Travel in these modern days can be Amazing, Interesting, Painful, and Frustrating. I just returned from a 19 day trip to Africa to visit four wilderness safari camps and experienced it all in the trip. Travel is great but there is a price to pay.
Amazing is the only word that can describe the engineering that allows a 747 loaded with passengers, luggage, and fuel to leave the ground and fly almost 11 hours at 35,000 feat at almost 600 MPH. Yes I understand the physics of lift and even taught some of it but that doesn’t change the unbelief I have as I sit in the plane and wonder how could it ever get off the ground. And then the small 6 passenger and 12 passenger planes we used as we went from one remote camp to the next using dirt runways that often had some wild animal walking across just before
the plane lands. The pilots were great and the use of gps has changed the way they can find all of these little strips they call a runway in the middle of the jungle.
A trip like this is truly Amazing. To see the animals in their own space not the zoo or maybe not see them because they have gone elsewhere or maybe are just hiding is fantastic. Yes I didn’t see some animals I would like to have seen like a male lion but then that is what game drives are all about. You have to hunt for the animals if you are hunting with a camera or a gun. To try to see the animals before the guide or sometime try to see it when they are telling you where to look is a game I loved to play. I got some pictures but then in some cases I didn’t because of light conditions or the camera I was using. I could have used a better camera but then you have to worry about the added weight and space that the nice SLR requires. One of the other ladies had a great Canon SLR and I would love to see just what she got for pictures.
It is Interesting to see the animal and the new country but it is also great to meet new people and talk about their customs, traditions, and food. In some ways we are the same but in others different and it is good to understand and not always try to change. Change comes very slow when you are dealing with customs and tradition that many times are tied to religious beliefs. And the food it was good but then most of the meals we had where planned to our tastes and customs to the local foods.
Painful, yes let me talk about the amount of space they allow in that big 747 in the economy seating for a person six foot four and 250 pounds. I had to get up several times just to walk and trying to sleep is difficult. The smaller planes are even worse. You can’t even stand up in them. One time the pilot hat me sit behind him and that did give me some leg room because he had the seat pulled forward so he could reach all the hand and foot controls but one time I sat in the co-pilots seat and was afraid to stretch out my legs for fear of touching the pedals I saw moving up and down as he controlled the plane. Then I could also mention my fear of heights. I was OK in the small planes for the first 1,500 to 2,000 feet above the ground but as he headed for 6,000 feet above the ground every bounce of the plane was a new fear. Closing my eyes and meditating was the best thing for me to do.The Frustration comes in the waiting. Five hours in this airport, ten hours on the plane, and wondering if you luggage is on the same plane. Two of the ladies never got their luggage for the whole time we where in Africa. Now they are told it is in Africa. As we checked into the Victoria Fall airport, first the computer wouldn’t work so they got a new computer. Then that computer couldn’t talk to the printer so boarding passes and luggage tags are hand written. You watch you luggage leave hoping that it makes it to LA at the same time you do so you can claim it to clear customs and transfer from British Airways to United. Did I mention as I put my credit card into the machine to get my boarding pass at United it said “That flight is canceled” and we had to wait an extra two hours more than the planned fours hours to fly to Portland. Well it all worked and I am home trying to adjust to all the time changes and lost sleep. Oh yes, I am also trying to sort out the over 1000 pictures I took. You will see more of them later.
Amazing is the only word that can describe the engineering that allows a 747 loaded with passengers, luggage, and fuel to leave the ground and fly almost 11 hours at 35,000 feat at almost 600 MPH. Yes I understand the physics of lift and even taught some of it but that doesn’t change the unbelief I have as I sit in the plane and wonder how could it ever get off the ground. And then the small 6 passenger and 12 passenger planes we used as we went from one remote camp to the next using dirt runways that often had some wild animal walking across just before
the plane lands. The pilots were great and the use of gps has changed the way they can find all of these little strips they call a runway in the middle of the jungle.A trip like this is truly Amazing. To see the animals in their own space not the zoo or maybe not see them because they have gone elsewhere or maybe are just hiding is fantastic. Yes I didn’t see some animals I would like to have seen like a male lion but then that is what game drives are all about. You have to hunt for the animals if you are hunting with a camera or a gun. To try to see the animals before the guide or sometime try to see it when they are telling you where to look is a game I loved to play. I got some pictures but then in some cases I didn’t because of light conditions or the camera I was using. I could have used a better camera but then you have to worry about the added weight and space that the nice SLR requires. One of the other ladies had a great Canon SLR and I would love to see just what she got for pictures.
It is Interesting to see the animal and the new country but it is also great to meet new people and talk about their customs, traditions, and food. In some ways we are the same but in others different and it is good to understand and not always try to change. Change comes very slow when you are dealing with customs and tradition that many times are tied to religious beliefs. And the food it was good but then most of the meals we had where planned to our tastes and customs to the local foods.
Painful, yes let me talk about the amount of space they allow in that big 747 in the economy seating for a person six foot four and 250 pounds. I had to get up several times just to walk and trying to sleep is difficult. The smaller planes are even worse. You can’t even stand up in them. One time the pilot hat me sit behind him and that did give me some leg room because he had the seat pulled forward so he could reach all the hand and foot controls but one time I sat in the co-pilots seat and was afraid to stretch out my legs for fear of touching the pedals I saw moving up and down as he controlled the plane. Then I could also mention my fear of heights. I was OK in the small planes for the first 1,500 to 2,000 feet above the ground but as he headed for 6,000 feet above the ground every bounce of the plane was a new fear. Closing my eyes and meditating was the best thing for me to do.The Frustration comes in the waiting. Five hours in this airport, ten hours on the plane, and wondering if you luggage is on the same plane. Two of the ladies never got their luggage for the whole time we where in Africa. Now they are told it is in Africa. As we checked into the Victoria Fall airport, first the computer wouldn’t work so they got a new computer. Then that computer couldn’t talk to the printer so boarding passes and luggage tags are hand written. You watch you luggage leave hoping that it makes it to LA at the same time you do so you can claim it to clear customs and transfer from British Airways to United. Did I mention as I put my credit card into the machine to get my boarding pass at United it said “That flight is canceled” and we had to wait an extra two hours more than the planned fours hours to fly to Portland. Well it all worked and I am home trying to adjust to all the time changes and lost sleep. Oh yes, I am also trying to sort out the over 1000 pictures I took. You will see more of them later.
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