Author: Ed Armstrong

Maputo, Mozambique!!

/ Ed Armstrong
After riding in the train for most of the night, we reached Maputo on the east side of Africa and I touched the Indian Ocean!!

Maputo is an interesting city of contrasts. This is the classic, beautiful, train station and our train stopped close to this station.

Near the train station, we learned of a sad problem. This building was taken over by a “landlord” that charges rent to the people living in the building. However, the person does not actually own the building! He receives rent and it does not appear that he does not do much maintenance! The owner is listed as a company that is no longer in business! What a mess of a situation!

Our first stop was this fun market! With all the nuts that are grown in the area, it was impressive how many types were available to buy. I also loved all the fresh fruit!

I loved seeing all the colorful fruit. I did not know the names of some types of fruit.

I was amazed at all the different nut types!!

Our guide was describing some of the vegetables to me. He loved how fresh the produce was!

There were also street venders selling all kinds of products!

Our tour leader described quite a bit of history about Mozambique and its leaders. China, Russia, and North Korea seem to be involved in a range of developmental projects in the country.

This is the entrance to the botanical gardens.

This was a nearby church. We noted that today is Palm Sunday!

The stained glass inside was nice!

We stopped at this beautiful resort for a bathroom break. They have a spectacular view of the India Ocean!!

I liked the design of this walkway!

For lunch, we went to an elaborate buffet at another resort. Their view of the Indian Ocean was incredible!!

I really liked the colors in this artwork!!

This was a unique fish that I liked!!

I liked this lion, but I have no idea how I would get him home!!

All the wooden carvings were interesting!!

I really enjoyed to colors in this painting on the side of a building!!

All different types of pots and baskets were plentiful!

I find myself really enjoying all the ways artists here use orange!!

It was great to see the beach on the India Ocean! I did not swim, but people said the water was exceptionally warm and enjoyable!

These people using kites could go very fast and shoot quite high into the air!!

I do not think I could handle how fast these people were moving!!

People were using all different kinds of equipment!!

It was nice to relax and enjoy such a picturesque scene on the beach!!

Kruger National Park, South Africa!!

/ Ed Armstrong
One of the most amazing experiences in my life has been to (finally) visit Kruger National Park in South Africa!! It is an absolutely amazing place!! We saw so much wildlife throughout the day.

I realized we were in a unique place as we were in the parking lot at the entrance competing our paperwork, when a family of warthogs walked by right in front of us!!

We saw many, many impala throughout the park. The males have these beautiful horns! They are also a food source for other animals such as the lions.

I loved looking at their horns!

We keep seeing impala as we drove deeper into the park.

I was inspired by the beauty and ruggedness of these horns.

This was a heard of female impalas. They are also beautiful, but the do not have horns as the males do.

Here is a warthog enjoying his breakfast!

He was soon joined by a family of warthogs.

Here were two osprey looking for food.

This guy is a steenbock and he is like a small deer with horns. Our guide said that he would only be a small snack for a lion!

This is a very unique bird’s nest!!

This is a female kudu. I thought she had very unique stripes along her side!!

I love elephants and we were in for a treat as we saw different herds all over the park!!

Here is a rhinoceros! They already removed his horn to hopefully prevent poachers from killing him.

I thought these Egyptian geese were very unique birds we discovered in the park!

Here is a hyena!! Our guide said that they have jaws that are stronger than a lion’s jaw!!

I did not like how he was eyeing our vehicle!! He might think we would be a tasty treat!

Elephants are simply amazing!! I love seeing them in so many locations of the park!!

Other than Kruger National Park could you expect to find an elephant walking along the road!! These are marvelous creators!!

The tusks on this guy are massive and strong!!

I am simply amazed with the size and power of elephants!!

As we watched this amazing creature, he simply moved along and was continuously eating! It was amazing to see elephants in the wild, with no cage restrictions!!

The tusks on the elephants are amazing!! They can move many things with their tusks!!

As we were driving, we came to a leopard tortoise crossing the road. The guides said that they have rarely tortoises in the park! The colors of the shell were amazing!!

I thought this tree was a picturesque African tree!! After I took the photo, I discovered there were zebras all around the tree!

Here is a mighty wildebeest!! They seem to like hanging around zebras!!

I think wildebeest have impressive horns!!

I enjoyed watching the female impalas! I thought there were beautiful and graceful!

Here are a female and male impala! I loved watching them move through the grasses!

With all of these impalas, they are a plentiful food source for the lions and leporids when hunting at night.

I really enjoyed the majestic horns on the male impalas!!

Impalas are beautiful creatures!!

We were fortunate to stumble upon so many different elephant herds during our day in the park!!

Our guide pointed out that the shape of an elephants ear is in the shape of the African continent!!

Elephants are amazing!! This guys tusks are massive and strong!!

As they move through an area, the elephants are continuously eating!!

Off in the distance, we were excited to find a giraffe!!

The wildebeest were massive and impressive creatures!!

The wildebeest herd seemed to hang closely together!!

Close by to the wildebeest were the zebras!! I love the design of the stripes on the hide!!

The wildebeest seem unique in design and they seem to like to be near all the zebras!!

I think it is mesmorizing to look at the stripes on the zebras, especially the stripes on their faces!!

The zebras seem to be a close family!!

The design of the zebra stripes are amazing!!

I really enjoy looking at the zebra stripes!!

I absolutely love the stripes on this zebras face!!

This guy seems to be quite happy and well nourished with his full mane!!

Our guide told us that this youg fellow’s mane standing straight up indicates that he is health and well nourished!!

This wildebeest looks intense!!

I was impressed with the sharp bend in this guys horns!!

This guys look intimidating to me!!

Zebra stripes are amazing!!

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Wildebeests seem forceful!!

Wildebeests seem to always be watching closely for predators!!

This small guy is a dwarf mongoose!! Our guide pointed out that a group of these guys work together to kill poisonous snakes!!

This is a brown snake eagle!!

It was nice to see this young giraffe!!

Giraffes are so majestic!! It was great to have a closer view with this giraffe!!

Giraffes look ungainly, but they move very gracefully!!

I enjoyed watching this giraffe maneuver around to eat the most leaves!!

This female kudu seemed as interested in us as we were in her!!

This is a golden orb spider!! I think he could eat me alive!!

I really enjoyed watching the giraffes move around. Massive but graceful!

Here is a (cape) buffalo. He seemed to be very happy enjoying this stream!!

This giraffe seemed to love how much we enjoyed watching him move around!!

I really enjoyed watching this last herd of elephants we found. We watched them move their ears back and forth to cool themselves down. They are assume creatures!!

Elephants are massive, smart, and graceful!!

These guys seemed to be quite happy eating along and moving their ears to stay cool!!

Elephants are amazingly strong!!

I enjoyed watching this guy happily feed himself as he walked along!!

Elephants are wonderful!!

All of a sudden, this giraffe started running full speed across the road!! I have no idea why he was in a hurry!!

This is a gorgeous male kudu!! His horns are absolutely amazing!! He was sort of hiding in the shade as we drove by, but we found his and were astounded by his elaborate horns!!

This white rhinoceros seemed to be very happy enjoying his meal!!

Nearby, a baby rhinoceros joined his mom!!

Although quite difficult to see through the trees, this is an african wild dog. The have very big ears and they are a very endangered species.

Here the wild dog is moving a bit farther into the trees!!

As we were preparing to cross the river and leave Kruger National Park, we looked down and say this massive crocodile!! It is completely amazing how many different types of wildlife we saw today in Kruger National Park!!

Panorama Route

/ Ed Armstrong
Our plan for the day was to drive along the Panorama Route in South Africa. Our first stop was Graskop where we saw this gorgeous waterfall!!

Believe it or not, but some people are amazingly crazy! The woman in this photo was hooked into a harness and them jumped out from that platform in a zip line!! I could not believe that she did it!!

There were some great singers and dancers on our path at our second stop, Bourke’s Luck Potholes. Gold was found in these “potholes.”

It was fun looking at the gorgeous scenery!!

The “potholes” are these section of rock where the water has carved out shapes in the rocks.

Africa is a beautiful land!!

I really enjoyed the sound and sights of the waterfalls!!

This is one of the pedestrian bridges we needed to walk across to get a nice view of the waterfalls.

These students were having fun and asked me to take their photo!

I think this was my favorite waterfall at Bourke’s Luck Potholes!

I love all the colors and shapes that are everywhere in South Africa!

For lunch, we stopped and ate at a beautiful resort! After our meal, we walked outside by the pool and were greeted by gorgeous clouds breaking up and giving us a glimpse of the greenery that surrounded us! We simple stood and watch the clouds move slowly through the area!

I seem to stumble upon beautiful flowers growing around us!

Our last stop of the day was to go to Pilgrim’s Rest and learn about how gold was discovered there and the enormous impact gold had on South Africa’s economy!

Macadamia nuts are grown in the area and this guy was doing his best to get us to buy some of this products. Rather than carry his box of nuts, it balanced it and carried it on the top of his head!

This pretty flowers were enjoying the gentle rain and greeted us as we walked through Pilgrim’s Rest!!

African Train – Traveling in Style!!

/ Ed Armstrong
One of the most amazing experiences is traveling in Africa on an elegant train system!! Rovos Rail is wonderful and amazing!! We had a pause before lunch and we were told that we were running 2 hours behind. The host stated that it was great and wonderful for “African time.” They provide unlimited alcohol and focus on superb service!

This is the station were we started our journey in Pretoria.

This wonderful woman greeted us with a glass of South African champagne when we arrived in the station!

Sandwiches were readily available in the railway station. There was no extra charge to enjoy the food!

These treats were wonderful! I especially enjoyed the fruit!!

I have always loved bird of paradise and this healthy plant was growing right next to the train tracks!

The train conductor invited me inside the engine compartment. His name is Jonas and he loved showing me around.

This is an absolutely wonderful family I met in the train station. They are “locals” in Pretoria and have ridden the train several times. It was fantastic to talk with them.

These are the porters and they did a great job delivering all of our luggage to our rooms. It was fun talking with them!

This is a mosaic on the patio of the train station. I am not in Kansas any more.

These folks were playing beautiful background music as we waited for the train to be ready.

It is easy to understand why Rovos Rail considers themselves to be the Pride of Africa! It is a top flight organization!!

This gentleman is truly an amazing success story. Before we boarded the train, he described how he built the train from nothing. Financially, it was a challenge to build it from scratch!

He buys old railway cars, since they are less expensive. He then guts them and rebuilds them into amazing train cars.

All the wood in the train cars are handcrafted! Here his workers are building new toilet seats for their next train car project!

The owner described the precision involved in buying new axels and train wheels needed for the refurbished train cars.

These wheels with the gears are made for the engine cars.

Some of the engines are diesel, some are steam, and some are electric. This is a steam engine that is being refurbished.

This is my room. The width of the room is the length of the bed. It is quite cozy and comfortable. It is a warm day and the air conditioning in the room works great!

This is the head section of my bed. It is nice and comfortable!

This is my bathroom with the shower behind the glass doors!

The sink is similar to that seen in a motorhome, except the water is always hot and their is continuous water pressure.

This is the inside of my shower. It has more room than most RVs.

The last train car has an observation deck and this is the view from where we just traveled. The train uses “small gauge” tracks.

There are several bars on the train. For high tea, I asked for a gin and tonic to stay in the British tradition!

This is one of the lounge cars The owner described that they are designed for talking and drinking. It is prohibited to bring your cell phone, laptop, or tablet to these areas. They are supposed to be technology free to encourage discussion among everyone.

This is the outside of my room.

This is one of the dining cars. They are incredibly elegant. You simple sit down wherever you want.

Lunch was a four course meal, matched with two South African wines and a liqueur.

This is the second diner car. I picked to eat here because I thought the woodwork was especially beautiful. I was joined at my table by a family medicine physician from Wisconsin. We thoroughly enjoyed the food and wine!

This was our original course, a fancy beet salad!

The main course was a fantastic chicken dish!!

The cheese course was wonderful!

This wonderful gentleman served and told us about each wine. He was very fun to talk with!

The dessert course was matched to this South African limoncello. I think it would rival the very best limoncello from Italy. I loved it!!

The final course was this unbelievably dessert!! I do not think I have ever had such an elaborate lunch!! We still have high tea and dinner to go today. For dinner, it is a requirement to dress up. I must wear a button-down shirt and tie. I am looking forward to this entire trip. It is amazing that I will spend 11 nights on this train as we travel to a total of 4 countries!

Johannesburg, South Africa!!

/ Ed Armstrong
These excited guys created our group with enthusiastic dancing and singing.

We started our day by going to the Apartheid Museum. We spent four hours going through the exhibits and learned a great deal about different people groups, the development of history of Apartheid, and how the country worked through a series of very complicated and sensitive issues. It is an excellent museum and I enjoyed learning about the history.

Our group was randomly divided into whites and non-whites and we went through different entrances. I was placed into the non-whites group.

All kinds of laws were created to keep the two groups apart within the society.

Nelson Mandela had a massive impact in working through the apartheid system.

This was a very interesting sculpture. If you stood in one spot, you could see Mandela’s profile image, but it you moves slightly to the right or left, you could only see random pieces of metal.

No photographs were allowed within the Apartheid Museum, but we could photograph displays on the outside. Desmond Tutu was prominently involved in working against the apartheid system.
In the afternoon, we went to the Soweto district of Johannesburg and enjoyed seeing many of the crafts for sale. We also learned about important history of the struggle against apartheid that occurred in Soweto.

At one point, Nelson Mandela lived in a house in the Soweto district.

I loved the bright clothing that was for sale!

I was drawn to the rich orange colors!!

I really liked this necklace!

This was an embroidered image on a t-shirt. It was my favorite!!

I enjoyed seeing all the drawings of African animals!

The wildlife in Africa is unique, wild, and powerful! It was fascinating to see all the artwork that was created!

Palm Springs Aerial Tramway!!

/ Ed Armstrong
John and I had a wonderful trip to ride the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway!! The tramway base (Valley Station) is at elevation 2,643 feet and the tram quickly rises to 8,516 feet. This photo was taken at the top of the mountain and we had beautiful views all around the area.

The terrain is quite rugged and the tram glides “smoothly” above the rocks.

I was surprised at the large size of the tram and how many people fit inside. It was interesting to be within the tram as the floor of the tram slowly circled around as it moved along the cables. You could not hold onto the inside edge within the tram because the sides kept moving. It was fun to ride. One guy next to us was quite nervous with the swaying of the tram as it moved along the route. It was quite full and can hold 80 people!!

This photo was taken within the tram as we looked back to the station where we started. I has able to hang my camera out the window to get a clear view!

This bird greeted us at the top of the ride. He was especially loud as he watched everyone!!

We had a beautiful view of Palm Springs from the top of the mountain!!

In he middle of the photo are the wind farms seen in the distance.

We had a beautiful view of the clouds moving into the mountains. It was spectacular to watch the expansion of the clouds rapidly shifting as they enveloped the trees!!

As seen from the outside, the tram swings at quite an angle as it moves up the cables. While inside, it was fun to ride in it!!

This is the original tram car that was used in Palm Springs!!

Indio Hills Badlands Trail!!

/ Ed Armstrong
John and I went on a great hike on the Badlands trail near Indio! Sections were rigorous, but all the rock formations were quite interesting!

The rock formations were fascinating and it was a gorgeous day for a hike!!

Every direction held unique rock structures as we walked along the trail!!

We discovered quite a few arches in among the rocks!!

Some of these formations made me think about Zion National Park!!

John and I had fun walking along the narrow paths. We had to be cautious to not slip on the uneven slopes on the trail!!

We saw so many strange rocks. Here, the rock appeared to be “dripping” down the hill!!

This “stairway to heaven” sign was posted by someone to highlight a steep cascade of steps and rocks up a hill!!

I enjoyed seeing so many odd rocks!!

I liked this arch we noticed in the midst of these small caves!!

We saw these people ahead of us on the trail and knew we needed to climb up the hill and then would walk along a narrow ridge!!

Once we got to the top of the hill we had quite a ways to walk along a fairly narrow ridge!!

Looking back it was interesting to see such rugged rock formations with Indio in the distance!!

I am glad it was not windy as we walked along the ridge!!

These hikers with walking sticks had a great view from the trail to see Indio down below!!

This friendly lady was walking along the ridge we just passed. She provided a great perspective!

I loved seeing the softness of the gorgeous clouds along with the roughness of the rock formations!!

It was fun to walk along such a fun trail and see so many beautiful scenes!! It was a great hike, but I was tired after we finished the hike!!

Valparaiso!!

/ Ed Armstrong
Valparaiso is a fun city in Chile!! It is the largest port for the country, so it is quite important for commerce. Yet, there is a large “artsy” feel in the city. These steps are painted with the phrase in English “We are not hippies, we are happies.” This clearly summarizes the unique culture of Valparaiso.

As we drove from Santiago to Valparaiso, we stopped at a winery for wine tasting!! Chile is world-famous for their superb wines. As we drove, our guide noted that one valley was known for growing grapes for white wines, while the next valley we drove through was warmer and they grew grapes for red wines in that area. I love Chilean wine!!

In Valparaiso, we rode up this cable car to get a nice view of the city!!

The importance of the port is clearly seen with the number of cranes and ships in the sea.

Unique English spelling!

Chile, and especially Valparaiso, is quite colorful!!

This old building with unique architecture is being refurbished.

A beautiful theme of Valparaiso is the art seen everywhere! Murals are unique, creative, colorful, and often tell a story. I loved looking at them!!

The shapes and colors are amazing!! These artists are very talented!!

I especially liked this mural because it was so lively and colorful!!

Every theme imaginable was painted in the murals!!

This home is sort of pie shaped!! On this end, the house is quite narrow. A person inside could almost touch both walls at the same time! However, the home widens significantly on the other end of the house. It is 3 stories, so it is actually a large home.

This panther seemed to be a favorite of our group!!

This yellow building used to be a British finishing school. It has been remodeled and now has rooms available for rent. I should also mention all the wires strung all over Valparaiso. We were told that all the wires are not live. If electricity is needed, the simply hang a new wire. They never bother to trace and remove the old wires. It is odd to see so many wires running between buildings.

I liked the colors of this raven!!

The building in the distance is a Lutheran church. Although there is a strong Catholic heritage in Chile, this church was built because many foreign workers in the port city wanted access to another church too.

This seems to be a typical street in Valparaiso. The streets are often narrow one-lane roads, with modern cars, and murals all along the buildings! It is a very eclectic and arty community.

I loved these beautiful sunflowers!!

For lunch, we were invited to eat at the home of a family in Valparaiso!! This is the spectacular view of the city and harbor from their balcony!! What a beautiful view!!

After lunch, our hosts fixed us an alcoholic dessert that tasted wonderful!! The hosts called it an “earthquake” because after drinking a dessert, you could find yourself wobbly on your legs as if you were in an earthquake!!

A Wonderful “Gang”

/ Ed Armstrong
This is our group photo as we arrived in Rapa Nui!! No one knew each other before the trip, but it was a wonderful group of people that enjoyed discovering new countries and cultures together. Some were experiences travelers, while for others this was their first international tour. I thoroughly enjoyed my time with each person. We created many spectacular memories together!!

Birdman Island in Rapa Nui

/ Ed Armstrong
We went to the location of the birdman competition on Rapa Nui and first saw this amazing crater. The water in the creator is a little higher than the Pacific Ocean that can be seen in the distance. This photo is a composite of 3 wide-angle photos (handheld) that I then combined to see the whole crater.

I liked photo as it emphasizes the section where the crater collapsed and makes the Pacific Ocean visible from the edge of the crater. We walked along the trail for about half of the crater.

This photo shows birdman island as seen from the edge of the crater. There is a competition to swim from the crater over to birdman island and search for a bird egg. The distance is large as seen by the size of the boat next to the small rock between the crater and birdman island.

This photo shows the width of the crater as seen through the opening in the craters edge.

I liked this plant that was growing near the edge of the crater.