Folks, my apologies for taking soooo long to post these photos. It is crazy how time flys when you are a procrastinator. Regardless, here are some photos of our most recent trip to Austria and Germany. We were fortunate to meet up with our friend Josh in Germany, and tour some of the sites in Munich. The photo above is the Glacier in Hintertux, Austria. We skied a few days there, unfortunatley it was more like skating. The euros loved it and carved the heck out of the hill. Our big fats skis didn't make for as fun of a day. Ryan took a hard fall on his hip so we hit the pub for some more wieners and beer. While in Hintertux we learned you can eat sausage, sauerkraut and beer for every meal of the day, techno music and very bright neon one piece ski suits are still very alive in Austria....yah!
The alps (if you squink really hard you can see Italy).Spectacular views at the top!
Enjoying the view. You can see a fence build probably century ago to separate two valleys used for pasture. Hiking up the mountain, you could hear cow bells echoing through the valley.
See the face carved into the tree stump? These troughs were a common site on the hike and on the hillsides. Nice spot to take a drink for a thristy cow, don't you think?
The start of the hike, very steep switch backs.
So here you can see the old shipwreck - or what's left of it. I guess guys came and salvaged a lot of the steel from the ship so not too much left -but it is still kinda eerie to be paddling out next to that wreck! Note George is sitting away from the rubbish.
Here is my pal Francois at Shipwrecks - not too shabby, worth the hike!
I mean, COME ON! Obviously the person who wrote those had never been in Nigeria. I mean if Lagos is the "Centre of Excellence", I'd hate to see the "Centre of Chaos". Read a bit about the upcoming election and you'll fully appreciate the irony in "Centre of Unity" - You can't just fire the Vice-Pres because you don't like him can you?
I went to the school with a lady I work with. She has been able to help raise $30,000 for the school over the past year through corporate donations. She heads out often and the children love her - they sang with her when she saw them again after being away for the break. As you can imagine, music is huge with these guys.
Anyway - here are some photos of us trying to get the kids to float on their backs and practice kicking in the water. As you can imagine, swimming is a crazy sensation for the kids... they lose their tactile senses, can't feel the ground etc so it can be very scary for many of them. Often after floating for a while, you have to guide their feet back to the bottom of the pool because they have lost reference while floating around.
September long we decided to get out of the city and take a drive to Benin. We stayed in a lovely beach hotel just about 15 minutes outside of Ouidah (small village), or 30 hour outside of Cotonou. The place was amazing! So relaxing, and NO GARBAGE on the beach.
Getting to and from on the other hand..... Let me give you the run down..
We meet the police escort 0730, and pick up our travel mates. Three cars including our own and the police. The police are basically two guys in a truck, with lights and sirens and of course AK-47s. Never leave home without em.
With lights and sirens a blazing we head out of town. The police, for the most part, travel behind us, that way if something happens they can't loose us or we can't get cut off. In the really congested areas they will jump up front. The drive itself is NUTSO! Traffic here is fast, unpredictable and well just plain crazy. On our way racing out of the city, sirens wailing, the second vehicle in the convoy clipped a Danfo (public bus) which pulled out of nowhere. No stopping just pedal to the metal. You can see all the Danfos in the picture below. They are usually run down, dirty and lucky to have sideview mirrors.
We drive for only a couple hours to get to the border (100kms). With the police escort we conveniently avoid and fraudulent check stops (usually put on by other police), and also avoid getting robbed. See the photos of check stops below. It is difficult to take photos, as the military and police don't always like it. (wonder why?).
After a lovely, relaxing drive in the country, we hit the border. This is where things get exciting.
2 hours, 60 bucks and loads of heckling, being pulled into immigration office for questioning, we pass through the border. The border gate consists of a measly little bamboo stick held up by two oil drums, and of course a guy operating the stick.
Lessons learned for next time, just pay the guy operating the bamboo stick.
Benin has nice roads, traffic a bit more mellow and French road signs. We made our way to the hotel and instantly hit the bar. Casa del Papa is tucked away from the village of Ouidah on a peninsula. One side a creek/ lagoon and on the other side the ocean. We soaked in the sun, played tennis, swam, ran on the beach, and just relaxed. We kayaked on the lagoon side and saw a huge tarantula, and were even greeted by some whales or dolphins (still being disputed) on the ocean side. I just saw some black things in the water as I wasn't wearing my glasses.
Below are some photos we took while strolling on the beach, we wachted some locals repeatedly attempt to launch a boat into the ocean. The ocean was especially rough that day, and as you can see in the photos, one guy was ejected out of the boat. When they finally made it the crowd watching, including ourselves cheered with amusement.
This was the third attempt.
Uh, oh.
Hold on!
Beninis are friendly and speak mainly French. It was really handy to be fluent, and really helped with the heckling at the border. We also discovered Ryan has a ways to go with his French after repeatedly asking for "chemises" by the pool (shirts) instead of chaises ( chairs).
The border crossing on the way back proved to be once again, even more eventful. Random people (not officials) just claiming to be hang around asking to see your documents. Then try to nail you on anything, even though they have ZERO authority. They tried telling me our immunizations weren't up to date. Boy did he try to pull the wool over the wrong person's eyes. We were all up to date, as I was traveling with some of my patients! I gave my friend Nancy the go ahead and she seized the opportunity to roar her big land cruiser through the bamboo stick when the guy lifted it for a motorbike. After a while the cheaters gave up.
The siren was broken on our police escorts truck, so the drive back in took hour or so longer. The police presence did prevent us from being stopped and heckled at the numerous check stops (about 9 or ten in about five miles). Here is a photo of a spike belt thingy attached to a rope, they will pull it in front of your tires as you drive past, or push it with a stick...
Escaping the stick, at a check stop.
Below is just some things we saw on the drive back. We at first saw two guys and a TV, then we saw these guys, even better.
This is a local gas station in Benin. Fuel is very expensive in Benin, as it is not subsidized by the government as it is in Nigeria. In Nigeria, gas stations resemble more western types. In Benin, most of the fuel is smuggled across the border so this is the gas station. I think they are kinda pretty actually.
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Note the front end loader demolishing shacks in the center of this photo. This village is only a small strip of sand between the Kuramo Lagoon and the Atlantic Ocean. All the people are only able to stand by and watch their homes be destroyed. 
The past month was just spent on a safari through Botswana. We were able to share the experience with two good friends, Jay and Karen. It was definitely a great experience, and a safari (in my opinion) is a MUST DO for anyone.
For those of you who don't know, we rented a 4 x4 Land Rover defender in Johannesburg, and began our drive/camping from there. In Jo-Burg we met Jay and Karen and started the LONG drive to the border. 
Midnight Drives dodging donkeys and cows.
The first night we stayed in Mokopone and were able to sort out some last minute details (Ryan and I NEVER leave things to the last minute! HA!). We stayed just outside of Mokopone at a near by game reserve. At this point the only animals we had seen were LOADs and LOADS of donkeys and cows. Most of them like to hang out on the road and aren't afraid of vehicles. The locals farmers don't fence of any land so the animals are free to roam, and just like us they like using to road to get from point A to B. It made for amusing daytime travel (some even laid down in the middle of the road for a afternoon map). Night time driving on the other hand..... just plain scary. It wasn't recommended driving at night in this area, but due to poor planning, poor time management and well crappy road conditions we ended up negotiating through hundreds (or at least it felt that way) of donkeys on the road while driving. Miraculously we didn't hit ANYTHING! A few close calls but no actual contact!
Running the Botswana Border
We arrived in Botswana and I almost got us arrested by accidentally running the border. We got all our stuff stamped and I thought we were through, so drove off. While driving on the wrong side of the road I missed the last stop. The border policeman was running after us , yelling for us to stop. When he realized I was just a clueless tourist he laughed , and joked about arresting us, and let us carry on. This was our first taste of the friendly, kind nature and jolly Botswanians. The country is a peaceful and you can sense it as soon as you cross the border. The roads are well maintained and everywhere you go you are greeted with a smile.
First encounters with Elephants
Our first few nights camping we did a few drives with one of the lodge owner's (in the maghapakdiei game reserve). We saw hippos, loads of birds, impala, kudu and even an African wild cat. While finishing up supper dished one night, I heard the boys shouting to come and see. At the watering hole right next to our campsite 10 elephants graced us with their presence. We watched them water and cool themselves at the small pond. It was quite amazing to see them walk in single file when they were through. (sorry no pics, too dark out). They did come by another day while we were eating lunch. Note: Jay scrambling for his camera. This picture is actually from Moremi, where we did a boat ride on the Okavango delta.
When the Lion Sleeps
Making our way through Maun, sorting out campsites we finally ended up in the Moremi National Park. At this point we hadn't seen any big cats (just one little African wild cat, a wild version of the common house cat). While checking in at our campsite we enquired about lions in the area. The conservation officer said "We have one." I had been pretty pessimistic that we would see lions due to it being the end of rainy season and the grass was very very long, so it was difficult to see cats unless. The warden guy asked us for a lift to his hut, because he and his friend were afraid to walk near the lion. What we didn't understand was that the lion was right beside the road leading to their hut napping. We gave him a lift and he showed us the lion napping. Here is a photo, he seemed pretty harmless while sleeping, but one quick movement and our hearts were beating faster and I put the truck in gear and we were out of there. Sadly, this ended up being the only lion we saw on our trip.
Hostile Takeover by Vervet Monkeys
Upon arriving at the Xhang campsite in Moremi GR we were thrilled to see little vervet monkeys. They would come so close, and were so cute. We couldn't believe people were just walking by then as though they were a common cat or dog. We snapped off photos then proceeded to set up camp. It didn't take long for us to experience the disinterest or even dislike or these little monkeys. They managed to orchestrate a hostile takeover, during the attack we lost 1 lb margarine. They were smart enough to first surround us, then carry out a distraction (one of them trying to get in the truck), meanwhile a foot soldier moved in to take the margarine! We watched as they made they way off with the margarine, sitting in the tree just out of reach, peeling the foil down and having supper. An hour later Ryan was chasing some of with a stick (see how quickly our love for them changed), and the monkey who stole the margarine was finished with it, and didn't like Ryan harassing his friend, so threw the margarine at him. Boy did we ever laugh. I am still amazed with how brazen they were, managing to go in the truck (while I was in there) only one door open and steal a bag of chips. Although we did loose some margarine and chips, the monkeys gave us tons of amusement and it was fun interacting with them.
Late night mouse raid
In Savuti, we were greeted at our campsite by a heard of impala. We watched the lead male, heard the female impala using different grunts, snorts and squeals. The same night, we were awoken by some little rodent friends in the truck. They wanted in on our food. Jay search every crook and cranny and never found them. Ryan and I were sound asleep on the roof of the truck.
Road Race with Ostrich
On our way up to Chobe National Park we saw a lone ostrich on the side of the road. It was pretty cool to watch him run, but he wasn't interested in taking off into the bush. Every time we would try to pull ahead of him (we had been driving slowly beside him for some time), he would get back onto the road to run faster. We would slow down and he would go back into to field/ditch. Thinking it was okay to advance ahead of him, Jay would pull ahead. The ostrich, wanting to run faster would come onto the road again running ahead of us. This carried on for ages! Finally he tuckered out and let us pass...
We ended our camping trip in Chobe national park, this was one of the most beautiful parks we had been to. The density and variety of animals in such a small area was great. The drive into the campsite took us several hours because we had stopped so much to see all the animals. The amount of incredible looking birds, zebras, wart hogs, giraffe, water buffalo, impala, lizards, elephants.... the list goes on.
Every night camping the Botswana sky gave us great sunsets, but I think our last was one of the most incredible.
We finished our trip with a little R&R in Victoria Falls and Cape Town... and now we are back at it in Lagos.
DQ
