Timbs

In the spring of 2017, I bought myself a new backpack. I ditched the Samsonite one that I bought maybe four years earlier that had just simply not withstood the rigors of domestic and international travel when it started to fall apart and upgraded to a Patagonia 32 liter model. It's still with me. Guaranteed that pretty much every trip that I've taken since that time, that bag has been strapped on my shoulders and packed somewhere between relatively full and stuffed to the gills. And I only say "pretty much" because I might not have taken it maybe once or twice. Although I can't really remember ever leaving home and staying somewhere overnight without it so it's really a hard, all caps MAYBE.

I don't always take the same stuff with me when I travel. When I travel in summer I tend to take different clothing than I do in winter and my choice of shirt wear in particular is driven by my desire to dress up or down and to be obviously American or more nation-agnostic. Some of the things I've put in that Patagonia backpack over the years have been experiments; things that were supposed to make travel easier but that really were just waiting for me to find something better. Electronics come and go quickly, victims of an industry that drives better and better products and forces us to upgrade to keep up. Or just to function even.

I rarely get attached emotionally to stuff I travel with but there are exceptions. That backpack and I have been some places in the last eight plus years. It took us a bit more than two years to visit six different continents. I absolutely love that thing. I don't know what I'm going to do when (or maybe if is a better word) it ever fails me and reaches the end of its useful life. 

In 2020, I wrote a blog post about that backpack because it meant and means so much to me. Now I'm doing the same thing again with something else that is a travel mainstay for me. Not quite that gray and yellow backpack but pretty close.

Giant's Causeway, Northern Ireland (Europe). 2019.

The picture at the top of this post was taken last month. It's a picture of a pair of Timberland boots. My Timberland boots. Size 10-1/2 Wide and 6" high. It's a good height, just to ankle height but not covering the ankle or anything. They are light as a feather. They feel absolutely weightless. I guess they are hiking boots. Any time I go anywhere I need to hike in warm or temperate weather where I'm not traipsing through a jungle or something, I take these boots with me. That's not every trip. But I probably wear these things on a plane at least once per year.

I love these boots. They are super comfortable and I feel (within reason) I could walk across pretty much everything in these things. They are absolutely the most comfortable shoes that I own (and I do mean most comfortable shoes not most comfortable boots). I love wearing these things. I bought them about a year after I acquired my beloved Patagonia backpack. About two years after that, I actually bought their replacements but these ones haven't worn out yet. They are still going very strong.

These boots are not my first pair of Timberland boots. I suspect they won't be my last, nor will the pair I bought to replace them. I actually have two pairs of Timbs in service right now. I have a heavier-duty 8" high pair that I take on trips where the weather is going to be a little colder or the terrain is going to be a little tougher, like hiking through a forest on a mountain to go find some mountain gorillas. I am brand-loyal. I love the quality of Timberland's boots and I love that they make a variety of models in wide widths for my flipper-like right foot.

South Island Robin perched on my boot. Ulva Island, New Zealand (Oceania). 2019.

So why am I writing about my favorite pair of Timbs? Well, because in October of this year, just like my favorite backpack ever, they made it to their sixth continent. And I thought that was occasion enough to pen a quick love letter to these things that take care of my feet all over the world. How many people make it to six (or seven) of the continents on our planet? I'm betting very few. I bet even fewer can claim they have taken something with them to all six (or seven).

That picture at the top of this post? It was taken at the top of Table Mountain in Cape Town, South Africa. You can be impressed by the fact that these shoes have been all over the world, but not by the fact that they made it to the top of Table Mountain because we didn't walk up there. It was hot and I'm 57 years old and too heavy and the slope of Table Mountain is daunting to completely vertical. We took the cable car.

But these things have done some real work with me, even if they didn't do it that day. They have tramped around islands in New Zealand. They have walked around Angkor Wat in Cambodia and in the hot, hot, hot jungles of Singapore. I know, Singapore is pretty much a city but believe me there is jungle there. And it's really hot. 

They have walked over the hexagonal basalt surface at Northern Ireland's Giant's Causeway and stood on the Athabasca Glacier in early July in Canada's Jasper National Park. They have been on Safari in South Africa's Kruger National Park (before they made it to the top of Table Mountain) and they have been all through Scotland's Hebrides islands (at least as many as we visited...). They have been to Utah and Oregon and Yellowstone National Park and New England and all over Northern Virginia taking me birdwatching. 

The path to Machu Picchu. Peru (South America). 2019.

They also accompanied me on one of the most physically demanding travel days of my life: a seven plus hour hike from Chachabamba to the Incan citadel of Machu Picchu in Peru's Andes Mountains. That is my absolute favorite travel memory of all time (so far). I was wiped out after walking all that time up and down (but mostly up) mountains in the blazing morning sun but I can't imagine how much more difficult it would have been without my favorite Timbs. Have I said how much I love these things yet? I truly do.

How long am I going to keep walking around in these boots? I have no idea. I can see no end in sight. We have four 2026 trips already planned where we are getting on a plane and going somewhere and I fully expect that I will be walking around Arizona, Wales and Manitoba with my feet snuggled comfortably in this pair of boots. I love these things. Have I mentioned that?

There are five pictures in this post. No Asia. That doesn't mean that I didn't wear these boots to Asia, just that I haven't included a Timbs-focused picture from that continent here. If you need proof this pair of boots has been to Asia, check out my feet in the pictures in my cooking post from Cambodia.

Athabasca Glacier, Jasper National Park, Canada (North America). 2025.

Kruger Mammals

Photo dump time! 

Our four full days in Kruger National Park was the best concentrated safari experience we have had in a single Park ever. The variety of wildlife and the quality of the sightings was just incredible. There was so much to see and other than maybe one or two times in the late morning / early afternoon when we started to feel that 5:15 a.m. departure time, we were engaged every minute of every day. The wildlife sightings were pretty much continuous.

I've covered some of our Kruger highlights in the past few weeks with posts about our number one species target (painted dogs), the Big Five (or four, as it turned out) and the amazing amount of birdlife we encountered in the Park. I'm done with lengthy written posts about what we saw there. 

But...I do think there is room for one more photo post showing off some of the looks we got at Kruger's mammals which are not painted dogs, elephants, buffalo, lions or leopards. So here goes. With minimal commentary. At least I've tried to make it minimal.

These photos do not show every species we saw in Kruger. Go out there and explore for yourself if you want that.

Giraffes

The first time I saw a giraffe in Botswana I was thrilled. This was was safari was all about. Tallest mammal on the planet! A few years later, we got an incredibly intimate look at these animals at Lake Manyara in Tanzania. They are still amazing to behold. So huge with a kick that can kill a lion. Our guide, Gareth said that he hated giraffes. We were shocked and asked why. "They are always looking down on me" was the response. Dad jokes. Who knew we would get these on safari?

Hippos

My former favorite African species. Their lack of social interaction has them way down on the list in 2025 but any time I get a chance to see them with their tusks showing, I want to take a picture. Still terrifying to me to be chased by one of these things in a small boat (Chobe River, 2015). Thankfully none of that in Kruger.

Impala

Impala are everywhere in Kruger. When we asked Gareth what we were going to see in the afternoon every day after lunch, his response was inevitably "impala!" and sometimes that declaration was amended with a guarantee. We DID see a ton of impala all over the place. We learned to call these animals "McDonald's of the bush" in Botswana in 2015 for their abundance and M-shaped markings on their hind quarters.

Shocker of the trip: who knew that impala smooched? At one of our impala stop, we watched a couple of these antelope alternately lick each other repeatedly on the neck. I have new respect for impala based on the smooching. Smooching is good.

Vervet Monkeys

Vervets are my favorite monkeys ever. They are just the most straightforward-looking, typical monkeys and I love that. As someone born in June 1968 (year of the monkey), I have an affinity for monkeys as a personal mascot. I have a monkey charm we picked up in Japan that goes on my backpack everywhere I go. The charm isn't exactly a vervet but in my mind's eye it is. If I had a spirit animal, it would be the vervet monkey.

Monkeys are mischievous and will steal stuff, especially food. Vervets are very adept at swiping grub. We saw it in Botswana in 2015 and again this year. Keep an eye on EVERYTHING you own around all kinds of monkeys but probably especially vervets.

Baboons

On the opposite end of the favorite monkeys spectrum...baboons. Just don't like them. I think it's the fangs and the fact that while vervets are mischievous, baboons look vicious. Baby baboons, however, are excessively cute.

Hyenas / Black-Backed Jackals

Shall we continue with the less-than-favorite African animals? Let's! 

Hyenas. Not good. Sneaky. Hunter-scavengers. Trying to steal from a lion or painted dog kill one minute but strong enough and organized enough to take down something big the next. And those faces. Ugh! UG-LEE! We did manage to see an almost newborn hyena playing with a stick on this trip but no pics. I just missed it with the camera and the moment was gone quickly.

I've included the black-backed jackal in this section not because there are loathsome to me (they are not) but because in the lineup at a kill, they slot right behind the hyenas. There's always one hanging around it seems looking for some scraps ahead of the vultures.

Warthogs

Done with ugly creatures for this post? Umm...nope. One more. Warthogs. Not pretty. But I do think if you are looking for a good picture of a warthog, these two are pretty darned good.

Zebra

When we first saw zebras in Kenya in 2018, we were thrilled. These animals are more impressive in the hundreds than in ones and twos and fives or so. The group below may have been the largest we saw on this trip. For a black and white animal, they really do blend in with the beige bush pretty well. This camouflage thing is amazing.

Kudu

Of all the antelope out there, kudu may be my favorite. It's the horns. I love these horns and these antelopes so much that I picked up a shirt from SENQU on our way back from safari one day. These are spectacularly gorgeous animals. Always excited to see kudu. We've only ever seen these animals in Southern Africa. It had been a full ten years since we'd seen any kudu I believe.

Wildebeest 

Excited about wildebeest? Not me. Not usually. But we were stopped in Kruger when these four wildebeest below started walking towards our vehicle. I waited until they got close enough to take a good picture and then waited a bit more for as many of the four as possible to hold their heads up. I got three. I like this picture. It's one of my favorites from this trip. And it's of a typically un-exciting subject. For me. I'm glad I watched and waited here. Sometimes it's cool when a species you are not necessarily always focused on surprises you with a cool moment.

Photo dump done! I feel better now. I'm glad these photographs can see the light of day.

My last picture note is about the cover photo of this post. It was taken at a rest area within Kruger. We stopped at a series of these during our four days in the Park. They were welcome because they had snacks, hot drinks, lunch (at mid-day) and most importantly...toilets. Way better to use the toilet in a rest area than just out in the bush. Most of the rest areas we stopped at were completely fenced with a heavy-duty gate at the entrance with daily opening and closing times prominently displayed. But on Kruger Day Four, we stopped at an un-fenced rest area and found the sign at the top of this post. Yeah...there's no way I want to be ordering a cup of coffee or tea and look over to find a hyena standing close to me with nothing between it and me. Nothing happened. Not on our stop. I need to see wildlife when I'm in the car, not on foot. 

That's all I have for this post. Apologies to the klipspringers, bush bucks, water bucks, nyala and everything else that we saw that didn't make it into this post. That's a wrap on safari posts for this year, but not for Africa posts. A couple of more of those to go.

Kruger Birds

The first three times I visited sub-Saharan Africa, I went with a wish list of creatures to see. For the most part, those lists consisted entirely or mostly of mammals. Maybe there was a reptile in there once or twice and there may have been a bird or two, particularly on the Uganda list. But mostly, it was mammals.

This year, I also made a list. But this year, my list was mostly birds. And by that I mean I had a list of 12 species I wanted to see and only two of them were mammals. This shift in priorities was born of two things: (1) a genuine and blossoming love of birds and birdwatching and (2) we are honestly just running out of exciting new mammals to see in the wild in Africa. I was super excited to spend as much time seeing birds in South Africa in general and Kruger National Park in particular. And Kruger delivered. Not my whole list. But enough plus some things I didn't even know existed and some old favorites.

This year's list of mammals by the way...painted dogs and springboks. That's it. Our great hope for this trip in the wildlife department was that we would finally lay eyes on some African wild dogs and we did that. I figured springboks were a gimme. I mean it's like the national animal of South Africa. Their rugby team is named after that antelope. Didn't see any springboks. Apparently they don't like ticks. And Kruger, I guess, is tick-y. 

Oh well. We still have a reason to go back to Africa, I guess. Our next trip might be springbok focused. Kidding. Possibly. Probably.

Lilac-breasted roller. Kruger day 2. On this year's list.

Unless you manage to book a private safari vehicle (and we have never done that), any safari experience is bound to be a bit of a democracy. And by that I mean that what you search for; what you stop for; and how long you linger at a sighting is likely to be a group decision which at one time or another is bound to be flawed to deeply flawed for some people in the car. 

Safari vehicles are typically packed to capacity. More people per vehicle theoretically means fewer vehicles in the Park and more revenue per car or both (probably the latter is driving that issue). Fewer cars in the Park is a good thing. But more people per vehicle might also mean a little bit of push and pull over what the entire group gets to see. If one person in the car is tired of elephants and the rest of the car keeps asking the guide to stop for elephants, eventually it will come out. Same for any other sort of species. 

We eventually had an issue on this trip.

My impression of younger, first-time safari goers is that there is a distinct preference among that demographic to see mammals while on safari. The bigger, the better. I guess they are easier to see and watch and remember. Heck, my first safari wish list was all mammals so it's totally understandable. But we (and did some others in our vehicle) wanted to see lots of birds. Not just birds. Birds and mammals. But definitely birds.

Eventually, frustration around too many stops for birds boiled over a bit on day two. Nothing serious. We'd seen it worse in Uganda and it was around the exact same issue. Some people just don't like birds so much.

Southern yellow-billed hornbill. Kruger day 1. On this year's list.

I have to say I don't exactly get people's dismissal of birds in Africa. If we were stopping for doves or sparrows or starlings (although there are actually some gorgeous starlings in Africa) or something like that, I'd get it. Who cares about tiny not-vibrantly-colored birds which move around a lot? But Africa has some seriously impressive birdlife, including some absolutely giant top-of-the-food-chain predator types. You are interested in passing on species like secretary birds or different types of storks or fish eagles or sunbirds and bee-eaters? No way. Not me. I want to spend as much time watching these birds as possible. And that includes the starlings.

So before safari day three in Kruger, some of us approached our lead guide, Celeste, with a request: take the three or so non-birders out of our vehicle and swap in two avid birders from the second car. And despite the paperwork required to be re-filed at the Kruger gate, she made it happen. Day three would have a Tweety Car (for birders) and a Sylvester Car (for the rest of our tour group who would be looking specifically for cats).

And OK, I do care about tiny birds which move around a lot regardless of color.

African fish eagles. Adult (top); Kruger day 1. Juvenile (bottom); Kruger day 2. 

So did our Tweety Car stop for only birds and nothing else? Actually, by no means. I mean, of course not. Why would we do that? We spent a lot of time looking at all sorts of mammals, including all four of the Big Five that we saw in Kruger over the four full days we spent in the Park. And in a twist of irony, the Tweety Car actually got the best leopard sighting of the entire trip for our tour group. Go figure. 

But we did spend a lot of time in the Tweety Car in one spot in particular for about an hour watching a rattling cisticola and then a tawny-flanked prinia with a cameo by a chinspot batis in the middle of all that. Two of these three birds are pretty much brown from head to toe and all three are no bigger than a starling. And really the first two are like wren-sized. If wren-sized doesn't mean that much to you, think about something a little smaller than a house sparrow.  

Why was this so awesome? Because this is what we do when we birdwatch. We don't spend a couple of minutes with one species and then move on to try to find some other type of bird. We stop. We wait for it (or them) to appear and re-appear between hiding in bushes or trees or making trips to a nest or whatever. Birdwatching takes patience and perseverance. Stand or sit and focus and let time slip away. We can spend 30 minutes to an hour trying to see something like a single warbler or a kinglet in a bush or tree on a typical birdwatching outing at home.

Safari is not birdwatching at home. This was really the only time in Africa, we have ever done this sort of thing on safari. We've seen some incredible birdlife on past trips to Africa. But there's always been some sort of urgency to get going to find something different. This wasn't like that. This felt like the right thing to do. And we saw some birds that we never would have seen if this wasn't a bird-focused car. 

By the way, if you had asked me what a batis, a prinia or a cisticola was before we started Kruger Day 3, there's no way I would have even been able to tell you what any of these birds looked like. Or even identify these terms as species of birds even. 

The call of the rattling cisticola is fantastic. Just thought it was important to add that last bit.

Travel. Broadens this mind in all sorts of ways.

Top to bottom: rattling cisticola; tawny-flanked prinia; and chinspot batis. All Kruger day 3. The batis was at a distance.

So being able to stop for whatever birds we wanted for as long as we wanted got us the best look at birds for the whole trip, right? 

Nope. Not exactly. But yes, in the sense that I've never seen a cisticola before. Nature doesn't work that way. Birds and other creatures in the Park don't pose or come close to vehicles when requested by tourists. There are no cage or enclosures (thank God!!!) and you can't go off the road to chase stuff. So the quality of wildlife sightings you will get as a safari tourist will involve a lot of luck. 

Wildlife sightings are also heavily weather-dependent which can affect the activity of the animals (particularly birds since some don't like to fly much in the rain) and lighting a ton. Our Tweety Car day was quite possibly the worst weather we experienced in the Park, with a good amount of rain and grey skies. 

From a quality standpoint, I actually thought the first day was our best bird photography day. I love the bird head photographs I got on that day and I've posted a few here. I am in love with African fish eagles (my favorite eagle seen in the wild so far) and I also love hornbills so I was super excited to find a southern yellow-billed hornbill close to the car in the early hours of that day. But quite possibly some of my favorite pictures of the whole trip are those that I took of a hooded vulture (it's the cover picture of this post but there's another below). I'd never seen one of those before and the lighting on its head and feathers was about as perfect as it could have been. I'm not sure if this bird is completely ugly or supremely beautiful. The feathers are gorgeous.

Hooded vulture. Kruger day 1.

I'm not sure how many birds we saw in Kruger or South Africa as a whole. I'm still plugging them into ebird almost a month after we got home. My guess would be about 80 to 90 total species with maybe half to two thirds of that number in Kruger. For the purposes of this post, it doesn't particularly matter. This post is not supposed to be a complete record of every avian species we laid eyes on over four days.

Of the ten birds on my South Africa list, I saw nine, although admittedly the only Goliath heron I saw was on a live video feed at a lunch spot and I couldn't really figure out well enough where the camera was pointed to go have a look for myself. I got seven of the nine at Kruger, including the Goliath heron on TV. The only species I missed entirely in South Africa was a golden-breasted bunting. I think that's pretty good, particularly because I was pleasantly surprised by some birds that were not on my list, notably that hooded vulture. 

The rest of this post is a photo dump highlighting my most favorite bird photos I took in Kruger which haven't been posted earlier in this post. I'm separating the photos by day. Every day we spent birding in Kruger was special. The Tweety Car day will stick out in my memory as super-special because we spent it with kindred spirits from Australia and Oregon who enhanced our appreciation of birds. These moments on vacations can be memorable and this one certainly was. 

Kruger Day One

Top to bottom: Brown snake-eagle; white-headed vulture (left) and white-backed vulture (right). The brown snake-eagle was the first bird we saw in Kruger proper just after 6 o'clock in the morning. Early starts are essential on safari. But lighting sometimes is not great at that time of day.

Kruger Day Two

Top to bottom: Yellow-billed oxpecker; southern red-billed hornbill; crested barbet; Burchell's starling (two pics); common myna; southern ground-hornbill; southern white-faced owl; white-backed vulture. Told you there were some awesome starlings in Africa. We will forever refer to these birds as virtual starlings, by the way, based on us mis-hearing the initial identification from one of our traveling companions.

Kruger Day Three (Tweety Car Day)

Top to bottom: Tawny eagle; blacksmith lapwing.

Kruger Day Four

Top to Bottom: saddle-billed stork; southern masked-weaver; purple-crested turaco. 

Two comments here. First, I love weavers (like LOVE!!!). We saw southern masked-weavers, grosbeak weavers and cape weavers on this trip and every time I find the nest engineering by these birds just fascinating, maybe because it's completely out in the open. 

Second, the turacos were Kruger's parting gift to us. We saw six to eight of these birds in the treetops right before we exited the Park on our last day. Under normal circumstances, I would have passed on including this photograph based on the lighting but turacos are incredible-looking birds and I totally didn't expect to see them in South Africa. For what it's worth, both times I have seen Turacos (we saw some great blue turacos in Uganda), the lighting has been awful.