Douglas R. Winn Photography & Imaging

AFRICA 1998

In 1998 I lived near Jerusalem, Israel with my family, and was in the middle of constructing a Wafer Fab for Intel Corporation in Kiryat Gat, Israel.  Our time in Israel proved to be a "high point" in our lives for many reasons.  While there we found that it was a great "jumping off" place for traveling abroad.  Here is an essay that I wrote in 1998 describing a trip to Africa with my family.

Just Returned

Well, this morning we landed in Tel Aviv after a really wonderful two-week trip through portions of southern Africa. It was really an incredible time for all of us ... and it is kind of interesting right now, having just come out of Africa, that I find myself missing it in some ways that I never expected.

I really didn't know what to expect, except that I knew that it would be an adventure, and that my family and I would see some amazing things, ... and we did.

The Story

We left Ben Gurion Airport on the evening of December 28^th, after a hard, "final day of work" for me for 1997...it was a tough but productive day. We flew through the night and landed in Johannesburg, South Africa early the next morning. After nine hours of flying without getting very much sleep, we were a little groggy. Everything went very smoothly, however, and pretty soon we were on a 2-hour flight on Air Botswana to the interior city of Maun, Botswana, where we transferred to a Cessna 210 bush plane that took us into the Okavango Delta, deep in the heart of Botswana. Our destination was Mombo Camp, a safari camp in the pan and savanna part of the central Okavango River Delta.

Before I go much further, let me explain the uniqueness of the Okavango Delta. [It might even help if you take out your encyclopedia and look this up]. The Okavango Delta is a linge marsh/savadna/salt pan area that is created by the Okavango River as it flows out of Angola toward the southeast, ...into the Kalahari Desert. This is unique in that this river never rnakes it into any ocean! It simply flows until it dries up in the Kalahari Desert. It is very interesting to look at this on a satellite map of southern Africa. It has created a very unique ecosystem of waterways, marshes, savanna grasslands and salt pans. And the wild life is incredible. Botswana, probably one of the most stable countries in Africa, has taken its stewardship of it's land and natural resources very seriously ...this is evident in that poachers from Zambia, or other countries, are shot if caught and if they resist arrest. Period! It is interesting that ­even the animals seem know this, and it can be seen by their actions. In the animal world they don't have political borders like we do... they have natural territories. I was told that during the day the animals will go from Botswana's Chobe Park into Zambia... but in the evening, they hot-foot-it back into Chobe so that the poacher can't get them at night! Shmart, huh?

Mombo Camp

Anyway, back to the Okavango Delta. Our first stop was Mombo Camp [capacity=20 guests maximum], probably one of the best places to see the key wild life of the Delta. It is located in the Moremi Game Reserve. They have 4 of the Big 5 animals in the area around Mombo. This includes the Lion, Leopard, Elephant, and Cape Buffalo. Only the Rhino is not found here because they hardly exist in any location in Africa anymore except in Kruger Park in South Africa, and with some in Kenya.

Our daily routine at Mombo was to awake at 5:00 AM and be on a game drive by 5:30 or 6:00 AM. Our guide would drive us to various locations in the surrounding area until 10:00 AM, at which time we would have a wonderful brunch. We would then go on a 1-hour walk, or a special short drive to see sorne unique activity, and then be back to Camp for some rest. We would go back out on a drive by 4:30 PM and would observe wildlife until 7:30 PM when we had to be out of the Reserve.  We'd get back, clean up, and have a terrific dinner where we would converse about the day over some very good vitals!

At Mombo we saw buffalo, elephant, zebra, giraffe, warthog, baboon, impala, kudu, leopard, cheetah, and many other animals on our first evening. It blew our minds... because we would come wïthin a few meters of the wild animals! We, of course, stayed in our open landrover which the guide drove-but it is an incredible feeling sitting under an Umbrella Acacia tree with a leopard about 3 meters above you eating an impala with a wild hyena just about the same distance away on the ground, ready to slurp-up anything that the leopard might drop from its kill. I mean, we were close to the action.

Our guides name was RR. What a name. It stands for Racian Racian in his native tongue, which means "Lion Lion"; He also said that it meant "rock'n roll", and there were a couple of other suggestions as well! [We found out later from another guide at another camp that his friends say it means "Race Race"... because he likes to be on the move!]

The next day we were up according to the schedule, and again saw huge numbers of animals, including jaybock, wildebeast, and cheetah. In fact, one evening we saw a mother cheetah with eight rather large cubs just playing... we were about 10 rneters from them, right out in the open. We stayed there for about an hour!

It wasn't until our 5th game drive that we saw Lion. Generally, lion are seen often, but when we were there they were in a more remote part of the Delta, so RR took us way out until we found the lion. And I mean they were wonderful lion. Huge. One came withi.n a foot or two of our landraver, just looking us over. It makes the hair on the back of my neck standup to think that we could have been supper for a pride of lion if that was what they wanted-but as it is, the guides carry no guns, and the wild animals leave humans alone as long as they are in the landrovers. In fact, we were coached that if we are out and on foot and come across a wild animal, not ta run... but to stand still, facing the animal, and to slowly back away, but not to turn and run... or we'd be done for. We were told only to run if a buffalo charged us, because they keep coming once they start. That is why they are considered one of the most dangerous, and most feared animals in the wild.

We also got to see many very interesting birds.  I learned a lot about spotting the birds and I got a better understanding of the many varieties that exist in the bird world. I found it very interesting and enjoyable seeing them. [From the Haopoe, to the Hamerkop, to the Great Snipe (yup, it exists), to the Lilac breasted Kingfisher... and it goes on and on!]

Two of the highlights of Mombo have to be the sighting of the wild dogs [the only place in the world where the variety exists any more] and to see a group of Cheetahs feast on a brand new kill. It was atnazing.

Xigera Camp

We spent three nights at Mombo Camp, and then took another bush plane ride to Xigera [pronounced as Keej'-ra]. Xigera is a "water camp" when compared to Mombo which would be called a "dry camp". At Xigera we found ourselves in a more jungle-like area with many water channels, marsh beds, tree cover and islands. Though there are many of the same kinds of animals at Xigira, they are far fewer...  the bird-life is what really stands out at Xigera. And I mean bird-life. You can find most of the bird types of southern Africa at Xigera. Many of the visitors to Xigera come mainly to see birds, and we got to meet a number of these folks... and their interest in birds is infectious. Birds range from the Saddle-billed Stork that is bout 1.5 meters tall and can fly [it looks like a pterodactyl when it flies!] to little African Jacanas that are very colorful and dart up and down within the papyrus grass reeds.

At Xigera we went out in "mokoro" boats, which are "dug-out" water boats about two feet wide, 1 foot high and 12 feet long. A guide propels the mokoro by pushing it through the water with a long pole. Now, in 1998, these are made of fiberglass. .. though this is a very recent development. This is because the governments of southern Africa have slowed the cuiting of the large trees on their lands so that their forest areas are maintained as protective range areas [sound familiar?]. So, the new "rnokoros" are made of fiberglass from molds made from the old, wood dugouts. The guides like these fiberglass mokoros much better because the wooden ones would only last 5-6 years... and the fiberglass ones will last for decades. .. and are repairable... the wooden ones weren't repairable. So, "progress" has hit the heart of the African "mokoro" industry!

I loved going out in the makoros.  They were silent. You could hear all of the forest noises... the birds, the lions, the hippos, the buffalo, and the call of the baboons. As one sits in a mokoro, the reed grasses tower above, and it is like gliding through grass tunnels... except the tunnels are made by hippo and buffalo, two creatures you dont want to meet in a mokoro!

We did corne upon some buffalo when in a mokoro... and our guides got real quiet, spoke some hastened African tongue to each other, and off we went in a different direction ...to safety.

Victoria Falls

We were at Xigera for three nights as well. . . and then off by bush plane back to Maun, where we caught an Air Botswana flight to Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe.

Now, you may remember that Dr. Livïngstone [you rernember, "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?" jokes and stories?] was the first white man to see the falls [at least that was ever recorded]. And what a sight it must have been to him.

Of course, he didn't fly in to Vic-Falls like a 21st century tourist... he went as a missionary and as an explorer of central Africa for the British in the middle part of the nineteenth century. I'll tell you, when I saw the falls, I was struck silent...with a big "Whoa!" This dwarfs Niagara Falls, folks. It is simply huge. The Zambezi River flows west from central Africa, across the Zambian savanna, and then literally falls into the beginning-point of the Great Rift Valley that starts at that point and runs clear up through the Red Sea, through the Dead Sea, up the Jordan River Valley and ends in Lebanon! The Rift Valley at this point is only a couple of hundred meters wide, and the river is about a mile across when it falls over the edge of the Rift Valley, and the water, as it falls over the vertical face of the Valley displaces the air in the Valley, forcing a huge updraft to rise out of the Valley, carrying with it a plumb of water particles that rise several hundred meters above the top of the Valley! It looks like a ragged cloud moving up out of the Rift Valley with no hint of why.... until you look over the edge and see the Zambeze River crash over the edge of the Rift Valley into the 100 meter deep sliver of a gorge. The walls of the Valley are shear basalt, black as night, and they glisten in highlights as the light reflects off of them. When the sun is shining, wonderful rainbows are formed, making the place seem magic.  

Well, what happens after the water flows into the Rift Valley you ask? Well, my wife Kemi, and my two sons Abel, Adam, and I can tell you. It turns into a torrent of a river... a white water river, that is ... one with rafts in it so human beings can navigate through the narrow crack in the earth call the Zambeze Gorge. And, YES, we did go down the Zanibeze on a white water raft, with Adam, Abel and I in the front, and Kemi and two other ladies in the back, and a stellar guide named Charles coaching us on what to do as we went through the Class 5 rapids [the grading is on the British system with "6" as the worst possible]. We "portaged" around the only Class 6 rapid that was on our stretch of the river. What a thrill! And we have pictures and a video of the trip, so we have evidence to prove that we did it! [Now, why would we want "evidence" that we were so stupid to do something like that? Oh well... we didn't bunji jump off of the International Bridge that connects Zambia with Zimbabwe and which crosses the Gorge at the 100M point, so I guess that we have some intelligence left! ! ! ]

Lake Kariba

From Victoria Falls we went to Lake Kariba for three nights on a houseboat. It is about 500 KMs down the Zambezi River, at the head of a large lake created by the Kariba Dam [built in about 1958]. It is a very big lake, and rests on the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe. Around the lake are many, many inlets and coves which have reed beds, dead tree snags, and small river inlets. There is a lot of wild life along the shoreline, especially on the Zimbabwe side, though it exists on both sides in adequate numbers. We stopped at several very nice coves, saw a lot of hippo, elephant, and impala, but mostly more birds. We also fished for, and caught, tiger fish. They are fish that have a mouth like a piranha and the body of a bass, and fight like a "tiger" when caught. Abel and I both caught one.  When Abel was holding up his fish for a photo, the tiger fish got frisky and bit him on the finger causing a very bloody scene indeed... but Abel, in his nonchalant way, shrugged it off, put some dope on it with a bandage and was fine.

Our boat was OK- but the food was great! It was captained by a man named "Shylock" [kind of scary, huh?] and he had his trusty sidekick "Dudy" as the cook and worker. Let me tell you, Dudy was always - on "duty", working and cooking like a champ. We really liked him. Old Captain Shylock was all right, but it was Dudy that made the trip for us. In a conversation with Adam, he indicated that he was a believer and attended a Baptist Church in Kariba. It showed.

From Kariba, we flew to Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe, for one evening before heading back to Israel. While in Harare, we shopped for some souvenirs and had some pretty good success. It was fun "bargaining" with the hawkers.

From Harare we flew down to Johannesburg to catch our El Al flight back to Tel Aviv.

We had a wonderful time, the Lord was very good to us in every way, and now it is time to face 1998 head-on.