Travelling through the 'Z' countries

We're in Livingstone, I assume! Livingstone, Zambia, that is, site of the popular half of Victoria Falls.

Just before we went to Zimbabwe, we took a game drive and a boat cruise in Chobe National Park, our final stop in Botswana. We saw a plethora of animals; hippos, crocs and even a few lions snoozing in the mid-day sun. There were hundreds of elephants playing in the river; they looked so majestic. We thought we'd seen all the ungulates we could but we saw three new ones in Chobe: the sable antelope, the puku and the red lewche. We finally saw herds of African buffalo, so now we've seen "The Big 5"; Buffalo, Elephant, Lion, Leopard, Black Rhino.

From Chobe we crossed over the border into Zimbabwe. We weren't sure whether we'd visit Zim, but talking to the few travellers we met who'd been there it sounded pretty safe, especially around the country's premier tourist attraction, Victoria Falls. From our campsite we could hear the thunder of the falls. We spent a very wet morning viewing the falls from all angles; the spray was tremendous and totally soaked us. The power and amount of water cascading over the falls is amazing! In the afternoon we indulged in a little bit of nostalgia, by taking Afternoon Tea at the very plush, colonial-era Victoria Falls Hotel. Then it was back to reality and our $8/night campsite!

To cross into Zambia we walked over the 100-year-old Vic Falls Bridge. We were transported back in time as there happened to be a test run of the Vic Falls safari steam train going over the bridge the same time we did. This afternoon we're going to visit the falls from the Zambian side.

That's all for now. Our next posting should be from Tanzania. We've got a long journey ahead of us to get to Mt. Kilimanjaro for our climb there. If things go as planned we should be on the summit of Kili on Canada Day.

Grrrrr - Lions in Chobe Park, Botswana.

Mum & 1yr old baby elephant crossing the Chobe River

Hippos cooling off in the Chobe River.

A "Small" (according to our guide anyway) crocodile on the banks of the Chobe River. But more than large enough for us!

Just a tiny part of Victoria Falls, taken from the Zimbabwe side but all I could fit on the camera!

What Ho - High Tea at Victoria Falls Hotel.

A bit of nostalgia pith helmeted stewards on the steam train

Rainbows galore from the Zambian side of Vic. Falls

Botswana - Land of Hippos and Baobabs

Hello from Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe! Thanks for all the comments on our blog - great to hear from everyone.

First, here's an update on our travels through Botswana. Since we last posted in Windhoek, we took an overnight bus to Divundi in the Caprivi Strip of northern Namibia. We enjoyed a restful day on the banks of the Okavango River, drinking Windhoek Lager while viewing crocs, hippos and elephants. At night we were lulled to sleep by bellowing hippos.

As soon as we crossed the border in Botswana and got on a local bus we felt welcomed by the Batswana people, they are so friendly, polite and honest. All the bus rides we took in Botswana, it felt like being part of a big family as we'd trade food and stories to pass the time. On one bus ride we had a quintessential African moment - as we were grooving to pulsating ju-ju music from the speakers, the bus had to pull over to the side of the road to let a herd of elephants cross the road! Even the locals were all excited at seeing the elephants.

We took an excellent two-day mokoro (dug-out canoe) trip through the Okavango Delta. We did a trip off the beaten path, through a community-run venture. It was just the guide and ourselves poling through the reeds and colourful waterlillies. The atmosphere was so peaceful and tranquil as we glided along, spotting elephants, hippos, zebras and a plethora of colourful birds including the jacana and bee-eaters.

We did take a break from local transport to rent a four-wheel drive truck to tour through the Makgadikgadi salt pans. Zoe had a blast at the wheel of this big vehicle careening through sandy tracks and flying across salt pans. These pans were amazing. We'd drive across the middle of them and see nothing but featureless landscape in all directions to the horizon. We camped on an isolated island on the edge of Sowa Pan. It was just us, granite boulders and baobab trees, in a surreal setting. We used our GPS to navigate around and were rather pleased to land dead-on, when we went to the remote Chapman's baobab tree, with it's 25m circumference.

A few words about how we're traveling. We're camping all the time and cooking for ourselves on our stove. In Francistown, in southern Botswana, was the first time we stayed in a hotel in 25 days, but it's so nice being outdoors all the time in this perfect weather. We're surrounded by animals and birds all the time. Also, we're constantly on the move. Vic Falls is the first place we've spent two consecutive nights for over two weeks. The other tourists we meet can be split into thee categories: 75% South Africans in their 4WD safari-mobiles; 24% overlanders in their huge overland vehicles on a two- or three-week tour, and 1% independant travellers like ourselves. We are almost always the only white guys taking local transportation.



Chris at the edge of Waterberg Plateau, Namibia. We hiked up into this 'Lost World' Plateau from the plains below.


Gliding through the reeds and lillies of the Okavango Delta in a mokoro.


Fish Eagle on the Okavango Delta.


Taking a motorboat deep into the heart of the Okavango Delta for our mokoro trip. We had a wild ride, hairpinning through the reed-filled waterway.


Zoe at the Swamp Stop Rest Camp overlooking the Okavango River, a cool place to chill out in the thatched-covered bar. Believe it or not, we heard 'O Canada' being played here, as the bar had satellite TV, and they were showing the F1 Grand Prix of Canada.


Zoe in our 4WD machine in the heart of the Makgadikgadi Park. That's as wide as the track got! The sand was so deep here that we barely moved, even in L4 mode.


In the middle of the salt pan - good job we had our GPS to find our way across.


Camping at Kubu Island. Just us, granite boulders and huge baobab trees.


Zoe in the middle of Chapman's baobab tree. This is one huge tree!

The Namibian Tour

First stop was the Naukluft Mountains which would be more aptly named Naukluft Canyons. We did 2 great hikes up & down canyons and across the plateau. We were lucky enough to see a heard of the rare Hartmann's Mountain Zebra while hiking.

We visited Namibias #1 tourist attraction the sand dunes of Sossussvlei. Hiking up the dunes was like climbing a snow arret in the mountains but hotter!

We drove across the Namib desert and down to Walvis Bay and saw pink flamingos in the lagoon, what a contrast from the desert!

From there we went to Spitzkoppe, a huge granite outcrop in the midle of the flat desert. It reminded us of Joshua Tree in California. Here we actually saw a Leopard! This is a rare creature to see especially outside of a National Park. We must have disturbed it from it's slumber as we hiked along the base of dome and we watched it climb up the dome.

Next stop was the Skeleton coast a very desolate stretch of coastline with no vegitation, water or wildlife what so ever. We saw more ship wrecks than cars the day we drove up the coast.

Etosha Park was our last stop, it's known for it's wildlife and we weren't disappointed. It was like a Noah's Ark procession at the watering holes! Some of the animals we saw were: Elelphants, Black Rhinos, hundreds of Zebras, Giraffes, Wilderbeests and Ostriches, along with many ungulates such as the rare Blackfaced Impala. We are now ungulate experts, we can tell Springboks from Gemsboks and Klipspringers from Kudus! On our way back to Windhoek we called into the Waterberg Plateau and hiked up the escarpment to the plateau. It is reminiscent of the Lost World series of books.

We're now heading up to the Caprivi Strip in north east Namibia and then to the Okavango Delta in Botswana. Next update in a weeks time hopefully.
Zoe & Chris!

Zoe doing a chain assisted traverse above a water hole in a canyon in Naukluft Mountains.

Quiver Tree in Naukluft Mountains

Chris on Dune in Sossussvlei

Sossussvlei Dunes and salt pan

Flamingos at Walvis Bay

Walwitchis plant on Namibian Desert. This is a rare plant related to the pine tree believe it or not and only found in Namibia.

Our first Giraffe sighting at Palmwag in Damaraland

Road obsticals in Etosha Park, no zoom used here!

Burchell's Zebra in Etosha Park.