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THE PICTURES ARE NOW AVAILABLE, CHECK AT THE END

Our African Adventure:

Index:

1 From home to the Airport and overnight

2. LAX to JNB, via HKG and overnight JNB and Lounges/Cathay Pacific

3. JNB to HDS on SA Express, Eastgate Safaris to Thornybush, stay/safari

4. Leaving Monwana, fly HDS to JNB SA Express, stay night

5. Fly JNB to BBK (Kasane) via Avro, Stay Chobe Safari Lodge/safari

6. Mini-bus, reg. bus, thru Botswana check, Visa purchase for Zimbabwe, stay/visit Victoria Falls

7. Wild Horizons Transport to Painted Dog Museum, Sable Sands pick up to lodge/safaris

8. Painted Dog, via Wild Horizons to VFA, fly to JNB

9. Stay Johannesburg @ Crown Plaza Rosebank

10. Last thoughts and summary.

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1. From home to the Airport and overnight

5/13, Escondido, CA up at 6:15am. Poor sleep, too excited. Breakfast-cereal. 8:15am drove to Avis Rent-a-Car in Escondido to pick-up our reserved car. They open at 9am, so we get there 20 minutes early to be first in line. 8 people (6 groups) join me by 9. I was in and out in 10 minutes. Reserved car (intermediate) thru Costco for $92.96, all-inclusive with drop off at LAX. We drove our car and the rental home, to pack. This is cheaper that a shuttle, and/or parking our car at LAX.

Next, we drove to the Fairfield Inn (near LAX), with a 25-minute stop at Jack in the Box for lunch, or about 3 hours. There is a small area to park outside the entrance. Our room was ready at 1:30pm. Hotel is large. We are in the West wing, room 677. This room is a two-room suite, pleasant view given the location. Hotel is very close to the airport. Desk clerk was nice enough to walk me part way to the elevator so I could find the way. Leslie waited in the car, while I checked in and took up our luggage.

Returned to the rental car (area is small for loading and unloading) and Leslie. We drove the car to the remote LAX lot of Avis to turn it in. On the way, we stop to get gas for the rental. The 76 station is $3.39 and the circle K $3.09. We now need to get on the Avis bus to the Airport, and then call the hotel for pick-up by their shuttle. The bus driver for Avis asked which airline we wanted and I told her what we were doing. She left for a couple minutes and brought back an employee to take us directly to the hotel! WOW. Tip.

Having returned to the hotel, we went to our room to unpack for the night. We packed a small plastic bag in our suitcase for this overnight stay, so the main packing did not have to be disturbed.

We are staying on Leslie’s Marriott Visa anniversary free night renewal certificate. We have been upgraded by Jayne Betts, GM. Within 15 minutes, her assistant, Rodolfo Salazar comes with a split of wine (mini goodie bag) for us to enjoy. Write those letters! If they do not know your needs, how can they meet-exceed your expectations! The service was good in every facet at this property.

Our front room has a desk w/good lighting and plugs. There is a mini frig., ice bucket, coffee maker, small closet, ironing board and extra pillow. There is a 3-seat couch, microwave, 2 drawers, flat screen TV and floor lamp. The bedroom has a king bed, flat screen TV, large mirrored door, 2 nightstands w/lamps, chair, and 4+ pillows. The bathroom has HD, large mirror, Kleenex, toiletries and lots of grab bars. Tub, w/shower over, includes a bathing assist chair. The room is clean, fresh smelling and spacious. Needs information on the ice location. TV has 53 stations (Direct TV), and includes guide.

Across the street is a mall. They have lots of choices for eating. We were going to eat out at IN N OUT, but decided to get a Subway and take it back to the room to have with the wine. The walk is short and the intersection is signaled. The area is safe.

Lunch, dinner, tips, gas for the car, etc. was under $50.

The Fairfield offers breakfast with the room, but we choose to get to the airport early. I have never flown Cathay Pacific, and Leslie hasn’t for over a dozen years. We, again did not sleep to well, going to bed at 8pm and getting up at 4:30am. Mostly tossing and turning in excitement. We are going to Africa!

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2. LAX to JNB, via HKG and overnight JNB and Lounges/Cathay Pacific

5/14 we repack and get ready for the long travel schedule. We board the Fairfield’s 5:30am shuttle bus from the hotel. There are 8 of us. We stop very nearby and pick up 1 more passenger. The driver dropped us off on arrivals level. We took the elevator to the 3rd floor for departures. Cathay Pacific was not quite open, so we used the nearby restroom while we waited. In coach, you must process thru the machine before going to the desk to handle your luggage. We are in business, so we just go to the desk and they handle it all (no paperwork or e-ticket number required, just passport). We are given our LAX-HGK tickets and lounge passes, and our HGK-JNB tickets and lounge passes. The process was easy, respectful and efficient.

TSA went very quickly that early on a Sunday. Belt and shoes, no examination of the quart baggie of liquids, laptops needed to be separated (we do not have one), but Kindle was okay in backpack. We don’t have a phone, so not sure the process for that. Walked through the machine, then a modest pat down.

We arrived at the lounge as they were opening (One World Club includes Cathay Pacific). It is a large club on the 5th floor. It is about 6:35am. They have showers. They have a computer area. They have a bar. We head for the breakfast area. WOW. The food included: Tater tots, free range scrambled eggs, large sausage, pancakes, fruit, juices (including a blending machine), cereals, coffee, miso soup, oatmeal, croissants, pastries and breads. Important: the layout is excellent, appearance perfect. Jason Steiner, Duty Manager should be proud. Most attentive, Jessenia Sanchez, made us very welcome in the food area. She brought us mimosas, orange juice and offered us nuts, pretzels, or chips from the back. She visited us 4 times and it is only 7:15am. We finished breakfast, but will likely do a bit of a second round before we go.

We were warned that gate 159 is quite a distance from the club, so we watch the time. We brought the newspaper (Sunday Times from the hotel and Financial Times from the Club). As a note, the club has lots of seating choices, including lounge type seating.

At 8:45am, we leave the lounge for the plane. It is the last gate out, #159. No chaos. Boarding is delayed 15 minutes to 9:15am. They board 1st class and set up a tiny line for some “premier” members. Two coach lines and a business line is also formed (Shades of the Southwest of the past?). The wheel chair people are also arranged in a corner. We are seated by 9:23am.

Our plane was 30 minutes late in arriving at LAX, which accounted for our delay in boarding. Our flight to HKG is expected to take 14 hours, 50 minutes. We are in seats 11D/G, middle of the plane. The configuration is 1x2x1 in our section. Rows 11 and 12 are in a section by themselves. Our two seats are not really together. Both of us must lean forward to see one another. The seat is very strange. It seems like a coach seat with a separate “island adjacent”, but aimed differently. Iffy comfort. The arm rest on the aisle must be down for takeoff and landing. The plane is a B777-300ER, per the safety card.

The entertainment system is in 3 “symbol languages” (Chinese, Korean, and?), French, German and English. The screen has a button to “bounce” it out on a hinge, so it better aligns with the seat/adjunct. There is a large cabinet (18”x11”) that holds the headphones. The instructions to open the door are printed inside the cabinet! Push to open. There is a table between our two seats, in two right triangles. Our row is the equivalent to the bulkhead. Cabinets accessible from the aisles are for the crew to use. The noise could be a bit offsetting.

It is 10am and we are taxiing. Our scheduled departure was 9:25am. At 10:07 we make it to the line for takeoff. It’s 10:18am and we can now open the seat, table and run the audio/video equipment. We have a blanket and a pillow, but the FA’s come with kits and menus, a donation envelope for spare change, and discount coupons for duty free shopping on the plane.

The breakfast menu (to be served at 11am) includes juice, cereal, bread and yoghurt. The main is a choice of: 1) Black truffle omelet, including broccolini; 2) noodles and dim sum; or 3) Prawn/mushroom congee. I ask for a burger, which is the anytime snack. Well, anytime another meal is not being served as they only have so many pieces of equipment to prepare meals. Alcohol is not served preflight, or with breakfast. When I order my burger, 45 minutes later, it takes 20+ minutes to prepare. It was good. A specialty roll, angus beef, cheese, lettuce, mushrooms. Service was excellent when it does come, but a bit spotty attention otherwise.

Miscellaneous. There is a ceiling light which might be misaligned, mine was. When I turned it on, it shown on Leslie’s side. I got up and adjusted its aim, and all was good. Flight data (one spot check) is 30,00 feet, minus 40 degrees F, speed 540. Note that the 12:55pm flight out of LAX was cancelled.

It is all daytime for me, so I watch a few movies and some TV shows. I did nod off a couple times. They collected the UNICEF “spare change” envelope.

The second meal (dinner) came around 6pm, LAX time. We passed and asked for burgers to be delivered about 7:30pm LAX time. The dinner options included pate, then: 1. Sweet and sour pork; 2. beef tenderloin in Brussel sprouts, pumpkin; 3. Ling cod with pureed veggies or 4. Fettucine. We were trying to time our first Malaria tablets. I was given a 19-page survey to do on the flight. It took some time to do it all and some had to wait toward the end.

It’s 3:40am, May 15 @LAX. It was raining when we landed, but we did not care, as we were staying in the airport. We have a layover of 8 hours here at HKG. We find the Wing Lounge. It is upstairs and downstairs.

Leslie “plops” in a chair, while I go to the showers. I have flown a lot, but never have I taken a shower in a lounge. Down a corridor I was greeted and shown to a tiny room. It had a shower, a towel, a sink and a toi. I used all three. Leslie and I both brought a set of underwear, shirt and sox to change here. All went fairly well. I had to ask for a razor. It was not too good, or I was not. Cut myself on the chin (remember next time to have styptic pencil in backpack, not checked luggage}. I go find Leslie, so she can clean up while I watch the “stuff”.

Food choices in this club are limited and much of it Asian (it is Hong Kong!). Nothing really appeals to me. They have a massive bar which does not appeal to me either. When Leslie returns, we still have a a long wait until it is time to go to the gate. Lots of flights are being delayed, and most all have gate changes!

Our flight, is at 11:20pm (HKG). We have the same seat assignments, with much of the same comments. One difference is the lack of 1st class seats. Our overhead storage is not “real” so we must use the aisle bins. We are still bulkhead, but only ˝ high, forming a large table. TOI’s are ahead of us @ door. Business in this section is 6-7 rows.

Our first meal was a choice of Chu Hou beef brisket or Sea Bream. I have the brisket. It came with white rice (yes) and assorted stuff (boo). I had Flagstone Dark Horse Shiraz with it. Service was soon after we took off, and then it was lights out. I slept for a few hours, on and off. I watched a dreadful movie, Modern Women. My one check of the flight revealed 38,000’, speed 483 and temp minus 59 degrees.
It is likely May 16th 3am (JNB time). We are served breakfast. The choices are: 1. Parsley omelet; 2 dim sum; 3. Congee of chicken bonito and peanuts. We had some fruit, OJ and a couple of croissants so we could take our second Malaria pill.

No paperwork for Immigration, Ag or Customs. As we are no longer in transit, we are required to go thru Immigration (Passports) prior to getting our bags. This takes 20-30 minutes. Our next step is getting our luggage. This process took 15 minutes. Once that was done, we must take our luggage a very long way toward the exit. We found plenty of busy money exchange desks, but the ATM was at the very end, and no one was using it! Gulp! Well we need to get some Rand for South Africa. As usual, it took me a bit to figure it out, but I got out R 2500 (this proved to be plenty for our, mostly prepaid, trip).

The next area contained stores and check in. A “porter type” asked us where we were going and then took our carted luggage on a mad dash up and down an escalator and into a parking area where the van (seats 29) with a luggage trailer was waiting to take people to the Southern Sun OR Tambo International Airport hotel. The van runs every 15 minutes. Tip to the porter guy, van guy and the bellman at the hotel and we are in the lobby of the hotel. I went to the check in desk, but it was only 8:15am. We were given a room! Taki, young desk clerk, who searched us out a room! I wrote a letter to the GM, before leaving America, requesting early check in. No way to know if the letter or just the hotel policy got us in so early. We are only spending one night (we will spend a second night later in our trip). My approach is, they can’t help you if you don’t let them know what you need…so do it in advance!

Our room, #502, is small, but all we need. Another tip, to get our luggage up to our room. The room has a free-standing closet, ice box, king bed, desk and chair. There is a lounge chair with ottoman and 2 night stands. The bathroom has a shower and an okay sink. There is an opaque wall that the bedroom and shower share. We have a special African plug adaptor and a current converter to charge our kindle and camera batteries. The sink drains slowly. There is no clock, which seems strange for an airport hotel (note that there was never a clock in any room we stayed during our trip). We brought a battery operated alarm clock of small size….good idea.

We are still draggy after a 2-hour nap. At 3:30pm, we order 2 cheese burgers w/regular mustard, no mayo from room service. The burgers show up within 30 minutes. The mustard is hot mustard (in a mini jar). The burger meat is dry (not enough fat?) and tastes of filler. The tip is not included, VAT is. A full menu of in room dining is available. We would have been fine splitting one cheeseburger. It comes with fries, though the menu does not say so. We brought a water from the plane. Tray goes to the hall for phone/pick-up, dial 6.

We are truly beat. We went to bed at 6:30pm. I slept 3 hours and dozed the rest. We got up at 4:30am. This is the quietest hotel ever! The heater was a bit slow to warm the room, but eventually did. The hair dryer is in a drawer. There are 4 large bed pillows. They provide Kleenex.
May 17th, 6am. Our package includes breakfast at this hotel. Breakfast includes everything a buffet could have: salads; baked beans; casserole; eggs; sausage; bacon; fruit; rolls; bread; coffee; tea; juice; decaf (packaged) and more that I likely missed. We have plenty of greeting from the various staff. Coffee was refilled. DO NOT leave the tip on the table. Ours was immediately whisked away by an employee we had not seen before. Here you need to give your tip to the hostess doing the seating for it to be shared. As a note, we came back to the restaurant before we departed and left the hostesses our 4 Cathay Pacific toiletry kits.

Bringing down your own luggage will not mean you will be taking them to the shuttle, the bellman makes sure of that. Perhaps, by taking our bags down, the tip we left for the housekeeper was safer? Taki checks us out (completing the cycle). She will not be on duty our next stay. Out to the shuttle we go, bellman and our luggage following for that 25 feet. The hotel, we are told is about 500 meters away, but the shuttle ride is several minutes.

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3. JNB to HDS on SA Express, Eastgate Safaris to Thornybush, stay/safari

The shuttle dropped us off at Terminal B (most all departures for SAA start here). We walked into the airport and were again “hijacked” by two guys bent on checking us in at a kiosk. Not much choice. They took us to the machine, scanned our Passports and had us confirm seat selections and flight #. They then walked us over to the counter we would have gone to anyway to check in our bags. They hung for a tip, which I reluctantly gave them. If I wasn’t so miffed, I would have realized that they did me a big favor and service.

LESSON LEARNED: Lots of people make a “living” by “jumping you” and doing your modest work for you. Try to relax and enjoy it. But then this is Johannesburg, and you still need to remain vigilant.

HOW WE BOOKED OUR TRIP: This is probably a good place to pause and tell you how we booked our trip. We travel a lot. I research and book our trips myself. Each car, hotel/motel, tour, etc. We do the same with cruises, but these we make payment for thru an online Travel Agent. This trip started the same way. Lots of research. Questions on Flyertalk.com. Review of ratings on Tripadvisor.com. The choices were too vast and the area too filled with dangers, that I finally decided to use a travel agent. We found one on Flyertalk.com (destinations/Africa) and the other thru the South African Airways site. I worked up a general outline of what we were looking to do (see the animals, not the cities), a general budget (less than $500/d/pp, not including airfare), and May as the target month, and 3 weeks at the approximate length. Both agents were given the opportunity to work up a trip outline. A second round was necessary to reply to the suggestions and hone in on the money/# of nights. The “contest” was not even close. We chose Kristina Kowalczewski of SAA Vacations (Arizona, USA). [email protected] . She was great. She supplied us with material for each country we were to visit and arranged the internal air flights. Separately, we booked our flights RT, USA/Africa with our frequent flyer miles. We also booked a few days at the end of her program to stay in Johannesburg, again with frequent hotel points.

Meanwhile, back at the airport. We go thru security. Leave on shoes, belt, glasses and pen in pocket and go thru detector when green light flashed. Leslie had to remove her coat. Our plane to Hoedspuit is gate E4. We are in coach for all our intra African flights. All are non-refundable. E4 is one of several seating areas where passengers wait to get on a bus to take them out to the plane. It’s about 8:15am, we have been here about 30 minutes, and our plane is scheduled to leave at 10:10am. Every seat on the plane is a surcharge to “pick a seat” before x time prior to flight. We are assigned 11AB. For the flight, we are booked on the same “record #” so we always get seats together. Have your children cover their eyes…gross out: while in the men’s room the man next to me is holding his (you guess) in one hand and his cellphone in the other, having a conversation!

Our flight, #1225 is in a Bombardier Dash 8 Q400. It left 30 minutes late. Plane has one center aisle, with 2x2 seating. Over head and leg room is limited. They do “gate check” a lot of luggage. There are 2 FA’s. They serve soft drinks and a choice of beef or cheese sandwich on this one hour flight! The terrain we fly across is at first hilly. As we approach the AP, the terrain tends to flatten out. There are what appear to be controlled burns along the way. Our view is partially blocked by the engine housing, but Leslie does her best to get some pictures anyway.

Hoedspuit Airport is very small. We do not even enter the building upon arrival. The facility hosts 3 planes per day. The first area is where the drivers are waiting for their passengers, including us. Our driver is Cisco, from Eastgate Safaris and Transfers. She has a sign with our name. We all stand around while the luggage is unloaded and carted over to us. We have two bags, both over 18K. It proves to work, but was a bit of a hassle several times. We load up the bags and off we go to Thornybush Nature Reserve. The reserve is protected by, among other things, a guarded gate. Cisco signs us in, and we continue to Thornybush Waterside Lodge, a sister lodge that has an unpaved road network that her vehicle can drive. Along the way we see giraffe, impala and wildebeest. Here we will be offered a cold drink, towel, chance to us the toi, liability paperwork to sign and a warm greeting before being taken on to our destination. We also read some vaguely written data about taking Malaria Tablets (we are). The road network between the airport and the gates of Thornybush are not good. We weave back and forth to navigate what was once a road, perhaps in another life. The roads only get worse once in Thornybush.

Next, we are picked up by a safari drive vehicle and bounced around (African rubdown) to our home for the next few days, Monwana Game Lodge. Two other young grad students join us on our adventure. What a wonderful choice. Thank you, Kristina,! Arrival at the lodge includes music, a bit of dancing and a soft drink. This camp holds a maximum of 8 customers, in 4 rooms (not all at one place). Shelly greets us and whisks us off to the outdoor dining table. Here she explains the do’s and don’ts and the whatalls. The young twosome asked about mosseys, snakes etc. We are informed that it is best not to get bitten. They are not usually a problem during the day. There are nets in the room, bug spray and insect repellant. As for snakes, they are not prevalent, but do not get bitten (stop, be still and wait for them to leave), as there is little they can do for you if that happens, before you parish. There is a water hole on the property. It is a place where some animals come to drink. We are told where the “limit line” is for us in approaching them…a long way away! Binoculars, yes bring them for this trip!

We get 1 ˝ hours to our own, unpack and get familiar with the building/room. We sit a bit on our large raised “porch in the bush” and ponder our travels to date. We meet at the outdoor table at 3pm for a snack of meat lollipops, salad and couscous. We then head out for our first safari. The area is made up of different ownership rights. These are private lands. They have cooperative rules to govern the “members”. The Thornybush Nature Reserve contains several (11,500 ha/44 sq. miles) lodges. The structure is a bit complex (or the MBA in me suggest I should understand it, but no one else cares, so I do not pursue it). Several of the lodges work together in game spotting and tracking. While you see some other game vehicles each day, there are lots of roads which avoid the feeling of commercialization. The Rangers and Trackers are mindful and respectful of each other and for the animals, or so it appears to me. This is a reserve, not a National Park and not an undeveloped area. There are fences confining the private lands involved. The experience was much better here than in the National Parks, but to the purest, this difference may be meaningful.

The roads are all unpaved and heavily rutted. They crisscross the Thornybush area (acacia with thorns). For the next 3 ˝ hours we are on the lookout for wildlife. Our driver/Ranger is Ruan. He has multiple jobs, as does everyone at this lodge. Best I can tell there are about 8 staff most of the time, and at the beginning of our stay there are only 7 of us. Our Tracker, Rennico, sits on a seat that is affixed to the front of the vehicle, up in the air. Seems like a scary place to sit, given all the thorny bushes we go by. Ruan and Rennico, and soon the passengers, are all watching and warning about bushes, limbs and scouting for animals. One “well oiled” hunting Toyota! We see Impala right away. They are quite common here. With most spottings, Ruan stops the Toyota, stands out of the truck on the floor board and gives us a bit of data on what we are seeing and some of the background on its behaviors and lifestyle. We then often move up a bit closer, often within feet of the animals. Sometimes our positioning results in our becoming part of the herd! A wart hog is spotted, but then a big surprise. We see a pack of the most endangered African Wild Dogs! I sure did not expect to see them. Before long we see some giraffe, a flock of Guinea fowl and 2 elephants. As we find is the custom, we stop after about 2 hours for a bush stretch and a beverage. Okay, just say it, this is a bush pee stop. Men and/or women ramble behind a bush, close by and … Specific areas are selected for this purpose. Not as private as others, as visibility is necessary for safety. At Monwana, they offer you an opportunity to select a beverage for these bush stops. You should know you are buying this beverage (wine in our case). What you do not drink, is then available for you that night at dinner. Bottled water is always available for free. We were late with our stop and returned to the lodge shortly thereafter. Upon arrival, as always, there was Shelly waiting to greet us, alone or with others, along with some mini drink (this one tasted like eggnog) and towel. Ruan tries to give Shelly a ten-minute warning of our returning.

We get a short respite and then greet everyone for dinner. We are usually joined by Ruan, who answers questions during the get togethers. We are offered Kudu or chicken for dinner (fancy names omitted) along with veggies and desert. Leslie and I have the Kudu. It is not at all gamey to me, and does not taste much like venison, not that it should. Leslie and I finish our bottle of Aldo Rouge. There is some comparing of notes with the other guests, but here we go to bed early, as we get up even earlier.
Thursday, May 18 and we begin our day at 5:15am with our prescheduled knock on the door and greeting by Ruan. Actually, truth be known, we woke up 15 minutes earlier to our alarm. Leslie has to do her glaucoma drops, so we wanted to make sure we were ready on time, but not rushed. There is coffee in the Lodge until 6am, when our morning drive begins.

It is cold. Its winter. We have dressed in layers, as suggested by all our research. We are slathered in sunscreen, sprayed with insect repellant and dressed like “eskimos”. As we climb up into the Toyota, on our seats are blankets and hot water bottles! There is enough light to see a bit, but our tracker has a flash light that shines bright. Once we get moving, it gets even cooler. Leslie and I have our gloves (recommended) and she has a headband. The game drive vehicle we are in is open, no top, and tiered for viewing. Bars and foot-steps assist us in climbing into the vehicle. The seating is fairly comfortable until we start driving. There is a bar to hold on to, when necessary. The roads are rutty, hilly and impacted by fallen shrubs and trees and washouts. Once moving the we get bumped around and shaken now and again, plus we are always wary of bush overhanging the roadway.

Ruan and our Rennico are in constant communications. On game drives, they sort out the signs. We know they can tell the age of poop, tracks, as well as, what left both. “We“occasionally stop to study both of these items. Noting the animal (s) and direction of their travel is very useful in our search. Our data is cumulated with other game drive vehicle finds, to help determine what movements occurred since the last game drive. On occasion, the tracker will leave the vehicle and check things in the bush. We also have a pair of loppers to cut back brush where it has become too much of a hazard, or when we go off-roading (will be explained later). The drive here last about 3 hours.

Back to our morning drive. The first 45 minutes is fairly uneventful, spotting only the fairly ubiquitous Impala. Before the drive is over we see a fleeting male lion on the roadway. We fail to connect with that animal. On the way, we get a real treat. We encounter x rare endangered black rhinos (we have been asked not to show their pictures, so we will delete the pictures from this presentation}. Poaching is a problem that does not go away and they don’t need help from me. Note, none of the pictures will be ready to add to this write-up for several months. We have other trips, and two past trips that the pictures are just getting done. I do not need a picture, as they are a highlight in my memory, only matched by the African wild dogs from yesterday! We go off the road to get a good viewing point. At Thornybush, off-roading is allowed only when tracking and viewing one of the big 5 (rhino, lion, leopard, buffalo and elephant). We sit 30’ away to watch. These animals are very dangerous, but they do not look for trouble. They are not meat eaters. The can be fairly fast, but their eyesight is poor. The call a group a crash, perhaps for that reason. We move on after 10 minutes of watching and picturing. Soon we come across a tower of Giraffe. We park for a while to view their behavior and to hear Ruan tells us about them. A stork walks by in the background. We find 3 zebras, deep in the bush, a rear view at best! It is hard for me to write about the birds. I recognize only a couple handfuls, and there are so many more. The names are complex and overlapping. Spelling is almost impossible.

We stop for our stretch break. We have a couple small muffins, just enough to take our malaria pill with (8:15am). At the 5:45am coffee starts in the AM but there is no food. I am sure they would have given us something if we asked. That’s how they are. We had some flexibility of when we take the malaria pills, so it was not a problem.

After our break, we have another major find. A group of a dozen or more Cape Buffalo! We stop, have our talk, then move in a bit closer. They seem to be comfortable with us there, engine on or off. They easily walk around the Toyota, and we become, for a few minutes, part of the herd. We are surrounded, and only a few feet away from them. WOW.

We head back to the lodge for breakfast. It was plenty hot enough, that I was down to a t-shirt at break. I also renewed my sunscreen. Ruan was asked if he had any sunscreen, which he did, and handed it to the others. I have yet to see a mosquito, but reapply the mossy spray back at the lodge (and add it to what I carry). We are again greeted at the lodge upon our return. By 9:45am or 10 we are seated at the outdoor table, giving our egg and toast orders. Breakfast is mini continental plus eggs and toast. Quite good, done in rings. All our meals are done outside, and at this table, except for a BBQ, where we eat in the back of the lodge (outside).

Today a game walk is offered. Ruan, met me aside, and let me know that we would not be included. He said they have a 65-age limit. The reason is for the safety of us, the others and the Ranger. This was no problem for us. Leslie has no interest in increasing her chances of a snake encounter. With my bum hip, I feel I would be a drag on the speed of the walk, and a safety hazard as well. Leslie and I sit outside, in the shade, and work on my write-up and her pictures. Ruan told me that the TA should have told me this (she did not).

CLOTHES: We anguished over what to bring, what color, how much, etc. It turns out, that this was not something that was all that complicated, in retrospect. I am writing this after our trip, from my notes, but with the benefit of all our game drives and game boats. Most of these align exactly with what our friends on FT said. Forget about color, unless for game walks (in the latter, neutrals are best). Laundry was available at each camp, and each hotel. Prices varied, and at one lodge, underwear and sox were not done. We did not take shorts. Shorts would have been fine, as it was hot, but the exposure in the Toyota was material. Your need those zip away pants, as it is very cold in the am and pm. Changing pants on the game drive was not practical, but possible. We took clothes for 15 days, and did laundry twice (4 sets, each time). Once here at Thornybush and once at Chobe Lodge. The former was cheaper than the latter, but was not outrageous in any case. I would bring less, if I had it to do over. We had two large suitcases, 59”. This was an issue a couple times.

Wi-Fi is R50 for our 3 days, but we pass. There is really no time to keep up with e-mail, let alone do anything on the internet.

Lunch again is meat on a stick, salad and pasta.

All the guests are American (one dual Mexican citizenship?). We talked to a lady in her late 50’s, but weathered to look somewhat older. She is traveling alone. Quite an adventurer her, she is looking to do rafting near the Victoria Falls when she leaves here. We also talked with the newlyweds. They were here when we arrived, but are leaving soon to go to an island, but are reconsidering and may go to Madagascar instead. The last couple are grad students. They are away from a conference in Africa, to spend a couple days on safari. So we make a 50 year spread in age.

This afternoon’s drive brings us onto a group of baboons (troop). They are in the trees and on the ground, but far enough away to make a clear picture difficult because of the density of the foliage. Our next sighting is a pair of zebra, then 10 more and then another 3, or should I say a dazzle of Zebra? Next is a ˝ dozen wildebeest. Perhaps not enough to be called a herd or an implausibility. We also spot a Duiker. It has been a busy afternoon, and it’s time to stop for our stretch and wine. We are not out of the Toyota long enough for me to go off to the bushes, when we get an alert of a Leopard within 100 yards. It is all hands (butts) back on the vehicle for safety and off we go for potential viewing of this most elusive animal. I may have dodged a bullet on that one. We spot the young leopard. We are told he is about 2 years old. The leopard is on the hunt. We, and the other vehicle, alternate moving along the travel direction, as we watch this animal seek dinner. After 30 minutes, it is obvious that this young leopard did not know his/her craft yet. We pull off and head back to the lodge.

We get our greeting upon returning. Shelly is everywhere. Dinner tonight is a choice of beef or fish (kingklip). Each night seem to be an appetizer, a choice of 2 mains, and dessert. Leslie and I passed on the appetizer (tomato and feta tarts). We both had the beef with béarnaise sauce (I scrapped it off, that’s me, there was nothing wrong with it!). It came with cooked peppers and squash. Dessert was pear and ice cream. During dinner, a hyena showed up at the water hole. Shelley recognized it was a hyena, but the rest of us needed the high intensity light shown toward it. Fairly dark with the modest lighting at the far-off water hole. There is plenty to eat, more that we usually eat. We had our second bottle of red wine ($21, cheapest of the reds). We all sat up a talked for a while, but the newlyweds, and the lady traveling on her own had to finish packing for their departure tomorrow. Meals are generally 3 hours later than we normally do. Taking pills, doing our teeth regimen, doing eye drops, and going to bed right after having a big meal is a substantial change. The timing is perfect for the game drives, and that is why we are here!

Friday, May 19th. I wake up at 4:45am. Leslie is also awake. I get up and she starts with her drops. At 5:15am we get our good morning tap on the door from Ruan. We respond and he goes off to do his many chores for the new day (there is no clock in the room). If you need more time to get ready in the am, you might want to bring an alarm clock as we did, or be a lousy sleeper under these conditions, as I am, or ask for an earlier wake-up knock. No phones or TV. The room is large. There is a huge king size bed, but only one chair (at the desk). There is a nice hope chest at the end of the bed, but when the room is made up, the mossy net includes this “furniture” in with the bed. Perhaps this is not necessary. I would have liked to sit there on occasion. The room has a heating/cooling unit. There is good water pressure. The hot water comes quickly. Shelving and hanging is plentiful. Coffee and water in room, but tap is good. Towels are plentifully. The bath is in the main toi, while there is a completely different room on the other side with a shower and sink.

MONWANA LODGE: “fingers” is a 4-star lodge (by who?). There is a curio shop that doubles as an office. Children are welcome, but must be at least 16 to go on a game drive. The exception to this rule, is when a single group rents the whole lodge. Babysitting is available for a fee. There is a swimming pool. Laundry is available at R90 for a full bag, and prorated for less. We have a shower and tub. Our unit is a stand-alone building of standard materials. There are umbrellas in each room, bug spray, and bug repellant. The lodge was built in 1996 and remodeled in 2003. The regular manager is Emma, however Shelley is her relief and is on duty during our stay. The regular Ranger is Jacques, however Ruan is his relief and is on duty during our stay. Our Tracker is Rennico, he is the regular tracker. The habitat here is predominately savanna-mixed bushveld with deciduous and evergreen trees. From North to South is about 25 K. Here the big 5 can be found: Lion, Leopard, Elephant, Buffalo and Rhinoceros. The attire is casual. Payment is at check out. CC’s (no AMEX) or South African Rand. Outlets are 220/240 volts and are of the 2 pin 15 amp type. Adaptors are available for purchase in the gift shop. The is a phone available in the gift shop for a fee, but the service is spotty. Email is: [email protected] Tel +27 (0) 11 253 6500. Hair dryers in room. This whole area (Kruger) is a Malaria zone. Suitable preventative precautions should be discussed with your doctor. Avoid Mossy bites. The most worrisome season is Oct-April. The area is nonsmoking, except for very limited places.

This morning’s drive is dedicated to finding more elephants. In about ˝ hour, we hit a bonanza. A herd (more rarely a “parade”) of females, including a 9-month-old, is found. We park on the road, with elephants on both sides. As usual, they are in a constant eating phase, except to occasionally notice us. Many were eating a euphorbia (succulent). We see at least 9 members of this herd. One comes around the back of our vehicle, some 2 feet from Leslie. It pauses a minute, while we all sit very still, and then moves on. Later, I get similarly checked out, but from 3-4 feet away. We, eventually move on, and encounter a grey headed bush shrike (small bird with yellow underside and a loud voice), a crested barbet (black and white bird standing about 1 foot) and a lot of others. We see blue heron often. We stopped to examine a terrapin (turtle) shell alongside the road. Ruan gives us the rundown. Later we find weaver nests. Ruan tells us the male weaver can take one to two years to build his nest. At some point, he tries to find a “lady” weaver to impress with his work. If he can then a family is planned. In an open field, we see a group of 10 warthogs (a sounder). We spot a Nyala, but it is gone as soon as it see us. They are quite shy. The boys have some fancy twisted horns, of 2-3 feet in length. We continue our game drive, when we come across a Tracker on the side of the road. It is our Tracker, Rennico’s brother. He is tracking lion. Rennico got off his seat and joins in with his brother in the bush. We drive on looking for where the tracks cross the roadways, to help hone in on the location of these lions. They keep in contact. The other vehicle is doing the same as us. We, hunting the lion, just like a group of lions might do, in a cooperative way. Sometimes you miss your stretch break, this is one of those times. Finding the lions, is a priority. A lot of time passes (30 minutes to 45 minutes). Eventually, the brothers locate the pride of lions. We leave the road network (remember this is okay here, if in pursuit of the big five). The Toyota is pretty good at driving over bushes and small trees, but we are less so. A few times Ruan gets out and does some tree trimming so we can get between them without injuring the passengers! The lions have settled in to some bushed on the side of a hill, across from a ravine. The best we could do was about 70 meters away. We can see 3 lions, parts here and there. We sit at this spot for a while to observe. The lions settle down and we can no longer see them, plus we have 3 people that need to get to the airport to catch a plane! We make our way back to the road network, and back to camp…bumpy and fast. Once back at the camp, breakfast was quickly served, accounts settled, good byes said and off they went.

GAME DRIVE CONSIDERATIONS: At first, I thought I would have a section that was “who should not go on a game drive”. Now that our trip is over, I am not sure it is not my place to say. I do believe that some data is useful for those that are not sure. We are 72. We are relatively healthy, but have our this’s and that’s. Age is not an issue, except for game walks. The Toyota (game vehicle) has a front seat which is not much different than a truck front seat to get in. The 3 rows behind do require a bit of ability to climb up and into. Once in, the ride can be very bumpy, tossing you back and forth and up and down. If you have problems (back?) that might be an issue. Awareness of the branches and bushes is a theme, especially here in Thornybush, to keep in mind for safety. If you wear contact lenses, you might want to bring some protective glasses to wear. The wind, some areas of speed, and the bugs in the air. The drives are about 3 hours, but can be much longer if something good come up toward the end. A break after 2 hours is common, but not always done, again depending on the animal sightings. At Thornybush, there are no bathroom facilities in the bush. In the two National Parks we visited, they did have toi’s, but they were gross, had no paper and were not always where the breaks were taken. While special accommodations may be made, remember there are up to 10 paying passengers on the game vehicle. In the same vein, you need to be on time! You need to be able to sit quietly and with little movement on some animal encounters. It can be very hot in the open sun vehicle, and very cold when driving in the am and pm (after the sun goes down, or before it comes up). At Chobe Lodge in Botswana (certainly in other places in Africa) they also have boat drives. I found transitioning onto the boat a bit dicey, but once on it was easy. Seating, refreshments, toi’s, guide/narrator are available. The ride is smooth and easy.

Leslie and I, take showers and then sit on our own private viewing “balcony” in our robes. We leave tomorrow. Check out is 11am, after the morning drive and breakfast. We will be transferred back to Thornybush Waterside lodge to meet up with our driver to the airport from Eastgate. The terrain between
Waterside and Monwana is not suitable for Eastgate’s transfer vehicles. Our pick-up is at noon and our flight at 1:55. Did I say before that the Hoedspruit is tiny? Only a couple flights a day. (We had laundry done when we arrived at Monwana and got it back the same day). We do a bit of packing and work on our write-ups. It is just after 2 pm, and at 3pm is mini lunch before our 3:30pm game drive. We get dressed and head to lunch. Lunch is a bust for me. I am a plain eater, and the choices were not of my choosing, but I will not starve!

Our afternoon game drive is a closer! We see and observe 2 hippopotamuses, a baby (calf) and its mom. Sharing the waterhole, mud flat is a crocodile. Next, we come across a bachelor group of 3 cape buffalo. Our next discovery is a dead Giraffe. It was a kill from a leopard. The body was untouched otherwise. Our final stop, a major one, was to view a mother and daughter, Southern White Rhinos. They are the largest of the 5 species of rhino. As with other drives reported on, we do not mention sighting of impala, as they are so prevalent. Because of the time we spent with the hippo, and with the rhino, that was “all” we did this drive. We head back to the lodge. Big 5 done, and more. Sorry we missed the cheetah.

Tonight, is a special night for dinner. We will have our meal outside on the patio behind the lodge. It is a bbq. We get to see the lady who has been fixing lots of our food in action. I am sorry, I did not get her name. The appetizer is a mushroom and Mozella dish (mushroom parmigiana bake). I like the ingredients, but await Leslie’s trying it before jumping in. It was very good. We next had kabobs of veggies and venison (oryx). I quickly forgot about those impressive long horns, tan body and masked face with dark outlines. Tasted darn good. For dessert, we have malva pudding.
It’s Saturday, May 20th at 4:40am and I get up to insure enough time to get packed so we will not be rushed when we get back from this morning’s game drive. Leslie does her eye drops. I pack up the kits and work on this report. At 5:30am we get our wake up and greeting knock at the door from Ruan. As we are not really that much on coffee, especially before a long ride on a bumpy road, we wait until 5:50am to join the others. We are down to only 4 guests for this game drive. Today the drive goes slowly for quite a while. We enjoy the scenery, as we ramble thru the bush and soak in the atmosphere. We are not in a zoo; the animals do not stay put waiting for us. The skills of the Ranger and Tracker, coupled with luck, set the pace, always. Today, the theme seems to be lions. We search for the pride that we had seen before, but from afar. We eventually benefit from another camps spotting, and drive over to where they are viewing the lions. We wait our turn for great viewing. Before the morning is over, we see over a ˝ dozen lions lounging around. A bit later we see the male lion, camped out by itself in the bush. The viewings were great. Leslie and I enjoy the early hour drive around. The trees, bush, butterflies are all new for us in Africa. Ruan spends some time talking about the termites, their mounds, some plants and more birds. Some of this talk was done at the break. Snacks were served and we again continue taking our Malaria pills (this will continue, after all our lodge stays plus an additional 7 days). Before 10am, we are back at the lodge for breakfast.

Check out is easy. Everything is prepaid, except the wine and laundry. Shelly handles this smoothly, much like she does everything else. I inquire, at this time, about our options on tipping. No one would have brought it up otherwise. There is no pressure.

TIPPING: As I believe I stated before, the method of tipping varied at each of our stays, our drives, our meals, etc. Here at Monwana, the approach is easy. There is not a tip jar. Tipping is not a daily, or event, driven thing. Tipping is at the end. You have the option of tipping by category (of your choosing, but perhaps game drives, housekeeping and overall) or cumulate those into one tip that is then passed around in the manner they choose. We agonized over how much to give and how to distribute it. Ranger versus tracker, housekeeping, meals, coordination, etc. There are a lot of guides to tipping on the internet, as well as, the guide that our TA gave us. Not knowing what we paid for the stay, drives, etc made this even more difficult. We opted to leave a single amount. Right or wrong, we at least did not compound any error, by a mal-distribution. The mode was easy, just added to the credit card we use to pay our minor other charges.

ranles

4. Leaving Monwana, fly HDS to JNB SA Express, stay night

We checked out at 11am. AT 11:30am we had our ride back to the airport. We had a nonstop ride back. Jeffery took us back to Hoedspruit in the game drive vehicle, so no stop at Serondella was needed. It only took us 45 minutes back versus the 1 hr. Cisco took for that leg. Jeffery is a tracker, so he can navigate the moguls that make up most of the “street” to the airport. Only a minor portion of the road is paved, in our way of viewing such things.

It only took us 5 minutes from van to having our luggage checked and boarding passes in hand. The distance is 20’, but again was “blessed” with yet another porter aid program. Leslie and I sit and share a coke lite (about $). We move to the other building where “tsa” is. There is a belt loader, screen viewer, and a scanner (when necessary). No removing shoes, belts or baggie of liquids. They even let people in with bottles of water. When boarding time comes, we all walk out to the plane together. The plane has lots of customers, but there were still a half dozen empty seats. On this flight, back to JNB we are given a couple snack bags and a beverage. I believe beer was available as a free choice. The flight is uneventful. Our luggage comes out quite early and off we go. We are solicited for taxi’s often and then questioned by a “certified tip representative (vested person)”. He doesn’t “take” our bags, but he does insist on showing us the way and loading our bags on a cart ($). I told him I knew the way, and pushed the cart, but he is ready to be tipped again when we get to the hotel shuttle.
Elvis, is our shuttle driver to the hotel. He glad hands everyone, and unloads the van at the hotel (R10). Again, someone inside comes out to take our luggage in to the hotel. After we check in, the bellman takes our luggage up. He stops to talk to someone else, delaying our room arrival (R20). This visit we are in room 231 of the Southern Sun Tambo OR Airport Hotel. The room looks a bit similar, but is lesser. No ice box here. There are spots on the floor and walls, as if, bugs were killed and not cleaned up. The curtain is loose from it hanger at the top. The room is very quiet, as was the last one. The room is well furnished for its use. The light in the bathroom is good, but not for shaving, as your body blocks the light when standing at the sink. Hot water took a couple minutes to get the following morning (5:45am) to the sink. The view was okay, to an obstructed fountain.

Sunday, May 21. Breakfast is excellent as to choices and appearance and taste. Eggs cooked to order. As both transports from the hotel to the next stop exclude lunch, the buffet allowed us the chance to fill up. Service with the coffee was poor this morning to get a second cup. Don’t know what I said, but it picked up thereafter. There are less people working the buffet this visit, but a lot less customers too. We held off our tip until we got to the desk staff at the restaurant (learned from last time). Most people were not tipping at all (R20).

Check out starts the ordeal of moving on. We take our bags downstairs, but are soon handing them over to the instant bellman. We check out. Then there is the person who takes the bags to the van and loads them. We take the short ride to the AP. There is the driver and he takes out the bags. Then there is the guy at the AP that insists on taking our bags to check-in. Note the van lets us off very far from where we needed to enter the building to check in. We have a material walk to the counter area. A handful of tips, that really do amount to much money.

ranles

5. Fly JNB to BBK (Kasane) via Avro, Stay Chobe Safari Lodge/safari

Check in at the AP is very quick. Both of our bags remain under 19K (we have been weighing them, after each repacking). We will be flying Avro SA 8306 to Kasane, Botswana. “TSA” has only one line, but the processing is fairly fast. It took us about 12 minutes, but the line was only about a dozen people. We then walk back to Term A, to get to our gate 28 (van drops us a Term. A, we walk to Term B, check in, then walk back to Term A!). The walk to the gate is about 20 minutes. We will take a bus from the waiting area to the plane. The bus ride to the plane is delayed, as three passengers are missing. During this time, most people are standing on the bus. We managed to get two of the few seats on the bus. Once the “stragglers” were found, we rode to the plane. There was a major attempt to get as many bags gate checked as possible. The plane is 3x3. The flight attendant, then started redistributing the passengers from the front of the plane, more toward the middle back. She also broke up all the three across assignments into groups of peoples choosing. The plane was less than half full, yet they had assigned seats as if it was going out full. The FA was a hero. SA 8306 leaves JNB for Kansane, Botswana at 11:45am and arrives at 13:30pm. The flight is a bit bumpy along the way. With only 2 FA’s, they managed to feed all of us a meal (in a box), with the choice of of food. Leslie and I have pasta and chicken (diced and cold). It came with some crackers and chocolate. Beverages were free, and included wine and beer. We both had wine. Service was cleaned up and over in about 30 minutes!

The drive from Kansane to Chobe Safari Lodge (CSL) was less than 10 minutes. CSL is one of 6 lodges marketed as “Under One Botswana Sky”. Many facilities are shared between the lodges and camps (www.underonebotswanasky.com).

Upon arrival, we are informed about meal times and that dinner requires reservations. We are told that any activities needed to be coordinated with the Activities desk, with some obscure reference where that is. We are given little slips on the wi-fi (these do not work for us and we later need to get new slips). We are taken to our room, #067 (about 1 city block). Our room is upstairs, access to the room is up a stair case. We have 2 bags, each closing in on 19k. Now we are glad to have a bellman! I could have brought these up with a lot of effort, probably. The bellman carries one in each hand and walks up the unusually spaced steps to the landing that services several rooms. Giving him a tips was easy, and well earned. Thank you. Here the currency is the Pula. We never got any, and US$ was always gratefully accepted.

Leslie unpacks, while I find the Activities Desk to confirm our prearranged game drives and boat drive. The activities desk is not that easy to find, but once located is not a problem on the several times I need to go back. None of our prearranged activities are prearranged. Prepaid is a more accurate description. We must make reservations for each of our activities here, with them and only a few at a time. We have a hour or so before our scheduled boat ride (unscheduled), so we reserve a spot for that. We also reserve a slot for the game drive in the morning. No further reservations can be done until after the game drive tomorrow morning (and so it goes each day). None of the vouchers I so carefully brought with me (and made a copy for Leslie to carry) were required, not here, not anywhere. The people at the activities desk are knowledgeable and helpful. I then went over to the dinning reception desk and made reservations for a table for us when they open (6:30pm). By the time I get back to the room, it is time to go to the boat.

The 2 best seats are the corners where you first get on. There are also 2 seats at that end in the middle, but they end up with people standing in front of them taking pictures, and blocking the view from these two seats. Remember the bow, is where you get on. I have Leslie sit in the corner, and I take the seat next to that one. This cruise is really a game drive on the Chobe River. The Chobe is fed by Victoria Falls and it, divides Botswana from Namibia. The animals need neither a visa nor a passport to enter and leave the two countries, just the ability to swim. As crocks and hippopotami are two of the locals inhabiting the river, no swimming occurs here!

Before we go too far, we must check in with the National Parks Department, and pay the fees. The building (10’x8’) is just on shore. The ride takes us around Sudoku Island and back. This island is a part of Botswana, so we can travel around it without entering Namibian waters. Our boat holds about 50 passengers, has a modest bar and two “portapotty” like structures. Elephants are good swimmers and often found in the Chobe, as well as, on land. We soon come near a herd of about 12, with the youngest about 4 months old. We spend some time watching these natives, before moving on. There is a person on the boat that provides commentary and answers questions. We find crocks along the shore line and a few out on some land isles. The crocks mainly eat fish and the elephants eat the reeds, so no problem here. OH, then there are the hippos. They too, have no issues with the crocks, but are the number one killer of people among the animal population. Again, no one swims here. The hippos eat the grasses. Their lips are sharp and tear the grasses out of the ground. They have some huge teeth, but these are used to show off to the girls, fight other hippos for the girls, and to kill in defense of territory.

Lots of the viewing is on the shore from our boat. We spot a group of kudos, with their stripes across their back and sides, and large ears. We find a few buffalo in the water as well. These are older ones, bachelors no longer part of the herd. They live out there waning years in small groups. We also spot 4 giraffes on shore. They have come down to the river to drink. They must splay their legs to get down to drink. This posture leaves them venerable to lion and leopard attack. We then spot a sable antelope, but it is too far away, and runs off well before we get near. We see a lot of birds, including grey heron, stork, darter and fish eagles. On the way, back we see Nyala before returning to the docks. This was a very pleasant way to do a game drive.

A game cruise is an excellent way to “safari” if you have a back issue, as it is smooth. The only hurdle is getting into the boat (or up onto). The boat has a toi. There is a guide.

TIPPING: On the cruise, the guide made an announcement that there would be a glass next to the exit, it anyone wished to leave a tip. Several of us did, but I suspect (we were early off) many did not. This suggested, here we would be tipping as we go. As I am writing this, now that we are home, we continued to do this during our stay here. When the wine and food service was truly exceptional, we tipped. After each meal, all buffets, a bill was presented with coded data, but always a line for tips. We handed money to our housekeeper the last day. We tipped the bellman, as we used his service. We did not tip the game driver, the first drive, thinking that we would be seeing him again. That proved not to be so. Issues with the second driver, suggested no tip was appropriate. We had this person again, and again he antagonized the guests on our drive. We shifted back to a boat cruise, and for that one we left a personal tip. He was excellent. When we checked out, there was a “tip jar” in which we left a modest contribution. At our last dinner, we tip the waitress, and left a tip for the staff of the kitchen on the bill (we were told this was the way to handle it). This is not a suggestion or a guide, only a reporting of what we did.

We get back shortly after 6pm. We use the toi at the bar and precede to the dining area. The chef came over and asked if I would like a tour of the buffet setup. I agreed to join him, as he showed off his vast selection of food. It was close to opening, so he declared an early opening (5 minutes) so Leslie and I could get started. He perceived that we must be starved. Dinner is from 6:30pm to 9:30pm. There is no rush, as the occupancy here is very low. Lots of family size tables (groups), along with many set up for two. We are first, and we snag one of the premier tables. Soup, salad (and many individual salad input items), spaghetti, lots of raw veggies (these can be given to the grill person to fire up), beef roast, yellow tail (fish), leg of lamb, and lamb chops. Lots of sauces are available, and an array of desserts (sweets, as well as, cheese, fruit and yogurt). A wine list is available, as well as, full bar service. The cheapest red wine was 135 Pula per bottle, or about $15. Wine by the glass was also offered. You must sign a bill at the end of the meal, even though the meals are included in your room (ours, anyway).

The beef was impossible to eat and most could not be cut with our knife. The lamb chops were also impossible to cut. I took mine up in hand and ripped them apart, much like the animals we had come to see would do. Leslie tried a bit of the leg of lamb and found it satisfactory. The items were tasty, even those that could not be eaten. It’s a buffet, so you go back and try something else. Leslie had some pasta and I had salads. The grilled onions, mushrooms and peppers that I had done with my beef were good. The cinnamon ice cream was okay. The chocolate mousse was average. Most of the desserts were quite popular with the flying and crawling insects. We are some of the last to leave dinner. We drink our bottle of wine and reflect on the day. Most of the others skipped the drinks, or had some at the bar before.

The netting for the bed (2 separate sets) were not done up. We did not have a clue as to how to do them, but the number of crawling bugs (podile) in our room, suggested we needed the nets! We were certainly glad we had brought slippers. I took one of the hanging nets, and spread it around our bed to give us some protection. The mattress is rock hard, as are the pillows. The room guide suggested setting the temperature at 24 degrees C, but that proved too hot. During the night, I change the setting to 21. We were both cramping from our game drive rocking and rolling in Thornybush. This rock-hard bedding was not helping. We got to bed a 10pm, but did not get much sleep. It was quiet, so sleep was possible, if you could deal with the bedding. We have firm mattress at home, but it has pillow tops. Our pillows are flexible, as we both sleep on our sides.

Monday, May 22, 4am and I am too sore to remain in bed. My neck has joined my legs, in being uncomfortable. We plan to get up at 5am anyway, so 4am is close. Our game drive is at 6am and we must get ready and walk the block or so to the meeting point. Eventually, our 5am wakeup phone call comes. We keep most of our stuff in the suitcase, and zip it closed. Just too many bugs. Undoubtedly, we will eventually relocate some bug, no matter how careful.

We get to reception and await assignment to a vehicle for the game drive. Lots of people arrive before us and many after. Assigned to our vehicle, is a couple from South Africa (late 60’s-70’s), a couple from France (30’s), And a couple from Germany (60’s). We drive off from our lodge and pick up a couple at the neighboring lodge. We then come back to our lodge, for some reason. All the other vehicles have sped off to Chobe National Park. Now we head off to the highway (back toward the airport) and on to the NP entry. Entry is included in the price we pay for the game drives. There is a substantial amount of paperwork, so it takes us about 7 minutes to be processed. There are about 40 vehicles ahead of us, and some have already entered the park.

Our Driver/tracker/ranger is Roy. He moves the vehicle just into the park and the stops and gives us a talk. Expect to see nothing (not likely, or we would not be there), and hope for it all. No Rhinos, guaranteed. Major differences from our experience at Thornybush, from our game drives here at Chobe. Few vehicles congregate at TB, where here as many as 8 or 10 vehicles may crowd around a single animal find (like lions, etc.). Vehicles are required to stay on the roads here in the National Park. Animals tended to be in much larger groups at the NP. You were likely to become “part of a herd” at TB, not so here. The NP requires you to drive thru “town” to get to the animals, at TB viewing starts from the electrified gates of the lodge. There is paperwork, before animal viewing at the NP, none at TB. The animals are free to wonder forever at the NP, but are limited to the fenced area at TB, vast though it be. While the roadways are similar, the NP trees and bushes are trimmed back in most places from the road. The bumpy roads are similar at both. You will be able to read how different the safari staff are at each of the lodges we stayed at.

The game drive is about the animals. For us, it is also about the trees, bushes, and the experience. It is starting to get a bit light and we precede into the NP. Deep into the bush, immediately is a herd of perhaps 75 cape buffalo. The other vehicles would not have not seen these animals, as it was still too dark! Score one for Roy. As we continue, we come upon a troop of baboons. Is there 100? They are in the trees, the bushes and running along the roadway. There is a high concentration of young ones. There are also several other game vehicle guests observing the baboons. We likely were tipped off about this troop. While multiple births are rare, a few babies per year is very common. Female baboons, mate with “any old guy in the troop”.

It is very cold when we start out this morning. The game vehicles here have hard tops, and open sides. You still must climb up into them. We get a blanket, but not the hot water bottle that TB spoiled us with. Again, dressing in layers is the key. We also were not provided with drinking water on the game drives. At the stretch break, hot beverage and hard rolls were available versus the juice and goodie pastries at TB.

Oh, that’s right, it is about the animals. We see Egyptian geese, some vultures (white backed), Go Away Birds (loud voicing Grey Lorries). Next, we see some Kudu, and a water buck with its distinguishing “toilet seat” white circle on its butt. A large colony of banded mongooses are spotted digging in the sand near the banks of the Chobe River (often referred to as a gang or pack) and some run across the road, as we approach. They are meat eaters. Here, they are digging for insects, but they are noted for eating scorpions and cobras. Closer to the water, we come across two hippos “fighting”. They open their jaws wildly and vocalize. Hippos use their teeth for fighting and displays. They do not eat meat, as a diet. We get a quick glimpse of a lion dragging her kill behind a bush. Unfortunately, many other vehicles get there before us, and no one gives way. We wait 15 minutes for traffic to clear. It does not. Much of the roadway offers room for two vehicles to pass, here it choked down to one. We are forced to do some off-roading to get on with our game drive. We get lucky and spot 4 rare Puku, but Roy misjudges the best viewing, so we can only see one. Puku are slow running, and therefore easy prey. They stand about 30 inches, have horns, with a slight dip midway, and are an antelope. Other vehicles show up and off we go again. We missed our stretch break. It is time to head back to the lodge. As we head toward the exit, we come across a group of 5 marabou stork stand with their white bellies and dark wings (as if wearing a tuxedo).

We get back at 9:15am, and get a table for breakfast (served until 10am) and use the restrooms. Roy did us no favor. We are late for our Malaria pill, both need to go, and are hungry. As always at Chobe Safari Lodge, it is buffet. Eggs are prepared to order, or you can scoop up some scrambled. The is bacon and sausage (chicken, beef and ?). No OJ, there is a mixed juice each day only. There is cold water. The cantaloupe and pineapple were good, but some of the other fruit did not look good. There are various breads, but no sweet rolls. We take our Malaria pills.

After breakfast, we head for the activities desk. We again must book for this afternoon, and for tomorrow morning, what we though the TA had done for us. Here, any prebooking disappears upon reservation into the hotel, and you must rebook all activities! Not our TA’s fault, but she needs to know and tell us. We book this afternoon’s game drive, and tomorrow mornings. No more is allowed until tomorrow. Each booking at the activities center requires paperwork and signatures.

We return to our room and meet up with housekeeping (they did not answer the line at 5:15am this morning, nor did the operator…what happens during an emergency?). We ask for replacement pillows, softer! We ask here how to do the nets. She does not take the time to show us, but offers to do them up for us, and we can see from that. She, and her assistant have not done our room yet, so we go off exploring the grounds for a bit. Behind some other buildings, there are some wood chairs overlooking the Chobe, so we sit there awhile. We come back to the room, about 10:45am and work on our writeups. Leslie does the pictures. She must make sense of her notes made while riding in the game vehicle on bumpy roads, while taking pictures and trying to enjoy the trip.

Note that I have discussed several differences between these two lodges, but as fair disclosure, we do not know what we paid for anything. Our booking is a single price for the trip, a separate amount for the in-country airfare, and a third amount for insurance (trip, medical, evac. Etc). The only costs we know specifically are those we booked, or had control over. Also, as a side note, we do not eat lunch at this lodge. Breakfast, after a game drive is close to 10am. Lunch is served from 11:30am to 4:30pm. Lunch starts too close to our breakfast, and we leave too early for our game drives to have lunch before, and want it.

It is 2pm. Time to think about preparation for our 3pm game drive. We will need to reapply sunscreen, and insect repellant. We see from time to time others doing the same. The lodge does recommend these treatments, as well as, taking Malaria prevention. We have our last afternoon drive at Chobe (we will end up doing a boat safari again tomorrow afternoon, instead of a game drive). Our driver is Mbara. He and I do not start off too well. He is the last to get ready. He is the last to leave the lodge. We must go pick up others (not his fault). I am in the middle seat again (not too bad, if you are not taking pictures) but the drives are always full here. We travel to the Chobe National Park gate at the pace of a turtle. 30 vehicles pass us in this short distance. He keeps driving in the ditch at the side of the road. At reception at CNP, he takes in the paperwork, but does not come out for 15 minutes (this has been a 5-minute process before). 13 other game vehicles come and get cleared and leave and we are still waiting! Mbara finely comes out, but then goes over to the restrooms for a bit. It is light now, and no other game drive vehicles are waiting. When Mbara get back, he precedes to give us the game talk (fine that is his job). Three times he says, “now we go”, but starts talking some more. Someone in the back seat says something, but he ignores it, or doesn’t hear her. The next time he says, “now we go”, I ask him when? The parks has been open over 30 minutes, and we have yet to move. He does not like my comment, I say forget it. He begins another round of stuff, before some grumbling gets him to start the engine and proceed. He is having a horrible day, or is completely unsuited to the tourist industry.

Our first sighting is a herd of elephants on the road (could not miss that one). We learn that male elephants are kicked out of the heard at age 12 years old. There are no extra males in a herd. One of our passengers is a real crackerjack at spotting. She accounts of 75% of all the spotting from here on! She also know the animals and birds, a help seeing how we would have missed, and misidentified many otherwise. As usual, getting the bird names was tricky. We see fish eagle, francolin, plover and vulture among others. Fish eagles are black and white and normally roost on barren trees, making them easy to spot. We stop and talk about the Fever berry Tree/bush used for the treatment of malaria. As usual, we see lots of impala. We also see several kudu. We spot a water monitor. They eat crock eggs. The crocks eat the monitors! The spotter lady sights a rare Pudu! They are rare and hard to spot. Smaller than the average antelope, then hide in the grasses. They are usually solidary, and only get together during mating time. We sit and watch a Pod of hippo’s passing their time in the water.

We get a radio call, and we drive off to a site of ˝ dozen or more game drive trucks. We are late to the game, but 2 lionesses have been spotted hunting Puku. The hunt prospect excites one couple on the vehicle, but distress the experienced lady. She worries for this rare animal. No kill is made and the vehicles move to keep view of the pride, as it moves. It is impossible to get a good picture, as there are more vehicles that lions, and a lot of brush. At one point, one of the lioness turns back, and she attracts several of the vehicles. We finally get some shots, before they all come back to our position. There was not even a try at a kill.

We then started our exit of the park. We are behind several vehicles, when Mbara gets impatient and decides to go around the others and lead the way. There is a herd of elephants blocking the road. Mbara drives aggressively at them. The herd is obviously upset. One elephant trumpets, flaps its ears and makes a three-step charge at us! Mbara stops. The elephant back off. Our lady of knowledge in the vehicle is beside herself, yelling at him. Some in our vehicle are darn right scared. Mbara starts up the vehicle again. Many of the elephants have gotten off the road, some smashing thru the brush and small trees to do so. There is a lot of anger and hostility toward our driver, as this appeared to be a complete disregard for the safety of the elephants and for the passengers. Once we get thru the maze of elephants, Mbara challenges the passengers complaining that there was never any risks taken, no elephant was upset and that he knows this because he has been doing this work for quite a while. I did not hear a single person on our vehicle who was convinced.

We get back in time for our 6:30pm dinner reservation. Food is a little better tonight. I tried a small piece of the beef (still not eatable). I have some mushrooms stir fried with carrots, and force down a couple lamb chops (somewhat better). For dessert, I have ice cream and a piece of pecan cake. Leslie and I each have a glass of wine.

Back to our room. Housekeeping has done our netting, as requested, for us. She has taken one of the nets and made a single “cage” over our 2 (together) twin beds. The netting is tucked into the mattress and an overlapping area is left for Leslie on one side and me on the other to “part, sit and squiggle in”. It was a bit tricky to get up at night, but easier than the way I had done it. Thank you. The new pillows were somewhat better too.
LAUNDRY: We put our laundry out, to be picked up tomorrow morning, before going to bed. This involved a bag, and a form. It was 4 days of socks, underwear and tops. It was about $25 per bag, but was priced by the item. The bag does not have a pull string. Good luck on this working. There is a surcharge for laundry not submitted by 11am, so we let them know at the desk that we have laundry.

SLEEPING: We continue to sleep poorly. The new pillows seem to help some, but not enough. Careful eating, and only one glass of wine, did not seem to change things. We kept the heat level lower and finally we stayed up until 9pm. None of this was enough to get a full night’s sleep. It leaves us a bit draggy during the day. Our alarm and phone wakeup have been unnecessary so far at Chobe.

OUR ROOM: We are upstairs (high steps). Fortunately, their employee brought up our bags (and takes them down when we leave). We have a balcony with 2 chairs, no table, shaded, view of a lawn area, then a tree line, and a bit of the Chobe peeks thru. The area is large and protected, so if we wished to take our small table out on the balcony we could. Seating inside includes 2 wood chairs with pads, a 30” diameter table, desk, side tables and desk chair. The bedding is 2 singles, put together, but made up as 2. Two hanging nets. One wood open bench for blankets and pillows. A rock-hard bed, pillows, 2 end tables, a shelf and no drawers completes that area. Accessories include a coffee pot, cups and stuff. A hairdryer, phone, old style TV (8 stations but not tried), a full-length mirror, 2 trash baskets, safe, and shelf for luggage. Storage included a small drawer in the desk, a side table, and three open shelves. There are a few hooks in the hall. The bath complex, can be closed off (somewhat) with a curtain and mossy netting. There is a single sink, 2 handles for water. Fast hot, good pressure. The is a tub in the middle of the room. There is average/good counter space. The free-standing shower has a rain head, 3 shelf unit and soap dish. The shower floor is slippery, and there is no mat. The toi is in a separate room with a real door. The towels are marginal. 2 small shower towels, 2 hand towels, and 2 floor mats. The lighting is satisfactory. Ceiling fan not tried. Heating unit worked. Bugs were plentiful. The room was generally quiet.
Tuesday, May 23 and we go to the lobby for our last morning game drive. NO, it’s Mbara again! This time there are several game vehicles at the lodge, as occupancy is up considerably. Mbara is the last driver to leave again, only this time it is because of a couple stragglers. We have 3 empty seats! At the gate to the park we are told 3 more people would be joining us during the drive. While we are having are poorly presented, disjointed pre-talk, a woman from Denmark expresses her annoyance at the fact that everyone else is in the park and he is rattling off nonsense. He does not acknowledge her. I am ready to ignore him, and just do my best to enjoy our last game drive a Chobe. It is cold in the AM. After 10 uneventful minutes in the park, another vehicle pulls up to provide us with the three more passengers (Dutch). This fill all the seats and I am back in the middle. We do another 1 hours without spotting much of any interest. Where is our spotter lady from last night? We stop for our stretch break. We are told that no one is seeing much. I believe that, because we have not been part of a dozen vehicles swarming some defenseless animal.

We do manage to see lots of Impala. It is mating season. Males are jostling each other or chasing the girls. We do spot many birds; two types of eagle, petrel, guinea fowl, hammerkop, pied crow, falcon, starling and a massive flock of red billed somethings. We saw a business of striped mongooses and some very common warthogs. We see our first jackals. We start our exit, passing by the Chobe again. We see some elephants in the water and on shore. You can see these elephants are quite black, once washed in the water. Once out of the water they muddy themselves up again to protect against the sun and some bugs/parasites. As we near the exit, we come across part of the herd of Cape Buffalo. We leave the park 30 minutes late, but still manage to get to breakfast with 10 minutes to spare.

Tomorrow, we leave for Victoria Falls. I reserve our 6:30pm dinner, and a 3pm boat safari. We are not going out with Mbara again, and we need to take it easy. Why did I not complain to management about our experience? There is no one obvious to me, that is in charge of anything. Not the lodge, the housekeeping, the activities, game drives, anything.

This afternoon we are treated to the highlight of our stay at Chobe Safari Lodge. We take our second boat safari. The guide, who introduced his crew, all biblical names, may have pulled our legs a bit. He said his name was Isaiah (I believe). Boy does he know his birds. The names, now and before. He is a good communicator. He is in touch with the guests. He thanked everyone for coming, on behalf of Botswana, Chobe Safari Lodge, his crew and himself. He told us about the hippo, as we watch them eating, jousting with each other and caring for a young one. How they don’t swim, but run along the bottom of the water, coming up every 6 minutes or sooner to breathe. How they pull and cut the plants with their lips. We also get a lesson on elephants we see in the water. They are great swimmers. We see lots of cape buffalo and giraffe (at a great distance). We see beautiful sunset views (this is a sunset cruise). There are 50 or so aboard the boat when full. Seats for everyone on the entry level. We got on early and got our corner seat, as previously described. Lots of tips in the jar on this boat ride.

We again go to dinner with our 6:30pm reservation. More tables were filled last night and continued even more tonight. We lose the top row seating, but are fine with the table we get. Tonight, I have sautéed mushrooms, purple onion and carrots (sautéed). For the main, I have wildebeest (gnu to those who do crossword puzzles). The meat was good! For dessert, I had white chocolate cake with chocolate mousse. We also have a glass of wine.

When we get back to our room, we kill a few more bugs and then pack a bit more. Our laundry is back and we pack it away. We head for bed and a couple more hours of sleep on our hard bed. OH, did I mention, the ceiling in our room is between 30-40’ at the peak.

Wednesday, May 24 and we do not have to get up early for a game drive. We get up about 6am. We kill some more bugs. Oh, now we have a spider behind the tank for the toilet. I do not know the size or type. Only three parts of legs stick up above the tank. It is scary to sit there. My guess is the spider is 1 ˝-2 inches across. The legs are very thin. We are leaving, so it on its own!

Breakfast starts at 7am. It is different going at the start versus at the end. We both have eggs, bacon, croissants, juice and coffee. I add some cantaloupe, watermelon and pineapple. Breakfast goes pretty fast, one benefit of a buffet. Here they do not refill coffee, or perform any table service, beside seating people. If you are with a group, then a reserved table is set for your group. Breakfast and lunch do not require reservations. Leslie heads off to do some final pictures at the lodge, while I sit and drink my coffee and take some pills. Today we take our Malaria pills a couple hours earlier. This much deviation is not a problem based on our FT friends and Passport Health.

We meet back at the room and sit on the balcony. Our view lawn, trees and a bit of the Chobe. We see birds, monkey, baboons, banded mongooses, and warthogs from time to time, in this area.

ranles

6. Mini-bus, reg. bus, thru Botswana check, Visa purchase for Zimbabwe, stay/visit Victoria Falls

At 9:20am, Leslie heads for reception and I call for a bellman. Check out is easy. Included in our bill is 1400 Pula/day for our entry into the NP. The Bellman comes in 5 minutes. He takes both 19k bags down at once. He has a golf type cart and offers me a ride to. We must drive off the property, and then back on to make this modest trip. We wait for our pick up at 10:05 by Wild Horizons. The lobby has 2 benches, each holding a maximum of 3 people. Our ride is a couple minutes late, but is not Wild Horizons. We are given forms to fill our while the van is going, one for Botswana and one for Zimbabwe. Our first stop is another lodge, to get 8 more people (French group).

About 10 minutes later, we stop at the Botswana Government building, more like a trailer. The process is smooth and fast. It takes about 5 minutes to get to the Zimbabwe crossing. Here we must go thru the visa purchase ($30 pp, single entry, $50pp double entry). The transaction must be in cash ($’s are fine). There is a line of 15 people and it goes slow. It is over 30 minutes before it is our turn. While we are waiting, our driver instructs us to get out of line and claim our luggage. We leave the “girls” to hold our places. We move the luggage from his van to a larger bus. This one is Wild Horizons. Leslie and I get thru the visa process in a few minutes (all manually filled out forms), and head for the bus. One disturbing thing happened during our processing. The agent asked us where our tour director was. I told him we did not have one. He then asked, incredulously, “you mean you are traveling on your own?”. WOW. Gulp, yes, we are. Kristina, our TA did the planning, and we were just following the plan. Somehow, she was there, or was she? We have no phone, but we have some phone numbers. We know no one. We are traveling alone.

When we got to the bus, three people were already waiting. Unfortunately, the group of 8 people traveling together from France, does not get cleared. Eventually, their passports are taken and they are allowed to sit on the bus. No one knows what the problem is, but we are going nowhere. After more than 2 hours, they are cleared. We had a 3 hour, delay in our schedule. Africa time!

Driving from the Visa office to our hotel in Victoria Falls, the Illala, took about 50 minutes. We passed several trucks and some cars on the way. I believe the driver was trying to make up some time, but he was driving safely, so I did not mind. We have no scheduled events for today, so it was not a problem for us. We were just glad to be across the border? We did have to slow down at one point to allow a couple of giraffes to cross the roadway. Leslie got a picture. The road is one lane each way. There is a 20’ or so setback before the trees and bush start on each side. This provides room for people to walk, cattle to be herded and people in animal pulled vehicles to proceed. The terrain is generally up. We pass by many small villages set back off the road in clearings. We also pass some “stores”. Ones that are open air, and some that are more traditional. We are all going to the Illala. At least there will not be who gets off first and last. The highway is paved. It is only about 25’ across.

Upon arrival, we bring our luggage into the hotel, and are directed to an area to sit. We are offered a cold towel and a small glass of juice. We are greeted, and provided a clipboard to fill out some minor information to registrar. We are asked for our passports so the motel can make a copy. The process is handled very well, especially with a group that is more that tired from the trials of the day. We received our passports and room keys. The young lady that greeted us, gave us meal times, instructions for the included wifi, and urged us to visit the activity center to make new, or to confirm existing reservations. I did this twice. First to square away the times on our vouchers. Our original vouchers had times for Wild Horizons, that did not match what we had found to be travel times. The Wild Horizons drive gave us a new set of times, setting up 3 different times we were to be ready. The instructions from the WH bus driver including our taking a bus back to Kasane Airport, Botswana, for transportation to our next lodge in Zimbabwe! Why we would do another border crossing and drive the wrong direction is unknown. Thanks to the second lady in activities, we got our itinerary for the rest of our trip, that involved Wild Horizons squared away (or so we thought, more later). Thank you Illala, boo Wild Horizons. This process of rechecking the itinerary has proven very useful.

ROOM is a standard. It is down two flights of stairs (25 steps). The # is 10. There is no bottled water in the room. The bellman said it would be delivered tomorrow, but we could buy some from the bar. Our paperwork says it is in the room for us, not gone because the people who checked out took it with them? He brought some. Nice recovery Illala. There is bug spray and bug repellant in the room. We have an open, non-private patio, with a large table and 2 chairs. They sit on a solid surface (paving). The view is across a lawn and into the bush. Wart hogs and monkeys frequent the area. The gardeners are forever shooing them away. Our bed is another rock hard one, with an 8” gap between his and her mattress. There are two “floating” nightstands, duvet, 2 softish pillows, and 2 decorator pillows. The is no netting, but there are some biters that show up at night a give me a couple of lumps. There is a wicker chair and stool, built in desk and table top area w/2 drawers and an honor bar with no pricing. The room has 4 large shelves to pile your clothes on and some hanging space. The lighting is average. There is a ceiling fan, TV and hairdryer. There is a shower, no tub. There is a single sink with okay top space. Two shower towels, two hand towels and a wash cloth. There is also a wood stool in the bathroom (why?). The water pressure is poor. The hot water is vaguely lukewarm. The room is clean and well kept. If you want a view of the falls from your room, you need to stay at the Victoria Falls Hotel, and have a Fall view room.

HOTEL RESTAURANT is open to the public. A bar is open as part of the restaurant. You must pass thru the seating area (even when the dining room is closed) to get to the bar. Our included breakfast is served here too. Much of the seating is outdoors. Dinner is served to the table. Breakfast is part buffet and part service. For dinner, reservations are required.

Dinner starts at 7pm. We make reservations for then. The Boma Restaurant was recommended, but we were too tried to make the trek there and back. It is dark outside where we sat for dinner. The tables have lantern on them for mood light, but not for reading. Most people need to walk over to the building to figure the wine list or menu. Our thoughtful waiter, turned up our lantern to help us. I selected a wine, which he suggested may not be to my liking. I said we would try it, but he came back and said they did not have any. A restaurant should not have a wine on their menu, that the waiters believe to be not drinkable. Anyway, he upsold me to an acceptable, but blah wine. We ordered steaks. These steaks, marinated steaks, should have been nice and tender. He brought us steak knives, removing the two knives we had. Cutlery was not the problem. This meat was not consumable. I managed to eat 15% of mine, Leslie did not swallow a bit of hers. The mushrooms were great as was the bread. It took a while for the waiter to revisit us and ask how we were doing. I show him the chew, pile on both our plates. He offered to get us a new entrée, but it was too late to start over. We declined. While we finished our wine, the bill came, and I signed it. A bit later Alice came by to ask how our meal was. We told her. She said we were not the first to complain about the steaks, and she would make it right. She asked about our plans for dinner the following night, and I told her we were scheduled for a cruise. This was another chance to pull the bill, now by someone that likely has that authority. Clearly, we will not be charged for this meal, only the tip and the wine (in my mind).

Back to the room and a chance to rest. The helicopter noise is bad here. Fortunately, they stop flying before the time to go to bed. The hard bed is still a problem, but at least the floor does not have crunchy bug on it and we are really tired.

Thursday, May 25th and we are scheduled to go to Victoria Falls, one of the 7 natural wonders of the world, and a World Heritage site.

Breakfast at the Illala starts at 7am. We have a pick up @8:25am, to go to the falls. Inside the restaurant, are items of a continental breakfast nature. These items include hot and cold beverages (coffee and juice type items). These are all self-serve, including refills. Once seated, you will also receive a menu (these items are included, if you have prepaid breakfast with your stay, but it not stated anywhere). The first meal on the menu, includes 7 items on the plate. We order #1, but ask only for eggs, bacon, and hash browns. I ordered my eggs over well (waiter had no idea what that was). He suggested over hard (he knew that one). Leslie asked for over medium. The white and yoke of my eggs were still runny. Neither of us received any bacon. We both did receive about a cup of mushrooms and a baked tomato! Then the waiter comes out with 4 slices of unordered toast, even though we both had croissants on our bread plates. He never returned to check how the meal was, nor did he see to refills of coffee. We asked another waiter for our bacon, which he brought. Received a bill, the purpose of which was to a for a tip.

Victoria Falls are fairly close and considered “walkable” from the motel, but much of that walk is on the roadway. The area is not very pleasant either. Once at the Falls, there are vendors in the parking lot. Sales offerings are quite aggressive. We are booked with Wild Horizons for transport, entry, tour and return. This worked well. Luke is our driver/guide. He goes thru the motions and does everything he needs to, and does it well. Perhaps a bit uninspired, but totally acceptable to us. He goes out of his way to assist one of our group in buying (renting?) an umbrella. We are supplied with ponchos prior to entering the area. Luke is with us at all times. The van accommodates 22, but we are well less than that.

Once past the turnstiles, there are diagrams of the Falls, Africa and other interesting displays. There is a gift shop. The walk to see all the visible falls from the Zimbabwe side is about 3.5K. The walk way is paved with pebbles. Several areas are uneven. We did see one lady in a wheel chair being pushed. There are a few toilets along the way. It is possible to see the Zambezi (transportation and costs) side, but we did not do that.

ATTIRE: This is high time for the falls. You will get wet, period. We did not take our camera. The first couple of sections can be pictured safely, after that it is unlikely to keep dry. The poncho helps. The umbrella, not so much. One couple wore rubber shoes (like the kind you use in Hawaii on the coral). We had tennis shoes. Both Leslie and I had soaken feet, socks and shoes when we left. Leslie’s shoes did not dry out, and we ended tossing them. Mine did dry. We both wore warmup “sports pants” that repel water and dry in minutes. Everyone else had wet pants, at least the bottom half, that is not covered by the poncho (our group had ponchos, but most visitors did not rent them). We had brought with us the cheapie, plastic ponchos. I’m not sure how these would have held up. It was plenty warm enough in the poncho to sweat your top wet, if you were not getting leaks otherwise. Your glasses will get soaked at several viewing areas. The mist is like pouring rain in 3 of the viewing areas.

The falls are spectacular. Visiting Victoria Falls was on our must dos in Africa list. They are a World Heritage site, and one of the 7 natural wonders of the world.

When we get back, the first action is to put our shoes, socks, and hat out on our porch table in hopes of drying them out. One of us keep an eye on our stuff, as the monkeys and baboons love to acquire stuff. At 1pm, I attempt to take a shower. The water was barely lukewarm, just like for Leslie yesterday (later in the afternoon). Note that the water was hot, for shaving the following morning. Then the last day the water was cold in the AM, when I tried to shave!?

The Illala is 56 rooms. Self-described as 2 Executive suites, 2 standard suites, 20 deluxe and 32 standard. Some of the standard rooms, like our, require 25 steps to access, no elevator. The greet and registration are good. The facilities are nice-average. The service is mixed. The food and beverage department is a failure. Hot water is iffy. We do not have data on other places to stay, but maybe this write up will help you decide. The no’see’em bugs that bit me at night in the room and lack of netting should be considered.

This afternoon, we are scheduled for the Zambezi Royal Sunset Cruise. Pickup is by Wild Horizons at 15:35. Our tour, includes Park Fee and return. Our pickup is very late, and we fear missing the boat. When the driver finally shows up, we then go to another hotel to yet pick up another group. Turns out the people in our van constitute ˝ of those that will board the boat, so there was no worries of missing the boat. The boat maxes out at 28 people. The boat has 2 modest toi’s, 4 crew and comfortable tables and chairs. It is all inclusive, no further charges, beyond the tipping.

As we set off, the captain handles the boat, as well as, narrates the animal sightings along the banks and in the water. But, first he welcomes us aboard. He introduces his crew (our service people, and tells us to drink up and have a great time.

Both the food and drinks are included. There is a menu of drinks, or you can request what you want. Everyone is started off with sparkling wine on boarding along with a cold towel. Each group sits at their own table. No fighting over anything. Drinks keep coming, as long as you are ordering. The food is a preset menu (this is not dinner, although we use it as such) and delivered to each table. The seating was open, but a table of 6 was set aside for a family. There are no center tables. Everyone gets a great view. I choose a “stairway to heaven” (vodka, blue curacao and lemonade). Leslie has red wine. Later, I switch to red wine as well. The food came in stages. Each item was nicely presented. First, we got a three-section plate with green olives, toffee (?) covered peanuts with a spicy kick, and some crackers, also spiced up. The second plate was much larger and its contents are subject to guessing. There were two each of three items. One item was a pastry triangle filled with at least ground meat (beef?) and onion. The second was more a round loaf slice with avocado as its main ingredient. The final item looked like a pot pie (3” diameter) without a lid. Leslie ate one. It contained cheese and mystery items. I tried a bite and passed. We are the other two items. Our final late plate contained three kinds of meat. The first was a skewer of crocodile. It had the consistency of chicken breast, but little taste. The second item was a beef meat ball and very tasty. The third item was a pork rib, also very good.

While we are drinking and dining the Captain takes us for a very pleasant boat ride on the river. Along the way we see elephant, bush buck, crocodile, monitor water lizard and plenty of birds. We were surprised at the number of palm trees. On the other side of the hill, the sky was filled with mist from the falls. The cruise nears its end, as the sunsets (about 6:30pm), so about 2 1/2 hours. We, along with several other boats, jockeyed around to get a great picture of the setting sun. Again, I have no idea what this cost, but it was a fantastic event…well worth the cost!?

We get back in time to try to get some sleep (7:15PM). Housekeeping knocks on the door, even though we have the do not disturb sign posted. We have another rocky night of ˝ sleep. Could all this be the malaria pills?
Its Friday, May 26 and today we switch venue again. We give up trying to sleep about 5am. There are no flights involved in our travels today, so we can just “dump” stuff in the luggage (no weighing).

Breakfast is at 7am. They seem to have a few guests come in early (5-10 minutes), but they are ready, or at least the continental portions is. Choose your own table, get your own stuff. Order your entrée, just like before. We order carefully and fully. We get just what we ordered! The hotel is full, or so they say. There is no crowd. Most of the tables are outside. At 7am they are shaded, but soon the sun rises enough to bother some of the people. I am the only one in short sleeves, although one gentleman is wearing shorts. It is modestly cool and I am comfortable. When we leave breakfast, we notice that several people have removed their jackets and sweaters.

We are early for our ride, so we go down to the room and work on our pictures/writeup. We call the desk to get our luggage brought up the steps. On check out, I see that the bill includes the dinner we did not eat. I told the lady at the desk that I would pay it, but that Alice had said she would take care of it (explained). She left for a couple minutes, and came back with a manager (?) who removed the charge.

ranles

7. Wild Horizons Transport to Painted Dog Museum, Sable Sands pick up to lodge/safaris

Wild Horizons is scheduled to transport us to Painted Dog Museum/Sable Sands (that means he will drive us to the museum and the people at Sable Sands Lodge will pick us up. This is again a matter of terrain and vehicles). We have a 10am pick up (changed from 11:45am, and changed from a different destination altogether!). The drive takes about 3 hours, with a 20+ minute rest stop. The rest stop is a gas station with toi and food (?). We are with another couple, they got on the van before us, and did not sit together, but instead chose to take the two seats with any real leg room. The seating is tight, partially because of our two bags taking the two back seats. The scenery includes trees, brush, an occasional village, a swap meet, a coal mine, a couple retail stores, churches and schools. The road is good to not so good. The villages are thatched roofed huts to cinder block construction. Few USA type homes are seen. Those often have lawns!

We are the first to be let off. The other couple is going to Main Camp, in the Hwange National Park. There is no one to pick us up. Our driver makes some calls. Unfortunately, the museum is closed to day and for the next few, as it has been fumigated. The area with the dogs is not available to us, and besides we have these two big bags we are traveling with. After 15 minutes, or so, our driver suggests that he leave us there in front of the Museum (on the side of the highway…take your pick of how to say it) and take the other two people to their destination (20 minutes away, we found out later). The gardener was there, and he would see to us. Our driver had done his job. It was time for us to “man-up”, we independent travelers! We give him is tip and away he goes. The gardener hangs with us, but we do not talk. We do not share a language. After another 15 minutes, Steven, a guest at Sable Sands (SS) arrives to pick us up. He and his family have been on an extended stay at Sable Sands, and he did odd jobs to pay part of his bill. The drive to SS is about 20+ minutes.

When we get there, we are greeted by Rebecca, a young African girl who we find does a lot of functions at SS. We also meet Lovemore, who is the bartender, reception, bellman, waiter or whatever as well. This is the way a small business works. People fill various hats. The day was not perfect for SS, a plane was late, leaving our pickup at the airport waiting to bring some other guest to the lodge (or at least that is what we guessed happened?). If this was not Africa, perhaps it would not even be mentioned. Rebecca gives us a bit of general information, but we need to know about our room, game drive, times, etc…everything. She gives us a towel and a fruit drink, as part of our greeting. When they decide what room we are in, Lovemore takes us there. He carries one of our bags and I, the other. He encourages me to leave it and he will get it, but I insist on trying. Our Rondavel is the last one out (#5). The road is dusty dirt. When I can no longer carry our bag further, I try using the rollers, but that does not work on this soil. I leave it. We walk by several closer rondavels to get to ours. Lovemore goes back and gets the other bag…thank you.

RONDAVEL: These are free standing circular buildings with steep hats on, and plenty of air flow into them. From the inside, there is a window to view the waterhole, and the approach of the animals to it. The choice proves good, except for transporting the luggage. There are two chairs sitting in front of this window (inside). The key to our rondavel is an old fashion skeleton key. It works, but it is a bit tricky. Lovemore has no problem, nor does Rebecca at another time. Fortunately, for my ego, one other gentleman that helps us with our luggage when we leave, does have some issues with the lock. Thank you! The room is generally 2/3 bedroom/viewing center and 1/3 bathroom. A wall separates these area, however there is no door, just a very wide opening. The bedding is 2 singles under one large net. There are lots of places for buggies to get in the building, and some do. The lodge is a bit more rustic than the two before. The room shows some efforts to maintain and upgrade the experience. There is no heating or cooling equipment. Hot water is provided by a piece of equipment outside. It looks a bit like a water heater (cylindrical) with a witch’s hat on top. It is fired by wood. Someone, each morning, goes around and stokes the wood fire so we can have hot water that day. As this is winter, it is cold at night and in the AM. The bedroom has two tables for luggage. It also has a deep shelving unit to put out your clothes and other things. There is no safe. We learn the day we leave that they have a larger safe that we could but a locking bag in for our use. On our trip, we have 3 currencies. Some places do not take CC’s (including SS). There is a massive need for tip money in at least US and Rand. We also have two credit cards. We have passports and driver licenses, etc. We would have benefitted by knowing this when we arrived. The floor is concrete. The curtains are modest, with some staining, but serviceable. There is plenty of space. The lighting is available all day and evenings. Hot water is available afternoon and evenings (and maybe in the morning, we did not try it). Two battery operated lights are available, one on each end table, if we need light otherwise. The bathroom is huge. The toi, is exposed as is the shower, but less so. There are two bath towels and two large hand towels. There is a basket for laundry. T-shirts are $, pants and collared shirts are $2. Underwear and socks are unwanted. We do not have any need to do more here. There is a sink with a stand having adequate space. Insect repellant is supplied. Water is okay to drink, we are told by Lovemore, but bottles are available for $ each. There is a trash basket and small window in the bathroom as well.

We are hardly in our room for 10 minutes, when there is a knock on the door. Lunch is being served. We walk back the dusty trail to the lodge, but there is no one there. Some people are eating elsewhere or least having drinks as we can hear them. Lovemore is serving then. When he comes back up to the main lodge I enquire as to what lunch is? He tells me that he’ll check. In the meantime, Rebecca shows up with two plates and directs us to “our” table, set for 2. We start to get the setup better. There is a large group (14 or 18?) and they sit together. We are two, so we have our own table. Steve (the man that picked us up at Painted Dog) and his family are eating down by the fire pit. This is someplace we have yet to be. Leslie eats neither, and I eat both salads. Had we known, we would have passed on the quiche, so it would not be wasted. As you know by now, we are plain eaters, some would say fussy.

Rebecca lets us know that our game drive would be in the local area, and not in the NP. Our game drive starts about 3:30pm. Munya is our driver/tracker/guide. He works for an outside firm and is hired by the lodge to handle their game drives, until they decide to take that function on. He speaks English very well. We understand most all of what he says and I guess he feels the same. Our cultural differences, use of idioms and pronunciation do interfere a bit in communicating. He is highly skilled, drives carefully and still manages to find us game. This game drive is on the local property. (It is a drive to get to Hwange National Park, the other option for game drives from SS). Often, we see game along the way. We see elephants, buffalo and several birds up close. We also see giraffe, jackal and a civet. We then come across a Rhone (also spelled Roan) antelope. These males are really cool looking with their spiral horns and painted face. At each stop, Munya gave us a nice spiel on what we were seeing. While we are on an interior road we come upon a dung beetle. Some people would just drive over this poor fella struggling to push a ball of manure, 4x his size, along the tire rut in the road. Munya stops to talk about the struggles this beetle faces. He must find a lady, she must approve of his ball of s…, and agree to mate. The result is deposited into this ball of s…, and they then bury it. The offspring, develop, break out and use the ball of s… as nourishment. Note, that most elephant poop, is less than 50% digested, so it still contains lots of nutrients. The beetle is not going to manage to get out of the rut, so Munya gets out and picks up the ball, with beetle, and places it on the side of the road before we go on.

It is time for our stretch break. We stop near some elephants, but they move over to us, and we must relocate if we are to get out of the vehicle. We are treated to light snacks (nuts, skewers of stuff, and x. We also have a glass of red wine (previously selected from Lovemore). The wine bottle is ˝ full. We do not know if we are paying or not, (we are not) no one has said. The owners/operators are still a mystery to us.

Dinner is around the fire, outside (all our dinners are there). It is sweet and sour pork, white rice and veggies in sauce. This works great for Leslie and I. The desert was chocolate trifle (so they call it). The whole dinner is great. Finally, we get some minutes with Maureen. I express my feelings of being “behind the curve” on what’s up as to us. We have the “no problem” Africa speak and told our game drive was to be the Hwange NP in the morning at 7am. Brian also drops by to say hello. He is the other half of the management team. He and I talk abit. He is interested in how we came to stay with them, and generally how we plan our travel. We tell him about Kristina, TripAdvisor and FlyerTalk. He tells us someone would knock on our door at 6am. Someone would escort us from our room a 6:30am, if they thought it was too dark to be safe. If they don’t show is it safe, or did they forget?

After dinner, we were escorted to our room. For safety, we are not to walk at dark by ourselves. The lights are on and the netting done up. It is cold. Concrete floor, no heat. Obviously, it is late, we are tired and hurry under the covers to do our teeth cleaning and eye drops. I turn off the lights and turn on one of the battery-operated lights on the night stand. This bed is more comfortable than the cement slabs we have encountered elsewhere. The pillow are better too. Our sleep is still mixed. Must be the malaria pills? I get up at 2:15am, 4:10am and 5:50am (alarm). Leslie is already awake.
Saturday, May 27th and it is really cold and it takes some effort to get ready. At 6am, our wake-up knock comes. At 6:30am, no one has come, so we venture to the lodge on our own. No one says anything, so it must have been the right thing to do.

Breakfast is buffet. Water, coffee, milk, cereal, toast done over a portable propane stove. This is prefect for us, take what you want and waste nothing. So it is enough, and selectable. Peach jam and butter are on the table. On our last day, we find out full breakfast is available for those not going on a game drive. No problem for us, cereal is my, at home, normal breakfast. Leslie usually skips breakfast. The breakfast is plenty to have our malaria pills with.

Munya comes about 6:45am, to pick us up. We leave at 7am (he has to get the snacks, and drinks, and blankets). Just us on the drive again. There are two other drive vehicles, but they are here to take the large group. The park is about 1 hour away from our lodge, depending on what we “see” along the way. Daily entry into Hwange National Park is $20pp, payable upon entry (we give the money to Munya, and he takes it in.) We sign a form, that allows us to come back this afternoon, at no further charge. The form is 3 parts. When we come back later, we sign the third one, so they can match the signatures. There is a toilet at the Main station of the park. It has no paper. The normal break site also has a toi. It too, has no paper, but it does have hundreds of dead bugs.

The first animal we spot is a water buck. The water buck is the logo for the Park. In succession, we see crown crane (tall bird with unusual crest/mate for life), zebra, kudu, impala and wildebeest. Lots of birds are in the park. The popular break point has a raised viewing platform. We go up the stairs, but today there is little to see. We see elephants, then giraffe before heading back to the lodge.

Munya comes back for us for our afternoon drive. There is some issue/question if we are going back to the NP, or doing the estate? We have vouchers for 6 game drives, but they do not say the type or that there are two types. We find out we are going back to the NP. That seemed the obvious choice, as we already paid for the entire day. This visit, we see crown crane again, lots of birds, zebra, giraffe, and civet. We see a couple of Hippos, and then we see a pride of 10 lions! WOW. We are up to 3, of the big 5. Important to note, the Rhino in the NP, are at the other end of the park and we have almost zero change of seeing one here. The lion viewing last a long time and we take a quick stretch break elsewhere, have our wine and snacks (sundowner)and head back.

Dinner tonight is buffet. There are tasty meatballs, focaccia bread, salad, etc. After dinner, we get our “protectioner” to take us back to our room for the night.

Sunday, May 28 and we get up at 6am. We do our routine, and get to breakfast at 6:30am. I have a quick bowl of cereal and Leslie has some toast. There is whole fruit too. We are on the game drive vehicle by 7:10am. This time we have two others. We encounter so many elephants, it was barely possible to continue to the NP. Could there be over 100 elephants? Yes, we are going back to the NP. Someone must have decided that. Perhaps because we have the other couple. They are really traveling without a guide. They have rented a sleeper van. We get into the park and the viewing go on. We see kudu, crock, elephants, hippo, dik dik, and a long trail of ants near the rest stop. We see a partial giraffe (meaning it was just a glimpse), and lots of birds. The going is a bit slow, as the other couple are birders. On one bird stop, they take over 100 pictures of a single bird, sitting on a branch. We spend a great deal of time trying to determine which of two birds it is. Often the differences are very minor, except to their mates for sure.

Lunch is a bowl of beef/cheese/and crackers plus a salad. Leslie has the bowl and I ate the salad from both plates. Lots of food is served at each meal. We go back to the room, work on our writeups, and watch the action down at the waterhole. We also get prepacked and weighed. We have a long day of travel tomorrow.

This is our last safari drive. We have vouchers for another tomorrow morning, but the time is too tight to do that. I had questioned the timing before we left home, but we assured all the times were doable. Wild Horizons had changed the time, and had another pickup before us. We were going to be really tight! TOO tight, boo Wild Horizons.

Munya, the other couple and Leslie and I load up in the game vehicle to head back to the NP this afternoon. They still had not seen the giraffe or lion. The time, they insist (nicely) on taking pictures of birds, will make this opportunity less likely. Munya is a good sport, as are we. We are again swamped with elephant and this time, baboon as well. We do get stuck on the birds again. The pickings in the NP have been slow today. Munya gets a call and we are “off to the races”. For the first time with Munya, I am uncomfortable with his driving. We leave the road and cut across the bush. Eventually, we get to another road and speeding even more, we rush to see the pride of lion. Bugs are pounding us as we fly down the bumpy road. After 10 or so minutes of this scary ride, we pull up to the lion pride Leslie and I had already observed before. This was not worth risking life and limb. It is a shame that we shifted from safari to Ferrari, and with Munya of all people! Well, we are here now, and everyone is okay. There are 11 lions, including 5 cubs. It is late when we see the lions, so our sundowner (break) was at the waterhole, not the toi. We had our usual wine, they had chosen gin and tonic. There were snacks. The day started cooler and the night seemed a bit warmer. When we return we tip Munya. This last ride was regretful, but the others were excellent.

We have dinner with our game drive mates. They are a delightful couple, but we are only interested in the larger birds, not in everyone on the planet. After dinner, we head back to our room, with our escort, to do a bit more packing and get ready for the long trip to Johannesburg. Our water hole was host to a lot of zebra today. The wind has really picked up, and we see nothing out there now.

It is Monday, May 29 and we wake up early and finish our packing and weighing (remember 20K is the maximum weight of a bag allowed). We need to balance our two bags. We brought our scale to insure we do that. We also repack our backpacks for travel versus safari. Rand needs to replace US dollars.

We go to breakfast. We are the first there. I get my cereal, and ask for our bags to be brought to the lodge. It is popular to carry heave objects (our bags) on your head. Both bags are brought to us that way. We settle our bill with Lovemore. We owe for 6 glasses of wine at dinner (the sundowner wine is included in the safari). We did no laundry and left a tip.

We then waited for our transport to the Painted Dog Museum. There we will meet the Wild Horizon group to take us the long drive to the Victoria Falls airport. We then will fly back to JNB for the rest of our visit to Africa.

Maureen said her goodbyes. We asked her if she could check with Wild Horizons, on our pickup. They do not open, until 8am, so we could not confirm anything. Our bad, we should have asked yesterday. We had, according to Maureen one more NP game drive than we paid for (versus estate drive). I reminded her that we had one less drive altogether, as we could not do one today. We agreed this was a tradeoff. Later she gets back to us, that our pickup time had been moved even later, to 9:15am. This is really going to make the tie-in with our flight difficult. There is a new airport in Victoria Falls and they are handling more flights. Processing is a long deal. Boo for Wild Horizons.

Brian comes over and spends 20 minutes with us. This is generous time, as they are also saying good bye to their big group this morning. He asks us again about how we came to be there (Africa and Sable Sands) and why we chose independent travel. We talk a bit about our TA, and about Flyertalk.com. They are working to make a go of Sable Sands, after years of it being vacant. It is a big job, and deciding how to bring things up to par, in what order, etc are real life issues for him. We talk candidly about some items we had come across in our 3 lodge ventures, and what mattered to us. We missed a solid orientation here, and it left us “floundering” a bit. We know there were issues at the time of our arrival, and understood how those things happen. We are told Wild Horizons was to call them before our arrival at Painted Dog. Our schedule was full too. No one explained our game drives (timing, estate vs NP, etc). It was just picked up here and there. We knew we prepaid for 6 game drives, but were surprised there were two types, and there is a cost difference. It all worked out, but in a hazy way. We did not know who, or when we were to be transferred to Painted Dog. Brian said he would be our backup for sure, so not to worry. Brian is a bright man with serious thoughts and a quest to improve. He is concerned about the lodge, but even more so about his and his family’s future. He is a planner. Too bad we did not have more time to talk.

Maureen is busy getting the transport for the large group which is leaving before us. They are also going to Victoria Falls with Wild Horizons! The group is going in two game drive vehicles. Brian has their luggage in his pickup truck. Maureen has Leslie get in one passenger seat, and I in the other one of the second vehicle. This makes a lot of sense, as we all are going to Painted Dog, and then transferring on to a vehicle with Wild Horizon.

Once at Painted Dog, the luggage is unloaded and a bus, from Wild Horizons, pulls up. I ask the bus driver if we are going with him. We are not on his manifest, but he will check. Cell phone service is sketchy, but he finally gets thru. No, we are not with him. A separate, smaller van is coming for us. They should be there by 9:30am! The large group loads into the bus and away they go. Brian stays with us to insure we get picked up…big THANK YOU. Did I mention we do not have a phone? Painted Dog is still closed.

ranles

8. Painted Dog, via Wild Horizons to VFA, fly to JNB

The driver from Wild Horizons shows up at 9:30am. He has another couple with him from Main camp NP, and it is the same couple hogging the same seats as we came here with! We do our howdys, say goodbye to Brian and give him a sincere hug. We certainly wish him and Maureen well with their venture to bring Sable Sands back to life. Our drive informs us that we will have to make up serious time to get us to the airport in time to make our plane (he says that is noon). He certainly does that. We pass everything. Once on an uphill blind view situation! We race up to the goats crossing the road, and the cattle straying on the road infrequently. Fortunately, these drivers normally do not have to wait at the police stops, or undergo a vehicle and paperwork inspection. We do go thru 3 police stops, making sure everyone has their seatbelt on. Leslie must hold hers, as it does not work.

POLICE STOPS: The police stops here are for anything. To have a robust police department, they have these inspection stops and fine that can be charged there on the spot. The couple we share our last two game drives with had been stopped numerous times in their campervan. They may check your lights, turn signals, fire extinguisher, rental paperwork, passport, license and numerous other things. Any short coming results in fines.

We must stop at all RR crossings. Not too big a deal, mostly a roll thru. The road has lots of bumps prior and after these crossings, so slowing down is really a given. The highway is paved, but the maintenance is a bit sketchy. The trip has lots of bumps. There are two service stations along the road, each about 1/3 the way. These are used as toi stops. We blow by the first one. We have been speeding for so long now, that the driver “halfheartedly” offers to stop at the second as we are back on schedule. We pass and carry on. I should have said yes, as a courtesy to the other couple, now that we were back on schedule. My bad.

We get to the airport somewhat after 11:30am, well in time for our flight. The other couple is also flying, but has a later flight. Tip.

We again have a porter grab our bags. This time we are taken a short distance and left in the long line for our boarding passes. Not much of a service, so not much of a tip. The line is slow moving, so Leslie and I take turns holding our place, while the other heads off to the bathrooms, at the end of the hall. No check in machines here. No Wi-Fi either. They do have a business check-in line, but we are in coach. It took over a half hour to get checked in. Customs, on the other hand, went rapidly. The waiting area accommodates only about ˝ the passengers. Tour groups are standing together in sort of a line, so there are seats for us.

The plane is an airbus. It is flight SA041. There are 12 business seats in the front of the door and 12 after. The configuration is 2x2x2. We are seated in 45FG. These are in the first row of coach, with a configuration of 2x4x2. This is bulkhead. The aisle seat on each side is 2/3 in the aisle, as the aisle, jogs at this point. This is a hazard for those 2 passengers, and a hassle for the FAs. The number of rows continues to 68.

Meal service for this flight is incredible. As soon as the plane is settled, meals and drinks are served. We are first served in coach. We are asked what we would like to drink before the meal. Within 60 seconds, we are asked what we choose to eat and what we would like to drink with that. I have not poured my wine yet. Leslie gets water. She then asks for wine with the meal. The meal choice is spiced beef or some kind of chicken. I don’t choose spiced anything, so I ask for the chicken, as does Leslie. The meal is immediately put on our table. These FAs really know how to serve up a quick bite. The chicken appears to be baked, but it could be fried and warmed up? It includes 2-3 pieces of breast meat. Some of the veggies look iffy. Potato wedges, peppers, and ???. A separate dish of cold, but cooked mushrooms was also served. A large seeded bun and some butter round out the meal. A piece of chocolate sheet cake topped it off. We finished off what we wanted and asked for another mini wine to split. No issue. No charge for wine in coach.

Our flight was totally over Botswana. The pilot told us we would be early as they were given a couple short cuts in route.

ranles

9. Stay Johannesburg @ Crown Plaza Rosebank

We landed at JNB and then walked a long way to customs. There are two lines, one for those needing VISAS and the other for not (iffy data sorry). Well, there are two different lines. The service is slow, and the demand is high. A plane just before us, and one just after. The agents are doing a lot of talking among themselves, and not so much working. Who wants this job anyway?

Once thru customs, we are off to find our luggage. The sign says belt 10. It is another long walk to this area. When we arrive, bags are piling up in the corner, and falling on the floor, as three bags are trying to get thru the doorway the belt goes into, all at the same time. The log jam has put 25 or more bags on the floor already. I quickly wade thru the bags, one is ours. Our other bag is one of the three caught in the exiting door. I manage to retrieve our bag, and release the logjam, but now there are 40 bags on the floor, and still no employees to address the problem. No one attempts to help me, but a lot of people watch and are grateful I got the system working again.

We took our bags into the assembly area to find the information desk. We knew where it was and made a beeline for it. We were approached by the taxi drivers on the way, but had a single purpose in mind. We asked two ladies at the desk about getting a shuttle to the Crown Plaza, the Rosebank. Neither were familiar with the hotel. They moved us on to another, more senior guy at the desk. He asked if we had reservations. I told him we were reserved at the hotel, but not for the shuttle (I had researched the shuttle from home, it is $54) but not booked it. A cabbie was standing, listening. The information clerk asked him for the flat rate to our hotel. He offered up R 480, okay by us. It was a really long walk to where the van was parked. First, we had to go to the machine, so the driver could pay his parking fee in the lot, then walk to the lot and find his vehicle. It was a nice large van, that handled us and our luggage comfortable. He stopped part way and had us wait on a curbed area, where we could stand safely. He got the van and brought it back to us (nice). We had a close mishap. While I was reaching back for my seat belt, he closed the sliding door. I got my hand out just in time. No way he could see. Accident avoid (mostly, as I did get banged, but all fingers still good. It was my fault, as much as anyone’s. The ride to the hotel reveled the state of security needed to live in the city and surrounds. Every property was fenced, or fenced as part of a group of buildings. This was true for residential and commercial. Many of the fences were 6 meters or more. Some had barbed wire, others were electrified. Our thoughts of going to Soweto were waning fast. We told the driver right off that we were in no hurry, so just take the route he prefers. Driving in the city by first time visitors is NOT recommended. It is a “jungle” in the city too. The radio news reports were all about signal outages, blocked roadways and accidents. We stopped at two red lights, that were 4-way. Then a free for all getting across. The entry to the hotel is a pull off the road ˝ moon. We give the cabbie R 500 (round up, we are told, and it was he who set the fare).

The lobby to the Crown Plaza is huge. We get there without our luggage, naturally someone else from the hotel staff claimed that before we got out of the van. We are given a 2-room suite and club access. We are a mid-level with IHG, and I sent one of my letters to the rooms manager before we left home. Thank you.

CLUB: The club is on the first floor (North entrance), and is accessed thru the business center. It is tiny, with seats for about 14 inside. There is a patio area (ash trays) with some additional tables and chairs. The club is open all day, but in the evenings modest snacks, soda, wine and beer (there was never any beer, as they were having trouble with their coolers). Every morning, a continental breakfast is available. I am describing the club first, as this was a big failing in an otherwise wonderful place to stay. We go to the club, just after the wine is scheduled to arrive. There is an oriental group in the club taking all but 5 of the seats. They have their own wine, and are clearly entertaining clients. The wine, I am told is very expensive. Two of the other seats are taken by employees of Total Oil Company. He is a regular at this hotel and gives me the scoop. Leslie has had dealings with Total, when we worked for Unocal.

There is no wine or beer. There are some lukewarm spring rolls. They are in a heated unit, without the candle. We are told, by the other two, that the wine is coming. We came down for a glass, so we wait. Leslie tried the spring rolls, and stopped after one bite. She normally likes these. After 15 minutes, I go back into the business center and inquire about the wine. It’s coming, I am told. Another guest arrives, so now the room is full, but only sodas to drink, oh, and one warm lite beer. The new arrival is desperate, so he drinks the beer. The attendant, arrives 30 minutes later, with one bottle of red, and one bottle of Riesling. We take the only two wine glasses and pour ourselves a glass. The two from Total ask for wine glasses. In only 10 minutes or so a couple glasses arrive, and another bottle of Riesling to add to the unopened one. The regular points this out to the attendant, that the red wine is all that is in demand. Lots of guests come in, and leave empty handed! This is no way to treat your best guests! OH, there is a major (more than two foot) rip in the wall paper too. The attendant, must work in the restaurant, and keep this as a side job, as the servicing is horrible. This is not her fault, it is a management issue. They clearly are not providing the necessary manpower and maintenance for the club. It makes no sense. The logistics stink. The nearest kitchen is 50 meters away. The attendant is not provided with a cart. Hello, wakeup call…hotel fails…not one know why but the customers!! Eventually, more red wine shows and we take a glass back to the room. It is now after eight, as we will just forgo dinner.

While we are talking about the lounge/club, I will do our first AM visit. The breakfast is served for 4 hours. We arrive about 2 ľ into that time. The bread/sweet rolls are all but gone. The cereal is fine. The cheese and ham, is down to 2 pieces each. The significant difference is the attendant is bringing replacements, but she must carry the items on a small tray! We ask for OJ, as there is no juice left. She comes back with a few juices, and later brings some rolls. We have cereal and rolls and our malaria pill (remember these are to be taken for 7 days after you are out of the malaria area. I will have some more comments about the club, and how it varied during our stay later. But now our Room,

OUR SUITE: Our room is #562. Elevators are two and small. We go up separate from the Bellman. Our suite is very nice. We have stayed in some fantastic rooms in the past, so I will not emote too much, but this is a very nice room. The desk is over 3 meters long. It has a pen, light, blotter, phone, waste basket and ports for electricity. There is a shelf behind the desk chair of over 1 meter. There are 3 panes of full length mirror. Further into the room is a small rounded table, an honor bar, shelf and flat screen TV. A large coffee table is next to a chair and a way too deep sofa. There is a pole lamp that is huge and hangs into the room. A large window at the end of the room fairly describes this area along with a second trash receptacle.

At the end of the room to the right is the door to the bedroom and bath. It too, has a large window on the same wall and view. The large bed is uncomfortably hard and includes 4 pillows of similar nature, an end “table” (low wall mounted board) is on each side of the bed. There is a flat screen TV across from the bed along with a luggage built-in for 2 bags, with modest blocking of the TV. There are several mirrors. The closet unit has enough shelf space, but the hanging space is small w/half used for the ironing board and attached iron.

The bathroom has an exposed tub in the middle. A sink on either side. It has a very large exposed glass enclosed shower. The toi is enclosed, but the deadbolt is poorly aligned and loud. The door swings open if not deadbolted. Use the washcloth folded, laying on the floor to shut and hold the door silently. This is a lot of description of this suite, but many FT members may consider coming here and booking such a room or having access to club.

It is now Tuesday, May 30th, after continental breakfast, we come back to the room and work on our writeups. Leslie has a lukewarm shower…where is the hot water? We have not planned any outings for today. In hindsight, I might have trimmed a day from Chobe and used it to get to the Cape, where more activities to our liking exist. Here there is a hop on hop off bus, but access to it is not close. One needs to stay near Casino Reef, to use this service. I hope this writeup with help you match your interest.

We decided to go to the Rosebank mall and see the African Craft Market (ACM). The mall is just 2-3 blocks away. You go out the door, thru some handicap parking spaces and then leftish to the high fence that surrounds the hotel. Turn left and go up the hill. Jump (the word the lady at the desk used for cross at) the signal. Here is 54 (hotel). For the ACM, continue up the street. For the mall (we did) turn right. You will see a massive sign, like a bridge, ahead announcing the mall. Go right a block or more. Once in the mall, you will find a bunch of telco stores. The elevators all have security outside them. We asked about the ACM and were given directions. Many of the stores have security. Money is picked up in “suitcase/safes” on wheels. Each of the men with such a safe, is accompanied by another man with an AK47. On one of our elevator rides, we were followed into the elevator by such a duo. When the elevator stopped the safe man exited, then the “gunman” ran out to the pole, does the swing around pointing the weapon at everyone one, just like a war movie! Creepy.

We make it to the upstairs portion of the ACM, which is small, but much like a store. No one bothers us and we were free to browse. In the back of the store is the staircase down to the “main area” of the ACM. We hardly touched the bottom step and the sales program began. The area is made up of 3’x4’ to 2’x8’ “stores”, each with a salesman hawking similar wares. All are very aggressive. We made it thru 5 such vendors, and Leslie obviously was uncomfortable. I offered to escort her our and she said YES. I told the current vendor standing in my face, that we were leaving. We came to look, and maybe buy, but we wanted to browse without interference first. That was obviously not possible, so we were leaving…and did. We walked back up the steps, I don’t think it is possible to just walk thru the stalls. Once back to the top, we exited the store, and walked across to the Subway stall. It is tiny, as well. We got a foot-long tuna and split it. Leslie like lots of dell pickle on hers, but the only pickle they had was sweet. We added a Coke lite. The prices were about the same as here in California, but the amount of tuna, was about 60%. We eat at one of the 2 tiny tables in the shop. It is now about 1:30pm.

Next, we go into Woolworth’s grocery and get a bag of Lays potato chips (125g) for R18. Now it is reversing our route to find our way back thru the mall to our hotel. When we returned to the Crown Plaza, we stopped at the club and got a coke lite and then up to our room. It is nice to have this big suite, given we are in for the rest of our stay. We ache everywhere, are still nursing some bugbites and are pretty tired. Too many game drives, climbing into and out of vehicles and being bounced around. There are no compelling activities for us in Johannesburg, and we do not feel that safe here.

Tonight, we will go back to the club again to see if they are any better. We will likely order a sandwich to the room afterwards. We arrive at the club 5 minutes before 7pm (when the catering is to be done, and the wine available). The snacks in the club are again not to our liking. Leslie tries one of the two Asian items, and does not finish it. There are small sandwiches which look like they include cheese, tomato and mystery meat. The regulars show in a few minutes, as does the wine. Soon there are a few people from Total and a couple vendors. We get a glass of wine and return to our room. We stay up until almost 10pm, talking, having our wine and relaxing. We then head to bed, hoping the “sleep-fairies” will give us a break on this hard bed!

It is Wednesday, May 31 and we go down to the club, just after 8am. Catering was again poor. No juice, no flatware. We asked at the business center if she could inform the club attendant that we would appreciate some orange juice. 30 minutes later, I ask again, and am told that she was told. 20 minutes later an empty-handed attendant arrives. We ask her for juice. 10 minutes later she comes back with juice. Over an hour without any servicing of the club at breakfast! What is going on with management at this hotel? OH, and the huge tear in the wallpaper is still there. I wonder how long that has been.

We talked and made plans for the day. We are doing nothing. We will confirm how long it takes to get to the JNB, and make reservations for same. They suggest we plan on 1 1/2hours to get to the AP. The hotel’s fixed fee is R100 (R580) more that it cost to get there from the AP on our own. We return to our room and do some packing and prepare for the 3pm fire drill planned at the hotel. We do not have to participate, it is only for staff. We do need to determine if we want to get room service before or after this drill. The drill alarm lasted 8 minutes plus! Bells, and verbal direction repeated over and over. It was quite annoying.

We order up a burger (fries included) at 4pm, R95 plus tip. We go to club near 7pm. They have a soup tonight, plus the little sandwiches…set up. No wine, beer or water. Within 15 minutes, they have wine and more followed, including proper glasses. The real shocker, ˝ the wallpaper had been fixed. We take some wine back to our room and do our packing. As we are back of Cathay tomorrow, and in business we have no issue in what our bags weigh.
Thursday, June 1 and we get up at 6am. By 6:30am we are in club for a bite and to take our malaria pills. The club is ready, with plenty of juice. After this short repast, we go back up and get ready to check out. The checkout process goes well. We go over to the bellman desk for our transportation. There are several tiny cars waiting outside. Only one of our bags will fit in the trunk, despite material shoving and banging. I keep saying that the other one will need to go in the front seat. Finally, I give up and get in the car. Soon the driver comes with the other bag to put in the front seat. We inform him of who we are flying, that we are in no hurry and for him to take the route he wants. Naturally, the logistics of where we are dropped off and where we must go do not mesh. It’s Africa.

I did not writeup our flight home. It was pretty much the same at to JNB. The JNB lounge is crummy. Same planes, seats and pluses and minus. Clubs the same. The real difference was the route we took was 2 hours shorter. When we got back to LAX, we rented an AVIS car and reversed the process we went there on.

ranles

10. Last thoughts and summary.

The pictures will not be added to this report for months. We have a lot of pictures and only one computer. I have tied up the computer. We need to find a new vendor/site to use to do our pictures. We have another trip we will be going on in a few weeks, to the Arctic. My goal was to get this writeup done as soon as possible to help others. Africa, and its endangered animals need your help, money. It is difficult to plan a trip to Africa. Answers to questions are difficult. Thinking of the right questions is difficult as well.

The purpose of our trip was to see and evaluate the status of some of the animals in the wild. It was not a city or people visit.

Readers should be aware that much of the report was gathered from other people we talked to and was not verified. The balance was what we did, saw, felt and not necessary how you would respond in the same circumstances. Bird identification is often iffy. This is a very long report. While I have tried to make it flow, it is not a paper for grad school. It was written to inform, not impress. The spelling was a best, a trial. Sorry. I broke the report into sections, each of which may attract a different audience, and therefore may make finding what you want to read easier.

This trip occurred in May. I do not believe you can extrapolate these events, to other months. We are 72, and that does make a difference. We had no phone. We were not traveling in a group. We are experienced travelers. This was our first, and likely, only visit to Africa. We thank Kristina, our TA, from South African Airways Vacations (520-686-9823) for doing such a fine job of selecting most of our arrangements.

We appreciate the opportunity to visit with Shelly, Ruan and Rennico at Monwana at Thornybush. We also appreciate getting to visit with Brian, Maureen, Rebecca and Lovemore at Sable Sands. We found the personal touch of these smaller lodges much more pleasant that the “heartless” stay at Chobe Safari Lodge.

We thank members of FT for their help with some questions we had. We hope this report will supply helpful information to others (our payback). Africa needs your help (money). The African animals need your support for their continued existence. Current levels of poaching will make this trip very different in less than 10 years. Africa, its people, animals and experiences offer much to the traveler. Africa is many different countries. They are quite different one to another. We found that with just the three we visited.

We thank God that some recent material enhancements in our physical condition allowed us to attempt this wonder trip.

The pictures are here! In May/June 2017 Leslie and I took a 21-day trip from San Diego to three countries in Africa, something we had wanted to do for a long time. The purpose of our trip was to visit animal preserves and National Parks to view wildlife. We started our Africa journey, after taking two days to get there, in South Africa with a night in Johannesburg. In South Africa, we took 6 Safari Drives in Thorny Bush Animal Preserve (near Kruger National Park). Our second stay was at Chobe Safari Lodge in Botswana, where we took two river tours and three safari drives. Our third stay was in Zimbabwe at Victoria Falls however due to this being the height of the Zambezi River flow it was not possible to take photos, at the Falls without causing harm to our camera. We have included photos of the city, our hotel and a sunset Cruise we took. Our fourth stay was in Zimbabwe at Sable Sands where we took 5 Safari Drives. The last stay was for three days in Johannesburg followed by two days to get home.
We are presenting our photos in three albums for this trip, they are South Africa (149 photos), Botswana (179 photos) and Zimbabwe (183 photos). To view the pictures, you will need to click on one of the links below, and then view that album before viewing another of the three albums for Africa. Important: Wait 15-20 seconds for the pictures to load. The options listed below are available to view the pictures, with or without joining Snapfish. Refer to "A", "B", and "C" below. We recommend using option A.

A. To view the pictures with captions you will need to be a member of Snapfish, or to join Snapfish. Click on one of the links below, then click on log in/join. There is no charge to join. Once a member of Snapfish and signing in, you can choose to click on the "slideshow" option located just above the pictures, in the middle of the screen. Once you have selected "slideshow" (ignore "select all") it will begin. The timing for viewing each slide is fixed (about 6 seconds), if this is too fast, just click the "Pause" button (button with 2 vertical lines), on the top middle of the screen. When you wish to return to slideshow mode, reclick the "Pause" button (now an arrow). During the viewing, it will be necessary to move the mouse occasionally to keep the screen from going into sleep mode. You will notice that once the slide show starts that the icons disappear, just move your mouse cursor and they will reappear.

B. This option will allow you to self-pace the viewing, as with Option A above, you will need to be a member of Snapfish in order to see the captions for each picture. Click on the magnifying glass with a plus on the first picture. Then click on "captions" button above the picture. There will be arrows on either side of the picture to click to go forward or back at your own pace. Note the captions are much smaller in this mode than In option A.
C. To view the pictures without joining Snapfish, just start scrolling them (there will be no access to the captions in this mode!). This is the way to view the pictures the fastest.

Once you have viewed one of the Africa photo albums you will need to exit that album and Snapfish, then click on the next link to view that album. Wiggle your mouse (this temporarily brings the icons back). Click on the “exit” icon in the top left-hand area of your screen to exit the album. Now click on the “X” on the top right-hand of your screen to exit Snapfish. Return to the original e-mail and repeat the process, selecting the next African Album.

Once you have finished viewing one of the photo albums you will notice two buttons on the upper right-hand side of the screen - a "Heart" and a "Circle". The "Heart" button shows a bar with "Likes" and "Comments". Should you wish to state you like the photos, click the "Like" and your name will appear. If you wish to comment, select "Comment" and a box will appear for your comment. Once done click the x on the top right-hand side of the box.

At this point you can view other albums of ours, if you wish, by clicking the "Back to Albums" button at the top left corner of the site (provided you have joined Snapfish).

SOUTH AFRICA LINK

https://www.snapfish.com/photo-gift/...90070/SNAPFISH


BOTSWANA LINK

https://www.snapfish.com/photo-gift/...93070/SNAPFISH


ZIMBABWE LINK

https://www.snapfish.com/photo-gift/...72070/SNAPFISH

Mwenenzi

Very good reading. Good that you enjoyed the trip

You can host photos on FT. Then link trip trip reports.
Myflyertalk-->Picture & albums-->add album-->upload pictures.
Backing up photos while travelling, even if to a USB stick, is worth the effort. Too easy for a computer and/or smart phone to go missing.

pharmawalk

Glad you enjoyed your safari.

SanDiego1K

Thanks for all the time and attention to detail it took to write up that report. It interested me as we have traveled to southern Africa several times and continue to travel there. We're always looking for more information as to where to go. I was surprised that South African Airways Vacations put together the best package for you. I'd not heard of them before and was interested to learn that a Phoenix based agent gave superior service. It was very helpful to see the process you used to get competitive quotes.

How much of a challenge was it to get business class award seats on Cathay?

I was surprised that you weren't allowed to hike and that in fact that company limited hiking to those under 65. I recognize it didn't matter to you, but it would to some. Did they explain why they chose an arbitrary age as the cut off point?

kalderlake

Thanks very much for the report.

Well-written, and very informative.

Can't wait for the pictures, though I will.

I'm hoping to travel to SA, and to see Victoria Falls, in the next few years. And if I can afford it, perhaps a short safari.