I’m sitting in JFK airport on my way back to BTV.. It’s been a long.. but pretty easy travel day. We (me, and my friends Edie, Mike and Bill) left J’berg at about 8:30 last night..The flight to London took about 10.5 hours.. I slept a good portion of the way. We got to London at about 7:30 this morning.. stayed there for about an hour and a half Then took th 6 and a half hour trip here.. again.. I slept a good portion of that.. I feel pretty good for the miles I’ve put in this week. I suspect I’ll feel it in a day or two.. It was a great and productive trip on every dimension..

I have a big backlog of pictures from the trip to Pilanesburg Park yesterday.. so let me get busy posting those..

The van picked us up at the hotel at 6:40 in the morning.. (yuck).. everyone else was all bright eyed and chipper… all morning people.. eeeek..

We then started the roughly 2 hour trip out to Pilanesberg.. it was interesting.. parts of it were beautiful.. parts of it were grim.. It was mostly flat and covered with dry grass and scrubby trees. The whole way our driver Richard told us about local customs (men in his tribe have multiple wives.. he couldn’t believe that in India there were places where women have multiple husbands). He told us about the local languages and religions.. Here he is teaching us the all important phrase ” I dropped my pen in the mashed potatoes”. Here it is first in Zulu

..

Then in Xhosa.. the local language of the bush

..

On the drive, we past several towns.. all were pretty modest.. Lots of homes made of corrugated steel.. Some cool traditional round houses . All of it was a stark contrast from the gleaming steel and glass of downtown J’berg.

The kids were all on their way to school…

the plain that J’berg is on is actually 2000 meters above sea level . As we got closer to the park, we came upon the mountains. .. in fact these are very old volcanoes..

We stopped at a “Wimpy’s” for a quick breakfast.. (want a Wimpy coffee ?) .. It could have been anywhere in the world inside there.

Except maybe for the wild game jerky

We then passed several of the areas large platinum mines.. they employ most of the folks in the surrounding towns..

Each had a huge pile of tailings nearby.

As we got nearer the park we stated seeing a few animals.. like these baboons in the road.

At last we came ot one of the park gates.

Richard told us that the park actually sat in the collapsed crater of an old volcano.. here’s the map.

We got out and stretched and changed over to the land rover.

The whole place was covered with thorny Acacia trees.. the favorite food of Girraffes.. looks dangerous !

Here’s John R aboard the land rover looking Indianajonesish

We said goodbye to Richard.. then we were off

We went through an electrified fence that was worthy of Jurassic park

We only dorve a few minutes until we spotted our first Zebra…

And above him a pair of Kudu.. You can tell their age by the number of curls on their horns.

Here’s a tiny Stienbock.. very quiet.. with huge ears.

We turned a corner and found ourselves face to face with this guy.. The guide (I never got her name) told us that Giraffes sometimes eat bones to get calcium

Yikes.. now more Zebra.. they were everywhere. We learned that a zebra can mate with a donkey and have colts.. and that donkeys can mate with horses and have colts.. but that zebras and horses were too far apart to breed.. Strange.. no ?

More big guys

Then we heard a far away bellow and looked down to see these Hippos in the small pond.. At this point the guide explained that this place was totally natural.. no animal was fed by humans.. or protected by humans.. this was wild.

We lurched around a corner and I was the first to spot this guy a White (or weit) rhino..

I figured he needed a SamStone.. s I tossed one his way..

Then we came across a small herd of Impala..

We saw this starling.. the photo doesn’t do his iridescent blue plumage justice, though.. he was amazing.

Uh-oh.. Impala fight !

The un-victor walks away

Here ware some handsome Wildabeasts.. also known as Gnu’s… what’s Gnu with you ?
The guide says that no one can resist saying that.

This guy looked particularly gnu-like.. he was determined to cross the road.. we had to get out of his way.

Then they all crossed.

We saw these weaver bird nests.. they’re designed this way to keep out prsitors.. mostly snakes.

We came across another pond…

With more zebras..

This, unfortunatly, was as close as we came to seeing an elephant..

Here are some Cormorants.

And right under them, 4 big hippos.. We were reminded thta they are the most dangerous animals to man.. There are more deaths from Hippo rampage then from any other animal in africa.. Note the huge slash on this guys back.. We were told that it was probably the result of a territorial fight with another hippo .

We then came upon another group of Zebras.. These girls ere really cute.. one by one they crossed the street.. stopped in the middle and looked our way.. it looked like a fashion show..

Then they all lined up to drink. Is that cute or what ?!

That was it for the park.> We left through another gat, met up with Richard agian and had a great lunch at a very classy lodge..

Here’s Richard horsing.. I mean Hippoing around..

Like everywhere else we went, this place had ice in the mens room urinals.. we understand it’s easier on the septic systems.. Interesting custom.. but it was all over !

The lodge had this cool tile all over.. it was scary !

Yumm.. mango drinks for everyone ..

The food was yummy.. though not very African !

This guy was very interested in our meal.. He flew right in to our table.

Whatever a bush braai at a boma is…

Outside the place was crawling with Monkeys..

This guy had bagged a juice box..

Time to go…

We climbed back in the van.. on our way out,. we saw this one big Kudu buck..

We motly slept and read on the drive back to J’berg.. The papers were full of stories about the violence against foreign workers..

Wge got back to the airport around 4 in time for Lori’s 6:30 flight.

We said good by to Richard.. and I gave him a SamStone..

Then we charged into the chaos of the J’berg airport.. it was nutty.. all under construction and packed.

I found a quiet spot upstairs to plug in (Sout african plugs are mighty impressive) and began to work. I got a ton done

On the way to the airport I called my mentee (protogee ) Peleria who lives in Pretoria and is a grad student at the U of Pretoria. We were paired up through Mentornet.org..
He offered to drive into the Airport so we could actually meet in person.. He made it there abotu 5:30 which gave us an hour to talk. It was so good meeting him face to face. He’s in his final year of a PhD. in Computer Speech Recognition.. He’s about 30, is married and has a young baby girl at home.. It was so fun talking to him about grad school life. He told me about how hard he was working in this last year.. . i remember so well what that was like to be driving towards finishing with Diane and Max at home.. how hard I was working and how stressful it was. .. and how nice it was to come home to a family. We talked about his research and I figured out some very good contacts in his field which I’ll help him make . I think that’s the best help I can give him. I’m going to see if I can get him an interview in IBM next year when he’s closer to done..
It was so great meeting him face to face.. A

At 6:30 it was time for me to go through customs.. that took forever.. I met up with my IBM friends..boarded the plane.. then began the long trip home.. It was a busy wand fun week. I can’t wait to see my family.. Gotta board the flight now.. See you guys.. Love you sam !

-me