If you, (like my good buddy Jayesh and I) are Princess Bride fans, you know that my headline is a quote from the amazing Inigo Montoya. But that’s how I usually begin my final post about a trip.
This trip was a good one. Before we went, everyone told us it was “the trip of a lifetime,” or “the best trip we ever took.” To be totally honest, it is one of the best trips, but not THE best. It does make the top five, but it’s not number one. For me, that spot is still held by our voyage to the Galapagos on Celebrity’s Flora. Let me explain. But not before I give you my favorite African Sunset photo to break up all the text.
The things we loved
The lodging was amazing in its own way. We have never stayed in such wonderful accommodations. Starting with the only one we booked ourselves (The Radisson Red on our first night in Cape Town) to the incredible game lodges at Tintswalo. All of them were great. Two of them had rooms larger than my first apartment (The Cape Grace in Cape Town and the Fairlawn Boutique Hotel and Spa in Johannesburg). The Victoria Falls hotel was just too colonial for me. Too much of a reminder of the way the European/Western world has exploited much of Africa and continues to do so monetarily today. And eating cold food because they have no indoor restaurant is just wrong.
The lodges at Tintswalo Safari Lodge may have been bigger than my first house. But I found them dark and way too isolated. Our room onboard the Zambezi Queen was fine. A little small, but just fine. And they need either doors that lock from the outside or larger safes, along with new and higher furniture in the common areas. When you have to struggle to get out of a couch, that couch needs to go ?.
One more thing about the lodging. It is drop-dead the finest in South Africa. If you visit the websites for the Cape Grace, Victoria Falls Hotel, Fairlawn, or Tintswalo, you will find that all charge around $1200 per night for a room similar to the one we had. To be honest, the best bed I slept on the entire trip was at the Radisson Red in Cape Town. Certainly, the service at the other hotels was amazing, but we also loved the service at the Red and would have been just fine staying there at $165 per night. However, if you want the best lodging in Southern Africa, this is the trip for you.
The food was fine with some amazing standouts. The Spiced Eggs I had for breakfast three days in a row at the Cape Grace in Cape Town were easily one of my favorite dishes ever. Our dinner at Marble in Johannesburg was delicious and a great dining experience. We are glad Beverleigh talked us into keeping our reservation. A few of the dishes at Tintswalo were so good I begged for the recipes, and happily, I have all four that I loved.
This trip included some once-in-a-lifetime experiences. My favorite things we did included our helicopter ride over Victoria Falls (I was too busy being amazed to worry about being in a helicopter). Our morning game drives at Tintswalo (all but one of the evening drives were a bust) and the excellent lectures we heard. The one on the boat in the Zambezi River about Dr. Livingston was especially enjoyable. The ongoing discussion of the historical significance of the mining industry in Johannesburg remains thought-provoking. Our day in the wine country with Gen was incredibly informative in many ways, not just about wine but also about South Africa.
But my drop-dead favorite experience of the entire trip was my solo (with only Gibson driving the boat) “birdwatching” trip on the Chobe River at the crack of dawn. As a photographer, that one was special. Here’s my favorite photo from that day.
I got some great photos. A significant part of why I travel is for the photography. It always makes me happy on a trip when I get great photos that I can come back and be proud of, but Southern Africa does have its photographic challenges.
I would guess that if you asked our wonderful fellow travelers who finished the trip with us at Tintswalo what their favorite segment of the trip was, they would say it was our three days at Tintswalo. For me, that was maybe my third favorite place.
It took me a few days at home working on photos to figure out why. As I compiled my 100 favorite photos from the entire trip (for the record, I took more than 8,000 pictures), I noticed something. The area around Kruger Park and Tintswalo that we visited for those three days was monotone. Everything was brown. Everything blended together.
It didn’t help that throughout our entire stay at Tintswalo, I felt rushed. Part of that feeling is due to my expectations. I thought there would be more free time. Knowing what I know now, I would have skipped all the evening game drives except the first one. Perhaps this is related to how jaded I became about the animals by the end of the trip. I am not sure how many elephants and hippos we saw, but it must have been in the thousands, especially if you include Cape buffalo. And don’t even think about counting the impalas ?.
The one major thing we didn’t like
There is a reason we probably would not do this trip again. And this is just me. I am sure that the others were fine with it, but for us, this trip is not something we would do over. Airports and airplanes are our least favorite part of travel. It would not be an exaggeration for me to say that they are the one part of traveling that I despise. And on this trip, to see everything, you have to spend a lot of time in airports and on airplanes. When I was out for my walk with Keeley (our dog) yesterday, I suddenly realized that was the problem (for us) with this trip. So when I got home, I added up our time in airports and on planes to make this trip happen. Not counting the time it took to travel to and from the airports, we spent 75.5 hours either waiting in an airport for a flight, on the flight, getting through passport control and customs after a flight or clearing it before one. That’s hell. If I had added it up before we booked the trip, we might not have gone. You don’t realize that you can easily lose entire days at airports and on flights.
Please don’t misunderstand me, we had a great time, but when I realized how much time we spent centered on flying, it blew me away. Just under one-fourth of the entire trip was spent getting to and flying on airplanes. Sadly, I don’t know how else we could have seen everything we did in that short amount of time, but until they invent the Star Trek transporter, I don’t plan on doing another trip like that ?.
As many of you know, Kathleen and I have cruised extensively. We have always said that one of the best parts of cruising is the fact that you only have to unpack once, and your hotel moves you around for a week. While that may have been true on the Chobe River, we never really unpacked anywhere. Which also tells you that we are not the type of travelers who like living out of a suitcase. And dragging two medium-sized suitcases, one carry-on, my backpack with camera and laptop, as well as Kathleen’s backpack, was not fun. I am always envious of people like our new friends, AJ and Diane, who can pack everything they need for an 18-day vacation into two large carry-ons. One pair of my shoes would fill that backpack. And this vacation was all about layering. We needed clothes for hot weather and clothes for cold weather. And there was no real laundry service or opportunity until we got to Tintswalo. Plus, in a few places (like Johannesburg), we couldn’t send any out because we weren’t there long enough for it to come back before we left.
This vacation was just too much moving from point A to point B. We loved all points A, B, C, D and E, but getting there was no fun.
The absolute best thing about the entire trip
Hands down, it was the proud people of Southern Africa. I don’t think we met a single person who lived there who wasn’t trying to be the best they could be, even though they may have been living through horrible circumstances. The service was hands down the best we have ever received in all our travels, and all were supplied with smiles and cheerful voices.
And the openness was amazing. The willingness to discuss their countries, how they felt about what was going on in their country and the world. They had opinions both good and bad, but they expressed them with calmness and thought. They answered my tough questions and made me want to know more about the region and their country. To see the faces of our Namibian crew on the Zambezi Queen singing their national anthem for us brought a tear to my eye. But hearing from a South African that their government still has some ugly remnants of apartheid made me mad as hell. And seeing the poverty of Soweto and the wealth of natural resources, leaving the country to make a profit for those outside of it, left me seething. But as my new friend AJ told me (a very wise man), this is a generational thing that won’t change overnight. But it does need to change.
People that stood out and were amazing included the incredible Delia (this trip could not happen without her), the wine expert Gen, who gave me a five-hour education and contributed to my knowledge of her country, my birdwatching buddy Gibson, who amazed me with his knowledge of the birds, animals and fauna of the Chobe river. And he speaks 11 languages and loves his work—you can tell. Bernard, who runs the Zambezi Queen, is a great leader and so proud of his country, Namibia. Our driver (it pains me that I did not find out his name) at the Fairlawns, who had frank discussions with us on our drives. Beverleigh, who shared her perspective on her country and its foibles during one of the best dinner discussions I have had during our travels. Every single person we met at the Kliptown Youth Program in Soweto, but especially Thando Bezana. Their spirit is indomitable. They are succeeding where others have failed. They truly make a difference. Perhaps they are the beginning of that generational change that AJ discussed.
And speaking of AJ, we met and traveled with some really great folks. We missed our new friends Lorraine, Betty and Dennis at Tintswalo when they took the train as their end-of-trip excursion. Our final 12 at Tintswalo were the heart and soul of our group. AJ and Diane (who we hope to see again in the Bay Area). They did a great job of tempering my enthusiasm with their well-thought-out views. I always gravitate to people like that because they are what I need to slow me down and get me to think. The two Marinas were a total hoot. M-1 was always fun and M-2 just totally cracked us up. Riding in the back of the safari truck with her made the afternoon game drive a bunch more fun. Vicky, David, Sonnet and Fred were great people to be around, and just listening to Nancy‘s tales and Rich’s stories of cooking for her still brings a smile to my face. Look in the dictionary under “picky eater” if you want to see what Nancy looks like ?.
That about does it. We had a great time, we wish we had flown less and been able to spend more time seeing things, but Delia made it possible for us to get through airports without wanting to jump off a cliff. Thanks for coming along. Watch this space in October when the October Bunch does Portland and a Columbia River cruise.
I want to leave you with a photo that kind of sums up the end of things. I saved it for just this spot. It’s the end. Enjoy.
The only man I envy is the man who has not yet been to Africa – for he has so much to look forward to. – Richard Mullin
After completing my last trip entry (except for my review), I came across some videos that may interest you. Random videos that I took along the way, which I didn’t post on the day after I took them due to restrictions on uploading. The first bunch is from the Chobe River part of our trip. Make sure to watch this one until the end. The little guy is really cute.
Here’s an elephant taking a mud bath. It was hilarious, even though some of the time we wondered if he would be able to pick himself up out of the muck.
Later the same afternoon, we saw a long line of elephants heading our way.
They just kept coming and coming.
This one was taken the next day when we visited Chobe National Park. The elephant at the start had come up to our vehicle and then veered off at the last minute. I filmed him walking away, and then someone whispered, “You should turn around.” YIKES!
While in Chobe National Park, we saw this pride of lions. Very quick video.
That covers our time on the Zambezi Queen. Here are a few from after that. The first is from the Kliptown Youth Program we visited in Johannesburg. These boys were such excellent dancers, I had to share their performance with you.
Now it’s off to Tintswalo Safari Lodge with the last few animal videos I got. Up first is an example of what it’s like to ride in the back of one of these vehicles. I was trying to film the mom and baby rhino we had found. This shows how hard it is to hold anything, let alone a camera, when your driver is going flat out to keep up with animals.
Finally, we caught up, and our driver was able to slow down and get me a better shot of the actual rhinos.
I thought I would give you one last video showing you what a nighttime safari looks like. I’m not sure about you, but I have no idea how our tracker/spotter can see anything while going that fast. This might be the reason we never found anything after dark.
That’s it! I will be back tomorrow with the final summary and review of the trip. Would we do it again? Did we like the AmaWaterways experience? How was the food? What did we really dislike about the entire trip? What did we love? Come back tomorrow and find out.
Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up, it knows it must outrun the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the slowest gazelle, or it will starve. It doesn’t matter whether you’re the lion or a gazelle – when the sun comes up, you’d better be running. – African Proverb
I knew this day was coming. Our last full day in Africa. We had two more game drives today, followed by two days of flying, and then we would be home. This was it. If we were going to get any more of the Big Five or the Magnificent Seven, it had to be today. So again, we were up and out before dawn looking for rhinos, leopards and African wild dogs.
The morning drive started with a beautiful sunrise…
…reflecting off a local watering hole.
Where a hippo was bathing.
Then we heard from another truck that they had found…
African wild dogs.
One of the Magnificent Seven.
We rushed to the spot and found this mated pair just taking it easy.
After we had shot them for a while, we saw this giraffe…and then…
RHINOS!
A mother and baby black rhino.
The little guy was kind of skittish….
And anytime we came close to it, he took off.
But we stayed with mom and kid.
He was adorable.
Wildebeests
Zebras…and friends
More Wildebeests
Google identifies this bird as a brown-snake eagle.
We finally see Punba (a warthog). They weren’t singing Hakuna Matata.
They were just running.
Got two of the three we needed, so we headed back to the big lodge for lunch.
Editor’s Note: I had this post all done and ready to go last night and then I remembered that I could show you on a map what a game drive looked like. I have an app on my phone that tracks where I walk by GPS. It’s called Map My Walk. When you are done it gives you a map that shows you how far you walked and where you hit every mile and your stats. On our morning drive on the last day, I just happened to think as we were driving away, that I should turn it on. This was the result. You can see how absolutely crazy the drive is. The total miles on this drive was almost 17. We were out there for three hours and 28 minutes. Just thought it might be a fun thing for you to see.
After lunch, we did it all over again. I wish I could say that we found the elusive leopard, but we didn’t. I guess I will have to go back—NOT! And to be honest, it was our worst game drive of the entire trip. We pretty much saw nothing. Here are the pictures to prove it.
A zebra.
Last Dinner
Two photos. Just two usable photos. It was a somewhat sad way to leave, but it had been a great trip. Tomorrow, I will sum things up and give you an actual review. Stick with me—only one more post. I guess it’s only fitting that this was the end of the day. I should add that some of the others went on a game drive the next morning, on the day we were supposed to fly, but my cold had worsened, so I skipped it. I would have been really disappointed if they had found a leopard, but they didn’t. They did spot a male lion, and I missed that, but with over 40 hours of flying and airports ahead, I’m glad I made that call. I’ll be back tomorrow with a final round up and review.
Africa changes you forever, like nowhere on Earth. Once you have been there, you will never be the same. – Brian Jackman
As I explained yesterday, our two full days at Tintswalo were identical. Up early (5:30 wake-up call), meet in the main lodge for coffee and snacks, jump in the bush cruisers and drive around looking for game for a while.
Then breakfast, a break, and back out to do the same thing from 3:30 to 7:00 or so, and then dinner and sleep. Sounds pretty easy.
But there are a couple of things to mention that you might not have realized. First, the temperature. When we arrived at Tintswalo from the airport on our first day around lunchtime, it was a balmy 78 degrees. During the days, the temps were in the high 70s to the low 80s. Since it was the dry season, we never saw a single drop of rain, which was a good thing since there were no tops on the vehicles. We asked the guides what they did in the rainy season, and they said…ponchos. No, thank you. Driving around, soaking wet for three hours? Not me. I was glad we were there in the dry season.
But the 70s and 80s in the sun do not translate to the 60s and 70s in the dark. Unlike a city, the bush has no concrete or blacktop to soak up the sun. And it gets cold quick, just about as fast as it gets dark. You know all those pretty African sunsets I have been showing you? Did you notice there were very few mountains (none at all) or hills? That means when the sun goes down, it goes from light to dark very quickly. The same thing happens every morning. The sky would get a little light and then BANG! Full sunshine.
But the coldest ride of the day was always the first one in the morning. With no sun for eight hours, we were already cold when we got out of bed, but leave it to the wonderful folks at Tintswalo. When we arrived at the trucks, every seat not only had a blanket but also one of the biggest hot water bottles I have ever seen. And it was HOT! In fact, it stayed hot/warm until we came back three or four hours later.
I tell you all this just to let you know that when you go on safari, you need to layer up. I would start with a sun-protection long-sleeved shirt, a sweater/sweatshirt over that and my windbreaker on top of that (and yes, shorts on the bottom—my legs never get cold). Then you shed those as the sun gets higher. Worked pretty much that way every day. And a hat and LOTS of sunscreen.
I also need to mention how lucky we were to be there in their winter. Not only does it not get as hot during the day, but the days themselves are shorter. We didn’t have sunrise until almost 6:45. If we had gone in December, it might have been raining, but we would have definitely had to get up more than an hour earlier for the game drive because the sun rises before 5:00 am in their summer.
So, enough of the weather stuff, how about some photos? Here’s the morning game drive on our second day in Tintswalo. Don’t forget; if you click the first shot, you can scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping. If you can’t read the caption while watching the slide show, click the little i in a circle below the photo, and you will be able to see it. And PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…
We meet in the living room, pre-dawn for our safari briefing.
The sun hits the sky about half an hour later. We area already out in the file looking for animals.
Our tracker/guide Reply goes into the brush following tracks. The other man was from a different game lodge.
They found us a waterbuck. Hunters like these as they have a target on their backside. ?
And then we found lions.
Lots of lions.
Must have been a pride of about 14 or 15.
Mamas and cubs.
Mama
Playful cubs.
Coming close
Really close.
You can see the rear view mirror of the truck.
Our other car showed up.
We were surrounded.
It’s hard not to just keep taking photos when lions are…
Cavorting all around you.
Pretty much I could go from side to side on the back of the jeep and have a great photo everywhere I looked.
The cubs were so cute.
Just goofing around
As lion clubs do…oh, how jaded I have become.
Seriously.
But Kathleen (sitting in the front where it was less bumpy) loved it.
After lions…zebras!
The first we had seen
The patterns are very cool.
Time to stop for breakfast. The group from the other car posed for me.
The guides got us coffee and more snacks.
Lots of snacks/Lots of drinks.
We ran into Meryl Streep who was filming Out of Africa. Nope, just our friend Vicky pretending.
Erick explains the tracks we are seeing.
A couple of impala stop to stare at us.
And one last giraffe before we head back to breakfast.
After the drive, it was back to the lodge for breakfast, a nap for most (AJ worked out, and I worked on photos), and then a late lunch that Tintswalo called “Substantial High Tea” at about 2:30 (which looked like lunch to me). Then, it was off on the afternoon game drive by 3:30. And here are the photos from that one. It was not our finest hour so I had to embellish with some deck shots taken during tea.
There’s a new bird in town (on the rail at the lodge)—a Burchell’s Starling.
During lunch on the deck, the elephants put on quite a show.
Eating..
There was some drama when someone spotted this turtle right below the hose that the elephants were drinking from. No worries, no animals were hurt in the taking of this photo.
Playing around.
And here comes the heard of Cape buffalo.
Wandering in from down by our lodge.
The whole herd dropped by.
Big ugly guy in the lead.
A giraffe
Same giraffe. This time with a bird.
Zebras grazing.
A male bush buck
Hippos in the distance.
The other truck chasing us around.
The most dangerous animals we saw.
I should have taken a nap.
Sunset
As you can see, the afternoon/evening game drive was a little bit of a bust that day. It seemed to me that there was one animal that stood out during each game drive (except thisone). The day before we saw the cheetah, we had lions and our first zebras this morning, although there were fewer animals in the afternoon. You will have to come back tomorrow to see what we got on those two runs. I can tell you the best ones by the number of photos I took. For most, it was around seven to eight hundred. For this one, I barely got 100. You can’t win them all.
One more thing. I wanted to show you how many animals we could see just lying in bed. Seriously. But for some reason, when I was in bed, I never seemed to have my camera with me ?. So here’s one I shot out our window while sitting on the edge of the bed. Take a look at what our view was like most days. Always something out there hanging around. Mostly tiny monkeys, elephants, Cape buffalo moving by or baboons. I think the baboons bother me the most. You never know what a baboon is going to do, and they seem to be the least phased by humans.
I never knew of a morning in Africa when I woke up that I was not happy. – Ernest Hemingway
When you go on safari, much of the activity is centered around game drives. This means you go out twice a day to look for game (you know, wild animals). That’s what life was like during our stay at Tintswalo. We got there around lunchtime, ate, had half an hour to unpack, and we were out the door on a game drive.
And what were you looking for on the game drives? Mostly, you were looking for the Big Five. If you have never heard that expression before, the Big Five are the five most dangerous (to man) animals you find on an African safari. We also found out that there is a Magnificent Seven (not to be confused with the western films) to look for as well. Your goal on safari is to see (or, in my case, photograph) the Big Five: lion, leopard, rhino, Cape buffalo, and elephant. According to the folks at Tintswalo, there was also a Magnificent Seven, which consisted of the Big Five and two additional species: the African wild dog and the cheetah. I will let you know right now that we didn’t find the Big Five. Of course, we (those of us on this AmaWaterways trip) had already seen three of the Big Five while we were in Chobe National Park (elephant, Cape buffalo and lion), so we were more than halfway there. We just needed the rhino and leopard for the Big Five and the African wild dog and cheetah to complete the Magnificent Seven. I won’t keep you in suspense. We never saw a leopard. Darn ?!
But there were other animals we hadn’t seen yet, and we would see many of them on our six possible game drives. I will pause the story for now to include our first game drive, which took place around 3:30 pm on our first afternoon at Tintswalo. Don’t forget: if you click the first shot, you can scroll through it using your arrow keys or by swiping. And please, don’t view my photography on a phone. Please…
We split up into two groups with six people in each vehicle. We saw some other lodges vehicles and they were PACKED!
Erick, our driver and guide.
Reply, our spotter and tracker. He rode out in front of the truck looking for animals.
First up…birds. This is a magpie shrike.
And a lilac breasted roller just like the ones we saw in Chobe.
A southern yellow-billed hornbill. Also known in the Lion King world as Zaza
And a red-crested korahaan
And this very ticked off elephant. Erick had seen him coming towards us from the right hand side. He sped up to put him behind us.
When I asked why, he said that he likes to get in front of the trucks and block the way, not letting them get around him. I was in the back seat and I was glad that we drove away fast.
Another lilac-breasted roller, this one in full flight.
They are beautiful birds.
Here’s a new one—a double-banded sand grouse.
Spotted a female ostrich.
And there was the male. We hadn’t seen one of those since Cape Town.
And a CHEETAH!
A mom and her two cubs.
Just hanging out.
Posing.
Looking majestic.
Letting us shoot to our heart’s content.
One gorgeous animal
That would rip your head clean off.
But so beautiful.
Especially in the wld.
These are different cheetahs
But darned if I can tell you which is which .
But I bet you can figure it out.
I just liked taking photos of them.
Alas, time to go. I should tell you that I posted about 15 cheetah photos but took more than 250.
A nice surprise.
Appetizers in the bush.
All set up and waiting for us. Nothing like a G&T out in the bush, by jove!
Then it was back in the truck and on to the lodge for the rest of dinner. The food at the lodge was superb!
An example. That’s not ketchup. That’s a blueberry and red wine sauce that went perfectly with the game and I now have the recipe for it.
That’s day one at Tintswalo. We had found another of the Magnificent Seven and only needed a rhino, a leopard (we nevergot), and an African wild dog to complete the set. More game drive news tomorrow. See you then. I leave you with another incredible African sunset.
Africa changes you forever, like nowhere on Earth. Once you have been there, you will never be the same. – Brian Jackman
Editor’s Note: I had this post all done and ready to go last night and then I remembered that I could show you on a map what a game drive looked like. I have an app on my phone that tracks where I walk by GPS. It’s called Map My Walk. When you are done it gives you a map that shows you how far you walked and where you hit every mile and your stats. On our morning drive on the last day, I just happened to think as we were driving away, that I should turn it on. This was the result. You can see how absolutely crazy the drive is. The total miles on this drive was almost 17. We were out there for three hours and 28 minutes. Just thought it might be a fun thing for you to see.
One more thing. I wanted to show you how many animals we could see just lying in bed. Seriously. But for some reason, when I was in bed, I never seemed to have my camera with me ?. So here’s one I shot out our window while sitting on the edge of the bed. Take a look at what our view was like most days. Always something out there hanging around. Mostly tiny monkeys, elephants, Cape buffalo moving by or baboons. I think the baboons bother me the most. You never know what a baboon is going to do, and they seem to be the least phased by humans.
