I previously posted this photo on facebook and sent it to everyone I could think of but I think it's worth posting again since these are extremely cute dogs. Poor Toby on the left had his "fixing" today and does not feel too perky right now so this is in honor of him. He's really a great dog and I feel terrible for him right now. He's trying to wag his tail everytime I walk by him (he's lying on the floor) but you can tell it's an effort. I wanted to download a photo of the nice beach here in Lome that has the seaport view (it's a big shipping hub so there are constantly boats going in and out) but it wouldn't download for some reason. Otherwise, all these photos are of South Africa where I just spent 2 weeks. First I was in Johannesburg for a conference. The conference was good and it kept us busy so I didn't see much of Joburg but, frankly, I don't think I missed much. It's not a very attractive city, for the most part (although the weather was fabulous), and we were told how dangerous it was (although it didn't really seem so bad).
This is me outside the Soweto Hotel which is a very nice looking hotel that we stopped at the one afternoon we had off when we took a bus tour. We stopped in front of Nelson Mandela's childhood house (a nice looking but small brick house) and drove by Bishop Tutu's house also. They live/d in a nicer part of Soweto. There are also some pretty bad slums although the ones near Cape Town seemed even worse.
So after Joburg, I went to Kruger National Park with another PCMO and 2 friends of hers from Ghana. We saw lots of animals - I couldn't include them all since it takes so long to download pictures here- but particularly notable were the elephants. We saw many and were able to see them up close and observe them for a while. It's interesting how agile they are - I always thought of them as kind of awkward and lumbering but they really aren't. We saw giraffes, rhinos, baboons, vervet monkeys, water buffalo, wildebeests, many kind of antelope-type creatures, hippos, alligators, a puff adder (a very deadly snake!), zebras and lots of birds. We saw female lions eating a giraffe and keeping vultures at bay.
This is in the Drakenburg mountain area just east of Kruger where we stopped on the way back to Joburg. It's amazingly beautiful.
The rhinos at Kruger - these are white rhinos of which there are many. We didn't see any black rhinos which are smaller and rarer.
The picture above is me on top of Table Mountain with a view of Cape Town behind. Cape Town is very amazingly set between the water and the hills behind. The city itself isn't really all that interesting although, as someone coming from Togo, it's the height of Western civilization with its malls, restaurants, etc. But it has great weather and everywhere you look there's a fantastic view. The beaches along the coast south of the city are beautiful, too, but it was a little too chilly to think of beachgoing.
A rock hyrax also known as a dassie in South Africa. It's about the size of a very small woodchuck but it's related to elephants. I've wanted to see one ever since I read "Born Free" as a child. It was on top of Table Mountain - a must-do activity for anyone who visits Cape Town. You can take a cablecar up to the top (or walk if you're very ambitious) and there are amazing views like the one below. Also many hiking trails though we didn't have time to do much hiking since we were there late in the day. The view below is looking south from a hilltop towards the Cape of Good Hope.
So now I'm back in Togo for my final 7 months or so. Toby just jumped up on the couch next to me so I guess he's feeling a little better. Life goes on here - working during the week and doing the usual during the weekend. The new ambassador arrived and I've heard he's really nice. He did say okay to our using his pool so I'm extremely happy about that. Life here is very slow even though a lot of progress is being made with roads lately. I've heard it's because there are elections coming up and the politicians like to have something they can point to as an accomplishment. It certainly has made driving a lot easier. They've also put in a bunch of traffic lights so it's not such a free-for-all. I will try to post again sooner!
I previously posted this photo on facebook and sent it to everyone I could think of but I think it's worth posting again since these are extremely cute dogs. Poor Toby on the left had his "fixing" today and does not feel too perky right now so this is in honor of him. He's really a great dog and I feel terrible for him right now. He's trying to wag his tail everytime I walk by him (he's lying on the floor) but you can tell it's an effort. I wanted to download a photo of the nice beach here in Lome that has the seaport view (it's a big shipping hub so there are constantly boats going in and out) but it wouldn't download for some reason. Otherwise, all these photos are of South Africa where I just spent 2 weeks. First I was in Johannesburg for a conference. The conference was good and it kept us busy so I didn't see much of Joburg but, frankly, I don't think I missed much. It's not a very attractive city, for the most part (although the weather was fabulous), and we were told how dangerous it was (although it didn't really seem so bad).
This is me outside the Soweto Hotel which is a very nice looking hotel that we stopped at the one afternoon we had off when we took a bus tour. We stopped in front of Nelson Mandela's childhood house (a nice looking but small brick house) and drove by Bishop Tutu's house also. They live/d in a nicer part of Soweto. There are also some pretty bad slums although the ones near Cape Town seemed even worse.
A rock hyrax also known as a dassie in South Africa. It's about the size of a very small woodchuck but it's related to elephants. I've wanted to see one ever since I read "Born Free" as a child. It was on top of Table Mountain - a must-do activity for anyone who visits Cape Town. You can take a cablecar up to the top (or walk if you're very ambitious) and there are amazing views like the one below. Also many hiking trails though we didn't have time to do much hiking since we were there late in the day. The view below is looking south from a hilltop towards the Cape of Good Hope.
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