The Halftime Report

It’s finally Spring in Austria!  Compared with our last 2 winters here, this one has been quite a change. It snowed at least once every week, with some storms lasting a few days. It once snowed for 4 days straight with almost a meter of snow. All this white stuff meant good skiing in the local mountains, and we finished the season with 18 ski days this year.

The weird thing for me is that unlike the US, nothing really changes or stops when it snows. Kids go to school – there are no snow days. I go to work, get groceries, and go out. They are much better about clearing the highways and everyone has snow tires, but otherwise everyone just goes about their daily lives as if the snow wasn’t there.

It has generally been a fun winter, but I’m really looking forward to some warmer, sunny days. Here’s a quick review of what we’ve been up to the last few cold, dark months.

We did a lot of skiing in the local mountains, but also enjoyed a few weekends away in Zell am See, Mayrhofen, and Sölden in Tirol. The weather, the conditions, and especially the après-ski were all great. The music they play usually consists of goofy party songs in German or old American songs from the 80s.  Anywhere else they would be terrible, but on the mountain with a beer, it’s perfect.

Unfortunately, the really cold weather started too late in the year for many of the lakes to freeze, so we didn’t have as many opportunities to skate. Instead we spent some time exploring the Christmas markets in December in Nuremburg, Munich, and of course Villach. We did manage to visit the Weissensee for the first time this year. It’s an 11 km long lake with several skating tracks, where the Dutch speed skating team (and tons of their fans) come to train and race.

We also decided to enjoy some winter sports as spectators for a change and attended a world cup giant slalom race in Kranjska Gora, Slovenia. It´s only about a 30 minute drive and we got to cheer on Ted Ligety to a victory with a few other Americans in the crowd. We also went to a ski jumping event in Planica, Slovenia. Seeing the jump in person, I realized these guys are even crazier than I thought.

Here are a few photos of our Winter 2013…

At the Weissensee on one of several 6km long skating tracks.

The finish line at the Giant Slalom.

View of the ski jump at Planica.

Close up of one of the brave jumpers to give you some perspective on how big the hill is.

The beautiful Austrian Alps – ski heaven!

A photo opp at the top of the slope in Tirol.

This will be my last short post about the trip to Africa.  It was such an amazing trip that writing about it has been tough. It’s too hard to describe everything that happened, so I’ve been putting it off.  However, I just wanted to write one final note about our last stop, Cape Town.  It’s such an interesting place – the city itself is very diverse.  We ate everything from great sushi to Nando’s chicken.  The harbor area where we stayed is a good mix of touristy restaurants and working port.  We spent our last few days wandering around the city, walking on Table Mountain, exploring the wine regions (and doing a little tasting of course), and finally visited the beautiful coast and Cape.  A nice way to end our time in Africa!

Continuing my long overdue blogs about our trip to Africa…  After more than a week on safari, we thought it would be nice to have some “down time” and go see Victoria Falls since it wasn’t too far away.  It was near the end of the dry season which meant that the volume of water was very low.  The bright side of the low water is that there is less spray and you can get some really nice pictures.  The other advantage is that the white water rafting is supposed to be at it’s best.  Just below the falls the Zambezi River (without exception, always referred to in Zimbabwe as the “Mighty” Zambezi)  drops into a narrow deep gorge.  During the high water season, some parts are un-navigable, but during the low season rapids are formed when there is just enough water over the rocks.

We have gone rafting before a number of times in the US and New Zealand, so we thought it would be a good way to see the river.  Normally the trips that I’ve been on have a couple of class 4 or 5 rapids, more smaller ones, and lots of time to float, swim, or paddle leisurely for a couple of hours.  To say that this trip was more intense is an understatement.  Over 4 hours there were 19 rapids, nearly all class 5.  They just kept coming one after another until I literally couldn’t lift my arms to paddle anymore.  Needless to say in that condition the raft ended up flipping and we all went for a short, but exciting swim.  To his credit, our guide nicknamed Colgate was fantastic – serious about safety, but had us laughing with his stories about how each of the rapids got their names (Devil’s Toilet Bowl might be obvious, but Creamy White Buttocks refers to all the tourists who fall into and lose their swimsuits in the churning water).

In the end we survived the rapids, the crocodiles, and the walk up the canyon to tell the tale.  One more parting view of the falls:

This is Chobe.  That’s a phrase that the guides used whenever something really special was happening.  And they used it a lot.  So did we.  It’s been a while since we got back from Africa, but I’m still writing about it because I think about it a lot and it deserves some space here.  The entire trip was amazing, but for sheer volume of wildlife, I don’t think any place has Chobe beat.

We stayed inside the National Park at a mobile camp called “Chobe Under Canvas”.  They actually move it every 5 days, which is incredible because the tents even have toilets, and each night you get a warm bucket shower in your tent.  The food is all prepared fresh onsite, including the most amazing scones served at tea which were cooked in a charcoal oven.  I can’t say enough about the level of service at this place.  It’s “roughing it” like I’ve never experienced before.

But enough about the camp… the real stars of Chobe are the animals.  Chobe lies along the river between Namibia and Bostwana.  Since the Namibian side has farmers who chase off game with guns, the preserve on the Botswana side has a fantastic array of wildlife.  Elephants, hippos, zebras, giraffe, water buffalo, lions, warthogs, turtle, guinea fowl, baboons, crocodile, and more birds than I could write down.  Everywhere.  And finally the elusive leopard.

Staying inside the park has a distinct advantage in that just before sundown all the other tourists are heading quickly out of the park, but we were heading back to camp in the opposite direction. Our guide was intent on finding a leopard that had been spotted (no pun intended) recently.  On every drive we followed her tracks, listened for alarm calls from the birds, and stared into the bush hoping for a sign.  Finally one night on the way back to camp, she was literally right in front of us, lounging on a tree branch over the road.  We were the only jeep in sight, happily snapping away with our cameras as the sun set.  All we could say to each other was “This is Chobe.”

Here she is, posing for us:

Another type of kitty:

Stripes!

To reach our next stop in Botswana, we headed out to an airstrip and were picked up by one of many Cessna 4-seaters that ferry passengers back and forth between the remote safari camps.  This one made a few stops enroute dropping off and picking up guests, staff, and supplies as it went along.  Our destination was the Savute Elephant Camp, a very comfortable and posh “camp” just outside the entrance to the national park.  The Savute area is actually in the western part of the larger Chobe National Park, but the differences in landscape make it interesting enough to warrant a separate visit.

The area is dominated by the Savute Channel, which is a strange river that has flowed and stopped intermittently over the last few hundred years.  It flowed from the late 60′s until 1982 when it mysteriously dried up.  Then in 2010 it suddenly starting flowing again.  It’s hard to imagine now what it must have looked like just a few years ago.  The river makes an excellent place to watch elephants as they come to drink and cool off, but it also creates an interesting marsh where there are unbelievable amounts of water birds too.

The camp itself itself is privately run and very luxurious. Our “tent” had glass doors, electric lights, and even air conditioning during the day.  The game drives were similar to our previous experience in that they were held twice a day and interspersed with a lot of good food.  The only difference was that we had to be out of the park by about 7pm each night because it is part of the national park system.

The big (literally) attraction here is the elephants.  There are thousands of them moving around in small family groups, or sometimes solitary males who can be dangerous. We watched a group of about 20 elephants of all sizes approaching the river from the other side of the bank.  They walked slowly in a single file line until the river came into view.  At that moment they all broke into a run and went splashing into the water.  It was amazing to watch these thirsty, tired animals drink and drink and drink.

It’s hard to explain how big the elephants are, and how close they actually get to you.  The safari truck gives you a sense of protection and power, until one walks toward it and you realizes that it is bigger, staring right at you, and doing what they call a “mock charge” (flapping ears and stomping feet).  No matter how many elephants we saw, I couldn’t get enough.  If the guide hadn’t pulled us away, I would have stayed and watched them for hours.

It’s good that the guides do push you on however, because there are a lot of other incredible sights.  Savute also gave us our first view of male lions.  Although they are powerful and intimidating, we saw them most often sleeping, flopped under a tree avoiding the heat of the day.  We spotted one on a morning drive and then again in the afternoon.  The only movement he had made in 6 hours was to follow the shade about 10 feet from one side of the tree to the other.  It’s good be the king.

The elephant bar:

A rare “awake” moment:

The birds don’t get as much attention as the big game, but some like this stork are just as beautiful: