St. Lucia World Heritage Site

Weekend 10/31-11/01

St. Lucia World Heritage Site

So here was Friday, I think that is the day I look forward to very week! Because as soon as I send off my status report I am out of the office, well do not be fooled most of the time its late in the evening as we really work like dogs on this project! But after I click the “send” button I am off to my next adventures. Got to the hotel and the first thing was to pull out the map of South Africa…so what am I going to do this weekend?! Well picked a spot on the East coast that looked green pointed my finger to it and said “This is my weekend destination”. Little did I know when I picked the spot that I actually picked yet another world heritage site, called St. Lucia. I Met Jaco for a nice dinner in a posh restaurant had a bottle of good SA wine and started plant the weekend. The planning went like this. Ok I picked the place it’s called St.Lucia, its somewhere on the east coast and who cares what we get into or what we do, we leave at 6 sharp! No clue yet where we were staying or what we were going to do! I did get up at 4AM as the excitement of upcoming adventure did not allowed me to sleep anymore. Packed few clothes for the weekend and off we went. Took only 7 hours to drive, which gave me enough time to read through my “Lonely Planet” book. I found out that where we are going is actually called “Kwa Zulu Natal Land” it belongs to the Zulu Tribe and in St. Lucia was declared as World Heritage Site due to its extensive eco system. In total 5 different eco systems were congregated into this small area. On the way there I picked a lovely guest house to stay in and take some tours. I also found out that in the middle of the night the town is very popular by Hippos roaming around and checking out the local shopping! It’s a no joke. I asked the owner of the guest house if that is true and indeed it’s true. Watch out when you are going for a walk at night as you may run into a fat ass hippo rolling down the street. Try not to out run it as it can run 40-50 kilometers per hour, despite its huge massive body! We comfortable settled into our lovely room, opened to a garden and took off for a late lunch by the marina. The marina was on the banks of a river that used to be connected to the Indian Ocean. However in past years the rain fall was so low that the connection dried out. We sat on the comfy wooden benches outside observing the Hippos soaking the sun and the water, occasionally sticking their heads up from the water and flicking their ears or opening up their huge mouth in attempt to yawn or scare us away. Not too far from the Hippos were crocodiles doing exactly the same thing, and that was whole lot of NOTHING! Once we ate some weird chicken we walked over to the Indian Ocean! Ahhh what a site. The beach was long, so windy and so deserted! Almost no people in site and the massive waves of the Indian ocean just coming in and going out! There you have it for the first time in my life I saw the Indian Ocean displaying its power in all its majesty. Huge waves were coming in and breaking close to the shores puffing up steams of water and foam, crashing with amazing force on the beach! We were surrounded by complete vastness of the beach with huge sand dunes in the background! What a splendid site! After enjoying the site of the Indian Ocean and soaking in the moments of freedom and beauty we took off for our next adventure which was a 2 hour long trip up the river to see more Hippos, crocodiles and lovely bird species. The wind was cold, you know some times I do wonder if I am really in Africa as its always seems to be cold and raining over here. The trip took us up the river to see Hippos families sticking their heads up from the muddy waters of this canal and just playfully displaying their majesty of their big heads, funny flicking ears, and huge and massive bodies. We saw several families and I took some lovely pictures on the top of that… Once we got off the boat, I was frozen cold and shivering all over. Not sure if that was all caused by the cold winds or by the fact that I ate some crazy chicken that was not agreeing with my stomach! Let’s just say that chicken spoiled my evening fun as I was bit irritated and could not make the night drive though the park to go see yet another lovely animal the leopard! Ahhh and as I found out later I really missed out on this one as they saw a leopard on the tree eating its prey! Oh man! Stupid chicken spoiled the fun for me… oh well there is always a next time! In the evening me and Jaco played with the Tarot cards, did some wonderful readings and then he thought me how to observe aura colors. Which until then I though it’s quite challenging to do, however Jaco proved me wrong again. Let’s just say that by the time I went to bed I was able to observe the color vibrations of many living and non living objects! Just purely amazing experience! I absolutely love when spirituality and adventures go hand in hand and in both I can learn, grown and experience and more importantly have FUN!

http://www.stlucia.org.za/

Madikwe - Day 2

Weekend 10/24-10/25 Madikwe Game Reserve Day 2

I was deeply asleep just to jump up to both my feet nearly breaking my ankles in horror as right behind my window whatever vicious animals decided to perform a night serenade to me! My hair stood up in horror as a though flashed through my head of a huge, ferocious, big beast salivating though its massive and sharp teeth slowly creeping up on me to make me its meal for the night! NO! First of all it was NOT a dream and second all my senses of survival got activated and I was not going to give up without a fight! I was saved by the guide to come and knock on our curtain door to say “wake up” It was 4 AM! Later on I found out that the vicious animal was actually a really cute bunch of brown hyenas that visited the camp every night performing the most spectacular array of symphonies an African bush repertoire can offer. Well, what an experience!

We got up so early because we were catching some coffee and taking off for the early morning ride. The morning was still really cool and mystical. As soon as we drove out from the camp we saw my friends hyenas chasing some 4 legged creature. I guess they decided I am not worth their troubles…But we interrupted their chase and instead we chased them...THERE that is what you get for scaring the life out of me! They were very gorgeous animals to me; the hair on their backs was standing straight up, as they were galloping away into the morning. No, they do not run, they actually gallop, like a little horsy! They were gorgeous colors, white, brown, black and mix of whatever else. Never though hyenas are cute but these guys were adorable, ha ha ha…perhaps it was our connection from the night J Once again we saw bunch of giraffes and elephants on our way to the water hole. By the water hole noting much was going on but in this African Bush everything is alive though you do not see anything it’s still very much alive. We stood still for a moment just to see a humongous rhino lazily making its way to the water and sipping it in big sips. Jackal was hanging around bunch of lions hoping to get a bite of their kill, bunch of gazelles, wilder beasts, water bucks and other 4 legged creatures were also making their way in to drink. Lions were lying still just looking around and minding their own lazy morning. It was amazing to be part of this nature at these precious moments. The morning was just waking up the bush alive, the animals started to come in, the sun was starting to shine and the mist was slowly rising form the waters to create this mystical atmosphere around. I felt so blessed to be part of this magic. I guess Andrew noticed that some of us were dozing off (including me) so he stopped to perk us up with hot cup of coffee and very crunchy cookies. As we were soaking in the morning mist, sipping our coffees away, the sun was making their grand entrance blessing us and the country with warmth and light. Upon our return to the camp we took bush showers and sat down at late breakfast to not only eat delicious meals but happily giggle and chat about our morning experiences. After lovely breakfast we retired to our cabins to take naps and relax. Truly the atmosphere here was so relaxing, no wonder why Chris does not have any wrinkles on his face and I nearly asked him if he is hiring. Perhaps I could heat the water for the showers or perhaps I could chase away the night intruders! Yah, Miriam keep dreaming on this one. We returned to Joburg and our Sandton concrete jungle full of emotions, relaxed and filled with amazing experiences of past 2 days. As for me to get a big slap in the face and a wakeup call to go to work that evening. Truly felt like a perfect box glove just landed in my face telling me “Hello!!! Wake up you are in the real world now so get your ass to work” errrrrrrrrrrr. Even though it was Sunday evening I did not mind as the experiences of past 2 days were really worth the hassle I have to put up with at work!

http://madikwe.safari.co.za/
http://www.thebushcamp.com/

Madikwe - Day 1

Gate to the Madikwe Private Game Reserve

Our lovely camp (Sitting room, fire place, our "fancy hut", "fancier room"

Eco shower (cold water into bucket, heat the cold water, shower with the view)

Weekend 10/24-10/25 Madikwe Private Game Reserve Day 1

Friday was extremely hard day at work, many things to do among them publishing my blog and demonstrating how NOT to lean in your chair… So they gave us these funny new, cheep chairs without giving us the proper warning that if you lean back just a bit too much your ass will land on the floor… Well my friends, I have done exactly that! Since it was closer to the end of the evening, I got very comfortable and sat in “Turkish Style” on my chair; someone asked me some question so I pushed back my chair and leaned just bit too much. All you heard “Ahhhhhhhhh”, “Bum”, “5 second silence” and “bursts of laughs” and next thing you know Miriam’s gracious ass was sitting on the floor with my chair upside down!!! First 5 seconds there was a silence, once the shock has passed the entire ground floor was laughing THEIR asses off! Well I turned read as a tomatoes or worst and said “Well this is one way to make the evening more fun…”, stood up and even more graciously walked off to go to the meeting…

On the top of all Friday madness my senior manager was leaving for 2 weeks and 2 hours before she left I found out that not only I am going to be taking care of my daily duties which are already overwhelming but also I’ll be stepping in and acting as her. Which meant crazy status meetings with folks high up on the corporate food chain and spending countless hours creating these massive presentation that to me had no value except that they looked really pretty but I guess to the more "privileged" ones they did...Ahhh shame! Great! No Stress!!! On the top of that our testing cycle was staring on Monday for which we have not even prepared for mad mad times. Needless to say by the time I left at 9PM I was mentally exhausted and drained….well as you all know me the best way to release and to relax is to go out and socialize. Even though I was beaten with the tail between my legs I went to the “Baron” local lounge, very cool place to hang out, with lots of interesting people actually mostly quite young! I met up with Simon and Henk and we had a beer! Finally a nice cold bubbly bear with fresh frosted glass!!! That is EXACTLY the medicine I needed after such tough day. We chatted and went to eat to local “piri-piri” chicken place, great chicken very spicy sauces and spinach but the best thing was they were playing salsa music! LOVE IT! I need to come back more often.

I truly had lovely night sleep just to wake up to birds singing and water traveling down some rocks under neath my window. It was 6AM on Saturday; I did my regular yoga routine and decided that today I’ll do my mediation outside by the fountain, near the pool, under huge palm trees. How lovely! The day was just waking up and I felt greatly energized, loved and so connected with everyone and everything around me. I felt as I was glowing with happiness. Soon after that we left for Madikwe Private Game reserve with my co-worker Simon. Lovely chap from London, quite entertaining with his stories and fun dude to hang with. 3 hour car ride was entertaining as we were both sinning to Mariah Carrey new song, and Enrique Iglesias… he he needless to say we are both quite awful singers but regardless it’s all about the fun! Ohhhhhhhh and did we have some fun! The 3 hour ride actually turned out to be more like a 5 hour ride as in Africa nothing goes by kilometers or time! On the top of that all roads are being repaired and widen in preparations for the World Coup. Hence bunch of traffic and backups! We got to the Madikwe gate at around 1PM. The day was hot, bright and svunny and how cool is this the gate is ONLY few kilometers from Botswana!!! We drove to the administration building where we were going to be picked up by the Safari vehicle as ordinary folks were not allowed to drive though the park alone. At the admin gate we were greeted by a huge bunch of beautiful baboons they were scattered all over the place. We met our lovely guide Andrew and waited for another couple that was coming from London. It took less than 15 min or so to drive to our stay for the night called “Mosetlha Bush Camp”. So this place is the OLNLY “bush camp” in this reserve. Truly when I booked the reservation with them I had absolutely NO CLUE what “bush camp” means. I looked a website a picked a first place whose name was quite appealing. Ha ha ha.. Was I in for a treat! We got greeted by very energetic owner-operator Chris. I and Simon both tired to guess his age but could not quite get it right. He looked fantastic older gentleman for sure perhaps even in his 70’s, not too tall not to short, not a speck of fat on him, great built body and not a wrinkle on his face, just bunch of white teeth glowing from his sun glazed face. Happy fella but he reminded me of a ping pong ball. As he never stayed still he was up and down, left and right, directing, re-directing, organizing and who know what else.. But for sure he was never still! The Bush Camp was actually a set of open aired cottages sitting on the stilts 1 meter of the ground, lovely opened aired dining area, with long beautiful wooden table, and comfy benches, great sitting area around a stone circle where they had fire going in order to collect the coal to grill the meats for lunch. The camp can hold only 16 people at the time and we met with everyone as we all sat down to a late lunch served family style. We met a Leah and her mom from NJ, USA. Leah is a doctor/pediatric working in Botswana with children HIV positive. Her mom was invited by some kind of tribe whose king decided to invest into education for his people and she was assisting the king to set up a program for his people. Then 2 couples from UK, what is up with those Britt’s??? Like they are all over the freaking place he he he… I guess they just love to travel! Another 2 couples from South Africa with whom later on we had great conversation. We exchanges stories who we are and where we are from and since some of them were there already longer time they told us about their gaming experience. We were shown to our lovely cabin that was completely open aired the ONLY thing that separated us from the wilderness of this park and the reality of having bunch of wild animals roaming free around us were 4 stilts, ½ walls made form some kind of thin wood and a cute straw roof…Man! The room was comfy though and the cabin was welcoming and had very warm feel to it. Later on Andrew showed us how the “eco showers” worked…. First one for me as well. I had to pour cold water in the bucket, empty the bucket to this heating “unit” that was fired with real wood on one side, and by pure magic or law of chemistry the water came out on the other side as hot as it could be! I was amazed by this pure geniousness and simplicity. The HOT water was then mixed with cold to make the perfect temperature and pored to another bucket that was tied by rope in the “outdoor” showers. Very simple and effective. The showers and toilets were tiny cabins also made from wood… Just loved it. Let me just reiterate that the camp was in the middle of 74,000 hectares of pure wilderness where the most amazing creatures roam free. The camp was surrounded only by 1 electric wire sitting high up to keep the elephants out, other than that we were part of the nature. So now YOU tell me how would you like to be taking a shower and a looking out a wilder beast of buffalo or whatever else may have wondered around? I know I loved that idea!

At around 4PM we sat in our large Safar Range Rover vehicles to go for a evening drive. As soon as we left the camp we were greeted by bunch of giraffes and elephants crossing the road. The giraffes are such amazingly graceful creatures. Despite the fact they are so tall and look kind of clumsy they are actually incredibly graceful, intelligent, VERY TALL and gorgeous looking animals. On our trek though the park we met other Safari vehicles and our guides always stopped, shook the hand of the other driver, said few nice words to each other and off we went. The atmosphere was amazing…so pure…so free…so loving…so rugged! Our guide was also using walkie talkie to let the other guides know what we seen and where the animals are and vice versa. We got to see rhinos’, baboons, giraffes, LOTS of elephants, lions, jackals and many many amazingly colorful bird species. In the middle of our drive we stopped and our guide pulled out refreshments onto a small table attached to our vehicle, took our drinks out and we chilled and relaxed in the bush drinking cold beer, watching the most amazing sunset to display a ray of colors and magnificent spectaculars over toll and rocky mountains in the background. I have never seen such gorgeous sunset EXCEPT in Tamarindo – Costa Rica! Once we got back we went to a different location just to see huge lions laying lazy right in front of us! There were few, but these 2 were so spoiled and lazy that they did not even bothered to open their eyes to see who the visitors are… we were probably 2 meters from them (5-6 feet) and one of them got up and walked away as we must have entered his personal space. But he only got up walked few yards and as he was collapsed back to the grass not to move again. At this time the darkness started to approach and we entered a water hole area… Just to experience the most amazing spectacle of my life! A herd of 40-50 elephants just crossed our path to go to the water hole. Huge and tiny ones, mothers with their less than year old babies and the teenagers. 2 HUGE elephants stayed behind and one of them walked toward the other cars, pushing them out and guarding his herd. The cars had to put in reverse and leave; we got lucky as we got in first. But the problem was that the 2nd big elephant was blocking us in, as we had no road to escape backwards! So on one side is humongous animal pushing the other cars out, on the other we have a waterhole with bunch of happy elephants and against us yet another humongous creature! Well at this time even our guide got bit nervous and started to drive us out of there through the bush avoiding the big chap in front of us….it was an about the time. As 3 of the big mama’s realized we were there and started to chaise us out, the driver put in high gear to speed up. It was quite a rush to be chased by 3 big mamas and at the same time it was hilarious to see the little one to run after his mama! It was so adorable and frightening at the same time! I turned around and saw the other elephants were in the water bathing each other, splashing one another, playing and knotting their trunks and just being KIDS in the water. I have never seen anything like this before and the small danger we were in a little while ago was well worth the site we got to see…Our night drive ended by running into a large rhino on the way to the camp.

As soon as we entered our welcoming home turned to a magical world! Since there is no electricity the entire camp was lit up with gazillion little petrol lanterns flickering their fire out to the bush. I stood there in amazement! The entire camp turned to a fairy land, with little fire lanterns around that only trolls carry when they go look for crystals, the big fire was happily burning in the stone circle, the night voices of the bush were so strong and so close at the same time. In the background we hear a lion roar….My love for this place only increased as I poured a nice glass of delicious South African red wine and sat with others by the fire to await our dinner. Got to chat with Andre our guide for the day. I did not know but he actually had to go and study to be a guide in this park. He actually started in Kruger and took him a year to get his license as he had to study the geology, minerals, animals, bird species, plants, behavior, dangers and many other things in order to be qualified to drive us around. Wow I was very impressed. Very lovely fella. Once the rest of the folks arrived we all sat down behind our huge wooden table lighten with lanterns, to be served the most freshet and amazing dinner cooked right in front of us. We were all so happy exchanging stories of the day, the animals we saw and just happily chatting with each other. In deed this place was very magical not only for me but for everyone around me. After me and Simon killed a bottle of wine we retired to our luxurious cabin to find it lighten with little lanterns as well. We did not even needed to use the mosquito net as the night was very cool and crisp. Let’s just say that I was failing asleep bit nervous from all the noises happening right behind my head, thinking of my beautiful and most beloved animal “cheetah” hoping she will find her way through my window to lay down with me and purr me to sleep… well that stayed the dream for that night! J I was also hoping that the traitorous visitor from last night, big ass honey dodger that was trying so desperately to get to the food in the kitchen, breaking bunch of glasses and tearing the small roof and thin wall down to get to the coolers. I have never seen one so I though well for the experience I’ll give away my breakfast to him… but he never showed up that night.

Qanta’s Flight Crew!

Qanta’s Australian Flight Crew!

(10.20/2009)

So I am staying in this posh hotel in the Sandton and this hotel is one among the favorites for many different airlines crews. Last night I got to the hotel very frustrated and stressed out about work. All I needed is to have a good glass of ice cold foaming beer and a smoke! Though I was out of cigarettes, I did not mind walking up to couple of fine guys and asking them for a smoke. They immediately invited me to sit down with them. I was completely not in the mood to socialize and I almost told them to “piss off”. But then I just asked them “where you from” and they said with that fun flirtatious accent “Australia”. Well I did not need another invitation and I said “ahhh then I’ll just sit with you and pick your brains”. And so we did…from one beer and a dinner it turned out to be 3 beers and 1 bottle of wine. Not only they picked my brains about my whereabouts, my work, my friends, but also about US foreign policy, about how US differs from the rest of the world, the current US affairs, lay off policies, you can imagine the depth of our conversations. I was not too far behind either and we talked about their families and life.

Simon, was a lovely, fun and happy guy that was born in Cairo Egypt, however his family immigrated to Australia when he was 4 years old. He still remembers where he lived and looking outside of his bedroom he could see the pyramids in the distance, remembers playing with his little cousins, as the WHOLE family purchased a HUGE apartment complex which they turned into pent houses. So the whole family lived together, including the grandparents and his father’s siblings with their families. His father was a famous journalist in Cairo and they moved to Libya to cover some issues; however their passports were taken away. During the time in Libya his father applied for asylum in US and Australia. His father said whichever responds first that is the country they will leave for. Though US responded first, he did not take it and week later after going though hurdles to get their passports back they were on their way to Cairo, just to switch a plane to Rome and then Rome to Australia. His father got a job as a chief editor for an Australian Media Mogul (sorry forgot who) and he worked there for many years. His mother, who was extremely well educated, had to also get a job, and she worked in the factory on a night shift building radios so they both could send their kids to private schools to get good education. It was very though time but he did not view it as dark times, rather as happy, loving and fun times with great experiences. His father got eventually fed up with working for someone else and opened up his own consulting company in journalism and freelancing. Simon was working for Quanta’s for 22 years now and he is the manager of the flight attendants crew.

They always travel to so many different destinations and always with different crew. Later on the rest of the crew joined in, 2 lovely women and another guy, whose names I do not recall anymore (too much wine). They were remembering stories from their earlier years of flying and we laughed so so hard, it was so amazing! For example they had a plane where there was a small elevator going below the cockpit and that was the “crew’s bar” so the youngest was always responsible to put the beer on ice for the gents and put the French Champagne on ice for the ladies. Well Simon neglected his duty and the crew responded by throwing “coke cans” shaken not steered with a little hole so the coke was exploding down the elevator shaft to punish him for not complying with the “crew rules”. Needless to say the way he was describing how soaking wet and sticky he was from all the warm coke bombs was hilarious and we laughed so hard that the tears were coming up… the next story continued that that was their smoking area as well and that is where not only the crew but some “privileged” passengers got to hang out on long ass flights. Or another time how they pushed out the carts full of liquor and food out of the plane and though the customs, bribing the guards with bottle of Johnny Walker Black and beers, so they could celebrate their Christmas… just amazing stories… the wine was flowing, the stories were hilarious, the night progressed. Not only they always stay in my hotel and know the staff by their first names…

Quanta’s actually has a special “hang out” room for them that is always opened on the 3rd floor, so the crew can relax. After the bar closed we retired to their “crew lounge” where they had pool table, darts, TV, computer, nice couches and all the other wonderful amenities to make the place more pleasurable. We played pool and more over we exchanged stories and face book contacts. After such hard day at work it was EXACTLY what I needed to release, to socialize to forget about the mad days at work… After this experience I have made an ultimate decision that my work is NO LONGER going to affect me, and I WILL NOT let work overtake my fun here. Simple yet very effective decision. Ok, my dear friends, out for today… speak to you soon.

Weekend in Magaliesberg

10/17-10/18 Weekend in Magaliesberg

So I think I have mentioned earlier that I have acquired a local friend “African” named Jaco with whom we share great passion for spirituality. Jaco is an “herbalist”, energy healer, and he also does Tarot and Herbal card reading. I met him one lovely Saturday afternoon on my stroll though Sandton and Village Walk which is a small shopping mall. You all know that I absolutely despite to go shopping, but for whatever reason I was lead to this mall to go browse some stores and I came upon a lovely “spiritual shop” called the “House of Isis”. I walked in and the loving energy of this shop was addicting! They had a great selections of rocks and crystals, lots of great spirituality books, dream catchers, Buddha and some other Indian statues, wonderful selection of incents, reading cards and Wiccan items… well let’s just say I felt right at home. I ran into Jaco in the shop and decided to have a Herbal card reading from him. We connected immediately as he has been working in the “magic” for over 25 years and me in past 10 years, therefore we had lots of in common and thoroughly enjoyed the conversations and the energy balancing. We quickly connected and became friends for life. Over few times we met out for a beer and spiritual discussions and decided that this weekend we will go and visit a place called the “Sanctuary”- which is a holistic retreat to soothe one’s soul and reconnect the mind, body and spirit. On Friday I went to stay in Jaco’s house just to be grated with 2 happy going dogs and a charming little cottage next to a true African squatting settlement. My room was full of herbs and little bottles of essences and it just felt so magical to be surrounded by this great mother earth nature treasures. I was exhausted from work and I felt asleep listening to the sounds of drums playing in the nearby squatting settlement and sounds of the crickets outside. I slept like a rock!

Woke up extremely refreshed and energized did my yoga routine and daily meditation, hang out with Jaco over coffee and made decisions for the day. The “Sanctuary” was booked as they allow only so many folks up the mountain at any given time, though they did have an opening for Sunday. So we decided to go visit the “Cradle of Human Kind” which is a world heritage site as it holds the secrets to human kind and sheds light on evolution and past ancestors. We visited a cave where I learned the earliest fossil of a human discovered was 3.3 MILLION years old and they were excavating this fossil for over 20 years and today they “only” have a left arm and a skull to do. How amazing! In the cave I felt so peaceful and happy to be surrounded by cold beauty of crystals and cave formations, listening to the sounds of dripping water in the darkness and soaking the peaceful and calming energy of the nature. I felt amazing! After the cave we went to the local crystal shop and I spend quite a bit of money by purchasing some amazing crystals resonating with healing energies and love! If there is a such thing as “7th Heaven” then for sure I was in it…I felt like a kid in the candy shop discovering that each candy had different flavor, color, history, structure and was still so so sweet to the taste and look. I got so many amazing crystals that I will use in my meditations and my healing sessions. In the evenings we created an oil from fresh herbs for me and also my own personal perfume from Mother Nature scents. I was so happy to be able to do this and still relax and learn so many wonderful things. Needless to say after hard week of work this was just the medicine my soul needed!

On Sunday we went for the “Sanctuary” and on the way we stopped in an adorable little restaurant called “Goblins Cove”. What a magical world awaited us. The restaurant is a cute little cottage with many different rooms to sit in, each on decorated with an amazing portraits or sculptures of fairies and goblins! We sat on a terrace where a fluffy creature (kitty cat) found a perfect spot to lay, well where else then in my lap! I was joyous as I am dearly missing Simba! Truly this place was very popular with bikers and the “rough crowd” as here they all turn into kids and their fantasy runs wild without being judged by the pretentious world. The “Sanctuary” was not such long drive but rather slow as the dirt road was washed over by strong desert rains. I guess I imagined “Sanctuary” to be a very beautiful place with lots of rolling hills, tons of trees and greenery around, with crystal clear lakes and streams running by! Oh mine was I in for a surprise. The “Sanctuary” was indeed a gorgeous place but it was a desert land and the beauty had completely different feel to it. Very rugged and rough landscape of amazing rock formations, strange looking desert grasses of weird green/gray colors, here and there we were greeted by smell of jasmine and other plants. We took a hike over a basin of a river, to jump over a fresh water pools and rocks to come upon the “Grotto”. Small cave where water was running down the roots of old trees and rocks for thousands of years forming a lovely pool beneath. What a magical place and what a perfect place for meditation. Sun was shining, few scattered clouds over blue blue skies, birds singing, warm breeze rushing though the trees and the water dripping down to a pool. In deed very magical place! On the way down we went through another basin of a river just to find amazing array or rocks and crystals predominantly in rough not polished forms and mostly rose quartz. I am glad I had my cargo pants on as I totally filled up my pockets with these amazing gems!

Today I have few of them at my desk to remind me that life is not all about work and stress but about admiring the beauty that Mother Nature created for us, thanking the Lord every day for all the blessing we receive so so unconditionally… We are so blessed in so many different ways, we just so often forget!

Ahh all these lovely places are in an area called the Megaliesberg Area:

Goblin Cove: http://www.goblins.co.za/

Crater of Human Kind World Heritage Site: http://www.cradleofhumankind.co.za/index.html

The Mountain Sanctuary: http://www.mountain-sanctuary.co.za/