Blogs from Africa - page 11

We were woken at 5.00am by our early morning alarm call from Graeme. At 5.15 we were on parade at the lodge, with a cup of coffee to fortify us before setting off on our first morning game drive. The sun was just rising and the light was beautiful. It was already warm, with temperatures forecast to hit 41C by the afternoon – an astonishing change from the rest of our holiday. We stopped to watch some giraffe sitting down and eating. They cannot digest food in their stomach, so they swallow it while feeding then , once at rest, regurgitate it back up to chew more thoroughly. We watched balls of food travelling up and down their throats. We saw a leopard tortoise. Trivia quiz – how do you tell if a tortoise is male ... read more

We opted for an early breakfast ahead of a long driving day to our first game reserve. Our journey was going well until the Google Maps instructions took us onto a dirt road which petered out into a track with just a farmer shepherding some cattle. Clearly not the R68! After a 7 point turn we retraced our steps and found the right turning. At the next junction we were sent off onto a 20km stretch of dirt road, which was fine in places and somewhat hair-raising in others. We were both quietly thinking to ourselves that at least it was so quiet we would not meet a lorry, when what should appear around the corner but… We pulled across as far as we could, and allowed the lorry driver to steer past us with all ... read more

We woke early and sat on our balcony with a cup of tea watching the birds in the trees just in front of us. Then we spotted some small brown creatures that looked like a cross between a rabbit and a guinea pig, racing back and forth. These turned out to be rock rabbits, which are not, in fact, rabbits at all. Dalton picked us up at 9am and we set off in the hotel’s 4WD for Rorke’s Drift, 23km away on dirt roads. We drove past the local primary school where the children were dressed in Zulu costumes as part of South African heritage week. As soon as they saw us they all abandoned their dancing and rushed to the wire fence to wave to and give us a little dance! Dalton was very amused ... read more

I can still picture that National Geographic magazine on my grandparent’s dusty coffee table, right next to the Swarovski bowl, full of stale sweets. It was February 1982 and I was 13 years old. Despite the controversy about the Giza pyramids touching each other in the cover photo. It didn’t matter. It ignited a spark within me to travel to this exotic place to marvel at this feat of mankind. But you know how the story goes. Life happens. No matter how I tried. No matter what I planned. I never got there. Then finally one day, I had a text from my best friend, who is also my cousin. I’ll call her Shell. She had just retired, and after years of child-rearing and career climbing, wanted to travel. With me. Her top pick: Egypt. We ... read more

In July of 2023, we’d tried to acquire the required admittance visa for both Kenya and Tanzania, the two tour locations that this trip covers. The Tanzanian visa was straightforward, despite a variety of government photo requirements requiring additional editing, but those came through. The Kenyan visa (also required) was unavailable because the online system had been shut down due to a hack at some point in July 2023, presumably stealing guests personal financial information such as passport and credit card numbers. After contacting our tour company to discover what our next step should be, we were sent an official Kenyan government document stating that until October 24th 2023, the country would allow visitors to acquire the required visa upon landing at any Kenyan airport - for us, Jomo Kenyatta in Nairobi. With this information in ... read more