This Is It

Apologies for the not posting when I said I would post.

Well, this is it.  My final post.  I will talk about my trip to Cape Town, South Africa and the flight back to the United States (where I am now).

I had a lot of expectations for Cape Town.  People said "Its great, you'll love it!"  Now I have realized that the people how had said that had never lived in the United States.  None of my expectations lived up to Cape Town.  Sure, its the most Europe like place in Africa, but its still not great.  The only thing  that really impressed my was Table Mountain.  It is now one of the New 7 Natural Wonder Of The World (keep in mind, the word "New" is in there.  Somebody decided to recreate it).  You can either hike up or take the cable car.  We took the cable car.  At the top, the view was astounding.  You could see all of Cape Town, the bay, and the harbour on the south side.  It is also very windy up there.  After staying up there for about an hour, we went back down.

The next day we drove down to Cape l'Agulas.  Cape l'Agulas is the southern most point in Africa.  Basically that is the only point on the world where you can pick up a rock in the Indian Ocean and through it into the Atlantic ocean in under a min.  After that we saw the South African Penguins.  Yes there are penguins in South Africa.  They are fairly close to Cape Town, on Boulder Beach.  It's called Boulder Beach because of all the boulders that are on the beach.

We tried to go to Roben's Island (the prison where the late Nelson Mandela spent 30 years of his life for protesting the government) but the first day it was too windy, and on the second day it was delayed and we didn't want to miss our flight.  I will not go into the death of Nelson Mandela for political and social reasons.

The rest of the trip was mostly spent at Water Front, the shopping area on, well, the water front; and a various other places around Cape Town.  Cape Town is the only place in Africa I would probably live for more than 2 years.

Later in the day we had to head back to the airport to catch our flight back to Gaborone.  We we got there, it turns out it got delayed.  So we would have been able to make it to Roben's Island if we wanted to.

-------------------------

The second thing I want to talk about is my leaving.  I have now officially left Botswana and now in the United States.  I will be moving back into North Carolina within a week or so (right now I'm currently at my grandfathers in Plainwell, Michigan).

The pictures for this post will be up when I get my camera back.  It got packed up by the movers when they were packing our house.

The blog will continue to stay open for and undetermined amount of time.  I will let you know if and when I decide on a date.

I want to thank everybody who read the blog.  Sorry the post weren't more annual and (many) of the pictures weren't posted.

So this is it.


Cheers!
Matthew Handley

Adios Botswana: The Packing

Sorry I haven't posted in a while.  I've been pretty busy. 

As some of you may know, my time in Botswana was extended.  I would have left in August, but the National Guard could not find a replacement in time.  So now we are leaving in December.  This means that my time in Botswana is coming to an end.  I will have one more post reguarding our trip to Cape Town, South Africa (that will be out in 2 weeks) and then I will create on more, final post.  The blog should stay open after that be, I don't know.

Cheers!
Matt Handley

Syndication

Hello everybody.

I want to let you know that this blog is now bigger.  I have syndicated it to another site in order to get more viewers.

Here is a list of new sites.
Wordpress.com

It is still called The Weekly Post, but many of the gadgets will not be there.  I'm still working on the formatting and such so please bear with me until its done.

Thanks!

http://theweeklypostmh.blogspot.com
http://theweeklypostmh.wordpress.com

Rustenburg, SA

(THIS POST CAME EARLY!)
 

After living in Botswana for almost 2 years now,  I have not been to South Africa.  For those of you who do not know, South Africa is the country at the southernmost point in Africa.  

We did not go to the capital (Pretoria) or Cape Town.  We went to one of the more close cities.  Rustenburg.  The first thing you notice when you get to SA , is the way things move.  In Bots, at the border post, it will take you 15-30 min to get your passport stamped.  They need you to fill out a form, etc.  On the SA side, all it is “What is the registration number for the car?”  And stamp, stamp and you’re on your way.  Also in SA they have large highways.  In Bots, the longest road (highway) is the A1 form Lobaste, to Gaborone, then to Francistown.  That road go’s almost 500 Kilometers.  And it is two lanes.  In South Africa, (from where we were) they had 4 lanes.  What a luxury.  

This is where Rustenburg is.

The main event for us was the canopy tour.  Basically a zip line over a canyon about 25km from Rustenburg.  (On a totally different note, Rustenburg is the closest place to Botswana (3.5 hr. drive) with a McDonald's.)  Now I know I said before that doing things in Africa like zip lining and bungee jumping are not the best ideas (nothing is to OCIA standards here).  But it was safe and enjoyable.  We got a dvd of our ride and parts of it will be on YouTube on the second episode of Sights and Sounds of Africa (premiers October 12^th).  

We also went to the Bush Babies Monkey Sanctuary in a town nearby.  Basically this place takes in monkeys that were once pets and introduces them into a natural environment.  One of them climbed up onto Ella and stole R100 (100 South African Rand [about $10.00]).  We got it back but it was kinda in pieces.  There is video of this and it will also be on Sights and Sounds of Africa. 

The only other stop we made was on the way back to Gaborone.  It was at South Africa’s Pilanesburg National Park.  It is a really nice place.  It kinda reminds me of some National Parks in the US, but in the US we don’t have giraffes, zebras, wildebeests, etc.  But in the centre they had a restaurant and a convenience store.  

That’s all for today.  Kind of a short post.  

Just to give you a heads up, Sights and Sounds of Africa will be premiering on October 12^th.  The pilot episode is about Tsodilo Hills.  Please watch and comment and subscribe.

Also please listen to my music.  And Like and comment and subscribe.

Cheers!

Matt Handley

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http://youtube.com/02cd406

Special thanks to Bing Maps.

Maun, Tsodilo Hills, Gweta, and Nata

 Post No. 13012

(More Pictures Are Available on +The Weekly Post page.)
 Africa – [af-ri-kuh]

1. noun
   A continent south of Europe and between the Atlantic and Indian oceans.
   About 11,700,000 sq. mi. (30,303,000 sq. km.)
2. adjective
   African

Botswana – [bots-swah-nuh]

                              noun

                              a republic in southern Africa: formerly a British protectorate; gained 

                              independence  in 1966; member of the Commonwealth of Nations.

                              275,000 sq. mi. (712,250 sq. km.). Capital: Gaborone.

Botswana is full of animal and cultural diversity. It is home to meerkats, the white rhinos, and the highest concentration of elephants in the world. Maun is a small city in the north of the country.

We were here back in January with my Aunt and cousin. (there was a video made, but I did not get permission to put it on The Weekly Post Video Bar.) This time it was kinda boring. (previously we did a fly over [a video of this is currently in processing]) We did horse back riding. Let me say that I cannot horse ride well and leave it at that. Also which I thought was kinda odd, was that in the cafe by the areoport (Maun Internation Areoport) there are two North Carolina license plates. One with the NC State logo and the other a plain one.

Either way we moved on to Guma Lagoon Camp next. In order to get to this place you have to drive thirty minutes on a 4x4 track or take a charter fight to an air strip and take a two hour boat ride. We drove. The day after we got there we went to Tsodilo Hills. Here is some background info on Tsodilo Hills. It was declared a World Heritage Site in 2004 and is home to over 3000 rock paintings. These paintings were created by the San people. The witch doctors would go into trances and when the came out they would paint what they saw in the trances.

Later we did a boat cruise which was nice, but if you are very pale, you can get lots of sunburn like I did. Regardless, we did fishing and birdwatching.

Moving on we went back though Maun to Gweta, Botswana. Gweta is a small village that doesn't really consist of anything but Gweta Lodge. I talked about this on a previous post. This time instead of staying in the lodge, we did the night out on the pans.

The image above shows an aerial shot of Gweta, and the Magdigadi Pans (the big white things). In the winter (April – August south of the equator) there is no water in the white parts. In the summer you cannot drive out their because you will get stuck. Since it was the end of winter we could. The other group we were with was a group of Spaniards who were overflow of the Planet Baobab lodge (just down the road). It was interesting because it was cold and the really warm when we got in our sleeping bags (provided by the lodge). After that interesting experience we moved on to our final destination, Nata.

Just down the road from Gweta, Nata has a little bit more than just one lodge. It is also home to Nata Bird Sanctuary. Nata Bird Sanctuary was created by the three nearby villages. We did a game drive out there in the evening.

That's all for this recent trip. BTW, for thoughs of you who do not know, I have been extended through December. I will probably be back in Raleigh a few days before New Years though.

Be sure to check out the Weekly Post Google+ page.

Also, I'm looking for feedback on some of my own songs. You can listen to them on the Weekly Post Video Bar or go to my YouTube channel (02CD406).

That's all for now

Cheers!

Matt Handley

http://www.facebook.com/matt.handley31

http://www.twitter.com/02cd406

http://www.youtube.com/02cd406

+The Weekly Post 

 

Special thanks to :
Dictionary.com     and    Bing Maps

 

Post No. 13012

General Update

Hey guys.
This is general update on me and the blog.

We now have a Google+ page.  This will make it easier to connect it to the blog and chat to various people. So go ahead and +The Weekly Post.

Next it is definite that I'm being extended to December.  This means that I will be staying in Botswana until December 2013.

I have 2 new songs from my new album II on YouTube.  Be sure to like, dislike, comment, and subscribe.

Not much else to post.

Cheers!
Matt Handley
https://www.facebook.com/matt.handley31
@02CD406
+The Weekly Post

Europe Trip Part 3: Ireland and Back Again (The Lost Post)

Ireland.  I have never seen such a green country.  It is almost the exact opposite of Botswana.  Hey, it's me matt again, and this is the lost post of the Europe Trip Series.  I apologize for the delay.  Today i'm going to tell you about my trip to Ireland.

The ferry from Pembroke, Wales, was longer than expected.  Instead of the two hours we were told, it took 5.  When we dock in Cork, we quickly went to find the B&B in the small town nearby.  This was my first night eating in real Irish pub.  Instead of ordering pork, i ordered a burger.  It is still the best burger i have ever had.  (Botswana has great beef, but bad hamburgers).  The next day we spent mostly driving to Tralee. (see picture from our hotel/apartment on left) This is where my two cousins were born and raised.  My Aunt Cathy and my late Uncle Pat Joe live on the outskirts.  This town is the second place i would live in on this trip (1st Paris, 3rd the small village in France were we spent the night).  The next day we drove around the Dingle Peninsula.  We saw the beautiful Irish Shore, and Ella and I actually got in the water.  (Note to self, don't go wading, much less swinging, in December).  On our way to Dingle, we went past this church which was crowded with people.  It looked like a funeral.. the Police, who were directing traffic, were trying to get us to park, but we told them we were just passing through and went along.  Apparently the funeral was for a local football (soccer) star.

A day later we went to visit my uncle's sister and our distant cousins.  the were the nicest family. When I get a picture of all of us i will post it.  Later that day as we were driving on to Dublin (the capital of Ireland) we stopped the most photographed castle in the world.  The Blarney Castle, home of the famous blarney stone. The story behind the Blarney Stone is the king (who lived in the castle) was sick.  So he went to see a local witch doctor.  The witch doctor told him to kiss the Blarney Stone and he would get better and he would also be a much better man.  Here is a list of famous people who have kissed the Blarney Stone:

• Mick Jagger
• Winston Churchill
• The Simpsons
• Matthew Handley Jr. :)

Anyway it's supposed to bring you good luck.  In Dublin we went to the Vikings Museum.  It was pretty interesting.  I only have one good picture, and I'll put it up at the end of the post.  We also saw the Book of Kells.  This is part illustrated version of the Bible the monks drew when they were visiting Ireland.  There are only 4 copies in existence.  They are all in the Library at Trinity College of Dublin.  Other than that there wasn't much else in Dublin.  

The ferry ride back to England was short, because we were on an express boat.  then we proceeded to drive back to London.  We stayed again at the St. Davids Hotel, (great service and breakfast, but lousy rooms) and continued on to Paris the next day.  

Our flight was scheduled to leave Paris at 11:30 PM.  When we got to Challes de-Gaulle Aeroport in Paris (at 10:00PM) the flight desk lady said, "You do know that ze flight to Joehannesburg has been delayed until tomorrow morning? (sorry i just had to add the accent in there)"  this was news to us, so we stayed a t a hotel in the aeroport.  We left the next morning (Christmas eve) and landed in Johannesburg around 7:00 PM. Since the small aeroport here in Gabs closes at 8:00PM, we had to stay in a hotel in the Johannesburg Int'l Aeroport overnight.  We finally arrived in Gabs 12:00PM Christmas day.  Other than the ending I had a great trip.

Pictures from Ireland:

Again, sorry for the delay of this post.  It wont happen again.

Vic Falls Video Update:  The name of this video is now Around Africa: Victoria Falls & Kasane.  It should be on YouTube by the end of the week.  It will also be on the Weekly Post Video Bar (close out of the post.  Move your cursor to the right side of the screen and click on: The Weekly Post Video Bar.)

Thanks for being faithful for this post!

Until the Around Africa: Victoria Falls & Kasane video comes out,

Cheers!

Matt Handley

Senior Editor of the Weekly Post