We're back in Pretoria where we started this adventure. Today is our last full day in Africa, and this will be our last update from Africa. Our flight leaves Johannesburg at 7:45 local time and it will be a long one! 19 hours later, we'll land in New York and frantically take 5 different trains across to Newark, NJ for our flight to Regina, which departs about 3 hours and 50 minutes later. We'll have to be quick!
In the meantime, we'll spend tonight just relaxing here at the lodge. Tomorrow, we're booked to do a tour of Soweto (short for South-West Township). south west of Johannesburg. Soweto is home to about 3 million people, and I don't think any of them are white. This is because during the Apartheid era, most of the black people from Johannesburg were evicted from their homes and sent to live in townships like Soweto. Tomorrow we'll learn more about Soweto and its history. If I'm not mistaken, I believe that Nelson Mandela spent part of his growing up years in Soweto, and I think our tour may stop by the house where he was born/grew up. The others in our tour will likely stop by the Apartheid Museum. Since we were there at the start, we'll either go straight to the airport, or spend some time on the rides at the nearby Gold Reef City, an amusement park right beside the museum.
Yesterday. we were in and around the Blyde River Canyon. What an incredible area! The scenery is absolutely amazing. We went to "God's Window", which is basically just a really nice lookout point; the Bourke's Luck Potholes, big holes formed by the weathering of the rock at the meeting of two rivers (Bourke was one of the main gold prospectors back in the day, and he threw money into the holes for luck when he discovered them. Of course, he discovered gold soon after); and another lookout over the canyon. There were weird guys at the last place that wanted to be our best friends. We were a bit suspicous of them, but we left with all our belongings. Other than that, not much is new. We're looking forward to seeing everyone again at home!
D&K
July 24, 2010
July 22, 2010
Kruger
Kruger National Park is beautiful! The landscape here is as stunning as it is varied, and we´ve definitely seen our fair share of animals in the last 24 hours. It´s hard to believe that we´ve barely covered the southern tip of the park. It´s huge.
We got into the park and did a game drive yesterday, which basically consisted of driving slow on our bus. We got our first good sighting of rhinos (and several more this morning) on that trip. That basically is our last check on the list of major African animals to see. We saw rhinos on our first day in Botswana, but just their butts from a distance. We can even say that we´ve seen cheetah and leopard, the two that are most likely for people to miss.
After our game drive, we made our way to our campsite, getting there after dark in the rain (the first real rain we´ve seen on this trip). Everyone was concerned about setting up their tents in the rain. However, there was no need to be concerned, as the campsite ended up being full! Apparently, the Gecko´s office hadn´t notified our tour guide that our plans had been changed. We sat in the bus for about an hour and a half while we waited for things to get sorted out. On top of all this, driving after dark in the park can carry penalties as stiff as prison time! In the end, we had a park ranger escort us from the campground we were at to another one 75 km down the road. Since the speed limit is 50 km/h in the park, it took about an hour and a half to get there... and we almost ran over a lion on the way!! We arrived at the Berg-En-Dal campground tired and hungry, and with some less than enthusiastic traveling partners. We had supper at the campground´s restaurant and enjoyed a hard-earned rest in our tent.
We have one more night in the park, and tomorrow we start the trek back to Jo´Burg where our trip ends. One night here, one night in Graskop, one night in Pretoria, one night on the plane, and then we get to sleep in our own bed again! That will be very nice, although we´ll really miss Africa.
In other news, Katie thinks something bit her on the leg. She has an unexplained bruise and two little scrapes/red punctures in her leg. I suggested the possibility of it being a bat, which of course went over really well. We´ve noticed that Kruger animals are very accustomed to people, even bold around people. Whenever we eat, starlings and another kind of bird (the kind that Zazu is on the Lion King) are always going from person to person begging like dogs. If you look away, they´ll fly right up and steal food from your plate! Katie has also been thrilled about this. The birds are not the only thieves here. This afternoon, I was coming out of our tent, and I saw a monkey hanging out of an open window on our bus. A second later, another monkey flew out of the window to the ground below, clutching a box of goldfish crackers in its mouth. I yelled ¨Hey!¨ at them, as if that would do any good, and began to chase them, not knowing why or what I would do if I caught them. At the same moment, Katie came out of the bathroom and started doing the same. She wasn´t sure why either. In the end, all the monkey´s friends came over to share in the bounty, but it snarled at them and ran into a corner to hog all the crackers. Katie reminded us all that monkeys are evil. (Ask her about her experience in Mexico this year.)
The Internet patrol is kicking us off now, so we have to go!
D&K
We got into the park and did a game drive yesterday, which basically consisted of driving slow on our bus. We got our first good sighting of rhinos (and several more this morning) on that trip. That basically is our last check on the list of major African animals to see. We saw rhinos on our first day in Botswana, but just their butts from a distance. We can even say that we´ve seen cheetah and leopard, the two that are most likely for people to miss.
After our game drive, we made our way to our campsite, getting there after dark in the rain (the first real rain we´ve seen on this trip). Everyone was concerned about setting up their tents in the rain. However, there was no need to be concerned, as the campsite ended up being full! Apparently, the Gecko´s office hadn´t notified our tour guide that our plans had been changed. We sat in the bus for about an hour and a half while we waited for things to get sorted out. On top of all this, driving after dark in the park can carry penalties as stiff as prison time! In the end, we had a park ranger escort us from the campground we were at to another one 75 km down the road. Since the speed limit is 50 km/h in the park, it took about an hour and a half to get there... and we almost ran over a lion on the way!! We arrived at the Berg-En-Dal campground tired and hungry, and with some less than enthusiastic traveling partners. We had supper at the campground´s restaurant and enjoyed a hard-earned rest in our tent.
We have one more night in the park, and tomorrow we start the trek back to Jo´Burg where our trip ends. One night here, one night in Graskop, one night in Pretoria, one night on the plane, and then we get to sleep in our own bed again! That will be very nice, although we´ll really miss Africa.
In other news, Katie thinks something bit her on the leg. She has an unexplained bruise and two little scrapes/red punctures in her leg. I suggested the possibility of it being a bat, which of course went over really well. We´ve noticed that Kruger animals are very accustomed to people, even bold around people. Whenever we eat, starlings and another kind of bird (the kind that Zazu is on the Lion King) are always going from person to person begging like dogs. If you look away, they´ll fly right up and steal food from your plate! Katie has also been thrilled about this. The birds are not the only thieves here. This afternoon, I was coming out of our tent, and I saw a monkey hanging out of an open window on our bus. A second later, another monkey flew out of the window to the ground below, clutching a box of goldfish crackers in its mouth. I yelled ¨Hey!¨ at them, as if that would do any good, and began to chase them, not knowing why or what I would do if I caught them. At the same moment, Katie came out of the bathroom and started doing the same. She wasn´t sure why either. In the end, all the monkey´s friends came over to share in the bounty, but it snarled at them and ran into a corner to hog all the crackers. Katie reminded us all that monkeys are evil. (Ask her about her experience in Mexico this year.)
The Internet patrol is kicking us off now, so we have to go!
D&K
July 21, 2010
Back in South Africa
We're back in South Africa, a country I've come to both love (for its charm and resiliency) and hate (for the ugly societal issues that are rearing their head even this week). We're on our way to Kruger National Park, and are enjoying a short stop in a town called Hazyview.
The last time we blogged, we were in Antelope Park in Zimbabwe, looking forward to feeding the lions. We are pleased to report that we were not eaten, but the feeding was as intense as promised. The lions are given basically half a cow, and they come charging out of their living quarters, descending on the huge pile of meat placed mere feet from where we were standing. In the first feeding we witnessed, the lion kept the food near us, and fiercely defended its "kill". We were too close for its comfort, so it kept roaring at us, and yes, even jumping and pouncing at us to keep us away. (Don't forget, there was a fence.) The next feeding featured a larger group of male lions who charged yet more fiercly to the meat. We have some great video.
The next day, we left Antelope Park and proceeded to the Great Zimbabwe Ruins. The ruins lie in the heavily weathered mountains of southern Zimbabwe, where huge boulders sit on top of huger boulders, looking about to topple off at any time. The ruins were an acropolis built among these rock formations. It was truly incredible to imagine what life had been like for these people, and to learn a little bit about their culture. We saw the bird carving that is represented on the Zimbabwe flag. The people believed that birds were responsible for relaying messages to heaven and back, and thus, they were given great importance in that culture.
After camping near the ruins, we crossed the border into South Africa. There was a huge line-up on the Zimbabwe side, and we felt really bad when, after standing in line for a few minutes, the officials ushered us priviliged tourists up to the front of the line. However, we were part of the group, so to keep our places meant delaying our bus. We stopped at a mall just across the border, and were immediately struck by the vast selection available to us in all the stores! (What? More than two kinds of chocolate bars??) The economic contrast is quite stark. (The roads are also soooo much smoother, much to Katie's relief, who was starting to feel fairly nauseous from the Zimbabwe bumps.) We picked up some souvenirs at the mall, and had a bit of a sketchy incident, where after I somehow got my credit card approved without using the PIN, the cashier was anxious to take an impression of our card. This caused some nervous discussion about what to do, but I was convinced that the PIN problem would have been a problem with their terminal not our card, he didn't have the card, and he didn't have the security code off the back, so online or phone purchases wouldn't work. Any thoughts?
We camped last nigh at the Tshipise hot springs. This was an interesting experience since (as it would be with most places featuring warm mineraly water) our group likely brought the average age of the place down by about 20 years. It was a huge campsite filled with RV's many of which, we were told, were there for some kind of church gathering. As it happened, we camped in the church courtyard. The pool was really nice. It felt good to wash off all the layers of dust in a nice warm pool. (Which is also kind of gross when you think of it...)
We're camping two nights at Kruger (at two different campsites), our last opportunity to spot wildlife on this trip. After that, it's back to Pretoria/Johannesburg with a stop in Pilgrim's Rest along the way. As much as we love Africa, we're greatly looking to coming home. Mattresses, spider-free showers, our new house, and pizza draw us homeward (not to mention family and friends)! Talk to you soon.
D&K
The last time we blogged, we were in Antelope Park in Zimbabwe, looking forward to feeding the lions. We are pleased to report that we were not eaten, but the feeding was as intense as promised. The lions are given basically half a cow, and they come charging out of their living quarters, descending on the huge pile of meat placed mere feet from where we were standing. In the first feeding we witnessed, the lion kept the food near us, and fiercely defended its "kill". We were too close for its comfort, so it kept roaring at us, and yes, even jumping and pouncing at us to keep us away. (Don't forget, there was a fence.) The next feeding featured a larger group of male lions who charged yet more fiercly to the meat. We have some great video.
The next day, we left Antelope Park and proceeded to the Great Zimbabwe Ruins. The ruins lie in the heavily weathered mountains of southern Zimbabwe, where huge boulders sit on top of huger boulders, looking about to topple off at any time. The ruins were an acropolis built among these rock formations. It was truly incredible to imagine what life had been like for these people, and to learn a little bit about their culture. We saw the bird carving that is represented on the Zimbabwe flag. The people believed that birds were responsible for relaying messages to heaven and back, and thus, they were given great importance in that culture.
After camping near the ruins, we crossed the border into South Africa. There was a huge line-up on the Zimbabwe side, and we felt really bad when, after standing in line for a few minutes, the officials ushered us priviliged tourists up to the front of the line. However, we were part of the group, so to keep our places meant delaying our bus. We stopped at a mall just across the border, and were immediately struck by the vast selection available to us in all the stores! (What? More than two kinds of chocolate bars??) The economic contrast is quite stark. (The roads are also soooo much smoother, much to Katie's relief, who was starting to feel fairly nauseous from the Zimbabwe bumps.) We picked up some souvenirs at the mall, and had a bit of a sketchy incident, where after I somehow got my credit card approved without using the PIN, the cashier was anxious to take an impression of our card. This caused some nervous discussion about what to do, but I was convinced that the PIN problem would have been a problem with their terminal not our card, he didn't have the card, and he didn't have the security code off the back, so online or phone purchases wouldn't work. Any thoughts?
We camped last nigh at the Tshipise hot springs. This was an interesting experience since (as it would be with most places featuring warm mineraly water) our group likely brought the average age of the place down by about 20 years. It was a huge campsite filled with RV's many of which, we were told, were there for some kind of church gathering. As it happened, we camped in the church courtyard. The pool was really nice. It felt good to wash off all the layers of dust in a nice warm pool. (Which is also kind of gross when you think of it...)
We're camping two nights at Kruger (at two different campsites), our last opportunity to spot wildlife on this trip. After that, it's back to Pretoria/Johannesburg with a stop in Pilgrim's Rest along the way. As much as we love Africa, we're greatly looking to coming home. Mattresses, spider-free showers, our new house, and pizza draw us homeward (not to mention family and friends)! Talk to you soon.
D&K
July 18, 2010
Lions!
Hi from Antelope Park! It's hard to believe that tomorrow is already our last full day in Zimbabwe. Here's our update from the last few days.
We left Vic Falls on Thursday and drove to Hwange National Park with our new tour group (including 9 of us from our previous group). We stayed at a place called the Ivory Lodge, right beside a big watering hole where all kinds of animals come during the night. They have lights shining down to the water so that you can see the animals when they come. The campsite was great, but it's either getting colder, or we're getting wimpier. The last few days, except for a few hours each afternoon, have been quite chilly. Today, it's cloudy, and although we would usually be seeking shade at this time of day, we're instead sitting on our hands trying to keep them warm. At Hwange, we went to the Painted Dog Conservation Program, and saw all the wild dogs. This reminded us of our dog, Bailey, who we miss very much! The highlight of Hwange, though, was seeing a cheetah! We weren't even too sure we had seen one at first. We were driving past a group of Sable, and they suddenly all looked in the same direction. Our guide said they usually do that when a predator is near. It took the combined efforts of all the binoculars and cameras in our group to pick out the cheetah, but it was definitely a cheetah. It was amazing how well it camouflaged. It just looked like a shadow in the grass until it wiggled its ear or moved its tail. We got some good video of it, though, which we'll definitely share when we get home. Hwange also gave us lots of opportunity to see some interesting birds. We thought of how much Katie's grandma would have loved to be there!
At supper that night, we had a person from a local tribe talk to us about their culture, and we shared about our cultures. It was interesting, yet disturbing at the same time. Some of their customs are very strange, and definitely not G-rated.
Yesterday we drove to Antelope Park, near Gweru, Zimbabwe. We stopped for shopping in Bulawayo, which is Zimbabwe's second largest city. It was in Bulawayo that I discovered one of the greatest treasures of Southern Africa... Biltong. Now, biltong is basically dried meat, like jerky, but I've learned that not all biltong is created equal. When you buy beef jerky at the convenience store, it's called biltong (I tried some ostrich jerky in Botswana, which was good), but yesterday I discovered what biltong was meant to be. At the shopping complex, there was a butcher shop run by a South African couple. I walked in, and they had a whole wall with hanging strips of meat on it. I asked for some biltong, and she pulled down one of the strips and asked if I wanted it sliced. I didn't want to be too much trouble, so I said, "No thanks." What I got was a roughly 16 inch by 4 inch piece of pure deliciousness--dried to perfection on the outside, yet still rare on the inside. The lack of slicing, however, makes me look like a wild animal whenever I bite into it. I'm conviced, though, that this is how biltong was meant to be eaten. It was an appropriate snack for what we were about to experience later that day. (Also, cigarettes were only 60 cents at the supermarket. No wonder so many people smoke here! The cashier was shocked when I told her that a pack costs $10-$15 in Canada. Not that I was buying cigarettes...)
From Bulawayo, we made our way to Antelope Park. What a beautiful place! Here, they have a lion breeding program, where they raise lions in captivity and gradually train them to be set free into the wild. Last night, we had the opportunity to visit some of their "cubs" (18 months old). It was pretty unforgettable to be able to walk side-by-side with these huge animals that could kill you with one blow. We got to pet them, and Katie was able to hold one's tail while walking with it. I was able to feel one lion's claws. I'm pleased to report that they are indeed sharp. Normally, you'd walk a fair ways with them, but the lions had just finished devouring part of a cow, so they were in a pretty lazy mood. We mostly just stood around and hung out with them, which was fine. We joked that it was kind of like walking Rick and Margot's dog, Sophie.
They have a huge selection of activities here including elephant training, swimming with elephants, horseback safaris, elephant-back safaris, feeding lion cubs, feeding full grown lions (and you're not even the food!), and the grandaddy of them all, the night encounter. On the night encounter, you get to follow the lions on an evening hunt and, if you're lucky, watch them stalk and kill an impala or a zebra... not for the squeamish. I wanted to go, but it was $95. It only happens every 5 days, but last night was the night, and a number of people from our group went. They reported that the lions weren't successful in making a kill, but that they had several chases, and it was really cool to see the lions stalk their prey. Today we're going to the lion feeding. The workers here described it as "intense". Apparently, they just throw a huge chunk of meat over the fence, and the lions come charging out and rip it to shreds about a foot away from you. (We'll be behind a fence, though... don't worry.) We'll be excited to let you know how it goes!
That's about all the news for now! We have about 700 pictures so far, and we'll look forward to posting some, likely when we get home. The internet is pretty slow here, and internet time is at a premium, so that's why we haven't been posting them. Tomorrow we visit the Great Zimbabwe Ruins, and after that we're back into South Africa for the last 6 days of our tour!
D&K
We left Vic Falls on Thursday and drove to Hwange National Park with our new tour group (including 9 of us from our previous group). We stayed at a place called the Ivory Lodge, right beside a big watering hole where all kinds of animals come during the night. They have lights shining down to the water so that you can see the animals when they come. The campsite was great, but it's either getting colder, or we're getting wimpier. The last few days, except for a few hours each afternoon, have been quite chilly. Today, it's cloudy, and although we would usually be seeking shade at this time of day, we're instead sitting on our hands trying to keep them warm. At Hwange, we went to the Painted Dog Conservation Program, and saw all the wild dogs. This reminded us of our dog, Bailey, who we miss very much! The highlight of Hwange, though, was seeing a cheetah! We weren't even too sure we had seen one at first. We were driving past a group of Sable, and they suddenly all looked in the same direction. Our guide said they usually do that when a predator is near. It took the combined efforts of all the binoculars and cameras in our group to pick out the cheetah, but it was definitely a cheetah. It was amazing how well it camouflaged. It just looked like a shadow in the grass until it wiggled its ear or moved its tail. We got some good video of it, though, which we'll definitely share when we get home. Hwange also gave us lots of opportunity to see some interesting birds. We thought of how much Katie's grandma would have loved to be there!
At supper that night, we had a person from a local tribe talk to us about their culture, and we shared about our cultures. It was interesting, yet disturbing at the same time. Some of their customs are very strange, and definitely not G-rated.
Yesterday we drove to Antelope Park, near Gweru, Zimbabwe. We stopped for shopping in Bulawayo, which is Zimbabwe's second largest city. It was in Bulawayo that I discovered one of the greatest treasures of Southern Africa... Biltong. Now, biltong is basically dried meat, like jerky, but I've learned that not all biltong is created equal. When you buy beef jerky at the convenience store, it's called biltong (I tried some ostrich jerky in Botswana, which was good), but yesterday I discovered what biltong was meant to be. At the shopping complex, there was a butcher shop run by a South African couple. I walked in, and they had a whole wall with hanging strips of meat on it. I asked for some biltong, and she pulled down one of the strips and asked if I wanted it sliced. I didn't want to be too much trouble, so I said, "No thanks." What I got was a roughly 16 inch by 4 inch piece of pure deliciousness--dried to perfection on the outside, yet still rare on the inside. The lack of slicing, however, makes me look like a wild animal whenever I bite into it. I'm conviced, though, that this is how biltong was meant to be eaten. It was an appropriate snack for what we were about to experience later that day. (Also, cigarettes were only 60 cents at the supermarket. No wonder so many people smoke here! The cashier was shocked when I told her that a pack costs $10-$15 in Canada. Not that I was buying cigarettes...)
From Bulawayo, we made our way to Antelope Park. What a beautiful place! Here, they have a lion breeding program, where they raise lions in captivity and gradually train them to be set free into the wild. Last night, we had the opportunity to visit some of their "cubs" (18 months old). It was pretty unforgettable to be able to walk side-by-side with these huge animals that could kill you with one blow. We got to pet them, and Katie was able to hold one's tail while walking with it. I was able to feel one lion's claws. I'm pleased to report that they are indeed sharp. Normally, you'd walk a fair ways with them, but the lions had just finished devouring part of a cow, so they were in a pretty lazy mood. We mostly just stood around and hung out with them, which was fine. We joked that it was kind of like walking Rick and Margot's dog, Sophie.
They have a huge selection of activities here including elephant training, swimming with elephants, horseback safaris, elephant-back safaris, feeding lion cubs, feeding full grown lions (and you're not even the food!), and the grandaddy of them all, the night encounter. On the night encounter, you get to follow the lions on an evening hunt and, if you're lucky, watch them stalk and kill an impala or a zebra... not for the squeamish. I wanted to go, but it was $95. It only happens every 5 days, but last night was the night, and a number of people from our group went. They reported that the lions weren't successful in making a kill, but that they had several chases, and it was really cool to see the lions stalk their prey. Today we're going to the lion feeding. The workers here described it as "intense". Apparently, they just throw a huge chunk of meat over the fence, and the lions come charging out and rip it to shreds about a foot away from you. (We'll be behind a fence, though... don't worry.) We'll be excited to let you know how it goes!
That's about all the news for now! We have about 700 pictures so far, and we'll look forward to posting some, likely when we get home. The internet is pretty slow here, and internet time is at a premium, so that's why we haven't been posting them. Tomorrow we visit the Great Zimbabwe Ruins, and after that we're back into South Africa for the last 6 days of our tour!
D&K
July 14, 2010
Last Day in Vic Falls
Lesson of the day from Victoria falls: if someone offers you a poncho before you enter the falls, take it. So as you can imagine, we were not so wise as this. We walked down to the falls first thing this morning, and said "No thanks" to the vendors selling ponchos near the gate. The Falls are spectacular, or at least what one can see of them. It's high water season which means the volume of water going over the falls is near its highest point of the year. The gorge is breathtaking when you look down into it... a long ways down! However, you can't see the bottom because of the huge amount of mist coming up from the falls in some places. That mist caused us to look like we had just jumped in the Zambezi River. It's truly amazing that the force of the water can drive so much mist so high up into the air. After getting some great views of the falls, some great pictures, and completely saturated with water, we decided to make the walk to the Vic Falls bridge on the Zimbabwe/Zambia border. It's one of the iconic symbols of Vic Falls and also the place where idiotic people go bunjee jumping. Even on the walk, which is a fair ways from the falls, we were still getting pelted wig water in places. We watched people bungee jump, got some more great pictures, and bought some 100 trillion dollar bills from a guy for $3. We can also now say we've been to Zambia!
We braved our way through the many street vendors harassing us relentlessly to by everything from necklaces to "crazy bills" (everyone wanted to trade for my hat or shoes) back to our campsite. After changing our clothes, we went for lunch at "Chicken Inn" (we had supper at "Pizza Inn" last night and dessert at "Creamy Inn").
After lunch, we went to the local craft market to get some souvenirs. We had to barter quote hard to get what we wanted at a reasonable price. The street seller people are ridiculously persistent. They'll follow you down the street for a 20 minutes telling you every story they can think of to get you to buy from them. Most of it was stuff we didn't want, but we found it much more intense even than Mexico in terms of their persistence.
We had a meeting with our new tour crew tonight and we leave for Hwange National Park tomorrow morning at 8. We've heard great things about the next part of our tour from people who just did that route, so we'excited about what awaits us. The only thing we disliked about Vic Falls is how light in the wallet it left us! Fortunately, bottled water has been our only other real expense, so hopefully that continues. We'll miss the luxuries of wireless internet, but we're told the showers are hot for the whole trip back to Pretoria!
D&K
We braved our way through the many street vendors harassing us relentlessly to by everything from necklaces to "crazy bills" (everyone wanted to trade for my hat or shoes) back to our campsite. After changing our clothes, we went for lunch at "Chicken Inn" (we had supper at "Pizza Inn" last night and dessert at "Creamy Inn").
After lunch, we went to the local craft market to get some souvenirs. We had to barter quote hard to get what we wanted at a reasonable price. The street seller people are ridiculously persistent. They'll follow you down the street for a 20 minutes telling you every story they can think of to get you to buy from them. Most of it was stuff we didn't want, but we found it much more intense even than Mexico in terms of their persistence.
We had a meeting with our new tour crew tonight and we leave for Hwange National Park tomorrow morning at 8. We've heard great things about the next part of our tour from people who just did that route, so we'excited about what awaits us. The only thing we disliked about Vic Falls is how light in the wallet it left us! Fortunately, bottled water has been our only other real expense, so hopefully that continues. We'll miss the luxuries of wireless internet, but we're told the showers are hot for the whole trip back to Pretoria!
D&K
July 13, 2010
Terminator 2
Finally we get to fill you in on our very eventful last several days. We just figured out tonight that the campsite we're at in Vic Falls has wireless Internet. What a luxury! Speaking of luxury, this campsite has afforded us certain luxuries we haven't had elsewhere thus far. For instance, we have now had two consecutive days of hot showers! Actually, I have. Katie had her first hot shower in a while this afternoon. Yesterday she wasn't so fortunate. We've realized that plumbing standards aren't really up to the standards we're used to in Canada. The showers behave very strangely at times, and just when you think you've got it set up just right, it goes cold again or you lose all your pressure. Katie spent about half an hour in the shower this afternoon she loved it so much. When she came out she was tempted to roll in the dirt so she could do it again. If you think this is a waste of water, our cold showers have been so short, they easily make up for it! Other luxuries include: toilets that aren't holes, toilets that have seats, toilet paper, and toilets that flush. Katie thinks this is the first time she's had all those things in one place. I, on the other hand, have rediscovered what a blessing it is to be male. The other wonderful thing about our current accommodations is that we're here for a few days, so we don't have to be setting up and taking down our tent every day. We've only had one other place where that's been the case. (Although, we've had some days where it's done for us, which we love!). Just when you thought our luxury could not possibly be greater, we've also taken advantage of their laundry service for basically everything we brought. Clean clothes are awesome!
The first leg of our tour ends today. Tomorrow some of our group changes, as do our crew. We liked our first group of fellow travelers and our leader, cook and driver, so hopefully this next bit is at least as good. There are 9 of us from the current group continuing on, so we're hopeful for a good last leg.
As we mentioned in our last update, Chobe national park in Botswana was fantastic. It really was an unforgettable experience to see the concentrations of animals that we saw on both our boat cruise and game drive. We took about 100 trillion (a significant number as you'll find out later) pictures which we'll be sure to post later. Some other things we saw that we didn't mention in our last update are: a huge herd of probably about 100 elephants, many of whom trumpeted at us as we went by; babies of pretty much every kind of animal (giraffes, elephants, hippos, and crocodiles among them); giraffes drinking from the river (a comical sight as they have to spread their legs out in all directions to reach the water!); crocodiles sunbathing; and lions getting ready for an evening hunt. That night we camped inside he national park and managed to escape and middle-of-the-night wildlife encounters other than a honey badger that went through our garbage.
We drove to Victoria Falls yesterday, and in doing so, crossed from Botswana into Zimbabwe. It was quite a long border stop, and we found out that our Zimbabwe visas were going to cost $75 each instead of the expected $55 each. When we got to Vic Falls (the Banff of Africa), we set up camp, enjoyed some showers, had a brief driving tour of the main area of the city, and were given a presentation outlining the main activities available to us here. We decided to do white water rafting and massages (to ease all the tension from the rafting)! Before supper, we had an "impromptu" performance from a really good African song and dance group. They were so tight, and the dancing was incredible. The main story from yesterday, though, was our supper. We went to a restaurant called "Boma". It was $40 each for the meal, but it turned out to be much more than a meal. This place was an experience! When we arrived in front of the restaurant, we walked down a path, where we were given the traditional African toga-like thing to wear (sorry, I don't know what it's called!) over our clothes. At the entrance to the restaurant, we had little markings painted on our faces (three dots for girls, two lines for guys). After we were seated, we were invited to go up and get starters, which consisted of crocodile tail, impala, mushroom rolls, butternut soup, and about 5 or 6 other things. The main course was a meat grill. You went past the grill and ordered whatever you wanted from the grill. They were serving sirloin, buffalo, warthog, fish, chicken, boerwors (South African sausage) and pork sausage. The warthog was our favourite. It was amazing. The desserts were also incredible. As we were eating, different things were going on. First, a person came by and painted everyone's face with a different animal. He was really good! Katie got an eagle and I got a hippo. There was also another singing and dancing group that got up and did their thing during supper. After supper, everyone in the restaurant (probably a couple hundred people) got a djembe (an african drum) and this drumming group led us all in some drumming. It was amazing to see and hear everyone in the restaurant pounding out all kinds of beats. Later, a fortune teller (who throws bones to tell your fortune) came around to invite people to come have their fortunes told. We didn't do this one, but it was interesting nonetheless. If you're ever in Victoria Falls, go to Boma. It's worth it! I was at another game meat restaurant in Nairobi, Carnivore, and while that was great too, this one blew it out of the water.
One interesting thing about Zimbabwe so far is that, far more than in other places, there's people following you down the streets trying to sell you stuff. What's even more entertaining than some of these people is the "tourist police" that chase them if they see them harrassing you. We've made "friends" with a guy named Moses (rather, he's made "friends" with us) who really badly wants to sell us some 100 trillion dollar bills (I'm just building the suspense on this one). Yesterday, while he was following us down the street, the tourist police came chasing after him, and what ensued was a strange little chase not unlike a game of tag. In the end, they ended up on opposite sides of the street, both laughing. We ended up just inside the gate of our campsite watching this, also laughing. Okay so, about the 100 trillion dollar bills... As you may know, recently the political situation in Zimbabwe hasn't been terribly stable. A few years ago, their currency (the Zimbabwe Dollar) started to rapidly lose its value at an exponential rate. This necessitated the government's printing out higher and higher denominations of bills very quickly. The result was bills in denomations of things like 50 billion, 500 billion, and best of all, 100 trillion dollars. Obviously this couldn't go on forever, and their currency was quickly abolished and replaced with the US dollar (the "official" currency of Zimbabwe today). So now we have these people running around on the street selling worthless 100 trillion dollar bills as novelty items. Their initial asking price is $10 for the "set" of all the different bills. I think I'm going to see tomorrow if I can get him to take $1 for two 100 trillions. This Moses guy is pretty amazing, though, because even when he catches a glimpse of us through the campsite fence (a fair distance from where he's standing), he whistles and waves to us something about how he's still interested in trading for my shorts!
Today was also an eventful day, starting with white water rafting in the morning. (We've been in Vic Falls for a day and a half now, and we have yet to see the falls! That will happen tomorrow.) After a good long training session, it started with a loooong walk down the steep gorge to the Zambezi River. The gorge is stunning, and incredibly scenic. Once we were at the bottom of the gorge, we boarded our rafts, six people in each, plus our guide. Our guide was Lee, and he was really funny. He liked to trash talk the other boats the whole time. After some practice in the calm water, we headed out into the rapids, which bear names like "The Washing Machine" (self-explanatory), "Creamy White Buttocks" (so named because of all the white people that lose their pants in the waves), "Obvivion", "Terminator" 1 and 2, and "Judgement Day", among others. We started on rapid number 11, as the water is still high at this time of year, and rapid number 9, which too crazy for rafting, can't be walked around. (Someone apparently died in number 9 a few years ago on a kayak.) The first few rapids were tamer ones, but since they were our first ones, we found them quite scary! Just when we thought we were getting pretty awesome at everything, we came to rapids 16a and 16b, "Terminator" 1 and 2. Terminator 1 was fine, and we actually thought we were through the rapids, but Terminator 2 came suddenly. These were by far the biggest waves of the day (Class 5 rapids). It's amazing when the waves are so big that you just see the water disappear from beneath you when you approach them. We approached one big wave, and despite our guides best efforts to keep us facing the wave head-on, we turned just a bit. This sent our boat flipping into the air, and all of us hapless passengers flying in various directions into the raging rapids. Katie ended up under the boat, but handled it like a pro. Soon, we were all hanging on to the side of the boat (still flying through the churning rapids, alternating being under water and above water), our guide flipped it over (on top of me), and we were all able to help each other back in. Apparently a day rarely goes by when someone doesn't flip on Terminator 2. Our boat flipped over sideways, but some of our traveling companions in another boat had an even crazier wipeout on the same rapids. Their boat went off the same wave straight, but did a full front over back flip into the water. On rapid 18 ("Oblivion") our boat almost flipped again, but one person from our boat fell off (just before I and the person behind me went into the drink too) and that seemed to stabilize us. He had a nice little swim through Oblivion with some help from the safety patrol guys on kayaks. After our harrowing adventure, we made the long climb back up the gorge, where a nice lunch and cold drinks awaited us. All in all, it was a great adventure, something we would definitely repeat given the chance.
When we got back into town we went for our massages (my first one ever!), which did wonders for easing the tension from our morning's escapades. At 6, we went to a nearby hostel to watch the video of our rafting. The video was amazing, and there was fantastic footage of all the big spills! They were selling it for $30, which we found a bit steep. However, one girl in our group bought a copy and promised to put it on YouTube for us to see. We really want to be able to show everyone at home our awesome wipeout!
Tomorrow we're going to actually go to the Falls in the morning, and in the afternoon exercise our bartering skills at some of the many curio shops in town (shops with all the random carvings, jewellery, drums, and anything else you'd expect to get as African souvenirs).
That was a long update, and if you made it this far, you must a) be related to us, or b) have nothing else to do. Perhaps I could also add "c) be enthralled by Derek's amazing blog writing", but that's unlikely. It's hard to believe that in only 12 days, we'll be over the Atlantic on our way home. The second leg of our tour through Zimbabwe back to Johannesburg starts tomorrow. We'll be sure to keep you posted.
D&K
The first leg of our tour ends today. Tomorrow some of our group changes, as do our crew. We liked our first group of fellow travelers and our leader, cook and driver, so hopefully this next bit is at least as good. There are 9 of us from the current group continuing on, so we're hopeful for a good last leg.
As we mentioned in our last update, Chobe national park in Botswana was fantastic. It really was an unforgettable experience to see the concentrations of animals that we saw on both our boat cruise and game drive. We took about 100 trillion (a significant number as you'll find out later) pictures which we'll be sure to post later. Some other things we saw that we didn't mention in our last update are: a huge herd of probably about 100 elephants, many of whom trumpeted at us as we went by; babies of pretty much every kind of animal (giraffes, elephants, hippos, and crocodiles among them); giraffes drinking from the river (a comical sight as they have to spread their legs out in all directions to reach the water!); crocodiles sunbathing; and lions getting ready for an evening hunt. That night we camped inside he national park and managed to escape and middle-of-the-night wildlife encounters other than a honey badger that went through our garbage.
We drove to Victoria Falls yesterday, and in doing so, crossed from Botswana into Zimbabwe. It was quite a long border stop, and we found out that our Zimbabwe visas were going to cost $75 each instead of the expected $55 each. When we got to Vic Falls (the Banff of Africa), we set up camp, enjoyed some showers, had a brief driving tour of the main area of the city, and were given a presentation outlining the main activities available to us here. We decided to do white water rafting and massages (to ease all the tension from the rafting)! Before supper, we had an "impromptu" performance from a really good African song and dance group. They were so tight, and the dancing was incredible. The main story from yesterday, though, was our supper. We went to a restaurant called "Boma". It was $40 each for the meal, but it turned out to be much more than a meal. This place was an experience! When we arrived in front of the restaurant, we walked down a path, where we were given the traditional African toga-like thing to wear (sorry, I don't know what it's called!) over our clothes. At the entrance to the restaurant, we had little markings painted on our faces (three dots for girls, two lines for guys). After we were seated, we were invited to go up and get starters, which consisted of crocodile tail, impala, mushroom rolls, butternut soup, and about 5 or 6 other things. The main course was a meat grill. You went past the grill and ordered whatever you wanted from the grill. They were serving sirloin, buffalo, warthog, fish, chicken, boerwors (South African sausage) and pork sausage. The warthog was our favourite. It was amazing. The desserts were also incredible. As we were eating, different things were going on. First, a person came by and painted everyone's face with a different animal. He was really good! Katie got an eagle and I got a hippo. There was also another singing and dancing group that got up and did their thing during supper. After supper, everyone in the restaurant (probably a couple hundred people) got a djembe (an african drum) and this drumming group led us all in some drumming. It was amazing to see and hear everyone in the restaurant pounding out all kinds of beats. Later, a fortune teller (who throws bones to tell your fortune) came around to invite people to come have their fortunes told. We didn't do this one, but it was interesting nonetheless. If you're ever in Victoria Falls, go to Boma. It's worth it! I was at another game meat restaurant in Nairobi, Carnivore, and while that was great too, this one blew it out of the water.
One interesting thing about Zimbabwe so far is that, far more than in other places, there's people following you down the streets trying to sell you stuff. What's even more entertaining than some of these people is the "tourist police" that chase them if they see them harrassing you. We've made "friends" with a guy named Moses (rather, he's made "friends" with us) who really badly wants to sell us some 100 trillion dollar bills (I'm just building the suspense on this one). Yesterday, while he was following us down the street, the tourist police came chasing after him, and what ensued was a strange little chase not unlike a game of tag. In the end, they ended up on opposite sides of the street, both laughing. We ended up just inside the gate of our campsite watching this, also laughing. Okay so, about the 100 trillion dollar bills... As you may know, recently the political situation in Zimbabwe hasn't been terribly stable. A few years ago, their currency (the Zimbabwe Dollar) started to rapidly lose its value at an exponential rate. This necessitated the government's printing out higher and higher denominations of bills very quickly. The result was bills in denomations of things like 50 billion, 500 billion, and best of all, 100 trillion dollars. Obviously this couldn't go on forever, and their currency was quickly abolished and replaced with the US dollar (the "official" currency of Zimbabwe today). So now we have these people running around on the street selling worthless 100 trillion dollar bills as novelty items. Their initial asking price is $10 for the "set" of all the different bills. I think I'm going to see tomorrow if I can get him to take $1 for two 100 trillions. This Moses guy is pretty amazing, though, because even when he catches a glimpse of us through the campsite fence (a fair distance from where he's standing), he whistles and waves to us something about how he's still interested in trading for my shorts!
Today was also an eventful day, starting with white water rafting in the morning. (We've been in Vic Falls for a day and a half now, and we have yet to see the falls! That will happen tomorrow.) After a good long training session, it started with a loooong walk down the steep gorge to the Zambezi River. The gorge is stunning, and incredibly scenic. Once we were at the bottom of the gorge, we boarded our rafts, six people in each, plus our guide. Our guide was Lee, and he was really funny. He liked to trash talk the other boats the whole time. After some practice in the calm water, we headed out into the rapids, which bear names like "The Washing Machine" (self-explanatory), "Creamy White Buttocks" (so named because of all the white people that lose their pants in the waves), "Obvivion", "Terminator" 1 and 2, and "Judgement Day", among others. We started on rapid number 11, as the water is still high at this time of year, and rapid number 9, which too crazy for rafting, can't be walked around. (Someone apparently died in number 9 a few years ago on a kayak.) The first few rapids were tamer ones, but since they were our first ones, we found them quite scary! Just when we thought we were getting pretty awesome at everything, we came to rapids 16a and 16b, "Terminator" 1 and 2. Terminator 1 was fine, and we actually thought we were through the rapids, but Terminator 2 came suddenly. These were by far the biggest waves of the day (Class 5 rapids). It's amazing when the waves are so big that you just see the water disappear from beneath you when you approach them. We approached one big wave, and despite our guides best efforts to keep us facing the wave head-on, we turned just a bit. This sent our boat flipping into the air, and all of us hapless passengers flying in various directions into the raging rapids. Katie ended up under the boat, but handled it like a pro. Soon, we were all hanging on to the side of the boat (still flying through the churning rapids, alternating being under water and above water), our guide flipped it over (on top of me), and we were all able to help each other back in. Apparently a day rarely goes by when someone doesn't flip on Terminator 2. Our boat flipped over sideways, but some of our traveling companions in another boat had an even crazier wipeout on the same rapids. Their boat went off the same wave straight, but did a full front over back flip into the water. On rapid 18 ("Oblivion") our boat almost flipped again, but one person from our boat fell off (just before I and the person behind me went into the drink too) and that seemed to stabilize us. He had a nice little swim through Oblivion with some help from the safety patrol guys on kayaks. After our harrowing adventure, we made the long climb back up the gorge, where a nice lunch and cold drinks awaited us. All in all, it was a great adventure, something we would definitely repeat given the chance.
When we got back into town we went for our massages (my first one ever!), which did wonders for easing the tension from our morning's escapades. At 6, we went to a nearby hostel to watch the video of our rafting. The video was amazing, and there was fantastic footage of all the big spills! They were selling it for $30, which we found a bit steep. However, one girl in our group bought a copy and promised to put it on YouTube for us to see. We really want to be able to show everyone at home our awesome wipeout!
Tomorrow we're going to actually go to the Falls in the morning, and in the afternoon exercise our bartering skills at some of the many curio shops in town (shops with all the random carvings, jewellery, drums, and anything else you'd expect to get as African souvenirs).
That was a long update, and if you made it this far, you must a) be related to us, or b) have nothing else to do. Perhaps I could also add "c) be enthralled by Derek's amazing blog writing", but that's unlikely. It's hard to believe that in only 12 days, we'll be over the Atlantic on our way home. The second leg of our tour through Zimbabwe back to Johannesburg starts tomorrow. We'll be sure to keep you posted.
D&K
July 12, 2010
Chobe
We just finished a couple of fantastic days in Kasane and Chobe National Park. This will be a shorter update as the computer we're on could crash at any moment and the keyboard is one of those mini-rubber ones (read: very hard to type).
We saw more wildlife in the 24 hours than we did in the entire trip before it. Yesterday was pretty amazing. In the morning we went for a boat cruise down the Chobe River, which was amazing. The highlight was seeing a herd of about 15 elephants swim across part of the river to an island. The water was deeper than their heads, and they used their trunks as snorkels! We spent the afternoon and evening in the national park. Our game drive was incredible. We saw every kind of wildlife around every corner. We saw lions for the first time on this trip, which was very cool. This morning on our way out of the park, we were able to say for the first time that we have seen all of the "Big Five" as we spotted a young leopard right near our vehicle.
There are a lot more stories to tell, but this keyboard is becoming increasingly frustrating, so we'll save it for Victoria Falls. That is where we are headed today. We'll get another stamp on our passports (at a cost of $55 each) as we enter Zimbabwe. We're looking forward to all the activities that the Falls have to offer! We'll pass along another update from there later today or tomorrow!
D&K
PS Way to go Riders!
We saw more wildlife in the 24 hours than we did in the entire trip before it. Yesterday was pretty amazing. In the morning we went for a boat cruise down the Chobe River, which was amazing. The highlight was seeing a herd of about 15 elephants swim across part of the river to an island. The water was deeper than their heads, and they used their trunks as snorkels! We spent the afternoon and evening in the national park. Our game drive was incredible. We saw every kind of wildlife around every corner. We saw lions for the first time on this trip, which was very cool. This morning on our way out of the park, we were able to say for the first time that we have seen all of the "Big Five" as we spotted a young leopard right near our vehicle.
There are a lot more stories to tell, but this keyboard is becoming increasingly frustrating, so we'll save it for Victoria Falls. That is where we are headed today. We'll get another stamp on our passports (at a cost of $55 each) as we enter Zimbabwe. We're looking forward to all the activities that the Falls have to offer! We'll pass along another update from there later today or tomorrow!
D&K
PS Way to go Riders!
July 10, 2010
Chillin in Hot Botswana
Botswana is very awkward in its temperature. The mornings are cold enough to make you wish it was afternoon, and the afternoons are hot enough to make you wish it was evening. Katie has an unfortunate case of noseburn. Her faceburn of the past couple of days appears to be doing better today. I have escaped any serious sunburn so far, so hopefully that will continue. We just finished an incredible few days in the Okavango Delta, and right now, we're in Kasane, Botswana, preparing for a couple of days in Chobe National Park. In two days, the first half of our tour will be nearly complete as we arrive at the halfway point--Victoria Falls.
The morning after we arrived in Maun, we woke up at 5:30 (a very cold time of day in Botswana!!). We were very concerned when our transportation pulled up and it basically consisted of benches in the back of a truck. It was basically a larger version of somethign you'd see in Mexico. That ride was extremely cold! It was a 2 hour drive to our pick-up point for our Okavango excursion, and we were freezing for most of it. Toward the end of the drive, things got more interesting, as we were driving through swamps with water that almost reached the level of our feet (probably about chest-deep water). The destination was well worth the ride though. When we arrived, we were greeted by our friends the polers. Their job was push our mokoros (little wooden canoes carved out of tree trunks) through the vast hippo-wide paths of the Okavango Delta. They were also our wildlife guides while we were there. We got the best poler of all, Ishmael. He was so hard working, and tried to make everything just perfect for us. For instance, most people had to take off their shoes and wade through the water to get into their mokoros. Ishmael always positioned two mokoros so that we could walk through one to get into the other. After we had gone a little ways into the delta, he stopped and picked a water lily out of the water, and made an amazing necklace for Katie. We really liked him.
We arrived at our camp in the delta, and set up our tents. This place was in the heart of the bush. This was our first experience with going to the bathroom in a hole. It was actually pretty good! Our guides took us on several walks through the bush, which were long and tiring, but good. Our guide, Mantata, was very emphatic about the rules. He told us later that he had had someone crushed by an elephant once, so I guess it was understandable! On our game walks we saw: elephants, giraffes (Katie's favourite), hippos, impala, wildebeest, zebras, vultures, and others as well.
The other night in the delta, we went for a sunset mokoro cruise. It was amazing to see the sunset with the hippos! Despite being way in the bush, we actually ate quite well. Our cook, Gift (we're not sure of the spelling), has done an amazing job. We had stir-fry, bacon and eggs, tuna pasta, and last night we even had a Braai (an African BBQ) with steak and sausage. On our last night in the delta, the polers all sang and danced for us. It was so great! They did all kinds of dances and funny songs. I even joined in the frog dance, much to the delight of the polers and our fellow travellers alike. Afterwards, they said "Now it's your turn!" No one in our group knew what to do, so Katie and I got up and let the "Let me see your boogaloo... What's that you say?..." thing. The polers thought that was the greatest thing ever. We threw in all kinds of animals for dances too. The polers also were very excited to show us some "tricks". These were basically little "think outside the box" puzzles, which we found quite entertaining. Katie's dad Rick is sure to enjoy them when we get home.
Yesterday we got back to Maun and had our first shower in three days. Katie was fortunate enough to get a hot shower. (She was smart, and went to another, further away, shower house.) My shower was frigid, unfortunately, but it still felt good to be clean. After our showers, we headed to the Maun airport and took an unforgettable scenic flight over the delta in a 7-seater plane. The views were amazing, and we also saw lots of wildlife from the plane. One plane was designated in advance as the "crazy plane" and one was the "safe plane". We wanted to go on the crazy plane, but there was no room, so we ended up on the safe plane. The crazy plane did all kinds of swoops and dives, and went really low to the ground. We had some nervous fellow flyers, so our pilot went a little easy on us. At first, he had trouble getting the plane started, which gave our fellow passengers even more reason to be nervous! We can't wait to show off our great pictures/video of the flight when we get home!
The Okavango delta was amazing, which was why we were sad to leave. We're looking forward to Chobe tonight and tomorrow, though, and we're really looking forward to Victoria Falls in a couple of days. Hi to everyone back home, and go Riders tonight!
D&K
The morning after we arrived in Maun, we woke up at 5:30 (a very cold time of day in Botswana!!). We were very concerned when our transportation pulled up and it basically consisted of benches in the back of a truck. It was basically a larger version of somethign you'd see in Mexico. That ride was extremely cold! It was a 2 hour drive to our pick-up point for our Okavango excursion, and we were freezing for most of it. Toward the end of the drive, things got more interesting, as we were driving through swamps with water that almost reached the level of our feet (probably about chest-deep water). The destination was well worth the ride though. When we arrived, we were greeted by our friends the polers. Their job was push our mokoros (little wooden canoes carved out of tree trunks) through the vast hippo-wide paths of the Okavango Delta. They were also our wildlife guides while we were there. We got the best poler of all, Ishmael. He was so hard working, and tried to make everything just perfect for us. For instance, most people had to take off their shoes and wade through the water to get into their mokoros. Ishmael always positioned two mokoros so that we could walk through one to get into the other. After we had gone a little ways into the delta, he stopped and picked a water lily out of the water, and made an amazing necklace for Katie. We really liked him.
We arrived at our camp in the delta, and set up our tents. This place was in the heart of the bush. This was our first experience with going to the bathroom in a hole. It was actually pretty good! Our guides took us on several walks through the bush, which were long and tiring, but good. Our guide, Mantata, was very emphatic about the rules. He told us later that he had had someone crushed by an elephant once, so I guess it was understandable! On our game walks we saw: elephants, giraffes (Katie's favourite), hippos, impala, wildebeest, zebras, vultures, and others as well.
The other night in the delta, we went for a sunset mokoro cruise. It was amazing to see the sunset with the hippos! Despite being way in the bush, we actually ate quite well. Our cook, Gift (we're not sure of the spelling), has done an amazing job. We had stir-fry, bacon and eggs, tuna pasta, and last night we even had a Braai (an African BBQ) with steak and sausage. On our last night in the delta, the polers all sang and danced for us. It was so great! They did all kinds of dances and funny songs. I even joined in the frog dance, much to the delight of the polers and our fellow travellers alike. Afterwards, they said "Now it's your turn!" No one in our group knew what to do, so Katie and I got up and let the "Let me see your boogaloo... What's that you say?..." thing. The polers thought that was the greatest thing ever. We threw in all kinds of animals for dances too. The polers also were very excited to show us some "tricks". These were basically little "think outside the box" puzzles, which we found quite entertaining. Katie's dad Rick is sure to enjoy them when we get home.
Yesterday we got back to Maun and had our first shower in three days. Katie was fortunate enough to get a hot shower. (She was smart, and went to another, further away, shower house.) My shower was frigid, unfortunately, but it still felt good to be clean. After our showers, we headed to the Maun airport and took an unforgettable scenic flight over the delta in a 7-seater plane. The views were amazing, and we also saw lots of wildlife from the plane. One plane was designated in advance as the "crazy plane" and one was the "safe plane". We wanted to go on the crazy plane, but there was no room, so we ended up on the safe plane. The crazy plane did all kinds of swoops and dives, and went really low to the ground. We had some nervous fellow flyers, so our pilot went a little easy on us. At first, he had trouble getting the plane started, which gave our fellow passengers even more reason to be nervous! We can't wait to show off our great pictures/video of the flight when we get home!
The Okavango delta was amazing, which was why we were sad to leave. We're looking forward to Chobe tonight and tomorrow, though, and we're really looking forward to Victoria Falls in a couple of days. Hi to everyone back home, and go Riders tonight!
D&K
July 6, 2010
Okavango Delta
We're coming to you today from the city of Maun, Botswana. We are just getting ready to spend a few days in the Okavango Delta. If you've seen the Planet Earth series, you may remember the Okavango Delta. It's the world's only inland river delta, where the Okavango River is gulped up by the sands of the Kalahari desert. It's a gathering point for animals of all kinds, due to the abundance of water in an otherwise desert area. We just signed up to take a scenic flight over the delta on Friday, which should be quite a highlight!
Last night we camped in the Khama Rhino Sanctuary. It was our first night camping on this trip, and it was surprisingly much warmer than our cabin from the previous nights. It must have been a good sleep because I (Derek) apparently woke up in the middle of the night talking about my passport and how we had to hand it over to the authorities. Katie tried to gently remind me of where we were, which only served to confuse me further. Botswana is so far much warmer than South Africa on the whole. This morning we went on an early morning game drive in the Rhino Sanctuary. We saw all kinds of animals including: two small rhino, gazelles, impala, crazy birds of various kinds, springboks, oryx (sp?), ostriches and vultures.
They told us that rhinos might travel through our campsite last night, so if we needed to go to the washroom, we should bring someone with us. That was a bit unnerving, but fortunately, we had no close rhino encounters.
We need to wrap it up as our group will soon be waiting. When we're in the delta, we likely won't have internet access, unless we make another trip into Maun. So this might be the last you'll hear from us for a couple of days. We're thinking of everyone at home, including Bailey. Bailey would have lots of friends to play with on the sides of the roads in Botswana! Hope everything is good at home. Talk to you soon...
D&K
Last night we camped in the Khama Rhino Sanctuary. It was our first night camping on this trip, and it was surprisingly much warmer than our cabin from the previous nights. It must have been a good sleep because I (Derek) apparently woke up in the middle of the night talking about my passport and how we had to hand it over to the authorities. Katie tried to gently remind me of where we were, which only served to confuse me further. Botswana is so far much warmer than South Africa on the whole. This morning we went on an early morning game drive in the Rhino Sanctuary. We saw all kinds of animals including: two small rhino, gazelles, impala, crazy birds of various kinds, springboks, oryx (sp?), ostriches and vultures.
They told us that rhinos might travel through our campsite last night, so if we needed to go to the washroom, we should bring someone with us. That was a bit unnerving, but fortunately, we had no close rhino encounters.
We need to wrap it up as our group will soon be waiting. When we're in the delta, we likely won't have internet access, unless we make another trip into Maun. So this might be the last you'll hear from us for a couple of days. We're thinking of everyone at home, including Bailey. Bailey would have lots of friends to play with on the sides of the roads in Botswana! Hope everything is good at home. Talk to you soon...
D&K
July 5, 2010
Did you hear our vuvuzela?
Hi everyone! This is our first chance to give you an update from South Africa. The last few days have been quite eventful, and we're enjoying our time here. The internet at our lodge didn't get fixed, and the people were reluctant to give out the wireless code. Our tour officially started last night, and we got on the road for the first leg of our trip at 6:00 this morning. It was early for everyone else, but Katie and I (me especially) were wide awake at about 4:30 this morning, so it was no problem for us. Most of our group is Australian, as we expected, but there are 5 of us from Canada, and one couple from New Zealand. Right now, we're at an internet place in a mall in Mokopane, South Africa. We're on our way to Serowe, Botswana, and we'll be staying at the Khama Rhino Sanctuary there. About the last few days, though...
Our flight from New York was really long (15 hours), but the time went by not too badly. Katie got lots of sleep. I would guess she slept about half the flight. I, on the other hand, had a little girl beside me who was a very fidgety sleeper. I kept on getting hit with stray hands and elbows from her while she slept, so that limited my ability to rest a bit. It didn't help that she threw up three times as well! When we got to Johannesburg, we were reminded of the fact that on the way back, we would still have 4 hours left in our trip!
We arrived at the airport to the sound of vuvuzelas blowing and flag-clad fans running to and fro. We picked up our World Cup tickets and our rental car at the airport in Johannesburg. With some trepidation, we ventured out onto the roads in our right-hand drive car (driving is on the left in South Africa). Our car was also a 6-speed standard, which made things interesting, shifting with your left hand. One other minor annoyance was the fact that the signal light flicker thing was on the right side of the steering wheel and the windshield wipers on the left, so many times when we turned, I would switch on the windshield wipers instead of the signals! Katie did a good job of looking out for me, and for the most part, remained quite calm despite the unfamiliar conditions. We drove out to Pretoria on good roads and in fairly heavy traffic for the first bit, but all went well, and I was very proud of myself for successfully driving in a foreign country. (One more thing stroked off my list of things to do!)
We checked into our little cabin, and headed to a mall to pick up some food. We stopped for a burger at Wimpy, our favourite restaurant here so far. (There's a Wimpy on basically every corner here!) We didn't feel like eating, even though we were hungry. I think it was a mix of nervousness and tummy jet lag. After that, we headed back into Johannesburg to the Apartheid Museum. We had our route all planned out, but missed the fact that halfway along, we were supposed to turn from N1 onto M1. We stayed on N1 and ended up in Soweto! However, the Apartheid Museum was close by, and after a couple stops on side streets to check our maps, we made it.
The museum was both sobering and inspiring. South Africa has an amazing history. I also found it really interesting how, as horrible as Apartheid was, each step along the way to get to that point was easily justified by those in power, and seemed very reasonable (in a twisted sort of way). Even those who enforced it likely were able to justify what they were doing fairly easily. I suppose that's the case for most things like Apartheid. They don't become that way overnight.
Our park and ride location for the game was just down the street from the museum, and it was a life saver. They basically shut down the entire area around the stadium on game day. The streets around the stadium for about 4 or 5 blocks on every side were literally totally cleared of cars and people, and were patrolled by police with only certified vehicles being allowed to enter the area. Parking would have been a nightmare, and the area around Ellis Park is sketchy at best. I wouldn't want to be walking there at night. It was quite a nice treat to be able to sit back and have someone else drive as well! The game was amazing. We arrived at the game about an hour and 15 minutes before the game started, but already the grounds of the stadium were full of fans, and the atmosphere was incredible. We took some time to walk around the stadium, taking part in some of the festivities, and we bought ourselves a vuvuzela! It took me a couple of times making horrible noises with it, sounding like an idiot to the more experienced, before I figured out how to blow into it properly. The atmosphere during the game was amazing, and there were some very exciting moments. Spain scored with a few minutes left in the game to win it 1-0. Almost everyone in the stadium was cheering for Spain, so it was very exciting. There was no real animosity between fans of different countries. It was much like a Rider game, and probably friendlier.
Our cabin was soooooo cold that night! We shared a twin bed and put all the blankets onto it to stay warm. The worst is when you get into bed, and realize that you've forgotten to turn off the light. Imagine camping (our cabin isn't very thick) in +5 degrees weather. Very cold.
Our bus is leaving in two minutes, so we need to wrap this up, even though there's much more we could say. Hopefully we can tell you more once we get to Botswana!
D&K
Our flight from New York was really long (15 hours), but the time went by not too badly. Katie got lots of sleep. I would guess she slept about half the flight. I, on the other hand, had a little girl beside me who was a very fidgety sleeper. I kept on getting hit with stray hands and elbows from her while she slept, so that limited my ability to rest a bit. It didn't help that she threw up three times as well! When we got to Johannesburg, we were reminded of the fact that on the way back, we would still have 4 hours left in our trip!
We arrived at the airport to the sound of vuvuzelas blowing and flag-clad fans running to and fro. We picked up our World Cup tickets and our rental car at the airport in Johannesburg. With some trepidation, we ventured out onto the roads in our right-hand drive car (driving is on the left in South Africa). Our car was also a 6-speed standard, which made things interesting, shifting with your left hand. One other minor annoyance was the fact that the signal light flicker thing was on the right side of the steering wheel and the windshield wipers on the left, so many times when we turned, I would switch on the windshield wipers instead of the signals! Katie did a good job of looking out for me, and for the most part, remained quite calm despite the unfamiliar conditions. We drove out to Pretoria on good roads and in fairly heavy traffic for the first bit, but all went well, and I was very proud of myself for successfully driving in a foreign country. (One more thing stroked off my list of things to do!)
We checked into our little cabin, and headed to a mall to pick up some food. We stopped for a burger at Wimpy, our favourite restaurant here so far. (There's a Wimpy on basically every corner here!) We didn't feel like eating, even though we were hungry. I think it was a mix of nervousness and tummy jet lag. After that, we headed back into Johannesburg to the Apartheid Museum. We had our route all planned out, but missed the fact that halfway along, we were supposed to turn from N1 onto M1. We stayed on N1 and ended up in Soweto! However, the Apartheid Museum was close by, and after a couple stops on side streets to check our maps, we made it.
The museum was both sobering and inspiring. South Africa has an amazing history. I also found it really interesting how, as horrible as Apartheid was, each step along the way to get to that point was easily justified by those in power, and seemed very reasonable (in a twisted sort of way). Even those who enforced it likely were able to justify what they were doing fairly easily. I suppose that's the case for most things like Apartheid. They don't become that way overnight.
Our park and ride location for the game was just down the street from the museum, and it was a life saver. They basically shut down the entire area around the stadium on game day. The streets around the stadium for about 4 or 5 blocks on every side were literally totally cleared of cars and people, and were patrolled by police with only certified vehicles being allowed to enter the area. Parking would have been a nightmare, and the area around Ellis Park is sketchy at best. I wouldn't want to be walking there at night. It was quite a nice treat to be able to sit back and have someone else drive as well! The game was amazing. We arrived at the game about an hour and 15 minutes before the game started, but already the grounds of the stadium were full of fans, and the atmosphere was incredible. We took some time to walk around the stadium, taking part in some of the festivities, and we bought ourselves a vuvuzela! It took me a couple of times making horrible noises with it, sounding like an idiot to the more experienced, before I figured out how to blow into it properly. The atmosphere during the game was amazing, and there were some very exciting moments. Spain scored with a few minutes left in the game to win it 1-0. Almost everyone in the stadium was cheering for Spain, so it was very exciting. There was no real animosity between fans of different countries. It was much like a Rider game, and probably friendlier.
Our cabin was soooooo cold that night! We shared a twin bed and put all the blankets onto it to stay warm. The worst is when you get into bed, and realize that you've forgotten to turn off the light. Imagine camping (our cabin isn't very thick) in +5 degrees weather. Very cold.
Our bus is leaving in two minutes, so we need to wrap this up, even though there's much more we could say. Hopefully we can tell you more once we get to Botswana!
D&K
July 4, 2010
Ayoba!
We don't have time for a full update right now. We hope to get online this afternoon but the Internet at our lodge was wonky yesterday. It's supposed to have been fixed by now though. We're standing outside our favorite restaurant, Wimpy stealing their Internet before we go to return the car we rented. The game last night was great, and we're getting quite used to driving on the left side of the road. We bought a vuvuzela before the game. If you watched the game (spain/Paraguay), we were the ones blowing the horn. :) We sat beside a nice South African couple at the game who taught us that ayoba means "everything is cool". So we're just writing this quick update to say "ayoba" and we'll provide a full update soon.
July 1, 2010
New York Day 3
Hi for the last time from New York, everyone! Today was a full day and a fun day. We started in Central Park. We went to a grocery store and bought some sandwiches, drinks, and black and white cookies. When we left the store, Katie noticed that the cashier hadn't charged us for my sandwich. We decided to be honest and go back in to pay for the sandwich. After listening to our story a couple times (presumably because she couldn't believe what was going on), she said, "You guys aren't from around here?" I wonder what made her think that. : ) We took our sandwiches, drinks and cookies to the Sheep Meadow of Central Park, and had a really nice picnic in the park. Yesterday, we saw this really weird guy with his running shorts rolled up to the extent that his shorts looked like those things sumo wrestlers wear. He was massaging his abs and strutting back and forth in Central Park. Fortunately, he wasn't there today to ruin our picnic. After lunch, I was having some stomach pains, and Katie thought it might have been because the black and white cookie wasn't getting along in my stomach.
From there, we did some walking in Central Park and soon caught the subway up to the Bronx for the afternoon Yankees game. Yankee Stadium is really nice, and the game was fun. We were having a little trouble staying awake, as we still haven't totally caught up on our sleep. (We're hoping that serves us well on our 14 hour flight tomorrow!) However, we did note that it seems to be a Johnson tradition to fall asleep at baseball games. The game was pretty good... it was 2-0 New York for most of the game, until Seattle tied it up in the 8th. The Yankees went right back up, though on A-Rod's 595th home run. Yankees won 4-2. We followed the jubilant crowd out of the stadium, but didn't follow them for long on the train. Instead, we took a different route, which took us to Tom's Restaurant, the restaurant from Seinfeld. On the way there, I experienced Katie's worst fear, as a pigeon flew up into my face. It obviously, startled me, which gave Katie a good laugh. Katie thought I "freaked out", but really it was more of a startle. The story will likely be different depending on who you ask to tell it. We shared a quick milkshake at Tom's, and took the train back to Broadway for our second crack at the Wicked Lottery. There were way more people out today for the lottery, and for the second day in a row, we were one entry away from winning. Yesterday, the people in front of us in line won. Today, the people who were behind us in line won. One family had both of their kids' names get drawn, and promptly sold one pair of tickets to someone for $100 because they didn't have enough cash on them for 4 tickets. We were disappointed... not that we had our hopes up terribly high, but it would have been nice to go to Wicked.
We then had the idea that ESPN Zone on Times Square might be showing the Rider game, as it was being broadcast in the states on the NFL Network. When we got there, though, there was a sign on the door saying they had decided to shut the place down as of a couple weeks ago. We decided to trek back down to Little Italy, where we were for part of our pizza tour yesterday, for a pasta supper. Little Italy is so great! It used to be huge, but now it's basically only a four block stretch, as Chinatown has basically taken it over. What it lacks in size, though, it definitely makes up for in awesomeness. There were so many fantastic smells emanating from everywhere, it was very difficult to choose a restaurant. (It's difficult for us at the best of times!) We settled on a place, and enjoyed the best pasta meal ever. It was pretty fantastic. Katie even got by without feeling sick from the alfredo sauce, which tends to be the norm for her, unfortunately. From there we caught the train back to Newark and our hotel. We watched the game on the TSN site after it was posted. What a game! Yay Riders!!
Tomorrow we'll get up bright and early, and trek all the way over to Queens for our flight out of JFK. It'll be an extremely long one, but we think what's at the other end of it will be worth it. I'm sure it will be a bit of a culture shock to go from a place like New York City to a place like Botswana in the span of a few days. When we got to New York the other day, we were anxiously watching the scores as we walked through the city to see who was going to play before us at the World Cup. We're going to see Paraguay and Spain. Perhaps we should wear red, as that will cover both sides!
We're not sure what the internet situation will be like in Africa. According to their website, the lodge we'll be at in Pretoria does have internet, but we'll see how things work out. We'll do our best to update this, as it's been a great travel journal for us, and hopefully fun for you to read.
Happy Canada Day from New York!
D&K
From there, we did some walking in Central Park and soon caught the subway up to the Bronx for the afternoon Yankees game. Yankee Stadium is really nice, and the game was fun. We were having a little trouble staying awake, as we still haven't totally caught up on our sleep. (We're hoping that serves us well on our 14 hour flight tomorrow!) However, we did note that it seems to be a Johnson tradition to fall asleep at baseball games. The game was pretty good... it was 2-0 New York for most of the game, until Seattle tied it up in the 8th. The Yankees went right back up, though on A-Rod's 595th home run. Yankees won 4-2. We followed the jubilant crowd out of the stadium, but didn't follow them for long on the train. Instead, we took a different route, which took us to Tom's Restaurant, the restaurant from Seinfeld. On the way there, I experienced Katie's worst fear, as a pigeon flew up into my face. It obviously, startled me, which gave Katie a good laugh. Katie thought I "freaked out", but really it was more of a startle. The story will likely be different depending on who you ask to tell it. We shared a quick milkshake at Tom's, and took the train back to Broadway for our second crack at the Wicked Lottery. There were way more people out today for the lottery, and for the second day in a row, we were one entry away from winning. Yesterday, the people in front of us in line won. Today, the people who were behind us in line won. One family had both of their kids' names get drawn, and promptly sold one pair of tickets to someone for $100 because they didn't have enough cash on them for 4 tickets. We were disappointed... not that we had our hopes up terribly high, but it would have been nice to go to Wicked.
We then had the idea that ESPN Zone on Times Square might be showing the Rider game, as it was being broadcast in the states on the NFL Network. When we got there, though, there was a sign on the door saying they had decided to shut the place down as of a couple weeks ago. We decided to trek back down to Little Italy, where we were for part of our pizza tour yesterday, for a pasta supper. Little Italy is so great! It used to be huge, but now it's basically only a four block stretch, as Chinatown has basically taken it over. What it lacks in size, though, it definitely makes up for in awesomeness. There were so many fantastic smells emanating from everywhere, it was very difficult to choose a restaurant. (It's difficult for us at the best of times!) We settled on a place, and enjoyed the best pasta meal ever. It was pretty fantastic. Katie even got by without feeling sick from the alfredo sauce, which tends to be the norm for her, unfortunately. From there we caught the train back to Newark and our hotel. We watched the game on the TSN site after it was posted. What a game! Yay Riders!!
Tomorrow we'll get up bright and early, and trek all the way over to Queens for our flight out of JFK. It'll be an extremely long one, but we think what's at the other end of it will be worth it. I'm sure it will be a bit of a culture shock to go from a place like New York City to a place like Botswana in the span of a few days. When we got to New York the other day, we were anxiously watching the scores as we walked through the city to see who was going to play before us at the World Cup. We're going to see Paraguay and Spain. Perhaps we should wear red, as that will cover both sides!
We're not sure what the internet situation will be like in Africa. According to their website, the lodge we'll be at in Pretoria does have internet, but we'll see how things work out. We'll do our best to update this, as it's been a great travel journal for us, and hopefully fun for you to read.
Happy Canada Day from New York!
D&K
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