African Archives

Looking Back

johnandconnie — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 13:23:00 GMT

We are resting up from our trip to Central America (11/07-3/08 - journals.worldnomads.com/connieandjohn) and taking care of all the mundane matters of civilization like taxes, doctors, dentists and such. We also have been thinking of some trips we have taken in the past four years and decided to post them.

The stories are based on our journal entries at the time but we are no longer the same people who wrote them. We have a different frame of experience and have edited accordingly. We have also grudgingly dipped our toes into the digital world and have invested in a scanner so we can include some photos originally taken on film and processed on location.

This is the story of our first trip to Africa in March, 2004. At the time it seemed the most exotic and remote place on the planet and really expanded our comfort zines, but in retrospect we refer to it as 'Africa for beginners.'

Fast Forward

johnandconnie — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 03:52:00 GMT

It has been four years since our time in South Africa. The DeWildt Cheetah Centre is thriving. It is financially stable thanks largely to contributions from supporters in the US and Great Britain, corporate sponsorships, and to cheetah adoptions by individuals. DeWildt is still the world's leading breeder of cheetahs, mostly for export to zoos around the world. This not only reduces the need for capturing cheetahs in the wild, it allows people to see and appreciate these wonderful cats in person.

Ann continues in her role as Alpha female and has taken over as curator after Alan’s departure from DeWildt. Vanessa is married now but continues her annual fundraising trips to the US. We hope to see her in Colorado this summer. It has been a busy four years for Kelly. She and Daniel have also tied the knot but not before she represented South Africa in the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens in fencing. Kelly and Deon also survived a near fatal crash in the microlight aircraft while on a cheetah tracking mission.

The Cheetah Lodge has new managers and has become the place to stay around DeWildt. The adjacent chicken farm has been incorporated into the Cheetah Centre and we have been told the workers are now housed in the refurbished buildings complete with electricity.

Our friend Parks left teaching for an education position with the Pretoria Zoo where he can teach and inspire even more young Africans. His friend Amos is now in charge the education program at the Centre and is doing a wonderful job. Byron is still the reigning ambassador of DeWildt but he has several lesser ambassador cheetahs sharing his workload.

If you are traveling to South Africa, a visit to the DeWildt Cheetah Centre is a worthwhile addition to your trip. Check them out at www.cheetahs.org

Going Home

johnandconnie — Fri, 16 Jul 2004 03:18:00 GMT

We are somewhere over North Africa (or maybe the Alps?) in the next to the last row of a Lufthansa 747. The back row is our preference since it is usually vacant and you can lie down and spread out. I actually got several hours sleep thanks to Tylenol PM and white wine.

Yesterday – or our last day in Africa – was interesting. We went ‘behind the scenes’ with Alan on the 7:00am feeding. In our short absence from DeWildt they have moved many animals around. We got to see half a dozen new mothers and their cubs but I am done with photos. We did spend some time with a couple of hand reared adults and played with the ten week old cubs.

There was an unexpected tragedy – Madison, one of the ambassador trainees – suddenly died of unknown causes. It looked fine at 7:30am and was dead at 9:30am. Gabi was devastated. Ann thinks it ate some tainted horse flesh. Alan thinks it choked. Time will tell.

We lunched at Spur to say good-by to Tembah, our waiter friend. We obviously made an impression the night before when we hosted Parks and Eunice and and their kids there. Not many blacks dine out in white restaurants and none go with their white friends. The black staff at Spur think we are heroes but the whites gave us a bit of a cold shoulder at lunch. And Tembah (this was about him, remember?) carved an elephant from leadwood for us. It is not a work of art but it is a very special gift, the first thing he ever carved. We’ll miss all of our friends and and will cherish our African memories.

Fahad Game Farm

johnandconnie — Tue, 13 Jul 2004 03:11:00 GMT

We finished the student house on Friday and were feted last night at a braai where Ann gave us ‘A Day in Africa and Spots Before Your Eyes, co-authored by her and Howard Buffet with a forward by Dr. Jane Goodall. We also met Ron Magill from Miami Metro Zoo, a big supporter of the Cheetah Centre. It was a fun time and we are happy that our work has been appreciated.

On Saturday we left for Fahad Game Farm on the South Africa/Botswana border. Kelly drives as fast as she talks but we somehow were able to keep up. Fahad is owned by nine-year old Prince Fahad of Saudi Arabia and it gives new meaning to luxury. Kelly Wilson and Deon have been contacting local landowners and convincing them to become ‘cheetah friendly’ and protect cheetahs on their property. Fahad Game Farm is one of their successes. Kelly and her beau, Daniel, are with us tonight but will leave tomorrow and we’ll be on our own until Wednesday. There have been cheetah sightings here and our job is to find places to set remote cameras to get a more accurate census. It is tedious work but important and better then tiling.

We spent all day Sunday checking for cheetah scat with Kelly and a Fahad guide named Pete. Daniel elected to sleep in and take care of his cold. Both Connie and Kelly found cheetah poop, a sign that they are present and are marking their territory. This is important for Kelly to place traps so they can catch, collar, record data and release the cats. We’re also on the lookout for scent/scratch trees where she can set up remote cameras. But this area, unlike Atherstone, has few marula or Shepard’s trees, favorite species for cheetahs to mark.

Kelly and Daniel left after lunch and Connie and I checked trails on foot, without success. It is hard to distinguish between the various kinds of poop and baboon tracks cover almost every inch of the trails. We are beginning to get the lay of the land and map out where we’ve been and where spore has been found. After weeks of working on hands and knees I know why our primate ancestors were anxious to stand up and walk erect. But with the pain we’re having walking I am surprised bi-pedalism caught on. There’s no explaining evolution.

Monday was more of the same – with the same dismal results. On the way home, Pete got a puncture on the Land Rover in a remote part of the farm. As luck would have it , our spare was fine but we had no ‘spanner’. When the local African version of AAA arrived, no one quite knew how the jack functioned. It went up OK, but not down so when the tire was changed we pushed the truck off the jack. There’s a right way, a wrong way, and an African way!

Connie was certain we would see a cheetah if we went our early this morning. We did see eland, kudu, gemsbok – but no cheetah – or cheetah scat for that matter. So after breakfast we walked the entire area where cheetah had been seen. Again, no dice! Hedrick and Erika are very gracious hosts. After lunch they took us on the Limpopo River in their boat and showed us several new birds (white-throated bee-eaters) monitor lizards and baby darters. It was a side of Fahad we didn’t know existed and one we are very excited about. We will encourage our friends to include a visit here on their next trip to South Africa. Hedrick was an attorney in Johanesburg who gave it all up to manage Fahad. He and Erika have three beautiful blonde daughters who go to boarding school in Jo’burg and spend holidays with their folks.

As we used to say in Vietnam, “one day and a wake up!”

Life in the Compound

johnandconnie — Tue, 6 Jul 2004 12:31:00 GMT

I have only six more pieces of tile left – the ugly cuts around the kitchen and several rooms of trim. We hope to be finished on Thursday.

After work we stopped at the ‘compound’ to take pictures of Jackson’s baby and ended up taking shots of all the kids. What hams! They all seem happy but it is really depressing to see the way they live. There is no electricity or running water and they share communal toilets. Shirango, our friend, proudly showed us his propane stove and television which is powered by a car battery. Much more attention is lavished on the cheetahs. Someone has their priorities mixed up. I wonder if such a disparity exists at Gombe or one of Jane Goodall’s orphanages. I think not.

In all fairness though, these are the lucky Blacks in South Africa. They have jobs and housing. The kids go to school and they don't live in the slums. It is only ten years since democracy came to South Africa and everyone seems patient.

Brooke

johnandconnie — Tue, 29 Jun 2004 12:27:00 GMT

Nothing much exciting has happened since our return from Dwalbroom (which means‘last tree’, the southernmost baobab) with Kellie and Deon. We worked at more tiling, grouting and cleaning. I took Parks’ kids, Carumbo and Caroline (even when I saw it written I couldn’t get my tongue around her Shawana name) to the Elephant Sanctuary, a gift to Parks and Eunice as much as to the kids. I think they enjoyed themselves but they were overwhelmed by the size of the elephants, especially 18 year old Caroline.

Our friend Mike from Colorado called the Lodge and booked a room for his niece Brooke and her friend Mark. They called from Kruger on Saturday to say they would be arriving in Johanneburg late Sunday and they were looking forward to visiting us at the Centre and staying at the Cheetah Lodge. So Alan, bless his Scottish heart, picked them up at “Backpackers Ritz” and delivered them here. We gladly stopped work, took them to lunch then showed them around DeWildt, especially the small cats, the new baby cheetahs, and the ostrich chick.

After dinner at the lodge they looked at every one of our photos, an impressive feat. They had been on the same tour as the group we met in the Delta and they finished up in Kruger. Their tour mirrored much of our Namibia/Botswana jaunt. They’re both interesting, expressive and nice kids. Brooke was inspired by Jane Goodall and is looking forward to a career in conservation.

They got up early for the cheetah feeding with Alan, their only chance to see all the animals as there were no tours today. After lunch at Izantaba we drove them to the airport in a heavy rain. Mark said Africa was crying because they were leaving. But instead of heading directly to the States they will detour to Norway for a couple of days – because they can. See why we like them?

What's Wrong With Cheetahs?

johnandconnie — Fri, 25 Jun 2004 12:15:00 GMT

Despite the fact we haven’t been dealing with the care and feeding of cheetahs on a daily basis and our field work has been minimal, you can’t help but learn something when you are around so many dedicated researchers. DeWildt is the premier cheetah breeding center in the world. Like many such endeavors, DeWildt didn’t begin with that goal in mind, it just sort of happened. And along the way they increased the knowledge base about cheetahs significantly. The first king cheetah born in captivity was born at Wildt. Prior to that king cheetahs were thought to be either a separate species or a cheetah-leopard hybrid, but it is now known that the king cheetah is the result of a recessive gene carried by both parents.

And this brings us to the problem. Cheetahs nearly became extinct some 10 to 12 thousand years ago, about the time of the last Ice Age. In order to carry on the species, the relatively few individuals that survived were forced to mate with their own children. The result of such inbreeding for generation upon generation is a species with very little genetic variation, a condition that does not favor long-term species survival in the natural world. New advances in genetics have shown that any two cheetahs in the world are nearly identical twins. All it would take to eradicate cheetahs is a single disease for which they have no immunity.

Cheetahs have developed many specialized adaptations in their evolutionary history. They are light and agile, good for speed but not very good for protecting their cubs. They can run fast but only for short distances. They have a poor sense of smell and can see motion well but not detail. Their inbreeding has left the males nearly impotent, leaving them with low sperm counts and a high percentage of defective sperm. As habitat destruction, the greatest threat to wildlife, increases these traits may make it difficult for cheetahs to adapt to their new environment.

Field Work

johnandconnie — Thu, 24 Jun 2004 11:59:00 GMT

Yesterday, our first day of tiling, was a bit of a disaster. Not only do we hurt, we also pretty much suck at tiling. So we’ve left for Atherstone Game Reserve in Limpopo 250 kilometers from DeWiltd to work with Deon and Kelly. As soon as we arrived Deon took me up in the micro light, an exhilarating experience. In addition to three cheetahs fitted with radio collars, I saw white rhinos, antelope, giraffe, and a herd of elephants which must be buzzed from the runway before we could land.

Dinner with Kelly, who talks so fast I miss most of it and slow talking Deon, was fun. We discussed the carrying capacity of Atherstone which, like so much of Africa, is over-populated with elephants. They consume so much biomass that other species can't coexist. Attempts to relocate elephants have failed. Elephants go where they want and they soon cover hundreds of miles to return home. Likewise contraception measures have been unsuccessful. No one wants to contemplate the extreme measure of culling the herds but it looks like a necessary process.

Today was another great African day. Kelly and Deon took us out to introduce us to cheetah spore, conservationist speak for tracks, scratches and poop. It’s tough to distinguish between cheetah and brown hyena tracks and poop, and everything is covered with baboon prints.

Connie spent the afternoon in a hide near camp while Kelly and I went to Dwalbroom to get groceries for a braai with Conrad. Then, while I was flying with Deon, Connie had a face-to-face run in with a black rhino. She said she felt safer when she safely reached the truck even though it weighs half what the rhino weighed. She was quite shook up when she reached camp and it took several drinks to calm her down. And I got to do a gliding, power-off landing with Deon. The braai was good, too, around the fire outside, a fitting end to a spectacular day.

Carpe Diem

johnandconnie — Mon, 21 Jun 2004 11:45:00 GMT

It is the first day of winter and, surprise, it rained during the night. Will my jeans ever dry? There isn’t much to report on. We finished all the little painting chores on Saturday and Sunday and joined Noel, Helen and a dozen of their friends and family for a Father’s Day lunch at the lodge. I didn’t even know it was Father’s Day. Thanks, kids!

Today the tiles arrived – 110 boxes of tile, 65 bags of adhesive – thanks to the generosity of the Duemke Family Trust. DeWildt’s intentions far surpass their finances and without Emmett and Marsha we would be spinning our wheels. Even so, we got the large bedroom nearly finishes and will work tomorrow AM then head north for a couple of days to work with Deon and Kelly. We’re finally getting a chance to contribute to the real cause.

Just so you don’t get the idea that nothing goes on during the ‘no entry’ days, I want to explain. My credo, ‘Carpe Diem’ is not unique but has never been more sincere. Every day is special. There is always something new to make me smile – inside or out. (Connie makes every day extra special. But at the risk of making others sick, I don’t include that.) A new bird, the smell of morning, a gangly school girl, the purr of a cheetah, the colors of sunset, the smell of wood smoke, the night stars, a nightjar’s cry, sun on the flowers, a smile form one of the African girls – any or all of these and countless more, make everyday a special one. Look around – open your eyes and your heart!

Happy Birthdays

johnandconnie — Thu, 17 Jun 2004 07:22:00 GMT

Today is my birthday - another year older, and what a year it has been. Vanessa’s 40^th birthday party got a little out of control the other night but no harm was done – except to her head. There were tons of food (although no one admits to eating much), lots of booze and a giant bonfire.

We all were up early (Freedom Day) to spent time with the young cheetahs then after a late brunch we caravanned to Shingwedzi. Connie devised an algorithm to determine the travel time. T+5N+10V=3C. The usual travel time + 5 minutes extra for each additional person + 10 minutes for each additional vehicle + 3 minutes for each additional camera. We escorted 13 people in 3 cars with 18-20 cameras. You can do the math.

Gerard, Shingwedzi's mamager, arranged a short tour where we got to see the hippo out of the water. She quickly went in, submerged, swam our way and charged halfway up the bank. Who would have known they were so quick? Luckily no one was injured in the rush to get back on the safari vehicle.

The evening braai was a joint birthday celebration forAnn, Vanessa and me. It lasted until 10:00pm and after a look at the stars it was off to bed. We skipped the morning tour (been there, etc.) and met everyone for breakfast. The group was scheduled to drive to Madigwe, their next stop and Emmett wanted to hit the road early. But he failed to take Connie’s formula into consideration, so it was after 10:30am when we left.

It was nice to see everyone and Marsha and Louise were wonderful as always. I even got some presents. But we’re glad to be alone again, on our own schedule.

Visitors from Home

johnandconnie — Tue, 15 Jun 2004 07:05:00 GMT

It’s catch up time for the journal. We’ve been busy and it’s been hectic around here. Emmett, Marsha, our friends from Colorado, and their crew arrived on Saturday and to judge by the preparations you would think it was a visit from the King. Marsha has become a close friend of Vanessa’s and is a big supporter of the Cheetah Centre and they always try to bring a group on their visits to Africa. There was a big dinner at the Lodge on Saturday complete with much drinking. It was great to see Marsha and Emmett and Neal and Louise are always wonderful. The rest of the folks are unaccustomed to this kind of travel and look at us as if we are some kind of gypsies with a death wish.

The group took the Centre tour on Sunday AM and we all went to Jo’burg in the afternoon to see the show ‘African Footprints,’ a wonderful tour de force of African culture and history.

Monday was another full day. First we trooped off to Parks’ school for the kick-off of the DeWildt Education Outreach program with Byron as the center of attention. Some of the Americans were concerned about traveling to poor area of South Africa but they relaxed when the kids we have been working with covered Connie and me with hugs. Then after a lunch prepared by the school, it was off to the Elephant Sanctuary, a hands-on meeting with African elephants. Most have been abused or traumatized (seeing their parents slaughtered and having part of their trunks cut off by snares are the most common) but now they are comfortable and trusting with humans. We touched, hugged, and otherwise bonded with, as Craig calls them, ‘little people in wrinkled, baggy suits’. He and Ann are doing a great thing and it was worth the $50 entry fee.

Bye-bye Botswana

johnandconnie — Thu, 10 Jun 2004 06:33:00 GMT

This will be, baring major catastrophe, our last night in Botswana. We’re camped at a ‘highly recommended’ campground ‘behind the railroad station’ (which sounds like an earplug recipe) in the town of Palapye. No matter, it can’t be noisier than last night. Our tent backed up to the village and it’s attendant noises. We didn’t mind the late afternoon and early morning comings and goings of the school kids their excitement and energy was refreshing, nor the African music into the evening. Even the bleating of the goats and the tinkling of their bells was a natural sound. But the village had scores of dogs who barked throughout the night in counterpoint to the braying of the donkeys. Cars continued to arrive and depart until the wee hours both in the village and in camp. Then as if on command from a conductor offstage, a chorus of roosters chimed in as the moon rose, not to be heard again until 5:00am.

We drove 650 kilometers today at 120+kph into a strong wind. Much of the drive was on the edge of the Kalahari. This is a unique place where the flooded Okavanga Delta simply disappears into the desert.Driving into the wind forced us to once again buy gas, depleting our Botswanan Pula supply. South African Rand are sometimes accepted but the rate varies and just because a town shows up on the map doesn’t mean it has a petrol station – or unleaded. So we fill up when we can, spend the extra Pula we have left and head out to civilization such as South Africa affords – land of the Rand.

In the Delta

johnandconnie — Tue, 8 Jun 2004 06:12:00 GMT

We arose at 5:00am on Sunday to meet our pickup to Makwena Lodge in the Okavanga. Actually the Lodge is on an island at the edge of the Delta at the southern end of the panhandle as we found out when we saw the map. And on our flight we learned we had seen only a tiny, albeit very representative, portion of the Okavanga. Willi met us at Etsha 6, a sleepy run-down village. We loaded the gear and food we would need for a couple of days into his Land Rover Defender, locked the rest in our truck, and started on the 1½ hour trip to meet our makoro guide.

A word about our gear. As Connie explains, the gear we brought to Africa is a subset of our ‘stuff,’ our possessions. What we took on the road is a subset of the Africa stuff and what we carried to Makwena and the Delta is a subset of that. It takes a lot of planning or you face going cold, hungry, and/or stinky. But it’s only for a few nights!

The trip to the lodge could be made only by the classic African beast of burden, the 4X4 Land Rover Defender; ugly, noisy, dented, smelly, uncomfortable (especially riding in the back on the gear), cold, slow and virtually unstoppable. It took forty-five minutes to drive through hub deep sand to where we transferred the gear and our own selves to an outboard safari barge for the 15 minute ride to Makwena where we met Emma, Willi’s wife. After a pee break we got back in the boat for another half-hour cruise through the papyrus-lined channels to the makoro landing. The ride was African Queen meets Indiana Jones with a little Walt Disney Jungle River Cruise thrown in. Tom, our driver, pointed out birds, hippos, pied kingfisher nests, flooded farmer’s villages as he negotiated hairpin turns on a stream barely wider than his 20 foot barge. How he learned the route is beyond me.

We once again transferred our gear, this time to Alco’s makoro, a fiberglass version of the hand-hewn wooden canoe. The government subsidizes the new models which are molded with imperfections so they look like wood from a distance. This will help preserve the ebony and sausage trees. Besides, they don’t leak and are lighter and easier to pole along.

Alco poled us from the stern through the shallow Delta, often eschewing the channels for the quieter grass flats. From our vantage sitting on the floor (thank goodness for Crazy Creek chairs) it was sometimes hard to tell that there was water except for the thousands of water lilies and acres of white water lettuce. Alco’s English, which he learned from his brother (a guide at Chobe) who went to school, is good and so was his knowledge of Delta flora and fauna, especially the birds. Over the next two days we saw red lechwe, bushbuck, elephant, spotted-neck otter and water mongoose plus the ubiquitous baboons and vervet monkeys. Our favorite birds were the malachite kingfisher, little bee-eater, African jacana, saddle-billed stork, and spur-winged goose.

At our request Alco took us to Jao, his village of 300 poeple. The men are fisherman or mokoro guidesand they sell their catch to Etsha 6. The women do their domestic stuff, weave beautiful baskets and tend the sheep. Christina, Alco’s girlfriend and mother to his son Tutu, is the village baker. She bakes in a cast iron pot and we bought some rolls from her. Alco said he doesn’t have enough money to marry her. He has been a head mokoro guy for 10 years and would love to leave the water and become a truck driver. Tutu will start school next year but must live with his grandparents in Etsha because it is much to far to commute. Alco thinks his son will abandon the village and is glad because, “he deserves a life”.

We set up camp on a small island– our tent and his blankets and mosquito net, our gas stove and his wood fire, our pasta and his smoked fish and mealy meal. But we shared a love of the Delta, the birds, the stars and the solitude – plus some hot chocolate before bed. The only sour note – and a loud one at that – was a tour group of seventeen 20-somethings in six mokoros about a kilometer away, partying on their own island. Sound really travels over water.

As planned we got up at 6:30 am and after a quick cup of tea, headed off to hike on a larger island. The sunrise over the Okavanga was spectacular and as we slithered through the grassy flats in our mokoro, startled red luchee (similar to red hartebeest) pranced and splashed noisily ahead of us. On the island we saw ebony and sausage trees, the palms the women use for baskets, wild sage, wild camphor, sycamore figs, baboons, numerous birds, and elephant and lion tracks. The elephants had recently gone through the area and it looked like it had been bombed. They just push a tree over if they can’t reach the tender leaves. The days in the Delta are filled with the w-a-a-op the Gray Lourie and the clack-clack-scree-e of the Swamp Boubou – a sound like a rusty gate closing. At night it’s the tap-tap-bang of the Blacksmith Plover, evoking visions of the village smithy at his anvil. And behind it all is the incessant cooing of the doves and the grunts of the hippos.

After breakfast we took down the tent and poled back to our pickup point. We arrived a little early so Connie and I continued to read our Shakespeare until the noisy group of 17 arrived from their island. We are much too old and non-gregarious for that kind of a trip but they saw a much of the same southern Africa in 21 days for only $1100. The dynamics of the group would be interesting to chart – like Survivor except that these outcasts continue to remain with the group.

We coaxed our way onto the cargo boat with “Bones” so we wouldn’t have to listen to the kids. On the way back we stopped to watch the hippos and finally saw more than ears and noses. There were 10 or 12 of them and I think one pair was mating. Then we fed two African Fish Eagles. As we reached shore Connie hopped off into the water to ask Willi if he could put us on the other side of the camp from the group. Everyone gasped as she plunged up to her waist. The Delta is full of giant crocodiles! Who knew?

Welcome to Botswana

johnandconnie — Sat, 5 Jun 2004 05:59:00 GMT

It took all day Friday to travel from Etosha to Botswana along the Angolan border. At first it didn’t look like there was a road into Botswana but we saw a border crossing on the map so we took a chance. On the way out of Etosha, after having given up hope, we caught a glimpse of a leopard slinking across the road – completing our “Big Five”. We barely made it to the border in time and encountered the usual confusion with too many people doing a single job, bureaucracy in action. But it was quitting time on Friday (Botswana is on South African time, one hour ahead of Namibia) so they nonchalantly passed us through while they boogied in preparation for Friday night partying.

We spent the night at Drotsky’s Cabins, 20 kilometers inside Botswana on the panhandle of the Okavanga Delta. It is a gorgeous fishing lodge with a nice campsite. After dinner we spent a pleasant hour talking to Erin, an idealistic young lady from Oregon who manages the lodge and/or works for some NGO helping to record and document San culture. The night was generally quiet except for the hippo grunts that sometimes seemed much too near.

Today was an interesting day to say the least. Robert and Patricia, fellow campers from the Netherlands, wanted us to join them on a flight with Nick, Erin’s boyfriend, over the Delta so we went along. Neither Connie nor I are fans of small planes but it was great to see the Delta from the air before we do it by dugout canoe. (Yes, we’ve booked an overnight mokoro trip for Sunday/Monday.) From the air we were able to see herds of buffalo, tsessebe (a new one for us), antelope, elephants, hippos, and even a lion.

After a brief stomach settling period we drove to Tsodilo Hills, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We hiked the Rhino trial with a local guide and saw a number of San paintings by some by some very accomplished artists. The guide, also a San, spotted tracks of a ‘big snake’ most likely a black mamba. He shuttered, picked up the pace and kept muttering, ‘big snake’ as we hurried along.

Arriving back at our spacious campsite, now devoid of neighbors, we found that monkeys had raided out supplies and devoured two onions and eight potatoes. As I write this, I am sitting on the deck sipping Famous Grouse Scotch and loving every minute of this journey. Life is truly good!

Thoughts on Namibia

johnandconnie — Fri, 4 Jun 2004 06:04:00 GMT

Namibia is about the size of Texas but averages fewer than two people per square kilometer. While we’ve seen only part of the country, we are impressed with the landscape and the fortitude of the inhabitants. Most of the people live in rural areas, not cities. There are 6 or 8 major ethnic/linguistic groups but the official language is English. Roads, although many are unpaved, are excellent but you can drive for an hour without seeing another vehicle – except for donkey carts.

The deserts dominate; Kalahari in the east, Namib west to the coast. But the northeast towards Botswana is quite lush. The people are handsome and must be resilient. Many of the tribal leaders feel that education will ruin the children, forcing them to forget and abandon the traditional culture. But without education there is little hope of success in the 21^st century.

Despite the dryness, there are notable national parks including, Kgalagadi, Etosha, and the remote and desolate Skeleton Coast. Roads are often riverbeds. The rivers here are less than seasonal, they are ephemeral. One in Kgalagadi flows every 11 years on average, another has water only twice a century. The animals are plentiful and easy to see during the dry season. And unlike Kruger in South Africa, the Namibian parks we visited were uncrowded making for a wonderful time.

At The Waterhole

johnandconnie — Thu, 3 Jun 2004 07:13:00 GMT

We slept late today after our long day yesterday and explored the western most part of Etosha open to the public. At the Oliphants waterhole we watched a lone male elephant approach for a drink. Soon he was joined by another young male and shortly later by a third. Then came the herd – five females and their families – 15 in all. There were young elephants of all ages including a couple of really young and one uncoordinated baby who kept us in stitches. It’s trunk wasn’t long enough to reach the water from the bank, and it made all sorts of contortions trying to get to the water.

Meanwhile the three males took turns sparring like sumo wrestlers, disrupting the others and kicking up clouds of dust. The baby and other young ones wandered around underfoot alternating between drinks of water and a spell at mom’s teats(female elephants have breasts, not udders.) As the young males sparred and tested each other they became excited, showing truly heroic male organs. Now I know where the expression to step on your dick comes from.

Tomorrow we leave for Botswana but may have to camp again in Namibia. Due to our shortsightedness we’re out of Rand, have few Namibian dollars, and don’t know about ATMs in Botswana so a stop in Windhoek may be necessary. As I write this at our Moringa waterhole, 12 elephants are drinking not 50 feet away. Quite a sight and sound.

Close Encounters of the Lion Kind

johnandconnie — Wed, 2 Jun 2004 07:07:00 GMT

Overnight what I thought was a jackal in the trash turned out to be a honey badger whose reputation for raiding thrash cans has earned him mention in the official Etosha guide book. Our long day began at the waterhole at 3:30am. It seemed like a good idea, our big chance to see a leopard but the score after three hours was one spotted hyena, one black-backed jackal, and one African wildcat, our first.

We hit the road when the gates opened at 6:30am, still hoping to see a leopard and cheetah. What we got were literally thousands of zebra and five lions. The first group of three males was already along side the road and I got some National Geographic quality shots. The second was a pair of females or a mother and youngster or possibly two juveniles. They were concealed in the tall grass near a marginal waterhole and made a half-hearted attack at a small group of zebras. Either their hearts weren’t in it or their inexperience ruined the attempt as one rushed from cover too early, frightening off the zebra.

We checked on the pair several times during the day as they lazed in the sun, but no other animals came to the water, surprising since the plains nearby were filled with springbok and zebra and nearby water holes were crowded. They will probably wait until dark and hunt in earnest. We will stop by tomorrow and check on them again.

Back at the lions’ waterhole Connie, in total disregard for park rules, (and with encouragement from me) got out of the truck to see how the lions would react. They were 40 yards away, far enough to insure courage in my mate, but as she stepped away from the truck, the nearest lion stood and gave a short roar which could only mean, ‘get back in the vehicle!’ to which Connie quickly complied. That’s when we decided they had the home field advantage and weren’t seriously hungry.

Etosha National Park

johnandconnie — Tue, 1 Jun 2004 06:53:00 GMT

I can’t believe it is June already! Where has the time gone? We spent our first day in Etosha in the eastern part of the park. The west is open only for tour operators and our camp is in the middle of the public part. Unlike Kruger in April where the animals were apt to be anywhere because of the abundant water, in Etosha in June one heads for the waterholes and waits. Etosha means 'great white place of dry water' and our camp is just south of thedry Etosha Pan.

Our first stop was a place reputed to have both leopards and eland. We found zebras. The next stop did have eland, the largest of the antelope. We later saw the dog-size dik-dik, the smallest antelope. At the one waterhole we saw kudu, springbok, back-faced impala, zebra, giraffe, wildebeest, warthogs, and gemsbok.

Later in the day we saw cape vultures, and lappet-faced vultures, flamingos, Egyptian geese, red-knobbed coots, a herd of 13 giraffes, a pair of elephants, and numerous zebra but no cheetahs or leopards. So before dinner we went to our lighted waterhole to see who showed up. At first it’s like watching an empty stage. Then an actor or two enters, struts around and suddenly disappears. This happens throughout the show. Tonight we watched a kudu cow cautiously take ten minutes to cover 20 yards to the water. When three spotted hyenas entered stage left and kudu vanished. Altogether, eight hyenas showed up and just as quickly disappeared. We were about to abandon our vigil when an elephant appeared from the darkness, sauntered to the water, noisily drank his fill and departed stage left. Such is night in Etosha.

Skeleton Coast

johnandconnie — Mon, 31 May 2004 06:34:00 GMT

Today was another long day of driving, inevitable in Namibia. Sometime during the night the wind switched from the east – the desert side – and dried things out so putting away the tent was OK. But as we drove up the Skeleton Coast it was like a sandstorm – maybe 50 mph. It was so bad that Connie had to keep her eyes closed as I led her to the Cape Seal colony at Cape Cross. She probably could have found it on her own by the smell. Despite the sand blasting, we got some good pictures of thousands of Cape Fur Seals.

It was another 100+ kilometers across the Namib Desert in the sandstorm and then 400 more to reach Etosha National Park. Already we have seen hundreds of zebra, springbok (the impala of Etosha), giraffe, wildebeest, ostrich, etc., plus two male lions. Tonight after dinner we walked to the lighted waterhole here at Halali Camp and saw six rhinos (five black including a young ‘un) jackal, spotted hyena. The stupid people couldn’t be quiet or refrain from smoking and ruined it for me. Tomorrow is another night.

Walvis Bay

johnandconnie — Sun, 30 May 2004 06:27:00 GMT

Back home this is the Memorial Day week-end where in a former life we would be ---- camping! Here in Namibia where our campsite is nestled between the Atlantic Ocean and the Namib Desert, it’s a little different. The last time we camped within earshot of the ocean waves it was at Padre in Texas on the Gulf. But here the sun sets over the ocean and the beach extends hundreds of miles deep into the desert.

This morning after breakfast we drove to Walvis Bay to see the flamingos. Supposedly two million of them visit here but today there couldn’t have been more than 400,000. We didn’t feel deprive though. They are a brilliant pink in color standing on their stilt legs, sometimes on a single stilt. And when they fly it is fabulous.

On the way back we detoured back into the desert – the only choice if you don’t have a boat – and climbed ‘Dune Seven.” It rises 300 feet and after a windy night there are no footprints, only virgin sand. It is just like a snow climb but instead of crampons you dig in with your bare toes. It was strenuous work but we had a great view and a running slalom descent.

We headed back to town to see the Swakopmund Museum where we learned about the history and culture of the Namibian peoples, several distinct ethnic groups, in fact, and a great deal about uranium mining in Namibia. After lunch it was the Namibian Aquarium followed by a beer (or two) and wine for Connie, chips and onion rings on the ocean front. Total cost - $10 including tip.