Sunday, February 28, 2010

Peter's little black book


This is Peter’s African Adventure Journal. He got back yesterday and we found it as we were unpacking. The first four pages were filled with the addresses of people he loves so much that he wanted to send them postcards. So, if you didn’t get a postcard from Africa recently, Peter must hate you. I didn’t get one.

The rest of the journal was filled with
snippets of their journey, Ladder Talk and animal sketches. I of course added a few of my own comments, but I put them in brackets to separate them from Barb's scribbled ramblings and babblings.

20 February 2010:
  • Flight from Frankfurt to Johannesburg > 2 hours 'We're there already?'.
  • 'Are you my flight attendant' [Read the previous blog for the whole flight safety story]
  • Get out and get into the next plane. We were super-fast and Peter got to speak to the pilot. [Yeah, 'cause Peter's never talked to one of them before]
  • We got onto a bus and rented a car.
  • We wanted to go to the hotel, but there was no hallway.
  • Driving on the wrong side of the road.
  • When we got there, there were peacocks, a dog, chipmunks, birds, and we went swimming.
  • The evening was cold, but they had a bonfire and food and stories and Peter told jokes.
  • 'Hyenas that tow the fridge' [No idea, but it certainly conjures up funny images]
21 February 2010:
  • We had breakfast with parrots, pigeons, peacocks, and doves.
  • We drove in the car and saw three vultures as baboons were crossing the street.
  • Two hours later, we saw a herd of wildebeests. Gnühe, but no Lüchse.
  • In the hotel, we saw a warthog and some lizards.
  • In our super-room, Peter said 'We'll stay here'.
  • There was a pool and we saw meerkats: two dozen with young ones.
  • To the waterhole. Zebras and antelopes.
  • Food. Finger. Fish. [Glad the string of 'f' words stopped here]
  • Waterbuck, on the way to hotel.
Ladder Talk:
1) What was the best part of your day?
Peter: When I saw the warthog - the baby warthog.

2) What was the worst part of your day?
Peter: When the warthog went away.

3) What would you like to do tomorrow?
Peter: Look at elephants and giraffes.

22 February 2010:
  • Breakfast with egg, sunny side up.
  • Safari - we saw lions, zebras, wildebeests.
  • Peter was great with binoculars.
  • We went to the pool - Peter learned to jump in without hands. 20 times.
  • Peter played submarine with his Coke bottle.
  • We went on a safari again. We had snails, crocodile, and kudu.
  • We played mau-mau. [What the hell is mau-mau?]
  • Peter made friends with Gabriel the waiter.
Ladder Talk:
1) What was the best part of your day?
Peter: When we saw the elephant.

2) What was the worst part of your day?
Peter: There was no worst part.

3) What would you like to do tomorrow?
Peter: To go and see some more elephants.

23 February 2010:
  • Safari: Kudus. Leopards. Rhino. Elephants. Dik-Diks. Guinea fowl. Antelopes. Warthogs, kneeling down to eat. Two jackals. One mouse. Lizards. Lions.
  • Peter was in the pool with Opa. Jumped 30 times.
  • Bought postcards.
  • Dinner. Played mau-mau.
  • All the waiters came and talked to Peter.
  • Ate world-best mango.
  • Saw the Southern Cross.

Ladder Talk:
1) What was the best part of your day?
Peter: When I saw kudus.

2) What was the worst part of your day?
Peter: When I couldn't see the Papa lions with the stripes. [Barb: he's definitely too tired!]

3) What would you like to do tomorrow?
Peter: See some more turtles.

24 February 2010:

  • Woke up at Namutoni.
  • Went to Dik-Dik drive. Zebras. Giraffes that were sleeping. Secretary bird. Ostriches. Warthogs with babies. One big warthog. Rhinos. Lions.
  • Peter drew pictures of animals in the car and played with the postcards.
  • New hotel with lots of animals. Sable antelopes. Ostriches. Giraffes. Gazelles. Goats. Dogs.
  • Nice owner. Their son is moving to Heidelberg soon. His name is Peter.
  • Ate steak. Played mau-mau.
Ladder Talk:
1) What was the best part of your day?
Peter: As I could play with the dogs.

2) What was the worst part of your day?
Peter: When I couldn't go underwater.

3) What would you like to do tomorrow?
Peter: Look at the water buffalos.

25 February 2010:
  • Woke up. Pool.
  • Waterbucks. Baboons. Crocodile. Baby oryx. Turtles. Ostriches with two babies.
  • Sable antelope in hotel.
  • Peter played with Pinky. [I hope this was the hotel dog.]
  • Pool. Peter faked swimming - was walking with feet on ground. Jumped 30 times. Huge jumps into Barbara's arms. All the way to the other side of the pool.
  • Mau-mau with the good fairy and Mr. Burgfräulein.
  • Ate kudu, crocodile and ostrich egg.
Ladder Talk:
1) What was the best part of your day?
Peter: When I jumped in the water in Barbara's arm.

2) What was the worst part of your day?
Peter: When I couldn't look at the crocodiles again.

3) What would you like to do tomorrow?
Peter: To play in the pool with Opa and Barbara.

26 February 2010:
  • Woke up. Ate ostrich egg.
  • Veronica took Peter into bird atrium. There were also turtles, parrots and chickens.
  • Drove to airport.
  • Flew from Windhoek to Johannesburg.
  • At airport, Peter ate a pan of octopus. [First snails, now this?]
  • Peter bought a hyena and stuffed animal presents for David (leopard) and Tom (elephant).

27 February 2010:
  • Home

The rest of the pages were filled with Peter's creative interpretations of African life. Some of them were a little too creative, so I asked Peter to label them and included here his exact wording.

A bird and leopard (left). A leopard eating a dik-dik and three vultures (right).


Three lions and one vulture (left). Gnu, dik-dik, giraffe (right).


Gnu, antelope, mountains (left). Eagle, star, pond, antelope and gnu (right).


Cat, jackal, rain, baby vulture (left). Elephant, fat bird (right).


Dik-diks (left). Rhino (right).


Two baboons - mother and baby (left). Dracula (right).


Don't ask me what the hell Dracula was doing in Africa. Perhaps this was one of the days where Peter had spent a little too much time in the sun.

Peter saw many more animals than he could draw, but Barb kept an ongoing list in his journal:

Vultures, baboons, parrots, lions, warthogs, lizards, termites, ants, wildebeests, zebras, antelopes, Thomson gazelles, pelicans, flamingos, elephants, trappen, giraffes, marabou storks, bee-eaters, centipedes, jackals, secretary birds, meerkats, oryx antelopes, sable antelopes, springboks, turtles, cranes, geese, herons, doves, guinea fowl, rhinos, leopards, kudus, storks, dik-diks, impalas, goats, waterbucks, crocodiles, grasshoppers.

Thrilling, isn't it? I can't believe that Barbara neglected to jot down Dracula, but luckily we have Peter's sketch as proof. I bet even that freaky fanged bloodsucker got a postcard. Damn him!

3 comments:

  1. Well done, Steve. I knew there's a genius behind the madness. What a great idea.. you've put together yet another interesting blog with Peter's journal.

    As for Peter, Tim Burton couldn't have done a better job with those sketches.

    Snails and octopus? The kid won't starve in Southeast Asia.

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  2. well done Peter glad you had a good time

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  3. @Ceci - thanks, but the credit goes to Barbara and Peter. I'm not sure which one of them is the genius and which one is completely mad, but Peter is pretty intelligent. Glad you share his 'exotic' diet - when we meet up some day, you guys can go to town on all the creepy crawlies your fear-factor stomachs can handle.

    @Medwyn - I read your comment to Peter and he said 'thanks, who's Medwyn?'. I then showed him a picture of you and he said 'Oh, you mean the other Rob? When is he coming over?'. Hmmmm - good question. :-)

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