01/04/08

Overview

We're back from yet another fantastic adventure! Botswana is one of the finest tourist destinations on the African continent. The Okavango Delta, which originates in the uplands of Angola to the north-west, flows into and then spreads over the sandy spaces of the Kalahari to form an immense and wondrous inland delta of lagoon and labyrinthine channel, palm-fringed island and fertile floodplain. A number of safari lodges and camps have been established in and around this watery wilderness. Read all about our time in the bush!

(Select the hyperlinks below to go directly to the journal entry for that day.)

Day 1 - Arrival in Stroud, United Kingdom
Day 2 - Stonehenge
Day 3 - Travel to Johannesburg, South Africa
Day 4 - Royal Livingstone Hotel - Zambia
Day 5 - Victoria Falls - Zambia
Day 6 - Chobe Game Lodge - Botswana
Day 7 - Mambo Camp, Botswana
Day 8 - Mambo, Day 2
Day 9 - Chiefs Camp, Botswana
Day 10 - Chiefs Camp, Day 2
Day 11 - Travel to Cape Town, South Africa
Day 12 - Cape Town
Day 13 - Cape Town, Day 2

June 19/20, 2005 - Arrival in Stroud, United Kingdom:

We departed from Denver on a 9.5 hour flight to London. With the 7 hour time difference and air time we arrived in London with Siobhan's smiling face greeting us around mid afternoon on June 20. We felt surprisingly awake given the long trip. It was an enjoyable greeting and a scenic drive though the countryside to Siobhán’s home in Stroud. We were looking forward to spending a few days in her world before going onto our African safari. We stopped by a local market to pick up some breakfast goodies and proceeded to Siobhán’s home.

Her place is lovely! The homes in the area have such personality, Stroud sits atop one of the many hills and valleys in the region, and Sio's home is perched atop a spectacular curvy street with many views. She's spent many hours creating her garden and has great pride in her blossoming delights! :) She is a most gracious host and prepared wonderful meals for our dining pleasure. I'm hooked on English tea with breakfast and after most meals. After settling in, we went for a walk at a botanical garden/koi pond place - the flora is incredible! It is actually a working school – check out this Quick time video to experience for yourself! With the levels of rain and humidity in the area, everything was blooming brightly and lusciously green.

After a nice leg stretching stroll, we went back home to enjoy dinner and great conversation before our bodies gave into exhaustion.

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June 21 - Stonehenge:

Happy Summer Solstice! We awoke after a nice long nights rest feeling human again! It's amazing what real sleep will do for our sunny dispositions! Siobhan was already bumping about with the breakfast table set and croissants hot out of the oven. By mid day we were in the car driving toward the legendary site of Stonehenge! Luckily we'd missed most of the huge crowd that had camped out the night before. The remaining rock formations of Stonehenge attract approximately 1500 people per day and on special occasions like the Solstice celebrations attract more than 30,000 people to the site.

It really is just as magnificent as we'd imagined it would be! There is something peacefully calming about the standing stones. And after reading about what it took to create this legendary landmark - we were even more impressed. All the stones that were brought to this specific location and aligned so precisely were brought in over a period of 1500 years, transported over rolling logs for nearly 20 miles! The heaviest stone weighed 50 tons and took 500 people to move it!

The British countryside is very charming and we enjoyed a nice lunch at a small pub in Tilshead.

Other notable facts that we learned along the way:

After our educational day, we returned to Sio's to make dinner. I'd promised to treat her to my magic of using the BBQ. Her grill was brand new and waiting to be broken in. We made an incredible variety of goodies, running the gamut of flavors as you'd imagine from 2 Gemini’s and a Sag! We had sausages, pork chops, burgers, corn on the cob, Portobello mushrooms, and wonderful mixed green salads along with baguettes heated on the BBQ.

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June 22 - Travel to Johannesburg, South Africa:

It was hard to believe that we already needed to pack up and head to the London airport :-( The time went so fast! We enjoyed a leisurely breakfast and the chirping birds before packing and hitting the 2 hour drive on the M4 motorway back to London. We look forward to returning again or having Sio come to Colorado! :-)

We arrived at London Heathrow with plenty of time to relax and enjoy a light snack before making our way to our gate for our 11 hour flight to Johannesburg, South Africa.

We started seeing many of the gals that we'd be spending the next couple of weeks with - amazing! We met some dear friends from other trips and quickly settled in for the adventure that was before us.

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June 23 - Royal Livingstone Hotel, Zambia:

We arrived in Johannesburg, South Africa around 6:30am, spent much of the morning getting through immigration and customs before departing on our 90 minute flight to Livingstone, Zambia. At this point we were all very glad that we did not attempt to fly straight through from the States. Even with a few days break in between, the flights seemed long and exhausting.

After a short bus ride, we arrived at the Royal Livingstone Hotel around mid afternoon, situated within walking distance of Victoria Falls. From the deck, we could see the misty edge of the Falls. It was already clear to us why this is one of the 7 Natural Wonders of the World. We learned a lot about monkeys - they are very cute and very naughty! We'd been warned by everyone from hotel staff to tour personnel to not leave our windows or doors open for even one minute without a watchful eye for the monkeys. It's true - they are sneaky and work in packs - it's hard to get mad at them because they are so cute.

After unpacking, we decided to venture out and explore a bit of our new home for the next few days. We barely walked out our door when we were greeted by our friendly driver Alec who offered to take us around the resort on his golf cart (main source of transportation). We learned that the resort is quite large in size with 100's of acres and that a small herd of zebras, giraffes and impalas have made their home here (this is not including the hundreds of monkeys and sizeable baboon population)

After getting a Grande tour, we joined a few others on the deck to take in our first African sunset. We were quite entertained by all the monkeys playing near the tables and their repeated attempts to swipe morsels of food from unknowing tourists. When they didn't get their way, they would climb up into the trees and chew off these little seed pods and throw them down onto the people who would not give up their snacks. It was a spectacular afternoon. We enjoyed a wonderful meal, and then headed back to our room for some much needed rest.

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June 24 - Victoria Falls, Zambia:

Are you ready for an action packed day?? On today’s agenda we have: A 2 hour tour of Victoria Falls right after breakfast. Then we depart to the neighboring country of Zimbabwe for an elephant riding adventure and we come back to the hotel in time for a leisurely riverboat sunset cruise.

Our first adventure begins with a nice walk to the Victoria Falls trailhead. The views along the trail were just spectacular! What an experience - I've never been around so much water! The impact of the water hitting the bottom of the Falls with such force that it actually appeared to be raining upward. Our guide advised us that it was time to put on the raincoats that we'd been carrying and we proceeded onto a small bridge with nothing between us and the Falls - the thunderous roar was something else! We saw something completely spectacular - a complete rainbow, from beginning to end actually makes a full circle. It spread a distance to vast too capture on film, but you will have to believe me when I say it was magnificent. Unbelievable - we did our best to capture as much as we could with photos and video without completely destroying our equipment due to the monsoon like conditions. Even with the raincoats, any portion of fabric that was exposed was completely drenched. Luckily the hot Africa sun dried us out before long. What a cool experience!

Just when we thought we'd had the highlight of our day, we embarked on our next adventure- crossing the border to Zimbabwe to spend time learning about the elephants. After a lengthy stop at Customs (we're getting used to this!) we were on our way through the small village to the bush where the elephants awaited. They were much smaller than I'd anticipated. We took turns scratching their ears, feeding them and then went for a short ride. This turned out to be a very GOOD thing. Word of advice to anyone planning to ride an elephant bareback - DON'T do it!! :-) Their backbones are similar to sitting on a wooden 2x4 on its edge. :-S Their faces are so sweet and their energy is sensitive - really amazing creatures.

After spending time with the elephants, we drove into the small village to do some shopping. Handmade goods consisted of mostly carved wooden items and dyed fabrics. The village is very dusty and poor looking with many people begging for money or holding their goods in your face in hopes of making a sale. We bought a few small items then made our way back across the border to our hotel just in time to catch the sunset river cruise.

Being on the river brought a whole new perspective to the land. We saw several pods of Hippos, our first giraffes and many varieties of birds. The sunsets in Africa are famous and now we can understand why!

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June 25 - Chobe Game Lodge, Botswana:

The alarm went off bright and early as we prepared to depart for our first days of safaris! We checked out of the Royal Livingstone Hotel early in the morning with another monkey encounter to share with you. We called the butler for assistance with our bags and I began to carry them out of the room to make the process quicker. I'd barely walked outside of our room, dropped a bag and walked back into our hotel room when a monkey came flying in our room and stole all the chocolates from the night stand and flew back out of the room with its newly acquired loot. Unbelievable! There were 2 more monkeys standing by to see if the first one had success and we're ready to join into the room raid when I deterred them by flying out of the room. They've really got quite an organized system of thievery here!

After bus, boat, and jeep - we entered the Chobe National Forest property. We were greeted by dozens of animals within moments of entering the property. There are a gazillion varieties of birds here ranging from songbirds to storks. One of the most striking is the Lilac Breasted Roller. I've been trying to snag a photo for days and haven't managed to catch it! Chobe is famous for its elephant population, topping an unbelievable 73,000 (nope, not a typo!).
We saw lots of elephants, zebras, warthogs, Cape buffalo, giraffes, impala and probably more that I'm forgetting!

The Chobe Game Lodge is beautiful - we arrived just in time for lunch and battled for scraps from the bees that were happily nibbling on most of the fresh items on the buffet. It was a little disgusting and didn't make the food very appetizing to me. We had just enough time to drop our bags off in our room before hopping back into the jeep for a 30 minute ride to the marina and afternoon/sunset game watch.

Being on the Chobe River was such a great way to see the animals! The river separates the two countries of Botswana and Namibia, with the southern fork being on the protected Chobe National Forest land. We got up close and personal with a variety of new animals: lots of sleeping crocodiles, a few very aggressive hippos, some lizards called monitors, a whole herd of male elephants - and the absolute highlight: several very young baby elephants coming to the waters edge to drink.

The sunset was just amazing. I think most of the group drained the remaining battery life capturing the brilliant colors behind the silhouette of the famous African Acacia tree. Ahh, another beautiful day in paradise.

...The next day was completely lost for both of us being sick :-(

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June 27 - Mambo Camp, Botswana:

We ate breakfast, and then hopped in the jeep to go to Kasane airport to take our 90 minute flight to Mambo Camp - the most famous game lodge in Africa. The airport was very small and the planes were even smaller! Our Cessna had 7 seats in total, but all in all it was a noisy but pretty comfortable ride.

The Mambo staff met us with smiles and cool damp washcloths to wipe the dust from our faces. The camp is spectacular, filled with elaborate tents and teak wood suspended walkways. Keeping the human activity off of the ground ensures a bit more safety from the animals. The lodge area is not fenced off or separated in any way from the wildlife; therefore, you may encounter anything at anytime! For example, the Cape buffalo really like sleeping under the tents - evidently the canvas retains heat, giving them a warm place to sleep and the canvas texture and support beams work well as wonderful scratching posts for them! We'd been warned that we should not be alarmed if we heard their snorting and rubbing around throughout the night. Keep in mind; these animals are just about as large as the American Bison! In addition to the Cape Buffalo - Elephants, Monkeys, Hyenas, Hippos, Lions and Leopards also tend to frequent the property. For our own safety, walking after dark is not permitted at all without an escort from the staff!

The tents are truly amazing! You would NEVER know that you weren't in a luxury hotel room; the furnishings are top of the line, with extensive deck work surrounding the tent. There's a beautiful outdoor canopy for afternoon napping and a stunning tiled outdoor shower for a refreshing rinse after your siesta. We could easily live at this place!!

An interesting fact: we soon became educated in the traditions of Tea Time. Every day at 3pm - tea, coffee and snacks are served throughout most of southern Africa, Camp Mambo is no exception.

After enjoying afternoon tea, we departed for our first game drive in world famous Mambo. Our guide, Malinga, was superb! He explained the terrain, trees, bushes, tracks, scat and animals along the way. We were very lucky on our first day out, seeing Wildebeest, Cape buffalo, lots of impalas, lechwe - a type of water antelope, giraffes, warthogs, zebra, hyena, and saving the best for last: Lions and lots of them! The pride consists of 4 males, 7 females and 19 cubs. It was late afternoon when we approached part of the pride with 2 males, 1 female and 2 very cute youngsters about 2 months old.

They were just starting to wake from their afternoon of napping, now that the heat of the day had begun to dissipate. We learned that lions are nocturnal and spend most of the evenings hunting for food and eating, then sleep during the heat of the day. The females do most of the hunting for the entire pride. The 2 males we sound asleep flopped in the shade - it was almost shocking to think this was the mighty king of the jungle from our first impression! The babies were romping in the grass, wrestling and Mom was keeping a watchful eye. It amazing to realize how unaffected these completely wild animals are by our jeep pulling up within 10 feet of them. Malinga explained that they have been exposed to the vehicles since they were young and they just see it as another animal, nothing to be concerned about! The kings were finally waking and believe me, seeing them sit up and yawn really is an incredible sight. They are truly majestic beings!

Just then another jeep radioed in that they had located the rest of the pride. It was so cute seeing 17 little heads jumping and playing in the tall grasses as the last bits of sunlight disappeared. What an incredible day out on safari! :-)

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June 28 - Mambo Camp, Day 2:

Our day began promptly at 5:45am. Just when we thought our safari drives couldn't get any better - our first sighting of the morning was the elusive leopard. Malinga had a feeling our odds would be good in spotting a leopard friend since the monkeys and birds were very upset at camp. Here's a little lesson that we learned about the animal kingdom relationships. Monkeys, leopards, hyenas and lions do not get along as monkeys are likely prey for the cat predators. Also, the animals have learned that there is safety in numbers and co exist together, warning each other of potential danger. This is especially true for monkeys, baboons, impala, zebra and other antelope like herd based animals. It's a beautiful site to see all the various herds together on the plains.

Now, back to our leopard story we were even MORE fortunate than we realized! This leopard happens to be the 2 year old female that was born on Mambo and has a book published about her life thus far, and her struggles to make her own territory in Mambo. The chances for survival for leopards in the wild is very slim, she is the sole survivor from a litter of 6. We followed her as she seemed restless, maybe in search of food or a place to rest after a long nights work. We lost her in the bush after an attempted attack on an unsuspecting baboon. We're really not sure of the outcome since neither emerged from the bush while we were watching.

Other highlights of the day were yet another leopard sighting. We actually stumbled upon this encounter while on our way to the lion location again. This leopard, also a female is one of the oldest at Mambo, at 8 years. She too, was stunning in her grace, her body much thicker and markings seemed a little darker in color. She was keeping a good pace, and marking her territory, before long we lost site of her in the bush. The leopard markings are good camouflage!

Another interesting note about the vehicles that we are in. Mambo uses an 8 passenger, open top Range Rover. There isn't a whole lot separating you from Mother Nature. It's an eerie/cool feeling to have leopard walk within petting distance of you! We also came to appreciate the sheer ruggedness of these vehicles; all terrain really does mean ALL TERRAIN! We've been over trees, stumps, deep sand, rocks, roots, just unbelievable areas off the dirt roads to track animals on the move.

We arrived near the location where we spotted the second part of the pride yesterday to find the most of the pride here together - all the females, cubs and 1 male. It was quite an unbelievable site, seeing the little lump like shapes scattered around in the early morning sunlight. It would really be hard to tell that these were not rocks if you didn't occasionally see the little heads moving here and there. Things were pretty quiet and we were about to give up, thinking that everyone would be sleeping for the day, when suddenly everyone got a second wind and the action kicked up again.

It started with a few youngsters fighting for a nipple while being sleepy! Lions do not stay attached to only their own young when it comes to nursing. The babies just go from mom to mom and eat when they are hungry. Most of the cubs range from 2-4 months old. It was quite a sight to see one Momma get cranky at the babies over nursing and for her to get up leaving a trail of little furry heads to follow her for more breakfast. We noticed that when the moms would get tired, they would walk past another mom, hoping that some of the babies would stop and nurse elsewhere. It was a very entertaining process to watch, especially to be within a couple yards of the action. Words do not adequately capture how cute the little attempted growls and roars are of the cubs while they are nursing!

We came back to camp delighted by the morning safari and decided to spend the rest of the day getting some much needed rest and enjoying our beautiful room and outdoor "hammock" :-)

Fun facts we learned today: What are the "groups" of each type of animal we've been seeing called?

Leap of Leopard
Coalition of Cheetah
Pride of Lions
Tribe of Monkeys/Baboons
Sounder of Warthog
Pond of Hippo
Journey of Giraffes
Herd of Elephants
Dazzle of Zebra
Clan of Hyena
Crash of Rhino

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June 29 - Chiefs Camp, Botswana:

We departed for an early game drive, heading toward Chiefs Camp to meet up with our new driver and transfer to the other side of the island for our last two days of safari adventure. We met up with our new guide, Simon over morning tea in the bush, sad to leave Mambo but excited to see what new adventures lie before us. At this point, there are only a few remaining animals that we haven't seen: the Rhino and a Cheetah. We missed seeing the rhino the previous day when we stayed back at the camp - oh well - the rest was much needed!

On our way to Chiefs, Simon mentioned that he'd seen 2 male cheetahs that morning, and a leopard on the property had new cubs. Wow! This might be a fantastic adventure!!

We arrived at Chiefs around lunchtime, ate a quick lunch, got settled in and headed out to explore the new terrain. The landscape is beautiful here, much more varied, one minute its pictorial pastures, the next could be a walnut tree grove, and then out of nowhere there is an oasis of palm trees. In addition to all of this, Chiefs is situated at the mouth of the Okavango Delta, the largest fresh water delta in the world, supplying much of the water to southern Africa.

It was an enjoyable drive, very scenic. There definitely seem to be fewer animals here so far but much prettier grounds. I could see the area being able to sustain generations of growth, given that both game reserves on the island are less than 10 years old.

Just when we thought our relaxing scenic drive was about over, we hear an unbelievable roar. I hear screams from the back of our jeep and turn to see one of the biggest male elephants to date charging toward our jeep at an alarming pace. It looked like a scene from Jurassic Park with a gigantic elephant coming at us, much the size of T-Rex. I look over to see Mary's tonsils screaming "GO, GO!! Get us out of here!" So much for the hours of discussions with our guides on NOT panicking in crisis moments just like this.

Simon firmly shut of the engine and reminded us that the LAST thing we should be doing is making a bunch of racket and running away. That would be a sure way to get us killed! Sure enough, Simon was right as soon as we all shut up and he turned off the engine, the elephant stopped charging and backed away. After a short lecture from Simon and a seat check to see if anyone had crapped their pants, we approached the elephant again (smart, right?) Simon wanted to prove to us that the elephant wasn't dangerous, that we'd just startled it on our approach. Well, evidently the elephant was still upset, and decided to charge at us again. This time, it was coming directly at my side of the jeep!! I was too freaked to get my camera focused in time for what would have been an amazing shot! Luckily the elephant was now just messing with us, hoping to get a reaction, and quietly retreated back into the trees after we held our composure and screams. What an adrenaline rush!!! This experience has been the talk of the camp, with all of us laughing about it now!

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June 30 - Chiefs Camp, Day 2:

We awoke bright and early for another amazing safari. Chief’s camp has a lot more varying terrain and the water from the Okavango Delta has begun to recede and cover many of the dirt roads. Makes for some amazing 4x4 adventure driving! Simon the snorkel man was awesome at navigating through water roughly 4 feet deep - I couldn't believe it was possible, it was as if the Land Cruiser became a boat at times! Another interesting note: Mambo camp prefers Range Rover and Chiefs prefers Land Cruiser by Toyota - they both seemed rugged enough, but the ride was smoother in the Land Cruiser. In any case, we're completely sold on the off road prowess of either vehicle!

Our first adventure of the morning was to spot a female leopard happily enjoying a breakfast of a baby baboon. It's a little gross, thinking about the cycle of life, but everything has its balance and place in this world. Nothing has been more apparent regarding that concept on this trip. Survival of the fittest is the name of the game out here in the bush. We learned that this particular leopard has two cubs!! One of the jeeps patiently waited for her to finish her meal and make her way back to her cubs, approximately a mile away. We were lucky enough to get a close view of her feeding the babies - they are so adorable! All fuzzy and spotted, about a month old with their eyes still blue and looking a little bit larger than our house cats. This was definitely another highlight of the trip! We spent the next couple game runs searching for the elusive cheetah, even rarer than the leopards. We never did get lucky enough to spot one in the wild.

Before long, we were saying goodbye to the African outback and making our way via several flights to Cape Town.

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July 1 - Travel to Cape Town, South Africa:

After 3 long flights and most of the day disappearing before our eyes, we arrived at the Table Bay Hotel in Cape Town at about 10 pm. We were all pretty wiped out. Mary and I were already asleep when our luggage made its way up to our room at about midnight.

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July 2 - Cape Town, South Africa:

The alarm didn't go off until 7am - the extra hours of sleep were welcomed, along with sleeping in a heated hotel room - aah, it's the little things in life!! :-)

Today was a packed day of sightseeing via a huge luxury bus. We made our way along the famous South African coastline. It feels very much like California to me, with large boulders, and jagged cliffs falling into the oceans edge. We did the complete loop, stopping down at the famed Cape Point where the Indian Ocean meets the Atlantic Ocean. We learned that this particular area breeds the largest population of Great White sharks in the world, something to do with the swirling warm Indian Ocean waters colliding with the cold Atlantic Ocean water. It is also well known for the whale migrations and whale birthing grounds.

We stopped for a bit of a hike up to the top of Cape Point, known to be windy all year - it was not a disappointment with the crisp breeze gusting at anywhere from 30-50mph. We made it up to the lookout point in about 7 minutes, a steady uphill climb, and got some great footage of the crossroads of the southern continents!

We stopped at a local fish market and enjoyed a lobster lunch before seeing the famous Cape Penguins tooling around the restaurant grounds. Very cute!

Our journey continued through much of the scenic coastline before making our way back to the hotel around 6pm to have dinner on our own. Mary and I decided to venture out to the wharf attached to our hotel and indulged in gigantic cheeseburgers, fries and chocolate shakes! YUM!!

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July 3 - Cape Town, Day 2:

All this sleep has us feeling almost like human beings again! We're down to just having a nasty cough but our energy levels are back to almost normal again. Today's adventures bring us to the wine country region of South Africa. The terrain is striking and beautiful, reminds us very much of California's Napa Valley. The hills are dotted with manicured vineyards up to the base of the table topped mountains, with large groves of fruit trees scattered throughout the region.

We toured the vineyards and then had brunch at a lovely vineyard before making our way to another vineyard with a mission to help preserve displaced wildlife. Interesting, we finally got to see a cheetah! One particular vineyard has taken on the mission of helping save the cheetahs who are being hunted by farmers that are concerned about the cheetah attacking their farm animals. The pair of cheetahs we saw were a little more than a year old and had been tamed enough that we could have paid to go into the cage with them and pet them. They are truly a beautiful animal but it's hard to see them in a cage. :(

We made our way back to Cape Town with 2 hours to hit the local market for some shopping. This was an amazing sight, there were literally blocks of little make shift stands selling all kinds of handmade products. It was almost overwhelming to see so many things, they were a good variety of products available and many of the gals bartered for some good deals!

After getting our shopping fix, we got back to the hotel in time to freshen up for our dinner reservations at a local African restaurant. What a great experience! We enjoyed a 3 course meal with 15 different African dishes served family style. The restaurant was packed with a variety of different people from all over the world.

We tried many different vegetable dished along with several new meats: antelope, crocodile and ostrich were the more memorable items. They also served some chicken and lamb for more traditional meats. Just when you thought the meal couldn't get any better, the band started playing some wonderful jazz music - they were really good! They started with several more instrumental songs before their singer came up on stage and joined them. We really enjoyed her sense of humor! She could shake it too, making a little comment during one of her bootie shaking numbers that Beyonce didn't have ANYTHING on the true African dancers! We all had a great time, before we knew it, the 10pm hour was upon us and we were catching cabs back to our hotel.

It was a perfect way to end our vacation, with the warm flavors of African music and food filling our senses.

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July 4 - Depart Cape Town:

Well, the day is really upon us. Time to go home. We slept in, got our postcards mailed, repacked our stuff and arrived at the airport around 5pm for our 2 very long flights home. Our first flight of 12 hours takes us from Cape Town to London, where we sit for about 8 hours before catching our 11 hour flight from London to Denver.

This was an amazing trip of contrasts. From our comfortable days in Stroud with Siobhan to the luxury hotels of Livingstone and Cape Town to the tents out in the African bush. To the extreme division of wealth and poverty that is so visible in Cape Town. Africa is a huge chasm of contrasts and I feel like a better person for having a little more awareness of what this part of the world is like.

Until the next adventure, may you enjoy every moment of your every day.


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