Episode #22 An African Journey - part 1 Dar es salaam to Victoria Falls.

It's hard to know where to start when describing our summer journey through Africa.  Jenn and I had both visited Kenya during or shortly after our college years and both held strong memories of bright smiles, bumpy bus rides, and adventures through Africa- a place so different from other parts of the world, so diverse, and so fascinating.  A continent filled with thousands of languages, millions of people, and incredibly diverse landscapes- it's hard to scratch the surface.The common images of Africa from the Jungle book, to Nelson Mandela, to images of war on CNN are equally as diverse, which makes it hard to wrap our heads around all that we saw this summer, some images that rang true to the stereotypes, others were vastly different. In retrospect, we both realized that our experiences in Kenya were bolstered by the length of time we spent there, the ways in which we immersed ourselves in the culture and our time spent learning Swahili.  This summer's journey would be much more of a "drive-by" in comparison but it was awesome to see so much in such a short period of time.

For one month we joined a company called Africa Travel Company on what is called and "overland tour".  There are a number of companies that operate these trips and we happened to be with one of the oldest most established organizations offering this type of thing.  They offer trips that are as short as 8 days and as long as 56 days in modified trucks built to carry people and all the camping equipment, food, water, and supplies for everyone onboard. Our trip was divided into two separate legs- Dar es Salaam to Victoria Falls and then Victoria Falls to Johannesburg.

After a long and somewhat interesting journey on a packed Ethiopian Airlines flight we arrived in Dar es Salaam the capital of Tanzania, we were driven to our beach camp where our adventure began.

Below is some photos from the first leg of our journey - Dar Es Salaam, Zanzibar, Southern Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, and Choebe National Park in Botswana.

The first night of our extra long summer honeymoon. .. this was our romantic beachside bungalow.

The morning view from the beach just south of Dar Es Salaam Tanzania

After a 4 hour ferry ride we arrived in Zanzibar- Stonetown Harbor

This was the former site of the slave market it Zanzibar. It was sad to think how many were bought and sold at this site. At the urging of David Livingstone the Scottish Presbyterian Church built this cathedral. The alter sits directly above the site where the whipping post was used to chain slaves as they were sold. Our incredibly well spoken guide showed us the property.

The night food market on the shore in Stonetown where we ate fresh grilled seafood and spoke with local kids who came to town to practice their english with tourists.

Sunset in Zanzibar with my beautiful new bride!

We took a spice tour in Zanzibar and were shown all the local spices, many of which are no longer sold for export but used as local food and remedies for sickness. This guy climbed about 70feet to get us a fresh coconut.

The island princess in her crown 

The king and queen. They kept calling me the Boss man. And the Boss Man has to wear a tie!

The view from our hotel on the northern coast of Zanzibar where we went snorkeling.

Some long rides in the truck. read about 5 novels

Southern Tanzania

Boabob trees along the way

Our lovely tent which was home for the duration of the trip. Each night we stopped at campsites, most of which had showers and a bar for evening drinks.

Sunset over Lake Malawi.  The Lake takes up about 20% of the land mass of Malawi and is a big source of fish for the locals

The truck and our campsite on the coast of lake Malawi

One of the best activities of our trip was a 30km hike up the mountains behind our campsite. It was a steep trail straight up to the town of Livingstonia, a town created around a Scottish Mission founded during the colonial era. The sun is breaking through the clouds over the lake on our hike up.

Jenn and our new friend Tracy from Zimbabwe on the hike up to Livingstonia

sweaty hikers 

The best part of the hike was meeting the locals. Our guide Frank lived in the village by the lake and talked with me all about his life. His family like most in the area grew cassava, beans, maize, and traded for fish.  Most of Malawi is quite poor and those farmers were growing mostly for their own subsistence. 

The school on top of the mountain in Livingstonia Malawi

Our local Guide Frank showing us the cassava fields. Frank seemed to have no problem walking 30km in flip flops.

A small museum with an amazing view of the lake was once home to the head missionary.

Our group overlooking lake Malawi at the top of the mountain.

Jenn and Tracy overlooking the falls. The guide mentioned stopping at a waterfall but we had no idea it would be a 1500 meters overlooking a forested valley.. really amazing.

A lunch stop along the way. After lake Malawi we had two long days on the road going through Zambia which is very rural and less agricultural than Malawi.

Our campground in Zambia had a small private game park next door. These zebra were very accustomed to having humans around so you could walk quite close to them.

We arrived on the Zambian side of the Zambezi river to a great campgound right on the river. This was one of many many amazing sunsets. Just down river looking the other direction you could see the mist of Victoria fall rising like smoke in the distance.

After crossing the border the next day to Botswana we jumped in game truck for our overnight camping trip into Choebe National Park. Botswana  has done a very good job of maintaining good infrastructure that supports tourism into their game parks along with strong anti-poaching groups that protect the animals.

Giving credit to Jenn Holmes for this amazing shot. Choebe River, Choebe National Park

Elephants are everywhere in Choebe. This is a blessing for tourism, as you're almost guaranteed to see an elephant, however overpopulation of elephants is a concern as they are very destructive.

Maybe a bit too close to this big guy but it made for a nice photo.

Sunset over the river on our way to our overnight camping spot inside the park

Amazing campsite. Kind of scary to think that there was nothing between you and the very large and very wild animals. Going to the bathroom at night was a daring endeavor. 

Returning to the Zimbabwe side of the falls we were spent 3 days in the town of Victoria falls. One day was spent white water rafting on the Zambezi which was amazing. Another day was spent on a boat cruise seeing hippos, and this day we spent looking at the falls up close.

The falls are incredible powerful as this massive river crashes over a cliff. The mist is so thick in most spots it's hard to get a good photo.

The colonial era built Victoria Falls hotel is a landmark in itself. At one time this was a stop over point for people flying from England. After leaving Europe, they would fly to Cairo, then lake Victoria in East Africa, then to this hotel in Vic Falls and then on to South Africa. The hotel is in incredible condition.  My parents stayed here 35 years ago.

The view from the veranda at Vic Falls Hotel

One of our more expensive lunches but well worth it for the view.