AFRICA

It is too bad there isn't a way to write "Africa" with trumpets blaring and music crescendos building.  It is like that here.  On this long journey we have been in some of the most visited and beautiful cities in the world.  In Africa, we find ourselves in the cradle of humankind.  We lift the curtain and take a glimpse into life as it has been for millenia.  We find ourselves incredibly peaceful periods intermixed with some very intense moments.  A cocktail of awe with a frisson of fear. Far better photo journalists that Jon and I have photographed and photographed the flora and fauna.  Our photos are not in competition with those previously published, but rather, they are the chronicle of our journey, a journey wrapped around the jewel of Africa.

                                       Victoria Falls


Picture the flat plain with the Mighty Zambezi River rushing onward across it. Suddenly the earth opens into a narrow crevice with the river roaring over the edge plunging into the gorge.  We are in Zambia to see the falls. We walk the edge on the opposite side of the gorge from the falls.  It is very very very narrow walkway and we are very close to the falls.  Loving high scary places like I do, this is bad situation. I have to follow brave, indomitable, Shirley, three years my senior who is going everywhere in the world by herself. I can't chicken out. The mist is so thick it pours back over us like the fullest shower imaginable, with a portion of the path on the very edge slanting slightly to the gorge side and there are no guard rails.  Just to top it off, there is a narrow foot bridge over the gorge.  We cross it.  The mist is so thick that it is impossible to see how deep the gorge is!  Wonderfully exciting.  We wouldn't have missed the experience.  We are totally pumped-up for the rest of the day.

The three of us settled in for sundowners in this perfect spot. Africa threw a routine stunning, incredible sunset.   So here are the first of the 3008 sunrise and sunset pictures we took. This was the first and so very spectacular that at one point the whole sky was bathed in pink, violet and gold.

The cloud to the left is the mist rolling up out of the gorge from the falls dyed pink and gold by the sun.

                           Dinner on the terrace with Shirley.

Breakfast in the room. One wall is missing and we slept in white net draped beds.



In Zambia



Good byes to Shirley.  She was to cruise the river, ride an elephant and then off to Arusha to explore Tanzania and Kenya.  We were to head to Botswana.

                                          Botswana

                              The experience

Life is filtered through the lens of personal experience, so for Jon and me this lens was the safari in Tanzania and Kenya we took 15 years ago.  Botswana is very different and the first difference is the vehicle we travelled in.  These are completely open vehicles.

This is the group who became fast friends in few days.  Jon and I are outnumbered by the Brits: Nick and Janet Cane and Martin and Valerie Slade.

Trackers ride up front on the little jump seat.  Until dangerous predators are in the area and then the tracker jumps inside the car.  If the tracker stays in his seat, he looks like prey or danger, neither being good for tracker or the game encounter.  Mr. Moe is the most experienced tracker in the company and when he spots something he is a wonder to watch.

                  Arrival at Lebala Camp 
 http://www.kwando.co.za/

Flights are great as they do not fly too high so there is a wonderful bird's eye view.  We saw eagles flying along at same height we were flying.

Pick up and first introduction to our crew.   Driver and tracker.  All seemed as we remembered.  First they chased the herd of zebra off the airstrip so we could land.  Then off we went and in 5 minutes while slogging through deep sand in 4 wheel drive we encountered our first herd of elephants.  We loved watching the habituated elephants we saw before but they are almost tame compared to these.  On this private reserve there are only the vehicles from our camp not the hundreds of vehicles and animals seen in Northeastern Africa.  These animals are WILD!  They are trumpeting warnings and using their deep vibration signal that we can feel through our bodies along with a twist of fear in our gut.  An ancient reaction to the fact that they are big and we are unprotected and they could hurt us.  New experience.  Driver assures us they are only playing.  Umm?

           Shows how close we are. We did get used to this. Sort of.

Object of their protection.  This is a herd of all females with a young elephant a few months old.

Doesn't take much zoom to get close up.  One small camera took all video and pictures on this trip compared to 40 lbs of equipment last time and 50 rolls of film.  Remember film?

It is the least optimum time to be here to see animals because it is the rainy season and the time of plenty for the animals.  Large herds of buffalo and elephant are further west and come back in the dry season with most of the predators close behind.  Everywhere there is too much water making mud, ruts and filling depressions into mini ponds and lakes. Everyday we are up at 5 AM and off by 6.  Back by 10 to noon depending on what we find.  Out again after high tea about 5PM until 8 or 9 PM.  Every minute of that time the vehicle is lurching, bouncing, groaning, growling and crawling its way across this morass.  It is brutal on the vehicle, the guide driver, tracker, and the guests  They work very hard to give us a good experience.

The high grass also makes it difficult to find and photograph animals.  The grass itself soon becomes an object of interest and amazement.  This must have been like our great plains when settlers first arrived.  There are many varieties of grasses.  Some 15 feet high and others 12 inches and everything in between.
They are all flowering and the tops are feather dusters to helicopters.  In the morning the grasses are dusted with sparkling dew, a million light points dancing in the morning sun. Very surprising, the grasses are full of wildflowers.  Tangled at the base of the grass, vining across the sand and some rising on slender stalks.  It seems as if every one looks like an un-hybridized version of our garden flowers.  Tiny white stars, pink and lavender trumpets, yellow with red centers, and the vine with blazing crimson claws, water lilies and fragile blue cornets are just a few.
The ground is also covered with wild sage perfuming the air with its sweet and pungent aroma.

 

With so much grass we are having a difficult time seeing the animals.  They are full and fat, yet sleek.  Each animal we saw is as if it were groomed for show. 

                                  The Animals

Impala.  Note the markings on their rump form an M. That stands for McDonalds because everything eats them.

    Prey animals band together for protection, combining their survival skills.

                                                           
                                                                         Pumba
The wart hog provides humor. There is something so funny about it dashing along, tail flying in the air like a little flag. That something so homely becomes rather endearing is amusing.                                  

Look how fat and sleek this hyena is.  Nothing like the scrawny ragged looking ones we had seen on the Mara.  Changed my view of the animal.

                                                                 The daily routine

5:30 AM coffee,tea, hot chocolate and biscuits. Water and a pot of porridge are simmering on an open fire. Really good fresh muffins help us start the day.

                                                                                                      Morning tea so we can streach our legs and enjoy being out of the vehicle.

Sundowners 

This quickly became one of the favorite times of the day.

Lebala is a private concession, they can drive at night as there is no curfew. We drove home in the dark, allowing us to enjoy the end of the day, usually at a pool accompanied by the hippos.  Little piggy ears and bulging eyes gazing at us and every once in a while an angry open mouth display.  This is the most dangerous animal in Africa.  As the sun slips away the bubbling frogs fill the night with their symphony.  It sounds just like the bubbling of a coffee perculator.  Wonderful happy perky music to sing us home. 

                                                             Nick, Mr. Moe and Thabo

                               
                                         The Breakdown
After a particularly wrenching rut, the bottom of the vehicle made loud alarming noises.  Oops, we had completely dropped the drive shaft off the transmission.  Lots of calls to the cavalry to come rescue us and Jon and I and Nick and Janet voted this an early sundowner opportunity.  Large herd of elephant near but not too near so as to be scary near. 

                                    Gin and tonic for Nick and Jon.

         The men in blue.  They were the rescue team and they brought with them a new vehicle.  It was not in great shape and we affectionately called it,"Growler."

Commemorating our rescue.  They thought it was a hoot that I had a flag with me.  Texans are always prepared to celebrate.

 

These kinds of displays were making Thabo a bit nervous when we had no power to escape.

This night was topped off with a fantastic sundowner setting at the hippo pond with lots of hippos and 3 or 4 elephants playing in the water. Giants rolling and cavorting like children.  A flock of startling white egrets flashed against the fading light, it was a perfect moment.  Lots of bubbling frogs, too.  Heavenly music.

                                        A Memorable Day
Our second full day and the predators came out to play.  Seeing predators is the real jolt of excitement that energises everyone.
The first one was that gorgous hyena pictured earlier and shortly after that Mr. Moe spotted fresh dog tracks.  He was immediately in an altered state, every nerve on alert.  He tracked those dogs for 45 minutes and it was utterly fascinating how he could follow them through the tall grasses.  We could see just how they circled and where they went.

     Tracks made no sense to us but he could read them like a book.
  South African Wild dogs are the 2nd most endangered species in the world.  They are very very rare so it is a great gift to see them.

                                                 Found!

This was the highlight of the morning drive and at lunch we said goodbye to Nick and Janet who were headed to Kwara camp a day ahead of us.  We had been joined by Jolina from Marina del Rey.  Another intrepid female on her own.  Those California women are tough.  Just when it seems that it cannot get better, it did that evening.  The three of us are off in search of something. It pours rain so we wrap up cameras in plastic bags and put on ponchos and carry on. Just as the rain lifts in the freshly washed air with rainbows arcing in the sky we see the prize of the trip.  A rosey breasted longclaw.  This bird is so rare that our guide had only seen 1 other in 14 years and has had birders come year after year looking for it and never see it.  Oh, you must take our word for it as every camera on the truck was still wrapped in the plastic bag.  It is a lovely pink and red and black bird and the light was perfect.  Oh well. 

                                                                Jolina

                             Then the queen of the night.

She crawled up a tree to check us out and see where she might find a drink or dinner.

 

  

  
               Oh Oh. She spots unwelcome company.  The hyena.

                                          Might as well relax until he leaves.

   

     Hyena is gone so goodby.  I have posed for enough pictures.  Time to eat.

 

A few minutes after the bird, the guides got all perked up again.  A pile of fresh leopard poop.  So for an hour we circled and tracked, I was starting to giggle inside at all this effort over poop when, BINGO, fresh tracks on top of where we had driven a few minutes prior and we were off through the brush over small trees and there she was.  For 45 minutes she posed in a dead tree not 25 feet from us in the fading light.  It helped considerable to keep her there that a hyena was circling about to check out the scene.  We were the only truck there and one thing that is fun is that the guide and tracker enjoy this as much as we do.
Well, "Top that!" thought I.   Be careful what you wish for as tomorrow proved.

Transfer to Kwara Camp and the Okavango.

No pictures for this story.  It starts with the morning drive at Lebala and Jolina, Jon and I are having a rather lack luster morning drive.  We are tracking a lion and whoa! We almost run over him.  Then he crawls off under a tree and goes to sleep so off we go to see what is next. We are driving through small shrubby trees about 12 to 15 feet high when we see elephants up ahead crossing the road.  It is a big herd and one thing they never want to do is get between and elephant and its herd so Thabo turns off the motor and we wait and wait.  When it appears that all is clear he turns on the vehicle and puts it in gear.  No sooner than he has done that than we hear the very very close trumpet of an elephant and to our left at the front of the truck not 15 ft away is a female and she is coming and mad.  Both tracker and guide thought we did not have a prayer.  The guide did the two things they are trained to do.  He beat on the door of the vehicle with his right hand and stepped on the gas.  She hesitated because of the noise for one second and we shot past her.  In the next second she wheeled and was off after us.  When we looked back she was close enough to touch with ears flailing and trumpeting.  She looked about 40 ft tall and was getting bigger but we kept ahead of her.  After about 30 seconds she called it off and quit.  The whole time I kept praying, no sand, no water.  Jon was braced for collision.  We had a fairly hard packed road thankfully.  Then of course we all 5 got nearly hysterical from the adrenalin rush.  Thabo said that was the closest call he had ever had. Jon and I were figuring we had had our rush for the day, we said good bye to all and headed to the plane and flew to Shindi airport.   We were picked up by our two new partners, Issa the driver guide and Sherlock the tracker.  It was a 1 1/2 hour drive to camp so we settled in to check out this even more wet area.  As we were driving through a small stretch of forest, Sherlock started screaming and he was up dancing on the seat just screaming his head off.  I thought he had cracked his leg on a bush close to road but no.  It was better than that.  There was a Black Mamba crossing the road and they drove over it.  It reared up and its head ended up at Sherlock's feet.  Then it got on the bumper and finally slithered off.  Sherlock got in the front seat and refused to get back out on the jump seat.  It is 95 degrees and noonish so it is really hot.  He put on his jacket and sat in the seat and shivered and shook all the way back to camp.  We never saw him after that and he was finally sent back to Maun.  I don't know if he will ever come back.  So when people asked what happened to you today at the evening campfire, Jon and I won hands down.  We almost ran over a lion and were attacked by a charging elephant and a Black Mamba and caused the tracker to have a nervous breakdown.  I was hoping there was no message in this.  Oh we did get stuck on the evening drive but that seemed minor.

Kwara Camp and the Okavango Delta

Kwara is located on the permanent water of the Okavango Delta in another of Kwando's private concessions.  This is the oldest of their camps and due to be torn down soon, so tents and facilities are not as glamorous as they had been at Lebala.  The primary reason for coming here was to see the delta.  This is a world heritage site and a world treasure.  The UN has actively protected this area for example when neighboring Namibi tried to dam the river that would cause it to dry up, they were stopped.  The headwater of the river is in Angola and then it dissapears underground to rise again here in the middle of the Kalahari Desert.  It is a pristine wilderness and Botswana works hard to keep it so.  Subscribing to less tourists but more high dollar tourists. 

                                   A day at Kwara

                                              
                                                                   Sunrise

                                                       Spot some giraffes

                           Navigate through water up to floorboards.

                                                                Bridge to cross

  Tsessebbe the fastest antelope in Africa.  Look at those shoulder muscles.

Small jackel.  Family group Male, female and young one.

                                                
                                                                     The King

   
     This rather large impressive lion treated us to a really interesting scene.  After about 20 minutes of posing and showing off he got up and "called" the rest of the pride.  That is the sort of sound that sends shivers to your toes.  He then got up and started a slow and liesurely walk down the center of the huge meadow headed back to the pride.  We followed sometimes only 10 feet behind as he padded majestically along, like members of his entourage.  In case anyone didn't believe he is king we had only to look to the right and the left. The meadow is full of impala, giraffe, tsessebbe, wildebeast, even elephant with all eyes glued on the big male.  It was a silent impressive march and he was oblivous to it all, as was his due.  He had no one to fear.

                                            Back at camp for evening fire pit.

                                                                                                             
                                                                     Our tent

Jon and I somehow got the honeymoon suite and had a bath tub.  The water here is died umber colored from the reeds.  It is very pure but this is what a bubble bath looked like.  Cappucino bath.

                            Okavango Cruise

A river of glass twisting and turning through the reed lined banks, flowering with feathery papyrus, bullrushes and everywhere water lilies, lavender, white, and yellow night lilies. Water pure and unpolluted, the color of fine aged cognac, carving a path and filling large lagoons.  We are the only boat in this huge wilderness.

The boat.  The top is the viewing deck so we all head up there when the boat stops.  That enables to view the tree tops.

Oops, the motor failed so we are tied by a little string to a small weed.  By now KB has learned crowd control and he breaks out the bar. It takes Issa about 15 minutes to fix the motor and then we are on our way to the bird sanctuary. 

 

   Sometimes being here at the wrong time has its advantages.  When the storks are nesting, this area is filled with boats.  There are thousands of birds to the point where there is a noticable stench and lots of big crocs waiting for the baby maribou to fall out of their nests.  Instead we are the only boat. No stench, no crocs and enough birds dancing in the tree tops to create magic.  That plus the utter tranquility of the setting makes this an unforgetable time. We are all caught up in the privlege of being in this moment. 

                                        
                                      Boat top sundowners

         We fly back in the darkening night, shooting across the water.

                                                     Birds

Ground Hornbill, a very endangered species due mostly to the fact they mate for life and then only have a chick about every 5 years.  We saw a lot of them and just seconds after Jon took this the 4 of them flew up and wheeled a few feet above our heads.  Huge wingspan and wide bands of white on underside.

Pretty Rollars are common but always colorful.

                                                      Cranes and Storks

                                                            Fish Eagle
    We saw dozens.  They are a very large bird and dramatic in flight. This one had a fish so it didn't fly away.

 There are many types of bee-eaters.  The one we saw the most of was the carmine bee-eater.  In the evening as the light faded, the huge herds of elephants would graze through the grass stirring up insects.  Flashing among them were scarlet streaks, dancing through the air, as the bee-eaters gobbled up the feast. 

                                           The lion family, next generation

                                The babies.  About 7 months old.

                                 They all heard parents calling.

                                              Family Reunion

  

Pregnant giraffe and another eating dirt to replenish their minerals. Animal vitamin supplements.

                     Last night and staff gives us a farewell concert.

                           That's our own KB doing the solo.

                      The honeymoon suite. Bags are packed.

Boys and their toys.  This is the elephant gun used by guides for game walks.

                                 First class lounge at Shindi International airport

Time for goodby.  We are thankful we came here at the "wrong" time of the year and saw the earth lush and green, full flowering.  The sky rumbling and spilling water to replenish life and throwing rainbows on our path.

This fragile bit of wilderness is considered the most pristine in the world.  Much as it was millions of years ago when humans first emerged from Africa and began the trek to over-run the earth.  Everywhere man went, they harvested, took, destroyed and altered the world. Until today the earth is groaning and faltering under the strain of the ravages of 7 billion humans.
Here in the Kalahari is this fragile gem.  Not an easy place to visit, but those with the commitment and drive to make the journey receive a precious gift.  Not one that can be worn or displayed but resides within.  The knowlege that we came and we saw and hopefully we begin to understand.

This safari trip was arranged with the help of Bert Du Pleissis of Houston and he was right on with all his advice and what he told us to expect.  I would gladly endorse his services.  Fisheagle Safaris

exafrica@aol.com

http://www.fisheaglesafaris.com/

1 800 513 5222

1-713-467-5222