On Monday morning we drove straight to Dik-Dik drive as soon as we got up. We saw elephants, impala, springbok and dik-dik. We also saw some giraffe at the Klein Namutoni waterhole as we drove past. It seemed cooler and windier than usual this morning and we could see dust clouds everywhere. After breakfast, we checked out and drove to the Kalkheuwel waterhole. We sat at Kalkheuwel for two to three hours without seeing anything until finally some zebra came to drink. As we left we came across a large lion walking through the veldt towards a small group of lionesses who were resting under some trees. We saw nine females and a cub. As we watched, the lion settled down underneath a tree and then the lionesses started walking out onto the road crossing it in front of us. The cub got left behind and we heard him barking anxiously. We saw him trying to cross the road and keep his distance from the cars that were lining the road. We drove back to Namutoni to refuel the car, then we left the park and headed to Otjiwarongo.
At Otjiwarongo, after returning our car, we put our backpacks on for the first time in weeks and walked to the BP Express station where we had to catch our bus. While we were waiting we saw some young guys turn up in a car, put on some music and dance while they waited for their friend who was inside the station. They were really good with animal movements in the dancing.
We got on the bus and drifted off to a fitful sleep, only to wake in the middle of the night because the temperature inside the bus was arctic. After that we only managed to sleep in fits and starts so it was a long night.
We woke early on Tuesday morning while driving through the Caprivi Strip. The bus stopped at the Namibian customs and we had our passports stamped with an exit stamp then we drove to the Zambian customs a few hundred metres down the road. We continued on into Zambia but only arrived in Livingstone at approximately 3-30pm which was a couple of hours later than scheduled. We walked to Fawlty Towers hostel and checked in before walking into town. We saw a great handicraft market on the main street and beautiful fruit and vegetables on the other side.
The next morning we caught the hostel shuttle to Victoria Falls. At Victoria Falls, we paid our entry fees at the gate and we walked past the baboons to Eastern Cataract were we got our first sight of the magnificent waterfalls with multiple rainbows. Then we walked upriver along the bank of the Zambezi. Then we walked back to rent a raincoat and walked into the "rain" across the Knife Edge bridge and in a circle back to the bridge. The amount of water coming over the edge was huge and the rain and wind was intense in some parts. When we got back to the raincoat shop our shoes and socks were soaked. We walked down a gorge to the Boiling Pot and had some lunch looking up at the main or border bridge. There was a large monitor lizard on the path and it looked identical to the large Australian type. We walked back up and then around the top towards the main bridge but inside the park fence. There were great views of the Knife Edge bridge, the Boiling Pot gorge and the Zambezi coming through the gap in the rock, swirling past the Boiling Pot and then running off under the main bridge. After this we exited the park and walked along the road down to the border bridge where you are allowed to walk half way along the bridge without purchasing a Zimbabwe visa. We had decided not to bother as the Zim visa was USD 30 and then entry to Vic Falls was another USD 30! Also we would have had to purchase a Zambian visa for another USD 50 to re enter Zambia! We saw people bungee jumping off the bridge and took photos of the "You are entering Zimbabwe", "You are entering Zambia" signs. Then we walked back to the Vic Falls Zambian side and caught a taxi back to Livingstone. We walked around town again stopping at the craft market to have a closer look at the amazing wood and stone carvings. The furniture, masks and animals were exceptional with ironwood, mahogany and teak the most beautiful woods.
On Thursday morning we checked out of Fawlty Towers and went to catch a shared taxi to Kazangula so that we could get a ferry over the border to Botswana. Luckily, there was already one person waiting to go to Kazangula when we arrived and within five minutes someone else turned up so we were on our way. The road was really good so the 60 km drive took less than an hour. We went through customs and then walked to the water's edge to wait for the ferry. On the ferry we met some Zambian ladies who were going to Botswana to buy sugar and cooking oil because it was cheaper there. They were also taking sweet potatoes and ground nuts (peanuts) to sell there. On the other side of the river we went through customs (no visa fee for Botswana) and bought enough pula to pay for a shared minibus into Kasane. At Kasane we caught a minibus to the Thebe River Lodge where we checked in and organised a Chobe river cruise for the afternoon and a Chobe game drive for 5.45 am the next morning.
At 3.00 pm, we, together with a couple of tour groups were picked up by a game viewing vehicle and driven to a pontoon at the river's edge where we got on to a large flat bottomed boat. After ten minutes we entered Chobe National Park. The Chobe River is where Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Botswana meet. We spent the next couple of hours circling around an island belonging to Botswana. During that time we saw African darter, water monitor, Nile crocodile, Chacma baboon, African fish eagle, pied kingfisher, white-fronted bee-eater, common impala, elephant, cape buffalo, spur-winged geese, white faced duck, African jacana, great white egret, sacred ibis, hippo, African skimmer, African spoonbill, Egyptian geese and red lechwe (semi-aquatic antelope). The kingfishers and bee-eaters were nesting in holes in the side of the river bank and the impala were licking salt from higher up the riverbank. We enjoyed the spectacle of the herds of elephant playing and swimming and were startled when what we thought was floating debris turned out to be hippos. It was a beautiful sunset over the river and marshes.
We set the alarm for 5.15 am on Friday morning and we had just enough time to pack up most of our stuff and have a cup of tea before being collected for our game drive at 5.45 am. It was a windy, bone-chilling fifteen minute drive in the open game vehicle to Chobe National Park. It didn't get much better after we arrived at Chobe either. We saw elephant, marabou storks (the undertakers), hippos with babies at the river, scrub hare, common impala, buffalo with oxpeckers, lions, warthog, giraffe, vultures, African fish eagle, bateleur eagle, kudu, red lechwe, squirrel, red billed hornbill, and lilac breasted rollers. We had breakfast at Thebe and then caught a minibus to Kazangula for the ferry back to Zambia. We hooked up with Shaun from the UK at immigration and shared a taxi back to Livingstone. We checked into Jollyboys backpacker hostel near the golf course and went on a big walk to Morembo market. Morembo market was a fifteen minute walk past a memorial to Northern Rhodesians killed in WW1 outside the golf course entrance, but it was worth the walk because it was a huge market with all kinds of goods and services including food, clothing, bicycle repairs, household goods, DVDs and anything under the sun. Then we went to the supermarket to buy meat and salad for a barbecue and an apple pie and cream for dessert. Back at the hostel, we cooked up a feast and had a great dinner around the table with some Germans who had cooked an African meal from scratch with a staff member. The apple pie turned out to be an inedible stodgy coconut pie with a soapy aftertaste so we were very disappointed! Especially as we had decided not to buy any chocolate because we thought we had apple pie for dessert!
We got up early on Saturday morning because we had decided to go to the airport early to try to get a standby flight to Mfuwe, the nearest town to South Luangwa National Park. We called Proflight who said that the flights to Mfuwe were fully booked so we caught a taxi into town and caught the 10.00 am bus to Lusaka. The bus was full and the landscape was generally flat scrub interspersed with bigger trees. The dust was constant but once we got past the first hour of road works, the road was pretty good. We came across another bus broken down after two tyre blowouts and reached Lusaka Intercity Bus Station at 5.30 pm while it was just light. We shared a taxi with Drew from Canada to Chachacha Backpackers Hostel where we got a basic room with a shared toilet next door. There was no power point in our room and no phone visible at reception.
On Sunday morning we had breakfast at the hostel then we walked to an ATM to take some money out. A kind South African man gave us a lift to the nearby shopping centre where we went to the supermarket Shoprite to buy some provisions for the next few days. We decided to catch a minibus back to the hostel and we were delighted to see a minibus pulled over on the side of the road in front of us. We hopped in, only to find that the minibus was pulled over because it had run out of petrol. (We were told later that Zambian taxi drivers prefer to keep their money in their wallets not their petrol tanks.) The driver assured us that the minibus conductor who had gone to get petrol was just a couple of minutes away so we waited. The driver kept pointing behind us and saying "Look, he's just here now". After about 5-10 minutes of this, we gave up and managed to flag down another minibus which took us most of the way back to the hostel. Back at the hostel we checked out. Keith called Proflight and found that there were seats available on the 3.00 pm flight to Mfuwe but we had to go to the airport immediately to secure those seats. We caught a taxi to the airport and we were able to purchase tickets for the flight, but then we had three hours to kill. The Lusaka international airport was small and dreary with a couple of places offering overpriced food. We boarded the thirty seater propeller aircraft and landed in just over an hour at Mfuwe International Airport which was even smaller than Lusaka International airport. There we hitched a ride with a Swiss family and the drive to Mfuwe village was beautiful. Small creeks, lagoons, thatched hut villages and vegetable gardens lined the route as the sun set on the Zambian bush. We were picked at Mfuwe by Kathy from Flatdogs and we managed to get a chalet for the first night and a safari tent for the next two. Very lucky and relieved as we had no confirmed booking what with intermittent internet access and uncertainty over our arrival date. As we drove into Flatdogs camp on the banks of the Luangwa river we saw a beautiful brown buck called a puku, several Thornicroft's giraffe, a couple of cuckoo owls, and a couple of warthogs. The camp had a fantastic feel about it as the animals were everywhere even though we were just outside the national park. We checked into the two storey chalet and went for a quick walk on the river bank before dark. We could hear a lot of hippos snorting and grunting loudly at each other in the river. Apparently the elephants have started coming into the restaurant to help themselves which is a bit of a worry.
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