Safari journal (part 5: 21 days, 4 countries and 3490 miles)

Safari journal (part 5: 21 days, 4 countries and 3490 miles)-

On the 18th night of our 21 day journey we pull into a place called Planet Baobab, home of the famous upside down baobab trees. I have been averaging about 5 hours of sleep per night as we constantly have early departures because of the long drives. Over the 3 weeks from Cape Town, South Africa to Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe we covered a staggering 5616 kilometers, that’s 3490 miles (LA to NY is 2807). I’ve also been sleeping on the roof of the truck since early on. The first night on the roof was by myself, the second I had another join me, since the 3rd night the rooftop, that became affectionately known as “The Penthouse”, I shared with between 4-6 people. It was amazing for star gazing and nice cool breezes, only problem was as soon as the first person stepped inside and started banging around the lockers we were all awake. By the time we reached Planet Baobab I was in need for a good long nights sleep. It was a rare campsite that had wifi available for purchase. When we arrived just after sunset I purchased an hour to check on some emails. Mostly to gather logistics of my upcoming Kilimanjaro climb. I used 10 minutes then logged off. After dinner I’m determined to go to bed early, but first want to jump on and through some photos up on Instagram with the remaining unused minutes I had. When I went back to the reception there was a problem with the wifi and it wouldn’t allow me back on. Frustrated and tired I start arguing with the manager over it. I paid for the service so either get it working or refund my money. She tells me they just had a power outage and the computer needs to reboot. It should take 10 minutes and come back on. I wait 10, 15, 20, 45 minutes and nothing. By now the manager has made an escape, the office is closed and she’s nowhere to be found. I take my problem to the bartender, as if he cares. It’s at this point where a local Botswana man comes over and sits beside me. “You know that thing is ruining your holiday” pointing to my iPhone, then he corrects himself “not holiday, it’s messing up your journey! Take it from one ‘vagabond’ to another” This grabs my attention for obvious reasons. I can’t argue against his point because I know he’s right. I understand that I shouldn’t be paying any mind to Instagram of all things right now, I know it, but it’s like a nervous twitch I can’t control. I can’t use the excuse of a having legitimate reason for needing the web, I already checked my emails. This was a social media fixation in its worst form. And now I’m intrigued by this local guy I’ve never met who just called me a vagabond out of the blue. I turn off my phone and bargain with the bartender. “Forget about refunding my money for wifi, can you just give me 2 beers for me and my new friend and call it even?” He gladly agrees to it to shut me up. The guy sitting next to me tells me he has seen me 4 days ago in a town called Maun (we stopped there for supplies before the Okavango Delta). He told me he thought that with my beard and Bali shirt I looked interesting and had a story to tell. He wanted to come talk to me, but I was walking the other direction. He considered it fate of a kind that he would run into me again some 1000 ish kilometers away in a different part of the country. He was a tour guide and traveler, was 32, but looked 22, well educated and spoke perfect English. He told me about the time he lived in Florida for a while then hitchhiked up the US east coast until he reached Manhattan where a couple from Haiti invited him to stay a while. I told him of the time I made friends with my tuk tuk driver in Sri Lanka and spent 2 weeks driving around the country and staying with his family. He talked about when he was in DC for Obama’s 1st inauguration and saw him speak live. I told him of the time I went to northern India to see a 3 day public seminar from the Dali Lama. We are comparing stories like this for a while and sharing a passion for travel. By the 4th round of beers I was no longer tired and waved goodby to a good nights sleep well before that. At one point the conversation turns to what it must have been like for famous explorers like Marco Polo, Charles Darwin, Magellan. Modern travelers came up and he mentioned the well known travel writer Paul Theroux. I stop him to let him know I’m reading my first book of his now. He gives me a crooked look and asks which one. “Dark Star Safari” I tell him. He starts laughing and nearly falls out if his seat. I wonder if I offended him somehow by reading a book about Africa written by a white guy or something. He then responds “man, who are you!? I feel like your my brother from a white mother!… I’m reading the same book right now, what chapter are you on?” It was one of many small parallels of our lives we drew though the night. Enjoying the conversation with him was one of the highlights of my safari trip. I look at my watch and it’s nearly 3am. Wake up call was at 6:00. When we called it a night we strategically agreed to NOT exchange contact info and like one of our mutually favorite adventure books, The Alchemist, as it is written in the stars our paths should cross again someday. He went by the name David, which wasn’t his real name. I never even got his last name.

That morning we headed for Chobe National Park which is our last game viewing opportunity of the trip. It proved to be the most abundant. We have a river cruise that got real up close and personal with elephants, buffaloes, impalas, springboks, hippos and crocodiles.

I won’t go through the entire list again of what all I saw over the 3 weeks, but will instead say the only things left in Africa to see are wild dogs, meerkats and the cheetah. The following day we have a long and tedious border crossing into Zimbabwe that put everyone’s patience to the test. About an hour and a half into waiting in the hot sun our driver, and my homey, Norman is starting to lose his shit. I give him one of my iPod earbuds which at the time just happens to be playing Bobby Mcfarrin’s “Don’t Worry Be Happy”. It proved effective enough to change his mood and we were both humming the tune for hours following the crossing. By noon we had arrived and were settling down at our final destination, Victoria Falls.

Much like our stop in Swakopmund there was a list of activities to choose from in Victoria Falls. White water rafting the class 5 rapids on the mighty Zambezi river was my priority. Other activities included an elephant park, lion walk, canyon swing and the infamous Zambezi Bridge bungy jump. Infamous because last year the rope snapped on an Australian lady who fell into the croc infested river, but survived. I had remembered seeing this on YouTube even. I brought it up to the salesman offering it as an option just to watch him stammer and fumble around for an excuse, which was not sufficient. I passed on that one. What I did want to do and tried to book was the crocodile cage dive. Unfortunately because the white water rafting was an all day activity, that was all I had time for before crossing another border into Zambia for my flight the following day. I booked the rafting then headed to check out the falls. Victoria Falls is breathtaking. Anyone in Africa will tell you it’s the largest in the world, but after leaving I researched it a bit to find this is heavily debated. Many consider Iguazu Falls bordering Argentina and Brazil to be the largest by volume. At any rate it was unbelievably impressive to witness, despite it being the dry season and having considerably less flow than the rainy season. The suns rays shining through the evaporating mist created a perfect 180 degree rainbow from one end of the falls to the other which is one of the most spectacular sights I have ever seen.

For the rafting trip I was joined by the Australian couple Leroy and Jade. I spent most of the 3 weeks with them, as we were the only 3 people that spoke English as a first language. I’ve gotten to be close to them and was happy to spend the final day braving the rapids together. My past experience white water rating included the Colorado River as a kid that I don’t remember being too turbulent and Rio Torro in Costa Rica that had some decent class 3 rapids, enough for me to get tossed from the raft at one point. The Zambezi is on another level. When we were starting out someone asks the guide what are the chances of us falling in. The answer? 100%. He said everyone will be thrown from the raft at some point today and the chances flipping the raft and capsizing entirely is 99.99%. We took on a total of 23 rapids over 6 hours in the river. A few warm up class 1’s and 2’s, a 3 and 4 sprinkled in, but the overwhelming majority were legitimize class 5’s, which is as high as it gets for commercial rafting. By the 4th rapid I was the sole survivor that had yet to go swimming. And then the big boys came. We capsized twice and both times had to scramble back in the boat for the next approaching rapid that we managed just in time. Leroy and I were loving it, but by the end of the day Jade looked like she was ready to break off their engagement and never understood how he convinced her to agree to it in the first place. After all we did see a crocodile on the bank of the river at one point. A sunset cruise on the calmer part of the river is how we ended the trip. We took full advantage of the open bar after a long hard day. I enjoyed the winding down so much that my camera stayed in my pocket the whole time and I kept the memory of that Zambezi sunset for myself.

When I booked the safari it did not come without second guessing. The main reason is that I maintained determination for finding the “real” Africa and I knew this was going to be more picnic than adventure, making me slightly hypocritical. It was a sampling size of many places that we rushed through, as opposed to staying to get to know somewhere which I am also against and finally the commitment of 3 weeks is about 2.5 weeks longer than I like to plan for anything. In spite of spending the time with other than my ideal demographic I enjoyed the mix of people. Even the group of French retirees added a little comic relief that made the group dynamic a bit more interesting. The moving around gave me the opportunity to see many places that I wouldn’t have otherwise visited and the 21 days ended up being just about the perfect time. Any longer I probably wouldn’t advise. Toward the end I found myself becoming annoyed and losing patience with some of the group members, but knowing I only had a few days left helped me shake things off a bit. Overall I would give the tour a definite recommendation if you have the time… Next stop for me is 1 of earths “7 summits”, Tanzania’s Mt. Kilimanjaro.

Bob