TravelStream™ news feed for member vonantmonch on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/vonantmonch en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Thu, 09 Oct 2008 01:24:58 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/vonantmonch/1/1223045040/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/vonantmonch/1/1223045040/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/vonantmonch/1/1223045040/tpod.html Thu, 09 Oct 2008 01:24:58 -0400 Ant & Von's African Adventure

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Chobe National Park, Botswana

The Elephant Back Safari was great. We were on the Elephants for about an hour. Anthony had a very tempremental elephant that kept wanting to go off and have a tree or two to eat, so his ride wasn't that comfortable. My elephant was quite good, she had her baby elephant walking behind her the whole time. After our ride we were able to feed them by hand which was certaininly the highlight of the experience.

We were having a bit of a rest in our room after the elephants and was rudely interrupted by a monkey IN OUR ROOM. he came in through the roof and proceeded to run up and down the walls. it was quite an amusing act by us to find shoes, clothes and the room key to get out of there without the monkey seeing us! After we got out, he ran out the window aswell. Of course there is a lot lost in writing it down, the story is much better told over a drink.

In the afternoon we were at a loss of what to do in Vic Falls so we booked ourselves on a water safari. it started with us zooming across the river to see 4 elephants swimming across. It was amazing - until our driver (who was called Professor) grounded our boat in the middle of the Zambezi! While we were attempting to take photos the driver kept trying to get us off the rocks, another boat came to our rescue and we were free to head off on our safari. We saw a few hippos and many more elephants feeding in the water (which was new for us). On our way back after sunset we came across a herd of 14 adult and 7 baby elephants all crossing the water.

The following day we left our overland truck and joined acacia small groups to head to the Okavango Delta. Our first day was long and hot (45degrees - again). We spent the majority driving and crossing the border from Zambia into Botswana. That night we had a river cruise on the Chobe River. We saw hundreds of elephants all coming to the water's edge to drink in the evening. Heaps of hippos and Anthony finally got his yawning shot. AFter our cruise our old overland truck cooked both groups a dinner for an early birthday treat for ANthony. It was a feast.(The two groups were driving the same path for the first 2 days.)

Oct 3, Anthony gets a game drive for his birthday in Chobe National Park. Yet again we saw a heap of elephants up close, all waking up for breakfast with their young. It was also a morning of death, we saw three carcasses, one which was being eaten by vultures, so it would have been a kill from early morning, perhaps a lion's breakfast.

]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/vonantmonch/1/1223443080/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/vonantmonch/1/1223443080/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/vonantmonch/1/1223443080/tpod.html Thu, 09 Oct 2008 01:23:13 -0400 Ant & Von's African Adventure

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Kharma Rhino Sanctury, Botswana

We drive from Maun for the whole day east to Kharma Rhino Sanctury still in Botswana, we have an afternoon drive through the 4000 acres and spot heaps of Rhino, finally we can tick all the Big 5 off our list, (on our last day no less). We see the more endangered black rhino and heaps of white rhino even some have babies, so we have the full set of Big 5 with their young as well.

I am cutting this short, as internet is running low. We finished our tour yesterday, arriving in Jo'burg last night. It was a long 10hour drive in the heat but we made it safe and sound. Today we fly to singapore for some much needed pampering... we have 5 weeks of dirt ground into us... catch you all soon.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/vonantmonch/1/1223441760/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/vonantmonch/1/1223441760/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/vonantmonch/1/1223441760/tpod.html Thu, 09 Oct 2008 01:18:02 -0400 Ant & Von's African Adventure

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Okavango Delta, Botswana

We drive from Chobe National Park to Maun which is the gateway to the Okavango Delta, a massive area of water, completely different to anything we have seen for the last month. We pack our small bags for 2 nights camping in the wild. When we arrive I take a photo of the mokoro's (traditional dugout canoes) that we are riding in, convinced that we will capsize as soon as we sit in them. We are told to carry our cameras in our hands so we have more chance of holding them above water if we do flip. We all load up and ease our way into the mokoros and surprisingly we stay afloat, albeit, most of us only have about 1cm between the top of the mokoro and the water, which ever now and again managed to leak in...
After an 1.5hours we arrive at our campsite right opposite a hippo pool. They weren't entirely happy that we paddled past their area, snorting and jumping up from the water. We pitch our tents and get the rules of the Delta especially during the night. We even have directions about the use of the outside toilet whether we have 'big business' or 'little business' in the middle of the night.
We have a quick swim in a hippo safe area and relax until 4pm when we head off on a walk with our local guides. It is hot, about 40degrees + even at 4pm, but we are in hope of some elephants. We find them, just before sunset and stand and watch 4 male elephants eating dinner. Then animals seem much wilder here and we don't get too close incase they charge, we even stand in the right place, so they can't smell us.
Dinner is cooked by our Acacia guide and we end up having a pretty early night. We settle in to listen to the hippos moan and groan to each other all night long, this is their busy time at night when they have to consume all their food for the following day. They are noisy and we can tell they have come closer to our camp - perhaps even out of the water to munch on the grass at the waters edge, Anthony has a bit of an upset stomach and at 3am, we indeed have to go in pairs to do 'big business' it was the most exhilarating walk from our tent to the 'hole' for a toilet, we had to keep shining our torches all around us to check that the hippos hadn't ventured into our camp which apparantly they do on a regular basis. I must add at this point, that none of our local guides have a gun or any form of protection, we are just supposed to stay in our tents and hope for the best... the visit to the toilet was uneventful in the end, (no animals that we could see anyway).
Up at 5.30am for a 4 hour morning walk in the cool of the day. we see zebra, giraffe, impala, jackal and also the aftermath of a morning kill from a leopard - which was being devoured by about 20 vultures. After our walk we have bacon and eggs cooked for us and then settle in for a looooong few hours in the heat. It gets to about 45-48degrees. By 1pm, we are exhausted and in need of a swim to cool off, so our locals walk us around to another swimming hole and we end up staying there for about 2 hours. It was bliss to finally cool off.
Just before sunset, I head off for a sunset mokoro cruise (anthony stays back at camp with a few others, he doesn't feel like head out to wobble around and hopefully not fall in the water), so I get my own mokoro and poler and have a nice time take photos of all the water lillies and the sun going down. We arrive back, past the hippos again while the slowly swim in our direction. We have dinner and then head to the camp about 10mins walk away for local singing and dancing.
Overnight the hippos weren't as noisy as the night before, so we slept much better and got up early and jumped in our mokoros and paddled out. Arriving back at camp for dinner and many, many drinks. It is our last night on safari with a bar at the campsite, so we make full use.


]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/vonantmonch/1/1222825260/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/vonantmonch/1/1222825260/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/vonantmonch/1/1222825260/tpod.html Tue, 30 Sep 2008 15:56:38 -0400 Ant & Von's African Adventure

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Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe

So we leave this news about going into Zimbabwe until AFTER we have made it back. All governments around the world suggest that travellers don't visit the country because of the Magarbe regime, but the truth on the ground is very different (well at least in this part of the country). The Victoria Falls township has been heavily hit by tourists not visiting anymore so we thought - hey - if we're here, we may as well see the Falls from the other side - afterall - we had heard it was better!!! Oh and not to mention we had also booked in to walk with Lion cubs.

So our day starts with a 6.15am pick up and drive to the Zambian boarded, we are stamped out and transfer to Zimbabwe. Visa's into the passports and we arrive for our lion walk around 7.30am. Have a bit or a breifing, handed a stick that seems to be the right size, considering we were walking with lion cubs right? you know the cute little ones.... wrong.... when we walked to our meeting point we were introduced to 2 males that were 17months old, nearly fully grown, nothing cute and cuddle about them, they were big - very BIG, and we didn't have a 4WD between us and them... just a stick...

The program with visited with today is a 4 stage conservation program that enables lions to be reintroduced to the wild. Our day consisted over an hour walking with the lions and having photos. I just wish I could upload some to show you... we were actually walking beside them and touching them with our hands. It was by far the highlight of our trip so far. We have about 200 photos and a few minutes of video. (would love to explain more, but the internet is really pricy today).

So after our lion walk we had breakfast at one of the safari lodges and driving back to the border. Of course we still had to see the falls from the Zimbabwe side so we ventured into the park for about 2 hours. Much better than the Zambian side, we were able to see so much more water and could also stand in the Falls water spray/mist that everyone had told us about. It was so refreshing especially since I think the temp had climbed to the low 40s again.

Heaps of photos later and a LOOOOONG walk across the border and we were safely back in Zambia.
Tomorrow, we are on Elephant Back Safari's so I'll try to update again.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/vonantmonch/1/1222716240/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/vonantmonch/1/1222716240/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/vonantmonch/1/1222716240/tpod.html Tue, 30 Sep 2008 15:40:49 -0400 Ant & Von's African Adventure

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Livingstone, Zambia

I can't quite remember the what we did for the 2 days after Kande Beach in Malawi, I am pretty sure it was because they were two driving days. Long, HOT, driving days. By 11am on the first day of driving we had reached 39.9 degrees. It was very draining. we stopped at a village and found ICE cold drinks (which is a luxury here) and even managed to find a bottle of water that was half frozen. Bliss. The top temp for the day was 41.3 and the following day was 43.9.

Anyway - more exciting that the hot days driving was arriving at Livingstone the Zambian side of Victoria Falls. we spent the first 2 hours at the Falls and nearly got knocked of a bridge by 2 baboons who were charging us - actually we decided that is was more scarey than seeing lions. The falls are quite low at the moment, but we could imagine what it would look like in the rain season, but that was the price to pay to come at this time of year - good time for seeing animals, bad time for Vic Falls.

After the Falls we arrived at our campsite/hotel. We immediately upgraded to a room - which was the best decision as the other half who stayed in tents were eaten alive by mosquitos.

We booked all our activities early - our first being Water Water Rafting. We started at a rapid named 'The Boiling Point' which is right at the base of Vic Falls and the followed by others that were called Suicide, Devils Hell etc etc - you get the picture. Anyway - it was heaps of fun. I fell out twice. First time it was terrifying (mum I am fine), and think I still have the litre of water in my lungs as a souvenir, but the second time it was ok, as I knew what to expect. Anthony managed to stay in the raft. We rafted for about 2 hours, then had to walk out of the gorge. Hard work - but there were cold drinks and beer at the top in the shuttle bus.

That afternoon we traded stories and then had a sunset cruise on the Zambezi with dinner and drinks. We saw heaps of hippos and some elephant also enjoying dinner.

Tomorrow - Zimbabwe to walk with Lions.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/vonantmonch/1/1222353780/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/vonantmonch/1/1222353780/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/vonantmonch/1/1222353780/tpod.html Fri, 26 Sep 2008 10:59:18 -0400 Ant & Von's African Adventure

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Kande Beach, Malawi

I should take some time to write what weather we have been having. In Kenya we had an average day time temp of about 25. overnight it was quite mild, but still used our sleeping bags. In Tanzania is warmed up more with out average being about 28-30. But sleeping at the Ngorogoro Crater is was about 5 degrees. Onto Zanzibar and it warmed up again and was low to mid 30s and finally Malawi we were in high 30s - low 40s. Malawi was hot. Very hot.
We have just spent the last 3 nights at Kande Beach again on Lake Malawi. It was nice to stay in one spot for a few days and just relax. The original 6 from the start of our tour all upgraded to beach chalets. Simple rooms, but not a tent to crawl in and out of.
On the morning of our first day at Kande Beach we did a local village walk to the school and hospital. The kids are great. They come running to show us their work and want to know if they have got the correct answer. At the school they have over 1000 students with only 7 teachers. They have over 100 kids in each class. It is humbling to see what they have to go through to get an education and I take down the schools address so we can send them over some pens and pencils as they get very little funding from the government. As we walk around the village we are always mobbed by the kids wanting to hold our hands. We have simple communication and I am amazed at the level of English even the really young ones have. We spend some time in the local hospital also where they only have a medical nurse. Again we donate some US dollars.
We walk back to our campsite in about 40 degree heat (and it was only 10.30am) and have a bit of brunch before spending the remaining time either swimming or laying in hammocks.

Such is life.

Today we have traveled from Kande Beach into Zambia. It took us over 1.5hours to get through the border. It is very corrupt and they always want more money to let people through but today we are fortunate. Our campsite tonight is looking good. It's got fast internet so hense the blog update.

Anyway the next update will definitely be from Victoria Falls.

]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/vonantmonch/1/1222093320/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/vonantmonch/1/1222093320/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/vonantmonch/1/1222093320/tpod.html Fri, 26 Sep 2008 10:42:41 -0400 Ant & Von's African Adventure

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Iringa, Malawi

We have spent the last few days driving from Dar es Salaam Tanzania into Malawi.

We drove through the outskirts of Dar es Salaam and through the Mikumi National Park where we have the first opportunity with our new 4 friends on our truck to show our expert game hunting. We spot giraffe, elephant, buffalo to name a few. The best part of the drive through was having a mum and baby elephant right beside the road. We got some great photos. Our overnight stop is Baobab Valley where we choose to upgrade into the 'honeymoon suite'. It is even more beautiful than our last upgrade. The room is totally open to the river and built from stone and bamboo. We have a massive four poster bed covered in mosquito nets and a stone bathroom open the outside also. Of course it wasn't so romantic when we came to sleep in it. We had so many little critters, that I seriously considered pitching our tent after all, but once we counted the legs on the GIANT bug and there was only 6 instead of 8 - I was convinced that it was ok to sleep with beetles instead of spiders. Of course later in the night we think we heard a crocodile wandering at the base of the suite as well, so I didn't exactly sleep the best. Anthony however thought it was great.
The next morning we had a walk with the local Masai men to a waterfall. It was very hot and sticky and we had to contend with massive amounts of ants which of course only seemed want to bite us white people. In fact the term: "Ants in our pants" was very true. They crawled everywhere and their bites HURT.

We continue driving south west heading to Malawi and stop again overnight in Iringa at The Farm House. It was a great location and a birthday of one of our group where the local ladies had made the best chocolate brownie cake I have ever tasted. We were up early and away before 7am. Anthony and I are both sick this day. It is a long driving day and we cross into Malawi. Instantly the people are even more friendly and even the adults wave to the truck as much as the kids. We stay at Chitimba on Lake Malawi at the tip of the country. The lake is massive 83kms wide and 500-something kms long. It looks like a beach with waves, but it fresh water. It is beautiful. That night we head to bed early as we are still not feeling 100% and are awoken at 2.48am with a roster getting confused about the time for sunrise. It squawks for the next 4 hours. We are all up before 5am, unable to sleep anymore.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/vonantmonch/1/1221747900/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/vonantmonch/1/1221747900/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/vonantmonch/1/1221747900/tpod.html Thu, 18 Sep 2008 10:32:32 -0400 Ant & Von's African Adventure

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Zanzibar, Tanzania

Finally a chance to sleep in. It has been a holiday of early mornings with the average being 5.15am. We sleep until 8am, have the hotel breakfast and do a spot of shopping before checking out at 10am. We wander around the streets of Stone Town and wander in and out of many local stores. I wanted to get off the tourist footpaths so we took a turn down an alley and headed away. We were completely lost in the alleyways within 5 minutes. But we made our way back out again - eventually.

Our group taxi north to the tip of Zanzibar was booked for 12 noon. We made it up to Ngungwi in about an hour. Washing dropped off to the locals and on the beach by 2pm. Water was gorgeous. It was picture perfect torquoise water, white sand, blue sky and small clouds.

I finally had time to update our blog and then headed down for cocktails while watching the sunset. Geez - it sounds like we're having a good time doesn't it. Sorry to rub it in - but this place is magic. We found a place that did 2 courses for $20 so we ate there. It again was lovely, we both ate seafood and even had dessert (something of course I have missed for the last 10 days).

Today we woke up late again (well 8am is late in our books at the moment). I have breakfast and update this blog. Head back to the beach villa and wake Anthony up (he has fallen asleep waiting for me). We head out on for a long walk as the tide had gone right out, we walked to the next village and then to where all the local's fish. After about 2.5 hours we made it back to our little beach - hmm - slightly sunburnt. Had a quick lunch and jumped in the water again.

So here I am again - blogging - I have finally finished it and are all up to date. I can't say what else we'll be doing for the rest of the day. Somewhere there will be drinks watching the sunset and then dinner. It is the last night for 7 of our fellow travelers so there are bound to be a few farewell drinks.

We'll catch you all in about a week I guess - we travel down through Malawi now and probably won't get internet until we make it to Victoria Falls.

Stay safe.
von and ant
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/vonantmonch/1/1221574260/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/vonantmonch/1/1221574260/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/vonantmonch/1/1221574260/tpod.html Thu, 18 Sep 2008 10:23:11 -0400 Ant & Von's African Adventure

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Zanzibar, Tanzania

Today we travel from Dar es Salaam out to Zanzibar. First the day starts with a short walk to the local ferry/barge. There are 16 white people and about 300 locals. We are all crammed on inbetween cars, and bicycles carrying everything from coal to sweet potatoes. Out journey begins and we go forward, then we feel we are reversing. We are - there is an ambulance that needs to get on our ferry, so we make room for it for the 5 minute crossing to the other side of Dar. We then have to walk a good 20 minutes carrying our backpacks (We have mine full of all our clothes so we could finally get them washed on Zanzibar). It is a long, hot, dusty walk. Our ferry ride across to Zanzibar takes 2 hours. It is 80kms from the mainland and we arrive just after lunch. At the moment it is the holy month of Ramadan so we have to sneak our sandwiches to our mouths so to not offend the locals who are fasting from sunrise to sunset.

We check into our hotel and then head straight back down to reception for our Spice Tour. It started with a walking tour through some historic parts of Stone Town and the old Slave Quarters before driving out to the countryside for our official spice tour. Before our tour starts we have a lunch of fruit - delicious fruit. Passionfruit, orange, banana and the best pineapple I have ever tasted. We then tried 3 different types of tea - even Anthony tried them!!! Our spice tour was extremely interesting to see all the plants in their natural form and learning where things like pepper, nutmeg, cinnamon, to name just a few come from - we even found the plant that has the colour extract for lipstick.

After the official part of the tour one of the local boys climbs a coconut tree (I'm guessing about 20 metres high) and chops down 3 coconuts for us. We have a drink then taste the coconut. Personally not my cup of tea, but it was still very exciting to watch him climb so high.

We arrive back into Stone town just on sunset, grab a quick drink at a posh hotel overlooking the water and then shower for dinner. It is Jess's (a member of our tour) birthday so we have Indian for dinner. Anthony and I have a big seafood platter which was the least Indian we could come up with since the appetizer blew our heads off. In the end it was very yummy. We all headed to a local bar for drinks but crashed about midnight.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/vonantmonch/1/1221400380/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/vonantmonch/1/1221400380/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/vonantmonch/1/1221400380/tpod.html Thu, 18 Sep 2008 10:04:46 -0400 Ant & Von's African Adventure

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Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

Today is a driving day. We spend a great part of the day driving from Arusha to Dar es Salaam - we stop overnight in a place called Tembo. During the drive we pass many villages and small pockets of homes. I'll describe a typical home. It is made from sticks and can only be as tall as the longest stick. They then layer over the sticks mud which then hardens and dries. The roof is generally made from branches, leaves, grasses. Very few have any type of window. Some of the newer places may have corregated iron roofs but most don't. Yet the kids still come running to the roadside when they see us approach and wave as much as they can so we can see them. We still see random Masai men herding their live stock miles from anywhere.

It is my team's turn to cook at tonights campsite. We have warthog sausages. Which adds to the other game we have already eaten: gizelle, kudu and buffalo. So far all the meals have been very good and we only ask what we have eaten - AFTER we have finished.

The next day is similar to the last. We keep driving east towards Dar es Salaam. Our campsite is on the beach and there is an upgrade option for $50US. Anthony and I take it and are rewarded with a bungalow built on stilts with a beautiful balcony, hammock and king bed with the all important mosquito net (which does help to give it the romantic feeling). We have a quick swim and meet some extra people joining our truck for the journey south through Malawi to J'burg.
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