The Last Day – Elephant Camp & Victoria Falls

When we got the notice from Delta this morning saying that it was time to check in, there was no denying it, the trip was nearly over. Having said that, however, we had no idea what great experiences awaited us this final day.

We first enjoyed a lovely breakfast overlooking the grounds of this beautiful hotel. I promised some photos of the Victoria Falls Hotel, so here they are:

After breakfast, our group boarded two small coaches and headed for the Elephant Camp. This is a small preserve run by a group call Wild Horizons. Elephant Camp provides a secure environment for rescued Elephants. These are elephants that were left without a herd at a young age and who would not have survived on their own. They now have 17 elephants organized into two distinct herds.

Before we visited the elephants, we had an exciting surprise. We got to meet Sylvester, a Cheetah-Ambassador who interacts with the public to raise awareness of their peril as a species and the challenges they face being on the endangered species list.  Sylvester was the only surviving cub in a Cheetah family that was slain by a male lion. Only two days old, he was discovered by a game scout named Sylvester (hence his name), who took him to a human family. Because he was so young, raising him was a struggle, but he survived. The Victoria Falls Wildlife Trust supports Sylvester and ‘employs’ him as an ambassador. He can’t be released into the wild because he never learned the skills needed to survive. Groups like ours and school groups get to meet and visit with Sylvester. He has bonded with his human handlers and even though he is allowed to roam the Elephant Camp acreage, he always returns to the base camp. He instinctively knows how to chase and catch game, but he doesn’t know how to kill since he had no Cheetah family to teach him that skill, so he just releases them.

Next, about a dozen of the elephants were brought to the lodge and we got to visit with them. Their hide is thick and rough but they seemed to like being petted. After spending time with them from the deck of the lodge, we moved to a ground level area where we were allowed to feed them special food pellets. They know two commands. On the command ‘Trunk Down,’ they extend their trunk with the end pointed up and you place a double handful of pellets into the end of the trunk that they quickly transfer into their mouths. On the command ‘Trunk Up,” they raise their trunk high and open their mouths wide and you toss the handful of pellets directly into their mouths. After snack time with us, they raised their trunks in salute and them ambled off into the bush. What an awesome experience!

After lunch in the Elephant Camp lodge, we boarded our busses and headed for The Falls. Victoria Falls is actually a series of waterfalls covering about a distance of about a mile. There is a trail opposite the falls with 16 viewing areas along the way.  The enormous volume of water creates so much spray that it seems to be raining at most of the observation areas. We were told to prepare to get wet, and get wet we did, except for the Lady who declared that getting wet was not on her agenda. She viewed this wonder of the world from under a poncho and emerged at the end of the walk quite dry.

At some of the observation points, the Falls were totally invisible due to the spray. Fortunately, there were enough areas that were clear enough for some great photographs.

Our afternoon ended with High Tea on Stanley’s Terrance at the hotel followed closely by our farewell dinner in the hotel’s main dining room. Throughout dinner we shared stories of the things we had enjoyed most on the trip. These tours always seem to result in finding new friends who enjoy travel and love to share their experiences. So now we have new friends from Cairo, Egypt and Melbourne, Australia as well as DC, Kansas, Indiana, Ohio, Maryland and New York.

Tomorrow morning we head to Victoria Falls Airport and make our way back home via Johannesburg and Paris. I hope you have enjoyed coming along with us as much as I have enjoyed writing and sharing our experiences with you.

Let’s do it again next year!

A Change of Countries

We left South Africa today for a trip to Victoria Falls, which is in Zimbabwe. We learned that travel days such as today follow the maxim that since things can go really wrong, you might as well plan for it. To that end we left our hotel at 7:30 am for the 30-minute ride to the airport. We arrived at the airport at 8:00 am for our flight scheduled to depart at 11:00 am. The travel gods were with us and we had checked-in and made it through passport control and security by 8:30 am -- plenty of time for a one last visit to the “Out of Africa” store. We were on such a positive roll that we were a bit surprised when our flight was delayed. So, things did go wrong, but only mildly so – the delay was only 15 minutes. My amazement at international air transport continued based on the fact that the entire plane was served a hot meal (though simple) during the hour and a half flight.

It was a travel day of contrasts. The airport in Johannesburg is large and modern. The airport in Zimbabwe is small and worn. When we arrived, our plane parked on the tarmac a hundred yards or so from the ‘terminal.’ We climbed down the stairs and then lined up outside the building to await customs and immigration processing. When we finally had our turn to enter the building, our passports were scrutinized and our photograph was taken. It’s the only airport I’ve every visited where they x-ray your luggage before they allow you to leave the airport.

We are staying at The Victoria Falls Hotel, an Edwardian-style, 5-star hotel built in 1904. It fairly reeks of the British Royal Empire. I’ll share some photos in tomorrow’s edition.

We dropped our bags off in the room and headed back to the bus. Next on the schedule was a sunset cruise on the Zambezi River. Since a rainstorm had passed through earlier in the afternoon, the sky was full of puffy white clouds and the river possessed a cool breeze.  

During the cruise, a local teacher told us the remarkable story of David Livingston, the first European to see the Falls. He immediately named them for his Queen, Victoria. A trained physician and ordained minister, Livingston spent his life trying to figure out a way to bring Christianity to the natives and to open up Africa to commerce. Toward the end of his life, he became aware of the east African slave trade and spent his final days trying to secure enough evidence help end the evil practice. He died in this quest, but his friend, Henry Morton Stanley was able to present Livingston's evidence to the British government. The weight of Livingston’s reputation led to the British and Americans abolishing the slave trade in those two countries in the 1830’s.

Stanley, you might recall, was sent from America on a mission to find Livingston who had not been heard from in almost five years. On finding him somewhat by accident, Stanley was so awed at the meeting that all he could say was, “Dr. Livingston, I presume?”

It was quite magical to hear the story as we cruised along the very river where Livingston worked.

Tomorrow, we visit the Falls.

Our visit in Johannesburg

Johannesburg is a big city. In fact, it is the second largest city on the continent of Africa behind Cairo, Egypt.  The city has changed significantly since the fall of apartheid, not all for the better. Desperately poor job seekers from all over Africa overran the once thriving central business district when Nelson Mandela’s government opened South Africa’s borders. This influx forced the more affluent people out of the city and into a series of suburbs that are thriving today. We are staying in one of those suburbs, Sandton. Now, 20 years after the end of apartheid, the city is continuing to recover.

We first paid a visit to the home where Nelson Mandela lived after he was freed from prison. The street in front of the home is somewhat of a shrine. There are a series of small planters along the curb where visitors, pilgrims really, can place a stone in Mandela’s memory. Many of the stones have messages written on them. Although many people participated in the struggle for freedom, Mandela is revered above all for his sacrifice and compassion.

Today was a day of history lessons. Although most of us lived through the period of upheaval in South Africa, there was no way we could fully understand what was happening by observing from far-away America.

We were confronted by that awful history by visiting the Apartheid Museum. As a stark reminder of what blacks had to endure, tickets to the museum divided our tour group into white and non-white. Our initial foray inside kept the two groups completely separated.

Apartheid lasted from 1948 until 1994 and the white minority subjected the black majority to economic and cultural repression the likes of which are hard to imagine. The government also exploited poor whites as well but not to the same degree as blacks. The museum showcases that repression in all its indignity and brutality. I stood aghast watching video clips of some of the white leaders blithely expressing their justifications for this institutional cruelty.

We also visited the site of another tragedy that caught the attention of the world and help start the pressure building that ultimately resulted in the dismantling of apartheid. On June 16, 1976, thirteen-year-old Hector Peterson was shot and killed by police when a peaceful protest by school children escalated into violence. We met Hector’s older sister, Antoinette Sithole pictured above, who described the events she experienced that day. Antoinette later posed beside a famous photo showing her running beside a man carrying her dead brother. We were touched to relive the tragic dimensions of this struggle in the simple story of a brother and sister caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. 

Both white and black South African leaders realized that the county would ultimately descend into anarchy and civil war if they did not do something. This led to negotiations to rescind Apartheid laws and release all the political prisoners. It was in the next elections that power peacefully changed hands from the white minority to the black majority. 

We visited the famous Soweto Township where much of the black activism took place and had lunch in a small family owned restaurant.  We met the owner and his family and enjoyed food not terribly different than what we all cook and eat at home.  

On a lighter note, after returning to our hotel, we set out to help support the South African economy with some retail therapy by the Lady who is slowly, but surely, completing her souvenir and gift buying tasks. Our hotel is directly connected to one of the largest shopping malls this side of Mars. It has four levels with mazes of asymmetrical corridors that sprawl across acres and acres in this part of town. 

The Lady wanted to find stores that sold distinctive Africa-themed items. Having been significantly intimidated by the skills of our trackers on safari, I regained a bit of confidence as I consulted the Mall map and skillfully negotiated the twists, turns and up and down escalators to guide my shopping party to the desired locations – AND – brought them safely home again.   

We saw all manner of knicks & knacks, none particularly dangerous, but certainly the Big Five: scarves, necklaces, wood carvings, ceramics and beaded items. You might lose me in the Bush, but don’t try and ditch me in the Mall. Just call me Malltracker Jim.

On Safari with the Grants – Day 5 – The Last Day

Photo above: (L-R) Tracker, Candy; Ranger, Michelle; Jim, Jennifer, Bert, Denise
and Betsy. Our safari adventure came to an end today with our 8^th and final game drive. It still occurred at an annoying 6 am but we saw some great animals to wind up this part of the trip.

We first visited two Rhinoceroses, who, by the way, were still sleeping. Just like the lions earlier in the trip, these Rhinos had looks that said, “Hey, we are sleeping here, you should be too.” We also passed the herd of Cape Buffalo we saw yesterday and most of them were still asleep. I think I’m seeing a pattern here.

We spied a couple of wart hogs in a field and they eyed us warily. These are some of the ugliest creatures you will ever see on safari.

But then we experienced one of our coolest sightings of the trip. One of the other groups had discovered a Cheetah and had followed it for a while until it decided to rest. Our Ranger got the location, and we motored quickly to the scene. Here was this beautiful animal stretched out in the shade surrounded by a gaggle of Range Rovers full of safari-ites snapping away. Appearing as though he had not a care in the world, Mr. Cheetah seemed to enjoy the attention he was getting. We were told that Cheetah sightings are very rare, and we were uncommonly lucky to have seen this one. That’s a yes.

In total, we spent twenty four hours on game drives over four days and our list of sighting included all of the Big 5: Elephant, Lion, Buffalo, Leopard, & White Rhinoceros. They are called the Big 5 because they are the most dangerous animals to hunt on foot.

Of course, our sightings included quite a few more interesting animals like the Giraffe, Hippopotamus, Wild Dog, Impala, and more.

I estimated that we drove fifteen to twenty miles on each game drive. What impressed me was how widely separated most of the sightings were. Yes, we did have that day were we saw both a herd of Cape Buffalo and a small herd of Zebra together, but, most of the time we had to drive many miles between sightings. It’s hard to explain the vastness of the game preserve we were in.

It’s also difficult to explain the relative danger we faced. Certainly, we felt safe in the Range Rovers although there were a couple of times when animals approached close enough to make us nervous.

However, you know you are not at the Atlanta Marriott when you are told that you must be escorted from the main lodge to your room anytime after dark, because there are animals roaming the compound that can seriously injure you. It’s down-right scary to think that you could become just another tasty morsel.

The other impressive sensory experience we had was the almost total quiet while out in the bush. The only other thing I can think of that comes even close is the lack of noise after a snowfall. The world without the noise pollution we experience every day is lovely and peaceful to the soul.

With all the other news, I failed to mention another geeky experience I had wished for. This was our second trip into the Southern Hemisphere, and I really wanted to see the constellation, the Southern Cross. These four stars are the navigation and star gazing equivalent of the Little Dipper and North Star in the Northern Hemisphere.  Well, Wednesday night as we were ending our game drive it was dark,  and the sky was clear so we could clearly see the Southern Cross. It doesn’t take much to make this South Georgia boy happy.

I am ready to pronounce that this safari thing is a great thing. It was fun, exciting, a little scary, educational, inspiring and, at times, awesome. If you ever have the opportunity to do something like this, go for it. I can almost guarantee that you will enjoy it.

We are now in the city of Johannesburg and will be here for a couple of days. I didn’t have to be escorted to my room, and the noise of the modern world is back within earshot. Tomorrow includes a city tour and a visit to Soweto. Stay tuned..

On Safari With the Grants – Day 4

If you had told me that sometime during my Safari experience that I would have participated in a dung-spitting contest, I would have called you a bad name. The things one does on vacation in the name of cultural awareness. I’ll explain in a moment.

Once again our first game drive started at 6am. This morning was quite chilly, rivaling the typical Fall weather we have in Atlanta.

Our first sighting was a magnificent Rhinoceros, a solitary male. That was quickly followed by beautiful Water Buck and Impala.

After a quick coffee break along side the Sabi Sabi airstrip we encountered the lion sisterhood lounging in the long grass of the bush.

After lunch we participated in a special bush walk. Our Ranger, Michelle, and Tracker, Candy, took us about 20 minutes from the lodge to a large open area bordered with typical dense bush. You know this is a serious activity when the Ranger takes out her rifle and loads it before the walk begins. We were briefed on what to do if an animal approached the group and then we were off, carefully scanning left, right, forward and back as we went.

It is quite remarkable how vulnerable you feel when you get out of those large Range Rovers and view the bush at ground level. It’s not quite as much fun when you are the prey. We walked around and through the area for about an hour and were observed for a while by a Wilderbeest. We also saw a side striped jackal, which was unusual because they are nocturnal animals. We came across a small herd of Kudo and observed them from a distance for a bit.

It was during this walk that Michelle explained that the native Dutch farmers would organize special game days including elephant dung tossing and other non-Olympic events. One favorite was dung spitting. It is accomplished by placing a bean sized piece of Impala dung in ones mouth, running up to a line and spitting the said item as far as possible. Longest distance wins. Picking up a couple of Impala beans off the ground (see photo above), Michelle and Candy demonstrated and then offered us the opportunity to try. I’m not sure what got into us, but Betsy and I took up the challenge. Bert and the Lady looked on in amusement. I won on distance but Betsy had the best technique.

The evening game drive turned out to be extraordinary. We were able to observe a herd of Cape Buffalo numbering well over 200. It looked like a wild west cattle drive. Soon after that we found a small heard of Zebra. That was followed in quick succession by four elephants and a journey of seven Giraffes.

If that wasn’t enough we closed out the evening closely following a leopard for about 40 minutes as she moved about the area on a hunt.

All in all it was a terrific day. Tomorrow after one final morning game drive, we head back to civilization in Johannesburg. I hope you will join us.

On Safari With the Grants – Day 3

I must admit that this morning I started the day disappointed. Both last night’s and this morning’s game drives were definitely low yield. It’s like cruising up and down that street in your town to see or be seen and accomplishing neither. All we managed to see in addition to those darn sleeping lions again were a bunch of impala. Not a Corvette, Caprice or Malibu in sight, just Impala. (I apologize, I just had to do that one.)

But, today was change of venue day. We moved from the Lion Sands Game Reserve concession that is inside Kruger National Park to a private game reserve outside the Park called Sabi Sabi. The one major advantage of being in a private reserve is that the vehicles can go off-road which is not allowed in Kruger. More about that later.

We left Lion Sands about 11 am and arrived at Sabi Sabi just before noon. You know what that means – more food. The problem with all this food is that it is very good. Beautiful fruits, great vegetables and tasty meats. It is difficult to pass it up. One of our travel mates, Janet Muggy, told me this evening that we are now all members of the NSU Club. That’s Next Size Up. Thanks for pointing that out Janet.

After lunch we were treated to a lecture about the leopards in Sabi Sabi. There are about a dozen named individuals that are well known and that we might see while we are here. We learned that leopards are quite territorial and that males will fight each other for territory.

At 4 pm we climbed into our vehicles and were off for the afternoon/evening game drive. Our Ranger, Michelle, headed out and, guess what, the first animals we saw -- impala. I thought, here we go again. But a few minutes later, the sharp-eyed Lady who shares my suite spotted an elephant. We were quite excited since we never finished our elephant viewing yesterday because of the rain.

Before we could make our way over for a closer look, Michelle told us that if we wouldn’t mind waiting on the elephants, she had a surprise for us. We drove for another fifteen minutes and went off-road, entering a deep ravine with a dry riverbed at the bottom. We pulled along the side of the ravine and stopped and she pointed at an area in the distance where we could just barely see the face of a leopard. Within moments the leopard moved and we lost it. The hunt was on. Since we couldn’t get any closer there, we moved out to the top of the ravine and traveled along to see if we could get a better vantage point. That didn’t work either, but Michelle would not give up.

She drove back down into the ravine but this time she headed into the dry river bed that is filled with deep coarse difficult to navigate sand. Several time it looked like we might get stuck. Using her awesome driving skills, she pressed on. After driving about ¼ mile, she stopped and our tracker, Candy, got off his perch and walked forward about 50 feet. The next thing I noticed was that he was walking backwards to the Rover. Michelle inched the vehicle forward and then stopped. There on our right about four feet above the river bed on the bank lay this most incredible beautiful leopard, only about 20 feet away from us. From markings on the leopard’s mouth, Michelle was able to identify her as “Warthog Wallow,” a female who had just recently separated from one of her cubs. We sat and watched her for about fifteen minutes until she just got up and walked away. It was an amazing experience.

Our next amazing experience was getting back out of the ravine. The sandy river bottoms tried several times to capture us. We could not get enough traction to leave the steep side of the ravine where we entered. Finally, we had to ride further down the ravine to find a way out. It was a most adrenaline-fueled exit. This is truly off-roading.

Back up top we headed down another road and encountered a pack of Wild Dogs. We followed them into an open field and discovered a small herd of Wildebeest AND two Zebra. We watched the Wild Dogs interacting with the Zebra and Wildebeest until they all scattered. It was quite spectacular.

Figuring we had probably seen about as much as we could possibly take in for one day, we continued cruising around as the light faded. All of a sudden in front of us were two male White Rhinoceroses, just ambling along.

We stopped and observed these massive animals from only about 20 yards away.

By now, it was completely dark and our tracker began to use a spotlight to seek out nocturnal animals. On our other night rides we had not seen anything. Tonight, though, was different. Candy spotted a pair of Side Stripped Jackals, small omnivores that are about the size of a small dog. We watched as they foraged for food.

And that was it. What an incredible game drive!

Back at our lodge, we enjoyed a dinner with our Ranger and relished in our success. Now it’s off to bed to await that stirring 5:30 am wakeup call.

What will tomorrow bring?

On Safari with the Grants – Day 2

There is just something disturbing about arising out of a perfectly good bed at 5:30 in the morning. I mean, really, this is a vacation? But for those of you who know the Lady that brooks no relaxing on vacation, all this makes perfect sense.

So, by just a tad past 6 am, we were plunging once again through the bush of the Kruger National Forest on the look out for elusive big game.

As you can see from this picture taken in the afternoon, we had Chris out front on the tracker seat, Ishmael in the driver's seat and the rest of us displayed like tiered prizes.

In less than 10 minutes we came upon a pride of lions, which were a lot smarter than us because they were all still asleep. So asleep that neither the truck noise, the camera clicks nor the oohs and aahs disturbed them in the slightest. The pride consisted of one female and three males of varying ages. We were sitting in the tuck about 10 feet from the sleeping beauties. At one point, the female raised her head and opened her eyes and carefully took us all in as if to say, “You people are crazy, you should be in bed.” I couldn’t agree more. She then laid her head back down and snoozed away. We came across the same pride during our afternoon drive and guess what? They were still sleeping. I think I might make a good lion.

We next came upon one of our groups whose Range Rover had broken down. It seems that their tie-rod had decided to take a holiday and that was that. We took two of their group with us and another truck came to pick up the rest. We were told that 1-800-RangeRover had been contacted and would be making a bush call.

As we pressed on, the sky was becoming increasingly threatening. The weather report was calling for 50% chance of rain and those chances were looking good. But then we found the elephants. They were munching everything in site along the boundary of an area where transferred animals are kept in quarantine before being allowed into Kruger. As we sat only about 20 yards away and watched the elephants and they watched us, that 50% chance of rain became 100% and we scrambled for the ponchos thankfully stored in our truck. It was a like a South Georgia thunderstorm without the thunder.

Since we could hardly see through the pouring rain, we headed back to the lodge to do what we seem to do best: eat. I’m still trying to work this out, but what I believe is at work here is a cultural thing. South Africans are well acquainted with how ferocious and dangerous hungry animals can be. Since we North Americans are as curious and unknown as the local animals, they constantly feed us to keep us docile. Hey, don’t argue with something that works.

After breakfast, one of the rangers presented an interesting lecture on elephants. Not to be indelicate but I’ve been wondering why we seem to see elephant poop everywhere  -- and lots of it  -- and I found out. Elephants only digest about 40% of what they eat, so they have to eat a lot to maintain those stout figures. But that’s also why they poop a lot. My neighborhood association would not like having any pet elephants around.

We actually had a bit of a break between breakfast and lunch so the Lady and I headed back to our little cabin in the woods, she to tackle a tsunami of email and me to nap. I think I got about 10 minutes of napping done before it sounded like the attack of the vengeful gods on our roof. Turns out it was only a couple of monkeys running around. As you might have deduced,  sleep is not a big priority on safari.

The rain passed on through and we were able to head out for our evening game drive. While we did see the lions again, this time laying out in the middle of the road, the remaining game must have been attending meetings because they were nowhere to be seen. That’s the way these drives sometimes go.

However, during our Sundowner (the safari name for happy hour) we did see a Rhinoceros about a quarter mile away approaching the river. We continued to drive around for about an hour after sunset but now it seems all the animals had headed for the bar or their night meetings.

So, guess what we did? We went back to the lodge and ate. See, you are catching onto the safari thing. Well, tomorrow is another day, Scarlet, and that means early wake up. We have one more game drive in this location and then we head for a private game reserve later in the morning.

It's going to be interesting to see which one of us gets fed to the animals tomorrow. I didn't eat all of my desert tonight, hoping that will diminish my chances. Wish me luck.

On Safari with the Grants - Day 1

After a 2 &1/2 hour flight from Cape Town to the Kruger National Park, we are officially on safari.

We landed at a precious little airport with only one runway, no taxiways and a terminal building with no gates, only a door. Our camp, Narina, was about a 20-minute drive from the airport.

A full four-course lunch was awaiting us and we finished it just in time for afternoon tea, owing to the one-hour delay this morning leaving Cape Town. Every time we slow down a bit, someone puts a plate in our hands. I’ve come to the conclusion that we are being fattened, and will later be fed to the animals we’ve come to see.

About 4:30, we climbed (and I do mean climbed) into our open-air, specially constructed Range Rovers for our first game drive. Ishmael, our driver, and Chris, our tracker, then proceeded to drive us all over this part of Africa looking for animals. It’s a complicated game of hide and seek. The animals hide and we seek them. Our group is divided into two camps and a total of 4 Range Rovers. The drivers communicate back and forth when something is spotted and we take turns heading in that direction.

Betsy was the first to spot an animal, a Giraffe, which was about 50 yards off the road. Later we rounded a tight turn to fine another Giraffe standing right next to the road. Talk about up close and personal!

We next saw a pack of wild dogs, a somewhat rare sighting. We then came upon a small herd of impala.  In quick succession we saw a hippo, several cape buffalo and more impala. In most cases, the driver was able to pull up unnervingly close to these creatures.

At full-on dusk, our driver pulled into a small clearing and declared that we had a flat tire. It didn’t look flat to me, but what do I know? Things became much clearer when he and Chris laid a tablecloth on the radiator guard and pulled out an assortment of cocktail making materials. Nobody told me safari would be like this. After some safari appropriate hors d’oeuvres and a lovely glass of white wine, we were back on the hunt. Chris had a spotlight that he shined back and forth into the bush looking for glowing eyes. Tonight, at least, we did not see any. One group did spot a pride of lions and Ishmael made an attempt to find them to no avail.

After a world-class Braille dinner (under the stars and by kerosene lantern light ), we headed for our safari home. These are right nice digs. It is like a small apartment and quite comfortable.

Not to worry, we are not here long. Wake up is at 5:30 am with the morning game drive starting at 6. Seriously? Can’t we catch the late morning show?

The Lady, who wishes not to miss a thing, is telling me to wrap this up and get to bed. So, I shall.