The beginning of the end. This was the last month of our trip and – heading to Africa for an amazing adventure – what an end this will be!
16 hours of flying with a stopover in Abu Dhabi and we finally made it to Johannesburg, South Africa. We arrived two days before our tour began to give us time to relax and recover.
After a good night’s sleep we booked an afternoon city tour of Johannesburg. The tour took us to Constitution Hill. This is the site of an old jail with a notorious past for treating prisoners inhumanely and also held many political prisoners including Nelson Mandela and Mahatma Gandhi.
Our next stop was the office where Nelson Mandela ran his legal practice to defend black Africans who were desperate for representation against the oppressive and heavily racist Apartheid Regime.
We also visited Top of Africa – a highrise with a rooftop view over the city, and drove through many areas of the city where our driver explained the different places and people who live there.
The next day our tour began. With our nice small group of eight awesome companions (six fellow travellers and two guides) we loaded into the 4X4 hybrid bus and made our way towards Kruger National Park.
Arriving at our campsite late afternoon, we all signed up for a sunset safari in Kruger NP. We’re so glad we did! We spotted antelope, buffalo (one of the big 5), hippopotamus, baby hyenas, giraffes, zebra, monkeys and a couple of African elephants. We were blown away!
We enjoyed a beautiful view of the sunset before making our way back with a couple of spotlights so we could search for nocturnal animals, including cats hunting at night.
It was up before sunrise the next morning to get ready for our full day game drive through Kruger NP.
Being out nice and early we were rewarded straight away when we spotted African Wild Dogs at the entrance, known as the most efficient and savage killers in the wild and apparently a very rare sight (we’d later get up very close with a few cute puppies too).
Our driver and guide took us further into the National Park this time and as well as spotting many animals we saw the day before, we also spotted wart hogs, various birds of prey, rhinos, huge herds of elephants and their babies crossing the road, herds of giraffes, hyenas, various species of antelope and the king of the jungle – a lion!
As the day warmed up the animals were harder to find but overall it was an absolutely surreal day.
That night we enjoyed a few drinks with our new friends before being treated to some amazing traditional singing and dancing by local performers who represented some of the local tribes in South Africa, including the Zulu. We were encouraged to get up and dance with them and well lubricated by then, we didn’t need much enticing!
Day three and we were back on the road heading for Zimbabwe. We stopped overnight at Tshipise, around 50km from the border and the campsite was full of wildlife with velvet monkeys, baboons, tree baby’s and mongoose.
A few of us opted to take a game drive through the neighbouring reserve where we spotted giraffes, several species of antelope, a warthog and one lonely male ostrich. Our ranger/guide is in the process of finding him some girlfriends. Jess suggested tinder for Solo the Ostrich – it’s full of birds 😉
Our guide took us to the largest Baoeab tree in South Africa which is more than 2000 years old…
…before we climbed a sandstone outcrop for this stunning view of the reserve at sunset…
The next morning it was up early to reach the border crossing into Zimbabwe. While the economically-ravaged country only weeks’ prior saw a military coup to remove longstanding and heavily criticised dictator Robert Mugabe, the only signs we saw were checkpoints along some roads.
In fact, our head tour guide is a Zimbabwe local and told us he much prefers to deal with the military (who efficiently wave through the tour buses), as opposed to the police who often ask for brides and cause some problems.
We setup camp in a lovely quiet spot and, following the long drive, enjoyed an afternoon of drinks and chatting around a campfire.
The following day was truly special. We were picked up by a incredibly knowledgable and passionate park ranger (who while white, grew up locally and is a respected member of the traditional African village community) to be guided through Matobo National Park – a huge sanctuary dedicated to the conservation of white and black Rhinos.
Incredibly, we were able to track the Rhino by foot and were taken within 5 metres of a mother and two babies, as well as one cranky old 2.5 tonne bull who we kept a little more distance from. Fast facts: our guide calls them “his babies”, they recognise and respond to his voice uniquely, and he along with all other Zimbabwe Rangers are authorised to shoot on site any suspected poachers.
Which brings us to the sad part of the story… poaching has become uncontrollable and unless somethings drastically changes, local Rhino experts predict ALL Rhinos will become extinct within as little as two years.
Our guide, undoubtably one of the world’s foremost Rhino specialists, passionately argued that the only way to deal with poaching is to legalise some form of trade of Rhino horn (unlike Elephant tusks, Rhino horns are like fingernails, they grow back and need to be cut every 10 years anyway).
This would lessen demand on the black market and devalue horns obtained illegally through poaching – which is worth by weight more than twice as much as pure gold (basically, Rhino horn is viewed in Chinese culture as a magic natural viagra, and rich men will pay millions for it as a status symbol).
Further, money obtained through a legal market could be redirected into conservation efforts as well as education to Asian communities that snorting or eating crushed up Rhino horn won’t fix your bedroom issues… however due to politicking and western nations’ “experts” (yep, including Australia), arguing that legalising Rhino horn trade would only encourage wrong behaviour, trade remains illegal.
It is a disgrace that South Africa alone has enough Rhino horn stored in warehouses to supply world demand for more than 30 years without touching a single animal – (the result of a failed dehorning program aimed to stop poaching) yet cannot do so due to international laws – thus creating a ludicrously lucrative black market for poachers, who currently kill and hack up hundreds of these majestic animals each month.
Today wasn’t just about the Rhinos, however, we were also treated to incredible rock formations, views of unadulterated African terrain, and astonishing rock paintings from some of the earliest human inhabitants ever found – estimated between 20 and 60 thousand years old.
We finished the day with a few cold beers at the grave of Cecil Rhodes, easily the most influential man in the colonisation and development of Africa as we know it and whose achievements and titles include founding the international diamond and African mining trades, being appointed head of the Southern African Trade Company, the first appointed Prime Minister of British Africa at the turn of the 20th century, and often the broker (not always successfully) of peace between the British in conflicts with local tribal people and the Dutch / Afrikkans settlers (ie The Boer Wars). Once the richest man in the world, the vast majority of his funds are still used today for various projects including conservation, health, education and funding the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship.
He is buried high on a rocky slope in Matobo NP where his grave is visited and celebrated by locals and tourists alike – although we had this spot for sunset and a history lesson all to ourselves… The perfect way to spend an incredible day, with an incredible guide (easily the best and most passionate we’ve come across in seven months of travel).
Next morning it was off to visit the famous Victoria Falls. We know there’s been more waterfalls in this blog than pics of Tom sucking-in his expanding travel gut, but we’ve saved the best for last.
We stopped to view the waterfalls on the wetter Zimbabwe side with the following results…
We then crossed the border into Zambia and checked into a great riverfront resort where Hippos and crocodiles regularly bask on the shoreline. That evening we enjoyed the resort’s sunset dinner cruise with great company and unlimited alcohol.
The following morning we saw the waterfalls from an entirely different and much more exhilarating angle.
The Devil’s Pool sits atop the 109m Victoria Falls cliffside and only a small number of visitors in the low season get the opportunity to hang over the edge and experience what it must be like to go over. What a “once-in-a-lifetime” opportunity.
The adrenaline would not finish there however as we were whisked away to a full day of white water rafting through grade five rapids on the Zambezi River. This is one of the ‘must do’ activities when in Zambia and the reputation of the rapids and skilled raftsmen who navigate them did not let us down.
Never taking the easy route, there were many close calls and two complete flips, leaving us all in the water gasping for air. Here’s some of the best pics of our thrills and spills…
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Our first week in Africa was one of the best in our whole trip to date. We cannot wait to see what our final tour through Kenya and Uganda will have in store!
