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November 27, 2002

On South Africa, on Zambia ....

...on Zimbabwe..! I'm nearly speechless! I know, there's a concept you never thought you'd see/hear! This trip was an "experience"...one that defies description BUT of course, I will try.
The flights to Johannesburg, South Africa were uneventful.. loooong.. made longer by waiting in custom lines and again waiting for the austrailian contingent to get through customs before we were transported to Sun City I was mostly struck by the numbers of people walking the countryside...the main modes of transportation seemed to be BMWs or feet. As with any big city, there was also the poverty...corrogated metal homes seemed to spring up (and down)like weeds in the fields. Platinum mines...bridge to nowhere ( since it was built before the roads and positioned incorrectly. But it was also early "summer" and we had heat and daylight...what's not to like there when November in Vermont is the darkest dreariest month of the year.

Sun City, however, is a typical resort...4 class hotels...conference center.....entertainment and activity centers...golf course...kiddie camps. It could be any place, it even reminded me of Arizona especially when we started meeting up with all the other 100+ attendees to the conference. There was ONE little difference...the monkeys! 6am, the morning after we arrived, I was sitting down by the pool with other non sleepers when all of a sudden I spotted this rather large monkey walking by. *I* nearly fell off the steps, where as Jim and Tim were rather blase about it all...they had been non sleeping longer than I and seen them earlier. I guess they are as pesky for some as squirrels are for us but I was fascinated by them every single time I saw them. We were treated to several activities outside of Greg's meetings...some typical resort water sports like tubing ( Greg and I landed on Burt and got dumped pretty good) and para-sailing ( A thunderstorm popped up and curbed Greg's chance of going but I got my turn later in the week) We also enjoyed 2 "safari's" in the Pilanesberg Game Reserve adjacent to the resort. I didn't mind that one of the elephants was wearing a radio collar; at least we were assured seeing one of the BIG FIVE ( lion, elephant, cape buffalo, giraffe and leopard)...we only saw the big Four..our truck didn't see a leopard. After our sunset safari, we attended a Braii ( BBQ) where we learned to drum ( yeah right..some of us were having trouble keeping the beat..hehehe) for some reason, I kept thinking about Demian!

Leaving SunCity behind was easy enough. Livingstone, Zambia was real Africa; Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe was real Africa....I would encourage this trip above anywhere else I've ever been...we could have stayed there a lot longer than our 2 days. We cruised down the Zambezi River at sunset; rode elephants through the bush in Zimbabwe, watched hippos cavort right in front of our hotel, experienced the thrill of Victoria Falls even if it was low water flow....it was majestic! Greg even managed to walk out onto one bridge..we have proof...but it was soooo hot even the breeze from the falls didn't help.
The Royal Livinstone was something right out of the movie "Out of Africa" I could just see colonial Brits setting up "civilization". It wasn't as over the top as sun City although it's owned by the same company. ( which incedentally has Michael Jackson as it's primary stockholder, I'm told) Their resident monkeys were also quite entertaining as well as reasonably aggressive. The first morning, Greg left the sliding door open for all of 10 seconds, when I came into the room, there was already a monkey on the coffee table, helping himself to sugar. He left abruptly: I shut the door; he immediate told his friends about the stupid people in room 5070 so when I was done telling Greg about it, there were at least 10 monkeys lined up on our balcony just waiting for us to be foolish again.

Travelling into Zimbabwe for our Elephant safari was a bit unnerving...leaving us in the van while our driver wandered off with our passports was unsettling to say the least. Troops jogging in formation down the street...many baboons...poverty...very happy to see "us" since tourism is the main source of income. The only technology in use were cell phones...that in self was strange to see. I would consider an extended stay at the Elephant Camp, the people running it were great..talented..and caring of the elephants and of course, I could have taken baby Rastus home in a heartbeat. We haggled with local "craftsmen"..Chief Makuni won't let the hotels sell local goods so market places are set up near the falls for tourists to buy "stuff"...I learned to haggle, but not as well as my buddy Sue...she traded her shoes off her feet which she was going to throw out anyway. I'm not sure who thought they got the better deal in that transaction!

Everywhere we went, I met wonderful people, natives as well as other tourists. One woman was travelling to the US for the first time and was quite nervous she said...I think she was afraid of terroists...*I* on the other hand was nearly unglued by the scorpion that fell out of the overhead bin after flight attendents did their spraying of the cabin before take off. ( Zambia"International") Greg has mounted some of our photos on the Gallery, feel free to browse..ask questions...I know I left plenty out of this narrative. Go to Africa.....

Posted by frani at November 27, 2002 08:10 AM

Comments

Hey -

Good thing Joy forwarded your e-mail. I know, I know: I live too far south.

What was the meeting Herbie had to go to Africa for?? All mine are in lovely places like Vicksburg, Miss (in another week) to see some damned nuke plant.

Write if you can.

steve

Posted by: mcavoy at November 27, 2002 12:07 PM

i like it

Posted by: dion at April 4, 2003 02:02 PM

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