Capturing the Moment

After a quick stint in Zimbabwe to see the incredible Victoria Falls, we caught a shuttle across the Zim/Botswana border to a town called Kasane. Here we set up camp at the Chobe Safari Lodge and prepared to lick our wounds and take some fun game safari rides into the famous Chobe National Park. We hadn’t counted on both becoming sick but with sneaking into the pool and some great animal sightings it turned out to be the perfect place for recovering. The afternoon boat cruise was pretty crowded but filled with tons of wildlife. Red Lechwe ran playing thru the swampy riversides around foraging hippos, sunning crocodiles, and massive herds of buffalo. Elephants came down to the water to drink and cool down. It was pretty fun to watch them roll in the mud and spray themselves with water. One herd brought a tiny newborn with them that has to be the smallest elephant I have ever seen. Skimmers (the b&w picture), saddle bill storks, and fish eagles combed the waters for food. The

I’m happy to report that we have made it to Johannesburg, South Africa after a very pleasant 16hr bus ride from Botswana. We rented a car, which makes me feel free and flexible again. The little Hyundai Atos feels like a sports car after spending so much time behind the wheel of the turtle. We are headed off to Kruger park next but due to popular demand I decided to do a little more in depth version of this ‘gorge swing free fall thru a tree’ debacle. The Zambezi gorge swing is probably the scariest thing I have ever done. 5 years ago I heard about it and went and it is about as extreme as you can get. Scarier than skydiving or bungee jumping I think. The swing starts out like a bungee jump except you are attached below your chest. You can step off the cliff forwards, backwards, head first backwards (called the roll of death), or tandem which is always backwards. Once you freefall 53 meters the rope catches and swings you like a pendulum across the gorge. I tried it all 5 years ago an

Things have been flying right along here in Africa. I feel we have been working well around a couple of tough complications. One: The 'Turtle', our infamous Land Rover, took a terrible beating in Zambia and had to ultimately be retired after slamming into a huge cow that made a mad dash across the road. Fortunately no people were hurt, the cow unfortunately was very hurt, aka, dead. But the turtle has now been given to Kasane Nat'l Park to continue its great wildlife conservation. Two: Heidi and I free fell thru a tree as we attempted a bungee jump type adrenaline activity called the 'Gorge Swing'. We still have some vicious wounds a week later that make it hard to sleep, walk, sit, etc. Keeping them uninfected and clean is a fulltime job. Three: With our immune systems already pushed Heidi and I rafted the Zambezi and swallowed some bad water, or ate some bad bacon, etc, and both came down with some illness. I'm about recovered and she is still fighting a littl

I’ve heard in the rafting world that the three greatest rafting day trips are the Nile, the Zambezi, and a hard to pronounce river in Chile. I totally agree with the Nile, having done it just a month earlier, so I was eager to try the Zambezi with Heidi who hadn’t rafted since she was 14 in Oregon. It was a beautiful day and they got us ready by feeding us a big breakfast. I was pumped. Our guide was Tim and I liked him immediately when he started shifting people around to get the best paddlers in strategic positions. I ended up in the front left and Heidi across from me on the right. It was much nicer having her paddling across from me in a constant rhythm than the guy in the Nile who was as sporadic as they come. We busted thru rapid number one, eager to test out the next 24! It is low water on the Zambezi right now because we are just before the rainy season. That means the entire river is open to raft and some of the rapids are shallow and scary. We hit some nice drops and bashed t

When in Africa the thing to do is to go on wildlife safaris. There are lots of different ways to do this. The typical way is in a 4X4 vehicle, you can walk, you can take a hot air balloon, you can ride horses, take a boat, or if you find the right place you can go on safari on elephant back! Heidi and I were a little worried about the gathering rain clouds on our way to the elephant back safari but I figured it wouldn’t bother the elephants too much. There were 12 people in all, 2 for each elephant. When we met the elephants I was surprised by the range in sizes. There was a huge bull with massive tusk, there were medium sized elephants with little tusk, and even some babies tagging along with their mothers. (nobody rode those). I jumped up real fast when the leader asked who wanted to ride ‘Bop’ and pointed to the really massive one. Heidi glared at me a little. There was a wooden ramp built that the elephants would shimmy up next to so their riders could easily get onto. But Bop was

African lions are just like big cats right? I figured just because they roared instead of purred doesn't mean that they wouldn't like a good back scratch just like a house cat. Hmmm. Well, Heidi and I decided to put this theory to the test. Here in Livingstone, Zambia there is a great lion conservation program called ALERT who is raising lions in a way that their future offspring will be totally wild and able to be sent back to national parks and wildlife reserves around Africa. They are able to do this by using 4 steps. Step 1: lions up to 2 years old are fed by trainers and volunteers, and walked in the wild daily to get them used to seeing other animals Step 2: Lions over 2 are taken out at night and followed as they hunt impala, zebra, wildebeest, etc. Step 3: Lions are released into a managed wildlife reserve as a pack, not individuals. They hunt their own food and have to deal with competitors like hyenas. Step 4: Offspring had in the wild by Step3 lions will have all the

As East Africa fades away behind me I can’t help but think of all the memories, good and bad. It is definitely a land of contrast. Everyone has a cell phone but may still live in a mud hut and herd goats. The food hasn’t gotten any better but the roads have. National Park prices are skyrocketing and there is talk of doubling the gorilla trekking fee to a whopping $1000. Hopefully that is just talk. The lodges out in the bush can be awe inspiring for the few who can afford them but camping and budget options leave a lot wanting. It was great to see the Mombasa highway undergo a major improvement during the last 5 years. I fear that it will soon go back to having huge ruts from all the overweight 22 wheel lorries that travel on it from the huge port of Mombasa to their inland destinations. Its too bad they can’t get the train working better, or even put in an electric train and really show what East Africa can do. Its amazing people drive at all with fuel costing between $5-6 per g

Welcome to public transportation. I love it. I enjoy the great deals, especially here in Africa. I thought $25 for 1000+km...how could I go wrong. Let me tell you. We left at 3pm on our supposed 15hr trek. A lady with a baby wrapped onto her back and a 2yr old holding her hand comes to sit next to me. There is just one seat next to me. I get up to let her in and then look at the lack of space and go ask the conductor if there are any open seats to switch to. Not a chance. He actually said, 'its fine, you just hold one baby.' Right. 15 hours I was thinking. Turns out my luck was about to change, she misread the seat numbers and was actually behind me! Hurray. That is when the largest woman in Africa steps onto the bus. I didn't even need to guess where she was headed. She looked intently at the first few seats raising my hope and then bee lined it right to me. Yep. Right next to me. She sat and I waited for her to scoot over to her seat, then I realized she already had. Oh

Tanzania has some of the finest wildlife parks in the world. We headed right to the most famous and perhaps the finest national park in Africa, the Serengeti. This huge park is the site of the mass migration of wildebeest, zebra, and gazelles. We entered thru the western corridor after driving from the Rwandan border. We were treated to close ups of lions, and lots of ‘cat food’ as I call the herds of impala and other antelope. I saw almost no other cars in the west and north or the park. All the tourist are concentrated in the middle where all the popular lodges are. But this time of year the migration has taken the mass herds up across the Kenyan border into the Masaai Mara National Park and they have just started their southern track back thru the Serengeti. We caught a glimpse of this spectacle as we drove far north into the park where our campsite was. We were surrounded by buffalo, gazelles, roaring lions, baboons, and thousands of wildebeest and zebras at our campsite. The terra