Our Great African Adventure really begins at Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe

The flight to Victoria Falls went without a hitch, by the time we had passed immigration our bags were through and had been placed by the carousel and our shuttle driver was waiting. There were stuffed animals in arrivals, lots of men in khaki, and a tribal dance going on outside. Finally we felt we were in Africa! Baboons by the highway, though nobody except me saw them, a short transfer and we were at the Shearwaters explorers village (location: 17°55'23.4"S 25°50'28.9"E). We are staying way above our regular type of lodging, but we did draw a line at a tent,

Shearwater Explorer Village, our 'above normal' luxury accommodation

albeit with a fan. We have a little thatched cottage with a huge bed and a big bathroom. Our second room was better than the first however as in the downpour that happened just after we arrived, so did a drip through the thatch!

Out for a walk then because it’s safe, and we can. It is safe, but there are many people trying to persuade you into their shop, to buy whatever handicraft they had made, with their own fair hand, despite it being the same as what’s in the next shop, in the street market in Soweto, or in the pocket

Hakuna Matata (No worries). We thought the Lion King had made it up!

of those on the street who can’t afford a shop! You try and be polite, but no doesn’t get heard, or when it does you get the sob story about how they haven’t eaten for two days, so please help me out.... We were really just doing a recce for dinner, so this all got a bit wearing! While out we did however see a baboon and a family of mongeese, (or is it mongooses?) which were very cute.

Our first animals - Mongoose and in the middle of town

At Devils Cataract, Victoria Falls

On returning from dinner we asked at reception whether we needed to use the mosquito nets? Probably, although there is no malaria here, bites are irritating. On entering the room, we didn’t have to pull down the nets, it had been done, the room sprayed, and the bed turned back, told you we were staying above our normal level....

Fabulous rainbows through the mist. This is the part of the falls with the highest drop, 107m. Facts about the falls: They have a width of 1737m, an average volume of water of 1,100m3/sec and are the third largest in the world (by volume of water), number 1 is Niagara, number 2 is Iguacu on the border of Argentina and Uruguay but, of the 3, Victoria has the highest drop (51m for Niagara and 82m for Iguacu). The river is the Zambezi and, with a total length of 2693km and flowing through 6 countries into the Indian Ocean it is Africas fourth longest (no. 1 is the Nile @ 6695km, no. 2 the Congo @ 4700km and the Niger @ 4200km)

We got very, very wet in the spray from the falls

Wednesday was our first day of activities, so Victoria Falls tour at 09.00, which we were very excited about, having not seen any water up to this point. Was there going to be water? U.K. papers had all been doom and gloom before we left, pictures of no water, but we’d heard it had rained... Doubt was our guide (yes, that was his name) taking us first to ‘The Big Tree’ a baobab they have worked out is between 1000-1500 years old, it was a tree (and obviously not as impressive as a kauri Robin) but I wanted water!

Brian beyond the 'don't go past this point' sign to peer over the edge

We ran the gauntlet of stalls outside the entrance gate while Doubt paid our $30 park entrance. A board showed some of the flora and fauna we may see, we’ll play a game he said, so B selected a warthog (he was obviously very taken with Pumba from the Lion King) Sharon, our fellow visitor was not impressed “l saw one of them in town yesterday “ she selected a bush buck while I selected a vervet monkey. Finally into the park, “don’t look, we’ll walk to the Livingstone statue and look on the way back.” There was water, it is one of the of the wonders of the world, it is

The white water rafting looks fun!

fabulous. The further we walked, the louder and wetter it became the spray was astounding, and this isn’t the wet season. We were however dripping, not that this was a problem! I won the “first one to see” game with many vervet monkeys and babies, just ambling along, lovely. I did also see a Livingstones Turaco, though no one else did, but that’s what I was told from my description. Doubt hadn’t seen one since October, so didn’t I do well?

you might just be able to see through the mist people about to go to the bit of land you can see on the left, Livingstone Island. There you can get into Devils Pool on the very edge of the falls. Victoria Falls is an 'action' city with lots of adrenaline activities, but all US$150 plus. It's possible to spend a huge amount of money here

The bridge linking Zambia and Zimbabwe with bungee cords dangling

We got to the end where we could see the bridge into Zambia, though not access it and said farewell to our fellows, we thought we’d have another look having paid our entry fee so walked back the 2km of the Falls viewing here on the Zimbabwe side. More water, more monkeys and a water buck, sorry Sharon, you missed it.

On leaving the park we had to walk to the bridge, built in 1905, the pieces all constructed in Darlington, joining Zimbabwe and Zambia. We’d bought a Kaza uni-visa on arrival, this gave us access to both Zimbabwe and Zambia and

The view you'd see before bungee jumping

for some reason was cheaper than just a Zimbabwe visa. The passports had been zipped up in my little bag were showing some sign of water ingress, the tops of the pages being slightly wavy, is this any way to treat the passport that cost so much to get? Oh well, it’s giving it history!

We stood on the bridge, Zim/Zam , one leg in Zimbabwe one in Zambia, had to be done, while trying to avoid the salesmen of copper bracelets, stone hippos and billion dollar old Zimbabwe currency! Richard the Lionheart was the last to accompany us, showing us the hydro electric dam on another curve in the river that steals the water from the falls, before showing us the viewpoint for the zip line and the bungy jump! Were we tempted? No thanks.

One foot in Zambia and one in Zimbabwe. It had to be done!

Vervet monkey with infant. Jackie won!

Time had suddenly flown, and although it wasn’t a problem we had to get back, shower and change before our next appointment, the 16.00 collection for the sunset cruise.

And Sharon came second (although she didn't know, she'd left by then)

'No fish in here' yawn from a hippo on our sunset cruise

We ended up on a bigger boat, the only ones downstairs thinking this could be a bit lonely, until the two bus loads of English cricket fans arrived, they’d been in Cape Town for the second test before coming up here for a few days. They were fine, but we did feel slightly in the minority, it did give us opportunity at the end to have a good laugh with the others from our little bus who had gone upstairs and been similarly swamped!

The seem so peaceful but are one of the most dangerous animals

The cruise included free flowing alcohol and canapés as well as animal and sunset viewing. The first stop was to see a water monitor and a crocodile on the bank, couldn’t see the crocodile, until there he was hiding in full view..... This was followed by birds and hippos, the first one we saw did the full yawn before anyone had got a camera out! The yawn, it was explained by Prince, our guide on Thursday, was to prove to all the other animals that they weren’t breaking the rules of the agreement that had allowed them to move into the water. All the other animals had been worried that something as big as a hippo would eat all the fish, so the yawn is just so you can have a look, make sure there is no flesh and bones and that they are still herbivorous!

Crocodile hiding in plain sight. We couldn't see it for a while even after it was pointed out to us

Cute vervet monkey babies playing

Lovely way to spend a few hours, the canapés were enough we didn’t need dinner and the wine called for an early night as we were to be up early in the morning for our first ever game drive!

Breakfast in the Zambezi Nature Park

Startled warthogs who dashed out of their hole as we passed

06.00 ready for our first drive we loaded into a covered but open sided vehicle with Prince our guide, and Kevin our driver (location: 17°51'25.9"S 25°45'46.0"E). Five of us, a great number in three rows of seats. Into the park via ‘The Big Tree’ for those that hadn’t seen it yet before being welcomed by a troop of baboons sitting, lying and playing in the middle of the road! As our first game drive we really enjoyed it, if if had been our only one we would possibly have been disappointed. We saw many bush buck, kudu and many many impala (at least I’ll be able to remember them, they have a little M on their

bottom, M for McDonalds for lions apparently.... Finally we saw warthogs, why they are appealing I don’t know, but they are, we like them, a family group, a tiny baby, a group of 5 that came barrelling out of a hole giving us such a look as we disturbed them. Hippo, crocodile, mongeese and a myriad of birds all before breakfast. Fabulous.

Impala with 'M' for lion MacDonalds on their bottoms

Breakfast was down by the Zambezi, a table, with tablecloth, tea/coffee, boiled eggs, muffins, yogurt and an apple, and yes, I was ready for it. A dung beetle added to our tally as we ate, so then, will we get lions? Elephant? Who knows. Actually we saw little, a few more ‘deery things’ but we weren’t stopping, we were looking. 

A dung beetle showed up for our breakfast stop

At last we found giraffes

Finally just as we’d really all given up hope of anything new, Prince said cameras out.... and there was a giraffe, now that’s special, we’ll just drive round, and get another view, oh, there’s his four lady friends! What a way to finish, fortunately nobody had another appointment as we overran our drive by a good half an hour with our wonderful tall horses.







Here's our 2 minute video of the giraffes If it doesn't display correctly click here: https://youtu.be/9CfdwIv4E_k

Our trip to the 'Vulture Culture' show

We got back to an email from Inno at the Victoria Falls Safari Lodge inviting us to get their free local shuttle bus at 12.00 to come and visit the “Vulture Culture“. This is something I had been recommended by Sarah, an old friend from IVC some 20 years ago. This is a programme they have been running for 19 years, feeding the vultures at 13.00 every day with scraps from the restaurant, not enough to make them lazy, just enough to keep them local and hopefully protect them from the mistreatments they have long suffered. Many vulture species are endangered and because they are not pretty no one cares, despite the cleaning and tidying they carry out! The video says it all really, just doesn’t pass on the smell that came from the food, the vultures and the ground!



Here's another short video of the vulture feeding If it doesn't display correctly click here: https://youtu.be/RMZgH_CqZcU

The 'Big Tree' said to be 1000 to 1500 years old

Today we are having a full day chilling, once the blog is done anyway, it’s only taken me two hours so far, and then he has to start with the pictures. We ought to use the pool, rude not to really, before flying back to Johannesburg tomorrow and the start of phase lll of our great African Adventure. We meet our travel group at 07.00 at the airport on Sunday morning! The blog may be a bit sporadic as apparently we only have WiFi about half the time and there will no doubt be a lot to say!

This is the way things are done around here. This little chap had been chilling out by us in this position for at least an hour. The only things that rush around here are the human visitors

More photos from our game drive - a mummy and baby warthog

Here's a water buck

Here's a Kudu (our restaurant last night had Kudu loin on the menu - how could we!)

This is a female Kudu - very big ears!

Road block!

A monitor lizard sunning himself. Apparently they eat crocodile eggs

Although we didn't see any elephants, this is the damage they make to the Baobab tree with their tusks to get at the water within. This one has been wrapped in netting to help protect it. The small trees around are also the result of elephants not allowing trees to develop properly. We had no idea they were so destructive

Here's a Kingfisher that we saw on our breakfast stop. Actually a Pied Kingfisher as identified by Helen S

Don't know what he is, any suggestions Helen/Sarah? A Cape Robin as per Helen H or a white browed robin chat as per Sarah S. Probably the same, just different names

Don't know what this is either, looks like a humming bird but he wasn't humming. He bent over to poke his beak into the flower though. He was very iridescent as you can see from the bit on his head. Definitely a Sunbird, possibly an Amethyst as per Sarah S or lesser double collared or white bellied (?) as per Helen H

An example of how you get hounded here (in a very non-threatening way). We're on our way to the bridge and he followed us all the way and onto the bridge trying to sell us his bracelets. He just would not take 'no' for an answer. And he was just one, another took up where he left off

Our swimming pool by night

A sign at one of the restaurants we visited. And we do!