The Wildebeasts' Picnic

Wow. Where did that last week disappear to? I got back from my conference last Monday (more on that in a second), and then Mike was in town visiting for a week... and now he's gone home and I'm back at my office, and somehow its already the 2nd week of November! Where does the time go?!

Anyway, the conference was great- not least because it was held in South Africa! The social side of the conference included both a wine-tasting show featuring over 1500 different South African Wines, and a visit to the Pilanesburg Game Reserve... how could you go wrong with that?!

Here are some photos, in no particular order...

Somewhere in the Sahara Desert, taken from above (I purposely enhanced the colours so that you can see the contours more clearly - otherwise it just looks kind of, well, sandy-coloured)

Kiki, from CUNY, enjoying the cheese plates we got at the Wine-tasting show we went to

Emanuel and I at the wine show

A view of Pretoria from the UNISA building (we were on the 10th floor), showing all the pretty purple Jacaranda trees.

The entrance to the UNISA building

Pub night!
On the morning of the trip to Pilanesburg, we stopped for coffee and sandwiches at a monkey zoo... Frobisher liked the monkeys

An Elephant! (the colour is a bit off here, cause I was trying to make the elephant stand out more)

Warthogs!
Giraffes! Well, a giraffe. there were three altogether, but the photos of the others didn't turn out as well. This one is a baby - you can tell by the paleness of his spots. Apparently the spots get darker as the giraffes get older.
More giraffes!
Some of the hills that encircle the park - there was a volcano here several million years back... then it exploded, and left this crater.

Look closely, and you can see a springbok in the center of this photo - its like a little horned deer that 'prongs' along instead of running...
Frobisher met a new friend in Africa - Birdie came from New York with Kiki to meet some of her ancestors, but alas, we didn't see any
A little lizard on a fence-post, eating a spider... I need a couple of these creatures to kill all the spiders in my house!

A map of the park

This is a rare breed... the species automobilius... :)

the (man-made) lake at the center of the park, as seen from a hide


A weaver bird and his nest - some trees are full of these things - they're like giant christmas tree decorations or something. :)

A Hippo! :)

The Wildebeasts having a picnic

A zebra!

A dung beetle

And finally, just before we left the park, another elephant!
When I got back from South Africa, Mike was here for a visit... stay tuned later this week for pictures of my adventures with Mikey! :)