Safari Adventure in Botswana - Leopard Sighting

Written by Kay L. Trotman


Continued from page 1

Still with some daylight remaining, we arrived to seerepparttar most spectacular, stunning and regal leopard perched atop a huge rock, barely visible when his head was down. As he lifted his head out ofrepparttar 133872 same color of grasses surrounding him, oh my god, what a sight! Gently he moved his head from side to side, surveying any potential threat or danger and gently laid his head back down as if to say…can you please let me get some rest here? As if posing for our hundreds of pictures,repparttar 133873 leopard casually and slowly got up to move, fromrepparttar 133874 heat ofrepparttar 133875 sunlight torepparttar 133876 shade of a nearby tree, asrepparttar 133877 sun was slowly going down inrepparttar 133878 distance. And asrepparttar 133879 sun set, and we could only seerepparttar 133880 eyes ofrepparttar 133881 leopard, we realized it was pitch black inrepparttar 133882 Okavango Delta.

How do we get back? How do we see? Can we findrepparttar 133883 roads? We’re not inrepparttar 133884 city; there are no streetlights, no signs, and no headlights! Like most guides, ours knew exactly where to go and how to get there. But first he asked us, who knewrepparttar 133885 way back – everyone pointed in a different direction, so we chose his. Tearing back acrossrepparttar 133886 savannah,repparttar 133887 only things visible wererepparttar 133888 many eyes of animals inrepparttar 133889 bushes or out inrepparttar 133890 open. The guide pointed torepparttar 133891 eyes, and would say, there’s a hyena over there, there’s a lion over there, but reallyrepparttar 133892 only eyes we wanted to see wererepparttar 133893 eyes ofrepparttar 133894 Chief Camp’s guides as they greeted us back at camp. WHAT AN ADVENTURE!

Kay L. Trotman, a Travel Agent specializing in African Safaris and Group Tours and Cruises, lives in Southern California. She is an avid amateur photographer and shoots pictures of her safari adventures and her beautiful flower garden. Travel information can be found at www.KayTravel.com. Many of her pictures can be purchased as custom photos or cards at www.KaysCreativeCards.com/.


Mount Chimborazo: Climbing Glaciers Near The Equator

Written by Steve Gillman


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I think he was saying that he didn't likerepparttar papery rainsuit I was using as a shell, and he frowned at my homemade 1--ounce ski mask. When he saw me putting on my insulating vest, a feathery piece of poly batting with a hole cut in it for my head...well, I just pretended not to understand what he was saying.

I hadn't intended to go climb up Mount Chimborazo with such lightweight gear, but I had come to Ecuador on a courier flight, and could bring only carry-on luggage. Since I had only 12 pounds inrepparttar 133871 pack to begin with, byrepparttar 133872 time I put on all my clothes that night,repparttar 133873 weight on my back was irrelevant. The weight of my body, however, wasn't irrelevant. Paco had to coax me up that mountain.

Hiking On Glaciers

The glaciers start a short walk fromrepparttar 133874 hut, and hiking soon became mountaineering. I put on crampons forrepparttar 133875 second time in my life (there was that sledding hill). During one of my many breaks ("Demasiado" - too many, which I pretended not to understand when Paco explained in Spanish), I noticed thatrepparttar 133876 tiny, cheap thermometer I carried had bottomed out at 5 degrees fahrenheit. I wasn't cold, but I was exhausted at times--the times when I moved. When I sat still I felt like I could run right up that mountain.

We struggled (okay, I struggled) up Mount Chimborazo, hiking, climbing, jumping over crevasses, until I finally quit at 20,000 feet. Of course I had quit at 19,000 feet, and at 18,000 feet. Quitting had become my routine. Lying had become Paco's, so he told me straight--faced thatrepparttar 133877 summit was just fifty feet higher. Maybe I wanted to believe him, or mayberepparttar 133878 lack of oxygen had scrambled my brain. In any case, I started uprepparttar 133879 ice again.

On Top Of Mount Chimborazo

We stumbled ontorepparttar 133880 summit at dawn. Well, okay, I stumbled. Paco, who seemed somewhat frail down atrepparttar 133881 refuge, was in his element at 20,600 feet. Dirtbag Joe,repparttar 133882 nineteen-year-old kid from California with ten dollars in his pocket, borrowed equipment, and my Ramen noodles in his stomach, was waiting for us with a smile.

The sky was a stunning shade of blue that you actually can never see at lower elevations. Cotapaxi, a classic snow-covered volcano torepparttar 133883 north, was clearly visible 70 or 80 miles away. Handshakes all around, and it was time to get offrepparttar 133884 mountain. I was told you don't want to be on Mount Chimborazo when she wakes up. She wakes up at nine a.m.

Paco kept looking at his watch and frowning. He told me to hurry, then he got further and further ahead. I thought he was going to abandon me onrepparttar 133885 mountain. When I finally caught up to him atrepparttar 133886 hut at nine a.m., I began to hear repparttar 133887 rocks fall out ofrepparttar 133888 ice above asrepparttar 133889 sun warmed it. Now I understood his concern with time. We really did need to get down torepparttar 133890 refuge by nine. A thousand feet lower and my mountain climbing adventure ended with a photograph that mercifully doesn't show my shaking knees.

NOTES:

If you want to climb Mount Chimborazo, it is cheapest to wait until you get to Ecuador to make arrangements. Talk to almost any hotel owner or manager in Riobamba, and he or she will find a guide for you. It will be cheaper if you are part of a group, of course.

For more information and stories about Ecuador, you can visitrepparttar 133891 pages, "Information On Ecuador," and "Banos Ecuador" onrepparttar 133892 website http://www.EverythingAboutTravel.com

Steve Gillman hitchhiked across the U.S. and Mexico at 17. Now 40, he travels with his wife Ana, who he met in Ecuador. His stories, tips and information on travel and backpacking, can be found on his websites, http://www.EverythingAboutTravel.com, and http://www.TheUltralightBackpackingSite.com


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