Victoria Falls, the last stop in Africa

Greetings from Victoria Falls!

There is a debate about when is the best time to visit the Falls. Some will tell you the end of the rainy season, in April, because the full force of the falls are on display. The spray from the Falls rises to a height of 1300 feet and can be seen from 30 miles away. It is the largest continuous curtain of water in the world at over a mile in width and it falls around 350 feet. The problem is that if you hike the trail that we did, you can't get close to the edge, see the bottom, or most of the falls for that matter, and you get soaking wet. I can't imagine photographing that spectacle. The natives call the place "the smoke that thunders" because of the roar that accompanies the spray. It must be quite a loud, soggy, wet, spectacle.

On the other hand, if you go during the dry season, you actually get to see the Falls fall and the river at the bottom. If you are really adventurous you can even swim in some of the pools formed on the Zambian side or go rafting at the bottom. Some even hike through the shallows to picnic on the edge. We chose merely to hike, admire and photograph. In the 110 degree heat, that was enough.

The following are just some random shots of the falls. It is nature at it's best. It's a place to be in awe and just observe. Unlike Niagara Falls, the area is much like when David Livingstone first laid eyes upon it in 1865.

                                                                                                                                         

                                                                           

All in all it was quite a spectacular sight, but it really needed to be to compare to the magnificent colonial hotel we were staying at for two nights. Built in1905, to accommodate passengers on the Cape to Cairo railway, and later the BOAC flying boat service from South Africa to Southampton, it has withstood and survived the significant political upheavals during it's time as Rhodesia and then under the dictator Robert Mugabe who has held power since 1980. This palace exists in a country with 80 to 90% unemployment and where the tour guides warn you not to discuss politics. 

This is a view of the bridge that goes over the gorge. You can walk down the landscaped lawn to get a picture of it. It is also a place one can bungee jump from. It can't be seen from the terrace in rainy season.

On our first night there we skipped the native dancers show to have dinner in their gourmet Livingstone Dining Room. A seven course, prix-fixed meal, on tables set with starched white linen table clothes, more silver and glasses than one could imagine and a very inventive menu not to mention wine paring. There were candles on the tables and the waiters were all in tuxedos. It was wonderful. All for the glorious price of $35 per person and $30 per person for the wine pairing. We ate with our friends from Edmonton and had a blast. It was their lovely daughter's first experience with this type of dining and her comments were priceless. It couldn't have been a better evening. 

You can't venture out of the enclave that is the town of Victoria Falls and not be touched by the tragedy that is Zimbabwe. The people are truly suffering. As I have shown in other posts, village life is tough, but here it would be near impossible without the aide NGO's bring into the country. Yes we were in a very special place nestled amongst subsistence living, but each tourist jobs can support up to fifty to sixty people. I hope we helped in some small way.

Africa was coming to a close. The last thing we did was go for a sunset cruise on the Zambezi River. It was a wonderful end to a most wonderful trip. Leisurely cruising on the river with fifteen new found friends, enjoying memories, appetizers and wine. The next morning we'd all be off to distant places. Some were going to Cape Town, others to Edmonton and Seattle. We were off to Amsterdam, another twenty four hours of travel. All in all, it was worth every bump in the rutted roads we experienced. 

Now this trip was truly enhanced by the people we traveled with and I would be remiss in not thanking them again for helping make this trip so memorable. 

The group from Calgary. A more welcoming group could not be found.

Anita, Nikki and Bob from Edmonton. We had a blast with them.
From Nikki I learned that decals were dec'als in Canadian.

Sarah from Whidbey Island, Washington and Kathy. I have no pictures of her
husband Casey. My apologies to Casey. He came to Kathy's aide when her lens
broke and he was our capable co-pilot on the first bush plane.

The last game drive, Kathy's lion encounter

Our last game drive was to be another all day event, this time in Chobe National Park in Botswana. The park is Botswana's third largest covering 4,500 square miles. It is unique in that it has four distinct ecosystems (woodlands, sandy desert, swamps and flood plains) and contains Africa's largest concentration of elephants (over 50,000). It also had the leopard, the missing link in seeing the Big Five on this trip.

With a pleasant trip up the river to Kasane, Botswana, marred only by the border ordeal in Namibia, we  were lulled by the scenes on the river and how pleasant the last two days had been. Our safari vehicle looked new and was open air, the roads to the park were paved, our guide was highly experienced, and when we reached the park gates, we saw sandy roads just past the park entrance. This was going to be great!

We no sooner entered the park and we came across a trio of giraffe posing perfectly.

A short way away, our first sable antelope also posing just for us. 

Then a magnificent kudu.

Followed by a cute baby elephant. How could it get any better? 

You think you could get jaded seeing these animals every day and you do joke about it, but then they appear and you excited all over again. Fortunately or maybe unfortunately, a radio call came into our driver and the word leopard was uttered. He said it was off on the other side of the park and we had to hurry. So off we went with dust billowing from the back tires of the vehicle with Kathy and I, having chosen the top most seat, cantilevered over the back wheels, hanging on for dear life, as we drive for forty minutes over soft sand roads that somehow proved to be the bumpiest, most rutted, roughest, roads we had been on. 

We rounded a corner, went down a hill, quietly drove up to a grove of trees and our guide pointed and softly said leopard. We then sat there for about forty-five minutes watching and waiting and this is what we saw.

I've seen more leopard skin on a purse my mother had, but it qualified as a sighting and try as you may, one cannot will these animals to do anything they don't want to do and this one wanted to sleep. Even a herd of passing elephants, some that even grazed on that very tree, couldn't get it to move.

It was getting very hot, I was getting pretty bored, but again, a radio call came in and our guide excitedly told us: dead elephant and male lion eating it. Ours was the only vehicle that broke away from the leopard and again we careened across the bumpiest roads we had yet experienced, again across to another distant side of the park. About half way there, Kathy's back couldn't take the ride and she changed seats to the lowest one, right next to the driver, searching for a smoother ride. It was a faithful choice.

After about thirty minutes of jostling, we turned down a small road and after a few minutes we saw this partially blocking the road.

I will spare you any closer pictures, but it was pretty horrific and the smell was indescribable. If there were a million flies covering the carcass, there was one. It was gross. Our friend Bob, who is an outdoors man and big game trophy hunter in Canada, said it was the worst smell he had ever come across. 

As we slowly drove past, the driver said the lion was ahead. Now it's hard to tell, but the road is lower than the banks of the road and the lion was sitting about a foot off of the side of the road on the bank. As we pulled up he was probably thinking about the big dinner he was going to have and here is what I saw.

Kathy had taken the seat next to the driver, about three feet lower than me, and this is what she saw as he pulled up and stopped.

She had to slide to the driver's side to get the shots to focus, as she literally could have flossed it's teeth she was so close and was at eye level. What possessed this guide to do what he did we will never know and how she didn't flinch is beyond me. The rest of us where very still as we could hear it breathe. As we slowly pulled away, the guide said to us "she is a brave lady".

We were glad to leave the smell behind us, although we had to pass the elephant one more time to get out of the area. Then the driver said it was time for lunch and we all hoped we hadn't contracted some airborne disease from the elephant and used plenty of had sanitizer before we ate. When we met up with the others they told us of watching the tree for the leopard to move, but we a far more exciting and compelling story: Kathy's Lion Encounter.

Lunch was a pleasant affair, but it was getting terribly hot and the group was getting pretty cranky and tired. Perhaps animal fatigue was finally setting in. We asked to start heading back, but the guides wanted to go back to the leopard. So we did.

We were first in and he actually had moved and I got this shot.

Not a bad shot, but then vehicles started coming from every direction and one pulled right in front of us.  I said a few unkind words to the other driver and our driver just sat there. After awhile I said this is stupid and we agreed to leave. 

As we left I took this inspiring picture of a termite mound. These things are actually engineering marvels, but I will spare you. If you really want to know more, and they are pretty cool, go here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mound-building_termites

No sooner than ten minutes after we left, the leopard did start moving around. We headed back to the leopard area, but it was already back a tree. My haste cost us some pictures. We are indebted to our good friend Sarah Kodalen  for these shots.  KC, her husband, had lent Kathy his camera when her lens broke and these marvelous folks came to our aide once again.

Everyone was hot, tired and thirsty. We didn't realize it, but the temperature had reached 114 and we had been out all day. All we all wanted to do was to head back to the Zambezi Queen. We still had to face the climb up the sandy hill in Zambia and face the grumpy official, but that would mean it was only fifteen more minutes to the boat. 

That was it. The final game drive of the trip. It was fitting that we were literally spent. We had traveled many miles, stayed in marvelous places, seen the Big Five, the Serengeti, the beginning of the Migration and so many other things, learned a lot and made new friends. It was time to wind down with  a day of leisure and then a final fling at Victoria Falls before we all headed home.  

A village on the banks

Life on the Zambezi Queen was pretty wonderful. Out in the morning for a river safari (calm river, comfortable boat, no bumps, nice breeze), back for lunch, rest up a little, out in the evening for another activity, back to rest up a little in order to have cocktails, conversation and the general conviviality that can build amongst one time strangers, now friends with shared experiences. As I said in the beginning, we could not have been traveling with better people and that prescient comment only proved more correct as our time together grew.

Our first afternoon safari took us to a village on the shore of the Zambezi. Not exactly on the shore, but far enough away from the river that crocodiles usually didn't come up that far. Not that marauding elephants, hungry hippos or occasional big cats didn't come through, but behind what looked like rather flimsy barriers lived about thirty people. They earned money by fishing in the Chobe and actually sold fish as far away as Angola. There were no roads to the village. The only ways in or out where by water or by foot.                    

                                                                                                                                                   

While the Maasai had mud walls covered with thorns surrounding their villages, this one had bamboo poles stuck in the ground. The back of the village was completely open. There was no electricity and the nearest clean water was about a quarter mile away. They did raise chickens, and had some grains as well as fish, but we didn't see a cow in sight. There was a communal oven, but each house had one pot over a wood fire to cook in. Sand was the flooring. Loose outside the huts, hard packed
within.

A typical house in the village. They are built by pounding stakes in the ground and then filling in-between them with mud and finally plastering over the dried mud with dung. The roofs are all thatched. Most had only one room for the family, a very few had two. The latrines were on the borders of the village. Sponge baths were taken by heating water in the one pot and bathing. The Chief felt that they were living very well and with the Zambezi Queen bringing tourists they were relieved somewhat from relying on fishing which was very difficult during the rainy season.

As with everywhere we met the people we were warmly greeted. The children always stole one's heart. One hears that African hospitality is unparalleled and from our brief encounters we could sense the warmth of the people as well as curiousity they had about these white skins folks, especially in the villages. We only wish we could have had more interaction with them.





In this village everyone turned out to welcome us with a song.

Of course the faces of the children were captivating.

We left the village as the sun was setting and the ride back was rather quiet for this group as people were no doubt thinking of what it would be like to be in that village as night fell and solitary scenes presented themselves on the ride back to the boat.

                                                                               

I feel like Blogger is conspiring against me. It looks great in composition mode,  but the spacing goes nuts when published. I've spent a lot of time trying to figure it out albeit unsuccessfully. I'll have to consult with my Grandson Alex next time I try to get fancy.

A river safari

The Chobe River is a long, it starts in Angola, wide, shallow river that forms much of the border between Botswana and Namibia. It actually loses more water through evaporation than it provides to the Zambezi River which it flows into. The fact that it formed the border between the two countries meant that every time we left the boat, we had to pass through immigration on the way coming and going, not a minor inconvenience especially since immigration in Namibia was up a forty foot sandy rise and the official was none too happy to have to stamp all of our passports while sitting in his small, hot office. More than once our guides had to find him, usually asleep under a shade tree.

Water is the staff of life in Africa and being the dry season the river attracts scores of wildlife. We were really excited as we boarded the boat to start our first water safari. One thing we knew for certain: there would be no more bouncing around in a Land Cruiser.

We got off to a fast start coming upon this herd of elephants enjoying the water.

Then we came upon a pod of hippos and our guide piloted the boat to within a few feet of them. Notice the baby in the center of the center picture.

If that wasn't cool enough, a crocodile decided to swim by. 

Right after the crocodile swam by, we spotted a crocodile monitor lizard. It's called that because it eats the eggs that the crocodiles lay on the shore. Even the largest and scariest get preyed upon.

There were birds aplenty as well. Here's a fish eagle in flight, some storks and a kingfisher.

It was really exciting and different to be getting as close as we where and to be watching from the boat. The animals were as unfazed by the approaching boat as they were by the vehicles. They just go about their daily activities as if you were not there. It is a totally delightful way to view them.

On our way back to the boat, we came across another herd of elephants enjoying the water and I was able to get some incredible pictures. ( At least I think so )

Then a lone hippo decided it was time for him to cross the river.

What a morning and we had a village visit in the afternoon! We were pretty happy campers as we returned for lunch.

An experiment, let's see if the video works. I can't tell in preview mode. 

This is the crocodile monitor lizard  going about it's business.

This one is a guy from New Jersey seriously asking our guide if it ok for the elephants to walk across the river. They are going to a different country after all.  Listen carefully, he starts about half way through.