Pride of the Trip

On our afternoon game drive, we set off to find the female lions.  We drove and drove and drove with Victor, our tracker, pointing the way.

We found this Nyala which has orange legs and a shaggy coat and looks like something out of Dr. Seuss.  I was expecting the Lorax to jump out of the bushes to remind us that we broke the planet.

We also saw mongoose, more giraffes, some buffalo, a group of waterbuck and then finally we found a pride of 4 female lions sleeping in the shade.

They were sound asleep until a kudu wandered into the area.  2 of the lions put their heads up while the other 2 just kept snoring.

The more enterprising lion decided to get a closer look but first had to stretch. You don't want to pull a muscle running down an antelope.

She quickly got bored with the kudu and started to yawn. Look at those teeth!!

She went back to join her friends one of which had rolled over on her back.  It's good to be the queen!

We still have not seen a rhino.  We did see rhino tracks tonight so we are getting closer.  The guide was telling us that they are going to move 100 rhinos from Kruger to Botswana.  Poaching is a big problem in South Africa and it is virtually non-existent in Botswana due to the wetlands.

Mosquito Update: Not bad.  I've been applying liberal amounts of bug spray before the morning and afternoon game drives but I'm not sure I even need it.  You don't even hear them buzzing in your ears. They were heaviest in Zambia in the evenings.  I slept wrapped in my mosquito netting in Zambia.  The winter is the dry season in South Africa so there are not as many mosquitos.  

4 of 5

Another spectacular game drive this morning.

We started off by visiting the den of a pack of wild dogs.  Wild dogs are the most endangered animal in Kruger with only about 200 living here. This pack consists of about 23 dogs - 13 adults and 10 pups.  The endangered animal council has recently vaccinated these dogs since another pack was wiped out by canine distemper. This pack will only live in a den for a few more weeks or until the pups are big enough to travel far distances with the adults.

When we arrived the pups were all running around and playing with each other and the adults.

As we watched, they got tired and gathered into a pile to sleep.

Then we saw a group of 4 male giraffes

But the best thing we saw was a male leopard out marking his border.  He was just walking along with an occasional stop to mark a bush or tree.  He could care less about the truck full of people.  These animals are so accustomed to being safe in the preserves that you can get really close to them.

I had no idea how big these guys are. They are much bigger than the cheetahs but not nearly as large as the lions.  The guides said it was good that we saw the male lions in Botswana since there are no male lions living in the vicinity of Kirkman's Kamp.

Speaking of Kirkman's camp here are some pictures

The main lodge

My cottage with an antelope out front

View off the back porch

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.