South Africa SAFARI TOUR

In October, I booked a 4-day Safari tour with Safari with us for $500 a person. With this being non-peak season and summer, the Safari rates were much lower than in peak season and the cooler/dry climate. The Safari package included a late day safari, full day safari and add-on safari, in addition to a full day Panoramic tour. Lodging was also included. The package also included all breakfast and dinner meals, transportation to/from Johannesburg airport (~5 hours away) and entry into Kruger National Park. 

We were picked up at our hotel around 6am and transported to the airport where we met up with 9 other individuals. Interestingly, the other individuals (all from Europe) purchased their Safari packages with different companies so I am assuming the companies partner together. Everyone was really nice and we enjoyed getting to know everyone over the 4 days. We slept on and off throughout the 5 hour drive and had one bathroom stop around 3 hours in. We arrived to the Krugar Safari Lodge a little after 12pm and signed some paperwork before checking in to our rooms. We ate lunch at the lodge restaurant and I was happy to see so many vegetarian options (with soy-based products for protein). We then took a dip in the pool to cool off as it was in the upper 80's. 

We were very happy with our accomodations as we didn't need anything luxurious for our stay as we were here for the Safari. However, the downside to our accomodation was the location. It was a gated lodge and we were advised not to leave due to safety. One day Karel ventured out for a run and he said it was the first time since we arrived to South Africa that he didn't feel safe exercising outside. The lodge did have some activities like a playground, giant chess game, pool, outdoor patio and large restaurant/seating area but that was about it for staying active. The other downside was not having any access to food or other items to purchase. Thankfully, one of the workers at the lodge took me and Karel to the nearby grocery store so that I could get sunscreen and bugspray, as well as a few big bottles of water. 

Our room was plenty big. We had a queen size bed along with two twin beds. We also had a full bathroom, AC, TV, mini fridge and lots of space. We slept great and loved the decor of our room. 

Around 3pm it was finally time for our Safari. I didn't really know what to expect but I felt flooded with emotions. I had wanted to do a Safari for a very long time and it was finally happening. 

The location of our lodge was ~40 minutes away from Kruger National Park so it took some time to get to the enterance but the nice thing was seeing more sights and people to and from the park. It was a stark contrast of scenery going from a town to a National Park. 

Kruger National Park is the largest National Park in South Africa. According to Britanica "The park, with an area of 7,523 square miles (19,485 square km), is about 200 miles (320 km) long and 25 to 50 miles (40 to 80 km) wide. The area has a generally flat terrain with low ranges of hills traversed by nearly 5,000 miles of paved and gravel roads. Vegetation varies from open veld to dense bush that includes mopane, acacia, marula, and baobab trees. Wildlife includes elephants, lions, leopards, cheetahs, buffalo, rhinoceroses, zebras, wildebeests, impalas, and numerous birds. Although six perennial rivers cross the park, droughts often make artificial watering necessary.

The first animal that I spotted was an elephant. We then saw giraffes, buffalo, rhino, impalas and zebra. For our first Safari, we saw a lot over 3 hours in the late afternoon. Our full day Safari on day two lasted from 5:30am until 4pm with a break for lunch. There are several restaurants within the park for bathrooms and food. The highlight of day two was seeing a pack of lions and a few cubs. We opted to pay for one additional morning safari on the last day and we we finally saw lions. The only animals that we didn't see where cheetahs and leopards. 

This was an experience of a lifetime to see the animals in their natural habitat. We saw old adults and babies and everything in between. Our guides were really knowledgable and we asked lots of questions. The birds were also fascinating and beautiful. The landscape was incredible. 

A successful Safari requires an experienced guide, a lot of eyes, sitting up high in an off-road vehicle, being patient and spending a lot of time driving around. I put together a video from our Safari experience. 

If you are planning a Safari, here are a few tips that I learned from our experience: 

• Don't tour by yourself in your car. Being with a group means more eyes to look for animals. Also, the touring trucks allow you to sit up high, which makes for easier viewing in the distance. 
• Use an experience guide. If you book a tour, you will get a guide. To improve your odds of seeing animals, the guides will often communicate to one another as to where certain animals are spotted (on specific roads/routes). The guides also know about the animals so they can answer your questions. 
• Allow at least 2 full days of Safari to improve your odds of seeing all the big 5 and so much more. Most Safaris will have one in the morning for a few hours (typically very early when the animals are most active as its cooler) and then late afternoon/early evening. You may also consider a few more early morning safari tours for 3-5 viewing experiences. I can tell you that seeing elephants and giraffes doesn't get old. It didn't matter how many we saw, each one made me wow. 
• Make sure to bring cash to tip your driver. 
• Wear light, breathable comfortable neutral clothes. We purchased Safari hats on Amazon before we left and they came in really handy for when we were driving (and it was windy) as well as for keeping the sun off our neck. Even though the Safari truck is covered, the sun is still warm from the sides of the vehicle. 
• Bring binoculars. You will spot many animals in the distance. 
• Bring your camera. Our cell phones worked great for capturing pictures. While it would have been nice to take more professional pictures while we were there, we were just fine with our phones. Nothing can erase the memories that we gained from the experience. 
• Bring sunscreen and bugspray. 
• Bring snacks and water. 

To finish off this recap, here are some pics of the delicious food that we consumed during our Safari tour. 

Up next.....breathtaking pictures from our Panoramic Tour. 

Week in Review

Happy 2020! Wow, I can't believe we are a week into the start of a New Year. The weather here has been unseasonably warmer than the past few years, although we have had a few days of steady rain. Nevertheless, training is going well and we are in good health. 

On Monday last week, I welcomed a recovery day. When I have a recovery day, I take full advantage of it by getting a lot of work done in advance, catching up with to-do's around the house, enjoying a little extra time in the kitchen, taking Campy for extra long walks and not thinking at all about training. I sure do love my recovery days. 

On Thursday, I recruited my swim partner Kristen to join me (and Karel) in a tough interval-focused swim. Kristen is extremely fast in the water so she is the perfect training partner for me to ensure that I don't slack in the water. She isn't training for any events (just training for life) so she keeps training fun for me. Plus, we have managed to find ways to have conversations in our rest intervals of 10-15 seconds. It must be a swimmer thing ;) 

Thursday Swim (4400)

WU:
400swim/100 kick/300 pull/200 drill

6x25's odds build free, evens fly on :30

MS:

30x100's

5/1

4/2

3/3

2/4

1/5

Alternating intervals aerobic base pace with threshold pace interval. We did a 1:30 cycle for the aerobic and 1:25 for threshold. 

CD: 250 easy

We did this workout shortly after Karel and I did our morning run workout so I was a bit tired going into this but somehow found a way to enjoy this tough set. Karel had a bit of cramping in his feet (from running shortly before the swim) so he had to adjust the set a little (he also did his own intervals).

As for the furry crew, Ella had a string of diarrhea on Sat and Sun so it was back to the vet for our little kitten. Luckily, all is ok and we just need to change her kitten food and keep her away from nibbling on Madison and Campy's food.

                                                 

I can't believe how much our little Ella Bella has grown over the past few months. She was such a little malnourished birdy when we got her and now she pretty much rules our house with confidence, energy and cuteness.

Campy received his first rain jacket as a holiday gift from our friend/athlete Eedee. I thought he'd enjoy this gift so that he could comfortably go outside in the rain but we tried it out one day and Campy is still not a fan of water - in any form. 

On Saturday, Karel and I went out for a 2:50 hr ride (him on his tri bike and me on my road bike). Karel made some recent changes to his tri bike and he was riding super fast, without any back pain (which is something he regularly struggles with - over the past several years). We are hoping this keeps up so that he can train and race to his potential on the bike.

As for the changes he made:
-155 crank arms (from 165)
-Slightly higher front end position
-Narrow and forward elbows locked in the Wattshop ergo cups.
-High hand grip which allows him to drop the head down and rotate shoulders forward and be more narrow.

Thankfully, I didn't have to run off the bike and Bike + strength was my only workout of the day. My legs were toast trying to stay on Karel's wheel!

Karel had two bike fits throughout the week (one athlete from Massachusetts and one from Charlotte) so it was a bit of a busy first week of the year for Karel. 

Also, we received a notification from Ironman that our Tri Club placed 3rd in Div IV in the World. We are so proud of our athletes for this accomplishment!!

To finish off the week, Karel joined me for my long run on the Green Valley Road Race course. While a very easy run for him, it was a bit challenging for me. We are planning to participate in the Green Valley 10-mile Road Race on Feb 8th. We have been wanting to run in this event for the past few years but we have always had something going on during the event weekend. The race course is extremely hilly (~1000+ feet of elevation gain) but it's also on the roads that we train on all the time. It'll be more like a training day for us with a little push from other runners. It is certainly a running race that rewards strong and resilient athletes and not so much about being "fast" - just my type of race! 

Not only did we run the entire course but we also did a bit extra to make this my longest training run in a very long time! 13.9 miles an one hour and 50 minutes of running! There were some stops and reset breaks along the way but it was a challenging but great workout for me. And I loved having Karel as my rabbit to chase. After the run, we got a little work done on the computer and then went to the pool for one last swim workout for the week. 

Sunday Swim (3600)
(we both wore our buoyancy shorts for this entire workout)

WU:
600 choice 

PS: 3x

w/ snorkel

4 x 25 sculling

into 100 smooth swim 

Rest 5-10 sec. 

MS: 

600 snorkel, strap at 80% 

4 x 25 strap strong

400 strap at 80% 

6 x 25 strap strong

200 paddles at 85% 

8 x 25 strap and paddles strong

10-15 sec rest. 

PS:

3 x 200 at 85% and breathing every 3 strokes. 

Rest 10 sec

CD:
150 EZ

Your gift to the Greenville Humane Society.

Whether it's to a friend raising money for a good cause, a stranger in need or to an animal shelter, at Trimarni, we regularly find ourselves donating to important causes.

For the past few years, we've donated money to our local Greenville Humane Society on behalf of our business - Trimarni Coaching and Nutrition. We take $1 from every Trimarni purchase, round it up and double the amount - and then give money and food to the local Humane Society. Because of your Trimarni support of our small business, you helped us donate $500 and an additional $100 of cat, dog, puppy and kitten food to the Greenville Humane Society. THANK YOU!






As someone who is passionate about helping others, I can't tell you how much it means to us to have your Trimarni support. Whether it's the purchase of our coffee, one of my books, a bike fit with Karel or purchasing our training plans, your support allows us to give back to others.





Here is how your donation is helping the Greenville Humane Society:

2018 Year in Review

• Adoptions: Adopted 6,099 pets into forever homes which makes the Greenville Humane Society the largest no kill facility in the Southeast just behind Atlanta.
• Annual Save Rate: 99.7% (5,456 animals were admitted to the shelter in 2018. 17 or .3% were euthanized to end their suffering from illness.).
• Admissions: In 2018, 43% of Greenville Humane Society animals were owner surrenders and 57% were transferred from other animal shelters. We now partner with 36 high euthanasia shelters in five states to pull animals. By doing so, we are helping to lower the euthanasia rates in the entire Southeast.
• Spay/Neuter Surgeries: 15,385 surgeries in 2018. 10,594 of these were public surgeries.
• Vaccine Clinic: 52,757 vaccines were administered at the Greenville Humane Society.
• Healing Place/Hope Fund: 2,321 animals were treated for serious diseases and illnesses (in homes and onsite). We were able to treat 61% more animals with upper respiratory infections, many of which were pulled from other shelters while sick, in our new expanded URI treatment room. Overall, 38% of the animals who found their forever homes in 2018 went through treatment in our Healing Place.
• Volunteer Program: 39,495 total volunteer hours donated in 2018. On average, 223 active volunteers each month.
• Greenville Humane Society Website: 732,841 visitors in 2018. Of these visitors, 40.8% were new.

Ella, welcome to the family.

On August 25th, 2019, we added a new furry member to our family. However, technically our new kitten did not yet belong to us. Here's the emotional story of our sweet Ella.

On April 30th, 2019, we said good-bye to our 16-year cat named Smudla. Karel had a really difficult time moving on from the loss of his long-time companion but the sight of any kitten would quickly bring a smile to his face. While nothing could replace the love that he had for Smudla, it was in early July when Karel brought up the idea of getting a new feline family member. I was a bit hesitant as I wasn't sure how Campy and Madison (the seniors in the house) would feel about this new addition.

One day in mid August, I was texting with an athlete/friend of ours who lives outside of Atlanta Georgia and fosters kittens. I mentioned to her that when we get back from Kona, we would like to adopt one of her rescue kittens. Karel was interested in a grey kitten and when I mentioned this to our friend, she replied back that she has a grey female kitten right now. Of course, we needed a picture immediately.

At that moment, we fell in love. Although she was 2 months old, she was only the size of a 4 week old. She was found outside with her litter mates, without her mother. Our friend said that her and her simblings were so sick when she got them that she didn't know if they would make it.

Of course, that story made us love her even more. It wasn't until a few days later that we named her Ella.

We were told that she was not up for adoption until she was older and heavier - at that point she could get spayed and could then be placed up for adoption. With strict adoption rules from the foster organization, we were so sad that we couldn't adopt her right away. Ella was being fostered with five or six other kittens and she was certainly the runt of the group. She was struggling to put on weight because she was so active and lively. She would nap hard and play hard.

After another week or two of getting regular updates on Ella, we had a phone discussion with the lady in charge of the foster organization and she agreed that we could take home Ella under two conditions.

1) She was not officially ours until we got her spayed. In other words, we were only fostering her.
2) We had to foster two kittens - Ella and another kitten - so that they could both interact and learn from one another.

While we were only interested in Ella, we quickly fell in love with the orange kitten that our friend was also fostering. We named him Felix and decided to welcome them both into our family.

When the fostering paperwork was complete and the medication/vaccine protocol list was put together, Karel made the 3.5 hour drive on Sunday August 27th to pick up our new "not yet official" family members. I was unable to go with Karel as I was finishing the manuscript of my third book with my final deadline on Monday the 28th.

While Karel was making his 6+ hour round trip, I fixed up our spare room to be a safe and welcoming "kitten" room. When Karel returned to our house with two adorable and tiny kittens, I was a bit overwhelmed with the love that I had for both of them.  Ella was extremely tiny and looked so fragile whereas Felix was vibrant and healthy. Ella was still a bit sick so we had to put medication in her squinty eyes. Feline herpesvirus is a very common viral infection in orphaned and immunocompromised kittens. During a flare up, the kitten may experience an upper respiratory infection including sneezing, nasal discharge and decreased appetite. Other signs include eye discharge, swelling and squinting. Most kittens can recover from this infection in 1-2 weeks.

At the time, we didn't know any of these symptoms but just assumed she had a little eye infection. Our friend was taking exceptionally great care of these kittens and as she mentioned to us before, they were all very sick when she received the kittens (she fosters the most scary/difficult rescues).

In the morning of our first full day with Ella and Felix, I received a call from my mom that my Grandpa Joe passed away at the age of 96. I was very sad that my grandpa was no longer just a phone call away but also grateful that my grandpa could live such a long and happy life. Later that evening, I booked a flight to travel to Ft. Wayne Indiana for a memorial service with close friends and family. I traveld to Indiana on Tues afternoon, stayed there all day Wednesday and traveled home very early on Thursday. Althugh it was a very emotional time for me, I new that I had two adorable kittens to warm my heart when I returned home from my trip. I also had plenty of photos of Felix and Ella as Karel could not stop sending me pictures of his two new loves (don't worry, our senior citizens Campy and Madison were still getting a lot of attention).

Thursday was a very busy day for me. I squeezed in a lot of work and workouts and our weekly educational FB live chat with our team and I was so ready to relax with the kittens at 8:00pm. I noticed that Felix was acting a bit lethargic when we brought them downstairs from their room. He was also showing signs of labored breathing. I texted our close friend Joey (cat mom) and after Facetiming with her to show her Felix, she suggested that we take him to the Animal Emergency Clinic. We left Ella alone in her room and took Felix to the emergency clinic. As soon as we arrived, the tech at the desk took Felix from us to start a nebulizing treatment on him since he was open mouth breathing. At this point, I was so exhausted from everything. Karel and I stayed positive and hoped that it was nothing serious. When we finally saw the doctor, she told us that he has an upper respiratory infection and that they will give him some medication and we can take him home. We were relieved that we were able to take him home as we felt like this was a sign that he would be ok.

Ella was happy to see her buddy when we returned home around 11:30pm. We had a restless night of sleep as we were worried about Felix and when we woke up in the morning, we went right to the kitten room to check on Felix. Of course, Ella sprints out of the room full of energy and ready to eat but Felix was still very lethargic on his bed, still struggling to breathe. At this point, we were scared. So we rushed him to our local vet (5 miles away) and they quickly put him back on the neubulizing therapy. They wanted to keep Felix all day to see how he was tolerating the therapy and if he wasn't showing signs of improvement, we would need to take him back to the Emergency Clinic. Around 4:30pm, we received a call from the vet that Felix was doing worse than before and he needed to go to the Emergency Clinic. We picked up Ella and took them both to the clinic so that Ella didn't have to be alone. Felix was rushed back into the neubulizing area and we waited and waited and waited. They asked if we were ok to take xrays as it would be risky on such a sick little kitten but they also explained the pros and cons of the situation. We agreed to the xrays and it showed pneumonia. We kept Feliex at the Emergency Clinic over night and just hoped and prayed that he would be ok.

We had scheduled a long bike ride with three out of town friends and we barely made 90 minutes into the ride before we had to turn around as we couldn't think straight and we had no mental energy to be on the bike. We played with Ella when we returned home (I asked my mom to watch Ella while we were biking) and texted back and forth to the organizer of the foster group to explain about Felix's situation (we had kept her in the loop through it all). Although Ella was our biggest worry when we brought her home, our strong, vibrant and playful Felix was struggling. On Saturday, just 6 days after we brought home Ella and Felix, we received a phone call that Felix was not going to make it. The foster organizer gave the doctor permission to humanely put Felix out of his discomfort.

We were heart broken. And still are. Did we do something wrong? Should we have waited until they were older? But what about Ella - if we didn't take her in, would she have survived? We ask ourselves questions over and over as we are still so heartbroken about the situation. But Ella has shown us that she is a fighter. She is a fantastic eater, sleeper and pooper and all around fun and entertaining kitten.

As for the rest of September, what was suppose to be an exciting time of peaking for the 2019 Ironman World Championship, we spent at least one day a week for the next 4 weeks at the vet for Ella. We were so close to cancelling our trip to Kona as we had no desire to race in what was suppose to be a fun event for us with so much heartache, drama and stress. Anytime Ella would sneeze or cough, we got scared that something was going to happen to her. If Ella was unusually tired, we started to freak out. She received more medications and vaccines in the month of September and we were on high alert for the next few weeks. We even decided to fly in Karel's mom to watch over Ella to make sure nothing happened to her while we were in Kona for two weeks. The vet staff was falling in love with Ella as they saw her regularly for the month of September. Ella had a few more health complications but everything was treatable.

I hesitated to write this blog for many reasons and we are still so sad about Felix. We also didn't want to talk much about Ella until we knew she was officially ours. At the age of 16 weeks and just tipping the scales at 4 lbs, Ella was spayed on 11/21 and now we can finally officially say that Ella is part of our family.

Although we were expecting a happy and joyful experience of adopting a new kitten, this doesn't change my feelings about rescue animals. It all started with the kindness of our friend who was fostering Ella (and Felix) - which is not an easy job. Every foster/rescue organization relies on donations and animal lovers to help feed, medicate and provide for deserving animals in need of a forever home. She gave Ella a second chance at life and now Ella is living the life with us and big brother (Campy) and sister (Madison). There is an overpopulation of cats and dogs and we must break the cycle. In order to do so, I encourage you to adopt don't shop.

Ella loves her crinkle toys with feathers, boxes, tissue paper, strings and anything loose that she can toss around. She is curious about water, naps all afternoon, loves to go into rooms that she is not suppose to (workout room), loves to eat, likes to play with Madison and Campy (neither of them are overly enthusiastic about the situation but are accepting), loves to chase her tail and is always on the hunt to attack moving objects. She is loves to jump and discover new things. She sleeps in our bed at night - usually on top of one of us.

Thank you for reading her story.