Category: Travel

Our safari adventure was coming to an end so it was time for Meghan and I to head off.

We woke up at 5:30 AM for our last game drive, and after the following brunch we droveout to the airstrip for our last bush flight(s).  As it turned out we’d be making 1 stop somewhat along the way.  30 minutes flight to another camp and then another 30 minutes and we landed in Maun Botswana – hey this looks familiar..

From Maun we got our flight to Johannesburg.  There we went back through passport control and customs and collected our bags.. only to move to the departure lounge for our next (and 4th take off) of the day.  But that wouldn’t be for several hours which we spent hanging out in airport cafes and lounges until we were allowed to check in – after which we found a quiet corner in which to sleep.  Our flight left after midnight and took us up to Nairobi – but we weren’t done there.

A couple of hours in Nairobi and we were boarding our flight for Dar Es Salaam.  Upon arriving in Dar Es Salaam we found out that only 3 of us made it.. Me, Meghan, and Meghan’s bag.  We filed a claim with the luggage desk and then took a quick taxi ride to the old terminal where we boarded our LAST flight (6 for those keeping track) to the island of Zanzibar.

At Zanzibar we were met by a driver arranged by our hotel.  Wali drove us the hour up to the Northern tip of Zanzibar where we spent a few days lounging around the beach.  Unfortunately we didn’t find Zanzibar to be the awesome destination that it had been made out to be by just about everyone we have talked to..  Perhaps this was due to the fact that the island hadn’t had power for 8 days – and woulnd’t likely have it for several weeks more…

We also spent one day on the island wandering around the small streets of the old “Stone Town” section of Zanzibar town.  This was entertaining and we played the tourists and got lost in the miriad of streets changing directions here and there.. but still we were not as enamoured with the island as we expected to be.

After Zanzibar we took a ferry (2+ hours) back to Dar Es Salaam where we checked in to our hotel for just the one night.  Unfortunately this would not be true.. After losing my bag (which I had since recovered), Kenya Airways also managed to lose any record of us having paid for our next flights – and thus cancelled our tickets.  This, of course, we didn’t find out until we were standing at the check-in desk at 4:00 in the morning…

So we spent an additional night in Dar Es Salaam pretty annoyed with Tanzinia and Kenya both.  Because of this delay we would be pushed out one day and thus lose a valuable day in the next leg of our journey – trekking gorillas in Rwanda.. but that’s a story for another post.

After our stay In Livingstone, Meghan and I departed on our Safari adventure. We had an AMAZING time. We traveled with a very nice company – Wilderness Safaris – that provides for an exceptional safari experience. We stayed in small Safari “camps,” situated throughout the Okavango Delta and the Linyanti Spillway areas of North-Eastern Botswana.  Each camp held 12 – 20 people in luxurious semi-permenant tents (think Curry Village in Yosemite, but really really nice).

We flew bush planes into our first camp, and between camps.  The planes were little prop-planes seating 5-15 passengers and the airstrips were little more than clearings in the bush – Bumpy landings and short take-offs for sure!

Each day was pretty similar from camp-to-camp.  Our routine went something like this:

• Wake up call at 5:30 or 6:00 AM
• Breakfast (light meal) at 6:00 or 6:30 AM
• Game Drive until about 10:00 to 10:30
• (during the morning game drive of course we would stop for tea)
• Brunch (second breakfast!) at 11:00
• Siesta from 12:00 to 3:30
• Tea at 3:30
• Game Drive from 4:00 to 7:30
• (during the afternoon game drive, a stop for a sundowner (Gin & Tonic of course)
• Dinner at 8:00

So, as you can see, we were really suffering.  I think I finally understand what it means to be British.

We saw an exceptional variety of wildlife – easily 70 or more species during our trip.  It was too amazing for words.  I can’t recommend enough that everyone do this, however they try to struggle to pay for it.

Needless to say, I have LOTS of photos and I will publish many of them once I’m back at my computer and able to reliably download images from my camera onto a computer and up to the internet.  I can’t wait to see many of the images myself and I can only hope that they come out as well as I can remember the scenes unfolding before my eyes.

As a highlight, we saw Lions, Cheetah, Leopards, Elephants, Hippo, Cape Buffalo, Giraffes, Baboons, Wart Hogs, Jackyls, Hyenas, Wildebeasts, Aardwolfs, Bat-Eared Fox, Gennets, Civets, and about 7 different species of antelopes.  We also saw birds, birds, and birds.  Oh, and more birds.  And some Owls and Bats.

We did not see any kills or feeding (for better and worse) though we did see a little attempt and some aftermath.  The amazing thing overall is just sitting in the open-air vehicle watching these animals so close up.  I just can’t do it justice sitting in this internet cafe rushed for time.

Meghan and I both hope to be able to return for another Safari experience (and hopefully soon!) and we’ve come to realize how easy it would be to make a trip here and do a safari without needing a month-long trip.  Reallly with a 2-week vacation it would be very possible from the states.

The ‘guided’ part of our Africa trip (the part where a travel agent booked everything for us) started with a flight from Windhoek, Namibia to Victoria Falls via Maun Botswana.

We took the smallish propeller plane (2 seats per row, 12 or 14 rows) to Botswana (an airport we’d see at the end of our safari) and then on to Victoria Falls.

Since the travel agent booked all of this for us, we hadn’t paid much attention to this part of the trip.  Imagine our surprise when we’re filling out the arrival card in the airport that we were in Zimbabwe!  Who knew?

We were met by a handler (arranged again by our agent) who guided us through the entry process and then drove us to the Zimbabwe/Zambia border – where we were then met by our Zambian handler.  This is not only the first trip where I’ve used a travel agent, but it’s now the first trip where we’ve had our own fixers!

Our Zambian driver took us all the way in to our stupidly nice hotel the Royal Livingstone.  This 5-star hotel is located just off of the falls (you can easily see the mist and hear the falls from the lawns of the hotel).  We spent the rest of the afternoon checking out the falls – oh, after high tea that is.

Victoria Falls really is impressive and it’s the first of the world’s 7 wonders that I’ve seen.

We got soaked by the mist whilst walking along the pathways checking out the overlook spots.

That night we skipped dinner first because we had the ridiculous high tea and second because we didn’t feel we had the attire to join the rest of the diners.

We did, however, enjoy a sunset drink along the Zambezi river.

The following morning (after a quick last check of the falls) we were again picked up by our handler and we were off on our safari adventure.  But that’s for another post.

Meghan and I are backfrom the wilds and once again find ourselves connected after 2 weeks away from the hyper-connected world.

We’ve had a great time which I’ll post about in the next few days.. that is, assuming we can connect.  It seems Zanzibar (where we are now) has been without electricity for 8 days because of problems with their under-sea electrtic lines.  Since they have no generation facilities on the island everyone (that has them) is running off generators.  They expect they could be without electricity for another 2 – 3 weeks.

After leaving Swakopmund, Meghan and I trekked East and then South into the Namib desert.  This is the big sand-colored swath that you see across Southwestern Africa.  The drive was beautiful and it took us many many hours as we kept stopping to admire the views and take photos.

(I know many of you are asking to see photos but neither of us is traveling with a laptop and these internet cafes are not particurlarly good at handling the large files that come out of our cameras.. looks like it’ll have to wait until we return… but in the meantime, there are plenty of other photos from Thailand, Belize, etc., over at PicsFromTrips 🙂 )

Our destination for the day was the Little Sossus lodge, located just outside the ‘town’ of sesriem.  We managed to get there just as the sun was setting – as I said, we took our time on the drive because we kept stopping.  One of the reasons for this was the scenery – which changed dramatically from drier-than dry desert (sand, basically) to a semi-arid desert landscape lush with geologic sights as well as animals.  We saw springbok, gemsbok, ostritches and countless other bird species.  It was really cool and got us even more excited for our upcoming safari.

One thing to note.. the entire drive from Swakopmund to the lodge – several hundred kilometers – was on dirt roads.. and we had the Camry.   I had thought about renting a 4×4 vehicle but decided it wasn’t worth the extra cost…

The lodge at which we stayed was really awesome.  The food was amazing, the setting was incredible and we really felt – for the first time – that we were truly in Africa.  We were able to walk out from dinner, over to our little rock hut and look at all of the Southern Hemisphere stars, including the Southern Cross.  And, the stay coincided with the full moon so the land around us was really well lit so we could see the grasses, the trees and the mountains in the distance.

Fom the lodge we were able to visit the Namib Naukluft park – one of the largest national parks in the world.  Specifically we were visiting the Sossusvlei dunes area (yeah, more sand).  This is the imagery most associated with Namibia – red dunes, open vistas, etc.,

We hiked around the dunes, took lots of photos, and saw more of the animals mentioned above.

After our stay out in the Namib today we returned to Windhoek.  Here we’re just regrouping, returning the rental car (which did really well on all of the hundreds of kilometers of dirt roads that we drove on), and getting ready for Botswana!

Meghan and I are sitting in an Internet Cafe here in Windhoek checking in on the world before we depart for Botswana.

We’ve been spending the last few days exploring Namibia – and it has been quite an adventure.

We arrived in Windhoek a mere 5 days ago but it feels like we’ve been here for longer than that.  After landing and clearing passport control we again hopped in our rental car – this time a Toyota Camry.  Driving out from the airport – no – even before we landed you could see that the terrain had changed dramatically from Cape Town.  We were clearly in the desert.

The drive in from the airport to Windhoek was bizarre.  The road was completely empty – not only of cars but of roadside activity like houses, shops.. anything.  We felt like we were in the middle of nowhere and that was reinforced by the baboons that we saw climbing a wire fence on the side of the road – baboons!

We didn’t stay in Windhoek but instead continued straight through to the coast out to the town of Swakopmund.  This seaside town is “more German than Germany” they say, and there’s something to that.  The town is quaint but in the off season it is strangely empty of foot or vehicular traffic.

Swakopmund is the new ‘adventure capitol’ of this part of Africa and as evidence you can do just about any kind of crazy activity especially if it involves sand.  This part of Namibia is really dry with the dunes running right into the ocean, except at Swakopmund where they’ve piped and pumped in enough water to maintain the town.

Unfortunately, Meghan and I were both feeling a little under the weather (its this cough that we can’t lose) so we weren’t up for any adventure too large but we did both start taking antibiotics to fight off what we have.  We did however check out a large flamingo population in Walvis Bay and we also rode ATVs around in the dunes for a little while and we capped off our stay with a hike up the dunes for a sunset chug from a bottle of S. African wine.

The Namib desert and the Trans-Kalahari drive out to Swakopmund were awesome, but there was something about Swakopmund that didn’t really excite either one of us – it’s hard to put our fingers on it just yet but I think in time we’ll be able to develop our thoughts a little more.

I’ll break the Namib adventures into two posts to keep these things a little reasonable.. Stay tuned for the continuation of our Namibian travels.