THE KING OF BEASTS

On to Kruger National Park.....

Barry was at the wheel as we headed down the long dry stretch of road southward through Botswana. The speeds change frequently  so he was zipping along at a sedate 89, the top speed is 120.  Unfortunately it was in a 60 zone and you guessed it, he got caught. (Barry says to tell you that he was within 200m of the 120 sign when he was flagged down).He had to pay on the spot and scooted across the road to see how much it was.  He had to pay in pula the currency in Botswana and we were running short, so he came back to the car and borrowed all the pula that Tagish had, it wasn’t much because we were going to be leaving the country shortly. When he tried to pay the rest of the fine in Rand the police said that they would only accept pula, what to do??????  In typical African fashion, they adjusted the speed that they put on the ticket to 69 so that the amount of pula we had left was sufficient! Barry came back to the car with a huge smile on his face!!

That night we stopped at a really snazzy hotel, the only alternative we could find after the rather dinghy spot we first looked at located in the middle of a dirty downtown. It was way above our price range and we were about to walk out when the clerk asked us what our price range was.  We conferred and agreed on a price that was just more than half of what she first quoted us.  A phone call to the manager later and we were checked in to a swanky hotel, only in Africa, you say. When we went for dinner Barry and I had a glass of red wine, the windows and doors were open to let in the air and the atmosphere of  the beautiful grounds.  A huge moth flew in and fluttered about Barry’s wine glass, the waitress was setting the table and as I waved my hands at the moth he took a nose dive into Barry’s wine, after a little sip, he flew off , he was so big he barely fit into the glass. The waitress actually had to ask the manager if she could bring Barry a new glass, he of course, was tempted to swig down most of the rest of the wine but managed to resist!!!

A jackal                           

The next day we dead headed for Krueger National Park hoping to be able to spend the night there, no go. It was the weekend so most of the spots that we would be able to reach before dark were full and they do not allow you to drive after dark in the park. You also are not supposed to get our of your car except in designated picnic spots which are fenced.  Over the next 3 days we slowly made our way south through the park encountering herds of elephants playing in the water, wildebeest hiding under a tree to get out of the sun, zebras eyeing us with great curiosity, uncounted teams of impalas nervously twitching their ears as we inched by.  Thanks to Anne, our guide on our first tour, we had a good idea how to look for game and managed to spot some real treasures. 

We saw a leopard the first day we were in the park, someone had seen it walking along and was still watching it.  We would never have seen it if the South Africans had not pointed it out to us. What a thrill, we could now say we had seen the big five!!

Chewing on the remains of a wildebeeste
                   

The next day about 5 km from the park entrance we came upon five lions tearing away at a recent kill.  It was RIGHT beside the road, within 10m.  What a truly awesome experience, to watch these magnificent animals growling at each other over their part of the kill.  A big male had finished first and we saw him saunter off to digest his meal under a tree, then the alpha female (I think) wandered away. She lay out of sight in the tall grass, then turned on her back and flaked out with one foot in the air, the tail occasionally whipping away the flies. We could hear the sound of the lion’s teeth scraping on the bones of the wildebeest, we were that close. 

We felt privileged to see this interaction

We happened on two young male elephants playing in the water.  At first we weren’t sure  if they were serious but as the diorama went on it was clear they were just practising for the real thing.  They were up to their knees and sometimes their bodies in water, they would engage each other with their tusks and push.  At times they would become almost totally submerged and their trunks looked like snorkels. It was fascinating watching this interaction. 

We saw one more leopard, you could only see his neck and head, occasionally he/she would turn it’s head but it was very intently watching something over a rise.  There was almost road rage with all the vehicles jockeying for  position to get a good look and more importantly a good picture.

The male went back to check on the heavily pregnant female

We were so excited to spot a group of hyenas, they are magnificent animals, they would continually lope along the road.  We followed the one for quite awhile and he seemed quite blasé about our presence, but would not stop and cooperate  so we could get a good picture.  A new strategy was needed, we motored past him and stopped, sure enough he approached the car from behind, stopped to check us out and then loped past us.  A little ways down the road we came upon two heading out of the bushes, there was a male and a heavily pregnant female.  She went across the road and then just lay down, staring up at us, I wonder if she was in labour.   I could empathize with her condition and as I watched her I almost felt her tiredness and wish that the birth would commence. 

We stayed the night in Kruger, going on a night safari.  We learnt some fascinating facts about the elephants digestive system. There were night creatures on the prowl, little weasel like creatures called genets, lots of wide tailed mongoose (do you think the plural would be mongeese???) and perhaps a civet, a small member of the cat family. Two hippos were rather startled as the lights picked out their ponderous bodies as they fed.  They only leave the water at night because their skin is subject to sunburn and they need to keep cool.  The way you see the animals at night is that someone holds spot lights out of the two sides of the safari vehicle and flashes it around. Once they see the reflection of the eyes of an animal they yell at the driver to stop and then they back up until the animal can be spotted.  

We headed south to the edge of the park and drove the short distance to Swaziland.  Today we are going to go up to a traditional Swazi village, to have a tour, learn about their culture, get fed and sleep up there. Stay tuned….., and check back for pics, too tired tonight.

Two waterbucks locking horns

To cute not to share

                                    

We are four days into our road trip in Africa.   We took off from Richards Bay with the aim of driving to see Victoria Falls.

A jacaranda tree in full bloom, the huts are modern African living quarters on Zulu land.

We are travelling with Brian and Dorothy from Tagish another Canadian cruising couple. The first day we headed north west up through South Africa, it was a gorgeous drive. At times there was mountainous vistas and we wound through a picturesque pass on a very good road. The only draw back was that we were told not to stop unless it was in a populated area because of the risk of car jacking, it was a bit off putting but it didn't deter us.  The second day we entered Botswana and drove north to Kasane which is at the apex of four countries, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The drive through Botswana was totally different.

Driving through Botswana

The land was flatter than a pancake, mostly along the road is scrub bush with acacia trees and the iconic flat top trees that you see on all the posters about Africa. It got progressively drier as we went north and the temp climbed up to 35 degrees, the heat was so dry I had to buy lotion to stave off the onset of alligator skin, the Kalahari dessert is just to the west of us. There was about  15 km of cleared land, we thought we were back in Sask; it was so flat, no trees and it had been plowed ready for this year's crop when the rainy season sets in.  We finished the drive in the dark which is pretty dangerous because there are no fences and wild game including elephants wander across the road. We adopted the strategy of letting a car pass and then sticking to him like glue, thank heavens were arrived safe and sound.

This is called Devil's Cataract at the far east end of the falls.

The next day we took a tour to see Victoria Falls in Zimbawe( We could not take our car in because the rental agency would not let us and it would have been way too expensive, they charges taxes for everything.) WOW, what can I say, the beauty and history of the area was stunning.  

The main falls being obscured by the mist that rises from the gorge

It is at the end of the dry season so we saw the falls at the lowest levels of water, but there was tons flowing over and I am sure the mist when it is high water must obscure your view. We imagined canoeing along the river and hearing the thunder of the falls and catching glimpses of the mist, then pulling the boat ashore to go and check out the sound and seeing the falls for the first time. I could have stared for hours at the changing panorama that was taking place as the water spilled over the edge and thundering about 100 meters to the gorge below.

Looking down  the gorge towards Rainbow Falls

 There were 12 viewpoints on a lovely  2 km walk along the escarpment. It was really hot but the mist would cool us off as it rose from the Zambezi River.Afterwards we went to the Victoria Falls Hotel which was built in colonial times and oozes elegance and sophistication. 

We visited the Stanley room and had lunch of the famous terrace which has a superb view of the bridge that crosses the Zambezi River from Zimbabwe to Zambia.

Barry in the Victoria Falls Hotel, the Stanley room in the background

There were linen napkins and the ladies wash room was the most elegant I have ever seen. Next we were taken to the curio market where Barry proceeded to make almost all the vendors happy, our Christmas shopping is now complete!!!

This morning we went on a 3 hour safari to the Chobe National Park.  There are no fences there and animals are allowed to roam free.  There is a wet land area within the park and at one point we spotted a hippo and then noticed there were a lot of safari vehicles on the other side of the water.  As we got closer we spotted the lions, they were feeding on either a water buffalo or a wildebeest. There was a pride of 8 with a matriarch and youngsters.Our guide told us that the males start developing their mane at about 2 and ½ years and then they leave the pride.  They were ripping their kill to bits, there legs muddy to up beyond the first joint because they were right beside the river.  Rambo (our guide) speculated the animal (otherwise known as lunch) was trying to escape the attacking lions by fleeing into the water.

Notice the crocodile swimming by in the foreground

Right beside the lions were a pod of hippos.  There were enormous, standing in water up to their eyebrows they would submerge at will. I was fascinated to see their gigantic mouths when they opened them.  We could hear them vocalizing and saw some play fights.  .They stayed in a close group while crocodiles cruised around the outside, apparently crocs are only dangerous to baby hippos and will not attack an adult.  In Africa they talk about the big five, being the rhino, the elephant, the water buffalo, the lion and the leopard, we have seen four  of the five and it is quite unlikely we will see a leopard.  At the moment we are heading south in the car, once we reach South Africa we will jog east to see some of Kruger National park and then head back to Richards Bay through Swaziland. I am so glad we took the plunge and headed to the falls, they were a once in a  lifetime experience.

AFRICA, UNBELIEVABLE

white rhino, notice the bird on top

Well, we had a fabulous trip yesterday, we went and visited a local game farm, about 1 and 1/2 from here. A local cruiser named Anne and her daughter Lauriken drove us out in their personal vehicle. What a treat, Anne grew up traipsing around Africa and has a real love and a great deal of knowledge about the animals and Lauriken was a walking encyclopedia of facts about the variety of wildlife, birds and the plants. We learned so much about what we were seeing and we saw way more than we would have if we had gone by ourselves. We just love our South African friends!!!

There are 3 giraffes and a water buffalo

Barry and I were just thrilled with the giraffes, they are such improbably animals, we would gaze at them trying to figure out how they could walk, apparently they are distant relatives of the zebra, watching them eat reminded me of a camel!

We saw some elephants, you have to be very careful of them, they have been known to put a tusk through a rental car, only in Africa, you say!  Our guy just flapped his ears at us and waved his trunk about, we thought he was going to go and push over a tree but no luck.  We saw lots of white rhinos, and Barry took a beautiful picture of one, the bird on him is called an oxpecker. They are massive animals and eat  up to 40 kg of grass a day, Brian from Tagish who came with us, suggested perhaps he could get one to trim his lawn once they get back to Canada but figured the neighbours might object. They are endangered due to poaching for their horns and at the moment they are being killed by poachers that arrive in helicopters, after paying off the park rangers, and cut off their horns and leave.  This is being done in game parks where they are protected, it is a sad state of affairs.

There are 3 baboons in this picture, 2 on the ground and  1 in the mirror.

A troop of baboons scampered across the road in front of us, they were moving pretty fast so we didn't  get a great picture.  

We got excited in the late morning when we saw vultures circling, perhaps there was a lion kill and we might get to see a BIG cat.  It is rare to see a lion or a leopard in this park. Our trusty guide, Anne, saw where the vultures went to land and headed that way.  There was no lion but there were 38 vultures on a sand spit, facing into the wind just sunning themselves and occasionally airing out their wings, watching them coming in for a landing, correcting as their long legs extended for landing was a real treat.  On a branch we spotted a tawny eagle making a meal of a mouse, he swallowed the tail whole and the proceeded to rip out the guts and consume them.  So we got to see our animal kill after all.  Downstream and around a corner from the vultures the croc was sunbathing, just waiting for some poor unwary creatures to come down for a sip. 

If you look closely you can see the mouses tail between the eagle's tail feathers. 

There were zebras as well as impalas, wildebeest, kudus and nyala, all four legged deer like creatures. The impalas apparently are very nervous creatures, they have been known to die of fright from hearing a gun shot.

Another sighting was the water buffalo, one of the meanest creatures in Africa, according to Anne. 

 There was one calmly chewing it's cud while lying in the sand and three of them went charging across the road right in front of us, they were dripping wet and were spooked, Anne figured that maybe a croc had tried to drag one down. 

I could go on and on, the experiences were so varied, the experience of a lifetime, we are in Africa, pinch me. 

It was very hilly in this park with a rive running through it. 

An Egyptian goose, notice the Egyptian type eyes

Warthogs, how could I forget those.

Tomorrow we head off to Victoria Falls for a week with Brian and Dorothy from Tagish, stay tuned.

This is a video of a dung beetle pushing a ball of elephant dung.  They burrow into the dung and make a perfect ball, then they roll it somewhere a bury it and later lay their eggs in it.  The guy doing the rolling is the male, as it should be, and the female plays the princess and goes along for the ride.  I am not sure about the wisdom of getting a ball of dung rolled on top of you instead of helping but I am just a human. I bet my grandchildren will love this. 

                                   

The quality of the video is not great, but the we just loved the giraffes so much we had to share. 

As we were crossing the Mozambique Channel, I decided to have a little fun on our radio scheds. Instead of just exchanging the boring old weather and position information twice a day, I began the 

THE GREAT MOZAMBIQUE CHANNEL LIMERICK CONTEST

 Mojombo, with the family from Australia, were our opponents and supposedly the only people on our sched. At the end of our run, near the Mozambique coast, another boat joined in to get the weather from us, and we found out after we arrived he was thoroughly sick of our limericks :) too bad he didn't want to join in the fun and participate.

ANYWAY.... the challenge was that one boat would suggest the first line, the other boat would have to come up with the second line, the first boat, line 3 and 4 and the second boat, line 5.  It led to some very peculiar but (we think) hilarious limericks. Gary has posted all the ones about Mojombo on his site, just click on the link on the side, and here are the ones about us, in the order that we came up with them. Mojombo started all the first lines for the Lange Limericks. 

Yellowknife Barry is fond of his beer

After consuming 2 big ones it's perfectly clear

Why he's chosen this life

And such a beautiful wife

So he shouts, bring another, my dear

Didn't realize my hands looked so old!

Bubbly Ann has a passion for bling

Blue topaz, necklace, earrings and a ginormous ring
With an array of new frocks
And her dazzling rocks
She'll sparkle while bottom painting

 

Barry dressed for a run in the wilds of Canada

                    From the wilds of Canada they've come

To the lure of the Pacific, they did succumb

Swapping a tundra freeze

For a tropical breeze

Cat's-Paw IV sailed west filled with rum

                                         

Charging down the coast of Madagascar, photo by Mojombo

Their boat is a beauty, a Fast Passage dame

Any boat but a Wasquiez she'll put to shame

With that fancy watermaking gear

And a windvane to steer

But with Barry on the tiller, she's really quite tame

When we came back from the Honey River mud trip we ended up going past a Malagasy couple madly paddling up the river against the tide and the current.  We asked if they would like a tow and they happily agreed.  Their outrigger was very easy to tow and we had no problems going our normal speed crossing the  5 km to the village. The couple was very thankful for the tow. The picture was taken by Tom on Emily Grace, a 14m motor yacht.

Check out the post from Mojombo, it is an extended version of our trip through the mud in Honey River, Madagascar. It was done by Zeke, the 12 year old boy, I think he did a great job.  Although he doesn't mention us, we are in several pictures and Barry took the video of him clamouring through the mud. You can find  their blog by clicking on a link to Mojombo that is on the side of our blog.

Believe it or not we have taken very few pictures so far.  We are at a marina and it is a first world country so figured you didn't need to see shots of all the shops and restaurants on the quay.  We are busy trying to get boat repairs done, it is not easy here as there are not many marine shops around and everything has to come from Durban. We don't want to go to Durban as we have heard it is dangerous and dirty in the port.
We have arranged to visit one of the game parks next week, depending on the weather.  It has been unseasonably wet here since we arrived, yesterday was the first nice hot day and then today we woke to driving rain and cool temp. again.
We are thoroughly enjoying the South African people though, they have been so friendly and helpful it is unbelievable.  There are no grocery stores around so we have to go about 40 min. walk to the closest one. The first day we headed out someone picked us up and gave us a ride to the store and then they insisted on waiting and driving us back to the port, awesome.
Barry uploaded the video below of us sailing, I would have edited it but he insisted that the whole thing should be on, I hope you guys enjoy it. It is one the side as well, I forgot how to put them on the side first so just uploaded it from UTUBE, aren't computers wonderful.

Sailing in the Indian Ocean

Walking in the mud at very low tide by Honey River

A typical Malagasy

Showing him how to get the paper off his bon bon!

They have just stripped this hill of wood in order to grow rice. 

I am trying to grind rice, check out the smiles on the women's faces, they thought it was hilarious

An anchorage at low tide, we walked up this hill and saw a hole in the ground where they were looking for sapphires. 

A typical house in this village.

The monster baobab tree. 

A Malagasy graveyard, the things standing up are pieces of coral. 

I hope they enjoyed the turtle.

These vessels routinely sail around Madagascar, aren't they amazing. 

We gave as many clothes as we had away to this group. 

                                 

This was the cloud that came up before the dreaded south westerlies hit. 

Notice the harness and the wet, bedraggled hair, not a fun day!

Just to let you all know we are in South Africa safe and sound. More later when we get internet access, at the moment we are in a hotel using their free computers in the conference center.  All they can do is ask us to leave if they catch us, but we did have breakfast here so we are kind of guest, right?

Last Blog from Mozambique Channel

We should arrive in Richard's Bay tomorrow. The trip across the channel has gone really well until the last two nights. They have been just awful, about sunset the clouds start to gather and then they get black . The lightning and thunder start next, I just hate lightning when we are on the boat. Last night, we had pulled the genoa in and only had out the triple reefed main. We had been in the storm for over an hour when all of a sudden it started to howl. The wind was gusting up to 45 knots and the main back winded and I couldn't get the boat around to get back on course. Barry got up out of bed and we managed to gybe the main and sail in the right direction. We eventually got the main down and Barry told me to secure the halyard, as I crab walked up the deck with my harness and life jacket on the wind was gusting again to over 40 knots. I figure
Barry was trying to get rid of me for good that time, it wouldn't even have needed a knife in the back, he could just have reported me washed overboard, lost at sea, my body washed up on some deserted beach….oh well you get the picture! We laid ahull for awhile, for you landlubbers , the tiller was hard over and we just drifted with the current and the wind.
We knew that South Africa was no picnic, sailing wise,. There is a huge current that runs south along the coast and if there are SW winds it can get really ugly. We weren't prepared for the thunder storms, it is getting on to late spring here and we thought the weather would be moderating. Apparently summer here is the rainy season and the weather can be rainy and foggy all summer. There are still over a 1000 miles to Cape Town so we will have a chance to experience more of South Africa's notorious sailing conditions.
I wanted to tell you about some of the meals we had onboard as we were crossing. In our last port in Madagascar, some fisherman came to the boat and we bought 3 meals of prawns. There we were shucking the prawns, throwing the shells overboard and having a lovely tomato based dish with onions, garlic and Chinese cabbage over rice, a cabbage and carrot salad for our greens and for dessert we had ripe mangoes that we slurped with enjoyment. The next day we had a tuna sandwich on fresh bread I had baked that morning with yogurt (I had made) for dessert. We definitely weren't suffering. I am looking forward to eating our first South African meal ashore. I am salivating just thinking about it. At the moment we have no juice on board, no vegetables other than a few small potatoes and no fresh fruit. We had to eat all our meat at once because the fridge gave out on us and it all defrosted. We are definitely making landfall today during daylight hours. I AM NOT SPENDING ANOTHER NIGHT AT SEA WITH ALL THIS LIGHTNING AROUND!!
There are now 18 boats that we know of converging on Richard's Bay so the stories will be flying and the hugs will be heartfelt after crossing this difficult piece of water

I am looking forward to the end of this passage.  We set out from Thailand at the end of Feb to cross the Indian Ocean and it is 8 long adventurous months later and we have only 480 miles to go. Hopefully we should be in Richard's Bay, South Africa on Sunday.  It looks like the weather will hold to allow us to get there without stopping to hole up.  We have excellent weather coverage, there are 2 radio nets we are listening to and they each are on twice a day so we get very good weather information 4 times a day.  They are all volunteers and will give the cruisers detailed information for just their boat.  At the moment we are aware of 14 boats that are checking  in to the nets so these guys are busy.
It feels like we will have accomplished a lot once we arrive in South Africa. So many cruisers are getting stuck in their round the world trips in Langkawi, Malaysia and Thailand.  They were planning on heading through the Red Sea and now that it is to dangerous to do that they are unwilling to tackle a crossing of the Indian Ocean because of the very bad reputation for horrible weather that surround the Cape of Good Hope.  We are over half way around the world, having past that milestone to the west of Mauritius.  It doesn't seem so far to hop over to Brazil and then through the Panama Canal to cross our path for when we left from Costa Rica,to complete our circumnavigation, way less than half way.
I made a list of all the repairs we have to do once we get to port. It was quite impressive, the most pressing is repainting the bottom.  Most people had it done in Thailand but we felt as we had just had it done in Australia it was not necessary.  In some places along the waterline there is not much paint left from the cleaning I have been doing to keep the green grass from growing there.  Our dodger is wearing out, we have been hand stitching it and now the zippers are going and the clear plastic windows are getting harder and harder to see out of.  It is a very well made piece of equipment and it will be costly and difficult to replace it with the same quality.  The bimini which is the cockpit cover as well as the weather cloths, that hang from the lifelines to cover the sides of the cockpit are all the same age and the material is wearing out, oh for a sewing machine. It will keep us really busy for a number of weeks once we arrive.
I have been posting quite regular position reports so if you are interesting in our path across the Mozambique Channel just click on the link to our position on the right. Drop us a line and tell us what is happening in your lives, I feel like I have lost touch with a lot of you.

We are making good distance across the Mozambique Channel.  We are heading SW rather than straight across.  At the moment we are battling a very strong current, pushing us northwards about 30 degrees off course. The winds have been quite light, under 15 knots for the most part and we are hard on the wind, at times making our heading and times 40 degrees off.  Currently at this speed we should be in Richard's Bay in seven days but it will depend on the weather once we reach the African side.  The Cape of Good Hope generates a lot of difficult weather so if something comes storming out of the Antarctic we will duck into an anchorage and wait until the weather clears.  I told Barry if the wind gets really light and we are making less than 2 knots over the ground I am going to start the motor.  He asked "Why?"  I couldn't really say at the time but I think because this can be a unsettled stretch of water, I want to just get there and get it over with as soon as possible.

We will be at our last stop today in Madagascar. We will probably stay a day or two and then leave when the weather looks good.  We have been having some fun adventures on our way along the coast.  At a spot called Honey Bay we went for a hike.  We started off at low tide and had to wade in mud up to our knees through the mangroves to get to the beginning of the trail.  The hills we hiked through were very dry and it was hot. Thank goodness the tide had come up so that on the way back we could ride the dinghies all the way out of the river. One of the other stops had some wonderful baobab trees on some very small islands.  We heard about a particular baobab we should go and see so off we went in the dinghy. We eventually found it and it was huge.  It was at least 7 of Barry's arm width around which we figured was about 14 meters or 42 feet or so, really massive.  I will have to post pictures when we get to South Africa.  The body of water between Madagascar and Africa is called the Mozambique Channel.  Who would have ever thought that Barry and I would be sailing across the Mozambique Channel, bizarre!
I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We had our boat buddies, the crew of Mojombo over for a meal.  There wasn't any turkey available but I did put some cranberries in the cous cous salad I made so there was the flavour of Canadian Thanksgiving as we ate our meal in Madagascar.

We are slowly making our way down the west coast of Madagascar, we are 75 miles south of Hell-Ville.  We are in no hurry, at the moment we are traveling with 4 other boats.  It is nice to have the company, we will travel to South Africa with the same boat that we crossed from Reunion with, Mojombo.  Their crew is Australian and consist of a family with a boy who is 12 and a girl who is 10, we first met them in Fiji and went on a day trip over the mountain from Suva Suva with them. We also went on an overland trip in Sri Lanka with them.
The villages we have come across on our way down are very basic.  The one that we have stopped at now do not have running water, there is no electricity, we have seen nothing that resembles an outhouse.  They fish, they gather clams, they grow rice, they have cattle, chickens and geese and they grow very basic gardens. There are mango and coconut trees but I don't think bananas grow well here.  When we went ashore today we gave out some sugar, some milk powder and some salt, they asked for t-shirts and one fellow wanted tooth paste of all things.  Our guide the other day said most women my age had lost all their teeth!!! Barry and I were talking about what you would do as a young person raised here and we figured you would become a fisherman. Not many of the people in this village spoke French which to me would indicate they had not gone to school, because all their schooling is done in French(I think). All the kids we met on shore had a bad cough and Barry is hoping he didn't catch anything.  We went walking up the hill and saw a deep meter wide hole, we understand it was when they were looking for sapphires.
I hope to be able to give some position reports soon but we have not been able to connect very well, so if I can I will.