Music will be one of our strongest memories of our trip
to southern Africa.
On January 10, 2015, we left a winter storm in Dallas to
fly to Atlanta and from there to summer in Johannesburg. We arrived after 8 p.m. South African time,
were whisked to our hotel, and promptly fell asleep. The next morning, we were whisked back to the
airport and flew to the smaller airport at Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, where we
met our trip leader, Vitalis. He greeted us, weighed
each of us, and then weighed the single duffle each of us was allowed to pack (we were allowed only 40 soft-sided pounds of luggage because of the small bush planes we had to fly from camp to camp).
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| Our Trip Leader, Vitalis, weighing fred |
We exited the airport to a local rendition of
“Awimbawe.” Thus began our adventure.
On the safari part of our trip, we visited Chobe National
Park and the Okavango Delta in Botswana, Kafue National Park in Zambia, and
Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe. We
stayed in tented camps for three days in each of the four parks, where we were
initially greeted with a cappella songs by the staffs and said goodbye to each
staff at special dinners where they also serenaded and danced for us.
In between, our safari days followed the same general
pattern: We’d awake at dawn, have a
quick light meal in the open-air lodge and then were off in safari vehicles for
morning game viewing. After a couple of
hours, we’d stop for morning tea and biscuits—a wonderful remnant of British
colonization—then drive off in search of game again. We’d usually return to camp around 11:30 for
brunch, always greeted by the staff with warm or cool moistened cloths to wipe off the dust, followed
by siesta time back in our tents during the heat of the day. In late afternoon, we’d have (eating again!)
afternoon tea before our afternoon game drives.
We’d break for “sundowners”—gin and tonic (another British leftover) or
South African wine (the more contemporary cocktail) with (of course) hors d’ oeuvres
before continuing our search for animals.
Dinner by candlelight was usually after 8 p.m. Because our tents were out in the open, we
always left the lodge as a group, escorted by staff with flashlights (and in
Zimbabwe, game rifles) back to our tents.
It was an indulgent life.
Each camp had its own highlights. Baobab
Lodge in Botswana was perched above the flood plain of the Chobe River.
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Baobab Tree - Notice Bark
Scored by elephants. |
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| Morning greeters! |
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| Young Impala male. |
We woke on our first morning in the bush to a
large herd of impala outside our porch. Wow! Impala are beautiful
and prolific and nicknamed ‘the MacDonalds of the bush.’ They provide a quick meal for many
carnivores.
Chobe National Park is home to the world’s largest
elephant population. The present herd is
estimated at 50,000 animals. We learned
that elephants are either right-tusked or left-tusked; you can see which tusk
is more worn from use.
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| This guy is a lefty. |
Although it was
summer and not the ideal time to see animals because of all the foliage, the
season was ideal to see baby animals that had been born in the spring.
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| Cute Spring baby elephant. |
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| Greetings! |
Adolescents at play.
One of the most interesting things we saw in Chobe was
the aftermath of a lion having just killed a Cape buffalo. The area around the kill was ravaged, indicating the violence of the fight. Later, we saw scavengers—stork, vultures, hyena—recycling
a dead elephant. What’s interesting to note is the lack
of scavengers at the lion kill. Even
though the female lion is obviously engorged and sleeping, she’s still enough
of a threat to keep the carrion-eaters at bay.
Banoka Camp in
Botswana’s Okavango Delta was our second bush camp, and the newest and nicest
of the four camps we visited. For those
of you who expressed worry about our roughing it by sleeping on the ground in
our tents, we’ll share a few pictures:
Not
too bad, huh? You can see in the pictures
that each tent had its own solar-heated hot water. In fact, Banoka Camp was so far off the grid
that the entire camp was powered by solar energy (they had a huge array of
storage batteries) backed up by diesel generators. If there ever was a time the solar failed,
the switch to generator power was seamless.
Water came from deep wells and was both purified and later recycled on
site. Everything—trash, garbage,
sewage—was recycled. The camp was
certainly more ecologically advanced than anything we have here in the U.S.
The Okavango Delta is the largest inland delta system in
the world. It has over 6,000 square
miles of channels, lagoons, swamps, and islands. We explored grasslands,
wetlands, floodplains and woodlands. We
saw lots of giraffe, and we saw lots of hippos. We explored by Land Rovers and by
mokoros.
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| Hello, my friends. (notice the bird on his neck) |
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| This big guy lost his tail to a lion. |
Most of the animals we observed were not too frightened
of us. Our guides in all the camps said
that animals could only see us as another large “animal.” We were cautioned never to stand, changing our profile and to obviously to be quiet as we observed with awe. The guides
shared information with us during our safaris and also at lectures in
camp. We learned more about the Okavango
Delta, for example, from Simon’s lecture.
We traveled to our third camp, Lufupa Camp in Kafue National Park in Zambia via a series of
buses, small boats (there is no bridge across the river separating Botswana
and Zambia), and light aircraft. Fred usually co-piloted our small
aircraft because of his size, lucky guy!
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| Crossing the river from Botswana into Zambia--note our duffles. |
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| Taking off to Kafue National Park. |
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| Great views. |
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| Kafue River delta. |
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| Holy crap? Is that the runway? Yep. |
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| fred & our pilot. |
Lufupa Camp is perched on the banks of the Kafue River.
Like the other camps, the staff at Lufupa warmly welcomed us with
song. This camp, too, was a wonderful place,
but although we loved Lufupa, it was less luxurious than the previous
lodging. Less you think we were too
spoiled, note the pictures of our tent bathroom and one safari vehicle.
chef on the drums
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| Lufupa Camp on the Kafue River. |
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| Yikes, that's a little cozy. |
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| Oops. Good thing we had two-way radios. |
We saw lots of animals in Kafue, and by this time were
old hands at identifying genders and quirks of the breeds. Cape buffalo, as you can see, are not
particularly attractive critters.
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| A face only a mother or another Cape buffalo could love. |
Zebra really are all differently striped. Our first wildebeest sighting was in this park. Our last wildebeest sighting was also in this park--on the “airstrip” leaving camp. Our pilot did a great job of revving his engines to clear the runway. Our first experiences with crocodile, soldier ants, and tsetse flies were also in Kafue (see picture of our guide burning elephant dung to discourage said flies).
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| Some zebras have a phantom or shadow stripe. |
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| This guy might have been on our runway. |
Zebras hang around with everybody.
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| Soldier ants on the move...they eat termites. |
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| Lighting a dung fire to chase away tsetse flies. |
At Lafupa Camp, we particularly enjoyed the
lectures. One guide gave us lots of
information about Zambia, and our camp director, the only woman in this camp,
shared such interesting information about southern African everyday
culture. She, for example, told us how
to tell a woman’s marital status by the way she wore her skirt-cloth, which would
come in handy on our final bush experience.
Our trip leader, Vitalis, told us about his country, Zimbabwe, at this
camp in Zambia as well. Zimbabwe is less
democratic than either Botswana or Zambia,and although their “president” is
elected (the only other choice on their ballot was a picture of a frog), it’s
really a police state run by a dictator.
Vitalis felt he could more openly describe his Zimbabwe outside the
country he calls home.
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| Zambia presentation. |
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| African cultural presentation. |
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| Vitalis on Zimbabwe. |
Kashawe Bush Camp
in Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe was our final bush camp experience. The camp sat on a ridge overlooking a valley.
Out tents were numbered by sticks; we were in tent 8 that faced east. Sunrises were spectacular.
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| Kashawe Bush Camp in Hwange National Park. |
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| Our tent was number 8--count the sticks. |
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| Sunrise from our front porch. |
In addition to seeing animals like the elegant kudu and
the inelegant warthog, we saw myriads of amazingly colored birds.
However, it was the cultural experiences in Hwange that taught us the most.
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| Kudu. |
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| Kudu. |
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| Warthog. |
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| Warthog. |
Vitalis encouraged us to “go native.” That basically meant the women would shop and
cook while the men enjoyed liquid refreshments—local ginger beer. The women on our trip shopped in the Hwange
town market for items on the list that Vitalis had prepared, while the men
discovered mopane worms that several of us enjoyed.
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| Hwange Village Wal-mart. |
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| Kinda like Kroger. |
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Mopane worms--deep fried--yes, we tried them.
We didn't bring any home. |
When we arrived at Lakhovi Village, our women were
wrapped in their skirt-cloths. Married
women wore the skirts above the waist; single women wore the skirts low on
their hips to advertise their availability. We were formally introduced to the head man,
his wife Susan, and other village women. Because of the heat, we
moved into a cooler communal hut where the head man told us about his village
in his native dialect with his grandson translating. Several women also spoke, asking questions
about our culture and telling us about theirs.
It was obvious that, like the elephants, all the females in the village
took responsibility for the young. The
actual cooking of lunch was a pretty long and involved process that took
several hours.
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| Long introductions in the communal hut. |
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| The women get their wraps. |
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| Headman, his wife, and other women of the village. |
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| Susan washing dishes before the meal. |
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| Prepping the food. |
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| Cooking done on an outdoor fire. |
In Hwange, we also visited St. Mary’s Primary School. Just like in the camps, the grade 7 children greeted us with song. We have some experience with gawky tall and short, mature and immature middle school-aged children that come in all shapes and sizes in the U.S; we were surprised at the uniformity in size of these students. We’re guessing, but we think it can be attributed to their limited diet. We met the principal for a brief talk in the staff room, then visited a classroom and talked individually with children. They did such a good job of reading to us from their sole text—a tattered book of Bible stories. We’ve donated to a Grand Circle Foundation fund designated specifically for purchasing computers and software for the school.
Notice the similarity in size.
On Saturday, we left Kashawe Camp and drove to Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe. The
town was a culture shock. We stayed in a
hotel—with wi-fi—for three days! We ate
in restaurants that had other patrons! We
visited tourist shops! We drove on roads
that were paved! We missed the bush.
Of course, Victoria Falls—the largest curtain of water in
the world and one of the world’s Seven Natural Wonders—was spectacular. Its African name is Mosi-oa Tunya, “the smoke
that thunders.” We were told that on a clear day the mist from the crashing
water can be seen from more than 50 miles away and that at peak flood times,
1.4 billion gallon of water per minute pass over its edge.
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| Sunshine Lollipops and Rainbows everywhere. |
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| Stunning Victoria Falls |
On the grounds of Victoria Falls National Park, there is
a statue honoring David Livingstone, the great white man who discovered the
Falls in 1855. “Discovered?” Wouldn’t you bet that a couple native Africans
had seen them first?
As exciting as it was to see the Falls from the ground,
it was even more breathtaking to see them from the air on our helicopter ride
called The Flight of Angels. Apparently,
when Livingstone first saw the Falls he exclaimed, “No one can imagine the
beauty of the view from anything witnessed in England. It had never been seen by European eyes, but
scenes so lovely must have been gazed upon by angels in flight.”
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| Angel Flight. |
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| WOW! |
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| And the water level is actually low. |
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| Was that fun or what? |
Our time in Victoria Falls and the official conclusion of
our Ultimate Africa trip ended on a lovely note with a sunset dinner cruise on
the Zimbabwe River above the Falls.
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| Vitalis & fred sharing a quiet moment. |
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Above VF: notice the mist. This is as close to the Falls as we
were allowed to go because of the current. |
Fifteen of us (5 couples, 3 bachelors, and 2 single
women) began the trip together in Johannesburg.
On Monday, January 26, ten of us (the bachelors and one couple opted out)
continued our exploration with a trip extension to Cape Town, South Africa.
If we thought the small town of Victoria Falls was a
cultural shock, the teeming metropolis of Cape Town cemented the abrupt
juxtaposition of experiences. We spent
our first day there touring this beautiful city fringed by the Atlantic. We saw downtown, the government area (parliament
is in Cape Town; Pretoria to the northeast is the administrative capitol of the
nation), the scenic Victoria and Albert Waterfront, the beautiful National
Botanic Gardens of Kirstenbosch (with its blooming protea and remnants of Van
Riebeeck’s Hedge--indigenous almond trees and thorny hedges planted in the
1660’s to separate the Dutch settlement from the native Africans), colorful
BoKaap (the oldest residential area, home to the Malay Muslim community), and
the suburbs. Homes of the wealthiest are
located on the coast in windless areas; as the exposure to wind increases, the
wealth of the residents decreases.
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| BoKapp Neighborhood. |
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| BoKapp is mostly Muslim: notice minaret. |
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| You couldn't find a stranger combination if you tried. |
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| Interesting street signs in downtown Cape Town. |
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| Table Mountain from Victoria & Albert Waterfront. |
Clouds cleared and the wind abated, so on our second day
in Cape Town we were able to ride the cable car up the face of Table Mountain,
the iconic landmark of the city. During
the several hours we spent exploring the top, we had stunning views of the city
and ocean below, as well as views of the peninsula that meanders south to the
Cape of Good Hope.
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| Cable Car up Table Mountain. |
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| View of CT from Cable Car. |
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| View from the top of Table Mountain. |
That afternoon, four of us took an optional tour of the
District 6 Museum and the townships of Langa, Guguletu, and Bonteheuwel. The District 6 Museum traces the story of the
African community that was forcibly removed from their homes and the
neighborhood razed to the ground under apartheid. The District 6 area of Cape Town remains
barren today.
The tour of the townships where most of the African
population still lives was horrific. The
poverty is palpable. We were invited
into one of the “nicer” homes. It had a small
kitchen, one bedroom, and one bathroom for an extended family of eight. They did have electricity, running water, and
indoor plumbing. We visited a preschool
where the children danced for us and sang songs about not letting other people
touch their bodies. Sexual abuse is apparently
rampant. The pictures below show the
awful condition in which most of the African people in the townships live—and
the ironic swarm of their satellite dishes.
Not a lot of running water or plumbing here, but the government has
provided electricity. Apartheid may be
officially over; most of the native African people are still enduring its
consequences. The four of us left the Township
tour distraught and disturbed--a feeling that lingers to this day.
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| Township fast food stand--broiled goat heads. |
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| School children returning home. |
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| Beauty (?) salon. |
The next series of photos are just random shots of the townships we visited:
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| Communal toilets. |
After an
early breakfast on our third day in South Africa, we drove along the scenic
Atlantic coast road of the Cape Peninsula, stopping at Boulders in False Bay,
home of the African penguin. We
continued on to the Cape of Good Hope, situated at the junction of two of
earth’s most contrasting water masses—the cold Benguela Current on the West
Coast and the warm Agulhas Current on the east coast—the meeting point of the
Atlantic and Indian Oceans. In the towns along the
way, we were warned about, of all things, baboons. In the bush, baboons were interesting to
observe; in civilization, where their natural predators have been eliminated,
baboons have become pests and/or dangerous animals.
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| The sea is always in a turmoil. |
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| Baby baboons in the bush ride on their mother's tail... |
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...except when they are scared and then it is,
"Let's get out of here." |
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| In towns baboons are serious pests. |
We returned to
Cape Town for our home-hosted dinner with a coloured family that evening. “Coloured” is not a pejorative term in South
Africa, it’s simply a descriptive word meaning mixed race. The dinner showed us how much higher on the
social strata the coloured are than the native Africans. During dinner, the electricity went off. Several times during our visit in Cape Town
we experienced “load sharing,” a series of planned black outs to ration an
inadequate supply of electricity. The
joke we often heard was, “What did South Africans have before they had candles? Electricity!”
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| Cape Town market scene. |
On our final full day in Cape Town, January 30, we could
choose from a couple of optional tours or we could choose to spend the day on
our own. We were pretty desperate by
then for some recoupling time alone. We
wandered the city and had a lovely dinner at the Waterfront. While there, we bought a magnificent five-foot
tall giraffe, hand-carved from a wood similar to teak. Unfortunately, the Transportation Security Administration
in Atlanta “inspected” our meticulously wrapped treasure and broke off one ear. (We’ve filed a claim with TSA, but aren’t
holding our breath.) Fred has glued the
ear back on its quirky head, and now our giraffe looks almost as good as new. He will be a lasting reminder of our memorable southern African trip.
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| Kirstenbosch Gardens. |
All excursions come with some challenges. This trip was no different. Early at our first bush camp in Botswana,
Susan took on some Cape buffalo jerky at a sundowner, and it won by snapping
off a front tooth. She had long been
told by her dentist that such an outcome was close; however, she avoided
dealing with it until she had no choice.
She will now be the recipient of a four-tooth implant of her lower front
teeth. Although her permanent teeth are
several months away, she is happy with the temporary result. Such a pretty smile, although Fred says he
found that gapped-toothed hillbilly look endearing.
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| Weaver Bird in Hwange National Park. |
Not to be outdone, Fred contracted shingles in Cape
Town. Actually, a small rash appeared in
Victoria Falls, but nothing that a little topical cream and Advil couldn’t
handle. By the end of our stay in Cape
Town, he was in serious pain, and there was nothing to do but to get on a plane
for home. By the time he got to a doctor
on the day of our return, more than 40 hours later, he had an “epic” (doctor’s
adjective) case of shingles around his waist.
He has been under treatment for 4 weeks with a plethora of drugs, and
while he is getting better, it is obvious that he will be a long time healing. We have pretty well written off the month of
February.
We had a stupendous trip.
We loved most things about Africa. The geography was stunning, the
animals were intriguing, the people were fascinating, and we would go back in a
heartbeat.
