South
Africa 2019: Southern Africa & Lake
Kariba Cruise: South Africa, Zimbabwe & Botswana
(Kruger
NP, Hwange NP, Lake Kariba, Victoria Falls (again), Chobe NP, Cape Town)
This is my 2nd trip to the
“safari” regions of Africa, following a visit to East Africa
in 2010.
February
14, Thursday:
Arrived in Johannesburg 7 am on a rainy day. Choices were hire my own
tour to go downtown to museums, visit Soweto Township in similar manner, or as
I chose, hangout and rest up from the long flights from Los Angeles. Friday
morning our OAT group of 12 flew northeast to Nelspruit, the airport connection
to Kruger
National Park. From the airport 40 mile land transfer to Buffalo Rock Camp From
this camp, where we stayed two nights, we made generally two game drives per
day. Our group split into two Land Rover
style Toyotas
accompanied by our tour guide and a local guide/driver. After a rainy “summer” there was abundant
lush green foliage among which we had to spot the game. Still, we did fine,
seeing many elephant parades, many of the African elk, impala, sable, kudu,
waterbuck, as well as cape buffalo, zebras, one wildebeest and lots of giraffe
(hard to hide them in the bush). Our
Sunday guide was obsessed with showing us a rhinoceros and after extensive
searching on Sunday afternoon we found our rhino, he more excited than the guests. Notable, we did not see any hipo of lions in
Kruger. Despite the end of rainy season we avoided daytime showers and were
little troubled by mosquitos. Marula is
a tree with a
sweet fruit with which the locals make a liquor called Amarula – not
great. The elephants are clever enough
to shake the tree dislodging the fruit, then sort it out of the weeds and grass
on the ground, a performance we saw frequently.
Kruger
NP Album(9)
February
18, Monday: Today we left
Kruger destined for Hwange NP in Zimbabwe.
At this time the only direct flight from Kruger to Hwange area is to
Livingstone, Zambia. At Livingstone we
board vans and head right to the Zimbabwe border. This requiring getting a
Zambia visa for the 45 min touchdown and crossing of the Zambezi into Zimbabwe. We stayed at Sable Sands Lodge in Hwange NF,
perhaps 15 miles from the NP boundary.
No matter, much of the game we saw was actually in the NF during our
twice daily game drives. On our first
early morning drive we spotted a majestic male lion
scouting for his own breakfast just a mile or so from the lodge. Perhaps the
highlight of Hwange was coming upon a large herd of cape buffalo
near sunset in the NF just a couple miles from our Sable Sands Lodge. Lots of interesting baboons, birds,
butterflies, etc.
At the Sable Sands Lodge there
is a natural pool within sight of the dining area with frequent visiting
elephants. Also a swimming pool just off the dining area where elephants and
guests share the space sometimes.
Sleeping is in individual round cabins deployed around a large circle
with a large neat tree-house in the middle.
The staff insisted on escorting everyone to/from their cabin after
dark. And wasn’t this special, in 1991
Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip visited.
They stayed in separate cabins?
Probably to accommodate the servants – haven’t you seen The Crown on
Netflix? I got Phillip’s cabin! Hwange
NP Album(24)
February
21, Thursday: We
transfer by van through Binga to Lake Kariba to begin a two and half day cruise
along part of the lake. On the trip we
stopped to visit a Tonga Tribe family that was displaced by the lake
flooding. Interesting items of this
visit was learning how they have to protect their crops from animals, mostly
elephants 24/7 – kids were doing it in day, but adults take over at night. Also, learning of the small cages where they
keep their chickens to avoid attack by wild animals. Seeing all these protected animals is great
for us tourists and for those who get our tourist dollars, but numerous times we
hear or detect evidence of how the animals are not confined to the parks. Rather they can be a very serious menace and
inconvenience to the crops and livestock on the locals, with elephants breaking
down the maize and lions eating the cattle.
Lake Kariba was
created by a hydroelectric dam in the Zambezi River, and is the largest manmade
lake in the world. I was looking forward
to a bit of swimming in the crystal water surrounding our cruise boat, but staff
in their over conservatism propagated by modern-day lawyers, said “no way” due
to crocodiles, though all of them are near shore – couldn’t we stop and have a
swim out in the middle. Binga
& Lake Kariba Album(22)
At the end or our lake cruise
we took a short flight from Binga to Victoria Falls. In addition to touring the spectacular falls,
members of the group participated in various optional activities as an elephant
ride and a helicopter flight over the falls.
I had covered all this on a previous 2010 visit. Please follow these link to my 2010 remarks
and photos
that I can’t improve much upon. Don’t
miss the awesome helicopter pictures!
Visiting Victoria Falls is a spectacular trip, but the second trip left
not much to be discovered – it was part of this OAT trip so I had little choice
but to be there.
Zimbabwe, previously Southern
Rhodesia, and a British Colony obtained independence in 1980. The bulk of rich farm land was owned by
whites, predominantly prior British soldiers and their families from the Boer
War who were given land grants by the British for their service. There might be some parallel in the case of
William Penn in US colonial Pennsylvania having been given large tracts of land
by the King of England. The farms and
the country was prosperous with extensive crops of wheat, sugarcane, coffee,
tobacco, and corn. However, after
independence efforts were made break down the dominant white European land ownership
and integrate the indigenous population.
Initially, Brittan provided funds to purchase land from the whites,
giving it to the Zimbabwe government for distribution to the indigenous
people. In the 1990s British funding of
the land redistribution ended due to the budget strain. The initial transition from the white
dominated leadership of Ian Smith to black leadership, Mugabe, representative
of the major population was fueled with hope.
Robert Mugabe was Prime Minister from 1980 to 87, then President until
2017. But rampant and increasing
corruption along with ignorance and lack of capital produced decades of
economic downward spiral of the once prosperous economy. New owners of hundreds of acres of farm land
were trying to work it with the same primitive tools they used in on their
quarter acre plot in the jungle. When
the British funding ended land redistribution continued simply by confiscation
or worse.
February
27, Wednesday: We
transfer about 50 miles by bus from Victoria Falls across the Botswana border
to Chobe National Park. Here we stayed 3
nights in Elephant Valley Lodge. Numerous
game drives through and around Chobe NP provided game viewing. The west side of the park is bordered by the
Chobe River and Namibia. On the east
side the NP bush, while on the west rolls out Namibia farm land. The river, the sight of tens of hippopotamuses,
and near, dusk herds of many tens of elephants drinking and frolicking at
river’s edge. My impression is all three
national parks on this trip are at some elevation, 1000 – 3000 ft. so despite
it being “summer” it was not particularly, sometimes even requiring a jacket in
early morning. Chobe
NP Album(27)
As is common Overseas
Adventure (OAT) style, at Chobe we had two very interesting speakers
lecture. First, was a lady, sort of
refugee from Zimbabwe. Born as a white
on one of the large farms in southeastern Zimbabwe, she grew up with, played
and worked with lots of black contemporary children of the ‘help’, as well as
her own siblings. Claiming there was
never even a consciousness of black and white.
The day came when she returned to the farm from a trip to town to see
the buildings burning and to watch their horses burn alive during the mob
confiscation of the farm. Today she is
getting by in Botswana as an elementary school teacher. The similar true story of the Godwin family
documented in detail along with lots of political history in When a Crocodile Eats the Sun, by.Peter
Godwin.
The second speaker was one of
our game drive guides, a black Botswanan.
He told a story that positions Botswana as the antithesis of
Zimbabwe. Botswana was never a European
colony, but was a British protectorate,
Bechuanaland from 1885 till early 1900s when it became a quasi northwest part
of South Africa. In 1966 it became
self-governing under agreement with Brittan.
The story of this is told beautifully in the movie A United Kingdom (2016), in which Seretse Khama becomes 1st
President of the newly democratic Botswana,
He subsequently served three terms 1966 – 1980. Following the succession of a couple presidents,
in 2008 Khama’s son was elected President, serving until 2018. The population of Botswana is more than 80%
black and indigenous. The country is
politically democratic and economically socialist, thanks in no small measure
to the discovery of lots of diamonds.
Education school lunches, health care, is free, the infrastructure is
good, and they are sometimes regarded as the most prosperous and stable country
in Africa, thanks to diamonds and tourism.
March
2, Saturday: Fly to
Cape Town, South Africa and I break a large piece from a tooth on the delicious
but rock hard nut snacks on Kenya Airlines.
Cape Town is a great visit at
least one time if you have a bucket list.
Remarkably, the latitude of Cape Town, 34°S, is same as Santiago and
mirror of Los Angeles north latitude so similar climate. Near the tip of Africa, while Santiago (same
latitude) is more than 2,000 miles north of Cape Horn. Visiting Table Mountain and Cape of Good Hope
are both very scenic and interesting.
Also many sights around the city proper like the Company Garden, Kirstenbosch
National Botanical Gardens, the waterfront district and Robbin Island Prisons
(where Mandela was held, not very interesting to me, bunch of barren empty
prision cells). Everyone I had any
contact with seemed to bend over backward to be helpful. Guides cautioned about not walking the
streets around our Protea Hotel
Fire & Ice, but I did so with reckless abandon and see no reason why
not. I very much enjoyed the local pubs
where a 20 oz. craft draft was $3.50, or in happy hour two for! As a typical OAT activity, we had a pleasant
“home hosted dinner” with a family in one of the colored neighborhoods. Our 5 days there were great – some travelers
took an optional trip north of town to wine country, not interesting to me as
I’ve seen lots of vineyards – instead sights around the city and a stop at the
pub in afternoon.
South Africa is having the
land ownership problems of Zimbabwe and hopefully trying to not let it spiral
into the same disaster. The end of apartheid is more of
a change of the political leadership from white to black but not a change in
the economic and social status among the blacks, colored, and whites. In the Cape Town and surrounding metro area
we got the sense of three distinct area types, white, maybe like Denver or San Diego, then colored, neat and clean
appearing usually fenced or walled lower middle-class neighborhoods, and the townships[1] , where poor blacks live in genuine shanty
towns with the worst of conditions. The
townships meager makeshift utilities, electric, water, sewer, schools,
shops. Anyone who has seen the favelas
of Rio de Janeiro will immediately remember in the townships. However, we got the appearance of one stark
difference, Brazilian favelas are hot beds of gangs and crime, while this was
not at all apparent in the townships[2]. We visited residences and a tiny school or
day care in a township, but a tourist to Brazil stays very clear of the favela
and I am certain OAT would never take you into one. Cape
Town S Africa Album(33)
[1] In the US a Township is a governmental-political geographic area, typically 6 sq-mi. In South Africa just a slum area.
[2]
This remark was written a little too soon.
Several weeks later I came across the article Rising Cape Town Gang Violence is Yet Another Legacy of Apartheid in
the July 22, 2019 issue of Bloomberg BusinessWeek