More on getting out

The last pic we took in Africa was of a puff adder snake. It is one of the most feared and dangerous snakes in Africa. It was not 30 feet from us when spotted. The bushmen on safari shared how they listen to the birds and other animals to find lions and snakes etc.. Having made the decision to get out we did not join the safari that morning. We stayed back to try to make exit arrangements.  Now the managers at this camp were the best. I knew if I asked for something they would deliver (if it was possible). Being African, in the travel industry with tentacles that reached out to agents across Africa, they could get things done. We asked them to get ahold of British Airways and help us get out sooner. As we awaited word on what could be done the serving staff listened to birds warning of the approaching snake. Keeping a safe distance we got a good pic. That morning the cheerful managers came back tense and silent. Something was wrong. They told us they would keep on trying as we worked our way back to Johannesburg.

In Johannesburg we discovered nothing had happened with our booking. Now it was hard to imagine that things could go so wrong so quickly. As I presented our case to the British Airways gate agent I opened a can of worms by saying our government was telling us to get out. Suddenly language became very important. Were they “telling”, “advising”, “ordering”.... because each phrase I found out meant something entirely different. Who knew? Advising meant that the insurance companies would not have to pony up for trip cancellation. After all if we chose to get out that was our choice. Come On!!! A global pandemic and we are talking about protecting insurance companies! I was not surprised. This was not my first rodeo. You see from so far away and when you are not plugged in to what is going on it is really hard to figure it all out. I eavesdropped on breakfast conversations. People were trying to make sense of it. With NO straight talk this was very difficult. In fact most conversations at breakfast ended with “Yeah, it was just an advisory”. 

So out come the snakes. Our agent tried to get us to pay again for a flight that from here I can see will never get off the ground. He wanted us to stick to our March 20th date. We are still bitter. Getting to North America was the trick. With flights from all Europe cancelled we needed a different entry point. We needed a point on the globe that had not been banned. Dubai 😀. I had always wanted to see it and we had a great view of it as we flew in. We could see all these cruise ships tied up, and all the mega ships of various royalty. We joined the Emirates Skyward Club sitting in our hotel room in Johannesburg 😀. It was free, entitles us to loads of spam, and puts us into their system for bookings. We were upgraded to biz class for our first booking. Of course by far, best of all, it got us to North America. Dubai’s airport was a glittering tower. Like Singapore it is very beautiful. Plus it was WAY cheaper than British Airways.

Getting to North America, I wanted to kiss the ground. YVR was shocking. There were 6 security agents to every 3 passengers coming through. Hosts of machines (looked like 100) stood empty. Ropes were still set up to control the lineups that no longer existed. No one was there. Every official we met knew we had been to hell to get there that day. They nodded to say everyone had the same story. Or at least the same ending, huge relief.

We did not get tested coming through YVR (or through Seattle). I don’t know how it would work if symptoms presented between Dubai and Seattle. I mean the US wouldn’t want us and Canada says we can’t come in. We are into day 1 of the quarantine. 

If anyone wants to leave cookies on our doorstep, just come up, leave them and ring.😀

So happy to be in Canada. I just want to stay here from now on.

Hitting the ground running in Dubai

After a pleasant 8 hour flight from Johannesburg, we had to hustle once landed to make our Seattle connection. The airport here is absolutely massive; as is Emirates airline. The number of their planes on the ground was incredible including 8 or 10 of those very large Airbus A380’s. Think how many must be airborne at any particular moment.

We wore too many clothes so were getting warm when we hit the health screening- yikes! - thermal imaging cattle chute. No escape but we got through to hear the gate agent utter the 6 sweetest words the harried traveler will ever hear: “You’ve been upgraded to business class.”

And that’s where I sit right now as I write this. Our route takes us almost directly over the North Pole then down over B.C. to Seattle. Will try to post now using their wifi. We so look forward to getting home!

Trouble

Took a 6 seater bush plane out of the glamping camp. We then booked a flight to Johannesburg airport (now a comparative ghost town). In theory we were to fly from Johannesburg to London and on to YVR. We wanted to leave 5 days early. Long story short, even though we paid for biz class on British Airways they couldn’t help us. Our travel agent told us to fly to Zambia (on our own) then come back to Johannesburg and then get our flight to London and then YVR.  This same agent also asked us for a lot more money because demand for our tickets had gone up. British Airways told us they could do nothing. So we were tired and frustrated. You see no one can reach British Airways right now. Their website and phones are overwhelmed. People are angry at the gate. Last night a flight left for London with room and they would not let us on. Flights from London to Canada are being sold at highly inflated prices, because it is the only way right now all of Europe can get into North America. 

Well we took matters into our own hands. At 3 am after working our fingers on our tablets, we got confirmation we are on a flight from Johannesburg to Dubai, then on to Seattle, then finally into YVR.  We leave tonight. We feel very lucky we were able to make this happen. It will be a super long 30 hour journey, but we do not overnight anywhere. 

Doug: Although the routing home will see us cross 14 time zones versus the original plan’s 10, I am actually feeling quite good about it. Total transit time is about the same 30 hours and we should be home 6:30 pm Monday. In addition, we go nowhere near the hot zone of Europe. We leave in another 11 hours so let’s see if I’m still feeling this way, say, 36 hours from now! 

Interesting to see that travel insurance companies now waffling on trip interruption claims due to the virus. We’re with Manulife - the Darth Vader of insurers. Insurance is generally very useful unless you actually are in need of it.

Going to cut the trip short

This morning we saw that the Canadian Government is advising everyone to go home from wherever they are. We are going to try to do this today. We don’t know what to expect. We are flying out of the bush in an hour.

Arrival in Okavango Delta

Yesterday, we took small Embraer jet from Johannesburg to a very small airport in Maun, Botswana. We then took an even smaller 12 seater prop plane to the airstrip that serves this 12 tent lodge in the Okavango delta. After 30 minute jeep ride, we arrived at the camp and enjoyed boisterous singing by the 15 or so staff to greet us. Camp is about 1/2 full with 7 ladies from Maine on a gals tour and a pleasant couple from Hamburg (who are our companions on safari vehicle).

After quick orientation, we hit the road looking for wildlife. Being an inland delta (floodplain), terrain is very flat - largely grasslands at this time of year with groves of trees scattered throughout. Grasslands are punctuated by many phallic-like termite mounds. 

Most of these mounds are 1-3m in height while some can top 4m in my estimation. Grass can be quite thick in spots (1m high) and this can make wildlife hard to spot. That said, we had a good outing yesterday afternoon. 

We were also treated to a dramatic thunderstorm which we don't often get at home.

Like the last place, vehicle is a modified Toyota Land Cruiser that will bulldoze through anything. 

That's our guide Comic driving sporting his lucky hat. Note hyena just beyond the hat. Birgit and Hans Peter from Hamburg up front. 

That's it for now and I'll close this post by thanking my golf buddy Art for suggesting that we visit this beautiful and unique area.

Why I am going grey

The previous 24 hours in Johannesburg were for sure the most stressful of the trip. This included fleeing from the accommodation we had booked through a desperate section of the city with maybe 10 minutes to spare before daylight disappeared. We were quite rattled. We booked into a hotel at the airport, clicked on our Wifi and discovered Trump had banned non Americans from flying into the US for 30 days. Tired and rattled we couldn’t figure out what to do. We were worried about getting stuck (in Johannesburg), and getting sick. One option we seriously considered was ending the trip and going home. We knew Europeans could still get out through Heathrow, so we reasoned it would be overrun with travellers. This makes it the definition of a hot zone. We enquired about switching tickets but found we could easily get out of South Africa. We could not so easily get out of London. If we just stuck to our original booking, we would fly through the hot zone. We land in London and then take off for Vancouver. The option we chose was to go to Botswana and carry on with the trip. We are now on in a remote tented camp on the Okavango Delta. It is hot here and far away from people. To get here we took a small plane from Johannesburg to Maun. Now came the surprise. To get to the camp we had to get into a bush plane and fly to a tiny landing strip. I am glad I didn’t know this was coming until I crawled into this inky winky plane. One more surprise. They took our temperatures as we arrived in Botswana. We came in the midday heat and I could barely stand it. We were both normal, but I couldn’t help wonder what would have happened had we had a fever.

Last night nature treated us to a huge electrical storm. It came up as we were in this little Jeep looking for wildlife. Now golfers know that lightening is attracted to moving objects on a flat surface. This is like a golf course except it is a very rough ride. You are out in the open, riding around in a little cart and an easy pick off for the fork lightening coming down everywhere. The good news is I am still writing this blog.

Self imposed quarantine

Doug and I have decided to self quarantine ourselves upon returning for 14 days. We both feel fine now but would be sick if we brought home the Coronavirus and spread it through the lower mainland.

Kruger Park Experiences

(Have not had wifi service for last 6 days. Below written 4 days ago.)

We’ve had a great few days in Kruger with many wildlife sightings. Over the top, really. As mentioned in previous post, driving here is very easy. We (and everyone else) cruises along at 30 – 45 kph as this is what you need to do in order to spot anything. Everyone’s quite friendly and will often wave as they pass going opposite way. Many slow down as you approach and offer tips on what they’ve seen and we do our best to reciprocate. Atmosphere here (people-wise) is so unlike the experience outside the park with zero concerns for personal safety. Many Germans here as well as South Africans. All seem to have a deep reverence for the nature we are experiencing. With one exception, perhaps. We saw a guy at breakfast one day wearing tee shirt reading “Born, raised and protected by God, guns and guts”. I decided not to engage.

Speaking of tee shirts, we were sitting on our unit’s patio one day and I noticed one guy 2 huts down was doing some hand laundry and had hung a few tees over the fence to dry. One of them had a Canucks logo on it so I went over to check it out. Turns out our 2 immediate neighbors are from Vancouver – friends traveling together. One couple had immigrated to Canada about 25 years ago. The fellow told me that he and his wife simply couldn’t take the stress and fear of living in South Africa and were able to come to Canada. Like me, he’s profoundly grateful to be a Canadian. In so many words, he said upon arrival, he sought out PTSD treatment in an effort to put his previous life behind him. That said, they have a great deal of affection for the land and its people as evidenced by their regular visits.

Our unit in this 2nd camp is very much like the first: very basic with traditional round hut style and thatched roof. The view of the Olifants River from our patio is to die for.

Drove up to a nearby viewpoint the other day to see spectacular countryside. Although I certainly won’t call it a highlight of the trip, couldn’t resist taking a picture of this monkey with very colorful male junk (may have to expand picture to see).

Excitement on the professionally guided trip

Today we were driving around for what seemed like ages. We came around a corner and there was this large bull elephant in musk. Now he was mad. He was peeing through an enormous 5th leg (quoting the guide). He wanted us out of his way. We could pretty much reach out and touch him. He decided to charge us. The guide stood our ground. Now I know the guide is experienced and good but there are degrees of trust. At this moment with my limited knowledge I would have picked flight instead of fight. Controlled panic was my reaction. The guide told us later that had we attempted to flee the elephant would have followed us for 2 km at whatever speed our little Jeep could go. The elephant didn’t give up when we stood our ground. He circled us and made charging attempts several times. The guide waited for the elephant to charge us from the side. He then stepped on the gas and we scooted out of the way. The guide explained later that if an elephant is over the top enraged and thinks he can squish the vehicle he will lift his trunk high, yell, flap his ears and come at us. The guide said he thought the elephant saw our Jeep as a bit big to squish so the charging he was doing was more of a “fake charge”. He was flapping his ears, and pointed his big tusks to ram us as he came running at us. 

The next highlight was we watched a pack of wild dogs attack and kill an impala. The impala is killed by the alpha male and alpha female. The pack forms a ring around the bush area to prevent the impala from escaping. They give certain calls to signal stages of the attack. We saw the impala leaping and the alpha female and male chasing. We then heard a call and the guide said this was the sound the alpha female makes once she has killed the impala. She will swallow the impala and fill her stomach with it. She then returns to the pack and regurgitates the contents. The pack knows this call. They could not contain their excitement at the knowledge of the arrival of their next meal.

Probably one of the most haunting sites we saw was the body of a large impala hanging in the tree. The head was not visible and the abdomen had been eaten. The skin was holding the body together so you could easily see it had been quite a large impala. Now the day before we had seen a leopard in a tree  eating an impala with a hyena waiting below the tree for the bones.

Arrival at the fancy camp

This is different (to put it mildly).

The tent is gorgeous. We have our own bathroom. An outside shower. The tent is on the river bank. The cooing birds are chirping away in the background. We were greeted by beautifully dressed attendants. Needless to say with 6 weeks travel and only carry on luggage I am WAY underdressed. Of course the food is much better than in Kruger. The guides are also far more engaged. Doug told our guide he wanted to see wild dog. There are only 120 in Kruger, a very large park. Well our guide can imitate animal sounds. He made the call of an impala in final death throes and lo and behold wild dog arrived, and a big pack of them along with some hyena. We then followed the pack on its hunt for an impala for breakfast. The dogs made their kill and blood was visible on their necks. The safari ritual includes drinks and snacks, so dog kill be damned we stopped for tea. Chasing the dogs through tall grass at speeds was both scary and fun. At one point we came over an embankment and it was so steep I suspected we were in trouble. 

With two safaris a day there is a lot of downtime. It is too hot midday to do much. Most people here are millennials pining to escape their daily intense working rituals. We are pining for exercise. We eat, are driven around on safari, sit and sleep. 

 Baboons live outside our tents. They do not want us walking alone down the paths. Last night the baboons were screaming terrorizing sounds. A nearby lion chimed in at one point. It was disconcerting. We were told not to leave our locked rooms at night ( the same as in Capetown and Port Elizabeth). At least here it would be wild animals attacking. 

Elephants, giraffe, zebras, impalas, monkeys, are in abundance here. We see them a lot. The big 5 are less common but we do see them.

Animal confrontations

We watched two male baboons have a terrible fight. The screeching was large and  they were going at it. There was an alpha male high in a tree watching the entire thing. Now he was huge. 

We saw impala challenging each other.

We a wildebeast bravely confront a leopard

We watched that without a car the animals would label us enemy and scatter (or attack) once our distance was roughly 250 yards)

We saw a male baboon terrorize a female within his family 

We saw a den of hyena. Apparently the mother will bring live animals to the den so that young hyenas can learn to kill. The hyenas in the den were weeks old.

We saw two male elephants play fight in front of us

We were told to back off by a female elephant twice

We watched a super large elephant charge a couple in a small car

Mar 7 on safari

We drove ourselves today. Tonight we go on a night drive. The stars are incredible. We did get some good sights but not nearly as many as on other outings. Doug is getting sick of driving. Today’s highlight was a troop of roughly 15 elephants. They were quite a distance from us and they had 3 babies in the group. One was so tiny she had to be just a day old. We watched as they scrambled down a bank and crossed a shallow river. The baby had to be pushed across as she was not above the level of the water. Sitting on our deck we have 10 hippos grazing in the valley below. The kudos are fighting. We also stopped on a bridge. In the distance we watched a large group of elephants scramble up a steep embankment. They are so huge and the bank was so steep I did not think they would make it. The fellow beside us pointed out a very large croc in this same ravine. Doug also thought he saw a man fishing on a rock in the river. Now this is not done. You are not allowed out of your car. They say the animals would target you right away. I had my binoculars and looked and saw an enormous bird, the size of a person on this rock.Doug took a pic. Tomorrow we start our hand held portion of the trip. 

Mar 6 on safari

Today we went on an early morning tour. I awoke at 2:45 am (had trouble sleeping after that). We were not seeing much when suddenly the guide came across a leopard on the road. Now leopard spotting are rare. Cars out were stopping to snap a pic. The leopard took off and our guide deftly gave chase. Regular visitors were not allowed down this dirt road but he was a guide. We chased the leopard for a good 20 minutes. Our guide said she looked hungry and was no doubt looking for food. The leopard wasn’t running but walking fairly quickly. She would often turn and look at us. She at first started marking her territory. She was showing us we were in her area. She was behaving like a cat. At one point I saw a large wildebeast in the distance. He stood frozen as the leopard and our group moved forward. The leopard was sizing her up. In an act of defiance the wildebeast moved towards the leopard. She was clearly standing her ground. The cat passed her by. Eventually she left the dirt road and crossed into tall grass. She had spotted something and we left. We also saw a pretty turtle. We passed a large herd of giraffe and saw a 1 day old giraffe. It’s umbilical cord was still hanging from it. It looked strong. We saw crocodiles for the first time and water buffaloes, and some very beautiful big birds. Some were large with big beaks and brightly coloured.  We got very close to young hyenas. After the morning drive we went on the morning walk. Because we were walking it was far more dangerous. Like our last bush walk the animals are instinctively afraid of people. They identify us as predators and will behave aggressively, and certainly will never let us near. For this reason each guide has his own gun and we were warned about the dangers. On this walk we saw a 3 week old hippo. She was at the river with her mother. She was already huge. We tracked the hippos down by following the gigantic footprints they leave in the mud. We saw more crocs by the rivers edge. We also tried to feed a cricket to a very large poisonous spider. The cricket froze and the spider suspected a trap so nothing happened. We also pulled over and watched as a male baboon terrorized a female who was clinging to her very tiny baby. She screamed blue murder and for moment we could all see he was selecting another target. The problem was it was us. She was one swing away from landing in the open car. The driver quickly pulled away.

On safari mar 5

Yesterday we drove from skuzuki to oliphant. An amazing trip. Certainly a highlight was 2 very large herds of elephants crossing in front of us. In one case we stopped and waited as the entire herd went about 10 m in front of our car. There were many mothers with babies. They put themselves between us and the babies. The last mother stood in front of us as her baby crossed and waved her trunk at us as if to say stay back. Now I was worried she would charge us. In the second instance we came across a herd of possibly 70 elephants. They were more or less together. I pointed them out and thought we were possibly going to far to see them as we rounded a corner. But behind the corner were a large number of mothers and babies stopped right beside the road. I thought we could just sit a while and watch and then noticed they were heading towards the road. One by one they started to cross then I saw from lower down the valley the biggest elephant I have ever seen. He was massive and he was mad and charging. I had no idea what he was so angry at and then saw a little car go shoot backwards out of the bush. It was no doubt a dirt road and clearly the people were taking pictures unaware that the troop would move toward them (and us).He was so rattled they drove off. The herd continued as did the massive big elephant (but not before he threatened us too). We stayed still. We also had great viewing of lions in a den. As we approached it was clear we had to wait to see the lions. It was very slow but eventually it was our turn. We took our time and moved past but had to do a u turn to get back in the right direction. Now there was a huge traffic jam. We had to wait to get through. Suddenly I spotted two lions heading out of the den. They crossed the road right in front of our car. They came over to us even though a large number had been waiting some time to see them. We had perfect picture position. Other sites included Ostrich, many giraffes, more elephants, plus zebras and kudos. We arrived at Oliphant rest area. Our unit has a beautiful view. We are perched over the river, the unit is comfortable and amenities are good.

Very exciting Kruger 1st day

We had 3 outings our first day and saw a ton of animals. I was unaware of how lucky we were. We first got up at 4 am for an early morning guided tour. In the afternoon we drove ourselves around and at 4 pm we went out for a 2 hr bush walk. 

The morning tour had the highest payoff. We first saw a large hyena right in our camp. It was about the same size as me and I was shocked. It was ugly. Next we came upon the first of many giraffe sightings. In some cases the giraffes were alone, in other cases they were in groups with up to 7 giraffes. We watched as the giraffe rubbed their necks on the trees, almost taking the tree down. We saw many many elephants. The most shocking one happened when we were touring without a guide. We came over a hill and there on the road, blocking it off were 10 elephants. Needless to say we could drive no further. The group surrounded the babies in the center. One matriarch took a firm position staring at us. She was guarding the family. We sat still and after a time the group moved into the bush. You asked Michael if in the one pic we really so close to a big thing with tusks. In fact we were. The elephant was so close to our open aired tour vehicle, the guide thought he was going to reach in or charge. It was scary. I saw one elephant gently feeding a younger one. On the bush walk we learned that all the animals fear people but none make the connection to people in a vehicle. They see the vehicle as a different thing and fear of it has not been passed down. That meant that without the protection of a vehicle you risk being charged by an elephant or other big animal. You do not get close. In the vehicle the animals are 1 or 2 meters from the car. On the bush walk we got to within 75 meters of a huge elephant. The guides said no closer. They were each armed with a rifle. They said if the animals charged they would have 12 seconds to shoot to kill or we would be mowed down. We also saw 4 large white rhino on the bush walk. The guide spotted the rhino and talked about them for a while. The male was gigantic. After we all saw the rhino the guide started walking closer to them. We were not allowed to talk but I wanted to alert the guides to how close we were getting. We stopped 75 meters from the group of rhino. We also saw a rare mother and calf black rhino. We had 4 lion sightings. In two of them we were very close. In fact we were so close one ( of 7 in the group) of the big cats started closing his eyes with me, and I closed mine back (the same way we all do with witty) .It was magical. We spent about 10 minutes with these lions. Now lions when they are full lie back and relax but when they get hungry, they stalk. We watched a group of 3 lions stalk and terrorize a large group of impala. The impala reproduce like rabbits and are the meat for many animals. So many stories to share, but I will just mention other animals sighted. We have seen large troops of monkeys and baboons, wart hog and hippos. Other than this we have seen huge African bees, a big beautiful turtle, a poisonous big spider, and a dung beetle the size of a golf ball. We have lots of pics but can’t really post here.

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Arrival in Kruger Park

We arrived in Kruger Park 2 days ago by small jet landing at the small Skukuza airport that's right inside this very large park. Europcar car hire guy was waiting for us so we picked up the vehicle and were soon on our way.

The terrain here is undulating - a mix of bush and more open grasslands with some dramatic rock outcroppings. We head 150 km north tomorrow so could look quite different there.

As for driving, it's VERY easy here in the park. Roads are a mix of paved, gravel and dirt; the latter being seriously washboarded in places.

A wide variety of accommodation types here ranging from tented camping through to private luxury lodges. The national parks service (SANParks) operates the more basic options and this is where we currently are in one of their bungalows styled on traditional round hut with thatched roof.

Many options for wildlife viewing too ranging from self-drive through private guide. Yesterday we did SANParks safari vehicle (15 or so passengers), bush walk with 2 rifle toting rangers and 5 of us being escorted as well as self-drive. You can't leave your vehicle except at designated pit stops. We hit a wildlife bonanza yesterday with many sightings. The bush walk was especially good. I remarked to Nancy that, although I'm not a religious person at all, the experience felt quite spiritual as one reflects on the majesty of nature. 

This guy literally at the shoulder of the road. 

Today has not been as good but we do another SANParks vehicle tour this aft. Nancy's post will provide more details so I will not repeat here. There was only one comical moment that I'll mention. On the tour vehicle and of all things, I found myself wondering how much Instagram has contributed to the lowering of I.Q. levels around the world. She (of the 30-something couple seated opposite) wore 3/4 length dress, designer boots with stylish cape and hat. He busied himself taking photos of her smiling, pouting, trying mightily to look pensive, etc. with giraffe, elephant, lion in the background. Totally sacrilegious. I wish now we had begun mocking them but didn't think of it at the time. It would have been fun.

Anyhow I'll close this out for now.

Heading into deepest darkest Africa

By dark I mean no or spotty internet. OMG
We will connect again March 20. We may be able to receive emails in a couple of spots.
We left Plettenberg Bay this morning and drove to an amazing bird sanctuary. Certainly a highly memorable visit. We were there for 2 hours and thoroughly enjoyed it. After this we drove through strong winds to arrive in Port Elizabeth. We fly tomorrow into Kruger Park and have 6 more days of do it yourself. We will be on 2 different safaris. We have signed up with guides. After this we put ourselves in the hands of a tour operator.. We will have everything done for us (we understand). There will be 3 more days in Kruger with this full meal deal and then off to Botswana. After Botswana we fly to Victoria Falls and after that we start the trek home.
Now with any luck by the time we get home, Canada will be operating again. Rail blockades will have disappeared. Harry and Meghan will be footing their own security bill (which BTW) has been the one subject that everyone seems to hold a very strong opinion on. 😁
Stay Safe
Nancy