Africa, and particularly African safaris, are unbelievable. Full stop. There is really no way to explain the experience, if you have not had it. For people who live in a first world, city environment, the differences are so startling that one can’t really conceive of them without experiencing it. So, trite as it sounds, the best part of the experience is the experience itself.
The animals are amazing. But almost as important as the animals are the guides. We had incredible, hand picked guides almost everywhere we went. The extent of their knowledge, their ability to identify and talk about the animals, the landscape and the entire experience enriches everything immensely. In my case, they were also very important in easing the difficulty of travel with the mobility issues I’ve been having. The guides were very attentive to and concerned about my ability to navigate things and happily assisted with everything from getting in and out of jeeps (not always as easy as one might think), to pushing a wheelchair.
While the places we stayed were decidedly upscale for African safaris, the six nights we spent on a mobile tent safari in Botswana were challenging. There was no electricity, only bucket showers, a toilet that required putting ash into it after using it, rather than flushing it. But living in that way is also a distinct and valuable experience. On a mobile tent safari there is no Internet connections, none. A week without email and news every five minutes is a pleasure almost worth the cost of the trip itself.
In fact, it was going a week without being able to blog that raised in my mind the thought of not blogging for the rest of the trip. I decided that I did not need to add the not insignificant challenge of creating and posting a blog daily to the other challenges that I was already facing.
Speaking of “worth the trip“, the cost of an excursion like this is outlandish. There is no other way to describe it. On the other hand, this was for Max and, for him, it will definitely be an experience that he will never forget and, we hope, will change him in profound ways. So it’s impossible to put a price tag on that . Bottom line is that there is nothing we would be happier to spend an outlandish sum on than this trip. Friends of ours have described trips like this as “ski trips”, spend the kids inheritance.
I know that many of you enjoy the photographs that I typically include with posts. Had I followed my normal practice of posting daily, I would have described what we saw each day and included photographs of them. Instead, I plan to make several other posts, consisting entirely or almost entirely of photographs. This may take me a bit of time.
Truth is that, though seeing all of the many varieties of smaller animals, and hundreds of species of birds is quite wonderful, the biggest thrill is seeing the larger animals, elephants, giraffes, hippos, rhinos and particularly seeing the cats – leopards, cheetah, and lion, which are rare, but which we were fortunate to see. The biggest thrills involved death or risk – wild dogs devouring a warthog they had just killed, lions fighting with one another over their share of an antelope they had killed and a large mother elephant who felt we were getting a bit too close to her baby and trumpeted and attacked our vehicle. These experiences are surprisingly not gruesome, but reflective of nature and the cycle of life and death that propels it.
Other than these animal experiences, I’d pick out three people-experiences as among the things I’ll remember most about the trip. I’ve already mentioned them, but I’ll reiterate them and expand a bit upon them here.
First was Max playing the African drums with performers at Camp Okavango after only two drum lessons. It was such a kick to see this 11-year old kid sitting there confidently and rhythmically pounding away on the drums, while the group of adults was singing and dancing around him. The performers and audience were amazed at his aplomb.
Second relates to our dinner with Albie Sachs, who I have mentioned earlier in this blog. At 89 years of age, Albie is a hero of the anti-apartheid movement and a major figure in South African history. We tried to impress this on Max, but it’s a hard thing to convey to somebody at his age. I think our words probably rather rolled off of Max’s 11-year old back. Here is what finally got our point across.
After dinner with Albie, we took an Uber, dropped Albie off at his home and continued to our hotel. Albie lives on a steep hill and the Uber driver helped him down the hill to his home. When the Uber driver returned to the car from dropping Albie off after our dinner, something clicked in the driver’s mind and he asked us who that was he had dropped off.
When we told him that it was Albie Sachs, he went on and on about what an extraordinary person Albie was and what Albie had done for the country. So, while Carol and my description of Albie probably made little impression on Max, he is now indelibly impressed in Max’s mind because of the Uber driver, who, justifiably, had far more credibility than we did.
Albie has been celebrated around the world and holds more than a dozen honorary degrees. When I told Albie this story he wrote, “much as I crave honorary degrees, the unsolicited comments by uber drivers and baggage handlers mean more to me than all the honorary degrees put together.”
Third is just plain Max. This was his trip. And he loved it. His mother reported to us that she’d asked Max, on a scale of 1 to 10 how he would rate the trip. After thinking, Max had replied, “9.7”. I’ll take that. It was our privilege to be able to accompany him on this journey of discovery and to experience it through his eyes.
If, as we expect this is our last big adventure travel experience, it’s one helluva way to go out. I’ll close with this “sundowner” photo of us and our wonderful Zimbabwean guide, Lewis.
(I’ll include more photos in other, later posts.)
