The Ides of March

Gone from Tennessee since January 4th, left out of Ft. Lauderdale on a cruise to Africa. Cape Town was more citified or civilized than the image of the "children starving in Africa so make a clean plate" vision from the childhood dinner table of many years ago. Cape Town and South Africa the country left mixed impressions Shark diving: YEA! Even though the water was murky is was something I'm glad I did. Riding an elephant: Way Cool! Would definitely do that again. Victoria Falls: Have always wanted to go there. That was a totally awesome experience. Would definitely do every inch of that part again, especially the flight over the falls in the micro-lights. And as for the moon bow - FANTASTIC!!! Awesome! Mistyflying! Pun intended. Pictures came out better that I thought. Yes, the children in South Africa are poor, too. Not as poor as the children in Kenya or Tanzania. Those children were still living in stick huts and hungry. The children in South Africa live in shanty towns. Tin shacks. Row after row. Many, many kilometers of very shabby housing. Sanitation and other necessities are in short supply. Health care, education, nutrition: Luxuries.

Safari in South Africa seems to be a marketed commodity. Not a true adventure to the wilds to capture the wild with your shutter, man-eating lions and exotic African creatures in their natural environment. These southern beasts will pose on command if you have a good guide.

We went dumpster diving in Gambia for boat building materials. Phil builds a boat and christens it the Silver Passing Wind. He wins first place. He was the only entry. But he did build a sea worthy vessel. Took a payload of 2 cases of pop - that's pretty impressive.

The south of Spain has Barbary Apes and the ROCK!! I have always been fascinated by the Rock of Gibraltar, now I know why. The sight of the Rock is impressive even at 20 kilometers distance. The history, the location (big key), the culture, the geography, the topography, the politics, the religions, the nationalities. And the sub sets of those nationalities, and the agreements and bargains and disagreements. Oh, the opinions! If the Rock could only talk!?! It definitely is a strong rock and it must have a good sense of humor because through it all it still stands tall and proud. There are those that have built castles to honor the Rock as home. Then some come along and gut the innards, tunneling and squirreling and burrowing through because they thought the owned the Rock. Others come along and defend with much heavy iron and munitions and regimentation and restrictions. And through it all there is majestic beauty and many come to behold the Rock of Gibraltar.