The Africa Thread (Arsenal related........kind of!!)

Yeah,and you've got to remember those lion cubs are massive next to Rick

Judy sent me this footage.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mggx7BakiCg

This is a pretty depressing bit of news:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070612/wl_africa_afp/zambiawildlifepoaching_070612135653

What idiot goes and shoots the last two left...

Some good news:
http://www.livescience.com/animals/070612_sudan_wildlife.html

Poachers, that's who.

If I could, I'd adopt a shoot to kill policy on anybody caught poaching. Unfortunately these governments are so corrupt that the poachers buy off the wildlife managers.

Dang! Rick gets vicious in the off-season! Who knew he had it in him?

Anyone know when the group gets back?

Back and knackered after pretty much no sleep last night, 5 hours driving to/hanging round airport, 10 hour flight, 1.5 hour tube trip and then for lucky me - 3 hour drive home. Still could be worse, I think Dave doesn't get back to Chicago until about 09.00 and is going straight into work.

Some photos and highlights later today if I ever wake up. Rick's off to Germany for Pearl Jam concert in about 2 hours time eek: - effin' madman) so hopefully I can dish the dirt first, e.g. Guess which great white hunter, who boldly faced down hyena with a torch (or "flashlight" for my American cousins), shrieked like a girl when a pet dog put a paw on his back during dinner?

Glad to see you are back safe and sound. Can't wait to hear all about it!

I'm at the lounge in Heathrow at the moment, about to go board the airplane for Chicago.

The terrifying dog did fight a leopard, "to be fair."

Here's the crew



and my tip for two future signings



That's Obvious on the left and Blessed on the right - playing in bare feet with guys twice their size, they more than held their own.

Good to see you guys are keeping well, the scenery is beautiful. Where exactly was this pic taken?

Very good to hear you all returned safe and survived the dog attack Look forward to the pics.

Mana Pools National Park in Zimbabwe. It really was a beautiful place.

Here's the same spot on the Zambezi river at sunrise. The far bank is Zambia.

You're going to get awfully sick of elephants

Good job scouting young talent for Arsenal!

Our last night in Harare. As you can see Rick has acquired a special "African" hairdo



Also please note the very rare sighting of the Large Pink Judy bird, without the normal "beer and f-a-g in hand" plumage.

effing Great. I'm so jealous. Keep the pictures coming. I have to say, I read Great White Hunter's first travelogue to my kids, they thought it was great especially the bit about seeing the white rhino.

Ok. Here's the story of my leopard sighting.

Part 1.

Like Rick, I was really keen to see one. On my previous trips to Africa I'd seen one in Kenya where a hotel hung up a goat carcass every night on a tree on the opposite bank of the river from their main bar verandah and then lit it up so the guests could see the leopard that came for a free dinner. But that doesn't really count.

So, when we got into Botswana, Rick and Adam went off to see if they could get a spare tyre to replace the one that exploded in Hwange. Everyone else decided to chill in our very upmarket lodge, but I said I wanted to do an afternoon river safari.

It ended up being just me on the boat with Kelvin, my very cool guide/boat driver. It was like being a VIP as we roared passed big cruisers packed with tourists, stopping to look at anything that caught my eye or that Kelvin had spotted.

The Chobe river is the boundary between Botswana and Namibia and it's really a beautiful place. I saw lots of cool birds (which I'm interested in) like these bee eaters



and loads of these pied kingfishers




I saw this croc, which is actually only about 2 feet long



plus hippo, elephant, kudu, puku, monitor lizard, impala, giraffe etc.

Part 2.

Then we saw a few safari trucks gathered near some bushes on the bank so I checked out what they were looking at and saw the hind quarters of a cat disappear into the thicket. I was really excited as I knew it was a leopard so Kelvin drove the boat up to the shore, switched off the engine and we sat and waited. It was a great spot, lots of other stuff to see, we cracked open some drinks and just hung about. Other boats and some of the trucks were too impatient and moved on. Wrong decision.

After about 10 minutes a leopard strolled out of the bushes, passed one truck and went and lay under the back wheels of a second truck. The tourists in that truck were going crazy as they couldn't see a thing! Leopard just lay there, chilled as anything watching the stuff going to the river to drink, and the birds pecking around in the mud. After another 10 minutes it got interested in some guinea fowl, or "Chobe chicken", as Kelvin said they were known locally! Leopard gathers himself up on his haunches, stalks forward a few yards, then goes off like a rocket after the guinea fowl. Gets to it, but the bird flies free leaving the leopard with only a mouthful of feathers. So he sits down right in front of my boat, then finally strolls off again, up the bank.




If you know how shy leopard normally are, and how nocturnal usually, then you'll understand why this was one of the best parts of my holiday. Even Kelvin said he'd never seen anything like it.

I'll eat what I can, and make soup with the rest

The rest of us appear to have acquired African drunkenness. Was that before or after dinner? I honestly don't recall.

Back in Chicago, obviously...

you went into work today?

crazy...