The Smoke That Thunders

Hello friends and neighbors. We are on the last leg of our 5 week travels in Africa. Our organized tour ended in Cape Town, where we stayed with friends and friends of friends. Cape Town reminds us so much of San Francisco, because of the Mediterranean climate, landscape, and trendy life style. Of all South Africa, Cape Town is the most modern, first worldly, cosmopolitan in style.

After about a week of Cape Town, we still had over one week left before our necessary return to the northern hemisphere winter, so we decided to take a trip up to see Victoria Falls, considered one of the seven natural wonders of the world. in order to do this, we flew from Cape Town to Johannesburg (Jo-burg, Janisburg), then to Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe, on the Zambezi River, the fourth longest river of Africa. We stayed in a stylized African village called the Kingdom, visited the falls (got soaking wet because of the spray), sympathized with the poverty stricken inhabitants of Robert Mugabe’s corrupt form of governance. Young men in the streets would sell their souvenirs (mostly carved wooden animals, some larger than a shoe box), for our hat, our shoes, our shirt. They were so hungry, it was a pity. Nobody we spoke to likes Mugabe, they think he’s crazy and are hoping for his death or a change of government.

Then we took a 1 hour bus ride across the border into Botswana, which compared to Zimbabwe, is like Switzerland. There seemed to be little poverty, the people spoke positively of their government, they were very friendly and happy. There were no beggars nor salesmen in the streets. We walked the back roads of small towns in a carefree manner, speaking to the locals, all of whom seemed intelligent and friendly. Many people had cell phones, homes had satellite dishes and solar paneled heating on their roofs (although living in simple concrete block homes with outside toilets). We stayed beside the Chobe River, which flows into the Zambezi. The landscape was serenely beautiful, it is the rainy season, so it rained about 2 hours each day. The foliage was tropical, monkeys frolicked just outside our hotel room, and would have entered our room if we left the doors open with food inside. Also wandering freely were the ugliest warthogs, seemingly prehistoric, grazing in the grass in the middle of towns. People were not scared of them, just walked around them. A sign in our hotel room said beware of elephants, crocodiles, or hippos, which can wander from the river onto the hotel grounds. One night earlier, a large croc had entered the area just beside the restaurant and threatened a hotel guest until being captured by guards.

Now we are back in Johannesburg, must leave the beauty and summery warmth of this beautiful country. We are flying tomorrow back to London, then to Switzerland where it’s still wintery, but hopefully spring will soon follow.

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