My World - Carpe Diem

New Beginnings

2012-01-25T05:30:00.000-08:00

I have left the country - yep have finally left my homeland Australia to now live in South Africa. The new journey begins although it is work that brings me here I am really looking forward to the journey of learning and understanding a new culture which is as diverse and proud as any. It was a hectic time leaving home with emptying and farewelling one life for another. It is quite a job leaving ones home - packing, storing, cancelling, culling non-required accumulation of stuff because one does not feel comfortable paying for the storage. This of course makes me wonder did we really need it in the first place... probably not. One item that really stood out as expensive mainly because of its redundancy are magazines! not only do they accumulate rapidly but you cannot easily get rid of the. It is a sad day when Charitable organizations do not want them either, so where did hundreds of useless dollars end up ... in the tip/garbage. That is wrong and has cured me of my magazine addiction. Do you have a magazine addiction?

Letter from Indonesia

2010-10-31T08:54:00.000-07:00

Letter from Indonesia

Greenpeace

2010-07-21T18:44:00.000-07:00

Well hello haven't been here for a while and I intend on coming back telling some stories but for today I invite you watch the following video

Food for Thought... what are you doing today to make a little difference to our planet.

Kuname Game Safari - Part 2

2009-06-17T03:21:00.000-07:00

Now lets talk about the animals - Lions mating a roaring experience, a baby white rhino is just the cutest thing but you don't want mama to get upset so it is best to keep all limbs by your side when this close to the animals. We went off-road following a magnificent leopard, witnessed dinner being caught by a cheetah - she was also beautiful, the lion cubs were up to no good and the elephants ... well I was in heaven as we sat surrounded by a large group of Elie's feeding for a couple of hours just me, the tracker and ranger - what a glorious afternoon. The baby elephants where hilarious as they tried ramming the car and then scared themselves off. The elusive giraffe caught me out twice due their incredible camouflage, I did not realise I was looking at them and they are so calm. Then there were endless kudu, waterbuck, guinea fowl, hornbills (birds), baboons, civet monkeys, - cheeky little buggers stole apples from my room from right behind my back - couldn't stop laughing. All in all it was a fantastic 4 days of living a lifelong dream.

Kuname Game Safari - See photos - click on link

2009-06-13T05:19:00.000-07:00

http://picasaweb.google.com.au/karinovari/KunameGameReserve?authkey=Gv1sRgCMj33vPf4sv0rwE#

Kuname Game Safari June 2009

2009-06-08T12:20:00.000-07:00

Kuname Game Safari - Part 1

2009-06-08T09:09:00.000-07:00

Wow! www.kuname.co.za highly recommend to anyone wanting a 5 star event amazing place, people and of course animals.

A typical day starts at 05:30 yes that's when the animals get up :) and so do we if we want to see them. It is quite chilly at that time (beeny and gloves highly recommended - not that I had any), so we hop into our open top safari car and head off into the bush. We start hunting for the animals - Sean the ranger and Sammy the tracker do an amazing job of finding exactly what we want to see. Whether it be elephant, leopard, cheetah, white rhino, lions (bonking), and many other numerous animals and birds. Then we stop in the warm early morning sun at a beautiful location were the view is generally to die for and have hot coffee with breaky snacks such as fruit, rusk, yogurt etc. Then we continue our drive till around 09:00 to 09:30 when we arrive back at the lodge and get ready for a leisurely breakfast which lasts till around 11:00.

We then have free time till around 15:00 when high tea is served with more goodies to savour before heading off (at 15:30) on our evening game adventure drive. The weather is now lovely and warm and the animals are very active around this time. We stop to have drinks and nibbles whilst saluting the setting sun, then continue our drive into the night arriving back at the lodge around 18:30 - 19:00 depending on the animal movements and sightings.

We then have a beautiful dinner accompanied by some excellent wine before heading to bed around 21:30 for a good rest before our early morning wake up call at 05:30 by Sammy our tracker.

Each day brings a new excitement - more on that in the next installment.

Before going on Safari

2009-06-08T07:10:00.001-07:00

Well life is never dull to say the least. I left the rig (Sedco Express offshore Angola) after 4 weeks of running onboard workshops covering 200+ people to then run a further couple of days workshops in downtown Luanda, Angola.

So a busy 5 weeks with over 250 people through my workshops, did a fine job generating further work with other companies... maybe working in and out of Angola for some time to come.

Then flew to Johannesburg, South Africa for 9 days of R&R (rest and recreation). 1st stop Melvilla Guest House www.melvilla.co.za great spot with generous hosts Gerald and Eleanor.

I met with my Regional Manager Andrew who was also staying at the Guest House. We had a great couple of days which were sadly marred by us being mugged and me loosing all my credit cards and money. Not good when staying in foreign countries. The good news of course is that apart from a sore elbow (mine) all is well and we were relatively unharmed. But boy complacency is such an easy trap to fall into and I know better but got caught.

The lesson of course is - never ever keep all your eggs in one basket as they say - keep all cards and monies in seperate areas and only carry the bare minumum ever.

Well that was my lesson to you. And I know these rules and it still happened. Stay aware when travelling even in your own city of comfort.

However, there are always many bight stars in adversity and the Game Reserve www.kuname.co.za still allowed me to join them for my 4 day game safari (more on that later).

This is new territory

2009-06-08T04:29:00.000-07:00

Well thought I would test the blog world, will start adding stories as I go.