Namibia/Botswana/Zambia 20

Tags

Cattle egret, Egyptian goose, Glossy ibis, Little egret, Livingstone, millipede, Nile crocodile, purple gallinule, red-backed shrike, Safariwise, swamp hen, three-striped skink, Victoria Falls, whiskered tern, Zambezi River, Zambia

Our leaders had pity on us, the morning of this our last complete day. Breakfast was up to as late as 8.00, and there was no pre-breakfast walk.

On the way to breakfast:

From my terrace

Looking back at my accommodation

(Taken mid-afternoon)

A millipede I nearly trod on

I was the last to arrive at breakfast, at 7.30, and was greeted by Neil with ‘Good afternoon!’, to which I reacted with appropriate indignation.

We set off for the day’s activities at 9.00.

A pool at the roadside. Glossy ibis and, I think, Egyptian geese

We drove through the town of Livingstone. Difficult to capture images describing the place.

Surprise, surprise, we arrived at a sewage works. I didn’t take many photos, except of terns in flight – most unsuccessfully.

A row of egrets and whiskered terns

Nile crocodile

The best I could do

I never did sort out sewage works in southern Africa. They seem to grow things there. I suppose the soil may be, in due course, particularly fertile. With lakes much enjoyed by wildfowl and waders, they’re clearly not on the same model as our sewage works.

Glossy ibis

African purple gallinule, aka swamp hen

We then undertook a long and bumpy journey.

Red-backed shrike

Three-striped skink, on a rock, not a buffalo or hippo

The bumpy road led straight through a village. It would have been so nice to stop for a while.

We were aiming for a lunch place (a lodge of course) some miles down the Zambezi River from Victoria Falls, overlooking the gorge. Leader Neil was disappointed that we were not giving it more attention, but the fact is that it was much cooler in the shade, and, perhaps more significantly, most of us were deep into our phones and tablets, having access to wi-fi for the first time in 48 hours. Our super luxury lodge had been without the service since our arrival. Not their fault, but the local tower, or whatever-you-call-it, was out of action. As we were due to depart the following day, people hasd urgent and less urgent need of communication with the rest of the world.

That said, everyone did look at the gorge for a while at least.

I remarked to Neil that I was surprised how slow the water flow was, given the amount and speed of it over the Falls. ‘Or perhaps it’s a matter of scale?’, I asked. ‘It’s a matter of scale,’ he said. ‘Look at those kayaking.’ I hadn’t noticed the tiny little dots. They were moving, very fast, and were much further down than my brain had registered.

Having lunched and, er, used the facilities, (which were totally respectable)

we set off back to the Lodge for a siesta.

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.