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Published: December 22nd 2007
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Well, it was time to leave the beautiful coast of Capetown and embark on a 42 day overland trip from Capetown to Nairobi, Kenya. The trip would take us through eight countries and an amazing ride through endless scenery and cultures. We left Capetown on Sunday, October 14th with a driver, Big Boy, a cook, Malinga, our guide, Kat and eighteen passengers. We had a really great group that consisted of: Auzzies, Phil and Klara (originally from Switzerland) and Carrie and Marcus (originally from Brazil), the British, Claire, Sophie, Alex and Sarah, Roberto the Italian, Jadri the Croatian, Kathy the Irish, Judith and Gert the dutch, and the five americans, Nancy, Wynn, David and Rich and I. After the first week two Belgian ladies, Annika and Sofie joined us, and sadly Claire had to depart. As you can see, we lived in a big, bad, green machine for the next six weeks that each day brought us deeper into southern Africa.
However, to ease into our camping life our first stop was wine country in Citrusdal, South Africa. We tasted wine from the Birdsong winery and slept on plush grass for the first night. The lesson there is not to get
to attached to comfortable grass to sleep on! Most campsites are sand, sand, and more sand! We then traveled to Orange River which is the natural border between South Africa and Namibia on our way to Fish River Canyon in Namibia.
Fish River Canyon was pretty impressive! It is the second largest canyon world, second I think to the Grand Canyon in Arizona, USA. It actually had a lot of tiers that had been carved out rather than a straight valley to the river below. After Fish River Canyon, we headed to the Sesseriem area just outside the Namib Naukluft National Park which hold the Sossuvlei sand dunes that are part of the Namib desert. There are hundreds of huge red sand dunes in this area of which the tallest is about 200 meters high. The dunes prevent occasional pools of water that accumulate in the area from reaching the Atlantic Ocean which is only about 80 km away. We were able to have a guide walk with us through some of the area to hear about the secrets this desert holds. The guide talked about spiders that burrow in the sand and can sense when beetles are on top
of their nests and then they reach out and grab them! He also explained that there is a desert bush that when it senses one drop of rain it opens its leaves and can then spread its seeds with the use of the water right then, but it lays dormant for years before that. We finished our trip out to the dunes by watching the sunset from the top of Dune 45.
The next stop was Swakomund, Namibia, the adrenaline capital of Namibia. Rich and I and some of our friends decided to try sandboarding. This really means that you launch yourself off the top of a steep dune on a thin piece of formica going down head first or with a partner. It is possible to reach speeds of 80 km/hour! Rich also tried it using a snowboard standing up as well. It really was fun, but you do get sand in places you did not know you had! Next, we headed to Spitzkoppe rock formation. It was pretty impressive at 1728m high and we saw a beautiful sunset as the desert cooled down for the night.
Our next stop was kind of a unique place. We spent the
night at a Cheetah Park. This park started when the family who runs it started rescuing cheetahs who were in danger of being killed by farmers when they were eating their livestock. About 20 cheetahs live in the large enclosed area that are for the most part wild, except for getting fed, and three cheetahs live in the grounds of the house because for one reason or another could not be put back into the wild. There are also four cubs with their mother in a separate enclosure that will stay there until they are big enough to defend themselves against the other adult cheetahs. We were able to pet the ones in the house and watch the wild ones being fed. Their agility is really amazing, and they are so beautiful up close! After the cheetah park, we headed to a truely wild game park. Etosha is about 25,000 sq km, but a large majority of it is covered by a salt pan where there is nothing but cracked, white earth! The wildlife in the vegetative area was amazing! Our highlights were two male lions eating from the carcass of a baby rhino they had killed at a watering
hole. It was really fabulous to see nature at its finest if not a little gross as their heads were covered in blood! And watching giraffes trying to drink is one of the most awkward things you have ever seen, it does not look like it is even possible! We also got to view a rhino, giraffes and a hyena go to a watering hole at night as the campsite had a floodlit area that we could watch from.
After crossing into Botswana, we spent two nights camping in the Okavango Delta. This delta is the world's largest inland delta, it never empties into the ocean just over the Kalahari Desert. Over the two days we did three nature walks to view the animals while walking as close as you get to eye level! We spotted elephants, warthogs, zebras, giraffes, and even very rare wild dogs! The highlight for me that was quite daunting was going on a sunset canoe ride and going to a lagoon where a somewhat resident hippo lives. Our guide took us out farther into the lagoon than the rest and as we were talking the hippo popped up on the other side of the lagoon!
In the next breath it was in front of us about 50 yards away! Our guide then proceeded to tell us how when he was up river one time he was crossing a lagoon area and his pole that he uses to push himself along must of grazed a hippo cause the next thing he knew it had broken the canoe in half and he had to swim amongst the reeds to escape! Believe me it is scary being that close to a hippo!
Our final segment of the first three weeks was along the Chobe River at the Chobe game park. The river forms a boundary between Botswana, Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe at times! We did an early morning game drive and saw two baby elephants that the vultures were going crazy over! We also got to see alot of the wildlife milling around the river and its tributaries. Now I know you are all wondering how did Rich spend his birthday???? There was a beautiful sunset boat cruise along the Chobe river that night. This time we really got to see hippos up close (luckily in a much larger boat) and crocs along the banks of the river.
There was even a white cake with chocolate icing for dessert! The first three weeks were amazing so stay tuned for the next fabulous three weeks!
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rains in Africa
Bull elephants are the largest creatures that walk the earth so NO, you are not safe! And petting lions with only little sticks as protection?? LET's GET BACK TO AMERICA PRONTO!!