We just received this very detailed trip review from Barb. We could not have done better ourselves, so I am just posting it as it came from her:
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As I begin the log of our trip to Africa, I admit that it may read differently than normal. This writing will be part of a newspaper article about our trip. That said, here we go.
I believe it was back in October, 2007, when Jim got the bright idea of secretly planning a surprise trip to Africa for my 60th birthday. Our niece Jill & her husband Johannes had purchased an Environmental Design business in Gaborone, Botswana, the year before and were now living there, so he contacted them to help plan the trip. Fortunately, reality got the better of the plan & he told me what was going on before he purchased tickets for a December flight. Research on weather patterns (December & January are the heart of the rainy season), guests already scheduled at the J's for that time, & the desire of our son Jeremy to join us at a later time led to a March trip. Ironically, the choice of dates meant we celebrated Jill’s and Jeremy’s birthdays with them as well.
We left KCI Thursday morning, March 6, on the first leg of an approximately 23 hour journey with a layover in Atlanta and refueling at Cape Verde off the west coast of Africa. We arrived at Johannesburg, South Africa, only about ½ hour late, which meant ONLY about 18 ½ hours shut up in an airplane with something like 300 other people, all competing for aisle space and use of the one lavatory (we coach folks can’t use the first class space, you know). Ironically, seated in our section were some 17 Kentuckians also headed for Botswana as part of a Baptist mission group. Some of these people had been making this same trip for the past seven years.
Clearing customs in Jo’burg was a breeze and all of our luggage arrived with us, something that doesn’t always happen. Jill & Johannes were waiting patiently. We hit the airport ATM (Africa really likes VISA cards for everything. MASTERCARD is ok at most lodging places and some restaurants, leave your DISCOVER Card at home) to get some spending money. The Rand is the currency of South Africa. The exchange rate during our stay was about R7.98 to $1.00. A more realistic example of the exchange rate might be our dinner for four at a nice seafood restaurant with wine, starters and entrees was R441.60 ($55.29). My brain was working overtime every time I wanted to make a purchase.
Leaving the airport we were greeted by, go figure, rain. Yes, the rainy season was supposed to be over, but as we know here, there is no guarantee. It just made the short drive to Pretoria less pleasant.
Pretoria, the Capital of South Africa, is where we spent the first couple days of our visit. It also happens to be where Jill & Johannes met while attending the University of Pretoria. We stayed in a delightful Bed & Breakfast called De Zoete Inval and experienced our first authentic thatched roof. We spent some time walking the beautiful gardens at the Government Center which is located on a hill overlooking the city. We also had the opportunity to spend an evening with Lieth & Noreen Polson celebrating Jill’s birthday at a fine Greek restaurant. Lieth was Jill’s sponsor for her Rotary International Scholarship which is how she chose University there.
Urban South Africans refer to themselves and their country as being “Americanized”. I asked some of the people we met what this meant. Among their answers were such things as they play “soccer” like we do, not football, like the rest of the world. They have drive-thru, fast food restaurants like we do. And they love to shop. In fact while we were there in Pretoria, we went shopping at the largest mall in the southern hemisphere!
There are many differences as well. The most obvious, of course, is they drive on the left side of the road and cars have their steering wheels on the right side. There are people, often poor or handicapped, at virtually every intersection trying to sell something to those in stopped vehicles. Sometimes they are looking for handouts or donations. We say one lady with a sign which read “No children, Have food, Support women’s rugby team”. Jill suggested her donation container would be filled pretty quickly. There are uniformed attendants in many public parking areas to help direct people safely in and out of parking spaces, tipping optional.
We left Pretoria bright & early Sunday morning, heading back to the Jo’burg Airport to pick up Jeremy & Jus. Their flight was also about ½ hour late. Guess that’s just how things go there, but by about 11:00 we had strapped luggage on top of the Pajero, stuffed more in back, fueled up, stocked up on snack foods & water, crammed 6 adults in as well and headed off for Pilanesberg National Park a few hours drive away.
It wasn’t long before we had left the 4-lane divided highways behind, traveling through more rural areas. We soon learned why there are so many signs picturing cows (like the ones we have here to watch for deer). Herds of cattle, goats, donkeys, and occasionally sheep feed along the roads, crossing it whenever they feel inclined. Seldom are herdsmen with them. 3-donkey carts are also common in and around villages. Mining is a major industry in South Africa and we passed several on our trip. Near the mines, settlements with temporary housing spring up for workers. They come from other areas, even other countries, to work the mines and send money back home to their families. Although we didn’t notice any churches, it being Sunday lots & lots of people in their best dresses & suits were walking to & from.
Pilanesberg National Park is one of the largest in southern Africa. It covers an area of 50,000 hectares (about 123,340 acres to us Americans) and is a geologically fascinating alkaline complex produced by volcanic action some 1,200 million years ago. It is located in the transition zone between the Kalahari Desert and the wetter Lowveld vegetation areas. This natural ecosystem is known as the “Bushveld” and lends itself to a unique overlapping of both dry area & moist area species. This wide diversity of animals includes some 55 species of large mammals including the “Big Five” (elephant, buffalo, rhinoceros, lion, leopard), 354 bird species and thousands of other smaller animals. Tourist roads snake through the park allowing for self-guided touring – or more like gawking- in our case. There are also several “hides” (fenced viewing areas) throughout the park. Our first day brought us to baboons, elephants, giraffes, hippos, white rhinos, zebras, vervet monkeys, warthogs, and many species of antelope including impala herds, springbok, waterbuck, the large kudus and blue wildebeests, and the small klipspringer. We saw beautiful birds like the southern Red Bishop and the Pied Kingfisher & watched an African Fish Eagle doing his eagle thing.
Park rules require vehicles be out by 18:30 (that’s 6:30 pm to us foreigners) and they are quite strict about this. We exited to our lodgings just outside the gate at Bakgatla. Our chalet (cabin) had kitchen facilities, but since dinner & breakfast at the restaurant was included in our package we splurged on several wild game dishes including impala, kudu & buffalo. All very tasty. A side note about traveling in a strange place like Africa. Keep a flashlight with you. It’s very dark when there’s no moon out, and if you make a wrong turn after an unscheduled stop, when the rest of your group has continued on, it’s down right scary for 2 old folks. Being disoriented & knowing there are wild animals out there creates major pucker power. No sympathy was offered by the younger set.
Breakfast at all of our lodgings was remarkable – buffet style for cereals, loads of fresh fruits, always yoghurt, toasts, juices, teas & coffee – and then bacon, sausages, eggs cooked to order also available. We stuffed ourselves, loaded up again and headed out for another morning of viewing. We were a bit disappointed by the lack of big cat sightings, but this was just our first stop.
The main roads in the park are cobble brick or asphalt to handle tour busses. The asphalt roads had some major pothole problems. Jill explained why. It seems that elephant dung is highly acidic, is poorly digested, drops a long distance before splatting and eats away at the paving. When there was no game to be spotted, at least we could count elephant potholes. With no new game spottings through the morning, we said our good-byes to Pilanesberg and set off on the back roads to Botswana in order to cross the border before dark.
We arrived at the border crossing about 5:00 where we were literally signed out of South Africa, the gates were raised so we could drive across “no man’s land”, then we were all individually issued papers to enter Botswana, the gates were raised so we could head for the homestead.
Botswana is a landlocked country in southern Africa and is slightly smaller than Texas in area. The Kalahari Desert covers eighty-four percent of Botswana. It is said that there are only two seasons, summer from October to April and winter from May to September. Average annual rainfall varies from about 24” in the northeast to only about 8” in the southeastern desert. Formerly a British Protectorate, Botswana was granted “internal self-government” in 1965 and gained full independence in 1966 as a democratic Republic. Gaborone, the capital city, is very new & modern. In fact it didn’t exist until building began in 1963. Diamonds were discovered in 1967 and Botswana remains the largest diamond producer in the world.
The largest tribal group in Botswana is the original Tswana tribe which comprises almost 50% of the country’s population. Setswana is the national language, however English is the official business language and is widely spoken in urban areas. A person from Botswana is called a Motswana (our American) and more than one are Batswana (our Americans). Christianity is the official religion of the country.
Livestock along the roads is the same in Botswana as in South Africa. Often several of the animals will have bells tied around their necks so the herdsmen can locate them. The soft clang of the bells is very peaceful in the evenings. Unique to the main highway into Gabs are the baboons which come down from Kgale Hill to forage along the edges. Jill & Johannes say they have seen, on their daily drives to and from the city, road kill livestock, but never road kill baboons.
The home which Jill & Johannes rent is typical of the residential area surrounding them. It is a very comfortable, multi-bedroom ranch style house built of brick. The yard features a swimming pool, braai (bar-b-que) area and thatched roof protection over the deck area. Sharing all this space with them are the dogs. Reggie, Billy Bob & Reilly all moved from Ireland. Sech, the “Boerboel”, literally farm hound, came to them from the Animal Rescue Society in which they are very active. Our accommodations while there were in the “rondoval” which serves as a guest house. This is the typical round stone & mud hut with a thatched roof. This one was modernized with the addition of a bathroom with shower. The catch was, the only warm water was after the sun had heated the tank! On the property is the home of their maid (who came as part of the package). Mary is from Zimbabwe, Botswana’s neighbor to the northeast. She is one of many immigrants who have fled the political & economic unrest in their country. They work and send money home to their families. Most hope to return to Zimbabwe some day.
After a few days of relaxing we loaded up again for the long drive to our next safari experience. We over-nighted at Lentswe Lodge in the town of Serowe, home of Botswana’s first president. The lodge was built on the side of the hills by the owners (from Zimbabwe) and their son & daughter-in-law (from Ireland). The night was interrupted by thunder & lightning with Jeremy’s admission in the morning that he worried their chalet would slide down the hill with all the rain.
Fortunately we left the rain and mud behind as we headed for Tuli Safari Lodge in the Tuli Block area of southeastern Botswana along the Limpopo River and its confluence with the Shashe River where Botswana, Zimbabwe & South Africa meet. The lodge is located in the largest privately owned game conservation area in southern Africa (300,000 acres) and was to be our host for the next 3 days. The area boasts the largest elephant population on private land in the world now estimated near 1,800 animals.
On our arrival we were greeted by Rob & Heidi, managers of the lodge, introduced to Moscow, our personal guide while there, serenaded by the Tuli Choir welcoming us in Setswana, and escorted to the lunch tables where we met our fellow guests from South Africa, Canada, England & Germany. A tour of the grounds found us admiring the pool, bar area, lounge and finding our accommodations …we old folks were in Wildebeest, our traveling companions in Eland & Impala chalets. Before we knew it, it was 4:00 and time for afternoon tea before heading out in the Land Rover with Moscow at the wheel.
Riding the trails at Tuli was quite different than the roads of Pilanesberg. These “trails” were little more than tire tracks in the bush, down & up the sides of wadis (dry river beds), over rocks, looking for animal tracks and spoor. It was something like a roller coaster ride only slower. We saw many of the same animals as before, with the addition of Ostrich, Eland, Steenbok & Bushbuck and the elusive Black-backed Jackal.
Midway through the 3 hour outing, we were escorted to the top of a rocky outcropping for “sundowners”. This is a southern African tradition of gathering for drinks & snacks at sundown. And from our perch on top of the rocks, the sundown was spectacular. We were treated to sparkling cider and biltong (basically wild game jerky). As dark came, and it comes quickly in the bush, Moscow headed back to the hyena den area where we had seen nothing earlier. With spotlight in hand, he located the family and that’s when the fun began. Moscow was adept at whooping like the hyena and a young pup made his way to the vehicle to check things out. The pup was intrigued, apparently, because he grabbed the spotlight plug from the front of the grill and pulled it out leaving us in the dark and Moscow out with the hyenas trying to get things lit up again. It was good for quite a laugh and stories to tell at dinner that night.
A normal day at Tuli Lodge is actually very structured. Wake up is a knock on the door at 5:30 am (yes, I really did get up), coffee, tea and juice in the lounge and off on the morning game drive as the sun comes up. After 3 hours of more bumping and jostling, spotting and tracking, ups and downs, it’s back to the lodge for breakfast. Some of our group chose to nap after breakfast, the rest of us explored. A walk to the river turned up no crocodiles, but we did interfere with a troop of Chacma baboon foreaging along the edge. Across the river lay South Africa.
A trip to the “hide” overlooking a waterhole gave us a chance to watch the dassies scampering over the rocks and lounging on tree branches. The dassie, or rock hyrax, is about 10” high at the shoulders, tailless and its nearest relative is the elephant. Batswana folklore says that in the beginning when God decided to give all the animals tails, the dassie didn’t get his and was very sad. The other animals felt sorry for him and told him to wait out on the rocky hilltops so that when God came back He would see the dassie first and give him a tail of his own. So when you see a dassie sitting on a ledge, scanning the sky, remember who he might be waiting for.
As we regrouped with Manager Rob for a climb up to the star deck for viewing the valley below, we were startled when a baboon climbed out of a tree near the bar patio and at the same time strange cracking noises came from the tree. As we watched, it took about 10 minutes for the approximately 30 foot tall, 18 inch in diameter tree trunk to split and fall. This was definitely not part of a normal day at Tuli, but it provided Rob an opportunity to explain about avoiding any white liquids from trees as the white color is indicative of toxicity. Before we knew it, it was time for lunch, some time at the pool, tea time, and back out on the trails for the afternoon trekking.
Moscow had asked on our first drive if there was anything in particular we’d like to see. Our requests were for elephants and big cats, particularly leopard, since Jill had received an e-mail from the lodge before our trip saying they had sighted a pregnant leopard nearby and pregnant females tended to stay “close to home”. Alas, it was not to happen. No elephants and no big cats to be seen that trip. But we did park under a 900 year old Baobab tree and hear about the “Big Five” counterparts, the “little five” which are the Buffalo Weaver Bird, Antlion, Leopard Tortoise, Rhinoceros Beetle and Elephant Shrew. Later that evening at our sundowner stop, Moscow poured a small pool of water into a hollow in the rock which drew out the Elephant Shrews for our viewing. Also new on this drive were a business of mongeese (yes, a group is called a business) and the reflective eyes of genet (small cats) and bush babies (the South African galago) in the trees.
Unknown to the rest of us, Jim had asked the staff if something special could be done for a birthday celebration – Jeremy’s actual birthday and my celebratory one. To our surprise, the kitchen had baked and decorated two chocolate cakes for us, and brought them out while singing. At my request, they held them until dinner so we could share with the rest of the guests. Dinner that night was already planned for a special setting out by the river with torches and lanterns (and Jeremy’s special impala dish, compliments of the chef). We were serenaded, again, by the Tuli choir and a rendition of Happy Birthday plus birthday cake for all making for a most memorable celebration.
5:30 am came even earlier the next morning and we could all feel the frustration for Moscow, wanting to find our requested animals. We didn’t even mess with stopping for the already ordinary like zebra and impala. We were in search of elephant. And ultimately, elephant we found. The smile on Moscow’s face was wonderful. He maneuvered our vehicle in among the trees and bushes, driving up and down the washes, keeping us within a few yards of this group of 2 adult females and 3 young. Occasional threatening movements by the larger adult kept Moscow on his toes with appropriate responses, and almost proved to be too exciting for Jus who is not much of an animal person. We spent probably 30 minutes shadowing these magnificent beasts before being forced to return for breakfast.
It was at breakfast that we learned the truth about Moscow. It seems a few years earlier he had been specially selected to act as the game guide for President Bush on an earlier trip he had made to Botswana. There were some interesting stories told about his experience. We obviously had been escorted by the best.
It was hard saying our good-byes, loading up and heading back to Gaborone. About half way back, we drove back into the rain and it was obvious there had been lots by the runnels along the highway and standing water in the city. We stopped by the office for a tour and to get the phone number for the Chinese Restaurant. Yes, we had Chinese take-out in Botswana. I said it was Americanized.
Monday morning was our last big activity. It was rather cool and drizzling as we headed to Mokolodi Nature Reserve, just outside Gabs, for our scheduled Cheetah experience. I believe it was 12 years ago when Duma (Zulu for cheetah) and Letoatse (Setswana for cheetah) were brought to the reserve after their mother was killed. They were a few months old, but it takes about 18 months for a mother cheetah to fully teach her cubs how to fend for themselves. They did not know how to hunt or kill prey for food and would have died themselves had it not been for the Reserve. Since they have been raised by humans they are quite tame, but still are wild animals. What an experience being in the compound with them, then to be able to kneel there and pet them. Had it not been so cold and damp, we could have sat there for some time, listening to Duma purr as his head was scratched. Letoatse was more aloof, but he did circle the vehicle where Jus sat and purred for her! Benjamin, our guide, also took us on some exciting water crossings (those kind the authorities say don’t cross) and to see the Mokolodi elephants.
The Mokolodi elephants are much bigger than those we saw at Tuli. There are only four, a bull & three females, and each has a Sri Lankan handler, brought there to train them. The hope is to some day be able to offer elephant treks at the reserve. The bull wears a chain to make him easier to handle during the breeding season. Benjamin said the handlers know a few words of Setswana, but mostly speak in Sri Lankan, so who knows what the elephants will ultimately respond to. He identified several new birds for us, served us tea at the picnic area at Lake Gwithian where the sign reminded guests that “hippopotamus and crocodile were wild animals and dangerous”, then we headed back to the centre.
Our last afternoon (Tues.) with everyone was spent at the Marketplace, where we found a wealth of African crafts and staff more than happy to wrap every purchase individually for safe transport home. Jeremy had to make a special trip to some government office the next morning to get official permission to take home an engraved ostrich egg, but that was no big deal.
We said our goodbyes to Jeremy & Jus at the airport, with their assurance that they would let us know they were safely home. Turns out that was a “just barely” since their flight from Gabs to Jo’burg was an hour late taking off and their lay over time short, but thanks to a security officer, they got special escort and handling through the airport to make the connection to Manchester through Turkey.
Wednesday Johannes went into the office & Jill took us on an excursion to the Botswana SPCA. We met several other volunteers and found out Johannes was up for election to the board. We toured the facilities and played in the cat house. We didn’t get a chance to see the donkeys – the next anticipated foster resident at the household – though, as they were off in the bush somewhere. We stopped at the grocery to get ingredients to make “Bobotie” (pronounced Bo-bu-te with long vowels), a typical south African dish made with mince (ground beef), onion, ground apples, raisins, curry seasonings and baked with a custard like topping. Excellent! I brought the recipe home to fix for our thank you dinner for the friends who watched over things while we were gone.
Last day, packing, brunch at the Dijo Café owned by a friend of theirs. Said our goodbyes, again, at the airport. Much to Hannes’s dismay, I had no trouble getting my chunk of “now his favorite” smoked cheese through inspection. Again, Botswana Air was about an hour late, but our lay over in Jo’burg plenty long enough to make connections. One last thought…Air Botswana offers bags peanut & raisin mix AND bags of Biltong (southern African jerky) as snacks on the 1 hour hop. We spent some of our time shopping at the large facilities in JIA, including several packages of Biltong. Guess what, US Agriculture Agents don’t allow such stuff in country. Of well.
Our "loo with a view" at the SA game reserve just over the border.
Sitting around the camp site
From this point, you'd think all we do when camping is read!!
This shows the front outside of our office. The photo is taken from the parking area inside our complex. The whole complex is in a U-shape.
For our weekend we stayed here, at the Tree Lodge. The picture shows the main entrance. The whole thing was located in a private game farm of 200 ha.
J1
A big herd of eland.
Elephantshrew.
J1
