The Finals!

Are finally here!
3 tix... for Darb, Nic & I ...

NED bus waiting for the team :

Efan Ekoku preps for the game :

Christie show-cases the custom vuvuzelas :

IBC humor!

Hangin in the IBC halls w/ daddio :

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my iPhone4

Soweto : 10 July

We were given a special tour yesterday.

Moss Tau, a friend of Hugh Masekela (famous South African musician, and Sal's dad), gave us a first hand tour and account of the Soweto Uprising that started 16 June 1976.

Moss had been 30 yrs old at the time, too old to participate, as it was the students that had risen up in protest of a new law that was to mandate schools use the Africaans (Dutch-based) language, instead of English. His children were still in elementary school.

We went to visit the newly-erected statue of the student leader of the uprising Teboho "Tsietsi" Mashinini, which is on the grounds of the high school he attended.



We then followed the route the students had walked, and stopped at the site of their 1st clash with the police - near the Hector Pieterson memorial :

We also visited the houses of Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu - who lived on the same street in Soweto ... I can only imagine the level of political activity there in the 50s and 60s!

Lunch at Nabita... Making friends.
Nic's same 2 questions work all over the world : "what's your name?" and "how old are you?"

Cape Town (July 5-8)

Table Mountain - 6 July 2010

Boy oh boy! we all match in our spanky ESPN vests!


Nic met a canine Brazil supporter on a rock :


Jed gets behind the camera:





Pre-game neatness (and quiet) at NED-URU semis match
(VIP section ... thanks again Jed!!!!) :

Headphones dampen the vuvuzelas... And we got to keep the blankets! :

Cape Point Light House - 7 July :

Penguins at Boulder Beach :

Baboons on the side of the road... I was trying to get a photo of them opening a car door... but those smart baboons must have been somewhere else ... these were just picking bugs off each other! 

8 July: 

Darb goes to tour Robben Island (Mandela's prison) ... 

while I go to lunch with Tommy Gonzales :

Nic bouncing on the trampoline of Tommy's new 90' cat in Elliott Basin :

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Morukuru - movies

Young lions wrestling in tree :

Elephant digging for roots :

Lunch served by the water hole :



Giraffe Walking :
note that they move both legs on the same side while walking...



Evening game drive :
We set out around 3:30 or 4... sun sets by 5:15 or so, Tom brings out the lamp, and sweeps side to side. We looked for leopards, never found them ... but at least we saw the lions!



Butterfly hunters (Anthony and Nicole) :

On our way back from Morukuru to Johannesburg... 

Standard police checkpoint :

More from Morukuru (July 1-4)

NOTE : Just catching up on photos from past days
(I didn't feel much like blogging...  :(


The Lodge ... living room :

Reviewing the day's pictures with Amy, Anthony & Jabu:

Dining Room (yes, it seats 10...) :

Asion, our OUTSTANDING chef... prepared us 4 course meals... 3x a day!

(in a kitchen I want to own at home!)

One of the 3 bedrooms (all king sized beds) :

 

with 3 bathrooms to match!

And outdoors ... towards the river, breakfast on the deck :

A quick swim before lunch :

down by the river :

African BBQ out back in the boma :

Joined by our hosts (and guide) Amy & Anthony :

Sorry, Darb .... I didn't get a picture of the "fire pit" ... 

July 5 - More Travel... Cape Town

Arrived Cape Town...
Staying at the Taj downtown.
Long day of travel - but will start uploading back-logged photos tomorrow!

July 4 - Travel Day

No one told me you don't get to sleep on a safari!

Up at 6:00am for tea and a muffin, out the door in the dark at 6:30am ...
drive until 9am looking at majestic African wildlife,
breakfast at 9:30 or so...
relax (swim, read, wish I could sleep) until lunch at 1 or 2,
out at 3:30 for evening game drive, back at 7 (in the dark),
dinner 7:30-9:30 (they are multi-course, gourmet meals - best food I have EVER eaten!!)
download cameras, charge everything, try to write in blog, upload photos ...
in bed by midnight ... try to sleep...
Repeat for 3 days...

I would do it again in a heart beat!

July 4 was a low key afair : a BBQ in the hotel lobby :(

Off tomorrow for Cape Town -
Semi Finals Netherlands v. Uruguay on the 6th.

(scroll down for more safari photos of Lions...
I will upload the rest when I have slept more!)