There's a lot to get done in the next 5 days! Rather than deal with any of important to-do's I chose instead to make us a mix of the ultimate tunes for the road - fasten your seat belts, it's gonna be a bumpy ride :)
1. Prince - Little red corvette
2. Steel Panther - Party all day
3. AC/DC - Highway to hell
4. Dire straits - Heavy fuel
5. ZZ top - La grange(A haw, haw, haw, haw, a haw. A haw, haw, haw.)
6. Fleetwood mac - Go your own way
7. Bruce (we're on a first name basis) - Born to run
8. Meatloaf - Bat out of hell
9. The Beach boys - Fun fun fun
10. War - Low rider (featuring some ridiculous dancing cars)
Showing posts with label Top ten. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Top ten. Show all posts
Thursday, 14 June 2012
Tuesday, 5 June 2012
Top ten Tuesday: Our Put foot bucket list
Well
we feel that we’ve done quite enough stressing of late about all the things we
still need and the all things we still need to get done. I'd much rather think about
all the rad stuff we’re going to get to see and do. Here’s Put foot HQ’s must-do
list for Southern Africa :
 |
Our
personal bucket list includes some of these classics of course - but with a few more
food and drink based experiences..
1. Jumping for joy at Etosha pan.
2. Feasting on some Namibian Biltong.
3. Cooling off in the Ngepi camp’s floating swimming pool (read croc-proof cage).
 |
| The famous Ngepi camp near Popa falls. |
4. Feeling the spray of the Zambezi
as it tumbles over Vic falls.
5. Taking a dip in the devils cauldron at the top of Vic falls (although this is
apparently only possible in Oct - Dec. Sad face.)
 |
| Flying tourist courtesy of Google images. From here. |
6. Taking part in the 2012 Put foot rally shoe drop at Senkobo Basic School.
7. Staging a pirate take-over of the Kariba ferry.
8. Tasting the fabled Malawi
9. Skinny dipping in Lake Malawi.
 |
| Gin + sachet = genius |
10. Enjoying an R&R (Raspberry and Tipo tinto rum)
with some scrumptious prawns on the beach in Moz.
Thursday, 31 May 2012
It's not Tuesday but it's still a top ten: Medical Supplies
As we prepare for the rally in earnest I realise that Girl Guides really didn't stand me in good stead for big adventures.Or, if it did, I wasn't listening to those talks. Either way I realise that I don't know how to make a tourniquet (I had to google the spelling of that); I can only build a fire after about 4 false starts and certainly can't do it without a match or lighter; and if we get stuck in the mud we'd better hope we have a flare gun so people can find us because my grasp of the physics of mud and the force of friction is not that strong. Bearing all this in mind, and realising it's less than 3 weeks till the trip, I've decided to make a list of all the medical supplies we'll need so that when faced with a broken bone, a burn, or bruising from pushing the car, we're at least prepared for that!
1) Arnica - because I bruise like a peach
2) Dettol - this is good for disinfecting and we don't want to waste perfectly good gin if we don't have to
3) Immodium - 12 hours in a car with a dodgy stomach, thanks to some ill-advised fresh produce, is a prospect I certainly can't face
4) Malaria medication - this is fairly self-explanatory. Can one buy this over the counter in South Africa?
5) Plasters - ideally with cartoon characters but hospital beige will do and some cloth bandges too, just in case.
6) Headache tablets - definitely self-explanatory!
7) Rennies or other such stomach settling product - I don't get car sick but sometimes my stomach just doesn't agree with me. It's a curse.
8) Hay fever tablets - good for insect bites and sneezing thanks to "the nature"
9) Zambuk - "the real makoya" as it says on the tin, and good for just about everything (thanks Zed for introducing me to it!)
10) Savlon - good for the Bs - burns,bites and blisters (I think).
And then of course there's suntan lotion, after-sun, chewing gum, ear plugs and old favourite boiled sweets. This isn't quite medical, but not quite not either....except maybe for the boiled sweets. But what's a road trip without barley sugars?
1) Arnica - because I bruise like a peach
2) Dettol - this is good for disinfecting and we don't want to waste perfectly good gin if we don't have to
3) Immodium - 12 hours in a car with a dodgy stomach, thanks to some ill-advised fresh produce, is a prospect I certainly can't face
4) Malaria medication - this is fairly self-explanatory. Can one buy this over the counter in South Africa?
5) Plasters - ideally with cartoon characters but hospital beige will do and some cloth bandges too, just in case.
6) Headache tablets - definitely self-explanatory!
7) Rennies or other such stomach settling product - I don't get car sick but sometimes my stomach just doesn't agree with me. It's a curse.
8) Hay fever tablets - good for insect bites and sneezing thanks to "the nature"
9) Zambuk - "the real makoya" as it says on the tin, and good for just about everything (thanks Zed for introducing me to it!)
10) Savlon - good for the Bs - burns,bites and blisters (I think).
And then of course there's suntan lotion, after-sun, chewing gum, ear plugs and old favourite boiled sweets. This isn't quite medical, but not quite not either....except maybe for the boiled sweets. But what's a road trip without barley sugars?
Tuesday, 29 May 2012
Top Ten Tuesday: Camping equipment that we need
As the rally rapidly approaches and I keep waking up with night sweats realising what on the "list of things to do in preparation for the rally" has been done (not much), still has to be done (lots, and growing), may have been an impossible dream and should be taken off the list entirely - I thought it was about time we actually started making these lists visible. Perhaps if they are here for everyone to see, we'll get things done? And perhaps someone with fresh eyes can tell us if we're being a little hysterical....
Tuesday, 24 April 2012
Top Ten Tuesday - Namibia
So this weekend we had a big planning session and there was much excitement! In preparation for this skype conversation I'd done some research on Namibia and can't deny that I got really really excited about all the epic things to see - giant sand dunes, bones of ships and whales, giant canyons, meteorites, many many animals - but unfortunately it seems we won't get to see all these things...insert sad face....indeed Namibia is a pretty big place and we don't have that many days to see it so we've had to plot a route that includes some of these things, but not them all.
That doesn't mean I don't get to highlight some of the awesome things in Nam (be we going there or not!) as a store for future adventures.
1) Etosha National Park
Totally doing this as it's one of the Checkpoints - and we've scheduled in a day of driving through so we can see some of the awesomeness. Apparently this is one of the best places to see black rhinos and while it's not the size it was when first created (biggest game reserve in the world back in 1907 - those who've been reading the blog will already know that...) it's still pretty big with a 850 km boundary fence. Dominated by a salt pan desert I'm really looking forward to seeing this having never seen such a thing...I think.
2) Fish River Canyon
Given that we start in Johannesburg and our car is only a 1300 power little lady without four wheel drive we want to stick to the big roads as much as possible so we've decided to cut through Botswana in an effort to get to the Namibian checkpoint rather than looping up and around to Etosha. This does mean though that we'll miss Fish River Canyon which is a shame because it is the biggest canyon in Africa and the second biggest in the world! It's 550 metres deep in places and is 160 kms long and 27 kms wide in places. Interestingly 90kms of the canyon are privately owned so the public view points are near Hobas, camp site 70km north of Ai-Ais. I wish I owned part of the biggest canyon in Africa....
3) Skeleton Coast
Another one we'll have to skip (boo) and perhaps my top pick for Namibia (so we'll just have to go back!) is Skeleton Coast originally know as "The Land God Made in Anger" by Bushmen of the Namibian interior and "The Gates of Hell" by Portuguese sailors. How awesome does that sound! The cold Bengula current hits the coast causing really dense fog which, back when boats were a more regular form of transport and people didn't know better about this area, lead to many shipwrecks - the skeletal remains of more than a thousand of which still litter the coast. Whale and seal skeletons from when whaling was still active also cover the beach so basically it's just all about the bones! I have a macarbe sense of what is awesome.
4) Hoba meteorite
The way our route is currently planned we will get to see this which is going to be grand as it is FROM SPACE! It is the largest known meteorite (as a single piece) known on the earth. How cool is that?! Smart science people estimate that it fell less than 80 000 years ago and as it remains in tact it must have slowed to terminal velocity (I had to look this up but it means that the downward pull of gravity and the upward force of drag were equal leading to net force on the object as zero meaning it had an acceleration rate of zero and could therefore remain in tact...). It's flat on both major surfaces so it might have skipped along the top of the atmosphere like a skipping stone, effectively slowing down along the way. It's discovery was just by chance way back in the early 1900s when a farmer was tilling his land and hit this lump of rock and metal. Pretty cool!
5) Waterberg National Park
The Waterberg Plateau is largely inaccessbile and so in the early 1970s lots of endangered species were moved here to protect them from poachers and allow them to breed. It now supplies many other parks with these rare animals - which is pretty cool. It has over 200 different species of bird so it's a bird watchers paradise! Other than the wildlife interest geological this plateau is very interesting as the rock strata is over 850 million years old and dinosaur tracks were left there 200 million years ago!
6) Namib Desert
The Namib Desert covers a long stretch with the Skeleton Coast along the North and the extensive Namib Sea Sand along the central coast. The Sea Sand boasts the largest sand dunes in the world which would be really really cool to see! Due to erosion that happens in the Orange River Valley and further south lots of sand gets dumped into the Atlantic along this central coast and then is washed back up on shore thanks to the currents. The prevailing South West wind then picks this sand up into the massive dunes. Some well travelled sand basically.
7) Caprivi Strip
We definitely get to go through here which is cool. It's the little outcrop off the North East of Namibia named after Leo von Caprivi who succeeded Otto von Bismarck as Chancellor of Germany in March 1890. This section of Namibia is really interesting as it is wettest region of Namibia and very tropical with lots of rivers and swampy areas. Beyond being a lovely place to see it has had a fascinating (and somewhat chequered histroy). Initially it was known as Itenge and under the rule of the Lozi kings. Then in the late 19th century the strip of land was administered as part of the British protectorate of Bechuanaland (Botswana). Then in 1890 the Germans wanted British Zanzibar and the Berlin Conference settled that Zanzibar could be British and the Germans could have Caprivi - hence its name as Caprivi organised the annexing of it to Nambia (at the time German South-West Africa). During World War I, the Caprivi Strip again came under British rule and was governed as part of Bechuanaland but it received little attention and became known as a lawless frontier. It's not that anymore (thankfully) but it has a certain ring to it....
8) Popa Falls
We intend to stop at these. They aren't really falls, but a series of rapids in the Okavango River, caused by a rocky ledge. They are most impressive in the rainy season when they drop three metres but otherwise they are just rather pretty and apparently, the place we have in mind has a cage for river swimming. Yes indeed, river swimming in the Okavango. EPIC!
9) Kalahari Desert
The Kalahari stretches through Namibia, South Africa and Botswana. Its huge size means it has really arid parts and really rather more lush parts. The more lush parts, are the parts we've seen as they encompass the Karoo - apparently known as the Succulent Karoo which has 5,000 species of plants, nearly half of them endemic - in fact, one third of the world’s succulents are found in the Karoo.
10) Cities
We're going to miss the big three cities - Windhoek, Walvis Bay and Swakopmund - I suppose we should try and see these sometime but on this our African adventure we probably don't need to see another city. This being said - Swakopmund has an interesting museam and Walvis Bay has all sorts of adventure activity options and Windhoek is the main city, it must be interesting right? If I'm really honest though I'd say these are number 10 for a reason, probably a should-see even though I'm not that bothered that we're missing them. Apologies to everyone that lives in these cities!
As always the great wise wiki has given me much of this information. Blame him if it's wrong.
That doesn't mean I don't get to highlight some of the awesome things in Nam (be we going there or not!) as a store for future adventures.
1) Etosha National Park
 |
| Ariel view from Wiki - look at that salt pan! |
2) Fish River Canyon
 |
| Also from wiki. |
 |
| Lots more awesome pictures where this one came from. |
Another one we'll have to skip (boo) and perhaps my top pick for Namibia (so we'll just have to go back!) is Skeleton Coast originally know as "The Land God Made in Anger" by Bushmen of the Namibian interior and "The Gates of Hell" by Portuguese sailors. How awesome does that sound! The cold Bengula current hits the coast causing really dense fog which, back when boats were a more regular form of transport and people didn't know better about this area, lead to many shipwrecks - the skeletal remains of more than a thousand of which still litter the coast. Whale and seal skeletons from when whaling was still active also cover the beach so basically it's just all about the bones! I have a macarbe sense of what is awesome.
 |
| Wiki showing us the tourists that visit the meteorite. |
The way our route is currently planned we will get to see this which is going to be grand as it is FROM SPACE! It is the largest known meteorite (as a single piece) known on the earth. How cool is that?! Smart science people estimate that it fell less than 80 000 years ago and as it remains in tact it must have slowed to terminal velocity (I had to look this up but it means that the downward pull of gravity and the upward force of drag were equal leading to net force on the object as zero meaning it had an acceleration rate of zero and could therefore remain in tact...). It's flat on both major surfaces so it might have skipped along the top of the atmosphere like a skipping stone, effectively slowing down along the way. It's discovery was just by chance way back in the early 1900s when a farmer was tilling his land and hit this lump of rock and metal. Pretty cool!
 |
| Top of the plateau. Wiki once more. |
The Waterberg Plateau is largely inaccessbile and so in the early 1970s lots of endangered species were moved here to protect them from poachers and allow them to breed. It now supplies many other parks with these rare animals - which is pretty cool. It has over 200 different species of bird so it's a bird watchers paradise! Other than the wildlife interest geological this plateau is very interesting as the rock strata is over 850 million years old and dinosaur tracks were left there 200 million years ago!
 |
| Look at all those sand dunes! |
The Namib Desert covers a long stretch with the Skeleton Coast along the North and the extensive Namib Sea Sand along the central coast. The Sea Sand boasts the largest sand dunes in the world which would be really really cool to see! Due to erosion that happens in the Orange River Valley and further south lots of sand gets dumped into the Atlantic along this central coast and then is washed back up on shore thanks to the currents. The prevailing South West wind then picks this sand up into the massive dunes. Some well travelled sand basically.
 |
| This awesome image is from here. |
We definitely get to go through here which is cool. It's the little outcrop off the North East of Namibia named after Leo von Caprivi who succeeded Otto von Bismarck as Chancellor of Germany in March 1890. This section of Namibia is really interesting as it is wettest region of Namibia and very tropical with lots of rivers and swampy areas. Beyond being a lovely place to see it has had a fascinating (and somewhat chequered histroy). Initially it was known as Itenge and under the rule of the Lozi kings. Then in the late 19th century the strip of land was administered as part of the British protectorate of Bechuanaland (Botswana). Then in 1890 the Germans wanted British Zanzibar and the Berlin Conference settled that Zanzibar could be British and the Germans could have Caprivi - hence its name as Caprivi organised the annexing of it to Nambia (at the time German South-West Africa). During World War I, the Caprivi Strip again came under British rule and was governed as part of Bechuanaland but it received little attention and became known as a lawless frontier. It's not that anymore (thankfully) but it has a certain ring to it....
 |
| Image from here. |
We intend to stop at these. They aren't really falls, but a series of rapids in the Okavango River, caused by a rocky ledge. They are most impressive in the rainy season when they drop three metres but otherwise they are just rather pretty and apparently, the place we have in mind has a cage for river swimming. Yes indeed, river swimming in the Okavango. EPIC!
 |
| This is the part we haven't seen I'd say.... |
The Kalahari stretches through Namibia, South Africa and Botswana. Its huge size means it has really arid parts and really rather more lush parts. The more lush parts, are the parts we've seen as they encompass the Karoo - apparently known as the Succulent Karoo which has 5,000 species of plants, nearly half of them endemic - in fact, one third of the world’s succulents are found in the Karoo.
10) Cities
We're going to miss the big three cities - Windhoek, Walvis Bay and Swakopmund - I suppose we should try and see these sometime but on this our African adventure we probably don't need to see another city. This being said - Swakopmund has an interesting museam and Walvis Bay has all sorts of adventure activity options and Windhoek is the main city, it must be interesting right? If I'm really honest though I'd say these are number 10 for a reason, probably a should-see even though I'm not that bothered that we're missing them. Apologies to everyone that lives in these cities!
As always the great wise wiki has given me much of this information. Blame him if it's wrong.
Tuesday, 10 April 2012
Top Ten Tuesday: Camping don’ts
I went on a camping trip this weekend and it reminded me of a few important things we’ll need to keep in mind whilst on the Put foot rally.
- Don’t pack a wet tent away. Rocking-the-daisies dew has turned my once spotless mobile home into a black mouldy mess.
- Don’t forget chairs. It works to have one chair that is superior to the others – whoever wins the day gets to have king chair and lord it over the peasants.
- Don’t skimp on mattress – We might be bad-ass, but old bones and hard ground do not a happy camper make.
- Location location location. Don’t camp too far from the ablutions, and don’t camp too close. A view is 20 points and shade is 10, a built-in braai is 5 and a slope is minus 5.
Don’t forget to check for all the poles before you head off. You can fashion a pole out of a branch but it’s not pretty - and you’ll lose the respect of fellow campers who you might need to borrow a corkscrew from at a later stage.Image from her - Don’t forget a corkscrew.
- Don’t underestimate the sun. It’s bright, and it rises earlier than you think. A well placed tree can do wonders and get you an invaluable extra hour of sleep.
- Everybody needs good neighbours. Don’t camp too close to the ones with children, or the ones who look like they might feel the need to jol UB40 at 4am. Future neighbours beware: we fall with the latter.
- Don’t go in there. Death Valley is not the hottest place on earth - black mould tent at midday can easily top 50 degrees. Enter at your own peril.
- Don’t forget your sense of humour. Things are going to go wrong, your tent will blow over and your sleeping bag will be filled with sand from day 2. Mother nature will get under your fingernails and in your ears – if we wanted sterile we’d be going on a package tour instead of the put foot rally!!
 |
| Thanks Cyanide & Happiness |
Tuesday, 3 April 2012
Top Ten Tuesday - Things We HAVE to do
With less than 80 days till we hit the road we've realised that the time for endearing photos of kittens has passed and we really need to get our thinking caps on. So, our top ten list of things we have to do before we get on the road:
1) Figure out what visas we need - Laura, having a different passport to Lyn and Robs, must take special heed of this one.
2) Get our jabs and certificates of aforementioned jabs. Apparently we need a yellow fever injection and apparently this is sore. Someone should have told me before I paid my deposit.
3) Settle the map versus GPS debate and buy whichever is agreed upon.
4) Plot a route and decide where needs to be booked in advance.
5) Agree to allowed baggage amounts and sort out roof rack
6) Do inventory of camping gear and buy anything we're missing.
7) Get international driver's licenses.
8) Figure out how best to carry money, what form the money should take and how much.
9) Have car serviced and find relevant papers.
10) FUND RAISE!
Usually I find list writing soothing. Today I have found it overwhelming so to cheer us all up (and me in particular) I give you:
That is all.
1) Figure out what visas we need - Laura, having a different passport to Lyn and Robs, must take special heed of this one.
2) Get our jabs and certificates of aforementioned jabs. Apparently we need a yellow fever injection and apparently this is sore. Someone should have told me before I paid my deposit.
3) Settle the map versus GPS debate and buy whichever is agreed upon.
4) Plot a route and decide where needs to be booked in advance.
5) Agree to allowed baggage amounts and sort out roof rack
6) Do inventory of camping gear and buy anything we're missing.
7) Get international driver's licenses.
8) Figure out how best to carry money, what form the money should take and how much.
9) Have car serviced and find relevant papers.
10) FUND RAISE!
Usually I find list writing soothing. Today I have found it overwhelming so to cheer us all up (and me in particular) I give you:
Tuesday, 20 March 2012
Top ten Tuesday: Car-tertainment
There shall be no I-spy in the car so I’ve compiled a list of ten other options to keep us entertained during the long driving days of the Put Foot Rally.
- Twilight audiobooks. Yes.
- Learning a language cd’s – there have been debates over which language, but we could very well return from the put foot rally fluent in German. Drei Gin Tonics bitte.
- Caraoke – Karaoke’s more mobile cousin. And yes, we will be compiling a video of this for your viewing pleasure.
- The “what would your last meal be” game – we played the 3-course version of this on a garden-route road trip and there’s definitely room to expand.
- The top 25 road-trip compilation tape – coming soon to a Tuesday near you.
- I have heard of something called Car Cricket. I am still unclear of the rules but I think it's probably worth learning. It's probably the only cricket I will understand.
- Our very own desert island discs - if we were on a desert island what item [technological, book, CD, DVD, as many options as we can think of] would you take.
- I say famous persons' name. You say another famous person's name whose first name starts with the first letter of the surname of the person I just said ie.Patrick Stewart; Sarah Jessica Parker. etc. Usually a drinking game but it involves much shouting so I think we'll enjoy it even without a sippie.
- The association game. Bizarrely entertaining when you get going.
- Mooning? Perhaps we shall hope that this is the entertainment that comes from elsewhere.
 |
| The Daily Mail online (of course). |
Tuesday, 21 February 2012
Top Ten Tuesday - Gin drinks
1. Gin and tonic – The undisputed queen of gin-based beverages. Originated in India where them colonials would mix their anti-malarial quinine tonic with gin to make it more palatable. The quinine in the tonic water keeps the mozzie parasites at bay, but while this is a great excuse to have a second (or third) you still need to take your malaria pills kids!2. Gin and Dry lemon – What the barman will offer you when they’ve run out of tonic, and why not? It’s damn good.
3. Gin and Juice – Favoured by Snoop dogg and Katy Perry, tastes best when drunk out of a juice bottle at a music festival.
4. Gin fizz – Gin, lemon juice, sugar, and carbonated water. Or just mix Gin, Lemos and soda water, tasty tasty!
5. Gin and Ginger beer – This one's for our red-headed rally comrades the ginger ninjas. Good for day-drinking.
6. Pink Gin - Spice up your garden variety GnT with a touch of bitters, giving it a pleasing pink glow.
7. Singapore sling – A healthy swig of Gin, some Cherry Liqueur, a dash of Grenadine, top it up with Pineapple juice and lemon juice, and finish with a dash of bitters. Magic.
8. Mad glowing jelly – Add gelatine to your GnT, buy a UV light and voila! Full recipe from here.9. On it’s own – Don’t do this.
10. The Hanky-Panky – A variation on the classic martini, the name speaks volumes.
Tuesday, 17 January 2012
Top Ten Tuesday - Things We Can't Survive Without
With the minidiots planning to fit everything they need for 17 days into a mini I think the pitstoppers can definitely manage in their Toyota Conquest, with space to spare, well maybe not space to spare but we can cross roof rack off the list of things to buy perhaps...
All this being said I've spent alot of time thinking about what I can't live without on the trip and what the first ten things I'm going to put in my suitcase are and I've narrowed it down to:
1) Headlamp - yes I'm vaguely frightened of the dark and if I'm going to get eaten by a lion in any late-night tent to bathroom rambles I want to at least see it happen to me. Perhaps I also need a little camera attached to the light for when they want real-life footage in my bio-pic.
2) A Kindle - apparently they have 6-8 weeks battery life and I can't survive 8 hours a day in a car without something to read. There will be another blog post (or 10) about what on earth is suitable reading material but that is definitely for another day.
3) Insect repellant - it may be winter, we may be hardy but I can't help it if my blood is sweet and I certainly don't intend to spend 2 weeks scratching at myself. My recent brush with bed bugs has once more brought the reality of insects and their bites to my coddled first world existance.
4) Sunscreen - I don't deny I long to be nut brown but Lyn's nose peeling (not her fault, the fault of ten hours at the border - yet more content for another posting) has reminded me the perils of sunning one's self. There is of course the great fear of old-before-my-time skin (and there is no space for anti-ageing cream on this trip) and skin cancer. 'Nough said.
5) Passport - fairly obvious but important
6) Cold Hard Cash - I don't think any officials that might need a bit of palm greasing will carry a card swipe machine.
7) Address book with contact numbers written down in pen, on paper. I read recently that you know you're old when you carry a filofax (good thing I don't then) but we best have contact numbers somewhere accessible for the hugely unlikely (but then almost definitely going to happen) situation when not one of our phones is accessible (lost, stolen, not charged) and we really really need to call mum and there's somehow a payphone to hand, or perhaps a kindly stranger with a phone.
8) Headache pills - self explanatory
9) Wheel jack. We may not know anything about cars but we can change a tyre so we should at least be prepared to do that.
10) Duct tape and Swiss Army knife - homage to McGyver - he's gotten out of worse situations than we'll find ourselves in using these two items. Surely we can too, after all we're a scientist, a writer and an organising fundi. There isn't a lot we can't do!
All this being said I've spent alot of time thinking about what I can't live without on the trip and what the first ten things I'm going to put in my suitcase are and I've narrowed it down to:
1) Headlamp - yes I'm vaguely frightened of the dark and if I'm going to get eaten by a lion in any late-night tent to bathroom rambles I want to at least see it happen to me. Perhaps I also need a little camera attached to the light for when they want real-life footage in my bio-pic.
2) A Kindle - apparently they have 6-8 weeks battery life and I can't survive 8 hours a day in a car without something to read. There will be another blog post (or 10) about what on earth is suitable reading material but that is definitely for another day.
3) Insect repellant - it may be winter, we may be hardy but I can't help it if my blood is sweet and I certainly don't intend to spend 2 weeks scratching at myself. My recent brush with bed bugs has once more brought the reality of insects and their bites to my coddled first world existance.
4) Sunscreen - I don't deny I long to be nut brown but Lyn's nose peeling (not her fault, the fault of ten hours at the border - yet more content for another posting) has reminded me the perils of sunning one's self. There is of course the great fear of old-before-my-time skin (and there is no space for anti-ageing cream on this trip) and skin cancer. 'Nough said.
5) Passport - fairly obvious but important
6) Cold Hard Cash - I don't think any officials that might need a bit of palm greasing will carry a card swipe machine.
7) Address book with contact numbers written down in pen, on paper. I read recently that you know you're old when you carry a filofax (good thing I don't then) but we best have contact numbers somewhere accessible for the hugely unlikely (but then almost definitely going to happen) situation when not one of our phones is accessible (lost, stolen, not charged) and we really really need to call mum and there's somehow a payphone to hand, or perhaps a kindly stranger with a phone.
8) Headache pills - self explanatory
9) Wheel jack. We may not know anything about cars but we can change a tyre so we should at least be prepared to do that.
10) Duct tape and Swiss Army knife - homage to McGyver - he's gotten out of worse situations than we'll find ourselves in using these two items. Surely we can too, after all we're a scientist, a writer and an organising fundi. There isn't a lot we can't do!
Tuesday, 10 January 2012
Top Ten: Wilderness Whizzing
Back from a mini-adventure to Zimbabwe which involved many hours in a car I thought it was important to make a Top Ten 10 comment on the extremely important issue of urinating in the wild.
1) Avoid as much as is humanly possible while remembering that holding it in can lead to bladder infection.
2) Hold out till the last possible moment, even the most nervous bladder can't beat the call of nature after 6 hours, 4 cups of coffee, 5 bottles of water and 3 cokes.
3) Best to avoid drinking that much in so short a time in your normal life but particularly on long car journeys.
4) Take loo paper with you, it's bio degradable and I'm just not sure I know enough about plant life to be sure I wouldn't pick something poisonous and that would not be pleasant, to say the least. We have enough to worry about without finding a camp doctor to identify and treat stinging nettle rash on the no-no place. Is there even stinging nettle in Southern Africa....? You see what I mean about plant life knowledge.
5) Spread your feet as wide as possible.
6) When choosing a spot make sure that you're well out of eye-shot.
7) And that you've surveyed the area thoroughly - I'd say that snake/spider bite in the no-no place is worse than stinging nettle.
8) Chose a spot with something sturdy to balance against - there isn't enough toilet paper in the world to hide your shame if you inadvertantly tumble into your own puddle. You aren't the first, and won't be the last.
9) Trajectory is key - this will depend entirely on your height, the suppleness of your knees and the sturdiness of the object you have found to lean against.
10) Buy a SheeWee - peeing standing up is no longer only a man's game. Thank heavens for bits of plastic that mirror the male anatomical form...
1) Avoid as much as is humanly possible while remembering that holding it in can lead to bladder infection.
2) Hold out till the last possible moment, even the most nervous bladder can't beat the call of nature after 6 hours, 4 cups of coffee, 5 bottles of water and 3 cokes.
3) Best to avoid drinking that much in so short a time in your normal life but particularly on long car journeys.
4) Take loo paper with you, it's bio degradable and I'm just not sure I know enough about plant life to be sure I wouldn't pick something poisonous and that would not be pleasant, to say the least. We have enough to worry about without finding a camp doctor to identify and treat stinging nettle rash on the no-no place. Is there even stinging nettle in Southern Africa....? You see what I mean about plant life knowledge.
5) Spread your feet as wide as possible.
6) When choosing a spot make sure that you're well out of eye-shot.
7) And that you've surveyed the area thoroughly - I'd say that snake/spider bite in the no-no place is worse than stinging nettle.
8) Chose a spot with something sturdy to balance against - there isn't enough toilet paper in the world to hide your shame if you inadvertantly tumble into your own puddle. You aren't the first, and won't be the last.
9) Trajectory is key - this will depend entirely on your height, the suppleness of your knees and the sturdiness of the object you have found to lean against.
10) Buy a SheeWee - peeing standing up is no longer only a man's game. Thank heavens for bits of plastic that mirror the male anatomical form...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)