The Adventures of Zane

Easter Island

2010-06-26T10:52:00.000-07:00

On our first day in Easter Island we went to see some of the famous stone heads. They are huge, much bigger than they look in the pictures. They hold the spirit of someone who has died. They face inland, and watch over the village the person lived in. If the neck breaks, the spirit escapes and makes the family weaker. In wars, they would tip each others' statues over so the necks broke. The area around the statues was paved with stone. The statues also sit on stone bases. In one place the stone base is as good as Inca show quality stone work. When Captain Cook came, he saw the fine stonework and thought there must be gold there. So he blew a hole in the platform only to find there was no gold. Some of the statues have red stone hats on them. The best statues are at a beach. They tipped over not long after they were made and got buried in sand. They were only discovered and put up again a few years ago so they are in perfect condition. One of them is missing an earlobe because it was broken off by a man who wanted to compare it to the statues in his country 9 months ago.

Tupiza and the salt flats

2010-06-15T17:45:00.000-07:00

The scenery in Tupiza is very similar to the scenery in Utah - big red rocks and a dry, dusty climate. While we were there, a South American overland truck parked in front of our hotel. It had sleeping compartments, a kitchen and seats all in one vehicle. The salt flat was the world's largest, the second being the Bonneville Salt Flat in Utah. On our first day we drove through some amazing red mountains; we even saw some Vicunas. In the evening we got to the salt flats; we were on the edge where they harvest salt for cooking. Then we drove out into the salt flats. They were extremely hard. Our guide said they were 100 meters (300 feet) thick in some places. We drove for about an hour and a half in a straight line to our hotel, which was made of salt. It is amazing how much the salt looks like stucco. I am glad we had heaters because it gets down to -18/20 degrees celcius at night. The next day we got up and watched the sunrise on the salt flats. Then we drove out to the island Inca Huasi, where we saw some 900 year old, 9 meter (27 foot) tall cactuses. Then we drove out into the middle to get our funny photos. After that we continued on across the salt flats. Then we drove to a cemetery the locals made in the 1400's. There were rocks carved into egg shapes and hollowed out. Because of the dry climate, the bodies were well preserved. Some even had skin. It was amazing: they were still in the cemetery, no security, no glass, just like they were left. Then we drove to a hotel made of lava rocks. In the morning we went to the 'tree of stone'. After that we went to a geyser field at just over 5000 meters (15000 feet) elevation. At that high elevation even getting in the car made me pant. Then we drove down about half an hour to a hot spring. We swam in the hot spring and it was very cold when we got out. At the hot spring, we met a biker. He had been biking 3 months. Then we went to the Salvador Dali desert, this because it looks like what he would paint. On the last night we stayed in a hostal without heat. We spent about 12 hours in our bed because it was the only warm place. At the Bolivia-Chile border crossing there was a huge fox. Our guide said he was Bolivian, and while we were there he never went to Chile.

Lake Titicaca

2010-06-15T17:31:00.000-07:00

On our first day we went on a tour to see the floating islands. They are amazingly firm considering they are made of reeds. They are anchored to the bottom of the lake so they don't float away. They are about 2 meters(6 feet) thick. To make them the locals start with a base of reed roots. Then they put layers of reeds on until the island is thick enough. After that we went to a natural island, the second largest on the Peru side of the lake. It is about 7 kilometers long. On the island there is a huge, two storey high building full of the handicrafts the locals have made.

Machu Picchu

2010-06-15T17:28:00.000-07:00

We walked around and looked at some buildings before watching the sunrise. The light on Machu Picchu at sunrise is amazing. It gives things good colour. Then we went up a little hill at one end. The best stones were on that hill. Our guide said that the royalty lived there. From there you could see most of Machu Picchu. After that we went to the mirrors. They are perfect dishes of water carved into the rocks. The Incas would look at the reflections of the stars at night. When we were there, there wasn't much water because the llamas had drunk it. There is a little aqueduct which still has water flowing in it. The water in it was sacred, but when we were there a dog was drinking it. Then we went up to the Sun Gate. From there you can see all of Machu Picchu and the surrounding area. The stone work in all of Machu Picchu is amazing. The aqueduct was made up of many rocks, but they fit so tightly together that no water leaked through. Our guide told us that there are lumps and holes in the rocks so they lock together and don't move. The next morning we went up again. I watched he sunrise from the royal plaza. It overlooks most of Machu Picchu and has the temple of the three windows. Every morning the sun shines through the windows.

Cusco, Peru

2010-06-15T17:21:00.000-07:00

Cusco is a medium sized city at 11,000 feet elevation. It is very old. It was the Inca capital before the Spanish came. There are still some Inca walls left, but they have Spanish buildings on them. There is one place where there is an Inca wall. There used to be a church built on it, but there was an earthquake and the church fell down. The Inca wall only got a small crack in it. There are some Inca ruins in the middle of Cusco called Koricancha. It is the temple of the sun. There is a sun calender. The Incas knew that the sun moved from side to side every 6 months. They used this to make a sun calender. They even knew about leap years. On a leap year they would sacrifice llamas so the sun would return to normal. Koricancha was covered in gold by the Incas before the Spanish came and stole it. Everything was covered in about an inch of gold. There was an estimated 20 tonnes of gold. The streets are all cobblestone and rocks. The city of Cusco, since it was the Inca capital, was shaped likea puma because pumas were sacred animals. The head of the puma is Sacsaywaman. There is a 300 tonne rock at Sacsaywaman. The walls zigzag because they were the puma's teeth. If the Incas were being attacked, the soldiers went to Sacsaywaman because it gave a view of the city. When the Spanish came they took all of the stones they could carry down the hill, so there is only about 20% left but it is still huge.

Amazon

2010-04-26T19:33:00.000-07:00

Day1

We got up at 5:30 am and had breakfast. After breakfast,we walked out to a tower. The tower is built around a huge tree. It goes 40 meters (120 feet) up, so you are above the forest canopy. The view is amazing. We saw monkeys and a lot of birds. Then we walked out to a lake. On the way, I swung on some roots. It turns out, our guide told us, that what we think are vines are actually roots from strangler plants. When we got to the lake we paddled around in dugout canoes. Dugout canoes are very heavy and tippy.

Day 2

In the morning we took a boat ride up the river. On the boat ride we saw a parrot clay lick. The clay licks are clay banks full of vitamins and minerals, so the parrots eat the clay. Different types of parrots come at different times. Many other types of animals have clay licks, including Jaguars. Then we went up to a local village. The villagers live in bamboo houses on stilts. Since it is warm all year round, only their bedroom has walls. Most women in the village had ten or twelve kids. When someone needs a house, the whole village helps to build it, and it is finished in one day.

Piranha fishing

We went piranha fishining. You get a line with a piece of wire attatched between the hook and line. If there wasn't wire in between the hook and line, the piranhas would bite it off. I didn't catch a piranha, but my mom did. It was about 4 inches long, and they cooked it for us to eat. It didn't taste like fish, it really tasted like nothing.

Chocolate Factory in Mindo

2010-04-26T19:25:00.000-07:00

We went on a chocolate factory tour. First the cacoa beans are put out to ferment for 6 days. If they are out for 5 days they aren\t nearly as good. If they are out for 7 days they are completely ruined. Then they go out in a green house to dry. They take 7-21 days to dry in the green house. Then they are roasted. They take 35 minutes to roast. If you don\t roast them for long enough, they have a taste like wine from fermenting. If you roast them for too long they get burned. You can smell them burning, but by then they are ruined. Then they are put through a Champion fruit juicer. Bigger companies have a special machine, but the fruit juicer works well. It crunches the cacoa beans around and removes the shells. Then they are dropped in front of a fan. The beans fall into a bowl and the shells get blown away. The beans have to go in front of the fan 4 times to get enough shells out. Then they go through the juicer again. This time the beans get powdered and fall through where the juice would go. After a few minutes the motor has heated up, and the cacoa powder comes out as a paste. It is pure cocoa and very bitter. Then some of it goes into a grinder which has 2 stone wheels close to each other. The grinding from the wheels melts the chocolate so it flows through. The grinding also makes it smooth. It stays in the grinder for 2-3 days. The rest of the paste goes into a press. The paste goes into a cylinder with a filter on the bottom. It is pressed down with a car jack and blow torched so it stays melted (again bigger companies have a special machine for these functions). Under pressure, cocoa butter goes through the filter but the cacoa paste doesn't. The cocoa butter lookes like real butter, and is added to the chocolate in the grinder so it will set well when it cools. The pure chocolate left in the press is ground for hot chocolate. White chocolate is made from the cocoa butter. Cocoa butter is also used in lotion.

Baños

2010-04-26T19:24:00.000-07:00

Baños is a hot springs town. It is the second most touristy place in Ecuador, with the Galapagos being the first. On the first day we went to a hotel which had hot springs. They also had a water slide, but it wasn't very steep, so you had to push yourself. The next day we went downhill to the next town. It was 20 km downhill, so we barely had to pedal. It was very fun.

Bella Vista

2010-04-26T17:34:00.000-07:00

In Bella Vista, they had a dome where you ate meals. There were also rooms in the top of the dome. We stayed on the very top floor. The view was amazing because the walls of our room were totally glass. They had hummingbird feeders out. They had some bumble bee sized hummingbirds come to the feeder. We went one morning to see the Cock Of The Rock birds. A group of them come to one place to try and attract a mate. The males come and make a huge din. If a female comes, they start jumping up and down and flapping their wings while they screech even louder. Unfortunately, we didn't get to see a female come.

This is the dome.

Climbing up the ladder.

A new country

2010-04-26T17:32:00.000-07:00

We are now in Quito, Ecuador. It is one of the world's highest capital cities at 9,800 feet (3000 meters) elevation. We are staying in the Old Town part of Quito. Some of the buildings are 450 years old. The buildings have huge carved-wood doors. There are also a lot of churches in the Old Town. The San Francisco church was built in the 1500's. Two Sundays a month there are no cars allowed in the Old Town. We were there on one of the Sundays. It is nice because you can just walk in the street. There are also lots of people on bikes because when there are cars, there isn't any space to ride a bike. We walked to the Basilica Del Voto Nacional. It is a 1920's church were you can climb up the tower. The tower is 17 stories high, and you can climb right up to the top. There is also a restaurant on the 9th floor and a gift shop on the 8th floor. The tower doesn't look very big in the picture, but the clock is about 12 feet (3.5 meters) across. You can see the whole city from the top of the church. We took the cable cars up a mountain just outside of Quito. In ten minutes, you go from 9800 feet to 13451 feet. It was the highest place I have ever been. The air was very thin and you got out of breath just walking around. The view over Quito was amazing. You could see Quito and the surrounding hills.

Pacuare Reserve (Leather Back turtle volunteer program)

2010-03-27T13:41:00.000-07:00

The Pacuare Reserve is just north of Limón. The reserve owns 5.7 kilometers of beach. Every night they have people going out at 8pm, 10pm and midnight on turtle patrols. Even when it is very dark you can see the turtle tracks, because when they crawl on the beach, they expose the wet sand. If you find a turtle track, you stop and wait while the group leader goes and sees what it is doing. If it is looking for a place to nest, or digging a body pit, you want to stay away from it because it is very easy to scare it off. When it starts digging its nest, you can come up behind it, but not go in front of it because it still might get scared off. Sometimes the turtles come up and go back to the water without laying eggs. When it is laying its eggs you measure its shell and you can touch it. Each turtle has a tag on its right back flipper, and one on its left back flipper. The tags help them to figure out where the turtle has nested before and also so they can tell the turtles apart when writing down where it nested, how many eggs it layed and how big it was. They usualy lay 70-100 yolked eggs and 20-30 yolkless. They think that the yolkless eggs make the cavity in the nest bigger so there is more air. After it has laid its eggs, it will fill in the nest and start flinging sand around and digging big holes. All of this mess it is making makes it hard for predators to find the nest. Unfortunately, we have to get sticks and flatten out all of the mess it has made so poachers don't see the nest. The poachers drive up and down the beach in boats, and look for the mess the turtle has made. If there is a mess,then they know there is a nest, and they come ashore and dig it up. So if the messes are flattened out, then they don't see them all and don't think it is worth it to come ashore. The beach is divided into sectors. One sector is 100 meters (300 feet). On our first night we saw a turtle in sector one, which is directly in front of the building that we eat in. I got to hold its flipper while it layed eggs. Then we walked up the bech to sector 3, which is 300 meters (980 feet) away. There was another turtle there. After that I went back because it was 11:30 at night. We went with EPI. They have a place on their website where you can look up the turtles you saw. I will put up the information about the turtles I saw in 2-3 months, when they update their website.
EPI website for Costa Rica
The largest Leather Back turtle ever recorded weighed more than 900 kilograms (1980 pounds). It was drowned in a fishing net. A Volkswagen Beetle weighs 952 kilograms (2100 pounds). A Leather Back turtle can dive to 1600 meters (5250 feet) because its shell is flexible, and compresses. They can stay under water for 6 hours because they can store oxygen in thier muscles, but when they are caught in fishing nets, they panic and use all of their oxygen quickly, and then drown.

A butterfly on the trail between the stations.

The nesting beach.

Making a sign.

They had good sunsets.

This is what the turtle tracks look like.

I dug a hole on the beach.

San gerardo de dota (in Los Quetzales National Park)

2010-03-09T08:22:00.000-08:00

San Gerardo is a cloud forest about an hour and a half from San José. It is at 2500 meters (8250 feet) elevation, so you are in the clouds a lot of the time. There was an amazing viewover the mountains and it was made even better because one side of our cabin was mostly glass. Apparently there are tapirs, but we didn’t see any while we were there. There is a type of bamboo that has what looks like clumps of grass growing out of each joint. This is a staple in a tapir’s diet. There was lots of this bamboo, but no tapirs eating it. We went for a walk down to the creek. In some places the ground was springy. This was because a rotting tree got buried and rotting wood is springy. On our way out, we went to see a Quetzal. The males have two tail feathers that are longer than their bodies. They also fly in a funny way, going up and down like a butterfly. There was a nest with babies, but it was in a hollow tree, so you couldn't see the babies. While we were there, the male fed the babies. When he was holding on to the side of the tree with his head in the nest, he blended in well, and would have been easy to miss. Every night, we went to Mimiriam’s Soda (a soda is like a small restaurant in Costa Rica). They gave the four of us five drumsticks, two trout, a bowl of rice, a bowl of beans, a bowl of potatoes, a jug of juice, a plate of tortillas and four stewed peaches, and they gave us this much every night!

Drake Bay

2010-03-08T17:17:00.000-08:00

Drake bay is on a peninsula in the south of Costa Rica.

It is very hot and humid in Drake. There was a creek near where we stayed, so we rented kayaks and paddled up the river. We saw a sloth and a caiman. It was very pretty up the river. There were some beaches and mini waterfalls. We paddle up as far as we could, to the start of the rapids and stopped and swam. There is a caiman that lives in the river, but swims out to the ocean to catch fish during the day. There are Scarlet Macaws in Drake Bay. We had already seen one by the time we got to our hotel. They like to eat the almonds from the almond trees. We went out to Caño Island. It is about an hour boat ride from Drake. We went snorkelling on Caño Island. There wasn't much coral, but there were a lot of fish. All of the fish were making clicking sounds. At the top of the island there are huge stone spheres. We didn't go and see them.They think that they were made and put there by the inhabitants of Costa Rica, long before Spain found Costa Rica. They think that the island was a burial site. It was all good until someone stole my backpack. He came into our room at about four in the morning, so I was asleep. He had gone through my duffel bag, and only found clothes, so he left it. Then my dad woke up and saw the man and jumped up and ran after him. The man grabbed my backpack and my dad's day pack. He tripped going down the stairs and dropped the day pack, and a kitchen knife which he had been using to try and open other people's doors.

Monteverde

2010-03-04T08:21:00.000-08:00

I had another week of Spanish school in Monteverde. Monteverde is a cloud forest up in the mountains. Monteverde has a very interesting history. In 1951, 11 Quaker families fom Alabama moved to Costa Rica when two of them were jailed because they refused to fight in the Korean war. They looked at different places in Central and South America, but they chose Costa Rica because they had gotten rid of their army in 1948. The families bought 3000 acres in Cerro Plano hill. They named their land Monteverde. It took them three months to travel 18 kilometers from the main road to their land because they had to make the road as they went. Two years later, in 1953, the Quakers founded the cheese factory. The cheese factory is still there today, and we went to see it. They make cheese and meat products, because when making cheese, only 10% of the milk turns into cheese. The rest turns into whey, and they have a few hundred pigs which they feed on the whey.
Spanish school was good. My teacher didn't speak any English, so I learned a lot more than in Heredia. The weather in Monteverde is strange. Since you are usually in the cloud, it doesn't really rain, though it is misty most of the time. We went on a night tour and saw a fox and two Agoutis. Agoutis are like huge guinea pigs with long legs. We also went to a humming bird cafe. Outside they have 8 or 9 hummingbird feeders. There are always lots of hummingbirds around, and they are not afraid of people. Some of them fly really close to your head. My dad saw eight different types in the hour we were there. It is amazing how agile the humming birds are. It is also amazing how they can fly so fast because Monteverde is at 5600 feet (2000 meters) so the air is thin, and they must breathe very fast. We went to a bat jungle. We learned that there is a type of bat which eats nectar, and it beats its wings even faster than a humming bird. They also have small fruit bats which get a piece of fruit and hang upside down while they eat it. They are very cute. They didn't have any bug eating bats because a bug eating bat eats 500-3000 mosquitos each day.

Volcan Arenal

2010-03-04T08:20:00.000-08:00

After we finished Spanish school, we went to Volcan Arenal. Nobody knew it was a volcano until it erupted in 1968, killing 97 people. Since then it has been steadily active.The first place we stayed at was amazing. When they put food in the bird feeder, toucans came and ate it. They also had a waterfall and a funny spider thing. There were so many spiders that when you scared them, they all moved and it looked like the plants were moving. After that we stayed at Los Lagos. We could see the volcano from the window in our room. They also had 4 hot pools, 3 cold pools and 3 water slides. Their waterslides went much faster than regular ones. You went about twice as fast as the water. The also had butterflies and a crocodile farm.

2010-02-15T18:44:00.000-08:00

Water slides are much more fun when there is a big drop at the end.

The view of the volcano from our hotel room.

There was a gecko in my suitcase.

Our "Tico" Familia

2010-02-07T15:18:00.000-08:00

The Tico (Costa Rican) familia that we stayed with.

The Ticos call this a "Suicide Shower"

Spanish school

2010-01-31T10:15:00.001-08:00

Our first day with our family was very tiring because we couldn't understand anything that they were saying. They have three very friendly dogs. Our first day of Spanish school was very tiring too. We took a test to see how much we knew. The teachers can speak English but don't during class. The only other person in my class is a 4 year old who speaks quite a lot of Spanish. In my class we do fun things. We play with balls, watch movies and draw things. By the end of the week I could understand a few words. By the end of our second week, I could understand a bit more, but I can't say very much.

Costa Rica

2010-01-31T10:15:00.000-08:00

We flew into Costa Rica and spent the night in San Jose. The next day we went to the Manual Antonio beach. We took surfing lessons. Surfing is hard. I fell off a lot. The next day we went to the Manuel Antonio Park. We saw monkeys, Three Toed Sloths and racoons. One of the monkeys tried to steal a man's bag of snacks. Every day the racoons come to the picnic area and steal people's food. One man fed the racoons and then was surprised when the racoon tried to steal some of his food. Then next day we went on a canopy tour. You go on zip lines and swim in a waterfall. The zip lines are amazing. They are fully supported by trees. The longest one is over half a kilometer (one third of a mile) long. The waterfall was very cold. The next day we took a bus to San Juan, the town that we stay in with a family and do Spanish school.

2009-12-30T05:58:00.000-08:00

Etosha

2009-12-29T17:22:00.000-08:00

Moremi and the Okavango Delta

Makgadikgadi Pans National Park

Tuli Block

Ngorongoro crater and The Great Rift Valley

2009-12-24T15:48:00.000-08:00

This is when it is sunny.

This is when it is snowing and foggy.

2009-12-04T08:29:00.000-08:00

London

1-6 December

We have:

Gone on the London Eye. You get in one of the capsules and ride up to the top. The capsules are big enough to hold a small car. The top is 135 meters up. You can see out across London, and the view is amazing.

Looked at Big Ben. When you come out of the subway station, Big Ben is right in front of you. While we were there it chimed.

Gone to the Harrods department store.

The store was huge. It took up a whole block and was 6 stories tall.

The food section.

The fish in this fountain were real

They had a section that was all chocolates

The Christmas theme this year was the Wizard Of Oz.

Gone ice skating. I fell over alot and couldn't stop without running into the wall.

And went to the Camden Market. The Camden Market is on the bank of a small river. The market is huge. They sell things that range from water absorbing crystals and camel leather bags to Thai food and horse saddles.

Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania

26-29 November

On our first day, we drove to Lake Manyara. It is a salt lake and it was full of flamingos. It covers about 200 square kilometers. It is in the Great Rift Valley, which stretches from Syria (Southwest Asia) to Mozambique (east Africa), about 6,000 kilometers. We saw a lot of Dik Diks and Hippos. The next day we drove up to the rim of the Ngorongoro crater. We them walked up to the rim of the Olmoti Crater. The next day we had a full day of game viewing in the Ngorongoro Crater. It was amazing. We saw huge herds of wildabeast, buffalo and zebra. We also saw 17 hyenas at the same time, Thompson's gazelle, Grant's gazelle, elephant, hippo, vultures and Golden Jackals. There were 2 dead buffalos near the road. On one buffalo there were jackals and vultures. On the second one there were more vultures and 17 hyenas.

The first carcass

Tripe, anyone?

Vulture fight.

The second carcass

Hyena feeding frenzy.

After we saw the Ngorongoro crater, we took a bus back to Dar Es Salaam. The bus we started on had to stop when the tyre started rubbing on the side of the bus. Then we got on a different bus. The driver drove very fast. He passed cars, trucks and other busses.

Zanzibar

17-25 November

We spent our first 2 days in stone town. Because of its tropical climate, people have been growing spices on it for hundreds of years. After Stone town, we spent 5 nights on the beach. We rented bikes, went out snorkeling on a traditional fishing boat and went swimming. The water on Zanzibar was the warmest that I have ever felt. It is also very salty, which makes you float well.

18/11/09

2009-11-18T00:39:00.001-08:00

We have arrived in Tanzania and taken the ferry to Zanzibar. It is even hotter here than in southern Africa. A lot of different spices are grown in Zanzibar because it has the right climate.

15/11/09

2009-11-15T07:51:00.000-08:00

Today we drove to Johannesburg. We dropped off our car and tommorrow we fly to Dar Es Salaam (Tanzania). We have driven more than 4 000 kilometres and over 100 hours. When we are in Tanzania, we are going to Zanzibar (an island just off the coast of Tanzania).

2009-11-14T00:13:00.000-08:00

Sorry, on my blog the comment restriction was on and I didn't know it. It is now turned off, and anyone can comment.

2009-11-13T01:01:00.000-08:00

We had to drive around this donkey. It didn't even look at us.

A lioness making a kill in Etosha ( took this video)

2009-11-13T00:52:00.000-08:00

2009-11-13T00:50:00.000-08:00

Khama Rhino Sanctuary

5-7 November

In our first afternoon in the Khama Rhino Sanctuary, we saw 3 White Rhinos during the day. At the Rhino Sanctuary, they have quite a variety of animals other than rhino. The next day we went out in the early morning to look for rhino. We didn't see any rhinos, but we saw a Springbok lamb.It was hiding in the bushes, but when we drove by, it jumped up and ran to its mother.

Tuli Block

8-12 November

We spent our first 3 nights at The KWA Tuli Game Reserve. We stayed at the Island Camp. On our fist morning we went out at 6am to look at animals. We saw Elephants, Kudu, Grey Duiker (also called Common Diuker), Zebra and Impala. We went out again in the evening and saw Klipspringer, Eland and Rock Hyrax(Dassie). It is funny that a Rock Hyrax is called a Rock Hyrax because our guide Jerry told us that Rock Hyraxes climb trees quite alot, and Tree Hyraxes somtimes live in rocks. The next evening we went on another drive, and we saw a Grass Snake. Our next campsite in Tuli was about 5 metres from the Limpopo River.The other side of the river is South Africa. And there were crocodiles swimming up and down the river.

Kubu Island

2009-11-13T00:42:00.000-08:00

Today we drove to Kubu Island. It was a 7-8 hour drive from Maun. We had to drive on a bit of the Makgadikgadi Pans to get to Kubu Island. On the Top Gear African special they had to drive across the Makgadikgadi Pans. When they stopped at an island for the night that island was Kubu Island. Usually the pans are not as soft as when they drove across. When we were on Kubu Island, we found lots of arrow chippings from the natives who lived there more than 500 years ago. Kubu Island has a lot of Baobab trees on it. I climbed 8 meters (24 feet) up a Baobab tree near our campsite.

Our campsite

Me in the baobab tree

2009-10-31T07:07:00.000-07:00

Elephant at sunset. Etosha

A Damara Dik Dik. Shoulder height 35cm, weight 4kg

An elephant having a dustbath

Meerkats eating catfood.

Sylvia the Common Duiker

Zebras in Etosha

I took this picture of a springbok trough binoculars

Me holding a chamelion in Bushmanland.

Elephants blocking the road in Chobe.

This Meerkat is nearly as wide as he is tall!

Meerkats on me at N/a'n ku se

A mirage at 11 in the morning

'Rejoice in the lord' carrots

An elephant near our car in Chobe

A little bittern on the okavango delta in moremi. The Ververt Monkeys in Chobe. The Banded Mongeese in Etosha.

The sun shinning through the clouds in the early morning in Etosha.

Elephant fight video

2009-10-31T06:37:00.000-07:00

Two bull elephants fighting in Chobe. I took this video.

2009-10-30T10:30:00.000-07:00

That night at the campsite, there were a troop of Verevert monkeys roosting in a tree.
The next morning we saw a lion, two lionesses and two lion cubs.
The next day, on the way to a different campground, we saw a leopard cub.

Later on that day we stopped at a huge baobab tree.
While we were at the baobab tree a pack of african wild dogs ran past.

Moremi

24-30

In Moremi we saw lots of animals. Moremi is on the edge of the Okavango Delta. One evening we went out on a boat in the Okavango Delta, and we saw a bird colony with Maribu Storks, Yellow Billed Storks and Cattle Egrets. We also saw some hippos. At the last campsite we stayed, the baboons were a menace. If anything was out they would steal it. In the morning there were big lion tracks near the toilet blocks.

Check out these photos!

2009-10-18T10:51:00.000-07:00

2009-10-17T03:43:00.000-07:00

Bushman Land
On the morning of our first day we got to go on a hunt with the Bushmen. They drive to where they want to hunt and then they start walking. First I found a chameleon, and picked it up. Our guide thought it was great, and he didn’t tell me that when you pick up a chameleon it usually bites you, until after I had picked it up. But I didn’t get bitten. When we stopped for a rest, they set up a bird snare. It looked like this:
The Bushmen showed us how to find and use a root that will give you water. After that they found a honey tree. In Namibia there are three types of bees, burrowing, non-stinging and regular honey bees. These were the non-stinging type. They chopped down the tree and started eating the honey. It was very runny and it dripped. In the afternoon we went to the village to watch them making arrows. They put enough poison on the arrows to kill a half ton antelope.

2009-10-10T03:35:00.001-07:00

Etosha

4/10/09
Today was our first day in Etosha. In our first hour we had seen a lion. The campgrounds in Etosha are in a fence, and each one has a water hole directly outside the fence that is lit up all night. That evening we saw a mother and baby black rhino, and 2 lions. Black rhino are extremely aggressive. If a herd of elephants are drinking at a water hole, and a black rhino comes, they will all leave even though some of the are twice its size.
5/10/09
Today we got up early and went to a water hole. There weren’t any animals there, so we went back to the water hole at the camp ground. Later on in the day, some elephants came, and then more, and more and more. In the end there were 53 elephants at the water hole. Everything is wary of black rhino. If a lion is at the same water hole as a black rhino, it will not turn its back on it.
6/10/09
Today, on our way to the next campground there were 3 very big lions by the side of the road. A little later on, we turned off to go to a water hole. On the way there were 5 more lions near the road.
7/10/09
Today we drove to where the lions were the day before. There were 4 more lions there. We were sitting at a water hole when a lioness came and lay down behind some reeds. About 15 minutes later, some springbok, zebra and wildebeest came to drink. They were upwind of her. About 10 minutes later she shot out of the bushes and jumped on a wildebeest. She was so powerful that she didn’t need to kill it straight away. She just held it on the ground for about 15 seconds before she bit its neck and killed it.

2009-10-02T10:41:00.000-07:00

30/9/09

Today we got up at 5:30am.We got to Sossuvlei at 7:00am.The colors on the sand dunes were amazing. Sossuvlei has the tallest sand dunes in the world. We had been driving for about 2 hours when the Land Rover slipped on a deep patch of gravel, skidded back and forth a couple of times, and rolled.

The car 5 minutes later

The car being towed away

The fridge was squashed,but when the car was upside down, it was still running

Eggs that fell out of the fridge

The car after it had been towed back

None of us were hurt badly. We all got sore necks and small cuts. About 5 minutes after we rolled a man who lives around Solitaire came by. He took us to Solitaire. The town consists of a petrol station, lodge, bakery and cafe. They said because of the bad roads, in the high season 2-3 people crash a day. If you crash, they will give you a free night's stay. A month ago, a person in a Toyota Hilux crashed in exactly the same place as us. There was still glass there from the last crash. Our GPS flew out the window, and 3 meters along the road. It had a big crack on the screen, but it still worked. A man at the lodge said that we were lucky that we had a roof rack because usually when a Land Rover rolls the roof caves in because it is made of aluminum.

The cuts in my pants are from battery acid. The car battery is under the passenger seat,so it leaked into the car.

2009-10-02T09:49:00.000-07:00

29/9/09

Today I got to climb one of the world's highest sand dunes. It was exciting,but not very fun because the wind was extremely strong,and it was side on. Your feet sank in quite a lot and the sand dune was steep.

Some of the other animals at Na/an Ku Se.

Animal tracks I have seen:

Tenebrionid Beetle
African Wild Cat
Steenbok

Animals I have been bitten by:

Meerkat
Baboon
Spider
Pig

Namibian flag

Me riding the pig

2009-09-27T09:30:00.000-07:00

2009-09-27T04:15:00.000-07:00

26/9/09
Animals I have seen:
weaver bird

goat

four striped grass mouse

goose

guinea fowl

rabbits

peacocks

flycatcher

caracal

lion

wart hog

Etosha ground agama(lizard)

leopard tortise

meerkat

moth

sheep

pig

chicken

turkey

baboon

termites

ducks

cheetah

duiker

leopard

hyena

ant

african wild dog

24/9/09
Today I got to play baseball with the village children. It is quite chaotic because most of them don't speak english. Today the Samoan rugby team were at N/a'an ku se looking at the animals. The lady who runs the place, her husband used to play for the Springboks, so alot of rugby teams come to N/a'an ku se.

22/9/09
Today, when I went to feed the meerkats, I lay down on the ground to take a picture of one, and another one hopped on my back. Pretty soon all three were on my back. When I went on the baby baboon walk, Lala sat on my shoulder most of the way there and back. I got bitten by Troy twice again. Tonight Troy was sleeping in the room next door. He managed to spill laundry powder all over everything. We also met a lady who runs a meerkat sancuary in Palm Springs and is asociated with Meerkat Manor.

21/9/09
Today I got to go on a walk with a tame cheetah called Samira, and pet her. I also got bitten by Troy(baboon) twice.

19/9/09
Tonight, all of the new people had to cook dinner and pretend it was a tv show.

18/9/09
Today my group was doing food prep. That means from 8-10:30 we chop up food and feed the baby baboons, big baboons, rabbits, birds and Sylvia. Sylvia is a tame Duiker (type of antelope). She ended up here because the local bushman were hand raising her for meat, but someone at N/a'an ku Se got them to trade for a goat. Buckies(baby baboon) peed on my foot today.

14/9/09
I found out that the age limit is supposed to be 18,but they let me in even though I am only 11.

13/9/09
It is very interesting here, today I got up, had breakfast and chased a pig out of the school! At Na/an Ku Se, you get to do alot of different things, like sleeping with baby baboons, spending time with the tame cheetah and going on baby baboon walks.

12/9/09
Today we go to N/a'an Ku Se. N/a'an ku se is a wildlife orphanage and farm.
They have:

Rabbits

leopard tortises

goats

baby and adult baboons

chickens

geese

ducks

guinea fowl

turkeys

sheep

pigs

meerkats

lions

cheetah

cows

horses

12\9\09

2009-09-11T22:37:00.000-07:00

Today we fly to Windhoek.In Windhoek we are volunteering at an animal orphanage for 2 weeks before we get a car and start driving around.

Yesterday,on the flight from Sydney to Johannesburg,the captain came and said hello to me because it was my birthday. Because of the time change,my birthday lasted for 34 hours.Since my birthday lasted so long,I had about 5 meals.

2009-08-31T23:35:00.001-07:00

I can't wait to see a lion!

2009-08-31T23:31:00.001-07:00

adopt your own virtual pet!

2009-08-31T23:20:00.001-07:00

We are leaving soon and it is exciting. On September 10th we go to Wellington and we leave from wellington at 6am on September 11th.