Introducing the Kruger National Park

I first visited South Africa's Kruger National Park (KNP) in 1958 at the age of 14. In the last 12 years Jan and I have visited several times.  Each trip has provided wildlife viewing above our expectations. We plan to return in July this year and so I thought I would introduce readers to this remarkable wildlife sanctuary now, because I will be posting frequent stories and photos while we are there.

Map of the KNP

Located in the northeast corner of South Africa, the KNP is one of the ten largest game reserves in the world. The tropic of Capricorn crosses the park. (see photo here) It was originally proclaimed as the Sabi Reserve in 1898 by the President of the Transvaal Republic, Paul Kruger.  Its original size was about 1,780 sq. miles.  An enlarged area was formally designated the Kruger National Park in 1926.  Now it covers an area of 7,600 square miles.  It is being merged with the Limpopo National Park in Mozambique and the Gona re Zhou Park in Zimbabwe to form the Greater Limpopo Transfrontier Park.  This remarkable initiative will result in a 13,500 sq. mile conservation area that will be one of the largest in the world.

Ultimately the goal is to create a fence-free park, allowing historic wildlife migration routes to be expanded, provide significant employment and income opportunities for rural people and greatly expand Eco-tourism potential in the region. 

The driving distance in the park, from Pafuri Gate in the north to Crocodile Bridge in the south is 250 miles.  

Animals in KNP have the right-of-way.

The uniqueness of  KNP is that one can self-drive and see an amazing variety of mammals, birds and reptiles. Although you can't drive off of the vast system of paved and graveled roads in the park the game-viewing is excellent.


Reasonably priced accommodations are offered, in the many fenced camps from camp-sites, RV parks, chalets, lodges etc.  There are several high end luxury lodges as well.  

Even the smallest species have right of way.

The South African National Parks excellent web pages http://www.sanparks.org/parks/kruger/ provide comprehensive information on trip  routes, accommodations, gas (petrol), restaurants, game viewing, weather and so on.

Marshall Eagle

The Park is unrivaled in the diversity of its life forms and a world leader in advanced environmental management techniques and policies. Truly the flagship of the South African national parks, Kruger is home to an impressive number of species: 336 trees, 49 fish, 34 amphibians, 114 reptiles, 507 birds and 147 mammals. 

Cape Buffalo near Punda Maria Camp in the north.

The KNP is easily accessible, of course, to most South Africans by a modern highway system and it is a favorite vacation destination during school holidays. When planning visits to South Africa it is always a good idea to Google 'SA School Calendar' and pick those periods when schools are not closed. 

I will write about some of the KNP rest camps we have visited and describe the private games reserve areas to the west of the park in upcoming blog posts.

If you have had experiences in the Kruger Park I welcome your comments and opinions.

 

Kariba

Most people who have never been to southern Africa are not aware that there is a very big lake on the Zambezi River called Lake Kariba. “Kariba” as the locals call it was, at the completion of its construction in 1960, the largest man-made lake in the world.  It is four times the size of the notable Three Gorges Dam in China.  From the small town built on the hills overlooking the dam wall, the lake stretches 140 miles (290km) to the southeast and is about 20 miles (32km) wide on average.

Map shows Lake Kariba - Zambia to the north, Zimbabwe to the  south

The massive project was undertaken to provide hydroelectric power for the growing industries of Zimbabwe and Zambia. Two power stations, one on the Zambian bank and the other on the Zimbabwean side are in full operation. Covering an area of 5,580 square kilometers (2,150 sq mi), its storage capacity is an immense 185 cubic kilometers (44.4 cu mi). The lake began to fill in 1958 and would become a year-round source of water for an abundance of animal and bird life, and a sunny playground for both local and foreign tourists. In places the lake is over 300 feet (90M) deep. A large commercial fishing industry developed here providing tons of sardine-like “kapenta” which provides a significant source of protein for a predominantly African clientele. There are huge populations of hippo and Nile crocodile in residence here and on the shorelines and major Game Reserves on the southern shore have incredible populations of wildlife.

The history of the construction of this engineering marvel, the story of the taming of the “River God” Nyaminyami, and the story of one of the most impressive wildlife rescue operations (Operation Noah) ever carried out in Africa, make for interesting reading. As the waters rose to flood the valley, over 5,000 animals were rescued, including 35 different mammal species and 44 black rhino. Frightened creatures ranging from elephant to snakes were captured for release into areas that now form Matusadona National Park and Chete Safari Area.

February 1970, two flood gates open

My first visit to Kariba was between Christmas 1966 and the New Year.  I was on a trip to “Rhodesia” from my home, at the time, in Grahamstown, South Africa where I was working at Rhodes University.  My friend Andrew Campbell-Watt who had been a fellow student at Rhodes, was living in Salisbury at the time.  He and I undertook a tour in my red Volkswagen Beetle and our first destination was Lake Kariba. It was love at first sight for me and after I moved to Rhodesia the following July, it would be the scene of a number of memorable experiences. 

One of the most striking things about the lake is its huge size. There are times when you are in a small boat that you lose sight of the shore completely and have to navigate by compass (or GPS today!). A ferry boat service runs from one end of the lake to the other and it is usually an overnight journey of 12 hours. To put its size in perspective, traveling from one end to the other would be a similar distance as driving from Colorado Springs to Cheyenne, Wyoming.

December is the middle of the hottest season of the year, and the Zambezi River Valley can be extremely hot and uncomfortable.  Cooling lake breezes offer relief from the heat. Viewing wildlife, particularly elephant from a boat, allows you to drift up close and the animals seem less threatened than when observed from the land.  In August 1971, when our infant son was just four months old, Joan and I flew with my brother John in a Cessna for a weekend visit to Bumi Hills Lodge in the Matusadona National Park on the south shore of the lake.  With us was my younger brother David who was 16 years old and visiting from South Africa during a school break.  Bumi Hills was later re-built as a much more modern (and expensive) hotel but at the time it was fairly rustic.  The only way to reach the hotel was by boat or by aircraft. Flying across the remote African bush from Salisbury (now Harare) and then being able to fly over the dam and above the massive dam wall in the gorge was pretty breathtaking. A few photos from that visit are shown here.

Approaching Bumi Hills from the air - August 1971.

The old Bumi Hills in 1971

A later visit to Lake Kariba came in July 1986. Joan had passed away in December 1985 and I took Alan (then 15), Graham (13) and Carol (12) back to Zimbabwe for a five week visit.  We stayed with their grandfather in Harare but old friends took us with them to the lake for a one week camping trip.  Jim and Jacquie Weller and their two sons, Nigel (then 16) and Phillip (14) had a motorboat which we packed with provisions and supplies.  We launched the boat from Andora Harbour at Kariba and made the 20 mile crossing to the Matusadona National Park twice to get everyone and all the supplies to the camping area at Tashinga. Typical of Zimbabwe National Parks, this camp ground, despite its remoteness, had very nice showers and ablutions.  We pitched our tents and cooked over wood fires on grills that were set up for that purpose. 

This was a memorable adventure for our family. Our camp was about 200 yards from the lake shore across a gently sloping area of open grass. During the days we would go out fishing and game viewing, usually returning in the late afternoon. Elephant and hippo could be seen most of the time and buffalo would graze across the open area near our tents.   One evening I remember we had asked the four boys to bring everything back from the boat when the sun had already set. After a while we heard this young voice calling, “Dad, there’s a buffalo standing on the path!  We can’t get back to camp.”
We answered with some sage advice, suggesting they be patient and wait until the buffalo moved on.  Ten or fifteen minutes later the boys got back safely. 

Late one night I heard a noise next to my tent (a pup tent for me) and picking up my torch (flashlight) I lifted the flap of the tent and came face to face with a huge Cape buffalo bull eating grass about ten feet away. He looked even more “huge” of course because I was lying on the ground and looking up at him.  Eventually he wandered away and peace was restored.
 

On a few occasions I had to take a commercial airline flight from Harare to Kariba and on one trip the pilot had to buzz the airfield to chase a herd of elephant away, before he could land safely. This was, evidently, a common occurrence.

One of my most memorable visits to Lake Kariba was in September 1978. A friend, Rudi Cassette, and I flew to Kariba on the afternoon of September 2nd. We spent much of the following day meeting with clients who were planning to construct a fish-canning plant near the town of Kariba. Rudi was our company Research & Development representative and we met with Lauris Zuchinni of Liebigs Foods.  Our discussions went well and ended after a lengthy tour of the proposed factory site and a light lunch at one of the local hotels. Lauris had planned to fly back to Salisbury later that afternoon on a regularly scheduled Air Rhodesia Vickers Viscount.  Rudi and I had scheduled to fly back to the city the next morning because that flight had been fully booked.
That evening we booked a “sunset cruise” and went out on the lake with a dozen other guests, sipped some wine and watched the orange sun sink into the lake. It was cool and calm and enjoyable and the surface of the lake was like glass. We were able to sail up close to several commercial fishing rigs and watched as they hauled up large nets full of glistening kapenta.  We returned to our hotel at Caribbea Bay, and retired for the night.  

The next morning we met at breakfast and became aware of much intense discussion at other tables. A phone call came for me from my boss in Harare.  He asked, “Have you heard what happened?” I, of course, had no idea what they were talking about.

My boss told me that the Air Rhodesia Flight 825, which had departed from Kariba the previous afternoon had been shot down by terrorists (called “guerillas” by the politically correct crowd) using a Strela 2 ground-to-air missile. This was a civilian flight and although some passengers survived, our friend and customer Lauris Zuchinni had been killed.  He was a friend and an extraordinarily talented engineer. The incident had been on the news the previous night but because we had gone out on the lake and then straight to bed when we returned, neither of us had heard anything about it.

We of course, quickly changed our plans and were able to rent a car and made the six hour drive back to the city in a convoy, escorted by armed vehicles manned by Police Reservists. I had originally scheduled our return to town on Flight 825 but waited too late to make the reservation.  You can read about the shooting down of Flight RH825 on Wikipedia and in other news accounts on Google.  Five months later, on February 12, 1979, another civilian aircraft (RH827) was struck by a similar missile en-route from Kariba to Salisbury, killing all 59 passengers.

Twenty-eight years after our 1971 flying visit to Bumi Hills, in August 1999, Jan and I returned to Zimbabwe and, together with old friends Barry and Hilary Blair and Jacquie Weller we shared the rental of a large boat (The Stormvogel) on the lake, spending five days exploring the shoreline and watching the huge numbers of game animals and birds that populate this magical place. While anchored in an inlet in the Matusadona area, we took two small dinghies across the bay and walked up the hill to the new Bumi Hills Lodge to have lunch.  Along the way we had to stand quietly and wait for a mother elephant and her calf to stroll across the road in front of us.  Then we watched a warthog digging for bulbs and roots in the manicured lawn of the hotel. 

At nearby Tashinga, a National Parks Wildlife station and camping area, we enjoyed walking with a group of young black rhinos.  These orphans had been saved from poachers and were being taking out each day to feed, attended by a game ranger. One morning, while we were having breakfast on the deck of the yacht we watched a huge crocodile glide slowly across the water below us. The previous night we had heard lions roaring in the distance.  Listening to the short-wave radio the next morning we learned that an 18 year-old British intern at a safari camp had been attacked and killed by a lame, and very hungry, lioness.  He was dragged from his tent shortly after turning in. This kind of tragic event is rare in African Safari camps, but it illustrates how wild and remote the wilderness areas around Kariba are.

So, Kariba holds a special place in over six decades of my memories.  Africa is not generally associated with tales of adventures on water.  But Kariba is a unique area and anyone who may ever have an opportunity to visit it should not pass it up.

Self-Publish your Africa Travel Book

Your unique Travel experiences will make a great book!

With changes in the book publishing industry over the last decade it has become easier than ever to plan, compile and publish a book of your family vacation, overseas tour, cruise, or just your road trip to visit Disney-world.  Your photographs and journal notes can be assembled into a unique record of adventures both at home and abroad. No longer do vacation photos have to be relegated to an old computer hard drive or lost in a box in the attic.

Anyone can publish a bookstore quality album or journal that records your experiences forever and that can be read and enjoyed for the rest of your life. The cost of printing a 100 page, full color, 8in. x 10in. hardcover book can be as little as $50.00. (Estimate from Blurb.com) The minimum order quantity is one copy. For wider distribution, and for a book that you might want to publish hundreds or thousands of copies of, the printing cost might be as low as $18.00 to $20.00. (Lightning Source, Inc.)

Planning and preparation is the key to containing costs.

These days printing costs are low.  It is the preparation of the manuscript and getting it into the correct format for submission to the printer that is liable to cost money. The key to keeping those costs within reason (say - a few hundred dollars) is PREPARATION.

 

PLAN: Most travelers spend a lot of time planning their trips and making reservations well in advance. Planning for a book of the trip can begin at the same time, long before the first flight or filling the gas tank for that first days drive.

Here are some things to consider:

Bring home some banknotes to include in your book.

• Read up on your destination.  Keep a folder. Print out website pages, maps, calendars, and other information about area attractions and keep them in the folder. All of these items can be scanned and printed in your Travel Book.
• If using the services of a travel agent or a tour company, save the schedules, correspondence and itineraries, and invoices that they provide. These too might make useful additions to your dairy or journal notes.
• Save those little items from the trip that we often discard; ticket stubs, hotel receipts, gas receipts (remember when gas was $1.50 a gallon?), museum fliers, boarding passes, menus, etc.
• Pick up those fliers from hotel lobbies and tourist information centers that are always available for FREE.  They contain loads of useful information about the local area, its attractions and its history. This is helpful when writing your daily journal notes or when editing the final content for your book. Some can also be scanned and included as extra illustrations along with your photographs.
• Save small denomination bank notes from the countries you visit. These will always make colorful additions to your Travel Book and often provide beautiful designs describing a countries culture and history.
• Don’t forget to save maps. Mark your maps with places you visited.
• KEEP A JOURNAL!  While traveling we often get busy and forget to write things down.  It doesn’t have to be a day by day, hour by hour, personal diary. Take a few minutes at the end of the day, when everything is still fresh in your mind, and write down the little things.  Especially write down the names of people, tour guides, local villagers, etc that you meet, and whose names you will forget if you don’t write them down!
• While you are there, shop around for inexpensive reference books on animals, especially birds and even fish if you scuba diving or snorkeling!  Phrasebooks are helpful too.

PHOTOGRAPHY: There are scores of books and tutorials on the subject of taking photographs.  Whether you are a complete amateur or a seasoned professional many of the basics will remain the same.

Some important considerations:

• Whether you have a $5,000 digital, single lens reflex (SLR)  or a $200 digital point and shoot camera, the MOST IMPORTANT THING IS TO KNOW HOW YOUR CAMERA WORKS.  Every camera comes with an instruction book and it is absolutely essential that you take the time to read through it carefully, practicing each operation with your camera as you do.

• Make sure your camera settings let you take high resolution photographs that will reproduce sharply in a book. You should have a minimum 5 Megapixel camera.  Most today are at least 10MPs. A 5MP camera will allow you to take a photograph that is at least 2400 pixels wide by 1800 pixels high.  Photographs taken at this resolution will print sharply in a book up to 8 inches wide X 6 inches high.  (The rule of thumb is – each 300 pixels will print as a 1 inch finished picture size. Therefore a 2400 x 1800px image will print sharply as an 8 in. x 6 in. image in a book.)

• Learn and understand how much memory your camera has. Take extra memory cards or thumb drives with you. 

• Learn how long your camera battery will last and take an extra battery. Most cameras today have chargers and connections that will adapt to plug-ins in other countries. Make sure you will be able to recharge your camera batteries whenever you are going.  The same advice, of course, applies to laptops and other electronic devices.

• If you are accustomed to transferring your photographs onto a laptop or other device then make sure you make backup CD's as well. The worst thing that happens (yes – it happens to all of us!) is that we lose some precious photos from a place that we may never visit again. 

Take photos of unusual things!

• When taking photographs on a tour or vacation trip, always keep in mind that you are taking photos that will be used to illustrate a book and that will be complimenting the text. This may be a new approach for most people. 

• Include people pictures and get close!  Most of us forget the importance of filling the viewfinder with our subject matter. Use a flash when taking people pictures in shade or towards the sunlight.

Always photograph the people around you.

• For each scenic photograph you take, take one of people and other subject matter. Photograph food, animals, your accommodations, your tour guides, local housing, local roads, unusual signs, a glass of wine, a bottle of beer, local clothing and architecture.  If in a National Park or Game Reserve photograph the campfire, the table settings, the guides and camp staff, and the 4WD vehicles you ride in. Always photograph the words on plaques describing historical places.  When you forget what the place was named and how old it is, you can always go back to your photograph for the detail.   This saves a lot of time having to write it down in your journal!

A Mopani worm. Don't ignore the little things!

• When photographing an animal or bird or an insect(!), make sure you know what it is called. Don’t label a Cape Buffalo as a Water Buffalo!  No, no, no!  And don’t call an Elk a Moose.  The same idea applies to plants; flowers and trees. Take notes.

• Photographs give us an infallible way to recall dates and the order in which events occurred. Digital photos are tagged with the date and time they were taken and this information is often very helpful in putting captions on our images.  

• While waiting for a connecting flight at the airport, take photos of the departure schedules that are displayed on the large airport monitors. Take a picture of your plane through the concourse window. Take a photo of the meal you are served on the flight.  Today, we don’t pay for film and developing, so it costs nothing to take a lot of pictures.  

• The list goes on and on.  But as you are taking all these photographs, your travel book is taking shape in your mind.  With a rich supply of photographs, imagine what a great Travel Book you will be able to create.

THE MANUSCRIPT: Now you have all this stuff.  All these memories of your trip are in a folder or saved in files on your computer. What do you do now?

•  Get organized.  The greatest cost savings you will be able to make in getting a Travel Book into publication will result from organizing your text narrative and your photographs in a logical, easy-to-read sequence.

• Type your story into a MSWord document.  Edit it carefully.  Edit it again. Check for spelling and grammatical errors. Take out extra words. Have someone else check it for you and offer their opinion.

• Go through all of your photograph files and save only those that will be used in the book in one folder.  Name it appropriately “final pics” or similar.  It is always a good idea to put a date in the name of the folder. (E.g. “Galapagos_May-2011” or “Yosemite_June-2010”)  Make a back-up copy of this folder and transfer it to a backup hard drive or save it on a DVD or CD.

• Of course, many of your photos may need editing. This can be time-consuming but can raise the quality of the Travel Book. 

• Now, remember those brochures and schedules you tucked away in a folder even before the trip began? Grab those and decide what you will want to scan and save as digital files.  Dig into the bottom of your luggage and pull out those banknotes, and ticket stubs that you brought home with you.  Scan these as well. (Scan at 300 dots-per-inch (dpi) and save them on your computer.)

• In your typed manuscript mark clearly where the photographs and scanned images will be located.  This is an important step and will save a lot of time in the final compilation.

Now you are ready to take the final steps to getting your story into a Travel Book.  There are a number of Print-on-Demand (POD) companies that enable us to load our images and text into pre-set book templates.  Kodak Gallery and  Shutterfly are good examples.

I am going to use www.blurb.com as an example as I have used them to create over 80 books and am accustomed to their programs and software. 

From the Blurb website you can download a Blurb BookSmart template onto your computer.  This proprietary software is free and includes an almost unlimited choice of page designs that can be adjusted to suit each individual’s unique requirements.  Book sizes range from pocket sized 5 x 8in, to 7 x 7in, 8 x 10in (portrait or landscape), 12 x 12in, or 13 x 11in coffee table size books. Blurbs prices are the lowest anywhere and, like most POD programs now, it is only necessary to order a minimum quantity of one book. 

Once you have mastered the basics of the BookSmart software, you can import the text and photos, and preview each step as you progress. Blurb offers extensive tutorials and an on-line help desk to guide newcomers through the basic process. When the final version meets your approval, the book file is uploaded to the Blurb website and it can now be ordered. Delivery usually takes about ten days from the time the book is uploaded to Blurb. 

Some folks are not prepared to take the time required to learn the Blurb program, or may have the computer skills to figure it all out. Blurb offers the help of many experienced “bookmakers” on their website. One can go to the “hire an expert” page and scroll down the list of over 200 authorized bookmakers to contact for assistance. These are experienced publishers who work independently from Blurb but who are accustomed to using its software. 

If you believe your book is destined for wider distribution through the internet bookstores such as Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Ingram, etc., BookCrafters can convert your manuscript into the formats accepted by Lightning Source, Inc., (LSI) one of the world’s largest POD companies. Once uploaded to LSI your book can reach the online bookstores Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc. You may become a best selling author and gain widespread fame and  notoriety. (Just kidding!)

For ideas and resources go to: self-publish-your-book.com. 

To see a sample Travel Book click on this link:

Tanzania by Joe McDaniel | Make Your Own Book

Airport security 1972

Late breaking news! On 24th May, 1972 a South African Airways Boeing 727 passenger airliner departed from Salisbury, Rhodesia (now Harare, Zimbabwe) en route to Johannesburg, South Africa. It was high jacked by two men who wanted the pilot to fly to an island in the Indian Ocean. The pilot persuaded the scoundrels that he did not have sufficient fuel and he would have to land at Chileka Airport in Blantyre, Malawi to take on more. 


I interrupt this gripping story to provide some background information for the handful of readers who may not have heard of Malawi or Blantyre or Chileka Airport. Malawi is one of the smallest of 53 countries of Africa. It is a beautiful, sub-tropical, impoverished, landlocked country generally considered to be in Central Africa. It is north of Mozambique, east of Zambia and south of Tanzania. The people, though poor, are friendly and hardworking and proud. It was text book 'third world' then as it is today. 


The runway at Blantyre's Chileka Airport, as I recall, was long, well constructed and capable of handling large aircraft. The airport building was a modified aircraft hangar. Planes would taxi to the vicinity of the hangar and a flimsy metal stair-on-wheels contraption would be pushed up to the front door. Passengers would step cautiously down the steps and walk about 50 yards across the hot concrete, or through the pouring rain, to a small door in the side of the building before standing in a single, long line, waiting to pass through immigration and customs. The terminal building (i.e. the old corrugated iron hangar) was not air conditioned, making it, in the hottest summer months, October through March, extremely hot. 


Why, you may ask, am I familiar with this story? At the time, I lived in Salisbury (now Harare) and was the sales manager for a significantly large - by African standards - packaging company. I was responsible for our customers in Malawi and about every 3 or 4 months I would fly to Blantyre on business, spending several days visiting customers, taking orders, and helping them with technical issues. Technical issues were important because many of our products were used for food or other (e.g. cosmetic) products that had specific shelf-life and quality standards depending on the integrity of our packaging. 


One important character in this unfolding 1972 drama was the personage of His Excellency, President for Life, Ngwazi Dr. H. Kamuzu Banda. His Excellency was a brilliant man, born in a remote village and educated in the US and in Britain. After an absence of 42 years, he had returned to Malawi in 1958 and led the ongoing political battle to gain independence from Britain, eventually becoming Prime Minister in 1963 and the first President of the one party Republic in 1966. He declared himself President for Life in 1971, one year before Malawi became the scene of this less than dramatic - by today's standards - aircraft event.
It should seem pretty obvious, given his personal history, that His Excellency, President for Life, Ngwazi Dr. H. Kamuzu Banda, was not a timid man. Fortunately for his fellow countrymen, he was a benevolent, pro-western, dictator who cared very much for his country, not to mention his own personal image and reputation. Who would have the nerve to high jack an airliner and land it in his country? 


Now back to the high jacking. The Boeing 727 landed at Chileka Airport. Within a short time, the airport was surrounded by a large contingent of the Malawi Army and Police Forces, under the personal direction of His Excellency, President for Life, Ngwazi Dr. H. Kamuzu Banda. It is possible that the bad guys on board were more concerned with the arrival of the Presidential motorcade than with the hundreds of heavily armed military men surrounding them. Negotiations began. 


Early the following morning, frustrated that demands of complete and unconditional surrender were not being met, a radio message was sent from His Excellency, President for Life, Ngwazi Dr. H. Kamuzu Banda via the control tower to the pilot of the 727, advising passengers and crew to lie down on the floor. Almost immediately the police and military forces opened fire and filled the plane with a few thousand bullet holes. The first lull in the firing resulted in the appearance of two very frightened highjackers at the door, hands raised in the air. No passengers or crew suffered more than superficial abrasions from flying glass and debris. His Excellency, President for Life, Ngwazi Dr. H. Kamuzu Banda was triumphant, reputation intact, and prestige soaring.  It was a classic "Go ahead, make my day" moment in Malawian history.


Fast forward two months. Along with a friend and associate, Grant Ballantyne, I flew to Blantyre for a regularly scheduled visit with customers. Grant was a technician specializing in servicing can seaming equipment and training customers in their use. A can "seamer" is a machine used for sealing the metal lid onto food cans. The body of a food can has a top flange. When the can is filled, with fruit, syrup, vegetables, soup etc., a lid is put onto the flange and a "seamer" is used to hermetically seal the product. Grant's other specialty was a very dry sense of humor, usually made more effective by his ability to keep a completely straight face while everyone else in the room roared with laughter at his deadpan remarks. 


When on business trips Grant Ballantyne always carried a special brief case. It was relatively heavy for its size and contained an inner foam lining, recessed to hold a number of highly specialized, precision measuring instruments and tools. Each of the polished and well cared for instruments has its own little recessed pocket in its own special place in Grant Ballantyne's special black leather brief case.


It should be noted that since the now famous military response to the high jacking event two months before, security had been tightened. A long, narrow, covered shelter had been constructed over the entry door to the hangar and extending, at 90 degrees, onto the runway. A long line of folding tables were set out under this shelter to receive arriving passengers. Behind the row of tables were some of the Malawi Police Forces'  most promising young officers, each in immaculately fitted and starched uniforms. This airport security business, not a normal police duty, was something they obviously took very seriously. 


Along with our fellow passengers, Grant and I descended the rickety metal stair. Baggage handlers were unloading our bags onto the concrete under the wing of the plane. This was a good idea, because it provided a little bit of shade. We managed to retrieve our luggage, without trampling anyone or being trampled, and walked to the security table under the new corrugated iron shelter. Grant was ahead of me as we approached a very young, bright eyed, smartly dressed Police Cadet. At least I have always assumed he was a cadet because he looked very young and inexperienced. He asked Grant to place his briefcase on the table and open it. Grant lifted the heavy case slowly and placed it gingerly on the table, unlatched the front and turned it toward the policeman. 


Upon raising the lid the young man's eyes opened wide in amazement at this array of precision, metallic, instruments. He had obviously never seen anything like this before. I watched his face as he very, very, carefully reached into the case and, with thumb and index finger of his right hand, removed a 4 inch long micrometer from its foam resting place. He raised it up, level with his eyes, and looked at it intently for a few moments, before saying to my friend, "Ah, what is this?”


In a most matter-of-fact tone of voice, without a moment of hesitation, Grant replied, "Oh, that's an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile."


Looking again at the shiny metal object, the policeman lowered it into its cavity in the black leather case, carefully closed the lid and said, "Ah, I see." Satisfied that there was no security risk, he waved my friend on. I managed to get through the strict security inspection without laughing out loud. Thirty eight years later I still laugh about it. 


Oh, for the good old days.

The Baobab, Africa’s giant tree of life

Baobab tree in Ruaha National Park - Tanzania

One of Africa’s most recognized trees is commonly called the Baobab, and also known as the "upside down tree" or the "cream of tartar tree." Botanists call it Adansonia digitata.
It is known by rural village African people as "The Tree of Life" and with good reason. East Africans call it Mbuyu, in Swahili, meaning "of" or "at," and many villages, close to these impressive specimens are called Mbuyuni.


Baobabs are said to live for a thousand years and are associated with many legends. An evil spirit once grew angry with the baobab spirit and tore up all the trees, later regretting his hasty temper and replanting them - the wrong way up. A potion made from the bark makes a person strong; a drink from soaked baobab seed protects one from crocodiles. East African folk lore says that they hold up the sky with their tall branches.


The tree is well adapted to the drier savannahs of Africa. It is composed of a thick, spongy, water-storing tissue and it can survive long periods of drought. Water can be extracted by cutting into the bark. Large, dark-green leaves, appear early in the rainy season followed soon after by large oval pods with a velvety covering. The seeds are found inside a pinkish pulpy substance which is edible and, when dried, forms a powder from which cream of tartar is made.

A Kruger National Park baobab in the rainy season - South Africa

The Baobab is arguably one of the most useful providers of food and raw materials for the subsistence people of Africa. From strips of the fibrous bark blankets, mats, ropes, and other useful items are woven. The leaves provide a tasty relish and the seedy pulp is rich in vitamin C. It is pounded and cooked into porridge.  Ash of the trees burned wood supplies salt for seasoning.

Wild bees store honey in its hollow branches, bush-babies live in its high crown. Many birds, including hornbills and notably, large raptors, nest in its branches. The heavy, white, pungent flowers are pollinated by bats and some fly species. Elephants, in particular, along with giraffe and zebras eat the fibrous bark. Giraffe and elephants love to eat the 7inch long seed pods. Troops of baboons will often be seen sitting around the base of the trees, breaking open the pods that have fallen to the ground.

A well known baobab in Ruaha N.P. - Tanzania

A tree in Zimbabwe measuring 137 feet in circumference (42M) is the subject of one of artist John Banovich's giant paintings seen in the Society of Animal Artists exhibit which has been on view in a number of museums across the United States in recent years. This is almost certainly the result of two or more separate trees growing together over time. By any measure the baobab tree of Africa is worthy of its sizeable reputation but large specimens rarely exceed 65 feet (20M). It is truly one of Africa's "keystone" species.

Visitors to Victoria Falls Nat'l Park in Zimbabwe will recognize  this tree.

(All photos above were taken by Joe McDaniel)

Through puberty and beyond

 

Baobab tree near Victoria Falls

Little progress has been made in planning our 2012 trip to southern Africa.  We learned that we need to book our camps and activities in the Victoria Falls area by this coming May.  Following the big annual "Indaba" (travel industry conference) in South Africa, it is quite possible that new rates will come into effect, so we can lock in current rates by confirming our reservations with a 20% deposit.  Airline bookings can't be confirmed until 300 days in advance of our departure, so that means we must make hard decisions and pay for airfares in cold hard cash by September this year. South African Airways are currently promoting return airfares from the U.S. east coast to Johannesburg of US$1,030.  These are similar to fares we paid in 1996!

Typical highway road sign in Zimbabwe

Jan and I will find it hard to wait.  We have been to the Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, region a number of times over the last 14 years and we feel a powerful compulsion to return. Adding the proposed visit to Makololo Camp in Hwange National Park just makes the anticipation greater.  We've just received our new issue of Travel Africa magazine.  That will whet our appetites even more. http://www.travelafricamag.com/

Through puberty and beyond.

From our first day at Muir College my brother and I were asked if we were going to play rugby.  My glib answer was “sure,” even though I had no idea how it was played.  All students were required to participate in extra-curricular activities and there was a generous selection from which to choose.  The big winter sport was rugby and over 90% of students played.  In our American Elementary School environment, sporting activities were not organized for youth in the 1950s.  At Muir College, as in most South African schools, sports and athletic games began at the age of eight years. These included rugby, cricket (summer), tennis, swimming, field hockey, and athletics (track and field). 

Competition was at the core of both academics and sports and the emphasis was always on the “team.”  There were basically four “teams” in our school. Every student at Muir was assigned membership in a “house.” A modern day analogy could be drawn by comparing Harry Potter’s induction at Hogwarts into the house of Gryffindor, instead of Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw or Slytherin.  Muir College is not a school of magic and wizardry but it is developed from old British academic traditions, in many ways similar to those fictionalized by J.K Rowling.  Our four houses were, Sutherland, Dugmore, MacDonald,    and Innes. 

I was assigned to Sutherland House, although the ritual did not include a talking hat.  Membership in this house bound me and my brother to all Sutherland House members throughout the entire school, no matter what grade or age they would be.  Points were awarded over the course of the academic year for both academic achievement and sporting achievements.  Points accumulated by Sutherland and other houses were tallied and counted toward winning the highest points at the end of the year. This system gave every single student the ability to contribute points in helping their house compete.  For example, at our annual track meet, relay teams were “house teams.” If the team I was on came second or third in a relay event, points were added to Sutherland House scores.  Even though I didn’t come first or win an individual event myself, there was a strong incentive for me to participate and contribute to my overall team.

The day always began with assembly.  Students lined up in single file according to their grade level and walked into the main hall or, during summer (weather permitting) assembly might be held outside in the “quadrangle.”  The principal and all teachers would stand in front of us and after leading us in a brief prayer Skilly would make announcements of important schedule changes, events of note, or students’ awards or achievements.  We could always tell when there was going to be bad news or some disciplinary issue to be brought up as Skilly’s eyebrows would seem to bristle more than usual.  Assembly only took a few minutes, after which we would be dismissed and walk to our first class in single file. As the quad was surrounded on three sides by classrooms, we usually only had a short way to go.

Students who required discipline for which a verbal scolding or extra homework was inadequate might be sent to the principal’s office for “cuts.” Skilly would administer several hard strikes across the buttocks with a cane as the guilty students would bend at right angles with hands gripping the edge of the headmaster’s desk. The most severe punishment was six cuts.  We found out pretty quickly what “getting six” meant. I was basically an obedient and well-conforming boy and over the course of my five and a half years at Muir I never  qualified for “six” although “four” was administered a couple of times.

As I had arrived at Muir in late July, the rugby season was almost at an end.  I would take part in practices only in the following February.  As I would turn 13 in early February I would be eligible to play for the Under 13 age group. With only about 400 students, Muir was not a big school and there would be three Under 13 teams, U13A, U13B, & C.  With 15 players on a team, that meant that about 45 to 50 boys would represent the school against other schools in the Eastern Province area.  We would compete against 11 other schools.  Many were similar in size but there were a few very big schools, such as Grey College in Port Elizabeth, who would field eight or ten teams in any one age group.  So when we would play against Grey College our U13A team might play against the Grey U13B or C teams and our U13B’s might go up against their U13E or F teams.  These competitions had been evolved over the years, so generally high school and primary schools teams would be fairly challenged at competitive levels.

Under 14 Rugby team  I am 3rd from left, back row.

I was a skinny 13 year old, about 5 ft. 9 inches tall and weighing in at about 120 pounds, with little or no sports experience, when I began to take part in the sport of rugby.  All of the other boys had been playing the game since from primary school at about eight years old.  It took me a month or so to learn the tactics of the game but I settled into the full contact part very quickly.  The most difficult adjustment for me was my complete lack of stamina and shortness of breath.  The game was played at a non-stop pace for a 30 minute half with a five minute rest period, followed by  another 30 minutes of continuous play.  The other boys willingly guided me and I caught on fairly quickly.  After the first few inter-school matches I found myself a permanent member of the U13B team.  Over the next few years at the high School level and on into the University level, I grew to love rugby and had many enjoyable experiences playing it.  I was never an outstanding athlete, but I wasn’t bad either.  As a 17 year old “senior” in my last year of High School I was a solid player on the High School 2^nd team, or “2^nd XV” and I loved every minute of it.

Academically I was never outstanding, but I wasn’t bad either.  Our teachers were good; some were very good. Fifty years later it is hard to single out one or two teachers but I know they would all have been more than satisfied with my performance if I had applied myself a little more.  In any event I was able to go on to University and eventually earned a bachelor’s degree.  So I say – good for my Muir College teaching staff – you did it! I was one of 35 students who graduated from the school in December 1961.  Most went into military service; some went to work in apprenticeships in local industry. A minority went on to further their educations in some of the fine universities in South Africa.

Now, writing this some fifty years after my high school graduation, I know that the disciplined, collegial and very structured environment of Muir College was important in my life for another reason which I did not realize for many, many years.  At home my mother’s alcoholism began to reveal itself when I was 13 years old. Home was often a very stressful and difficult place to be.  My many friends and their families, and varied interests in school activities provided a solid refuge for some troubling teenage years. 

But more about those things in my next chapter, wherein I will discuss friendships, camping, and some interesting travels.

Muir College Crest

A Visit to Egypt, 50 years ago

R9QZGQQ662VS
I interrupt the usual narrative about our 2012 safari plans to talk about a brief visit to Egypt 50 years ago.

The Great Sphinx and Khafra's Pyramid at Giza - 1961

Current events in Egypt seem to have attracted some attention around the world.  I am not an expert in foreign affairs nor have I had any experience in having a domestic affair.  But I have lived and worked in several countries and have traveled to, or through many more, including Egypt.  Probably because of this I have an abiding interest in world affairs and events. The political shifts taking place in the Middle East now are remarkable.  Egypt is the largest and most populous country in the Middle East and what happens there will have significant consequences around the world.

We discuss American history across the span of a few centuries.  Egyptian history spans many millennia. Its recorded history goes back, some estimates say, to about 3150 BC – That’s over 5,000 years! 

When I was seventeen years old I had the good fortune to be able to pass through Egypt while traveling with my family.  We were living in South Africa at the time and my father was due to return to the United States on business.  He planned a sea voyage up the east coast of Africa, starting at Port Elizabeth, on the 17,382 ton HMS Durban Castle.  The ship was one of Her Majesty’s mail ships in the Union Castle Line which had won its initial contract in 1857 to carry mail from England to South Africa and on to Calcutta. When the Suez Canal opened in 1869 the Union Castle line predecessor (The Union Line) stopped using the Cape sea route for traffic to India but continued to grow in importance as a mail and freight service to and from South Africa and coastal ports around the entire African continent.  In 1956 Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal, precipitating the Suez Crisis, temporarily ending shipping through that vital and much more economical route.  By the time our voyage was to begin, in December 1961, the Union Castle Line had reopened the East Coast route. I recently learned that the famous “round Africa” service closed one year later and so my family was fortunate to have made this amazing voyage when we did.

My mother (right) with our tour guide in Tahrir Square.

Eventually the Union Castle Line made its final mail ship voyage in 1977, ending a 120 year history of operation.  Its demise was brought about by the introduction of faster and more economical jet airliners in the 1960s and 1970s.  For a fascinating look at this historic steamship service go to: http://www.oceanlinermuseum.co.uk/History%20of%20UnionCastle%20Line.htm

My account of our east African adventure will be the subject of a future story in this blog series in which I will try recollect and write about our stops in Durban, Lorenco Marques (now named Maputo) and Beira, Dar es Salaam, the island of Zanzibar, Tanga, Mombasa, Aden (in Yemen), and on through the Red Sea to Port Suez at the southern end of the canal.

We arrived in Port Suez two days after Christmas.  My father had planned to stay on the ship with my young brother David who was only six years old.  Early in the morning my mother, my twin brother John and I were taken ashore by lighter and boarded a tour bus for a road trip to Cairo.  For most of the drive, which took only an hour or so, all we could see was sand on either side of the road.  To the east, looking in the direction of the canal, we would see the funnels of ships passing through the seaway.  Only the moving funnels were visible as sand dunes blocked sight of anything else.  It looked, for all the world, like ships sailing across the desert.  

Approaching the sprawling city Cairo we passed through miles of poor suburbs, constructed of red mud covered bricks and seemingly all part of one massive contiguous structure, intersected with a myriad of narrow alleyways.  I knew that if I were dropped off anywhere in those streets I would never be able to find my way out again.  From recent photos I have seen of that city, much of the impoverished areas of Cairo look the same today.  Bicycles - thousands and thousands of bicycles, moved along the streets making driving a car or bus seem impossible.

In the center of the city we drove along the Nile River and crossed several bridges. Modern hotels and apartments lined the river in places.  We stopped at the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities and walked through the galleries for an hour or so.  The first museum was built in 1835 but was moved several times until 1902 when it built where it now stands on Tahrir Square.  Our guide, a young lady whose English-speaking skills were excellent took us into some of the more famous galleries.  Only after I had taken several photographs of Tutankhamun’s famous gold and bejeweled burial mask did I realize we were not permitted to take photos.  I left the museum feeling a little guilty but no one seemed to be following us as we left to move on to the pyramids.  King Tut’s mask is made of 24.5 lbs of solid gold and is thought to be a good likeness to the young king in real life.

The 3,000 year old gold mask of Tutankhamun

On the outskirts of Cairo we arrived at the Great Sphinx and the Pyramids of Giza and I have attached a photo or two of the scene. The sphinx and the pyramids here were built about 4,500 years before and are, I believe, the largest pyramids in Egypt.  We were able to walk a short distance into the largest pyramid or Khafra’s Pyramid and we climbed a short way up one side.  The square blocks used at the base of the structure are huge, standing way above my head.  I learned that the 66 ft high (20M) Sphinx was largely covered by sand when archaeologists began to excavate it in the 1880s.  An extensive network of tombs and ceremonial avenues was revealed around it when the excavation was completed.  Of course the ubiquitous camels were everywhere.  I didn’t ride one and still, after 50 years I have no regrets about my decision.  

After a short rest stop and snack at a nearby hotel we boarded our bus and began the drive north to Port Said.  The drive took us through vast Nile River irrigation areas and revealed mile after mile of productive agricultural land, unlike the arid desert we had passed through near the Suez Canal earlier in the day.

Port Said is the northern most town of the Suez Canal and it lies on the Mediterranean Sea.  Our ship had passed through the canal and we would meet it there.  Our final stop in Egypt was a small restaurant near the harbor.  We had dinner, which no doubt included some Egyptian delicacies, but I don’t remember too much about the food.  I do remember a bevy of belly dancers on the dance floor to entertain us.  Well after dark we were transported to our ship by small boat and shortly after boarding we set sail into the Mediterranean Sea.  Our next destination was the Italian port city of Genoa.  Passing the Island of Sicily the hot lava spewing from Mount Etna was visible the following night.  We reached the busy harbor of Genoa the next afternoon. It was New Years Eve.

I am more certain of this date than any other date on our journey.  Our hotel was close to the harbor and at midnight on December 31, 1961 every fog horn on every ship erupted to welcome the New Year.