Zambia--what an amazing journey!
Oct 11th, 2006, 08:49 AM
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Zambia--what an amazing journey!
We have just returned from the most amazing trip of our lives. Watching lions sleeping, lions hunting, lions feeding on a minutes-old kill, a mom leopard defending her cubs and imppala kill from marauding hyenas, 500-strong herds of cape buffalo, trapped on a walk by elephants and buffalo, Ruth being dumped into the water by a startled hippo, bee-eaters lining up on a deadfall, all holding juicy insects in their beaks, fishing for, and catching tigerfish, eating wonderful food, logistics that went smoothly (well, mostly), and the people. What wonderful people! From staff, managers, owners, and guides, to local residents, teachers in schools with no roofs dedicated to students anxious to learn--English!
And more, so much more. Zambia is a place, and our trip an experience that no words, no pictures can adequately convey. We've had many wonderful times at many wonderful places, but we have invariably been ready to come home. This was truly the first time, after being away from home for over two weeks that we did not want to leave, that leaving was an emotional experience. So sad were we that our wonderful guide at Luangwa River Lodge, Victor, graciously took us a short, farewell early game drive before driving us to the airport.
Pictures will have to wait as I was still shooting film (42 rolls) with my telephoto and it will take a bit to get the slides developed, culled, scanned, integrated with the digitals from the P&S's , and posted.
I hope you will enjoy reading as much I will enjoy reliving our experience of a lifetime.
Jim
And more, so much more. Zambia is a place, and our trip an experience that no words, no pictures can adequately convey. We've had many wonderful times at many wonderful places, but we have invariably been ready to come home. This was truly the first time, after being away from home for over two weeks that we did not want to leave, that leaving was an emotional experience. So sad were we that our wonderful guide at Luangwa River Lodge, Victor, graciously took us a short, farewell early game drive before driving us to the airport.
Pictures will have to wait as I was still shooting film (42 rolls) with my telephoto and it will take a bit to get the slides developed, culled, scanned, integrated with the digitals from the P&S's , and posted.
I hope you will enjoy reading as much I will enjoy reliving our experience of a lifetime.
Jim
Oct 11th, 2006, 08:58 AM
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Hi Jim!!! Welcome back to the rat race. ;-)
So glad to hear you had a life-altering trip in Zambia. I knew you would! Can't wait to hear more, but, no pressure. I can't beleive Ruth got dumped into the river! Which river?!
Didn't you just love Chiawa and LRL?
Cheers,
Sharon
So glad to hear you had a life-altering trip in Zambia. I knew you would! Can't wait to hear more, but, no pressure. I can't beleive Ruth got dumped into the river! Which river?!
Didn't you just love Chiawa and LRL?
Cheers,
Sharon
Oct 11th, 2006, 09:07 AM
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Oh, and I'd be remiss if I didn't give a huge thanks to Rocco Morelli who put our trip together. I've never met him in person and did not know him until I discovered this forum in my many hours of googling different places and tour companies. Not only did he tune in immediately to what we were looking for (we wanted it all!), and didn't want, he was very patient with me, addressing all the anxieties of a newbie safari-goer.
He has taken his considerable first hand experience and passion for Africa and created Destiny Africa. If you are planning to go to Africa, it would really be worthwhile to check it out for price and service along with other agencies you are considering.
Jim
He has taken his considerable first hand experience and passion for Africa and created Destiny Africa. If you are planning to go to Africa, it would really be worthwhile to check it out for price and service along with other agencies you are considering.
Jim
Oct 11th, 2006, 10:06 AM
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Oh okay, I'll jump ahead a bit. Actually writing and reliving our trip beats by a mile the stuff I should be doing. Ruth's close encounter of could-have-been-the-worst kind was in the Chifungulu Channel, a beautiful channel full of wildlife paralleling the main Zambezi between Sausage Tree Camp and Old Mondoro Bush Camp (an incredible place where we stayed for three nights--not nearly long enough).
Ruth is thinking about starting a rather, thankfully, exclusive club of people who have been dumped into the water by hippos and survived. It would be called, naturally, HIPPO, but we're still working on the words to fit the acronym. Ideas would be most welcome.
We have lots of recommendations re. our first hand experiences. The obvious like don't take too much stuff and take a good first aid kit. But a few not so obvious, like investing in waterproof binoculars, and getting a water resistant point and shoot digital camera. Ruth had both, and, although the P&S was only rated "weather resistant," it came through a throuough dunking with flying colors, needing only a good rinsing to get the mud off. Her binoculars, likewise, even surviving, without a scratch, the well-meaning but misguided wiping of the lenses with a muddy cloth (before I could stop him) by Ruth's embarrassed and shaken guide.
Pictures of the leopard encounter--Well, if ever there was impetus to switch totally to digital this was it. Because, as anxious as you are to see the photos, there's no comparison to my anxiety, not only of the leopard pictures, but of so many more that looked good--no great--through the view finder.
Some of our best encounters and potential photo ops were in low light or at night (including the leopard incident). I was shooting very good res, but low speed Velvia 100 slide film. I used the most powerful flash Canon makes, rhe 580, and the imagage-stabilized 300mm f/4.0 L lens with a 1.4 converter. This was the first time I had used IS, except for experimenting with a couple of rolls before the trip, and it appears to work fine, but I would have felt more confident had I had the ability to up the ISO in low light, as can be easily done with digital SLR's, even with the accompanying loss of image quality.
One of our guides, Joe, at Chiawa, had a Rebel with the 70-200 f/2.8 L IS lens , and when we had a sighting of an owl just at dark, I had him put on my telephoto. He upped the ISO to 800 and made a couple of shots with the camera's small built in flash. They looked quite good on his camera's LCD.
So, here's crossing my fingers (and toes) re. the photos.
Jim
Ruth is thinking about starting a rather, thankfully, exclusive club of people who have been dumped into the water by hippos and survived. It would be called, naturally, HIPPO, but we're still working on the words to fit the acronym. Ideas would be most welcome.
We have lots of recommendations re. our first hand experiences. The obvious like don't take too much stuff and take a good first aid kit. But a few not so obvious, like investing in waterproof binoculars, and getting a water resistant point and shoot digital camera. Ruth had both, and, although the P&S was only rated "weather resistant," it came through a throuough dunking with flying colors, needing only a good rinsing to get the mud off. Her binoculars, likewise, even surviving, without a scratch, the well-meaning but misguided wiping of the lenses with a muddy cloth (before I could stop him) by Ruth's embarrassed and shaken guide.
Pictures of the leopard encounter--Well, if ever there was impetus to switch totally to digital this was it. Because, as anxious as you are to see the photos, there's no comparison to my anxiety, not only of the leopard pictures, but of so many more that looked good--no great--through the view finder.
Some of our best encounters and potential photo ops were in low light or at night (including the leopard incident). I was shooting very good res, but low speed Velvia 100 slide film. I used the most powerful flash Canon makes, rhe 580, and the imagage-stabilized 300mm f/4.0 L lens with a 1.4 converter. This was the first time I had used IS, except for experimenting with a couple of rolls before the trip, and it appears to work fine, but I would have felt more confident had I had the ability to up the ISO in low light, as can be easily done with digital SLR's, even with the accompanying loss of image quality.
One of our guides, Joe, at Chiawa, had a Rebel with the 70-200 f/2.8 L IS lens , and when we had a sighting of an owl just at dark, I had him put on my telephoto. He upped the ISO to 800 and made a couple of shots with the camera's small built in flash. They looked quite good on his camera's LCD.
So, here's crossing my fingers (and toes) re. the photos.
Jim
Oct 11th, 2006, 10:36 AM
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Sadly, no. Ruth is hopping a plane to Denver this evening, has another trip next week, then we leave for Alaska the week following.
I do hope that Rocco is able/willing to do it again in early Dec. as he mentioned on the get-together thread. Would definitely try for it then.
Jim
I do hope that Rocco is able/willing to do it again in early Dec. as he mentioned on the get-together thread. Would definitely try for it then.
Jim
Oct 12th, 2006, 09:23 AM
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Well, still a bit jet-lagged and up since 4 a.m. Downloaded to the computer and burned a CD of the sounds I recorded early morning from our tent at Old Mondoro Bush Camp. The stereo external microphone I had ordered didn't get here in time, but it still sounds pretty good. There's something about the tuba-like "ho-ho-ho's" of hippos that we found very soothing--and connect us to that wonderful place even though we are now a half a world away.
Never did get back to sleep so thought I'd get underway with preliminaries to the trip.
Our itinerary was as follows:
Sept. 21--San Francisco, SFO, to Heathrow LHR via BA.
Sept. 22--LHR to Lusaka LUN
Sept. 23--LUN to Chiawa in Lower Zambezi National Park via Zambian Air
Sept. 23, 24, 25--Chiawa
Sept. 26--Chiawa to Sausage Tree
Sept. 27--Sausage Tree to Old Mondoro Bush Camp via canoe
Sept. 27, 28--Old Mondoro
Sept. 29--Old MOndoro to Sausage Tree
Sept. 30--Sausage Tree to LUN
Sept. 30--LUN to Mfue to Luangwa River Lodge
Sept. 30, Oct. 1,2,3,4,5--Luangwa River Lodge, LRL, South Luangwa National Park
Oct. 6--LRL to Taj Pamozdi, Lusaka
Oct. 7--Lusaka to LHR
Oct. 7,8--Claverly Hotel, London
Oct. 9--LHR to SFO
When we started planning our first African safari ever, we literally looked at the whole range of possibilities, from South Africa, to Botswana, to Kenya, to Namibia to Tanzania. Zambia never entered into our considerations. Hell, I had no idea where it was and had only vaguely heard of it.
We did have some requirements, though.
While we, of course wanted to see lots of game and as many of Africa's wild criters as possible, we didn't have a requisite Big 5, Big 1, or Big 10 list that we just had to see. More important to us was the overall experience.
We didn't want to be in fenced in camps or fenced parks. We didn't want to have to compete with other vehicles to view game. We didn't want to be in big camps or lodges with multiple rooms. We wanted to be able to do walks, be around water and have opportunities to canoe and fish. Given that photography is very important to me, I was also concerned about being jammed into vehicle with lots of other people, many of whom would likely resent the extra time and space needed for taking quality photos.
Oh, and we thought it would be fun to "rough it" for part of the trip but end with a bit of luxury.
We also didn't want to rush from camp to camp, but wanted to settle in for at least a few day at a time. Speaking of which, we were also constrained by the amount of time we could be away from home. Two weeks in camps plus travel time and an extra night layover in London were about as long as we could justify. And, we started our planning quite late, based on everything I've read, only getting serious in April about going before the rains began in November.
Ruth was originally attracted to South Africa, but, even though rich in game-viewing opportunities plus having lots of other attractions, it looked like we would have lots other company. (However, Garlyloos fabulous trip report about his three weeks there has changed my thinking for a future trip).
Ngorongoro Crater looked amazing for its density of game, but, again, as I researched it, it looked like take-a-number game viewing. Other parts of Tanzania, and Kenya--just couldn't get my arms around all the possibilities, and it looked to me that, knowing so little, we could end up being unhappy, given our desires.
Botswana appeared to offer just about everything we were looking for, but the places that looked most appealing to us (yes, Mombo), struck us as more expensive than I could justify. Again, though, it looks like there are some wonderful alternatives.
Whatever itinerary we chose, it was going to be far more expensive than any other trip that we have ever on.
While my past life engineering background should have helped with sorting the pluses and minuses of each option, I kept harking back to the only less than good experience we had in our mostly wonderful trip to India last year. It resulted from what I thought was the most careful of planning but over-reliance on website long on nice artwork but short on telling the truth. Conversely, some of our best experiences were happy happenstance.
So days and weeks passed while I dithered. Then, while googling heaven knows what, I found this forum. I no longer had to rely on glitzy websites that might not be all they were claiming to be. I was now getting info straight from the horses' mouths so to speak from some of the most civil, articulate people I have never met.
And then came Rocco. Unlike most of the large tour operators I had contacted, he quickly tuned into what we were looking for and what we didn't want. When we first started communicating, he (and Julian) hadn't yet started their Destiny Africa. Maybe it was already in planning. Whatever. He never seemed to be "pushing" any option other than his pure enthusiasm for a place based on his own personal experiences.
So, after many iterations we settled on the itinerary above, driven to some extent by the late date. Hence the rather strange looking split one night stays at Sausage Tree, that turned out to be quite serendipitous, for reasons that will be explained later.
I have to tell you that sending a rather big deposit check to someone sight unseen and met through an online forum, and then a much bigger check for the balance of payment is something I thought I would never ever do. But, I've found that going with my feelings--and my feelings were good about Rocco--has worked well for me, often better than the careful, risk averse engineering process part of me.
Now it was time to get ready.
Never did so much time and effort go into packing so little. On our departure date, LHR was still under the one briefcase-sized carry-on rule (which was relaxed the very day when we reached London. No matter.
John, the BA carry-on bag cop passed my Lowepro camera bag which I had ordered specifically to comply with the carry-on size limits. Ruth had a day pack which was not full. When she put in into the box, she had to push on it a bit to get it to fit within the box. "No good," said John. "No squeezing allowed." So there were
Ruth redistripbuting items such as my 42 rolls of film (out of their cannisters) and a portable, battery powered printer (more about that later). It was really pretty comical, and I will post the wuick pic I took of John looking on with Ruth's little day pack sticking its top out of the box.
The flight was uneventful, the food was okay, movies lousy, but the 747's legroom in coach is barely acceptable even for me and I'm only 5'-10". We had to go through another in'depth security screening when we got off the plane at LHR, and it was pretty disorganized chaos. Then there was the 20 minute bus ride to Terminal 4. The first time I was happy (well, not exactly) to have a long layover between flights, because two hours wouldn't been enough time.
There was more leg room on the 767 to Lusaka, and we grabbed a little nap time. Not much, though, because I kept looking at the screen showing our progress over the vast African continent.
I had some anxiety over the visa waiver, and who would meet us at our arrival. But not to worry! As we got off the plane, there was the smiling Dave Cummings, owner of Chiawa along with his wife, Jenny, and son Grant. It seemed as if everyone in the A/P was on a first name basis with Dave, and he has an all-access badge that allows him to go to just about any place within the a/p, which proved to be very handy in trying to track down for lost luggage.
He had our visa waivers in hand, and shepherd us through customs and to baggage claim. Here I encountered my only travel glitch. I had packed my fly reel and flies into my baggage, but the rod I brought had to be checked because it was too long to be carried on. It never showed up (still hasn't as I write this). No big deal as I was able to borrow equipment.
Anyway, we had arrived in Africa, and here was this most wonderful, interesting, and dedicated-to-service man to greet us and make sure that we would be safely on our way via Cessna Caravan to Chiawa.
Next: Chiawa
Never did get back to sleep so thought I'd get underway with preliminaries to the trip.
Our itinerary was as follows:
Sept. 21--San Francisco, SFO, to Heathrow LHR via BA.
Sept. 22--LHR to Lusaka LUN
Sept. 23--LUN to Chiawa in Lower Zambezi National Park via Zambian Air
Sept. 23, 24, 25--Chiawa
Sept. 26--Chiawa to Sausage Tree
Sept. 27--Sausage Tree to Old Mondoro Bush Camp via canoe
Sept. 27, 28--Old Mondoro
Sept. 29--Old MOndoro to Sausage Tree
Sept. 30--Sausage Tree to LUN
Sept. 30--LUN to Mfue to Luangwa River Lodge
Sept. 30, Oct. 1,2,3,4,5--Luangwa River Lodge, LRL, South Luangwa National Park
Oct. 6--LRL to Taj Pamozdi, Lusaka
Oct. 7--Lusaka to LHR
Oct. 7,8--Claverly Hotel, London
Oct. 9--LHR to SFO
When we started planning our first African safari ever, we literally looked at the whole range of possibilities, from South Africa, to Botswana, to Kenya, to Namibia to Tanzania. Zambia never entered into our considerations. Hell, I had no idea where it was and had only vaguely heard of it.
We did have some requirements, though.
While we, of course wanted to see lots of game and as many of Africa's wild criters as possible, we didn't have a requisite Big 5, Big 1, or Big 10 list that we just had to see. More important to us was the overall experience.
We didn't want to be in fenced in camps or fenced parks. We didn't want to have to compete with other vehicles to view game. We didn't want to be in big camps or lodges with multiple rooms. We wanted to be able to do walks, be around water and have opportunities to canoe and fish. Given that photography is very important to me, I was also concerned about being jammed into vehicle with lots of other people, many of whom would likely resent the extra time and space needed for taking quality photos.
Oh, and we thought it would be fun to "rough it" for part of the trip but end with a bit of luxury.
We also didn't want to rush from camp to camp, but wanted to settle in for at least a few day at a time. Speaking of which, we were also constrained by the amount of time we could be away from home. Two weeks in camps plus travel time and an extra night layover in London were about as long as we could justify. And, we started our planning quite late, based on everything I've read, only getting serious in April about going before the rains began in November.
Ruth was originally attracted to South Africa, but, even though rich in game-viewing opportunities plus having lots of other attractions, it looked like we would have lots other company. (However, Garlyloos fabulous trip report about his three weeks there has changed my thinking for a future trip).
Ngorongoro Crater looked amazing for its density of game, but, again, as I researched it, it looked like take-a-number game viewing. Other parts of Tanzania, and Kenya--just couldn't get my arms around all the possibilities, and it looked to me that, knowing so little, we could end up being unhappy, given our desires.
Botswana appeared to offer just about everything we were looking for, but the places that looked most appealing to us (yes, Mombo), struck us as more expensive than I could justify. Again, though, it looks like there are some wonderful alternatives.
Whatever itinerary we chose, it was going to be far more expensive than any other trip that we have ever on.
While my past life engineering background should have helped with sorting the pluses and minuses of each option, I kept harking back to the only less than good experience we had in our mostly wonderful trip to India last year. It resulted from what I thought was the most careful of planning but over-reliance on website long on nice artwork but short on telling the truth. Conversely, some of our best experiences were happy happenstance.
So days and weeks passed while I dithered. Then, while googling heaven knows what, I found this forum. I no longer had to rely on glitzy websites that might not be all they were claiming to be. I was now getting info straight from the horses' mouths so to speak from some of the most civil, articulate people I have never met.
And then came Rocco. Unlike most of the large tour operators I had contacted, he quickly tuned into what we were looking for and what we didn't want. When we first started communicating, he (and Julian) hadn't yet started their Destiny Africa. Maybe it was already in planning. Whatever. He never seemed to be "pushing" any option other than his pure enthusiasm for a place based on his own personal experiences.
So, after many iterations we settled on the itinerary above, driven to some extent by the late date. Hence the rather strange looking split one night stays at Sausage Tree, that turned out to be quite serendipitous, for reasons that will be explained later.
I have to tell you that sending a rather big deposit check to someone sight unseen and met through an online forum, and then a much bigger check for the balance of payment is something I thought I would never ever do. But, I've found that going with my feelings--and my feelings were good about Rocco--has worked well for me, often better than the careful, risk averse engineering process part of me.
Now it was time to get ready.
Never did so much time and effort go into packing so little. On our departure date, LHR was still under the one briefcase-sized carry-on rule (which was relaxed the very day when we reached London. No matter.
John, the BA carry-on bag cop passed my Lowepro camera bag which I had ordered specifically to comply with the carry-on size limits. Ruth had a day pack which was not full. When she put in into the box, she had to push on it a bit to get it to fit within the box. "No good," said John. "No squeezing allowed." So there were
Ruth redistripbuting items such as my 42 rolls of film (out of their cannisters) and a portable, battery powered printer (more about that later). It was really pretty comical, and I will post the wuick pic I took of John looking on with Ruth's little day pack sticking its top out of the box.
The flight was uneventful, the food was okay, movies lousy, but the 747's legroom in coach is barely acceptable even for me and I'm only 5'-10". We had to go through another in'depth security screening when we got off the plane at LHR, and it was pretty disorganized chaos. Then there was the 20 minute bus ride to Terminal 4. The first time I was happy (well, not exactly) to have a long layover between flights, because two hours wouldn't been enough time.
There was more leg room on the 767 to Lusaka, and we grabbed a little nap time. Not much, though, because I kept looking at the screen showing our progress over the vast African continent.
I had some anxiety over the visa waiver, and who would meet us at our arrival. But not to worry! As we got off the plane, there was the smiling Dave Cummings, owner of Chiawa along with his wife, Jenny, and son Grant. It seemed as if everyone in the A/P was on a first name basis with Dave, and he has an all-access badge that allows him to go to just about any place within the a/p, which proved to be very handy in trying to track down for lost luggage.
He had our visa waivers in hand, and shepherd us through customs and to baggage claim. Here I encountered my only travel glitch. I had packed my fly reel and flies into my baggage, but the rod I brought had to be checked because it was too long to be carried on. It never showed up (still hasn't as I write this). No big deal as I was able to borrow equipment.
Anyway, we had arrived in Africa, and here was this most wonderful, interesting, and dedicated-to-service man to greet us and make sure that we would be safely on our way via Cessna Caravan to Chiawa.
Next: Chiawa
Oct 12th, 2006, 01:00 PM
#13
Another fan here! I'm anxiously awaiting the next installment. I have my 2007 destination picked out already (mobile safari in Bots) but you Zambia people sure have lots of good things to say and great trip reports about Zam.
Cindy
Cindy
Oct 13th, 2006, 04:20 PM
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I read everything that you wrote but all I can focus on is poor Ruth taking a dunk. How terribly frightening and how wise she was to have waterproof essentials. I did not have a waterproof or resistant camera on that canoe. Please give all the details on that little episode.
Sorry about the fishing rod, but you had your quota of luck with Ruth. How awful that could have been.
Welcome home!
Sorry about the fishing rod, but you had your quota of luck with Ruth. How awful that could have been.
Welcome home!
Oct 14th, 2006, 12:17 AM
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Been messing with hundreds of digital photos and have over a thousand more on film coming back from the processor, plus really have to get back to the "real" world.
But my brain--and heart--are still in Africa.
So, a bit more about the hippo incident (will get back to the trip report in a day or two--honest). Ruth says, "I'm not a water person." But, she's an adventurous spirit, likes canoeing and even took up scuba diving last year (loves it).
She's also a long time flight attendant, and takes safety briefings very seriously. More so than me.
So, Ruth listened very carefully as our lead guide, Moses, gave us our safety talk before we headed out from Sausage Tree Camp to Old Mondoro Bush Camp. It centered on how to deal with hippos. Moses spent quite a bit of time on the strategy to be used going down the channel, and when hippos were encountered.
Take a path that would keep us in the shallows as much as possible. Follow him single file. If dumped, swim immediately to the nearest shore. And DO NOT take off your life jacket.
Ruth was just ahead of me in her canoe (with her guide in the stern) and was second behind the lead canoe.
We were about two-thirds of the way down the channel, and had passed many hippos, including "hippo city" with dozens of hippos, without incident.
I guess Moses might have gotten a little lax about his own rule re. staying to the shallows. I was thinking that we were on the deep (wrong) side of the channel. I could see shallow water on the other side.
Anyway, he suddenly let out a warning, but it wasn't very urgent sounding and was unclear what it was about or what he wanted us to do. Apparently Moses had seen a hippo under the water as his canoe went over it.
There wouldn't have been time to react anyway, because almost immediately after he sounded out, Ruth's canoe passed over the same spot, and the hippo rose up under it lifting it out of the water and overturning it.
I was dumbfounded, but took one grab shot with my camera with the long tele-photo. I expect that if it shows anything, it will only be a blur of gray.
I initially could only see the overturned canoe, the hippo splashing off to the right to the opposite shore and Ruth's guide scrambling up the steep bank on the left. I couldn't see Ruth, and thought she was under the canoe or still submerged. I was about ready to dive in, but then I saw her sitting on the bank.
She had somehow scrambled out after being dunked, camera and binoculars in hand. To this day, she can't remember exactly how she managed to hang onto both while swimming to shore and climbing up the bank.
She was in much better shape, emotionally, than the rest of us, esp. me. I was something of a wreck for awhile. Taking the weather resistant p&s that Ruth was using was a conscious decision on my part, but not because I had contemplated it being subjected to a dunking by a hippopotamus. It was mostly to be able to take photos in the rainy or snowy conditions, or on boats with salt spray coming over the side. I've been a fan of the Olympus Stylus for many years, having a series of film P&S's and now the digital. I guarantee no other camera would have made it through what happened to Ruth.
I suppose it could have been me, with 10 pounds of non-water resistant SLR's around my neck, or Anne in the lead canoe who had been very reluctant to go on the trip.
Anyway, yes, Ruth was lucky, although she did exactly as told when all heck broke loose. All is well, and we, esp. Ruth, have a most incredible experience that will stay with us for the rest of our lives.
But my brain--and heart--are still in Africa.
So, a bit more about the hippo incident (will get back to the trip report in a day or two--honest). Ruth says, "I'm not a water person." But, she's an adventurous spirit, likes canoeing and even took up scuba diving last year (loves it).
She's also a long time flight attendant, and takes safety briefings very seriously. More so than me.
So, Ruth listened very carefully as our lead guide, Moses, gave us our safety talk before we headed out from Sausage Tree Camp to Old Mondoro Bush Camp. It centered on how to deal with hippos. Moses spent quite a bit of time on the strategy to be used going down the channel, and when hippos were encountered.
Take a path that would keep us in the shallows as much as possible. Follow him single file. If dumped, swim immediately to the nearest shore. And DO NOT take off your life jacket.
Ruth was just ahead of me in her canoe (with her guide in the stern) and was second behind the lead canoe.
We were about two-thirds of the way down the channel, and had passed many hippos, including "hippo city" with dozens of hippos, without incident.
I guess Moses might have gotten a little lax about his own rule re. staying to the shallows. I was thinking that we were on the deep (wrong) side of the channel. I could see shallow water on the other side.
Anyway, he suddenly let out a warning, but it wasn't very urgent sounding and was unclear what it was about or what he wanted us to do. Apparently Moses had seen a hippo under the water as his canoe went over it.
There wouldn't have been time to react anyway, because almost immediately after he sounded out, Ruth's canoe passed over the same spot, and the hippo rose up under it lifting it out of the water and overturning it.
I was dumbfounded, but took one grab shot with my camera with the long tele-photo. I expect that if it shows anything, it will only be a blur of gray.
I initially could only see the overturned canoe, the hippo splashing off to the right to the opposite shore and Ruth's guide scrambling up the steep bank on the left. I couldn't see Ruth, and thought she was under the canoe or still submerged. I was about ready to dive in, but then I saw her sitting on the bank.
She had somehow scrambled out after being dunked, camera and binoculars in hand. To this day, she can't remember exactly how she managed to hang onto both while swimming to shore and climbing up the bank.
She was in much better shape, emotionally, than the rest of us, esp. me. I was something of a wreck for awhile. Taking the weather resistant p&s that Ruth was using was a conscious decision on my part, but not because I had contemplated it being subjected to a dunking by a hippopotamus. It was mostly to be able to take photos in the rainy or snowy conditions, or on boats with salt spray coming over the side. I've been a fan of the Olympus Stylus for many years, having a series of film P&S's and now the digital. I guarantee no other camera would have made it through what happened to Ruth.
I suppose it could have been me, with 10 pounds of non-water resistant SLR's around my neck, or Anne in the lead canoe who had been very reluctant to go on the trip.
Anyway, yes, Ruth was lucky, although she did exactly as told when all heck broke loose. All is well, and we, esp. Ruth, have a most incredible experience that will stay with us for the rest of our lives.
Oct 14th, 2006, 06:21 AM
#17
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Jim: wow! I'm so glad Ruth was able to keep her wits and do exactly the right thing. That is truly a perilous situation and good fortune as well as good decisions are key to survive it.
Great report thus far, I'm looking forward to the rest.
Great report thus far, I'm looking forward to the rest.
Oct 14th, 2006, 10:43 AM
#19
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Since Ruth is fine, I can laugh about her not being a water person and that your first impulse at seeing her overtuned was to pick the telephoto out of the 10 lbs of SLRs around your neck and shoot.
I think I know Moses, who was there back in 2003. He was careful and cautious. Ruth even had a guide with her in the canoe so you were doing everything right. I have always insisted on not sharing a canoe with someone I don't know in Africa.
If one of you had to take the dip, it appears it worked out best that it was Ruth. Her gear was waterproof/resistant and not 10lbs of SLRs, her profession predisposed her to
carefully listening to the safety instructions, and the other woman was nervous to begin with. Wonder if Ruth agrees with that?
Now that you've divulged the details on that fiasco, I'm ready for leopard and cubs, bee eaters, and more drama
on your walk compliments of the buffalo and eles, etc.
I think I know Moses, who was there back in 2003. He was careful and cautious. Ruth even had a guide with her in the canoe so you were doing everything right. I have always insisted on not sharing a canoe with someone I don't know in Africa.
If one of you had to take the dip, it appears it worked out best that it was Ruth. Her gear was waterproof/resistant and not 10lbs of SLRs, her profession predisposed her to
carefully listening to the safety instructions, and the other woman was nervous to begin with. Wonder if Ruth agrees with that?
Now that you've divulged the details on that fiasco, I'm ready for leopard and cubs, bee eaters, and more drama
on your walk compliments of the buffalo and eles, etc.
Oct 14th, 2006, 04:45 PM
#20
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I am so glad that Ruth was not hurt and survived the incident with only a nice story to tell. I wonder what the frequency of such incidents are? Just todsy I was chatting to a tour operator based in Hingkong on the safet of camera gear on a mekoro in Okavango in Botswana and he told me about pelican cases, but then again you need the SLR ready in your hand most of th time.
Waiting earnestly to see our pics and the rest of your trip report
Waiting earnestly to see our pics and the rest of your trip report
