8th December ‘09: Started the process of gathering information in preparation to the arrival of Diane and Chris. As I arrived about a week early I am somewhat in limbo at the moment. I don’t want to do any of the activities available as Di and Chris will want to do them next week and it will be much better to do them together.
Cycled to Victoria Falls and crossed half-way across the bridge that separates Zambia from Zimbabwe. You need a $50 visa to exit the bridge and enter Zimbabwe. The bungee-jump is situated in the centre of the bridge and is the 3rd highest jump in the world with a setting that takes some beating. Watched about half a dozen people make the leap of death. Chris is going to love this part of the holiday. Not too sure about Diane though.
Parked my bike at the visitors centre and had my water-bottle stolen. Not by some poor thirsty African, but by the crafty baboons. Managed to get my bottle back, but they drank all my water first. Dam clever these apes.
10th December ‘09: Went for a quick cycle (25k) through the Victoria Falls NP. The main road runs through this small National Park so it is easy to gain access without having to hire motorised transport. Decided to take a side road to one of the many posh lodges that front the Zambezi River and ran straight into 2 large elephants. Managed to get really close (whilst hiding behind a large tree- just in case of a charge), but at the critical moment my camera failed to work yet again (it’s going in the bin when I get home).
Another hot and sunny day here. Apart from my cycle ride today, just collecting information in advance of Diane’s and Chris’s arrival next week. The Fawlty Tower pool is nice and many other people are always coming and goings with lots of stories to tell of their adventures in Africa. Had a guy arrive yesterday who has ridden his motor-bike all the way from Japan to here.
11th ~ 14th December ‘09: Travelled back to Lusaka on the bus to collect Diane and Chris, who are arriving from the UK to join me in Zambia.
Stunning Victoria Falls
15th December ‘09: Today we visited the Mosi-oa-Tunya (the smoke that thunders) NP as a family outing. This park is situated on the Zambian side of theZambezi River. There are well marked trails and it is possible to get close up the falls. In addition we trekked down to the base of the falls where the water exits via a gorge. This area is known as the ‘Boiling Pot’, for obvious reasons. During our decent we encountered a large family of baboons and came within a few feet of some of them. Finally, we explored the upper reaches of the Zambezi as it flows towards the edge of Victoria Falls. At this time of the year the flow is relatively low. (At the end of the dry season the flow can be as little as 4% of the peak flow). We didn’t take a guide preferring to find our own way. Gradually we negotiated the various water obstacles, but a splash in the water made some of our group a little nervous. A minute or so later Diane and Chris spotted a crocodile in the water. This signaled the end of our exploration and we returned to terra-firma.
Resumed running today. Only ran for 2k as it has been over 2 months since I last ran. The plan is to increase the distance each day.
16th December ‘09: Another hot and sunny day at Livingstone. Diane and Chris are settling in nicely. Today is the day that Chris and I make our bungi-jump from the bridge that connects Zambia with Zimbabwe. It is the 3rd highest in the world at 111 meters and looks pretty formidable from several days of watching others throw themselves off the bridge into the gorge below.
We brought a package, that included 3 activities;
1. A zip-line, where you sit in a harness and cross the gorge on a wire.
2. The bungee-jump.
3. The gorge-swing, where you exit the bridge vertically and then swing down the gorge like Tarzan.
Good-bye cruel world
The zip-line / flying-fox was the first one to be attempted. This was not too bad and the views as you crossed the Zambezi River at altitude was impressive. Next we relocated to the bridge and was invited to do the bungee-jump first. All was calm during the preparation stage. I put on my best ‘poker-face’ and tried not to show any apprehension. Moving from the safe seat to the lip of the launch platform changed that. There is something unnatural about throwing yourself off a perfectly good bridge into thin air. Teetering on the brink I did the necessary leap of faith and the rest is history. I think that anyone who is considering committing suicide by jumping off a high object should try this. It may make them reconsider there choice of demise.
Chris did the same jump a few minutes later.
Next to the bungee-jump is what is known as the gorge-swing. It sounds much less scary that the jump. Don’t be fooled. In the instance you sit in a harness and once again jump off the bridge. This time the decent is feet-first and it takes a long time before the rope starts to take you away from the bridge and then start swinging out into the gorge. Of the two I found this to be the most memorable and the one that made the heart kick into overdrive. We will load some photos off the events sometime tomorrow.
17th December ‘09: Rest day at Fawlty Towers, although I cycled to the bridge to collect the DVD and photos from yesterday’s activities. Restarted running a couple of days ago and am now up to 4k for my early morning run. The plan is to increase the distance by 1k each day.
White-water rafting on the mighty Zambezi
18th December ‘09: White-water rafting on the Zambezi River. Chris and I signed up to take on the mighty Zambezi today. The adventure starts at the base of Victoria Falls in the ‘Boiling Pot’ and continues downstream for 30kms with 25 sets of rapids to negotiate. Several of them are grade 5 (the highest is grade 6) and it was a fun day with some great experiences. To describe the action would not do it justice. However, I have uploaded several photos’ to give a flavour of the action.
19th & 20th December ‘09: Relaxing at Fawlty Towers. We have booked a 4×4 hire car for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. We plan to spend the early part of next week in Kafue National Park. This is one of the biggest parks in Africa and is approximately the size of Belgium.
21st, 22nd & 23rd December ‘09: Diane, Chris and I went ‘on safari’ to Kafue National Park in our hired 4×4. This is the biggest NP in Zambia and one of the largest in the world. This is good news for the animals, but unfortunately not so good for would-be big game spotters. We only had limited success in our 3 days in the park as the section we visited is quite heavily wooded and the wildlife is hard to see. Even the open areas had little to view. We managed to see several elephants and lots of antelope, but considering the time, effort and expense involved it was not really worth it.
Up the creek without a paddle
The most notable incidents concerned my efforts to drive the 4×4 on some really challenging roads / tracks. In true Warner tradition we chose some of the most difficult sections to cover and had several close calls. On one occasion I made an error of judgement and drove into some very wet marshland. To extract the car took the combined efforts of Diane, Chris and half the local village to push and pull us out of the swamp. I should really stick to my cycle.
Christmas ‘09: We spent Christmas at Fawlty Towers and enjoyed the hospitality of Brett and Claire the managers of the establishment. It was expected to be a quiet time over the festive period but a steady stream of travellers arrived in the days leading up to Christmas day. In Zambia there is not the frantic activity normally encountered in the UK, but the 25th is generally a holiday for most people. We had our Christmas dinner on the evening of the 24th. The resident cook provided the food and along with a couple of other long-term guests we ate our dinner with Brett and Claire.
Christmas at Fawlty Towers - where's Manuel
Once Christmas was over Diane, Chris and I treated ourselves to a walking safari in the Victoria Falls NP. We managed to get close to a rhino and saw lots of impala as usual, but it was not the wild-life spectacle everyone has been looking forward to. Although I have seen lots of animals on my travels, Diane and Chris have had limited success since their arrival. We have booked one final safari to Chobe National Park, which is in Botswana. It will be a two day trip to one of the most prolific animal hot-spots on the planet, so finally we should have the animal encounters most people expect in Africa. We will be in Botswana on Tuesday and Wednesday.
29th & 30th December ‘09: Final safari to Chobe National Park, Botswana. After two relatively unsuccessful safaris to date we decided to have one last try at seeing the African wildlife everyone expects to encounter. The border with Botswana is only 70k from Livingstone and the animal densities are reported to be much greater than in Zambia so we signed up for a two day / one night expedition to Chobe NP in the far NE of Botswana. The crossing point is where the Chobe and Zambezi Rivers meet and is the point of the map where 4 countries (Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia) all join at a single location. The river crossing to Botswana was short and the frontier is only 750m wide, making it the world’s shortest border.
A river trip up the Chobe River is the first chance to encounter animals. We saw plenty of crocodiles, hippos, elephants, fish eagles and monitor lizards on the way. One of the unexpected sights was that of 2 lizards feeding on a dead catfish as a croc looked on.
Lions at the kill
Once we left the boat we had our first drive. The amount of wildlife was astonishing compared to previous trips. Diane got to see her giraffes. In fact she got to see lots of them. The number of elephants, buffalo, antelope, warthogs and other animals numbered in their hundreds. A highlight was to see some lions as dusk was approaching. We drove until it was too dark to see anything else and then headed to our bush camp. It is situated in the middle of the park and there is no fence or any protection except our tents. In total there were 11 in our group and we all enjoyed a nice meal and an open campfire, with wine to soothe our nerves. Just as we were preparing to go to bed an elephant made an appearance on the outskirts of the camp, but that was as near as it got.
Rare African Wild Dogs hunting
Diane was woken at midnight by the sounds of two large male lions roaring close by (Chris and I slept through it all) and hyenas in the distance hunting. We were awake by 05:15 for the early morning game drive and several giraffes cruised by while we were eating breakfast. We boarded our 4×4s and set off on another exploration. What happened next was an amazing stroke of luck. We spotted several lionesses in close proximity to a large herd of impala. One was separated from the group and stood nervously a few meters away from our 4×4. Suddenly from behind a bush a lioness pounced and floored the impala. The other 4 members of the pride soon arrived and within a few feet of us tore the animal to pieces. Our guide, who had been working for 15 years, had never seen something so spectacular this close. We were truly lucky.
To round off an awesome morning we also encountered a pack of very rare African Wild Dogs hunting a large Waterbuck, antelope.