Alex and I have figured out that it is only a few blocks to the DTP office from where we are staying. We set out on foot around 7:30 a.m., leaving Harvey to his slumber. On the way over, I notice a building that purports to be the home of the "College of Business Education." There has been an ongoing joke amongst us about a gentleman who handed Maina his card at the Pixel Corps launch. His card stated his profession simply as "Business Man." I imagine that he was trained at the College of Business Education for his future career.


Mr. Faddy is in whatever line of work you are in.


Mr. Faddy's alma mater.

We get over to the office before most of the staff. Other than being able to get tea and breakfast cakes, there is little good done in getting in so early. This is mainly because there is a problem with the ISP temporarily suspending the account. It takes another few hours after Hanif and Shafiq arrive to get it sorted out and the packets to start following again.

Maina comes in with Rita and she brings out her interface project. Alex had scoffed at the idea last night, but he is floored. Rita and five others have put together a city guide to Nairobi in Flash over the last year and a half. They have dubbed their interface Yebi and are scheduled to launch version 1.0 on August 1. Alex has been talking about moving people off of the "Web" and into customized delivery interfaces for most of the trip. The Yebi fits into this model perfectly.


Rita from Nairobi showing off Yebi.

Chantal, Hanif and I join Alex Fox at the train yard to take some photos of the engines and cars that the Fox Family has recently purchased. A thunderstorm hits on the way over, which causes us a bit of distress, but as quickly as it started, it is over. The train yard is a delapidated affair. The train stock that Alex has purchased used to belong to the Tanzania-Zambia Rail Company. They had been sitting out in Dar es Salaam and are consequently in very bad shape.


The stripped interior of one of the cars. The steel floors have rusted through and need to be replaced.


The primed exterior of the car. Note the red lead paint which is extremely hazardous and illegal in most countries. Of the seven original painters at the yard, only one is alive today. The workers seem unconcerned about the fumes coming up from their welding and grinding, nor the bits of the paint that get on their skin.


In order for us to get better shots of the car, several smaller pieces of rolling stock are moved out of the way by being winched onto the pontoon and repositioned on other tracks.


Most of the cars and engines are of Chinese origin.


Huh? This condom offers huge protection.


Back at the all you can eat buffet. As much of this deliciousness at you can handle for $3.


The distribution for the local Coca-Cola bottler is people powered.


Alex looking for artwork amongst the local tingatinga painters.

Back to DTP to regroup before we head out for dinner. Harvey read through all of the restaurant listings in the Lonely Planet guidebook and the consensus was for the Alcove, a delicious Indian place with a large veg selection. We try to get in touch with Maina's cousin who would like to see us all before we leave. Rita has used up all the juice in Maina's phone by SMSing her colleagues in Kenya. Maina borrows a phone from one of the wait staff and disects it in order to swap out the memory chip.

We drop Alex over at the office and head off to the 4twenty bar. By the time we make it over there, Maina's cousin is long gone. We run into Peter, a South African we had met on the first night in town. We shoot a few rounds of pool and then head back, getting a little turned about in the process. Finally get to bed at 2 a.m,

We are just kicking around the DTP office today. Trying desperately to get this blog up to date. Alex is doing more training in the afternoon. We have lunch at Shafiq's.

Following are some interesting street scenes:

A masaii in traditional colors.


Sugar cane vendor.


I believe this equipment is for sale, but you can try it out before you make a purchase.


Chantal has created a booby trap with all the cables to her Powerbook, drives, and DSR11.


For dessert, Shafiq attempts to disect something that looks like an internal organ. His choicce of a butterknife proves to be a poor one and the patient doesn't make it. Luckily for us it turns out to be a delicious treat with almonds.

We head back to the office to get in some more computer time. Maina and Hanif head over to the bus depot to meet Rita, a girl who has come down from Nairobi to meet with us. Her twelve hour trip turned into sixteen with a four hour breakdown delay near the Tanzanian border. Maina and Hanif are surprised that the bus is still coming as it is illegal for them to be travelling after dark. Rita shows up and she launches straight into grilling Alex. The session does not last long, she is pretty wiped out from her trip. She promises to show us a internet appliance that her group has been working on.

We are up early again to get over to ITV for a 9 a.m. presentation. Alex has made a strong point about showing up early so we can be all set up and ready for the presentation. Maina picks us up and we get to ITV around 8:15 a.m. It is a good thing that we are early, as there is a much lengthier check-in procedure now that we are not accompanied by Lema. We have to account for all of our electronic gear, of which there is a considerable amount. They want to make sure we depart with only what we brought in.

The ITV main studio space is made available for the presentation. There is not a really suitable place for us to project onto, so a large piece of white card is found to serve as a screen.


About 40 people turned out for our presentation.

Alex ran through a modified version of his Pixel Corps launch presentation. He managed to hold the crowd for a good hour and a half. The ITV folks had lots of good questions. They are the sharpest and most put together group we have met thus far. The room was chilled so as to be almost arctic. Alex enjoyed this be the rest of us were thrilled to be finished and back out in the sun.

Our next stop was an all you can eat Indian buffet. They were not quite open when we arrived but Hanif got them to let us in. They had the vegetarian food ready to go. I got to start while the others had to wait for the mixed entrees to be served. There were jokes about me always being served first, as i had previously related stories about being served veg meals on airline flights long before anyone else was brought food. A couple of times this caused a great deal of concern amongst the less seasoned travellers seated nearby. Our scumptuous meal cost about $3 a piece. I would be lucky to find a comparable meal in Los Angeles for four or five times that price.

Spent the rest of the afternoon in Q&A sessions with Alex and number of the DTP and DPI staff. Picked up some new tricks for making selections in Photoshop. Calculations are a wonderful thing. Tony came by after the Q&A session for some one-on-one with Alex. They went over a great deal of 3D while picking the Star Wars Episode I trailer apart shot by shot.

We are up early to get Alex back together with his laptop which he left uploading in the office last night. The drive is supposed to pick us up at 8:30 a.m. We are still cooling our heels 45 minutes later when Maina arrives to give up a lift. The frustrating thing is that we are fairly certain the office is only a handful of blocks away, but we are not entirely certain of which way to head out. Our anticipation of getting to the office is for naught, as it is locked up. So close, and yet so far away. I lent Alex my laptop so that he could at least get on the internet with the Airport. That kept him going until the keys arrived.


The early morning view from our pad.


Every construction site is shored up with unmilled lumber

Hanif encouraged Alex and I not to shave during our Ruaha and Mufindi trip with the promise of a proper shave when we got back to town. We head over to an Indian barber to fulfill our hot shave fantasies. I have come to enjoy the beard that has grown in, so I opt for just a little clean up on the bottom. It always a little disconcerting to have someone with a razor at your throat. But there were enough witnesses that I thought I would be alright.


Photo © Harvey Reed

After we got all cleaned up, we headed over to the facilities of IPP Media. IPP runs two TV stations, four or five radio stations and a newspaper, The Guardian. They seem to be well positioned as a major player in the East African media market. We are meeting with Lema, the IT Director for the IPP group. He is interested in having a portion of his staff join the Pixel Corps. We start out looking at a group putting together web sites. Check out Dar Hotwire for some of their work.

The designers of the ITV web group (from left) Shija and Kanuti, our host Lema and Alex.


A quick snap of the main ITV studio. We are not supposed to be taking pictures


DJ Baby Kabae behind the mic.


The Channel 5 video team. They are all using Final Cut Pro to cut DV.


The pre-press room for the newspaper. They are well equipped with G4's with fancy Lacie monitors.

We had been hoping to meet with their staff today, but we will have to come back in the morning. We head back to the office to get online. We seem to be living from connection to connection. The rest of the afternoon and evening are spent at the office.

Chantal, Harvey, Maina and I head over to a chinese restaurant for dinner. We are a little surprised to find that it is about $10 a person, when we are more accustomed to $3-5. The ambiance is nice and the food extremely well presented, so we don't mind too much.


Our big meal out. Harvey just couldn't wait to get started.

We finally head over to Hanif's house to get a change of clothes abound 11:30 p.m. Getting everything gathered and ironed takes an hour or more. Taking all of our things from Hanif's seemed like a good thing at the time, until we remembered that the room we are staying in are on the fifth floor of a building with no elevator. We finally get to bed around 1:30 a.m.

(Map of the Area)

Up at 6:30 a.m. again. We are hoping to get an early start for the long journey back to Dar es Salaam. There are low clouds and mist everywhere, so we will have to skip a scheduled detour to look at the Rift Valley. It is a disappointment, as it would have been great to get some shots of the 2000 ft escarpment and the valley stretching away far below.


This spider was hanging around on the outside of the main lodge. It's body was a good inch and a half long.

We have Maina driving at the start of the journey. This makes us all a little more relaxed.


Seemingly endless kilometers of dirt road.


This guy had more hustle than anyone I have ever seen. He was running from car to car providing full service. I think he bit off a little more than he had anticipated with us, as our truck was filthy with loads of road grit.


Seemingly endless kilometers of tarmac.

Following are typical roadside scenes from Iringa to Mikumi








Sugarcane salesmen.


Basket factory.


The local crackhouse. (Note the large crack running down the near wall.)

We stop to check out the snake farm in Mikumi. It is a little frightening. Behind rather insubstantial looking enclosures are some of the most deadly snakes in the world.


Nile Crocodiles.


This is my lunch (Chantal's fist for scale.) Maina and Mwanga were convinced that I would be needing a nap after eating that much ugali, the white blob. Mwanga was ready to wager my laptop that I would be asleep shortly. He was unwilling to put up his PD150 camera if I did not need a nap, so the bet was off. Needless to say, I didn't need a nap.


Mothers transport their youngsters on their backs. I have yet to see the logistics involved with twins.


The Wu Tang's World Domination has even reached Morogoro.

We get back into Dar es Salaam a little after dark. Some realtives from South Africa are visiting, so we have to shift our quarters to Hanif's mother's house. First we swing by the office to get our internet fix. We are all convinced that Hanif should switch careers and become a tour operator. The South African relatives own a PR firm. We all sit down to a huge family meal at Shafiq's house.

We are up at 6:30 a.m. to take advantage of the sunrise. Some low clouds and mist hinder our viewing. Chantal and I get in some shots before we head over for breakfast.
View of the Main Lodge and environs (QT Mov 2.3MB)

View of the back forty looking toward the main lodge

After breakfast we head over to the stables where some of the guests get saddled up for a ride out into the tea plantation. We jump into the car and head over to hear a talk about the coffee they are growing. The elder Fox is a wealth of information. The advent of several large coffee combines have driven the prices into the ground. A grower gets $0.50 per Kg of beans. When it gets to the supermaket the Kilogram is worth $15 and by the time it gets to Starbucks, it is worth $180.




We continue on to a portion of the tea plantation and await the folks on horseback. Our group busies itself with shooting the location

View of the Tea Plantation (QT Mov 1.6MB)

Jeff gives a long talk on the finer details of cultivation of tea. We learn about Indian and Chinese plants and that the top three leaves are harvested. The plants will keep growing and the top three leaves can be harvested many times throughtout the year. Every four years the plants are pruned back commpletely. They rotate the pruning cycle so that only one quarter of the plants are trimmed on any given year.


Mwanga taking advantage of a cellular signal.


The horsey set arrives on the scene


The horiculturalist in his element. Mr. Fox learned his trade in the 1930's from one of the early German colonials.

We head back to the lodge for lunch and then out to documents some of the other activities available on the Highlands Farm. Our first stop is at a small lake. The big excitement here is trout fishing. A family from Canada has been having some luck fly fishing.


View of the fishing hole.


The angler at work.


Here is the one that got away just before it escaped back into the drink.


Dad dives in after the special fly that Jr. has managed to get caught on the bottom.


Dad manages to bring the fly up with his foot. I haven't met many anglers that are this dedicated.

I putt around the lake in a canoe with Hanif. A quick lesson on the finer points two person paddling, and we are on our way. There are lots of birds at the upper end of the lake. Looks like coots and maybe mallards.

View of the canoe and crew (QT Mov 1.2MB)

After our work at the lake is completed, we head back over to document a game of croquet in the secret garden area. In true English fashion, gin and tonics are provided and things get a little more lively. Hanif takes the game.


Pre-game warm-up.

We continue on shooting around the area and get some of Jeff and Alex golfing. Towards dusk, a few of us come back for a couple more rounds of croquet. Hanif manages to win or come in second in all the rounds. We are finally forced to quit when it gets completely dark.

Up at the crack of dawn so as to not miss any early morning lions. We had a small and much quieter vehicle today. More of the same animals. The highlights were a nearly fearless family of warthogs that were quite close to the road. We also had a great time at the hippo and croc pool. This was the first time we had seen hippos out of the water. They were quite impressive in their slow lumbering gait. As we were going about our documenting, one outsider hippo approached a larger group at the shore. A hippo in the group took offense and charged the outsider with loud bellows and bared teeth. This sent about half the group splashing into the pool. As soon as the commotion had started, it was over and the hippos on land froze. A while later the outsider hippo was chased to the far end of the pool.





We might have had better luck tuning into the "Big Game" station.

After a quick spot of lunch, we packed up and bid our farewells. We were hoping to make it to Mufindi before nightfall. The fork of the road that we opted not to take on the way in was supposed to be quicker by at least an hour. It had the ominous title of "The Neverending Road." Hanif seemed determined to shave even more time off the journey. As we hurtled down the dirt road we came around a bend to find another car hurtling toward us. We spent the several white-knuckle moments slaloming down the road. Alex happened to glance up at the Clinometer and noticed at one point that we were three degrees shy of rolling the vehicle.

Maina and Mwanga testing for cellular signal. Both are hooked on SMS (Short Message Service.)

We blasted through Iringa.


The local Bockbuster looks like a happening place.

The rest of the trip was a 160 KPH white knuckle ride from Iringa through Mafinga and on to the Fox Family Farm in Mufindi. The farm is in the southern highlands of Tanzania. We have been warned that it is quite cold. I am not convinced that it will be that bad as it is only 5000 feet in elevation. It is a bit chilly and I am glad I have my windbreaker. As we climb up, we begin to see pine trees and eventually come into the tea plantations the region is famous for.




We manage to pull into the farm just before dark. All of us are quite glad to have made it safe and sound. We get settled into our rooms and get our battery chargers plugged in before heading over to the main lodge for dinner.


Can't get enough of that electricity.

We finally get to meet the Fox family patriarch, Jeff along with the only son in the family business we had not yet met, Bruce. Jeff has been trying to retire for a while but has gotten dragged back into action with managing the Farm. Bruce has recently returned from the UK where he was working on promoting the Fox Family camps and lodges to British adventure tour companies. We are excited to chat with Bruce about the DVD we have been working on. Dinner is a rather noisy affair as the lodge is completely full. We are all excited to get some sleep and tuck in after dinner.

Alex and I are stirred from sleep by the bellowing of hippos a scant five meters from our front door. We had not really had a chance to take in our surroundings in the dark the night before, so we were very pleasantly surprised to find that we were right on the Ruaha River. Spent some time taking QTVR's and early morning shots of the river.




View of the banda by the river
We eventually make our way over to the main camp and are directed up to the "Bar" which has a great view of the surrounding countryside. While there, Alex gets to talking with one of the camp staff, a gentleman named Apollo. Alex shows off some of the photos we have been taking in the area and his demo reel. Apollo was educated in one of the local seminary schools and has certificates in math and physics. Unfortunately, there is not much opportunity in the area to put that education to use.




From the "Bar" we had noticed an elephant wandering around in the lower end of the camp. As we descend to the dining hall, he moves closer in amoungst the buildings. Alex, Mwanga, Maina and I approach and find the elephant rummaging around in the camp rubbish heap. At one point Mwanga makes the wrong move and the elephant lunged forward a bit whist bellowing and spreading its ears out. Needless to say, Mwanga backed up in a hurry.





Alex's foot provided for scale.

After breakfast, we head out to look for game. The camp provided us with a open-sided safari vehicle, driver and guide. Saw much of the same animals as Mikumi. This included baboons, water buffalo, zebra, giraffe, gazelle, dik dik, warthog, elephant, bush hyrax, meerkat, hornbill, weaverbird, eland, thompson gazelle, wildebeest and some other assorted birds and small game.The animals in Ruaha seemed much less concerened with us and our vehicle. Our continued hunt for any big cats was again in vain. Another group had seen a pride of five adult and five young lions early in the morning. We had been advised that the good game viewing did not start until after 9 a.m., so we missed the lions altogether.


Our guide Asao

The big excitement of the day turned out to be a large group of elephants at a watering hole. We were able to watch one large group from a rocky outcropping. They were a bit standoffish as we were upwind. Another group of three elephants approached the water hole from the opposite direction. They were blissfully unaware of our presence. As soon as they got to the watering hole, the larger group made a break for it and came to join them. We spent a good ten minutes looking down on 15 to 20 elephants. Eventually all of us had our fill and we and the elephants moved on our separate way.




We spent another couple of hours hunting around for lions. We saw more animals of all kinds. Eventually we came across a fairly large airstrip. A fifteen passenger plane was just getting ready to take off. We stopped long enough to film it. As the plane was approaching the far end of the strip to turn around and begin it's takeoff, a giraffe wandered into the takeoff path. A truck was dispatched to chase the errant wildlife out of harms way and the plane took off.

Back at camp as we were finishing lunch, the camp elephant came around the corner to where we were seated at the dining hall and started molesting the foliage about two meters away. It was amazing to be so close to a wild creature of that size.




The rest of the afternoon and early evening was spent documenting the camp and its environs. I shot QTVR's while Chantal and Mwanga got video footage. We planned to get up early to head out on another game hunt at 7 a.m., so we all tucked in soon after dinner.

Up at 5:30 a.m. after a scant three hours of sleep. None of us were moving very fast, so we were about half an hour late meeting Mwanga. Got all seven of us crammed into the Nissan Patrol. I am glad that we are down one and not trying to squeeze eight into the truck.

We are headed out on the same road we took to Mikumi last week. I noticed some of the same mini-buses, including one with a full sized portrait of the Pope on the back. We stopped at the junction for breakfast. The shop we patronized before is closed and the one we end up at was not nearly as good. Alex was all ready in his Star Wars Episode I ILM VFX Crew shirt, but his friend at the junction was having his Star Wars shirt washed that day, so there was no photo op.

At the Morogoro BP station Alex bought some cushions to use on the top of the truck when we get into Ruaha Natl Park. He is immediately pegged as sucker and every tout within 100 meters comes running up with something to sell.




We keep on travelling along the same road all the way up through Mikumi Natl Park and on beyond the town of Mikumi. Around 1 p.m., we are finally into new territory. We wind our way up through some low hills and into more mountainous terrain. We catch sight of the Great Ruaha River cutting its way through a fairly deep channel.




Our forward movement is slowed to a halt periodically by road work. On one particularly hairy stretch of road that Mwanga said was very dangerous, they are busily laying in a foot of concrete as a road bed. It is a world of difference compared to the old tarmac which looked like a squishy mess.




The next stop was Iringa, which is the last bit civilization before we enter the park. We gas up and grab some lunch. Lunch is brought out in a rather hap-hazard manner. The waitress only has six of our seven orders and she comes back with not enough mugs of tea. Alex has gotten hooked on the Indian Chai we have been getting in Dar for breakfast. Today he has been determined to get some of it out in the countryside. This is the second time he has failed and ended up with a mug of hot milk. He does not make a good impression on the waitress by changing his tea order. Mwanga and I both have ugali and beans. Ugali is a sticky meal made from maize. It is similar in consistancy to a steamed dumpling.

We all grab some shots as we head out the backside of Iringa on our way to the park. They are busily making road improvements here as well. Very substantial culverts are being laid in under the road and the surface is being groomed and graded.




We opt for the scenic fork of the road which takes us through a number of villages. We all try to get some photos in the failing light. On one particularly desolate stretch of road we pass a Masai on a bicycle. We stop to ask him if we are headed in the right direction. Mwanga asks him if he is afraid of the animals in the area. He says that he isn't and that after all, he is an animal. He is carrying a long stick with a nasty looking burl on the end so he should be able to fend for himself pretty well. Mwanga informs us that a male Masai must kill a lion to become a man. Just before sunset we have a blowout. While we are stopped to change the tire, we get in some shots of the sunset before starting in to work. We are all a little wary of predators and are contantly looking over our shoulders. Sunset is hunting time and none of us have an illlusions about outrunning a lion or faring as well as a Masai in the event of an attack.




We pass the chief ranger who gives us intructions for getting into the park after dark. Our interaction at the park gate guard is punctuated by his omnipresent AK47 assault rifle. We get through without too much trouble and finally get into the Ruaha River Camp around 7:45 p.m. As we pull into camp we spot a hyaena. None of the rest of the folks are very excited about getting out of the vehicle. We drive around to the two bandas we will stay in and drop our things. Back to the dining hall for a scrumptuous dinner. None of us last much past the end of dinner and the comfy beds are most welcome.

We are off at 5 a.m. to Ruaha and Mufindi until Saturday.
Up at 7:30 a.m. and jumped right back into prepping elements for the Foxes of Africa DVD. Our presentation begins at 6:30 p.m. this evening. We all have a lot of work to finish up before then. Chantal has to get over to the DTP office to talk with the Mobitel folks about the photo shoot she did yesterday. Alex, Harvey and I finish up at the house and await the driver. We are sequestered in Hanif and Shafiq's office again. Chantal is finishing her edit, Alex is getting his presentaion together and I am compressing video. Harvey and Maina head over to the hall to stat setting things up.

Tony came by and we show him a bit of what we were working on. My inquiries after the nature of the advertising market reveal that outside of tech sector, most businesses are completely reactionary about their own promotion. The only time a business will make any effort is if their competitors have something they don't.

We have lunch at the office, as none of us really feel that we can spare the time for a full sit down meal. I am having some fits with Compressor, the new video compression application that ships with Final Cut Pro 4.

The presentation got started at 6:30 to a crowd of about 150. Most of the attendees were graphics professionals in the Dar es Salaam area. Some of the folks are employees at the local TV stations that were all brought in by their managers. The meeting ran for just under four hours. Alex talked for most of the time. Chantal and I got up at the end to do a little bit about the DVD project. I talked about the interface and authoring, while Chantal talked about editing in Final Cut Pro. My piece was hindered by a number of equipment problems. First I ran into trouble with a bent pin in the VGA connector from the Titanium to the projector. Next the headphone jack was not being picked up by the mixing board. And to add insult to injury, my computer powered off halfway through showing the DVD.

We finally got on the road at 10:45 p.m. Headed over to get something to eat at a late-night establishment. The only thing I could eat were french fries which I opted to pass up. About half-way through the meal, there was some commotion over by the car. Someone called Hanif over and was holding up a floor jack. It turned out that the rear window on the truck was not locked and someone had reached in and grabbed the jack then set it on the ground. The guy that reached into the car was caught a couple of minutes later. Everyone within earshot ran up to where they were holding the would-be thief. By the sound of his wailing, he was pretty severley flogged. Eventually he was dragged off to the Police.

The rest of dinner was uneventful and now we are over at the DTP office getting enough of an internet fix to last us for the next couple of days.

Arrived in Dar es Salaam after a short 3 hour flight. Were a little worried at first as we came by the old airport first, which was incredibly ancient. Heartened to see a new airport they be disembarked at. Interesting process at imigration where you hand an official $50 US in cash and wait in line. Two ladies are filling in forms by hand very slowly. It took us a good three quarters of an hour to get processed from ten poeple deep in line. We were fortunate to be in the first flight that arrived in the afternoon. I am sure the people on the flight behind us waited a close to two hours.

Alex and I were greeted by our host Hanif, a Kenyan who had lived in San Francisco named Maina and a french lady, Chantal. We jumped into his land rover and headed into town. Stopped by Hanif's office to look around, by his house to dump our gear, and over to his brother Shafiq's for dinner. We had a huge gathering of us three visitors, Hanif, Shafiq and his family and a bunch of professional artists in the community. Dinner was a lavish Indian spread.

Up at 5 a.m. to get out of town before traffic got crazy. Alex, Chantal, and I were joined by Hanif, Maina, Mwanga, a local filmmaker, Gloria, the daughter of one of the programmers at the government run TV station, and Pranay, a graphic designer newly over from India. All eight of us crammed into a land rover and headed off to Mikumi National Park for a three day safari. What was billed as a three hour drive turned into close to six. I did not mind at all, as it was great to be out in the countryside, never knowing what new thing was around the next corner. Mwanga regailed us with stories and facts about the entire region. He has apparently lived all over Tanzania and is a wealth of information.

Passed by lots of wide open countryside. Mwanga told us that the area is called the "Sleeping Giant" because it is incredibly fertile, but almost completely undeveloped. We also passed by lots of single room brick buildings along the roadside. Most of them had something set up by the roadside to generate income. Most common were large ( 1 meter high, 1 meter diameter) sacks of charred wood, used for cooking. Several groups had woven baskets and mats made of palm fronds. Others were selling small quantities of mangos, tangerines and tomatoes.

Stopped for breakfast at a roadside stall in Chalinga. Had some delicious potato samosas, chapati and chai (tea). The local touts were selling all manner of things from foodstuffs, throught traditional handicrafts to safari trucks fashioned from aluminium cans. One of them was wearing a Star Wars Episode I shirt. Alex was tempted to break out his ILM VFX Crew shirt, but opted just to have a picture taken instead.









Finally made it into Fox Family's Vuma camp around four in the afternoon. The camp is an incredible place. This is truely the finest tent camping I have experienced. We are here to make a promotional DVD for the camp, so we get to work right away. Chantal and Mwanga and Gloria start filming, Maina, Praney and I start shooting some QuickTime VR's. Alex is taking shots of us as we work. Maina is amazed the the QTVR's can be put together in three shots. The work he did for the Reflection Toolkit required 50 shots. Here is the poolside view.

That is it for now. Just got back into town this evening. Down at the local ISP trying to use some of their bandwidth to test iChat A/V. We leave again in the morning for another safari. Will post more on both of them when we return on Saturday. No big cats in Mikumi.

Lads, my host during my South Africa stay lives in an area that has security check-points at all of the entrances. The residents pay about $30 a month for guards to be on duty 24 hours a day at the four entrances. Lads estimates that the crime rate in the area has dropped 95% since the check-points were put in place. Foot traffic still can go in and out unchecked so crime is not completely eliminated. Earlier in the week, someone had climbed over the wall of his property and made off with a bibycle. seemingly unhindered by the spikes atop the wall.

Made a quick trip out to the local green grocers to get some fruit for breakfast. Lads was kicking himself for not having brought a bag to put the groceries in. He went on to explain that a law prohibiting the manufacture of lightweight plastic bags had been passed three months prior. This was in order to eliminate a huge problem with discarded bags littering the countryside. The problem was epidemic that the bags were dubbed the national flower. The is certainly making a differnece, as I could see no evidence of bags littering the roadside.

Out to dinner at a local pub style restaurant with Lads, his son and some family friends. The other gentleman is an engineer with the Jo'burg water district. I had his personal insurance that the water was completely safe. I was cautioned that the same would not be true for pretty much any other part of Africa. Most of the water comes from rainfall collected in a nearby reservoir. The water is lightly treated, mainly the removal of sediment and some sanitizing. The municipaliy of Jo'burg used about 3000 megaliters a day.

The dinner discussion mainly revolved around the farms that each family owns. Lads has had his farm for quite some time and has tried to put it into production with a wide variety of things over the years including, cattle, horses, sheep and vegetables. So far none of them have taken off. Part of the problem is that without constant supervision, the caretakers on the property will not oerform even the most basic of duties. For example, the plants will go unwatered and die.

The other family was recently leased a game farm that is one of fourteen parcels surrounding a large central common area. The area has plentiful game and a game ranger who lives in the common area. They are anticipating some good hunting in the coming season. They also plan to hire out the farm to other hunters who will pay for the use of the house on the property as well as any animals they kill. Most of the game on the property are small deer and antilope.

Got to bed around 10 p.m. in anticipation of a good nights sleep to make up for the fitfull bits on the plane. I ran into the same problem that my friend Alex had mentioned. Around 3 a.m., I was wide awake. Nothing I tried to do to get myself to go back to sleep seemed to work. I couple of hours later I dosed off. Up before 7 a.m. to get over to the airport. Bid goodbye to Lads and on to the next leg of the trip.

Ran into Alex in the hour long queue to get ticketed. He had a very successful time in Zimbabwe. Made it throught the various lines with 10 minutes to spare before they started boarding the plane. Was a little dissappointed to not have enough time to try out the wireless acceess at the airport. Alex was carrying quite a bit more than his weight limit and was detained at the check-in counter. His ticketing agent grudgingly put his through and left him with a parting prize of a seat at the back of the plane, even though we were both supposed to be seated mid-plane.

Insert Sardine NYC...Transport 14 hours...Reconstitute South Africa

Up at 4:30 a.m. after a fitfull three hours of sleep.

The Supershuttle Van was a tad late on account of the driver not being able to figure out the one-way streets. Got to Long Beach in good order. The flight to New York on JetBlue was pleasant. Had a great view of the Grand Canyon. No pictures unfortunately, as I was explaining how the canyon formed to a nice Haitian lady next to me. She is moving to Beverly Hills from New Jersey and does hair extensions for a living. She gets $6000 for a single stand weave which takes about 8 hours to complete. I am in the wrong business.

Quick transfer to another terminal in New York. Lots of long lines and pandemonium. Glad I didn't try and cut it too close. The South African flight was completely full. I thought I would be smart and try to get out of middle seat I was assigned and get an aisle one instead. Was a little disappointed to wind up in the very last seat at the back of the plane. I think if I was 5'2" the seat might have been comfortable. At 6'4" it was anything but. Somehow I managed to get myself contorted around the seat ahead of me to get comfortable enough to get a little sleep. Had a light dinner and a bit more sleep. Then the back of the plane became the lounge for a group of christian teens. At 4:30 a.m. African time, they finally shooed everyone back to their seats and turned off the cabin lights. Managed to sleep off and on until about noon. Light lunch just before we landed.

The Jo'burg airport is pretty swanky. Got right through immigration and customs with no trouble. Was happy to see a man standing at the Arrival gate with a "Tod" sign. It turned out to be Peter Cohen's friend Lads. He has very graciously agreed to put me up for the night. Drove back to his house while swapping stories about Peter (All good things.) and how the economy is in South Africa. Got back to his house to see the end of a South Africa vs. Australia Rugby match. South Africa pulled off a victory. Walked Lads' very energetic Cattle Herder/Australian Ridgeback puppy. Waiting to go out to dinner with some friends and maybe some sleep soon.

Less than a day to go. Final preparations.

Gear for a two week trip. Most of it is digital.





Here is a rundown of what is going to make it in the bag:

Nikon Coolpix 5000 (taking the picture)

Tripod

Remote Control for Coolpix 5000

Panorama Tripod Head

183° Fisheye Lens

1.5 GB Compact Flash Storage

3 Batteries for Coolpix 5000

Battery Charger for Coolpix 5000

USB cable for Coolpix 5000

Sony DCR-PC5 MiniDV Camera

12 60 minute MiniDV tapes

3 Batteries for DCR-PC5

AC Adapter for DCR-PC5

Firewire cable

Headphones

20 CD Holder (10 full, 10 blank)

Cat 5 crossover cable

Apple Ti Powerbook

Spare Powerbook battery

AC Adapter for Powerbook + 2 plug converters

Cell Phone + Charger

iSight Camera



Windbreaker

Hat

Eyeshield

Ear plugs

Pajamas

Swimsuit

2 sets Underthings

1 T Shirt

1 Dress Shirt

2 Pair Pants

2 Pair Socks

Towel

Sleep Sack

Umbrella

Assorted Toiletries



Guidebook

Photocopies of documents

Passport

Immunization Record

Airline Tickets

Travelers Checks

US Cash

Credit Cards

Business Cards

Notebook

2 Pens

Wrist Watch

Compass

Tape Measure

Money pouch

Money Belt

5 Cliff Bars

Camera Bag

Day Pack

Back Pack



...and maybe a few more things when I get up at 4 a.m. to leave.