I'm home

I had a very eventfull trip, thank goodness I'm home. Norma

Welcome Home Norma!!!

Hi Norma, glad your back. DebK

Thanks to you both, I'm really glad to be home. We were very lucky, no incidents at the airport. Norma

Norma - so sorry I didn't get to the airport to meet you. I kept searching old emails and couldn't find the last ones you sent me about the exact time you were arriving. I wish you yould have called me when you got here tho - If you had a lay-over.

We had an layover of 2 hrs. We had time to get off the plane pick up our luggage, go through inspection and line up and get back on the next plan to Africa, barely, the airport is so large, I had two suitcases to carry, my purse with the cameras, I barely made it, it was a long walk to the loading gate. I was actually the last on the plane. 400 people were on that plane, there was not another seat available. Loading time about 40 minutes, security was very fast and effecient. Service terrific, seatilng horrible. I'm so small, yet hardly had a place to put myself. I'm under 5' and less than 100 lbs. The poor guys that were 6'5" or more and large. The children were terrific as well, no crying babies. Food horrid. Norma

wb Norma, are you going to put pictures in your journal? would love to hear all about it.

Nope, I don't even know how to do this. Are you interest in wildflowers, lithops, connophytum, euphorbia, rocks, rocks, more rocks, bugs, lizards? I don't want to bore the group.
Norma

Don't know that I've heard of connophytum. A little more detail on that please.
What kinds of lizards?

Lithops, Euphorbia,connophytum - What ever is pretty!!

Conno's are plants that have two lumps that look like rocks, may be green/lavender, or other colors, have a daisy flower, they were not in flower. Everyone got excited about finding them, I just thought they were ugly plants, except the miniature clumps, that weren't pretty but cute little lumps.
If you plan to go to Africa, please write to me first. Norma

Norma,
WB I don't think you will bore the group, I would love to see your pictures from Africa :)
Carmen

Hi Norma. Why do I think you have a great big story to tell about S.A. that you're not telling?
Barbara

Please share at least the highlights - if folk's don't want to read it, they don't have to look - they will just miss out on your big adventure!!

The first day, we landed but were not met at the airport as promised, that was the first clue. We called and finally got picked up and taken to the BB. They thought for some reason we were arriving another day. We made reservations 6 months or more in advance.
DH hired a driver and took us to the south cape, and I saw the very famous African penguins, that were sitting on eggs, and saw where the Indian ocean met the Atlantic. It was cool, I saw table mountain from a distance, never made it to the top where all the plants grow. What a shame. DH took me to the (now I not going to spell this right) Kirschtenboch garden, I went into the conservatory only. They had a wonderful display of statues made by local artist selling for $6000 and up, didn't stay long enough to see the gardens.
The next morning up and early, breakfast at 7:00 out we went into 3 vans and finally left about 10:00 the guides couldn't seem to get the group together, no organization. 2nd clue, they loaded the luggage, and off we went. We stopped at another national garden, which was a waste of time, 3rd clue this day we drove up the coast until we came upon a spot, stopped and climed under the fence and I saw my first Crassula of the trip, C. barbata which was truly the only different form that I did see the whole trip, red peduncle, and red flowers. Then on to the next BB which I think was a flop house, we did have our own bathroom in the room, which had mold in the shower, and a bed of boards with a mattress on the top and iron gates on the door. No heating or cooling. We walked just a block for breakfast which was located in back of a store. I was afraid to eat the food. The city was Pofadder, there are no newspapers here, no phones, no TV. no plants, this was our base for two days. Then we drove to look for plants, which were everywhere, but I didn't know what they were, didn't know what I was looking at, more less like the desert on the way to Las Vegas. The group spread out in all directions, so I was traveling alone DH stayed back so he would have toilet facilities, there was none available from the time we left until 8:00 that evening when we ate dinner. The previous day they wouldn't take DH to use facilities the previous day
and he got sick. 4th clue. DH left the tour on the 3rd day. Now do you really want to hear more of this.
This day we had two flat tires on a the brand new van, 5th
clue. The fan belt was loose.

Oh no Norma,
doesen't sound to good. sorry to hear that your trip was not to wonderful :(

I had to read your message a few times, but what is a flop house?

did your DH went home after 3 days or just did not made the tour with you?

how long did you stay there?

Carmen

Oh, so sad Norma - you had looked forward so long to this trip. Well, of course you are so fortunate to be working at such a lovely place as the Huntington, that it would be hard to match. The people that set you up for this trip surely didn't check it out well enough, either that or the brochures just lied!! So sorry. Hope your dh doesn't have lasting effects.

There are not many places in this world that I would care to visit, I can enjoy it well enough on TV, and know what I am eating!! I guess it's really true, "There's no place like home"! Glad you are back home safe with us - you were missed!

If this bores you, don't read it. Don't even open this. The conophytum is a small plant that lives under the soil until it rains. Then will come up and show windows to capture the sunlight. Very similar to the Lithops. I saw the following plants: Mesebryanthemum, squamulosum, red leaves and very pretty.Fenestraria rhopalophylla (baby toes) with just the tips of the toes showing (windows), Pelargonium varies species, not the garden type at all, Amaryllis paradisicola (Naked Lady) flowers in Ausust here in Calif. Aloe dichotoma, not in flower, a whole forest of them. All sort of lichen, ferns of several species, lots and lots of Cheridopsis, with big white flowers if you can find it in flower. Avonia, all over the place, not in flower, Many varieties of Aloe, few in flower, no Gasteria or Haworthia, no Sansevieria, Ornithogalum, all over, Lilies the white common one used for funerals, bulbine (related to Haworthia), Moraea (which we grow in our gardens) A little more later. Norma

We saw tortoise, snake, lizards, desert cats (felis nigripes), many specie of birds, black eagle grasshoppers, of all kinds and colors, to match the soil, rocks, or bushes they lived on. Rocks, lots of rocks, all colors, many varieties, perhaps some meteorite, sprinkbok, kudu, heron, basket weavers, owl, spiders, bugs, mosquitos. All sort of Dimorphotheca (daisy like bushes) Gazania several varieties, many varieties of Cephalophyllum, a few Crassula, Tylecoden, Cotyledon, Avonia, oxalis. NOrma

Norma,
thanks for sharing, Did you take pictures?
what was the best plant you sah? and what was the creepiest animal you sah?

did you sah all these animals in the wild or where these in zoos?

now I feel so stupid asking so many questions *LOL*
so many animals and most of them I don't know nothing about.

The conophytum sounds very interesting, I have to look that one up :)

Hi Carmen, I call a flop house, a house of prositution. The English call them doss houses for street drunks, unemployed, no gooder, no hope urs. Flea pit. It was clean however.

I took pictures, but all slides, so I must learn how to put them up on the scanner.

The creepiest was a worm that will turn into a beautiful butterfly, blue/yellow with long hairs or spikes on the body.
Also a long haired white spider about 2+ inches across moving rather fast, we put him into a jar and popped him into the refrig. to get cool overnight, we also put in a flat rock for the same reason, the next morning pictures were taken by all. If any of you can send slides I will mail them along to ypu to do it for the group. Norma

Animals yes, in the wild. Birds, owl, nest weavers, all kinds, insects, Kudu, Sprinbok, Penquins, wild cats, small like a domestic cat, turtle,, small skunk like animal, sheep, goats, the Orange River, small ducks, a monkey, baboons, lizards (Platysaurus capensis) a few lizard (Agama)
Pseudaspis cana, common. Lots of beetles, one snail (molluska)that lives undergroud and comes out only when it rains, I took home dead mollusk shells in only one section of this vast desert. It was a strange trip.

Osttrich, I forgot them, running, what funny birds. The Grey
Heron.The national bird of So.Africa. I was more interested in the wild life than the plants. Norma

Thanks Norma,
This sounds nice,
thanks for the answer about the flop house. I had no idea what it was.

well there are many words that I still don't understand in english, so thats way sometimes I have stupid questions *LOL*

I'm kind of jealous :) I would love to see monkeys in the wild, these are my favorite animals.

my dream is to visit the amazon.

I hope you can get your slides scanned somehow, I wish I could help, but my very old scanner has no slide adapter.

Carmen

Hi Norma - it has been awhile since I've been on DG. But so glad you have made the trip and are back home safely. I enjoyed reading about your adventures. Take care and hope to be on more in the future.

I will try and put up pictures, I don's know how yet, I took 20 rolls, intending to do this for you. My pictures will not be a good as the hunks that went with me. The were pro. One took 6 cameras and 8 lenses, I only had one lense, no long distance, to wide angle, no buble, no 3D etc. I didn't even have a flash with me. So we will see what I can do. I wish I could have you all here at the same time and have a slide show. I saw one from another person who just came back from Africa the month before I left. So if felt I had been there already. It was my third slide show on Africa. So there was no surprises, except 1 Crassula barbata, which had a red stem and red flowers but only 6 plants were found. So in the near future they will be gone as well. It was just along the road and under the fence, of course on the other side. NOrma

Some tips: You don't need an travel guide. Plants are along the road way. Get a BB guide, that will help. Pick your own places to eat, make sure you don't depend on others to get your food. Carry at least 2 spare tires. Water, blanket just in case you need to sleep in the car one night.
Good maps. Look in room before renting it. One night we found black worms crawling up the walls, and the the bathroom. Otherwise they were clean. Needed Wash cloth. Soap,
toilet paper in car. You will find moldy showers. Ask if you need to share toilet facilities with how many people. Check out the bed. Make sure you requst your bacon cooked. We didn't find any stealing, no threats, people did come out and ask for a handout, bring craylons, and pencils for the children along the way. Many do not speak English and some understand very little. I found it in general a very clean country, as far as toilet facilities were concerned at gas stations, which surprised me. Be sure that you can change a tire. Always get gas when ever possible. Norma

Norma,
It's about the same way when we went to venezuela and columbia.

the tourist parts are all clean and neat, but we made friends with the locals and they have taken us home to meet the families and there to there where bugs all over and I know a little how you must have felt.

with us the experience was awsome I would do it again. I hate bugs and creepy crawlers but we did meet some great peoples.

we did not brought presents for them, because we did not know that it would turn out like that.
we took the family out one night and the kids had a blast.
I did send them a package after we got home and once in a wile we call them at the hotel :)

I wanted to go back, but financialy it is not possible for the next year or two.
but one day :)
Carmen