Zambezi
Greetings from Zambia. Spent last night in Joberg in modern hotel which required a different mind set than sleeping in dorms.  The first thing was that one can complain...and the toilet ran every five minutes....so I ended up having to change rooms.  I also had to do room service for dinner as the restaurant in the hotel only had a buffet for $20 available.  Got an Indonesian chicken salad instead for $7.

Caught the flight out this morning to Livingstone. I have now entered really hot Africa.  Took the sunset cruise this afternoon with a girl from Britain on the river.  Saw hippos, elephants and misc. birds.  Sunset was spectacular because of the magnification effect of the atmosphere.  The sun was a really big round RED ball going down. 

Vervet monkeys walking around the campsite.  The tent has locks to keep them out.  I bought a nice beginners book on S African birds and then lost it.  I think I dropped it in Joberg airport when I was putting my stuff through security. 

Vervet monkey baby outside my tent

Tomorrow starts the next phase of my trip -- the 14 day Botswana Safari so you probably won't hear from me for awhile.  I have to buy lots of water as I am told it is NOT provided by the tour and there will be camping spots where one can't drink the water because it is too salty.. 

Botswana, Namibia and Zambia
The 14 day tour was mostly alot of driving around with some animals.  Earl could have easily done this leg of the trip.  Everyone is coupled up except me.  It was basically just sitting in the car, eating, sitting in the car, eating, sitting by the campfire, and more eating.

There was a nice river cruise where there were lots of animals in Chobe National Park. 

Elephants drinking at dusk

Sunset

Puff Adder that our guide found on the sandy trail on the way to Mankwe Bush Camp

Ostrich family

Ostrich chicks

A highlight for me was the two hour hike in the Tsodilo Hills in northwestern Botswana where one got to see San <Bushman> Art (oldest was 3000 years).  Climbing the rocks was a lot of fun.

I also enjoyed the Mankwe Bush Camp where we spent 3 nights as it was very remote. The lodge was 2km from the campsite so one really felt alone in the bush. One had to shower with a bucket of water. The only way to get there is by 4x4 on a sandy rutted trail or by airplane.

We visited the desolate salt pans

Once upon a time Botswana was a big lake and then it dried up hence the soil is very sandy.

One day we took a day long mokoros (dugout wooden canoe now made of fiberglass) ride in the Okavango Delta where we saw a green mamba snake.

All day boat ride

Green mamba

I managed to drop my camera (the new little one) in the river at the end of the cruise.

I had the camera in my pant’s pocket and when I got out of the canoe there was a big splash.  The poler fished the camera out for me and I let it dry in the sun for two days before trying it.  It worked but the lens is cloudy so couldn't take any more pictures with that camera for the rest of the trip. The memory card was fine so I didn't lose any of the pictures I had already taken.

We got a short visit to a Bushman "traditional village" which basically was set up to give demonstrations of life.  How they mill grain, store grain, kill the mice that eat the grain, take the killed mice to bait the traps for the genets that would kill their chickents.  Dances and songs for woman initiation, celebrations, healings, medicine men and women.  Also hippo calling drum and how they would have killed hippos back in the good old days.  They still trap fish the same way during the dry season with baskets.

Hippos and oxpecker birds

Lilac breasted roller - National Bird of Botswana

Kudu - fully grown as the horns have 2-1/2 spirals.

Our guide tells us that in general, beasts with large horns have been culled by hunters over the years so many beasts do not grown large tusks or horns anymore.

Baobab Tree - said to be planted unside down

Baobab fruit - said to edible for water content

Waterbuck - note the ring on the rump leftover from sitting room only on Noah's ark.

Crowned Plover

Crossing the river in the 4x4 Land Rover

Yellow hornbill at Mankwe Bush Camp. These birds were very bold and would pilfer your toast if you let them.

Moonrise Tsodilo Hills

Finally saw the famous Victoria Falls.  It was down to 3% of its usual thundering mass and therefore not resembling anything like the pictures one sees of the falls.  Walked all the trails and then to make up for the fact that the falls were not very stunning -- the Spanish couple from the tour, Roberto and Conchi, and I decided to go off trail and walk over the Zambezi River where the falls would normally wash you away and over to see one of the overlooks.  It took over an hour as you had to jump boulders over the streams.  We had a self-proclaimed local grab us for part of the trip.  He helped us over some of the wet spots that required a little hand holding.  However when he decided to ask us for R50 and only got R20, he left.  Roberto had to take off his shoes and play hand holder so we could get back. 

If we had been wearing river sandals we would have been fine getting our feet wet.  It wasn't really dangerous unless one managed to slip into deep water and go over the falls.  We had to wander around the rocks to find the shallow areas to cross the river.  So that was exciting and we got rewarded by seeing the edge of the falls with a rainbow and another view with double rainbow. 

I believe during the peak the falls is about a mile wide making it the widest falls in the world.  However, Salto Angel in Venezuela holds the record for tallest at 800m.  Victoria is only about twice as high as Niagara.

Went on an elephant ride this morning for an hour.  It was lots of fun as I had the most unruly elephant.  It was one of the big 20 year old bull elephants and wanted to keep going off trail to eat bush.  When the trainer pokes it to return to the trail, it would shake (dancing they called it) from side to side giving a good ride for the money.  The lady behind me wasn't so amused.  She wanted off about half way through the ride but had to hang in till the end. 

Then met Conchi and Roberto (they had done the rhino walk this morning) and we went to the town of Livingstone to see the local museum.  It was a nice little museum with archaeological, ethnographic, history, natural history (stuffed local animals) and a room devoted to Dr. Livingstone (I presume).  Afterwards we went to the local market and I bought one more curio for $3.

Then we caught the sunset cruise and saw more hippos and elephants.  We originally booked for the dinner cruise but the agent gave us the sunset cruise because it was quieter and then fed us from the restaurant here at the Zambezi Waterfront.  It was thoughtful of her as we had the whole upper deck to ourselves and the smaller boat brought us closer to the animals.

Just finished dinner and tomorrow my ride to the airport is at 11:30 am.  It will be a long day. 

Virginia, USA - 14 Sep 06
Uneventful flight back to the States. It’s raining, which is welcome after two weeks of extremely dry weather in Africa. I return to Miami in about 10 days.  In the meantime having a nice stay with friends and family.

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