Croatia - The Trip of a Life Time

If you want to experience the feeling of Europe 30-40 years ago, go now to the beautiful country of Croatia. Freed from the communism of Tito and the battles with Serbia in the 1990's, this region of Yugoslavia is a land of plenty and a gem!

Miles of coastline along the clean and sparkling Adriatic Sea, the Dalmatian Coast has over 1,000 islands. Every small port has a ferry or a little boat to transport you from island to island with scenic coastline views and turquoise water from the limestone base. The beautiful walled city of Dubrovnik has a marble promenade with an underground water system built by the Romans. The water comes from two rivers, is plentiful, clean and delicious for drinking - no plastic bottles necessary! There are no neon signs or advertising; shop keepers use their windows to display their goods; cable and electric wires are underground, everyone has internet access.

In Croatia, you feel happy for the people; there is no poverty and people are prosperous and successful. The population is 90% catholic and the charming sound of church bells ringing is everywhere. There is purity in their culture. The Croatian people are open and trusting, polite, hard working and profitable, safe and happy. To encourage the birth rate, maternity leave is one year with full pay and on return to work; your job must be guaranteed. Everyone speaks English having been taught in school from a young age.

Tourism is growing and the Croats love to open their homes for meals and overnight stays to travelers. They take pride in producing completely homemade meals. They live self sufficiently growing what they need; groves of oranges, lemons, tangerines and grapefruit; proscuitto and salami, cheese from cows and sheep; brandy from cherries, herbs, walnuts and pears; wonderful olives and olive oil; terraced gardens of vegetables and potato fields; they grind their own capers; make their own wine; mill their own soap. Everything is organically grown and the food is amazing! The clean Adriatic produces delicious seafood - fabulous oysters, mussels, fresh fish of every kind, fresh anchovies and calamari, all grilled over wood fires. Trees are pine, cypress and oak.

Croatia has a cafe culture - the people work to live, not live to work. When was the last time you were served a souvenir cookie made by special traditional recipe wrapped in beautiful paper and tied with a bow on AN AIRLINE?!? Croatian Airlines with lovely polite cabin crews can take you to this special land via Frankfurt, London, Paris, and Vienna. Hurry, before the local currency, the Kuna, becomes the Euro!

Paul's Africa Travelogue

Installment 1: Zambia & Botswana Safaris

Day 1

First safari lodgeHippos on an evening cruiseRonna enjoys the cruiseSunset in AfricaVictoria FallsWe are off to Southern Africa! We leave Chicago on time and arrive in Washington early, feeling as if the wind is at our backs (which, in fact, it is).

Nonetheless, our flight to South Africa is two hours late; its tardiness is never explained. We just feel lucky that we are on a nonstop flight to Johannesburg. I had never traveled on South African Airways (SAA), but it seems to be a laid-back airline, if the safety video is any indication-it stars a computer-generated Mr. Magoo character who seems unfazed by the slightest inconvenience or potentially fatal situation. He laughs when the oxygen falls from the overhead panel above his seat; he looks positively exuberant when he gets the chance to slide down the inflatable slide to safety; and he beams as he assumes the crash position (he has a choice of two different positions). The in-flight magazine contains a level of candor not found in those of U.S. airlines. A message from the CEO indicates that the airline's "deep and fundamental restructuring" is just about over. He observes that high labor costs are the root cause of SAA's poor ability to compete. Its downsizing is "well on track; a total of 223 managers will...leave in the coming months."

Finally, if financial objectives are not met by past actions, he says that another 2,232 employees will have to be retrenched. I hope that no one is sacked while we are in the air. The nearly 16-hour flight is pleasantly endless. I am just thrilled to be going!

Day 2

We arrive in Johannesburg a couple of hours late and check into our hotel for the night, leaving just enough time to fall asleep in our soup bowls before we turn in.

Day 3
Today, we sleep in (7 a.m.-this is not a trip for people who like to party until the wee hours of the night and then get their beauty sleep until noon). We fly from Johannesburg to Livingstone, Zambia for the true beginning of our trip. There a driver picks us up and takes us to Sussi and Chuma Lodge, our first bush camp, located on the shores of the Zambezi River. We are still pretty jet-lagged, so we decide we will exert ourselves by drinking gin and tonics on the late afternoon sunset cruise. We board the boat and literally within two minutes we are cruising by the five or six hippopotamuses that live just downriver from the camp. They do their customary snort-angrily-and-sink-into-the-water routine. We never do see more than the nostrils and ears of hundreds of hippos over the next week.

Though angry, hippos are also shy and very susceptible to sunburn, so they spend the entire day up to their ears in water and then venture out around 9 p.m. to graze alongside the river. Along the riverbank we also see elephants wallowing in the mud (to clean themselves, of course) and then spraying dirt and sand on themselves to dry off. Later, we'll find out that this method is, in fact, effective. That evening we meet our guides Juliet and Gabriel who lead us to see Victoria Falls. So much has been written about this incredible gushing faucet, visible from both Zambia and Zimbabwe (and well worth seeing from both sides).
Day 4

Today we leave Zambia for Botswana. My wife Ronna and I are both very excited because we are going on our first safari trip. Plus, transferring camps is part of the adventure in adventure travel, as we are about to find out. A driver named Charles picks us up. He is a friendly, diminutive man with a wonderful, broad smile. As we drive to Kasane in Botswana, he tells us about the few large farms that line the road going south. We haven't seen farms like these in our brief time in Zambia: large irrigation equipment is in place, and corn and wheat is growing. Charles tells us that these farms are being operated by white people from Zimbabwe. As the political situation in Zim (as it's often abbreviated) worsened and government confiscation of land from white farmers was accomplished, the Zambian government invited these same farmers to its country and gave them very reasonable, long-term leases in exchange for their commitment to farm the land and employ black Zambians. Charles told us that he saw this as a win-win situation for Zambia. This land was not particularly fertile and there were doubts that it would be arable, but the farmers were willing to take the risk, and now the fields were green with vegetation. Zambians had new sources of maize, the staple of their diet, and jobs. Charles' to the white farmers was not what we had expected from a black African-our knowledge continues!

We arrive at Border Control on Zambezi River, which we will cross by boat to Botswana. It is utterly chaotic. Trucks line both sides of the road approaching the ferry terminal. Charles tells us that truck drivers can wait up to two weeks to board the ferry for the seven-minute ride to Botswana. We try to get our mini-bus closer to the front of the line, but we're trapped between a large truck and a passenger car. Women walk by with heavy loads on their heads. We tell Charles that we had packed very lightly (per the instructions of Austin-Lehman) and that we could easily wheel our bags through the line of cars and through immigration. I look at my watch; our plane is leaving from Botswana in one hour. I contemplate an evening sleeping on the road with the truck drivers.

But Charles knows the procedure. He pushes us to the front of a long line of people to get our passports stamped and leads us to a speedboat that will take us across the Zambezi, and within five minutes we are disembarking in Botswana. With the customary efficiency that we have now come to expect, we arrive at the airport with 15 minutes to spare.
Ronna has not been looking forward to this part of the trip. Since she became a mother nearly 27 years ago, she hasn't liked turbulence or small planes. We expect a four-seat prop plane, but when another 10 people line up behind us to go through security, we realize that it will take more than a four-seater to accommodate us. Sure enough, a 12-seater awaits us; it's piloted by a South African who is fairly young and very relaxed. He warns us that there will be some turbulence; Ronna frowns at me. But the flight turns out to be very smooth and scenic. The very dry land gives way to green as we approach the Okavango Delta, where we will be staying for the next six days.
We land next to the Tubu Tree Camp Lodge sign, which consists of a couple of two-by-four's and some small palm fronds. No one's there; we wonder if our pilot is going to leave us to fend for ourselves. But by the time we have gathered our belongings and de-planed (as they say), our wonderful guide, July ("Yes," he tells us, "as in the month."), is there with an open-air Land Rover and a warm smile. He drives off the tarmac and we are in the midst of the Delta. He is full of questions: How many times have we been to Africa before? What animals have we seen so far? Which are our favorites? We explain that we are safari virgins, but that we have already become very attached to elephants and monkeys. On the drive to the camp, we look out the window and find ourselves surrounded by zebras and impalas (recalling the Chevy car named after these elegant animals helps me identify them again later). We are greeted at the camp by the entire staff singing a traditional tribal welcome song.

It is very hot. (Later we find out that October is the hottest month of the year, though in my head I do the math and determine that since it is mid-fall at home, it's mid-spring here. But it is still the dry season; the cooling rainy season arrives in the next couple of weeks.) Late in the afternoon-like early morning the time when the animals are most likely to be up and moving around-July meets us in the lodge living room and takes us on the first game drive of our lives. It would be an understatement to say that it was thrilling. We pass herds of zebra and impala grazing together in open fields. We see our first baboons and kudu. As we turn the corner, we are caught in "Wild Kingdom," or is this the real wild kingdom? Two elephants saunter out of the brush, followed by a herd of five giraffes, three of adult age and two six-month olds. I nudge Ronna and ask her if this was not one of the most stunning moments in our travel life. We agree that it is. As I click away on my camera, I think to myself, "Should I turn off my electronic shutter click? July must be very tired of hearing digital sound effects from tourists almost desperately trying to capture these animals on film." But he totally shares our enchantment."I could watch giraffes for hours. They are so graceful," he tells us. He goes on to explain how difficult it is for giraffes to drink water. They must splay out their front legs, stick their butts into the air, lean their massive bodies down, and stick their mouths into the pond. It looks silly to us; more chilling is the fact that it puts them in a very vulnerable position that lions use to their advantage when they attack.

We land next to the Tubu Tree Camp Lodge sign, which consists of a couple of two-by-four's and some small palm fronds. No one's there; we wonder if our pilot is going to leave us to fend for ourselves. But by the time we have gathered our belongings and de-planed (as they say), our wonderful guide, July ("Yes," he tells us, "as in the month."), is there with an open-air Land Rover and a warm smile. He drives off the tarmac and we are in the midst of the Delta. He is full of questions: How many times have we been to Africa before? What animals have we seen so far? Which are our favorites? We explain that we are safari virgins, but that we have already become very attached to elephants and monkeys. On the drive to the camp, we look out the window and find ourselves surrounded by zebras and impalas (recalling the Chevy car named after these elegant animals helps me identify them again later). We are greeted at the camp by the entire staff singing a traditional tribal welcome song.

We are thrilled with our first introduction to the African bush. By the end of the afternoon, we can check off only one of the Big Five (we don't see lions, rhinos, buffalo or leopards), but who cares... we'll get there.

Day 5

Our game viewing starts early this morning���at 1:35 a.m! Ronna and I are awakened by loud crashing outside our tent. Is it baboons foraging at the base of the Sausage Tree that abuts our sleeping quarters? I get up, look through the screens and find two elephants trampling the greenery outside the tent in the full moonlight. Ronna joins me and we spend the next 15 minutes spellbound, until the elephants move out of our view and we go back to bed.

At 5:30 a.m., we are up and piling into the Land Rover for the first of our two daily game drives. (I am used to seeing Land Rovers in the suburbs, gingerly crossing such obstructions as train tracks. This is the first time I have experienced them for their intended use.) This morning we see a mother and father ostrich and 20 of their chicks, many more baboons, impalas, zebra, a family of elephants, and (my favorite), giraffes.

When you're on safari, you get up very early, go on a game drive until 11 a.m., and then have brunch. The next activity doesn't start until 4 p.m. tea���it's too hot in the middle of the afternoon for either you or the animals to feel like doing much. Afternoons are for napping, sweating, showering or reading. This afternoon, Ronna and I are joined by about 40 baboons who have come to the camp for some shade and a late lunch. We spend the next hour engrossed in watching their antics: they preen, clown and play. Is it anthropomorphic projection, or do we see a lot of ourselves in them?

Tonight, the staff treats us to a concert of Botswanan music and dance. Though composed of people from many different tribes, the staff have all learned the music and culture of one tribe so that they may perform in unison for guests. It is another example of what we are coming to learn is the openness and respect that Botswanan people show to one another.

Day 6

This morning is our final game drive with July at Tubu Tree Camp. He has been a marvelous and knowledgeable host, but he thinks we are disappointed that we haven't yet seen a leopard (though in fact we are pretty content). He is bound and determined to find us one of the big cats before we leave, though they haven't been seen in the vicinity for the last few days. Per our normal schedule, we are in the Land Rover and on our way at 6:15 a.m. The morning starts very promisingly. Leopard - Baines CampLeopard on the huntBaines CampWe see our normal retinue of zebras and impalas. Soon, we pass seven giraffes grazing together with a big elephant family (also among my favorite animals). We are due back in about an hour to get ready to pack up to leave for our next lodge. July tells us it is all right to leave the road and venture into the bush if you are pursuing one of the Big Five, so we careen into the bush in search of a leopard. We drive for about a half an hour and are sensing July's disappointment that this will not be the trip that will yield a leopard when all of a sudden he stops, points to a tree in the distance and says calmly "Do you see the leopard lying in the tree?" It is a beautiful animal���lithe and sensual. Sadly for us, the leopard notes our arrival, climbs down the tree and heads off into the thicket. July restarts the Land Rover and begins circling the thicket in hopes that the sleek cat decided to take a walk, which it did. We follow the leopard as it ventures across the open field. It stops to groom itself and allows us to get close to it before the cat gets up and again begins to walk. For 20 minutes we creep alongside it, following it into another field until finally the leopard ambles into the vegetation and disappears. July is very happy, as are we.

It's time to get on our plane for our next stop on the Okavango Delta-the Baines Camp, about 75 miles away as the crow flies. We arrive at Baines in the early afternoon. We were stunned by the beauty of the location, on the edge of a perpetual lake filled with birds and hippos. Unlike the Delta region around the Tubu Lodge, which becomes parched during the dry season, this area stays wet year-round (that means "feet up" when the Rover crosses streams.) Around here, it is always green and rife with birds of every kind and hue. The camp itself is also beautiful. Named after a famous explorer and artist who traveled through Botswana in the mid-1800's, the camp's rooms look out on the water, are filled with local fabrics and woodwork, and themselves bear the names of Baines' paintings. Their canopy beds are on rollers and can be pushed out onto the rooms' decks. Tonight, we sleep under the stars, listening to the sounds of nocturnal animals and birds of the Delta.

Day 7

6 a.m.-we slept in past our usual 5:30 a.m. wakeup call! After a light breakfast of just-baked croissants, homemade granola and hot tea, we board our vehicle for an elephant encounter. After a half-hour drive into the Delta, a trip during which we saw no less than 25 giraffes, we are greeted by Doug and Sandi Groves, founders of the Living With Elephants foundation. In 1988, the Groves saved and adopted three young elephants they named Jabu, Thembi, and Morula who were slated for extinction during culling operations in South Africa. Thembi was something of a delinquent, a rebel taken from her mother. Doug and Sandi have worked for nearly 20 years with their wards. Doug tells us an encyclopedic amount of information about African elephants. We hold their massive trunks in our arms, examine their teeth, and feel the bristles of their long tails. We learn about the kinship between babies, their mothers, and the larger community; how aunts and friends take care of the young while moms go out to feed themselves; and adaptations that have helped to improve their sight and smell. They are bright and responsive animals. We take to them instantly, but Doug constantly reminds us that they are still wild animals that should be treated with extreme caution. We accompany the elephants as they go about their business digging up roots, eating branches, spraying themselves with dirt and sand, and rolling over for a brief demonstration nap.

Each elephant has its own personality. Jabu, the dominant male, is always ready to show off and demonstrate how much he has learned under Doug's care. He allows us to examine his skin up close and to open his mouth wide to see his tongue. As he smells Thembi's urine (which contains pheromones that help the male determine when the female is about to ovulate), he gets an instantaneous 'fifth leg.' Compared to Morula, Thembi is a younger, more delicate female. She is a bit mischievous and demands more of Doug's attention to be kept in line. Morula is the senior citizen of the trio and is extremely patient and gentle. When lunchtime rolls around, we eat under the shade of acacia trees while the elephants forage for roots and leaves about 50 feet away. This evening we take a speedboat ride through the Delta. It is very hot, but the waters of the Delta cool us somewhat. Near sunset, the bayous become filled with birds of every type, color and size. Our boat captain pulls fish after fish from the water. The sunset is breathtaking.

Entering the World of Outdoor Adventure

Changing My Life

I am moving overseas for the 5th time. Eight years ago, traveling outside of the United States would never have occurred to me. Things changed in the summer of 1999 when I went to work in the office part time for ROW Adventures. The ad in the newspaper read, "Work 25 hours per week and get free rafting". I thought that that sounded like a pretty great deal so I did everything I could and finally got in to interview and was hired.
Now, you should note that at this point in my life, I had just finished University and had never thought much about whitewater rafting. After two days in the office, I was sent out for my first taste of rafting - a one day trip on the wilderness Moyie River in north Idaho just south of the Canadian border. Crashing through roller coaster waves, gliding through silent forests, spotting a moose, and rafting around the edge of a majestic blown out dam had me hooked on day one.
Having spent the summer of 1999 as the office "lackey," I returned in 2000 for another summer in the office. By the end of that summer, I had been out rafting on the afore mentioned Moyie, the St. Joe on the Idaho/Montana border, the Clark Fork River in Montana, the mighty Lochsa with its 30 continuous miles of class IV whitewater and the Snake River. I felt very fortunate to get out for a multi-day trip on the Snake through Hell's Canyon, the deepest canyon in North America.
Not only did I get my first taste of really big whitewater in 2000 on the Lochsa and Snake, but I also reacquainted myself with two ROW guides from Ecuador who were spending their second summer guiding on the Clark Fork in Montana in preparation for guiding on the Rio Upano in their home country. They were a great couple and we became quick friends. These two guides, Maria Clara and Ricardo were both guiding on the Snake trip that I was on that fall.

As we chatted on the drive home, Maria told me that she had invited all of ROW's guides to Ecuador in 1999, but only one had made it down. She said I should definitely come and I said that I would. Of course, I had no intention of going to Ecuador, but as I finished grad school that fall, my mind kept going back to the invite. January 25th found me sitting outside the Quito airport, excited and nervous. I had booked a flight to Quito for January 25th returning June 25th and I had no idea what to do in between.

On day two, I found Maria Clara and Ricardo and journeyed with them to Ricardo's family hacienda in the jungle. There, I met up with another ROW guide who had just finished guiding on two Rio Upano trips in the jungle. Our time together was short, but a pattern had been developed.
Summer of 2001 found me back in the ROW Adventures office for one more season. At this time, my responsibilities had increased, and I enjoyed another summer of helping people find their way out onto rivers while getting out on the water a bit myself.
The next few years found me traveling all over as my visit to South America snowballed into a desire to see the world. Working in Korea, the Grand Canyon, and Alaska were just pieces of my life that included visits to all seven continents. My rafting experience with ROW prompted me to raft in Peru, Chile, Korea, Malaysia, Australia, and Laos. 2005 found me back in Idaho and looking for summer work again.
Through my years of travel, I had stayed close with the folks at ROW and on one of my visits, Peter Grubb, owner of ROW Adventures gave me a new project to manage. Peter and I put together a trip in coordination with the Spokane Indian Nation that would take 35 tribal youths per week camping, rafting, mountain biking, horseback riding, and visiting of Nez Perce Historical sites. This trip had us traveling across three states while spending the majority of our time at ROW's River Dance Lodge . I finally had my chance to start river guiding after six years.
As hectic as that summer was, it was one of my favorites. Hot summer days on the Clearwater are gorgeous, full of water fights, lazing in the river, watching tadpole colonies, raft slides, sandy beaches and crystal clear, dam-free water. Nights are for campfires, songs, legends, and stories of days long ago.
Another year passed, and I found myself looking for summer work, and again, ROW brought me back into the fold. This time, guiding out on the Missouri River in Montana. My first love has always been history and what better way to explore and expand on that than by being out on the Missouri River. Lewis and Clark journeyed up this daunting and majestic river over 200 years ago. Today, the white cliffs section of the Missouri has been preserved by Congress as a Wild and Scenic section of river. The area looks almost exactly as it would have when Lewis and Clark journeyed that way.
In 34'voyageur canoes, we set out on 4-5 day trips full of Lewis and Clark, bald eagles, beavers, deer drinking at the waters edge, magical settings, pioneer history and so much more. While this is not a whitewater trip, I still believe that it can excite the adventurer in anyone. I love drifting along, listening to people joke or discuss the difference between a spear and an espontoon, between a buffalo jump and a regular mountain.
As the summer of 2007 has nearly passed, I find myself off to China in a week to teach in an international school. I have been in and out of ROW's operations all year, from the office to the river to their new store. My long association with ROW has always been enjoyable, but I never would have dreamed eight years ago that it would be the catalyst for the life that I now live. I take advantage of every river I get near, I journey to every country that I can, and I can honestly say that that first day on the Moyie in 1999 sparked this new life. I feel fortunate to have had these experiences and look forward to many more.

By Kirk Leichner

Ponderosas Interpreted

It's day three on ROW's "Snake River in Hells Canyon" itinerary. You're hiking along a trail to Suicide Point for a panoramic view some 300 feet above the river. Suddenly Dustin, your guide, veers off the trail and points skyward.

"See this pine?" he asks. You crane your neck, peering up at the tree towering over you.

...Now at this point your Average Joe guide may have gone on to tell you that the Ponderosa Pine stands about 150 feet tall and that it typically has thick bark and three needles per fascicle...prompting you to a) yawn, or b) flash back to 10th grade biology class and rack your brain for the definition of 'fascicle.'

Dustin's got another take on it, though.

"This pine here-can you see the top? It's about 50 yards tall--that's half a football field. It was only 3 feet tall like this little guy over here at the time Lewis and Clark came through over two hundred years ago. In fact, they may have taken a specimen from this very tree and sent it back east to President Jefferson."

A vision of Lewis and Clark bush-whacking their way through the woods flashes in your head.

"Got any idea why the bark is so thick?" Dustin continues, patting the trunk of the tree.

Someone ventures a guess: "To keep it from freezing in the winter?"

"It's actually to be fire resistant." Dustin points to a gash in the tree: "See this scar? Here, you can touch it. Anybody know what might have caused it?" Turns out, the tree had been hit by lightning. And if it hadn't been for its thick bark, the stray bolt might have burned it to a crisp. Now that's interesting.

And that, folks, is interpretation: experiencing nature and culture in a wow-that's-really-cool-I-get-it kind of way. In a way that's relevant, meaningful. And the best part is, all of ROW's guides are Certified Interpreters. In fact, they're the only ones in the industry who are.

And you thought trees were boring.