sorry, we are not by the internet too much therefore no updates but this. We are In Botswana, the people are nice and the animals unfriendly.
later
check facebook - david mobbs
or Ashleys - micmob narvey for updates
Monday, August 3, 2009
Monday, May 4, 2009
How Decisions Are Made
You have to do it because you must do it.
So here we are in Africa. Been here for 4 months, waiting and listening. Why? Because we had to. No choice. And still, despite all the danger, setbacks and corruption, i believe we are where were meant to be and i can't wait to get further into it!
A friend told me once that i have a responsibility to protect my wife. But i feel that first i must support and assist her in what she wants to do. This time it was come to this place far away from what we know, riddled with
I respect her wishes and am now happy for her that she is neck deep into it. It is like one in which i found myself before finding her.
Like fishing. You can not do it because you want to. You have to be without any other choice. Other than going ashore of course, but then you would be a fisherman not fishing.
I hated it, yet i did it over seven years. Day after day i stepped myself back aboard, season after sunny season. My fish barrel was not empty when i was done and i sure saw some sights at sea while on the job.
So far we have spent almost half of the kitty. The cash i was planning on being the retirement fund is 40% gone in four months. I have 60% more time to think about it.
Or New Orleans. I foul pit with four young bodies steaming out last nights rotten vodka was assigned to me as my room in the backpackers.
I booked a ticket out of there before the night. But my ticket did not come until 6 months later, and by that time, i had already begun to learn the blues. And for my time there, that sweet southern song of a time, i would not know who to thank because it was bigger than the stars.
After going to Australia, where all seems picture perfect with no crime. We made the plan, against old dreams, to cut the Africa trip short. Re-home Zoe, Marea, Agy and Ruby. Sell the motorhome, dirtbike and give away all the tools and equipment we had gathered.
But no thing has yet been shed. We are a couple with bags packed and on the road without a ride is still on the road, there aint no getting off. Weather we like it or not, we are Safari bound.
Once again, there is no decision to make.
So here we are in Africa. Been here for 4 months, waiting and listening. Why? Because we had to. No choice. And still, despite all the danger, setbacks and corruption, i believe we are where were meant to be and i can't wait to get further into it!
A friend told me once that i have a responsibility to protect my wife. But i feel that first i must support and assist her in what she wants to do. This time it was come to this place far away from what we know, riddled with
I respect her wishes and am now happy for her that she is neck deep into it. It is like one in which i found myself before finding her.
Like fishing. You can not do it because you want to. You have to be without any other choice. Other than going ashore of course, but then you would be a fisherman not fishing.
I hated it, yet i did it over seven years. Day after day i stepped myself back aboard, season after sunny season. My fish barrel was not empty when i was done and i sure saw some sights at sea while on the job.
So far we have spent almost half of the kitty. The cash i was planning on being the retirement fund is 40% gone in four months. I have 60% more time to think about it.
Or New Orleans. I foul pit with four young bodies steaming out last nights rotten vodka was assigned to me as my room in the backpackers.
I booked a ticket out of there before the night. But my ticket did not come until 6 months later, and by that time, i had already begun to learn the blues. And for my time there, that sweet southern song of a time, i would not know who to thank because it was bigger than the stars.
After going to Australia, where all seems picture perfect with no crime. We made the plan, against old dreams, to cut the Africa trip short. Re-home Zoe, Marea, Agy and Ruby. Sell the motorhome, dirtbike and give away all the tools and equipment we had gathered.
But no thing has yet been shed. We are a couple with bags packed and on the road without a ride is still on the road, there aint no getting off. Weather we like it or not, we are Safari bound.
Once again, there is no decision to make.
Sunday, May 3, 2009
There is Tony the taxi guy too. Is he a friend? Hard to say, we have to pay him royally to drive us to town. And we must get driven to town to get groceries. I only once caught a mini taxi in this area. Well actually a guy driving a mini pick-up stopped to enquire how long we had been waiting so the others i piled in the back. He took me to town. I told the motor bike salesman i caught a taxi,to check k what he would say if i had gone through with my desperate plans and gone with the locals. As almost expected, like most others i have talked with, he said ‘mate-you are lucky” , “if you walk into that taxi stand you will not walk back out again. This guy is a tank, a tattooed bike, head like a paint can sitting on top of a barrel and he says he is terrified so would ever go to the taxi stand. I believe him, taxi stands may be a dangerous place. I very well may not have walked out of there that day if i had walked in. But there was a lift, Dogtor jack happened to be in town so i rode home with him.
When it comes time to go to town for Ashley and i together, i have not since took a public taxi. It’s now exclusively Tony the taxi guy’s private ride for the Mobbs’.
Monday, April 20, 2009
africa-a done deal
cuttin our losses and getting the heck out'a dodge!
I got on the dirt bike, flew like an eagle and went splat like a cow patty in dirt. Broke my wrist so i went to Australia to get it fixed up. Before our return to South Africa we decided not to go through with the overland trip up to Kenya as it can be dangerous due to crime and i will not be at full capacity for some time due to limited arm movement.
I have never backed down from a challenge, have been through some dangerous places but not this time.
Dogtor Jack has offered to take our dogs into his pack.
Looking for a new home for the cats.
Selling off all the equipment, and then off to the land of OZ.
I got on the dirt bike, flew like an eagle and went splat like a cow patty in dirt. Broke my wrist so i went to Australia to get it fixed up. Before our return to South Africa we decided not to go through with the overland trip up to Kenya as it can be dangerous due to crime and i will not be at full capacity for some time due to limited arm movement.
I have never backed down from a challenge, have been through some dangerous places but not this time.
Dogtor Jack has offered to take our dogs into his pack.
Looking for a new home for the cats.
Selling off all the equipment, and then off to the land of OZ.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
trouble in paridise-disagreemnet between aquantinences
Inside the walls, trouble did eventually come. Not from over the fences or walls, but from deep within.
I was sitting in meditation in the quite hours of the night when our host, the Dogtor called to summon me immediately outside. I put on my boots in readiness to partner up with the big Dogtor Jack in chasing off would be intruders from our property.
There were black shadows to chase that night, but to where I don’t know.
Indeed there was a battle. But the Dogtor and I were the only men in the yard.
The argument was of the same stuff that previous ones over the last two months had been. In his interactions with humans, as with the dogs, the Dogtor strictly adheres to pack mentality attitudes, using only submissive or dominant acts.
And me making preparations to traverse up through deep dark Africa with Ashley and our little tribe of animals is not part of following the Dogtor’s daily routines. Therefore any progress the Micmobs make in gaining their independence is met with fierce challenge.
“South Africa is dangerous”- sure, like eating a lollypop is too. “Life is cheap here”, -your bill be will added up upon completion of your meal.
Although in just two months I have suffered various abuse.
I was robbed by a white English taxi driver. After driving me to town he then told me that this trip was going to cost three times the usual price.
I was refused dental work by another Englishman on the premise that i would bring lawyers from the states to sue him if anything went wrong in the surgery because i was a foreigner.
I am constantly warned by the Dogtor and other dwellers of the cages up on top of the green hills that black people are dangerous and will hurt me. In my ventures into the open, so far, I have only experienced warm welcoming treatment from the natives.
I wonder-what the Dogtor and were quarreling over other than ephemeral feelings, crazy! We are all nuts, and I reckon Mr. Dogtor is no more nuts than any other and he does understand dogs and we have learnt allot living on his property.
Once I walked the dark streets of Kalgoorlie on a balmy evening. There a black man called for me to stop, so i did. Certain that he would request something from me but surprised when he gave me some money for a smoke. I walked on down toward home care free and ahead of where I was when I left.
Since then I will stop-for anyone if they ask.
But now things are a little different. I have a lady with me. If it was safety and security that she wanted, I would not have brought her here. It is one of Ashley’s childhood dreams to see an elephant flinging a cloud of dust up over his back. A pride of lions gorging on their kill in the shade of the trees. ‘under African skies’ is one of her favorite lines. And it so happens that is now a line we take, over rolling grass hills, under cascading waterfalls, between oceans and deserts i find my way home again.
If we do anything other than our best to follow our dreams, we have already been robbed.
The fear left me as a deep guttural burst of laughter burped out of my belly to brush across the green jungle top when i realized that know one could rob me because i actually have nothing that is mine.
I was sitting in meditation in the quite hours of the night when our host, the Dogtor called to summon me immediately outside. I put on my boots in readiness to partner up with the big Dogtor Jack in chasing off would be intruders from our property.
There were black shadows to chase that night, but to where I don’t know.
Indeed there was a battle. But the Dogtor and I were the only men in the yard.
The argument was of the same stuff that previous ones over the last two months had been. In his interactions with humans, as with the dogs, the Dogtor strictly adheres to pack mentality attitudes, using only submissive or dominant acts.
And me making preparations to traverse up through deep dark Africa with Ashley and our little tribe of animals is not part of following the Dogtor’s daily routines. Therefore any progress the Micmobs make in gaining their independence is met with fierce challenge.
“South Africa is dangerous”- sure, like eating a lollypop is too. “Life is cheap here”, -your bill be will added up upon completion of your meal.
Although in just two months I have suffered various abuse.
I was robbed by a white English taxi driver. After driving me to town he then told me that this trip was going to cost three times the usual price.
I was refused dental work by another Englishman on the premise that i would bring lawyers from the states to sue him if anything went wrong in the surgery because i was a foreigner.
I am constantly warned by the Dogtor and other dwellers of the cages up on top of the green hills that black people are dangerous and will hurt me. In my ventures into the open, so far, I have only experienced warm welcoming treatment from the natives.
I wonder-what the Dogtor and were quarreling over other than ephemeral feelings, crazy! We are all nuts, and I reckon Mr. Dogtor is no more nuts than any other and he does understand dogs and we have learnt allot living on his property.
Once I walked the dark streets of Kalgoorlie on a balmy evening. There a black man called for me to stop, so i did. Certain that he would request something from me but surprised when he gave me some money for a smoke. I walked on down toward home care free and ahead of where I was when I left.
Since then I will stop-for anyone if they ask.
But now things are a little different. I have a lady with me. If it was safety and security that she wanted, I would not have brought her here. It is one of Ashley’s childhood dreams to see an elephant flinging a cloud of dust up over his back. A pride of lions gorging on their kill in the shade of the trees. ‘under African skies’ is one of her favorite lines. And it so happens that is now a line we take, over rolling grass hills, under cascading waterfalls, between oceans and deserts i find my way home again.
If we do anything other than our best to follow our dreams, we have already been robbed.
The fear left me as a deep guttural burst of laughter burped out of my belly to brush across the green jungle top when i realized that know one could rob me because i actually have nothing that is mine.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Upon Arrival To South Africa
Directly below the high voltage security cables, coils of razor wire spring along the tops of ten foot high, two foot thick cement walls. Three pronged spikes facing up in different directions are fixed along the top of the walls. On the top inside edge, facing the courtyard within, in the event one makes it over the wire and upward spikes, more spikes are waiting to catch the infringing hands. Some homes have gates made of steel bars to let cars in and out. These places will usually have several gated yards for penning the packs of attack dogs away from the front gate to let the car out. Obviously going out for a drive takes a team of people to accomplish a successful exit to the outside world - Cape-town, South Africa.
The idea came to me back on Vinalhaven. Under African skies we would meander across the continent, camping out where elephants, lions and rhino's run free. Passing through villages occasionally to re stock on fresh fruit, some locally raised meat and exchange cultural pleasantries.
It seemed a feasible idea - to ship the two dogs, two cats, toothbrushes, a few guide books, Swiss army knife and ourselves down there. When in Africa I would consult the local classifieds to buy a 4x4 motor home, get a map and hit the sandy road Safari bound.
Within the walls of the youth hostel where we had been staying for a week upon our arrival to Cape-town, cell phone reception was weak. Our cats and dogs were still in the holding kennels, we could not collect them as the youth hostel did not allow pets. Money was being burnt up fast in this expensive city. And of the few enquiries I did make for renting an apartment none allowed pets. After the time it took to find my food in the fridge buried under the piles of plastic bags which held the other fifty or so fellow backpackers daily fuel and wake Ashley from her deep slumber from the previous nights revelries, the task at hand seemed bleak.
But these fences could not keep out the sight of the grand mountain of which the city sits afoot, they would creep in at first light i the morning and loom over all day daily awash with the morning and afternoon glow to remind me, Africa is here.
Back on Vinalhaven when i would come home from the days lobster fishing i would take a shower, put food into my mouth then go to the computer and begin my research for all things related to an overland Safari in Africa. In those searches I saw two suitable vehicles for sale.
The first, Ashley and I took a bus out to inspect. I inquired to the chap sitting behind me as to where to get off the bus for my most appropriate stop for the directions I had been given and he strongly suggested that if we did not know exactly where we were going then we must get off at the next police station. For if we ask people on the street, we very well may be targeted as soft and consequently robbed. We de boarded at a busy shopping center and I called the owner of the vehicle, he came to get us. The vehicle was an ex army truck fitted out as a camper on the back which would be live-able for Ashley, the dogs and cats and i while on safari once the reason was found why the engine would not start, and we could then drive it to a mechanic so he could get started wedging the stuck doors open to get an idea of where to begin an overhaul of all the rusted and corroded parts due to have been sitting on the salty coastline asleep for three years. The owners not brave enough to try camping again in fear of being car jacked, held up, robbed or killed.
I started to scratch my head, with no tools, no where to live with our animals while preparing and constant warnings about violent crime, I was beginning to wonder, was this a foolish plan, should I have stayed home. No - Africa is a good destination, then across the Indian ocean, we will island hop, passing through Madagascar, India, Maldives, Indonesia and toward my home in Australia-yes!
I know of no other way, than this - Walkabout.
Then, this, like it descended with the golden glow bouncing off the brown grasses of that great mountain behind me, towering above and down, through the courtyard, skimming over the naked backs of the sunbathing backpacker tribe, flittering in then out of the bbq flames and into my ear. A phone call. A man with a similar 4x4 camper van for sale 1000kms to the North in Durban offers that we come and stay at a cottage on his property while he prepares his camper truck to receive a roadworthy certificate before selling.
I question him about our animals coming too, as he has four dogs of his own. But his reply is that he is actually an animal psychologist/pet behavioral specialist, calling himself Dogtor Jack and would be happy for our animals to come too.
I have no hesitation in accepting and we make preparations to spring our animals from the boarding facility and jump on a plane headed for Durban.
I ask as to the condition of the vehicle for sale and am excited to hear that this one not only starts, is super reliable, is a completely custom made camper with stainless steel long range fuel and water tanks, built upon an original Ex Army Officers Land-rover Forward Control chassis.
Jack explains that he is a little worried about our safety embarking on such a trip with great ignorance and hints over the phone that i need certain education on how to interact with the local black population.
The huge frame of a built up body paces along the front entrance to the airport upon our arrival, it is Jack come to fetch us from the Durban airport. Upon quick introductions, Jack whistles loudly and his wife, named Mary, appears to load our luggage into the trailer at his command. Driving on the exit road out of the airport there are many people walking around on the sides of the road. One of the black men was a little way out from the edge and it seemed our white Volvo station wagon with two cats two dogs and a trailer full of luggage was on a collision course with this old fella but he continued on his way and us on ours and instead of impact it seemed like the guys lower half stretched out of harms way while his top half stayed and swept right over the top of our car. This was Jack's driving style the whole way home.
At the house set in high mountain horse country, over fresh lemonade made by Mary and gorging ourselves with Boerwors (south African premium sausage) from the braii (south African bbq) cooked by stave while he deftly swatted and killed the flies right off from my forehead with out me even feeling a thing, he explained that he is not racist, but clearly demonstrates the differences between the two cultures and points out how some of our ways will not work with the blacks and may attract trouble to us, We were told about how the ancient ruler ShakaZulu was respected as he would make any rebellious follower lie down on his back with legs in the air and have all the village watch as he drove a long spike by hammer into the non conforming mans anus. We are told to keep this strong mentality in mind when dealing with any black person in South Africa as they will not respond to please and thank-you like whites do. That they are rather more like animals and will sniff out fake kindnesses and judge by these senses weather we are a soft target to rob.
We have now been staying in Jack’s cottage for a month, and it turns out that Dogtor Jack has been deeply involved in all aspects of training, studying and analyzing the human/dog relationship for a long time and is very well known as one of the best in the business.
After completing time in the South African Army as a Commander and Sergeant, Jack was once a passenger bus driver, traffic policeman, marriage counselor and engineer. Quite the character, he is a big man with a big heart full of love. He and his wife live happily together and both share a little sadness that such crime has engulfed their homeland but try to remain proud.
The truck remains unregistered to drive on the road and we continue to wait until Jack has it prepared for roadworthy inspection, although we have agreed on the sale, i am suspicious that he may be to attached to such a rare beauty of an Overland Safari Vehicle to let it go with us.
Locked deep within the property walls, a monkey climbs over the fence and speeds along the gutters of the house with barking dogs tilting their heads upward at him, he goes to sit on the peak of the roof and picks the juiciest most ripe paw paw and stops to eat it. Again, I am reminded - this is Africa
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