The Middle East

We landed safely in Jordan after around 18 hours of in-flight transit time.  We had a car reserved and little else.  Some internet research in SA had us leaning towards staying in Madaba as an initial base of operations for visiting Mount Nebo, The Dead Sea, and Jerash.

The driving is back to right side USA style driving.  Nice.  We managed to wade through the Arabic/occasional English road signs and got to Madaba without too much trouble. The first hotel we checked on had a room available.  The kids are currently all sleeping at 2:30 in the afternoon.  They were trashed from a sleepless night watching movies on the airplane.

We will likely hit Mt Nebo tomorrow (from where Moses originally saw the Promised Land).

So far, so good. Psyched to be in the Middle East. It has been a void in our world travel resume for far too long.  More posts to come.

Kloofing in Groot Kloof

Kloofing is Afrikaans language for canyoneering; a recreational activity using ropes and rigging to aid in traveling down narrow river canyons.  A good kloofing day will include rappels down waterfalls, mandatory swims across short sections of the river, some small jumps into pools, general scrambling, and scenery that you can only see if you are kloofing. 

We joined Rob Thomas and four of the participants from the Rigging for Rescue workshop for a day of kloofing down Groot Kloof (great canyon). Rob is a local kloofing guide and was kind enough to invite us along for the adventure (the day following the conclusion of the RfR training workshop). 

The kids had previously experienced kloofing in the Ouray area.  However, this particular kloof was a step up in difficulty with a bigger rappel and some mandatory jumps into water as well as some cold swims.  It did not seem to slow them down one bit and we all had a great day of adventure together.

Mike

Kloofing was AWESOME! We were invited to go with Rob and a few other RfR participants! First, we had to drive to a parking spot to be able to access the canyon. It was about an hour hike to the descent into the kloof. Once we got down we harnessed and helmeted up! Then there was this bum slide on mossy slippery rock. The most nerve-racking part of the day was a 20 meter rappel over a huge chockstone boulder. I went in tandem with my Dad. At the bottom, there was a mandatory and VERY cold swim!

We had previously done some canyoneering at Angel Creek close to Ouray. But none of the rappels were even CLOSE to 20 meters! I was glad when we finally touched ground.

Audrey

Rock climbing day in Cedarberg Kloof

The day after our kloofing adventure we managed to put together a day of rock climbing.  The Magaliesberg Mountains near the Rigging for Rescue training location have some of the best rock climbing in the Joburg vicinity.  Really nice quartzite.  It would have been criminal to leave without getting our hands on the stone.

A couple of the Rigging for Rescue participants were kind enough to loan us ropes, a rack, and rigging equipment for the day.  We tied Swiss Seat harnesses on the kids.  Joanie and I already had our rock shoes and harnesses ready to roll. We had sent those to ourselves in Cape Town in hopes of getting in some rock climbing during our stay in South Africa.

The day turned out to be magical. The kids all did really well on the climbing. We rigged two different lines with varying difficulty so that everyone could have fun.  We had the crag to ourselves and it was just amazing to pause and reflect during that day and pinch ourselves…here we are, rock climbing in Africa…how cool is that?

It’s funny, but despite the week being a “work” week, I think I will reflect on it as one of the best weeks of the South African segment. We met some new friends, saw old friends from 2010, turned some very keen people on to Rigging for Rescue, did some activities that we either would not have known about (kloofing) or could not have pulled off without loaner gear (rock climbing), and had the cultural experience of hanging with locals.  It was awesome. 

Mike

A few days ago, the Gibbs family went climbing in the Cedarberg Kloof in the Magaliesberg Mountains north of Joburg. I was really excited because we hadn’t gone climbing in FOREVER!!!!!!!!!! Anyways, the easier climb was called Lunch Box. Even though it was the easier one, there were still many difficult aspects to the climb. One of which was the start of the climb: to get to the rock, you had to clamber over a tree growing out of the mountain. There were also many box-like sections with minimal holds that were also pretty hard. Everyone summited the Lunch Box and then came the challenge: Dom’s Party.

We all looked up to the top as it ominously stooped over us. My father was the first one brave enough to tackle the climb. It proved easy enough for him. The next challenger was none other than the rock solid Rock Gibbs! This time, the climb was lucky enough to prevail. Judging by Rock’s size, that wasn’t too much of a surprise. I was the next contestant. It was very hard. At least for me. It involved a lot of pull-ups and cramming elbows into tight spaces but I made it up in the end :D. I was really sore the next day. It was definitely an awesome day of rock climbing! 

Mackenzie 

Rigging for Rescue in South Africa

The only work-related gig that we prearranged for our round the world trip was a 4-day training workshop in South Africa.  I had conducted a similar Rigging for Rescue program down in Cape Town in 2010. One of the participants from that workshop, Rob Thomas, runs a mountain guiding and rescue training company called School for Mountain Leadership here in South Africa. I had approached him many months ago about the possibility of doing a workshop while we were in-country and he enthusiastically agreed to make the arrangements.

Our training session was based in the Magaliesberg Mountains north of Joburg.  The Magaliesberg is an ancient mountain range with beautiful, hard quartzite rock.  The workshop consisted of 12 participants from various rescue agencies around the country.  It was a keen group and we had a terrific week of training. 

Rob put the Gibbs Family up in a nice log cabin near the training site. We used the cabin as the classroom facility and also the group mess hall. It was awesome to have the kids be able to watch and see what their dad does for a living and also to engage with the South Africans attending the training. We held evening meals together and by the end of the week the kids were on a first name basis with the entire class. Pretty cool.

Final safari images from Kruger (approx 2 weeks ago)

We certainly got off to a bang in Kruger National Park, what with a pack of wild dogs sighting, the cheetah taking down the impala, lions, and rhino all on the first day. We followed it up the next game drive out with an AM sighting of the elusive leopard.  That is typically the one animal that people miss on the “Big 5” tick list. 

One of the images included below appears to be just a stand of tall grass.  Look harder and see if you can spot the animal in hiding.  That would make you think twice about going for a stroll outside of your car (not allowed, btw).

There is also an interesting image of a zebra with his tail trimmed off short. I would love to know the back-story on that, but I think it is a safe guess that it includes a hungry lion that went without dinner that night…

Our days in Kruger followed the same routine of most safari enthusiasts:  get up at dawn for a 2-3 hour game drive; come back to camp for a late breakfast and a dip in the pool; maybe do an evening game drive or an early braai (barbeque); write in the journal; go to bed.  Wash, rinse, and repeat the next day.  Not a bad program.