African Safari

It's been a while since I've been able to update my blog. As you might guess, internet access is not always easy to find while camping your way through Africa - but here we go.

I last wrote about our travels through Scotland and the subsequent troubles we had in London in trying to prepare early and get our India visas. In the end it worked out, but we did need to buy Amanda a new flight to Africa. To avoid having to do that for myself as well, I flew as originally scheduled (my passport had been returned to in time for my flight). So I arrived in Cape Town, South Africa four days ahead of Amanda.

The dominant feature of the area is Table Mountain, below which Cape Town was built. That's table mountain in the background - this view was taken from a suburb of Cape Town where I was staying with my most excellent Couch Surfing host Cobus...




Aside from this pleasant view the city has much more to offer, like its botanical gardens, the old castle fortifications, and the Victoria and Albert waterfront area. I didn’t realize Cape Town was so big, but at over 4,000,000 people, it’s definitely big. Nearby is Roben Island, home to the prison where Nelson Mandela was incarcerated for some 20 years. Unfortunately I was unable to visit due to the ferry service being closed because of inclement weather.

But I did go to the apartheid museum and got some exposure to this period of history. Here is a picture of an actual sign on display at the museum…




Before too much time Amanda joined me in Cape Town and we began our African overland tour. Here’s what were driving in.




It’s a custom fitted vehicle (named Chobe - and pronounced "cho-bee" ) which can carry 24 guests plus a driver and tour guide in the front cab. Our group started with 23 people and a few have left the group at various points along the way. In fact, most of the 23 will leave the truck at Livingstone, Zambia. At that point we will pick up some other people and carry on to Kenya.

Many days include long drives – sometimes up to 10 hours. To pass the time people read, play cards or other games, chat, or sleep.

Here’s a typical scene of what life on Chobe looks like…




As this is not a luxury tour, we all have some work to do for helping out. We are divided into five groups (me and Amanda are in group “D”), and each day a group has a different job such as cooking, cleaning, packing up, cleaning Chobe, etc. Here’s a pic of me and Amanda cooking pancakes on our first cooking day…



Our tour exited South Africa on day two, and that’s when we entered the country of Namibia. Namibia is a large, but mostly empty country. In fact, only 2.2 million people live in the entire country.

We drove out to see Fish River Canyon, which is the second largest in the world (the Grand Canyon in USA is the largest).



The scenic highlight of Namibia, however, was Deal Vlei. The word “vlei” refers to an isolated region in a desert that contains water – either as a small lake or as moist soil. The one we visited was called Dead Vlei for a reason – it is not a vlei any longer.



The area was totally surreal, like being on another planet with the dried and twisted trees set against the tree colors (white clay floor, red dunes, and blue sky). The trees here have been sitting in this desert for over 500 years!

And our local guide through this walk was amazing. He said many people think a dry hot desert contains no life but he could spot the tiniest sign of life and knew how to get that animal. For example, there are some lizards out in the sand, and he knows they are afraid of birds. So all he did was throw his hat in the air toward the lizard. In a defence reflex, the lizard dove under the loose sand, and then our guide just walked right up, scooped his hand into the sand and picked up the little lizard. He knew similar tricks for spiders, and many other ones. But the strangest story he told us was about the real bush men who used to live in the area. They could live off the barren land and had no possessions – nothing at all. Up until about 1920 or so, these natives were actually considered as animals by the local government, and permits were issued to hunt them as trophy animals. Unbelievable.


At sunrise one morning we hiked up “dune 45”. It was a bit of a walk, but watching the sun rise over the dunes was unforgettable.



As our tour continued north, we crossed the tropic of Capricorn…



…and we drove and drove and drove some more. Eventually we got to the town of Swakopmund where we had a rest day, and took advantage to have some good fun. Some of us went sandboarding – which is just like snowboarding, except the opposite (if I can say that). You walk up a sand dune, carrying your snow board with you, strap on, (don’t forget to rub in the wax first!) and then zoom down the sand. The experience is like snowboarding in slow motion.



We also were given a piece of cardboard to lie on, and were given a much much steeper dune to zoom down. At the bottom a guy had a radar gun set up and I clocked the day's fastest ride at over 70 km/hr! That was probably more fun than the stand-up boarding.

After our day off we drove north along the coast, and came across an area famous for its resident Cape Cross seal colony.



But the whole reason for driving this route was to get to Etosha National Park. We had the most excellent camp site there - mainly because the owners have built a large water hole in the area which is fenced off, but it’s immediately beside our camp. In fact, our camp almost surrounds the watering hole. And they have lights set up so you can sit on the benches and view all through the night if you want (and that’s when the viewing is best)




But sometimes during the day you can see a lot of activity at the water hole. And during daylight is really the only time you can get good photos.




I was very lucky to get this next short video clip. This hungry elephant had eaten all the lower branches and couldn’t reach the green leaves higher in the tree, so he solved the problem his own way.




We did a game drive in our truck and drove by a natural watering hole. Here you can see all sorts of animals waiting patiently for the lions to leave so they can have a drink. I was surprised those animals would come so close to the lions, but I guess they know better than I do what is a safe distance.




Here's a few seconds of video showing the animals around our camp's watering hole...




I could just sit there all day and watch, but unfortunately we had to leave our awesome camp in Etosha National Park, and we drove to our next country, which was Botswana. While there we met some of the local bush men. They spoke their “click” language and an interpreter told us what they were saying.



We learned a bit about finding water in the area, and the decline of their people and their culture. They also showed us something I’ve always wanted to see – starting a fire by rubbing sticks together.





Back on our truck “Chobe” we drove deeper into Botswana and finally got to the famous Okavango Delta, which is the largest inland delta in the world. We were met there by some locals who had their dugout canoes (called mokorros) ready for us, so with two guests in a canoe a guide would push us along with a long pole in the water. They did this for three hours to get us to our camp. It was very relaxing (for us, I mean – I’m sure the guides were working very hard).



Once at camp we did an evening bush walk with our guides and it was really exciting to see elephants, zebra, giraffe, springbok, wildebeest, etc, with no fence between us and them. Just the guide’s good sense on where to walk and how close to get kept us safe. It was an unforgettable feeling. After a second walk early the next morning our guides had us back in our makorros and we returned to dry land.

The next day a group of us hired two very small airplanes to fly us over part of the delta at 500 feet elevation. The perspective was amazing. We could see so much of the flat land but were still low enough to spot individual animals




A few days later we were in the amazing Chobe National Park. We did a very early morning game drive followed by an afternoon river cruise. We saw many animals – and very close up. Seeing the hippos close up was really neat…





But we also saw many others including baboons, mongoose, and the usual boring elephants, giraffe, crocs, zebra, oryx, etc. These bright birds (called bee eaters) were very attractive




Next we entered the country of Zambia – home to Victoria Falls. Stay tuned for the next blog update in the coming days and weeks.