Episode # 23 - Victoria Falls to Johannesburg

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...

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.

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

Hippos. There is a healthy number of hippos in Choebe.  We sat and watched these guys for almost 20 minutes.

Another Beautiful Sunset.

What made this trip even better, was the cooler full of beer that came along. 

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.

The mokoro ride begins.  The water is dead calm so it made for a really peaceful ride.

our trusty poler was a man named Killer.  When going out into the African bush, it's good to have a guide named Killer

Lots of beautiful birds were along the shores and flying along.

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.

Yet another beautiful sunset. 

Our guide displaying a fresh elephant dropping. 

Our ride. A former Army transport vehicle.

Summer vacation is the best.

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. 

. You could see elephants, buffalo, giraffe etc. from the air.

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.

just before take off. 

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.

It was winter time in South Africa, but if it had been warmer this would have been an awesome swimming spot. 

The Rondavels of the Blyde River Canyon

Sweet campsite with some sweet trampolines

At a spot called the Pot Holes. 

Jenn and Tracy at the Pot Holes

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.

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!

A Kudu

Being in the big truck helped a lot as we were higher than the other cars and could see further into the bushes. 

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. 

Soweto is one of the most famous townships in Jo burg- some areas were quite poor while others fairly wealthy.

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.

In front of Nelson Mandela's home.

Bullet holes are still visible on the walls from when they were harassed by the police.

The home is now a museum which rightfully displayed the life's work of both Nelson and Winnie Mandela

 

These cooling towers from a former power plant were pretty awesome. You can bungy jump from the bridge at the top. 

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!

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. 

Departing Dubai for the summer!

The end of the school year is finally here!  It seems unbeleivable that it is now June 20th and in two days we'll be beginning our African adventure that we've been talking and dreaming about for so long.

Our first year in Dubai has been wonderful!  We feel very very lucky have landed at a school with such great kids, families, and fellow teachers!  We were welcomed by so many people here and made part of their circle of friends.  It was a big decision to pick up our lives in the states and move to Dubai, and although we miss our friends back home (who we'll see soon) we have no regrets about coming here.  This year we settled into our new home and school, saw new countries like Lebanon, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Portugal, and overall had a successful year.

We ship off for Africa on Friday morning and well begin our overland journey the following day.  We will visit Tanzania, Zanzibar, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, and finish in South Africa.  Then we fly to Seattle via Cairo and NYC to stay with Jenn's mom for a few weeks.  Then we'll be in Pennsylvania at Indian Lake for most of August before returning here to Dubai on August 20th.

We'll be sure to post pictures of Africa once we land back in the USA.

Wish us luck and have a great summer!!

Jenn and Robbie