Hi all
Just wanted to post a quick thank you to all those who helped me back in July when we decided to extend our 3 week September South Africa trip to a 9 week Southern Africa trip. It was a little chaotic to add on 6 weeks just 6 weeks before leaving, but in the end we had a great itinerary. This was the trip of a lifetime! what a blast. We traveled from Sept 17 to Nov 23rd.

The trip was part safari, part wandering and part urban. We visited South Africa, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia. We drank untold bottles of red wine and I took over 3000 photos.

I have made my very first attempt at a website as the pressure has been on to share photos. if you would like to take a look, it is still a work in progress but there are a lot of albums up, categorized both by place or type of animal. I did keep an email journal, which, consolidated is over 40 pages so I am still trying to figure out how to share some of that. Maybe a backdated blog?

The url is http://web.me.com/njwiggit I am open to suggestions or improvements from those who have done this before.

Again, thanks for all the advice and suggestions back in the summer. And Happy New Year.

cheers,
Nancie

hi nanciej

it's absolutely wonderful tu see yu here and watch all your great pix!

we have met during your trip but won't state here in order to protect my privacy.

isn't it a small world???????

all the best to you, family and friends for 2009!
and many happy landings

div

gosh that typings: to/you

div

Well this is just going to make me crazy! ;-)

nj

nanciej
i just loved your photos. and of course it made me very excited as i go on my first safari to Botswana in May.
i particularly loved the elephant close ups, as well as the frogs and insects, things many others have not posted.
any way i will study your shots as a lesson for my photography.
thanks so much for posting it all
amy

What a tremendous amount of travel time you were able to enjoy and 3000 pics in 67 is nothing.

You picked some outstanding examples out of those 3000. I loved the wider angles and the closeups of the various animal body parts.

I'd like to know about the chorus of frog photos. Were you in the delta in a mekoro or on a boat?

A great collection!

Yes we were in the Delta on a mokoro and actually I was using a macro lens for many of them. The reed frogs were not much longer than an inche and I would bend the reed over the boat, hold it between my toes and then try to focus the camera without tipping anything. It was quite comical and a lot of fun. Our poler was a great frog spotter and very steady holding us still. I love the frog and dragon fly shots. They were a big change of pace.

thanks for your comments too!

Nancie

Gosh, nanciej, what a great trip and lovely pics.

i like the way you've organised them too.

if I may take you up on your suggestions for a blog, rather than a straight diary, sections can be useful for us readers - accommodations, restaurants, how you organised the visit to the tribe in namibia, touring with kids tips...both why, and why not!

regards, ann

Thanks Ann. In terms of the journal, well, i didn't really write much about the restos and accommodations. It was more of an adventure story amusing our friends about our antics-not sure how helpful that would be. I am happy to give you details on any of the places we stayed and I do remember a few restaurants.

As for the Himba tribe, this was one of the reasons we went to the Elephant Lodge as they visit the Himba community often and it is quite close by. In fact, our ranger was a Herero speaking Himba from the larger community in Purros and he was fabulous translating and explaining everything for us, as well as putting us at ease about visiting.

As for kids, I have never toured with them. I imagine it would depend on their age and how good they are at amusing themselves for the long stretches of downtime between game drives when there is often not much to entertain you. That's even a challenge for me some days!

If I had to offer one piece of travel advice I will tell you the one thing we were most grateful for doing-keeping photocopies of all our id tucked away separately and only taking one set of financial cards out during the day. (one each of credit and debit) We were robbed in Port Elizabeth and didn't skip a beat for finances as we had a second set of cards locked away. The police were kind enough to give us a police report and Budget were willing to rent us our car with the police report and a photocopy of our drivers licenses. And I have to say, we booked part of our trip through cc africa and our consultant bent over backwards very quickly making things happen for us after we were robbed. Just incredible service, especially considering when we were robbed we were not even under their itinerary.

nancie

nancie

as i don't want to "turture" you: we did the elephant walk together ;-) pssst!

happy new year!

div

Too funny! I suspected. I was going to post "Did we eat lunch with elephants" or "did we boost your truck while watching lions?" BTW, did you see the pictures of that 3 legged cub we saw? img_0968 thru 0974 in my Okavango Delta album. He was such a special guy...

Happy New Year!

cheers,
Nancie

hi again, nanciej,

by the sound of it, your diary would make a great read, unedited.

thanks foor the tips about the ID photocopies - it's something I always mean to do but often forget to get round to before I go.

I'm not surprised that it was in PE that you got robbed - it was the only place we stopped between CPT and PE that I didn't really feel at ease. do yuo mind sharing the gory details?

more on your accommodation would be appreciated too.

Happy New Year,

regards, ann

nancie

we didn't see ny 3-legged cub and i cannot see it on the pics.maybe i need new glasses.....

we saw a heavily wounded cub which was badly limping coming from the water and joining the others.
the mother was with the other 2 cubs which were meowing loudly but very hesitant to let them drink. she also looked quiet skinny...
i hope they make it...........

have a wonderful new year and many happy landings!

the same to your travel companion!

div

Your right div-heavily wounded is a better description, although he was missing his entire back right foot. It was still quite bloody actually. The best picture i have is a little blurry, but I added it just in case you wanted to get a better look.
http://web.me.com/njwiggit/Site/Safa..._Delta.html#51

All the best to you folks as well!

cheers,
Nancie

nancie
it's strange....one day i can open your link and the next i can't.
today the latter

thank you for posting it. i am trying again and again and at one point i'll see it.

div

Beautiful pictures! What type of camera did you use?

Div it is working fine here... if it persists, try going through the home page at http://web.me.com/njwiggit. The images are in the OD album, number 0976 and 0977
The link I posted should have taken you directly to one of those photos.

travelinAmy, Thanks very much. I was using a Canon xti with a Canon 70-300 mm IS lens, and a 60 mm macro for the froggies and some of the dragon flies.

nj

Ann-so sorry I skipped over your post. Well, as for the robbery, we went to a beach with a local friend. The parking lot was empty as it wasn't a great day, and I guess as soon as we were over the dunes they smashed the car window and got into the boot. We would normally not have stopped ourselves given it was so quiet, but as we were with a local friend who goes there all the time, we went with the flow. We were only gone 15 minutes so I think they were watching the lot. Better they broke into the car though, than stopped us, which we were told was highly possible. The worst was they got my shoulder bag which I had shopped for for months! but no cash-we always have that on us.

As for accommodations, any place in particular? there were a lot of beds on this trip!! ;-)

nancie

nancie

today i got to see it. somehow one of my systems isn't functioning properly.

you are right: the foot was cut off. most probably a hyena attack. we didn't notice that just the limping. also our guide didn't mention it.

gosh - one of the reasons i couldn't live there getting confronted with these casualties on a regular basis. in know - not interfere with nature, nature takes its course etc etc....


div

Yes, our guide was quite sure it was a Hyena. It had apparently only just happened in the previous couple of days, and given it is still quite bloody that would make sense. He was such a brave little guy and his siblings didn't seem to treat him any differently-they just swatted him around like they did each other. ;-) We were surprised how far from the Mom he had wandered off the day we saw him though. Quite something watching him walking through that grassy field, his head bobbing up and down above the grass because of the limp. when we were in Grumetti last year we saw an older male missing the bottom of one leg. He was pretty skinny, but clearly had managed to survive with the help of the pack. Hopefully this guy will too...

nj