NicPip52

That was a quick three weeks. We are currently on our way home from a fantastic three weeks in Africa. Our final destination was Cape Town and then Franschoek in the Winelands area outside Cape Town. It was six days of R&R before we return to reality. But let me pick up where we left off, post Botswana. On the final day of our safari we enjoyed our final game drive in the Chobe National Park, and then headed for the Zambian border. The border is actually a river so we crossed it by small boat. Most people and vehicles cross it via car ferry. There was a huge line up of trucks waiting to cross the border. KK told us that some drivers will wait up to a week in the queue!! Once over the ... read more

Baby animals are fantastic to watch. We were lucky enough to see quite a few on this trip. According to KK quite a few of the animals we encountered do not have their babies until the wet season which is in the summer months. This is to increase the survival rates for herd animals like Impala, Zebras and others. So we saw quite a lot of pregnant animals. Baby elephant The baby elephants were particularly engaging because you can see them learning from their parents and other herd members. It's also great to watch when the herd is moving, because the parents protect the babies from harm like our waterhole scene. Over the eight days of the safari we saw hundreds of elephants but we never tired of watching the family interactions. Baby Hippo Hippos spend ... read more

We reached Rwanda after two rather long days of travel, via Johannesburg for one night. I was beginning to wonder if it would be worth it to go all that way to see a group of gorillas. I'm pleased to say my doubts were unfounded. In fact our short visit to Rwanda was much more than a visit with some amazing primates. We arrived at Kigali, the capital of Rwanda in the evening and were collected from the airport by our guide Fred who would look after us very capably for the next few days. Fred took us to a very fancy hotel via a brief city tour. Kigali proved to be a bustling city which in parts looked surprising modern and groomed. We settled in for the night in our five star digs and enjoyed ... read more