Africa 2008

Into Africa – Wildlife, Plants, People

May – June 2008

Kenneth Alan Collins

Lilac-breasted roller, Botswana

Introduction

From May 5 to June 8, 2008, David and I booked two back-to-back African trips offered as a jumbo package by Overseas Adventure Travel (OAT), a well-known tour operator that advertises itself as offering small-group (up to 16) trips all over the world for an over-50 crowd (though one does find some clients below that age threshold).

We had never traveled with OAT before, but had had good recommendations from various acquaintances whom we trusted as experienced travelers. Our two trips were:

· Ultimate Africa (Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe)

· Best of Kenya and Tanzania

We flew to Johannesburg as the jumping off point for Ultimate Africa, then when the first trip was over, flew back (from Victoria Falls) to Johannesburg, and then the next day flew from there to Nairobi, to begin the second trip.

The first trip began in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, where we immediately took off by bus to Chobe National Park, Botswana. From there we got around by small plane, to, in order, Mudumu National Park in the Caprivi Strip of Namibia (consult your maps) on the Kwando River, then to the Moremi Game Reserve in Botswana (on the edge of the Okavango Delta) and then to Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe, this country’s largest and most famous national park. We ended the trip spending several days in the town of Victoria Falls, and having opportunities to get up close and personal with the Falls, the famous Victoria Falls Hotel, and taking a sunset cruise on the Zambezi River (the fourth longest in Africa after the Nile, Niger, and Congo) just above the Falls.

Victoria Falls (Zimbabwe) with mist

On the second trip, after a day visiting Nairobi and outskirts (for example, the Karen Blixen Museum, her former home), we traveled, rmainly overland, to the Sweetwater Game Reserve, just to the west of, and in view of Mt. Kenya, 2nd highest in Africa, then all the way south to Amboseli National Park, which has the best view of Mt. Kilimanjaro (even though it is in Kenya), and then on into Tanzania to explore Tarangire National Park, Lake Manyara National Park, Ngorongoro Crater, Oldupai Gorge, and finally our last four days, in Serengeti National Park. We flew from Serengeti in a small plane to Arusha (where the Rwanda War Crimes Trial is being held) and from there, flew home out of Kilimanjaro Airport, about 40 miles away. We never saw Mt. Kilimanjaro from Amboseli National Park – a big disappointment – but as if consciously making amends, the great snow-covered mountain was visible at sunset as we were driven from Arusha to the Kilimanjaro Airport, for a spectacular trip send-off.

Comparison of the Two Trips

For all the obvious similarities of two wildlife viewing trips, Ultimate Africa (southern Africa) and Best of Kenya and Tanzania (East Africa) had some significant differences. Some of these differences will be covered in the sections ahead, so I won’t dwell on them here.

Scenically, East Africa was much more beautiful than anywhere we were in southern Africa with the specific exception of Victoria Falls. The area of the Ultimate Africa trip was the region where Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe come close together is somewhat scrubby, dry looking (we were two months into the dry season by early May), and mostly flat. The main scenic interest was offered by the river corridors – the Kwando, Chobe, and Zambezi Rivers, and the Okavango Delta region and the watery environment and marshes along the banks. Winter days were warm and nights were quite chilly (we were bundled up for early morning game drives).

East Africa is mountains and rolling terrain and much of the area we were in was at 5,000 – 7,000 feet, so it was cool and damp. We were in close proximity of three of Africa’s highest mountains – Mt. Kenya, Kilimanjaro, and Mt. Meru (outside Arusha, Tanzania). Besides these huge summits, were many mountain ranges, dark green coffee plantations, and lush semi-temperate forests, as well as some large lakes.

There was a lot of overlap in the big mammals between the two trips, but the major difference was that we tended to see larger herds in East Africa. The southern Africa park closest in this sense to the East Africa parks was Hwange in Zimbabwe.

However, our sense of being alone and off the tourist track was great in southern Africa and non-existent in Kenya and Tanzania. On our game drives in the parks of southern Africa – often in private reserves – we rarely encountered any other vehicles. In contrast, in East Africa (especially in Serengeti National Park) there was a constant flow of traffic (raising lots of dust as an unpleasant corollary effect).

The weather was consistently cloudless and brilliantly clear in southern Africa, as we were two months into the dry season. In East Africa it was cool and damp, often with a great deal of moist mist settling over the mountains and often heavy clouds directly over us. We arrived in East Africa at the tail end of the major rainy season and even had occasional light rain. Considering how lush it is, being there as the dry season was starting meant we got to enjoy the lushness before it all went sere and completely dusty.

We found people friendly everywhere, but I made what might be some snap judgments. I found the Zimbabweans we encountered the best educated and most sophisticated of any of the nationals (which makes their country’s brutal tragedy all the sadder), and the Tanzanians the warmest and least aggressive (they gained their independence with a minimum of violence). Botswana is the most economically advanced, has the most advanced infrastructure, and the most professional civil service – in short, it seemed closest to a first-world country – quiet, unassertive, but getting on with its future. (In all this I except South Africa, where we were briefly, and which is clearly the industrial, financial, and economic powerhouse of Africa).

The Industrialization of African Game Trips

In Kenya and Tanzania, there are numerous tented camps and lodges (hotels) accommodating large numbers of tourists. Each lodge can have up to 70 -80 rooms and most of the visitors are part of package or group tours. The “routine” is almost identical at all of them:

· Welcome drink and moist (sometimes hot) washclothes upon arrival;

· Warm “Jambo” from all staff at all times;

· Buffet meals featuring very similar foods and approaches to serving, inclusive in the cost, with alcoholic drinks always extra;

· Visitors in their idea of Bwana safari dress, especially given the often sloppy approach to dressing and the overweight body shapes of many.

· Prohibition to wander off the grounds – only vehicle drives permitted;

· The sense that there is an assembly line element to it all – the staff sees large groups coming and going, day after day after day.

This was much less true in the southern Africa trip where we stayed in dedicated tented camps that were in remote wilderness areas. These had a much more authentic experience and the staff seemed less jaded, although it is entirely possible that they hid such feelings extremely well.

It is definitely possible to go on a customized trip where one stays in very remote, very upscale lodges on very large, private reserves and never mingles with the reality of mass tourism, but such trips, as we learned when we made initial inquiries and asked for estimates, are extremely expensive.

Africans

Below is a summary of some of the salient characteristics we will recall about the Africans we got to know. It should be obvious that our impressions were tremendously positive:

· Soft-spoken in contrast to loud, boisterous voices of Americans;

· Friendly, polite, gentle, patient;

· Saw hundreds of children at schools and not one showed any sign of childhood obesity, unlike the situation in the U.S.;

· Even the most modern Africans by Western standards seem to also abide by very strong African traditions such as the approach to marriage arrangements as outlined by Valentine Gumpo, (our Trip Leader for the entire Ultimate Africa trip) using his personal experience as a typical example;

· Everyone we dealt with spoke several (sometimes many) languages and came across as well-educated;

· Pervasive excitement about Barack Obama’s candidacy – in every country, many would approach us, thumbs up, say “Obama” with a big smile, and wait expectantly for us to return the warmth of their excitement with an affirmation of our support (which, fortunately for us, was easy to do):

· Difficult to square our individual dealings with Africans with all the horrors of dictatorships, ethnic conflicts and murderous behavior, civil wars, corruption.

AIDS and the Family in Africa

The family in its most extended sense is the core unit throughout sub-Saharan Africa and within that, support and succor can always be expected. In fact, one’s father’s brothers and sisters are not called “aunt” or “uncle” but “father,” “mother,” and one’s cousins (on the paternal side) are called “brothers” and “sisters” – this is because the nuclear family as we know it is really not the African concept of family, which is broader and to an extent, deeper. Regardless of how geographically separate one is from other family members, one is always expected to share and assist to the extent needed and able.

What is interesting is the mix of Western modernity from the colonial rulers combined with the old traditions, which live on in large urban settings.

The ravages of AIDS connect with this. In all the countries we visited, the phenomenon of “AIDS orphans” is a sobering fact of life – children who have lost both parents to AIDS. Most countries – with the exception of Uganda – were (and still are) terribly belated in acknowledging the reality of AIDS and its transmission causes. One of our Trip Leaders had four children with his wife – two biologically their own and two adopted. One of the adoptees was an AIDS orphan. He told us the story of the parents and it was a sad one indeed. With so much less than we have our Trip Leaders (and so many others) manage to provide for so many others on their modest earnings.

Game Drives

I should say the word “game” conveys the same sense as “timber” – a resource. I prefer wildlife

With few exceptions, game drives are literally that – drives in vehicles. In southern Africa, it was an open-sided (but covered) Land Rover with a front row for driver-guide and Trip Leader, and two or three additional rows, usually stepped for easy front and side viewing. This was a very satisfactory arrangement. Also, in southern Africa, we were often on private reserves that bordered national parks, and on the private reserves we were permitted to drive off-road, which the Land Rovers were very capable of doing.

In East Africa, we were in either a van with a roof that could be raised (Kenya) or a Toyota Landcruiser (Tanzania), which a roof that could be raised. In both the van and Landcruiser, once the roof was raised, one could stand up during the drives. I found these vehicles less suitable for game viewing and general comfort than the Land Rovers. Furthermore, in East Africa we were always in national parks or on conservancy land which off-road driving was not permitted.

Both in southern Africa and East Africa we were rarely permitted outside the vehicle. This was for two reasons – dangers large and small that might be lurking, and to not disturb wildlife which has become accustomed to vehicles (and thus not spooked) but tends to get frightened by individual human beings.

As a result, we probably got less exercise on this trip than any trip we have ever taken, urban, rural, or adventure. Quite ironic!

Game drives followed a very predictable pattern, one of two. We either went out twice in a day (if we were at a camp that entire day), early in the morning (between 6:30 – 7:30 a.m. departure) and stayed out for 3 – 5 hours, and then went out again in late afternoon, 4:00 – 4:30 p.m. departure, returning around 6:30 p.m. (or 7:30 p.m. if a night drive was included). The other pattern was to leave at 7:30 a.m., have a box lunch provided for us, and stay out all day until around 4:00 p.m.

We were in the African winter (we were well below the Equator in southern Africa and on or just south of it in Kenya and northern Tanzania) so the days were at their shortest and coolest.

The Trip Leader would alternate between the two vehicles our groups (“groups” referring to the group on our southern Africa trip and the group on our East Africa trip) were distributed between, so we either were with the Driver-Guide and the Trip Leader or just the Driver-Guide alone. Both knew all the roads inside out, and were extremely well-versed in all the plant and wildlife, from insects to birds to reptiles to trees, not to speak of the large animals.

We were incredulous that a Driver-Guide, while driving the vehicle over rough and bumpy sandy tracks could spot wildlife off in the distance or up in a tree at up to 1000 feet distant and it would sometimes take us a minute or more, with our binoculars, to see what he had stopped for. Most memorable was a night drive, when one of the vehicles was returning in the dark at a relatively fast speed and the driver spotted, off in a tree branch covered with thick foliage, a 4-inch chameleon disguised the color of the leaves! Their spotting skills were never less than exceptional.

Wildlife

What we managed to see exceed all our expectations, since David and I feel we are the “curse of death” on any trip oriented towards spotting rare creatures. Inevitably groups the day before us and the day after us see the sought after creature, but the group we are with never does, and we feel we jinx it all.

However, on these two trips we could not complain. We not only saw the “Big 5” (explained shortly) but an incredible spectrum of other creatures large and small, including the most amazing number of birds, many spectacular.

The “Big 5” (that’s the actual term used!) that everyone wants to check off are elephant, Cape buffalo, lion, leopard, and rhinoceros. We saw uncounted numbers of elephant and Cape buffalo (the most dangerous of the large animals) and quite a number of lions. Leopard is difficult to spot, so seeing it twice in southern Africa and twice in East Africa was a treat, as they are regal creatures. Once on each trip we saw them at close range. Rhinoceros was the most elusive but we did see, at a distance, a black rhinoceros (there are also the larger and even rarer white rhinoceros, which we did not spot) and its baby, in Ngorongoro Crater (Tanzania).

In addition, we saw so many other wonderful creatures – cheetah, hippopotamus, giraffe, zebra, hyena, bat-eared fox, rock hyrax, warthog, black-backed jackal, and many many species of antelope from the tiny dik-dik to the enormous eland and the delicate, graceful Thomson’s gazelle.

Birds, for me, were one of the unexpected (though I’d been alerted) thrills and highlights of the trip. Fortunately, the Trip Leaders and Driver-Guides knew their birds inside out, and with their help I managed to rack up an incredible number of unique species – 132 in southern Africa, and 158 in East Africa. Eliminating the overlap and the 5 species that I’d seen in the U.S., I counted fully 234 new species on my life list! Many of these were spectacularly large and decorated birds, like the grey crowned crane (the national bird of Uganda); others were smaller and brilliantly colored, like the lilac-breasted roller (the national bird of Botswana). The varieties of shapes, ornamentation, and dazzling colors simply defied anything I had ever seen before.

One of the most memorable sights for us was the northward migration of zebra (and to a much lesser extent, wildebeest at the time we were there) in Serengeti National Park. We were there at the beginning of the dry season – the grasses were still long and lush but had just turned gold wheat yellow. The major migrations had not quite begun, but there were some early signs – the zebras were beginning. When zebras migrate, they literally walk single file, for miles. The sight of the these long lines, like a living freight train crossing the Prairies was one of the most humbling sights we have ever witnessed and we watched in hushed awe.

What made the trip most interesting, from a wildlife perspective, is that once we got over the excitement of seeing our first or second or third elephant, or giraffe, or whatever, was being able to stop the vehicle and just watch these animals just being animals – playing, feeding, resting, caring for their young. There is a kind of bonding that develops as you connect on a very visceral level with other living creatures. It became very difficult to imagine why human beings in the past (and still into the present) felt the main purpose of seeking out these animals was to shoot them. Early in the 20th century game trips would decimate hecatombs of animals. I kept wondering if those folks had had the technology of digital cameras to capture the experience of these wonderful creatures, would that have reduced the blood lust? If there was one mammal that it became physical painful to imagine killing it was the elephant – there is such a palpable sense of them as deeply sensitive, feeling creatures who exist within very strong family bonds.

Lodgings

David and I stayed in lodgings pitched to a level of comfort we have rarely experienced before, since we are budget travelers, and the one place we normally cut back most drastically is accommodations. The two trips had some similarities but some marked differences also. Our preference was southern Africa, because we stayed only at “tented camps” that were exclusively reserved for one Overseas Adventure Travel group. So they were small – a maximum of 8 tents (OAT groups never exceed 16) and a main lodge. They were always located on private reserves adjoining national parks or conservancy areas and they were usually quite remote. The sense of quiet, isolation, and privacy when no other groups shared a lodge with us was a tremendous plus factor. The individual tents were usually beautiful situated for maximum viewing of wildlife, were well-separated from each other, and were built with all natural materials and decorated with local art. Elegant, natural, simple. It was my ideal of luxury. The main buildings, with a lounge and dining area, were always open to the elements (though covered) and had decks to sit out on and view wildlife.

In contrast, in the Kenya and Tanzania reserves and parks, we always stayed at one of the lodgings in the upscale Serena chain, whether it was a tented camp or more on the line of a hotel. These were generally large places, though beautifully designed and well-run. After the isolation of the tented camps in southern Africa, where our group was the only party, I found these large places in heavily visited parks a striking contrast and one that I was not as simpatico with. We were in East Africa shortly before the real peak season of July – October when we were told the parks were virtually overrun with tourists.

At all the tented camps, in southern and East Africa, we were never permitted to go to and from our tents after dark without an escort because of the potential danger from large wild animals. At several camps in southern Africa, we heard, through much of the night, the nearby loud screams of hippos, lions, and elephants. It was an experience we’re unlikely to repeat any time soon.

Tented camp, Chobe National Park, Botswana

Food and Staff

As we fully expected from reading the advanced literature, we were going to be served (and likely eating) far more food than we are accustomed to at home. At home we have trouble maintaining our weight on modest regimens. We knew we would be in big trouble on this trip – three large meals a day, and in southern Africa, morning breaks on the drive for baked goods and drinks, and afternoon tea and then a game drive “sundowner” with beer, soda and savory snacks. Most meals were buffet, which compounded the problem. The greater the lodging strived for elegant European cooking, the more likely was it to miss the mark entirely. Food was never bad, but when less pretentious it was more successful.

Most troubling was the realization that while we were eating so well – so excessively – the populations around us had far less. In Botswana, a very prosperous country, and Namibia, there are not widespread serious food shortages. Such is not the case, however, in Zimbabwe. From keeping up with the news before our departure, and various background lectures, we knew life was very tough for most Zimbabweans, even those in the middle class. Store shelves are empty, the economy is devastated, inflation is beyond rampant. And yet while the country is suffering so badly, we had food served in overflowing quantities. It was a very serious realization.

On the southern Africa trip, lodge staffs worked as a team and were multi-talented. Not only did they do their formal jobs excellently, but they put on music and dance programs for us that were of first-rate quality. Whenever we pulled in for the first time, the entire staff was waiting for us, singing a greeting in their language in that wonderful African harmonic style known so well from South African groups such as Ladysmith Black Mambazo. We were, to put it mildly, impressed.

Group Travel

We are basically not group travel types though for this type of trip it seemed the only practical and affordable way to go. Based on conversations with a number of acquaintances who had traveled with Overseas Adventure Travel (OAT) we expected mainly “young seniors” (active individuals in their 50’s and 60’s), sophisticated, intellectually engaged, politically empathetic, well-read, interculturally aware. In fact, based on the two trips we were on, our experience was quite the opposite. We had almost no stimulating conversations our entire time and were amazed (and a bit depressed) at the general lack of knowledge about other cultures.

We certainly observed the American tendency to make silly jokes out of almost everything rather than feeling comfortable showing serious interest. It is almost as if there is a discomfort in showing awe, amazement, of letting the almost spiritual side of a sublime experience come through to others. What could be counted on was a high level of interest in synthetic experiences (e.g., Elephant Ride, Walk with Lion) and shopping. However, there is no disputing the American qualities of good cheer, outgoingness, and general friendliness.

Showing intensity and seriousness (e.g., my interest in birds and birding and an active schedule) were not popular and made me less than a group favorite. David was much better at adapting himself to the “small talk” demands of our social interactions. I tended to go off by myself whenever the opportunity offered itself.

Always eating at a large long table could become tiresome, especially if one didn’t have much of interest to say to the other travelers. Being near the Trip Leader or, as on the Ultimate Africa trip, driver-guides or selected tented camp staff could be a real plus in such cases.

Another observation. Travel to formerly remote and exotic places is now so commonplace that almost anyone can afford to go. And so people with little awareness of the world are able to book themselves onto trips to the most off-the-beaten-track places. We were at Maramboi Tented Camp on Lake Manyara (Tanzania) – a spectacularly beautiful setting and accommodations. At the “camp” was what turned out to be an American fundamentalist church group. Two people were from New Mexico – one with a thick northern Florida accent and the other a native Hispanic resident of Santa Fe. The latter, after a brief friendly chat, handed me a miniature Bible tract with no awareness that perhaps I did not share her fundamentalist outlook on religion!

African Cities

I suspect that other than Capetown, there is no memorable city in sub-Saharan Africa in Western urban terms. Large cities may have existed under some of the great African empires, but in recent centuries, the Western urban concept was non-existent. The large cities founded since Western colonialism are generally a haphazard, jerry-built environment except for perhaps a few colonial small cores (e.g., Nairobi). The few times we stayed in an urban hotel we were always warned not to go out after dark due to crime.

In short, a visit to sub-Saharan Africa to explore its cities seems like a pointless exercise. In contrast, African village life seems endlessly fascinating. We visited several villages and schools and learned quite a bit, considering the relative brevity of these visits, about traditional life.

Soweto Tour and Post-Apartheid South Africa

Being the only two who were doing the combined southern and East Africa packages, included, for our arrival in Johannesburg, was a one-day tour of Soweto, the famous black township there that was the focus of so much of the anti-apartheid movement. The all-day tour was billed as Johannesburg and Soweto, but our guide, an articulate, well-educated, and very upbeat, 30-something, black South African named George, basically spent the entire time showing us around Soweto, except for the drive from our airport hotel across Johannesburg to Soweto. We went from 9:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., and so packed a lot in.

And this was fine with us. We found it an inspiring experience and we came away with a far more visceral sense of the liberation experience in South Africa. We hit all the “Stations of the Cross” in the story – the homes of Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela, both “township boys;” the Regina Mundi church, the only place the authorities didn’t shut down, so it was a major meeting and rallying point; the modern Hector Pieterson Museum, dedicated to the Soweto schoolchildren boycott of 1976 which was really the beginning of the end of apartheid and named after the first schoolchild shot down by the apartheid police; the Freedom Tower, which enshrines the values in the post-apartheid constitution, and most spectacularly impressive of all, the Apartheid Museum. This latter is relatively new and embodies the kind of architecture that in a sense might be named Holocaust Museum architecture, in which the oppressiveness of what is being explored by the museum is exemplified in the very architecture – inside and outside – itself.

The Apartheid Museum is enormous and the 2 hours we were given to explore on our own could not do justice to it. Despite the limited time, one came away sobered and saddened, but also amazed at how well, for all its faults, South Africa has tried to emerge from its terrible history, with as little bitterness and recrimination as one can imagine, under the circumstances. All the text was non-inflammatory and straightforward, did not have a heavy-handed axe to grind. But the story tells itself, and it is an incredible story. You enter the museum by being given a pass-card that says Blank or Ne Blank (White nor Not White, that is, everything else) and then go through separate entrances and get some small sense of what people were subjected to.

One of the interesting aspects of post-apartheid South Africa is how much was left unchanged. City names are what they were before. The country has the same name. The currency is still the rand. The only thing I was aware of is that Afrikaans, as a language, is virtually invisible in a public setting – except for a few old signs, you simply don’t see it, don’t hear it in public announcements (e.g., at the airport). One senses an attempt to make the transition as gentle as possible, though the immediate post-apartheid period was actually extraordinarily violent (as the post-independence period in Zimbabwe was, also – something we were totally unaware of as well).

Our visit to Soweto also included a visit to a shantytown, including entering someone’s hovel, a very uncomfortable feeling, not just because of its extreme poverty, but because of the sense of personal invasion.

All the same, when we were dropped off at our hotel, we felt we had had a very informative, dramatic even, day. We were so saddened to learn that after we left South Africa to begin our trip that terrible “xenophobic violence” had broken out on the part of South African township blacks towards immigrants from Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Congo, and other impoverished countries who had come, legally or not, to find work in South Africa and escape the terrible economic conditions in their home countries. We wanted to believe, with George, that South Africa has made tremendous progress, as undoubtedly it has, but clearly there is still much to be made.

Digital Camera for an Africa Wildlife Trip

Just a week before leaving for the trip, a digital camera I ordered arrived. I studied the manual intensely, was overwhelmed with all the countless options, but decided to mainly shoot on AUTO, use some prior knowledge from taking slides for 45 years using film and a single-lens reflex camera, and pick up a few bits and pieces of knowledge from friends more experienced than me.

I am utterly convinced that this is a wonderful invention. I have recently imported the photos I did not erase as I went along (I kept over 1300 on the memory cards) and I am simply stunned at the high quality of most of them – at least 75% of them are well-worth keeping. The ability to get instant feedback and re-shoot as necessary, the detail (the camera is a 12 megapixel), the combination optical and zoom features, the macro for close-ups of butterflies, flowers and the like, the “sound memo” feature that let me record vocal notes on any photo that I felt needed it, all have meant the most satisfying set of photographs from any trip I’ve ever been on. Looking at the imports on a full-screen on my 24-inch iMac, I am simply incredulous at how perfectly the experiences we had have been captured and thus recreated. I am sure there will always be a niche market for film, as there is for turntables, but for the non-specialist (and even many specialists) the capabilities of digital photography are decisive.

Then there are all the corollary benefits – ability to share easily, document and tag, date/time stamp, create programs, crop and otherwise manipulate (I hesitate to say “enhance”). As a newcomer, I am very impressed.

In Sum

Despite the criticisms I have brought up, the trip exceeded our expectations in the main dimension behind our doing it in the first place – to see the parks and animals of Africa, and in the process learn something about the natural world as well as the peoples, countries, and cultural traditions where we were. We by no means came back experts, but I think we were dazzled and amazed at how wonderful it all was.