"My Travel Book" - Upside down

I know, I know...

I am back.

And thanks be given to the handsome turkey-cock Swee’Pea and I met on a lovely day in a very beautiful city called Stellenbosch. Why? Because I heard it is Thanksgiving in the States and I remembered our encounter in a garden in Stellenbosch. And suddenly I felt like writing again.

Stellenbosch? Where is Stellenbosch by the way? You are kidding. You really don’t know what I am talking about?

I’ll give you a hint. Suppose you were in Europe or the States or India while I was in Stellenbosch. Suppose you were outside in your yard or taking a walk on the beach. Where was I?

Upside-down! I am not kidding. Not-at-all! I-was-obviously-hanging-upside-down since… I was in Stellenbosch, in the Western Cape Province of South Africa.

So if you were standing on your own feet, I was obviously trying not to come unhooked, sort of, from the other side of the earth. Wrong side up!

Except that it felt so delightful being there, basking in the sun, watching this poor dumb bird trying hard to frighten us in order to protect his turkey-wife and turkey-children from us. Dumb, very dumb because he did not understand nor feel we were friends. For goodness sake, we are vegetarians! (Well Swee’Pea is. Totally. Unconditionally. And I was. At the moment.)

And you know what! It was so easy to live upside down for one whole month that life the right way up is quite unbearable these days. It will take a while to get used to live in Europe again.

The sun would rise around 5 a.m. and sunset would wait until at least 7 p.m. Here in Paris, I don’t know why but the sun sure is fickle. Short, very short days and long, long nights. I hate winter. Oh, I loved it so much when my world was upside down and it was summertime.

Ever since my last post in September, I have been planning to write a post. Almost everyday ever since mid-September. Lots of ideas. So many stories yet to be told. So many pictures to yarn.

I stayed in Brittany until mid-September because Yves and I got some delirious ideas about the garden which we were able to start carrying out thanx to Popeye’s unfailing support… I’ll have to write about it all. Those two weeks were totally crazy. And we’ll have a busy late Fall and a busier Spring…

Then I came back to Brussels and Paris. Back and forth as usual. And there was a lot of planning to be done.

Things became a little bit complicated when I started going through a very thorough check-up at the hospital before I was handed my travelling license. I did pass though. With flying colors.

My first real journey in more than ten years. One month away in other climes than my beloved Brittany in more than how many years!

When we started to plan this trip in August, one of us came up with one bright idea. “Cape Town and the Western Cape Province. Great. But let’s go on a safari in Kruger Park!” Sounds like me, I know. So much like me but Swee’Pea worked very hard with travel agencies because he wanted our trip to be perfect. My first voyage in more than ten years.

Early October, I started freaking out. I so wanted to take the best pictures ever. So I enrolled at the Nikon School in Paris. A two days crash course where… I discovered that I knew a lot about taking pictures after all!
Now you start getting the idea about my being so silent for so long.

And I flew away. And I walked upside down for one whole month, my life a real whirlwind. And I loved it so much. It was gripping, amazing, staggering, dazzling and so sobering and fun, fun, so much fun. So much happiness too.

And I want to share it all with you. You’ll just have to be patient. You see, it is so hard to be standing on my own two feet again.

Oh, I loved it so much to be upside down.














*Good Luck, and Good Night*