Bush Life Continues...


“Whoever you are…the world offers itself to your imagination, calls to you like the wild geese.”
~Mary Oliver

A Herd of Elephants
I am, already in week three of the project. Trust me when, I say this, is that I’m getting sad knowing that my experience is winding down. Falling in love with Africa, the beautiful people that I have meant & bonding with, my days are blending together, making the best of the situation with embracing all of the ups & downs of the day. Funny, as you continue to get to know the people who you are with 24-7, you slowly start to discover that your more a like in many ways than different. Some you tend to form stronger connections with than others, but that is perfectly normal. Just embrace the situation.
I’ve been busy photographing at all hours of the day, the landscape, birds, animals & people that call Thanda its home. Critiques & post production with editing also plays a big part of the days. Of course there’s the community days where we go out to the community to dig waterholes for the animals along with clearing roads with machetes. Also, reaching out to the local schools over in Mkuze to interact with kids. Internationalization at its finest. Funny, how I see similarities when I taught in Japan on how curiosity the kids are. There’s still the daily struggle of using the internet & making sure that it’s fast enough to do what you need to do on it.
This past weekend, I went down to St Lucia, which is about an hour and half drive away from Thanda.  It was nice to escape “home” for like 48 hours.  “Rio de Areias de Ouro” (River of the sand of gold) as was named back in 1554 by survivors of a Portuguese ship Saint Benedict. The village is nested between the Indian Ocean & the St Lucia Estuary & is the only private village that is surrounded by a World Heritage Site.  I basically spent the weekend chilling out, eating delicious seafood, catching up on sleep & exploring. I discovered the beach that is about a 40 minutes walk from the village. As I was walking along Beach Road, I felt like it was a never ending journey. Once I got there, I decided to hike over the sand dunes to the ocean. The dunes weren’t as bad as the ones in Baja or the Pinnacles, but they were great. I enjoyed watching the waves crash along the shore along with the fauna & textures of the dunes.
Sometimes with the wildlife you think that you’re going to get snuck until you see the thing that you’re seeking. On my night drive this week; I was feeling that with the creatures of the night not being so active until suddenly our guide spotted a leopard. I did get to see the leopard, however it was a wee bit tricky to photograph tho. I did spot the Southern Cross at night & surprised my guide this week that I knew where “south” was. One of my other highlights of the week is seeing the most delicious red vibrant sunrise. Ah, I was in heaven recharging my chakras with the golden radiant life force energy of the sun.  I had a lovely adventure to Jozini as well. We went on a boat looking for whatever the days brought us. Elephants, warthogs, ostriches, buffalo & hippos were the sittings. Overall it has been heavenly & the adventure keeps on unfolding…

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