A Taste of Africa by John Ardley

The Speaker at the weekly meeting of St Andrews Rotary Club was the Vice President, John Ardley and members were treated to a wonderful display of slides showing three amazing safari trips to Africa by John and his wife.

The first trip, a visit to Capetown and Table Mountain, an Adventure Holiday, included a canoe trip down the Zambezi River and riding on elephants, enjoying the glorious sunsets from the evening camps.  

The next trip was to Namibia and Botswana and back to the Victoria Falls.  There John and his wife visited huge sand dunes in the desert with wildlife all around them.  The slides illustrated how almost static the dunes were for climbing and the incredible view down into the dead valley below.  Again, the scenery was breathtaking.  Trips were taken very early in the morning before the heat of the day set in, ending with a stop for breakfast with the local wildlife wandering all around and very close by.

A short flight took the visitors to the Zambezi Delta which was in total contrast to the desert – water everywhere – and a fascinating canoe trip.  Colourful local birds, a baby crocodile no more than nine inches long, hippos everywhere made for an adventurous trip, the latter to be avoided if they approached the canoe.

Another flight took John and his wife to the Victoria Falls.  Members learned that four countries all join at this area – Namibia, Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe.  This first visit to the Falls was in the dry season but, in his most recent trip to Tanzania, another visit to the Victoria Falls was completely different – during the wet season - and such was the volume of water spray that coats were actually supplied.

In closing, John hoped that, as a result of sharing the glorious scenery and his amazing experiences, members might be tempted to go on safari and he certainly recommended highly that they do so.

Having been born in Africa, Kim Keble White very much appreciated and thanked John for such a fascinating and spectacular display of scenery and wildlife  -  indeed a very real Taste of Africa.