On Friday, Darlene and Paul took us to the airport. Sadly, our stay in Malawi came to an end as we boarded a plane back to Johannesburg. We loved our time and experiences in Malawi and will miss the many new friends we made there.
In Jo-burg we went to the Apartheid Museum which is very well done and quite moving. It was interesting how little of that history we knew despite the fact that it all occurred during our lifetimes. I think we Americans were preoccupied with our own history at that time.
On Sunday we caught a flight to Maun, Botswana where our safari began at a lovely lodge called Motsentsela Tree Lodge. The lodge was very nice and located in a game reserve. The room was luxurious although it was a tent! It had a shiny polished wood floor, modern double sink, footed bath tub and an outdoor shower: the nicest tent we've ever stayed in!
The safari began in earnest the next day when we traveled by land rover to Moremi National Game Reserve on the Okavango Delta. The Okavango is a river that begins in Angola and flows 800 miles to Botswana where it empties into the desert and evaporates without ever going to the sea! This area is a natural bonanza for wildlife and the waterways and swamps have kept the area virtually undeveloped except for occasional Bushmen settlements. I have included only a small sample of the animals we took pictures of. We saw many elephants and various types of antelopes as well as lions, leopards, worthogs, and giraffes. The bird life is phenomenal.
We also saw hippopotomus, monkeys and baboons. These were not occasional sightings, many times we saw 4 or 5 different types of animals at once!
In all we saw 32 different mammals! Travel is extremely primative and mostly over very rough dirt roads. On one occasion our land rover got caught in an elephant hole! But as they say in Botswanna - "Not to worry". It turns out
that this is a very routine problem and our land rover was equiped with a "tall" jack that simply lifted it out of the hole. We put rocks under the wheels and after a few moments (and of course a cup of tea!) we were on our way.Then we took a long ride to Chobe National Park. Chobe is a beautiful park along the Chobe river in Botswana. The animal life here was even more striking than Moremi - if that's possible.
During all of our trip we were accompanied by 3 other travellers and our stellar guide Stanley Dube. Stanley is a Zimbabwian with phenomenal knowledge of the animals of southern Africa and is a remarkable person. He tracked lions, leopards and various antelope all over the parks until we found the animals. During most of the safari we stayed in mobile tent camps. The staff of the safari set up and broke camp while we were on our game drives, laundered clothes, and cooked meals over an open fire! Every night after a long day of chasing animals we came home to warm showeres and wonderful meals with our choice of wine - tough duty and quite a change after Malawi!
Our only dissapointment was that we couldn't do much hiking. It's illegal in the parks of Botswana because of the presence of large predators i.e. lions and leopards that could threaten humans. Even the elephants, zebras and buffalo can be dangerous. Before we would get out of the land rover, Stanley would always check the bush for predators.
The last part of our safari was a trip to Livingston, Zambia to see Victoria Falls. We stayed at the Royal Livingstone Hotel, rated one of the "10 best hotels in Africa." It has maintained the style of colonial Africa. The property was on the shore of the Zambezi River at the head of the falls. We took a walk along the rim and were promptly soaked to the skin by the mist, even with raincoats. Our "butler" was a miracle working in drying out shoes! The other unique employee at the hotel was the monkey chaser. The monkeys were so bold that they would steal food right off the tables. The chaser had a slingshot which he never used, because the monkeys just had to see him and they gave up.
We left Livingstone on Friday the 14th for the last stop of our trip, Cape Town.
No comments:
Post a Comment