand massage (probably to ease the bill).  That night we went on a sunset cruise where we saw the most wonderful site (for me) to date.  An elephant family leaving the river after their bath...    

Entrance Courtyard

SO gorgeous 

O. M. G.

Oh hey hippos.

Pretttttty

The next morning we got up and took the most amazing helicopter ride we've ever taken.  I don't like helicopter rides.  I don't care where it is, I don't like them.  I'm not the greatest flier, but I'm worse when it comes to helicopters.  Which isn't too good for my job, seeing as I'm about to move offshore in a few months, but anyhoo....this ride was perfect.  15 minutes of beautiful views of both Zimbabwe and Zambia.  It was wonderful.  

After the ride, we had a trip to Livingstone Island booked.  When we booked our trip to Vic Falls and started doing research, Chad was pretty bummed because the water was going to be too high to swim in Devil's Pool, which is a "safe spot" in the river that you can swim in when the water is low.  Since this is high water season, there is not much you can do in the river right at the falls.  BUT leave it to my man to find a way to get right up to the death-defying edge of the river, looking 110 meters down at the chasim below.  We were able to walk along the edge and take a dip in Angel's Pool...I liked the name of that better anyway :)

After our swim, we walked into the Victoria Falls viewing area, and again, were amazed by this place.  

On the way back from our walk, Chad was being loud a goofy (typical).  I calmly explained that HE was the reason that we hadn't seen the giraffes that the other guests had seen around the area, and we probably wouldn't even get a glimpse.  Not even 30 seconds later, this happened....

They say, all good things must come to an end, and now I believe it.  Let the mix-ups and travel woes begin. Want to test your relationship?  Travel to Africa.  Lucky for me, I have one pretty good man...  

We were so sad to leave the Royal Livingstone, but were getting pretty excited to get to Kenya and then BOOM…our travel saga began.  When we were booking our flights from Vic Falls to Nairobi it looked like it was going to take us a day and a half to get from point A to point B.  Naturally, I wasn't going to stand for that so I booked us on Air Zimbabwe from Vic Falls to Johannesburg and then South African Airlines from Johannesburg to Nairobi - HA outsmarted those airlines.  So we get to the airport at 9AM for our 11AM flight to find out that Air Zimbabwe has cancelled our flight, awesome.  But no worries, they booked us on South African Airlines but we would only have 30 minutes to make our connection.  Just kidding, they booked us on British Airways and there was no way we could make our connection.  Cool.  So I start pacing and sweating, and Chad finds the most helpful woman in the world who booked us on a flight out of the Livingstone (Zambia) airport that will get us into Nairobi at 9:30PM, perfect.  So then we make the trip back across the borders to get to the airport, and 3 taxis later we are in the Kenya Airways meeting Timothy to get our tickets.  He tells us the total amount (I died) and then we hand over the credit card and he goes ohhhhhh, we only accept cash.  Um WHAT?  Have we traveled back to the 1950's?? The answer is yes.  We tried every trick in the book - contacting travel agents (it's Sunday and no one works), booking online (3 hours prior is too late for that), and begging - offering to leave my credit card with them - ANYTHING.  About 30 minutes later, we just hit the ATM and use every credit and debit card we had to get the heck out of Zambia and scrambled up enough Kwacha to pay our way.  

What a relief.  I finally stopped sweating and my heart calmed slightly.  So we go to check our bags and the ladies are mumbling to themselves about Chad's passport.  He doesn't have any empty pages left...okayyy, so???  So we sit.  And wait.  Finally a lady comes back, Chad goes to the counter the get things sorted, and I get back to writing my blog.  After about 20 minutes, he's not back and I look up to see his red little face - not good.  Apparently, you have to have 2 empty pages to even get into Kenya.  Period.  No if, ands, or buts.  The airline will get fined if they allow passengers with less than one page on the plane.  There was no bribe that we could have made to get past this one.  Kenya was out of the picture.  

Soooo after getting over the initial shock that we weren't going to the Serengeti and wouldn't have breakfast with giraffes, we started planning how to get back to Johannesburg and to Kruger National Park to see some animals.  We spent the night in Livingstone and are headed to Johannesburg today with hopes of getting to Kruger National Park tomorrow.  Fingers crossed I will have some photos of the Big 5 (lion, elephant, buffalo, rhino, and leopard) in no time :)

Note:  I posted this before leaving the hotel.  When we got to the airport we had yet another scare with the passport situation.  After talking to 3 different airline reps, and realizing that Chad already has a South African visa that is valid until May...we got out tickets.  Thank the good Lord above!

And DON'T worry, we are fine and determined to have a great rest of the trip.  Until next week....xoxoxoooo!