A Big Change of Plans

Well, I have been telling you what a great time we have been having in Africa, and it has just been fantastic. What I did not mention is that we have a couple of total a**holes in our group whose idea of visiting Africa is to sit by the pool, drink themselves into a stupor each night, and either sleep all the next day on the bus, or talk loudly about what they drank the night before.

It has been driving the rest of the group crazy, so we have decided to do something about it. Us, being Me, Dwayne and our friend Andrea from Melbourne.

No, we did not feed them to the hippos, but that would have been an idea. We have decided to head out on our own, renting a car, and driving the GAP itinerary ourselves. Yes, we will lose our GAP payment, but why be unhappy for the rest of the trip. Plus, it should be a lot of fun.

Andrea, like me, is on a one year around the world trip. She is going in the opposite direction, so it is South America next for her, and India for me. And yes, just today we saw a TV for the first time in weeks, and heard about Mumbai.

We are in Durban, South Africa now, and will be heading towards Cape Town. We plan on arriving in Cape Town around December 9, and will be there for some extra days. Still plan to stay at the African Train Hostel (or something like that).

Let the next adventure begin!

Mozambique - a change of pace

Hey everyone!

We have travelled through Mozambique to a fabulous beach for three whole days. We then visited the capital - Maputo, and interesting experience to say the least.

Then it was on to Swaziland, the biggest surprise of the trip - absolutely beautiful and so peaceful.

We have now crossed into St Lucia, South Africa, and are going for an all day game drive tomorrow, hoping to find out elusive number 5 - the leopard.

Stay tuned, for more detailed blogs on the above.

We are doing well except for a major mosquito incident for Dwayne - 300 bites, and no, I am not exaggerating. Can you say malaria? Don't worry, we are watching him carefully, and he seems to be doing OK. He is taking his malaria meds, and will be tested when he gets home.

Other than that..... We love Africa!

Ooops, Blyde River Canyon

In my haste to catch up on my blog, and describe the wonders of Kruger Park, I neglected a fantastic stop we made at the Blyde River Canyon.

It is a spectacular canyon carved out by the river over the years. We made a stop at these amazing formations in the canyon, and took pictures from the lookouts and bridged over the gorge.

Blogging is so easy in Africa - just let the pictures tell the story. Actually, as usual, pictures to not do the actual setting justice.

We camped near the canyon that night, and lit a campfire under the African sky














Andrea (Australia) and Francis (England), two of our fun travelmates.

Kruger National Park

We drove east throught the sizzling African heat towards Kruger National Park, the grandaddy of them all. Within minutes of entering the Park gate, we added number 4 to our big 5 - Cape Buffalo - and lots of them.














We continued on to our camp, which as we expected, was just fantastic. Very dry setting with thorn trees, very clean facilities, and the usual swimming pool and bar.

We went out for an evening/night open air drive. As we were in a Kruger vehicle, we could stay one hour after everyone else had left. There was tons of game to be seen, many of the same animals as in Pilanesburg, but in a different setting. We came upon a pride of lions just as it was getting dark, and watched them for a while. Unlike TV, lions usually just sit there resting all the time, but we did get quite close.

After a while we drove off to see what else we could see. As we move ahead, we noticed the lions had stirred behind us, and were lumbering off to hunt. They caught up to our now stopped vehicle, and about 6 of them passed right by our open truck. If you were foolish enough to reach out, you could have almost touched them -they were that close. They walked ahead of us, we now were moving, cameras snapping aways. After a couple of hundred metres, they wandered off the roadway, and into the bush. You cannot imagine how elated we all were - what a thrill!















The only other hightlight after that, was an African Wood Python by our truck which reared up right by our Australian friend Andrea, who is deathly afraid of snakes. The sound she made and the height she jumped was almost as exciting as seeing the lions.

Back at camp, we entertained ourselves by drinking by our campsite, and chasing a poisonous scorpion into our tent area (not my idea!).

And yes, we did sleep well.

Jo'burg

After camping for about a week in Zambia, Botswana, and South Africa, you can imagine our reaction to a four-star airport hotel in Johannesburg - heaven. Soft fluffy clean beds, showers in our rooms, space, toiletries, and a gourmet buffet breakfast included! They must have wondered who the scruffy lot were arriving in our overland vehicle.

We made the best of our one night there, and managed to get in a double tour for the price of one - Soweto and the Apartied Museum.

Soweto, which stands for South West Township, was amazing. I knew it was the largest, but had no idea it had a population of 3.5 million! We took a mini van in, our African guide and all us white folk. We stopped at a gas station in Soweto for snacks, and it felt friendly and safe. It was like that throughout the tour, with nice people happy to show us their way of life. We even were shown inside a house there. It felt a bit intrusive, but they all assured us it was fine.















I bought some little African figurines that caught my eye. I had said I would not be buying anything on this trip, but I did like them, and it was an easy way to contribute to the community.

After that it was a couple of hours in the Apartied Museum. In some ways, including how it affected me, it was like Berlin. Throughout history, peoples are treated differently and oppressed. Free speech goes, people are jailed without trial for their beliefs and hatred prevails. But in the end, good seems to triumph over evil, and things become as they should. Like Berlin, it is hard to believe now that such a thing occured during our lifetime.

My favourite part was a huge picture of Desmond Tutu smiling and watching television. On it, De Klerk and Mandela were receiving their Nobel Peace prizes - great shot.

Another very moving moment for me was reading the words of the South African Constitution. There is was in the first section, no decrimination based on a lot of things, including sexual orientation - the only constitution in the world to specifically say that.















After Johannesburg, it was back into the overland vehicle, with a few changes of people, and off to a South African classic - Kruger.

Impala T-bone with Pinotage

As I said in my previous post, the wildlife viewing at Pilanesburg National Park was fantastic. We saw 3 of the big five - elephants, rhinos and lions. We also saw zebras, impala, springbok, giraffes, warthogs, hippos (including a cute baby), crocodile, and wildebeast.

The physical setting of the park was another bonus, very hilly, even mountainous, and surprisingly green after some recent rains. So we also got some great landscape shots.















My camera has not proved "Africa worthy", as it only has 3X optical zoom. So I will generally be using pictures from Dwayne's superior camera - plus he is just snapping some excellent shots.

After we viewed them, we ate them! Our site included a gourmet game restaurant. Normally I would have assumed this would be way too expensive, but hey, this is South Africa, so prices were very reasonable. So, I am not kidding in this blog title, I had Impala T-bone with a red wine reduction sauce. Others had kudu, eland and chicken (Dwayne, the almost vegitarian). It was all washed down with some lovely South African wine, under the stars out by a swimming pool. So those of you that think we are travelling to basically, well....

Pilanesburg National Park, don't miss it on your next trip to South Africa.

Pilanesburg National Park - South Africa

Pilanesburg National Park in South Africa is just fantastic. Wonderful camping facilities, clean showers and even bathtubs, swimming pool, bar and a gourmet restaurant serving game meat plus more. We went on 3 game drives and one hike. We will just let the pictures speak for themselves (all pictures by Dwayne).


















African Yoga - the downward facing hog

Overland Travel in Africa

Hello from Neil and Dwayne in Gaborone, Botswana.

So what is it like travelling overland with GAP Adventures? Well, it is not for everybody, but we are both enjoying it.

Our vehicle is almost brand new. It holds about 20 people, but there are about 16 of us. We have a guide/driver and a cook (Wimpy and Yolandi). All the gear stores underneath, including our luggage, tents, pads, camp chairs, equipment and food. We share in some really light duties, but nothing hard at all. We are all great at pitching our tents, 5 minutes max, very easy. We each have a comfy pad to put our sleeping bags on. There is room in the tents for our packs too. Not bad, and they have proved to be quite waterproof during some brief rains.

Almost all of our meals are provided, and the food is camping style, but pretty good. So, where do we stay you ask? Well, it is nothing like we thought, we are definitely not on the open African plains. We stop each night (or second night) at a campground, typically surrounded by an electric fence. Usually the fence is so far away you are not aware of it (except for the fact we can sleep at night!). The camps have nice showers, sinks, toilets etc, and they all have bars (woo hoo) with really cheap drinks. A couple have had pools, but nothing I would put more than my feet in.

We started in Victoria Falls, then went south to Gweta, Botswana, crossing the border from Zambia on a barge. Our campground was Planet Baobab, with those fantastic trees all around us. We generally just got to know each other and bonded at the bar.

Next stop was Maun, Botswana, gateway to the Okavango Delta. We were disappointed that the only option was a flight over the Delta, as part of our group had stopped there for 3 days previously. We did visit a crocodile farm and saw thousands, including one huge one that was 80 years old.

It was on to Ghanzi, Botswana, and a very nice camp on the edge of the Kalahari Desert. We had a fantastic bush walk with a guide, and 7 tribespeople accompanying us. They demonstrated how they survive in the harsh desert environment, and showed us traditional medicines made from plants and roots. Was very well done - very memorable.

Sat by the campfire that night under the African sky, just chatting and drinking like we do at home - but it did feel different.

We had a long drive to Gaborone today, and are staying in a somewhat bizarre campground in the city. Like everything here, the campground is surrounded by barbed wire, and gated.

We are off to some serious animal viewing in South Africa tomorrow.

So far, only animal viewing has been on the highway. Dwayne is good, and so far we have giraffe, elephant (a huge bull), ostrichs, a poisonous spider, lizards and today, a hard working dung beetle.

Dwayne visits Amora's homeland..... for 20 minutes

Enjoyed my Private Bed and champagne in Lufthansa Business Class, FRA - JNB. Arrived in Johannesburg and was taken to a very nice hotel near the airport for an overnight stay. Great little quiet spot, some game (an ostrich and some springbok) in the yard, and fantastic breakfast the next morning. All this for prices that are very low compared to Europe.

Was awaiting Dwayne's arrival at the Jo'burg airport the next day. I was at the departure gate for Livingstone, Zambia (Vic Falls). He was arriving and connecting on BA from London. The plane did arrive just slightly late.... but where was Dwayne? I kept watching the escalator into our gate area.... no Dwayne. It was getting painfully close to departure, and then the bus arrived to take us out to the plane. I waited for the last bus, but still no sign of him.

I was worried, but not freaking out. Perhaps I got my dates wrong and he was coming tomorrow. Maybe he missed a connection in London. How were we going to catch up to each other????

Got a bus to the Zambezi Waterfront Campground, although they had no record of my name for pick-up. Hmmmm, today is not one of those smooth travel days. Things got even stranger when I arrived at the campground and they did have both of our names??? So where was Dwayne? I checked in, found the internet, and prepared to email him and Robert for help.....

Meanwhile, on the other side of the Johannesburg airport, a very tired Dwayne was following the herd and clearing South African Customs. Seems he missed the "Transit" sign, where you can transit directly to another international flight (you will recall that Livingstone is in Zambia, not South Africa).

Anyways, Dwayne got through South African Customs, and was tight to check in for Livingston. Sorry, that flight is closed, no check in allowed. Soon, the 737 was off to Livingstone, sans Dwayne, but with a very bewildered Neil.

Dwayne was calm, but firm. Next days flight meant an overnight in Jo'burg and missing a day in Zambia. Well sir, said the now somewhat helpful BA lady, we do have a flight to Victoria Falls. "Gee, that is just where I am headed" thinks Dwayne - let's do it.

So off flies yet another 737, to Victoria Falls. On board the plane Dwayne is receiving his Customs declaration. Question: where will you be staying in Zimbabwe?
It was precisely at this moment in time that Dwayne realized he was headed to the Zimbabwe side of Victoria Falls. Oh yes, and due to the tight connection, he was unable to go to a bank machine in Jo'burg, so he had no money!

Landing in Zimbabwe, he did not panic, but prepared to figure out how to get to Zambezi Waterfront Campground in neighbouring Zambia. But first he need a visa to transit Zimbabwe. US $65 please!

He then, with a bit of assistance from someone, organized a very reasonable US $85 taxi ride across the border - NOT! He "stole" the money from the cash he needed to hand over to GAP Adventures at the start of the cruise, and off he went.

The taxi was a horribly dilapidated K-car, sputtering along though the Zimbabwe countryside. What are those birds, asks Dwayne. Vultures, replies the taxi driver.

At this point the taxi, probably firing on 2 cylinders, came to a halt, with the driver looking a bit worried. Kind of like Dwayne's face looking out the taxi window at the vultures. Yes the taxi had died.

After a bit of confusion, Dwayne was off in taxi number 2, an old van. After a while is this lovely vehicle, he was put into a third taxi, which made the now dead K-car look good..... yikes!

Somehow taxi #3 got him close to the border, where he walked into Zambia, and got his visa stamped. Zambia looked like paradise now, not to mention taxis that looked like they might get to their appointed destinations.

Meanwhile.... Neil had figured out that 20 minutes of internet time would cost 20 rand, which he had. He had no idea what that was in Kwatchas, Zambia's currency. He was just about to pay for the internet, and try to find Dwayne, when the front desk clerk came up behind him, and muttered those magic words.... "Mr. Burnham, Mr. Sanderson is here."

So, the 2 traveller were finally united, and Dwayne had a great story to tell. They headed for their tent, and their first night in Zambia.

Time for a cold Mosi Zambian beer!!!!