- Connard Hogan
- 12 hours ago
- 8 min read
Bottom line: Getting back to your roots can be a spiritual experience!
Sunset from Hwange
National Park, Zimbabwe.
Janet and I recently joined a Smithsonian Journey to South Africa, Zimbabwe and Botswana, places we'd never been. Though a short trip in duration, our itinerary kept us busy as beavers, and we were filled with great memories of encounters with a wide spectrum of wild animals ... up close, that is. In addition, we were treated to three lectures by Dr. Robert Schrire about South Africa's apartheid past, it's current political environment and potential future. And, it should go without saying, we took necessary precautions against illnesses, for example by dosing ourselves with a generic version of malarone to ward off malaria.
Thursday, Oct 2 (Cape Town, South Africa) – We spent a "free day" before our tour activities began in earnest by touring several nearby wineries.
Friday, Oct 3 (Cape Town) – After an orientation meeting, we toured the peninsula south of South Africa's "mother city".
1) Cape Town was originally establish in 1652 as a "rest and resupply stop" by the Dutch for ships rounding Africa's southern cape.
2) The Chinese were visiting and charting that shorelines as early as 1421!
3) Along our drive, we learned that one of the local wines is named "Splattered Toad", originating from toad road kill, a result of migrating creatures crossing roads during egg-laying season.
The tip of the Cape of Good Hope.
4) Originally named Cape of Storms by Bartolomeu Dias in 1488, the cape was renamed by King John II of Portugal in order to encourage the poor wretches rounding Africa on the ships.
5) Ironically, the Cape of Good Hope is not the most southern tip of Africa. Cape Agulhas, east and 34 miles farther south, owns that distinction, and many ships mistook the Bay of False Hope as their route of passage to Europe.
False Bay (distant left) and Cape
of Good Hope (below the right peaklet).
6) South Africa has eleven official languages, respecting the various tribes and subsequent immigrants, such as the Dutch descendant Afrikaners, and the English. Remember the Boer War between England and the Dutch settlers? (Though apparently, there were two!)
Headed back to Cape Town via the western side of False Bay, we stopped at Boulders Beach to view a colony of African Penguins.
One of the many penguins at the
colony approaches viewers without
concern. (BTW, that's sand, not snow!)
Saturday, Oct 4 (Cape Town) – We headed to Robben Island via ferry from Cape Town Harbor.
Cape Town Harbor
and Table Mountain.
We toured Robben Island, used as a prison location and leper colony off and on from1683. A former political prisoner provided us a guided tour of the facility, including Nelson Mandela's cell.
Nelson Mandela's cell.
After returning to Cape Town, clouds obscured Table Mountain, so we drove to adjacent Devil's Peak, though clouds hampered panoramic views from there, as well.
A portion of Cape Town from the
flank of Devil's Peak. (Our hotel,
pink, is roughly centered.)
Sunday, Oct 5 through Tuesday, Oct 7 (Kapama Private Game Reserve) – We flew to tiny Hoedspruit airport near Kapama Private Game Preserve. And, while staying at the lodge, we were treated two "Game Drives" daily, several hours each morning and each evening. And, we started living an African wild-game National Geographic documentary, rather than watching one on TV!
Riding in specially adapted jeeps during our six Game Drives, we witnessed a multitude of animals.
7) We were warned to remain seated (as well, by no means leave the vehicle), and if we didn't yell or make wild gestures, the animals would consider us as part of the jeep ... and, that the animals, having never been threatened or harmed in association to the jeeps, would not react with alarm or fear. And, so it was!
A stately male Cape Buffalo.
A leopard!
Family herds commingle at a waterhole.
A male lion heads for a snack.
Same lion snacks on a giraffe.
Hippos in their element.
8) Except to eat, hippos do almost everything in the water, where they keep cool, and protected from predators and the sun's harsh UV-rays.
Warthogs, eating what?
I couldn't determine what they were so interested in!
Several giraffes, in no hurry.
11) Giraffes browse on the straight thorns of Acacia trees, which are modified leaves. (We were warned not to feed a giraffe as the tongue could rip the skin from your hand!)
12) Giraffes have the highest blood pressure of land animals ... 220/180 mmHg when standing, but can rise to 330/200 mmHg when drinking water. Gotta move that blood up and down a long neck!
A Red Hornbill.
Vervet Monkey with baby perches
on the roof of our resort lodge.
We saw no African wild dogs, though they do roam into the preserve as they have an expansive range. As well, they are the rarest (most endangered) of the land animals there.
13) Though not the fastest of land animals, reaching a speed of 70 kph (43.5 mph), wild dogs have considerable endurance and tire their prey prior to attack, figeratively running them into the ground.
Though we didn't see the termites, their mounds are indeed impressive.
Active colony termite mound.
14) Termite queens can live up to 50 (fifty) years!
Wednesday, Oct 8 (Johannesburg) – After flying to Johannesburg, we drove to an impoverished township Kliptown, located in Soweto (short for South Western Townships). On the way to Kliptown, we stopped for lunch, where I enjoyed a locally brewed beer.
Houses in Kliptown (Soweto).
Then, we were driven to Pretoria for an overnight stay, originally to board the Rovos Rail train the following morning. That plan got "derailed", however, as a train mishap along the line blocked the track. (More on this later.)
Thursday, Oct 9 (Pretoria) – After our overnight in Pretoria, we visited the Rovos Rail Station.
Panorama of the Rovos Rail "Capital
Park Station" (Maintenance Yard far left).
Johan Vos, owner of Rovos Rail, gives
us a tour of the Maintenance Yard.
He explained that he purchases dilapidated train cars and refurbishes them in the style of former luxury-travel glory-days. Following our guided tour, we had lunch at the station. Then, we boarded buses, rather than the train, and were driven to Louis Trichardt, some 234 miles "up the line" in order to by-pass the blocked rail section.
Janet and I ready to board
the train in Louis Trichardt.
Our original compartment, more of a cubicle, would've likely resulted in "murder on the Rovos Express", as Janet and I later joked to others ... and, as luck had it, we upgraded to a larger compartment.
Janet in our compartment upgrade.
We settled in for our three-day train ride, rocking and rolling, as well as jerking forward and backward without prior notice, when the train stopped and started. Such are the joys of train travel in some parts of the world! Regardless, we soaked in the train's Victorian/Edwardian ambience of luxury as best we could.
The more regal of the two dining cars.
Janet poses in the
Observation Car (aka bar).
Friday, Oct 10 (Rovos Rail) – The train rumbled along as we crossed the border into Zimbabwe, near Beitbridge,
15) then traveled one of the longest straight stretches of track in the world, 114 km (71 miles).
Saturday, Oct 11 (Rovos Rail) – Our train stopped at Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe, and we enjoyed another Game Drive, observing more animals.
An infant baboon tentatively
explores the world.
Grazing Wildebeest.
Jackal. On the hunt?
Two Zebra leave the waterhole.
After our Game Drive, we re-boarded the train for Victoria Falls ... and, sometime in the night, I developed a case of "Montzuma's revenge"!
Sunday, Oct 12 (Victoria Falls) – We disembarked the train at Victoria Falls Station, and checked into our hotel. I informed our tour guide, Tina, of my malady. She suggested the cause was a side-effect of my malarone medication, and gave me several carbon pills to take, which I did. (Janet had similair symptoms, though I'll not ellaborate further!)
The Rovos train awaits it's next
passengers at Victoria Falls
Station across from our hotel.
Though feeling weak from lose of body fluids and sleep, I soldiered onward as we took a walking tour of nearby Victoria Falls, which provided us gorgeous views.
15) The falls borders Zambia and Zimbabwe,
16) and is just over a mile wide when the Zambezi River flows in abundance.
The falls from the Zimbabwe
side at the end the drier season.
Monday, Oct 13 (Chobe National Park, Botswana) – Feeling much better, I'd once again prevailed over Montezuma. By bus, we were driven to the border check point, then walked through "no-man's land" into Botswana. In Chobe National Park, we climbed into a jeep for another Game Drive, then later boarded a boat for a ride on the Chobe River to see the wildlife from a diiferent perspective.
A "journey" of giraffes
cross a Game Drive road.
17) Our game driver told us when stationary, they're referred to as a "tower"!
The Chobe River from
our Game Drive jeep.
A "committee, venue, or volt"
of vultures. (Take your pick!)
I prefer committee. Maybe, it's my suspicious nature, but I think they were conspiring!
18) If those vultures were eating, they'd be called a "kettle"! (Who thought that up?)
A male African Sable (antelope).
I always thought sables were smaller furry things! Aside from that, we saw animals I'd not previously heard of, such as Kudu, Tsessebe, Puli and Red Lechwe (all ungulates), not to mention the numerous winged critters.
Tsessebe headed away from the river.
19) We were informed that Tsessebe are among the fastest land animals, reaching speeds up to 56 mph, as opposed to cheetahs at 70 mph.
Guinea Fowl (aka Chobe Chicken).
Our game driver told us Chobe Chickens are tougher and not as tasty as our more common American tamed fowl of that name. (I took his word for it!)
A male Kudu checks us out.
(Impalas graze behind him.)
An Openbill Stork (African
variety) looks for a meal.
Chobe National Park proved to be a birder's paradise. I couldn't keep up with all the names of the birds we saw, much less snap photos of them.
An elephant snorkels across the Chobe
River in search of greener pastures.
We spotted two hippos grazing in the morning, which they sometimes do in order to beat the other grazers to the best stuff. Competition, you know!
Two grazers, unconcerned
about our presence, munch away.
20) Hippos graze on short grass,
21) can travel up to 6 (six) miles per outing,
22) and, with tusks instead of smaller teeth, they use their specially adapted lower lip to graze.
A mother crocodile guards
her egg nest on a small island
created by the Chobe River.
Soon after I captured this photo, another boat approached her to within several feet, and she didn't flinch! Our boat guide said she wouldn't move unless her eggs were threatened.
After our day's excursions, we were treated to local entertainment during dinner at our hotel.
Our evening's dinner entertainment
at Victoria Falls Hotel.
Tuesday, Oct 14 (Homeward bound) – Our African safaris come to a close, we flew to Johannesburg, then home via Dubai, arriving early evening Wednesday our local time.
I thoroughly enjoyed our safari adventures in Africa, found them informative, enlightening and enriching. I'd recommend travel there to anyone, particularly near the end of the dry season. (Hint: fewer mosquitoes and less tree leaves to obstruct spotting animals.)
May you enjoy your adventures and walk in beauty.