Old blog, new travels

Hello dedicated fans! I know you've been waiting for this moment since 2013...my return to blogspot. Well, it's finally happened. And this time it's not because I'm going back to Africa (but do check out the earliest posts for some excitement from my semester in SA <3), but because I'm about to embark on a crazy northward hike along the west coast of the USA. WOOHOOO!

This blog is for all the fam and friends who would like to check out my progress, hear some stories, and see some pictures from the journey. I'll do my best to keep up and post when I make it to towns with wifi, but seeing as I posted a total of 10 times over the course of four months in South Africa, I can't make any promises you'll hear from me every week :)

So now the big question: Why am I walking over 2600 miles from Mexico to Canada?
And the big answer: Why not?! Why not take a few months out of my schedule to do something I thoroughly enjoy (backpacking, laduh!) while I am fit and not tied down to big things like a mortgage or Sims family who needs taking care of. The rest of the world will still be around in 6 months when I return, stanky as ever and desperately craving some sweet potato-crusted snapper from Leftovers (Lindsey, where you at??). This adventure will teach me more in five months than twice that time in the "paved world," and since life is short and there's no time to waste, I'll go ahead and get started on May 2nd.

Before that though, I'd like to thank the wonderful folks who have supported me so far, and will hopefully continue to support me with happy messages and care packages (wink, wink).

First of all, Dad, Joanne, and William: thank you for humoring this idea, I have a feeling poo-ing in a cat hole for half a year was maybe not what you had envisioned for me after graduating from college. But alas, here we are. And thank you for the support, emotional, spiritual, monetary, and physical...I love the bras I got for Christmas. For real though, you're the best.

To the many family members:
Thank you Ron&Carey for the gear, for laughing at my stupid stories, and enjoying running shoes as much as I do.
Thank you, Bess, for knitting me a headband which I have turned into a pot cozy.
Thank you, Nana, for the mountains of chocolate chip cookies. The extra blubber I have accumulated on my body will undoubtedly warm me for many cool, crisp nights to come.
Thank you to all who are not named here, you are not forgotten! Luv you

To the friends:
I know all two of you are reading this. You rock.
PS Good luck to Margaret Bujold who is beginning her Peace Corps service in Mozambique the same day I start hiking! You're amazing gurl

Pics to come!
Here's one from our recent practice run in Pisgah last weekend...it's the only picture I took and in classic fashion, it's a delicious cone from post-hike Dolly's Dairy Bar.

BAI

October/November

Here are a very select few pictures from mid-semester break in Cape Town! Which was a month ago...

We're back in Skukuza now and working on Independent Projects, our final projects that we'll present to the scientists and other researchers in the park. I'm working with Kelly, Patsy, and Balbine on human-nonhuman primate interactions at Kruger Park picnic sites. We survey the encounters that tourists have with baboons and vervet monkeys, which basically means we watch people have their lunches stolen by monkeys for a few hours every day. It's a pretty funny time.

 Royale Eatery in Cape Town. Best burgers ever.

 Lion's Head mountain in Cape Town

 A romantic sunset picnic

The southwestern-most tip of Africa!

The endangered...the majestic...the African Ground Hornbill

 Elephant

Baby baboon!

Hyena 

Giraffe

Munyamana Primary School workday

Hello, World

I'm alive! And here's an update on the past few weeks...also we haven't had internet for weeks and it has been great but sorry for the delay on cool pics.

We left Wits Rural and went to Hamakuya. We stayed at Tshulu camp, a tourist camp super close to the Zimbabwe border outside of the park. Our homestays happened during our Hamakuya trip and the pics are below! I was with Kelly, Megan, Lizzie, and Asinne (our guide) at the lovely home of our homestay mom, Virginia. It was awesome and we learned tons about Venda culture and day to day life like gathering firewood, water, cooking pup (corn meal-ish stuff), making manure floor, cooking more pup, and more. There were loads of kids who danced and played with us for hours on end and I definitely had my share of hand-holding, probably enough for the next twenty years. They definitely laughed at us every time we tried to pronounce anything or greet them in the traditional Venda way ("ahhhh"), but it was a great time.

Mopane worms for dinner

Cooking pup

In traditional Venda garb in front of our roundveld

Chicken and kids

Manure spreading

Food! Butternut squash pup, mopane worms, peanuts, and slimey veggies

After Hamakuya, we headed back into Kruger to Shingwedzi camp. We conducted two projects there, one of which consisted of flipping over rocks in search of spotted geckos. That fun lasted for a few days before we packed up our stuff and drove to Joburg for a day. We visited the Origin Center at Wits University and the Apartheid Museum, which were both pretty neat. 

The next morning we boarded a lime green plane to CAPE TOWN!! Which is where we are now. And it is stellar. But a little bit windy and cold. In any case, shenanigans are surely to ensue so get ready for some fun pictures.

Scorpion 

Sunset in Hamakuya

The group in the biggest Baobab in Africa

Wits Rural Update

The latest from South Africa:

We finished the Oxpecker and camera trapping projects (got some awesome pics of lion cubs!), threw a fabulous bat mitzvah themed birthday party in the middle of the bush at night, pierced my ear with an acacia thorn (thanks, M'du), and played some great games of soccer with the local kids in Skukuza. We've now been at Wits Rural (a little research outpost sort of place for Wits University) for four days. We've had lectures and time to put together presentations for the 10th Biannual OTS Conservation Seminars (very, very formal) which took place today and still some tomorrow. I lectured about alien invasive plant species in South Africa, and I even wore a skirt for the presentation! How civilized of me! If you could only see us wearing four-day-old tshirts and shorts, sweating buckets in the sweltering heat, you'd understand that skirts are pretty fancy. Basically tuxedo status in my book.

Today, I went on an adventure walk with Kelly and Danielle (fellow Dukies) and we followed a sign that pointed to a "Tribal Dance Village," or something like that. We followed a little dirt road to a village where all the houses were made of cinder blocks and there was literally not a soul around. It was super sketchy and felt Twilight Zone-ish. No sooner had we turned around to head back to Wits than a gang of kids started running after us. They were adorable, one was wearing a red winter coat with fur around the collar...it's like 103 degrees outside. Anyway, every time we stopped to say hi they would stop 30 feet  behind us and giggle. By the end of the road, we had become friends and were walking together, trying to pronounce their crazy names that have crazy clicks in them. They didn't speak English so it was very funny trying to communicate. Since we spend most of our time in the bush in the middle of nowhere, we all felt like this was the first time we've actually interacted with the kids or any locals for that matter. I say that now though, I'm sure I'll have plenty of things to talk about after our three-day village homestay next week. What an adventure!

To finish up, just few 1sts over the past few days:
1st time climbing a water tower for a sun-downer
1st time washing my clothes in a basin (the sink doesn't count, this was a legit basin with the ridges)
1st time "aquarunning" in the little pool that giraffes walk right up next to!

Day Off

So we get one day off about every ten days of work and this past Wednesday was our second. After finishing up our KLTRI projects Tuesday morning, we left the Big 'Kuz and drove out to a resort in Blyde River Canyon. It took about six hours to get there; we took the long way through Kruger, and it was totally worth it. Game drive spottings included a group of about 20 elephants drinking at a watering hole, zebra, hippos, ground hornbills, kudus, lions, leopards, and more. An elephant even yelled at us as we drove by.
On Wednesday, we went on a boat ride through the canyon, the 3rd largest in the world. There were waterfalls coming down the sides of the cliffs, very cool stuff. We then walked down a little trail to a waterfall where we could swim. The water was FREEZING, but it was so beautiful. Yesterday, we stopped at Moholoholo animal rehab center and PET CHEETAHS. It was one of the coolest things I've ever done. I also got within ten feet of my all time hero animal: the honey badger. His name was Sosha and he was badass. Definitely a trip highlight so far.
Anyway, now we're back in Skukuza starting our first round of FFPs (Faculty Field Projects). We're doing some camera trapping and a project on Oxpeckers. It ought to be fun, and I don't have to wake up at 5am for the next few days which is always a bonus!

 Elephants!

 Blyde river canyon boat ride

 Taking a dip at the waterfall

 Petting a cheetah

 The HONEY BADGER

 Feeding vultures 

Cheetah

White rhino

Hornbill

Elephant jaw

 Philip the Boss Game Guard on top of a termite mound

 Baboon with a baby

 Eleanor birding hard

 Bird song project

 Giant kingfisher

 Hippo

 Fish Eagle

Giraffe