Victoria Falls made for a nice half way point of our journey. The truck that we started on began its journey in Nairobi and would travel through victoria falls towards Namibia and then to Capetown. So after a beer filled night at the Shoestrings Backpackers in Victoria falls (a night where Jenn was accosted by several interested local guys who went by the names of "Bubble Gum" and "Cheese on Toast") we woke up with a terrible hangover, packed up our belongings and walked to the other side of the campground where we met our new truck, it's driver, and passengers. This new truck had begun it's journey in Jo Burg and would do a loop down through Botswana and return to Jo Burg. The passengers included another American couple, a British mother and daughter team, a Dutch couple, and a hilarious group of Australian ladies who were a lot of fun to hang out with and provided many hours of entertaining games during our long drives.
So with the truck packed up, we set off south into Botswana...
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| Our first stop was a boat cruise in Choebe National Park in Botswana. This was an excellent way to see the animals as the boat is relatively silent compared to the diesel game drive trucks. We glided quietly up to the animals who seemed not to notice us. |
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| Having a limited supply of sweaters with me in Dubai, this is the only sweater that came with me to Africa and I wore every single day |
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| Hippos. There is a healthy number of hippos in Choebe. We sat and watched these guys for almost 20 minutes. |
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| Another Beautiful Sunset. |
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| What made this trip even better, was the cooler full of beer that came along. |
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The next part of the journey was extraordinary. To begin, it needs to be noted that Botswana is quite different from many of its neighbors. As one of the only southern african nations to gain its independence without war, it has used considerable diamond wealth to build infrastructure, hospitals, roads, schools, and a thriving tourist industry. They aren't looking for "camping on the cheap" tourists like us however, they market their 5 star game park lodges to wealthy American and European vacationers which range from $300-$2000 dollars a night. When leaving Choebe National park we drove south by southwest through acres and acres of crops that were being grown on government land. All of the sorghum, sunflowers (for cooking oil), maize, soy, etc was being grown for domestic use by the government for it's people. We had not seen agriculture on this scale through all of east Africa where most plots were only family size plots of cassava and bananas and maize. In general, most of the other sections of Botswana are too dry from growing crops (areas like the Kalahari Desert are here in Botswana) so it was interesting to see this portion of the land being used like this. In general, it can be said that Botswana is doing quite well.
Our next stop was the town of Maun, which is the launching point for entry into the Okavanga Delta. The delta is one of the largest inland delta's in the world where a massive river carries water from the highlands of Angola and deposits it into a vast wetland. What makes it a very interesting place is the abundant wildlife from frogs and fish to lions and elephants. Also the delta is different every year, depending on the amount of water and the direction of the flow, it can expand and contract in different directions.
For our adventure, we packed our stuff into our small backpacks and prepared for a 3 day camping excursion in the delta. This began with a two hour truck ride into the delta over rickety wooden bridges on an old Botswanan army transport truck. Once in the delta, we would be taken by locals on their "mokoros" - which are dug out canoes, into a campsite for several days of walking safaris and hanging out in this incredible environment.
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| The mokoro ride begins. The water is dead calm so it made for a really peaceful ride. |
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| our trusty poler was a man named Killer. When going out into the African bush, it's good to have a guide named Killer |
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| Lots of beautiful birds were along the shores and flying along. |
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| Sunset over the Delta. This was at the end of one of our Walking Safaris. Surprisingly we were able to see quite a few animals on our walks. On this particular walk, we startled a group of giraffe who went running through the water only 100 meters from us. |
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| Yet another beautiful sunset. |
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| Our guide displaying a fresh elephant dropping. |
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| Our ride. A former Army transport vehicle. |
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| Summer vacation is the best. |
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| After driving out of the delta, we had a shower and got dressed in clean clothes and boarded a small flight to see the delta from above. Jenn was feeling pretty sick with a cold and the chills, but she was a trooper. |
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| . You could see elephants, buffalo, giraffe etc. from the air. |
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| Before we took off i was thinking, yeah it would be cool to fly your own plane. Then at about 500 feet you realize the plane is like a lawn mower attached to a tin can with the wind blowing us all around. |
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| just before take off. |
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| After several long days of driving we entered South Africa, our final country. We arrived firstly at the Blyde River canyon. This is a picture of Jenn and our new friends Kevin and Vi from Oregon. |
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| It was winter time in South Africa, but if it had been warmer this would have been an awesome swimming spot. |
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| The Rondavels of the Blyde River Canyon |
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| Sweet campsite with some sweet trampolines |
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| At a spot called the Pot Holes. |
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| Jenn and Tracy at the Pot Holes |
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| One of our final days on the trip was spent in Kruger National Park which is about a days drive from Johannesburg. The park is massive and expands into Mozambique and Zimbabwe. |
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| Our Final game drive of the trip was amazing. We saw rhino, buffalo, zebra, giraffe, elephants and to top it off... these beauties were sitting right by the side of the road just watching the cars go by. Great way to finish off our trip! |
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| A Kudu |
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| Being in the big truck helped a lot as we were higher than the other cars and could see further into the bushes. |
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| We finished our trip in Johannesburg and signed up for a tour of Soweto, one of the many townships of Jo Burg.This is the soccer stadium that was built in Soweto for the World Cup. |
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| Soweto is one of the most famous townships in Jo burg- some areas were quite poor while others fairly wealthy. |
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| Vilakazi street was the home of two nobel peace prize winners, Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela. Their homes were within 100 meters of one another. |
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| In front of Nelson Mandela's home. |
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| Bullet holes are still visible on the walls from when they were harassed by the police. |
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| The home is now a museum which rightfully displayed the life's work of both Nelson and Winnie Mandela |
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| These cooling towers from a former power plant were pretty awesome. You can bungy jump from the bridge at the top. |
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Our final day and a half was spent at a hotel/casino near the airport. It was so nice to sleep in a proper bed after camping for an entire month. We spoiled ourselves with some nice dinners and a few trips to the movie theater inside the casino.
On our final evening, I won a few hands of blackjack and decided to try the fancy steak restaurant. During our very nice dinner with a bottle of red wine, almost one year from our anniversary we looked back on a very excellent year. Together we had gotten married, packed up our lives and moved to Dubai, started new jobs, and managed to see fourteen countries in one year. UAE, Oman, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Lebanon, Portugal,Tanzania, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Botswana, and South Africa.
The next morning we boarded a plane for a very long journey back to Seattle. Jo Burg to Cairo for 8 hours, Cairo to New York for 12 hours. Slept near Newark airport and then Newark to Seattle. The African adventure was a success! Thanks to all of you who helped fund our trip through our honeymoon gift registry!
