Maropeng- The Cradle of Humankind

In the Setswana language Maropeng means ‘our roots’. Human bones from over 335,000 years ago have been found in the area. One cave held the bones of 15 different bodies from baby to elderly. This museum and the surrounding caves are a UNESCO World Heritage Site established in 1999 and the museum opened in 2005.

It is believed that humans did not descend from apes but are a completely seperate species and that there may have been humans as far back as 3 million years. Mrs. Ples and Little Foot are the two most important finds. Mrs. Ples is a complete skull and Little Foot is an almost complete body.

We also learned why this area may be the cradle as well as Ethiopia where Lucy was discovered. Billions of years ago there was one super continent, called Pangia. It divided into north and south then the other continents broke away too. South America, Africa, Australia and Antarctica as well as the sub continent of India. India broke away from Africa and quickly moved to Eurasia where it slammed into the continent with enough force to create the Himalayan Mountains.

We left the museum and went directly to the airport to begin our flights home. Johannasburg to Cape Town (2 hour flight and 6 hour layover), to Amsterdam (11 hour flight and 2 hour layover), then to Chicago (7.5 hour flight and 4 hour layover) to Kansas City ( 1.5 hour flight) 1.5 hour drive home!

Its been the trip of a life time and we have enjoyed sharing it with you!!

Apartheid and Soweto

As Kim, our city guide for the day, drove us to Soweto she gave us some information about Johannesburg such as it is a land locked city, it is 35 miles from the South African capitol, Pretoria, and has an unemployment rate of 35%.

The country is divided into 9 provences. Joburg is in the smallest provence of Gauteng with the largest population of about 8 million and the township of Soweto (from SOuth WEst TOwnship) covers about 77 square kilometers in the provence (Sedalia is about 35 sq. km). Soweto has about 5 million people and is 98% black. It was created when Apartheid rule was established and all the black people were forced out of the white parts of Joburg or when Joburg wanted their land for the white people. Most of the political leaders of Apartheid, like Mandela and Desmond Tutu, lived in Soweto. There three classes of people living here - well tobdo, middle class and the very poor.

Kim took us thru all parts of the township. There are some very nice homes here made of brick with walled gardens or lawns and are in the 500,000 to 1 million Rand range. You must earn 15,000 rand a month to live here. This area was called Beverly Hills!

The middle class live mostly in apartments or very small homes. If you are elderly and have an income less than 3000 Rand a month then you get free housing. The mining companies used to provide one room hostels for the miners but now whole families of 15-20 people are living in them. They were promised homes built by the government, but so many people showed up to get in line for theses homes that they were over populated before they were even built. The homes the government built were two bedroom, kitchen, and lounge - no bathroom. They were not free as they paid rent. Then Mandela gave them to the people and they added corregated shacks to rent to family or friends. They have no running water, no electricity, no sanitation. Porta potties serve 20-30 families and are only emptied twice a week. Kim told this to us from her experience of coming to the city from a rural village and living in the ‘tin can’ for 4 years. She felt lucky to have this "tin" home as it was better than in her village. This is not shanty town.

Hospitals and clinics and medicines are free. Education is free except that they have to buy uniforms, books and paper so many still cannot afford to send their children to school. Still in Soweto, we stopped at Freedom Square where the Freedom Charter, adopted in 1955, has been set in stone. This is like our Declaration of Independence. Freedom Square is next to the outdoor market because political meetings were held in places where large numbers of people naturally gathered like markets, churches, and funerals.

A young man who lives in the shanty town across the tracks from the square gave us a walking tour of his neighborhood and even invited us into his home. Today was wash day. The women got water from a community spigot, boiled the water and washed everything by hand. 24 people lived in a two room shack with 2 rooms attached outside. Leaky roofs and dirt floors, no electricity, and porta potties.

The Regina Mundy Catholic Church was the site of a student uprising on June 16, 1992 when the government said all black children had to learn Afrikaans. Since English was the norm the children decided to protest. In this area alone there were 4,000 students protesting when police open fired on them after a few threw rocks at the police. Even after the children crowded into the church, the police kept shooting inside the building. Including several other schools, over 600 children died that day. This finally brought Apartheid to the world’s attention.

Following a short walk through Nelson Mandela’s home we had lunch then we went to the Apartheid Museum and Nelson Mandel Exhibit. In the hour and half we were there we learned of Mandel’s life history and the history of apartheid from 1906 thru 2018. It is mind boggling the torture and divisions these people endured and yet we felt no animosity from any of them.

Vic Falls to Jo’Burg

Since we don’t head for the airport until 11 am everyone slept in and had a late breakfast except Me and John. After our early breakfast we walked to the tourist shopping district when we could buy wild animal figures, tee shirts, African print clothing, stone carvings, woven baskets, wood bowls or salad forks, beaded things, jewelry and junk. We bought nothing but enjoyed the cool morning and our walk.

At the airport Kathy and Paul said their goodbyes as they were booked on a different airline to Johannasburg then they fly home. But we saw them again at passport control. Katy and Lanny also flew home today out of Jo’burg.

Now its Mary & Jack, Dave & Mickey and us who will spent another day in Jo’burg. We are staying in the Davinci Hotel in Sandton, a suburb of Johannesburg and considered the new business center of the city. Jo-town has over 15 million people and not much in the way of mass transit so traffic was bumper to bumper. John was reading out loud some info about our hotel from Yelp “it is a chick hotel with . . .” Seeing some perplexed looks I told him its pronounced “sheek” even though its spelled “chic”. Poor guy was teased unmercifully! I think we might be a bit giddy!

The Davinci is located in Nelson Mandela Square and next to Sandton shopping center, all connected by walkways. A highly rated restaurant, Trumps Steakhouse, is just meters away so we had a great dinner before calling it night.

Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe

Mary reported that although they got the mouse out of her tent yesterday, she saw another one run across her bed this morning! After one last good by to the staff and a short game drive we started our journey to Zimbabwe and Victoria Falls. Mr. Fish was very excited to see two brown hyena jump across the road in front of us. He hadn’t seen them in anout 10 years! The early morning brought out warthogs, Impala (of course), baboons, mongoose, and elephants.

We said goodbye to Mr. Fish when he dropped us off in town to catch a bus to the border. We went through customs to exit and changed buses again and went 200 yds to Zimbabwe visa control, stood in line for an hour to pay for our visa and get our passports stamped, then got back on the bus for the drive to Victoria Falls. We were greeted warmly at the Victoria Falls Hotel, found places for lunch, then Katy & Lanny, Mary & Jack and John & I took a helicopter ride to view the falls from above! 

Wow! What a ride and view. The falls are one of the 7 Natural Wonders of the world. Back at the hotel the others are refreshed and ready to walk down the hill to the entrance to the Victoria Falls National Park. Along the path is an elephant that we don’t want to encounter so we detour around him. Once at the entrance we find that we have to pay $30 fee (again) and so Jack, John and I turn around since we’ve seen the falls already. Its time for that good long hot shower!!

After a nice cocktail hour on the verranda we are taken to an African dinner and show. We ate mostly game meats and African staples while watching and participating in drumming and dancing. Its been a long day.

Chobe River

During the night Jack and I heard the heavy breathing of a large feline. After our lion experience we could have sworn it was a lion and no one believed us! But Stanley didn’t think so since the tracks around our camp were too small for a lion but maybe a smaller cat. We were vindicated!

On our morning game drive we came across a huge herd of Impala, possibly over 1000 of them. They were very noisy and chasing each other all over the place. Stanley said they were breeding and by Nov. there would be lots of babies.

Besides a few birds such as plovers and a cormorant it was turning into a boring drive through the park when all of a sudden John whispers loudly “Leopard! Leopard!” There on the side of the road was a beautiful leopard! Stanley slammed on the brakes snd we watched it for what seemed a long time and then she walked off! This was our 4th leopard sighting - a very unusual thing to see so many in a week.

At about the same time our friends in the other Jeep were watching a big warthog when two sets of ears popped up in front of them. With binoculars out they were looking at a mating pair of Serval cats! Mr. Fish said this was very, very rare. He hadn’t seen them in almost 2 years of game drives.

Both Jeeps almost ran over honey badgers. They are also rarely seen. These are such tough animals that you can run over them in a Jeep and they will walk away unharmed!

Kasane (prounced kah-saw-nee) is a short drive from Chobe Park. It is a town of about 25,000 people and dozens of resorts on the Chobe River. Dave, Mickey, John and I walked into town and shopped at the local grocery store where we got some ice cream bars and Oreos. Then we experienced the wildnerness from the riverside on a leasurely boat ride which included a champaigne lunch. This river divides Botswana from Namibia and since we touched a plant on the Namibia side, Mickey says we can say were were in Namibia.

Other than crocs, fish eagle and Impala the best show we had was a herd of 37 elephants enjoying a swim in the river! Many were on the shoreline wallowing in mud or throwing dust on their backs while the youth were frolicking, or wrestling, or dunking each other in the water. Can you imagine an elephant frolicking? It was so much fun to watch! And the babies loved the water too although they never got very far from momma’s side. Even the hippos came over to watch!

In another part of the river we found some hippos lounging half in and half out of the water which gave us a very good idea of their size. Then we passed a Hotel lodge on stilts on the Namibia side of the river. From a distance they looked flooded and in about two weeks when the river crests they will be under water. Its been 10 years since the river flooded this much. They also had a floating restaurant.

Travel Day to Serondella in Chobe Nat. Pk.

The Safari crew have a long hard day today as they have to break camp, load it all into a big truck and drive the 6 hours to our new site in Serondella camp then set it all back up and fix dinner for us. As for us, we did a 3 hour game drive then the 6 hour drive to the new camp, then a 3-4 hour game drive in the park before arriving in time for cocktails and dinner.

In Savuti we saw giraffe, kudu (male and 2 female), and the hammercop bird building its nest. These are huge nests of sticks but the bird enters it from the bottom. There are lots of birds including the come duck, spur wing goose, white crowm shrike, red billed buffalo weavers, hawk eagle, and the coloful lilac breasted roller.

We stopped to look at a lone wildebeest when I saw this red mound next to it. Upon closer inspection we discovered it was a dead zebra and it was probably killed by a lioness who had gone to the den to get her cubs. She would then teach them about killing and eating their prey.

The baobab tree is not really a tree but a succulent! This tree is over 1500 years old!

The two Jeeps departed the park on the way to the next camp but joined up a few minutes out. All the guys were in one and girls in the other so when we met all the guys got out and sang ‘ Happy Mother’s Day’ to us girls! That was sweet of them! Also Mr. Fish showed us a chamelion on a stick playing dead. Almost as soon as he set it in a branch, it scooted away. The girls also had Stanley rescue two dung beetles rolling their dung down the road. Then Mr. Fish got another flat tire!

In mid-afternoon we arrived back in the Chobe National Park at Serondella and immediately started hunting for game. The Chobe river is currently at its highest flood stage in ten years so all the grazing ground is covered or turned into inaccessable islands. That is why so many animals are in the marsh grassland of Savuti. We spotted all the animals we have seen all week: elephant, giraffe, impala, cape buffalo, kudu, water buck, and red lechwe. The ladies got to go to a valley where elephants are grazing on hillsides. Very special.

The men’s jeep witnessed a couple of male zebra fighting for dominance. They were kicking each other and biting and shoving. Very exciting!

Just after a potty break we came across a troop of baboons. A huge male was sitting on top of a bush in which he had trapped a small female and he was torturing her by sitting on top of her! Her screams were so pittiful that Stanley ran the Jeep up to the bush a couple of times to chase off the big brute and the feemale escaped! He said he has seen this before and that the male was punishing the female for some reason.

A few new animals showed themselves like the vultures, squawker heron, white cattle egrets, banded marmots - cute little critters whose coloring reminded us of an armadillo - and a black backed jackel.

But the best part of the day came as we were nearing our campground. A pride of lions were on the side of the road. A dominant male, 2 female, two 2-year old cubs, and 2 immature males who would soon have to leave the pride to go out on their own. The dominant male was new to these females and so was asserting himself by roaring and batting around the females! His roars were deep and loud and very scary! After a bit he walked away and the rest followed but we will never forget those roars!

Lions, Zebra & Elephants - Oh My!

We paid another short visit to the hyena den and watched the pups playing for awhile. All the hyenas in this area will use this den to birth and raise their pups. They are surprisingly cute.

Our Jeep was headed out onto the savanna when we got the call that the other vehicle had found lions! Back we went along with about 6 other touring vehicles but we got the best spot as the three male lions crossed the road right in front of us! Oh my, they are magnificent! One male had been injured so he was struggling to keep up with his brothers but Mr. Fish seemed to think he would heal and that the other two would make sure he got food.

Back out into the marsh land we passed Leopard Rock but did not see the leopard although later in the morning the other jeep did watch the leopard cross in front of them in pursuit of an Impala.

One field held a wildebeest, 2 elephants, 3 giraffe and herds of Zebra, Cape Buffalo and Impala. During our mid-mornig break an elephant passed within 30 yards of us so we watched him go to the watering hole for a drink. A jackel was lounging on the wet ground nearby. On the way back to lunch we saw a secretary bird as it was hunting for snakes. Very interesting.

We left as usual for our afternoon game drive at 3:30. As we drove around we saw white backed vulture, Hottentot teal duck, kori bustard, and 5 giraffes, a heard of zebra and then at least a dozen elephants with their babies playing in a waterhole as they splashed and rolled in the water and mud. Three hippos were off shore watching the fun. The hippos had to travel 40km over land to reach this area! They came from the Chobi River area because the river has flooded out a lot of the grazing area so there is stiff compition for grass and territory. Its only a 2-day walk.

As we headed back to camp we passed a male and two female kudu. They are magnificent antelope. Then the call came in that a leopard had been spotted!

Mr. Fish’s jeep arrived first and he took off cross country to keep an eye on the leopard but then he had to stop because of a flat tire! Luckily we were with Stanley who arrived in time to take up the chase. We got some great pictures before the leopard disappeared in the brush. A quick tire change and we went home excited to be so lucky to see this leopard which was a different one from this morning. Leopard count - 3.

Savuti in the Chobi National Park

Following a late breakfast and packing we took another nature walk on our way to the airstrip since we fly out to Savuti in the Chobi National Park, a 45 minute flight north and east of the Okavango Delta. 

 During the walk we were shown tracks of hyena, leopard, hippo, civet and spotted Genet. We saw an African Hoopoe bird, stripped kingfisher and baboons. The flora along our path was Elephant ear plant, mother-in-laws-tongue that has a sap used for ear aches, fever berry bark thats used as a poison to catch fish but also, due to its tanins, heals wounds on horses and has quinine for malaria.

After landing in Savuti we spotted zebra, giraffe, wildebeest, Impala and a Bateleur eagle as we drove to our campsite. We’ll be here two nights.

The evening game drive took us to the former marsh land that is now a savanna full of grass and wildlife. The Chobi Park is much different than Moremi since it is much drier and doesn’t have much in the way of water supplies. It is also twice as big. The government has drilled several wells that supply manmade watering holes for the animals. A lot of the animals migrate to this part of Chobi because there is more space, greener grass, and less competition for territory than in the northern parts of the park during this time of year. When it drys up in July they will go back.

We spotted a Steen Buck, a very small, shy antelope about 1 meter tall with short pointed horns. And because it is shy it is not often seen. We also encountered a small herd of elephant, bee eaters, and a wattled starling.

Then the most amazing site! Zebras for as far as the eye can see! Some are around watering holes but the rest are just everywhere! We estimate over 1000 in this area alone. They migrate here to eat the green grass then will head back north in June and July. Jack has an eagle eye and spotted 6 Eland which Stanley said were just beginning to appear in the Chobi. He was very excited to see them so we tried to get closer but they kept moving away. Eland are the largest of the antelope family with a body like an African Brama bull and long straight horns.

The Kouri busterbird was along the road. This is an endangered species that is the size of a turkey with a long neck, wide body and a head shaped like a roadrunner’s.

It was a long drive back to camp but worth it because we got to see a hyena family right at dusk when they are the most active. Mom was nursing 3 babies and dad was keeping as eye on junior as they lounged right next to our Jeep. At one point we thought curious dad was going to jump into the car with us!!