So long South Africa; Hello HOT HOT HOT Zambia!
Trip Start
Aug 21, 2009
1
24
44
Trip End
Dec 16, 2009
Livingstone, Zambia
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
I should explain the connection that lead to us spending our time in Cape Town with them – it barely makes the six degrees of separation cut off. Here it goes: Eloise is my mom’s cousin’s wife’s friend’s friend. Crazy, right? Nevertheless, the hospitality that Michael and Eloise showed us was incredible. They very graciously opened their home to us, included us in family dinners and brais, made sure we could get where we needed to go – whether by lending us the car or giving us a lift, and recommended places for us to go and things for us to do.
vic falls
On to the joys of traveling in Africa… The computers were down at the Cape Town airport, so we were handed handwritten tickets and our bags were checked only to Johannesburg. What that meant was our hour long layover in Joburg suddenly turned into a rat race – trying to collect bags, get through customs, re-check in, and find our new gate. We were no where close to being able to get it all done in the time we had, but fortunately I flagged down an airport attendant who ushered us (and 6-8 other people) through all of the various steps.
Just to quell expectations – Victoria Falls is an amazing natural phenomenon, BUT only during certain parts of the year. And, October is not one of them. It is actually at about its driest point this time of year. In fact, the falls are at less than 5% of what they would be at their peak! We looked everywhere – that’s really all there are! On a positive note, we did get to see our fair share of baboons and monkeys. They were everywhere – often times in our way.
We then went to one of the nearby lodges and met some members of the group we would be safari-ing with for the next week, as well as our leader – it was all females and a male guide (he was a little nervous, to say the least). We did enjoy a beautiful sunset over the Zambezi River.
Comments
Hey Forbes-
Isn't it crazy seeing the monkey's walk right by you? I remember thinking what a sureal experience it was when we were there. Glad you got to experience it too!
wow Forbes! this is Awesome!