The Dark Continent, part 2

Monday, April 8 -- Botswana

    We started the day with another game drive with Sky, our driver and guide. Each camp provides its guests with a personal driver/guide for every group, and they're extremely knowledgeable. Their goal is not just to show you the sights, but to teach you about Africa's flora and fauna.
     Our next flight was a bit longer, an hour and twenty minutes to Kasane, an actual airport. Our other stops at the camps saw us landing on airstrips in the bush. We were met by Ali, our new guide, from Sanctuary Chobe Chilwero. We were now deep in the wilderness of Botswana, overlooking the magnificent Chobe River, close to the northern border that meets with neighboring Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Botswana is one of the world's most sparsely populated countries, and some seventy percent is covered by the Kalahari Desert.
     Chobe National Park is certainly not in the desert; it has the highest density of trees in the entire country. The river, a tributary of the Zambezi, is the only permanently available source of water for the park's large population of mammals. The park is one of the few areas in Africa where visitors are almost guaranteed sights of elephants swimming in or crossing the river, and the floodplain is the only place in southern Africa where the puku antelope can be seen.
     Our first drive here, which included a boat excursion on the Chobe, came in the afternoon, giving us more magnificent views of the animals in their natural habitat.



Our rooms at Chobe were amazing and had outdoor showers....



...but the baboons kept us from using them.




Kim, Laurie and me board the boat for our river trip.




Cape buffalo have never been domesticated, unlike their cousins, the Asian water buffalo.





Elephants come down into the river to forage.




Crocodiles are quite numerous, one more reason to stay in the boat.




We could hear the hippos, but they wouldn't let us get too close.




This evening's sundowner was on the river, adding to the ambience.

Tuesday, April 9 -- Botswana to Zambia

    

    After a morning game drive, when we were again unsuccessful in spotting a leopard (pun intended), we left Chobe for a ride to the Kazengula border area to cross the Zambezi into Zambia. Customs procedures in Africa's interior are still a bit on the primitive side, but we eventually made our way to the ferry, which was about the same size boat as we'd used on the Chobe. On the Zambian side there was no pier, but just a retaining wall that required us to hoist ourselves up a few feet. Waiting for us were groups of peddlers selling everything from baskets to wood carvings. Luckily our new driver, Raphael, rescued us and got us to the van. A visa is required to enter Zambia; Raphael got ours for us, collecting our passports and the $50 per person fee, then handing it all over to the customs officials while we stayed in the van.
      The ride to Sanctuary Sussi and Chuma took about an hour. The lodge is in the heart of Mosi-oa-Tunya National Park, on a bend in the Zambezi River. The lodges are actually tree houses, connected by wooden walkways. What made it even more exciting for us was that we were going to be here for two nights.
      The camp is named after the loyal attendants of British explorer David Livingstone, who died in Zambia in 1873. Sussi and Chuma carried his body over a thousand miles to the east coast of the continent for shipment back to Britain. Livingstone was the first European to see Victoria Falls.
     


One of the 12 tree houses at the camp.




The Zambezi was very high during our visit.




Inside the tree houses, modern amenities.




We saw all kinds of boats on the river.




This evening's sundownwer was on a deck over the water.

    We had a lovely dinner and retired for the evening, excited about our next day's destination: Victoria Falls.




Wednesday, April 10 -- Zambia

     After breakfast we headed to Victoria Falls, an excursion included in our package. The first European explorers heard the native name, used by the Kololo tribe: Mosi-oa-Tunya, which translates as "the smoke that thunders". Over 500 million cubic meters of water go over the falls every minute, over a width of more than two kilometers, into a gorge more than 100 meters below. It is twice the height and nearly twice the width of Niagara Falls.  



We are dry before we walked the Falls!

But not so much when we completed the walk....twice!


 



Denise and Kim got this shot from their helicopter ride the next day.





Edward, our guide, Denise, me, Kim and Laurie.



     After our visit to the Falls we stopped at the market in the town of Livingstone for great shopping. We were encouraged to bargain with the merchants and we were more than happy to oblige.

     Back at the sanctuary, we had a surprise waiting: a luncheon cruise on the Zambezi. We had the afternoon to ourselves, catching up on our email and relaxing. After dinner was another game drive, but it was a very warm evening and things were pretty quiet.

Thursday, April 11 -- Livingstone to Cape Town via Johannesburg

    This was a travel day, as we had come to the end of our safari. After breakfast we headed to Harry Mwanga Nkumbula International Airport, which serves Livingstone. Because of our trip to the marketplace, we had to do some creative packing to make sure our luggage wasn't overweight. We flew South Africa Air to Johannesburg, nearly two hours, and after a short layover it was on to Cape Town, two hours' flight to the southwest. We were met at the airport by Jarat Tours, who transferred us to Babylonstoren, a working farm in the wine country north of the city. It had been a pretty long day, but we got rested up for our next day's excursion, into South Africa's renowned wine country.