These are a few of my favourite things…

The past two weekends I have been able to do those things that I remember and love most from coming to Africa as a child…

First was a visit to Victoria Falls or Mosi ou Tunya (the smoke that thunders). Saturday morning Emma and I headed down to the falls to spend the day exploring in the park. We arrived at the park and were greeted by all of the men at the curio market. This has to be my least favourite part of Africa is having all of these guys come up and talk to you like you are best friends so that you will buy something from them. I’ve gotten good at the phrase “zikomo sinifuna,” thank you I don’t want. It is really nice to be able to go and visit the national parks and get the local rates. Instead of paying $10 US, we get in for about 50 cents… it allows for a few more beers.

I had never been on the Zambian side of the Falls before. We started off by walking along the top of the gorge towards the bridge. We were able to watch someone do the bungee jump, and I even caught a steam train stopping on the bridge. Next, we walked to knife’s edge. There is a bridge that you have to cross to get across the gorge to get to this “island” across from the falls. It was nice seeing the falls from the Zambian side here but the water is still very low and there isn’t much water coming over on the Zambian side. We walked around and had a few great looks down the falls. The best part was that I convinced Emma that we should walk along the edge of the falls to Livingstone Island which is in the middle, about 1.5 km walk. We first headed down the gorge though down to the boiling pot. This was a fun walk as you go down about 300 meters to the river. It is quite a walk, especially when you have baboons stalking you. About two thirds of the way down you enter a rain forest and walk through small streams and thick plants. It is amazing down here, as it doesn’t seem like anywhere else in the area. We proceeded through the rainforest, along the stream to the boiling pot. Here along the edge of the river just below the falls there are massive boulders that the stream runs down leaving a bunch of small waterfalls and pools. We went for a swim here to cool off, it was over 100 degrees that day, and enjoyed a packed lunch here at the bottom. The hike back up proved even more exciting as we ran into an African tree snake on the way. I don’t think that they are poisonous but I’d rather not take a chance. Once back at the top of the falls we headed to the falls themselves to start our venture to Livingstone Island. It isn’t really suggested that you do this walk, and no muzungus really do it, but I thought it best that we give it a shot. It is a pretty hard walk and swim through the river and over small islands. The swims were the hardest as the water is moving pretty fast and the stones are extremely slippery. Good thing I had my four year old worn out flip flops on… no problem. The walk was amazing. It took us over an hour to make it out to Livingstone Island. Along the way we were able to catch some incredible views of the falls, especially when you stand on the edge and look down to the rocks a few hundred meters below, it gets the heart pumping. We had made it all the way to the island but once we got there, we were turned away by security guards so we weren’t able to go and visit Devil’s Armchair again. I was pretty upset that this island, which is a world heritage sight, can be controlled by one of the hotels so that people have to pay fifty dollars to take a boat there. Oh well, it was a good walk anyway. Going back was much easier, as we now knew which way we needed to go. By the time we got back we were extremely tired and dehydrated. We were able to sneak into the Sun Hotel to meet up with some people for drinks and a swim before heading to the Royal Livingstone for sundowners. It was the end to a perfect day.

The next weekend, I was afforded the opportunity to head down to Zimbabwe to Hwange National Park. This is the park that I loved going to as a kid. Since I was last there, twelve years ago, the park has been going through problems with drought and lack of money to keep the park running properly. I was a little worried about what I would find there but I wanted to go anyway. The drive down was amazing. It is a few hundred kilometres south of the falls through the rolling hills of Zimbabwe passing along many small villages along the way. Even though things haven’t been great in Zimbabwe things seemed the same as I remembered. We made it down to the camp that we would be staying at, just outside of the park near the main camp. The lodge was beautiful and we each got our own small hut to spend the night in. I had a quick dip in the pool to cool off before heading off to go to the Ivory Lodge for sundowners. It was getting pretty late though and out drive to the lodge soon turned into a night drive. We came across a few elephants crossing the road. The highlight though was running into a pack of wild dogs. This is one of the hardest animals to spot in Africa because they are endangered and there are less than two thousand left on the entire continent. The pack consisted of ten dogs and they seemed to enjoy playing in front of the truck. It was exciting to see the dogs running around the truck playing with each other, a rare treat. We made it to the lodge and were greeted by Kelly, the woman that ran the camp. She was incredibly nice and invited us all in to have some drinks and watch the animals at the water hole. I decided to skip the drinks and head directly to the waterhole overlook. I’m glad that I did as I was greeted by an elephant having a drink by the water. After everyone else showed up, I quickly ran up to the bar to have a Zambezi Lager and a quick chat with Kelly. I then headed down to the overlook. Soon another elephant came along to have a drink. Luckily I figured out how to do the long exposure shots on my camera and caught some nice pictures of the animals. Most everyone took off for the bar but I wanted to stay and watch the elephant. I’m glad that I did; soon a large lion approached the water to have a drink. After a short standoff with the elephant, the elephant retreated and the lion helped herself to water. It was amazing watching this massive cat toy with an elephant and win. Now I was really glad that I knew how to work my camera. We headed back to the bar and gloated to everyone about what we just saw. They were quite jealous. We headed back to our camp getting an amazing view of the moonless sky along the way. We even came across a jackal, some zebra and some elephant on the way back. When we arrived back at camp some of the locals had come by to do the local Shona songs and dances. This was followed up with a good Zimbabwe brai of steaks and borewors. The trip just kept getting better.

The next day we woke up at five to make the sunrise and morning game drive. Our guide Cedric took us off for the park as the sun was rising. Before even making it into the park we were able to come across some massive elephants, 7 giraffes, a herd of zebra, impala, wildebeest and even some guinea fowl. Once we entered the park, the animal sightings slowed down a little. It took a little bit, but eventually we came across some more impala and even a duiker. We then came across three female kudus, which are the second tallest antelope in Africa. Unfortunately there were no males with their massive, spiralling horns. Soon after leaving the kudus, we came across the highlight of the day, we came across a herd of about a hundred elephant having a morning water and bath. We were soon right in the middle of this entire herd crossing in front of us after finishing at the water hole. It was amazing to see this many elephant and especially to have them this close. It also gets the heart pumping to have a large bull only ten meters from the truck, especially when there were quite a few babies with them. I definitely got a bit of a fright when a few of the bulls decided to start fighting right in front of us. After watching the herd for a while we took off to try and find some more game. We headed off to another water hole. On the way we say quite a few vultures, eagles, hawks, kites and storks. The only animal that we came across on the drive though was a steenbok. We arrived at the water hole to some grazing zebra, hippos in the water and a crocodile trying to feed on some of the birds along the water’s edge. After leaving the water hole, we came across some Roen Antelope, zebras and ostriches. We arrived at the next water hole to watch some hippos fighting in the water, while a crocodile watched from the banks. Just before leaving we were treated to a black backed jackal coming to drink at the water. We needed to head back to the camp but on the way were stopped by s herd of giraffes. It was weird though because instead of the giraffes running away, they just stood there, a few meters away staring us down. We spent some time there just watching them, but they didn’t move. I soon realized why. We had separated the herd and one of the small females was on the other side of the track. We decided to leave to let everyone reunite. Heading back to camp we were greeted by some more impala, zebra, giraffe and even caught a glimpse of some sable antelope. What an amazing day. The park was just as majestic as I had remembered. It seemed to be coping and surviving the tough political situation. The only difference in the park from what I remembered was that it was empty now. This park was once teaming with visitors but now seemed empty. It is a shame that people miss this amazing place.

The ride home to the falls was a bit of an adventure. After going for a quick drive to look for the wild dogs again, we headed back for the falls. Just a few kilometres after leaving, we had our tire blow out. It was completely shredded and of course it was my job to fix it. Thank goodness it did. Once we stopped the car and I heard a rumbling coming from the engine. The coolant water was boiling. Something was wrong. I was working on the tire and so I asked Phil to check out what was going on with the engine. I didn’t expect him to open up the water tank. Genius, the tank exploded. Thank goodness Phil didn’t burn himself, but because we were in the kombi and the engine is underneath the front seats, he was able to flood the entire front of the car. We put everyone except for Phil and I in the other car and had our car towed back to the camp and I check out what was going on. For some reason someone had put oil in the reserve water tank and thus the engine overheated. I was able to clean out the tank and radiator of all of the oil and then refill the water. After loading the car with as many bottles of water that we could, we were off to the falls, without a spare tire and questioning if the engine had a bad head gasket. We ended up making it back to the falls without a problem except for getting caught doing 85 kph in a 80 kph zone. We paid the 500 Zim dollar fine (about 10 cents) and moved on. Once back in Zimbabwe we picked everyone up and headed for the Victoria Falls Hotel for drinks overlooking the falls before heading back home for some needed sleep. What a weekend!