July 2019 – St Joseph & The Penguin

Zimbabwe – Hwange

There are several challenges to keeping up with blog posts in Africa. The first is probably the more obvious: a serious lack of decent internet connections. The second, is less obvious, unless you have been to Africa: you take so many bleeping photos that it takes forever to sort through them. Both of these are the biggest reasons for my now being weeks behind in posts.

One of the most special things we saw here were the Painted Dogs (AKA the African Wild Dog). They are very rare and very endangered.

Hwange is a national park a few hours south of Victoria Falls. It is a lovely park with great animal viewing and wonderful birds. The elephants are particularly abundant and seem to have great fun.

Lions live here as well. This majestic male was far away but so exciting to see.

I am always happy to see giraffes. They are so wonderful to watch. The way they move and the their goofy faces. What is a group of giraffes called?

A Tower of Giraffes. They’re called something else if they are moving.

And of course, more Impalas. Africa Fast Food.

Zebras also abound. The stripes serve to confuse predators. When they run, the cats can’t tell where on zebra ends and the other begins. When you see a group of them, you get it. Do you know what a group of zebras is called?

Continuing with our collective noun trivia, a group of baboons is called a parliament of baboons. I think this relates to the British House of Commons’ reputation for disruptive and reckless behavior during debates, but I have no evidence of this.

In addition to the wonderful mammalian sights, there are wonderful birds. I never get tired of seeing birds. I am getting close to being a geek who never leaves the house without binoculars.

Then there are the birds whose names I have forgotten. Sorry birds. I still love you.

After a couple of days at the park in Zimbabwe it was time to head to our next destination, Botswana. We boarded a bush plane for the brief flight over the Okavango Delta to our next lodge. MackAir Botswana has a sense of humor.

Obviously, an adventure was avoided on this flight.

Zimbabwe – Victoria Falls

Some of you may already know this. Zimbabwe is in a state of true economic collapse. There is no money in the banks and no petrol at the gas stations. Mugabe was ousted in 2017 but his lovely legacy remains.

There are no farms to feed the people and no money to import anything. There used to be farms, but Mugabe’s unique system of Agrarian reform left fields to fallow…for a long time… We met a lovely woman who hosted our group for dinner. She grows her own food in her garden, which is the size of a normal urban garden.

So, you may wonder…How do people pay for things? Well, there is a local version of Bitcoin meets Veemo. This works okay for the locals, but is less convenient for tourists. Up until the week before we arrived, the US$ and the SA Rand were both accepted. They were outlawed just before we got there. COOL, right???? Thank goodness for global credit cards. I started having flashbacks to my days in Brazil with fictitious currencies (all hail the UFIR) and hyperinflation.

We met our new guide Patience at the Vic Falls airport. She is an angel and was perfectly named by her parents. She taught us a new phrase/acronym/word. T.I.A. This Is Africa. Basically, it means all sorts of shit is going to drive you nuts but you just have to suck it up. T. I. A. baby.

Despite the terrible situation in this country, the people are so very nice. Too nice. I asked Patience why the people weren’t rioting in the streets. “We don’t do that,” was the response. Hey Zimbabwe, I have some people on Hong Kong you need to meet. In the meantime, please pray to your favorite diety for the welfare of the Zimbabweans. I really did love them.

So, as the title of this post suggests, we were in Victoria Falls. One of the 7 natural wonders of the world. Can you name the other six? No Google cheating.

The falls are incredible. HOWEVER, photographing them is a challenge. The volume of water is no large and so strong, that there is an almost constant mist everywhere. The mist is so strong in some places that the guides hand out rain ponchos. Despite the challenge, I did manage a few good shots.

The best views of the falls actually came from the air. I am getting used to helicopters now.

The following day I woke up at dawn to go back to the falls in an attempt to capture a few long exposure shots. The mist was somehow stronger and I ended up with a lot of “raindrops” on my lens. I did get a couple of good shots.

Lisa M., does this remind you of Multnomah falls?

On this same day, my new friends Dan & Helen and I went on a bridge tour. We walked on the catwalk under this bridge, which was built 100 years ago. So very cool.

After our death-defying tour, we decide to walk to Zambia to see the falls from that side. TOTALLY worth it, assuming you got your Zambian visa together with your Zimbabwe visa. We did, so off we strode, across the bridge once again to another country. Quite the experience navigating an land border between two African countries with no tour guide, but we had fun. And, the Rainbow Falls section on the Zambian side was breathtaking.

So, folks, Vic Falls is definitely worth a visit if you are on this continent. And, make sure you check out both sides of the falls.

South Africa – the big 4

Okay, so there are really 5, but Leopards are very elusive. Despite good guides and trackers, that particular feline did not grace us with its presence. I remain hopeful, however, as I have a few more countries to go…

The Big 5 are Lions, Leopards, Elephants, Buffalo and Rhinos. The list was originally drawn up by big game hunters to refer to the 5 most difficult, and dangerous, animals to hunt on foot.

After visiting Cape Town, we journeyed east to Kruger National Park and a private reserve called Karangwe. Both were incredible. Kruger is the more famous of the South African parks and is stunning. Seeing so many different birds was an amazing experience. Karangwe is where we got to see a lot of animals, including some cats. Rather than try to remember in which park we saw what exact animals, I am just going to post by group.

The Birds

Lilac Breasted Roller. Abundant and so pretty.

Same bird, different angle. I just loved these guys.

Owl. Don’t remember what kind. I think it’s a spotted fishing owl, but can’t be sure. Still cute though.

Yellow Billed Horn Bull (a.k.a. Flying Banana)

Tick Bird. You see these on a lot of the larger animals, eating the ticks.

Little green parrots. No these are not the same as the ones in SF.

Reptiles

Only a few here.

Terapins, for you University of Maryland fans.

Cheetahs!

These were spotted in Karangwe. We were able to get very close, about 4 meters or so, and we were out of the jeep.

Warning, some of the images may be disturbing.

Hippos

Okay, so there not the cutest, but in the water they are pretty cool. Also, more people are killed by hippos in Africa than by any other animal.

Giraffes

There is something about these creatures that just captivates me. Perhaps is the goofy face or how they are able to contort themselves in seemingly impossible ways.

Elephants

These are the true king of the jungle. Without them, no one else could survive. They control the brush but eating and knocking over trees. They also create habitat for other species.

Lions

We came upon the lions at the end of the day. It was a group of all males (not sure if it’s called a pride when they are all one gender), one adult and three juveniles. It got darker as we stayed with them, so the quality of the images is not as good as I would have liked. But, they were wonderful to watch.

You can just see the mane starting to grow in.

Antelope

There are 72 different antelope in Africa. 21 of them can be found in Kruger. We did not see that many.

Impala. Called Africa fast food, since they are so abundant.

Kudu. Majestic and tasty (they are on several menus around the country)

In Africa, the game is “pin the tail on the antelope”, not donkey.

Miscellaneous

Other animals for whom I only have a few postable pics or or, as I know now, I have better pics from later in the trip.

Wildebeest is a bit shy when it comes to having his picture taken. He knows what people say about him. He looks like he was made up of all the spare parts when God was done creating the animal kingdom.

Cape Buffalo. He wanted us to get out of his way.

Juvenile Zebra. Mommy zebra was on the other side of the road.

At the end of our time in the game reserves of South Africa, we were blessed with this stunning view. (No, CA, there are no fires down there).

Next stop, Victoria Falls!

South Africa 1.0

South Africa is an amazing place, from the beauty and vibrancy of Cape Town to the game reserves in the eastern part of the country.

Cape Town is truly a world class city. Stunning scenery, gorgeous gardens, and a fabulous food and wine scene. One really needs a week to truly experience the city and surrounding areas. Unfortunately, I only had a few days.

My first day, I went to the game reserve of Inverdoorn. I am glad I did it because I got to practice with the new camera, but if you are visiting the country and planning to go east, you can skip the reserves near the Cape. Still, I managed to get a few choice pics.