General Happenings - early 2010

Above - Another item on the 'bucket-list' ticked. Jeffrey's Bay, Sth Africa, April 2010.

Above - J'Bay perfection. I left Port Elizabeth (about an hour north) to howling 4oknot onshore winds, and arrived here to perfect 3-4 foot offshore conditions. On this day, the scramble over the rocks and paddle out weren't too troublesome, but coming back in was a little rocky and the booties saved my feet.

Above - The beach scape at Jeffrey's Bay; from the multi million dollar mansions that line the dunes to the natural beauty of the dune thickets and rambling Aloe plants. The J'bay point is a magical place, but of course the true magic is in the perfect right hand waves that peel around the point for what seems like an eternity.

Above - Al Ain Amblers Rugby Tour of Malaysia, Feb 2010. The boys trying to escape from the harsh sun and tropical humidity. B1 captained his team to a respectable semi final. After extra time, the scores were still locked up, but they lost on a count of a coin flip to Singapore.

Above - Villi, Del, B1, Thomasi, Eoin and Cosi. Royal palace guards, Kuala Lumpur.


Above - NS and B1, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Above - Piss-weak Irish crashes out and pays the price.

Above - B3 and B4 repainting the house, March 2010.

Above - Boys will be boys and play with guns too, but when they tie that into dressing up for national day in the UAE? Not allowed outside like this little fella in case someone gets the wrong idea!

Above - NS and FS, social life in UAE is pretty fun. Friends party April 2010.

Above - A quick trip (3 days) back to Oz. Was great to finally see the family after a couple of years. Here, the Dees bouncing around.

Above - Good old Aussie Barby with mates. April 2010.

Above - Merv at the helm of the Barby. Our boys have been watching 'Bondi Rescue' on tele and when they saw this picture, thought it was Hoppo.

Above - Shane, Ava and NS chilling out with some magic tasting lunch from Waves. It's the little things like our favourite take outs that you miss too...besides the people of course.

Above - Easter morning. B3 and B4 super stoked.

Above - B3 and B4 with their version of a new bird cage. Love the team work boys!

Above - The other bird cage for our little budgies. B2 and B1 built most of this with B3 and B4 doing alot of the painting. We put it in the side garden and the birds love it.

Above - A man and his 4 boys. Some more quality time, 5 way interactive PSP.

Well, there has been some flyer miles clocked up so far this year for sure. Some business trips to Bahrain and Qatar, a junket to Sth Africa, some camping trips in Oman, and some extended breaks in Uganda, Kenya, Malaysia and Australia, not to mention the ridiculous amount of driving i am doing in the UAE to get around all of my projects in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Liwa and of course Al Ain.

In February, B1's rugby team went to Malaysia for a tour of Kuala Lumpur, and of course i was happy to tag along as chaperon and to keep the coaches in good drinking partners during the evenings. It was a great trip, being a fly on the wall was good fun during the bus trips to and from games, listening to the banter and ribbing between the 14's, 16's and 18's teams.

There is little doubt that the Malay take their rugby pretty seriously, and against our team at least, they had a significant advantage in the wet, muddy and humid conditions...our boys not ever having played in mud before, let alone handling a wet ball. All in all, everyone had a great trip with no major injuries and a bit of site seeing including the Twin Towers and the local chocolate making factory.

Beginning of April dad was having his 70th b'day, so it was a great surprise to all back home, when i lobbed up at the golf club where the family were playing a bit of par 3 golf. Whilst only having the 3 days to try to catch up with everyone, it was well worth it and after lots of "hi's" "when you coming backs" and "say to to the family's", bbq's, beers and a body bash down at southy beach, it was time to go. It was sooo good to catch up with all my mates and family and just to be back on the beaches at home surrounded by so much familiarity.

Also during April, i managed to scam a convention trip to Johannesburg, based on the world cup theme of sustainable communities beyond the WC 2010. It was very interesting, but of course my main focus was to quickly jump a plane and head down to Port Elizabeth and then on to J'Bay to score some quality surf. The surf was nothing short of great, even though it was freezing cold, i had brought the steamer and booties and even found a warm bakery for a chocolate moove and meat pie after the surf. I then went up to Durban, where i was only there for a couple of days, but can't say i exactly loved the place, it just had a dodgy type of vibe about it.

Besides that, normal living and the wind down of the lovely cooler weather in the UAE. Summer is well and truly here now (end of May) with daily temps not dropping below 43C. We're taking a family holiday to the YOU S OF A in June/ July, so busy planning for this, and of course FS and the boys are heading back to the land of Oz for 7 weeks in July/August. So the next post should have plenty of new adventures and piccies.

Kenya - "Jambo rafiki, habari?"

Above - B2 is not a great flyer or long car drive traveller. Poor bugger was travel sick every time we got a plane or had a long drive. Despite the way the photo looks, we didn't just leave him at a shop front door...not for long anyway!

Above - A Bull elephant flapping his ears and blowing the trumpet. Masai Mara Reserve.

Above - NS jumping with the Masai Warriors. What a buzz!

Above - Small church on the drive down into the Great Rift Valley. It was built by Italian POW's in 1942. The Peppercorn tree frames the church beautifully.

Above - A lovely mud pack to reduce those wrinkles? Buffalo at Lake Nakuru National Park.

Above - NS & FS atop the Baboon Hill Look out, overlooking Lake Nakuru.

Above - "So Yushi, I'm going to Africa to do a safari in the wild, what do you think i should wear?" "Well Nakita, I'd wear you're tight mini, pink Kashmir sweater and those Italian leather boots with the big heels. That should make trekking through the mud really easy".

Above - Another of the BIG 5, the White Rhino, Lake Nakuru National Park. This guy was massive in real life, makes you wonder why they were so hard to spot.

Above - Armed with their binoculars, the boys were always on the look out from the safari van.

Above - Baboon King...Rafiki, Lake Nakuru.

Above - Is that you Marty? Zebra at Masai Mara National Reserve.

Above - Are the animals on the inside or the outside...you're call. Fact is, there is no fencing going around the Masai Mara Reserve. Whilst the area is well protected by the park guards, i figure the big cats keep most wanderers at bay.

Above - The evening storm rolls through at the Masai Mara. Acacia tortilis, also known as 'the great flat top thorn tree', can be commonly found through the Masai Mara. Also common through the Great Rift Valley is the Acacia drepanolobium, also known as the 'Whistling Thorn Tree' and the Acacia xanthophloea, also known as the Yellow Fever Tree because it grows near water where one is likely to be bitten by mosquito's.

Above - My personal favourite, the giraffe, Masai Mara.

Above - Lioness, Masai Mara. Seeing these guys in their natural habitat is simply mind blowing.

Above - Exiting our camp one morning, we came across this big bull elephant right out the front. He wasn't too happy we were trying to use his access path, but after we backed up, he slowly moved away.

Above - I've got this ringing in my ears, i don't know why. Masai tribesman.

Above - Masai women performing a dance and song to say good-bye.

Above - Masai Warrior in all his glory.

Above - NS and B4 hanging with some Masai tribesman.

Above - We were honoured to be invited into a Masai warriors hut. It was pitch black except for a tiny 'porthole'. The camera flash shows the blood and oat stew simmering over the coals. It was really warm in the hut, another amazing experience.

Above - NS with the Masai blanket to keep warm on the early morning safari, whilst FS plays the game of searching for more of the BIG 5.

Above - Masai boy stands out front of his home. The huts are constructed solely by the women, made from sticks and cow dung. Each hut takes about 3 months to finish. Whilst tiny, the huts will accommodate a family with up to about 8 kids, the kitchen and bedding are in the same area and a small room is also allowed for the baby calves to sleep at night.

Above - FS sitting on the bed, which is part of the kitchen and children's bed and adjacent to the 'living' area. Yes, space is sparse.

Above - Yep, the flies are a problem, but the kids here don't seems too bothered by them.

Above - B2 jumping with the Masai warriors.

Above - The Masai warriors loved B3 because he was wearing red, and he could jump pretty well too.

Above - B1 was a little shocked when grabbed by the warriors, but got into things when they told him the better he was able to jump, then the more girlfriends he would get.

Above - Are you looking at me? Buffalo, Masai Mara.

Above - What's going on under the blanket?

Above - The first pride of lions we came across at Masai Mara. We watched until they made their way to a small thicket of bushes nearby. In the bushes were 3 huge male lions. Do not get out of the car when in the Masai Mara!

Above - The same pride of lions make their way towards us.

Above - A Topi.

Above - B4 rugs up.

Above - A leopard with it's Thompson's Gazelle kill. The leopards are usually very difficult to find at the Masai Mara, we were lucky to have such a good Kenyan guide in Sammy. He drove like a madman, but found all the wildlife.

Above - Recently ploughed fields under the Flat Topped Acacias, Great Rift Valley.

Jambo rafiki, habari...translated, "Hello friend, how are you?". We constantly came across so many friendly faces in Kenya, all chanting the same welcome. Before this, 'rafiki' to me was the crazy old witch doctor baboon from The Lion King movie who had all the funny sayings and the great karate moves at the end when they fought the hyenas.

Following on from Ugandan, we flew from Entebbe to Nairobi and were greeted by our Kenyan guide, Mr Sammy. This guy was awesome; he had the whole hospitality thing down pat and made us all feel really welcome, but best of all, was his knowledge of Kenyan wildlife, culture, history, politics, landscape, and a few jokes thrown in between. As usual, B2 didn't handle the flight too well with another bout of flight sickness, and the 4 hour drive from Nairobi through the Great Rift Valley and into the Masai Mara didn't help him either. Our first brief stop was at the ridge of the Great Rift Valley. Even though it was a slightly foggy day, the view was spectacular and the variance of the landscape was immediate, from the densely foliated slopes to the sparse plains and on to the crops laid by the farmers and the shrouds of large Acacia and Euphorbia species. B2 didn't really get to see anything as he was cradled into the fetal position on the ledge of the look out with sickness, to which B1 took too much delight and of course some of the locals were perplex by the whole scene as well.

Making the long drive through the GRV towards the Masai Mara National Park was really interesting, seeing loads of local tribes people and the rural farmers ploughing their land in preparation of the new season. The landscape was exactly like what you would expect to see back in the dinosaur era, everything in varying extremes from the size of the trees to the rock formations and beyond.

Arriving at our tented camp, we were pleasantly surprised at how good it was. We stayed at the Saravo Mara in what is essentially a 5 star tented camping experience, very nice and certainly added to the charm of being on safari. No time was wasted though and our first afternoon/evening safari was on. WOW!!! This place is nothing short of amazing. I could never try to explain the exhileration of being in such a place and on a game safari. FS and i had talked about this as a dream holiday since we were teenagers and couldn't believe we were here.

The safari is essentially a game of cat and mouse. Sammy, our guide was switched right on and frantically speaking his native swahili over the 2-way radio to other guides in the hope of finding some of the Big 5 and other wild life. Our safari van, complete with extra heavy duty suspension to handle the atrocious roads, was going flat out across the plains and through huge mud pools, stopping at the first possible sighting of an animal and then we'd go into creep mode, like a hi-ace van shaped lioness creeping up on it's prey. Our first big cat sighting was the very elusive Leopard, dragging a recent kill up the tree before shredding it of it's flesh. The late afternoon storm was beginning to roll through and cracks of lightening sparked the hills in the distance and here we were, parked down wind from a such a sight, gobbed smacked and in awe. After composing ourselves, i grabbed the game shooter, steadied my finger over the trigger and when the crosshairs were lined up and focussed on my target, i hit the trigger and the rapid fire shutters of the camera went crazy. A week in Kenya saw me with about 2,500 photo scalps...a nightmare to edit, but irrisistable when faced with so many great potenial shots.

We did about 4 game drives in the Masai Mara and came across all of the Big 5 and loads of other amazing wild life, infact i'm not sure there is anything that we didn't get to see. Of course nothing quite compares to finding a pride of lions in the wild doing their thing...which seems to be mostly sleeping, but we found a couple of different prides, with lots of young lions jumping over each other and their sleeping dads and suckling from their sleeping mums.

One of the most memorable days of our lives was being fortunate enough to spend a day with a Masai tribe. Absolutely fascinating people, we had a million questions which our Masai elder was happy to answer. Swahili is still the native language, but alot of the Masai are learning English at a nearby school. So, from the initial greeting of Masai Warriors performing a dance and the widely known jumping, myself and the boys were able to join in (it's infectious in any case). We were then led into the village. The construction of the tribal village was explained and similar to so many cultures, the men and women have very distinct roles. The women only, make the homes from sticks and cow dung, taking about 3 months from start to completion. There's no shortage of cow paddys around as the herd is led into the security of the fenced off tribe each night. The large circular fence is made from the thorny whistling acacia trees, made only by the men, and the men take turns at guarding the tribe each night from prowling intruders. It is the men who sheppard the herd each day, walking the plains of the GRV with only a dagger and a spear for protection from the wild life. We were amazed by the diet of the Masai, being told that they consume no greens at all. There were no crops being grown by the tribes. Cow's blood and an oat like mixture, along with meat is the staple diet of the Masai. The nearby creek is used for water collection in the morning, washing during the day, and watering the cattle later on. When we finally had to bid farewell to the Masai, the women conducted a lovely dance and song for us...for which FS joined in and we boys watched.

Our last couple of days in Kenya were spent at the Lake Nakuru National Park, where again we did a few safari drives and game spotting. We spent our last day in Nairobi before bidding a "see you again soon" to Kenya and flying back to the UAE, home of the never ending desert sand and camels. Since returning from Africa, FS has had me re-do the house to accommodate all of the souvineirs, wall hangings and tribal gear we bought...being the eternal suckers, i'm sure we paid 3 times as much as we could have bartered, but seeing as we all loved the places so much, it's nice to have so many surrounding memories.

Summary - Kenya is a mind blowing place for it's wonderful natural attractions; it's like living a National Geographic documentary, you could do it over and over and always find something new and interesting.