More overlanding - Botswana, Zimbabwe and South Africa

As promised, we have worked tirelessly to get the final Africa blog completed, and we are finally up to date!!! (you poor suckers, however, have to deal with the longest blog we’ve ever completed) A quick note though, similar to last time we had to downsize these photos in order to upload them quickly. They should still look good on the screen, but if you want any of them full-size, just email us.

Maun and the Okavango Delta, Botswana
Continuing on our overland tour we left Namibia and headed west into Maun, Botswana, to check out the Okavango Delta. Maun itself is little more than a dusty town at the end of the delta so we were happy to travel out of town to the private Drifters camp situated on a nearby river. We enjoyed a spectacular sunset show with approximately 200 greater white pelicans flying in to settle on the river for the night. It was amazing to watch them coming in to land like planes at an airport, and how they sometimes chose to swim, fish and paddle in long lines all in perfect unison.



The Okavango Delta is the end result of multiple rivers from Angola and Zambia that drain with no immediate passage to the sea and hence spread out into the flat plains of Botswana to create a huge inland river delta. The water level dramatically changes with the seasons and we saw it while it was filling up - meaning the inner delta where we were consisted mainly of islands. We got a great vantage of the delta as we flew in on a 30-minute light aircraft ride (six-seater Cessna), and could plainly see the watercourses changing from thin meandering rivers at the edge to completely flooded sections further in. The delta supports an enormous amount of wildlife that seems right at home either wading or swimming between the many islands – this includes antelopes, giraffes, zebra, lions, elephants, and hippos. The tracks you can see from the plane vary from elephant paths to 1-2m deep ‘tunnels’ that the hippos maintain and use as a metro of sorts to quickly get around.



After landing and a ‘short’ 4WD trip to our river departure point (our tour guide Belinda always knew where she was going, right guys? If not, it wasn’t her fault; our hand-drawn map consisted of some dotted lines with landmarks such as “big tree” and “big wetland here” – not so helpful when you’re surrounded by wetlands dotted with big trees :-). We transferred into mokoros, which are dugout canoes powered by pushing with a pole similar to the gondolas in Venice. They now use fibreglass instead of the traditional dugout wooden ones as the wooden ones tended to take on water with heavy western tourists and their baggage :-). This proved to be an extremely peaceful and relaxing (well maybe not for our polers!) way to see the delta. The water was gloriously clear, allowing you to see perfectly to the bottom while birds (and tiny little frogs) allowed us to get pretty close. The reeds and water lilies were a lovely spectrum of colors from green to red. The nicest part by far however was the absence of motor noise while we silently glided through small channels in the reeds and water lilies with only the occasional gentle plonking from the pole entering the water and the scraping of reeds going by. A perfect place to enjoy sundowners as well (as long as you have mosquito repellent :-).



We saw many, many fish eagles, bee-eaters, saddle-billed storks, and even a Pell’s fishing owl right outside of our camp (supposedly supremely coveted in birding circles).



This campsite was also the ‘wildest’ of the trip in that we had no fences and only the tent fabric between us and the wildlife. All through the night we could hear the hippos grazing (and see their distinctive toilet ‘spraying’ technique the following morning – no photos, and you should be thankful for that), while elephants, giraffes and baboons walked around us during the day. You can see the round footprints of an elephant in the salt residue and those football size chunks are exactly what you think they are (also check out the damage the elephants inflict upon trees with their tusks going after bark). The island we stayed upon also had many massive Baobab trees (really tree-sized succulents like cacti), and the last picture is of the famous marula tree. The fruit of this tree is harvested (none present right now) to make the South African cream liquor called Amarula that is best described as a slightly fruity Baileys. And no, the legend is not true that it was discovered due to elephants getting drunk eating the fermented fruit (though they do really like the fruit – it just doesn’t get them drunk). Pity, as that would be fun to see, but the drink is still really tasty, and we strongly recommend it straight with ice or in tea or coffee.



Nata
After another scenic flight out of the delta we drove through the afternoon to the town of Nata, where we didn’t do much except set up camp and enjoy a jumping display by the amazing lesser galagos or bush babies. These nocturnal primates (very small – like a squirrel) have an amazing jump (of up to 20 feet!) and were almost like a scene out of Star Trek as they were transported in effortless and invisible jumps between the feeding table, the ground and the surrounding tree branches. Another interesting fact is that they are also very ‘clean’ animals who will urinate upon their hands prior to eating – maybe that is why they have such crazy-looking fingers?



Chobe
Our final stop in Botswana was a three-hour afternoon game drive in the Chobe National Park that lies on the border with the Namibian Caprivi strip. As with all game-viewing outings, you are at the mercy of luck as to what or how many animals you’ll see, but man did we see a bunch at Chobe! This was the first place that we saw hippos out of the water (we think it was too hot previously in South Africa – they have sensitive skin and usually stay in the water during the day to prevent getting sunburned). It’s amazing to see their enormous, bulbous bulks just walking around and grazing on the grass. They were hardly what you would call active and tended to appear as if asleep on their feet for most of the time; however, the few that were wandering around handled their mass surprisingly well out of the water. They also look very cute when all sprawled together in pods working on their tans ;-).



We also saw a staggering number of elephant herds making their way to the river to drink and bathe in mud as well as some up close and personal encounters along the roadside - as compared with Hwange National Park that we later visited in Zimbabwe that has over 40,000 elephants but we only saw two! An interesting fact we learned with elephants is that they are either left or right ‘handed’ in the use of their tusks, so often one will be shorter or broken off from all the extra use.



A big fan of the elephants were the baboons who treat elephant dung as a delicacy, dissecting it in a flurry of activity to find the partially digested nuts and things that make it through the elephant’s digestive tract.. Also along the river we saw spoonbills and helmeted guinea fowl as well as crocodiles aplenty. Plus we found some decidedly wary antelopes attempting to drink while looking out for said crocodiles: kudus, slightly stupid-looking impalas, and some shaggy reedboks. We also chanced upon the more elusive sable that are skittish to say the least and until now had always run into the bush long before we got the camera ready.



The giraffes were amusing to watch as they entered their personal limbo contests each time they drank, and they looked amazing in the setting sun with a backdrop of buffalo making their way single-file across the river flats. We caught several warthogs enjoying a drink, and finally we chanced upon a daytime-snoozing spotted hyena.



Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
Leaving Chobe we braced ourselves for the gruelling saga that was supposed to be involved when crossing the Zimbabwean border… however it ended up being quite easy and so we found ourselves headed down the final stretch of highway into Victoria Falls. This highway and Vic Falls itself are in a national park, so we were warned about wildlife roaming the roads at night. We saw some elephants on our way into town, and Karen got caught behind a baboon family on the sidewalk. Vic Falls is unlike any other place in Zimbabwe - it is a thrill seekers paradise and at least 10 times more expensive that anywhere else in the country. We had to fork over $2.5 million Zim dollars (the official exchange rate is ~100,000 Zim to US$1) for two mini pizzas, but even at US$25 that was steep by African standards! It was also a little sad to pay similarly big bucks to partake in activities such as jet-boating, bungee, and elephant rides, yet wonder how much of that money was going back to the locals. There were unfortunately a huge number of beggars and people living in poverty around the town who were absolutely desperate to make a sale of their wooden and stone crafts (they would even trade for the dirty, worn-out clothes that we were wearing!). However, despite these gripes, we still had a great time and truly you just can’t complain when seeing one of the seven natural wonders of the world – the mighty Victoria Falls!



The falls are formed by the immense Zambezi river plunging over the lip of a canyon that is over 1 mile long and 110m deep! The amazing thing, however, is that this canyon forms a narrow chasm only 120m wide for most of that mile, so you can walk along the opposing rim and view the thundering falls from what seems only a stone’s-throw away. As you’ll see with the photos, we began at one end, which allows you a look down the length of the chasm, before proceeding along the rim where the spray gets heavier and heavier. Most of the tourists didn’t venture the whole way, as we found out, you are bound to get saturated from the pouring rain/spray on an otherwise sunny and cloudless day. However, every now and then the winds change, the mist parts and you find yourself staring out over an amazing view. With the sun shining you can get some excellent rainbows (Ben thought this photo was funny). It’s easy to understand why the locals call it Mosi-oa-Tunya or “the smoke that thunders”, as the spray is visible from miles and miles away and the falls can be clearly heard long before you get close enough to the edge of the chasm to actually see them.



As we mentioned before, we partook in a few adventure activities ourselves. Ben finally got his wish to go bungee jumping on this trip. He jumped from the 116-meter high bridge connecting Zimbabwe to Zambia out over the Zambezi just downriver from falls – you can see the spray (and doesn’t he look pleased with himself! – thanks so much to Joan (another Aussie tourist) for the photos!). Karen and a couple other ladies from the tour went jet boating through the gorge below Ben’s jump, right up to the foot of the falls themselves (well, as close as we could get through the ridiculous amount of spray coming off the falls…. we got SOAKED!).



We both enjoyed our elephant-back safari ride (though after 45-min of sitting on those saddles, your thighs get pretty sore). It was the two of us and our guide on the back of the little guy we’re posing with. Neither he nor any of the other elephants seemed bothered by carrying our weight around; in fact, they amusingly used the walk as a chance to pick up a few tree-branch ‘snacks’. A couple of warthogs were also hanging around at the end of our ride for a chance to steal some of the elephants’ treats.



A fringe benefit from the adventure activities was that they threw in a sunset cruise along the upper Zambezi enjoying the sunset along with free alcohol (and lots of it!) and close encounters with several elephants.



Our final activity in Vic Falls was an enthusiastic dance performance put on by some high-kneeing Zulu locals. The only music was a drum accompanying their acapella singing with some additional rhythm provided by their clapping and feet on the pavement. The combination was really enjoyable to listen to and watch, particularly as they could really bust a move when the song called for it. Theo volunteered to show them how the Swiss break it down. ;-)



Hwange National Park
We left Vic Falls and headed south to Hwange National Park and stayed outside the park at Ivory Lodge. This place was great! They bumped up our accommodation from tenting to elevating cabins (real beds! private hot showers!) overlooking their man-made, lighted waterhole. We spent a magical afternoon and evening hanging out in the hide watching numerous birds, antelope (like these nyalas), and troop after troop of baboons wander through. It was fun to see the entire family – from massive male ‘sentries’ to the mischievous, squealing young ones at play. The third troop was upstaged by the stampede of 200 or more buffalo galloping into the waterhole. Up to this point on this tour, we hadn’t seen any up close, so this was a real treat. We even saw some adorable baby buffalo! It is also interesting to note the huge variety of their horns, particularly the massive boss (the bit covering the top of their heads) on some of the males. We were feeling quite safe and cozy in our electric-fenced camp until the proprietor casually mentioned that the fence didn’t work and that lion footprints had been found in the camp that morning. Sure enough, we were awoken that night by the coughing roars of some lions…. And boy did they sound close! We rushed to look out over the waterhole, and there were two males strolling around like they owned the place (which we guess they did). It was a tad unsettling to know that there were big lions only 50m away, and nothing to really stop them from coming in our doorless cabin if they wanted to. Also spotted at the water hole that night were a whitetailed mongoose (which appeared to be quite large compared to its relatives, about the size of a medium dog) and a civet, a beautifully spotted/striped nocturnal member of the cat family (sorry, no night-time photos as they didn’t come out very well).



The following morning, after we learned to our relief that no one had been eaten the night before (though the tracks went right by the wall of our guide’s cabin), we headed out for a morning game drive in Hwange. Honestly, it was a little disappointing – we drove for four hours and saw some giraffes, zebras, and a few cool-looking birds: oxpeckers (on the giraffes and zebras), longtailed shrikes, crimson-breasted shrikes, hornbills and starlings.



The game drive was saved, however, when another driver told us where to find some cheetahs that had made a kill. After a bit of a search, we managed to locate them and got a really excellent close-up look at two feeding cheetahs (and if you look closely, you can see the baby zebra that they’re eating). Warning – these photos are a bit gruesome.



Matopos National Park
Driving down to Bulawayo, we camped at Big Cave near Matopos National Park. We left our group to go on a night drive, hoping to see a leopard (as this area of the country is supposed to have the highest density of leopards), but we saw nothing other than antelope and some trees. We did start to get a feel for the rocky beauty of this area, which was revealed in all its glory during our game drive in Matopos the following day. Everywhere you looked, there were piles of boulders stained lovely colours and in unbelievable balancing acts. One of the most famous outcrops is the first photo where the central spire closely resembles a Zimbabwean woman carrying her baby on her back (they wrap a cloth around their midsection to hold the baby there – can you see her?). As we were driving around, we found this zebra who immediately struck us as odd looking. We soon determined that his ‘punk’ appearance was due to the absence of his ears (Ian told us they probably fell off due to multiple infected tick bites – poor bugger!).



The goal of this game drive was to find rhinos…. on foot! Our safari guide, Ian, was an expert rhino tracker and taught us a great deal about their territorial habits. They regularly visit their waterhole and you can get quite close to them, which is why they are easy targets for poachers. Rhinos are quite well-endowed and copulate for at least a half hour, which is why rhino products are so coveted in Asia – for some reason, they believe that eating rhino will bestow some of its abilities on them – making the horn (an easy grab for poachers) worth a ridiculous amount, roughly US$100,000 per kilo. The Zim government tried to eliminate poaching by dehorning all of their rhinos about 10 years ago – this doesn’t hurt the rhinos (as long as all are dehorned at the same time) and the horns regrow over time (they’re made of keratin, the same stuff as our fingernails - all the rhinos pictured below have regrown their horns). Unfortunately, they were not allowed to sell the horns they removed by international decree, leaving the door open for continued poaching. The rhinos in Matopos are quite well-protected, anyone suspected of being a poacher are shot on sight by the 24-hour patrols.

After this sobering discussion with Ian, we hopped out of the car to actually track some rhinos on foot. This was intimidating as they can run faster than you, and the only way to be safe is to climb a tree, which are few and far between. The first big bull that we found, a white rhino, looked like he’d been fighting recently as his snout was punctured and bloody. We didn’t get too close to him (only 15-20 feet away) as there were ladies about and we didn’t want to push it. On our way back, we saw a mama black rhino with her baby (which made Ian get super excited as they are rarely seen as they are more excitable and aggressive than the white rhinos) – this one luckily chose to run away from us rather than charging us. We located a second bull white rhino, who was extremely chilled-out around us and allowed us to get within 10 feet of him, and even snap some pictures (Ben was the only one of the group crazy enough to pose with him – Karen was hiding behind the rest of the group). These are truly amazing, ancient-looking, bizarre animals to see up close.



Zimbabwean Roads
We really enjoyed our time in Zim, as we found only friendly and helpful people despite the petrol shortages and awful conditions that they must be suffering through right now. Besides some amazing roadside scenery, there were the usual African sights of people walking along the roads carrying their loads on their heads, buses with an unbelievable amount of cargo, and people catching rides however they could. Also, particularly in southern Zimbabwe, we saw some amazingly massive baobab trees growing along the sides of the roads.



Back in South Africa – End of the Tour
Having spent three days driving across Zimbabwe since leaving Vic Falls in the north, we crossed into northern South Africa. The final morning of our tour, we explored some rock art of the San people. This is the only site where the paintings depict insects, in this case locusts (unfortunately, our pictures of the locusts weren’t that impressive, so we didn’t include them). Also, a group photo, in front of the truck, wearing our fun tour tee-shirts that we had made in Vic Falls (the picture of Africa on the front was made entirely of quotes from the tour…. and there were some good ones!). Pictured from left to right: the back row is Belinda (our guide), Karen and Ben, and Theo (Swiss); the front row is Gerlinde (Austrian), Christine (Kiwi), and Verena (also Swiss). What a fun group!



De Wildt Cheetah Center
We had a couple of days left in South Africa before we flew to Australia, so we spent the first of them visiting the De Wildt Cheetah Center. They were the first to successfully breed cheetahs in captivity by studying their behaviour in the wild, and learning how to mimic it in captivity. The cheetahs have two types of markings: spotted and king. The spotted cheetah is what we are accustomed to seeing, while the king markings are recessive and therefore less common, appearing as a larger proportion of black including predominant stripes along the spine. Going on the tour, they drive us into a cheetah enclosure where the cheetahs follow the jeep knowing that they are soon to be fed (with cat food, not tourists). Like the pumas in Bolivia, they got a little aggressive/impatient when food was around.



We chose to come early (and pay extra) to watch some of the cheetahs being exercised. They chase a plastic lure that is whipped around a wire track allowing the cheetahs to get up to full speed (impressive!). Cheetahs will instinctively chase moving objects (like all cats).



They breed other endangered species - the blue crane (the national bird of South Africa), caracal and other predatory cats, brown hyena (none pictured), and wild dog – as a gene bank in case they become extinct in the wild. Wild dog, also called painted dog, have some beautiful markings and it is said that no two are alike. They are pack hunters and make an unbelievable yipping, chittering cacophony when excited by food or the hunt.



Pilanesberg National Park
On our final day in Africa, we decided to make a last-ditch effort to see a f*%!ng leopard, so we left our hostel at 5am to drive to Pilanesberg to catch the sunrise. Well, surprise, surprise, we didn’t see any leopards. We did, however, see loads of other animals. Pilanesberg is situated within an ancient volcanic crater and has many waterholes. A lot of our sightings were from the hides built on the edges of these waterholes. We saw birds galore: African grey hornbill, dark-capped bulbul, some unidentified grey birds, francolin, helmeted guinea fowl, cormorants, anhingas (called a snake bird because of its slender neck), nesting cormorants and anhingas, grey heron, ducks, a hamerkop, and some nice shots of the grey go-away bird.



We saw some more hippos out of the water, sleeping, grazing, and hanging out. There was also a family of waterbuck near the water, surprisingly. ;-)



The animals were not confined to water’s edge, by any means. We watched a herd of red hartebeest wander across the road (or they could have been tsessebe… we’re not really sure). We saw some blue wildebeest grazing; they looked to be some pretty clean specimens as their neck/back stripes showed up beautifully. We were amazed to see a nocturnal brown hyena out and about during the day (and we managed to take some really terrible photos of it). Also terrible is the photo of the yellow mongooses, which were so cute standing on their hind legs and tail in the road. Away in the distance we spotted a mother giraffe and her adorable baby. And to top it off, we spotted a couple of rhinos around a bend in the road, and then another one on our way out of the park. No leopards, but still a good day!



Perth
Sadly, our African adventure had to end at some point, so breathing in the smoggy Johannesburg air for the last time we bid our fond farewells and boarded a plane for Perth, Australia. We chose to fly into Perth to check it out for a week on our way to Canberra. We had a lovely time exploring, and although it was the middle of winter, we were fine to walk about in tee-shirt and pants (the same pants and shirts that we’ve been wearing for the last year!) We spent a pleasant day checking out the botanical gardens (from the tree-top walkway – see photo below) and nearby King’s Park which afforded a great view over the city skyline. There were plenty of Aussie birdies about as well as flowering eucalyptus (gum) trees and the yellow flower is wattle. Some thanks for Perth: to Ben’s dad for sorting out our accommodation at the Waldorf (yay) and to Nick and Paula for their company and hosting a wonderful dinner – good luck with baby #2!



This was where our world trip was supposed to end, but we couldn’t quite get the wanderlust out of our system (or ignore the freedom of our “no” status, as in kids, jobs, or debts). So, we’re planning a couple of months touring northern Australia before we buckle down and face reality. Hopefully we make it through before the rains come!