Africa 1999

AFRICA 1999 - Part One

Holiday 1999 - Zimbabwe and Botswana

Wednesday, April 21, 1999 - Philadelphia and eastward
I went to work today to try to tidy up a few loose ends. I left around 4:00, stopped by the pet shop to get fish food and got home around 5:00. I finished packing and petted the cat for a while. She'd been upset ever since the suitcase came out yesterday. Richard came by around 6:00 - he's going to feed the fish for me while I'm gone. I asked him to pet the cat, too, but I'm not holding my breath. We said goodbye and I caught a cab to the airport.

I was flying British Air and even though I was flying steerage, my Executive Club membership lets me use their business class lounge. They had a nice salad bar and hot buffet set up, so I had a salad and a banana for dinner. Our plane was a new 777 - lots of seats because they've done away with all of the leg room in economy. Luckily, my seat was a bulkhead aisle, so I got a little more space. They fed us (chicken) and I ate the veggies. I started watching a movie called "Little Voice" which was actually pretty good, but I fell asleep.

Thursday, April 22, 1999 - London and beyond
I slept for about 3-4 hours, then they gave us breakfast just before our arrival in London. We were early, and they made us circle for 20 minutes before landing. I didn't check my bags, so I collected my stuff and went in search of the Heathrow Hilton hotel. I had a "day room" there so I had somewhere to crash for the 12 hour layover. We landed at Terminal 3, and the hotel is at Terminal 4 - which took about 30 minutes to get there.

Once I checked in, I took a quick 20 minute nap, and then showered and got changed for lunch. I caught a taxi into the City, which was, in retrospect a bad idea. Traffic was very congested and the trip in cost L45 (about $80). I was 1/2 hour late, but my colleagues were waiting for me and we went to lunch at a Spanish tapas restaurant near their office. We ordered a sampling of several dishes - spicy sausages, fried squid, mushroom, garlic potatoes, meatballs, shrimp - with Spanish beer. It was fun to catch up with everyone.

I left around 3:30, and this time caught a taxi to Paddington Station and then the new Heathrow Express train to the airport (total cost L24 ($43), and less time). I went back to my room, and had a message waiting from Richard - maybe he's going to miss me. I called him back, then my office, and then took a quick cat nap for a half hour. I repacked, checked out and went back to the terminal around 7:00 p.m. Luckily I was leaving from Terminal 4, so I didn't have far to go to check in for the flight to Johannesburg - aka "Joburg."

British Air has a nice executive lounge, and I passed the time there reading. I finished a very good, but disturbing book called The Company of Strangers.

The plane was a 747-400, and was about 2/3 full. I had a window seat, with an empty seat between me and the man on the aisle. They flight is about 10 hours to Joburg - we left about 15 minutes late (around 9:00) and flew south over Paris (I waved to Jeff & Lucia). I had beef tips for dinner which were actually not bad. The plane flew over the Mediterranean Sea and crossed over Northern Africa at Algiers - it was neat to see it from the air. I watched the film - a remake of Mighty Joe Young that was not very good - then took a sleeping pill. (Thank you, Dr. Gary!)

Friday, April 23, 1999 - Johannesburg, South Africa and beyond
I slept for about 5 hours, and woke up with about 2 hours to go. South Africa is 1 hour ahead of London time (6 hours ahead of East Coast). We landed on time just before 9:00 am. I checked in with the transit desk and they pointed me to the lounge as I had a layover before the 12:00 Zimbabwe Express flight to Victoria Falls. After an hour or so, they announced that the flight will be delayed until 1:30, "due to rotation." I wasn't sure what that meant, but I set my alarm (just in case) and read and dozed until 12:45. I went to the gate and waited for 10 minutes until an airline rep advised that the inbound flight wouldn't be in until 1:50. At 2:00 they brought buses to the gate and transferred us to the plane. They said that the "other" Air Zimbabwe plane had been damaged in a hailstorm the day before, so they were having to use one plane to make all their flights on that route.

The flight was crowded, and the tour company could only book me in First Class, for which I was grateful by that time. I was surrounded by a group of SA businessmen going on a golf weekend near Vic Falls. They were well lubricated by the time the flight finally left (at 3:00), and kindly offered a drink from their flask - thank you, no.

I was surprised to see all the red tiled roofs of houses in Joburg - it looked very much liked the SW US. It was a 1 1/2 hour flight to Vic Falls, which is north in Zimbabwe. As we landed, I could see the spray from Vic Falls several kilometers away. It is early autumn here, and the trees were turning. I went through customs, paid my arrival tax ($30) and found Cisco, the hotel's driver, waiting for me.

The Gorges Lodge was about 30 minutes away, first on paved streets, then unpaved, rutted roads - I was glad for the padded seats. It was very dry, with rather sparse vegetation. We passed several small hut villages, herds of cattle, goats and donkeys. We arrived at the hotel around 5:00 and I met Ashley, one of the managers, and checked in. I selected my two activities that come with the room - I decided to tour Vic Falls Saturday morning, stay in town for the afternoon and see an African dance troupe in the evening.

The Gorges Lodge - surprise - overlooks a deep gorge with a river at the bottom. My room was the last one on the path - a large thatched roof bungalow with a patio right on the edge of the gorge. I was amazed at the similarity between this place and a hotel I stayed at in Ubud, Bali a few years ago. It was very spacious, with mosquito netting over the bed, a lovely bath, and unfortunately, no electricity. There were light fixtures and switches but no juice. I took a shower (ahhh...) then went back to the front desk.

They told me the power was out but hoped it would be back on in a couple of hours. I went back to the room and sat on the little swing overlooking the gorge. A hawk flew by and perched in a tall tree about 15 feet away and watched me - as a hawk would do. I stayed until it got dark, then went back inside. Presently there was a knock on the door and Josef was there with candles and matches.

At 7:45 I went into the dining room for dinner. My room was about a 5 minute walk from the main lodge, and I had to use my little flashlight to see at times. There was a half-moon and loads of stars out. In the dining room, there was a table set for five and another set for one, both with candles as the power was still out. They had makeshift power for the kitchen and Josef served - pan-fried salmon with fresh rolls and butter, cream of mushroom soup (excellent!), pan-fried chicken breast in ginger sauce with cauliflower, potatoes and zucchini, and cheesecake for dessert - along with a glass of slightly too sweet white wine. Shawn, the other manager, came and spoke with me for a few minutes. He said they were expecting a group of five who were driving in, but didn't know when they would arrive. There were two other groups staying, but both had decided to go into town for the evening. He suggested I take the sundowner river cruise instead of seeing the tribal dancing, so I agreed and he went off to schedule it.

Halfway through dinner the power came back on. When I made my way back down the path to my room, I decided it was better without the path lights, because now I could see all the critters, including a 6--inch long black millipede. I got back to the room around 9:00 and went to bed.

Saturday, April 24, 1999 - Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
I slept until 4:00 am, read for a hour, then slept again until 8:00. Josef brought hot tea, and I sat out on the porch and read for a while. There was a whole crew of 6 or so gardeners watering, pruning, etc. I got dressed and went to breakfast at 9:00 - juices, fresh fruit, cereal, toast, eggs, bacon, potatoes. Cisco picked me up at 10:00 to take me to Vic Falls.

About 2 kilometers from the lodge, we saw four baboons on the right hand side of the road. As we slowed down, two crossed in front of us, with the larger one giving us a dirty look normally only seen on NY City cab drivers. I asked Cisco if they were mean; he said, "Oh, yes, very very mean."

It took about 25 minutes to drive to Vic Falls, half of it on the very bumpy dirt road. We passed a small bridge where a troupe of 8-10 baboons were playing on the abutment. Cisco showed me where I would meet the driver for the river cruise and where he would pick me up later. Then he drove me to the Vic Falls park entrance, instructed me not to trust anyone (reassuring!), and dropped me off. It was $371 Zimbabwean dollars - equal to US$10 - to enter. I walked the path to the statue of Livingstone, and saw the first view of the Falls.

The Zambezi River is the boundary between Zambia and Zimbabwe. There are two portions of the Falls along this path - Devil's Cataract and the Main Falls. One can feel the spray from the Falls as soon as one enters the park. It got progressively wetter the further toward the Main Falls I got, with the spray becoming a hard mist and then rain. I continued walking down toward the rainforest, stopping at the lookout points over the Fall.

The river was nearly full, so there was more water than normal going over the Falls. The spray was so thick in some parts I could barely see the waterfall. I went down the path to Danger Point and was absolutely drenched. I tried to protect my camera, but it took me an hour or so to dry out after I finished the walk. I saw the bridge that crosses the river just below the Falls, with a beautiful rainbow under it.

I walked back toward the exit, then decided to go sit in the sun for a while. A wedding party arrived to take pictures, and there was an adorable little girl (14 months old) in a white frilly dress. I asked her mother if I could take a picture and she posed for me and asked me to send her a copy. I also took a picture of her son in his tuxedo.

I went back to one of the (drier) viewing spots, then went to leave. As I headed toward the exit, a huge group of baboons appeared along the path - probably 25-30 animals. The younger ones played, but the older ones were more business-like. One of the big males chased another up a tree and there was much shrieking. They were very unafraid and I took several pictures.

I left and walked back into town. They are building a new hotel here - The Kingdom - it is very large. Just behind it is the Vic Falls Hotel - a classic white British Colonial style place, reminiscent of the Raffles Hotel in Singapore. I went to the patio and had lunch - a greek salad with a Zambezi beer. (Jeff, the beer is the typical nationalist beer - kind of bitter, without much going for it other than it's beer and it's cold.) There was a lovely green lawn with trees and benches, and a great panoramic view of the bridge above the river and the great white spray of the Falls.

After lunch I wandered around the grounds, then over to the Elephant Walk shops. I looked around, but nothing screamed out to me. At 3:45, George, the driver for the river cruise picked me up and then we drove to the new Kingdom hotel which is, to my surprise, open during its construction. We picked up several people and drove 15 minutes to the dock where three river cruise boats were tied up.

We clambered through to the last one and I sat at a table with a couple named Mike and Kay (who would have thought!). After a false start and a return to the dock for more passengers, we were off. Mike and Kay are from central England originally, but just moved to Harare, Zimbabwe where their son lives. They were taking holiday while their son found a house for them. They'd been staying for a week at Wenke safari lodge, 200 kilometers south of Vic Falls. They said it was wonderful, and that the animals came right up near the camp. We didn't see any of the hippos, elephants, buffalo, etc. They brought us close to the shore at one point and indicated something that looked like a small log that they said was really a young crocodile. Or maybe it was a log. The sunset was nice and we made it back without a problem. George picked us up and we saw 5 or so buffalo off the side of the road on the way back to town. Cisco picked me up and we drove back to the lodge around 7:15.

I went to the the bar and ordered a glass of wine - it was much better, dryer than the previous night's. After a few minutes, Shawn came to the bar for a beer, and Ashley joined us soon after. I ended up eating at the bar instead of the dining room and talking with them about animals, safaris, the war in Kosovo, etc. Shawn worked at a couple of camps as a guide, and has worked as a hunting assistant as well. Hunting for all but endangered species is legal, but permits must be bought and they are limited, so a bidding process is used. The most dangerous animal to hunt is the buffalo, even more so than lions or other carnivores. Buffalo are mean-spirited and will go out of their way to trample and gore hunters and bystanders. They are prized for their horns, both the width and depth. The most desirable ones are older males, but they can be clever and vicious. Shawn assisted on one leopard hunt but he won't do that anymore because they bait the animals at night and use lights to blind them so they can be shot.

Shawn also told me about wild dogs which are very rare, and not seen often. They live in a pack with 15 or so dogs, and one alpha pair that mate and produce the pups. Any other pups born to a female other than the alpha are immediately killed by the alpha female. The entire pack works to care for the alpha pair and their pups. They have large ranges, and have had trouble because they range into sheep and goat herds to feed and the farmers shoot them. (Note: the May 1999 National Geographic has a great article on the wild dogs of Botswana!)