This trip spoiled all future trips - we were traveling in style in our own rented plane with JJ piloting, greeted at the beautiful lodges by the entire smiling staff, a refreshing wet towel, and two glasses of fresh juice. While sipping the juice, our bags would magically appear in our room. Service was great - something sorely missed in West Africa. Great food, fun activities, and good company.
SEE PHOTOS HERE (JJ took all the ones on safari that he's not in; I was only ever in charge of pictures when we were in the air).
Don't bother reading all this--just go look at the photos!We began our 3 week journey in Johannesburg with a Cessna 182 we called Bushbaby (named not after our president, but a small,
grelim-like tree dweller in the monkey family that bounces as if it were on a spring). Our radio call name was India Oscar Sierra (IOS) and she had room for 4 people, but JJ, me and our luggage filled her up.
Beau-t-ful Bots-wa-naWe hit two spots in Botswana -
Nitani Lodge in Tuli Block and
Nxabega in the Okavanga Delta. Nitani was a gorgeous lodge, with our own private plunge pool outside our room, which was unfortunately too cold to make use of. The owner gave us an ecological talk and we held a volcanic rock that was +200 million years old. We saw more game at the second location, including running into two different leopards during night drives (and mildly harassing them as our landrover mowed down the bush so that we could continue to follow them). We got about 10 feet from them, but they didn't even seem to notice. We had a sunset boat ride in the delta and saw some distant hippos, which a documentary made me deathly afraid of. Elephants, baboons, giraffe, and a number of other animals. We also took a mokoro (dugout canoe) ride in the flood plains (no hippos there or I wouldn't have gone!).
We overflew some massive salt pans in Botswana, caught sight of a hippo and a herd of elephants, and I started my lessons in flying! Over the 40+ hours in the air, I flew maybe about 3 hours total and JJ even made me do an approach to landing (which I was trying to get out of, but he just ignored my suggestion that he take over). Fortuantely, I didn't get sick (with the help of accupressure wrist bands and anti-motion sickness meds).
ZimFrom Botswana, we went to Zimbabwe, which I had originally been a little hestiant to do given
President Mugabe's craziness. We stayed with some people JJ met skiing in Europe about 5 years ago and knew for only a week! (I've always said JJ's super good at meeting people and making friends!) We received great hospitality and learned a lot about the political and social situation on the ground. Our hosts, Hugh and Gail, had a jam-packed schedule for us: boating across the lake they live on to hike in the hills to see 200-300 year old San bushmen paintings on the rocks; a visit to the crocodile farm; a braai (South African style BBQ) with their friends (Zim Tri-Family Fun). We heard stories of how white farmers were pushed off their land by invaders paid off by the government and how those farms are not laying fallow and unproductive. Our hosts' son-in-law lost his family's farm. I can't imagine staying in the country after being targeted like that and having no compensation or chance of fighting the thing in a free and fair court. They would talk about the difficulties faced but then someone would inevitably chime in with, "Let's not talk about such dismal things!" and change the subject. Playing "those are my cows" took on a whole new meaning in Zimbabwe, where government officals really could take your property as easily as declaring it his. I drank my tea without sugar after hearing about the sugar shortage the night before!
Getting fuel was going to be potentially problematic in Zim, but luck was on our side. The BP price for fuel at the airport was $16/liter, whereas we ended up getting it for $1.83 from the manager of a small company with an office there. We were supposed to have filed the flight plane 24 hours in advance, but were only delayed about an hour as we sought special permission (having American accents and claiming ignorance helped and I was surprised we didn't even have to bribe anyone!).
We stayed at another CC Africa lodge called
Matetsi near Victoria Falls on the Zim side. The lodges throughout the trip would have drives or boat rides organized and often the rest of the time was filled with eating fabulous food! Wake-up calls varied from 5:30-7:00am for the first activity. Afternoon drives would start after 3:30 tea time and go about an hour past sunset. As the sun was setting, the driver would find a nice spot, pull over and set up a bar in the middle of the bush for a 'sundowner' drink! I particularly like Amarula, a South African drink similar to Bailey's. Two of my favorite animals at Matetsi were the
springhare (a cross between a rabbit and kangaroo) and the
sable (beautiful antelope that would be a bit unicorn-like if it were to lose one of it's horns).
Flying over Victoria Falls was a highlight and a great chance for some calendar worthy photos.
NamibiaOur next location was
Chobe Savanna Lodge (I thought we were going back to Botswana, but ended up boating across the Chobe River to Namibia). This lodge only offered boat rides and after a few, I got a little bored of all the birds! But JJ kept trying to catch some swallows (and other birds) in flight and got some great photos -I never would have had the patience and persistence! Then we had an amazing boat ride - saw elephants mating, JJ spotted a leopard strolling along the bank, some Danish friends from the preceding lodge happened to be on a boat that came our way, and then some lions playing in the distance (surrounded by about 8 safari vehicles!). We also saw a crocodile
nearly eat a guinea fowl (so disappointed we didn't see feathers a'flyin'!). We were given a tour of a local village, which is usually totally gimmicky and awkward (children in West Africa always demanding, "Gimme this, gimme that"), but this was not at all like that. The local villagers sang and danced for us and I had a try at shaking it in a reed skirt with them.
Mokuti Lodge near Etosha Park in Namibia was a bit more commercial and hotel like than our other lodgings (106 rooms instead of 10!). It kind of had a zoo feel to it - when we went in the morning to see a leopard up a tree eating a sprinkbok, we had to wait for the 6 cars in front of us to move out of the way so we could get a view. It was also so incredibly cold that it was a bit like torture. I was hiding under a blanket for part of the time, peeking out to see what was spotted. Near a watering hole, we saw a progression of animals coming to drink in turn - first the zebra, then wilderbeest, impala, guinea fowl, and finally the giraffe. JJ spotted a white rhino and her baby - the last we needed of the Big 5 (previously the big game for hunters: lion, leopard, elephant, buffalo and rhino).
Our first morning there we woke up, got dressed and went to have breakfast, only to find that there had been a time change we weren't aware of and that we had another hour til the buffet opened!
In Swakupmund, we visited some friends teaching there (a friend in Ghana's brother and his wife that we'd met in Accra last fall). Swakup is a cute, little town with German type houses that all seem to have been freshly painted in bright colors. JJ and I took a boat cruise in Walvis Bay (Pacific Ocean). The driver held fish up for seagulls and pelicans to swoop by and grab. I love the way that pelicans land on the water - by water skiing to a stop! A seal snuck on board behind JJ for the free fish (about 10 other seals were somewhat trained and would do the same). Once, after we'd run out of fish, we had to speed away from Fluffy, a seal that wouldn't get off the boat without being fed. We saw heavy sided dolphins (who get sexually excited by the vibration from the boats). We also passed by the location where Angelina and Brad had their baby.
That afternoon JJ took Jeremy and Lindsay flying along Skeleton Coast, where many ships have wrecked over the years and can still be seen along the desolate coast. Unfortunately, we encountered clouds and had to turn back, flying south of Swakup along the dunes. The next day we went sand sledding and JJ sandboarded (same board as for snow boarding, but the sand actually slows you down a lot more than the snow). The bad part about this was the trek back up the dunes! They say you can go as fast as 50mph on the sleds.
Our flight from Swakupmund to Sossusvlei afforded us sights of shipwrecks and dunes, dunes, and more dunes.
Our lodge there was also CC Africa and the inside of our room was my favorite, with a split level living room / bedroom. You could even see the watering hole from the toliet! And they left art supplies in the room. Even though I'm not artistic, I did a few drawings (of our view, of a faceless JJ playing guitar, and of Bushbaby flying over Vic Falls, an elephant and giraffe. I hope Mom puts them up on the fridge).
We woke up early our first day there to go to Sossusvlei, where the dunes are red. If you've ever seen those
pictures of dead trees against red sand rising up behind them (it looks like it may have been other-worldly), that's this place! It was really windy and our hike up the edge of the dune was slow-going. Once we made it to the top, we were told to run down, zig zagging so as not to get stuck. It was actually really fun to do, with our legs in sand up to our calves. In the afternoon, we got to go four wheeling in the dunes!
There was an observatory at the lodge, staffed by a German couple who weren't interested in constellations and were a little hard to follow (was probably also due to all the wine I'd had!). But in most locations we had great views of the sky, far from cities and light pollution. We had already learned to point out Venus, Mars and Jupiter, Orion, Centarius, the Big Dipper (upside in the southern hemisphere), the Southern Cross, the False Cross, Gemini and Scoripon.
Each lodge had different methods of seating us for meals, sometimes grouping us by safari vehicle, sometimes by rooms, and sometimes by ourselves. At Sossusvlei, we shared our meals with a great South African couple.
South AfricaOur last location was
Ngala, near Kruger Park in South Africa. For JJ's birthday, the lodge arranged a special champagne toast in the bush with a chocolate cake with fresh strawberries on top and sparklers as candles. They'd set up lanterns in the trees and had a bonfire going. We also managed to see all Big 5 that day. Our driver has been working as a guide for 17 years and he'd only ever done that 3 times before. The next day, our last day on safari, we did it again! Back to back Big 5! We also saw cheetahs for the first time at Ngala and lions up close. Some had just finished chowing down on a zebra and were relaxing with full bellies. Over the whole trip, we saw a total of 15 different DLCs (deer-like creatures).
This trip was beyond anything I could have ever imagined to dream about. I keep thinking this can't possibly be my life! I'm so happy I had the chance to share this experience with JJ!
Who's on board for the next one?
TIP: Bring binoculars and maybe even a bird book!
