Travel Day

Today was a bit of a waste as we spent the entire day traveling.

We flew from Livingstone, Zambia to Nelspruit in Kruger National Park, South Africa.  This is our 9th "airport" on the trip.  I'm using quotes since 2 of them were just dirt strips in the middle of Okavango Delta.

Nelspruit is the nicest airport we've been to.  This is the sink in the bathroom

After landing, we had a 2 hour drive to Kirkman's Kamp in Sabi Sands. We arrived in Kirkman's just in time for dinner.  This camp is similar to the tented camp in Botswana except that we have extremely nice cottages as opposed to extremely nice tents. Both camps are run by &Beyond.

Our first impression of Sabi Sands is that it is a lot like Disney World.  There's a huge fence around both Sabi Sands and Kruger National Park designed to keep the animals in and the poachers out.  The roads are dirt but smooth enough that we arrived in a Toyota SUV instead of a bush vehicle like in Botswana.

I'm not really complaining about the Disney-like feel. If it promotes responsible tourism and keeps the animals safe then I'm a supporter.

It's dark now so I'll post pictures of the cottages and camp tomorrow.  Satellite internet access again so uploading pictures will be difficult.

The food is exceptional.  Dinner was risotto, beef with peppercorn sauce and apple crumble

Leaving Zambia

We are leaving Zambia this morning to rejoin the safari portion of the trip.

It was great to have an unstructured afternoon in the middle of the trip. Victoria Falls is definitely worth visiting but you do not need more than 1 day in Zambia. Compared to the other hotels, The Royal Livingstone is not in the same league.  It's fake nice; it looks nice but when you scratch the surface the level of service is not quite the same.

The pork duo from dinner last night

Videos from Angela's GoPro:

They sing when you enter and leave the tent camp in Botswana

Angry elephant

At Victoria Falls

Baboon carrying baby

Eating at the Botswana tent camp.  They feed you a lot at the tent camp and everything is really good.

Next update from Sabi Sands in South Africa...

Victoria Falls

Zimbabwe - That's #35!

We toured Victoria Falls this morning from both the Zimbabwe and Zambia sides of the falls.   

The falls did not disappoint but the guides did. 

First of all, the whole crossing the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe is absurd at best.  On our way out of Zambia, our guide just took our passports into the immigration office for us while we waited in the truck.  I guess matching the passports to the person is optional in Zambia.  Then we crossed over the 100 year old Victoria Falls bridge.  That part was great. 

Here's a picture of the bridge.  I'm sure it's a picture you've seen somewhere before. 

After the bridge, we had to go into the Zimbabwe border crossing office, fill out some paperwork, pay $30, get a visa stamped into our passport, get a tiny white piece of paper, show the tiny white piece of paper to the guy at the gate and then walk through.  

On the other side, the Zimbabwe guide picked us up.  He was bitter about his government being corrupt and was happy to complain to us.  We did not learn anything about the falls from him that we could not have learned by just reading the signs. However, it didn't really matter because the falls are SPECTACULAR!! 

I'm sure my pictures don't do them justice.  Basically, there are 4 sections of falls along the gorge.  The amount of water flowing varies during the year.  Right now, the falls are medium heavy. 

Here's a video of the falls from the Zimbabwe side

After touring the Zimbabwe side, we went back to Zambia by repeating the same tiny white piece of paper procedure to leave Zimbabwe.  To re-enter Zambia, our guide again took our passports into the office for us while we waited in the truck.

Here's the video from the Zambian side

The Zambian side also includes a sketchy bridge that you get to cross

I hope my pictures are good enough for you to be blown away by one of the most spectacular sights in the world.  

Here's picture of me with some school kids at the Falls. The kids were very excited about getting their picture taken and the teacher asked me to email them the picture which I happily did.

Tomorrow we fly back to South Africa to spend 3 days at Sabi Sands.  I'm hoping to see a rhino there.

The Royal Livingstone

As you can see from the pictures, The Royal Livingstone is very British. That is not surprising given its location in the town of Livingstone and its proximity to Victoria Falls.  I could go on about the British and their relationship to their former colonies but that is a bit too heavy for this fun blog.

From the grounds of the hotel so you see the mist from Victoria Falls.

The town of Livingstone has really embraced tourism as an industry. There are a number of hotels, the roads are all newly paved and the airport is brand new; so brand new that it is not even officially open yet.  I hope the tourism money is helping the local people.  Things are very cheap here compared to American or European prices. Our huge dinner at the hotel last night was only about $40.

We asked the guides in Botswana and the river boat captain if they notice any changes due to climate change.  The river boat captain said that things are definitely changing.  They don't get as much rain in the rainy season anymore.  This leads to less flooding so less food and less fish, etc.  Also, the river is not as strong which means that not enough electricity is generated.  Victoria Falls is similar to Niagara Falls. Not only is it the border between 2 countries but it also generates power for the area.  

At Victoria Falls

After our ridiculous chartered flight today, we arrived at Victoria Falls.

We are staying at yet another very nice hotel, The Royal Livingstone.  I'll upload pictures tomorrow but here is the obligatory view from my room

That's not a statue.  There is really a zebra outside my window.  The hotel is in the game preserve around Victoria Falls.

We checked into our rooms, showered Botswana off and headed out for a sunset cruise on the Zambezi river.   I'm not exaggerating when I say "showered Botswana off" as we literally went from our game drive to the airplane.

The travel group booked us the VIP sunset cruise.  I'm not making this up... the boat captain personally picked us up at the hotel, drove us to the boat and we sat up on the top with him and our personal butler.  It was nice but much too much.

Sunset over Zimbabwe

I had antelope for dinner.  It's not just something the cheetahs and lions eat.

Tomorrow we have a whole day tour of Victoria Falls.  This is the thing I've been really looking forward to.

Look I slept in a tent

As promised here is the video of my tent in Botswana.  For all of my readers who want me to go camping, if the tent is like this one then sign me up.  For my readers who don't understand what to do, it's a YouTube video so click on the picture to start it playing.

Here is a video of the main lodge at the tented camp

Here are some additional pictures of the Okavango Delta animals

I forgot to mention it but we also saw a honey badger last night.  These are also rare to see.  I kept thinking about the YouTube video "Honey Badger Don't Give A Shit"

Trip from Botswana

I have good news and bad news...

Good News: Airport security at the Okavango Delta Airport is a breeze.

Bad News: It's a breeze because there is not actually a terminal or a building or, you know, a paved runway.

Even Worse News: This is our plane

And how long were we on that plane?  1 and 1/2 hours.  That's right.  1 1/2 hours on that really small plane flying over the Okavango Delta.  Above is a picture of us landing at the Kasane Airport which is on border between Botswana and Zambia.  We had to go through immigration in Botswana and then get back on the plane to fly to Livingstone in Zambia.  The second flight was only 20 minutes.

Kasane Airport is basically one room. There was a wait at immigration only because they had to find the immigration officer to stamp our passports.

It was a mad rush to even make our flight because our morning game drive found this guy

And this cheetah family just waking up

I cannot recommend a trip to the Okavango Delta enough.  I have never been in any place where you see nothing but animals all the way to the horizon.  The only humans you see are the few out in the truck with you.  The Okavango Delta is over 60,000 acres. The elephants are safe from poachers in the delta because all the wetlands make it impossible for them to drive a truck in there.  At night, it is pitch black except for the stars in the sky but it is not quiet.  You can hear the roar of the lions and the trumpets of the elephants and the chatter of the baboons and thousands of other sounds that I could not identify.

We saw 3 of the Big 5 - the lion, the elephant and the cape buffalo.  We are missing the rhino and the elusive leopard.  We were looking for the leopard this morning but did not see him.

Here is the cape buffalo; the most dangerous of the big 5.

I'm currently in another new country: Zambia.  That's #34.  More about that in the next post...