22nd - Horny animals

We had a late start today with a 0730 breakfast, so Jaco informed us that as the sun would be rising at 0610 we would have plenty of time to see the sunrise before any of the day’s plans took place. Silly me was the only one to get up early. Walking around in total darkness with only a head lamp, eyes looking everywhere (reflected from the light) and having been told that there was a high density of leopards in the area made the solo morning walk one of the scariest things I had ever done. Combine that with complete overcast and lacking a good viewpoint I was back in my tent at 0620.

A couple of hours later we were picked up by the day’s guide (Ian) who took us for a hunt for rhinos in the Matobo NP. The two cars driving us around stopped a couple of times so that we could continue on foot in an attempt to locate and get close to the rhinos. The white we should be able to get as close to as 2-3 meters, while the black… not so much. We were told that seeing them from 100 meters away they would either be seen running away or towards us (and not in a polite welcoming way).

Ian was very competent and could hardly stop talking when had warmed up. He was obviously very dedicated to his work, something he had been doing for almost 30 years. Africa’s version of Steve Irvin, basically.

When exiting the vehicles he was very clear about the fact that we could very quickly end up in (extreme) danger if we saw any black rhinos when on foot, but he was also very good at telling us of what to do if something went wrong. Basically be quiet, stand still and crouch down. Be a rock. Only in extreme situations should we ever have to run, and he pointed out it would be very clear if he ever wanted us to do so. None of this ended up being necessary, though. He had plenty of experience in all situations with rhinos and could kill the myth that they cannot make sharp turns when running at top speed. He could from his own practical experience confirm that they could make sharp turns; as much as making turns with a radius of less than a body length. You wouldn’t think it when looking at them, but they are very nimble.

He also informed us that up to 28 poachers were caught or killed (shot) in the NP. Not since the establishment of the park, but every month.

After two walks we were driving down a road and when turning a corner we suddenly saw three white rhinos scurrying away from the road. We jumped out of the cars and slowly followed Ian into the bush, following the rhinos at a careful distance. We ended up app. 20 meters away from them until they decided that enough was enough and ran further away that it was practical to follow.

Satisfied with the sighting we had lunch and afterwards we were brought to a cave where bush men had been making drawings that were thousands of years old. As with the rhinos and wildlife in general Ian was very passionate about this.

Following, we went to a village to meet the locals. Here we were introduced to the elder, an 80-something year old dressed in a leopard’s skin belonging to a leopard he ended up killing in a fight. He was a great character. Generally all the people in the village (30-ish, quite a few small kids) were very friendly and we had a great time there before we had to take our leave again.

Back at the camp Ian had a couple of anecdotes from years back (note; lighting a lion’s tail on fire is NOT the correct way to get rid of a lion when it’s sitting outside your tent when you want to sleep) before taking his leave, had dinner and prepared for tomorrow.

Today’s joke; Jaco admitted that the sunrise wasn’t until 0710. Oh well, I’ll be saving money on tipping, obviously.

The mood is set when entering the park.

Family of warthogs.

Peek-a-boo!

Hello there!

Is that a big horn you have or are you just happy to see us?

Cave paintings. The drawings at the top are 3-ish meters from the ground.

Ian getting passionate.

Leopard.

Haha, he was a great character!

21st - Onwards!

The first day of the second part of the trip was spent driving. Another long day of 9 hours was required to get us to the next camp site, so no time was wasted in the morning. All and everything got packed, a few previous group members showed up to say goodbye and off we were heading for the Zambia/Zimbabwean border.

The border took slightly longer than the previous crossings, but compared to what one could expect from the crossing it went very, very smooth. So lucky us!

In the afternoon we reached our destination where we are going to stay for two nights. Tomorrow we will be going on a game drive the entire day and mixing in a couple of walks trying to get close to the park’s rhinos and hippos. Hopefully the leopards will also make an appearance, but not too close.

If anyone wasn't aware; the moon.

20th - Day off

Today we had the day off as this day was spent getting people detached from their truck in the morning and getting presented to their new group (if doing so) in the evening. The resort had a large variety of activities so one had no excuse for not doing something.

I started the day going on a lion walk in the early morning. You would be brought to a lion sanctuary where they take care of lions that are born in captivity and prepare them to give birth to kittens that effectively won’t have any contact with humans – like “normal” lions. With guides and assistants we followed 3 7-month old lions around and saw them interact with the environment and briefly get to pet them. It was, honestly, a money/tourist trap, but it was interesting to hear what they had to say about the process and getting that close to them wouldn’t have been possible in any other situation (unless you had a death wish).

When the lions reach an age of app. 15 months the get too big for the tourists – and keepers – to get close to them, so they are moved out into a large fenced area where they get to be on their own and establish their own social ranks without having humans as dominants. They will still be assisted in form of food drops if necessary. When they have established themselves in stable relationships, they are moved out in a much larger area whey they are by themselves and are fully dependent on being able to catch all their food by themselves. Here they will also get their cubs, which will therefore be growing up without human contact. When old enough, the will be removed and put out into the wild, where they will be “normal” lions. The ones they came from the sanctuary will never be put out in the wild as they will not have the instinctive fear of humans.

In the early afternoon I went on a 15 minute helicopter ride over the Victoria Falls. While it was more expensive than the morning’s lion walk it felt much more worth the price. And I got to strike out “ride a helicopter ride” from my bucket list. So, win/win all around.

After an afternoon with nothing planned the evening quickly approached. An introductory meeting was held for the new group and afterwards we had dinner which would also include inviting the old group members to the table, getting to say the last goodbyes.

The 3 lions we followed.

"Rawr, I'm big and dangerou... Oh look! A stick!"

The Falls from above.

These monkeys were all over the place at the camp.

19th - Livingstone, I presume?

Early in the morning at 0530 we were picked up to go on a morning game drive in Chobe NP. We saw plenty of animals, none we hadn’t seen before, and unfortunately no cats even though we saw several lion tracks and a spot where a leopard had been seen the day before.

Coming back to the camp at 0930-ish we had a quick breakfast before driving an hour to reach to border to Zambia. First we checked out of Botswana, took a ferry 5 minutes across the Zambezi River, got into Zambia, got our visas and in the end fighting ourselves through hordes of salespeople (which we actually never – except from here – really had any issues with).

Back on the road we aimed for Livingstone and a couple of hours later we arrived as planned. We didn’t stop but continued on to Victoria Falls where we spent a couple of hours admiring the sights and having a walk.

Going back to Livingstone we found our camp site, established the tents and went for a sunset boat ride. The name of the ride, the Booze Cruise, sounded more dangerous than it actually was. The concept was a sunset cruise with game watching including dinner and a free bar for 2-3 hours. We all enjoyed the trip, some significantly more than others, but firmly back on land we ended up in the resort’s bar where we spent the rest of the evening and half the night.

This night was also the last night we would have with this group, hence the more than average intake of alcohol. The trip I’m on is in reality two trips; one from Johannesburg to Livingstone, and one going from Livingstone to Johannesburg. This site is where 3 different G trips converge (Cape Town – Livingstone, Nairobi – Livingstone and Johannesburg – Livingstone, with the two former taking the same path back and forth and the latter (my trip) following a circular route with Livingstone being the middle point), and people mix up, change trucks, arrive and leave, depending on where they will be going next (e.g. Nairobi – Cape Town, Johannesburg – Nairobi etc.). In total we are 5 people doing the Johannesburg – Livingstone – Johannesburg trip, and after being 22 up until Livingstone we will now only be 20.

Some of the elephants got awfully close that morning.

Warthog.

Hippos having a rest.

Victoria Falls.

The border crossing to Zimbabwe - and also where they do bungie jumping.

Victoria Falls.

Crocodile close-up in the evening.

18th - I’m on a boat!

Out next destination was 6 hours’ drive away and we were supposed to be there for lunch which meant that we had to leave the camp at 0600 in the morning. A couple of people had been visiting the camp’s bar the previous night so some of them were struggling a little more than usual when getting up – but despite this the departure from the camp went as scheduled.

Driving was eventless and at lunch we arrived and set up camp.

A couple hours after arriving in the early afternoon we went on a cruise on the Chobe River from where we saw a lot of elephants, hippos, crocs, buffalo, monkeys, baboons plenty of birdlife, a couple of giraffes and a single monitor lizard. Being advertised as a sunset cruise the last minutes of the trip meant that we had a good view of the sun setting over the plains.

Coming back to the camp we had an amazing spaghetti bolognaise. It doesn’t sound very local, but Jaco adding a couple of local things into it including some various spices and herbs made it an absolutely overwhelming meal. The best part was the dessert he had conjured up; a cheesecake with pistachios and mint.

Having the Chobe River going right past the camp we were standing in Botswana looking across the river into Zimbabwe.

(Another) elephant.

A something-something bird.

I believe these are young kudus.

Baboon.

Crocodile.

Elephants crossing the river.

Giraffes.

Monitor lizard.

Hippo.

Sacred ibis.

17th - Back on the mainland

Despite our alternative camp morning routine was the usual business; pack bags and tents, breakfast, pack foodstuffs. Then we had it all loaded onto the canoes – luckily we were back to the original stable canoe again – and we were off to get past the buffalo fence to change to the motorized boats. The change was made without issues and on the ride back to the truck we saw more birds and crocodiles. After the usual 1½ hours we were back, the truck was quickly packed and we were off again going north.

This drive wasn’t as long as the first ones, though, so before 1500 we had arrived at our new site and set up camp. This gave us some time to ourselves where we had the chance to utilize the pool at the site or just generally hang out and relax. Jaco, crazy as usual, climbed the tallest baobab tree and had a couple from the group join him. None of them got as high up as he did, but seeing him climb and jump around in the tree it was obvious he had been doing this most of his life.

The rest of the evening was calm. That is – until Jaco took out his whip and started playing around with it. Showing some impressive skill it didn’t take long until Callum – one of the group members – got up with a twig in his mouth and asked to have it whipped out. Afterwards he admitted it was one of the scariest things he had ever done. In any case it was a source of great entertainment.

Fish eagle.

Saddle-billed stork.

Pelicans.

See that small speck in the top of the tree? That's Jaco.

Callum (left) getting increasingly nervous the closer Jaco gets with his whip.

16th - Into the Delta!

Getting up early we followed the usual procedures, but instead of packing the truck we carried all resources and day packs down to the boats that would take us into the Delta. We had 3 boats available and soon after we were on our way down the river towards the buffalo fence that surrounds the “main” part of the Delta. This short trip was app. 1½ hours and on our way we got to see several crocodiles and general birdlife.

At our destination we had everyone and everything moved into the small mokoro canoes. They are powered solely by a poler standing in the back pushing the canoe forward, the exact principle as with the gondolas in Venice. The poles were 5-6 meters long, but they rarely used the entire length of the poles. This part of the trip also took a couple of hours, and we soon arrived at our final destination where we set up camp.

Lunch was set up after which we had a couple of hours by ourselves for relaxation before going on our bush walk. Some of this time was spent swimming near the camp, and our guide Jaco showed some amazing tree-climbing skills getting to the top of a nearby tree in an almost inhuman speed.

When leaving for the bush walk we had a short distance by canoes. We weren’t put on the same canoes nor had the same poler, which resulted in us getting a very unstable one. Within minutes we were already feeling it in our legs as we were constantly tense. It wasn’t much better when going back, but at that point we had realized that despite the lack of stability we wouldn’t tip over. On the way to the walk we got to see a hippo and on the way back we had a great view of the sun set.

For the walk we were split into 4 smaller groups going in different directions. On our 2½ hour walk we ended up seeing an elephant (and scull), zebras, wildebeest, antelopes of various kinds and lots of birds. Even if we never got close to any of the animals it was quite an experience looking for wildlife on foot in their own territory.

Back at camp we had dinner and after finishing the meal (including the local polers who were camping with us) the locals gave us a show of some of their many songs. Returning the favour we ended up spending the evening singing/dancing/goofing around, which all in all was a hoot.

Sneaky crocodile.

On our way into the Delta.

Plenty of these birds.

Hippo keeping an eye on us...

Impalas under a tree.

Pied kingfisher.

Zebras. Also keeping an eye on us...

Sunset in the Delta.