The Safari Begins - Day 1

Day 1
LEON:  We are driving out from the first night’s campsite.  The sun is just barely above the mountains to the east, with mist in the valley below and a few low clouds below the ridges.  The valley is lush and green, but not with jungle growth.  It is the green of spring in the vineyards, which are spread throughout the valley floor.  The terrain reminds both Barb and me of eastern Washington.  There are rocky hills all around us with the scrub vegetation that grows in a high, near-desert clime.  But just like our home state, here they have irrigation.  The Oliphant (for the Elephants that once roamed here) valley has a large aqueduct that brings water and wealth to the valley.  Wine seems to be the the predominant crop, but there is also a tea grown higher up on the hills called Roobios (red bush). 

Our first night camping out would be hard to describe as roughing it.  We were situated on a hillside overlooking the valley.  Shortly after our arrival, our driver Will takes charge and begins to show us how to pitch our tents.  Will is tall and slim, with short cropped blond hair and possessed of a competent, take charge manner.  It seems that there are tricks and techniques to everything, even pitching a tent.

After watching the demo, and then pitching and moving into our own tents, the entire group walked up the one dusty road for about half a klick to the estate owner’s tasting room.  We spent the next hour sampling wines made by “Sparky” and his cooperative of 130 other local valley farmers.  He sold several cases of wine to our travelers who somehow fear there may be a shortage of such things farther down the trail.  Being of a naturally perverse nature, I decided to have a beer instead.  I asked Sparky which was his favorite local beer, and he surprised me by recommending a Namibian beer called Tafal.  It was a lighter beer with a slightly sweet flavor.  Ice cold, it went down very easy.  

Back at the campsite, dinner was ready.  Ebron is our cook.  He is ebony dark, about my height, slim with good shoulders, and is quick to flash his friendly smile.  Ebron speaks Afrikaans, English, Swahili, Nbele, and one other language I never heard of.  He is said to be invaluable when buying food in the markets, able to acquire the best foods at the most reasonable prices.  He set high expectations for the rest of the trip with his first night’s meal.  There was a creamy vegetable and pasta soup that could have been a meal in itself.  But then he follows that with butternut squash, rice, broccoli, wild cow stew, and vegetable curry.  It was really a great meal and would have been welcome in any circumstances.  But to eat like that while sitting by an open campfire was wonderful.

Sitting around the campfire are all of our new best friends.  As you might expect, it is a potentially interesting group.  Three of us are former US Navy A-6 pilots.  Of course, there is Barb and Leon.  Just across the campfire are Dan (retired American Airlines Capt.) and Chuck  (retired USN Cmdr., and now retired school teacher).   Beside Barb and I are Paul (retired police detective) and Joanna from Mammoth, Ca.

All of us are USA.  There is Leo, the great grandfather from Montreal, Canada.  French is his native language, and he has bicycled and traveled all over the world.  His last trip was cycling Japan.  There are Jeff and Meghan from the Snowy Mountain area of Australia.  He was a mining engineer looking to do something different in life, so they moved to a remote part of Australia for a few years.  They will spend eight weeks traveling Africa, and will be married in Zanzibar.  Stan (short for Stanislava) is a tall, blond, young mother of two (a one and a six years old) living in Ireland, but originally from Serbia.  Matan is a a tall, darker, youthful Israeli woman.  She will spend 6 months traveling Africa.  Together we will see Africa from Cape Town to Victoria Falls.  Only Dan and Matan will continue on with this bus all the way to Nairobi.  It seems like a very congenial group.  To spend the first night imbibing wine, eating a great meal, and talking together around the campfire seems a great way to have started our adventure together.

`I have yet to introduce “Maliki”, our Mad Max, Humvee-on-steroids looking bus.  It is raised up so most animals can’t reach in.  There are large storage compartments all under the passenger cabin, and when you open the back end doors, there is a complete portable kitchen ready to unload, plus the pantry of food to cook. 

And then there is Brett, our intrepid guide.  Brett  is a native Capetonian who has worked in the bush with the animal conservation efforts, has been a professional photographer, and has guided tours for many years now.  He will be giving lessons on photography as we go along.