Africa Wild

We visited Kruger during the month of May this year, and as you can surmise from the title, it wasn't one of our best trips, sightings or photography wise. The bush was still high and quite thick, and many of the days were cloudy and overcast with limited adequate light for good photography. But there was another issue that cast a pall over much of the trip as well.

Being a South Africa SUPERFAN, I chose to ignore reality pre-trip, and let my excitement and anticipation override my common sense.



I took the stick-your-head-in-the-sand and pretend it doesn't exist approach...

Not a viable strategy. Just prior to the departure date I awoke with substantial pain in both shoulders. I had NEVER had any such issues before, so was confused as to what had brought this on. I concluded the ONLY thing that had changed in my life was a new set of reclining lounge chairs we recently purchased. They were EXTREMELY hard to close, so I figured I had used leg and arm muscles that had been on hiatus for too long.

Do you know how embarrassing it is to show up at an Urgent Care Center with the complaint "My Laz-E-Boy kicked my ass"…

(I was referring to a chair not my SO).

But being competitive with said SO, it beat his "A crazed rooster kicked my ass" visit years ago, so I stuck with it.

They gave me a Prednisone pack, and Viola!, within 24 hours I was fully functional (if you don't count mental acuity). Perfect! Off we flew and entered our beloved Kruger 5 days later.

I'll join this trip

Sis!

Off we go

Sorry for your shoulders, but that terrible Prednisone stuff does miracles. I am kind of dependent

Nothing wrong with your first pics

Great stuff, Ex!

Sorry about the pains, but at least us youngsters recover quickly!

I'm on board!

Hope your shoulders didn't cause any more trouble!

Hi harrys, Sis, RP, and Flutts - thanks for joining me even tho' it doesn't have a very promising title I'll just make the best of what I got, and have fun with it.

Yep, Sis it IS a miracle drug, but not a good idea to stay on too long-term, depending on the dosage of course.

Let's get on with it....

I'll cut to the worst part of the trip which flavored many of our days. Within 24 hours of the Prednisone treatment running out, the extreme shoulder pain recurred, increasing each day. I could barely lift my binoculars to my face, eventually not my (heavy) lens, nor was I flexible enough to do my favorite macrophotography unless the insect was off the ground.

On a lighter note… At one point I couldn't even lift my arms enough to fix my own hair.


I asked SO to help me.

He gave me a Mohawk.


I gave him an earful


or two,


"GO AWAY!"


Would have given him a piece of my mind, but don't have that much to spare. We quickly called a truce, and continued on our trip peacefully, but quite painfully.

At Tamboti we decided to try and transfer back to Skukuza, as the pain was increasingly debilitating, to visit the doctor. We were finally able to get accommodation there after 3 more days.

I went to see the doctor for my neck/shoulder pain.




I think next time I'll complain of hemorrhoids so I can get my neck attended to...

You really get me rolling on the floor and tears running

You SO has no future whatsoever as a hairdresser

(You left without taking the cortisone along )

Laughing as I read here, Ex!

Yes, our medics are a bit dubious!

What a unique kingfisher shot!