Amazing Africa
Ask most people with a sense of adventure where they’d like to go in the world and what do you think they’d say? The US? That’s so ‘80s Pinoy and no longer a destination for a real traveler. Europe? Maybe if you’re a foodie or fashionista and want to gorge on cheese, wine and name brands. Australia? I’m an Aussie myself, and while it’s a great country, I know there’s more excitement to be had out there.
I’d bet the majority of well-seasoned travelers with a real sense of adventure would say Africa. The deep, dark continent and cradle of life. It reminds guys of when they wanted to be Tarzan (minus the leopard loincloth, perhaps) and makes girls have romantic visions of Out of Africa. This is a continent I grew up in for four years as a child. Three years were spent in Tanzania, one year in Kenya. It continues to hold my fascination, proven by my extensive collection of Wilbur Smith novels and magnetic interest in National Geographic documentaries.
Of course, I’m not alone in having an adventurous spirit, and three of my dear friends from AXN’s Amazing Race Asia also discovered their passion for adventure during the race: Paula Taylor (Team Thailand), Vanessa Chong (Team Malaysia) and my teammate Rovilson Fernandez. Having all decided to travel and experience more of the world since the race, we decided to all team up and go on a once-in-a-lifetime, truly wild African safari!
Now the logistics of this kind of a trip are not to be taken lightly. From experience, things in Africa can happen extremely slowly, if at all. The “Hakuna matata” attitude of “no problem” is rarely encountered, especially when trying to arrange a Safari from the other side of the world. For this reason we hooked up with Asia to Africa Safaris, to help us figure out what exactly we wanted, and to help organize this dream barkada vacation.
After much consultation, we finally settled on three camps in Zambia. Why Zambia, you may ask? Well, we wanted a truly wild experience. If we’d chosen some of the more popular game reserves in, say, South Africa or Kenya, we’d probably be on a newly paved safari highway, jostling for position with a dozen other safari vehicles trying to take a shot of the same lion grooming his nether regions. Not quite the “get away from it all” experience we were looking for.
Zambia, we were assured, was the next great African wilderness, with a small but exclusive Safari tourism industry heavily leaning towards ecology and remoteness. This was evidenced by our first camp on the trip, Kalamu, which, with a total of four tents, was the only camp within 10,000 square kilometers! Getting there from Manila entailed jumping on five separate aircraft until we at last touched down in our little six-seater Cessna at a remote airstrip (having first buzzed the runway to clear off the resident impala, baboons, warthog and even a rare Thorncroft giraffe) in the middle of nowhere.
Now, after a long and tiring 20-plus hours of traveling, we were looking forward to a shower and a bite to eat, no matter how primitive the camp might be. Wait, did I say “primitive”? The term “tented camp” brought back memories of school hiking trips in tiny, cramped little triangles of bright nylon and finding an appropriate bush when nature decided to call. Imagine our surprise when we were presented with enormous canvas structures complete with private bathrooms, plumbing, brass and bronze fixtures, “his and hers” sinks and a huge bed with 300-thread count Egyptian cotton bedding! Not even Queen Elizabeth could call this primitive. And as for the food, we were consistently amazed by what the cooks were able to produce out of their little wood-fired kitchen. Fall-off-the-bone Osso Bucco, unbelievably juicy and tender steaks, a South African style of meat quiche filled with onions and exotic spices I couldn’t get enough of, and what is arguably the best chocolate cake any of us had ever tasted! The quality of food remained at this incredibly high standard throughout our trip to all three camps. In fact, at the end of each meal at Kalamu, I felt that we were serious competition for the large hippos that wallowed in the shallow river waters just a few meters from our tents.
If we were pleasantly surprised by our camp, we were positively overjoyed with the Safari guide that Asia to Africa Safaris had recommended for us. Thuto has been guiding for years all over Africa, had a wicked sense of humor, a Wikipedic knowledge of animals and their environments and was one of the happiest and most genuine people I’ve had the pleasure to meet. Our friendship with him was instant and sincere. I’d never been on a guided safari before, as when I was living in East Africa I’d usually just go with my parents in the family car and we’d see what we could see without fully understanding our surroundings or appreciating telltale signs, tracks and sounds. This was a completely different experience.
On our first day out we were given an opportunity I never would have dreamed of before. The “Walking Safari” was pioneered in this part of Zambia and goes against all of your natural instincts that scream self-preservation and “stay in the safari vehicle at all times.” Well, those silent prayers fell on deaf ears as Thuto, along with our resident Kalamu guide (the ever smiling Sam) and our “security” (a friendly national parks ranger armed with a rifle he called “Moses”) lined us up, single-file, for safety (so the lions could only pick us off one at a time, I think). And we trotted off into the untamed African bush.
Going on safari by foot means that you’re a lot closer to the ground and can appreciate the tracking experience as the guides explain the different paw and hoof prints you come across as well as developing in us an unusually strong interest in animal dung. While we appreciated the lessons on how to recognize different animals by their droppings, we drew the line when Thuto and Sam invited us to join them in a traditional game of “who can spit the impala dung pellets the farthest.” I told them if they really wanted to impress us they should do the same with elephant poop.
Of course, the highlight of our walking safari was when we came upon a lone lioness as she was sneaking back into a thicket of deep bush. It was only a quick glimpse before she disappeared, but it was enough to keep us on our toes. We managed to find her and the rest of the pride of nine lions later that evening on a night drive as they stalked their prey of puku antelope, and the next day almost walked on top of them as we got out of the vehicle to examine a baobab tree off the track. Yep, all nine lions were perfectly camouflaged under the trees about 25 meters away from where we were walking! Thank God for our guides’ phenomenal eyesight. We cautiously retreated to the vehicle and happily clicked away with our cameras, thoroughly enjoying this wildest of wild experiences.
After saying a sad farewell to Kalamu and its wonderful staff under the friendly management of Petrus and Gogo, we traveled to Kapinga camp. Only two aircraft this time. Our pilot James decided to do a quick impression of a NASA astronaut by putting the plane into a nosedive halfway through the trip and giving us all a sense of zero gravity as our camera bags and even ourselves were suspended in midair for about 20 seconds. So much better than a rollercoaster! And if that wasn’t enough, when we landed we had our own private helicopter to take us across the floodplains to Kapinga.
If lions were the highlight of Kalamu, at Kapinga it was the hippos. We’d seen plenty of these enormous water cows at Kalamu, but here at Kapinga we boarded a small five-meter tin boat called a Go-Devil and cruised in close to these not-so-gentle giants of the river. Although vegetarian, hippos have been known to bite the native Mokoro canoes in half and are believed to be responsible for more deaths in Africa than any other animal — lion, leopard and elephant included. So imagine our adrenaline rush as one of them decided charge our tiny craft, only to duck under at the last minute and give us a tiny little bump until it surfaced at the other side. Thankfully the hippos around Kapinga are not as aggressive as those in other parts of Africa and only do these mock charges as a warning gesture. Nonetheless, the herds of them in the water within spitting distance, plus the enormous 14-foot crocodile we saw on the riverbank, were enough to put this experience down as another one for the books.
Our last port of call was Toka Leya camp, a gorgeous new five-star camp on the flowing banks of the mighty Zambezi River, and just a few miles upstream from the largest waterfall in the world. The 1.7-kilometer-wide Victoria Falls blows up so much spray and makes such a deafening roar that it’s also called “the smoke that thunders” and can be seen for miles around. It’s a definite must-see, but be prepared to get thoroughly drenched!
This was the closest we’d come to city life on the whole trip, as the small town of Livingstone (named after the legendary British explorer David Livingstone who “discovered” the falls and named them after his Queen) is located by the falls. So on top of our safari exploits, we decided to try some of the other local adventures. We opted for clay pigeon shooting (challenging as hell, but thoroughly enjoyable, especially for the girls, strangely enough…), did some zip lining across the Zambezi gorge which entailed throwing ourselves flying along a thin steel cable suspended between the cliff faces 170 feet above the ground, rappelling down the side of the cliff (I opted for the face-first, Mission: Impossible style for a bit of added excitement) and finally “The Big One”: the Gorge Swing. Imagine putting on a harness, clipping a rope to your chest, with the other end of the rope attached to the middle of a cable traversing the gorge. Now imagine standing on the very edge of a 170-foot sheer drop… and then stepping off into the abyss. You freefall for about 150 feet before the rope even catches you and you start to swing, flying back and forth like a giant pendulum! To give you an idea, it’s like jumping off a 17-story building and falling straight down until Spider-man whisks you to safety just before you hit the ground… If you’re a thrill seeker and an adrenaline junkie, then this one is definitely for you!
We knew we were heading home the next day, so in a last-ditch effort to get as much safari time in as possible, we decided to do one last game drive near Toka Leya before dinner. The safari gods were well and truly in a good mood as we were presented with giraffe, a herd of buffalo, zebra, elephant, and one of the highlights of our entire trip, an extremely rare black rhino! We managed to keep so still and quiet that he grazed within a couple of feet of our truck just as the sun was coming down. A truly magical moment. Afterwards we were treated to a leisurely river cruise with canapés and drinks as the boat brought us back to the friendly five-star luxury of Toka Leya camp and another of its heavenly dinners.
I don’t think I’ve been as sad about a trip ending since finishing the Amazing Race Asia (believe it or not, we didn’t want that one to end either). Not only were we going to miss the amazing sights and experiences with the animals, or the phenomenal food, accommodations and luxury treatment, but we were also going to miss the camaraderie of the camp staff and especially our new buddy, Thuto. It was an experience that went above and beyond what we had expected and we’re already thinking of planning another trip there. It’s a different world, but one I’d return to gladly and often.
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Special thanks to Asia to Africa Safaris (www.atoasafaris.com) for the exceptional help in planning and troubleshooting our dream vacation. (Contact them at enquiry@atoasafaris.com, or call 750-0076). Special thanks also to all the camps in Zambia: Kalamu Tented Camp, Kapinga Camp, and Toka Leya Camp for taking such phenomenal care of us!
