Ted’s (Excellent?) Adventures

Wednesday, May 7, 2008:  It was real and it was surreal.  My wife, two children, and I are in safari country — on the boundary of Kruger National Preserve in South Africa.  We’re staying in rooms that are separated by many meters, so the adults split up, and each sleeps with a child.  My eleven year old son is in my room sleeping next to me.  Earlier that evening, we were on a safari drive looking for lions, and the trackers believed that the alpha male was heading toward the camp.

That night, though, much of my attention is not on African wildlife.  I’m thinking about the two states in America — North Carolina and Indiana — holding primaries today.  During the past fifteen months, I’ve committed a large amount of my time to Barack Obama’s campaign, and am convinced that the future of the world hinges on America’s getting this election “right.”  These two primaries are quite important, and the polls show Obama losing Indiana by a large margin, and potentially losing North Carolina.  If he drops both states, his nomination is in jeopardy.  Our world travels have reinforced my belief that Barack Obama is the one candidate who can effect real change, and put things back on track for our nation and the world.  So I’m keenly interested in that nights primary results.

As I lay in bed, I hear the continual roar of the approaching lion.  We’ve seen lions roar in the wild, so I now have a good appreciation of the exertion required for such ferocious roars.  And this roaring sounds like it’s coming from right outside our window.  I can feel the vibrations, yet I’m far from afraid.  The lion, along with the other wildlife we’ve seen here in Africa, represents all that’s great — or could be — in the world — the gift we’ve all been given.  And, fortunately, Africa is proving effective at preserving its gift.  I’m wishing I could say the same thing about the United States.

My eleven-year-old son sleeps soundly next to me.  I hear his regular breathing, punctuated from time to time by a soft moan or cry.  I have no idea what he’s dreaming of that causes the cry, or whether it’s his reaction to the lion’s roaring.  But I know how important his future is to me.  Not just his, but all children’s.  And I know what damage our country has done to these futures in recent years.   His innocent breathing reminds me of the obligation that we have to help preserve a great future for our next generation, an obligation too few of us seem to take seriously.

Even though we’re in the bush, my blackberry can pick up — sporadically — a cellphone signal from an adjacent town.  It’s stronger at night than during the day, although erratic at best.  Nevertheless, I can use my blackberry to occasionally get an update on the decisions made by the voters of North Carolina and Indiana.  South Africa is six hours ahead of the east coast of the United States, though, so the polls don’t close in the two primary states until the middle of the night here.

At a little after three, I awake, perhaps in response to the roar of the lion, perhaps in response to a soft noise made by my child.  I instinctively pick up my blackberry, which sits on my bedside table.  I’ve gotten a New York Times newsflash e-mail indicating that Barack Obama has won North Carolina.  I know this means he ran quite well there, because the election was called quite early.  Thankfully, I know the worst case outcome from these primaries has been averted, and I try to go back to sleep.

A little later, another noise awakens me, although I’m again hazy about the source — the wildlife outside me, or my son beside me.  I check my blackberry again.  This time, internet access has drifted in, and I can check some of my trusted news sites.  I learn little from CNN.com, as usual, other than Barack will win North Carolina decisively.  But www.dailykos.com tells me much more.  He’ll win NC by close to 15%, a decisive win in an important state.  And after trailing early in Indiana, he’s closing the gap, and the race remains too close to call hours after the polls have closed there.  My son remains in his trustful sleep, and the lion’s roar have now been joined by a leopard.

I’m up again around 5:00 a.m.  Still no e-mails from news sources reporting on the winner of Indiana – great news.  Barack Obama doesn’t have to win Indiana; Hillary Clinton has to win Indiana decisively.  No news is good news.  The lions and leopards are now joined by jackals and an occasional hyena.  The wildlife is beginning to resemble our political process .

At 6:30 a.m., my son awakens.  We talk about the calls of the wildlife.  We talk about his own noises through the night.  I report to him that the Red Sox won again, a great start to the day.  And I tell him that our country took a major step forward while he slept.  The nominating process is over, and Barack Obama is one step closer to helping to ensure a better future for my child and his cohorts.  And I realize how lucky I am, to have slept in the midst of a lion, a child, and a future I might just be able to believe in.

We just returned from over three weeks in the bush of Southern Africa.  During that time, we had Trevor Carnaby as our guide and host.  We’ve had countless guides on this trip, some good and some not-so-good, but I’ve yet to post a blog on any guide.  But we’ve yet to have a guide as outstanding as Trevor, so I thought I’d let you know how great he is, and encourage you to use him if you ever explore Southern or Eastern Africa.

Trevor has been guiding for 14 years, but in his spare time he’s an author.  His first book is “Beat About the Bush:  Mammals”, which we referred to constantly on our trip.  Like Trevor, the book is insightful and interesting.  He is based in Pretoria, South Africa, but travels all over Southern and Eastern Africa.

For starters, Trevor knows more about wildlife than it would seem possible for any single human to know.  Whether we’d see a bird, reptile, amphibian, mammal, insect, or plant, he could readily identify it, and talk to us in engaging terms about what is so interesting about it.  Each day was like the best science lecture you’ve ever had!  He also has a keen eye, and regularly finds things (like chameleons) that no one else would notice.  He’s also an expert in South African history, photography, astronomy, and having fun!

Spending 23 straight days with a guide is not easy — for him or for us — but Trevor made it delightful.  He is considerate, a great conversationalist, and so funny.  At many of our dinners, my side would hurt from laughing at the stories he told.  If you ever meet him, be sure to ask him about Chad, Rupert, and the Miss Universe contestants. 

A couple of anecdotes will illustrate what Trevor Carnaby is all about.  Over the course of the trip, we reached the point where someone (usually Trevor) would see a bird across a lake on the far shore, eating something small.  Invariably, Sterling would ask him, “What is it that the bird is eating?”  And he’d almost always be able to identify it, and add a story about the predator/prey relationship. 

The incident that sticks out most in my mind is one morning when we were out exploring, and Trevor had arranged for us to have a breakfast cookout.  We learned how to build a fire without matches, got a hot fire going, set up a make-shift stove, and began the process of cooking breakfast.  They had packed pancake batter in a  metal thermos, and someone put it near (way too near!!) the fire.  When it came time to cook the pancakes, another guide passed Trevor the Thermos, but had taken the top off, and were holding it by the insulated handle.  Trevor, not knowing it was sitting by the fire, received the metal container in his bare hand, never said a word, and gently put it down so as not to spill the pancake batter.  His hand blistered badly from the burn, but he never complained, and proceeded to help our kids chase down lizards!

Over the time we spent with Trevor, he became a fifth member of our family, and our children still talk about him many times an hour.  “What do you think Trevor thinks this is?”  “Where would Trevor look for a reptile here?”  “Would Trevor think it’s ok to pick this up?”  All of us loved being with him, and he made our stay in Southern Africa just unbelievably enjoyable, for which we are very grateful.  If you need to reach him, his e-mail address is tcarnaby@abercrombiekent.co.bw.

We left Johannesburg Friday morning and flew to Malamala, a private game reserve abutting Kruger National Park in South Africa.  After checking in, eating lunch, and doing some homework, we headed out for our first afternoon/evening exploration drive.  The first drive, along with the rest of our stay, were phenomenal.

The big five on safaris are the African Elephant, the African Lion, the African Buffalo, the White Rhino, and the elusive Leopard.  The “five” were established back when big game hunting was big here, but remains as a goal for many photo safari participants.  Before coming to Africa, we had hopes of seeing each of these great animals.  Little did we know . . .

We left the Malamala lodge at about 3:45 p.m. and headed out on our first exploratory drive here.  About fifteen minutes into the drive, we were stopped trying to identify a woodpecker.  As we got ready to leave, we noticed right behind our jeep was a big, hulking African Buffalo.  Wow!  Big Five #1! 

We then got a radio call about a potential lion sighting.  We headed off the road onto terrain I didn’t think we could possibly navigate, but did.  We went down a steep ravine, and managed to climb up the other side, to see . . .  12 LIONS!!!  There were three female adults and nine young (8-12 month old) cubs.  As dusk settled in, we watched the lions hang out as an extended family, stunned at our good fortune to see this many lions in the wild.  Big Five #2!!

Now that it was completely dark, we got our floodlights out and headed down the road, to identify a very odd set of fresh tracks in the soft dirt of the road.  There were two parallel fairly-deep lines cutting across the road.  Our guides suggested it was a fresh kill being dragged into the woods, but I didn’t take that too seriously.  We then followed the likely path, wound down an unbeaten opening in the woods, and someone spotted . . .  an Impala head up in a tree.  Unbelievable!!  There was a dead Impala head sitting about fifteen feet up in a tree, perched on a limb.  How anyone spotted it is beyond me.   [In the photo above, the Impala head is on the right.  We ended up seeing the same Impala head the next day, where it was an afternoon snack for the lion family we had seen].

But, . . . , speaking of spots, we then looked further into the surrounding area, driving up and down and through incredibly thick grass in the dark to arrive at the backside of the tree, only to find . . . a big male LEOPARD.  Big Five #3!!!  This animal is incredibly hard to find in the wild, but there he was, right in front of us.  It was unreal.  We heard a rustling noise shortly thereafter, and our newly-made leopard friend had a visitor — a Spotted Hyena!  The Leopard zeroed in on the Hyena with laser-like focus and issued a deep growl.  The Hyena backed off, and the Leopard then jumped up into the tree.  He grabbed his Impala head and carried it higher up in the tree, and camped out there chewing away on fresh Impala meet. 

At that point, we heard loud “clump, clump, clump”-ing in the forest bush, and a huge African Elephant approached us.  Big Five #4!!!!  Being in a jeep between an Elephant and a Leopard didn’t seem too smart, so we pulled out a bit, watched the Leopard awhile more, and then headed off.  But even though we’ve seen plenty of elephants this trip, seeing them in such close proximity to other big game animals was exciting.

Was our viewing night over?  Hardly.  We crossed a bridge and got a great look at a Hippo and another Elephant.  We then headed over to the airport landing strip, where we got a great look at a White Rhino!  Big Five #5!!!  So in one three hour game drive, we had great sightings of all five of the “Big Five.”  At this point, we headed home, knowing anything else for the evening would be a let-down.

So the next morning, we tried our best to manage our expectations down.  What could we see that could match yesterday afternoon’s great set of sightings?!?!   Well, our wake-up call came at 5:30 a.m., and we were off just after 6:00 a.m.  Shortly into our game drive, we started heading fast for a corner of the reserve.  A Cheetah had been sighted, and we would love to get to see it.  The problem was that the Cheetah was heading toward the boundary with Kruger National Park, and visitors to Malamala can’t enter the park.  So the clock was ticking!  And, as our good luck would have it, we caught up with the Cheetah just a few minutes before it disappeared into Kruger.  The Cheetah is the fastest land animal in existence, and it was fabulous to see this powerful cat in the wild.  Along with our Big 5, we now added the Cheetah, making for the Super Six!! 

It’s hard to believe that the rest of our time at Malamala could live up to the first twenty-four hours, but it did.  We had a fabulous time here, seeing all sorts of great animals, including Zebra, Giraffe, the Nile Crocodile, the Water Monitor Lizard, and lots of great birds (including this pair of White-throated Bee-eaters on the right).  It was a magic place, and our last night drive underscores how great a place it is.  We ended up on a sandy beach by a river, in the middle of a family of twelve lions.  The cubs wrestled and played with each other, while the adults would occasionally roar, which is quite a sound to absorb from 20 feet.  The night before we followed a different group of lions (one adult male and six adult females) as they patrolled the reserve, looking for prey.  At one point, they circled an Impala and mounted an attack, but the very fortunate Impala escaped. 

Our last lunch at Malamala was out on the deck, and we watched a family of three elephants march by, coming within 30 meters of the deck.  We’d regularly see great wildlife from our room, and found it an amazing place for wildlife viewing.  Over the course of three days here, we saw twenty different lions, fifteen different rhinos, countless elephants, three leopards, a cheetah, and a couple of buffalo.   And we saw all sorts of great animal behavior in the wild, including the leopard below (and the first photo in this post) devouring a poor Impala.

There was so much to love about Malamala.  It is a much plusher site than the earlier safari sites we visited.  You stay in rooms with phones, there’s internet access in the main room, and the roads were fairly smooth.  If I had one quibble with Malamala, it was the meals.  For you Spanish speakers, “La comida es mala, mala.”  But this is a great place to visit, a quick one hour flight from Johannesburg, fabulous wildlife, and a great experience.  In 2007, some 99.5% of visitors staying two nights or more saw all of the Big Five, and much more!  So you can’t go wrong with a visit to Malamala, and a whole lot will go right!

We didn’t get to spend much time in Johannesburg, but it’s a place that will have a lasting and powerful impact on us.  A couple of weeks ago, we played baseball with a great set of kids in the Wesbury and Soweto areas.  Today, we spent the morning exploring Alexandra, perhaps the poorest urban area in Africa, and the afternoon at Joburg’s Apartheid Museum, a very powerful experience.

We were very fortunate to have Robin Binckes as our guide to Johannesburg.  Robin grew up in South Africa, and has seen the evolution of this most interesting country from its apartheid history to modern South Africa.  He readily admits to being a proponent of apartheid in his early years, but made a dramatic departure in perspective and life focus in 1993, when a black leader here was shot. 

For the past several years, Robin has been involved in many non-profit initiatives in the Johannesburg area, focusing on Alexdrandria.  The area used to be called “The Slaughterhouse,” since so many killings occurred in this compact area.  Today, some 400,000 black South Africans live in one square mile here, and that’s the area we visited.  Unemployment here is well over 50%, and only a handful of the area’s youth make it through high school.  And AIDS is a huge problem for many in this area, with little acceptance of basic measures of prevention (e.g., condoms).

It was immediately apparent that Robin is beloved in Alexandria, and he was greeted by person after person on the street.  He is involved with a pre-school, with a hostel, has “adopted” or sponsored a gorgeous nine-year-old girl, helps some of the local women with a business making jewelry and bowls, and has brought almost 800 bougainvillea plants to the area, each dedicated to a visitor.  He is a great example of one person making a huge difference.

We visited Nambuhle, a hostel that is home for some 5,000 people.  We met with two women selling beautiful things they had made, met many of the kids, and got a real feel for life in a hostel.  We were so impressed with the energy and curiosity of these children, who were adorable.  We could see why Robin is so energized by the work he does in this community.  And we had some extra Red Sox hats, so we gave out a bunch to the children, who were thrilled to get this gift.  As we find over and over on our trip, those with the least are often the happiest and most appreciative.

We then drove all over Alexandra, including where Nelson Mandela lived in this community.  These streets were just alive with the energy of the people here.  We had been warned, and warned, and warned about the peril of being in Johannesburg.  And here we were, the only five white people anywhere in sight (the tourists all go to Soweto, which is much more middle class now), yet we felt welcomed by the people we’d pass by.  Robin said, “If you wave to anyone, you’ll see a huge smile on their face and get a big wave in return.”  And he was right.

We learned about the South African concept of Ubuntu, which is a humanitarian ethic binding together a community.  Bishop Desmond Tutu talked about ubuntu as follows, “A person with ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, for he or she has a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, when others are tortured or oppressed.”  You could see Ubuntu everywhere in dirt-poor Alexandra.  And, sadly, I realized that ubuntu is what seems to be slowly disappearing from the United States.

After a quick lunch, we went to a spot in a nice section in Johannesburg, and saw where Nelson Mandela lived while planning the resistance to Apartheid rule.  It was such a peaceful spot, somewhat ironic in light of the bloody and horrible struggle that gripped this country for so many years.  In the next six weeks, this site will open as a museum, and we’d love to visit it in the future.

We ended our day with a very powerful trip to Johannesburg’s Apartheid Museum, which illustrates the rise and fall of apartheid.  The film footage, photographs, and artifacts lay out this history in a very powerful way.  After seeing all of the oppression, the many people who lost their lives, and the clear pain of this period, we ended at a photograph of a line of people voting in the first free elections in South Africa (photo above), which were in 1993.  I’m not an emotional person, but felt like crying to see the positive result of years of struggle.

There are clear parallels between South Africa’s history and that of many other countries, including the United States.  But there’s an intensity, compression, and recency to what happened in South Africa that makes it all so tangible.  The country still has a long way to go before the black population is on its feet economically, but the progress over the past 14 years has been impressive.  And it shows what can happen when a people are willing to fight with their lives against an oppressive regime.  All in all, this was a very inspiring day for all of us.

For those interested in learning more about the great work being done here by Robin Binckes, check out his website.

Well, in our wildest dreams, we never imagined having as much fun in Botswana as we had during the past week.  It was a real highlight of our trip, and a place we can’t wait to return to.  We visited two camps — Jack’s and Stanley’s — and loved each.  There’s just no doubt that Africa is a great place for our family, and we’re having a ball here.

Like Namibia, Botswana is a relatively unpopulated country in southern Africa (1.8 million total population).  It’s a land-locked country, with few agricultural resources.  But Botswana has lots of mineral resources, including diamonds, and has been investing aggressively in its future.  It’s a terrific country, safe, with lots of nice people, and great wildlife viewing.

Makgadi-kgadi Salt Pans

We started our stay in Botswana at Jack’s camp, in the Makgadi-kgadi Salt Pans.  The area is fairly dry and flat, with its main feature being a huge salt pan (or flat) that stretches for hundreds of kilometers.  The area is physically attractive, although it’s main draw is the wildlife and the local bushmen.

We saw some great wildlife at Jack’s, including the Aardwolf, the Bat-eared Fox, African Elephants, Zebra, the Cape Porcupine (see Gibson’s report on this interesting creature), and the fascinating Meerkat.  We also picked up a number of new bird species here, as well as a Kalahari Tent Tortoise.  This area was so rich in wildlife that each hour brought a new surprise.

While at Jack’s we also went out with three local bushmen, including the legendary “Cobra.”  It was great to meet them, learn about their culture, see first-hand some of their survival skills, and explore the local area with Africa’s original inhabitants, a culture that goes back as far in history as any around the world.

Our highlight at Jack’s was a great experience with wild Meerkats.  If you’ve seen Lion King, you know about Meerkats.  They are fascinating animals, about the size of a house cat, with a tight sense of community and endlessly cute.  We walked among a Meerkat cluster here, and this may be the only place in the world where you can get this close to an elusive animal.  All of us wanted to figure out a way to have a Meerkat as a pet next year, but suspect they’ll all stay right here in Botswana.

We also went out one night on ATV’s and explored the salt flats at sunset.  We stopped at a remote spot, watched the sun come down and the fabulous Southern Hemisphere stars rise.  We took some blankets and laid down on the salt flats, and really didn’t want to leave.  This time of year, though, there is enough moisture in the pans that animals occasionally cross at night.  But during the dry season, you can sleep under the stars there, which would be a fabulous experience.

Okavango Delta

We then spent three days exploring the Okavango Delta, one of Botswana’s top attractions.  This place is flat out unreal when it comes to wildlife.  We saw so many great things here, and loved the location, the camp, and the wildlife.  It’s much wetter than the other places we’ve visited so far, with many water crossings, dense forest, all attracting a different type of wildlife. 

While at Stanley’s, we saw a large number of new birds (37 new species after almost two weeks in the wild, including the Bateleur Eagle on the right), as well as some great reptiles (the Rock Monitor Lizard, the Flap-necked Chameleon, and the Striped Skaapsteker snake), the Painted Reed Frog, and several great mammals, including a look at a Hippo, and great looks at the African Bush Baby (an adorable tiny primate), the Impala, close views of the African Elephant, and many encounters with Giraffes (including one on the side of our air landing strip!!).

Our highlight, though, was a chance encounter early one morning with a waking Leopard, perched on a tree limb.  We watched the Leopard up close for about ten minutes, when it decided to come down the tree — right before our eyes!  We followed the Leopard’s path down the tree, by our vehicle, and along the road behind us.  It was totally amazing!

We spent a morning with an elephant researcher, who had moved to Botswana from Oregon twenty years ago, and now spends every waking hour caring for a set of three semi-wild elephants.  We learned a ton (well, 5-6 tons, to be precise) about elephants from him, and got to spend some time with these very smart animals.  They have such a great social structure, including a collaborative approach to raising their young.  By the end of the morning, we felt like we had become great friends with these three massive animals.

And we spent another morning out on canoes in the Okavango Delta.  We got some great close-up views of the local frogs, as well as getting a chance to explore a very peaceful and beautiful location in this part of the world.  We had mixed feelings about having a chance encounter with a hippo on this outing, but didn’t come across any.  That said, some wild elephants crossed behind us while we were out, and we were glad to keep our distance from them!

We left Botswana feeling like we had just spent a week in one of the world’s most amazing places.  It is so beautiful, so preserved, and so exciting that it was tempting to just call off the rest of our trip and spend the next seven weeks in Botswana!

Namibia was called Southwest Africa when I studied Africa’s geography.  It’s a sparsely-populated (total population of two million) country on Africa’s Atlantic Coast, lying north of South Africa and south of Angola.  We stayed at three different places in Namibia, and loved every minute here.  It was a great start to our time in sub-Sahara Africa, and a country we will definitely visit again.

The frigid Benguela Current runs up from Antarctica along the west coast of Africa, meaning the Atlantic Ocean water off this coast is quite cold and carries little precipitation.  Consequently, the west coast of Africa gets almost no rainfall, and is desert.  Our first two stops in Namibia were in desert territories, although quite different from each other.  We completed our great stay in Namibia in the Waterberg area, and stayed at a place focusing on wildlife research.

Damaraland

We started at a great spot called Camp Damaraland, which we loved.  The land there was gorgeous, the people running the camp so hospitable, and we saw some great wildlife.  Although the area is desert, it was rugged and hilly/mountainous.  We were fortunate to be in this area after a period of rainfall that caused much of the land to covered by grass.  This grass will soon disappear, but the waves of grass, with the mountains in the background, were simply phenomenal.

We saw more animals than I can show here in pictures.  We had great looks at the Springbok, Gemsbok (Oryx), Baboons, Kudu and Zebras.   We saw some African Elephants at a distance, which was an exciting first look at these huge but very smart creatures.  It’s hard to put into words what it’s like to find elephant tracks in the grass, follow them, and eventually come across a “parade” of elephants in the wild.  And we never tired of watching any of the different antelopes here, each spectacular in its own way.

We also saw lots of great birds and reptiles, most of which we’d never seen before.  This area is terrific for wildlife, and hardly a minute went by without a great sighting.  But for us the highlight was the gorgeous desert hills and grasslands of this great area.

Skeleton Coast

The Skeleton Coast lies in the upper northwest corner of Namibia, on the Atlantic Ocean.  This area has lots of great dunes, rugged coast line, canyons, and desert landscape.  We stayed at the Skeleton Coast research site, which was quite basic, but worked just fine for us.  Our guide from Skeleton was Kallie, who was terrific.

Our highlight was exploring the dunes of the area.  Our first big highlight was when Kallie was driving alongside a dune, suddenly stopped the vehicle, jumped out, and sprinted onto the dune.  He had spotted the elusive Desert Plated Lizard on the dune, chased her down, and eventually caught her.  This lizard was a big hit with Gibson and Sterling, who immediately put this at the top of their “NEXT PET” list.

We saw some great animals at Skeleton Coast, including fields with Ostriches, Springboks, and Oryx.  It’s impossible to describe the beauty of the wide open hills of Namibia, full of some of the most beautiful wild animals on the face of the earth.  We also got some of our initial good views of  Giraffes in the wild.  These animals are really remarkable, and we could watch them for hours on end.  For their size, they’re remarkably graceful, and seem so calm and dignified.   And we saw at a distance some African Savanna Elephants — truly remarkable creatures. 

We went fishing one morning in the Atlantic, and the kids had great success.  It seemed that as soon as their line hit the water, they got a big bite.  Apparently, the coastal waters of Namibia are very rich in fish, and there’s a fair amount of controversy in terms of managing the fishing done in these waters by foreign nations.  Namibia is a very poor country, so they need to protect all the (meager) resources they have.

A real highlight of our time at Skeleton Coast was a visit to a very primitive Himba village, inhabited by members of the Himbu tribe.  We got a chance to see, and even crawl in, the huts they live in (think igloos, but made of cow dung and sticks).  We also got a chance to observe the social dynamic of the tribe, with the men hunting all day, the women weaving and cooking, and the children (of which there were many) being taken care of by grandmothers.  As we’ve seen over and over on our trip, the people with the fewest material possessions are almost always so happy.  They did sell a few items that the women in the tribe made, and that in itself was an interesting experience.  They had a full table of items, but we ended up involved in multiple transactions with different women in the tribe.

Waterberg

In Waterberg, we stayed at a lodge and spent a fair amount of time with people from Namibia’s Rare and Endangered Species Trust, as well as with the Cheetah Conservation Fund.  Namibia has an active non-profit community focused on conservation issues, and these groups were quite interesting, and a highlight of our time in Namibia.

You’ll be shocked to learn that the Cheetah Conservation Fund is focused on Cheetahs :-).  We visited their facilities, and got a jeep tour of a holding area that is home to a number of cheetahs.  It’s not the same as seeing the animal in the wild, but we got some great looks at Cheetahs there.  One of the big challenges for the Cheetah population in Africa is the occasional attack made by a wild cat like this in farm animals, which invites retaliation by farmers. 

Less obvious is the prime focus of the Rare and Endangered Species Trust, but their passion is vultures.  As a venture capitalist, I can relate to the unfortunate negative stigma attached to vultures.   The organization was founded by Maria Diekmann, who grew up in California, came to Namibia over a decade ago, and is now a Namibian for life.  She fosters research efforts to protect the vulture species in Africa, especially the Cape Griffon Vulture.  Incredibly, vultures are under attach worldwide, and some 10 million were killed in the past decade in Asia!  Vultures are nature’s vacuum cleaner, scooping in on dead carcasses and picking them clean — but preventing the spread of disease in the process.  The problem is that many carcasses are dead due to poisoning, which in turn kills the vultures.  It was fabulous for us to spend time in Waterberg, observe biological research and conservation in action, and meet some really terrific people. 

We definitely plan to return to Namibia.  It’s just a fabulous place.  It’s an especially great place to start in exploring southern Africa, since you can see some great wildlife, but animals are much sparser here than in other locations.  Each of the three places we explored is a location we’d highly recommend.  And, on our next trip, tops on our list is the Etosha National Park, reported to be one of Africa’s top sites for game viewing.  The biggest sand dunes in the world can be found at Namib Naukloft Park, where it’s possible to take a hot air balloon safari.  Fish River Canyon Park is the second biggest canyon in the world (after then Grand Canyon), and worth a day’s visit.  And other places we’d love to take in at some point include Swapukmund, Cape Cross, Serra Cafema, and Doro Nawns.  This country, bigger than Texas but without George W. Bush, has so much to offer! 

We’d never been on a safari trip before our time here in southern Africa.  Well, now we’ve been on several here, and have a far better idea of what is involved.  For our family, these explorations have been fabulous.

Locations

The campsites are located in the middle of remote wildlife areas in Namibia and Botswana.  We flew to these places on small prop planes, landing on crude airstrips.  One “runway,” for example, was a dirt road for cars that doubles as an airplane landing strip.  The planes are small, holding six to twelve passengers, and without bathrooms.  The flights are typically an hour or two in length, over beautiful terrain. 

I’m not quite sure how these places do it, but the food is incredible.  Breakfast is usually fruit, bread, cereal, and eggs cooked to order.  We had “pancakes” at one place, but learned that African “pancakes” are our version of crepes, and we needed to ask for “crumpets.”  Lunch is generally light — soup, sandwiches, some prepared meats or casseroles, and maybe a light dessert.  And dinners are fabulous, most often local meat of some sort (one of the local antelopes or cows), great vegetables, a terrific soup or salad, and desserts (generally pudding or cake).

The Days

Wake up time on safari is typically 5:30 to 6:00 a.m., and out exploring by no later than 7:00 a.m., returning in time for lunch.  Mid afternoon, when it’s hot and most animals are hunkered down, we did our home-schooling (most other guests took naps).  Then, around 4:00 p.m., we’d head back out for a couple of hours, and return for dinner. 

When we’re out during the day exploring, we’re in a vehicle that’s kind of a combination of a jeep and van, with a driver and another spotter.  They are incredible at finding interesting things to look at in the wild.  We were very fortunate to have an outstanding guide (Trevor Carnaby) in Southern Africa, who not only knew all the animals and plants, but shared with us all sorts of interesting context.  We’d see lots of birds (some big, some small), reptiles, smaller mammals, and the bigger animals.  Hardly an hour went by without seeing something that the four of us found quite exciting.  We are a bit quirky as a family, though, since we can get very excited by the smallest of reptiles, amphibians, or insects.

We learned that the vast majority of people on a safari have very simple criteria for success.  If they see lions and elephants, they’re happy; if they don’t see both species, they feel they had a lousy safari, no matter how much else they saw.  Anyway, we had a few outings where we saw very little, but many where the sightings were spectacular.

The roads can be rough at time, but aren’t too bad.  We got out and hiked occasionally (almost not all is in parks with big game).  The biggest challenge when hiking is the high concentration of burrs in the grasses, a huge number of which find their way into socks and shoes.  We were wishing we had packed “gators” to protect our lower legs and ankles.  The vehicles are covered, so we were largely sheltered from the sun. 

We’d occasionally pick up tracks of interesting animals and pursue them, often with success.  And the guides were great at picking up interesting sounds and knowing exactly what to do.  The vehicles all have radios, so if there’s a particularly interesting sighting, you may well hear about it from someone else, and make a beeline to see what’s going on.  But often it was the chance encounter with something remarkable (like the morning we encountered a Leopard sleeping in a tree, waking up, and coming down) that stood out.

The Nights

Most nights we’d do a night safari of about an hour, with a jeep and searchlight, looking for nocturnal animals.  The “rules” were that the searchlight couldn’t focus on diurnal animals (animals active in the day), for fear of spooking them or damaging their eyesight.  But we’d see some great animals at night.  One night, for instance, we saw a porcupine (hard to see), and Aardwolf, and Brown Hyena.  Another night we parked and watched a Spotted Hyena, several Impalas fighting among themselves, a herd of Wildebeests, some African Elephants, and some exotic frogs — without ever leaving our location.  And just taking in the African Savanna at night, under a sky full of stars, was awesome.

The campsites range in level of accommodations from quite basic to fairly plush.  They generally have a small number (four to eight) two-person tent cabins, a central larger tent for eating and congregating, and a set of interconnecting paths.  Each individual tent can be isolated, and we weren’t allowed to leave the tent at night (the risk of wildlife attack is real).  Consequently, we slept with one adult and one child per tent.

Tents had their own bathrooms, with flush toilets and showers of some sort.  At Skeleton Coast, they’d bring in a bucket of hot water at certain times of day, and you could drip out the hot water to take your shower!  Others have a fairly predictable, but limited, supply of hot water.   But the water can go from hot to cold in a moment’s notice (generally just after your hair is full of shampoo!).

These sites generally rely on a range of solar power and a small generator for electricity.  The tents either have very limited electrical power, or none at all.  The quality of lighting was poor enough that we generally couldn’t read after dark.

The beds in our tents have been, for the most part, remarkably comfortable.  I’ve had several beds here that are among the most comfortable I’ve slept in over the past eight months (and that’s a LOT of beds!!).  We’d check under the covers each night before going to bed, to make sure a stray scorpion or other nasty creature hadn’t gotten under the sheets ahead of us.  And we’d keep our  bags closed, and would check shoes before putting them on, just to make sure there were no wildlife surprises.

Our very first night on safari got off to an ominous start.  Our kids spend almost every waking hour hunting for lizards, toads, snakes, you name it.  So, after ten minutes after they went to bed in their tent, they came sprinting into our tent, scared to death by a large Wall Spider.  So much for our fearless wildlife hunters!  As fast as you can snap your fingers, we were switching sleeping arrangements (even thought the Wall Spider is harmless), and had one adult sleep with one child.

Of course, the one thing that can keep you up at night, or wake you up, is the sound of nearby wildlife.  Some nights we’d hear the roars of lions or hyenas.  One night Elizabeth and Sterling were woken up by an elephant pulling up plants and trees right outside their tent!

Other Interesting Issues

The camps are very conscious of guest safety.  There are places we can’t walk and times when we can’t walk without a guide.   When we’re out in a jeep exploring, we can’t leave the jeep without a guide first surveying the area (no matter how much a bathroom break is needed!).  Also, there was lots of discussion about the “do’s” and “don’t’s” of chance encounters with wildlife.  Rule #1, #2, and #3 is — “DON’T RUN”!  If you run, most animals follow their natural instinct to chase you down and attack you.  So running, while having considerable appeal, is the worst thing you can do.  Best to stay still, raise your arms to look even bigger, and yell at the potential attacker.

A challenge of safari is the extreme temperature ranges you experience.  The days can be quite hot (close to 100 degrees), while it gets cold at night (maybe 40 degrees, but feels colder).  And it’s pretty darn cold in the morning when you go out, but warms up quite quickly. 

Electronics is a huge challenge when on safari.  I now know what the “out” is in the phrase “out of Africa.”  It’s out of internet contact!  I had some hope that the camps would have a satellite link, and offer some internet availability.  So far, no luck on that front.  Even charging batteries is a challenge, and it’s generally not possible to charge things in your room.  So it takes real organization and discipline (not my strong suits) to keep things charged at the charging location in the main tent area (which is limited in outlets, power, and often only available at certain times of day).  And in some locations, my only option was to give the cords and charging devices to someone else and hope they’d handle it the right way at some off-location site (hopes generally not realized).  Finally, I did bring a charger that plugs into a car’s cigarette lighter, and that’s been invaluable a few times here. 

Cell phone coverage is non-existent in most camps, and iffy even in the bigger cities.  Since we had internet access in Antarctica, I assumed (quite incorrectly) that there’s be some connectivity at these tent lodges.  Wrong!  This is the longest I’ve gone in ages without access to the internet or e-mail, and it definitely had its pluses.

 Almost everywhere we’ve stayed did most of our laundry, with the exception of underwear.  This laundry service was very helpful, meaning we could pack lightly and always have clean clothes.

We didn’t face any real issues with mosquitoes, although a visit during the rainy season would be worse.  We did have big challenges with dust, which in some places was just everywhere.  It really permeated our clothes, and was a big issue for our cameras.  We lost yet another camera in Southern Africa (three have failed us so far on the trip), and it was hard to keep dust out.

Net, Net

If you love wildlife and nature, then Southern Africa is an absolute joy.  The accommodations are still fairly basic, but perfectly great, and the sights are wonderful.  We heard that some tent lodges are becoming more upscale (adding spa services, pools, internet access, etc.), and it may be a matter of time before all get forced into giving up their rustic nature.  But we loved the lodges as they are, and hope they don’t change before we’re back again.

We spent time in two of Jordan’s nature reserves — Dana Nature Reserve and Wadi Rum.  Both were spectacular, and furthered our affection for this great country.  I tell you, the wonders of this country are beyond what we ever expected.  This blog will cover Dana, and a later blog will cover Wadi Rum.

Dana lies about an hour and one half south of Amman, and we stopped there en route to Petra.  Our original itinerary didn’t include Dana, but we leaped at the chance to hike in a park, and were glad we did.  The park is set up a little oddly, in that you park at the visitor center, and wait for a park ranger to accompany you on a shuttle bus down to the hiking departure area.  We definitely drew the short straw on the guide front, and got someone who didn’t seem to have a clue about what was up at the park.  So we knew we were on our own, sort of. 

We ended up hiking with the park’s guide (clueless), our A&K guide (who was equally uninformed) and — for some reason — our driver, who seemed to field a steady stream of cell phone calls, and yak away in a very loud voice, either on the phone or to the other guides.  Subtle suggestions that we wanted a little peace and quiet in the park didn’t yield results, so we finally told them they either needed to be quiet or go back on their own.  When we arrived, the prior group was meeting their naturalist, who seemed on the ball, so it probably pays to try to line up the right naturalist in advance.

Our hike got off with a big shock — Gibson turned over a rock, and turned up a Death-stalker Scorpion, among the most poisonous in the world.  Gibson got down low (probably way too low!) and took some extraordinary photos of the Death-stalker.  It sounds and even looks like a character from Star Wars, and we were thrilled to see it.  That said, we all recognized that we’d be camping out in a couple of nights in Wadi Rum, and hoped that this would be our last scorpion encounter!

The rock formations in Dana were quite interesting, reminding me a bit of some of the great U.S. parks in Utah.  The colors were brilliant reds and oranges, with intricate patterns from erosion over the years.  Our trusty guide at one point informed us that, “These are rocks,” which definitely raised our understanding to a higher level.

Mid-way through the hike, Sterling called out that she had sighted a Nubian Ibex, an endangered species.  This was quite a sighting, and we got great views down through the canyon for ten minutes or so.  at about minute nine, our guides figured out where it was, and agreed with identification.  They went on to say how lucky we were to see it, since they had been in the park many times and never seen an Ibex.  Big surprise there :-).

We got some great Dana photos, which you can feel free to check out.

We had a wonderful time playing baseball with a group of about 50 young boys and girls in Johannesburg, South Africa.  The head of the program, Mohammed Basson “Ali”, pulled together a fabulous late afternoon of fun baseball for us, along with a great dinner afterwards.  They were incredible hosts, and we really had a great time with them on our first day in South Africa.

We’ve now played baseball in ten countries — Australia, China, Thailand, Bhutan, India, New Zealand, Peru, Argentina, and South Africa.  Tonight, I felt particularly emotional about our little baseball ambassadors program for our trip.  These kids are almost all from the very poorest parts of Johannesburg, and have so little.  Several of them live in an  AIDS center, having contracted AIDS from birth.  The children were so nice to us, enthusiastic about baseball and America, and thrilled to get a simple gift like a Red Sox baseball hat.  There was such joy at this little athletic field in Johannesburg tonight, from kids facing such great challenges, that it was baseball and ambassadorship at its very best.

In South Africa, baseball isn’t a popular sport.  They play a lot of football (our soccer), rugby, and some golf and tennis here, but baseball isn’t on the radar screen yet.  So the progress of this baseball program is impressive.  They now have about 100 kids involved at all levels, and participation is increasing rapidly.  They are located near Soweto and Westbury, two of the most economically challenged areas of Johannesburg, and they have very few resources for their program.  But they are doing a great job with these young players, all of whom seem really excited to be playing baseball.

They put together a special practice session for us, starting at 5:00 p.m.  The kids are all in school, which runs late in the afternoon, so 5:00 p.m. was the earliest that everyone could be there.  The kids first said their team Baseball Pledge, then they all did stretches, warm up throws, practice grounders, and then some scrimmaging.  Most of the practice was under the lights, and their field (Bill Jardine Stadium) is used primarily for rugby, so it lacks the things you’d normally find on a baseball field (backstop, bases, outfield fence). 

Few of the kids have their own equipment.  The program has gotten some help from the New York Yankees, who they said are helping a range of teams in South Africa.  The Yankees have donated equipment and hats, so they’ve really helped jumpstart this program.  They teams aren’t part of Little League yet, but will be joining a Little League here in the next few months, which they are very excited about.  It was great to see this program getting help from U.S. organizations, and we were thrilled to be part of helping them out.

I was impressed by the number of coaches there for the session, as well as the broad involvement of parents.  The head coach, Ashley (in photo on right), was on top of his baseball.  His favorite player is Manny Ramirez.  This coach will be coming to the United States for the first time in July to spend three weeks at a Cal Ripken camp for coaches, and is very excited about the trip.  He was helped out at the practice by a half dozen other coaches, as well as a number of women who do a great job there with the management of the league — not to mention preparing a great dinner for us.

Our baseball session was joined by a group of children from the Sparrow Village, a center for children in the Johannesburg area with AIDS.  This center has some 250 kids, and the issue of AIDS-impacted children here is quite serious.  It turns out that this center has a field and a baseball coach, but no equipment at all, so we’ll be helping them jumpstart a program at their facility.

On our first day in South Africa, we couldn’t have asked for a better introduction to the country.  We had a very demanding day getting here, leaving on a 4:30 a.m. flight from Dubai, which meant getting up at 1:30 a.m. Dubai time (11:30 p.m. Johannesburg time).  But we were all wide awake for the baseball, and met some great people.  And just seeing all of these young children having a great time playing baseball was worth the challenges of the “commute.”

You just have to go and check out our pictures from Baseball in Johannesburg!  There are so many kids that you’ll just want to give a big hug to.

We had one of our most fascinating country visits as we spent five days in Dubai, a large city and one of the seven members of the United Arab Emirates.  We could tell as soon as we landed in the Dubai Airport that this wasn’t a normal place.  It was the most astounding collision of ancient Arab traditions and the twenty-first century.  The airport itself is sparkling, modern, full of shopping locations, and people of all cultures.  Just seeing the wide range of clothing (from shorts and tank tops to traditonal and often gorgeous Arabic robes) was spell-binding.  I could have spent a full day just at the airport and never been bored.

After a bit of a challenge checking into our hotel, we got on with our exploration of Dubai.  The place to start is the skyline, which now includes the world’s tallest building, Birj Dubai, which is a few months from completion.  It tops the building we saw earlier in the trip in Kuala Lumpur, and is already 630  meters high, visible from up to 60 miles away.  But that’s hardly Dubai’s only construction project.  Depending on the person you talk to, Dubai has some 24-33% of all of the world’s construction cranes, in an area smaller than Delaware!  There are still some remaining structures from the old Dubai, but for the most part, this is a modern Oz of a city, all constructed in the past ten years.

And the construction isn’t just on “Dubai” proper.  They are developing these offshore complexes that include newly formed land in some particular shape (palm trees, the universe), shopping areas, villas, and condominiums.  The scope of these projects is vast.  The smallest “palm” is a $60 billion development project.  A newer one (a bigger palm in shape) will have enough housing for 1.3 million people, the current size of Dubai!  It’s just absolutely staggering.  And we’re not talking “low cost housing”; these are plush luxury units, and to date all seem to be getting bought by someone.

While in Dubai, we had dinner with a great family (Jihad Fakhreddine, his wife Carla, and son Jamaal), who are long-time friends of our relatives Jim and Caroline in Seattle.  They are truly citizens of the world, having lived for 15 years in Silicon Valley, five years in Switzerland, and have been in Dubai now for three years.  Jamaal, age 14, speaks several languages, including English, Spanish, German, and Arabic.  Jihad is running a medical technology company here, and the entire family were incredibly nice, sharing lots of insight and context on this interesting part of the world. 

We learned so much about their lives, their school, Dubai, and the world, and really appreciate their hospitality.  I can hardly summarize a three hour dinner in a paragraph or two, but we learned that Dubai is largely ex-pats (80%), English is the dominant language, real estate is expensive and getting more expensive (to rent a decent house can cost $20,000 (U.S. dollars) per month!), and schools are expensive (in some cases, $20,000-$30,000 per year even for first graders).  

Our families spent a fair amount of time talking about U.S. politics.  I don’t know whether I’m excited or depressed when I meet people living thousands of miles from the U.S. that are more informed about our country and its politics than 99+% of U.S. citizens.  Maybe we should have a set of foreigners elect our next President !  But their views on our current foreign policy, immigration policy, and the relative merits of the candidates were highly informed and spot on.

Other things we did in Dubai, all really fun, included a local calligraphy demonstration, a meeting with someone who explained Dubai customs and culture, a quick look at the world’s largest indoor skiing center (we didn’t try it, but you can see it on the right), a great half day for the kids at Wild Wadi (an incredibly well done water park), shopping (many people spell Dubai “Do Buy”), a desert safari, and time in the pool or the Arabian Sea. 

The mystery to me was, and to a large extent still is, what drives the Dubai economy.  By now, I’m sure you’ve concluded that Dubai must be the source of some big oil gushers.  Not true.  Only 6% of Dubai’s GDP comes from oil and gas.  Only one of the seven Emirates (Abu Dhabi) is a big oil producer.  They share much of that revenue with the other six emirates, but Dubai’s money is coming more from its development projects, and its role as a gateway for the Western world to the Middle East. 

Dubai has an interesting form of government, at least if you’re Sheikh Mohammed.  The Sheikh controls, and to a large extent owns, all of Dubai (in photo on right is one of his private residences).  That’s hard to comprehend, given how much Dubai is worth.  But he seems to make all the decisions, owns all or part of the important companies (construction, airline, hotels, you name it), and cuts others a slice of ownership if and when he sees fit.  Years back, he made Dubai a tax-free zone, and is drawing to his country lots and lots of business activity from all over the world.  He is a BIG RISK TAKER, and now amount of money put up for a project seems too much.  And, in just a decade, he seems to have transformed a fairly barren desert region on the Arabian Sea into a bustling center of commerce that is rivaling Singapore in the Far East.

Dubai is clearly currently benefiting from a real estate bubble of uncertain duration.  As more and more $1-50 million residences are built, they seem to be gobbled up by very rich people who spend almost no time in them.  One such buyer is, in the words of one of our guides, “Baaarrrrrrraadddd Beeeerrrrriiitttt.”  “Who, we said?  After several repetitions, we figured out that this person is Brad Pitt.)  Many of these purchases have to be pure real estate speculation, and we all know how that ultimately ends.   But almost everything developed in Dubai seems to be to a standard of excellence, and the place is emerging as a global center of commerce faster than you can start your Rolls Royce or Ferrari .

We stayed at a hotel owned by . . .  Sheikh Mohammed.  We didn’t stay or even visit Dubai’s seven-star hotel, the world’s only seven star place.  Guests are delivered to the hotel either in a gold-plated Rolls Royce, or by helicopter landing on the saucer shape at the top of this structure.   But if you have a spare $5,000 you want to get rid of in a hurry, book one night at this hotel, and you’ll soon be parted from your money. 

As we left Dubai, our airport experience said a lot about the area.  Our flight was scheduled to depart at 4:40 a.m. (meaning a 2:00 a.m. hotel pick-up — Ugh!!), and the airport operates 24 hours a day.  As we walked to our gate, we passed through some of the best shopping areas in the world.  We had tried unsuccessfully to buy a very specialized camera battery, but found and purchased it at 3:20 a.m. in the Dubai airport!  The airport is modern and efficient, the planes the latest and best, and the staff highly professional and courteous. 

I never like to use the word unique, which is misunderstood and overused.  But Dubai is unique.  The climate is dry and scorching hot in the summer.  The ocean is nice enough, but not something you’d call uniquely beautiful.  The air quality is lousy due to all the construction.  There’s little culture at night.  Yet it’s a bustling, world-class city, attracting all sorts of new people and new money.  The people seem quite happy with the Sheikh’s rule.  There’s no unemployment and almost no crime (we learned that if a tourist is caught making an obscene gesture, they are likely to spend three years in jail!).   If I were doing a Ph.D. in Economics (again!), I might well focus on the hyper-rapid development of the Dubai economy.  And for any of you traveling in this part of the world, make Dubai a place you visit.

Feel free to check out our Dubai photos, which aren’t the most beautiful of the trip, but give you a feel for modern Dubai.