Mozambique

I am currently going through three thousands pictures from India, which is a big task for anyone especially for someone as lazy as me. But I hope to finish something before New Year’s, otherwise they will be rotting on my hard drive for eternity. In one week I make my way to warm and rainy Singapore and theoretically become serious about my future and all.

But that’s in 7 days. Today I want to publish some photos from my second overland trip in Africa. After visiting Apartheid Museum & Soweto in Johannesburg, Lion park in the vicinity and watching dozens of DVDs at Mufasa hostel, I was ready for another group exercise only two weeks later to make a vow never to travel this way in my life. But since I only had two weeks at my disposal before moving on to India “14-day Discover Mozambique” trip with Nomad was perfect.







We headed south to Swaziland where we went on a game drive in Hlane Royal National Park. We parked right next to the lion family with the cutest cups ever, almost crashed head to head with an elephant and watch white rhinos at the sunset.



The next two days we spent at Tofu beach, which can be easily reach individually from the capital, Maputo, on a hostel shuttle bus. I did snorkel with a whale shark, the largest fish in the world – breathtaking experience I have to say. The fact that the animal is incapable of biting half of my body off did not really calm me down – the size does matter!





Traveling north of Praia do Tofu is as I understand a bit more cumbersome, but very possible with the right amount of time and patience. We, however, needed not to worry as our half-empty overland truck was jumping over potholes of horrible road on the way to Vilanculos.

I fell in love with Mozambique immediately as it was different from South Africa, Namibia and Botswana; in the latter two you hardly ever see a person with the density of population at 2 pps per sq. km. Mozambique was much. North of Tofu (basically everywhere expect closer to the capital) people seemed to live like Himbas but dressed – in huts, no sewage, no electricity. All women wore sarong skirts and carried everything on their heads. Mozambique is a country of countless banana and coconut palm trees that was still curious about us, tourists.

From Vilanculos we did our two day “sail away safari” on Dhow boat to different islands. We were spoiled by the delicious food served on the beach, crazy clean blue waters, dolphins and sun. Snorkeling near Bazaruto Arhipelago at the Two Mile reef was a dream comes true for me. I cannot think of anything more beautiful than color combinations of those fishes. Were even names for those colors invented in any of the languages?









We spent another two days on the beach at Barra Lodge close to Inhambane and with a stop over in depressing Maputo we came back to South Africa. A small incident did happen at last in my travels! My small camera (and a bottle of perfume!) got stolen from the overland truck on the border of Mozambique and South Africa.

The next two days we spend in Kruger National Park. I finally saw plenty of giraffes that were crossing the roads, blocking the road – in other words, picture perfect behavior.



We took Panorama route on the way back to Johannesburg that absolutely gorgeous as well as touristy. My favorite stop was at the Bourke's Luck Potholes.



And a very logical ending to my African travels was a visit to the Moholoholo Rehab Center where the founder was screaming at the top of his lungs about the worsening conditions of pretty much everything in Africa for the wild animals.



The next night I flew to a very different world of India...

The album on flickr as always

My overdue update

Thank you to everyone who expressed concerns about my well being... I am alive and quite sound here in India, finishing up my 2-week tour of Rajisthan. India has cured my internet addiction, so I am mostly offline. Or maybe I am reluctant to update my blog because I am just simply dead tired by the end of each day. India is by far the most intense country I have ever visited.

After two days of Diwali (Holiday of Lights) here in Udaipur I am going south to Mumbai, then state of Goa, Karnataka, Kerala and maybe Tamil Nadu.

Most probably I will not upload any pictures until late December. I still want to show the world my pictures from wonderful Mozambique and only then go through thousands of images of India.

Overland Cape to Vic Falls - Baobab Land

Day 17 - Gweta

Left Okavango Delta in the morning and after 5 hours of driving we arrived at the absolute paradise in the middle of nowhere. Baobab Planet is the best and stunning campsite of the trip starting from the pool, the bar, the showers and of course BAOBABS. These trees are insane, humongous, gorgeous.

Overland Cape to Vic Falls - Okavango Delta

Day 13

We leave Namibia behind and cross into Botswana, the country of which 85% of land is taken up by Kalahari and another 3% is covered by wetlands of Okavango Delta. Despite that the country is quite rich thanks to discovered in 1967 diamonds that were put to good use (free education, free health care, infrastructure).

At the end of the first day we camp at Ghanzi where we meet local Bushmen community that perform Tribal Dancing for us. Bushman or rather San people is indigenous population of southern Africa with 60% of them left living in Botswana.

Day 14

The next day we drive to Maun, a gateway to Okavango Delta, the world's largest inland delta. In late afternoon I go on a scenic flight in a 7 seat jet. As we glide over the maze of islands and water we see elephants, buffalo, giraffes, termite mountains. I have never seen anything remotely similar to Okavango. I am still puzzled over what I see exactly below. Is the water deep? Is it a swamp? How do animals migrate from on island to another? What is it?



Day 15/16/17

Over the next two days we experience Delta up and close. We are taken to an island for bush camping by makoros (traditional canoes). The experience of sitting in makoro and being poled through the grass and waters of Okavango is amazing and relaxing. Still water makes picture perfect reflections as well as major sun reflector. By the time we reach our island I am sun burnt despite the sun protection.



We spend the mornings hiking, the afternoons hiding in the shade and evenings at the hippo "pool".





We also evidence something I have never seen before. At the sunrise we see the full moon and red sun in the sky at the same time.



More Okavango pictures

Overland Cape to Vic Falls

Days 10/11/12

We spend two and a half days in Etosha National Park, the best protected area in Namibia for wildlife viewing. With 23,000 km2 Etosha is huge.

We spend about 8 hours driving around on the first day and I was practically dead when we finally arrived to our campsite at sunset.

It is hard to get used the idea that the animals I have seen only on TV are now outside of my truck window. I believe I screamed from excitement when I first saw giraffes chewing on acacia trees (especially through binoculars).

In Etosha all vehicles are restricted to roads and one cannot get out of the car or on the roof. In fact, exploring park in the overland truck offers one big advantage - unobstructed view as we are much higher than any 4x4. Three lodging sites with camping and safari lodges are fenced and they open at sunrise and close at sunset. The opposite of the zoo.

The park is flooded with springbok and zebras. Funny how nobody stops for them after 30 minutes in the park. It's a pity because I find zebras with individual white-black-brown patterns to be among the most beautiful animals.



At lunch we arrived to Okaukuejo campsite with a water hole where quite famous photograph of Gerald Hoberman was shot (his collection is by far the dominating postcard material in South Africa and Namibia). It seems like nothing has changes since those times. The water hole is very busy with an elephant, springbox, oryx, kudu, zebra. Giraffes are approaching very slowly too. Amazing. I could have spent hours watching animals line up for water that hot midday.




In the afternoon we saw heaps of animals - families of elephants, giraffes, countless zebras, blue wildebeest, ostrich. We were lucky to spot one lioness and play a bit with her as she was crossing the road.

THE look:



We camped at Halali campground in the middle of Etosha NP. At night everybody who won over almost irresistible desire to sleep and went to the artificial Moringa water hole was rewarded. Leopard came out to drink some water. Professional photographers snapped masterpieces while the rest admired the graceful predator through 50x binoculars. Three black rhinoceros, jackals and steenbok appeared at the water hole during the 90 minutes we were there.

By the end of the first day my eyes were in great pain after hours of viewing everything through my camera viewfinder or binoculars. Game driving is exhausting!

The next morning we left the campsite at sunrise. Should I mention how beautiful the sunrise is again? We are spoiled by breathtaking sunrises and sunsets everyday.

We follow fresh footprints of lions. Three lioness rest under the tree by the road but relocate further away as the first passing by cars disturb them. Gorgeous cats.



We continue and soon arrive to another water hole with... four male lions. Their faces are covered in blood. They've just eaten and now are taking a early morning nap while the sun is still warm. Soon they will disappear in the shade.

We drive until 12 pm. We stop at Etosha Pan - what used to be a lake but now is a cracked dry surface 130 km long and 72 km wide. Salar de Uyuni in Africa?

I am so tired, hot and sleepy I head over to the water hole for some shade. I arrive just on time to catch a big family of elephants during the afternoon. I skip the afternoon game drive in favor of cold pool.

The night game viewing was quite eventful at our water hole as we see in action how a herd of elephants shares (or rather not) water hole with jackals, hyenas and rhinos.

On day 3 we are leaving Etosha NP, but still do a morning game drive. We see lions again - six of them. A number of jackals are running around and hyena is approaching:



There must have been a recent kill. Small predators are after king's prey.

Further away next to a large herd of zebras we see a dead zebra with a jackal eating out of its stomach. The zebra was pregnant.



My visit to Etosha could not have ended better - another viewing of leopard.

Seeing this abundance of wildlife made it a bit of surreal experience. Can it really be true? Are they really wild? Oh yes, those lions with red faces from blood and the jackal eating out of zebra's belly. It's just easy to forget because the wildlife is so accessible in this region of the world.

Hyenas won my congeniality award - I find their "mean" posture because of high shoulders and low back adorable and special.

A bit more pictures but most of them got censored for poor quality