African adventure

Hannah Gross
NLJ Correspondent 
 
Leaving the cold Wyoming weather on Dec. 28, Mike Ratigan and his wife, Candy Driver-Ratigan, enjoyed a 16-day adventure halfway across the globe in southern Africa. 
Their tour began on Jan. 1 with Road Scholar, a nonprofit educational travel group for adults. The couple explored the deserts of Africa with 11 other tourists in their group. 
Traveling by train through South Africa, Swaziland, Mozambique and Zimbabwe for a cruise-like experience, they saw Africa’s unique fauna and flora first-hand.
They described the train as a restored 1920s model, featuring narrow hallways and beautiful woodwork, and it had several cars including dining, lounge and observation cars. 
“The dining car was really elegant,” Mike said. “The service was fantastic.”
When the passengers would leave on a safari, the staff waved good-bye from the train, and upon their return, sometimes they dressed in traditional, African clothing and greeted the weary travelers with champagne, juice and cool towels. 
For the first portion of the tour, in South Africa, the train was operated by a steam engine. However, diesel was used in the other countries because the steam engine wasn’t permitted. Furthermore, the train carried its own fuel because it was scarce in poor economies.
Mike said the trip was unique in many ways, but something that stood out was their third-generation Botswanan guide. 
“She was unbelievably knowledgeable … beyond what you would expect,” he said. 
Candy said that their guide knew about every animal, leaf, bug and more.  
The Ratigans toured several national parks and saw a plethora of giraffes, zebras, elephants, rhinoceroses, lions and many neon-colored birds, some of which had migrated from Europe. 
“I wanted to see the animals in the wild before they went extinct,” Candy said. “The wildlife was great. That was the primary purpose of the trip.” 
One of the parks they visited served as a home to orphaned elephants. The elephants were tame and trained, so the guests were allowed to interact and pet the gentle giants. 
“Their skin is much more textured and rough than you could’ve imagined,” Mike said. 
In addition to wildlife, Mike and Candy also saw the largest waterfall in the world, Victoria Falls, which flows into the Zambezi River. 
Despite suffering from recent droughts, “the falls were huge and flowing,” Candy said. 
Because of the dry climate and scarcity of water, survival doesn’t come easily, and Candy said they sometimes saw dead baby elephant bodies. Also, according to Mike, they were told that rhinoceroses could become extinct in two to five years because they are being hunted for their horns, which can sell for up to $1 million in China. 
“Rhinos are getting more and more endangered because of their horn,” he said.  
Another national park they toured was previously home to 70 rhinos, but that number has dwindled to six. To protect the remaining rhinos, armed guards carrying AK-47s patrol the area at all hours of the day, Candy said. 
“People are just outrageous with the poaching,” she said. 
Additionally, many of the communities are very poor. Mike said that if you couldn’t carve, weave or grow food to sell in the market, you couldn’t survive. 
“There was no economy,” Candy said.
Many of the countries lacked a “safety net,” she said. 
The hardships, Mike said, did not dampen the locals’ spirits. 
“People were amazing. You would expect a great deal of anger and despair,” Mike said. 
Instead, he found them to be spirited, kind and knowledgeable. Many spoke several different languages, including English. Mike said he was disappointed in what he believes to be an absence of assistance from the U.S. government. 
According to Mike, “the U.S. gives no foreign aid.” 
“One thing that really struck me is the poverty and lack of the U.S. involvement,” he said. 
Candy believes education is the answer to many of their economic problems, and Zimbabwe is learning that tourism is their “lifeline.” Additionally, Candy said, it was important for these countries to protect their animals and resources. 
Another “profound” experience for the couple was the visit to a local “senior center” and orphanage in Zimbabwe. The senior center was merely a block house run by volunteers with nothing but pieces of “junk” everywhere, and the orphanage was located where HIV rates were highest in the world, Mike said. 
The orphanage started out with 50 children, but the lady who runs it feeds many more children in addition to the ones she houses. The touring group also had the opportunity to feed the poor. They were each given $10 to spend at a local market and buy food for the orphans. 
By the end of the trip, the couple couldn’t pinpoint just one thing that stood out more than the others because there were too many memorable things to choose from.
“It was a great trip,” Candy said. “It was very educational.”