Steve Haas Travel

Category: Africa

  • Day 16, Jun 7 – Simon’s Town, Penguins!, and my Final Thoughts on this marvelous trip

    Day 16, Jun 7 – Simon’s Town, Penguins!, and my Final Thoughts on this marvelous trip

    I woke up at 4am feeling completely over whatever the weirdness was from the day before, even got a decent 7 hours of sleep. I started on the blog, Ash was up about 5:30. We went down for breakfast around 6:45 and lingered there for a couple of hours, just reading things and playing games on our phones. It had been a while since we’d just done nothing, and today was going to be a lot of that. The only plans we had was to check out of the Marriott in downtown Cape Town and check in to our Airbnb in Simon’s Town about an hour south.

    The weather today was much different than the prior day – as forecasted – and we’d intentionally left it pretty open. We wanted to be able to chill some before the 36-hour trek home. We finally checked out about 11:30am and got on the road. One of the benefits of the weather: the beautiful rainbows we saw along the way, above and below.

    We made it to Simon’s Town about 12:30 as planned. It’s a little town, population about 7000, nestled against hills on the east coast of the cape on False Bay, just north of where we were yesterday.

    Sign says: Table Mountain National Park; Welcome to Boulders - home of the African Penguin

    One of the reasons to come to Simon’s Town: it is home to a colony of South African penguins. There are only about 20,000 of them in the world, and about 3500 of them are in this colony.

    Sign in the parking lot: triangle shaped, white against a red border and in black: image of a penguin with

    When was the last time you had to search for penguins under your car?

    There were two wooden walkways that led to the beach in different directions, and penguin nests were on either side of it. One section of it went up and down quite a bit; it’s a hilly area.

    This is breeding season and we saw some of them sitting on eggs. And it’s not always the mother – the parents take turns. Penguins mate for life and always return to the same spot for breeding.

    Here’s an example of a good downward part of the path.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    A few penguins coming out of the bay.

    Selfie or it didn’t happen! See the landing with all the people on it across the beach? That’s where we went next.

    Sign: Penguins will bit. Please do not touch, feed or disturb the penguins. 500 rand fine.

    A reminder that they are not tame and living, at least somewhat, in their natural habitat. Somebody jumped the walkway into the penguin area and one of the birds got so freaked out it jumped onto the walkway and worked its way into a corner of it. The staff was trying to use gloved hands and a net to get it back on the beach but it wasn’t having any of it. We figured us staring at the scene wasn’t helping – there were lots of others to do that! – so we moved on.

    We could see them a little better from this side. Above and below.

    Babies somewhere in the middle there.

    On our way back to the car, we bought a wooden mask (which Ash collects) from this guy, We’d looked at his stuff on the way in and told him we’d catch him on the way back.

    The penguins are about a quarter mile from our Airbnb, and maybe 1/2 a mile from the town. We drove into town, parked and walked until we found something interesting for lunch. Or the first thing we came across in this case, a little spot called Due South.

    Above and below: I took a photo of the place with Ash; he took a photo of me.

    Ash ordered a chicken roulade dish with rice. I had springbok carpaccio – yes, again! Not as complex a dish as at the Four Seasons but it was fresh and tasty. I also had a beet salad with calamari which was excellent, and Ash had some of that as well.

    We shared a piece of carrot cake at the end.

    We walked some of the town after and bought some things from an artisan leather shop.

    We went to our Airbnb after, which Ash booked for the view. It didn’t disappoint. In fact, it’s much more comfortable than I imagined from the photos.

    It’s just one room but super charming and well equipped.

    If the weather was better, we could sit on the balcony!

    Nice bathroom!

    It’s called Penguins View. We visited with Heather, the owner, a bit. She lives here and there’s 4 units for rent – 3 studios and a 2 bedroom. The name is apt – that sliver of beach far left center is where we were in the above photos. And she says they are all along this area in front of us. Maybe if the weather is better in the morning we can see some of them.

    It stopped raining for a few moments, and I was able to catch some nice views and fun clouds, above and below. In the above photo you can see the penguins on the beach on the left if you look carefully :)

    It’s about 6pm and we’re about to go find dinner. Yes, I’m actually writing this on the day it happened! We’ve been warned that there probably won’t be any electricity from 4am – 8am (that load-shedding thing I mentioned many posts ago now) so I figured I’d get as much of it done as I could since we were just hanging out this afternoon.

    And we’re back. We went to Saveur, #2 on TripAdvisor, in the same area of town we were in for lunch. (Tomorrow we will go to #1, The Lighthouse Cafe, for breakfast, same area.)

    It was in a building on the wharf which housed several restaurants and other shops. This replica of a ship – two of them, actually – built here in 1931 or so was in the common area. These 2 ships were in use for 30 years before being decommissioned.

    It wasn’t crowded – easily because of the nasty weather – had a nice feel, and the service was excellent. That chalkboard has the specials on it.

    We started with baked camembert, one of our favorite cheeses but we rarely see it on a menu.

    We both ordered mains off the specials board. Ash got yellow fin tuna, cooked perfectly. He enjoyed every bite of this dish.

    I had an ostrich burger, something I’ve never seen on a menu. I’ll tell ya – those fries and onion rings were some of the best I’ve had anywhere. The burger had an onion jam on it – that dark sauce coming out of the top bun – and while good, that flavor over-powered everything else. Less than halfway through I tore it apart and ate the tomatoes, cheese, and most of the burger by themselves, left everything else. Ostrich tastes pretty much like beef.

    We split dessert, a sticky toffee pudding with a warm toffee sauce and vanilla ice cream. It was terrific.

    We talked about what we would do tomorrow, which isn’t much. We will hang out here enjoying the view maybe until out checkout time which is Noon. We should get to the airport no later than 5:30 which gives us 4-5 hours to kill. We’ll figure it out as we go along, but I’d decided as we were talking that I would finish the blog tonight. For all intents and purposes, the trip is done.

    Our dinner conversation sort of confirmed this when Ash asked me what my 3 favorite things were. And they were about the same as his:

    1. The conversation we had that first Friday at our handfasting dinner.
    2. Everything about Victoria Falls – the falls themselves, not the town – including of course the helicopter ride, my first.
    3. I asked, “can I just say ‘the safari’? And if I had to pick just one thing from the safari, it was the Painted Dogs experience.
    4. Ash had another which was how much I enjoyed Cape Town. Early in our relationship, as I was learning how much he has traveled, I asked him where he would live if he could live anywhere in the world, and his answer was Cape Town. I was looking forward to experiencing it and agree it’s a pretty wonderful place.

    Which is a good way to segue to my final Final thoughts for this trip. I did some already for just Johannesburg and the safari so this will round all that out, including some things I missed. In no particular order:

    1. OK, so I’ll start with: Cape Town really was fabulous. Like our Johannesburg experience, everyone is so happy here, and friendly to you. People actually look you in the eye and say “hello” to you on the street. When you walk into a restaurant or store, you’re greeted with enthusiasm. It’s hard to explain. The closest I’ve experience this before was in Costa Rica, and some in Puerta Vallarta, but this is on a level above those. Add that the natural beauty is astounding, the weather very similar to San Francisco – pretty mild year-round – and no one blinks at you being an inter-racial gay couple. That doesn’t happen everywhere we go (well, most places actually but only because we choose that on purpose) but the difference is palpable when you experience the acceptance.
    2. OMG it is cold in Africa! No one ever talks about that, somehow in my head it’s hot everywhere all the time. Granted, it’s late fall here and I knew that, but I really didn’t expect it to be as cold as it is. That on safari you are moving in an open vehicle with no windows or doors at 5:30am when it’s 50 degrees certainly doesn’t help. Had I known that specific detail – and that laundry was available at all of the lodges we stayed at – I would have packed Very Differently than I did. I felt like I was cold in Joburg and in the Cape region all the time. I brought one long-sleeved shirt and a light windbreaker. Now I know.
    3. The level of respect the people have for animals is inspiring. I’ll leave it at that.
    4. Toothpicks are right on the table along with salt and pepper, 90% of the time. As someone always in search of a toothpick, I really appreciate that.
    5. The cost of living here is much lower than back home. Sure, so is Mexico and Costa Rica, but the level of infrastructure and overall quality of life here seems much higher than those places. Simple example: Ash asked me how much I thought dinner tonight cost. I said, well it would be about $75 at home. It was $30 here. We looked at a lot of real estate flyers (which we always do when we travel) but here it’s actually affordable AND are places that would work for us. When I retire (and we don’t know when that is yet), we’ve talked about traveling for 2 years straight. And start here for 2-3 months.
    6. Someone made a comment on the blog that this seems like a life-changing experience. And I have to agree. I’m not sure if I can articulate how exactly, but this trip certainly had me thinking about a lot of different things I’ve never thought about before. At a minimum, we’ve talked a lot about lifestyle changes we can make so that we can do even more of this level of travel. Time will tell how all of that plays out.

    One last photo: I meant to include this in my “thoughts” on the safari but forgot. Every place we stayed in Zimbabwe and Botswana was stocked with 3-4 cans of this nature:

    1. Doom – insect killer, in case there are creepy crawlies in your room
    2. Air freshener – however you want to use that
    3. Peacefull Sleep – insect repellent, to keep the bugs off you. In the safari lodges this was also sprayed on your mosquito netting and sometimes on the top of your bedspreads
    4. And, not pictured because I didn’t think to take the photo until Maun, but in Victoria Falls and all 3 lodges of the Okavango Delta, where the animals run wild, there was also a foghorn. You know. In case you come back to your room and there’s a baboon on your bed. Or an elephant comes through your window. It could happen :)

    And finally, I think many of you felt something different on this trip, too. I LOVED hearing from all of you – both on Facebook and directly on the blog – and it felt like you got more from it than you were expecting as well. A couple of you even shared how you were sharing it with family members which I was thrilled to hear. As I enter my 11th year of travel blogging, what was true from that first moment in Mainz, Germany, in March of 2013 is even more true now: knowing I’m going to write about it changes how I both experience and recall my day in significantly meaningful ways. I would do it if no one ever read it. That so many of you get something out of it makes it all that much sweeter. So, thanks for the feedback, but most of all thanks for coming along.

    Next up is Toronto in September – something new for both me and Ash. We will see you then if not before.

     

  • Day 15, Jun 6 – Cape Town, Pt 2: Cape Point, Table Mountain

    Day 15, Jun 6 – Cape Town, Pt 2: Cape Point, Table Mountain

    I didn’t sleep well at all on Monday night. Something I ate didn’t agree with me; had bad heartburn and finally up at 4am after just a few hours’ sleep feeling achy and chills. Not bad enough to stay in all day but definitely slowed us down. Was feeling mostly better by late afternoon.

    We did change our plans, however, due to the weather, and did some of the stuff we were going to do Wednesday and Thursday on Tuesday because, if the forecast held, the weather would be much better. We had breakfast in the hotel and made our way out about 9am. We were making our way to Cape Point – the edge of the continent.

    This was Hout Bay, along the way.

    At Gail’s suggestion, we stopped at the Farm Village in Noordhoek. We got here about 10am.

    This was a popular little coffee shop that catered to bicyclists. We bought some whole beans to take home with us.

    Above and below: it was a cute little shopping area. We picked up some spices at another cute shop.

    It was another hour’s drive to get to Cape Point.

    All along the road there we saw signs like this one: Baboons are dangerous. Some of them asked you to keep doors locked and windows rolled up. This sign at Cape Point just says they are attracted by food. There were also signs about penguins! Sadly, we didn’t see either.

    Cape Point is the “bottom” of the African continent (depending on your point of view, of course), where the Atlantic and Indian Oceans meet. You can see that some in this photo – the Indian Ocean is the darker blue water against the Atlantic’s lighter color. The Indian Ocean is also much warmer than the Atlantic. This causes these waters to be very turbulent at times, and there were lots of shipwrecks back in the day because of this. Many of those ships are still resting at the bottom.

    We took a funicular to the top.

    There’s an old lighthouse at the top that was in operation from 1860-1919. It sits at about 820 feet above sea level. The problem is, it gets covered by clouds and mist. So after the ships kept wrecking anyway, they built another one further down at just about 280 feet above sea level.

    A view up the other side of the coast. This is False Bay, which feeds into the Indian Ocean.

    It was a pretty steep climb, and I wasn’t feeling great, but we made it!

    A lovely view looking back, a beautiful beach on the left. Lots of ships have landed there. This isn’t exactly the most southern tip of the continent, it’s just the most south that’s somewhat accessible. The lower portions are so rocky where it meets the water, they are unusable.

    From here you can see both sides: Atlantic Ocean on the left, False Bay on the right. And a weather station in between.

    A map screen shot to show where we are. We traveled from Cape Town to where we are at the blue dot, pretty much along the coastline. It’s a similar setup to Highway 1 in California, with similar feel to it.

    And zoomed out, you see us on the edge of the continent. Google Maps was doing something funny and tipped the direction for some reason, but it sort of makes the point I was making earlier: we refer to north/south, top/bottom like they are some static things. And while we’re on land, they are. But from space, none of those distinctions matter.

    The official record that we were there!

    We made our way back to the heart of Cape Town and got to Table Mountain about 1:35pm. At the base is a complex of toilets, some eateries, and of course the aerial cableway.

    It’s a pretty steep climb, some of the windows are open, and the floor rotates 360 degrees as you go up so that everyone gets a chance at a good view.

    All of downtown Cape Town from the top: right of center at the water is the harbor and waterfront we were at the night before.

    And the rest of it. The mountain sort of frames the core of the city against the water. It’s pretty cool.

    Requisite selfie with random dude in the background :)

    The view from the other side. That town I think is Muizenberg, the water is False Bay again, just further north from when you last saw it!

    My vertigo was kicking in bad the entire time but I just deal with it. This bridge really triggered it though!

    They had a restaurant called 1027 – the height in meters of the Table Mountain – and we stopped for a bite to eat. Restaurant is a stretch – more cafeteria, not great options and not super quality. But it had been 6 hours since a light breakfast so just had something simple: a slice of margherita pizza for me and a mushroom and chicken pie for Ash.

     

    We made our way to Honest Chocolate. We’d heard about this before somehow, but Gail had also recommended. Owned and operated by local women. The make the chocolate from beans shipped in from Tanzania (South Africa is too cold, can grow them) in their own factor about a mile away. And run this little cafe. We bought a fair amount to take home.

    Ash got a chocolate tart with peanut butter inside, ridiculously rich but so tasty. He also got some tea that was delivered after this shot! I had hot chocolate that was thick and rich, and a simple thin and crispy chocolate chip cookie.

    We made our way back to our room and I rested for a bit before we left to catch another sunset and find something to eat.

    We had used this bridge at the waterfront the night before but I didn’t realize it moved! Shortly after we crossed, there was an announcement about it closing to allow a boat to pass.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    It swung over to the side on top of the sidewalk and then slid back into place after the boat came through.

    We got a little bit of a late start but caught the tail end of the sunset. There’s also a Ferris wheel on the waterfront that makes for a nice photo. I love that the hot guy running is checking out Ash.

    Probably our last sunset of the trip, at least over the water. Tonight, we will be in Simon’s Town which is on False Bay facing east; plus it’s likely to be raining.

    We stopped at Mozambik on our way back, ranked #4 on TripAdvisor for Cape Town restaurants.

    It really hit me at this meal how toned down the safari food was knowing their audience is mostly white people – which is was, as we’d predicted. This was delicious and I wish we’d done more of this. I had shrimp and pasta in a peri peri sauce, a specialty of Mozambique that is creamy, spicy and wonderful. Ash had a potato cheesy torte dish that he didn’t care for all that much (but I did!) and some shrimp that came later that he really liked.

    Who knows what’s in store for today. The only thing we have to do is check out of the Marriott downtown and into our Airbnb in Simon’s Town for our final night. Since we already did Cape Point, which was sort of the reason we booked in Simon’s Town, we’ll see what we come up with instead.

  • Day 14, Jun 5 – Cape Town, Part 1: Franschhoek, The Waterfront

    Day 14, Jun 5 – Cape Town, Part 1: Franschhoek, The Waterfront

    It was nice to be on unstructured time with the safari over, which had been very structured. There’s lots to do over the next few days but we feel no urgency to do it all; this will be our vacation from the safari before we have to enter the real world later in the week.

    I was up after 4am and worked on the blog over decent hotel coffee. I was almost done when Ash got up and we went down to breakfast soon after. Typical breakfast buffet – with mushroom and pork-n-beans of course; nothing to write home about :)

    The weather sort of matched our mood and gave us permission to be lazy. It was raining pretty hard when we got here the night before. It had stopped raining, but the forecast said it would be cloudy all day, and it pretty much was. Still, we had an interesting industrial view out our 3rd floor window.

    The only real agenda item was to go to Franschhoek, both a town and a region about 40 miles east of Cape Town. Think Napa Valley, but mountains instead of hills and more diversity. In addition to wines, they are famous for cheese, jams, olives.

    We stopped at Dalewood Fromage, who has won several regional and world-wide cheese contests. We bought some harder cheeses that would travel home well.

    I asked Ash to pull over to take this shot: a cemetery off the side of the road, with a layer of houses behind it which are nestled up to the mountains.

    We stopped at Franschhoek Cellars – established 1693! – because of their reputation for cheese tasing (at least per google). Side note from Ash: real lions in the wild are about that size.

    We weren’t disappointed! And got cappuccinos to go with it.

    Ash picked out some wine to take home as gifts.

    We walked the town of Franschhoek a bit, having time to kill before our 1pm lunch reservations.

    Remember from early entries when we were in Johannesburg, most of South Africa was developed by European colonists. Much of this area was established by the Huguenots, Protestants from France who in this case were fleeing due to religious persecution.  They first built a church at this location in 1694. The current version was built in 1845.

    You can tell it’s Protestant by the simple art and the lack of a crucifix.

    We went to La Petite Ferme for lunch, a place Ash had eaten at in 2015.

    It’s known for great views – as shown here – and great food. Lived up to its reputation on both counts.

    You get a 3-course meal for about $30. How can you say no? This warm bread and butter with salt doesn’t count as a course!

    Ash had a burrata dish for starters, I had a beetroot carpaccio below.

    Look, Greg Wine: a palate cleanser! Orange and ginger sorbet.

    Ash had trout, I had springbok below. First time I had it cooked! You may recall I got springbok carpaccio twice when we were at The Four Seasons in Johannesburg. This was very good and not gamey like the venison I’ve had in the US.

    This was Ash’s dessert. They called it bread pudding but was more like a banana muffin. With hazelnut ice cream. He loves all things hazelnut; me not so much.

    I had a lemon tartlet with vanilla ice cream. We were so full after this we didn’t eat again until a very light dinner at the hotel around 8pm.

    We drove up to the Franschhoek Pass, elevation about 2500 feet, and got this lovely view of the valley. This road was the first “properly engineered” road developed in South Africa. It followed trails, at least according to legend, first carved out by elephants.

    We made it back to the hotel about 4pm, dropped stuff off in the room and headed out for a walk to the Victoria & Afred Waterfront (they loved Queen Victoria around here, clearly.) Alfred is one of her sons, who began construction of the waterfront. (It took us MUCH longer than it should have to realize it was Alfred and not Albert.)  This is a canal we picked up just behind our hotel and followed it to the main drag. That’s where we’re staying in the backgound: AC Hotels Marriott.

    We came across a skate park with downtown and Table Moutain behind it.

    Statues honoring 4 Nobel Peace Prize Laureates from South Africa: Nikosi Albert Luthuli, Desmond Tutu, FW De Klerk, and Nelson Mandela.

    There’s a huge mall here with lots of restaurants. We weren’t even a bit hungry and no need to shop; we just used it as a shortcut to walk through on our way back.

    Another beautiful sunset in Africa. Although Table Mountain, below, was essentially behind us, it had some nice colors at sunset, too.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    And this sunset came with sound effects! Courtesy of the Atlantic Ocean.

    There was a literal frame constructed here suggesting this was a good photo opportunity, so of course I couldn’t resist this shot of the Waterfront, with downtown and Table Mountain in the background. I thought it would be too dark but it turned out OK.

    While I was doing that, Ash was chatting with a couple of women who offered to take a photo of us. We like it!

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • Days 12 & 13, Jun 3-4: Okavango Delta to Maun to Cape Town; Final Thoughts on the Safari

    Days 12 & 13, Jun 3-4: Okavango Delta to Maun to Cape Town; Final Thoughts on the Safari

    I’m writing and posting this Monday morning, Cape Town time, on June 5. The last two days were travel days that blended together so decided to do them as one post.

    Since the leopard sighting the prior evening trumped the bush walk, that was moved to the morning. Ash and I decided to skip it. We just wanted to relax and the description of the experience wasn’t compelling enough to get us moving early on this last day. When everyone left at 6:30am, we sat at “our table” and enjoyed our last sunrise in the Okavango. Above: 6:30. Below: 7:19.

    When I went back to the cabin to finish packing, I noticed we’d had a visitor since we were last there: prints on the deck that were not human. Rasta identified them as baboon.

    We were “bags out at 9:30” which meant have your bags in front by your door at that time for porters to pick up and put in the vehicle. We left for the airstrip at 9:45.

    The real last photo! Dylan made it to this one, the young guy just left of center. He’d skipped the night of the leopard sighting but didn’t seem all that upset about missing it. He and 3 others on this trip – Jan, Kit and Maire on the right side – had been on different safaris for 10 days in other parts of Africa before joining this one in Victoria Falls. Not sure I could do 20 days! At least not while I’m working. We will definitely be back, though.

    We left the way we came in: 3 small planes, in the same formation. So just me, Ash and Gail, and Ash got to sit in the cockpit again.

    It was a 20-minute flight to Maun, Botswana. It was odd somehow to see a proper town. Population around 70,000. We hadn’t been in one since Victora Falls a week before, which is over 100k.

    We stayed at a Botswana chain hotel called Cresta. Gail is not happy with this place but said it’s still better than the last place they were working with. She only gave it 2.5-3 stars. We landed at 3.5.

    Our initial room, like everyone else’s, had the sink and shower out in the open of the main room, with the toilet in a closet. Ash likes space for me to be able to write without getting in the way of his sleep – completely reasonable – so he asked if there was an upgrade available. There was at a reasonable rate so we took it. It had a full living room…

    …a bedroom…

    …and a proper bathroom. After hearing Gail say “proper” 50x a day for 9 days you’re probably going to be hearing it more from me. I liked the way she used it, and in this instance it’s completely applicable.

    We had lunch around 12:30. Another typical outdoor dining experience. The service was awful, the food OK.

    After lunch we walked about a half mile down the dirt road (yes, even the nicer hotel is not on a paved road!) to the Wild Bird Trust, an organization National Geographic supports. They do some conversation work on the Delta, and we watched a 90-minute movie NatGeo did of 4-month expedition called “Into the Okavango.” I think all of us really enjoyed it. If nature documentaries are your thing, it’s available on Disney+ and I recommend it. You can catch a trailer for it here.

    It was after 3:30 by the time we got back to the room. Dinner was at 5:30 – a drive to a local’s house where there would be a “cultural event” and we’d be back by 9pm. Ash and I begged off. We just couldn’t imagine going out again. And after 10 days with people around this introvert couldn’t handle another group outing, as much as I enjoyed our interactions. Ash and I stayed in the hotel for dinner and, well, he called it a fiasco although I didn’t think it was all that bad.

    By the next morning I’d gotten 2 days of blog posts up and had decided this next one would combine these travel days. We went for a walk about a mile up the dirt road and back. Encountered a donkey on the way back. Maun has 3 nicknames: Donkey Town, Gateway to the Okavango, and A Drinking Town with a Tourist Problem.

    We left for the airport with Gail around 10:45. We were the only ones going to Cape Town – she lives in the area; everyone else was going to Johannesburg to catch their flights to various places. Gail had suggested we check our bags then go back into the town area to kill remaining time because there’s nothing at the airport once you get past security. So that’s what we did. We ended up at – where else? – the Dusty Donkey a couple of blocks away.

    This guy was selling crafts at a table out front for much cheaper than anything we’d seen so far, so we did some last-minute shopping. It was good to be back on regular international weight restrictions! We are way under by those standards and still have plenty of room in our bags ;)

    We had some lunch, and it was very good. Below: a burger for me, and a tuna sandwich for Ash.

    Burger for me and tuna sandwich for Ash.

    The people were lovely and it had a nice feel to it.

    Ash and Gail talking in line on the tarmac to get on the plane.

    We got to walk the tarmac again to our small plane – although the biggest we’d been in since our flight to Victoria Falls! Just 3 seats across – one on one side, two on the other.

    We had a 2.5-hour flight to Cape Town and landed early. It was very rainy but got a fun view of the coastline once we got through the clouds.

    A beautiful photo of the city greeted you at the airport. We are staying at a Marriott in the middle of that harbor area on the left. That’s Table Mountain in the background, which we will do on Tuesday probably when the weather is supposed to be better.

    We got our rental and it’s the same kind of Hyundai we had in Joburg, just a different color. And an automatic this time! (Their choice, not Ash’s.)

    Ash is a Lifetime Platinum Marriott member back from his travel days with IBM. We are staying here on points, AND they offered a free upgrade to a suite with a harbor view. Living room above, where I’m writing right now.

    The bedroom with a nice sitting area, and snack gifts in those little jars by the chairs.

    And a proper bathroom :)

    The room comes with breakfast included, and Ash’s membership also gives a $10 discount on food purchased in the hotel for each day. We were tired after 2 days of travel and the weather was not great to we stayed in for dinner.

    They had a lovely beet soup which Ash is going to try to duplicate when we get home.

    Some final thoughts on the safari and Africa in general as we’ve completed the 2nd phase of this trip:

    1. I’m still flabbergasted on a daily basis that English is the primary language. No barriers at all on that front. Even in the bush, if they’ve been to school at all, they’ve learned some English. They also still speak their tribal language. There’s something like 30 languages spoken between Botswana and South Africa alone, but it’s English that unites everyone.
    2. The safari was my first organized tour experience and I’m sold. It helped that it was a small group. Gail actually works for a company called G-Adventures, who NatGeo partners with to offer mid-level tours vs. the “luxury” tours they offer. We thought this was pretty luxurious! Certainly, no need to go up from here. We are already looking at other tours we can do in the future. This entire experience was just incredible, and we definitely want more.
    3. There was also value traveling with a group of travelers. It was fun listening to other stories and picking up tips here and there. And we were able to make a restaurant recommendation to Maire who was on her way to Zurich, because I looked it up in the blog!
    4. I was already feeling this in Joburg, and it increased 100-fold on the safari, but there’s something about being here that makes me feel closer to a higher power. Something about “where it all began” combined with “there’s a purpose for everything.” The up-close-and-personal-experience with the animals was like nothing I could have imagined. That people have hunted them for sport literally makes me sick. Thankfully most of that has stopped, at least in the areas we’ve been. There’s also a near-constant sense of presence – being right here, right now – that is unique relative to anything we’ve experienced elsewhere. When you’re watching the regalness of a leopard walking across the plains, you’re not thinking of anything else.
    5. “The Big 5” are a big deal in these parts. Every gift store we went in had books on them, etc. We saw 4 of them: Elephant, Lion, Leopard, Buffalo. Rhino is the last and they are the most elusive. All of them in Botswana are living in sanctuary because they are the most poached because of superstition about powers the horns have. Ash saw some – both black and white – in South Africa when he was on safari the first time in 2015.
    6. Especially in the Okavango, it was, well, wild to have an experience where essentially the animals are in charge. The respect shown for their habitats is palpable. And to some degree, it’s like that everywhere. I lost count of the number of times Gail said, “It’s Africa – anything can happen.” From questionable power and water systems to baboons on your front porch, you just never know what’s next.
    7. Our respect for NatGeo has increased 100-fold as well. We’ve always had some awareness of the work they do, but to see it in action was something else. And their sense of respect for the planet is woven into their tourist operations; it’s tremendous to experience it at that level.
    8. We were also super impressed and aware with how hard the camp workers worked! The schedule of the days is long, and theirs even longer – 4am – 10pm pretty much every day. At least at Moremi Crossing, they work 60 days straight at that pace and then have 16 days off. Or can work 90 and get 24 off. But either way, that’s grueling. And they’re so happy, so helpful. And in great shape. Walking is the primary transportation. Other than the Land Cruisers. we saw no other vehicles in the Okavango.
    9. And speaking of Land Cruisers, I’ll end with this. The photo below captures a little message I had on my phone when I woke up this morning: on average, you took more steps in the last 22 days – by a lot. Except that, for the last 10 days, we hardly walked at all. Gail had told us about this at the beginning: the safari rides are so bumpy your phone actually counts them as steps! Hilarious.

     

    With that, I’ll end with a couple of beautiful photos Dylan took of birds, which he shared on our group WhatsApp yesterday. We gave up on birds early because I just couldn’t capture them with my iPhone, but he had a nice camera that does great.

     

    We’ll be in the Cape Town area until we start the trek home Thursday night here, getting there mid-afternoon on Friday. It’s a beautiful area and I’m looking forward to exploring with Ash, who of course has been here before. It’s one of his favorite places on the planet so it will be fun to see it through him.

     

  • Day 11, Jun 2 – Okavango Delta Pt 2: Lions & Leopards (well, one anyway…)

    Day 11, Jun 2 – Okavango Delta Pt 2: Lions & Leopards (well, one anyway…)

    This entry is for Friday, June 2. It’s Sunday, June 4, 6:40pm as I type, and we’re in Cape Town for the next 3 nights. More on that when I get caught up! Back to our original programming….

    By now you know the routine: first breakfast at 6am, then out on a safari drive by 6:30.

    It was always inspiring to watch the colors of the sunrise from the main lodge as we prepared to leave.

    Can’t seem to get enough of these sunrises and sunsets.

    There were many things about our guides that were impressive, but to me the most impressive thing was how, driving along a dirt road, they could spot tracks and identify the animal. Pretty sure these were lion – Jacob circled it for me so I could see what he was looking at, which helped a little. That they could tell the difference between lion or leopard was wild enough.

    This time, Rasta actually got out of the vehicle at a fork in the road and studied the tracks to see which way the lion went.

    We came across a watering hole with hippos and an elephant. This one was in much better condition than the mud hole we saw the day before.

    Soon after, we came across the lion they’d been tracking. He’s the very dark image just left of center with his back to us but facing the zebras. We were wondering why those zebras weren’t running, and the thought was it was because it was just one lion, and that’s usually not enough to bring one down.

    And a bit after that, the 2nd lion appeared, and the zebras skedaddled. Both males, the one on the left older by several years. Rasta referred to them as brothers. Could be from the same mother or just a bond, but he said either way those relationships are for life.

    The older one was always in the lead.

    We followed them all the way across a wide field. They would walk, sit, walk, sit.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    This one gives you a pretty good idea of how close we were at times since you can see the Land Cruiser in it.

    They were going into the thicket and us silly tourists thought that would be it.

    Nope, Rasta just drove that Land Cruiser right on through, very bumpily, just mowing down thick grass and bushes. Even Gail was impressed. His primary goal was to keep track of them until the other vehicle of our party could catch up, which they eventually did deep in the thicket. They were able to get glimpses of the lions, but it was really hard to keep track of them in all this brush and soon after we decided we were done and left them in peace. This encounter lasted 27 minutes.

    We found another hippo pool in the distance from a nice place to stop for our mid-morning coffee and snacks.

    For the morning breaks, they usually didn’t bring out the tables they did for sundowners; there was a tray-like thing they could just flip down on the front of the Land Cruiser.

    That break was at about 9:20 and we didn’t see much after that. We got back around 10:45, I took a shower and changed for brunch, and was working on my blog by about Noon. A group of local women had come to give a lesson in basket-weaving, or so we thought, but it was more of a demonstration. Ash started there but it wasn’t what he thought it would be so gave up and came to visit with me, which ended up with this photo.

    This is the communal charging station I mentioned in the prior post.

    The time between lunch and teatime at 3:30 was always free. I came back to the cabin around 1:30; Ash was napping or taking a shower, so I did a little more work on the blog, then he came out and joined me.

    When we left on the 4pm drive, we were supposed to be doing a “bush walk” – a walking safari through the bush where there was a focus on birds, identifying tracks and poop and other things you can’t do on a drive. That was given up when word was out about a leopard sighting. Another guide and tourist had come across one the day before and got some beautiful shots; we were all a little bit jealous! So now very grateful that maybe we’d have our chance. Of course, after our Painted Dog experience, what we were really hoping for is she’d go after one of the impalas that were close by. But alas, it was just a lot of walking around. Still, gorgeous animal. And the guides knew her – had given birth at the camp about a year ago.

     

     

     

     

     

     

    You can see the edge of the vehicle at the bottom of the video, which again shows how close we are. When first spotted her she was sitting at the bottom of this hill. I couldn’t see her from the vehicle, had to use Gail’s binoculars. How these guides see what they see is unbelievable. Gail calls them “bush eyes.” Then they all decided to get closer and it didn’t scare her away.

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Rasta had repositioned us by this point, about 8 minutes after the prior video. The leopard started walking right towards us! We were actually a bit scared – OK I was – having visions of an attack – but then turned around…

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    To watch her walk Right By us.

     

     

     

     

     

     

    She walked over to a new mound, and we followed her there.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    There were two jackals to our right, one of whom was yelping loudly. You hear one of those yelps at the very beginning of this clip. He was pretty annoying! It was like he was trying to warn the impalas. But jackals get the leftovers so if there is a kill, and he’s trying to warn, it’s not the best move.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    She moves again and we follow again. Two things I wanted you to see in this clip: how many dang safari vehicles are following this cat and she doesn’t care one bit. And, as I pan to the far right, a sense of the vastness of the land.

    Sharpening her claws on the tree.

    Sitting pretty.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Cleaning herself. This is when Rasta was telling us “We knew her.”

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    More sitting pretty, licking her paws at the end, then…

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    …quickly gets up and walk away…into the sunset you might say. It’s a gorgeous shot.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    And continued walking. We followed her until she reached the grass and disappeared. This entire encounter lasted 52 minutes, nearly twice the lions and the painted dogs. She sat around and did not much for long periods of time!

    With that, we went into our final sundowner of the trip. Ash and I took a couple of selfies. One with the sun above, and one with the moon below.

    One final group photo, including our guides: Rasta, Jacob, and Amos. It wouldn’t happen without them.

    One last sunset.

    All of the food and drinks are inclusive, so it’s a bit of a shame we don’t drink alcohol. So, over the 3 days we tried every non-alcoholic thing they had, which was quite a bit. We ended with a lovely combination of passion fruit and cranberry.

    And that, my friends, is the end of our safari. Takes “wild ride” to a whole new level, eh? We loved Every Minute of it and are planning on returning in 2025. Want to come?

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • Day 10, Jun 1 – Okavango Delta, Part 1 – includes a stunning kill in the wild; skip if blood makes you queasy

    Day 10, Jun 1 – Okavango Delta, Part 1 – includes a stunning kill in the wild; skip if blood makes you queasy

    This entry is posted on Sunday, June 4, around 6am Botswana time.

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    It’s Friday, June 2, 2023, 12:10pm as I type, and I am again sitting on the deck at Moremi Crossing. Ash is attending a basket weaving session held by the local women. (Although he didn’t last very long – it was more of a show and tell than instruction, and they didn’t speak English so difficult to follow.) I just finished up Wednesday’s blog so time to start on the next entry. I think I’ve given up on the idea of one big entry, but I have discovered iMovie, thanks to Jim here on this trip with us, and may do some things with photos that I haven’t done before for folks that aren’t into all this detail. It’s been fun traveling with a bunch of travelers and talking about travel! I’m the travel youngster of the group: Maire introduced to an app that will track the countries you’ve visited, and I’m at a mere 23 countries. Even Dylan, the 25-year-old, may have been to more countries than me! Maire is at 103.

    The procedure here is you get a wake-up yell at 5:30am to which they ask you to respond that you heard it, and then will come back at 6am to escort you to breakfast. Because we were at the end, it was more like 5:50/5:55; they’d start with us, Gail and Dylan and pick up everyone else on the way back to the main lodge.

    Another beautiful sunrise.

    When was the last time you saw the sun rise up over a urinal?

    There was a buffet continental breakfast at 6am; I had porridge every time. Then at 6:30am we load into the Land Cruisers (although we somehow always refer to them as Jeep, probably a generic reference because of their open-ness) and go for the morning safari ride.

    For the record, there are LOTS of zebra here, and a fair number of giraffes, so this will be it, just like the elephants.

    Can’t have enough sunrise/sunset photos…

    Oh yea, I forgot about this: so, one more giraffe photo, this lovely mother and baby next to each other.

    I think I’ve mentioned before that all of the field guides talk to each other over radio throughout the drive. They go off in different directions intentionally to cover more ground and let each other know what they’re seeing. In this case, we got called to help another group who had gotten stuck in a ditch. It was impressive that we pulled them out with just a simple piece of obviously very strong nylon.

    Shortly after this, our guide got a call: wild dogs have been seen, 15-30 minutes away from where we are, but only if we go FAST. We all agreed. And boy did we. A long, fast, ridiculously bumpy ride. Remember – no paved roads in the Okavango.

    I didn’t realize until we got there that they meant Painted Dogs. Remember the story from the conservatory a few posts back? Only 7000 left and here were 8 of them. Not just hanging around, but on a hunt. We were about to follow Africa’s most successful predator on a hunt. Excited much? In this photo we’d just come up behind them as they were still on the go.

    Note: there are more video clips here than I’ve ever included in a blog entry. If you’re interested in this story, I highly recommend you watch every one of them. Some are really short, some as long as 23 seconds. But it will give you a very real sense of what we experienced.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Around the bend from the prior photo, they stopped. Stared, all of them in the same direction. What were they seeing in the distance?

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Impala. They were seeing impala. If you play the video, you’ll see the pan to the right and how far away they were. Which is to say not very far. And we got to watch it all.

    They just sat to wait for the right moment.

    Rasta, our lead guide and driver, pulled our vehicle around to the other side. The guides were always repositioning the vehicles so we could see better. It’s bizarre to me how the animals didn’t seem to notice much or care. We got a spectacular view of their full faces. Watching.

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Our field guide, Rasta, pointing out who the alpha is: 2nd one, 2nd row.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Still just waiting. I zoomed back so you could see how close we were. Pretty dang close. (That’s Ash’s cheek on the left!)

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Something is starting to happen. All this movement must mean something, right? Ok, maybe not.

    Soon after this they literally walked around our vehicle from behind. Rasta said they were using us as cover.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    I picked them up again on the other side, and you see the other vehicle in our party reposition to get closer. And again, we wait. This is life on a safari!

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Still intently watching the impala but poised to run.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    There was bedlam suddenly with the impalas, we think initiated by the warthogs who started running around like crazy. They may have sensed or seen the dogs approach, but the impala were clearly still clueless.

    Now what happened next, I sadly didn’t get on video. None of us did somehow, but several said they saw it. It may have happened during this last clip when I panned back to the dogs. But during the bedlam, one of the impalas collided with another who fell, and then a warthog trampled the fallen one. So, it was already down, injured, by the time the dogs started to move in. And may have been why the dogs started to move when they did. A simple, opportunistic kill.

     

     

     

     

     

     

    The dogs really start to move in, and the impala are initially frozen. You can tell they see them, but oddly don’t know what to do. Then, bedlam again and you can hear the running clearly. Notice there isn’t a warthog in sight. They fled long ago. (In reality, just 30-60 seconds or so but everything was happening very quickly yet somehow in slow motion at the same time.) The clicking you hear is Dylan’s camera.

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Impala still running, the dogs run behind that hill (probably a termite mound!) and that’s likely where the fallen Impala is.

     

     

     

     

     

     

    We moved in but weren’t as quick as the dogs. Everything that happened next was super quick. It was difficult to capture in the moving vehicle.

     

     

     

     

     

     

    That poor impala may still be alive at this point but only for seconds more if so. NOTE: the next few videos are pretty graphic.

     

     

     

     

     

     

    And now that impala is definitely dead. You can hear the clicking of Dylan’s camera and me being a bit squeamish. I never do well at the sight of blood. Can’t even watch my own being taken.

    A still of the feed for those of you who skipped the video!

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    I was already imagining the WARNING I’d need to give when I post this. Do they show this on Animal Planet? I’m glad the Land Cruiser is in the clip so you can see how close we are. Those dogs don’t care about us At All. And seeing something like this is pretty rare. Note that even Rasta, the field guide and driver, has his camera out. Gail said that in something like 50 safaris she’s been on, she’s only seen 6-7 kills, and this is the 2nd one of painted dogs.

    They moved over to our left and kept devouring. Notice there aren’t as many. The number of dogs get lower as each get their fill.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    As each were done, they made their way to some shade to rest and start cleaning each other. They’re so happy! Just two left now who can’t get enough.

    Most everyone is resting and mostly clean.

    We said goodbye as we watched them move on down the trail.

    The time lapse between the first and last photo was 25 minutes.

    Wow. My heart is pumping fast just seeing it all again. A fascinating display of nature and we all felt privileged – if not a little sick – to witness it. That we’d had the visit at the conservatory, and it never occurred to any of us that we’d even see a painted dog much less watch them hunt, made it all that more special.

    We came across a mud pool of hippos. There’s little water here, which everyone is waiting on, especially the hippos.

     

     

     

     

     

     

    You can see how little any of them are moving. There’s a discussion happening about they could leave and look for water but it’s complicated.

    The lodge from the field as we were heading back for brunch.

    Ash went and got some coffee. I went to the room to shower and change clothes before brunch. I also picked up our chargers. There are no outlets in the cabins, we can only use a communal charging area at the main lodge.

    Dylan and I were leaving at the same time and encountered this elephant on our path before we made it very far. We just did as instructed: stop, don’t make any noise, wait. So, we waited. And eventually he turned into the woods and back into the field we where could later see him as we had brunch.

    I couldn’t resist. Urinal view during the day.

    After the meal, Ash took a nap and showered, I worked on the blog at the lodge then we sat on the deck of our cabin for a while and just chilled. We went down for teatime at 3:30 and then the group went to visit the village before our traditional safari drive.

    On our way to the village, about a 45-minute drive, we came across wildebeest. We’ve seen them in the distance, but this is the closest we’ve gotten. Rasta says they’re not very bright: they’ll be running from a lion and then stop and look back because they forgot why they were running.

    This village is where some people from the Bayeye (3 syllables – bye-ee-ee) tribe live, farmers who came down from the north somewhere. It’s a village recognized as such as the Botswana government which means eventually a school and clinic will be built, although all of that is in progress. The lodges have helped build a community hall, which I believe is where we gathered this afternoon so the villagers could sell us stuff. This cutie greeted us as we pulled up to do some local shopping.

    Ash bought a little basket and coaster for our Airbnb unit in Sacramento from this woman.

    Gail encouraged us to participate in the music and dancing. Ash, of course, didn’t hesitate.

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Ash playing the drums.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    The dancing begins.

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Cute child getting in on the fun.

     

     

     

     

     

     

    These kids are more entertained by Ash. Even Amos the guide is filming him!

     

     

     

     

     

     

    A group effort, now including Amos, Rasta, and Ash.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Ash loved playing with this baby.

     

     

     

     

     

     

    The woman in the blue dress on the left end is the mother of the baby Ash is playing with. Note she’s pregnant again, as were many of the women.

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Ash, the baby, and Kit dancing. I wish I’d gotten more of this.

    Above and below: some shots of the village on the way out. Ash and I discussed after how happy they all seem – again, how happy everyone we’ve encountered seems. There’s no electricity or running water here.  Even among the workers. Rasta has grown up in the delta and has never left it and is an amazing, graceful, knowledgeable human being. This is the only life they know. And there’s no sense of wanting something different, just a sense of contentment. Given a choice, they would stay, at least the ones we came across.

     

    Another pretty sunset at sundowners.

    As the night before, we had dinner and Ash and I were the first ones to ask to be taken back to our rooms, and everyone followed. We were in bed by 9:15pm.

     

  • Day 9, May 31 – Chobe National Park to the Okavango Delta

    Day 9, May 31 – Chobe National Park to the Okavango Delta

    Posting this entry for Wednesday on Saturday, June 3, around 6:30pm from Maun, Botswana.

    It’s Thursday, June 1, 2023, 1:15pm as I type, sitting on the deck at Moremi Crossing in the Okavango Delta of Botswana while Ash is napping, pinching myself, completely amazed that this is my life. I just got through culling through almost 200 photos and videos from yesterday and this morning to figure how to do this blog at least partially daily without Wi-Fi. My original thought was to be very selective and just post all three days here as one entry. But it’s clear after not even 24 hours here that that won’t work. I’ve got the 200 down to about 80, but there’s still this evening and all day tomorrow to go.

    In the end, what I did was write it out in Word, indicate the file number of the image where I wanted it, then copied it all and uploaded once I got online again.

    Gail, our tour leader, several times referred to the Okavango as the most “wild” place she’s ever been. And I would hear her use “wild” as an adjective. But no, she meant it as a noun: there are no fences, the animals can go wherever they want, including up to and into your own cabin. You keep your door locked but give staff the key when you go out on safari drives so they can do things for you. Here, keys are to keep animals out – monkeys and baboons know how to work doors – not other people.

    Wednesday, we were up about 5:30am, I got the blog up for Tuesday – so all caught up to that point – just before we went over for breakfast shortly after 7am. We walked around a bit and discovered an outdoor chess game that we played a little. Ash beat me badly of course. Never was very good at chess and he’s a great strategist.

    Above and below: We packed and our group went to the Kasane International Airport – international because it hosts flights into and out of Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, and Johannesburg, South Africa. We left out of the domestic side since we were staying in Botswana.

    We all got into a 12-seater plane – just enough for the 11 of us.

    From the air you could see the airport and the Chobe River behind it.

    Ash and I were in the first row with Dylan, just behind the pilots.

    Ash can’t resist a selfie, and Sheryl, Jim and Gail joined in while Maire slept.

    This map reflects where we’ve been: Vic Falls and Hwange, Chobe not shown but essentially to the left of Vic Falls, and Maun where we will fly out of on Saturday. In between is the Okavango Delta.

    Specifically, we are in Moremi Game Reserve which is a huge portion of the southern end of the Delta.  The circle roughly indicates where the lodge is where we stayed.

    Dead center is the airstrip we landed on after an hour’s flight.

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Ash took a video of landing.

    We transferred to 3 much smaller planes that only sat 4 people, so we went 3/4/4.

    Ash and I went with Gail on the first plane. There wasn’t a co-pilot on this flight, so the pilot let Ash sit up front.

    We landed on an even smaller airstrip about 15 minutes later and waited for the other two planes. We joked about the screen shelter on the left being the business class lounge, but it was a useful protectant from the dust that sprayed around as planes landed and took off.

    Both of these airstrips were dirt, and a worker had animal duty – we watched him chase warthogs off the runway! This last one is the shortest in the Delta; pretty much every camp has their own. There aren’t any real roads here.

    The entrance to our lodge, Moremi Crossing: MX.

    We were greeted by locals in song again. Video below.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Once again, the accommodations are terrific. Here’s the buffet line for all of our meals.

    Beautifully set table.

    Just to let go of something, I’m not going to include food photos for these 3 days unless something really astounding is served. Suffice it to say it’s all great quality stuff; we decided (at the end) better than Chobe but not as good as Sable. We did not go hungry for sure: continental breakfast before the first safari drive at 6am, snacks and coffee at a stop in the bush mid-morning, a full brunch upon return around 11am; teatime at 3:30pm, sundowners with snacks at 5:45pm; dinner around 8pm.

    Our view from the lodge. One of them anyway. You can see pretty much 270 degrees the way it curves. Elephants and warthogs shown; usually buffalo out there, too.

    The gang at our first meal here, around 2pm when we first arrived. The host standing up on the left is Nature. Seriously – that’s the name his mother gave him.

    From there we were walked to our cabins, where we found our bags were already taken. There are only 17 cabins, roughly equal number on each side of the main lodge. We are almost at the end on the left side, cabin 16, between Dylan and Gail.

    One of the instructions we received on our initial briefing is that we are not allowed to walk to/from our rooms at night without a staff escort. That’s how wild it is – they want someone experienced with the animals around to navigate – or not – should you encounter something.

    This is our front porch, where we enjoyed time doing not much at all.

    Bedroom. While technically it’s a tent – it’s made of canvas and has lots of flaps, zippers and Velcro – this is beyond glamping even in my opinion. Proper doors, hardwood floors, actual furniture. The only inconvenience was no heat – and it’s COLD at night – and no electrical outlets. But a little light and a hard-wired fan.

    Sink area.

    Toilet. With sort of a door and everything! (Our last one had no door…)

    Outdoor shower. As long as you used it during the day it was GREAT. Superhot and great water pressure. But it got me out of my travel habit of showering just before bed because it was too dang cold once the sun went down.

    The view of the plains from our deck.

    We had time enough to orient ourselves and head back for teatime – although we weren’t hungry – and our first safari drive on the delta.

    The water hasn’t made it to the Delta yet which is a big disappointment. It comes down from Angola, through the Caprivi strip of Namibia and finally into Botswana. But we are at the most southern point of it. It’s normally here this time of year, but with all kinds of things syphoning water off the river as it comes downstream, like for farming, it’s getting here late. They’re thinking by July. But upside is, the animals are more concentrated because there’s so little water. I can say this now, but in the next day’s post there will be the WILDEST experience we had on the whole trip, and it wouldn’t have happened if the water had been in.

    We’ve seen lots of warthogs on this trip, but this was our first closeup. They are usually running away from us. Let me say here that we’ve learned a lot. The guides – except for that one at Chobe that one morning – all share an incredible amount of information about what we’re seeing. That said, remembering it is something else! All I remember about these guys is they are very family-oriented, somewhat visible in this photo.

    We’ve seen thousands of termite mounds on this trip. They’re all over. But in the Delta they play a special role. It literally wouldn’t exist without them. And they were sometimes different – as seen here – where there were trees growing out of them. And yes, the termite mounds were likely there first. You can read more about it here if you’re interested.

    There are palm trees everywhere, first time we’ve seen them on this trip.

    We came across a den of hyenas. Forget what you learned in The Lion King; Disney got it all wrong. The “laughing” thing is a myth. These guys are also very family oriented, and we were delighted with the 2 pups. This pup was curious about us. There was another adult around the corner of the brush.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Brothers playing tug of war with a stick!

    Yes, there are elephants here, too. This is probably one of the last photos you’ll see of one unless something special happens. We’re all like “we’re good with elephants now!”

    What we hadn’t seen was elephant bones, as seen in this photo. We’ve actually seen this quite a bit here.

    Another beautiful sunset at sundowners.

    The camp had a lovely fire for us when we got back.

    We had dinner and Ash and I were the first to say we were ready to go back to our cabin, around 9pm. With the exception of 1 couple, everyone was on our side of the camp – and decided to join us so the escort just had to make one trip. So we broke up the party early 3 nights in a row! No one seemed to mind. They were long, action-packed days.

     

  • Day 8, May 30 – Chobe National Park, part 2

    Day 8, May 30 – Chobe National Park, part 2

    We were asked to meet at the lodge entrance at 5:45am for a 6am safari ride. It was dark when we left; we drove around for quite a while without seeing much. And, we all agreed that this particular guide wasn’t as good as the guides we had at Sable, or the guys on the boat. It’s amazing the difference that makes. He responded to questions, but there wasn’t a lot of things he offered on his own. Maybe it was because there wasn’t much wildlife out.

    We had our first close encounter with a hippo – the first time we’ve seen one out of the water. The above shot was taken without a zoom; he was maybe 15 feet away.

    Zoomed in you can see him much better.

    I wished I’d moved fast enough to video this, but at least I got a couple of shots of him opening his mouth, above, and lifting his open mouth up to the sky, below.

     

    This is how we usually encounter hippos – just barely seeing their heads above water. There are 12-15 in this group. We learned they can’t actually swim, they just walk along the bottom but can hold their breath for like 7 minutes.

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Guineafowls. We saw tons of them this morning. Their movements reminded us of the opening theme of The Partridge Family!

    We caught the sunrise of the Chobe River at 6:47am.

    Some of the river has a decent beach which we drove on.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    We stopped and watched the shenanigans of these guys for a little while.

    We stopped for a coffee and potty break around 7:30am. Gail had warned us that this park would be much more crowded and this proved it. I think the most vehicles we saw out at once was 5 at the most – and two of them ours. Here are 8 lined up and I believe 2 more that arrived after I took this.

    The view of the river behind me from where I took the shot of the vehicles.

    This was the closest we’ve seen a warthog. We’d only seen 2 or 3 maybe before this the whole trip, and usually running away from us.

    We came across a giraffe in the road on our way back.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    I do love the way they move.

    There was another sort of behind us to our right.

    Don’t ask me the name of this bird, I just like the pale pretty shades of pink and green. Or is that blue?

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Mongoose! Mongeese? No, a group of them is a pack.

    We were supposed to get back to the lodge by 9am but it was after 9:30 when we returned. Everyone was hungry! They had a very nice buffet. Mine above: scrambled eggs, fried hash brown patties, mushrooms and beans, pork sausage and bacon. Ash’s below is similar except he got an omelet and smokes salmon.

    They also had a waffle bar. We shared one with fresh whipped cream and honey.

    After breakfast, I went back to the room and worked on the blog from the balcony. I’d also waited in the lobby for one of the lodge workers to come back with some change – he’d gone into town for us to exchange $20’s for 1s and 5s – everyone here likes dollars, too, and you find yourself tipping a lot.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Ash and Dylan did a border crossing excursion into Namibia. These village women welcomed them with song and dance once they were across the border.

    Ash with a 2000-year-old baobab tree. They have been suddenly dying across the continent the last few years, scientists believe due to cliimate change.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    It’s a poor village of about 200 people. This video shows a bit of how the richest guy there lives.

    They did a little shopping and came back about 1pm. Ash and I walked into the town of Kasane, just 1-2 km in. There wasn’t much to see so we came back for a small lunch.

    This is where we’ve been having breakfast and dinner. Our group has a reserved table for all 11 of us behind that gray station right behind Ash’s head. For lunch we shared a sesame chicken salad which was fresh, light, tasty. We’ve discovered something new we will have to try at home: roasted capers. I’m not a huge caper fan – generally not a fan of pickled much of anything – but these roasted ones are Amazing.

    At 3pm we went over to the spa where I got a massage from Virginia, above, who used her hands and this wood instrument she’s holding. While the piece of wood was solid, using it on the body after applying oil or lotion made it feel like a rolling pin. It was pretty cool and allowed her to go deep in some concentrated places without it hurting the way other deep tissue massages I’ve had do. Ash got a manicure, but the woman was not very good, and had forgotten her glasses so couldn’t see well. It wasn’t an optimal experience for him :(

    We went back to the room and hung out, me working on the blog and Ash playing a game on his phone – something I’d discovered while he was in Paris that he has since developed his own addiction for :) We went out at 7pm for dinner again, another good buffet. Above is mine: a vegetable medley of baby corn, Brussel sprouts and a squash; mashed sweet potatoes, and a butternut squash casserole. The shredded meat was beef but it had a gamey taste to it I didn’t care for, which surprised me. I later got some roasted beef and beets that were very good.

    For dessert: a bit of lemon cheesecake, chocolate, and a sort of toffee bar. I completely forgot to take photos of Ash’s food. Every guy for himself, I guess.

    We got back to the room, I finished another day of the blog – the post before this one – and we were in bed by 9:30am. We woke up around 5:30am. It’s now just after 7am and we will head down to breakfast as soon as I post this. We leave for the Okavango Delta about 10:30am on small 6-seater planes. It’s Wednesday morning now. We will be completely disconnected once we leave until we get to Maun sometime on Saturday. I’m rethinking how to do the blog and will likely just get very selective and post one entry for all 3 days we are in the Delta. We heard yesterday that the water hasn’t come down yet from Angola so it’s going to be a land experience instead. Will be interesting to see how it all turns out.

    Thanks for coming along so far! Probably the earliest I’ll have another post up is sometime on Sunday our time. We will see you when we see you!

    PS: since we missed sunset last night, I’m using a photo from the prior entry as the featured photo….just because….

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • Day 7, May 29 – Chobe National Park, Botswana

    Day 7, May 29 – Chobe National Park, Botswana

    This entry is for Monday, May 29. Happy belated Memorial Day to USA readers! We got up about 5am, packed, and made our way to base camp for coffee around 6am. Breakfast was at 6:45am and we were on the road by 7:30.

    We finally saw some sables on our way out, which was fitting since they are the namesake of the lodge we stayed at.

    We made a stop at Painted Dog Conservatory, something we’d missed on the way in because our tour leader forgot they closed on the last weekend of every month for fumigation!

    In general we are impressed with conservation efforts we’ve encountered everywhere we’ve been. This story was pretty stark: at one point there were 500,000 painted dogs – see puppies in photo above – and hunters were actually paid to kill them. Between that going too far and other things, such as habitats being destroyed by civilization moving in, there are now just about 7000. They are “Africa’s most successful super predator,” hunting very skillfully in packs. On average, their hunts yield a kill 70% of the time. Kudu – a deer type animal which I will have for dinner later in the day! – is their primary meal.

    We got a little tour of this museum and a 15-minute story about them and were encouraged to do some shopping after to contribute to the cause. There was jewelry and other art made from trap wire that painted dogs have been released from. Many of them have GPS collars on them so watchers can tell if they get accidentally trapped in something meant for impala, etc., and go and rescue them.

    The efforts these folks are going to was quite impressive, so we didn’t mind buying this little dog made from trap wire that’s been beaded. $15.

    We made a stop at the now infamous Chicken Inn (and pizza, and ice cream) for a potty break, and for some of us to get shakes. How cute is this? They wrote “enjoy” on my shake with chocolate syrup. Have I mentioned that literally everything we’ve encountered here so far – in 3 different African countries – is entirely in English? And every person we’ve interacted has spoken English? Apparently, that’s pretty common in eastern and southern Africa. The impact of the British empire runs deep and wide.

    We had some hoops to jump through at the Zimbabwe/Botswana border but got through pretty painlessly. We made it to the Chobe Safari Lodge by about 1:30pm.

    Looking back at the entrance. That’s Gail on the left talking to one of the lodge staff. The entrances here are open – no doors required – just like a resort we stayed at in Costa Rica.

    We gathered for our first briefing about the complex. It’s actually 2 hotels next door to each other but all the same company and everything connected so for simplicity purposes I’m just referring to it as all the same thing.

    The dining room where we had lunch in a bit at that table on the very far left by those canoes on the wall. The common spaces here are huge. We were given our keys and checked into our rooms after they took our lunch orders.

    Another dump! Seriously, we couldn’t be happier with the accommodations on this trip. And a place to write! It’s where I’m sitting as I type.

    A nice chair where Ash is sitting now, just like in this photo…

    Earlier while writing the prior post I was sitting on the balcony with this as my view.

    The bathroom has a tub AND a shower.

    I had a beef burger for lunch that came with a nice side salad which I’d already eaten before I thought to take a photo. Ash had similar but with chicken. They were Huge. We mostly ate the meat and not the bread. The fries were good.

    We were to meet at the jetty which is at the other hotel at 2:45pm. This was the view along the way. We sat just to the left of this today for lunch.

    There were LOTS of people waiting to get on boats. We’d been led to believe our group would have one to ourselves and I started to doubt that.

    Oh ye of little faith. This was my view at the start of the ride, unobstructed of the beautiful Chobe River, which is the border between Botswana and Namibia. After not too long there were others from our group sitting up there so I was glad I got this shot at the start.

    There was a rooftop deck that allowed us to get this great shot.

    The crew and field guides were again super knowledgeable, we were very pleased with all of the information they shared on the 3-hour cruise. This was our first briefing and after that it all depended on what wildlife we came across.

    We’d seen lots of elephants at this point but never in the water. This mother and baby were swimming across the river to get to the fresh grass. Botswana is mostly desert – the Kalahari in these parts – so they have to come here for grass.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Getting to the other side to eat! You can hear our field guide talking.

    As always, I don’t remember the name, but this bird was beautiful. And a good size. He sat there for quite a while with his wings spread, waiting for them to dry because otherwise his body is too heavy to fly.

    Crocodile!

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    The point of this was a 270 degree look around from where I was sitting to try to capture the grandeur of the scenery. Doesn’t quite do it but you’ll get the gist.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    A small bird with beautiful shimmery blue coloring that was very hard to capture because it was so quick. We must’ve watched it fly and land 6 times. I managed to catch one of them.

    An egret hitching a ride on an elephant. A littler later he shooed it away by squirting water on it with his trunk. The guide told us that this charcoal gray is the elephants natural color, you pretty much only see it in the water. Once they get out, they roll around in mud and dirt which they use to protect their sensitive skin from the sun and from parasites.

    We were right at 4 corners, where 4 countries meet: Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Namibia.

    We saw LOTS of birds on this river cruise.

     

     

     

     

     

     

    There are two crocodiles in this clip: one on the left in the water, one on the right on the shore. But the stars of this movie are the birds in the background.

     

     

     

     

     

     

    These baby elephants are the cutest.

    Finally – a reasonable hippo sighting. They spend a LOT of time in the water with just their eyes out so it’s difficult to get a good shot of them. There are at least 5 of them in this photo.

    I’m not sunburnt really – that’s just the lighting from the sun shining directly on me. Ash and I kept looking at each other on this 3-hour ride going “can you believe this?” The breeze was so cool, the scenery and wildlife gorgeous, the guides, crew and other tourists all super friendly. It was a tremendously relaxing afternoon, and we enjoyed every minute of it.

    You’ve seen buffalo before, but not at the river! You can easily see the crowns on these males in this photo.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Yes, there are buffalo and elephants in this video. But what I was really capturing was the beauty of the scenery. Pay attention to the reflection of the land in the water.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    There are 7 elephants in this video, 2 of them babies. The baby on the right is having a hard time figuring out how to drink from the river, or something. The other baby you can’t really see but is underneath the large elephant on the far left.

    These elephants did not care At All that 5 boats (including us) had pulled up to watch them.

    The weather was similar to the prior 2 days – nice and warm in the sun at 81, a lovely cool in the shade, especially with a breeze, and a brisk 50-55 in the morning.

    I must’ve taken 50 photos of the sunset but decided on just these two above and below for final entry.

    Several entries ago I mentioned purchases we had arranged on that first night the tour group gathered in Victoria Falls. They were delivered to us today. Above is a runner we had made two-sided – rows of African art (masks and bodies dancing in costume) on one side, and butterflies against a wild checkerboard pattern on the other. Will look great on our dining room table!

    As at the other two places, the mosquito netting was down when we came back in the evening. We went back out again at 7pm for dinner.

    There’s a pretty extravagant buffet. This doesn’t look like much but was 3 delicious salads – avocado, beef, and beet.

    Ash got a shrimp stir-fry.

    I had grilled kudu – think deer but tasted like beef. Was very tender and delicious. Also, some chicken, vegetables, grilled sweet potato and cabbage. All wonderful.

    A wonderful cheese board which thrilled Ash.

    I had 3 little desserts: a white cake, a custard of some kind, and a bread pudding that was my favorite of this trio.

    And that was our day. I finally managed to get Saturday’s blog up just before we went to bed around 9pm. And this entry will be going up just about 9pm on Tuesday. With another day posted about 4 hours ago, all that’s left is today’s (Tuesday’s) entry and I’ll be caught up. Before I fall behind again. There won’t be any Wi-Fi in the Okavango Delta where we will be for 3 nights.

     

  • Day 6, May 28 – Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe

    Day 6, May 28 – Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe

    This is the 6th safari for one of our fellow travelers, Maire (pronounced “maura”), from Canada. She describes them as similar to baseball: long boring periods of not much followed by a homerun. This day was definitely like that: lots of nothing, a couple of hits, and finally an over-the-fence homerun late in the evening.

    This is our first full day of safari. We were asked to meet at base camp at 5:30am so here we are. Coffee and some small muffins and we were off.

    If you recall the vehicles from the day before, they are open-air. No windshields even. And it was 54 degrees. Which theoretically isn’t all that cold – until you’re in a moving vehicle with no protection. While those specific details were left out of the 17-page planning document they provided, they at least advised us to pack for cold mornings, so that’s why everyone is dressed like that.

    It’s a bit early to be out and about, but there’s no other way to catch shots like this giraffe and tree silhouetted against the sunrise. It’s ridiculous, isn’t it? That bar across the top is the Land Cruiser, which gives you an idea of how close we were.

    We also watched this very entertaining troop of baboons which had climbed these electrical towers and were starting their descent. Some of them chose to slide down the thick metal stabilizing cables which were slanted at a comfortable 45 degrees. Hilarious. Too far away to capture on video or still photo but a sight we will never forget for sure.

    We made it to the official entrance of Hwange National Park right at 7am, which means for over an hour we were just on the land leased by the lodges. It’s a big space. The distance to various points within the park is expressed in kilometers – some over 50.

    Our first daytime giraffe in the middle of a herd of zebras.

    An observation deck and restroom in the park where we stopped for breakfast.

    The guides set up breakfast in front of the jeeps, just like at sundowners the night before. Muffins, egg & bacon sandwiches, instant coffee, juice. It worked.

    With zebras across the watering hole, this was our breakfast view.

    With the sun out it was warm enough to take off our beanies. While in the Land Cruisers we also had these quilted ponchos to wear courtesy of the lodge which were quite effective keeping cold and wind out.

    Who knows how many kinds of birds we’ve seen already (especially as of this writing well into day 4). I quickly quit taking photos of them because they were rarely close enough to capture. And after about the 3rd one gave up on names. So don’t ask me about the ones above but they were a beautiful blue color and, like the ones below, not shy. Clearly, they were used to people dropping food, if not outright feeding them as I caught a guy in a vehicle who pulled up after us doing – much to the chagrin of his wife. “How could you!?” There are big signs asking you NOT to feed the animals. People food is really dangerous to these guys in the wild so it’s not a good idea to give them anything.

    This is a hornbill, related to the version which is Zazu in The Lion King; I only know this because Gail kept calling them Zazu!

    A dead tree still standing. The wood becomes very strong and is still useable.

    Just left of center is the rear and side view of a hippo facing away from us. This is the closest we’d gotten to one yet. We’ve seen others but usually just eyes popping out of the water and difficult to spot.

    These two photos are just to record terrain changes – woods above, plains below. They were taken 13 minutes apart.

     

    We made it back to camp about 11:45am. So that was a 6-hour safari drive where not much happened. Somehow it wasn’t boring. Above is a shot I took for the sole purpose of showing more of the lodge: that’s our room on the left, and the one Sheryl & Jim are in on the right. So, some space between each one. We believe the lodge was full and there was maybe 20 people there total; I think according to the website it’s only 12 rooms.

    Lunch was at 1pm at the main camp: a simple salad and beef lasagna.

    Ash had signed up for the vegetarian options (although technically he isn’t, just doesn’t eat beef or pork) and was served a vegetable stir fry with noodles.

    A lovely lemon meringue.

    We had the afternoon free and I worked on Saturday’s blog (on Sunday afternoon, didn’t finish until Monday night), with this view. Not too shabby. The Wi-Fi was slow; I just did the writing and uploaded photos and indicated where I wanted to add a video. I uploaded all those Monday night when we got to Chobe.

    We went out again about 4pm. Right away we found ourselves nearly surrounded by buffalo.

    Look at the horizon to see how far back these go – there were hundreds; someone guessed 800 although we think maybe it was more like 500. A bunch of buffalo regardless.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Our closest elephant encounter yet. We had a similar one on the other side of the vehicle shortly after this. No one moved, everyone talked in whispers. Apparently, the reason none of the animals bother us is they don’t perceive the vehicle to be a threat or prey. As long as they can’t differentiate the people from the vehicle – perceive it all as one – then it’s fine. So, no waving, shouting, camera flashes, or anything like that. This all became very important suddenly later in the evening.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    These guys got into a little tussle.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Time for our sundowner!

    Sundowner Ussie!

    A classic African sunset with the beautiful acacia tree. This is the same tree that was in the background of one of the first safari photos from the prior post, the one with impalas and monkeys.

    We got back to the lodge about 6:45pm. I hadn’t even sat down yet – we were all ready for 7pm dinner – when one of the field guides yelled “back in the vehicles, the lions are out!” All of the field guides stay in contact via radio and someone still out on a safari drive had spotted a lion tracking buffalo. Our guy had seen tracks but since it was so close to dinner time and dark already we went back. But now that there was official word away we went.

     

     

     

     

     

     

    I couldn’t believe me eyes when Rodwell turned the vehicle into the grass with the lights on: sure enough, an entire pride of lions stalking. They are night hunters because it’s easier to track and trick their prey, and then sleep during the day when it’s hot. Their night vision is as good if not better than their day vision, and they communicate with each other by ear and tail movements. Lions – and leopards – are incredibly difficult to spot during the day. You can hear how quiet we are talking.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    I love how one of them just sits down to wait. Gail said this kind of sighting is extraordinarily rare, so we felt very privileged to have witnessed it.

    This one came over to our left and just sat there for the longest time. Another vehicle came and shined the lights on her. It’s amazing to me that she just sits, doesn’t seem to care that we’re around even though we’re shining bright lights at her. There must’ve been 5 or so safari vehicles all milling about. Eventually she walked off in front of us, never even looked at us.

    This was another one who was just sitting behind us for the longest time. Rodwell turned his lights on her as we were getting ready to leave.

    Same lion but didn’t use the zoom here. That’s how close she was – maybe 15-20 feet from the vehicle.

    We didn’t gather for dinner finally until almost 8pm – we’d been out on the lion escapade almost an hour and it was COLD. Thank god they built a nice fire!

    Dinner was oxtail and curry chicken, mashed potatoes, cous cous, vegetables. And theoretically a cheesecake for dessert which I didn’t take a photo of if I in fact had some, which I no longer remember! So long ago…

    We went to bed soon after dinner. We were exhausted having been up since 4am and were thankful we didn’t have as early a start the next day – just had to report to camp by 6:45am for breakfast.

    This is the entry for Sunday, May 28; I’m posting around 4:45pm Africa time Tuesday, May 30.