Africa

Helicopter ride to view Victoria Falls!!

/ Ed Armstrong
Because of the huge size of Victoria Falls, I took a helicopter ride to get a better view of this enormous waterfall! It was amazing to see the amount of water that was pouring down the falls and all the mist that was created. It was a tremendous ride!!

There is so much mist created that at times the falls are obscured in sections!!

The aerial view provides a bit of perspective of the massive falls compared to the bridge and road!

I was so impressed to see the power of this tremendous waterfall!!

This was one of my favorite views of the width of Victoria Falls. Truly an amazing place to visit!!

Victoria Falls!!

/ Ed Armstrong
The train arrived in Victoria Falls in the early morning. I was excited to be in the city that is world famous for having one of the seven natural wonders of the world!!

We stopped by a local shopping market and talked with people selling various products.

This woman showed us how the typical people in the town fix their food. They eats quite a few beans and peanut butter too.

I think the foods they sold were quite nutritious and inexpensive for the local population.

We worked our way over to Victoria Falls and stared in awe at its size. The falls are 1.2 miles in width and they are much higher than Niagara Falls! We started looking at the falls from one side and we loved seeing the double rainbow!

We gradually kept walking and kept seeing new sections of waterfall. I really liked the rainbows too!!

The more we walked, the more new sections of waterfall that we found. You can see people on the right of the photo that gives a little perspective on the size of the falls!!

The force of the water was amazing!! It created a huge amount of mist. In several places you could see nothing except mist!!

This bridge is very close to the falls. Zambia is on the other side of the bridge!

Believe it or not, but people actually put on a harness and them jump off into the midst! No thank you!!

As we continued on the path, we were greeted by these to adult warthogs!!

This baboon moved fast, but seemed to be content to watch us pass by. We were warned by our guide to make sure we did not have any food in our pockets. He said baboons can smell food and would quickly put their hands down our pockets to steal the food!

This baby baboon was very cute!!

Hwange National Park!!

/ Ed Armstrong
We had an incredible day at Hwange National Park!! The day started by seeing this beautiful male waterbuck! I love the horns on these guys!!

Right around the corner, we found this marvelous giraffe!! These are beautiful animals!!

We heard on the vehicle radio that lions were found and we quickly changed directions and found this spectacular male lion!! It was incredible to see this wild lion so close!!

Continuing down the road, we found this gorgeous monkey climbing in a tree! I was amazed at the size of his tail!!

We found this beautiful female kudu with her baby in a nearby field. They are so beautiful!

I am not sure of the name of this guy, but I loved his coloring. Africa has many gorgeous birds!!

We found this muddy turtle making his way to a big watering hole. He seemed to be looking intently at us!

We turned around from the turtle, and we saw this gorgeous elephant moving toward us! He was moving quite quickly through the grass. He was amazing to watch!

This guy was a jackal looking at a nearby watering hole!

These guys are small in the photo, but they are ostriches. The one on the right has his head upright and the “black rock” on the left is a ostrich with his head down. The mound between them is a termite mound.

There are many dead trees in Africa and this one reminded me of a haunted movie or something.

The zebra seemed to thoroughly enjoy themselves with all the grass in the field!!

I thought this bird was especially gorgeous!!

The landscape in Africa can be ominous and spectacular at the same time!

We learned that a leopard had made a kill, so we decided to try and find this gal. She had killed a baby kudu and afterwards she was resting in a tree. I was amazed to see her so closely!

After killing and eating the kudu, the leopard dragged the kudu into a nearby tree to save it from other animals. Our guide said that the leopard would eat on the kudu over the next couple of days.

This leopard just sat in the tree. She would stare at us and then she would look away. I think she was exhausted from the kill.

This photo shows how distended her stomach is from recently gorging herself on the kudu!

These baby warthogs crossed the road as it started to rain.

I thought these birds were very beautiful!

As we were driving, we came upon a large group of elephants! They were happily eating away.

I was amazed at the size of these guys!

I really enjoyed watching this baby elephant and he poked his head out from the pack.

I thought this elephant was great! He was my favorite elephant in the pack!

The lions also became more active as it started to rain.

This wild lion was staring right at us as he walked closer and closer to us! It was starting to get scary since this lions catch and kill everything they eat. His tongue sticking out as he was licking his lips was concerning!!

Take a look at this guys teeth!! They are huge and his jaw is strong!

I did not like how he was staring directly at me! There is intensity in those eyes!!

It was cold and rainy, so these two lions moved to the road for its warmth. I could not believe how close we were to the wild lions in an open vehicle! It was amazing and quite scary at the same time!!

Matobo National Park!

/ Ed Armstrong
For Matobo National Park, we rode is these open vehicles! They were certainly put to the test with the rough roads!!

Our first stop was to see rock art from African bushmen!! This is a drawing of a giraffe!

The roads were certainly fun!! Notice the person on the front of the vehicle buckled into a chair above the front bumper!

The is the plant were curare comes from!

Our guide pointed out the white liquid when a leave was pulled from the stem. If the liquid entered a person or animal’s blood stream they could die because the muscles would be paralyzed.

She was quite knowledgeable and described how the bushmen would put the liquid on the end of their spears when they were hunting!

This was a very healthy aloe vera plant!

I loved the orange rocks and green vegetation in Africa!

Africa is a very beautiful place!!

On the top of this hill is were the famous Cecil John Rhodes is buried. I think this location was selected because there were beautiful views in all directions!!

The rocks had different colors of lichen growing on them!! It was beautiful!

There were beautiful views in every direction!

What a beautiful place to visit!!

Some areas made me think of sections in Arizona!

This huge rock was sitting on the top of the mountain!!

These roads were quite challenging!!

There was never a dull moment riding around on these roads!!

Antelope Park!!

/ Ed Armstrong
We had a wonderful time at Antelope Park. This is a private game preserve and I thoroughly enjoyed our time there. The elephants were my favorite!!

We spent quite a while with these three elephants and I loved every minute of it!!

Up close the elephant skin is very rugged!!

I was invited to hold the tusk of this amazing elephant! It was my birthday and I thought it was an unexpected birthday gift to be with these elephants!!

Our group was each given an opportunity to feed the elephants!! What an amazing experience!

Elephants eat continuously and they were quite happy that we wanted to feed them!

Yes, I put my hand inside an elephant’s mouth to feed him!!

The elephant curved his trunk around and wanted me to put the food inside his trunk!!

It was amazing to drop food inside his trunk!!

It was an unbelievable experience!!

This guy just wanted me to keep going and putting more food inside his trunk!!

He loved when I put more food inside his mouth! He teeth were huge!!

It was very fun to add food to his trunk!!

I truly loved spending time with these guys!!

The rough texture of their skin was amazing!!

They were continually sniffing for food they may have dropped to the ground!!

These guys were amazing!

Watching them use their trunks was quite interesting!!

These birds stayed near this river and they would hunt for fish!!

We next went on a drive in the park and found these rhinoceroses!! They were massive! They have excellent hearing, but poor eyesight. I was shocked at how close we were to these huge creatures!!

This mom was followed closely by this quite baby!!

They almost walked right up to our vehicle!!

They have very unique faces!!

Their horns were certainly impressive!!

The baby stayed right with the mother!!

This big guy was on the move!!

I enjoyed watching this guy move around through the grasses. He seemed to be very happy!!

This guy seemed to be listening and studying us!!

Mom and baby came around on the other side of our vehicle too!!

I really like these flowers! The oranges were so bright!

This guy maintained a beautiful beat!!

This was not the most comforting sign to see as we walked around the park!!

This was a picturesque bridge across the river!

The rainy day made everything seem extra green!!

Great Zimbabwe Monument!

/ Ed Armstrong
We woke up in the train to see this fog moving around us. I thought it was a beautiful to the rich orange color African soil along with the green vibrant vegetation.

On the other side of the train track were these homes. Our guide described them as round because they did not want to give snakes a corner to hide in. The idea is that if a snake enters the house, it will move along the wall until it come back to the entrance and exit the house. A great plan and I hope it works!!

This kids lived in these home and joined us outside to say hello.

A mom brought out the two middle kids to join the others and be in the photo!

After spending all of the previous day o the train, we were looking forward to some exercise! We went to the Great Zimbabwe Monument and this monkey wanted to check everyone out.

Our guide showed us all the granite stones that were created to build all the walls! That is a huge amount of work!!

As we climbed up the monument, there was beautiful scenery all around us and spectacular clouds in the distance!!

There were an enormous number of stones!

We had to climb up some impressively steep steps!! The passageway was designed to be narrow to make it easier to defend themselves!

The walls were quite high!

The top was quite large.

It was interesting to see different sections of the wall!

One of the funniest things happened at the top. All of these young people came up to us and wanted to have their picture taken with us. Suddenly there was a stream of people and cell phones. We stayed in one place and new groups of people would run over and stand next to us for a photo. These guys loved it that I also wanted a photo with them!!

It was fun to walk around the inside of the monument!

I liked this classic African tree as we walked along the monument!

Entering Zimbabwe!!

/ Ed Armstrong
We made great progress on the train today and left South Africa and entered Zimbabwe! As we moved down the tracks, we could see people that had purchased items in South Africa and brought them into Zimbabwe.

At the midpoint of this river, we were in Zimbabwe!

Some people were carrying huge loads into the country!

As the train chugged along, kids would run and wave enthusiastically at us!!

Everyone was quite excited. I was excited to enter by 4th country on this trip!
This is not the most high-tech railroad sign, but it gets the job done!

I thought the Zimbabwe flag was quite colorful!!

This hostess was quite helpful to us. While we were on the train for the entire day, I asked her to teach me about high tea and different cocktails that were so popular in South Africa. As she described various cocktails, I told her that I had never heard of any of them. She smiled and with her wonderful accent said, “Sir, we are South Africans and we take our drinking quite seriously (i.e., precisely). There is precision in selecting the ingredients and amounts of each component. They must be made to the proper South African standards!

Kapama Game Reserve!!

/ Ed Armstrong
Today seemed to be a day for giraffes! After riding the train all night, we had a continental breakfast at 5 am and we loaded in a bus at 5:30 am. We arrived at the Kapama Game Reserve and were able to watch the sun come up as we entered the park. Throughout our time, we encountered different groups of giraffes! These guys seemed as interested in watching us as we were in watching them!

These giraffes seemed quite happy to slowly cross the road and enjoy the morning!

I enjoyed watching this guy move between trees has he munched on his breakfast!!

I think we surprised this beautiful female impala!

I think this bird is a white capped shrike.

Right after I took the previous photo, he flapped his wings and flew away!

These are the types of trucks we rode in as we went all over the reserve. The seat up on the front bumper seemed pretty exciting!!

This is not a great photo, but you can see in the distance that there is a hippopotamus moving across the lake! I was excited to see one put his head up out of the water!!

I am not certain, but I think this is a grey go-away-bird. I like the hair on the top of his head!!

This guy was with another group of giraffes! He seemed very happy to poise for us as we took his photo!!

I really liked the horns on this male impala!!

A very special surprise is that we came across this cape buffalo!! They are known to immediately charge perceived threats. Thankfully, he largely ignored us after peering through these branches.

Cape buffalos have such interesting horns!!

The bright blue bird is a starling, but I am not sure of the name of the yellow billed bird. I thought they were nice to watch!

There were quite a few starlings in the trees. Their blue feathers were quite bright!

These two male impalas were deciding if they wanted to challenge each other. The one on the left kept putting his head down to move forward with his horns!

They were dancing back and forth trying to decide if they wanted to fight.

The one on the left was ready to get serious!!

We kept encountering different groups of giraffes as we drove through the preserve! They were magnificent!!

The giraffe skin was interesting to see!!

They seemed quite curious about us watching them!!

It was amazing to drive right up next to them!!

This is a horrible photo, but if you use your imagination and look in the center of the photo, you can just barely see the face of a rhinoceros!!

This is an African wild dog. They are a very endangered species!! Each of the animals has a unique design on their coat. We saw this fellow in the Hoedspruit Endangered Species Centre.

This female cheetah was quite interested in looking at us!! We watched her in the Hoedspruit Endangered Species Centre.

She showed us that she had very sharp teeth!!

This is another female cheetah that was interested in seeing us!!

This is a male cheetah checking out the scene. He looks very sleek and fast!!

Kingdom of Eswatini (formerly Swaziland)

/ Ed Armstrong
We woke up today in the train station in Mpaka, Eswatini. After breakfast, we met this gentleman named Clement. He was our guide for the day in Eswatini. Eswatini is a small country, but it was great to visit. Clement told us all about the history and culture of Eswatini. He was quite entertaining too. He called cattle walking in the highway an “Eswatini traffic lights.” It was wonderful to talk with him!!

We started our day by first going to the Swazi Candles. We watched them make a series of candles by hand. I watched them create an elephant right in front of us.

They has a series of talented people making all kinds of candles!!

I liked out this globe candle looked like animal skin.

I cannot seem to get enough of the African elephants!!

We next went to the Mantenga Cultural Village. They recreated a typical Eswatini village and our guide told us about many of their customs.

To me, the most impressive aspect was watching the dances and songs sung by these men and women!! There harmonies were incredible and vibrant!

The men were intense with their dances!

The women’s’ voices were amazing!

Here, this man in the center led the other men in a song!

The percussion drums were loud and these men were intense in their dance!

It was amazing to watch how graceful this woman would move to the beat of the drums!

It was unbelievable how high and fast these women would kick their feet. They did it all to the drum beat you could feel in your bones. It was simply amazing to watch them dance!!

This guy was the only person dressed like this and he was very focused on dancing precisely to the beat of the drums!

This dancer would jump high into the air with a tremendous force with his movement!!

It was a delight to watch these dancers move to the beat of the drums!!

When these men kicked during their dance, there was power in their movements!!

The women quickly followed with their beautiful harmonies! It was mesmerizing!!

I really enjoyed listening to this woman when she would lead a part of a song! It was quite beautiful!!
These men were very talented!

It was such a pleasure to listen to these people sing songs important to their culture!!

The music was awesome!!

After their performance, they were very happy to talk with me and warmly agreed for me to take their photo!!

This woman had a wonderful voice. Sometimes she lead the women in a song and then the other women would follow her words.

This woman had an incredible voice!! She is the person that usually lead the women in songs. I am guessing that she was their leader. Afterwards, I told her that I thought she must have the most beautiful voice in all of Africa. She smiled at the compliment.

For lunch, we went to the Mantenga Lodge and ate under a covered patio and enjoyed looking at this beautiful mountain. Eswatini may be small, but it is a beautiful country!!

After a full day excursion, we headed back to the train (90 minutes away). When we return from an excursion, the train staff always greet us with a cool, moist towel to wash our hands and faces.

They next offer us a cool drink!! I always, always select the champagne from South Africa!! It is wonderful and refreshing!!

The train staff treat us very well and, literally, give us a red carpet to walk on as we enter the train!! I now understand why people say that train travel is a great way to see Africa. Time for a quick shower and then enjoy dinner that is four courses every evening. One wine with the appetizer, another wine with the main entree, and a desert liqueur. A cheese plate is served just before the dessert. The wines are always from South Africa, while the liqueurs are from around the world. Every day has been amazing!!

Maputo, Mozambique!!

/ Ed Armstrong
After riding in the train for most of the night, we reached Maputo on the east side of Africa and I touched the Indian Ocean!!

Maputo is an interesting city of contrasts. This is the classic, beautiful, train station and our train stopped close to this station.

Near the train station, we learned of a sad problem. This building was taken over by a “landlord” that charges rent to the people living in the building. However, the person does not actually own the building! He receives rent and it does not appear that he does not do much maintenance! The owner is listed as a company that is no longer in business! What a mess of a situation!

Our first stop was this fun market! With all the nuts that are grown in the area, it was impressive how many types were available to buy. I also loved all the fresh fruit!

I loved seeing all the colorful fruit. I did not know the names of some types of fruit.

I was amazed at all the different nut types!!

Our guide was describing some of the vegetables to me. He loved how fresh the produce was!

There were also street venders selling all kinds of products!

Our tour leader described quite a bit of history about Mozambique and its leaders. China, Russia, and North Korea seem to be involved in a range of developmental projects in the country.

This is the entrance to the botanical gardens.

This was a nearby church. We noted that today is Palm Sunday!

The stained glass inside was nice!

We stopped at this beautiful resort for a bathroom break. They have a spectacular view of the India Ocean!!

I liked the design of this walkway!

For lunch, we went to an elaborate buffet at another resort. Their view of the Indian Ocean was incredible!!

I really liked the colors in this artwork!!

This was a unique fish that I liked!!

I liked this lion, but I have no idea how I would get him home!!

All the wooden carvings were interesting!!

I really enjoyed to colors in this painting on the side of a building!!

All different types of pots and baskets were plentiful!

I find myself really enjoying all the ways artists here use orange!!

It was great to see the beach on the India Ocean! I did not swim, but people said the water was exceptionally warm and enjoyable!

These people using kites could go very fast and shoot quite high into the air!!

I do not think I could handle how fast these people were moving!!

People were using all different kinds of equipment!!

It was nice to relax and enjoy such a picturesque scene on the beach!!