Just a quick work update, since I think it’s high time I quit waxing philosophical about political issues I don’t actually have an entirely proper background for which to write about…
Last week at work Alisha organized a meeting for all of the m2m Monitoring and Evaluation Coordinators (MECs) from each country to get together in Cape Town for an M&E and data use workshop. Alisha was nice enough to let me participate, which was really interesting. The Monitoring and Evaluation aspect of m2m is rather new and is really just getting fully underway this year, with our current monitoring tools introduced about a year ago and Alisha hired last summer to be the International Monitoring Systems Coordinator. It has been very inspiring to watch it all come together and see the push for real data use in this organization. It might sound rather obvious that we should strive to use data to inform decision making and programmatic improvement (data use for external stakeholders and fundraising purposes aside), but it’s just not that simple – it’s a lot of work to establish a M&E system that allows us to not only generate data in the first place but to subsequently access and evaluate the information properly. I really enjoyed taking part in the meeting and seeing all of the MECs, many of them very new to the organization themselves, gain an understanding of the importance and role of their work and how to better use data. It was fun to listen to how passionate they were about their work and to watch them create connections with one another. On top of that, it was just plain fun to hang out with all of these people, hailing from different regions in South Africa, Swaziland, Lesotho, Zambia, Kenya, Rwanda, Malawi, and Uganda. I went out to dinner with everyone a couple of times last week, and it was fun to hang out in social settings as well. I always find it so interesting to meet people from different cultures, and I also always find it very heartwarming to see how everyone wants to share things about their culture with you and to include you. Cliché, yes – but it’s the truth! The only setback was that, on the night we went to dinner at a place with African dancing, my participation was simply not an option. You should have seen them dance! African dance can be so complex. Yes, being white and American certainly makes me feel very, very lame sometimes! :)
Monday, March 22, 2010
More vexing issues for South Africa
The New York Times recently printed an article on the lavish lifestyles led by the politicians in this country. This isn’t precisely in line with the problems South Africa is having in undertaking hosting of the World Cup, but it’s not entirely dissimilar, as it deals with a lot of the underlying wealth gap and poor governance issues.
One of the issues highlighted in the article is how much public money is being spent to allow Jacob Zuma and his 3 wives, 1 fiancé, and 20 children a comfortable lifestyle. But the issues are much bigger than that. Politicians in this country have a terrible reputation when it comes to corruption (Zuma himself has been on trial for this before), and the prevailing attitude about politicians in this country seems to be that they don’t get much accomplished nor care that much about the people, but rather they just want the chance to drive around fancy cars.
It does make one wonder about power sometimes. Of course South Africa’s problems are nowhere near those faced by Zimbabwe, for example (where the former leader of the opposition movement who once fought admirably for his people’s freedom subsequently managed to essentially turn into a dictator once he himself came into power). Even so, the people who come into power in this country, despite often coming from humble backgrounds, similarly seem to forget about the people who are still living in such poverty and instead only want their share of a fancy new car in the end. Ok, so that’s an extreme over-simplification of the political scene here, but I can say that “politicians” and “Mercedes” are two words that are used together ubiquitously, of course in a negative context, representing a public sentiment that cannot be entirely overlooked.
Aside from Zuma, who has been rather slow to declare his earnings and family expenditures despite the law requiring him to do so, the ANC Youth League’s president, Julius Malema has also come under intense scrutiny of late. (The ANC is the major political party here, largely responsible for instigating the transition to democracy in this country.) Malema originally was a proponent of having politicians declare where their money came from…until recently, when he doesn’t want to take part in such scrutiny himself. It was recently revealed that he owned shares in a number of companies that received large government contracts, though he said he was “unaware” he still held those positions with those companies. That’s certainly an interesting defense. Ugh…I guess power truly is corrupting and there’s no way around it?
Well, what all of these issues speak to is growing dissatisfaction with the ANC in general, and frankly, I don’t see that as an entirely bad thing. With the transition to democracy, the ANC was afforded near universal support in this country, and as such, they haven’t had to defend themselves too much. But I don’t think what essentially is a one-party system is the best route – I think it’s beneficial to have people call each other into question, and I do think South Africa is getting there. After all, the country is only 20 years old in its current form. Let’s just hope it keeps going down the right path.
One of the issues highlighted in the article is how much public money is being spent to allow Jacob Zuma and his 3 wives, 1 fiancé, and 20 children a comfortable lifestyle. But the issues are much bigger than that. Politicians in this country have a terrible reputation when it comes to corruption (Zuma himself has been on trial for this before), and the prevailing attitude about politicians in this country seems to be that they don’t get much accomplished nor care that much about the people, but rather they just want the chance to drive around fancy cars.
It does make one wonder about power sometimes. Of course South Africa’s problems are nowhere near those faced by Zimbabwe, for example (where the former leader of the opposition movement who once fought admirably for his people’s freedom subsequently managed to essentially turn into a dictator once he himself came into power). Even so, the people who come into power in this country, despite often coming from humble backgrounds, similarly seem to forget about the people who are still living in such poverty and instead only want their share of a fancy new car in the end. Ok, so that’s an extreme over-simplification of the political scene here, but I can say that “politicians” and “Mercedes” are two words that are used together ubiquitously, of course in a negative context, representing a public sentiment that cannot be entirely overlooked.
Aside from Zuma, who has been rather slow to declare his earnings and family expenditures despite the law requiring him to do so, the ANC Youth League’s president, Julius Malema has also come under intense scrutiny of late. (The ANC is the major political party here, largely responsible for instigating the transition to democracy in this country.) Malema originally was a proponent of having politicians declare where their money came from…until recently, when he doesn’t want to take part in such scrutiny himself. It was recently revealed that he owned shares in a number of companies that received large government contracts, though he said he was “unaware” he still held those positions with those companies. That’s certainly an interesting defense. Ugh…I guess power truly is corrupting and there’s no way around it?
Well, what all of these issues speak to is growing dissatisfaction with the ANC in general, and frankly, I don’t see that as an entirely bad thing. With the transition to democracy, the ANC was afforded near universal support in this country, and as such, they haven’t had to defend themselves too much. But I don’t think what essentially is a one-party system is the best route – I think it’s beneficial to have people call each other into question, and I do think South Africa is getting there. After all, the country is only 20 years old in its current form. Let’s just hope it keeps going down the right path.
World Cup Drama
Well, the 100 day countdown to the start of the FIFA 2010 World Cup passed a few weeks ago, which means there’s not much time left for South Africa to prepare! I’m very excited about the whole thing, and have successfully procured tickets to 2 group stage matches in Cape Town (England vs. Algeria and Portugal vs. North Korea). However, I must say, probably the only reason I’m still excited about the whole event is because a) I have an inexpensive place to stay (our landlord was nice enough to let us keep our apartment through June without a rent increase), b) I have my own means of transportation, and c) I do not have to find a plane ticket to South Africa. In my humble opinion – not that anyone is asking me – there are so many things South Africa has done wrong about the organization and planning of this whole event, it makes me really sad. (Or maybe I should be placing more blame on FIFA – after all, how could they stand by without stepping in?) What’s the problem, you ask? Well, this is supposed to be their big chance to show the world how great Africa can be, and instead, I predict a mess. Sure, the stadium construction is on track...but there’s so much more to it than that. For one thing, I’m not so sure about the readiness of intra-city transportation upgrades (rather necessary, assuming that tourists aren’t going to be comfortable taking rickety minibuses driven by crazy drivers, stuffed with 20 seatbelt-less passengers…not to mention that all public transportation, at least in Cape Town, is essentially off limits after dark for safety reasons).
Ok, now moving on – transportation is not the major problem I see. The obvious truth is, in order to significantly boost your tourism industry, you actually need people to come. Call me crazy, but I don’t really see that as a particularly novel or profound idea. Problem is, the airlines have jacked up the prices so much (and not significantly increased flight volume, as far as I can tell) that no one can afford to come. And, to top it off, lodges etc. in the city are trying to make so much money off the deal that they are charging prices totally beyond reason. So, instead of making this a wonderful opportunity for people to visit South Africa, they are doing an amazing job at making it exceedingly difficult for people to do so. Just a few weeks ago FIFA released a statement saying they were letting go of a bunch of room reservations in Kruger because no one was booking (duh, because no one can get here) and they also said they think they overestimated the number of foreigners who will come by 20%. That’s a lot of people they’re losing out on! Finally, a few weeks ago, they also said there would be an investigation into price fixing by the airlines. That’s nice and all...except that they’re about 6 months behind if they actually want to make a difference with that investigation. Some of the local airlines have begun to release more in-country flights (previously jacked up sometimes literally 3X the normal amount) because no one was booking. I asked a local travel agent (the same one who did a phenomenal job helping me plan the trip I took with my parents) about how to go about getting reasonably priced tickets from the U.S. to South Africa during the World Cup, and her response was something along the lines of “Our agency has decided we cannot associate ourselves with FIFA for fear of ruining our reputation. The whole thing is such a disappointing mess, and it’s not going to get any better.” You know it’s bad when a very reputable travel agent says she can’t associate with bringing people to the World Cup – that’s her job! The World Cup should be a dream for her, yet she can’t even participate.
It just makes me so sad for South Africa with all these people in the service industry thinking they’re going to get a huge economic boom when the World Cup comes around…well that only works if people can get here and if prices aren’t so exorbitant that people give up trying to procure your services (be it flights, lodging, food, etc.). Ugh I really hate to say it, but this is so typically African, in terms of planning and efficiency. Things just move incredibly slowly here and aren’t always very well thought out. (Case in point: remember the time I wrote about how we had to spend 4 hours in a car and 4 hours walking in order to get to a Killers concert because they chose to host the concert at a venue with a one-lane gravel driveway? Yeah, you just can’t do that when 10,000 people are expected to show up.)
Another disappointment for FIFA is they seem to be selling much less tickets to South Africans than they had hoped. I was talking to Nzwaki about this, and she said it’s just not in South African culture to plan ahead that far and commit to something 6 months or more in advance, especially for families who live day to day and week to week with little savings. In fact, a funny observation on South African time perspectives: if someone says “I’ll do that now” they could mean anytime (“now” is very open ended); “I’ll do that just now” means sometime in the near-ish future; and “I’ll do that now now” is the one that actually implies immediacy. What other culture has so many time qualifications for “now?” Haha, certainly not the U.S.!
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, South Africa also has bigger issues to deal with in terms of what all of the extreme World Cup expenditures mean to the millions of citizens who struggle to get by living in one-room shacks. Understandably so, people who are so poor, yet see little to no benefit from social benefits, are wondering how a government that keeps making promises about housing and employment improvements but can never quite deliver, somehow has the money to spend extreme amounts on building stadiums. The New York Times brought this issue to attention in a recent article: Cost of a Stadium Reveals Tensions in South Africa. Case in point in the article: a $137 million dollar stadium which will play host to only 4 games in Nelspruit. So I guess the ultimate question is, will the money spent on that stadium be worth it in terms of the boost the South African economy will get? Even if the economy does benefit sufficiently, will the people at the bottom ever see the effects? I hope the tourists who do manage to make it here for the World Cup don’t end up just seeing all the glitz and glamour and forgetting to take notice of what is reality for so many people in this country. South Africa has the largest wealth gap in the world, after all.
Yes, it will be interesting to see how this all plays out. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see! And, despite my negativity, don’t get me wrong – as a die-hard soccer fan, I’m still extremely excited to take part in this. Only 80 more days!
Ok, now moving on – transportation is not the major problem I see. The obvious truth is, in order to significantly boost your tourism industry, you actually need people to come. Call me crazy, but I don’t really see that as a particularly novel or profound idea. Problem is, the airlines have jacked up the prices so much (and not significantly increased flight volume, as far as I can tell) that no one can afford to come. And, to top it off, lodges etc. in the city are trying to make so much money off the deal that they are charging prices totally beyond reason. So, instead of making this a wonderful opportunity for people to visit South Africa, they are doing an amazing job at making it exceedingly difficult for people to do so. Just a few weeks ago FIFA released a statement saying they were letting go of a bunch of room reservations in Kruger because no one was booking (duh, because no one can get here) and they also said they think they overestimated the number of foreigners who will come by 20%. That’s a lot of people they’re losing out on! Finally, a few weeks ago, they also said there would be an investigation into price fixing by the airlines. That’s nice and all...except that they’re about 6 months behind if they actually want to make a difference with that investigation. Some of the local airlines have begun to release more in-country flights (previously jacked up sometimes literally 3X the normal amount) because no one was booking. I asked a local travel agent (the same one who did a phenomenal job helping me plan the trip I took with my parents) about how to go about getting reasonably priced tickets from the U.S. to South Africa during the World Cup, and her response was something along the lines of “Our agency has decided we cannot associate ourselves with FIFA for fear of ruining our reputation. The whole thing is such a disappointing mess, and it’s not going to get any better.” You know it’s bad when a very reputable travel agent says she can’t associate with bringing people to the World Cup – that’s her job! The World Cup should be a dream for her, yet she can’t even participate.
It just makes me so sad for South Africa with all these people in the service industry thinking they’re going to get a huge economic boom when the World Cup comes around…well that only works if people can get here and if prices aren’t so exorbitant that people give up trying to procure your services (be it flights, lodging, food, etc.). Ugh I really hate to say it, but this is so typically African, in terms of planning and efficiency. Things just move incredibly slowly here and aren’t always very well thought out. (Case in point: remember the time I wrote about how we had to spend 4 hours in a car and 4 hours walking in order to get to a Killers concert because they chose to host the concert at a venue with a one-lane gravel driveway? Yeah, you just can’t do that when 10,000 people are expected to show up.)
Another disappointment for FIFA is they seem to be selling much less tickets to South Africans than they had hoped. I was talking to Nzwaki about this, and she said it’s just not in South African culture to plan ahead that far and commit to something 6 months or more in advance, especially for families who live day to day and week to week with little savings. In fact, a funny observation on South African time perspectives: if someone says “I’ll do that now” they could mean anytime (“now” is very open ended); “I’ll do that just now” means sometime in the near-ish future; and “I’ll do that now now” is the one that actually implies immediacy. What other culture has so many time qualifications for “now?” Haha, certainly not the U.S.!
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, South Africa also has bigger issues to deal with in terms of what all of the extreme World Cup expenditures mean to the millions of citizens who struggle to get by living in one-room shacks. Understandably so, people who are so poor, yet see little to no benefit from social benefits, are wondering how a government that keeps making promises about housing and employment improvements but can never quite deliver, somehow has the money to spend extreme amounts on building stadiums. The New York Times brought this issue to attention in a recent article: Cost of a Stadium Reveals Tensions in South Africa. Case in point in the article: a $137 million dollar stadium which will play host to only 4 games in Nelspruit. So I guess the ultimate question is, will the money spent on that stadium be worth it in terms of the boost the South African economy will get? Even if the economy does benefit sufficiently, will the people at the bottom ever see the effects? I hope the tourists who do manage to make it here for the World Cup don’t end up just seeing all the glitz and glamour and forgetting to take notice of what is reality for so many people in this country. South Africa has the largest wealth gap in the world, after all.
Yes, it will be interesting to see how this all plays out. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see! And, despite my negativity, don’t get me wrong – as a die-hard soccer fan, I’m still extremely excited to take part in this. Only 80 more days!
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Botswana safari (including Vic Falls and the Caprivi Strip)
I’m really trying, but there’s just not enough time to keep this updated anymore! Anyway, I’ll make a solid effort to say at least something about the past few weeks, since they were so great.
Mainly, it was a great time because my parents were able to come visit! I’m so happy they were able to make it here, and I had a wonderful time showing them around Cape Town. I made sure they did all the usual stuff: visit Robben Island, watch the sunset in Camp’s Bay, visit Cape Point, take the cable car to the top of Table Mountain, walk around Kirstenbosch, and of course go wine tasting. We visited Thelema and Meerlust, and I also took them to Fairview (my alltime favourite) to experience their amazing cheese/wine pairings. At the end of our time at Fairview, my mom decided to order a case of wine to be shipped back to Montana. Except, funny story: Fairview can ship anywhere except Guam, Massachusetts, and Montana. Who would have thought, especially since Montana is not really what I would call an anti-alcohol state, nor does it even have a sales tax to deal with. Anyway, Grandma Margie in South Dakota will be receiving a lovely case of wine (to be picked up at the family reunion next summer), haha!
Fairview
Thelema
Meerlust
On the way home from the vineyards, we stopped at my boss Monica's place for a lovely braai. This is a picture of Monica, her partner Issa, and their adorable little girl Angela.
While my parents were visiting, we also managed to squeeze in an amazing safari in Botswana. We left very early on a Monday morning, flying to Livingstone, Zambia. We were driven from the airport to our lodge, where were greeted by incredibly nice staff and two dogs, Gin and Tonic (in case that gives you an idea of what people do on safari in Africa, haha). The rooms were amazing – stone bath tubs, open air (that’s right, no walls – but luckily a mosquito net!), incredible scenery (you could stare out at the wild bush and see the spray of Vic Falls rising in the distance). We only had that first afternoon to view Vic Falls, so we had to rush off almost immediately after we got to the lodge.
Before leaving, however, I just had to take a picture of this little chameleon who was hanging out on the path by our rooms.
As well as the trees with the weird pod things
Conveniently, the lodge arranged for a guide to take us to the falls and walk around the area with us. We started up at the top, where you could stare at the enormously wide, Zambezi River rushing along and then plunging over the edge. When we asked our guide how many people die going over the falls, he said it’s actually more dangerous in the low water season (we were there during the medium-high season) because then the river is pretty shallow and people think they can walk across to the islands...which isn’t that big of a deal, until someone slips!
The sunglight and the mist made for beautiful scenery
Mom and I, hoping nobody would push us off the edge
Because the mist from the falls equates to a practically constant rain, the nearby cliffside vegetation is quite rain-forest like
After viewing the falls from above, we then walked down below a little bit to get a view of the actual plunging falls. Vic Falls truly is something to behold. It’s just so enormous! Over 300 ft. tall and a mile wide! There’s so much water rushing over that you can’t even see all the way from one end to the other (too much spray and too much distance).
The falls are indescribably enormous, and impossible to capture on film (not least of which because of the wetness of the experience)
We viewed the falls safely from the side for a while before taking the plunge, donning ponchos and zipping up cameras in plastic bags, to walk out closer on the spit of land that goes right in front of the falls. There is so much spray that it’s like a constant downpour (and consequently you would definitely ruin your camera if you tried to take any pictures – too bad!). The experience of viewing Vic Falls is thus very interactive and one of those things you just have to take a mental picture of. Of course, for whatever reason, the poncho I got handed didn’t actually have a hood (well, there was a place for a hood, but it had been snapped off), so needless to say I got absolutely drenched. Nothing like taking a shower in the Zambezi! It’s so incredible to be out there feeling all the water pouring down on you, hearing the constant thunder of the falls, and opening your eyes when possible to take it all in. There is a little bridge you can take to continue walking out further in front of the falls onto another little spit of land. With the sun shining and the air very misty, it makes for incredible rainbows. Walking over the bridge and looking back, we actually saw a ~300° rainbow wrapping around the bridge. It was amazing! But sadly, no pictures at that stage...I had seen the Falls a few years ago, while they were at their peak water flow, and I have to say I’m glad I had both experiences. It was great to get a feeling for just how massive they were then, but this time was much better for viewing, as with less water and less spray, you can see a lot more and get a better perspective for how wide they are. Anyway, all in all a memorable experience.
Back at the lodge
Dad looks a little wet!
Aren't the rooms great?
See what I mean by open rooms
With great views! (The spray in the distance is the falls)
Returning to our lodge, we were met by Desai, our assigned attendant, who showed us the table he had set up for our dinner. Not bad, eh?
We had such a lovely evening. Desai was great. It was really interesting talking to him. First of all, I was shocked when he said he was very glad to be serving us because he and all of his colleagues always fight over the Americans, who are by far their favorites to work with. I’m just so used to hearing how everyone hates Americans and how Americans travelling abroad should try to pretend they’re not from the U.S. I initially had no idea why he would think that way, but then he went on to explain, in rather frank terms, that Americans are the most friendly – most of the European tourists don’t even acknowledge or talk to him, though they will be very quick to point out when he does something wrong. Contrastingly, he said Americans are just plain friendly and always talk to him and ask questions and are rarely critical. I found that really interesting to hear from his point of view, and thinking back to my experiences being in Africa with European tourists, his commentary seemed pretty spot on. For one of the first times, it made me feel really good about being American. Of course that is an extremely broad generalization, but I do think in some ways Americans are more accepting of an integrated culture and simply more friendly (even if they’re ignorant in the process). (Oh, and also, they tip waaaaay more.) Most of the Europeans that visit Southern Africa are German and English (probably some French too) so that of course is another complicating factor, when you throw in the colonialism dynamic. I really think a lot of Europeans view Africa very differently than people in the U.S. do.
Anyway, as enjoyable as he was to talk to, it also was very sad listening to Desai. He was such a nice person, and obviously incredibly smart...but here he was, waiting tables – and that is considered a good job. He talked about how he had to drop out of school when he was about 13 because his mom didn’t have the money to buy him new school uniforms (yes, here some kids don’t go to school simply because they don’t have the uniforms). He said he always knew he wanted to leave the village, so he worked very hard learning all sorts of languages growing up (trying to learn a bunch of different languages from neighboring regions and countries) and now he speaks something like 6 languages. He was very proud that he was the only one in his family who could speak English. After he dropped out of school, he left the village and moved on his own to Livingstone because, as he said, he always knew he wanted to “do something” as opposed to stay in the village. (When I refer to the village here, I truly do mean grass huts, subsistence agriculture, no running water, no electricity, very little access to the outside world, etc.) He worked hard and supported himself, and through various connections eventually got a job waiting tables, and has worked his way up at various places since. He was very proud to be a waiter; it just made me sad to think about someone obviously so talented, hard working, and kind not having the ability to do anything more than that. Had he been born in the U.S. I’m sure he would have went to college, etc. but people here just don’t have those opportunities. The other sad thing is that, even though he has a good job, because the rest of his family is back in the village, he is probably supporting all of them and thus not earning much for himself in the end. But still, what an inspiring person – and what a reality check, to remind yourself to be appreciative of the opportunities you’ve had.
Throughout our whole trip I found myself very sad to consistently meet such nice people working very hard in the tourism industry, and yet seeing first hand how much they’ve been hurt by the global recession, which they obviously did nothing whatsoever to create. And It’s pretty crazy to think about how relatively little they get paid in the first place – roughly 30-35 people working at each 8 room lodge we stayed at…obviously that doesn’t compute to very much money per person if you assume the lodge owners are making a decent profit off of each stay…I guess that’s just it – it’s all relative, depending on whether you’re the white manager of the lodge, the black staff, or the people back in the village. And obviously the people at the bottom don’t have much say in the matter.
Anyway, our dinner couldn’t have been more lovely, as was our entire stay at the Stanley Safari Lodge. Too bad we had to leave after only one night...but alas, we had a plane to catch and an itinerary to stick to! We were collected early in the morning and driven about 1hr to the border crossing between Zambia and Botswana. Well, actually, it serves as a border crossing between Zambia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, and Namibia – the only place in the world where 4 countries meet. We had to take a ferry across the Zambezi separating Zambia and Botswana. It really wasn’t a big deal for us (aside from getting completely accosted by people trying to sell you knick-knacks) – just get your passport situated, get driven down to shore where your motor boat is waiting, hop on, and go. This is also a major border crossing for a lot of industrial truck traffic, and things are a bit more difficult for them, however…more difficult, as in it takes them on average 1-2 weeks of waiting in line to get across on the ferry (up to 4 weeks if your papers aren’t in line). Isn’t that outrageous?
Driving up to the river, you see a huge line of semis parked along the road on both sides.
And only one truck fits per ferry…
Talk about a waste in commerce, delaying shipment of goods for that long. Well apparently there is no bridge because building one would require the consent of all 4 countries, and they can never agree, especially because Zambia likes the ferry revenue and Zimbabwe gets a lot of revenue when trucks use the bridge that goes between Zim and Zam at Victoria Falls. Anyway, I just can’t imagine waiting 2 weeks to get a ferry…I can only imagine the prevalence of both prostitutes and HIV in that area…
Well, we made it across in just a few minutes and were met on the other side by someone who drove us to the airport in Kasane, the border town in Botswana. Once at the airport, we were handed a few makeshift tickets (I think they might have even been handwritten?) and we boarded our own personal flight to our safari camp in the Okavango Delta, towards Southern Botswana. I had never flown on a small plane before, but luckily I didn’t get too upset about the heights/turbulence.
It turned out to be really amazing to fly over the land (much of it game parks) and see elephants and hippos at water holes, etc. It was also interesting to see the animal paths from above – each water hole looked like it had spokes radiating out from it in all directions.
And wow, Botswana is FLAT.
Finally, as we neared the Delta, it was really cool to see the bush/forest land turn into swamps and marshes.
The airport strip where we were staying was obviously a bit rural…at least we didn’t hit any impala on the way down, haha!
The place we stayed at was called Xakanaxa Camp, in the Moremi Game Reserve. The Okavango Delta is the largest inland delta in the world, and a mecca for animals in the area. Moremi borders the Delta (and is technically part of the park) but consists of much more solid land and is where a lot of animals concentrate. This was a very different safari experience than the other 2 I’ve been on (Kruger in South Africa and Etosha in Namibia) – so remote! Botswana has really run their tourism industry well – they definitely jumped on the eco-tourism bandwagon a while ago, and because it’s a bit more expensive, less people go. And you really do get a very remote feel, when you have to fly in somewhere (few cars can handle the roads, if they even exist). Also, when you’re driving around, you’re often the only game vehicle around, as opposed to other parks where cars are piled up on top of each other trying to get better views of the animals. Obviously no paved roads – for this kind of safari you truly need the giant land rover with snorkel for the engine otherwise you definitely won’t be getting far. All in all, an amazing experience!
As opposed to camping in areas surrounded by huge electric fences (a la Kruger), these camps are also a different story in terms of animal access. It was sort of funny to see the fence surrounding the grounds – a 10ft fence with only 3 strings of barbed wire stretched out across the top foot, to “deter” the elephants (though obviously anything else can happily run underneath, and I’m not so sure an elephant would care too much about a measly string of barbed wire, either…).
Yeah, this is the kind of place where we had to be escorted to and from our rooms in the evenings, so as not to get eaten (or at least so as not to get eaten while all alone, haha!). Anyway, the lodge was beautiful, and the rooms were fantastic. One of the rules about Botswana camps is that no facilities can be permanent (so camps can be asked to move after a few years if it’s determined that they are disturbing the local ecology too much), thus everything is wooden, which makes for a very nice feel. Our rooms were the stereotypical safari type – elevated “tents” which really are quite luxurious.
Other minor accommodations to be made for the animals: no leaving anything in the bathroom area of your tent, otherwise the monkeys will steal it!
The view from my tent
It's hard to see what this is, but it's a giant monitor lizard. He hung out by my tent a lot.
The main part of the lodge was also very beautiful, overlooking a small waterway/marsh area that led out to a larger lake.
And, the main lodge was situated right under a giant marula tree which was very in season (so much so that every few minutes you would hear a giant thud on the ceiling as another marula fruit fell off, reminding you not to be caught standing underneath it lest you have a hard marula land on your head).
This would be a great seating area if it weren't located directly under the marula tree!
Too bad we didn’t see any elephants come to eat the marula fruit though – apparently it’s their favorite food, and though they will destroy lots of small size trees, eating them and stomping over them, they will always leave baby marula trees to grow (yes, they are quite smart!). And for those of you who don’t know, the marula fruit is used to make a lovely liqueur, Amarula (which can unfortunately be a bid hard to find in the States). Nothing like sipping your Amarula under a marula tree after a long day’s work of safari-ing! :)
Of course I was staying alone on this trip, since I was just travelling with my parents, so I kept having these huge luxurious rooms all to myself. That’s obviously not so bad, except for when I need someone else to kill the spiders. African spiders are so big! Also, it’s at first a bit disconcerting to wake up in the middle of the night to all sorts of grunting and howling going on so close by that it literally sounds like something is about to stumble through your tent. The morning after our first night, the guide confirmed the sounds we heard were hippos and hyenas in the camp, who apparently show up almost every night. I must say, it truly sounded like the hippos were right outside my front tent flap…and I wouldn’t be surprised if they were, considering there was a grassy pool right there for them to eat and hang out in. I just kept my fingers crossed that I would never accidentally stumble upon a hippo. They kill more people than any other animal, because they are so aggressive and have such huge jaws. (Side note: I asked my colleague, who previously worked at a luxury safari camp in Botswana for a year, how many people get attacked by animals, and she cheerfully replied “Oh, not that many”…though she then proceeded to describe how, out of the staff at their camp, one had lost an arm to a hippo, one lost a leg to a crocodile, one got airlifted out after being attacked by a lioness, and one guy wandered off drunk at night and got eaten by lions…I don’t know about you, but in my mind, that’s not “not that many!”)
I loved our time in Moremi. We saw elephants, giraffe, zebra, impala, kudu, bushbuck, waterbuck, wildebeest, hippo, crocodile, lots of other antelope-type-things, tons of exotic birds (apparently the Delta is one of the world’s best bird watching locales), warthogs, and yes, lions too, on top of fantastic scenery. Some of the sights:
Baboons
Impala, or, as our guide referred to them as, "the McDonald's of the bush" (notice how the black stripes on their butts are sort of shaped in McDonald's arch fashion...and given their ubiquity, they obviously make a handy meal for a lot of predators)
Wildebeest
Giant termite mound. It's incredible, they're everywhere!
Our first night out, we came across a large group of elephants eating by the side of the road and pulled over to watch. Eventually they started migrating across the road in front of us, at which point one of them became rather unhappy with our presence. Apparently the teenage elephants are quite aggressive, even towards things the adults aren’t bothered by (typical teenager angst, I guess?). Anyway, one particular young adult elephant started getting very agitated and spent a lot of time deciding what to do about us. At one point it even started to charge at the car, at which point the guide turned over the ignition and the elephant stopped with the noise. Way too close for comfort, in my opinion! I really thought I might have a heart attack. Truly, there’s nothing quite like realizing an extremely large and powerful animal is running right at you, angrily. Also nothing like having an elephant trumpet loudly in your face and blow water everywhere. If it were me, I definitely would have left the scene long before all that transpired, but oh well, I guess we got some good pictures out of it! (And by the way, my camera doesn’t have great zoom, so when the elephant head takes up the entire frame without requiring maximal zoom, you know just how close we were…) I don’t think my heart slowed down to normal speed for the next 30 minutes.
At first just watching from a distance
And then they start getting closer...
And then this one wasn't so happy
Getting ready to charge!
Such big eyes!
Trumpeting and blowing water at us!
Lots of zebra too
Notice the little baby hiding behind the mom? It must have only been a few days old, since the mom's back legs were still bloody from birth. So, so cute!
A strangler fig growing on top of the other tree - quite crazy looking
Hippo! They're probably too small to see, but there are a bunch of birds sitting on his back, yet he seems to be quite at peace with that :)
Later, a little more angry (notice those teeth?)
Such beautiful scenery to enjoy the sunset
Mom and baby
Waterbuck
An example of the kind of roads we were on
A sturdy "bridge"
And the flood water we had to drive through
And you even have to be wary of baby crocodile hanging out in these puddles!
Luckily we had our trusty Land Rover Defender. Notice the snorkel?
Also good to know that the Land Rover is well equipped for sundowners :)
Each game drive at some point we would pull over and our guide would take out the cooler to pour us gin and tonics – nothing like taking in the sounds and sights of the African wild and watching the sun go down while drinking your gin and tonic! Botswana was so beautiful, and as I said, particularly special because you feel like you’re the only one out there.
At one point we took a quick boat ride (the grass is too tall in the Delta this time of year to make boat game viewing good) to look at the water lillies - very beautiful!
Our guide picked one and showed us how to peel it into a necklace, which was nice...though I felt bad about picking the flowers in a national park!
More beautiful scenery
The bird had such exotic coloring
Another interesting elephant encounter. Our guide spotted this giant lone male across the field, and seeing the moisture coming out of the glands near his eyes, said he must be in musk, and therefore would be quite agressive and take out everything in his path. As we watched him continue to walk towards us, my dad and I noticed he seemed to be following the very same path that crossed the road directly under our back tire. Luckily our guide picked up on this as well, and we quickly got out of his way. No more close calls for me, thank you!
And he did indeed walk right where we had previously been parked, haha
It's very hard to see, but there is a giant crocodile lying by the side of the water. Clearly, mother nature is very good at camouflage
Unfortunately, the lions we saw were taking it easy, and thus no active photos…but still, it was amazing to get so close to them. Nothing like pulling up next to a sleeping lion and having her slowly open her eyes to very intently stare at you with those giant golden lion eyes that are truly oh-so-mesmerizing. They could care less that we were there. Must be nice to be king of the land.
Eyes closed...
...and now open
We spent quite a bit of time tracking a herd of water buffalo who were on the move being chased by a pride of lions, though unfortunately we never caught up with them. Still, it was really interesting to see the dynamics of predator-prey relationships in action (or rather the aftermath, in terms of giant areas of grass just totally trampled down and torn up by hundreds of buffalo running over it, and then seeing the lion tracks following).
An unexpected find while taking a drink break - very cute little frogs! And amazingly enough, these two are apprently the same species, even though they look so different (but I don't remember which one is the male and which is the female)
Oh, we also saw a black mamba, though I don’t have pictures because my camera doesn’t have good enough zoom to make it worth while. It was slithering up a tree after some birds. It was pretty crazy to see how big it was and how well it blended in with the tree trunk. FYI, as I formerly believed, black mambas are not at all little black snakes like the one in Kill Bill. Nope, they’re very big (5ft at least, probably) and greyish-brownish. Apparently their name comes from the fact that the inside of their mouth is pitch black. Well, misconceptions or not, I’m just glad we didn’t see that one slithering around on the ground in the camp…
After 2 days at Xakanaxa, we were driven back to the airstrip where, though there seemed to be no sign of life, miraculously at the exact time we were supposed to be picked up, we heard the dull hum of an airplane and lo and behold our plane landed.
This time it was a bit bigger plane, and we had to make a few stops on the way back up to Kasane to unload food supplies to other remote access camps and pick up other transfer passengers. It’s a good thing we were paying attention to our luggage though, because I’m pretty sure my bag was almost mistakenly delivered to another camp. Not exactly TSA regulations out there, haha…
Back in Kasane, we were met by someone who drove us across town to the river edge (Kasane lies on the Chobe river and is the gateway town on the north end of Chobe National Park, Botswana’s other big game park). At the river, a guide from our next destination was there to meet us in a boat, and off we went across the river to the Namibia side where we had to go through border control, as we were staying on a Namibian island for the next 2 nights. FYI, Namibia has a panhandle that stretches out to the northeast of the country, called the Caprivi Strip. Anyway, the “border control” station (I use the term loosely, as I’m pretty sure it would be amazingly easy to just bypass the checkpoint altogether and sneak into Namibia) was interesting, to say the least. Our guide pulled up to the island shore and said he would watch the luggage in the boat while we went to get our passports stamped. He just sort of pointed down a dusty, dirt road and said the immigration office was up there. Well, looking up that road heading into the forest, with a herd of cattle milling about, and no sign of life, I must say, I was a bit disbelieving, but after walking 10 minutes, eventually there was a wooden sign nailed on to a tree that said “Immigration” and pointed you down a small dirt path which opened up to a real border control building.
That small sign to the right is the "Immigration" sign!
Then the immigration building eventually appears in the middle of nowhere
After entering and calling out to get someone’s attention, someone eventually came out from the back and we were able to be officially welcomed into Namibia.
We then spent the next hour leisurely making our way down various channels, eventually reaching the Zambezi and the other side of the island where our lodge was. The waterways are so beautiful. The rivers are so wide and calm it seems like you’re on a lake.
There are tons and tons of beautiful birds to stop and watch, and of course the occasional crocodile sunning itself on the shores. The river banks are lined with beautiful grasses. Papyrus is especially pretty – who knew?
We also saw a few huts on the shores, and our guide explained that people live there and farm only part of the year, as pretty soon the water level will be too high for them and they’ll have to wait to return until next year.
Some of them even had areas with large sticks propped up, which we were told were fences for the gardens to keep the hippos out.
Call me crazy, but I don’t know if my heart would survive knowing every time I went out to the garden I might stumble across a hippo. Nope, I think I’ll stick to the deer in Montana, thank you. We also saw a lot of fishermen out and about. Their boats are amazing – long dugout canoes that are actually quite narrow, and thus hard to manoeuvre (at least when you’re standing up, which is what they do). They stand up and push and pull themselves around with a large stick, instead of using paddles. It’s called a makoro.
Of course it also felt weird to be zooming around in a nice motorboat, being escorted to a fancy lodge, realizing that people here are still incredibly poor and living off nothing but the land. I often wondered what they thought of us. On the flip side, as I mentioned earlier, tourism is very important to many of these communities. I don’t know, it’s never an easy thing to reconcile rich and poor…
Anyway, after many twists and turns down the river and smaller channels, we eventually arrived at our lodge, which, once again, seemed to be in the middle of nowhere.
Impalila Island Lodge - highly recommended by us!
The lodge was beautiful, situated right under a giant 700 year old baobab tree, overlooking the river.
I love baobabs and think they're so beautiful
The baobab in the back of the lodge even had "SWAPO Namibia" carved into it, which was really cool to see. SWAPO stands for the South West Africa's People's Organization, which was the movement largely responsible for gaining Namibia's independence and turning it into a democracy in 1990. (Prior to that, Namibia was a German colony called South West Africa, until the Germans were forced to give it up to Britain after WWI, and eventually South Africa essentailly turned the situation into a military occupation. The area was important in the liberation movements of multiple countries, given its proximity to one another and the need for rebel movements to sometimes hide out in neighboring countries.)
We were the only guests there on the first night, which made me feel bad for their business, but I guess it wasn’t high season, and, I guess it’s pretty special to feel like you have a whole place like that to yourself. Once again, we each had our own cabins, this time permanent wooden structures as opposed to elevated tents.
On the path to the cabins - so green!
The bed had been individually decorated with leaves - I felt bad needing to move them to sleep!
They each had their own private decks raised over the water.
I kept thinking it looked like prime hippo-wandering country, but the staff assured us that the hippos stayed down by the water. I decided to believe them and not think too much about it…though the giant spider located on the INSIDE of my mosquito bed net was a whole other story. That, I just could not handle. Literally, this spider was the size of my palm, and it was the seriously 3-D kind (you know, when their bodies are the size of small rocks as opposed to being flat and weightless). Luckily the staff assisted me in its removal and I chose to spend the next 2 days not looking too closely in any dark corners. I figured, the less I knew, the better I would sleep at night. (For those of you who don’t know or haven’t gathered by now, I have a pretty intense phobia of spiders, and I also have a sincere aversion to squishing bugs…not exactly the best combination, haha!)
Even though we arrived rather late in the afternoon for any further activities, because the staff weren’t sure if the weather would hold for the following day, they let us take a quick boat ride back to Chobe. I must admit I was rather skeptical at first about what river-based game viewing would be like, but it turned out to be awesome. Of course it took us 40 minutes to get back to the Kasane area, where we then took the Chobe River up into the Chobe game park. I guess one good thing about boat game viewing is you don’t have to worry about traffic or park entry fees! Our fist night out, we saw lots of hippos and elephants, which was really fun. It’s so different to view the elephants from the river, as they take their baths with you floating right beside them. They’re so much fun to watch!
We also saw a little baby elephant which our guide said must be only a few weeks old. It was sooooo cute!!!
I don’t know how it hangs out with the big elephants without being stomped on, but somehow it manages to stay underneath its mom pretty well. It was seriously one of the cutest things I’ve ever seen.
Impala in the sunlight
Hippos galore
It's hard to see, but this hippo has two younger ones with her (to the right)
And ovbiously great scenery too
It's hard to tell, but there's a giant rainbow in this picture
Anyway, after watching the sunset, our guide said we were staying out past when we were supposed to, so we had to rush back. It wouldn’t have been so bad to be zooming along through the water, except then the bugs came out…and then I discovered what being a windshield must feel like, as I could feel bug after bug after bug splattering across my face. I tried very hard to keep my eyes shut (and luckily my sunglasses served as nice protection) and lips pursed. It was growing very dark and our boat didn’t have any lights, and of course there are barely any electrically-connected structures along the river, so at times if felt like you couldn’t see anything. Once again, I decided not to think about what might happen if we ran into an unsuspecting hippo. We eventually made it back to the dock area of our lodge, and just as we were pulling in we went past a hippo who got very angry and jumped out of the water after the boat with its mouth wide open, but thankfully the boat was already far enough away at that point that nothing more happened. After showering and de-bugging (yup, one quick glance in the mirror confirmed what I anticipated – lots of dead bug juice covering my forehead!), we enjoyed a great dinner on the deck.
The next morning was a bit cloudier (we were actually very lucky throughout our entire vacation, considering it was rainy season), and it had rained the previous night, so we couldn’t do the island walk we had hoped to do, as we were warned we would run into too-deep mud. Instead, we went bird watching on the river. I never thought I would be that interested in birds, but it really was quite fun. There are just so many beautiful birds in that area!
For the most part, my camera doesn't have the zoom to make bird pictures worthwhile, but this was an exception
After our morning birdwatching session, we relaxed by the pool and wrote postcards on the deck
In the afternoon we decided to do one last boat game drive to Chobe. We really lucked out on that drive. First, we found lots of hippos to watch at pretty close distance.
Then, we were able to get very close to a crocodile sleeping on the river bank. They’re huge!
We even managed to see a lion from the shore! Unfortunately, I didn't get the best picture, but it was still fun to see
Apparently it’s really rare to see lions from the water. The lion we saw was a female wandering around on the shore. She then ducked under a big bush, and with binoculars we could make out cubs underneath there too. Watching her completely disappear into the bush confirmed that I would never want to be in a situation that required wandering around outside alone in the African bush – you truly never know when you might stumble across something that might find you quite tasty! After the lion, we rounded out the evening watching dozens and dozens of elephants take baths and then roll around in the dirt.
The little baby again!
Almost like a submarine, haha!
It was a great way to end our safari!
Sadly waving goodbye to the staff on our way out
The next morning we had to head back to the Namibian immigration post, then go through immigration at Kasane, then drive for about an hour back to the four-corners river crossing and take the ferry across back to Zambia, then drive to the Livingstone airport. All in all, it took about 3 hours, which really wasn’t too bad. However, after all the border crossings we did on our trip, I had to make a quick trip to the consulate immediately after my return to Cape Town, as I had used up all my visa pages! I now feel like I’m a little more qualified to join the m2m crowd, who travels endlessly, as finally my passport has a bit more thickness to it (last time I went travelling with Monica and Carey, at check-in they handed all of our passports back to Carey, who exclaimed “this tiny little passport must obviously be yours!”).
Upon our arrival in the Joburg airport, my parents and I had to part ways, as they needed to catch a plane back to the States. It was very sad to have them go, especially after such a wonderful adventure together, but I’m so glad they had the opportunity to come visit. It will definitely go down in my memory as one of the best trips of my lifetime!
Mainly, it was a great time because my parents were able to come visit! I’m so happy they were able to make it here, and I had a wonderful time showing them around Cape Town. I made sure they did all the usual stuff: visit Robben Island, watch the sunset in Camp’s Bay, visit Cape Point, take the cable car to the top of Table Mountain, walk around Kirstenbosch, and of course go wine tasting. We visited Thelema and Meerlust, and I also took them to Fairview (my alltime favourite) to experience their amazing cheese/wine pairings. At the end of our time at Fairview, my mom decided to order a case of wine to be shipped back to Montana. Except, funny story: Fairview can ship anywhere except Guam, Massachusetts, and Montana. Who would have thought, especially since Montana is not really what I would call an anti-alcohol state, nor does it even have a sales tax to deal with. Anyway, Grandma Margie in South Dakota will be receiving a lovely case of wine (to be picked up at the family reunion next summer), haha!
Fairview
Thelema
Meerlust
On the way home from the vineyards, we stopped at my boss Monica's place for a lovely braai. This is a picture of Monica, her partner Issa, and their adorable little girl Angela.
While my parents were visiting, we also managed to squeeze in an amazing safari in Botswana. We left very early on a Monday morning, flying to Livingstone, Zambia. We were driven from the airport to our lodge, where were greeted by incredibly nice staff and two dogs, Gin and Tonic (in case that gives you an idea of what people do on safari in Africa, haha). The rooms were amazing – stone bath tubs, open air (that’s right, no walls – but luckily a mosquito net!), incredible scenery (you could stare out at the wild bush and see the spray of Vic Falls rising in the distance). We only had that first afternoon to view Vic Falls, so we had to rush off almost immediately after we got to the lodge.
Before leaving, however, I just had to take a picture of this little chameleon who was hanging out on the path by our rooms.
As well as the trees with the weird pod things
Conveniently, the lodge arranged for a guide to take us to the falls and walk around the area with us. We started up at the top, where you could stare at the enormously wide, Zambezi River rushing along and then plunging over the edge. When we asked our guide how many people die going over the falls, he said it’s actually more dangerous in the low water season (we were there during the medium-high season) because then the river is pretty shallow and people think they can walk across to the islands...which isn’t that big of a deal, until someone slips!
The sunglight and the mist made for beautiful scenery
Mom and I, hoping nobody would push us off the edge
Because the mist from the falls equates to a practically constant rain, the nearby cliffside vegetation is quite rain-forest like
After viewing the falls from above, we then walked down below a little bit to get a view of the actual plunging falls. Vic Falls truly is something to behold. It’s just so enormous! Over 300 ft. tall and a mile wide! There’s so much water rushing over that you can’t even see all the way from one end to the other (too much spray and too much distance).
The falls are indescribably enormous, and impossible to capture on film (not least of which because of the wetness of the experience)
We viewed the falls safely from the side for a while before taking the plunge, donning ponchos and zipping up cameras in plastic bags, to walk out closer on the spit of land that goes right in front of the falls. There is so much spray that it’s like a constant downpour (and consequently you would definitely ruin your camera if you tried to take any pictures – too bad!). The experience of viewing Vic Falls is thus very interactive and one of those things you just have to take a mental picture of. Of course, for whatever reason, the poncho I got handed didn’t actually have a hood (well, there was a place for a hood, but it had been snapped off), so needless to say I got absolutely drenched. Nothing like taking a shower in the Zambezi! It’s so incredible to be out there feeling all the water pouring down on you, hearing the constant thunder of the falls, and opening your eyes when possible to take it all in. There is a little bridge you can take to continue walking out further in front of the falls onto another little spit of land. With the sun shining and the air very misty, it makes for incredible rainbows. Walking over the bridge and looking back, we actually saw a ~300° rainbow wrapping around the bridge. It was amazing! But sadly, no pictures at that stage...I had seen the Falls a few years ago, while they were at their peak water flow, and I have to say I’m glad I had both experiences. It was great to get a feeling for just how massive they were then, but this time was much better for viewing, as with less water and less spray, you can see a lot more and get a better perspective for how wide they are. Anyway, all in all a memorable experience.
Back at the lodge
Dad looks a little wet!
Aren't the rooms great?
See what I mean by open rooms
With great views! (The spray in the distance is the falls)
Returning to our lodge, we were met by Desai, our assigned attendant, who showed us the table he had set up for our dinner. Not bad, eh?
We had such a lovely evening. Desai was great. It was really interesting talking to him. First of all, I was shocked when he said he was very glad to be serving us because he and all of his colleagues always fight over the Americans, who are by far their favorites to work with. I’m just so used to hearing how everyone hates Americans and how Americans travelling abroad should try to pretend they’re not from the U.S. I initially had no idea why he would think that way, but then he went on to explain, in rather frank terms, that Americans are the most friendly – most of the European tourists don’t even acknowledge or talk to him, though they will be very quick to point out when he does something wrong. Contrastingly, he said Americans are just plain friendly and always talk to him and ask questions and are rarely critical. I found that really interesting to hear from his point of view, and thinking back to my experiences being in Africa with European tourists, his commentary seemed pretty spot on. For one of the first times, it made me feel really good about being American. Of course that is an extremely broad generalization, but I do think in some ways Americans are more accepting of an integrated culture and simply more friendly (even if they’re ignorant in the process). (Oh, and also, they tip waaaaay more.) Most of the Europeans that visit Southern Africa are German and English (probably some French too) so that of course is another complicating factor, when you throw in the colonialism dynamic. I really think a lot of Europeans view Africa very differently than people in the U.S. do.
Anyway, as enjoyable as he was to talk to, it also was very sad listening to Desai. He was such a nice person, and obviously incredibly smart...but here he was, waiting tables – and that is considered a good job. He talked about how he had to drop out of school when he was about 13 because his mom didn’t have the money to buy him new school uniforms (yes, here some kids don’t go to school simply because they don’t have the uniforms). He said he always knew he wanted to leave the village, so he worked very hard learning all sorts of languages growing up (trying to learn a bunch of different languages from neighboring regions and countries) and now he speaks something like 6 languages. He was very proud that he was the only one in his family who could speak English. After he dropped out of school, he left the village and moved on his own to Livingstone because, as he said, he always knew he wanted to “do something” as opposed to stay in the village. (When I refer to the village here, I truly do mean grass huts, subsistence agriculture, no running water, no electricity, very little access to the outside world, etc.) He worked hard and supported himself, and through various connections eventually got a job waiting tables, and has worked his way up at various places since. He was very proud to be a waiter; it just made me sad to think about someone obviously so talented, hard working, and kind not having the ability to do anything more than that. Had he been born in the U.S. I’m sure he would have went to college, etc. but people here just don’t have those opportunities. The other sad thing is that, even though he has a good job, because the rest of his family is back in the village, he is probably supporting all of them and thus not earning much for himself in the end. But still, what an inspiring person – and what a reality check, to remind yourself to be appreciative of the opportunities you’ve had.
Throughout our whole trip I found myself very sad to consistently meet such nice people working very hard in the tourism industry, and yet seeing first hand how much they’ve been hurt by the global recession, which they obviously did nothing whatsoever to create. And It’s pretty crazy to think about how relatively little they get paid in the first place – roughly 30-35 people working at each 8 room lodge we stayed at…obviously that doesn’t compute to very much money per person if you assume the lodge owners are making a decent profit off of each stay…I guess that’s just it – it’s all relative, depending on whether you’re the white manager of the lodge, the black staff, or the people back in the village. And obviously the people at the bottom don’t have much say in the matter.
Anyway, our dinner couldn’t have been more lovely, as was our entire stay at the Stanley Safari Lodge. Too bad we had to leave after only one night...but alas, we had a plane to catch and an itinerary to stick to! We were collected early in the morning and driven about 1hr to the border crossing between Zambia and Botswana. Well, actually, it serves as a border crossing between Zambia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, and Namibia – the only place in the world where 4 countries meet. We had to take a ferry across the Zambezi separating Zambia and Botswana. It really wasn’t a big deal for us (aside from getting completely accosted by people trying to sell you knick-knacks) – just get your passport situated, get driven down to shore where your motor boat is waiting, hop on, and go. This is also a major border crossing for a lot of industrial truck traffic, and things are a bit more difficult for them, however…more difficult, as in it takes them on average 1-2 weeks of waiting in line to get across on the ferry (up to 4 weeks if your papers aren’t in line). Isn’t that outrageous?
Driving up to the river, you see a huge line of semis parked along the road on both sides.
And only one truck fits per ferry…
Talk about a waste in commerce, delaying shipment of goods for that long. Well apparently there is no bridge because building one would require the consent of all 4 countries, and they can never agree, especially because Zambia likes the ferry revenue and Zimbabwe gets a lot of revenue when trucks use the bridge that goes between Zim and Zam at Victoria Falls. Anyway, I just can’t imagine waiting 2 weeks to get a ferry…I can only imagine the prevalence of both prostitutes and HIV in that area…
Well, we made it across in just a few minutes and were met on the other side by someone who drove us to the airport in Kasane, the border town in Botswana. Once at the airport, we were handed a few makeshift tickets (I think they might have even been handwritten?) and we boarded our own personal flight to our safari camp in the Okavango Delta, towards Southern Botswana. I had never flown on a small plane before, but luckily I didn’t get too upset about the heights/turbulence.
It turned out to be really amazing to fly over the land (much of it game parks) and see elephants and hippos at water holes, etc. It was also interesting to see the animal paths from above – each water hole looked like it had spokes radiating out from it in all directions.
And wow, Botswana is FLAT.
Finally, as we neared the Delta, it was really cool to see the bush/forest land turn into swamps and marshes.
The airport strip where we were staying was obviously a bit rural…at least we didn’t hit any impala on the way down, haha!
The place we stayed at was called Xakanaxa Camp, in the Moremi Game Reserve. The Okavango Delta is the largest inland delta in the world, and a mecca for animals in the area. Moremi borders the Delta (and is technically part of the park) but consists of much more solid land and is where a lot of animals concentrate. This was a very different safari experience than the other 2 I’ve been on (Kruger in South Africa and Etosha in Namibia) – so remote! Botswana has really run their tourism industry well – they definitely jumped on the eco-tourism bandwagon a while ago, and because it’s a bit more expensive, less people go. And you really do get a very remote feel, when you have to fly in somewhere (few cars can handle the roads, if they even exist). Also, when you’re driving around, you’re often the only game vehicle around, as opposed to other parks where cars are piled up on top of each other trying to get better views of the animals. Obviously no paved roads – for this kind of safari you truly need the giant land rover with snorkel for the engine otherwise you definitely won’t be getting far. All in all, an amazing experience!
As opposed to camping in areas surrounded by huge electric fences (a la Kruger), these camps are also a different story in terms of animal access. It was sort of funny to see the fence surrounding the grounds – a 10ft fence with only 3 strings of barbed wire stretched out across the top foot, to “deter” the elephants (though obviously anything else can happily run underneath, and I’m not so sure an elephant would care too much about a measly string of barbed wire, either…).
Yeah, this is the kind of place where we had to be escorted to and from our rooms in the evenings, so as not to get eaten (or at least so as not to get eaten while all alone, haha!). Anyway, the lodge was beautiful, and the rooms were fantastic. One of the rules about Botswana camps is that no facilities can be permanent (so camps can be asked to move after a few years if it’s determined that they are disturbing the local ecology too much), thus everything is wooden, which makes for a very nice feel. Our rooms were the stereotypical safari type – elevated “tents” which really are quite luxurious.
Other minor accommodations to be made for the animals: no leaving anything in the bathroom area of your tent, otherwise the monkeys will steal it!
The view from my tent
It's hard to see what this is, but it's a giant monitor lizard. He hung out by my tent a lot.
The main part of the lodge was also very beautiful, overlooking a small waterway/marsh area that led out to a larger lake.
And, the main lodge was situated right under a giant marula tree which was very in season (so much so that every few minutes you would hear a giant thud on the ceiling as another marula fruit fell off, reminding you not to be caught standing underneath it lest you have a hard marula land on your head).
This would be a great seating area if it weren't located directly under the marula tree!
Too bad we didn’t see any elephants come to eat the marula fruit though – apparently it’s their favorite food, and though they will destroy lots of small size trees, eating them and stomping over them, they will always leave baby marula trees to grow (yes, they are quite smart!). And for those of you who don’t know, the marula fruit is used to make a lovely liqueur, Amarula (which can unfortunately be a bid hard to find in the States). Nothing like sipping your Amarula under a marula tree after a long day’s work of safari-ing! :)
Of course I was staying alone on this trip, since I was just travelling with my parents, so I kept having these huge luxurious rooms all to myself. That’s obviously not so bad, except for when I need someone else to kill the spiders. African spiders are so big! Also, it’s at first a bit disconcerting to wake up in the middle of the night to all sorts of grunting and howling going on so close by that it literally sounds like something is about to stumble through your tent. The morning after our first night, the guide confirmed the sounds we heard were hippos and hyenas in the camp, who apparently show up almost every night. I must say, it truly sounded like the hippos were right outside my front tent flap…and I wouldn’t be surprised if they were, considering there was a grassy pool right there for them to eat and hang out in. I just kept my fingers crossed that I would never accidentally stumble upon a hippo. They kill more people than any other animal, because they are so aggressive and have such huge jaws. (Side note: I asked my colleague, who previously worked at a luxury safari camp in Botswana for a year, how many people get attacked by animals, and she cheerfully replied “Oh, not that many”…though she then proceeded to describe how, out of the staff at their camp, one had lost an arm to a hippo, one lost a leg to a crocodile, one got airlifted out after being attacked by a lioness, and one guy wandered off drunk at night and got eaten by lions…I don’t know about you, but in my mind, that’s not “not that many!”)
I loved our time in Moremi. We saw elephants, giraffe, zebra, impala, kudu, bushbuck, waterbuck, wildebeest, hippo, crocodile, lots of other antelope-type-things, tons of exotic birds (apparently the Delta is one of the world’s best bird watching locales), warthogs, and yes, lions too, on top of fantastic scenery. Some of the sights:
Baboons
Impala, or, as our guide referred to them as, "the McDonald's of the bush" (notice how the black stripes on their butts are sort of shaped in McDonald's arch fashion...and given their ubiquity, they obviously make a handy meal for a lot of predators)
Wildebeest
Giant termite mound. It's incredible, they're everywhere!
Our first night out, we came across a large group of elephants eating by the side of the road and pulled over to watch. Eventually they started migrating across the road in front of us, at which point one of them became rather unhappy with our presence. Apparently the teenage elephants are quite aggressive, even towards things the adults aren’t bothered by (typical teenager angst, I guess?). Anyway, one particular young adult elephant started getting very agitated and spent a lot of time deciding what to do about us. At one point it even started to charge at the car, at which point the guide turned over the ignition and the elephant stopped with the noise. Way too close for comfort, in my opinion! I really thought I might have a heart attack. Truly, there’s nothing quite like realizing an extremely large and powerful animal is running right at you, angrily. Also nothing like having an elephant trumpet loudly in your face and blow water everywhere. If it were me, I definitely would have left the scene long before all that transpired, but oh well, I guess we got some good pictures out of it! (And by the way, my camera doesn’t have great zoom, so when the elephant head takes up the entire frame without requiring maximal zoom, you know just how close we were…) I don’t think my heart slowed down to normal speed for the next 30 minutes.
At first just watching from a distance
And then they start getting closer...
And then this one wasn't so happy
Getting ready to charge!
Such big eyes!
Trumpeting and blowing water at us!
Lots of zebra too
Notice the little baby hiding behind the mom? It must have only been a few days old, since the mom's back legs were still bloody from birth. So, so cute!
A strangler fig growing on top of the other tree - quite crazy looking
Hippo! They're probably too small to see, but there are a bunch of birds sitting on his back, yet he seems to be quite at peace with that :)
Later, a little more angry (notice those teeth?)
Such beautiful scenery to enjoy the sunset
Mom and baby
Waterbuck
An example of the kind of roads we were on
A sturdy "bridge"
And the flood water we had to drive through
And you even have to be wary of baby crocodile hanging out in these puddles!
Luckily we had our trusty Land Rover Defender. Notice the snorkel?
Also good to know that the Land Rover is well equipped for sundowners :)
Each game drive at some point we would pull over and our guide would take out the cooler to pour us gin and tonics – nothing like taking in the sounds and sights of the African wild and watching the sun go down while drinking your gin and tonic! Botswana was so beautiful, and as I said, particularly special because you feel like you’re the only one out there.
At one point we took a quick boat ride (the grass is too tall in the Delta this time of year to make boat game viewing good) to look at the water lillies - very beautiful!
Our guide picked one and showed us how to peel it into a necklace, which was nice...though I felt bad about picking the flowers in a national park!
More beautiful scenery
The bird had such exotic coloring
Another interesting elephant encounter. Our guide spotted this giant lone male across the field, and seeing the moisture coming out of the glands near his eyes, said he must be in musk, and therefore would be quite agressive and take out everything in his path. As we watched him continue to walk towards us, my dad and I noticed he seemed to be following the very same path that crossed the road directly under our back tire. Luckily our guide picked up on this as well, and we quickly got out of his way. No more close calls for me, thank you!
And he did indeed walk right where we had previously been parked, haha
It's very hard to see, but there is a giant crocodile lying by the side of the water. Clearly, mother nature is very good at camouflage
Unfortunately, the lions we saw were taking it easy, and thus no active photos…but still, it was amazing to get so close to them. Nothing like pulling up next to a sleeping lion and having her slowly open her eyes to very intently stare at you with those giant golden lion eyes that are truly oh-so-mesmerizing. They could care less that we were there. Must be nice to be king of the land.
Eyes closed...
...and now open
We spent quite a bit of time tracking a herd of water buffalo who were on the move being chased by a pride of lions, though unfortunately we never caught up with them. Still, it was really interesting to see the dynamics of predator-prey relationships in action (or rather the aftermath, in terms of giant areas of grass just totally trampled down and torn up by hundreds of buffalo running over it, and then seeing the lion tracks following).
An unexpected find while taking a drink break - very cute little frogs! And amazingly enough, these two are apprently the same species, even though they look so different (but I don't remember which one is the male and which is the female)
Oh, we also saw a black mamba, though I don’t have pictures because my camera doesn’t have good enough zoom to make it worth while. It was slithering up a tree after some birds. It was pretty crazy to see how big it was and how well it blended in with the tree trunk. FYI, as I formerly believed, black mambas are not at all little black snakes like the one in Kill Bill. Nope, they’re very big (5ft at least, probably) and greyish-brownish. Apparently their name comes from the fact that the inside of their mouth is pitch black. Well, misconceptions or not, I’m just glad we didn’t see that one slithering around on the ground in the camp…
After 2 days at Xakanaxa, we were driven back to the airstrip where, though there seemed to be no sign of life, miraculously at the exact time we were supposed to be picked up, we heard the dull hum of an airplane and lo and behold our plane landed.
This time it was a bit bigger plane, and we had to make a few stops on the way back up to Kasane to unload food supplies to other remote access camps and pick up other transfer passengers. It’s a good thing we were paying attention to our luggage though, because I’m pretty sure my bag was almost mistakenly delivered to another camp. Not exactly TSA regulations out there, haha…
Back in Kasane, we were met by someone who drove us across town to the river edge (Kasane lies on the Chobe river and is the gateway town on the north end of Chobe National Park, Botswana’s other big game park). At the river, a guide from our next destination was there to meet us in a boat, and off we went across the river to the Namibia side where we had to go through border control, as we were staying on a Namibian island for the next 2 nights. FYI, Namibia has a panhandle that stretches out to the northeast of the country, called the Caprivi Strip. Anyway, the “border control” station (I use the term loosely, as I’m pretty sure it would be amazingly easy to just bypass the checkpoint altogether and sneak into Namibia) was interesting, to say the least. Our guide pulled up to the island shore and said he would watch the luggage in the boat while we went to get our passports stamped. He just sort of pointed down a dusty, dirt road and said the immigration office was up there. Well, looking up that road heading into the forest, with a herd of cattle milling about, and no sign of life, I must say, I was a bit disbelieving, but after walking 10 minutes, eventually there was a wooden sign nailed on to a tree that said “Immigration” and pointed you down a small dirt path which opened up to a real border control building.
That small sign to the right is the "Immigration" sign!
Then the immigration building eventually appears in the middle of nowhere
After entering and calling out to get someone’s attention, someone eventually came out from the back and we were able to be officially welcomed into Namibia.
We then spent the next hour leisurely making our way down various channels, eventually reaching the Zambezi and the other side of the island where our lodge was. The waterways are so beautiful. The rivers are so wide and calm it seems like you’re on a lake.
There are tons and tons of beautiful birds to stop and watch, and of course the occasional crocodile sunning itself on the shores. The river banks are lined with beautiful grasses. Papyrus is especially pretty – who knew?
We also saw a few huts on the shores, and our guide explained that people live there and farm only part of the year, as pretty soon the water level will be too high for them and they’ll have to wait to return until next year.
Some of them even had areas with large sticks propped up, which we were told were fences for the gardens to keep the hippos out.
Call me crazy, but I don’t know if my heart would survive knowing every time I went out to the garden I might stumble across a hippo. Nope, I think I’ll stick to the deer in Montana, thank you. We also saw a lot of fishermen out and about. Their boats are amazing – long dugout canoes that are actually quite narrow, and thus hard to manoeuvre (at least when you’re standing up, which is what they do). They stand up and push and pull themselves around with a large stick, instead of using paddles. It’s called a makoro.
Of course it also felt weird to be zooming around in a nice motorboat, being escorted to a fancy lodge, realizing that people here are still incredibly poor and living off nothing but the land. I often wondered what they thought of us. On the flip side, as I mentioned earlier, tourism is very important to many of these communities. I don’t know, it’s never an easy thing to reconcile rich and poor…
Anyway, after many twists and turns down the river and smaller channels, we eventually arrived at our lodge, which, once again, seemed to be in the middle of nowhere.
Impalila Island Lodge - highly recommended by us!
The lodge was beautiful, situated right under a giant 700 year old baobab tree, overlooking the river.
I love baobabs and think they're so beautiful
The baobab in the back of the lodge even had "SWAPO Namibia" carved into it, which was really cool to see. SWAPO stands for the South West Africa's People's Organization, which was the movement largely responsible for gaining Namibia's independence and turning it into a democracy in 1990. (Prior to that, Namibia was a German colony called South West Africa, until the Germans were forced to give it up to Britain after WWI, and eventually South Africa essentailly turned the situation into a military occupation. The area was important in the liberation movements of multiple countries, given its proximity to one another and the need for rebel movements to sometimes hide out in neighboring countries.)
We were the only guests there on the first night, which made me feel bad for their business, but I guess it wasn’t high season, and, I guess it’s pretty special to feel like you have a whole place like that to yourself. Once again, we each had our own cabins, this time permanent wooden structures as opposed to elevated tents.
On the path to the cabins - so green!
The bed had been individually decorated with leaves - I felt bad needing to move them to sleep!
They each had their own private decks raised over the water.
I kept thinking it looked like prime hippo-wandering country, but the staff assured us that the hippos stayed down by the water. I decided to believe them and not think too much about it…though the giant spider located on the INSIDE of my mosquito bed net was a whole other story. That, I just could not handle. Literally, this spider was the size of my palm, and it was the seriously 3-D kind (you know, when their bodies are the size of small rocks as opposed to being flat and weightless). Luckily the staff assisted me in its removal and I chose to spend the next 2 days not looking too closely in any dark corners. I figured, the less I knew, the better I would sleep at night. (For those of you who don’t know or haven’t gathered by now, I have a pretty intense phobia of spiders, and I also have a sincere aversion to squishing bugs…not exactly the best combination, haha!)
Even though we arrived rather late in the afternoon for any further activities, because the staff weren’t sure if the weather would hold for the following day, they let us take a quick boat ride back to Chobe. I must admit I was rather skeptical at first about what river-based game viewing would be like, but it turned out to be awesome. Of course it took us 40 minutes to get back to the Kasane area, where we then took the Chobe River up into the Chobe game park. I guess one good thing about boat game viewing is you don’t have to worry about traffic or park entry fees! Our fist night out, we saw lots of hippos and elephants, which was really fun. It’s so different to view the elephants from the river, as they take their baths with you floating right beside them. They’re so much fun to watch!
We also saw a little baby elephant which our guide said must be only a few weeks old. It was sooooo cute!!!
I don’t know how it hangs out with the big elephants without being stomped on, but somehow it manages to stay underneath its mom pretty well. It was seriously one of the cutest things I’ve ever seen.
Impala in the sunlight
Hippos galore
It's hard to see, but this hippo has two younger ones with her (to the right)
And ovbiously great scenery too
It's hard to tell, but there's a giant rainbow in this picture
Anyway, after watching the sunset, our guide said we were staying out past when we were supposed to, so we had to rush back. It wouldn’t have been so bad to be zooming along through the water, except then the bugs came out…and then I discovered what being a windshield must feel like, as I could feel bug after bug after bug splattering across my face. I tried very hard to keep my eyes shut (and luckily my sunglasses served as nice protection) and lips pursed. It was growing very dark and our boat didn’t have any lights, and of course there are barely any electrically-connected structures along the river, so at times if felt like you couldn’t see anything. Once again, I decided not to think about what might happen if we ran into an unsuspecting hippo. We eventually made it back to the dock area of our lodge, and just as we were pulling in we went past a hippo who got very angry and jumped out of the water after the boat with its mouth wide open, but thankfully the boat was already far enough away at that point that nothing more happened. After showering and de-bugging (yup, one quick glance in the mirror confirmed what I anticipated – lots of dead bug juice covering my forehead!), we enjoyed a great dinner on the deck.
The next morning was a bit cloudier (we were actually very lucky throughout our entire vacation, considering it was rainy season), and it had rained the previous night, so we couldn’t do the island walk we had hoped to do, as we were warned we would run into too-deep mud. Instead, we went bird watching on the river. I never thought I would be that interested in birds, but it really was quite fun. There are just so many beautiful birds in that area!
For the most part, my camera doesn't have the zoom to make bird pictures worthwhile, but this was an exception
After our morning birdwatching session, we relaxed by the pool and wrote postcards on the deck
In the afternoon we decided to do one last boat game drive to Chobe. We really lucked out on that drive. First, we found lots of hippos to watch at pretty close distance.
Then, we were able to get very close to a crocodile sleeping on the river bank. They’re huge!
We even managed to see a lion from the shore! Unfortunately, I didn't get the best picture, but it was still fun to see
Apparently it’s really rare to see lions from the water. The lion we saw was a female wandering around on the shore. She then ducked under a big bush, and with binoculars we could make out cubs underneath there too. Watching her completely disappear into the bush confirmed that I would never want to be in a situation that required wandering around outside alone in the African bush – you truly never know when you might stumble across something that might find you quite tasty! After the lion, we rounded out the evening watching dozens and dozens of elephants take baths and then roll around in the dirt.
The little baby again!
Almost like a submarine, haha!
It was a great way to end our safari!
Sadly waving goodbye to the staff on our way out
The next morning we had to head back to the Namibian immigration post, then go through immigration at Kasane, then drive for about an hour back to the four-corners river crossing and take the ferry across back to Zambia, then drive to the Livingstone airport. All in all, it took about 3 hours, which really wasn’t too bad. However, after all the border crossings we did on our trip, I had to make a quick trip to the consulate immediately after my return to Cape Town, as I had used up all my visa pages! I now feel like I’m a little more qualified to join the m2m crowd, who travels endlessly, as finally my passport has a bit more thickness to it (last time I went travelling with Monica and Carey, at check-in they handed all of our passports back to Carey, who exclaimed “this tiny little passport must obviously be yours!”).
Upon our arrival in the Joburg airport, my parents and I had to part ways, as they needed to catch a plane back to the States. It was very sad to have them go, especially after such a wonderful adventure together, but I’m so glad they had the opportunity to come visit. It will definitely go down in my memory as one of the best trips of my lifetime!
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