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
To close out the Zambezi Queen, I just have some odds and ends. Let’s start with the odd. I tried to do a vertical panorama of our Stateroom so you could see it. You can tell what you are looking at, but the photo is weird. But here it is.
It wasn’t a huge stateroom, but it was bigger than some others we have sailed in. The maid service was excellent. Here’s something we found strange—there are no keys to the cabins. You can lock them from the inside, but as Bernard told us on our first day, we are completely surrounded by water that’s full of crocodiles and hippos. There is exactly no chance of anyone from off the boat getting onboard to steal things. Still, it seemed weird. And even though there was a safe in the room, it was fairly small. no place to put any electronics. Primarily, they are there for the money and passports.
Meet Gibson
I have mentioned our guide, tour boat driver and my early morning buddy numerous times, but I keep meaning to post his photo. This is the amazing Gibson. He is the best!
My trip would have been significantly impacted if he had not been there. I learned so much from him. He is not only a great boat driver, but he is an amazing guide. He knows so much about the Chobe and its flora and fauna, not to mention that when I asked him to list the languages he spoke, he came up with 11. WOW!
What it’s like on the excursion-style boats
I have been asked what it’s like when you jump on one of the small boats and head up river. Here’s a quick video of that.
The Common Area
Normally, when my friend Mike cruises, he does a complete walk around of the ship with photos from every venue that he puts into his reviews (If you have never read Mike Preisman’s reviews, CLICK HERE. They are amazing.) With the Queen, there is only one venue other than your room. Here’s a quick panned video.
Our last night on board
Our last dinner on board was very special. First, the menu is entirely African. The crew cooks what they eat at home. We had oxtail stew with a distinctly different polenta and a variety of accompaniments, including game meats or fish, and malva pudding for dessert. But after dessert, things got seriou,s and they danced and sang and finally displayed their love for Namibia. I found it wonderful that people could unite behind their country..something we can’t seem to do in the United State. I find this video very moving.
That about does it. We loved the Queen. We loved her crew. The lock on our door, the tiny safe, and the need for new furniture in the lounge are the only minor and easy improvements we can suggest. The spirit of Namibia is well represented.
Please take me to Namibia, my soul needs to breathe. —Anonymous
As it turns out, this game lodge (in the absolute middle of nowhere) had great internet. Go figure.
Right now, it has been almost a week since the day I am about to write about. I am sitting in the main lodge at Tintswalo Game Lodges, watching a small herd of elephants drink water less than 30 feet from me. I have stopped writing this at least five times to go out and take their photos, but I have sooooo much to cover before you will see those. Let’s finish up our Zambezi Queen story.
Pre-Dawn Solo Birdwatching
This was our last full day on the Zambezi Queen and they had scheduled another optional birdwatching tour at 6:30 am. When they had done this on our first morning, there had been about eight of us who went out on the boat with Gibson.
I had promised myself to do every game/birdwatch cruise they offered us so I was up and ready to go. Sadly, no one else was. When Gibson came to get everyone and found just me waiting, I told him it was OK if he didn’t want to go out. That I would just stay on the Queen and process photos. He told me, “If I don’t take you I will be stuck either cleaning or assisting with breakfast. I would much rather be on the river in my boat. I will take you someplace that we don’t usually go but it is the best place to see birds.” How could I pass that up? So I got in the boat and off we went. I have to say that this morning cruise with Gibson was absolutely (so far with three days to go) one of the true highlights of the cruise for me.
We started out going in an entirely different direction than we had on all the other game cruises. We went towards the rapids that led to Victoria Falls. As we approached them, I could see thousands of nesting birds silhouetted by the rising sun. We stayed right in that area for more than an hour, with me getting to shoot any bird I wanted to my heart’s content. He would ask how I wanted the boat positioned so I could get the best shot and the best light. What a guy!!!
We also saw a couple of crocodiles and hippos. On the way back to breakfast (which was totally up to me), we stopped alongside a herd of Cape buffalo and I got my favorite animal photo up to that point. I am not much of a bird photographer, and if you are, these may disappoint you, but they make me happy. Plus I got another great African sunrise. Here are the pics from that morning trip with my new best photo friend, Gibson. Don’t forget; if you click the first shot, you can scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping. And PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…
My attempt at shooting the African moon as it set. I never have luck with moon shots but this one is pretty good.
Now the start of my day with Gibson, sunrise.
And all those trees are full of bird’s nests.
And soon the sky is full of birds.
And the sun comes up enough that you can clearly see the nests.
And they are everywhere.
A yellow billed stork
Waiting for a fly by. And there it is.
More sunrise nests
And more.
And More.
And still more. They are just so amazing. I am hoping you are looking at these full screen, with your monitor set to its brightest setting.
But more nests catch my eye in a new light.
Every photo seems different as the light changes.
Depending on where I look, it’s amazing.
I see a Yellow-billed stork flying by.
Quick action shot.
Not my camera skill on this shot but Gibson’s boat driving.
The Yellow-billed storks are gorgeous.
And I keep finding them in new places.
As we return for breakfast, I see two fishermen that Gibson tells me are checking their nets that they have left there overnight.
Then we say this guy. He as beyond majestic.
Especially when you see him in this shot.
And we returned to a comic Bernard pretending to pull in our boat.
Visiting the locals
After breakfast, everyone boarded the smaller boats to return to Namibia, heading towards a small village just east of the border station. Our guide for the morning was Tecklar, a young, single woman who lived there. She shared that the village, which had just under 40 residents, including men, women, and children, was relatively new. Tecklar had recently become a part of the community, and she had to apply to the village elder, the regional chief of the tribe, and finally the government to be allowed to move in.
Editor’s note:At this point I welcome any of my fellow travelers to correct me on any facts, as it has been over a week since our visit, and my memory might be a bit hazy.
While we were in the village we were shown the lodgings, new well and solor system, the gardens and finally the village gathering place where almost the entire village sang and danced for us. It was a an awesome visit. They even had a small bazaar set up where they sold things they had made. We came home with a hand-painted bowl and a carved wooden giraffe. So here are my photos from the visit. Hopefully you got a chance to watch the video above of the village entertaining us. You know the drill. Don’t forget to click the photos to make them bigger.
This is our guide Tecklar
On the way to the village (and every time we went to the Namibia border) we passed this small store and bar. Sometimes (like this morning,) no one was there. Other times it would be packed.
Tecklar tells us about how they build their homes and how long she had to wait for permission to join the village.
The village garden.
Strange how there was no running water or indoor plumbing, but there were satellite dishes.
A typical home.
The local well.
Guavas.
Time for dancing
And singing
And more singing
And more dancing.
This gave me a great chance to do some people pictures.
Some of our group joined the dancing.
The drummers were excellent.
This little guy spent most of the performance under his mom’s feet.
One of the drummers.
The costumes were beautiful.
So were the faces.
So much of the African spirit.
This guy had it too.
He was so photogenic
I loved shooting him. He just draws the lens.
So did this woman.
And the guys.
They passed around grains they use in cooking.
Kathleen enjoyed the show.
Bernard (our cruise director) has a twin brother ? who plays the drums.
They look amazingly alike.
And just so you can hear the music, here’s a short video.
Afternoon Game Cruise
After a quick bite for lunch, we were off on our last game cruise of our voyage. Kathleen decided to stay and pack, so I was off with a few of the others and Gibson. He finds us the best stuff. I need to add that Kathleen did not miss much by staying on the Zambezi Queen. While she packed, the Queen sailed up and down the river, and they saw as many animals as we did. Maybe they weren’t close, but they were definitely close enough. I will put some of her iPhone photos up later so you can see what I mean.
Instead of going into detail in text about what we saw on this last game cruise, I will just let my photos do the talking. Enjoy. Captions identify but you have to change into slide show mode to see them.
I loved the way this elephant was perfectly framed by this arch.
Momma and baby hippo
A family of giraffes
So often these are alone, it was great to see them together.
I loved these two.
This may be the cover of my Africa book.
Or this one.
Part of Fish Eagle triptych
An African Fish Eagle grabs prey from the shore.
And flies away with it.
This tree just said Africa.
The same place we had seen hundreds of other animals on different days and times…
Was now totally filled with elephants
And a lone giraffe.
And this little guy and his mom.
A new village being built.
See the large mound behind the woman carrying water? That’s a termite mound.
The local bus.
Some guys waiting for a taxi.
Gibson took a wide-berth around these guys.
That covers the day. It was back to the Queen for a final night dinner that featured some of the incredible crew members singing and dancing for us afterward. More tomorrow.We just got back from a game drive, it’s freezing, we ate dinner and are going to bed because we go out again tomorrow morning at 6:00 pm.
The next morning, we woke up in the Cape Grace hotel, grabbed a very early breakfast and headed to the airport for our flight to Victoria Falls airport in Zimbabwe. The flights went pretty well, except that Kathleen and I couldn’t sit together. Our wonderful tour organizer, Delia, had seen how tall I was and got me an exit row. That was fine, but when the gate agents saw Kathleen roll up in a wheelchair, they moved her back in the plane instead and didn’t move me as well.
Our flight in an Embraer 190 (one of our favorite planes) was a good one. It takes about 2.5 hours to get from Cape Town to Victoria Falls Airport. We had to go through passport control to check out of South Africa. Then, when we arrived in Zimbabwe (where the Victoria Falls airport is), we had to clear customs there. We then boarded a bus and drove for about 90 minutes to the Botswana border, where we had to check out of Zimbabwe and then drive a short distance to check into Botswana (by a short distance, I mean about 100 feet). Then we drove another 45 minutes and arrived at the dock where we would catch the smaller boat that would take us to the Zambezi Queen. But first, we had to pass the Queen (on the river) and go to the Namibian border. We had to then get off the small boats and walk inland about half a mile in order to check into Namibia (because legally, the Zambezi Queen is in Namibia). After walking about a mile in the very hot sun, we got back on the boat and went back to the Zambezi Queen. Whew! From the time we landed in Zimbabwe, this whole process took us about 3 hours. Just crazy.
And the really crazy thing is that we had to do it all over again anytime we left the ship. I have now done that hike from the shoreline to the Namibian border station at least six times. Might be eight. Luckily, they did not make Kathleen do the walk. I could sign in for both of us. It is also expensive, and there are a LOT of forms to fill out. We had done our Namibian e-visas before we left, so that helped a little. Thank goodness we had Delia to tell us what to do to satisfy all the legal requirements.
Now the good stuff. Once we got on the small boat to head for the Namibian border, we realized that we were definitely in Africa. Our driver, a wonderful man named Gibson, would stop if it looked like there was something to see. Usually, there was A LOT to see. So, here are some pics. Don’t forget; if you click the first shot, you can scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping. And PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…
The Chobe River was jammed with boats.
We saw nice game lodges…
…as we were going towards Namibia.
And some interesting excursion boats.
This guy got his own boat. Something I would experience later in the week.
Look! Elephants!
Up close elephants.
There are more elephants in Chobe National Park than in most of the rest of Africa.
I would say they are very friendly but I am just not sure.
This kid has lens that costs more than my camera and lens combined.
This was a swallow’s nest inside the small boat we were on.
We can see the Zambezi Queen
She sure looked good.
And then we went past her to go the Namibian Border…but we finally made it back.
I took this from the lounge on the top deck of the Zambezi Queen. African sunsets (and sunrises) are amazing.
I wish I could have taken a photo of the border crossings (especially the one we had to walk to in Namibia), but there are huge signs everywhere prohibiting photography. But I was able to get a Google Maps overhead shot of the shore-to-office route we had to take. It was pretty much soft sand all the way.
They all had something interesting about them. The Zimbabwe border had baboons everywhere, and to enter Botswana, you had to walk across mats soaked in insecticide to keep their cattle herds safe. We also had to turn over any other shoes we had with it to two people from AMA, and they had to dip them in the disinfectant and then get them back to us. And Namibia was just nuts. You walked all that way through domesticated animals (I had a nice talk with a dog while waiting for some fellow travelers to walk back with me) plus roosters that would not shut up.
I think that about covers our transition day. It was probably the only thing I didn’t love about our time on the Zambezi Queen. That and all the other times we had to do the border crossings. Everything else was just about perfect. More about that later.
Reminds me of my safari in Africa. Somebody forgot the corkscrew and for several days we had to live on nothing but food and water. —W. C. Fields
Just a quick note to let you know we haven’t been eaten by a lion. We’re currently on the Zambezi Queen riverboat on the Chobe River between Botswana and Namibia. The WiFi onboard is equivalent to cell phone service, with all 40 people trying to use the same connection. This means uploading photos isn’t possible. I hope to be back on Friday with updates on what we’ve been up to in the meantime. Not all at once, but day by day. Stay tuned.
I am off for my third animal viewing boat ride of the day. On the first two, I took more than 500 photos…on each ride. Hard to cull them down, but I will do it. About to leave for my third, and the boat itself is headed down the river. I can look out our windows and see elephants, cape buffalo and hippos. OMG!
I have mentioned our guide, tour boat driver and my early morning buddy numerous times, but I keep meaning to post his photo. This is the amazing Gibson. He is the best!
