Africa Day 7 and Day 8 Victoria Falls, a Game Drive and the Zambezi River 12 & 13 July 2018

Here it is everybody, grab yourself a cup of coffee, sit back and enjoy the ride, we did.

Once apon a time Greg and Deb ………..

Day 7 Victoria Falls Zambia and Zimbabwe sides and a Game Drive

We left Sussi & Chuma at 8:30am for a tour of the Zambian side of Victoria Falls.
This area of Africa is what was once known as Darkest Africa, the great unexplored area. Dr David  Livingstone was a missionary/explorer in this area in the 1850’s. He was the first white/european person to  see the falls in 1855. He named them after Queen Victoria, but the local name for them is so much more descriptive, Tokaleya Tonga (The Smoke that Thunders).

While our guide purchased our entrance tickets we waited near the entrance, there is a sign post marking the distance to various natural wonders of the world, showing what direction and distance from the falls and then a pssing mother and baby baboon kept us entertained for a while.

The Zambian side of the falls gives you views of the last approximately 1/3 of the falls, the newest end, and supposedly much drier than the Zimbabwe side. We walked down to the first viewing point and saw the end of the falls framed by the native vegetation, picture perfect. You could feel the power of the falls and the mist rising from the valley.
We then walked a little further, down a slight hill to a clearing where we were given heavy duty ponchos to put on. We were advised to wear shorts and thongs/flipflops/crocs for the day, We were both glad we did. With our ponchos on and the hoods in place we ventured to the next viewing area. It was like walking into a light rain shower, the views of the falls, the volume of water rushing over the cliff top and the sound of the water crashing below was amazing. The further we walked the louder the falls got, the heavier the mist/rain fell,  the windier it got and the awesome power of the falls increased. So much water coming over the edge,

The highlight for me on this side was walking over a steel suspension bridge, the falls on our right, an all engulfing mist, thunderous noise and a never ending tropical downpour. 5m off the end of the bridge and everything was dry(relatively 🙂 . A short walk along the trail and we came to a viewing area of the Victoria Fall Bridge. This bridge links Zambia with Zimbabwe and is jointly owned by both. It forms the border crossing and has a single lane road, 2 pedestrian lanes and a railway line on it. From here you can also look into the mist of where the falls continue but can only be seen from the Zimbabwe side.

Rather than walk back through the torrential mist we opted for the dry jungle path.

After our tour we were driven to the border and crossed over the Livingstone Bridge into Zimbabwe. It was now that we were very thankful we had got the joint Zambia/Zimbabwe visa when we landed here the other day. We were handed over to a transfer guide, his job was to guide us through the immigration check points for both Zambia and Zimbabwe. To be honest, we just gave him our passports and he jumped the immigration queues to get us out of Zambia and into Zimbabwe, and driving us across the bridge in the middle of all that, to be in Zimbabwe in no time at all.

We were met by our next guide, but unfortunately there were 3 other people on our tour, but they weren’t guided, so we spent around 40 minutes waiting on them to get across.

The Victoria Falls are 1.7km long, and there are 9 major viewing areas, and several smaller ones along the length of the falls on the Zimbabwe side.

After a brief introduction to the history, geology and comparisions to the worlds 2 other great waterfalls,  Niagra and  Iguazu Falls we set out to begin our viewing from near the bridge, at Viewing Point 9.

This was wet, you know all that spray/rain we walked through over the steel bridge, that was only half of what was up there, the other half was landing on us right now. Oh, did I mention that the ponchos we had on the Zambian side were so much more effective than the raincoats we were given in Zimbabwe. The top stud on Deb’s coat didn’t work, and that proved interesting.

Oooops, the view. At this point the view was crazy, to our right was a rain forest, a fork in the Zambezi River and the end of the canyon that forms the falls. We could see masses of water flowing over the right angled edge where the river above met the canyon below. The water seemed to be a boiling river as it started its fall, and the spray started forming almost immediately. We were told the river had already started dropping from it’s peak height,  around 2m higher than it was now. The falls would be totally insane at peak level.

We gradually made our way along the cliff top trail to viewing point 1. Along the way we saw, or didn’t see, (sometimes the spray was so thick that you couldn’t see the falls, only white spray for as far as you could see) the many variations and aspects of the falls and the cliff it was falling from. So magestically powerful, wonderous and beautiful.

From the Zimbabwe side we had the sun at our backs, that resulted in us seeing many, many rainbows as we made our way along, singles, doubles and even a horizontal rainbow. Amazing.

As you progress from around viewing point 4 the need for the raincoat became less and less. At point 1 we descended around 34 steps down into the valley a little,  putting us below the first falls and looking along the length of the others for around 600m until spray masked it all.

Just beyond point 1 is a statue of Dr David Livingstone commemorating his discovery. At this point you could also see the river as it headed to and gushed over the edge. So much force and so much water.

We both had a laugh to ourselves a few times during the walk over things we saw, things like people in skimpy thin light weight throw away ponchos,  others using umbrellas to keep dry (the spray comes at you from every angle in equal quantities, a man pushing a woman in a wheelchair down a steep slope on the path towards the waterfall, others with very fashionable rain/spray jackets (more show than function), and so many others with nothing! Humans are funny creatures.

We had finished our tour and been guided back into Zambia by 2:20pm, we were picked up by our guide, Luckson, and taken back to the Sanctuary for lunch.

At 3:30pm, we met up again with Luckson for an afternoon Game Drive (think Safari) through the National Park Sussi & Chumi sits in. Luckson asked us to keep an eye out for any game as we sat probably a meter higher than him in the back of the safari landcruiser.

It wasn’t long before we spotted a few zebra about 150m off to our left in the bush. We stopped for a while and then Luckson told us we might see more a bit later on and be much closer, so we drove on.

We could see lots of elephant scat almost everywhere we drove. The elephants are essential to the balance and workings the nature system in the park. They open the bush up by their sheer bulk and keep the trees stunted through their grazing habits. This allows other animals clear paths through the bush and access to low lying branches and foliage.

Our Game Drive lasted around 2.5hrs. Neither of us realised how many and the variety of animals we would see. We saw herds of Impala, small groups of Bush Bucks, many Warthog families (the biggest had 12 in it), Guinea Fowl, Marabou Storks, Wattle Lapwings, Red Billed Lapwings, finches, and so many more bird types.

There were many highlights of the drive and its very hard to separate out a favourite. Some of them were;
Getting out of our car and walking single file through the bush with an armed escort (think AK47’s) to see 2 of the 13 White Rhinoceros in the park (there are only 14 wild White Rhinoceros in Zambia and they are all guarded 24/7 from poachers). The 2 we saw were a 3 year old male and a 2 year old female. We got within 20m of the pair, standing still so not to frighten them.  The guards moved us into great viewing positions as they moved during feeding on the grasses. We spent around 20 minutes watching and taking photos and getting told some interesting tjings about them. A very special time.
There is something magical about a herd of Zebra. For an animal that has been found to be undomesticable, they very calm, albeit alert, when we were nearby. We came across a small herd, maybe 15-20 animals, with 1 or 2 foals amongst them. Each one having its own unique stripe markings. Such a  beautiful animal.
Wild Water Buffalo are possibly the most dangerous animal in this park, it’s  their unpredictability and immense strength that makes them so dangerous. We came across a herd of around 20+ grazing in an open area. The bulls develop a large thick horny mass between the horns that is impenetrable to most bullets, this makes them very hard to kill quickly if anything goes wrong. One of the cows had a loop of a wire snare draped around its neck. Poachers use this type of snare (illegally) to trap the various species of antelope in the park for meat. It didn’t appear to be affecting the animal too much, but there was signs of abrasion from the wire around its neck. Very sad. Luckson said he would report it to the rangers for action.
Not far from the buffalo we came across a small group of Giraffe, Deb’s favorite, there appeared to be 8 or 9,  including a very young one. These creatures are so graceful. Moving through the grassland with an ellegant lope. We watched 2 young males necking, imagine an arm wrestle but with your neck, so interesting to watch the young males contesting each other for dominance. There was a bit of fun going on out the back, a very dark patterned male was following a female. Luckson suggested the female was in heat and the male was in for some fun. But the female would have none of it, and as soon as the male got close she would gallop away a short distance,  only for him to follow. He was persistent.
The Warthogs were interesting, but very easily spooked. We came across one family,  a mother and 4-5 piglets that weren’t so bashful. Deb loves the big wide bush of whiskers the adults get. The twisted spiraling horns on the old Warthogs look both impressive and very dangerous.
As we drove along the river side we  discovered a lone Hippopotamus out on the bank grazing on the grass. We knew this was special when Luckson got his camera out and started taking photos. They are such a large animal and surprisingly fast out of the water. We watched it graze for a while but as the sun was setting we moved in towards the lodge.
Luckson stopped for a moment to let us get photos of the bright, orange sunset through the trees on the banks and across the Zambezi river. Beautiful.

We drove back to camp and as we came in a small group of Warthogs scurried out of our way.

After predinner drinks around the fireplace and a chat with the Sanctuary Manager, we had dinner. We both had slow cooked lamb, it was delicous. We had just finished dessert when we heard the beautiful voices of the African staff begin singing. They danced single file throughout the dining room, in and out of the tables. We could have listened to them all night, but they had other plans. They stooped at our table and placed a chocolate birthday cake down in front of me. And then they al. Sang happy birthday to me and then another(I assume) traditional song. I felt so spoilt and    special. That is a moment I will not forget in a hurry. I cut myself and Deb a piece then asked our waiter to share it with everyone, staff and guests. All I can say is eat your heart out Billy Joel 🙂

And that brought to a close a very big, enormously enjoyable and memorable day.

Day 8 The Zambezi River and onto Kenya  

Our last day at Sanctuary Sussi and Chuma.

After breakfast we headed to the wharf, today we were river cruising, just us and Luckson.

It was amazing from the start, 100m across the river was a couple of hippopotamus grazing in the water near an island. Massive animals.

The Zambezi River is flowing so fast, it is 2m lower than its peak a few weeks ago, and now in all the shallower areas of the river huge areas of eddies and whirlpools have developed along with very long areas of developing rapids. Not a river to be taken lightly.

As we cruised downstream we saw so many bird varieties from small swallows and swifts to ducks and geese to large egrets and Marabou. We got many photos of the flying, roosting and nesting.

We saw quite a few Nile Crocodile,  a few up to 3m long, basking on the banks,  a couple of them got spooked by us and made for the water, they move so quickly on land.

On one occasion when we pulled into a narrow stretch of water between an island and the mainland to get a closer look at a big croco Deb noticed something really unusual in the water. When we took a closer look we found it was a very dead 3+m crocodile. It was caught up in some tree branches and was very decayed and puffed up. It didn’t smell the best either.  Luckson drove the boat in carefully under the trees and we stopped  for a while to take a closer look. It was floating on its back (as dead crocs apparently do) and its scales were starting to come off. We couldn’t see any obvious cause of death, it appeared to be all in one piece, with no bite marks or anything. Luckson got a strong wooden pole and gave it a prod and moved it a bit, but we could see no more. We left it there and Luckson said he would report it to the authorities for further investigation. It ould be poacher activity.

We continued further down the river, we saw a mother and calf hippopotamus grazing on a small island, lots of largish pods/rafts of hippopotamus as we motored around.

As we got further down the river Luckson told us that as it wasn’t Monday he wouldn’t  be taking us over the falls today. We laughed ? and said that was probably a good idea.
As we returned to the Lodge Luckson spotted an elephant on the bank just a bit upstream. So we motored up to have a look, but the elephant was shy and after we arrived headed quickly into the bush.

The Zambezi River is the 4th largest river in Africa and is up to 2km wide in places. It fills with water from the summer rains in other countries and reaches its peak height in late June. The river is majestic, powerful and yet peaceful. On the river the world slows down and nature goes on about its daily tasks, it gives you time to breathe, to live.

We had a fanastic morning out on the Zambezi River.

After lunch we had a quiet afternoon, we packed our bags and were checked out by 2:30pm.

On the way to the airport we were taken on a tour of a local village,  that the Lodge sponsors and generally helps. It was an interesting walk led by one of the villagers. We saw a few of the projects the Lodge was involved with, a kitchen to feed orphan children before school, a general medical clinic, a maternity  clinic and a bicycle scheme. So much good being done. While we were walking through the village lots of  the local children came out to say hi, many walked with us holding our hands. They all wanted their photos taken and to see the images. Children are the same the world over.

From there we drove through the main local market on our way to the airport. It was a huge market where you could buy all your villager day to day needs. Lots of fresh fruits and vegetables (lots of potatoes), clothes (all second hand from Tanzania), live chickens and other fowl, and so many other  things.  We would have lived to have walked around it.

We left and got to the airport, we thanked Luckson for all he had done for us and making our stay so memorable.

Our flight to Nairobi left at 5:50, 15 minutes early ? and made a couple of loops around Victoria Falls so all on board could get some photos or just gaze down on the falls one last time. It was amazing to get the opportunity to see the falls from the air and to do it at sunset made it even more special. Thank you so much Kenya Airlines.

We landed on time in Nairobi, but then spent the next hour in long queues in immigration.  We arrived at our hotel at midnight.

A couple of small flights tomorrow and we hope to see Mount Kilimanjaro, then it’s Safari time and the big 5.

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