May 30 History of Singapore

Today, Joe was feeling about 90% and we were able to take in Merlion Park, Asian Civilisation Museum and a bit of kids' stuff: visiting the 6-floor Funan DigitaLife Mall (6 stories of stores equivalent to Future Shops, Best Buys, Henry's, Computersupplyhouses, Gateways, Dells and other video, camera, computer stores all under one roof, with McDonalds, KFC's etc!) and then having time for a swim and the Chelsea-Evertan match (played here at 10 pm).

May 29 Exploring Singapore's ChinaTown

Today, we spent the day in at the Singapore Art Museum and in Chinatown. In Chinatown, we spent a ton of time walking their market but the really meaningful time was in the amazingly authentic recreation of the early days of Singapore at the Chinatown Heritage Centre. We also had a chance to visit the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple. Gold, Gold and more Gold and thousands of Buddhas and artifacts. And, the tooth!

May 28 Singapore's Stunning Contrast to Mumbai

It is glorious being here in Singapore. The Fairmont is right across from Raffles Hotel and is our view from our balcony. We couldn’t be in a better location as everything is walking distance from here. Unfortunately, Joe is still down for the count. The boys and I went to the pharmacy first thing and got him some Imodium and rehydration salts. We brought some rice, bananas, and bread back in case he started to have an appetite. Wishful thinking – he was down for the count and slept for the whole day. I feel badly – Joe really didn’t want to go to India but I felt that it was a must. You just have to experience India if you’re travelling in Asia!

The boys and I headed out to visit Arab Street – a unique Muslim market filled with all sorts of treasures. We stopped in at the Sultan Mosque and then spent an hour at the Malay Cultural Village Museum where we learned about the history of Malaysians in Singapore. We also learned a lot about the history of Singapore in general – a fascinating story given that most of it didn’t even exist when Sir Stanford Raffles arrived in 1819.

Ryan is not 100% either so we came back to the hotel. Joe was well enough to come down to the pool with us. It was stunning lit up at night with great views over Singapore. We spent an hour swimming and tossing the football around.

As Joe and Ryan weren’t up for dinner, Brendan was my date for the evening… and what a great date he was! We walked to an outdoor food market where every kind of food imaginable was on offer. Brendan had noodles and chicken and I had a fiery chicken curry and two types of vegetable with rice. Our total bill came to 8 Singapore dollars (about $7.00 Canadian) and we had so much food we couldn’t eat it all. My meal was $2.50! In fact, Singapore is a foodies Mecca and it can all be had if you eat at the markets for a song.
We can’t express how marked the contrast is between Mumbai and Singapore. After I arrived I spent an hour reading and listening to a band in the lounge (the boys were all in bed) and found myself in tears. Experiencing the abject poverty in India and then coming to Singapore is soul-stirring and one can’t help but think about how unfair life can be… we are so very, very fortunate to have the quality of life that we do and travelling makes us appreciate it so much more!

May 27 Arriving in Singapore

Our decision to depart India came at the right time. Joe is sick. Looks like Delhi-belly. What better rehabilitation centre than the Singapore Fairmont. But first, we’ll have to get through the flight. Peanuts were everywhere in the plane (being served), as a result, the airline and we thought it best for Brendan to wear a mask. It worked. They also moved us to a part of the plane where no other passengers were sitting – creating a vacant row in front and behind us. This was to be very useful, as Joe was able to stretch out and sleep for the whole 5-hour flight!

From the moment we landed, we’ve been treated as royalty.

May 26 Mumbadevi Temple

Well, for the last few days, we have been running non-stop: both to do the Mumbai tours and to to plan another leg of our Indian trip. High on the priority is to head to Agra to visit the Taj Mahal. No way we could book sleeper trains as all return trains were full. That’s OK as there are plenty of inexpensive flights (about US$100 per peron). Good news, for Rs100,000 (about CDN$2300) we should be able to make the trip. Only problem, other than the cost, this is what the itinerary would look like prepared by Sunni at one of the local tourist travel office.:

Day of departure: Awake 5 am, pack for a few days, 1 hour drive to Mumbai airport, 2 hour flight to Delhi on Spiritjet (a flying bus). Tour Delhi for day with car and guide. Stay at Ramada in room suitable for 3 (add Rs10000 for room for 4) for 8 am flight to Delhi. Stay in Holiday Inn (or equivalent).

Day 2: Awake 5 am, drive to Agra 3.5 hours. Tour Agra in car with guide (car has 4 seats: 1 for Driver, 1 for guide, back bench built for 2 for Kuffner 4 with backpacks. Add Rs3000 for larger car – but no guarantee of availability. Stay in Holiday Inn (or equivalent).

Day 3: Awake 5 am, drive 5 hours to Jaipur. Tour with guide and driver. See above for car size. Stay in Holiday Inn or 3*+ accommodation for 3 (see above for 4).

Day 4 : awake 5 am, drive 5 hours to Delhi for afternoon flight to Mumbai. Fly 2 hours, drive 1 hour back to our hotel in Mumbai. Add US$500 for ticket re-issue charges to eliminate this leg of the trip and replace our flight from Mumbai to Singapore with Delhi to Singapore.

Day 5: Fly out of India on our scheduled flight.

Total cost to do this properly is about $3000 plus additional night’s accommodation make the trip longer and more meaningful. Not coincidentally, this is about the costs to arrange it from Canada – including the flight to India! Obviously, all costs and inconveniences are because we are travelling as a family of 4. More than once we came across backpackers who were staying at hostels, eating boiled potatoes and drinking tea, each doing the above trip for just a few hundred bucks.

Well we decided that the boys could return to India another time as backpackers and we would leave India early for the 5-star convenience of the Fairmont Singapore for no additional costs. Hmm. Should we stay – or should we go?

We were unanimous. We should go!

We were up early to go to Mumbadevi temple – once again an other-worldly experience. On our way out of the temple we were blessed with tikas and arm bracelets. We wandered around the community that surrounded the temple. The highlight was meeting a sadhu. He appeared thrilled to meet us and was so excited when we asked whether we could take his picture that he called some of his friends nearby to watch. Although he didn’t ask us for payment for the photo, we gave him a donation for his kindness. He blessed us on our heads with his trident.

May 25 We'll stay another day

Today ended up being one our favourite travel days. It certainly didn’t start out that way. The travel agent that we talked to told us that our car would arrive at nine with both a driver and guide. Only a driver showed. The situation was quickly resolved when we said that we wouldn’t cough up the remaining 1,000 rupees agreed upon. We were soon told that we would pick up a government-certified guide. Twenty minutes later we were bonding with Rama, a seventy-six year old woman who had over thirty years experience of guiding in Mumbai.

We had picked up Rama right next to where she lived - the Ghandi Museum at Mani Bhavan. Her grandfather’s brother, she told us, was the owner of the Mani Bhvan where Ghandi stayed every time that he visited Bombay (as it was known at the time). She had fond memories of sitting on Ghandi’s lap as a young girl.

The museum was exceptional. Rama took us through floor by floor narrating the history of the Ghandi era. Last summer while up at the cottage we all watched the film, ‘Ghandi’, and the boys surprised Rama with their knowledge of the man who changed the course of India’s history (and South Africa’s). The third floor was the highlight showcasing a good twenty superbly crafted dioramas depicting key stages of Ghandi’s life. By 10:30 I felt that my day was made. Little did I know how much richness and experience of this fascinating city was yet to be revealed!

Our next stop was to the Jain temple. The time that we spent there could best be described as ‘other-worldly’. Worshippers offered fruit and garlands of flowers to their deities – all twenty-four of them - depicted throughout the temple. We were so very fortunate as a prayer service complete with music and drumming had just begun. The Jains, we learned, are the most wealthy group of people – traders, jewelers, landlords, and businessmen. The temple, like the Taj Mahal is fashioned from white marble inlaid with a multitude of colourful gemstones. On the wall was an illustration of the various stages of ‘goodness’. Only when one achieves spiritual greatness can one escape from the birth and rebirth cycle of reincarnation. We were intoxicated with the smells of incense and the garlands of floral offerings. Reverse swastikas were being constructed by many with grains of rice to symbolize life’s stages of birth, childhood, maturity, and death. Rama explained that before one made an offer to a deity that one’s mouth had to be covered with a bandanna-like scarf tied behind the neck. Jains are vegetarians and believe in total non-violence even towards insects! For this reason, they only eat fruits and vegetables that are grown and harvested above ground – for fear of harming insects during tilling or digging for crops. Only in India.

We stopped for Indian food and both Rama and our driver were thrilled when we told them that we would treat them. We ordered everything without dairy (remembering to include ghee!) so that Brendan could partake. He loved it as did the rest of us. We had curry, nan, biryani, poppadom, and spicy vegetables. Our driver treated us to sugar-coated anise to munch on after we finished our meal.

We told Rama that we would like to see a cremation ceremony. She brought us to an wealthy area where the rich are cremated. Though there wasn’t a cremation underway Rama took us to where the pyres are constructed and explained the traditions. We toured the buildings housing the stacks of wood and peeked into the temple.

Our next stop was the Daharvri slums, the largest slum in Mumbai. Seeing the slum as we drove through it was overwhelming. Mr. Babu, our driver, parked to allow us to get out and walk. Right in front of our car there was a huge commotion. An elderly man was being held us by several people and there was a lot of frenzied shouting. Right before us we watched the man die. Rama, our guide and also a qualified nurse, got out of the car to help. She confirmed that he was not longer breathing and that his heart had stopped. We were all greatly saddened and moved to be witness to the end of this gentleman’s life.

The area of Dahavri was used to film several scenes of the movie, Slumdog Millionaire. The boys immediately recognized two of the spots: where the kids were running along and on top of the large sewage pipe to evade the police in one of the flashbacks, and the other, a bridge over the polluted river water. We stopped to visit with the actual resident families. Of course the young children were begging, but not the industrious young girls making their rhinestone embroidery nor their parents who were obviously engaged in employment utilizing their skills. Since we are here during the school summer break, we saw many of the young children. With discussions among the families and our guide, we realized that the slum was not tax-free, nor free-at-all. All tenants of the slum pay around Rs1500 ($40) per month in rent (this is quite different from the free township housing provided in South Africa where occupants do not work at all). We were shocked to learn that they would have to pay this much for a tin shack when their monthly earnings were little more than what they pay for rent. The Indian families were very hard working and doing whatever they can to provide for their families as welfare does not exist in India. The boys were enjoying watching their Indian counterparts play marbles. We were greatly saddened, however, to see children scavenging in the garbage, many without clothing or shoes. We left donations with each family we met but left feeling that we wished that we could do so much more. It was, without doubt, one of our most humbling experiences ever.

Another stop along the way was at the professional laundry next to the rail lines, know as Dohbi Ghats. Rows upon rows of men (only men) slamming clothes into their wash stones. Each man rents his stall and is paid per washed item. It looked like very hard work, especially in the 35 degree heat. Capitalism is alive and well in India.

Then off to the Hanging Gardens - so named as it is built hanging over the city’s rainwater reservoir. In the park there are some wonderfully manicured lawns and shrubs. Many of the shrubs are trimmed in the shape of African animals. Very amusing. The gardens were packed with Indian families as well (as mentioned, kids are on their school break), Many of these families asked to photograph us as we seemed to be the only fair-skinned visitors. It was uniquely entertaining to be the centre of such attention.

We then made a quick stop at the Victoria Station, the heart of the Indian rail system. Crowded, but orderly would be the best way todescribe it. It provides both metro trains and passenger trainsto the 18 million inhabitants of Mumbai.

Rama was one of the best guides we have encountered. She gave us an excellent overview of the history of Mumbai, religions of India, the caste system, and Indian society in general. In addition, she also took every opportunity possible to lecture the boys on not wasting food, appreciating what they have, listening to their parents, giving to others when possible, and treating others with respect regardless of their economic circumstance. Perfect!

May 24 Mumbai

Not surprisingly, we slept ‘til 10 (the boys until noon). Thank goodness. Our first mission was to decide on a room for the rest of our stay – and we did! At the original hotel, Residency for Rs2400 nightly. Next stop: breakfast. Room service boiled us some eggs, toasted some bread and Deb went shopping at the local market for fruit. It worked. Before long we were back being tourists and went to the “Fashion Market”. In Cairo, we’d call it a souk. Then onward to a local travel agent that had us dreaming of Taj Mahal and other places – how soon could we leave! Later we went for dinner at Leopold’s, famous and infamous for the 11/26 shooting of tourists as it is a popular gathering spot for locals. One of the mirrors revealed evidence of the attack. They have yet to repair the bullet hole. Several pillars were also damaged – grim reminders of the horror of the attack. We also went into the 5-star Taj hotel. Their memorial commemorating the thirty-five people was incredibly moving.

We walked around the Gateway to India at the harbour which was built to commemorate the visit of George V and Queen Mary in 1911. The arch was the point from which the British regiment serving in India signalled the end of the empire when it left om February 28, 1948. We strolled amidst thousands of Indians enjoying Sunday evening at the harbour. Unbelievable, although we were there for well over a half an hour, we didn’t see any other non-Indians – it was sea of saris, smiling children, and astounding colour. Our family was the focus of much attention and several people stopped us to ask where we were from and what we were doing in Mumbai. It was wonderful to interact with the locals and much good-will was enthusiastically exchanged.

We then went on a double-decker bus ride of the harbour and the core’s history: THE major shippping port after the Suez canal’s opening, its stock market, spice markets and banking. Very interesting. We concluded the day at a local restaurant whose only qualifications was that it served Kingfisher. It proved to be a much better stop than that – and we will return perhaps for dinner tomorrow. We also stopped to have the boys' haircut. With the 35 degree weather every day, every bit of strategy to improve cooling is useful!

We were so satisfied with our day that we may have decided to stay here after all. Our alternative of going flying to Agra/Dehli seems like a substantial amount of logistics. We’re going to sleep on it and decide tomorrow. With our 8 am wake call!

May 23 Goodbye Africa, Hello India

After a trip to the bank machine/gas station we were saying goodbye to Bob and Joan en route to OR Tambo airport for our noon flight to Mumbai. A quick check of our tickets showed that we would be getting into India at 1230 a.m. and no hotel reservation until noon check-in! Our adventure begins!

Brendan: Now we are on the the plane. So far it has been terrible and we have not even taken off. This plane does not have TV’s on the back of the seats and the guy behind us has a serious B.O. problem and he is stinking up the whole plane.

Things are now looking up a pro cricket team just got on the plane” Rajasthan Royals Cricket team that placed 6th in the IPL tournament in South Africa (only the top 4 make the semis, and then 2 go on to the finals). They seriously look like athletes and have excellent manners. Ryan really got into it and was asking them questions about Cricket and their national teams and so forth. They were enthused and were asking Ryan about his sports and favourite players and about Canada’s teams. The 9 hours passed quickly.

No problems encountered once we arrived – except that the Residency Hotel had no rooms (they expected us tomorrow – and did not receive my email of yesterday). They arranged for us to sleep at their sister hotel, the Astoria (Rs3500+tx) – an Indian 3-star ;) It had a few shortcomings but we were happy to have beds and a shower for the night.

May 22 Soweto & Apartheid Museum

Bob’s Bunkhouse has been wonderful. Both Bob and Joan spend as much time as needed getting us sorted out. Joe and I have a double room with an en-suite and the boys have a room to themselves with twin beds. We’ve met some wonderful people – Anna from Scotland and a punk band from the Netherlands, ‘No Turning Back’. We stayed up late chatting as a group. None of the guys in the band drink alcohol, whatsoever, and all have girlfriends – beautiful guys who the boys looked up to with great admiration. Apparently they have quite a following in Europe and Japan. And although they haven’t made it big, my guess is that they will someday. They have their heads screwed on right and are quite ambitious. I told them the story of travelling in France and while hiking near Lyon we coming across a small outdoor amphitheatre where a band was setting up. My cousin, Wayne, and I went up to the lead singer and asked him his name. “Bono” he replied. When I asked him the name of his band he responded ‘U2’. We had never heard of them nor, at that time, had the rest of the world. We chatted with them for quite some time and listened to them playing a variety of songs and doing sound checks, etc. We were surprised when we eventually learned that the we had spent some quality time with a band that was destined to be one of the greatest of all time. The guys were inspired.

We were up bright and early to go on our tour to Soweto and the Apartheid Museum. Our guide was a South African who grew up in Soweto by the name of Jabu. We also had a driver, David, which was great as Jabu sat in the van with us and related story after story about the townships and the history of Soweto. His tour was so rich – it was next to impossible to process the amount of information that came our way. We toured only the street with two Nobel winners (Mandela and Tutu are neighbours). We toured the church that Tutu used for the Truth and Reconciliation hearings, the hostels remaining from the gold rush days and were toured by a local representative of the “informal” immigrant township (in most countries, this would be a refugee camp!). Poorest of poor. From the richest of the rich to the poorest of the poor, the model that Soweto (an acronym for South West Township) offers is now being used by the world. Blacks and Whites and non-whites all have addresses here. 2 of the biggest soccer stadiums are also here (Orlando and a new one under construction to set 125000 being built for World Cup 2010) and add a cricket stadium and 15 shopping malls, car dealers and you have a city of substantial proportions: 1 million residents, ZAR3.2 billion annual buying power. Hardly a stereotypical township!

Our next stop was the Apartheid Museum. Unbelievable! So matter-of-fact, non-judgemental, taking you through 2500 years of African history leading to the rise and fall of the Afrikaans apartheid regime from 1948 to 1990 and then the 1992 ANC democratic election victory through to today. There was also a special exhibit on Nelson Mandela which often brought a tear to many a visitor – including Joe. Deb an Joe learned so much about the impact of gold on the Johannesburg (discovered by the 2 Georges – Johannes in Afrikaans, hence Johannes-burg), then the discovery of diamonds, leading to the Boer War, then rule of Anglo-Boer in the Union of SA in 1910 agreeing to disenfranchise the blacks) leading to the post WWII election of the apartheid regime in 1948. What a lesson for mankind!

May 21 Cradle of Humankind

We woke this morning to find out that Di had been up for most of the night with a major migraine. Luckily she was well enough in the morning to join us for our trip to the Cradle of Humankind, where excavations have revealed is the site of the beginning of human civilization.

After an hour’s drive we had difficulty locating the site. No one that we asked knew where it was. The signage in South Africa is often abysmal. Was it possible that there was no actual interpretation centre? That’s what we thought for a period of time and we were extremely disappointed. We had seen a sign for caves, however, and we decided to head there. Thankfully, that is where the centre was. We were met by a guide who led us to the museum explaining the archeological finds revealing skeletons 3.2 milllion years old – one of the the first homanids. It was fascinating. Our guide took us well into the cave system where excavations are still taking place. The site of the discovery of Little Foot was actually not open to the public as the excavations was still underway. We got to peek into where they were working and thought “we’re just meters away from one of the most important discoveries ever”! The caves were stunning and we were a small group going through so we had the opportunity to ask tons of questions.

After the caves we headed over to Maropeng. The museum was brilliant! One of the best we have ever been to. The recreations of early man were incredible. It was a very interactive educational experience in the Cradle of Humankind. It seems that scientist now agree that mankinds birth was in Africa – a question of whether here or in Ethiopia. The exhibits includes a 4-senses boat ride through the creation of earth, and then exhibits on the history of man and the various theories on how/where we came from. The museum concldes with actual fossils and bnes in a secure vault. Very entertaining.

Our plan for the trip home was thwarted by heavy traffic. We ageed that we would take a wide berth of Johanesberg. We instead took the highway towards Pretoria, and then highway back towards the airport (near to where we are staying). It was a great idea, and we arrived back safely in about an hour. And, we happened to drive by a IPL Cricket match underway on the way. We watched it when we retured to the guesthouse. Quite a coincidence. For those who do not know the IPL is the Indian Premiere League Cricket. For safety reasons (apparently India is not safe?!), the league moved to South Africa for this year's season. It has been an amazing success and we’ve been watching it quite regularly. Who says we aren’t learning anything on this trip?

At the guesthouse, we discovered that a punk band from the Netherlands is here! We had a terrific evening getting to know the 5 band members, their manager and local promoters. Maybe we'll go to the bar tomorrow night to see them. The band is "No Turning Back".

May 20 Ndbele Cultural Centre en route to Joberg

Our last safari was just as exciting. Off we went again in search of our leopard. We drove to the sight of yesterday’s kill and saw that the leopard had been back. The warthog with the trailing entrails was gone. Our guide and tracker joined another vehicle’s guide and tracker on foot and left us for over a half an hour waiting. Their plan was to collectively flush out the leopard so that it would come us in the vehicles. We waited and listened in to the radio to hear how the plan was proceeding. In the end, although they followed the leopard’s fresh tracks for quite some time they just couldn’t locate it. Rogers, our tracker, was so disappointed for us. On our quest he had actually seen the leopard twice, once when seated just meters in front of us on the tracker seat of our vehicle! He so desperately wanted us to have a sighting as did Brett, our guide. We felt that the whole adventure of looking was one of the best experiences that we had ever had.

We saw a few more animals on our way back to the lodge. We were flying high with the experience of the last few days and were so very, very sad that we were leaving. Although we had only spent three days with Brett and Rogers we couldn’t help but feeling that we were leaving good friends. Many hugs and heartfelt good-byes later we were on our way. Brett gave the boys two beautiful porcupine quills as a parting gift.

We boarded our vehicle with suitcases up to our ears and were off. We were all anxious to get on the road so that we wouldn’t be rolling in to Johannesburg after dark. The drive was long but went well and we were soon pulling up to Bob’s Bunkhouse near the airport. We were going from a five-star exquisite resort with turn-down service, high tea, and three unbelievalbe meals per day…a place where they washed out your socks if you left them in your running shoes and had options of three different types of pillows (hard, soft, medium) to… Bob’s Bunkhouse.

Joe: En route, we made pretty good time on the travel that we decided to make a stop at a Ndbele tribe cultural centre (they’re the tribe where the woman wear rings around their necks). On the map, it looked like about a 35km detour. Hmmm. Well, after about 100 km, sure enough we happened on the village. We snapped a few photos, and left disappointed at the experience. A few woman were dressed in the garb, but they were not well trained on teaching us about their history. They seemed satisfied to offer themselves for the photos. After short visit to their straw huts and colourfully painted walls, we were back on the road.

Arriving at Bob’s Bunkhouse was such a relief. We were so worried about driving to Jo’burg. What a beautiful warm welcome we received. Bob and Joan greeted us with open arms and spent well over an hour advising us about how to best spend our time in Johannesburg. We had a drink and chatted before going out for an Italian dinner around the corner. Bed was bliss - we were dog-tired after getting up at 5:30 am for the last few days.

May 19 Searching for Leopards

Ryan: Once again, Brendan and I got woken up at five thirty by a telephone wake-up call issued to everyone that the morning safaris would start in one hour’s time. I jumped over Brendan, grabbed the phone and said thank you. I quickly fought Brendan out of his doze and got ready. We were out of the door in less than twenty minutes after that. We walked with mom and dad down the boardwalk to the building where breakfast and lunch is served. We all had some juice as well as some apricot danishes. Before we knew it we were once again, in the middle of the park in our Toyota Land Cruiser. Everybody was out before us anxious to see the BIG FIVE. We had previously seen four white rhinos, two herds of buffalo(forty each), a pride of lions (eight) and a pack of elephants (twenty-two). We had also seen six hippos, lots of impala, kudu, and enjala, hyenas, jackal and many warthogs. Our two biggest discoveries were two bush babies (two) and a chameleon in a tree that Rogers(our tracker) spotted. Our mission this morning was to find some leopards (last of the big five) or a kill. One minute after we went out, we found some leopard tracks heading north. And after forty minutes we were still looking at prints heading all different directions.
Brett (our guide) saw very recent tracks and decided they just go into the bush to find them. In the end, it was Rogers who went in. He didn’t come out for another twenty minutes but when he did he told us the following: “There was one leopard in front of him and it was chasing down a warthog. It caught it right in front of my (Rogers) eyes. The leopard carried it up the tree and began tearing into the flesh. It then saw me (Rogers) and began to run north.” Brett went in to the bush with the car for five-ten minutes and we found the dead carcass of the warthog slung over a branch high in the tree. We tried and tried but didn’t see the leopard - but we did make up our minds that we would try again at night.

We had smoothies, eggs, muffins and fresh fruit for breakfast along with some coffee and tea.

Deb: The part that Ryan left out was that when Rogers went into the bush he was gone for a good fifteen minutes. Brett, our guide, had a special whistle to communicate with him. Brett kept whistling again and again and there was no response from Rogers. After about twenty minutes we, the adults, began to give each other worried glances. We had told Brett and Rogers that we wanted to see a leopard and a kill when asked before we left. I whispered to Brenda and Di that I hoped that we weren’t going to see both under these circumstances. After several more minutes of intense worry and driving up and down the road looking for Rogers, he responded to one of Brett’s whistles. We were all greatly relieved! He was so excited when he came out of the bush and hurriedly pointed Brett to the direction of the kill. Rogers had seen the leopard dragging the warthog carcass up into the tree but it bounded away quickly when it realized there was company. We then started to go straight through the bush in the land-rover. Our illustrious guide and skilled tracker were so very determined that we get to see the last of our big five! I can’t tell you how excited we all were when we came up to the kill sight. It was, however, extremely gruesome. The warthog carcass was sprawled on a branch up in a tree with its innards dangling from a rope of a foot and a half long piece of intestine. Although we waited we were told that there was little chance that we would see the leopard even though it would in all likelihood return to the site of the kill soon after we were gone. We spent an additional half and hour scanning the area for a sighting of the elusive creature but to no avail. We all agreed, however, that although we didn’t actually see it that tracking the leopard was tremendous excitement in and of itself! In addition, we saw a leopard tortoise and a huge stork. What an incredible way to spend a morning!

We’ve decided that we would relax between safaris today so we’re spending the time reading, writing on our blog, and getting down to some math (Brendan). It feels good to relax!

Joe: While we were waiting, we did spot a hyena who was checking us out – probably en route to locate the source of the fresh-smelling kill.

We chilled the afternoon away. Joe did some blogging (although the internet limitations out here did restrict the number of photos – just 4 of the 200 were uploaded). The kids made themselves useful by writing in their journals and getting on with schoolwork – mostly math. Deb continued her voracious pace of reading: completing another book and writing the blogs of the last few safaris.

Our evening drive was to follow-up on the chase of the elusive leopard (of course stopping at each giraffe and elephant sighting). By 6:30 pm (one-hour after sunset), we were back along the river bank deep off-road searching for the leopard. His tracks were fresh, his kill had been moved from the tree (all except the warthog’s head and tusks which were still gruesomely on display high in the tree). Brett had other trackers and trucks join us in the search. But to no avail. We’ll continue the search on our last safari at 6 am in the morning.

Then the 8-hour drive to Johannesburg – the world’s least safe city. Four nights at Bob’s bunkhouse doing our last-minute preparations before flying out to India and then on to Southeastern Asia.