On the Road Again...

Wow, I have been BUSY! But fun busy, travelling (touring, as they say)... so I am finally catching up with my blog. I have been to Vredefort Dome, Blyde River Canyon, Madagascar!, Bloemfontein, Port Elizabeth, Grahamstown, and Addo Elephant Park over the last couple of months, so I was not underplaying the "being busy" part. Sorry if blogs are too long or too short, but I figure you all are probably looking at the pictures mostly, anyway... so here goes...

Vredefort Dome (the picture is such a teeny portion of the whole crater I can not even tell ya) A rock’s story…Oldest crater in the WORLD, 60 km in diameter, it can be seen from space. On the ground, it doesn’t look like a crater, it is so big you can’t see the typical circular shape as you 360 around. Vredefort Dome is a UNESCO World Heritage site, and I wsa lucky enough to tour it with a small group led by a professor who told us all about it…

Vredefort Dome, approximately 120 km south-west of Johannesburg, is a representative part of a larger meteorite impact structure, or astrobleme. Dating back 2,023 million years, it is the oldest astrobleme yet found on Earth. With a radius of 190 km, it is also the largest and the most deeply eroded. Vredefort Dome bears witness to the world’s greatest known single energy release event, which had devastating global effects including, according to some scientists, major evolutionary changes. It provides critical evidence of the Earth’s geological history and is crucial to understanding of the evolution of the planet. Despite the importance of impact sites to the planet’s history, geological activity on the Earth’s surface has led to the disappearance of evidence from most of them, and Vredefort is the only example to provide a full geological profile of an astrobleme below the crater floor. What was really cool to me, is that when the crater was formed the earth was pushed down and then up, this caused the layers of the Earth to be horizontal. So, as we walked and drove throughout the Dome area, the further away we got from the center, we literally were going back in time millions of years with each step.

Another trip... Blyde River Canyon (left is Luck's Potholes, below are views from God's Window and one of the many waterfalls throughout the canyon area.)

On the east side of Mpumalanga (my province) lies Blyde River Canyon

with amazing rock formations and panoramic views and waterfalls.

With great names like God’s Window, The Three Rondavels (or Three Sisters, The Three Rondavels are named after the Swazi Chief - Maripi’s wives. From the lowest to the highest, they are Magabolle, Mogoladikwe and Maserote.), and Bourke’s Luck Potholes, and the convergence of the Treur River (River of Sorrow) and the Blyde River (River of Joy).

The story behind the naming of the rivers is legend. “A Mr. P decided this wasn’t a great place to live. It was hot and humid so he moved his family. They camped along the banks of a river. He told them to stay behind and if he hadn’t returned after six weeks, then she was to assume her husband’s team had met their fate. The family waited and waited and grew so distraught they named that river the Treur River which means the ‘river of sorrow,’” David pauses then adds, “Devastated, they packed everything up and started to leave until a shot fired in the distance.” It turns out the guys waited at another river. Overjoyed, the neighboring river was named “Blyde” which means the “River of Joy”

Blyde River Canyon was incredible, it was mind-boggling to see what Nature and Time and formed.

Next stop, Sifaka Country...
Mad about Madagascar or Why does the rainforest smell like wet dog?

What a trip…arrived in Antananarrivo (Tana, pics at left) and right away Madagascar was very different from South Africa. The riace paddies and terracing and the colors and light just seemed different here. In Tana, I stayed at the Saka Monga (blue cat in Malagasy). Malagasy and French are the main languages here. The next morning we headed out to Ranamofana National Park where the ValBio Research Center was and what would be “home” for the next two weeks. The 10 hour bus ride to the forest was beautiful, but long and winding roads made me very glad to arrive at camp. At Ranamofana, we were met by Summer who was in charge of the research project we would be working on, studying Edward-Milnes sifakas (props). I learned a lot about lemurs and sifakas over the next two weeks, both are really cool. Also, learned a lot about rain and mud, since it rained pretty much every day, all day. They don’t call it the RAINforest for nothing. Over the next two weeks, I hiked to waterfalls ( one of them is used to generate electricity for the research center and town), swam in a hot springs pool, bought local crafts (beautiful) in the village, and spent a lot of time looking at Orange Blue(male) and Green Orange (female) props. I did love watching the props, but boy, do they sleep a lot. Sometimes they must look down and think we are nuts standing in the rain, ankle deep in mud watching them rest. However, when they were on the move, it was very cool – they do seem to dance through the trees like trapeze artists.

(pic left is aTraveller's Palm which naturally grows north to south giving traveller's directions)

I have to say our group was lucky, we were also able to help with the darting work. Each year, the props are darted (very carefully, seriously) and taken to the lab cabin in the forest where they sort of get a “check-up” and the data that is gathered goes to help understand them better and see how they are doing. When there “check-up” is done, they are wrapped up in warm fleeces with warm water bottles and held; this helps with their thermo-regulation. Holding them was really unexpected and great; their orange eyes (infants eyes are greenish and will turn orange later) are amazing to look at, and their fur is super silky soft, also unexpected.

Even though we were wet and cold most of the time, it really fun. When not working, we hung out, drank Three Horses Beer and tasted local wines, tasted local Malagasy foods( like Zebu steaks [good] and burnt rice water[interesting]) and I learned to play a card game called Euchre which was fun. And on rare occasions, the sun would come out and we would actually dry off for a little while. One of the best things about the trip was the people, what a great group - so thanks everyone (Andrea, Brooke, Chelsea, Catherine, Evelyn, Kathryn, Lee, Lisa, Mary, Summer, Susan, and everyone else !) And our Malagasy guides who took us out each day were great – very patient with me and helpful as I slipped and slid and knocked down trees (literally!) when I went through the forest each day.

Back to the question: Why does the rainforest smell like wetdog? (Oh, that would be me, sorry. Apparently, wet dirty wool smells just like wet dog. Go figure.) PS the pics are a group effort, so don't be amazed by my newly developed photography skills, again thanks to my fellow EWs!

Mini-Road Trip
Back from Madagascar, finally finished some revisions on my Teachers Network paper, and what next? I had a dinner in Pretoria meeting the next South African teachers going to the States , so I decided I would just keep going south and go on a mini-road trip. So, the day after the dinner I headed to Bloemfontein in the Free Sate. I spent most of the day driving, but it is so easy driving here, the national road system is great. In Bloem, I went to a very nice art gallery which was a former estate, I believe. Then, checked into the Hobbit Hotel. I didn’t know this, but JRR Tolkien spent part of his childhood here in Bloem. The Hobbit Hotel is seriously nice with great library room, window seats to read in (love those), four poster beds, and porcelain bath tubs with the clawed feet (don’t know why, but love those too). Had a great night’s rest. You can also go on a mini-Tolkien walk from the hotel, but didn’t have time (maybe next stop), The next morning was a big drive to Port Elizabeth to meet some teacher friends. The drive was long, but beautiful… mountains, farmland, plains, just amazing – time flew. In PE (a coastal, beach resort town), I met up with a couple of teachers from my school (they were there for a workshop), just went out for burgers and beer (Black Label is my personal fav here)., then crashed in the University dorms where they were staying – very weird to be in dorms after many years – dorms are pretty much the same here as US though.

Next day, I got up early and headed off to the Grahamstown National Arts Festival. A really pretty little college town. The festival literally takes over the whole town for 2 wks. Libraries and churches and parks become art galleries and stages. There are probably a hundred performances a day. I did part of the Art Walk seeing South African artists’ works, very tempted by a couple of paintings. One of my favorite pieces was a bicycle sculpture, very cool. I also, saw a few performances, “Puck’s Story” (an abridged Shakespeare piece), really fun and well done, a modern dance piece called Ozymandias (if you know the poem), and a two man piece using simple instruments and body movements to act out a bushveld animal scene that was funny and magical. A beautiful and fun day, really nice people and town, though one of the locals said that without the arts fest, the town is just the college and like 20 boarding schools.

Next… off to Greater Addo Elephant Park. Back in 1931 there were only 11 elephants, then conservation efforts took place and now there are over 350 ellies in the park. Basically, the park is self-drive. I had been driving all of 15 minutes when I cam to a watering hole with 10 ellies all around; they are so much fun to watch as they played in the water. As I drove around the huge park, I saw ostriches, wart hogs (one of my favorites to watch, the way they run on there little legs is just so cute and funny, but I know they could do some damage if they wanted to), kudu leaping across the road in front of me, lions sleeping and kying with their full bellies in the air (the sun helps with digestion), a carcass with vultures (the llion’s kill), hyenas, a caracal (roolcat) flying across the field , amazing speed),, and probably more I am forgetting. That evening I went on a night game drive, a big group of us load into a safari jeep with a park ranger to see nocturnal animals. We saw more ellies of course, heard the hyenas laughing, saw black-backed jackals (different and much smaller than hyenas), spring hares (rabbits that jump like mini kangaroos), red hartebeest, and the lions were still sleeping. ! I stayed in a safari cottage with thatched roof , but think luxury inside. Last day in the park, I did a last drive around, and came across elephants right next to the road, I stopped to watch a while, and eventually one seemed like it was staring at me, as if to say, Excuse me, this is Addo Elephant park, I have the right of way please. After a few minutes of staring at each other I finally moved my car ahead a meter or two, and the elephants crossed the road right behind me. Kind of funny. As I was leaving the park, I realized I hadn’t seen the lions that day, a few minutes later a saw a few cars stopped ahead – a male lion was sitting up, mane flowing with the wind, mesmerizing to watch. A pretty perfect road-trip.