Firstly apologies for the lack of posts over the last month, but Africa isn't very blog friendly :) Emailing is tough enough so forget about updating blogs and loading photos!! I tried once in Vic Falls only to have the computer crash after an hour of penning a beautiful piece together!!
So here I am again, in a trendy internet cafe in Cape Town and hoping this computer might be a bit more blog friendly!
We arrived in Cape Town 3 days ago after a fabulous 4 weeks in Zimbabwe, Botswana & Namibia. There is so much to write about and so little time to do it, so this is a bit of a highlights blog today with more detail to come when Konrad has a chance to gather his thoughts :)) That could take a while at the rate he writes so this is the 'Nic brief version' here today :o)
Top Destinations:
- Victoria Falls - the falls were spectacular and we have a great 4 days there
- Okavango Delta - spent 3 days bush camping, game walking and cruising around in dug out canoes - very cool!
- Etosha National Park - saw loads of game, and a beautiful park. Lots of elephants up close, lions, cheetah, Zebra, Giraffe, Black Rhino, Gemsbock and heaps of fabulous birds.
- Namib Desert - climbed Dune 45 at Dawn and did a great desert walk
- Cape Town - beautiful city
- Rafting down 23km of grade 5 rapids on the Zambezi River - totally awesome and I'm so glad I did it!
- Sandboarding the dunes in Namibia - even though I stacked it badly and have still got a sore rib as a result!
- Watching Konrad do the Gorge swing in Vic Falls (70 metre free fall and he screamed like a girl which I have on video:)
- Game Walking in the Okavango Delta and witnessing our guide getting charged by an elephant! wow what a rush that was!! I can't actually believe he survived it. Again we have some pics, which Konrad hung around to take. I wasn't so brave and left the scene pretty swiftly. Which could have been a disaster if our guide hadn't scared him off by standing tall and clapping his hands at this 6000 kg beast!!
- Game Driving in Etosha National Park
- Township tours in both Joburg & Swakomund
- Stellenbosch Wine Region - very beautiful!!
Top 3 tips when on a game walk (as instructed by our unarmed guide, 'Sea Company')
- If you get charged by buffalo - climb tree!
- If you see lions - stand in pack
- If you get charged by elephant - ziggy zag into bush (which he didn't do when he actually got charged??)
Biggest Challenges:
- Having a bad reaction to the Malaria tablets (only me of course)
- Sweltering in the heat in Botswana & Namibia
- Digging sand out of my ears for 10 days after the sandboarding in Namibia!
- Still hurting from the stack on the dunes
- Travelling with a bunch of poms :))
- Waking at 5:30am on most mornings whilst camping!!
- Drinking instant coffee!!! AfricaCafe to be precise!
All in all though the trip was fabulous. The 3 weeks on the truck was excellent and we only had 12 of us on a 24 seat truck so loads of room. Everyone was really nice as well which is always good.
Anyway, that's it for us. We have been cruising around Cape Town and leave for Paris in 3 days so will write more from Europe.
xxxxx
This is us at Victoria Falls
Nic and Oscar cruising around in a Mokoro in the Okavango Delta
Sunset from the Mokoro (at the Hippo Pool where panic set in when we saw a hippo approaching rather quickly!)
Elephants drinking up close in Etosha National Park
Patting Cheetahs in Namibia
Eating sand in Swakopmund!
On top of Dune 45 at 6am, Soussusvlei in Namibia
Wine tasting in Stellenbosch
Enjoying the view in Cape Town
