Monday, July 21- Lyft for 7 to RIC. Held up by storms in Atlanta but still got there in plenty of time for check in on the long flight (15 hours). I ate a light dinner and attempted to sleep (maybe 3-4 hours fitful). Then watched movies. Big Lebowski- not much redeeming social value.
Tuesday, July 22- we were met in Capetown and ushered through customs by our guide Bonnie and straight to the Victoria and Alfred Hotel. (Alfred was her son, Albert the Royal Consort had died previously.) It is winter but about 60 degrees, a little drizzle.
Wednesday, July 23- Bonnie figured out a plan for the day and the next day and then revised it based on a weather report of rain for the 24th. First stop- Table Mountain by funicular. Saw the SA national flower, the protea, and a tiny mountain animal, the rock hyrax or dasse. It is supposed to have the closest DNA to an elephant. (C and I had the same mammals living under our room in one of the hotels in Kenya in 2022.)
Bonnie engaged with the guides for rappelling off the top of the mountain. Not for me. From the top of Table we could see Robbin Island where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for 20+ years and the big futbol stadium for the World Cup.
We left the mountain and drove to Hoet Bay to World of Birds (and monkeys). Fascinating maze of different birds from all over plus a few escapees on top of the netting. The big hit was the spider monkeys who jumped all over us. No phones or loose anything allowed in the compound- I guess the monkeys might have taken them and not given them back.
We then went to lunch followed to a visit to the African Penguins (aka Jackass Penguins) at Somerset Bay. Sand blowing, penguins spread out on the rocks and in the kelp. You used to be able to walk among them but Shakira the pop star came to SA for the 2010 World Cup, got bit by a penguin, and sued the government, so now visitors are confined to a walkway. Blowing sand. Each penguin has a unique pattern of small dots on his/her chest.
That night for dinner I took the kids for burgers and pizza and the others went to a fancy seafood restaurant to be there in time for sunset over the water. BTW, the Atlantic is very cold here so while there are good waves there aren't many surfers.
Thursday, July 24- Bonnie gave us a mini tour of Capetown (5.5mm people) with a lot of interesting commentary about race relations and the shanty towns on the way to Cheetah Outreach. Bonnie is married, has a son and daughter, both college grads, neither employed. The son is a lawyer by training, the daughter is now volunteering. Bonnie said she has to pay for education, utilities, rent but the people in the shanty town don't pay for anything. She noted that shanty town people have even stolen the airport runway landing lights to light up their area but pay no electricity bills. Unemployment in SA is 39%. Bonnie says there are three races- black, mixed, and white. She is mixed.
The other interesting thing on the driving tour was the multicolored houses of the Moslem area. From afar it looks very attractive to tourists, even though the walls have intense political messages about Palestine and other things. Leesa and Gordon walked over there after our main event and felt a little uncomfortable.
Cheetah Outreach was great. We met Tobias who is regal and elegant.
We began our malaria pills at dinner tonight. I am not sure we really need them since it is the dry season and winter. I only felt one bite. Ali has to take three small pills and can't swallow them yet. We tried to crush them (hard to do), to mix them with water, with lime water, with yogurt, with orange juice. Never really successful.
The area around our hotel- big mall with all kinds of high end brands and even saw a store called Kingsley Heath African Luxury (our white hunter in 1967 was John Kingsley Heath). Right next to our hotel was a place called Time Out which featured about 10 different kinds of fancy street food under one roof plus bars, coffee, and gelato; next to it was Water Shed- a sort of mini mall of small vendors of fancy African goods and clothes catering to the tourists. Great fabric patterns.
Friday, the 25th- Transit to Thornybush. Great lodge (but monkeys and baboons wanting to break into the cabins), great guides (Tracey and Orlando), great food and restaurant service (thank you Reinas). Each day here is pretty much the same- 5:30 wake up, coffee etc at 6, leave from 6-9 for game drive; 3 tea, leave at 3:30 for evening game drive (sunset about 5:30 ish), return at 7 for dinner. All dining outside except by special request in the library on the last night. Watched monkeys steal bread from an attended breakfast table. Francolin wandering in the dining too.
We saw the Big Five in each camp and we came close to seeing the Big Five all in one day a couple of times.
There are too many photos that ought to be up and available. Here I have selected a few notable mammals and birds for the three days at Thornybush- mid morning coffee break, leopard stalking, lion, flap necked chameleon, wild dog, spotted hyena, white rhino, vervet monkey, elephant-
On to Lion Sands- This was the small plane ride we had worried about being packed correctly for. It turned we were ok- 10 of us in a 12 seater. The morning routine was pretty much the same-early wake up call, game drive from 6:30 to 9 ish with our intrepid guides Simon and Gus and our trackers Noel and Andreis, back for lunch and rest, out again from 3:30 to 7 ish, then dinner. Meals were on a patio overlooking the Sabi River where lions, buffaloes, hippos, elephants, kudu, and various birds entertained us.
It seemed to me like Simon was the big boss of guides- deep commanding voice, knew all about tracking and birds (as did the others). Simon has 5 wives and 24 children ranging from 8-42- Wow!
Generally Simon and Gus were more inclined to go bushwhacking through the brush than Tracey. We learned that basically every tree and shrub has thorns.
Lion Sands animals- two different prides of lions including one with at least 9 babies, a female leopard that hangs out at the lodge and showed up while Thomas was working out, another female who kept trying to seduce her man but he was too busy eating to pay attention, lots of elephants, hippos, rhinos, giraffes. We saw an ostrich on the last day and lots of other birds- I'll include a sample of the bird pages from Ali's Thornybush workbook on the birds and we saw most of these. (Ali's count was about 47, mine about 55 including ones I had seen previously.) I think we saw three species of mongooses and had a glimpse at a couple of honey badgers (but they were too quick for a photo).
Since I started calling myself an amateur bird watcher (something to do when not catching fish) at about the time of our trip to Botswana in 2006, my favorite African bird has been a Lilac Breasted Roller-
I now have two more favorites- Red faced mousebird and purple crested turaco. I wasn't quick enough for a photo but they are worth looking up.
The cutest bird we saw was a Pearl spotted owlet. Again worth looking up.
My favorite African unseen bird with the best call is the southern boubou with its haunting bell like call. I heard one in the river bed at breakfast a couple of times. The local favorite is the ring necked turtle dove whose call is "work harder, work harder, drink lager, drink lager, sleep longer".
Here are a few photos of the Lion Sands animals-
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A few bits of African animal lore, some told to us by our tracker at Lion Sands Andreis- 1) somehow, through evolution, impalas have manged to synch up their pregnancies so they all foal precisely at the same time; 2) waterbucks are said to be inedible, but this is due to an oil gland in their fur which a skillful skinner cut avoid to get to very tasty meat; 3) a herd of zebras will always have some facing one way and others facing another to keep watch, and when the lion charges they go off in all different directions to confuse the lion; 4) honey badgers are omnivores, but when they are going for meat they will chase and grab an animal such as a wildebeest by the scrotum to bring him down; 5) the watering holes in this area are not connected and sometimes quite far apart, but they have a form of catfish which can "walk" on its fins to find water; and 6) a herd of giraffes on the move is called a "journey" while when a herd is standing still and grazing it is called a "tower".
That wraps it up. 7 of us headed home from Johannesburg while Leesa, Jill, Beth and Connie went to Rwanda for a gorilla trek (Connie hiking up the mountain with acute bronchitis). The only problem my group had was a cancelled flight from Atlanta to Richmond which sent us looking for options.
Here's Jill's write up of the Rwanda aspect of this trip for C and the three sisters (inserting a couple of photos from C too):
First topic: gorillas. A few weeks ago, my mom, two sisters and I traveled to Rwanda to celebrate their milestone birthdays this year (mine will not be a milestone, but lucky me for getting to tag along). The primary goal: gorilla trekking.
My only context for mountain gorillas in Rwanda was the 1988 film Gorillas in the Mist, of which I had but the vaguest memories. As we started our hike, the mist was indeed thick around the volcanoes, and I felt unexpectedly satisfied at the movie’s accuracy. (Once home, I did some digging and discovered that they filmed on location, a challenging feat. Here’s a nice little behind-the-scenes video if you’re curious.)
We hiked for about three hours (including a certain amount of bushwhacking and trekking off-trail) before encountering “our” gorilla family, that is, the family that trackers had located and to which we had been assigned that day. Once there, we got to observe them for about an hour, sometimes from mere feet away.
Seeing gorillas up close, as it turns out, feels very different from seeing them in a zoo or on a screen. You’re right there in their midst. (Buh-dum-bum.) We were told that these gorilla families are habituated to having humans at close range. For much of our visit, one silverback lolled about while some of his offspring played nearby, pushing each other and pulling hair and teasing, not unlike puppies engaged in play biting. One of the mothers sat beside the silverback and groomed him. Another silverback ate nettles at a distance. They noticed us but mostly paid us no heed. Our guide taught us to make a grunt-like sound that is Gorilla for “I’m not a threat / All good here.” I made that sound any time a gorilla looked my way.
When you’re up close with a silverback, all 300-500 massive, hairy pounds of him, you wonder: who’s to say that he’s not the one gorilla who’s suddenly going to blow his top and charge at me? Below, my footage of a silverback. Where was he headed? I didn’t know, couldn’t read his mind, knew only to get out of his way and to tell him that I wasn’t a threat.
Even as the up-close encounters thrilled me, I worried that I was an adverse presence, encroaching on the gorilla’s territory to satisfy my own selfish curiosity. Would gorillas be better served if we left them alone?
As it turns out, no. Gorilla tourism (and laws passed in Rwanda, thanks to Fossey’s legacy) have helped with conservation efforts, and mountain gorillas are the only great ape population whose numbers are on the rise. Further, locals have gained jobs as guides and porters; lodges and restaurants have been built that employ even more of the local population, and poachers have been employed by the government as trackers, reducing their incentive to kill gorillas illegally. Everywhere we went, Rwandans told us how glad they were to have us there: in Kigali, in the small community outside of Volcanoes National Park, on the gorilla trek. Tourist dollars were the reason that many remote areas had roads, schools, and facilities.
So even as I imagine the silverback being annoyed at me, I’m probably overthinking it. These gorillas mostly don’t notice us, crouching nearby silently, watching them at play, at feast, on the move. Still, the fact that a silverback could, in theory, lift you and your mom and sisters, throw you down the mountain, and still have energy to spare, adds a certain frisson to the visit.
Rwanda: an incredible trip and highly worth adding to your bucket list, if it’s not already there.
