My First Visitor!

After a year of nagging her, I finally convinced Kris to come visit. And despite what she might tell you, it wasn’t even under false pretenses.

Our adventures started when I picked Kris up at the airport in Johannesburg, after a 12-hour trip from my home in Mozambique. From there, we drove to Kruger National Park, and within thirty minutes of entering the park, we’d seen these… ... and these… …and these…
…and we were pretty excited.
We stayed in huts like these – don’t be fooled, they have hot running water, electricity and generally put my Moz home to shame. On the second day, we took a sunset safari and even saw some of these. In fact, they surrounded our car, then hung out all over the road to soak up the heat of the concrete. On the third day, Kris and I turned off the nice paved roads with the nice white English-speaking South Africans on holiday in their SUVs and campers…and we went to Africa.

Using a recently-opened and apparently not-often used border with Kruger’s Mozambican cousin, Parque Nacional de Limpopo, we took the one road all the way through the park and headed to Chokwe.

After roughly six hours on trails that might have once upon a time been considered roads, we arrived safe and sound at home. Khani was glad to see us.

After convincing Kris that the terrifying natives would not eat her, we spent a day wandering around Chokwe, seeing the school and market and meeting friends.

And after that, we grabbed my roomie Clancy and headed on to the Bilene lagoon. Here, we encountered by far the strangest creature of our journey – the Aggie. Complete with a boat called “The Spirit of San Jacinto,” a brand of Texas on his chest and a tattoo that says “Howdy” on a place other than his chest, the Aggie greeted us with a warm handshake and a glass of an ice cold local beverage that can only be described as Texas-sized. He and his Zimbabwean counterpart, Joe, hooked us with kayaking, snorkeling with sea horses and endless dirty pirate songs and jokes on the lagoon.

And there was plenty of time for this, as well. At the end of the day, we walked down to the market for fresh shrimp, cooked with lemon and garlic over charcoal right on the porch. Beats any hibachi.

Alas, our adventures came to an end, and we returned to the Johannesburg so Kris could catch her plane back to civilization.

You, too, could be the proud owner of photos such as these! Contact your local travel agent and book your next flight to the magical land of sub-Saharan Africa.