Return to the blogosphere

I can’t believe that my last post was in 2015! It’s been 8 years to the day. So much has happened since then. I have to admit that I have not gone on any more motorcycle adventures. Alas, Rosa sits idle in my garage. I have since become a full fledged neurologist. There just has not been time for motorcycle adventure or for posting with the incredible time demands. Then the pandemic hit, which was hard for all of us, but particularly for those of us who work in health care. The last 3 years have been a blur. I am still reeling. Hopefully we’re coming out the other side. I have started to travel again after years of lockdowns and restrictions. I have always appreciated travel, but I appreciate it so much more now. It’s cliche, but true – you don’t know what you have till it’s gone. I am actually writing this from Manaus, Brazil. The start of a trip into the heart of the Amazon. I will share details later.

I am going to jump right into travel blogging. The first big trip since the start of the pandemic was a trip to South Africa and Botswana to celebrate my friend Mark’s 50th birthday in August and September of 2022. This was a bucket list trip. There is a group of us with our own birthday club. When we turned 40 one by one, the other guys would plan the trip and we didn’t know where we were going until we showed up at the Airport. Mark was first up. He was taken to Costa Rica, Paul was taken on a Caribbean cruise, Jose was taken to Australia, and I was taken to Thailand and Vietnam. My birthday happened to coincide with a Koh Phangan full moon beach party. I won’t say how long ago that was.

For our 50th birthdays, we get to chose. Mark chose Africa. I have travelled extensively through Africa including as part of the my London to Cape Town motorcycle adventure trip in 2008 and a return trip to tour around Southern Africa by motorcycle again in 2010. However, I did not get the chance to delve into wildlife viewing as much as I would have liked during those motorcycle trips. I have always wanted to return. Africa holds a special place in my heart. I have camped across the continent and I am certain that African sunrises and sunsets in the wild are by far the most beautiful on Earth. My friends thought I was crazy, a sunrise is a sunrise and a sunset is a sunset after all, right? But by the end of our trip they agreed. I have wanted to go to Botswana’s Okavango Delta ever since I was blown away by the BBC’s Planet Earth documentaries. I had to go.

Karongwe Private Game Reserve, Limpopo, South Africa (Aug 27 – Sep 1, 2022)

There were three of us for this birthday trip. Mark, Jose, and myself. We divided our time in the Karongwe private game reserve between Shiduli Private Game Lodge for the first couple of nights and Chisomo Safari Camp for the last three nights. Chisomo was beautiful, overlooking the Makhutsi River, and you could watch wildlife wandering by from the camp. Amazing. However, the accommodations are just canvas tents and it was bloody cold at night. Even wearing my down coat from Canada and with the space heater on I could not keep warm. So check the temperatures before you go. It got down to near freezing at night.

Day 1 – Aug 27

The moment we arrived at Karongwe, we were treated to seeing three Cheetah’s walking the fence line from the main road! As if they were saying welcome. We would learn that they are three brothers whose mother was killed by a lion while they were still cubs. They hunt together and are never far apart from one another. They are also accustomed to humans as they needed to be fed as cubs to keep them alive. Our first game drive we saw the three Cheetahs again. We would see them again several times throughout our stay, including an incredible closs up of them devouring a Zebra (teaser). On our first game drive, we also saw a pride of lions, including a lioness who walked right by the jeep and gave a look I recognize from my house cats that said: I’m thinking of pouncing on you!

One of the three brothers making his territory.

She walked right by the jeep within a couple of feet. Our first game drive. Welcome to Karongwe.

On that same game drive, we found a Zebra kill site. The pride had brought it down the night before. The male Lion (Zeus) of the pride had eaten his fill. He still had blood on his mouth. So Lions and Cheetahs on our first game drive. I would soon discover that going on Safari is much more than a checklist of trying to see the “Big Five”. What was most rewarding to me was watching animals behave in the wild. This became especially apparent when we got to Botswana. But more on that later.

Zeus, Karongwe’s massive male lion. Needs a napkin to wipe off the Zebra blood.

Can you hear Zeus roar?

Great fun! Surprisingly Jose’s singing didn’t scare away the animals.

Dinner at Shiduli lodge. First game drive in the books.

Day 2 – Aug 28

Morning game drives were early. We would get a knock on the door at 5:30 AM to wake us up. Breakfast was at 6 AM. The jeeps departed at 6:30. So cold! Then we would go on a 3-4 hour game drive, arriving back in time for lunch and then siesta. The afternoon game drive started at 3 PM and we would return in time for supper at 6:30 PM. And then it was supposed to be bedtime, but we often we stayed up by the camp fire drinking beer and solving the world’s problems under Africa’s glorious canopy of stars. A few days of this and we were all used to the rhythm.

First African sunrise in the bush. They never cease to amaze me.

The rhinos in Karongwe are all dehorned to deter poaching. The population of white rhinos in Africa has recovered from near extinction but the numbers have started to decreased again since 2020, when there was increase in poaching, possibly related to less tourism during the pandemic. Black rhinos remain critically endangered.

After 2 days, we had seen 3 of the Big Five (Lion, Rhino, and Elephant), leaving Leopard and Buffalo for the checklist.

Day 3 – Aug 29

Mongoose may not be par to the big five, but boy are they fun to watch. This mob had taken over an abandoned termite mound. There can be up to 50 mongooses in a “mob” or “pack”. They are social animals and take care of their young as a group.

Another rhino sighting. This one charged us. I’ve never been in a jeep going backwards that fast.

Between the morning game drive and the evening game drive, we moved to Chisomo Safari camp.

You can imagine how good the beer tasted being with such great friends and watching yet another amazing African sunset.

Day 4 – Aug 30

We found the 3 Cheetah brothers again on Day 4. They were devouring a dead Zebra. Because they were accustomed to humans, we were allowed to get out of the jeep and walk up within a few paces of them. Did they kill the Zebra? Or were they simply being fed? I don’t know, but I know that the instinct to hunt and kill in my house cats is so strong (all the birds, squirrels, and mice that have been taken into my house can attest to this) that I wouldn’t be surprised if they did take it down, even though they needed to be fed by humans as cubs. In any case, this was a truly unique experience.

By this time we had rounded out the Big Five with a Leopard sighting by the river when we were having our evening snack/beer and also a Buffalo sighting in the shrubbery. But I have better photos to show-off both of these later. Now that we had seen the Big Five, we could just relax and enjoy.

Day 5 – Aug 31

Now that we had checked off the Big Five, the guys let my “birder” instincts take over. Finally, they let me stop to photograph birds. Yes, I was called “Birder!” but I do like photographing birds. But calling me a birder is akin to them calling me a chess grandmaster just because I koq how the pieces moved on the board. I do not profess to be a birder. But I could see myself going down that “flight” path. Birds are awesome. I had been learning how to use my new Olympus OM-1 camera on this trip, and I have to admit I was loving the AI bird capture technology. The camera was definitely smarter than I was at being a birder!

African Bee Eater. I love these birds. So call me a birder.

Buffalo in the bush. The only photo I have left to show of the Big Five is a Leopard. We did see one early on, but my photos were grainy. It wasn’t until the last day that I got a good photo of a Leopard (teaser).

After driving hours to the very far end of the reserve, we found the pride of lions again. It was great to just see them interacting.

Day 5 – Sep 1

Another sighting of the elusive Leopard. This time I caught it.

It was a magical Safari in South Africa. But it was Botswana that would blow my mind. More to come. Happy 50th birthday Mark!

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Life and Adventure

There’s gold, and it’s haunting and haunting;

   It’s luring me on as of old;

Yet it isn’t the gold that I’m wanting

   So much as just finding the gold.

It’s the great, big, broad land ’way up yonder,

   It’s the forests where silence has lease;

It’s the beauty that thrills me with wonder,

   It’s the stillness that fills me with peace.

-Robert Service, from “The Spell of the Yukon”

Top: Dalton Highway, north of Coldfoot, Alaska. Middle: Dawson City and Tombstone Mountain, Yukon. Bottom: Grizzly crossing the Dempster Highway, Yukon.

First, thank-you Erwin from saving this blog from GoDaddy, who were going to delete it.

I haven’t written a post for over a year. This is not because nothing has happened, or that I haven’t had any adventures. I joined up with Tom Smith and we toured Alaska and Yukon on rented a KLR650s. We rode the Dalton Highway to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, as well as the Dempster Highway in the Yukon Territory. I dipped my foot in the Arctic Ocean. I stopped the bike for a Grizzly bear that sauntered across the road right in front of us. I met fellow travellers from all over the world. One of my Alaska friends from the road (“Gaby” on the far right below) just arrived at the other end of the world – Ushaia, Argentina. It was a special feeling to be on the road again. The riding was challenging at times, but oh was it rewarding. I rode right into the spectacular vastness of the North.

Top left: The gang at Deadhorse Camp, Prudhoe Bay, Alaska. Top Right: Tom and I at the arctic circle on the Dempster Highway, Yukon. Button: Arctic Ocean, Prudhoe Bay, Alaska.

The camaraderie of fellow riders from all over is especially evident in Alaska and Yukon because everyone who makes it there on a bike has a shared passion for adventure. Just as enthralling are the people that live in the North, such as the grizzled old prospector from Coldfoot who poured us whiskey and told us tall tales about the giant nuggets up in them thar hills, or the young Inuit women from the isolated arctic village of Old Crow who shared Caribou heart with us in the wee hours of the morning (after a night at a Dawson City bar). These experiences seem almost surreal after what I have gone through.

Physically I am able to ride a motorcycle, which is a phenomenal gift. Yet I found myself more tentative, riding a little scared through the slippery mud of the arctic, not wanting to bite it (there were several close calls but I stayed upright). Life has taken on a sense of fragility. I sense the shortness of it all, but this is not a reason to avoid risks like riding the muddy slop of the Dalton with semi trucks bearing down at 70 mph or staring down a grizzly. To look upon the arctic ocean and feel the satisfaction of the journey is well worth it. The fragility and shortness of life is a reason to continue to experience the world with even more enthusiasm.

I would like to end with a quote from Oliver Sacks, one of my heroes, and one of the reasons I am studying Neurology in the first place. He recently wrote an article for the New York Times on finding out he had terminal cancer:

“I cannot pretend I am without fear. But my predominant feeling is one of gratitude. I have loved and been loved; I have been given much and I have given something in return; I have read and traveled and thought and written. I have had an intercourse with the world, the special intercourse of writers and readers.

Above all, I have been a sentient being, a thinking animal, on this beautiful planet, and that in itself has been an enormous privilege and adventure.”

Now wouldn’t we all like to be able to say that. Here’s to life and adventure.