Southern Africa | FindPenguins

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Trip start
August 30, 2024
Southern Africa Traveler
Eswatini
Sep 3–5, 2024 in Swaziland ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C
Stayed a Summerfields Botanical Garden overnight. Then moved to Happy Valley hotel and Casino. At Summerfields Asian tourist went crazy taking pictures of peacocks that were roaming the garden. Running water everywhere. Very relaxing. Had oxtail and crepes Suzette at Happy ValleyRead more
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Southern Africa Traveler
Maputo Mozambique
Sep 3–4, 2024 in Mozambique ⋅ 🌙 21 °C
Stayed at Palona Plaza Hotel
Turned out to be Muslim so no alcohol allowed in the hotel and no bar.
Met Guy psychiatrist from Sydney at the airport with his son that was 6'8". Enjoyed chatting with them about the seminar Guy had in North Mozambique and his son came along as the photographer. I always meet great people when I travel alone.Read more
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Southern Africa Traveler
Windhoek Namibia
Sep 4–5, 2024 in Namibia ⋅ 🌙 20 °C
Arrived in Windhoek (the W is pronounced as a V in German) late and the airport is 40min from the city. The city looked very small considering it has 495000 people. Stayed at Windhoek Garden Boutique Hotel(like a guest house). Had an early flight out. My driver took me by Christ Lutheran church,build in 1907 and he said he picks up Germans from the airport that come here for a day to visit this church. On the way to the airport there were black monkeys running around in the very dry fieldsRead more
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Southern Africa Traveler
Maseru Lesotho
Sep 5–6, 2024 in Lesotho ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C
Mamu a travel agent picked me up in Lesotho (pronounced Lesootoo). I was surprised to see someone holding my name at Moshoeshoe airport. She took for a tour at Thaba Bosiu Cultural Village. Met a guide there with a traditional hat on. The village is a reproduction of the original village their 16 tripes had when they moved from Egypt and Ethiopia with king Moshoeshoe early 18th century.
Stayed at The Anne guest house
1 person from Lesotho is called Lesotho. 2 or more are called Besotho and they all speak Sosotho.
They have a traditional thatched hat on their flag and it's patterned after a rock formation.
Lesotho is called the kingdom of the sky or the mountain kindom. Their average elevation is the highest in Africa and 5th in the worldRead more
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Southern Africa Traveler
Zambia
Sep 6–9, 2024 in Zambia ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C
Stayed at the Radisson Blu on the Zambezi River for 3 nights while traveling to see Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe and Chobe National Park in Botswana. Met Barbara Ahlers in JNB and came to Livingston together.
Had Boma dinner/show 2nd night
Our driver said they have 73 languages and English is their most common. Each area has their own and that's what they teach at the areas schools along with English. Even the news are given in each languageRead more
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Southern Africa Traveler
Zimbabwe-Victoria falls
September 7, 2024 in Zimbabwe ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C
Had a day trip to Zimbabwe to visit Victoria falls. Had to buy a one way visa to enter for $30. If 2 entries $50. Went to the the Victoria falls NP a Unesco site. Barb and I did an hr walk but she messed up her knee right in the beginning going up and down some long steps. The waterfowl was low for the season because rains start back up in Nov-Feb. The horseshoe falls was just trickling but the falls at the beginning of the path had lots of water. Took pictures of people over the falls at Devils isl.
Afterwards we went to Victoria Falls hotel which was old colonial style.Read more
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Southern Africa Traveler
Victoria falls Helicopter Ride
September 7, 2024 in Zambia ⋅ ☀️ 32 °C
Amazing
Did the 12-15min ride only and it was enough to go around the falls and canyons twice. Also saw were the Radisson hotel was were we stayed which was behind the big green isl. at the top of the river. Barbara and our pilot point to it in the video. You can also see the hydroelectric plan in one of the pictures. It's so different to see everything from the topRead more
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Southern Africa Traveler
Botswana Chobe NP morning safari
September 8, 2024 in Botswana ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C
Drove from Zambia to Botswana for a full day at Chobe NP which is 4500sq miles bigger than Cyprus. On the way we were delayed 12min by elephands crossing the road right outside our hotel. Barbara told them to harry up because we were going to see the Botswana elephands.
At the border we had to disinfect our feet and car tires, for foot and mouth disease. Saw elephands, kudos, impalas(only the males have horns), giraffes, cape Buffalo, 2 leopards 2 lions and various birds.
Also at the hotel where we had lunch they had black warthogs eating grass. All warhogs, because they have very short necks they eat on their knees (with bended front knees).Read more
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Southern Africa Traveler
Botswana,Chobe NP boat ride
September 8, 2024 in Botswana ⋅ ☀️ 33 °C
Had a wonderful lunch at Cresta Mowana Safari Resort which was right on the Chobe River
Had a 2.5hr boat ride on river Chobe. The Namibias pan handle is cross the river from the park but it's farmland and fishing villages on that site.
Saw crocodiles, hippos, elephands, waterbuck (that have a white circle on their bud around their tail like a bullseye), more cape buffalo,Read more
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Southern Africa Traveler
Thula Thula, Zulu Natal S.Africa
Sep 9–13, 2024 in South Africa ⋅ ☁️ 12 °C
Arrived late and had soup. It was raining but not hard. The morning safaris started at 630am each day for 2-3hrs and the afternoons at 4pm
Coffee at the lodge at 615am and breakfast 830-9am after safaris. Lunch at 1pm and dinner 4 course dinner at 7pm(soup, salad, main and desert) Great food very french
Their chocolate croissants where the best u ever had. Victor was our guide/driver from the moment he picked us up to taking back to the gate.
There were nyalas and impalas roaming the compount
Also monkeys taking food. Especially in the tend camp we heard
The impalas have an M on the bud and waterbucks an O so Victor said he wanted to spell mom but been working on it for 11 years.Read more
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Southern Africa Traveler
Thula Thula Safari
September 10, 2024 in South Africa ⋅ ☁️ 12 °C
Saw elephands incl Nana, from the book The Elephant Whisperer. She had only 1 task. Also saw giraffes, rhinos,cape Buffalo, zebras, wildebeast that Victor described as 'the dumbest animal in the zoo'. The hippos would not get out of the water. Also, ostriches that came up to the jeep and were trying to take stuff.Read more
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Southern Africa Traveler
Thula Thula safari 2
September 12, 2024 in South Africa ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C
We saw cape buffalo with birds on them eating parasites. A hyena by her den. A jackal chasing and killing a rabbit. Also Kudos and lots of nyalas with their stripes.
The last night Nana came and put her trunk on the front of the jeep and said goodbyeRead more
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Southern Africa Traveler
Dahka Bangladesh
Feb 10–12 in Bangladesh ⋅ ☀️ 15 °C
What a nightmare place. Not as much polluted as Hanoy. BUT too crowded. I got a taxi at a taxi stand before I exited the airport. He wanted cash. No ATM at airport. He had a 2nd guy take me to a bank. The person there was very lazy. He tapped on the glass to get his attention. I exhanged $50 and it took 10min and lots of paperwork. Gave him the $17 for the taxi. He took my luggage and we went outside where there were 1000+ people. We waved thru and he got a taxi. He paid him and put me in it. He was just the 2nd middle man. The taxi was driving like crazy. Nobody was staying in their lanes on the freeway. We were going 40-50mph then bumper to bumper. My driver was passing on either side or in between 2 cars on a 2 lane freeway. We finally got off the freeway to very crowded streets with big trucks, cars and motorcycle and bicycle tuk tuks and pedestrians. Every time we stopped for traffic or lights there were people knocking on the windows asking for money. When we got to the Intercontinental there was a 10 feet cement fence around it with a wire gate. It opened and the guard checked the car and luggage in the back. At the hotel porch they had armed guards with airport luggage detectors and I had to walk thru a medal detector to get into the hotel. It was an oasis of calm. Wonderful room. The next day I was afraid to walk out by myself so I went to the spa.
Monday morning the taxi picked me up at 5am for the airport. Nobody around. We got there 20 min. Half the time as before. At the airport I watched the super ball on the phone.
The flight was full of migrant workers going to Singapore for work. With pages and pages of documents. I just had my passport
Not going back. Glad it's off my listRead more
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Trip end
September 13, 2024