Oh, it's you again!

Hey all,

Voice of Africa, here.  I kind of fell off the Blog wagon ("Blagon," Tozer?), but am ready to hop back on. We had a great visit to the States... loved seeing everyone, sad we missed seeing the rest of you, craving Mexican food as I type this.  Now we're back in South Africa, recovered from a few fun bouts of flu, and feeling ready for spring.

Running with the Zebras
In May, Adam was off for a SA public holiday, but Lucy had school, so the boyz headed out to explore.  Our friend, Daffyd, recommended the Tswaing Crater, which is about 20 minutes outside of Pretoria.  

 The day started so promising...

Signs told us the meteorite hit the ground here a zillion years ago (the Pleistocene era?!).  Tswaing is a Tswana word (the primary local language in this area) and means "Place of Salt". 

 Apparently this could be a future World Cup site.

Run, don't walk
What made this hike one I won't forget is what we noticed when we pulled into the parking lot.  Mosquitoes!   We had been amazed that Pretoria really had very few, which is great because our windows lack screens.  But there must be something about the salty crater water (well, it is free-standing...) because the place was literally TEEMING with mosquitoes.  The morning was cool so thankfully I had put Noah in long pants and shirt and the same for me, but Dr Hiker insisted on shorts.  We had no idea so had no bug spray.  I've camped in northern Ontario in August so I know mosquitoes and this was beyond the pale (skin of a relocated American).  I was ready to turn home, but Adam convinced me they wouldn't get us if we kept moving.  (Ha! Show me the literature, Mr. Epi.)  Move we did.  We literally jogged the whole trail, swatting as we went. (Apparently the mosquitoes are not always this bad at the crater but I promise you we can skip this part when you come.)  

 I somehow managed to get my camera out while running and snapped this pic. 
It doesn't convey the pace; we were really flying.

What about the zebras?  
The trail descended down to the crater, circled around it and then headed back up.  After we completed that part, we thought the worst was behind us and slowed down as we followed a different trail back to the parking log.  We spotted a few monkeys near some ruins and then came out to a field, where the mosquitoes had opened up a satellite office and were flying in full force.  Enough was enough.  We literally started running as fast as we could, with Little Noah bouncing up and down on Ad's back.  But the signs weren't well marked and we ended up in the middle of the bush.  After coming up over a small hill, we came upon a herd of zebras.  They looked at us. We looked at them. But the mosquitoes were after us and we kept running. I swear the zebras were laughing.  Finally we made it to a dirt road, which we recognized and eventually took us back to our car.  Adam's forehead was bloody from bites.  Somehow Noah managed to not have too many, and probably thought the whole thing was fun.  We flung ourselves into the car and zoomed away. It was quite beautiful, the blur I saw of it, but not something we need to repeat (unless G'ma Judy insists).

A different kind of bite
Away from the bog, we treated ourselves to lunch at a cute, if a bit "Afrikaaner Ladies Who Lunch" place that people recommended, call Isabella's.

 Noah wanted to recreate the hike by circling the patio furniture as fast as he could.

A neighboring table offered to take our picture.  Apparently I was (demonically) happy to be free of mosquitoes and to be eating at a place which served sparking water in wine glasses.

Adam's forehead healed quickly. Lucy had fun at school. And I really should stick a bottle of OFF in the"boot" of the car.

The safari is back. Thanks for sticking with.  xo,
Glenn