Draft writeup for Dad's Africa 2012 photo album

South Africa/Zambia/Botswana July 31, 2012-August 12, 2012

Insert Itinerary

Insert passenger list

Insert South Africa/Zambia map

Tuesday, July 31^st, 2012 - Depart Washington

We flew out of Dulles at 5:30 Tuesday, July 31^st. Liz had flown in from Las Vegas on Saturday the 28^th and spent a few day with Rob and Beth. Bob and Jeri had flown up the day before our flight and stayed at a hotel near Dulles. Our traveling companions, the Pagluicas, drove up a few days before and spent time with friends.

The Friday before the trip, we got a copy of the seating assignment. We realized that Bob, Jeri, Rob, and Beth were seated together. Liz, Alex, and Alanna were together a few rows away, and Taylor was pretty far away all by himself. It turned out that South African Airways had changed airplanes and reassigned our seats, and somehow they had put us in 3 groups: one with 4, one with 3, and Taylor all by himself. Bob (after many phone calls) managed to straighten it out, and we were all in two adjacent rows. We had the same issue on the return flights; Bob tried to get it fixed during our trip, but for some reason, they could not get it done.

Check-in for the Maryland Craigs took a bit of time. They couldn’t figure out how to check in 3 Robert Taylor Craigs (Bob had already checked in and they had him in the system). After checking in, we got into the line for security. We were in line for a few minutes when Taylor said, “I don’t think this is the line for security. I’m going to check it out.” Sure enough, a bit later Taylor came back and said it was the wrong line. It was a check-in line for another airline, and we should have figured it out because everyone had a bunch of luggage.

The Maryland Craigs and Liz got to the gate just about the time boarding began. Bob and Jeri were already there.

Insert seat assignment diagram

The trip was not as bad as we had expected. There were a bunch of movies to pick from, including quite a few kids movies, and we could start them ourselves. We had a 1 hour layover in Dakar, Senegal, and we were not allowed out of our seats during that time. Alanna and Liz lost power to their entertainment system so they couldn’t watch movies or even use their reading lights. A flight attendant finally answered our call button, but couldn’t fix the problem.

Wednesday, August 1^st, 2012 - Arrive Johannesburg

Arrival in South Africa was uneventful. Bags made it and customs was quick, although they wanted the kids to go through separately, and the kids were a little uncertain how to answer the questions (How long is your stay? Where are you going?) It was about 5:00 or 6:00 at night. We met the Pagluicas at the luggage carousel. We were met by a guy from a tour company who directed us to where to pick up our shuttle. While we were waiting for our shuttle (it took awhile), it hit us how cold it would be. We had gotten our jackets out of our luggage and were very thankful for them. (Another hint of how cold it was going to be was all the people at Dulles going to South Africa wearing winter coats).

We finally got the shuttle to the hotel. The hotel was in the Emperor’s Palace (formerly Caesars’ Palace like in Las Vegas). Check-in took awhile, apparently they were overbooked. They wanted to upgrade us to another hotel, but that would have meant another shuttle ride. We convinced them to find us rooms, and the boys ended up in a palatial suite with 3 full bathrooms and two sitting areas.

The Emperor’s Palace was huge with multiple hotels in the same complex and a huge food court with a ceiling painted like clouds and huge statues made to look like it was Rome. We had dinner at a fish place that looked a little iffy at first. The currency in South Africa is the Rand, and we couldn’t figure out the exchange rate (should have looked at that before we left home). John thought it was either $1.25/Rand or 1.25 Rand/$. We hoped that wasn’t right because that would have made the 99 Rand meal rather pricey. It turned out it was about 8 Rand/$. We all got fish. It was all very good with a wonderful creamy lemon sauce. There was a huge replica of Michaelangelo’s David just outside the restaurant.

Thursday, August 2^nd, 2012 - Johannesburg to Kapama River Lodge

We didn’t get much sleep – we headed to breakfast at 6:30. Breakfast was a buffet and pretty good. We got at 7:30 shuttle to the airport for 9:45 boarding. It was still pretty cold. A very pushy guy helped us very little and asked both Bob and Rob separately for a tip (“Do you have something for me?”) and got one from both. We had a bit of a wait at the gate, and it was pretty cold inside the airport. Liz found a reasonable shop and bought a scarf, and Jeri bought a hat (which she had forgotten at home). Flight to Hoedspruit was uneventful.

We got into the tiny airport near Kapama. Our lodge had a van on the way to pick us up, so we checked out the gift shop. The lodge van had arrived when Beth and Alanna were looking for Rob to get money for the gift shop, so Jeri, Bob, Judi, Alanna, and Beth got on with our luggage and 2 other ladies. The van was a safari vehicle with 2 seats up front (one for the driver), a seat for the spotter/tracker mounted on the hood, then 3 rows of 3 seats. All our luggage was right behind the driver. As we were driving to the lodge, the first animal we spotted was a giraffe eating at a tree right by the road. Judi was really thrilled because the giraffe is her favorite animal and she wanted it to be the first animal she saw. We hung out for a bit to watch it, and our driver noticed its head was bloody. We saw some impala, too.

Insert diagram of lodge

We got to the lodge and had some refresher towels and yellow drinks with pink bottoms waiting. We also saw some Nyala that roamed in the grassy areas of the lodge. The men and Liz arrived soon after us. We waited a bit for our rooms to be ready. Taylor and Alex were thrilled to discover a large chess set under the awning overlooking the dry river bed. They played a few games there over the course of our stay. Our rooms were beautiful. They had nice dark wood and light linens and big windows and a balcony off the bedroom. The bathroom had a large barn door with etched glass. The toilet stall had etched glass for privacy. The shower stall was huge and the water controls were near the door, a little away from the shower head. Rob thought it was the nicest shower he had ever used.

We had lunch at 2:00 – a very nice buffet with salads, soup, and other hot dishes. We went back to our rooms to unpack, and then to tea at 3:30 before our game drive at 4:00. Rob had met our ranger, Joe, earlier. Joe had just had his 1 week off (they work 3 weeks on and then get 1 week off). Rob asked him what he did for his week off, and he said he went to Kruger J.

The landscape was very different from Kenya and so the drives were very different. In Kenya, there was not much brush and not many trees, so we would just drive around and see animals. The brush was so heavy in South Africa that the ranger and the tracker would really have to track the animals – find their tracks on the road and then figure out where they had gone. It also seemed that we saw a wider range of animals in Kenya. The drivers there had books that they used to identify the animals. In South Africa, it didn’t seem necessary. The rangers also communicated on the radios to tell others when they found something.

Our ranger, Joe, was quite the character. On the first game drive, Judi asked him If zebras were white with black stripes or black with white stripes. Joe went into a long explanation of how the males were one way and the females were the other and then pointed out a feature on a female that seemed to prove his point. Judi bought the story and went on for a bit about how right he was. Finally, Joe told her he was only joking. Our tracker was Colin, and he was very nice and friendly (also with a good sense of humor) but quiet. They would both get out of the vehicle to track the animals and at first it was rather disconcerting to not even be able to see them. Judi usually sat in the front seat (it had a heater) and was very entertaining, joking with Joe and Colin and acting very concerned when they left us (and Joe typically left his door open – so the animals could get at Judi more easily – but the vehicle had no top and just very short sides, so an open door really didn’t matter that much). Sometimes, only Joe would come back and we would wonder if he lost Colin.

We were especially hoping to see a leopard on this trip, because that was the last of the “Big 5” (lion, leopard, black rhino, elephant, and cape buffalo) that we had not seen well on our trip to Kenya in 2009. Some of us maybe got a glimpse of one on the last day, but it was dark and the animal was far away and in a tree or bush; and others hadn’t even seen that much. Joe and Colin said we had a good chance of seeing one at Kapama.

We didn’t see many animals on our first game drive, but just after sunset we saw a group of lions with 4 or 5 cubs about 1 ½ months old and 2 cubs about 5 months old. There were 2 or 3 adult females and 1 adult male. The youngest ones were really cute and curious, especially about the jeep, but they did not get too close (the moms were making sure of that). The 5 month old cubs were very rambunctious and rough housing with each other. One of them got stuck in a tree for a bit (caught in the Y of a trunk that he couldn’t get out of). When he finally got out, another one seemed to want to climb in and get stuck, too.

The rangers were allowed to go off road to find any of the big five. Joe was rather flexible in what he went off road for. The brush was rather dense, and Joe would knock down small trees (poor Colin in front really had to watch it). We had to watch for branches in the back – sometimes we had to duck for quite a while until we got out into a more open area. It was quite an adventure sometimes.

The weather was much colder than we expected. We knew it was winter and the temperature ranged from 80-50 degrees. I think it got much colder than 50. Johannesburg had snow while we were in South Africa (first time in many many years!). I think we all wished we had brought warmer clothes. Alanna sometimes wore 2 pairs of pants.

We went back to our rooms after the game drive and then to dinner. We ate outside! There were roofs over the table and some walls, a fire pit in the center, and blankets at our seats. Dinner was a wonderful buffet. Joe joined us for dinner each night. The first night he told us how the rangers were allowed to go off road for the big five. We asked how sturdy the vehicles were, and he said quite sturdy, but he had ruined quite a few tires. He also said the underside of the vehicle was protected with a metal plate, but for some reason the radiators were not. He ruined one radiator, and had to pay 5,000 Rand to repair it. For some reason the lodge didn’t believe that he needed to go off road when he did. Considering that, he was very accommodating in how often he went off road.

Friday, August 3^rd, 2012 - Kapama River Lodge

Up early to get some tea and goodies before the game drive. We saw a rhino with her baby rather close. Joe said that particular rhino was shy – it kept moving away from us. Joe and Colin had a conference (they talked in a mix of Afrikaans and Colin’s native language) and then Colin went off into the brush. We drove off, and Joe said, “Get your cameras ready, Colin is going to grab the baby and come running across the road, and the mama is going to follow.” Surprisingly enough, that did not happen. We also saw a herd of elephants and got extremely close to them. At one point, Joe was getting even closer to one and it was watching us, and Colin seemed to give Joe a signal to stop and not get closer. The elephants were on both sides of the road and on the road and surrounding the vehicle. We also found a lion feasting on a warthog.

Whenever we saw another vehicle, the two vehicles would pull up to each other and the rangers would talk and the trackers would talk (but not in English, so we had no idea what they were saying). We noticed that usually the other driver would say something and take a long look down the side of our vehicle. It seemed to us that Joe was known for his wild off road driving and the other drivers were checking our vehicle for damage.

Back for breakfast – a wonderful buffet with made to order omelets, lots of fruit, eggs, meats, and pastries.

Alanna and Alex tried out the pool. It was really cold, so they had just a quick dip.

Lunch was another great buffet with salads and meats and soup. We also headed to tea before our evening game drive.

On the evening game drive, we were again hopeful for a leopard sighting, but we didn’t see many animals at all. The sunset was beautiful, however, and the stars were magnificent. Rob was sad to realize he had not brought the star book and tripod. We saw an owl and a few porcupines near the end. Alanna had missed the porcupine in Kenya (she fell asleep on the drive when we saw it), so she was delighted.

Wonderful buffet dinner outside again. Blankets were nice to have! Bob asked Joe at dinner how long he had been a ranger. Joe (with a straight face) said, “4 days.” Actually, he had been a ranger for 4 years.

Saturday, August 4^th, 2012 - Kapama River Lodge

Up early for a 6:30 game drive – 6:00 pastries first.

On the game drive we saw 2 white rhinos (there are no black rhinos here). White rhinos are not really white – some think the name came from a misunderstanding of the Afrikaans word for wide which is wyd, and they were called wyd because of the shape of their mouth. The upper lip of the white rhino is square (or wide) whereas the whole jaw of the black rhino is pointed. The rhinos are not distinguishable by color. The white rhinos are less aggressive and less apt to charge than the black rhinos (thank goodness). We also saw a jackal.

Typically, Joe would not tell us what they were tracking or what the other vehicles were reporting and we were going off to find. I think he didn’t want us to be disappointed if we didn’t see it. On this drive, we came up to a vehicle who had just seen something, and the woman in the front seat kept on raving about how awesome the thing that they had just seen was. She never told us what it was, but she just went on and on about how awesome it was and we would forget being cold.

We drove on to find a large group of lions, including many little ones, maybe about 1 month old. They were very cute – playing together like little kittens, getting a bath from mom, and attacking their dad’s tail while he tried to sleep. We just parked and watched for about 20 minutes; Rob took over 150 pictures.

Soon after we left the lions, we soon saw 2 cheetahs crossing the road and going into the bush. We got a great look at them. We were joking to Joe that he could have told us they were leopards and then we could claim we saw the big five already.

We saw some hippos in a lake, some vultures, and some male Nyalas; the male Nyalas were much bigger than the female roaming around at the lodge. Joe taught us some of the terms for males & females of the different antelope species:

Species	Male	Female
Impala	ram	ewe
Nyala	bull	ewe
Kudu	bull	cow

We got back to camp and had a wonderful breakfast. We joked that we ate about once an hour – it seemed like a cruise!

After breakfast, Rob was hanging out with Bob and Mr. Pagluica learning about camera technology, trying to understand how to compare film & digital photography, particularly in terms of resolution. Rob & the boys then threw the baseball around for a while, and played a couple chess games before lunch. We also watched the “Battle at Kruger” video on Mr. P’s iPad.

Another wonderful buffet lunch. Joe had mentioned we could go on a game walk some afternoon between lunch and the afternoon game drive. The kids were not allowed since they were younger than 18. Liz was the only one who was enthusiastic about it. After our morning game drive, Joe suggested that we meet at 3:30 for a game walk. The only bummer was that we missed our 3:30 tea J( we may have run in and gotten something, anyway). When we arrived at the vehicle, there was a rifle on the hood of the vehicle near the windshield (or where the windshield would have been if the vehicle had had one). Joe was full of enthusiasm over what we would see. Once we got going, Joe and Colin spotted some tracks and got very excited. We got to a spot and got out of the vehicle and Joe laid down the law – be very quiet, move slowly and as a group. He told us the animal we were after was very large and had very bad eyesight but had a keen sense of smell so we would have to approach it from upwind. He joked, “I guess that gave it away,” but of course we still had no idea what animal it was. He explained that if we stayed in a group, it would think we were one big animal. So Joe got his rifle and we followed him with Colin bringing up the rear. I don’t think we were really all that quiet or stayed in a group all that well. When we finally got to the spot, Joe pointed to a rhino in the distance. Then he took our pictures in front of the rhino while Colin held the rifle. Rob and Beth were last, and when Joe was arranging them, Colin gave Rob the rifle. After Joe took the picture, Beth asked Joe if he could make the rhino roll over and play dead. At one point, Joe told Beth how excited he was that we had found this particular rhino because he was a very aggressive male and chased quite a few rangers into trees. Beth told Joe he should have waited until we got back into the vehicle before sharing that tidbit.

Once we got back to the vehicle, Joe had another activity for us. He went over to a pile of impala dung, and told us about a favorite South African pastime at barbeques. He noted that the dung was fairly well dried because it was a few days old, so it would be perfect for what he wanted to do. He told us they used it for dung spitting contests and that we would have one. He picked up some dung and gave everyone a piece (Jeri and Beth declined), and we had a dung spitting contest. Rob won.

Later on in the game drive, both Joe and Colin got out of the vehicle and walked away. They were gone a few minutes, and then we saw them come running back to the vehicle. At first we thought they were running away from an animal, but then they told us that they were about 20 feet from a lion and the only reason they realized it was there was because a warthog started running away. They were running back to the vehicle so we could follow after the lion and maybe see a chase. It was pretty funny because they did look sheepish and seemed to be laughing as they were running. We never did see a chase, but we did find the lions and got very close. At one point we were in sort of a parking spot with medium-sized trees on 3 sides, and one of the lions sat down right behind us – we were wondering how we were going to get out!

After sundown, Joe heard about something on the radio, and told us we were going to see something very special. It took a while, and it was after dark when we arrived at the spot. The people in the other vehicles who had been there before us were again exclaiming about how neat it was. We pulled in and… leopards!! For some of us it was the first time to see them, and for most of us it was the best sighting yet. There was a mom and several babies in a tree very low to the ground. Joe and Colin did not want to shine the spotlight directly at the babies, and in the darkness it was basically impossible to get a very good picture. But it was really neat to finally see these elusive cats. We had our sundowner at the place where guests can pay 5,000 Rand and get a dinner cooked for them and then sleep out on a platform and watch the animals… with only a radio to call people who are 20 minutes away.

Back to the lodge for a wonderful dinner.

Sunday, August 5^th, 2012 - Kapama River Lodge to Arathusa

Our last day at Kapama. We got mostly packed up the night before and headed to get some snacks before our morning game drive. On our game drive we saw a large male and a large female lion. When Joe and Colin were going off to track them, they both took off their coats. Joe said, “It is easier to climb a tree without a coat on.” They probably were both just getting hot.

We tried to track some elephants but didn’t have much success. We met up with another safari vehicle and their ranger and tracker went off with Joe and Colin to find the elephants. They were off for awhile, we heard a scream, and then they came back. When they came back, Joe said, “Did you hear that scream, it was Colin. The elephants were coming at us.” It was really Colin trying to flush out the elephant. At one point on the drive, Joe got a call on the radio and then asked us, “Has anyone lost, by chance, a beanie?” By beanie he meant hat, and it was such a quaint way of asking. We had our picture taken with Joe and Colin in front of the Kapama sign.

We had another wonderful breakfast and headed to finish packing.

Alanna really enjoyed the people at Kapama. She had a couple of stories to tell. One was when she was running back to the room, and a lady worker there called out, “Hey, girlie!” Another time a gardener saw her with a book and asked her what it was (through the language barrier). She told him that it was a sketch book to draw in. He said that he thought it was a Bible. (He made praying hands and then looked up to the sky). Alanna said that it wasn’t a Bible, but she had one in her room. Another gardener gave her a high five as she was running past.

We packed up, Colin got our luggage, and both he and Joe were there to say goodbye.

Our driver to Arathusa was Moshe. He was full of stories to share – kept talking for most of the ride and was pretty entertaining. We arrived in Arathusa after about a 2 hour drive. It was very different from Kapama. It was much smaller and much older. We were greeted with the traditional yellow drink with pink bottom and wet cloths.

Insert diagram.

When we arrived, our hostess told us that they had seen a leopard around the camp after dark and not to leave our rooms after dark without calling someone to come get us. We could call the number 24/7 and someone would be there at all times. There was also a lake that had hippos in it, but the hostess told us, don’t worry, the hippos don’t come over the wall. The wall was about 2 feet tall and there wasn’t actually a wall on one edge (the one near our hut!). We had separate huts that were decorated in a fancy coloninal style.

The meals were quite different at Arathusa. All the guests would sit down at the same time, and the chef would come out and describe the menu. He was quite a character and really seemed to relish the attention. The meals were more gourmet, but a few of us didn’t find them as enjoyable as Kapama. We had lunch on a deck overlooking the lake where we could watch the hippos, crocodiles, impala, and other animals who came out to drink.

We met our ranger, Brett, and our tracker, Roy. They seemed friendly enough but were a bit of a letdown after Joe and Colin. Liz was less than impressed. After we left, Rob was saying that he wished he had asked Brett what his favorite animal was (Joe’s was the elephant). Liz said she thought it was himself. Another difference was that we always had a rifle at Arathusa (and Brett took it with him when he got out of the vehicle, which he rarely did). Joe seemed to be a better driver than Brett. Brett took a lot of room to turn around and wasn’t as smooth on the gears. Brett didn’t chit chat during the sundowners or the sun uppers. He usually wandered off by himself.

On our first game drive, we drove near another lodge that had a lake and saw a baby hippo with its mother and right nearby was a crocodile. We also saw a small group of cape buffalo – 3 bachelors and a female. Brett thought that the female got separated from her previous group and managed to get in with the males. She did look a little sickly.

The highlight was seeing an aardvark very close to our lodge after dark. Brett said that in his 7 years there, he had seen only one other. Another ranger had never seen one.

We headed back and had dinner outside. The tables were all put together to form a giant horseshoe. We all sat on the outside of the horseshoe and the fire was on the inside. They waited for all the guest to gather before the chef told us the menu and the meal was served.

 After dinner we headed to our huts and looked out for the leopard!

Monday, August 6^th, 2012 - Arathusa

Morning game drives began at 6:00 here rather than 6:30 at Kapama. The before breakfast snack was not much more than coffee and a little something to dip into the coffee. We did get drinks on the game drive (hot chocolate, coffee, or tea) and nice pastries – croissants and crunchies (which we ended up getting the recipe for).

We found a pride of lions that had recently gorged on a kill. They had very big tummies. There was a very young male in the center that Brett could tell was hurt (at first we thought he was just very sound asleep, but after Brett told us he was hurt, it became obvious). Apparently, one of the dominant males did it.

We tracked a leopard, but it eluded us. Brett and Roy got out of the vehicle to track it – Brett had a rifle and Roy had a radio. No luck.

Breakfast after the game drive was good – on the deck overlooking the lake. There was a mini buffet with fruit and some pastries. Eggs and meat and veggies were made to order (the waiter took the order and brought it). Omelets were slightly different. Cheese was put in the omelet, but most everything else was on the side. The wind was fairly heavy, so we couldn’t go on a bush walk (the animals would all catch our scent).

The boys napped after breakfast. Alanna and Rob practiced soccer with a ball we brought from home.

The big excitement was watching 2 male hippos fighting in the lake. They would both be under water for a while, and then they would pop up with a big splash and both would have their mouths open and they would go after each other. That would go on for 20 seconds or so and then they would go back under the water. It went on for half an hour or more.

Alanna and Alex went in for a quick swim in the pool. It was really windy and rather cold. Cushions for the lounge chairs were blowing all over the place. It was so breezy that lunch was in the bar area, which was shielded from the wind.

On the afternoon game drive, we hit the jackpot and saw a leopard. We got a great look at her and were able to follow her in the vehicle for quite a while. Another vehicle had spotted her first and then we got there and other vehicles came. We really had a fabulous view of her. We got within about 10 feet and were able to stay with her for a long time. We also got a good look at some giraffes and elephants. Near the end of the drive, we found the leopard again. It was stalking some sort of antelopes. We waited a bit to see if we could see a kill, but we finally gave up. Brett said that that leopard was not a particularly good huntress. A typical leopard would sneak up on prey and get within 10 yards of it in order to ensure a successful kill. This one started from further away and was often not successful. It is interesting how differently the different cats hunt. At the end of the game drive, we were driving past a bunch of bushes when Roy said something to Brett and he stopped the vehicle and went back. It turned out there was a chameleon on the bush – hard for me to see even when it was pointed out. We all told Roy how impressed we were with him and his eyesight. He said that he ate a lot of carrots.

Dinner was in the bar area again. We also sat at tables just with our group.

Tuesday, August 7, 2012 - Arathusa

We saw the 4 dominant male lions on the morning game drive. It was sort of funny to watch them walk along together patrolling their region. We followed them for a while in our vehicle and found where they were intending to sleep for the day. We got extremely close and watched them for a bit. Then as we were leaving, Brett drove over the edge of a rather large mound. We had a hard time getting over it, and it really seemed like we might tip over.

After the group of 4 male lions, we saw a group of 4 females as we were heading back to camp. We followed them for a while, and they ended up going right to the lake by our camp. Breakfast was exciting as we watched the lions come to the watering hole and watched the reaction of the other animals. At one point it seemed the lions might have breakfast with us (by getting some prey), but the other animals seemed to smell them and were on guard. [Diagram?] It was interesting to watch the other animals watching the lions. The lions went over a berm so we couldn’t see them from the camp, and the other animals crept up to the berm to try to see them. There was no further action.

The hippos were not fighting, either.

On the evening game drive we saw lots of elephants, including a baby. We were able to stay and watch them awhile. We also saw the matriarch knock down a tree so that the little ones could eat off of it. We also saw the four male lions again.

Alanna had a bite on her ear that was quite red, itchy, and painful. We asked Brett about it, and he had no idea what it was. We also asked the hostess, and she didn’t know, either. She did get us some anti-itch cream.

We decided at dinner that we would like a hot breakfast before we left in the morning (our van was coming at 6:00). We also told the chef we really loved his crunchies. Liz had asked for some recipes and he promised to have them for us before we left. He also promised to include the recipe for the crunchies (and maybe have some crunchies waiting for us tomorrow).

The next morning we found out that Rob and the boys had lost power (when T was in the shower!). They had no heat or lights to do any packing. There were numerous calls to the front desk throughout the night. The ranger on duty (it might have been Brett) tried multiple times but could not figure out how to fix it. He did not seem very concerned about it, but Rob insisted he do something, and he ended up waking someone else up, and that someone apparently was able to fix it right away, so they had hot showers in the morning.

Wednesday, August 8^th, 2012 - Arathusa to Victoria Falls

It was a chilly morning, but we had a full breakfast at 5:45 with crunchies.

Moshe came to pick us up for our 3 hour ride to the airport. He was again very chipper and full of stories. He drove people around all day and probably had pretty rough hours (He picked us up at 6:00). He told some stories about animals that were like Kipling’s stories (maybe they even were). We saw many kids walking to school, most all with uniforms. Some kids were running around the school, and he said that was because they were late and corporal punishment was no longer allowed. Running was now the punishment. Many of the houses we saw were concrete block. Moshe said that people were usually paid enough to live, but would get a bonus in January. Unless they had a government job, people did not borrow money to buy a house. They would use their bonus and build one room at a time.

Arrived at the airport and said goodbye to Moshe. We bought some caramel corn and shared it and then started checking out the gift shops. The prices were much better than at the lodges.

Our flight was good. Lunch not quite as good as we had been getting. We had a choice of chicken or beef – just a few slices of meat with a scoop of curry salad or potato salad and a small dessert.

We arrived at Livingstone Airport and had to fill out our customs forms. It turned out we should have gotten a double entry visa so that we could use it when we came back from Botswana.

Gideon, a very soft spoken gentle driver, met us at the airport. We drove to the Zambezi Sun hotel and were met by native dancers and welcome drinks. It took a while to register, but we got it figured out and headed to our rooms. There were wild animals running around the hotel grounds. We saw zebras and some kind of antelope. We were warned not to get too friendly with the animals. There were also a bunch of wire sculpture animals around the grounds; I imagine they could be quite freaky at night.

The Craig crew headed out for our helicopter ride over Victoria Falls. (It was a little disconcerting that the Pagluicas did not join us. Did they know something that we didn’t?) Gideon drove us over. We checked out the gift shop while we waited for our ride, but there was not much interesting. The helicopter took 4 at once, and Bob, Jeri, Rob, and Alex went first. Bob got the front seat, and in the back it was Rob, Alex, and Jeri (Alex in the center). They recorded a DVD of everyone’s ride with footage of walking to the helicopter and walking back, some stock footage of the falls with facts about the falls, and cameras inside the helicopter to get both front and back seat passengers. While the second group was riding, Rob decided to buy the DVD of their group. They were going to edit it and send it to the hotel, but we forgot to check on it and we never picked it up L.

Liz, Taylor, Alanna, and Beth rode on the second flight. Liz had the front seat, and Beth had the middle seat with Alanna and Taylor on the sides. It was an amazing flight with incredible views. Tons of spray and rainbows. We went around the falls 1 ½ times clockwise and then 1 ½ times counter clockwise. The pilot had a bit of a spiel, but he really wasn’t very personable or friendly.

After the flight we took a bunch of pictures by the helicopter (ours was the last flight of the day), and by a sign that showed the distances to various cities around the world.

We headed back to the hotel and Rob, Alex, and Alanna took a dip in the pool. It was really cold, and Alex’s ears really hurt afterward. He stayed huddled in his bed for awhile back in the room. Alanna’s ear started to bug her again.

We had dinner at the hotel buffet. It was wonderful food – really a huge buffet and delicious. The restaurant was open to the outside and it was rather cold. We also had an amazingly surly waitress. She came over to take our drink orders, and we asked her to come back because Bob and Jeri weren’t there yet. It took forever for her to come back, and if she had looked, she would have seen that we were all there. When she did come back, Bob asked to see a wine list. She asked if he wanted red or white wine because the lists were different. She again insisted that she needed to know which type of wine, and Bob finally said red. When she brought the wine list, it had both types on it! John told her to bill the dinner to 2 different rooms, she said, no, that was something we would straighten out at checkout. John insisted that she figure out a way to bill it to 2 different rooms (which had been done everywhere we went). She then hardly bussed our table at all. She did seem to be doing an OK job with the other tables and even smiling. John talked to the manager about her. The food was really delicious, and all the other staff was friendly. The highlight was fresh Belgium waffles for dessert with ice cream and caramel sauce. They also had toffee pudding cake with vanilla sauce, and lots of cheese cakes.

Thursday, August 9^th 2012 - Victoria Falls

Our first day to sleep in! It didn’t seem long enough J. We headed to Victoria Falls after a wonderful buffet breakfast — omelets, waffles, fruit, eggs sausage, rolls, croissants, etc. Gideon drove us to the falls. It was funny because it was such a short drive. We got off the van, registered at a check in place, got back on the van, and then drove about 20 yards and got off again. We really should have just walked from our hotel. We had our light plastic rain coats from Safari Ventures, but Gideon had nice long black ones that we used instead. Gideon was our tour guide. There was a big statue of David Livingstone and it was interesting that Gideon had lots of respectful things to say about him. It would have been nice to have a longer time there; at the end we were kind of rushing because we had to take a village tour.

There was a market area outside of the falls, but we didn’t have time to stop. The views of the falls were amazing. It was loud with the roar of the water, and once we got close to the falls there was a lot of mist and we were glad for the coats. There were some very steep drop-offs that were a little scary, and the barriers were not quite up to American codes – in some places there were just sticks, but in other places they had concrete and steel. There were concrete walkways that I thought might be slippery but weren’t really. There was a bridge over a gorge that was not a scary as the one at Neuschwanstein.

Mist seemed to rise, fall, and rise again in a cycle because of the wind currents. Lots of incredible views and also rainbows. We really did have to rush to get back in time for the village tour.

We took another short drive to the hotel and freshened up and met Gideon in 20 minutes. Judi and John did not join us for the village tour. The drive to the village seemed rather long. Along the way, we drove past some little (younger than Alanna and maybe a couple 4 years old) pumping water. They seemed to be working hard but also having fun. Bob handed Gideon some money to hand to them and they were delighted (they also seemed very happy just to see us).

We met our tour guide at the village and she was a woman, probably in her 30s named Yanina. She pointed out a large tree in the middle of the village that Livingstone had sat under. Nearby was the chief’s palace (3 huts) and also the village jail. The jail had some chain link fence that seemed like it was falling down and probably wouldn’t keep someone in who didn’t want to be kept in. There were about 7,000 in the village and it had been around for many hundreds of years.

The family units had sticks about 5 feet high used as a privacy fence around their compounds. The huts were built from mud from termite mounds. We went into a compound and saw little kids playing something like Chinese jump rope with some string that kept on breaking. Kids around 6 or so were grinding nuts to make oil out of. The compound had 4 huts, one for the parents and very young children, one for the older girls, one for the older boys, and one for the oldest daughter who had recently gotten married (this was unusual for a married child to stay in the same compound). We went into the parents’ hut, and it had just one room with blankets hung to make different rooms. The blankets were colorful and seemed to be western-style quilts and not handmade. One of the most interesting things in the hut was a boom box. Yanina kept reminding us, “In our village, to say ‘thank you’ we say ‘twalumba.’”

We saw children at a well, and Yanina told us that Germans built all the wells for the village around 13 years ago. There were some goats wandering around, and we saw the wooden pens they were normally kept in at night. We also heard that sometimes elephants come through the village (!). We went to the village brewery where there were about 4 very drunk guys sampling the brew. They were a bit obnoxious, trying to get our attention. They managed to get Taylor’s attention and started asking him questions. There were woman who were actually making the beer. The beer looked like muddy water, and Rob and Liz were brave (stupid?) enough to taste it.

We then went to an area where they were grinding grain for bread, cereal, and beer. Alanna and Rob ground some of the grain.

Liz really enjoyed taking pictures of the kids and then showing them the pictures. The kids seemed very pleased, and Liz would tell them how good looking they were.

Yanina told us that the chiefs were only chosen by the village elders after the previous chief had died. It could be a son, grandson, or brother of the chief. They were afraid that if they named a successor before the chief died, the successor would kill the chief to get the position. She had one story of the 7^th chief who was old and blind, and the village elders decided that it was time for a new chief. Since chief is a lifelong position, they had to kill him. They tried poisoning him a few times, but the chief had gotten wind of the plot and had eaten some herbs to protect him. They then told him that his son had died and that he should go visit his grave. When the chief went out to the graveyard, the elders pushed him into a grave that they had dug and covered him with dirt. They heard him moaning for a few days, but then he finally died. The chief is also given a stone to swallow when he is first elected, then when he dies, they take it out of him and give it to the next chief.

Our last stop in the village was the market. It was rather large—about 20 feet on each of 3 sides of sellers at tables, and we were the only buyers! It was rather stressful. Yanina told us where we should start shopping. All the sellers were trying to get our attention and even the kids’ attention. They would say, “I don’t want to sell you anything, I just want to ask you a question.” They would then proceed to ask us a question, maybe a second one, and then they would try to sell us something. It was clear that we were supposed to bargain, and they would tell us they supported their families on what they had sold. They had a lot of animals carved from wood, and they would start at $20. Beth wasn’t all that keen on them, so it was hard to bargain because she just wasn’t that interested. They would start at $20 and eventually got down to $5. She asked one guy how much for a basket, and when he told her, she realized that she didn’t really want it because it would be too hard to get home. She said, “No thank you.” and then he tried to teach her how to bargain. “Now you offer me a lower price.” He really kept at it. The kids would find something (maybe they weren’t even wild about it), but would come to us and say, “He will sell this to me for $5.” There was one woman in the market selling things, and Beth kind of wanted to buy something from her. Beth ended up buying a blue necklace made from paper beads. Yanina seemed annoyed with us, maybe because we hadn’t brought any gifts for the village (which she mentioned when we first came). It would have been good for Robin to mention that we were expected to bring something.

We headed back to the hotel (trip back seemed much quicker). We had lunch with John and Judi at the outdoor bar near the pool. Alanna’s ear seemed much worse, so we went to the front desk and found out about a clinic at the hotel. It opened right about the time we would be finished with lunch. At lunch some musicians were playing and somehow they encouraged Alanna to come up on stage with them. We were really impressed with her! The boys refused to go, but Alanna went up and accompanied them on the maracas on one song. She looked rather confident and like she was having fun, and the musicians seemed to enjoy her.

We finished lunch and made a quick trip to a gift shop and then John walked us to the clinic. It was close but a little tricky to find. The lady there was very kind and helpful, she said it was just a bite but looked much worse because the ear has no fatty region for the swelling and redness to go. She told us to use Neosporin on it and ibuprofen for the pain. If it got worse, we were to use the Z pack (antibiotics) that we had brought with us. She was very nice and didn’t charge us for anything. It was a huge relief to hear it was no big deal!

That good news energized us to do some shopping. Judi was wearing 2 new bracelets at lunch and Beth was interested in trying to find them. Judi got one at the gift shop near the registration desk and the other at a gift shop near the clinic but outside the hotel grounds. We found the bracelets and also more wooden animals and beaded animals, but we didn’t buy anything.

We had to head back to catch the van for the riverboat cruise which started at 4:00. There were a bunch of people from the hotel going, so there were 2 big vans waiting to take us. The Maryland Craigs drove in one van and everyone else from our group in another. We got to the river boat and headed upstairs and found 10 seats together right on the railing. John and Alanna sat next to each other and had a fun time joking around together. Alanna told him that she would never again see an eagle for the rest of her life and somehow she thought they bet $100 on it. The joke for the rest of the trip was that Alanna couldn’t see any eagles, and then she managed to take a picture of one and could not deny it.

The trip included as many drinks as we wanted (and there was a restroom on board). The kids were really enjoying that aspect of it. We also got a snack plate with finger food. It was nice to sit and relax (and eat and drink) as we saw the animals on the shore and in the water. We saw a couple of groups of hippos in the water and some antelopes and crocodiles on shore. The sunset was really beautiful. We headed upstream and reached the peak of our journey just as the sun was setting (the sun set up river, so it was a great view), then we headed back down.

We had dinner inside the restaurant near the hotel (and near some shopping). There were some large carved giraffes we were eyeing at the shop right outside the restaurant, and the same shop had some inside the restaurant so we checked them out again. Judi had mentioned she wanted carved giraffes when we were at Kapama (they had some huge white ones in their dining room), and that made me think it would be fun to get some for ourselves. The restaurant couldn’t seat all of us together, so the Maryland Craigs and Liz sat at one table, and Bob, Jeri, John, and Judi sat together at another. The restaurant had TVs and we caught some of the Olympics.

Friday, August 10^th 2012 - Day trip to Chobe River & Park

We were up early for the Botswana trip. We met Gideon at 7:10 after a wonderful buffet breakfast. It was a long ride to the border. At the border, there were lots of tractor trailers parked and waiting to get in. Gideon said that sometimes it takes 2 weeks for the paper work to get done and for them to get to cross the border. We filled out the required paperwork, and Gideon went in with John to turn it in. There were lots of vendors selling carved animals and copper bracelets. It seemed like we could get a much better deal here, but we didn’t have any money. We stayed in the van, but the vendors were tapping on the windows and talking to us through the windows. No one bought anything.

Gideon and John came out, and Gideon drove us a few hundred yards to the Chobe River. We got in an aluminum boat that seated about 20 (we were told to balance it out) and then made a quick trip across the river. There we were met by Labo with a safari vehicle and filled our more paperwork. We took a short drive to Botswana immigration. There were lots of tourists and lots of locals. Lots of women with produce bundled on their back or carried on their heads. They wore a large square of fabric tied around their waist, and when they wanted to carry something, they would just lift the fabric up and tie it around their neck so that they carried the bundle on their back. They even carried children on their backs that way. We had to go inside at this immigration office and get our passport stamped. Labo seemed to be directing traffic to make things go more efficiently. After we were done with the paperwork, we had to walk over something to clean off our shoes which was supposed to help prevent the spread of foot and mouth disease. The vehicle also drove through some liquid that was supposed to clean off the tires.

It was a short drive to the Chobe River lodge. We did the essentials there – potty break and checked out the gift shop. We then headed out to the river boat which was not as fancy as the one we had been on the night before. We were the last ones on, and the top deck was crowded, so we stayed on the lower deck and it turned out that probably had the best views. There was a cooler with water and soft drinks, and also a bathroom.

Labo was the captain of the boat. He had a microphone and was telling us what we were seeing. Labo was able to get very close to the animals. The first animal we came up to was a crocodile, and we were within 10 feet of it and a lady passenger screamed as we got close. We ended up seeing lots of crocs, both big and small, and even got a little spoiled (“Oh yeah, another croc”). We also saw lots of hippos, monitor lizards, impalas, water buck, and elephants. We didn’t see any elephants close up, though. It was nice to be able to wander around on the safari. Rob was interested in birds, and Labo seemed delighted to point them out to him and name them for him.

After the cruise, we had lunch at the Chobe River Lodge. It was a very good buffet. We took a potty break and then got on the safari vehicles with Labo, and headed to Chobe park. We had a tragedy as we were leaving – Alanna deleted all the pictures and videos on the small Nikon by accident.

Chobe was a bit like a mini Amboseli. It was a wide open area with lots of animals. We didn’t have to do any tracking; we saw all the animals as we drove along. My favorite was seeing all the giraffes, especially drinking and rubbing their faces in the dirt. We also saw elephants trotting along which were reminiscent of the elephants in Disney’s Jungle Book. We also saw our first Sable in Chobe. Once again, Labo enjoyed pointing out all the birds to Rob. We met up with the other safari vehicles from the lodge for a drink break (and a potty break for the guys at the most discrete trees). The girls had a potty break at the entrance to the park. Big lines for the ladies and toilets didn’t always flush.

We headed back to Zambia. Had to get out of the vehicle at Botswana again, and then back across the Chobe River in the same small ferries. Gideon met us on the shore and we discovered we had a bit of a problem with immigration. It turned out that we should have gotten double entry visas for $80 when we flew in to Zambia so that we could sail right through this immigration. None of the Craigs did, but luckily the kid did not need visas, and we managed to scrape up enough money for the 5 adults (at $50 a pop!, and they did not take credit cards). The mistake ended up costing about $100. Vendors were still trying to sell us stuff and even seemed to remember us. After we finally got the visas, we had a 1 hour ride back to the Zambezi Sun.

We had dinner at the restaurant again with the same seating as before (Maryland Craigs and Liz at one table, and Bob, Jeri, Judi, and John at another.) We caught some of the Olympics again.

Saturday, August 12^th 2012 -- Our last day!  Victoria Falls to Johannesburg & depart for Washington

Planned to do some shopping before heading out, and it turned out to be more complicated than we thought! We planned breakfast for 9:00. Rob got up early and took some pictures of the falls. At the market place near the falls, he found a different giraffe vendor who would charge less than the other vendor closer to the hotel. He came to our room to let us know of his finds. We headed out to the falls again for a quick farewell, and then we went to the market place together. It was a little stressful again with everyone trying to sell us something. We ended up getting larger giraffes than originally planned, so we ended up paying more than Rob thought but still less than the other vendor.

We saw Bob, Jeri, and Liz near the market. Bob took our giraffes back to breakfast for us. It turned out the vendor just wrapped them in newspaper, not the wonderful bubble wrapping we expected. (We packed them on our checked bags and one got a little damaged on the way home).

We enjoyed our last wonderful breakfast at the hotel with the newspaper-wrapped giraffes on the table J.

We headed back to the room to pack and were a little frantic, but we finished in good time.

Liz and Beth had talked earlier about giving some of our clothes to the villagers we had met. They asked Gideon if it would be OK and if he would deliver them and he said he would. They packed a couple bags of things. They gave Gideon the bags and then he took us to the airport.

We had lots of time at the airport. There were 2 gift shops there, but we didn’t buy anything. John had promised us wonderful things at the Jo-burg airport.

Uneventful flight, though we realized too late that we packed our yellow fever cards in our check-in bags. Luckily, we didn’t need them.

Arrived in Jo-burg and spent some time trying to resolve the seating on the home flight. Finally got it where Taylor, Alex, Jeri, and Bob were in one row, then Rob, Beth, Alanna, and Liz about 6 rows back.

We headed to the gate, then the kids and Beth spent awhile at all of the shops. There were quite a few of them, and most more pricey than we had hoped. Alanna got her picture taken with the Nelson Mandela statue outsie one of the shops. Rob went with Alanna back to the gate while Beth checked out with the boys. When we got back to the gate, it turned out that they were doing another security screen. They had a line for men and one for women, and it Alanna was a bit dismayed (just a bit, I think she really enjoyed telling the story) when she got back with Rob because she had to be in line by herself. By the time we went through again, it was only 10 or 15 minutes until boarding.

Sunday, August 13^th 2012 - arrive Washington

We had an uneventful flight back. Alex slept in a brace position on his tray table. We had the same movies that we had had on the way over.

We said our goodbyes to Bob, Jeri, Judi, and John at baggage claim as everyone went their separate ways for the final leg home. Liz returned home with the Maryland Craigs and stayed one more night, then headed back to Las Vegas on Monday.