Tag Archives: Tsavo

Africa’s Great Wild Places

When I left Specsavers in 2000 the lovely team I worked with gave me a perfect farewell gift: A book by Chris and Tilde Stuart: ‘Africa’s Great Wild Places.’ Right up my alley. If the Stuarts think these places are special you can bet they are. They have been all over Africa and they don’t flit in and out; when they go somewhere, they stay a while!

I had been to seven of the fifteen places they chose for the book and immediately set about getting to the eighth:

My eighth of the Great Wild Places – Luangwa in Zambia

LuangwaWithKids (26)
– We watched eles crossing the Luangwa as we ate. Little ones submerged except for their trunks! –

~~oo0oo~~

I have visited the wondrous Okavango Delta in Botswana by plane and by land on about a dozen occasions, lucky me, thanks to having lil sis Janet living in Maun.

Okavango book June Kay (1)

We had this book at home growing up and I loved it. It describes the Okavango in 1958; Moremi and Chobe weren’t parks yet, but the story about two crazy loons driving a great lumbering gas-guzzling, wartime D.U.K.W amphibious monstrosity led to a fascination and – years later – many trips there starting in 1985.

The latest trip was in March 2018. While there I read her new book Starlings Laughing, under her new name June Vendall Clark. While there are challenges, I’m pleased to report that exactly sixty years later, the Okavango is still the amazing paradise June Kay loved so much.

~~oo0oo~~

A magic trip in a little Suzuki to Tsavo East and Tsavo West in Kenya

~~oo0oo~~

Kruger National Park in South Africa

First visit in 1968 – a school tour. Most recent in 2023 – three fun weeks in the park.

~~oo0oo~~

The Kalahari – Kalahari-Gemsbok Park in South Africa and the Kalahari in Botswana

1969 school tour and 1996 with Aitch; In 2010 with Janet we saw the Green Kalahari and paddled the Nhabe River into lake Ngami.

Kayak Kalahari Ngami (28 small)

~~oo0oo~~

Makgadikgadi Pans and Central Kalahari Game Reserve in Botswana

~~oo0oo~~

Etosha in Namibia in 1969 and 1986

Okakuejo camp
– Okakuejo camp –

~~oo0oo~~

Hwange in Zimbabwe

Probably my favourite. In 1997 we went to Makololo and in 2010 to Somalisa

~~oo0oo~~

The Namib desert

~~oo0oo~~

Western Tanzania

Namibia Balloon (4)

This was one area I thought it unlikely we’d get to visit. Then friend Mike Lello got to go! His son Chris worked in wildlife safaris in Tanzania and arranged a fly-in trip. And lately, wonderful news: My bro-in-law Jeff and nephew Robbie have bought a farm near Iringa. I may not get all the way west, but I’d love to go to the Selous and Ruaha National Park! Time will tell!

More to see:

Uganda, the Serengeti, the Soda Lakes, the Great Selous. One day . . .

~~oo0oo~~

Underground and Underwater in Kenya

In Tsavo East we walked down a long underground tunnel from Elephant Hills Lodge on the hilltop in the first pic below, to the waterhole below the hill, where the tunnel ends in an iron-barred underground hide looking out at elephant feet and buffalo legs as they drink within pebble-tossing distance. Almost.

Elephant Hills - East Tsavo
KenyaTsavo (12)
– bottom left is where the tunnel emerges –
scan0065

In Tsavo West we climbed down into an old metal tank with glass portholes looking out into the crystal clear waters of Mzima Spring, where fish swim past and hippos can be seen looking like graceful ballerinas who have ‘let themselves go’ as they move daintily by, holding their breath. We watched and waited and held our breath, but not one of them farted while we were there.

down into the tank
underwater view of fish & hippos!
There’s the underwater observation tank opposite

The spring bubbles out of the hillside volcanic rock, crystal clear and forming a sizeable stream.

Mzima Springs
– bubbling out of the volcanic rock: The start of a river –
hippos in clear water
Mzima springs
– Mzima Springs –

~~~oo0oo~~~