The Biggest Fish in the Sea

We caught the biggest fish in the sea. Or, a damn big one anyways. A sailfish, actually, maybe six and a half feet long, very very beautiful. Its our last day in St. Lucia, so we thought we'd go out with a bang. I've been traveling with three other ladies, an Aussie, a Brit, and a Canadian. The trip was supposed to cost R450, but we managed to book it for R250, which we were very excited about. Then when we were the ones pushing the little motorboat in the water and when we had to immediately go back to shore to check out a problem with the motor and then the Canadian immediately got impaled with a nasty fish hook we started to wonder if we'd cut a deal to end up eaten by sharks or stranded for hours in the middle of the ocean somewhere. We, as a boat (us plus two honeymooning Brits), caught three tuna, one baracuda, and the monster sailfish (the fish of a lifetime). We all enjoyed ourselves very much, but my three friend were terribly seasick and spent most of their time lying on the floor of the boat, trying not to throw up. I got more sunburnt than I care to, even blue shit does not seem to be helping.

St Lucia has been very beautiful--the ocean is amazing. We enjoyed our time on the beach until the Brit and the Canadian got stung by blue bottle jellyfish. We also saw Black Rhino and Buffalo in the park, which is nice because we don't have either of those on our reserve.

I think my time is almost up, and I need to go help the girls fix the sailfish steaks we took home. So, keep on keepin on, guys. I miss you all, but not enough to come home yet.

On the road again

I bet you guys have been checking this site every day, just to see if I've had a chance to post anything yet. A lot has happened in this past two weeks--I went to the mountains and begain to properly apreciate the term "pissing rain". It rained the entire time we were up there, which was a shame only because we were really at cloud level, so we could only see about 1/8 of what the view should be, and sometimes we couldn't even see to the clothesline at the end of the yard. While we were gone from the reserve, everyone else there were being pissed on as well. They couldn't ford the river to start our waterpump, so they were on water rations the whole time and had to shower in the rain out in the bush. I'm kind of sorry I missed that, actually. And they also had a 4 meter long crocodile attack the front bumper of the truck as they crossed Croc Dam.

Last week I had all kinds of other adventures back on the reserve. A couple of hippos got out of the fence and onto the main highway where they were hit by a car. The reserve manager had to shoot them because injured hippos are very dangerous. And then they were butchered by the local people--we took a stake home, but we never got to eat it. I also saw a rhino chase the horses from one of the other lodges--it was their guests first night's ride! We had another morning with the hyenas, a rather illicit morning, actually. We weren't supposed to go down there because the rain made the roads down there so bad--but it was my friends last drive, so a staff member took us down there and made us all swear not to tell. If we had gotten stuck, we would have had to pull ourselves out because we couldn't let anyone else know we were down there. So don't tell anyone. We even got off the truck and walked with them for a bit. They are adorable! (And I swear you all will get pictures sometime!)

You would be not so surprised to know that I have already gained kind of a reputation for always being covered in mud, wearing bizzare rain outfits (my yellow poncho for a start, and then trying to make waterproof pants out of trashbags), and also for my irrational love of fungus (i was given the termite award for the end of the five weeks--some termites cultivate fungi the same way leaf cutter ants do).

I'm in St. Lucia now, in the wetlands park. Tomorrow we're goign to find crocs and hippos and flamingos. I just got back from the beach, and I'm going to go shower and lounge a bit and then go out for a delicious dinner at a restaurant of some sorts. And just so you all know, we cook our own food on the reserve and it is terrible and most of the vegetables have gone bad by the time we get them home. So we tend to gorge ourselves when we get out. I'm going to eat my way through this week off. Starting with some kind of shrimp, I think.

I'm glad you all aren't having any fun without me. Stay well, I'll try to post again at the end of this week.

Mamela, Moushe, and Marieskop

I have just witnessed a lion darting, as we said good bye to the young lionesses Mamela and Moushe (Softness and Strength). I got to stroke Moushe just before the put her in the crate--she is pure muscle and more beatiful than I could have imagined. We've had a good deal more adventures than that as well. Our truck died literally a meter away from a large male elephant named Flippy, who got his name for his flippant manner and his habit of tusking the hoods of vehicles. A giraffe watched me take a bush wee. Our morning with the hyenas was spent trying to keep them from putting holes in our tires. And a solifuge chased me up a ladder onto my friends bed. I'm off the the cloud forest now to catch small mammals and see what all lives up there. Breakfast is calling. Try to have fun there without me.