Victoria Falls
First stop
on the story of my African adventure - two days on my own before the group
joins me, as a chance to recover from jet lag and begin to cope with the
culture shock of being in Africa. My starting point is Victoria Falls town, the base, obviously, for seeing the magnificent Falls, in a far western corner of Zimbabwe, close to Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Angola. In some ways it is not typical of Zimbabwe, as the tourist dollars bring some level of survival economy to the town, but the first
lesson is in the economics of the country where the local currency collapsed
completely about eight years ago so the American dollar has become the unit of
currency. Fascinating how the world, which can be quite anti-American at times,
still regards the US$ as a universal means of trade.
Anyway, despite adopting the US$, its value seems to be applied rather arbitrarily. My taxi from the airport to the hotel - about a 20 min trip - was variously quoted as $50, $30 and$14. No prizes for which one I took, and it was my own six-seater mini-van operated by one of the two big companies in town. This seems to be a bit of a pattern - my hotel, quite nice, but no more than 3-star,
Anyway, despite adopting the US$, its value seems to be applied rather arbitrarily. My taxi from the airport to the hotel - about a 20 min trip - was variously quoted as $50, $30 and$14. No prizes for which one I took, and it was my own six-seater mini-van operated by one of the two big companies in town. This seems to be a bit of a pattern - my hotel, quite nice, but no more than 3-star,
cost 50% more than the
5-star de luxe hotel I had in Macau the previous week. Opinions on the overall
state of the economy by the locals seem to vary depending on their support or
otherwise of Mugabe.
However, the
main reason for being there, the Falls, absolutely do not disappoint. I had a
gradual introduction to them, beginning with a sunset cruise on the Zambezi,
from which the curtain of spray thrown up in the air could be seen in the
distance over the river. The cruise itself was lovely, with exquisite canapés
and unlimited cocktails!
Great intro! The other guests were an interesting mix,
with a French couple to subject to my garbled grammar, an ex-pat
American/English couple from Munich, a native Zimbabwean European couple,
clearly very affluent, English public school accented and well- travelled, and
two young American women who gave me great tips for the next day. Hippos were
there, popping up from reed banks for our amusement
and the first of my great
African sunsets got my camera finger clicking frantically. Beautiful ......
The next
morning came my second stage of Falls intro with a helicopter flight over the
majestic natural wonder that counts as one of my remember-forever moments. From
the air is probably the only way to comprehend the tremendous scope of the
falls, as later from the ground we could only see sections at a time.
We had 15
minutes of swooping from one side to the other and over the islands in the
river above, with me gasping and ooooohing at regular intervals. The enormous
size of the thundering water, falling cascades, clouds of spray and
accompanying rainbows was just astonishing.
My first-ever helicopter flight has
certainly set a rather elevated benchmark! Also it is a lesson on when it is
essential to spend a little bit of money for those unrepeatable experiences.
And less than the price of a pair of shoes.
Later in the
morning I set off on a personal walking tour of the little town following the
tips from my dinner companions of the previous evening. First stop was Kingdom
Resort, a beautiful African-style hotel
that seemed rather bereft of clients to
appreciate its great architecture and lush grounds. Then on to the Grand
Old Lady of the town, the Victoria Falls Hotel.
It is a lovely gracious
place of old colonial style with a magnificent terrace looking out over the
gorge below the Falls, and up towards the bridge across the Zambezi to Zambia.
Quite a charming place, though I have been told some of the rooms are a little
tired. Personally, I prefer a bit of faded grandeur to modern gloss.
From there I
followed the path towards the Falls, through parkland, and past many recent
elephant droppings. A side track led to the Lookout Cafe on the edge of the
gorge over the Zambezi with the most breath-taking view plus great food, and
cheap and tasty Zambezi beer - brilliant combination!
That evening
the first of the remaining tour group arrived, Irene Huntley, so she and I
shared a delicious dinner at a local cafe. Warthogs wandering the main street
seems to be the norm......
The following morning, prior to the main group's
arrival, I led her on a version of my previous day's walk, then we awaited our
fellow travellers. These poor people, many of whom were 30 hours into their
trip from New Zealand, were then hustled on to our foot tour of the Falls.
This was my
third stage of Falls magic as we walked the 1.5 km path along past the various
viewpoints for our up-close-and-personal experience of this natural wonder. The
closeness of it all with the drumming sound-track and sheets of drenching spray
was magnificent - quite different from the helicopter trip, but brilliant in
its own way.
The hotel
dinner was a "wild foods" menu, with crocodile - like chicken,
warthog - like pork, and Impala mince- like venison. Some spicy insect larvae
did defeat me however as I snuck off to the side to deposit the half-chewed
remains in the garden.
The
following day I played tour guide to lead many of the group on a re-run of my
"hotels and cafe" tour, then we walked over the Victoria Falls Bridge
to the Zambian side,
alongside an almost unmoving trail of transport trucks for
my fourth version of views of the Falls. Along the way across the bridge I
finally succumbed to the pleas of one of the many overly-intrusive hawkers who
infest the town to buy some wooden animal salad servers - so perhaps there is
some method in their maddening sales pitches! More beautiful vistas from the
bridge, especially rainbows. Each perspective is different and wonderful. Lunch
(with good local Zambian beer) at a pleasant Zambian cafe finished the tour
then it was back to the hotel to prepare for our Zambezi dinner cruise.
It was
a bit of a repetition of my earlier cruise but still lovely, with yet another
burst of sunset photos.
Up early the
next morning and onto our bus for Botswana to begin the next stage of our
adventure. What a marvellous beginning!
Botswana Begins: Chobe
The road
trip from Vic Falls to Chobe was only a few hours - past an enormous
line-up of trucks waiting to cross the border (the drivers abandon them as the
wait is so long - presumably they return periodically to shunt them forward) as
we settled into our Chobe Hotel to prepare for the afternoon Chobe River
cruise. This was the first of our game-viewing opportunities, and was a lesson
to me that this is not like visiting a zoo - patience is needed as the animals
are not programmed to appear every five minutes around the next turn. There may
be nothing for 5-30 minutes, then elephants, hippo and baboons can appear a few
minutes apart.
We had a
wonderful array of wild-life at various stages of the cruise: a herd of
elephants grazing on the long grass of an island,
crowds of hippos swimming and
lazing on the bank,
families of baboons of all sizes,
sleepy (thankfully)
crocodiles,
more elephants wandering the shoreline,
monkeys in various places
plus the ubiquitous impala,
buffalo sampling the waters,
and also a huge display of different bird life on
the reed banks.
The
following morning we loaded early onto open nine-person game vehicles
and took
off into the park for a different land-based perspective. Impalas again were
the first animals we met but very soon came the magnificent encounter with two
beautiful lionesses.
They walked calmly within 10ft of our open-sided vehicle,
with me holding my breath in amazement! Quite unbelievable! We were able to
watch these beautiful creatures quietly wandering around us, including one
wearing a tracker collar, then disappearing on their hunting trail,
uninterested in us as potential dinner. Warthogs trotted by,
striped jackals
bounded out of the grass,
hippos wallowed in the riverside mud,
another lioness
loped along in the distance,
a huge herd of Cape Buffalo stared at us,
then a convivial grouping of Impala and baboons were spread on both sides of
our track.
More wonderfulness!
Chobe to Nata: Elephant highway
My
expectation of this was an uneventful drive along a VERY straight 350km road -
instead it was a wonderful elephant drive with many sightings of elephants,
including a quite sizeable herd.
Sadly there was also a dead, partially
butchered elephant across the road from a very squashed truck whose driver may or
may not have survived. Four trees of vultures were poised, waiting for a clear
chance at their dinner.
The Nata
hotel was a lovely African-style lodge with individual kraal-chalets,
undergoing extensive renovation.
A beautiful pool area had potential, but the
filtration system was still doing battle with the local water, making it a
decorative feature rather than a swimming option.
Our room had an interesting
semi-outdoor bath and shower arrangement with maximum ventilation.
Nata to Maun
Another road
morning, this one an opportunity for a snooze rather than sightseeing -
"only two elephants, so not worth waking you up" - how blasé we get,
so quickly....... The afternoon was spent organising our luggage for the
Okavango trip - one small backpack - and booking our helicopter trip. A stop at
a roadside stall resulted in my second souvenir purchase of a rather dramatic
elephant- themed table cloth - more suitcase repacking required!
Amazing Okavango
Another
open-air game vehicle drove us off from the Maun hotel for the next of
our amazing series of animal adventures!
The
helicopter strip was in the countryside, beside a traditional African village,
next to the animal separation fence that divides Botswana into the southern
domestic animal region, and the northern wild animal zone that may have foot
and mouth disease, as does Zimbabwe. The EU insists on this fence for
importation of Botswana beef, but unfortunately it also blocks some traditional
animal migration routes resulting in many dead animals.
Anyway, all
of our group had opted for the helicopter trip, so in groups of three we were
flown out over the Delta region. Rains falling in Angola take six months to
drain down into this region and had just arrived to start filling the channels
and lakes of the area.
Each flight saw a slightly different range of animals,
but from our 22-minute flight we saw a beautiful herd of lazing giraffes,
two
large breeding herds of elephant,
other small elephant groups, many zebra
herds,
a few kudu and Impala, distant hippos,
and a warthog or two. Fantastic!
From here we
loaded back into our open vehicles for the short trip to the mokoro station and
loading onto our little vessels for the trip into the delta.
These narrow
canoes carry two passengers, light luggage, and our skilful poler. Luck shone
upon us as we began, as around the first turn we saw several elephant on the
left shore,
when from out of the reeds to our right about 50m in front of
us came two huge elephants wading across the river!
We sat transfixed as the
beautiful beasts slowly ambled across. Our poler, Alles, the head guide - a 2m
tall ebony statue - propelled us smoothly through narrow reeded channels, wider
waterways and open lagoons for the hour and a half journey to our camp deep inside
the delta.
Three giraffes watched us in one spot,
many birds flew over, and
beautiful water lilies and many grasses and reeds decorated the channels.
Our camp is
a very functional set-up of single and double tents, tightly zippered, each
with a comfy camp bed or two plus a "toilet room" accessed through a
second zip opening with a chemical toilet for night-time use - no nocturnal
wandering permitted for obvious reasons. Daytime loo visits are to an extremely
practical bush toilet with a spade at the beginning of the track as the signal
as to whether the structure is in use or not.
The
afternoon game walk began at 4.30pm and immediately fell into the "Wow,
what am I doing!" category. The game viewing to this point had been in a
truck, from the safety of a boat or from the distance of a helicopter. Suddenly
we were right in the middle of unfenced animal country! Our African guides gave
us a serious talk about the different animals and their attack - or non-attack
- behaviour. Elephant have zones of safety, warning, or flight/fight, which we
must observe! Lions give warning before attack - very thoughtful of them! Cape
Buffalo are the dangerous ones as they attack without warning. Warthogs
generally run away - lucky us!
So off we
set........ Very soon we saw several elephants (10-14) on our left, about 400m
away which APPARENTLY is safe.
However, we then kept walking towards them, in
slow silent single file..... Closer and closer we got as the elephants carried
on walking along the tree line, protecting their babies, dining on passing
branches. Some then stopped to eat while others disappeared into the trees. One
late-comer, a large male, came galloping in from the left, about 200m away.
Apparently this was still safe, but I was feeling a touch wobbly, looking for
means of rapid retreat , which is actually what you are NOT supposed to do, but
however...... We continued to watch the group from our "safe"
distance until they all headed off to wherever they were going. Groups of
giraffe were a peaceful sight after all this nerve-jangling,
plus some warthogs
and impala. Many birds whose names I have yet to learn
(I know guinea fowl,
ibis, hornbill, fish eagle, spoonbill, lilac-chested roller, maribou and a few
others) also entertained us on our trek back to camp. Quite an exciting
expedition, then back to the camp........
The next
morning a 6.30 breakfast had us ready for our early game walk. Giraffes were
spotted early on but so also was the looming back of a Cape Buffalo in the
nearby grass so we headed off in the other direction - Hallelujah! A long trek
through the grassland, interspersed with tracking lessons on animal footprints
and droppings, led us to a wonderful big herd of zebra,
some impala, a few more
warthogs of different sizes - one little one with a lovely spiky ginger mane -
then a big herd of giraffes - a "jenny of giraffes", apparently.
We
spent a long time watching these graceful creatures - and they watched us too -
from as close as about 200m. Then home for a delicious camp-cooked lunch.
Another mokoro trip this afternoon to round off the day - how privileged I am!
To end our mokoro trip, we all line up along the shoreline to view the sunset, then walk quietly back to camp as night falls. Ellen and I stand silently beside our wonderful poler, Alles, as the Okavango darkens.
I am also
becoming rather knowledgeable on items of limited future use - I can tell the
difference between the print of an elephant's front feet (round) and its rear
(oval), whether a Cape Buffalo was ambling or galloping, and whether the
droppings come from an old or a young elephant. So if you ever need to know
about these, I'm your girl! Plus giraffe poo is similar to sheep, only a bit
bigger - very strange........
Okavango to Ghanzi
From our
mokoro in the Okavango we loaded back onto 4WD vehicles back to Maun then onto
our bus for Ghanzi. This is a base for the San Bushmen and we were taken on a
bush walk by a small group who told us stories of their ancient hunting and
gathering culture in their strange clicking language - fortunately with a
translation.
They seemed happy people but their culture is clearly under threat
of extinction as the young prefer the bright lights of the towns to a primitive
lifestyle regardless of how interesting it might be to the tourists.
As promised,
the temperature at night was extremely cold so we have had rather large
fluctuations over a few days - thank the Lord for Icebreaker and
Katmandhu!
Ghanzi to Windhoek
Leaving the
San Bushmen we headed on the road to Windhoek, rather unchanging scenery, to
arrive mid- afternoon for currency changing, washing, and yet more wrestling
with wifi. Windhoek looks a clean, modern town with a pleasant town centre and
a most impressive museum building - built by the Chinese, apparently.
That
evening I had s great dinner at Joe's Beerhouse with some friends of my nephew
Noel and his wife Bronwen: Fran and Sue.
Very interesting to talk with locals
about the ups and downs of life in Namibia. Copper prices are a problem as
their drop has closed the two local mines with resulting unemployment. Great
hospitality, good food and tasty beer - a good night out before on the road to
Etosha in the early morning.
Etosha
The long
road to Etosha took us north from Windhoek through open countryside and a
pleasant rural town ( name escapes me!) with an amazingly well-stocked
supermarket - better than any rural NZ town supermarket I have ever seen -
strange...... We entered Etosha at the eastern gate at about 3.00pm and then
followed a helter skelter race of over 120km of gravel roads through the
park to exit the western gate by the 5.15 pm closing time! Animals went flying
by, a flock of ostriches was a blur beside the bus, our first sighting of rhino was a grey shape,
and the mantra was:
"Don't worry - you'll see it tomorrow!" Well, that was partly true,
but not as far as the ostriches went - never mind , this is Africa and things
can be a little random.
We had
fantastic accommodation nearby on a farm
with Brahmin cows and gorgeous dogs
that I wanted to smuggle home. Early the next morning we were back to the park
for a marathon day of game viewing.
The animals all looked plump and well-fed on the plentiful grasslands
and the waterholes attracted a range of gorgeous creatures.
Jackals and foxes were tricky to photograph as they scurry so quickly, thoughtlessly not waiting until I have got my lens in focus!
In the end our tally of animals viewed was
good, but the hours of driving over rough corrugations was rather
spine-jarring. But then a breeding herd of elephants crosses the road
a herd of wildebeest glare at you,
two springbok lock horns,
Poppa Rhino gives chase after the object of his affections,
or two beautiful
giraffe pose for us,
and it was all worthwhile!
Brandberg and the White Lady
After Etosha
we headed south towards the White Lady Lodge and cave paintings, with a side
trip to the Petrified Forest - amazing million-year-old trees petrified in
various stages of multi-coloured rock formations.
There was
also a very strange and ancient plant which resembled a half-dead agave - a
welwitschia, the examples here being up to a thousand years old, with a 30ft
tap root to access the water far slow the surface of this arid environment.
The late
afternoon saw us arriving at the White Lady lodge - a beautifully-landscaped oasis in the
middle of the desert.
We watched the sunset from a high rock
and the following
morning caught the dawn glow on the surrounding mountains - fabulous!
A delayed breakfast, after an elephant purportedly broke the water pipes to our
chalets!!!!! - led to a morning walk and the treat of a sighting of these rare desert elephants
only a few hundred metres away, chomping on branches as they ambled along in a
stately manner.
Then it was
time for the actual walk to the White Lady, probably a Bushman cave painting at
least 2000 years old. The dry desert air has preserved it amazingly considering
its semi-exposed position. The explorer who found and named was a little
confused, however, as it is actually a black man hunting a variety of animals.
Very interesting. However for me at least as wonderful were the amazing ancient
rock formations we hiked through for two hours - great multi-coloured boulders
of different mineral compositions. Marvellous!
Cape Cross and >80,000 Smelly Seals
Onwards to
the coast we headed north to salt mining area
then to the Cape Cross Seal Colony - site of a Portuguese
landing over 500 years ago, hence the crosses
- and now home to a staggering
number of stinking, honking, slithering, fighting, sleeping, suckling and
basking seals of all sizes from cute little to hulking enormous.
They were less
than a metre away from us as we got as close as our noses would allow, carrying
on their lives with complete disregard for the mere humans clicking their
cameras in all directions. An awesome sight, sound and smell!
Spectacular Sossusvlei and Sesriem!
This has to
be, for me, the Namibian highlight.
After a
night in misty Germanic Swakopmund,
with car guards minding the parking lots and streets (????)
we headed down the coast, and into the sunshine of Walvis Bay, the biggest port on this section of the West African coast. South of Walvis Bay there are miles of resort developments facing the Atlantic Coast - the water seems a trifle chilly for swimming, but it looks good! Flamingoes gather off-shore, and the houses along the promenade would fit nicely into Mount Maunganui.
We headed inland for Sossusvlei - one flat tire in
the middle of nowhere (and I MEAN nowhere) causing a load-off-and-on-the-bus
side-event for the poor drivers,
arriving in the dark at our beautiful lodge,
the Namib Desert Quiver. This consisted of stylish African-style chalets spread
widely across the large desert grounds, an open-air bar overlooking the
swimming pool, and beautiful views of desert and rocky mountainous outcrops.
Yum! Could relax here for quite some time, but relaxation us not quite on our
agenda .......
Dawn saw us
off for a breathtaking day of dune viewing, climbing, and never-ending
photographs! Dawn light brings out the best colours and shades of red, gold,
black and grey set me snapping furiously through the bus windows as dune shape
after amazing shape whizzed by.
Dune 45 (45
km from the entrance gate!) was our first gawping stop so I bravely set out to
climb to the top - quite a challenge on the soft sliding sand ridge that
constituted the "track" to the top.
Nose down, camera sheltered from
the pervasive fine blowing sand, and feet plodding, got me amazingly to the
top. Terrific views and shots taken as quickly as possible to prevent that fine
sand penetrating to where it is renowned for doing nasty damage,
then a faster
but still perilous trek to the bottom. The track is a narrow trodden path about
60cm wide that necessitates upward and downward foot traffic doing a sort of
half-cuddle to pass each other without toppling down one side or the other of
the steep dune sandy face - and the resulting headlong tumble that would seriously
damage the camera equipment, not to mention one's dignity. Probably be
great fun if you could ignore all of that........
Onward to
our next site and sight, we climbed into desert vehicles for the 5km crazy
skidding ride through seriously sandy tracks to Big Daddy Dune, and Dead
Valley. Here started another gawping round, as this dune is even bigger and
quite beyond my climbing possibilities as the dune ridge is three times as long
as Dune 45, and higher again, so ground-level gawping sufficed.
Beside this was
a1km desert track into Dead Valley for views of a dried "dead" pan
area of stark dead trees and salt-type evaporated surface- quite moon-like, if
they had trees on the moon.
Back through more amazing dunes, now looking hazy in the midday light
Sesriem
Canyon was the next stop and yet more wondrous geological formations of a
different type again finished off our last real tour day.
Quite a wonderful and
awesome way to finish our Namibian experiences.....
Tomorrow is
on the road to Windhoek, a farewell dinner, and goodbye to all my great new
friends before my early flight to Cape Town. Wow - what a challenging and
mind-expanding 17 days! Processing all these experiences - and the gazillion
photos - will take some considerable time.
Off to Cape
Town now ........
Cape Town
Lucily the sun shone on my arrival in Cape Town, and Table Mountain stood majestically and clearly over the city - not to be seen that way again for the next five days!
I settled into my hotel near the V&A waterfront - think Viaduct Harbour but bigger, and more shops
- to plan my stay, which turned out to be very weather dependent, with plans changing hourly according to rain, mist, wind or sun - quite like Auckland, in fact.
Table Mountain was closed due to wind and mist, and Robben Island was a must-see, so I headed there the next day in case bad weather made the ferry trip difficult later. The visit, as one would expect, was quite dramatic, as we bussed around the bleak and windswept island - probably good to see it on a grey, drizzly, gloomy day, as those were the conditions that Mandela must have experienced too.
Our guide was a coloured man from Port Elizabeth who spent five years there from the age of 19 for organising a high school protest, so his stories had that extra ring of authenticity.
After this sombre experience it seemed almost wrong to be "going shopping" afterwards, but I had met a young Australian woman on the ferry with whom I shared a taxi out to the Canal Walk Mall - a very glitzy looking modern development in the suburbs. Many, many jewellery stores and gazillions of shops to tempt me to part with my rand. The exchange rate is heavily in the tourists' favour, but I actually managed to keep my purse intact, telling myself all the time, "You have to squash it into the suitcase!"
The following day we met up at Camp's Bay for lunch,
a lovely beach-side suburb, thankfully very quiet on a cool wintry day, but still with a beautiful beach, nice houses against a dramatic mountain backdrop, and many pleasant restaurants. With the weather still dodgy, a Hop-On-Hop-Off bus trip seemed a good option for the following day, so we headed out of the city, with a misty Table Mountain beginning to clear as the morning wore on.
Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens was my first "hop off" and I was lucky to coincide with a free guided walk by an amazing veteran volunteer - the 90-minute walk too 3 1/2 hours - and well worth it too! The gardens were gifted to the nation by Cecil Rhodes, although he is strangely absent from 99% of the information in the garden - there seems to be a very conflicted relationship with him, reconciling his political actions with his various benefactions. The garden is 95% native South African, with a small exception made for significant gifts. A truly beautiful place for its plants,
sculptures
and natural setting.
all with electricity but only a few with running water. There are communal toilets and several community buildings, though everything of any value seems to be padlocked or fenced in.
With Table Mountain still closed, a mini-bus trip to the Cape was my choice for the next day. We drove through beautiful dramatic scenery down the coast, calling in to a penguin colony for a chat and a bit of mongoose-watching
Then - Hallelujah - word is obtained via the bus wifi that Table Mountain is actually open!! A nice young Swedish man, Magnus, books two tickets online for us, and the kind mini-van driver drops us at the bottom of the cable car.
The clouds had cleared, but the sky was still grey, so photos were rather average, but at least I got there! I was afraid my six days would pass without a chance to see the view.
Cape Dutch architecture is retained in some pretty town and winery buildings, and the large monument to the Afrikaans language emphasises the historic connections of this region and its importance in the early days of the Cape.
Africa is a tremendous experience that can only be superficially understood through a trip as brief as this, but I hope my understanding of others' worlds has been enhanced, and my gratitude for my own good fortune of having been born in New Zealand has been suitably reinforced.
