Sept - Oct 2011 Africa Caravan Trip Week 5 part 2

Native Woman preparing food (photo by Ray/Eileen Proctor)
Berlin Falls
Bourkes Luck potholes
Bridge over Blyde River Canyon

10/18-10/28 Kasane, Botswana to Laurel MDThe next few days were spent on a long boring drive to Kruger NP in South Africa. Our only entertainment along the potholed-covered paved road was the agricultural inspections. Now I’m all for stopping the spread of fruit flies, but when the “inspector” enters your van and asks you if you have any candy for her, you begin to question her motives. After losing our cheese, apples, oranges (which we bought locally) to greedy inspectors we started to hide the little food we had left. We were also stopped to see if we were smuggling women from Botswana into South Africa.

We finally got to Kruger NP and we spent a couple days cruising the roads at 30 mph looking for wildlife. One evening our group did a Safari tour in the park. The theory is that as you sit in these open 4 wheel drive vehicles, the guide would point out animals that the untrained eye would miss. Because of the size of our group, we split into two groups. Our driver failed to find us anything we didn’t already see. He even missed a rhino that we passed. The other group’s driver spotted a leopard and even a chameleon after dark! Bottom line, safari trips are only as good as your driver/spotter. The temperature reached 112 degrees F and our A/C in the cab was not working. Fortunately the abundance of wildlife kept our mind off the heat.

After we left Kruger NP we had a day to explore the mountains and scenic attractions. We had one more long day of driving before our farewell dinner. We said our goodbyes to our new friends. After returning our vans to BoBo Campers near Johannesburg, we took a 19 hour flight back to Dulles, VA. We drove to Laurel, MD and spent the next week with our friends Julie and Tom.

Aug-Sept 2011 British Columbia to MD

In order to get back for our flight to South Africa, we left Fernie in mid August. Our first stop was at Theodore Roosevelt NP. We toured the national park and attended the Medora Musical. In South Dakota we stopped in to visit our new “home” and pick up our mail. We went to Born Free in Humboldt, IA to get some work done. We took care of some business in Lewisburg and made it back to MD in time for a tropical storm soaking. First we found the campground at Greenbelt NP temporarily closed due to the hurricane. Later we got trapped at Patapsco Valley State Park when a tree fell over and blocked the only road to the campground. We did manage to get together with many of our friends and relatives, including a dinner party for my niece Sharon and a big family reunion with the Potter family.

May-Aug 2011, British Columbia and WA, part 1

Fernie and Nelson

We arrived in Fernie BC on June 10 for a three week stay at our chalet there. The weather was cool and wet for most of the time, but it was a good time to work on US and Canadian taxes, plus catch up on my To Do list. We still managed to get a few road trips in. We drove a couple hours to reach Elk Lakes Provincial Park. It’s not a very accessible park, but it is every bit as beautiful as Lake Louise plus no tour buses, no hotels, no traffic and no tourists. It was just us, the park rangers and lots of bears and moose.

When it was time to leave Fernie, we headed for Vancouver Island, with a stopover at a campground near Nelson, BC. We did two rail trail trips here and took a soak at the Ainsworth Hot Springs. Part of the hot spring is in a cave, which was a different experience. We enjoyed fireworks on Canada Day (July 1) and arrived in Oroville, WA in time for 4^th of July fireworks.

May-Aug 2011, British Columbia and WA, part 2

May-Aug 2011, British Columbia and WA, part3

June-Aug 2011, British Columbia and WA, part 4

Vancouver Island, Washington and Fernie

While on Vancouver Island, we took the Alberni Pacific Railway, pulled by a completely restored 1929 Baldwin ex-logging steam locomotive, to McLean Mill. This mill is the only steam-operated sawmill in Canada. The mill operated from 1926 until 1965 and is a typical remote coastal lumber camp and sawmill. We were fortunate to see the mill in action as they cut a log into usable lumber. During the train ride, a lady greets each train by waving Canadian Flags as we pass her back yard, which is filled with flags from several countries.

On our way to the west coast, we stopped to tour the Mars Bombers. These planes served the US Navy from 1945 to 1958 in the Pacific. Originally conceived as long range ocean patrol flying boats, they were finally designed as long range transports. In 1959 the remaining planes were sold to British Columbia forest companies and converted to water bombers. It can scoop up 30 tons of water and wet down a 4 acre site. Only two of the original six planes are still operational.

In addition to hiking and biking on the island, we had to (according to Pat) see Butchart Gardens with 55 acres of gardens. It is the most popular tourist attraction on the island. We took a very quick tour of Ft Rodd and Fisgard Lighthouse Historical Site. The lighthouse was built by the British in 1860. Ft Rodd is a coastal artillery fort built in the late 1890’s to defend Victoria.

The Royal BC Museum had more interesting exhibits than we could cover in one day. At the entrance was John Lennon’s psychedelic six ton yellow Rolls Royce. In 1985 the car was sold for $2.3 Million. Outside we were entertained by street performers.

We took the ferry over to Washington State and spend several days visiting our friends, Cornelia and Tom. We relaxed, caught up on chores, and enjoyed their hospitality. We attended the Renton River Festival and visited the Woodland Zoo on Cornelia’s birthday.

We returned to Fernie and shared our first week with our friends, Lois and Eldon. The weather was considerably warmer and dryer than what we experienced there in June. By mid August it was time to start the long drive back to Maryland/Pennsylvania.

May June 2011, New Mexico to BC, Part 1 New Mexico

Petroglyph National Monument
Cliff Dwelling at Bandelier National Monument
Vietnam Veterans Memorial State Park
Crossing a high mountain pass in New Mexico

New Mexico

On Mother’s Day we landed in Albuquerque, MN after leaving Maui the previous day. From the airport we took a cab to pick up our RV from storage. That’s when we noticed a large puddle of oil under the generator. It turned out that when we took our RV in last January to a FL RV service center to get our 100 hour service done on the generator, they over tightened the drain plug and cracked the drain plug housing. This resulted in a slow leak which we had not noticed until the RV sat for 10 weeks. We wasted several days getting the generator checked out. They found the problem but were not able to fix it. Getting work done on an RV in the spring is difficult, because every place is booked up for weeks servicing RVs that have been in storage all winter. The fix would have to wait until we got to UT.

It was nice and warm in Albuquerque, so we packed away our winter clothes and got ready for summer. We visited Petroglyph National Monument and were amazed at the number of petroglyphs in the area. We toured the Coronado State Monument which contains the ruins of a Pueblo village which was occupied in the 1300-1500s.

We left Albuquerque and headed north to Bandelier National Monument. In addition to many hiking opportunities, the park is best known for the cliff dwellings and ruins left by the Ancestral Pueblo people who began to settle here by year 1150. We spent several days exploring the area before heading to Taos. By now we had unpacked our winter clothes as the days got colder the further we moved into the mountains. At times we were driving through snow storms.

We didn’t spend much time in Taos, but we did do the Enchanted Circle Scenic Drive and visited the Vietnam Memorial State Park. This memorial was started by Victor Westphall as a tribute to his son and the other 15 Marines that died with him in battle. Now it is the only state park dedicated to all Vietnam Veterans.