Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe and Chobe Game Reserve

On Tuesday Teresa and I flew up to Kasane and were picked up at the airport by a shuttle from the lodge in Vic Falls. We made it through the border and I saw something rummaging through a garbage can. "That is a skinny cat!" I thought. Turns out it was a monkey!

We set off through the national park toward Vic Falls and came across some southern giraffes on the side of the road. These are lighter in color than the reticulated giraffes I saw in Madikwe.

We made it to the lodge and went to the room to drop off our stuff. Gerald, Marilu, and Michelle were in town, so we made our way to the Boma restaurant to get some lunch. On our way three warthogs charged out of the brush and down the road. It was startling, but they didn't seem interested in us in the least. When we got to the Boma I ordered the warthog steak roll. Delicious!


When the others got back we went down to the marketplace to have a look. That was an experience! Luckily I could say I was just looking and save the real craziness for another day! The next morning we booked a sunset cruise on the mighty Zambezi and an elephant back safari. Then we went to the falls. They are stunning!!

Our sunset cruise was beautiful and peaceful.

The next morning we got up before the sun and headed to camp elephant. We had tea and learned a little about the elephants that live at the camp. They are all orphans and some of them came to the camp seriously ill or injured by poachers' snares. I rode Emily, a 22 year old elephant. She was awesome. Her best friend, Janet, and her baby walked in front of us. The baby was SOOO cute! He was very playful and ran around trumpeting and charging the staff members. My elephant driver wanted to know how to get an American girlfriend. I guess I had better figure out how to answer that question!

After the ride we gave the elephants pellets to thank them for the ride and they saluted us. We had breakfast and watched the DVD of our adventure.

After the elephant ride we went back to the marketplace with barter items in hand. It was pretty chaotic! We had sweaters, t-shirts, socks, underwear, soap, pens, jackets, hats, gloves, scarves... We got swarmed and people would just make a pile of whatever they wanted and it seemed like everything I wanted belonged to someone who wasn't there, so I had to pick something else... It was certainly an experience and I ended up with some nice gifts. After the marketplace I packed up my stuff and Gerald drove me to Kasane. We hit the ATM because it is impossible to get cash in Zimbabwe and only the hotels take credit cards (and only when the computers and phone lines are working...). I checked in at the Chobe Safari Lodge, booked a game drive and sunset cruise for the next day and headed to Choppies (a grocery store) for some take-away.

The next morning we headed out at 6 am for our game drive. It started out slow, but then we saw some southern giraffe. Then we got the call on the radio that three lions had been spotted moving toward the river. We rushed down to see a mother with two 4-year old male offspring on the hunt. They were so cool!! They are used to the trucks and see them as "objects" but our guide said if we made sudden movements or too much noise they would realize that we were edible!

When I got back to the lodge I had some breakfast and took a nap. I had planned on going for a swim in the lodge pool, but couldn't figure out how to get sunscreen on my back. I guess I would have figured something out if I really wanted a swim... At 3 we headed out on our sunset cruise. We saw elephants galore

hippos

cape buffalo

water monitors

more elephants playing in the river

giraffes

elephants and the sunset

As we were admiring a couple of bull elephants trying to decide whether to cross over to the island for some grass a boat pulled up beside mine. Lo and behold, it was Dave and several of the Penn undergrads! I didn't even know they were headed up to Chobe!

After the cruise I had dinner with the Penns at their lodge, then packed up and went to sleep. I got up at 4:30 and caught the 6 am bus to Francistown. The bus was somewhere between a minivan and a bus, and it sat 27. At one point I counted 31 people in the bus. It was a workout trying not to fall off the tiny seat as we swerved to miss the potholes in the road! We made it to Francistown about 12:30 and I got some food and a coke and made my way to the Gaborone bus. I met a lady who was headed to Mochudi, so I asked her if she knew Judge Dow. "Of course, she is my homegirl!" was the answer. I even got invited to the wedding she was attending in Mochudi. I would have loved to go, but I will be in Kenya.

Botswana takes its "foot and mouth disease-free" status very seriously, as it opens up lots of markets for their beef. Between Zimbabwe and Gaborone I went through three disease checkpoints where I had to disinfect all of my shoes and the vehicle had to drive thorough disinfectant. When the bus stops in towns along the way it is borded by a large number of vendors selling everything from sodas and water to take-away meals and air time. Riding the bus was an experience, that is for sure. A 13 hour + experience. Needless to say I was SO greatful to get off the bus in Gabs and find Ronald waiting to pick me up. (Ronald is my boyfriend and a wonderful man, more about him in a later post.) We got some pizza and I went home and slept like someone had hit me over the head with a sledgehammer.