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Armed Hike to View the Olmoti Crater

Posted in African Safari, Nature, Travel, Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on July 22, 2011| Leave a Comment »

“This life is yours. Take the power to choose what you want to do and do it well. Take the power to love what you want in life and love it honestly. Take the power to walk in the forest and be a part of nature. Take the power to control your own life. No one else can do it for you. Take the power to make your life happy.” – Susan Polis Schutz

Our hike up the escarpment started in tall grass. Adrian, with his rifle, poses for a picture with me before we begin. -- Photo by Kim Perrin

African Safari: A Pleasant Afternoon Walk

This afternoon’s wildlife drive included a hike, a rare opportunity for us to to truly to get close to Africa’s landscape. Bilal was not happy about it. He had to stay with the Land Rover, and he kept telling us we didn’t have to go if we didn’t want to go.

Kim and I suspected he was nervous about trusting his two ladies to another guide, this time one armed with a rifle. I also suspected – since the hike was uphill to the top of the Ngorongoro escarpment for a view of the smaller next door Olmoti Crater – that he didn’t believe this old “mama” could make it.

Kim in front of one of the big trees we passed on the way up. -- Photo by Pat Bean

While I was admittedly slow on the steeper sections, we made it to the top in 50 minutes, 10 minutes short of the hour allotted to get up there. As a veteran hiker, I subscribe to the philosophy of just putting one foot in front of the other until you reach your destination, and as always it worked. .

The hike took us through tall grass, which had me thinking about snakes, and then into a forest of giant trees. The trees were awesome. As was the view from the top. And my body enjoyed the exercise after several days of bouncing around in our metal beast.

Our guide, Adrian, who seemed quite pleased to have two women to guard, asked if we wanted to hike down into the crater. Both Kim and I were tempted but decided against it. Kim was worried that Bilal would be worried, but I was more worried about the climb back up.

The view from the top was spectacular. -- Photo by Kim Perrin

It only took us 30 minutes going back down, where Bilal had our chariot waiting for us – and a welcoming smile.

Then it was more sight-seeing of birds, monkeys, buffalo, zebras and other wildlife – but still no rhinos – on our drive back to the lodge for another delicious dinner and a night of restful sleep in our soft, mosquito-netted beds.

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Posted in African Safari, Travel, Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , on July 10, 2011| 1 Comment »

 “The very idea of a bird is a symbol and a suggestion to the poet. A bird seems to be at the top of the scale, so vehement and intense his life … the beautiful vagabonds, endowed with every grace, masters of all climes, and knowing no bounds – how many human aspirations are realised in their free, holiday lives – and how many suggestions to the poet in their flight and song.” – John Burroughs

They say ostriches stick their heads in the sand. Maybe so. But the ones we saw in the Serengeti preferred to stretched out their legs and run. It made for a glorious parade. -- Photo by Pat Bean

African Safari: Colorful Birds

Kori bustard -- Photo by Kim Perrin

The drive from Lake Manyara to the Serengeti was one of the most exciting bird-watching days in my life. I saw my first free roaming ostriches. Much bigger than I imagined, and boy could they run.

We passed a Kori bustard, which strutted across the grasslands like it owned them. We were close enough for Kim to even get a great photograph. This was a big bird, standing over three-feet tall.

There was this great big red-faced fellow, a lappet-faced vulture. he made ugly look beautiful, well at least to the addicted birder.

A flock of Ruppell's griffin vulture, with a lone lappet-faced vulture on the far left. -- Photo by Kim Perrin

A face only a mother could love, or not. -- Photo by Kim Perrin

And then there were the secretary birds,  so named because someone thought the stiff neck feathers looked like the quill pens secretaries used to stick behind their ears. it hunts its prey — small mammals, snakes, lizards, young birds, on the ground.

Secretary bird: Do you think this bird's neck feathers look like quill pens? -- Wikipedia photo

Like the bustard, the secretary bird we saw was strutting across the savannah as if it owned it.  

Next : the Serengeti’s Sopa Lodge

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Tiny

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on May 21, 2011| 10 Comments »

Just the universe, my jump master and me. -- Photo by Charlie Trentelman

On my 70th birthday I went skydiving. It was one of those things on my T0-Do list for years and I finally decided I needed to just do it.

Interesting was the fact that the day I left a perfectly good airplane while it was still in the air, there was another 70-year-old woman doing the same thing.  That’s says something about how many of us “little old ladies” are really “feisty old broads” still enjoying life to its fullest.

I do know that I smiled the whole way down from 13,000 feet. And I do know that in the expanse of the sky with a wide expanse of the earth beneath me, I felt as tiny as a pin point in the universe.

“It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to imroved the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope.”  — Robert Kennedy

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Edward Abbey’s Spirit Took Today’s Drive With Me

Posted in Nature, Travel, Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on May 6, 2011| 3 Comments »

 “Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit.” Edward Abbey

It wasn't enough to just drive through this red-rock landscape, I had to sometimes get out and touch the ground. Pictured above, my RV, Gypsy Lee, is dwarfed by this giant landscape near where the Colorado River crosses Highway 95. -- Photo by Pat Bean

Travels With Maggie*

I had an amazing scenic drive this day through some of Southern Utah’s most spectacular scenery, the landscape to which Edward Abbey first introduced me to in his irreverent “Monkey Wrench Gang.”

I read it first, then fate offered me an opportunity to explore and write about this awesome landscape when I was an environmental reporter writing about Utah land issues.

I would like to linger over this blog today, fully describing my eye-popping drive from Monticello to Capitol Reef National Park for you. But I’m sure I would get a bit redundant with the awesomes, fantastics and panoramics I would need to use to describe my emotions about the landscape found along Highway 95 and places like White Canyon, Fry Canyon, Dirty Devil River The Glen Canyon Recreation Area, Lake Powell, the Colorado River and Natural Bridges — just for the big starters.

So instead, I’m going to leave you with a few of my favorite Edward Abbey quotes, which I suspect will bore you less than my constant oohing and ahing superlatives.

Red desert rock and snow-covered mountains, the perfect oxymoron. -- Photo by Pat Bean

Enjoy.

“May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and about the clouds.”

“I pledge my allegiance to the damned human race, and my everlasting love to the green hills of Earth, and my intimations of glory to the singing stars, to the very end of space and time.”

“The idea of wilderness needs no defense, it only needs defenders.”

“What is the purpose of the giant sequoia tree? The purpose of the giant sequoia tree is to provide shade for the tiny titmouse.

“One final paragraph of advice: Do not burn yourself out. Be as I am-a reluctant enthusiast… a part-time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure. It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it is still there. So get out there and mess around with your friends, ramble out yonder and explore the forests, encounter the grizz, climb the mountains. Run the rivers, breathe deep of that yet sweet and lucid air, sit quietly for a while and contemplate the precious stillness, that lovely, mysterious and awesome space. Enjoy yourselves, keep your brain in your head and your head firmly attached to your body, the body active and alive, and I promise you this much: I promise you this one sweet victory over our enemies, over those deskbound people with their hearts in a safe deposit box and their eyes hypnotized by desk calculators. I promise you this: you will outlive the bastards.”

*Day 10 of the journey, April 28, 2011 

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Vernon to Liberal: An Ordinary Day on the Road

Posted in Birds, Journeys, Nature, Travel, Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , on April 24, 2011| 5 Comments »

I think Maggie was as surprised as I was on seeing a circular sidewalk, landscaped with funky art, that led nowhere off to the side of the Western Star RV Ranch in Liberal, Kansas. -- Photo by Pat Bean

I saw turkeys alongside the road when traveling Highway 83. — Photo by Pat Bean

 

“He who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe is as good as dead; his eyes are closed.” Albert Einstein

Travels With Maggie

After rising early, drinking my cream-drenched coffee while posting my blog, catching up on e-mail and reading the New York Times online, then waking and taking my dog, Maggie, for a walk, I decided to get a few extra miles on the road this day.

I did just that – making it from Vernon, Texas, to Liberal, Kansas.

Vernon lies along the route of the former Great Western Trail and millions of cattle passed through the town during the late 1800s. Liberal lies along the route Coronado took in his search in the mid-1500s for the mythical Seven Cities of Gold.

The distance between the two historic cities, if you take Highway 287 west to Childress and turn north on Highway 83, is 261 miles. It was an eye-opening journey.

The landscape was mostly occupied by agriculture fields with an occasional oil rig plopped down in the middle. Sometimes the pump was rusted and still, sometime rusted and pumping.

The flatness of the land was broken by stumpy hills whose summits looked out for miles and miles to an almost endless horizon.

A multitude of birds were out enjoying relief from the high winds that had dominated the outdoors for the past several days, during which I had mostly only seen turkey vultures. This day I identified robins, great-tailed grackles, house sparrows, mourning doves, meadowlarks, red-tailed hawks, horned larks, rock pigeons, Eurasian collarded doves and even a half dozen wild turkeys.

Then there was the dinosaur near Canadian, a funny name for a Texas city I thought. A bit of internet research after I had settled in for the night told me the town was named after the Canadian River. Since the river’s headwaters are in Colorado, that left me wondering where the name of the river came from.

I’m still wondering about that, but I did learn more about the dinosaur that sits on a prominent Mesa for the viewing pleasure of Highway 83 travelers. The 50-foot brontosaurus was created by artist Gene Cockrell and named Audry after his wife. You can see a picture of the long-necked creature – the dinosaur not the wife – at RoadsideAmerica.com

I laughed when a huge RV overtook and passed me towing a fancy barbecue smoker with all the works. Then I wondered where those folks were going to settle for the night and if I could finagle an invitation to dinner. The rig disappeared over one of the hills, however, and I never saw it again.

Almost before I knew it, the miles were behind me and I was hooking Gypsy Lee up at the Western Star RV Ranch on Highway 54, five miles outside of Liberal.

The park had a a circular sidewalk, leading nowhere and with funky landscaping art, where I took Maggie for a walk. A patch of sickly grass with stickers, however, lay between it and the graveled RV area.

Poor Maggie got a sticker in her paw. She stopped, lifted her foot and demanded with a painful look that I Remove the nasty offender! After it was out, I then got the toasty brown-eyed look that said Carry me to the sidewalk.

Of course I did. She’s the boss, or so my kids are always telling me.

I also shared the red beans and rice leftovers from the night before with her before we settled down to watch an episode of Castle on my DVDs. She got a doggie treat and I got some peach yogurt to eat as we watched.

As my travels go, it was just an ordinary day. But I loved every minute of it.

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Lake Arrowhead: A Creaky Nature Trail Walk

Posted in Lakes, Nature, Travel, Uncategorized, tagged , , , on April 20, 2011| 4 Comments »

 
An early morning walk through a honey mesquite grove is full of surprises. — Photos by Pat Bean

 “Keep a green tree in your heart and perhaps a singing bird will come.” Chinese proverb

Travels With Maggie

I had barely stepped onto the trail before I heard a sort of screeching sound, which had me looking for a bird as its most likely source. I soon realized I was wrong.

It was the trees creaking with the wind. And this nature trail I was following was simply a mesquite grove with little else going for it, I concluded. Wrong again.

Just about the same time I decided the talking trees weren’t really all that eerie, I began seeing other bits of nature sharing the mesquite tree grove.

Cactus coming to life after the winter, purple thistle dotting the landscape, and numerous other plants that sadly I didn’t have a name for.

It was a short trail that ended way too soon.

The photos I took along the way, meanwhile, will remind me not to draw conclusions before seeing the evidence.

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Sunshine and Problems With Solutions Make Me Happy

Posted in Uncategorized on April 16, 2011| 9 Comments »

 “Sunshine on my shoulders makes me happy. Sunshine in my eyes can make me cry. Sunshine on the water looks so lovely. Sunshine almost always makes me high … If I had a wish that I could wish for you. I’d make a wish for sunshine all the while..” John Denver

Sunlight helping create this rainbow coming of Mesa Falls in Idaho should make anyone happy. -- Photo by Pat Bean

Travels With Maggie

John Denver’s “Sunshine on My Shoulder Makes Me Happy” is one of my favorite songs. But sunshine on my computer screen does not. And the latter is what I have this morning as I sit writing in an unused room in my daughter’s home, where I’m stuck until my RV gets out of the shop.

I took a picture to show you my dilemma, but then realized the cord to transfer it from the camera to my computer is in Gypsy Lee. Yet another reason why I’m missing my home on wheels, as is my dog, Maggie, who keeps going to the door whining to go out to her home. .

Meanwhile I could get up and close the curtain to solve the reflection problem, but I not only like Denver’s song, I like sunshine on my shoulder. It does make me happy.

So, with a little bit of maneuvering, I discovered that if I angle my computer a bit to the left, and my body a bit to the right, I still have the sun blessing my back while my own shadow keeps my computer screen in the shade so I can read the words on it. .

Problem solved. And that makes me even happier.

Age has taught me that life is never problem free. Whether it’s my recent problem of finding what was wrong with my RV, water dripping down from the ceiling as recently happened to my daughter, or the more serious problems of a child on drugs or a loved one dying of cancer.

Some troubles can be solved, but some can’t. For those  times, which come to all, may there also be sunshine to help ease the pain. It seems to be helping Maggie. She’s now snoozing away in the sun that’s streaming through the window.

I should probably stop whining about missing Gypsy Lee as well. She’s getting her problems fixed.

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Refuge Morning: Fantastic Light and Pileated Woodpecker

Posted in Birds, Nature, Travel, Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on April 10, 2011| 1 Comment »

 

My daughter Trish, grandson Tony and friend Tressie fishing off a Felsenthal dock early this morning. -- Photo by Pat Bean

 

“Morning is when the wick is lit. A flame ignited, the day delighted with heat and light, we start the fight for something more than before.” Jeb Dickerson

Travels With Maggie

My RV has been hooked up at Felsenthal National Wildlife Refuge’s Grand Marais Campground for the past few days, where I came to spend time with my daughter, her husband, and three grandsons.

It’s been a relaxing weekend. While they have spent most of their time fishing, I have lazed around, taken quiet walks with Maggie and watched birds.

Pileated woodpecker -- Photo by Noel Lee

I’ve also spent a good portion of my days inside my air-conditioned RV. While it’s only April, it already feels like summer here in Southern Arkansas, where high humidity gives the temperature an artificial boost. Thankfully, my RV has large side windows that let me enjoy the outdoors from the comfort of indoors.

Among the more colorful visitors to my camp site have been red-headed woodpeckers and blue jays. The 65,000 acre wetlands refuge lies near the Louisiana border and is part of the Mississippi Flyway for migrating birds, making it both a birdwatcher and duck hunter paradise.

Morning Reflections at Felsenthal National Wildlife Refuge. -- Photo by Pat Bean

Early this morning, I drove down to one of the refuge’s main fishing dock with my daughter, intending to take some photographs and then walk the mile back to my RV before the day warmed up.

My timing was perfect. I had fantastic lighting for my picture-taking and a cool breeze and cloud cover for most of my return trip by foot. .

The whipped cream and cherry topping for the morning was a pileated woodpecker that flew overhead and landed in a tree. My heart skipped a beat as I listened to the large yellow-eyed, red-headed bird’s rat-a-tat-tat knocking.

Life is good.

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Wisteria and Dogwood Mean It’s Spring in Arkansas

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on April 2, 2011| 5 Comments »

 

One of two dogwood trees visible out my RV, shown in background, during my and Maggie's visit to my daughter's home in Camden, Arkansas. -- Photo by Pat Bean

“If you’ve never been thrilled to the very edges of your soul by a flower in spring bloom, maybe your soul has never been in in bloom.” — Terri Guillemets

 Travels With Maggie

When it’s bluebonnet time in Texas, the wisteria and dogwood are blooming in Arkansas.

The purple chandeliers of wisteria, a woody vine that likes to curl itself around a tree to rise into the air, begin dotting the roadside forest as soon as I crossed the border between the two states in Texarkana.

Then every few miles as I drove deeper into the state, a patch of white dogwood blossoms, usually sheltered by some larger tree, would add its delicate voice to the landscape.

These purple and white flowers helped ease the pain of leaving the magnificence of Texas bluebonnets waving good-bye from my RV’s rear-view mirror.

I arrived at my youngest daughter’s home here in Camden, Arkansas, a few days ago during a late cold spell and overcast days. The sun finally came out yesterday – and so did my camera.

Wild wisteria adds a touch of magical color to Arkansas' landscape. -- Photo by Pat Bean

Wisteria grows wild in the forested land that partially surrounds my daughter’s five-acre rural home, and two dogwood trees grow on her side of the fence.

Both Texas and Arkansas claim the sassy northern mockingbird as their state bird. -- Photo by Pat Bean

I thought I would share their beauty with you. For good measure, I’ve included a picture of a northern mockingbird that hangs around my RV. It’s a familiar sight in both Texas and Arkansas, with both states claiming it as their state bird.

Life is good.

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Sitting Still With Mother Nature Has Its Rewards

Posted in Uncategorized on April 1, 2011| 5 Comments »

While it wasn't exactly in the middle of Mother Nature's bounties, I sat for a while on this bench beside the Lake Erie harbor at the Amherstburg Navy Yard in Canada. -- Photo by Pat Bean

 

 The range of what we think and do is limited by what we fail to notice. And, because we fail to notice that we fail to notice, there is little we can do to change until we notice how our failing to notice shapes our thoughts and deeds.” — R.D. Laing

Travels with Maggie

Somewhere I read, many years ago and I can’t recall the author, that if one truly wanted to observe nature they should find a quiet place in the midst of it and sit very still for at least half an hour.

I thought that was a very good idea, but until I took up birdwatching my attention span never lasted much longer than five minutes. Now it’s up to 10 minutes.

A quiet sit on this rustic bench in the front yard of my son's Central Texas home is almost always a birdy one, with colorful cardinals, goldfinches, mockingbirds and blue jays making appearances. -- Photo by Pat Bean

But occasionally I do force myself to sit still for the required 30 minutes and am always amazed with the benefits.

The birds that whisked away at the sound of my footsteps usually come back and go about their business of building a nest, feeding their young or simply eating the seeds out of a tall sunflower. American goldfinch love to do this and its delightful to watch as they hang upside down on a stem that’s bent with their almost weightless bodies.

As the world slows and my heartbeat follows, I begin to notice a line of ants carrying leaf matter into their nest, or bees and butterflies flitting from flower to flower as they go about feeding and pollinating.

Several times, when I’ve been sitting very still, deer, rabbits, squirrels, even once a raccoon, have come into view. And since Maggie’s usually asleep in a spot of shade within minutes of my sitting down, they often linger.

The day I sat on this blue bench at Lake Walcott State Park in Southern Idaho, two deer ambled among the trees off to my right, and a flock of white pelicans flew low over the lake on my left. -- Photo by Pat Bean

When a lake or an ocean shore is part of the view, I become mesmerized by sunlight and shadow reflections, to the point of losing track of time, which for my busy brain is almost a miracle. .

This sitting still in the midst of Mother Nature’s wonders is the only form of meditation that works for me. It’s never failed to leave me more at peace with myself and with the world.

I really should do it more. Perhaps you would like to join me.

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