Snapshot Chronicles Roadtrip

Family travel through a slightly twisted lens. Sense of humor required. Shoes optional.

Our Africa Reading List

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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.

Whatever You Do, Don’t Run: True Tales of a Botswana Safari Guide by Peter Allison.  A quick read and very very funny.

When Elephants Weep: The Emotional Lives of Animals by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson and Susan McCarthy. I haven’t read this one yet, but my mom highly recommends it.

Field Guides that I am bringing with me:

Birds of Southern Africa (Princeton Field Guides) by Ian Sinclair, Phil Hockey and Warwick Tarboton. I’m not a serious bird watcher but I do enjoy them.

The Safari Companion: A Guide to Watching African Mammals Including Hoofed Mammals, Carnivores, and Primates by Richard D. Estes

UPDATED: And one that Sandy is bringing (see her comment):  Wild Ways: Field Guide to the Behaviour of Southern African Mammals by Peter Apps

Other Books that may be going in my carry-on to read on the trip:

When You Are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris

The Good Husband of Zebra Drive and The Miracle at Speedy Motors by Alexander McCall Smith. I read the first six books in the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series quite a while ago;  since they are set in Botswana, I recently picked up number seven Blue Shoes and Happiness to get in the mood for the trip. These books are the next two in the series.

You’re going to Africa? – Part 3: Clothes

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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.

You’re going to Africa? – Part 2: Planning

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Doug started doing research on travel agencies that could help us plan an itinerary and arrange the details for us.  Susan, an experienced  traveler, took on the airlines and also found us a marvelous Fodor’s reference book on African safaris that went into incredible detail on what you should do before you go, what you should bring with you when you do go (note:  not too much!  And nothing too heavy!) and what to see and do when you get there.   Fodor’s also has a great website…no matter where in the world you are going, they have information for you.

And what did I do?  Well, once we had decided on our itinerary…Mashatu Game Reserve and Pete’s Pond in Botswana, Victoria Falls in Zambia, and MalaMala Game Reserve in South Africa…I started putting notebooks together for all of us, with information about each destination. Mashatu and MalaMala both have excellent websites, with pictures and information about the wildlife, the accommodations, what you can see and do while there, even videos.  I made copies of the basic information at each of their sites , and occasionally added updates to the books as they updated wildlife sightings…fun to get acquainted with the animals you might be seeing during your visit.

I also found a lot of information about Victoria Falls, from the history to maps of the area to the accommodations available, and made copies of the useful information I found there. It’s much easier to find Livingstone these days than back in the day when Stanley was searching for “Dr. Livingstone, I presume?”   Copies of our itinerary, airplane reservations and travel insurance information also went into the notebooks, along with anything else that seemed useful or interesting..

A site to check if you are going to unfamiliar areas is the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, where you can get health information about the shots you may need, the diseases you could encounter, how to stay healthy.  Once you have that information, you can call your local Work/Travel Health Clinic to make an appointment.  Your doctor will know.  Or your local hospital.  Or Google will find one for you.  How did we manage before Google? [Note: see earlier post by Susan about visiting the clinic]

Another particularly useful site I found was African Safari Journals which posted lists of safari gear, safari supplies, what luggage and equipment you might need, documents you might need for the countries you are going to, even checklists.  Copies of those went right into our notebooks, and were tremendously useful in finding out which specific items we didn’t have and would need.

Next:  Clothing

You’re going to Africa? – Part 1

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I enjoy watching animals, whether they are my cats (who are relatively goofy) or Susan’s Scottish Terriers, or the birds and squirrels and extremely fat chipmunk who hang out around our bird feeder in the back yard.  I also enjoy watching wildcams.   Although there are quite a few wildcams available on the internet, some of them are simply a stationary camera focused on a waterhole or eagles’ nest. My favorite wildcam quickly became  National Geographic’s WildCam Africa, which featured Pete’s Pond , located on the Mashatu Game Reserve in Botswana.  There was always something to see there, 24/7, and because there are no humans or vehicles to distract the animals, birds and reptiles, they interact with each other as they would anywhere else in the wild, offering a rare opportunity to see wild animals being themselves.

Also, there was Afke, the world’s best cam operator, who can always find something interesting to see, whether it’s a family of elephants dropping by with their babies to have a drink and play in the water, or wildebeest and zebra herds jockeying for position at their favorite drinking spot or, if there are no animals to watch at that moment, perhaps a close-up of ants and bees investigating a hibiscus blossom. If you would like to see what triggered my obsession and started us  planning this trip to Africa, here is the link to the wildcam.  (You’ll need Real Player.)  Warning:  this site is addictive.  :>D

There is also a forum, where folks watching the activity at Pete’s Pond could talk about sightings, ask and answer questions, share information, have conversations with each other and with Afke, and even post screen captures of the animals, birds, and reptiles who visited the Pond, to save the sightings for others who were sleeping or at work. You can find the forum on Facebook.

I knew I had become obsessed when I began waking up at 4 o’clock in the morning, so I would have time to spend a few hours at the Pond before it was time to get ready for work.  I had become a “Pondie.”

So when my daughter Susan and my son Doug mentioned that they had noticed my obsession (a very tactful way of putting it, I felt) and  that they were thinking the three of us should visit Africa,  I was astonished,.  Although I had often thought what fun it would be to visit the Pond in person, the idea that I actually would do it had really never occurred to me.  It seemed…and is!…so far away.  But the more we talked about it, the more it seemed something we could do.  The three of us have always enjoyed traveling together, and this sounded like a very exciting trip for all of us.

Next: Planning the trip

In the neighborhood: Barnard to Boston

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IMG_5517026 We spent the first week of August at our home in Barnard Vermont so Douglas could attend day camp at the Vermont Institute for Natural Sciences in nearby Quechee. For me, it was mostly just a different window, but we did go on a couple excursions.

Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Park in Woodstock — Laurance and Mary Rockefeller spent summers at their home in Woodstock, and the Park Service offers daily tours (in season) of the home, as well as a couple of special tours. The most recent addition to the schedule is the Fallout Shelter tour, which seems to be offered about once per month.

There are two fallout shelters on the property, one under the house itself and another underneath the Belvidere, an outbuilding that houses pool changing rooms, activity room, soda fountain and  two-lane bowling alley. The one underneath the Belvidere is the shelter open to visitors.

The tour is about 70 minutes, and a good half of it is a ranger presentation about the Cold War that preceeds the tour of the shelter. After all, how long does it take to tour a one room fallout shelter?

Our verdict: If you only have time for one tour of the mansion, take the regular house tour. It’s offered a few times a day and reservations aren’t required, as they are for the special tours. It was fine for us, because  we’d already done both the regular house tour and the special Hidden Spaces tour.

If you do decide to take the Fallout Shelter tour, a true highlight was the private bowling alley, but younger kids may get restless during the ranger presentation. Consider starting your day across the street at Billings Farm, tire them out a bit looking at cows and chickens, and then take the mansion tour of your choice. A combo-ticket is offered.

As part of Doug’s summer camp week at VINS, the kids put on skits for the parents on the last day. We were so proud of Douglas, who played the part of narrator for his team’s skit. Photos are in this Flickr set.

We stayed to watch the afternoon raptor show at 3:30pm.  If you are in the area, it is well worth the time.

A camp highlight for the kids was getting to hold the American Kestrel.

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This weekend, we went into the Museum of Science in Boston to see the National Geographic Crittercam exhibit, which ends August 30th. We also stopped by the Black Holes exhibit and saw the Omni film Mystic India.

Our verdict: Crittercam was terrific. Hard to believe  that they are able to securely attach the cams to such a variety of animals, terrestrial and aquatic, and it is truly amazing what  researchers have been able to learn about animal behavior by looking at life through their eyes. Best part of the exhibit: I loved the whales’ bubble net cooperative feeding and the lion cubs investigating the camera on their mother.

Black Holes has a web-component, but otherwise seemed very similar to previous astronomy exhibits we have seen, although to be fair, I didn’t spend much time in the exhibit.

Mystic India wasn’t quite what I expected. The narration retraces the steps of an 11 year old yogi who walked across India in the late 1700s. In adulthood, he became an important religious and political figure, and it was clear from an audience full of Indian families that his story has profound religious and cultural resonance.

For Westerners like me, unfamiliar with his life, it was at times hard to embrace the storyline.  Barefoot and wearing nothing but a loin cloth for four years in the Himalayas? Of course, it’s a parable and I have no wish to be disrespectful of another’s religion or icons. I have just as much of a problem with certain elements of the Jesus Christ story when played out on the screen. Somehow, the translation to film highlights some of the improbabilities that we just have to get over in order to believe.

The scenery however was magnificent, and in the end, the film-makers made their point about cultural diversity, community and tolerance. Funnily enough though, for me, it was as much from the fact that the legion of volunteers who participated in the making of the film  didn’t take individual credits. It was the collective that made the film and told the story. You just can’t argue with that depth of belief.

If you are in Boston, get thee to Crittercam before it leaves at the end of the month.

Copyright 2009-2018. All Rights Reserved. Photos copyright Susan Getgood unless otherwise noted.