Top Ten Tuesday - Gumboot Dance

I have decided that we are going to learn to gumboot dance. I just think it will be so fun - perhaps clips of us gumbooting our way across Southern Africa will go viral and we'll become millionaires? Either that or we'll have some pretty cool clips to show people...

The gumboot dance originated among South African miners (probably gold mines) as an alternative to drumming, which was restricted by the authorities. Apparetly the steps and moves were in parody of the guards/officials that ran the mine. In honour of top ten tuesday here are my ten favourite clips of people doing the gum boot dance.

Number 1 being these awesome guys in Camps Bay:



2) Look how happy these guys are - and so colourful. 
3) There's even a gumboot musical and here's the whole story.
4) Drakensburg Boys Choir does the gum boot dance!
5) These guys are just really good.
6) This one is a bit more arty...and involves an accordian...?
7) Mostly the middle guy's dungarees make this one worth watching.
8) Zebra-style anyone? And then bum-bumps, awesome!
9) People looking confused is my favourite part of this one.
10) Loads of people, like a rainbow of gum boot dancing!

Mammal Monday - We've a spring in our step

Image from here.

Continuing our interest in South Africa, the first of the countries on our great trek, I thought this mammal monday we'd devote to the South African national animal the Springbok. Which quite literally means jump (spring) bok (antelope/goat)...and jump these guys do. They can leap 3.50 m and can long jump of up to 15 m.

These little mammals, for anyone that's been to Africa, are pretty common to garden and it wasn't unusual for me growing up with the similar (but not quite the same) beasts - the impala - to mutter about how very dull they are. This being said Springboks have a pretty cool little habit called "pronking" (which comes from the Afrikaans for showing off) where they jump repeatedly 4 metres into the air, stiff legged, with their backs bowed. 

Image from here.

No one is quite sure why they do this but they seem to do it when nervous or over-excited so it could be:
1) indicate to predators they've been spotted and in doing so, show off their own strength and agility thus encouraging the wicked carnivores to look at less impressive jumpers
2) spraying scent from a gland near their ankle
3) I would argue mating, these things always have something to do with mating.

An interesting little fun fact: During the Second Boer War, a Boer force attempting to sneak up on the Royal Canadian Dragoons was defeated after their movements startled the nearby springbok, thus alerting the Canadian sentries, which is why the Dragoons have the springbok as their cap badge and as their mascot.

Image from here.

Ah wiki, what would I do without you....

Fun Fact Friday: Checkpoint 1 - South Africa

Let's start at the very beginning, a very good place to start. With time ticking away a-pace we better get our heads around where exactly it is we're going to. With two South Africans and a Zimbabwean (who has lived in South Africa) starting with South Africa may well be a tiny cheat but it is the starting point of the rally so there isn't really any other way to begin.

Yes it's the SA Flag

General Facts - as taken from the CIA World Factbook and some of my very own personal general knowledge (I know, you all want me on your next pub quiz team...)
President = Jacob Zuma
Governement Type = Republic, with administrative capital in Pretoria and 9 provinces.
National Symbol = Springbok

Total Area = 1,219,090 sq km - making it the 25th largest country in the world and it's slightly less than twice the size of Texas. It has 2,798 km of coastline and borders Botswana 1,840 km, Lesotho 909 km, Mozambique 491 km, Namibia 967 km, Swaziland 430 km, Zimbabwe 225 km. We will get to see 4 of these in our rally. Bazinga.

Population = 48,810,427 (July 2012 est.) - making it the 26th most populated country in the world.
Median Age = 25
Life expectancy at birth = 49
Interestingly the birth rate is negative at = -0.412% (2012 est.), making it 217th in the world.

We start the rally in Johannesburg which has the largest city population in SA of 3.607 million although interesting in 2010 it was estimated that 62% of the population lived in an urban area. This explains why the majority of the 17.67 million economically active people in the country work in services - 65% in fact. And at 173rd in the world unemplyoment is at 23.9%.

Now for fun facts! 1st contact news has some awesome unusual facts so here are a few of my favourites:
1. South Africa is now the only country in the world to have hosted the Soccer, Cricket and Rugby World Cup
2.What about beer? South African brewery SABMiller ranks – by volume – as the largest brewing company in the world. SABMiller supplies up to 50% of China’s beer.
3. South Africa is the only country in the entire world that has voluntarily abandoned its nuclear weapons programme.
4. There are more than 2000 shipwrecks off the South African coast, most dating back at least 500 years.
5. The Cape Floral Kingdom is one of the world’s six floral kingdoms – and the only one which is wholly contained within a single country.

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.

1. Don’t pack a wet tent away. Rocking-the-daisies dew has turned my once spotless mobile home into a black mouldy mess.
2. 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.
3. Don’t skimp on mattress – We might be bad-ass, but old bones and hard ground do not a happy camper make.
4. 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.

5. 

   Image from her

   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.
6. Don’t forget a corkscrew.
7. 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.
8. 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.
9. 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.
10. 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

Mammal Monday: Venom, Eggs and Mammalianess

Image: http://australian-animals.net/plat.htm

 We won't see these on our African adventures but I simply couldn't resist a mammal monday in honour of these egg-laying, venomous, duck-billed, beaver-tailed, otter-footed mammals, platypuses! These little guys are really cool because they are mammals but so markedly different from other mammals.

Firstly, they lay eggs - interestingly, they are in uetro for 28 days and only spend ten days incubating externally. Chickens on the other hand have their eggs on the inside for only one day and they are on the outside for 21 so technically platypuses keep their babies inside for a pretty long time considering.
Another fascinating baby-related tidbit is that mum platypuses have mammary glands but no teats so they excrete milk through their pores (bleurgh) and there are grooves on their abdomen to catch the milk in so that the babies can subsequently lap it up. 

Image: http://www.southernfriedscience.com/?p=1287

Both males and females are born with ankle spurs but only male platypuses actually produce venom, making platypuses one of the few venomous mammals around. Apparently they produce more venom during the mating season and while the venom won't kill a human it can cause long-lasting hyperalgesia (a heightened sensitivity to pain) that persists for days or even months...nasty little buggers.

Another interesting non-mammal feature that platypuses have is that they use electroreception - this means that they can locate their prey (in part) by detecting electric fields generated by muscular contractions. They are the only mammal to do this.

All in all, these little guys really are cool. Unusual yes, but who said normal was anything special.

As always, thanks wiki.

Fursday Thursday - Insider Tips Anyone?

Now that I've realised we actually need to start thinking seriously about the rally and what we need I've started thinking about Constance and how to make her habitable for the course of 17 days! She not being very big, us not being very good at packing light we're going to have to plan how we pack our car with military precision and if Pimp My Ride can deck out cars to be entertainment systems and party vans with margarita makers, TV screens, garbage disposal units and mood lighting then I think with a few minor adjustments we could make Connie a real home-away-from-home, for the duration of the rally at least.

Basic must haves that I can think of so far are...(this list is far from exhaustive - any ideas anyone?):

1) Collection of plastic bags for rubbish. Luckily, I can fold plastic bags into neat little triangles so we can have loads of these.
2) Cooler box spot. I think this is integral to a pleasant journey in general. If we can make the cooler box part of the decor then I think we'll have not only a source for our treats (read gin) but potentially also, a table, head rest, seat for George Monkey, deadly weapon....
3) Map Spot. We need to make a little home for the map which is nice and easily accesible. Being lost is stressful, being lost and not able to find the map because someone's sitting on it or thrown out is the stuff of angry words, and no one wants that.
4) Home for loo roll. In an earlier post I made mention of peeing in the wild and how, to add a modicum of decency to an otherwise fairly distressing endeavour, a little bit of loo roll goes a long way. If we can create some sort of structure, perhaps connected to the cooler box, which would hold our loo roll out of the way but within reach at all times we'll be both happier and less likely to discover we've stood on our last bit of loo roll and there's another 10 hours to civilisation. Perhaps this structure might also be able to support other things. If we're really clever we could attach a line to it and create some sort of washing line perhapsd, or a pulley system for moving our sweets from driver to back seat without any over-arm stretching...or am I going too far now.
5) Actually, maybe this is too far, although how awesome would this be:

Any other top tips anyone?

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.