Final Blog of a Great Trip

We are home safe and sound.  The trip back home required 21.5 hours in the air .  All told, about 36 hours of travel.  Everyone is tired and trying to stay awake so that we minimize the effects of jetlag.  Hope you enjoy this final blog.  Love to all.

Tom, Mary Kay, Brad, and Ben

Brad, Ben, and some of the guys we do business with in Victoria Falls.

Crocodile's arch enemy, the moniter lizard on the bank of the Zambezi.

Solid teak handcarved hippo with artist.

My favorite restaurant, St. Elmo's!  The best pasta ever!

Lovely new art form, strawbasket covered with paper and painted.  The artist has added kuba cloth.  It looks like a clay pot but weighs less than 8 pounds.

A masterpiece in the works by Laurence Mukomberanwa.  About 3,000 pounds.

Completed masterpiece.  Ready for shipment to the U.S.  The artist studio is on a 700 acre farm that we love to visit.

Brad looking over a piece by Rasheas who recently passed away.

Our evening gathering place at the Meikles Hotel in Harare, Zimbabwe.

Mixed media painting by a new artist who we recently met.

Divided Thoughts by Lovemore Bonjisi.  One of the few pieces I purchased during this holiday trip.  It was too fabulous to pass up. 

Our driver while in Harare, and the boys.

Huge metal sculpture in front of the national gallery in Harare. 

Feature piece at the national gallery by our friend Dominic Benhura.

Beginning to think about home at the Royal Harare Golf Club. 

The 9th green at the Royal Harare.  This course is about a block away from Robert Mugabe's presidential palace.  From the back tees, it is a little over 7,400 yards.  About 800 members.  No carts. 135 adult caddies who's rates are about $15/round.  Membership is $1,000 a year, public play is allowed for $50/round with advanced tee time. 

The boy's watching the best woman player in Zimbabwe, we watched her play the ninth hole. The hole is about 370 yards, she hit a drive of 270 and followed it up with a beautiful wedge to about ten feet.  She has just won the Swaziland Open.

We are as tired as this beautiful lioness.  We found her snoozing after an all night hunt.

Another tired animal, a huge hippo who had made his way up to high on the beach of the Zambezi.

And another tired guy, a huge Cape Buffalo resting.  Earlier that day we had seen a body of a buffalo of this size who had died a natural death near this place on the sand. 

As you can see from the photos we are having a wonderful and educational trip.  Since Cape Town, we have traveled to Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, and Chobe Game Park in Botswana.  We have seen and experienced so much.  There have been two people killed by elephants in the last few days at Victoria Falls.  They were horrible incidents, but I think are becoming more common.  The first fellow that was killed was in the bush, praying with his brother, when an elephant attacked and killed him.  The second occurred at the Victoria Falls Safari Lodge where we had been staying.  See photo of watering hole. 

Chobe Game Park has over 45,000 elephants in over 11,000 square miles.  They are everywhere.  I was here 23 years ago and things have really changed.  The absence of trees do to the destructive behavior of the elephants has reduced the number of leopards so significantly that we never saw one.  We did see some magnificent lions, but they are quiet rare at Chobe. 

Upon our return to Zimbabwe (for one night), we visited with all of our friends that we do business with and Brad and Ben thought they were great guys and have already exchanged email addresses.  Last week we did have a wonderful pizza party at one of our friend's houses.  It was a blast and Ben and Brad got to see how tough living conditions are in this part of the world. 

We are on the way to Harare this afternoon where we will visit many of our sculpture friends for a few days.  After that we will back to the U.S. on the 15th of June.  We hope all of you are doing well and we look forward to seeing you soon. 

Tom and Mary Kay

Finally, a new blog

Ben and his first date in Cape Town, Africa

Left to Right: Brad, News, Ben, J.B. and Milton (guys that we do business with)



In Victoria Falls Safari Lodge looking out at the watering hole.  At this watering hole, the day after we departed, a black guide gave up his life to save a white woman from an elephants charge.  Many of our friends attended his funeral.  Many people viewed this horrible incident from the resturaunt.



Our friends News and two kids at the local bottle shop.

Hazel and Linda Sibindi, children of our good friend Freedom.  They were at the pizza party we held an News Moyo's house.

New school buildings near Victoria Falls.  Built with a lot of American money and managed by the Seventh Day Adventists.  There are several buildings already erected and they are awaiting insulation and sheetrock. 

This hippo was resting after a laborious climb from the Chobe River.

Mary Kay and Brad playing Gin at the Chobe Game Lodge.

Pizza Party at News Moyo's house.  He is constantly harrassed by the elephants.  They eat his garden and come very close to his house, which is the cinderblock wall which is made of cinderblock as you can see on the right hand side.

Relatively tame warthogs all over the grounds of the Chobe Lodge.  The lodge never has to mow the lawn as the warthogs take care of that daily.

A Nile Crocodile entering the Chobe River. 

Elephants at the Chobe for their evening drink and bath.

Relaxing cruise on the Chobe River.

Roughing it for dinner at our lodge in Botswana.  Note the candlelabra.

The Namibia Conservation Department Office where we purchased a fishing license to fish the Chobe River on the Namibian side.

Ben and our guide, Walter, fishing for Tiger fish.

A magnificent bull kudu.

A male Cape Buffalo browsing in the bush.  We were very close for this photo, which is not a good idea.

Relaxing for the upcoming ride back to Zimbabwe.

Our swimming pool area at the A'Zambezi Lodge in Zimbabwe.  This lodge has been completely remodeled and opened on May 18th.  It is right on the Zambezi River.

This baboon was in our room and Mary Kay did not notice it until it didn't answer to Tom.

A fabulous stone sculpture of the mighty Fish Eagle.

Huge wood sculpture of some of the local animals.  They are made of ironwood and weigh up to 550 pounds.

The four of us at Victoria Falls.

Hi everyone,

We have had great sightseeing, great food, great weather, and at the same time we have received a wonderful historical perspective of South Africa and its struggle with Apartheid.  We have also come to appreciate the role that Nelson Mandela has played in this amazing transformation from the government system of segregation to what is now known as the "Rainbow Nation". 

It is the eve of our departure from Cape Town.  Next stop: Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe.  Next blog, see our pics of Victoria Falls, Victoria Falls Safari Lodge, and our sunset cruise down the Zambezi River. 

Love to all,
Tom, Mary Kay, and the boys

More on Robben Island and Cape Town

Mandela's home of 17 years.

Average prisoners diet in Robben Island.  Notice the difference between the "black" and the "colored".

Fabulous new soccer stadium in Cape Town, some residents are not happy with this stadium.  We were told that the money spent on this stadium could have built 410,000 homes.  The government since 1994 has built 3,000,000 homes.  Most of them have replaced shanty housing in the townships.

Smoke from the daily ritual of shooting the cannon.  This ritual has enabled sailors in Table Bay to set their timing devices since the late 1600's.  Everyone was plugging their ears, except me, who shot this picture and can no longer hear worth a shit!

On the way up to Table Mountain.

On the otherside of heaven after interviewing with St. Peter.

One of many strange rodents inhabiting the top of Table Mountain.

Note the clouds on the right, and Table Bay on the left.  A fabulous view!

Robben Island from the top of Table Mountain.

Cape Town from half way up Table Mountain.