March 16, 2014-Jungle Line

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Panamanian Jungle

The city of Colon is east of the Panama Canal but Shelter Bay is on the west and just past the marina the jungle closes in. Walk a few hundred yards along the road leading away from the water and you are in the thick of it; the canopy spreads overhead and the eerie echoing sounds of the howler monkeys reverberate off of the forests of tree trunks and shake the banana leaves.

You can’t see the howlers. They roar and scream and they sound like they are just there, just off the road, but the jungle is impenetrable and even though you stare, you don’t see them.

And if you do stare into the green trying to see the howlers then the sound suddenly comes from behind you, from the other side of the road and you want to run. But wherever you go, you still hear the howler monkeys; a rhythmic, grunting, roaring, chest thumping sound, charging, chanting down the jungle line that makes you wonder what they are saying and if it is about you.

We’re told they are harmless, but those kinds of jungle sounds can still haunt you.

At the bar, a guy named Rousseau nursing dark rum stared into the distance and shook his head when I asked him if it was the howlers he had seen.

“No, I only wish. No, I ran into a big black cat, jaguar maybe, in one of those abandoned concrete buildings out there. He was just standing there when I saw him, and he stared at me with impassive yellow eyes and his tail twitched left and right. I just backed out of there and walked away and never looked back. That scared me. Still does.”

Howler monkeys, jaguars, what else? But hey, a walk in the jungle is supposed to be good exercise.

So one morning we grabbed the Nikon and headed out. Edith has been there before and she showed us the way. It was easy going, lots of birds, a few howlers, nothing much. Then Judy nearly stepped on the snake.

I saw it and yelled and shoved her and her foot missed the coiled serpent by inches. And she screamed.

But the snake was dead.

I was ready to turn back, but Edith said just a little father, ten minutes, no more.

And there was the sloth. We almost missed it as we walked under the branches which reached over our heads across the road but a group of workers cutting brush pointed it out to us.

Right above us about 50 feet was a furry dark mass with long arms gripping two limbs and not moving.

We moved around trying to get a camera angle and hoping for some sunlight.

Suddenly branches started breaking off to the side of the road, up in the trees, there were noises, leaves were shaking. No howling monkeys but this was no sloth either. A group of smaller monkeys appeared, looking to cross the road in the intertwining branches. They stopped when they saw the sloth right in their path and looked at the sloth and they looked at us below them in the road. What to do?

A bigger monkey came up from behind to check out the situation. I guess it decided it was OK because it led the way across in the branches over our heads, with the smaller monkeys following, and circled around the sloth who watched motionless except to swivel its head.

The monkeys moved away in the trees on the other side of the road, throwing down seed pods which thumped into the forest floor, and continued to make tree top noises; the sloth stayed put, and the birds sounds and the howlers came back into our consciousness.

But now, somehow, it didn’t seem so threatening anymore.

Click here for more photos.

Fred & Judy, SV Wings, Panama

Thank You Joni Mitchell

December 4, 2011-Birds of Eden & Prince Alfred Pass

Green Winged Macaw

On Sunday we fired up the merc and hit the road, eastbound out N2.

The Birds of Eden aviary was the first destination and that was the star attraction as far as we're concerned. Click here to see more photos.

After lunch, maybe a bit late it turned out, we headed northward to cross the Price Alfred Pass and take R62 home.

Coastal Mountains

We crawled over the rough gravel road for hours, climbing higher and higher, and wondered if we get across before dark, and that was only the first pass. The second one took us through a narrow gorge and the afternoon shadows had us into darkness.

But at 6:00 PM we came out onto R62, a long straight road through the dry rolling hills on the other side of the mountians and we let the merc stretch its legs.

Getting back to Mossel Bay before dark was easy with that car.

Click here for more photos from Prince Alfred's Pass.

Fred & Judy, SV Wings, Mossel Bay

May 21,2011-Kruger National Park

Fantastic!

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Kruger National Park

That's all we could say after spending six days in South Africa's Kruger National Park. In all of our years cruising we have never had an adventure ashore that matched this. We went into the animals' environment, where they are the masters, and we watched them live as they would in the wild. It is their world, not ours, we felt that, and we had to stay in the car. That was OK because the animals were everywhere to be found and the roads got us right into their midst.

And we did see Lions. Click here or scroll down.

Click each of the photos below to see more shots from Kruger, or click here to go to wingssail images for all the animal pictures (and more).


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Antelope

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Hippos

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Zebra, Giraffe, Buffalo

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Cheetah

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Hyena (also Jackel)

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Baboons (also Monkey, Rhinoceros, Elephants,& Warthog)

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Lions

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Birds

Judy got some shots of the the African countryside while we drove home from Kruger National Park.

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Scenes on an African Road

So, yes, we had a great time.

We're glad we came to Africa.

Fred & Judy, SV Wings, South Africa

May 10, 2007-Visiting Bush Camps in Africa

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Elephant on the move

George slammed our Hyundai “safari” car into gear and we sped up the road, dust flying, looking in the rearview mirrors at the big bull elephants charging over spot where we were sitting just a moment earlier.

We got out of there in time but it was too close for Judy and Ellen who were beating on George’s seat back and shouting, “Go, Go” while I, hanging out the window with my camera, was yelling, “Not yet, not yet, just one more shot”.

George settled the debate and we beat feet.

But it was exciting. We’d followed this herd of a hundred or so elephants up a river, we on one side and they on the other, part of the morning and we been in this clearing on our side of the river as they lolled around in the water on the far side for half an hour or more. A few elephants ventured further into the stream and we thought they might cross but they didn’t seem to be in any hurry so, other than turning the car around for a quick get away, we stayed put.

Then they started swimming, and the first ones came onto the shore on our side, about 100 yards from us, but mostly out of sight on the embankment below.

When they started to meander up the trail and we knew that our car was right in their way Judy was the first to get nervous. “Let’s go” she said, but the elephants weren’t moving very fast and I reckoned we had a few seconds more and I knew the shots would be good once they came into sight so I insisted we wait. The other three in the car weren’t happy.

But suddenly the big bull emerged from the front of the pack and decided to get us moving. He came up at us waving his trunk and ears and making quite a scene and a couple of his buddies were right behind him. It was a great photo opp but I couldn’t keep him framed as the car bounced over the ruts and out of that place.

Great fun.

We spent three days driving around Hluhluwe-iMfolozi game preserve (pronounced shoee shoee meflozi) looking for, and finding, wild game. It was great. We didn’t find the lions (or, should I say, they didn’t find us) but we saw plenty other exciting animals.

Click any image to see more animals at wingssail.images

Elephants

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Rhinos

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Impalas & Nyalas

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Wildebeasts & Cape Buffalo

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Wildebeasts & Cape Buffalo

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Birds

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Monkeys & Baboons

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Girraffes

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Zebras

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Warthogs & Bush Pigs

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Landscapes

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Our Bush Camp & Our Friends

You can click any image above to see more photos or click here so see all of them.

Tomorrow we head off to Kruger to further our quest.

Stay tuned.

Fred & Judy, SV Wings, South Africa