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Dear Family & Friends,
2006 was our year of Africa. We traveled there twice in 2006: to Southern Africa in April & May and to Egypt in November & December, with a pre-trip to Jordan.
Why would we go to Africa twice in one year? In 1991 we went to India and concluded "this old stuff is pretty neat." Wondering what older might look like, we went to Turkey in 2001. Older was really neat. OK, how about oldest? Well, we went to Egypt, where the new stuff is 2000 years old and the old stuff is over 5000 years old. Older than that and you're mostly looking at rocks. However, instead of just looking at rocks, we also went to see animals. And, WOW, did we see animals! But wait till you see the birds! The birds we saw in Costa Rica, in December of 2005, were colorful and plentiful, but the birds in Southern Africa were bigger and way more diverse.
OK, I am getting ahead of our story.
You can continue with the Southern Africa trip: April 27, 2006 ...
Or you can skip to our Jordan/Egypt trip: November 21, 2006 ...
Or just check out our Family News ...
Southern Africa - April 28 - May 17, 2006
After 2 consecutive overnight flights, including a 6 hour layover in London where we escaped from Heathrow Airport to Kensington for a short tour of Kew Gardens, we arrived in Johannesburg, South Africa.
With no time to waste and without even a cat nap, we were wisked off for a tour of Soweto, the South Western Township, where the struggle to overcome Apartheid began with a protest turned riot in June 1976. The police opened fire on 10,000 marching students and killed over 500. Reverberatons from that riot were felt around the world and led to years of economic and cultural sanctions against South Africa. Apartheid was finally abolished until 1991. Today 3.5 million people still live in Soweto. Some areas within it are quite nice, but for the most part, life there is still pretty grim. Even so, the residents were eager for us to take photos.
Soweto Shanty Town
houses and community well
Regina Mundi Catholic Church
(Soweto Gospel Choir info)
We visited the Regina Mundi Catholic Church which still bears police bullet holes from the days it served as a sanctuary for Soweto protesters. Inside we chanced to hear the choir rehearsing in Zulu.
It was absolutely transporting!
(Hover over the picture at left to hear)
Hector Peterson Memorial
Makalolo Main Lodge
Moremi Tent
Inside Moremi Tent
From Johannesburg, we spent three nights each in four different safari camps: Chobe Lodge in the Chobe National Park & Moremi Camp in the Okavanga Delta of Botswana, Namushasha in Mudumu Game park on Namibia's Caprivi Strip and Makalolo in Zimbabwe's Hwange Park. Three of these camps were quite remote. Two of the three were tented camps, with sturdy tents built above the ground on wooden platforms. The tents were connected by raised wooden walkways that dipped to ground level every now and then to allow animals to pass through the camp. These tents had king size beds, electricity, toilets and showers with solar hot water - anything but primative. However, we were escorted to our tents each night by guides armed with loaded rifles, just in case of unwelcome 4 legged company. They told us to stay in our tents until daybreak and provided each tent with an airhorn in case we required emergency aid. The night sounds were fascinating, but never scary. Nothing tried to get into our tents, at least while we were in them.
Kwando River Boat
Flight to Mudumo Game Park
Namibia Customs
Steve in the front of a Macoro Canoe
on the Gamoti River
Land Rover game drives looking for animals
Converted Troup Carrier
Mudumu Gamer Park, Namibia
Makalolo Treehouse
A hike breifing by Guide Belinda
with loaded rifle
Makalolo waterhole treehouse
with waterbuck
Peggy with new camera lens
2 Elephants along Chobe River
Far Elephant with new lens
Steve with new binoculars
Peggy photos elephants up close
Peggy takes a break near a pod of Hippos
Steve taking Polaroids
Steve sharing Polaroids
Participation at the Traditional Village
Giraffes Sail Through Treetops
The Lion are Full
Zebra Stipes Make Me Dizzy
Baboons Have Lots of Friends
Can a Hippo Yawn ?
Lions at Dawn
South African Animal Stories
Steve wrote some stories for our grandkids during our trip. Together with our photos and some video by fellow traveler Carol Eberwein, they help describe our incredible experience with the animals.
(Click here to link to the stories page.)
(You'll definitely need the Flash Player to see these movies)
As you can see by the circled star on the map above, four of the countries we visited come togther near Victoria Falls. Our tour teased us by passing through the town several times, coming and going between the 4 game parks, allowing us only to see the mist and hear the roar of the falls. But in the end, we finally got to see these spectacular falls, the world's largest sheet of falling water. Wikipidea facts about Victora Falls
Peggy Returning from the Helicopter
A Helicopter View of Victoria Falls
The Zambezi River gorge below the falls
From the helicopter, you can see that the land is flat for miles around. Then you see this gigantic cloud of mist rising from the land and, as you come near, you can hear the roar of the water as it plunges 360 feet to the rocks of the gorge below. At the end of the rainy season when the river is full, the falls plunges over 5 cateracts, fully a mile across from the Zimbabwe to the Zamia sides of the river. Rainbows dance through the mist. Then the gorge continues to twist and turn for many miles into the distance, like a giant scar across the land.
Victoria Falls Park Sign
Rainbows at Victoria Falls
Steve drenched by the falls mist
You can visit Victoria Falls on foot, too. You walk the paths atop the high plateau between the curves of the snaking gorge. You stand on one cliff and look just a few hundred yards across at the massive wall of thundering water. Nowhere on the ground can you see the entire expanse of the falls at one time. The sky above is clear and blue, the sun is warm, then suddenly a cloud of mist rises up and rains down on you. You are drenched in an instant. (They warn you to take a plastic bag for your camera.)
Elegant 1904 Victoria Falls Hotel
Mist & Gorge from Victoria Falls Hotel
River Gorge in front of Victoria Falls Hotel
Livingstone Main Street
Livingstone Old Town
Zambezi Sunset Cruise
One afternoon, we crossed the 1900 bridge over the gorge to visit Livingstone in Zambia. The town was named after the famous African explorer, David Livingstone 1813 - 1873, who is well regared locally because of his friendship with the people and his strong stance against slavery. Livingstone, the town, is not as touristy as Victoria Falls,and there is a good museum about David Livingstone and the history of the area.
In 1855, David Livingston was on an expedition for the British government to find an access route from the Indian Ocean into the interior of central Africa. He became the first European to see the falls and because of their grandure, he named them for Queen Victora. The local people called the falls "the smoke that thunders". Arabs may have know them as the "end of the world". But Europeans didn't believe they could exist because there are no mountains nearby.
One evening, we enjoyed a sunset cruise on the Zambezi river above the falls. The upper river is wide, flat, smooth and placid, populated with birds, hippos and crocodiles. You'd never guess what lies around the next island, except for the mist and the roar.
The Zambezi River, the fourth longest in Africa at about half the length of the Nile, was key to the 1890 Heligoland-Zanzibar Treaty. Germany, who controlled today's Namibia (then called German South-West Africa) wanted access to the Zambezi River, believing it would give them a trade route to the Indian Ocean and their colony of Tanzania. England agreed to give them a narrow strip of land across the top of Botswana, which was then a British Protectorate, in exchange for the island of Zanzibar, off the coast of Tanzania. The strip became known as the Caprivi Strip, after the then German chancellor Leo von Caprivi. However, the British neglected to tell the Germans about the falls and the fact that the river is not navigable. There was more to the Treaty, but this is the story our guide Edward told us.
Craft Market - Steve negotiating
Steve with wood artist
We couldn't pass up the Victoria Falls Crafts Market, where Steve got seriously into negotiations and we came away with two lovely iron wood heads. At the end of our Victoria Falls stay, we visited the locals open air market. Not only was it full of a variety of fresh foods, but alos contained a large clothing and household items area and several individual shops.
Steve sampling caterpillars
Our hostess with embroidery
Egypt is a completely different African experience. More big, but obviously in a much different way. The temples, the tombs, the columns and walls, the pyramids and the sphinx, they’re all just immense. That they are still there to visit is a tribute in part to building things in one of the dryer places on earth where objects can survive for centuries, especially if they’re covered with sand, and partly to the Egyptians 3,000+ year preoccupation with their pharaohs and those pharaohs’ journeys through the afterlife. There are things and places that have to be seen to be believed and appreciated. That’s Egypt. And the fish and shellfish in Alexandria (the one quite wonderful and attractive modern Egyptian city) are many and delicious.
