Posts Tagged With: Victoria Falls

Out of Africa

Posted on November 22, 2019 by loansbrad

When we first told friends and family that we were going to Africa this year, they all said the same thing. Africa will forever change you and it will help put life’s priorities in perspective. We weren’t exactly sure how we would be changed but we went into this trip with an open mind and a curious attitude.

We stayed in lovely resorts and all had excellent service. The African people we met were friendly and courteous wherever we went. I told Brad that I think the people in Africa smile when they talk and always have a sparkle in their eyes and a heart-felt greeting.

But it was our guides and their personal stories that we will always remember when we look back at our trip.

We will remember Charles and Junior in Zambia who talked about their country with pride and concern. They had pride in their culture and the beauty of their country but concern about their economy and the future. Zambia’s economy has a 60 percent unemployment rate and the majority of Zambians live below the international definition of poverty with an average life expectancy of 41 years.They were experiencing daily power outages while we there due to lack of infrastructure during the drought periods (most of the power is hydroelectric) and both of them talked about the high levels of corruption in their government. They both talked about their concerns with how global warming would affect their families in the future.

Junior

We will remember our guide at the Nakatindi Village. He had great pride in the accomplishments of his humble village and the fact that he had been selected to be a tour guide. He talked about how grateful he was that Abercrombie and Kent and our resort at Sussi and Chuma had provided funds and training for the people of his village. The village now has a commerce center where people are trained to run their own business. The Bike Shop was especially impressive and the shop was exploding with bicycles that had been delivered from overseas. The community has a neighborhood watch program and each community area has their own form of democratic leadership to make sure the villagers needs are met. The adults were all friendly to us and the children were out playing games and soccer with each other. The village really doesn’t have crime and are mostly concerned about the destruction that the elephants could bring to their homes. The biggest threat to the village continues to be the spread of AIDS and health care issues. He has already seen how the new clinic has helped the community. He is frustrated that the government ignores their village and they must rely on private donations to improve their standard of living.

We will never forget Mo in Kliptown in Soweto who is running an educational program for the youth of the township. He also has to rely on private funds and donations as the township receives very little help from the government. He is very proud of the program’s accomplishments and more young people are getting skills to have jobs as a result of his group’s hard work. I still can’t get the image of the port-a- potties that ten-twelve families have to share (they only get cleaned twice a week). The lack of power and water is also a huge issue for the township.

Monwabisi Baleni — AKA Mo

Our guide, Thulani, stunned us with his accounts of daily life in Robben Island. When he slammed a prison door to let us know how it feels to be locked in, it was very powerful. Being allowed to go in Nelson Mandela’s cell was also very powerful and sobering. The memories of Apartheid are still painful and emotional for Thulani.

Thulani Mabaso

Our mountain man guide, Ross, who took us up Table Mountain was right out of the movies. At one point, he stopped and let us take a much-needed break from our vertical hike and had us look around at the view. He has been climbing Table Mountain since he was five years old and said that as far he was concerned this place was his heaven. How could he want any more out of life?

Ross, our Table Mountain hike guide, right of of central casting.

Our encounters with the African children in the villages will be our favorite memory of all. If I had the resources (and youth) of Angelina Jolie, I would have adopted them all as well! The heartbreak of watching the kids play in the filth of Kliptown, the joy of the 4th graders in the rural area of Sabi Sabi as they showed us their new robotics kits that Exclusive Resorts had donated, the hugs of all of the five and six year olds at the pre-school are memories forever. I struck up a conversation with one of the fourth graders while she was doing the robotics demonstration. She seemed exceptionally bright and told me she plans to be a doctor. I hope she will achieve her dreams. We will also remember the little girl in Zambia who looked to be about Maile’s age. She came running towards Brad and leaped into his arms as if he was her own Grandpa and gave him a long, big hug.

Speaking of grandparents, we will also remember the role of the grandparent in the family unit in the villages in Africa. The extended family is all important in Africa and grandparents are held in high esteem. They take over much of the child-rearing while the parents go to work and apparently at the age of nine or ten they are responsible for all of the sex education conversations. The children stay in the same room with their parents until that age and then the parents need to build a new room on their house. If they can’t do that, the kids have to go spend every night with their grandparents. We love spending time with Max and Maile but I am not sure if we would want to be in charge of child-rearing once they approach puberty! Families all live close to one another with brothers and sisters and cousins all in the same area if not house. We were told that even if younger people get educated and get jobs and are able to move up and leave the villages and townships, their parents and grandparents would never consider leaving their homes no matter how humble.

No one will probably let us forget some of the crazy, daring things we did willingly and maybe a little unwillingly. At home, I am a reasonably risk-averse person. Brad maybe not as much. But on vacation in an exotic place, it’s fun to try new things. Shark-diving, swimming in waterfalls; having leopards approach our Jeep; taking a bush walk with guides with armed rifles wondering if a lion might be just around the corner; going on a river boat trip down the Zambezi hoping that the rocks we were getting close to were not hippos; and hiking up Table Mountain worried that I rubbed into a Blister Bush (look it up!) that would cause horrible blisters and scars for life. . . These were all things that we don’t encounter back in Danville. Of course, nothing was more concerning than living without WiFi in Zambia and not being able to keep up with the political world back home or play Words with Friends! (Just kidding of course…..mostly it was a wonderful break from reality)

Devil’s Pool

Our guide Ruth at Sabi Sabi stole our hearts and captivated us on every safari ride. Ruth really brought the Savannah to life for us with her her excitement for each and every creature from dung beetles and millipedes to magnificent leopards and giraffes. I mean how many guides have you had in your life that will pick up elephant dung and passionately describe everything in it? That’s a special skill! Her animal and bird mating stories will stick with us and make us laugh for years to come. Ruth is only in her early 20’s and we are curious where this love of the natural world will take her. Whatever she does, she will be successful. And, yes, there were tears when we all said goodbye.

Ruth, our safari guide examining elephant dung

And lastly, we’ll remember Cameron. He was our group leader for the entire trip from Johannesburg to Cape Town. His attention to detail and love of his country showed in all of his actions. It’s a hard job being in charge of thirteen different couples in multiple foreign lands with security and weather issues out of your control. Luckily, like most of our Exclusive Resorts group, this group got along famously, all joined with our love of travel and learning about other cultures. We all commented about how great our karma was on this trip but we all know that it was Cameron’s planning and good nature that made the great things happen.

Cameron in the front,left seat. Photo by Dave Stevens

Our Table Mountain hiking group

The bush walk group

So as we end our blog and have left South Africa, we would agree that we are changed for the better, equipped with a new perspective of the importance of family and ancestors and a different viewpoint on happiness and priorities. We also are challenged to understand the poverty and racial issues that still exist in parts of Africa and the lack of basic necessities in the villages and townships. Their governments all need to find the resources to do more for their people so they don’t need to rely solely on private donations for basic needs.

A neighborhood in Soweto

On my brother Bob’s recommendation, Brad and I read Nelson Mandela’s autobiography “Long Walk to Freedom” during this trip. It made our visits to Mandela’s home in Johannesburg, the Apartheid Museum, and his prison cell on Robben Island even more powerful. We can learn a lot from Nelson Mandela during our present time. I think any blog about South Africa should end with his words so I will leave you with these. They are still meaningful in today’s world.

“I never lost hope that this great transformation would occur. I always knew that deep down in every human heart, there is mercy and generosity. No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.”

Goodbye Africa. We can’t wait to come back and visit again.

Sunset on the Zambezi River

Categories: Africa, Cape Town, Safari, South Africa, Travel, Victoria Falls, Zambia | Tags: Africa, Cape Town, Hiking, Nelson Mandela, Robben Island, South Africa, Table Mountain, Travel, Victoria Falls, Zambia | 3 Comments

Zambia — Waterfalls, Elephants, a Village, and the Devil’s Pool

Posted on November 21, 2019 by loansbrad

We took off from Cape Town in a small Kenya Air aircraft, landing in Victoria Falls Airport in Zimbabwe. Victoria Falls, one of the seven natural wonders of the world, sits right on the border of Zimbabwe and Zambia. As we landed we saw bush country for as far as we could see. Lisa and I are now on our own. We said farewell to the rest of the group in South Africa.

Our guide and driver for the week was named Charles. Charles is native to Zambia and was eager to tell us about his country. Zambia is a landlocked country in southern Africa. It was a British colony that gained its independence in 1964. The primary industry is agriculture, but, it has an abundance of copper so mining is also a major source of revenue and employment to the country. Finally, with Victoria Falls on its southern border, tourism is the primary industry where we stayed.

Our first impression upon landing as we crossed the border from Zimbabwe to Zambia was the large number of people walking and riding bicycles laden with goods. Charles explained that there are significant price differentials between the two countries. So, with the high unemployment rate in traditional industry, many residents of both countries will cross the border each day to buy goods that are more expensive in one country than the other, effectively arbitraging the difference in order to generate a profit.

For example, Coca-Cola costs 80 cents a bottle in Zambia but $2 a bottle in Zimbabwe. So, Zimbabweans will cross the border (which is quite the process) to buy Coke and carry it back home to sell. Flour, rice, corn meal, sugar, and many other products are more or less expensive in each country so this process occurs with a plethora of goods. Imagine supporting your family by carrying heavy loads for miles each day.

Interestingly, the men rode bicycles while the women walked. I’m not sure why that is but I’m afraid to raise the topic with Lisa.

The tourism industry in the area seems to provide much good employment both directly and through ancillary businesses. Being a guide is one of the most sought-after jobs. It requires a good command of the English language (the primary language spoken here), strong knowledge of the history, flora and fauna, and geography of the region.

Our trip consisted of a mixture of activities to learn about the culture and history of the region and partake in fun tourist activities. We’ll give you a sampling of both.

Victoria Falls is fed by the Zambezi River. Our resort sat right on the Zambezi looking west into Zimbabwe. Called Sanctuary Sussi and Chuma (Dr. Livingstone “discovered” Victoria Falls on his explorations. Sussi and Chuma were his guides), the resort consisted of 12 elevated huts that they called treehouses. We got around by walkways that were 8 to 10 feet off the ground. With the wild animals in the area, we had to be escorted to our rooms at night just like we did on safari in South Africa. The place is beautiful and we highly recommend it should you come to Zambia.

Not only is this a stunning resort with amazing service, they are also tremendously supportive of their local community. We had a chance to visit the nearby village of Nakatindi. Sussi and Chuma along with Abercrombie and Kent have provided assistance to the education, health and economic well-being of this 3000-person village.

Our first stop in the village was the commerce section. There they had a barbershop, fruit and vegetable stands, a bike shop, jewelry store and other miscellaneous stands. Having good friends who are in to cycling (that’s you Mike and Chris), we decided to walk in to the bike shop. This shop gets used bicycles donated to them from the US, Australia, and Great Britain. They fix them up and sell them to locals. They also donate a bike to each child in the village who graduates eighth grade. The high school is several miles away so the bikes help them to further their education.

We went next to the jewelry store. The artisans here crush up empty glass bottles , melt the glass and form it into beads, hearts, and other beautiful pieces of jewelry. Lisa, of course, decided to support a local business and will be coming home with a few nice pieces.

Sussi and Chuma resort helped both of these stores with training on how to run a business, financial support to get started, and, they even sell the jewelry in their own store.

The village seems to do a great job of self-governing. They have elected village leaders, a neighborhood watch program, and they regularly work with the federal government for support even though they don’t seem to get much help from that source. Crime isn’t a major problem in the village. They have worse issues with elephants trampling through town, eating vegetables and making a mess.

Their most recent addition has been a health clinic, again supported by Abercrombie and Kent and our resort. HIV is a serious problem in Zambia, orphaning millions of children and driving the country’s average life expectancy down below the age of 50. The clinic as staffed by nurses with an on-call doctor who visits periodically. The clinic allows people who are sick to get immediate treatment; it provides health education, including sex education for teens; and, dispenses needed medication. The HIV problem is improving meaningfully because the clinic is here. And, people are getting better health care overall.

The children were delightful with several following on our tour asking for their picture to be taken, looking for high fives, or jumping into our arms to be hugged. The last major area of support from Sussi and Chuma was the school. They provide support to give free lunches to all the children so they can focus on learning, not their empty stomachs.

As we left the village and drove back up the road to our resort, a herd of elephants came charging through the bush, running straight at up and across the road both in front of and behind our car. It was quite a sight.

Victoria Falls flows from the Zambezi river into a deep gorge. Unlike Niagara Falls, it flows at varying strengths depending on the time of year. During the rainy season in January, for example, it is roaring across its full length of 1.25 miles. We were here in the dry season so the flow is far less with much of the cliff dry and exposed. Nevertheless, it is an incredible sight. We looked at it from both the Zimbabwean side, which flows all year, and the Zambian side that is dry this time of year.

This section of the falls runs fast and furious during the rainy season. It is dry right now as the Zambezi River is low.

After visiting the falls from the, um, general viewing area, we decided to get up close and personal with the falls. We went for a swim in the Devil’s Pool which is a natural pool at the top of the falls. One can only visit Devil’s Pool when the water is low as it is today. Otherwise the volume of water would sweep one over the falls. Getting there required a boat trip out to Livingstone Island, a short hike to the falls, and a swim out to the pool. While the height certainly got our attention, we were more concerned for our guides who had no problem walking out to the edge and leaning out so they could get just the right angle on a photo for us. Oh, and Lisa really didn’t care for the small fish in the pool that nibbled on our feet (see our Vietnam blog on her fish pedicure). All-in-all it was a fun, exhilarating experience.

Here we are before swimming out to the pool on the edge of the cliff where the falls are dry today.

And, here we are at the edge of the roaring falls.

And, finally, here we are hamming it up in the pool.

On our final evening we took a river cruise with our resort guide, Junior. The boat ride was essentially a safari on the water. We saw an elephant crossing the river, hippos both in and out of the water, monkeys, a herd of elephants on the bank, and many exotic birds. It was one of our favorite activities.