Safari

"Goodbye. I am going to the great grey-green, greasy Limpopo River, all set about with fever-trees, to find out what the Crocodile has for dinner."
--Rudyard Kipling, The Elephant's Child

I've never yet seen the great grey-green, greasy Limpopo River (all set about with fever-trees), and I don't know when, if ever, I will.  I learned Kipling's alliterative description of the river as a kid, long before I knew such a river really exists.   (It forms South Africa's boundary with Zimbabwe, and a portion of its boundary with Botswana.)

I've never seen it down at river level, as I say, but in May I'll hop across it a couple of times by plane.  My cousin Craig has pulled together a group of twelve relatives and friends, including his wife, his sister, and me, for a safari in southern Africa.  The actual tour begins in Livingstone, Zambia, and ends in Maun, Botswana, but our transatlantic flights touch down in Johannesburg -- hence a chance to "see" the Limpopo a couple of times, albeit from 30,000 feet or so.

The safari actually duplicates, to a large extent, a similar trip my eldest nephew and I joined in 1986.  That earlier trip was somewhat more spartan -- we slept in tents, hiked, and traveled (mostly) by Landrover.  This time we'll stay in "luxury" lodges and hop from campsite to campsite by bush planes.  It will be interesting to decide which kind of travel I prefer.  I'm keeping an open mind, but sleeping in tents in the bush is an amazing experience -- memories of looking up from my reading while sitting on a camp chair and seeing two giraffes smiling down at me ... waking up in the night as an elephant seemed about to step on our tent ... hearing the distant but incredibly loud roar of lions in the night ... having a black mamba pointed out to us along the side of the trail.

It will also be interesting to determine whether Botswana has degenerated in the past 28 years from the virtual wildlife paradise it seemed my first time around.

Our tour begins in Livingstone, with a day to enjoy Victoria Falls.  Last time, our trip also started at Vic Falls, but from the Zimbabwe side of the river -- political events in the interval have probably determined the change.  (We'll walk across the Zambezi River bridge so we can say we've visited Zimbabwe, just as last time we crossed over into Zambia.)  From the north or the south, Vic Falls is one of the natural wonders of the world.  Only the Grand Canyon has overwhelmed me to the same extent on first sight.

I wish I could reproduce photos from the earlier trip, but they are all in the form of slides -- buried somewhere in my basement. 

More details about this year's trip as departure grows closer. (And, by the way, I already have a good idea of what the Crocodile has for dinner.)