We can’t say that we weren’t warned ahead of time. An ex-colleague swore that it would happen to us. The guidebooks that we read before our trip cautioned about it in bold type. Our first host in Johannesburg – a hardy realist who pulled no punches on her opinions said that she could see it coming with us after just a 5 minute conversation.Well, she was right. Here we are back in Europe, hopelessly afflicted. Africa - this vast, backwater, incredibly complicated continent has somehow managed to imbed itself firmly under our skin. And that is only after 16 days in 4 countries. We want to go back. We need to go back. The place is so fantastic!
I don’t even know where to begin. It’s almost too overwhelming. We saw and experienced everything that I wrote about in my last blog entry – the crime, the beauty, the corruption, the wealth, the poverty, the hostility, the hospitality, the real wildlife, the tourist parks - but it all exists within a context that is somehow lost in the popular media representations of it.
In other words, we see a film clip of a mud hut and a woman that must walk 1000 meters to get to a pump to get the drinking water for the day and we think “poor Africa. How can they live like that?” But with only the picture, and of course some sentimental musical accompaniment, we miss the broader context. We miss the cultural implications. We miss the pride and the community surrounding that mud hut and the daily walk to the well – we miss the reality of all the things that are slipping away in large swaths of the developed world, but that still exist in these communities.
Don’t get me wrong. It is very complicated. They need more wells. They need more clothes. They need more food. They need more medicine. But the last thing that they need is Western First World standards imposed upon them. Those standards just don’t fit, and by applying them universally as good or desirable we are impoverishing their spirit and culture more than they, or we can ever imagine. I know this will be a controversial statement, but it is a blog and I am allowed to express my opinion, right? When we were driving through Chobe National Park in Botswana we went through a rather large village. Mud huts, shared wells, etc. They did have electricity so it was a relatively well off village. But then I saw a section of newer concrete block houses - a subdivision for lack of a better word. There were 12 or 15 structures, a bit larger than the mud huts, with shingled roofs and electricity and private toilets. In front of the sub-division was a large, colorful sign – Another Habitat for Humanity Project.
It was the most pathetic thing that I saw on our whole journey, including a walking tour of the squatter slums of Soweto outside Johannesburg! Not because it spoiled some tourist’s notion of an African village, but because it was devoid of their culture, their soul, and their daily activity. I know that a project like this is always well intended, and most likely well received by the locals. But to me this type of thing robs them of their own identity by projecting some sort of western notion of advancement or success on them. It’s about context. Theirs is not ours, and just as importantly, ours is not theirs. In my opinion there are much better ways to help.
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“Will Mr. Glasstetter please step away from the soapbox!”
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Ok, on to the trip itself. Of course I took hundreds of photos and video of animals and scenery, and there are also hundreds of stories and experiences that are worth mentioning, but I will limit my posting to a few dozen, mostly of people and events that had a memorable impact and that you might find enjoyable. I can already tell that this will be the longest posting in the three year history of this blog. If you want more, come on over with a few beers or a bottle of wine and we’ll be happy to show pictures and tell stories into the wee hours of the night.
I’ll start with animals, since that is the first thing that most people think about when someone mentions a trip to Africa. We saw arc loads! The wild animals are mostly in parks, but the parks are enormous! To give you an idea, we travelled for 5 days in the Okavango Delta and Moremi Wildlife Park and saw less than 10 other vehicles. It was truly wild country, with truly wild animals.
A classic scene - Zebras will hang with anyone, including lions.
We came across a large group of baboons sunning themselves on a cold morning. There were maybe30 or 40 of them. But these two were hilarious. The guy on right kept getting up and moving a few yards away from the guy on the left. The guy on the left kept getting up and following him, trying to sit as close as possible. After watching this group for half an hour, there is no doubt in my mind that evolution is real.
The first few days in the delta we didn’t see any hippos. We could hear them every evening so our anticipation was building. Our guide warned us how dangerous that they are…only one other animal kills more people in Africa. So on our last evening outing with the makoros (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Makoro) we went hippo “hunting” and we found them! It was in a large pool and there was a mother hippo who kept surfacing and spouting air to warn us to stay away. I kept hearing the theme song from Jaws everytime that she went back under water and we couldn’t see her. Our adrenaline was pumping at full capacity during the 30 minutes that we watched her. It turns out that we ended up seeing hundreds of hippos in Moremi and Chobe…but I’ll never forget that first one that was only meters away and we were in the water with nothing more than a small wooden canoe.
And the deadliest animal is related to a cow?! Crazy! But these water buffalo are big, mean, and very aggressive. They don’t mock charge like most animals. “If one starts at you, you better run your ass off ‘cause he ain’t gonna stop till you are under hoof.”
We lived with the elephants for the three days that we spent on an island in the Okavango Delta. They were constantly around the camp site eating the palm trees and drinking from the hanging shower. They may look cute, but these suckers are intimidating as they crash through and shake the trees. And their stomachs make these strange roaring sounds that sounded like lions, until we heard the real thing a few days later. Trust me, they are not tame. Just hungry and too big to care about a little campsite.
Beautiful! Just an overgrown housecat, until you hear them roaring at 2:00 AM not far from the tent. More impressive was the leopard that we saw, but none of those photo’s came out.
Warthogs! I loved these guys! They are so damned ugly…
One evening on the makoros we rounded a very small island to see this monster crocodile hanging out in the bush. We had to stand in the boat to be able to see him. At one point we thought that he was a planted animatron that would soon open its mouth and let out a fake roar. But then our lead guide poled us around the back of the island so that we could get a closer look at the croc. It was enormous! Maybe 15 feet long. We were all snapping photos when the thing sprung up and dashed into the water. I was glad when our poler started to push us away from the island. I didn’t want to be in the water with that thing! But then instead of moving further away from the island, he steered us around the other side to chase the croc! Holy shit! Luckily, we didn’t find him again…
…but we did find his vanquished foe. This dead croc was in the reeds across from the island. It was a few days old and stunk to high heaven, but our guide was fascinated with the battle that must have taken place between the two and had to lift the corpse out of the water for a picture. It was the only picture that we took over three days that he asked for a copy of.
I know that this photo won’t mean anything to anyone, but we were with our makoro crew for three days and they were instrumental in making the Okavango Delta one of the highlights of our trip. These guys were a hoot! I think that they were more excited than we were to see the animals.
Just in case you didn’t follow the Wikipedia link above, here is a picture of a makoro…with a hot African babe trying to navigate it. Don’t laugh! It’s harder than it looks. Although we did have a makoro race amongst us tourists....and the winner was.....makoro Dan!
This is a typical campsite that we stayed in. Most places we set up and broke our own wilderness camp, leaving nothing but footprints behind. We always put our tents in a “magic circle” to keep the wild animals out at night….it didn’t work for the elephants.
We all expected to lose a bit of weight on this trip, but our fearless leader was also a hell of a chef and I ended up putting on a kilo! Look at that pot of noodles…lot’s of improvised meals.
You can’t see much in this photo, but campfires were a big part of our day. It got dark around 5:30-6:00 so we spent many hours in front of the fire, eating, drinking, and telling stories. Gezellig!
We also camped a few nights without the tents. This time was on a huge salt pan (visible from space). You can see the next couple sleeping over in the distance. At first it was a bit intimidating (and cold!), but once you were snuggled into the sleeping bag, with the expansive milky way rolled out above you, it was a fantastic experience. I’ve never seen stars like that before.
Just so you don’t get the wrong idea, we did hit a few very nice lodges in between our wild camping. This one was in Nata in Botswana. Swimming in the afternoon. Steak and wine for dinner....seriously roughing it.
A typical house in the Botswana countryside. The mud comes from termite mounds.
We walked through one of the local villages to get a better feel for the place and just like in the movies, the children swarmed around us. At first they wanted candy, but then they just wanted to play. All that I had to do to get hysterical laughter from them was to take off my hat and show them my bald, white head.
We filled our water at the village pump just like everyone else.
We did get out for a few walking safaris where you could get up close and personal with the animals. We had complete confidence in our guide and never doubted that he could stop a charging elephant if needed. “Don’t run. They always mock charge. If you stand firm, they will veer off before running you over. If you run, you are most likely dead.”
Taking a break after a morning hike.
We flew in and out of the Okavango Delta via these little bush planes. The flight was incredibly scenic. We could see herds of elephants, water buffalo’s and giraffes. It was like an Animal Planet documentary.
We based ourselves out of the small town of Maun in between the Delta and the other parks and took an opportunity to shop in their market. Note the looks that we’re getting for a) being white, and b) using a camera.
What do you do when your safari truck runs out of gas in the middle of freaking nowhere? You set up camp, catch some sun, and rely on the generosity of strangers to bail you out.
Oh yea, and you watch the wildlife along the Chobe river.
The easiest job in the world must be photographer in Africa. It’s really quite hard to find a bad shot.
Unbelievable! Victoria Falls. This is one of the most incredible natural things that I have ever seen. A mile long gash in the earth where the Zambezi River crashes into a deep gorge only a few hundred yards wide. It creates its own tropical rain forest climate zone and produced the only clouds that we saw on our entire trip. I’ve never been that wet before without actually falling into the water.
Even the baboons enjoyed the scenery.
We decided to join the primates for a ride on the vines.
We also took an opportunity to white water raft the mighty Zambezi. It had been closed for the past month due to high water but had just reopened before we got there. The hike into/out of the gorge was fantastic and the white water was rough. Rapid 16a,b, and c (The Terminator I/II and Judgment Day) was a kilometer long frothy ride with a class 5+ 16 foot wave right in the middle. I swear that we caught air coming off that thing! Unbelievable! Our kayak support crew took some video and also played a mean game of volleyball on a deserted sandy beach at lunch time.
Our fearless leader Hendrik took us out on a sunset booze cruise on the upper Zambezi for our last night in Vic Falls.
The night quickly deteriorated into trying to drink shots as different animals might (here a giraffe drinking)….
…until we ended up dancing at a dusty bar somewhere in Zimbabwe. Some stories are better left untold…
When we got back to Johannesburg we had an extra day before our flight so we decided to tackle our stereotypes and fears head on there as well. We signed up for a local to take us around the city and give us a feel for the place. What a contrast! The downtown has been completely abandoned by whites, with 1000 room hotels standing boarded up and office buildings completely vacant. But the city thronged with life as immigrants from all over Africa flock there to seek work. The suburbs are now all filled with the houses of whites surrounded by 10 foot walls topped with razor wire and protected by armed security with attack dogs. It was surreal. There was palpable tension in the air, yet somehow it also held optimism. Another unexplainable complexity.
We also toured around the squatter tracks of Soweto and saw the rising middle class areas. In these places, there was no razor wire or walls or dogs. Here, oddly enough, we felt safe and the people were very friendly. Again, context. (by the way, in the background of the first picture is a slag pile from one of the many huge gold mines in and around Jo'burg. How's that for complicated context?)
But what really made the trip was the group that we travelled with. 3 Dutch, 3 Americans, 2 Danes, a Swede, and a South African. Who’d have thunk it? Daniel, Tina, Sean, Sandra, Sune, Maria, Lea, and Hendrik…Thanks for one of the best experiences that we’ve ever had.
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