A photo report from the field while searching for "balance" on safari
I've been writing this weekly blog for well over 260 consecutive weeks. That's over 5 years of staring at a blank screen trying to find a compelling headline and something to say. Do bloggers ever get a week off? Do they need one … YES!
After my around the world tour of retail, I had the opportunity to get back on another plane and go on safari in one of my favorite places on this planet – Africa! I can't begin to describe the utter joy to visit a lodge in the bush veldt which had absolutely NO INTERNET! Oh what a relief it is not to be "always on" and reachable by email or cell phone. And, what a perfect excuse not to write a blog for the week!
But inquiring minds have been asking about my safari experience. So below are some photo highlights from a week spent cleansing the soul on the plains of Africa.
Getting away from it all … meant staying in "Tree Tops" … a lodge literally in the bush.
The saying "an elephant in the room" takes on a whole new meaning in Africa …
The opportunity to see the unusual long tailed widow bird. The male only grows his beautiful tale just in time for courting … then quickly loses it for the rest of the year!
From the beautiful, to the "not so" glamorous, appropriately named wart hog …
The opportunity to experience the most rare and threatened species on the planet …
As well as see the creative fork-tail drongo hitch a ride in order to catch a meal …
In Africa, October is the spring … a time of birth and renewal for the land and animals
Spring is also the time for young cheetahs to watch out for lions and learn to hunt …
Africa is not a zoo! There is a constant struggle for survival and dominance. Perhaps this battle between two mountain zebra stallions is in fact the perfect metaphor for retail.
Life on the plains of Africa is literally a daily test of survival of the fittest.
In my blogs I have often used the "law of the jungle" as a metaphor for retail. In Africa, it's not a metaphor … but real life played out on the plains of Africa right before your eyes.
Every morning in Africa, an antelope wakes up.
It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed...
Every morning a lion wakes up.
It knows it must outrun the slowest antelope or it will starve to death.
It doesn't matter whether you are a lion or a gazelle...
When the sun comes up, you'd better be running …
As it turns out, this African quote applies to survival in both retail … and real life!
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Sources:
- Photos: Courtesy of Chris Petersen
We're missing you already Chris & Martie! From your African Family!
Posted by: Carl van Zyl | November 01, 2012 at 12:35 PM