Midway Point in Africa

Since I've been updating this blog on the run, I thought I'd take a few moments to reflect on what I've seen so far, plus this helps since I may or may not remember what's in here.

So far I've spent time on several safaris (Seregeti, Ngorongoro Crater, Kruger and Etosha Parks), climbed Kilimanjaro, scuba dived in Pembe and sky dived in Namibia. Supposedly I've kayaked the Orange River, but it was more of a canoe than a kayak. One person, our tour guide trainee, did a 180 in her boat, but luckily the camera she was putting away was safe and dry. I also have "sailed" on a enjanou (not sure of the spelling) while in Pembe. That was cool. Noting the construction might have been the best part.

Part of me says I could have seen all this on National Geographic specials, but there's something about seeing the animals and birds here that's mesmorizing. Watching them in their natural habitat, whether out on the plains, in thick grass, but water holes during the day or at night, really makes you appreciate our world. There are so many similarities between animals and human beings. Observing the behaviors makes one appreciate what has to happen all in one day just to survive. Maslow's hierarchy of needs might very well have started by observing animal life.

Africa is a big continent, but we already knew that. What I didn't know is that most of the roads I'd be traveling on during this 20-day overland tour would be dirt roads. Our van is not air conditioned so we get all the dust. And, because of the recent rains, we also get shots of water every so often. In Etosha, we were traveling down a dirt road, that apparently was closed--but only on one end. We finally turned around, but right now, the fan is being checked out because it's been a little noisy since then and we've also had to roll start it. That's fun on a dewy morning.

In some ways, I don't feel like I'm traveling in a foreign country because English is one of the main languages here, though there is the accent, which is so beautiful. Africaans is the second language, then there are German and 13 others. We've visited tribal cheifs, medicine men, small tribal villages and the big cities, which wash all this away to a point. I'll hear more about Soweto and Apartheid when I get back to Johannesburg. I might even buy a book I saw called Capitalist Nigger, but haven't determined if I want to. Just the name gets to me, but it seems to be a different way of looking at things.

I'm learning a lot about the ecology here. Some about the people. Some about me. I miss my friends and my Karly, yet there's still more to see and do. Maybe this will quiet some of the nomad in me, at least for a while, yet when I get back, I'll be heading out 'to the lake' for sailing on Minnetonka and Superior!

Etosha National Park in Namibia

Would you believe it does rain in Africa? Namibia has had 6 times as much rain in the past month as it usually does in a year. The grass is tall and green, the salt pans are filled with more water than our guide has ever seen, yet we still were able to find those short little hogwarts, oh I meant warthogs.

Etosha is a nice large national park with lots of salt pans, which makes it different from other parks I've visited. I now understand how people see mirages in the dessert. We did see lions mating, black faced Impala, and more antelopes than previously so enjoyed the time there, but not the big five. Guess you can't see them everywhere even in Africa. We are headed to Chobe National Park northeast of Etosha, so we'll see what that brings.

Sand Dunes in Africa

Sand will be coming back to the US with me--red and white to be sure. I've spent the last several days in the middle of Namibia--in Sossusvlei and Swakopmund. The first had large red sand dunes which is where I spent my birthday, climbing #45 at dawn to reach the top by sunrise. It was truly spectacular to watch the colors light up and shift as the sun rose. We went for a desert tour right after breakfast and saw all kinds of small wild life, vs. the large wild life we'd seen on the safaris and elsewhere. Later that day, I went for a walk and observed oryx and springbok at a safe distance. Rarely are herds of oryx seen, so I know my angels were looking out for me.

The dunes form by east and west winds, then part based on major rains. The evolution is creative and wonderful. The dunes are also home to so many small creatures that it's been fun seeing the big five in the Serengeti, birds in Kruger National Part and now even beetles and bugs.

The news of the day was skydiving. Oh, maybe there's another sport in my future. More on that later.

West Coast of Africa

Cape Town was great, for the 2 days I was there. Now I'm heading up the west coast of South Africa up to Namibia. Right now I'm in Springbok, so named for the national animal of South Africa, but of course there are no wild ones here anymore. It's just a quick stop to get groceries and last minute things before heading off to the wild with no access to the internet or much else but wildlife, canoeing, hiking, etc.

I'm on a 20-day overland, participatory tour which means I'm camping again and helping with meals, setup, teardown, etc. We had porters to do this on Kili, but life is easier here. There are only five of us on the trip--2 New Zealanders, 1 German and 2 Americans. We have 2 guides, both South Africans. They only speak 2 languages, but I won't hold that against them, especially since I still only speak one.

It's been fun getting to know each other. A great group of people. That's good since we'll be together for a while.

Off to buy groceries and another country. . .

Cape Town

Another day in paradise, yet it's not so great for everyone here. I've been contemplating the similarities of how blacks have been treated here compared with in the U.S. If you've seen or read The Power of One, I've seen some of the conditions exhibited in that film. The racism that exists here is real and I haven't even seen Soweto. Lots to think about.

I have enjoyed some of the sites here--Table Mountain, the Cape of Good Hope, and Robbins Island where Mandala was imprisoned. All were wonderful to see for different reasons.

Off to the wine country and sand dunes tomorrow.

Kruger National Park NE of Johannesburg

Kruger National Park has benefitted from rain. The dams are getting full and the grass is green and high. Makes it a bit hard to see the hogwarts as I've gotten used to calling them (the warthogs that is)--you can just barely see the tips of their horns.

I wanted to compare a safari in the Serengeti with that in another part of South Africa and that was the major difference. All was not lost though. I did see the big five--African buffalo, elephants, one lion, one leapard, and a white rhino. Along with that were hippos, zebra, giraffe (which are said to only sleep 6 minutes a day, and the older they are the more aromatic they are), impala and the blue wildebeests. I asked to see more cats, and was granted that wish--two small large-spotted genets, rather racoon marked cats. Oh so cute! All this was on a four -day "private" tour. The tour company lost money on this one since there was a minimum charge for three people. Oh well, I got a lot of personal attention.

Since finding mammals in the tall grass was a tall order, I took to bird watching. It was more fun than I ever imagined! The birds here are so colorful, and after studying my fish for the Seychelles, I think I'm a better bird-er, if that's the right term. I bought a book with all the wildlife in the Kruger NP, so started checking off all the ones that I've seen.

I'm staying at a Backpacker's Inn in Joburg (that's short for Johannesburg), which is nice and homey. One of the two brown labs just came and put his head on the desk. How sweet. They'll even keep my luggage here so I don't have to pay excess baggage fees on my way to Cape Town. Since my airline ticket is just within the African continent, I'm stuck with the restrictions for "local" travelers. Dive equipment is heavy.

Now just for some interesting tidbits:
--The driver for my trip to Kruger thought it was good to litter. That way locals keep their jobs.
--Soweto is the acronym for Southwestern Township. (I'm hoping to visit Soweto and the Apartheid Museum in Joburg in April.
--South Africa has the third largest canyon in the world--Blue River Canyon. I read that after saying this is like the Grand Canyon of the States (the largest)! I'll see the second largest in the next month.
--The Garden of Eden (teahouse) was next to "God's Window". Signs that said "Keep God's Window clean were a bit amusing.
--Most people here speak 4 to 6 languages.
--Highlands Meander means fishing.
--Among the big cats, only lions purr.
--Cheetah and hyena are not able to retract their claws so their footprints are each to identify.
--Some cheetah are "employees" of airports. Since the local tribes here own the land of some of the smaller airports, the land is used for grazing. When the herds get too big, the interfere with landings and takeoffs. The cheetah are used to keep the size of the herds manageable.
--Hitchhiking is very common here. I haven't tried it.

More from Cape Town.

Zanzibar and Pembe

A regular Kind of Day on Zanzibar and More

The last 24 hours in a 400-year old house in Stonetown in Zanzibar
--a power surge, which meant this computer didn't turn on this morning until the repair person came to fix it
--no water, due to a drought, more on the mainland than on the islands given that there were torrential rains this morning. Of course that was exactly when my travel mate for the past few weeks was leaving
--A power failure, so even though we could hear several generators and the messages from the local mosque for their last prayer session of the day, we were sitting here by candle light.

The power has obviously come back, and men are now working on our water supply, so I'll be able to shower before heading to Johannesburg tomorrow. That's a relief because it's a little on the warm side here--probably in the mid-90's.

The adventures keep coming. Trekking Kili, seeing the big five on the Serengeti, then up to the north of Zanzibar for some R&R. But that wasn't nearly diverse enough. Another sojourner and I took the 1-2 hour trip from that northern part of Zanzibar to the airport and flew to Pembe. The descriptions in the tour books lured us to the more remote island, and then, as we like to say, were kidnapped by the owner of Pembe Afloat to his 3-boat flotilla on the northwestern tip of this island. We'd actually booked a week at one of his competitors but were glad we succumbed to Philip's persuasion, especially once we learned they lost five divers in 2005. They temporarily lost 3 divers this week, but found them-- luckily still the same day though after dark . The five were never found.

Our adventure started on the trip up to the boats. We thought the roads up to Nungwi on Zanzibar were bad. These roads are only for 4-wheel drive vehicles. We arrived at dark, had marvelous fresh seafood (as we did each day for lunch and dinner) and slept on deck. That worked pretty well except for the occasional rains almost every night. (Rainy season is starting early this year.) We got the drill down to send our bedding into the main cabin, close the forward hatch, including topping it with a chair due to some leakage, the front and side hatches, and sometimes more depending upon the rain. It was a new moon, so when the stars were out, we saw the Southern Cross and all the others visible in this hemisphere.

Currents and tides are all factors here as well as triggerfish which are mating this time of year. The divemaster was attacked on his first dive out with us (he's fine, but with a nick out of his head that needed to stay out of the water to heal), so luckily Ginny, my travel buddy, was able to step in and be our divemaster. Her Cozumel drift diving experience certainly was reassuring given the strong tides and currents here. We tried to time our dives with the incoming tide, but they weren't always cooperative. Luckily Philip told us about one dive called the Washing Machine, because the next day, though he didn't intend for us to do it, the current made it happen. Our speed underwater was projected at 4 knots. That ended up being our shortest dive. It wasn't uncommon for Ginny and I to be down for 75 minutes, much to the chagrin of Philip, who had to bear the heat and sun while we played with the fish. Great barracuda, Titan triggers, turtles, 6-7 foot long humphead wrasses and so many more. I felt like a beginner diver seeing all these new fish. Oh, and how could I forget the lionfish--both adults and juveniles!

We walked into the village to see the school that Philip and Charlie funded, and at the same time observing many malnourished children (that apparently have to grow out of it), witnessed Charlie being medicine women for children that would come out to the boat, sometimes twice a day, to have wounds and scavvy (I think that's right--head problems but not lice) treated, and watched the local fishermen work both day and night. We saw crops in the field, but not cloves, since it's out of season, though that's the biggest crop here.

Today has been my catch-up day. I read through some of the material for my upcoming adventures, gotten myself organized, gone through emails, packed yet again, and now am wondering if I've just gotten bitten by one of those nasty mossies--that's mosquito in some other languages. Hopefully it was just a regular mossy, not a malaria one, because otherwise this will hit me in 10 to 14 days, when I'm heading up the west coast of South Africa. I hear it's not too much fun. And yes, I do have deet repellent on, maybe just not thick enough. Well, hopefully you'll hear more about my adventures sans malaria in the next week.