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.