Going on a horse safari? Don't forget the condoms....

I've just sent in my deposit for a horse safari on the coast of South Africa in October. It will be a five-day trail, me and J2 and one or two other friends. We did a similar safari last October, and thinking about heading out again has made me remember what a great experience it was.

I did things I had never done before...gallop on the beach, ride a funky African ferry with the horses (see photo above), swim a river on horseback. It was the swimming a river that inspired the title for today's post. Our trail guide (see photo below, he's the one without the hat) told us the day before that the best way to keep our cell phones dry would be to put them each in a condom. And that evening after dinner he handed round those embarrassing little foil packets (instead of mints?).

We noticed that these were the lubricated kind. So we each spent a few minutes that evening washing our condoms, then hung them, like tiny Christmas stockings, over the towel rail in the bathroom to dry.

I can say that it is not always easy to get a cell phone to go willingly into a condom. But I can also say that everyone's cell phone survived the river dry and cozy. It really is an awesome tip, especially if your phone is not a flip phone, because not only does it stay dry, but the condom does not interfere with you using your phone, except perhaps psychologically.

This year's trail is taking us to the whale coast. In addition to our group from Kenya, we've learned that one other woman is joining us...a 29-year-old endurance rider.

Since J2 and I between us count well over a century of years, this is a slightly intimidating prospect. So this afternoon's hack was the start of our campaign to get ready to out-endure this unknown youngster and uphold the honor of the older rider... 2-1/2 hours with tons of trot work.

J. has a fantastic power trot, but she would always rather gallop (well, who wouldn't?), so keeping her at the trot was my fabulous upper-body workout for the day, and staying at the trot was HER fabulous gluteus maximus workout for the day, and by the end of it I was ready to fall into a glass of wine. She probably was too.