AMONG ELEPHANTS IN BOTSWANA AND ZIMBABWE, Guest Post by Owen Floody

African elephants, Zimbabwe.

With many thanks to Owen Floody, a frequent contributor to The Intrepid Tourist. In 1971, Owen and my husband Art participated in a field course in animal behavior in Uganda. The descriptions of the animals in Owen's post below bring back many memories of that first trip to Africa.

A few months ago, I traveled in search of one charismatic mammal, the mountain gorilla.  What better complement than a September 2025, trip focusing on a second large, highly intelligent and charismatic, mammal, the African elephant?

The Great Elephant Migration Safari was run by Wilderness Travel and expertly led by Vusa Ncube.  It began in Botswana but quickly shifted to Zimbabwe, where it covered a lot of ground, in part by replacing two long drives with charter flights.  Most of our time was spent in Zimbabwe's Hwange National Park.  At first glance, this seemed too dry and overgrazed to support large elephant herds.  

Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe.

But appearances can be deceiving, as the elephants certainly were there.  One factor contributing to this abundance must be the large number of human-maintained waterholes that dot this part of Hwange.

Vultures, Chobe National Park, Botswana.

My first few days were spent in Botswana's Chobe NationalPark.  An elephant carcass provided an early focus, as it was scoured, first by lions, later by a flock of fractious vultures.  

Elephants in Chobe River.

But the live elephants were even better, socializing near or frolicking in the Chobe River.

Ringside view of nighttime visit of elephants to waterhole at Nehimba Lodge, Zimbabwe.

Our first stop in Zimbabwe was Nehimba, a lovely small lodge perched on the edge of a waterhole calculated to attract animals in the day and night.  

Napping lions.

Lions again proved very entertaining, as they worked over an old carcass and then recovered from their labors as only cats can.

Rhinos at rest at Camel Thorn Lodge, Zimbabwe.

From Nehimba, we traveled by train (The Elephant Express) to Camel Thorn Lodge, in the shade of a Camelthorn tree. Here, we had to be cautious moving on or near the grounds.  The surrounding community is creating a preserve for endangered white rhinos and the area's first two residents seem to love napping at the lodge.  It's not everywhere that animals as rare and formidable as these can be approached (carefully) on foot!

Elephants at waterhole near Camel Thorn Lodge.

A waterhole near Camel Thorn provided my favorite elephant-viewing opportunity.  This was memorable partly due to the large number of elephants that showed up.  But even more compelling was the obvious glee exhibited by the young elephants as they frolicked in this waterpark of their own creation.

Young elephant and herd at waterhole near lodge at Jozibanini.

Our last and most isolated stop was the tiny lodge at Jozibanini.  This provided a variety of entertainments, most focused on the lodge's waterhole.  By far the most thrilling of these was the opportunity to view elephants from a ground-level blind adjacent to a favorite water source.  This provided a dramatic perspective along with the opportunity to view huge and highly charismatic animals at a range of inches.  Our trip couldn't possibly have concluded in any more dramatic and satisfying fashion!

TOURING UGANDA, THE "PEARL OF AFRICA": Guest Post by Owen Floody

Lions in tree in Queen Elizabeth National Park, Uganda.

With many thanks to Owen Floody, a frequent contributor to The Intrepid Tourist. In 1971, Owen and my husband Art participated in a field course in animal behavior in Uganda. The descriptions in Owen's post below bring back many memories of that first trip to Africa.

Rhinos.

This column describes a 12-day June 2025 safari in Uganda that was run by Wilderness Travel and ably led by Robert Sunday, of Classic Africa Safaris.  After one night decompressing in Entebbe, we began the first of several long drives, aiming for Murchison Falls National Park in Uganda’s northwest.  Fortunately, the drive was broken up by an hour at the Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary.  There, we had great fun tracking white rhinos on foot.  The high point was a standoff between one male and several females: Dust was raised but we apparently didn’t merit any actual contact.

Murchison Falls.

One of the beauties of Murchison Falls is the variety of activities it offers.  We took two Nile cruises, one to the base of the falls, the other to the Victoria Nile Delta in search of Shoebills.  For balance, we drove to the top of the falls, where we surrendered our barrels and marveled at the volume of water being forced through the tiny opening in the rock.  

Giraffe.

In addition, we went on several game drives, during which we even managed to tear our eyes off the giraffes for long enough to enjoy the many other animals and birds (e.g., Ground Hornbill.)

Ground hornbill.

Of course, experiences of this sort can’t go unpunished, so that we then piled back into the Land Cruiser for the long drive south to the Kibale Forest National Park.  This park is one of the relatively few in East Africa consisting of rainforest rather than savanna.  Naturally, then, it features rainforest creatures, chiefly chimpanzees and other forest primates.  The highlight of our visit was the two hours that we spent alternately crashing through the undergrowth and quietly hanging out with a troop of chimps that seemed to ignore us completely.  Out of the forest, we enjoyed a walking tour of Bigodi village, including visits to a coffee farm, banana-beer brewer, and native-plants herbalist.

Chimpanzee.

Fortified by the coffee, beer, and herbs, we hit the road again for the mercifully short drive to Queen Elizabeth National Park, perhaps Uganda’s best known savanna park.  Accordingly, we sought grassland animals, on our own and along with researchers tracking radio-collared lions and leopards.  

Lioness.

And we came back to the theme of cruises, as we enjoyed a small-boat ride on the Kazinga Channel.  Along with the Nile cruises at Murchison Falls, this is among the best known and most pleasant water experiences in Africa.  The hippos were impressive and the hyena an unexpected treat, but it was the multitude of Pied Kingfishers and other wonderful birds that stole the show.

Pied Kingfishser.

Finally, it was time for our last stop, at the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, near Uganda’s southwestern corner.  Like all other visitors to Bwindi, we were there for up-close-and-personal views of Mountain Gorillas.  We did the smart thing and hedged our bets by scheduling two gorilla treks on separate days.  This was fortunate and speaks to the care with which Wilderness Travel planned this trip.  The first trek was difficult and culminated in limited views.  

Gorilla.

Apparently, no one had told the gorillas of the fans hoping for an audience.  But the word got out overnight and resulted in an easy trek and incredible views the next day.  It is simply amazing how gratifying it is to see these majestic animals so completely at ease and at such close range.  Was it the small plane or gorilla memories that transported us back to Entebbe to begin the long, but satisfying trip home?

NAMIBIA: Spectacular Dunes and Abundant Wildlife, Part II, Guest Post by Owen Floody.

Zebra at Etosha National Park, Namibia.

With many thanks to our friend Owen Floody, who was my husband's field partner on our trip to East Africa in 1971. Art and I have not been back to Africa since then, but Owen has made numerous trips in recent years and written about several of them for The Intrepid Tourist. His latest report chronicles a trip to Namibia—his third—and is accompanied by his excellent photographs.

Where the Namib desert meets the sea.

My previous post began with my description of a recent photo-tour of Namibia and ended as we flew by small plane from the red sand dunes of Sossusvlei to coastal Swakopmund, marking the tour’s transition from an emphasis on landscapes to one on wildlife. The flight itself provided a second look at the shapes and distributions of the Sossusvlei dunes. Particularly impressive was how abruptly the dunes end and the ocean begins. In addition, the flight permitted us to look down on one of the shipwrecks that give the Skeleton Coast its name. Finally, we viewed an impressive bank of mist extending inland from the ocean, as is very typical of this area.

These mists limited our activities in the Swakopmund area. One victim was a planned excursion to Walvis Bay in search of flamingos and other water birds. But we did see quite a few flamingos from the plane.  And the mists could not completely derail a Living Desert tour that exposed us to a few of the small creatures (chameleons, geckos, skinks, and spiders) able to make the dunes their home.

Gecko.

From Swakopmund, we continued on to our last two stops, Etosha National Park (in northern Namibia) and the Erindi Private Game Reserve (about midway between Etosha and Windhoek, our endpoint).  Even though we saw wildlife earlier in the tour, these were the areas that we expected to be the most wildlife rich.

The Etosha Salt Pan.

Etosha is the third largest of African national parks at 8600 sq mi, closely approaching the size of New Hampshire. Contained almost entirely within it is the Etosha Pan, a salt pan of about 1840 square miles. Etosha is dry, though average rainfall levels vary seasonally and regionally.  Due to its aridity, much of the wildlife viewing in Etosha occurs at waterholes, some natural, others man-made.  A few of these (including one a few feet from my room) are lit at night, permitting interesting views of a great variety of animals as they (very cautiously) visit to drink.

Giraffes and rhinos at the water hole.

Of the waterhole visitors, zebra are so photogenic as to be hard to beat. Nevertheless, the most prized nighttime visitors were the black rhinoceros and giraffes: I did not expect to see this many rhinos and was very pleased by the turnout.  And nothing could have beat the show put on for us by a large herd of elephants during a daytime waterhole visit. All of them, but especially one expressive and irresistible baby, had a grand time frolicking in the dust, water and mud.

Mother elephant and her calf having a mud bath.

Even though these sightings were great and made our visit to Etosha memorable, sightings of some other animals, especially big cats, were scarce. It was suggested that this reflected eastward movements of some animals in response to conditions that were unusually arid even by Etosha's standards.

Mother cheetah and her cubs.

We hoped that these gaps would be filled at Erindi.  And, to some extent, they were, as we were able to get good views of cheetah (6th image) and lions there. Unfortunately, at least some of these sightings came at what I considered unacceptable costs.  One of the benefits of private reserves is the ability to drive off road and at night.  And done judiciously, I think that these can be valuable.  However, our efforts to track a hunting mother cheetah suggested to me that the drivers at Erindi (which were not those attached to our tour) were prone to engage in two unethical practices.  First, they frequently plowed right through any shrub or small tree that might otherwise have required a detour. Secondly, several vehicles maintained positions close to and on at least three sides of the hunting cat. It is hard for me to believe that these intrusions didn’t compromise the hunt (which did end unsuccessfully). One of the drivers claimed that he knows the animals individually and well and would have broken off the pursuit if the animal was distressed. Perhaps this is true, but I am unconvinced. Since many of the cats are radio-collared, it should be possible to collect data on the outcome of hunts accompanied and unaccompanied by safari vehicles. If the success rates are similar, I will praise the sensitivity and skill of the drivers. Otherwise, I will give Erindi a pass, as I did on our remaining game drive.

Please bear in mind that this incident occupied no more than two hours of a 17-day trip.  Therefore, anyone attracted to Namibia but concerned about the incident should recall the saying about throwing out the baby along with the bathwater. Taken together, the sights and experiences of this trip for me elevate further a destination that already was one of my favorites. In my opinion, tweaking the itinerary would be an appropriate response, staying away would be overkill and unnecessary.      

Part I of Owen’s report appeared on July 3, 2023.

AFRICAN SAFARI in 1974, from the Memoir of Carolyn T. Arnold

Carolyn and Guide on the Equator in Kenya

My husband Art’s Aunt Carolyn led tour groups all over the world, and in the summer of 1974 she took a group to Africa. While much of Africa has changed since then, the thrill of seeing wild animals in their native habitat will always be the same. Here are a few of her photos and a description of part of their trip.

Elephants

One year our group went on an animal safari in Africa. We visited Johannesburg and Nairobi, but mainly we stayed at safari camps out on the wide, wide plains. Most of the camps were in Kenya. We saw countless animals, wild and free, protected in their native habitat. We were not allowed out of the van, but the top was raised so we might photograph those animals which came close. The driver’s keen eyes could spot a group of animals long before we could see them–giraffes, antelope, elephants, leopards, lions, zebras, buffaloes, impalas and many more.

Safari Van

We stayed one night at Treetops, built high on stilts and bedrooms at second story level. A balcony extended across the front of the building, so we could sit there and watch the animals come out from the trees to the water hole, mainly in the evening. We were led a short distance from our van by a man with his rifle, in case some animal ventured into our path. Also, he pointed out, there were camouflaged niches which we could dash into if necessary.

Baboons

We also were warned about the monkeys. “Hang onto your purse or anything you are carrying,” the guide said. “The monkeys, always curious, will pick it up in a hurry.” As we were sitting on the balcony that afternoon, Hazel opened her purse for a handkerchief. Quick as a flash, a monkey climbed down from the roof overhead and snatched it away. She should have let the monkey have it, but involuntarily, she reached out her hand for it. So she got a monkey bite on her arm. It was nothing serious, but how astonished she was.

Rhinos

During the night, a mighty shaking of the building aroused us. Nothing more happened and all was quiet. In the morning, we found out that a rhinoceros had become caught between the poles supporting the tree house and was wildly shaking its horns to free itself.
An African safari is well worth a visit; also sunrise over Mount Kiliminjaro.

Masai Warriors

Perhaps the original intrepid tourist was Carolyn T. Arnold, my husband’s aunt.  A single school teacher in Des Moines, Iowa, she began traveling abroad when she was in her forties, beginning with a bicycling trip through Ireland in 1950.  She went on from there to spend a year as a Fulbright Exchange Teacher in Wales, to more trips to Europe and beyond, and eventually became a tour leader, taking all her nieces and nephews (including Art) on her travels.  When she retired from teaching, she wrote of her experiences in a memoir called Up and Down and Around the World with Carrie.  Today, as I read of her travels, I marvel at her spirit of adventure at a time when women did not have the independence they do today.  You can read of some of her other adventures in these posts on this blog:  October 21, 2013; October 7, 2013; July 29, 2013.March 10, 2014, January 12, 2015, June 8 and 15, 2015; August 17 and 24, 2015; October 26, 2015.