Rik: Vic falls to Cape Town

After Vic falls we drove to Hwange national park via the painted dog conservation centre. Not without the necessary roadblocks and for the first since a time the bribes. Eventually we got at the painted dog conservation centre where we had a quick encounter with two of the resident dogs. Unfortunately this again one animal that is nearly extinct and within a few years there gone.

Late in the afternoon we got into the national park where we met Ian. After meting him we went in two 4x4's into the park for a safari. Unfortunately it was wet (it being the rainy season) so we didn't see much. Lucky for us we got a complementary night safari, some of us where a bit anxious, this of our previous experience in South Lilongwe.

We saw our first bat eared foxes and the African kangaroo, called the springhare. We also had a funny experience with scaring the baboons and making them fly out the three. In the morning we went again on a safari with Ian but unfortunately we didn't see anything again.

We drove to Bulawayo the next day, here we arrived late afternoon and had a nice BBQ for diner. Again we met up with Ian and would go to Mataposa national park. This park is a heritage of Celil Rhodes, the founder of Rhodesia which would be later known as Zimbabwe. We saw four of the few last remaining white rhinos. Again because of the season we didn't see much else. But we did see some fine rock art of 200.000 years old and Cecil Rhodes his grave.

From our time with Ian we learned a lot of new, funny and shocking facts about Southern Africa's flora, fauna and history.

1: We learned this already in a small detail from Nadia but Ian gave more cruel some details. This is the so called lion walk or walk with lions. Nadia told us what she had encountered and once Jantine had the idea of doing it I highly discoursed to do it. She on her term asked Ian if it was true what she had been told. The story being told to us all was: the lion walks of walk with lions is one of the most lucrative businesses where good money is made. It starts with the abduction of the lion cubs at about two years old. One can only guess if the mom has died naturally or has been killed. My opinion the latter is 9/10 the case.
Once the cubs are in the hands of the humans the get put into so called orphaning homes for the "orphan" cubs. Here foreign tourists pay lots of money to walk with the cubs, play with them etc etc. in other words humanizing them, the get used to easy meals and humans. But at one point the lions get to big to be handled by tourists. So they are being sold to the next business, the business where a lot of money is spent by foreign tourists for killing a lion. Most of the time it's not long hike where you scout your lion and kill it. NO the foreigners get a gun practice a bit and after some target practice the lion gets a piece of meat thrown into its area thinks 'ah diner time' foreigner sees lion into its visor and thinks 'ah lion' foreigner shoots the lion and takes a trophy picture and done, next client. After this we were all surprised and discussed by it.

Someone was saying something similar happens in Thailand with the tigers. Here tigers are used for taking pictures, what the foreigner doesn't know is that the tigers are drugged to keep them calm. And probably if there to old they get sold in the same way as the lions.

2: we crossed a railroad track that stretches for almost 160k's in a straight line.

3: the facts we knew about giraffes are not all true. The facts we learned where:

- it can postpone there pregnancy by a few months when there is a shortage of food.// this turned out to be not true, it is a antelope who is able to do this.
- it has 7 vertebrae just as a human // true
- it is born with horns and is with almost 2m the tallest baby born in the animal world. // true
- the heart is able to provide a pressure as high as a pressure cleaner. This is a potential problem if the giraffe did not have some kind of sponge in its head to make sure the blood pressure stays low. Downside is that when drinking the giraffe is only able to lower its head for a maximum of 30 seconds. Any longer and it would cause blood hammering in the head and it would die in 3 minutes. // true and new fact.
- if a giraffe walks it walks with two legs at one side at a time and its one of the few animals who do this. // true
- the idea for fighter pilot suits comes from the giraffe it's legs. The legs have the skin so tight around there veins to prevent all the blood going to the legs instead of to the head. This principle is used in the suit for fighter pilots as well to keep the blood going to the head and not the legs.

4: Rhinos are probably extinct within 2-3 years if nothing changes. Over the years rhinos have been killed for their horn, mainly for the Chinese market for its stimulating effect for the men. Unfortunately this is a myth and the Chinese men are to proud to acknowledge this so the hunt for rhinos continues.
The rhinos has a 30 kg penis and when eating 2 kg of rhino horn will give the Chinese men the same result. This is not the reality, because the horn is like a fingernail eating 2 kg of fingernails will only give you bad stomach contractions instead of a erection.
The horn nowadays is worth 100.000 per kg, and the rarer the rhinos get the price will increase more and more. This is enough for a African family for at least a few years, so some poachers and farmers are easily triggered.

It's found out that because horn being a nail it is possible to cut the horn and let the rhino live. And sell the horn to preserve the rhinos for the future. The governments don't agree on this and the legal trade of the horn is not allowed. And this means poaching is still a reality. Ian was saying that last year they had 160 rhinos and now with the young ones being born there are only 60 left. Over the last months many rhinos have been poached all over southern Africa. Even poachers are caught but after paying a 6000$ fine they are able to continue there work. The same happens to the smugglers who smuggle the horn to China.

In Indonesia there is now a new trend as a hype as well, it's snorting rhino horn. The effect is none, but because its so rare it's the thing to do in Indonesia.

Ian expects that if nothing is done the rhinos all over the world will be extinct in a few years. We asked him about the WWF and other organizations, and what I already assumed from my stories about the UN and UNICEF. Around 89% of the donations go to "administrative costs" which means only 11% goes to the place where they actually need it, the people or the animals.

5: Rhodes was not the bad person as always is displayed. Rhodes came to southern Africa in the 1890 as one of the thousands to dig for gold and diamonds. After
Making money in this he made a name in politics and founded Rhodesia. He also made sure that money not goes to one person but multiple people in the forms of scholarships and national parks etc. In the end when he died he was buried in the land that was sacred to the Africans and at his funeral there where 1000 whites and 2000 blacks attending. This shows that the black and white Rhodesians liked him for what he achieved.

6: this I learned from reading "Leopold's ghost", a book about the Belgian colony Congo. At school we learn that African countries where colonies of the Dutch English German Portuguese French and Belgians. What we didn't learn was that the Congo was owned by king Leopold instead of the whole Belgian country.
This book tells the story about the discovery of the Congo river and later that Leopold wanted a country for himself besides Belgium and how he got it. This getting of the country was not done in a nice was to say the least. But then again which colonizing country did, the Dutch weren't the nicest either. The details in the book are sometimes to much to read and has to be put away to calm yourself down. The native people where not seen as people but more as animals or a lower class of beings or savages. Fortunately there where some people who saw this atrocities being done to the natives and came into actions by writing articles and newspapers etc. What the writer learned from the writing of this book was that there was a lot of work being done by Leopold's successors to cover up the atrocities done by the Leopold regime. Even school books and the national royal museum didn't tell about this dark period in the Congo and Belgian history, but perpetrated Leopold as one of the biggest humanitarians. Which he trie to display to all his visitors and citizens during his time of rule. Unfortunately after the death of Leopold and the eventually the independence Congo didn't faire well on its own. The CIA and US installed the first leader democratically chosen, but when he started to say things they didn't like they assassinated him and the one who was responsible for this assassination became via a coup the new leader for 30 years. Not for the best, all money earned in mining diamonds, gold and other minerals went into his pocket and that of the foreign mining companies. So the country got pourer and pourer, raidings where business as usual and flight companies didn't dare to let aircrafts stay on the ground during the night. Universities were none also a few schools were there, which meant kid soldiers where easily conscripted. Until now its still a unstable country and time will show what the future has in store for Congo.

After Bulawayo we went to the border of Botswana. Here we went towards the salt pans, but because it had been raining quite bad already there was no point staying long for seeing the meerkats. Via Maun we set off to the Okavango delta, here we spent a day in the mokoro, a traditional dug out canoe. We didn't see any animals even on our walk we did in the evening so everyone was a bit disappointed. The only thing we got was very, very wet. On our second day 12 of us did a airplane flight over the Okavango and that was well worth the money we paid for it. We got in a airplane for 45 min and saw more than we saw in the last few days on the game parks in Zimbabwe.

Before we went to Namibia we stayed in D'kar where we got guides by the San on a bush walk. Here we learned how plants are used to cure people and of course dancing for leisure or for healing.
In Namibia we went of to Windhoek which has a lot of German and Dutch influences and this is really noticeable in the street names and the towns. In Windhoek we had a nice dinar in a "German" restaurant and most of us left early for again an early morning the next day.

Reason for this German and Dutch influences are due to the first settlers who came from the Netherlands know as the Voortrekkers or frontiers. Along with the Dutch the Germans and the English came as well but at a later stage. By the time they came there were already settlements made by the Voortrekkers and Afrikaans was beginning to develop. Afrikaans is the Dutch language introduced by the Voortrekkers and is still used today in Namibia and South Africa. Eventually South Africa became British and Namibia became German colonies and more and more missionaries, fortune seekers in gold and diamonds and other settlers came to Southern Africa during the Great Depression also people left but there were also people who stayed. During the wars in the early 1900's there were also fights in Africa and people were send to fight from the different countries. All and all during the time of discovery till today there is a mix of white Africans and black Africans. Where the black Africans are mostly from the African continent, the white Africans are decedents from the early settlers, mining magnets, soldiers of the different wars. But there is a great diversity.

The next morning we travelled to Etoshia National park. Etoshia used to be 90 square km and was with this the biggest game reserve in the world. But over the years it has been reduced to 22 square km but is with this still 1,5 times bigger than the Serengeti.

This drive day was again a long day of sitting in the truck but in the end we got there, despite all the showers we encountered during the day. The truck did get wet inside from time to time. In Etoshia we staid for two nights and the plan was for us to upgrade but at $80,- per night per person lots of people declined and camped for the two days. It was a wet first day where we besides rain didn't see much. The second day we wanted to go on safari in the truck but due to technical difficulties we were not able to go on our own truck but in 4x4. The planned departure of 7 was delayed to 9:30, but during the day we saw nice animals for our last safari. We saw male and female lions, cheetahs, zebras, giraffes and all the other common antelopes.

Next was Spitzkoppe, unfortunately we were not able to get there because the floods made sure that the road was gone. This meant we skipped and go to Hensies bay from where we went to the seals the day after. Which smelled bad but not that bad as mentioned in the books. But there where thousands of seals on that beach.

After our visit to the seals we went o Swakopmund, an there we got Lotte to do a skydive with me, Nadia and Josephine. Me being the last one with some of the free jumpers was tipped out of the airplane with my tandem pilot. But first in the morning we went sea kayaking with the seals this was really fun but the skydive with Lotte was way more exciting. And we were glad we did it.

Next was the Sussesvlei where we went to the canyon, dune 45 and deadvlei. All were well worth the visit and with the light we had it was even more special. Unfortunately Jantine wasn't feeling all to great and was not able to come and see these sights.

Luckily she was able to see the cheetahs and cuddle with them and see the fish river canyon. The second largest canyon in the world after the Grand Canyon in the states.
With only one more day in Namibia we went to Nooroewer probably in the first days called noordoever which revers to North Bank the border between Namibia and South Africa, the border is drawn by the Orange River. In Nooroewer we did a canoe trip on the Orange River which was a boring ride until the last part when Stuart ad myself were able to flip the boat. Which was a nice addition to the trip. The next morning we said goodbye to Denford the amazing cook for the last months. This we did in our own fashion we tickled him and put him under the sprinklers. Which took all of the men to do, but he liked it.

From Nooroewer we went to Citrusdal where we did our last camping and the wine tasting before we got into Cape Town. The wine tasting was a great end of the traveling and we in the end made sure we were the new champions, of most naked people in the pool. Probably also the most drunk because the next day some of the group were not in their best shape. After a long drive we saw table mountain and Cape Town in the distance. We said goodbye for the afternoon and went to the Obseratory neighborhood of Cape Town and in the evening we met with the group.

At the Italian restaurant we had a very nice diner and the inevitable point of saying goodbye. It's hard saying goodbye to people after months of being together. Some of the group we would still see before we left but most we wouldn't see until another time. Saying goodbye didn't happen after we finished our challenge we set to ourselves when we left Vic falls. This challenge was to do 2434 push-ups in 21 days, with the last ones in Cape Town. So on the court of the restaurant we men and some ladies did our last reps of push-ups.

Next day Jantine and myself went to the waterfront and in the afternoon to cape of good hope and the penguins of boulder and Simons town. And the other days we spent hiking and climbing with Stuart. Eating out with Eric and with the three of us in the hostel.

After a few days in Cape Town our 5 month travel is over and what kind of adventure it was. We had our highs and lows, but it was a trip for a live time. We made friends for live and visiting of them will happen in time. Hiking and climbing with some, exchanging new music and books, travel together and much more are added to the to do list. It changed people as all big trips do. People in the hostels and other tours are already asking what's your favorite. It's hard to say because we met really nice people in Sudan and Ethiopia, saw nice landscapes in Rwanda and Namibia and in Kenya and Tanzania we saw lots of animals so there are no specific favorites. Maybe if you ask me in a month when it sunk in what we just did I'll be able to tell you more.