Victoria Falls, Australian rather than ZIM style

Hashem, Your world is beautiful... thank You.

Hello There,

January 14th

Sunshine greeted us at dawn this morning. Was it possible for the sun to find Eastern Australia, finally. Apparently, yes. Earlier, we stared at the computer screen, reflecting the ‘rolls of the dice’ at the big casinos in New York, a.k.a. the stock market. We have been making it to the office these days, not for opening, although we came close the other day, (3am). We have devised a routine, which is extremely flexible but seems to work. Back to weather. It clouded over mid-morning but without rain. We were able to complete four hikes in five days notwithstanding tremendous downpours. As we mentioned previously, the Jewish Haka has a lot going for it.
Much joy standing there

Courage is not about being fearless; rather it is confronting your fear and marching directly towards it. Our dear editor displayed her courage today when we faced-off with a snake again, in fact, two. The main challenge occurred with a Black Tiger, moving directly on the path. The complication was that we were in jungle-like terrain making it a test for us in a few aspects. Without any hesitation and a little trepidation, Jenni continued downwards into the canyon along the muddy, narrow, overgrown path. We too, were not without courage, if we may add with just a touch of humility. After seeing the snake, we soldiered on, positioned very uncomfortably on our editor’s shoulders. We acted as the chief reptile spotter thereafter, not an easy function either.
Sometimes life is a jungle...jumble?

Original River Dance.

Seriously though, as we rounded a bend we spotted the reptile sunning itself. Although the brain processed the information quickly, when it happens, it feels like a time delay. So for a moment, a person wonders what the object on the path is and recovers to realize it represents danger. The interesting aspect is that the whole process takes probably a second but it feels much longer. Anyway, we have seen enough snakes to last us for more than a while. The second serpent appeared to be a ‘baby’ that would not move without serious coaxing. We still prefer snakes to grizzlies but only to the extent that we fear the brown bear more.
Beginning the steep road back

On the hike today, outside the town of Mount Victoria, there were only two other groups. It is not surprising as it was very rugged, isolated and tough. Two German tourists with an Australian followed us for most of the way down. The local fellow works on a cruiseship as an entertainer. Incidentally, he returned on the ship we watched leave Sydney Harbour last week. The point of the story is that after we warned them of the snake, he mentioned his deep fear of snakes. We could not help but notice that these youngsters, some thirty years younger than us, were content to allow us to ‘lead’ thereafter.
Only half-flow

There are many pictures of cascading falls in this set, especially of the writer. We apologize for this but ask that you look past the person and absorb the beauty of these multiple water flows. We sweated to get down and back, had moments of fear but reached a tremendous ‘high’ viewing the world in its original form.

Shot taken from inside Stream

Cheers,

Jenni and Jeffrey

Once more with feeling