From Penguins to Victoria Falls: My Journey Through Southern Africa

Cape Town

This trip started with a long journey from Seattle to London, where I gave myself a couple of days just because… well, I love London and who wouldn’t take the chance to linger? From there, it was on to Johannesburg and then Cape Town.

The only “highlight” of the flight to Johannesburg was my brief victory in premium economy. I had a window seat with the aisle seat next to me gloriously empty when the doors closed. Jackpot. I put my jacket and book there and settled in like I’d won the lottery. About an hour into the flight, someone came wandering up and asked to sit there. I didn’t exactly have grounds to say no, but let’s just say I was not thrilled to give up my bonus space. Still, premium economy is premium economy, and the flight was fine.

Cape Town itself was gorgeous. My hotel was right on the beach with ocean views, but what really surprised me was the security. A guarded fence and a security checkpoint just to enter - the first time I’d ever stayed somewhere like that.

I did all the “classic” Cape Town things: wandering around the waterfront, taking the gondola up Table Mountain (the views are as jaw-dropping as everyone says), and visiting the Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden, which is stunningly beautiful. I took a day trip down the coast to the Cape of Good Hope, where an ostrich tried to steal my camera through a fence. We stopped at Boulders Beach to watch the penguins waddling around like little old men in tuxedos, and on the way back, we even saw southern right whales along the coastal road.

This was also the farthest I’d ever been from home. I remember standing at Table Mountain, looking at the sign that said how many thousands of miles it was to San Francisco and Los Angeles, and thinking, “Yep, this is officially the other side of the world.”

Namibia: Sand, Spiders, and a Lot of Drama

From Cape Town I flew to Windhoek, Namibia. The Cape Town airport gave me my first taste of “local hustle” - a man grabbed my bag without asking and walked me to check-in, asking what airline I was on as we went. He deposited me at the South African Airways priority line (where I would have gone anyway, thanks to status), and of course expected a tip. I paid him, but laughed later - I basically tipped him to walk me to the exact line I was already heading for.

Our REI Adventures group was a surprise: twelve women, no men, and more drama than a reality show. I was rooming with one of them (who came with her sister and her sister’s best friend) and let’s just say, roommate assignments were a constant soap opera.

We set out from Windhoek toward the desert, driving hours on dirt roads. At one point a tire blew, and with nothing but scrub and sky around us, we all scurried off into the weeds to pee while the guides changed it. Picture prairie dogs popping up out of the brush one by one.

Our first lodge was Zebra River Lodge, a quiet and beautiful spot where we spent four nights hiking mornings and evenings (never mid-day, too hot). The desert was unlike anything I’d ever seen.

The highlight came when we camped near the massive dunes of Sossusvlei. I thought I was clever by leaving the tent flaps open for airflow… until the wind picked up and half the desert blew inside. Years later, I was still finding sand in my bags. The bathrooms weren’t much better - enormous spiders that I decided to pretend didn’t exist while I hurried through my business.

The next morning, we climbed the dune at sunrise. I only made it halfway up (climbing sand is brutal), but watching the sun creep across the ridges was worth every grain in my shoes.

Later that day, some of us splurged on a scenic flight. From above, the desert looked like another planet — endless waves of red dunes, with shipwrecks littering the Skeleton Coast where the desert meets the sea. The Namib is one of the world’s oldest deserts, which explains both the immensity of the dunes and the eerie, timeless feel of the landscape.

Botswana: Safaris and Surprises

From Namibia we flew to Maun, Botswana, landing on what was basically a dirt strip. As soon as we loaded into trucks, our guide told us to look back. Behind us, a massive snake was swallowing a guinea fowl whole, legs still sticking out of its mouth. Welcome to safari country.

Within hours we passed an elephant carcass surrounded by vultures. Nature here isn’t Disney - it’s raw, sometimes harsh, but always fascinating.

Our first campsite was nicknamed the Hippo Hotel, for obvious reasons. At night, hippos came up from the nearby water to lounge just a few dozen feet from our tents. They look cute with just their ears poking out of the water, but on land they are gigantic and intimidating.

We explored the Okavango Delta. Elephants, lions, crocodiles, baboons, antelope - every drive was a roll call of wildlife. But one of our group had a severe allergic reaction to malarone (the anti-malarial medication). She had to be medevaced out to Johannesburg. It was sobering to watch her leave, a reminder of how unpredictable these trips can be.

We encountered a pack of elephants with a tired little calf. It was like they were pushing him along to keep going and, at one point, he just sat down in the middle of the road, too tired to continue. The pack eventually coaxed him to keep moving.

At another campsite - nicknamed the Lion’s Den - we were told flat out: don’t leave your tents at night. Guides patrolled with rifles while lions roared in the distance. Comforting, right?

We did get lighter moments too - watching lions flop in the shade, elephants splashing in the water, and even a pride feeding on a fresh kill. At one point, our guides got word of mating lions and floored it across bone-rattling dirt tracks. By the time we arrived, the lions were done and just lazing around, the male sporting battle scars and the female stretched out belly-up like she’d run a marathon.

Later, near Chobe National Park and the Moremi Game Reserve, we stayed at a proper lodge right on the delta. I did laundry in the bathtub and was horrified at how much dirt came out - apparently Namibia and Botswana had been riding around with me in my clothes.

From that lodge, we took a boat cruise on the delta. A herd of elephants with a baby spotted us and instantly closed ranks around the little one. At one point a male started toward us, and our driver wisely shifted into reverse. I wouldn’t call it a charge, but the intent was clear: “back off.”

The delta was an area where we should have expected to see massive herds of elephants. However, there was an Anthrax outbreak in 2004 which culled the elephant population significantly. While we were able to see lots of elephants, it sounds like it would have been impressive to see what it was like before the outbreak.

Eventually we drove a long, straight dirt road to the border, where I amused myself by hopping between Botswana and Zimbabwe until the guards made me behave.

Zimbabwe: Victoria Falls and a Leap of Faith

The border town on the Zimbabwean side is aptly named Victoria Falls, and that was our base for two nights. Our new guide filled us in on Zimbabwe’s challenges, including inflation so wild that U.S. dollars were the only reliable currency. Some in our group had exchanged for Zimbabwean money that now couldn’t be spent anywhere.

One morning, I wandered to a nearby shopping area to buy my customary bracelet. Alone, I quickly realized I stood out - people started following me. Security guards from the shops noticed and came out to walk me safely inside. They even escorted me back afterward. A little nerve-wracking, but I was grateful for their protection.

Of course, the main event was the falls themselves. Even in a relatively dry season, they were staggering in scale. It’s hard to capture in photos just how massive Victoria Falls is. Our guide pointed out the spot where a hippo had recently gone over the edge - a sobering reminder of nature’s force.

And then there was the bungee jump. I’d done it once before in New Zealand and convinced four others to join me here. My group teased me for being a cult leader, getting people to leap off a bridge with me. The ropes looked… well, let’s just say “lived-in,” and I was barefoot because they didn’t want me to lose my shoes. Halfway down I remember flexing my feet desperately so they wouldn’t slip through the straps. Only later did I learn that just three months after my jump, a woman’s rope snapped at this very site. She survived, but still - talk about hindsight chills.

A happier twist: the woman who’d been medevaced in Botswana rejoined us here, healthy enough to watch the jumps and even fly home with us. She’d missed several days of the trip, but it was a relief to see her back. Her experience is why I now always think carefully about travel insurance.

Our flight out on Air Zimbabwe was actually quite nice - all business-class seats, which felt oddly luxurious after all the dust and camping. Back in Johannesburg, we lingered together in the airport before scattering to our flights home, each of us still a little stunned by everything we’d seen.

Final Reflections

This trip was a whirlwind of contrasts - penguins and whales in Cape Town, red dunes and endless sand in Namibia, hippos and lions in Botswana, and the thunder of Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe. It was sometimes funny, sometimes unnerving, occasionally dramatic (thank you, roommate soap opera), but always unforgettable.

Southern Africa is raw and beautiful and challenging in ways I didn’t expect. Even now, years later, I still find sand in odd corners of my life - and memories that come rushing back just as vividly.