Hubby bubbly!

Hubbly bubbly!

Roadtrip in the desert!!

Roman ampitheatre in Amman

Largest mosque in Amman

This is just one of the spires if the mosque. They glow green at night.

Jordan

Jordan is great!! Nicest people. Awesome food!

While the food in Africa was good - lots of curries and chutneys amd fresh tomatoes and cukes. The food In Jordan Is spectacular - fresh pitas that are the squishiest, yummyest things, fresh hummus amd olive oil, salty fried cheese... And u can get like 4 pita falafels for 1 dinar.

The driving in Jordan has been... Interesting. The lines on the road seem to be solely for decoration. As no one ever uses a lane, in fact it seems to be some kind of sport to see of u can turn a 2 lane road into a 4 lane one. Amd don't get me started about rotarys. Walking is an even scarier adventure than driving, because there is no yielding.

While jordanians use their horns almost as often as they breathe, I'm not exactly sure if blinkers even work. I havent seen one used yet!!!

Sent from my iPhone

Road trip music?

In both south Africa and here in Jordan we have rented cars. So we have been having alot of radio wars during our road trip adventures. And since Jer is doing all of the driving, he generally gets a bigger say In the selections.

And just In case I didn't get enough of lady gaga at home - it seems Jordan plays nothing but Rihanna and gaga. So I lost count of the number of born this way plays at something like 30 in the 3 days we have been here. Amd did I also mention when that song comes on the amps go to 11 ;)

Sent from my iPhone

as we leave africa a couple more of my fav animal pics...

Chobe River crossing ferry between Botswana and Zambia

more Victoria Falls from heli

Helicopter over Victoria falls

Helicopter over Victoria falls

From launch pad - the looonnnggg trail of mist rising from the falls u can see from miles away.

Zambia side of Victoria Falls

on this side of the falls you can actually walk right on the rocks above the falls.  again not so many pictures because most of the trails involve moonsoon like rain generated from the falls themselves..   but here are some pictures of the Zambia side of the Falls emptying into the gorge..  and one pic showing the falls from the bridge, (i swear you can kind of see the top of the falls through all that mist spray!!!) that big swirling mass of water at the bottom is known as the "Boiling Pot".

Zambia side of Victoria Falls

There is another whole set of trails on the Zambia side of Victoria Falls.  This is the "end" of the falls where the Zambezia rivers feeds into the falls and the falls feed into this massive zig-zag ing gorge.. I have some pictures from the trails and the bridge over the gorge.. and then some great pics from the air from the helicopter!   Here is our first taste of the Zambia trail system to Vic Falls.  There were prolly 6 families of size-able baboons on the trail.  We tried to walk off the trail to get around them but then they would kind of get aggro and lunge a little at us.. So we said F#$$K this, and we went and got one of the park police to "escort" us down the trail.  He was super nice and walked the whole trail and back with us!  With his gun drawn :)

Victoria Falls from Zambia

There is another whole set of trails on the Zambia side of Victoria Falls.  This is the "end" of the falls where the Zambezia rivers feeds into the falls and the falls feed into this massive zig-zag ing gorge.. I have some pictures from the trails and the bridge over the gorge.. and then some great pics from the air from the helicopter!   Here is our first taste of the Zambia trail system to Vic Falls.  There were prolly 6 families of size-able baboons on the trail.  We tried to walk off the trail to get around them but then they

Zambia

We then passed back over the border from Botswana towards Victoria Falls, this time on the Zambia side.. the trek involved a very interesting "ferry ride" across the Chobe River which is the border between Botswana and Zambia.  It was great to see Victoria Falls from the opposite side of the falls and we also took a Helicopter ride over the falls as well!!!   For our 2nd day in Zambia, we decided to do a full day on the Zambezi River above Victoria Falls in inflatable kayaks.. the beginning of the day had me gripped as the river is HUGE and is MOVING FAST. and they were giving all these warning about hippos and crocs and how you don't want to fall out..  and the first section we rafted had up to class 2 rapids.. now normally i'm not scared of that level of water that is until you add the "absolutely no falling out" rule. ha.  we don't have a lot of pictures here as this was a day in the kayak.

IK'ing the Zambezi

We kayaked on the Zambezi River in Zambia above Victoria Falls.  The river is SO wide right now because it's so flooded!   And we saw some hippos!  No crocs thank god!

my favorite sunset on the trip so far!

from the safari boat in Botswana.

random pictures from town

a woman walking by the train carrying a load on her head and a toddler on her back in Zimbabwe.. a monkey and baby at our hotel in Botswana.. and the Botswana national bird -  the lilac-breasted roller

the animal we see the most...

i have SO many pictures of elephants but these are 2 of my favorties.. the 2nd one where the bull looks really BIG and is fanning his ears way out.. that's becuase he was one irritated guy at 7 am and was semi-charging our truck, telling us to F%*K OFF!

my 2nd favorite Africa animal - the Giraffe!

my favorite Africa animal - the Hippo!

lionesse vs. impalas

the lionesse that was stalking impala and roaring the whole time.

ducks vs. water monitor vs. african fish eagle

the ducks were being stalked by 2 water monitor lizards from either side of the bush, and being watched from above by the HUGE african fish eagle.

predator and prey

On our game drives we've also been privy to some predator/prey action.    Our first night here we went out on a boat game cruise, and we saw this cute mom and dad duck with about 12 2-day hatchlings cruising along land right next to the shore.  then we noticed from both sides that pretty big water monitor lizards were closing in on the duck family, they got right into the bushes less than 2 feet from where the babies were playing on the shore.. then a HUGE African Fish Eagle swooped in and sat in a tree right above where the ducklings were playing as well.    Then yesterday on our afternoon game drive we got the word over the CB that a lioness had been spotted on the move, so we went tearing through the park to join the masses watching her.  She was sitting near a big herd of impala, roaring to call her cubs.  And all the animals in the vicinity were on high alert.. even the giraffe were watching her carefully.  Then she got up and stalked through the implala herd, roaring the whole time.  We never saw her chase anything though before she went off into the bush.  But she did come within 3 feet of our truck.  Pretty impressive, with the muscles and the roaring, and how she just struts calmly through the bush not paying mind to anything, with EVERYTHING in the vicinity paying mind to her.   Hope to get the pics of the above and more animals up soon!

Botswana Animals

We have been doing a morning (6 am!) and afternoon (3 pm) game drive in Chobe National Park.  And the amount of wildlife we are seeing has been amazing.. Everything from big to little, land to river and in between..   Birds.  So many birds. African fish eagles, falcons, Marabou Storks, ducks, kingfishers, herons, hornbills, guinea fowl, lilac breasted roller (botswana national bird), and other crazy colorful birds i cant remember, and the list goes on, and its LONG!!! Lots of hippos and babies in the river!!!!  And we saw a baby hippo on this AM's game drive that was out of the water eating grass.   Plus impalas and elephants and baboons and all their babies.  These are prolly the most prevalent aNimals we have been seeing.  In the past 2 days we've had 2 elephants semi-charge our truck, more like a warning lumber i think with their ears flapping and their trunks held high.. but even at a fast walk it was a little unnerving! we've also seen warthogs and their babies, jackals, kudu, water monitor lizards, mongoose, big ass tortoise, Monkeys, pack of wild dogs.... And the big guys - giraffe, LIONS, water buffalo, elephants amd hippos.  we've seen 4 packs of lionesses, but no male lions.

Botswana - Chobe National Park

We travelled a couple hours outside of Zimbabwe/Victoria Falls and arrived to Botswana.  Where we are staying right outside of Chobe National Park and have nothing but night and morning game drives planned.  And a boat booze cruise along the Chobe River hugging the shore to see all the animals coming down for water towards evening..   We have seen a TON of animals here in Botswana.  More pictures to be downloaded once they're off my camera..   If you look at the picture of the group of elephants - between the 2 rightmost elepants look about elephant knee high and there's a 3 month old baby.  he was SO CUTE!!!  chasing birds around and rolling around in mud puddles the whole time.   more pictures to come!   r.