Followers of my personal blog know how much I enjoy watching birds. Not in a compulsive “must complete the list” way. I just like birds. I also enjoy knowing what I’ve seen, so one of my investments prior to the African trip was a bird book. Funnily enough, it was probably the guidebook we referred to the most on the trip. Mum had a really good handle on all the animals and most of the birds we saw due to her time spent at Pete’s Pond online, but there were some birds that she’d never seen before.
So we’d try to get a good picture and then check out Birds of Southern Africa (affiliate link) when we got back to our room.
Here are some of my favorites from the first few days of the trip:
Wednesday September 16, 2009
Livingstone, Zambia to Johannesburg
Our flight to Johannesburg departed in the early afternoon, giving my brother and I just enough time to take a quick last photo walk at Victoria Falls that morning. I was lucky enough to catch another rainbow (at left and on Flickr)
Then after our walk around the Falls, we wandered over to the bank to break some larger bills. As we were walking back to the restaurant to meet up with Mum, we found a little stall selling smaller versions of the sculptures scattered around the Zambezi Sun. I could not resist buying a warthog for my son — for only $10 US. The man working at the stall was the artist, so we also were able to congratulate him on his work.
The bus collected us on time for our transfer to Livingstone Airport. As I mentioned in my earlier post, Livingstone is the quintessential colonial airport. A few tips:
You must reconfirm your outbound flight 24 hours in advance. When you get to the airport, security has a list of departing passengers, and your name better be on it.
There aren’t many services at the airport. We were lucky to be on British Air, which has an airport lounge available to its club members at no charge or passengers on BA for $12.00 each. It isn’t much, but the cold drinks are free, there’s a bathroom and they let my brother smoke in their backroom.
You have to go through security for a second time as you board, so don’t bother buying a bottle of water at the airport bar. It will be confiscated. We’d gotten ours at the BA Lounge so it wasn’t a financial loss, just a hydration one.
We got back to Johannesburg’s OR Tambo Airport in the late afternoon and made our way to the Southern Sun at the airport for an overnight and early early departure the next morning for a flight to Polokwane, South Africa followed by a trek north by car to Botswana and the Mashatu Game Reserve.
I’ve mentioned before and in the Recommend section how much we appreciated the hospitality and food at the Southern Sun, but nothing compares to the wonderful ladies from Housekeeping who squeezed in some laundry well past the usual deadline for three travelers running dangerously low on clean clothes. There is a very serious weight limit on your baggage when traveling in/out of South Africa, and even more so on the smaller aircraft that we would be taking later in our journey. We just didn’t have a lot of extra stuff, and they so came through for us.
Next stop: Mashatu.
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My brother has set up a website to chronicle our African trip. www.mashatutiger.com Yes, we know there are no tigers in Africa. There’s a story. I’m getting to it.
We took our first game drive that afternoon. Mosi-O-Tunya National Park in Zambia is the nation’s smallest national park. It also has no predators.
Our lovely Bushtracks Africa guide, Purity, managed to show us quite a lot in about three hours. Starting with a herd of elephants even before we got into the park.
A family of zebra — pictured at the top of the post. The one lying down is a heavily pregnant female, and her daughter is checking to be sure she is okay.
A ranger guards the male rhino to protect the rhino from humans (poachers) not to protect the humans from the rhino.
Toward the end of the drive, we saw a group of very young baboons playing and teasing each other.
We also saw many giraffe, impala, a few warthogs, various birds and a herd of Cape Buffalo. All in all a terrific introduction to African wildlife.
As my brother and I hiked around the Eastern Cataract area of Victoria Falls on Monday afternoon, we understood exactly what the guidebooks meant when they said that the best view of the Falls was from the Zimbabwe side. From the edge of the island we were on, we could just see, around the bend, that it must be a terrific view. However, there was no way we were going into Zimbabwe.
Plus a lot of hiking on uneven ground wasn’t terribly comfortable for Mum. We decided to look into the helicopter tour of the Falls.
The next morning, we booked a 15-minute helicopter tour through the Bushtracks Africa excursions desk at the Zambezi Sun.
It was SO worth it. The pilot did two loops around the Falls, giving us a chance to see them from multiple angles. We also saw a herd of elephants from the air.
The local name for the Falls is Mosi-0a-Tunya (also spelled Mosi-O-Tunya). It means “the smoke that thunders.” We were there in the dry season, so we didn’t really hear (or register) the thunder, but it is certainly true that you can see the “smoke” for miles around.
I was very glad I had invested in my Tamron 18-270mm lens. In addition to covering a wide distance range, it has an anti-shake feature that made a definite difference in these pictures from the helicopter.
Now, to the Smoke on the Water reference. When my brother and I were growing up, someone in the house behind us was learning to play guitar. Unfortunately, all he seemed to know was the opening riff of Deep Purple’s (now classic) Smoke on the Water. Which he played over and over and over and over.
Dun dun duh dun dun da da dah Dun dun duh dun dun da da dah.
Great song. It has taken me 30 years to appreciate it. Enjoy.
After breakfast, we departed the Southern Sun for the terminal and our flight to Livingstone, Zambia and Victoria Falls. It was about a two-hour flight, and we caught our first glimpse of the Falls from the air.
The terminal in Livingstone is exactly what you might imagine a colonial African airport to be. One building. Lots of people. Seeming chaos, but not quite. We had to wait in quite a long line to purchase our visas, definitely a strong revenue stream for the Zambian government given the political situation in Zimbabwe next door. When we were planning our trip and mentioned we would be going to Victoria Falls, everyone we spoke to — everyone — said: Zambia, right?
Once through immigration and bag claim, we were met by representatives from Bushtracks Africa, the travel company that has the concession for transport to and from the Sun Hotels properties in Livingstone. After about a 30-minute drive, we were at our hotel, the Zambezi Sun.
The Zambezi Sun is right on the edge of the Eastern Cataract of the Falls, about five minutes walk, so after we got settled, we decided to walk over to the Falls and investigate.
On the way, we were “waylaid” by Webster. Webster is a member of the grounds staff at the Zambezi Sun, and as far as we could tell, a big part of his job is feeding a small group of zebra, giraffe and impala. He invited us to join him to meet his friends during the day’s 3 pm feeding. It was a tremendously pleasant way to start our African wildlife adventure. I’m sure I will never be this close to a zebra again in my life.
After our mini-wildlife adventure, we walked over to the Falls. You can see the full set of my photos from that afternoon on Flickr, but here are some of my favorites.
That evening after dinner we attended a performance of Dancing Around Zambia presented by the Livingstone Performing Arts Foundation. There were not too many guests in attendance, and that was their loss because it was a terrific performance of African dance and song. My brother shot video, and hopefully he will post a copy online at some point.
A word about the Zambezi Sun. The rooms are quite small, and it is not as elegant as its sister hotel the Royal Livingstone. Luckily, Mum, Doug and I get on quite well, and we weren’t in the room that much anyway. However, I did feel a bit sorry for my mom as both my brother and I were fighting off colds when we were in Zambia and it must have sounded like a herd of elephants was IN the room at times.
The location of the hotel, however, cannot be beat and the service and food were excellent. I highly recommend it. The Sun is definitely the right choice for families. On your honeymoon? Maybe the Royal Livingstone. It’s not that far from the Falls and a bit more upscale. It also has gorgeous views of the river.
In both pictures, the land across the water is Zimbabwe. We are on the Zambia side of the Zambezi River.
Sunday September 13, 2009 – Monday September 14, 2009
We arrived in Johannesburg at about 8am. Customs was efficient, as was the greeter from Journeys of Distinction, the travel agency that had arranged our trip. She guided three fairly weary travelers to the shuttle bus for the Southern Sun airport hotel and confirmed that Patrick, our tour guide from Wilro Tours, would pick us up promptly at 1pm for our visit to the Apartheid Museum.
Yes, we were tired but it’s always a good idea to get on local time as quickly as possible. I wanted to visit the Apartheid Museum, and the first day was our only window of time in JoBurg for sightseeing. Mum and Doug were kind enough to go with me, although I suspect they would have been just as happy relaxing by the pool. It turned out just fine though; they really enjoyed chatting with Patrick while I meandered through the exhibits.
When you purchase your ticket at the Apartheid Museum, you are given a token representing a racial identity and you enter the museum through the appropriate door (pictured above.)
Once inside the museum building, you follow a timeline of South African history that explains the roots, impact and aftermath of apartheid. I think the thing that astounded me the most was how narrow the victory was for the apartheid forces in 1948. If the opposition had been less fractured, South African history might have been very different. There was also a special exhibit devoted to Nelson Mandela.
We were there for about two hours but I could have spent a whole day. Photography is prohibited inside the museum, but I took a few pictures of the exterior. On the way back, Patrick took us on a brief tour of the city, pointing out historical and cultural landmarks.
We wrapped up the day with dinner at our hotel, and an early night. Needless to say no one had trouble sleeping!
Recommendation: I highly recommend the Southern Sun OR Tambo. The rooms are pretty standard for a luxury airport hotel, but the food and the service are far better than I have experienced in similar properties in the US and UK. When we left fairly early the following morning to catch our flight to Livingstone, Zambia, we were privileged to hear the housekeeping staff chorus that starts every day with a song or three.
The picture at left is a display at the Out of Africa store at the departure gates at OR Tambo. It gave us a bit of inspiration for the next stop on our trip: Livingstone, Zambia and Victoria Falls.
Our long awaited trip to Africa started with a long wait for our flight from Boston to JFK airport in New York. We were supposed to leave Boston around 2pm, but didn’t leave until 6. For a 45 minute flight.
Luckily, our flight to South Africa didn’t leave until the following morning at 11:30am, so unlike many other travelers on our NY-bound flight, we weren’t panicked about a connection that evening. All we had to do was find the airport Holiday Inn and get a little supper.
For a scary moment at the bag claim at JFK, we thought my bag didn’t make it. The belt stopped, and so did my heart, just a little. About 5 minutes later, it started up again and voila, there was my bag.
The United/South African Airways codeshare flight from JFK to Johannesburg is non-stop to South Africa. Fifteen hours in the air. That’s a long time. A very long time. On the way back, it stops to refuel in Dakar, which amazingly enough is the half-way point. Makes you appreciate just how big the African continent is. That flight clocks in at more than 17 hours with the one-hour ground stop.
The food is okay. It was much better on the way over than on the way back, but if I were to do such a long haul again, I would bring some snacks. I would also purchase extra water at the airport. I always bring at least one bottle of water and sometimes a soda too. I’d bring more next time. The flight attendants do try to bring enough by, but it is nowhere near enough to keep you well hydrated.
We arrived at about 8am or so Sunday morning. Passport control and customs were smooth sailing and at the meeting area, we had no trouble spotting the representative from Journeys of Distinction. She gave us our itinerary and vouchers and guided us to the shuttle for the Southern Sun airport hotel.
A little tired, a little thirsty and more than a little excited, we were off on our African adventure.
In less than a week, we will be boarding a plane for a 15 hour flight to Johannesburg, South Africa. I hope to be able to post at least every other day.
Here’s our itinerary:
Friday Sept 11: Boston to NY JFK. Staying overnight at airport Holiday Inn.
Saturday Sept. 12: NY to Johannesburg
Sunday Sept. 13: Arrive Johannesburg in am. Plan to visit Apartheid Museum in afternoon.
Monday Sept. 14: Depart for Livingstone, Zambia – Victoria Falls. We haven’t made any specific plans for the time in Livingstone as yet. We plan to get the lay of the land and take it easy for the nearly two days we’ll be there.
Wednesday Sept. 16: Depart for Johannesburg. This is basically a layover night at an airport hotel.
Thursday Sept. 17: Flight to Polokwane, South Africa, followed by a 2+ hour drive to the Pont Drift Border Post on the Botswana border, and then to Mashatu Main Camp.
Sunday Sept. 20: Flight to MalaMala Game Reserve in South Africa via light aircraft.
Tuesday Sept. 22: Depart for Johannesburg, and then in the evening, Johannesburg to NY
Wednesday Sept. 23: Arrive JFK NY in the morning. Once we’re through customs, we’ll catch a shuttle back to Boston.
While we were able to find a great deal of information about southern Africa on the Internet, as mum noted in her post last week, we are a family of readers so it wasn’t surprising that we started to dig for books about the area and the animals we were going to see.
Here’s a short list of book we’ve found entertaining and useful in the planning process.
Fodor’s The Complete African Safari Planner, 1st Edition: With Botswana, Kenya, Namibia, South Africa & Tanzania (Full-Color Gold Guides) Very useful for planning, especially the checklists in the back and the section on Victoria Falls. We started with the basic plan to visit Mashatu in Botswana, so we didn’t need all the information about the other destinations as much as you might if you were starting from a blank slate, but if you do, it’s in this book. We probably won’t bring it with us, though. Our itinerary is pretty settled and it’s extra weight we don’t need.
As far as clothes went, I was surprised…and pleased…to see that I really didn’t need to buy a lot of specialized clothes for the trip. Most people already have washable, easy-care cotton t-shirts and shirts and slacks, and those are perfectly fine for Botswana, South Africa and Zambia.
One of the lists recommended bringing a jacket with lots of pockets and, if possible, zip-off sleeves. That seemed like a really good idea, as we are going to be in Africa at the end of winter, when nights can be cool and mid-days really warm. So I Googled “Safari Jackets” and found dozens of sites. Amazon, in fact, had just what we wanted, for a very reasonable price.
Another article mentioned that having a hat that would protect the back of your neck was a really good idea, as the African sun can be really powerful. I never wear hats, but what they said made sense. Again, just Googling “safari hats” located dozens of possibilities, and I found some good, reasonably priced ones at www.OutlandUSA.com. [Susan: Tilley hats are by far the most recommended. Mum and Doug got a good deal at Outland USA. I got mine at EMS using a coupon for $25 that I'd earned from a previous purchase.]
After reading about the strong sun, we decided that having a few long-sleeved shirts that would protect us from burning might be a good idea, and found them at www.Coolibar.com. [Susan: LL Bean and Lands' End also have good alternatives. Watch for end of season sales, and generally buy big. Many of these shirts seem to run small. I've also had better success buying the men's versions.]
Susan has already mentioned the walking shoes I found (in our recommended products section} …they weigh practically nothing, which is great when you are watching baggage weight, and they are soooo comfortable. I found my shoes at Magellan’s. There are lots of other travel goodies there, which I have managed to resist. So far.
I have gotten a few hints from other “Pondies” at the National Geographic website, who have been to Botswana and South Africa at the same time we will be going. They have recommended a warm jacket and gloves for evening or early morning game drives. I have a very comfortable fleece vest that will take up very little room in my duffle bag, so I think that will be coming along to Africa, perhaps with a pair of gloves in the pocket.
With less than a month to go before we start our trip, we are pretty much ready. We have all been wearing the clothes we plan to take — no point in bringing anything that doesn’t fit, or isn’t comfortable, after all — and learning to use the binoculars and cameras we are bringing. Well, I am learning to use the binoculars and camera…Susan and Doug are both very proficient at that sort of thing already. I have finally learned which end of the binoculars to look into, which is definitely progress.
Next: A brief rundown on books we are reading to prepare ourselves for the trip of a lifetime.
Susan Getgood: Mine is slim compared to some folks. And I’ve added a few things since I posted this.... Kyle Judkins: That looks like a pretty packed schedule! I haven’t been to very many conferences, so I’m... RhodeyGirl: Just found your blog- hope I get to meet you at BlogHer! Susan Getgood: Hah! I doubt that. Everything seems to have piled into Thurs. and Fri. which is kind of nice, as it... Elisa Camahort Page: Gee, i hope we’ll have time to say “hello”, you are probably busier than I...
. In addition to covering a wide distance range, it has an anti-shake feature that made a definite difference in these pictures from the helicopter.
Very useful for planning, especially the checklists in the back and the section on Victoria Falls. We started with the basic plan to visit Mashatu in Botswana, so we didn’t need all the information about the other destinations as much as you might if you were starting from a blank slate, but if you do, it’s in this book. We probably won’t bring it with us, though. Our itinerary is pretty settled and it’s extra weight we don’t need.
by Peter Allison. A quick read and very very funny.
by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson and Susan McCarthy. I haven’t read this one yet, but my mom highly recommends it.
by Ian Sinclair, Phil Hockey and Warwick Tarboton. I’m not a serious bird watcher but I do enjoy them.
by Richard D. Estes
by David Sedaris
and 
by Alexander McCall Smith. I read the first six books in the 
quite a while ago; since they are set in Botswana, I recently picked up number seven 
to get in the mood for the trip. These books are the next two in the series.
