Wednesday September 17th - It's going to be a VERY long day!

Our long journey homes begins this morning…

Victoria Falls to Johannesburg to Dubai to SFO… a mere 25.5 hours of flying time plus several hours of layovers…  On the bright side, we leave Dubai at 11:20am on the 18th and get home at 1:10pm on the 18th.  :^)

OMG this is going to be a long day!  Thankfully we will be flying Emirates most of the way!

We had a wonderful trip, missing our babies…  can’t wait to see them!

Tuesday September 16th - A day in Victoria Falls

This was a great last day of our trip!  First on the agenda was a canoe ride on the Zambezi River.

Here is the canoe tour description:
"Slow, soothing canoeing on the Upper Zambezi, above Victoria Falls. It's for those who enjoy life stirred not shaken. Relish the extreme peace and tranquility of the natural world - no adrenaline needed - as you glide rhythmically through the water, observing all manner of wildlife."
Wow! Talk about false advertising!

We were put in 2 person inflatable canoes with kayak paddles, for a 2.5 hour paddle. Luckily we were a couple of miles above the Falls, so no worries there. The guide told us we would be doing class 2 & 3 rapids......and by the way.....did we mention there are hippos in the water? They hang out in the quiet water near the rapids and they are territorial. So when the guides say "paddle hard" they mean it!

We do not have many pictures, because we didn't have a waterproof camera, our only camera was in a dry bag, strapped to the canoe.

 It was great fun! There was a current but we also had a head wind. The rapids were awesome! We got soaked. While no hippos charged us, we had to paddle like mad through most of the rapids as they watched us wearily, and guides yelled for us to paddle faster!  It was a wonderful surprise of a tour, we loved it!

The afternoon was spent at Victoria Falls. What an amazing place! You watch, feel, and listen to the spray ( creates a rain forest of beautiful greenery) and thunderous roar, as millions of gallons of water tumble over the Falls into a series of narrow gorges below. They say this is the best time of year to view the falls, as the water level is lower, so there is less mist. This is the best time to see the rainbows at the falls, especially in the afternoon. Devils Cataract, Rainbow falls, the main falls, and seeing crazy people out at Devils pool. This is natures hard core infinity pool!  No wonder it is one of the seven Natural Wonders of the World! What a gift of nature.

Devils Pool... notice the guide standing on the edge taking pictures of the crazy tourists!

A short video of the falls...

The little point off to the left of the map below is where 4 countries come together... Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe and Zambia

Monday September 15th - Travel to Zimbabwe

Last night we had a critter in our tent - a mouse found his way in and got into a bag of cashews… I kept hearing a crinkling sound and every time I sat up it stopped… this went on for quite awhile, then I got the flashlight out… still nothing… finally I saw the little guy hiding behind the emergency horn… probably not a good idea to sound the horn for a little mouse, so instead I woke up Cheryl.  :^)  We ended up putting the nuts in the garbage and left the little guy alone.

Up early at 5:30am for a long game drive through the reserve on the way to the airport. We wanted to ask our guide to drive by the baby elephant, but we were afraid of what we would see. We said nothing and our guide took us off in a different direction.  After 30 minutes or so, he looked back at us and said a leopard and baby have been spotted by the “baby elephant” did we want to go see it… gulp… we knew what we were going to see if we said yes, but we said yes.

As we expected the baby elephant did not make it and the elephant herd had left the sight.  Now the leopard and her cub were feeding off the baby elephant.  This is truly the circle of life.  We were routing for the little elephant and were VERY sad he didn’t make it, but we were happy to see a cub feeding and something good to come from something so very sad.

The mama leopard is protecting the kill (hiding it from other predators)

There has been a huge fire happening in Chobe while we were here, it actually started in Zimbabwe and crossed over to Bostwana.  It is too hot for them to fight the fire during the day so all they can do is watch it, then they build fire breaks at night.

Our safari guide dropped us off at the Kasane Airport where another driver picked us up to take us across the Bostwana - Zimbabwe border.  Our first stop was Botswana boarder control… well this was interesting… our driver tells us “go into that building and I’ll wait here”.  Once inside the building we found the most friendly people… NOT!  OMG these people were scary.  Next stop was the Zimbabwe border and buying our Visa to entry the country… Once again we go into a very small building and get in line.  Wish we could have taken pictures, but we were warned “NO picture taking”!  the most nerving part was after they gave us a voucher for the visa - they took our passports and told us to wait outside. What an experience crossing the border of African countries on foot… happily next time will be at an airport.

This afternoon we arrived at the A'Zambezi River Lodge in Victoria Falls where we will spend 2 days before heading home.  In the evening we went out on a sunset river cruise... nice relaxing evening.  We attempted a selfie... clearly we both thought we were the one snapping the picture...  :^)

...and we saw a million of these little cuties throughout the trip

Fun Facts:

• Zimbabwe currency is the US dollar

Sunday September 14th - A day at Chobe

Up at 5:30 AM, grabbed a quick breakfast, and we were off for our morning game drive.  Came across a small pride of lions, 1 male, 4 females, and 3 cubs! That definitely made up for the very early wake up call.

 We checked on the baby elephant and we were pleasantly surprised to find him more active and trying to get up. He was surrounded by the entire herd, more than 20. It was amazing to watch them use their trunks and even their feet to try to help him up. A few of the herd made aggressive moves at the vehicle, as if to charge, to protect the little guy. At one point our vehicle was completely surrounded by elephants!  We left the baby, hoping for the best, but fearing the worst.

We got to see some new creatures today
Roan antelope...

Sable antelope

Tsessebe antelope (fastest antelope)

The afternoon found us on a small boat game drive. It was a great way to see many do the amazingly beautiful birds.  We were on the Chobe river which is the border between Zimbabwe and Namibia.

After the boat game drive it was back to our camp, tonight the camp was full (10 guests)  Our wonderful hot bucket shower was waiting for us.  We are hot & very dirty but this place is magical and we love it here!

Fun fact

• A group of giraffes that is standing still is called a tower

Saturday September 13th - Changing Camps

Today we left the incredibly beautiful Okavango Delta heading toward Chobe.  Leaving our 5 star “tent” camp for a 5 star real tent camp!  At Xaranna we had generator power, wifi, nice showers!  Our experience is about to get more rustic!

We decided to leave the camp early and do a morning boat game drive before heading to the airstrip.  Nice morning boat ride, ran into some hippos resting in one of the hippo highways.

 

Three short hops to different airstrips to pick up other travelers and we were at the Kasane Airport.  Our guide met us and we were off on a 3 hour game drive to our tented camp, Chobe Under Canvas.  On the way in we saw a leopard, but he was pretty far away.

Chobe is a national park and only allows one permanent structure, which is the Chobe Game Lodge.  All other camps are traveling camps and the entire site is required to switch sites every 5 days.  On the days they move they do not have any guests and this gives the staff 1 1/2 days to get the camp ready for guests.  We were the the first set of guests for this camp at the camp site.  It is an incredible amount of work these guys go through to get the camps moved and set up for guests!  All cooking is done on open fire or fire stoves.  They food was fantastic!  It is VERY hot, dry and dusty here!!!!  Now this is the real Africa!!!

Our home for two days!

This is where the staff cooked and did laundry!

This is the dining room!

 Inside our tent...

Our bathroom...

Yes, this is the shower!

Once we arrived at camp we got “settled” in our tent and had a quick lunch, then we were off for our afternoon game drive.  We found a herd of elephants with a very small baby, the baby was born on Thursday, but as of today still wasn’t standing up.  Normally they stand up within a few hours… something is definitely wrong.  We watched as the elephants moved in circles around the baby protecting him from any harm.  It was something to see this behavior.  Very sad, but this is nature.  :(

Returning back to camp after the game drive our tents were prepared for us and our hot bucket shower was ready for us.  This was definitely an experience… we were so hot and dirty that we thought that shower was the best thing in the world!  In the evening we sat by the campfire having drinks and talking with our guide and the other guests.  The staff prepared a great dinner that included fresh bread and a fruit tart for desert.  No pictures … too dark!  The tents do have some power, but it is solar and there is only minimal lighting! otherwise only lanterns for lighting. 

It was a bit unsettling as we sat around having drinks and dinner the staff kept shining their flashlights around the camp and out in the bush… they were definitely watching for animals.  We were escorted back to our tent and told that we could not leave our tent until they came to wake us at 5:30 the next morning!  We were given horns to use incase of emergency!  YIKES!!!  BTW, did I mention that when we arrived at this camp we had to sign a release wavier!  They weren’t responsible for anything bad that might happen to us.

Luckily it was a very quiet restful night!  We did hear from other travelers that stayed with this camp a couple days before us, that they had to capture a leopard that kept coming into the camp, they had him in a cage all night and he was relocated the next day. 

Friday September 12th - The most incredible day at the Okavango Delta

The most amazing day on the Okavango Delta, our day started with an incredible sunrise as we had breakfast getting ready for our morning game drive.

A short boat ride over to the safari vehicles then we we off for a great adventure.  The first thing we saw was a herd of elephants crossing the delta… WOW what a sight to see!

Some interesting road crossings!

Next we found a leopard in a tree… unfortunately she was not interested in coming out of the tree to hunt so we didn’t have an opportunity to get great pictures.

Next our guides got to show their impressive tracking skills… they noticed a lion foot print on the road and we were off… we tracked the female lion for what seemed like miles.  Apparently there was a fight between males a few days ago and they “stole” two females from their brother.  The females wouldn’t have it and made their way back to their brother! It was something watching our guides track the fresh foot prints… we took one wrong turn… they back tracked and we were off again… a few more turns and we found them!  A beautiful male and his beautiful sister!

Next was a short stop for coffee and a snack outdoors in the middle of the bush!  What a treat! Then back to camp to rest for the afternoon to relax before our evening game drive.  We went swimming in our private pool and then had a special lunch with one of my new favorite deserts… mint passion fruit sorbet!  Yummy!

We saw other interesting things along the way:

Our afternoon game drive was by boat and led us to some incredible sightings!  First we witnessed a small herd of Red Lechwe (a little larger than Impalas) leaping through the water to cross the delta!

Next we stopped for afternoon cocktails on a sand bar, where we stood in about six inches of water and had drinks and appetizers and watched the sunset.

Our trip back to the camp was interrupted by elephants taking a bath in the delta, we could not pass so we watched!

Once we arrived back at camp we were treated to a great surprise at our tent… Champagne and a hot bubble bath waiting for us!

In the middle of the night we (ok Cheryl) woke to the sounds of limbs breaking outside our tent… She discovered a baby elephant right up against our tent grazing! 

Fun Facts:

• The water ways in the delta were made by hippos not the boats.  They are called the hippo highways and are not safe for boats after the sunset.