Meerkats, Warthogs, and Rhinos: Seventy Glorious Days on Safari

By Joy Robbe

This is an exciting story about three African safaris. The countries visited were South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, and Eswatini. It transports the reader to the beauty of the African country and its wildlife, filling them with the joy of travel and the wonder of God's creations. It is written in a daily journal and pictorial format that informs the reader about the places visited with some history of those places, events that took place, as well as detailed descriptions of the wildlife encountered along the way with a wide variety of color photographs.

The story begins with an informative introduction, which provides the reader the necessary background information so one can feel connected by establishing a solid understanding of what the story is about. It opens the reader's eyes to the wonders of God, including Scripture verses effectively placed within the text.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Covenant Books, Inc.
• Release date: Apr 14, 2021
• ISBN: 9781644688168

Book preview

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MEERKATS, WARTHOGS, AND RHINOS

Seventy Glorious Days on Safari

Joy Robbe

ISBN 978-1-64468-814-4 (Paperback)

ISBN 978-1-64468-815-1 (Hardcover)

ISBN 978-1-64468-816-8 (Digital)

Copyright © 2020 Joy Robbe

All rights reserved

First Edition

All scriptures quoted are from the New American Standard translation.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Covenant Books, Inc.

11661 Hwy 707

Murrells Inlet, SC 29576

www.covenantbooks.com

Acknowledgments

First and foremost, I dedicate this book to my heavenly Father, who has blessed me so richly and is always with me. I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth (Psalm 34:1).

To my loving and supportive parents, Ed and Edie Hanson, who are now with the Lord in heaven. As much as I miss my parents, it is comforting to know I will be with them again one day in heaven. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life (1 John 5:13). I am very thankful to have grown up in a Christian home. Yet to all who did receive Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God (John 1:12). At the young age of eight or nine years old, I was adopted into God’s family as I made the decision to accept Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. Faith is defined as a firm belief in something for which there is no proof or cannot be seen. I have faith, and I believe. I learned to appreciate the little things in life, to be content no matter the circumstance and always strive to have a grateful and loving heart. I thank my parents for their constant support and putting up with my adventures and the menagerie of animals I brought home, such as an injured baby sparrow, parakeets, horned toads, and hamsters. We usually had a dog or two to complete our family.

To my one and only sibling, Janice (Jan) Shewmon. We have traveled frequently together, especially over the past twenty years. I was thrilled that she enthusiastically wanted to embark on journeys to Africa with me. We make great travel buddies as we enjoy many of the same things. We have a wonderful time together no matter what the adventure, and it is usually filled with loads of laughter.

To my amazing sons Michael and Scott, whom I am very proud of. Having been divorced and being a single mom of an infant and toddler, we were fortunate enough to take many road trips during their childhood years. They helped me to be adventurous. Besides occasionally staying in first-class hotels, our most memorable moments were spent camping, mountain biking, horseback riding, walking on glaciers, and river rafting—even Class V rapids on the Maligne River in Alberta, Canada. We would visit national parks, theme parks, fairs, rodeos, zoos, and animal sanctuaries wherever we could find them. We even went to cowboy church held in one of the horse barns at the Cheyenne Frontier Days. I found the horses to be very reverent as their heads were occasionally bowed!

To Pam Bennett-Wallberg, the keeper of the meerkat mob. Without her, this book would never have been written. Over the years, she has become a good friend as well as traveling cohort on our African safaris.

Of course I must acknowledge our tour guide extraordinaire, Dantes Liebenberg. We were so blessed to have such a knowledgeable and wonderful guide putting up with us for weeks at a time. More about Pam and Dantes later!

I must thank my dear friend Pastor Ron Nagin for the precious gift of his time to review certain portions of this book for biblical accuracy.

And to all my family and friends who gave me their moral support throughout this journey, especially Karen Hook, who helped me review each and every page.

Map of Southern Africa

Introduction

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

—Genesis 1:1

One only needs to open their eyes and look around at the incredible display of nature and the minute intricacies of every living being to confirm there is a God. The world and the heavens did not come about purely by happenstance. God is the one and only great Creator. He always was, He is, and He always will be.

If it were not for Almighty God, nothing would exist. The earth would be void of any kind of walking, crawling, swimming, or flying creatures. As described in Genesis 1:20–31, on the fifth day, God created animals to swim in the depths of the vast seas and birds to fly high above the earth’s surface. On the sixth day, God created all the living creatures to roam the expanse of the earth and man, who was to rule over the creatures. A righteous man has regard for the life of his beast (Proverbs 12:10).

I strongly believe all animals are more marvelous and remarkable than most people give them credit for. God knows every creature He has ever made and loves them all. God takes care of His creations, as stated in Matthew 6:26, Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. All creatures belong to God: For every beast of the forest is Mine, the cattle on a thousand hills. I know every bird of the mountains, and everything that moves in the field is Mine (Psalm 50:10–11).

God loved His animals so much that He instructed Noah, You shall bring two of every kind into the ark, to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and female. Of the birds after their kind, and of the animals after their kind, of every creeping thing of the ground after its kind, two of every kind shall come to you to keep them alive (Genesis 6:19–20). Of course, there was no need to include whales, sharks, dolphins, or any sea-dwelling creatures because they could still swim in the ocean as the earth would be covered with water during the flood. The rains lasted forty days and forty nights, but Noah, his family, and the animals remained in the ark a little over a year until it was safe to disembark.

The Bible is not clear whether there will be animals in heaven, but as noted in Isaiah 11:6–7, talking about the future millennial kingdom, And the wolf will dwell with the lamb, And the leopard will lie down with the kid, And the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; And a little boy will lead them. Also the cow and the bear will graze; Their young will lie down together; And the lion will eat straw like the ox. This will be a period of complete peace, joy, and comfort while Christ rules as King. Will I one day be able to literally lie down with a lion? What a joy that would be!

Revelation 19:11 states, And I saw heaven opened; and behold, a white horse, and He who sat upon it is called Faithful and True. Since God loves all His creations, I cannot imagine heaven without any of the beautiful and amazing animals He designed. As the late Reverend Billy Graham once stated, Heaven will lack nothing that is good and that will bring glory to God.¹ I continue to hope there will be animals in heaven as they are good.

Ever since I can remember, I have dreamed of visiting Africa to see God’s creations in the wild. He wove the fabric of my soul with a love for animals and a wanderlust for travel. My mom always said my middle name should have been Go. I always keep a little suitcase packed for a possible quick spontaneous getaway.

I must confess that I am not a professional photographer; have never taken a photography class; and have no idea about aperture, ISO, or shutter speed. I have always enjoyed taking pictures and rarely leave home without a camera. I have been told I have a good eye, and after reviewing the photos of our safaris, I knew I had to do something with them, and I was inspired to write this book. God created every living being for a specific purpose. My main purpose in this earthly life is to worship and glorify God, and by writing this book, I hope to do just that.

I also want to mention that one must not be afraid to follow and pursue their dreams and enjoy this wonderful life we have been gifted. So many people put off their dreams until someday, but perhaps that someday may never come for whatever the reason. One must work at making their dreams come true. I have worked hard and have been blessed beyond measure. I decided to live my dreams while I still have my health and the finances to do so. I am living my someday now and enjoying every precious moment.

In June of 2006, Meerkat Manor premiered on Animal Planet in the United States. I was intrigued and fascinated with the wee little beings, fell in love with Flower (Queen of the Kalahari), and began some research on meerkats. I soon discovered the Fellow Earthlings’ Wildlife Center, Inc. located in Morongo Valley, California (www.FellowEarthlings.org), whose director is Pam Bennett-Wallberg, Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, London, England. Fortunately, Fellow Earthlings happens to be only a two-hour drive from my home. For a nominal donation, one can adopt a meerkat and plan a two-hour visit with them at the center. I was intrigued, so in February of 2007, I adopted a meerkat and planned a visit. I have readopted the meerkats every year since then and have made countless trips to play with them and visit with Pam. Of course, I always took my sister Jan with me.

On our many visits, we have taken the mob such needed items as bottled water, batteries (not for the meerkats, mind you), paper towels, a stuffed warthog, a large stuffed scorpion, a meerkat-sized red wagon, velvet chaise lounge, paddle boat, a plush ark and barn they can hide inside of, and other toys to pique their interest. Jan and I quickly became friends with Pam. We learned she had partnered with the series Meerkat Manor and worked alongside Cambridge University in England in the making of the well-received series. She was also the official spokesperson for Meerkat Manor. Disney Studios used her meerkats to model Timon in The Lion King. How amazing is that? We are privileged to call her our friend.

Pam with two of the mob. Teatime. Who has the remote? What a gift!

Pam has made countless trips to Africa. Jan and I became more and more fascinated with her enthralling tales. Since many visitors to the center wanted to travel to the Kalahari Desert in South Africa to see meerkats, in 2012, Pam teamed up with a safari guide/travel agent by the name of Dantes Liebenberg, owner of Kalahari Tours and Travel in Upington, South Africa, and they began organizing meerkat tours.

I believe the Lord brings certain people into our lives at the most opportune time. If it were not for little Flower of Meerkat Manor, Pam, many answered prayers, and my own perseverance, I may never have realized my dream of traveling to Africa. In October 2013, Jan and I were fortunate enough to be part of the meerkat tour to South Africa. My prayers were answered, and my dream was finally coming to fruition. But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed in the wind (James 1:6).

The meerkat tour was to be in three sections for a total of twenty-five days. Since we were going all that way, we decided to take the time, spend the money, and do all three sections. The tour price depends upon the number of people going on each section. Dantes would only take a total of twelve people on the tour. A few months before departing, two people decided not to go on the third section of the tour, so that left Jan and me having to pay substantially more to make up the difference. After much discussion and prayer, we decided to pay the extra funds and go ahead with our original plan and do all three sections. We have never regretted that decision.

Many, many months of researching, planning, praying, saving, and shopping went into getting ready for our first adventure halfway across the world. We needed vaccines, lots of disks and batteries for our cameras, safari clothes sprayed with bug repellent, and noise-canceling headphones for the long flights. We splurged and purchased very lightweight carry-on suitcases. We would pack, unpack, and repack as we were concerned about the weight restrictions. As advised by Pam in her several-page Africa Tips, we were just taking a travel bag that would fit under the airplane seat in front of us and a carry-on suitcase—and we were going for almost a month! That was quite a feat for us. Besides three changes of clothes (all quick drying), we needed a torch (flashlight); a clothesline; duct tape; toiletries; mini—hair dryer; a first aid kit; medications; our cameras and chargers, plug adapters, and converters; our iPads to download photos onto; closed-toe shoes; and of course, all our travel documents and foreign currency. We wore our heaviest shoes, sweaters, jackets, and pashminas to save weight and room in our suitcases.

Chapter 1

2013: Travel to Johannesburg, South Africa

Johannesburg, fondly known as Joburg, is the largest city in South Africa and is one of the fifty largest urban areas in the world. It is the largest city in Gauteng, which is the wealthiest province in South Africa. Joburg is the seat of the constitutional court. The city is mineral rich and is the center of large-scale gold and diamond trade. The city was established in 1886 following the discovery of gold on a small farm.

A separate city from the late 1970s until the 1990s, Soweto is now part of Johannesburg. Originally an acronym for South Western Townships, Soweto originated as a collection of settlements on the outskirts of Johannesburg, populated mostly by native African workers from the gold mining industry.

Friday, September 27

The day finally dawned for us to begin our long-awaited adventure to South Africa. We ran errands in the morning and then had a manicure and pedicure as we wanted to look good for the animals! We took our mom to lunch at the Elephant Bar (how appropriate was that?) to celebrate her ninety-third birthday a few days early. We headed off to the FlyAway Bus station in Van Nuys at 4:30 p.m. and arrived at the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) at 6:00 p.m. for our 10:00 p.m. flight.

We hopped off the FlyAway bus at the Bradley International Terminal. We were anxious to see the newly refurbished terminal, so we arrived extra early to explore the new shops. We were to depart on Virgin Atlantic, and it was an international flight. Well, much to our surprise, we were told that Virgin Atlantic was located back at Terminal 2! What? We could not even check out the new shops. We then wondered if this was going to be an indication of how the trip was going to unfold.

We had a nice walk halfway around the huge airport complex carrying our heavy bags and pulling the suitcases. We finally got checked in and were handed our boarding passes. After much worry about our carry-on suitcase poundage, they were never weighed! Luckily, we were not weighed either with all the clothes we had on. Once we proceeded through security, we rearranged things in our bags and suitcases and removed our outerwear. We indulged in a green tea Crème Frappuccino and charged our cell phones whilst waiting to board the plane. We started boarding at 9:10 p.m., got situated in our seats, and we took off on time at 10:00 p.m. We were so excited to finally be in flight to Africa but first making a very short stop at Heathrow Airport (LHR) in London, England. We prefer to fly LAX to LHR and then on to Johannesburg (JNB) as it makes the flights about eleven hours each as opposed to a shorter combined with a much-longer flight.

Over the previous few months, I had several nightmares of finding myself on a plane traveling to some distant land and then suddenly realizing I had forgotten my cameras! Jan would have nightmares of leaving her passport at home. What tragedies, but thankfully, they were only dreams. I had my cameras, and Jan had her passport for this trip.

Whilst in the air, we watched movies and TV shows, had our music to listen to, and tried to nap a bit. I do not sleep well on airplanes, regardless of the time or length of the flight. We were served a little snack shortly before our dinner. Breakfast was served about an hour before landing at Heathrow. We arrived forty-five minutes early as there must have been a good tailwind, but it was still a long eleven-hour flight.

Saturday, September 28

We arrived at Heathrow about 4:00 p.m. on Saturday. It was an extremely long walk to the connecting flight terminal, and unbeknownst to us, we had to venture through security once again. We walked around the terminal and window shopped, especially at Harrods. Jan took me to lunch at the Rhubarb British restaurant to celebrate my birthday. We split a sandwich and had carrot cake and hot tea for dessert. This birthday went by much quicker than any other, maybe because I lost eight hours in transit! Will I remain eight hours younger? Maybe at least until we return to the states.

Gnomie, is a little traveling gnome that Jan and I adopted several years ago. He never complains, and when he is not out sightseeing or having his picture taken with people, animals, or all varieties of food, he stays tucked away in his little Las Vegas silver sparkly sleeping bag. He has never been asked for a passport or patted down by TSA. He just slips under the radar, so to speak! He has been on a few ocean cruises; a European river cruise; to Mexico several times; to British Columbia and Alberta, Canada; Maui and Oahu, Hawaii; through most of the Western United States; Washington, DC; and Niagara Falls—just to name a few places. He has even had his picture taken with Caesar and Cleopatra in Las Vegas and a Terracotta warrior at a local museum.

At Heathrow, one is notified of the boarding gate number only twenty minutes before the flight is to board. At 7:45 p.m., we took the long walk to our boarding gate, which was the farthest gate away, which is usually the case for us! We boarded the plane right away and had the same seats we had on the flight over. After sitting on the tarmac for a half hour, we finally took off at 9:30 p.m.

There was quite a bit of turbulence during the flight, especially going over the equator. This is so because the trade winds cause warm air to rise, which is required for turbulence. This is most common over the Atlantic Ocean and the African continent. Also, aircrafts need to fly at a higher altitude over the equator because the earth is not perfectly round.

Sunday, September 29

Despite the frequent shaking of the plane, we napped a tiny bit during the eleven-hour flight—thank goodness for our noise-canceling headphones. We were served a small breakfast before landing at Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg, South Africa, at about 9:00 a.m.

We finally made it to South Africa. Hallelujah! It was quite a hike to the passport check-in area. The line moved quickly, our passports were stamped, and we made it through without a hitch. Gnomie, who was tucked away in his tiny sleeping bag, got through without having to make an appearance.

Again, according to Pam’s Africa Tips, we had memorized the directions to the City Lodge Hotel where we would be staying before the meerkat tour began. The hotel is situated within the Tambo Airport complex. There is a very long indoor corridor from the airport to the hotel, combined with an expansive several-level parking structure. We looked as if we knew exactly where we were going and were mighty proud of ourselves, especially since we had been up almost forty hours. This surpassed the thirty-six hours of being up when we went to Iceland for a family reunion in 2005. Anyway, we went to the front desk and were told they had our reservation for one night and if we were checking out. What? We had not even checked in yet! I pulled out our reservation confirmation and things were quickly resolved.

Since our flight arrives early in the morning, we book a room for the night before we arrive. It was about 10:00 a.m. SA time, so we were able to go directly to our room—as usual, almost the farthest room away. Once we got to the room, our key would not work, so Jan trekked all the way back to the front desk whilst I stayed with our luggage in the hallway. The key situation was quickly straightened out, and we were able to unlock the door and enter our room.

The room was very nice and comfy. The bathroom was about the same size as the sleeping area. It had a huge bathtub (great for a bubble bath) and a separate very large marble-and-glass shower. After stretching out for a couple of minutes on our three-fourths beds (not twin or double, but three-fourths!), we unpacked and rearranged a few things. We did not want to sleep, so we walked down to the hotel restaurant where we had a delicious buffet breakfast, which was included with our room. We even made a new friend named Otis, who took very good care of us during our stay at the hotel.

After breakfast, we decided to walk to the airport shops to purchase bottled water and postcards. The post office was open even on a Sunday, so I purchased some African postage stamps—some to use and some to save. There was a Woolworths, a few cell phone stores, a food court, foreign exchange booths, and several restaurants, along with a variety of stores selling souvenirs, wine, luggage, athletic wear, and jewelry. Whilst visiting a few of these stores, we bought our very first African souvenirs.

We walked back to the hotel and booked a tour of Joburg and Soweto for the following day. We had a late lunch at the hotel restaurant, which consisted of toasted cheese and tomato sandwiches, which turned out to be a staple for us on the tour. In this area of Africa, they are called toasted cheese not grilled cheese. We were each served not just one but one and a half sandwiches. We also had veggie chips, a small green salad, and a diet soda. We absolutely had to indulge in trying the traditional South African dessert of malva pudding, which was wonderful. It is a gingerbread-like cake made with apricot jam swimming in a thin vanilla custard and served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. The meal for both of us, with tip, was only 195 rand or about nineteen dollars fifty cents US. The exchange rate at that time was about ten rand to one US dollar.

Malva pudding

The South African Rand Reserve Banknotes (ZAR) are quite unique. They range in size and color, and there have been several series produced through the years. The ones I purchased at a private foreign exchange facility at home were the ten, which is the smallest in size and green with Mandela on the obverse and a rhino face on the reverse; the twenty is brown with Mandela on the obverse and an elephant face on the reverse; the fifty is red with a Manufacturing icon