Travel in Africa

Blantyre, Malawi
“Enjoy your reintroduction to the first world,” said Fr. Owen waving to us as we headed out on the tarmac at Blantyre airport. We’d had lunch in the airport restaurant, enjoying the questions and wonderment of Lester, our eleven year-old friend from Namitembo. Lester had never been to Blantyre, eaten in a restaurant or seen an airplane. Our departure was a perfect opportunity. He’d arrived at the mission ready to go, wearing a Mariner’s shirt and an ASB cap, gifts from Seattle visitors. He wondered why there were roads in the airport (runways) and stood at rapt attention as two planes landed. Earlier, he’d noticed that houses are close together and that there are so many cars and people in the city. We could only imagine what was going on in his mind as we walked through a big discount store loaded with merchandise, this child whose idea of a market is in the open air, featuring fresh vegetables, dried fish, used clothing and hoes.

Pilanesburg, South Africa
Riding in an open topped vehicle is a comfortable way to go on Safari! No tramping through the bush in pith helmets! Actually, you are not allowed to leave the vehicle. The animals go on about their business as guides drive visitors around this vast national park. We were treated to close encounters with a herd of zebras, a couple of hippos pushing and shoving in a pond as well as giraffes, rhinos and many other species. A lion strolling down the middle of the road had been eating during the night, as evidenced by his visibly protruding stomach, so he was interested in finding water, not interacting with us.

Cape Town, South Africa
We stood where Bartholomew Dias and Vasco de Gama had planted flags at the Cape of Good Hope. Driving further around the shore of False Bay, we came to a colony of African Penguins, waddling over the rocks, clad in their distinctive black and white. It was jacket weather, windy and brisk. On Monday we had visited Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden which skirts Table Mountain in Cape Town. I had to imagine vivid blooms on beds of flowering plants since most of them are gone to seed, now that it is nearly winter. Kirstenbosch’s signature flower is a golden Bird of Paradise named for Nelson Mandela. The gardens are spectacular and complemented by sculptures, many by Zimbabwean artists. Today we visited bleak Robben Island, a museum, former leper colony and more recently the prison in which many who took a stand against apartheid were held for years.

Tonight is our last in Africa, at least for now.