Jambo Junior

The travel tails have been a bit light on of late, but I've got enough saved up to last a lifetime after my last trip. I went on safari in Kenya to three different parks, the Masaai Mara, Lake Nakuru, and Samburu. The 5 days we actually spent safari-ing were some of the best of my life, it truly was a magnificent experience, and I certainly didn't get "animal-ed out" as I had been warned!! Our guide was a man named Justice, who'd been a safari guide for 45 years, and I jokingly demanded that he find me a rhino and baby, along with basically every other baby animal I could rattle off. I'd been joking about all of them (of course, secretly hoping to catch a glimpse of the Big 5) but Justice delivered.

We'd been roaming around Lake Nakuru, marvelling at the sight of the pink flamingos in the lake, and keeping an eye on a distant buffalo. Justice had driven us far enough away from the buffalo so we could get out and walk around a bit, but he was still wary. We got back in the van as the clouds began to darken and the wind picked up. It was after a pack of babboons that we came across our first rhino. It was absolutely huge, and covered in mud, and seemed completely oblivious to our van parked not 10 metres away.

Justice spotted a "crash" of rhinos (I just googled the collective noun for rhinos and this is it!) further on, and as we approached I spotted this baby, and my heart melted. While the older members of his crash paid no attention to us, little Junior was not impressed. He twice attempted to charge us, the sight of his fat little legs propelling him made us laugh, but he'd chicken out and veer off before he got too close. I could have watched him for the rest of the afternoon, but the rain had other plans for us.

Here's a first for Travel Tails, video!


The photos of more amazing animals can be found on my photo site.

Get ready

There will be some extremely fantastic travel tails in the next couple of weeks, once I finish my current travels and can get home and upload them all!

Startled

The city of Chittagong in southern Bangladesh is home to a thriving port. The busiest trade in the port area is shipbreaking, an horrific practice whereby gigantic ships are taken apart bit by bit to be sold as scrap metal. The horrific part is that this is done by the hands of men, not machines. Men who are paid peanuts and who are not given personal safety equipment. Many of the beggars on the streets of Chittagong who are missing limbs formerly worked in the shipbreaking yards.

While this isn't a particularly fantastic photo of the animal, it does give a bit of scale to how big some of the ships are that come into the yards. It's a noisy business, and as this dog made his way along the beach, he was startled numerous times by the sounds of banging metal.

The Vista

I'd never had a burning desire to visit the USA, but I'd thought that if I did, I'd want to do a road trip in a convertible. When I ended up in the States I knew that it had to be done, and decided to drive up the west coast, from Los Angeles to San Francisco. The only convertible the rental company had was a brand new, bright red Mustang, which seemed highly appropriate, so off I roared. The wind was in my hair, the sun was shining, and I had a fantastic mix CD that was perfect for singing along to at the top of my lungs. I drove along beside the ocean, through the forests, marvelling at the varying landscapes.

I passed a road sign that said "Elephant Seal Vista," and thought it an odd name for a lookout, since there couldn't possibly be any elephant seals. However when I approached the lookout, there were quite a few cars parked, so I pulled over to check it out. A couple of seconds passed before I realised all of the large rocks on the beach weren't rocks at all, but massive seals. It was nap time as there was barely any movement, and the thought crossed my mind that perhaps there'd been some freak accident and they were all dead. But every so often, a giant rumbling sigh would escape one as it wriggled around and rolled over.

I stood watching them for quite some time, and as the minutes rolled by, I could spot more action. There were two ginormous males having a tousle in the shallows, a little baby awkwarding sliding after its mother. But the vast majority were like the ones above, happy to laze around enjoying the sunshine.

The Ladies and The Tramp

A very special guest blogger has provided the following travel tails, my Mum!!

Our holidays visiting Carly and her brother have presented us with many photo opportunities, and the following are a couple of my favourite Tails.

Life on the streets of Bangkok: not easy! This tramp may have found some comfort on his bench at the ferry terminal, and the bottle below? Well that's exactly how we found him.

Some doggies have a very different life experience. Take the ladies of Ginza Street, Tokyo.

After checking out the leather wear at Prada, dogdem sets in and it's far too much effort to walk to Louis Vuitton. A ride in a jaunty dog-o-pram is necessary for these pampered pups.

Left out

A blue gate is almost as great as a blue door. After finishing a magnificent four wheel drive tour of Bolivia, we were left in the small town of Uyuni. As either the start or end point for any four wheel drive tour, the place is filled with tourists, but in the part of town we pulled up in, there was not a soul on the street. Except for this shaggy guy, who was obviously desperate to escape the deserted streets and get into where all the people were. At least he had some shade to wait in.

Let sleeping dogs lie

One of my favourite things in life is seeing a blue door. This is closely followed by seeing a red door. So you can imagine my delight when I noticed this blue door in Humahuaca, in the very north of Argentina. I'd spent many hours on a luxurious bus (seriously, the buses in South America feel more like aeroplanes) to get up to the north, where I'd hoped I could find some condors. When I reached the small town of Humahuaca it was siesta time and it was quite the ghost town. My travelling companion and I wandered around, trying to find some shade, and marvelled at the incredibly tall cacti that dotted the landscape. We managed to find a restaurant that was open and after eating an unsatisfying lunch we strolled around the town. The blue door caught my eye first and then the sleeping doggy in front of it. I was immediately reminded of my canine friend in Nepal.

I never did see any condors, I was easily convinced to carry on into Bolivia, where there were many travel tails to be had. I'll just have to go back one day to track down those condors to share with you.