Off to Antelope Park

Today was a sleep in day where we only had to be ready for breakfast at 7am.  Everyone actually seems to be getting into the groove and we’ve got the routine figured out pretty well.  Packed and fed we stopped at a sculptor’s market on the side of the road to pick up any souvenirs we wanted.  It was nice to get them right from the source and support the local people.  We bought a chess board and a few other carvings leaving $5 for Jenna’s elephant carving she had picked out.  I felt bad as we had no more money but some South African rand so I pulled that out and asked if that was okay.  Her reply was, “do you have socks?” which I guess would seal the deal!  We didn’t have any socks out but Alyssa had a pair of shorts that were too small and that was enough for the transaction.  We also dug out a dress of Alyssa’s to give her as we wanted it to go to a needed home and we figured we found one.  I think Alyssa felt pretty good knowing it was going to someone in need.

The wealth in Zimbabwe, or lack of it, is very noticeable as soon as you cross the border.  All the houses are small round huts with thatch and the odd time there is a square, more finished house.  It appears to be most people here are subsistent farming with long walks to a common well for water.  Very different from South Africa. 

It sounds like Zimbabwe was one of the wealthiest countries in Africa until the white farmers lands were taken back and things were redistributed to all.  Many of the large farms employed many people and there was a thriving export market that brought money and jobs to the country.  It sounds like by dividing things up, people focused on more subsistence farming and there are fewer jobs and less export than there once was.  This is just what I’ve gleaned from numerous conversations.  We continued on our way to our final destination of Antelope Park which will be our home for the next two nights.

Antelope Park is pretty interesting as it’s a small private game reserve where they are trying to reintroduce lions back into a number of national parks where they’ve been removed in the past.  The concept is to get lions raised in captivity from cubs and raise them slowly getting them to hunt on their own.  The groups are raised together by their age and the yearlings (up to 16 months) do the walk with people and their handlers where they are raised as the subordinate members with the handlers being the dominant.  The second years are fed and have prey in their enclosure.  The prey animals  are slowly picked off as the lions learn to hunt and work together.  The third years are taken out into the park at night to hunt with a vehicle as the lead and once prey is found the lions will stalk and kill at times. 

Once these animals are 36 months, they will be put into a no human interaction pen with a male introduced after the lionesses have established the pecking order in their new enclosure.  They tried it the other way around with the male in first but he killed a number of lionesses so they’re trying it the other way this time.  The idea is that the offspring of these lions will be released into the wild where they have been taught to hunt by their parents but have never had human interaction as obviously that’s the tricky part of this scenario.  Of course all this costs a pile of money so the way they pay for it is through volunteers working and all the interactive activities they have here.  It’s also marketed as you can help the lions by paying for the interactive activities and get to see the animals at the same time.

They also have four elephants, five giraffes, a bunch of zebra, wilder beasts and antelope, the later three providing food for the lions.  As we got the tour of the camp, the elephants were on their daily walk around the lake.  It was really cool to see them grazing as well as a few going for a swim and almost fully submerging themselves with just their trunks above the water.  After we were invited up for Lion Day which is a fundraiser for lions that the park runs where they were playing volleyball and had a bucking bronco.  We ended up playing soccer with our crew in a game that got a bit more competitive than planned.  We had one injured shoulder, Jenna got tackled by one of the younger guys on the tour and possibly bruised her ribs as well as a number of bumps, cuts and bruises.  It was pretty fun but we decided it was time to call it after a few overzealous bumps on some of the kids. 

Back at camp we had to decide what activities we wanted to do as this is all extras from our safari.  We figured we’d do the Elephant Interaction, Horseback game drive and I’m going to do the Night Encounter with the lions!  Should be a pretty interesting day tomorrow! 

Entering Zimbabwe

 Today is the earliest day yet and probably the earliest ever for the girls... 3:30 am!!!  We were told the border entering into Zimbabwe can be a bit chaotic and some tours have sat 12 hours waiting to get through so we had to get an early start to beat the masses.  We broke camp and grabbed some food to jump back on the bus.  It was pretty quiet as no one was nearly awake yet.  Initially I was thinking he was overplaying the whole border crossing but oh, was I wrong!

The country side in Zimbabwe and crazy rock outcrops.

As we approached the border, the line ups started commercial trucks in one line and us with cars in the other.  Our driver, Jacob did some fancy manoeuvring to get us up to the South African immigration desk.  We all jumped off the bus with our passports and birth certificates for the girls to be herded into a line and told to face forward.... wow, a little power tripping going on!  A number of the immigration officers were just sitting around chatting and the supervisor was right in there telling stories and really not that interested in stamping any passports.  One guy was actually working while the other three were sitting around until finally a second decided they might find their stamp and start working.  We all cleared that side and we were off to no man’s land trying to get into Zimbabwe.  Half way there!

In rural Zimbabwe, this is the average home.

Getting over to the other side was complete chaos.  Once again Jacob found the perfect spot for the bus and we all shuffled off to try to get our tourist visas.  Once in line Brendan and Flow went up to see if they could fast track us through the line out the door and around the corner.  They came back with tourist cards and we all filed back onto the bus to fill out the information.  Once we had all the forms and money we headed back in just to be told to head back to the bus.  Brendan collected all the passports, forms and money to present them to the agent and was told to go back to the bus and relax and they’d be done in a while!  He hung around keeping an eye on our stuff only to find out half an hour later she hadn’t even started processing them.  We found out pretty quick that you do what you’re told or things will go much slower than you want!  Hanging out in the bus waiting for our visas, we watch bus after bus get searched, ripping all the gear out of the bus and trailer to be left to repack.  After a few hours, Brendan was presented with two thirds of the passports and told the rest were coming.  So here we are, no Canadian’s got their passports back and we’re in no man’s land. 

Great Zimbabwe, the king's residence.

The other piece to this story is that Canadians have to pay $75US per person for visas into Zimbabwe while everyone else, including Americans only have to pay $30 to $55.  Apparently a Canadian minister made some comments about the politics in Zimbabwe and since then we now have to pay way more than anyone else to visit the country!  So wondering if we would see our passports, another half hour Brendan popped out of the office with the rest of passports!  On to the next hurdle.

So the final gauntlet was the search area.  We made our way to the green zone and just kept weaving through the vehicles.  It’s incredible for a busy crossing like this has one lane of traffic and people park and get pulled over everywhere.  You couldn’t even call it organized chaos!  Finally, we made it to the gate and up it went and we were clear!  A cheer went up in the bus and off we were, it only took 3 hours.

The crazy thick stone walls and pillar of Great Zimbabwe.

The rest of the day was travel

The view from our tent on our first day in Zimbabwe.

with a stop at Great Zimbabwe where the old kings (eight in all) lived and ruled from 1200 to around 1600.  The palace was all made of huge stone wall that were 6 meters wide at the bottom and tapered to 3 meters at the top.  There were thousands of tonnes of rock moved and dry stacked, it was quite impressive.  The king lived at the top of the hill while all his 200 plus wives lived at the base of the hill and serviced their king as needed.  That, combined with his 1000 children was a sign of the king’s power and leadership.... and sex drive!  Once the tour was done, we packed up to head to our next campsite which overlooked a manmade lake with an incredible view of the African landscape.  Showers, food and a few beers and we were all pretty tired from the full day and early start.

Cross Country in South Africa

We left Kruger nice and early

Top of Bryde Canyon

with the routine being; wake, pack, drop tent all before breakfast, then eat, wash dishes, brush teeth, pack truck and we’re off.  The bus climbed hard out of Kruger Park and we got some incredible views of the valleys.  Forestry is very prevalent here and it is all multi-aged mono cultures where ever you look.  Pine and some kind of hardwood covered the hills and every last piece of land is utilized for timber.  There were a number of commercial thinning at various stages and they utilize everything, right down to small poles that they use for roof rafters and fence posts.

The landscape and logging in the area.

Our first stop was at a pancake house which we had to test to see it really lived up to its name of ‘world famous pancakes”.  It was definitely worth the stop and Jenna and I both enjoyed our real coffee as we’ve been drinking instant coffees since Turkey.  The area was also know for its Billtong which is like jerky and pepperoni but oh man, its good.  Cheap too.  So everyone on the bus loaded up on Billtong and we exchanged flavours throughout the drive.

Monkey at Bryde Canyon.

Our next stop was the upper Bryde River Canyon where there was a short hiking trail down to the river.  The canyon has been cut down over the years with smooth holes cut from smaller rocks and the water action.  It really reminded us of a canyon in Waterton Park back home.  It was really nice and would have been great to stay a bit longer but we’re on a tight schedule on this trip!  So we were off to the lower canyon where we had great vistas of the area.

That evening’s camp was a spot just off the highway where there was nothing of note, except for the huge warthog that the people had as a pet and when it died they had it stuffed.  I think it’s the biggest warthog known in South Africa.  I was amazed at how many people were camping there when there was nothing special around.  The gear they have is pretty impressive too.

Off the next morning, we had to stop for our next grocery shop, getting enough food for the next few days.  Duncan and I volunteered to push carts for Muma Flow as she did her shop and wow, what a laugh.  This firey black woman grabbing hand fulls of food and talking to herself along the way.  At first I tried replying to her and got the, “shut up, darling, no talk.”  A few minutes later, she’s saying, “what, why don’t you help me, I’m asking you a question!” 

Top of trail behind campsite.

Duncan and I just looked at each other, shrugged our shoulders and laughed.  Flow sure adds the spice to crew!  With four buggies in tow, we headed for the checkout counter where it was only 6400 rand!  Back to the truck to pack and off we went.

Our camp for the night was a hot spring where we had time to setup and then had the afternoon off. We all headed over to the hot pools for a soak and the kids tried the cold pool which was cold we were told but they had a blast playing games and were in and out all afternoon.  The kids are sure having fun, that’s for sure.  We tried the hot, hot pools that they advertise great for arthritis and other like ailments but it was just a little too hot and had lots of floaties.  Not quite the same standard as at home.  It was great to relax and hang out with the crew.  Michael even gave a couple of black ladies a swimming lesson and they could swim from one side of the pool to the other by the time he was done.

Hiking above the campsite.

Before dinner we all decided to do a short hike up the hill above the camp.  All the families banded together and off we went.  It took a bit to find the trail head but once we crossed the fence line we were well on our way.  Right away we saw some Impala hiding in the bushes and passed some cranky baboons on the way back but we were proud that we all made it up and back again with not a scratch and made it back before night fall.  The views from the top were amazing and we hung out for a bit and took photos before it was time to head down before it got dark.  It sure happens quick around here.

Once we were back we all had a few beers and chatted before dinner.  There was a nasty rumour going around that our start time for tomorrow was before 4 am.  As Muma Flow said it’s not a holiday, it’s an adventure!  Think she nailed it on that one!  Dinner and clean up and we were all heading for the sleeping bags.  The younger crew are talking about pulling an all nighter but we’ll see how long they last!

Elephants, Lions and Rhinos oh My!

As our cook (muma Flo) said...this is an adventure not a holiday!  At 4:15 am I was awake and at 5:15 am we were starting to take down tents and help with breakfast.  We were excited to begin the day as this was the day we were hoping to find some animals.  Apparently Kruger National Park has a lot of animals so we were hoping we would be lucky enough to see a few.  Our guide really pushed the private game drives (extra cost) which made us unsure if we would see much at all but we remained optimistic.

Our truck was limited to the main road throughout the park but we were not disappointed!  Our first sighting was a heard of Zebras and the fun started.  All the kids were running from window to window yelling “Zebra” trying to get a good look.  Next we came across a couple of cheetahs next to the road marking their territory.  Not too much further we saw lions checking out a heard of buffalo..  The buffalo are different than those in Canada and apparently they can be extremely dangerous especially if they are old males.  Before we stopped for lunch we saw Elephants and some White Rhinos.  Kruger has two types of Rhinos, the White Rhino and the Black Rhino.  The White Rhinos tend to travel in groups and are more docile than the Black Rhinos.  We still need to find a black one. 

We stopped for lunch in a

Lions stalking buffalo.

large complex within the park that had some pretty nice accommodation and a number of shops and restaurants.  While we were there we saw a warthog hanging about that Alyssa and her new friend Amelia named “Pumba” (off of the Lion King movie).  We also saw some fruit bats hanging under the eaves of a building close to where we sat to eat.  Jenna spotted a very colourful bird which we were told was common in the area.  After a few minutes looking in the gift shop the girls found a couple of souvenirs and it was time to head back on the truck. 

We continued our journey through the park and were happy to see giraffe and some more Elephants.  I am hoping we will get more opportunities to see giraffes as the one we saw was by itself and a little ways away from the truck.  The Elephants are so majestic and Jenna’s favourite animal so far.  Long tailed monkeys, Impala, Bushbuck, and Steenbok also made their presence known.  What an incredible day and it is only day one! It was a little quieter on the way home as everyone was a little tired from the early morning and from eating lunch. 

Once we were back at camp the kids were anxious to go for a swim in the pool so off we went.  The pool was quite cold so they didn’t stay too long in there but they still had a lot of fun.   A few of us parents sat and chatted for awhile before it was time to head back to the camp.  Later that evening everyone shared stories and photos of what we saw as a number of people went on the private game drives.  I think we were all on a bit of a high from the excitement of the day!  With another early day ahead we all headed to bed after a great day!

Safari!!!!

Our bus and the crew.

It was still pitch black out when the alarms started to sound and Jenna was really impressed getting woken up at the “ungodly hour”!  Breakfast, packing of the truck, and we were off, heading toward Kruger National Park.  The rig we’re in is bigger than the cab of a semi as we look down upon them when we pass.  There are windows in the front and a big seating area around a table in the front then the rest is normal bus seating.  Storage is below the riding compartment and it’s a pretty solid unit.  Sure gives for nice views.

Our rig at Kruger Park.

The crew on the bus is pretty funny.  The Tasmania clan are great and I get along really well with both Duncan and Andrea.  He’s got a great Aussi accent and has the sense of humour to go with it.  Fabricio and Kiara, the Italian family are super friendly and Fabricio is super keen to hear what we do and absolutely loves Canada.  He has been two times now and has a ton of Canadian clothing that they sport all the time.  Michael is the French guy with an older girl and boy and totally reminds me of Ken Bibby.  Every time he talks I think of Ken and his hilarious French accent. 

Our tent/home for the next 22 days!

He’s a complete character and between him and Duncan, they provide the entertainment along the way.  There are a number of couples to.  There’s a bit of separation between the two groups but I’m sure everyone will come around over time.  We’ve got one American, six Aussis, two Brits and two Canadians.  There are a couple quite flamboyant guys on the trip from Australia who are pretty comical to listen to.  Two recently married couples are also here so it’ll be interesting if 23 days with our kids provides a good birth control measure!

We eventually stopped for groceries on the way out and grabbed a few last things and then then drove out to the park.  The landscape sure changes as we left the city and progressed through the high savannah into timberlands and eventually moved into that classic African scrub with the heavily branched trees that you can look out and see dotting the countryside.  We made Kruger by 3 pm as there was an option to go out on a night game drive.  We opted out of it as they’re pretty expensive and we thought we’d see what we see from our game drive tomorrow.  We did get treated to seeing some Impala and Kudu as soon as we entered the park and our compound/campground has a water hole by the bar that has a number of hippo in it so the wildlife is pretty abundant!

The resident hippo family meters from the pool.

Everyone came back from the night safari pretty excited as they saw giraffe, elephant, as well as a cheetah that was hunting and both black and white Rhinoceros.  It sounded pretty cool so we might have to try that on our way back through Kruger.  We all got assigned our tents so Shan and Jenna are in one and Alyssa and I have the other.  Sitting around over a few beers we discovered we’re a pretty diverse group but everyone is pretty likeminded and I think it’s going to be a pretty incredible trip together.  We shut it down early as we all have to be up for breakfast at 5:30am.  Sure that’s going to go over well!

Apartheid from Afar

Today we decided to give Jenna the morning off and let her sleep all morning.  The plan was to make sure we had everything we needed for the safari and didn’t want to do a tour as we figured we’d have enough of that over the next few weeks.  Got everything washed and pulled out everything we didn’t need to leave at the hostel, Shan’s pack is looking pretty light!  We got everything done early and had some time to spare so we hired Gloria to pick us up and take us to the Apartheid Museum. I had heard it was worth visiting but didn’t want to take a tour so this worked out for both of us.

Alyssa in the Apartheid Museseum.

The museum was pretty incredible to see and made me realize that it wasn’t that long ago when all this took place.  It was good to see the movie Invictus to understand the story of Nelson Mandela but this gave a lot more of the history and showed just how crazy it was.  To see the hatred, segregation and turmoil the country was in and to have someone come in and unite all the people made you realize just how incredible of a task it was.  Near the end of the museum they also had a section of the mistakes that were made throughout the times just so you see that he wasn’t perfect but hey, who is!  The whole exhibition was very well done and was a great tribute to Nelson Mandela, well worth the visit.

A tribute to Nelson Mandela.

On the way home with Gloria we got talking about how things were back in the days.  She was a 58 year old grandmother who has seen a lot and it was incredible to hear her unedited, black perspective by someone who lived through it.  It’s one thing reading panels on the wall and seeing photos and then a whole other hearing it through someone who has lived it!  Wow, Gloria is already an outgoing, boisterous, proud South African and she didn’t hold back (guess we’ve built up a bit of a connection over the last two days).  The biggest part of the whole Apartheid history is reconciliation and being able to forgive.  She said a number of times, so long as people are truly sorry for some of the inequality that took place and don’t forget that it happened, everyone is human and deserves a chance in the world.  That got us onto another topic that seems to be a real problem here as in many other areas, illegal immigrants.

Outside the Apartheid Museum.

Apparently, the number of refugees and illegal immigrants coming into South Africa is a real issue.  South Africans have enough issues with the past and employment and now all these other immigrant are coming in and taking lower wages for jobs that black South Africans are currently working at (not only here but a European issue too).  The average physical labour job is 100 rand a day ($10 cdn) where people are taking 20 rand as illegals.  That’s two dollars a day!   Gloria was also saying that most of the crime in the area is also by these immigrants as they are not safe in the shanty towns so they hide out during the daylight hours and come out to try to survive at night.  Not sure if that’s what’s actually happening but makes you realize how major of an issue it is.   Her feeling was that the black South Africans have fought for their country and that is part of the reason she is so proud.  Her take is that the people immigrating need to fight for their own country to make it liveable....  Interesting take.

The rest of the day was an overview on the trip with our safari lead, Brendan; cook, Momma Flow; and driver, Jacob.  There are 26 people on the tour going up to Victoria Falls and 27 coming back down.  All the families are doing the 23 day tour up and back as we are so it’ll be fun to watch the kids evolve.  The Italians and French have a little English but not a ton but their parents both want them to learn.  Hopefully and opportunity for our kids to learn more French and Italiano.  Tomorrow is a nice early day with a 6:30 start so it’ll be interesting to see how the girls do, looks like lots of early days ahead of us!

The African Express....

Well, I don’t know if you could actually call it the African Express... more the African putt putt.  It does kind of have that sound as we chug down the tracks.  It will take a total of 26 hours with somewhere around 14 stops along the way.  I’ll tell you how much I like train travel when we get to the other side!

Sunrise from our deck in Simon's Town.

The day started out at the crack of 6:30 to rouse the girls and get out the door.  We said goodbye to Pauline who came out to say goodbye, what an amazing hostess.  We had to get the rental car back and hit the hike down a few blocks to the train station.  Everything went without a hitch thanks to my co-pilot Alyssa and we found the rental place, fuelled the car and found the train station all in good time before our train departure.  It helped that it was early Sunday morning and the streets weren’t busy at all.

Our home for 28 hours!

We found our train car and berth and wow, there’s way more room in those things then I thought.  We had lots of room for the packs and dropped both bunk beds which gave us all room to spread out.  The day started out pretty cool so the girls decided to test out their new sleeping bags which all got the thumbs up.  After a little nap and some cribbage, Alyssa and I headed down to find the dining car.  It was pretty posh, so we had pop and beers and enjoyed the view passing by.  I couldn’t believe it, they don’t even try gouging you once you’re on and two pop and a large can beer was less than 40 Rand or $4 canadian. 

On the train they were saying the first class is in the back with second class at the front.  Turns out its not first class or second class but sleeper units and seats only.  The dining cart separates the front passengers with the back and there is a great presence of employees.  I did see one guy getting escorted to the back of the train in handcuffs so you’ve got to watch but they’re definitely on top of things.

Alyssa's favourite spot.

The evening went off without much excitement but we did all head up to the dining car for dinner.  It was beautiful to watch the sun set as we trundled down the tracks.  The dining car is a pretty good way to see through the big windows and comfy seating.  We met a number of other travellers and we found a great place to sit and chat while watching South Africa go by.  After dinner we headed back to our berth as there really wasn’t much to see in the dark.  We all read for a bit and it must have been at least 8pm by the time I was ready to crash and couldn’t read anymore.  The big change in darkness has sure messed with my mind as in Turkey it was dark around 11pm and now its dark by 6:30.

We awoke to much of the same so I let the girls sleep as I went up to the dining cart for coffee and watch the sun rise.  The girls joined me for breakfast and eventually it was time to pack up as we neared Johannesburg.  I noticed a couple of things as you near the main towns.  Whenever you get close to a shanty town, first you start to see women with huge piles of wood and branches on their heads and then as you get closer, there garbage everywhere.  You can also see where people have gone through all the bags and often there are people rummaging through the piles.  I guess like they say; one man’s garbage is another’s treasure.

Snow on the peaks as we cross South Africa.  Didn't expect that!

We got off the train in Johannesburg and I was told by a couple of people on the train to keep everyone and everything close.  It was a bit intimidating and at one time I notices a police officer following us.  He ended up turning a different direction after the escalator but its interesting how the spidy senses go up.  Not sure if we needed to be that vigulent but everything was good in the end and Gloria picked us up to take us to Mufasa’s Backpackers.

Still on the train.

On the way to the hostel, we got a run down of all the people that Gloria had picked up from the airport that were going to  be on our tour.  Sounds like there are three other families from all over the and she told us about all the people that rave about the trip.  Can’t wait!  Once at the hostel, we got  our room and met all the families.  One dad with a boy and girl (14 & 16) from France, family of two girls from Tasmania (9&11) and a family with two boys from Italy (8&10), should make for a fun mix of kids and ages.  Alyssa immediately bonded with Amelia and her little sister Tilda from Australia and were chasing dogs and climbing trees all over the yard.

We finished the night with ordering delivery pizza and hanging out at the hostel with the rest of the crew.  Everyone is super outgoing and they’re all character... should be a pretty fun trip.  Our meeting is tomorrow, where we meet the rest of the tour and our guides.