From Malawi we headed to Zambia and a bit more animal
spotting at South Luangwa National Park.
We stayed at a lovely campsite on the bank of the river, where we could
see hippos and elephants amongst other animals.
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Monkeys in the camp at South Luangwa |
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Walking safari in South Luangwa |
A couple of drive days took us to Livingstone and the mighty
Victoria Falls. The campsite was very
nice, it had not one but two swimming pools!
One overlooking the Zambezi River, the other in the gardens. Unfortunately, Zambia is having severe
electricity shortages at the moment and power is not supplied for 8 hours every
other day. Which means most places run
their electricity from their own generators every other day. So the nice peaceful campsite sounded more like
the runway at Heathrow every other day.
It is dry season at the moment, so the water levels on the
Zambia side was pretty low. But that did
mean that people could go to Devils Pool – a natural rock pool on the top of
the falls where you can swim right to the very edge of the falls and look
over. The rocks form a natural barrier
to stop people going over the edge. But
the rocks don’t stop cameras from going over the edge….
The water was more impressive from the Zimbabwe side of the
falls, so many people took a trip to Zimbabwe.
Not only to see the falls, but to enjoy a typical overlanding activity –
high tea at a fancy hotel!
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Overlanding has gone posh |
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Bruce & Lee having high tea |
There was lots going on at Victoria Falls, helicopters over
the falls, walks, Devils Pool, white water rafting, microlight flights. But we still managed to find time for some
pool action and water fights. The water
pistols we bought were a great investment – hours of fun!
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Lenny & Ciara |
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Lee & Bruce enjoying an iced coffee |
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Still a way to go! |
After three days of enjoying all that Livingstone and
Victoria Falls had to offer, we headed to Botswana. We spent a couple of nights at a campsite on
the river, a very beautiful and serene spot – until 3am when the hippos started
chatting amongst themselves. We took a
boat safari along the river, spotting lots more wildlife along the way.
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Boat safari in Chobe |
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Tony & Ciara relaxing on the river safari |
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Hippo |
We then spent a couple of nights at Elephant Sands – a camp
& lodge in the plains of Botswana.
They have a water hole for the elephants, and as there is such a water
shortage across the region at the moment, there were constantly elephants
walking around the camp looking for the water.
Luckily they also had a TV there, so we were able to watch the World Cup
final. A little difficult at times to
hear the commentary over the noise of the elephants… But well done New Zealand!
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An elephant came into the bar for a drink |
We also celebrated Halloween at Elephant Sands. Pumpkins and fancy dress outfits are a bit
difficult to find out here, so we improvised.
Pumpkin carving became, pumpkin, melon, squash or apple carving. And we all made masks using paper plates. Wilma’s zebra was by far the most creative.
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Halloween pumpkin, melon, squash and apple carving |
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Wilma and her paper plate zebra mask |
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Lee & Tony having a swimming race... minus the water in the pool |
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Killian keeping cool in the heat of Botswana |
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The gang at Elephant Sands |
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Tony & Killian hiding so the elephants don't see them |
We left Elephant Sands to head to Maun, where we had one
nights before heading into the Okavango Delta.
We took traditional Mokoro boats in, and then set up a bush camp in the
middle of the delta. Many people also
took a helicopter flight over the delta to appreciate the scale of this
beautiful area.
After this, it was time for us to leave Botswana, heading to
one final overnight stop in Nata before crossing the border into Zimbabwe.
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Jacq admiring the many types of flora in the delta |
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Killian in the helicopter above the delta |
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Mikkel & Geoff being poled through the delta |
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Sissy & David |
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Steve & Andrew looking comfortable in their mokoro on the delta |