We flew from Pemba to Maputo where we stayed in the Polana Serena Hotel. It is a very impressive sight, and the oldest hotel in Maputo. However, it's attraction mostly stops there. I won't go into all the details, but suffice it to say that I would enjoy the value of a Motel 6 over the "luxury" of this hotel any day.
Our friends, Rachel and Larry, joined us from the US and we traveled to Kruger park in South Africa for 2 nights.
We had an amazing time and were able to check off almost all the animals on the park list including some that weren't on the list at all. We came up with our own silly little song, "Mark it off the list" because we were checking things off so often. Larry and Alan even started marking different trees off the list after we'd seen most of the animals.
We saw more animals and "critters" than most people probably do, thanks to Larry and Alan's hunting eyes. It was amazing how well they could spot things! We saw the mongeese, sable, serval, honey badger, klipsringer, bushbaby, African wild dogs, rock monitor, water monitor...things that most people don't get to see. It was really awesome.
(Quite possibly the worst looking buffalo I have ever seen)
Two rhinos that fought in front of our car for over an hour.
These lions were feeding on an unfortunate Zebra.
Have you ever seen a fuller tummy? Full Kitty Syndrome!
At one point we pulled over to see a Reedbuck and a car pulled up next to us to see what we were looking at. They were less than impressed with our one and only Reedbuck find, but they did tell us in their British accent that they saw a bird on the walking on the ground--"It's a Bateleur Eagle!!".
This was a mainstay joke for the rest of the trip, as we saw the Bateleur Eagle throughout the whole park.
We also saw practically all these birds, but since we aren't the true birding type, we figured it was just easier to take a picture of the poster. Larry however, became quite well educated in African birding, calling out names of birds as we passed them by.
After our Kruger trip, we went back to Pemba and had a surprise birthday party for Alan. Our friend Lize makes professional cakes for all the expats. Thanks for the cake Lize!! It was VERY tasty.
Our next mini adventure was an all day fishing trip. The fishing was awesome. However the catching lacked something to be desired. We were introduced to a South African dessert called "koeksisters", sadly one of the best parts of the fishing trip! They are a lot like do-nuts, very delicious. And of course it sounds cool when you say it in Afrikaans, "koeksister"! Rachel picked up a little Afrikaans while she was here. Rachel, who can't meet a stranger, became good friends with our friend Martie. Martie is from South Africa and has a hard time with the English language...she taught Rachel a couple key Afrikaans words, one being "Lekker" which means nice, good, or great.
Here we are with all the fish we caught. =)
Larry did hook his first wahoo as we were coming back to the dock however the deckman, Whitey failed to properly gaff him and land him into the boat.
Soon after the Fishing trip was over, we all dressed up like famous people or characters to go to another birthday party for two of our friends. Alan was Michael Jackson, Bekki was Mulan, and Larry and Rachel were the "famous Americans".
All November babies were honored during the party. From left to right you can see James Bond, William Wallace, Michael Jackson, Marilyn Monroe, and Tina Turner.
The highlight of the evening was when these five ladies did a dance routine to "All the single ladies" by Beyonce. I don'tknow much about dance routines, but from what I saw, they did a terrific job. From left to right: Vanessa (Mozambique), Lize (Namibia), Preya (Canada), Marcia (Mozambique), Bekki. These are Bekki's closest friends in Pemba. They have ladies' nights, play tennis and work out together.
At 5:00 am the next morning, we were off on the next adventure. We spent 9 hours driving about 250 miles to a hunting concession near the Niassa reserve. Bekki had organized a buffalo hunt for me for my birthday (I know what you are thinking, and I agree. She is the most awesome wife in the world) that was supposed to take place in October. Due to work obligations, we weren't able to make that trip. However, we were able to reschedule for November when Larry and Rachel were visiting.
Don't let the tent fool you, we had our own bathroom, shower, queen sized bed, and dresser. Elephants and other animals roam through the camp sometimes. We weren't privy to this but Rachel had a suprise visit to her tent by some monkeys early one morning. They must have thought the tent was a trampoline, and woke Rachel who feared for her life thinking that it was a leopard...scary at the time but really funny later!
The first morning in the bush, we were up and at 'em at 3:00am for the start of what normally is a 10 day buffalo hunt.
We ended up getting a late start due to some issues with the trackers. Basically, they were AWOL, and hunting buffalo without trackers is like dog sledding without dogs. My favorite excuse came from one of the trackers who decided he was hungry, so he got up at 2:00am and walked about 10 kilometers to the nearest village to borrow 10 meticals (30 cents) so he could buy a fish. I guess he forgot about all the food in the camp. =)
Anyway, we gathered up some other trackers and gave it a shot. We exited the truck at about 7:00 in the morning and made our way across the Lugenda river to try and find some buffalo tracks. We found some about an hour later and started following the tracks. At about 8:30, I was on my hands and knees sneaking up on two buffalo that had just bedded down for a while. At 8:55 from 35 yards away, I shot my first Cape buffalo. Adrenaline was pumping! We did in 1 hour and 55 minutes what often takes people 5 to 10 days to complete.
He is 40 and a quarter inches wide which is a very nice buffalo for this part of Africa.
Now that the tough part was out of the way, we relaxed and enjoyed a bit of fun. Bekki and Rachel found out that there was no trophy fee on guinnea fowl, so they challenged themselves to hunt them with a pellet gun. First, we did some target practice. They are both excellent shots. Then we loaded up and went searching for guinneas.
Bekki put the stalk on one group, but they must have winded her because they flew off before she got a shot.
She kept trying and finally it payed off with a very nice shot to the neck. I've never really seen her so excited about anything beofre. I think I'll make a hunter out of her yet.
(--insert from Bekki---no way, I just hunt birds, but I did enjoy being on the buffalo hunt, that was SO exciting! =) )
My Cape buffalo was a community buffalo which means that all fees paid for the animal go to the Niassa reserve, and all meat from the animal goes to the local village. I did the first hunt of this type in this particular block. Anyway, I didn't get any of the meat, so I figured I had better get something to take home. The 2 days after my buffalo hunt, we drove around to try and find a trophy Sable.
On the morning that we were supposed to leave, we found this big guy about 5 kilometers from camp. One well placed shot sent us home with 230 pounds of meat.
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