Namibia/Botswana/Zambia 19

Tags

baboon, Camp Nkwazi Lodge, Chacma baboon, David Livingstone, Livingstone, Mosi-oa-tunya, three-striped skink, Victoria Falls, village weaver, Zambezi, Zambezi River, Zambia, Zimbabwe

Thursday 7th March, afternoon. We only went a very little way into Zambia, near to the town of Livingstone, formerly capital of Northern Rhodesia. The big tourist attraction around there is the Victoria Falls. We went direct to them after lunch.

Here is a model of the Falls before the Zambian entrance. Note the footbridge, within the park, and the road bridge linking Zambia and Zimbabwe. As I learnt later, the model considerably minimises the sheer breadth of the Falls.

A more accurate representation would show, that there is much, much more of them to be seen from the Zimbabwean side. But they were impressive enough from Zambia.

A statue of the great explorer, sometime missionary, scientist and abolitionist, fascinating, stubborn and somewhat disorganised, David Livingstone greets you shortly after the gate. ‘He travelled the African interior to the north between 1852 and 1856, mapping almost the entire course of the Zambezi, and was the first European to see the Mosi-o-Tunya (“the smoke that thunders”) waterfall, which he called Victoria Falls after his monarch.’ 

First glimpse

Yours Truly looking a little self-conscious

They were noisy!

The footbridge looked slippery, but it wasn’t.

View from the bridge looking along the beginning of the gorge, the Falls behind me. The road bridge can just be seen.

Looking down is not for those with vertigo.

The water just flows and flows, and the curtain just goes on and on.

This was the furthest point which could be reached from the Zambian side. Impossible to see how much more there was.

I started wandering back.

I waited to take the picture until the lorry was half in Zambia and half in Zimbabwe

My apprehension as I made to return over the footbridge was for a different reason now. Baboons have very nasty teeth. But he just said, ‘Keep left.’ Instead I stood aside to let him pass.

I got absolutely soaked in spray at this point, but it was warm and I soon dried off.

Back at the entrance, Neil pointed out that it was possible to take a path to see the top of the Falls. On the way I saw this Western three-striped skink.

This is not some distant zoomed view. I could have stepped into this – and gone over the edge! Health and safety there was not. No barrier, no nothing.

Just like that. Many islands in the river mean its full breadth cannot be seen.

It was time to move on to nearby Camp Nkwazi Lodge, again on the banks of the Zambezi River, where we were to stay for our last two nights.

The river has not suddenly narrowed. This is an island…

… sheltering among other things dozens of village weavers’ nests.

All our lodges over the fortnight had been very different from each other.

Bedroom. There is no glass in the windows, only gauze.

Part of the bathroom.

Kitchen/dining room on the terrace. Not that I used it except as a passage to my room.

Tanzania 10

Tags

Butterflies, chimpanzee, cricket, David Livingstone, Gombe Stream, Henry Stanley, Jane Goodall, porcupine, Tanzania

Monday morning, February 22nd, was too wet for anyone to go trekking – so I just wandered around taking pictures of my immediate surroundings.

But it cleared up in the afternoon, and we had a much less exhausting trek than the day before, this time keeping to beaten tracks, and enjoyed standing around watching a few chimps – a young one was particularly co-operative as far as pictures were concerned, building a nest high up in a palm tree, and then swinging across to other vegetation – and butterflies.  Hitherto, throughout the trip it had been very frustrating to see many more beautiful and diverse butterflies than I have ever seen in one region in my life, but not to be able to taken pictures of them. Now, no doubt because we were on foot and not confined to jeeps, it was possible to look at them at leisure – especially when one of them decided that my sweat was good to drink. It stayed there for a good ten minutes.

A very noisy cricket

Porcupine quill

Do not be fooled by the zoom.  This is at least twenty metres up.

The final goal of our trek was a waterfall which Jane and the locals used to regard as sacred, though this view has changed since water has been taken from it for local everyday use.

(Concluded next time)