Full Passport is the Only way to Come Home.

With all of the chaos on the island, I knew we would stress ourselves to death, so I figured traveling would be an excellent distraction! This was by FAR the biggest perk living here! We made a short list of place wed love to visit and chipped away at it. It truly did help with the stresses on the island, as it always gave us something to look forward to! Wether it was just to mainland, or a trip to South Africa, it was nice always having something on the books to look forward to!

I had come to the conclusion that as much as I love Africa, Zanzibar is by far my least favorite. My favorite moments on the island were when we were getting on a plane to fly literally anywhere else.

We were able to get heavily discounted stays or comped stays since we are tour operators, always a huge plus! Each country is so incredibly different, so it was great to learn about it all!!

Grading 1-10

• South Africa 10

• Zimbabwe 2x 10

• Zambia 7

• Namibia 6

• Uganda 6

• Rwanda 6

• Kenya 8

• Ethiopia 5

• Tanzania 10

South Africa:

We really were intrigued by this country, have heard so many great things about it and usually we find clients who are torn between south Africa and Tanzania. South Africa won our hearts over big time! We decided to do a self drive for a few days in Kruger National Park, which was a huge highlight for me! I loved this! Our accommodations were outside the park and were old storage containers turned into hotel rooms! We had been getting into "birding" lately, so this park was really incredible for the birdlife. being able to be in a small compact car and having a pride of lions walk past was truly majestic. We spent 2 nights in Kruger on an old antique train on a bridge that someone tuned into a boutique hotel, this place was AMAZING. Over the top luxury sitting on a bridge with wildlife all below you, simply WOW! After we explored Kruger for about 4 days, we went up to the Game Reserves: Sabi Sands, Klasserie & Timbavati. This was a trip we'll never forget. All of the animals we rarely get to see in Tanzania (leopard and rhinos), were SO close to the vehicles here. It was simply incredible, with Sabi Sands being our most favorite spot (Elephant Plains). We got to witness a leopard drag it's kill up in a mopane tree, right next to the truck.

One evening when we were going out, our guide Shannon asked us what we'd like to see. As a joke, Ryan said, "if you show me a pangolin I'll make it worth your while." She laughed at this and we climbed into the truck.

Pangolins are one of Africas most RARE animals, it is considered to be GREAT luck for you if you are to see one, especially in daylight hours. They are the most heavily poached animals in the world - Asian countries believe there are healing properties in their scales. Each scale sells for about $4,000 on the market.

Well we weren't seeing much this late afternoon but then we saw a loan hyena walking towards us but she starts to bare off to the left, so Shannon decides shell turn around and go down a small path where we were sure to see the hyena come thru. We start down the path and the spotter throws both of his hands up in the air and Shannon throws the truck in park. They spotted a pangolin. Us and the guides jumped out of the truck in pure excitement but trying to stay quiet not to scare her off. (Pangolins are one of the only animals you are allowed to get out of the truck for!) The rest of the group looked confused and questionable about getting out of the truck. While Shannon was calling this siting in on the radio to the conservation team, I was telling the rest of the guests to get out of the truck immediately, because this is the rarest sighting in all of Africa, and no one would believe them that they saw one.

We were able to get some amazing photos of her and then the conservation team called us back to to watch them retag her (her GPS had been ripped off). It was an incredible thing to witness, truly. They saw how excited Ryan and I were and they invited us to their office the next day to give us the original tag on the pangolin.

This might be one of my favorite memories in the last 2 years.

Our last day in the reserves, we really weren’t seeing much of anything. I could tell the guide was stressing about the lack of sightings. Of anything really. It was a bit strange, but we were fortunate for our weeks of incredible sightings and wasn’t going to let this lack luster game drive spoil the trip. Then all of a sudden, we see a wildebeest and after we crossed the road, he stopped and made the “warning call” they make, which is more of a grunting sound. I told the guide “the wildebeest is looking to the right and just made a warning call.” So we decide to drive up a little bit to try to see what the wildebeest was looking at. Just when we were about to let it go, I heard what sounded like a cow mooing long and loud… I mentioned it to the guide, he heard it too. So we drove up a little more and then we spot the buffalo. On the airstrip. With 4 lions on him. YES! 4 !!!! While we were watching this, I looked behind the truck when heard some bushes rustling and saw about 300 buffalo come running! They were running to defend and save their fellow buffalo. Buffalos vs lions, an INCREDIBLE sight! The lions, all covered in blood went running while th buffalos were hot on their tails. Buffalos are the most underrated of the Big 5, probably because they’re just seen as big cattle. But in reality, they are the most dangerous of the big 5. They are the most aggressive and will stop at nothing to fuck some lions up when it comes to defending their own!

We finished up the parks and reserves and then headed down to Cape Town to visit our friend Anneliese. We had met her a few years prior at one of the travel expos in Boston. We stayed in funky airstream trailer on top of a building downtown Cape town. Such a funky little spot! Anneleise drove us around all the funky little beach towns and took us to see the penguins. Although I was catching a little bit of a cold, we still went for the wine tasting which was so much fun! I chose the hot chocolate and wine pairing! Cape town has to be one of the most beautiful cities I have ever been to. But crime is a major issue here. It was mind blowing for us to be driving around in one of the most beautiful places in the world, with beautiful beaches, wild proteas growing on the side of the road, to see road signs that read "do not stop highjacking hotspot". I had to read the sign twice, to make sure I read it correctly.

Tanzania still holds a strong #1 spot in our hearts, for many many reasons, but South Africa is FAR up there on that list! South Africa you are everything and more!

Ethiopia:

This is one of those countries when someone is visiting Africa and you got to ask, "well how 'Africa' do you want to get?? Do you want bougee Africa in the resorts and such or do you want to experience authentic real Africa?"

Home to the Capital of Africa, Addis Abbas. This city blew my mind, so far from what I was expecting. The city was spotless, cleaner than most US cities. Very modern with excellent shopping. We decided to travel to the northeast section of the country, to visit a little town called Harar, just near from the Somalia border.  This walled city of Harar doesn’t get too many tourists. There were no hotels for us to stay at, just a questionable guest house that had 3 rooms. They owners of the guest house were beyond friendly and welcoming but the children of Harar were little terrors, maybe from boredom. We had a great guide who scolded the children when they were getting out of line. We heard people keep calling us “Frenechies” - Because the French used to travel to Ethiopia quite a bit, so now they call all white people this.

What brought us to Ethiopia were the hyenas. I love hyenas and I had read about this little town, Harar, where the hyenas used to terrorize the village. Attacking livestock and even small children. A few decades back, a man decided to befriend the hyenas by feeding them and this made all the difference in the world. Their livestock and children were safe once again. They even cut small doors in the walls that surround the town for the hyenas to come thru. People will leave scraps out and the butchers will leave scraps for them too. What is amazing is the people of Harar are more afraid of dogs than of Hyenas. You can go to meet the Hyena Man himself and feed the hyenas with him. He shows up on the outskirts of the city, and calls them all by name. Although still very skittish since they are still wild animals, to see this peace between them was amazing. The hyena man has a small cat, that comes with him even. So while I am hand feeding these wild hyenas than just came from the bush with the hyena man, I have his small cat sitting next to me eating with the hyenas.

Ethiopia was cool in the sense that they do not get a lot of tourists. They are quite rude with the pushing and lack of personal space, but we'r'e used to that at this point. We traveled down to Omo Valley, in the south west corner fo the country, bordering Sudan and Kenya. We came here specifically to go visit some off the beaten path African tribes; Tribes that are not used to having visitors. The tribes are generally at war with one another, so when we arrived, the Mursi tribe was in trouble with the government. Apparently the month before our arrival, the Mursi tribe was in a scuffle with the Hamer tribe, and they opened fire. The problem is, an expat was there on tour and got caught in the crossfire and was killed. So, the national park was closed and the Mursi tribe was in trouble for it all. So, we couldnt visit the national park, but in reality, the tribes have killed off and scared most the wildlife away, unfortunately.

We were able to visit the tribes individually, which was amazing. The Karo tribe being one of our favorites, they were so welcoming. Mostly naked and covered in body paints, they offered to paint our faces and we bought a ton of jewelry from them.

The Mursi tribe, the tribe with the big plates in their lips, were cool to visit too. But I think they were a little nervous to have visitors. We were probbly the first to visit them since the whole ordeal. The plates in their lips started as a deterant for being picked as a slave, but now it represents beauty and fertility. We got to watch them remove the plate and put it back in and learned they actually have to remove their bottom teeth to do this. A very painful process.

The Hamer tribe. Well, this was an experience to say the least. We were invited to a Bull Jumping Ceremony, where a boy is entering manhood and has to run across the back of bulls, naked. Once he completes this, he is elligable for marriage. Prior to the event, it is a big big party. And so, we drove about 14 miles off the main road, deep deep into the Ethiopian bush. I kept thinking, "if we went missing right now, no one would know where to even look for us." We arrived to the site of the party to find mostly very drunk tribe members, who were participating in all sorts of traditions, like getting incredibly drunk off their homemade grain alcohol. The babies all had the extended bellys, like you see in. the ads due to malnutrition. The women kept handing the men thin sticks and had the men whip them with it. Open gashes on their backs, they seemed to love it and dance while the men whipped them. The men got me to drink the grain alcohol but I wanted to keep my distance as they seemed to be getting quite rowdy and our own tour guide was drunk. At one point, unfortunately, we saw a man beat the absolute piss out of his wife, about 4 feet from us. He threw her into an acacia bush, after hitting her multiple times and she struggled to get up since her wraps were stuck on the throns of the acacia. (about 4" thorns). Once she got up, he kicked her square in the back, and she fell into their hut. She didn't come back out and the other men then stepped in to hold him back from going after her more. Why didnt we step in? Well, everyone, and i mean EVERYONE, was strapped with AK47's. It was nervewracking enough already to be there, so we were in no place to step in. It definitely had me nervous as hell the rest of the night unfortunately. After the bull jumping was over, we had to help our guide find the truck, because he was too drunk to remember were he parked it. (There are no roads out here, this was the middle of the bush). I had forgotten to tag the location when we parked, which had crossed my mind.

Zimbabwe:

So we visited Zimbabwe 2x. Once for Victoria falls and then another time for the northern region of Zimbabwe. And I have to tell you, Zimbabwe might be one of my absolute favorite spots! The falls is nice and all, but it is a bit gimicky. Zimbabwes currency is absolutely useless, so when you go to the ATM, it gives you USD. The Zimbabwean bills are 5 Billion, 5 trillion, etc it is quite funny actually. It is very pretty but you can only get them off street vendors who try to sell you a set for a solid fortune. Worth only about $4 in total, they try their hardest to sell the set to you for $150. Anyway, Ryan got a set for $15. We got to go on the Zambezi river and do a cruise, which was great, we got to see tons of animals from the water and got to see the mist from the famous falls. The biggest thing for us down by the falls was being able to tour the falls and also to visit Devils Pool, which was incredible. It was qiute nervewracking walking out to the pool, as you are stepping on slippery stones, which a strong current hitting your ankles on the very edge of the falls themselves. One by one, we got to swim over the edge and a guide held our ankles while we stretched out over the edge. Truly an incredible experience and just from sharing these images, our story got picked up by a journalist, who shared the story to Unilad, The Daily Mail UK, the New York Post. The falls were truly breathtaking; we even got sucked into doing a helecopter ride over them, which, i almost didnt do. But I am so glad we did! Seeing the falls from the sky almost brought tears to my eyes and we even got to see elephants up stream from the falls! Truly so incredible.

Our second trip back to Zimbabwe, I wanted to safari in an "off the beaten path" location in Africa, a place that does not have a ton of tourists, but attracts the right animal - nature loving safari goers. This brought us to Mana Pools, Zimbabwe. Now THIS is where I fell in LOVE with ZImbabwe. There is no access by road to the park, so the camp arranged to pick us up at the airport with one of their own planes. Ryan hates small planes, but he was getting used to them going to and from mainland from island in Tanzania. Well, when we showed up, the plane was SO tiny! It looked like a ack of gum i couldve stuck in my jeans pocket! It sat us and the pilot, thats it! I saw the fear on Ryans face and so I decided to ask the pilot, "how long of a flight is it?" Thinking he would say about 30 min or so, but his answer : "about 2 hours!" I could feel Ryans palms getting sweaty from nerves, and all i could think was "This plane can hold 2 hours worth of fuel!?" Anyway, we finally arrive after a beautiful flight over the mountains and untouched African land. Mana Pools is known for its walking safaris and their elephants. During the dry season, the elephants get more desparate for food, so some of them have learned to stand on their hind legs and pull branches down from trees. It is absolutely incredible to witness. Being able to see these elephants plus tons of other wildilfe on foot, like lions, buffalos, etc was truly exhillerating. Another draw we had here was the African Wild Dogs. Highly endanagered, and breathtakinglybeautiful, it was absoltuely AMAZING to see these dogs on foot and not from the safety of a truck. We were more excited to see the wild dogs than the lions on foot!

We met some truly amazing people here, including one of the most interesting women I have ever met. Her name was Barbara and she was with her 2 kids visiting Mana Pools in rememberance of her/their husband/father. They had been visiting Mana Pools for decades and knew all the elephants and their names. Barbara was married to a Switzerland diplomat and had lived all over the world, in very dangerous areas including the Congo and Iran. The stories she had were simply incredible and she now lives in South Africa. She was able to able one of the new leopards in one of the Naitonal Parks in SA, truly a very unique soul! She encouraged us to visit KANGA camp, so we contacted the office and mentioned Barbaras name and they changed the camp for us. SO thankful for this! Kanga was amazing! It was a hide down next to the waterhole, where we could sit for hours and watch the nonstop aciton of this waterhol.e. Lots of the animals came right up into camp, so we had to be careful, elephants would come busting thru and lions everywhere! While we sat by the pool and cooled our feet and relaxed, a ton of elephants came up and began drinking all the water out of the pool! SO incredible! By morning, there was not a drop of water left in the the pool! Mana Pools and Zimbabweans truly made me LOVE this country. I WILL be back again!

Namibia:

This was an odd one. Namibia is one of the least populated countries in the world, so the cell service is quite bad. We decided to do a self drive, which, most travelers choose this option. There are some really unique spots in Namibia, but all are very spread out, about 5-8 hours drive in between. So, What could be done in 4-5 days is now going to take your about 9+. Namibia at point was ruled by the Germans, and it still has a very strong german influence. Most of the towns and roads are with German names. Its infastructure was impressive for an African country, so, although not a huge population, you can see their economy is a bit stronger. We got to visit the outskirts of the Kalahari Desert which was amazing, but absolutely freezing at night. We got to visit some rhinos and get out of the vehicle to take some incredible shots with them and we got to finally see meerkats. We asked one of the workers where their borrow was, and so we set out early and waited for them to come out. They were not fearful of us at all. One even nibbled my fingertip! Our last morning in the desert, we went horse back riding (sorry Ryan! He is terrified of horses and i make him ride wtih me so much!) We even got to gallop, Ryan handled it amazing! I think his fear is finally subsiding... We also visited the Sans tribe, who also use tongue clicks in their language, like the Hadzabe tribe. They showed us tons about their ways of life, including all the uses for ostrich egg shells.... Like making beautiful jewelry!

Soussvlei and Deadvlei were truly really cool to see. Not a ton of animals, but the desert was really amazing to see. We decided to hike Big Daddy Dune, which turns out to be the largest of them all. You take 1 step up, and sink 3 back. We were so not prepared for this! With all of our camera gear on our backs, it took us Waaay too long to reach the top. Once we got to the top, it was so damn windy and the sand is so heavy it was whipping us in the face! We had an absolute blast running down the dune on the other side into Deadvlei. It was a very ominous looking place, super unique. Felt like we were walking in a Salvador Dali painting, very trippy! The trees are estimated to be about 900 yrs old, but petrified without decaying due to the climate. Sort of frozen in time. Very very cool.

Next stop we visited the coast, the Atlantic coast and stayed in a cute little coastal German town called Swakamond. It was really nice, great food and shopping, reminded me a bit of the states. We got to go ATVing out here, in the Namib desert, which was SO much fun!! Definitely a highlight for me!

We stopped and visited a super weird town in the middle of nowhere called Solitaire, known for this "famous" apple pie. I think the town consists of about 16 people, it had a gas station and apple pie. It was good, would I say "World famous"? No. We were in the middle of nowhere, not a town in any direction for a solid 5+ hours, so it couldve been apple pie or a hot dog and it wouldve just been impressive to have it out here in the middle of nowhere.

We made our way to the famous Etosha National Park. Got lost on the way and had to take a shortcut down a very susty looking dirt road. Looked like a scene from "The Hills Have Eyes", i kept praying we wouldnt breakdown or get a flat, as these locals were not so friendly looking and some even put random gates up on the road, which we'd have to get out and open. Finally after the stressful detour, we arrived to Etosha National Park. Our first stay was in the park, which was a government run hotel. The place was a complete dump, but the room was near a very active waterhole. Where we saw a TON of action. Including a mama and baby rhino! And we got to witness a hige herd of elephants enjoying an afternoon swim at the waterhole which was so incredible to witness. Although, elephants are big bullies. (Yes, they have the reputation of being very peaceful, but weve witnessed numerous occasions of them being huge bullies). Like when they go to the waterholes, they will chase all over wildlife off, they will not allow any wildlife near the hole while they are near it. (This includes animals that are NOT a threat) So, youll see a bunch of antelope and other walks of life, just waitinf/hiding in the bushes until the elephants are done to get a drink. Etosha was very different than any national park we had been to, we did a self drive and it was pretty easy, only 1 road with a bunch of waterholes off of it. It is so friggen hot there, so youre guarnteed action at the water holes when you pull up. The National Park sits on a salt pan, so it looks like the animals are walking on snow, very cool effect.

At one of the wate holes we were sitting on the trucks window ledges for shots, technically not out of the vehicle, but whatever. Some guide, <if you want to call him a guide, he was driving a bus, so I kept referring to him as a bus driver> got mad at us and took photos of our plates to report us. We saw him at one of the stops for lunch. He wasn't wearing shoes and I couldn't let it go.

Namibia was fun, but it was very slow. For me, its a solid place for 75 yr old Germans to visit.

Rwanda / Uganda:

This was our second time to Rwanda, it is stunningly beautiful and so incredibly clean. The government has really stepped up the game after their genocide, some 30 years ago. This time around, we got to visit the genocide museum, which had numerous amputees working there, people who lived thru the genocide. The museum was very eye openning and emtionally moving. I lost it a few times, especially in the childrens section. To think this all started with the influence of European countries (Belgium, France) coming in and suggesting who is more elite amongst the Rwandans by measuring their heights, noses etc. Having them even create ID cards to identify if they were Hutu or Tutsi and ended with one of the worst genocides ever. Africa has enough issues amongst tribes and backgrounds, they do not need the influence of foreign countries coming in and telling them how live.

Anyway, they country side of Rwanda is always amazing to see, so clean, so fresh, beautiful farms and beautiful people. You'll be lost dazing out the window over the beautiful farms then youll see a memorial, a site where they found bodies from the genocide and it is a reminder where this country was, just 30 years ago.

When you get to the border of Rwanda/Uganda, sadly, you can see the difference. Rwanda, being prestine and Uganda, not so much. Uganda has issues with trash, just like Tanzania. But overall, we found Ugandans to be very friendly. We stayed in the Travelers Rest Lodge, which is an old lodge that Dian Fossey herself used to stay at when she was doing her studies. I had one of the best hot teas in my life at this place, so warm and cozy!

Now that we have done both Gorilla Trekking in Rwanda and Uganda, I can say I liked the Uganda trek better. Rwanda was well organized and all, but I felt it was very commericalized in a way. Rwanda does have a lot more habituated gorilla families locates on the different mountains in the national park itself, but I think I personally enjoyed the rugged Uganda trek better. Mgahinga mountain is very small, with only 1 really habituated group, but the park rangers were super cool about helping us get close to the gorillas and would even chop down vegetation for us to get better shots. I could be wrong, but it felt like our time with the gorillas was longer in Uganda too. In Rwanda, the rangers were quite strict and the vegetation was very dense, so it was dificult to get photos. Now with our guests, we explain to them the differences and usually encouraged them to go to Uganda instead.