Day 13 - May 5th - Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park

We arrived at the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park in time for an afternoon game drive. This was a fascinating and very different experience from Krueger not only because of the desert versus savannah but along with the ecosystem there were many differences in size, biodiversity and types of animals.

KTP is twice the size of Krueger and spans both South Africa and Botswana. In fact most of the park is in Botswana and when you are driving through you can tell which country you are in by which side the marker is on - left or right of your vehicle.  There are no borders between the two countries within the park so you drive in and out of both which is pretty neat.  Admission to the park is tightly controlled and restricted.  The fees was much higher as well and only 20 vehicles per day are allowed inside. This means it had to be booked months in advance. It also means that it is much less crowded and the experience is more authentic and less touristy than Krueger.

Since our drive was in the afternoon most of the animals especially the big cats were likely to be resting and indeed we did not see any.  There are no elephants or rhinos here and giraffes were introduced a few years ago although they are not indigenous to this park.  We did however see many spectacular oryx or gemsbock, a striking striped antelope with magnificent straight antlers and springbok, a smaller antelope.  We also saw barn owls, several large birds including ostriches and a bustard, secretary birds, cranes and others. Other animals we observed included black-backed foxes, wildebeest and ground squirrels. Because the landscape is desert like with short scrubby grass and few bushes or trees the amimals here are clearly  visible and easier to spot than in Krueger.

Tomorrow we have an early morning extended game drive where we hope to spot some of the big cats. Fingers crossed!!

Cooking the meat

Meat for the feast

Hidden Bride

Xhosa wedding dancing

Xhosa wedding pics

Day 12 - May 4th 2017 - Sand and Stars

First of all - May the Fourth Be With You.

Second, I must confess that I have plagiarised the title of this entry from our visitor Susan last night who has a blog titled Sand and Stars. Check it out if you are interested in astronomy.

Tonight we camped out in tents in the middle of the Kalahari desert.  It was also the night I had most been looking forward to since we started putting this class together. Our guide Stephen had found a woman who lives close by with a degree in astronomy who was willing to come to our camp and give us a tour of the night sky.   According to Stephen, she was even more excited about doing this than we were about experiencing it and had been preparing for months.

Susan was the most delightful, extremely British, charming , quirky and knowledgeable person - absolutely perfect for a star-gazing session in the Kalahari desert. I suppose one would have to be pretty unique and unusual to live in the middle of the desert and travel around with a dog and a telescope observing , charting and mapping stars.

She had brought large charts of the Solar System and the Periodic Table which she had specially had printed for the occasion which she used during her talk. As we all sat around in a circle under the stars Susan started with some basic facts about the universe, galaxies, and stars including distances, what they are made of, how they are formed, what stages they undergo etc. She used the Periodic Table to explain the elements that both humans and stars are made of and explained the physics of black holes and the chemistry of supernovas. Her knowledge about all these different aspects of astronomy was extensive and she had all sorts of facts and figures at her fingertips, including looking up all the distances in km which she had pre-converted to miles and temperature in Celsius to Farenheit. It was obvious that she had had put a lot of time and effort into preparing.

Susan then gave us a tour of the night sky by pointing out stars like Betlegeuse in the constellation Orion, Alpha Centauri which is the brightest star in our sky, The planet Jupiter and of course the Southern Cross. The moon was rather bright so we couldn't see as well as we had wished but we could still see the Milky Way and several globular clusters which we observed through binoculars. Once again after Orion almost  set , Scorpio rose and Susan gave us lots of interesting information on how the constellations have been named and passed down in history from the Sumerians, to the ancient Greeks and Romans to the Arabs, through  the Enlightenment and finally the present day.

As it was getting later and later students slowly left and walked to their tents until in the end only a handful of us were left. Irene, Kaitlyn and Donato were the last few to leave and they along with many others seemed to really enjoy the experience. I would imagine they will remember this for a while.  As for me, if I could, I would have kept Susan there all night but sadly our time together had to end sometime as we bid her farewell with promises for 'us chickens', which is how she referred to people, to keep in touch.

A truly truly memorable night - so appropriate for May the Fourth.

Beautiful Xhosa country

Some photos from the Transvaal, days ago:

Quno photos

This is from a while ago, but we didn't have internet then.  I'm going to post some of our photos from our visit to the Transvaal now.

In this photo of Quno, Mandela's childhood home, you can see in the center left three houses in a row that look of similar build.  They are Mandela family homes built on the spot where Mandela grew up in a roundhouse.  To the left of the last house is the family kraal, where his ancestors are buried.  On top of the hill in the back is a long low rounded building, which is Mandela's grave.


These are just photos of Quno so you get the idea of what it's like.  

Day 8 - April 30th 2017 - A Xhosa Wedding

Again this entry is being posted several days after the event occurred due to Internet access. 

We arrived in  Bulungula on the Eastern Cape today - a small village tucked into rolling green hills on the coast with the Indian Ocean to the east. Before we had even checked into our Xhosa style huts our guide Stephen announced that there was a wedding in the village and we were all invited. Whenever there is a wedding or any such event it is assumed that everyone in the village is invited without the need for formal invitations. So off we marched over several hills to the house where the wedding was taking place.

When we got there a large group of people were gathered around outside.  There was music and drums and women, men and children performing traditional dances in the middle of the circle while others watched. We stood and watched in fascination for a while joining in with clapping to the beat. Many of the men were in the kraal (a fenced in area where the livestock is kept). No women are allowed there and neither are any men who are not relatives. The meat for the wedding feast was being cooked on an open fire in the kraal. Because our boys were guests they were allowed inside and Donato ended up chatting with several men and conversing about their lives and what they do.

We were then told that we were invited to visit the bride who was in her home . We all crowded inside the hut and immediately  a group of women who were lining the back wall of the hut turned their faces and covered them with a black scarf that they wore over their heads. We then found out that the bride was 'hidden' among them; they were all dressed identically.

The chief of the village entered and chose Isabella to ask his mother for permission for our group to be there. The chief's mother asked some questions about where we were from. There was a mat on the floor with a big pile of freshly butchered sheep and cow. Donato was invited to help cut the meat and we were given some as a gift. We then went back outside and our guide and a few of the men cooked the meat on sticks on an open fire. The chief came and joined us and we stood around and talked and ate until it was finally time to go back.

It was a once in a lifetime experience - to be part of such an intimate and meaningful ceremony in another culture,  not just as observers but as participants. We were so fortunate to have stumbled upon this event which of course we couldn't have planned for.

Big birds

We saw several ostrich groups, and it's amazing to see how large these birds really are.  The males aggressively puff out their chests to make themselves seem even larger.  We saw one group with 11 b babies, from two different hatchings.  They were a bit far away, but you can see most of the babies if you look closely.  I'm adding a couple more photos from the second day of safari as well.

We saw a pair of secretary birds, also from far away.  

WE also saw a single kori bustard.  This is the world's largest flying bird, with a wingspan of up to 9 feet across.  We saw it on the ground, giving itself a sand bath to get rid of parasites.  It would lower itself to it's front knees, then rock back onto the ground, then use it's beak to shower in sand. Then it would shake itself off and toss on some more sand, and it did this several times before it stood up and started to walk away.  

Cape Goshawk

This juvenile goshawk swooped down from a tree and landed right next to us.  This photo was snapped just before a red mongoose ambushed from the clump of grass to the right rear of the bird.  The goshawk startled and managed to get airborne just as the mongoose reached him, and the mongoose launched himself at least 18 inches off the ground with a impossibly predatory burst of hunting lust.  But he missed by inches.  Wow.  I didn't get the red mongoose on film, but I did get the bird right before.

Oryx photos

The nests of the Kalahari

Here are photos of some of the amazing giant nests we saw from the sociable weaver birds.  These giant nests are everywhere on the larger trees, dead trees, and telephone poles.  They are made of small sticks and twigs, and they typically the size of a typical American sofa, although some are much larger, like the size of a mini-van or two.  They look like crazy mushroom caps, or something even more Seussian.  Hundreds of birds live in the nest, and when they get too heavy, they can break a huge tree limb.  That's pictured here.  Once on the ground, the snakes move in, so stay away!

One photo in here shows several owls that have moved into a stolen weaver nest.  Look closely!

Meerkat photos

Day 6 - April 28th 2017 - African Bush Braai

So as not to confuse anyone - this entry was written a week ago but i couldnt post it until just now. It was our last night in Krueger. 

We ended our day yesterday with a traditional African bush braai which is essentially a barbecue or cookout out in the bush. After we saw the leopard our guide Edward drove us back towards our camp and then passed it to a turn off where it looked like no path existed. And in fact there was no path, just a clearing with the tracks of other cars that had been there before. We drove for about a mile basically in the middle of the savannah and then eventually came to a clearing. Edward turned out his lights so we could see the lanterns that had been lit and spread all around in a circle and on three tables that were nicely set with white table cloths.

The cooks had already prepared the food and there was a bonfire in the middle of a pit that was lit the entire time. We were literally out in the bush, no fence around us and an armed guard kept watch the entire time including escorting us to use the toilet which was a few yards away. 

Dinner included two types of salads, pap (a type of polenta) with a tomato onion sauce, steak, chicken and roasted vegetables. For dessert we had malva pudding with amarula custard. Amarula is a liqueur made with fermented nuts from the marula tree. Everything was delicious, made especially so by the act of eating out in the African savannah, surrounded by lanterns and the spectacular night sky above.

After dinner,  Edward pointed out some constellations including Scorpio.  The Milky Way was clearly visible but Orion had already set, although we saw it earlier just after sunset.  Finally it was time to head back to camp and we returned tired but feeling like we had a perfect ending to an amazing day.

Walk in the dunes

Visit to a Bushman family

After our school visit yesterday, we drove a bit further out in the Kalahari, and stopped to visit a family of Bushmen, the Raats.  This is a family that lives with one foot in each world, and is interested in keeping and sharing their traditional culture.  It was quite interesting, as when we arrived, most were wearing fully western clothes, and then some changed into traditional Bushman clothes.  They live in a woven grass-sided house that really should be called a hut.  But they sleep in beds, and have an outdoor toilet and shower with grass walls.  They cook both inside on a hot plate and outside directly in the fire.  They served us lunch and it was mainly vegetable and very delicious.
After lunch, we went on a bush walk with some of the men.  They showed us the traditional plants and hunting methods and talked about some of their traditional culture.  They were wearing the traditional animal skin loincloths, and they had spears and bows and arrows.  Walking out in the midday sun was really hot, and really sandy, and it kept feeling realer and realer.  When we came back towards the family compound, our host, Barbara and her daughters were waiting, wearing their traditional clothes, to show us how to make Bushman jewelry.  They make their own beads and ornaments from material such as ostrich shell, hollow sticks that have been decorated with dark burn patterns, seeds, small rocks, fuzzy seed pods, and turtleshell.  We got to see how they used sticks to drill holes into the beads, and how they used hot metal to make burn patterns.  We also saw how they used sharp stones to carve traditional Bushman designs into ostrich eggs, and then rub wet ochre into the patterns to make them stand out.  We each got a a little bag of bead they had made themselves, and we each got a piece of bone with a traditional Bushman pattern burned into it to use a pendant as we each made our own necklace or bracelet.  Mine is a scorpion, but we had antelopes, hunters, lizards, birds, and spears.

It was starting to get dark as we got back to the main area, and as we waited for dinner, we watched the sunset and sat on the back bumpers of our mini-vans while our guide Hermann started us on a game of charades (or sha-RAHds, as Mariam calls them).  We can't laugh at Mariam's British accent too much, because it's turns out she's really good at sha-RAHds.  She managed to guess the film 'Top Gun' from Donato just miming putting on sunglasses, so...

After it got dark, it was really dark.  Deeply dark.  We had an amazing dinner of mutton cooked over the open fire, and then the family danced some traditional dances for us.  It was cold.  It's so interesting, but when the sun is out, it's incredibly hot (and right now it's heading into winter), and when it was dark, it was really cold.  The temperature must have swung about 40 degrees, and it just felt extreme.

Some of us slept in tents, while some of us slept in grass huts.  And that's the story of our night sleeping out in the Kalahari with a Bushman family.

Photos from the school

The Kalahari and our school visit

We arrived in the Kalahari yesterday morning, with an early flight to Uppington from Johannesburg.  Uppington is a small North Cape city, way up close to the border with Namibia.  It's dusty and small and mainly industrial.  This area of South Africa was highly dominated by Afrikkaners, and you can tell it's been very westernized, with Afrikkans the dominant language.  We didn't stay long in Uppington, just long enough to stop at the local mall to pick up sporting goods for the school we were planning to visit later in the day.  Students fundraised before we left, and we used the money to buy soccer and netball equipment for the school.

We jumped in our mini-buses and started driving north.  Everything was dusty, scrubby, and sandy.  Or course we were now in the great Kalahari desert, or, as the local spelling goes, the Kgalgadi.  Think of those 'g' sounds as really deep back of the throat noises, and that's how it's really pronounced.  This desert is filled with clumps of tough-looking light greenish yellow grass, with a bit of dark green grass, and some small shrubby looking trees.  While photos make it look like it's a grassy savanna, it is really clear that this is a sandy desert, because the deep red colored sand is everywhere between the grass clumps.  It rolls up in long dunes, like waves, that go on and on and on for hundreds of miles.  These dunes are probably about 30 feet high, and very long, all rolling in the same direction.  Then sand is really fine and soft, and so very red from the iron oxide.   Near water sources, the sand lightens, and there are more trees, mostly medium sized acacia trees.

We drove out for several hours to the border of Botswanna to visit a school in the tiny village of Askham.  The J.J. Adams Primary school is actually a fairly large regional school with kids from preschool to up to pre-high school.  We had the chance to meet the students in an assembly, where they sang for us, and we heard the principal give a speech.  Most of the students in this region don't start learning english until they are older, so one of our guides, Hermann, translated between us.  The little kids were curious and flirty, some of them performing flips and cartwheels for us as we waited to go in.  Others shyly approached for high fives and fist bumps.  We donated piles of books and school supplies to the school, as well as the sporting equipment, and then we had the chance to break into small groups and visit different classrooms.  Some of our students did songs or told stories, others tried other forms of communication.  It was a great visit and a great opportunity to see what a westernized school looks like in a rural area.