Day 15 Returning Home/Final Post

Late morning departure from Victoria Falls; a 5 hour layover in Johannesburg, then a 15 hour flight back to JFK.  Another 5 hour layover in New York, then continuing on the SFO.  Tomorrow we end up in Eugene, Oregon for Greg’s wedding. 

I am writing this 3 hours out of JFK.  Amazingly, Gloria and I have slept for most of the last 9 hours!  We must be exhausted from the last 2 weeks.  One interesting incident to note; on both of our flights in and out of Johannesburg, they sprayed the cabin with insecticide!  The flight attendants with cans in hand ran down the isles with everyone murmuring.  Not very pleasant for anyone with a few people quite angry.

Final thoughts on South Africa:  A country in transition with a deep history.  So little in this part of the continent had changed for so long until the Age of Exploration.  Then, with colonialism, and the resultant need to conquer and control the people and natural resources by Europeans; stability has given way to a grab for power.  From the Dutch to the British to the Afrikaners/neo Nazis, the tribal people have been exploited, the natural resources plundered. 

Hope for stability does continue to grow, maybe with a light at the end of the tunnel.  Just looking at the bookstores in Johannesburg airport, the shelves are loaded with books concerning conservation and business, (and Nelson Mandela).  One hopes the future for South Africa is bright.  Money and ideas are flowing as never before.  Apartheid is dead, but the results will take a couple more generations to sort out.  They spend 20% of their GDP compared to 7% for the US.  They want a bright future, getting there will be a continual challenge.

Natural resources are abundant.  Now, with the recognition that conservation and management of wildlife is essential, not only as a resource but to attract tourists, we saw groups of trackers in the National Parks, outfitted to deal with poachers.  Indeed, there is a “shoot to kill” order.  If poachers are found, trackers shoot first,  and ask no questions. 

In all four countries we visited, South Africa, Swaziland, Zimbabwe, and Botswana, politics and politicians are corrupt.  Whether it is a democratically elected prime minister or president or a despostic king, power corrupts, absolute power, corrupts absolutely.  I have no answers for that.  We have found that military intervention/invasion doesn’t work.  Perhaps the Peace and Reconciliation route does.  South Africa is a good model for all of Africa if others care to watch.

        

Day 14 Chobe National Park in Botswana

Today was our final game drive.  Border crossing from Zimbabwe to Botswana was uneventful.  However, our guide, Ernest, told us that the cue of large trucks that was as far as the eye could see was for trucks to cross the Zambezi river, from Botswana to Zimbabwe.  They have to take one of two barges that each hold only two trucks.  They cannot cross the Victoria Falls Bridge since it is over 100 years old.   He says that frequently the trucks are in the cue for 1-2 weeks!!  Not real efficient, I would say.

Below is a small number of the 500 photos we took today.  The morning was a cruise on the Chobe River, the afternoon was a game drive in the National Park.  A real variety of new animals today.

 

African Eagle, close cousin to the American Eagle

We probably saw over 50 elephants today, many right next to us.  This guy was a bit different, he like to hold up his right legs, couldn’t figure out why he wasn’t falling over.

These guys rattled around for the longest time.  The one on the left kept picking on the other one.  Pretty  noisy.

Our first jackal.

Our first mongoose.

   

Baboon fight right in front of our jeep.

Another leopard only 30 feet off of the road.  An incredible sight!

Day 13 Victoria Falls

Incredible!  I won’t go into the history of Victoria Falls, just check out David Livingstone in Wikipedia.  Good history here, but better pictures.  This does qualify as one of the 8 wonders of the world.  We are half way thru the highest run off and the lowest of the year.  Plenty of water, and lots of spray and mist.  Sometimes it is so strong that it rains up, other times it rains down.  You are soaked either way.  In fact it is tough getting good pictures due to the spray and wind. 

 

 

     

   

    

Victoria Falls Bridge over the Zambezi River connecting Zimbabwe and Zambia.  Built in 1905.  Below the rainbow is the bungee jumper.

Day 12 Zambezi River

Early flight from Johannesburg to Victoria Falls.  About two thirds of us have continued on this extension, the rest are flying to JFK today.  Our hotel, the Victoria Falls Safari Lodge, is pretty nice.  Our back deck looks over a small water hole, pictures will follow the next few days.  Our activity today was an afternoon-evening cruise on the Zambezi River.  What a show, see photos below.  Tomorrow we go to Victoria Falls.

      

Lots of warthogs and monkeys on the hotel grounds, Gloria got a little too close to this one; he charged her.

      

Onboard our big patio boat for the evening cruise on the Zambezi

      

      

      

We were unclear if these elephants were frolicking or mating.  At one point our guide told us they were male and female, later, he said they were both males.  Hence our confusion.

       

A Yellow Billed Stork

      

       

Six to eight hippopotami were right in front of our boat. 

Day 11 Soweto and the Apartheid Museum

A very interesting day.  Johannesburg has approximately 8 million people, of which 2.5 million live in Soweto.  A “township” or district.  In other-words, where blacks have been moved to in the middle of the 20th century. 

          

Some parts of Johannesburg have been all but abandoned due to gangs and immigrants, primarily from Nigreria.  We drove through, not getting out. Some “civil disobedience” the night before in Soweto, with burned debris and rocks remaining in the road way.

Visiting the excellent Apartheid Museum is similar to visiting a Holocaust Museum without the “Final Solution”.  Indeed, the incubation of apartheid came from Europe in the 30’s and 40’s with South Africa’s prominent thought-leader’s interest in Marxism and Aryanism.  What the Nazi’s were unable to do in the 1940’s in Europe was attempted in South Africa in the 1960’s thru 80’s with the indigenous blacks.  Their interest wasn’t in the blacks elimination, but in the development of a caste system, with the whites in a permanent superior position.

 

    

The election of Nelson Mandela in 1994 to the presidency of South Africa, who had been under a life prison sentence until 1990, was what our guide called a “miracle”.  The country continues to claw back to normalcy. Unemployment is high, and education levels are low.   It has and will be difficult, much work needs to be done, as civil war was narrowly averted.  Nelson Mandela, I think appropriately, is considered South Africa’s Abraham Lincoln.  He is honored and revered everywhere. 

Our guide at Nelson Mandela’s house in Soweto

Posing in front of the Nelson Mandela statue at the Nelson Mandela Shopping Center

Day 10 Traveling to Johannesburg

Not a real exciting day today.  Left Kruger National Park early, stopped a couple of times for lunch, shopping and some sightseeing, then got to Johannesburg after dark.  We visit Soweto and the Apartheid Museum tomorrow, then fly to Victoria Falls on Sunday.

A few pictures from our stops.  Nice terrain, but smoky.  We think they routinely burn the fields during the winter.

 

Day 9 Game Drives in Kruger

Although clear now, it is cold.  In the 30’s in the morning, probably 60’s during the day, but only warm if you are in the sun.  Our first game drive was at 6am.  I wore two pairs of pants, four shirts, my fleece I bought in Cape Town, and my thin gortex jacket with hood cinched tight.  I borrowed a pair of liner gloves from Kathy and still froze.  When you are racing around in an open safari jeep, it gets real windy!

Early morning game drive game-face

Not as productive this morning. We did stumble upon a leopard crossing the road, but were too late to get a good photo.  Came across some wild dogs, again, the timing wasn’t real good.  Most of the sightings are luck.  And, if one of the four safari jeeps is at a good sighting, the word goes out to the rest by radio. The lucky ones are in the first jeep, if not, it is a quick u-turn and a hell-bent charge to the sighting.  We know it is coming when our driver yells “hold on!”.  Once we get to the view, then you get to play chicken and bumper pool with 5-10 other vehicles to get the best view.  Half are commercial vehicles, half are private cars.  The private cars usually follow the pros.  It gets pretty crazy when everyone is trying to get the best view as the animals amble around.

Sunrise on the savannah

Afternoon was much better and warmer.  Lots of great sightings of rhinoceros, African buffalo, elephants, hippopotamus, wild dogs, zebras, crocodiles, kudus, impalas, hyenas, monkeys and baboons. But the home run with the bases loaded was the leopard in the tree, (see the last pictures).  Our driver was as excited as we were, a very rare sight.

    

Wild dogs are ugly, smelly, run in packs but have a really cool pure white tail 

 

 

One thing you see in the wild and not in zoos are families 

 

 

            

The leopard is on the left, the impala on the right, a close up of the prey is not pleasant