Our African Adventure

"Africa has her mysteries, even a wise man cannot understand them. 

But a wise man respects them."

Miriam Makeba

 

"Africa gives you the knowledge that man is a small creature,
 among other creatures, in a large landscape." 

Doris Lessing

Mt. Kilamanjaro

We just returned from Africa.   I had been dreaming of going there for some time, and it did not disappoint.  Of course, Africa is a large continent and we only saw a small part.  We flew into Johannesburg, South Africa and immediately changed planes and flew to Livingston, Zambia.  We spent 3 nights at the Toka Leya where we stayed in very luxurious tents.  They were raised off the ground, with wood floors and lovely decks overlooking the Zambia river.  There were glass windows and glass sliding doors to enter the tents.  A large bed with mosquito netting around it.  A lovely bathroom with 2 showers, both inside and outside (in case you wanted to shower while watching the river and the wildlife).

Our tent at Toka Leya

Inside the tent



Moto Moto

The Toka Leya has a resident hippo, who they have named Moto Moto.  It is a wild animal, not a pet.  He has decided to claim the resort as his home, at least temporarily.  He wanders around the camp, usually below their raised walkways, and grazes.  He has claimed an area between two buildings as his sleeping quarters and can be found sleeping their each evenings.  In the daytime he spends much of his time in the river in front of the camp, or sleeping on the banks.  We enjoyed watching him.



Sunset on the Zambia River

The camp had arranged for us to take a sunset cruise on the Zambian River on our first night, and we had a very enjoyable and relaxing time, watching the sun go down.  There was a wedding party on board with us, and they were having a good time, they were partying, but we were able to enjoy the views and have a few drinks while we sailed down the river.



Victoria Falls

The main event in this area is Victoria Falls, which had been on my list of places to visit, for many years.  It did not disappoint.  We spent our first full day visiting these falls, and getting wet from the mist of the falls as it sprays back up the sides of the cliffs.  They are quite spectacular.  In the afternoon we had a visit to a local village, where we met some of the children, who all wanted to hang on to us, or be swung between us.  They showed us their school also.

The next day we took a day trip over to Chobe National Park in Botswana.  We were picked up and driven to the border.  We then took a boat across the river where we were met by our guide, who then took us to the park.  We were then put into boats again where we took a game drive down the Chobe River, watching for animals.  We certainly saw quite a few different animals, but our main spotting were elephants and hippos.  We then had lunch at a lodge on the river, and then did an afternoon game drive on land, spotting more animals.  We even had a short stand-off with a Cape Buffalo.  We were transferred back to the Toka Leya in time for dinner and an evening show of local dancers.

Elephants in Chobe National Park, Botswana

Feeding a Giraffe at the reserve

We then flew back to Johannesburg where we overnighted before flying to Nairobi, Kenya.  There we met up with our group of 13 other people and our guides and we were taken on our 12 day safari through Kenya and Tanzania. We overnighted in Nairobi at the Fairmont Hotel.  While in Nairobi we visited a reserve for the Rothschild Giraffe, where we able to get up close and personal and even hand feed the giraffes.  We also visited an elephant orphanage and saw lots of baby elephants. 

We then proceeded to our first stop on the safari, which was the Masai Mara National Reserve area.  We flew in small planes to this park and spent 2 nights there.  We went on several game drives in the park and we saw so many animals.

Taken from our balloon

We also had a balloon trip over the Masai Mara.  We had to leave the camp at 3:30 a.m. in order to drive the 1 1/2 hours to where the balloon took off, and arrive by sunrise.  So that was 1 1/2 hours of bouncing over very bumpy dirt roads very early in the morning on empty stomachs.  We were all very glad when we finally arrived.  The balloon ride was wonderful, just quietly floating over the plains and treetops, occasionally spotting animals.  But then we landed - with a thud!  We hit several large rocks on the landing, causing us to bounce quite hard, then the basket fell over on its side.  We had to crawl out over each other.  Quite the ending to the lovely ride.  We had a champagne breakfast and then used the trip back to camp as a game drive, spotting more animals.



Cheetah

 At the end of our stay here we flew back to Nairobi, and picked up our jeeps for the rest of the safari.  We drove first to Amboseli National Park.  We stayed in a lovely lodge and went on several game drives, where we again spotted many animals, including a beautiful cheetah.  From here we left our Kenya drivers, and crossed the border with our new drivers from Tanzania.  Guides are only allowed to guide in their own country.

A word about the roads in Africa.  There are very few paved roads anywhere.  In the cities the roads are paved, but no where else.  So even when we were driving from park to park, we were driving over very rocky dirt roads.  We did a lot of bouncing, and there was much dust.  At one point in Kenya they were actually working on making a paved road, so for hours we bumped along dirt roads next to a beautiful paved road, that we were not allowed on, because even though they were not working on it right then, it was not yet open for driving on.  When we were in the parks, the roads became even more primitive and were quite often only dirt trails, and we even had to occasionally forge a stream.  There were a few times when we almost got stuck, and once when we did.

Elephants on our game drive

We proceeded on to Lake Manyara where we stayed at the Serena Lodge.  Lake Manyara is a small National Park with a lovely lake, and lots of varieties of birds, as well as the regular wildlife of Africa.  We did a day long safari in the park, spotting much of the wildlife. 

On our drive from Lake Manyara we stopped to visit a local orphanage.  The camp is run by a woman who the kids call "mama".  She has 63 children, of all ages, many of the children were born HIV positive.  We met only the small children the day we visited, because it was a Sunday and the older children were in church.  The kids were happy to see us, as some in the group passed out candy and gave mama school supplies to be used.  She showed us around and we saw the dorms where the children sleep, the area where they ate and the grounds where they raise chickens, goats and cows.  The kids seem well taken care of and happy. It was a wonderful stop and we all gave contributions to help run the orphanage.

Mama and one of the orphans

The bathroom of our tent

Our next stop was the Ngorongoro Crater, and here we had reservations at one of the "luxury" camps right on the edge of the crater, which would give us early access to entering the park before the crowds, which would have to come a much longer distance.  The tents were nice, quite large, with wooden floors, large comfortable beds with mosquito netting around them.  They came with their own bathrooms which included flush toilets, sinks with running water and showers.  The toilets could only be flushed once every 20 minutes, so if sharing you needed to wait to flush.  The running water was only cold, and the shower had to be arranged for in advance with your cabin steward, as he had to fill the bucket above the shower with the hot water.  He then stood just outside your tent till you finished, in case you needed a refill.  Since he talked to us as we showered, it felt like we were taking a shower with another person.  A little disconcerting.  It was also quite cold here, because we were at a higher altitude, so there were heaters in the tents, and hot water bottles in our beds at night.  We had to bundle up in the mornings and evenings.  It was warm during the days.

Outside the tent
The setup for the showers

Our first night we visited a Masai village where we were given a tour of the huts and entertained by their dancing.  They even talked me into joining in.  We visited their school and gave more candies and goodies to their children.  We even had a "buying opportunity" where we could purchase items that they had made.

Me dancing with the Masai women

A leopard

Our game drive into the crater was an all day event, with a picnic lunch.  It would waste too much time leaving the crater to return to camp for lunch.  So it was a long day of bouncing, but we saw so many animals, and got our first really good look at some lions, which excited us all.  And the crater was beautiful inside.  There are no giraffes inside the crater, it is too steep for them to descend into with there long spindly legs.  But there are certainly lots of other species.  We felt like we saw them all that day.  We even saw lions and a leopard.  We had our picnic lunch near a small lake, which was quite lovely.

One of the things that I have observed while driving through this area, is that the small children are quite independent.  We will be driving from one area to another and going through villages and farmlands, and everywhere you see children, quite often very young children - some even toddlers, who are out on their own.  No adults nearby.  They are quite often even out with their herd of goats or cows, guarding the herd all by themselves.  We won't even allow our children to play outside by themselves anymore, yet these very young children seem quite capable of being on their own.  You even see toddlers sitting alongside the roads by themselves.

Taken alongside the road

Also, it is fun to see everyone going about their daily business, but dressed so differently then we are.  Many still wear the types of clothing that their tribes have always worn.  The Masai particularly have stuck to their customs and you can tell the Masai when you see them.  They prefer bright colors, in particular red.  The women still carry everything on their heads.  You see them at streams washing their clothes.  Africa is still, in many ways, the way I pictured it would be.

Our next stop was the Serengeti National Park, a place I had been longing to see for many, many years.  We also stayed in a "luxury" camp there, with the same kind of tent setup.  The nice thing about this though, was that this area was much warmer, so we didn't need the heaters or hot water bottles.

Wildebeast migration

The Serengeti is famous for the migration of the wildebeasts.  We did an all day game drive over to where they were migrating.  There were millions of these animals, all in one general area.  It is impossible to describe.  They were not all gathered in one group, but in lots of smaller groups, for as far as the eyes could see.  At one point a group of wildebeasts decided to cross the road right in front of us.  Before they proceeded to cross the males started rounding everyone up, grunting at the herd and each other, running around, getting everyone in order. But when they crossed the road all grunting stopped and the herd started running.  They were silent, you couldn't even hear the sound of hoof-beats, just the swishing of the long grass in the plains.  Several thousand crossed, but then a truck came down the road and the herd stopped crossing.  We then had a partial herd on each side of the road.  The grunting started up again, on both sides.  They didn't like being separated.  It took awhile for the left behind section to decide what they were going to do.  They moved farther down the road and finally crossed also.  It was interesting to watch them. 

Lion on our game drive

Bull Elephant we had a stand-off with

The next day we did morning and evening game drives in the park, and spotted lions, leopards and just about every other animal imaginable, including lots more wildebeasts. We even had a 20 minute stand-off with a giant bull elephant who did not like that our jeep had separated him from his herd of female and baby elephants.  He came right up to the jeep and we ordered not to talk or move.  It was very exciting.  He finally got his family across the road and he backed up.  We ended each evening around a campfire, having sundowners (drinks), and talking about our day.  It was very pleasant.  Felt like we needed to roast some marshmallows and make S'mores, but we didn't do that.  We had dinner in the main tent, and then proceeded to early bed, as our mornings always started early.

The Serengeti was the last stop on our safari.  From there we said goodbye to our fellow travelers, they all headed home.  We had one more stop planned.  We boarded a small plane and flew to the island of Zanzibar for 2 nights.  We stayed at the Serena Hotel which was right on the beach.  We had a balcony overlooking the Indian Ocean.  We took a guided tour of a spice farm, since the island is known as the Spice Island because of the spices it produces.  We also had a walking tour of the old Stone Town section of the city, which is a Unesco World Heritage site.  I spent one afternoon swimming, for awhile in the pool, but the lure of the ocean was too much, so finally made my way to the beach for a swim in its warm salt water.  It was a nice way to end our vacation.


Sunset in Zanzibar

 

Swimming in the Indian Ocean












When we are on vacation my husband, George, writes a newsletter home to our family and friends.  I have always taken those and put them in the side column under Trip Reports for trips we have taken.  If you would like to read the entire report of our trip to Africa, with day to day details, then you can go to the tab on the side column, or you can click the link below. 
http://havelistwilltravel.blogspot.com/p/getting-there-is-half-battle.html