What can I say about the time we spent in Africa? It was an adventure for sure, but not a trip I would suggest for just anyone. Over 32 days we traveled through eight different countries and experienced everything from bus breakdowns, to long days of bumpy drives, stopping for endless hours for the crew to grocery shop, thunderstorms and clear blue skies, sleeping on hard ground in a leaking tent to sleeping in a bed and falling asleep to the sound of waves crashing on the shore. It’s been a smorgasbord of smells, landscapes, colors, personalities and animal sightings. Generally, something we would do again, but with a few more upgrades in sleeping conditions.
Our traveling companions from Australia, England, New Zealand, South Africa, Taiwan, Canada and California ranged in age from 19 to 63. The crews from Africa Travel were friendly and knowledgeable with a lovely sense of humor, especially our team from Kenya (Chris, Duncan and Alois). Chris is a good pool player, and our driver (Alois) took care to miss most pot holes, and Duncan made us some really delicious vegetarian meals.
We started our five weeks on the continent in Cape Town. It felt like a vacation after our experiences in South America. That may sound a bit strange to those of you who think this entire year is a vacation, but Cape Town was so relaxing. It’s a beautiful city, with colonial buildings, friendly, kind people and so much to do.
From the patio of our hostel (Ashanti Lodge) we could see Table Mountain, and from the top of Table Mountain for 360 degrees we could see the city, it’s harbor and the ocean, breathtaking sights. Hiking down the 1000 meters was difficult on the knees, but after 3 hours we made it to the main road. Both Mike and I had wobbly legs, I would compare it to how you feel after spending a few days on a boat.
We explored the downtown, filled with name brand stores you find in the states, and along the cobble stone pedestrian malls with kiosks selling local crafts, flowers and food. After forgettable food in South America (other than Cuenca) we had our fill of good food and wine. (If you have a chance, try the Pinotage from Obikwa vineyard, which is inexpensive; or one from Arabella. For a good merlot, you might want to try Robertson vineyard as well as Krawer Cellars.)
On April 16 we flew to Johannesburg, were picked up at the airport and taken to our lodging where we met with the first group we would travel with. There were 19 of us in total, plus three crew members. This would be the last night for 32 days where we would have a bed to sleep in, unless we upgrade on the road.
After a fairly long drive, we spent two nights outside of Kruger National Park, everyone was excited to be on the road. Our tents were easy to put up and the night sky was filled with what appear to be a million stars. The Milky Way is so clear and, with no ambient light to distort the stars, the Southern Cross and other constellations are breathtakingly beautiful and mesmerizing. Our first game drive was chock full of animals including elephants, zebras, cape buffalo, white rhinos, antelope, monkeys, baboons, giraffes and numerous birds, but alas, no big cats.
We had a really bad night at camp, it poured down rain and the tent leaked, but not as bad as Maverick and Steph’s; everything they owned got soaked. To make things even worse, the truck needed to be repaired which delayed our departure for a few hours. Everyone was cold and we huddled in the kitchen enclosure waiting to leave. With the bad weather, we missed what is supposably some of the best scenery in South Africa, including God’s Window. We did see the Blyde River Canyon though. We decided to upgraded to a room in Musina, where natural hot water springs are located, just to get warm and have a good nights sleep. Never did see the hot springs since we arrived at the camp so late.
We spent a total of eight days in Zimbabwe. During the time there we basically forced the truck/tour to bypass the came in Masvingo, after visiting the the Great Zimbabwe Ruins, so we could go directly to Antelope Park in Gweru. It was an interesting hike and lecture of the ruins and the views from the highest point were beautiful, but not much would have been missed if we hadn’t done it. Antelope Park was a beautiful camp site, situated along a river. This is where most of the optional tours took place, such as the Lion Walk, feeding the lions, interacting with the elephants or horse back riding. One night while we were there, Mike woke up to use the toilet, opened the tent and there was a white horse eating the grass. A small herd of horses would ramble through each morning to graze and one afternoon, three elephants lumbered through on their way to the river for a bath. Nothing like camping with wildlife! We did the lion walk, unfortunately the lions weren’t the cute little cubs I walked with in 2009, these were older, maybe 16 months and not very frisky, but it was a warm afternoon and I can understand why they might have been a little sluggish.
We were most impressed with our time at Matobo Park. We had a game drive and hike. The hike was short but steep, ending at a cave. The cave walls were covered with paintings done by bushman possibly as long as 15 thousand years ago. They were beautiful, giraffes, antelopes, stick people hunting and what Norman, our guide, said were some animals that are now extinct. Matobo Park also has enormous granite boulders stacked precariously on top of one another. It’s a mystery to me how they don’t fall. The way the sunlight changed the colors and shadows, indescribably beautiful.
Not many people have an opportunity to be on the ground (not in a 4 x 4) within approximately 50 feet of a white rhino, but we were that close to four of them. We stood and watched them quietly for at least 20 minutes. Really something special. As a bonus, we also saw 4 hippos playing in the water. What a great day!
It’s curious what three full days at one place will do for the attitudes and dispositions of travelers. Everyone was relaxed, happy and had a great time and were ready to get on the road again for the long trek to Victoria Falls.
Vic Falls is where we were finally able to get laundry done, have a bed (for one night at least), a decent meal at a restaurant and spend time away from our traveling companions. The Falls themselves are amazing, it truly is a sight to see, the mist, the rainbows and how wet you get on the walk. It’s just past the rainy season, so the river is really high and running very fast. You can hear the falls from the camp site and it sounds like traffic on an interstate.
Vic Falls is the point where people change trucks and crews depending on your tour. After exchanging e-mails, promises to keep in touch, etc., we left our original group of 17 for a smaller group of 7 to continue on to Nairobi, Kenya, with stops along the way in Zambia, Malawi, Tanzania (Zanzibar).
I’ll just list the highlights of Chobe National Park where we camped in the bush. For those of you who might wonder what bush camping is, you have no electricity, no water, no toilets, no shower. Its camping under the stars, the magnificent African night sky!
- Elephants, including the cutest baby who was apparently learning how to use his or her trunk
- Giraffes, not as many as at Kruger, but lovely graceful creatures
- Warthogs, such unattractive creatures, but cute at the same time as they run along with their tails straight up in the air (for some reason every time I see one I think of the film The Lion King).
- Antelope, saw one of the rare ones with a circle at the butt rather than the “M”
- Impalas, they are everywhere in abundance, it gets to the point where you don’t even mention seeing them
- Water Buffalos, very big and very ugly
- Hippos, always their eyes just above the water line, or with mouths open wide
- Crocodiles, resting along the river bank
- BEST OF ALL - a female lion, she was under tree eating a recent kill. Not that I liked seeing her eat, but just to see one in the wild was fantastic.
- Our last day in Chobe, we finally saw a male lion, again basking under a tree. Tried to take photographs, but he was just a little too far away for my camera, but believe me, we saw him.
Wednesday, May 1 - May Day is a national holiday in Zambia. It was just a long day on the truck before reaching our camp. I played darts for the first time, it took me forever to hit #1, I stopped at # 4, mostly because everyone else had hit the teens and I was bored. Its curious, but almost every camp has either dogs or cats rambling around begging for pats, hugs, scratches behind the ears or food. This particular camp had an older, sweet, Jack Russell. Around midnight both Mike and I got up to use the toilet (bush) and the dog followed us back to the tent, hopped in and settled at the bottom of our sleeping bags. It was fine with us, it was cold that night and he kept our feet warm. In the morning (around 5:30) as we were waking up and breaking down the tent, the dog wouldn’t move. I would lift one sleeping bag to pack it up and he just moved to the next one and settled in again, barely opening his eyes. Poor old thing, he just didn’t want to wake up and hit the cool damp grass with his little paws. Others in the group were jealous that he slept with us, after all, it was cold and at least our feet were warm.
In Chipata, where we spent one night, the entire group went to the bar. There was karaoke, but we were able to stop that bad singing. The DJ had a guitar and we had heard there was a really good singer/guitar player staying at the camp. He was found and played a few tunes. He was excellent with an interesting style. He passed Mike the guitar and he played a few tunes, then surprisingly, Dan (from California) asked for the guitar and he played and sang. Everyone enjoyed the music. I’m sure Mike and Dan will play again at other camps along the way.
Our trip to Malawi and the lake took almost 8 hours, and included one short truck breakdown. Alois was able to repair the fan belt while we had our lunch. Blair, Jess, Suzanne, Rouan and Dan played soccer with some of the local kids who gathered around to stare at us. Chris, our group leader, said the kids are not used to seeing white people. When we made the mandatory grocery stop before hitting the Lake, we all chipped in for soccer balls to give to the village kids in Malawi. I think the balls were selected since the one used when the truck broke down was made out of a bag stuffed with rags. Truly, these kids have nothing, but make do with what they have. They seemed perfectly happy using a fallen tree as a seesaw. Our camp was awesome, right on the lake. Mike and I did upgrade to a beach chalet and fell asleep to the sound of waves crashing on the shore, that is after a mug (no wine glasses this trip) of South African Merlot and watching the stars.
Our first two days at the Malawi Lake camps were spent relaxing, reading and staring at the waves. In the evening we’d meet at the bar were there was a pool table and the competitions would begin. Australians (Danielle & Blair) against Americans (Mike & Dan) against the South Africans (Rouan & Jess) against the crew (Chris plus one of us). One of the often used expressions came out that night when Danielle was going to take a shot, people talked her out of it and she said “Well, I guess we’ll never know,” talking about if she might have made the difficult shot. We met Scott, Tom and Shannon, people who have been traveling on the African Trails truck that came down to Africa from London. We keep meeting up with them as they are just one day behind our tour. Tom and Shannon have become very friendly with Dan and Jessica. There is another truck excursion (Intrepid) following our route, and that group likes to party, almost too much. I’m surprised they can make the early wake-up times. While at Lake Malawi, suffice it to say everyone from all three trucks enjoyed themselves.
I did tour the village during the stay at the second Lake Malawi camp. Time was spent at the local school, where, as expected there aren’t enough books to go around, let alone desks for the kids to sit at. Most of the classes are conducted in dark rooms with concrete floors and they share books. The principal was given pencils, notebooks and the soccer balls to share with the kids.
There’s a small hospital in the village with one doctor and a couple nurses, again with limited supplies. The morning of our visit we were told 20 villagers had come in to be tested for Malaria and out of the 20, 18 tested positive. I can tell you, the mosquitoes in Malawi were terrible, more than anywhere else we had visited so far. They love me. No matter how much DEET I put on, I get bites even with the netting over the bed.
After four relatively relaxing days, our next two days were long drives as we headed out early (5:00 a.m.) for Tanzania. The drive was beautiful though. After the brown bush of South Africa, East Africa is very green with beautiful valleys, hundreds of baobab trees, mountains covered with Acacia Trees, and the lowlands with banana, coffee and tea plantations as well as rice farms.
After one night at a beach side camp, we headed to Zanzibar, a place everyone was looking forward to going. Two ferry rides and a short bus ride and we were in Stone Town. It felt like I had arrived on another continent, so different from what I had seen thus far in other African cities/towns. Zanzibar is about 90% Muslim and the architecture reflects the Arab influence. The women wear colorful, full length dresses and cover their heads. Many of the men wear skull caps and thobs. There were a number of mosques and in the early morning, noon, afternoon, sunset, and evening we could hear the calls to prayer. Mike said it was somewhat refreshing to again be in a Muslim culture.
Mike and I really don’t like to take tours, preferring to explore on our own, but we did take the Stone Town City and Spice tour and found it to be really interesting. Having the opportunity to taste fresh, really fresh cut cinnamon and ginger was a real treat! Watching the guide climb a coconut tree was a little hokey as well as the silly hats they made for us out of palm leaves.
That evening to be polite, we met everyone on a rooftop for a sunset beer. We left them and roamed around town a bit stopping at the Forodhani Gardens seafront market where local fishermen grill their catch of the day before having our own dinner at a small restaurant we discovered earlier in the day.
For two nights we stayed at a beautiful beach resort a few hours north of Stone Town in Zanzibar. After tent camping, and beach huts, it was a pleasant surprise to stay at what anyone would refer to as a three star hotel. Hot water whenever you wanted it, electricity, a beautiful swimming pool and fantastic beach, comfortable bed and soft pillows and decent internet. Two delightful days there. I went snorkeling one day and saw fish and coral usually seen only in a large city aquarium. We went to a local pub as a group after dinner one night. Unfortunately since it’s low season, there weren’t but a few locals there. People played pool and Mike and I spent about an hour talking with the three locals who were at the pub. They told us all about the Masai, tribal Africans, who’s culture is to roam the land with their cattle, sheep, or goats. The Masai are apparently the only people who can carry weapons (large sticks) without getting arrested. On the last night, everyone met up at a small fish restaurant directly on the beach for dinner.
It took us about 14 hours to travel from Dar es Salaam to Arusha before finally arriving at our camp, Meserani Snake Park. Although it was long, it was another beautiful drive, passing the Pare and Usambra Mountain ranges. We were able to see most of Mount Kilimanjaro, but some of it was covered with clouds. Too far away to get a good photograph, so I didn’t even try.
Our campsite was interesting. The woman who runs it (Ma) emigrated from South Africa about 25 years ago with her family. Her boys apparently liked snakes and collected them as a hobby. Therefore, Snake Park was founded. Besides the campsite, there are about 20 snake enclosures, many that are poisonous, including a cobra, black mambas, green mambas and boomslangs. There are also crocodiles, a few birds that have been wounded and wouldn’t survive in the wild and one baboon rescued from some people who were mistreating it. I saw a number of beautiful birds on the grounds and there was a flock of guinea hens that have made the campsite their home. We were awaked each morning by various bird songs and calls.
There was a Masai Cultural Museum at the camp, and Jonathan gave us an informative tour explaining the culture of his tribe, and a Masai Women’s Market selling beaded necklaces, bracelets and earrings. Some of the Masai women have numerous beautiful (and large) silver earrings hanging from each ear. The local market, outside the camp, sells everything from plastic cups to cows, and is very active. Camel rides are available if that interests you. I witnessed a number of visiting school children taking advantage, I guess it’s like pony rides back home.
Some of the revenue from the Camp supports the local clinic and orphanage. With this group, there should be enough from the bar bills to support at least one of the kids at boarding school for next term.
Mike and I were the only two from the group that chose not to spend $500 each for two nights at the Ngorongoro Crater and Serengeti Park, especially once we heard the drive to Serengeti was 350 KM each way. They really only had 1/2 day at each place. They may see a leopard and probably many more animals, but we’ll have another chance when we are in Nairobi, Kenya. We had the camp to ourselves for the most part and enjoyed every minute of it. Sleeping in, being lazy, quietly reading, updating the photographs and this blog and enjoying some wine and each others company. It’s been great just being the two of us.
One more afternoon and the group will be back. Duncan, our cook made a cake, complete with candles, on the camp stove, to celebrate Sam’s birthday. One final night at Ma’s Bar, before heading to Kenya.
We did a walking tour of Nairobi, which included the August 7th Memorial Park, where the American Embassy stood before it was bombed in the late 90‘s. We had thought about getting a hotel in the city so we could explore it a bit, but the place suggested to us was twice as much as our room at camp, not as nice or clean, and in a real dodgy area. I’m sure sometime after sunset we would have witnessed drug deals and/or muggings just outside the entrance.
On Sunday morning after gathering all the e-mail addresses, we said our goodbyes to everyone as they left for Uganda to see the gorillas, London, Johannesburg, Saudi, Manila or Vancouver.
Our extra time in Kenya was spent planning for Nepal and India. A small change in plans as we decided to take another trek in Nepal before heading for India. So on Wednesday, May 22 we flew to New Delhi, arriving Thursday, May 23 in the early morning and caught an afternoon flight to Kathmandu.
I’ll send more on the Nepal trip in the next communication.
