Victoria Falls - February 26-28

We ended our tour in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe. Due to the political and economic state of the country, Zimbabwe is a damaged country right now. You can't use a credit card anywhere and they won't accept their own currency so it's essential to have cash in either U.S. dollars or South African rand and lots of small bills since you probably won't be getting change. We stocked up on food and water before entering the country because we'd heard the grocery stores wouldn't be well stocked. Many stores and restaurants are closed down completely.

The town of Victoria Falls is cute but empty. Every time we left the hostel we would be immediately surrounded by people trying to sell us various crafts like wood carvings. They didn't just ask for money but also wanted to trade for our flip-flops or socks, anything we could give them.

Every day people from Zimbabwe cross the bridge into Zambia just to buy basic groceries like bread and fruit. The country is also suffering from a cholera outbreak but not in the Victoria Falls area.

Here is what hyperinflation looks like - a note for one hundred trillion dollars that is worth pretty much nothing.


Zimbabweans do have this beautiful landmark to be proud of. Because of the low volume of tourists right now we had Victoria Falls National Park almost to ourselves. The falls are called one of the seven natural wonders of the world and they did not disappoint. Over twice the height and width of Niagara, these spectacular falls stretch for over a mile along the Zambia/Zimbabwe border and push out 184 million gallons of water per minute.

Despite all the problems, we did feel reasonably safe while in Zimbabwe. The unrest in the country is mostly related to the political situation and therefore doesn't involve tourists. Even so, it was important to always be vigilant and aware because with such high numbers of desperate people its easy to see how the security conditions could deteriorate very quickly.

Chobe National Park - February 24-25

We visited Chobe National Park in northwestern Botswana and spent one night at a campsite in Kasane. The park has a very high concentration of elephants. We went on a sunset cruise on the Chobe River and saw lots of elephants bathing and drinking water along the riverbank. Our boat got really close to the elephants. We also saw kudu, impala, and baboons.

We went on a morning game drive and saw a buffalo and two lion. Game viewing is tough this time of year because it is rainy season and the vegetation is very dense.

Okavango Delta - February 22 - 24

We spent two nights camping in the bush in the Okavango Delta - a freshwater wetland in northern Botswana. The delta is beautiful and pristine with clear water and an impressive concentration of wildlife. To get to the delta we rode for 3 hours in a 4 x 4 truck from Maun and were then transported for another 2 hours to our campsite by mokoro, a traditional canoe made from a sausage tree. A poler stands on the end of the mokoro and pushes it through the waterways with a long pole. It is very relaxing to slide by the reeds and water lilies. We passed a hippo but luckily no crocodiles. They also used the canoes to transport our cooking equipment and tents to the campsite. We were specifically instructed not to leave the campsite without being accompanied by a guide because of safety concerns with the animals.


Our polers and guides were from a nearby village called Ditshiping. They grew up in the area and are very knowledgeable of the land and plants and animals. We went on bush walks to look for animals. We also went swimming in the waters of the delta, which was fun until Andrea found a leach on her finger and then everyone wanted out.

This might happen to you if you ride in a mokoro.


Sunrise at our campsite


Early morning bush walk


Giraffe

On our final night, the polers entertained us with song and dance around the campfire. Afterward they asked us if we could sing them a song. The one song we could come up with between all our nationalities was Wonderwall by Oasis.

Maun, Botswana - February 21

We arrived in the city of Maun (rhymes with town). This little city serves as the gateway to the Okavango Delta. We took a flight over the delta and saw herds of elephant, giraffe, and lots of hippos.

The delta from the air. That little spot near the center is a hippo.

This is how we lived for six nights. The hardest part was setting up and taking down the tent everyday. Luckily Randy is from the wilderness of South Georgia and his inner bushman really came out during this trip.

Our Tour Begins - February 20

Today we joined a tour with Nomad Africa and took off in an overland truck from Windhoek, Namibia. Our group was made up of 17 people from 8 or 9 different countries and three guides. We did a lot of driving the first day and spent our first night in Ghanzi, Botswana. It was early evening when we arrived in Ghanzi and it was raining lightly. There were a few thatched roof shelters at the campsite and our guide advised us to hurry and set up our tents under the shelters before any other tour groups came along. It did rain at 5 in the morning and we were glad to have the cover over our heads.

Our truck named Nina - think army transport vehicle meets a greyhound bus.

Our cook, Soliwe

Local bushmen tribe

February 20th

This morning we will be leaving from Windhoek, Nambia to start our adventure tour across Botswana and into Zimbabwe. We will be camping for the next 5 nights. Hope it doesn't rain! We won't be able to post anything for a while but hopefully we'll have some good stuff to report later.

Katatura Township

Today we arrived in Windhoek, Namibia from Cape Town. We spent the day visiting the township of Katatura. Townships in Southern Africa were created during apartheid as areas where blacks were forced to live. We spent the whole afternoon at an after school center run by an American woman named MaryBeth Gallagher. We contacted her before leaving the U.S. and were able to bring some books and things for the kids. Since a large percentage of the adult population has AIDS many kids are raised by grandparents or extended family members or friends. The center gives about 300 kids a safe place to go after school and it is pretty much chaos with kids of every age running around. The kids were so fascinated that we were married and kept asking how many kids we have and wanted to look at our wedding rings. They also enjoyed taking pictures of themselves with our digital camera and then seeing themselves on the little screen. They kept asking if we would be back tomorrow.

Story time

The kids had a way of attaching themselves and not letting go.

Table Mountain Hike

Today we had one amazing hike. We started at Kirstenbosch Gardens and hiked up Skeleton Gorge, across Table Mountain, and down Platteclip Gorge. We didn't have much money since we had given most of it to Nancy, so we skipped out on the cable car and walked back to our hostel into town rather than taking a taxi.


(more pictures to come)

Robben Island

Today was educational and sobering. We went to Robben Island, the place where Nelson Mandela and many other political prisoners were imprisoned. Our tour guide was a former prisoner himself. He was convicted of treason in 1984 and sentenced to 30 years at Robben Island. He served 5 1/2 years until they released everyone. He told us stories about how the prisoners smuggled things in from the mainland, mostly with the help of a few kind wardens, and how most of them had such long sentences that they didn't care about getting caught and punished with more time because 3 more years was just a "drop in the ocean". We saw Mandela's prison cell (pictured above), where he spent 18 of his 27 years in prison and Mandela's hiding place for the manuscripts he wrote while in jail - now known as his book The Long Walk to Freedom. The manuscripts were smuggled out by sewing them into the shoes of a prisoner who was being released. This prisoner later became Mandela's Minister of Transport! The mission of this prison-turned-museum is clearly for educational purposes so people won't forget about what happened in South Africa.

A Taxi Driver Named Nancy

Tuesday afternoon we went to Kierstenbosch Botanical Gardens. On our way back to the hostel, Andrea realized about 3 minutes after getting out of the taxi that she had left her camera in the taxi. It was upsetting to think about having to replace a camera and even more so the 100 lost pictures. Luckily Randy has a camera too so it wasn't a total loss but it was still a big bummer. We didn't even note the name of the taxi company. All we knew was that the taxi was green the driver was a woman and we thought her name was Nancy. She didn't even know where we were staying because we had her drop us off at a 7-eleven. We stood on the street corner for about 30 minutes hoping she would pass back by but she never did so we walked back to hostel sullen but praying to God that he would somehow get our camera back even though it seemed impossible. The guy working at the hostel said he couldn't help because there were over 20 taxi companies in Cape Town.

This morning we woke up with the plan to hike up Table Mountain. We decided to start from the Gardens so we could go back and see if by chance a camera had been turned it. We went to two information desks and a security guard and nobody knew anything about a camera. We walked out into the parking lot and walked up to a taxi. After explaining the situation, the cab driver said, "Yes, I know Nancy," and called her on his cell phone. He spoke to her in a different language but afterward said that yes, she had our camera and she was in a different part of Cape Town at the moment. What a relief! Through him, we told her that we would pay for her to drive to the Gardens. She came and we got the camera back! We gratefully gave her a big tip. After hearing so much about getting mugged here and getting mugged there, we're happy to be able to share this story of the good citizens of Cape Town.

Far Far from Home

Yesterday we got up early, rented a car, and drove to Cape Point. The car was awesome and tiny and used about 1 drop of gas for the whole day. We got instructions from the guy who worked at the rental car company on how not to get broken into - take the radio with us whenever we leave, leave the glove box open and the trunk cover off so people can see there's nothing in there, etc.

The drive was beautiful. We drove along the west coast of the peninsula and through cute little towns. We stopped at one place to walk along the beach and the water was so cold. It's a gorgeous color blue though. The scenery is quite dramatic with the rugged mountains all around. We stopped at a beach that is famous for it's penguin colony. The penguins settled down there in the 1980s and haven't left yet. Maybe they enjoy the scenery too. They're called jackass penguins for some reason.

Windsurfing is big down here and it's no wonder why. This must be one of the windiest places in the world! We stopped at the Cape of Good Hope to watch them for a while. We struck of a conversation with a group of Danish windsurfers who told us you have to practice for a few years before surfing these waters.

We drove as far south as we could and then hiked up a hill to a lighthouse. It felt like standing in a hurricane out there but it was worth it for the view. Luckily the temperature was very warm so that made the wind more bearable.

Cape Town at Last!

Yay, we are finally in Cape Town. We were able to buy very cheap plane tickets from Johannesburg to Cape Town. It's all water under the bridge now, but just for the sake of the story line we should say that while we were barreling down the runway, the pilot aborted the takeoff due to an equipment malfunction. We had to go back to the gate, file off the airplane, and wait an hour and a half for them to fix it. Thank goodness the flight wasn't canceled. Oh, and they lost Randy's luggage. They later delivered it to our hostel though so it was not as big of a deal as it seemed at the time. So now we're pretty sure all the bad stuff is behind us and the trip is going to be awesome from now on.

Despite all the troubles so far, when can't say enough about the kindness of the South Africa people. Everyone has been so helpful and nice every step of the way.

NYC to Cape Town via...Amsterdam and Johannesburg?

Do to an unfortunate series of events on Friday, we arrived at JFK five minutes too late to check in for the Cape Town flight. The system shuts down 1 hour before international departures and prevents you from checking in. So even though the plane was still sitting on the ground, there was no way to get on it. We were obviously pretty bummed about losing a day of vacation and even more upset when we found out there is no flight from NYC to South Africa on Saturdays. As Andrea slowly began to unravel at the thought of losing two days of vacation, Randy decided to be productive and research other flight options. Within half and hour, he figured out that we could fly standby to Amsterdam and then fly standby on a flight with KLM to Cape Town (side note: it's this state of focused intensity when everything seems bleak that make's Randy the kind of guy you'd want to fly your airplane). This was a little risky since we had no way of knowing how full the 2nd flight would be, but at the time we were willing to go anywhere other than back to our apartment. We got on the flight to Amsterdam and even got to sit in first class, which was so enjoyable that we almost forgot we were on our way to the wrong continent.

When we arrived in Amsterdam Saturday morning and tried to list standby for the next flight, we received some bad news. The flight to Cape Town was overbooked for the next two days and we would not be able to get on. We asked about Johannesburg - it was overbooked too but we had a better chance since it was a bigger airplane so we went for it. Thanks to some very helpful airline employees, within minutes we were able to change our flight and re-check our luggage that we picked up at baggage claim.

Well, the Johannesburg flight was full but the wonderful crew of KLM allowed us to sit in these flip-down seats that are normally used by the flight attendants during takeoff and landing - those ones that face the rest of the seats! Not the best way to spend 10 hours but we weren't going to be picky! It was our first flight on a 747. The flight attendants were so nice and told us we could walk around anywhere we wanted to stretch our legs - so we went upstairs to check out first class and it was awesome!

By the time we arrived in Jo-burg Saturday night, we were relieved to be in the right country, even if we did overshoot our destination by 1000 miles.

Let the Fun Begin...

It's about midnight and we're putting the finishing touches on our packing. I think a person could survive almost anything with the contents of my backpack, except maybe a blizzard because there are no warm clothes. We are flying to Capetown, South Africa tomorrow and arriving on Saturday evening. We expect to spend three or four days there and then fly to Windhoek, Namibia. From there we will embark on our 7 night, 8 day adventure budget tour. By budget I mean no frills, not a single one. We're bringing our own sleeping bags and they provide tents and cooking equipment. We have to set up the tents ourselves every night - this will be a learning experience for Andrea. With our group we will truck through Namibia, the deserts and deltas of Botswana, and end in Zimbabwe at the mighty Victoria Falls. We have a animal guidebook from the library so if a springbok or hartebeest crosses our path we can immediately reference such facts as the dietary habits, weight, and lifespan of said animals. Hey, they have more than just elephants over there! We hope to maintain this blog along the way although for that 8 day span at the end, I'm pretty sure we won't be seeing much in the way of computers.

Two Days to Go

It's hard to believe we are leaving for Africa in just 2 days. It seems like we still have so much to do. You wouldn't believe the stuff you need to travel in Africa - anti-malaria drugs, triple antibiotic ointment, neutral colored clothes, biodegradable laundry detergent, and the list goes on. Just making sure we have everything has become a part-time job. Above is small sampling of the stuff we need to carry with us. Randy even got an emergency root canal yesterday as part of his preparation!