After my safari in South Africa I hitched a ride to Tofo, Mozambique, a sleepy fishing village on the Indian Ocean known for its great beaches and amazing diving.

In this video I head underwater to check out the local population of manta rays, whale sharks, and coral life; meet up with some new friends who make their living selling art in town; and recuperate from a bout of malaria I unfortunately caught while there.

The political unrest that dictated Zimbabwe of late doesn’t seem to be affecting the number of people heading there; more than doubling the amount from last year (I should note Wanderlust mentioned this stat was unconfirmed).

With the adoption of the U.S. dollar making currency scams less likely, and the rumors of the political scene heading back to a commonwealth, as well as Douglas Rogers’ book that Matt mentioned in the last post,  it seems the tide, and attitudes, might be swinging in the right direction.

With so much to do and experience there — numerous national parks, safaris, and Victoria Falls — let’s hope this political trend and attitudes continue . . . so the tourism trend can, as well.

On the first leg of my trip to Southern Africa, I headed to the eastern edge of the country to Kruger National Park, the massive wildlife preserve roughly the size of Israel.

Kruger is one of the world’s best places for wildlife viewing. In this video I go in search of lion, while also catching glimpses of giraffes, elephants, rhinos, buffalo, hyenas, and baboons.

Are you kidding me? These actually exist? Travel and Leisure Magazine did a spread on some of the wildest runways around the globe. Let’s just double check that all our tray tables and seatbacks are in the locked and upright positions.

Discussed in the article are the many variables in landing a plane to start with. Then you add in shortened runways, unique atmospheric and meteorological conditions, heavy air traffic, or a combination of those and you have yourself a white knuckle thrill ride . . . at least for some of the people on board (we won’t mention any TheExpeditioner.com contributors or anything).

Tom Claytor, a pilot with experience flying in and out of the Matekane Air Strip in the small African country of Lesotho, talks about taking off from this short strip of concrete sitting inches from a vast couloir at 7,550 feet high,  sometimes “you shoot off the end of the airstrip, then drop down the 2,000-foot cliff face until you start flying.”

The picture above was taken at Maho Beach on the Caribbean island of St. Maarten, where pilots are required to have additional training to fly there. Regardless of training or amount of Dramamine, I’m sure there’s some seriously colorful language heard in these cabins (or cockpits).

Despite being the second most sparsely populated country on the planet, Namibia is adventurously drivable, intensely beautiful, and perhaps even a bit luxurious.

That’s the gist of a recent travel article in the Guardian, which recounts a 12-day loop trip through the south of the country. Though the roads vary from fresh asphalt to what the author describes as “boulders,” the route is liberally stocked with guest lodges, ranging from sleeping bags under the stars to Swiss-trained chefs.

And of course, throughout the country you’re faced with extraordinary landscapes (like the Fish River Canyon) and unique African desert wildlife.

The author of this piece, though charged with the driving, went with a guide for an all-inclusive price of roughly $3,700 per person. TheExpeditioner.com would love to hear from someone who’s done it independently. Leave a comment if you have!

* Photo by geoftheref

Into Africa

This morning, as a stepped out of the shower, I noticed that for the first time in quite a while, I didn’t immediately start sweating profusely as a result of the oppressive humidity that usually blankets New York City in August, which only means one thing: summer is officially coming to a close. (I also noticed for the first time that my neighbors in the nearby 11-story apartment complex, who have a clear view into my bathroom window, like to eat breakfast out on their patio in the morning, something I should remember next time I hop in the shower.)

Here at TheExpeditioner.com we like to celebrate holidays, momentous occasions, and the closing of seasons in the best possible fashion: hitting the road. In this case, the road being a 15-hour flight to South Africa, where, as you can see from the above map, I hope to try out my brand new $30 hiking shoes and spiffy Nikon D40 SLR camera in two of Southern Africa’s best known national parks: Kruger and Chobe. (Videos, articles, and much debriefing to come in the coming weeks/months).

Exciting News

Given the high unlikelihood of much, if any, internet access over the next 15 days or so, I’ve enlisted the help of two former TheExpeditioner.com contributors, one of whom, Jon Wick, I’m pleased to announce, has graciously accepted the title of “Contributing Editor,” and will be posting his own thoughts, recitations, and insights about travel for the foreseeable future on the site (or at least until he decides that he doesn’t want to anymore).

Further, Hal Amen, of Matador Trips fame, has also volunteered to contribute posts of his own for at least the time that I’m away. This while he’s not sipping lattes at outdoor cafes and partying to 6 a.m. in his new Buenos Aires neighborhood.

For a little info about both Jon and Hal, please see their short bios and Hollywood-like head shots below.

Until Then . . .

As for me, I’ll be posting again regularly when I get back on the 14th. Also, by the magic of the newfangled world-wide-internet, I will also be publishing a couple of feature stories from my trip to Colombia over the next two weeks. I know I’ve exceeded the suggested length for online articles by about 10X in both of the pieces, so I apologize ahead of time.

“For Africa to me . . . is more than a glamorous fact. It is a historical truth. No man can know where he is going unless he knows exactly where he has been and exactly how he arrived at his present place.”

Maya Angelou (American Poet, b.1928)

* * *

Jon Wick

I’ve been approaching the age of 30 all my life, but on my 27th birthday I stole a page from the movie “The Bucket List” and decided to create my own, making an effort at achieve one thing a year, for the rest of my life. That has taken me to all but seven of the states, up the flanks of Mt. Rainier, to the strings of hand-me-down guitars, and to Korea, where I am finishing up a year of teaching English and traveling whenever possible.

When I’m not forcing myself to eat Kimchi or quarantined for possible H1N1, I call the mountains of Montana home. I have taught elementary school in Big Sky Country for four years before setting off for Asia. Throughout my travels, I’ve been compiling a list of the “Top 5 Places I’ve Eaten Lunch.” They currently are, in no particular order: a sea cave in the Apostle Islands in Lake Superior, any square meter along Boracay’s white sand beach in the Philippines, a narrow canyon along the White Rim Trail in Canyonlands National Park, aboard a junk boat in Vietnam’s Halong Bay, and at Camp Muir on Mt. Rainier.

I look forward to joining TheExpeditioner.com team and searching for more places to add to my list!

Hal Amen

Hal Amen has spent 2009 bouncing between volunteer organizations, Spanish classes, and street food stalls in South America, during which his favorite trip by far was a tour of Bolivia’s Salar de Uyuni and the summiting of the 19,400-foot volcano Licancabur.

His last nonprofit gig wrapped up in August, and he’s closing out the year in Buenos Aires, where he’ll be on the constant lookout for drip coffee and meals that don’t feature half a cow (good luck with that). A freelance educational writer, Hal also co-edits the travel site Matador Trips and has contributed to TheExpeditioner.com in the past. He’s psyched to be on board, even if it’s only until Matt (hopefully) returns.

Perhaps the biggest barrier for those looking to go on safari is price, but there are options that are a fraction of your typical luxury promoters, like the bare-bones, camping-heavy trek taken in this Telegraph article. And don’t think you’re missing much by way of experience, as Victoria recounts:

Woken at 6am by my companions, I unzipped my tent to find Kilimanjaro standing majestically against a blue sky without a cloud in sight. A bucket of hot water had been left outside my tent for a quick wash before a full English breakfast. Then it was off to the Amboseli National Park and a day spent viewing herds of elephant, buffalo, giraffe, zebra and more against a sublime backdrop.

This morning I ate a bowl of Grape-Nuts while my excessively hairy neighbor hosed down his sidewalk while standing majestically against a backdrop of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. It’s these memories we’ll cherish forever.

Companies like Porini Ecotourism even take an activist role in helping rural communities create conservation areas with proceeds from such trips. For more ideas on other ecotourism operators around Africa check out this link.

• Wow, how depressing is it that we can already begin talking about travel plans for the fall? Aaugh, at least the fall allows us to look forward to blockbuster travel deals, and it allows me to start sentences like I’m writing for Charlie Brown. Flights to Glasgow and Edinburgh can be had for as low as $284 for travel between October 27th and December 16th, or as low as $399 from NYC to London, Amsterdam and Copenhagen between September 13th – October 24th.

• Today’s the last day for Emirates’ steep discounts on flights to Africa (although look for these deals to be extended into the rest of the summer), with $150 off roundtrip economy tix. I looked around on this one and you really have to play with the dates to take advantage of this one, but it’s worth a try.

• NYC to Rio for $364??? That’s right, three question marks. What a deal, although when I plugged in some dates over Thanksgiving the price was closer to the mid-$500, but this is still an incredible deal.

This video was taken in May, during the wet season, one of the best times of the year to visit Victoria Falls (plan now!). Check out the unforgettable views from the helicopter at 0:48 if you want to become completely enamored with the thought of traveling there.

Uganda, the “pearl of Africa,” is catching the eyes of adventure seekers traveling to Africa in search of hiking, bungee jumping, kayaking, wildlife encounters and, as experienced by this article in the NYT, white-water rafting, some of which is the best in the continent.

Even better, far from the dark days under the rule of Idi Amin, Uganda is actually one of the continent’s most stable and safe countries, and with prices a fraction from what you’d pay in nearby safari-centric nations (Kenya, Tanzania), Uganda should be at the top of the list for those traveling to East Africa.

Though the rafting trip taken in the above article seems to be mostly made up of amateurs, I’d advise anyone thinking of going to at least take a look at this group experiencing the “bad place” of the Nile before electing to take the so-called “wild” rapids over the “mild.” Forget a life jacket, I’d be wearing scuba gear here.