Travels with Kris

Lots of driving today with a quick stop at Cape Cross Seal Colony. There are seals here...probably a million seals here. Its unbelievable as is the smell. I love the seals, but honestly there were so many of them and they were so loud and noisy that it was overwhelming. We spent around an hour here, moving about the seals and taking pictures. I kept looking for sharks in the horizen as the obvious shark friendly all you can eat buffet covered the best part of a mile of beach and many were in the water. I didn’t see any though and when i talked with a tour guide at my lodging (we are staying in a hostel and I’m in a real bed and have a read mattress and I’m stealing extra pillows) told me that there is no great white activity around here...which I expected there to be. Experts aren’t really sure why that is, thinking its a combination of the currents and well feed sharks feeding on the seals that move away from the group into deeper waters. Personally, I think the great whites ...

We left the Cheetah Park campground bright and early as always. Today we stopped at an indigineous village for a tour. This village particiates in tourism and they allow us to take photos and ask questions followed by their aggressive sales women trying to sell us trinkets. There was much debate after the tour as to how legitimate it was. There was a general consesus that they probably all had cell phones hiding in their traditional garb. But I did enjoy seeing the huts up close (as we’ve passed a lot of the traditional huts through both Botswana and Nambibia) and some explaination as to what different pieces of the dress represented. It was well worth the small price of admission. After we left the village we had a very long drive to our next campsite. It was another bush camp with no water, electricity or facilities. However it was located in the middle of this beautiful rocky mountianous formations. As soon as we got our tents up, everyone went for a walk. Chasing th...

Packed up early and on the road. We took the scenic way out of the park for one more game drive as we left. Saw some incredible stuff as expected. Another long day in the truck and arrrived midafternoon at the Cheetah Park for camping. The Cheetah Park is a safe haven for Cheetahs. Its also a working farm and a campground, Once we got our campsite set up, we relaxed until the 4pm tour of the cheetahs. The owner picks up all the campers from their campsites in a big truck with a trailer attached to the back and brings us to the farmhouse. There were three cheetahs that have been bottle feed and hand raised by humans and are very tame. There were still lots of rules and regulations. Safety is key to everything. But we hung out with the cheetahs and let them interact with us and took tons of photos. Then we watched them eat. There was no live killing, they were provided meat in dog bowls. After we were done interacting with the tame cheetahs, we went for the feeding of the w...

Etosha National Park is huge and dry and hot. Most of the animals we found here were at or near the watering holes. There are even a handful of artifical watering holes that are maintained by the park officials in order to ensure there is enough water. We had three game drives here. The morning we arrived, after lunch and the following morning. I got great pictures of elephants, giraffes, happy meals, rhinos, ostrich, zebras, wildabeast, one male lion and a cheetah. I saw two honey badgers that unlike other critters in the park that ignore the tourist vechicles, took off into the trees like lightning. No photos of that one :( We did see a lot of critters here we weren’t able to see at Chobe. The constant heat created mirages of water along nearly every horizen but there was very little water. The wind picked up the sand and dust and you could see dust devils everywhere, some of them quite large. Regardless of the heat and dust, this was a great park for photos and ou...

To say that we all entered the border crossing with baited breath would be an understatement, but everything went smoothly and before we knew it, we were in Namibia. We skipped our original lodging as we’d lost the reservation and had a long day in the truck. Nambibia has much less wildlife on the side of the road and they seem to be more developed than Botswana. We did make one small stop on the way to the campground, at the worlds largest meterite. Its basically a huge chunk of an iron that crashed into the ground. It was very interesting but we only spent about 15 minutes here. The area was beautifully landscaped and I got some great shots of the area.

I stayed in bed until well after 11am on the limbo day. We didn’t have anywhere to go until after Nash and Steve got their papers. Being a Friday, we knew that if we didn’t hear something by 6pm that nothing would happen until Monday. I slept late, then wandered into the restaurant for a late lunch since I slept through dinner and breakfast. The restaurant had the worst service I’ve ever seen. It was trying to pull teet h trying to get anything. I finally got my sandwich and juice . Others from my group started showing up for lunch and I sat with them and o rdered a cider while I was hanging out. I never did get the cider. I finally flagged her down and asked for the bill and cancel the cider. I ended up going back to get my computer and setting up at the bar and drinking all the ciders I want while trying to upload photos. But their internet wasn’t strong enough so I was only able to upload half a dozen and do a status update. By the end of the day, we got word that Steve ...

Day six had us up before the sun again and breaking down camp and packing up. We had two long drive days and we needed to get a head start. Border crossing from Botswana to Namibia and an early camp day. Checking out at Botswana was easy enough, ran us through like an assembly line. We walked down the street to the Namibia side and it turns out the company we are traveling with failed to apply for the work visas for our driver. All us tourist could enter Namibia without any problem, but our driver, our guide and our truck could not. Our guide spent hours on the phone trying to get things sorted out and after spending all day at the border trying to entertain ourselves ended up heading back to Botwsana at 6pm when the border closed. We ended up driving an hour back into Botswana to set up camp at a campground that had space. After setting up my tent, I went right to bed and got drunk while watching Supergirl from my downloaded Netflix. For the first time since I joined the ...

Safari - The Delta Day 1 Another very early morning, packing up the tent and taking our condensed packs with 3 days of supplies including all the water we could carry. We would be staying at a bush camp run by the indigeneous people of the Delta. They were having minor draught conditions as they didn’t get enough rain from the Angola Highlands this year so the water levels were really low. We ended up having to drive to a 3 rd launching station 90 minutes away to meet the canoes. Each 2 people had a personal guide. My guide was named Popeo. He spoke 5 languages fluently and could name nearly all the plants and animals in all 5 plus a good many in German and Dutch. The guy knew his stuff. Popeo poled our canoe for over an hour through the Delta until we reached the campsite. We passed at least two hippos (which we gave a lot of space) and quite a few birds along the way. Once we got to camp we needed to unload all the canoes and set up our tents. There was a great deal of...

Day two was a pretty long drive day. I was shocked at how much wildlife we saw just wandering around the side of the road. Elephants, giraffes, zebras, antalope, zebra, ostrich and more. We made good time and arrived at our new campground early enough to set up our tents in the daylight. We had no activities on this day, it was a fairly long drive day and we needed to prepare for 3 days and 2 nights at a bush camp in the Delta.

We were all packed up and on the road by 6am. Many people have been on the tour since Kenya and people seem to be moving like a well oiled machine. They all know what they are doing and where they are going and I feel lost a lot. I’m assured that I will eventually get the hang of things but I’m only on the tour for the last three weeks. Not sure that will happen. We exited Zimbobwe without any issue and entered Botswana at a reasonably early hour of the morning. There is an issue with foot and mouth disease in Botswana so after passport control we had to dip all our shoe bottoms in some sort of cleaner. And we pulled into our first campground with about 20 minutes to spare before our optional tour of Chobe NP was about to leave. No time to set up camp or get settled. I originally wasn’t going to do any of the extras but I’ve come to realize most of the extras things on the tour are extras. Plus, everyone that did day excursions to Chobe from VicFalls had raved about the ex...

I wasn't really looking to do a cruise down the Zambezi River.  It was another $50 and I have a tendency to vomit on boats if they move wrong.  However, my tour company has arrived at my hostel and this would be a great opportunity to meet my guides and some other people on the safari.  Turns out quite a few people joined the safari at another location so they've been traveling together for quite a while.  They already know each other, there are already inside jokes and the perfect time to meet them was on a booze cruise with an open bar.  It was uncomfortable and they all promised that they weren't really like this most of the time...I think they were just letting off some steam after being on a pretty rigorous schedule for the last week or so.  But it wasn't a wasted trip...cause crocodiles and hippos!  I got to see 2 juvenile crocs and a bunch of hippos...at least one was very young.  I got some decent shots while working on a nice buzz. ...

So....there are a number of questionably ethical activities in Africa.  Exploiting tourists for easy dollars with little to no concern for animal welfare isn't unheard of...it happens everywhere, including the US.  However, the Lion Encounter is a very ethical company and the work they do directly helps in conservation of the lions.  They offer tourists the opportunity to walk and pose with a lion cub.  Lion cubs can be from 6 months to 2 years old.  The term "cub" can be somewhat misleading as the cubs in the below photos are 24 months old and are not tiny.  But they haven't reached sexual maturity yet and still like to play with wiggling tree branches (think a larger version of dangling a string in front of your house cat).  The lions are not forced to do the walks.  We are told up front that no guarantees are made and if the lions aren't in the mood...it wasn't going to happen.  Luckily, of the two we had, the male was willing to tolerat...

I arrived in Vic Falls around 12:30pm.  Took forever to get through customs and security but finally got to the exit and saw my name on a cardboard sign.  Hooray!  After waiting for everyone else they were picking up, I got dropped off at my hostel:  Shoestring Backpackers Hostel.  Spent a day vegging out and socializing with my new roommate John.  John is from New Zealand and backpacks across the world half the year and works in agriculture half the year.  He has been to lots and lots of places.  We were up until 3am sharing stories and talking every subject under the sun. He gave me a good heads up on the market and prices at the hostel café and directions to the falls.  Its always great to meet like minded people on your first day in a new town.  Especially after hiding out from a café employee who doesn't seem to understand the word no. I slept until after noon the next morning and after chugging down a diet coke, I grabbed my cam...

So the big 6 week trip has started.  It started with a brutal flying schedule.  Detroit to Chicago, Chicago to Boston (20 hour layover, Boston to Qatar (7 hour layover) and then onto Johannesburg. Overnight and a 90 minute flight to Victoria Falls.  Qatar is a hub for Qatar Airways and most of their flights have a layover in Doha.  So a company called Discover Qatar has started doing layover tours.  I was lucky enough to be eligible for one (long enough layover and during the hours of the tours) so i signed up for a city tour.  The city at night is limiting for a photographer but I got some really good shots.  Most of the city is very high end.  This isn't a cheap city.  It was well light and there is virtually no litter.  It was incredibly clean.  The street lights differ in different parts of the city and they are all artsy and fun and still functional.  The buildings were amazing and I'd like to go back to get better shots i...

After the waterfalls, it was off the visit family.  My sister and her family have a small mini-farm in the hills of Virginia.  They grow their own food, raise their own chickens and have started a honey business.  They are both artists that work at home, my BIL is a glass blower and my Sis is a general crafter and artist (her medium changes with her mood).  I spent a couple of days here to sleep and get recovered from the waterfalls.  My old knees don't handle hills well anymore.  I also accompanied my sis to the local Floyd Friday Market where she sets up her table to sell her pieces.  Met some great people, listened to some great blue grass and had inappropriate conversations with the niece and nephew...cause I'm the cool Aunt, lol.  My little niece is taking after her auntie Kris with a love of true crime.  I wonder if she's too young for Helter Skelter? I also spent some time chasing things in her garden.... Also ...