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Mountain Gorilla Highlights:

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I just completed The Most Punishing Hike Of My Life, but was rewarded with one of the most amazing experiences of my life: I came face-to-face (within 6 inches) with a 400 pound Black Back Mountain Gorilla, (an adult, but sexually immature male of about 9 years old).

After a short 2-hour mini bus ride from the border on very nice new roads we made it to the charming Rwandan capitol of Kigali, set among the hills of Rwanda. I found the countryside and landscape of Rwanda to be as beautiful as southern Uganda and among the nicest landscapes in all the countries I have visited in Africa. After a local showed us the way we found rooms in a guest house, down a steep hill from the city center. Kigali is very modern and clean by African standards, a testament to the massive influx of International aid and assistance that has flowed into Rwanda the past 14 years since the horrible atrocities of the Rwandan genocide. While people still stared at us and street touts tried to sell us trinkets and phone cards the level of hassle was extremely lessened from the rest of Africa (and not even on the same scale as Egypt and Tanzania).

Third World Travel at above-First-World Prices
[Note that the politically correct term is Developing World and Third World terminology is obsolete Cold War rhetoric]
Africa is much more expensive than I expected, even after researching prices and speaking with others who had been here before. Part of this expense is due to the flaccid weakness of the US Dollar (thanks, George W.) and the large dependence that most Southern and Eastern African countries place on the historically solid US currency; many locals and businesses prefer dollars over their own currencies which may have astronomical inflation rates. Zimbabwe is the current red-headed economic stepchild with recent inflation measured at over 1,000,000 % (your $10,000 cash bundle from last year is worth $1 this year, plus the notes themselves have expiration dates that prevent them from holding any value beyond 3 months). In addition to a devalued dollar, many African opportunists play a fun game I liked to call Screw-The-Tourist where they set their prices in US Dollars, which are nearly impossible to get in Africa (when possible one incurs a hefty 8-15% exchange rate gouging), they adjust those dollar prices based on how far the dollar devalues relative their home currency, and then when you move to pay in the local currency they bump the exchange rate an additional 10-20% in their favor; it’s all just one big, fun, shell-game of getting fleeced at every end.

Serengeti & Ngorongoro Highlights:

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I spent 5 days on an epic safari in Tanzania to Lake Manyara National Park, Serengeti National Park and Ngorongogoro Crater (the famous caldera volcano that is home to the most predictable year-round population of Big Game in Africa and is part of the largerNgorongogoro Conservation Area).

After leaving the Okavango Delta we spent a night in Gweta before heading North to Kasane, along the Chobe River that divides Botswana from the Namibia pan-handle. Arriving in early afternoon we quickly boarded a 4×4 safari truck (a bit larger than those in Kruger) for an early afternoon game drive in Chobe National Park, Botswana’s premier game park. The game drive was supposed to have been 3 hours but had to be cut short to 2 due to the evening cruise that had already been booked along the river. Most of the game drive was fairly uneventful with rare sightings of only the most common animals except for a 30 minute excursion where the driver drove slowly and non-aggressively along the sandy bank of the river literally into a herd of 35 or so Elephants of varying age and gender. I did not know what to make of this because on the one hand it occurred to me that this might not be the best thing for the animals, but on the other it provided us with epic views of the herd, many elephants that were within 6-10 feet of both sides of the truck (one bull elephant stared us down but did not make a mock charge thankfully).Of all the Elephant viewing in Kruger and Etosha this was the closest vantage point to the most animals and we delighted in being privy to the seemingly natural behaviors of the herd. The Elephants wandered along the banks drinking while the juveniles and babies stayed close to their mothers and the elder elephants kept their bodies between the truck and the young. After the Elephant excursions we drove around for 30 more minutes or so and saw surprisingly little (again the luck of the draw I guess) except for one massive Hippo sunning himself on a far bank (normally they do not leave the water until the night.

We continued on North from the Himba region to Etosha National Park, Namibia’s renown game park. I found Etosha to be different than Kruger with very flat terrain, more trees, much shorter grass and with a much less visible variety of animals (I guess the latter difference is more the luck of the draw than any scientific conclusion). The experience was also different because we made the game drive in our massive truck, rather than in the smaller 12-seater vehicles at Kruger. Even so, most of the wildlife we saw was quite far off than at Kruger and less apt to stray close to the road (the road was much more open and visible at a distance due to the flat terrain and short grass so perhaps that made all the difference).

After Swaziland we crossed back into South Africa and came south to the Indian Ocean coastal town of St. Lucia, which is situated on a wildlife estuary that is packed with a few thousand crocodile and hippos. On the second day there we booked an evening boat tour. In the 90 minutes trip we saw over a hundred hippos lying in the water, some who growled at us when we got too close and others who eyed us warily. Apparently, despite spending most of their day in the water, hippos do not swim so they only bounce along the shallows, which is kind of amusing to imagine. They also only eat grass so they have to exit the water at night to graze. The boat captain had shown us one a severed hippo tusks and it was a good 18 inches long and for sure could do some damage. Apparently the hippo tusk is the highest quality ivory above even Elephant hence why the hippo is also on the endangered species list. The cruise was amazing and well worth the nominal cost since the few hippos we saw at Kruger were far off and hardly visible in the water with little or no movement.

After Kruger we traveled just a few hours by bus to the small nation of Swaziland, which is surrounded mostly by South Africa and with the edge on the Mozambique border. The Kingdom of Swaziland aligned with the British early in the colonial period so when the other settlements banded to form the union of South Africa it was a separate zone that was not included and even after South Africa was annexed by the British it remained separate. Swaziland was also one of the only local tribes who successfully resisted the warring Zulu - a source of much pride for Swazis and strong esteem for other tribal Africans.