SAFARI – DAY 6 (Moremi Game Reserve, Botswana; mobile tent camp)

 

Woke up at 3 AM (well, we do go to bed at 9 PM and I can only sleep so many hours) and lay for two hours listening to the hippos and a hyena around the camp.  At 4:30 AM I smelled the staff start up the cooking fire in the camp kitchen and at 5 AM I watched a staff guy walk into our camp with a huge flashlight, chasing a hyena out of camp.  Toto, I am not in Kansas anymore.

TRIVIA ANSWER: How far do hippos typically travel in a night? 10 kilometers

We got up and dressed in the dark by the moonlight that came into the tent windows, went outside to wash up (that’s as far as we are allowed to go until the staff sets out all the lanterns and gives us the OK).  Let’s see, what should I wear today?  Hmmmm, put on some clean clothes?  But why?  My clothes from yesterday aren’t really stinky – so I’ll wear the same stuff.

By 5:45 AM we stood in the dining tent (the side facing the pond is completely open) and watched three hippos who were up on the bank grazing.  They were amazing to watch.  The guides kept a close lookout to make sure we were safe.  What a way to start the day.  By 6:30 AM we were off on a game drive – in general, we spend 6-7 hours a day on game drives.

Drove back to the impala first thing.  The impala was not there but tracks showed that hyenas ate some of it and then dragged the rest off to the reeds, where we saw a huge crocodile, which probably ate the rest.  New sightings for today:  hyena, crocodile, really large storks (6’ wing span), and finally, a lioness.  We’ve decided to do a dung montage, so my sister is taking dung photos.  We starting to get a good collection, too.  Had a tea break in the bush at 10 AM (tea, coffee, and cookies served on the hood of the Land Rover).  Learned how giraffes mate and how they give birth (I asked because I was trying to figure out the physics of how they handle the heavy front end of the males on top of the relatively light-weight hind end of the females).  It turns out that the male practically stands upright on his hind feet and only lightly rests his front legs on the female.  And when giving birth, the amniotic sack does not break until the baby is dropped on the ground – it helps to cushion the fall.

Interestingly enough, the hyena we spied resting in the grass looked kind of cute and fluffy.  She was alone and just sitting in the dry grass and had a gash under one eye.  She eventually just laid down and instantly became invisible.

On the afternoon game drive, we finally saw zebra and saw some kudu really up close.  Had to drive through some deeply flooded roads – water up to the floor boards.  Luckily these vehicles are built for this with an air intake like a snorkel that is mounted on the corner of the windshield.

In general, this tour group is a very good group of people – there are 16 of us.  No complainers, no whiners, no constantly-late people.  There are a few birders, so they tend to flock together in one game truck and the rest of us mammal people tend to herd together in the other truck.  The birders reading this are probably sighing with dismay when they see stuff like “a whole bunch of birds.”  We are encouraged to move around between the trucks and to sit in different seats on each drive so I actually sat in the birder truck a few times.  Very different focus when looking at wildlife, but interesting.  On one game drive we stopped near an elephant with a baby and the birders were all excited about some birds on the other side of the truck.  So they spent the time busily looking in their bird books and looking at the birds, while I gazed at the elephant.  Talk about ignoring the elephant in the room!  At least there was plenty to look at for everyone.

DUST!  Everywhere.  A fine dust finds its way into places I never knew could get dusty.  Really everywhere – all over my camera, in my ears, up my nose, covering my shoes, embedded in my clothes – you get the idea.  I’ve given up being clean or unsticky – between the heat, the sunscreen, and the insect repellent, I just always feel sticky.  On the other hand, although I get sweaty, the sweat and my clothes dry so fast that they don’t seem to get stinky.  So we are wearing the same clothes for two and three days at a time – most everyone is doing the same.  I should’ve packed fewer clothes.

TRIVIA QUESTION:  Which three animals are amble walkers (they move both left legs and then move both right legs, unlike horses and cows)?  I’ll give you a clue: animals that are significantly heavier in the front are amble walkers.  Answer in tomorrow’s post.

SAFARI – DAY 5 (Moremi Game Reserve, Botswana; mobile tent camp)

Went to sleep listening to the hippos (my they can get vocal, who knew?)  Woke up every couple of hours because of the hippos, and chuckled every time. 

At 4:30 AM I can smell the fire being started in the kitchen area, then a staff member starts our campfire and uses that to light lanterns. At 5 AM the staff puts a lantern in front of each tent. At 6 AM a staff person stands in front of our tent saying “ko ko”, which is the African version of knock-knock. He fills two canvas basins outside our tent with warm water. So I stand outside the tent in the near dark washing my face and brushing my teeth (using bottled water). The hippos are honking away and the birds are quite vocal as the sun starts to rise. The sun is bright red because of all the dust and smoke in the air (there are several large bush fires in the distance and everyone cooks over open fires).

By 6:30 AM we are eating breakfast and watching six hippos poke their heads up and down in the water, honking.  It is an amazing sight and sound show!   By 7 AM we board the trucks and are off on a four-hour game drive.  

TRIVIA ANSWER:How much does the average elephant poop in a day?100 kilograms (about 220 pounds)

New animals sighted (I’m not going to name every animal on every game drive – just the new ones): impala, kudu, tsessere (another kind of antelope), a cheetah (well, just the head), one giraffe, warthogs, plus lots of birds – an amazing variety, including a hammerkop which is not classified in any bird group but is considered to be the closest living bird relative to dinosaurs.  It is not a large bird but builds enormous nests.

A game drive truck in front of us stumbled across a leopard on top of an impala, but the leopard was scared off by the truck and went to hide in the bushes.  Unfortunately, the leopard ran off to hide before it could completely kill the impala, so the impala, with a broken neck, was laying on the ground kicking its legs and struggling.  So we parked a bit away and sat there in silence, hoping the leopard would come back.  I must say that it was not easy to watch the poor animal struggle, but then again, it did not have the same emotional impact as it would if I were watching this on a documentary at home.  Being there, in the environment where leopard kills are normal, made it easier to handle.

After a bit, a caravan of Germans in ten cars drove by and our guide said there wasn’t much chance of seeing the leopard at that point.  When we drove by three hours later, the impala was still there, alive.  Vultures were starting to gather in a tree, which alerts other predators.  This was a distressing sight but a classic African experience.

Learned a lot about termite mounds.  The really big ones can be as old as 80 years. 

For our daily entertainment, our guide got a distress call from another guide who was stuck in the mud with eight passengers.  We made our way over and all the people in the stuck truck had to climb out and wade ashore so our truck could pull out the stuck vehicle.  Great fun to watch.

Privacy is not easy to achieve in camp – the tents have mesh on all sides and if you close the flaps over the mesh it gets intolerably hot.  We both took camp showers (the staff fills the bucket of water hanging in our tent shower/toilet area, then get wet, turn water off, soap up, turn water on and rinse off quickly).  It works.  We can order hot water (which most people did) but I just asked for cold water because it felt so good in the heat.

Noon to 3 PM is the really hot time, but we had a good breeze most of the time which helped a lot.  We have some afternoon time to rest and relax – I’d love to take a nap but it is too hot in the tents so I just sit in a camp chair outside in the shade and wilt.  It got up to 96 degrees F this afternoon – very awful but at least by 5 PM it noticeably started to cool, and by 6:30 PM it was quite comfortable.

Went back to the impala in the late afternoon game drive – it was dead but still uneaten.  We’ll go back extra early tomorrow morning to see whether the leopard came back or the hyenas took over.

The food is quite good – we even have fresh salads.  Chicken curry and chocolate mousse for dinner – yum. 

New afternoon sightings:  elephant (finally!), red letchwe (a kind of impala on steroids because it has longer back legs and larger muscles in the back, which makes its back slope down a bit and when a predator comes, they run and jump into the water and hide, which is unusual for an antelope type), a giraffe family of three adults and two babies, and old bull giraffe (darker in color as they age), kudu, lots of amazing birds, distant zebra, and amazing hippo entertainment.  There are two hippo babies in our pond and they popped up and down all afternoon, occasionally walking onto the bank and then back in the water, and even gave us a couple of big yawns which aren’t really yawns but are shows of dominance.  It is something like watching boulders bobbing in the water.

When Lisa, our guide, was giving us an afternoon lecture on Botswana, four hippos surfaced near the camp, lined up facing us, and just watched us for quite a long time.  Best TV show ever.

ABOUT BOTSWANA:  It is perched on the edge of two tectonic plates that are smashing into each other. The Okavanga Delta is the largest alluvial fan delta in the world and is surrounded by large faults.  As the faults shift and change the land under the delta, the annual flood waters flood different areas.  Therefore, yes, Botswana has earthquakes but because the Kalahari sits on a bed of sand 30-100 kilometers deep, the sand absorbs the shocks.  44% of Botswana is managed land for wildlife (which is a very impressive number).  Poaching is not much of a problem because the government has a policy of shoot to kill first, ask questions later.  So it is just not worthwhile trying to poach here.  And they have a very active game park enforcement army.  Which means that Botswana is a fabulous place to come on safari!!!

At dusk, the staff puts out luminaries to mark the boundary of the camp and to guide our way to each tent.  We must be escorted by a staff member from the dining tent to our tent, even though it is less than 100 feet away.  (Good thing too, because there really are wild animals roaming around camp!!) 

9:30 PM and back in my tent looking out at the luminaries – it is lovely.  I am very tired.  Interestingly, when I first looked at the beds in the camp (they are remarkably comfortable) I scoffed at the comforter AND blanket provided.  Who could possibly need a comforter or a blanket in such hot weather.  But by 3AM, I find that I wake up and pull the comforter over me because it really does chill down a bit – which is quite delicious.

TRIVIA QUESTION:  Hippos roam around at night to forge for food.  How far do they typically travel in a night:  1 kilometer, 5 kilometers, 10 kilometers?  Answer in tomorrow’s post.

SAFARI – DAY 4 (Moremi Game Reserve, Botswana; mobile tent camp)

This was the true beginning of the safari.  By the way, the word “safari” means journey in Swahili – much like the Australian term walkabout.

We took a 1.5 hr flight from Johannesburg to Maun, Botswana (pronounced “mound” without the “d”), which is the stepping off place for trips to the Okavanga delta.  We were met by our guide, Lisa Reed, and loaded into two safari vehicles – three rows of three seats each, each row higher than the one in front, and a canopy top to provide shade but otherwise open vehicles for maximum viewing – a big Land Rover and a big Toyota Land Cruiser.  These are 4x4 vehicles that can handle almost any condition.  You don’t step into these things – you climb up tiny steps built into the side and then squish yourself into a seat.

And off we went on a 5-hour drive to a mobile tent camp (more on that later).  The first hour was on pavement, past traditional Botswana villages – it really was not westernized or industrialized.  Round mud houses with thatched roofs and a kraal made of tree branches sticking out of the dirt (quite effective).  Goats, donkeys, and cows roam all over, including in the road.  The weather was about 90 degrees F and very dry.  Imagine riding in an open vehicle at 40 miles an hour with the hot, dusty wind sandblasting your face and arms.  Quite bracing.  I even held my hat over my face for awhile until my sister started laughing at me – but hey, I’m not much of a rugged type of person.  By the time we got to camp, my nose and eyes were stuffed with dust and my skin felt like hide.

Technically we are in the Kalahari, which is a large dry savannah.  It was once an inland sea and now all the land in Botswana is the sea bottom – which means it is just sand.  This is the middle of September and towards the end of the dry season so all the trees are bare except for the acacia trees, which are a vivid green with little yellow balls, and a few others.  Thank gawd the trucks have a canopy, but I still felt the sun creeping in on the sides.

The second hour was on fairly smooth, gravelly sand, fairly easy riding and a bit slower in speed.  And the last three hours were in the Moremi Game Reserve on a very rutted, bumpy road, sometimes driving through quite deep sand in which we sloshed our way around the curves.  The drive took forever.  Every now and then we saw an interesting animal or some tracks.

Tracks sighted on the road:  elephant, hyena, giraffe, puff adder.
Animals sighted on the drive:  giraffe, impala, steenbok (a type of antelope), and aardvark burrows.  And elephant poop everywhere in great abundance. 

The mobile tent camp is just that – it is a camp with tents that were set up the day before we got there and was taken down when we left.  There are six staff people to run the camp and take care of us, two guides, and a third person who is a ordinarily a guide but for this camp was the equipment truck driver.  The camp is located on large pond in the delta – we were grandly entertained each night by listening to the hippos snort at each other.  (They do a kind of a wheezy, grunty honk.)  And of course frogs.
We were greeted by a staff member who handed out wet face towels to wash off the dust and were given various instructions about camp life – how to use the bucket shower, how to use the portable toilets in each tent, and how not to walk around unescorted at night.  That is a very big deal – every night all the humans are put into their cages for the night so the animals can roam around without causing us any bodily harm.  The theory is that the animals see the tents as solid objects (unlike bears, which tend to rip into anything to get food, but of course, we did not have food in our tents) and do not recognize the humans inside as food.  The theory held out for the duration of the trip, for which I am grateful.

Anyway, the tents are pretty poshy as tents go – each tent has a sleeping area with two beds and a partitioned off portion of the tent to use as a toilet/shower area.  Each tent gets its own portable toilet (my goodness those things are low to the ground) and a shower which is a canvas bag that hangs on a hook with a nozzle.  The tents were arranged in a partial circle with the dining tent closing the circle and facing the pond, and a campfire and camp chairs in the center.  By this time it was dusk so we sat around the campfire in comfy camp chairs drinking our sun downers (any evening beverage, including wine, beer, and gin and tonics).  We were called into the dining tent for a lovely dinner of pork chops, vegetables, and pears poached in wine.  (The cook announced the menu before each dinner and we were quite well served.)

Had a bit of a hassle getting our portable toilet to work but our guide helped us.  I was barely sweaty even with all the heat because it is so dry.  I decided to just go to bed as is, without washing, because I was too tired (well, in my defense, I wasn’t smelly).
We are really in Africa!!!!!  The dream trip has truly begun.  Lisa tells us that any of a number of animals will come into camp and sniff around during the night.  They may even shake the tent.  All part of the fun, I guess.

TRIVIA QUESTION:  How much does the average elephant poop in a day?   50 kilograms, 100 kilograms, or 150 kilograms?  Answer in tomorrow’s post.

SAFARI – DAY 3 (Johannesburg)

We both woke up at 3 AM again.  Tried to go back to sleep but finally gave up at 4 AM and we started talking and catching up on news.  Got up at 5:15 AM and did hand laundry and got ready for our tour to the Lesedi (lay-SAY-dee, meaning “light”) Cultural Village.  This required repacking in order to take only what we needed for the day tour, followed by another major repacking job at the end of the day to prepare for the safari tomorrow.

Our destination is about an hour drive from Johannesburg -- we had a prearranged driver.  On the way, we passed a lot of areas where houses were made up of shipping containers or just built from sheets of metal nailed together.  Very small and very sad.  Some housing developments had nice, modern-looking houses (not very big) with thatched roofs.  The last time I saw thatched roofs was in Denmark.  Lots of brick and stone houses.  Very red dirt and everything is very dry with bare trees (well, that is normal for the dry season).

Lesedi Cultural Village ( http://www.lesedi.com/cultural.htm) was fabulous.  At the village, we were met by men and women from five African tribal groups, all singing a song of welcome.  I was grinning from ear to ear the whole time.  The five groups represented are Zulu, Basotho, Pedi, Xhosa, and Ndebele.  Our guide, Miriam, was Basotho (whose tradition requires 13 cattle as a bride price – more cattle than the other tribes who usually only require 11 cattle unless the bride is the daughter of a chief). 

The village is divided into five sections, each represents village life in a different tribal tradition and includes a group of houses and a small kraal (corral) for cattle and goats.  Most of the people live here for a year or two while they work here, so this is home for them for a while.  Miriam described what everything was in each village and taught us how to greet the people in each village in their language (don’t even ask me to remember) and how to thank them. 

At the Zulu village, we had to ask the chief for permission to enter.  In general, the Zulu are the warriors and the other groups are more peaceful.  They all view cattle as wealth (today’s value for a cow is about 5000 Rand, which is about $700).  Which reminds me – if you see me, ask me to show you the traditional Zulu handshake.  I thought they were pulling my leg at first, but it was the real deal and clearly is the root of the complex greeting/handshake rituals in American gangs today.

It was a nice bit of a mind twist that they all welcomed us “home” since Africa is the cradle of mankind.  After the tour, we went into a large round building where everyone sang and danced Zulu dances.  My sister and I even joined in and had a delightful time.  Then it was time for lunch (crocodile  and ostrich were offered, along with chicken and roast beef African style which is rather tough and grisly, mashed squash, rice, steamed ground maize which is called by a variety of names of most people recognize the name “papp”, and beans).  It was very good.

I’ve started to enjoy watching rugby – we’re here during the World Cup games and it is the sole focus of most discussions and most TV channels.  It is a quite entertaining game to watch although I don’t understand why a few players don’t just get killed at each game – it looks brutal.  Watched Canada win a tense game against Tonga.

In the evening we met most of the members of our safari tour group and they seem like a good bunch of people – well-travelled with a fun sense of humor.  Learned that Botswana and Zambia will be much hotter and much colder than Johannesburg (where the weather has been quite pleasant, much like home).  We spent a good bit of time repacking, trying to meet all the airline requirements and the game drive requirements at the same time – it has been difficult.  I’ve never packed and repacked so often on a trip before.  Yuck.

ODD BITS LEARNED ABOUT SOUTH AFRICA FROM OUR DRIVER:  Our driver was a Shona from Zimbabwe but now lives in South Africa because it is easier to make a living wage there. 

·        In South Africa, Afrikaans is spoken only by whites; blacks speak Zulu.  (You probably already knew that but I wasn’t entirely clear on it.)

·        South Africans don’t tend to travel much, so they are rather insular and not very culturally flexible.  For example, if a black person does not speak Zulu, they often won’t even talk to him, even if both parties speak English.  He is expected to speak Zulu or nothing at all.

·        Marijuana is illegal, although it is also customary for tribal men to go into the hills and smoke it.

·        Polygamy is legal.

·        Traffic lights are called robots.  (Just turn right and then turn left at the third robot.)

SAFARI - DAY 2 (Johannesburg)

We got to bed by 9 pm and were wide awake by 3 AM, so we decided to have peanut butter and crackers and sat up reading (I had packed the peanut butter and crackers for just such a situation). 

We planned for this to be a resting day and ended up napping from 2-4 in the afternoon.  Realized I was in Africa when I started to hear different bird calls.  The hotel really does not want us to go anywhere unescorted, so when I decided that I wanted to buy a couple of large bottles of water, I had to give money to a staff member who went to the store for me.  For dinner, we ordered Italian food delivered to the hotel (apparently meal delivery is the usual thing for guests to do) and watched a rugby World Cup game while eating.  Rugby world cup was about the only thing on television because rugby is a national obsession, but we found it quite interesting.  Watched a soap opera for awhile for the fun of it.  The characters fluidly switched back and forth between English and Swahili and English subtitles were provided for the Swahili parts.  Rather interesting.

Did I mention that the room includes a walk-in shower and a separate bathtub? The bathtub is so long that a 6’ 5” person would probably be quite comfortable.  Longest bathtub I’ve ever seen.

During the night, there was a big storm, with lots of thunder and lightening.  Apparently this is normal because it is spring here and moving into summer, which is the wet season.

SAFARI – DAY 1

This was a 15 day safari trip to Botswana and Zambia, with some transitional time in South Africa. In general, this was a life-changing, mind-altering, beyond-spectacular trip!

My sister and I traveled together on this trip.  We flew from San Francisco to Altanta (5-hour flight) and the directly to Johannesburg (16-hour flight). 

We were warned that the Johannesburg airport has a reputation for luggage loss and pilfering, so I tried to pack only uninteresting things in my check-on bag and crammed everything else into two carry on day packs, including a complete change of clothes and my nightgown.  It was a pain in the backside to be carrying extra stuff without the benefit of wheels (a wheeled carry-on bag weighs more than we are allowed to take on the small bush planes that we will be flying later in the trip), but worth the peace of mind.

Luckily, our baggage arrived safe and sound, and the prearranged transportation service was there to meet us at the airport (the tour agency highly recommended that we not attempt to simply take a taxi to our hotel because it was too dangerous in Johannesburg –- so they arranged pickup service from an outfit that they trust) and take us to the Johannesburg Courtyard Hotel Eastgate.

I expected the hotel to be on the low end of accommodations, but it turned out to be quite nice with a very genteel happy hour that included a very nice waiter who served complimentary wine or cocktails and great appetizers and crisps (potato chips, and a very nice complimentary breakfast.  Drank a good South African merlot.  The room was comfortable and included a small, equipped kitchen, and also a complimentary can of Raid (which we did not have to use).  As with most buildings in Joburg, the hotel was entirely fenced in with a manned entry gate to screen everyone coming in.  The tour agency and the hotel strongly advised against walking anywhere on our own.

OK, OK....SO I HAVEN'T POSTED IN AWHILE

I haven't been traveling so I figured I didn't have anything to post.  So what have I been doing?  Well, true to the title of this blog, I am working for air fare.  Which means that I've signed a contract to work for 4 months at my former employer.  I've already paid for the safari that is planned for this coming September and am now earning money for next year's trips.  So far the trips that top the lists for next year are a 2-week tour to Morocco (with perhaps a side trip to Spain) and a quick trip to Paris.  I plan to work 3 or 4 months next year too, to earn money for traveling the year after.  (Perhaps Scotland?  a cruise down the Danube?  not sure -- therre are so many possibilities).

My biggest problem at this point is to figure out what I can pack for Africa.  I'll be going to Botswanna and Zambia and will be encountering hot, sweltering days, cold nights, and wet weather in Victorian Falls.  The rub here is that I am limited to one 25-pound check-in bag and one 10-pound carry-on pack.  That's all.  Which means that I'm going to be doing daily laundry, I think -- in betwen swatting mosquitos.  But I expect to come home with to-die-for photos and some great stories.  I'll be keeping a daily journal (I won't have internet access) and will transcribe my daily entries as blog entries.  So stay tuned.