Africa, a continent of many Contrasts & Challenges

Trip Start Jun 17, 2009

Trip End Aug 11, 2009

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Flag of New Zealand Auckland, North Island, New Zealand
Sunday, August 30, 2009

Africa, a continent of many Contrasts with many Challenges ahead of itself
Two months travelling 9,000+ km from Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia,

Half way between the equator and South Pole

Botswana, Namibia and finally to South Africa.

Well, it actually was Nairobi to Capetown for me

Forty three days with Acacia Africa on an overland truck safari with at times up to 23 others camping

Most of one of the group

under the Southern Hemisphere stars capped off at the end with a week driving over 2,500 km from Capetown to Jeffries Bay along the Garden Route and back through the inland N62 route passing by the many vineyards with brother Tim.

The Acacia Africa trip was effectively seen in two halves. Firstly Kenya to Zambia (Nairobi to Livingstone) where we encountered the

Evening kill

animals up north in Kenya and Tanzania to passing by the many villages.

Sun set on the Massai Mara

Then the leg from Botswana through

Dune 45

sandy Namibia and finally to South Africa was mainly about the stunning barren desert like scenery.

Bigger yawn

The lions (yes, I like my lions)

Nice lion

in Serengeti to the wonderful water hole,

One of my favourites

especially the night shots of the animals coming to drink at Etosha National Park in Namibia.

Time to reflect on a wonderful time out. The primary three objectives of my trip were to see the animals in their natural environment, the African scenery and finally a glimpse as to how the locals are adjusting to the rapidly advancing modern world.

I wasn't disappointed on all counts. It became very quickly apparent that I wasn’t the tourist seeing the animals and local villagers.

Bananas for anyone?

We as the travellers were on show to the resident animals as well as the hundreds of villagers,

Market Day

especially the smiling waving children, as we past them. The scenery was vast and expansive, especially the Serengeti (endless plains), Kalahari desert and Namibia.

I can’t read or write in a moving vehicle so most of the 42 days when we were travelling the 9,000+ km, I had plenty of time to look out the truck’s rattly windows and see the ever changing landscape and ponder.

One of many road side stalls

I have many, many memories ranging from:

Scenery / Nature / Animals

Being out in the open both seeing the milky way with virtually no light pollution or spillage from cities / towns,

Dowhls sailing early morning off Dar Es Salem

colourful orange sunrises and even more red sunsets

Sun sets off Zanibar

Long 10 km (voluntary) walk to Fish Canyon

The vast distances of simply sheer flat openness.

Dead veil

The long 600 km daily drives along roads that ranged from highways with a 120 km speed limit to national roads that are taking years for resurfacing with essential supplies and money diverted (political) hence potholes that will shallow a small vehicle. This is compounded open with lengthy hold ups at borders of roading supplies.

Bright blue

Contrast of bird life –

Love the head gear

mainly species that I have never seen.

Night shot

The challenge of taking animal night shots at Etosha National Park water hole.

Zebras Etosha NP water hole

I have been blessed to have been able to witness wild animals living in their natural environment.

How magic is this?

Visiting a zoo or private game reserve will never be the same.

Nice

Yes, I would love to return and see the annual migration of 250,000 + wilderbeasts moving between the Serengeti Plains and Massai Mari from a hot air balloon.

Big Yawn

We as tourist were on show.

Colourful

Effect of global warning on the animals.

The Okavango Delta

For example, last season record high monsoon rains meant that the 16,000 sq km Okavango Delta rose 1.5 metres displacing thousands of animals.

Hard day?

Colder winter than normal.

Cooking over the open fire

People / Living
The contrast of mainly poor rural Malawi to South Africa with its own challenges.

Small windowless mud houses with thatched or rusty corrugated roofs, no sanitation or power to mansions surrounded by high fences atop with bar wire.

Seeing houses out in the countryside with no electricity yet they had TV aerials or satellite dishes.

Cell phone towers within the vast national parks.

Villagers with cell phones and no fixed landlines.

Wood and water collected by women carrying their loads on their heads walking distances back to the villages.

Water

Happy kids

Children (and adults) waving as we past.

Curious locals seeing us tourists

Massai villagers

Tall upright proud Massai warriors dressed in their red and purple walking across the endless openness.

Sign of the times

Village Muslim mosques alongside various Christian churches.

Bright artwork

School children in their uniforms – some dressed in white veils.

Me, me, me

Children playing soccer on dusty fields with tree branches for goal posts.

Aids ... rift

Modern city with supermarkets and department stores with products like wide screen plasma / LCD televisions that I am used to yet less than an hour away villages with mud brick glassless window houses with no power nor water let alone sanitation.

The imbalance of income - those who were living comfortably to just across the road the unemployed in shanty towns (townships).

That's you

Next generation growing up in western influence … will they lose their culture?

The interaction

Effect of alcohol, HIV / AIDS.

Aids ... rift

Roadside stalls selling local charcoal

Charcoal

, wood, fruit, potato with limited passing traffic for the locals to try and earn a small bit of money. They were subsistence living.

Passing and simply being waved through the countless local police road blocks in villages.

Judder bars in the weirdest of places.

Mainly truck,

A near daily scene

bus transport ie lack of private cars.

Variety of different border crossing experiences from walking through a shoe dip for foot and mouth disease prevention to even getting my index finger scanned from both hands by the police before being allowed to enter South Africa.

Looks good

Used plastic water bottles littering the road side and campsites.

Water conservation notices.

a ... tree

Solar water heating in some new houses.

Dowhls sailing early morning off Dar Es Salem

Seeing reminders of the slave trade

They cramed so many into this small cell

from Stone town in Zannibar to Capetown in South Africa and David Livingstone’s involvement with the abolition of slavery.

Passing through the vast areas that David Livingstone explored

Victoria Falls

but I had the benefit of roads.

Off to snorkelling Zanibar island

Visiting Robben Island in Capetown and also seeing Drakenstein Prison near Franschhoek where Nelson Mandela was finally freed from after being imprisoned for 27 years. He spent 18 years on Robben Island.

Hearing first hand from a former Robben Is inmate a little bit of the struggle and apartheid not that long ago.

Driving past in South Africa (SA) the many what I call shanty towns (townships) and associated unemployment. They looked like vast fields of shipping containers. Many had no power.

Driving past the many South African (SA) vineyards.

Kms of vineyards

I can now see why we in New Zealand can not compete with their wine industry (SA’s cheap labour plus vast areas planted out in vines).

In Swakapomund, Namibia to see within 2 km thousands

Township kids

unemployed living in shanty townships to nearby sea side suburbs with locked up by absentee owners and their seaside resort houses like those at our (New Zealand) Coromandel Peninuslar’s Pauanui.

At no times did I feel unsafe from either being only a few metres from wild animals

Oouch - not

or walking the streets of Nairobi or South Africa.

Seeing this southern part of the African continent on either TV or in books / magazines will never be the same again.

My 7,000+ photos, short video clips plus journal notes are my reminders of this huge continent that certainly has many diverse challenges in front of it.