As mentioned in other posts, to celebrate my 70th birthday, we planned a big family trip integrating both a hunt and a family safari tour. For the tour portion, we worked with Michelle and Amandine at Wild Wonderful World. Wild Wonderful World It was complicated integrating individual family add-on trips and the hunt into a three-country safari for 10 people. WWW were great.
We have literally thousands of photos and hours of video. Our "highlights" photo folder has over 400 photos. I'm going to try to give a flavor of the safari here. I will try hard to not overwhelm. It won't be easy.
Our advance party was Eric and family. They left for Cape Town on the 4th of July.
While we were hunting, Jeni and the boys had a tour guide arranged by WWW take them on a 6 day tour of the Garden Path between Cape Town and Port Elizabeth.
They had three different stops and encountered some wet and challenging weather. But they had a great time.
On July 14, Joan, Amy, Doug, Lucy and Charlie left Dulles Airport for Cape Town.
WWW arranged for a "behind the scenes" tour of the aquarium in Cape Town.
It was pretty awesome.
Especially the sea turtle breeding area.
They also visited Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens. Kirstenbosch
Unfortunately, the tram to Table Mountain was down but they had great views from the waterfront.
On the 16th, one group converged in Port Elizabeth and caught a plane to Johannesburg (Joburg).
The other group flew from Cape Town to Joburg. We converged at the Afton Safari Lodge. Afton
We spent a night together there before leaving on the group safari.
On July 17, we headed to the Federal Air terminal at Joburg airport and caught our shuttle plane to our first game reserve - Mala Mala. Mala Mala
We had the plane to ourselves.
We were met at their airstrip by these safari vehicles.
Mala Mala Game Reserve
So this app just decided to act up and load the photos in the reverse order from how I selected them. But if you weren't there, the order probably doesn't matter.
On arrival we were picked up in a van and driven through the town of VF down to the Zambezi river.
We transferred people and luggage onto a pontoon boat.
And cruised on the river to our lodge. Victoria Falls River Lodge
Our captain and guide was Polite. He was very helpful and knowledgeable thru our whole stay here.
Along the way, we spotted a croc on the shore. Croc going in the river
And we got to the lodge for check in and orientation.
Once we got settled in our rooms, we headed back out for an evening cruise on the river.
It was a beautiful evening on the water.
We were in the middle of national parks and there are ancient migration routes that cross the river.
The sunset was awesome.
We had "sundowners".
And we watched elephants migrate from Zimbabwe to Zambia.
We went in for dinner after the sundown.
It was warmer than in Mala Mala and was supposed to be in a malaria zone. We had mosquito nets but it was winter and there really didn't seem to be many mosquitos.
The bungalows were spread out along the river. We got picked up and delivered by golf cart.
The next morning we assembled to go to the falls.
We all piled into one safari vehicle and went by dirt road.
Along the way, Polite spotted fresh lion tracks in the road.
We went past "the big tree".
This is a spectacular old boabab tree near the falls. It had to be fenced due to tourists carving on it.
We got to the VF park.
And walked down to see it. The flow varies quite a bit due to the seasons. It was below midpoint and receding while we were visiting. We were well into the dry season. The low point is usually in about November.
It still seemed like an immense amount of water. Some parts of the year the flow is so high that the mist completely obscures the view.
It is very wide and you only see a fraction of it at one time.
I'm guessing that this is less than 10% of its width that is visible behind us in this photo. Here's a quick video to give you some sense of the volume. Victoria Falls
There is a 1.5 mile path along the cliff on the right side of this photo.
As we walked down it we just kept seeing more and more of the falls.
Some areas were covered in mist from the falls.
As we got to the far end, the flow was diminishing. Polite says that at the highpoint, it is a wall of water across its entire width,
We loaded up and headed back to our lodge with a drive thru the national park.
There were elephants and baboons along the way.
We made it back to the lodge for lunch and relaxation before the evening river cruise.
The inside of our bungalows.
During the evening cruise, Polite appointed some assistant captains.
More elephants migrating.
Another gorgeous evening on the water.
Captain Lucy.
Another sunset.
Monkeys at the lodge.
And the next morning, Tuesday July 23, we were on the move again.
We flew by shuttle flight from Victoria Falls Zimbabwe to Kasane Botswana. Here we had to unload, go into the terminal, clear customs, go thru security and then reboard our same plane.
From there, we flew directly into the airstrip at our next stop Qorokwe Camp. Qorokwe Camp
This was not our original booking in the Okavango Delta. We had booked at the Seba Camp but the camp operator lost the concession to operate there and they accommodated us at Qorokwe. The Okavango Delta is interesting - it's where a river flows into a desert and just disappears into the dirt.
Qorokwe was dry. It was like a desert moonscape. But we saw game on every game drive.
Dr. Amy investigating bones.
Elephants and lions survive in this desert. But they have access to water from the delta.
Jackals.
Warthogs.
The sunsets were gorgeous here too. Highs in the 90's but lows in the 50's each day.
The Qorokwe Camp was extremely nice and the food was great.
Tsessebe.
Ostrich.
Hyenas.
Including baby hyenas. Baby hyena video
Where there was water, there were hippos.
On a lunch break watching the hippos.
Lionesses.
And we saw a cheetah hunting.
So graceful. Slo Mo of cheetah walking
This bull elephant took a liking to the trees around the walkway between the dining area and our cabin. There was no choice but to just wait him out and fix what he broke later. Elephant in camp
The kids got a little dip in the pool.
Our guides were Jacob and Alan. Here Jacob is giving us a map overview. These guys were awesome too.
We got a flavor of the traditional river transport one evening. These are called mokoros.
They are poled not rowed.
We went down the river for a short distance.
We turned around when we encountered this pod of hippos.
It was a really nice experience. The water available to do it on was pretty limited this year. It's been 5 years since they had a good seasonal flood.
More gorgeous sunsets.
The grandkids.
Kids and spouses.
I don't remember this bird.
Bat eared fox.
Giraffe and termite mound.
Blue wildebeest.
We had one more birthday celebration before leaving.
But we arrived in Maun and that's where our group split up. Eric's family and I caught a flight to Joburg. Eric's group headed home thru Newark. I went via Atlanta.
The Joan/Amy family group had to really rush to make their flight to Cape Town. They had two more days planned before flying home to Washington DC (Dulles).
Doug tracked the routes of our game drives. This gives you an idea of the ground that we covered.
Our shuttle plane was late. We got a substitute due to "mechanical".
Unfortunately, Joan had a fall in her room at the Marly Hotel in Camps Bay. She ended up at a hospital and Doug stayed with her while she was being evaluated. Amy and the kids went ahead on their scheduled tour to the penguins and the cape.
The weather was less than ideal.
Joan had x-rays and it was determined that she had a broken femur at the base of her existing hip implant. I found out about it when I landed in Atlanta.
Joan had surgery on Sunday morning July 28. Everybody's flights home were delayed. I started the trek back from Cincinnati to Atlanta to Joburg to Cape Town. I arrived on Monday evening July 29. On Tuesday July 30, Amy and family flew home via Dulles.
Joan recovered and was discharged from the hospital on Wednesday July 31. We moved to the Cape Grace hotel and stayed there until we could get a direct flight to Atlanta on the evening of Friday August 2.
In the meantime, Michelle at WWW made all sorts of arrangements for us including hotel, drivers, tours, etc. We visited the wine region of Franschoek and stopped by the prison where Nelson Mandela was released after 27 years of captivity.
We had lunch at a cafe and then drove thru Stellenbosch.
We did some shopping by wheelchair and toured around the waterfront.
Joan was still hurting but feeling better each day. She wasn't allowed to put weight on the affected leg and had crutches. But when covering any distance, a wheelchair was easier.
With wheelchair assistance, Delta One lay flat seats, and crutches to get up the plane aisle, we made it to Atlanta, connected to Cincinnati and got home on Saturday August 3.
It was a bit of a glitch at the end of an awesome trip, but we survived with the help of Doug, Amy, Michelle, Mediclinic Cape Town and others. Joan's regular doctor says that they did a great job on the repair in Cape Town. It involved a plate, some screws, and some cables.
It was a trip of a lifetime before the hospital visit - all the more memorable after it. In three months we expect Joan to be recovered and back to her pre-accident mobility.
Here's a late addition and still a work in progress - a post with random short video clips from the trip. Videos from the trip
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