After early morning Mass in Bishop CA we headed south on US-395 to Death Valley National Park. We’re awfully glad we did this in October and not in the middle of summer. Not only were we hot but the car’s radiator got hotter than it has ever been. The landscape was stunning but forbidding. It was spooky to descend to an elevation hundreds of feet below sea level! We especially enjoyed learning about the borax mining and refining operations in Death Valley in the 19th Century. The name 20 Mule Team Borax comes from the fact that the refined chemical was indeed hauled from the refinery to the railhead by large teams of mules.
Queen Mary 2’s arrival in the Port of Dakar, Senegal was heralded in the local press and greeted with ceremony. Our own excursion took us on a coach journey through the streets of the capital city to visit a Wolof village and the shore of Lake Retba, the salty lake famed for an intense pink color.
Today’s safari adventure transported us out into the Dorob National Park to have up close encounters with little creatures that are well adapted to the extreme heat and lack of water in the Namib Desert.
With a UNESCO World Heritage Site, two national parks, dozens of museums, and hundreds of tours offered in the Cape Town area there is more than plenty to do. For our two day visit we opted to concentrate on African wildlife visiting the Aquila Private Game Reserve and the Boulders Beach Penguin Colony for a wonderful chance to these fabulous animals in their own habitat.
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