My Trip to South Africa

Late last year, my husband and I attended a charity event for Disability Services of Colorado. While there, we bid on a silent auction item for six nights at the Zulu Nyala Game Lodge, in Kwa Zulu Natal, South Africa, including meals and two photo safari drives a day. That became the foundation on which we built a two-week trip to the country, adding a timeshare exchange for week at the Strand Pavilion near Cape Town, frequent flier tickets on United Airlines, and stitching together the pieces with a few single-night stays in Johannesburg, Durban, and downtown Cape Town. We returned very late in the evening on October 4th after a 38 hour journey home still enthralled with our amazing adventure. I'll try to share some of it with my blog readers with words tonight, followed soon by some of the thousands of photos we took.

We left home Tuesday, September 15th to spend the night at a hotel near the Denver airport before boarding a flight to DC the next morning. After a long, long flight from there to Johannesburg, with a refueling stop in Dakar, Senegal, an overnight stay in Johannesburg and a morning flight to Richard's Bay, we picked up our rental car at the airport on Friday, the 18th. Neil got reacquainted with driving on the left side of the road on the way to the lodge, which sits on a hill overlooking the 1400 hectare (about 3500 acres) private game reserve.

That afternoon, we met our other eight safari companions for the week, who would sit with us at dinners and share the safari jeep with us: two couples from Louisiana, a young couple from Wisconsin, and two women from Paris, France. We also met our Zulu ranger, Philemon, who took us on our first game drive in cool, wet weather. We saw impala, nyala, kudu, giraffe, vervet monkees and more. Then he got a call from another ranger who was observing their small elephant herd of two females and a 4-year old baby. Soon after our safari jeep arrived, one of the females charged us with ears flapping, while Philemon drove rapidly in reverse. We learned she was in heat, which made her ornery, and wanted the two jeeps to give them more space. We observed the three elephants eating and playing, saw a herd of cape buffalo, then dined at the lodge while being entertained by a group of Zulu dancers. What a first day!

On our morning game drive Saturday, we saw baboons, zebra, warthogs, a Nile monitor, a white rhino, a gray & red duiker, the elephants again, and the ever-present impala and nyala. Back at the lodge, the resident ostrich held court for admirers in the parking lot. On the afternoon drive, we saw lots of giraffe and, at one of the watering holes, some young crocodiles. Then we stopped at a river, climbed out of the jeep, and walked quietly and carefully behind Philemon until we spied their six hippos in the water warily observing us observing them. On the way back to the lodge, we passed the movie set for "I Dream of Africa," which is on the reserve. One of the dinner buffet choices that night was kudu, and it was delicious, as were other game dishes they fixed us other nights, including stir-fried impala and warthog stew.

Sunday morning we drove to the nearby 100,000 hectare national park Hluhluwe-Imfolozi, the second largest in South Africa after Kruger, and spotted lots of game, though not the elephants and lions we were looking for. That afternoon, though, we took a game drive through the nearby 25,000 hectare Phinda private game reserve, which specializes in big cats, with one of their rangers. We observed a mama cheetah and three almost-grown cubs playing, found three young male lions having a good snooze after a large meal, and toasted the sunset with gin & tonics. On all the game drives, I was amazed at how close we could get to the animals, within a few yards even for the big cats, because the smell of fuel and the shape of the vehicle (as long as we didn't stand up and remained inside) hid the fact that we were humans from them.

Monday Neil and I drove our own car through Hluhluwe-Imfolozi and encountered lots of game and got some great close-up shots, including of a herd of giraffe crossing the road ahead and behind our parked car. Back at the lodge, we joined the rest of the group for an evening drive scouting for a mama leopard and her 2-week old cub that had been spotted by another guide. We never saw the leopard, but Philemon's spotlight found other game, including steenbok and large spotted genet (a small cat).

After a morning game drive on Tuesday, Neil and I lunched at Zulu Nyala's other lodge, the Heritage Lodge, outside the reserve, and saw their crocodile pond and resident zebra. We toured the Zulu Historical Village, where we were given demonstrations of shield and spear-making, beading and pot making, a witch doctor & seer. Then I shopped for Zulu baskets and souvenirs at Illala Weavers, while Neil chatted with a British tourist whose wife was also shopping. On Wednesday, Neil and I drove to the St. Lucia Wetlands, where we took a boat tour up the estuary and spotted lots of hippos, crocodiles and various water birds. After lunch we drove to the beach so we could dip our hands in the Indian Ocean, though we didn't go swimming since it was another damp, cool day.

We capped off our stay at the lodge the next morning with a very special early morning bush walk with Philemon, his loaded rifle and just the two of us. Soon after we got out of the jeep to approach a grazing white rhino he'd spotted, we saw the elephants up on the hill beside us making their way down to a waterhole on the other side of us. On the way, they flushed out a cape buffalo and skirted the rhino (they don't get along). Philemon said he couldn't believe that in the space of twenty minutes on one hillside we saw three of the "Big Five" game animals (elephant, rhino, cape buffalo, lion, leopard). We circled the rhino on our walk, looked at lots of tracks and lots of kinds of dung, including leopard scat, the closest we got to seeing that animal. We spent a lot of time scraping mud and dung off our shoes afterward, packed up and headed south to Durban. We stopped at Mtunzini to see their Raphia Palm National Monument and lunch on calamari at the Fat Cat restaurant. After arriving at the Quarters Hotel in Durban, we dined at their restaurant and ended up talking to the chef about her training and our son's training to be a pastry chef.

Friday, the 25th, on the advice of the Quarters Hotel staff, we parked in the Royal Hotel's garage downtown (to avoid the high crime area) and walked to the waterfront. We toured the Maritime Museum and took a harbor cruise that went out briefly into the ocean to give passengers a thrill ride on large rolling swells. Durban is the largest and busiest harbor in South Africa, with lots of cargo ships, tankers, tugboats, etc. Then we flew to Cape Town and met Zyad Burrows, our tour guide for the next day, at the airport. He drove us to the Pavilion, saving Neil from navigating busy highways, rotaries, and city streets in the dark.

Zyad took us on a fascinating tour of Cape Town Saturday, with commentary on local history and politics. We stopped at Signal Hill, a Cape Malay open market where we bought pastries, the Company's Gardens, and at Vicki's B&B in the Khayelitsha township, the largest township in South Africa. 1.2 million people live there in shacks made out of corrugated metal sheets that are slowly being replaced by small concrete-block homes, with community water taps and port-a-potties or latrines, and only some shacks having part-time electricity. Vicki is one of the enterprising black residents trying to provide businesses and jobs within the townships. We toured the District Six Museum with Zyad, that honors the residents of the last neighborhood where black and colored residents were forced out and their homes and businesses bulldozed because it was to become a "whites only" neighborhood. These two stops gave us a brief glimpse of the devastating effects of apartheid.

Sunday after doing some laundry and taking delivery of a rental car, we lunched at the Constantia Uitsig winery's River Cafe and toured the Groot Constantia winery estate and museum. On Monday, we drove along the edge of False Bay to Simon's Town to tour their museum and see the African penguin colony at Boulders Beach. Then we drove on toward the Cape of Good Hope Reserve at the end of the peninsula on which Cape Town sits. We spotted a pull-out with tourists in cars in it and on the other side of the road, a few folks standing outside their cars taking photos, and a troop of baboons in the brush nearby. Neil pulled in, and after rolling up the car windows and checking for baboons nearby, he got out to take photos, thinking I was safe in the closed-up car. Well, the dominant male baboon of the group ran across the road behind Neil's back, promptly OPENED the car door Neil had just gotten out of, and climbed in the car with me. Yikes!

I scrambled out of my seat belt and the car, then the baboon exited--carrying my purse! After quickly locking the car doors so no more baboons got in, we pursued the one with my purse, but all we could do was stand nearby and take photos while he went through the whole purse, fighting off any other baboons who showed interest and unzipping all the pockets until he'd found everything remotely edible, including lip balm and gum. After he finally lost interest and left, we were able to retrieve my wallet, cell phone and the purse itself (which needed a thorough cleaning afterward), but we left the rest of the contents to the returning baboon troop. Shaken, we let our adrenaline subside over a late lunch at the Cape Point restaurant, then rode the funicular to the top. We spotted a couple of whales in the water below from one of the lookout points, walked back down to the bottom, and saw a couple of ostrich there.

On Tuesday, September 29th, we rode the tramway to the top of Table Mountain, lunched there then toured the beautiful Kirstenbosch Gardens, with its displays of flora, including cycads and the Giant Protea national flower, from the unique fynbos ecosystem found only in southern South Africa. On Wednesday, we drove southeast along the other side of False Bay to Betty's Bay and saw the African penguin colony and rock hyrax (small mammals) there. We continued on to Hermanus, the whale watching capital of South Africa, and watched a few whales playing in the distance before lunching at Bientang's Cave restaurant, built into the rock cliff facing the harbor. After returning to the Pavilion, we took a short walk along the beach in the howling wind (one thing I'll remember about Cape Town is the wind!). That evening we had wine & cheese with a South African couple Neil met in the hallway who were also vacationing at the Pavilion.

Thursday we toured the wine country. First stop was the Blaauwklippen winery and a tour of their carriage museum. Second was the nine wine and three chocolates tasting at the Waterford winery. Yummy! Third stop was Stellenbosch for lunch, the Village Museum, the Dutch Reform church, and the Om Samie se Winkel general store. Fourth was the Delaire winery with their gorgeous hilltop view and the last stop was Franshoek. We drove back through the rugged mountainous terrain of the Hottentots-Holland Nature Reserve. On Friday we toured the Victoria and Albert Waterfront area of Cape Town and the Gateway Museum to Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned. Unfortunately we couldn't get on a tour boat to the island, because wind had prevented them from going the last three days and the next three days were booked with make-up tours. We toured the Aquarium instead, with its shark tank and kelp forest and watched sea turtles, rays, and penguins being fed. We checked into the Fountains Hotel, in front of a huge fountain of course, and dined there.

On Saturday, October 3rd, we visited The Castle, the oldest building in Cape Town, and its museums, watched a cannon firing demo, and took the tour. Then we went to the Gold of Africa museum to see some amazingly intricate African gold jewelry, artwork, and regalia for chiefs and chiefs' wives. Then it was off to the airport to start our long journey home, arriving late on the night of the 4th.

Sale!

Wow! I just checked my book listings on the Barnes & Noble website and saw that they have To Hell in a Handbasket hugely discounted. It's listed for sale at $14.92, with a member price of $13.42, which is 48% off the list price of $25.95. If you've been waiting to buy a copy for yourself or as a birthday or holiday gift to a mystery lover in your life, now's the time. This price is even less than I can get the books for direct from the publisher with my author discount!

Here's the link.

Second Eons Author Online Event

I have been an active member of the Eons social network since July, 2007, a few months after the release of my first book, A Real Basket Case. The official blurb describing the network states, "Eons is the online community for spirited BOOMers who want to explore their passions, keep in touch with friends, connect with interesting people to share life experiences, and most of all have fun."

So, most of the members are over forty but still young enough to enjoy partying. And they're throwing a big party today for all the authors on Eons, the Second Eons Author Online Event. You can meet online with authors, chat with them, enjoy free workshops, win prizes in contests, and learn all about their experiences in writing the books you love to read and how they do it!

If you're not already a member, follow the link above and sign up so you can participate in the event. It's free and easy to become an Eons member. Then head over to the Eons Book Gallery group to join in the fun. Click on the first "sticky message" at the top of the group page, WELCOME TO EONS BOOK GALLERY, to see the Roving Book Van with quick links to all of the books written by Eons authors, including my two mysteries (see the Mystery, Suspense, Thriller category).

Then go back and click on the second sticky message, INFORMATION ABOUT THE EVENT, to see how this whole shebang will work. Then scroll down the messages to find individual authors' "booths" (messages) and open those you're interested in. You may find a contest, workshop, chat or combination of the three happening in that booth. I will have a booth at the event, but since I'm out of the country until October 4th, it won't be interactive until after the event ends. However, if you post a question for me at my booth, I'll answer it on October 5th or 6th.

Lastly, I am "AuthorBeth" on Eons, so if you decide to join the network, or you're a member already and aren't a friend of mine yet, please visit my profile and send me a friend request! I hope you have a great time at the Second Eons Author Online Event.

A Writer's Week

This repeat post, from November, 2008, describes some of the many things a writer does for her career other than writing. I can say I'm just as busy with non-writing activities now as I was then! This will be my last repeat blog post while on my South Africa vacation, and after I recover from jet-lag, I hope to post some trip reports and photos.


Little did I know when I embarked on this new career as a writer how much of my time would be spent on tasks OTHER than writing. This past week I did the following:

- Contacted a bookstore to determine the status of my payment for consignment books, then deposited the check when it arrived,
- Mailed a copy of A Real Basket Case to a Japanese publisher interested evaluating it for publication in Japan,
- Participated in a 20-author library signing event,
- Attended a meeting of the local MWA chapter,
- Wrote the minutes for the local Sisters in Crime board meeting, mailed them out, and sent out an invitation to the members for our December tea,
- Went to my own book club meeting and discussed The Yiddish Policeman's Union,
- Had coffee with a new writer starting on his first novel-length manuscript to offer advice and encouragement and gave advice to another writer on novella markets,
- Made plans to host a fellow author on my blog next month and to host a discussion in a Facebook group next week,
- Started a list of revisions to my author website for my hubby to implement next week,
- Reviewed a second edit of my science fiction novella, The Epsilon Eridani Alternative, and returned my comments and revisions to the editor at Virtual Tales,
- Kept up with my email loops, social networks, and this, my blog, and
- Prepared a talk I will give tomorrow to the local chapter of Pen Women about "Networking Your Way to Success in the Creative Arts."

The only new fiction I wrote this week was one paragraph of new text for the novella. Gotta do better next week!

Book Promotion Ideas

This oldie is a real goodie! I hope other authors find it to be useful.


During my chat stint in the EONS Book Gallery Meet The Authors event, a fellow author asked for book promotion suggestions other than signings. I realized that my reply might help other authors, so I decided to copy it here:

There are lots of ways to use the Internet to promote books, as evidenced by this EONS Meet the Authors event! You can choose a few social networks that are likely to contain your reader population and join them and join the relevant groups in them, start making comments in those groups, and start inviting people to be your friends. I joined Eons, because people who read cozy mysteries also tend, by and large, to be older and to be female. I also joined the ning group "Crimespace" since I write mysteries, and Facebook (tends to have older members than MySpace) and Goodreads (a book discussion network).

You can also search for topics related to your book in yahoogroups and join groups containing folks you think might be interested in your book. I'm a member of three or four mystery-reading yahoogroups and try to contribute to the discussions every now and then, so when I have an announcement to make about a book release or some such, the members already know who I am. Also, find online ezines in your genre and contribute stories or articles and ask to be interviewed. And, if they have book reviewers, ask if you can send a copy of your book to them to be reviewed. You can also ask to be a guest on blogs written by authors in your genre.

For in-person event possibilities, I suggest contacting local libraries to arrange talks with their book clubs or writer groups or to participate in their local author days, if they have them. And, find nearby fan conferences for your genre and talk to the program chair about getting on one of their author panels. For instance, in the mystery genre, there's Bouchercon, Left Coast Crime, Malice Domestic, and the Mayhem in the Midlands conferences, to name a few. The science fiction/fantasy genre has World-Con, Mile-Hi Con, and lots of others, the romance genre has the Romantic Times convention, etc. You can often save costs by finding a conference within driving distance then carpool with another attendee, and share a hotel room with another attendee.

Meme: I've been tagged!

Here's my third golden oldie post (from October, 2008), with an update at the end, while I'm vacationing in South Africa:


Apparently there's a new blog-tagging game called Meme going around, where each taggee has to write six book-related things about him/herself, then pass the word by tagging six other bloggers. I was tagged by Christine Duncan and her Rule of Three blog at http://globalwrite.wordpress.com/ and you can read her answers in her September 29, 2008 entry titled "Meme?". Here's my six book-related facts:

1. My TBR pile includes lots of mysteries, but also some literary, women's fiction, romance, and short story anthology books.

2. I'm in a book club that meets monthly to drink wine, eat dessert, gossip, and discuss that month's book.

3. I took a speed-reading class in elementary school, so I can read pretty fast.

4. My favorite children's picture book is Possum Come A Knockin'. My kids tired of it long before I did. It's hilarious!

5. I suck at writing book reviews, so I don't do them, and having to write a back cover blurb for someone else makes me break out in a sweat.

6. I did indeed read Nancy Drew when I was young, but my favorite mystery writer in my teenage years was Edgar Allan Poe.

Here's the rules of the game:

1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on the blog.
3. Write six random bookish things about yourself.
4. Tag sixish people at the end of your post.
5. Let each person know he or she has been tagged.
6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up.


In the original post, I tagged six other mystery author friends. If you're reading this post now and have a blog of your own, consider yourself tagged :) and post your six book-related facts. And now here's a seventh fact about me, just to keep this post fresh:

7. Visiting book clubs is my favorite kind of author event, because I not only get to discuss my books with the members, I usually come away with a few new book suggestions to add to my TBR list. If you want me to talk to your book club, either in person if you meet near Colorado Springs or via speakerphone, contact me at my website.

Sniplits -- An audio market for short fiction

Here's another repeat post from the past, with an update:

Many months ago, I submitted a short story to Anne Stuessy, editor and publisher for a new website called Sniplits. Her plan was to present short stories for sale in an audio format, for download onto MP3 devices. The website is now up and running and includes a wide variety of short fiction in many genres read by trained voice talent for only $.88 each. My story is "Covered Dish Casseroles," found under "C" under the "Stories" heading. I hope you enjoy the site!

http://www.sniplits.com


Since this original blog post in May, 2008, I have sold another short story to Sniplits, a Christmas-related story titled, "Biscuit Connection," which is also available for only 88 cents. Some longer stories cost a little more on the site, but all are very reasonably priced. Almost 100 authors have contributed short stories in 16 different genre categories. Many of the authors, including me, have fan club pages at the site where readers can ask questions and find out more about us.

I encourage everyone to visit the site and find some great stories to listen to. For those of you who write short stories, this is a wonderful paying market. Check out the Author's Room there to find out when they are open for new submissions.