South Africa – Confessions of a Lady Sindbad

Whale Watching

The whale watching cruise 🐳? Ours could be aptly named “tail watching “ cruise. All the hype and the build up proved to be mostly for a glimpse of the back and the tail of the gigantic mammal…and of course the water jet.. I assume the passengers’ excitement was ignited by the feeling that the enormous mammal is somewhere swimming around us. ..

It wasn’t like any previous animal watching excursion I’ve been on. The last one, 2 days ago, was a bear safari in Whistler, BC , and we were quite lucky to spot one 🐻. The ranger saw him, did a U-turn and the considerate Teddy 🧸 hadn’t budged, graciously waiting for us.

We looked at him, through the glass of the Land Cruiser, and he returned the favor and then disappeared into the woods 🌲. We saw all his body parts and took a photo.

The same with the other safaris in South Africa and Sri Lanka…In the latter the leopard 🐆 eluded us during the two excursions, however we didn’t have high expectations from the beginning , it is all a matter of luck…either all of the anatomy or nothing…it’s not like this “tail only” formula !

However we “hit “ it big during the Alaska cruise 🚢 It was unplanned, the view unobstructed, and was greatly enjoyed 🐋 .

It’s a Wild Wild World

🇺🇸•🇰🇳•🇵🇷•🇭🇹•🇲🇽

// Part 4 of 7 //

Off the Riviera Maya, while snorkelling in the waters of the second largest coral reef between the “butterflies of the oceans” – stingrays – I felt overwhelmed by a feeling of sadness triggered by the following thought… I realised I ❤️ all creatures except the Homo Sapiens found in my birth country: the rulers and those electing them…the greedy and corrupt as well as the ignorants and bigots who put them in power…

The maligned animals of prey hunt out of hunger, ONLY…if they were to duplicate those Homo Sapiens’ greedy and auto-destructive behaviour, many species would have been extinct by now…

After reflection, I realised I didn’t feel that way during the previous encounters with the animals in their natural habitat…

South Africa

On the contrary, I had some of the most exhilarating experiences while scuba diving in the beautiful Great Barrier Reef 🇦🇺 ( crossed paths with a white tip shark 🦈 )

in the Maldives 🇲🇻

and in Sharm El Sheikh 🇪🇬…

Ditto on terra firma during our safari in South Africa 🇿🇦

as well in Madagascar’s tropical rainforest 🇲🇬

and again in the Andes mountains in Peru’s Alto Plano 🇵🇪

and lately in Costa Rica’s cloud forest 🇨🇷 …

My moodiness must have been induced by the elections taking place at the time in my birth country…this charade had affected me despite the disttance…

My Secret Lover

This is for all the good times I enjoyed with my secret lover. Yes, I’m admitting it now, I’ve had one for many many years..

This relationship only brought me extreme happiness and fond memories. I still remember how I used to furtively check the time while helping out the children with their homework; I’d steal a glance at my watch longing for our daily dates then I’d rush quickly – literally running outside 🏃‍♀ – in anticipation of the strong emotions I’d feel whenever I feast my eyes 👀 on my lover ☺…and because being one minute late meant I’d be stood up!!

I didn’t mind this zero tolerance stance because of the flexibility I was allowed: my love never missed a date, followed me everywhere even to Lebanon 🇱🇧and didn’t mind if I was too busy to show up !

The other thing I enjoyed about my ❤: I could be myself, I didn’t have to dress up 👗for our daily date…casual outfit, no salon visit 💅

How convenient is that!😊

How did I manage to keep this relationship going on for so long? Honestly it wasn’t arduous despite my ❤‘s dynamic schedule (a fluctuation range of one and a half hour plus or minus ) for I was fortunate we lived conveniently near the Corniche so I cleverly timed my routine jog according to our daily dates 😉