On Safari

I know, it's been 2 months since my last post! But usually this site doesn't work for some reason, but today I'll give it a quick try. Here's a brief story from a recent safari trip into Botswana.

Last week I arrived in Zambia from Zimbabwe, to meet up with a friend at the famous Victoria Falls. Before even seeing the falls, Steve and I left Livingstone on a 2 day safari into the Chobe nation park in Botswana, only a 1.5hr drive from Victoria Falls. The safari was simply incredible, such stunning scenery, magnificant animals, great company and good food. On the first day we started with a river cruise down the Chobe River, sighting dozens of hippos bathing in the warm shallow waters, countless species of beautiful birds, and African elephants along the banks of the river bathing themselves and stomping in the mud to cool down in the afternoon heat. After a few hours on the river we were dropped off deep inside the 10,000 square km park where we were picked up by a land cruiser and taken to a camp site where we ate an awesome lunch and then took a short nap in our tents in the bush before going on an afternoon game drive. We saw wart hogs, giraffe, hundreds of elephants (Chobe has the highest concentration of elephants in the world), buffalo, impala, kudu, and dozens of other interesting animals. And just as we were driving down to the river to watch the sunset, somebody spotted a leapord drinking at a watering hole as we passed. We backed up and watched as this beautiful enormous cat sat in the fading light for a while before stolling off into the bush. I took hundreds of photos, so hopefully a few will be pretty spectacular.

That evening after an unbelievable meal of guinea fowl, veggies and rice, we sat around the camp fire drinking wine and talking about our lives back home. There was a guy travelling alone from California, a family from Victoria, that's right CANADA, and a couple from the UK as well as myself and my friend Steve from England. Our guide Jensen started telling us some pretty hair raising stories when we asked him if any animals had ever come right into the camp, which was not fenced off or protected in any way. Fortunately we were told that we'd be safe during the night as long as we stayed in our tents, and only one person had ever been dragged off and eaten by lions and that was becuase he decided to sleep outside his tent under the stars. After a while mother nature called and I started walking toward the latrine. Brian, the big joker from Californing started sarcastically reminding me to make noises to scare away the critters in the bushes, so I played along and started making silly noises, but as soon as I did, I heard something else, something rustling in the leaves right in front of me. I shone my flashlight into the bushes to try to see what it was and suddenly an enormous snake slithered out in front of my path. I yelled and Jensen came over to see it, reporting that it was a puff adder, very poisonous, and that if i'd been bitten I would have almost certainly died within a couple hours since the only chance of survival is an injection of antivenum, which is only available at a hospital several hours away. Needless to say i was very happy that the snake didn't feel threatened by me enough to take a chunk out of my leg. We heard a lot of other noises during the night, including a honey badger that strolled through the camp around midnight. A herd of elephants crashed through the bushes fairly near by and we could hear their grunts and calls echoing through the starry cool night sky.

The next day on our early morning game drive we found a pack of huyenas, saw some baboons and vervet monkeys, and then at last we suddenly spotted what everyone really wanted to see. A lioness! She was alone and very fat so had obviously just been eating. Our expert guide tracked the lion back to a marshy area where we found 8 lions feasting on two recently killed buffalo. Four of them were only small cubs, but no adult males were with the pride. It was an expensive activity, but one I'll never forget.

Now I am back in Zambia. After a visit to the spectacular Vic Falls I took a bus to Lusaka, the capital. I'm staying a couple nights with a very friendly Aussie girl named Mel and her boyfriend Jason from Newfoundland who are both working in Lusaka, and tomorrow will hopefully make it up to Kitwe to visit a couple community school projects before continuing on to Malawi.

I'll try to start updating this more frequently rather than sending out mass emails, so do check back from time to time. Thanks for reading!