Kayla & Richard
Our favourite things to do are mostly centred around being in the outdoors and enjoying natural areas, so we are more likely found seeking out the lesser known parts of areas we visit, and the least populated areas. In past years, we've been known to hike for days, hauling heavy packs into remote valleys and forests just to avoid the usual front country crowds and see wild animals truly in the wild. KaylaRichard
After the last trip to the Southwestern US, our next trip was a bit more adventurous safari in Botswana. What an experience that was! Next trip is a visit with family in North Carolina, which gave us an excuse to spend a week driving the Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park and also the Blue Ridge Parkway all the way to Great Smokey Mountains National Park. In fall 2010 we did a longer overland trip, back in Africa. Eight countries, 11,300 km, 47 days, starting in Nairobi, Kenya, traveling through Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botwsana, Namibia, ending in Cape Town, South Africa. Sleeping in tents.
So now it is back to Africa yet again. It seems that we keep wanting to go back. Maybe it's because there are only 20,000 lions and 10,000 cheetahs left in the world, and with their territory fast shrinking, the likelihood of extinction within the next few generations is high.
Or maybe it's because the people in Africa are warm, friendly and indomitable even in the face of extreme hardship. Or the beautiful, wide open, unspoiled wilderness areas. Whatever the reasons, we keep going back.
Travel Blog Posts
Central Kalahari Game Reserve
Published: May 24th 2012Africa » Botswana » Kgalagadi » Kalahari Desert
May 22nd 2012
May 16-22 Central Kalahari Game Reserve Penduka Safaris - Mobile Safari Richard writes: Early morning starts (up at 6 AM and away at 7 AM) were the normal for this safari. The temperature at dawn kept us in warm fleece jackets until 9 AM and by 11 AM we we putting on sun screen in 30 C heat. The blue sky has no clouds horizon to horizon, dawn to dusk. This is late fall in the Botswana. The central Kalahari is very, very dry so the plains are brown and the grass is sparse. Rivers are on flood from rain in Angola but it is all underground by the time it reaches the Kalarhi. Wildlife congregates each at their own time around water holes from deep pumped wells powered by solar panels. We see some dry ... read more
Day Trip to Moremi Game Reserve
Published: May 24th 2012Africa » Botswana » North-West » Moremi Game ReserveMay 15th 2012
Up at 4:30 am for a 5 am start. It is a 2-hour drive to the South Entrance from Maun. It was very cold in the open safari vehicle on the highway out of Maun, even with lots of clothes on and a blanket provided by our driver. As we approached Moremi, the sun rose, lighting up the few clouds on the horizon with a gold colour. After a quick stop for a breakfast snack, we start a much slower game drive. The sun quickly warms up and we shed layers. Right away we notice how dry everything is, and although we see animals and birds, they are much fewer than when we were there 3 years ago. Lots of impala and elephants. Some hippos crowded into a very small pool. A small herd of red ... read more
May 13th 2012
This city has too many people, but the taxi weave through side streets and traffic keeps moving without gridlock. Our hotel in Camden has the same staff that we befriended 18 months ago, and they all recognized us. Jonathan is keeping his parents very busy entertaining him. We took a daily outing to local parks where he bypassed the usual swing/slide set for a stick to bang the wrought iron fence. His favorite trick is to sit in the park hedge plants. Other kids bring scooters and Jonathan borrows any left lying around. He is very focused on watching kids his own size. Meal time is feed myself hands on, and most finds his mouth. Grandma and Grandpa were kept busy with his drippy nose and Parents and Grandparents napped every time Jonathan napped. On Sunday ... read more
May 9th 2012
Well, here we go again. Botswana and Namibia 2012. Last trip we were not able to upload any photos along the way, so for those of you that haven't seen those yet, they are located on Kayla's Flickr page at the following link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kaylastevenson/sets/72157627731001908/ For this trip, we will likely run into the same problem, and what you will receive is just a quick blog about where we are and what we're doing, followed by photos later this summer. Maybe a photo or two, maybe not. This trip is all about the desert. First a mobile camping safari into the Central Kalahari Desert in Botswana with Penduka Safaris (http://www.pendukasafaris.com/), and then a photography safari in Namibia with photographer Jim Zuckerman (url=http://... read more
Our photos on Flickr
Published: December 3rd 2010North America » Canada » British Columbia » Pitt MeadowsDecember 3rd 2010
This is a short blog to let our subscribers know that Kayla has started editing the 4,000 photos she took on the Africa Overland trip in September/October 2010. There are about 50 photos up now in a set called Africa 2010 - Tanzania. Here is the link: Kayla's Photo Stream.... read more
Cape Town Day 3 and Home
Published: October 27th 2010Africa » South Africa » Western Cape » Cape Town » Victoria and Alfred WaterfrontOctober 27th 2010
Cape Town Day 3 & Home Cape Town like Vancouver has a sight seeing double decker bus system where for 120 Rand ($17) you can get on and off as you like all day. Our first stop was to be the Gold Museum but instead we opted for an outdoor day so we got of at the Table Mountain cable car to the top. It was a beautiful blue sky day with no wind and 25 C. However since yesterday the cable car was not operating because of high winds, today there was a 2 hour line up. So we hopped back on the same bus and rode out the the suburbs and marine walk way. The walkway offered whales tail up very near shore. The world cup stadium is along our route but access to ... read more
Cape Town & the Cape Peninsula
Published: October 27th 2010Africa » South Africa » Western Cape » Cape of Good HopeOctober 27th 2010
Cape Town Day 2 Even though we had been on an organized tour for the past 45 days, we decided to book an organized tour for one more day, in order to see the Cape Peninsula and visit the most southwesterly point of Africa. Some of our group opted to visit Table Mountain. However, it was a terrifically windy day and the cable car up the mountain was closed for the day. It turns out that we chose the best day to see the peninsula. Our van picked us and 7 others up just after 8:00 and off we went. There were many stops this day, including Hout Bay for an hour of shopping the markets, and s few stops for photos. All with constant commentary from our driver/guide. He was full of information. We stopped ... read more
October 27th 2010
Trawal to Cape Town This was another easy travel day, around 300 km again on paved road, through Citrusdal (the name says it all - many citrus groves full of oranges and lemons), up and over a high pass in the mountains, wide fertile valleys growing wheat. We still can't believe the huge contrast from the countries visited earlier on this tour, where mechanized farming just doesn't exist and people till the soil with hand made hoes. We see Cape Towns Table Mountain about 50 km away and then finally arrive in Table Bay with a great view of the city, beach, surfers, and surrounding mountains. Unfortunately it is raining for the first time in 45 days. Our accommodation is the Cape Diamond Hotel in central Cape Town. Excellent service, clean, quiet, hot showers and with a ... read more
Vlooisdriff to Trawal, South Africa
Published: October 27th 2010Africa » South Africa » Northern Cape » SpringbokOctober 27th 2010
Vlooisdriff to Trawal, South Africa This was an easy travel day, around 300 km on paved road, making our way down from the high desert plateau into wine country. We arrived at Highlander's and pitched our tents on a grassy terrace overlooking hills of grapes, all hung with fruit just formed. Whip Man and his truck White Nile was already there. We knew he would be, since we were scheduled to have a wine tasting with his group later that afternoon. They are now a small group, and we noticed some tension between two people, who were fighting, which is not an uncommon sight for an overland group, we are told. This is spring in South Africa. We went for a walk down the road for a few kilometers, just enjoying the scenery, with grapes ... read more
Fish River Canyon to Vlooisdriff, South Africa
Published: October 27th 2010Africa » South Africa » Northern Cape » Orange RiverOctober 27th 2010
Fish River to Vlooisdriff, South Africa Today was on bumpy dusty gravel all the way to the South Africa border. The desert is spotted with small mountains of boulder piles and fenced, but no domestic animals in sight. Occasionally we saw mountain zebra, ostrich and springbok, but they were widely scattered for the most part. The mountain zebra are unique to this part of the desert and are smaller with stripes down their legs. At the border we exited Namibia and entered South Africa with no visa payments and no forms to fill in for a change. Our campsite was along the Orange river with real water flowing. Every river in Namibia was bone dry with the exception of Fish River, which was a series of small pools along the canyon bottom. There was no doubt ... read more
Tot: 0.107s; Tpl: 0.003s; cc: 14; qc: 99; dbt: 0.0799s; 1; s:notus w:www (50.28.60.10); sld: 1; ; mem: 1.8mb
