Botswana, South Africa and Victoria Falls
Presented by Gail and Ladd Seekins
Gail and Ladd will share their wonderful African adventure at the January 8 chapter meeting. Their July and August 2018 trip was organized around a Botswana wildlife tour which was a reunion for a Rotary friendship exchange. The meeting starts at 7:30 p. m. at the San Bernardino County Museum, 2014 Orange Tree Lane, Redlands. 
In 2017 the Seekins had hosted in their home several Rotarians from Botswana and South Africa.
The Seekins started their adventure spending a week with Amanda and Carol, two Rotarians from Pretoria, South Africa. Amanda and Carol showed Gail and Ladd the sights in and around Pretoria and treated them to a five-day tour through the South African provinces of Limpopo and Mpumalanga, spending two days in private game parks with some good wildlife viewing followed by visits to several small towns. They went on to view the Three Rondavels landscape in the Northern Drakensberg Mountains. Three peaks above the Blyde River Canyon are shaped like rondavels, African-style huts. They explored a deep river chasm at Bourke’s Luck Potholes and descended into a verdant forest via the Graskop Gorge Lift.
Saying goodbye to Ananda and Carol, the Seekins flew to Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, for three days of touring independently. They had a helicopter ride over the falls, a Zambezi River cruise above the falls, a guided tour of the national park, and a historic tour of the 1905 bridge. The last was on catwalks under the bridge roadway nearly 400 feet above the water from the Zambia side to Zimbabwe and back.
From Victoria Falls, it was a short ride to Kasane, Botswana, for the start of the safari. They met Michael, another Rotarian they had hosted in 2017, at upscale Cresta Mowana Safari Lodge, where President Bill Clinton stayed in 1998. Gail, Ladd and Michael were joined by Michael’s brother and their girlfriends for an evening wildlife cruise on the Chobe River and briefly into the wetlands on the Namibian side.
Gail and Ladd picked up their four-wheel-drive Navi mini camper and, with the rest of the group. began the seven-day Botswana safari, driving over roads not much more than ruts in the deep sand to Savuti Campsite in Chobe National Park. The wildlife viewing was excellent at Savuti and the other campsites: Khwai, near the Okavango Delta, and Khumaga on the Boteti River. Dry season concentrated the animals close to the few remaining sources of water. At Khumaga, thousands of animals covered the river valley bottom, including zebra, various antelope, elephant, giraffe, stork and pelican. Such a concentration of wildlife is exceptional.
The Seekins turned in the Navi at Maun on the Okavango Delta, where they remained while the others returned home. Gail and Ladd’s last wildlife experience as a full day cruise on the Okavango Delta to King Island from their lodge on the river. Elephant were numerous, and antelope, zebra, giraffe, hippopotamus, and birds were also seen.
Gail and Ladd flew to Gaborone, the Botswana capital, where Michael hosted them for a couple of days, showing them the sights in town. The Seekins returned to Pretoria for a few last days with Amanda and Carol. The highlight was a couple of days at Sun City, a luxurious resort with a casino, three hotels, golf courses, and a water park.
