Final entry from Harnas

At first when I decided to do this blog, it was going to be about Harnas only, and when I left for my other two adventures, I would quit. Several people have suggested to me that I continue to write, though, so I think I'll do that.

If you want to hear about Harnas only, you can stop reading after this entry, but if you want to hear more of Barbara's World Tour 2010, read on. I'm heading to Thailand from here to be with my brother for 3 weeks. We'll be scuba diving and jungle trekking. We'll see sharks and other fish, elephants, monitor lizards, snakes, tigers, and monkeys--so the animal tales will continue. Everywhere I go, I seem to find animals. It's my Karma.

After that, I head to Borneo for 23 days. That's the place for orangutans, monkeys, dwarf elephants, bushbabies, crocodiles, and many many beautiful birds. I'll be jungle and river trekking into a place I've never seen but have always been curious about. My friend Amy, from Winston-Salem, NC--will be joining me for part of that, and I imagine we'll experience things people might be interested in.

I'm very sad to leave Harnas, even though three months is a relatively long time. The people are special to me, of course, but as always it's the animals that will tug on my heart. I've gotten used to spending part of each day lying around with cheetahs, playing with baboons, and talking to lions. And that's just the beginning of the animals I'll miss. My shadow Pickles--what a sweetie.

As a special treat on Saturday night, Frikkie took me and Annika out to hear the lions roar. One of the biggest and most vocal lions is Macho--father of twelve and very proud of it. He and Frikkie had a real conversation, and I recorded it. Listen carefully: Frikkie is telling Macho to "tell this American that you're angry she is leaving." Macho complies. But then Frikkie also points out that Macho is just pretending to be angry: you can tell by looking at his paw, which is tucked under him the way house cats do. Macho is a good actor.

Hope you enjoy the last Harnas video. I'll talk to you next from Bangkok. --Barbara