Nice...

The money quote:

Gympie snake catcher Cody Rowe agrees.
"It doesn't really matter what time of the year you stumble across them. Like in winter they are real slow and sluggish but give them a few minutes and they'll be right royal fine to give you a run for your money," he said.

See more at the Toowoomba Chronicle

Time is Short

Timing is Everything

At St. Simone's Island, Ga.

As I find retirement approaching quickly, I've been thinking about life and the pursuit of happiness. As I've told several students, we are about to embark on the adventure that I wanted to try when I graduated from college, but had neither the money nor the courage to attempt. This is true. But there are many other reasons why this is happening now and now 40 years ago.

We'll Be Moving On Soon...

As we draw near our departure date (and our house still hasn't sold - get with it people and help us sell this thing!), we enter a spell of rain, do a few house sits and find totally unsurprising news in the Toowoomba newspaper.

The big Blue Ridge fire now has competition from mother nature and our gardens are getting a good drink.

We are just finishing a sit in Harrisonburg taking care of a couple rambunctious pups. More cats and dogs to take care of soon.

And the latest news from the Toowoomba Chronicle is: Snake on the loose in Toowoomba park

Spring Is On the Way

Above is a bit of detail from the raised garden in the center of the driveway in the backyard. Flowers are a'comin'!

The reason this small section of the yard is interesting is that I took this image with my new Nikon 200-500mm VR lens. With the TC-14E III attached and the lens zoomed all the way out, 500mm becomes 700 mm and the field of view is tiny. I was standing on the back deck. Just a quick test that the lens arrived safely. I'll get some more interesting test shots soon.

Did I mention that our house is for sale?

Around the House

Finally, a day with a bit of sun, even if it is cold. So, I decided to get a few photos of the outside of the house to advertise things a bit. Help us spread the word about this house so it will sell quickly, and we can get on with out adventure.

Our House is for Sale!

Our house is officially on the market! Please tell all your friends (and enemies for that matter) to give us a look and and BUY OUR HOUSE!!!

Don't you worry about what we do if (when) the house sells in the first week. This would be the very best problem to have, and we have plenty of options. Before we worry about that, the house must first sell and this process is finally started.

Everyone now stop reading this boring post, call your friends, and tell them to head over to Listing 544898 for the full details.

Coming Home

          The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. Lao Tzu

A journey of 18 ½ hours ends with both cheeks numb. Anon

So. Last Friday morning we got up early, finished packing, said goodby to the pets, and headed out for breakfast.  About 9:00 AM I took E to the airport with the luggage, and I went to get the car washed. We'd been on lots of muddy roads, including the one that Glen lives on, and we wanted to return it clean. The car wash we picked out was closed. Who closes on the Friday before Easter, eh?

I went down the road a bit to another place, and they were happy to do it for us. The whole process took about an hour with two fellows working inside and out with the vacuum, rags and a pressure washer. Looked very nice when they were finished. Total cost 80 Pula... a bit less than $8.

Back at the Airport, E continues to wait.

Home Again!

Sorry to disappear on you. The trip home was exhausting and we are only now recovering. Work on the house took a bit longer than expected and the floors downstairs received the final (I hope) coat of polyurethane today and we are staying in a hotel until it is safe to walk on (at least tomorrow). I'll try to get a post up about the "fun" we had on the way home on an 18 ½ hour flight from Johannesburg. I need a day or two to recover first. Be patient.

Baboons

Just so you understand what you are seeing here: all the photos in this post were taken inside the city limits of Maun almost directly across the river from the town center. There are two main roads, one on each side of the river. This is on the side of the river where we are living.

South African Airlines

Completely incompetent.
Row a canoe across the sea; it will be easier.

By the Boteti River in the Noonday Sun

White Stork.

Riding out of town  we spied a clutch of White Storks in a field alongside the road. We had a fun bird day even if there were no new birds to add to our lists.

Country Life

As far as we can tell, most folks in Maun have electricity although some (many...most?) do not have running water. We know this because even first thing in the morning, Kitsiso and KB have charged cell phones, but we also see lots of people carrying water from the river.

Out of town, even electricity is scarce.

The Local Scene

Terri (in the bed) and Emma doing what they do best.

There are three roads that lead out of Maun, and we've travelled each many times. Yesterday we spent some time exploring locally.

Roads

You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.  Inigo Montoya

Roads are strange places in Botswana. Sure, they are sometimes paved and when they are, they are often painted with traffic-directing marks just like roads everywhere. But here, roads are so much more.

Makgadikgadi and Nxai Pan National Parks

White Stork.

With all the rain we've been having and our reluctance to get involved in driving on untarred roads where the chances of getting stuck are non-zero, we decided that Friday we'd drive on the tarred roads  and visit the Makgadikgadi and Nxai Pans. These salt pans are the remains of large lakes that used to exist here. In the southwestern portion of Makgadikgadi there is still a lake, but it is much smaller than when Livingstone first saw it. Nowadays, there is a the A3 that cuts through the park area on the way from Maun to Francistown. We came to the edge of this before. This time we went all the way.

Driving South Again

A pair of White-Backed Vultures alongside the road south of Maun.

I'm a little behind on the blogging since we've been on the go for a few days. This combined with the weather, had made it difficult to keep up.

Out Into the Bush (Just A Little)

After having our second breakfast at our usual place, Motsana, and seeing the sun come out, we decided to have a mini-safari. We decided to drive towards Moremi and stop when the roads got too bad. There were things to see even without actually getting into deep water or the game reserve itself.

National Goat in the Road Day

After a hard rain Wednesday morning, we discovered that it was National Goat in the Road Day. OK, so it is not really a national thing, we sure saw lots of goats in the road here in Maun.

More Rain

Today (Wednesday) we planned to leave early for a full day at the Moremi Game Reserve. However, during the night it began to rain. It was a steady, hard rain by the time we got up at 5:15 and by the time we finished our morning ablutions about 6:00, it was still going strong.