Day 10 Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe - Sunny Rain, Flying High & Bongos

Day 10 – Ilala Lodge, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe/Zambia

Today's activities include a guided walking tour of Victoria Falls and a Microlight flight over the falls.  We were picked up at 8:30am (aahhh, the luxury of sleeping in) for our walk.  We are officially the closest hotel to the falls, so the drive was only about 3 minutes.  This particular walking tour is a pretty big tourist draw, so when we arrived, of course the “vendors” were everywhere.  We had a group of about 8 people, we were all given big black hooded raincoats as we were expecting a gentle mist off the falls, and off we went.  

We started on one end of the falls and walked the length with various viewpoints. 

Note bright blue sky and sunglasses

"Devil's Cataract" - where girls were sacrificed

Video: Falls

It is currently high water season, so there is a lot of water and it is moving fast.  The water off the falls is crashing down and there is a LOT of "mist".  We had a few good views early on, but the closer we got to the main falls, the less we could see anything of the falls, and the more we were basically just walking in a torrential downpour of water.

Still wearing sunglasses - mainly to keep the water out

Blue sky, sunglasses, rainbow, torrential downpour

Video: Rain in the sunshine

Now I understand the hooded raincoats.  There was one point, called “Danger Point” that was an outcropping of rocks off the main path.  Our guide said not to go or to be very careful because of how slippery it was.  Of course, there is Damon, standing on danger point with another thrill-seeker  over the edge!

Ha ha - I asked him to sit for a picture and he did

Safety precautions in Africa are not quite American standards.  There was a fence/railing on the main path, supposedly to keep wild animals away and so people don’t wander over the edge into the falls.  The fence was basically an occasional bush or wooden post that may or may not have had any horizontal railings on it. 

The "safety" fence.  In better repair here than most other areas

I’d say not too effective for keeping wild life out or tourists in.  It would be an understatement to say that I was drenched from head to toe when we finished – my raincoat was definitely broken since I was able to squeeze water out of my t-shirt when we finished.  That aside, we did learn some interesting things about the falls.

Video: Rainbow over the river

Back in the day, they used to toss young girls off the devil's cataract (picture above) falls in sacrifice.  Then when the much revered Dr. Livingstone (I presume) discovered the area, he convinced the natives that maybe that was not such a great practice.  Now, from what we hear, the only sacrifices are the occasional elephant, croc or hippo that wander too close to the edge of the falls when the water is running lower, and fall off.  In dry season, it is possible to walk almost all the way across the top of the falls on dry land – definitely not something that can be done now.  If you’ve ever been to Niagara Falls, size wise, it just pales in comparison to Victoria Falls, which stretches across two countries (Zambia & Zimbabwe) and runs about 1.4 miles across.  It is impressive, but honestly, with the amount of mist that generates, it is difficult to get a really good view or picture when standing there.  The falls drop into a gorge that narrows really fast, so immediately past the falls is a zig zag of river gorges.  It was explained to us that each zig and zag is where the falls used to be before they receded back because of an earthquake.  The mist can be seen for miles!

On our way back to the lodge, we stopped at the famous “Big Tree”.  It is, well, a really big, ancient tree. 

Our guide explained a bunch of stuff about the tree – I think it was about 1000-1500 years old.  But what was more interesting about the big tree is that when we stopped, next to some dense bush land, within seconds, a line of men came out of the bush trying to sell us stuff. 

Still a little wet from the "mist"

We weren’t even off the shuttle before they had lined up wooden trinkets and other things for sale right at our feet. 

Vendors

They are very aggressive and make viewing things uncomfortable because they are really up in your face and won’t leave, so we took our pictures and got back on the shuttle.  Sitting on the shuttle, the bus was surrounded – you couldn’t look out the window because there was a man in every window trying to get your attention.  There is nothing dangerous about it, just a little annoying because it is hard to calmly enjoy things when you are in a public space.  As soon as we were all packed back on the shuttle, they picked up their things and disappeared back into the bush waiting for the next group to arrive.

We had a relaxing early/mid-afternoon.  We hung all of our soaking wet clothes out on the balcony to dry, and wandered to a café next door – you really can’t go too far because of the onslaught of vendors.  Damon tried the trio of sliders – Kudu, Crocodile and Beef. 

When in Africa... Of all of the game meats we have tried to date, we have determined that ostrich and wart hog are surprisingly tasty! 

We were picked up around 2pm for our Microlight flight, which was back in Zambia.  In between the Zambia and Zimbabwe immigration points, there is a bridge that is considered “no man’s land” – people can walk across it without worrying too much about immigration issues, and it is also where people bungee jump (side note:  hell no to bungee jumping in Zimbabwe – did not look very safe.  Been there, done that in New Zealand and once was enough.) 

No man's land - Welcome to Zambia!

Driving near the immigration area

Video: Driving near Zimbabwe immigration

 Our transfer went smoothly as we basically got dropped off in no man’s land by our Zimbabwe driver and picked up by a Zambia driver there – we asked if it would be okay if we walked across the bridge and meet him at the other side, which was no problem.  The view of the falls and the gorge are amazing from the bridge so we took our time and got some beautiful pictures. 

We got to Zambia, met our driver, went into a little building for some sort of Ebola screening (they pointed some infrared thing at us to check temperature), got our immigration stamps and carried on.  I definitely feel safer knowing how thorough the Ebola check procedure was (said no one ever from the Zambia immigration check-point).

Ebola screening building

A microlight flight is basically a hang glider with a motor and a chair for the pilot and one passenger sitting directly behind.  In our 15-minute flight, we soared over and around the falls, spotted hippo pods, elephants and crocs from the air, and at one point, my pilot said “hold your arms out and pretend you are flying” as he took a nose dive straight down.  That lasted about 2 seconds before I was like, uh, no thanks. 

Damon, being 1 test away from getting his own pilots license, was given the okay to steer/fly his microlight.  He was in heaven.

Video: Damon's full flight (he takes controls at 11:58)

Then the drive back to Zimbabwe, another border crossing, another spectacular 20 minutes in the immigration building with a stench that curls your nose hairs, another stamp in our passports I think we have more stamps in our passports flying around Africa than from all other international travels combined. 

At the border crossing, there are a bunch of baboons running around - mostly digging through garbage, but we did see one jump into the open trunk of a car while searching for unattended food.  They are like annoying squirrels only I think they could probably kill us pretty easily, so we stay away and carry no food.  I still think it is crazy to see what people are transporting across the border on bicycles – piles and piles of sweet potatoes!

Baboon in the garbage behind the fence

Baboons in the street

Dinner was at the Boma restaurant with a “traditional drum show” – yes, it was totally cheesy, but there was a huge buffet of everything imaginable, including a “meat bar/grill” where you could pick any of about 10 different game meats and they would grill it for you, plus a whole pig roasting on a spit, not to mention table after table of sides, salads, soups, & desserts.  For entertainment, we watched a group of drummers/dancers and about halfway through the show, they gave us bongos (a hundred or more people).

Video: Donna on the bongos (aka, don't quit your day job) - BTW - my hands hurt after an hour of bongo-ing, ergo, the lackluster performance.

It is not possible to not have fun when you have your own bongos with African music playing in the background.  They formed a big African dance circle and of course Damon got picked (again) to dance in the middle of the circle, so that was entertaining for me.  Then home and to sleep.

Day 9 - Sabi Sands, South Africa, Zambia, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe - Three countries, two flights, one dead impala

Day 9 – Elephant Plains, Sabi Sands, South Africa

“What do you want to see today?”  There was literally nothing left on any of our safari lists (so I thought) that we had missed, so we let Dawie choose for us.  He said that he hadn’t seen a leopard in over a month due to his malaria leave of absence and was excited to see one again.  These guys truly love the bush life and even after thousands of game drives, there is still a thrill for them in seeing certain animals.  So off we went. 

Morning drive - 5 layers, 2 blankets, 1 hot water bottle

How does one find a leopard? 

Step 1: listen for their calls to try to figure out roughly where they are.  If that doesn’t work, listen for the sound of their prey (impala) or their arch nemesis (hyenas) giving a warning or other indication that they are nearby. 

Step 2: go to that area (preferably with other vehicles) and start looking for tracks.  Find any set of tracks and then start to “triangulate” roughly where said animal might be.  Drive back and forth in a grid pattern with other vehicles until you can guess general location and then head into the bush either in vehicle or (trackers) on foot to find animal.

Step 3: repeat until you find animal or give up and bump into something more interesting (this never happens)

Following the above mentioned steps, we had gotten roughly to the point where we guessed a leopard had turned off the road and into the bush and we were about to turn in when our newly crowned "leopard spotter", Aimee, spotted a leopard sitting pretty close to us hidden in the tall grass.

Aimee spotted this lady leopard from our truck

We went off road and started following slowly behind her.  She didn’t seem to mind that this loud lumbering thing was crashing around behind her taking down trees and bushes in the process.  

Dawie said that he thought the leopard was stalking some impala in the distance and we stopped because we didn’t want our noise to scare them away.  I believe there were 2, maybe 3 vehicles crashing around trying to follow the leopard when we were joined by some hyenas, also looking to get in on the action.  The hyenas basically follow leopards for 2 reasons – either kill and eat them (hard) or wait for them to kill something and then try to steal it (less hard, but still very difficult).

Hyena in grass stalking leopard

Eventually the hyenas chased our leopard up into a tree and we waited to see what would happen.  We got some nice leopard butt shots but Dawie was convinced that she would turn around so we positioned ourselves where we had perfect morning light.  And we waited.  And waited. 

Leopard in tree.  Hyena below.

And then she turned and gave us a big yawn.  It is hard to get tired of seeing these animals – they are beautiful.

The guides are so in tune with animal behavior that they are typically correct when they predict upcoming behavior. Dawie gave us a “wait for it” she is about to get out of the tree, and because of how it is slanted, she will come our way. Sure enough, she turned, debated, and then climb/jumped down and started her hunt again.

 

Video: Leopard running down tree

We followed lady leopard through the grass but had to make room for other vehicles and moved on. 

Dawie really wanted to see a “predation” (kill), but the odds were low (as if that has ever stopped us) because it was hard to keep a visual on a leopard in the tall grass.  Leopard spotter Aimee was able to find our leopard one more time in the grass before we left the area.

We did some bird watching, stopped for our morning coffee and with only about 30-40 minutes left in our last safari, I asked if we could swing by the hippos one more time.  We started out to the hippos and then seemed to change direction at one point and circle back but I didn’t pay much attention.  What else could there be to see in our last 30 minutes?  We have learned that in the bush, there is always something.  We had made our way back to the leopard area when Dawie told us that we had missed the leopard make her kill only 20 minutes earlier, and the leopard was now in a tree, with her kill - an impala.  

We pulled up to where two other vehicles were parked so we had to stay back.  The trees were really thick so we could barely make out anything.  Eventually the other vehicles moved on and we saw the leopard sitting on a branch with an entire impala dangling in the tree with her because the hyena were still near by.  How she got that thing up in the tree must have been a sight and I was bummed we missed that, but the final result was amazing.  I was surprised by how little blood there was – just a puncture to the neck of the impala with a small dribble.  The leopard was thoroughly exhausted from the haul and hadn’t started feeding yet.  She wasn’t facing us and was unlikely to turn given how small the tree branch was, but we did get a good view regardless.

Dead impala in tree

Visual on how tall the tree was

At this point, it was about 8:55am and we couldn’t stick around too long as we had to be back at the lodge by 9am to check out, pick up our luggage and head to the airstrip – our plane was landing at 9:20 and we needed time to chase the animals off the dirt strip.  Our 6 days of safari ended on a high note – an amazing experience from start to finish with amazing guides and wonderful vehicle mates.  So now, it is on to our next adventure as we head to Victoria Falls on the Zambia/Zimbabwe border.

The crew from left - Dawie, Me, Damon, Aimee, Darrin, Emma, Simon

As nothing in the bush is ever without a story, we did the quick 3 minute drive to our airstrip and saw our plane (ten minutes early) approaching.  We saw the plane come in, do a very low fly by and then bank up quickly to circle back - wait!  Come back!  Or don't - we'd love to stay... and then we saw a bunch of wart hogs running for their lives.  Little buggers were hanging out on the air strip. 

We headed to the opposite end of the air strip to make sure the wart hogs stayed away and also to scare off a herd of impala that were hanging around just before our Cessna Caravan touched down.  As we drove the length of the runway to meet the plane, I excitedly pointed and yelled “zebra, zebra” and Damon and our driver are like “where, where” – and this thing is literally four feet from us and I’m saying “right there” and pointing.  And they are like, “um, that is a giraffe”.  Then our driver says, “I think you need a few more days in the bush”.  Yes, I do.

Video: Clearing impala off the runway

We got in the plane for a 4 minute flight to the next lodge to pick up more people (I saw a family of elephants from above) and then a 15 minute flight to the main Kruger airport where we would catch another flight to Zambia.

Video: Taking off from Elephant Plains in little plane

We actually had a real live jet for that last leg.  I've lost count of the number of planes we've been on at this point, but I think we are up to 8.

Approaching the main Kruger area was kind of a bummer because we had really become accustomed to the quiet and solitude of the bush and immediately there was so much civilization.  Oh well.  Just a different kind of adventure. 

Kruger International Airport

Close up of Kruger airport

Day 9 - Victoria Falls, Zambia & Zimbabwe

The flight to Livingstone (Zambia) was about an hour and a half.  The pilot was able to get permission from the tower to do a 360 circle around Victoria Falls on approach and we were lucky enough to be on the good side of the plane to see the everything – Vic Falls from a jet is spectacular.  We will have other viewings of it over the next few days, so more to come.

Circling above Vic Falls 

We got through customs quickly, met our driver, and headed from Zambia to our hotel in Zimbabwe.  The border crossing from Zam to Zim was madness.  The road was only 2-ish lanes, one in each direction and for at least a mile before we got to the entry point, there were big trucks lined up on the side of the road – sometimes on both sides.  The trucks were waiting to get across the border and we heard that it is usually a full day process and occasionally can take up to two weeks.

Trucks on both sides for miles

In the one lane that was actually open for moving traffic, there were cars trying to go in both directions, people walking – many carrying bundles or stuff on their heads from Zambia to sell in Zimbabwe, and there were men on bikes that were piled with giant sacks of potatoes.

We stopped at one small building and our driver took our passports and got out to do something leaving us in the car – with the car running.  Our car was immediately swarmed by men trying to sell us old worthless Zimbabwe Dollars (inflation basically made their currency worthless and now they use American dollars as their main currency).  The bills were ridiculous – Damon saw a 20 trillion dollar bill.  There was a 500 billion percent increase in inflation in the late 2000’s and money became worthless.  I’d like to bring a bill home, but I’m not paying $20 US for a piece of paper.  Our driver came out and we went to the next building where we had to get out of the car for our immigration paperwork.

It is difficult to describe this next part without having the ability to convey the smell via a blog posting, but here goes.  There was a small customs/immigration building with about 20-30 people standing in line.  We waited and waited and waited.  The smell was over powering – even outside the building.  A combination of dead fish and the worst BO you can imagine.  Everywhere.  Most of the time it was just horrible, but every now and then you got down wind of someone whose smell made your eyes water.  Mostly men with a few women thrown in.  I think Damon was about to have a heart attack from the bureaucratic inefficiency of the whole process.  Eventually we got to the one person handing simple border crossings, we got stamped and got the heck out of there.

Our hotel, the Ilala Lodge, was only a few minutes drive over the border.  At first glance we were a little worried as it is on the main road and right across from a bank and next to a strip mall.  But once we drove onto the property, it turned out to be a beautiful little oasis where the bulk of the hotel faces backwards with a view of the Vic Falls mist, and manicured lawns merging into wild bush land.  And while we did not have any major warnings about baboons or leopards breaking in, we have seen plenty of monkeys and wart hogs running around in the back.  No predators, so that is a bonus.  This lodge is much more like a hotel – we have a great room and a huge balcony that overlooks the falls (well, the mist anyways).

We settled in for, oh, about 7 minutes before it was time for our evening activity.  A shuttle picked us up at 3:30 to head for our sunset cruise on the Zambezi River.  There are baboons running around all over the side of the road, and there is elephant poop along the main roads.  So, I guess that means that elephants wander in town from time to time.  There are also a lot of people walking – many of the women are carrying baskets on their heads.  After being in the bush for a full week, it is strange to be back in civilization.

We reached the launch point for our river cruise and saw the now common wart hogs running around.  We were loaded on a small open boat with about 10 people total – we each had our own little table with unrestricted viewing and we were served unlimited booze and some light hors d’oeuvres while we cruised the River.  Some interesting sightings – there were hippos everywhere – we still haven’t seen one fully out of water, we really only get to see the tops of their heads, but there were a lot of them and they were all on the move as evidenced by their little wake of air bubbles.  

We also saw a bunch of crocs – from huge scary ones to little baby ones (apparently they can live 120 years, so the baby was supposedly about 14 years old).

Up close and personal with a huge old crocodile

And, as has been our custom, we had one of those rare totally cool viewings off in the distance, so we raced toward it to get a better view, get this, an elephant swimming across the river.  Not walking on the bottom, actually swimming.  We could see its trunk and every now and then the top of its head would pop out.  Eventually it made it to the Zambia shoreline and got out to snack on some trees.  I've heard of elephants swimming, but to see it was pretty cool.

Video: Elephant swimming in Zambezi

Video: Elephant getting out of water

Our last hoorah was a most spectacular sunset, and then we headed back to the lodge.

We had dinner in the hotel restaurant - we are trying as much game meat as possible and have already experimented with ostrich stew (delicious), so tonight we tried crocodile and wart hog – both tasty. We wanted a quick dessert so decided to run to a little store across the street.  Big mistake.  The second we left hotel property, we were literally accosted by a group of men trying to sell us stuff.  They do not let up – they followed us all the way to the store and we kept saying, “no, no, no, no” but they do not let up.  It was not pleasant and I could see this was going to be a challenge if we ever wanted to walk around.  With a Twix in hand, we finally headed back to our room to watch a movie and crash early.