Marysville Travel and Cruise Company - Marysville, Washington

Africa

A Faraway Getaway

By Paul Dye

Want to get away from noise, traffic, job, routine, and yes, even well meaning family and friends? Want to travel to the opposite side of the world and experience a high adventure you probably haven't even dreamed about up to now? Well, we've just returned from just that sort of adventure. It's amazing how Africa

listening to roaming prides of lion's roaring in the night, the woooop of hyenas and the grunt of hippos can make you completely break from even thinking about that routine you so wanted to escape. And the songs of windchime frogs and countless species of birds serenade you awake come dawn. A short stroll, or sleep stagger to the morning campfire for that first cup of coffee, or fresh fruit and juice starts you on another days adventure, as the guides explain the day's itinerary. Maybe you'll start with a drive along a huge wetland to see numerous cranes, herons, storks, crocs and hippos, or tiny lilly trotters,or elusive pygmy geese, as you are, after all, in the middle of one of Africa's largest and most productive wetlands, the Okavango Delta in northern Botswana, about a three hour flight northeast of Johannesburg, South Africa. Along the way, if you're lucky like we were, you may spot a leopard lounging high in a massive baobob tree, or that pride of lions, with cubs squealing and tumbling in joyous play as they follow mom across the veld to that days shady spot. Herds of impala, zebra, wildebeest and lechwe dot the countryside, everywhere it seems.

Connections from western Washington are a breeze, first a flight to New York from Seattle, then right on to one of South African Airline's big 747-400?s for the looong leg to Johannesburg. Once in Joburg, we met a representative of the Safari Company at our hotel and she explained the next days events. That day included a two and a half hour flight to Maun, Botswana, and half hour flight with a bush pilot to a remote strip, where we were picked up by our guides in Land Rovers. Immediately the safari begins, and you start spotting strange, beautiful and exotic creatures as soon as you leave ten runway behind. The adventure has begun in earnest! It only gets better, as most camps are built near waterholes or along game trails, and surprises like the elephant and the wild dogs that came through camp, or the hippos that grunt all night, make every day different and exciting.

It isn't until the trip back home that you realize what a marvelous comma you've just put in your life's sentence, what fabulous memories you've just amassed, and what wonderful friends you've made to share them with.

We want to go back!