Hello everyone!
We’ve been home now for about 6 weeks after traveling to Botswana for a safari and to Zimbabwe to see Victoria Falls. I actually started writing this about a month ago, but have been busy, and unable to finish until now.
We met my mom and my sister Donna in Johannesburg, South Africa. They had come from the US to meet us so that we could all go on safari together. We all got into Johannesburg Thursday afternoon/evening, and spent the night there. The next day, we took off for Botswana. Botswana is a land locked country. It is bordered by South Africa to the South, Namibia to the West, Zimbabwe to the East, and Zambia and Angola to the North.
From South Africa we had a 2 hour flight to Botswana, and then another short chartered flight in a 12 seater plane to the lodge we were staying at. When we landed, a Land Rover was there to pick us up to take us to the lodge, but apparently from all the rain, it wouldn’t start. Bill and some of the guides tried to push it to get it started, but no such luck. So we waited awhile, in the rain, until another one came. Then, that Land Rover pushed ours and we finally got it started. The only problem was, we could not stop, or we wouldn’t be able to get started again. We prayed that we wouldn’t encounter a pride of hungry lions, right at the time that the Land Rover decided not to move again! But we didn’t. However, what we did come across was a fast moving river that we had to cross. This particular river had been dry for the last 27 years, and now all of the sudden, it was running again. I believe that they call it the Disappearing River, or something like that because one day it will be there, and then the next it will suddenly be gone. Or in this case, for 27 years it wasn’t there, and then all of the sudden one day, it appeared. I was afraid we might encounter a crocodile or hippo while crossing, but we didn’t. We made it through the river, and made it to the lodge without any problems.
After putting our things in our rooms, and a short snack, we were off on our first game drive. It was raining and cold, but the Land Rover had a cover over it, even if the rest of it was open. We had these rain type blanket-jackets, so those kept us mostly dry and warm.
The lodge we were staying at was located in Chobe National Park and was called Savute Elephant Camp, aptly named because there are 120,000 - 168,000 elephants in that park! So of course, that is what we saw the most of. The elephants are absolutely majestic, and nothing can compare to seeing them in the wild, in their natural habitat. In general, we just saw one at a time, as the males are solitary. Occasionally we saw several males together, but apparently they were not in any kind of a bachelor group; they just all happened to be in the same place at the same time. One time, we did see a group that had a mother and a baby, as well as several other elephants together. As we were driving, we sort of took them by surprise (and they surprised us as well!), and the mother elephant was not pleased! She came charging at us and trumpeted at us! It was exciting, but scary! Luckily, we had an experienced guide, and he knew that he had to just stop and hold his ground. He said that if he tried to drive away, the elephant would have chased us, and would likely have caught us! That probably would not have been a pretty sight! In general, the animals see the Land Rover as a big animal; they don’t really look at the individual people in the vehicle, unless of course there is a lot of movement. When we were close to the animals, especially the dangerous ones, the guides told us to sit very still and minimize our movements.
One day while we were out, we spotted 3 lion cubs, but with no mother around. The cubs were shy without their mother, so we only got a quick glimpse of them before they disappeared under the brush. Our guide said that it was unusual for the cubs to be without their mother, but that she was likely out hunting. He said that lions are not very good mothers, and that if they get too far away from their cubs while hunting, they may just abandon them altogether. We hoped that was not the case with these cubs.
Later, we saw a solitary, young adult male lion drinking water from a little watering hole. We thought he would never stop drinking! He drank for at least 10 minutes straight without stopping. Our guide again said that it was unusual for this lion to be on his own, and knew that there had to be others nearby. We waited for him to be done drinking, and then followed him to see if he would lead us to the rest of the pride. And he did! There were 3 other young adult male lions all lying under a tree. They had all just finished eating; not far from the lions was a half eaten zebra, which had been killed fairly recently. You could even see the marks in the dirt where the lions had dragged the zebra from one place to another. Our guide took us off the road and put us within 15 feet of these lions! Poor Jensen was so scared to be that close to the lions. She wanted to leave, but we were all fascinated, so unfortunately, she had to endure while we gawked.
The next morning, without Jensen, we went back to the same place to see if the lions were still there; they were, along with about 20 hyenas who were trying to steal the zebra, as well as a ton of vultures, waiting for their turn to eat. The lions had apparently scared the hyenas away from their zebra, but the hyenas were still hanging around, hoping for another chance. The lions had now dragged the zebra under the tree with them, and they were all chowing down on it! The sounds and the smell were just overwhelming! We could hear the lions crunching bones, and hear the scratchiness of their tongues on the zebra’s skin. It was grotesque, but so cool to see this up close. This was definitely a National Geographic moment, up close and personal!
While in Chobe National Park we also saw lots of different birds, several types of antelope (kudu, impala, steenbok, and tsessebe), giraffes, zebras, jackals, wildebeests, and wild dogs. We saw a baby zebra nursing from its momma, and also a baby giraffe nursing from its mom—not in the same place, but on the same day. They were so cute! A baby zebra is born with legs the same length as its mom’s. That way, it can stand next to its mom, and it will sort of look like just one animal (an adult animal), and it will give the baby a chance of surviving against predators.
We were very lucky to see the pack of wild dogs, as there is only one pack in the entire place. There were originally 12 dogs, but now lately, only 8 have been seen, and the guides think that the other 4 have been killed. They were all just lying in the middle of the road, sleeping and looking just like regular dogs. We thought they were so cute, until…Well, I’ll get to that story shortly.
We spent 2 nights at Savute Elephant Camp, and went on 4 different game drives, 2 each morning from 6:30 AM – 11:00 AM, and 2 each late afternoon/evening from 4:00 PM to 7:00 PM. Most of the time was spent just driving around hoping to see animals, and when we did, we stopped and watched for as long as the animal stuck around, or until we’d had our fill of watching. Even without seeing animals, the drives were gorgeous, especially at sunset! There were lots of beautiful trees, including the Baobab, and the Umbrella Thorn. The Umbrella Thorn, to me, is what I think of when I think of the way Africa looks. The Baobab is a tree that I’ve read a lot about; whenever I read a book which takes place in Africa, they always talk about the Baobab. It is an interesting tree, as it is typically a solitary tree, and you will only see one at a time. However in Botswana, and in only one other place (can’t remember where), they have groupings of these trees. We saw about 16 of them all together in one place, all about 800-1200 years old! The Baobab is called the “Tree of Life”.
After 2 nights at the Elephant Camp, we flew to another camp called Khwai River Lodge. This one was located in the Okavango Delta. This camp was known for having lots of hippos because of all of the water that was around. They said that sometimes the hippos even came into the lodge area! Fortunately, they are not able to climb stairs, and we had to climb a few steps to get to our rooms. We could hear them from our rooms, but rarely saw them. Because it was the rainy season, all of the grass and bushes were very tall, so it made it more difficult to see the animals. Hippos are very territorial and actually account for more human deaths than any other animal. We did see some hippos while out on our game drives, but mostly saw them in the water. We saw a couple of juvenile hippos play fighting in the water, and that was fun to watch.
We also got to see a whole troop of baboons. There were adults, juveniles, and infants. The infants either rode on their mother’s back, or on her belly. They ran up and down trees, jumped from tree to tree, and foraged on the ground. One of them was foraging through a huge pile of elephant poop, looking for things to eat!!
And speaking of elephant poop, a lot of what we saw had mushrooms growing out of it! It was really gross, but very interesting. I took lots of pictures of it and called it “mushroom poop”. Sort of makes you look at mushrooms in a whole different light. The other thing we learned about elephant poop is that if you were stranded (and conceivably didn’t get eaten), you could squeeze the elephant poop and get liquid out of it to drink. I know, totally gross! I think maybe I’d rather get eaten!
One day while out, we saw several pairs of lions (male/female). Apparently, it was close to mating time. The guide said they were just dating—not quite at the mating stage yet. It was interesting to watch these pairs. The first pair we saw, were just lying in the middle of the road. They seemed very unconcerned with us, and were just sunbathing. What was interesting about them was that if the female moved, even just a few feet, the male moved right along with her. Apparently, he was keeping a very short leash on her! I guess that even if the female was no longer interested, the male wasn’t about to let her get away. This male that we saw, was the most fabulous, majestic looking lion I have ever seen. He was absolutely gorgeous! And he looked so calm and tame—just like a big kitty cat!
Probably the most exciting, but most horrific thing we saw was a pack of wild dogs killing a baby kudu (a type of antelope). I had thought that seeing this in the wild, it wouldn’t be so bad because it was just the natural course of life, but let me tell you, it was the most awful thing I’ve ever seen. This was National Geographic, uncensored! We came right up upon the scene, just as the wild dogs were bringing the kudu down. It was still very much alive and crying. That was the worst part—listening to that baby crying. I can still hear that sound in my head, and it just makes me cringe every time I think about it. These wild dogs (there were 4 of them) were just ruthless. They were actually eating this poor baby kudu before it was even dead. And if this wasn’t bad enough, the mother kudu was standing there, watching the whole thing. There was absolutely nothing she could do. I was able to get the entire thing on video tape, and honestly, that was the only way I could watch what was happening. When I tried to take my eyes away from the video tape, and watch it live, I just couldn’t. Half the time I was videotaping I had my eyes closed. I just had the camera focused on the animals, and then I just closed my eyes so I didn’t have to watch. And now, when I show other people the video, I have to walk away. Even though I was the one that filmed it, I couldn’t bear to see it again. I am not posting any of those pictures because they are so graphic, but if anyone wants to see them, just let me know and I'll send them to you.
One of the last things we did while on safari was take a helicopter ride over the Okavango Delta. It was a 40 minute ride, and they had taken the doors off the helicopter so we could really get a good view. Unfortunately, we really did not see all that much. It was amazing to us that from that vantage point (up in the air), we didn’t see that much more than when we were on the ground. In fact, we often went 10-15 minutes without seeing a single animal! It really made us appreciate how much we saw on the ground. Being up in the air really gave us a good appreciation of how vast this area is. The one thing that I saw (I was the only one that saw it) from the air that we didn’t see on the ground, was a crocodile. We went by it so quickly that by the time I pointed it out to the others, we had already passed it. The other thing I got a glimpse of while in the helicopter was hippos running on the ground, which was different than seeing them in the water. Everything went by so fast that we couldn’t really get any pictures, but I was able to videotape a lot of it.
When our safari was over, we drove from Botswana to Zimbabwe, where we stayed for a couple of days to see Victoria Falls, which is one of the 7 Natural Wonders of the World. These falls are twice the height of Niagara Falls, and one and half times the width, making it the largest single curtain of falling water on earth. Unfortunately for us, at the time we arrived, Zimbabwe happened to be getting more rain than they had had for a long time. What this meant for us was that we could hardly see the falls. There was so much rain, and so much mist, that it was difficult to see much of anything. It was really quite disappointing, and I don’t think I got a single good picture. The other bad part about the rain was that some of the activities that we were scheduled to do, were cancelled because of the rain. We were supposed to go on an elephant back safari, but no one wanted to do it in the rain. The other thing we missed out on was a micro light plane ride. This “plane” looks like a cross between a go-cart and a glider. It does have an engine on it, but the experience is more like that of a glider. We would have been able to go right over the top of the falls in this and the view would have been spectacular!! Unfortunately, because of the rain, the company cancelled the flight. We were really disappointed. We thought this might have made up for the disappointing views of the falls, but since we didn’t get to go, no luck.
We did spend one afternoon going on a tour of a local village, and this was pretty interesting. Our guide was a local Zimbabwean who educated us about the marriage practices of Zimbabweans. He told us that children are so important to a marriage that if no children are produced in the first year of marriage, that the in-laws on both sides will step in. They will arrange for a younger brother of the husband to sleep with his wife (unbeknownst to him). Then, if a child is produced, the marriage can be saved. He also told us that it is a very complicated process for the man to talk with the woman’s parents when he wants to ask for their permission to marry. He has to go through an aunt or someone, who acts as the advisor. And there is money to pay every step of the way. He has to pay in order to request a visit with the parents. And he has to pay for the actual visit. And he has to pay the woman acting as his advisor. And it seemed like there were a lot of other things that he needed to pay for, just for the chance to ask permission to marry this girl. And then once the parents say yes, he needs to pay the dowry. It is usually a combination of cows/goats and money. After we arrived at the little village, we got to spend time with a local medicine man who told us all about life in his little village. They grow everything that they need to sustain themselves, and any extra, they sell. The other thing he told us is that each family name means a different animal. And whatever animal that your family is, means you cannot eat or kill that animal. That’s why, when they go on hunts, they bring people from lots of different families, so that they always have someone on hand who can kill any animal that they encounter. It was pretty cool hearing all about the different traditions that they have. The one bad thing that happened was that our bus got stuck in the mud at the village. They tried to dig it out, but without success. It wouldn't have been so bad, but it was cold and rainy, and we just wanted to get home to a warm shower. They eventually sent another bus to pick us up, and we really don't know what happened to the original bus. It might still be stuck there!
We also spent one afternoon at the Victoria Falls Hotel having high tea. The view we had of the falls was spectacular from that hotel, and the tea was very nice too. We walked around the grounds for awhile and saw lots of baboons and warthogs. They were all so cute! In an ugly sort of way! Dustin was so excited because on the morning that we were leaving Zimbabwe, a baboon came into the lobby of our hotel. We thought it was great, but the staff apparently didn't, so they shooed him out. Apparently, it's a fairly common occurrence. They also told us when we checked in to make sure to always lock the back door in our room when we leave the room. Otherwise, they said that the baboons know how to work the doors and they'll come in and throw a party!
On our last day, we drove to Zambia, as that's where our flight was leaving from. We did a little shopping on the way, and then we were off, back to South Africa. My mom and sister flew out that evening, first stopping in France on their way back to the US. We stayed the weekend in South Africa with friends, and finally made our way back home to Fungurume.
Well, that about wraps it up for the trip. Despite the disappointment at Victoria Falls, the trip itself was amazing! And it was made even better by having my mom and sister with us!
Cheers!
Laurie
P.S. I tried something different with my pictures this time. Instead of posting my pictures directly into the blog, I've put them into a Picasa album. I just had so many pictures that I wanted to share that I wouldn't have been able to fit them all on the blog page. So, I apologize, as this means an extra step for you, but I think you'll enjoy the pictures, so it should be worth it! The link to view the pictures is: http://picasaweb.google.com/101772470997217881011/BotswanaSafariAndVictoriaFallsFebruaryMarch2010?authkey=Gv1sRgCMO23bmRi5TaHw&feat=directlink
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