Africa Safari Blog

Source: ZimEye, Zimbabwe http://www.zimeye.org/?p=9351

A professional tour guide is believed to have died after falling to the Victoria Falls rain-forest gorges. Police confirmed the incident, which left Victoria Falls and Livingstone, Zambia residents dumbfounded. Chief Inspector Chisoni, Police Officer in Charge of Victoria Falls police station in Livingstone, Zambia said the incident happened on Wednesday afternoon on the Zambian side of the rainforest. He said the guide was trying to save a tourist who was about to fall into the gorges at a spot called The Devil’s Pool.

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“You will both enjoy and be left with a feeling of accomplishment. Dry day best.” Is how our good friend Brian Georgeson described out planned climb of Kasteel Buttress in his usual brief style. Well, I’d driven through Camps Bay a few days before and had a good look at Kasteel Buttress, and all I saw was a solid wall of rock which only a sticky- footed gecko could clamber up. And the first rains of the winter had arrived, flooding some parts of Cape Town. So it was with more than a little trepidation that I trudged up the Kasteelpoort path after Brian and Bruce.”

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Source: Go Magazine
Jenny wants to take me to the Painted Dog Conservation Project (Zimbabwe),  which is an organisation that works to protect African wild dogs. Inside their building (it’s got an amazing thatched dome) there is a child-friendly display where you can learn more about wild dogs. You can see the project is well funded – computers hum happily in the offices.

The rehabilitation centre is directly behind the offices, where eight wild dogs are resident at the moment.

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Source: M&G website, 16 September 2009 
Three humpback whales have been found dead in southern Madagascar three weeks after a wrecked Turkish freighter began tipping fuel into the sea, contaminating the coastline, a newspaper on the Indian Ocean island reported Wednesday.
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Source: Reuters, 8 September 2009

Cape Town, Sept 8 (Reuters) – Turkish bulk carrier MV SELI 1, carrying a 30,000 tonne coal cargo, ran aground with no reported injuries at Dolphin beach near the South African coastal city of Cape Town, city officials said on Tuesday. The 176 metre long ship, registered in Panama, ran aground on Monday evening while on its way to Gibraltar, the City of Cape Town said in a statement.

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We thought that this week we would share some funny anecdotes from some recent safaris. Below are two funny stories from Andree (Jenman Safaris tour guide), on his first guided tour around Botswana with a group of German clients. We hope these stories will make you laugh and brighten your day. Enjoy! 

Smoke without fire?

An exciting and fascinating 14-day tour through Botswana, Namibia and Zambia comes to an end in Livingstone. The bush-conquerors from Germany are meeting for a final breakfast on the patio of the Waterfront Lodge. Together, they are enjoying their last meal of their safari overlooking the mighty Zambezi River.

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Zambia’s president has taken revenge after a monkey urinated on him during a press conference, by evicting a group of some 200 primates from State House. President Rupiah Banda has asked for the animals to be relocated to parkland outside the capital Lusaka. About 61 monkeys have already been moved to the Munda Wanga Botanical Gardens land, an official said.  At the time, President Banda made light of the incident and suggested he would give it to the opposition leader.

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I have just returned from Nosy Be where we run our dhow safaris and in some ways so much is happening and in others it is pretty quiet.

Politics

The happenings are in the political sphere. Adry Rajoelena took over control of the government from Mark Ravolmanana early this year and now there are rumors of a referendum and elections later in the year. In quiet Nosy Be no one seemed to know much about the rumblings in Tanna, or even care. Life goes on as usual except for the sudden drop in tourism which is the life blood of the little island. I’m not sure if the tourism dropped because of the political situation or because of the world economic climate. The European tourists just didn’t arrive.
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