The Southern Africa Circle Completed

Essentially, we started our big loop through southern Africa right here in Pretoria and here we are again. We fly to the States in three short days.

Getting here from Maun, Botswana put another 2000 km on the Land Rover and took us to the remote Kubu Island, through about half of the Kruger National park, and into the Blyde River Canyon. We then stopped briefly in Jo'burg to take tours of the South West Township (SOWETO), and the apartheid museum and do a bit of last minute shopping for crafts. We do expect everyone who gets a large, wooden, hand-carved giraffe, to place in prominently in the middle of their living room. Regardless of what you think, it will enhance your decor immensly.

Kubu Island is located in the middle of the Sua salt Pans in Botswana. The island itself sits about 20 meters higher than the expanse of flat salt plains around it and is covered in Boabab trees. Also on the island are the ruins of the Great Zimbabwe city that lead to the the myth of the Lost City of the Kalahari. Emily and I were there as a travel show was filming a documentary of the ruins and the expert, a PHD of some sort, took Em and I on a private showing of the ruins, pointing out broken bits of pottery, Osterich egg beads, and old walls built to level areas for huts.

A short walk in the salt pans.


We love these trees.


For the first time in Africa, Em and I slept out under the stars on the island...what a site. We then woke early, much before sunrise, packed up camp and drove a short ways out onto the salt pans to watch the sun break the flat horizon. That got us an early start on our roughly 700 km towards Kruger National Park. After another easy and uneventful border crossing we headed for a night in Mussina, a restocking point about 100 km from Kruger's most northern gate.

Sunrise on the pans.


We reached Kruger by mid-morning the next day and began a leisurly game drive to our first camp. After refferencing our handy guidebook we realized we had seen two more antelope species, the Nyala and the Bushbuck, that were firsts for us. Always a neat experience. We reached our camp of Punda Maria early and spent the reast of the day enjoying the small watering hole just outside the fence, playing cards and having dinner.

We had decided previously to trade a bit of game driving for a bit a game walking and got up early, 05:30, to join our two armed and friendly game rangers and headed out. The walk was very informative and it was great to be outside, walking in the game park. Our guides explained the tracks of the animals, the food they eat, who they hunt and when, etc. We didn't see allot of game, that's the trade-off to driving, but we could hear and smell the animals. Our guide had told us that we were in a Big 5 area, meaning that all of the Big 5 could be encountered.

Our guides.


At our lunch stop we had a great time joking and talking with our guides, Thomas and Matt. We asked one of the guides Matt, if he'd every had to use the rifle on a walking safari. He said "yes, on buffalo. He was asking too many questions." (for the gun junkies they were both carrying .458 calibre rifles)

After another afternoon game drive we headed to our next camp at Shingwedzi. We got a nice spot, next to the fence, took a swim and had our typical evening. As we were barbequeing our pork chops, a hyena casually walked up to the fence, not more that 4 meters from us, and asked if we had any to spare. Later on a Ring-tailed Genet did the same. We woke early to be at the gate by 06:00 and did a before breakfast game drive, then came back, packed and headed out for Letaba.

A hyena, asking too many questions.


Letaba has a great museum that focuses on the Magnificant 7, 7 of Kruger's largest Elephant, complete with the skulls and tusks. They are huge. On our way there, we pissed off a large elephant by almost hitting him. I think he contemplated charging us and at the time, I felt quite safe in the Land Rover. After seeing these huge beasts, I think the Land Rover, and us, would have taken the worst of it.

Giraffe crossing the road....sure makes the car look small.


We headed out the next day, after trying to track down some of the more elusive animals (white rhino, wild dog, and leopard) that had been spotted earlier and marked on the spotting map at reception. Next stop, the Blyde River Canyon, the world's 3rd largest.

We spent two nights at Blyde and day hiked about 14 km up the canyon, ending in a nice swim in the river. We ran across two snakes, Black Mambas we think....yikes. It was a very nice hike and good to get some excercise.
With two nights in Jo'burg, well outside the city mom and dad, we took in the main township of Soweto and the very informative and shocking Apartheid Museum. What a hurdle this country had to overcome....and what a long way to go. Overall the day gave Em and I allot of hope for the future of SA.

So long and see ya soon, after a quick 10 day stop in the Big Apple....my first, eh!

Sleeping With The Hippos....Lions and Hyenas!

Now that title will give our parents a start! More on the hippos later...

OK. A word of explanation first. This will be a very long entry as I had some serious technical difficulties at the last internet cafe. So this first section was written about a week ago. I'm not going to change anything, and will add on current stuff at the end. So if it doesn't flow....well, too bad.

After our detour to Windhoek, we headed west towards the coast. It was a long day driving that took us through several different landscapes - rolling volcanic hills to flat, dry, hot, windy desert to foggy, chilly, dune-laden coastline. We stopped briefly in Walvis Bay to check out the immense wetland ( i.e. lots of birds including flamingo and some huge pelicans) and then continued further north along the coast to Swapkomund. Swapkomund is one of the more developed and touristy spots in Namibia and is littered with cutesy shops and restaurants. Of course we showed up on a weekend (we have knack for showing up in large towns when everything is closed), so most things were closed. It is also the last days of winter, which means there is a perpetual fog settled over the city. Those two things combined with the fact we didn't need any city ammenities thanks to Windhoek, we headed out the next day.

Our next stop was to a place called Spitzkoppe which was a last minute decision, but a gem of one. It is an out-of-the-way, remote, community-run campground that was truly amazing. This was by far our best camp yet. The Spitzkoppe is the second highest peak in Namibia and is another of those unreal places of rounded, red granite boulders towering all around you. The campsites are spread out over an enourmous area and you just have to drive around until you find one you like. They are so spread out that you end up with practically an entire acre of campground all to yourself. We spent the afternoon walking on the rocks, and around the grounds stopping to look at some rock art and climb around a natural arch in the rock.

Night camp at Spitzkoppe:


The rock arch at Spitzkoppe:


This area of Namibia as we continue moving north is known for its large amounts of San rock art - paintings and engravings dating back as many as 5000 years. We stopped at the Brandberg mountain and did a short walk to one of the most ornate paintings called the White Lady (which is really a black man with half his body covered in ash from the fire and his shaman dancing - but of course the first European to see it assumed it must be a painting of the first white woman that the San people saw, thus the name White Lady).

From there we stayed the night at Twyfelfontein and checked out the nearby engravings the next day. On this part of our journey we are quickly realizing that a lot of the Namibia experience is getting there (wherever that may be). You drive a long way to look at a site that takes about 30 minutes to take in. The scenery along the way and the vastness of the country is impressive....no matter how hot we get or how much dust we inhale!

Rock engravings at Twyfelfontein:


Driving in Namibia:

The next main destination was Etosha National Park - a game park/reserve known for its floodlit waterholes. On the way we stopped in a small town called Outjo to reload on groceries and while wandering the aisles of the OK grocery store we bumped into our friends Inge and Rob (from Holland and England respectively and Australia together....figure that one out!) who we had last seen at the Soussevlei dunes. Great to see them again and to share stories over a beer at the pool at the fabulous campsite we all ended up at that night.

In Etosha we shared the first nights' camp with Inge and Rob at the western most camp. The waterholes at Etosha are set up right at camp and essentially have the people fenced in watching the animals hydrate. This first waterhole was by far the best. Throughout the day we saw everything saunter up to get a drink - black rhino, elephant, kudu, gemsbok, zebra, springbok, jackals, adn griaffe (which are hilarious to watch try and drink). It is interesting to watch the hierarchy and order to how and when the animals drink. The zebra are by far the most skittish and the rhino seem to be teh most feared and territorial. Daytime brought the various antelope and zebra. Night brought the giraffe, rhino and elephant. In between sitting at the hole, we went on game drives - seeing more of the same but not asdensely packed. We were lucky enough to see a beautiful pride of lions on one of the drives, including a huge male with a magnificent mane.

The waterhole by day:


A look at the lion we saw. As we don't have the fancy big zoom lenses, we had to take this picture through the binoculars.


Our second day in the park was more game driving as we left our friends, knowing we wouldn't see them again as they were slowing down and we were needing to pick up our travel pace. We moved leisurely towards the middle camp and on they way getting a look at yet more lions cleaning up a relatively recent kill. During the drive, a big storm settled in and the lightening, thunder and rains kept up into the night forcing us to move our bed back into the Land Rover (with the warmer temperatures we had switched to sleeping in the tent). The lightening was quite striking (ha ha) and gave us a clue as to how the animals at the waterhole feel at night with all the cameras flashing - it was like God was up there taking pictures of us!

A gemsbok. Our new favorite antelope:


Stormy night at camp:


Last day in the park we drove slowly out to the gate, then had a long day driving all the way to the northern border of Namibia (southern border of Angola) and camped in Rundu where we were about 1 km away from an open air concert that did not stop until 6:00 AM the next day! Ach!

We moved a bit further east to the edge of the Caprivi strip (the panhandle of Namibia) and spent the last two days truly relaxing at a very cool camp called Ngepi. It is a very green place that sits right on the Okavango River and is the beginning of the Okavango Delta. We really didn't do much of anything here and were happy to just not drive or move camp for a night. We spent our days reading, eating, playing cards, and walking around camp. The evenings involved sipping beer and wine on the sundeck overlooking the river, cooking dinner over teh fire, and finally going to sleep to the sounds of snorting hippos working their way down the river. This sound was a bit unnerving at first (the way sound carries over the water at night, makes it sound like they are right at camp's doorstep!) but after we got used to it, it became quite amusing to listen to - they make such a rucus!

Our camp at Ngepi:


Now we are in Botswana - the last new country we will visit. We are in a small town called Kasane. Our time is quickly coming to a close (we have a flight to New York on Sept 30) and we find ourselves at night spending a lot of time reflecting back on the last year. It is amazing to think a whole year has gone by already. We have to try not and complain, as we "only" have three weeks left, we have to remind ourselves that that is still the longest vacation we have ever taken and more than most Americans ever get!

We were going to take a side trip to Victoria Falls, but with all the border crossings and transport logistics, it became a bit cost prohibitive to go look at a waterfall (I know, it is a big one, but we just can't see it all). So now we head south again through Botswana and through some very highly regarded parks - Chobe and then on into the Okavango Delta.

OK...and now the story continues. It is now Sept 17 (I think) and we have officially less than two weeks before we fly to the States! Crazy.

We are still in Botswana and spent the last 5 days driving some 300 or so miles of serious 4x4 roads through a couple of Botswana's most famous national parks. The Land Rover did smashingly well. What a beast that car is. In Kasane, after a very frustrating and unproductive day in town, we treated ourselves to an evening boat cruise along the Chobe river. You don't go very far down the river, but you don't have to because you see so much wildlife just in that first mile. Amazing packs of elephant, crocodiles, hippos (in and out of the water), birds galore, water monitor lizard, and the good ol springbok and kudu. A very nice trip and really great to see the wildlife from the perspective of the boat rather than in the car.

From Kasane, we hit the sand roads, and the first day down, driving through Chobe national park, we had quite an adventure, and picked up this trailer. It is our thanks to you, John, for letting us use your rig....


Just kidding. Here's the story in a nutshell. We came across some locals trying to rescue a rental camper than had broken down in the most unfortunate of places (very deep sand and very far from anything). They had brought out a trailer with hopes of putting the camper onto the trailer and towing it out. But the quickly realized that the sand is too deep for that even though they did have a Land Rover doing the work. To make their problems worse, they couldn't get into the vehicle to unlock the parking brake or the steering! So while they jury rigged a tow mechanism, we agreed to pull their trailer. Many adjustments later and we finally got to the first gate where they put the camper onto the trailer. Nice folks that we are, we agreed to stay with them to make sure they got to the next gate OK (which was our campsite). After several bogs down in the sand (and one episode of our Land Rover pulling their Land Rover which was pulling a trailer with a camper on it!), they gave up with the trailer, we took the trailer again, and they constructed a tow bar out of sticks and we all eventually limped into camp. It was actually lucky that we helped them, because it gave the camp guards a reason to let us stay at the camp as they were technically full.

So we camped that night, awoken once by either a serval cat or a hyena having his way with the garbage bin. We pushed out the next day, passed our friends from the day before (not willing to pull the trailer any further as we had many miles of bad road to go that day), and made our way towards Moremi Game Reserve. The Moremi Game Reserve is the most famous part of the Okavango Delta. The Delta is an interesting place where the Okavango river (which originates in Angola) flows into this part of Botswana, spreads out into a landlocked delta and eventually just disappears into the sands of the Kalahari, never reaching the ocean. It provides year-round water and thus lots of wildlife.

Leaving Chobe that day we happened upon this little guy....


The drive into Moremi that first day gave us some more special wildlife viewing. We came across a group of five bull elephants taking a serious mud bath, a huge group of hippos, some in the water and some out and some running from one place to another (have you ever seen a hippo run...surprisingly fast for those stubby little legs!). Entering the official reserve, we were relieved to hear they had openings at the campgrounds and proceeded onto our first camp. Botswana is doing an interesting thing with tourism. They are making it very expensive, yet keeping it rural. Most people who come here, come with organized groups, fly in and stay at very posh lodges. Once you leave the lodge you are on terrible, non-maintained roads and can either see lots of wildlife or nothing at all. For people on our budget, you pay very expensive entrance fees and reasonable camping fees, but do not get much in the way of ammenities for the campground. They call it 'wild camping'. No fences, no electricity, but you do have some running water. There are also lots of ominous signs about staying in your tent at night, not leaving your doors open, and staying out of the animals' way! Good advice. Our first night in Moremi we had a hippo walking through camp at about 4:00 AM not more than 15 feet from our tent making his way back to the water after grazing - it made up both a bit nervous, and we have an amusing story to share about how we tried to "stealthily" move from tent to protection of Land Rover. The second night, we slept in the Land Rover and had a baboon try to make away with our cast iron pot and a hyena creep by the car.

While in and around Moremi we had more fabulous wildlife viewings. One of which was coming around the corner and seeing this:

A beautiful male lion that we followed and watched for about an hour. So cool - it is hard to get tired of looking at lions. Our other activity in the Delta was to take the obligatory mokoro trip through some of the reedy channels. A very tippy boat, and as we like to help paddle, row, whatever, it is best that we just sit still and let our great guide do the work as falling into these waters is not a very good idea. It was so nice to be on such a quite boat and again appreciate the area from a different perspective (once I could relax at the thought of a crocodile being around the next bend!)


On the way out of Moremi, we came across a bunch of people stuck in a very deep stretch of sand. John's Land Rover to the rescue! One was a safari outfit that had their rig and their trailer stuck. So we pulled both out (using everything the Rover had) while a local helped the other couple out (a Dutch couple who were so inexperienced driving in sand and so stuck that they had spent the night there!). Everyone happy and out of the sand, we carried on out to the exit gate. Not more than 10 km down the road and we started with a little trouble of our own....a bit of clutch trouble. But thanks to Keith's brains, with a little trial and error we got ourselves to the next town and by the time we got to camp, we had the problem fixed.

So now we are in Maun, getting refreshed (the days are getting mighty, mighty hot!) and planning the next (and last) leg of our journey. You'll never guess who we ran into here.....Rob and Inge! They took a totally different route as they only have a 2-wheel drive car, but who would have guessed we'd be here on the same day. We're off to have lunch with them as soon as I finish up here.

Here is what our bed looks like when we sleep in the Rover. Just a random photo....and a cheesy grin...