Zimbabwe and Vic Falls

A week ago Friday I set out on another adventure, this time to Victoria Falls via Bulawayo, Zimbabwe.  We left Friday morning and spent Friday night in Francistown watching a terrible Stephen Seagal movie.  Saturday we woke up and caught a bus to the border with Zimbabwe, which boasts the highest per capita number of Dolly Parton fans of anywhere in the world, as well as the coveted no. 4 spot on the most recent Failed States Index.  After a little bit of a delay at the border crossing we were able to catch another combi to Bulawayo and made it there by mid-afternoon.  Bulawayo is Zimbabwe's second city and the largest city in the western side of the country.  Despite its size, being in Bulawayo is like being on the set of a zombie or post-apocalyptic movie: the streets have very few cars, the stores that are open have very few goods.  Bulawayo is poor but it is a different kind of poor than I have seen anywhere else.  The city is much larger than Gabs but has hardly any traffic, and most of the vehicles that you do so are public transport or taxis.  Most of the stores we saw were closed, but the few that were open were almost bare inside.

Bulawayo city center at rush hour

After a few hours of wandering the streets we made it to the train station and bordered our overnight train to Victoria Falls.  The train itself is from the 1950s and most of the windows and mirrors still bear the 'RR' of Rhodesia Railways.  The train ride was fantastic.  The full moon was out Saturday night so we had a very good view of the countryside.  As we approached Vic Falls Sunday morning we were able to see the enormous spray produced by the falls from miles away.  

Choo choo

We were in the town of Vic Falls by midmorning and first went down to the gorge below the falls to get a sense of things.

The gorge below the falls. 

We then walked down close to the falls themselves and waked out onto the bridge that runs right by them and serves as the crossing point between Zimbabwe and Zambia.  We had to put on our ponchos at this point--standing near the falls is a lot like standing in a torrential downpour that never ends.

The bridge with falls to the right.

One of the consequences of standing in the midst of so much mist is that taking pictures is pretty much impossible for most of the time.

Oh, and there were elephants around.

We spent the rest of Sunday afternoon at our hostel resting and showering.  We went back to the bridge that night in pursuit of the moonbow, which we did manage to see.  The moonbow can only regularly be seen at two places in the world: Victoria Falls and Cumberland Falls, Kentucky.  Of course, I have now seen the one on the other side of the world and not yet the one practically in my backyard.  Regardless, it was very impressive.

Monday we woke up bright and early and were the first people into the Vic Falls NP, just in time for dawn.  

Unfortunately the weather conditions weren't the best early on so it was actually quite difficult to see the falls, despite them only being 40m away.

However, we stuck around for a few more hours and things cleared up significantly.

A side view of the falls.  The falls are on the left, where I was standing earlier is on the right.

 

Because the falls are so close to the cliff walls, it is almost impossible to get a real perspective on their size.  So here's an aerial view I found online:

The Zimbabwe side, where I was, is on the left.

After a morning at the Falls we went to the big curio market in town and bartered with money, clothes, and random items for hand made stone carvings.  We took the train back through Bulawayo and then caught a bus back to Gaborone.  The bus broke down towards the end, but we still made it to Gabs only a few hours late. 

Midterm break, pt. 2

Tuesday morning of midterm break we woke up and started the long drive into the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR).  We spent most of the day driving on a paved road, followed by a dirt road, followed by a bush road.  We set up camp, ate, and listened to the lions roar in the distance before heading to bed.  Because the Kalahari is so hot, our schedule for the next few days would mimic the schedule of the animals: active in the early morning and evening, hanging out in the shade during the day. 

A view of the park.

A much cooler picture and one I didn't take. 

Gemsbok.

Springbok and gemsbok. We saw hundreds of them. 

Ground squirrels.

Look at that tree!

Papa was tired.

The whole gang.

A little perspective.  The cubs got adventurous. 

There were 7 lions in this pride: papa, two mommas, and four cubs.

With my new friends.

Play time.

Posing.

Looking regal.

At this point the sun was setting quickly so we had to say a temporary goodbye to the pride and head back to our camp for the night.  Around 4:30 or 5 in the morning I woke up to the sound of a huge rustling sound just outside my tent.  I initially thought it was someone trying to go the background, but the noise lasted too long so my next guess was that there was a warthog outside.  My question was answered a few minutes later when one of our guides announced, "Stay in your tents, there are lions in the camp."  The guides ran over to the other side of the camp and pulled one of the safari vehicles around, which illuminated the pride of lions sitting mischievously with a tarp from our camp.  Naturally I did not stay in my tent and threw on some clothes to pile into back of the safari vehicle.  The lions only see vehicles (and tents, for that matter) as very strange, enormous, and inedible blobs and so it is possible to slowly drive a vehicle at them to spook them off, which is exactly what we did.  Fifteen minutes of slow chasing behind them managed to drive them a few hundred yards from our camp, which is where they spent the remainder of their day.  We heard the full story of the night once we got back to the camp.  Apparently the pride had been unsuccessful in its hunting that night so they had been returning along the road when they smelled the remnants of our kitchen and decided to investigate.  They wandered into the kitchen area and then walked along a line of tents, with momma and a couple of cubs stopping to sit and roll around right beside the last tent--also known as my tent. 

There are a few paw prints circled in the picture.  The scuffed dust to the right is where they were laying down.  My tent is in the not-very-distant background.  Lions now easily top the list of Cool Things That Have Been Ten Feet Away From Me As I Slept. 

 

We found the lions again later (and by "found" I mean "drove behind our campsite") and this time they were gracious enough to provide excellent material for the upcoming Butswana commemorative wall calendar, available wherever fine books are sold.  

Another busy day.

Another departing sunrise.

The four days we were in the CKGR were fantastic.  The setting was beautiful and being able to be that close to lions was definitely not what I had anticipated.  The past two weeks I have spent taking care of various schoolwork but this weekend I am off to Victoria Falls.  I'm taking my rain jacket. 

Midterm break, pt. 1

This past week was the mid-semester break at UB, so ACM flew the herd of us up north to Maun for the week.  We gathered to leave at 5:30 AM and had a little bit of adventure leaving the University.  Friday was pay day for all the local students, so they were all flush with their monthly allowance.  The week we were gone was also the week of Inter-Varsity Games, a regular athletic event between Botswana, Swaziland, and Lesotho and this year it happened to be in Gabs.  Thus the perfect party storm was created and many of the local students had such a good time Friday night that they were still going strong Saturday morning when we were trying to leave.  Our whole group was accosted by many very intoxicated Batswana students, who were all too curious and far too friendly for that hour in the monring.  We managed to make it the airport eventually and were at the Maun International Airport (which handles six commercial flights every day!) within a few hours.  We spent Saturday hanging around our "base camp" in Maun before waking up Sunday morning to board a vehicle that looked like it was last used in Desert Storm for the drive into the Okavango Delta, where we would meet our guides who would take us on mokoros (dug out canoes) for the next two days.

Our drive into the delta required us to ford several bodies of water.

These are the mokoros that we took furhter into the delta. The water is so shallow that they can't paddle and have to use poles.

Hippos!

Once we made it to our campsite, we spent a few hours setting up tents and settling in.  Although we were technically camping, it was definitely the nicest camping experience I have ever had.  They haul in an immense amount of gear and supplies on those little canoes--folding chairs for every person, huge coolers, food for 30 people, folding tables, pots and pans.

There are lions and other predators in the delta, but they are very skittish and afraid of people due to their history of clashing with local farmers so it is perfectly safe to walk around some of the islands on foot. 

Zebras!

Giraffe!

Water Buffalo!

Water Buffalo running away from us.

Up in time for sunrise.

Zebras!  This time running away. 

Elephants!

Everyone has to eat.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After we got back from the evening game walk we participated in some traditional camping activities--eating and swatting mosquitoes.  Every night we were out in the bush the stars were incredible.  With no light pollution of any kind around and hardly any moon, it was incredible how many stars you could see.

Lots of Hippos

A relaxing canoe ride out of the delta.

The two days we spent in the delta were fantastic.  This was the first (and probably only) time we had been able to see the animals from the ground (as opposed to a car) and that really gives you a very different sense of how big and powerful some of them are.  We spent one night in Maun before heading out to the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR) for the next 4 days and 3 nights.  I will update about that later in the week.  Sneak preview: it stars lions.

Khama Rhino Sanctuary

 Technically speaking, the University of Botswana has an internet use policy that forbids the use of personal websites and blogs such as this one.  Fortunately this policy is rarely enforced.  Except, of course, when I was trying to post this on 25 Feb., just before leaving for a week.  Thus I am posting this now.  The weekend it refers to is the 19-20 of February. 

This post is coming a little late because this has been a pretty hectic week: mildly sick for the first few days and then frantically working on research applications before the mid semester break next week.  Last weekend I went with three friends to the Khama Rhino Sanctuary, just outside Serowe or 4 hours away by bus.  Serowe is the village where most of the presidents are from, so of course they have a very nice and brand new hospital and very well maintained streets.  We hitched onto another bus from there and made it the next 30 miles to the Rhino Sanctuary.  After a minor mishap with our food for the night (leaving half of it on the bus), we were settled into our campsite with our flamboyant tent set up by mid afternoon. 

Not having a car inside a game park really limits what you can do: you can’t walk places (for obvious reasons) so there isn’t too much to do but hang around the campsite.  We heard some loud music coming from a neighboring campsite and assumed it was some older American couple based on their decision to play “Where have all the flowers gone,” so we thought we would wander over and say hi.  It turned out instead to be two younger Batswana couples hanging out and taking part in Botswana’s national pastime: day drinking.  They were incredibly happy to see us and promptly decided to dedicate their next ten hours to entertaining us, whether we liked it or not.  We spent a few hours hanging out at their camp before they took us on a driving adventure to a liquor store, a wedding, the side of the road for a while, a few gas station parking lots, and a couple of bars.  By the time we made it back to Khama we were incredibly famished and they graciously started grilling some of their own meat.  Batswana like their meat very well done so the whole cooking process was much longer than anticipated.  Rarely has food been so exciting.  And rarely have people randomly approached been so willing to act as hosts and guides. 

We didn’t make it to bed until late so our 6 am game drive came around pretty early.  Despite the difficulties that come with getting up that early, the game drive was incredible.  Khama has a lot more animals and a much higher density than any other place I have been and it really showed.  Within a few minutes we stumbled on a giraffe hanging out and having breakfast right by the side of the road.  Initially the rest of our drive was frustrating as we kept seeing things off in the distance, but we came to an open field at one point that was fantastic.  We parked the truck for half an hour and just watched as rhinos chowed down, a herd of zebras ran around yelping, a herd of springbok chased each other and jousted, and some red hartebeest pranced through everyone else.  At one point a rhino and her baby came from behind us and walked right in front of the truck as they went to join their friends just 30 yards or so away.  We moved on after a while and went on to see several more giraffes, many various sorts of gazelle and antelope, warthogs, impala, and a herd of wildebeest (the ones responsible for Mufasa’s death).  It was really an incredible experience.  After the game drive we packed up and hitched our way to the bus stop and were back in Gabs by late afternoon.

Tomorrow is the beginning of the mid-term break here.  It wouldn’t be called spring break since this is technically fall (winter is approaching) but fall isn’t really accurate either as its just after the rainy season and all the trees are in bloom.  My program is taking all of us on a weeklong safari.  We are flying tomorrow morning to Maun and then driving into the Okavango Delta where we will travel in mokoros—little dug out canoes.  After a few days we will head into the northern part of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, the second largest game reserve in the world, for a few days of driving around in 4x4s before coming back to Gabs late next Saturday.  I will be completely out of contact during this time but will update in full once I get back. 

There is another American living in my little apartment, Luke, a Fulbright scholar, and he is preparing to go back to the states on Monday.  He wanted to drive about 4 hours north to the Khama Rhino Sanctuary this past Tuesday to camp for the night, but it took twice as long as expected to get the motor in his driver’s side window fixed so we couldn’t make the trek before the sun set and the park closed.  However, Luke, myself and three other ACMers decided to go camp for the night at Mokolodi instead, which is located just 10 miles outside of town.  We got there a little before sunset and just made our way to our campsite on the rough dirt roads.  I should point out that the campsites are hardly rough—they have running water, flushing toilets, and hot showers.  We made a campfire and listened to a Brit do his best sleeping impression of a freight train before we went to bed. 

Wednesday morning we woke up and spent most of the morning driving around the park in Luke’s Suzuki, spotting countless antelope, kudu, hartebeests, ostriches and the like.  We climbed up to the conference center on the side of a hill, which has a wonderful view of the park and allowed us to spot a giraffe having lunch.  We drove back down into the park and were able to sit about 10 yards away from the giraffe and watch it chow down as it stared back at us.  We made it back to Gabs in time for lunch.  This weekend I am actually going to Serowe and Khama with a few friends, this time by bus.

This past weekend I embarked on a trip to Durban with three other students—Sean, Erin, and Caitlin.  We left around noon on Friday for the Gabs bus station and were on the road to Jo’burg by 2:30.  We got in to Jo’burg around 8:30.  On a Friday night.  Needless to say, the Jo’burg bus station is a seedy part of a seedy town.  Getting off the bus we were greeted by a swarm of locals that positively reeked of alcohol.  We were in a group and went inside immediately and were find, but it was certainly not the place you would want to visit alone. We ended up on one of the less reputable bus companies and discovered that their reputation is well deserved—we left half an hour late, the first bus we were on broke down around the corner at the bus station, and the second bus broke down just past the halfway point.  The second break down elicited a rather unsavory response from some of our fellow passengers, but that is a story for another time. 

We ended up arriving n Durban only three hours late (9 instead of 6 am).  It is a very pretty city.  It is much bigger than Gabs, located on the ocean, and not in a desert, which all add up to a very welcoming climate.  We spent most of Saturday morning and early afternoon exploring the city centre, which has a number of very beautiful old colonial buildings, a nice market, and an interesting local museum on colonialism.  The hostel we were planning on staying at was at the far side of the harbor and well outside hiking distance so we had to negotiate the public buses to get there.  The buses run very infrequently and are not fast so we ended up waiting at the station for a while before we started talking to a bus driver who just volunteered to change the route he was supposed to be taking in order to accommodate us.  It’s a wonder why the public transportation system is seen as inefficient. 

We finally made it to our hostel (located 30 yards from the beach for 8$pp a night) and our first visit to the beach and it was wonderful.  Sunny, warm, breezy.  We got in the water a little (and it was incredibly refreshing), but choppy waves and a pounding shore break insure that you can’t venture out far.  Well, that and the local shark population.  We spent most of the rest of the day wandering the beach and eventually had a nighttime bonfire on the beach, complete with a couple of local fascist Afrikaners. 

Sunday morning we actually woke up for sunrise (!!!) before napping some more and getting up at a humane hour.  We made the trek back over to the city centre and went to the largest mosque in the southern hemisphere in time for afternoon prayers before we had a delicious Indian lunch (Durban has a huge Indian population).  We moved onto the official boardwalk net to the city centre.  As far as boardwalks go, it was very well done.  They clearly zoned the areas to force hotels off the beach, which means there is a 100 yard or so stretch between the beach and the hotels which was filled with parks and green things and little shops.  After a nap (or two) on the beach, we packed up and headed for the bus station.  The bus trip back was thankfully uneventful and we were back in Gabs by midday Monday.  Overall it was a great trip and a wonderful place to visit for the weekend.  This weekend I will be staying in Gabs and exploring/hanging out (we found the karaoke bar). 

This past weekend, the program I am here with (ACM) loaded up the bus and took all 22 of us to Johannesburg for the weekend.  We made it to Soweto Friday evening and stayed in  a very nice backpackers place there.  Saturday we went on a four hour bike trip through Soweto.  The concept of a bike tour through a place like Soweto was initially off putting, but it turned out very well.  The guides were knowledgeable and the tour was well done.  We were able to cover a lot of ground in Soweto and saw areas ranging from the most destitute to middle class.  We also saw the site of the 1976 Soweto uprising, and Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu’s houses, as well as sampling local Soweto beer and grilled cow face, which is apparently a thing.  Most of the day after the tour was spent sitting around comparing sunburns. 

Sunday we went to the Apartheid Museum, conveniently located in the same compound as a casino and amusement park.  I’m sure Mandela is thrilled about that.  The museum was well done and interesting and clearly designed so that you really had to confront how the system of racial segregation impacted daily life.  However, the museum was also clearly a product of the ANC, who were praised above all and rarely criticized.  The section on Mandela was remarkably rosy and barely glazed over any flaws he might have made in his 50 years in the public eye.  It was very strange being in a country that so clearly worships one individual above all others.  I’m very glad he was dismissed from the hospital while we were there.  Had he died, I’m really not sure what would have happened. 

On the trip back we drove along the outer edge of a game park and got to see our first elephant.  Exciting.