View from my hotel room window!!!Saturday, May 7, 2016
Thursday, May 5, 2016
Zimbabwe 2
I saw Victoria Falls, and I didn't! When we were flying into the VF airport yesterday, I could easily see the mist rising up into the sky, and correctly assumed that it was the spray from the Falls. Well if you can see the spray that high in the sky from quite a distance away from the Falls, you can then anticipate how much more intense that mist and spray will be five feet from the edge of the canyon into which that river is cascading. You can see the spray and mist rising up from the river below, and it seems to rise up double the depth of that canyon. When profuse spray and mist goes way-way up over your head you can imagine the torents of rain that fall back to earth, when the momentum up slows and gravity pulls all that water down. Always there was rain, not just a mist, but a steady hard rain, and when the wind pushed all that water it became a deluge. I had on a tourist large raincoat, and well before we got half way thru the three kilometer walk on the canyon rim opposite the falling river, I was walking on water, there was that much water in my gym shoes. I anticipated mist at the falls, but I experienced a deluge of water, forceful gusts of wind, and so dense were the clouds of water, the middle half or two thirds of the falls I couldn't see the other side where the water was falling, so yes I was at Victoria Falls, I did walk the whole tourist's path, but I only saw the right and left edges of the falls where the mists were only coming from one direction. I got back to the hotel by about noon from our rain-storm walk, i was sopping wet. I hung everything up to dry, after squeezing as much water out of each piece of clothing that I could, and it's after eight at nite after supper, and most items are mildly damp, except my gym shoes, which are very wet. I did a more complete job of taking a towel and trying to have the towel absorb as much water as I could from inside the shoe, and I unlaced them to let the air from the ceiling fan try to dry them out overbite. I did get some nice pics of the edges of the falls, and the rainbow under the bridge over the canyon separating Zimbabwe and Zambia. This afternoon I did get to ride on Coco a 38 year old female, very large elephant. She has a gate that isn't motion sick causing, but a side to side, stop and start, and it's bumpy as she takes each step. Not hard to ride, just have to go with the flow of her rhythm. And to remember to lean back when she goes down hill, and lean foreward when she's going up hill. She is one big animal! You can senve het powet and strength when on her back. A few male impala darted out of the thicket in front of us and the handler who sat in front of me quickly cautioned Coco to be steady, and talked to her for a half minute or so, explaining to me that elephants are nervous, alert animals, who can react in fright, alarm or nervousness. We got to feed a treat to the elephants we each rode, a pellet that is like chocolate to them. Boy! Did she ever enjoy those handfulls. Up trunk and she raises her trunk over her head, and I threw a hand full of the pellets into her open mouth. Down trunk and she takes the tip of her trunk upside down, and you put the pellet treats in to her open trunk opening (her nose), and she blows them into her mouth. An elephant trunk is her nose to breathe thru, her hand with a 'thumb and forefinger' to manupliate items, and a built in straw to suckup water and blow the water into her mouth. She drinks about 16 liters of water once or twice a day, depending whether it is wet or dry season. A large male elephant can drink twice that. She eats 600 pounds of leaves, grass, and a few fruits and nuts a day. While we were going along she regularly would turn her head and the trunk reached out and stripped the leaves from branches. If the leaves don't come off readily she just snaps the branch off and eats them all, leaves, twigs, and smaller branches. The bark on the twigs and thinner branches has nutrient value for her also. Then on the way back to the hotel, the van-bus stopped to drop me off to pay for the elephant safari. Then I walked back thru town to the resort. Had a hamburger for dinner, had dinner last nite in the main dining room, for $30 it wasn't worth it, and the hamburger is hemungous! Good. And with a coke zero cost $13.50 with tip. A much better deal. Zimbabwe has 95% unemployment, and it's money was so inflationary that the means of exchange now, even the posted prices for everything is the US dollar, but the will accept euros, and British pounds. Everywhere you walk people are trying to sell you something, to make a living, to get cash to get something to eat. The luxury and high prices resorts cha. rge, next to the poverty for the person in the street is appalling. One person I met, don't want to say who specifically since this is an open blog, said that people are not well or fairly treated, because the employer can find an unlimited supply of eager people looking for work. Tomarrow I fly back to Jo'burg airport, and stay there for about six hours, then at 9:30 fly to Cairo, Egypt. Will blog Saturday, hoping wifi's are available.
I saw Victoria Falls, and I didn't! When we were flying into the VF airport yesterday, I could easily see the mist rising up into the sky, and correctly assumed that it was the spray from the Falls. Well if you can see the spray that high in the sky from quite a distance away from the Falls, you can then anticipate how much more intense that mist and spray will be five feet from the edge of the canyon into which that river is cascading. You can see the spray and mist rising up from the river below, and it seems to rise up double the depth of that canyon. When profuse spray and mist goes way-way up over your head you can imagine the torents of rain that fall back to earth, when the momentum up slows and gravity pulls all that water down. Always there was rain, not just a mist, but a steady hard rain, and when the wind pushed all that water it became a deluge. I had on a tourist large raincoat, and well before we got half way thru the three kilometer walk on the canyon rim opposite the falling river, I was walking on water, there was that much water in my gym shoes. I anticipated mist at the falls, but I experienced a deluge of water, forceful gusts of wind, and so dense were the clouds of water, the middle half or two thirds of the falls I couldn't see the other side where the water was falling, so yes I was at Victoria Falls, I did walk the whole tourist's path, but I only saw the right and left edges of the falls where the mists were only coming from one direction. I got back to the hotel by about noon from our rain-storm walk, i was sopping wet. I hung everything up to dry, after squeezing as much water out of each piece of clothing that I could, and it's after eight at nite after supper, and most items are mildly damp, except my gym shoes, which are very wet. I did a more complete job of taking a towel and trying to have the towel absorb as much water as I could from inside the shoe, and I unlaced them to let the air from the ceiling fan try to dry them out overbite. I did get some nice pics of the edges of the falls, and the rainbow under the bridge over the canyon separating Zimbabwe and Zambia. This afternoon I did get to ride on Coco a 38 year old female, very large elephant. She has a gate that isn't motion sick causing, but a side to side, stop and start, and it's bumpy as she takes each step. Not hard to ride, just have to go with the flow of her rhythm. And to remember to lean back when she goes down hill, and lean foreward when she's going up hill. She is one big animal! You can senve het powet and strength when on her back. A few male impala darted out of the thicket in front of us and the handler who sat in front of me quickly cautioned Coco to be steady, and talked to her for a half minute or so, explaining to me that elephants are nervous, alert animals, who can react in fright, alarm or nervousness. We got to feed a treat to the elephants we each rode, a pellet that is like chocolate to them. Boy! Did she ever enjoy those handfulls. Up trunk and she raises her trunk over her head, and I threw a hand full of the pellets into her open mouth. Down trunk and she takes the tip of her trunk upside down, and you put the pellet treats in to her open trunk opening (her nose), and she blows them into her mouth. An elephant trunk is her nose to breathe thru, her hand with a 'thumb and forefinger' to manupliate items, and a built in straw to suckup water and blow the water into her mouth. She drinks about 16 liters of water once or twice a day, depending whether it is wet or dry season. A large male elephant can drink twice that. She eats 600 pounds of leaves, grass, and a few fruits and nuts a day. While we were going along she regularly would turn her head and the trunk reached out and stripped the leaves from branches. If the leaves don't come off readily she just snaps the branch off and eats them all, leaves, twigs, and smaller branches. The bark on the twigs and thinner branches has nutrient value for her also. Then on the way back to the hotel, the van-bus stopped to drop me off to pay for the elephant safari. Then I walked back thru town to the resort. Had a hamburger for dinner, had dinner last nite in the main dining room, for $30 it wasn't worth it, and the hamburger is hemungous! Good. And with a coke zero cost $13.50 with tip. A much better deal. Zimbabwe has 95% unemployment, and it's money was so inflationary that the means of exchange now, even the posted prices for everything is the US dollar, but the will accept euros, and British pounds. Everywhere you walk people are trying to sell you something, to make a living, to get cash to get something to eat. The luxury and high prices resorts cha. rge, next to the poverty for the person in the street is appalling. One person I met, don't want to say who specifically since this is an open blog, said that people are not well or fairly treated, because the employer can find an unlimited supply of eager people looking for work. Tomarrow I fly back to Jo'burg airport, and stay there for about six hours, then at 9:30 fly to Cairo, Egypt. Will blog Saturday, hoping wifi's are available.
Wednesday, May 4, 2016
Zimbabwe
- Wednesday, May 4th, I'm at Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe. Couple hours after I got here, the touring company bus picked us up and drove us to the boat docks on the Zambezi River for a sunset cruise with drinks and snacks, all a part of the our tour package. We saw a group of hippos about six of them, frolicking about near the river bank. Fantastic!!! A croc on the bank opened his mouth to cool off, but it looked like he could take a chunk out of each of us. The sunset was really beautiful, radiant, with the Sun reflecting on the river's waters. Took pics with camera not tablet, so we'll have to wait to see today's pics. Go to see the Falls tomarrow morning, and hopefully ride an elephant tomarrow afternoon. I'll tell you about it tomarrow nite.
Tuesday, May 3, 2016
Joburg
Tuesday evening, today I had my tour of the Apartheid Museum and the Soweto area of greater Jo'burg (Johannesburg). I was scheduled about two hours to go thru the museum, and at noon when the two hours were up I had just reached the half way point. Went out and found the guide and got another hour, so I really rushed thru the second half of the museum. One of the best parts was were four men discussed the strategy and process of how both sides the African National Congress and the Apartheid government finally got the process negotiated. Both sides really wanted the blood shed to end, and both sides truely recognized the strengths and weaknesses of the other side. Besides Mandella realized that the whites had to be given all the human rights of a democracy, and the Apartheid President DeKlerk realized that a peaceful government had to accept all people living in the country as citizens with all the powers and responsibilities of citizenship. Then too the process was shrewdly accomplished on a people to people-person to person basis. Besides Mandella was a good polititian, and the truth and reconciliation process was instrumental in putting the past behind both sides. Great museum, even with various sections being reprogrammed and closed during the interm.Then we went to Soweto, ate at a African restaurant typical black African foods. Some were familiar to other nationalities food types, some were unfamiliar to me. It was pretty good. We drove around the township, the afluent areas were as modern, clean, prosperous as Clive and Wdsm. That blew my stereotypes of Soweto, then there were middle class areas, and public housing neighborhoods, and the tin shacks many illegal immigrants and extremely poor S. Africans built for themselves on any unoccupied piece of ground. No piped in water, a public outdoor water tap was put in by the government, until public housing became available. Portapotties were provided later. No distinct roads, but twisted paths between the shacks... Clothes hanging out to dry, goats for milk and meat, eating weeds and the lack of garbage pickup was obvious with refuge all over the place. How people can live like that seems impossible, but they are. I saw the faces of some of the people, and really felt the helplessness, lack of hopefulness. Saw Mandela's home, and ate next door to Bishop Tutu's former home, which he still ownes, but lives almost constantly in Cape Town. Oh! My last day in Moditlo the guides after much determination found 'my' zebra's. About three or four of them, mostly behind brush and bushes, but I saw them. The wild dogs made their appearance again, another animal that makes my skin crawl. Ugg!!! Well tomarrow I fly to Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, be there two days, then fly back to the Jo'burg airport, remaining their five or so hours, before I fly overnight to Egypt. Can't believe I'm so far into my round the world trip, it's going so fast. Give Lexi a Happy Birthday kiss for me. More tomarrow nite.
Sunday, May 1, 2016
After four safaris I've seen a herd of elephants for half an hour playing in the mud and drinking, many encounters with giraffes in groups or alone, a pack of wild dogs, which are rare, created excitement of the guides in the chase to find them, Radioing back and forth til all the vehicles gathered around watching. They were eating something they'd caught. The guide said they are vicious killers, often killing just for fun, and walking away without eating their kill. Two brother cheetas were orphans and were hand raised, and the guides go out of their way to keep human contact daily so they don't forget humans. We approached them the first time after they killed and were eating an impala, one was still nibbling on it and the other was full and stretched out on the ground watching his brother and us occasionally grooming himself like a house cat. We all ten tourists, the guide and the tracker walked up to one side and snapped away on our cameras. They both just ignored us. After a few minutes we quietly left them to themselves. A hyppo's head was seen in the water from the opposite side of the lake, a croc was stretched out on the bank. We search for quite awhile to find the rhinoceros, and a few minutes later saw another one aways down a dry River bank. I saw the rumps of a herd of zebra's way across the field, too far for pictures, and too brief a time to try a long distance shot of those moving targets. There are impala everywhere. Yesterday while I was dozing on the deck of my cabin, I heard the bushes rumble as something crashed thru them, I opened my eyes face to face with a huge Nyala, a horse sized type of antelope. We shockenly stared at each other, both of us in complete surprise, then he shifted to the left and sauntered away. It was only then that I got my wit's about me to grab the camera and snap two pics of him as he sauntered off around the corner of the cabin. I got up and tried to take a few more pictures, but he was gone thru the bushes. Later at lunch I showed my pics of him to other tourists two cabins down from mine and they identified him, and said he had gone by their cabin too, but they didn't have a camera out on their deck when he went by. A half hour ago, as I was checking my pictures on my camera I was visited by a mama warthog and three of her children, I've seen a lot of them too.
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