Our dinner hosts sent us this film of our visit. https://www.dropbox.com/sh/cmc5lblidwrehz0/AACqTeoq0SnBK3F9oeMzCxZZa?dl=0

Enjoy!

Today’s outing was a trip into the local community. We went into the Mukuni village. This community of 7,000 people is about 15 KM from our resort. We were again the only people on our tour. This time I wasn’t so keen on being on our own (more on that later). This is a normal village and the Bushtracks’ driver was clear that we weren’t going to see something touristic, we would be going into people’s homes. There is a part of me that wants to understand authentic living conditions, and this requires going into the community. I am also very conscious here of my “white” and “western” privileges. Our guide started to lead us around the community and once the driver was out of earshot, she told us quite frankly that she makes her living by tips and would be expecting something for this tour. This made me curious about how much of what we paid Bushtracks for the tour pays to the community for us to take the tour.

Our tour started by our guide telling us about the political aspects of the village. She showed us the Chief’s “palace” compound surrounded by a sturdy grass fence. There were three rows of decoration. The top row represented the Chief, appointed for life. The second row represented the women’s Chief, she is typically the Chief’s cousin and has the responsibility of ensuring that the Chief does his job well. She is entitled to poison him if she finds he is a slacker or corrupt. The third row represented the second or sub-chief who was the Chief’s go to guy and second in command. Our guide pointed to the thatched roofs of several buildings within the compound and told us their function, but she did not take us anywhere near where we could see what the inside looked like. She did show us the community jail. This small, two room building had a dirt floor and a barred door on one side where the people who get too drunk or who have behaviour problems are housed for a day or two until they get back to being themselves. This drunk tank looked like something you definitely wanted to avoid.

We then wandered around the village. Each family had several small buildings that were either for sleeping or cooking. The wood frames of the structures are erected by the men, while women do all the clay/mudding work. The children had a hut of their own and parents slept nearby.  The buildings are round to facilitate snakes getting out. The have no internal lighting in the buildings so it is helpful to to know that, in a round room, the snakes who come in can keep going right on out. In a building with corners, they can get turned around and stuck more easily. The family compounds were surrounded by grass fences that looked sturdy. Its unusual for animals to come into the village because there are so many people and fires, however, the biggest concerns are with elephants who want to come through.

There were five artesian wells within the community. Girls are trained from a young age (i.e., at 2 years) to carry water on their heads. Continue reading →

We had a relaxing day. Our planned adventure was dinner at The Elephant Cafe. We had a leisurely breakfast and went out to see the Baobab tree. We had heard the tree was nearby and quite incredible. We had seen several of these trees in Tanzania but they didn’t have leaves. This one was in full and in fruit. The Baobabs are endangered. They can live for over 2000 years and they are feeling the impact of climate change. Everyone who told us about this tree had a slightly different description of how far away it was. Apparently it was either 500 meters outside the hotel grounds or 3 km away. Some said it was a nice walk, others said it wasn’t safe as unsavory characters sometimes hung out there. We took a cab. It was worth the expense. By the way, everything here costs either 100 kwatcha ($10cdn) or 300 kwatcha. It is interesting what becomes normal.

We returned and had a delightful martini on the patio of the Royal Livingstone Hotel, the sister hotel to ours. It is definitely more upscale. We found it interesting that a martini was cheaper than the wine. A glass of red South African wine is typically 14-16$cdn. The martini was$12. A pint of beer is $5.50cdn. It’s a good thing beer is our drink of choice. It has been so hot here, even the locals have complained. One woman told us that the rainy season typically goes from October until The end of March. There has been no significant rainfall since mid January. The corn crop, a main dietary staple is failing and the water level is really low. Thus likely means food shortages and a lack of electricity later this year.

We went off to the elephant cafe at 4 pm without many details of what exactly to expect. We joined two other couples at the jetty and were taken 13 km upriver in a speed boat. For the first time, we were given life jackets. We sped to our destination with occasional showings to see animals or birds on the shore. The motor noise typically scared everything away, so we mostly saw animal rumps.

As we arrived, we were oriented to meeting the elephants. We then got to meet and feed a mom elephant and her two offspring. These were three of the ten elephants in the preserve. Six had been saved from death by predators or parental abandonment. Three had been born at the preserve and one had been found on an island as an abandoned baby by the elephants and brought back to the preserve. All of these elephants have been trained to work with people and there is no intention to return them to the wild.

After feeding the elephants bags of treats (grass pellets), it was out turn to wash up and eat. One of the couples hung back with the elephants a little. The man had planned a proposal. He had given the ring in a box to the handler who had in turn given it to the elephant. The woman was surprised when the elephant gave her the ring box and her boyfriend got down on one knee.

The restaurant was on a patio overlooking the river. We were served the following:all the food was sourced within 20 miles. They foraged many of the seasonings and reductions from indigenous plants that the locals eat regularly. However, they prepared more upscale presentations. Everything was amazing with tastes that were unusual but delicious. The duck was the best I have ever eaten with a tamarind-based duck sauce to die for. We learned that they grow both coffee and cocoa in Zambia and the mocha we had for dessert was reminiscent of hickory infused cafe au lait.

This restaurant is only a few years old and had already won “best restaurant in Zambia” awards three times. The chef/waiter/owner showed us his trophies. We were happily over-fed and content as we headed back to the hotel.

Our outing of the day sounded rather tame based on the descriptions in the brochures. We would go to a rhino conservation park and see rhinos (somehow, I had envisioned them hanging out in larges pens) and then off to a lion enclosure where we could see the lions up close. The film of these activities on the wall at the airport immigration line may have been suggestive. What we got was wonderful but different than our original understanding. We were picked up by our guide who informed us that once again, we were the only people who had signed up for the trip that day. This pleased my geeky, got to-ask-questions self to no end. We started with a game drive in one of the smallest parts of the Mosi-as-Tunya National park. We saw several zebras, deery-looking beasts (e.g., antelopes, gazelles, waterbucks, kudos, wildebeests),

a family of warthogs and many birds. One of the most beautiful was the Bee Eater bird who lives in tunnels in the river bank. The warthogs were interesting. We noticed that some of them kneel to eat, a unique way of getting down to earth. The drive was interesting and unexpected. It wasn’t described in the brochure at all.

Our driver came to a stop at a small building in the middle of nowhere. He stated that we were now going to wait while the rangers got ready. Then a man and a woman methodically changed into walking gear, put their guns, i.e. Short automatic rifles, on their shoulders and climbed into the jeep. These were the rangers who were going to take us to the rhinos. Our instructions were to follow their instructions and walk slowly and quietly in a single file (to be less of a threat). We set off on foot into the trees following our guide (no pens in sight, we were in the wilderness). He took us to where he thought the rhinos were and there they were gone. He left us briefly and then waved to us to come quickly. We turned the corner and he waived me forward to take pictures. There were three rhinos, a mom and two of her calves, one from last year, one this year. The “little one” started moving quickly towards us and we were encouraged to back up and get out of the way. We did as we were told. What we learned was that people who wore white clothes (like me that day) tend to bring grass during the dry season, so the little one was a bit hopeful and confused. S/He got over it.  Dale said that it makes your heart beat in a certain kind of way when a rhino starts to move quickly toward you. We were able to get very close to these magnificent, huge creatures. They still had their horns. The guide indicated that in some areas, the horns are removed to discourage poaching. This park is trying to keep them as natural as possible. There are nine rhinos in this park. It was a bit exhilarating to be that close to the animals (like less than 30 feet).

We returned to our jeep and driver and moved onto the next part of the adventure, a visit with lions. We went over the bumpiest roads imaginable, basically hard packed red sandy dirt that looked like it was not actually ever constructed, just a trail that became a road because vehicles kept following the path. My Fitbit recorded 2500 steps while we drove the 20-minute drive. There was, for one stretch of the road, electric fencing that looked to be in bad shape. The driver said that the elephants don’t like the fences and throw logs at the fences so that they can continue on their way.

We arrived at a hut in the trees and a man emerged inviting us in for a drink and a cookie. It was a great idea. Following our break, this man explained that he would be taking us into an area where there were ten lions. These lions were part of a multi-step lion conservation program in Zambia http://lionalert.org/alert/project-detail/african-lion-rehabilitation–release-into-the-wild-program. The lion population in Africa has been declining for many reasons, all human related. We saw one group of lions in large enclosures as we entered the protected area. These lions were bred in captivity and hand raised by people taking them on walks into their natural habitat. We didn’t stop to see these animals, just said hello as we drove to the next gate, where the guide carefully checked the bush before opening the gate to let us into the second phase of the project, wild lions. These lions were released as a pride into a natural area (large enough for the lions to range naturally but fenced to keep them in. These lions had cubs that were then raised naturally without human interference. When old enough the younger of these lions are released into national parks that are trying to build their lion populations. It was fascinating to see what was going on. While they warned us that we might not actually see lions on the drive through this area, we needed to be alert. The guide also warned us to stay seated in the Jeep at all times and, no matter how close the lions come to the Jeep, do not panic. Well, needless to say, we found the pride and they came close to the Jeep. It was not scary at all. They don’t recognize the Jeep as a threat, and if we don’t bring attention to ourselves, we were pretty safe.

That was an amazing, yet exhausting day. We had enough energy for a beer and appetizer by the pool and then realized that we were ready to crash. It was a good day.

Our first adventure today was a river cruise on the Zambezi River. We were the only people today, so we got the guide to ourselves. I think he was excited when we mentioned that we were interested in seeing birds.

We spent the next two hours in a speed boat driving back and forth across the river looking for birds. We also saw a family of hippos and a few elephants, but the birds were the stars of this show today. The hippos were fairly amazing. We got really close and it was interesting how disinterested they were in us. There were probably seven of them in the water and we could see various snouts coming and going and then they all submerged for a second or two. I am not sure how the boats don’t hit them. They are massive beasts that are incredibly well suited to hiding in water. We paused for a short coffee break and the fellows set a table for us after ensuring that the picnic spot was devoid of elephants and crocodiles. It was a relaxing way to spend the morning. We are thankful to our friend Eric who got inspired us to start looking at birds. My hope is that he will identify these birds so we can reflect later on what we saw.

We came back to our hotel for a bit of a siesta before venturing out on the Royal Livingstone Express for an evening back in time. We boarded the steam train that was one of the original trains from when the railway was completed in 1905. We got a great history of the train and the bridge construction before we departed on the Cape to Cairo main track. We stopped on the bridge that Dale and I saw while we were visiting the falls on our first day. It was an amazing view. We then went back on the train and had an amazing 5 course meal. We sat with a couple of Brits who were on the last day of their holiday. It was fun to chat about the ups and downs of Brexit with them. Both voted to leave but had very different reasons and reactions to the referendum. Neither are happy now.

We are now back in our hotel room, relaxing and getting ready to have a late sleep in tomorrow. Our next adventure doesn’t happen until after lunch.

We were up at the crack of dawn to get to our first adventure. We took a game drive to Chobe National Park in Botswana the morning. Zambia, Botswana and Zimbabwe all share a common border. To get to Botswana we had to drive for one hour and then go through immigration. We then took a ferry to the other side of the river. This sounds simple; however, Zambia and Botswana are building a bridge across the river. This makes the crossing a construction zone. It also means that all the transport trucks must take ferries too. There were hundreds of semis waiting to cross and only 100 can be accommodated in any give day. It was a zoo of trucks and people. Sometimes the drivers are stuck at this crossing for a week waiting their turns.

We made it across the river only to have to go through Botswana’s immigration. That was simple but there were lots of people in line.  After getting our stamps, we were stopped again to have someone look at our passports as we left immigration. We are still figuring this one out. This let us get underway in our open jeep. It was another 20 minutes to the park gate and we briefly stopped so our guide could fill in forms that required our passport numbers. That is when I realized I didn’t have mine anymore. There is no feeling of freak out that I can describe than being in a foreign country without a passport. We looked through all my stuff and found nothing. Our guide was brilliant and immediately got one of his team to start the search for it. He was going to start at immigration and then follow our tracks on the road looking for it. I had no idea where it could be. The complicating factor was that the power was out at the immigration office so no one was answering the phones. There was nothing to do but continue the drive.

We saw incredible animals. There were all kinds of antelope/gazelle type beasts and we saw giraffes, lots of elephants and some incredible birds.

We came across a hippopotamus lying in the mud. She had a baby beside her. It was tiny compared to the mom, but about the size of a small pig. We realized that this baby was only minutes old. The mother still had not delivered the placenta. We watched as this little one took its first steps. It wobbled a few times and fell but was amazingly strong and was able to follow its mom as she moved onto deeper water. 

Unlike Tanzania, when it was time for a bathroom break, we headed for the bushes.  Axe, our guide, pointed out the girls bush and directed the boys to a different one. There aren’t as many big cats around, so it was fine to use the wilderness. I still did lots of checking out the bush for any wayward elephant before dropping my drawers. We got back to the Jeep to learn that my passport had been found. There was much joy and hugging that occurred. Axe was elated and told every driver we met about the drama. Most of our lunch break was used up going back to immigration to get my passport. The immigration officer would only give it to me, not to any guide. It was a fast, bumpy ride and a quick pick up and we were back on track. I was very grateful that I didn’t need to learn about temporary permits.

We had time for lunch, a nice buffet at the resort near our next adventure a river safari on the Chobe river. Our group was just finishing so I was happy that we hadn’t delayed them at all. The dinner was interesting. The main entre was warthog stew. It had to be tried. It was good, tasted a lot like roast beast in tomato sauce. They chop up meat bone and all here, so it was sort of like eating goat at an Indian restaurant back home.

The boat cruise was wonderfully relaxing. We got really close to some elephants swimming as they crossed the river and eating tasty grass on an island in the river. It is amazing how they just ignore us. We got a bit sleepy on boat, the swaying and warmth got to us and it was wonderful to snooze for a bit only to be awoken by the next hippo sighting.

We went through all the immigration pieces again. While waiting for our ferry back, Axe explained that if we stood on “this side” of the wall, we were technically in Zimbabwe. So, of course we all took the opportunity to visit another country. The drive back was uneventful, and we were happy to get back after our 11-hour tour and go for a swim. The pool was a refreshing response to a day of heat. We ate poolside afterwards and were in bed by 8:30. We are living the life!

I encountered technical difficulties regarding the pictures I took today. I used a 64 GB HDXC card. The fellow who sold it to me said to try it out with my “older” camera (it is 6 years old) to ensure it worked. I did and it worked. What I hadn’t tried was to use it with my card reader that I use to transfer pictures to the computer. The good news is I have other, less advanced cards to use for today’s activities. The pictures today, therefore, are courtesy of Dale.

March 25

Our trip almost ended before it began. The fog in Edmonton on Saturday morning grounded all the flights. Our flight got postponed and initially would have us missing our flight to Amsterdam. Because it was also spring break, all flights out were overbooked, and we would either have a two-day delay in getting out of Edmonton or pay $6000 each for the rebooked flights. However, at the last minute, WestJet pulled a rabbit out of a hat and got us to Calgary with little time to spare. The rest of the journey was uneventful.  8 hours of flying got us to Amsterdam. We had enough time for a quick latte, and we were off on our 11.5-hour flight to Johannesburg. My seatmates were delightful. One was an environmental activist who shared about the changing environment in South Africa and the other was a retired medical social worker who was a dual citizen of both the US and South Africa. We know about her citizenship because she misplaced her passports in the myriad of bags and coats she carried, and things were a little stressed until she found everything. She was a chatty character who had come with too much stuff, including a frying pan!

We spent the night at a hotel near the airport in Johannesburg and almost missed our flight because of the way the waiting room worked. We were sitting by our gate, our flight with lots of time to spare, or so we thought. There were no helpful announcements, just some guy yelling “Livingstone”. I thought to ask, and he informed me that there was a bus waiting to take us to our plane. We got on the bus and it left quite quickly afterwards. From then on, we were fine.

Arrival in Livingstone Zambia was interesting.  The landscape is flat with lots of scraggly bush, it reminds me of the prairies in many ways. In the distance we could see what looked like smoke on the horizon. It was the mist from Victoria Falls. We landed and stood in line for an hour to get a visa that would allow us to travel to Zimbabwe and Botswana should we choose. Then our cab driver, Ali took us into town. This community was much more European (read lots of strip malls on the main road) than Tanzania. We reached our hotel, which is in a protected park. The families of giraffe and zebra we passed as we entered the grounds ignored us. these guys greeted us with song and dance. After settling in, we set out to explore. The first thing we noticed was that our building was next to a small lake with a beware of crocodile sign by the path. A small herd of zebra were eating the well-watered grass on either side of the path we had to walk on. They were amazingly calm and beautiful close up. They reminded me of the Elk in Jasper hanging out in the townsite.

We booked all our adventures for the week and decided to take a walk to the falls. Our hotel allows us unlimited access to the park the falls are in. So, we set out. We started to follow the sign “this way to the best view of the falls” and chose to postpone taking the hike down to the basin where the rivers meet (10-minute hike down, according to the sign, 20 minutes back up). A young man stopped us and asked us if we were going to the falls. He said the gate guide noticed we were going the wrong way. We thanked him for getting us on the right path and expected him to leave us on our corrected way. However, Elvis, as he later introduced himself, was from the village and decided to become our tour guide to the falls. We realized after he continued to walk with us that this was his job, informal guide for tips. We have always loved local guided tours, so we went with the plan. He was great! He was able to share a lot of details about the geology of the falls and the meaning of the falls to the local communities.

The falls are 1.7 kilometers wide. Despite this being the time of year when the falls should be at their peak, the drought conditions were evident. We should not have been able to see the rocks at all but, as he pointed out, the rainy season hadn’t come as far inland as it needed to. The falls were breathtaking. We had been warned about the mist and the desk gave us plastic ponchos. I had left my camera in the hotel to be on the safe side. I was glad I had! The “mist” was like walking through a warm rain. We got soaked. Elvis was great at taking panorama pictures on iPhones and so, gave us free photography lessons too. As you can see from the pictures, the falls were amazing. The rainbows were circular at some points. We thought lovingly about my sisters (because they love heights sooo much!) as we walked across the Knife Edge bridge over the river.  The bridge was slimy from moss thriving in the misty conditions and bouncy as we walked over the gorge. The view of the falls changed with every turn of the path. Elvis told us we just missed the full moon over the falls and the ceremonies that occurred. He spoke of about Nyami Nyami, the spirit of the river. The spirit is usually seen as a snake and is considered a God by the local people and controls life in and around the river. The building of a hydroelectric dam in the 1960’s changed the way of life for the Zambian communities who had always lived close to the river. Elvis described some of the changes that had occurred.

Our journey to the falls took more than an hour and we were ready for refreshments. A live band was playing by the pool and we relaxed while we had supper. The Zebras joined us. I am writing this at 3:30 am here because jet lag is real! I tried writing this earlier this evening but kept falling asleep at the keyboard. We went to bed early because our safari to Botswana leaves bright and early tomorrow morning. I had a good three hours sleep before my brain decided it was time to be awake (its 7:30 pm back home). I am now going to try to get another nap in before morning.