Easy life by the sea…Time flies when you’re having fun!…

Posted by worldwide-admin on March 26, 2022 with 0 Comment

It couldn’t be easier or more pleasing…life at Karen and Rich’s lovely home on a gorgeous bay in Apollo Beach, a sleepy seaside community, is exactly what we needed right now. The WiFi is high-speed, the temperature is a perfect 80F, 27C. There are no insects that we’ve seen and no load shedding. Life is easy here.

Yesterday was fantastic. Rich kept saying how time flies so quickly each day in Florida. At first, I didn’t think it was going any faster than usual, but before we knew it, the day whizzed by. We didn’t have dinner until almost 9:00 pm, 2100 hrs. By 10:30 pm 2230 hrs, I was ready to head for bed while Karen, Rich, and Tom stayed up for a few more hours.

Not smiling for a change, Tom was very content sitting on the sandy beach at Karen and Rich’s home while we had sundowners.

We’ve bypassed any possibility of jet lag after sleeping well the past two nights. But I usually start fading by 10:30 anyway, so last night wasn’t all that unusual. Once again this morning, we awoke feeling fantastic after another good night’s sleep.

As for yesterday, Karen and I went grocery shopping after making a quick trip to a CVS pharmacy for a few cosmetic items I could not purchase in South Africa. I was like a kid in a candy store while browsing through the countless brands and things in the store. I spent over US $80 on only a few things which would have been half as much as in South Africa.

Again, walking through the Publix grocery store, my eyes were darting in every direction, almost overwhelmed by the unbelievable number of options from which to choose. I could have spent hours grocery shopping, but I didn’t want to keep Karen waiting for me. Of course, prices were much higher than I was used to in South Africa.

Back at the house, we unloaded everything, spending the balance of the afternoon relaxing. I took a break from the easy conversation and headed upstairs to our room to empty the box we received here from our mailing service, sent here a few days ago. Also, I had to try on the four dresses I purchased from Amazon for the upcoming Queen Mary 2 cruise at the end of April.

It took me a few hours to go through everything. The dresses all fit me, much to my surprise. All I need to buy while here is a pair of dressy sandals to go with all dresses. I thought about buying a small handbag to go to dinner on the cruises at night, but Tom has agreed to carry my lipstick in his pocket. I’d prefer not to add anything more to my luggage that would add to the weight of the bags.

The sun was setting over the water as we enjoyed our drinks and companionship.

On Monday, Tom and I will head to the town of Brandon, where there is a big shopping mall and a Men’s Wearhouse where we’ll buy him the suit, shirts, and ties for the upcoming dressy cruise. After that, we’ll head to a few shoe stores to find what we’ll need for the cruises and a pair of walking shoes for me. We’ll be relieved to have that done and out of the way.

Tomorrow, we’ll be back with updates of our Google Fi phone service after our data plan had been suspended due to overuse outside the USA.

Wow! Time is flying by so fast this morning as we’re all sitting here chatting. Karen and I need to get out and do our walk before the day is gone!

Have a fantastic weekend and be well.

Photo from one year ago today, March 26, 2021:

The mongooses quickly gathered around the pan of whole eggs. Tom placed it on the ground. Also, we give them scraps of meat and fat since they are omnivores. For more photos, please click here.

We made it!!!…A longer than expected flight from Joburg…Now rested and feeling great!…

Posted by worldwide-admin on March 25, 2022 with 0 Comment

The view of Karen and Rich’s pool and bay from our bedroom’s veranda! Amazing!

Wow! What a long day and night. Our connecting flights worked out, but the most challenging flight was from Joburg to Newark. The plane was having mechanical issues, and we sat in our seats for two hours until it finally took off. It took us over 30 hours from door to door.

The remaining 16-hour flight was painstaking. My Fitbit showed I never slept since it only registers one hour or more. Once I laid down on the two seats between Tom and me, I couldn’t fall asleep when my legs hung into the aisle, and people walked by, bumping into them. A few times, I dozed off but woke myself up when my head dropped down to my chest.

We have two comfy chairs on our veranda at their lovely oceanfront home.

Instead, I watched parts of or the entirety of eight movies, none of which were any good. Most of the movies were old, and we’d watched them at some point, and many were genres I didn’t like. Tom watched a few as well but didn’t care for any of them either. The battery on my phone was dying, and the USB plug-in on the seat didn’t work, so I couldn’t play games on my phone. It was a long 16 hours.

We both wore compression stockings and got up to walk around every few hours. They served food three times, but I ate very little when there was no option for low-carb meals. Most of the food was awful, sugary, and carb-laden. It didn’t matter to me since I knew Karen and Rich would have some fantastic foods awaiting us, and they did.

By the time we were in the air, we were concerned about making our connecting flight in Newark with only a 2 ½ hour layover ahead of us. We had to rush through immigration, collect our bags to go through customs and security, recheck our bags and make it to the gate a few minutes before boarding. Miraculously, it all worked out well.

On the last flight from Newark to Tampa, a lovely man in his 30s sat between Tom and me, and we chatted during the entire three-hour flight, which was also late taking off. We didn’t arrive in Tampa until almost 3:00 pm, 1500 hrs, picked up our bags and rental car, and made our way through rush-hour traffic to Karen’s and Rich’s beautiful home in Apollo Beach, Florida.

It was such a joy to see them both. It had been over two years since we stayed with them in November 2019. It was exciting to see our dear newlywed friends, their gorgeous home, and finally eat some fantastic food, including smoked salmon, deviled eggs, artichoke dip, baby tomatoes, and roasted chicken wings and legs. They’d planned a filet mignon dinner, but after eating the great starters, we were all full and will have the steaks on the braai tonight.

We decided to stay awake as late as possible, but I was done by 9:00 pm, 2100 hrs. Tom stayed up a little longer chatting with Karen and Rich and joined me an hour later. Much to our amazement, we slept like logs, only each getting up once to hit the bathroom but each going right back to sleep.

This morning we awoke alert and energized, feeling as good as ever. We have no remnants of jet lag whatsoever, but following the new time zone we’d entered yesterday afternoon, we bypassed any chance of jet lag.

Another gorgeous view. It couldn’t be more perfect than to be here with them both.

Once we upload today’s post and a few photos (more will follow in days to come), Karen and I will head to her favorite grocery store soon, and we’ll get a few things to last for a few days. When we return and put everything away, Karen and I will take a walk in the neighborhood.

While we’re here, our posts will continue daily, and we’ll add photos of our surroundings, our friends, and anything we decide to do. A lot of sightseeing isn’t our intent while here in Florida, but we have plenty of sightseeing ahead of us over the next few nights.

Thank you, dear readers, for all the well wishes and encouragement. Well back with more tomorrow.

Be well.

Photo from one year ago today, March 25, 2021:

Tiny, who’s quite the loner, has a new friend, we called Narrow, due to his narrow face. Narrow used to hang out with The Imposter (who imitates Tiny), but now Narrow has gravitated to Tiny. We’ll see how this works out when The Imposter returns tonight when these two are most likely cuddled up. For more photos, please click here.

Final post from Marloth Park…Surprising news on our itinerary…Some of our favorite photos…

Posted by worldwide-admin on March 23, 2022 with 0 Comment

We always had a reason to celebrate. Here is Don (Kathy and Don) and Rita (Rita and Gerhard) at Jabula celebrating our friendships.

Note: Due to the high volume of tourists in Marloth Park right now, during school holidays, the WiFi is sketchy and inconsistent. Subsequently, I am unable to make formatting corrections including spacing and adding some links. We’re sorry for the inconvenience. After all, TIA (This is Africa)!

It’s Wednesday morning, and we’re almost totally packed and ready to go. All that’s left is to pack the everyday toiletries when Tom showers soon, and we’ll close our bags. We aren’t worried about overweight baggage this time since we’re allowed two 23 kg (50 pounds) bags each, and we only have three.

We packed one of the duffle bags into another suitcase since we’ll need extra room when we go on the cruises for the dressy clothes we’ll be packing for the Queen Mary 2. Once we get to Minnesota on May 1, we can send the formal attire to our mailing service to hold for us until we need them again.

A female kudu, in a daze from oxpeckers cleaning bugs off her ears and head. For this post, please click here.

I suppose you are curious about our itinerary news, and I should get on with it. After days of research and discussion, we’ve decided to return to Marloth Park on May 24, only 62 days from today. A few factors contributed to this decision, including the difficulty we encountered in traveling to many countries at this time. We considered increased costs, fuel shortages, and overall excessive cost of living due to the ravages of each economy as a result of the pandemic and now the war in Ukraine.

I.B. (Itchy Butt) laying in the wet, muddy cement pond, attempting to ease the itching. For this post, please click here.

There is so much unrest in many countries with poor economic conditions, political unrest, poor medical care, prohibitive medical costs, and the list goes on and on. We’ve decided, for now, making Marloth Park a base from which we’ll continue to travel and embark on cruises makes all the financial sense in the world.

We never figured out what this peculiar apparition that appeared on the night cam could possibly be. For that post, please click here.

Yes, we’ll have visa issues, but we know how to deal with these issues. We can travel to other countries in Africa for short stay safaris and expeditions and then return with a new 90-day visa stamp. Once back here in May, we won’t have to leave until August for a visa stamp. We can either fly to a non-bordering country or start a new visa extension. The new stamp will be good until November when we’re planning to leave anyway.

Our friend Frank, of Frank and The Misses francolins, had a self-tour of our house, including the kitchen. For that post, please click here.

In November, we’ll make our way to Athens, Greece, for three back-to-back Azamara cruises for a total of 42 days, which brings us to Cape Town, South Africa, when we’ll make our way back to Marloth Park and begin the cruising booking process all over again, as new cruises are posted. These new cruises will take us to many new countries we’ve never visited in the past.

This was the third photo I got of the leopard, hoping for a better shot, the best of which is the main photo. For that post, please click here.

We realize that spending one or two days on a ship excursion is not the same as living in a country for a few months as we’ve done in the past. But, our travels are an ever-changing adventure, and we have to do what feels right to us. In between adventures, we’ll enjoy our lives to the utmost in our favorite secluded place in the world. Undoubtedly, South Africa has its issues but is tucked away in the bush; we feel far removed from many issues. For now, this plan is precisely befitting our needs.

When thick-tailed bushbabies are around, the usual small bushbabies run for cover. The larger species will kill the little ones. For this post, please click here.

We have lots of wonderful friends here. We have a constant stream of entertainment as wildlife visits our garden. It’s only a 20-minute drive to enter Kruger National Park. We have access to excellent medical and dental care at affordable prices and insurance covering emergencies. Although smaller than Amazon, we can shop at markets that have all the food products we like to purchase and the excellent online shopping service, Takealot, although smaller than Amazon, carries most items we need to buy from time to time.

This adorable zebra was lounging in our garden. He must have spotted something interesting on the ground. For this post, please click here.

On top of it all, we will be moving into a different house when we return, as shown in photos in this post and in this post. We are excited about moving into this property when we return in May. It has everything we could want or need.

Mom, with the perfect curled tusks, whom we now call Tail-Less Mom, who lost her tail, also lost one of these babies, since then only returning with the fast-growing two piglets. For this post, please click here.

We realize and accept the reality that we may lose some of our readers from making this temporary decision. But, we hope those of you who decide to opt-out make a note of days we’ll be visiting other countries and will stop back to see our stories and photos.

The beautiful Christmas dinner table at Sindee and Bruce’s lovely home in the bush. Dawn was taking a photo of Sindee and the serving table, a short time later filled with great food. For this post, please click here.

For now, the next two months will be exciting for us:

15 nights in Apollo Beach, Florida
13 nights on a transatlantic cruise on Celebrity Silhouette to Southampton, UK
3 nights in Southampton, sightseeing
7 nights on transatlantic return cruise on Queen Mary 2 to New York
14 nights in Minnesota visiting family and friends
7 nights in Henderson, Nevada, visiting family and friends
Return to Marloth Park

It was Rita’s birthday and she and Gerhard took all of us on a bush dinner and night game drive. For this post including great wildlife photos, please click here.

Louise and Danie hosted the best possible birthday gift for me, a visit to an in-the-wild elephant interaction. For this post, please click here.

The above number of nights doesn’t account for the 62 days we’ll be gone, but the long travel days to and from Africa make up the difference. There are many time zone changes in this period that, hopefully, we’ll adapt to with ease.

Today may be the last time we see Little since we’re moving to another house a few km from here. Maybe we’ll get lucky and he’ll find us once again. Little was thrilled we’d returned from Zambia in October 2021 when he stopped by at his usual 4:00 pm. Immediately, he positioned himself on the right side of the veranda, near where I sit, waiting for his treats and words of affection (from me only). For this post, please click here.

So there it is folks, Next time we write to you, most likely it will be from Apollo Beach, Florida, unless we have time on one of our layovers for a quick update.

Be well. Be happy. Live life to the fullest.

Photo from one year ago today, March 23, 2021:

A male bushbuck with a plant growing from his muddy hoof after a big storm. It made us laugh out loud. For more, please click here.

One day and counting…Final expenses for 14 months in South Africa…

Posted by worldwide-admin on March 22, 2022 with 0 Comment

Bossy’s baby suckling while another female looks for pellets.

Today, I started totaling the expenses we had incurred since our arrival here in Marloth Park on January 13, 2021. As I reviewed all the costs and started totaling them, I realized what a daunting, time-consuming task this would be. We still have a lot to do to be ready to go tomorrow. Plus, I need to do my walking after missing several hours while we were gone this morning for our Covid-19 PCR test, a trip to the pharmacy, and breakfast at Stoep Cafe.

Subsequently, the following figures are within 10% of accuracy in an attempt to get through today’s post in a timely fashion and rounded off to the nearest US dollar.

Final Expenses – 14 months*
Marloth Park – January 13, 2021, to March 23, 2022
US Dollar ZAR
Rent & Hotel $ 38,056 566144
Air, Train, Ferry 8,975 133533
Taxi, Car Rental, Fuel 8,256 122836
Entertainment 898 13361
Dining Out 4,760 70799
Groceries 12,040 179079
Shopping (Misc.) 4,080 60684
Tips 2,460 36587
Legal Fees-Visa Ext. 2,280 33910
Medical, dental & Ins. 13,300 197810

TOTAL $95,105 1414487
Monthly Average $ 6,793 101029
Daily Average $ 219 3245

* Included in these totals was the cost for the one-month trip to the USA in July and a 5 night stay in Zambia for a visa stamp.

When totaling up these numbers, I was surprised by how much we spent. But, since we arrived here, we’ve had several expenses that brought up the totals to the result. The trip to the US was three times higher than what we’d have spent living in Marloth Park. Also, we had expensive hotel bills, more expensive rental cars, and dining out daily (also included in these totals). When we left for that month, we kept the house and paid rent while we were away.

It makes more financial sense for us to be in Marloth Park than living in the US or many other countries. Prices are rising here but nowhere near as quickly as they are in the US.

Of course, I am busy as I can be today, making sure everything is in order, including what we’re taking with us and what we’re leaving behind, including clothing and household goods that we’ll use later when we return. Trying to get the walking accomplished today will be the biggest challenge. As I write this now, it’s already 2:00 pm, 1400 hrs, and we’re heading out the door at 4:30 pm, 1630 hrs to meet Louise and Danie at Giraffe for one last night together.

These moms often visit, looking for treats.

They returned ten days ago from their trip to visit family in Cape Town, and we’ve yet to have a moment to hear about their trip. With the school holidays in full force in South Africa now and all of their properties full, they’ve had their hands full with visitors at the houses and to their Info Centre.

The Info Centre is indeed a fabulous place for tourists and locals to stop to arrange safaris and other events and hear about what’s going on in the park. They loan out books and puzzles at no charge. What a fantastic resource for visitors! It’s a wonderful place to stop and meet Louise and sometimes Danie when he’s not out at building sites.

An impala mom and her baby visit our garden. Impalas are very shy around humans, so I had to take this photo through the screen door, or they’d run away.

This morning’s trip to Komatipoort accomplished everything we expected, except our expectation of finding a large plastic tote with a lid. If a person wanted to buy these, they’d have to make the long drive to Nelspruit, the same drive we’ll make tomorrow when we head to the airport in the afternoon for our flight to Johannesburg to begin the long journey to Florida, USA.

Be well.

Photo from one year ago today, March 22, 2021:

These same three wildebeests are lounging in the driveway right now. They were happy to see us when we returned from Komatipoort today. For more photos, please click here.

Two days and counting…A smooth transition so far…

Posted by worldwide-admin on March 21, 2022 with 0 Comment

Mom and Baby mongoose sucking out white and yolk from an egg.

It’s all going well. We are feeling organized, and everything is getting sorted and packed. It seems it works better for us when we pack over several days rather than rushing on the last few days, especially when we’ve accumulated more stuff than usual during the past 14 months.

Tomorrow will be a busy day. We’ll be heading to Komatipoort for the required Covid-19 PCR tests and will get the results by email on Wednesday morning, the day we’re leaving. We’ll have Louise print off the report, the only item we need to have printed.

Over the years, we’ve found we don’t need paper copies of flights, hotels, cruises, and car rentals as long as we have the reservation or confirmation numbers on our phones. The documents may say to print a copy, but we’ve done fine without hauling pages and pages of documents. It’s wasteful and unnecessary in the majority of cases. Once we show our passports, providers can easily find us in their system.

How quickly the youngsters learn the value of an egg.

We’ve gone through all of the Covid-19 restrictions for this upcoming flight and our two upcoming cruises. It’s all under control. We’re pleased with how organized we’ve become over the years. But, it took us a while to learn the best way to handle all the necessary documents clearly and concisely. There is so much paperwork it can be overwhelming without an easy-to-use system.

But, who knew how to travel the world? In the beginning, technology wasn’t as advanced as it is now. And yet, in some countries, technology is far behind, and actual printed pieces of paper are required for many venues, rentals, and other services. We continue to learn as we go.

Today, I did laundry for the last time. With the high humidity, clothes usually take two days to dry, so today was the day to wrap that up. The cupboards are empty of our foodstuffs, and the refrigerator only contains enough food for tonight’s dinner. Tomorrow morning when we head to Komatipoort, we’ll have breakfast at Stoep Cafe.

This little one was unsure how to crack open the two eggs.

We’re going out to dinner at Giraffe with Louise and Danie tomorrow evening. We always enjoy their company. It will be wonderful to spend our last evening in the bush with them.

Throughout all of this busy packing, I’ve continued walking, staying at a full 25 miles, 40 km, per week. Even when we’ve been out for the majority of the day, I catch up when we return or, in a few cases, add to the next day. Surely, while traveling, I should be able to keep pace with all of the walking at airports.

There’s no doubt we’ll be exhausted when we arrive in Tampa. Thank goodness the drive to Karen and Rich’s house is less than 40 minutes, in regular traffic. They are planning a nice dinner for us. Karen wrote a thoughtful message, asking if we would prefer to eat a light meal when we arrive since it will be later at night to us, after being awake all night.

I explained how that wouldn’t be an issue for us. We prefer to immediately adapt to the new time zone, eating and sleeping based on the times of the day and night where we are currently. This helps us to acclimate more quickly and avoid severe jet lag. Usually, after two good nights’ sleep, we are back to our “old selves.” But, on a few occasions, we were a little tired for a few more days. Missing a night’s sleep in itself can cause that!

When we arrive, we’ll avoid napping and get into the groove as soon as possible. Surely, by 10:00 pm, 2200 hrs, we’ll be ready for bed on Thursday, our day of arrival. Thanks to Karen and Rich for thinking of us and inviting us to stay at your lovely home. I can’t wait to see the ocean once again!

Two little ones were trying to get in on the action.

That’s all for today, folks. It’s time for me to start walking again to ensure I stay on track. When we get to Florida, I may be able to walk outdoors, hopefully, avoiding running into any alligators!!! Then again, it would be fun to take a photo!!!

Be well.

Photo from one year ago today, March 21, 2021:

Frank eats out of the seed container. There were so many warthogs in the garden I set this down for Frank. The warthogs love to eat the seeds, leaving none for Frank. This was a good solution at that point to ensure Frank and The Misses got their share. For more photos, please click here.

Three days and counting…We’ve accumulated too much “stuff!”…

Posted by worldwide-admin on March 20, 2022 with 0 Comment

This is Bossy’s baby who may be a boy with a lumpy structured forehead that will eventually have a full set of horns that last a lifetime.

I am busy sorting and packing, deciding what to leave behind for when we return, what to throw away, what to pack in our bags, and carry-on. Tom packs all of his clothes and digital equipment, and zillions of power cords. But, as always, which he prefers, he doesn’t start until the day before we leave.

Since I am the cook, I prefer to pack all the kitchen items we’re leaving behind since we aren’t taking any of those items with us. Also, Louise provided us with many household goods from her inventory, and we are sorting and keeping those separate to return to her. It’s been a daunting task.

Bossy arrived with three young calves. She was on babysitting duty.

Usually, when we’re moving out of a holiday home, we only have to pack our clothes, toiletries, and equipment. But, this time, it feels like another time in my life, many moons ago, when moving from one house to another. Every cupboard, drawer, and cabinet in this house has our “stuff” in it.

It’s not as if we did a monthly run to Costco, loading up on inventory of household goods. But, over the 14 months, we’ve spent in this house, we accumulated enough to make packing more challenging this time. I have run out of room in the two plastic totes I borrowed from Louise, and she, too, is also out of empty containers. Soon, we are heading to the hardware store to see if we can find a few more bins.

Two youngsters were fussing over one another.

As for leftover food, we are in great shape. We will have used every frozen item and all meats by tomorrow night. Tuesday, we’re dining out with Louise and Danie on our last night. Tonight and tomorrow night, we’ll be eating grilled chicken breasts with sausages, green beans, rice (for Tom), and salad. We’re using all of our eggs and bacon. Since we don’t snack, we don’t have leftover chips and other snack bags to toss.

The few things left in the fridge, such as unopened butter, cheese, sour cream, and a few condiments, we’ll give to Zef and Vusi. Plus, I have accumulated a pile of clothing for their wives and daughters in good condition, which they may or may not be able to use.

It was tricky getting the three young kudus in one photo.

Shortly after returning from the local hardware store, unable to find any large plastic containers, Vusi showed up at the door with another large empty tote. Louise emptied it so we could use it. That’s her! She’s always thinking of everyone else. They are such great friends and the best property managers in the world. We know from experience!

We enjoy our wildlife friends in the garden even though it’s a school holiday and the park is packed with tourists. We couldn’t believe the number of tourists at the shops, the water park at the Bush Centre, and the restaurants. At these holiday times, we don’t often see many animals. But these boys and girls know, after 14 months, which “side their bread is buttered on.” Pellets are still offered in abundance.

Here’s all three of them together. Kudus are very social animals.

We have over two 40 kg, 88 pounds bags of pellets left to use before we go in three days. Certainly, we’ll have no trouble getting them tossed into the garden in the next few days.

Our flight from Nelspruit/Mpumalanga/Kruger Airport is at 6:30 pm, 1830 hrs, so we don’t have to leave here on Wednesday until about 3:00 pm, 1500 hrs, leaving us plenty of time to drive the problematic N4 highway, in the event of any unforeseen slowdowns.

Are we excited about our upcoming visit with Karen and Rich in Apollo Beach, Florida? Absolutely! We missed their wedding due to Omicron, and it will be fantastic to spend time with them at their oceanfront home. As for the two cruises, we’re very excited to be cruising again and surely will enjoy both Atlantic crossings on two very different ships.

Then, of course, we’re excited to spend time with our adult kids, grandchildren, Tom’s siblings, and hopefully, my sister Julie (who may come from LA) in Minnesota and then off to Las Vegas/Henderson, Nevada, to see son Richard and his girlfriend. If time allows, we hope to see some of the many friends we left behind in 2012 when we began to travel.

Thanks to many of our readers who have written to wish us safe travels. Finally, you’ll be able to read and see photos of something other than wild animals in our garden! They never bore us, but they may have become “old news” to all of you.

We hope you have a pleasant Sunday. We’ll be back tomorrow with more!

Photo from one year ago today, March 20, 2021:

These three warthogs, whom we’ve named Bennie, Hennie, and Lennie, visit several times a day. But in the past several months we haven’t seen them together. For more photos, please click here.

Four days and counting…Busy packing the house…

Posted by worldwide-admin on March 19, 2022 with 0 Comment

Look how swollen Big Daddy’s neck signifies he’s ready to mate. Amazing!!!

The only time since we began traveling in 2012 that we stayed in one property for over a year was here in Marloth Park when I had heart surgery, and we didn’t leave for 15 months, the final three of which I spent recovering to become well enough to travel.

Now, during times of the pandemic, we will have lived here for 14 months due to many travel restrictions in force all over the world. We would have left sooner had it been a little easier to travel. In the past 14 months, we left, once to Zambia for a week and another time to the US for a month.

On another occasion, we’d booked an exciting trip to Kenya, which was canceled due to Covid-19. Is it any wonder we were hesitant to book anything when we’d already lost so much money due to the pandemic in the past two years? In many cases, we got most of the money back, but it required hours and hours of phone calls, documentation, and applying pressure to the providers to give us a refund.

We became weary of all of these issues. We’re facing another possible cancellation on the cruise scheduled to travel to Ukraine. We’ve decided we won’t accept the Black Sea price to swap out for the Greek Islands. We’ve done that route in the past, and we’re not willing to pay twice as much as other such cruises are charging right now.

We’ve been watching opinions from other passengers on that cruise via cruisecritic.com. They feel like us. They want their money back. If we apply for the refund now, we will get 100% of what we paid, applied to a future cruise which must be used by the end of 2022 or one year from the original cruise date, whichever is later. That may not work for us. We’d be happy to have them apply the funds to the other cruises we have booked with Azamara.

However, if enough passengers cancel, the cruise line will cancel the cruise. According to Azamara’s cancellation policy, if they cancel a cruise, we’d get 125% of the cost of the cruise as a future credit since it’s only a 600 passenger cruise with most likely only 500 passengers that would account for approximately 250 cabins.

Thus, instead of canceling now, we will wait a few weeks and see if the cruise line cancels. We’ll receive a 100% credit for everything we’ve already paid in advance to Costco Travel in the worst case. Whew!

As for the packing, after living in this house for so long, the packing is more complicated than usual. Since we are returning before too long, we are leaving the non-perishable kitchen items in a big tote. Also, we’re leaving some clothing that we won’t need on the cruises or in the US to lighten the load.

I fed him an entire bag of whole large carrots. He inhaled them in seconds. He was quite thrilled with the treat.

We are allowed two 23 kg (50 pounds) bags each. We will each bring our largest bag, the yellow supply bag, one duffle bag along with two carry-on bags for me, and the computer bag for Tom. We’ll have to pay baggage fees on the US flights (one to Minneapolis and the other to Las Vegas). There’s nothing we can do about that.

After all, we’ll be sailing on two very distinct cruises in the next six weeks, and we’ll need different clothes for each, although some everyday items will work for both voyages.

That’s it for today, folks. Enjoy your weekend!

Photo from one year ago today, March 19, 2021:

This is a monitor lizard that Tom spotted while driving. It happened so quickly I had to take the photo through the windshield. For more photos, please click here.

Now we know about the changes to the cruise to Ukraine…Decisions for the future…

Posted by worldwide-admin on March 18, 2022 with 0 Comment

This morning at 5:00 am, we received an email from Azamara explaining the new itinerary changes excluding Russia and Ukraine. It has changed as follows. To see, you must click the following link.

ON_29_June_2022_ItineraryChange

The cruise is still priced as expensive as the original Black Sea cruise, which we’d been willing to pay for since this was a long-desired itinerary since we began traveling. This new itinerary doesn’t appeal to us. We’ve already done a cruise to the Greek Islands, thoroughly enjoying it but not interested in repeating that past itinerary. We’d booked the back-to-back to Greece because we wanted to extend the long-awaited Black Sea cruise.

Zebra’s tails appear to be braided, but obviously, they are not.

Now, with the Black Sea out of the question due to the war in Ukraine, we aren’t interested in the second leg. Thus, we’ve decided to cancel this cruise and the back-to-back second leg (again the Greek Islands) we’d booked for 21 nights. We have to call Costco Travel to do this, and the only time we can call in is at night due to the time difference. Each time we call, we’ve been on hold for at least an hour.

This morning, there was a message on Costco Travel’s website stating they were recovered today from a phone outage yesterday and waiting times will be longer than usual…what??? Longer than one hour on hold? No thanks. We’ll wait a few days and call. We could cancel online, but we’d lose our deposits.

The only way we can be assured the amounts we paid in full for these two cruises of US $14,923, ZAR 223257 is to call and ask them to contact Azamara, explaining we want to cancel due to the unforeseen itinerary changes and have the funds transferred to our other upcoming cruises starting in November 2022. This can’t be accomplished online.

Zebras love pellets, as do most of the mammals in the wild.

When booking through a travel agency such as Costco Travel or Vacations-to-Go, the cruise line requires all changes handled through the booking agency, not through the cruise line itself. Otherwise, we’d call Azamara ourselves.

So with these changes, we’re back to May 22 when our time in Henderson/Las Vegas, Nevada ends, and we need to decide where we’ll go until the next cruise sails in November, which is a full six months. When we peruse the world map and consider places we’ve been and places we’d like to go, we find issues due to damage done to the economy of many countries due to two years plus of Covid and the remnants of lockdown and isolation.

We’ve already spent over two years in the South Pacific, visited many significant areas in South America, spent plenty of time in Europe, and had a long, painful time in India. And it goes on and on. Please take a look at our world travel map on the top right side of our page. As you can see, we’ve visited many parts of the world.

After getting their fill of pellets, they wandered off to the front of the house to lounge in the driveway, like Hal and Broken Horn often do.

Sure, we could easily spend the next ten years visiting new places. And we will see new and unusual places. But at this point, we ask ourselves, do we want to go there based on a burning desire or just to go somewhere? With the high prices on fuel with airfare and car rental rates escalating by the hour, where exactly do we want to go?

We aren’t done traveling by any means. There is nowhere in the world we’d like to live permanently right now. But, we have become a bit disillusioned by the outcome of the pandemic and now the war in an area of the world we longed to see. We don’t feel compelled to go anywhere in particular right now. For now, we love cruising, and the more we can do, the better.

So, our focus will be on where we can visit and cruise to fill in some of the blanks in the itinerary we’ve built over the years. Searching and discovering those desirable new places and cruises continues to be exciting and fulfilling. It is from that perspective we continue on our journey. And, of course, we always enjoy our time in South Africa and always will.

Be well.

Photo from one year ago today, March 18, 2021:

I could not take the photo of this elephant from the car, and thus, I got out, walked down a narrow, uneven path, and made my way to the fence. For more photos, please click here.

Photos from dinner out with friends…Food photos, too!…Happy St.Patrick’s Day to those who celebrate!…Six days and counting…

Posted by worldwide-admin on March 17, 2022 with 0 Comment

The six of us at Giraffe bar for dinner on Tuesday evening. From left to right: Lynne, Jan, me, Tom Mick and Steve.

Most likely, Tuesday evenings dinner out with friends, Lynne and Mick and Janet and Steve was the last time we gathered with local friends in Marloth Park, except for dinner on Friday night at Jabula with Dawn and Leon, owners of the beautiful establishment, with whom we’ve become good friends over the years.

Dawn and I had our pedicures done at our favorite local spa here in the park while Tom and Leon got together at Jabula to do “guy talk.” I rode back to Jabula with Dawn to find Tom and Leon enjoying uninterrupted guy time when we were done. I joined in on the conversation while Dawn went about some work for the restaurant. It was a pleasant start to the day.

It’s hard to say goodbye to everyone we’ve come to know and love since we first began coming to Marloth Park in 2013, the only place in the world to which we continually return. If someone had asked us years ago if we’d be willing to live without power and water at least several times a month and the occasional failure of WiFi, we would have emphatically stated a resounding “NO!!!”

Lynne and Jan had the chicken schnitzel with creamed spinach and topped with cheese.

But, here we are after over a year of load shedding, most months, with several days without water, and still, we’re coming back for more, a mere nine months from now.

If someone asked if we could spend our days in 100 F, 36C heat with no air-con except in the bedroom, spending daylight hours in the sweltering heat and humidity, we would have again said a resounding, “NO WAY!!! But, here we are in the hot, sticky, tropical climate of summer in Africa, spending our days dripping in sweat, rarely whining over the annoyances and discomforts typical of living in the rugged bush. Who knew that would appeal to us to this degree?

If some asked if we could live with insects, mozzies, and the constant prospect of a snake popping up out of nowhere, we would have flatly refused to visit such a place. But, here we are, 14 months later with all of this, and we’ve been quite content as we were on all of the other occasions we’ve lived in Marloth Park over the past nine years.

My grilled chicken salad with feta cheese and lots of vegetables.

Whether its spending time with the fantastic friends we’ve made or reveling in the exquisite nature of the bush, we’ve genuinely become bush people, not so much in the cruder sense, but in the mind of those who come to Africa and become entrenched in its magic.

It’s not easy to leave, even now, when we are excited about the prospects of the next few months, visiting friends in Florida, family in Minnesota and Nevada, and of course, embarking on two very different types of cruises; one, the first transatlantic on a Celebrity ship, familiar to us in its ambiance, style, food, entertainment, and people and two; sailing back across the Atlantic Ocean on a more formal British cruise line, Cunard on the famous Queen Mary 2. What an adventure after these past few years of relative confinement!

Surely, we’ll miss the animals. And there’s undoubted, a slight hesitation knowing when we return it will be to a different house, a few kilometers from here, where those animals we’ve come to know and love may never find us again such as Little, Broken Horn, Hal, Gordy, Thick Neck, Bossy, The Imposter, Holey Moley, Frank, and The Misses, Chevy, Mom and Babies, Lori and Barbara, One Tusk, Bad Eye, One Wart, Wounded, and the list goes on and on.

Tom, Mick, and Steve had this steak topped with an egg, chips, onion rings, and a small salad.

We may never see them again. But, new relationships with these fantastic beasts will develop in our new location, and we’ll have names for all of them in no time at all.

Many of our human friends won’t be here when we return in December. Some prefer to stay away during the heat and humidity of the summer months with all the above challenges as mentioned above. We can only play it by ear and see who can return.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day to those who celebrate and special birthday wishes to RL!

Be well.

Photo from one year ago today, March 17, 2021:

Tiny often lay down while I talked to him and listened attentively, his ears flipping back and forth. When we returned from the US visit n July, he never returned. He could have died of old age or injury, could have been culled, or moved on to another territory when he discovered we were no longer here. For more photos, please click here.

Wild action in the garden…A fight like none other…7 days and counting…

Posted by worldwide-admin on March 16, 2022 with 0 Comment

“How do wildebeest fight?

They follow a series of ritualized actions: bucking, snorting, pawing at the ground, fighting, and grunting in a deep, croaking manner like a frog. The wildebeests will face one another on their knees, foreheads to the ground, ready for combat.”

Typically, wildebeests fight over territory and during the mating season.

Yesterday, while we were outside on the veranda, an unusual sighting occurred. Hal and Broken Horn were visiting the garden simultaneously. We’d seen them arrive at the same time, but in all of those past cases, one of them quickly wandered off. Most often, it was Hal, who is gentle and easy-going.

Broken Horn can be very aggressive with other animals when pellets are around. But, Hal is always willing to share. In this case, we certainly didn’t toss out any pellets when we were fearful they could get into a fight. We carefully avoid tossing any pellets into the garden when we see aggressive animals that may fight over them. We never want to incite hostility among the animals.

When they first arrived, it appeared that everything was going to go well. However, we held off on tossing any pellets to them.

By nature, kudus, zebras, and warthogs may enact aggressive behavior among their species, even on occasion in their own family/friend groups. Generally, this type of behavior is short-lived, resulting in a chase into the bush. Yesterday, it was not the case.

At first, Hal smelled Broken Horn’s butt, and we thought nothing of it. The snorting and pawing at the ground ensued within less than a minute, and the fight began. Dogs do this all the time, and most often, the intent is to determine “who” is in their territory. We’ve seen this behavior among warthogs, but not many other animals.

Stunned and speechless, we watched in horror, fearful one of them would be injured. We saw no evidence of injury during the 15 to 20 minutes they were at it. We quickly realized we needed to make a video, although I anticipated it would be over before I even got started as I grabbed the camera. But, that wasn’t the case. We were easily able to get this video.

Hal then proceeded to sniff Broken Horn’s butt to see if he knew him.

After a while, my arms were tired of holding up the camera, and I stopped. We had to leave the veranda a few times when they were too close to us. We moved inside and watched from the bedroom window, especially as they upset all the boulder edging around the cement pond.

Finally, they ran off to the driveway in a mad chase. We couldn’t see who was chasing who. The only differential in their appearance is Broken Horn’s one broken horn that’s been that way since we’ve known him for the past 14 months.

Later in the day, we headed to Giraffe Bar and Restaurant to meet Lynne and Mick and Janet and Steve for dinner. As always, the six of us had a fantastic time, laughing, talking, and sharing endless stories. In a few weeks, they’ll all return to their other homes in Jersey. Hopefully, we’ll see them at some point after we return in December. Tomorrow, we’ll post photos of all of us and our various dishes.

It didn’t take long for the fight to commence. We knew that something was going to happen once they were on their knees.

As mentioned in our heading, the departure countdown has begun. We leave Marloth Park one week from today. Most of my clothing is packed, Tom’s shirts are all washed, dried, and neatly folded. All I have left to do is pack the kitchen items we’ve purchased since our arrival; spices, unopened condiments, canned coconut cream, coconut oil, and a few pans such as a non-stick skillet, a muffin tin, and a few roasting pans.

In no time at all, we’ll be good to go.

Be well.

Photo from one year ago today, March 16, 2021:

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