Happy glow

When we arrived in Cape Town for New Year's we were not quite done with Christmas. We I had been disappointed with the Christmas light displays in Joburg and had heard tell of a suburb of Cape Town called Bothasig where they supposedly still decorated the houses with excess. A newspaper article I read said, "It has become a tradition for homes in the area to drip with elaborate festive-light displays." That's what I wanted!

So we drove to Bothasig after dark to see the dripping lights. We drove up and down the streets of the little hamlet and this is all we came up with ...

Not exactly dripping.

Oh well back to Cape Town for a much more reserved display.

St. George's Cathedral

the tree at the False Bay Yacht Club

This guy was the craziest of the bunch with a lit up Christmas ball on top of his 4X4.

Maybe Durban?

Game drives and tours at Akagera

Sarah, me and Jes with Noah in the background

There are many ways to enjoy Akagera National Park in Rwanda. First there is a "behind the scenes tour" where visitors are introduced to the conservation principles behind restoring and rehabilitating the park. Akagera's Park Manager is Jes Gruner and his wife Sarah Hall is the Tourism and Marketing Manager. They live at Akagera with their two adorable sons, Noah and Luca.

I had the great fortune to meet Jes in New York last year when African Parks held a benefit at The Explorers Club in New York. Jes accepted one of the conservation awards on behalf of all of African Parks' park managers and anti-poaching rangers in the field.

Little Luca playing with his Christmas trucks and workbench!

Because of my affiliation with African Parks, Jes and Sarah graciously invited Vince and I for tea before Jes took us on the tour behind the scenes. Not everyone gets to visit chez Gruner!

Jes and Noah playing with their big truck

confiscated sandalwood, snares and bicycles

Law enforcement is still a large part of the conservation effort at Akagera. Sandalwood and bush meat are the main targets for poaching.

We took a boat safari out to the large island in the middle of Lake Ihema. We saw elephants by the banks of the mainland.

ellie

We saw lots of crocodiles ...

... and hippos.

And so so many birds. We even saw this fish eagle in the reeds eating a fish he caught for breakfast.

We took a night game drive in a pop up vehicle. I enjoy night drives because you are pretty much relieved of any photography responsibilities. The pictures, if you can get them, usually aren't very good so it is best to just sit back and watch the elusive nocturnal creatures such as leopards and civets.

Cape buffaloes will usually sit still for a night photo

even with their babies in tow

it is impossible to get a good picture of a bushbaby without a flash

baboons sleep in trees to avoid the leopards hunting below

the scrub hare poses in fright

lots of nightjars in the roads hunting for insects

And then finally we took a traditional game drive through the vast open plains in the northern part of the park. Abundant numbers and varieties of antelopes ...

... and zebra.

This is a different breed of zebra than the ones we have seen in South Africa. These are Plains Zebra that range from southern Sudan and southern Ethiopia, east of the Nile River, to southern Angola and northern Namibia and supposedly northern South Africa.

These giraffes were imported from Kenya

Happy Holidays from The Explorers Club

The Explorers Club started a new tradition this year. Headquarters in New York asked Explorers Club Members around the globe to share our experiences with our fellow explorers by contributing photographs for a special holiday gallery which they are sharing on The Explorers Club website.

This is an African photo collage I contributed to the gallery. Rhino darting in Marakele National Park, gorilla trekking in Volcanoes National Park, meeting meerkats in the Kalahari, climbing dunes in Namib-Naukluft National Park, getting wet at Victoria Falls in both Zimbabwe and Zambia and diving in Mozambique.

Happy Holidays from all of us at The Explorers Club! Keep exploring!

The East African Grey-Crowned Crane

I saw my first grey-crowned crane in Rwanda! We have them in South Africa too but I have not seen them in the wild there yet.

These other two cranes made a nest in the yard of Jes Gruner and Sarah Hall in Akagera! They had three little baby chicks.

Akagera National Park

Akagera National Park is one of the national parks and game reserves managed by African Parks and Vince and I visited during our stay in Rwanda. It is a conservation success story!

The park celebrated its 80th birthday last year. When it was gazetted in 1934, Akagera was three times the size it is now. But after the refugees started returning to Rwanda from across the river in Tanzania after the genocide, the country needed somewhere to put them. So they took 2/3 of Akagera in order to provide land for the refugees to live, farm and graze. Unfortunately, they didn't stop there. Game poaching became rampant. That and the increased encroachment into the national park pretty much devastated the game and landscape there.

But now that Akagera is managed by African Parks in partnership with the Rwandan Development Board, the park is slowly returning to its former glory. Commercial fishing has been halted. Giraffes which had previously been wiped out were re-introduced. The buffalo, elephant and leopard populations are increasing. And this year, lions and rhinos will be re-introduced making Akagera a Big 5 game reserve once again!

We stayed at Ruzizi Tented Lodge which was built to blend harmoniously with nature.

The architecture is truly part of the landscape!

They built the main observation deck around this stand of trees.

The Akagera River feeds into a series of lakes, marshes and papyrus swamps that constitute central and eastern Africa’s largest protected wetlands. It is teeming with hippos, crocodiles, fish and birds.

Water is collected from rain and electricity is solar-produced.

Our private patio ...

... overlooking ...

... the lake.

This hippo came to our beach for breakfast. We had vervet monkeys too!