Africa Archives - Mel On The Go

Alexandra Township Bike Tour

One of our favorite experiences of our time in South Africa was this educational and inspirational Alexandra Township bike tour from Alexandra Tours. I learned about the opportunity to cycle through one of Johannesburg’s original townships from a web search and was drawn by the fact it was owned and led by locals. At the very least, it sounded better than the “Hop on- Hop off” bus tour of Soweto. Well, it exceeded our expectations and we can’t stop talking about it!

We were picked up and delivered to the bike tours HQ where we met the founder of the operation, Jeffrey, and his right hand man, Papi. These two twenty-somethings have been running tours of their neighborhood since 2010. And they do a great job! We bicycled around with Papi on the 4 hour tour and enjoyed every minute. We learned a lot and were inspired by the people we met.

Papi took us through this crowded township of 6.9 km square, in which, they tell us, over a million people reside. We biked around different sections of the township, stopping to visit people, see historic sites and try the local food.

Birds of the Okavango Delta

We were amazed by the variety and sheer number of birds in the Okavango Delta. They were beautiful and interesting to watch. While neither of us are bird authorities, we did get into the whole bird watching thing through a book Brian purchased in Kruger Park. The book was so popular around camp (remember, we had a lot of down time!), we left it behind for the guides to use. We took photos home with us, and lots of great memories of a wonderful place including these beautiful birds of the Okavango Delta.

pelicans

Pelicans are water birds, so no surprise they’d be prevalent in the waterways of the Okavango.

Pelican Birds of the Okavango Delta — Pelican in the water, Okavango Delta

Wildlife in the Okavango

We camped in The Okavango Delta for three days, which means three days of two game walks at six hours a day. We saw a lot of wildlife in those walks. No animals came and visited us at camp, which would have been exciting but also scary, so I guess we got lucky with all the wildlife in the Okavango.

The Okavango Delta

Located in northwest Botswana, The Okavango Delta is an interior wetland and a UNESCO site. Most deltas drain into seas, but the Okavango uniquely drains into the Kalahari Desert. The world’s largest inland delta, it encompasses 16,000 square miles.

The nearest city and airport is Maun, which is where we flew in and out before our safari. Botswana is 224,000 square meters and features other amazing places to see wild animals, like Chobe National Park, in the northeast of the country.

Wildlife of the Okavango

While in the Okavango, we got to walk quite close to a lot of animals, and we had the zoom lens on the camera to capture more. While we didn’t see cats like we did in Kruger, we saw hippos, buffalo, wildebeest, different kinds of antelope, wart hogs (*COOL!), and giraffes on the last day. We also saw a ton of different kinds of birds: eagles, open bills, pelicans, geese and more. If you want to read about the birds of the Okavango, I’ve got you covered.

Category: Africa

Alexandra Township Bike Tour

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