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Published: December 18th 2005
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Africa was WONDERFUL! We enjoyed the spectacular scenery in Cape Town; took a 17 day camping tour through Zimbabwe, Botswana, and Namibia; safaried by truck, boat, canoe and on foot; and saw tons of wild animals including: giraffe with babies, elephant drinking with their trunks, zebra, buffalo, wildebeest, black rhino, white rhino, hippo, jackal, hyena, mongoose, scorpions, cheetah and a dozen different types of gazelle. We saw amazing sights, made great friends on the tour and have promised ourselves that we will have to go back.
To open the photo album, double click on the first photo. Cape Town We spent the first week in Cape Town with the family of the brother of friends of Robin's parents...phew. It was so fab to be in a REAL house after being in only hostels for a month straight in Peru. The Lawrence family was SO generous and hospitable to us.
Cape Town is fantastically beautiful. It really reminded us of SF. But sights aside, it was really amazing to stay with a family and hear all of their stories from apartheid and how it's affected them and how things have changed. The incredible South African came alive for us through
Alex and Rosline Lawrence
Our lovely and more lovely hosts in Cape Town. their personal experiences.
Here is an example of one of the many stories:
Alex Lawrence (our host) is the chief of traffic police for Cape Town and all the surrounding suburbs. He took us to his office where everyone was super respectful of the big boss (it's interesting to see, in the US we don't see anyone treated so well, we're all like "Hey Jerry" when we see our CEO!). As he took us around, he showed us the men's changing room that was huge room with lockers and a pool table in it. Then he showed us another much smaller changing room. It was the one for for "coloreds" in the apartheid days. About 15 years ago, when he was a traffic officer there, he had sneaked a peek into the large room to see what was in there. A white officer saw him looking in and said "Boy, this room isn't meant for you." Now, post apartheid, Alex is the big boss of the whole darn place...and manages many of the same people. The Lawrence family treated us with much love and hospitality and we really hope that they can come to visit us so we can
Victoria Falls
We're on the Zimbabwe side. repay the kindness.
The Tour After much toiling, we finally found a tour to go on. It turns out that tours in Africa are WICKED expensive. We thought it would be cheaper to arrange it from there, but it was the same prices we had seen online from home. It was quite disheartening; we even thought maybe we couldn’t go at all. We had a certain dream of what our safari tour would be like, and we were willing to splurge a little but it was SO expensive (we're talking $6000/person for 5 nights!!!) that there was NO way we could do it. The craziest thing of all is that there is jumps so quickly from really budget safary tours up to 5 star ultra luxury lodges! It seems there isn't ANYTHING in between! So needless to say, we had no choice but to go ½ star camping style.
Before you read on, let me preface by saying that we LOVED the tour experience and we don't regret it for a second, but I have to tell you all this anyway.
I feel like a bit of a tough chick now, 14 days in a tent can do that
to you! Ok, guys, imagine ME camping for 2 weeks! Some nights were total bush camps, like, take the shovel with you for a pee, bush camps...(come to think of it, we peed in the bushes A LOT, every time the truck stopped on the side of the road).
Our transportation for the 17 days was an overland truck, the sides are clear tarp and roll up which might sound very nice, but it also means that there’s a wicked wind and all the dust that goes with driving 40-50 mph on a gravel road for like 6 hours!
It's called a participation safari because you do work along the way. You put up and take down your own tent (which weighed about 50-60 lbs, it's NOT a little North Face model with nylon poles!). We all had to rotate duties between cook's help (cutting veggies etc), wash up (washing all the cooking pots and prep stuff) and security (staying with the truck in pairs when we'd get into a town for a short stop). We always had to wash our own dishes. We ate fabulously good food cooked by our Kenyan cook, Hesban.
Overall the tour was 17
days from Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe through Botswana and Namibia. We spent most of our time in Namibia. Most mornings we woke up around 4:30am and had breakfast at 5:30 and on the road by 6. This is why tours can be so good, you'd NEVER stick to a schedule like that for a week at a time on your own!
There were a total of 20 of us, and as with most of the travels so far, we were the only Americans. There were some really great folks on our truck who we hope to stay in touch with for a long time to come.
Top sights: ~ Of course the animals (they really are everywhere in some of the reserves). It's amazing that such a place exists on earth!
~ Super starry skies in the desert in Namibia. We even slept outside! (I'm proud to say that only 4 out of the 20 on tour slept outside!)
~ We saw a lot of countryside and it never ceased to blow our mind when we'd arrive in a small town after driving for 6-8 hours and seeing nothing and more nothing the town would have a supermarket and
Chobe Reserve in Botswana
Whoa, hippos 6 feet away from the boat! Don't worry, we were safe! an ATM! You guys, I know you know this, but it's really amazing how incorrect the image of Africa is that we are constantly shown on TV. There are big cities with department stores, fast food, fast cars and highways. Most people dress just like we do and it's all rather modern where we were!
~ 20 cheetahs being fed less than 10 feet away from us
~ Rock paintings/engravings that are 6000 years old!
~ Ok, it's not quite a sight, but in one campground we could hear 2 lions roaring back and forth all night. It's like they were checking on each other. We've all seen a lion on TV, but to hear their roar fill the air is really magical. Fret not, we were completely safe.
~ The largest cape seal colony in the world (150,000 seals, you think the ones at Fisherman's wharf stink!)
Here's a poem that I wrote on the bumpy truck that sums up the tour:
Scorpions, snakes, loose cheetahs, oh my!
Fluorescent termite frenzy, the first rains brought them to life,
Hypothermia, heatstroke, sun baked and chapped,
But, there were,
Giraffes silhouetted in that fiery sky.
Rough feet, hard Maun in Botswana
That's me holding the blue bag walking with Hesban our fantastic cook from Kenya. The truck on the left was our life for 17 days! grounds, sand in my ears,
Bumps that scramble brains, winds screaming forever,
Too hot to touch, too hot to drink, too hot to think,
But, there were,
Cheetahs breaking out in a sprint after tumbleweed.
Rain soaked bones, goose bumped and sore,
Flap those dishes, mildew no more,
Wait who didn’t wash their cup?
But,
Steve drove us to wonders,
Lyndal led the gang,
Hesban is cooking, what time is dinner?
Acacia terror makes us yell, “TREE!”
Dust in my eyes, I can’t even blink,
Dogs bodies grunt, “This pack is heavy,”
But, there were,
Lion roars so close, I thought the song goes, “The lion SLEEPS tonight.”
Salt in the water,
Bugs in the tub,
Thorns in my feet,
But, there were,
Elephants crossing ankles, resting trunks on tusks and showing us that damn, maybe size really DOES matter.
Eski battles twice a day,
Cheetah on the bonnet, shit, where’s my stick?
Meerkats in the road, screeching brakes,
But, then,
Wine at the watering hole soothes any ache.
All these discomforts will never outweigh
The glimpses of Africa that have filled my brain,
We’ll be back,
The question is simply when,
Soon, I hope,
Life on the truck
A lot of reading and listening to music. I’m ready to do it all again.
To open the photo album, double click on the first photo.
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Josephine and Stephen
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Greetings from Thailand
Hi there, BelatedChristmas greetings from Chiang Mai in Thailand where we are spending Christmas andthe New year. It was lovely meeting you in Windhoek and I have just enjoyed reading your holiday report and looking at your pictures. The pictures are truly wonderful. It brought back so many memories for us. I particularly loved the picture of the double headed rhino. Don't know about you but I am sure that some day in the not too distant future I will return to Africa. personally I couldn't get enough of the animals. We have succeeded in putting information onto our web site but i'm still trying to work out how to add photos who knows by the time we return to England we might have succeeded. As mentioned we are now back in Thailnd after spending the last two weeks in Myanmar a very contrasting country. Beautiful scenery, some fascinatic temples, serene people but such a contrast in wealth and poverty and the lack of democracy certainly appears to affect the intellectual Burmese people that we met. Just teaches you not to take freedom of speech and movement for granted. As mentioned we are in Chiang Mai. We celebrated Christmas at our accommodation where the Australian manager put on a bar-b-que with turkey etc. Then this evening we have been wandering around a massive market. One could shop till one dropped here but with more travelling ahead we have sadly to restrict ourselves. We were even adventourous and tried Durian fruit - can't say I was that impressed. Hoping to do some trekking whilst we are here in addition to going on a cookery course. Where are you now and how did you enjoy Germany? Did you get to abny of their wonderful mnarkets. Hope it wasn't too cold. Have they had snow yet? England certainly has so we are glad to be here. Have a wonderful new Year, stay safe and continue to enjoy your travels. Best wishes Jose and Stephen