Visiting a Local Village

Most tourists to Victoria Falls stay at one of the "western style" hotels and never venture out to see what the community looks like. So one morning, we visited a local village. The poverty in Africa really became evident. It's quite apparent why the work being done by Bono, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Clinton Foundation is so important.

The village we visited is rather well off since the government paid them to take land for a nearby electric generating plant and the power lines. I'm certain that more remote villages are even more needy. The village does have a school that operates to a certain age level and a medical clinic that is staffed two days a week.

A major source of income for the villagers is a souvenir market they operate. A number of the villagers make baskets, wood carvings, and paintings to sell. We felt somewhat ashamed to bargain since the needs of the people were so great. On the other hand, they are so pushy at trying to sell us stuff, they actually alienate some tourists and hurt themselves in the process. This is one case where a "soft selling" technique and reasonable prices would net the villagers a lot more revenue.

Satellite Images of Zambezi River Flowing Over Victoria Falls

First a history and geography lesson - Description of Victoria Falls from Wikipedia:

The Victoria Falls or Mosi-oa-Tunya are one of the world's most spectacular waterfalls. The falls are situated on the Zambezi River, on the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe, and are roughly 1.7 km (1 mile) wide and 128 m (420 ft) high. They are considered a remarkable spectacle because of the peculiar narrow slot-like chasm into which the water falls, so one can view the falls face-on.

David Livingstone, the Scottish explorer, visited the falls in 1855 and renamed them after Queen Victoria, though they were known locally as Mosi-oa-Tunya, the "smoke that thunders". The falls are part of two national parks, Mosi-oa-Tunya National Park in Zambia and Victoria Falls National Park in Zimbabwe, and are one of Southern Africa's major tourist attractions. They are also a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Vastly larger than North America's Niagara Falls, Victoria is only rivalled by South America's Iguazu Falls (excluding large rapid like falls such as Livingston de Chutes). Iguazu and Victoria are generally regarded as the world's most spectacular waterfalls, with people divided as to which is the more impressive. Whilst Iguazu is divided into over 270 (relatively) 'small' falls and cataracts, Victoria is the largest single sheet of water in the world , over 100 meters tall in parts, and over one mile wide.


NASA Satellite image showing the broad Zambezi River falling into the narrow cleft and subsequent series of zigzagging gorges. Jordan did NOT take this picture. Click on the picture to see a larger image.

If you go to the following link you see an even more amazing sateliite image of Victoria Falls. Click on "View the Full Size Image". Our hotel is in the picture just above the falls and the swimming pool is visible. Space Imaging

Photos of Victoria Falls

Will someone please jiggle the toilet handle?

We're outside of Livingstone, Zambia at Victoria Falls. Our hotel, the Zambezi Sun, is only a few steps away from the entrance to the falls. We can hear the falls all day and night. Sometimes you wish they'd shut it off for a while.

We are on the Zambian side of the falls. This is right on the border with Zimbabwe - like the way Niagara Falls is shared by the U.S. and Canada. Most tourists stay here in Zambia because the accommodations are much better and the political situation in Zimbabwe has been dicey the past few years.

We'll post some pictures in the next blog post. Taking a tour of the falls in the morning and then we're taking a helicopter ride over the falls in the afternoon. Conditions permitting, I may be able to post some video clips of our heli ride.

Click this link for a
Satellite image of Zambezi River and Victoria Falls

Here's the weather at Victoria Falls. They only report the weather to international news services a couple of times a day, so the sticker below may show "data unavailable."

Returned from the Bushveld

Jackalberry Safari Lodge was amazing. We took so many pictures and video.

Internet access was almost non-existent out in the bush. They only had a slow speed dial-up line. We didn't bother to use it.

This place was great. We went out on a game drive every morning at 6:15AM and every afternoon at 3:30PM. The game drives lasted about 4 hours each. Our driver, Dave, and our tracker, Lawrence, were really good. We kidded Lawrence that he could track the animals based on the size, shape, and freshness of their droppings.

Caren told them that their tip would be based on how many animals we saw. So, we think they drove us around to see the same animals multiple times.

We saw the Big 5, minus one, the leopard. We saw elephants, lions (including them gnawing on a buffalo carcass they had killed), buffalo (not at all like our North American bison), and rhino (ugly devils).

We rode in a totally open vehicle and were able to get within a few feet of all the animals. They couldn't care at all about us. To them, the vehicles aren't a threat and they leave them alone.

Now, we're outside of Johannesburg for one night before heading to Livingstone, Zambia and Victoria Falls - one of the seven natural wonders of the world.

Photos from Our Stay at Jackalberry Lodge

Here are a few photos we took during our stay at Jackalberry Lodge in Thornybush Game Reserve just outside of Kruger National Park. More to follow.

Safari Time!

This morning we're off to Jackalberry Safari Lodge outside of Kruger National Park in the northeast part of South Africa. We fly from Cape Town to J'burg, change planes, and take a "puddle jumper" to Hoedspruit.

We're not sure what kind of internet services exist where we're going, so we may go silent on you until we get back to J'burg in several days.

We're going to be at the foot of the Drakensburg Mountains, supposedly with some fantastic sunrises and sunsets in store for us (weather permitting). This time of year (winter) there is a good chance we'll see all the big animals as well as a lot of birds. The Jackalberry Lodge is located on one of the huge private game reserves outside of Kruger Park.

We don't want to hear any Tarzan and Jane jokes when you see pictures we post from the safari camps. This is NOT the African jungle, but the bushveld.

Touring Around Cape Town

Well, the weather finally cleared a bit and we made it down Cape Point all the way to the Cape of Good Hope. This is the southwesternmost point on the African continent. Just when you think you're getting close to the South Pole, you see a sign at Cape Point that says we're still a LONG way off - 3,800 miles further.










We stopped along the tour at an Ostrich Farm, and of course, Caren had to feed the animals. She wanted to take an ostrich home. She settled for a painted ostrich egg - another dustible for the living room.










Here is Caren at the Cape of Good Hope. The weather was blustery - about 5 minutes later it started to rain. We got some great shots from Cape Point, looking across False bay back towards Cape Town.















We also travelled to Stellenbosch - the heart of South African wine country. Coincidentally, we stopped at Jordan Winery. Of course, we had to have a tasting and buy a bottle. They gave us a glass with their logo on it. Will be an interesting conversation piece. This winery is not to be confused with the Jordan Winery in California - different owners, not related. When the SA winery imports into the U.S., they stick a different label on it "Jardin".

Stellenbosch is an old Dutch Cape city and the home of a large university. Lots of old houses kept as national landmarks from the Dutch era in the 1600s-1800s.

A Few More Photos from Cape Town

Table Mountain
















View from Cape Point northwards across False Bay

We've arrived in Cape Town

We FINALLY got to Cape Town last night. The flight from New York to Johannesburg made flights we've taken from LA to Sydney or LA to Hong Kong seem like "puddle jumpers." The overall flight time was 17 hours AND then we had a 3.5 hour layover before a two hour flight to Cape Town.

Today we took a half day tour of Cape Town. It was disappointing that the weather prevented us going to the top of Table Mountain. We'll try again tomorrow when the weather is supposed to improve.

Cape Town is very compact. We're staying at the waterfront which has been built up with lots of great shops, restaurants, and hotels. Going to sample seafood and Cape Malay cuisine tonight.

We're off to South Africa

Once again we're about to cross the equator and head to the southern hemisphere. A LONG flight from NYC to Johannesburg later today on South African Airways, then a connection to our first "port of call" - Cape Town. Total travel time before our head hits the pillow at our hotel is going to be about 24 hours.

We stopped first in New York for a couple of days. The weather here is like walking into a steam bath. Last night the skies opened up, lightning and thunder hammered the city, and rain came down in sheets (all while we were trying to get to a theatre). New Yorkers are very creative when it comes to rain gear - I never knew that trash bags could be worn so stylishly by so many people.

Despite the rigors of the long haul to SA, we should be in for a great time. It's winter down there, so we're prepared for some chilly days in Cape Town. Kinda like L.A. in winter - it's at the same latitude and with similar climate.























Cape Town is supposed to be one of the most picturesque cities in the world - Table Mountain, Cape of Good Hope, V&A Waterfront, winelands. Lots more info and pictures to follow.

Here's a satellite map showing our itinerary: Microsoft Virtual Earth Map

Here's a cool interactive map of Cape Town: Map of Cape Town

Check out today's weather in Cape Town:

Riding our bikes along the beach

We've been trying to ride our bicycles for 15-25 miles along the South Bay Beach Bike Trail once or twice a week.

Last week we had a beautiful day (every day in SoCal is a beautiful day) and the scenery made for some great pictures. Here are a few of our pics:

Picasa Web Album from the beach

Preparing for the next expedition

It's been a while since our last post. We've been making preparations for our travels for the rest of 2006.

We head off to southern Africa at the end of June, going to South Africa, Zambia, and Botswana. We bought a couple of safari vests to hold our camera gear during our game drives/hikes. The vests make us look like dorks, but who cares? Taking along a lot of old khaki clothes as well. Do the animals really care what we look like?

It's going to be winter down there, so we expect something like LA's winter when we're in Cape Town and then cool, dry weather everywhere else.

The fellow from Southern Hemisphere Wines gave us some useful suggestions about wineries to visit in the Cape Town area and wines to order with meals while there.

In October, we're still planning to do a B&R bike trip thru Puglia, Italy and include a pre-trip for four days in Tuscany and a post-trip for two days in Rome. We've been bicycling along the South Bay beach trail for 20+ miles every week to keep our rear ends in shape.

Then in late November we're taking the kids to Peru for eight days and visiting Lima, Cusco, Arequipa (Colca Canyon), and Machu Picchu. First time the family will take a trip together since we went to Hawaii when the kids were still in high school.

Finished editing our pictures

Finally, we finished going thru and editing the 2,000+ pictures from our trip to Vietnam and Cambodia. Our DVD is done - it took two disks to get everything on there and to avoid crashing my computer due to the huge files I had to manipulate. Time to buy a new PC??

Here is a small sample of our photos:



I posted a lot more photos out on Flickr. If you're interested in seeing more, click on these links to my Flickr slide shows:

Vietnam_Cambodia Slide Set 1

Vietnam_Cambodia Slide Set 2

I went to the Google Open House in Santa Monica last night. It was great to see some of the old gang from the days of Applied Semantics. Everyone is doing well and immersed in their Google jobs. They seem to be moving on in life - getting married, buying houses, having children, seeing the world, climbing the career ladder, managing people.

Gee - I remember those days at IBM. Here's a scary thought - Google today reminds me a bit of IBM back in the 1970s. Everyone feels like they're on top of the world, work is fun, the company is riding high, and you work hard and play hard. I sure hope Google doesn't run into the same fate as IBM.

Back in the Saddle Again

Today, we took our first bicycle ride since the trip to Vietnam. Cycled for 25 miles along the beach bike bath. It seemed so easy compared to the rides on our recent trip. I suppose that the 65 degree temperature and 60% humidity had to something to do with it (versus 100 degrees and 95% humidity in Vietnam and Cambodia).

The traffic was a bigger nuisance. Avoiding the pedestrians, baby strollers, skateboarders, inline skaters, dogs, and other cyclists was more difficult than dealing the motorbikes and cattle on Vietnam's roads. I think we'll stick to bicycling on weekdays when there is a lot less traffic.

We started planning for our next trip. We booked a safari tour of South Africa, Zambia, and Botswana for late June/early July. No bicycling this time.

We are thinking of doing our next bicycling trip in southern Italy (Puglia). Booked it for mid-October and now we need to do some planning for a pre-trip and/or post-trip extension elsewhere in Italy.

The boys (Winston and Spencer) are very happy that we're home for a while. They went to the day spa on Thursday to get bathed and trimmed. They seem a lot happier now that they smell nice and look good. They also like their sleeping accommodations a lot better - our bed and/or the doggie bed in our bedroom.

Even the cats are hanging around us a lot more - like they missed us. That's hard to believe because with a cat if you leave them alone and feed them, they could care less.

Oh, one more thing. The cockatiel eggs were not fertile, but they are still trying.

Still need to do more editing on the pictures from the last trip. The first cut didn't turn out to our liking and still included way too many pictures.