I'd like to keep everyone up to date on my travels in Africa like I did when I was in Costa Rica (if you never saw the incredible pictures, here's the thread http://www.brentroad.com/message_topic.aspx?topic=221484). So for starters, here's a map of where I'll be going in South Africa for my fall semester abroad with the Organization for Tropical Studies. In all, I'm going to ten different sites in South Africa. The program starts September 5th and ends December 12th. After that I'm going to start a 3 week safari in Victoria Falls which borders between Zambia and Zimbabwe, go through Botswana, through most of Namibia, and end in Cape Town where I fly out to head back to the U.S. on January 7th of 2006. Feel free to give any suggestions, do's, and don'ts, and of course as soon as the pictures start coming in, I'll get them on here for you all to see.

7/29/2005 3:23:57 PM

just so you know

we don't give a fuck

[Edited on July 29, 2005 at 3:25 PM. Reason : ok sorry i thought this was chit chat]

7/29/2005 3:25:26 PM

actually, i think thats cool

have a great time!!

most certainly a unique life experience

7/29/2005 4:14:55 PM

Thank the taxpayers

7/29/2005 4:30:44 PM

<-----raging with jealousy

7/29/2005 4:36:08 PM

Don't get aids!

7/31/2005 12:57:18 AM

watch out for headhunters

7/31/2005 1:15:37 AM

enjoy your trip to the "motherland"

7/31/2005 2:21:16 AM

watch out for terrorist

7/31/2005 12:15:17 PM

have a good time, ryan

Quote :

"After that I'm going to start a 3 week safari in Victoria Falls which borders between Zambia and Zimbabwe, go through Botswana,"

do you mean vic falls, Hwange, or the reserves on both sides of the zambezi?

7/31/2005 1:38:01 PM

^I'll be at the reserves on both sides of the Zambezi, including going white water rafting on the river and bungee jumping off the bridge over it

Only 13 days left, and I'm finally all set! Any last second suggestions?

8/23/2005 2:29:30 AM

what is this organisation for tropical studies, it sounds cool

8/23/2005 2:33:55 AM

Quote :

"Don't get aids!"

8/23/2005 2:34:15 AM

Advice. Hm.

I recommend reading "My Traitors Heart" by Rian Malan.

... and stay away from Soweto!

8/23/2005 4:11:51 AM

I went to Namibia over the summer on a hunting safari as a graduation present. We stopped in at Johannesburg, South Africa. The people there were LESS than welcoming. In Namibia more than S.A., there was a TON of people making jobs for themselves just to make a buck... It was quite sad.

Don't flash any money or you might have people all over you trying to get it.

I was hunting in Windhoek at Erindi.

8/23/2005 4:45:58 AM

cant wait to see your pictures Ryan
holler at me in Dec. when you get back son so we can have a smoke

8/23/2005 8:57:31 AM

Niger please

8/23/2005 9:14:45 AM

I'm going in 2006.

you're smart to avoid Jo-burg. being white is a crime there.

8/23/2005 9:25:56 AM

Avoid "the bad thing" at all costs. If you are forced to encounter "the bad thing", be sure to throw it off the end of the earth.

8/23/2005 9:26:42 AM

Re:

Quote :

"what is this organisation for tropical studies, it sounds cool"

go to http://www.ots.duke.edu for more information

they are a consortium of 64 universities that foster ecological research of all kinds in the tropics, mainly in Costa Rica

and Nashattack, what were you hunting and did you get to go to Etosha Natl. Park when you were there?

8/23/2005 11:29:21 AM

Well I leave for the airport in an hour, hold it down while I'm gone guys. Don't worry, I promise to keep the pics coming. Peace

9/5/2005 3:38:12 AM

i made a thread from Ghana when I was there in May '04

it has long since disappeared

the connection there was horrible, but i was thankful they even had internet at all!

9/6/2005 4:06:08 PM

hey i just spent last semseter in cape town for about 5 months. studied at UCT. had time to visit namibia, botswana, mozambique, swaziland, zimbabwe, zambia, and of course south africa. have a great time man, it really is awesome.

food is cheap, clothes are cheap, everything is cheap, especially the alcohol
and when you are in vic falls, make sure to take your anti-malarial pills, get the weekly ones cuz they don't make you nausea but give you awesome dreams.

anything else you want to talk about feel free to email me. would love to kept updated.

how was costa rica, i was there in december.

9/6/2005 5:19:22 PM

Quote :

"awesome dreams."

no they give you night terrors!!!

9/6/2005 6:37:16 PM

^ night terrors if you already have depression problems or personality disorders...people, yes, have committed suicide while on the weekly anti-malarial pill, but its the risk you take, and they ask you before hand if you have any such problems. no previous problems, and the dreams you get are extremely vivid...previous problems, vivid nightmares, that will probably really scare the shit out of you...

9/6/2005 10:14:29 PM

i guess everyone person on my trip to Africa had those issues then because they were always talking about the problems with Mefloquine. One of my friends who was taking it got Malaria anyway. I prefer Malarone, its more expensive and you have to take it QD but there are hardly any side effects.

9/6/2005 10:23:54 PM

UPDATE

Well I'm in destination #4 on my map now, in quite possibly one of the coolest cities in the entire world, Cape Town. Apparently this is like one of the world's centers for modeling, and drop dead gorgeous women are absolutely everywhere. Every type of food imaginable is available here, and I throroughly enjoyed an ostrich steak the other night, crocodile is next on my agenda tomorrow. I don't know how I've been living life without the wonders of veri peri and monkeygland sauces. The second sauce has nothing to do with a monkey other than the fact that the fruit supposedly looks like some kind of monkey gland, I dunno, it's tasty as hell. The city is gorgeous, there is a huge mountain over the backdrop of the city called Table Mountain. Well I'm heading out to the bar, I'll update more tomorrow and start getting pictures on here. Hold it down Raleigh, peace.

9/18/2005 1:27:23 PM

cant wait to see some pictures ryan

9/19/2005 8:35:22 AM

Pictures!

Some of the people on our program, 15 in all, 13 US students, 2 S. African students, 8 guys and 7 girls





Our view of Table Mountain from our youth hostel the Ashanti Lodge in Cape Town


Flowers from the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens and an ocean side view





the Cedarberg Mountains


Photos from a visit to some San Bushman paintings dated from between 500-1000 years old





Photos from Robben Island, Nelson Mandela's site of imprisonment for 18 years, including his prison cell, the garden where he buried his manuscripts later used for his book Long Walk to Freedom, and the magnificent view of the city of Cape Town and Table Mountain as seen from the island








Last but not least, ANIMALS! Pictures include ostriches, penguins, geckos, agamas, a puff adder snake, centipede, grasshopper, an ant colony moving its pupae, and a tortoise. Hope you enjoy them all, mroe to come later!














[Edited on September 20, 2005 at 3:17 AM. Reason : ]

9/20/2005 3:13:58 AM

those pics are awesome

8 guys and 7 girls?

so one guy's not gettin nothin, eh? hope it's not you


anyways, have fun out there.

9/20/2005 3:27:37 AM

cool pics

i would love to get to south africa one day

9/20/2005 3:41:22 AM

great pictures ryan

were those ants, army ants?

9/20/2005 9:00:28 AM

the herp pics rock

gg

9/20/2005 9:37:07 AM

shit man... if I ever go to africa, I'm taking condoms, a shotgun, and some benadryl (not in any particular order.)

9/20/2005 10:51:08 AM

Crazy update: I'm now in Kruger Natl. Park in South Africa having a great time. I've been here for four days now, and it is bone dry. Most of the rivers have completely dried up, pretty much everything is brown and without leaves. I've been here for four or five days now, it's been extremely busy. Thursday and Friday were days that started at 7 am and ended at like 10 pm. Granted it's not like spending 15 hours working in a restaraunt kitchen, but nonetheless it makes for a fucking long day. It's been a combination of guest lectures from SA faculty and Kruger staff along with plenty of hours out in the field starting on research programs. I'm having a great time, and have seen zebra, lots of different type of antelope including impala, giraffe, warthog, elephants, wildebeest, buffalo, hippo, lion, hyena (half of our group saw a rhino the other day, but I wasn't in that one, hopefully I'll see one down the road), and at a rehabilitation center that was more like a glorified zoo, I also saw cheetah, leopard, and wild dog from about 3 feet away with a fence between us. The day that half the group saw the rhino (Friday) was absolutely crazy. We started out the day doing field research out in the bush along one of the only rivers that still has water in it (it is sooooo dry here), we were about to cross the river and two of the game guards were out in front halfway accross, and the other game guard was lagging behind cause a guy had to take a leak. All the students were about to cross the river when somebody quietly said there's a hippo right there. We looked in the reeds right behind us maybe 10 yards away and there was this huge rock-like thing in these tall, dense reeds. Right after I looked, there was some rustling and this huge hippo charges across the bank between where most of the students were and where the game guard and the other student behind was. Thankfully we think he must have been pretty scared and ran away and it didn't charge us. So we cross the river and see all these vultures flying over right where we were on the other side and lo and behold on the bank was this huge male lion, presumably just having made a kill! Now we start walking along our side of the bank thinking this has been crazy and we here hippo grunts. We back up and walk around the reeds and there are over 20 hippos in a water hole staring us in the face! It was absolutely amazing. Since they were in the water, they didn't feel threatened and didn't do any thing besides give us some dirty looks. After that, we walk on and again on the other side of the bank we see this big bull elephant reaching up with his trunk munching on some leaves off a fig tree. It was so fun to watch. Then as the day winds down, we come back to our camp for dinner, and I guess somebody forgot to close the gate, and as we're all eating this hyena walks into the camp and is about 20 feet from us at the dinner table! While a single hyena won't attack an adult person, one of the visiting faculty had his three little kids there and they certainly would have been a tasty snack for the hyena. Again, luckily we saw him coming up in time, and chased him out the gate and closed it behind him. That was by far one of the craziest days of my life. I forgot my camera in the room, so keep on the lookout for some really cool up close and personal pictures of wildlife this week, peace.

10/9/2005 9:00:29 AM

dont get killed by an african or a lion or something

10/9/2005 9:04:46 AM

i wouldn't want to meet a hippo face to face... heard too many horror stories

10/9/2005 8:00:51 PM

this is fuckin awesome dude

is this like a full time job where u get paid?

if yea, then let me know how u get this shit, cause its fuckin awesome

10/9/2005 10:33:46 PM

Unlike my REU in Costa Rica last year where I got a $3000 stipend, this S. Africa program is a regular study abroad program, and as I'm sure you know, all study abroads cost tuition

10/10/2005 3:24:20 PM

don't get killed in civil war...

10/10/2005 4:25:44 PM

white men are not welcome there

10/10/2005 7:44:32 PM

Here it is, the long awaited huge update!!! Here come about 50 pictures of some amazing wildlife here in South Africa. I am currently at my third site, Shingwedzi, in the Kruger National Park, after first staying at Skukuza and Mopani. I've officially seen all of the "Big 5" in the wild now, after seeing a huge beautiful leopard last week. I have to say, they are breathtaking animals; everything form their coat to the white tip of their flicking tail is truly majestic. The other highlight was two weeks ago when we had set up a vegetation study site one day, and came back the next day only to find a pride of lions eating two zebra carcasses literally a few feet from where our flagging tape was! The weather has been hot, and it is still really dry here as it is a drought year. The rains usually start about the first week of September, and to date, there have only been a few sprinkles on two separate nights. As a result, in combination with bad management practices upstream, many rivers have stopped flowing completely, and the wildlife are really cramming in to the few places left that have water. It really is an eerie site to see a river that is about as wide as a football field completely barren. Well, without further ado, here are the pictures!! (For non-wolfweb friends that I have invited, just click the thumbnail to enlarge the photo)

I have to start out with some sunset pictures, every night really is a beautiful scene and these are just a few of the dozens of dusk pictures taken








Pictures from a so-called "animal rehabilitation center" that was really more like a glorified zoo (called Moholoholo). While the owner is racist and a nut, and I don't suggest every patronizing them, we did get up close and personal with some awesome animals (vultures, lions, wild dogs, leopard, cheetah, and honey badger)










A local dance competition that we had the pleasure of watching


A scorpion that I got stung by on the foot Fortunately it wasn't that bad and it really just felt like a regular bee sting


Africa's version of our cacti, the Euphorbia


You know me and herps Included are a toad, geckos, sand lizard, skink, shield-nosed snake (yes it's venomous), tree agama, and flapneck chameleon. Unfortunately I didn't catch the nile monitors and giant and yellow-throated plated lizards I saw at the last site.










Just in case you forgot where we are, gate sign, and pictures from when we crossed over the Tropic of Capricorn heading north through the park last week




Pictures over the Sabie River, one of the only rivers flowing at the moment in the park




Group photo at the Blyde River Canyon, similar in size to the Grand Canyon, sundowners, and one of the guys that keeps us safe




Hornbills! The ground hornbill, a critically endangered bird, and yellow-billed hornbills (a.k.a Zazu from the Lion King )



Types of antelope, Tsessebe, one of the world's fastest antelope, female impala, dead impala, baby Nyala, and zebra as well






And here go the rest of the "Big 5," a bunch of elephant pictures (check out the tusks on the first guy!), buffalo, white rhino, and lions, and add in hippos, giraffes, hyena, and babboons.














Phew.... that was my giant project for the last two days, getting all those pictures assembled. I'll keep you posted with more in about a month, so check back later. Peace out and goodnight.

10/27/2005 4:44:00 PM

ive always wanted to visit africa

im jealous

10/27/2005 4:53:25 PM

the new hotness

10/27/2005 4:57:59 PM

When I went to Namibia, I killed these 5 animals:

-Impala (22')
-Gembsbok/Oryx (40')
-Kudu (49' long, 40' wide)
-Springbuck (#8 in the world)
-Red Hartebeast (nothing too special, but still gold medal ranking in Southern Africa)

We didn't travel off the ranch that he had there. The ranch was twice the size of Rhode Island.

10/27/2005 5:23:41 PM

you sonofabitch.

bring me back some geckos.

and have fun man, im sure you are.

10/27/2005 11:31:59 PM

Not much else to post in the ways of pictures that you haven't already seen. I did want to mention though, that I saw my first wild dog today. It was so awesome, these guys are the most endangered carnivore on the continent, and they are just absolutely adorable. It was crazy, cause one of the girls looked up on a rock outcrop and thought she saw a leopard. We all looked up there with our binoculars and turns out it was this dead aloe plant. But like three seconds later, right next to where we were looking, is this wild dog just roaming around. This pretty much leaves only one major thing that I haven't seen yet, a cheetah. This program is wrapping up with only one week left, but hopefully I'll get to see one on my safari when I'm in Botswana or Namibia. Gotta run, be back next month. And good luck to all you guys on your exams.

12/4/2005 2:57:26 PM

http://www.thewolfweb.com/message_topic.aspx?topic=369442

12/4/2005 3:02:51 PM

that is so amazing!!

12/4/2005 3:04:19 PM

^^ Holy SHIT

12/4/2005 3:15:23 PM