Last update before leaving Zambia...its long, but it serves as my journal...pics to come... Ive had NO WiFi since last Wednesday, our last day in Mwandi. On that day, Beth and I only worked in the O.R. supply room until noon, because Ida wasnt there to give us more direction. She went to Livingstone for the day. Once a week, the autistic child they adopted goes to a special school in Livingstone. Normally, Keith takes the child, but Ida wanted to go to talk with the Livingstone doctors about the hospital administrator who is deathly ill, so she went with them. Id been hoping to meet Mr. Lee Zard, who calls each day at noon, but since we were always working then, I had missed him everyday. On this, our last day, we were home early, and sure enough, I actually got to eyeball this four foot long monitor lizard as he paraded through the grass between the house and the river! That night, we welcomed two other volunteers to the Simba House: Andy Cotton and Joyce Lambert from Albemarle, NC. Joyce and her husband actually lived in this house for four years, many years ago. They are here to get an update on the new water purification system for the hospital and will only be here a week. So, last Thursday, we morphed from volunteers into tourists! We left the wonderful people of Mwandi in a hired car for Livingstone, where we are staying at the Fawlty Towers. It is a little paradise kind of place that reminds me of the lush vegetation in south Florida or the Caribbean. Again, Ill have pictures to upload when I get home and can sort through the 1000+ that Ive taken! We ate supper at the Cafe Zambezi, just down the block...it serves African and Caribbean food. We had appetizers of crunchy fried caterpillar (actually, very good) and croc bites. I had croc ribs for my entree! On Friday, the African Experience staff took us to Kazangula, on the border of Zambia and Botswana, where we crossed the Zambezi River in a small boat for our 3-day/2-night camping safari in the Chobe National Park. The border crossing would have been very confusing if we had not been with staff. There was a line of huge semi trucks and some smaller trucks waiting to cross. The ferry can only take one semi or two smaller trucks at a time, so sometimes the trucks have to be in the line for a solid week, just waiting their turn. Our Safari company, Kalahari, met us at the Botswana landing and drove us to the headquarters where we had a delicious lunch before boarding a double-decker boat for a river safari. The three of us grabbed a place on the upper deck, where wed have a better view. We very quickly came up on crocs, monkeys, mongoose, and a wide variety of beautiful birds. Then, the BIG boys...the hippos and elephants...came into view. We took lots of pics of all these creatures. The elephants surprised us when they waded in the river and made a beeline for the marshy grass in the middle of the river. Some of them swam, and a huge bull just walked on the bottom until he needed air, then he stuck his trunk out, grabbed a breath and went right along on his walk. The grassy part of the river isnt deep, but the getting there is...about 10 meters deep. The elephants would gorge on the grass, then return to shore. Another group of them just played near the edge of the river in the mud...or blew mud up on themselves with their trunks. The mud cools them off and helps control flys, etc. One interesting thing about a big bull muddying himself, was that his fifth leg, as they call the penis, was hanging down...almost to the ground, and the guide said they do this when they are muddying to cool off, because when they bring it back into the body, it helps to cool them internally! Makes sense to me! After the River Safari, those of us who were camping, got in a jeep-type vehicle, with our backpacks and our excellent guide, Tamboo. Other people went in other jeeps for a different (shorter) experience...they would have to be out of the park by 6:30. Of course, by choosing to camp IN the park, we were going to see things/animals they would miss at dawn and dusk. Along with the three of us, were two young women from Australia. We were very fortunate to have the jeep to ourselves, because it holds nine passengers, and many of the others we saw throughout our stay, were packed, and some from the other safari companies held even more people. I had the second seat to myself, so I could slide from one side to the other, depending on the view. This park is almost as big as Texas and has the largest concentration of elephants in the world, estimated to be 60,000 strong. Of course, we didnt see them all, but we saw hundreds, also about the same number of Cape Buffalo, and Kudu, and baboons, and thousands of Impalas. We probably saw about 100 hippos and at least that many warthogs . One of the Aussies freaked when we were close to the hippos...about six feet away, and one turned, opened his mouth and roared at us. She jumped over her seat and got in the seat with me...just missing crushing my sunglasses and camera! She stayed on the edge most of the time. A bunch of elephants is a herd, as we all know; a bunch of impala is a sounda and a bunch of baboons is a CONGRESS...need I say more? Hey, we have that in the USA! We spotted a big leopard, but were unable to get close...well, we were close, but he was hiding in a bush, so the pics are questionable. It is very rare to see leopards. We also saw three lionesses with their seven young cubs. As we were going into our camp site, we saw two small leopards...pics probably wont turn out because it was on the dark side of dusk when we saw them. This was about 100 yards from our camp! The joke was on me when we got to camp! I had seen pics (on the internet) of camping safaris, and the inside of the tents, up on platforms, looked as nice as a hotel room, so thats what I was expecting. Kin informed me that those camps were $1000/ night! Needless to say, I adapted quickly, being a long-time camper, and of modest means! The four tents were army-type tents with a bedroll on the floor, and outside each tent was a camp sink, where the staff poured hot water for us to use to wash hands and face. I had my own tent, and there was an extra tent, in case someone joined us later. A roaring campfire was blazing and hot tea and coffee was provided. We had a cook, his handiman, and our guide. There was a long drop in a zippered enclosure behind the tents. Again, the Aussie was upset because the camp site was not fenced and gated. In fact, the next day, buffalo wandered thru the camp while we were gone, according to the cook. The food, cooked in cast iron Dutch ovens was wonderful, and we all went to bed satisfied (well, except Aussie...but she was so tired, she actually slept well, in spite of her fear). We were up early to get to the bush to look for lions about daybreak. We had tea or coffee and granola before we started out. It gets very cold the minute the sun drops behind the horizon, and also before its up in the morning. Tamboo told us to bring our blankets in the jeep, and we were SO glad he warned us. We rode for several hours, seeing lots of Impala, Baboons and Cape Buffalo, but no lions. Then we rounded a row of scrub and saw four lionesses from across a dried up watering hole. Made the several hours of freezing and riding worthwhile! Around 10:00, we went back to camp for brunch...bacon, sausage, eggs, toast, and something for Beth, bc shes vegetarian. Kin, the Aussies and I took a little siesta and Beth showered in the bush shower with hot water heated over the fire. They had set up a four-sided 6x6 canvas shower stall with a canvas bag for the water and an adjustable shower head. It was very serviceable, and reminded me of the times Kelly and I were on weekend trail rides in the SC mountains and showered in the horse trailer with water heated by sitting our black plastic shower bag in the sun during the day while we were riding. Back in the jeep we stopped to watch baboons playing near the road. There was a little guy who was trying to get SOMEONE to play with him...not the bush chicken (guinea fowl), not I, said the mongooses, not me, either, said the impala...so he went to his mom, who was being groomed, and jumped upon her shoulder then to her head. She just side-swiped him with a growl and knocked him down...so, whats a little baboon to do when theres no one to play with him? He hopped onto the ridge of dirt between the tire ruts on the sandy road, flipped on his back and rolled down this little hill, then he picked up a handful of dirt and ate it. He went over to a bush and grabbed at an older baboon who was sitting there. This guy also ignored him, so he grabbed a limb and swung back and forth like a tiny Tarzan. We named him, Scruff, because he reminded us of the little Congolese boy, Omari, whom the missionaries affectionately call Scruff....always going 90 mph and into everything! We got very close to the elephants that day, and a young bull mock-charged us...trunk up in the air, bellowing, and ears flapping. He did this several times as we were passing by. He was probably 8-10 feet from the jeep. Meanwhile, Aussie was freaking again! We saw the giraffes Id been hoping to see, and thanks to Brian, I spotted the first one. Brian had shown me a pic he took when he was on Safari, and he pointed out that the head was higher than the trees...so, I was scanning the treetops...and, it worked! Tamboo said that we would see plenty of giraffes, and he was right! We saw a bunch of them throughout this second day and the next. They are so beautiful and graceful! The word, giraffe, comes from a word that means swift walker. We got to camp slightly earlier this second day, and again had tea or coffee while we awaited supper. The third day, which was Sunday, we saw a leopard who had just taken down a male Impala. He had it under a tree and was trying to drag it away for eating and safekeeping, but he was wary of the 5-6 jeeps full of watchers. He slunk into the bushes and hunkered down where we could still see him, but barely. We left so that he could finish his meal or stash it, and so that we could see some other animals. After our brunch back at the camp, we went back to the site of the leopards lunch and saw that hed moved the Impala closer to dense cover. We saw some HUGE elephants and big herds of Cape Buffalo and thousands of Impala as we were leaving the park to return to Kalahari headquarters. We still had not seen Zebra, which I really wanted to see. Tamboo said they would be in the park by the thousands in July. The only other animal we didnt see (that we wanted to see) was a male lion. We had another river cruise with only us and one other woman, so we were in a much smaller craft, a pontoon boat, and were able to get very close to the hippos and elephants. We had a ball watching the elephants playing in the water. Four juveniles were tussling with each other, just like youd see teenagers do in a swimming pool. Theyd flop a foot and trunk over anothers back and push him under; they actually dove under the water and came up next to a buddy and splashed him with foot and trunk; they wrapped their trunks around each other and tried to pull them under...kind of like a king of the hill game. They were nothing short of precious! We eased into the grass in the middle of the river to get close to the elephants cooling themselves and eating. We got some great pics, and the guide even took pics, so you know what we were seeing was unusual...guides just dont take pics! It just seemed that everywhere we turned, we saw the unusual and had experiences that a lot of tourists just dont get. We felt very fortunate, indeed! Today, our last day in Africa (for this trip!), we went on a Rhino Walk. We were picked up outside Fawlty Towers early in the morning, and as we loaded into the open air jeep, we were given thick, blanket-like ponchos to ward off the cold. Driving at highway speeds in that jeep was chilly, and the ponchos were much appreciated. There was only one other person with us. The tour capacity is 16, so again, we were lucky. We arrived at the Rhino preserve, where the animals are protected from poachers 24/7, by rifle-toting guards, as part of the anti-poaching effort. (The Rhino are not in the Chobe National Park, where we had our Safari, bc there they have been wiped out by poachers.) We were served tea and muffins before we started the walk, single file, following an armed guard and our guide, Kanwa. We walked up hills and down ravines over rocky ground for about three miles and almost two hours. Kanwa pointed out scat from different animals, and how to tell if the elephant dung is from a male or female, and how to tell the age of the elephant who has eaten off the bark of a certain tree. He was full of knowledge and shared it eagerly. He showed us wild basil and told us some of the herbal uses for the different plants/trees. He showed us the butterfly tree, whose leaves really are shaped like a butterfly. Its the Mopane (Mo-pyan-ee) tree, and the Mopane worm is a local delicacy. Turns out that was the fried caterpillar we had eaten on Thursday night! We saw tracks of giraffe, zebra, buffalo, impala and Rhino. We saw a big Hot Beast, but that might have been Hart or Heart Beast...looked like a cross between a moose and something else....big horns. Finally, we came upon Nellie and Emanual, a female Rhino and her baby boy. (They name all the Rhino in this fenced preserve.). We watched them for awhile and of course, took pics. Then we met back up with the jeep and were driven to the river where we were served sodas or water and cake. After we left the preserve, on the way back to town, Kanwa told the driver to turn around and go off the road into the bush...he had spotted the Zebras Id been teasing him about! I said, Did you see a zebra?. He nodded and said, I wanted to surprise you! Yes, there was four zebras, and a small herd of wildebeests, neither of which wed seen before. Zebras are shy, so we couldnt get too close, but by crackie, this old gal got to see her zebra! After lunch, we went to Victoria Falls. These are very much bigger/wider/more volume than Niagra Falls, but I dont know by how much. Will look that up later. We saw the two missionary volunteers, Andy and Joyce, as we got to the falls, and they joined us for supper tonight, back at the Cafe Zambezi. We will be on the same flight tomorrow from Livingstone to Johannasburg. Signing off...have a plane to catch!
Posted on: Fri, 06 Jun 2014 14:48:04 +0000
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