Jo-Burg

Wow so sorry it's been so long since my last post! Can't believe I haven't posted since Zimbabwe!!

Since that time, we've been in Johannesburg (aka Jo-Burg) for a few days and are now at a private game reserve in South Africa, called Kapama. 

Jo-Burg was very busy and full on, as I guess most of the trip has been ha ha! You're trying to see and do as much as you can while you're here, that your days are very full!  Prior to arriving in Jo-Burg, we were a bit nervous about things, mostly safety I guess and weren't quite sure how things would go. We were looking forward to learning about some of the history of the city and seeing some sites, but we were a bit nervous.

We stayed near the airport, in this massive complex including various hotels, a casino and restaurants. This was actually nice because we didn't have to travel anywhere for eatin, etc and gave us a chance to choose what we wanted to eat, rather than having to eat at the hotels. We saw our first food court and it included Nando's ha ha!! We felt very safe there, but it sure was noisy and busy!

Our first full day your took us to Maropeng and the Sterkfontein Caves. The whole area is known as the Cradle of Humankind and it shares a history of  fossils they found at this site and shares information about evolution and how the world changed over time (Pangea to the way the continents look now). It was all very interesting and they've done a great job with the sites! Crawling around in the caves was pretty cool too!

Our second day was very very full of history and museums! At one point we were given the option to go to two more museums and we passed! We were museum-ed out by that point. We learned so much about Nelson Mandela, his arrest, his imprisonment, his fight for human rights and not only his fight, but the long fight that many fought against apartheid that is so much a part of South Africa's history.  Our tour guide lives in Soweto, and role played for part of the day as one of Nelson Mandela's right hand men. Learning about it this way, brought history to life for us through out the day! There's so much to share here, but I just feel like I won't do it justice and I feel like I'll miss important details. So, I'll share pictures instead and try to share info with those. 

We also visited Soweto, with a population of over 4 million people. This is where the poorest of the poor people live but you also have people like Winnie Mandela and Desmond Tutu living, winners of Nobel Prizes! It was an eye opener of course and made us appreciate what we have in our own lives!

We visited the farm where Mandela and others were arrested. People see Mandela as the Father of their nation so they call him Tata. They have left him messages of thanks and cards in this room. 

The reality is that things were not always peaceful in the fight against apartheid. We saw many things that showed the violence of the struggle in this fight. 

Painted rhinos for sale to promote and raise funds for rhino awareness.

There was everything for sale at this market we went to!

We visited a prison where both Mandela and Ghandi were kept. 

The towers of Soweto, now used for bungee jumping!

Zimbabwe

We left Botswana and travelled to Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe. It was a bit of a process  as we had to have a driver from Botswana take us to the Zimbabwe border to hand us off to the driver from Zimbabwe. He waited with us while we waited to pay for our visas and receive entry into the country. 

Here, they write the visas by hand. So every person coming through has to get a stamp and hand written visa in their passport. You also have to pay for a visa based on where you live. For ordinary visas it's $US30 (American, European, Australian, etc) for people from the UK and Ireland it's $US50, and for Canadians it's $US75. I have no idea why we have to pay so much?? Especially with our exchange to the American dollar, we took a hit here. 

You're standing in very close quarters and so you could easily converse with the person beside you, if appropriate. The British fellow beside us basically made a comment that we have to pay so much because we are too nice! Ha ha! We laughed and I said "Do you get to be "ordinary" today?" He had quite a mixture of passports in his travelling group, so we weren't sure which visa he needed. He was laughing but then the Zimbabwe customs officials were laughing too! Good thing! I always manage to say things at the wrong times and customs and security are not places you should usually make jokes! Good thing everyone was in a good mood ha ha!

Our tour guide Shimbiso was wonderful and shared lots of information between the border and the town of Victoria Falls. He delivered us safely to our hotel, which is lovely, and wished us well.

We once again enjoyed our welcome drinks and got settled into another location :) There are warthogs, monkeys and banded mongoose wandering the property. All the while, you can hear the rush of the falls and we can even see the mist/spray of the falls from our balcony! It's a pretty cool location! 

Our first night we did a sundowner cruise on the Zambezi River. We met some wonderful people from Perth, Australia. We also got to enjoy some wildlife like a baby croc, some hippos up close, a couple of elephants, and lots of birds of course. We are starting to get some of our bird names down actually, since we have seen so many, and have studied a bird book :) And as with each and every night, we enjoyed another spectacular African sunset. 

Our first full day was full on, as usual :) We started our day with a tour of Victoria Falls. It is a Unesco World Heritage Site, one of the seven natural wonders of the world, and is also called Mosi-oa-Tunya in the local language. It is 108m high and is 1,708m wide.

The falls were an amazing site to see and to be there and just take it all in was incredible! The roar, the spray, the natural beauty... We loved it!

We explored the town a bit after our morning excursion, which for me wasn't exactly enjoyable. The town is sooo touristy and there are locals approaching you to book a trip or buy something from them constantly. For someone who hasn't experienced that a lot, I found it very uncomfortable. The shops are expensive since everything is in American dollars. 

Zimbabwe is struggling right now and some people have said that since the country changed their currency to the American dollar, that has caused a lot of it, but there are other problems of course too. Some say that even the African people  are not travelling to Zimbabwe as much due to the costs. It's very unfortunate for the people here as there is beauty all around. 

In the afternoon, we were very fortunate to be able to experience a lion encounter. We were able to walk with and pet 2 lions, sisters Leela and Lalipani. They are 8 months old and are part of a repopulation program. The lion population in Africa has declined due to hunting, poaching and disease. This program aims to breed lions in a step by step process to the point where lions who have been part of the lion encounter program, will be released into a semi wild area where they will breed and produce lion cubs who will be released directly into the wild, thus helping to repopulate the lion population. It was such an incredible experience and I know I loved every second of it!  If you'd like more info, check out lionalert.org

Our next day was just a lazy day in Zimbabwe as it was our first rest day since we started this amazing adventure! We had a lazy breakfast, relaxed by the pool, had a nap and charged everything up for our trip tomorrow. 

Today we leave Zimbabwe and travel back to Johannesburg where we will spend the next few days. We have 2 full days of tours booked there and are interested to learn about the history of the area. 

The African adventure continues...

Looking back at the main lodge from our balconies.

My room :)

The view from my balcony... Mom and Dad are next door with a joining door in between. 

 The sunrise view from my balcony with the spray/mist from the falls.

And this is why you must not leave anything on the balcony and have to lock your doors.

On the sundowner cruise 

Hippos!

The start of the falls!

The bridge from Zimbabwe to Zambia. This is where they do bungee jumping from!

Mom, Dad and I with Leela and Lalipani.

Pancakes for breakfast!!

The view at the pool. Wayyyy too cold to swim in, even for this Canadian girl

A Bushbuck visiting the garden yesterday. 

Chobe National Park

Chobe and Chobe National Park... Wow!!  I'm not even sure where to begin with this post because there is just soooo much to share! Chobe was just full of animals so be prepared for this post to be all about the animals :)

Chobe National Park, located in Northern Botswana, is Botswana's first national park. It is the third largest and has the highest concentration of animals. We can certainly attest to a high concentration of animals, as from the moment we arrived it was non stop animal sightings!

We had a bit of time to relax on our first afternoon at Chobe Safari Lodge, but then it was full on! We had to be up at 5:00am and at the lobby for 5:45 to leave  for our 6:00 game drive! When our guide asked what we wanted to see we all said lions of course! Some wanted to see leopards also which I didn't even think about! I was definitely focused on lions!

The bird life and hippos started our day off as the sun came up, and then the elephants. It was a beautiful start to the morning, but it all became a rush of excitement when one of the other vehicles spotted lions on the plains. We called it the "lion rush" as our driver drove faster through that bush than he had on the highway!! And then we saw them!!! A pride of 8 lions... Brothers and sisters moving together. Wow! Wow! Wow! I don't even know what else to say because it was just so incredible to see! 8 lions moving along, with no care or worry about us, basking in the newly risen sun! This was definitely one of my top moments so far!

We had our morning coffee shortly after and enjoyed visiting with the other people on our safari vehicle - people from England, Australia and Taiwan. Everyone was so friendly and one of the guys from England had even climbed Kiliminjaro! This is part of what I love about traveling.. Meeting new people, learning about where they've been and what they've seen; it's all part of this wonderful adventure. 

After coffees, the safari continued and we saw so much more wildlife!! Giraffes, elephants, kudu, reedbucks,impala, puku,  and heaps of bird life. It was just non stop! And then as we were about to leave the park, a herd of elephants blocked our road and we got some amazing views!

That was an incredible morning for sure!!

Later that day, we went on a sundowner cruise on the Chobe River, which took us along our property's riverfront and back into the National Park... But this time, on the water.  We saw almost everything from this am, except lions. Watching the elephants up close and how they thrash the grass and reeds around to get the dirt off, was very interesting to see. 

We also got to see crocodiles for the first time! Very cool! We watched baboons cleaning each other and eating on the beach, a huge herd of impala moving along the beach, all while moving through, under and around 2 giraffes, and hippos relaxing in the water.  All of the wildlife sightings followed by another incredible, but quick, African sunset. 

This whole day was just so Africa! It was everything I thought Africa would be and believe me, it is not a day I will ever forget!! Chobe was so incredible and I'm so grateful for the experiences it offered to us! It just goes to show that sometimes the best adventures happen when you least expect them or in the places you never knew existed. Chobe will always be at the top of my list for the most amazing things we saw and did in Africa!

Watching the lions!

Impala!

My favourite animal so far!

Probably the most fun to watch!

The herd that blocked our road. 

So you can sort of see where we have been - Botswana

Mom and Dad on the sundowner. 

Each night we get turn down service when they come get your bed and room ready for night time. Here, they put the betting over my bed for me, to help protect from mosquitos. 

The pool area, along with the restaurant area. The river is 15 steps down and behind where I am standing. 

Looking from the restaurant out towards the pool and river.