Aquatic cellphones

When we arrived at Mountain Sanctuary Park the wardens told us that they were sad to inform us that there had been petty theft of late and should take care of our valuables. This was sad news indeed because we had never worried about really locking things in the past when leaving camp on hikes. Oh well, what the heck, there is crime everywhere so out in the mountains is no different. We were not about to let that spoil our long weekend camping.

What a great weekend it was too. Our whole family was there, Kirk and his girlfriend, Diane; Steven and his wife Chantal; and Loren and her husband Paulo. There were sounds of laughter and joking well into the night and on one occasion a quite noisy game of hot coal tennis. I couldn't believe it. Steven and Paulo playing tennis with their bare hands with coals from the fire. By this time Shirley and I were in bed when we were awoken by their antics. Paulo couldn't stop saying all weekend that it had been a long time since he was last sent to bed!

Because of the theft warnings I decided that instead of leaving my brand new cellphone in camp I would carry it with on our hike, so I promptly put it in its pouch on my swimming costume waistband. Now the great thing with Mountain Sanctuary Park is that whilst hiking there are beautifully clear rivers to cool off in. I always love this because it revives you for the next leg of the hike. Today was no different and after wallowing in the crystal clear water for the second time Loren looked at me horrified and cried out that I was wearing my cellphone. Steven and Paulo promptly grabbed the phone from me shouting that we must get the battery out quick. By now the phone was dripping water from out of every conceivable orifice.

I must admit to being quite downhearted because this was one of the new generation phones with Windows mobile and an inbuilt GPS. With all this technology I was not confident that drying the phone out was going to revive it. On the way back to camp water was still dripping out of the speaker hole. The phone was placed in the sun on the dashboard of Loren's car and left for two days. I was scheming ways to make a claim from insurance without blatantly admitting that I swam with the phone; things along the line of we were camping and as you know there was a lot of rain (which there really had been) and the phone got wet etc.

When it was suggested that the phone must surely be dry and that I should try it I shrugged and said it was a pointless exercise and that they could mantle it. There really should be a word like mantle, I mean if you dismantle something surely you must be able to mantle it when putting it back together. Anyway Steven and Paulo took up the challenge of re-assembling the phone, switched it on and words fail me as to how I felt when I saw the screen light up and then proceed through the Windows start up phases. Although I had backed-up information before I left home I was dreading having to transfer the information over to my old PDA which I had been using before getting my new all-in-one phone. The relief in now not having to do this was akin to winning the Lotto. Well maybe not that akin but you know what I mean.

I wonder if I could claim costs and submit an invoice for advertising if I mention the type of cellphone? Well anyway even if I can't I'll tell you the make just in case you too want to swim with your phone or drop it in the toilet like I've heard many people have done. It's a ..... wait for it ...... drum roll please ........ HTC P3300.

I'm now going to be lazy and attach a whole bunch of photos of the weekend and not really say much about them. In fact I'm not going to say anything about them I'm just going to attach them and you can look and enjoy and hopefully be very envious of where we were this last long weekend.

Next adventure.

The next adventure is now well into preparation and I know that everyone who's going is very excited; I know that I certainly am.

Let me tell you more about it while I'm lying in my sleeping bag in my tent in the Magaliesburg Mountains. It's just gone five o'clock in the morning and so it's far too early to get up and brew a good cup of tea. I'm sure the other campers would not appreciate the inevitable clanging that accompanies the removal of steel pots from the steel ammunition boxes I store them in. The Magaliesburg Mountains are a low range of mountains not far from Johannesburg and is a firm favourite with hikers and climbers alike. We are spending the Easter weekend here with our whole family and their respective partners.

Rain is in the forecast with a cold front expected on Sunday. At the moment the rain is desperately trying to come but just can't seem to. There have been about half a dozen of the finest drops barely making a sound as they ever so gently touch the tent. I can hear one or two other restless souls stirring so very soon I'm going to have the kettle on. Actually now that I come to think of it I'm a complete and utter twit. I don't need a noisy pot. Our campsite has an electrical plug point and we brought our electric kettle.

This is the life; the birds are chirping to each other and apart from that there are the silent sounds of the bush. For those of you who know the African bush, then you will also know the sound of the ubiquitous turtle dove making his rolling type call. That is one sound one seems to hear all around Africa. At the moment a thrush is making himself heard above all the other birds.

Shirley has awoken, so soon we'll be off on a walk to help build an appetite for a breakfast of grilled bacon and eggs.

I suppose you're asking yourself when is this blooming idiot going to say where he's going. Well the destination is Mozambique. If you're reading this outside Africa you'e probably now asking where the dickens is Mozambique. If you look at an atlas it's just there to the right of South Africa. Mozambique suffered the ravages of a war of independence from being governed by Portugal. When this finished there was another period of about twenty-five years of civil war. Mozambique is still hamstrung by these wars but is now beginning to recover and tourism is helping to bolster the economy.

There will be the same crowd of Land Rover owners that went to Lesotho last September and one family extra driving in a brand spanking new Defender. We will be accompanied by our son Steven and his wife Chantal and also our daughter Loren.

The route will be through the middle of the Kruger National Park (KNP) crossing into Mozambique at the new border post, Giryondo, which will take us into the new Transfrontier Park. Our final destination is Ponta Zavora on the coast. There is a smallish reef where we can snorkel and beautiful white beaches to lie on and do as little as possible. Mike will be on a diving trip at Ponta Douro in the extreme south of Mozambique and will drive north and join us on about the Tuesday.

We've opted for a less difficult route than we originally wanted in order to be able to spend less time driving and to have more time to chill and enjoy the area. We were also concerned that the Limpopo River, like all African rivers is very seasonal, would still be too high too ford. If so a lot of time would be wasted on the resulting detour south.

It's exactly one month to go and I can already taste the freshly baked Portuguese style bread and succulent peri-peri prawns.

Fifty

It's coming up pretty soon and until now, four days to go I'd never given it any relevance. All of a sudden it seems a turning point of some sort. Exactly what I'm not too sure. Maybe one is meant to feel old or something but I don't. All I do want to do is shed a few kilos. I do find myself a bit sluggish lately because I' heavier than I really want to be.

Well here goes. Shoulde one make resolutions when one turns fifty, like one does at New Year? Well who cares, I'm going to do it anyway. This will be the second recently and of the two, probably the less important. Well this is it.

Lose 15 kilogrammes.

Oh my goodness. What am I saying? I've been trying to do that for in excess of a year with the only result being an INCREASE.

So what must I do differently? Exercise. That's it. Exercise. As much a I would like to believe that driving a series Land Rover is exercise, it just isn't. The gym is going to see more of me. Well right now I suppose everyone is seeing more of me. Well hopefully they'll all be seeing less of me.

He goes then. Fifty (almost) and trimmer. Can I start after today's bacon and eggs? No? But it's Sunday......

The other important resolution I hear you asking. Improving my relationship with God. He's taken a backseat recently and now He'll be in the driving seat again.

Janis Joplin asked God for a Mercedes Benz. Perhaps he'll help me by taking away rather than giving.

Sleepless nights and blogging

Two o'clock am. What is it about this very unmagical time? It is becoming almost predictable that I'm going to be awake. Does age do it? Doubt it because Shirley is just one year younger and blissfully sleeps on whilst I suffer this affliction of staring into the dark.

Fortunately it's summer and so being awake at this unearthly hour is not unbearable. What does really irritate me are the mosquitoes buzzing annoyingly around my ears just outside the mosquito net. One would think that by now that would have given up all hope of having a meal. Must give them full marks for persistence and zero marks for intelligence.

I now have something to do in these insomniacal hours and that is to keep my blog up to date, something I've severely neglected these past months. If I get out of bed Shirley awakes and I feel bad when she is forced to have a bad day because of me. However, thanks to my daughter, Loren, I now have a new mobile phone that connects through wi-fi to our internet and I can lie here in bed and blog. The story of getting this phone is the subject of a future blog so I'll merely say my lifestyle has been changed somewhat by it. Never thought I would say that about a phone!

I think I should get some e-books downloaded onto the phone so I can do some midnight reading without disturbing Shirley's slumber. Hmm. I think that'll be a project for this weekend. It'll be a good chance to catch up on some classics because they are available free.

The mosquito has not relented and is now in serious danger of being the target of some Doom spray. The only problem with that being the cat who also shares the bed will screech out of here as if I were out to annihilate her.

Well goodnight all I am going to drop off hopefully whilst I do some mental planning for our upcoming adventure to Mozambique.