Zimbabwe

A land that is portrayed bad in the media, has some of the best game parks, sites, and people in the world

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What can I say about Zimbabwe!!!!  It has just about everything you can ask for in a country that is given a negative portrayal in the media.  Let’s forget that they had the second biggest hyperinflation in history just 8 years ago and their president is not exactly the most liked person.  Let’s forget that prices are somewhat expensive compared to other African countries as they use the US Dollar.  Lets also forget that they had an unfortunate incident with a certain Lion that was killed which was not covered correctly by the press.  Let’s just focus on how much this country has to offer in all the different regions.

First of all, Victoria Falls is one of the natural wonders of the world and is split by the Zambia and Zimbabwe side.  With just a few accommodations and restaurants in this little town, it almost feels like you are right at home staying here.  With so many activities here, you can spend a life time and still not get the full effect.  Different things to do are High Tea English style at the ever so quaint Victoria Falls Hotel, a helicopter ride over Victoria Falls, a sunset cruise down the river with many different game animals, and the ever so famous extreme activities (I only did the flying fox across the gorge as my fear of heights led me to cancel the gorge swing and also the zipline).

Victoria Falls High Tea

Extreme Activities (which i chickened out on the last two)

Helicopter ride over Victoria Falls

Sunset Cruise with Animal Safari

 

Bulawayo was next up as I saw this town which was a blast from the past (looked something like 1960’s small town America).  I really did not spend much time in town at all in the city as my main focus here was to see the Black Rhino staying in its natural habitat. THIS IS ONE OF THE ONLY PLACES IN THE WORLD THAT YOU CAN STILL DO A WALKING SAFARI!!!!!  Of course, this was also the final resting place of Cecil Rhodes who helped to colonize parts of Africa and Rhodesia is named after him. To my luck we actually got about 5 meters from 3 Black Rhinos and were able to take pictures of them for a long while before they scampered off.  We also got to see some petroglyphs that some people think are thousands of years old and tells about how life was with the Khoi people of the area long ago…

Walking Black Rhino Safari

 Next up was probably one of the highlights of the trip for me as we stayed at Antelope Park.  Started in the mid 80’s it was home to many Antelope, now it is a Lion Release program for all of the lions in the area.  Many of the farmers here will shoot the lions as they threaten their livestock, but through efforts of this organization, they are able to save them then release them into an area in order to help the species.  They had different programs including the Lion Feeding, Elephant Encounter, Lion Cages, Lion Walking, Lion Cub Viewing, and of course Horseback riding across the game park.  This place was truly and amazing experience and one of my favorite campsites across Africa.

Elephant Encounter

Lion Cub Viewing

Safari Horseback Ride

Lion Enclosure

Lion Walking

Lion Feeding

We then made our way down to one of the southern most parts of Zimbabwe to see The Great Zimbabwe.  This is a structure perhaps a thousand years old that is one of the best preserved signs of Civilizations in Sub Sahara Africa.  I have taught this before in my classes and it was truly an amazing experience to see.  This was only shadowed by the band of monkeys that invaded our camp trying to get food and harass us.

 

We then headed to a National Park called Chimanimani.  This park located in the Zimbabwean Highlands was once a favorite vacation spot for people back in the hay day.  The town now has very little tourism as they are trying to recover from the financial crisis that looms.  I did a hike to the Bridal Veil Falls to see this great natural wonder before heading off to lunch in a traditional village and finally to see a traditional Medicine Man who told us about his remedies from tree bark and roots found in the area….

Stayed in Harare for about five days sorting out visas was a fun time.  Met some great people around the city and did not take too many pictures as it is a capital city and I am not a big fan of any capital city…….and the adventure continues….

Botswana

The land of Hippos, Giraffes, Ostriches, and Elephants

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Botswana certainly lived up to its reputation of having good game parks.  The country is sparsely populated like that of neighboring Namibia, but what it lacks in people, it makes up in amazing scenery and wildlife.

I have always wanted to go to the Okavango Delta since I was a kid and saw pictures of it.  As you know most Deltas empty out into a sea or ocean, but the Okavango Delta empties out into into the Kalahari Desert and pretty much disappears.

I decided the best option to see this was do a three day bush camp right in the middle of one of the islands on the delta.  Of course to get here, you have to spend an hour on Mokoro’s (floating canoes), through endless fresh waterways and vegetation.

 

My experience at the Okavango Delta was nothing more than fascinating.  It was an easy three days of laying around camp and reading or talking and taking safari walks across the delta.  We were able to get close enough to animals without being in a vehicle and see how they help each other watch for predators around.  We were warned at night to be careful if we left our tent in case lions or hyenas decided to come to our camp with gave an added thrill to the experience in knowing that we were among all the animals.  Six of our group members actually got chased by an angry elephant and had to run for their lives from it.  The best experience about the delta was of course getting close to the hippos (about 100 meters), which was too close for comfort for some of the people in our group as they are known for having very short tempers when provoked.  The rest of the pictures below will speak wonders about what we saw

 

Chobe National Park was a great surprise for wildlife also.  Chobe River which straddles Zimbabwe, Namibia, Zambia, and Botswana is the only place in the world where four countries meet.  The cruise we took down the river proved to be a great way to see wildlife and how they use the river for their daily lives.  We were able to see crocodiles, hippos, and elephants just to name a few.  The pictures below will give an up close and personal view of the journey we took.

 

Overall Botswana was a beautiful country with massive amounts of wildlife running everywhere (not just in national parks).  This is a country that I would surely recommend to anyone who wants a great shot of seeing wildlife…..

 

Namibia

The land of vast deserts, stunning scenery, game meat, and the best town in Africa (Swakopmund)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I would rank Namibia up there with Madagascar and Iceland for scenery.  I have heard so much about it in the past but I was excited to witness it for myself.  We entered Namibia from Angola and we were very surprised to see how advanced many of the BIGGER towns and cities were.

We stopped in Etosha National Park (two times) and this was the first shower that many of us had at the campsite in 28 days!!!!  The animals were out in numbers from Giraffes, Wildebeests, Rhinos, Zebras and Elephants just to name a few.  We even got a look at two lionesses that were happily resting under a tree.  This place was teeming with so many animals, we didn’t know what to do with ourselves.  It is truly one of the best National Parks thus far I have encountered.

As we headed south, we went along with Skeleton Coast, with its vast desert and almost unbearable wind and cold, it practically made everyone put on all their cold weather gear in preparation for the drive.

Cape Cross was a place where explorers landed hundreds of years ago, however today it is home to one of the biggest seal colonies in Africa.  I have seen seal colonies before but when you see thousands of them in one place barking and waddling around, you come to appreciate the area in which they live.  Many of them you can get really close to as they rarely jump or move away.

Situated  in the middle of the desert, Spitzkopp had some of the oldest cave paintings in Namibia done by bushmen.  The height of the mountain just jutting out of the desert amazes even me.  We spent a good night relaxing under the mountain where our tents were perched.

Sossusuvlei  in my opinion is one of the modern wonders of the physical world.  Red Sand dunes brilliantly line the desert.  The sunrise after a walk up to one of the dunes was beautiful especially with the fluffy clouds.  Although I did not walk up the highest sand dune in the world, I decided to take my time in photographing Dedvlei which used to be a lake hundreds of years ago, but is now just a petrified type forest.  I would love to say that I photo edited these photos, but I did not.  The white clouds, green trees, red sand, and blue sky always look this way…..take a look at the pictures to see for yourself

Swakopmund is one of those cities I could probably go back to time and time again.  It is literally a diamond in the rough and the center of all extreme sport activities in Namibia.  The dunes that surround it begged me to go sand boarding, which I did and crashed several times.  The relaxing feel of the city with its serene nightlife, game meats, and many restaurants, caused me to go back a second time…..

Second time in Swakopmund let me relax the feeling of the town, and get some shopping in.  Hanging around at Beryl’s restaurant by day and Desert Tavern by night.  I also decided to partake in a small cruise of seal and dolphin watching which we loved….Swakopmund you are officially my favorite city in Africa!!!!

Taking different excursions around Swakopmund, I decided to do a Seal and Dolphin Excursion.  It was very difficult to see the dolphins, however the seals and massive pelicans came on board in order to see what food we had.  The pictures are worth a thousand words on here.

Went on a beautiful township tour and saw how most of these people really live.  Again, even though they have very little, they are all very happy.  The highlight of this was probably the school with children (see pics below).

We had the opportunity to go to a Cheetah farm in which there are tame and wild Cheetahs.  A family a number of years ago started taking in Cheetahs from nearby farms as farmers were killing them because of dangers to their livestock.  Watching the Cheetahs being fed and how they ate was an experience that I soon won’t forget.

From there we headed to the beautiful city of Windhoek which was the first real modern city we had scene since Morocco.  Walking around it made me realize that for the last four months, we really had been in the wild west part of Africa and now we are slowly getting back into civilization.

We then headed onto Orange River for some great Kayaking down the river and in preparation for meeting our border crossing into South Africa….