South Africa!

It's not all Elephants and Lions in Africa, you know! They have beachfront property, and oh yeah, the South Western most point on the continent.

Images below.... enjoy!


Cape Town


The gondola that takes you to the top of Table Mountain in Cape Town.


The view from another side of Table Mountain.


Us atop Table Mountain.


We drove down the coast to get to the 'end of the world' and stopped to have a drink at the Mariner's Wharf in Hout Bay.


Further down the coast is Boulder Beach, where a famous colony of Penguins live.


Ash makes a friend.


Made it to the end of the world - the Cape of Good Hope!


Here is the other side at Cape Point - lighthouse and everything. Next stop, Antarctica.


We also made a small tour around South African wine country - Stellenbosch. Here is the view from our room overlooking vineyards.


At one particular vineyard, they had Cheetahs... yes, Cheetahs at a vineyard. We'll explain later.

Looking forward to showing all the pics!

-Ash & Park

More Images from Africa!

We made it back safely and wanted to post some more photos of our time in Africa. Below are more shots from the Zambia/Safari portion... will post up some Cape Town/South Africa shots shortly.

Enjoy.


The 8-seater from Lilongwe, Malawi to Mfuwe, Zambia (hour long flight) - piloted by David Lee Roth.


Giraffe and Puku.


Our Lion and Lioness.


Beautiful sunset on the first night drive.


A sign of things to come for some unlucky buffalo.



Ash standing on a rare open plain in South Luangwe National Park.


Monitor Lizard.


The 4-seater back - the pilot and my shoulders were touching - it was that small!

More to come.

-Ash & Park

Safari Images!

As promised, here are some shots of the Safari. Can’t post them all, but will show them when we return.

We went to the Mfuwe Lodge in Mfuwe, Zambia. We flew over from Lilongwe, Malawi in an 8-seater ‘air taxi’ with a family from Spain, also headed to the Lodge. The plane ride was cool, although a little turbulence when flying through the clouds occurred, much to Ashley’s dismay. She lived and we made it safely to the Mfuwe airport, uh I mean strip of pavement in the jungle.

Our Safari guide Richard, a local Mfuwe resident, picked us up and transported us to the Lodge. The accommodations were amazing – we stayed in the ‘Lion’ chalet on the lagoon. From our deck, just to give you an idea, we had to step back to let the baboons cross over - here is a shot of one of the monkeys sipping from the sprinkler right outside our door... there were tons of these guys everywhere... some small like this guy and some larger:

We saw crocodiles and hippos:

...as well as elephants:

...and impala, and puku (deer) right from our room. There was a swimming pool we relaxed in during ‘Siesta’ which occurred between the morning drives (starting at 5:45am) and the evening drives (from about 4:30pm to 8:30pm).

Some of the coolest terrain and sights we’ve ever seen. We saw, in addition to the above, hyenas, lions (yes, we were that close):
...giraffes, nocturnal creatures (mongooses, genets, etc.), tons of birds, and the elusive leopard (we were the only car to see one out of about 4):

I liken our guide/driver to Andruw Jones… he knew where the ball would land (in this case, where the animals would be), went to that spot and waited to for them to land in our glove. Here is a shot of him with us and the Spanish Family we spent our days with:

It was truly a great time. Afterwards, we flew back on a 4-seater plane. That was great fun, and the ride was smooth, so Ash was less freaked out as she was when we saw what we were climbing into to fly back to Malawi.

Will try and post a few more images later - depends on access... but we are off to Cape Town in about 30 minutes.

Love, Ash and Park

Greetings from Malawi...

Via the slowest internet connection known to man. But hey, they've got it, right?

So first impressions of Africa... very cool. Johannesburg is very urban and hustle/bustle contruction - saw the airport and city hotel. Not til I got to Malawi did I really kind of SEE Africa and the people and some of the culture.

First night in the Korea Garden Hotel in Lilongwe... I will let Ash take over here...

Keyword: bedrock

As in, bed so hard that every time I sit on it, I just burst into laughter! I wish we could bring the pillows home for show and tell, but they are too hard and heavy to really lift. This place is pretty hilarious, but it is nice in it's own little "not a mud hut" sort of way. If Park does not block the memory, he can tell about dinner...

Anyway, HE'S HERE!!!! I've never been so happy!

Ok, so dinner... don't get the Mandu (wontons) - appetizer (size of three peas), the soup (not so tasty) - and skip the spiced (or lack thereof) beef. Regardless, the place is quaint and when near the pool kinda pretty. Back to Ashley in the studio...

You may be wondering how we came to choose a Korean hotel in Africa, so I'll just let you know it came highly recommended by those lying bastards at malawitourism.com.

Park again: Anywho, so Lilongwe is actually really cool to see. Not extreme culture shock yet, but definitely a different way of living - and driving.

But I would like to comment on the soundtrack to our dinner (we're concentrating on dinner alot because that is where we are writing this). This is the playlist so far: Elton John, Eagles (a 'hell freezes over' version of hotel CA), CCR, William Tell Overture, All For Love (from the major motion picture The Three Musketeers starring Kiefer Sutherland, Chris O'Donnell, Oliver Platt and Charlie Sheen) - so as you can see, very cultural.

But we digress.

So far, so good. We are going on Safari tomorrow, so will post more on that when we get back (3 or so days). Ash, any closing comments?

You bet: our safari "lodge"

Until then... Mugone bwino and keep swattin' those mosquitios.

-Park and Ash from the Muthaland.

Touchdown!!!!

I am very relieved and ridiculously ecstatic to report that Park called from Johannesburg tonight at ~6!! He's safe and sound, looking forward to the hotel pub and steak house. I'll take the bus tomorrow to Lilongwe, where we'll meet up in what I'm sure will be some fantastically romantic moment worthy of black and white photography.

Anyway, we'll stay at the Korea Gardens (I'll add the link when "Blogger" decides to function properly), then we're off to Mfuwe Lodge in the South Luangwa national park until Monday. We'll drive back to Blantyre Monday, and go to work Monday and Tuesday. I'm really anxious to introduce Park to, oh, everyone!

Yee!

trip to mt. mulanje

On Sunday, my friend Grace took me down to Mt. Mulanje for lunch. It was an overcast day, but the sun came out a bit and we really had a fantastic day!


The tribute to Larry
Market day is apparently Sunday!

Grace being silly with me!

it took me a week to get this posted......ugh for dial up!

Conveying a glimpse of Malawi:

Malawi is beautiful and very green The rainy season has ended, but the days are fairly overcast and cool since it is essentially autumn here. The enormous baobob trees are rather breathtaking, though they are without leaves and you’ll only see blooms every few years. Corn is grown on nearly every patch of available land – the ground here is so fertile, it practically comes with instructions to “just add water. They are finishing what has been an abundant harvest this year due to very good rains, and everyone is in a very happy mood.

The homes here are modest to the nth degree here. Most are tiny and square white concrete or red brick with tin roofs – it is only near the lake that I have really seen a lot of thatched roof abodes. Whenever I pass by a house, village or little metro area, I try to see what the people are doing, usually I see kids chewing sugar cane, women walking with baskets or bags on their heads, men riding bicycles with enormous loads of charcoal, harvested reeds for basket making, potatoes, or just about anything you can think of. Then there's always the fun little oddity, like our friend Mr. Scarecrow here:

totally unrelated

but I was getting pix off of my camera this eve and couldn't resist. it also turns out that one of the pix i just came across is of Flounder, which was sadly his last photo. Flounder was born in 1993, and was a favorite among laps the world over. In his 14 years, Flower (Floundrina, Floundretta, Boo Boo, Booger, Tulip, Petunia, and Jealous) never failed to win awards for "Cutest Kitty Ever" and "Absolute Angel."

Ollie and my Flounder bear: Miles (aka Milo)