Trying to be Retired: Part 2 - Africa

Lion at Londolozi

Early in our travels we learned that flying over the ocean in coach class was uncomfortable, plus we needed to take time for jet lag recovery before speaking at a conference or holding a workshop. So we quickly started arranging several nearby engagements in a single trip to Europe and splitting the travel costs among several customers. Time for jet lag recovery and travel between engagements allowed us to explore and photograph each destination.

As invitations for engagements in Australia, Asia and Africa began to arrive, we found that Round-the-World business class tickets were reasonably priced for travel scheduled long in advance. Fortunately, conferences are also scheduled well in advance, so we became world travelers, taking trips that were several weeks long. Three of our Round-the-World trips included engagements in South Africa and each time we arranged to go on a safari during our visit.

Cape Town

In 2007, Mary was invited to give one of the two keynote talks at the ACCU conference in Oxford, UK. The second keynote speaker was Mark Shuttleworth, an entrepreneur from South Africa who founded a company specializing in digital certificates which he sold to VeriSign in 1999. He used the profits to start a Venture Capital company and buy a seat on a Russian spacecraft to fulfill his dream of flying into space. After his space adventure, he founded the Ubuntu project, with the aim of producing a free, high quality desktop operating system. His keynote discussed how difficult it was to get open source developers to coordinate their work, and was impressed that Mary's talks addressed this issue with potential solutions. So he invited us to give a workshop to his worldwide development team when they gathered in Plymouth, Massachusetts in November. The class went very well, and Mark recommended us to Fundamo, a rapidly growing Cape Town financial company financed by his Venture Capital company. So that is how we ended up flying to Cape Town, South Africa in May, 2008.

While we were in South Africa, we drove south to the Cape of Good Hope then east along the Garden Route to Eastern Cape, stopping in Stellenbosch and Knysna before ending our drive at Kwandwe Private Game Reserve. 

Mary on the patio of our oceanfront hotel in Cape Town.

The Cape Town Waterfront Clock Tower and Tide Gauge house, built in 1882.

The Shuttleworth estate; our workshop was on the estate grounds.
Our client, Fundamo, was acquired by Visa three years later.

Cape of Good Hope

African Penguins at Boulder Beach - the first time we saw penguins living in their native habitat.

Driving on the right side along the Garden Route from Cape Town to Port Elizabeth (Gqeberha).

Black and poor South Africans continue to live in marginal conditions in the historic townships on the outskirts of villages along the Garden Route. Nearby gated communities are segregated by economics.

Sanctuary Beach, Plettenberg Bay along the Garden Route

Mouth of the Storm River in Tsitsikamma National Park along the Garden Route

Terns in Natures Valley along the Garden Route.

Safaris

Of course, when we were in South Africa we wanted to go on a safari. In South Africa, game preserves that provide safaris are concentrated in the area adjoining Kreuger National Park (east of Johannesburg) and in Eastern Cape (east of Cape Town). Before our 2008 visit, our host recommended that we visit various sights along the southern coast Garden Route, ending in the Eastern Cape. Kwandwe Private Game Reserve was at the eastern end of our drive and it offered a package that included a private safari vehicle - an important amenity for a photographer. So we spent three nights at Kwandwe before flying back to Cape Town and continuing our journey around the world. 

In May, 2012, we were invited to a conference in Johannesburg, which gave us the opportunity to spend three more nights at a Private Game Reserve. This time we choose Londolozi because it had pricing for three nights and included a private vehicle.  In October, 2014, we returned to Johannesburg and were able to schedule another three nights with a private vehicle at Londolozi. Three safaris gave us the opportunity to photograph Africa's fascinating animals in multiple settings. We saw the Big Five African Animals (elephant, rhinoceros, buffalo, lion, and leopard) on each safari except at Kwandwe, where the open landscape favors cheetahs (the fastest land animal on the planet) over leopards. There we were lucky to see a mother cheetah and her five cubs. 

Big Cats

A mother cheetah (center) rests with and two of her five adolescent cubs.

The mother cheetah leads her cubs on a hunt. Suddenly she takes off across the savanna.

The cubs stay behind after their mother dashes off, watching to see if she calls them to a kill. Cheetahs do not climb trees and are too small to fight other predators, so they eat fast before their food is stolen.

Leopards prefer a dense environment where they can climb trees to rest safely and stash their prey.

Londolozi is famous for its leopards, which have tolerated human observers for over forty years.

At Londolozi, two prides of lionesses clashed over a buffalo kill and got into a rare, ferocious fight.

Mary and Tom witnessed the clash in their safari vehicle. Photo by Lucien Beaumont, Londolozi Blog.
(https://blog.londolozi.com/2014/10/20/lion-warfare/#gallery)

A collation of three lions (brothers) ruled both prides. They heard the noise and immediately came to calm things down. 

Cubs from both prides scattered and hid. With the fighting over, the elder, wounded lioness left to collect her pride's 4 cubs.

Two of the male lions in the ruling coalition made sure things had calmed down.

The next day it was time to rest with the cubs and lick the wounds.

More Big Animals: Elephants, Rhinoceros, Buffalo, and Hippos