Merry Xmas and a Happy Two-zero-one-zero

This is Africa calling....

Are you still there, Legion of Fans (LOF)? If you are you shouldn't be... get off the internet and go have a Christmas drink with your loved ones.

Regular-commenter, Ali G, and Mother Blog are here with Mrs Blog and me for Christmas. They seem to be having a good time, having spotted leopard, painted dog (a pack of 18), lion, hyena, elephant, buffalo, rhino and a host of grass and tree eaters.

They were last seen heading north in the Kruger Park, South Africa, towards Shingwedzi Camp in search of Cheetah. Hopefull they will make it back... if not there will be more roast pork, chicken and booze for Mrs B and me.

We have pictures by the hundred to post and I am sure Ali G is keen to show the world his new found talents as a photographer so I am going to ask him to be a guest poster very early in the new year.

Myself, I will be out of regular email contact for quite a while. I'll pop on when I can, but Mrs B and I are heading, in this order, to Kenya (Mombasa), Tanzania (Ngorongoro Crater and the Serengeti National Park), and Zimbabwe (Kariba and maybe Mana Pools) in January/February. None of these countries is known for its excellent interent connectivity.

I will, however, hopefully squeeze out a new year's newsletter in early jan, before I leave South Africa, which will include details of the next TP (that's Tony Park, not Toilet Paper) Safari, due to depart for South Africa in May, 2010.

So, on that note, to all of you from all of us (me, Mrs B, Ali G, Mother B and Broomas and Tonka the Land Rovers) have a safe and merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year.

(And on a mildly serious note, please spare a thought for the many Australian servicemen and women posted abroad this holiday season)

x

Comments

naturesmark said…
Can only agree it's time for a Xmas drink. It's about 32 degrees here at the back of the Gold Coast and my wife is busy mixing her first-ever pina colada.... we'll see

Hope to join the trip next May

Cheers from Oz
dozycow said…
Hi Tony - hoping you, your family, friends & LOF all have a Wonderful Christmas & a Safe & Happy New Year!!!!
Timepilot said…
Hope you had a merry Christmas in KNP Tony and that you are still enjoying everything!

Enjoy the major trip - that's a long haul :)
Heidihi said…
I hope you all have a great Christmas and a wonderful New Year.
Trin said…
Seeing I am a little late, hope you all (LOF included)HAD a great Christmas and have an even better New Year. TP - just finished Ivory, which I was teasing myself with until Christmas - fantastic. Only one problem with it, I've finished it!!! Great book, looking forward to the next. I am now onto Part Of The Pride, which I'd also been teasing myself with and am also thoroughly enjoying - as with most readers I suspect, once you start reading you can't stop until it's been devoured. Can''t wait to read Ali G's posts - sure they will be VERY entertaining!
Love youse all!!
Flea said…
Happy New year Tony and Mrs Blog. We miss you, when back in Perth again LOL, it's been awhile.
All good here!
Enjoy Africa,sounds like great stuff coming up, wish WE were there too.
KazzaBP said…
Enjoy your trip, TP and Mrs. Blog! It should be lots of fun hearing from Ali g--I can't wait!

Just had an interesting conversation about Zambezi with my teenage daughter...she asked if she could read it. Ugh. I hate this parenting job, sometimes! There's (shhh) 'ess-ee-ex' in it (ahem...I'm quite sure I skipped right over those parts, being the proper Baptist that I am, but someone--I think it was Dozy (hehe, she's gonna kill me)--told me they were doozies!) Anyhoo, after a serious mother-daughter talk, I decided to let J-E read it. She promised that she, too, would ignore those passages, but I peeked in at her a few minutes ago and she was leafing through the pages, fast and furious. Holy smokes...

TP, what have you done???? Heh. I miss the days of Dr. Seuss...

Wishing you a happy, safe and prosperous new year!

(My word verification is 'taboofil'. That's just too weird)
dozycow said…
Kazza - maybe you should have covered the 'doozies' with black texta ???? Then J-E wouldn't need to furiously leaf through Zambezi in search of them........snicker!
Seriously though, I'm quite sure I skipped those passages myself.....

PS: My word verification is 'derea' which, if mispronounced, could mean 'ass'.....
KazzaBP said…
That's right, Dozy... I remember now! You DID skip those passages, and when I borrowed your book, the pages were so dog-eared I knew exactly which ones to avoid!

You're a pal, there's no doubt about it!
JR said…
TP,

Safe travel for you and the Love and Kisses.

I'll be overflying you soon on my way from Mogadishu to Maputo..give us a wave. Down to Moz to enjoy (not necessarily in this order) good coffee, peri peri galinha, 2M, bloody big prawns, and my beautiful Missus.

Xmas and NYE was all about drinking Klipdrift and coke in between a bunch of larger than life Saffers and eating whole braai'd sheep. Ever noted how Saffers become so 'lovey dovey' around sheep?

My thoughts are with all those ADF personnel doing stuff offshore...wondering why they only have to spend such short periods of time away???
ali g said…
Well all that went quick...never found that frigging cheetah but all not lost found the place where they make Amarula instead.
Did lots of other good stuff in Kruger and how nice to come home to NSW and find it has actually rained again at long last.
Africa was beautiful and home is now once more green again.
Claude happy to see us home too.
What more could you want?
Life is good...
<^..^>
dozycow said…
Kazza: those pages were dog-eared for a very good reason........(would you believe it was so you could staple them away from J-E's young eyes????)

Ali g: Welcome back to you & Mother B !! Sad you didn't find your Cheetah but the Amarula sounds brilliant!! Isn't the rain wonderful ?

Todays word verification is 'fablit'.....possibly a shortening of Fabulous Literature (ie: books by TP) ??
Bookstoread said…
Great pictures. The wild dogs reminded me of the resident wildlife at Varykino Mudgee!
Just saw the Lion Whisperer bloke on YouTube swimming with lions. Rather him than me!!
Welcome home.