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Africa

October - November 2019
A 54-day adventure by Sharon and Grant Macauley Read more
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  • 54footprints
  • 9countries
  • 54days
  • 387photos
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  • 60.3kkilometers
  • 43.8kkilometers
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  • TravelerAfrica
    Day 21

    Elephants Sands

    October 21, 2019 in Botswana ⋅ ⛅ 38 °C

    After a long, boring, hot drive, we arrived at Elephant Sands Lodge. Its 2 km off the highway, and has permanent tents and cabins. The restaurant, bar and lodge area was set up to view elephants by putting a watering trough about 15 m. away from the viewing area. A barrier of low sharp rocks and spikes protect the tourists. We watched them for 3 hours before dinner and another hour after dinner. There were 20-30 elephants and they were constantly moving around, jockeying for position. Occasionally there would be snorting and trumpeting. A mother and baby that was perhaps less than a year old came to the watering hole and after about 10 minutes the other elephants allowed the baby to get into the centre for a big long drink, apparently it may have been still learning to use its trunk to drink with. During the night, we were woken up by elephants walking right beside our tent (like a soft sided house on a raised platform) and so we watched them for half an hour and then got up at 5:30am and watched them again, as well as the gorgeous sunrise. Its a one-of-a-kind place to stay!Read more

  • TravelerAfrica
    Day 22

    Kasane, Botswana and Boat Ride

    October 22, 2019 in Zimbabwe ⋅ ⛅ 39 °C

    We drove to Kasane and settled in our Lodge before going on a sunset cruise on the Chobe River for 2 1/2 hours. Unfortunately we had a very small aluminum boat with 14 people in it so were unable to move about, which was uncomfortable and less desirable for taking photos.Read more

  • TravelerAfrica
    Day 23

    Zimbabwe

    October 23, 2019 in Zimbabwe ⋅ ☀️ 39 °C

    We were up early and paid $49 each to go on a 3 hour game drive to Chobe National Park. We saw so many animals despite the area having so many vehicles. We drove down along the Chobe River and saw one male lion and fairly near were a lion and lioness lying together, the guide said that they might be mating. We also saw them lying in the shade 20 meters off the road late in the trip. Other sightings included antelope, hippos (in and out of the water), lots of baboons, many with young they were carrying on their backs or the young clinging to the other’s belly. We saw a herd of elephants right in front of the truck, including a mother and 2 week old baby. Also sighted were lots of birds, Giraffes, Kudus, small Crocodiles, a group of Banded Mongoose. The big sighting was a Lion sleeping in some shade; we were only 10 feet away from him, so we were glad that he didn’t wake up! Then we drove across the border to Zimbabwe and stayed in a beautiful Lodge for the last night of this part of our trip. For dinner and the evening we went to the Boma, a fancy dinner and evening entertainment establishment that had singing, drumming and dancing after dinner, African style. It was a lot of fun! I put a photo of that on tomorrow’s post.Read more

  • TravelerAfrica
    Day 24

    Goodbye, visit to Zambia

    October 24, 2019 in Zimbabwe ⋅ ⛅ 39 °C

    We had breakfast with our tour group and then said our goodbyes. We decided not to go to Victoria Falls because we saw them eight years ago when we were here, and there is not very much water in the river going over the falls right now because of the drought. Instead, we decided to have an adventure and walk from our lodge down to the bridge that crosses the Zambezi river canyon, and across to Zambia. It was about a mile over and a mile back with four stops at immigration, two for each country. There were lots of locals hounding us to buy their products; we bought a couple of small wooden carvings and some old Zimbabwe currency. It was probably 40°C and extremely hot but it was a bit of an adventure, and we were glad we did. We came back to Victoria Falls town and did a little bit more shopping and looking in the stores and then came back to the lodge for a swim in the pool and dinner at a brewpub only a block away.Read more

  • TravelerAfrica
    Day 25

    Flight to Johannesberg

    October 25, 2019 in South Africa ⋅ ☀️ 32 °C

    We were out to the airport earlier than necessary, as we had arranged transport and that is when they said that they would pick us up. Then the plane was an hour late leaving, so we did spend a lot of time in the Victoria Falls airport, which is quite new but poor wifi. We stayed near the Johannesberg airport, which was quite remote, and had dinner there.Read more

  • TravelerAfrica
    Day 26

    Panorama Route to Numbi Hotel

    October 26, 2019 in South Africa ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    Our driver, Elvis, picked us up at 6:15am, and we drove the long, scenic route to our hotel outside Kruger Park. We stopped at a viewpoint over a valley, lake with layers of mountains behind and three mountains called the three sisters. It was very foggy, a common thing for this area. We walked over bridges over potholes made with water from two converging small rivers, a high waterfall, and then God’s window which is a beautiful view off a tall cliff into the lush rainforest valley below. There was a lot of agriculture along this route, with millions of orange trees, acres of wheat, and some other crops. As we progressed along our route, the hills for miles and miles around were planted with pine trees, in rows, with lower branches removed. The trees grow much faster than at home, and can be harvested after ten or more years, depending on the market demand for size. There were also a lot of gum tree plantations. Pine trees produce soft wood, whereas gum trees produce hard wood, so they have very different uses. Privately owned, they employ a tremendous amount of people and are an excellent crop. They are actually TREE FARMS! Our hotel is fairly nice, but WIFI is poor, but the buffet dinner tonight was absolutely brilliant, it was one of the best meals we have had for years; such a variety and amazing quality.Read more

  • TravelerAfrica
    1
    Day 27

    First Day in Kruger Park

    October 27, 2019 in South Africa ⋅ ⛅ 33 °C

    We got picked up from our hotel at 5:15am! Our guide, Elvis, gave us a good day, but there was a bit of rain first thing in the morning, so what may have been why we did not see quite as many animals as he usually sees. However, we did see some things that we have not seen before on this trip: a tortoise, wild dogs, turtles, big huge bird with red on its face, and white under its large wings when flying, and a baboon eating a yellow-billed hornbill (yuk). We got some excellent photos, especially of the Lilac breasted Bird, which is a beautiful combination of bright colours, and when it flies, the underside of the wings are an incredible purple lilac colour. The other things we saw were: hippos out of the water, two rhinos (one lying in the shade and one walking in the open), a whole group of elephants trying to get themselves covered in mud, three warthogs taking a mud bath in another mud hole, an elephant spraying himself to get cool, a lot of buffalo, kudu, a couple of hundred Impala, giraffes, blue wildebeests, vultures, lots of baboons, two kinds of monkeys, a group of 7 or 8 small hyenas sleeping in the shade, fish eagle, and tawny eagles. We didn’t get back to our hotel until nearly 4pm...a long day which ended up to be quite hot. After a dip in the pool to cool down, we relaxed and enjoyed the air conditioning in the room, and got to bed early because we have an early day tomorrow!Read more

  • TravelerAfrica
    Day 28

    Second Full Day in Kruger National Park

    October 28, 2019 in South Africa ⋅ ⛅ 31 °C

    Our safari guide gave us another great day today. Saw the big 5 before noon: lion, leopard, elephant, rhino and buffalo. We meet him at 5am and headed further along the highway to enter the park at a less used and faster entrance, and to access a different part of the park before it got hot. We saw some thing we had not seen before! A LEOPARD!! It was at a distance, but we got to see it coming down from a tree, waiting in the shade behind some grasses, and then walking a short ways before we lost sight of it. A herd of about 15 Impala took off running as fast as they could once they realized that the Leopard was endangering them. In a nearby tree, was the carcass of an adult Impala, probably from that leopard, who had killed it and carried it in its strong jaws, up to drape it over the branch of a large tree. That had been the day before, and the carcass was beginning to smell; the guides felt that its very close proximity to the road scared off the leopard with so many tourists in vehicles crowded in their bumper to bumper vehicles to watch her eat dinner. The other things that were new to us today were some Nyanga, an antelope similar in size to the Impala, but with vertical white stripes on its torso. We saw male Ervervet Monkeys, who have bright blue balls. We saw two extremely young baboons who were being nursed by their mothers. Another first for us what to see five different sightings of lions, some in pairs, others as a pride of up to 8 lions, lioness and small cubs; but most of the sightings were at a distance, only one was quite close to the road where we could get great photos. We also saw the usual constants: hundreds of Impala, lots of elephants, buffalo, giraffes, baboons, water bucks, kudu, rhino, hippos both in and out of the water, African fish eagles, a spotted hyena, wildebeest at a distance, and of course, quite a few zebras. It was very, very hot by mid-morning and then the afternoon was relentless as the sun beat down and the hot air blew into us as we rode in the safari vehicle; much like we think it would be to sit in a furnace or having a hair dryer on high, held in front of your face. I know it says here it was only 30C but truly it was at least 40C. We had 35 minutes break in mid-morning and an hour at 1pm for lunch and then were back at our hotel just after 3pm, anxious to get back to our air-conditioned room!Read more

  • TravelerAfrica
    Day 29

    Half day Kruger, drive to Jo-berg

    October 29, 2019 in South Africa ⋅ ☀️ 24 °C

    Unbelievable morning! We were COLD! The temperature dropped and we needed blankets that were in the vehicle to stay warm! Many animals were MIA because of the wind, cooler temperatures and rain that we had last night. We did, however, still have lots of good sightings, including a lion relaxing less than 20 meters away. We saw two large herds of buffalo at very close range. Half a dozen leopard tortoise were crawling independently on the road. We saw quite a few starlings, which are an incredible metallic blue colour. We saw an African fish eagle, being common throughout our trip.Read more

  • TravelerAfrica
    Day 30

    Relax and fly!

    October 30, 2019 in South Africa ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C

    We are pretty tired after getting up at 4:30 for the last 3 days, and being on the go for so long. So we are taking a break! We had to be out of our room by 11am, but they have allowed us to hang out at the room here and in the yard of the Lodge until we are taken to the airport at 6pm. We walked up to the nearby shopping Center, about 5km round trip and very welcome since we have hardly been doing any activity for a few weeks. Our overnight flight to Cairo, Egypt, is at 9:45pm, so we will have another recovery day tomorrow!Read more

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