Today we made our way halfway to Kruger National Park. Our stop is at a country inn near Tzaneen. We ventured from the highveld (dry) to the lowveld (semi-tropical), As we left Pretoria, the dry climate did not support much agriculture. What there is tends to be cattle and some corn where it is irrigated. As we got closer to Polokwane (Pietersburg) agriculture activity increased and as we neared Tzaneen, fruit (mango, oranges, avocado, and bananas) were ple...

A day of travel from Livingstone back to Pretoria. Andre, our driver/guide from African Sky met us at the airport and drove us back to our hotel in Pretoria (The Lombardy). Not sure why, but they upgraded us to a large suite -- need a map to find our way around. If we haven't mentioned it previously, our whole tour has been organized by African Sky (Andrew Harvey). They organize group and individualized tours so we were able to customize our whole month. It ...

The morning was devoted to riding elephants. Fun. Learned a lot about these huge guys from our individual handlers. The ride was about 1 1/4 hour along the Zambezi River. Legs got real sore after sitting astride these guys. We spent part of the afternoon in town. Not much here. The tourists mainly stick to the tourist attractions and hotels which tend to be outside of town. We went into the Dr. Livingstone museum but the power was out so it was quite dark...

This morning we flew from Jo'burg to Livingstone on the Zambian side of the Victoria Falls. Our hotel is the Royal Livingstone which has all the characteristics of a British Colonial hotel. It is on the banks of the Zambezi River -- about a ten minute walk from the Falls. Very nice, built in a series of 8-unit buildings all along the River. Giraffes and zebra are plentiful on the grounds of the hotel. This is the end of the dry season so the river is low. T...

The morning was spent driving to Cullinan, the site of the Cullinan Diamond Mine (about 1 hour from Pretoria). The mine is over 100 years old and one of the world's most prolific producers of gem quality large diamonds, including the Cullinan Diamond, 3106 carats in the rough (see photo in photos section). It operated as an open pit mine until about 1950. The pit measured 1 km. by 500 meters and to a depth of nearly 500 meters. Since 1050, it has operated as ...