Three Weeks Across Africa

WARNING: This one is a honkin' entry -- it covers three weeks and thousands of miles. Sit back and enjoy the ride. (At least that's what we tried to do...)

Given this particular entry, it's probably best to see these images in the context of the trip, but if do you want to skip ahead to all the photos Click Here.

If, on the other hand, you'd like to view the photos in context with the editorial, click in the links as indicated. Happy reading!
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We began in Zimbabwe and ended in Cape Town.

At times it was pure Heaven and other times it was pure Hell. Although I've never given birth, it was probably a lot like that -- painful times but remarkable in retrospect. So remarkable, I'd do it again.

Dave Machin, one of the five guys on the trip, said it best: "as hokey as it sounds, the best part has been the people."

It certainly was not the bus.

Our overland truck had a Mercedes engine and even boasted a Mercedes logo on the front, but the rest of it was pure, lovable junk. It was indisputably the single ugliest overland bus on the road. Our driver and guide both took exception to the remark, but they would have been ill pressed to find a worse looking vehicle during the three weeks we called this dump home.

It was pumpkin orange and dirt white. When I asked Hugo, our driver, how many miles the truck had on it, his response was "who knows"? Apparently, the odometer had been around the block so many times that somewhere along the way the mechanics lost count.

The only thing uglier than the exterior was the interior. Dusty, tattered seats with no legroom sat on sticky floors. Two of our compatriots, Dawn and Hillary, were assigned the task of "maintaining the cleanliness" of the truck's interior. "This is your home for the next three weeks," our tour leader Zoe said. "I hope you will treat it just as you would your own home."

If this were my home, I would have saved every penny to purchase a new one.

Click here to see our home away from home...

But it was home and for all its faults we came to love our time on it. I learned more car and card games than I had in the past twenty years, thanks in large part to Hillary, an 18 year old Cambridge teen who will be headed off to medical school next year after spending five months as a "chalet girl" followed by travel to South America with her brother. (Life has changed considerably since I was 18).

If the people on the bus were the highlight -- and thank God they were because we spent a ton of time on that bus -- the almost daily task of setting up/taking down camp was the low point. Although I was blessed to have a "single" room/tent, that came with the responsibility of setting up and taking down the tent by myself. On the first night, though, Dr. Dave, as he came to be known because of his day job as an orthopedic surgeon in Liverpool, England, came to my rescue. He was wicked fast at setting up his own tent before moving on to help me with mine. (Admittedly, it took twice as long to erect my tent because I insisted on "helping.")

Getting There

I'll skip the details of the my initial flight from Cape Town to Zimbabwe except to say that my iPod was swiped at the airport, most likely by customs officials. For those who don't know much about the conditions in Zimbabwe (and I didn't), this country is run by a corrupt government that has driven inflation to a whopping 6,000% per year. Yup, 6,000% -- with a comma, not a period. Zimbabwe has the highest inflation level of any country in the world. You get in a cab on a Monday and it will cost $5,000 Zimbabwean to take a 10-minute cab ride and the next day it will be $10,000. Thinking we were being ripped off, we'd cite the price we'd paid the day before. "Inflation," the cab driver would tell us. And given that $10,000 Zimbabwean was worth about $2.50 US, it was hard to argue.

The primary attraction of Zimbabwe is Victoria Falls, which is one of several places in Africa that has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Click here to see photos of Victoria Falls

I had arrived late in Zimbabwe because in addition to the iPod swipe, my flight was late. I missed the white water rafting (thank goodness), but did arrive in time to go for a stroll with some lion cubs and a lioness. Although advertised as a "Walk With the Lions," in retrospect I think I'm happy that the advertising didn't live up to its promise. (In reality, lions are a little too aggressive to go strolling with a pod of people. In my head I knew that, but it did sound kinda' cool anyway.)

Click Here to See Photos of my Stroll with the Lion (Cubs)

Zimbabwe's conditions are such that there is a massive shortage of food on grocery store shelves. You may hear that this is a rumor; don't believe it. We couldn't do our shopping for our "truck meals" until we left the country. For those uninitiated to overlanding, our truck meals typically consisted of three meals a day prepared truck-side under the watchful eye of our terrific Zimbabwean cook, Douglas. Douglas had previously worked at the Sheraton in Zimbabwe, but the pay was so unstable that he took the job with Dragoman Overland in order to be paid in US dollars, which he sends home to his wife and three children.

Click here to see our crew -- Zoe (our leader), Hugo (her boyfriend, mechanic and driver) and Douglas (our cook and all-around great guy)

From Zimbabwe, we headed to Chobe National Park, the largest game park in Botsowana, which is famed for its huge elephant population. There are currently around 120,000 elephants in the area, so it wasn't hard to see/snap photos of them. We also saw hippos (more on them later), but it's good to know here that they are the most aggressive animals in the kingdom. While there, we took a magnificent boat trip along the river, where we saw more African wildlife than you would at the Bronx Zoo. It was very, very cool.

Click Here to See Just a Glimpse of What We Saw During our River Cruise

From Chobe, it was off to spend some time relaxing at Ngepi Camp, located in the upper reaches the Okavango Delta, which became my favorite place throughout the trip. (The Delta, not the Camp, although it was amazing.)

What distinguishes the Ngepi Camp most is their outdoor toilets -- 10 in all. Their brochure claims that their johns are among the most photographed in the world. My guess is they are right.

Click Here to See Just a Few of the Most Photographed Johns in the World. (And We Had to Use them, Too...)

Ngepi was also home to the world's only swimming hole that claims to be "hippo and crocodile safe". Yes indeedie, there were hippos and crocs in them there delta, but we swam in a caged off area. Fun for a moment, but scary as hell.

From Ngepi, we drove south into Botswana to Sepupa, where we left our hunk o'junk and boarded small dugout styled canoes and were poled by local tribesmen into the reed beds of the Okavango Delta toward our camp. This trip -- along with a longer trip the next day -- proved to be a surprising highlight of the trip.

Although we had been promised we would be "bush camping" -- read no toilets/no showers/no electricity -- we were shocked and in my case delighted to find a bar, toilets, gorgeous outdoor rain showers and large tents with cots. About the only thing that provided some cause for concern was the warning in the toilets, which were located a fairly long walk from our tents. While perched on the john, a large note warned us to "exercise caution and carry a torch" when visiting the john in the evenings as there were "snakes, hippos and elephants" on the premises.

The Case of the Missing Flashlight(s)

During our first night in Camp, a bunch of us were hanging in the bar when one of the girls (yes, we did call ourselves girls here) went to her tent to grab a sweater. She borrowed a flashlight, but never came back.

So...one of the other girls borrowed another flashlight to check on her. She, too, never returned.

Then...one of the girls borrowed my flashlight. Eventually she reemerged (much to my relief because that was my only flashlight) to announce that the girls were being held captive by a hippo outside the tent.

Yup, it was one of those hippos we'd been warned about. A few of the guys went to the tent to "rescue" the girls. Dave Harrison was most excited about seeing a hippo up close. I guess he forgot that part about hippos being the most aggressive animal in Africa, but his girlfriend, Laura, reminded him.

The guys made their way to the tent and coxed the girls out by assuring them that the bar with the drinks would be safer than the tent with the lurking hippo. Together, they returned to the bar with our flashlights, where we decided it drink heavily and hope our neighboring hippo went to sleep.

(He didn't -- the guy roared, or whatever you call a hippo that makes really loud noises, for most of the night.)

The next morning was in stark contrast to the night before, with one notable exception that I'll tell you about in a paragraph or two. We began the morning with an hour trip through the meandering waterways before catching up with our guide who took us on a two-hour trek through relentless heat to view the wildlife.

Click Here to See Some of the Photos of our Poling Trip Along the Okavango Delta

We saw animals of all kinds, but the highlight of the trip appeared to be our close-up encounter with some elephants. As we snapped away, we saw elephants on our right. Then on our left. Then straight ahead. Then our guide told us to turn around and move slowly but deliberately in the opposite direction. Turns out that nobody wants to be surrounded by elephants. "'Twas a very dangerous situation," he told us later. (We did get some terrific pictures, though.)

And Click Here to See Shots of the Elephants that Surrounded Us During our "Very Dangerous" Trek in the Delta

From the Okavango Delta, it was on to spend the night with the Bushmen in a true bush camp. This was a stop that wasn't on our itinerary -- we were supposed to visit a local community project to "play with the children," but our guide wisely told us that the school had become so overrun with overlanders that it had lost its luster.

As we turned onto the road toward the Bushman's camp, known as The Living Village, some of us -- including me -- were more than a little skeptical. It felt a little like something we might see in Epcot in Florida. But it wasn't.

Turns out that the Bushmen are working hard to develop a way to sustain themselves after years of no longer being able to farm their land. The land is now pure sand and where they used to grow food, they now have nothing.

As we pulled into the camp, we quickly forgot the fact that we'd had to dig our truck out of the sand twice while traveling the two mile road into the bush. We were surrounded by children who saw only one thing on our truck: our soccer ball.

So, before we could even set up our tents, we soon were embroiled in a serious match. It's hard to tell who won, but my guess the kids did. Our team may have been good, but these kids were great.

Click Here to See the Soccer Match in Action

That evening, we moved to a traditional Bushman ceremony. It felt touristy at first, but we were later told that in addition to bringing in income for the tribe, the ceremony provides an opportunity for the children to stay connected to their traditions and culture. The children -- 190 in all -- go to school in the camp until the fifth grade, after which some of them make a three hour trek to a week-long boarding school. Most of the children speak their tribal language, which includes fourteen different 'clicks,' as well as Afrikans and English. There is a relentless focus on education here, but there is also a silent agreement among the bushmen that the children will return home to help the community continue to grow and thrive.

The Case of the Raw Meat

For some reason, getting into the bushman's camp with our dinner for the following night was easy. Getting out, however, was a different story. As we exited what appeared to be a customs area (and it certainly wasn't) we were stopped by customs-looking officials (and they certainly weren't) who said they had to search our bus for raw meat. Not surprisingly, their "station" was surrounded by the nicest houses in the area and well dressed families were outside during the inspection.

Wouldn't you know it that this was the one night -- the only night -- that Douglas had planned to blow much of our food kitty on T-Bone Steaks?

The faux customs officials discovered the T-Bones and told us that because the meat was raw we could not take it any further. We stressed that we'd purchased the steaks outside the bush camp (like you could buy T-Bone in a bush camp), but he could not be persuaded.

From there, one of our guys got practical. "We will just pull over and cook the meat," he said.

And we did. We set up our truck-side stove and cooked 17 T-Bones, much to the surprise of the faux customs official. (The families didn't look too pleased either.)

The only hitch was that one of our guys took a photo of the guard, who became more than a tad agitated. He ordered our guy to delete the photo, which he did. The faux official then wanted to see all the photos on the camera. Given that the camera contained more than 1,000 photos, it was promising to be a long day. Nonetheless, we somehow escaped with our nearly-cooked meat sans the single photo that had caused such an uproar.

We finished off the T's on the grill later that night. I can't recall anytime that steaks have tasted so good.

The Case of the (Near) Wild Animal Attack

I've thought more than once about whether or not to include this next entry in the blog, but since it became a matter of lore on the trip, I figure I have no choice.

First, you need to know that the Etosha National Park in Namabia is home to a vast range of wildlife. While there, we saw virtually every animal imaginable. We also saw a wide range of animals consuming a dead elephant. For some reason, this sight became a highlight of the safari, with numerous people (including us) driving around and around the circle to get the best shots. (I for one decided to skip that one.)

Click Here for Photos of Just a Few of the Animals We Saw During our Safaris in Estosha

After witnessing the animals (many of whom are dangerous) as well as the consumption of the dead elephant, I'm sure you can understand how I felt at about 2 am when an animal scurried across my tent and stumbled on top of my head. I was asleep at the time, but I can assure you it was a serious wake up call.

I sat upright as a loud fight occurred outside the tent. It was pretty clear to me that the animals were fighting over the food we had left in the garbage can, but having seen that damn dead elephant, I couldn't help feeling I might be next. (Especially since at least one animal knew where my head was.)

After about 30 minutes of pure terror, I finally came up with a brilliant idea: I would call my brother in California. When I couldn't reach him due to a bad cell connection, we resorted to text messages.

Here's a verbatim recap of the exchange (thanks to my brother who sent it to me as a way to relive the experience -- gee thanks Michael).

MELINDA: Michael, are you there?

MICHAEL: Yes.

MELINDA: Can you try to contact officials at Estosha National Park? We are in campsite 22 and surrounded by dangerous sounding game. It is the middle of the night here.

MICHAEL: I'll be back to you soon.

MELINDA: Try Vicky Papas at Adventure Center in Emeryville. She is my travel agent and should know what to do.

Long pause before next text. Very, very long pause.

MICHAEL: Vicky's office is getting in touch with Dragoman's offices. They say to stay put (like I was going to go outside the tent...). Dangerous game is not unusual. (Thanks for the insight.) I'll keep looking for a direct phone at the Park.

After numerous more e-mails and the passing of more than 90 minutes, I told Michael that it had been quiet for awhile and "the danger may have passed.")

Of course, the next day I was the laughing stock of the camp. Everyone had slept through the incident with the exception of Douglas, our cook, who checked out the scene with his flashlight before determining that it was a bunch of wildcats fighting over food and went back to sleep.

Of course, I might have slept through it as well, but for the fact that that damn animal ran over my head when he ran over the tent. Honestly, I felt his feet...

After that experience, I wasn't at all disappointed to leave Estosha (as beautiful as it was) to head off to a Kamanjab, home to an enormous private cheetah reserve.

For those who don't know (and, again, I didn't), there are less than an estimated 7,500 cheetahs left in the world, and about 6,000 of these are found in Southern Africa. Recent surveys have shown that Namibia has 2,000-2,500 cheetah. Unfortunately, Namibia is one of the few areas in the world where it is still legal to shoot cheetahs, despite the fact that they are on the endangered species list. Namibia has been granted this exception because cheetahs have a tendency to get onto farm land and kill the stock.

The family running the Otjitotongwe Cheetah Park is dedicated to preservation of the cheetah. Today, they have a program to capture and then pay farmers for their stock as a way of avoiding certain death. The captured cheetahs are then transferred to the cheetah park, where they are released into an enclosure with other wild cheetahs.

Our trip to the Park began with a tour of the family home, where three cheetahs live as family members, wandering the front and back yard and cozying up to visitors. I never would have thought cheetahs would make good pets, but as long as you're comfortable keeping large quantities of Zebra liver in your refrigerator it seems to be fine.

After visiting with the "tame" cheetahs, we went on a cheetah safari.

Click Here to See the Cheetahs at their Wild Best

Note: Those who are a little squeamish should skip these photos of the cheetahs consuming really, really big pieces of Zebra liver...

(I'll also chose to skip the part where Pareet -- one of three vegetarians in our group -- was showered with Zebra liver when the guide misjudged a throw... He was a remarkably good sport, but I'm not sure we saw that shirt again.)

After visiting a couple more places, Swakopmund was our next major stop. Surrounded by massive dune fields of the Namibia Desert on one side and the Atlantic Ocean on the other, this was the first metropolitan stop on our tour. Finally -- no tents and a bar with MTV! It was there that I learned to balance a bottle of beer on my head. (Others may have photos of that -- in fact I know they do -- but I'll skip them for now.)

My appointment to go skydiving was postponed in favor of a trip to the chiropractor, who told me that my back/neck problems were the result of sitting too much and not getting enough exercise. Not much I could do about that, given that we were spending about eight hours a day on a bus. He did, however, give me drawings of the "ideal posture" I should be using on the bus. That might have worked were the seats a little more conducive to "ideal posture."

I did, however, go dune biking. I didn't realize it at the time, but that involved heading off on an ATV for about two hours through the purest sand you can imagine. The scenery was among the most beautiful I've ever seen, which would have been a joy to behold were I not terrified of flipping my bike while traversing the mountains at remarkable speeds. (OK, not so remarkable -- I was in the baby group -- but it certainly felt fast.)

The dunes got even more beautiful when we arrived at Sesriem Canyon & Soussusvlei, home to some of the largest dunes in the world. Soussusvlei is also home to a forest of dead trees that are hundreds of years old and sitting in a concrete solid patch of sand.

This Click is Worth It: Visit Some of Largest Dunes in the World, As Well as the Dead Trees in the Sand

From Soussusveli, we began the trek back to Cape Town, stopping at many beautiful sights along the way. Again, I clicked away with my camera, but I think I've given you enough of a taste so far. (In other words, I'm going to skip the 150 shots I took of baby penguins.)

For all the scenery and wildlife experiences, though, Dave Machin was right: it was the people who made this trip unforgettable. Special shout outs to my "special bus buddies", with whom I shared numerous card/car games: Dave Harrison, Lara Fitt, David Machin, Hillary Graffy, and Rachel Ford. Machin gets special thanks for helping me put up/tear down my tent.

In addition to our crew there were 17 overlanders --

11 Brits
2 Irishmen
2 New Zealandars
1 Canadian
1 American (me)

We were 4 couples, 1 guy traveling alone and 13 women.

Despite our differences -- and there were many -- we had the time of our lives.

My mother used to say that if you were truly having fun on a vacation you'd forget to shoot pictures. While I did a pretty good job on the tourist-type shots, I was positively lousy at shooting shots of my new friends.

Click Here to See Just a Few of My Bus Buddies

Next Stop is China.

Again, you may have to wait a bit for the entry. The photos are more honkin' than the editorial (which is easy). The photos take forever to load!

Cheers (British) or Zai Jian (Chinese),

Melinda