Joe has accompanied his dad (Nick Wartz Senior) and his stand-in mother Madeline to tour the southern end of Africa and report back on the "Killer" event of the year. Nick King's 50th!!!
Over to you Joe...
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To the left we have some of the main stopping off points on this trip.Joe provides a synopsis below. |
The culture shock is unimaginable. Today we rafted down the Zambezi River. I’ve never been so scared in my life!!
Our boat capsized numerous times. There is nothing more scarier then being trapped under a vessel! it was priceless seeing Madeline and dad go into parent-mode. As I popped up from beneath the wild rapids all I heard was Madeline screaming "were are my kids?" at the top of her lungs.
Zimbabwe is a place of contrasts, although the corruption and brutality of the government is evident, the sheer beauty of the place and friendliness of its people paints a Zimbabwe that could be considered paradise!
It’s very very safe, and Africa is far less developed then I had previously imagined.
At the end of the road, straight out from were we are staying, you can see the spray of water creeping up from the horizon, this is the mist from Victoria Falls!
Tomorrow we will actually get to see it and we are all very exited.
I am just out side the Okavango delta and I can say Africa is much more African then I anticipated. People live in mud huts, woman balance things on their head and western culture has yet to arrive (especially in Zimbabwe). But Africa has a flip side, you can also witness scary military man patrolling everywhere, and the non-existent economy can be observed by the lack of infrastructure and bare bare shop shelves. One million Zimbabwean dollars = 20 cents. Also I've encountered "African time" - 5 min =15min, the locals are extremely relaxed, every thing is done at a glacial pace (this is every annoying since the administrators seem to love pointless red tape)
Victoria Falls was, with out doubt, the most amazing sight I have ever seen, the falls is two km wide, and the amount of water that falls down it on an hourly basis could supply all of London’s needs for a year!
Since Thursday we have been on safari. We camped out at Chobi for a few days. There the hippos chased us (you can see why hippos kill more people than any other animal).
The abundance of giraffes and hippos was wonderful. We also got up close with a group of elephants! The amount of wild animals Africa has is astonishing, many of the ones we spotted I had never heard of before.
Okavango is just as amazing. We flowed right into the middle of it and here we stayed in tents on one of countless islands in this inland ocean. Every morning and evening we went on walk into the wild with the bushman, travelling by foot instead of jeep. This took spotting animals to another dimension. We crept up on more giraffes, hippos, elephants, zebras, baboons and many more animals. Finding a lion is impossible, we know they're out there but have yet seen one.
At night I lay in my tent listening to the patter of wild noises I hear out side (I can't even drown them out with my iPod). On top of the frog, cricket, hippo, baboon noises (those are the only ones I can distinguish) I hear an intimidating roar of a lion, and I tell myself to hold on to the morning!
Africa itself has a certain smell, look, sound and feel that is unexplainable with words and even photos. This kind of Africa tingles all the senses and is what I think keeps people coming back!
We are off to Lesotho now followed after by a week in Mozambique.
Joe in Africa