The Harare Incident .. It's Just Not Cricket

I understand there was a one day cricket match on
between Australia and Zimbabwe on Tuesday.
Unfortunately did not get to see it as we were
detained by the police for several hours. The story
will have to wait until safely in Malawi. Suffice to
say, travelling with your father can get you in
trouble! Leaving Harare in a couple of hours to catch
up with the truck.

love Meagan

Adventure Activities in Africa (Oh, and a detour to Harare)

Sorry it has been so long in between travel updates
but email access has been very hard to come by in
Africa.

My first instalment was from Swakopmund in Namibia and
I was about to go quad biking and sky diving. Well, I
survived both and they were both fantastic.

The quad biking was a bit scarey at first, given that
it required zooming vertically up 100m high sand dunes
and then doing a sharp turn and zooming back down
again. However, once I realised the bike was not going
to roll, I relaxed and had a blast.

The sky diving was awesome. A 30 second free fall from
10,000 feet to 5,000 feet and then a peaceful float
back down over the desert dunes. The exit from the
plane was a backward somersault, which elicited a big
scream from my lungs and then it was just a rush of
air and exhiliration until the parachute opened. My
tandem instructor was singing "I believe I can fly" in
my ear on the free fall.

Also went on a township tour in Mondesa, just outside
of Swakopmund which was a great experience. We visited
and spoke with a Dhamara elder (lady), a Herero lady
who does work with aids patients and orphaned children
and an artist who has a zany house which he has made
entirely out of recycled material from the rubbish
tip. We then visited a shebeen and drank beer and
played pool, before going to an Ovambo hut and having
a traditional meal of mopane worms (very gritty and
dirty tasting), millett bread, wild spinach, wild
berries, sorghum beer, some type of bean etc. After
dinner, some local children ranging in age from about
5 to 15 performed some songs and dances for us around
the fire. It was a great experience.

After Swakopmund we drove north to a cheetah farm
where we were able to pat and play with a few tame
cheetahs and then go out in the back of a ute to watch
the wild (or semi wild) cheetahs being fed.

The next morning we visited a traditional Himba tribe
for a few hours, played with the children, wandered
around the village and went in to the chief's hut to
learn about how they paint themselves with red ochre
and have a sauna using fire and herbs. A great
experience.

After the Himba tribe, we drove on towards Etosha
National Park and saw our first wild game - mountain
zebras, gemsbok, springbok etc. We were all in awe and
running from side to side of the truck like little
children.

We spent 2 days in Etosha and saw loads of game,
including Giraffes (my favourite), elephants, loadads
of zebras and different types of antelope. At the
first campsite in Etosha there was a flood lit
waterhole which we went down to during the night and
saw a black rhino.

After Etosha, we went to the Okavango delta for a few
nights. We took makora canoes out into the delta and
camped out in the wild for a night. We did a game walk
in the delta and came within about 30m of a wild
elephant on foot!

Then onto Chobe and more game life. In addition to the
rest, we saw hippos, wild dog and sable antelope.

From Chobe, we drove to Vic Falls and more adrenalin
activities. We did a half day adrenalin day which
included abseiling, high wire and the gorge swing. The
gorge swing was one of the most scary experiences of
my life. A 54m free fall off a cliff before the slack
picks up and you start swinging across the gorge. The
free fall is twice the distance of a bungy jump and
you go head first! Certainly not the same experience
as the sky dive free fall. I did a solo jump and then
a tandem with Dad. Our combined weight meant we fell
at 180km per hour!

Next day we did an elephant walk, which was riding on
the back of elephants, feeding them and playing with a
baby elephant.

We also did a fixed wing flight over the falls.

I visited the falls from both the Zambian and Zimb
abwe side. They have had record rains this year and
the amount of water flowing over the falls is awesome.
We got soaked from all the spray from the falls which,
in places, was heavier than an average rain fall!.

We were due to leave Vic Falls on the morning of the
25th for Zambia. However, somewhere between the
campiste and the airport for the fixed wing flight the
afternoon before, Dad managed to lose his money belt
in which he had both our passports(despite me telling
him not to carry the passports around with him and to
put them in the safe on the truck!)

So, we have had to take an expensive detour from the
trip. We flew from Vic Falls to Harare where we will
be spending 3 nights to await emergency passports and
then fly onto Malawi to catch up with the truck.
Luckily, all we miss out on is a couple of long day
drives across Zambia.

So, here I am in Harare now, and I have found a great
internet cafe to finally email you all.

Hope everyone is well. Will try to email again but not
sure when that will be.

Dad & I are well and having a great time, despite this
little hiccup.

Take care

love Meagan

African Adventure - Swakopmund, Namibia

Yes, this is one of those group emails to keep you
updated about my travels in Africa.

Well, here I am in Swakopmund in Namibia in South West
Africa. Swakopmund is a German settlement on the
shores of the Atlantic Ocean in the middle of the
Namib desert. It is quite a little oasis in what is
otherwise a pretty barren & desolate, although
interesting, landscape.

This town is the home of many adrenalin activities
including sand boarding and quad biking. I have given
the sand boarding a miss, but I am doing the quad
biking this afternoon. And tomorrow, I am jumping out
of a plane at 10,000 feet over the Atlantic, dunes and
desert. How exciting!

This is day 8 of the Kumuka adventure which left Cape
Town last Sunday. Dad & I spent 2 days in Cape Town
before the Kumuka trip left. In Cape Town, we did a
half day trip to Robben Island which is the island
prison where Nelson Mandela was kept for 18 of his 27
years of imprisonment. In the afternoon, we did a top
deck bus tour of Cape Town. That night, we visited the
Victoria & Albert waterfront which is a thriving
restaurant and shopping district. I ordered Springbok,
which was lovely. (Sorry if you are a bambi
sympathiser!)

The next day we hired a car and drove down the
Atlantic Coast to the Cape of Good Hope. The scenic
drive was spectacular. In the afternoon, we drove back
to Cape town to catch the cable car up Table Mountain,
but, unfortunately, the weather set in and the cable
car was closed, so we did not get to go up Table
Mountain while in Cape Town.

The Kumuka truck is a huge beast. It is quite
luxurious in comparison to the Oasis truck which I did
the middle east trip in. The group is great. We have a
driver, tour leader and a trainee with 11 passengers,
so there are 14 of us all up. 8 Aussies and 6 Brits.
Not much of nationality variety but a good group
none-the-less.

The first day was very hard to handle. We drove 1 hour
to Stellenbosch in the wine region and spent the rest
of the day on a tour of 4 wine farms, which included
lunch. The wines were quite good and the scenery very impressive. We all
stocked up on wine for the rest of the trip.

Day 2 we drove to Citrusdal in the Cederberg
Wilderness area and bush camped near natural hot
springs. Again, a tough day!

Day 3 was a long drive north through South Africa to
the Orange River on the boarder with Namibia. We
crossed the boarder and camped on a grassy campsite on
a hill overlooking the river. The place was very
serene and the weather mild so must of us did not
bother pitching the tent and just slept under the
stars.

Day 4 and we did a 3 hour canoe trip up the Orange
River before getting back in the truck and driving to
Fish River Canyon. The Canyon is apparently the 2nd
largest in the world after the Grand Canyon. Not as
spectacular as the Grand Canyon, but worth the look.
We did a sunset walk along the rim of the canyon.

Day 5 was another long drive to Sesriem. We arrived
late afternoon and did a sunset walk down into Sesriem
canyon. This canyon was much much smaller but, in my
opinion, more interesting than Fish River Canyon.

Early 4:30am start on Day 6 for a short drive to
Soussosvlei where we climbed Dune 45 for the sunrise.
The climb up this 120m high sand dune was a hard slog
but well worth the views of the desert dunes and the spectacular colours
with the sunrise. The climb up took about 20-30 minutes and the run back
down the dune took about 2 minutes! After a quick breakfast we then went
on a 2 hour tour of the dunes to learn about the San bush men who lived
there in times past. After lunch we drove another 4 hours or so to
Bloedkippie bush camp. The drive was spectacular and we had our first
game viewing which was quite unexpected. The recent rains had meant
plenty of grass on the plains and hundreds of mountain zebra, springbok,
gemsbok, ostriches, jackals etc sprinting across the plains. It was
fantastic and this was definately the best day of the trip so far. Can't
wait until we get to Etosha to see the giraffes and elephants.

Day 7 we drove to Swakopmund in the morning and then
up to Cape Cross to see the amazing colony of Cape Fur
seals. The seals stink to high heaven and they are
quite stupid animals, but it was amazing to see so
many thousands of them in one spot. Drove back to
Swakopmund and booked into the hostel where we are
staying for 3 nights.

Last night, we went to a restaurant called Cape to
Cairo which has a variety of traditional African
dishes. I had ostrich kebabs which were very nice and
Dad has springok. Others had warthog and all sorts of
other African delicacies. It is a carnivores delight
over here!

Well, now you are up to date and I have to go to catch
my quad bike trip. Emails are pretty few and far
between but I will email again when I get a chance and
tell you how the sky diving went.


If you don't hear from me.....!!

love Meagan