From Winter to Summer in 1 easy week

It was almost precipitous that Winter took his leave,

for some of us not soon enough,

and the Grass of the Lawns and the leaves of the trees

burst forth in an exuberance of colour,

which was astonishingly bold in its haste.

The magic of this change would almost make you believe

that two kinds of Lilac would grow on one tree.

The back of our house!

It seems that until yesterday

the supports and the entire front of our balcony

were a drab, wintery brown

and then,

almost overnight they turned to this lush green.

and here is our pool!

I spent all day yesterday in cleaning it to within an inch of its being.

Even with two garden hoses 

it will take all day and all night and tomorrow

for it to fill up.

Then I can jump in, although the water from the tap

will only measure at about 16 to 18 degrees.

So it will be a header in

and a return dash

and up the ladder in a mad rush.

That's how Bertsravels sees it, anyhow.

some leavesinpool

There are some leaves in our pool

I'll wait a while, I ain't no fool

at 8 degrees it's still too cold

for'n early swim I am too old. 

The Elephant and the Painted Dogs

The morning starts to warm up nicely and we are taking off our Safari Jackets.
The breeze, coupled with the slow speed of our Cruiser is pleasant on my face.
There is a bend in the sandy road and what we see is almost beyond belief.
A pack of Painted Dogs are actually harassing an Elephant. They lunge at him and as he makes a few quick steps toward them, they back off. There is no barking. More like a little yelping. The Ele charges, the dogs back off... Finally they leave the road. We follow them and catch up at a little pond, where the dogs lounge in the sand.
I cannot believe it: Ant slowly gets out of the vehicle and motions me to come along. I think, well if Ant can do it, so can I.
I leave the Cruiser and sit in the sand, not more than 3 meters from the nearest dog. He /she looks at me with dark brown eyes. I take picture after picture in quick succession. The dog is totally relaxed and slowly my heart calms down and I can no longer hear its pounding.
This is getting close to nature. The Dog and I.
Ant assures me that there has never been a case of a Painted Dog attacking a human:
Now he tells me.

Our Lifestyle

I just thought you might be interested 

in our Lifestyle while on Safari.

Here is but a small sample of it.

On a sandy island in the middle of the mighty Zambezi River, 

we erected our sleeping quarters:

I planted my tripod firmly into the sand, stradling a thin bedroll, then carefully draped the mosquito net over it, 

tucked the ends under the bedroll, 

placed my hat on top of this contraption, 

and thought about how unbelievable it was, 

that I lay there, staring up at the Southern Sky, 

trying to find the Southern Cross 

and dreaming about what was and what was still to be.

Here we are, already a bit more sophisticated, 

with the dying sun over the Central Kalahari 

painting our "Mosy tents" with a hue of pink, 

letting all the wonderful animals we saw during this day, 

parade in front of our memory 
and hoping for this or more for the coming day.

In Hwange National Park. (Zimbabwe)

Do you wonder why the chairs are empty?

Let me assure you: Elephants ALWAYS have the right of way.

A modern shower installation:

With a bucket you fetch water from the Runde River, 

hang this shower container the way shown here

and have yourself a shower to wash off the dust of the day.

In the background: The Chilojo Cliffs

Can you claim this luxury in your home in Harare or Toronto?

Scrambled eggs and Bacon, along with toast and coffee, 

served  on the shores of the Runde River 

in Gonarezhou National Park,

or somewhere in Mana Pools.

That's a breakfast the Hotel Ritz Imperial could not provide.

The Hippo and the Crane

Africa is always exciting! But sometimes it can be very funny.
I shot this sequence somewhere in Mana Pools on one of the side arms of the Zambezi River.
A Gray Crane makes himself comfortable on the back of a Hippo.
Another Hippo, quite evidently does not like this bold intruder.
He snaps at the Crane ... there is a turbulence of water spray. You may think that was the end of the Crane, even though Hippos are Vegetarians, but noooo... The Crane gets away with a scare.

Lions Video

Normally I tell my "facebook" friends to view the pictures on my Blog, because the picture quality and size is much better here than on facebook.
However, I tried to post a Video here, but this site cannot accommodate its size.

So, now I must ask you to visit me on facebook

www.facebook.com/Bert Reitter 

there are some pretty good videos of Elephants and now also of Lions..

I look forward to your visit

Bertstravels

Independence Day Festival in Chivhu

After having visited the "Great Zimbabwe" or as they are also known, the "Zimbabwe Ruins" and on our way back to Harare, we drove through the town of Chivhu and found the town completely devoid of people. We found everybody around and in the Soccer Stadium, where Independence Day was being  celebrated. So, we turned off the highway and went to the Stadium. Many Citizens of Chivhu were milling around outside. Fortunately I had brought a Polaroid Camera and plenty of film packages with me and I started to take some pictures and handed them to the persons I had just photographed. It was my good luck, that one of them was the mayor of Chivhu, whose shot had turned out particularly well. At his request I took pictures of the town council, as well as of the mayor and his family. We where invited to participate in the celebrations and, in fact, were asked to sit at the Council's table. Gladys did so, but I asked permission to roam and take some pix, this time with my own Nikon.
One of the larger family groups invited us to partake of their celebratory dinner. There was some spicy soup and what seemed to be a vegetable and meat stew.
We were honoured and ate some of each.

 Just a small part of the crowd assembled in the Stadium.

This group asked us "to dinner"

We accepted, although we had no idea what awaited us.

Gladys remarked: "they all look healthy and well. 

Their food must be okay."

So, we ate! Tasted great.

 Entertainment was provided by an energetic group of young girls

who danced to the rhythms of two drummers.

The "Great Zimbabwe" in Masvingo

Several years ago, Gladys and I visited the "Great Zimbabwe"; a most interesting structure of stones built without any binding agent. Just stones fitted securely one upon the other.
There is, to this day discussion as to who were the builders.
We stayed overnight at a motel in the town of Masvingo. When we got up the next morning, one of the local kids had cleaned our car to within an inch of its life. It just glistened. Gladys, upon my question, suggested I should pay the lad the same amount as I would have had to pay in Toronto. So I did. 
This resulted in my just having hired a camera bag carrier and a guide, who knew the area, although communication was a bit difficult. He spoke no English and I spoke even less Shona.

No, Gladys is not holding up the wall. 

She is leaning against one of the outer walls of what is left of "the Great Zimbabwe"..... 

Note the snake pattern on the very top: a sign of Fertility. 

and also note that there is no binding agent between the building stones.

Four Ladies, visiting the site. 

This, unfortunately damaged site, clearly shows the absence of a binding agent.

At the foot of this tower stands our guide and carrier.
The purpose of this cone is also a matter of debate.
Since it has no opening at the bottom and is a solid structure, it cannot have functioned as a grain bin or similar purpose structure. One theory, which has been told us, is that it was erected to show all comers, friend or foe, that this is a mighty place with a tower reaching above its walls. 
In front, our new-found friend.

Over the "Seeberg Pass"

What a glorious day it was yesterday. The sun shone from a cloudless sky and the temperatures rose to the low 20s. What else to do for Christin and me than to head for the wonderful outdoors.
We crossed the "Seeberg Sattel" ( the S. pass ) into Slovenia and grabbed a few shots of the imposing Grintavec Mountain. All of its 2,500 meters, still snow covered and best viewed from below.

Although snow still lies heavily on the "Grintavec," 

meltwater streams into the valley through many narrow waterfalls.

We've crossed the zenith of the Seeberg Pass and descend in to the valley below.

A small lake, or maybe it's a large pond 

adds to the romance of this location.

On the return trip we are confronted with a different reality:

On one side the majestic, still snow covered, peaceful mountain ,

on the other side, in the cradle of one of the many hairpin curves,

a reminder of the lunacy and destructive cruelty of man:

A First World War bunker.

How many men died in the hail of bullets 

spewing from this very concrete creation of man?

Let me ask and answer this question in a collective way:

During WWI, when Italy and Austria were bitter enemies,

they fought devastating battles along the Isonzo

 and many other key points of destruction.

In my mind, this lone, abandoned bunker stands as witness to 

over 1,200,000 cumulative casualties. 

Imagine: One Million and two hundred thousand

Italian and Austrian husbands, fathers and sons

were robbed of their lives because...?

Because of what???

Who truly knows? Nobody knows!

What abysmal lunacy war was then, is now,

and forever will be.

The Wall of Elephants

Chilojo Cliffs, Gonarezhou National Park, Zimbabwe.

It was early in the morning. The sun had just decided to throw its first bundle of rays onto the cliffs of Chilojo, bathing them into almost a cacophony of reds and golds. A lone Elephant, Ant called him “one of the biggest tuskers of Gonarezhou,” slowly, in fact, very slowly made his way across the sandy shores to the river Runde evidently for an invigorating morning drink.

Breakfast was consumed hastily because this day's Safari would lead us quite a distance from our campsite. We loaded lunch, water and, most important, my camera gear onto Ant's “Green Monster” and we were off!

The multitude of animals we encountered were almost beyond listing. From a lone bull Ele to entire families of Impala, lead by a mighty buck, his horns in a wide arch, proud, it seemed to me.

A family of Warthogs, who, I understand, do not like to be called “pigs” were rooting under the top soil for truffles, I assume.

A show-off Nyala, with wife and two daughters, two Bat-Eared Foxes, listening to a bug crawling under ground, four Cheetahs, eyeing us suspiciously and then disappearing into the brush.

Finally there was this Elephant cow.

Ant stopped and for a while we stared at each other. The Ele and we.

We stepped off our cruiser. The Ele watched us carefully. Then she trumpeted a challenge, waved her ears like the sail of a dhow and threw some sand into the air.

We stood our ground.

She turned and uttered a sonorous call toward the bushes, some 30 to 50 meters distant.

On this command, Eles appeared from behind bushes and trees, at least 20 in number. In almost military precision they formed a wall.

Several babies, well out of harm's way, in the back of the grown-ups.

They blasted, threw sand and generally behaved in a less than hospitable manner.

Ant once more confirmed his reputation as the “Elephant Whisperer” He, believe me, this is in no way hyperbole, he talked to the herd of Eles. In a low sound, coming from the depth of his chest, sounding very much like the sound of an Elephant, he seemed to assuage their anger.

Some of the younger ones, almost babies, pushed to the front row. One could almost hear them ask: “Hey what's happenin'”

and then they all moved behind the bushes from whence they had come.

This confrontation lasted for the better part of an hour.

I think they probably were afraid of the sound of my heart beating in double time.

This was a moment of time in Gonarezhou.

This was an adventure, one of many with Ant Kaschula

Bertspix.

Bleiburg Spring

Bleiburg and its House Mountain, the Petzen.

Colloquially this Spring Flower is called "Schneerose"  ( snow rose)

I don't know its proper botanical name. 

So we shall just call it by its local name.

Why comments by e-mail?

I get several comments to some of my more controversial entries here. All of them by e-mail...
Why do people who want to talk to me not use the Comment button attached to the Blog?
My e-mail is of course known only to my friends. They too could use the Blog Response.
However, here are, for instance, today's statistics regarding my readership during Last Week:
France 144, Austria 98, Canada 32, USA 14,South Korea 9, China and Germany 7, Portugal 5 and UK and India 2 each.
don't ask me why 2 people in India would want to read my Blog?
Bertstravels.

My Easter Story ..answers to comments

My Easter Story .. answers..

It is truly interesting: I received a number of comments about my “Easter Story” Several were in positive agreement with my thoughts, others however did allow that they had a different set of beliefs.

The fascinating considerations which one must gather from the negative comments is, that not one of them discussed the issues I raised. Not one of them said: Bert, you are wrong because....

One said: “How can you question the word of God? Be careful, God's vengeance may be swift.”

Well, I can question it because first I do not believe that the Bible is “the word of God”. It is , I believe, the word of several, definitely not God-inspired, human beings, evidenced by the “human traits” with which God is endowed., evidenced by doubt, anger, punishment, penalties, evidenced by contradictions, absurdities and sheer preposterous suppositions.

Typical of course also is that I was warned to

“be careful, God's vengeance may be swift”.

There, out in the open is the threat with which Christian Churches of all denominations as well, I assume, other organized Religions,try to keep their flock in line. Do as we tell you or God's wrath shall befall you. “Fear the Lord” is the usual battle cry.

I believe that contrary to popular belief: God did not create Man, it was Man who created the image of God.

This does not mean that there cannot be a Creative Force, but it means that I do not believe in the God as described in the Old and New Testament of the Christian Bible.

Let it be known, that I neither affirm, nor deny the existence of a Creative Force. I am sitting on the intellectual fence of the Agnostic. I just wish to express my absolute disbelief in the God of the Christian Bible

Now, back to the-mails I have received in response to my essay:

One of them said this: ( an excerpt)

“Dear Bert, why do you not believe in Jesus Christ and in God? It gives to those who believe so much inner peace and contentment.”

Well, to those, who believed, Mao Tse Tung's “Red Bible of Communism” gave “inner peace and contentment” So did the writings of Karl Marx, and, I am certain that Hitler's “Mein Kampf”pleased many of its readers.

Another writer assured me that the Bible speaks in Parables and Similes and may therefore not be read without the explanations of a “learned Theologian”

Such a suggestion is truly funny: It is like saying: You must not study “the Law” without consulting the Don, Vito Corleone.

In fact, this is just the point of it all: If you do not want to think for yourself, just read and accept the Bible and, if in doubt, check it out with a “learned Theologian” and then believe what he tells you.

You, as a member of the common folk are evidently not smart enough to think, recognize contradictions, be astonished at preposterous suppositions

If, as another of the readers of my Blog, suggests via e-mail, words may not mean the same today, as they meant then and translators may have made errors, then the entire book becomes a totally useless book of (and here comes one of my favorite words about the Bible) gobbledygook

Bertstravels

would have much more to say, but will leave it alone for now.