Hi Brett,
All is well, Carole and I have finally recoverd from jet lag and the 36 hours of flying fom Jo’burg to Calgary (included a 9 hour layover in Jo’burg)
As far as the safari went – what do I say, it is an experience I will never forget and I have over 1600 photos to remind me (smile). Not only was it a great holiday, but it was also an educational experience. Growing up, we were shown (TV and comics) an image of Africa that is all jungle, or mostly jungle and that is, of course, not the case, it is quite arid and semi-arid, as a lot of it is desert and semi-desert (learning experience). I will never look at a map of Africa, or another PBS/Nature program on the subject in the same way again…and I do want to return…too bad that it is so darn expensive and costs so much to actually get there and back, but c’est la vie as they would say in our bilingual provinces. We can only hope that the stock market is good to us for the next few years.
When we arrived, we were picked up and taken to the D’Oreal Grande hotel and it was late in the evening – check in was fine and the place was, shall I say, a bit above the usual Holiday Inn/Best Western that we usually stay at when we travel. We managed to book a tour of the city on Tuesday and that was interesting.
I won’t go into a lot of detail, but the camps were great – service was great, the guiding was great and the whole experience was great. It was especially interesting at Jacana and Duba Plains, as I really had no appreciation for the amount of water in the Delta. At Jacana, we had about a 10-15 minute boat ride both to and from the jeeps to the camp, so that was interesting, particularly on the last night, as we moved through the channels in the Delta (in the dark), we came around a corner and face to face with a young elephant that was feeding on the reeds – I don’t know who was more surprised us, including the guide, or the elephant – after a few minutes of staring at each other, he took off through the reeds and that was that. At Duba Plains, the boat ride was only about 5 minutes, but there was still a lot of water to negotiate during the course of each game drive. Here we saw two prides of lions, both being serviced by the same male.
I will be posting a selection of my photos on my Flickr account and you can have a look at the few I have done so far here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/westernguy/
At Duba Plains, we spent some parts of the day following a lion pride that was, in turn, following a herd of Cape Buffalo. That was a bit interesting, particularly when one of the bulls took out after the male lion and one of the females – who knew that those big guys (the bulls) could move that fast and who knew the lions could move just a bit faster – a bit of daytime excitement. We saw quite a few hippos here as well and learned that the Buffalo give them a wide birth upon any encounter between the two.
Savuti was quite a bit drier, in fact I don’t remember “fording” any water, although we got to see the Savuti Channel and the Linyanti River – hippos, wild dogs, giraffe, zebras and elephants were all seen at Savuti. Monkeys and baboons were present at all three camps.
I also got to see a wide variety of birds including the slaty egret, the grey heron, the wattled crane, an eagle-owl, fish-eagles, and a variety of others…I will be posting sample pictures I have on Flickr as I get them edited, etc.
I am thinking now that our next trip will be to the Serengeti and the Ngorongoro crater – not sure how much that will cost, but, I am sure you will be able to help us get this one organized. I was most impressed by the service provided by Wilderness Safaris – the accommodations at each camp were great – they got better as we went from Jacana to Duba Plains to Savuti. As far as the guides are concerned, they were very knowledgable and were very aware of the birds as well as the animals -and a few of them had a great sense of humour. At Duba Plains, we got stuck in the mud three times during a water traverse and our poor guide had to get out each time, jack up the Rover and place these “grates” that they carried in the Rover, under the back wheels and get us out – I sort of felt sorry for the young fellow, but I guess that is part of the job.
Victoria Falls was also very interesting, particulalry the whole aspect of clearing customs to get into Zimbabwe. The Ilala Lodge was again, a little above our usual travel accommodations, but it was still great and quiet (very important). We paid for a helicopter tour over the falls and even that does not do it justice. We were going to walk by the falls, but they wanted $50 (US) each to do that and the helicopter trip was costly enough – maybe next time. Our “shopping” excursions were interesting -as you know they have “tourist police” that will accompany you through the markets to help fend off the “sellers” that are hawking their goods, but it was an interesting experience…I think we got some bargains on what we purchased, but who knows…
Anyway, Brett, that is a quick commentary on our holiday and safari in Botswana – any questions, please let me know. Thanks for your help with all of this.
Kindest Regards,
Ron May
Guests visited Jacana Camp, Duba Plains, Savuti Camp and Ilala Lodge
