Bloggers are usually looking for themes to organize travel stories, that go beyond “Place”. So, we pondered where to tuck the beautiful and ancient baobab trees we first learned of as children in Antoine de Saint-Exupery’s ‘The Little Prince’. “Trees as big as castles”, says the Aviator…with roots so massive they can split apart the Little Prince’s tiny planet. Yes, the baobabs in Africa did compel us to reread that lovely and wise novella.

When cool things are too diverse but we just have to share them, we admit defeat and present an oleo without a unifying principle, except to delight. The honey badger (below… a fierce carnivore with huge claws, that can get to anything that burrows underground) was a great find. The most rare and endangered animal spotted was a Bat-Eared Fox. Unfortunately we have no good photo because, like many of the shyer and faster wild animals, he surprised us when he bolted from hiding.

Painted Dogs (below) are also endangered because the locals kill them like stray dogs, but they are unique to this area.

Huge round ears and a mottled coat make them “undoglike”, but their faces and intelligent eyes say canine, as does their pack mentality.

Dung rolling beetles are scarabs that roll elephant dung 20 times their body weight….even up steep inclines.

Elephant dung burning in cans at the front of the game vehicles kept the tse tse flies in Zambia away. It was really effective as we knew immediately when the dung was burned up: nasty bites and annoyance continued until the guide stuffed and relit the can.

Steven charmed the headman’s 4 wives during our visit to their boma. They kept telling me how lucky I was while making sexually suggestive gestures! With only 4 years of marriage they see us as newlyweds… just like we do.

Victoria Falls produces so much mist that a humid rain forest sprouts out of an otherwise dry northern environment…and it was the first place we needed to start our anti-malaria medications.

Outside Durban, South Africa on a hilly bike ride, we found this structure made out of VW buses and galvanized metal. This is definitely the biggest piece of folk art we found in Africa. It reminded us of all the weird and wonderful animals we have seen in Southern Africa.

Our biking group donated one of these bikes and the bike tour company the other. They will be used by “Mentor Mothers” (the women in red skirts), HIV+ mothers, employed by the organization, MOTHERS TO MOTHERS, who provide follow-up, care, and education to pregnant and parenting HIV+ women. The stigma for women with HIV+ status is still enormous even though 90% of the transmission of HIV/AIDS in Africa is from straight men consorting with prostitutes…and passing it on to their unsuspecting families. Many women don’t get tested or don’t return for treatment once they learn that they are HIV+. Nursing mothers pass the virus on to their infants thus the need for early intervention. We also visited a school/convent/orphanage in Durban that helps provide for children orphaned by parental illness or death by the AIDS virus. Note the traditional “Beehive” huts where we stayed in this private game reserve. Dark inside, but amazingly insulated against the heat.

This “car ferry” on the Chobe River worried us a bit. Even one little wave could flip it as the front pontoon was already deeply buried in the river; we wondered if they ever considered centering the vehicle on the tiny barge, instead of placing it directly over the buried pontoon.

We saw hyenas well camouflaged in the shade but finally got a picture of their goofy looking run.

Arrayed in our finest safari gear, designed to keep the sun, skeeters, and tse tse flies away, we strut our stuff at a midmorning tea break during a game walk (with armed guard) in Hwange NP Zimbabwe.

Later that day, we had to get out and push the game drive vehicle up a rise so we could jump start it. We welcomed both the armed guard and the exercise as each tea stop was accompanied by homemade shortbread. We are sorry we didn’t include Namibia in this trip. We will just have to come back after hearing so many guides and travelers rave. But not for awhile. Sal is enjoying staying put at home this Winter except for short road trips to the Pacific Northwest,  while the paripatetic Steven nails down final details on a scuba trip to the Philippine Islands and Indonesia.

As beginning birders, we have to hear the name and see the bird repeatedly to recognize it when we see it again. Good luck; there are over 900 species of birds here. Fortunately, the southern part of the African continent provided the opportunity to try again and again…and the guides were so knowledgeable and patient! Our very nice game drive mates never complained about our enforced bird stops, even though they were focused on the mammals.

Since we don’t see Lilac Breasted Rollers (top), or glossy starlings (above) at home in California, or the beautiful nest building activities of the black masked weaver (below), we are thrilled over and over again.

Due to our 2014 Summer in Arctic Canada and Alaska with lots of Bald Eagle sightings, we could help the other new birders identify the Fish Eagle, also seen on several Southern African country flags. “Just look for a softball high in a tree…”

Barbets, Bulbuls, Boubous, Kori Bustards, BeeEaters, Hornbills, Shrikes and Storks sent us scurrying to our bird books, as did the Hamerkops, Flycatchers, Jacandas, Vultures, Tawny Eagles and other harriers. After a while the Helmeted Guinea Fowl and the Francolins were so common we ignored them, like we did with Impala Antelopes. Vultures (when there is carrion there) tend to stay on the ground long enough for a close up. Kinda cute, no?

The dance of the Crested Crane pair…. was a high point…

As was the cry of the ubiquitous Grey Lourie….A.K.A. the “Go Wa-a-a-ay…Go Wa-a-a-ay” bird. However, the loudest, most obnoxious bird call reward belongs to the Hadeda Ibis (“Ha-ha-ha-dah-dah!”…) found in rural and urban environments, from North to South. Good luck with that nap you were working on. The Saddlebilled Stork (below), and all the wading birds, were so accommodating …

The Blacksmith Plover is a big help to us beginning birders as his unique coloring is visible on the fly.

Last, among the 50+ we added to our life lists, is a mature White-fronted Bee-eater.

We spent several days in Durban, South Africa (below) on the Indian Ocean en route to the Cape. It was a far more integrated city than the very segregated Johannesburg. Everybody runs in the weekend foot races and bikes around town, everybody surfs, and goes to beaches, malls, restaurants, and the aquarium, regardless of race.

Unfortunately, Capetown, with the best weather, beautiful mountains and beaches, cultural attractions and shopping, remains very segregated with most whites living behind high security fences topped with charged electric wires and security cameras, and only moving around in locked vehicles…just like in Joberg.

PROTEA! Abundant in Capetown, from the top of Table Mountain to the sea, in every size and color, especially in the national botanical garden (KIRSTENBOSCH), sweetened by a tour with a docent (lucky for us, our friend Andrew).  Add the Skywalk, elevated above the tropical canopy, and some steep trails up to the top of Table Mountain above, and you have a ‘killah’ day hike, filled with rock sculptures…

and Dassies (like marmots with big teeth).

We enjoyed very professional theatre in Capetown as well as many street performances…

and we felt badly about pissing off a very large tortoise in the garden of our breakfast spot with Steven’s niece, Alexia’s family in Capetown….

enjoyed sauntering by the ocean with Jackass Penguins by the thousands…

and seeing an ostrich creating a traffic jam at the Cape of Good Hope.

The Cape has it all, with weather very similar to the San Francisco Bay Area. We played golf at the oldest golf course in Africa, The Royal Cape, and had a wonderful meal and wine tasting at the oldest vineyard (Groot Constantia) with our friends Jenny and Andrew, as well as wine tasting at several vineyards in Stellenbosch. We planned to dive but after interviewing these early morning divers about diving conditions, we passed due to lousy morning visibility when the winds would predictably worsen diving conditions as the day progressed.

Steven wants to live here seasonally, but I cannot get past my discomfort at the Apartheid era qualities that persist here. I have to keep reminding myself that South Africa only abolished Apartheid 20 years ago. In the U.S., 200 years after the abolishment of slavery we still contend with the effects of racist society, especially in our law enforcement and justice systems. So sad, because I have never been to an area with more perfect weather: year round mild, with some fog and rain, lots of sun and wind…never too hot for all the sports we enjoy. Add great food, sufficient cultural attractions, and family and friends nearby…so close to a perfect city for us. We will just have to continue our search for our second San Francisco Bay Area.

In the month before the rainy season starts, it is 105+ degrees and the temperature is still climbing every day. We leave the bush camps at 6 AM to see the animals while active. By noon, nap time has started, for them and for us. The jackal (featured image) is usually seen running, but it is just too hot!

It is too hot to move all afternoon. No AC in the tents (in the picture above). The only solution is to lie naked and wet after a cold shower, under the ceiling fan, until you have finished evaporating and the heat drives you back into another cold shower. Lotsa nappin’ and drinkin’ until 4 PM when we head out to see animals approaching the water holes. The animals, at night mostly hunting or hiding/fleeing, hang out amiably at the water when they are made lethargic from the heat and are more thirsty than hungry.

Some immerse in mud for sun protection and to collect bugs on their skin that they rub off on trees when dried, thus cleaning the bugs off at the same time.

Some stay in the water all day, like hippos, only leaving the water at night to graze. We were lucky to catch this hippo out of the water during the day. Note the Maribou (“Undertaker Stork”) in front eating insects stirred up by the hippo’s tread, and the Oxbirds cleaning bugs from his back.

Most sleep in the shade, well camouflaged and it takes amazing guides to find them. An exception of course is lions having sex BRIEFLY.  We observed this twice, and the acts took about 15 seconds, but happened every 20 minutes…

…interspersed with naps. Note how the female sleeps on her back helping the sperm with gravity..

This scene of everybody hanging out amicably at the waterhole is the answer to Rodney King’s query, “Why can’t we all get along?”. Like the zebra, impala, hippo and ostrich below, and the lions and elephants above, we can get along without violence if we are well fed, with ample clean water, good communities, and healthy sustainable ecology….at least until nightfall, when hunger drives the predators to do what they do best, hunt and kill the most vulnerable.

We just spent 8 weeks in 4 countries: Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, South Africa) and a Kingdom (Swaziland) in Southern Africa. We did 30 game drives, 5 days of biking, 6 days of hiking, played golf, visited family and friends, and ate a mountain of good pastry in that old British tradition of tea and treats. Truly mind blowing and fabulous. We wish everyone could go on african safari once in their life, although not everyone can climb in and out of the elevated, open air, range rovers and withstand the bumping, sliding, jarring, bouncing, and shimmering that is part of what our guides called, an “African Massage”. We learned that the guides leading the game drives are extremely knowledgeable about the flora and fauna in their assigned parks and reserves…regardless of how much you paid for your tour. We tested this with 3 tours ranging from mid-range (OAT) to adventure (biking and hiking) to budget safari.

Some seasons (September, too dry and hot for any pretty foliage to obscure great animal spotting) and some parks just offer more sightings.  Chobe NP in Botswana (featured image, and above/below) is the best for enormous herds and close encounters with a diversity of large mammals…like seeing over 200 hundred elephants and hippos in one afternoon crisscrossing the Chobe River a few feet from our boat) while lions, leopards, giraffe, impalas, and wildebeast look on from the shore. The guides also can drive off road to pursue a sighting, so you are not stuck looking at a valued  “leopard in a tree”, being able to see only the tail or the torso…and those darned wild animals just will not accommodate your impaired viewpoint by moving into range!

These are $350/day (all inclusive) safaris because you have to jump bush planes out of Johannesburg and Livingston to tiny landing strips with nearby seasonal tent camps. It really is out in the bush as guides on land have to block the ostrich, elephants, and wildebeasts from crossing the landing strip as planes takes off or land. Really fun if you get to sit co-pilot as Sal did on one leg! She had practiced for hours on the free flight simulator (an entire room dedicated to one pilot training at a time) at our unique hotel in Joberg, a former airplane hanger.

Although the tent bathrooms with hot showers are en suite, they are open air and you cannot leave cosmetics or clothes there or the monkeys will grab them. You also will require an armed escort to your room at night, and can be admonished not to “leave your tent for a dawn breakfast until those 4 cheetahs sleeping 20 feet in front of your tent move away”.

You may have unique experiences like hearing a hippo serenade from the river below your tent, leopards walking and “huffing” through camp at night, and most mind blowing of all….find a huge bull elephant standing a foot behind you at dinner, undecided and confused about where he should go…because the staff set up the dining room table in the elephant’s usual pathway out on the savannah one night. You cannot believe how big a bull elephant is when you are sitting and he is towering over you. He meant no harm and our guide Godfrey waved some burning logs near him until he moved away. Godfrey moved fast and was clearly very scared for us; we just didn’t appreciate the risk at that time. OAT (Overseas Adventure Travel) was a fabulous experience for food/accommodation/guides/close cultural encounters. If you book with them, please feel free to mention our names for a discount on your trip.

The budget safaris are $100/day and leave from Joburg for a 7 hour drive to Kruger NP and nearby reserves. The accommodations are very basic but charming when in tree houses over the river…

…and the food…inferior….volume starch and runny eggs. But warthogs sleep by the fire and baboons with babies wander through the camp. With no predators, you can wander freely at any hour on the large property.

Again, the game drives are wonderful and each park and reserve has unique features. Game walks with armed guards are nice for learning tracking and small animals, but the night drives were a waste of time. Avoid them.

One reserve, Tshukudu Game Lodge, has two cheetahs that had to be hand raised as young cubs when a lion killed their mother; they are used to human physical touch….including ours, but otherwise they are your usual hungry predators. The guides call them and reward their approach with fresh bottled water!

The game drive part of our two week biking/hiking safari ($150/day but did not include meals) was mostly in Kruger NP and we still saw a lot without going off road (disallowed). The guide and driver were lovely and knowledgeable but the organizational part was below standard, especially a biking day with no place to buy lunch (as promised) in the middle of an 8 hour bike day. Our cycle day in Soweto Township was marred by insufficient helmets for our group and no one picking us up at the end of that tour. The Township houses 60,000 people and does not vote for the dominant political party (African National Congress) thus receives no funding; it is a fascinating place with the most poverty stricken shanty town we’ve ever seen with open sewage, 2 public toilets, and one faucet to serve hundreds of people, but with lots of new BMW’s and Mercedes just a block away still in the Township. Still, it felt good to get some exercise after 3 weeks of great bush camp pastry and 8 hours of African Massage daily in the open air Range Rovers. Although most of the bikers were not thrilled with the communal “ale” (home fermentation of ???) at the greatest dive bar in a shipping container with a 4.5 foot ceiling, and a ton of flies…Steven did his part, engaging in local custom…and didn’t die!

However, the hiking was terrific at Bourne’s Potholes and the Royal Natal NP in the Drakensberg Mountains.

Keeping the babies safe is most herds’ first priority. Our guides thought this baby elephant was about 2 months old.

The herds surround the baby, set a big male as a sentinel, and slow their pace to accomodate like the wildebeasts below..

They also push and shove to hurry them along as needed. Animal babies, like infants, get distracted by lots of things that are routine to adults, but these babies, separated from the herd become vulnerable to hungry predators in well rehearsed hunting packs. Sometimes, like rhinos, they have a mom so tough, fast, and mean that they can stay near but not be surrounded by a herd. Unfortunately, the biggest rhino predators are poachers that will kill the rhino mother for the stub of horn left by other poachers (see below, near Kruger NP) , with no regard for the baby’s survival. Poachers are shot and killed on site in most parks in Africa. Vehicles are searched and heads counted upon entry and exit from the Parks to ensure no one is “dropped off” with a weapon, deep in the park for some furtive night time poaching activity.

Animals in reserves with no predators can rest and relax without stress (Swaziland).

Two sets of babies had stories that caught our attention. One was a newborn giraffe calf in Kruger NP that was limping and weak. You can barely find him camoflaged as a tree trunk (below). Giraffes fall 8 feet to the ground at birth while still protected inside the placental sac. The severe drop and shock make them begin to use their lungs. Our guides were of differing opinions about this newborn calf’s ability to survive with an injury. One said this calf would be dead in days. The other said he might strengthen quickly enough to move with alacrity within days. Ah, the cycle of life. Earlier, in Chobe NP we came upon the skeleton of a full grown giraffe picked clean from a succession of cheetah, lion, hyena, and vulture, convincing us that this tiny baby is highly at risk.

The other babies that we observed were all by themselves in a far corner of the park. Because we ran into a lion researcher who studied their pride, we learned that the mothers had placed them in a corner of the park away from the pride and the recent elephant kill, to protect them from a marauding male lion that had already killed a cub back at the elephant kill site. They obeyed their mothers and just stayed put, waiting for an evening visit to the local water hole when their mothers returned.

My personal favorites were the warthogs. Even the babies’ tails stick straight up in the air when they begin to trot, due to a tendon that runs along their spine. That way they can stay together running at high speed through deep grass. Pretty smart; but they are pigs after all.

The other African babies we enjoyed were the schoolchildren we visited in Zimbabwe. They sang and danced for us, and we brought them soccer balls and school supplies. They loved our electronic devices, especially their pictures with us! Africa can only have a great future in the hands of these young and curious scholars. We need to keep them safe and thriving as part of ‘our herd’ with donations to great organizations like Grand Circle, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. These babies are our future too.