Our first full day back together with the rest of the October bunch was all about food. We had booked a walking food tour with Secret Food Tours. Kathleen and I had toured with them quite a few years ago, and we are happy to report that they still do a superb food tour. That’s the whole crowd at Deschutes Brewery (but more about that later) above.
We started the day with a free breakfast at our hotel (Embassy Suites by Hilton-PDX), and it was fine. It gave us enough to get us to the tour. We were to meet up with Ken Lin from Secret Food Tours at 11:00 am beneath the Umbrella Man sculpture in Pioneer Courthouse Square in downtown Portland. And, not to be too political here, I can tell you that Portland is NOT AT WAR. It is NOT DANGEROUS. We saw no crime, just a beautiful day and a lot of really nice people out enjoying the sunshine in the heart of Portland.
I took some shots around the Square before we met up with Ken. Just some interesting architecture, people, and the aforementioned Umbrella Man statue. Don’t forget; if you click the first shot, you can scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping. And PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…
Taken from the middle of the square on a beautiful fall day.
Facing in another direction.
The Umbrella Man
Up close he’s kind of spooky.
This guy was doing pushups on his hands for a while.
On the edges of what look like horse watering troughs just down from the Square were a variety of animal sculptures. I really liked these otters.
These are called Benson Bubblers. They are all around downtown.
Once Ken (at right) arrived, it was off on the food tour. Our first stop was a food pod. We had never been to a food pod before, but it turned out to be a really nice, fenced area with numerous food carts lining the edges, seating, and a stage in the middle. BTW: we were told that these were carts and not food trucks because they have no engines, thus they could not go anywhere. They are there permanently. If you can’t find something to eat or drink there, you aren’t trying. We got to try the Cubano sandwiches from Stella’s Sandwiches, which were drop-dead delicious. Never had one with pulled pork before (always just sliced pork) and it was amazing.
Kathleen heading into the food pod.
Stella’s Sandwiches and Bowls where we got…
This awesome Cubano sandwich.
After our food pod experience, we took the longest walk of the day from downtown into the Pearl District to visit Deschutes Brewery and sample their wonderful pretzel with cheese sauce and mustard. All I can say is that it was wonderful. Not quite up to our favorite at Valley House Brewing near us in Duvall, WA but still really good.
This is the place.
This is the food.
This is the really cool urinals in the men’s room. Like almost 6 feet high.
Next up was Nong’s Khao Man Gai. It’s an interesting place that is renowned for just this one dish. As you can tell from the name, it is an Asian restaurant. When you order the Khao Man Gai, you get chicken, rice, soup, cucumbers and one of the most amazing sauces. Truly delicious.
This is the place.
This is the food! The sauce was to die for.
From there it was on to Grassa, which is predominantly a pasta restaurant. We got to sample their Pork Belly Mac & Cheese. Absolute decadence might be a good way to describe it. Just amazing.
This is the place.
This is the food.
The last spot and the last course were, of course, dessert. We went just down the street to Petunia’s Pies and Pastries, the home of some truly delicious marionberry pie. If you have no clue what a marionberry is, think of a blackberry without all the annoying seeds. The pie, despite being gluten-free and vegan ?, was amazing.
This was the place.
This was the food.
During the entire tour, I took some street photos, mostly of neon signs, which I love, as well as others of interesting buildings. They are a good way to wind this up photographically.
Definitely a happy city.
A very cool bike sculpture.
And neon.
I love neon.
Can you tell?
Just love shooting it.
That about did it for Kathleen and me. She was exhausted from all the walking, so we dropped off Steve, Jamie, Mike, and Cathy at the Portland Rose Garden, and I took Kathleen back to the hotel to rest before going back to pick up the other four about an hour later. The traffic sucked, and that’s kind of what we get for staying in an airport hotel. We had reservations for dinner at Andina, a Peruvian restaurant Kathleen and I had visited before. However, everyone was still so full from the food tour, that I called and rescheduled them for Thursday.
Tomorrow is a trip up the Gorge to visit Multnomah Falls, Hood River and see Mount Hood. Should be fun. I will let you know on Thursday.
Portland is quickly becoming one of those lovely, lush Third World countries where kinda-rich people retire with their money. Here, they can live like kings, generating only service-industry jobs and jacking up housing prices. —Chuck Palahniuk
After completing my last trip entry (except for my review), I came across some videos that may interest you. Random videos that I took along the way, which I didn’t post on the day after I took them due to restrictions on uploading. The first bunch is from the Chobe River part of our trip. Make sure to watch this one until the end. The little guy is really cute.
Here’s an elephant taking a mud bath. It was hilarious, even though some of the time we wondered if he would be able to pick himself up out of the muck.
Later the same afternoon, we saw a long line of elephants heading our way.
They just kept coming and coming.
This one was taken the next day when we visited Chobe National Park. The elephant at the start had come up to our vehicle and then veered off at the last minute. I filmed him walking away, and then someone whispered, “You should turn around.” YIKES!
While in Chobe National Park, we saw this pride of lions. Very quick video.
That covers our time on the Zambezi Queen. Here are a few from after that. The first is from the Kliptown Youth Program we visited in Johannesburg. These boys were such excellent dancers, I had to share their performance with you.
Now it’s off to Tintswalo Safari Lodge with the last few animal videos I got. Up first is an example of what it’s like to ride in the back of one of these vehicles. I was trying to film the mom and baby rhino we had found. This shows how hard it is to hold anything, let alone a camera, when your driver is going flat out to keep up with animals.
Finally, we caught up, and our driver was able to slow down and get me a better shot of the actual rhinos.
I thought I would give you one last video showing you what a nighttime safari looks like. I’m not sure about you, but I have no idea how our tracker/spotter can see anything while going that fast. This might be the reason we never found anything after dark.
That’s it! I will be back tomorrow with the final summary and review of the trip. Would we do it again? Did we like the AmaWaterways experience? How was the food? What did we really dislike about the entire trip? What did we love? Come back tomorrow and find out.
Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up, it knows it must outrun the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the slowest gazelle, or it will starve. It doesn’t matter whether you’re the lion or a gazelle – when the sun comes up, you’d better be running. – African Proverb
I knew this day was coming. Our last full day in Africa. We had two more game drives today, followed by two days of flying, and then we would be home. This was it. If we were going to get any more of the Big Five or the Magnificent Seven, it had to be today. So again, we were up and out before dawn looking for rhinos, leopards and African wild dogs.
The morning drive started with a beautiful sunrise…
…reflecting off a local watering hole.
Where a hippo was bathing.
Then we heard from another truck that they had found…
African wild dogs.
One of the Magnificent Seven.
We rushed to the spot and found this mated pair just taking it easy.
After we had shot them for a while, we saw this giraffe…and then…
RHINOS!
A mother and baby black rhino.
The little guy was kind of skittish….
And anytime we came close to it, he took off.
But we stayed with mom and kid.
He was adorable.
Wildebeests
Zebras…and friends
More Wildebeests
Google identifies this bird as a brown-snake eagle.
We finally see Punba (a warthog). They weren’t singing Hakuna Matata.
They were just running.
Got two of the three we needed, so we headed back to the big lodge for lunch.
Editor’s Note: I had this post all done and ready to go last night and then I remembered that I could show you on a map what a game drive looked like. I have an app on my phone that tracks where I walk by GPS. It’s called Map My Walk. When you are done it gives you a map that shows you how far you walked and where you hit every mile and your stats. On our morning drive on the last day, I just happened to think as we were driving away, that I should turn it on. This was the result. You can see how absolutely crazy the drive is. The total miles on this drive was almost 17. We were out there for three hours and 28 minutes. Just thought it might be a fun thing for you to see.
After lunch, we did it all over again. I wish I could say that we found the elusive leopard, but we didn’t. I guess I will have to go back—NOT! And to be honest, it was our worst game drive of the entire trip. We pretty much saw nothing. Here are the pictures to prove it.
A zebra.
Last Dinner
Two photos. Just two usable photos. It was a somewhat sad way to leave, but it had been a great trip. Tomorrow, I will sum things up and give you an actual review. Stick with me—only one more post. I guess it’s only fitting that this was the end of the day. I should add that some of the others went on a game drive the next morning, on the day we were supposed to fly, but my cold had worsened, so I skipped it. I would have been really disappointed if they had found a leopard, but they didn’t. They did spot a male lion, and I missed that, but with over 40 hours of flying and airports ahead, I’m glad I made that call. I’ll be back tomorrow with a final round up and review.
Africa changes you forever, like nowhere on Earth. Once you have been there, you will never be the same. – Brian Jackman
As I explained yesterday, our two full days at Tintswalo were identical. Up early (5:30 wake-up call), meet in the main lodge for coffee and snacks, jump in the bush cruisers and drive around looking for game for a while.
Then breakfast, a break, and back out to do the same thing from 3:30 to 7:00 or so, and then dinner and sleep. Sounds pretty easy.
But there are a couple of things to mention that you might not have realized. First, the temperature. When we arrived at Tintswalo from the airport on our first day around lunchtime, it was a balmy 78 degrees. During the days, the temps were in the high 70s to the low 80s. Since it was the dry season, we never saw a single drop of rain, which was a good thing since there were no tops on the vehicles. We asked the guides what they did in the rainy season, and they said…ponchos. No, thank you. Driving around, soaking wet for three hours? Not me. I was glad we were there in the dry season.
But the 70s and 80s in the sun do not translate to the 60s and 70s in the dark. Unlike a city, the bush has no concrete or blacktop to soak up the sun. And it gets cold quick, just about as fast as it gets dark. You know all those pretty African sunsets I have been showing you? Did you notice there were very few mountains (none at all) or hills? That means when the sun goes down, it goes from light to dark very quickly. The same thing happens every morning. The sky would get a little light and then BANG! Full sunshine.
But the coldest ride of the day was always the first one in the morning. With no sun for eight hours, we were already cold when we got out of bed, but leave it to the wonderful folks at Tintswalo. When we arrived at the trucks, every seat not only had a blanket but also one of the biggest hot water bottles I have ever seen. And it was HOT! In fact, it stayed hot/warm until we came back three or four hours later.
I tell you all this just to let you know that when you go on safari, you need to layer up. I would start with a sun-protection long-sleeved shirt, a sweater/sweatshirt over that and my windbreaker on top of that (and yes, shorts on the bottom—my legs never get cold). Then you shed those as the sun gets higher. Worked pretty much that way every day. And a hat and LOTS of sunscreen.
I also need to mention how lucky we were to be there in their winter. Not only does it not get as hot during the day, but the days themselves are shorter. We didn’t have sunrise until almost 6:45. If we had gone in December, it might have been raining, but we would have definitely had to get up more than an hour earlier for the game drive because the sun rises before 5:00 am in their summer.
So, enough of the weather stuff, how about some photos? Here’s the morning game drive on our second day in Tintswalo. Don’t forget; if you click the first shot, you can scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping. If you can’t read the caption while watching the slide show, click the little i in a circle below the photo, and you will be able to see it. And PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…
We meet in the living room, pre-dawn for our safari briefing.
The sun hits the sky about half an hour later. We area already out in the file looking for animals.
Our tracker/guide Reply goes into the brush following tracks. The other man was from a different game lodge.
They found us a waterbuck. Hunters like these as they have a target on their backside. ?
And then we found lions.
Lots of lions.
Must have been a pride of about 14 or 15.
Mamas and cubs.
Mama
Playful cubs.
Coming close
Really close.
You can see the rear view mirror of the truck.
Our other car showed up.
We were surrounded.
It’s hard not to just keep taking photos when lions are…
Cavorting all around you.
Pretty much I could go from side to side on the back of the jeep and have a great photo everywhere I looked.
The cubs were so cute.
Just goofing around
As lion clubs do…oh, how jaded I have become.
Seriously.
But Kathleen (sitting in the front where it was less bumpy) loved it.
After lions…zebras!
The first we had seen
The patterns are very cool.
Time to stop for breakfast. The group from the other car posed for me.
The guides got us coffee and more snacks.
Lots of snacks/Lots of drinks.
We ran into Meryl Streep who was filming Out of Africa. Nope, just our friend Vicky pretending.
Erick explains the tracks we are seeing.
A couple of impala stop to stare at us.
And one last giraffe before we head back to breakfast.
After the drive, it was back to the lodge for breakfast, a nap for most (AJ worked out, and I worked on photos), and then a late lunch that Tintswalo called “Substantial High Tea” at about 2:30 (which looked like lunch to me). Then, it was off on the afternoon game drive by 3:30. And here are the photos from that one. It was not our finest hour so I had to embellish with some deck shots taken during tea.
There’s a new bird in town (on the rail at the lodge)—a Burchell’s Starling.
During lunch on the deck, the elephants put on quite a show.
Eating..
There was some drama when someone spotted this turtle right below the hose that the elephants were drinking from. No worries, no animals were hurt in the taking of this photo.
Playing around.
And here comes the heard of Cape buffalo.
Wandering in from down by our lodge.
The whole herd dropped by.
Big ugly guy in the lead.
A giraffe
Same giraffe. This time with a bird.
Zebras grazing.
A male bush buck
Hippos in the distance.
The other truck chasing us around.
The most dangerous animals we saw.
I should have taken a nap.
Sunset
As you can see, the afternoon/evening game drive was a little bit of a bust that day. It seemed to me that there was one animal that stood out during each game drive (except thisone). The day before we saw the cheetah, we had lions and our first zebras this morning, although there were fewer animals in the afternoon. You will have to come back tomorrow to see what we got on those two runs. I can tell you the best ones by the number of photos I took. For most, it was around seven to eight hundred. For this one, I barely got 100. You can’t win them all.
One more thing. I wanted to show you how many animals we could see just lying in bed. Seriously. But for some reason, when I was in bed, I never seemed to have my camera with me ?. So here’s one I shot out our window while sitting on the edge of the bed. Take a look at what our view was like most days. Always something out there hanging around. Mostly tiny monkeys, elephants, Cape buffalo moving by or baboons. I think the baboons bother me the most. You never know what a baboon is going to do, and they seem to be the least phased by humans.
I never knew of a morning in Africa when I woke up that I was not happy. – Ernest Hemingway
When you go on safari, much of the activity is centered around game drives. This means you go out twice a day to look for game (you know, wild animals). That’s what life was like during our stay at Tintswalo. We got there around lunchtime, ate, had half an hour to unpack, and we were out the door on a game drive.
And what were you looking for on the game drives? Mostly, you were looking for the Big Five. If you have never heard that expression before, the Big Five are the five most dangerous (to man) animals you find on an African safari. We also found out that there is a Magnificent Seven (not to be confused with the western films) to look for as well. Your goal on safari is to see (or, in my case, photograph) the Big Five: lion, leopard, rhino, Cape buffalo, and elephant. According to the folks at Tintswalo, there was also a Magnificent Seven, which consisted of the Big Five and two additional species: the African wild dog and the cheetah. I will let you know right now that we didn’t find the Big Five. Of course, we (those of us on this AmaWaterways trip) had already seen three of the Big Five while we were in Chobe National Park (elephant, Cape buffalo and lion), so we were more than halfway there. We just needed the rhino and leopard for the Big Five and the African wild dog and cheetah to complete the Magnificent Seven. I won’t keep you in suspense. We never saw a leopard. Darn ?!
But there were other animals we hadn’t seen yet, and we would see many of them on our six possible game drives. I will pause the story for now to include our first game drive, which took place around 3:30 pm on our first afternoon at Tintswalo. Don’t forget: if you click the first shot, you can scroll through it using your arrow keys or by swiping. And please, don’t view my photography on a phone. Please…
We split up into two groups with six people in each vehicle. We saw some other lodges vehicles and they were PACKED!
Erick, our driver and guide.
Reply, our spotter and tracker. He rode out in front of the truck looking for animals.
First up…birds. This is a magpie shrike.
And a lilac breasted roller just like the ones we saw in Chobe.
A southern yellow-billed hornbill. Also known in the Lion King world as Zaza
And a red-crested korahaan
And this very ticked off elephant. Erick had seen him coming towards us from the right hand side. He sped up to put him behind us.
When I asked why, he said that he likes to get in front of the trucks and block the way, not letting them get around him. I was in the back seat and I was glad that we drove away fast.
Another lilac-breasted roller, this one in full flight.
They are beautiful birds.
Here’s a new one—a double-banded sand grouse.
Spotted a female ostrich.
And there was the male. We hadn’t seen one of those since Cape Town.
And a CHEETAH!
A mom and her two cubs.
Just hanging out.
Posing.
Looking majestic.
Letting us shoot to our heart’s content.
One gorgeous animal
That would rip your head clean off.
But so beautiful.
Especially in the wld.
These are different cheetahs
But darned if I can tell you which is which .
But I bet you can figure it out.
I just liked taking photos of them.
Alas, time to go. I should tell you that I posted about 15 cheetah photos but took more than 250.
A nice surprise.
Appetizers in the bush.
All set up and waiting for us. Nothing like a G&T out in the bush, by jove!
Then it was back in the truck and on to the lodge for the rest of dinner. The food at the lodge was superb!
An example. That’s not ketchup. That’s a blueberry and red wine sauce that went perfectly with the game and I now have the recipe for it.
That’s day one at Tintswalo. We had found another of the Magnificent Seven and only needed a rhino, a leopard (we nevergot), and an African wild dog to complete the set. More game drive news tomorrow. See you then. I leave you with another incredible African sunset.
Africa changes you forever, like nowhere on Earth. Once you have been there, you will never be the same. – Brian Jackman
Our first full day back together with the rest of the October bunch was all about food. We had booked a walking food tour with Secret Food Tours. Kathleen and I had toured with them quite a few years ago, and we are happy to report that they still do a superb food tour. That’s the whole crowd at Deschutes Brewery (but more about that later) above.
Once Ken (at right) arrived, it was off on the food tour. Our first stop was a food pod. We had never been to a food pod before, but it turned out to be a really nice, fenced area with numerous food carts lining the edges, seating, and a stage in the middle. BTW: we were told that these were carts and not food trucks because they have no engines, thus they could not go anywhere. They are there permanently. If you can’t find something to eat or drink there, you aren’t trying. We got to try the Cubano sandwiches from Stella’s Sandwiches, which were drop-dead delicious. Never had one with pulled pork before (always just sliced pork) and it was amazing.
Editor’s Note: I had this post all done and ready to go last night and then I remembered that I could show you on a map what a game drive looked like. I have an app on my phone that tracks where I walk by GPS. It’s called Map My Walk. When you are done it gives you a map that shows you how far you walked and where you hit every mile and your stats. On our morning drive on the last day, I just happened to think as we were driving away, that I should turn it on. This was the result. You can see how absolutely crazy the drive is. The total miles on this drive was almost 17. We were out there for three hours and 28 minutes. Just thought it might be a fun thing for you to see.
One more thing. I wanted to show you how many animals we could see just lying in bed. Seriously. But for some reason, when I was in bed, I never seemed to have my camera with me ?. So here’s one I shot out our window while sitting on the edge of the bed. Take a look at what our view was like most days. Always something out there hanging around. Mostly tiny monkeys, elephants, Cape buffalo moving by or baboons. I think the baboons bother me the most. You never know what a baboon is going to do, and they seem to be the least phased by humans.
