What I did on my summer vacation.

[Rain Man]

So for those of you who don't ever look at me, I wandered away for a while. A sample of vacation photos will follow.

[L.A. Chieffan]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

First off, you know it's a long trip when your airplane has to make a fuel stop partway through. They wouldn't let me off the plane, so here's my only photo of Dakar, Senegal.

I was on the second-longest commercial flight in the world - Washington DC to Johannesburg, South Africa. The flight originates in New York, and the New York-Johannesburg route is the longest flight in the world. It was 17 hours on the schedule going out, and 18 coming back due to differences in winds. About an hour is spent on the ground in Dakar refueling.

I thought the flight to New Zealand was the longest in the world. Like 20 something hours.

[Rain Man]

What's that over there in those trees?

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by Skip Towne

Were those wild zebras?

Yeah, all of these are wild, though the ones near our cabin/tent were pretty used to humans. I wouldn't get close enough to touch those, but we still had a couple of times where they were only about ten feet from us.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by L.A.Chieffan

I thought the flight to New Zealand was the longest in the world. Like 20 something hours.

Maybe that's the longest nonstop flight. I did the San Francisco to Sydney flight about ten years ago, and it was about 15 hours if I remember right. This one was 18 on the way back, but with a stop at about the halfway point.


Oh, and run! (I like this picture.)

[Skip Towne]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

Yeah, all of these are wild, though the ones near our cabin/tent were pretty used to humans. I wouldn't get close enough to touch those, but we still had a couple of times where they were only about ten feet from us.

Zebras are mean as hell. Even the "tame" ones here in the US.

[Rain Man]

This was a cool bird. Very large, probably about three feet tall.

[Rain Man]

I liked this picture, which was taken at the boundary of the reserve. The one we visited was small at about 4,500 acres, and the one across the fence was about 30,000 acres. They then connected up to a national park that was huge.

[Rain Man]

Wart hogs were really fast, so it was hard to get a good picture of one even though we saw a lot.

[Rain Man]

Wait, here we go.

[Rain Man]

This was our land rover. It was just me, my wife, and our ranger the first day or so, and then another family joined us. Since they were...interesting..., it made for good peoplewatching along with the animal watching.

[Rain Man]

Recharging the camera batteries was easy. South African to French adaptor, French to American adaptor, then add the two-prong receptacle, and since it was too heavy to stay in the wall, you then use a dairy creamer to balance the whole thing on a chair.

[Rain Man]

Herd of nyala wandering around an abandoned building.

[Skip Towne]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

Recharging the camera batteries was easy. South African to French adaptor, French to American adaptor, then add the two-prong receptacle, and since it was too heavy to stay in the wall, you then use a dairy creamer to balance the whole thing on a chair.

Nice "southern engineering".

[Simply Red]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

Herd of nyala wandering around an abandoned building.

BS! That's Adams Dairy Road.

[Rain Man]

The lodge even had a seldom-used driving range, though you had to be sure to get it over the zebra.