I feel like I owe you all an apology. I haven’t posted an entry in months. True, there was no place we were in Africa, until the very end in South Africa, where I could upload pictures. However, I could have posted text and didn’t. I was in places where it was possible. When I finally connected with people I know, most of them said they wondered what had happened. Had I been eaten by a lion or what? Nothing happened. I just didn’t take the time to do any more than take care of some business and email a few people now and then.
I hardly know where to start. There is no way I can describe all that happened between Victoria Falls and now. Myung and I stayed in Africa until November 20. We decided to go to South America. First, I had to take care of some business in the States, so I came here. Myung didn’t want to spend the money on a short side trip to the US, so she went to Sao Paulo, Brazil, with a two week stopover in Turkey. Turkish Airlines had the cheapest fare and she got a stopover in Istanbul for, I forget, little or nothing extra. I have a ticket for Sao Paulo on December 24.
How do I summarize the last months in Africa. Whew! I guess I’ll just stick to the basics. We set out north from Vic Falls to a couple of parks in Zambia. The first day, we ran across these people in the road having a festival of some sort. No English was spoken around there, so I have no idea what was going on. We partied with them for a bit, though.
Then we went to Kafue National Park. By now we were getting a little jaded about parks and animals, but it was a nice drive through the countryside. The best thing there was a herd of thousands of buffalo going somewhere across our road.
When we got too close, they just stopped and looked at us till we got bored looking at them and went on our way.
We picked up a young Korean woman in Vic Falls and took her with us for a couple of weeks. She had had her passport stolen. She couldn’t go through with a planned overland safari trip because the Korean embassy would only give her a temporary travel document to get to Kenya for her return flight.
After stopping in the capital of Zambia, Lusaka, we went to a really nice park called South Luangwa National Park. That place was worth mentioning. What a lovely and wild place. It’s even wild outside the park. One night we were camping in our tent, and an elephant took a fancy to the tree foliage above us and trampled us and our tent while we were asleep. Fortunately, he/she didn’t stomp right on us. I might not be here to write this. I would have a good excuse to being late, though. We were fine, though the tent required a lot of duct tape to fix up the tears. And they said it was the hippos we were supposed to be wary of!
That was not “the” elephant. That incident happened in the middle of the night.
South Luangwa was beautiful, with many animals. Finally, we saw a lot of lions. Watching them consume a zebra was almost like watching a nature show in person. Maybe it was better because in that park, they didn’t mind us getting close.
There were all the usual animals in that park, including wild dogs and more buffalo.
Here is a nice picture of the river itself and one of a couple of fishermen herding fish toward their net.
After that, we went into Malawi. The Korean girl didn’t have a passport or visa, but $100 got her in. We parted ways there. She did some stuff on Lake Malawi and we took to the hills where it was cooler. There is a nice backpackers’ place near the northern part of the lake called Mushroom Farm. It’s on the road to Livingstone, which has historical interest and still serves as a large missionary outpost. They grow and roast coffee a few hundred meters from there. The view down to the lake is nice, and the campsites sit right on the edge of the cliff so you can see down. Or you can stay in a cottage.
The coffee sure was good.
So was the shower,
and the composting toilet, into which you just dump ashes and some leaves and it works perfectly.
Here were some kids in the next village pounding corn into cornmeal.
There is a nice stream and waterfall with a cave at the top. That was a needed escape from the heat.
From there we bounced along by the lake, getting in frequently to escape the heat. To tell you the truth, a lot of the time now I can’t tell the Lake Malawi pictures from the Indian Ocean pictures taken in Mozambique. Sometimes I can remember.
I’m pretty sure those pictures were taken along Lake Malawi. The next ones on our memory cards are definitely still in Malawi. This illustrates how hard some of those people work. Typically, timber is rough cut where it’s cut down. Then guys like this carry it down the tiny roads. In Malawi, this man gets about $3/day to load this on a bicycle and ride/push it many kilometers.
Malawi actually isn’t much to look at. There are no outstanding animal parks, views or sites of any sort. In my opinion, however, the nicest people are there. They aren’t as jaded about tourists as in many places. They talk to you without wanting anything from you. Unfortunately, most of the time, when an African starts up a conversation, eventually he’ll get to what he wants to sell you. Or he’ll come right out and ask for money or food.
Anyway, then we went to Mozambique. Here’s the border on the Malawi side. Typically there is all kind of trade going on at the borders.
Mozambique isn’t much to look at either. There is a long coastline, but South Africa’s is prettier and more majestic. The first place we went was Ilha de Mozambique, the capital of Portuguese Mozambique until the early 19th century. This is the view across the water to the island from where we camped.
The city is a crumbling relic of what it was. It’s a World Heritage site, but like most of Mozambique, it’s not being kept up well. By African standards, Mozambique is probably a success story. They haven’t fully recovered from the 20 year battle against the apartheid South Africa/Rhodesia/US destabilization campaign that began after the Portuguese junta collapsed in 1974 and they found themselves suddenly independent in a very right wing neck of the woods.
This first picture is of part of the fortress wall and some people walking by. All those places are largely ignored, while life goes on slowly slowly.
From there we stopped at a few places along the coast on our way back to South Africa. We were pretty spent from out efforts. The stars we aligning in such a way that it seemed like it was time to leave Africa, at least for a while. The rainy season was approaching; the tent was never quite the same after the elephant episode; the truck was getting a personality; the rest of our stuff seemed to be wearing out all at the same time; and we were just plain tired. 6 months of mostly camping, cooking over a fire and the general discomforts and inconveniences were getting to us. Plus, as always happens, things weren’t as impressive anymore. It was time for a break. The last highlight for me was some scuba diving. Then we went back to Nelspruit, South Africa where I sold the truck to a used car lot, hung out in Pretoria for a few days, and left back on November 20.
Since I got to the US, I’ve been able to take care of some business/money stuff which I needed to do sometime in the near future. Also, I’ve gotten to see friends and family. I thought the month would be far more than I needed, but I now think it was just about right. The highlight of my social agenda was getting to see my brother, whose health is much improved, his wife, his daughter who had a baby boy 6 months ago, and her husband. Here’s a family photo of them.
That’s the story, morning glory, albeit in highly abbreviated fashion. Myung is in Brazil already. I’m headed down there on the 24th. We haven’t formulated a plan yet. I would tentatively like to go to Patagonia while it’s warm in the southern hemisphere, then loop around to the north through Chile and Peru. I think Bolivia and Ecuador are are in the cards. Who knows, though?
I’m going to leave you with a bunch of people pictures. I think I will start a Facebook account. Many people have suggested that, saying they’d like to know when I’ve posted a blog entry and want to be more conveniently in contact. I’ll get that up some time this weekend.
Be well, all of you, and happy holidays.
