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March 24, 2012
 

An African Walking Safari in Mana Pool National Park, Zimbabwe, Southern Africa

An unusual opportunity to do a "walking" safari in Mana Pool National Park, Zimbabwe. Four days in a tented base camp on the shore of the Zambezi River. Led by a highly experienced guide who is a friend of our son-in-law (State Department stationed in Zimbabwe), we walked into the bush--or canoed down the Zambezi River dodging "pods" of unhappy hippos--each day. On one day we took a jeep to get to the far reaches of the park, then got out and walked for hours--and had some up close and personal interactions with large bull elephants, a pride of female lions with cubs, one magnificent male lion and some grazing hippos. At night roles reversed and we became the prey and stayed in our tents as giant bull elephants wandered through camp to feast on the figs that had fallen from the trees over our heads and hippos climbed out of the river in front of our tents to feed. Lions roared nearby--an amazing sound from so close.


Zambezi River at Sunset. Zimbabwe, Africa Lion Club on an Anthill, Mana Pool National Park, Zimbabwe

The full photo gallery is here: Africa | A Walking Safari in Zimbabwe
                                                                              

 

Filed under  //   Africa   Safari   Walking Safari   Zambezi River   canoeing   elephants   hippos   lion cubs   lion prides   lions   travel  

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January 14, 2012
 

Wonderful, Moving, Inspiring Music from Playing for Change

Playing for Change, a non-profit group that brings together musicians from around the world to create songs by layering voices, groups and all manner of instruments into one magical musical experience.

Stand by Me and Gimmee Shelter are two of some 56 music videos found at www.playingforchange.com.  The following is one of the videos.  Enjoy.

http://www.playingforchange.com/player/widget.swf?episode=2

Thanks for turning me on to this, Alice.

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January 2, 2012
 

On the Road: Glacier National Park

Lake McDonald, Glacier National Park, Montana, in JuneLocated in Northern Montana and bordering the Canadian Provinces of Alberta and British Columbia, Glacier National Park encompasses a million acres of pristine wilderness. Over 130 named lakes, hundreds of species of wildlife, and hundreds of gorgeous largely untouched trails. Part of the "Crown of the Continent" ecosystem, the area was named a National Park in 1910. The famous "Going-to-the-Sun" Road that traverses the park west and east was mostly still closed when we visited in early June.

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Filed under  //   8332   Bowman Lake   Glacier   Glacier National Park   Going to the Sun   Going to the Sun Highway   Lake McDonald   Montana   National   National Parks   Park   RV   RV travel   landscape   nature   photos of Glacier National Park   places  

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December 21, 2011
 

Fire and Ice; Icebergs in the Surf; Waterfalls and Geysers. Iceland

Iceland is a place of stark natural and cultural contrasts--a unique and wonderful place to visit if you take the time to drive it all.

 Volcanos that live under 3000 foot deep glaciers; icebergs the size of SUV's tumbling in the surf of the Atlantic Ocean; soft black sand beaches.

Two of the ten largest waterfalls in "Europe" are in Iceland.  The word "Geyser" originated here:  Geysir.  Geothermal pots and bubbling pools of lava steaming through the surface all over the island.

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Starkly modern Reykjavik contrasts with centuries old farms tucked deep into one of dozens of fjords--but all "connected" via the Internet.

Iceland is a fascinating, friendly, English-speaking natural wonder.

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Click here for the full galleries on my website.

FEATURED GALLERIES

Puffins Up Close
Grebes with Chicks on Board


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Filed under  //   Reyjkavik   Iceland   geothermal   geysers   geysirs   glaciers   icebergs   places   travel   waterfalls  

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September 9, 2011
 

On The Road: Iceland 2011. The Wildlife

Greetings,

Writing this from Gagetown, New Brunswick, where we actually have some Internet.

On our road trip around Iceland in the Summer of 2011, we saw a wide variety of wildlife.  Puffins very up close and personal at the cliffs of Latrabjarg at the far end of the West Fjords.  1300 foot cliffs above the Atlantic, covered with Puffins.  At the top edge, the Puffins will allow you to quietly get within a foot or so--if you aren't bothered by the height and drop to the Atlantic below.  They hop in and out of their tiny holes, dive off the cliffs to fish, bask and nap in the sun.

At the litle town of Myvaten, a pair of Slavonian or Horned Grebes, resident to Iceland, took care of two brand new chicks, born while we were there.  The male carries the chicks on his back and the female dives to the bottom of the marsh and brings back insects to feed them.  The chicks also got swimming lessons, jumping off the male's back, then climbing back up and disappearing under his feathers, popping their heads out to feed.

Arctic Terns were a loud and screeching presence anywhere near the sea coast.  They will literally attack you, coming within inches of your head if you get close to their nests.

In the north coast town of Husavik, we took an afternonn trip on a sailing trip and a triple-masted sloop.  We sailed around an island full of Puffins (no humans allowed on the island), and then had some close encounters with Humpback Whales.  Husavik is about 15 miles south of the arctic circle.

Famous for their ruggedness, loved--and eaten, Icelandic ponies graze around almost every farm and village.  They lay down to sleep, are kept as pets, most folks seem to ride--but they also eat them.  Tastes a bit like roast beef, very tender, but tough for me to get over the mental image of the bushy manes and friendly greetings.

And finally sheep.  They graze freely everywhere and wander all over the roads, grazing hanging out in family groups, usually two lambs with Mom, inches from the edge of the road.  You can buy special car insurance for them--as well as for ash and sand damage--but that's a different story for another blog.

Wildlife is up close.   Part of the natural beauty of this wonderful island.
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Cheers,

Filed under  //   2011   Arctic Terns   Grebes   Horned Grebes   Humpback Whales   Iceland   Puffins   Seals   Slavonian Grebes   Terns   Whales   birds   horses   icelandic Horses   nature   on the road   places   sheep   travel   wildlife  

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September 8, 2011
 

A Road Trip Around Iceland: "Fire and Ice." 2000 miles of Incomparable and Unusual Natural Beauty

Greetings,

When we came off of the road and our trip thru the western US, we took an 18 day trip to Iceland with our good friends and traveling buddies, the Clarkes.  We rented a 4-wheel drive Toyota and based on some recommendations from a British travel agency set off to explore this little-visited (at least by Americans) island.  We got home and left immediately for Canada, and I am writing this from Riviere du Loup is far norther Quebec.  Until this stop, Internet has been spotty at best, and not capable of any significant uploads.  We have good Internet here (who knows why here, eh), so this is the first blog of the Iceland trip-catching up.  The pictures are just taste--Puffins and Slovakian Grebes with their brand new babies on their backs are coming in the next post.

We drove counter clockwise around Iceland, with a final 500 mile detour up into and around the West Fjords.  Even Iceland's single "Ring Road" that runs around the outer edge of the island is not fully paved, and in places like the West Fjords you spend lots of kilometers on narrow dirt roads hanging on the edges of cliffs looking down into the fjords. An island the size of Kentucky with about 270,000 very hardy people--2/3 of whom live in the capital of Reykjavik--it is a place where nature and the outdoors rule.  A place of "fire and ice," the island is well known for both its very active volcanos and for the geothermal geysers that dot the landscape and provide much of the power for the small villages around the country.  It is also known for the hundreds of fjords that form much of the outer edges of the island.

The topography of the island changes rapidly as you move west to east and south to north.  From green fields dotted with hundreds of white mounds of hay wrapped and sealed in plastic for winter storage to areas so bleak and barren that the US trained the astronauts who went to the moon here.  Sheep are everywhere--including on the highways, and herds of Icelandic horses graze around each farm and village.The weather, considering the northern latitude, is relatively tame.  Cold, but not too cold--think New York on steroids because of the mitigating influence of the Gulf Stream--at least in the south of the island.  23 hours of sunlight in the summer--and 23 hours of darkness in the deep winter freeze. Hundreds of glorious fjords, only one town outside of Reykjavik with over 10,000 people and many farming and fishing villages with a couple of hundred--or less--very hardy, independent folks.  Red-roofed farms dot the countryside.  Many of these farms are fully self-sufficient by tapping into local geothermal pools, creating their own hydro-electric with a local waterfall and raising all their own food--including small greenhouses for veggies. When nuclear winter shuts down New York, these folks will likely be fine.

Everyone speaks English--they start in the 5th grade.  The country is high-tech, wired in even the most remote villages, everyone takes credit cards, the Internet is ubiquitous, even in the villages of 80 people.  Reykjavik is world-renowned for its nightlife, but on the weekends, the road leading out is bumper to bumper with campers and and bikers heading into the countryside and the hundreds of small weekend cabins that seem to sit all over the island.

Fish farming is growing, and fish is the number one export--followed closely by Aluminum and sheep.  There are two massive aluminum smelters at the east end of the island put in by Alcoa--not without controversy.  But they bring badly needed currency to the island.  Tourism accounts for 13% of the economy, and no matter how small the village, you can usually find a "bed and breakfast" room somewhere.  And bicyclists with hugely loaded panniers are all over the island--some hundreds of kilometers from even a small village.  They ride down the very narrow ring road, up steep dirt grades, and apparently spend weeks "out and about.  And not all are young!  Many were 40+, many were pairs of women.  

Internet bandwidth availability will determine my next post.  This will give you a small taste of a wonderful place--put Iceland on your bucket list--but only if you rent a car and spend the time--the bus tours are awful out of Reykjavik.

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Filed under  //   Iceland   fjords   landscapes   nature   places   travel  

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June 26, 2011
 

On the Road: Yellowstone National Park

Well after a couple of weeks absent because of spotty or slow wireless in various places, I'm catching up with the magic of Yellowstone National Park, which we visited for four days in early June.

We actually stayed in a very isolated location on Henry's Lake located in Island Park, Idaho, 20 miles west of West Yellowstone.  And it snowed--and snowed--for the first two days in the camp.  

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This time of year is all about the babies in Yellowstone.  Especially Elk and Bison.  They are everywhere, including wandering down the middle of the road.  Massive Bison daddies with their females and nursing youngsters right along the road grazing and nursing and rubbing their massive bodies against anything that won't move--including telephone poles and fence posts.  

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Yellowstone is so large that the topography changes radically from west to east and north to south.  High mountain passes at nearly 9000 feet, the huge Yellowstone Lake, still covered with ice, right in the middle of the park at about 7000 feet, and the windswept expanse of Haden Valley at over 8000 feet 20 miles north.

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We took a lesson in fly fishing on the Firehole River--and managed to land and release two Rainbow Trout.  We saw one brown bear and one grizzly, and hundreds of Elk and Bison all over the park. The Cottonwood Trees in the river valleys are just leafing out, and their emerald green shimmers in the soft light of dawns and dusk's.  All the rivers and streams were full and flowing with the heavy snow melt--and the geysers and boiling pots of sulfurous mud were spitting and steaming all over the park.  Reds and blues--porcelain colored mud flats hundreds of yards across steaming and bubbling.  And of course, Old Faithful, about once an hour launches a massive plume up to 130 feet--day and night for decades.  How does that happen?!

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Yellowstone National Park is one of the most unique environments on earth--each season has it's own special charm and the animals are in different phases of their lives.  A glorious place that everyone should see--more than once.

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Filed under  //   National Park   Bison   Bison calves   Elk   Elk calves   National Parks   RV   RV travel   Yellowstone   Yellowstone National Park   nature   places   travel  

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June 7, 2011
 

A Video Montage of Bryce Canyon and Kodachrome State Park, Utah

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June 6, 2011
 

On the Road: Bryce Canyon National Park and Kodachrome State Park, Utah

Another glorious natural wonder in southwestern Utah, Bryce Canyon and the Bryce Valley are known for the individual sandstone columns called "Hoo Doos."  But the beauty of the Bryce Canyon goes far beyond the massed "Hoo Doos" at Sunrise Point.  The road through the National Park winds and climbs for 26 miles and up to 8800 feet at the magnificent Rainbow Point.  In between are huge vistas with views reaching out to a hundred miles on a clear day.  Each stop and each point has a unique formation of sandstone, arches, forest and trees.  

Nearby Kodachrome State Park is a hidden jewel tucked away nine miles from Cannonville, Utah.  Small, beautiful, an area full of weird shaped formations and brick-red buttes intermixed with large white and red mesas, this State Park should not be missed.  The campground is the best public camp ground of any of the dozens we have seen in national parks across the country.  We stayed in Cannonville--one block long, one stop sign, no stop light, a thriving Mormon farming community, one of several tiny towns spread out in the Bryce Valley around Tropic and Panguitch.  Vast green fields with massive automated sprinklers on truck wheels that move through the fields day and night.  Water did not seem to be in short supply here, every home's yard was bright green and wet.

About halfway up Utah State Highway 12 between Bryce Canyon and Torrey, Utah, 10 miles east of Escalante, is the million dollar road that descends rapidly and suddenly through Grand Staircase-Escalante State Park, newly designated in 1999.  The road writhes through switchbacks as it descends from 7000 feet down to 4000 before starting to climb again at Boulder, Utah.  Ultimately it summits at 9600 feet about 30 miles west of Torrey, then descends again to 6500 feet into the Capitol Reef National Park.  Most of the road passes through portions of the Dixie National Forest as well.  The rapidly changing topography and vast panorama of buttes and mesas, the changes from scrub high desert to ponderosa pine and birch and aspen, all characterize the whole 112 miles of this route. Ultimately it summits at 9600 feet about 30 miles west of Torrey, then descends again to 6500 feet into the Capitol Reef National Park.  Most of the road passes through portions of the Dixie National Forest as well.  

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Filed under  //   Bryce Canyon   Bryce Canyon National Park   Dixie national forest   Grand Staircase-Escalante State Park   National Parks   RV   RV travel   Utah   Utah Highway 12   landscapes   nature   places   travel  

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June 5, 2011
 

On the Road: Capitol Reef National Park, Utah

Stretching from just west of Hanksville, Utah south and west for almost 100 miles, the Capitol (yep, spelled with the "O") Reef National Park was named because cowboys trying to drive their herds found the multitude of canyons and sheer rock faces impenetrable--and named them "Reefs," their use of a local word to express their frustration with navigating in this harsh but beautiful place.  "Capitol" describes the many white cliffs and their windblown and water carved faces and flutes and curves that some said resembled the US Capitol building.

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From Wikipedia: Capitol Reef National Park is a United States National Park, in south-central Utah. It is 100 miles long but fairly narrow. The park was established in 1971.Called "Wayne Wonderland" in the 1920s by local boosters Ephraim P. Pectol and Joseph S. Hickman, Capitol Reef National Park protects colorful canyons, ridges, buttes, and monoliths. About 75 miles (of the long up-thrust called the Waterpocket Fold, a rugged spine extending from Thousand Lake Mountain to Lake Powell, is preserved within the park. "Capitol Reef" is the name of an especially rugged and spectacular segment of the Waterpocket Fold near the Fremont River. The area was named for a line of white domes and cliffs of Navajo Sandstone, each of which looks somewhat like the United States Capitol building, that run from the Fremont River to Pleasant Creek on the Waterpocket Fold. The local word reef referred to any rocky barrier to travel.  Easy road access came with the construction in 1962 of State Route24 through the Fremont River Canyon.

We spent three days in and around various parts of this Park, a spectacular and rugged area of wild and weird shapes, huge canyons, twisting backroads and paths--many unsafe in rain storms as the water backs up then roars through the narrow canyons.  The wind has twisted the pinyon pine into some unique gargoyle shapes.  The cliff faces change colors as one moves west and with the light.  Deep dark browns, almost purple,chalk white--with the full palate of colors in  between.  Sometimes the colors within a given rock face changed by layer.  Blue skies, great white cumulus clouds, and green pinyon' pines, some stunted by the wind and lack of water, provided a colorful backdrop in many places.  In some canyons along the Fremont River huge and very old cottonwood trees, bent and gnarled after 100's of years fighting the wind, provided great green canopies that almost covered the road as it curved to follow the path of the river through the deep and narrow chutes.

Filed under  //   Capitol Reef National Park   Fremont River   National Parks   Pinyon Pine   RV   RV travel   Utah   Utah Highway 24   nature   places   travel   trees  

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