日期 : 2003 年 10月 1-7 日
旅行團: Corporate
旅費: HK$10,700 for business class supplement
South Africa is completely new in Anna’s travel history. After Dubai 2002, Anna went on another company offsite to South Africa. Ulusaba Game Reserve is 90 minutes domestic flight north of Johannesburg. Living in the middle of a jungle and among animals is a completely new experience. Before departure, everyone were threatened of Malaria and were requested to see doctors and get anti Malaria pills. And of course everyone bought plenty of mosquito repellents.
Day 1 Oct 1 (Wed)
Evening flight 2340. It is National Day public holiday, Anna went on to work in the afternoon in order to finish all work to take to S. Africa.
Day 2 Oct 2 (Thur)
About 13 hours flight, Anna and her colleagues landed in Johannesburg, immediately transfer to Federal Air for a domestic flight. It is the smallest aircraft Anna ever had. Including two pilots, altogether 14 persons. The one she took to Yellow Stone was 19.
Arrived site in late morning, training started in the afternoon. After a short break, we were transfer by a jeep to lower deck of Rock Lodge. Fantastic view but exceptionally hot. Everyone were excited in seeing several elephants from apart. It’s time to show off telescopes and binoculars. Those without one can only blame themselves for not well prepared.
Training started after lunch at the Safari Lodge where Anna’s room was actually very nearby. Unfortunately NO air-con. It was very, extremely and completely hot. Anna kept sweating and felt so uncomfortable that she was not able to concentrate and that she had to stand up and move around to cheer herself up. People’s attention was occasionally attracted by the elephants walked by.
NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) was done by Peter F. The training and the whole event was organized by Kate Sunley.
The first Game Drive was done immediately after training. It should be more interesting if weather was not that hot. It was still meltingly hot after sun set. Anyway it’s a new experience to see animals at their home, rather than at a zoo. It is a nine-seated open-top Land Rover. Each row is elevated to ensure everyone has a good view. Elephant, giraffe, implala, duiker were seen. Two hipos with opening mouths (note: only half of the mouth was seen, rest of the body inside water). Spot light was used after dark, Saly (short for Salomon, a black guy) the tracker and Lawrence (a white S. African) the ranger were able to spot a family of sleeping lions, with probably two adults and two cubs.
Dinner at Boma next to the Pool at Safari Lodge. A bond fire was set – hot plus hot. No body’s willing to sit nearby the fire. So they were left to the late comers. It was an outdoor buffet. First day’s impression on South Africa was HOT. Living in the middle of a jungle has to put up with animals roaring at night. Sometimes you’ll just feel them outside your room, however can’t realize who they are. But many a time in the morning, Anna and her roommate found groups of baboons playing outside.
Day 3 Oct 3 (Fri)
There was a 5am wake up call every morning. Viewing animals in the morning is much more comfortable in terms of temperature. Actually it’s a bit chilly comparing to yesterday. This morning they met a white rhino, giraffes, groups of impalas and kudu. Lawrence took his passengers to go after two walking lions for some time. Both female, one has only one eye. Elephants are destructive animals. They like pulling down trees and eat their leaves, bark and even the trunk. All the dead dry tree bodies on the floor were done by them.
This morning, everybody was required to wear their safari gear for a group photo. After game drive, people gather somewhere in the bush, around three jeeps and among a dry tree trunk. Everybody picked their favourite positions and postures. Beautiful and magnificent!
Breakfast served at Safari Lodge before NLP Training. This NLP sound like a little bit of everything. A bit difficult to follow at the beginning, especially in a completely hot and sweating hall. It’s really difficult to concentrate.
Lunch buffet at Safari Lodge near by pool side, again extremely hot. Anna didn’t eat much because of her digestive problem and heavy breakfast. After taking her anti-malaria tablet, she’d rather take a nap at her nearby room.
After NLP Training, there was another afternoon Game Drive, however Anna gave that up. Because of the hot terrible experience yesterday, she rather took a shower and a little rest before going to the bush dinner.
Bush dinner was again an outdoor one, a bit similar to the one they had in Dubai last year. But Dubai was five star, here is mmmmmm, may be two! Peter G. told Anna that if anyone’s going to catch Malaria, that was the place. Anna was so scared as to wear as much mosquito repellent as possible. Actually everybody was madly spraying, not only to hands and feet, but hair, shirts (front and back), trousers and everywhere. Anna thought with a big crowd of so much repellents, mosquitoes will be scared to death.
Lighting was poor, toilet facilities primitive. Different from lasts night, it’s quite cool actually though with a bond fire in the middle. Everybody were dressed up with African customs and males even requested to take their tops off. Aboriginal Shangann dancers and fortune teller added a lot of fun. However, it went darker and darker while candles went off one after one. Can you imagine what you can see when black people dancing the dark? You couldn’t even see what’s on the buffet table and what’s in your dish. Even though, everybody seems very enjoyed.
Day 4 Oct 4 (Sat)
Though Game Drive has no guarantee, every time you’ll find something new. Drivers usually exchange info on walkie talkie and Lawrence was told that there is a leopard around. After quite a difficult journey, ran on medium size trees and rugged land, you must be completely impressed by the engine of Land Rovers, a young leopard is found. It was such a close encounter, the leopard lies only somewhat like 5-6 feet apart from the Land Rover. This is actually a completely interesting experience to everybody. With spots all over the body, the Leopard itself is an extremely beautiful animal which made people admired so much. Cat walk, cleaning, scratching, typical lovely cat motions were all demonstrated. With his tongue cleaning his paws, then his face and his head. Cleaning the tail, cleaning the hands, cleaning the rear legs – it is such a leopard show. Everybody were completely happy when saying goodbye to the leopard.
This was the little beautiful creature who gave us lots of fun and joy.
What a great cat show!
An unexpected animal was found on their way back. Usually when you see some other jeeps stop nearby, there must be something. Because of this, Lawrence spotted a cheetah, a rarely seen animal in that area. Though it lies not as near as the leopard, people still feel very happy meeting him.
After the happy morning game drive, breakfast was served at Rock Lodge. Anna and her colleagues still happily reporting the leopard show that they’ve just seen.
NLP Training came to the last day and with more hands-on sessions. People were moved to an air-con hall to avoid the high temperature. What a clever though late decision. Kate was there and made Anna out of a partner after going to the ladies. However Anna was very flexible, the next round, she quickly fetched Peter the trainer to be her partner. By that, she had two rounds of practice with Peter and that satisfied him to some extent.
After a little lunch, Anna went on a little rest before afternoon training. Today there was Community Tour organized. Anna decided to go for it rather than game drive. 35 minutes to and 35 minutes from, the village is composed of Shangaan people, about 7,000 population. A typical village of low living standard, though children presented themselves clean and tidy, electricity was a valuable that not many people could afford. Candles were used widely. Here Anna found her last big-five, buffaloes. Some songs and dances by boys and girls, as well as visiting a local home, seeing how ladies did their daily work and food tasting. Journey ended with another African dance and the visit of a super mini museum.
Annual Award Dinner is a dress code evening. John, Anna’s boss, had requested people to come with a look of ‘Out of Africa’ or with a black tie. Anna dressed herself up with the brown shirt and trousers she bought for this evening, together with the big hat given on arrival, looks quite like an African hunter. Others did dress up seriously either with African look or formal look. After the formal awards, the little diddi award made everyone a big laughter. The most諷刺was Sean’s framed photo of B. McGrath (laughing at him for having one client only). Anna got a pad of plastic rice with a British flag on it, laughing at her going to London for summer work. It was an enjoyable evening anyway.
Day 5 Oct 5 (Sun)
This morning Lawrence went on something else, Janet became the ranger. It was a bloody morning. Started with a family of two lioness and three cubs eating the left over of their prey from yesterday. Pulling the internal organs out was really bloody and cruel. Next a leopard on the tree was enjoying his prey, a bit more fresh than the lions’. It demonstrated the natural rule of order. The dominator eats first, not until he finishes, his subordinate didn’t had a chance. Once he moved away, the next quickly continues. And of course there was a hyena waiting apart to clear the left over. Then a cheetah lying proudly beyond his prey, probably a young impala. It was a fresh kill, perhaps only two hours ago. Usually, when these animals are full, human beings are safe. This cheetah seemed to be so full that he was not able or didn’t care to move.
Animals do have emotion. While Peter reported them being charged by a rhino, this morning, Anna and her colleagues were charged by an angry elephant. Nobody knew what has pissed him off. Anyway, he was coming towards them, Janet with her natural instinct quickly drove away and the elephant was still after them for a certain distance. May yelled to wait while taking photo with Sean using the elephant as background, without knowing her life being threatened. Janet said ‘you want a photo, but we want our lives.’
On their way to the bush breakfast, the other jeep of colleagues just stop before them looking at a green snake on a tree. People were scared especially with the big opened mouth and the red tongue. However Carl, the other jeep’s ranger didn’t seem to be afraid at all and was trying to suppress the snake. All at a sudden people were laughing. It was a fake one, it was Leon’s plastic snake! Anna started to realize that it was the one that Leon wore at the annual dinner. It was such a joke, they were all teased by the colleagues of the previous jeep. Anyway, it was amusing, a plastic snake in the wild on a tree, does look real.
This morning’s breakfast was served at the bush. Kate was trying to let everybody try a bit of everything. The same crew of waiters seemed to appear in every restaurant in Ulusaba. People appreciate this outdoor breakfast, found it refreshing and relaxing.
Training was over, today was Global Sage’s annual review and outlook. Afternoon meeting was late by 30 minutes. People were on time going to breaks and ending meetings, but not starting meetings. Because of Anna’s digestive problem, she gave up lunch. Everyday being fed by full breakfast, lunch, dinner and two tea breaks, she was terribly overloaded. Might have to go on fasting for a week after the tour.
Dinner at Boma again with some drum dance. Lighting was so weak that Anna took a torch from her room and served other colleagues. People feel bad being served by her, but she just took it as fun. Food was not to Anna’s taste except the BBQ pork chops.
During today’s evening game drive, there was a bush tea break. Lawrence was able to spot a clawing crocodile, and a super small owl. You can’t imagine how a man while driving can spot such a tiny creature hiding in the dense leaves of a tree after dark by only listening to their voice. Saly got lost, Lawrence grip the spot light and found it. It was so small, just 15cm tall, the world’s smallest owl.
After so many game drives, Anna got mixed up with animals from the antelopes family. To her kudo, duiker, nyala and waterbuck all look the same. But Lawrence and Janet can name them immediately, well, a matter of experience.
Day 6 Oct 6 (Mon)
About time to go home, Anna made use of every opportunity to go on Game Drive. Wake up at 5am again, she went on the last morning game drive, however didn’t find anything exciting except a new animal warthog was found. After breakfast, it was time to check out and heading to airport. Making use of the last chance, everyone tried hard to clear their films by taking group photos, especially at the mini airport towards Johannesburg. Anna in her mid age, couldn’t put up with economy for such a long journey. She paid a supplement of HK$10,700 to put herself in business class and got her favourite.
Day 7 Oct 7 (Tue)
After a comfortable 13 hour flight, she arrived into Hong Kong at 8am. Anna took a ride from John and back to office directly and back to work after a quick shower at the gym.
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