Cape Town, South Africa

Our tour ended on July 1^st in Cape Town, South Africa, but Daniel and I stayed a few extra days so we could explore this beautiful city. One day we went to the top of Table Mountain via cable car. It felt like we were so high and could even see the clouds below us. Cape Town looked really amazing from this view. The next day we rented a car with our friends Blair and Kristy and drove down the coast to Cape Point, which is the most South Western Point on the African Continent. Along the way we stopped and saw a bay that habited Penguins. I knew I would see a lot of cool animals on this trip, but never expected to see Penguins. In the evenings we ate at some amazing restaurants and hit up the booming Cape Town night life. Definitely a great way to end the tour! Now back home to the USA! Till the next adventure……

White Shark Cage Diving

                        

Stellanbosch, South Africa

Stellenbosch is a beautiful city situated on the hilly region of the Cape Winelands. This place is unbelievable green and beautiful and filled with vineyards and wineries. We got to camp inside a vineyard for a night and slept in a small grassy area surrounded by grape vines. We also went on a wine and cheese tour and sampled about 40 different wines. If there is one thing I enjoy in life, it is good wine and cheese, I was in heaven!  Most of the wine was phenomenal and as good if not better than any wine I have tasted from Italy, France or Napa Valley.  The tour made me feel better about missing the Santa Fe Wine Festival this 4^th of July weekend back home. It is definitely one of my favorite things to do every summer.

Dune 45 & Fish River Canyon

Dune 45 in Southern Namibia was a huge sand dune that we climbed just before sunset. This was quite a trek up a very steep and sandy mountain. It only took about half an hour to hike up to the top but it was certainly a good workout, even for those who were in good shape. Prior to the hike up Dune 45, we hiked in some dunes nearby and came across a snake that popped out of the sand and gave us quite a scare. I managed to get a picture of it and show it to show our tour leader who confirmed that it was very poisonous.   The next day we had another long, dusty and bumpy drive and made it to Fish River Canyon in the late afternoon.  Fish River Canyon in Southern Namibia is the second biggest Canyon in the world, only second to the Grand Canyon.  Although it is big and beautiful, it is not nearly as impressive as the Grand Canyon. The Grand Canyon is much deeper and way more stunning.

Swakopmund, Namibia

We spent the last three days in a town on the coast of Namibia called Swakopmund. It is a little town of about 45,000 people that borders sand dunes on one side and the ocean on another. It is quite beautiful here and the architecture of the town has a lot of German influence. To be quite honest it feels more like we are in Europe than Africa. We got to stay in a hostel while we were here, which meant REAL BEDS! I was beginning to get tired of sleeping on the ground in a tent. While we were here we got to go four wheeling in the sand dunes for a couple of hours, which was totally awesome. We were also supposed to do sky diving but the plane was out of service, so we are going to try to do it in a week when we are in South Africa.

I've Fallen In Love

I’ve fallen in love with a woman from the Himba Tribe in Namibia and I plan on staying here and becoming part of the tribe. Just Kidding! We did however visit the Himba Tribe which was quite an experience. To the right you can see me with a 21 year old Himba woman in front of her family’s hut. As you can see the women do not wear much clothing and they cover their bodies with “Otjize”, which is a mixture of butter fat and ochre to give them a redish tint. The Himba people generally are goat and cattle farmers. They were very nice people and it was a lot of fun to interact with them and learn about their culture. They did not speak english, but we did have a translator that was able to tell us what they were saying.

Cheetah Park

Cheetah Park in Namibia was awesome, it was right up there with the walk of the Lions. Being up close to the Cheetah’s was so thrilling, because they are so exotic looking. At the park there were three “tame” Cheetah’s that we got to interact and play with. They acted just like your normal house cats and would even purr when you pet them. I laid down on the lawn to get a good picture of one and another snuck up behind me and started licking my leg. Her tongue was rough like sand paper and made me jump up immediately! After we played with the tame Cheetah’s we got to go into a gated preserve which housed 18 more. We were in the back of a trailer being pulled by a truck drinking a beer and the Cheetah’s were stocking us the whole time through the preserve.

The Delta (Botswana)

I spent the last three days in a remote location in Botswana called “Okavango Delta”.  This is a beautiful place where the Okavango River dumps into a swamp. We got to ride on “Macoros” which are little canoes.  We were guided by Bushman from a local village who took us through the swampland to a remote location to campout. The Macoro is similar to the Gondolas they use in Venice, Italy. You can see a video below that was filmed while we were aboard. In the Delta we saw a lot of animals like a big group of wild Elephants, Zebras and Buffaloes. The Macoro rides were really cool but at one point we had hundreds of bugs crawling all over us as we traveled through the swampland.

Elephants

On our last day in Victoria Falls we got up early and went on an Elephant ride. The Elephant that I rode was named Malakah and he was 10 years old. I thought that this was old for an Elephant but apparently many of them live well into their 60’s. The Elephants were very well behaved and very obedient to their respective trainers. While on the Elephant ride I started to have a conversation with the trainer who was sitting in front of me and controlling the Elephant. I started talking to him about the economic situation in Zimbabwe and he was telling me how bad the unemployment rate was at 80%. The inflation rate annually is around 100,000% and they have money notes that number in the trillions of dollars that are only worth pennies compared to USD. It is strange to see currency that is literally numbered in trillions and billions.  The AIDS epidemic is so high that the life expectancy for females is only 34. President Mugabe has been in office since for many decades due to rigged elections and has run the country into the ground. The situation is similar to Lybia and Egypt so it is possible that Zimbabwe will be the next African nation to erupt and fight back against a useless dictator that does nothing for its people.  Really a wide opening experience to be in Zimbabwe and see firsthand the hardship that many have to overcome. You can read more about the problems Zimbabwe faces at http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/zimbabwe/index.html

Bungi Jumping (Victoria Falls)

Lion Walk

The Lion Walk is pretty much what it sounds like, it’s kind of like walking a dog, except there is no leash and you’re walking a huge dangerous animal. This I have to say was one of the coolest things I have ever done and was worth every penny of the $125.00 Daniel and I each paid.   The way it was explained to us is that these Lions were bread for the purpose of being released back into the wild and repopulating the Lion population. Apparently the population has declined by an estimate of 80% over the past 40 years. The two Lion cubs we got to interact with were a brother and sister that are 12 months old. At 4 years they will be released into the wild and will have less and less interaction with humans between now and when they are released. The Lions were just beautiful playful creatures, you could tell that they were brother and sister the way they played with each other.

Zimbabwe

We made it across the Zambian border and are currently in Zimbabwe at Victoria Falls. It’s one of the most amazing places I have ever seen and there is so much to do here.  Yesterday we did “The Flight of the Angels” over the Falls. It’s basically a flight in this little tiny plane with a small propeller in the back and no windows or doors. You are exposed to everything! It’s just you, the pilot and the fresh air. Victoria Falls looked amazing from our view and I hope to post pictures soon. We weren’t allowed to take cameras with us, but they did mount one on the wing of the Microlight and I purchased the photos, but unfortunately they are on a CD and I don’t have a disk drive on my netbook.  After the “Flight of the Angel’s” we had to go through the border and pay for our visas to come to Zimbabwe. It was a very hot day so we had a few of the windows open in the truck and we noticed a monkey hanging out on top of a Semi.  We didn’t really think much of it, but then the monkey started to make his move towards our truck and everyone was frantically trying to close all the windows before the Monkey could get in. We were able to close all of them but one and the Monkey had beaten us to it and poked his head in. None of us knew what to do and you could tell that this little guy was no Curious George, the animal was hungry and had sharp yellow teeth.  He looked like a mean little hairy monster waiting to attack. One of the girls on our truck started yelling at him to get out and started banging and stomping on the seat. The Monkey finally retreated on the roof of our truck and we closed the window without incident. I was really relieved that the monkey didn’t get in and bite anyone.

Lake Kariba



Our house boat on Lake Kariba



The drive was not all what I expected it to be, I expected a smooth ride that I could possibly sleep or relax on.  Instead, I found myself being tossed around quite a bit as it felt like we were driving in a school bus on a back country dirt road. I nearly threw up my breakfast on a couple of occasions. The ride was so bumpy that I struggled to take a sip of water from my water bottle without dumping it all over myself.  It took me about three hours or so to get adjusted to the rough ride. After about 7 or 8 hours of driving, we arrived at Lake Kariba, which is the biggest manmade lake in Africa. We were told that we would be staying on a house boat for the next three days, which seemed a lot better than camping. The first night on the boat we had dinner and then sat around playing drinking games, one in particular is similar to the drinking game we play in the U.S. called Kings, except our new friends call it 4 Kings and use different rules. Our tour leader and many others from the group quit drinking and went to their rooms to sleep while Daniel, myself and a couple of others stayed up late talking and drinking more. The boat was docked for the night and I had the brilliant idea that it would be fun to jump in for a little late night swim, not thinking anything of it as it was just a lake.I jumped in first and then Daniel followed soon after. The water was nice and refreshing, but our swim was soon interrupted by our tour leader who ran out of his room in a hurry with just his underwear on to yell at us in a panic that the Lake was infested with Hippos and Crocks. We scurried out of the water as soon as possible and got back on the boat and received a nice lecture from the tour leader, Tito, in the morning about not jumping into the lake anymore. The second night on the boat we had a crazy costume party.  Daniel and I did dress up and hung out with the group for a while but we didn’t get as drunk as the rest of them, as we decided it would be in our best judgment to be more cautious for the rest of the trip. The next day we relaxed and got some sun and saw a couple of elephants, which was so amazing. For our final night, everyone was so exhausted that we went to bed early to prepare for another long drive to the Zambian border to a town called Livingstone.

Eureka Camp Park in Lusaka, Zambia

As soon as we arrived in Lusaka, we had to wait in line at immigration to purchase a visa at a cost of 50 USD.  A driver was waiting for us holding a sign with both of our names to transport us to the Eureka Camp Park.  As soon as we drove up to the camp, you could see wildlife just roaming around freely. While we were there we saw Zebras, Monkeys, Impalas’ and a few others that I didn’t know the names of. The first night we slept in a two bed chalet, which is basically a little hut. We slept inside a mosquito net, which was a bit scary when I woke up in the middle of the night and didn’t remember where I was. Ha Ha!  The camp was pretty nice, they had a small bar with a pool table and a TV that got a few British stations.   In the afternoon of the following day our truck arrived and we got to meet the rest of the people on our tour, who had already been traveling for over a month with our tour group “Absolute Africa”.  The tour is typically 11 weeks long and starts in Kenya, but we were not able to join till the latter part. Our tour leaders are Tito and David who are African and the rest of the people on the trip are from either Australia or New Zeeland. There are 11 of us on the tour including Daniel and myself. Everyone is in their early twenties to early thirties, so we fit right in.  This sort of tour isn’t exactly what you would call a vacation, as we have to do all the cooking, cleaning and other chores associated with camping and traveling. It’s all good though, Daniel and I are up for the adventure. The first night with the group we learned how to pitch our tents and got brought up to speed with the usual routine of cooking, sweeping up the bus, and of course doing the dishes. After we had eaten dinner and the chores were done we went to the bar and had some of the local beers. I took a particular liking to a Zambian lager beer called “Mosi”.  Everyone stayed at the bar till about 9:00PM and then decided to go to sleep, because Tito told us we would be driving a very long distance the next day.   Daniel and I were still not adjusted to the 8 hour time difference and were wide awake for most of the night. The next morning we had breakfast, packed up the camp and prepared for our first long drive to Lake Kariba.

We made it!

We have arrived in Africa after a long 15 hour flight from JFK in New York.  We have a layover in Johannesburg, South Africa for about three hours and then a short 2 hour flight to Lusaka, Zambia. When we got off the plane here in Johannesburg, it was only 42F at 8:00AM. Back home we are just entering into the summer months, but since Africa is in the Southern Hemisphere they are the complete opposite and are beginning their winter months.  At night we will probably see temperatures as low as 30F and in the day as high as 85F.  

Daniel and I are supposed to take off to Zambia in about two hours, where we will begin our trip. Tonight we are going to stay on our own, as we will not be able to meet up with our tour group till Wednesday afternoon. We are staying at a camp ground just south of Lusaka called “Eureka Camping Park”. I was able to find a link online that has some pictures (http://eurekacamp.com). Hopefully it will be a decent place!

Myself and my brother Daniel are about to embark on an adventure of a life time to the southern part of Africa. You can follow along with us through our adventure, and I will try to post as often as I am able to find an Internet connection.  

On the map to the right you can see the route we are going to follow, which is highlighted in red. We will be traveling through five countries including; Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia and South Africa. Our journey will begin when we meet our group and guides in
Lusaka, Zambia, on June 1st. Daniel and I are starting to get excited for the trip and trying to eat as much New Mexican food as possible to get our fix before we depart!