Alex in the Lion's den

Out of Africa

2007-01-05T01:42:00.000-08:00

I am back with another report of another day.

My Dad woke me up at 5:00am. When we get home I am going to tell my Mom to get him in trouble.

In the morning our guide saw some footprints and he stopped to take a look. Just then we all heard a roar. We drove to where the roar was coming from. And guess what, this was super rare, we saw two male lions hanging together. They were about 13 years old. They cooperated with each other. We saw the same lions again at night. They were walking around like they owned the whole park.

Then we saw some rhinos and a baby rhino. They almost walked up to us. In the afternoon we saw a herd of elephants. You can tell if they are male or females by their heads. The males have a round forehead. The females head goes down straight like a triangle. But believe me their head is not a triangle. Take my word for it.

Yesterday, I really wanted to see wild cheetahs. So I told our guide, Eugene, that he could not leave until we saw some wild cheetahs. And guess what, today we saw three out of the four cheetahs that are in the park. My Dad got angry with me because I did not listen to him and was playing with my camera and did not save my battery. So, I was not able to take any pictures. I have borrowed all the pictures for today from my Dad.

We also saw two other male lions – one was older and one was younger. We also saw their kill – it was a wildebeest.

I made a lot of new friends at the lodge. Some live in Joburg and the others in England. My friend Marika’s father is also from England.

When we flew out of the park I saw an elephant from the air. He was walking on the road.

Now we are at Johannesburg airport waiting for our plane to go home. My Dad tells me that we have about 3 feet of snow in Santa Fe. It has been super hot here.

I really, really, really had fun on this trip. My favorite part was the game drive where we saw the cheetahs. I enjoyed all of the game drives. I also enjoyed making friends. Since I was only there for viewing animals, the rest of the trip was not that important to me.

For my next trip I want to go to Australia because I want to see Steve Irwin’s zoo. I will see you again on my next trip.

From Jo'Burg to Madikwe game reserve

2007-01-01T12:11:00.000-08:00

We are now in Madikwe game reserve. We arrived in Madikwe at 12:30PM. We flew in a small plane. It only took 12 passengers. We landed on dirt landing strip. When we got here we saw giraffes, wildebeest and impalas. The giraffe was scratching its belly on a thorn bush.

On our first night in Johannesburg, we stayed at our friend’s, Peter and Karin’s, house. I played with their dogs. I really liked Bella. Bella slept with me. She woke us up in the morning at 4:00am by jumping onto our bed. My Dad wanted to throw her out but I didn’t let him.

Yesterday we went to the cheetah farm and it was fantastic. I asked one of the gentlemen whether a father cheetah ate its children and the answer was no. I saw a king cheetah and they are rare. The king cheetah has black stripes n its back. We also saw the black hyena and wild dogs. When the hyenas were being fed they were laughing.

We went to take a picture with the king cheetah and it hissed at me. It thought that I was food. They had to calm the cheetah down otherwise I was going to be his lunch. We took a picture with it anyway.

After the cheetah farm we went shopping at a flea market. I bought another cheetah and a hippo as a companion for our (my Dad’s) hippo at home.

At night we went looking for a restaurant but we couldn’t find any because it was New Year’s Eve. So we ended up ordering room service.

The next update to my blog will have pictures of the animals we see on our safaris.

From Cape Town to Zambia

2006-12-28T08:31:00.000-08:00

We arrived in Livingstone, Zambia. It is named after the explorer David Livingstone.

We are staying at a lodge which is surrounded by animals. The most common are some crazy monkeys.

When we arrived at the lodge, we took a cruise on the Zambezi River. We saw a crocodile on our river cruise. We also saw hippos in the water. We ate dinner outside.

On the next day we went to see Victoria Falls. They are the widest and the biggest. They are almost 1 mile wide. We walked opposite the falls. There was a rainbow because of the mist and the sun.

In the evening we went on a game drive. We saw gazelles, wildebeest, rhinos, giraffes, a warthog, zebras, water buffalo and an iguana. Then it started raining and we were sitting at the back of the truck. But I got into the truck and I was lucky.

When we got back to the hotel, my Dad was going to the room and he spotted a dominant male hippo near our door. My Dad couldn’t get inside to get our cameras. The hippos are very dangerous and they are very fast. The crocodiles are even scared of the hippos. I don’t understand why the hippos aren’t considered one of the “big 5”. In the evening about 10 hippos came out of the water and were grazing all around the lodge. I loved it. All of the guests needed a guard to take us to our rooms.

Today morning we got to see the elephants. I got to feed a baby elephant and a female that is pregnant. I got to touch an elephant.

After breakfast we went to a village. The village has two chiefs, one male and one female. My favorite part of the tour of the village was the carvings. We also saw women making beer and the men sitting around, watching. The shopping at the village was hard because everybody wanted us to buy carvings from them. But we managed to negotiate a good price.

Merry Christmas everyone!

2006-12-25T09:27:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone. Merry Christmas! It is summer in South Africa. Can you believe that Christmas is in summer? Today the sun is shining brightly. Today we are just going to the swimming pool and we are also going to relax.

Yesterday we went to the castle. It is an old fort. It was the first building built in South Africa. It is now a military museum. I saw the dungeon and torture chamber.

Next, we went to Table Mountain. It is a high point. It is flat like a table top. The views were beautiful. I took a picture of Robben Island. It is the island where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for 18 years.

At lunch I saw some seals. After lunch we went to the aquarium. I got to touch a starfish. It was pokey. I also got to touch a hermit crab and a sea anemone. I also saw them feeding the sharks and other fish in the tank.

After the aquarium we walked around the waterfront in Cape Town. We shopped a little bit and we listened to some music. I bought two CDs – Ladysmith Black Mambazo and Impression of Africa.

Tomorrow we leave for Zambia to see Victoria falls. I made a lot of new friends at the place we stayed at - Stillness Manor. But I wasn't able to get my manicure and pedicure because the spa was busy. I liked Lydia but I kept calling her Olivia. James (her 2 year old brother) was fun to play with. I will post her picture in my next blog.

The adventure from Santa Fe to South Africa - we barely made it

2006-12-23T10:15:00.000-08:00

The weather was bad when we left Santa Fe. I took a picture in Santa Fe, of the snow.

The planes weren’t leaving Denver; we almost didn’t get our flight to go to DC to catch our flight to South Africa.

I slept well on our flight to London. In London, I took pictures of the animals in the stores. I also took a picture of the car that I want my Dad to buy for me. But my Dad is crazy because I don’t know how to drive – don’t you think?

We took a shower in the airport. The shower rooms were freezing because the lounge didn’t have any heat.

On my next flight I stayed awake and watched Pirates of the Caribbean on someone else’s TV. Then I got ready and woke my Dad up. But it was only 2:30am. My Dad was really mad because we still had 6 hours to go. Then I refused to sleep. I was hungry and my Dad said to “go ask the flight attendant for some food, SASHA!” So, I got the flight attendant to get me some cheese and bread and I made a sandwich. Then I decided to climb into my Dad’s bed and immediately fell asleep. My Dad got squished and he got kicked. He didn’t sleep.

We are in Cape Town. We are staying at a nice place. It has 3 pools. Today we drove to see the seals and the penguins. We saw Mumble and Gloria (Happy Feet) and Mumble’s Mom and Dad. I made my Dad carry me to the Lighthouse at the Cape of Good Hope. Can you imagine the Penguins liking the hot sun of South Africa, yes or no? The answer is yes. They are African penguins and are only found in South Africa.

We saw one cute, black baby seal and me and my Dad fell in love with it. The coast was beautiful. My Mom would like to hike in the mountains here.

Tomorrow we are going to Table Mountain.

Alex's (Sasha's) Adventures in South Africa

2006-12-19T19:54:00.000-08:00

Well folks, it is time once again to start on another wonderful journey. The “little one” is now 7 years old and as full of life as ever. She now wants to be called Sasha. Our original plan was to go to East Africa but after talking to several experts on Africa, the general consensus was that we should head to South Africa – so that’s where we are going.

We leave on December 20^th and return on January 5^th. This is a relatively short trip compared to the 30+ days on last year’s around the world trip. On this trip we will go to Cape Town and spend some time taking in the city. We will also go see the penguin colony and may even get to see “happy feet”. Then we will go to Zambia for a few days. We will take a trip down the Zambezi river to see Victoria Falls. I hope the boat stops before we reach the edge. Then we will go to see the Cheetah project near Pretoria. They raise cheetahs to be released in the wild. Alex may get a chance to play with the cheetahs. From there we go to the Madikwe game reserve for our safari. We have been assured that we will see a lot of wild animals. Alex specially wants to see the hippos and the cats.

On our last trip – around the world – we visited several exotic places; however, when asked, Alex said that the best part of the trip was Hawaii. I hope that this time she feels that the best part were the animals and not the duty free shops in London.

Our rules are simple – Alex takes the pictures and tells me what she wants to say and I type it into her blog. Alex will try and keep the blog updated regularly. We will email all on her list, every time that we have an update.

See you on our trip…