by Jim Bellomo | Jul 13, 2025 | Uncategorized
We spent four incredible days and five wonderful nights on the Zambezi Queen. It was so far beyond what I expected that I can’t even begin to tell you. Our first day offered three possible game cruises. When I say “game cruises,” it means we got into a smaller boat that held 7-10 people plus the driver and set out to explore the river and its tributaries close up. Unlike the rest of the time, when the Zambezi Queen herself would float up and down the Chobe River. You will be amazed at what we could see just looking out the window of our stateroom.
Early Morning Bird Watching…and MORE!
The first game cruise offered on the first day was a 6:30 AM bird watching cruise with my (now) good buddy, Gibson, at the helm. About six of the 28-person group showed up, and off we went. I am not much of a bird watcher. But this turned into so much more. Not everyone was willing to get up and go that early, but I had resolved to take every single small boat trip they would offer me in the four days we were there. And was I ever glad we did. I am going to shut up now and let you see the photos from this early-morning bird watching expedition. 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…
Every single sunrise we saw in Africa was this color.
It was truly amazing.
Suns up. Time to find more birds and wildlife to shoot.
This is an African Fish Eagle (distant relative of the American Bald Eagle) being dive bombed by a pied kingfisher to keep her away from her nest.
It was almost funny. The eagle finally flew away.
Google says this is a Black Stork
This one too.
Another Pied Kingfisher
A yellow-billed stork
More of the same.
Our first hippo
They are about as big as a car.
Heron, I am pretty sure.
And another yellow-billed stork.
Living side by side with one of the most dangerous animals.
Even helping to get the bugs off the hippo.
Truly Amazing!
Northern Lapwings
They nest in the ground to protect their eggs and young.
They are beautiful when they fly
And when you see them all spread out above their nests like this.
A Black Skimmer
Still skimming
And here too.
He is skimming all over the place.
And my camera was following him.
Everywhere he went.
Cape Buffalo–the most dangerous animal out on the Chobe.
The guides hate them because they can be very erratic.
This is a group of photographers traveling with a company called Pangolin. Check out those lenses. There’s probably $100K of glass on that little boat.
Another African Fish Eagle posing for us.
Baboons!
We have baboons. These guys were eating the remains of something dead.
Two Egyptian geese.
So many baboons, so little time.
These are called Helmeted Guinea Fowl by Google but Chobe Chickens by everyone who lives there. You can eat them, even though the look like armadillos.
The Egyptian Goose that got away.
The African Sea Eagle he got away from.
An African Darter in the midst of some geese and cormorants.
Elephants…in a line
On their way someplace.
Who knows where.
Time for breakfast on the Zambezi Queen.
10:00 AM Game Cruise
After breakfast, pretty much everyone piled into one of the three small tour boats and took off up or down the Chobe River alongside Chobe National Park in Botswana and the shores of Namibia. We were not allowed to get too close to the park itself, but we could stop the boats just off the park for photos. And I took a BUNCH! And here we go again.
These are Impalas
But the locals call them McDonalds
Because they are speedy but at the bottom of the food chain.
I want to say we saw more than 20K, in our four days there.
I later learned that if you look at their butts as they are running away from you, you can see the Golden Aches in brown fur.
Perfect symmetry with two wire-tailed swallows
The biggest, gruffest Cape Buffalo of the day.
Looking over his herd.
Lots of birds
And more hippos
Still more.
And an Impala in full running mode.
And full drinking mode. They are very skittish when near the water as crocodiles may pull them in.
So many of them.
Speak of BIG crocodiles.
They are on every bank.
Along with hippos
By the score
More wire-tailed swallows.
They are very photogenic.
And BIG crocodiles.
Really big crocks.
Afternoon Game Cruise
The 10:00 game cruise took about three hours, so we were back on board at 1:00, had lunch and rested or just watched the river go by. Because it was the dry season, a whole bunch of animals had come down to the river. But that didn’t stop me from joining Gibson on the 3:00 PM game cruise. Kathleen decided to stay on board and watch out the window of our stateroom (she saw hippos, elephants and Cape Buffalo). I just got closer to them than she did. Here’s my pics from the afternoon game cruise. By now you know the drill.
As soon as we left the Queen we saw this guy.
Rolling around in the mud…
…on the island between Namibia and Botswana.
He looked like he was having such a good time.
I just had to keep shooting.
It was worth it.
Along comes a big one.
And an elephant parade.
These two greeted each other like long, lost lovers,
See how close they are to the boat we are in.
The just kept moving on.
While we had stopped to watch those elephants, the Zambezi Queen had caught up to us so Kathleen could see these same guys outside our stateroom window..
We moved on and found some other elephants, this time with babies.
Who were adorable
We had been by this spot on the river three times that day. The first time no elephants…
Just baboons.
The second time no elephants, just Impalas.
The third time, Elephant Bay (what this area is called) was full of elephants.
This guy was so cute.
He covered himself with dust to get bugs off of his back.
Moms were very protective
No other animals were around.
Just this big bunch of elephants.
An adult giving himself a dust bath.
It’s cool to photograph.
Or a family portrant
Or these two kids…
Who were having the time of their lives.
Time to see some birds.
This is a malachite kingfisher and is maybe the most beautiful bird I have ever seen.
A water-thick knee. At least that’s what Google says.
And our first giraffe.
Did you know this was how they drank?
I didn’t.
It’s an interesting way.
Two trees on the veldt.
This is what our safari boats looked like. There were three of them on the Zambezi Queen.
Another hungry and huge croc.
A very big elephant headed our way.
And I still have not seen and African sunrise or sunset I haven’t been thrilled with.
See what I mean.
Those three shot are all within about 5 minutes. When the sun comes or or goes down, it happens fast.
God bless Africa, Guard her people, Guide her leaders, And give her peace. —Trevor Huddleston
by Jim Bellomo | Jul 12, 2025 | Uncategorized
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
by Jim Bellomo | Jul 10, 2025 | Uncategorized
Here’s the Cape Town group. We would meet up with eight others when we boarded the Zambezi Queen in Namibia. You can see Kathleen and I on the right. And yes, I can pretty much tell you who everyone is. Well, everyone I like ?.
As I write this, I am sitting in our stateroom on the Zambezi Queen riverboat. Today has been exhausting. We have been in four countries, and I can see a fifth one outside our window. But more about that later. Today is about yesterday, or actually four days ago. Does that make sense? (Editor’s note: It has now been four days since I wrote this, and the internet has been so slow that I have not been able to finish it. I have so much more to show you, so please stand by.)
On Sunday, the plan was to tour the South African Winelands, and if the clouds finally cleared, we would take the cable car to the top of Table Mountain. Visiting the Winelands is, of course, all about the wine. So, today, Delia passed the baton to Gen, who is a true wine expert, having worked in both the travel and wine industries for several years.
Gen entertained and educated us as we drove from Cape Town to Stellenbosch. I wish I could remember all I heard, but I know I had a great time listening. She (as well as Delia) were very open about life in South Africa and about their own lives. We truly appreciated their frankness about a country they clearly loved, but not a racist system that is still in effect here.
We arrived in Stellenbosch and got out to both do a little shopping and to walk around the downtown. As you can see, I took a few photos as well. Then it was back in the “luxury motor coach” to head to our first winery, Longridge. We tasted six wines (at 10:00 am) from a Chenin Blanc (this is South Africa’s premier white) to a Pinotage (South Africa’s premier red) as well as a sweet dessert wine. All were excellent, although we have grown to love Pinotage.
We spent about 90 minutes at that winery before heading to another one, Lievland. There, we not only tasted their wines but also enjoyed a full lunch in their amazing restaurant. We stayed for at least two hours, having a great feast and another opportunity for all of us to learn a little more about each other.
So, here are my photos of our wine tours. 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…
A really fun sculpture in Stellenbosch
Loved this tiny sculpture on the front of a building
An entire store dedicated to one of our favorite drinks.
The entrance to Stellenbosch University
And a very dramatic church just as it started raining and I had to run for the “luxury motor coach”
Our amazing guide Gen. I have never known anyone that knew so much about wine. Even my buddies Steve and Bill.
If you look closely through this hole, you can see Table Mountain. Or not. It was covered in clouds at this point.
Our hostess at the first winery.
Pinotage
One of the things we loved at the first winery we went to was that they were training the servers to also…
…become carpenters. The ceiling in the previous room was all wine barrel staves as is this chair…
…and this table.
Another shot of Gen doing what she does best. Talking about wine.
The menu for lunch
After lunch, we were back on our “luxury motor coach” for the return trip to Cape Town. Throughout the day, we could see Table Mountain in the distance. The only major thing we hadn’t done since arriving was to take the cable car to the top. We kept watching it, but we were often disappointed because it was covered in clouds. Delia and Gen told us it wasn’t worth going up if the whole mountain was shrouded in fog, since the main attraction is taking photos of the city from above.
All day long, our hopes sank as it looked like the weather wouldn’t clear up. It hadn’t cleared since we arrived in the city. Delia said they would take us to the lower cable car station, as the view there was pretty good. But, surprisingly, as we drove through the city, the clouds disappeared, and we were able to go up! I’m sure you can see what an incredible experience this was from my photos, so I’ll let you look at them. They do have captions but you have to click on them and run the slide show to see them. Some are just views from the top.
The view from the bottom.
The cable car coming down to pick up us up.
They are round and they rotate so everyone gets to see everything.
Including some amazing views.
Of the city…
Our hotel in the middle of this shot…
Their stadium (big rugby match here the night before)
The rest of the mountain.
Lots of hyrax
They kept posing, I kept shooting.
Adorable but we hear they bite.
But come on. You have to take this photo.
More of the city…
And another incredible view.
Me being artsy at the top of Table Mountain in Cape Town, South Africa.
And the view from the side.
Come back tomorrow… or maybe later today. Our transition to the Zambezi Queen in Namibia was a journey I wouldn’t want to take again. Nothing bad, just too many border crossings.
Wine is constant proof that God loves us and loves to see us happy. —Benjamin Franklin
by Jim Bellomo | Dec 17, 2024 | Uncategorized
I am starting this post on the 16th of December as we head north tomorrow morning, flying out of John Wayne Airport at 10:45. When we get back to SEA, we will jump in our car and head south to Olympia (not home) because tomorrow night, our grandkids have their winter band concert. Both of them play clarinet, and this is our fifth-grade granddaughter’s first concert. And the really cool thing for me is that we will spend tomorrow night there, which means I will wake up on my birthday at their house on Wednesday morning.
In the meantime, since I last wrote about our visit here, we have done some more cool stuff. After our Christmas boat parade on Friday (see my post here), Saturday was about Christmas at the Mission. San Juan Capistrano is home to a California of the same name. It’s the one that the swallows come back to every year. And this year they were having a Christmas celebration. It was very nice, but we were all a little underwhelmed. Steve and I kept telling each other how they could improve the whole celebration with a lot more lights. But I did get some decent photos of the decorations, the performers and the lights. 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…
When we arrived there was an…
…Old English caroling quartet.
They were very animated.
Great photo subjects
Lots of fun to shoot.
Before I went to look at other Christmas decorations.
Then we ran into a wedding
The groom and bride. I love taking photos of weddings.
And you can tell we are in California.
Just liked the patterns.
Another palm tree.
A window in an old wall in the Mission.
Projected angel.
Accordion player.
The Mission at dusk.
A nice sunset.
After the show, we went for another of the amazing meals we have had since we got here. I think Jamie and Steve have spent the 18 months since we were here the last time finding new and wonderful restaurants. We did the pizza place the day before, and tonight, after the Mission, we walked about three blocks to Rancho Capistrano Winery. Delicious food and amazing wines.
On Sunday, we had a family day. Jamie’s sister Pam, her husband David and their daughter Analee, as well as our niece Cassie and her beau Omar, all came for dinner. Steve made some delicious rotisserie chicken, and Jamie made some amazing appetizers, baked ziti, meatballs, and so much more. We again ate ourselves to bursting. January is going to be a very dry and lean month for us.
This morning, I went out and took my usual walk, and just to prove that I don’t always take great photos, I took at least 50 and only found three I liked. One was a shot I took walking over Interstate 5. I am always amazed that this highway, which is about eight blocks from my brother’s house, is also about 15 minutes from my daughter’s house and about 40 minutes from ours. Kathleen drove on this road every weekday for more than 15 years to commute to work. When I was in college, I used to drive a truck on it almost every day. When I lived in Eugene, Oregon, I spent many an hour driving up and down that part of it. When I lived in Rogue River, Oregon, I lived about a mile from it. It’s kind of been the road of my life. So I had to take a photo this morning.
The dawn of electricity
The train station in San Juan Capistrano
Interstate 5.
This evening, we went for an amazing Greek meal at Greek Bistro in Laguna Hills. WOW! It might even be better than Chris’ Taverna (my favorite Greek restaurant in Florida—I love Greek food, and we have a hard time finding it in Redmond). Then, after, we were off to look at some of the most amazing Christmas light displays we have ever seen. In case you haven’t seen the photos my brother posted of their house, they are REALLY into decorating for holidays, and they do a super classic job of it. Here’s what their place looks like this year. All of these pics are ones that I stole from him. It is truly impressive. You will note that every window has a theme.
The entire house from the street
Starting from the left side of the driveway.
Across the front. (This is the apartment we stay in).
So many lights
I think they told us they have 47 large boxes of decorations they have to store.
Beautiful
Amazing
This is the Frozen window.
Mickey and Minnie window.
Winnie the Pooh window
My niece Cassie did a lot of the artwork.
Up the front walk
Along the way to the front door.
A beautiful wreath.
Almost to the front door. All live plants.
At the front door.
In the side year.
And these are the ones we saw last night on our Christmas light drive (a tradition that Kathleen and I do as well). We were in a very wealthy section of Laguna Hills that I can’t remember the name of. The lights there were amazing.
Some of these are beyond words so I may just say LIGHTS! from this point onward.
Christmas dragons?
LIGHTS!
LIGHTS!
LIGHTS!
LIGHTS!
LIGHTS!
LIGHTS!
LIGHTS!
The last few of those are a couple of places back near their home that had a LOT of lights. Living proof that sometimes you can have too much of a good thing. ?
That about concludes our trip to Southern California. We had a super time, ate and drank way too much, and my sister-in-law Jamie was a great tour guide. I would use her as my Southern California travel agent every time we are here. Plus, free room and board is quite the incentive. I am finishing this up at 3:30 AM on the day we go to the airport to fly back to Seattle, then drive to Olympia to see the kids play in their winter (Christmas) concert tonight and then home to our place tomorrow. Thanks for reading along on this short journey. I hope my photos have gotten you deeply into the holiday spirit. If this hasn’t done it, then maybe this video Steve found last night will—click here.
Deck the halls and light the lights; it’s time for some festive delights! —Santa Claus
by Jim Bellomo | Dec 14, 2024 | Uncategorized
Yesterday started with a quick walk along the San Juan Creek, a route I have taken many times before. But it’s been more than 18 months since the last time, and it has changed quite a bit. The biggest change is the addition of a cute little park with a birdhouse theme that replaced a community landmark full of tiny birdhouses that were added on a regular basis. Due to liability issues, the city took it over and turned it into an actual city park. Both the old community-created park and the new “official park” provided me with a great place to take photos. Here are a few I got yesterday morning, along with other shots on my trek. Don’t forget, if you click them, you can see them a whole lot bigger. Really!
Birdhouse
Birdhouse
Birdhouses
Birdhouses
Trees
Cacti
You tell me what you see here.
Horse
Flower
Berries
Tree
The rest of the day featured some rest time right up until we headed up the coast to Laguna Beach, where one of my favorite stores is Crazy Shirts. If you don’t know about Crazy Shirts, just know that I am addicted to them; I have owned at least 50, I have a brand new one on right now, and they last almost forever. Yes, they are spendy for tee shirts, but they are worth every penny to me. The only problem we had was that the traffic was horrid on the Pacific Coast Highway, but Steve and Jamie were wonderful about feeding my need for new shirts, and we made it up and back with less trouble than coming back from LA the day before.
After going “Crazy,” it was time for an early dinner before today’s main event. Steve and Jamie had found an amazing place for pizza—Truly Pizza. They are supposed to have some of the best pizzas in the world. I mentioned it in my post yesterday, and it really is a great place for pizza. Here are the two pies we had. They, along with some interesting salads and dessert, made for a “Truly” great dinner. Almost forgot—I need to mention that dessert. It was their own specially made soft-serve ice cream. We tried the flavor of the night—gingerbread with cherries on top and vanilla with (believe it or not) olive oil and sea salt. It was AWESOME! BTW: if you want to see the pies enlarged, just click them.
This is the “Champion Cheese.” Earlier this year it won “Best Pizza in the World.” It was good, but not that good.
I liked this one better. The Sweet & Spicy because its crust was thicker but still light as a feather.
After dinner, it was time for the main event—the Dana Point Christmas Boat Light Parade. We boarded a boat to cruise the harbor and see some truly amazingly decorated boats. And, of course, I got pictures. It gave me a chance to take some photos I would not normally get. And before I got those I got some beautiful sunset shots. Sorry but here’s the old warning…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…
Sunset
Sunset
Sunset with a beautiful woman
Sunset
Boats
Boats
Boats
Boats
Boats
Boats
Palm Trees on an island
Me trying some special effects.
Boats
Boats
Folks watching.
Boats
Last Boat.
That was it. Tonight is a special “Christmas at the Mission” at Mission San Juan Capistrano. Plus, dinner with our niece Cassie and her significant other Omar. Can’t wait. Come back tomorrow. I should have pics.
Christmas isn’t a season. It’s a feeling. —Edna Ferber
