Sometimes you have days on a holiday that don’t quite go right. Today was one of those days. We were told to be at reception at 6 AM and we were promptly greeted by a tour guide who said he was here to take us to the rhinos. This was expected, but ten minutes down the road he realised that we weren’t the people he was meant to pick up. I guess we’d been half asleep, and went with the flow. He drove us back to our hotel, so he could get the correct people and we joined our correct group and made our way to the Zimbabwe – Zambia border point just past the Victoria Falls Bridge. There were lots of trucks lined up next to the road because each one has to processed manually. Zimbabwe exports coal to all its neighbours and imports food. Many enterprising Zambians buy or grow food in Zambia and then sell it into the high inflation economy in Zimbabwe, making a handy profit. The border crossing for people wasn’t that simple either. Our driver couldn’t leave Zimbabwe, so we got a new driver on the Zambia side. I don’t think I’ve done a land border crossing before and the border stations looked like they belonged in the 1970s.
We arrived at the Mosi-oa-Tunya National Park and met our guide. The national park is home to monkeys, baboons, impalas, giraffes and the white rhinos we had specifically come to see. All visitors to the park have be accompanied by a ranger, who is a man with a gun for protection in case the rhinos get angry. We picked up ours, Mister Stephen at the rangers station..Our guide was excellent and knew most things about plants, different tracks in the sand, the benefits of the various dung on the ground. Who knew you can make beads from impala poop and elephant poop will fix a variety of ills. Eventually we came upon a family of rhinos, mum, (possibly dad) and a juvenile.
They dropped us back to the Livingstone Island boat shed, We hadn’t fully comprehended the plan we had, so opted to take a boat to the island where others swam in the devils pool on the edge of the falls. I had a beer while watching. Most participants got a buzz out of the experience, but most complained about being bitten by fish. We had a three course lunch which was delicious, but the company ranged from the vegetarian who didn’t want the eggplant that she’d ordered, an aussie couple who’d been to Bali, so knew everything about global travel and an Aucklander who been everywhere and more and in better style than everyone else including the most posh of campsites.
This morning we had scheduled a helicopter flight helicopter flight over Victoria Falls, so when we heard rain falling as we woke up, we feared cancellation. Our fears we unfounded and the rain cleared enough for our flight to proceed. The helicopter company was running a tight schedule and had four helicopters rotating on the the helipad. The flight went for 25 minutes and provided great views of the falls and surrounding landscapes. The photography was a bit difficult through the glass, the shaking of the helicopter and in the dull conditions.
We returned to the hotel and were picked up by our driver for the drive to Kazungula on the Zimbabwe side of the border, where he handed us over to a new driver. We discussed the rapid inflation, lack of free education, 70% unemployment and the constant food and material shortages. The border crossing at Kazungulu was chaotic with the large number of trucks and the requirement to disinfect all footwear, to prevent Foot & Mouth disease, which incidentally is fatal for elephants..
We checked into our lodge which is very nice and went on an afternoon game drive along the shoreline of the Chobe River. This is a spectacular wet land featuring hippos, impalas, kudus, giraffes and a wide variety of birds. Due to the morning rain the elephants didn’t come because they thought the wet season may have been starting. This area has lots of Impalas who are great survivors because they eat foliage as well as grass. Poaching still a problem in these parts and is largely run by organised crime syndicates, similarly to the drug trade.
Our guide selected a spot for ‘Sundowners’ so I had a glass of wine, while Deb had a gin and tonic and we soaked up the scene before heading back to the lodge.
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